deep cuts, reader’s choice - alex johnson

7/28/2019 Deep Cuts, Readers Choice - Alex Johnson

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Deep Cuts, Readers Choice: Alex Johnsonon Why It MattersLiquor, Lust, and Primer Gray Camaros Set to Music

21 May 2013 http://jamesostafford.com/2013/05/21/deep-cuts-readers-choice-alex-johnson/

I met Alex Johnson thanks to Why It Matters just a couple ofshort years ago. Since then

weve been fast friends on Twitter (follow him at @koolwriting) and have exchanged mail

both real and electronic. Alex was kind enough to send me a cast recording ofSTORM the

Musical, written by the man himself. How cool is that?

What connects Alex and me are the Mods,

that wonderfully stylish and R&B obsessed

group of mid-sixties English kids that most of

us know from The Whos Quadrophenia.What separates us is that I always wanted to

be a Mod, though I missed the window by a

good fifteen years, and Alex was right in the

middle of it. Yep, my friend Johnson is an

original Mod.

And so I asked the big man if hed put

together a Mod Deep Cuts for you. What

follows is a Mod playlist that Alex put together

especially for you along with his memories of the scene. Although Im supposed tomaintain a pretense of editorial objectivity Ill tell you a secret: This is my favourite Deep

Cuts yet.

Nineteen sixty-three, I was a naive thirteen year old, very much mixed up, teenager. My

family surroundings lacked the love and security that a young teen needs. My mother, in

her never ending search for money, had rented most of the space in our tiny terraced

house, located in the then poor part of Chelsea. My stepfather was such a creep that

writing about him would be a waste of time.

The lawof the house was that children should neither be heard nor seen, so most of the

time I was banished to the four walls of a tiny room which I shared with a lodger. To tell

you the truth I have forgotten the lodgers name, only that he came from the Caribbean.

However, it is him I have to thank for showing me the magic of music, for the 45s he

played on his small record player helped to sooth the harshness of my then world. The

music thathe played also lead to the birth of my Mod soul!

Most of the boarders singles were different from the ones being played on the radio or

television at the time, who in the few minutes devoted to the teen viewers and listenerswould play the usual Elvis and Cliff Richard produce. But here was I, lucky enough to be

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exiled to a tiny room that opened my being to a universe of sounds that soothed the

harshness of my then world.

I was in music paradise, listening to blue beat, soul and jazz, and in the process being

introduced to the high priests of music with magical names such as James Brown,

Solomon Burke, and of course Ray Charles. At the time I had no idea who these artists

were, but their music filled me with a warmth and rhythm I had never known before.

One song I was particularly fond of was

Mockingbird, by Inez and Charlie Foxx. I

suppose this song has always stuck in my

head because it was the only major hit the

brother and sister duo had, whereas all the

other above mentioned went on to create one

classic song after another.

Going To A Go Go - Smokey Robinson & the Miracles

It was a cold winters night in 1965, I just

turned fifteen, and after an aggressive

argument with my mothers then boyfriend, I

broke out of the house and made my way to

Londons Soho. All I had was ten shillings,

and the thin pullover I was wearing did little to

protect me against the icy wind. Somehow I

found myself standing at the entrance to a

club that I had often heard mentioned by the

kids at school, the Flamingo. It was Saturday,

and the club had an all nighter. The entrance cost all my money but I didnt care: the

hypnotic beat of Going to a Go Go coming up the stairwell was too much to resist!

I Cant Explain - The Who

We early Mods had some kind of bush

telegraph: we always knew where to buy our

clothes, and what club had the newest sound.

It was through this Mod pipeline that I heard

of a group called The Who and their first

single, I Cant Explain. It wasnt the song

that actually got my attention: it was the fact

these musicians dressed and acted in a Mod

style, which if I think back meant our cult was

about to go mainstream. Interesting fact

about this song is Jimmy Page plays lead guitar!

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Tin Soldier - Small Faces

My personal favourite Mod group has to be

the Small Faces, the reason being one of

those simple happenings that make a day

special.

