Craig McAllister

Strummertime blues

November 29, 2008 Craig McAllister

Last night’s excellent BBC4 scheduling of The Clash documentary ‘Westway To The World’ and the hour’s worth of live footage that followed it had me going all misty eyed and regretful. To paraphrase Kevin Keegan, I would have LOVED to have seen The Clash live in action on stage. LOVED it. Sadly, age decrees that this was never to be, although I did once see yer actual Clash in the flesh in the strangest of situations.

Woo oo oo oo! Can you feel the force?

Clashophiles will no doubt correct me here regarding accuracy of the dates, but my story concerns the summer of 1982 (I think) when I would have been 11. John Menzies in Irvine Mall had a huge ‘Combat Rock’ display in the window and The Clash were playing at the Magnum Leisure Centre, 20 minutes walk away. It was a roasting hot day and my brother and I were wandering up the mall. Right across from John Menzies there was a huge something going on. 4 or 5 guys dressed head to toe in denim, leather, shades and the coolest haircuts this 11 year old had ever seen were surrounded by some of Irvine’s finest ambassadors. I recognised someone who was in 6th year at my school amongst it all. He seemed quite excited. “It’s the fuckin’ Clash! The fuckin’ Clash! For fuck sakes, it’s the fuckin’ Clash!” I looked at the Combat Rock display. I looked at the guys in leather and denim. So it was. It was The Fuckin’ Clash. Being 11, it didn’t have the same seismic effect on me, but I still remember it well. I mentioned this story to my brother about a month ago. He remembers nothing about it at all. But then, he was 9 years old.

Round about 1989 I started playing in bands and one of Irvine’s elder statesmen of rock told me how Mick Jones had given him a mohican in the dressing room after the Magnum show. Call me shallow, but I’m still dead impressed when I hear stories like that. By this point in my life I was a seasoned gig goer. The Pogues at The Barrowlands in December 1989 was one that sticks in mind for a number of reasons. Kirsty MacColl came on to sing Fairytale of New York. Joe Strummer played London Calling and I Fought The Law with the band during the encores.

The Barrowlands was jumping so much that night that I almost fainted. I sat on the floor at the end with my pal until the place had just about emptied. We went to the front of the stage where the roadies were dismantling the equipment. Strummer’s guitar was right there, in front of me. “S’cuse me mate. Can I have that plectrum?” I pointed to Strummer’s famous Telecaster. “‘Koff“. I didn’t give up. “C’mon!” He chose to ignore me. “Pleeeeease? Thanks!” This time, the roadie looked at me with total contempt, turned his back on me and pulled the plectrum out of the scratch plate. Fuck! He pulled the plectrum out of the scratch plate!!! “‘Koff” he grunted as he handed it to me. Joe Strummer’s plectrum! In keeping with his down to earth image, this was no gold-plated custom-made job with his name engraved in it. Just a simple white Jim Dunlop USA Nylon .48 plectrum. I’m looking at it right now. Looks like any other plectrum. But it once belonged to Joe Strummer. My own wee piece of rock ‘n’ roll memorabilia.

But yeah, I’d have loved to have seen The Clash live. Here’s some Clash covers for you…

The Strokes do ‘Clampdown’, live from Alexandra Palace. I’ve taken this from a good quality FM broadcast bootleg that I’ve had for a while, although it may also have been a b-side to one of their singles. In keeping with later-period Clash it sounds less cheesegrater thin, more widescreen and wide-eyed thanks to the heavily delayed guitars. I like it.

Primal Scream do ‘Know Your Rights’. If The Clash original was a speed-induced rockabilly knee-trembler in an alleyway, this version is a downer-heavy, dirty blues riffathon that wouldn’t have sounded out of place on the Scream’s ‘Give Out But Don’t Give Up’ album. It’s taken from the obscure ‘Repetitive Beats’ ep which I’ve written about before.

Of course, The Clash were no strangers to covering other folk’s material. Amongst others, ‘I Fought The Law’ by The Bobby Fuller Four, LLoyd Price‘s ‘Stagger Lee’ and ‘Brand New Cadillac’ by Vince Taylor And His Playboys have all been given the Clash City Rockers treatment. But you knew that already. Happy listening.

