Showing posts with label Michael Raven & Joan Mills. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Michael Raven & Joan Mills. Show all posts

Thursday, 20 May 2021

Michael Raven & Joan Mills ‎– "Hymn To Ché Guevara" (Folk Heritage Recordings FHR 054) 1974



There aren't too many openly conservative Folkies. They're all looney left wing, unless you count Johnny Cash as Folk? Well at least in the UK, all Folk musicians were proud exponents in sucking the red end of the political spectrum. Michael Raven may well have the deportment of an off duty Police officer,but his recording career suggested that he was somewhat a frustrated Pinko. Firmly out of the closet by 1974,the title of this crime worshiping album kind of confirms a revolutionary bent.
Making a record in praise of Ché ,a terrorist by modern standards,quite possibly a war criminal by any code of contemporary civilised ethics, and very guilty of crimes against humanity for his role as Minister of Justice in Castro's early government.'Justice' meaning executing enemies of the people,aka, anyone they didn't like.
Very popular on T-shirts,crowned the sixties Jesus, Ché,was more a fashion token rather than someone to base a new world order on. Somehow I can't imagine Joan and Michael having an in depth discussion about Ché's concept of the 'New Man' and the collectivization of farmlands.....saying that ,however, he looked good,and if you have a cool image, crimes against humanity don't count for diddly-squat.
I can just imagine these gentle folkies turning into blood thirsty killers come the revolution, hacking that doom metal fan next door into pieces with a scythe at the slightest wink from the latest Ché-a-like @ Facebook.com. Human's have a track record of stuff like this.
Depending on the blugeoner of course, I wouldn't mind being bludgeoned to death by an acoustic twelve string if it was wielded by Sandy Denny's resurrected ghost......as long as it was in tune mind!
That said, if the would be bludgeoner was some faux-folkie like James "You're Beaudiful" Blunt,or that Ginger twat from X-Factor,then I would willingly surrender my liberty,or even my life, to render them harmless with a couple of lead lined mandolin's. 
Raven and Mills, seem to enjoy singing about criminals in general it seems,because of the misconception that all criminals are the hard done by working class lads'n'lasses featured in many a traditional tune.Or was Raven really a plain clothes policeman after all?
 
Tracklist:

1 Belle Starr & Jesse James
2 Twenty Years
3 Tim Evans’ Dance
4 Melancholy Pavanne
5 Perry Mason’s Maggot
6 Hymn To Che Guevara
7 The Great Train Robbery
8 Magpies In Picardy
9 Little White Donkey
10 Dancing Lady
11 Over The Wall
12 Midnight City


Tuesday, 18 May 2021

Michael Raven & Joan Mills – "Death And The Lady" (Folk Heritage Recordings – FHR 047) 1972


Well the tenuous connection between me getting Pfizered today and some twilit english folk moozick,is this sought after LP by Michael Raven and Joan Mills."Death and The Lady"
Death being the looming shadow of Co-Vid 19,and the lady being the charming young nurse who penetrated my left arm with the serum.
A liquid which, depending on which facebook post you last read instead of watching responsible news channels, or reading serious newspapers, will either render you a screaming vegetable as part some some fiendish genetic experiment, or turn you into a political zombie working for the Illuminati (Aren't we already?). There are many others that I can't be fucking bothered to list,but I do suspect,I'm crazy i know, that there wasn't any nano-bots or nano chips shot into my body, and the planet Earth is definitely elliptical rather than Flat.I know this because I can't see Australia,or at least the Himalayas from my nearest hillock.
Anyway, I've took one for the team to help free us all,even the Anti-vaxxers and conspiracy nuts, from this absurd repression......not that i've minded it at all.It kept people away from my front door,business increased by 500% due to the online boom,and i don't have to go anywhere.....look, I've got the photo's,so whats the point?
As lockdown is being lifted,and bars are opening, at least in the UK, I'm waiting for the anti-vaxxers to become the dominant breeding ground for super-covid,as the virus works out how to avoid the immune system altogether and become 100% lethal.My dearest wish is that it kills the Anti-Vaxxers in horrible slow agony before it gets to us responsible adult types.Dying will be worth it knowing that these post-truther fools got a free crash course in immunology before they realised that they just might have been....er,silly I know but.... wrong???....can't be?...nah?
"Do your Research" they said? Meaning watch some basket-case with a self-importance deficiency on YouTube,rather than doing 6 years at university studying immunology and/or virology.Duh!
Frank Farley of The Pirates as Joan Mills minder

However..... this album is rather mid-budget Pentangly, but worth the price of admission for the fact that Michael raven looked like a bald Frank Farley of the Pirates ,and sometimes like Roger Whittaker crossed with the Sweeney......sorry anyone not from the noisy island of Britain,I just can't help myself using Brit-culture references,it amuses me.
Joan mills has a nice line in delightfully dark(-ish) warbling,but tends to overdo it a bit.She so wanted to be Jacqui McShee (Pentangle),and almost pulled it off. But one cannot fault the quality of these songs.....the guitar playing, although very BBC schools program theme tune style is suitably haunting!......OUCH!...those nano-bots are starting to take over, I must kill,Kill KILL all non believers!
I predict the new 100% lethal'Super-Covid' will hit round about the end of the holiday season(sept).....and there'll be No escape....not even for Bo-Jo bless him,as he'll miss being voted the worst Prime Minister that ever got to redecorate the Downing Street Flat 'cus he'll be dead!

Tracklist:

1.Death And The Lady
2.The Jolly Highwayman
3.Lisa Lan
4.Ladies Don't Go A-Thievin'
5.Robin Hood's Dance
6.Staines Morris / La Folia Saraband / Adson's Saraband
7.Saraband
8.The Lichfield Greenhill Bower Processional
9.The Captain's Apprentice
10.Can Y Melinyd / Troseg Y Gareg
11.Sarah Collins
12.The White Gloves
13.La Russe Waltz / Paris Polka
14.The Queen Of The Night