I'm a rock 'n roll guy. But every now and then there's some "jazz" that reaches out and grabs me. Usually "jazz" with a saxophone. I love the sound of a saxophone and rock music doesn't offer a lot of great sax. Clarence. Michael Brecker here and there. I'm sure there's a few others that aren't coming to mind right now.
But for good sax, you've got to be listening to jazz music. And right now, that means the Fantastic Merlins. The Merlins are a four-piece band featuring sax, bass and drums, and (get this) cello. Very unusual. Two mostly single line melody instruments with similar range and reedy timbres. Interesting.
But just how interesting depends on which version of the Merlins you're talking about. Saxophonist Nathan Hansen has been there throughout, and plays a generally fairly low-key, calm and peaceful style only occasionally given to going a little bit wild.
Look Around and A Handful of Earth
The Merlins' versions are defined by their cellist. Originally it was Jacqueline Ultan, who played a romantic, melodic style, mimicking Hansen's. Ultan was featured on both of the Merlins' true ensemble recordings, Look Around (recorded 2005, released 2007) and A Handful of Earth (recorded 2008, released 2009). Both are absolutely terrific records.
Look Around features 2 stunning songs in the Merlins' 2 basic styles. "I Was Behind the Couch All the Time" is a funky, whimsical piece, a theme and variations based on an uptempo 4-bar riff in the sax. From there the variations wander all over the landscape in seeming free form, returning to the main theme about 2 minutes later. Big fun.
The other is a romantic, emotional piece called "Line." Here the sax and cello are basically in counterpoint, suggestive in a manner of speaking of a Bach fugue, around a long, slow, elegaic, lovely melody suggestive of Edward Elgar. Roll it together, explore it for about 7 minutes, and this is a truly beautiful and moving piece.
The title piece "Look Around" and "Letting Go" are in the general vein of "Line," though moodier and more dissonant. "It Would Seem," "Dance Partner" and "Lenny" are along the lines of "Couch," based on minimalist riffs, often whimsical. "Lenny" is especially funky, based on a simple two-bar, eight-note riff, then wandering off into one of Ultan's most expansive solos, though Hansen's sax is also featured more or less throughout.
The songs that seem to jump off of Handful of Earth are more along the lines of "Line"--slow, soft, contemplative pieces. "Inversion Is The Condition" opens with a minute or so of cello atmospherics before Hansen states the theme, again a minimal two-bar, four-note melody that quickly expands out and becomes the basis for an extended sax solo. "The Face in the Window" uses the same formula to produce another soothing, relaxing piece, maybe better described as pop than jazz.
The title tune is different, edgier, over a staccato cello rhythm throughout. But the Merlins get really edgy on "Purple Orange," which begins slowly in the bass and then the cello before drummer Peter Hennig takes over and jacks up the tempo at the 3 minute mark. Hansen follows with a lengthy and boisterous improvisation and his best recorded solo.
The Merlins describe their style as "visceral power" and "sparse textures." But they're surely no tower of power, nor are the textures that sparse. The melodic material, yes. The textures go on forever. In any event, the 2 records together establish Hansen and the Merlins as a terrific ensemble working its way around the edges of the jazz and jazz-fusion genres.
How the Light Gets In
But the newer of the 2 is 4 years old. They do not represent the Merlins of today. Nor does their 3rd recording, How the Light Gets In, recorded in 2009 and released in 2010. This is mostly a collection of Leonard Cohen tunes, with vocals supplied by Kid Dakota. The fact is the Merlins never sounded quite like this except on this particular recording and at the Sons d'Hiver Festival in Paris in 2010. Matt Turner played cello for the Merlins for just a very short time including the recording and the festival, then was replaced by Daniel Levin.
How the Light Gets In works very hard at giving the Cohen a new sound and it succeeds but in an eccentric, forced, mannered way. The exceptions are "Memories," by Kid Dakota, and "The Little Bird," an instrumental piece by the Merlins, where there is a coherent and an appealing voice.
Live at the Black Dog, 2012
So if you want to know what the Merlins sound like today with Levin as Hanson's chief co-conspirator, a recent gig at the Black Dog in St. Paul, MN, will have to suffice. And the answer would seem to be that Levin favors a terrifically gnarly, avant guard, free form style that is anything but easy listening. Levin nay be the Alvin Lee of jazz cello. He sure can play fast!, but I'm not sure what he's trying to say.
But most of you will never make your way to the Black Dog, so don't worry about it. In the meantime, Look Around and Handful of Earth are a couple of immensely enjoyable recordings that anybody can access.
Thursday, May 10, 2012
Tuesday, May 8, 2012
Kathleen Edwards' Voyageur
So, who was that strawberry blonde with Boney Vair at the Grammies? I suppose the more hopelessly romantic among us thought, Emma! But, no. The strawberry blonde was new girlfriend--and, a singer, herself--Kathleen Edwards. Edwards, a Canadian, debuted way back in 2003 with Failer, featuring a really terrific tune "Six O'Clock News," and released 2 additional LPs before her current Voyageur.
Her 1st 3 records were produced in collaboration with husband Colin Crips, but the 2 were divorced in 2011. In the fall of 2010 she began work on her 4th record with Justin Vernon of Bon Iver as producer. Sometime later they became an item and about the same time Vernon/Bon himself became an item with the massive success of his 2nd album, Bon Iver, Bon Iver.
All of which has undoubtedly helped Voyageur to get a hearing and a #39 rating on the U.S. album charts, and a much deserved hearing it is. I mean, there's a certain sameness to it, with a surfeit of ballads.
But 3 of the up-tempo tunes stand out. "Empty Threat" opens the record with a pretty little easy listening verse. The chorus, "I'm moving to America," is repeated a bit much, but all in all it gets the record off to a pleasant start. "Change the Sheets" is the 1st single. Driven by a staccato piano figure, it builds to an arena rock crescendo that seems a bit over the top for the material and also for Edwards' thinnish voice. But aside from the overstatement, it too is a nice enough tune.
"Sidecar" is tossed off without fanfare mid-record, but it proves to be the most enjoyable of the up-tempo tunes. At a modest 2:38 it avoids the repetition and overstatement of the other 2. Thank goodness for these 3 tunes because the rest is pretty much all ballads.
Some of the them a very nice ballads, of course. I'm particularly fond of "Soft Place to Land" and "Pink Champagne." Not only are they nice tunes, but they suit Edwards' voice nicely. It is on the ballads, too, that Vernon's Boney sonic palette comes into play and as on Bon Iver, Bon Iver, the effect is most pleasing.
"For the Record" closes the record and at 7:07 falls prey to the repetition that mars "Empty Threat," only more so. I don't know how many times she sings "For the record, I only wanted to sing songs," but it's too many. "House Full of Empty Rooms" has another pretty little melody but maudlin lyrics, while "Chameleon/Comedian,""Mint" and "Going to Hell" are also mostly enjoyable tunes.
All in all, a nice collection of ballads tempered by just enough of a more active sound to avoid monotony. I know this all sounds like faint praise. But roll it all up and you've got the best album-length collection of songs of 2012 so far. Of course, that is in part because 2012 thus far has been a pretty weak year in pop music. Only Craig Finn's Clear Heart Full Eyes really stands out otherwise, though The Shins' long-awaited Port of Morrow has its moments. I also have high hopes for Bonnie Raitt's Slipstream and Rufus Wainwright's Out of the Game, neither of which I have listened to yet due to an active travel schedule.
Then there's also this: A Handful of Earth, an instrumental record by The Fantastic Merlins, was released a year ago, though I only became acquainted with it a month or two ago. I will write about the Merlins forthwith.
I will also be seeing The Shins, Steve Earle, Los Lobos and Rufus Wainwright live this summer, and I'll let you know how those turn out.
Her 1st 3 records were produced in collaboration with husband Colin Crips, but the 2 were divorced in 2011. In the fall of 2010 she began work on her 4th record with Justin Vernon of Bon Iver as producer. Sometime later they became an item and about the same time Vernon/Bon himself became an item with the massive success of his 2nd album, Bon Iver, Bon Iver.
