A MILLION MILES AWAY

MY SLIGHTLY ROCKED UP VERSION OF JAMES TAYLOR'S BALLAD FROM HIS 'SWEET BABY JAMES' ALBUM

FIRE AND RAIN

FIRST RELEASED ON JARVIS COCKER AND PULP'S ALBUM 'A DIFFERENT CLASS' IN 1995.

COMMON PEOPLE

JIMI'S THIRD SINGLE. 1967 . AFTER A DOMESTIC SQUABBLE HE WROTE THIS VERY POETIC SONG FOR HIS 'MUSE' KATHY MARY ETCHINGHAM

THE WIND CRIES MARY

One of Steve Winwood's little gems from BLIND FAITH's one and only album. A supergroup that sadly self-destructed after such a promising start ... Although the original version was acoustic in character, the song still features regularly in Winwood's live shows and lends itself well to extended jams.

CAN'T FIND MY WAY HOME

First recorded by Roger Miller in 1969. Janis Joplin recorded the song a few days before she died, and in 1971 it became the second posthumous U.S.A number one single after Otis Redding's (Sittin' on)The Dock Of The Bay.

ME & BOBBY MCGEE

JACK BRUCE AND PETE BROWN WROTE THIS SONG BEFORE THE BREAK-UP OF CREAM. IT FIRST APPEARED ON JACK'S 'SONGS FOR A TAILOR' IN 1969. PRODUCER FELIX PAPPALARDI THEN BROUGHT THE SONG TO LESLIE WEST'S ATTENTION AND MOUNTAIN PERFORMED IT AT WOODSTOCK, MONTHS BEFORE THEIR DEBUT ALBUM 'CLIMBING' WAS RELEASED IN 1970. I FIRST HEARD IT ON THE WOODSTOCK VOL. 2 ALBUM 

THEME FOR AN IMAGINARY WESTERN

After Randy Bachman's departure, Canadian Rockers THE GUESS WHO released this as a single from their album SHARE THE LAND in 1970. Written by their new guitarist Kurt Winter, it did reasonably well but nowhere near the phenomenal success of their previous single AMERICAN WOMAN. The AMERICAN WOMAN album was one of the first albums that I got hooked on at age 11.

HAND ME DOWN WORLD

After the break-up of his band Passenger in 2009, Michael Rosenberg took PASSENGER as his moniker and began busking around Europe to further his solo career. By 2012 his third album ALL THE LITTLE LIGHTS, and in particular this tale of love lost had turned him into a household name.
At last  I cover a song from this century . LOL

LET HER GO

One of the earliest songbooks I owned was a copy of John Lennon's Imagine. Had some great songs in it. The antithesis to the rawness of "Working Class Hero" was his sugary "Imagine". In one of his final interviews Lennon described the song's meaning and explicated its commercial appeal: "Anti-religious, anti-nationalistic, anti-conventional, anti-capitalistic, but because it is sugarcoated it is accepted ... Now I understand what you have to do. Put your political message across with a little honey."

IMAGINE

George Harrison wrote this song while hanging out at Eric Clapton's country house. Rather than attending a meeting at Apple Records he wrote what became one of his best known songs. I first heard the song as a cover version in late 1971.
 E.M.I. South Africa had just released the first album by Hawk, "African day" and "Here comes the sun" was getting a fair amount of airplay.  
Saw them live a few weeks later. My first rock concert ever. 


HERE COMES THE SUN

BADFINGER WERE THE FIRST BAND TO BE SIGNED TO THE BEATLES' APPLE LABEL. AFTER 4 ALBUMS THEY SIGNED TO WARNER BROS. AND RELEASED THIS AS THE FIRST SINGLE OFF THE ALBUM  "ASS" . Thereafter things went downhill with major rip-offs and disappointments. Pete Ham committed suicide in 1975 and  in 1983 Tom Evans took the same exit strategy. Dogged by being "Beatlesque" they were in fact a pretty rocking band. Check out their BBC live recordings for proof.  

APPLE OF MY EYE

THE DAY BEFORE MANDELA DIED I RECORDED A VERSION OF BOB DYLAN'S SONG WITH AN AFRICAN FEEL .. I FELT THAT THE LYRICS MUST HAVE REALLY RESONATED WITH BLACK AMERICA IN THE EARLY 60'S .. WHAT WITH VIETNAM AND CIVIL RIGHTS BEING AT THE FOREFRONT OF EVERYDAY LIFE .. SOUTH AFRICA STILL HAD A LONG WAY TO GO THEN .. STILL AS RELEVANT TODAY AS THE ERA IT WAS WRITTEN IN .... SADLY STILL NO ANSWERS

BLOWIN' IN THE WIND.

1972 ... It seems like yesterday to me ... sitting in front of an old radiogram waiting to tape David Bowie's "Starman" off the radio.
Amazing thing was that I didn't have a clue as to what he looked like, since the introduction of television was still a few years away in South Africa. 
Bowie's career took off big time with the worldwide success of The Rise & Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars.
And so "Life of Mars" had a new lease on life, this time released as a single in 1973. 
Amazing man, amazing music. Thanks for so much.
Don't know about Life on Mars ... but here on the blue little planet there will be a lot of sad people. Fortunately we have so many "gems" that he left us.


Chris Fact Manolitsis

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