Welcome to the RPM Seven Day Soundtrack, week ending Friday 4th March 2022. Offering a few hours brief musical respite from the barbaric actions continuing to be inflicted upon Ukraine this week; over to...

Dave -

"Hi RPMers, hope you are well. Here’s my 3 tunes this week."

Piers -

"This weeks choices are actually last weeks choices, which I had selected, but I was far too distracted to send, so could I please have a Bonus Track to make up for it for this week?" (Go on, then. Tim)

Jackie -

"Ecstatic to hear Gav Williamson getting a knighthood; no one deserves it more.

Here are some songs from the film A Knight's Tale in honour of his achievement."

Philip -

"Horrific images from Ukraine this week and disgusting ones from Russia... all very distressing. I hope some of the Praetorian Guard that no doubt surrounds Czar Putin turn out to be less loyal to him than he believes they are.

Meanwhile, since I've been getting nostalgic about old favourite albums this week, I thought I'd be nostalgic in my 7DS selections too. About 45 years ago my old boss, Mr. Coates, gave me a box of singles left in his garage by his now-married daughter. There were three that particularly interested me. These are those three.

Best wishes and good health to all RPMers."

Tony -

"Direct from my little spot by the Sleepy Lagoon...The Desert Island Albums exercise has helped to take my mind away from the deadly antics going on in Ukraine for some of the time and I'm looking forward to seeing everybody elses choices! In the mean time, these are my 3 weekly choices."

Alan -

"Two out of three, well, all three really, are 'tributes this week. As I've said before, I generally tap my stuff out on Saturday/Sunday night while watching footie and send it on Tuesday to Tim. So, anything that happens after that ........(see below!!!😱😱😱*)

Anyway, two of my favourite artists passed away last week and I thought I'd pay a tribute a week late (thanks to Jackie for the Gary Brooker tribute BTW) so here's remembering Gary and Mark Lanegan (lead singer for the late lamented Screaming Trees). I was lucky enough to see Procol Harum and Amazing Blondel at Sheffield City Hall on January 25th 1972 and a fine double bill it was too. Unfortunately I never managed to catch either Lanegan or the Screaming Trees, much as I love the 'Dust' album, a fine grunge/psychedelic classic which would have been my next RPM 'Mystery Album' when my name next came out of the hat. And that's where I'm gonna start."

Sworn and Broken by Screaming Trees - (from 'Dust' LP, released June 25th 1996. Epic label) - "It took several years for albums such as Love's 'Forever Changes' to achieve the status in which they are held today and, from the nineties 'grunge' period we already have 'Nevermind', 'Superfuzz Bigmuff' and 'Bug' as acknowledged genre representatives. In my opinion, 'Dust', the 'Trees seventh album, ranks alongside that trio and, in many ways, far exceeds them all musically. In addition to the 'standard' bass, drums guitar four piece there's also sitar, mellotron, djembe, cello and tablas to add to the already densely layered melange. And then there's the songs. There are echoes of psychedelia, 'rawk' and even gospel all woven into its rich tapestry, topped off with genuinely memorable tunes. I've chosen the downbeat 'Sworn and Broken' from what is mainly an upbeat album, a song which is lifted by its quasi classical organ refrain and great impassioned vocals from Mark. Quite why he would break the band to become, initially the Queens of the Stone Age lead vocalist but, later, 'relegated' to 'third' vocals and back ups, is beyond my comprehension. Lanegan justified his move thusly: "It's great to play with, essentially, my best friends......It's all rock 'n' roll to me. A band is a band. They're really not that radically different. It's all rock music." We'll have to agree to disagree on that one I'm afraid! Following this successful interval Lanegan began a series of albums with the former Belle & Sebastian vocalist Isobel Campbell and, in 2006, with Gregg Dulli as the Gutter Twins . After that most of his work consisted with a myriad of collaborators including Bomb the Bass, UNKLE, Massive Attack, Moby, Tinawiren and P J Harvey and authored two memoirs and a couple of books of poetry. He survived addiction to alcohol and heroin but, in March 2020, he was struck down with severe Covid 19. He had initially been wary of the vaccine but eventually became convinced of their worth and was fully vaccinated before he passed away just over a week ago of complications which had arisen during his illness."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JMNfTrLG380