Hard-to-find, Most downloaded tracks

Nit-picking internet fascists

November 26, 2008November 26, 2008 Craig McAllister

Looks like someone’s out to get me. The internet police are spying on me and coming over all Big Brother again. Received this email…

“Thanks for using DivShare. Unfortunately, our staff has had to remove one or more of your files for violation of our content standards.

This action is usually taken because a file contains adult content or copyrighted material, such as music, movies or software. We apologize for the incovenience, and ask that you not upload any similar files in the future.”

It was the Ronnie Spector vocal track. Sorry folks. Grab the rest while you can. Again. Grrr.

Click here for Rockwell ‘Somebody’s Watching Me’

Click here for U2 ‘Don’t Let The Bastards Grind You Down’ (demo)

Click here for Trashcan Sinatras ‘Leave Me Alone’

Only joking. Hee hee.

Hard-to-find, Sampled

Woah-woa! Mercy, Mercy Me!

November 24, 2008November 24, 2008 Craig McAllister

In football parlance, it’s getting to the business end of the year. The time of year when the winners are seperated from the losers, the wheat loosened from the chaff, the right decent records recategorised as ‘classics’ while the clunkers vanish into obscurity. It’s a couple of weeks too early for any definitive list/rundown, but 2 or 3 singles are easily near the top of my ‘right decent records’ list. The Maccabees ‘Toothpaste Kisses’ is one of them. I said when it came out that it would be one of my favourite singles of the year and time has not changed my opionion. ‘Standing Next To Me’ by the Last Shadow Puppets. Paul Weller‘s ‘Echoes Round The Sun’, ‘Oranges & Apples’ by the Trashcan Sinatras. All great records. Given time I could give you 20 more. MGMT‘s ‘Time To Pretend’ is also up there, and I intend to post a fair few MGMT remixes in the coming weeks. However, whilst those records (or downloads-only) above have grabbed me for whatever reasons, my number 1 favourite single of the year without a shadow of a doubt is ‘Mercy‘ by Duffy.

I can be quite snobbish about my music, especially when records like ‘Mercy‘ become all-conquering chart monsters and everyone from Primary 1 girls to 50+ year old secretaries can sing them. And that’s just my place of work. The elitist in me sometimes likes ‘my’ music to remain ‘mine’. But that’s my problem, not yours. Surely, only the sniffiest of music snobs could seriously ignore ‘Mercy‘ Some might say that Duffy being a bit of a looker doesn’t do any harm, but ‘Mercy‘ is a fantastic track, from the wonky ripped-off ‘Stand By Me’ bassline intro to the Sly Stone double-time handclaps at the outro, via the vocals themselves. It’s northern soul fruggery of the highest order, and as a dance track it’s right up there with ‘Superstition‘ in the ‘Songs That Make Me Dance Like The Rhythmically-Challenged White West of Scotland Male That I Am‘ list. But you probably knew that already.

To these ears, the original version is still the definitive version, but there are a number of official and unofficial remixes and live tracks out there in internetland that are worth investigating. Some don’t sound too different. Others have some interesting samples – is that Sly Stone’s bassline on the ?uestlove mix? Nah. Maybe it’s on one of those Dunproofin mixes. Anyway, here’s what I’ve found (For review purposes only of course. Buy what you can folks):

Mercy (Dunproofin’s Thankful Mix)

Mercy (Dunproofin’s Thankful Mix 2)

Mercy (Rwemix)

Mercy (Remix feat. The Game)

Mercy (?uestlove Remix) (mp4 only)

Mercy (Morsy Mix)

Mercy (Mathematikals Unmerciful Edit)

Mercy (Radio 1’s Live Lounge)

Mercy (Live on Jools Holland)

Quite a list. Every one of them worth a listen. Go on!

For review purposes only, of course.

Download. Burn. Use image above as cover. Voila!

Hard-to-find

Let me put you in the picture,

November 21, 2008 Craig McAllister

let me show you what I mean. Ian Brown is the flattest singer in the world, ever. When he starts to sing, and I use the term ‘sing‘ in the loosest terms, you couldn’t get one of John Squire‘s plectrums between the arse of his flared Joe Bloggs and the Spike Island toxic sludge. But you knew that already.