All of which has undoubtedly helped Voyageur to get a hearing and a #39 rating on the U.S. album charts, and a much deserved hearing it is. I mean, there's a certain sameness to it, with a surfeit of ballads.
But 3 of the up-tempo tunes stand out. "Empty Threat" opens the record with a pretty little easy listening verse. The chorus, "I'm moving to America," is repeated a bit much, but all in all it gets the record off to a pleasant start. "Change the Sheets" is the 1st single. Driven by a staccato piano figure, it builds to an arena rock crescendo that seems a bit over the top for the material and also for Edwards' thinnish voice. But aside from the overstatement, it too is a nice enough tune.
"Sidecar" is tossed off without fanfare mid-record, but it proves to be the most enjoyable of the up-tempo tunes. At a modest 2:38 it avoids the repetition and overstatement of the other 2. Thank goodness for these 3 tunes because the rest is pretty much all ballads.
Some of the them a very nice ballads, of course. I'm particularly fond of "Soft Place to Land" and "Pink Champagne." Not only are they nice tunes, but they suit Edwards' voice nicely. It is on the ballads, too, that Vernon's Boney sonic palette comes into play and as on Bon Iver, Bon Iver, the effect is most pleasing.
"For the Record" closes the record and at 7:07 falls prey to the repetition that mars "Empty Threat," only more so. I don't know how many times she sings "For the record, I only wanted to sing songs," but it's too many. "House Full of Empty Rooms" has another pretty little melody but maudlin lyrics, while "Chameleon/Comedian,""Mint" and "Going to Hell" are also mostly enjoyable tunes.
All in all, a nice collection of ballads tempered by just enough of a more active sound to avoid monotony. I know this all sounds like faint praise. But roll it all up and you've got the best album-length collection of songs of 2012 so far. Of course, that is in part because 2012 thus far has been a pretty weak year in pop music. Only Craig Finn's Clear Heart Full Eyes really stands out otherwise, though The Shins' long-awaited Port of Morrow has its moments. I also have high hopes for Bonnie Raitt's Slipstream and Rufus Wainwright's Out of the Game, neither of which I have listened to yet due to an active travel schedule.
Then there's also this: A Handful of Earth, an instrumental record by The Fantastic Merlins, was released a year ago, though I only became acquainted with it a month or two ago. I will write about the Merlins forthwith.
I will also be seeing The Shins, Steve Earle, Los Lobos and Rufus Wainwright live this summer, and I'll let you know how those turn out.
Thursday, February 16, 2012
100 Greatest Rock n' Roll Guitarists
Rolling Stone recently published a list of the top 100 guitarists of all-time (all-time meaning for the most part, with just a few exceptions, approximately between about 1964 and 1985). It's the 2nd time the Stone has published such a list, and both represented the same oeuvre: Music that sounds like classic rock from 1968 to 1974 or thereabout. And make no mistake, a body has a right to define "all-time" however they want, as long as it's not stupid and ridiculous. Okay, this is pretty stupid and ridiculous, and so a lot of people have taken issue with it.
Mostly that means the head-bangers who after all have their Web sites. So a flurry of alt lists of the top 100 guitarists were published in the wake of the Stone's list (mostly the 1st time, back in 2003 but some just recently), featuring some of the most obscure guitarists you could ever want on such a list--I mean, like 3 guys from Iron Maiden and Judas Priest, stuff like that. Judas Priest is right!
Still, the fact is that Rolling Stone ignored not just 1 or 2 but 4 or 5 generations worth of guitarists, right up to the present day (no John Mayer). So I surveyed 6 or 8 alt lists, trying not to over or under-represent the head bangers. I probably over-represented them when all was said and done.
So here's my list. It's not just the consensus, it's my list. But it's informed, shall we say, by the other lists out there. If a guy scored highly in the consensus, then the chances are good that I've brought him in. It's sort of a cross-section of the consensus, the Rolling Stone and my list.
Here goes.
1. Jimi Hendrix--Rolling Stone and the consensus and I all agree on this one.
2. Eric Clapton--only #5 in the consensus but that's ridiculous. I haven't yet looked at those lists of the top 100 guitar solos, but if "Layla" isn't on there, it's a crime.
3. Duane Allman--even Rolling Stone only had him #9, what's with that. #17 in the consensus. Seriously, do you guys remember what he sounded like?
4. Jimmy Page--#2 and #3 depending on your preference, and that is exactly right.
5. Jeff Beck--actually scored higher in the consensus (#3) than the Stone (#5).
6. Pat Metheny--wild card #1, which means he did not appear on any of the lists that I saw. I'm not a fan of his current trad jazz stuff. But his fusion stuff from the 1980s is just an incredible body of work. American Garage is perhaps the greatest instrumental guitar record of all-time.
7. Keith Richards--the world's greatest rhythm guitarist. What a riff-meister.
8. David Gilmour--#14 and #16, pretty much invented arena-rock guitar.
9. Frank Zappa--#22 and #27. One of the few who eschewed the Claptonesque blues and developed a different sound. I just happen to be listening to "Hot Plate Heaven" from Broadway the Hard Way right at this instant. It's about his 40th best solo and I have goose-bumps.
10. Mark Knopfler--just #44 in RS, #20 in consensus. So versatile. Yes, his electric guitar work is what gets him here, but there's a large body of acoustic work, too, much of it on some terrific movie soundtracks.
Okay, so far I'm pretty much aligned with Rolling Stone, not in terms of all of the individual choices but in terms of the oeuvre. All of my guys peaked from the mid-'60s to the mid- to late '80s (Knopfler).
11. Chuck Berry--pretty much invented the genre. More of the early guys were piano players than guitarists. Berry pretty much single-handedly made rock into guitar music.
12. Bill Frisell--wild card #2, not on any of the lists, a terrible oversight. Four words: Good Dog, Happy Man.
13. Stevie Ray Vaughan--only #12 and #21, surprising. Wrong.
14. Django Reinhart--wild card #3. Great jazz guitarist of the '30s, He made a couple of lists, obviously the others weren't familiar with him. The process had him at #54, which is a totally ridiculous outcome, so he goes here.
15. George Harrison--#17 and #13 in the Stone and the consensus.
16. Ry Cooder--#31 and #38, way too low. Another original with his own sound.
17. The Edge--only #38 and #26. An original with an unusually strong bent toward supporting the vocal.
18. Peter Green--#58 and #43. Founded the original Fleetwood Mac and made them rock's best blues band long before they became poppy hit-makers. Great great stuff.
19. John Fahey--wild card #4. I'm guessing some of the lists didn't consider acoustic guitarists. so the process had him down in the 60s.
20. Steve Vai--not in the Rolling Stone's top 100, which means they've got no business publishing a list at all. Such ignorance must be called out. #26 in the consensus.
21. Carlos Santana--#20 and #11.
22. Les Paul--#18 and #42.
23. Chet Atkins--#21 and #52. Mr. Country-style Guitar.
24. James Burton--#19 and #46. Played with many of the early hit-makers like Roy Orbison and Ricky Nelson. Great lines.
25. Scotty Moore--#29 and #39. Ditto--e.g. Elvis Presley.
Okay, this is now much more catholic than Rolling Stone or even the general consensus. I'm back to the early days (Les Paul, Chuck Berry, James Burton, Scotty Moore) and beyond (Django Reinhart) and I'm up to the 21st century (Bill Frisell, The Edge).
26. Robert Fripp--#62 and #25. 25 years of King Crimson. The early stuff was the heaviest stuff anybody had ever heard. If you're not familiar with it, check out "21st Century Schizoid Man."
27. Steve Cropper--#39 and #28. Played a 1,000 great solos on '60 soul music.
28. Peter Townshend--#10 and #14. Never a great technician, but had an original style and a flair that was unique. The Who, in case you're not sure.
29. Brian May--#26 and #6 in the consensus. Queen. Obviously an original, still, I'm shocked to discover the following that he has. #6 consensus!
