Category Archives: Old Fruit

Old Fruit

Old Fruit 31st October 2025

Kate Bush – Hammer Horror

Recognising that it is Halloween, this week’s retro music selection is a gathering of spooky, ghostly, blood, gore and horror music that are all hauntingly superb in their own way. We begin with the lead track from Kate Bush’s 1978 second album ‘Lionheart’ and it is a song that deliberately summons images of the cultish British Hammer films. The production especially gives a nod to atypical tropes heard in seventies scary drama incidental music, but in Kate’s hands it is also deliciously camp and extravagant. It is worth noting that the lyrics actually tell the tale of an actor haunted by the ghost of the man he replaced following that performers death in a tragic set accident.

Tom Waits – What’s He Building In There?

This is one of several stand out tracks from the Tom Waits 1999 album ‘Mule Variations’. Far more than a song, this is a sound collage and spoken word atmosphere piece that deals in the realms of suspicion and over-imagination. It hears Waits narrating the thoughts of a paranoid neighbour, allowing the unexplained private activities of another household to overwhelm him with suspicion, fantastical theorising and a haphazard joining of the dots in which two and two add up to five. The track brilliantly paints the paranoid mind state caused when a little knowledge becomes a dangerous thing. He works himself into such a state about these unknown activities that by the end Tom’s character has decided “we have a right to know” what they are.

The Tiger Lillies – The Crack Of Doom

If there is one act on the live scene today who fit a Halloween themed music selection like a glove, it has to be these fine purveyors of pre-war Berlin infused cabaret and macabre gypsy tinged dark bonhomie, The Tiger Lillies. In a long career and an impressively deep back catalogue, even their songs adopting a lighter, jauntier hue, are rendered unsettling by the falsetto pitched Martyn Jacques vocal delivery and that terrified white face stage make up they adopt; not so much a horror clown as a horrified manifestation of our worst nightmares. This song, one of their greatest, delights in the levelling effect death brings to all walks of society from top to bottom, highlighting that all human endeavours, both good and bad, high or low, turn to dust in the end. Cheers.

The Rattles – The Witch

I do not need too much of an excuse to move the sound in a psych-rock direction. Still, this does at least fit the bill in terms of subject matter and frenzied, spooked-out delivery. The fact that it is also a buzzing pop juggernaut with an over-abundance of hooks and riffage is just the icing on the blood red cake. Becoming a massive hit in 1970, this German band spent time in the sixties treading the same Hamburg boards as The Beatles, it was actually a re-recording of a track originally put out in 1968. This one, the famous version for sure, features a startling and startled vocal performance from Edna Bejarano, who was only with this long running band for three years.

Dusty Springfield – Spooky

I actually discovered over the past month a brilliant instrumental version of this song by Lack Of Afro (it will feature on next months playlist) but I thought for this feature, it has to be the classic 1970 Dusty version. However, this was not the original as the song was first written as an instrumental, in part by saxophonist Mike Shapiro who performed it in 1967 under the name Mike Sharpe. Lyrics were then added later that year by guitarist James Cobb and producer Buddy Buie for a recording by Classics IV. The soulful Springfield version however, is rightly regarded as a classic and it enjoyed a second wave of popularity after 1998 when featured in the film ‘Lock, Stock And Two Smoking Barrels’.

R. Dean Taylor – There’s A Ghost In My House

I am closing the feature this week on a high by including a song that, whether with my DJ hat on, or just sitting at home playing records, in fact wherever I may find myself controlling the music on October 31st in any year, I just cannot leave out. This northern soul stomper, originally from 1967, had a major revival and re-release in 1974 thanks to the thriving dance scene in northern England driven by the Wigan Casino. R. Dean Taylor himself was a Canadian singer, songwriter and producer working for Motown records, which is how he came to release a couple of breakout hit singles on the label. The most notable one at the time was ‘Gotta See Jane’ but ‘There’s A Ghost In My House’ is the undisputed classic. Just slide away to that descending guitar riff, crank up the volume to the spirits drowning max and give those kids knocking on your door a treat of a more musical nature.

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Old Fruit 24th October 2025

Phil Ochs – I Ain’t Marching Anymore

This week’s selection of older music recommendations is a feature inspired by the soon-to-land new Bob Dylan Bootleg Series Volume 18 box set. It offers a deep dive into the early Dylan period when he arrived in New York, soaked up the culture, history and political positioning of the folk scene around Greenwich Village and very soon became the most famous songwriter at the forefront of the protest movement. To compliment that, here are six tracks from some of the other musicians and songwriters Bob would have been rubbing shoulders with during this era. Many would influence Bob directly, some would collaborate with him whilst others, with Phil Ochs being the prime example, would motivate Bob more as artists he viewed as rivals within the topical song explosion. Dylan and Ochs had flashpoints in the mid-sixties (Dylan once booted Ochs out of a cab with the words “you’re just a journalist” ringing in his ears, his crime nothing more than, correctly, ascertaining that ‘Can You Please Crawl Out Your Window’ was not as good as Dylan’s previous release) but a mutually respectful connection did survive with Ochs often publicly defending against criticism of Bob’s adopting a folk-rock sound. Ochs tale is a sad one of mental health decline and a terminal downward spiral in the early seventies that he could not lift himself from. But, despite his lack of commercial success, Phil’s reputation must have held among peers. It is fascinating to hear on the new John Lennon set, focusing on Lennon’s own dalliance with protest music around 1971-72, how he jammed with Phil upon arriving in America, trying to find inspiration from the man clearly still regarded as one of the more effective, credible writers of this kind. One of the songs Phil played John that night was this, a pacifist classic from the mid sixties about turning away from military combat in search of another way, an idea that definitely chimed with Lennon’s own ‘War Is Over’ publicity campaign.

