The Doors

Hi people, I've just returned from Paris, where I've also visited Jim Morrison's tomb, so I thought it was the right time to post a Doors' clip.
Sincerely I'm not the greatest Doors' fan, I think their music was a little monotonous, and Jim Morrison has been overvalued as a singer and poet...but I'm probably one of the few on the planet who thinks so, and certainly most of you will enjoy this video.
This is the famous live perfomance of Light My Fire (the short single version) at the Ed Sullivan Show, on 1967. On that occasion they had been asked to modify the line "girl we couldn't get much higher", that could sound as a reference to drugs. Jim Morrison didn't change the lyrics and, of course, the Doors were never invited at the Ed Sullivan Show again...

Doors - Light My Fire (1967)

Password: http://musicforyoureyes.blogspot.com/

See you soon

Mirco

I'm On Vacation!

Hi everybody! I'll be travelling for a week, so I won't be able to update the blog...I think I won't even touch a PC!
Excuse me if I'll activate the comments' moderation right before leaving, I received a lot of spam too lately.
I invite you to keep looking at my archive, where all videos seem to be still available.
Don't forget also to check the cool music blogs and sites that are on my links list. If you are looking for more "vintage videos" go visit Sonic Pollutions and Sonic Pollutions 2, my friend Baz offers you clips and informations you won't find anywhere else!

I see you in May

Mirco

Area International POPular Group

I've been asked several times to upload videos by some Italian progressive bands. Sincerely I'm not a big fan of that scene, most of the musicians were trying just to imitate the sound of the British bands. Area (International POPular Group) were definetly something different and really innovative. With a big campaign in 1973 the indipendent label Cramps announced them as the first group of "radical music"...and their music was a caustic blend of rock, free jazz, atonal avantgarde and mediterranean folk. But what really made the difference was the powerful, ductile, unbelievable voice of Demetrio Stratos. Unfortunately this is a short clip of an instrumental track, the only Area's video I found. Demetrio is just playing the keyboards in this noisy version of the socialist international workers' hymn. Area were also a political band...I won't even try to describe the clime of social and political tension in my country during the seventies...let's just say that Area were a stimulating and controversial band in a stimulating and controversial period. This little video will prove how good they were as musicians and how uncompromising was their music.
Area ended with the end of the seventies, it was impossible to continue after Demetrio's death, for leukaemia, in 1979.

Area - L'Internazionale (1974)

Password: http://musicforyoureyes.blogspot.com/

Ciao

Mirco

Mods

I'm not in the mood to write much these days, anyway here's a couple of bands that do not need many introductions. Coming from different eras, these are the two most popular mod bands ever.
The Who's clip is particulary interesting, not only because it shows shots of the musicians at a very young age, but also of many young kids from the first mod wave in England. You'll be brought back in the mid-sixties with the sound of Who's first explosive single!
By the time of the hit-single Town Called Malice, included in the 1982 album The Gift, the Jam were leaving punk rock to approach, still with a lot of energy, the Motown's soul music that Paul Weller always loved so much. The song is certainly one of the most beautiful raids in that style, that they did in the late period of their career.

Who - I Can't Explain (1965)
Jam - Town Called Malice (1982)

Password: http://musicforyoureyes.blogspot.com/

Cheers

Mirco

The Best Song Ever?

Everyone of us music fans had recorded on tape, or just imagined, a compilation of his favourite songs ever. I think we all agree that these compilations can change with the changing of our mood, but there are some artists and some songs that are just essential, unavoidable. Tim Buckley is one of these artists and Song To The Siren is his best song to me. This version of the song, in particular. Song To The Siren had been first recorded in 1971 on the album Starsailor, a work on which his music get close to avant-garde and free-jazz. On 1967 Tim had already performed the song on the Monkees' TV show, accompanied on his 12 strings guitar only. This bare, simple version exalts even more the touching beauty of the melody, of his amazing voice, and the poetry of the lyrics.
An absolutely unmissable clip, if you are not moved by this it means you have a cold stone instead of a heart!

Tim Buckley - Song To The Siren (1967)

Password: http://musicforyoureyes.blogspot.com/

I have to say that is a little frustrating to see how such a small amount of people connecting and downloading from this site remember to leave a comment. Many comments report problems in downloading. I am sorry if the process is a little complicated, this is just because, since the beginning, I have always had to defend my blog from leechers and trolls. I have no problems in trying to offer some "technical assistance", but I would also like to know more of your opinions about the videos. The purpose of making a blog is interaction, share a passion with some people out there. Otherwise I think I'll soon end up feeling a lack of motivations...

Bye

Mirco

Sandy Denny

A gift to all those who asked me a Sandy Denny's video, and those who enjoyed the Fotheringay's clip.
Here is Sandy performing three songs solo at the BBC in 1971.

Download the video from this beautiful blog:

Down In The Groove

Nuggets # 3

We do a step back in the mid-sixties to (re)discover a couple of obscure gems that I hope will be appreciated not only by experts of the original garage-punk music.
The Barbarians came from Provincetown, Massachusets, and released four singles and a self-titled album between '64 and '66. This is the A side of their first single, a fascinating and melodic folk-pop ballad. I'm not sure if they were guests on Shindig or some other TV show...They perform surrounded by many female dancers, a typical sixties' scenography! You'll observe that Victor Moulton, the guy who beats on the drums and shakes his long hair, has a prosthesis instead of his left hand. On their last single Moulty, The Barbarians explain how he lost it in a fireworks accident at the age of 14!
The Bad Seeds were from Corpus Christi, Texas, hometown of another great garage band: The Zakary Thaks. They do a lyp-synched performance of their first single too. A Taste Of The Same is, in my opinion, a truly great song, rough sixties punk at his best! They appeared on "Channel 3"...was it a local Texan channel? The Bad Seeds recorded only three singles between late '65 and early '66.
The quality of both clips is pretty good, considering they are relics of a distant era. Unfortunately none of these two songs is included on the Nuggets 4 CDs box-set. The Barbarians appear with two other tunes: Moulty and Are You A Boy Or Are You A Girl? So, the people interested will have to look for them on some other obscure compilations...


Barbarians - You've Got To Understand (1964)
Bad Seeds - A Taste Of The Same (1965)

Password: http://musicforyoureyes.blogspot.com/

See you next time

Mirco

Turn On The Generator

Though generally classified as progressive rock, Van Der Graaf Generator's intense and dramatic music is hardly comparable with anything else. It has always been a vehicle for the visions of the singer-poet-philosopher Peter Hammill, but the other musicians, that he met at the Manchester's university, gave an essential contribution to create such a unique sound, able to sound the depth of the human soul and his anguishes. The gloomy Huch Banton's keyboards, the wild Nick Evans' drumming and the howls of David Jackson's saxophones (a man able to blow on two horns at the same time) are responsible for the powerful version of Theme One played on the first video. This peformance had been broadcasted for Belgian TV on early 1972, and it can be seen also on DVD.
A Plague Of Lighthouse-Keepers, the suite included on side two of the memorable Pawn Hearts album, is probably the peak of their art, an impressive tune on which tension grows in an apocalyptic atmosphere.
This same line-up reformed in the past year for a double CD and a tour that didn't disappoint old and new fans, expecially here in Italy where VDGG had been incredibly popular in the seventies and still has many followers.

Van Der Graaf Generator - Theme One (1972)
Van Der Graaf Generator - A Plague Of Lighthouse-Keepers (1972)

Password: http://musicforyoureyes.blogspot.com/

The second video has been uploaded on Megaupload, because the size exceeded the 100 Mb limit imposed by Rapidshare.

See you soon

Mirco