Tune Tag #59 with Rich Headland of "Record Shop Stories": The Specials, Billy Cobham, Mahavishnu, Massive Attack, Jellyfish, Young Gun Silver Fox
Today, meet a band heavily influenced by XTC, an Austrian named Peter the Human Boy, and a couple entries in the '70s glut of jazz fusion that once included the pre-Perry Journey!😱
Greetings, Rich! Tag, You’re IT!
Tune Tag is happy to open its doors to of Record Shop Stories!
Rich Headland is the London-based founder of Record Shop Stories on Substack, the newsletter that aims to dig out the backstory behind your favourite digging spots. We music lovers know that record shops are much more than just places to buy vinyl: They’re social hubs and feel-good factories, full of local music culture and the joy of musical discovery!
Rich visits and writes about record shops around the UK, but is also looking for contributors to write about their favourite spots around the world. Subscribe and ping him a chat if you know a shop with a great backstory!
Feel free to follow Rich on Instagram @recordshopstories!
Last week, we were pleased to welcome of Cognitive Wonderland:
Next week, we’ll be thrilled to have former ‘Stacker, Mike Degen, who’s the author of one of this site’s most prized possessions: Mike’s unsolicited “The Best Music History Writing Online!” exuberant declaration!
Rich’s song #1 sent to Brad: Massive Attack, “One Love,” 1991
Rich’s rationale: I was 14 when Massive Attack’s Blue Lines was released in 1991, and it remains one of my favourite albums to return to, time and again.
In the early ‘90s, Bristol seemed to be the epicenter of all that was new and interesting (for me) in the UK music scene - most notably the genre lamely described as “trip hop.” Despite the unimaginative name, it creatively built on the various movements that had preceded it, from punk to hip-hop, reggae and soul, blending it all into a glorious, hypnotic melting pot of ideas.
Massive Attack were leading exponents of the sound, and their first two albums (as a core three-piece of Daddy G, 3D and Mushroom) are my favourites, because they are laden with fantastic samples that have opened my ears to so much new music over the years. Just on this track, we have a heavy recurring sample from the Mahavishnu Orchestra, as well as the gorgeous Isaac Hayes piano in the outro.
I also love the track’s subtle scratching, mellow vibe, and the plaintive tenor of long-time Massive Attack collaborator, Horace Andy.
Brad’s response: “Unfinished Symphony” (below), a song on this Blue Lines album by Massive Attack, is sampling/scratching the chorus in its introduction and at the 0:50 mark of the track, “Planetary Citizen,” which was originally performed in 1976 by John McLaughlin and his Mahavishnu Orchestra, on the album, Inner Worlds.
So, Brad’s song #1 sent to Rich: John McLaughlin & Mahavishnu Orchestra, “Planetary Citizen,” 1976
Rich’s response: Picking up on Massive Attack’s sample of Mahavishnu Orchestra’s “You know you know” in my first track, we jump into another classic M.O. track that will also be instantly familiar to Massive Attack fans, having been sampled for “Unfinished Sympathy” on the same album! It’s a great link, and leads me onto one of M.O.’s legendary founders…
Rich’s song #2: Billy Cobham, “Stratus,” 2023 (Studio Live Session)
Brad’s response: Cobham (native Panamanian raised in Brooklyn) played with Miles Davis, and with McLaughlin in Mahavishnu. I was about to eagerly pick out a Tommy Bolin song, as he played on Cobham’s 1973 album that originally had “Stratus.” But, as this was a live ‘23 take, I went in a different direction (Bolin passed away in 1976).
Rich’s rationale: Drummer in Mahavishnu Orchestra, as well as previously with Miles Davis and others, Billy Cobham’s “Stratus” was a huge crossover track from 1973’s Spectrum album. It’s yet another one that Massive Attack utilized on the Blue Lines album (it’s the bassline to “Safe From Harm”).
Those guys must have really had a thing for Mahavishnu Orchestra and the whole jazz-fusion thing at the time!
[Brad butts in: As someone who was 20 in 1975, and DJ at a commercial FM rocker in Houston (TX), Rich, I can vouch for the burgeoning “jazz fusion” genre attracting both rabid rock fans and jazz aficionados at the time!
