Lou Reed: Women
From the Blue Mask album: I love women, I think they are greatThey’re a solace to the world in a terrible state
A compendium of musical delights by Alan and Margaret Ashworth

From the Blue Mask album: I love women, I think they are greatThey’re a solace to the world in a terrible state
WRITTEN by Kris Kristofferson and Monument Records founder Fred Foster in 1969, this contains one of my all-time favourite lyrics: Freedom’s just another word for nothin’ left to lose Janis … Continue readingMe and Bobby McGee
LUDWIG van Beethoven (1770-1827) wrote Piano Sonata No 21 in C major, Op. 53 in 1804 and dedicated it to his friend and patron Count Ferdinand Ernst Joseph Gabriel von Waldstein of … Continue readingBeethoven: Waldstein Sonata
FROM the soundtrack of the 1970 crime movie Performance, this features brilliant slide guitar by Ry Cooder. Personnel also includes Randy Newman on piano. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yCoCgB3eIU4
SUNDAY’S edition of Radio Four’s Something Understood will be the last to be recorded. In future, the BBC will use the slot to repeat programmes from the show’s 24-year back catalogue. The … Continue readingSomething Incomprehensible
MOZART (1756-1791) was still writing this beautiful work when he died at the terribly early age of 35. He had written the vocal parts for this section but the orchestration … Continue readingMozart: Requiem K 626 Tuba Mirum
THIS is in my all-time Top Ten. The Small Faces were the brilliant singer Steve Marriott, Ronnie Lane, Kenney Jones and Ian McLagan. This track was written by Marriott and Lane and was released in … Continue readingSmall Faces: All or Nothing
SAD he doesn’t specify what kind of dogs, but this is a guitar tour de force from the little-known and underrated Glenn Phillips.
IT’S been a long time since I’ve seen the high planes of ExpectationAnd I’m way past the lowlands and the deserts of Failure and DoubtAnd the last time I passed … Continue readingCowboy Junkies: Leaving Normal
I LOVE Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert – but there is something about Brahms that gets right into my heart and somehow causes me anguish. I can’t explain it, but I … Continue readingBrahms: Clarinet Quintet Op 115