The Pixies mainman welcomes us to his planet of sound: “It’s a must to embrace the simplicity, the rawness”
THE FEBRUARY 2025 ISSUE OF UNCUT, STARRING THE BAND, THE YARDBIRDS, SHARON VAN ETTEN, KEITH RICHARDS, THE VERVE, ASWAD AND MORE IS AVAILABLE TO ORDER NOW
THE BEATLES
The Beatles
APPLE, 1968
This is able to not have been my first Beatles expertise, but it surely’s in all probability the primary one which related with me in a extra mental manner. Songs like “Why Don’t We Do It In The Highway?” or “Birthday” are very minimalist. There’s an angle of, ‘We don’t must do a very massive, fleshed-out music.’ “Happiness Is A Heat Gun” is extra refined, it goes to loads of completely different locations. However “Wild Honey Pie” is only a stomp with the identical phrase again and again. Not all listeners are going to be essentially snug with that, or no less than not immediately. It’s a must to embrace the simplicity, the rawness and the minimalism. So I actually credit score ‘The White Album’ with introducing me to that form of thought.
CAT STEVENS
Mona Bone Jakon
ISLAND/A&M, 1970
My mother and father took me to see Harold And Maude when it got here out [in 1971] and that’s the place I’d have heard this music first, earlier than I had a replica of the report. They’re pop music preparations, with percussion and background vocals and keyboards and typically strings, but it surely’s nonetheless dry – not super-fancy, not lush, it’s extra about the great thing about the instrument. And naturally, the true instrument of magnificence on that report is Cat Stevens’ voice. His vocal supply could be very authentic – it has this stunning masculine muskiness to it. And one of many issues I like about Cat Stevens is that even when he’s being valuable in a singer-songwriter form of manner, you actually imagine him. No matter he’s promoting, it’s so convincing.
DONOVAN
Best Hits
EPIC, 1969
This will likely have even preceded my relationship with The Beatles. I’d determined I needed to be a drummer, so for my eighth birthday I acquired a snare drum and a small crash image and a pair of drumsticks. “Mellow Yellow” is a type of few nice rock’n’roll songs the place there’s one easy factor of the drumkit that’s virtually the hook of the music. So although I didn’t have a hi-hat, I might do a reasonably good play-along model of “Mellow Yellow”. I listened to “Hurdy Gurdy Man” and “Season Of The Witch” and all the opposite songs, however [“Mellow Yellow”] particularly was necessary to me, as a result of it was the primary time I picked up an instrument and took part with what I used to be listening to.
BOB DYLAN
Best Hits Vol II
COLUMBIA, 1971
My cousin used to dwell with us sometimes. He would typically depart information behind, and this was one in every of them. I’d have been about eight or 9 years outdated and I used to be in all probability dreaming about being in some form of a band. So that is the report that will have actually given me a notion of angle. It’s not only a music, it’s not only a efficiency, but it surely’s the angle of the artist, which in Dylan’s case was just a little bit flippant: ‘I’m not going to coddle you, you’re not essentially going to get all this, you’ve simply obtained to return alongside for the experience and luxuriate in it as finest you’ll be able to.’ “Watching The River Stream” might be nonetheless one in every of my favorite Bob Dylan songs.
RY COODER
Paradise And Lunch
REPRISE, 1974
That is one other report that obtained left behind at my mother and father’ home by my cousin. It’s very nicely produced but it surely’s not slick. It’s recorded very fastidiously, to convey out the rawness of blues and gospel music. Later I’d realise, in fact, that he’s a notable guitarist and he’s identified for his prowess on the instrument. However after I listened to that report, it was all concerning the choice of the fabric and the humour that he brings. As just a little child I didn’t perceive all of it, however that’s after I began to get my first whiff of sexual innuendo, double meanings. However it’s completed in a really lighthearted, virtually vaudevillian form of manner. It’s very charming. To at the present time, if I don’t know what to take heed to, I’ll placed on Paradise And Lunch.
JOHN MAYALL’S BLUES BREAKERS
Blues Breakers With Eric Clapton
DECCA, 1966
I’d been given a stack of information by the bodily schooling coach at my faculty, as a result of he wanted one other participant on the baseball crew. It included some Leon Russell information and about 5 or 6 John Mayall information. Rising up within the early ’70s, you don’t uncover the blues from listening to Lead Stomach, however from [the Blues Breakers]. And I actually love John Mayall’s voice. It’s unassuming, a bit fragile, not essentially exhibiting loads of angle, simply making an attempt to serve the music. It’s not making an attempt to emote and sing to the again of the room. It’s just a little extra like folks music – it doesn’t have the strut of ’70s onerous rock that will ultimately grow to be Spinal Faucet.
THE JIMI HENDRIX EXPERIENCE
Electrical Ladyland
TRACK/REPRISE, 1968
I used to be beginning to take heed to music just a little on the loud aspect, and I imagine I took this report out of the library. I knew “All Alongside The Watchtower” already from Bob Dylan’s Best Hits, so for me at the moment it will have been a ‘normal’. After which right here’s this guitar man very casually manhandling this music, simply dominating it and making it his personal. There’s a kind of fearless aggression, like, ‘I don’t care that one of many best songwriters of the twentieth century wrote this music, I’m gonna do my very own fucking model of it.’ That was an early indicator to me, as a musician, [that I had] permission to do thatmyself if I needed to. Adequate for Jimi Hendrix, ok for me!
JETHRO TULL
Stand Up
ISLAND/REPRISE, 1969
Jethro Tull was my first live performance, after I was 14. It was largely due to Aqualung, which I totally love. However the report I found after that was their second report, Stand Up. It doesn’t have the cleanliness that perhaps later Tull information have, the place there may be perhaps extra deal with taking part in issues appropriately. It’s extra of a blur, however behind the blur is one thing that’s virtually just a little bit punky, just a little rude. It’s the place you actually hear Ian Anderson’s flute solos the place he’s simply spitting everywhere in the factor – you hear loads of his breath popping out. It’s obtained the spirit of making an attempt to show one thing. It’s obtained loads of oomph, and I actually respect it for that.
A Thirtieth-anniversary vinyl remaster of Frank Black’s Teenager Of The Yr can be launched by 4AD on January 17; he’ll carry out the album in its entirety on the London Palladium on February 6