30. Ritchie Blackmore--Deep Purple. Another whom I had forgotten but he is still #10 on the consensus list.
31. Prince--only #72 in the consensus, which is much underrated.
34. Alex Lifeson--Rush
And, see, I'm getting some of the headbangers in there as well. Well done!
36. Mike Bloomfield--Butterfield Blues Band
37. Dicky Betts
38. Cesar Rosas/David Hidalgo--Los Lobos, wild card #5.Sample: "Mas y Mas" on the Clapton Crossroads Guitar Fest video. Wow.
39. Tony Rice--wild card #6, best of the bluegrass players
40. Steve Howe--Yes
68. Joe Perry--Aerosmith
Mostly that means the head-bangers who after all have their Web sites. So a flurry of alt lists of the top 100 guitarists were published in the wake of the Stone's list (mostly the 1st time, back in 2003 but some just recently), featuring some of the most obscure guitarists you could ever want on such a list--I mean, like 3 guys from Iron Maiden and Judas Priest, stuff like that. Judas Priest is right!
Still, the fact is that Rolling Stone ignored not just 1 or 2 but 4 or 5 generations worth of guitarists, right up to the present day (no John Mayer). So I surveyed 6 or 8 alt lists, trying not to over or under-represent the head bangers. I probably over-represented them when all was said and done.
So here's my list. It's not just the consensus, it's my list. But it's informed, shall we say, by the other lists out there. If a guy scored highly in the consensus, then the chances are good that I've brought him in. It's sort of a cross-section of the consensus, the Rolling Stone and my list.
Here goes.
1. Jimi Hendrix--Rolling Stone and the consensus and I all agree on this one.
2. Eric Clapton--only #5 in the consensus but that's ridiculous. I haven't yet looked at those lists of the top 100 guitar solos, but if "Layla" isn't on there, it's a crime.
3. Duane Allman--even Rolling Stone only had him #9, what's with that. #17 in the consensus. Seriously, do you guys remember what he sounded like?
4. Jimmy Page--#2 and #3 depending on your preference, and that is exactly right.
5. Jeff Beck--actually scored higher in the consensus (#3) than the Stone (#5).
6. Pat Metheny--wild card #1, which means he did not appear on any of the lists that I saw. I'm not a fan of his current trad jazz stuff. But his fusion stuff from the 1980s is just an incredible body of work. American Garage is perhaps the greatest instrumental guitar record of all-time.
7. Keith Richards--the world's greatest rhythm guitarist. What a riff-meister.
8. David Gilmour--#14 and #16, pretty much invented arena-rock guitar.
9. Frank Zappa--#22 and #27. One of the few who eschewed the Claptonesque blues and developed a different sound. I just happen to be listening to "Hot Plate Heaven" from Broadway the Hard Way right at this instant. It's about his 40th best solo and I have goose-bumps.
10. Mark Knopfler--just #44 in RS, #20 in consensus. So versatile. Yes, his electric guitar work is what gets him here, but there's a large body of acoustic work, too, much of it on some terrific movie soundtracks.
Okay, so far I'm pretty much aligned with Rolling Stone, not in terms of all of the individual choices but in terms of the oeuvre. All of my guys peaked from the mid-'60s to the mid- to late '80s (Knopfler).
11. Chuck Berry--pretty much invented the genre. More of the early guys were piano players than guitarists. Berry pretty much single-handedly made rock into guitar music.
12. Bill Frisell--wild card #2, not on any of the lists, a terrible oversight. Four words: Good Dog, Happy Man.
13. Stevie Ray Vaughan--only #12 and #21, surprising. Wrong.
14. Django Reinhart--wild card #3. Great jazz guitarist of the '30s, He made a couple of lists, obviously the others weren't familiar with him. The process had him at #54, which is a totally ridiculous outcome, so he goes here.
15. George Harrison--#17 and #13 in the Stone and the consensus.
16. Ry Cooder--#31 and #38, way too low. Another original with his own sound.
17. The Edge--only #38 and #26. An original with an unusually strong bent toward supporting the vocal.
18. Peter Green--#58 and #43. Founded the original Fleetwood Mac and made them rock's best blues band long before they became poppy hit-makers. Great great stuff.
19. John Fahey--wild card #4. I'm guessing some of the lists didn't consider acoustic guitarists. so the process had him down in the 60s.
20. Steve Vai--not in the Rolling Stone's top 100, which means they've got no business publishing a list at all. Such ignorance must be called out. #26 in the consensus.
21. Carlos Santana--#20 and #11.
22. Les Paul--#18 and #42.
23. Chet Atkins--#21 and #52. Mr. Country-style Guitar.
24. James Burton--#19 and #46. Played with many of the early hit-makers like Roy Orbison and Ricky Nelson. Great lines.
25. Scotty Moore--#29 and #39. Ditto--e.g. Elvis Presley.
Okay, this is now much more catholic than Rolling Stone or even the general consensus. I'm back to the early days (Les Paul, Chuck Berry, James Burton, Scotty Moore) and beyond (Django Reinhart) and I'm up to the 21st century (Bill Frisell, The Edge).
26. Robert Fripp--#62 and #25. 25 years of King Crimson. The early stuff was the heaviest stuff anybody had ever heard. If you're not familiar with it, check out "21st Century Schizoid Man."
27. Steve Cropper--#39 and #28. Played a 1,000 great solos on '60 soul music.
28. Peter Townshend--#10 and #14. Never a great technician, but had an original style and a flair that was unique. The Who, in case you're not sure.
29. Brian May--#26 and #6 in the consensus. Queen. Obviously an original, still, I'm shocked to discover the following that he has. #6 consensus!
30. Ritchie Blackmore--Deep Purple. Another whom I had forgotten but he is still #10 on the consensus list.
31. Prince--only #72 in the consensus, which is much underrated.
32. Jerry Garcia--Grateful Dead
33. Eddie Van Halen--#8 and #4. Not my cup of tea.
And, see, I'm getting some of the headbangers in there as well. Well done!
35. Leo Kottke--wild card #4, not on any of the lists though 1 indicated he was "bubbling under"
36. Mike Bloomfield--Butterfield Blues Band
37. Dicky Betts
38. Cesar Rosas/David Hidalgo--Los Lobos, wild card #5.Sample: "Mas y Mas" on the Clapton Crossroads Guitar Fest video. Wow.
39. Tony Rice--wild card #6, best of the bluegrass players
40. Steve Howe--Yes
41. John Mayer--wild card #7, not on any of the lists, I cannot imagine why, unless it's the chick thing.
42. Rory Gallagher
43. Robert Johnson
44. Joe Satriani
45. Buddy Guy
45. Buddy Guy
46. Billy Gibbons--ZZ Top
47. Gary Moore--Thin Lizzy
48. Danny Gatton
49. John McLaughlin
50. John Frusciante--Red Hot Chili Peppers
51. Robby Krieger--The Doors
51. Robby Krieger--The Doors
52. Jonny Greenwood
53. Charlie Christian--wild card #8, actually gets a vote or 2 but most of the listers probably have never heard of him nor considered his genre. Charlie was the pioneer of jazz guitar as a lead/melody instrument with Count Basie in the early 1940s.
53. Charlie Christian--wild card #8, actually gets a vote or 2 but most of the listers probably have never heard of him nor considered his genre. Charlie was the pioneer of jazz guitar as a lead/melody instrument with Count Basie in the early 1940s.
54. Eric Johnson
55. B.B. King--#6 and #22 but that is just too high. The most over-rated guitarist of them all. He's been phoning it in for decades now.
56. Bo Diddley
57. Yngwe Malmsteen
58. Richard Thompson
59. Phil Keaggy--Hendrix said he was the best.
60. Kurt Cobain
61. Dick Dale
62. Link Wray
63. Derek Trucks
64. Roy Buchanan
65. Joe Walsh--wild card #9
65. Joe Walsh--wild card #9
66. Johnny Winter
67. Wes Montgomery--another guy who probably doesn't get a fair shake as some of the heavy metal-oriented lists aren't considering his genre at all. Still he comes in here.
