SAME NAME/DIFFERENT ARTIST: MARC/K ALMOND

When I was a boy I was always suspicious of Marcs, feeling them to be a little affected in their ways, a name for hairdressers and models, not actually realising that the name, in that spelling, is a diminutive, for Marcus. Marks always seemed more manly. Anyway, this is not a tale of two Marc/ks, being a little more complicated than that, as Marc Almond is one person and Mark Almond, or to be more correct, Mark-Almond were a core of two, but with anything up to another 30 associated. Let me explain........

Jon Mark, guitar/vocals, and Johnny Almond, sax and flute, were a pair of jobbing musicians in the 60s, each earning a pedigree from a combination of sessions and the company they kept. Mark was in the short-lived 'Sweet Thursday', alongside Nicky Hopkins, later becoming bandleader and musical arranger for Marianne Faithfull's nascent works. Almond was kept busy in 'Zoot Money's Big Roll Band', also including later Police-man, Andy Summers, and the ex-Animal, Alan Price's 'Alan Price Set'. Meeting on the sessions scene and becoming members of the legendary John Mayall's band, like all Mayall alumni, the logical next step was to form a band. Arguably jazzers more than rockers, their music was a hybrid of the two, with hints of the later Steely Dan in some of the moods evoked. Augmented by a swathe of the great and the good in both genres, with the likes of Billy Cobham, Dannie Richmond and Steve Gadd present on occasion, individually if not collectively, and that is just the drummers. They actually lasted way longer than just the first two albums I am familiar with, with a number of reunions, ahead of finally calling it a day in the mid 80s. Mark still plays music, producing new-age and celtic fare, actually gaining a Grammy for a record of tibetan chants in 2004. Almond died in 2009.

Marc Almond actually was a Mark, leaving this behind him as he started his musical career. (What did he leave behind him? Do keep up.) With training in performance art, his childhood idols were Marc Bolan and David Bowies, hints of whom remain evident in his extravagant feyness. It was whilst he was at college that he met Dave Ball, the pair forming 'Soft Cell' in around 1980, with massive worldwide success arriving in 1981 with 'Tainted Love', a song by Gloria Jones, the wife (and widow) of Bolan, originally the b-side and segued with 'Where Did Our Love Go', the Supreme's hit. More slow burning in the U.S. than Europe, it got as far as number 8 on the Billboard chart, but later held the record for the most number of consecutive weeks on the chart. Some further success followed but the band were short-lived, splitting 3 years later, bar a later (or the inevitable) brief reunion tour.

Since then Almond has had a varied career, veering between distinctly arthouse material and more obvious chart-bothering, such as gloriously over the top duets with Gene Pitney and with Bronski Beat. His camp persona and theatrical overtones seemed  entirely appropriate for Gallic chanson styles, and one success came with his covers of Jacques Brel, 'Jacques', and then a more varied set in a similar style, 'Absinthe'. Later years saw him move to Moscow and work with russian artists on traditional folk song based material. In 2004, and back in London, he sustained a life-threatening motorbike accident, taking some few years to recover. Sustained by a decidedly odd covers album, he has since been been energetically pursuing increasingly widespread projects, with collaborators as disparate as neo-classical composer, John Harle, and, as above, boogie-woogie TV presenter and ex-Squeeze pianist, Jools Holland, with whom he has toured extensively.

I feel some irony that, given the purpose of this piece, to demarcate the differences between the similarly named artists, now, in 2019, the idea of Marc Almond fronting Mark-Almond would seem strangely not so odd. A pity it can't happen.

K.
C.

BBQ/Grill: Mixed Grill

purchase Ray Charles: Mess Around
purchase John Mayall :All Those Heroes
purchase Peter Gabriel :And Through the Wire

Andy La Ray Gun and I are neighbors. His digs are an apartment; mine a secluded house with its own garden. And a decent charcoal grill. As the designated cook of the household, I used to be considerably more dedicated to the grill method, but we’ve cut down on the meat consumption. Well, red meat, that is. The grill for us is primarily a variation for our fish, and the city where Andy and I live is famous for its seasonal fish such as the palamut and the lufer as they swim south through the Bosphorus starting in the fall. Fish season here starts after summer is over, so … it’s grill season for me.

That said, as others here have noted, I belatedly found that although I was able to research and come up with a list of hundreds of songs that include grill or BBQ in the lyrics, there is no small number of them that are actually about teeth grills – and most of them are not familiar to me. Says something about our times or my musical knowledge, I guess.

On the other hand, a little digging produces a number of classics (classics partly by dint of their age) in which the grill we originally meant to feature is a … er, feature … of the song. None of the below are songs about grilling, per se. They just happen to mention that grilling is a pleasant part of life: Take for instance the Ray Charles tune called “Mess Around”. Based on a boogie tune from the 30s/40s, Ahmet Ertegun is credited with writing the song. (Atlantic Records, and a man who would have been well versed in the art of grilling the palamut): “You can talk about the pit barbeque, the band was jumpin’ …” just watch them jump!"

