Fairport Convention - Doctor Of Physick

 #Fairport Convention #Richard Thompson #Dave Swarbrick #folk rock #British folk rock #progressive folk #1970s

The Fairports recall the making of 1970's Full House, the band's first album without founding member Ashley Hutchings and with new boy Dave Pegg “On my 22nd birthday - November 2, 1969 - I went to Mothers club in Birmingham with my ex-wife Christine to see Fairport Convention,” says the group’s current bassist Dave Pegg. “I had never seen them before but I knew [violinist] Dave Swarbrick from his work with Martin Carthy and I had played with him in the Ian Campbell Group.
“It was a new approach to traditional music,” he recalls. “It was such a great band: the interplay between [guitarist] Richard Thompson and Swarbrick instrumentally, and of course Sandy Denny’s singing and the great rhythm section of [drummer] Dave Mattacks, [rhythm guitarist] Simon Nicol and [bassist] Ashley Hutchings. I was blown away and said to Christine, ‘I would love to join that band.’ And bizarrely I got a call next day from Dave Swarbrick saying, ‘Ashley is leaving the band, would you come for an audition?’” Pegg, who had played in rock bands in the Birmingham area including The Uglys with Steve Gibbons and The Way Of Life with future Led Zeppelin drummer John Bonham, landed the job. The following month, Fairport released the epochal British folk rock statement Liege & Lief, but its release coincided with Sandy Denny also quitting the band.
“It was a blow to lose them both but the mood was optimistic,” Richard Thompson recalls. “We thought it would be hard to replace Sandy, so let’s not replace her. We knew that the vocals would not be as strong, but instrumentally we were a very strong band. In the history of Fairport there had always been personnel changes. This was a big one, but our attitude was to soldier on.”
“It removed the rudder and the best part of the engine room of the Good Ship Fairport,” says Simon Nicol.“But at the same time we’d got this incredible energy coming from Dave Swarbrick. He was a born-again musician because he was a full member of a band for the first time in his life. There was a sense of, ‘I really like this and I’m really going to make it work.’ He made up for the loss of the engine room in many ways. And so we became a boy band.”
On Liege & Lief, Fairport had made the decision to incorporate more traditional British and celtic elements into their music, an approach they carried on to their next album, 1970’s Full House. Stylistically, much of this was essentially still uncharted territory. Musicians had long been playing medleys of traditional jigs and reels, but not in an electric rock band. Fairport were effectively learning on the job and were all in their early 20s, except Swarbrick who was 28, and Nicol who was still just 19.
Before he joined Fairport Convention the summer of 1969 Dave Mattacks had played in a dance band and various pop groups. “On Liege & Lief I was very much, on an aesthetic level, the deer in the headlights. I had no idea what I was doing,” he says. “I was responding to the music around me and starting to grasp it. Then I had a huge light bulb moment when I got what the band was about, and it had a profound effect upon how I wanted to play and how I heard music. But even on Full House, I can still hear a very green drummer.”
Speaking to the four surviving members who played on that album, it’s striking how much they respect each other’s playing. “Ashley had a very distinctive style that contributed to the early Fairport sound,” says Thompson, “but Peggy was much more funky, more solid. And it was astonishing that he started to play jigs and reels on the bass an octave or more under everybody else. That virtuosity became a part of the Fairport sound and was unveiled on Full House.”
Pegg describes Swarbrick as a “walking library of tunes” and for Full House he had put together the dazzling instrumental medley Dirty Linen, on which the bass player came into his own. “I knew something about traditional music from having played with the Campbells,” he adds “On Dirty Linen I play the bass in unison with all the other guys and was able to keep up with them. It got me a bit of a reputation, but to be honest, the only reason I played in unison was I hadn’t got a clue what else to play on it! The Flatback Caper medley is another thing that hadn’t been done before. That was kind of proggy, with Swarb and I both playing mandolin.”  From: https://www.loudersound.com/features/the-story-of-fairport-conventions-full-house

The Lovemongers (Heart) - The Battle Of Evermore

#The Lovemongers #Heart #Anne and Nancy Wilson #hard rock #heavy metal #folk rock #album rock #acoustic #Led Zeppelin cover #live music video

