The First Record I Bought:
The first recorded music I think I payed money for was a cassette tape called something like, Keep on Dancin’, a crappy compilation of ‘80s pop music with a pink cover I think, I bought it cause the kids at school said it was good stuff and that Duran Duran were cool. What it meant to me was I was cool for a minute until I got it home and discovered it was garbage. I don’t remember the songs on it.
The Last Record I Bought:
The last record I bought is called, Get Right With God – Hot Gospel 1947-1953, it’s a compilation on Krazy Kat records, I haven’t listened to it cause my record player isn’t set up, same goes for about the last ten records I’ve bought, I buy a lot of gospel records I like the gospel singing groups, this one has some bands I like and some new (to me) bands.
The First Thing I Recorded:
The first thing I recorded was a demo with a band I had in high school, the drummer described our music as cock rock, that about sums it up. Maybe I would cringe if I had to listen to it, but I haven’t heard it in a long, long, time…
The Last Thing I Recorded:
The last thing I recorded was a 78 record at Lewis Durham’s (of Kitty Daisy and Lewis) studio, it was for a label joint venture thing between him and my friend (and his brother in law) Texas Joe – the beef jerky king of the UK. The recording was actually for a Mojo magazine covermount CD tribute to a Beatles Album (Let It Be?), we drew the short straw I guess and had to cover the Beatles crummy 15 or so second version of the old song Maggie May, Lewis and Joe too the song and my song, Rich Man’s Blues for their 78RPM release. My touring band played on the record, Drums, Double Bass, Cornet, Trombone, Banjo….I don’t know how it’s been received I sold some on the road through Europe – it was just a limited edition type of thing. My recorded sound (on my albums) is pretty much like my live sound, I thicken things up more on the records, more horns, more percussion, sound effects etc, but the live versions tend to develop more energy and the band find more in the songs from playing a lot, recording comes soon after songs are written….
The Record That Changed My Life:
I had a cassette that had 2 compilations on it, one side was The Legendary Duke Sessions (‘50s sort of Texas blues), the other side was Livin’ the Blues (various old time blues singers recorded round the late ‘40s and ‘50s). I got into this tape a lot when I was in high school, and it edged me into hooking up with some guys playing blues stuff after I left school, many hours, days, years of playing, listening, learning stuff, later I’m still in with the blues stuff, and other things I picked up along the way, so I guess if I had to pin it down to one record it’d be that particular cassette. Some of the artists on there were Blind Willie McTell, Memphis Minnie, Brownie McGhee, Larry Davis… it was two compilations so a lot of artists obviously, some are still among my favourites. I don’t go back to it, the tape got towed away in a crashed car ( it was in the tape deck) and that was the end of that, I own both albums on vinyl but as I said my record player is not set up so I don’t listen to it.
C.W. Stoneking plays the Heavenly Sounds tour with special guest Kira Puru on Friday June 13 at St Michael’s Uniting Church. Tickets available from Ticketek.
