THE ROUTERS "Let's Go! With The Routers" (Scott Walker) Warner Brothers Records 1963

I found this album at Rockaway Records on Glendale Blvd, and there are two reasons why I bought this vinyl.  One, I love the song "Let's Go!"  Pre-glam drums (Hal Blaine?) mixed with a chorus yelling out "Let's Go," is a cocktail for the perfect aural listening experience.  The number 2, is the most important reason why I have this album in my collection.  Scott Engels plays bass on it.  In other words, Scott Walker.   From teenage singer to The Routers to Sunn)))0 - how can it be so perfect.  

Beyond these two and important facts above, this is a great instrumental surf/beat album.  Handclaps, beat drums, honking sax (roots of Andy MacKay/Roxy Music), and the knowledge of the bizarre twist of Scott Walker's entire career.  Also I played two sides of this album, and the record was finished before I could finish these two paragraphs.   Short, makes it point, and it's gone is a haze of hot rod exhaust.   

Scott Walker on bass on both photographs

MICK HARVEY "Delirium Tremens" (Mute) 2016

Mick Harvey, one-time Nick Cave left hand arranger, and Serge Gainsbourg lover (at least musically), has a new album of Gainsbourg tunes.   This is the third package of Serge tunes, and Harvey's good taste comes through.    The majority of songs on this album comes from his French TV project "Anna," starring Anna Karina.    It's classic all the way from side one to side two.  There are no bad cuts on this album, and the additional pleasure is hearing Serge's lyrics translated from the French to English by Harvey.  I think he stays on track with respect to Gainsbourg's playfulness in his literature, and Harvey does have that masculine swagger in the presentation of these songs.  One thing about this album and the other Harvey / Serge recordings is showing what a masterful songwriter genius the French icon is/was.     The other Harvey / Gainsbourg albums are "Intoxicated Man" and "Pink Elephants."  Get all three of them, and then of course, the original recordings by Serge Gainsbourg as well. 

JACK SCOTT "The Legendary Jack Scott (Big Beat Records) 1958

Jack Scott, an artist who worked and recorded in Detroit Michigan, is a superb talent. There is something very working class about him.  Not eccentric like Elvis, or insane like Vince Taylor.  A regular "Jack," who sounds decent as the sun arriving every morning.  Yet, there is menace in his music.  It's very sexy.  The great do-wop backup vocals on almost all the songs, are like angels looking over Jack Scott's shoulder.  If he makes the wrong move, they are there to protect him.  And on top of that, you get Stan Getz on sax.  The two classic cuts on this album are "The Way I Walk," and "Goodbye Baby."  The Mono edition of this album is sonically superb.  

Andrew Oldham Orchestra and Friends - "Play the Rolling Stones Songbook Volume 2"

The Andrew Oldham Orchestra and Friends - Play the Rolling Stones Songbook Volume 2

Download from I-Tunes, 2013

Gold Lake Records

A very surprise release is the volume 2 of the Rolling Stones songbook by Andrew Loog Oldham and pals.  At times I feel like I’m the only fan of the ALO Orchestra, and often I think his music making is more interesting than his discovery the Rolling Stones.  40 something years later we get volume 2, and not odd at all the music is mostly from the Oldham years with the Stones.  Oh, and I love this album. 

There is nothing really new here, but the taste factor is high.  It is like going to five star restaurant and expecting and then having that great meal.  So no surprise factor, except the (perhaps) cheeky version of “Bitter Sweet Symphony.”   But I think it’s better than the original version, which of course that record was based on “The Last Time” which in turn there was a lawsuit…. Nevertheless money was spread around, and I think everyone is happy for it.   

And again to taste, my favorite Stones songs are covered on this album.  “She Smiled Sweetly,” and “I Am Waiting” are here, and lovely versions as well.   “She Smiled”..  has that classic ALO production sound, which quietly builds up into a wow that started off as a whisper.  The High Dials, a band I don’t know of, does an incredible version of that song.  And the bass-fuzz sound of “Under My Thumb” gives me goose bumps.  I haven’t heard such an ugly garage rock sound in a long time. 

I don’t have the full picture of this album, due to the fact that I downloaded it from I-Tunes, and it sucks one doesn’t get info like who plays what or when or why or any of the mighty w’s one comes up in one’s mind while listening to an album.  Nevertheless if you’re a Stones fan, especially circa. 1966 or so, this is the album for you.  Oldham I am convinced is a genius. 

The Andrew Loog Oldham Orchestra - "East Meets West" CD remastered album

The Andrew Oldham Orchestra - East Meets West

CD, Album, Reissue, Remastered, Japan, 2013 (originally released in 1965)

Decca

This is a super interesting album due that Andrew Loog Oldham has a fascination with American pop, and here he puts his focus on his love for both The Four Seasons and The Beach Boys.  For me, this is what made the Rolling Stones so noteworthy during the Oldham/Brian Jones years -the mix of R n’ B with the love of contemporary pop.   Keith Richards spoke of the love of the blues, but with the Stones, in this time period, it was the crazy mixture of their original passion and the hit parade of that time.

Oldham was probably one of the first pop people to worship the brain of Brian Wilson, and the whole orchestra idea of his comes from a mixture of Wilson and the classic Phil Spector era, which were happening at the time of these recordings.   Now we get homages to artists or a sound many years after the original recording, but Oldham and company paid their respects almost instantly when these hits were on the pop charts.

