tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-46928087289453920872024-02-21T08:55:30.892-08:00Bob's Music BlogBob Spilsburyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00433521057898667416noreply@blogger.comBlogger28125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4692808728945392087.post-87199403933249716832020-12-13T09:17:00.000-08:002020-12-13T09:17:35.583-08:00Great Rock N' Roll Concerts Coming to Boston in 20192019 premisses to bring some great rock n' roll concerts to the Boston area. While many including Marroon 5's vocalist Adam Levine have been quick to write off rock n' roll as dead in the last year, there are still some signs that rock is breathing life in some forms with four big classic rock bands coming to town this year between Spring and June 2019.<br />
Kiss the first big rock act that are coming to Boston to the TD Garden on March 26 2019 are an American Rock band that was formed in New York City in 1973 by guitarist/vocalist Paul Stanley, bassist/vocalist Gene Simmons, guitarist Ace Frehley and drummer Peter Criss. The members of the band were well known to each have their own elaborate face paint on stage, as well as fancy stage outfits. Kiss rose to prominence in the mid 1970s with their elaborate live performances that featured fire breathing, blood-spitting, smoking guitars, shooting rockets, levitating drum kits, and pyrotechnics. The band has gone through several lineup changes over the years, with Stanley and Simmons the only two original members remaining, while former drummer Criss refuses to have any contact with the other two members over unresolved song credit conflicts and royalty disputes.<br />
Frehley had not performed with the band since a 2002 Farewell Tour because of similar disputes, but seemed to somewhat bury the hatchet with the other two members last year in October 2018 when he reunited with Kiss on a Cruise boat and performed four songs together "New York Groove", "2,000 Man", "Hide Your Heart", and "Domino".<br />
On September 19, 2018 following a performance on America's Got Talent, Kiss announced that they will be ending their career with One Last Kiss: End of the Road World Tour 2019. The tour kicks off on January 21 in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada and currently features 74 additional dates that run through December 3 in Auckland, New Zealand.<br />
Kiss will be performing at the TD Garden in Boston on their One Last Kiss: End of the Road World Tour on March 26, 2018. It promises to be a great show, although don't count on it being the final Kiss show ever you will attend if you are a huge Kiss fan... Kiss have already had several Farewell Tours, and this one may just be another cash grab for Stanley and Simmons, known to be more business enthusiasts in the rock n' roll world, then actual rock n' rollers.<br />
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Fleetwood Mac have been through a lot in the last year leading up to 2019. The bad is scheduled to perform at the TD Garden on April 12 2019 with new guitarists in the band Neil Finn and also the very creative lead guitarist Mike Cambell, primarily known for his collaborations with Tom Petty in the band Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers. In early 2018 guitarist the primary songwriter of the band Lindsey Buckingham was fired by Fleetwood Mac and almost immediately replaced by Finn and Cambell, (although it has since been disclosed that it was mainly Stevie Nicks who had a problem with Buckingham not the rest of the band combined). Buckingham was her former lover in the 1970s and the two joined the band at the same time thanks to Buckingham on New Years Eve 1974. By the end of 1974 Fleetwood Mac was in total disarray having just fired guitarist/vocalist Bob Welch, Buckingham was hired as the group's seventh guitarist in seven years. Buckingham at this point had leverage in negotiations with drummer Mick Fleetwood, and convinced Mick to allow his girlfriend and recording partner Stevie Nicks to join the band as well. The <span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #45444a; font-family: Roboto Condensed, Droid Serif, serif, Arial, Helvetica, Geneva, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 17px;">addition of both Buckingham and Nicks meant the classic-era lineup of Fleetwood Mac was finally in place. This lineup would last until the early 1980s and would produce a number of Fleetwood Mac classic albums including <i>Fleetwood Mac</i>, <i>Rumors</i>, <i>Tusk</i>, and <i>Mirage</i>. </span></span></span><br />
<span style="color: #45444a; font-family: Roboto Condensed, Droid Serif, serif, Arial, Helvetica, Geneva, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-size: 17px;">After one final album in the 1980s called </span><i style="caret-color: rgb(69, 68, 74); font-size: 17px;">Tango In The Nigh</i><span style="font-size: 17px;">t, which began as a Buckingham solo project, but the band latched onto as they needed all of Buckingham's creative output to release music as he was the songwriter. With a ten week tour scheduled, Buckingham held back at the last minute saying he felt his creativity was going to be stifled if he toured and did not record more music. A band meeting at Christine McVie's house on August 1987 resulted in </span></span><span style="font-size: 17px;">turmoil, as tensions came to a head. Mick Fleetwood in his autobiography claimed there was an altercation between Buckingham and Nicks. Buckingham left the band the following day. After Buckingham's first departure Fleetwood Mac replaced him with two new guitarist Billy Burnette and Rick Vito, without even auditioning either guitarist. This lineup of Fleetwood Mac only released one studio album in 1990 titled </span><i style="caret-color: rgb(69, 68, 74); font-size: 17px;">, Behind The Mask, </i><span style="font-size: 17px;">which only made it to Gold Sales and did not achieve the lofty multi platinum success the band had become used to with Lindsey Buckingham behind the wheel writing most of the band's material. Stevie Nicks grew frustrated with the lack of success without her x and quit the band following <i>Behind The Mask's</i> commercial failure in 1990. </span></span><br />
<span style="color: #45444a; font-family: Roboto Condensed, Droid Serif, serif, Arial, Helvetica, Geneva, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 17px;"> It took until 1997 to get Buckingham back in Fleetwood Mac and by that time a lot had changed in the music industry. Still the band was very popular and many of the old fans were still dying to see the band do reunion tour after reunion tour. Vocalist Christine McVie did not participate in a number of the Tours in the early 2000s but later rejoined in 2014.</span></span><br />
<span style="color: #45444a; font-family: Roboto Condensed, Droid Serif, serif, Arial, Helvetica, Geneva, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 17px;"> Everything seemed fine in the Fleetwood Mac camp until early 2018. Then in the early part of January Stevie Nicks handed the band a he or me ultimatum after she felt slighted by Buckingham at a benefit concert. The band performed together at the 2018 MusiCares Person Of the Year benefit in January. Fleetwood Mac were given an award in recognition for their musical and philanthropic history at the event. As Buckingham told Rolling Stone, "a few days after the show he received a phone call from the band's manager Irving Azoff, who proceeded to list various issues Nicks had with his behavior that night, including his complaints about their intro music being Nicks' "Rhiannon" and that he may have "smirked" while she was giving her acceptance speech.</span></span><br />
<span style="color: #45444a; font-family: Roboto Condensed, Droid Serif, serif, Arial, Helvetica, Geneva, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 17px;"> "The irony is we have this long standing joke, that when Stevie talks, she goes on a long time," Buckingham said. I may or may not have smirked, but I look over and Mick and Christine were doing the waltz behind her as a joke." As for the choice of intro song that night, Buckingham admitted he was against it, but said Nicks took it the wrong way. "It wasn't about it being Rhiannon," he note. "It just undermined the impact of our entrance. Thats me being very specific about the right and wrong way to do something."</span></span><br />
<span style="color: #45444a; font-family: Roboto Condensed, Droid Serif, serif, Arial, Helvetica, Geneva, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 17px;"> Regardless of Buckingham's defenses, Azoff gave him a direct message: "Stevie never wants to be onstage with you again." Buckingham took this to mean that Nicks was quitting Fleetwood Mac, so he emailed Mick Fleetwood to discuss the band's future, but didn't hear back, so he called Azoff for clarification. "This feels funny," he recalled saying, "Is Stevie leaving the band or am I getting kicked out? Azoff told Buckingham he was "getting ousted" because Nicks gave the band "an ultimatum: Either you go or she's gonna go."</span></span><br />
<span style="color: #45444a; font-family: Roboto Condensed, Droid Serif, serif, Arial, Helvetica, Geneva, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 17px;"> Shortly after the news of Buckingham's departure was made public in April of 2018, Fleetwood said, "Buckingham's unwillingness tour this year was the reason for his dismissal. The only other public commentsBuckingham made prior to Rolling Stone's interview were at a May fundraiser where he said the band had "lost their perspective. What that did was to harm, and this is the only thing I'm really sad about-the rest of it becomes an opportunity- it harmed the 43 year legacy that we had worked so hard to build. The legacy was really about rising above difficulties in order to fulfill ones higher truth and one's higher destiny."</span></span><br />
<span style="color: #45444a; font-family: Roboto Condensed, Droid Serif, serif, Arial, Helvetica, Geneva, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 17px;"> It has yet to be seen how Fleetwood Mac's 2019 Tour will turn out. They are now in the midst of also battling Lindsey Buckingham in a lawsuit over how he was terminated from the band. Will people still have the same lofty expectation of Fleetwood Mac's musical ability minus the creative output of Buckingham? Is this now another greatest hits package tour of people just wanting to see Stevie Nicks belt out the hits such as "Rhiannon", "Landslide" and "The Chain" over and over again? We shall have to wait and see how it all turns out, although it is nice that Mike Cambell from The Heartbreakers now has a new musical opportunity since the death of Tom Petty in October 2017 spelled the end of The Heartbreakers illustrious musical career. Can Cambeell and Finn combined fill Buckingham's shoes for a successful 2019 Tour, or will this be another example of when Buckingham left in 1987 and was replaced by Burnette and Vito, only to have the band's next album tank big time in comparison to their previous sales? 2019 is sure to answer a lot of questions for the current state of Fleetwood Mac and their tour should be worth catching even without Buckingham in the mix.</span></span><br />
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<br />Bob Spilsburyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00433521057898667416noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4692808728945392087.post-34533890929164153122019-04-20T14:22:00.000-07:002019-04-20T14:37:57.345-07:00Chicago Coming to the Orpheum<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: blue;">Chicago, the self-styled rock band with horns, that throws a little bit of everything at their audience when they hit the stage—tapping into an extensive catalogue of ballads, hard-rockers, and jazz-tinged jams—are coming to Boston’s Orpheum Theatre on April 18. Songs like “If You Leave Me Now,” “Does Anybody Know What Time It Is?,” “Saturday in the Park,” and “Twenty-Five or Six to Four” remain timeless classics in the Chicago song canon and have made the band one of the best-selling American rock groups of all time. Other than The Beach Boys, no American rock band has created as many chart-topping hits as Chicago. Named for their hometown, the group’s concerts traverse decades and styles, as the musicians blaze through their audience favorites, such as “Beginnings” and “Questions 67 and 68.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: blue;">Chicago has toured for a long time without it’s famous singer, Peter Cetera, who left the band in the summer of 1985. Cetera had asked for hiatuses after tours in order to focus on his solo work (mirroring that of Phil Collins and Genesis), but the band declined. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: blue;">Cetera soon topped the charts after leaving Chicago with the songs “Glory of Love” (which was the theme song of the Hollywood film <i>The Karate Kid Part II</i>) and “The Next Time I Fall” (a duet with Amy Grant). Two more Cetera songs reached the Top Ten: a 1998 solo hit called “One Good Woman” (Number 4) and a 1989 duet with Cher, “After All” (Number 6).<o:p></o:p></span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="color: blue;">Chicago replaced Cetera with bassist and singer-songwriter Jason Scheff, who was not nearly as popular as Cetera, causing Chicago’s popularity to wane a bit in the late 1980s and early ’90s. In May 1990, more inner turmoil caused original </span></span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="color: blue;">drummer Danny Seraphine to be kicked out of the band, further separating the fans from the original Chicago they loved. Keyboardist and vocalist Robert Lamm and trombonist James Pankow continued to carry the weight for Chicago.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: blue;">In 2015, Chicago was finally inducted into the rock n’ roll hall of fame and Peter Cetera briefly said he would rejoin the band to play during their induction. As the date of the ceremony approached, a disagreement arose between Cetera and Lamm about the how the horn section in “Twenty-Five or Six to Four” would be played. Cetera dropped out of playing at the ceremony, but once again Chicago carried on without him and put on a wonderful show, playing a blistering live version of “Twenty-Five or Six to Four,” full of loud horns and high-pitched electric guitar solos.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: blue;">Cetera later criticized Chicago, saying in an interview with <i>Ultimate Classic Rock Magazine</i>, “Every idea or suggestion I offered about how it could work musically was either rejected or changed by the show’s producers. While I sent those same emails to the group, the only reply I ever received back from them was a very snarky ‘Take a chill pill, dude!’ Whoa! Really?” Cetera also said that he had no regrets leaving the band after its bestselling album titled<i>17</i>. He has grown comfortable calling the shots in his own career and told the magazine, “At this point in my life I don’t care to reintroduce the same negativity, misplaced egos, and petty jealousies I left behind so many years ago.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: blue;">Now, Chicago, get ready to play Boston’s Orpheum. Everyone is waiting to hear those timeless hits played live!</span></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span><br />
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Bob Spilsburyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00433521057898667416noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4692808728945392087.post-33350521718722817932019-04-17T10:01:00.000-07:002019-04-20T14:32:55.914-07:00Miele Live At The Midway Cafe, Jamaica Plain, 3/12/19<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Miele Keyboardist Melissa Lee Niles and guitarist Joe Spilsbury</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;"><br /></span></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">On Tuesday, March 12, Miele played a rocking set at the Midway Café in Jamaica Plain. The musicians in this talented rock band—vocalist/keyboardist Mellissa Lee Nilles, guitarist Joe Spilsbury, bassist Cedric Lamour, and newcomer-drummer Jeff Edwards—are hot on the local club scene. A year ago, they released their first, well-received album </span><i style="font-size: 11pt;">Transience.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">Miele kicked off the evening with “Spring Rain,” a quiet original that opens and builds up with some very beautiful piano by Lee Nilles, followed by stellar guitar picking by Spilsbury. Lamour's bass guitar work was notable. “It’s a new release and we’re in the middle of recording it right now,” Lee Nilles informed the crowd before dipping into the opening piano chords. Following two more originals, “Anxious Ghost” and “Unfiltered,” Spilsbury broke a string on his guitar with his hard, signature strumming. While he restrung his guitar, the rest of the band went into a jazzy jam with Lee Nilles leading the beat with a piano verse that was incredible.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">With the band whole again, Miele launched into “Hold it Together,” one of their best jams that dates way back in Miele’s song canon. It sounded fantastic with Spilsbury’s heavy distortion guitar leading the way, and Lee Nilles voice reaching high levels of wailing in the chorus. “Such an energetic song,” she declared at the end of the tune, and yes, the song has a ton of flow and energy to it!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">Other notable songs in the latter part of the set were a politically driven anti-Trump song, “We Don’t Care,” and the popular Miele set closer “Slip Away.” In “We Don’t Care,” the song goes through several cool transitions, beginning with a slow, distorted drive and gradually picking up. The riff by Spilsbury is highly original, and I hope this song gets played at more of their upcoming shows. The song closes with several minutes of incredible musical wails by Lee Nilles—“Ahhh, ahhh, woo, woo,” followed by the music slowing down and then picking up again with Lee Nilles singing over and over again, “We don’t care.”<o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Miele bassist Cedric Lamour</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">Then the show wrapped up with Lee Nilles thanking the audience: “Thank you, so much everyone, this is going to be our last song—it’s called ‘Slip Away.’ If you guys like our music we have CDs in the back. Thanks so much to Lockette for inviting us to be here. It’s always fun to play a show with other badass ladies. I want to see more of that in the scene.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">“Slip Away” is one of Miele’s heavier originals with fewer transitions than some of their other songs. It follows a more continuous flow of rhythm. The piano, drums, and guitars all keep a steady rhythm that syncs nicely with Lee Nilles vocals. At the end, the song gets heavier, then slowly fades out with Lee Nilles’ piano, and once again picks up for a final chorus. Spilsbury strums one last powerful chord on his guitar to close it out.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; letter-spacing: 0.3pt;">This Boston-based band is what Boston is famous for producing—original and amazing musical talent. The musicians have said that they strive to “celebrate the emotions, spirit, and wisdom that live and breathe in all of us, as well as the rage, the desire, and the chaos that erupt out of us when we cannot give them voice.”</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; letter-spacing: 0.3pt;">Miele’s next concerts are at Boston’s New Music Showcase at Union Tavern, Somerville, Friday, April 5, and Club Bohemia, Central Square, April 20. For updates about other concerts that continue to be added to their spring and summer schedule, check Miele’s website or Facebook page: </span><span class="MsoHyperlink" style="color: #0563c1; text-decoration: underline;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;"><a href="http://www.mielemusic.com/" style="color: #954f72;">www.mielemusic.com</a></span></span><u><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">,</span></u><span class="MsoHyperlink" style="color: #0563c1; text-decoration: underline;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">www.facebook.com/mieletheband.<o:p></o:p></span></span><br />