Led Zeppelin's "Battle of Evermore", from the group's iconic you-bought-it-you-name-it fourth studio LP, was destined to eventually be covered by Heart. Well, Ann and Nancy Wilson may not have recorded the pain-of-war cut under the proud Heart name, but the sister act finally took on the sobering Zep track in 1992 as part of The Lovemongers. Penned by the tag team of Jimmy Page and Robert Plant at laid back Headley Grange, Fairport Convention vocalist Sandy Denny assisted Plant on vocals during the recording sessions for the folk-rock "Battle of Evermore", while the arrangement is accented by Page's mandolin and acoustic guitar work. Ann Wilson's voice is perfectly suited for "Battle of Evermore", which like other Zeppelin songs lyrically leans on the literature of J.R. Tolkein. The Lovemongers capture the L.Z. magic via their inspired remake of "Battle of Evermore".  From: https://rateyourmusic.com/release/ep/lovemongers/battle-of-evermore/

On December 2, 2012, Led Zeppelin received the Kennedy Center Honors from President Barack Obama. It's an award bestowed upon those considered to have contributed greatly to American culture, with other recipients including Ella Fitzgerald, Leonard Bernstein, Frank Sinatra, Ray Charles, Sammy Davis Jr., Dizzy Gillespie, Johnny Cash, Carole King and Joni Mitchell. In a world where awards are handed out like lollipops, The Kennedy Center Honors are a big deal. Every December, pandemics permitting, the awards climax with a gala event at the Kennedy Center Opera House in Washington, D.C., and in 2012 the show included an emotional performance of Stairway To Heaven by Heart’s Ann and Nancy Wilson, with Jason Bonham on drums. Did we say emotional? It's almost startlingly so. It's the looks the surviving members of Led Zeppelin give each other during the performance. It's Robert Plant's eyes watering as he watches Ann Wilson singing a song he famously has a difficult relationship with. It's the gospel choir paying tribute to John Bonham in the most unexpected way. It's Jason Bonham lifting his eyes towards the heavens as the song climaxes. It's extraordinary. "I knew we did a lot of damage to people's brains and ear drums, and I knew we wrote some great songs, but it was a very humbling experience," Plant told LA Weekly. "When I saw Heart perform Stairway To Heaven, I just couldn't believe that song had anything to do with this 64-year old man that was sitting next to John Paul Jones. I thought to myself, 'This is me... How did this happen?'"  From: https://www.loudersound.com/features/what-happened-when-ann-and-nancy-wilson-performed-stairway-to-heaven-for-led-zeppelin

Muse - Feeling Good

#Muse #alternative rock #progressive rock #space rock #hard rock #art rock #electronic rock #alternative metal #The Roar of the Greasepaint-The Smell of the Crowd

Songwriter Leslie Bricusse died in October 2021 at the age of 90. Bricusse was responsible for some of the most memorable songs of the 20th Century. He wrote the lyrics to the James Bond themes Goldfinger and You Only Live Twice, composed Talk To The Animals from the musical Dr. Doolittle and with his frequent collaborator Anthony Newley, wrote the song Pure Imagination from Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory. With Newley, the songwriter was also responsible for one of Muse's most memorable tracks - Feeling Good. The band recorded a version of the song for their 2001 album Origin Of Symmetry and it’s gone on to be a rock classic. But it almost didn’t happen, as Matt Bellamy has revealed.
“We didn’t do any covers at all,” he said. “We’d all been in covers bands when we were younger, so we wanted to do our own music.” However, the version of Feeling Good by Nina Simone caught Bellamy’s ear. “My girlfriend at the time,” he recalls, “her favourite artist was Nina Simone, and she was listening to it all the time. I kept hearing that song Feeling Good and I just thought, with Chris’s distorted bass line, that could be really good.” The track was chosen as the penultimate track on Origin Of Symmetry, and was considered strong enough to form a double A-sided single with Hyper Music in November 2001.
But Nina Simone wasn’t the first artist to record Feeling Good. In fact, it’s a show-stopping number from a Broadway musical. Feeling Good was written by Anthony Newley and Leslie Bricusse for their 1964 production The Roar Of The Greasepaint-The Smell Of The Crowd, which opened in Nottingham in the summer of 1964 and transferred to Broadway in 1965. Newley was an interesting character, having been a pop singer and actor and a huge influence on a young David Bowie. The Roar Of The Greasepaint-The Smell Of The Crowd is a strange piece: the main characters are “Sir” and “Cocky”. Sir is taking Cocky through the Game of Life, but the younger, less inexperienced man always comes a cropper.
The musical had a hit with Tony Bennett’s take on Who Can I Turn To and the barn-storming number The Joker later became known as the theme tune to the Aussie TV comedy Kath & Kim. One of the key moments come when the two are arguing over the rules of “The Game” and a new character, a black man, steps forward and wins the game behind their backs. He sings Feeling Good as an expression of triumph over the oppression of the other characters. The song was first performed by actor Cy Grant and then by Gilbert Price in the Broadway run. In the hands of jazz singer and civil rights activist Nina Simone, Feeling Good became a powerful anthem for the times. Simone recorded the track for her album I Put A Spell On You in June 1965, and the version became for many the definitive reading of the song, that is, until Muse came along.  From: https://www.radiox.co.uk/artists/muse/why-did-muse-cover-feeling-good/

