Get a room

At Rip It Up in the 1980s a regular advertiser used to be a local clothing retailer. Their ads always featured the manager and her boyfriend in different outfits from the store, looking very coy. Each month our accountant - a blonde bombshell herself - would cash the cheque, re-apply her lippy, roll her eyes and say: "Fucking in public. Is that a good look?" For some reason I thought of this when I came across the above clip of Kris Kristofferson and then-wife Rita Coolidge, both leather clad, singing his 'Help Me Make It Through the Night.'

A friend who worked at the New Zealand entertainment magazine Playdate in the late 1960s saw Johnny Cash and his (at last!) wife June Carter perform together in the Auckland Town Hall stage circa 1970. He said it was the sexiest thing he had ever witnessed on a stage. (I think he was referring to 'Jackson'.) This clip is from about that era; June helped Johnny make it through the night, though she always reminds me of some kind of eccentric aunt ... 

I got to these via the great website When You Awake, devoted to all things country-rock. Especially check out their "twang" mixtapes of (mostly) country singers covering songwriters like the Stones, Dylan, the Band and Gene Clark. The eclectic, country-fried rock reminds me of Rip It Up's neighbours in the Elliot Street building, Snake Studios: screenprinters to the stars and 1970s gentlemen who loved sharing their great vinyl collections, etc. Take a bow, Dave Perkins (RIP), Hal Chapman and Greg Cobb.