Carolyn Hester – Dink’s Song

Carolyn’s bit-part in the Bob Dylan story is quite a pivotal one actually. Her self titled album released in 1962 for Columbia featured Bob as an instrumentalist, playing the harmonica on some of the tracks such as ‘Swing And Turn Jubilee’ and ‘I’ll Fly Away’. Other than it being Bob’s first recording of any kind on a major label, it is also highly likely that it was this session that brought Bob to the attention of John Hammond, soon to be the man opening the doors to Columbia for Dylan to sign a first solo recording contract and make his own self titled debut LP. As can be heard on this selection, Carolyn had a fine voice and style of her own and with Davy Graham backing her on guitar, it is clear Dylan was only one of many folk legends she would work alongside.

Ramblin’ Jack Elliott – San Francisco Bay Blues

There is a funny detail within the pages of the new book that accompanies the latest edition of Bob Dylan’s Bootleg Series. It tells of the hilarity in Bob’s reaction to finding out the news that Ramblin’ Jack Elliott’s real name is Elliott Charles Adnopoz. Apparently the former Mr. Zimmerman, whose own backstory and its legitimacy, or lack of, would come into question soon enough could not help but fall about laughing. Ramblin’ Jack would be a key figure in Bob’s early development, with this own absorbing of the sound, manner and music of Woody Guthrie believed to be largely learned from Elliott. He was after all a man of whom Woody Guthrie himself said around this time “he sounds more like me than I do”.

Fred Neil – Dolphins

One of the real buried treasures of the Greenwich Village sixties scene was Fred Neil. A singer songwriter who seemed to have no commercial instinct whatsoever and displayed absolutely no interest in finding one. He is mentioned by Dylan in ‘Chronicles’ as being one of the first connections Bob would make upon his arrival in New York and he soon found himself backing Fred on harmonica. As a writer and performer this enigmatic singer really did have some gorgeous music up his sleeve, all delivered with that laid back bottomless baritone of a vocal. It was Fred Neil who wrote and recorded ‘Everybody’s Talkin”, a soon to be classic that rose to the top when sung on the ‘Midnight Cowboy’ soundtrack by Harry Nilsson. However, this deep floating ode to escapism and a simpler life swimming with dolphins is the song that Fred should be remembered for, it is a mid-sixties folk masterpiece with a grace and beauty that remains timeless.

Karen Dalton – It Hurts Me Too

There is a photograph of Bob Dylan playing harmonica with Fred Neil, as described in the intro to the previous song, which I shall feature at the end of this article. The female figure in between them is Karen Dalton, another artist who similar to Fred made some indelible, enduring records at the time but never gained much recognition and faded from view all too soon. Dylan once called her his favourite singer in the village and her mournful vocal style was often compared to Billie Holiday. Despite the appreciation of her peers, Karen was a reluctant performer and even more disinclined to play the kind of music industry games that were standard at the time in order to promote your work. Her two albums were released quietly in 1969 and 1971, in fact one is said to have been recorded in a single night session as if by accident, and a justifiably acclaimed reputation today has mainly arisen since her death in 1993 at the age of 55.

Malvina Reynolds – No Hole In My Head

With an image that suggested a safer, approachable grandmotherly figure, Malvina Reynolds presents as one of the more unusual and unique singer-songwriters of the period. Far from middle-of-the-road, her wonderful songs had a healthy bite and cynicism in their veins. One of her songs positioned Malvina as a happy failure in the world, comfortable with her status because “those that succeed are the sons of bitches”. She actually did not start writing music until her late 40s and made serious inroads in the folk scene thanks to the political punch in her lyrics and easy way with satirical, engaging storytelling lyrics. Her most famous composition was probably ‘Little Boxes’ sung by Pete Seeger but other artists covering Reynolds songs included Joan Baez, The Seekers and Harry Belafonte. Later on she also contributed compositions to the children’s show ‘Sesame Street’.

Bob Dylan alongside Karen Dalton backing Fred Neil in the early sixties

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Old Fruit 17th October 2025

Deradoorian – A Beautiful Woman

This week’s vintage selection of tunes jumps back exactly ten years this month and re-investigates some of the new music Fruit Tree Records was getting excited about in October 2015. Top of the pile back then was this debut release by a former member of the Dirty Projectors. Working under the solo name Deradoorian, this genre surfing experimental art-rock artist had released her first album ‘The Expanding Flower Planet’ and, just as that title was a self-proclaimed attempt to represent “the expansion of consciousness”, so too did the music display a bold visionary leap into the realms of multi-layered exploration and spiritual open minded release. The hypnotising opening track is performed live here in a stunning video highlighting the artists sense of sonic purpose and clever mix of technology and soul.

John Howard & The Night Mail – Intact & Smiling

It wasn’t all just young sonic space cadets making the most musically satisfying sounds this month a decade ago. I was also thrilled by a new release from the legendary Pretty Things as well as this slice of late (two decades late) period Britpop from John Howard. His career had begun in the seventies with the debut album ‘Kid In A Big World’ on CBS being regarded as a bit of a cult classic. This track from the then new album with the Night Mail was released on Tapete Records and it sat well in the catalogue of a label known for its support of artists crafting intelligent pop and song writing. Having at one time retired from performing, the album was a key part of his second act and he continues to release new music to this day.

Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats – S.O.B.

The opening pair of tunes this week were top drawer musically but they remained decidedly underground in 2015. This one on the other hand was a major breakthrough for the artist and enjoyed some major exposure on mainstream TV (as seen in this Jools Holland clip here but the big one for Nathaniel in 2015 was probably his Jimmy Fallon performance of the song) as well as numerous commercials and TV shows including ‘Fargo’, ‘Brockmire’ and ‘Two Doors Down’. It also represented a significant shift stylistically for Nathaniel whose previous work had leaned into more of a folk style but here, on his bands full length debut, they grabbed this gospel referencing soulful groove with both hands and ran with it to memorable, shoe-shuffling effect.

Widowspeak – All Yours

This dreamy dose of Americana sounds like a cross between Mazzy Star and The Cranberries which is no bad thing. Widowspeak are a duo comprising Molly Hamilton and Robert Earl Thomas and this was a tune featured on their third album ‘Captured Tracks’ released in 2015 representing a shift in their creative process towards a more organic style of writing and playing. They managed to exude both an intimacy and a grand expressiveness with their sound; the former is clear enough in the emotive manner Molly brings to the reflective lyric but the latter is evident too in the depth of the sound and those echoes of vintage rock ‘n’ roll heard in the sumptuously twanging guitar.

La Luz – You Disappear

It is no surprise upon returning to this track to recognise that La Luz and their main woman Shana Cleveland have become firm Fruit Tree Records favourites over the last ten years. Everything I rate about the bands sound was already on display here, those heavy sunset sonics in the keys and melodies combined with the organic rough edges of their garage band aesthetic. They were also writing some damn fine pop songs which appeared on the second La Luz album ‘Weirdo Shrine’ that year, a record that undoubtedly found the right producer in the shape of 21st century garage rock king Ty Segall. If you haven’t woken up to them already, then just ride the waves of those surf-sounding guitars and let this sensational band take you there.

Timo Lassy – Hip Or Not

It was not just acts with garage band sensibilities summoning up the echoes of sixties vintage music in 2015. This track has all the elements of a funk-infused sixties Blue Note jazz classic waiting to be heard in its grooves. ‘Hip Or Not’ is from the album ‘Love Bullet’ released by the Finnish saxophonist Timo Lassy and whilst it does conjure thoughts of a golden era, it can also claim to possess a timelessness and true class in the production. This was Lassy’s fifth studio album and it was to be a record he regarded as a reaction to a few colourful years of his life, which maybe accounts for the inviting intimacy of the music in tandem with its infectious warm grooving. This one, as have the other selections this week, has been a welcome resurrection and is ripe for rediscovery, so dig in.

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Old Fruit

Old Fruit 10th October 2025

John Lennon – Come Together

It would have been John Lennon’s 85th birthday yesterday and so in honour of his enduring legacy, alongside the newly remastered release of his 1972 Madison Square Gardens concert which accompanies the restored footage that appeared in the film ‘One To One: John & Yoko’ released earlier this year, this weeks selection of older music clips is a John Lennon special. We begin with one of the few occasions he revisited his Beatles catalogue on a concert stage (the one other notable example was during his guest appearance with Elton John in 1974) and the revitalised footage certainly unleashes the rocking power of the performance. This is from that 1972 concert, tragically the only time John would ever play a full solo show based around his own songs. Other occasions were either of an avant garde nature with Yoko or with the ad-hoc Plastic Ono bands he would occasionally show up with mainly doing rock ‘n’ roll covers. So, for rarity alone but also for its conviction, this is a special moment.

The Beatles – You Can’t Do That

The first years of The Beatles worldwide invasion were largely propelled by the raw attack of John Lennon’s thick Liverpudlian rock ‘n’ roll voice. Of course, over the years, the musicality of McCartney has been evaluated to properly acknowledge the genius that he is to this day, but the primal force of John Lennon remains undeniable and probably still the element that gets people into The Beatles in the first place. That is on display here on a lesser celebrated number but no less wonderful for that.

John Lennon & The Dirty Mac – Yer Blues

The Dirty Mac were a one off supergroup formed for the 1968 Rolling Stones picture ‘Rock ‘n’ Roll Circus’. The film would sit in the vaults for years because the Stones were unhappy with some aspects of it (possibly that they were outshone by the other acts invited to appear) but this four piece featuring Eric Clapton, Keith Richards, Mitch Mitchell and John earned their place in music folklore thanks to the status, if nothing else, of providing a mega-rare filmed live performance of a Beatle performing a track from ‘The White Album’ in the year it was released.

The Beatles – I Am The Walrus

John Lennon was the Beatle that embraced English psychedelia to the full and with this track, ‘A Day In The Life’ and ‘Strawberry Fields Forever’ in particular, wrote some of the movements most enduring pieces of work. Not only that, but this track and accompanying film sequence alone rescue the Beatles much maligned ‘Magical Mystery Tour’ film from the realms of the inessential.