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Bob Spilsburyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00433521057898667416noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4692808728945392087.post-43652054252204103752019-01-28T14:00:00.005-08:002019-01-28T14:00:46.251-08:00Fleetwood Mac Concert Preview<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">Fleetwood Mac is scheduled to perform at Boston’s TD Garden on April 12, 2019, with two new guitarists, Neil Finn and the very creative Mike Campbell, primarily known for his collaborations with Tom Petty in Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers. In early 2018, Fleetwood Mac’s guitarist and principal songwriter, Lindsey Buckingham, was fired and almost immediately replaced by Finn and Campbell. Later it was disclosed that it was mainly Stevie Nicks who had a problem with Buckingham, and not the rest of the band. Buckingham was Nicks’s former lover in the 1970s, and the two joined the band on New Year’s Eve 1974. At that time, Fleetwood Mac was in total disarray, having just fired guitarist/vocalist Bob Welch. Buckingham became the group's seventh guitarist in seven years. He also had leverage with the band’s drummer Mick Fleetwood and was able to convince him to allow his girlfriend and recording partner, Stevie, to join the band as well. The addition of Buckingham and Nicks led to the classic-era’s lineup of Fleetwood Mac. This lineup would last until the early 1980s and would produce some outstanding albums, including</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"> </span><i style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">Fleetwood Ma</i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">c,</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"> </span><i style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">Rumors</i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">,</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"> </span><i style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">Tusk</i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">, and</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"> </span><i style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">Mirage. </i></div>
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One final album came in the ’80s, titled <i>Tango in the Night</i>, which began as a Buckingham solo project, but became the band’s, as they needed Buckingham’s creative output to release new music. With a ten-week tour scheduled, Buckingham refused to go at the last minute, saying he felt his creativity would be stifled if he toured and did not record more music. A band meeting at Christine McVie’s house on August 1987 resulted in turmoil, as tensions came to a head. Mick Fleetwood, in his autobiography, claimed there was an altercation between Buckingham and Nicks. Buckingham left the band the following day. After Buckingham’s first departure, Fleetwood Mac replaced him with two new guitarists, Billy Burnette and Rick Vito, without even auditioning them. This lineup of Fleetwood Mac released only one studio album in 1990 titled, <i>Behind the Mask</i>, which only made it to Gold Sales and did not achieve the lofty multi-platinum success the band had become used to with Lindsey Buckingham writing most of their material. Stevie Nicks grew frustrated with the band’s lack of success and quit following <i>Behind the Mask</i>’s commercial failure.<o:p></o:p></div>
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It took until 1997 to get Buckingham back in the band, and by this time a lot had changed in the music industry. Still, Fleetwood Mac continued to be hugely popular with many of the old fans who were eager for the band to do a reunion tour. Vocalist Christine McVie did not participate in a number of the reunions in the early 2000s, but later joined in 2014.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Everything seemed fine in the group’s camp until January 2018, when Stevie Nicks handed the band a “he or me” ultimatum after the MusiCares Person of the Year benefit concert, where she had felt slighted by Buckingham. As Buckingham told <i>Rolling Stone</i>, "A few days after the show he received a phone call from the band's manager Irving Azoff, who proceeded to list various issues Nicks had with his behavior that night, including his complaints about their intro music being Nicks' ‘Rhiannon,’ and that he may have ‘smirked’ while she was giving her acceptance speech.” (The band received an award that night.)<o:p></o:p></div>
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"The irony is we have this long-standing joke, that when Stevie talks, she goes on a long time," Buckingham said. I may or may not have smirked, but I look over and Mick and Christine were doing the waltz behind her as a joke." As for the choice of intro song that night, Buckingham admitted he was against it, but said Nicks took it the wrong way. "It wasn't about it being ‘Rhiannon,’" he said. "It just undermined the impact of our entrance. That’s me being very specific about the right and wrong way to do something."<o:p></o:p></div>
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Regardless of Buckingham's defenses, Azoff gave him a direct message: "Stevie never wants to be onstage with you again." Buckingham took this to mean that Nicks was quitting Fleetwood Mac, so he emailed Mick Fleetwood to discuss the band's future, but didn't hear back, so he called Azoff for clarification. "This feels funny," he recalled saying to Azoff. "Is Stevie leaving the band or am I getting kicked out? Azoff told Buckingham he was "getting ousted" because Nicks gave the band an ultimatum: “Either you go or she's gonna go."<o:p></o:p></div>
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Shortly after the April news release of Buckingham's departure, Fleetwood said, "Buckingham's unwillingness to tour this year was the reason for his dismissal.” The only other public comments Buckingham made prior to <i>Rolling Stone</i>'s interview were at a May fundraiser, where he said the band had "lost its perspective.” He went on to say, “That harmed the 43-year legacy that we had worked so hard to build. The legacy was really about rising above difficulties in order to fulfill higher truths and one's higher destiny."<o:p></o:p></div>
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It has yet to be seen how Fleetwood Mac's 2019 tour will turn out. They are now in the midst of battling Lindsey Buckingham in a lawsuit over “how” he was terminated from the band. Will people still have the same lofty expectations of Fleetwood Mac's musical ability minus the creative output of Buckingham? Will this be another “greatest hits package tour” for people just wanting to see Stevie Nicks belt out such hits as "Rhiannon," "Landslide," and "The Chain"? We’ll have to wait and see how it all turns out, although it’s nice that Mike Campbell from The Heartbreakers now has a new musical opportunity since the death of Tom Petty in 2017. Can the combination of Campbell and Finn fill Buckingham's shoes for a successful 2019 Tour, or will this be similar to Buckingham’s departure in 1987, when replaced by Burnette and Vito the band's next album tanked big time? 2019 is sure to bring revelations about the current state of Fleetwood Mac, and their tour is worth catching despite the loss of Buckingham.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Bob Spilsburyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00433521057898667416noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4692808728945392087.post-284126825490059562019-01-28T13:49:00.005-08:002019-01-28T13:51:12.263-08:00Kiss Concert Preview<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: , serif;">2019 promises to bring some great rock ‘n’ roll concerts to the Boston area. While many—including Maroon 5's vocalist Adam Levine—have been quick to write off rock ‘n’ roll as dead in the last year, there are still signs that rock is alive and well, with four big classic bands coming to town this spring.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: , serif;">Kiss is the first big act and will play in TD Garden on March 26. The band formed in New York City in 1973, with guitarist/vocalist Paul Stanley, bassist/vocalist Gene Simmons, guitarist Ace Frehley and drummer Peter Criss. These musicians were well-known for their elaborate face paint and fancy stage outfits. They rose to prominence in the mid 1970s with their live performances that featured fire-breathing, blood-spitting, smoking guitars, shooting rockets, levitating drum kits, and pyrotechnics. The band has gone through several line-up changes over the years, with Stanley and Simmons the only two original members remaining. Former drummer Criss refuses to have any contact with the other two members over unresolved song credits and royalty disputes.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: , serif;">Frehley had not performed with the band since a 2002 Farewell Tour because of similar disputes, but appears to have since buried the hatchet as he reunited with Kiss this past October to perform four songs on a cruise boat: "New York Groove," "2,000 Man," "Hide Your Heart," and "Domino."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: , serif;">Earlier, on September 19, following their performance on America's Got Talent, Kiss announced that they are ending their career with One Last Kiss: End of the Road World Tour 2019, which kicks off January 21 in Vancouver and currently includes 74 additional dates that run through December 3, in Auckland, New Zealand. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: , serif;">At TD Garden, Kiss will perform its One Last Kiss: End of the Road World Tour, and it promises to be a great show—although don't count on it being the final Kiss show you’ll ever attend if you are a huge Kiss fan. The band has already staged several Farewell Tours, and this one may be just be another cash grab for Stanley and Simmons, known to be more business enthusiasts in the rock ‘n' roll world, than actual rock ‘n' rollers.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Bob Spilsburyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00433521057898667416noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4692808728945392087.post-91230423097298720062018-12-05T08:57:00.002-08:002018-12-10T10:58:54.228-08:00December 3 2018 Marks the 3 Year Anniversary of the Death Of Scott Weiland<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: "calibri";">December 3, 2018: Three years have passed since the tragic
death of Stone Temple Pilots and Velvet Revolver frontman Scott Weiland passed
away from a cocaine overdose on his band’s tour bus in Bloomington, Minnesota.
His death shook the entire rock world as a grunge legend was forever lost. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "calibri";">On the anniversary of his death, Weiland's widow Jamie, as well as members of his former band Stone Temple Pilots, Velvet Revolver and his former Wildabout bandmate Tommy Black have all paid tribute to him online. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "calibri";"> Scott Weiland's widow Jamie posted a photo writing "Three years."</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "calibri";"> Stone Temple Pilots posted on Twitter, Scott, we think of you always and miss you even more. We send our love and know you are looking down at all who love you."</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "calibri";"> STP bassist Robert DeLeo posted on Instagram, "Rest easy my Brother..." Velvet Revolver drummer Matt Sorum wrote on Instagram, "Remembering Scott Weiland today December 3rd he left the planet. Thank you for all you left us and your artistry. 1967-2015."</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "calibri";"> Duff McKagen tweeted, "Rest in Peace Scott W..."</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "calibri";"><span style="font-family: "calibri";"> Slash posted on Instagram, "RIP Scott Weiland."</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "calibri";"><span style="font-family: "calibri";"> Former Wildabouts bassist Tommy Black who served as the best man at Scott Weiland's wedding to Jamie in 2013, shared a never before seen photo of the two them hugging. Black wrote next to the photograph, "Just three years ago and it seems like decades. What a sad day! Miss you and think of you every day my friend. So many good adventures and so many good songs. Your memory is strong and you are always in all our hearts."</span></span><br />
Former MTV host Matt Pinfield wrote on Instagram, "3 years ago today we lost a friend and one of the best frontmen in rock Scott Weiland. This picture was taken when I did the interview to launch his autobiography. 500 people showed up at the Barnes and Noble at NYC's Union Square location. The day he died I did a 4 hour live broadcast on Sirus XM Lithium and took phone calls from his broken-hearted -fans. It was a sad day."<br />
Pinfield interviewed Matt Sorum on that broadcast, and Sorum cried on the air mourning his late bandmate. "I don't know how I felt initially. I can't say it was a shock, but it was definitely… I wasn't expecting it because I felt like Scott was gonna be here hopefully longer than this," Sorum said. "When I started to kind of process the feelings-I mean people know that in the end, obviously we had our differences and the band split up. But the wave of emotions that you feel is more like a family member. It's like if you had a family member that maybe you didn't get along with great, but you still love them. That's the feeling, " he explained.<br />
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<span style="font-family: "calibri";">Many
fans thought Weiland was clean when he started touring with his last band Scott
Weiland And The Wildabouts. Then the tour was scattered with shows where
Weiland was struggling to perform the songs live because he was clearly under
the influence of something. In Houston, on Tuesday, March 21 2105, Weiland
staggered though a performance onstage, where he struggled to stand on two
feet, often sitting down by the drum riser to rest. Weiland gave a less than
stellar performance of the Stone Temple Pilots 1994 hit “Vasoline” during The
Wildabouts show, which caused great concern among fans at the time. “Alright
this is a new song. We just worked it out today,” the 47-year old rocker told
the crowd before launching into a monotone and lackluster version of the more
than 20-year-old tune.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "calibri";"><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>A rep
for Weiland at the time told TMZ that drugs were not a factor in the singer's poor performance in
Houston, claiming it was a perfect storm of Weiland being
tired and having a few drinks before the gig.</span></div>
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Fast <span style="font-family: "calibri";">forward a few months to December 3, 2015, and Weiland and his band were still trucking on a U.S. Tour that had them scheduled to play a show at the Medina Entertainment Center in Medina, Minnesota. Then at 8:22 PM police in Bloomington, Minnesota, responded to a call about an unresponsive male on in a Tour Bus. When authorities arrived, they found the man, Weiland, was dead. Initial reports suggested he died in his sleep from cardiac arrest, but toxicology results conducted by The Hennepin County Medical Examiner in Minneapolis and released on December 18, 2015, determined that Weiland died from an accidental overdose of cocaine, alcohol, and methylenedioxyamphetamine (MDA). The report also mentioned that Weiland had a history of cardiovascular disease, asthma and multi-substance dependence, which may have contributed to his death. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri";"> The day Weiland died, police in Bloomington announced that they had found a small quantity of cocaine in the band's tour bus in the bedroom area where Weiland's body was found. Wildabouts bassist Tommy Black was arrested for possession, but released the next day.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri";"> After learning about Weiland's death his former bandmates in Stone Temple Pilots (Weiland's most famous band) posted a letter on Facebook: "Dear Scott, let us start by saying thank you for sharing your life with</span> us. Together we crafted a legacy of music that has given so many people happiness and great memories. The memories are many and they run deep for us. We know amidst the good and the bad you struggled, time and again. It's what made you who you were. You were gifted beyond words, Scott. Part of that gift was part of your curse. With deep sorrow for you and your family, we are saddened to see you go. All of our love and respect. We miss you brother- Robert, Eric, Dean." </div>
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Weiland had a long history of drug and alcohol abuse. In 1995, he was convicted of buying cocaine in Los Angeles, California, and sentenced to a year of probation. Over the next four years, Weiland was arrested for a DUI as well as a domestic violence charge. By 1998, Scott Weiland was in rehab. He spent five months in jail in 1999 after violating his probation on an August 1998 conviction for heroin possession. After Stone Temple Pilots disbanded in 2002 Weiland claimed to have kicked drugs following a sour split after the bands Shangri La Dee Da Tour.</div>
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Weiland told Loudwire in September 2013, "Drugs worked for me until they didn't. They were fun until they were absolutely heinously nightmarish. But that's all way in the past. I'd abuse on and off. I'd go through a period of using for awhile, but then I'd go get clean and stop and I'd go through that whole cycle of rehabbing that became very expensive-more so than drugs were."</div>
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In another interview with Loudwire that ran on June 4, 2015 Weiland reiterated that he had been clean for 13 years. The comment came after accusations from Filter frontman Richard Patrick that Weiland was still using.</div>
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Although Weiland was a powerful singer and a charismatic frontman, his problems with drugs uprooted his career on numerous occasions. He fronted Stone Temple Pilots from 1986 to 2002, performing on five multi-platinum albums before his personal issues led to the band's break up. After leaving Stone Temple Pilots, Weiland joined Velvet Revolver and recorded two albums with the super group before leaving to reunite with Stone Temple Pilots in 2008. The band released and eponymous album in 2010 and toured through 2012. <br />
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In February 2013, Stone Temple Pilots fired Wieland for "erratic and irresponsible behavior" and hired Linkin Park vocalist Chester Bennington. "I had an issue with being late to shows," Weiland said at the time never saying that drugs were the issue. Still Scott did not believe that the rest of the band had to the right to kick him out, so he sued them, and did not win the case. S.T.P. was allowed to carry on without him with Bennington as the lead singer. </div>
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In addition to his work with Stone Temple Pilots and Velvet Revolver, Scott Weiland released two solo albums<i> 12 Bar Blues</i> and<i> Happy In Galoshes</i>, as well as the<i> Scott W</i><i>eiland and The Wildabouts-Blaster</i> record released in 2015, the year that he passed away. He also recorded vocals for the debut <i>Art Of Anarchy</i> album, released on June 2, 2015. It was the final album to feature Scott Weiland before his death. Weiland distanced himself from the record saying it was a cash grab at the time and that he preferred to focus all his work with his band The Wildabouts, with which he had also released an album with in 2015 and was touring with.</div>
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Weiland was buried at a private funeral on December 11th at Hollywood Forever Cemetery in Los Angeles. Members of Stone Temple Pilots and Velvet Revolver were there to honor their former bandmate. On the one year anniversary of his death, the members of Stone Temple Pilots paid tribute to Weiland with the following post. "Here we are. A year has passed since you've been gone. We often think of you and are reminded of you daily with many memories. Then there is the music the four of us carved out allowing us to listen and feel how brilliant you are. There was a time when we looked up to one another. Each wanting one another's approval. the songs we wrote had to have complete impact on us in order for them to shine. When it did... It was unearthly. Perhaps you are in a place now to better describe it. We miss you Scott."<br />
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Bob Spilsburyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00433521057898667416noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4692808728945392087.post-30483665611679414282018-11-30T13:03:00.003-08:002018-12-10T11:06:05.070-08:00Christopher Thorn Reveals What Blind Melon Song Shannon Hoon Paid Tribute To Kurt Cobain<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Blind Melon guitarist Christopher Thorn revealed that the band's song "Soup,"whose lyrics were written by the late frontman Shannon Hoon, paid tribute to Kurt Cobain. The lines at the end of the song, "I'll pull the trigger and I'll make it all go away," were a direct reference to Cobain's recent suicide. Thorn was quoted by Music-Iluminati as saying about the song's recording, "I specifically remember the moment we finished the song "Soup." I wrote the music, and I think Shannon had three-quarters if not more of it finished lyrically and melodically. I just remember finishing the end with him and it was a really heavy moment. Kurt Cobain had died recently, and we were all affected by that, obviously, and that kind of came out in the end of that song. That's probably one of my favorite memories. There's many with Shannon because he kept us entertained quite a bit. I have endless great memories of him." Thorn went on to say, "For me my favorite memory is after we had looped the world a few times, and we had time off after the very first record, when we were getting ready to make the second record. Shannon and I went to Mammoth in California for a couple of weeks. I remember the first week we were there we snowboarded all day and wrote songs. I think a few days later, Rogers (Stevens) came up, and it was just the three of us. It was just a great time/ That was one of my favorite memories with Shannon because I had him all to myself for a bit. It was just me and Rogers and him, and it just was a great time for us to go, "Holy shit! What just happened to us? My God!" You know what I mean? It was like that/ It was like. "Did that really just happen to us, all that stuff, or did we just dream that?"<br />
