Suede - "Coming Up" Vinyl, LP, Album, Reissue, 2014/1996 (Demon Records)

For two decades I had a mental block regarding the British band Suede.   I liked bits and pieces of their songs, but for some odd reason, I had a problem with their image.  All of it seemed borrowed from better sources.  Musically it had traces of Bowie/Bolan glam, but with Roxy Music imagery, due that they used the same visual people as Ferry & company, and when one is approached by this post-modern aspect of Suede, is it important?   On the plus side, I do like Brett Anderson's mannerist vocals as well as Bernard Butler's (and of course Richard Oakes') guitar sound.  Over time, I always found a song here and there, for instance, "Trash."   Again, when I hear that title I immediately think of the New York Dolls' "Trash," which of course within a few years later, Roxy Music came out with their song "Trash."  It's a good title, but surely Suede could have come up with a more original title?  Then again, I don't think Suede is really about originality.   That is actually their charm.

Suede's "Trash" is a fantastic chorus.  As I sit here writing this sentence, I want to get a lighter and wave it above my head.   It's a manifesto set to a melody, and that is something that Suede can do very well.  "Filmstar" is the ultimate glam beat, with again a glorious chorus.  In fact, their third album (and first with guitarist Oakes, as co-songwriter as well) is extremely catchy.  It took me 20 years, but I now appreciate Suede.   Anderson struck me as a writer focusing on the darker aspect of British living, and a guy who read too much JG Ballard, but that's me just being overly critical.  He's actually a very good observer type of lyricist.  An incredibly handsome man, with a good-looking band behind him, Suede is in its essence, a classic pop band that looks behind them as the past's projection, but also re-wiring the Bowie/T-Rex catalog for perhaps their generation.  

Blur and Pulp are the superior bands as album makers and songwriters, still, Suede has a strong presence between those two bands.  Both Pulp/Blur flirt with electronica and glam, but Suede brings a sense of glamour to the over-all British package.    It's like making a map and making sure all the routes are in place, and Suede very much needs to be on that map.  I'm not sure if they are a great band, but their love of the decadent imagery of the glam era, but done in their own fashion, is an important aesthetic.  There is a tad touch of The Smiths, with respect to their attention to the seedy-eyed imagery of the 1970s, but filtered through the 1990s Soho or East London world.  I'm very much interested in reading Anderson's memoir, that just came out in the U.K.  I suspect that it's a good read.  So now, Suede didn't change, but I changed.  I'm happy to be in their world. 

Soft Cell -"Say Hello, Wave Goodbye" 7" 45 rpm single (Some Bizarre)

"Say Hello, Wave Goodbye" is a song that I sing in my daily morning baths.  I like to sing sad songs in the tub, and this Soft Cell classic stays with me.   A haunting melody with a classic torch vocal by Marc Almond.  I have never been to the Pink Flamingo, but the drawing on the sleeve hints Paris, but I suspect that there must have been a nightclub in Soho London.   Of all the electro-duos in the U.K., Soft Cell strikes me that Soho is their natural landscape.   It's a kiss-off regarding some sort of relationship where it has been kept a secret from the world.  I like to think it's a gay affair, that went past its due date.  

The b-side is the song, but instrumental with a beautiful clarinet solo by Dave Tofoni.   I may even love it more than the A-side.  

Kenny Graham - "The Small World of Sammy Lee" Vinyl, LP, Album (Trunk Records) 2014

For a guy who lives in Los Angeles, I'm obsessed with the subject matter of 1960s London, especially the years before the Fab Four (Beatles) hit the scene. One of the key figures in that time was an entertainer, songwriter, performer Anthony Newley. An inspiration to a young David Bowie, Newley struck me as an eccentric artist. But that thought is mostly due that I'm an American, and the British, even though we share a language (of sorts), our cultures are distant apart. Nevertheless, there is an obscure film made in 1963, "The Small World of Sammy Lee," starring Newley as a nightclub owner in Soho London, who owes money to his bookie. He has a certain amount of hours to find that money, and there we have "The Small World of Sammy Lee."

The other interest in this little narrative is the soundtrack to this film. Composed by British Jazz musician Kenny Graham. I know one other Graham recording, and it's "Moondog and Suncat Suites." An album that is a mixture of Graham's compositions as well as songs by the great New York City composer Moondog. If that is not odd enough, that album is engineered by Joe Meek! The thought of Meek was working on Moondog's music ... It is mind-blowing.

Johnny Trunk, the brains and power behind Trunk Records, is a Kenny Graham fan. He located this 'lost' soundtrack through Graham's daughter, who had it stored away in her attic. Trunk found a box that said "Sammy, " and five years later, he has this release on his label. "Soho at Dawn," the opening cut for this album, and I presume the film, is a beauty. It smells like Soho at that time of the day, and I get a sense of a chill as if I was walking a Soho street. The rest of the album is just as cinematic with evident jazz touches. Still, it's very focused on its theme of urgency, yet sadness at the same time — a moody work.

There is not a whole lot of information on Graham. Just a handful of vinyl releases through the years, and although he seems to be a man at the right spot and time, his place in history appear to pass him by, which is a shame. I have also read that he wrote essays about music, and was very much an anti-rock n' roll guy. Yet, he was intrigued with electronics, and I have a feeling that, in an aesthetic sense, must have worked will with Meek. "The Small World of Sammy Lee" doesn't have that much information on it, with respect to who played what on the album. Was Meek involved? I doubt it since it was recorded in 1963, and I think at that time, it was the height of Meek doing what he's famous for. On the other hand, it's wonderful to have this obscure and slightly eccentric album in my hands and through my ears.