John Lennon – Instant Karma

One thing that gets repeated by many who worked with him about John Lennon, is that he was lacking in patience and he loved the thrill of the instant hit and spontaneity. ‘Instant Karma’ was a non-album single from 1970 that epitomised this working approach and even this ‘Top Of The Pops’ appearance, after the single had charted, clearly shows John buzzing off the energy of having written, recorded and released a track in the space of two weeks. In fact he said of it that they “wrote it for breakfast, recorded it for lunch, and we’re putting it out for dinner”

John Lennon – Imagine

And we end back at that 1972 concert with a heartfelt rendition of the classic and then still only recently released title track from John’s second solo album. This is the latest of many restored and dynamically revived pieces of film footage we have enjoyed relating to John and the Beatles in recent years and once again, despite being relatively well known amongst Lennon fans, it does have the glossy sheen of something new.

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Old Fruit 3rd October 2025

Tim Buckley – Happy Time

Last week the sad news broke of the passing of double bass legend Danny Thompson. As a tribute to the man and his immense fingerprint left on the landscape of 20th century music this weeks edition of Old Fruit pulls six archive performances enhanced by Danny’s involvement holding down that bottom end. First up, a rare piece of film capturing the week in October 1968 when Tim Buckley visited the UK to play the Queen Elizabeth Hall in London. Danny was part of his pick up band upon arrival in the UK, rising to the unenviable challenge of following Tim’s music and bringing an appreciative backing to proceedings. It is evidence of Danny’s standing in the sixties as a go-to session man, a reputation that would see his name appear on many credits from the time, most notable on records by Alexis Korner’s Blues Incorporated, John McLaughlin Trio and Nick Drake.

Pentangle – Light Flight

Danny’s presence on the double bass in Pentangle undoubtedly elevated the bands fusion of folk, jazz and free-form acoustic psychedelics to heights they would not have attained with a mere four string plunker. He could bring both percussive energy and improvisational alertness and as such, the band felt like the ideal environment for his eloquences to thrive and evolve. For a time they did too, although Danny was never likely to be limited to just one combination of players during a career when so many would seek out his sound, his ear and his magic touch. Here he is performing arguably Pentangle’s most well known number at the start of 1971, a song that was originally both a 45 and a stand out number from the bands ‘Basket Of Light’ album.

John Martyn – Couldn’t Love You More

John Martyn’s deep folk-jazz fusion benefited from the Danny Thompson touch in a collaboration that would last more than three decades. They first came together for Martyn’s 1973 classic ‘Solid Air’ and it would be a union that endured through not just studio work, but mouth watering live concert sessions too, as is witnessed here from a vintage ‘Old Grey Whistle Test’ clip. Their last known shows together were in the early 2000’s by which time Danny almost sounded like the essential component in John Martyn’s soulful, probing musical quest.

Richard Thompson – Put It There Pal

Similarly on a wavelength were the musical interactions between folk-rock maestro Richard Thompson and Danny. It has long been impossible for the pair to be written about without first explaining that they were not brothers, but with the kind of intuitive understanding they often displayed in live performance it was hard not to think there must be some higher degree of communication going on. Their highlights are worth digging into across a multitude of live recordings over the years but they did also share joint billing on an under-the-radar 1997 studio album called ‘Industry’.

Martin Simpson – Heartbreak Hotel

There is a temptation in compiling this selection to dip into some of the more mainstream cameos to be found of Danny’s work over the years. Top of that list is his bass credit on Everything But The Girl’s nineties melancholy dance classic ‘Missing’, of which there are TV appearances featuring Danny to be found should you care to dig them out, but really all he is doing on that track is holding down a very basic, beat accompanying low end. His playing always shines with brighter colours and variation when heard alongside an instrumentalist of similar dexterity. That is what we find here, playing in tandem with folk guitar legend Martin Simpson on a live bluesy version of a fifties rock ‘n’ roll classic.

Danny Thompson – Idle Monday

We finish with one of the all too scarce examples of Danny taking the lead on a performance of a tune from his first solo album. ‘Whatever’ was released in 1987 to a favourable critical reception in the jazz world, it gave Thompson a platform to express his love of folk and jazz in a deep instrumental showcase that did open the door for future solo projects in a similar vein. Danny himself said “I just wanted Kate Bush to like it. I wanted the jazzers to like it. I wanted the folk side to like it”. Returning to the album after news of his death broke, this work does stand the test of time and represents a grain of the mans music that is ripe for rediscovery amongst the many higher profile recordings on which his genius, expressive playing can be heard. We have lost a good one here, RIP Danny Thompson.

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Old Fruit 26th September 2025

Billy Bragg – Between The Wars

For this edition of Old Fruit we are jumping back forty years to 1985 and a few tracks that show an often maligned period in popular music had some seeds of hope in the margins away from the thin-synth dominance of the mainstream. I am kicking off with Billy Bragg because I launched this weeks Fresh Juice with another guitar crunching bard from Essex and I felt like indulging in a bit more of the South of England’s London overspill splendour. Bragg’s classic lament drew vivid parallels between the working class struggles felt in England between the world wars and the Britain he drew topical inspiration from in the eighties. Forty years later, the relevant themes insure this song still has a place in the musical culture, even if the idea of the protest song itself now seems awfully idealistic and naïve. Bragg though, always sang, and continues to sing, with feeling and sincerity which is precisely why he has endured.