Every day we snowboarded, and every night we came back, made dinner, built a fire and wrote songs. It was just one of the most amazing experiences. Some of those recordings are on the Internet. I think they're labeled the 'Mammoth Sessions' because I brought in a recording rig. I traveled with--I say portable, but it was literally 5 feet tall--so it was a giant road case that had recording gear in it. So I traveled with that, and I brought that into Mammoth, which is a ski resort in California. It was just a great time."Bob Spilsburyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00433521057898667416noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4692808728945392087.post-59363024020795761392018-11-28T10:25:00.000-08:002018-12-10T11:18:24.132-08:00Severeley Ill Axl Rose Refuses to Cancel Show in Abu Dhabi<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Axl Rose was severely ill with the flu and struggled through a Guns N' Roses performance in Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates. The band had been treating their fans to marathon 3-hour-long sets on their current Not In This Lifetime Tour, but with Rose sick the band was forced to cut the set short to just sixteen songs for an hour-and-a-half set. Even so, Guns N' Roses was able to squeeze in many of the classics fans would be expecting to hear kicking the set off with "It's So Easy" and also working in "Welcome to the Jungle," "Sweet Child O' Mine" and "November Rain." "They've got me on IV's and a bunch of injections because I got sick today," Rose stated at the start of the show. "I've been throwing up the last five hours and instead of canceling we're going to do the best show we can for you."<br />
After the show lead guitarist Slash tweeted "Abu Dhabi, you guys were fucking great tonight! Axl was severely ill. But you all were hugely supportive. Thanks for that. We'll see you again next time! Cheers!"<br />
Bassist Duff McKagen also tweeted "Thank you Abu Dhabi! Axl Rose pulled a damn miracle... The man was beyond ill, and pulled off something I've never seen in my 40 years of playing . You all pulled him though. Til next time!<br />
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One day after the show Rose took to Twitter again to thank the fans and his bandmates for their support after his illness forced the abbreviated show in the United Arab Emirates. Then before Guns N' Roses November 29 concert in South Africa, Rose wrote, "Felt lame explainin' myself earlier on at the gig, but didn't know how things would play out n' we really wanted to do our best for the fans. Was a great crowd, awesome venue, cool stage, with a gentle breeze in the desert! Thanks again n' hope anyone's not too disappointed, and we look forward to seeing everyone again!"<br />
The Abu Dhabi gig closed out the Asian leg of the Not In This Lifetime Tour, which has lasted for nearly three years now. According to <i>The National</i>, the gig was the 157th night of a 31-month jaunt, which went around the world twice, played to five million people, and is on track to becoming the second highest grossing tour of all time--overtaking even The Rolling Stones. Only U2 have grossed more on a Tour then Guns N' Roses projected earnings of 600 million. Guns N' Roses will play their last show of 2018 on December 8, in Honolulu, Hawaii.<br />
In a final Tweet sent out by Axl Rose, "Wanna thank all the fans, the band and everyone for their concern and well wishes! In Johannesburg with plenty of time to be ready for the show! This flu or whatever is a wild ride! Comes in waves. Your ok til your not!"<br />
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<br />Bob Spilsburyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00433521057898667416noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4692808728945392087.post-78707526263656044092018-11-20T13:23:00.001-08:002018-12-10T11:25:22.065-08:00Ann Wilson of Heart Not Surpised That Chris Cornell Is Dead<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Ann Wilson in the 1970s</div>
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Ann Wilson the lead singer of the classic rock band Heart has opened up about her relationship with the late Chris Cornell and her thoughts surrounding his death on 5/17/11. "I was not surprised when he died,"she said in a new interview with the radio station Sirus XM. No I was not surprised. I don't know why I say that--it's just something that I feel from Chris. He was so complicated. He always struggled with mundanity. He was really in another dimension, and for him to be normal was really hard."<br />
Cornell died at age 52 by hanging himself in a Detroit hotel room on May 18 2017 following a sold out show with Soundgarden at the Fox Theatre. Wilson, despite being a generation older then Cornell, had become close friends with her fellow Seattle musician. She has repeatedly honored Cornell since his death doing a tribute for Soundgarden's "Black Hole Sun" with Alice In Chains guitarist/vocalist Jerry Cantrell at the 2018 Rock N' Roll Hall Of Fame, and more recently she has recorded her own version of Audioslave's "I Am the Highway"(a true Cornell ballad) on her latest album <i>Immortal</i>.<br />
"Whenever I hear "I Am the Highway" I think about Chris a lot, because he was always at odds with his success," Wilson told Sirus. The expectations that were put on him being the voice of a generation and a superstar of the 90's and 2000s, and stuff was too much for him. It was really uncomfortable, and he wasn't just bragging about being uncomfortable, he was. It was too much! He basically was a really pure being-and complicated, but really pure, childlike. He had one foot in wanting to be famous, and one foot in just being so uncomfortable there, that he was caught somewhere in the middle. He was so beautiful and handsome, but tender. He was a really, really, good person. But this world was just too much for him... He went as far as he could go."<br />
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Ann Wilson performs a cover of Soundgarden's "Black Hole Sun" as a Tribute to Chris Cornell on Jimmy Kimmel live on May 20 2017, just 3 days after Chris Cornell's suicide.Bob Spilsburyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00433521057898667416noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4692808728945392087.post-10658120618487400372018-11-18T09:37:00.003-08:002018-12-10T11:36:15.125-08:00Chris Cornell Tribute Concert to Happen on 1/16/19<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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A tribute concert for the late Soundgarden singer Chris Cornell titled "I Am the Highway: A Tribute To Chris Cornell" will be happening in Los Angeles, California, at The Forum on January 16th, 2019. Hosted by Jimmy Kimmel, the concert will feature appearances by Cornell's former bandmates, lead guitarist Kim Thayil, bassist Ben Sheppard, and drummer Matt Cameron, as well as special performances by Foo Fighters, Metallica, and Ryan Adams. Each ticket purchased by fans will come with a copy of the new Chris Cornell self-titled album which is a greatest hits of his music with Soundgarden, Temple Of The Dog, and Audioslave, as well as work as a solo artist. Proceeds from the concert will benefit the Chris and Vicky Cornell Foundation, whose mission statement says: "The foundation supports organizations that provide shelter and resources for homeless and abused and at risk youth, children living in refugee camps and victims of human trafficking."<br />
In a recent interview with <i>Forbes</i>, the former lead guitarist of Soundgarden Kim Thayil said, "I suppose it will be somewhat anxious. Soundgarden didn't initially corral this lineup for a project. It was driven by booking agents and Chris's wife Vicky, who really wanted to organize this, and our management. I'm sure it will be just fine and we'll be able to deal with it just fine. They were looking for people the band had a history with, Chris had a history with and people who were supportive of us over our careers and fans of ours who could do some of this material justice."<br />
Asked by <i>Forbes</i> if there are particular songs that he would be excited to play that night, Thayil said:<br />
"I think Matt (Cameron), Ben (Shepherd) and I will collectively decide which songs we'll throw our best fist forward." Kim added that he is excited to be performing some of the Soundgarden catalog again.<br />
In a previous Interview with <i>Rolling Stone</i> a month ago Thayil had made it clear why songs that hinted at suicide were left off the 4 disc Chris Cornell Box Set as they set dark undertones considering that is the way Chris Cornell passed away in on May 17, 2017, by hanging himself in his Detroit hotel room. Those songs included 1994 <i>Superunknown</i> cuts like "The Day I Tried To Live" and "Like Suicide," as well as 1997's <i>Down On The Upside</i> standout first single "Pretty Noose."<br />
For Thayil, a huge consideration when picking out the songs for the Chris Cornell box was how they might be viewed now, given the nature of Cornell's death. "One of my concerns was just making sure there weren't any difficult lyric or themes. Just keep that off, "Thayil says. There's lyrics, or titles that may not be appropriate to this context. That might be difficult for friends, and family, Thayil said to <i>Rolling Stone</i>. Considering their selectiveness for the Box Set, this will surely mean Thayil, Shepherd and Cameron will be making careful considerations when selecting the songs for the I Am The Highway: A Tribute to Chris Cornell concert.<br />
The Seattle Grunge musical legend Cornell was pronounced dead May 18, 2017, after being found unresponsive and unconscious in his Detroit hotel room around 12:15 am. Soundgarden had played a sold out show earlier that evening at the Fox Theatre in Detroit. The 52-year-old Cornell had sedatives and an anxiety drug Ativan in his system, but he died as a result of hanging himself. His wife Vicky Cornell has sued the drug company Ativan that prescribed Cornell his anxiety medication saying it affected his decision-making at the time of his suicide. "When we spoke after the show, I noticed he was slurring his words; he was different. When he told me he may have taken an extra Ativan or two, I contacted security and asked that they come check on him before the night was over." The bodyguard that did check up on Chris Cornell found him laying on the floor at 12:15 with an exercise band around his neck and blood in his mouth. Medics were unable to revive Cornell and at approximately 1:30 AM he was pronounced dead.<br />
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Bob Spilsburyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00433521057898667416noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4692808728945392087.post-14955816153789561822009-06-10T12:04:00.001-07:002009-07-13T01:51:04.291-07:00Tim Buckley: L.A.'s Folk/Avante Garde/ Jazz Imprvisational Genius of the 60s<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpZOPt-7xwEEGVPtlOpqSiqgj-ZEQar3BfM7yeN7GswlbTzIgwTyV8l_Yw8ZwTA9velmX-0YFQ0ejjPXqgNWmR-DaUH2FeyCf5EJlFDnoLrXmc9d8WCOOcawOvxC661zcxTIQjIIkkVWIy/s1600-h/TimBuckley-1.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 399px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpZOPt-7xwEEGVPtlOpqSiqgj-ZEQar3BfM7yeN7GswlbTzIgwTyV8l_Yw8ZwTA9velmX-0YFQ0ejjPXqgNWmR-DaUH2FeyCf5EJlFDnoLrXmc9d8WCOOcawOvxC661zcxTIQjIIkkVWIy/s400/TimBuckley-1.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5345802127223222514" border="0" /></a>Tim Buckley began his career as a folk rock artist that nobody could have guessed would eventually surpass The Doors into being Elektra Records most experimental recording artist. Buckley was from L.A. like some of the other popular sixties bands at the time like Love and The Doors. His beautiful baroque folk voice was already regarded as a real gift by rock critics when his 1966 debut album was released when Buckley was just nineteen years old. The band Buckley put together was extemely talented with the likes of Lee Underwood playing a fluid lead guitar, that shimmered with every solo. Jack Nitzshe who worked also with Neil Young was the arranger of Buckley 's music. Van Dyke Parks added a gentle harpsicord piano which added more to the simple folk rock Buckley's band was recording. Despite the fact Buckley was considered to be folk rock in his early days, it can't be mistaken that the structure of his music echoed jazz, and classical music as a primary influence. With folk, jazz, and classical combined, the effect was a quasi psychedelic mystery very similar instrumentally to Love's album <span style="font-style: italic;">Forever Changes</span>, also released by Elektra Records around the same time. It was apparent it was not only Buckley's voice which was a huge talent in his band, but also his poetic lyrics that were written about reflections of altered states of mind. The first song on the album "I Can't See You" clearly demonstrates this, speaking of a lover using different months of the seasons to break up the context of each verse. The lyrics were written by Larry Beckett, a chilhood friend of Tim's who knew just how to write the perfect songs to the complex innovative rhythms Tim Buckley and Lee Underwood were creating. "I Can't See You" begins with Buckley singing in a mystical voice,<br /><br />"Summer princess, midnight maiden when I first saw you I just breathed. Into your smile my past went fadin'. Inside your voice, my mind was sheathed. In lost lagoon, we waited, wadin'<br />along the streets we went paradin', never looking back to where we'd been. "<br /><br />The second verse is just as impressive with the sweeping poetic lyrics..."Autumn temptress, sundown angel. Inside your blood you aren't so young. I came to you a loving vandal. And heard your heart and touched your tongue. Day became a lighted candle. Sky fell down beneath your sandal. In your eye I began to spin."<br /><br />A young 19-year old Tim Buckley's first LP<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiP6vcMuM0nUuEhbjq7ViTnOY4KFLwNbPBHNORfZxgiA_YfqX79b3ydFHAq8EyY60OwMFkMXASCbFxbAjD6LZG5Ag_zV-0fnt893ACClms2hzMSdQ01jlS9xVrn0OSQIQNisbvgyceDjVXG/s1600-h/19+year+old+Tim+Bucklye+debut+LP.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 315px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiP6vcMuM0nUuEhbjq7ViTnOY4KFLwNbPBHNORfZxgiA_YfqX79b3ydFHAq8EyY60OwMFkMXASCbFxbAjD6LZG5Ag_zV-0fnt893ACClms2hzMSdQ01jlS9xVrn0OSQIQNisbvgyceDjVXG/s320/19+year+old+Tim+Bucklye+debut+LP.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5345908953745378978" border="0" /></a><br /><br />"She Is" is perhaps the best example of a Buckley showing his incredible ability to hold a tune in a mysterious poetic manner that flowed so beautifully as his voice went deep then high. At the time one couldn't help but notice this nineteen year old genius; and most people thought Tim Buckley was destined for super-stardom as The Byrds and The Doors had been, but they were wrong. As Richie Unterberger writes in his book about 1960s folk rock <span style="font-style: italic;">Eight Miles High</span>, "Elektra's most adventurous singer songwriter of the late 60s, Tim Buckley, had by the end of his tenure with the label trampolined outside the boundaries not just of folk rock, but of anything that could be considered reasonably accessible popular music. At the outset, though, he was Southern California's folk rock's great teenage hope."<br /><br />Nobody knew at the time after Tim Buckley's debut LP was released that Buckley had his own creative ambitions outside of folk, as he went into a more psychedelic mode on his follow up album 1967s <span style="font-style: italic;">Goodbye and Hello, </span><span>which peaked at a low #171. Critics were still determining that Buckley was soon destined to be more famous in the years to come</span>. The psychedelic feel on <span style="font-style: italic;">Goodbye and Hello</span> is especially apparent with the title track that ran over eight minutes long and featured several layers of musical transition from folk, to jazz, to an all out operatic feel. It was a bit like The Doors "Soft Parade," also with an ongoing circus feel to it with the lyrics and the trumpets going in the middle of the song. The best parts of the song are when it's orchestration gets quiet and Buckley is reflective about wanting to live under juniper trees, sky upon gray, serenely, and see the day gracefully growing.<br /><br />Tim Buckley performing live at the Newport Festival 1968<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKUj3m9s-VNJV8gD2hs5HxjTEEFXjFEVIB6lYR0KV5xkgDfUAdSgwdU1DO0_lODR70W_zi39RfOIVS9I_IhGMWlxchXhF7WeSTVvKfZ7HTdmw0TafGaO6c_fzzTV-D4qOeyB1MFhEujzBy/s1600-h/TIM+BUCKLEY+NEWPORT+1968.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 271px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKUj3m9s-VNJV8gD2hs5HxjTEEFXjFEVIB6lYR0KV5xkgDfUAdSgwdU1DO0_lODR70W_zi39RfOIVS9I_IhGMWlxchXhF7WeSTVvKfZ7HTdmw0TafGaO6c_fzzTV-D4qOeyB1MFhEujzBy/s400/TIM+BUCKLEY+NEWPORT+1968.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5346214859466471026" border="0" /></a><br /><br />There was one other standout folk rock song that Tim Buckley wrote on <span style="font-style: italic;">Goodbye and Hello</span> that he would have a tough time surpassing in creativeness in his fourthcoming albums. The best song on the album. The song was "Once I Was," a sort of war song but also possibly autobiographical as it deals with the loss in a relationship which was happening to Buckley at the time with his wife Mary Guibert. His son Jeff Buckley (a future rock n' roll legend) who was just an infant when he was separated from Tim, living with his mother and never seeing him again. The song begins quite well in a folky Buckley fashiion but it isn't until the chorus when the song picks up and Buckley almost wails in a high voice, "And sometimes I wonder will you remember me? As writer Richie Unterberger writes about Tim Buckley<span style="font-style: italic;">, "</span> His multi octave voice was capable of not just astonishing power, but great emotional expresiveness, swooping from sorrowful tenderness to anguished wailing." In the last part of "Once I Was," Buckley sings,<br /><br />"And though you have forgotten all of our rubbish dreams. I find myself searching through the ashes of our ruins. For the days when we smiled and the hours that ran wild. With the magic of our eyes. And the silence of our words. And sometimes I wonder will you remember me." Buckley sings these lines with his two octave-counter tenor voice that sounds so beautiful it sweeps you into another dimension.<br /><br />An early Tim Buckley photo<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJTiahCl1OSEZFOnYteVFYyFfIp5jgFhw_8qt7DNsp3f23Mf5eYoZSv2r51k9nM8MpXwmyzvdmDo9tCs0JRxuFu1znQudKW0mXOfMJBALgMhhmvIqobNiJm85AbOGWero351k6uNXEKyl8/s1600-h/tim+buckley4.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 368px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJTiahCl1OSEZFOnYteVFYyFfIp5jgFhw_8qt7DNsp3f23Mf5eYoZSv2r51k9nM8MpXwmyzvdmDo9tCs0JRxuFu1znQudKW0mXOfMJBALgMhhmvIqobNiJm85AbOGWero351k6uNXEKyl8/s400/tim+buckley4.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5345916352920502130" border="0" /></a><br /><br />Another solid anti war folk ballad on <span style="font-style: italic;">Goodbye and Hello</span> "No Man Can Find The War," which was a great protest of the Vietnam war going on at the time. The song was beautiful but not decorative or an embelishment of any sort, instead it was a serious claim to show that more young poet songwriters other than Dylan could write powerful anti-war songs. Larry Beckett also explains the subtle meanings behind the lines like "Is the war inside your mind?" In Unterberger's <span style="font-style: italic;">Eight Miles High</span>, "The real war is where does this stuff come from? Where do these people come from that can treat other people so? That's the real war inside that nobody adresses. They never talk about it on the network news. All they talk about is how many people were killed on each side, and those numbers are usually falsified anyway."<br /><br />The following song on <span style="font-style: italic;">Goodbye On Hello</span> is "Pleasant Street," one of the most psyhedeliclly loud and complex songs Buckley ever wrote. The energy in the song is unbeatable as it starts with Buckley's high soft vocals he used early in his recordings. "Pleasant Street" builds up to Buckley screaming in a falsetto voice, "There are so many people walking round. I can't hessitate and I can't wait on Pleasant Street." Overall it may be the best song on the album as it really captures your heart and soul and can feel the overall unsure emotion in every aspect of Buckley's voice.