Emiliana Torrini - White Rabbit

 #Emiliana Torrini #alternative rock #trip-hop #electronica #dream pop #singer-songwriter #Icelandic #Jefferson Airplane cover

An Icelandic singer/songwriter whose music embraces elements of folk, electronica, pop/rock, and trip-hop, Emilíana Torrini has earned favorable comparisons to such vocally gifted artists as Beth Hirsch, Kirsty Hawkshaw, and Bjork. Torrini was raised in Kópavogur, where she worked at her father's Italian restaurant and attended opera school as a teenager. After releasing three albums in her native Iceland (Spoon, Crouçie D'où Là, and Merman), she joined forces with Tears For Fears’ Roland Orzabal to produce her first widely released effort, 1999's Love in the Time of Science. The famed Lord of the Rings director Peter Jackson heard her cool, otherworldly croon and approved Torrini to voice the finale music for 2002's The Two Towers, a job that Bjork had previously accepted before backing out due to pregnancy.  From: https://open.spotify.com/artist/08j69Ndyx1P7RLO3Janb5P

Leem Lubany - Peace Train

 #Leem Lubany #actress/singer #Israeli #world music #Cat Stevens cover #movie soundtrack #Rock the Kasbah

When noted film director Barry Levinson (Diner, Rain Man, The Natural, Bugsy, Wag the Dog, and many more) first read the script for his new film, Rock the Kasbah, he realized he needed the help of a pop icon: Yusuf Islam—that is, the singer/songwriter formely known as Cat Stevens. In this comedy (dark at times, sweet at times), which opens this weekend, Bill Murray plays a down-and-way-out LA talent manager who has but one act left in his falling-apart stable, a neurotic bar singer (Zooey Deschanel). Yet somehow he finds a gig for her: USO shows in Afghanistan. And off they jet to the war zone, where soon Murray’s only meal ticket abandons him, and he’s stranded in Kabul with no passport, no money, and no way home. Hijinks—and violence—ensue, as Murray falls into the world of sleazy arms dealers, cynical American mercenaries (including a tough guy played by Bruce Willis), and competing tribal warlords. But this is no adventure flick. It’s a tale of cultural and spiritual bridge-building—with laughs—because Murray, stuck at one point in rural Afghanistan, stumbles into a cave and discovers an Afghan teenage girl (Leem Lubany) singing beautifully. And the song she’s covertly crooning is Cat Stevens’ “Trouble.”
From here on, Murray has a mission: to get this Muslim teen on the Afghan version of American Idol, which has never featured a female performer. The film is based, as they say, on a true story, and the real-life Afghan woman who appeared on this television show, Setara Hussainzada, confronted tremendous opposition from religious and cultural conservatives; she even received death threats and fled Afghanistan for exile in Germany. Levinson’s film tracks a tale of female empowerment in the Muslim world, while — get this!— being respectful of the society it portrays. Most of the laughs it generates are at the expense of Murray’s character, not cheap gags aimed at the natives. As Levinson put it, he was looking to craft “a humanistic, dramatic comedy that dealt with the Muslim world in Afghanistan.”
The script, penned by Mitch Glazer (Scrooged, Great Expectations) had been knocking about Hollywood for years without being made, even though marquis-name Murray was attached to the project. “It was too foreign some said,” Levinson explains in a blog post. “Too much about that part of the world, not enough action, not a war film, too much about people, and in whispers, too much about Muslims.” But Levinson, Glazer, and the rest of the film’s team were able to get the movie going on a basement budget (just $15 million) — with the actors pocketing lower-than-usual rates — but they needed the okay of Yusaf Islam. At least, to a certain extent. Several Cat Stevens songs play a critical role in the movie, so much so that Stevens is something of an unseen co-star. And the film’s climax—slight spoiler alert—makes effective use of his anthemic “Peace Train.” So when Levinson read Glazer’s script and saw that it included these tunes, he asked, “Do we have the rights?” Not yet, he was told.
Usually, it’s not a big deal for a director to obtain the rights to use music in a film. The music supervisor contacts the folks who control the rights to a song and negotiates a deal. But it was not so simple in this case. Yusuf wanted to meet Levinson and Glazer. So on a spring afternoon in New York City, hours before Yusuf was to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, he and Glazer met with the singer at his hotel. There was a bit of apprehension on the filmmakers’ part. If Yusuf said no, they weren’t sure what they would do. “We didn’t know what we could use instead, what would get us there,” Levinson says. The Cat Stevens songs were instrumental to the story. (After all, how many Muslim-Western mega pop stars are there?) Yusuf had been sent a copy of the script, and shortly after the introductions were done, Levinson and Glazer were relieved: He liked the story and was excited by the prospect of being involved in the project. “He wanted to make sure his music was being used appropriately,” Levinson says. “And he saw exactly what we were trying to do with the whole idea of an Afghan Muslim young woman so taken with his music that she becomes a pop star and remains a Muslim.” Islam gave them a green light. “It was a key element to get into place,” Levinson notes.  From: https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2015/10/cat-stevens-rock-the-kasbah-bill-murray-barry-levinson/

