Black Grape It’s Great When You’re Straight…Yeah

Johnny Blue Skies Passage Du Desir

Sly and the Family Stone Anthology

The Smiths Strangeways Here We Come

Talking Heads Tentative Decisions: Demos & Live

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Black Grape It’s Great When You’re Straight…Yeah

I don’t remember how I was introduced to the music of Black Grape. It wasn’t something I went looking for, so I suspect one or more of the CDs I have were acquired in an assorted box that I bought sometime over the years. I either had three CDs in the box, or I bought two after hearing one. Either way, I have three Black Grape albums. I don’t have a favourite; they all have their moments of ecstasy. I must have been on a funk wave; Black Grape contains elements of funk, and Sly and the Family Stone are as funky as funky gets. Black Grape wanders all over the genre map, sometimes funk, sometimes rock, & sometimes WTF is that!

They are very good at setting up a groove and then riding that for four or five minutes. There are religious overtones wandering through their music, but it is hard to nail anything to a cross and call it spiritual music. It is more of a commentary and a side note to a bigger picture. 

Wikipedia: 

The songs “Reverend Black Grape” and “In the Name of the Father” are good examples of this kind of lyric. Ryder attributed the various religious imagery across the album to Samuel L. Jackson’s character, Jules, in the 1994 film Pulp Fiction, in the way Jules would recite Bible passages, as well as to his own Irish Catholic upbringing.

I label Black Grape as a very listenable band, and It’s Great When You’re Straight…Yeah, a great album. I have three of their four studio albums and will keep an eye out for the fourth. Meanwhile, I am listening to them as I write this; the other two albums are in the car waiting for my next drive.

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Johnny Blue Skies Passage Du Desir

I have listened to Passage Du Desir only once, so I will revisit it sometime in the future (who knows when) and see how it grows on me. 

Sturgill Simpson debuted the alter ego Johnny Blue Skies for his eighth album, Passage du Desir. Simpson is an eclectic character, and all of his albums are unique, showcasing his varied musical styles and lyrical depth.

Writing for Glide Magazine, Shawn Donohue stated that this release includes all of “Simpson’s core”, with “the mixing of outlaw-based country with classic Nashville pop and slightly psychedelic flourishes”, with powerful production. I lean towards Passage du Desir, straddling the gap between Outlaw Country and Nashville country. This album gives us the rawness and openness of Outlaw Country, along with some of the strings and such from the Nashville Sound. There is something for every fan of North American country and western music. There are hurtin’ love songs, songs about the desire to be loved, and songs full of wonder and amazement at the glory of being alive and the sadness of being alive. This album is full of great songs, opening with Swamp of Sadness. I think the title tells us a lot about the content.

“I row against the undertow, drifting, my anchor away

A drunken sailor lost and lonely in a sad and magic swamp.”

Moving through “Jupiter’s Faerie,” which is my favourite track on an album full of great music and more intriguing, captivating lyrics than most top-ten artists could only dream of. I have been listening to Passage du Desir as I write this, and it is better the second time around. I look forward to the third and fourth listens.

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Record Store Day 2025

Record Store Day at Record Collectors Paradise was busy. I got there at 10:45, and there were about 20 people in front of me. The guy at the front of the line had been waiting since 6:00. By the time I got into the store, the only record left from my want list was a copy of Talking Heads Demos and Live, which was the top item on my shopping list anyway. They are pricey, $60 per album. I am leaning towards calling Record Store Day a money grab.

I have to revise my completist list. I have all of the Talking Heads studio albums and the live album, Stop Making Sense. I also have all the Pink Floyd albums except Endless River, which I do not like in the least. I also have all the albums by Humphrey and the Dumptrucks. There is probably more, but I just don’t track that demographic. I will have to give that some consideration, with it perhaps being included on the 2026 list.