<br /><br />"Halucinations," was another powerful song tinkering with elements of jazz and light psychedelia.Turned on young people began realizing Buckley's music was made on drugs and for people who use them, as the experimental fingerpicking by Lee Underwood along with Buckley's evocative and rambling lyrics were a sign that Buckley music was becoming much more oblique in structure and skeletal when it came to writing the deepply poetic lyrics that had been penned by his childhood buddie Larry Beckett. Beckett was still writing some pretty powerful material off <span style="font-style: italic;">Goodbye and Hello</span> though and overall the album was a finer effort than Buckley's debut when you add in the fact the music itself sounded better.<br /><br />With other songs off <span style="font-style: italic;">Goodbye and Hello</span> like "Morning Glory," that sounded more jazzy and operatic than Buckley's usual folk sound his fans had bought into with the first album. Buckley did puzzle a few listeners but nothing compared to what was to come. After all it was the era of psychedelia and bands were known to be shifting gears by the second so it wasn't a surprise that Buckley wasn't exactly straight folk just like Bob Dylan was now more country than folk himself at that space in time during the late 60s. Buckley though would shift gears into a totally different realm outside the realm of psychedelica with his next album <span style="font-style: italic;">Happy Sad </span><span>which was very jazzy and heavily influenced by</span> Miles Davis, and Fred Neil especially in the best songs off the record like "Strange Feelin" and "Dream Letter,". The story behind the improvisational feel to "Strange Feelin," goes according to Mojo writer Martin Aston, that "one day Buckley walked into a band rehearsal to hear his bandmates, vibraphonist David Friedman and acoustic bassist Johnny Miller playing Miles Davis's "All Blues," and the resulting jam eventually morphed into "Strange Feelin." Lee Underwood recalls to Aston that one day he and Buckley were tripping on LSD and wrote "Buzzin Fly" together, another standout song off <span style="font-style: italic;">Happy Sad</span> that as Aston writes, "glided as much as "Strange Feelin" oozed with emotion." With lines in "Buzzin Fly" like "Just like a buzzin fly coming into your life. I float away like honey in the sun. But darling now I remember how the sun shone down..You're the one I talk about, you're the one I think about everywhere I go. But sometimes in the morning I miss you so. That's how I know I found the home." This would not be the last time Buckley spoke of finding some sort of home in his songs as he does the same in the more folky upbeat "Happy Time," which was to appear on his following album <span style="font-style: italic;">Blue Afternoon</span> but had actually been intended to be released on <span style="font-style: italic;">Happy Sad</span> but never made the cut.<br /><br />In the same Mojo issue there is a Buckley quote he made at the end of 1968 where he states, "I can see where I'm heading and it will probably be further and further from what people expect from me." It is funny to think that while most of Buckley's folk rock peers like Dylan and The Byrds were moving from folk to country, while Buckley was being swept away by modern jazz. Buckley had already moved away from what was considered naive folk on his 1966 debut album into convoluted and complex lyrics on the title track of <span style="font-style: italic;">Goodbye and Hello </span>that were written by Larry Beckett. Now with <span style="font-style: italic;">Happy Sad</span>, the anti-war sentiment that had been aparant in several of the songs off <span style="font-style: italic;">Goodbye and Hello</span> was gone, as was Beckett who had ironically departed Buckley's inner fold to join the army.<br /><br />Tim Buckley's <span style="font-style: italic;">Happy Sad</span> represented the<br />shift in Buckley's music from romantic folk poet<br />to experimental jazz artiste<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOusuqBObWNL9gSFjAQZADJ24prTqIcaKDy-gIShNDBcPknNhqaRkmDARk0DL1f0Or2yweu0ZTF4bm90-_ePj7HBqj0rRDT6gLkFF5dWSZVCJ69FK0x_u6omJ1_nbuY3jwXhEeAD_uv8HD/s1600-h/HAPPY+SAD-1.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 346px; height: 346px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOusuqBObWNL9gSFjAQZADJ24prTqIcaKDy-gIShNDBcPknNhqaRkmDARk0DL1f0Or2yweu0ZTF4bm90-_ePj7HBqj0rRDT6gLkFF5dWSZVCJ69FK0x_u6omJ1_nbuY3jwXhEeAD_uv8HD/s400/HAPPY+SAD-1.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5346181005856763858" border="0" /></a><br /><br />On <span style="font-style: italic;">Happy Sad</span> Buckley embraced the jazz of not only Miles Davis but other greats like Thelonius Monk, Leon Thomas and Charles Mingus to create a improvisational jazz sound that would sometimes go on without a clear rhythms, sounding like slow lost melodies for minutes at a time in such songs as extended opus in the middle of the record "Love From Room 109 At The Islander (On Pacific Coast Highway)." The composition has to be one of the most hauntingly pretty pieces of music that has ever been recorded not by just Buckley but by any musician in genearal...sounding like a man that had found temporary solace somewhere beautiful, but deep down was down and out awaiting his tragic end. As Aston writes, "Love From Room 109 At The Islander (On Pacific Coast Highway) epitomises <span style="font-style: italic;">Happy Sad's</span> paradox- the blissed out mood feels like an endless Californian summer but also like a sad comedown after the drug high that was the 1960s. Buckley writes some of his most beautiful, loving, yet painfuly powerful lyrics in the song,<br /><br />"Ah, you made the sunshine in the city. Oh, you warmed my heart. You changed an old man filled with pity back to a child again. Ah now, mama, can't you see what you done. So tell me darlin' if the feeling's wrong don't waste another day. Lord, the saddest thing I've ever known<br />was to watch it die away."<br /><br />As Aston goes on to write in Mojo, "Buckley still played the wounded hobo minstrel but he never sounded this daringly blue, lonesome, even in love, especially on "Dream Letter," (an apology to ex wife Mary Guibert and his young son Jeff for abandoning them.)" There were only six songs off of <span style="font-style: italic;">Happy Sad</span> but they all ran over five minutes except for the last song on the album "Sing A Song For You." <span style="font-style: italic;">Happy Sad</span> would still peak at Number 81 at the charts becoming Tim Buckley's biggest selling record, and while it didn't bring him lasting success, it does remain one of his true masterpieces. As Mojo writer Martin Aston writes <span style="font-style: italic;">"Happy Sad</span> was all about space, elasticity between notes and calm. The lyrics were equally stripped back, with Larry Beckett out of the picture. Songs remained , but <span style="font-style: italic;">Happy Sad</span> was almost unparraled in its desire to unend the easy listening comfort of the prevailing singer-songwriter trend of James Taylor and Corole King." Buckley was doing creative things with his music that nobody at the time took to notice but years later can be reflected on as innovating when he added on vibraphonist David Friedman to play at a concert at The Fillmore East. Now with Buckley's voive along with his twelve string acoustic guitar, backed by Underwood's guitar, Friedman's vibraphone, and a good bass, Buckley's band now resembled excactly what Friedman dubbed them which was, "The Modern Jazz Quartet of Folk. It was during this period that some of Buckley's live performances were recorded in London QEH in October 1968, and would eventually be released on a live album entitled <span style="font-style: italic;">Dream Letter</span>.<br /><br />Tim Buckley exloring the realms as an experimental jazz<br />artiste. His albums would only continue to get<br />stranger as the 1960s wore on into the 1970s.<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgucX3FwocCEGc_1hAnK4r4L0m0ZBFTJoVwu_XpH_QN5gP8NFB94ann02TUcaOU3kJNZQFBq1-e1DSImuwET5wRA1eyG5cMdeONM_AVzf8Amanu1ad5IlrItMJ2g1nHJ82w73LwEevb7N_a/s1600-h/tim2.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 345px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgucX3FwocCEGc_1hAnK4r4L0m0ZBFTJoVwu_XpH_QN5gP8NFB94ann02TUcaOU3kJNZQFBq1-e1DSImuwET5wRA1eyG5cMdeONM_AVzf8Amanu1ad5IlrItMJ2g1nHJ82w73LwEevb7N_a/s400/tim2.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5346201177626077634" border="0" /></a><br /><br />The begining of 1969 was the most creative period in Tim Buckley's musical career. He began reccording three different albums <span style="font-style: italic;">Blue Afternoon</span>, <span style="font-style: italic;">Lorca</span>, and <span style="font-style: italic;">Starsailor</span> the latter two were so avante garde and experimental that it could even be outside the realm of jazz or anything else that had ever been released in music. Buckley was given free creative control still to record his next album as Elektra assumed his success would only continue to grow as each of his first three albums had out charted the previous one. That was not the way Buckley rolled the dice though as he easily could have been that California folk rock poster boy many critics perceived he would eventually become if he had only been more consistent with the style of music he was releasing with each album. Instead as Unterberger writes on Alwaysontherun.net about Tim Buckley, "By the time fans had hooked into his latest album he was into something else entirely both live and in the studio. In this sense he recalled artists such as Miles Davis and David Bowie, who were so eager to look forward and change that they confused and even angered listeners who wanted more stylistic consistency." Unterberger goes on explain, "Buckley had a musical muse that had no boundries. <span style="font-style: italic;">Happy Sad</span> peaked inside the top 100 but Buckley would never chart as high again as he began a string of releases that would lead him away from folk rock and alienate his fan base in popular music."<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Blue Afternoon</span> was the first Tim Buckley album to appear in 1969 and it was by far the most acessesible of anything to follow for quite some time. As wikipedia writes, "Buckley wanted to provide an album of older material that was a step back from his current direction, but one that would have a better shot at making a dent in the public's mind. He recorded eight classic cuts of solid compositions on the record that sounded a bit similar to <span style="font-style: italic;">Happy Sad </span>with a layed back jazzy feel, <span style="font-style: italic;">i</span>ncluding the previously mentioned classic cut, "Blue Melody," which truly showcased Buckley's multi tenor voice more than any song he had previously recorded, which ranged several octaves. Singing "I was born a blue melody, a little song my mama sang to me. It was a blue melody, such a blue you've never seen. There aint no wealth that can buy my pride. There aint no pain that can cleanse my soul, just a blue melody sailing far away from me. One summer morning I was raised but I don't know. One summer morning I was left but I don't know."<br /><br />Other standout cuts on <span style="font-style: italic;">Blue Afternoon</span> had similar themes of depression and loneliness of a man without a woman in, "The Train," "So Lonely," "Chase The Blues Away," and "The River." "Happy Time," was the one really upbeat song on the album with Buckley sounding optimistic while singing, "It's a happy time inside my mind and now I'm coming home to stay." Despite the fact that <span style="font-style: italic;">Blue Afternoon</span> is clearly a forgotten classic with lots of solid material, it has been stated by Lee Underwood that Buckley was truly unhappy recording <span style="font-style: italic;">Blue Afternoon</span> and only did it for to please his fans and record label. Stil the lyrics and the songs in general off <span style="font-style: italic;">Blue Afternon </span>have an incredible feel to them and all relate to each other as autobiographical lyrics Buckley was feeling at the time such as in the song "Lonely". Oh, I don't get no letters. Nobody calls. Nobody comes 'round here no more. No pretty ladies. Nor pretty boys. Nobody comes 'round my door no more .It's just lonely, yeah, Mama you don't know." It is stunning to think this record could have passed so many people by but when you think about what was going on at the time with Woodstock and the hippie era, Buckley was begining to fit into that category less and less. The best song off<span style="font-style: italic;"> Blue Afternon</span> was "Cafe," a slow haunting love song about a mysetrious lady a bit similar to Love From Room 109 At The Islander (On Pacific Coast Highway)". Buckley's vocals are slow with each word emphasised beautifully in a deep baratone voice.<br /><br />"I was just a curly haired mountain boy on my way passing through. I heard a voice whisper good evening. I turned to a shadow and a saw her there. She had those sad china eyes that sang each time she smiled. But the sun it seemed to linger so long it deepened my love for her until she drew me near. Until she called me near. And then we waltzed to our heart beat. All around<br />the sea was swaying. The breeze was praying never to leave her alone. Alone.<br /><br />The music gets very erie with the sounds and the combination with Buckley's deep mournful voice provide the listener with a picture of some dark mysterious place where two lovers encounter one another. The lyrics continue with Buckley describing his burning passion for this woman who at the start of the song is a mere shadow he sees in the dark..."Oh, the time just slipped on by. And with the time so did our love. Ah, her every move<br />Just like a fever just like a fever. Burnin' inside would not leave me."<br /><br />Tim Buckley reaching the outer limits of vocal jazz<br />in the late 60s<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiaOq8XuaNxmPUw3Q1rxb_30_q44s18T_4J6NPnEzi6jFSJwOK-MjPGSrBDeupW4Qohm8ZX7VTUxNI3T4aG62fLqxhjbVpvUlofAI2cX_ZUtHrJhtLIG66BVq8sOaQWbFNqaIdPz9OSg0gc/s1600-h/TimBuckley-2.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 382px; height: 330px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiaOq8XuaNxmPUw3Q1rxb_30_q44s18T_4J6NPnEzi6jFSJwOK-MjPGSrBDeupW4Qohm8ZX7VTUxNI3T4aG62fLqxhjbVpvUlofAI2cX_ZUtHrJhtLIG66BVq8sOaQWbFNqaIdPz9OSg0gc/s400/TimBuckley-2.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5346505790030760210" border="0" /></a><br />Tim Buckley's released a second album titled <span style="font-style: italic;">Lorca</span> around the same time as <span style="font-style: italic;">Blue Afternoon</span> in 1969 on Frank Zappa's Straight Records.<span style="font-style: italic;"> Lorca </span>was by far the most experimental of anything Buckley had ever recorded. As allmusic.com states quite accurately about the album, "Buckley stunned and, to a rare degree, alienated fans with the dissonant, at times wearying, avant-garde exercises in vocal gymnastics that took up the entire first side of this LP. Side two was far more accessible, though Buckley's fusion of folk instrumentation with jazzy improvisation on extended compositions continued to take him further away from his folk-rock roots." "Lorca" the song itself began with Buckley chanting crazily into the microphone oooh-aah-oohh-aahhah, while the keyboards pounded eerily in the background. He began singing finally at nearly the two minute mark,"Let the sun sing in your smile. Let the wind hold your desire. Lend your womans voice run though your veigns. Let her be your blood don't feel ashamed." During this whole segmant the keyboards are pounding back and fourth and Buckley continues his wordless moaning and Underwood's accoustic guitar keeps a solid ryfthm. Buckley sounds more than just haunted in this song, he sounds like he's a true blues man who is possessed by demons when he moans, "You're just a man on death's highways. It's life you owe you're here to praise if. If love flows your way then be a river and when it dries just stand there and shiver." Overall the song Lorca was much more creatively innovating than anything Tim Buckley had ever recorded and as Ron Young points out about the songs flow, "With it's hypnotically descending rhythm pattern, the title track signals a conscious break from the past. Buckley weaves in and out of organ swells and shard-like piano stabs, creating a muscular vocal melody that demands attention. Of the remaining four songs on the album the best was "I Had A Talk With My Woman" a slower love song, with bongos keeping the beat sounding a bit like soft beach music. The song also proves Buckley could still write superb lyrics "Without her by my side she's just this memory that I hold around. She's this dream that I always hold to believe." Other cuts on Lorca like "Driftin" and "Anonymous Proposition" sounded like Buckley was in an all night jazz club with Jack Kerouac and Neil Cassady. The music veeres courses and beats and never really had a smooth flow for a long period. In "Anonymous Proposition" Buckley made a point to make his voice sound louder than the music in the background, as the vocals are the primary instrument as the stand up bass, brass instruments and soft keyboards played softly behind him. When you listen to a louder more sped up jazzy song like "Nobody Walkin," it is clear that Buckley was set on constant movement and experimentation in his music. He never wanted two of his songs to sound the same, and on <span style="font-style: italic;">Lorca</span> they all sound completely different.<br /><br />"Richie Unterberger writes an even more descriptive passage on alwaysontherun.net describing how <span style="font-style: italic;">Lorca</span> affected Buckley's musical career, "No longer was Buckley a romantic poet, he wa an experimental artiste who seemed bent on punishing himself and his fans with wordless shrieks, and jarringly dissonant music. Wordlossly contorting, screaming, and moaning sometimes quite cacaphonously, in this context <span style="font-style: italic;">Lorca</span> was viewed by fans and critics not just as a shocking departure for Buckley but a downright bummer." It was quite unfortunate that people did not understand the creative boundries Tim Buckley was pushing with his music as he was simply offering a new twist on form with each album he put out.<br /><br />The commercial failure of <span style="font-style: italic;">Lorca</span> did not stop Tim Buckley from demonstrating his remarkable versatility as he released the album <span style="font-style: italic;">Starsailor </span>in 1970, which he regarded as his true masterpiece. Allmusic.com writes about the album, "With former Mother of Invention player Bunk Gardner augmenting Buckley's group on sax and alto flute, Buckley applies vocal gymnastics to a set of material that's as avant-garde in its songwriting as its execution. At his most anguished (which is often on this album), he sounds as if his liver is being torn out — slowly." Still there were a few Buckley songs like "Moulin Rouge," that sounded more like mainstream jazz in comparison to the all out hypnotic <span style="font-style: italic;">Lorca. Starsailor's </span>songs weren't nearly as long as the all out extended jams on <span style="font-style: italic;">Lorca</span> either but that didn't make them similar at all to anything Buckley had done in the past with songs like "Healing Festival," feautring a loud Bunk Gardner saxaphone and Buckley chanting strangely words that are almost indispherable on top of it. Starsailor gets even stranger with the tile track as it opens with something that sounds straight out of Stanley Kubrick's 2001 Space Odyssey with sheeps bah-iing and strange galaxy like sounds that sound like they are coming from an outer orbit or another planet entirely. The song almost sounds scary like it belongs in a sci-fi type horror film. Buckley's voice comes in and out in a drowning way fading in and out with the spacey sounds, and it is nearly impossible to pick up what he is muttering about unless you really have good ears. "Jungle Fire," may be the strongest song on the record showcasing his avate garde ability to use his multi-octave. Just the way he sings those opening notes with the light jazz intertwined in the background is highly original, "Somewhere old memories. Echoed from the street in a crying hole. Just a song from long ago." The song increases in speed as do Buckley's vocals, as it goes on and becomes all out jazz madness at the end. As Allmusic.com writes about the songs on <span style="font-style: italic;">Starsailor</span>, "Surrealistic lyrics, heavy on landscape imagery like rivers, skies, suns, and jungle fires, top off a record that isn't for everybody, or even for every Buckley fan, but endures as one of the most uncompromising statements ever made by a singer/songwriter."