Stone Roses, 1993

So kudos to Simon Dawson. He’s the anonymous genius who mixed ol’ monkey boy’s flat-as-a-pancake vocals into the rough polished diamond that is The Second Coming, the Stone Roses long-in-the-making second (and final) album. Why Dawson isn’t mentioned in the same breath as Nigel Godrich or John Leckie or any of those other indie-producing wunderkinds is anyone’s guess. If I was in a band and looking for that Led Zeppelin plays Sly Stone’s Greatest Funk Hits sound, he’s the man I’d be looking for.

Reni & Mani do a Brown

As a band, the 3 non-singing musicians can really play. Listen to this, the vocal-free rehearsal track that became ‘Daybreak‘. 8 minutes long at the fade-out and not an overdub within earshot. Or listen to this, John Squire and Reni jamming on effect-heavy guitar and drums. Like, cosmic man! They can really play. But. Add the vocals and you get this. The 1993 demo of ‘Love Spreads’ sounds like heavy funk soup. It was my favourite record when it came out. I played it to death. I’ve never played the demo to death, though it is something of a curio. But the demo version lets you appreciate the lengths Simon Dawson had to go to at the controls in order to get the whole thing sounding fantastic.

In more innocent times, I used to de-tune my guitar to open G, grab an empty botle of Stella as a rudimentary slide and freak out in front of the mirror as I played along loudly to ‘Love Spreads’. In actual fact, all you need to do is drop the thick ‘E’ string to a ‘D’, get yourself a decent £5 slide and play along to the tab below. S’easy, man!

E|-------------------------------------------------------------------------|
B|-------------------------------------------------------------------------|
G|-------------------------------------------------------------------------|
d|-------------------------------------------------------------------------|
A|-------5-----5/8---5/8---5/8---5-------0---3-5---5/10---8---5---0-5------|
D|-0---------0-----------------------0----------------------------------0--|
 
---------------------------------------------------------------------------|
---------------------------------------------------------------------------|
----7-----------------------------------------7----------------------------|
--7---7\----------------------0---0-------0--------------------------------|
----------0-5/8---5/8---5/8-----3---5/8-----------0-3---5---8---5-8---5----|
---------------------------------------------------------------------------|
 
---------------------------------------------------------------------------|
----------------------------------------------------------------10-----8---|
--7-------------------------------------------------------------9------7---|
--7-------------------------0-------5---5\--0--/5--/6--/7----/7-7---/5-5---|
------0---5/8---5/8---5/8--------------------------------------------------|
--------------------------------0------------------------------------------|
                                           
--------------------------------------||
8-------------------------------------||
7-------------7-----------------------||
5-------------7-----------------------||
----5/8---5-----0---3---5---8---5-8---||
--------------------------------------||

John Squire, Glasgow Green

A wee ned punched me full in the face at this gig. Sore, yes, but not as painful as the bootleg I have of the show. Those flat vocals. Ouch!

Hard-to-find

Testing, Testing, 1, 2, 3!

November 14, 2008November 14, 2008 Craig McAllister

I’m in the process of checking out the best online file sharing sites. I’m not too keen on the ones I’ve been using since the nice folk over at Box.net cancelled my account. I want one that’s a) cheap, b) advert-free, c) that is easy for me to keep tabs on that will enable me to see how many downloads I’m getting etc and d) one that once an mp3 is uploaded rings a bell somewhere and search engines such as Hype and Elbow start picking up on it. This is where a lot of my visitors come from. Cheers!

What I’ve just said to you may make no sense at all, but bear with me. Here‘s a test file. It’s only the vocal-only take of Ronnie Spector doing ‘Be My Baby’, one of the most popular Plain Or Pan? posts ever. I’m testing the water to see if the trial version from the host is any good before I spend money on it. The proper paid-for version is advert-free. I think I will be going with it over the next couple of days. Then I’ll be back to blogging like a maniac. Thanks for yer patience.

Dylanish, entire show, Hard-to-find

“I don’t care about the leaking, or the loss of sales, or anything like that, but I just don’t like it when someone comes and opens the curtains on my vaudeville show before I have my pants on.”

