MOJO

Robert Hilburn After three decades as pop critic at the Los Angeles Times, Robert has written definitive biographies of Johnny Cash, Paul Simon and now Randy Newman, whose legacy rests in a series of brilliant songs that decry shortcomings in the American character, starting with racism. The chapter on Good Old Boys is excerpted from p42. Lois Wilson Lois started writing for MOJO in 1999 and served time as Deputy Editor on the late MOJO Collections. In this issue she donned deerstalker, tracking down the people behind Sade’s 1984 classic Diamond Life. She is currently writing a book on Etta James and lives with her dog Lenny and rabbits Mavis and Bob. Kris Needs Recently turning 70 in a surreal southwest paradise, Kris is overhauling his memoir from that supposedly…

15 FLASHBACKS to THE GOLDEN AGE OF BRITISH PSYCH SOFT MACHINE, THE PRETTY THINGS, BLOSSOM TOES & more 1 SOFT MACHINE FEELIN’ REELIN’ SQUEELIN’ From the peak of the UFO era, a convention-busting freakout courtesy of Soft Machine. This B-side of their February 1967 debut, Love Makes Sweet Music, amps up the weirdness: Robert Wyatt is blue-eyed soul incarnate on the chorus; Kevin Ayers the twisted MC on the verse. “This is a feeling from the ceiling of my dreams!” Written by Kevin Ayers. Published by Warner Chappell Music Ltd. 1967 Soft Machine. Licensed courtesy of Cherry Red Records Ltd. ISRC GBBLY2404171 2 RUST YOU THOUGHT YOU HAD IT MADE A real rarity, from Rust’s solitary 1969 album, originally only released in Germany. John Driver, singer and writer of this…

Lady Blackbird SPIRITUAL SOUL-JAZZER What music are you currently grooving to? Recently, a lot of Aretha Franklin, and I’m still on Brittany Howard’s Jaime LP. Nineties alternative rock with a lot of Nirvana too. I love all different types of music. What, if push comes to shove, is your all-time favourite album? The Miseducation Of Lauryn Hill – I played it so much I knew every single word to every song, and it takes me right back to that time in my life. What was the first record you ever bought? And where did you buy it? I don’t remember, but the first record I remember my mother buying for me was Roberta Flack’s Greatest Hits, on CD, when I was probably about eight. It was from a store called…

DAVID GILMOUR, LIKE MOST OF US, MAY have reason to consider elements in his past with a degree of caution. “I tend to examine my nostalgia and think, Wow, it really wasn’t that great,” he admits to MOJO this month, before pointing out it’s now been nearly four decades since he was in a band with his nemesis, Roger Waters. In that time, Gilmour has steered Pink Floyd to a dignified end, and focused on a solo career that’s flourished to a point where he can call his new album, Luck And Strange, “the best record I’ve made going back to The Dark Side Of The Moon.” If he’s sometimes appeared to have a rather serene approach to work post-Waters, much of Mark Blake’s excellent cover story reveals a very…

Refuge Of The Roads Joni Mitchell’s Archives – Volume 4: The Asylum Years (1976-1980) captures a genius in perpetual motion, speeding ever further away from musical expectations. Victoria Segal hitches a ride. “IT’S KIND OF like running away from home to join the circus,” says Joni Mitchell from the stage of the Montreal Forum. It’s December 4, 1975, she’s about to introduce the audience to a work in progress called Coyote – “I think it’s finished but I don’t know, maybe there’s a couple more chapters to go” – and sounds slightly bemused she’s still entangled in the motley rock’n’roll carnival that is Bob Dylan’s Rolling Thunder Revue, three weeks after she first joined the tour in New Haven, Connecticut, on November 13. Joni Mitchell Archives – Volume 4: The Asylum…

Traveling (Hejira) Recorded at Duke University, North Carolina, on February 7, 1976, this early live version of Hejira’s title track shows a work in progress, its light-headed delicacy different to the tough, burnished version recorded live in 1979. “Travel has me feverish,” she sings in the still-unfixed lyrics, “but travel has my spirit on trial.” Coyote/Don Juan’s Reckless Daughter Hejira’s Coyote and the title track of Don Juan’s Reckless Daughter once came as a pair, yoked together in a resonant medley, both live and in this demo from March 1976. By the summer, however, an early rough mix of the latter shows them separated into two independent yet still kindred entities. Refuge Of The Roads (Early Mix With Horns) This track allows for a little thought experiment: imagine this period…