<br /><br />Tim Buckley<span style="font-style: italic;"> Starsailor</span> released in 1970. Buckley's<br />avante garde musical experimentation reached it's peak<br />with this album<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhta2VWanMs3xZbs3r1eHsMr2D2JU1JWnftvlxrOOGyCZv8iECYL6KD4C09dVIBJLlrIv2XnruaRKYt6fal4aWoSP41C1mkBXuhbaQZI-owG_BaQY4bBtVrv9AKR9ShMfbVuqyi2oUN_Xtf/s1600-h/TimBuckley_Starsailor.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhta2VWanMs3xZbs3r1eHsMr2D2JU1JWnftvlxrOOGyCZv8iECYL6KD4C09dVIBJLlrIv2XnruaRKYt6fal4aWoSP41C1mkBXuhbaQZI-owG_BaQY4bBtVrv9AKR9ShMfbVuqyi2oUN_Xtf/s400/TimBuckley_Starsailor.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5346569976119979986" border="0" /></a><br /><br />"I Woke Up," showcases a more ballady side of Buckley's strangeness with horns and light scrathing instruments bringing out an scary eariness. It is as if Buckley has set the tone for a film noir soundtrack or horror movie. Each word in the song is strongly emphasised in deep discription, "Now the sun sits on my hand. O where are you ? Walking the wind I fly above the shore of the town. To the hills where I can hear the harbor bells ring slavery where the fortune teller sighs to me, o I see your woman in the raw. Ride a mare of stone and howl." The song builds and fades in and out with the low tenor sax of Gardner and then Buckley comes back in with more intese lyrics, "I woke up while morning built. The world with light, crossing their hearts, twelve sailor boys all stood in a ring tound our bed. And from the grass a dancer rose,<br />Shivering, Oh the sailors pointing. Out to sea. And the dancer diving<br />Up the sky. Til we forgot the day." Those last lines Buckley drones on those last lines so long you can feel the absolute beauty in his voice. The best song on the album is "Song To The Siren," which has influenced many musicians in this current young generation and been covered by lots of artists including John Frusciante. You really feel Buckley is writing this one autobiographically when he says "O my heart, O my heart shies from the sorrow. I am puzzled as the newborn child. I am troubled at the tide. Should I stand amid the breakers? Should I lie with Death my bride? Hear me sing, swim to me, swim to me. Let me enfold you. Here I am, Here I am, Waiting to hold you." With Buckley's impending sense of doom led by the fact he was increasing his drug intake more and more as the years went by, it is clear he was also wanting to hold his woman and feel warm inside as he had in so many other of his songs such as early as "I Can't See You," and as recently as "Love From Room 101 At The Islander (On Pacific Coast Highway) off <span style="font-style: italic;">Happy Sad</span>.<br /><br />Tim Buckley playing live<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQrhr7C7fxYCSyfxipUdIB35wQe9HsgKAzfl2to6nf7JfZaKyAJkQXIMBojq2PhCP8farEr-GHI7Ia027pRnQUT5d89cALIzpZwcT6B5Boy4mRJ4ywvFPegmIatqL4YpVPDEuNlWmb7juP/s1600-h/Tim_Buckley_76_1.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 230px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQrhr7C7fxYCSyfxipUdIB35wQe9HsgKAzfl2to6nf7JfZaKyAJkQXIMBojq2PhCP8farEr-GHI7Ia027pRnQUT5d89cALIzpZwcT6B5Boy4mRJ4ywvFPegmIatqL4YpVPDEuNlWmb7juP/s400/Tim_Buckley_76_1.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5348737655249344178" border="0" /></a><br /><br />Due to the commercial failures of both <span style="font-style: italic;">Lorca</span> and <span style="font-style: italic;">Starsailor</span> and the state of how avante garde they were, Elektra had lost hope in Tim Buckley and dropped him from his record contract. Distraught by what had happened Buckley decided to disband the <span style="font-style: italic;">Starsailor</span> musicians and start afresh. He later was able to release three R&B, or what Buckley described as "sex funk" albums. These final three albums were not comparable to Tim Buckley's earlier efforts largely due to the fact he wasn't recordin music in the genre he was most masterful at creating which was avante garde jazz, and folk. Tim had also used a lot of drugs over the years but now with heroin as his drug of choice his disintegration as a musician began to increase rapidly. The final three "sex funk" albums titled <span style="font-style: italic;">Greetings From L.A</span>., <span style="font-style: italic;">Sefronia</span> and <span style="font-style: italic;">Look At The Fool,</span> the latter of which featured a superb cover of Fred Neil song "Dolphins." The song was almost autobiographical to what Buckley was going through at the time even though it wasn't written by him. When Buckley sings in a much gruffer voice then what we have been used to "I've been searching for where the dolphins sing." It is just like the lines in "Once I Was" where Tim had asked the question to his wife "Sometimes I wonder for awhile will you ever remember me?" Buckley's lyrics meant so much even when they were written by others like Larry Beckett. Just the way Buckley sang them with so much emotion and touching feeling you can almost go to those places he is describing and feel those same ineer emotions he describes. Only a few artists have that talent to do that with their music and they are musical poets like Bob Dylan, Neil Young and Jim Morrison, but amazingly enough Tim Buckley falls into their category.<br /><br />Buckley's life did not last long during his "sex funk" period. In 1975 after the culmination of a tour in Dallas, Texas Buckley celebrated by partying all weekend in Texas, as was the custom with his band at the end of every tour. He returned to Santa Monica, California continueing his run of drunken and drug debauchery until the night of June 29, 1975. That night Buckley accompanied his longtime friend and heroin addict Richard Keeling to a party in an attempt to buy heroin. Keeling aparently bought the heroin at the party without notifying Buckley who was already drinking heavily. When Buckley found Keeling in the bathroom practically passed out with a needle, he began to argue with Keeling. Keeling told him to take all the remaining stash, not realizing that Buckley, (who had a contrary and rebellious nature) would actually snort the whole thing. After taking the heroin Buckley was so inebriated that his friends at the party drove him home immediately. Buckley's wife Judy was very concerned when she saw Buckley and questioned the friends on what had happeneed to Tim before they left. For awhile Buckley lay on a pillow but eventually Judy moved him to bed where he could sleep more comfortably. She left the room for a moment and when she returned Buckley had turned blue and was no longer breathing. Buckley was rushed to a hospital but attempts to revive him were unsuccesful and he was prounonced dead on arrival.<br /><br />Tim Buckley<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXcgDoPkar02-XPZguZaCxLj9p2Qi8cO2ZHiPqFsBPv9ZflyX9bFzv95LOzFfdSEDKS01H5Bi7SGhA_288MH42SxNjU0ectLAOME-YgdULn6D8CAZfPQu6UAz7Q616-0q4Rf6YksNGEgsV/s1600-h/Tim+Buckley.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 231px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXcgDoPkar02-XPZguZaCxLj9p2Qi8cO2ZHiPqFsBPv9ZflyX9bFzv95LOzFfdSEDKS01H5Bi7SGhA_288MH42SxNjU0ectLAOME-YgdULn6D8CAZfPQu6UAz7Q616-0q4Rf6YksNGEgsV/s400/Tim+Buckley.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5357863679934885746" border="0" /></a><br /><br />In the time Tim Buckley made his best music in the mid through late 1960s it is easy to forget his contributions as there were so many other great muscians at that time who were actually lucky enough to completely break through to to stardom. While Buckley may have never achieved stardom or lasting fame he will always be remembered by music lovers who share incredible taste of his diverse style that is highly innovative and original to the core. Anybody who hears an album like Lorca or Starsailor for the first time who loves music can't help but be blown away. Any listener who grew up in the 1960s can't not listen to a song like "Blue Melody" and not be swept away by the incredible folk and jazz intertwined with Buckley's multi-octave voice. As time moves on we have already seen flashes of what Buckley left behind with his son Jeff Buckley. Jeff Buckley was one of the most talented musicians of the 1990s before tragedy struck him as well in an untimely death by drowning in the Mississippi River. It is amazing that Jeff was able to have so much of his father's talent considering the fact he never really knew Tim nor was taught by him in any means. Tim Buckley's biggest regret may have been leaving his wife and infant son but in the end his music is a great way to hear how he dealt with that pain especially with the extreme power of the lyrics in "Dream Letter." May Tim and Jeff both rest in peace and may there music live on forever in the hearts of us all who will always love to listen.Bob Spilsburyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00433521057898667416noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4692808728945392087.post-56850565524476403942009-06-04T11:18:00.001-07:002009-06-04T13:36:04.171-07:00Gram Parsons & The Flying Burrito Brothers: Paving the Way for Country Rock in the Sixties and Beyond<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpDi5owZzhIL01k71hFX0WnPbky8lIlAXUgJXrzceELMQwrttk6kGhapUcyjepLYicaNOePS5KYK__XdHJBtDwSp6t4osqJSqzwARvxQP2eqhl6sWq7oessU_P4hjxamZ0Jya1ImJGDGQr/s1600-h/flying-burrito-bros1.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 356px; height: 237px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpDi5owZzhIL01k71hFX0WnPbky8lIlAXUgJXrzceELMQwrttk6kGhapUcyjepLYicaNOePS5KYK__XdHJBtDwSp6t4osqJSqzwARvxQP2eqhl6sWq7oessU_P4hjxamZ0Jya1ImJGDGQr/s400/flying-burrito-bros1.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5343573359169479218" border="0" /></a>If there was one band that paved the way for country music to be blended with rock n' roll in the 1960s and beyond it was The Flying Burrito Brothers. The band formed in 1969 with guitarist and vocalist Gram Parsons and electic guitarist/bass guitarist Chris Hillman both of whom had quit their previously highly successful band The Byrds, who were actually declining in popularity as the 1960s progressed. The Flying Burrito Brothers other members included pedal steel guitarist "Sneaky" Pete Kleinow, and bassist Chris Etheridge. Chris Hillman switched to guitar from his usual bass which he played with The Byrds. The Flying Burrito Brothers debut album <span style="font-style: italic;">The Gilded Palace Of Sin</span> released in April 1969. The songs on <span style="font-style: italic;">The Gilded Palace Of Sin</span> were all incredible southern-sounding country songs with a tinge of rock in them, all being recorded by an L.A. band, which made it all the more amazing. Parsons and Hillman harmonised perfectly together on soulful tunes like "Dark End of The Street," and "Do Right Woman," showcasing their talent together. Still, despite great original songs like these, The Flying Burrito Brothers never took off as a band as T<span style="font-style: italic;">he Gilded Palace Of Sin</span> debuted at a woeful Number 164 in America. Still many popular musicians at the time, such as Bob Dylan along with Keith Richards and Mick Jagger of The Rolling Stones praised the album highly. Richards and Jagger would end up forging a friendship with Parsons and even offer to have him along on tour with them and on their recordings of albums like <span style="font-style: italic;">Exile On Main Street</span>. Dylan who had also recorded his best country rock album that year titled <span style="font-style: italic;">Nashville Skyline</span> said "Their record knocked me out!"<br /><br />To truly understand the The Flying Burrito Brothers and their music one must understand the life of Gram Parsons, who was the genius behind the band. Parsons wasn't actually from L.A. but from a wealthy southern family in Waycross, Georgia, where he was raised.His family's wealth did not keep them from disintegrating when Gram was a child, as his father abruptly committed suicide two days before Christmas in 1958, which led to his Mother's rapid decline into alcoholism and death. Gram found his solace in music after attending an Elvis Presley concert in 1957 he picked up a guitar, and soon was in a southern rock n' roll cover band that played songs by The Kingston Trio and The Journeymen. Gram attended Harvard University studying Theology, but departed after just one semester. Ironically Gram was never really exposed to country music despite being from the South, and it wasn't until his time spent in Boston, Mass. at Harvard that he began to delve into country after attending a Merle Haggard concert. Soon after, Parsons formed The International Submarine Band and relocated the band to Los Angeles. The International Submarine Band released just one album <span style="font-style: italic;">Safe At Home</span> which featured the song "Do You Know How It Feels," which Parsons would eventually re-record and release with The Flying Burrito Brothers on The <span style="font-style: italic;">Gilded Palace Of Sin</span>.<br /><br />By the time <span style="font-style: italic;">Safe At Home </span>had been released though Parsons had already moved on to bigger and better things with The Byrds, who recruited him to replace David Crosby on the bands sixth record <span style="font-style: italic;">Sweetheart Of The Rodeo</span>. Parsons was such a talent to have in the studio playing keyboards and recording vocals that he had a huge influence on bassist Chris Hillman, who sided with Parsons over guitarist/vocalist Roger McGuinn on how the album should sound. Parsons virtually took over the highly succesful band he had just joined writing the best song off the album "Hickory Wind". McGuinn was furious as he had always been band leader which had been proven when he fired Crosby. Still Roger McGuinn did somewhat get his way in the end when most of Parsons vocals on the album were erased off the album due to the fact he was not under contract with Comumbia but another label. This makes <span style="font-style: italic;">Sweetheart Of The Rodeo</span> a much weaker record than it would have been and on it's release it was shunned by rock purists and country rock listeners alike who couldn't relate to what Parsons was trying to do in combining the two elements of country and rock. As time goes on though<span style="font-style: italic;"> Sweetheart Of The Rodeo</span> has only gained reputation as a classic Byrds album, it was only at the time that Byrds fans were expecting something more psychedelic and were in shock at the result of Parsons taking over The Byrds and changing their sound.<br /><br />Gram Parsons with an acoustic guitar onstage<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipIQwbaKUbuUEhpTb7U2RHJlltKFVHg3E06yxE7JQdJMt67n2N_tEtxN3LLRCBLI13z4AkjGlG2tA5y0kZmSYTjBsorBjbITT6eCcVB7K1TipDJ2v7WFAB2pHp32W8uquhUC-GqGD0qTim/s1600-h/gram_parsons.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 292px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipIQwbaKUbuUEhpTb7U2RHJlltKFVHg3E06yxE7JQdJMt67n2N_tEtxN3LLRCBLI13z4AkjGlG2tA5y0kZmSYTjBsorBjbITT6eCcVB7K1TipDJ2v7WFAB2pHp32W8uquhUC-GqGD0qTim/s400/gram_parsons.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5342843289790926690" border="0" /></a><br /><br />Eventually Parsons was fired from The Byrds because he didn't show up for a concert in South Africa in 1968. During this time Parsons was partying and jamming a lot with guitarist Keith Richards of The Rolling Stones near Richards house in Stonehenge. The two would listen to obscure country records and play guitar together for days. Parsons later claimed that he actually wrote "Honky Tonk Women" one of The Rolling Stones hits off their <span style="font-style: italic;">Let It Bleed</span> album. Parsons was truly captivated by the glamor of meeting The Rolling Stones during The Byrds European tour, and his unique rock star personality began to emerge. Eventually Chris Hillman followed Parsons out of The Byrds joining him in forming The Flying Burrito Brothers. The band began recording some truly great songs such as "Sin City," "Wheels," and "Christine's Tune," which was about a well known L.A. groupie named Christine Frka whose company Parsons enjoyed.<br /><br />The Burritos exuded a decadence that<br />was memorialized by Barry Feinstein's<br />cover photo. But that decadence<br />condemned the line-up to an early grave,<br />followed three years later by Parsons himself.<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_g9PbxJ5-NgXsha_iMVtgT4H8jsq71utCJmqqhsrJkfA6qviKjA5bCJUT0WBmNmbDXXurhLE_TDDqGaQpOHQcoMKX82xlXkkbfzWNvW0OH0PYwLXdXXfQmJ8PZmCAtKZI51k0weiXfuRY/s1600-h/1969+-+The+Gilded+Palace+of+Sin.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 280px; height: 280px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_g9PbxJ5-NgXsha_iMVtgT4H8jsq71utCJmqqhsrJkfA6qviKjA5bCJUT0WBmNmbDXXurhLE_TDDqGaQpOHQcoMKX82xlXkkbfzWNvW0OH0PYwLXdXXfQmJ8PZmCAtKZI51k0weiXfuRY/s400/1969+-+The+Gilded+Palace+of+Sin.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5342880806881845538" border="0" /></a><br /><br />As Allmusic.com writes about <span style="font-style: italic;">The Gilded Palace Of Sin,</span> "As a songwriter, Parsons delivered some of his finest work on this set; "Hot Burrito # 1" and "Hot Burrito # 2" both blend the hurt of classic country weepers with a contemporary sense of anger, jealousy, and confusion, and "Sin City" can either be seen as a parody or a sincere meditation on a city gone mad, and it hits home in both contexts." The lines Parsons wrote go,<br /><br />"This old towns made of sin, it will swallow you in if you've got some money to burn. Take it home ride away. You've got three years to pay. And Satan is waiting his turn. This old earthquakes gonna leave me in the poor house. It seems like this whole towns insane. On the thirty-first floor a gold plated door won't keep out the lords burning rain."<br /><br />"Hot Burrito # 1" was undoubtedly a killer ballad written by Parsons, possibly his best ever. With Parsons writing incredible lyrics and singing in the voice of a hurt country rocking weeper.<br /><br />"I'm the one who showed you how to do the things you are doing now. He may feel all your charms, he may hold you in his arms, but I'm the one who let you in. I was right beside you then. Once upon a time you let me feel you deep inside. And nobody knew, and nobody saw. Do you remember the way you cried. I'm your toy, I'm your own, boy, but I don't want nobody but you to love me. No I wouldn't lie. You know I'm not that type of guy."<br /><br />As Peter Dodgett wrote about <span style="font-style: italic;">The Gilded Palace Of Sin</span> in Mojo magazine a few months back in a forty-year tribute issue to the music of 1969 , "Three decades later the album stands as arguably the finest country rock album of all time and the apotheosis of the willful, wasted but unique talent of Gram Parsons." At times it does seem that Parsons gets most of the accolades for forming the Burritos and composing their music though which is really not accurate as fellow ex-Byrd Chris Hillman was just as much a part of the creation of <span style="font-style: italic;">The Gilded Palace Of Sin </span>as Parsons. Parsons moving voice singing isn't the only reason he gets most of the credit for being the genius in the band: but also the fate that he died at such a young age and left behind a body of work that was so incredible it has left many of his fans and rock historians to ponder how much more incredible country rock music he might have composed in a longer lifetime. Hillman commented in the Mojo article, stating, "I think Gram had some talent but no discipline. What made us all angry was he was seduced by all the trappings he hadn't earned. You know I'm gonna get a limousine. Why? We're playing five shows in a bar! And then he was romancing Mick and Keith. It was embarrassing." Parsons dedicated friendship with The Rolling Stones did pay off a bit though when The Stones booked The Flying Burrito Brothers to open for them at the historic free Altamont concert. This was supposed to be a Woodstock type concert in California featuring other great bands like Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, Jefferson Airplane, and The Grateful Dead.) It ended up being quite the opposite of peace and love as a young black man was stabbed by a member of The Hells Angels Motorcylcle gang who were acting as security guards at the event. At this point Parson's use of drugs and alcohol had increased to the point where he wasn't writing too many new songs and he was spending most of his time partying with The Rolling Stones, who were temporarily relocated in America to record<span style="font-style: italic;"> Let It Bleed</span>.<br /><br />The Flying Burrito Brothers: Top left to clockwise:<br />Gram Parsons, Chris Etheridge,<br />"Sneaky" Pete Kleinklow, and Chris Hillman<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjKEg-jHEt4vL4Qkqhh6efjyAiBcRCQ1Fo3Rv-H-WSUMYHSaa886Yv-4UnFwvGcxp31d0BJuULdunf5aq5vq1Sr1eCIJ2PREpr5W3qMpxBivq4yXdVJFLDrMMAWS1XasujlI6Uo_2YdAvN/s1600-h/flyingburrito-1.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 350px; height: 350px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjKEg-jHEt4vL4Qkqhh6efjyAiBcRCQ1Fo3Rv-H-WSUMYHSaa886Yv-4UnFwvGcxp31d0BJuULdunf5aq5vq1Sr1eCIJ2PREpr5W3qMpxBivq4yXdVJFLDrMMAWS1XasujlI6Uo_2YdAvN/s400/flyingburrito-1.