Manfred Mann's Earth Band: Joybringer

After the success of his band Manfred Mann in the Sixties, the man Manfred Mann himself went on to form Manfred Mann's Earth Band in the Seventies. Still with me?

Joybringer, which borrows two melodies from the Jupiter movement of Gustav Holst's suite The Planets, reached no. 9 in the UK singles chart in 1973. I would have heard it under the bedclothes on Radio Luxemburg, where it was probably sandwiched between Nutbush City Limits and My Coo-Ca-Choo.

I can remember liking it then, and today the way that the song makes Holst sound totally at home, even exciting, in his new setting reminds me how talented Manfred Mann has always been.

Manfred Mann's Earth Band is still touring - the only original member now is Mann himself. Meanwhile, The Manfreds – which is a sort of tribute band comprised of former members of the Sixties band Manfred Mann, including both Paul Jones and Mike d'Abo – are touring too.

The singer and guitarist on Joybringer is Mick Rogers, who went on to play with Frank Zappa.

John Denver: Rocky Mountain High

John Denver was everywhere in the Seventies. His gentle take on country music may not have pleased hardcore fans of the genre, but he was enormously popular with a wider public.

Turn on the radio and it wouldn't be long before you heard one of his songs - possibly Annie's Song played by the flautist James Galway, who was everywhere in those days too. Rather more creditably, he wrote Leaving on a Jet Plane, which Peter, Paul and Mary made famous.

His pleasant personality made him a favourite on television. Notably, he was a friend of Jim Henson and starred in two Muppet Show specials: John Denver and the Muppets: A Christmas Together and Rocky Mountain Holiday. You may enjoy The Twelve Days of Christmas from the first of these.

I see John Denver's stellar career as stemming from the same roots as the popularity of The Waltons and Jimmy Carter's election as President: a desire for a simple, wholesome America after the shocks of Vietnam and Watergate. 

Denver was politically active himself as a notable supporter of environmental causes. And in the debate on harmful pop lyrics he stood with Frank Zappa and the angels against censorship. He also toured Russia and China in an era when few American artists did.

His fame dwindled after the Seventies, and he seems to have problems with alcohol, as evidenced by several convictions for drink-driving. He died in 1997 after crashing his private plane.

Turn on the radio today and you won't hear John Denver, but I still like Rocky Mountain High.

Frank Zappa: Montana

Time for some more Frank. And there's a special reason for choosing Montana, because the backing vocals are sung by the Ikettes, including Tina Turner.

Wikipedia quotes Zappa's memory of recording the song:

”It was so difficult, that one part in the middle of the song "Montana", that the three girls rehearsed it for a couple of days. Just that one section. You know the part that goes "I'm pluckin' the ol' dennil floss..."? Right in the middle there. And one of the harmony singers got it first. She came out and sang her part and the other girls had to follow her track. 

"Tina was so pleased that she was able to sing this that she went into the next studio where Ike was working and dragged him into the studio to hear the result of her labour. He listened to the tape and he goes, 'What is this shit?' and walked out."

She did well to escape from Ike, even if others have shared his view of Frank Zappa.

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The Police Bill is not just about curtailing the right to protest, writes Brian Paddick: "The new legislation allows the Home Secretary to force local authorities and other public bodies to hand over sensitive, personal information to the police."

Henry Redhead Yorke, who was MP for York between 1841 and 1848, was the son of a West Indian creole of African/British descent, whose mother was a manumitted slave from Barbuda. Amanda Goodrich discovers a previously unidentified non-white MP.

David Perkins reveals the surprising radicalism of Lawrence du Garde Peach, who wrote most of the books in Ladybird's Adventures from History series.

James Wright explores the popularity of local legends about secret passages.

"The Montreux Casino fire is one of the most mythologised moments in the history of rock. Taking place on the shoreline of Switzerland’s Lake Geneva, the fire would end up inspiring one of rock’s best-known tracks and become cemented in the genre’s history forevermore." Mick McStarkey on Frank Zappa, Deep Purple and the genesis of Smoke on the Water.

At the end of a world tour in 1973, a Santos side featuring the world’s greatest player came to London, where they chose a sleepy suburban town for their training base. Dominic Bliss uncovers the story of Pelé in Tolworth.

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"We need an agenda that’s more like an unconference – an opportunity for us to have open discussions, big and small, about where we are, where we want to be, and why we want to get there. Let’s have a blank slate and talk properly about what we’re doing." Nick Barlow believes the Lib Dem spring conference should not see business as usual.

