T-Shirt Friday 23 !

A  'Chopping Wood' T-Shirt!
T-Shirt Friday 23? - I hear you ask, but should it not be 25??? Ah well, here is the missing '23'! Admittedly it has been some time since there has been any T-Shirt Friday's at all!!! do not fear though, there is and will be a 25, however just for this week lets go back into the 'Bad Fog of Loneiness' and bring forth out of the mists this one from the vaults... 

So... where did we leave off... the T-Shirt Friday Quiz Conundrum question! which was... 'Cosmic Egg' was an album released by which Australian heavy rock band? The answer is of course Wolfmother! - did you get it right? How will you celebrate? maybe with your pet Wolf if you have one, or cook your Mother dinner, however you decide to celebrate just enjoy! it's Friday and the weekend is coming after all!

A version of today's T-Shirt can be found here: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Mens-Young-HARVEST-Shirt-MEDIUM/dp/B009CBLFE8
Mine is an older version and sadly doesn't seem to be available any more.

"I was chopping down a palm tree, When a friend dropped by to ask, If I would feel less lonely, If he helped me swing the axe. I said: No, it's not a case of being lonely, We have here, I've been working on this palm tree, For eighty seven years, I said: No, it's not a case of being lonely, We have here, I've been working on this palm tree, For eighty seven years, He said: Go get lost! And walked towards his Cadillac. I chopped down the palm tree. And it landed on his back."

'Last Trip To Tulsa' - Neil Young


It's seems fitting almost to publish T-Shirt 23 after having already released T-Shirt 24, it's the kind of thing that Neil might do, in fact has done... like recording albums and then releasing them many years later or never releasing them at all!

'Harvest' on it's release in 1972, divided both critics and fans opinions. Even Neil himself in retrospect has described the album (almost in the same breath) as an 'MOR aberration' and his 'finest album'. Neil's most famous quote from that time, is about the song 'Heart Of Gold' "This song put me in the middle of the road. Travelling there soon became a bore so I headed for the ditch. A rougher ride but I met more interesting people there."
Often though 'Harvest' along with it's counterpart 'After The Gold Rush' released in 1970 are an accessible way in to a sometimes uncompromising but brilliant artist.
This is true of myself, 'After The Gold Rush' was my first Neil Young album and from that moment I was captivated. Once you have heard Neil and you 'get him' you kind of sign up to be a life long fan, no matter what direction he wants to take you in. However I was a bit confused... 'Heart Of Gold' was the first Neil song I'd actually ever heard, (they often played it at Walthamstow Dog Stadium along with some other classics between races) but it didn't appear to be on the cassette tape of 'After The Gold Rush' that I'd just purchased. Some more digging was necessary. Of course at that point I was very naive and had no idea of how vast Neil's output and back catalogue was. Somehow though the cassette tape that greeted me when I walked back into Woolworth's at Chingford Mount was 'Harvest'.

Collecting and cutting up wood have both become a bit of a fixture for my Dad. Fairly recently Mum and Dad decided to get a wood burning stove, it really suits the house, keeps it lovely and warm and just looks so romantic. Wood in abundance is of course needed though, Dad has collected a number of tools in readiness to prepare old planks, logs and trees! And it's at a tree where this story really begins... Whilst staying back at my Parents, my Dad mentioned that he might need some help with a tree that had fallen down at my Brother-In-Laws, Mum's house, it needed to be cleared and there was an opening over the upcoming weekend to do it, I did very little in preparation, until that is last minute on the Saturday morning, we needed to be up early... Still half asleep I dressed myself adding two odd socks to the mix and went downstairs, we had some breakfast and off we went. The tree was already down although there was a stump which Dad had to cut through and we began to clear the chunks of wood, noticeably there was a lot of amber sap seeping out through the bark which I'd managed to get down my t-shirt, I looked down not even taking into account before that moment the tee that I had on... it's OK I thought it's only that old worn out 'Neil Young - Harvest' t-shirt and then it hit me... that old Neil Young shirt... the lyrics of the last verse of 'Last Trip To Tulsa' filled my head. Without even knowing it or putting any thought into it I was wearing the right t-shirt for the chop! 
Incidentally 'Chopping Wood' is a way of playing drums where the drummer plays a strong rim-click on the two and four beats, often Ken Buttrey's drum's on 'Heart Of Gold' are described as 'cutting wood' or 'chopping wood drum style'.

Walking back from Woolworth's I slid the tape in my Walkman and popped on the headphones, from that day onwards I played 'Harvest' over and over again, to the point of when you could no longer read any of the text on the body of the cassette tape and the tape itself was getting worn, the case was scratched and you could barley see the beautiful typography of Tom Wilkes cover design through it. I loved that album so much and I wanted to tell the world, I found a way to do so... the below t-shirt! 
In somewhat a similar way to the tape, I wore it so much, (taking it everywhere with me) that the print soon became very faint, it gained holes and started wearing very thin, soon it became apparent that with much sadness it would have to be retired and put away into the bottom of the chest of drawers at my Mum and Dad's... and there it stayed, only to be rediscovered quite by mistake many years later while in a dozy rush to get down the stairs to have breakfast and help my Dad chop up a tree!

Well here we are again it's time for the T-Shirt Friday Quiz Conundrum! which this week is: What is the title of the famously unreleased 1977 Neil Young album?


More info on Neil Young? - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neil_Young

Neil Young discography - http://www.neilyoung.com/archives/discography/nyd_start1.html

Neil's website - http://www.neilyoung.com

Wood Burning Stoves - http://www.which.co.uk/energy/creating-an-energy-saving-home/guides/wood-burning-stoves/
Tom Wilkes (One of my favourite all time album cover designers / art directors) - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Wilkes

Detail of the 'Harvest' T-Shirt with tree sap!