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5342876757938712610" border="0" /></a><br /><br />A second album with The Flying Burrito Brothers album followed <span style="font-style: italic;">The Gilded Palace Of Sin</span> and was titled <span style="font-style: italic;">Burrito Deluxe. </span><span>It featured another member of The Byrds, Micheal Clarke, on drums and Bernie Leadon on guitar, which led to Hillman returning to his usual bass guitar.</span><span style="font-style: italic;"> Burrito Deluxe </span>had only one memorable song on it, a cover of The Rolling Stones "Wild Horses," which actually hadn't been released by The Stones yet. It eventually would appear off their <span style="font-style: italic;">Sticky Fingers</span> album but The Flying Burrito Brothers version was the first to be released although not a lot of people had heard it since almost nobody bought the album and it failed to make the U.S. charts. Parsons was so disappointed with the sales of the first two Flying Burrito Brothers albums that he abruptly quit the band and tried to record a solo album. Because Parsons had began using heroin the sessions proved to be fruitless, with Parsons unable to record at all without sounding terrible.Parsons realized the sessions were amounting to nothing, so checked out the tapes, packed his bags and left America, moving in with The Rolling Stones. He stayed at the mansion Villa Nellcote, The Stones had bought in France to record<span style="font-style: italic;"> Exile On Main Street.</span> and avoid being taxed by the English government. During the sessions The Rolling Stones may have intended to use Parsons, but unfortunately he was constantly indulging in massive quantities of marijuana, psychedelic mushrooms, cocaine, heroin, and alcohol, so he was of little use. However, Parsons did claim he sang in as part of the back-up choir in one of the best songs off<span style="font-style: italic;"> Excile On Main Street,</span> "Sweet Virginia." Eventually Anita Pallengerg, Keith Richards longtime girlfriend did kick Gram out Villa Nellcote because of his constant drug use, and the fact Gram was always arguing with his girlfriend Gretchen Burrell.<br /><br />Gram Parsons with his infamous "Nudie Suit"<br />with a marijuana leaf on it<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdkguCp3RtSFRWosmNRMwpNpMAL5aByDV5F2RQeU9RjSvKn-Ns5u30SRzCf0rp3wehTV_5Z0kWpJPgpo9eM5SmuFmTa5k8GE5HQPVC2IWK3Ppmu5gn_mR3FF8NsilfD-8RCaP3EBA1ZJ82/s1600-h/2416_gramparsons.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 304px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdkguCp3RtSFRWosmNRMwpNpMAL5aByDV5F2RQeU9RjSvKn-Ns5u30SRzCf0rp3wehTV_5Z0kWpJPgpo9eM5SmuFmTa5k8GE5HQPVC2IWK3Ppmu5gn_mR3FF8NsilfD-8RCaP3EBA1ZJ82/s320/2416_gramparsons.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5342878119105327634" border="0" /></a><br /><br />Gram Parsons returned to the U.S. playing one final show with The Flying Burrito Brothers in Washington D.C. in 1972. After this show Chris Hillman recommended that Gram go see the country folk singer Emylou Harris perform in a small club in Washington D.C. Gram was so impressed that he invited Emylou back to L.A. with him to help him with another attempt at recording a debut solo album. It came as surprise when Reprise records immediately signed on Gram Parsons, once they learned he was planning to write a solo album. After all, his first attempt had been a complete failure. Parsons had also gained over thirty pounds in just the two years since his Flying Burrito Brothers days, as excessive alcohol consumption and eating too much fried southern food had taken its toll. Overall though, Parsons was in much better health now having kicked heroin with the help from his friend, former Blind Faith bassist Ric Grech.<br /><br />A clean and revitalized Gram Parsons recorded <span style="font-style: italic;">GP </span>with Emylou Harris, and Elvis Presley's backing band. They sounded terrific: this was by far his best work composed since <span style="font-style: italic;">The Gilded Palace Of Sin</span>. As Allmusic.com writes about <span style="font-style: italic;">GP</span>, "Parsons also discovered that rare artist with whom he can be said to have genuinely collaborated (rather than played beside), Emylou Harris; Gram and Harris' spot-on harmonies and exchanged verses on "We'll Sweep out the Ashes in the Morning" and "That's All It Took" are achingly beautiful and instantly established her as one country music's most gifted vocalists." Parsons "A Song For You" and "A New Soft Shoe" were also beautiful songs and are masterful examples of passion-filled love ballads, finding balance with understatement. Allmusic also points out that, "On <span style="font-style: italic;">GP</span>, Parsons' ambitious vision encompassed hard-country weepers, wistful ballads, up-tempo dance tunes, and even horn-driven rhythm and blues. He managed to make them all work, both as individual tunes and as a unified whole. This album remains one that is hauntingly beautiful and has only gotten better with the passing years."<br /><br />Gram Parsons during the <span style="font-style: italic;">GP</span> era<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhI1deWpObO8Iee-uxm5HLfx50vkYRvgR4DBFvSzdSwIoI173R8PaoL_7kFl83YdxSifPq7C8etCCl1e-XMvlJwT6tXsLxI5CZ8LyEy57_DMvsucrvO2gQebvar9aAlsc01HKvw0PCpj2CC/s1600-h/GPmarmot.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 326px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhI1deWpObO8Iee-uxm5HLfx50vkYRvgR4DBFvSzdSwIoI173R8PaoL_7kFl83YdxSifPq7C8etCCl1e-XMvlJwT6tXsLxI5CZ8LyEy57_DMvsucrvO2gQebvar9aAlsc01HKvw0PCpj2CC/s400/GPmarmot.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5343158529179392306" border="0" /></a><br /><br />Parsons soon hit the road with Emylou Harris although he was too poor to afford to take Elvis's bakcing band along. Parsons and Harris toured as The Fallen Angels with several successful performances including one in Houston, which was recorded and had guest apperances by Neil Young and Linda Ronstandt. Around this time Parsons hired a sketchy road manager named Phil Kaufman who had spent time in jail with Charles Manson on Terminal Island. Parsons had met Kaufman through The Rolling Stones and asingned him the job of keeping him clean while tourning. Kaufman did a good job of this disposing of any drugs he found Parsons had smuggled into his hotel rooms and also only letting him drink small amounts of alcohol before he went onstage so inebreation wouldn't affect his performance as it had in past tours with bands like The Byrds and The Flying Burrito Brothers. Despite a fairly succesful tour thanks to Emylou Harris who had forced Parsons to practice and had also helped organize the setlists with him, the record sales for <span style="font-style: italic;">GP </span>remained low. It was unfortunate that audiences perceived Parsons music as being "too authentic" and prefered other country rock bands like The Eagles. This comparison was a particular thorn in Parsons' side, as The Eagles featured Bernie Leadon, his former bandmate in The Flying Burrito Brothers. Parsons also commented that he couldn't stand The Eagles sound and didn't understand why it was so big.<br /><br />Gram Parsons next album was also recorded with Emylou Harris, was titled <span style="font-style: italic;">Grievous Angel. </span>Unfortunately Parsons fondness for drugs and fast living were catching up with him again during the recording of this album, and he would never live to see it released. The album has attained classic status through the years, (even more than <span style="font-style: italic;">GP</span>), although it is arguably not a better album than Parsons previous effort. Parsons may have been slowing down a bit as a songwriter, but he made that up for that by re-recording some of his older gems like "Hickory Wind," which he had written all the way back in 1968 and recorded on The Byrds <span style="font-style: italic;">Sweetheart Of The Rodeo</span>. Parsons cover of "Love Hurts," sounded so incredible vocallly that you might forget Roy Orbisson sang it. Parsons also wrote three of his best songs ever off <span style="font-style: italic;">Greivous Angel</span>, "Return of The Greivous Angel," "1,000 Wedding," and "Brass Buttons," where he showcased his still achingly, beautiful country-weeping voice, which along with the powerful lyrics can almost bring tears to the eyes they are so beautiful,<br /><br />"Brass buttons green silks and silver shoes. Warm evenings, pale mornings, bottle blues. And the tiny golden pins that she wore up in her hair. Brass buttons green silks and silver shoes. My mind was young until she grew. My secret thoughts only known by a few. It was a dream much too real to believe again too soon. And all the time I think she knew. Her words still dance inside my head. Her comb still lies beside my bed. And the sun comes up without her now. It just doesn't know she's gone. And I remember everything she said."<br /><span style="font-family:monospace;"><br /></span>Allmusic.com writes about Gram Parsons beautiful song, "In My Hour Of Darkness," off of <span style="font-style: italic;">Greivous Angel, </span>"And while he didn't plan on it, Parsons could hardly have picked a better closing gesture than "In My Hour of Darkness." <i>Grievous Angel</i><span style="font-style: italic;"> </span> may not have been the finest work of his career, but one would be hard pressed to name an artist who made an album this strong only a few weeks before their death — or at any time of their life, for that matter.<br /><br />Gram Parsons on his mororcycle in Joshua Tree National Park,<br />California the site where he died on September 9, 1973 from a<br />lethal mix of heroin and Tequila.<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjobkWtb4X3SLMEYYTGMfBDjTBoa7861vuWwMBaf16NHUCU5Nxb6siqSH0uGzBCrHIbo5Q4sgcbk8FCgdZqsNJaIy-uPdEQZ4H9mR2ZvI0BbpwWLQVLag-V8ohvEkoFoCwM1PBz3-Un9IBn/s1600-h/gram-parsons.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 272px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjobkWtb4X3SLMEYYTGMfBDjTBoa7861vuWwMBaf16NHUCU5Nxb6siqSH0uGzBCrHIbo5Q4sgcbk8FCgdZqsNJaIy-uPdEQZ4H9mR2ZvI0BbpwWLQVLag-V8ohvEkoFoCwM1PBz3-Un9IBn/s400/gram-parsons.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5343177919029831442" border="0" /></a><br /><br />At this time in his life, Parsons had separated from Gretchen Burrell, with whom he had had a tumultuous short lived marriage, after moving back to America from France. He spent most of his weekend time in Joshua Tree National Park in southeastern California, a place he had been infatuated with since the late 1960s. Parsons enjoyed going out there with friends and dissapearing with them in the desert for days, while wandering around on psychedelic mushrooms or LSD. Just before his 1973 tour was about to begin, Parsons decided to take one more trip to Joshua Tree but this time he would not return. Less then two days after arriving in Joshua Tree Parsons died from a lethal drug and alcohol overdose, a combination of heroin with tequila. Gram was just twenty six years old. Aparently before his death, Parsons had made a pact with his road manager Phil Kaufman that if he died he did not want to be buried in the ground. He wanted to be cremated in Joshua Tree and have his ashes spred over the famous Cap Rock. Parsons southern family planned to have his body flown back to Louisiana for a private funeral and burial but Phil Kaufman had other ideas. Kaufman was ready to stick to his pact he had made with Parsons.Probably he was also angry that he and many of his friends Parsons was closest to hadn't even been invited to the private funeral. Somehow Kaufman, with the help of a friend, managed to get hold of a hearse and steal Parsons' body from Los Angeles International Airport. They took Parsons back to Joshua Tree, where they poured gasoline over his body, and attempted to cremate him. Once the match was lit however it set off a huge explosion and was not a cremating process. The Police were on the scene in a matter of minutes and chased the black hearse, but somehow Kaufman managed to out run them on the highway. Days later Kaufman was arrested, but since there was no law at that time against stealing a dead body, he wasn't prosecuted for a crime and only fined $750 for stealing the coffin. There is a memorial site in Joshua Tree National Park for Gram Parsons at the exact rock where his body was set ablaze; it is known as The Gram Parsons Memorial Hand Traverse. Fans of Parsons still visit the site and write personal messages to him on the rock which the park service occasionally sand blasts clean.<br /><br />One thing is clear: despite the tumultuous short lived life of Gram Parsons he belongs in the country music Hall Of Fame. Emylou Harris was inducted into The Hall Of Fame in February of 2008, sparking Parsons' fans to form The Gram Parsons Petition Project; an attempt to get him inducted but to no avail thus far. With all the music he wrote in such a short time with the International Submarine Band, The Byrds, and his best work with The Flying Burrito Brothers and later on with Emylou Harris as a solo artist. Gram Parsons is the definition of a cult country rock legend. It is surprising to hear that so few people have heard of him, and yet it makes sense when you consider that he never achieved mainstream commercial success with any of the albums he made in his lifetime. Death may have made him more of the legendary fallen greivous angel he is perceived to be by those who admire him, but in life is where he truly shined.<br /><br />Gram Parsons with pink hat and tie-die ontage with Chris Hillman<br />with The Flying Burrito Brothers<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEin2QK4aOnNoNXQVO9Anwk3xlK0ue2Q_RzKmihZvaDQvpYj60t3Q7wSRVRlV5-4Vf8VuDBVUqWIi16lbLAKmsvHBUCcknD39I600RLgIB-eF5g_xhc7G7M_42s8zVqhKVHDRMjUvKmQILFt/s1600-h/ParsonsHillmanBurritosEdit.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 259px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEin2QK4aOnNoNXQVO9Anwk3xlK0ue2Q_RzKmihZvaDQvpYj60t3Q7wSRVRlV5-4Vf8VuDBVUqWIi16lbLAKmsvHBUCcknD39I600RLgIB-eF5g_xhc7G7M_42s8zVqhKVHDRMjUvKmQILFt/s400/ParsonsHillmanBurritosEdit.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5343528604158051762" border="0" /></a>Bob Spilsburyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00433521057898667416noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4692808728945392087.post-21726147295819810932009-05-15T14:50:00.000-07:002009-06-03T16:40:44.882-07:00The Dead at the Shoreline Amphitheatre, Mountain View, CA<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyfr7_IRQUZpgf-A26nfBRbACAf2ATmLM5QpBSIBZU5CNyAelx1uEK5P575oDD9bk8EeIdBR3z4C7ZXucEe9mn7INHNiLvHWOIqArYYLxev-0sslEKaZB1yN7GJReFze8avLz0qqFjpWHs/s1600-h/The+Dead+jamming.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyfr7_IRQUZpgf-A26nfBRbACAf2ATmLM5QpBSIBZU5CNyAelx1uEK5P575oDD9bk8EeIdBR3z4C7ZXucEe9mn7INHNiLvHWOIqArYYLxev-0sslEKaZB1yN7GJReFze8avLz0qqFjpWHs/s400/The+Dead+jamming.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5338421358891333202" border="0" /></a>Arriving at the parking lot at Shoreline, Amphitheatre in Mountain View, California at 4:00 pm in the afternoon approximately four hours before The Dead were to begin their set, I was struck with how many people had already arrived early as well. I knew there would be some sort of parking lot scene, but hadn’t imagined this. Lots of Chevy trucks were parked with their trunks open so people could sit inside, drink cold beer out of their coolers and smoke joints at their free will. There were Dead Heads walking around the parking lot with their index finger up in the air hoping for a miracle ticket that would allow them into the sold out show of 22,000 people.<br /><br />As I walked around checking out the different items for sale I saw one guy getting kicked out by security for selling glass pipes. He was hysterical demanding to the security, “Why are you guys only kicking me out and not the other hundreds of people doing the same thing as me?” He did have a point as I walked around and saw countless other people selling pipes and other paraphernalia such as bongs and vaporizers. One guy I met in the parking lot was from a small farm town in Missouri and claimed he was taking donations for buttons in order to support his family and raise buffalo on a farm. Continuing my stroll around the lot I saw the countless hippies and the core of The Dead’s fan base. The men had their heavy beards, dreadlocks, Dead tattoos, bandanas and tie-dye shirts, and the women had their long hair flowing and dresses with psychedelic pattern. They were all peacefully hanging out drinking beer, smoking joints, and eating veggie burritos while listening to Crazy Fingers” blasting out of the sterio of somebody's psychedelic bus. Being at this concert made me realize no other band in the history of rock ‘n’ roll has ever fostered a greater sense of community than the Dead has done over its 45-year career. Some people may wonder how The Dead are still able to carry on so well and continue to pack arenas even without its most popular player, Jerry Garcia, who died in 1995, and can still sell some 40,000 tickets to its two shows at Shoreline. Even without Garcia living, people have not forgotten about The Grateful Dead; if anything they are even more worshiped now. I saw many people walking around the parking lot with “I Miss Jerry” signs, signifying their true-Dead-Head spirit. As Jim Harington writes for mercurynews.com, ”In these modern times, when people are known to text, instead of talk, to someone sitting in the very same room, the significance of feeling connected to something cannot be overstated. That’s why Deadheads don’t just attend shows – they live for them.”<br /><br />The show began soon after I got inside the Shoreline Amphitheatre around 8:00 pm. The surviving members of The Dead (vocalist and rhythm guitarist Bob Weir, bassist Phil Lesh, drummers Mickey Hart and Bill Kreutzman) took the stage, along with post 2000 Dead tour members, Gov’t Mule and The Allman Brothers Band lead guitarist and vocalist Warren Haynes, and Ratdog keyboardist Jeff Chimanti. Until tonight, there hadn’t been much to live for if you’re a Dead Head in the Bay Area over the last five years, as this is the first time The Dead have toured since 2004, which surely factors into the huge ticket demand for this tour, and high prices that you would be extremely lucky to get for under $100.<br /><br />The Dead opened their set with one of their most famous multi-song intertwined jams “Help On The Way,” into “Slipknot,” into “Franklins Tower.” Bob Weir sang the famous opening lines of “Help On The Way,” originally written by Robert Hunter and sang by Jerry Garcia off their 1975 <span style="font-style: italic;">Blues For Allah</span> album, “Paradise waits on the crest of a wave her angels in flame. She has no pain. Like a child, she is pure she is not to blame. Poised for flight. Wings spread bright. Spring from night into the sun.” Weir sang the song in a much different voice then his usual country or his deep-raspy voice, instead sounding more like Jerry’s high pitched croon would have instead. During “Franklins Tower,” it seemed like everyone around me on the center part of the lawn was lighting up a fat joint and passing it around while making sure to dance and chanting the famous chorus of, “Roll away the dew.” <span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:85%;" ><br /><br /></span><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-size:100%;">Mountain View Flashback: Bob Weir of The Dead performing at The Shorline<br />in one of the last Grateful Dead tours with Jerry Garcia in the early 90s.</span></span><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgA3ula5GhP2d2wnokQNMwL8b1YDf-YcSKoZ0IL3nX5ebB0t54vKqGPVwZCEv_277o0pb7Iu8Wtu49HcJbswf_12nWpNMP7OXVojRYkoDAaY4qpnTrCRotUZQtB0WbYL9S_kQfioP8fbsgw/s1600-h/Bob+Weir+Shoreline+1990.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 280px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgA3ula5GhP2d2wnokQNMwL8b1YDf-YcSKoZ0IL3nX5ebB0t54vKqGPVwZCEv_277o0pb7Iu8Wtu49HcJbswf_12nWpNMP7OXVojRYkoDAaY4qpnTrCRotUZQtB0WbYL9S_kQfioP8fbsgw/s400/Bob+Weir+Shoreline+1990.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5336191194108836882" border="0" /></a><br /><br />A lot of what was played at this Dead concert seemed to be very meticulously picked out by the band to be in unison with what they had done at past showes at the same Shoreline Amphitheare before Jerry Garcia died. An example of this is when The Dead launched into “Good Lovin,” a song The Dead used play all the time at Shoreline. Bob Weir finally let out the his deep-raspy voice, (which most Dead Heads have always loved), and entire crowd hadn't forgotten despite The Dead's long break off touring. "Good Lovin" put a grat atmospher in the air as it was still a bit sunny out and Dead Head hippies danced and chanted the chorus, “Doctor! Doctor!”