048 Delay 1968 (Can) / The Velvet Underground & Nico (The Velvet Underground & Nico)

And what costume shall the poor wizards wear to all tomorrow’s podcasts? Listen in to find out if they can can Can and if they go bananas for V.U.You’ll also hear our lists of favourite V.U. songs, Kicker’s “worst gig ever attended” story from 9 years ago and Chorizo sharing his “meeting Lou Reed” story from ever further back in the mists of time.This episode: it’s my wife and it’s my life.

A tangled web of Webb here as both these albums include songs by legendary writer Jimmy. In 1968, Richard the actor & Johnny the rocker both turned to Webb to help redirect their careers towards ambitious orchestral sunshine-pop and soggy cakes left out in the rain.

It seemed a cert that Curt would hit paydirt with his elaborate Californian chamber pop. He & his band The Millennium were given access to Columbia’s new 8 track recording facilities and begun making Begin, one of the most expensively made albums of the millennium up to that point. To say it didn’t recoup costs would be something of an understatement but it has gone on to become a cult favourite. On his tape, Robert Pollard paired it with an album of mostly unreleased material Curt & his pals recorded before and after The Millennium.

Robert Pollard made it easy on himself by just taping one album by Scott. It's a compilation of songs from the first 5 solo albums with lyrics covering diverse subjects such as Ingmar Bergman films, the loneliness of the long-serving sex worker, the 1968 Czechoslovakian uprising against the Soviet Union and fat men that belch a lot.

A touch more Schmilsson on the podcast as we examine his next 2 albums. And who would think this album pair would be well accepted everywhere? It’s quite amazing how fair people can be.

Before these albums, Harry Nilsson was doing hard day’s nightshifts at the bank as a computer operator. Then he became the man everybody’s talkin’ about with a little Help! from his friends John, Paul, George & Ringo who started dropping his name Here There and Everywhere.

This tape pairs 2 stars from an earlier era struggling to find an audience in a market now overcrowded with beat groups dabbling in psychedelia. Join us to find out if the hippy kids were right to take a dim view of Rick’s other side and turn down the invitation to Runaway with Del on his further adventures.

Your hosts the 21st century schizoid men invite you to meet them on the desert shore to hear what they make of Christa Paffgen’s difficult third album and the King Crimson record that may well be to blame for inventing prog rock. Do they have time for such Fripp-ery?

They call him The Wanderer and he’s certainly wandering around around around around around on these 2 albums, covering a range of musical styles and contemporary songwriters of the day including Joni, Bob and Leonard.

No less a figure than The Damned’s Captain Sensible described this as “just the most amazing album I’ve ever heard.” It’s Groundhog Day and life is for living, right now before you die.