R.E.M. – Driver 8

In 1985 this tune, heard here in a rare earlier acoustic performance, would be one of the stand out tunes on R.E.M.’s third album ‘Fables Of The Reconstruction’, a record the band would have less than fond memories of recording in a damp English winter with the legendary Joe Boyd in the producers chair. It seems incredible now that while the US was frothing over Madonna and Prince (justifiably so I might add) ploughing away in the margins at the exact same time was one of America’s greatest ever rock bands, quietly refining their craft and slowly finding their identity. Maybe it should stand as a lesson in two things; firstly that there is a lot to be said for not tasting success too early and secondly, that the good stuff really does rise to the surface eventually. Nowadays, all five of those pre-worldwide fame R.E.M. albums are regarded as must hear classics.

The Fall – Spoilt Victorian Child

Whereas the previous band would tangibly move from their cult, outsider status to a place where their genius won the acclaim and success it deserved, the same pathway never opened out for The Fall. That is, I guess, understandable for the confrontational, unpredictable and undiluted delivery of leader Mark E. Smith was clearly never made for mass mainstream consumption. Even when he did break through to occasionally occupy a popular platform (I’m thinking about his Top Of The Pops appearance with the Inspiral Carpets in 1994 or the later time when BBC TV got him to read the Saturday evening football results) the tension that followed Mark around was not unlike that felt when a potentially aggressive thug stumbles into a pub looking for someone to pick an argument with. But maybe that was the thing that gave The Fall their spark? That garage rock energy and post-punk edginess moulded into something wholly unique and real by Smith’s primitive, poetic take on life as a working class man from Northern Britain.

The Waterboys – The Whole Of The Moon

For just a short time in the 1980s The Waterboys featured two of the periods greatest songwriting and producing talents. Band leader Mike Scott, for whom the group were essentially always a solo project with an ever rotating supporting cast of musicians (much like The Fall actually), is the ever present Waterboy but for a couple of albums back then they also had the equally gifted Karl Wallinger. It was undoubtedly a volatile pairing as both men were natural leaders with a strong desire to back their ideas but Karl did later prove himself in his own one-man band with changeable sidemen configuration, World Party. ‘The Whole Of The Moon’ remains the crown jewel from their time together, definitively Mike Scott’s composition but traces of Walllinger across the recording are undeniable and do enhance it with sonic stardust that continues to burn bright to this day.

Camper Van Beethoven – Take The Skinheads Bowling

This was an early underground anthem from a band formed in 1983 in Redlands, California having emerged from garage bands like Sitting Duck and Estonian Gauchos. This track helped bestow a quirky irreverence on them that, along with their facility to eclectically fuse punk, folk, psych and ska influences, insured their status as cult favourites. This one appeared on debut album ‘Telephone Free Landslide Victory’ and two more albums would appear the following year before they signed to Virgin in 1987. They split in 1990 (although would reform by the end of the decade) after their last notable success, a 1989 cover of Status Quo’s ‘Pictures Of Matchstick Men’ which became a number 1 hit on Billboard’s Modern Rock Tracks in 1989.

‘Til Tuesday – Voices Carry

Elvis Costello once described the eighties as “the decade that taste forgot” and whilst this weeks feature has been tailored to present the case for the defence from the eras middle period, when all the excesses provoking that kind of comment were at a peak, it is true that around 1985 you could find acts like Bob Dylan, Neil Young and even Elvis himself struggling with the digital production evolutions of the time. But this final selection also points to the same issues possibly restricting newer artists who would find their sound a lot more convincingly later in the nineties and beyond. Aimee Mann, one of the next decades most credible and dependable purveyors of a grungy, folk-rock sound, is heard here leading her band ‘Til Tuesday, clearly developing the writing chops that would serve her so well later on, but arguably held back by a flat mid-eighties pop sheen. This isn’t too bad, there is a lot of potential on display, but there was much better to come further down the line. Something I find myself thinking about a lot of music from this era.

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Old Fruit 22nd August 2025

Ottilie Patterson & Chris Barber Band – Mama He Treats Your Daughter Mean

For this edition of Old Fruit I am looking back at half a dozen vintage jazz selections all of which are cooking, boiling, frothing, fizzing and fantastic. The late fifties and early sixties were overflowing with undeniable jazz music, it is probably fair to assess that this was the last era when jazz sailed close to the mainstream. Not only was it a period of great leaps forward in melodic and structural evolution but it was delivered with such ice-cool style and image. No wonder it all just looks so classic now. So, set alongside some of this bebop, bohemian cutting edge elegance, some of the British trad jazz contingent may have started to look very old fashioned seemingly overnight. But while there may be some truth to that with a combo like the Chris Barber Band, as this clip clearly proves they could still tear it up with the best of them. Mind you, they were instantly pushed into a different league altogether any time the deceptively domestic looking Ottilie Patterson stepped up to the microphone, a singer of such pure vocal power and honesty that she even managed to out-soul Ruth Brown when covering her 1953 R&B classic as the band do here. One look at Ottilie and you know this is the real thing!

Jimmy Giuffre Trio – The Train And The River

As mentioned in the text accompanying the first song, the style and visual presentation of jazz during this period was potentially as crucial to its long term status as the music itself. Nowhere was the indelible late fifties jazz look captured on film better than the 1958 picture ‘Jazz On A Summers Day’, the opening sequence of which are the images that appear with this performance. The Jimmy Giuffre Trio had released this piece the previous year and it won many plaudits for its realisation of Giuffre’s “blues based folk jazz” which merged understated swing with the sensibilities of a chamber referencing musicianship. That this rendition at the 1958 Newport Jazz Festival should open the film depicting events and performances at that years festival only serves to cement this hypnotic piece into the fabric of the eras jazz lineage. And just look at the names in those opening credits, if you have not seen this movie get on whatever streaming platform you need to find it and put that right immediately.