November 11, 2008 Craig McAllister

The name’s White. Jack White. Iffy Bond themes notwithstanding, Jack White can barely do wrong. Even without his pants on, as you’ll hear below. In the past I’ve posted some fairly essential White Stripes shows and Raconteurs radio sessions. If you’re very quick and look in the darkest corners of Plain Or Pan? they’re still available. But not for long.

I know many people prefer the basic blues riffs and rudimentary style of the White Stripes to Jack’s more considered approach in The Raconteurs. I like them both. What I particularly like about The Raconteurs is that at any given time, Jack and Brendan Benson are both singing. And as I mentioned a couple of posts ago, much like The Beatles and even The Last Shadow Puppets, it’s often difficult to tell them apart. Those close harmonies really define The Raconteurs. Coming on like a 21st century The Band, The Raconteurs wipe the floor with the White Stripes. Uh huh, These boys can really play. As Jack says, “LJ’s a great bass player.”

Since moving to Nashville, the odd fiddle and honky tonk piano riff has crept into the sound and whilst this isn’t always a good thing – it springs to mind Ringo’s ‘Don’t Pass Me By’ on the White Album – in the case of some of the songs below, it fits just fine. It’s a wee bit Bob Dylan ‘Desire‘, to these ears. And anyway, if country hoe-downs ain’t your thang, it’s worth considering that by the time The Raconteurs are playing live near you, the songs could well have undergone a Dylanesque reshaping. That’s why they wipe the floor with those runny-nosed White Stripes.

Yesterday, KCRW‘s ‘Morning Becomes Eclectic’ broadcast 2 sessions by the band. The first was recorded at The Village Studio, Los Angeles, on Sept 23 2008. The radio broadcast featured 4 songs followed by an interview:

Top Yourself

Old Enough

You Don’t Understand Me

Pull This Blanket Off

Interview

I can’t listen to the above version of Pull This Blanket Off without hearing REO Speedwagon‘s Take It On The Run. Yep. Jack’s moved on somewhat from De Stijl. Take It On The Run‘s a great track by the way, no matter how uncool that just made me. KCRW then broadcast 3 tracks from the Greek Theater, Los Angeles, from the same date as above.

Many Shades Of Black

Salute Your Solution

Rich Kid Blues

All files should be downloadable from here. It’s my first time trying this new file host, so bear with me. Fingers crossed. Let me know ease of use, speed of download etc etc. Cheers.

Sampled

Whoa! Hold on a moment!

November 8, 2008November 8, 2008 Craig McAllister

Reports of my death are greatly exaggerated. Reading the comments below (a million thanks) you’d think Plain Or Pan? was about to disappear into hyperspace forever. NOT SO! Just to clear things up – the only thing that’ll disappear are the links to the various mp3s I’ve uploaded over the past couple of years. It’s my file hosting account that’s been cancelled, not my web account. I’ll still be blogging as usual. But any new files* I share will not be via box.net (which was an excellent host, even if they buckled under pressure from the interweb police). I just need to find a new file host from where you can download to your hearts’ content.

As The Isley Brothers and Public Enemy both said, ‘Fight The Power Brothers and Sisters, Fight The Power!”

Let me know what you think of file den. Easy to use? Too many adverts? Pop-up hell? I won’t use it if it’s crap.

*For the benefit of any shady looking men in grey suits who are spying on me, the term ‘New Files’ generally means deleted/hard-to-find tracks, mainly from my own music collection. Often, these have been painstakingly converted from old cassettes and vinyl by myself into mp3 format. ‘New Files’ does not mean the latest Guns ‘n Roses album or anything that you can buy easily enough from a supermarket, a specialist record shop (remember them) or an online retailer. With peace and love etc etc.

Gone but not forgotten

Grab ’em while you can folks

November 6, 2008May 25, 2012 Craig McAllister

It’s a disaster of Titanic proportions. I received this e-mail earlier tonight.

“To whom it may concern,

We have recently received a complaint regarding files, which you have been sharing through your Box.net account, and infringe on previously-held copyrights.

As infringing on copyrights by sharing files through your Box account goes against the Box.net Terms of Service, we will deactivate your account on November 13, 2008.”

