Category: [Music]

Jimmy finds his way over

Jimmy Cliff, Jamaican reggae singer, actor and cultural icon, dies aged 81

A message from his wife Latifa Chambers on Instagram reads: “It’s with profound sadness that I share that my husband, Jimmy Cliff, has crossed over due to a seizure followed by pneumonia. I am thankful for his family, friends, fellow artists and coworkers who have shared his journey with him. To all his fans around the world, please know that your support was his strength throughout his whole career … Jimmy, my darling, may you rest in peace. I will follow your wishes.” Her message was also signed by their children, Lilty and Aken.
With hits including You Can Get It If You Really Want, I Can See Clearly Now and Wonderful World, Beautiful People, Cliff’s upbeat musical temperament brought him a large and longstanding fanbase. His lead acting role in 1972 crime drama The Harder They Come was also acclaimed, with the film seen as a cornerstone of Jamaican cinema.
He is one of just a handful of musicians, alongside Bob Marley and others, to be awarded the Jamaican Order of Merit.
Jamaican prime minister Andrew Holness was among those paying tribute to Cliff, calling him “a true cultural giant whose music carried the heart of our nation to the world … Jimmy Cliff told our story with honesty and soul. His music lifted people through hard times, inspired generations, and helped to shape the global respect that Jamaican culture enjoys today.”

An anniversary I missed

Indeed, an anniversary pretty much everyone I follow online seems to have missed. Have I just not been paying attention? Anyway, let’s rectify that lack of recognition. Apart from the historical importance of it being their first show, it was also noteworthy for causing a fracture in the headline act, a mob called Bazooka Joe, who hated the Pistols with their bassist being the only one who enjoyed them, and the latter went off to form his own band, which turned into Adam and the Ants about 18 months later. Da diddly qua qua indeed.

RIP Space Ace

Ace Frehley’s comet has gone back to the stars. Really, it’s kind of surprising in some respects that he lasted this long, given his propensity for substance abuse when he was in Kiss, but all credit to him for finally getting off the shit and managing fine without those other two guys. People are sorry to see Ace go. I don’t think they’ll miss Paul or Gene the same way (especially not the latter).

Dalek tripper?

Going through my download folder, I was reminded that I grabbed this off Bluesky a few months ago… two of my favourite 1960s British pop culture icons together? Amazing. But today I suddenly had an attack  of “oh no, what if this is actually a Photoshop job or, worse, AI?”; I couldn’t imagine why someone would do such a thing, but at the same time it also feels like the exact sort of thing someone would do… So, quick research ensued, and lo, this bloody thing is apparently authentic; apparently it was taken at the Cannes Film Festival, the Fabs had just finished making Help! so they had a film to promote… and so did Milton Subotsky, that being Dr. Who and the Daleks, the big screen version of a certain BBC show that I suppose Amicus/Aaru thought they should make a film of while it was still popular and before it faded from TV screens, never to be remembered again… So yeah, evidently a Dalek did have a close encounter with Lennon, at least; both films came out within a few weeks of each other, too. I just wonder now who the guy lurking ominously to the back and left of the photo is…

Steven Patrick calls it off again

Oh look, it’s Morrissey cancelling shows again! Who’d have ever thought? This time, though, he apparently has a good excuse:

Morrissey has cancelled two shows in the US over a “credible threat on his life”, according to his official Facebook page.
The former Smiths singer, 66, was due to appear at Foxwoods Resort Casino in Mashantucket, Connecticut, on Friday night, and at MGM Music Hall at Fenway in Boston, Massachusetts, on Saturday.
But a statement posted on his Facebook account on Friday evening said: “In recent days, there has been a credible threat on Morrissey’s life. Out of an abundance of caution for the safety of both the artist and audience, tonight’s engagement at Foxwoods has been cancelled. We appreciate your understanding.”
A second post said both the shows had been cancelled due to “recent events and out of an abundance of caution for the safety of both the artist and band”. […]
Earlier this week a 26-year-old man from Ottawa, Canada, was released on bail after allegedly threatening to kill Morrissey at his performance in the city.
The man is accused of issuing a threat against Morrissey on Bluesky on 4 September, the Ottawa Citizen reported, citing court documents.
According to the news outlet, a post on the social media platform read: “Steven Patrick Morrissey when you perform at TD Place here in Ottawa next week on the evening of September 12th, 2025 at about 9pm, I will be present at the venue in the audience and I will attempt to shoot you many times and kill you with a very large gun that I own illegally.”