Art Blakey & Lee Morgan – I Remember Clifford

Whilst not quite as celebrated as Miles Davis, Lee Morgan has stood the test of time and to this day remains one of the essential players to listen to from this period of jazz history. He had a beautiful tone to his playing, an awareness of melodic motion and an appreciation of the simple truth that sometimes less is more. His music remains a real pleasure to experience and his untimely death in 1972 is still one of the greatest losses to the music world imaginable. Lee had recorded this tune, a 1956 Benny Golson composition written in tribute to trumpeter Clifford Brown who had died in a car crash, on his 1957 Blue Note Records album ‘Lee Morgan Volume 3’. On both the recording and this live footage the composer Golson is present on saxophone and it is said that he regarded it as a symbolic passing of the torch from Brown to Morgan, at the time still very much a young trumpet prodigy from Philadelphia.

Charles Mingus – Better Git It In Your Soul

This was the opening track from Mingus’s legendary 1959 album ‘Mingus Ah Um’. It suits the mans personality, it is a mammoth tune that unfolds with might and momentum and packs a punch with undeniable force. You see it in these images (when they begin, the first three minutes of this one is audio only), even when the brass soloists step forward it is still Charles you cannot take your eyes off, a powerhouse propelling everything forward. The tune was inspired by the gospel singing and preaching heard where Mingus grew up, the shouts, handclaps and sense of anything goes improvisation reaching for, and finding, the spirit of a Southern Black church service. This tune is considered one of the best examples of Mingus’s faculty for bringing complex themes and structures into a soulful and rousing melange of sound.

Bill Evans – Waltz For Debby

This tune first appeared on Bill Evans 1957 debut album ‘New Jazz Conceptions’ on Riverside Records. It was written for his niece, Debby Evans, and is a beautifully lyrical waltz that blends Evans classical sensibilities with jazz harmonies. This was to become Evans most iconic original composition that would also go on to be the title track for a live album recorded at the Village Vanguard in June 1961, this proved to be the final recording for Evans legendary first trio, often hailed as the pinnacle of piano trio interplay. This particular piece of film is from 19th March, 1965 recorded for the London BBC TV series Jazz 625.

Miles Davis – So What

And I simply cannot resist the urge to finish this jazz half dozen with arguably the most iconic piece of film footage from the genre available on YouTube. ‘So What’, with the previous songs leader Bill Evans on piano not to mention John Coltrane and Cannonball Adderley on saxes, was recorded and released in 1959 on the landmark Miles Davis album ‘Kind Of Blue’. To this day it remains an all time jazz classic, so wonderful in its simplicity on the one hand and yet a foundation block for all the freedoms and melodic space that would define modal jazz in years to come and prove to be a guiding influence for many a legendary artist, including Coltrane himself as well as people like Herbie Hancock and so much of what was to evolve on the Blue Note label in the sixties, seventies and beyond. On top of that, it just all looks so fantastically cool.

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Old Fruit 15th August 2025

Donovan – Hey Gyp (Dig The Slowness)

This edition of Old Fruit is jumping back sixty years for half a dozen nuggets with maximum nineteen sixty five-ity! First up is Donovan, playing a song that sixty years later is also the opening track on the new Robert Plant and Saving Grace album. Plant has acknowledged in an interview with Mojo Magazine that it was Donovan’s version that drew him into the song and, whilst being aware that it was previously recorded in 1960 as ‘Chevrolet’ by Lonnie Young and Ed Young, he was unaware of an earlier 1930 version called ‘Can I Do It For You’ by Memphis Minnie and Kansas Joe McCoy. This film clip, like one or two others in this weeks feature, is actually from 1966 but all the original records were released in 1965, dig?

Bob Dylan – Positively 4th Street

So captured here in his prime wild mercury, newly electrified phase is the man Donovan was, quite reasonably, accused of emulating in the early months of 1965. Of course, it was only a short matter of time before the Don’s power-flower dreaminess appeared worlds away from Bob Dylan’s plugged-in magnificent kaleidoscope of possessed poetic wonderment, which is where we find him here. Stirring up his US audience, including a quick Roger McGuinn fly past if I am not mistaken, who are shaken into feverish debate about the merits of their mans change of direction. Although not prominently featured, the snippets of a live ‘Positively 4th Street’ heard here are a real archival treasure. One of Bob’s most famous attack songs, he can be seen playing, what was then, a recent composition in a form very close to its recorded version, something of a Dylan rarity in itself.

Buddy Guy – Outta Sight

If the 1965 folk audience were getting themselves into a state of extreme agitation as their purely acoustic music was pushed headlong into electricity, it is maybe surprising that there are not similar reports from the blues fraternity, after all up to then and ever since the genre was invented it was mainly all about acoustic troubadours singing of their troubles. But this incredible colourised film of Buddy Guy, backed by Lonesome Jimmy Lee (Robinson) on bass and Fred Below on drums, not only proves what a thrilling journey the blues was on at this time, but also how naturally it was cross pollinating with other musical forms. This is no mere bluesy interpretation of a James Brown tune, it goes for full-on soul power and the funk in the groove is impossible to resist.

