A bit of gravel is definitely good for you. When I listen to Rod Stewart I always feel like a dirty junkie, going to a shameful, squalid place to get my fix of ‘gravel’. I don’t know why I feel Rod is such a guilty pleasure, lord knows there’s lots of equally uncool music I like without such feelings of shame. Sure other artists have imitated the gravel voice with varying degrees of success. The Black Crowes and The Quireboys from the late 8os/early 90s both spring to mind. Then there’s the female gravel voices - Bonnie Tyler and Kim Carnes have it. Stevie Nicks - oh yeah, Sheryl Crowe kinda has it sometimes. None thought have every really matched that of Rod.
Later this year Rod celebrates 55 years since the release of his first single, “Good Morning, Little Schoolgirl.” There was stints in various groups with Long John Baldry, The Jeff Beck Group and later The Faces and he changed the music world with “Maggie May” - a track personally which I freely admit I can take or leave! Not Cool He’s not been ‘cool’ for more than four decades but he’s still a guilty pleasure to many, including me! I’ve even seen him live quite a number of times where he can still put on a quality show. My favourite period of his was the early seventies both solo stuff and with The Faces. My favourite albums are Every Picture Tells A Story (of course), Gasoline Alley and possibly surprisingly to many, the ‘MTV Unplugged, and Seated’ album with Ronnie Wood which is a fantastic album showcasing his, at that time 30 year career.
My ‘Go-To’ Rod Era As I said above, Rod’s true purple patch came early in his career in the late sixties then the seventies up to release of the ‘Blondes Have More Fun’ album when his ego, money and love of blondes took over. On his work with Jeff Beck, The Faces and his early solo albums his gravel voice worked wonders. Not a huge range of course but a good gruff snarl for rock and blues which also translated well for the softer folky pieces. It seemed that he brought so much soul to seventies rock music. Rod was profoundly influenced by Sam Cooke. His first 4 solo albums are marvellous blends of electric and acoustic textures with Rod's folk roots in full display. ‘Every Picture Tells a Story’ remains one of my all-time favourite albums. About the time of "Do You Think I'm Sexy", though he lost that soul sound and never quite got it back (although like I said earlier, ‘Unplugged...and Seated’ came close). Back then though, not just Maggie May but tracks like ‘Every Picture Tells a Story’, ‘Mandolin Wind’, and ‘(I Know) I’m Losing You’ showed a singer right at the top of his game, sublime in quality and never again to be matched. The Faces stuff too was truly awesome. ‘Stay With Me’, ‘Miss Judy's Farm’, ‘Pool Hall Richard’ and ‘Too Bad’ all had out and out quality gravel vocals from Rod as did the cover of the Wings track ‘Maybe I’m Amazed’. They were everything the Black Crowes were going for two decades later but could never quite achieve. Water Down The Drain I think it's a real shame the direction Rod’s musical career went. I guess he's done great financially, but I think we really missed out on some great music - especially if he had stuck with Jeff Beck or Ronnie Wood, I really think those guys creatively really needed each other. Sure there was the odd quality track after the purple patch such as ‘Passion’, ‘Hot Legs’ and ‘I Don't Want To Talk About It’. Then there was the cover versions, especially the covers of Tom Waits’ ‘Downtown Train’ and ‘Tom Traubert’s Blues’ both of which showed he could still do it when he put his mind to it. But there again, he did always have that uncanny knack of covering songs and making them better than the original. I think Rod Stewart in his day was one of the finest voices in rock and had an original sound to his writing as well. It's sad he let all that potential go, like water down the drain. I really don't care what kind of syrupy drivel Rod has been spewing out for the last 40 years, what he did in those early days’ for me guarantees him a spot in rock voice history and that will always make me keep going back to him.
For a period during the late 80s and early 90s it seemed that our Number One records were decided by either Stock, Aitkin and Waterman or by a jeans manufacturers. Hard to believe I know but it’s true! It did bring a number of classic tracks back into the public eye that maybe didn’t get to number one first time round, these included: •The Clash – Should I Stay Or Should I Go •T Rex – 20th Century Boy •Steve Miller – The Joker •Ben E. King - Stand By Me •Marvin Gaye - I Heard It Through The Grapevine •Bad Company - Can't Get Enough •Percy Sledge - When A Man Loves A Woman
There were also new bands that would probably have not given the charts a look in without Levi’s involvement like the truly awful Spaceman by Babylon Zoo. - And then there was Stiltskin who got to Number One with the wonderfully grungy ‘Inside’.