Johnny Lyons argues that Isaiah Berlin's ideas have lost none of the bit of relevance.

"Prehistoric sites cannot, and should not, be viewed through a Brexit lens, whether leave or remain." Kenny Brophy does not appreciate seeing Jacob Rees-Mogg in a stone circle.

The lost rivers of London are well known, says David N. Lerner, but all cities have them. Opening them up offers a way of bringing back water and nature.

Katy Waldman of the New Yorker chooses her best books of 2019.

"The first songs most people hear as children are nursery rhymes and lullabies. The first songs Ahmet Zappa heard as a child were the shock-treatment tracks on Hot Rats." Jim Farber on the 50th anniversary of the Frank Zappa album.

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Seth Thevoz reviews a new publication from the Social Liberal Forum: Am I a Liberal?

"A former British ambassador to an EU country, and ardent Remainer, cites a piece featuring a testing interview with a Remainer about the security risks that could follow from no longer accepting ECJ jurisdiction. A Conservative spokesman was quoted in a subsequent news report saying that was twaddle - but there was no scrutiny about why it would be twaddle." Mark Damazer on the BBC's travails over Brexit.

The tragedy of the commons? It's nonsense, says Cory Doctorow: "But this isn't what actually happened to the Commons: they were stable and well-managed until other factors (e.g. rich people trying to acquire even more land) destabilized them."

Michael Newton looks at the flowering of folk horror in Brexit Britain.

"Why isn’t Frank Zappa better-known, and better-liked, than he is? Why don’t more people 'get' him?" asks Mike Scott.

English cricket must not abandon its fans in pursuit of a new audience, argues Sam Morshead with The Hundred in mind.

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Jonathan Cooper celebrates the 50th anniversary of David Steel's Abortion Act: "1967 was the year that changed so much. Before then the state criminalized desire. If you were a woman or teenage girl and had sex the chances of pregnancy were high. Once pregnant your real options were non-existent."

"Since the crisis household debt in Britain has been bumping along at about 140% of income, and it has been trending up in the last two years. But people’s capacity to repay debt is weakening." Matthew Green believes household debt is "the slowly developing crisis of capitalism".

Richard Kemp says it is time to end the Coca-Cola van's Christmas tour.

"But there’s so much to love in Zappaland, not least because he wrote complex and experimental music with a pop ear. Anyone can create bad avant garde noise, but he managed to create avant garde noise which was catchy." Mike Scott has been listening to the complete works of Frank Zappa.

Bobby Seal on Terence Davies's Liverpool trilogy.

Great news from The World of Ivor Wood: the original puppets from The Herbs television series have been found.

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"I believe that the Liberal Democrats provide a strong platform for building a centre-left politics in rapidly changing times. The Party’s mission of seeking to create a society that balances fundamental values of liberty, equality and community recognises that sound politics is not about the rigid implementation of political dogma but the struggle to find practical ways of realising our (sometimes conflicting) values." Gordon Lynch has left Labour and joined the Liberal Democrats - he has also made me see that the preamble to our constitution embraces Isaiah Berlin's argument for the incommensurability of liberal values.

Lucy Kellaway explains why she is leaving journalism to become a school teacher.

"Eric Tucker, a 35-year-old co-founder of a marketing company in Austin, Tex., had just about 40 Twitter followers. But his recent tweet about paid protesters being bused to demonstrations against President-elect Donald J. Trump fueled a nationwide conspiracy theory - one that Mr. Trump joined in promoting." Sapna Maheshwari offers a case study of how fake news goes viral.

Peter Bradshaw reviews a new documentary on Frank Zappa.

Two big mistakes led to the troubles of Durham County Cricket Club, argues Tim Wigmore.

Beyond the Last Man tells the strange tale of Haiti's appearance at the 1974 World Cup finals in West Germany.

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Peter Kelner, interviewed in a podcast, looks at how Labour MPs might depose Jeremy Corbyn - something they will have to do if the party is to stand any chance at the next election.

Suddenly Basic Income is fashionable. Tom Streithorst asks if it could work.

April Peavey remembers when Pierre Boulez met Frank Zappa.

"Replacing the aggressive Irishmen in pubs and stoned out drug dealers, the countryside instead provides aggressive farmers and 'country folk' who have no wish to deal with 'London types'." Adam Scovell points out the importance of landscape in Withnail and I.

The Cottonopolis has some amazing pictures of Manchester's abandoned buildings.

