This edition of the musical ramble we like to call Six Degrees Of Kevin Shields, begins as a tribute to Denny Laine, who passed away last Tuesday at his Florida home, at the age of 79, following a battle with interstitial lung disease.
He will be best remembered for his stint in the Moody Blues and a long association with Paul McCartney - but what else did he get up to, and where will it all lead us?
Denny Laine, was born Brian Hines in the Channel Islands in 1944, but grew up in Tyseley in the West Midlands. He was heavily influenced by the work of Django Reinhardt, but when he decided to use an assumed name, he took the surname from his sister's love of hearthrob Frankie Laine. His early musical outings included fronting Denny Laine and the Diplomats, that would include another future pro musician, Bev Bevan. He joined The Moody Blues in 1964, singing lead vocals on their breakthrough number one hit, Go Now, a cover of a recently released tune by Bessie Banks. After he left, they would of course, go on to even bigger things with the sugary Nights In White Satin.
Moody Blues: Go Now https://youtu.be/BEGUVLpTzOs?si=jhNY_EKuSwcOGbjk
(Live in 1965)
He went on join the Electric String Band during 1966 and 67, and also had a brief spell in Ginger Baker's Air Force in 1970. The following year he hooked up with Paul McCartney for the start of a decade long working relationship as part of Wings. He was more than just a bit player too, often contributing to song writing and singing, and often being allowed time in live sets to play some of his own back catalogue. His contributions to Wings include Time To Hide, and Again & Again & Again. He was also releasing solo albums at the same time, beginning with 1973's Ahh... Laine. He also worked with McCartney in the early 80s following the end of Wings, contributing to solo albums Tug Of War and Pipes Of Peace. He wrote the tune Rainclouds, which appeared as the B-Side to Macca's duet with Stevie Wonder, Ebony & Ivory.
Wings: Time To Hide https://youtu.be/SgrG8XURuP4?si=VP5WBXGOcAn2SI-L
(Live in America, 1976)
Stevie Wonder was a musical prodigy as a child, signing with Motown's Tamla label at the age of 11. Fingertips hit the US number one spot in 1963, making him the youngest to do so, aged just 13. His golden period is seen as the run of albums across the mid-70s that yielded him three Grammy Albums of the Year in a row - Innervisions (1973), Fullfillingness' First Finale (1974) and Songs In The Key Of Life (1976). Other interesting tidbits for you include the fact that he co-wrote Tears Of A Clown for Smokey Robinson & The Miracles, and also that he went on to be a big part of the campaign to commemorate Martin Luther King Jr with a federal holiday in 1980.
Stevie Wonder: Living For The City
(Live on Musik Laden, 1974(
Hotter Than July became his nineteenth studio album, and first platinum seller, in 1980. He contributed the songs Some Years Ago and Misrepresented People to the soundtrack of Spike Lee's Bamboozled, released in 2000 and starring Damon Wayans and Jada Pinkett-Smith. The albums tracklist was quite diverse, also featuring Prince, Bruce Hornsby, Erykah Badu, India Arie and the song Burned Hollywood Burned by Chuck D (Public Enemy), The Roots and Zack de al Rocha.
Zack de la Rocha was six when he parents divorced and he moved from Long Beach to Irvine. He would go on to attain a PhD in anthropology from the University of California - Irvine. His reflection on his home town was that it is, "one of the most racist cities imaginable." He hooked up with Tim Commerford at elementary school, and they formed the band Juvenile Expression in junior high. He cites a mix of US and British punk bands like The Clash, Misfits and Minor Threatm as major influences. In 1987 he was in Hard Stance, before taking over vocal duties when the singer left in 1988. The band became Inside Out, but de la Rocha wanted to push them more towards hip hop with a political twist, and they eventually split.
In 1991, he was approached by Tom Morello to form a band - and they brought in Brad Wilk on drums and old friend Commerford on bass - and Rage Against The Machine was born. He would also work on other projects, including One Day As A Lion, with Jon Theodore (former Mars Volta drummer) and Joey Karam (keyboard player with The Locusts), putting out an eponymously title EP of electro-rock-hip hop in 2008.
