April 22nd – Sorry 'bout the break, just some minor adjustments to my manhood needed to be sorted by our local surgeon. Hopefully on the mend now.
‘Cos, of course, he did give that bloke from
that band ‘Wet Wet Wet’ (just about sums them up for me, their title, but, let
it pass) what was his name? Pele…no, not Pele…he was footballer, even I know
that…Pellow, that’s it, Marti Pellow, that’s the fellow (did you see what I did
there?) Anyhow Mr. Pellow’s remake hit of Love
is All Around…; is it ‘Me…or Us’ or none of the above…? Whatever…that song we’re tortured with on a regular
basis…Reg Presley wrote it and then had the short-sighted idiocy to allow Mr.
Pellow licence to re-record, so his sins would, seemingly, be unpaid for as
yet, Reg Presley’s sins that is; Marti Pellow remains unforgiven (I worked on The Witches of Eastwick stageplay after
seeing the original with Ian McShane in the title role…believe me, Mr. Pellow remains
unforgiven)…
The Troggs were never a band I took
much notice of and, although I worked with them a couple of times when they came
to our theatre as part of a pension-tour rock-package in their latter years…well,
let's just say I didn't quite make it to their musical platform, never mind
catch their train. Still, each to their own and they did give a good show, punters
enjoyed it, just something about Mr. Presley (Reg not Elvis) that I couldn't
quite connect to.
When Wild Thing was released in ‘66’ I was 18 and well into bands and
gigging and stuff. Thought it was an OK single but never in the front-line of
memorable; until Jimi Hendrix laid hold of it that is; until I picked up a
Hendrix bootleg copy of ‘WOW’… bugger me! Where the F did THAT come from!? But
then, that was the wonder of Mr. Hendrix. As I wrote, I’d heard the song on its
original release and dismissed it as pulp-pop (Wild Thing) but had not made THE connection…that’s why Mr. Hendrix
is a world-renowned, much vaunted guitarist and I’m here scribbling this
drivel… Jimi Hendrix’s version just drips sexuality, aggression and a level of
social discourse not encountered since Attila the Hun said;
“The Balkans. What do you think;
theirs or mine?”
Just an absolute, standout,
take-no-prisoners piece of work…(Mr. Hendrix’s not Mr. Hun’s)… and I never
listen to it without the hairs on the back of my neck standing up at his
musical audacity and panache. Brilliant, in the true sense of that word.
So, all-in-all we have two avenues of
escape. Mr. Presely’s ability to publish and continue his research work on
extra-terrestrials made possible by the money he made from Mr. Pellow’s
re-release of Love is….compared with
the money spent by Mr. Hendrix setting fire to his guitar on the first night he
played Wild Thing at Monterey
Festival…?
After careful consideration of the
above two, I’m duty bound to say that the only thing missing from that guitar-pyre
is the master tape to Love is All Around….Me...or Us...or whatever swiftly joining it.
No comments:
Post a Comment