68. Joe Perry--Aerosmith
69. Eddie Hazel
70. Angus Young
71. Vince Gill--wild card #7
72. Mick Ronson
73. Mick Taylor
74. Clarence White
75. Bonnie Raitt
76. Robbie Robertson
77. Steven Stills
78. John Petrucci
79. Tom Morello--Rage Against the Machine
80. Zoot Horn Rollo--played with Captain Beefheart
81. Leslie West
82. T-Bone Walker
83. Freddie King
83. Freddie King
84. Albert King
85. Nels Cline
86. Lonnie Mack
87. Jorma Kaukenen
88. Trey Anastasio
89. Bert Jansch
90. Albert Lee--wild card #9
91. Steve Morse--Deep Purple
92. Joey Ramone
93. Dimebag Darrell
94. Adrian Belew--wild card #10
95. Adrian Legg--wild card #11
96. Clint Gallup--an early ('50s) guy
95. Adrian Legg--wild card #11
96. Clint Gallup--an early ('50s) guy
97. Alvin Lee
98. Vernon Reid
99. Jan Akkerman
100. Martin Barre
Hey, good list!
Hey, good list!
Wednesday, February 1, 2012
Best Music of 1968
I recently saw an exhibit at the Minnesota Historical Society called, simply, "1968." I give the exhibit a B. I mean, it's OK. I guess the problem is, how do you get the capture not just "what happened" but "HOW DID IT FEEL" to live through the events of that year?
Well, here's how. You play the music. First, it was a great year. But second, music is like canned or bottled emotions, more so than any art form. Especially with rock 'n roll, where half the time you can't fully understand the lyrics. The intellectual content is stripped away and there it is. Raw emotion.
So, 1968. Here's how it felt to be alive in 1968.
Best LPs
1. Electric Ladyland--Jimi Hendrix. An easy choice. From the shorter form "All Along the Watchtower" to the long meander of "1983 (A Merman I Should Be)/Moon Turn the Tides...Gently Gently Away," this record was unlike anything ever heard before. The sound of that guitar, I mean, how did he do that? OK, "Burning of the Midnight Lamp," hey, that sounded like a guitar. "Crosstown Traffic," yeah, that was rock 'n roll. But "1983"? "Moon Turn the Tides"? Mind-bending. To me, the Hendrix legend boils down side 3 of Electric Ladyland. Everything else is just an appetizer, a warm-up. This is it.
2. The Beatles. You know, the White Album. We had no idea at the time that Let It Be had already been recorded and this was a last-ditch effort, unsuccessful as it turned out, for the Beatles to function like a real band rather than as 3 soloists and some sidemen. All we knew was here were 30 great songs, or a great collection of 30 songs, or in reality about 15 great songs, about 7 1/2 pretty good songs and about 7 1/2 throwaways. But who the hell put 15 great songs on a record album, then or ever?
Me? I'm more of a Paul guy than a John guy, so the highlights start with songs like "I Will" and "Martha My Dear" and "Blackbird" and "Mother Nature's Son." But then there's George's "While My Guitar Gently Weeps," and John's "I'm So Tired" and, of course, "Revolution." So it didn't hang together, that wasn't what it was about. It was about 30 songs, 15 of them truly great songs, and that was enough.
3. We're Only In It for the Money--Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention. You had to be there. I mean, to really understand the power of Frank's lyrics--"All your children are poor unfortunate victims of systems beyond their control/a plague upon your ignorance to the great despair of your ugly life/all your children are poor unfortunate victims of lies you believe/a plague upon your ignorance that keeps the young from the truth they deserve"--you just had to be there. Or, "Take a look around before you say you don't care/shut your fucking mouth about the length of my hair/how could you survive if you were alive/shitty little person/let me take a minute and tell you my plan/let me take a minute and tell who I am/how could you survive if you were alive/shitty little person." And the thing is, he meant it. He really meant it. Dick and Ron, he continued to mean it.
4. Bookends--Simon and Garfunkel. The sound was soothing, but the lyrics...not so much. "Kathy, I'm lost, I said, though I knew she was sleeping/I'm empty and aching and I don't know why..../I've gone to look for America." Then, of course, there was goofy stuff like "At the Zoo" and "Punky's Dilemma." Thank goodness. It didn't do to spend too much time pondering "America."
5. Beggar's Banquet--The Rolling Stones. I wasn't a big Stones guy but, seriously, "Sympathy for the Devil." "Street Fightin' Man." The Stones don't get any better than this, not even on Let It Bleed though, OK, that's splittin' hairs.
6. Music from Big Pink--The Band. The who? Well, you know, they played with Dylan. No, not on any of his records, but they played with Dylan. In a big pink house and a few live gigs. That makes them THE BAND. Well, they paid it off. "Tears of Rage," especially, is a classic. But to some extent, the reputation of this record in later years rests more on their second record, The Band. That one rubs off on this and makes it better. But some of what seemed so cool at the time, "The Weight" and "Chest Fever, " for example, didn't age so well.
7. The Songs of Leonard Cohen. His very first record, and some of what are seen as his signature songs, "Suzanne" and "So Long, Marianne" don't appeal to me a whole lot. But "One of Us Cannot Be Wrong," now, that's the kind of twisted, raunchy Leonard that I can get into. And "The Stranger Song," not from the twisted, raunchy category, but one of his enigmatic meanders that also appeals to me. And "Sisters of Mercy" works, too.
8. Shine On Brightly--Procol Harum. I guess they recorded "A Whiter Shade of Pale" and were totally caught unawares when it became a hit. So they quickly threw an LP together to capitalize. But, hey, their first LP has "Repent Walpurgis" on it, so all is forgiven. But this was their first real effort to product a coherent long-player. Well, guess what. It still comes down to tunes, and "Magdalena (My Regal Zonophone)" is a classic of existential angst and "In Held Twas in I" (what?), which filled all of side 2 with 4 musical parts, engaged the philosophical imagination. The closing to the 1st part, the lyrics spoken by Matthew Fisher, especially. "They say that Jesus healed the sick and helped the poor/And those unsure believed his eyes/A strange disguise/Still, write it down, it might be read/Nothing's better left unsaid/Only sometimes/Still, no doubt, it's hard to see/It all works out." Otherwise, it seems to be too much a collection of novelties, but the substance that there is buoys everything up.
9. Wheels of Fire--Cream. Ah, some mainstream bombast. At last. If rock is overstatement (and it is), then this really rocks. Though, let's be honest. It's really "White Room" and couple of worthy live cuts, the signature "Crossroads" and "Spoonful." Everything else is filler, but it's exactly the kind of filler that really FILLS, if you see what I mean. It reeks of significance and profundity, and it's only later that you realize it's just heavyweight lightweight-i-ness if, again, you see what I mean. It's just that, as insubstantial as most of it is, they pull it off with such a swagger. You gotta admire that.
10. Mixed Bag--Richie Havens. Note that this is pre-Woodstock, before Richie Havens became a parody of himself. "High Flyin' Bird" is just great classic folk music that Richie, with his weird guitar tuning and raspy vocal, has made so totally his own as to make it brand new. And everything else is so tasty as to be irresistible.
11. Did She Mention My Name--Gordon Lightfoot. More folk music, but while Havens was covering other people's songs in an intensely personal way, Lightfoot wrote his own material and then tried to sing it like he imagined that anybody would. What set it apart was that bee-you-ti-ful voice (I am not kidding) and, occasionally, the songs, like the title track. I mean, who hasn't wondered that, "Did she mention my name?" And, in a similar vein, "Last Time I Saw Her," and then in the social commentary bag, "Black Day in July."
12. Waiting for the Sun--The Doors. The decline had set in though "Hello I Love You" was a big hit. It didn't particularly appeal to me. "The Unknown Soldier" was more my speed. I had forgotten that "Waiting for the Sun" is not on Waiting for the Sun.
13. Any Day Now--Joan Baez. As has been said many times, this record came too late to be SIGNIFICANT. But it had some beautiful versions, especially "Sad Eyed Lady of the Lowlands," but also "Love Is Just a Four-Letter Word."