Levi’s were proudly trend-hopping, usually focussed on depicting some bygone era to reflect the authenticity and durability of their product. The grunge sound was just another example, the advert being evidence, if any were needed that by 1994 grunge was already history. Indeed in a sad coincidence Kurt Cobain’s body was found in his garage a couple of weeks before “Inside” was released. Stiltskin Rumour has it that Levi’s wanted a Smashing Pumpkins song (Today) for the advert but were turned down. The advert itself was known as ‘Creek’, it’s worth a watch on YouTube and is a bit old-timey, women, jeans, bathing hunk, twisted ending type of ad – admittedly though, it is a great commercial! Songwriter Peter Lawlor wrote the track ‘Inside’ specifically for the advert. He needed a singer and somehow found Scotsman Ray Wilson, a guy who looks like the product of crossing Bono with Fish out of Marillion. It’s Ray’s clench-arsed voice you hear being “broken minded” on the track. Lawlor himself played all the remaining instruments on the recording. Stiltskin the band weren’t some hyper-cool bunch of grunge misfits from Seattle. They actually looked like a bunch of competent, uncharismatic, session musicians who turned up at their studio’s fancy-dress party dressed as a grunge band. - This is because basically, they were! Lawlor pulled them together at the last minute when he realised he needed a band to go out and promote ‘Inside’. They were, in many ways, the antithesis of what grunge stood for. But what of the song? Well, it’s lyrics are a bit daft (more of that later) and it has a choral bit at the start for no obvious reason, but it does have nice bit of crunching guitar that you don’t get at the top of the charts very often. Smashing Pumpkins were definitely the reference point for ‘Inside’. There was some decent riffs on there, you can detect elements of the Smashing Pumpkins tracks as well as sections that seem to have come directly from the Hendrix track, ‘Hey Joe’. Then there’s that bit where the first heavy riff kicks which is just fantastic.
Those Lyrics!! - What Was ‘Inside’ All About? Well pick your favourite – “Seam in a fusion mine / Like a nursing rhyme / Fat man starts to fall” – note - nursing rhyme, not nursery rhyme, then there’s “Ring out in a bruised postcard / In a shooting yard”. Maybe the best lyric might be “strong words in a ganja sky”. Is it just nonsense of the highest order or do they mean something as some of those lyrics are absolutely priceless? To some reviewers I’ve read they speak of a good time turned bad (see it turn to rust), and a struggle to come to terms and accept what has come to pass for the writer. Lines like "Strong words in a ganges sky, I have to lie, Shadows move in pairs" maybe there is an allusion toward imprisonment, perhaps a reference to where prisoners are shackled together, and inmates keep themselves to themselves? “Broken minded” could speak of mental illness especially if it’s to do with the imprisonment? Personally though I just think it’s a load of nonsense phrases all joined up into a lyric! Guilty Pleasure ‘Inside’ is the song we all pretend to like ironically, but in actual fact, we all really like it. To me it’s was and always will be a guilty pleasure. At the time I liked the idea of grunge but being in my mid-20s was that bit too old for it and Nirvana apart it produced few songs that really stood the test of time. Back then I could see that glam/heavy metal was dying and something needed to replace it. Unlike its predecessor though, Grunge wasn’t fun. I still can’t listen to any of the major grunge acts, great though they may be, without feeling slightly shameful, it’s like I’m listening to the music that stopped rock and roll being fun. Because of its lyrics, the way it was put together and that advert, in many ways ‘Inside’ went against the grunge grain and was a bit tongue-in-cheek style fun. A couple of years after this I noticed whilst watching pub bands around town that a lot of them had assimilated ‘Inside’ into their sets. Whether because they recognised Stiltskin as one of their own or because it was easy to play I couldn’t really say. There was a whole Stiltskin album, 'The Minds Eye' released in the wake of ‘Inside’ which, rather than crashing and burning as might be expected for a group who had quite literally no following; no history; or anything else to grab hold of went top five. Of course the album was panned by the critics, but then it was always going to be.