<br /><br />Weir also took control of the next song "Cassidy," now and the purple and green stage lights illuminated the band members. This was not the first time I had heard Weir play “Cassidy,” as he had performed it at a free concert with Ratdog on Earth Day in Golden Gate Park during 2007, but seeing him perform it with The Dead was far more special. Weir took center stage with his heavy white beard, thick mustache that curls upwards, singing the opening lines, “I have seen where the wolf has slept by the silver stream. I can tell by the mark he left you were in his dream. Ah, child of countless trees. Ah, child of boundless seas. What you are, what you're meant to be speaks his name, though you were born to me. Born to me, Cassidy.”<br /><br />Any Dead Heads at Shorline who may have had any lingering notion that The Dead might be past their prime without Jerry Garcia must have been blown away when they witnessed The Dead fly into “Bird Song,” an improvisational tour-de-force that has always been a concert favorite, appearing on successful Grateful Dead live albums in the past such as <span style="font-style: italic;">Reckoning</span> and <span style="font-style: italic;">Without A Net</span>. Haynes handled the lyrics beautifully to “Bird Song,” written in memory of Janis Joplin right after her heroin overdose in 1970. Haynes sang melodiously like Jerry would have if he was still with us, “All I know is that something like a bird within her sings. All I know is that she sang a little while and then flew off.” The Dead closed their first set to some of their biggest applause of the night with “Uncle John’s Band,” off of 1970s <span style="font-style: italic;">Workingman’s Dead</span>, a song that keeps Dead Heads trucking around the country to each one of this bands shows. In fact numerous Dead Heads were raving about the previous nights show in L.A. where The Dead played "Black Peter,"and "New Speedway Boogie," both classics off <span style="font-style: italic;">Workingman's Dead</span>.The lights on the stage shined out at the crowd as Bob Weir, Phil Lesh and Warren Haynes all shouted simultaneously, “Goddamn, well I declare have you seen the like? Their walls are built of cannonballs, their motto is don't tread on me. Come hear Uncle John's Band by the riverside. Got some things to talk about here beside the rising tide.” After the song Bob Weir did his usual set break announcement, “We’ll be back in just a few minutes don’t go anywhere.” <span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:85%;" ><br /><br /></span><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-size:100%;">Bob Weir: The vocalist and Rhythm guitarist of The Dead<br />performing on the current 2009 tour. </span></span><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkYbRvMK6RRvSTg9_eDs2OzMHv5vry34FRixRq_5S_9leHxio744H0UGehIpKr0s510kyQaQ1JPZ4oFGGp88dWRqb0_Es3npizbNDOqPRNNwGAOXBzBOQedf1F2OsXKB8uqPDw0FM_1CvQ/s1600-h/Bob+Weir.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 267px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkYbRvMK6RRvSTg9_eDs2OzMHv5vry34FRixRq_5S_9leHxio744H0UGehIpKr0s510kyQaQ1JPZ4oFGGp88dWRqb0_Es3npizbNDOqPRNNwGAOXBzBOQedf1F2OsXKB8uqPDw0FM_1CvQ/s400/Bob+Weir.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5336200929091014994" border="0" /></a><br /><br />A few minutes turned in to over half an hour but that didn’t bother Dead fans as they smoked copius amounts of marijuana or went off to the beer gardens before the people working at Shoreline could shut it down. Some people just sat around talking about what songs they thought would be played in the next set, trying to guess the exact order. Jim Harington from mercurynews.com describes these Dead Head games quite vividly when he writes “The Dead People wear their knowledge of the group like badges of honor, and just how much history you have with the act – which is illustrated by such seemingly oddball practices as being among the first to “name that tune” – really matters. It all comes down to people feeling like they’re part of something bigger than themselves, and each Deadhead believes he or she has played a role in the long, strange trip that took the band from the small Bay Area clubs in the ‘60s, through the Yale Bowl in New Haven, CT, and Chicago’s Auditorium Theatre in the ‘70s, straight to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in the ‘90s.”<br /><br />The second set began with a stellar Phil Lesh song “Unbroken Chain,” with the classic Dead lines, “Looking for the secret, searching for the sound.” The crowd seemed amazed that The Dead would play this mid 70s classic. Once The Dead had jammed into "Unbroken Chain" and the crowd looked at one another as if, "Can it be?" Afterall "Unbroken Chain," is a song with a history to it at Shoreline Ampitheatre as it had been played there on the last Grateful Dead tour in 1995 the year Jerry Garcia died. As the song drifted more and more into the main riff the cheers became louder, swelling as more and more Dead Heads realized what was happening, and by the time the first verse rolled around, the place was going absolutely nuts, as hippies with dreadlocks danced with bolts of energy flying through the crowd.<br /><br />The crowd continued to roar as the opening notes in “The Other One,” were picked. This was the second time I had seen Weir and Lesh compose the song together and would have to say it was not the best. Last year when they played it together at The Warfield with Phil Lesh & Friends, the song seemed a lot more cohesive. I couldn’t also help but notice that the band was using music sheets and Weir somehow couldn’t remember the final lyrics at the end of the song or he just chose to leave them out which bothered me a bit since I love those final lines...“Escapin' through the lily fields I came across an empty space. It trembled and exploded left a bus stop in its place. The bus came by and I got on that's when it all began. There was cowboy Neal at the wheel of a bus to never-ever land.” The Dead still did a sold job jamming on “The Other One” a song that ranks right up there with “Dark Star” as one of their early psychedelic masterpieces.<br /><br /><span style="font-size:100%;">P</span><span style="font-size:100%;">hil Lesh got the crowd going with "Unbroken Chain,"<br />a song that was performed the final Grateful Dead show<br />at Shoreline during Jerry Garcia's life in 1995</span><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:85%;" >,</span><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAatkld1vLivGhrm78lSSLY6mE08H4Fk8edhio4qjmHoaCqPQTfObIR2NMZJVE3I3f8IA8Kp3LZVeSuTSgsIpqGrVx2WpZuUaJ8Mg0LlEsmC4w5wob97gQPxhPdQ7bAt2PDTJC24nW2l3v/s1600-h/Phil+Lesh.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 267px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAatkld1vLivGhrm78lSSLY6mE08H4Fk8edhio4qjmHoaCqPQTfObIR2NMZJVE3I3f8IA8Kp3LZVeSuTSgsIpqGrVx2WpZuUaJ8Mg0LlEsmC4w5wob97gQPxhPdQ7bAt2PDTJC24nW2l3v/s400/Phil+Lesh.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5336206550689500866" border="0" /></a><br /><br />Another interlude followed with Mickey Hart and Billy Kreutzman using their twin kits on “Drums,” into “Space.” Many fans took this time to lie on their backs on the hilly lawn, and look up at the sky, feeling the first waves of sleepy-ness overtake them. Then they were back on their feet and dancing in masse to “Sugaree,” a signature Jerry Garcia Band song off his powerful debut album simply titled <span style="font-style: italic;">Garcia</span>. Weir has taken over the song now, and even looked a bit like Jerry with that big white beard and his face, which has aged considerably over the last few years. It’s not a bad kind of aging like Jerry though where he looked overweight and somewhat burned out. Weir looked old and wise onstage, but his body movements onstage with his guitar were still young, and being in the center stage he was clearly leading the band on this night. Warren Hayens with a brooding look in his eye and his heavy set body trudged in front of the microphone, and took over next for a spectacular cover of The Rolling Stones song “Gimme Shelter,” from their <span style="font-style: italic;">Let It Bleed</span> album. Haynes sounded very rock n’ roll, and there was hardly any jamming to it, just a blistering solo in the middle which was the best of the night for Haynes. “Sugaree” may have been Weirs highlight of the second set until he even topped that with “Sugar Magnolia,” which had the whole crowd chanting at the top of their lungs, “Sunshine daydream. Walk you the tall trees. Going where the wind goes. Blooming like a red rose. Breathing more freely. Light out singing I'll walk you in the morning sunshine. Sunshine daydream.” "Sugar Magnolia," has been a concert highlight thoughout The Dead's legendary career from the 1970s on, and usually appears late in the second set or as the final encore of the night.<br /><br /><span style="font-size:100%;">Warren Haynes proved why he belongs in The Dead as he<br />mastered a stellar improvisation of "Bird Song," and ripped<br />up a cover of The Rolling Stones, "Gimme Shelter."</span><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJdCLSnyCd3VmAO-21UeEego9-axZx6XHiHLwsuFxzcLE8sPB71icFf3KP7rOKu6QnxD3btiUQLbEF9jBHI9t50QFWneiyV1aDbsH5D_ieZWUSZf3qJA9d0jSAcaMPv43Xe-Q-LQNuLqy6/s1600-h/Warren+Hayesjpg.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 267px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJdCLSnyCd3VmAO-21UeEego9-axZx6XHiHLwsuFxzcLE8sPB71icFf3KP7rOKu6QnxD3btiUQLbEF9jBHI9t50QFWneiyV1aDbsH5D_ieZWUSZf3qJA9d0jSAcaMPv43Xe-Q-LQNuLqy6/s400/Warren+Hayesjpg.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5336207452811193666" border="0" /></a><br /><br />The Dead began their encore with “St. Stephen,” one of their best songs from their psychedelic sixties period. The song is also known to be played rarely live so everyone at the show felt fortunate to be there as Weir and Lesh sang at the same time “St. Sthephen with a rose, in and out of the garden he goes. Country garland in the wind and the rain. Wherever he goes the people all complain. The way The Dead played “St. Stephen,” sounded similar to the way they play it on their 1969 Live Dead album, as the song was even followed by “The Eleven,” another classic jam off <span style="font-style: italic;">Live Dead</span>. Weir handled most of the vocals for “St. Stephen,” and “The Eleven,” as the clock struck nearly midnight, first waves of the crowd began to dwindle but the true Dead Heads stuck around.<br /><br />Bob Weir and Warren Haynes jam long into the night.<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhR0EjRV84kJgwPv6ugeEMQgjxsVRIE1v4p0Bx-4Ag7syQ_tgIYqHRYPgdRnmdpiLeK-9brDfLNVE0IFDsZZcK9ubZvV_2R8webA5VGcw3Rlw2t57q1XTG0cQcImc58T2OfcJfLqMvQI2e/s1600-h/large_the-dead-4-1.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 277px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhR0EjRV84kJgwPv6ugeEMQgjxsVRIE1v4p0Bx-4Ag7syQ_tgIYqHRYPgdRnmdpiLeK-9brDfLNVE0IFDsZZcK9ubZvV_2R8webA5VGcw3Rlw2t57q1XTG0cQcImc58T2OfcJfLqMvQI2e/s400/large_the-dead-4-1.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5343249545918773202" border="0" /></a><br /><br />The show closed with “Touch of Grey” as 22,000 fans chanted the lyrics that are every bit as relevant to the band and its community today as they were when the song was first released in 1987, “We will get by. We will survive.” “Touch of Grey,” was the first Grateful Dead song to nearly top the U.S. Billboard singles charts, and was written by Jerry in a time few wondered if he would ever recover from his diabetic seizure he had suffered at RFK Stadium while The Grateful Dead were on tour in 1985. While Jerry’s life may have been short-lived when all things are considered, his legacy with The Dead is nowhere close to diminished in the year 2009 fourteen years after his fatal heart attack from heroin withdrawal. Dead Heads will continue to flock to shows and travel across the country with this band as long as the members of The Dead continue to get along. This was obviously not the case in the last five years, as Lesh and Weir butted heads and had a big falling out over weather Dead songs should be available for free over the internet. Luckily now everyone seems to be getting along and we can only hope The Dead will come back soon before another five years fly by. Lets hope the people who go to Thursday’s show will have as much fun watching The Dead perform as The Heads who came out tonight did.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Set list:</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">Set 1:</span><br />“Help on the Way”<br />“Slipknot”<br />“Franklin’s Tower”<br />“Good Lovin’”<br />“Cassidy”<br />“Birdsong”<br />“Uncle John’s Band”<br /><span style="font-style: italic;"><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Set 2:</span></span><br />“Unbroken Chain”<br />“The Other One”<br />Drums/Rhythm Devils/Space<br />“Sugaree”<br />“Gimme Shelter”<br />“Sugar Magnolia”<br /><span style="font-style: italic;"><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Encores:</span></span><br />“St Stephen”<br />“The Eleven”<br />“Touch of Grey”<br /><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;"><span style="font-size:100%;">T</span></span><span><span style="font-size:100%;">he Dead take a bow, left to right: Mickey Hart, Phil Lesh,<br />Bob Weir, Warren Haynes, Bill Kreutzmann, and Jeff Chimanti</span></span><span style="font-weight: bold;"><br /></span></span><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdYOwsgpgY5yhniwwMlx89jqDHiP8i5UuUR6cfsCjK1k_h-lZFH2NFgD_oS7JbsJgRvBH-E9bDSiibRRbMk6-FLEdYH3pAwZmDI8s9QobdVjzIJH-J7qw7NxWr3kWhmZFTVimNVcOL-yRU/s1600-h/The+Dead+bow.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 267px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdYOwsgpgY5yhniwwMlx89jqDHiP8i5UuUR6cfsCjK1k_h-lZFH2NFgD_oS7JbsJgRvBH-E9bDSiibRRbMk6-FLEdYH3pAwZmDI8s9QobdVjzIJH-J7qw7NxWr3kWhmZFTVimNVcOL-yRU/s400/The+Dead+bow.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5338433938593372546" border="0" /></a>Bob Spilsburyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00433521057898667416noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4692808728945392087.post-2223208594057423572009-05-01T10:35:00.000-07:002009-06-03T16:44:51.659-07:00Pat Nevins Interview and Upcoming Show at The Plough & Stars in SF<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWtgWdL1f3NU6_E1jgVhl1r2NiRxEefBAjgbbz4mj5tuWkSkTir06hsvUvgc9fnDTdrTpR7m9So1lJqT3_ky32XuuDyVI7IT4Q-rE1NRPyGZxr3poAxRVYIX4Gf8o0XribsLlBjoEAUxB2/s1600-h/Pat+Nevins+4.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 267px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWtgWdL1f3NU6_E1jgVhl1r2NiRxEefBAjgbbz4mj5tuWkSkTir06hsvUvgc9fnDTdrTpR7m9So1lJqT3_ky32XuuDyVI7IT4Q-rE1NRPyGZxr3poAxRVYIX4Gf8o0XribsLlBjoEAUxB2/s400/Pat+Nevins+4.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5330946594132195794" border="0" /></a>Pat Nevins will be playing at Cold Spring Tavern in Santa Barbara on May 8, and at San Francisco’s The Plough & Stars on May 22 (<a href="http://www.theploughandstars.com/">www.theploughandstars.com</a>). The band also includes mandolinist Mike McKinley, who in the past played with Gillian Welch, and Amy Gabel, who is a member of Nevins band Ragged Glory and will be performing backing vocals at the show. For someone who has seen both Neil Young and The Grateful Dead hundreds of times in concert, and also been a musician for the last three decades, Pat Nevins has plenty of musical expertise as a performer. He has jammed with members of New Riders of The Purple Sage, as well as Anthony Crawford, who is a current member in Neil Young’s band. Nevins even knows Neil Young, as they met each other in 1999 backstage at the Paramount Theatre, in Oakland, after a solo acoustic performance by Young. Nevins explained his encounter with one of the most enigmatic figures in rock history. “Neil had been busting out rare cuts all evening, so after the show I asked him the name of one of the unreleased songs which he told me was called ‘Pushed It Over The End.’” From that day on Nevins has been in touch with Neil Young, and Young even granted Nevins permission to record covers of five of his original songs for Nevins album <span style="font-style: italic;">Shakey Zimmerman</span>. The songs were, “Lookout Joe,” “Everybody’s Alone,” “Last Trip To Tulsa,” “Ambulance Blues,” and “When You’re On The Losing End,” all of which are obscure Young songs to cover, especially “Everybody’s Alone,” which was somehow discarded during the <span style="font-style: italic;">After The Goldrush</span> sessions and has yet to be released to this day by Young. Also “Ambulance Blues,” is the song off the record <span style="font-style: italic;">On The Beach</span>, which most people have long since forgotten, despite how beautiful a song it is with those classic lines, “It’s easy to get buried in the past.” Not to mention “Lookout Joe,” a song off<span style="font-style: italic;"> Tonights The Night,</span> an album that Young’s record label refused to release initially, because they claimed he was making music that didn’t resemble his style. Then there is the long drawn out song “The Last Trip To Tulsa,” which I will say hands down only a die-hard Neil Young fan knows about. “The Last Trip To Tulsa is on Young’s t self titled debut album that sold so poorly that Young changed his musical style from simple country folk to a more rocking second album with a new backing band Crazy Horse. Nevins does justice covering all these songs singing in a high, soft, country voice that brings a natural harmony into your heart and warms up your soul.<br /><br />As for the Bob Dylan songs Pat Nevins records on <span style="font-style: italic;">Shakey Zimmerman</span> there is the opening song on the album “You’re Going To Make Me Lonesome When You Go,” from 1975s <span style="font-style: italic;">Blood On The Tracks.</span> It is strange to say, but Nevins voice sounds a whole lot better than Dylan’s voice sounds today. Other Dylan covers include the heartfelt “Tonight I’ll Be Staying Here With You,” as well as dynamic versions of “Things Have Changed,” and “I Threw It All Away.” On Shakey Zimmerman Pat Nevins does a great job of paying tribute to two of the best recording artists and songwriters of the 20th century, Dylan and Young, both of whom are still alive and recording original music today. Both are coming out with albums this year, and their relevance in today’s world is just as strong as it was when both musicians were at their peak recording music in the 1960s and 70s.<br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><br />Pat Nevins Trio Performing at The Starry Plough in Berkeley during April</span>.<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguSVoT7nODNpewi4RhmRQtp8AkMfyfStt-ec9Z5L7KOGYXJGdkCArsIls3DQrecfmpGZZAA5Yj-XnRPKFdRYOONGqfdTGgIXI8j97scIEgppqxFoH9tOFHed62DIU6dEjL9uO-R5IEUWEY/s1600-h/Pat+Nevins+5+JPG.JPG"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 267px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguSVoT7nODNpewi4RhmRQtp8AkMfyfStt-ec9Z5L7KOGYXJGdkCArsIls3DQrecfmpGZZAA5Yj-XnRPKFdRYOONGqfdTGgIXI8j97scIEgppqxFoH9tOFHed62DIU6dEjL9uO-R5IEUWEY/s400/Pat+Nevins+5+JPG.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5330935788813551282" border="0" /></a><br /><br />Exclusive Pat Nevins Interview<br /><br />Pat Nevins is a local Bay Area musician who sings and plays guitar in The Pat Nevins Trio, as well as his own Pat Nevins solo band, (which he released the album <span style="font-style: italic;">Shakey Zimmerman</span> under), and a Neil Young cover band Ragged Glory. Nevins has an uncanny ability to sound like Young when singing. He has also been a member of three well-known Grateful Dead cover bands over the years: Workingmans Ed, Grapefruit Ed, and The Dead Beats. During a recent interview he named Neil Young, Bob Weir of The Grateful Dead, Gram Parsons, Muddy Waters, and George Jones as primary musical influences over the years. But talking to Nevins you get the sense his true musical muse is Neil Young.<br /><br />To say Pat Nevins has traveled a bit during his life as a musician would be an understatement. He was born in Philadelphia but moved to Lousville, Kentucky, for high school. There he was really into sports, playing lacrosse and street hockey. One afternoon, when Pat was fifteen, he had a life-changing experience, after a game of street hockey with his friend. He returned to his friend’s house and heard his sister playing Crosby, Stills, Nash, & Young’s <span style="font-style: italic;">Four Way Street</span> album. Pat asked who it was playing the acoustic versions of the songs, “On The Way Home”, “Cowgirl In The Sand,” and “Don’t Let It Bring You Down.” “Neil Young” was the sister’s reply, and the next day Nevins was so inspired that he went out and bought his first guitar and immediately began learning Young’s songs. Nevins discovered that his voice naturally sounded like Young’s; he didn’t have to do any vocal stretching to hit those incredible high notes.<br /><br />In April 1978, at the age of seventeen, Nevins saw his first Grateful Dead show at Rupp Arena in Lexington, Kentucky. He no longer remembers much about this first as he fell asleep halfway through the long set. It would be two years until Nevins went to his next Dead show in Athens, Ohio, as he was now attending college at The University of Ohio. The Dead were just entering a new era at the time of this not only because it was the turn of the decade, but also Grateful Dead keyboardist Keith Godchaux had died in a car crash, and had been replaced by Brent Mydland. Donna Jean Godchaux, Keith’s wife and a backing vocalist in The Grateful Dead also left the band after Keith’s death. According to Pat, he met Dead Heads at the show in 1980 who had tons of live Dead cassettes from gigs, and he thought that this was the coolest thing.