"STEADY ON, IT'S ONLY PALMERSTON NORTH" *

 Robert look away now. This post has positive references to an article in the latest New Zealand Listener.

Richard will be interested though. The article is about Don McGlashan's coming national tour and profiles his musical career. This covers his work with familiar bands like Blam Blam Blam, The Mutton Birds, The Front Lawn, From Scratch, The Plague, The Whizz Kids, and musicians Harry Sinclair, Mark Bell, Tim Mahon and others. I'd like to see him and will check out the dates and venues.

There are lots of McGlashan's songs I like. They fit nicely in the New Zealand music history and stand up well to international offerings.

Remember Don't Fight It Marsha, It's Bigger Than Both Of Us ?:

That song reminds me of the Australian band Mental As Anything's song If You Leave Me Can I Come Too:

They all look so young!

It's worth a read and, like me, a trawl through YouTube to listen again to some great songs. 

* "We'd all get up and go crazy and at the end of the night everybody on stage would be crying and hugging each other. One night, somebody from the audience said, "Steady on, it's only Palmerston North." I always remember that."

- Don McGlashan ' The road, his dominion'.  - NZ Listener

"TURN THAT JUNGLE MUSIC DOWN"

 I mentioned in an earlier post that I got the stereo CD changer going again so, while The Old Girl's still away (back in a few weeks) have been enjoying my '70s music (as she calls it).

This morning it's been a selection of Steely Dan songs with 5 CDs in the changer and set to random play.

I have my strong favourites like 'Do It Again', 'Pretzel Logic', 'Riki Don't Lose That Number', 'Deacon Blues', 'The Royal Scam' etc. but today the sublime 'Babylon Sisters' stood out.

This is from Steely Dan's 'Goucho' album that has this great image on the cover.

This song is so slick and smooth it slips into the consciousness with its sleazy lyrics and subtle chords. I love it.

The word is that when Donald Fagan put this song together (as usual using many great session musicians) he pushed them to hundreds of takes and, when finished, brought some back for a redo because he didn't like one bass line. The guy's a perfectionist but the result in this and in almost all of Steely Dan's music is an enduring sound that perfectly matches the quirky and esoteric lyrics.

I strongly recommend this.