We Love The Pirate Stations (Charting The Big 'L' Fab 40 - 2CD Set)

構成数 : 2
合計収録時間 : 02:36:20
Arranger: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart . The concept behind this double CD was to create a facsimile of sorts of what you might have heard on the famous British pirate radio station Radio London in the mid-'60s, mixing 47 recordings from the era with no less than 49 Radio London jingles. Now, it's not exactly an accurate portrayal of what the play list might have been for an average hour or two. Apart from the absence of any American recordings, the track list seems to have been dictated by what Castle Music had the rights to license at the time this compilation appeared about 40 years later. That means the program's particularly heavy on cuts that appeared on the Pye and Immediate labels, which doesn't necessarily limit this to subpar music, but does mean that it's certainly not representative of Radio London's scope. The all-over-the-place roam through mid-'60s British pop styles makes it hard to determine exactly which collectors would find this appealing for purchase, mixing as it does classic hits with obscurities of marginal quality. Still, for what it's worth, the music's fairly good in its haphazard way, the big smashes by the Kinks, Donovan, Eric Burdon, the Searchers, and Petula Clark outnumbered by relatively obscure selections (particularly to American listeners). There's risque mod rock by the Knack ("Stop! Before You Get Me Going"), throbbing tough British Invasion rock by the Sorrows ("Take a Heart"), harmony pop by Episode Six, fey pop/rock by the Ivy League, early flops by David Bowie, a Seekers-like arrangement of the Beatles' "Nowhere Man" (by the Settlers), and, weirdest of all, the pretty crummy easy listening single by John Lennon's dad, Freddie Lennon ("That's My Life [My Love, My Home]"). Plus there are singles that were big hits in Britain but meant nothing in the States, like the Alan Price Set's "Simon Smith and His Amazing Dancing Bear," P.P. Arnold's "The First Cut Is the Deepest," the Ivy League's "Tossing and Turning," and Chris Farlowe's cover of the Rolling Stones' "Out of Time." More fun, perhaps, are the dozens of Radio London jingles, a few of which were lifted as-was for use in the Who's classic The Who Sell Out album. The other jingles are amusing, too, particularly the one that imitates the Beatles' "I Saw Her Standing There." ~ Richie Unterberger