So. You have 1 week only to get all the stuff from here that you want. After that, everything’ll be gone. It’s not like I’ve been guilty of sharing the new Guns ‘n Roses album 4 weeks before it’s released, or any other Tesco shelf filling crapolla like Snow Patrol or Oasis. As you know, most of the stuff on here is deleted/hard to find old stuff that only people with incredibly good taste like us folk enjoy. Someone’s got it in for me, as Bob sang. I cannae believe it. I’m quite pissed off and upset, but there you go. Secretly, I’d like to think that, somehow, Prince stumbled onto Plain Or Pan?. It wasn’t long after his version of ‘Creep’ was posted that I had my first slap on the wrists. I also had another warning when I dared to post a Jesus & Mary Chain cover of ‘Alphabet Street’. I think wee Prince is a secret lurker on here. If you are reading this Prince, just to let you know, you used to be really, really magic…..

The good ship Plain Or Pan? will still be sailing. Future files will just be hosted somewhere else instead. But any music I am currently sharing will be gone gone gone forever, I’m afraid. Bastards. Grab em while you can folks, grab em while you can.

Cover Versions, Double Nugget, Hard-to-find

It’s The Aptly-Named Billy Fury!

November 4, 2008 Craig McAllister

Billy Fury. Your granny knows him from such staple Hit Parade fodder as ‘Halfway To Paradise’, ‘Wondrous Place’, ‘Last Night Was Made For Love’….. do I need to go on? Billy and Cliff Richard battled it out for the dubious tag of ‘British Elvis’, but the more sussed among us really knew that Elvis was in fact the ‘American Billy’.

Upturned collar? Check. Lip curl? Check. Half-collapsed quiff? Check. Forget the songs listed above and instead listen to this. ‘Ain’t Nothin’ Shakin’ But The Leaves On The Trees‘ is a hand clappin’ enhanced primal rocker that could’ve sat neatly on any Nuggets-type compilation you care to mention. How Fury got from garage band howling blues to slush like ‘Colette‘ is anyone’s guess but, wow, when he was on form there was clearly no-one like him. His manager obviously gave him his stage moniker round about this time, otherwise he’d have been forever known to the world as Billy Ballad. Incidentally, The Beatles version of ‘Nothin’ Shakin’…‘ can be found on their ‘At The BBC’ album. It sounds pish.

Morrissey was a big fan, so much so that he nicked half his look from Fury. Look here. As too are those talented wee fuckers in The Last Shadow Puppets. They stuck their own version of ‘Wondrous Place’ on the b-side of their ‘The Age Of The Understatement‘ single. Understated indeed – a churchy organ, some brooding bass, a top vocal and some Duane Eddy twang halfway through. What I like about this lot is that they all look similar, they even sound similar when they sing and they are clearly very talented. A bit like The Beatles. But then, obviously nothing like The Beatles. I’ve already posted their version of Bowie‘s ‘In The Heat Of The Morning’ (here) and if they keep up their high standards of self-imposed quality control I think these two youngsters could be around for years to come. A bit like The Beatles. But then, obviously as I’ve already said, nothing like The Beatles as well.

2 more decent UK garage band rockers to follow. These days, Dave Berry may be more comfortable touring the country in those terrible 60s nostalgia shows alongside such 3rd divison outfits as The Swinging Blue Jeans and The Tremeloes. Back in the day he was equally comfortable blasting out tough R&B tunes as he was crooning pop ballads. One such record was July 1964’s‘The Crying Game’ (number 5, fact fans), much later also a hit for Boy George. The A-side was the pop ballad. The B-side was something else entirely. Along with his backing band The Cruisers, he came up with this proto-punk snarling rabid dog of a record. ‘Don’t Give Me No Lip Child’ is a belter, and given that the Sex Pistols strangled and choked it into something resembling a cover version, John Lydon thought so too.

Before they became The Who, The High Numbers released ‘I’m The Face’. The sound of Swinging London, it was written by Peter Meaden, their amphetamine-fuelled manager stroke publicist. This tune is essentially Slim Harpo‘s ‘Got Love If You Want It’ with new lyrics designed to reflect the culture of the times – a classic mod-stomper of a record that was a paen to all things Modern (not modern). Of course, as is more often than not the way with fantastic records, the single was a flop. According to some sources, the only copies that were actually sold were bought by Meaden himself, in a crap attempt at chart rigging. Ivy League jackets. Buck skin shoes. I’m the face baby, is that clear? Clear as crystal, little Roger!