Charity Shop Treasure (4)

A.k.a.: My last weekend's listening. I read Greil Marcus' book on the Doors recently and he described Jim Morrison's voice on the later recordings as being like a drunk shouting at traffic - 'L.A. Woman' being the best example. It's still a good listen, mind: for all the occasional descents into slurring club-singerdom there's a real sense of edginess to the performances. I must admit I like Greil Marcus in small doses (he can be a bit much in full flight) and this particular collection of short essays and musings is pretty good (I'm digressing now but so be it) if only for the slightly offbeat but often illuminating comparisons he makes. His thoughts on 'The End' were interesting too: looking at it in the context of the way in which the Manson killings seemed a logical culmination to a certain millennial American drive, he makes the point that the adventures of 'the Killer' that Morrison describes are less frightening in their overblown oedipal conclusion than they are in terms of the inconclusive visits he pays along the way to his brother and sister and what might have gone on there - murder, rape, revolution - but is left tantalisingly suggestive...

'Lovey' was the Lemonheads major label debut and the album preceding their real breakthrough with 'It's a Shame About Ray.' It's probably my favourite of theirs overall, though it's gleefully all-over-the-place and unashamedly shambolic classic-rock at times (actually, I say "though", I might just mean "because"...) Plus, it has the beautiful Gram Parsons cover 'Brass Buttons' and the best alternative rock ballad ever in 'Ride With Me.'

I've got both of these albums in the tape box and no real excuse to buy them again, especially since it's not that long since I rationalised the CD collection to make it fit on the shelves, but somehow it seems wrong not to pay the necessary £1.29 to rescue stuff like this from the dusty obscurity of the bottom shelf of the Headway Shop on Mapperley Top. Oh, and the Nick Drake album at the bottom of the pile belongs to the Library Service, so that's alright...