"When I saw the rusted redundant railing on a forgotten walkway above the Ouse I thought about how you can live in a place for so long and still have new things to find, when forced from the usual ways and the beaten track." York Stories encounters a flooded river.

Mike Nesmith as Frank Zappa, Frank Zappa as Mike Nesmith

From episode 57 of The Monkees, which was first broadcast in America in March 1968. The series was a staple of children's television in Britain for a few years after that.

Summer Reading Round-Up 4

I have invited some bloggers to nominate a couple of books they have enjoyed recently and write a few sentences about each. 

You are welcome to send me your own choices. I suggest you nominate one political and one non-political book, but I don’t insist on that.

You can read Round-up 1, Round-up 2 and Round-up 3 on this blog.


Mary Reid

People Power: A User’s Guide to Democracy by Dan Jellinek (Bantam)

A few weeks ago Dan Jellinek sent me a proof copy of his book. I intend to review it for Lib Dem Voice, but real democracy, in the form of a challenging by-election, has erupted in my patch, so I need to finish reading it very soon.

Dan is one of the movers and shakers in online democracy, although he carefully treads a non-partisan path in all his activities. His book is an ambitious everyman’s guide to democratic systems in the UK, comprehensively researched and written in an engaging style. He did interview me about policy making in the Lib Dems, but if you doze for a moment while reading the book you will probably miss it.

A Small Town Affair by Rosie Wallace (Headline)

I headed up to Orkney for a holiday earlier this year, so it seemed appropriate to take with me the first novel written by the wife of the former MP for Orkney and Shetland. Perhaps not surprisingly, the plot centres on the wife of a new Lib Dem MP, as she becomes the focus of gossip on the town’s grapevine, through a series of beautifully written comic scenes that made me laugh out loud.

This is perfect light holiday reading, especially for Lib Dem activists, who are gently but affectionately caricatured within. I’m sure you all have a Minty Oliver in your local party – an elderly and eccentric activist who manages to untangle all the complicated situations that the rest get themselves into.

The question is: which of these two books is my political choice?

Mary Reid writes a blog.


Andrew Hickey

My political choice is Conrad Russell's An Intelligent Person's Guide To Liberalism, which I recently read at the prodding of Alex Wilcock, and wished I'd read years earlier. A wonderful, insightful book, it manages to express in its 122 pages everything that distinguishes Liberalism both as a set of principles and as a specifically historical movement linked to the Liberal and Liberal Democrat parties in the UK. It's absolutely essential for all Liberals, in and out of the party. It's out of print, but second-hand copies can be picked up for ten pounds or so.

Favourite quote: "I can still remember, when I was five, looking at William Lord Russell’s portrait on the wall, and asking my father what he did. My father replied; “Oh, he was a very good man. The King cut his head off." The distrust of unfettered power implicit in that remark is very deep in the Liberal inheritance, and very deep in the current Liberal Democrat concern with constitutional reform."

As for my other choice, I think readers of this blog would be likely to enjoy Shell-Shocked, the autobiography of Howard Kaylan. While it concentrates too much on the sex and drugs and not enough on the rock and roll, there are still plenty of wonderful details about recording music in the 1960s and 70s. Kaylan started out as the lead singer of The Turtles, but has performed in some capacity or other with almost every great musical figure of the 60s and 70s, whether by having Ray Davies produce a Turtles album, being lead singer for Frank Zappa for three years, backing John Lennon at an impromptu appearance, singing backing vocals on all T-Rex's hits or singing on Springsteen's Hungry Heart.

And where else are you going to find out Tom Jones' pet name for his penis?

Andrew Hickey blogs at Sci-Ence! Justice Leak! Follow him on Twitter.


Paul Walter

A Swim-on Part in the Goldfish Bowl by Carol Thatcher

A very absorbing book. It didn't make me feel all that enamoured of Carol Thatcher but I enjoyed reading all the little anecdotes. The book appears to be largely (and rather outrageously) the basis for the Oscar winning film The Iron Lady. So it is worth reading for that reason alone.

Crying with Laughter: My life story by Bob Monkhouse

A bit of an old one, but a fascinating story of an extraordinary man. Worth reading alone for the amusing story of the early days of The Golden Shot. Little known trivia fact: Bob Monkhouse bequeathed the largest known collection of Butlin's whisky glasses. He did shedloads of stand-up for Butlin's in the 70s and 80s. Before each performance they would give him a glass of whisky. Once drunk he put the glass in his brief case and took it home. Then he kept them all along with his vast collection of (annotated) TV Times and TV programmes recorded on video. He owned the UK's first privately owned video recorder. It cost him almost as much as house cost at the time.

