Saturday 28 February 2015

SPURNED CLASSIC! - Apprentice (In A Musical Workshop) by Dave Loggins (1974)

Dave Loggins
Apprentice (In a Musical Workshop)
1974

I recently picked up this Dave Loggins 3-fer on BGO Records, and so far i haven't been able to get past the first album. Apprentice has to be my fave slice of Seventies singer-songwriter-soft-rock splendour since Dan Fogelberg's Souvenirs. It makes me feel warm and good, which is nice as our heater's broken down. This is exactly the kind of tragically overlooked, irredeemably un-hip, true pumpkin-puree sound of the Seventies which i like to imagine piping out of a truck on the L.A freeway or some place with a lovely macrame owl.

Super 70's Macrame Owl, and wood paneling
A macrame owl


Who is Dave Loggins? I'm not sure. But let me tell you something, he is the shit. Apprentice is sincere and soulful, and there's not even an obligatory rocker so you don't have to skip any tracks, they're all wonderful and they're all soft around the edges. Please Come To Boston was a smash hit, obvs i'd never heard it before. I wish this kind of thing didn't get dismissed so much, where's the respect for Bread, America, Kiki Dee, Clifford T. Ward, Jimmie Spheeris?


Dave Loggins really wants you to go to Boston...

In honour of all these Seventies MOR greats (and because beards are so over) i've shaved my beard and gone full-Glenn Frey with my very own extra-sleazy moustache. There it is.

Honouring the greats





What i read in february...



It's been a slow, non-themed reading month in Bertsville. Looks like every month from here on out is going to be themed. We seem to have formed a small unofficial reading group thing here in Cardiff and we've hijacked the reading year with our vigilante theme-fascism, so hopefully that'll give us all some focus. Themes are good. Once you start with the themes everyone gets excited. Or pissed off, sometimes we get pissed off. Next month is Multicultural March. I'm hoping to finally read some bell hooks, but there's hopes and then there's reality.

So here's what i read in Feb...
(and here's what sian read)

Sister Golden Hair by Darcey Steinke
Really enjoyed this coming-of-age in Seventies L.A (named after an ace America tune!) Tons of period detail, unease, nostalgia and an insight into girlhood. 

Women by Chloe Caldwell
This one has a bit of a buzz going on at the moment, and it deserves it. 
A concise, contemporary-feeling novella about heartbreak and falling hard in love.

The Spectacular Now by Tim Tharp
Truly excellent Young Adult novel about a guy going off the rails.  
Funny, unpretentious and subversive.  

Don't Kiss Me by Lindsay Hunter
I've heard good things about Hunter's latest novel Ugly Girls, so i thought i'd give these short stories a go. Trashy, bratty and kinda comic-booky, these didn't feel all that new or original or anything but they did give me a kind of popping-candy high. 

...and i've nearly finished these
Burning The Days by James Salter
Man, Salter can write a sentence. These are his 'recollections' and i'm up to the Sixties right now, pretty thankful to be done with his piloting days...

Nothin' To Lose: The Making Of KISS by Ken Sharp
Deal with it.

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