Let me take you back to when it all began...

Women And Children First was the second Van Halen record I bought. I was 12 years old, loved “1984” and wanted to hear more from my new favourite group. The family was in Victoria for Christmas and we were at Mayfair one day. I was flippin through the Van Halen records in the mall record store and the only one I could afford was Women And Children First. I remember being a little upset because I wanted to buy every album other than Women And Children First. It had the boring cover, I didn’t recognize any of those songs and the title sounded stupid to me. I was actually scared that I had bought the crappy Van Halen record and wasted the only money I had. To top it off, there was no record player at my grandparents, so I would have to wait a week to listen to my new, crappy record.

I put it on my little turntable, radio, cassette combo before I even started unpacking and my fears were quickly put to rest. I was floored when “And The Cradle Will Rock” kicked in after the scratch intro! Still my favourite “rock” song about rock that rocks! And this was just the beginning. The bongo intro to “Everybody Wants Some” was a little weird, but the song quickly became very cool. I didn’t really understand a lot of what Dave was singing and talking about, but I heard him loud and clear when “Fools” kicked in. “I ain’t about to go to school and I’m sick and tired of golden rules”, “Ooohhh who makes the rules, ooohhh I live with fools”. And I had no idea what “Romeo Delight” was about, but didn’t care, it was one of the coolest songs I'd ever heard!

And then side 2, what the hell was this!?! Some sort of weird reverse revving to start? Then the plodding riff, some screaming, into walkie talkie/CB chatter and then some crazy song! I was confused as hell, but loved it! Listening to “Loss Of Control” now, you can hear plenty of elements that would end up in “Hot For Teacher”. But that first time, it was like a tornado. With Eddie and his fingers whipping all over the place. Next up, the acoustic intro of “Take Your Whiskey Home”, into the rock and then Dave goes “whoah” during the full stop..….still gets me, every time! Followed by the completely acoustic “Could This Be Magic” and more confusion. I thought I was listening to a rock album! But by the time they hit the chorus, “Lonely ships upon the water, sail away with someone’s daughter” I was hooked. Again, I didn’t actually know what it mean, but it sounded great! Then they cap it off with “In A Simple Rhyme”, just awesome. Simply one of, if not my favourite Van Halen songs.

It was such a different world after only listening to 1984 previously and being so young and dumb. The intros, the walkie talkie talk, the spoken word interludes, the acoustic guitars, the short instrumental that mysteriously appears a after the last song…..it was like I fell through the rabbit hole and landed in wonderland.

Motley Crue and Judas Priest records would soon follow, plus all the Van Halen as soon as I could afford them. My hair grew into the Eddie Van Halen do, then sports, school and most friends were cast aside..….I had some music to listen to.

Listen to this song right now!

In music time, it took two and a half listens of Women And Children First to write the above. My tattoo... 

Eurythmics - Savage

I inherited a Eurythmics catalog (5 records from Sweet Dreams to Savage) off a friend of mine about 10 years or so ago. She gave me a box of her sister’s old records. There were some other cool records in there, but 5 Eurythmics albums was a major score! I’d always liked them and most of the songs I heard on the radio and video channels. Sweet Dream turned out to be a classic, as expected. The 3 middle albums (Touch, Be Yourself Tonight, Revenge) had some good songs, but were each a little uneven. But Savage was amazing! I had heard it at a friends place when it first came out and liked it. But basically forgot about it until I got the box of records.

Then I put it on again and it was even better than I remembered. When it was first released it was noted as having a much more experimental sound, even for the Eurythmics. Dave Stewart himself said it saw the band, “turn sharp left”. But it sounds great now and the electronic elements show they were way ahead of their time, much like on the “Sweet Dreams” record. It’s aged very well and still sounds great today. The songs are fantastic and I’ve always liked the conceptual element of it. Annie takes the role of the neurotic, mousey housewife who morphs into the extroverted blonde vamp. Plenty of metaphors abound, but for the most part I get a feeling it follows the path to freedom for anyone stuck in a redundant, monotonous situation.

Instead of embarking on another massive worldwide tour, Annie and Dave decided to make a video album. As great as the record is, the video is superb. The order of the songs is actually moved around a little and it works much better for the concept. Some of the videos are pretty simple, others a little more elaborate. But it’s very cool and Annie is in her element bouncing from character to character.

Either way though, listening or watching, Savage is just a great album, with great songs and production. And “Brand New Day” is possibly one of the best album closing songs ever. It’s the end of the journey and the promise of a new beginning with a simply phenomenal performance from Annie. They also bring things full circle in the video, a dance troup of school girls perform ‘Eurythmics’ to the song, which is a music education type of dance from which the band originally took their name.

Here’s the song list for the video and if you’d like to check it out for yourself, I found a link to download click here

Beethoven (I Love to Listen To)

I Need A Man

Heaven

Shame

Wide Eyed Girl

Do You Want To Break Up?

I Got A Lover (Back In Japan)

Put The Blame On Me

Savage

You Have Placed A Chill In My Heart

I Need You

Brand New Day

The Alabama Singers...are actually the Pilgrim Travelers!

So it turns out the Alabama Singers I mentioned in a previous post aren't a real group after all. I don't mean that in a Milli Vanilli way, but the record I have is an Italian bootleg of a record from a 50's gospel group known as the Pilgrim Travelers. That would explain why it doesn't sound like the late 60's, it was recorded ten years before then. It would also explain why I like it so much, the 50's is one of my favourite decades for music. Plus, the doo-wop, walking bass lines and skiffle drums are all 50's hallmarks. Of course, I say that now, but for the last 5 months, I thought it was a 60's record ha ha Anyway, this is part of the note Alex sent me....


"The real revelation is that the "Alabama Singers" do not exist! In fact these recordings are by the Pilgrim Travelers, a black gospel group from the 50's! They weren't even from Alabama! They recorded almost exclusively for Specialty Records, but they also recorded 14 sides for Andex, a small record label owned by Bob Keane. These sides were released as 45's in 1958, but it seems that they were first released on the 1957 LP Look Up! which is now out of print and very rare.


The bottom line is that the recordings are truly superb, and they have inspired me to really check out the Pilgrim Travelers and listen to many of their other recorded sides from th 50s, which are almost categorically terrific. I highly recommend them, especially if you have any doubt as to whether the Alabama Singers and the Pilgrim Travelers are one and the same."


The Pilgrim Travelers are easily found on youtube and as he mentioned, they are indeed one and the same and terrific! Thanks again for all the internet sleuthing Alex! Now the search is on for the Pilgrim Travelers, one door closes and another opens. The picture above is a 1988 re-issue that I found on ebay for 20 bucks. I haven't clicked the 'place bid' button on it...yet.


I've also relabelled the folder and here are The Pilgrim Travelers