RATM: People Of The Sun https://youtu.be/scyC9A6o_Ts?si=30LZ9W9fLzoZRpcw
(Official music video)
The Mars Volta are a prog rock band formed in El Paso, Texas in 2001 by Omar Rodriguez-Lopez and Cedric Bixler-Zavala, who had both previously been in At The Drive-In. The first bass player, Eva Gardner, left before their debut album, De-Loused In The Comatorium, came out. She was replaced for the album sessions by Flea, before the records eventua. release in 2005. It is an hour long concept album based on a short story by Bixler-Zavala about Cerpin Taxt, who goes into a come after an overdose (based on the death of his friend Julio Venegas). Blender describes the record as one that, "roars like Led Zeppelin, churns like King Crimson and throbs like early Santana."
The Mars Volta: Inertiatic ESP https://youtu.be/neSQgkEy_xQ?si=bqw7NprfPwf4tAkW
(Official music video)
Michael Peter Balzary was actually born in Melbourne, Australia, before moving to New York aged four and then back to Australia, and Canberra, by the time he was nine. After three years of school there, he ended up with his mum and stepdad, jazz musician Walter Urban, in Los Angeles. This meant his idols as a youngster were the likes of Dizzy Gillespie, Miles Davis and Louis Armstrong, rather than any rock stars of the day. It was his inability to stand still as a teenager, that led to him gaining his famous moniker, Flea.
Now, we all know his work as the legendary half-clad bassist with the Red Hot Chili Peppers, but he has also appeared in a range of 'super groups'. There was Atoms For Peace with Thom Yorke, Radiohead producer Nigel Godrich and drummer Joey Waronker. Then there was Antemasque, coincidentally also with Omar and Cedric from The Mars Volta. Rocket Juice & The Moon had him lined up with Damon Albarn and top Nigerian drummer, Tony Allen (Fela Kuti's main man). And then there was Pigface....
As Ministry's 1991 tour was ending, dual drummers Martin Atkins and Bill Rieflin set up a new band called Pigface. Rieflin also played with Lard and is perhaps best known as Bill Berry's long time replacement in REM, while Atkins started out in John Lydon's post-Pistols band, Public Image Limited (PiL), but also had stints with Nine Inch Nails and Killing Joke. The group was established as a bit of a collaborative, experimental act, with an open door policy on who could come and play. In fact over the years they have had over a hundred guest musicians come through the revolving door, that has garnered six studio albums. Those collaborators have included Trent Reznor (before NIN got big), Black Francis and Joey Santiago from Pixies, Nivek Ogre (Skinny Puppy), Alex Paterson (The Orb), Jello Biafra (Dead Kennedy's), Lydia Lunch and sisters, Naoko and Atsuko Yamano (Shonen Knife).
Pigface: Divebomber https://youtu.be/siQJtCFONaw?si=saIVpaoTxxMHQGe2
(Audio only - includes Flea)
Although he ended up in the States, Martin Atkins started out in Coventry, joining PiL in 1979 as they were completing their legendary first album, Metal Box. He would stay with them for a year, leave for a bit, and then come back until 1985. In the meantime, he had formed Brian Brain (named after the Warwickshire and Gloucestershire fast bowler), before stints in various heavy duty, industrial bands like Nine Inch Nails, Ministry, Killing Joke and the Revolting Cocks. Now, he is just as comfortable at the front of a lecture theatre as behind a drum kit. He taught 'The Business of Touring' at Columbia College, Chicago, and has also been a guest lecturer at places like University of Southern California and Lebanon Valley College, Pennsylvania. He is an instructor at Madison Media Institute in Wisconsin and is the Music Business programme coordinator at Millikin University in Decatur, Illinois.
The classic Killing Joke line-up of Jaz Coleman, Paul Ferguson, Geordie Walker (who also sadly passed away last month) and Martin 'Youth' Glover lasted just two albums - Killing Joke and What's THIS For...!. Their dark, apocalyptic sound was said to have been a key influence on the burgeoning goth-rock scene, and a precursor for the genre that would be known as Shoegaze. It was all driven by Walker's "corrosive, hook-laden guitar riffs." (CBS) One legend of the Shoegaze scene clearly thought Killing Joke, and especially Walker, was an influence, saying "this effortless playing producing a monstrous sound."
Who was that man? KEVIN SHIELDS
Killing Joke: Requiem https://youtu.be/U7WPI4TJImo?si=JVFyrKOmw_KqOUJU
(Audio only)