I’m not sure what difference the legality of the very large gun makes here, and I just find that a very odd statement. But, as the article also notes, the Ottawa show went ahead as normal, unlike these other two shows he’s pulled out of. Is Moz just full of shit, or was the American threat more credible than the Canadian one? Admittedly I feel like he’s more likely to be the quarry (sorry) in the US than in Canada, because, let’s face it, America, but still… Anyway, I think if someone really wanted to hurt SPM, they’d do it by going up to him and rubbing a steak in his face…

Reborn in the USA

Thiscomes interestingly timed after that bullshit the other day where Aaron Lewis was whining about being later than everyone else to realise “Born in the USA” actually wasn’t the ra-ra anthem he thought it was… this is the so-called “Electric Nebraska” version; having done the home recordings that turned into the Nebraska album, Bruce then tried to work up full band versions of those songs but wasn’t happy with the results and scrapped them (until now, with an expanded Nebraska featuring those E Street Band recordings coming out soon). However, the sessions had produced a number of other songs that would be reworked for Born in the USA, including the title track… whether or not the 1982 version above is better as such than the 1984 one is obviously a matter of taste, though I think it might actually be. And, either way, it’s different enough in its approach that even Aaron Lewis might realise the bitterness underpinning it.

It’s been a while (since everyone else learned this)

Staind’s Aaron Lewis: Bruce Springsteen “Duped Us All with One of the Most Anti-American Songs Ever”

Staind frontman and outspoken conservative Aaron Lewis recently made an appearance on The Tucker Carlson Show, during which he was asked about his thoughts on Bruce Springsteen, whose political beliefs are in strong opposition to those of the post-grunge rocker.
Not surprisingly, Lewis proceeded to go on a tirade, accusing The Boss of being unpatriotic and fooling everyone with one of the most “anti-American songs ever.”
“I think that he is a disgusting display of not appreciating what was handed to him, in this country as being an American, the success that he has had,” Lewis told Carlson (as transcribed by Blabbermouth). “The fact that he duped us all with one of the most anti-American songs ever and called it ‘Born in the USA’ as some sort of celebration of how great it is to be born in the USA. I’m angry at myself for not seeing it for so long and actually giving him, in my mind, the credit of being a representation of blue-collar America.”
Springsteen wrote “Born in the USA” from the perspective of a Vietnam War veteran who was disillusioned with the way the country treated him upon his return home, but the song has often been misinterpreted as a patriotic anthem.

Aaron Lewis has apparently only just discovered the concept of irony. Meanwhile, I suspect most music fans who care about this sort of thing have been aware for decades that “Born in the USA” was celebrating piss all and was far more about standing up for the blue-collar Americans drafted into that shitty war who then got ignored when they returned home having lost it. I suspect, mind you, that brother Aaron should be less angry that he was too stupid to realise what a certain song was well known to actually be about and more that Springsteen looks better at 76 than he does at 53…

Come back to the Moon

So I heard this in full for the first time today:

“Everyone’s Gone to the Moon” by Jonathan King, a song I’d heard of but never properly heard until now; it was a fairly substantial hit in its day (1965) but somehow it completely bypassed me until this afternoon. I can only assume that at least part of why that should be is down to King’s later, er, career as a convicted sex offender, you know, a bit like why you don’t hear much from Gary Glitter any more… But there is another song I have known for a lot of years that suddenly shone in a new light after hearing this one:

The Humblebums featuring Billy Connolly in 1969 (before Gerry Rafferty joined), with “Why Don’t They Come Back to Dunoon”. I actually only have this on cassette so haven’t been able to listen to it in I don’t know how many years, but “Dunoon” has always been my favourite song on it… and, listening to the King song today, I suddenly realised “Dunoon” had an earlier model. Not an exact match, but near enough…

…Indeed, had I ever done any discographical research into the Big Yin, I might actually have discovered this fact years ago, cos there it is right there on the label of the First Collection album. This is, obviously, a somewhat meaningless discovery but I’m kind of amused to have finally made it; as for which of the two I ultimately prefer, well, there’s an undeniably appealing wistful quality to the original, but, you know, the pedophile thing. So I think Billy & Tam win by default.