The Sorrows – Take A Heart

1965 was a peak period for the classic English Freakbeat retrospectively labelled sub-genre and here is one of the prime slices of that fevered, impassioned Mod sound. ‘Take A Heart’ would turn out to be The Sorrows biggest success when the 45, released sixty years ago this month on the Piccadilly label, peaked at number 21 in the UK singles chart. It was also the title of their debut album released on the same label that year, of which original stereo pressings are fetching around £200 on Discogs today. This is an essential live performance clip from the kind of mid-sixties band for whom TV appearances would have been rare.

The Pretty Things – Midnight To Six

Another one with raw garage rock texture that actually crosses over well to a live TV recording is seen here with the Pretty Things classic ode to swinging London night life. Like so many great tracks of this style from the era, this was not a big hit, only peaking for one week in the UK charts at number 46. Seeing them in their early days like this, it is hard to fathom how they did not tear it up commercially in the same way that the Rolling Stones did, a band with close ties to the Pretty Things. In fact their guitarist Dick Taylor played bass in a very early line up of the Rolling Stones but would leave in late 1962; nevertheless, the raw R&B influence and rough energy of both bands remained a tangible touching point .

The Byrds – Turn Turn Turn

I finish this edition with a bumper extended piece of TV footage and once again, a rare chance to see a classic sixties group in their definitive five piece line-up playing live in early years, beat-boom finery. This is arguably the definitive folk-rock sound, what with the vocal harmonies and twelve strings of McGuinn’s electric Rickenbacker jingle-jangling as the cloudburst of pop colour rained down on the wonderful folk material contemporary acts (as well as The Byrds) revitalised. Of course, they would also record many an essential tune written by their own hand but here we are treated to ‘Turn Turn Turn’ followed by a further brace of amped up revisions, ‘The Bells Of Rhymney’ and Dylan’s ‘Mr. Tambourine Man’.

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Old Fruit

Old Fruit 1st August 2025

Dire Straits & Sting – Money For Nothing

This weeks retro half dozen is inspired by my recent re-watching of the July 1985 Live Aid concert on the BBC, who re-broadcast over eight hours of a highlights package. It reminded me of how, after that show, for the following seven years or so the British TV would repeatedly return to the day/night long live broadcast of a multi-artist concert from Wembley Stadium format. The notable ones I am revisiting with my selections today are the Nelson Mandela concerts from both 1988 and 1990 then finishing with a stand out performance from the 1992 Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert. First up though is one of the songs from that original Live Aid event that has actually aged rather well. Dire Straits ground a lot of music fans down in the late eighties simply because, like Phil Collins, you could not get away from them. It was after Live Aid actually that they truly became massive with their ‘Brothers In Arms’ album ushering in the age of the CD. But over exposure is no longer an issue forty years later and I was rather impressed with the energy (especially that of rhythm guitarist Jack Sonni), drama and tension on show here, you have to admit all that success was actually well deserved.

Tracy Chapman – Fast Car

Performing in front of a full Wembley Stadium and an incalculably large TV audience, this was the appearance that gave Tracy Chapman a career in music. To this day it stands as one of the all time remarkable, against the odds, dramatic moments in music history. She was on the bill as an unknown, filling in for a couple of songs while the larger stage to her left prepared for Stevie Wonder. On top of her very clear nerves was the intimidation of a crowd entertaining themselves with what sound like football chants, even as she started playing. Unbelievably due to the situation, that she was just backing herself with an acoustic guitar and the fact those present probably did not know the songs, Tracy almost instantly had them silenced and hanging on her every word. The fact that this is a superb song cannot have gone against her either but does this not prove that, sometimes, a great song is all you need?

The Bee Gees – You Win Again

At the time of Live Aid in 1985 the Bee Gees were keeping a much lower profile and so did not appear. Five years earlier, following their imperious disco years, it would have been unthinkable for them not to feature on the bill but by the mid-eighties they had enough self awareness to not risk over exposing themselves. However, by 1988 they had spent the previous winter firmly re-establishing their credentials as one of the all time great British bands following the chart topping success of ‘You Win Again’. They opened with that one at Wembley and re-watching this clip I was surprised / not surprised to notice they had Phil Collins on drums.

Little Steven Van Zandt & Simple Minds – Sun City

If I had to pick one band who could be accused of triggering the general reaction against this kind of star-studded, earnest, fund and awareness raising stadium shindig it could be Simple Minds. They certainly felt the rough end of the music press around this time, charged with evolving from a previously cutting edge band into a unit whose music was deliberately tailored towards a stadium sound, with air-filled wide reaching brush strokes and easily digestible ‘big’ production singularly failing to disguise a lack of subtlety or nuance. All a little harsh it has to be said although, the idea that they were intentionally reaching for a large outdoor arena size crowd was fair. Despite this, their appearances at the Mandela shows were triumphs as this clip shows, where they stepped back and gave front stage to Steven Van Zandt (who also brought Peter Gabriel, Jackson Browne, Darryl Hannah, Youssou n’Dour and Meat Loaf on as backing singers). His song was a direct political assault and a crowd pleaser all rolled into one audience pleasing, streetwise rock ‘n’ roll bundle.

Lou Reed – Last Great American Whale / Dirty Blvd

Talking of rock ‘n’ roll streetwise cool, two years later Lou Reed appeared hot on the back of his 1989 career masterpiece ‘New York’ album. Here he played solo electric versions of two tracks from that record, both very lyrical and heard minus the rhythm section familiar from their album versions, two facts that might have prevented them translating too well to a stadium sized audience ready to punch the air. But there is precious little evidence on the TV footage viewed here of any audience restlessness and Lou himself is the epitome of composure, wrapping himself around the songs and even changing the odd lyric here and there for the benefit of a UK audience who might not have known the NRA was a “gun club”.