In our control room, we’d regularly have albums by Phil Collins’ Brand X, Return to Forever, Weather Report, Tony Williams Lifetime, Soft Machine, The Eleventh House, Colosseum II, and Passport. Not to mention a little band called Journey, whose first three, pre-Perry albums (1975-’77) were, essentially, jazz fusion…and, on the same label, Columbia, as Weather Report, Return to Forever, and Tony Williams, they weren’t exactly being encouraged to stop!
Until, inevitably, CBS began begging Journey for something that resembled hits, meaning singles! In 1978, enter one Steve Perry, a conventional lead-singing frontman who could contribute to a catchier catalog, and producer, Roy Thomas Baker! They never looked back. Speaking of looking back, here’s my account of meeting a 1975 Journey, as they came to the station and gifted me a deed to a star in the heavens:
Back to Rich: This live version, recorded in Liechtenstein, may have been recorded 50 years on from the original, but Billy (now 80) is still pounding those skins like his life depends on it towards the end of this track. Fantastic stuff!
Cobham was inducted into the Modern Drummer Hall of Fame in 1987, and the Classic Drummer Hall of Fame in 2013. AllMusic biographer Steve Huey: “Generally acclaimed as fusion’s greatest drummer, Cobham’s explosive technique powered some of the genre’s most important early recordings, including groundbreaking efforts by Miles Davis and the Mahavishnu Orchestra, before he became an accomplished bandleader in his own right. At his best, Cobham harnessed his amazing dexterity into thundering, high-octane hybrids of jazz complexity and rock & roll aggression.”
Brad’s song #2: Peter the Human Boy, “Slow For You,” 2019
Rich’s response: I wasn’t totally sure of the connection here, other than the Billy Cobham session was recorded in Liechtenstein, which used to be an annex of Austria; and Vienna, Austria is the home of Peter the Human Boy! Or perhaps you’re bringing us back to the human realm, after we’ve descended from the celestial plane of Mahavishnu?
Anyway, this was a new track (and artist) to me, and I enjoyed the track’s breezy vibe. Peter’s vocal style reminded me a bit of Damon Albarn in places. But, I resisted the urge to go with an Albarn/Blur or Gorillaz track, and instead picked my next track based on Peter’s second line about “the phantom of the town.”
live-club.de: Peter Mathis aka Peter The Human Boy is a self-professed slow rocker and has an audible preference for nostalgic lyrics, vintage synthesizers and, last but not least, DIY spirit. The self-produced debut album, Goodbye Summer [from whence comes “Slow For You”], came out in autumn 2019 as a dreamy beach bar mixtape of surf rock and bedroom pop.
Brad’s rationale: Billy Cobham recorded his 1973 “Stratus” cut live, in 2023, at the Little Big Beat Studios in the Western part of Austria, in the Principality of Liechtenstein. If not recorded there, Peter the Human Boy, at least, had his Goodbye Summer 2019 album (shown above) mastered at that same studio. There were precious few deets on this album, so I was relegated to picking the recording studio in which he recorded!
Peter the Human Boy…not to be confused with Peter the Wild Boy from 18th-century Germany, who didn’t record (or sing, for that matter), and music vids were certainly out of the question.
To “I Can Hear Music” and “Add Some Music to Your Day”: Add “I Miss the Music”?
I have to share this music video of PTHB’s quite bouncy “I Miss the Music,” intermingled with recent tour footage. He’s got quite a sense of engaging fun and often childlike humor, and with this song’s arrangement, chord changes, lyrics and harmonies, I’m trying to talk myself out of calling him “Peter the Human Beach Boy,” but the more I watch and listen to this…well, I’m not having much luck! Happily so!
Rich’s song #3: The Specials, “Ghost Town,” 1981
Brad’s response: Not finding anything, really, to link here, unless there’s a “Pete” in The Specials and he’s a male humanoid of a certain age. It took me a second listen to Pete the Boy Who Was Human again, to see what appeared to be a ghost town during the carnival shots at the top, and then Pete sings about feeling like a phantom of the town! Nice, Rich!
But, I think I’m more proud of myself for sussing it out….oh well, we can share the pride! There’s enough to go around! Great! I solved that! Now what for my next song?