14. The Crazy World of Arthur Brown. Surprisingly, this stands the test of time though, like many LPs of the day, it's a bunch of stuff wrapped around one popular hit, "Fire." But my point is, there's other really good stuff here.
15. Children of the Future--Steve Miller Band. Oh, if this band--with Boz Scaggs and Jim Peterman on keyboards--could have hung together. But you could plainly hear that Scaggs was leaning in a different direction on the blue-eyed soul of "Baby's Calling Me Home" versus Stevie with the psychedelia of "Children of the Future" and "In My First Mind." All great stuff, but make no mistake, it was the psychedelia that drew people to Stevie in those days.
16. Disraeli Gears--Cream. Actually released in late 1967, but people were listening to it in '68. "Sunshine of Your Love" anchored the disk, and a good thing, too. A lot of the rest of it was novelty.
17. Sweetheart of the Rodeo--The Byrds. Larger in legend than on the turntable, there are nevertheless some nice songs here, especially Gram Parsons' "One Hundred Years from Now" and "Hickory Wind." The Dylan covers were more prominent then but haven't aged real well.
18. In Search of the Lost Chord--The Moody Blues. Understood today to be lightweight, but in 1968 they were seen as just the opposite. Those mellotrons made the music of the cosmos.
19. Sailor--Steve Miller Band. Pretty much of a piece with their 1st record (above), this one featured "Quicksilver Girl" and "Gangster of Love." Solid stuff.
20. Odessa--The BeeGees. If the Stones could do Their Satanic Majesties Request, well, why can't the BeeGees go "psychedelic," too. Basically it's just great BeeGee-type songs, but these guys, or at least Barry, was good enough to wrap all the bric-a-brac of the day around it and call it a thingamabob. So we did, call it a thingamabob, and buy it. Whether we actually listened to it is another question. Actually, yes, enough to hear that "You'll Never See My Face Again" was a fine song.
21. Feliciano!--Jose Feliciano
22. Who Knows Where the Time Goes--Judy Collins
23. Lady Soul--Aretha Franklin. Some people might have her a little higher.
24. More--Pink Floyd
25. Blood Sweat and Tears
Best Songs
There's commentary on most of these songs above.
1. "All Along the Watchtower"--Jimi Hendrix
2. "Sad-Eyed Lady of the Lowlands"--Joan Baez. One of the great Dylan covers ever. And, since I really enjoyed it, then the fact that it went on for 14 minutes was a good thing.
3. "1983 (A Merman I Shall Be)"--Jimi Hendrix
4. "Someday Soon"--Judy Collins
5. "Did She Mention My Name?"--Gordon Lightfoot
6. "Tears of Rage"--The Band
7. "I Will"--The Beatles
8. "Theme from 'Valley of the Dolls'"--Dionne Warwick. I kid you not.
9. High Flyin' Bird--Richie Havens
10. "What's the Ugliest Part of Your Body?"--Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention
11. "Street Fightin' Man," The Rolling Stones
12. "Burning of the Midnight Lamp"--Jimi Hendrix. "Loneliness is such a...drag."
13. "You'll Never See My Face Again"--The BeeGees
14. "America"--Simon and Garfunkel
15. "Classic Gas"--Mason Williams
16. "Hey Jude"--The Beatles
17. "Magdalena (My Regal Zonophone)"--Procol Harum
18. "One of Us Cannot Be Wrong"--Leonard Cohen
19. "Let's Make the Water Turn Black"--Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention
20. "Tuesday Afternoon"--The Moody Blues
21. "Moon Turn the Tides...Gently Gently Away"--Jimi Hendrix
22. "Love Is Just a Four-Letter Word"--Joan Baez
23. "The Stranger Song"--Leonard Cohen
24. "I Heard It Through the Grapevine"--Marvin Gaye
25. "While My Guitar Gently Weeps"--The Beatles
26. "Cry Like A Baby"--The Box Tops
27. "Martha My Dear"--The Beatles
28. "White Room"--Cream
29. "Revolution" (fast or slow, your choice)--The Beatles
30. "Mother People"--Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention
31 "This Wheel's on Fire"--The Band
32. "I Shall Be Released"--The Band
33. "Sympathy for the Devil"--The Rolling Stones
34. "Take Your Clothes Off When You Dance"--Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention
35. "The Sisters of Mercy"--Leonard Cohen
36. "Abraham Martin and John"--Dion
37. "The Boxer"--Simon and Garfunkel
38. "Fire"--The Crazy World of Arthur Brown
39. "Sunshine of Your Love"--Cream
42. "(Sittin' on) the Dock of the Bay"--Otis Redding
43. "Hey, That's No Way to Say Goodbye"--Leonard Cohen
44. "In My First Mind"--Steve Miller Band
45. "Black Day in July"--Gordon Lightfoot
46. "Light My Fire"--Jose Feliciano
47. "Born to Be Wild"--Steppenwolf
Artist of the Year
1. Jimi Hendrix
2. Frank Zappa
3. John Lennon/Paul McCartney
4. The Band
5. Mick Jagger/Keith Richards
6. Leonard Cohen
7. Gordon Lightfoot
8. Eric Clapton
9. Paul Simon
10. Richie Havens
11. Judy Collins
12. Aretha Franklin
13. George Harrison
14. The Doors
15. Joan Baez
16. Bob Dylan
17. The Moody Blues
18. Steve Miller
19. Marvin Gaye
20. Procol Harum
21. Otis Redding
22. The BeeGees
23. Arthur Brown/Vincent Crane
24. Dionne Warwick
25. Jose Feliciano
Well, here's how. You play the music. First, it was a great year. But second, music is like canned or bottled emotions, more so than any art form. Especially with rock 'n roll, where half the time you can't fully understand the lyrics. The intellectual content is stripped away and there it is. Raw emotion.
So, 1968. Here's how it felt to be alive in 1968.
Best LPs
1. Electric Ladyland--Jimi Hendrix. An easy choice. From the shorter form "All Along the Watchtower" to the long meander of "1983 (A Merman I Should Be)/Moon Turn the Tides...Gently Gently Away," this record was unlike anything ever heard before. The sound of that guitar, I mean, how did he do that? OK, "Burning of the Midnight Lamp," hey, that sounded like a guitar. "Crosstown Traffic," yeah, that was rock 'n roll. But "1983"? "Moon Turn the Tides"? Mind-bending. To me, the Hendrix legend boils down side 3 of Electric Ladyland. Everything else is just an appetizer, a warm-up. This is it.
2. The Beatles. You know, the White Album. We had no idea at the time that Let It Be had already been recorded and this was a last-ditch effort, unsuccessful as it turned out, for the Beatles to function like a real band rather than as 3 soloists and some sidemen. All we knew was here were 30 great songs, or a great collection of 30 songs, or in reality about 15 great songs, about 7 1/2 pretty good songs and about 7 1/2 throwaways. But who the hell put 15 great songs on a record album, then or ever?
Me? I'm more of a Paul guy than a John guy, so the highlights start with songs like "I Will" and "Martha My Dear" and "Blackbird" and "Mother Nature's Son." But then there's George's "While My Guitar Gently Weeps," and John's "I'm So Tired" and, of course, "Revolution." So it didn't hang together, that wasn't what it was about. It was about 30 songs, 15 of them truly great songs, and that was enough.
3. We're Only In It for the Money--Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention. You had to be there. I mean, to really understand the power of Frank's lyrics--"All your children are poor unfortunate victims of systems beyond their control/a plague upon your ignorance to the great despair of your ugly life/all your children are poor unfortunate victims of lies you believe/a plague upon your ignorance that keeps the young from the truth they deserve"--you just had to be there. Or, "Take a look around before you say you don't care/shut your fucking mouth about the length of my hair/how could you survive if you were alive/shitty little person/let me take a minute and tell you my plan/let me take a minute and tell who I am/how could you survive if you were alive/shitty little person." And the thing is, he meant it. He really meant it. Dick and Ron, he continued to mean it.