In many ways I’m glad that Kurt Cobain didn’t live to hear this ransacking of his soul; realistically I wish he could have kept going somehow, but then I wasn’t him and never will be; the fact that Ray Wilson went on to join a short-lived post-Phil Collins Genesis proves that he knew and believed it all inside. BTW. In truth I actually prefer the "Live and Acoustic" version from Ray’s solo album of a few years ago to the Stiltskin original – look it up, you might be pleasantly surprised.
I’ve just finished reading Brett Anderson’s autobiography – 'Coal Black Mornings'. Must admit I struggled to put it down and read it cover to cover in two days. For me, Suede were always one of the most underrated British bands, a group with a unique sound and sexually ambiguous visual whi came to the fore in the Brit Pop era of hyper-masculinity. Back in 1993 I still vividly remember seeing the video for ‘Animal Nitrate’ and rushing into town the next day to buy the debut album on tape! Lyrically it was a bit like a Smiths album but stripped of pretence. Animal Nitrate and it’s video sounded to me so fresh and new, but with an instant familiarity. With its Bowie-esque/Roxy Music vibe it was both sexy and glamorous - but with a grim and grimy feel so evocative of the 70s and early 80s of my childhood.
Now at this point I must point out that this isn’t your usual warts'n'all rock biography about the excesses of life on the road and smashing hotels up. This is largely a story about Anderson's childhood, growing up poor in Haywards Heath, a sort of dead-end commuter town that ended up populating so many Suede songs. Brett’s early years particularly fascinated me, before reading this book I knew very little and thought he came from a more privileged background. Growing-Up Comparisons A large part of Brett’s history is quite close to home for me even though I was 200 miles further North. He grew up more or less in the years I did and his analogies of the period are spot-on and far less forced than most novels or TV shows depicting the era are. I can relate to his childhood in many ways: beans on toast for tea, salad cream, the rainy caravan holidays, the general provincial dullness and 'making do' of the time and more than anything - being a bit of an outsider. Anderson's description of London in the early 90s is also real to me - I also had a love affair with London at the time, even living and working down there for 12 months in 1992. Mine was a different experience being more in the west-end back street pubs and clubs than theatre-land. But though the parts of London I knew well were different, Anderson still describes to me a place I knew, there was a general mood of gloom and nothingness, the dregs of the 80s hanging about on street corners, along with the dirt, the cigarette butts and the windswept empty squares.
The early Suede Years Now the majority of the book focuses on Brett’s childhood. If you enjoy coming of age stories you’ll really enjoy it. The band though only makes an appearance in the final quarter of the book with it stopping just before the 'big time' of success. As the book progresses, iconic characters from the 90s musical scene sweep through Brett’s life including Justine Frischman who helped launch Suede, became Anderson’s lover, then dumped him for another musician. I particularly liked the comment about Justine being so posh that he initially thought she had a speech impediment! Interestingly, the dissolution of their relationship seemed to free both of them to achieve more creativity. Frischman went to form her own successful group Elastica, who ended up another very 90s cool band. Anderson also details how his affection, cooperation and conflict with the very talented guitarist, Bernard Butler influenced his own writing and musicianship. I found particularly fascinating Brett's writing processes. The people (friends, relatives, neighbours) and places that informed those early songs.
You don't need to be a Suede fan to enjoy this book Brett Anderson is an engaging writer with a fascinating history. Coal Black Mornings is an essential read for anyone who lived through the 90s. Along with Louise Wener's ‘Just for One Day' it’s an essential memoir of Britpop. It is a short book and if I said I didn’t want more salacious details about the likes of Justine and Bernard I’d be lying, but this isn’t a book about sex, drugs and rock and roll. It is, I think, a very honest account written with his children in mind, about an ‘ordinary’ life in Britain in the 70s, 80s and early 90s, about reflecting on his upbringing and about his love of music and writing music. What make the book work is that he’s cut the jokes and dialogue but maintained a wry tone to the whole thing. It's a wonderful read, so evocative of that age which with ever increasing distance seems ever more magical – yet ever more shabby at the same time. Only negative - the phrase 'Coal Black Mornings' is used 7 times in this book which grates a little. I know its a clever phrase and I get it but it is repeated somewhat, there again in a funny way that’s very Brett!