T-Shirt Friday 20 !

...A BJH on wholemeal to go, please!

Well T-Shirt Friday has been on a two week summer sabbatical, it's now fully refreshed though and full to the brim with stories of 100% cotton and polyester wonder! 
So the last T-Shirt Friday had a rather back-to-basics approach to it, did you get the rather back-to-basics T-Shirt Friday Quiz Conundrum though? There were some very good guesses, ranging from the cotton fields of the US right through to the marvel that is India... the real answer though is rather surprising. did you get it? The answer is... China! and we have a winner too! possibly due to her adventures a little while ago now in said country... Miss Russell wins theT-Shirt Friday Quiz Conundrum badge of honour! Well done Miss Russell! 
In 2007 alone China produced 35.8 billion bales of the stuff! Loads and loads of cotton t-shirts worth! If you did get the question right or even wrong come to that! ... what will you do to celebrate? A suggestion might be to wear as many items of cotton clothing that you have in your drawer or wardrobe all at the same time! Whilst balancing a china plate on your nose!... You could do that... or you could just have a nice cold beer or wine at your local pub!

Today's T-Shirt can be found directly on: http://www.bjharvest.co.uk

Some time ago now... in fact when I first started working as a young graphic designer in the music industry, we would have a visitor come and join us every now and then, in our little broom cupboard of a studio. The other guys would chat away with him... He had a running joke with Marv about designing sleeves for military band compilation albums (which he did) and Reginald Dixon's, 'Dixon Magic', Wurlitzer albums (which to my knowledge he didn't design, Marv?) This unknown chap, would regale us with stories of the music industry, while taking out his lunch box and eating sandwiches. After a period of him visiting, it became obvious that the sandwiches were in fact prepared in anticipation of him coming to our office. He would sit with us for hours on end, just chatting away. One such story that he told, was to do with him and his band... (which he took quite some care not to ever mention their name for some reason...) falling into financial difficulties and he, reluctantly having to sell stuff off... his house was even put up for sale, passionate about trying to keep the building and hoping for some resolution to his money woes he decided to put perspective buyers off by placing a number of large salmon wrapped in newspaper under the floor boards, the smell after a couple of weeks was so bad... he told us... that the place was left unsold and his hopes were answered with his finances coming back to some normality, thus the house remained in his possession!!!
Every now and again his visits would be cut short by our MD slinging him out on his ear... he would come into our office, see the sandwich munching chap and say... "Right 'Woolly', what are you doing here again?"... It became more and more obvious that they knew each other. It was only later after doing a little bit of design work for 'Woolly' (which I hasten to add never got used) that I figured it out... this Tupperware wielding bloke was Stuart Wolstenholme other wise known as 'Woolly' Wolstenholme, Keyboardist (although actually a multi-instrumentalist) with Barclay James Harvest. 
It also came out much later that he struggled with mental illness and he very sadly passed away in 2010... I'll never forget those moments though, when he came to Eagle and we got to spend time eating sandwiches and just chilling with a truly talented musician and writer...

In 2010 we found ourselves at Victoria Station and approaching the gate for the Gatwick Flyer, Miss Russell was off to Italy, Milan to be precise, to go to visit her publishers and work on a project. We approached the chap to ask for our tickets, straight away his eyes fixed on the t-shirt I was wearing... "Blimey!" he said, slightly startled... "I haven't seen a Barclay James Harvest t-shirt in years" I laughed not really knowing what to say..."Great band, saw them loads of times, a couple of times at the Astoria", he went on to say... "Mind you, don't think anyone would know who they are now..." he almost finished his question with an answer, possibly with the realisation that I might know who they are as I was in the t-shirt... of course though, there is that classic thing of people wearing t-shirts of bands and not knowing anything about them... more often then not though, that falls into the category of someone wearing a 'Rolling Stones' tee they have purchased from Primark, not with a rather obscure band that not many people have ever even heard of... which is perhaps what he was getting at....? I agreed with him to try to add weight to that very fact "Yes... great band"... Miss Russell laughed and as we walked away having purchased our tickets, She said her now infamous line "People always comment on your t-shirts".
We arrived at Gatwick and joined the queue for check-in, as we turned in the line, the lady behind us exclaimed "Oh! Barclay James Harvest! haven't heard of them in years!" "I had my first dance at my wedding to a Barclay James Harvest song!", She paused "'Gone To Earth', was my favourite album of theirs" She said " Don't hear much of them now..." almost echoing what the ticket man had said earlier "Yes" I agreed, we chatted for  a bit longer and Miss Russell returned from having handed in her baggage, She laughed having heard the beginning of the conversation with the lady and myself finishing off her story. Miss Russell shook her head and laughed again, finding it funny that two people in not so much as 45mins had commented on the same t-shirt. Miss Russell flew off to Bologna and I headed back on the Gatwick Express, the ticket man had gone by the time the train got back to London... For sometime after though, I thought about those two people, whose lives had been touched in their own way by Barclay James Harvest and by default Woolly Wolstenholme, even if BJH don't mean as much to anyone as they did back in the 1970's, they have still left a trail of cherished memories and that really is all that anyone can hope to do... nothing that we do is done in vain... to quote Dickens.

Well here we are again! it's that time, it's the T-Shirt Friday Quiz Conundrum! which this week is: what label were Barclay James Harvest originally signed to? Hmmm bit tricky that one....

Would you like to know more about Barclay James Harvest? : 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barclay_James_Harvest
More on Woolly Wolstenholme: http://www.woollywolstenholme.co.uk
More on Reginald Dixon (check out the Dixon Magic album cover!): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reginald_Dixon


P.S. It should be noted that it's a 'John Lee's Barclay James Harvest' tee that I own. As shown below... original BJH shirts seem hard to come by...