The Grip Weeds - All Tomorrow's Parties

 #The Grip Weeds #power pop #psychedelic rock #psychedelic pop rock #alternative rock #indie rock #folk-pop #Velvet Underground cover

The Grip Weeds: A powerhouse pop-psyche band extraordinaire who write insanely gripping melodic nuggets - a gorgeous alchemy of the 60's and 70's brought into the 21st century, with ripping guitars, explosive drumming and golden harmonies. Bands like The Grip Weeds usually aren’t built to last. The clichéd “personal and musical differences”, changing tastes and Father Time have brought down most of the greatest bands in history. And yet, over two decades and counting after their debut album House Of Vibes, The Grip Weeds continue to survive, thrive, surprise and innovate. They do it on their own terms, defiantly refusing to play the usual major label/name producer/big time studio game. Critics, while praising The Grip Weeds, often try to pigeonhole them with the “Power Pop” label. This is a bit of a misnomer. While there are plenty of driving, poppy melodies, chiming guitars and close harmonies, The Grip Weeds’ releases have sported many different styles of original material, from Psychedelic and Garage Rock to Folk-based ballads and thought-provoking social commentary. This diversity has landed several Grip Weeds songs on the top of the Little Steven’s Underground Garage "Coolest Song In The World” list, as well as placed Grip Weeds music in several television and film projects.  From: https://www.gripweeds.com/bio/biom.html

Lithium X-Mas - Hip Death Goddess

 #Lithium X-Mas #psychedelic rock #art rock #indie rock #rock #psychedelic punk #1980s #Ultimate Spinach cover

Psychedelic art-rock pioneering band from Texas, Lithium X-Mas,was formed in Dallas, Texas, in 1985. They emerged from the punk scene that included the likes of Nervebreakers, Butthole Surfers, Vomit Pigs, and Horton Heat. The band played a diverse array of venues, from seedy warehouses to psychedelic theme parties to Dallas' legendary, upscale Starck Club. Lithium's first forte was the excavated cover song, bringing their own twisted spin to tunes such as Nilsson's 'Jump into the Fire,' Lemon Pipers' 'Green Tambourine,' and Ultimate Spinach's 'Hip Death Goddess.' Forward looking, but still informed by deep excavation of eclectic record collections, Lithium's fans included Sonic Youth, with whom they shared bills and who advertised them on their guitars; Nirvana, who were inspired by the name for some of their source material; the Butthole Surfers, whose drummer King Coffey signed them to his record label; and many others.  From: https://www.forcedexposure.com/Artists/LITHIUM.X.MAS.html

