Grow Fins

Long out of print, this is one of the most difficult albums I’ve ever tried to acquire. It’s stunning. Peter Walker studied with Ravi Shankar briefly in Los Angeles and with Ali Akbar Khan in San Francisco. He was a marginal member of the early ’60s Cambridge Mass. and Greenwich Village folk scene where he recorded and released only 2 albums. He released his third album only last year after a 40 year hiatus. Rainy Day Raga was released on Vanguard Records in 1966. It’s a collection of solo guitar instrumental pieces built around eastern compositional structures. It’s a beautiful recording. Shame it’s so difficult to find. I ripped these VBR MP3s myself from my own copy of the CD which was available only briefly in the late ’80s – probably fewer than 5000 copies were made. God knows where they’ve ended up. In a gesture of respect to the artist, I am making the album available here to download for free since no record company seems interested in making the album available commercially. Enjoy

This is a very interesting album. It might have sounded better if the true identity of the recording artist remained a mystery. For whatever reason, Paul McCartney has decided to unmask his alter ego and hopefully, it won’t work against him. Now I’ve never been a big McCartney fan and my Beatles dalliances remain safely tucked away in my adolescent musical explorations. However, one cannot but acknowledge the undeniable talent and originality of this half of the Lennon-McCartney composing behemoth.

The Fireman first emerged with the 1998 release titled Rushes – a very notable electronic/ambient effort from the McCartney/Youth team-up – and now a difficult to find collectible. Played today, it’s still relevant as an example of its genre and no doubt, few would have guessed or cared that it was in fact a former Beatle collaboration. Why he has decided to resurrect the Fireman pseudonym with the release late last year of Electric Arguments is anyone’s guess but my theory is that as an astute businessman, McCartney realises that his creative output is very much constrained by his brand and the audience that would consume it. As one of the most famous faces of music in our time, he’s in a tight spot. If he decides to pursue his creative ideas and releases something inconsistent with his existing catalog, he will inevitably alienate himself from his loyal fan base. Furthermore, he would probably not draw sufficient attention from new audiences to offset such alienation. So his only option is to release alternative work through a handy pseudonym.

This is a good album and, unlike Rushes, there is something for everyone. The opener, ‘Nothing Too Much, Just Out of Sight’ is a blistering gospel blues incantation as penetrating as anything by Muddy Waters or Son of Dave. The subsequent tracks are a range of innovative well produced pieces and melodic electronic numbers not foreign to the McCartney songbook. The packaging (on the Little India release anyway) is beautiful – a nondescript crimson outer sleeve betraying the author’s true identity (this could have been more subtle) and a coated gate-fold inner package with a transparent decal on the cellophane inner wrapper and finally within, a substantial book in colour containing some decent impromptu studio photographs of the man himself and his co-author Youth, as well as some (presumably) original paintings by Paul. I rate this album 4 out of 5 stars – a worthy listen and testament to the boundless talent of this pop music icon. The fact that something this good can come out of a pop musician well past his prime is proof once again that one is never too old to rock ‘n roll. [J.Smith]



Rushes, the first Fireman release is now only available as an MP3 download from Amazon. Get it here…

They paved the way for punk, but have been forgotten by history. A new film revisits the strange world from which Dr Feelgood came.
Nick Hasted The Independent 13 February 2009

Making a film about Dr Feelgood, it was a bit like Spinal Tap – like they never existed,” says Julien Temple. “There was this band that was the biggest in England for 18 months, that no one remembers.”

Temple’s hit, Joe Strummer: The Future Is Unwritten (2007), confirmed his reputation as Britain’s best rock documentarian. But his follow-up, Oil City Confidential, seen exclusively in rough cut by The Independent, uncovers a less familiar, equally fascinating tale. Dr Feelgood are remembered in rock history, if at all, as John the Baptists to punk’s messiahs, ruling the short-lived pub-rock scene of the mid-1970s. But rare footage uncovered by Temple shows them to be one of the most exhilarating live bands Britain has ever produced. Their late singer Lee Brilleaux does press-ups mid-song, while guitarist Wilko Johnson stalks the stage, wild-eyed. Oil City Confidential also portrays the lost English world the band came from: fading pastel home-movies of bungalows and Biblical floods in post-war Canvey Island, Essex.
the full story here

School board says sorry for 1960 uproar over concert
Feb 12, 2009 04:30 AM Toronto Star Raquel Maria Dillon ASSOCIATED PRESS

LOS ANGELES–Nearly a half century ago, amid the suspicion and fears of McCarthyism, folk singer Pete Seeger faced an ultimatum from the San Diego school district: sign an oath against communism or cancel a concert he planned at a high school auditorium.

Seeger, who at the time was under scrutiny for his leftist politics, refused to sign the oath. A judge allowed the concert to proceed anyway.
the full story here