Rich’s rationale: Without a doubt, this was one of the formative tracks in my musical education. I owe that mainly to my older brother and sister, who introduced me to Two-Tone at a young age. When they put “Ghost Town” on the turntable, it sounded like nothing I’d ever heard before.
I’m pretty sure I was as much scared by this track as I was in awe of it as a young lad. I still think it’s one of the most haunting tracks committed to vinyl, and while it instantly sticks in your head like any good pop song, it still seems odd to me that this made it to #1 and stayed there for three weeks!
But this was 1981, and “Ghost Town” summed up the mood of the UK at the time, and clearly resonated with the record-buying public. I wish we still had number ones of this musical quality and with this kind of message. The video is incredible for the time, too…so atmospheric!
Musicians pass away all the time, but when Terry Hall (above) died suddenly, at 63, in late 2022, I was really shocked and saddened. The impact his lyrics and music had had on my musical tastes was profound, and obviously influenced a lot of what followed in leftfield-UK music, too.
I’m really pleased I got to see The Specials on one of their reunion tours in 2009, though. He was still bounding around the stage like a teenager then.
Brad’s song #3: Jellyfish, “The Ghost at # 1,” 1991
Rich’s response: This was a much more obvious link than the last round, with “Ghost Town” having topped the charts. But, Jellyfish is another band I don’t know much about, which is the joy of Tune Tag! Evidently, very heavily influenced by The Beach Boys, and I love the use of harpsichord in the track. It’s such a distinctive sound when it was used in ‘60s pop, especially, but has endured surprisingly well in modern music.
Brad’s rationale: One of my favorite all-time bands charts, here, with “The Ghost at #1” (with a bullet, we presume)! Rich, nice pick-up on a key influence for the ‘Fish lads…The Beach Boys. They’d readily admit that, as well as British Invasion bands, sunshine pop artists, Brill Building writers and Phil Spector records, among others!
They only lasted for five years and two albums (Bellybutton in 1990, Spilt Milk in ‘93), but Jellyfish left one of the richest, most inventive catalogs in its weight class! As lead singer/drummer (and current cartoon music composer for Disney and The Cartoon Channel), Andy Sturmer said in 1991 (as hair metal and grunge were all the rage): “We love pop music. It had a bad reputation, but we think it’s time to make the world safe for pop music again.” A banner worth waving!
A Jellyfish primer, if you’d like:
One of several Jellyfish-centric entries (they were big fans of XTC), FRONT ROW & BACKSTAGE:
Rich’s song #4: Shawn Lee’s Ping Pong Orchestra, “Kiss the Sky,” 2007
Brad’s response: Not finding an immediate link between “The Ghost at #1” and “Kiss the Sky,” and I’ve even considered some kind of thematic link between Jellyfish and the Hendrix-like “kiss the sky” reference. No personnel from either record (just 16 years apart). Whatcha got, Rich?
Rich’s rationale: This is one of my favourite more recent examples of harpsichord really driving a track, courtesy to the ever-inventive Shawn Lee. In an alternative universe, this would be a #1 for me! It hooked me in from the very first listen—I’m a sucker for anything with tightly syncopated hip-hop drums and bass like this! Beautiful cello, too.
I’m not sure if this is the official video for the track or not, but I like the way it draws you into the many possible human stories that could lie behind it. I love imagining their backstories!
Brad’s song #4: Young Gun Silver Fox, “Emelia,” 2015
Rich’s response: A nice segue into another side of Shawn Lee from his prolific canon of work: This time a slice of pristine yacht rock from his partnership with Andy Platts as Young Gun Silver Fox. Close your eyes and it’s the 1970s all over again… for a duo recording in London, they manage to capture that West Coast sound with disarming ease!
Brad’s rationale: Another Shawn Lee sighting, this time in his Young Gun Silver Fox, from their 2015 West End Coast album, the duo’s debut, “Emelia.”
of On Repeat Records, interviewed Lee & his YGSF pal, Andy Platts, a couple years ago. It’s well worth checking out! It was my first intro to the duo:
Thanks for the shout out/signal boost! YGSF were a blast to interview; both were incredibly kind and funny. The more people that hear their music, the better!
Great tag this was. I've got a lot of history tied up here I'll save for over a 🍺 sometime. But the revelation is Peter The Human Boy video. Great harmonies and suitable music but the message is right on! Music is good.