The Four Seasons was masterminded by member Bob Gaudio and the Season’s record producer Bob Crewe.  Both of these men crafted, wrote and produced the New Jersey aesthetic as it happened.   Oldham’s appreciation sort of goes behind the Wizard’s curtain to look at how they work.  The Andrew Loog Oldham Orchestra is a great deal a tribute to the men behind the sound booth with the engineer.

The music here touches on the greatness of the Beach Boys and The Four Seasons, but the purpose could be meant for various reasons.  Since both artists were popular at the time, it could be seen as a cash-in to what was happening in the charts at the time, but I think a lot of it has to do with Oldham’s love for the medium of pop stardom, pop record making, and the vision of the guy in the studio who conducts and makes the music.   It is also about image, so there is a visual aspect to this narrative as well.

This Japanese issued CD has both mono and stereo mixes, and there are differences between them with respect to sound and even mood.  Again, the best $28 I have spent on a recording.

The Andrew Oldham Orchestra - Plays Lionel Bart’s Maggie May

The Andrew Oldham Orchestra - Plays Lionel Bart’s Maggie May

CD, Album, Reissue, Remastered, Japan, 2013

Decca

I didn’t even know that Plays Lionel Bart’s Maggie May existed, when some years back I walked into a small Shinjuku record shop, and there it was!  It was close to $50, and way too much for me to buy at the time.  Of course, I thought of that record whenever I closed my eyes at beddy-time.  So there was at least five years of regrets about passing up on this album, and very few people knew of it.  The most famous Andrew Loog Oldham Orchestra album was their first one, which was Rolling Stones’ covers.  The Lionel Bart album was a weird one for me, because it was devoted to one songwriter, Lionel Bart, and one of his shows, who for most Americans, would be king obscure.   Which makes this album fascinating on a lot of levels.  Oldham was a friend and someone who looked up to Bart as both a music businessman as well as a music hustler of sorts.  He played the game, but I think the game won in the end.  Nevertheless he was a key figure in British rock before The Beatles broke big.  He wrote songs for Cliff Richard and most famously the musical “Oliver.”  

Here Oldham, John Paul Jones, and others, turns on their magic to the tunes from “Maggie May.” I don’t think there is an official OST of this musical or if it is, disappeared into vinyl heaven.  So this is what we take into existence, and thank god for the Japanese, they re-leased it with not only mono mixes, but stereo as well.  Plus 11 bonus cuts.  

The mono version of this album is the one to hear over and over again.  It’s classic Oldham vibe.  For instance, “It’s Yourself” has a killer lead bass sound, very Jet Harris.  But the stereo version, the bass is practically gone!  Nevertheless it’s a cool album, and this CD collection is incredible, mostly for the bonus cuts, which to be honest, are the highlights of this set.   

The rest of the album is recordings from around this time (1964) from the Andrew Oldham and Immediate Records world.  Totally essential songs like “Each and Every Day of the Year” (Jagger & Richards) and “All I Want Is My Baby” (Oldham & Richards) sung by Bobby Jameson and simply incredible recordings.   Not sure if the purpose was for the publishing end of the music business, but Jagger and Keith came up with wonderful tunes.  The other stand out by them is “(Walking Thru’ the) Sleepy City”, performed by The Mighty Avengers, but gawd, what a fantastic song.  The best $28 spent on a CD in my lifetime!

The Andrew Loog Oldham Orchestra & Chorus - 16 Hip Hits (cd reissue, Japan)

The Andrew Loog Oldham Orchestra & Chorus - 16 Hip Hits

CD, Album, Reissue, Remastered, Japan, 2013

Decca

To step into a fantastic record store like Pet Sounds in Tokyo and seeing the entire Andrew Loog Oldham catalog reissued as CD, was something that almost forced me to cry, but I held my tears back and purchased all of them.  They were $28 a piece and for sure worth every yen and cent.  The first one I played was “16 Hip Hits.”  To be honest I have a lot of these songs in a collection that was put together in the 90s, but for me, to hear it in its natural order - plus the additional 16 bonus cuts, well it was like being put in a time machine in 1966.  Except I was in Tokyo not London.

Paul John Jones did a lot of the arrangements for this album, and the selection is mostly from the obsessive taste of Oldham.  It was songs that were hits at the time, and Oldham at that time, didn’t look back or reflect on his past.  This was music made to be carried out at that point and time.  So one got a snapshot view of his world at the time, and the beauty of him is that he’s an artist, but I suspect that he was thinking about himself as more as a hustler than anything else.  Music was another part of the hustle, and this is what makes this album such a sweet listening experience. 

The arrangements appear to be slower, then the original recording hits, and there is a looseness of the arrangements that almost feel like it would fall apart any moment.  So that adds a certain amount of tension in the work.  For me, it gives a sense of charm, and with the additional good taste from Oldham makes these recordings essential for anyone who is interested in 60’s British pop.  Most of the songs, if not all, are American orientated.   They hanker back to almost an imaginary state of mind of the original recordings - but re-imagined by Oldham and perhaps Jones.  But I suspect that Jones was just following Oldham’s lead, and Andrew it is all about image, and that image, is really beautiful.