Get out your Afghan!
Jon Savage’s compilation Meridian 1970 has arrived. It’s basically a load of lolloping folk rock stuff from 1970 - designed to show it wasn’t all that bad before punk came and saved us.
And, of course it wasn’t. Although you have to be in the right company to admit that. I’m a little annoyed that - as usual - Nick Drake is on there but John Martyn isn’t. Although Martyn didn’t really do anthing special in 1970. 1971 - now that was Bless The Weather which definitely deserves to be on any compilation of lolloping folky stuff planned in the future.
Still - it’s good to hear a bit of Loudon Wainwright III (Black Uncle Remus) along with The Doobie Brothers, The Move and Sir Douglas Quintet (yes, of course I’d heard of them). Some of the artists are pretty familiar - but the tracks are
all both obscure but listenable: which is all you really want from a compilation.
There’s also Rod Stewart doing “Man of Constant Sorrow” - which, you realise half way through is the song that George Clooney and the Soggy Bottom Boys sang in Oh Brother Where Art Thou. I think the Soggies actually did it better. Maybe a Rod Stewart/ George Clooney duet could be in the offing?
Also there is Leo Kottke - who I have to admit that I’d never heard of until a few months ago, when I was desperate to use up a load of credits on eMusic and downloaded his 6-and 12-string guitar album much to my delight.
Anyway, if you buy it - you really should go the whole hog and invest in some essential extras to get the full 1970 feeling. Oh and you want this type of Afghan coat - not this type.