Robert Plant & Queen – Crazy Little Thing Called Love

Queen might well have been the group who benefited most from Live Aid while Plant’s former band Led Zeppelin were decidedly lacking in positives. Queen’s 1985 set has gone on to be historically regarded as a showbusiness lesson in how a band should approach these sets. They rehearsed for starters, then engaged the audience with singalong, clap-along interaction in a twenty minute slot that abbreviated certain tunes in order to leave the stage with maximum hit packing punch. Led Zeppelin on the other hand, reforming for the first time since the 1980 death of drummer John Bonham, were under-rehearsed and retrospectively so disappointed with their Phil Collins on drums assisted showing that they did not allow footage to be included on DVD re-issues and, presumably, did not give the BBC clearance to re-broadcast as it was not in their highlights package. This 1992 version of a Queen rock ‘n’ roller finds both factions on superb form and Zeppelin even get a look in, as the rendition begins with the opening section of their ‘Led Zeppelin II’ track ‘Thank You’ before springing into the Queen zinger, Plant doing a stupendous job on a tough occasion for all involved.

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Old Fruit

Old Fruit 25th July 2025

Jo Rose – I’m Yr Kamera

For this weeks dive into some selections and recommendations from the past I thought I would go back and see what Fruit Tree Records were causing a stir exactly ten years ago this month. Jo Rose had come to my attention at the time, a crazily gifted singer-songwriter from the Manchester area, with this song which instantly proves ten years later that quality is timeless. I do not know what brought him under my radar, maybe it was his association with First Aid Kit who he was not only supporting in concert but was also in a relationship with the duo’s Klara Söderberg. Whatever, his work had a musical finesse that is hard to find but as is so often the story with artists at this pubs and clubs level, they can disappear from view or just quietly drop out of music altogether. And so it is with great sadness that I have just found, after searching the internet for news on his current whereabouts, that he tragically died last year at the age of 36 following a head injury connected to an epileptic seizure. I had not intended for this post to be a tribute to someone special who has gone too soon, I was merely hoping to throw some appreciative retro light on wonderful music, but now I am doing both. Please listen to Jo Rose.

Wolf Alice – Turn To Dust

The good thing about having this sites monthly playlists stretching back a lot of years (roughly fourteen) is that I can occasionally find that I was actually slightly ahead of the curve on a band or singer. This tune from Wolf Alice’s newly released debut album ‘My Love Is Cool’ featured in the July 2015 monthly playlist and I do recall going on to feel they were a thoroughly deserving recipient of the Mercury Music Prize in 2018 following the release of their second album ‘Visions Of A Life’. This was a record that took the bare bones of the ghostly sound they are perfecting here, in a quality audience live clip from the following year, into new fields of celestial majesty with a sprinkling of indie-pop hooks for good measure. They have a fourth studio album called ‘The Clearing’ set to be released next month.

Flo Morrissey – Show Me

Here we revisit a singer with an eerily spiritual and acid-folk laced voice. Flo Morrissey, a former pupil at the Brit School who expressed regret that she did not meet as many like minded people there as she would if she had attended a normal university, had at the time just released her debut album on Glassnote Records. In 2017 her record of covers with Matthew E. White was equally loved in these parts thanks to its focus on eclectic late sixties, early seventies pop, baroque pop, folk and psych material but the Flo detail I have only just caught up on is that she is married to the equally eccentrically gifted Benjamin Clementine and that they have released music together as The Clementines. She can now be found performing as Florence Clementine and remains a creative artist ripe for discovery.

Bop English – Struck Matches

By 2015 the band White Denim were a long term favourite psych rock band from Austin, Texas who had built a deserved reputation as practitioners of wild, free, looping, jamming and essentially wonderous boundary defying rock. Many a time I had heard them playing radio sessions that would end in what the DJs could only advertise as a live wig-out. So I believe it could only be the White Denim connection that led me to front man James Petralli’s other musical outlet, Bop English, essentially a solo project. They were an altogether more structured, song based concern although that wild energy is still there for all to hear on their album ‘Constant Bop’, from which this track is taken.

Richard Thompson – Beatnik Walking

Returning to old playlists blows the dust off numerous acts and songs that did not stay in the forefront of my musical mind but nevertheless are a delight to revive and re-experience. That is not the case with Richard Thompson, much like a Bob Dylan, Neil Young, Joni Mitchell or Tom Waits he is an ever present whose song compositional work and masterful guitar playing ensure he is always very close to the surface. This was a tune from his ‘Still’ album released early in 2015, a record which gained slightly more attention than some of his releases thanks to it’s being produced by Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy.

Max Jury – Home

Re-listening to this tune ten years later it surprises me to read that it was Max’s debut single. This sounds like the work of an artist whose work has matured over many years but here he was, ten years ago aged only 23, sounding for all the world like the next Rufus Wainwright. That may not have quite come to pass yet but in 2025 he is three albums in, growing as a musician and still very much producing recordings with tasteful echoes of the seventies, now with a clear move towards disco and pop production flourishes. The pop world needs natural creativity from single minded musicians with a vision and voice, Max could still be moving into that space. That said, even if he does not take that path, it does nothing to detract from the beauty of a song like this.

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