Back to the Talking Heads, the Demos and Live album gives us a view of what they sounded like at the beginning of their career. There is a rawness to the sound which fits with their early CBGB days as a punk/new wave band. They only had the three original members, Tina Weymouth, Chris Frantz and David Byrne. I was enamoured with the bass lines of Tina Weymouth. She had only been playing the bass guitar for a short time, but I can hear the potential in her playing, and it has only gotten better and better over the years. I was also intrigued by the lead guitar licks that David Byrne was laying down. For some reason, I don’t picture him as a lead guitar player. I label him as a rhythm guitar player with some picking here and there. He is, in fact, a good guitar player who carries his own weight in the band. I think my misconception stems from the Stop Making Sense tour, where he mainly played rhythm guitar, with another guitarist handling many of the lead parts. Anyhow, David Byrne was developing as a musician through these early demos, and it is interesting to hear how the band changed over the years. I saw David Byrne on tour for his American Utopia album, and several songs from the Talking Heads canon were played in that production. It was an amazing show, but I can’t remember what instrument Byrne played, probably a guitar. I should watch that show again.

I listened to the first side of Talking Heads Demos and Live with my son Joel, who is sharp when it comes to music, and he agreed with me that it is an interesting album, but not one that will be played again for a long time. It is a glimpse of where the band were coming from, and the rough, raw demos held a certain charm, but not at the level of the albums that those songs eventually landed on.

The Smiths Strange Ways Here We Come

I bought this album when it was still hot off the press. It is an interesting album, the fourth and last album by the Smiths, and I enjoyed listening to it again. I did a studious, focused listen and liked what I heard. The way the sound comes from one speaker and then moves to the middle to meet something from the other direction. Good work in the lab by a bunch of very talented men. In Wikipedia, Morrissey, the lead vocalist, is “characterized by his baritone voice and distinctive lyrics with  anti-establishment stances and recurring themes of emotional isolation, sexual longing, self-deprecation, and dark humour.” I agree with all of that. He certainly has a distinct narrative singing style. The lyrics are often spurious and relate to Morrissey’s fascination with unrequited love. It has been reported that Strange Ways Here We Come is the favourite album of both Morrissey, the singer and lyricist, and the musician Johnny Marr.

I found myself relating to quite a bit of the lyrics, slices of real life. I also found myself immersed in the music. Strange Ways Here We Come is a win-win: great lyrics and equally great music. I give a 9 out of 10.

Sly and the Family Stone Anthology

What we have here is a collection of some of the best funk ever recorded, as well as some great music touching other genres.

Wikipedia agrees with me:

“Sly and the Family Stone was an American band formed in San Francisco, California, in 1966 and active until 1983. Their work, which blended elements of funk, soul, psychedelic rock, gospel, and R&B, became a pivotal influence on subsequent American popular music. Their core line-up was led by singer-songwriter, producer, and multi-instrumentalist Sly Stone, and included Stone’s siblings Freddie Stone (guitar, vocals) and Rose Stone (keyboard, vocals) alongside Cynthia Robinson (trumpet, vocals), Greg Errico (drums), Jerry Martini (saxophone), and Larry Graham (bass, vocals). The band was the first major American rock group to have a racially integrated, mixed-gender lineup.”

I had to listen to this album twice, as I did with all of the albums this week. There are so many nuances at play that it’s easy to miss a great snippet of music or lyrical content. Great popular music is not confined to one genre, or even two. Sly and the Family Stone are great examples of this. They are moving in the realms of funk, of course, with soul, rock, and psychedelic mixed in. The real magic is that they are original and very good at making music.

Wikipedia:

“Formed in 1966, the group synthesized a variety of musical genres to pioneer the emerging “psychedelic soul” sound. They released a series of Top 10 Billboard Hot 100 hits such as “Dance to the Music” (1968), “Everyday People” (1968), “Hot Fun in the Summertime” (1969), and “Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin)” (1969), as well as critically acclaimed albums such as Stand! (1969), which combined pop sensibility with social commentary. In the 1970s, Sly was transitioning into a darker and less commercial funk sound on releases such as There’s a Riot Goin’ On (1971) and Fresh(1973), proving as influential as their early work.”

Only five albums hit the platter this week, partially due to relistening to all of the albums and partially due to listening to bits and pieces of other music here and there, YouTube, Soundgarden, Spotify and such. I can predict some of the music I will be exploring this week. There will be four or five Smiths playing an assortment of music, but mostly C/W. The Smiths, Strange Ways Here We Come was the start of the “Smith” wave. Beyond that, there will be more Italian music from a band new to me, Messiness, thanks as always to Shameless Promotion PR. I wish I had bought this album when I was in Italy. More crying over spilt milk from Norman. Have fun and listen to music.