PJ Harvey - Wang Dang Doodle

 #PJ Harvey #Polly Jean Harvey #alternative rock #art rock #indie rock #hard rock #punk blues #folk rock #avant-rock #lo-fi #singer-songwriter #1990s

PJ Harvey, in full Polly Jean Harvey, is a British singer-songwriter and guitarist whose mythically pitched, fanatically intense recordings and concerts set new standards for women in rock. Harvey, born to countercultural parents in rural England, seems to have grown up with a sense of rock as simply another elemental force within the landscape. “Sheela-na-gig,” for instance, a single from her first album, Dry (1992), took as its central image the female exhibitionist carvings with gaping genitals found throughout Ireland and the United Kingdom, whose origins are the subject of debate. The song, like many others by Harvey, treats female sexuality as a ravaging, haunted force, but, instead of acting the victim, she theatrically embodies her obsessions, equates them with the alluring menace of rock and the blues, and builds herself into an archetype.  From: https://www.britannica.com/biography/PJ-Harvey

"Wang Dang Doodle" is a blues song written by Willie Dixon. Music critic Mike Rowe calls it a party song in an urban style with its massive, rolling, exciting beat. It was first recorded by Howlin' Wolf in 1960 and released by Chess Records in 1961. In 1965, Dixon and Leonard Chess persuaded Koko Taylor to record it for Checker Records, a Chess subsidiary. Taylor's rendition became a hit and "Wang Dang Doodle" became a blues standard and has been recorded by various artists.
"Wang Dang Doodle" was composed by Willie Dixon during the second part of his songwriting career, from 1959 to 1964. During this period, he wrote many of his best-known songs, including "Back Door Man", "Spoonful", "The Red Rooster" (better-known as "Little Red Rooster"), "I Ain't Superstitious", "You Shook Me", "You Need Love" (adapted by Led Zeppelin for "Whole Lotta Love"), and "You Can't Judge a Book by the Cover". In his autobiography, Dixon explained that the phrase "wang dang doodle" "meant a good time, especially if the guy came in from the South. A wang dang meant having a ball and a lot of dancing, they called it a rocking style so that's what it meant to wang dang doodle". Mike Rowe claimed that Dixon's song is based on "an old lesbian song" – "The Bull Daggers Ball" – with "its catalogue of low-life characters only marginally less colorful that the original". Dixon claimed that he wrote it when he first heard Howlin' Wolf in 1951 or 1952 but that it was "too far in advance" for him and he saved it for later. However, Howlin' Wolf supposedly hated the song and commented, "Man, that's too old-timey, sounds like some old levee camp number":

    Tell automatic slim, to tell razor totin' Jim
    To tell butcher knife totin' Annie, to tell fast talkin' Fannie
    We gonna pitch a wang dang doodle all night long

From: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wang_Dang_Doodle

Fairport Convention - Percy's Song

#Fairport Convention #Sandy Denny #Ian Matthews #Richard Thompson #folk #folk rock #British folk rock #electric folk #British folk #1960s #Bob Dylan cover

The best British folk-rock band of the late '60s, Fairport Convention did more than any other act to develop a truly British variation on the folk-rock prototype by drawing upon traditional material and styles indigenous to the British Isles. While the revved-up renditions of traditional British folk tunes drew the most critical attention, the group members were also (at least at the outset) talented songwriters as well as interpreters. They were comfortable with conventional harmony-based folk-rock as well as tunes that drew upon more explicitly traditional sources, and boasted some of the best singers and instrumentalists of the day. A revolving door of personnel changes, however, saw the exit of their most distinguished talents, and basically changed the band into a living museum piece after the early '70s, albeit an enjoyable one with integrity. When Fairport formed around 1967, their goal was not to revive British folk numbers, but to play harmony-and guitar-based folk-rock in a style strongly influenced by Californian groups of the day (especially the Byrds). The lineup that recorded their self-titled debut album in 1968 featured Richard Thompson, Ian Matthews, and Simon Nicol on guitars; Ashley Hutchings on bass; Judy Dyble on vocals; and Martin Lamble on drums. Most of the members sang, though Matthews and Dyble were the strongest vocalists in this early incarnation; all of their early work, in fact, was characterized by blends of male and female vocals, influenced by such American acts as the Mamas & the Papas and Ian & Sylvia. While their first album was derivative, it had some fine material, and the band was already showing a knack for eclecticism, excavating overlooked songs by Joni Mitchell (then virtually unknown) and Emitt Rhodes.

