Did you know...

Prog alert!
This song turned up today via Mr Shuffle when I was doing the housework. It’s from the soundtrack of the 1985 Ridley Scott film Legend…or is it? It depends which version you watch. It was certainly there when I saw it on TV about 5 years ago.

Apparently the original score was by Jerry Goldsmith but it didn’t go down well with preview audiences so the film was re-edited (and shortened) and a Tangerine Dream score was substituted. If you buy the US Ultimate Edition of the movie you get the original cut with the Goldsmith score, which many people consider to be his finest, and the short cut with TD, but to really confuse things if you buy the UK DVD you get the short cut with the Goldsmith score which pleases nobody. I didn’t know any of this til a few hours ago but I’m in a sharing mood.

Until I saw this on TV I wasn't aware that Jon Anderson had ever recorded with Tangerine Dream. I know he has his detractors but I love his voice and was totally captivated when this song came on. The line "teaching us to love for goodness sake" is just so Jon Anderson.

mp3: Tangerine Dream with Jon Anderson - Loved By The Sun

Me - semi perfect?

I’m 48 today so time for a short but self indulgent Birthday Post. 48 (that’s nearly 50!) used to be old. Look at old movies, say a 60’s grim up north kitchen sink drama, and people in their 40s are proper grown-ups and usually miserable and look like what would now pass for 60 (at least). Thank God for the extended adolescence we all have now. I’m going to do my best to grow old disgracefully and resist the urge to moan out loud about the crap the youth of today calls music because that gives me away (I’ll still do an internal groan). And don’t get me started on the state of the film industry!

Anyway, to celebrate I’ve decided to post my theme tune. It’s from one of Todd Rundgrens ‘difficult’ proggy albums but it’s actually a wonderful piece of psychedelic pop and the words seem to fit.

mp3: Todd Rundgren - Real Man (1975)

Finally, here is the number one UK single from 15th November 1960:


If you’re wondering about the heading in mathematics 48 is a semiperfect number, sometimes referred to as pseudoperfect. Now that sounds like me.

One rule for me...

Some synth pop from before the term was invented. Take a look at the scans. These records look great, especially Laser Love with its orange vinyl and cut-out sleeve. One Rule For You and Laser Love were both minor hits in1979 (No. 40 and No. 62 respectively).

mp3: After The Fire - One Rule For You (1979)
mp3: After The Fire - Laser Love (1979)
mp3: After The Fire - Joy (1979)
Joy is the b-side of One Rule For You and it lives up to it’s title. I played it as much as the a-side in the 70s.

No Wave Planet Gong

Time for a spot of blog tennis with the ever brilliant Ib at Sibling Shot On The Bleachers who posted an old Daevid Allen song yesterday. Of course, he’s done four posts since then so it’s a bit late but I can’t keep up with the pace.

Released early in 1978 when hippies were regarded with particular suspicion by the music press Opium For The People by Planet Gong (or No Wave Planet Gong if you prefer) attempted to cross the hippy/punk divide and probably pleased no-one as a result. Well almost no-one; I bought it. Steve Hillage, another former Gong member, recorded a similar, and in my view superior, punk/hippy crossover called 1988 Aktivator for his Live Herald album which I would post but I still haven’t got my new stylus.

Back in the day I preferred the b-side Poet For Sale which was perhaps more the sort of thing you would expect from the people involved.

No Wave Planet Gong were Daevid Allen & Gilli Smith with the Here & Now Band.

mp3: Planet Gong - Opium For The People (1978)
mp3: Planet Gong - Poet For Sale (1977)