It was a Friday afternoon sometime in the

summer of 65, and I walked into a working

mans cafe at the back of Kings Cross,

London. Who should be sitting there but the

Small Faces. Steve Marriott caught me

looking at their table, winked and said, All

right, mate. I just smiled and replied a shy, yes. Through my new Mod friends I had what

was then considered gold dust by all Mods: tickets for that nights Mod oriented TV show

Ready Steady Go! Who should be appearing but the Small Faces. I was in the crowd in

front of the stage as they came on. Steve spotted me amidst the crowd and asked jokingly,

Are you following me? Man, was I proud! Apart from that, I found the Small Faces to be

a great band. You would have to go a long way to find a voice and performer to match

Steve Marriotts amazing talent. Unlike The Who, The Small Faces made you feel as if you

were mates. I dont know of any 60s Mod who does not have The Small Faces on his or

her list of greats.

Play With Fire - The Rolling Stones

Obviously we were aware of the super

groups of the time such as The Beatles and

The Rolling Stones, and each individual had

his or her preference. I was more inclined

towards the Stones. Not only did I find their

music had more raw soul in its fibre, but the

fact that they were formed in the pub on the

corner of my street made them even more

alluring! The little known Play with Fire has

always been one of my long time favourites.

Cant Turn You Loose/Shake - Otis Redding

In the spring of 66 Ready Steady Go!

transmitted The Otis Redding Special. This

was the last RSG! show I attended. Even

now as my hair turns to grey and my body

starts to show its age, I can close my eyes

and imagine Im sixteen again. The studio

was very small; however, even with the ever-

present cameras, which were very large, Ican still feel the magical atmosphere that Otis

created today. Otis was a name with British

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Mods, long before it was heralded in his own backyard. His early death was a huge loss to

the world of music.

I Heard It Through The Grapevine - Marvin Gaye.

Tamla Motown was an important ingredient in

every Mods music diet! The Four Tops, TheTemptations, The Supremes, Stevie Wonder,

Junior Walker, Martha Reeves and the

Vandellas, and, andthe list goes on forever!

At least 60% of our dance floor music came

from Detroit City!

With so many platinum sounding songs to

choose from, I had to go for the one that has

been called the most perfect pop song ever,

Mr. Marvin Gayes I Heard it Through The Grapevine. A huge commendation for TheFunk Brothers: a band of musical geniuses, without whom the sound of Motown might not

have been created!

Madness - Prince Buster.

Racism in the early Mod scene was

practically nonexistent. Indeed, the cult

emulated a great deal from the Rude Boy

Jamaican youth movement, such as the pork

pie hats, and their preferred music rhythmand dance style called bluebeat, later

renamed as ska, which in its turn led to the

sound the whole world knows as reggae. The

stars of this genre were mostly recording on

the Blue Beat label, who had on their list of

session musicians two youngsters, Peter Tosh and Bob Marley, no need to tell you what

they got up to years later!

However, the main attractions then were, The Skatalites, The Deltas, Derrick Morgan, and

my all time favourite Prince Buster.

In my opinion the following quote only scratches the surface of the decline of the Mod

scene; however. it does show that we were a creative group of teenagers! By the summer

of 1966, the mod scene was in sharp decline. Dick Hebdige argues that the mod

subculture lost its vitality when it became commercialised, artificial and styled to the point

that new mod clothing styles were being created from above by clothing companies and

by TV shows like Ready Steady Go!, rather than being developed by young people

customising their clothes and mixing different fashions together.

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What the above leaves out is the reason this so called subculture came into being, and

being an insider, even now many years later, I can allow my self to state my own

comments.

The world the we were growing up in was grey, and our parents, and the city we lived in,

still bore the scars of the war, most of us were starved of any emotional feelings from our

families, and our homes were usually drab, and our future looked as dingy as our

surroundings. Therefore, we were a lost generation, with no where to turn to except

ourselves, and we found the love we were lacking in our music, and our way of dressing,

as a group we had a common bond that, for a while, kept us safe in our own world.

Im sure that most of the Originals out there, no matter what road life has taken them on,

have one fact in common: they can close their eyes and dream back to the days when

London moved to the rhythm of their beat.

Ive Got Dreams To Remember - Otis Redding

Are you interested in writing your own

Deep Cuts to share with your WIM-

minded brothers and sisters? Leave a

comment or send me an email at:

[email protected].

Alexander G. Johnsonwww.koolwritings.com

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deep cuts, reader’s choice - alex johnson

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