What We Did on Our Holidays
Fairport Convention didn't reach their peak until Dyble was replaced after the first album in 1968 by Sandy Denny, who had previously recorded both as a solo act and with the Strawbs. Denny's penetrating, resonant style qualified her as the best British folk-rock singer of all time, and provided Fairport with the best vocalist they would ever have. What We Did on Our Holidays (1969) and Unhalfbricking (1969) are their best albums, mixing strong originals, excellent covers of contemporary folk-rock songs by the likes of Mitchell and Dylan, and imaginative revivals of traditional folk songs that mixed electric and acoustic instruments with a beguiling ease.

Liege & Lief
Matthews had left the band in early 1969, and Lamble (still in his teens) died in an accident involving the group's equipment van in mid-1969. That forced Fairport to regroup, replacing Lamble with Dave Mattacks, and adding Dave Swarbrick on fiddle. Their repertoire, too, became much more traditional in focus, and electrified traditional folk numbers would dominate their next album, Liege and Lief (1969). Here critical thought diverges; some insist that this is unequivocally their peak, marking a final escape from their '60s folk-rock influences into a much more original style. This school of thought severely underestimates their songwriting talents, and others feel that they were at their best when mixing original and outside material, and contemporary and traditional styles, in fact becoming more predictable and derivative when they opted to concentrate on British folk chestnuts.

Full House
The Liege and Lief lineup didn't last long; by the end of the '60s, Ashley Hutchings had left to join Steeleye Span, replaced by Dave Pegg. More crucially, Denny was also gone, helping to form Fotheringay. Thompson was still on board for Full House (1970), but by the beginning of 1971 he too had departed, leaving Nicol as the only original member.

Angel Delight
Fairport have kept going, on and off (mostly on), for the last 25 years, touring and performing frequently. It may be too harsh to dismiss all of their post-Thompson records out of hand; Angel Delight (1971), the first recorded without the guitarist on board, was actually their highest-charting LP in the U.K., reaching the Top Ten. Nicol's exit in late 1971 erased all vestiges of connections to their salad days. Fairport was now not so much a continuous entity as a concept, carried on by musicians dedicated to the electrified British folk style that had been mapped out on Liege and Lief. 

So it continues to this day, supported by a devoted fan base (Dirty Linen, the top American roots music magazine, originally began as a Fairport Convention fanzine). Denny would actually return to the group for about a year and a half in the 1970s, prior to her death in 1978; Nicol rejoined in 1976. Keeping track of Fairport's multitudinous lineup changes is a daunting task, and the group has coexisted on an erratic basis with the various other projects of the most frequent members (Nicol, Mattacks, and Pegg, the last of whom has played with Jethro Tull since the late '70s). They began playing annual reunion concerts in the 1980s (sometimes joined on-stage by Fairport alumni like Thompson), events that turned into some of the most popular folk festivals in Europe. They also released some albums of new material intermittently throughout the last couple of decades, mostly pleasant traditional-oriented outings that appeal primarily to diehards.  From: https://www.allmusic.com/artist/fairport-convention-mn0000162233/biography

Zepparella - When The Levee Breaks

 #Zepparella #Led Zeppelin tribute band #classic rock #blues rock #heavy metal #hard rock #all-female band #cover band #music video

