Music Labyrinth Episode 034
Altus Silva / Big Blue Ball
Hello Listener, and welcome to episode 34 of The Music Labyrinth. 34 and 8 were my two jumper numbers during my stellar career in high school B-team football. I’ve been back and had a look at episode 8 of The Music Labyrinth and it was, in my very humble opinion, a ripper - so we at least have a benchmark to aspire to here. For any new listeners to this show - welcome, and thanks for your interest - we started this week’s show where we finished episode 32, with the track Altus Silva from the album project from 2008, Big Blue Ball. (By the way, for the maths obsessed amongst you who are wondering what happened to episode 33, we took a break from our usual progress for a special, stand-alone episode. For more information about that, have a look at our web page at https://www.nonshedders.net/musiclabyrinth.html). So, what we will be doing right now is finding a link from Altus Silva to our next track. Despite the variety of paths away from this song, I was torn by two. We’ll get on track shortly, but I wanted to briefly mention the one we elected not to take. The beautiful non-English singing on Altus Silva was performed by Iarla O’Lionaird who, years after that recording, joined forces with other renowned musicians to form the Irish supergroup The Gloaming. If you have any fondness at all for traditional Irish music, but performed with a magical twist of improvisational jazz piano, please go and have a listen to The Gloaming. However - we’re heading off down another road. A co-producer of and key songwriting contributor to the Big Blue Ball project was Karl Wallinger, who is perhaps best known for contributions to music via two main outlets. We’ll get to the other in a minute, but from the late 80s onwards Karl Wallinger recorded under the band name World Party. Opinion is divided on their best song; but I’ve invoked the “host’s privilege”, and I’m calling it as Ship Of Fools.
Ship Of Fools / World Party
Welcome back to The Music Labyrinth where we last listened to World Party from 1987 with Ship of Fools. The saxophone on that track was played Anthony Thistlethwaite, and prior to the formation of World Party, Karl Wallinger and Anthony Thistlthwaite, together with Mike Scott, were key members of The Waterboys when they recorded this hit from 1985.
The Whole of the Moon / The Waterboys
From 1985 that was The Waterboys with The Whole Of The Moon. We’ll be talking more about cover versions of that song momentarily, but just as an aside, music folk-lore says that Prince once played a piano and vocals version of that song at Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Club in 2014. The Prince version was never recorded and the writer of the song, Mike Scott echoed, I think, the thoughts of us all when he expressed his regret about that. Someone who did capture his cover of that song on record was the American folk singer/songwriter Peter Mulvey. Here is Mulvey with his song, Josephine.
Josephine / Peter Mulvey
From his 2014 album Silver Ladder, that was Peter Mulvey with his song, Josephine. Another song with the same title, happens to be one of my favourites. So, from their quadruple platinum selling 1996 album, Bringing Down The Horse, here are the Wallflowers with that song.
Josephine / The Wallflowers
You are back with The Music Labyrinth where, just before those messages we listened to The Wallflowers with Josephine. The full time drummer with The Wallflowers is Mario Calire, but he joined the band just after the recording of the album Bringing Down The Horse. Drums on the track we just heard were played by the session musician Matt Chamberlain, who had earlier enjoyed a brief period as the drummer for Pearl Jam, featuring in the music video of this song from 1991.
Alive / Pearl Jam
From their debut album Ten, that was the debut single of the phenomenon which became Pearl Jam. The guitar solo on that track was played by Mike McCready and it remains a highly regarded example of the art. On occasions when he has been asked about the solo, McCready has been open in revealing that it was basically copied from Ace Frehley’s guitar solo on the 1975 Kiss album track, She. So ...
She / Kiss
Hello and welcome back to The Music Labyrinth. The song we last listened to was She, from the 1975 album Dressed To Kill by Kiss. You will recall we arrived at that song by way of MIke McCready’s admission that he copied the guitar solo in it. That solo was played by Ace Frehley and, 41 years after recording it, Frehley teamed up with Mike McCready on Frehley’s album Origins, Vol. 1. Here they are with Cold Gin.
Cold Gin / Ace Frehley (featuring Mike McCready)
From Ace Frehley’s 2016 album Origins, Vol. 1, that was Frehley and Mike McCready with the Kiss classic, Cold Gin. Origins, Vol. 1 is an album on which Frehley reinterprets a number of well known songs; one of which was the Steppenwolf hit Magic Carpet Ride. So let’s hear, not the original, nor Frehley’s cover, but the quite splendid cover which featured in the soundtrack to the 1992 movie Reservoir Dogs. Here is Bedlam with Magic Carpet Ride.
Magic Carpet Ride / Bedlam
From the soundtrack of the film Reservoir Dogs, that was Magic Carpet Ride by Bedlam. Interestingly, Bedlam was a band largely manufactured for that soundtrack and built around the American session musician Jay Joyce. Let’s stay with that film soundtrack, and I suspect that you have little doubt where we are headed. All that remains for me is to thank you for your company, and to express my hope that you will join us again next week on The Music Labyrinth. And bring a friend along. Here, as I am sure you were anticipating, is Stealers Wheel.
