Have You Heard

Spotlight on three old live gigs, excavated this year. The Gregg Allman Tour was recorded when Gregg was on the road in '74 promoting his first solo album Laid Back, with Cowboy as his backing band. Goes without saying it's an inspired and often quite funky affair all around.

Gregg Allman - Queen Of Hearts (live '74)

Listening to Tim Buckley is always a joy. Here he is helped by percussionist Carter Collins and a nameless bassplayer on stage in Chicago back in '69. A charming audience recording with quite a bit of tape hiss, but when the star sailor is in improvisational full flight, who gives a damn?

Tim Buckley - Green Rocky Road/Hush, Little Baby (live '69)

And last but not least, ladies & gentlemen: the greatest guitar slinger of 'em all. Jimi's Songs For Groovy Children set compiles all the Fillmore Concerts with his legendary Band Of Gypsys, which means we've got an essential document on our hands here. "Do I laugh, baby, do I cry..."

Jimi Hendrix - Who Knows (live '69)

They Shine

I do realize that christmas is just a kiss away and 2017 just around the corner and yes you just can't wait to see the famous FTSOTS end of year list... But please be patient, folks. Come snow or come shine, let's observe some other faves first.

This years must-reads:

Josh Rosenthal - The Record Store Of The Mind

Bob Mehr - Trouble Boys: The True Story Of The Replacements

This year's blazing (re-) issues:

Bonnie Prince Billy - Pond Scum
Bonnie Prince Billy - When Thy Song Flows Through Me

Tim Buckley - Lady, Give Me Your Key
Tim Buckley - Marigold
Terry Allen - Juarez
Terry Allen - Dogwood

Bunny Wailer - Solomonic Singles 1: Tread Along 1969-1976
The Wailers - Arabs Oil Weapon
Jack Rose - Opium Musick
Jack Rose - Linden Ave Stomp
various artists - Cosmic American Music

Jeff Cowell - Not Down This Low

Wings On Your Back

Nice find for sure: an album of long lost recordings, even including a couple of songs never heard before, by the late great warbler Tim Buckley. A bit lofi maybe, but Lady, Give Me Your Key makes me a happy camper just the same.

Tim Buckley - She's Back Again

Home To Stay

Public service announcement: you'll have to do without me for a while, folks. For The Sake Of The Song will soon be hosted out of new headquarters, as we're finally moving back to my beloved Barcelona next week. Exile is over, high time for new beginnings. I'll check in as soon as everything's connected once again in the ciudad condal, promise. Meanwhile, here's the one and only starsailor, and he's spot on as usual.

Tim Buckley - Coming Home To You (Peel version)

Waxing Nostalgic

Presenting a nostalgic six pack for the weekend, 'cause all that tweeting is making me itch. "When you are lonely and tired of another man's gold, when you are weary, remember this letter, my own..."

The Box Tops - The Letter

The Mekons - Love Letter

Shuggie Otis - Island Letter

Tim Buckley - Dream Letter

Dave Van Ronk - Death Letter Blues

Rex Griffin - The Last Letter

Inside My Heart, Inside My Dreams

Time to remember two of my musical heroes today. On June 29 back in 1975, the great Tim Buckley passed away. If someone would ask me to describe the voice of an angel, I´d simply play him some Buckley. The majestic The River perhaps. "If you come to love me, you'll stay forever..."

And also on this day, in 1979, singer, songwriter and slide player extraordinaire Lowell George breathed his last. Hardly a week goes by without me groovin´ to the sounds of Little Feat. To paraphrase one of his lines from Spanish Moon: "I´d pawn my watch, and sell my ring, just to hear these guys sing..."

Tim Buckley - The River MP3

Little Feat - Spanish Moon MP3

A Sailor´s Life...

...it is a merry life. That fado about Portuguese sailors in the post below made me think of other songs about that romantic but slowly disappearing profession. So while it seems that everybody else is busy blogging Christmas ditties (I won´t, promise...) here´s a six pack of delicious sailor songs for you. All hands on deck, lift the anchor, and hoist the main sail. The Titanic sails at dawn.

The alternative bluegrass trio Bad Livers tells all about Pee Pee The Sailor, in a hilarious Butthole Surfers cover. Anyone got the original btw? Never could track it down. Sandy Denny shines in Fairport Convention´s beautiful lament A Sailor´s Life, and master picker Leo Kottke finds a sailor´s grave in the strangest of places.

The Detroit Cobras do the marinero rock, while Tim Buckley goes way out there with some stellar vocal improvisation on Starsailor. Bob Dylan, in a rare live performance from ´92, relates of a female sailor. "In her jacket blue and trousers white, just like a sailor neat and tight, the sea, it was the heart's delight, of the female rambling sailor..." Heave ho!

Bad Livers - The Adventures Of Pee Pee The Sailor MP3

Fairport Convention - A Sailor´s Life MP3

Leo Kottke - The Sailor´s Grave On The Prairie MP3

Detroit Cobras - Hey Sailor MP3

Tim Buckley - Starsailor MP3

Bob Dylan - Female Rambling Sailor (live in Perth ´92) MP3

Puzzled As The Oyster

"Did I dream you dreamed about me?
Were you hare when I was fox?
Now my foolish boat is leaning,
Broken lovelorn on your rocks..."

Tim Buckley´s immortal Song To The Siren is a classic you´re probably all familiar with. But have you ever heard the early solo take he performed in 1968 on the Monkees tv show? Do yourselves a favour, it´s a twelve-string diamond. Note that the lyrics differ slightly: "I am puzzled as the oyster" later became "I'm as puzzled as the new born child", allegedly because singer Judy Henske, married to Buckley´s producer Jerry Yester, laughed out loud at the original line. I see her point...

As a bonus, there´s the lush studio version released two years later on the Starsailor album. Anyone know why this masterpiece has been out of print for ages btw? And last but not least check out the remarkably tasteful eighties cover by goth forerunners This Mortal Coil, which even managed to spawn a Buckley revival of sorts.

Tim Buckley - Song To The Siren (solo) MP3

Tim Buckley - Song To The Siren MP3

This Mortal Coil - Song To The Siren MP3