R.I.P. the great Lee Perry

A couple of wonderful tunes from the stables of the great Lee Perry who sadly has passed away. The first from The Creators (Perry himself) called Kimble (a version of Stranger & Gladdy’s Seeing is knowing) is a tune we originally acquired for a paltry amount of pennies in a Bedworth second hand shop (which was filled to the brim with beige coloured white goods) in the early 1980’s. We had no idea who it was until the needle dropped on the very scratched Amalgamated seven inch.

The second Honey Love a vocal featuring one Burt Walters. The B side of this white label (which sadly we don’t own) has the backing track of the A side with the backwards vocal from Burt Walters dropped over the top which was unheard of at the time in reggae or any other gene (possibly). May your genius live on forever Mr Perry.

 

‘ere? ‘ave you seen me Solstice?

Happy Solstice to one and all! Think of today as “The beginning of winter’s death” (Den Ming Dao, 365 Tao #355 Winter) rather than the grey, drizzly day stuck in lockdown again, the Monday before Christmas 2020 it really is.

We are presently keeping ourselves amused by watching the replay of the Stonehenge Winter Solstice stream here on youtube where at the moment there’s a bunch of security guards in high visibility vests congregating in the upper right hand corner either having their own celebration or standing around a calor gas heater.

Big shout to all our gardening and music mates worldwide and remember, from today the days will be getting longer and the sunny days are on their way (well we can dream can’t we?)

Sunshine welcome back!

It’s a glorious Sunday and that yellow thing in the sky has returned here in London. Crank up the stereo and belt out some music while you “tip around with a hoe” out the back.

Here’s a lovely tune from Levi Myaz from Trinidad and Tobago called “Forward Home”. It’s a very infectious number which warrants a replay or four! Furthermore it features a dub with backwards vocals and we do love a backwards vocal here! Junior Wize‘s dub takes you somewhere else and takes the use of backwards vocals to higher heights. Tune!

And who can’t forget the groundbreaking and totally bonkers Evol Yenoh from 1968 produced by the great Lee Perry using the vocal of Burt Walters in reverse. Sreknob!

Sunshine keep up this behaviour and spring will be here in no time!

And finally…

Looking through the racks of WH Smiths in Holborn yesterday we found some popular gardening magazines are doing a free seed offer with their latest issues. You know they’re not going to be a full pack of seeds that you’d usually get in your local garden centre but it’s something. Grow your own is doing 10 free seed packs for £5.89, Kitchen Garden 5 packs at £4.99 and Veg Garden 10 packs of free seeds for £8. Have a browse in your local magazine emporium before it’s too late!

 

Two pennies and a stepper

Three belters of tuneage heard last week, the first two played as part of shows dedicated to the late Penny Reel and the third a stepper and a half as heard on Juno. Turn them on then turn them up!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v6G6YWnFv0k

Reading and listening recommendations – Stardate 29/5/2018

Two things to get stuck into. Firstly a big thanks to Mark at the Thompson & Morgan blog for including one of our tips in the interesting “Seed and seedling tips…” post here that’s worth having a look at. There’s lots of other posts on the blog that’ll hopefully float your gardening boat too.

Also the above has been listened to twice today, “Greetings music lover” the story of one of our favourite shows “On The Wire” on BBC Radio Lancashire and Steve Barker who keeps it all together. It’s a lovely documentary about a very interesting radio show. Big up On The Wire!

It’s a spring thing!

forced-rhubarb

And they’re off! It’s now officially spring, the forced rhubarb and a lonely crocus under the black plastic bucket out the back (above) are showing signs of life and the tomato seeds have started to germinate indoors (below). All we need now is some dry days and then we can start to prepare for the forthcoming months!

seed-tray-2017_2

And to get you all in the mood for the forthcoming season here’s some tunes …

 

Big tune

Big shout to the Mungo’s Hi Fi camp again for this tune by The Hempolics – Love to sing as heard on The Rt Hon David Rodigan’s show last week and are the last few words at the end really “A bad man don’t use ketchup”? We do hope so!

The tune means a lot here as it’s based on possibly one of the first ever reggae tunes we can remember here at weeds, the great Clint Eastwood by Lee Perry. The original has a spoken intro that had us wondering at the time, from which planet does this record originate from?

And thanks again to the great upsetter.smokeyroom.net website a wonderful resource for all things Lee Perry (here) for another tune on the Clint Eastwood rhythm.

Superfly guy (or girl)

Dragonfly_2It was absolutely bonkers weatherise here in London today and we spent most of it indoors but when the clouds came over for half an hour in the afternoon, we transplanted some tomato plants out into the back. Come 4pm we chased an ace double-winged Dragonfly around the back garden in the extreme heat with a camera for ten minutes. Big up the tropical warmth!Dragonfly_1