4. Bookends--Simon and Garfunkel. The sound was soothing, but the lyrics...not so much. "Kathy, I'm lost, I said, though I knew she was sleeping/I'm empty and aching and I don't know why..../I've gone to look for America." Then, of course, there was goofy stuff like "At the Zoo" and "Punky's Dilemma." Thank goodness. It didn't do to spend too much time pondering "America."
5. Beggar's Banquet--The Rolling Stones. I wasn't a big Stones guy but, seriously, "Sympathy for the Devil." "Street Fightin' Man." The Stones don't get any better than this, not even on Let It Bleed though, OK, that's splittin' hairs.
6. Music from Big Pink--The Band. The who? Well, you know, they played with Dylan. No, not on any of his records, but they played with Dylan. In a big pink house and a few live gigs. That makes them THE BAND. Well, they paid it off. "Tears of Rage," especially, is a classic. But to some extent, the reputation of this record in later years rests more on their second record, The Band. That one rubs off on this and makes it better. But some of what seemed so cool at the time, "The Weight" and "Chest Fever, " for example, didn't age so well.
7. The Songs of Leonard Cohen. His very first record, and some of what are seen as his signature songs, "Suzanne" and "So Long, Marianne" don't appeal to me a whole lot. But "One of Us Cannot Be Wrong," now, that's the kind of twisted, raunchy Leonard that I can get into. And "The Stranger Song," not from the twisted, raunchy category, but one of his enigmatic meanders that also appeals to me. And "Sisters of Mercy" works, too.
8. Shine On Brightly--Procol Harum. I guess they recorded "A Whiter Shade of Pale" and were totally caught unawares when it became a hit. So they quickly threw an LP together to capitalize. But, hey, their first LP has "Repent Walpurgis" on it, so all is forgiven. But this was their first real effort to product a coherent long-player. Well, guess what. It still comes down to tunes, and "Magdalena (My Regal Zonophone)" is a classic of existential angst and "In Held Twas in I" (what?), which filled all of side 2 with 4 musical parts, engaged the philosophical imagination. The closing to the 1st part, the lyrics spoken by Matthew Fisher, especially. "They say that Jesus healed the sick and helped the poor/And those unsure believed his eyes/A strange disguise/Still, write it down, it might be read/Nothing's better left unsaid/Only sometimes/Still, no doubt, it's hard to see/It all works out." Otherwise, it seems to be too much a collection of novelties, but the substance that there is buoys everything up.
9. Wheels of Fire--Cream. Ah, some mainstream bombast. At last. If rock is overstatement (and it is), then this really rocks. Though, let's be honest. It's really "White Room" and couple of worthy live cuts, the signature "Crossroads" and "Spoonful." Everything else is filler, but it's exactly the kind of filler that really FILLS, if you see what I mean. It reeks of significance and profundity, and it's only later that you realize it's just heavyweight lightweight-i-ness if, again, you see what I mean. It's just that, as insubstantial as most of it is, they pull it off with such a swagger. You gotta admire that.
10. Mixed Bag--Richie Havens. Note that this is pre-Woodstock, before Richie Havens became a parody of himself. "High Flyin' Bird" is just great classic folk music that Richie, with his weird guitar tuning and raspy vocal, has made so totally his own as to make it brand new. And everything else is so tasty as to be irresistible.
11. Did She Mention My Name--Gordon Lightfoot. More folk music, but while Havens was covering other people's songs in an intensely personal way, Lightfoot wrote his own material and then tried to sing it like he imagined that anybody would. What set it apart was that bee-you-ti-ful voice (I am not kidding) and, occasionally, the songs, like the title track. I mean, who hasn't wondered that, "Did she mention my name?" And, in a similar vein, "Last Time I Saw Her," and then in the social commentary bag, "Black Day in July."
12. Waiting for the Sun--The Doors. The decline had set in though "Hello I Love You" was a big hit. It didn't particularly appeal to me. "The Unknown Soldier" was more my speed. I had forgotten that "Waiting for the Sun" is not on Waiting for the Sun.
13. Any Day Now--Joan Baez. As has been said many times, this record came too late to be SIGNIFICANT. But it had some beautiful versions, especially "Sad Eyed Lady of the Lowlands," but also "Love Is Just a Four-Letter Word."
14. The Crazy World of Arthur Brown. Surprisingly, this stands the test of time though, like many LPs of the day, it's a bunch of stuff wrapped around one popular hit, "Fire." But my point is, there's other really good stuff here.
15. Children of the Future--Steve Miller Band. Oh, if this band--with Boz Scaggs and Jim Peterman on keyboards--could have hung together. But you could plainly hear that Scaggs was leaning in a different direction on the blue-eyed soul of "Baby's Calling Me Home" versus Stevie with the psychedelia of "Children of the Future" and "In My First Mind." All great stuff, but make no mistake, it was the psychedelia that drew people to Stevie in those days.
16. Disraeli Gears--Cream. Actually released in late 1967, but people were listening to it in '68. "Sunshine of Your Love" anchored the disk, and a good thing, too. A lot of the rest of it was novelty.
17. Sweetheart of the Rodeo--The Byrds. Larger in legend than on the turntable, there are nevertheless some nice songs here, especially Gram Parsons' "One Hundred Years from Now" and "Hickory Wind." The Dylan covers were more prominent then but haven't aged real well.
18. In Search of the Lost Chord--The Moody Blues. Understood today to be lightweight, but in 1968 they were seen as just the opposite. Those mellotrons made the music of the cosmos.
19. Sailor--Steve Miller Band. Pretty much of a piece with their 1st record (above), this one featured "Quicksilver Girl" and "Gangster of Love." Solid stuff.
20. Odessa--The BeeGees. If the Stones could do Their Satanic Majesties Request, well, why can't the BeeGees go "psychedelic," too. Basically it's just great BeeGee-type songs, but these guys, or at least Barry, was good enough to wrap all the bric-a-brac of the day around it and call it a thingamabob. So we did, call it a thingamabob, and buy it. Whether we actually listened to it is another question. Actually, yes, enough to hear that "You'll Never See My Face Again" was a fine song.
21. Feliciano!--Jose Feliciano
22. Who Knows Where the Time Goes--Judy Collins
23. Lady Soul--Aretha Franklin. Some people might have her a little higher.
24. More--Pink Floyd
25. Blood Sweat and Tears
Best Songs
There's commentary on most of these songs above.
1. "All Along the Watchtower"--Jimi Hendrix
2. "Sad-Eyed Lady of the Lowlands"--Joan Baez. One of the great Dylan covers ever. And, since I really enjoyed it, then the fact that it went on for 14 minutes was a good thing.
3. "1983 (A Merman I Shall Be)"--Jimi Hendrix
4. "Someday Soon"--Judy Collins
5. "Did She Mention My Name?"--Gordon Lightfoot
6. "Tears of Rage"--The Band
7. "I Will"--The Beatles
8. "Theme from 'Valley of the Dolls'"--Dionne Warwick. I kid you not.
9. High Flyin' Bird--Richie Havens
10. "What's the Ugliest Part of Your Body?"--Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention
11. "Street Fightin' Man," The Rolling Stones
12. "Burning of the Midnight Lamp"--Jimi Hendrix. "Loneliness is such a...drag."
