It's Oot ...

Norm's 100 best rock singles poll is here. By the musical vintage there's an awful lot of fortysomething bloggers out there.

Only two questions.

i) how can anyome with two ears and a brain listen to "White Man In The Hammersmith Palais" - surely some of the worst white reggae ever.

ii) where on earth are Lord Rockingham's XI, whose 1958 classic 'Hoots Mon' bestrides the narrow world of rock like a colossus.

"The first 5 seconds of “Hoots Mon” are gobsmackingly dumb and wonderful – the horns blaring, the organ sounding like it’s been stabbed, the rest of the band setting up a kind of snarling hum like a gang of lairy Buddhists. And once the main riff’s got going all these things recur - plus handclaps, shout-outs and the “Hoots Mon!” chant that gives the record its title-cum-gimmick. It’s proper musicians having a laugh who sound for a moment like cavemen having a go. It’s a calculated, compressed party. It’s a great record."

Years later bandleader Harry Robinson would arrange the strings for three classic Sandy Denny releases - the North Star Grassman and the Ravens, Like An Old Fasioned Waltz, and Rendezvous.