Verse One by Gary Brooker - (unreleased recorded 1967. This from 'rare mod Volume 3' released May 2011. Acid Jazz label) "Here's a strange one by Gary, so strange, in fact, that there may only be one copy in existence! Following on from the (temporary) dissolution of the Paramounts, who would later almost entirely reform as Procol Harum, Brooker was occasionally called into the Regent Sound Studio by George Martin to demo ideas for TV show themes and this may well be one of those occasions. In an online article regarding the demo Brooker muses: "An interesting bass line and progressive bridge, the main tune meant to be 'catchy. Needless to say none of my efforts were ever used and it’s amazing that this (disc) should appear." There's a definite case to be made for saying there's a steal here from Curtis Mayfields 'People get ready' on this very brief instrumental but, on the plus side, it is damn catchy and features the soon to be familiar organ sound which dominated 'A whiter shade of pale'."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tphyX42-lRk

In Held Twas In I by Procol Harum - (from 'Shine on brightly' LP, released September 1968. Regal Zonophone label) "And to make up for the rather brief 'solo' Gary, here's a forerunner to prog/pomp rock from one of my favourite Procol Harum albums. Apparently, the nearly side-long suite "In Held 'Twas in I" is an 'acrostic'. It is formed by taking the first word of the lyrics in each of the first four movements as well as the first word of the sixth verse in the first movement, eg:

"In the darkness of the night..." From movement 1, "Glimpses of Nirvana"

"Held close by that which some despise..." From the sixth verse of movement 1

"′Twas tea-time at the circus..." From movement 2, "′Twas Teatime at the Circus"

"In the autumn of my madness..." From movement 3, "In the Autumn of My Madness"

"I know if I'd been wiser..." From movement 4, "Look to Your Soul"

According to lyricist Keith Reid, the title has no meaning beyond this acrostic.

Phew..... who would have guessed!!??"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=unLKgu1-v_8

* Difficult to say 'keep safe' as I type this as Putin has just upped the ante to unbelievable levels! It looks to me as if Putin's expectation was that Ukraine would roll over and a 'photo-op' of him beaming out victoriously from the majestic government buildings would justify his actions to the Russian populace. But, to my mind, it would only bring back memories of Hitler looking out over an undamaged Paris towards the Eiffel Tower in 1940. The thought of his troops reducing to rubble a country he is supposed to be saving from 'nazi-ism' probably never crossed his deranged mind, but it now seems to be the least amount of destruction he is threatening. Boris will now probably be seen as 'Churchillian', thanks to a couple of earnestly spoken, blooper free speeches, and any thought of the long promised inquiry into the wastage and death caused by his decisions over the last 25 months will be seen as churlish. Churchill went from failure to saviour thanks to his single minded defeat of Hitler; Thatcher was 'rescued' from defeat in the polls by the Falklands invasion (brought about, don't forget, by ignoring our own military intelligence warning of the Argentine invasion) and now Boris, legislating as little as possible initially by way of penalisation of the London-grad elite and promising that we will take refugees...... as long as they meet the criteria!!! Destroyed lives, homes and country............. does that meet the qualifying requirements, I wonder??? Still, both of Charlie's sons are "stand(ing) with the President and all of Ukraine’s people". Bet they're grateful for that!

And a humble thanks to Phil for the mention......... I had already given you a 'big up' when I sent in my 'Desert Island 10' over a week ago but, perhaps now's the time to give a thanks for all the soul you've exposed me to over the years plus, to all RPM'ers, and especially Tim, a heartfelt thanks for sticking with the online format and making after midnight Friday (I usually can't wait 'til Saturday morning) so enjoyable. Who knows if and when we'll get together again?

Hope everyone enjoyed getting 'on the bus'? (See Alan's new Soundcheck article if you haven't done so already, Tim.)

Nina -

"Hi folks. Hope you're all well. Rushing to get this in, so minimal chat, mainly music.

Discovered harpist Lara Somogyi this week, amazing! 3 from her...Take care all,

Cheers!"

John -

"Hi Everyone. This week I've been listening to loads of albums that were possible contenders for my Desert Island Discs list. Here are three tracks from albums that DIDN'T make it into my Top Ten..... but on another day may well have done!"

Jayne -

"Thanks RPM colleagues for your choices each week and here’s my three..."

Tim -

"Rockin' out a bit this week with some old favourites..."