Monthly Archives: Mar 2024

Michael McDonald: Sweet Freedom (Extended)

Posted on by

It’s always a nice surprise when a classic 1980s track suddenly appears on streaming services out of the blue.

Michael McDonald’s ‘Sweet Freedom’, written by Rod Temperton and co-produced by Temperton, Bruce Swedien and Dick Rudolph, is one such single, but the only version currently available is the superb seven-minute extended mix.

It was a good period for McDonald (weird that he wasn’t involved with ‘We Are The World’?). Despite a now-very-dated 1985 album No Lookin’ Back, he had recorded fine duets with James Ingram, Patti Labelle and Joni Mitchell.

As for Temperton, hot off the back of Thriller he had worked on Steven Spielberg’s ‘The Color Purple’ soundtrack, then ‘Running Scared’, nowadays a pretty-much-forgotten Billy Crystal/Gregory Hines vehicle. Recorded at Westlake in Los Angeles, where most of Thriller was laid down, ‘Sweet Freedom’ was the movie’s key song and arguably Temperton’s final masterpiece. The verses owe a little to Lionel Richie’s ‘All Night Long’ and Temperton finally gets his ‘starlight’ motif into the middle eight (‘Starlight’ was an early title for the song ‘Thriller’).

The extended version is a brilliant little pop/soul symphony, with every performer getting a feature. Greg Phillinganes adds his special sauce on keys and there are some beautiful backing vocals from Siedah Garrett. The horn section (Bill Reichenbach, Chuck Findley, Jerry Hey, Larry Williams) contribute brief solos as does guitarist Paul Jackson Jr.

It would have been nice to have heard a real rhythm section (JR Robinson and Nathan East?) let loose on this but no matter. And people who say McDonald isn’t a soulful singer need to hear his performance in the second half of this extended version.

Released in June 1986, ‘Sweet Freedom’ reached #7 in the US and #12 in the UK.

Yngwie J Malmsteen: Rising Force 40 Years On

Posted on by

When movingtheriver started playing guitar and buying muso magazines in the late 1980s, the name Yngwie J Malmsteen seemed to inspire awe throughout the whole ‘scene’.

But there was no way you could just happen upon Malmsteen’s music in the UK unless you listened to ‘The Friday Rock Show’ with Tommy Vance.

Then my interest was piqued again when It Bites’ Francis Dunnery mentioned him in a Guitarist magazine interview from October 1989. Almost immediately after that I found Malmsteen’s debut solo album Rising Force – released 40 years ago this month – in a bargain bin at the Richmond Our Price.

You could make an argument that the Swede – born Lars Lannerback! – was THE rock guitarist of the 1980s, having as much of an impact as Eddie Van Halen did five years before. Rising Force was a perfect bridge between the UK, Genesis and Yes albums I was investigating and the heavier influences coming in from Steve Vai and Van Halen.

But, as with any freaky guitar virtuoso, the main issue was finding the right musical context. Rising Force has its duff songs (though always with brilliant guitar playing) but delivers two of the most stunning instrumentals in rock history, ‘Black Star’ and ‘Icarus Dream Suite Op.4’. And to think he was just 20 when he recorded them.

With Malmsteen’s scalloped Strat and nods to Paganini, Bach, Albinoni and Mozart, he achieved (and achieves) a remarkable control of vibrato, both via fingers and whammy bar – demonstrating possibly influences from Allan Holdsworth and Al Di Meola at this early stage – and superb tone, plus a mastery of those baroque passing chords.

I saw Yngwie live once at The Marquee on Charing Cross Road on 11 June 1994. It was thrilling seeing him at such close quarters but I kept wanting the singer to shut up. Eventually said vocalist got into a spat with someone at the front and smashed the mic stand down on his head.

Yngwie then set his Strat alight, kicked it to pieces and chucked the neck towards the sound desk, just missing my head and landing about 15 feet away. The venue was evacuated, and as we chatted nervously outside, a laughing kid ran past brandishing the smoking neck. Wonder where it/he is now.

I no longer have the CD of Rising Force for some reason – wish I had held onto it because the album is not on any streaming platforms at the time of writing. Malmsteen’s career continues at great pace – he’s just played two gigs in London and done a great interview with Rick Beato.

And for those who like reaction videos, The Daily Doug has put together a neat musical analysis of ‘Icarus Dream Suite’ here.

Book Review: Withnail & I (From Cult To Classic) by Toby Benjamin

Posted on by

The ‘Withnail’ cult shows no sign of waning. Writer/director of the 1987 movie Bruce Robinson spent some of lockdown discussing the film while co-star Richard E Grant posted regular line-readings on social media. And now there’s news of a long-awaited, Robinson-endorsed stage play.

So Toby Benjamin’s excellent ‘From Cult To Classic’ seems to have arrived at the perfect time. Authorised by Robinson and written with his full co-operation, it assembles a veritable cornucopia of ‘Withnail’ info.

The brilliantly blunt Robinson foreword almost had movingtheriver punching the air with excitement. Elsewhere letters from his personal collection show correspondence around the film’s financing and script editing. There are anotated script pages, detailed location administration and premiere tickets. We even see Robinson’s London to Cumbria train tickets for the shoot. Richard Curtis and Richard E also donate personal letters.

There are brilliant on-set photos, many by official snapper Murray Close, some donated by Robinson and the cast (including a great one of a clearly mullered Ringo Starr). All the main cast members give long, interesting interviews, as do many key bit-part players (The Irishman, the ‘Get in the back of the van!’ cop, Farmer Parkin) and the hairdresser, stills photographer, makeup artist, cinematographer, production manager, costume designer and soundtrack composers Rick Wentworth and David Dundas. We even hear from the owner of Crow Crag (Sleddale Hall).

There are a few minor quibbles – the book is dotted with ‘celebrity’ endorsements of the film but you’d be hard pressed to recognise any of them, outside of Matt Johnson, Charlie Higson and Diane Morgan, and no biographies are provided. Also the book’s ‘distressed’ interior design will probably divide opinion.

But if you’ve seen ‘Withnail’ more than once, you have to have this book. Absolutely unreservedly recommended to scrubbers and terrible c*nts everywhere.