Barry Ryan "We Did It Together" (1970) (single)

We Did It Together, 7'' single

release date: 1970

format: vinyl

[single rate: 2 / 5] [2,18]

producer: Paul Ryan

label: Polydor - nationality: England, UK

Tracklist: A) "We Did It Together" - - B) "Lay Down"

Single release by English songwriter (and photographer), Barry Ryan (Sapherson, aka Barry Davison) of the twin-brother duo 'Paul & Barry Ryan'. This single seems to stem from a time when Barry had concentrated on a solo career while twin-brother Paul assisted him in writing songs and producing, and the title track somehow appear like a most fitting desription of how the two brothers found their way in show business.

This particular Danish print probably comes from my older brother's record collection. I do recall playing this at 7-12 years of age, but it never caught my interest. Stylewise, it sounds much inspired by The Walker Brothers with a love for heavy orchestrated arrangements. Barry and Paul did experience som success after Barry went solo, e.g. with the single hit "Eloise" (1968) (much later also a hit for punk rock band The Damned).

~ ~ ~

This post is part of MyMusicJourney, which enlists key releases that have shaped my musical taste when growing up and until age 14. Most of these releases come from my parents' and / or my older brother's collection.

Johnny Madsen "Godt nyt" (2015)

Godt nyt

release date: Sep. 25, 2015

format: cd

[album rate: 3,5 / 5] [3,58]

producer: Chief 1 (aka Lars Pedersen)

label: REO / Universal - nationality: Denmark

16th and final studio solo album by Johnny Madsen. This is posted on the day it was publicly known that Madsen had passed away, Nov. 4, 2024 (age 73). The album is the only one by Madsen that I purchased shortly after it came out. I never was a huge fan but I really enjoyed much of the music he made from 1982 to 2015, and also in the lasting trio Dalton together with Lars Lilholt and Allan Olsen. I think, I first noticed one of his songs after he had launched his third album Chinatown, Yellow Moon og Den Sorte Fugl in 1987 when I came across the title song and "Halgal halbal" - two songs that had some radio airplay. I thought of these songs as highly original and not without appeal, although, I wasn't a big fan of the blues, and simply wasn't ready for his sometimes surreal original take on the genre back then. His follow-up Udenfor sæsonen (Aug. 1988) was a national breakthrough and it's an album that brought several classics with it, incl. the title track, "Færgemanden", "Komadibovser", and "Tidlig mandag morgen". With that album, he established himself as a contemporary artist with an unusual strong original take on soft blues rock in a most original style and certainly notable for his ear for his local dialect, garnered with strong lyrics and his rasping singing voice.

Godt nyt ['Good news'] may sound like an inappropriate title to pick on this day, but with Madsen's sense for the surreal, an abundance of irony, and a gift for word-play, this title could be as good as any to pay tribute to his gifted soul. The album provides us with a mature and personal look on modern life with well-placed comments on social media, globalism, traditions, and smaller things from everyday life. I really like this one. It both contain great hooks, well-crafted and powerful arrangements but it also has a certain Lo-Fi tone to it that makes you think of something echoing early rehearsals in an organic kind of way, as an ingredient of authenticity, which is a quality I think stick to all his records. He leaves us with a solid discography that I need to dig more into 'cause his music is there, and I do know several of his albums, and they're definitely all worth knowing.

Thank you for the music, Johnny. Keep rockin'!