13. "You'll Never See My Face Again"--The BeeGees
14. "America"--Simon and Garfunkel
15. "Classic Gas"--Mason Williams
16. "Hey Jude"--The Beatles
17. "Magdalena (My Regal Zonophone)"--Procol Harum
18. "One of Us Cannot Be Wrong"--Leonard Cohen
19. "Let's Make the Water Turn Black"--Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention
20. "Tuesday Afternoon"--The Moody Blues
21. "Moon Turn the Tides...Gently Gently Away"--Jimi Hendrix
22. "Love Is Just a Four-Letter Word"--Joan Baez
23. "The Stranger Song"--Leonard Cohen
24. "I Heard It Through the Grapevine"--Marvin Gaye
25. "While My Guitar Gently Weeps"--The Beatles
26. "Cry Like A Baby"--The Box Tops
27. "Martha My Dear"--The Beatles
28. "White Room"--Cream
29. "Revolution" (fast or slow, your choice)--The Beatles
30. "Mother People"--Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention
31 "This Wheel's on Fire"--The Band
32. "I Shall Be Released"--The Band
33. "Sympathy for the Devil"--The Rolling Stones
34. "Take Your Clothes Off When You Dance"--Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention
35. "The Sisters of Mercy"--Leonard Cohen
36. "Abraham Martin and John"--Dion
37. "The Boxer"--Simon and Garfunkel
38. "Fire"--The Crazy World of Arthur Brown
39. "Sunshine of Your Love"--Cream
40. "Wichita Lineman"--Glen Campbell
41. "Shine on Brightly"--Procol Harum
42. "(Sittin' on) the Dock of the Bay"--Otis Redding
43. "Hey, That's No Way to Say Goodbye"--Leonard Cohen
44. "In My First Mind"--Steve Miller Band
45. "Black Day in July"--Gordon Lightfoot
46. "Light My Fire"--Jose Feliciano
47. "Born to Be Wild"--Steppenwolf
48. "Ain't Nothin' Like the Real Thing"--Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell
49. "For Once in My Life"--Stevie Wonder
50. "Magnificent Outpouring"--Gordon Lightfoot
Artist of the Year
1. Jimi Hendrix
2. Frank Zappa
3. John Lennon/Paul McCartney
4. The Band
5. Mick Jagger/Keith Richards
6. Leonard Cohen
7. Gordon Lightfoot
8. Eric Clapton
9. Paul Simon
10. Richie Havens
11. Judy Collins
12. Aretha Franklin
13. George Harrison
14. The Doors
15. Joan Baez
16. Bob Dylan
17. The Moody Blues
18. Steve Miller
19. Marvin Gaye
20. Procol Harum
21. Otis Redding
22. The BeeGees
23. Arthur Brown/Vincent Crane
24. Dionne Warwick
25. Jose Feliciano
Friday, January 27, 2012
Songs of Love and Hate
The first time I ever heard a Leonard Cohen song was on Judy Collins' fabulous 1965 LP, In My Life. Her version of "Suzanne" has become the definitive version, but what jumped out at me was the horrifyingly dark "Dress Rehearsal Rag." My father was dying of cancer; in fact, he would die about a month later. The song's darkness seemed real and realistic to me. So I enjoyed his own albums, Leonard Cohen (1967) and Songs from a Room (1969), when they arrived on the scene.
Songs of Leonard Cohen (and the signature version)
1. "Sing Another Song, Boys" from Songs of Love and Hate and/or Leonard Cohen Live at the Isle of Wight. It's the same live performance on both discs.
2. "Light As A Breeze" from The Future
3. "The Future" from The Future. Incredible. "Give me crack and anal sex/Take the only tree that's left/And stuff it up the hole in your culture." That's within the first minute out of six minutes of horrifying imagery.
4. "The Partisan" from Songs from a Room and/or Leonard Cohen Live at the Isle of Wight
5. "Dress Rehearsal Rag" from Songs of Love and Hate. Judy Collins' version is also highly recommended.
6. "Democracy" from The Future
7. "Famous Blue Raincoat" from Songs of Love and Hate. Jennifer Warnes' version is also highly recommended.
8. "Take This Waltz." The version from Live in London is preferred to the original on I'm Your Man.
9. "Alexandra Leaving" from Ten New Songs
10. "First We Take Manhattan." Jennifer Warnes' version is preferred.
11. "Last Year's Man" from Songs of Love and Hate
12. "Love Calls You By Your Name" from Songs of Love and Hate
13. "Go No More A-Roving" from Dear Heather
14. "One of Us Cannot Be Wrong" from Songs of Leonard Cohen and/or Leonard Cohen Live at the Isle of Wight and/or Cohen Live. Each version has its delights. I might prefer the more recent version on Cohen Live with its beautiful guitar solo by Bob Metzger, but on the other hand its hard not to love the more venomous vocals from the old days.
15. "I'm Your Man." I prefer the more recent live performances to the original from I'm Your Man.
16. "Dance Me to the End of Love." Again, the live performances are preferred to the original from Various Positions.
17. "Who By Fire?" Ditto. The original is on New Skin for an Old Ceremony.
18. "Stranger Song" from Songs of Leonard Cohen and/or Cohen Live at the Isle of Wight.
19. "Joan of Arc" from Songs of Love and Hate
20. "The Sisters of Mercy" from Songs of Leonard Cohen and/or Cohen Live
21. "Tonight Will Be Fine" from Songs from a Room
22. "Seems So Long Ago, Nancy" from Songs from a Room
23. "Hallelujah." Jeff Buckley's version is much preferred, and do yourself a favor and check out Jeff Buckley generally. Wow. The main recording is called Grace.
24. "If It Be Your Will." Lots of people have recorded this. I like Jann Arden's version.
25. "You Know Who I Am" from Songs from a Room
But the darkness that first attracted me to Leonard was more powerfully expressed on Songs of Love and Hate (1971), on which "Dress Rehearsal Rag" finally appeared. "Famous Blue Raincoat" stops short of suicide as a solution, but presents an almost equally bleak view of contemporary life. Then there's the historical version of the darkness in "Joan of Arc" and the "old and bitter" one, "Let's Sing Another Song, Boys."
I lost track of Leonard after that, and then rediscovered him with the release of, in Jack Stanton's words, "the incredibly fabulous" The Future in 1993. (Shortly thereafter, I also discovered Jennifer Warnes' stunning Famous Blue Raincoat: The Songs of Leonard Cohen (or, colloquially, Jenny Sings Lenny). I had tickets for Leonard's 1993 show here in Minneapolis, but was called out of town for work and missed the show.
I had resigned myself to never seeing Leonard when the announcement of his spring 2009 show came along. Alice and I got tickets, and we saw Leonard at the Orpheum Theater in Minneapolis, and it was certainly one of the greatest concerts ever. As many of you probably already know, Leonard is a magical, charismatic performer, capable of achieving great intimacy with each member of the audience, even in a hall with seating for 5,000. Heck, even with an audience numbering in the millions, as at the Isle of Wight in 1970. And, the sound was so good that people were laughing at all the right moments to punch lines in songs like "I'm Your Man."
More recently, I had the chance to see and hear the CD and DVD of that Isle of Wight performance. My God. It is even more wonderful than I might have hoped. Coming from the era of Songs of Love and Hate, it captures one of the two essential Leonard Cohens--in this case, the one from 1970-1971. And then there's the Leonard of The Future and the many live recordings from the '90s on into the 21st century.
If you want or need an introduction to Leonard Cohen, here's the best of:
LPs
1. The Future
2) Leonard Cohen Live at the Isle of Wight 1970
3) Songs of Love and Hate
4) Cohen Live--1994 release of highlights from the 1993 tour
5) Famous Blue Raincoat: The Songs of Leonard Cohen, Jennifer Warnes (Jenny Sings Lenny)
If you want or need an introduction to Leonard Cohen, here's the best of:
LPs
1. The Future
2) Leonard Cohen Live at the Isle of Wight 1970
3) Songs of Love and Hate
4) Cohen Live--1994 release of highlights from the 1993 tour
5) Famous Blue Raincoat: The Songs of Leonard Cohen, Jennifer Warnes (Jenny Sings Lenny)
Songs of Leonard Cohen (and the signature version)
1. "Sing Another Song, Boys" from Songs of Love and Hate and/or Leonard Cohen Live at the Isle of Wight. It's the same live performance on both discs.
2. "Light As A Breeze" from The Future
3. "The Future" from The Future. Incredible. "Give me crack and anal sex/Take the only tree that's left/And stuff it up the hole in your culture." That's within the first minute out of six minutes of horrifying imagery.
4. "The Partisan" from Songs from a Room and/or Leonard Cohen Live at the Isle of Wight
5. "Dress Rehearsal Rag" from Songs of Love and Hate. Judy Collins' version is also highly recommended.