If it’s not a tribute band, or a quartet of groupies pining to peel off Jimmy Page’s pants, or a bunch of rock ‘n’ roll wannabes, or Howard Stern’s favorite band, what then, is Zepparella? Serious. The San Francisco-based quartet of women rockers came together in summer 2005, when jazzy singer Anna Kristina joined guitarist Gretchen Menn, bassist Nila Minnerock and drummer Clementine, who in great rock fashion simply goes by her first name. Separately, each has her own musical interests, which range from prog rock and metal to electronica and jazz, but together, it’s all about Led Zeppelin, baby.
“It’s a tribute to the music,” Clementine said when reached in San Francisco before their current tour, which sees the band at Sam Bond’s Garage on Friday. “We’re a tribute band in that we’re playing one band’s music, but we don’t really care about Jimmy Page’s pants.” Apparently, a lot of other bands do care about his pants. They’re everywhere: Black Dog, Stairway Denied, Led Zepland, Hammer of the Gods, The Immigrants (an Italian Led Zeppelin tribute band) or The Vibe Remains the Same.
But just because other bands play out their fantasies of being part of one of the greatest rock bands ever, if only for a night at a time, doesn’t mean the ladies of Zepparella are going to follow suit. “To me, tribute bands look like the players and sound just like the players – and that’s really fun. I’m not putting it down,” Clementine said. “But for Led Zeppelin, I feel like we wouldn’t be doing the music justice if we did that.”
To do the music justice, Clementine said, the band, which takes its name from Led Zeppelin and the campy Jane Fonda film “Barbarella,” learns the songs exactly as they sound on the album. “But as we play together, things happen and the songs start to breathe and our own music starts coming through.” There are guitar riffs and grooves on the drums the band wants to hit, but they leave a lot of room for the songs to have a life of their own. “These songs are built for different interpretations,” she said, “so it’d be kind of a crime to stick to the record version.”
The band’s album, “Live at 19 Broadway,” gives a taste of the similarities, and differences, between the two Zeps. One difference is the vocals. If anything, Robert Plant is more effeminate than the lustrous Kristina, whose jazz-influenced voice shines through. “She’s a jazz singer more than a rock singer, so it’s tougher for her to do this,” Clementine said. “She’s really gotten into learning the whole rock thing, and Plant is such a great place to start. “She’s not really trying to sound like him. It’s more the phrasing and the delivery.”
But there are times when Kristina definitely conjures up memories of Plant. The beginning of the band’s cover of Zeppelin staple “Whole Lotta Love” sounds as if Kristina ate Plant for breakfast and he’s trying to escape from inside of her. And the wails at the start of “Immigrant Song” are just as haunting and powerful as the original. The rest of the band does Zeppelin justice as well. Menn’s powerful guitar riffs, Minnerock’s steady bass and Clementine’s thundering drums capably carry Zepparella through Zeppelin’s oeuvre.
Even Howard Stern had nothing bad to say about the band’s take on Zeppelin. Zepparella is on a compilation record of all-women tribute bands, and Stern – that champion of feminism everywhere – was talking about the album in less than flattering terms on his show. “They chose one song to play, and it was one of ours,” Clementine said, laughing. “But they were like, ‘Hey, this is pretty good,’ and we were happy they were saying our name on the radio.” The band learned Led Zeppelin has heard of Zepparella, Clementine said. Robert Plant’s question: “Are they any good?” Yes, Mr. Plant, they are.
From: https://www.dailyemerald.com/archives/the-girls-of-zepparella-make-classics-their-own/article_6d019491-f59d-58ee-9283-6bf7eb604d84.html

Zepparella - four women intent on bringing the passion, the beauty, the aggression, and the musicality of Led Zeppelin alive. Zepparella explores their own improvised magic within the framework of Zeppelin’s mighty songs. For five years, the Zeppelin love has washed in waves out of the doors of the venues. Initial skeptics have been quickly converted.  From: https://dola.com/artists/zepparella

The Move - The last Thing On My Mind

 #The Move #Roy Wood #Jeff Lynne #psychedelic rock #blues rock #hard rock #British psychedelia #pop rock #art rock #proto-prog #1960s #Tom Paxton cover

The Move were the best and most important British group of the late '60s that never made a significant dent in the American market. Through the band's several phases (which were sometimes dictated more by image than musical direction), their chief asset was guitarist and songwriter Roy Wood, who combined a knack for Beatlesque pop with a peculiarly British, and occasionally morbid, sense of humor. On their final albums (with considerable input from Jeff Lynne), the band became artier and more ambitious, hinting at the orchestral rock that Wood and Lynne would devise for the Electric Light Orchestra. The Move, however, always placed more emphasis on the pop than the art, and never lost sight of their hardcore rock & roll roots. Formed in the mid-'60s, the Move were so named because the five musicians from the original lineups were moving from established Birmingham groups into a new band. Most of the Move, in fact, had previously recorded flop singles in average, unremarkable British Invasion styles as members of other outfits. Taken under the wing of manager Tony Secunda, the group moved to London and crafted an explosive act, heavily influenced by the Who, which found them destroying televisions on stage. The Move's early singles were also heavily influenced by mod pop in their chunky chords and oddball character sketches, although Roy Wood's songs were much poppier and bouncier than those of Pete Townshend.    From: https://www.allmusic.com/artist/the-move-mn0000483587/biography