The Crispy Zebra Experience

By: Michael Ford
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  • Become a Paid Subscriber: https://anchor.fm/crispyzebramusic/subscribe Become a Paid Subscriber: https://anchor.fm/crispyzebramusic/subscribe Become a Paid Subscriber: https://anchor.fm/crispyzebramusic/subscribe Six decades of the very best psychedelic and left-field music. Studio-produced Deep Dives, all linked to a single theme. Narrated by Martine Croxall. Produced by KJ Thorarinson. Written & created by Crispy Zebra.
    Michael Ford
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Music
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Episodes
  • Deep Dive 15: Covers

    Deep Dive 15: Covers
    Jun 17 2022
    Covers: Jimi Hendrix once said that ““I've been imitated so well I've heard people copy my mistakes.” Tell me, why would somebody wish to perform another’s work? What is the artist actually thinking when they cover a song? Is it the knowledge that such a great song will be popular and make them money? Maybe. Could it be the fact that as you already know it to be a great song, you want to be personally associated with it? More likely, I suppose. Or moreover, perhaps it’s a personal statement, a song that you are proud to be associated with. I guess that’s the Crispy definition. Whatever it might be, it’s great that so many of us copy the hell out of each other, and this Deep Dive will bring you just a smidgeon – a scintilla - of the billions of amazing out there. Rest assured, Crispy will be revisiting the wonderful world of the cover version. But until then, grab a glass, sit back and enjoy some really talented people doing really talented stuff, with other people’s material. This is the wonderful world of covers.
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    1 hr and 8 mins
  • Deep Dive 14: New Romantic

    Deep Dive 14: New Romantic
    Jun 17 2022
    New Romantic: The United Kingdom of 1979 was a drab, unforgiving place in which to be young. The colourful tie dye of the sixties’ hippy era had now washed out, replaced by the oranges, yellows, browns and blacks of seventies’ clothes and soft furnishings. Something had to change, and in a small corner of British society it most definitely was doing - the ‘New Romantic’ movement was being born. Out of the nightclubs in London (The Blitz) and Birmingham (Billy’s), eccentricity was the new cool. Their key musical inspirations were Bowie, Kraftwerk, Roxy Music, and Marc Bolan, all doubtless on mid-70s TV screens throughout a new romantic’s formative years. Their fashion sense, however, looked much further back, with the romantic period of the early 19th century playing a key part in the peacock styles of both Kahn and Bell in Birmingham and PX fashion studios in London. Nothing was off bounds following the punk movement of a couple of years previous, and an outrageous mix of Far Eastern, ancient Babylonian and an eye-catching ‘English Dandy’ look, owed as much to the styles of Byron and Shelley as they did to ancient Mesopotamia. As for the music, the synthesizer now drove the music - the key exponents of this very British movement being Visage, Duran Duran, The Human League and Spandau Ballet, all paving the way for bands like A Flock of Seagulls, Thomas Dolby, Ultravox and Classix Nouveaux to make their mark. There were many others who have subsequently been sloppily labelled as ‘New Romantic’ over the years (Adam & the Ants, Gary Numan, Japan and Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark being key examples of bands who despised the New Romantic moniker). As with so many other fads around the 1980s, New Romanticism was over very quickly - by early 1982, its appeal was waning as the synthesizer sound became more accessible to the masses - keyboards becoming a standard component of the 80s pop single. So, join Crispy, and visit a brief period in time when foppish was the new cool and synth was king.
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    59 mins
  • Deep Dive 13: Seasons🍂

    Deep Dive 13: Seasons🍂
    Jun 2 2022
    Crispy Zebra presents Seasons I’d like to tell you about the seasons, as I experienced them as a child. Snowdrops and spring meant a shiny, new outside world to re-explore. It meant wellies, thick jumpers and big puddles, it meant travel and the rebirth of hope. With the daffodils came the inevitable onset of yet another warm, often damp summer. In times of fair weather, summer meant sand dunes, crabs (the crustaceous kind, cheeky!) And as I got older, it meant cider, laughing – a lot, loud music and red squirrels. Every autumn arrived with conkers, Indian summers - which I adored - and kaleidoscopic tree lines. Every November, without fail, you slipped back into the big boots and secured your long, buttoned coat, a beast of a cold front just around the corner. Today, in the 2020s, the start (or end) of seasons is becoming harder to differentiate. Questions such as ‘Do I have enough jumpers?’ or ‘When do I put the big coat on, again?’ seem quaint, and a very long time ago. Now, seasons can herald in blasts of intense cold, weather bombs, tornados, forest fires, blistering heat waves and so much more. Monsoon season is no longer a thing you can set your clock to, and a desolating famine or life-ending drought is never far away from many of those living on planet Earth today. All of us, regardless of location, are now experiencing a ‘blurring’ of the seasons, as the earth starts to heat up exponentially. You’ll recall the theory of ‘non-habitable zones? That’s right, the ones so often ridiculed as crazy, left-wing propaganda by those in the seats of power? Well, sadly, this is now a reality of life for millions of people; those without the means to escape a weather-based hell on earth. I have stood, alone, in a shaded square in Sevilla in August at noon, where the thought of just two more minutes outside in such brutal heat made my wet skin shiver with fear. All I can remember was praying all day long from my air-conditioned room that an electricity outage didn’t take the city off-grid. Trust me, that would have been very, very bad. But for now, let’s take out some time to celebrate spring, summer, autumn and winter – the way they were supposed to be. Artists include XTC, Small Faces, Sunbeam Sound Machine, The Killers & The Doors.
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    59 mins

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