6. "Democracy" from The Future
7. "Famous Blue Raincoat" from Songs of Love and Hate. Jennifer Warnes' version is also highly recommended.
8. "Take This Waltz." The version from Live in London is preferred to the original on I'm Your Man.
9. "Alexandra Leaving" from Ten New Songs
10. "First We Take Manhattan." Jennifer Warnes' version is preferred.
11. "Last Year's Man" from Songs of Love and Hate
12. "Love Calls You By Your Name" from Songs of Love and Hate
13. "Go No More A-Roving" from Dear Heather
14. "One of Us Cannot Be Wrong" from Songs of Leonard Cohen and/or Leonard Cohen Live at the Isle of Wight and/or Cohen Live. Each version has its delights. I might prefer the more recent version on Cohen Live with its beautiful guitar solo by Bob Metzger, but on the other hand its hard not to love the more venomous vocals from the old days.
15. "I'm Your Man." I prefer the more recent live performances to the original from I'm Your Man.
16. "Dance Me to the End of Love." Again, the live performances are preferred to the original from Various Positions.
17. "Who By Fire?" Ditto. The original is on New Skin for an Old Ceremony.
18. "Stranger Song" from Songs of Leonard Cohen and/or Cohen Live at the Isle of Wight.
19. "Joan of Arc" from Songs of Love and Hate
20. "The Sisters of Mercy" from Songs of Leonard Cohen and/or Cohen Live
21. "Tonight Will Be Fine" from Songs from a Room
22. "Seems So Long Ago, Nancy" from Songs from a Room
23. "Hallelujah." Jeff Buckley's version is much preferred, and do yourself a favor and check out Jeff Buckley generally. Wow. The main recording is called Grace.
24. "If It Be Your Will." Lots of people have recorded this. I like Jann Arden's version.
25. "You Know Who I Am" from Songs from a Room
Sunday, January 15, 2012
In My Life
Having just remembered that the first Leonard Cohen song I'd ever heard was as interpreted by Judy Collins, I decided I would have to download some Judy Collins. First, In My Life (1965). Along with a version of "Dress Rehearsal Rag" that is, in it's own way, as horrifying as Leonard's, there also a version of Bob Dylan's "Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues" that is not better but much different and much sweeter than Bob's.
Three songs from In My Life made their way on to The Best of Judy Collins (1972). They are "Suzanne," which has been over-exposed and which I didn't bother to download, but also two beautiful renditions of the title track by Lennon and McCartney, and Donovan's "Sunny Goodge Street." Now, here are a couple interpretations that improve mightily on the originals, simply by virtue of the lyrics coming much more to the forefront. John Lennon wrote such a sweet and sentimental ode "In My Life," but I guess he just couldn't bring himself to deliver it as such. With the additional emphasis on the vocals, Judy's version does vastly more justice to John's song. And "Sunny Goodge Street" is more uptempo and, well, sunnier than Donovan's and, enuniciated more clearly, the lyrics are much more charming than I had ever thought them to be before. Think "Penny Lane," only better and deeper.
Having gotten into my Judy collection, I had to keep going and to download "Someday Soon" and "Both Sides Now" from the greatest hits collection. "Both Sides Now" is another one of those where Judy's version is different, not better, but different, and equally satisfying as Joni Mitchell's original. But if I could only have one Judy song on the proverbial desert island, it would be "Someday Soon." "He loves his damned old rodeo as much as he loves me." I only wish I had "Send in the Clowns" somewhere.
Judy Collins will be performing at the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis on April 30. On top of everything else, she was the subject of "Suite: Judy Blue Eyes." Iconic.
Judy Collins will be performing at the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis on April 30. On top of everything else, she was the subject of "Suite: Judy Blue Eyes." Iconic.
Tuesday, January 10, 2012
Whippin' Post
What inspired me to start this blog, in part, was receiving a USB turntable for Christmas. For those of you who don't know, a USB turntable allows one to digitize vinyl or otherwise analog recordings and store them on I-Tunes. Cool.
The very 1st vinyl record that I digitized turned out to be the Allman Brothers Band (1969). Why? Well, I have about 1,200 LPs arranged alphabetically and, surprisingly, it is the very first record on the shelf. Plus, this is one of the greatest records that I never upgraded to CD.
The very 1st vinyl record that I digitized turned out to be the Allman Brothers Band (1969). Why? Well, I have about 1,200 LPs arranged alphabetically and, surprisingly, it is the very first record on the shelf. Plus, this is one of the greatest records that I never upgraded to CD.
The Allman Brothers Band was the first LP by the band of that name, and "Whippin' Post" is probably the best-known and most popular tune from the LP. I remember it being released late in the year 1969, and I remember first hearing it around the Christmas holiday. I had been at home with my mom for Christmas, and had returned to my house at college in Minneapolis. And, then, I heard that the band was scheduled to play at the Labor Temple, where concerts were held on many a Sunday evening in those days. It was probably Sunday, December 28. Most of my roommates had not yet returned to Minneapolis, but Tim and I had, and we made our way to the Labor Temple for the second of two shows. There were probably no more than about 50 people in the hall, because of the timing of the concert and the fact that the Allman Brothers were as yet pretty much unknown.
The band played their first album straight through from the beginning of the first side to the end of the second. That means that they opened with the instrumental version of Spencer Davis' "Don't Want You No More," which segues directly into "Not My Cross to Bear." Greg didn't do the big growl "Yeeeaaahhh" during the segue, and Duane stopped playing his guitar part and put his hands on his hips and turned to Greg and gave him this big evil eye. The first part of the show wrapped up, then, with my favorite tune, "Dreams," and of course "Whippin' Post." From there, I know they went into Mountain Jam, and then I don't remember what else. But, my God!
The sound was just overwhelming. The two guitars. Two drummers. Greg's big ol' Hammond B3 organ. You just knew that these guys were going to be big. What you didn't know was how short of a run it would be, as Duane Allman would soon enough join Jimi and Janis and Jim among the early tragedies of the rock 'n' roll lifestyle.
Hearing this record for the first time in many years, I'm struck by just how modern the playing is. I mean, let's be honest. In 1969, a lot of popular rock 'n' roll was still pretty crude in its execution and its production. But this is just absolutely impeccable. If nobody had ever heard of the Allman Brothers Band and this album were released or re-released today, nobody would ever know that it was a 40 year-old recording. What a classic!
And, once I got into my Allman Brothers collection, I had to download a few other gems--mainly such instrumentals as "Hot 'Lanta" and "In Memory of Elizabeth Reed" from The Allman Brothers Band at Fillmore East (1971), "Little Martha" from Eat A Peach (1972) and "Jessica" from Brothers and Sisters (1973). I also grabbed a couple of Dicky Betts vocal tunes--the immortal "Blue Sky," and "Ramblin' Man."
I have the Allman Brothers rated in another post as the #22 artist of the rock era. But when it came to digitizing the history of rock & roll, they were the 1st artist that came to hand. I'm guessing #22 is too low. Similarly, Rolling Stone recently published a list of the top 100 guitarists of all-time with Duane Allman at #9. That is ridiculous. I mean, obviously, the guys who rate ahead of him play some pretty good guitar. But, seriously, there is no way B.B. King or Chuck Berry or Eddie Van Halen play the guitar better than Duane did. I have Duane at #2 on my list. #1? Here I agree with Rolling Stone: Jimi Hendrix.
I have the Allman Brothers rated in another post as the #22 artist of the rock era. But when it came to digitizing the history of rock & roll, they were the 1st artist that came to hand. I'm guessing #22 is too low. Similarly, Rolling Stone recently published a list of the top 100 guitarists of all-time with Duane Allman at #9. That is ridiculous. I mean, obviously, the guys who rate ahead of him play some pretty good guitar. But, seriously, there is no way B.B. King or Chuck Berry or Eddie Van Halen play the guitar better than Duane did. I have Duane at #2 on my list. #1? Here I agree with Rolling Stone: Jimi Hendrix.
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