Paul Walter blogs at Liberal Burblings. Follow him on Twitter.

Remembering Vaclav Havel

From the tribute on Huffington Post:

"A great fighter for the freedom of nations and for democracy has died," said Lech Walesa, his fellow anti-communist activist who founded neighboring Poland's Solidarity movement. "His outstanding voice of wisdom will be missed." 

Among his many honors were Sweden's prestigious Olof Palme Prize and the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest U.S. civilian award, bestowed on him by President George W. Bush for being "one of liberty's great heroes." 

An avowed peacenik whose heroes included rockers such as Frank Zappa, he never quite shed his flower-child past and often signed his name with a small heart as a flourish. 

"Truth and love must prevail over lies and hatred," Havel famously said. It became his revolutionary motto which he said he always strove to live by.

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You can find pictures and videos of the occupation of Brooklyn Bridge on Mashable: "The movement began in July after anti-consumerist group Adbusters called for an occupation of Wall Street on Sept. 17. It quickly gained support from groups like Anonymous. Around 1,000 showed up for the first protest. Over the next two weeks, the protests gained steam and drew the attention of the mainstream media."

Slugger O'Toole reports on Ulster Unionist MLA Sam Gardiner, who appears to have been consulting a marked register before deciding whether to help his constituents.

Did The Scottish Government and Aberdeenshire Council give Donald Trump assurances about the siting of wind farms? Rob Edwards investigates.

Which album, compiled by Jack Nicholson, features Neil Young, Frank Zappa and Bela Lugosi? Andrew Hickey has the answer.

The Sussex landscapes that inspited the artists Eric Ravilious, Paul Nash and John Piper are explored by James Russell.

Go Litel Blog, Go... has a poem by Anna Akhmatova that fits the weather we have been enjoying for the past week:

The freak Autumn built a high vault in the sky,
the clouds were ordered not to darken the vault.
The people marvelled: September is passing
and where are the chill, damp days?

What is more, he illustrates it with a picture of a hot-air balloon passing over Little Bowden.

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Writing on Liberal Democrat Voice, Sara Bedford remembers the Lib Dem blogger Rachel Smith, who died a few days ago.

Richard Davis has been to the Oldham East & Saddleworth by-election.

So has Paul Walter of Liberal Burblings, who found himself stuffing envelopes with Tim Farron: "You’ll notice that I wasn’t quick enough with the posed smile ... but our esteemed President had his ever-ready 'cheeky chappy' smile on hand."

npr ventures beneath New York.

"The Artist Formerly Known as Captain Beefheart is a BBC documentary from 1997, on the late, great Don Van Vliet. Its presented by the also late and lamented DJ, John Peel, who was once tour driver for Captain Beefheart, and contains contributions from Frank Zappa, John French, Ry Cooder, and Matt Groening." Watch it on Dangerous Minds.

Wartime Housewife presents some recipes for those who find themselves with too much Stilton on their hands - a common problem in this part of the world.

Frank Zappa: Son of Mr Green Genes

As this weekend has seen a celebration of what would have been Frank Zappa's 70th birthday at the Roundhouse, it is high time we featured the Grand Wazoo here.

I am a good friend of a Zappa completist, so I have heard a good deal of weird stuff over the years, but this is really rather lovely.

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Writing on Liberal Democrat Voice, Andrew Stunell argues that we need to take ownership of the concept of the "Big Society": "during the coalition negotiations, it quickly became apparent from talking to Oliver Letwin that what they call the Big Society was a very close match to the “Community Politics” ideas Liberals have been promoting since the ‘70s. Power should flow upwards from the grassroots, and not downwards from Whitehall."

Ewan's liberal musings reproduces a speech on drug policy that he gave to a fringe meeting at this year's Liberal Democrat Conference in Liverpool.

Nadine Dorries's recent comments on Twitter and the people who use it are dissected by DickMandrake.

"I hope that the party does moves towards a one member, one vote system in future elections and abolishes the archaic electoral college. I had five votes in the election, both as a member of the party, but also as a member of various affiliates, this really is ridiculous and change is long-overdue," says Labour blogger Blogging4Merton.

Neuroskeptic pours cold water on yesterday's reports that a genetic cause of ADHD has been discovered.

Next month a three-day event at The Roundhouse will celebrate the work of Frank Zappa, reports Londonist.