Or, you might relate to John Mayall’s “All Those Heroes …”. You’ll have to listen closely or dig a bit to his tangential reference to “Barbeque Bob Blind Fuller”, but you are sure to relish the man’s ability to transition between vocals and mouth harp. At that age! I was left breathless.

One more similarly tangential reference to grilling pops up in Peter Gabriel’s “And Through the Wire,” where he sings “ barbeque parties on blood red sands…” – your interpretation ... belongs to you.

And Bands: Eric Clapton Edition

John Mayall and the Bluesbreakers: Steppin’ Out

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Delaney and Bonnie with Eric Clapton: Poor Elijah

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Derek and the Dominos: It’s Too Late

[purchase]

There are some pretty obscure pieces of trivia in the Guinness Book of World Records, but “Artist associated with the most And Bands” is probably not one of them. My guess would be that the record is held by Eric Clapton.

Eric Clapton’s first recorded work was with the Yardbirds, but the style that he became famous for first began to take shape during his brief tenure with John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers. Clapton only made one album with them, in 1966, but that was enough to start his legend as a blues-rock guitar god. The album was simply called John Mayall and the Bluesbreakers With Eric Clapton. Mayall had a deep love of the blues, a great talent for finding sidemen who would go on to greater glory, and a horrible singing voice. He was also generous to his bandmates. Steppin’ Out is one of several instrumentals from the album that prominently featured Clapton’s guitar, and the album also included Clapton’s first recorded vocal, on Ramblin’ on My Mind.

Of course, Clapton cemented his early fame in Cream, starting later in 1966, but I have excluded them from this post for obvious reasons. Cream was followed by Blind Faith, another band that does not fit our theme. But the opening act for Blind Faith was Delaney and Bonnie and Friends. Clapton quickly became one of those friends, and his association with Delaney and Bonnie Bramlett would last longer than Blind Faith did. The Bramletts made important contributions to Clapton’s first solo album. Bonnie even co-wrote one of Clapton’s early solo hits, Let it Rain.

Finally, this post would not be complete without Derek and the Dominos. The band consisted of Clapton, plus Delaney and Bonnie’s rhythm section, joined on their best known album by Duane Allman. They are seen here on Johnny Cash’s old TV show. Cash knew well the connections between country music and the blues, and it’s great to see that the in studio audience appreciated this as well. I’m not that the audiences for what passes for country music these days would respond this way, although I would like to think so.

1967: The Supernatural

John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers: The Supernatural

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I grew up in a small town. The only merchant in town was a general store that did not sell records. The nearest town of any size was five miles away. And, in 1967, I was seven years old. Yet, I heard many of the newest rock albums the day they were released. How? My oldest brother was twelve, and that nearby town had a Woolworth’s that sold records. They were very inexpensive by today’s standards, even adjusting for inflation. And my brother had a talent for begging my mother to take him into town the day the new albums came out. So I was naturally steeped in the blues-rock of the day, especially what was coming out of England. But not John Mayall. The music of John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers was something I had to go back for years later.

As 1967 dawned, Eric Clapton had left the Bluesbreakers for Cream. His replacement was Peter Green. In addition to Mayall, the other long term member of the band was bass player John McVie. Drummer Mick Fleetwood did not play on Mayall’s new album, A Hard Road, but Fleetwood did play on some of the sessions that were discarded, and he also played some live dates with the group. The Supernatural was one song that Peter Green wrote for the Bluesbreakers, and it may sound familiar. By 1969, Green and McVie would leave the Bluesbreakers to form Fleetwood Mac with Mick Fleetwood and Jeremy Spencer. Green would rework The Supernatural, adding lyrics and vocals, and tweaking the instrumental part. The result was Black Magic Woman.

Johns: John Mayall

John Mayall: Have You Heard

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I mentioned here that John Mayall was the center of the British blues-rock scene of the 1960s. Most of the major figures in the scene perfected their art in Mayall’s band the Bluesbreakers, before going off on their own. Most notably, that’s Eric Clapton on lead guitar on Have You Heard. Jimmy page also did time in John Mayall’s band. Mayall himself plays harmonica, piano, and rhythm guitar, and does a fine job in each case.

So why isn’t John Mayall better known? First of all, there is his voice. Mayall almost always insists on taking the lead vocals. To be kind, his voice is an acquired taste.

I think there is also another reason. John Mayall’s artistry belonged to a particular time and place. As blues-rock faded from view, Mayall tried to adapt and change his sound to fit the times. He relocated to California and his sound mellowed, but he never sounded comfortable or passionate about what he was doing on his 1970s releases. More recently, he has tried to return to his earlier sound, but he doesn’t seem to be able to recapture the early spark. But, for a brief moment, he created some of the most impassioned music you could ever care to hear.

Bonus Track:

Fleetwood Mac: Drifting

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Back here, I made a side comment about Fleetwood Mac starting out as a blues band. Original members included Mick Fleetwood on drums, John McVie on bass, and Peter Green on lead guitar and vocals, as well as Jeremy Spencer on slide guitar. Spencer is the only one who did not come out of John Mayall’s band. Fleetwood and McVie are the only remaining original members, and their last names are where the band got its name.