Fight Hard

In anticipation of today's edition of El Clásico, here's a double helping of soul scorchers. Regular readers will probably know whose side I'm on by now, but just in case: ¡Visca el Barça! Yes Milton, we're gonna make it alright...

Gene Allison - You Can Make It If You Try
Little Milton - We're Gonna Make It

Hip To Be Alive

Couldn´t get this song out of my head today. Maybe because of tonight´s Arsenal vs. Barça clash? "Since I'm not supposed to grin, all you've got to do is win..." People often refer to Bowie´s Young Americans album as plastic soul. That´s rubbish of course. It´s the real deal.

David Bowie - Win MP3

Classy

To celebrate my beloved Barça’s´s impressive 1-0 win in yet another steaming edition of El Classico last night, I proudly present... the cool ruler. Here´s to Puyol, Valdez, Ibra and the rest of the squad. "Extra classic that´s what you are..."

Gregory Isaacs - Extra Classic MP3

Gregory Isaacs - Classy Dub MP3

Yes We Can

Enjoyed one of the best games of football I´ve ever seen last night. My beloved FC Barcelona met Bayern Munich in the first leg of the Champions League quarter finals at home in Camp Nou and totally outclassed the opposition. Ninety thousand plus spectators (me among them of course) could hardly believe their eyes as the most lethal forward line in Europe (Messi, Henri and Eto´o) secured a 4-0 win in grand style, which makes next Tuesday´s return more or less a formality. We played many a great match this season already, but this was definitely football from another planet. As they say in Catalan: Ser del Barça es, el millor que hi ha... The semis await.

To rub it in a bit more, here are some tracks from my fave krautrock ensemble, the mighty Can. Father Cannot Yell stems from the ´69 debut Monster Movie, when Malcolm Mooney was still their vocalist. Nice, but only the beginning. By ´71 the wild Japanese Damo Suzuki took over behind the microphone, and Can really found its form. Tago Mago´s Mushroom shows exactly why Can has a reputation for originality and rhythmic cunning. "I´m gonna keep my distance!"

Follow-up Ege Bamyasi (´72), with that beautiful album cover of a can of yummy ladyfingers, is just as good, as the dreamlike Sing Swan Song proves. Next year´s Future Days is probably my favourite Can album though. Ambient avant-la-lettre? Something like that. The hypnotic Dizzy Dizzy from their nearly-as-perfect ´74 effort Soon Over Babaluma finds guitarist Michael Karoli on whispery vocals. "Don´t throw ashtrays at me..."

And as a bonus track, here´s the exotic Persian Love from Can bassist and producer Holger Czukay´s highly original solo album Movies (´79). Auf wiedersehen!

Can - Father Cannot Yell MP3

Can - Mushroom MP3

Can - Sing Swan Song MP3

Can - Future Days MP3

Can - Dizzy Dizzy MP3

Holger Czukay - Persian Love MP3

Grab bag fiesta

Friday night again, so here´s the usual grab bag fiesta for you. What´s the big deal tonight? Well, we´ll take a short look at FC Barcelona´s past, present and future, accompanied by some cool tunes. Stax soul from Sam & Dave, or early Dutch punkrock from Ivy Green anyone? Got some country from the late Eddy Arnold too, and there´s Jimmie Dale Gilmore for all you Flatlanders fans out there. Plus two versions of the song I Had A Good Father And Mother... or was that the other way around? We´ll see.

Last Thursday I was minding my own business when I suddenly received a text message telling me that coach Frank Rijkaard will leave my beloved FC Barcelona at the end of this season. You could see it coming, as the results haven´t been too good this year, but I´ll still miss the guy. Rijkaard is a real gentleman, the likes of which you don´t often encounter on a football pitch these days. Frank, thanks a million for two Spanish league titles and of course for that incredible high which was the Champions League victory. And for many, many games of beautiful football I´ve witnessed in the Camp Nou during your reign. This song´s for you.

Sam & Dave - I Thank You MP3

Frank´s successor has already been chosen, and I think it´s a wise move. Josep ´Pep´ Guardiola is a child of the club, which in my opinion suits Barça much better than an outsider such as loudmouth Jose Mourinho, who was also said to be in the running. Lots of luck Pep! This song´s for you. Make us blaugrana proud next season...

Ivy Green - I´m Sure We´re Gonna Make It MP3

Last Friday I posted a song here by Washington Phillips, and here I go again. Yup, I´m really enjoying his album The Key To The Kingdom (Yazoo) at the moment. Gospelblues to die for, check it out. I especially like his song I Had A Good Father And Mother, as I already knew the cover the Palace Brothers did on their fabulous debut There Is No-One What Will Take Care Of You (Drag City´93). Don´t know why brother Will Oldham - currently known as Bonnie Prince Billy of course - switched the mother and the father around though. Strange.

Washington Phillips - I Had A Good Father And Mother MP3

Palace Brothers - I Had A Good Mother And Father MP3

Country crooner Eddie Arnold died yesterday, and that´s a drag, even though the Country Music Hall Of Famer was a respectable 89. Arnold sold more than 85 million recordings over seven decades, and that´s no mean feat. Nice trivia fact: Colonel Tom Parker managed Arnold before he got his hands on Elvis. Some of his stuff is a little too slick for my taste, but you can´t go wrong with a Greatest Hits collection of the Tennessee Plowboy.

Eddy Arnold - You Don´t Know me MP3

As I was reading To Live´s To Fly, the Townes Van Zandt biography (see my post below) I stumbled upon the weird fact that my favourite singer/songwriter once auditioned for the 13th Floor Elevators. Roky Erickson, fellow Texan and all-around weirdo, was Van Zandt´s roommate for a while, sleeping on a makeshift bed made from stacks of albums from Townes´ prized record collection. Now Roky was desperately looking for a bassist for the Elevators and asked Townes, who´d never played the instrument before in his life. At the audition Elevator Tommy Hall was so unimpressed with Townes that the idea was instantly canned... A strange but true story. Here´s some Roky from the slightly underrated All That May Do My Rhyme album (Trance Syndicate ´94).

Roky Erickson - You Don´t Love Me Yet MP3

Let´s call it quits tonight with some tracks by West-Texas guitarist Jimmie Dale Gilmore, as a lot of you wrote in to thank me for plugging the Flatlanders here. Please keep them comments coming folks! There´s two great cd´s of Gilmore that I´d like to bring to your attention. The first one is called Don´t Look For A Heartache (Hightone ´04) and compiles the highlights of his first two albums from the late eighties. Great honky tonkin´stuff. But on After Awhile (Elektra Nonesuch ´91) he really found his voice, mining the singer/songwriters vein. Just listen to the beautiful Midnight Train to see what I mean.

Jimmie Dale Gilmore - See The Way MP3

Jimmie Dale Gilmore - Midnight Train MP3