Stuck In The Middle With You / Stealers Wheel
Hello Listener, and welcome to episode 34 of The Music Labyrinth. 34 and 8 were my two jumper numbers during my stellar career in high school B-team football. I’ve been back and had a look at episode 8 of The Music Labyrinth and it was, in my very humble opinion, a ripper - so we at least have a benchmark to aspire to here. For any new listeners to this show - welcome, and thanks for your interest - we started this week’s show where we finished episode 32, with the track Altus Silva from the album project from 2008, Big Blue Ball. (By the way, for the maths obsessed amongst you who are wondering what happened to episode 33, we took a break from our usual progress for a special, stand-alone episode. For more information about that, have a look at our web page at https://www.nonshedders.net/musiclabyrinth.html). So, what we will be doing right now is finding a link from Altus Silva to our next track. Despite the variety of paths away from this song, I was torn by two. We’ll get on track shortly, but I wanted to briefly mention the one we elected not to take. The beautiful non-English singing on Altus Silva was performed by Iarla O’Lionaird who, years after that recording, joined forces with other renowned musicians to form the Irish supergroup The Gloaming. If you have any fondness at all for traditional Irish music, but performed with a magical twist of improvisational jazz piano, please go and have a listen to The Gloaming. However - we’re heading off down another road. A co-producer of and key songwriting contributor to the Big Blue Ball project was Karl Wallinger, who is perhaps best known for contributions to music via two main outlets. We’ll get to the other in a minute, but from the late 80s onwards Karl Wallinger recorded under the band name World Party. Opinion is divided on their best song; but I’ve invoked the “host’s privilege”, and I’m calling it as Ship Of Fools.
Ship Of Fools / World Party
Welcome back to The Music Labyrinth where we last listened to World Party from 1987 with Ship of Fools. The saxophone on that track was played Anthony Thistlethwaite, and prior to the formation of World Party, Karl Wallinger and Anthony Thistlthwaite, together with Mike Scott, were key members of The Waterboys when they recorded this hit from 1985.
The Whole of the Moon / The Waterboys
From 1985 that was The Waterboys with The Whole Of The Moon. We’ll be talking more about cover versions of that song momentarily, but just as an aside, music folk-lore says that Prince once played a piano and vocals version of that song at Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Club in 2014. The Prince version was never recorded and the writer of the song, Mike Scott echoed, I think, the thoughts of us all when he expressed his regret about that. Someone who did capture his cover of that song on record was the American folk singer/songwriter Peter Mulvey. Here is Mulvey with his song, Josephine.
Josephine / Peter Mulvey
From his 2014 album Silver Ladder, that was Peter Mulvey with his song, Josephine. Another song with the same title, happens to be one of my favourites. So, from their quadruple platinum selling 1996 album, Bringing Down The Horse, here are the Wallflowers with that song.
Josephine / The Wallflowers
You are back with The Music Labyrinth where, just before those messages we listened to The Wallflowers with Josephine. The full time drummer with The Wallflowers is Mario Calire, but he joined the band just after the recording of the album Bringing Down The Horse. Drums on the track we just heard were played by the session musician Matt Chamberlain, who had earlier enjoyed a brief period as the drummer for Pearl Jam, featuring in the music video of this song from 1991.
Alive / Pearl Jam
From their debut album Ten, that was the debut single of the phenomenon which became Pearl Jam. The guitar solo on that track was played by Mike McCready and it remains a highly regarded example of the art. On occasions when he has been asked about the solo, McCready has been open in revealing that it was basically copied from Ace Frehley’s guitar solo on the 1975 Kiss album track, She. So ...
She / Kiss
Hello and welcome back to The Music Labyrinth. The song we last listened to was She, from the 1975 album Dressed To Kill by Kiss. You will recall we arrived at that song by way of MIke McCready’s admission that he copied the guitar solo in it. That solo was played by Ace Frehley and, 41 years after recording it, Frehley teamed up with Mike McCready on Frehley’s album Origins, Vol. 1. Here they are with Cold Gin.
Cold Gin / Ace Frehley (featuring Mike McCready)
From Ace Frehley’s 2016 album Origins, Vol. 1, that was Frehley and Mike McCready with the Kiss classic, Cold Gin. Origins, Vol. 1 is an album on which Frehley reinterprets a number of well known songs; one of which was the Steppenwolf hit Magic Carpet Ride. So let’s hear, not the original, nor Frehley’s cover, but the quite splendid cover which featured in the soundtrack to the 1992 movie Reservoir Dogs. Here is Bedlam with Magic Carpet Ride.
Magic Carpet Ride / Bedlam
From the soundtrack of the film Reservoir Dogs, that was Magic Carpet Ride by Bedlam. Interestingly, Bedlam was a band largely manufactured for that soundtrack and built around the American session musician Jay Joyce. Let’s stay with that film soundtrack, and I suspect that you have little doubt where we are headed. All that remains for me is to thank you for your company, and to express my hope that you will join us again next week on The Music Labyrinth. And bring a friend along. Here, as I am sure you were anticipating, is Stealers Wheel.
Stuck In The Middle With You / Stealers Wheel