<br /><br />In December of 1981, Nevins went to a string of Grateful Dead shows. “I followed them from Dayton, Ohio, to Champaign Illinois, Indianapolis, Indiana, Chicago, Illinois, and Iowa City, Iowa, he said. “I went all over the Midwest that December and I definitely caught the bug of being on tour with The Dead. I started noticing stuff in the parking lot with people selling t-shirts and other merchandise and thought to myself this is cool. I learned how to play guitar from other Dead Heads who hung out in the parking lot all day before the show would start. I went from being in the parking lot to getting so connected with people who knew the members of the band that I would often stay in the same hotel with them.” Eventually, Pat got to know all the members in the band and would often hangout drinking with them in the hotel bar after shows.<br /><br />In 1985, Pat Nevins moved to Chicago and started a band with some friends called The Dead Beats, which played mostly Dead covers. He said, “The Dead Beats were part of the Chicago Dead Head scene that was forming right before Jerry Garcia got sick with diabetes in 1985.” In this time period, The Dead Beats played over six-hundred shows and played every Dead song you can name.<br /><br />In 1992, The Dead Beats broke up while Pat was living in Dear Creek, Indiana, and for a while Nevins musical career was dormant. Then seeing Jerry Garcia perform on the Summer 1994 Grateful Dead tour, Nevins knew something was up. “Jerry looked awful, the worst I had ever seen him. He wasn’t a three-hundred-pound balloon like he was in the 80s, but there was something in his face, and his body language, the way he hunched over his guitar and was messing up vocals, that I could tell he was back on heroin and on his last legs. There was death in his face.,” said Nevins. Garcia’s conditon prompted Nevins to move out to California, where he knew he could catch as many Dead shows as possible before Jerry’s demise.<br /><br />As we wrap up our interview at The Missouri Lounge, Nevins orders another pint of Pilsner and begins to jam with some of the people in the outdoor tented area where the heaters are blasting. Nevins is handed an acoustic guitar and immediately rips into a steller version of Neil Young and Crazy Horse "Down By The River," from Young's second album <span style="font-style: italic;">Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere</span>. This is followed by superb acoustic Young covers of "Old Man," where many people at the bar join Nevins in singing the chorus, "Old man take a look at my life, I'm a lot like you. I need someone to love me the whole day through. Oh just look at my eyes and you tell that's true." Nevins wrapped up the night with two more Young covers, "Tell Me Why," from <span style="font-style: italic;">After The Goldrush</span> and one of his favorite songs, Young's "Like A Hurricane," from his late 70's bar-bender album <span style="font-style: italic;">American Stars N' Bars</span>. It was great to meet such an experienced musician as Pat Nevins, who not only has a fascinating background, from all the bands he's been in, to all the places he's lived and traveled, but also he has a broad range of musical expertise. His next two shows this month will be worth checking out.<br /><br />To See Pat Nevins online go to: <a href="http://www.myspace.com/patricknevins">http://www.myspace.com/patricknevins<br /></a>Bob Spilsburyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00433521057898667416noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4692808728945392087.post-67097389005027384902009-04-07T13:24:00.000-07:002009-04-28T10:37:23.271-07:00Fairport Convention: The Best British Folk Rock of the 1960s<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZ7AOqbgPvxjHQ6IUJqmkWg8CPcdfHmVmkkdesDsvnmNEZW08eUoSJ7vQkm6-HYFvd7vmyJoHPdiILBfaPuS28Hs5TCRa65aERy8HC0GWNhaJI_bh0PyMGYDMeaWO9domSagd8hRrJgdCj/s1600-h/sandy8.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 333px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZ7AOqbgPvxjHQ6IUJqmkWg8CPcdfHmVmkkdesDsvnmNEZW08eUoSJ7vQkm6-HYFvd7vmyJoHPdiILBfaPuS28Hs5TCRa65aERy8HC0GWNhaJI_bh0PyMGYDMeaWO9domSagd8hRrJgdCj/s400/sandy8.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5329531162060712402" border="0" /></a>Anybody who first heard Fairport Convention's self-titled debut album when it was released in 1968 knew there was something truly original about this British folk rock band. While bands like The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, The Who, The Yardbirds, and The Kinks were coming out with big rock n' roll singles on both sides of the Atlantic and touring America in what would come to be known as the British invasion, Fairport Convention was completely different from these bands. Also most British invasion bands were highly influenced by southern African-American blues musicians, such as Muddy Waters and Leadbelly, meanwhile Fairport Convention was quite the opposite as they adopted their own unique British folk rock style. Fairport’s biggest influences were the San Francisco psychedelic rock band Jefferson Airplane, as well as L.A.’s The Byrds, Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell, Richie Havens, and Tim Buckley. Fairport Convention even adopted Jefferson Airplane's style of singing with a male and female vocalist combination with Judy Dyble, and Ian Matthews. The other members of Fairport Convention included mastermind guitarist Richard Thompson, guitarist Simon Nicol, bassist Ashley Hutchings and drummer Martin Lamble.<br /><br />It is not surprising, given these musical influences guiding the band’s onstage style, that some people mistook them for American musicians when they first started playing at the UFO club in Britain. Fairport's self titled debut album, released in the middle of 1968 has often been dismissed as not worth listening to when compared to the band’s material on its next three 1960’s albums; but that is simply untrue. Fairport Convention’s debut LP was, as San Francisco writer Richie Unterberger writes, "To the contrary, a highly credible and enjoyable, if derivative, West Coast-styled folk rock album, owing much to the early Byrds and Jefferson Airplane, particularly the Airplane's male-female vocal harmonies and vocal tradeoffs. In fact, in Fairport's early days, some UK media even dubbed the band, 'the British Jefferson Airplane,' and Fairport were once billed as 'England's Top West Coast Group.'" The two Joni Mitchell covers on<span style="font-style: italic;">Fairport Convention</span>, "I Don't Know Where I Stand," and "Chelsea Morning," were the best songs on the album, and interestingly enough had yet to be released by Mitchell herself; thus they were obscure covers to the people listening to them on both sides of the Atlantic.<br /><br />Fairport Convention's 1967 debut album cover<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNsEJmyre1JQItMLqaKFF7cppos2zP-nD94V2GKIEMPs06k6tAnijq75VFKw53uZ9nPIENmDTlkTYXnHnL1BMSW5GazGHCnvhqy_CN9uuFkmERahfeVWajHvlWJWb33d_AgatI1nIN20o2/s1600-h/Fairport+Convention+1967.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 196px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNsEJmyre1JQItMLqaKFF7cppos2zP-nD94V2GKIEMPs06k6tAnijq75VFKw53uZ9nPIENmDTlkTYXnHnL1BMSW5GazGHCnvhqy_CN9uuFkmERahfeVWajHvlWJWb33d_AgatI1nIN20o2/s400/Fairport+Convention+1967.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5322088870834352610" border="0" /></a><br /><br />The debut album starts off with a classic Fairport Convention song, "Time Will Show The Wiser," with Ian Matthews sounding like a mix between Paul Kantener and Marty Balin from Jefferson Airplane as he sings, "And I don't know which to go by, my mind or my heart, and this is so confusing, it is tearing me apart. I wish someone would help me this decision is mine. And my morals and emotions are hard to combine. And there is no easy way out to live at the time. Till it takes till she finds out, for the love that I hide." This sequence is followed by Judy Dyble coming in to sing soprano sounding vocals, with Matthews falsetto on the chorus, "Time it will show the wiser." A Joni Mitchell cover follows, "I Don't Know Where I Stand," which easily ranks as Judy Dyble's best vocal performance with the band, as she captures the feeling of a dark rainy day not knowing exactly where one is heading in a relationship with a new lover. Dyble shows how one can be at a loss to express something to another, as she sings in a clear voice, and yet with a hint of mystic dreaminess to it. When you listen to this song on a rainy day, those last few melancholy notes at the end of the song hit you even harder than they would on a sunny day.<br /><br />The third song on the album "If, (Stomp)," sung by Ian Matthews, asks the question "If I were rich enough, would it make you need me as much as I need you? If I could pitch enough, you'd realize what a little country bread could do." The song has a different feel to it than the rest of the album, probably because it is a bit more country, but it still has a fantastic originality listeners can't miss, because no British band at the time was doing anything folk or country oriented. As Allmusic.com writes on their review of the first album, "Fairport's chief strengths at this early juncture were the group's interpretations, particularly in the harmony vocals, of obscure tunes by American songwriters such as Joni Mitchell, Bob Dylan, Emmitt Rhodes, and Jim & Jean. Their own songs weren't quite up to that high standard, but were better than many have given them credit for, with "Decameron" and "Sun Shade" in particular hitting wonderfully fetching melancholic moods."<br /><br />"Decameron" is the fourth song on the album and is softer than most of the other up-tempo, more rock-sounding songs. "Decameron," foreshadows the direction Fairport Convention would head in with their later three albums that would close out the 1960s: <span style="font-style: italic;">What We Did On Our Holidays</span>, <span style="font-style: italic;">Unhalfbricking</span>, and <span style="font-style: italic;">Of Liege & Lief</span>. Its soft, saddening acoustic guitar sound and Matthews’ harrowing lyrics in the chorus, "See me fly, see me cry, see me walk away, every time the sun shines to me it's a rainy day," made "Decameron" one of the band’s best early songs. Even the dark lines about impending doom somehow sound so beautiful the way Matthews’ voice conveys them, "He didn't see the summer go. Though he knew what the shadows know. He didn't see his arm grow old. He didn't feel his blood run cold."<br /><br />Psychedelic rock comes out on Fairport Convention’s cover of Bob Dylan's, "Jack O' Diamonds," which has Matthews singing in a sly voice, "Jack O' Diamonds is a hard card to play. Jack O' Diamonds get open for riches." The song also has a great flute solo in the middle before it cranks back into an up-tempo beat that one can easily dance to. Many Fairport Convention fans rank "Jack O' Diamonds" as one of the band’s best early songs, along with the two Joni Mitchell covers on the album "I Don't Know Where I Stand" and the beautiful "Chelsea Morning." Just listening to "Chelsea Morning" puts you in a beautiful place, like the breakfast room at a ski resort inn in the Swiss Alps, where you can have your "milk, and toast, and honey, and a bowl of oranges too," followed by a beautiful day on the slopes with your girlfriend.<br /><br />"Sun Shade," is another classic on <span style="font-style: italic;">Fairport Convention</span>, with a softer psychedelic sound than the other tracks, and subliminal vocals by Ian Matthews that are so quiet they are hard to detect. Listening to "Sun Shade,” who could deny the internal beauty this band possessed to create some of the best music ever recorded in the 1960s. "Sun Shade" was also an example of Fairport adopting their own musical style and not relying on Bob Dylan and Joni Mitchell covers to complete their catalog of songs. Not only was the musical component of the song a tremendous leap forward for the band, but also the lyrics were majestically haunting:<br /><br />“Dying's not easy today. Trying but can't get away. Feel just the almost touch of her hand and the trees in her hair. Lies float. The sun, she saw only me in the sky. What could be higher than we? Wind grows cold in the trees. She cries, so hard to please. My restless feet, the rain in the street and her vanity fair. Sighs in the eyes of the boarding-house lady who stares. Thinking I care. So, it's a long dusty road. Feelings I shouldn't have showed. Follow me with a sweet bird when I'm ready to fade. Lights like these burn so bright, keep me out of my shade. Just see me fade.”<br /><br />"It's Alright Ma, It's Only Witchcraft," is another psychedelic-sounding song on side two of the record. It starts out with a slow bass solo, but then picks up to become one of the hardest rocking songs on the album. The chorus chants, "This is the season, stormy weather is on the way," after which Richard Thompson provides the two best guitar solos on the album, showing how his contribution to the band was so essential. This song definitely contains the San Francisco acid rock, Jefferson Airplane feel to it, and it is interesting to speculate how British fans took to it at the time, considering not many were keen on bands like The Airplane, Big Brother & The Holding Company, or The Grateful Dead. As Richie Unterberger writes in Eight Miles High, "Fairport Convention delved far more into psychedelic improvisation than many realize." This goes especially for Fairport Convention fans who have chosen to ignore the first album because they don't think it compares to the band’s more traditional folk rock style of music composed with Sandy Denny.<br /><br />Another example of Judy Dyble's vocals with the band before her early departure after <span style="font-style: italic;">Fairport Convention</span> was released was on "One Sure Thing," the second to last song on the album. The lyrics written by Harvey Brooks and Jim Glover, tell a brooding tale of a woman who no longer feels the same way about the man she once loved: "Look at me now, what do you see it isn't me. Look at me now just a leaf without a tree. He used to be my one sure thing."<br /><br />Nobody would have guessed that Fairport Convention could find an even better female vocalist to replace Judy Dyble, but somehow they managed, as Sandy Denny proved to be a valuable replacement with one of the most beautiful harmonizing voices in the history of music. As Wikipedia writes, "Denny’s distinctive voice, described by Clive James as 'open space, low-volume, high-intensity' is one of the characteristics of two of the albums she sings on both released in 1969: <span style="font-style: italic;">What We Did On Our Holidays </span>and <span style="font-style: italic;">Unhalfbricking</span>." As Untenberger Unterberger writes, “These recordings marked the growth of much greater musicality and song-writing ability among the band." <span style="font-style: italic;">What We Did On Our Holidays</span> was much more folk rock based and mellow in comparison to <span style="font-style: italic;">Fairpoint Convention</span>, thus the band was doing the opposite of Jefferson Airplane, who slowly seemed to be abandoning their folk rock roots in favor of a more psychedelic/electric rock outfit. Meanwhile the first song off <span style="font-style: italic;">What We Did On Our Holidays</span>, Sandy Denny's "Fotheringay" has her giving her haunting ethereal vocals that gave Fairport Convention a more mystical sound with this second record. <span style="font-style: italic;">What We Did On Our Holidays </span>was divided between the original material and well-chosen covers, such as Joni Mithell's "Eastern Rain" and Bob Dylan's "I'll Keep It With Mine." The album also had several folk rock songs that can mellow the mind into the beautiful, harmonious purity of Fairport’s classic sound. Just listening to "Book Song" eases its way into the soft instrumental "The Lord Is In This Place, How Dreadful Is This Place," with Denny humming primal sounds that make one think of past memories. While this album may not be as highly regarded as either <span style="font-style: italic;">Unhalfbricking</span> or <span style="font-style: italic;">Liege & Lief</span>, it was a pivitol stepping stone into the sounds of British folk rock that Fairport Convention would only continue to develop on their later two 1969 albums. As Untenberger writes on Allmusic.com about <span style="font-style: italic;">What We Did On Our Holidays,</span> "More than simply being a collection of good songs (with one or two pedestrian ones), it allowed Fairport to achieve its greatest internal balance, and indeed one of the finest balances of any major folk-rock group. The strong original material, covers of little-known songs by major contemporary songwriters such as Dylan and Mitchell, and updates of traditional material were reminiscent of the blend achieved by The Byrds on their early albums, with Fairport Convention giving a British slant to the idiom.” An example of the future direction of Fairport Convention can be heard in the way Denny sings the Bob Dylan cover ‘I'll Keep It With Mine,’ with such a tragic yet divine voice, that it makes her seem like some sort of mournful goddess. The best song on the record is "Meet On The Ledge," which is sung by Ian Matthews, but once the chorus chant of "We're going to meet on the ledge," kicks in, Denny joins him in a beautiful hippie chant that recalls the sounds and vibes of the 1960s, more than almost any other music out there. "Meet On The Ledge," is less folky than most of the other songs on <span style="font-style: italic;">What We Did On Our Holidays</span>, and does not at all signify the direction the band would head in with their follow up album a few months later.<br /><br />Sandy Denny: The best female British folk singer of all time.<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_xJonwpcZ9YtNuSuXBtQU9ojPuJTMvqadsynST3KfAqsnpeEKHUcFJEkda2z9gO5VP_-NC6RioBfroWRw2aAj3N7Ze2kYbq7ry2nc3GKLnbRnM2OfbKfcYJq2cqonaUNVhyUZmKU3iN7t/s1600-h/sandy-denny-pic-1.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 361px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_xJonwpcZ9YtNuSuXBtQU9ojPuJTMvqadsynST3KfAqsnpeEKHUcFJEkda2z9gO5VP_-NC6RioBfroWRw2aAj3N7Ze2kYbq7ry2nc3GKLnbRnM2OfbKfcYJq2cqonaUNVhyUZmKU3iN7t/s400/sandy-denny-pic-1.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5322108125041035458" border="0" /></a><br /><br />On Fairport Convention’s third album <span style="font-style: italic;">Unhalfbricking </span>it was clear that the band had reached a whole new level, as they dove even deeper into the realm of traditional British folk rock. <span style="font-style: italic;">Unhalfbricking</span> was also an important transitional album for the band, which was still young at the time. This shift would not be completed until their next album <span style="font-style: italic;">Liege & Lief</span>. Fairport Convention's shift began when Ian Matthews quit the band in the middle of the recording sessions for <span style="font-style: italic;">Unhalfbricking</span>. There were signs of Fairport heading away from their early Jefferson Airplane and Byrds influences on <span style="font-style: italic;">What We Did On Our Holidays</span>, with songs like "Nottamun Town," but now it was obvious where Fairport was going, especially when you heard the incredible Bob Dylan, seven-minute folk cover "Percy's Song." This song was an emotional ballad sung by Sandy Denny about a man who gets into a car wreck with four other people in his vehicle and afterwards is the only survivor. The judge sentences Percy to ninety-five years for first-degree manslaughter, even though he did not intentionally kill the people in his car. The song shows how something tragic can happen to anyone in the world, and how we have far less control over our lives then we actually realize. Other gems to listen to off <span style="font-style: italic;">Unhalfbricking</span> include the opener "Genesis Hall," which Denny sings with great passion: "Well, one man he drinks up his whiskey. Another he drinks up his wine. And they'll drink till their eyes are red with hate. For those of are a different kind. Oh, oh, helpless and slow. And you don't have anywhere to go." Other Denny classics on the album include the underrated "Autopsy" and "Who Knows Where The Time Goes," one of the greatest British Folk rock songs that is still highly appreciated around the world. Some of the Bob Dylan covers on this album like "Si Tu Duis Partir," and "Million Dollar Bash," sounded much sloppier than some of the earlier ones Fairport Convention had recorded on their first two albums, but that didn't matter because the rest of the songs off <span style="font-style: italic;">Unhalfbricking</span> were so beautiful and original. Even the band’s interpretation of the Bob Dylan penned, but The Byrds song, "Ballad Of Easy Rider," sounded so vastly different from the way Roger McGuinn of The Byrds had sung it in a country voice on <span style="font-style: italic;">The Easy Rider Soundtrack</span>. The way Denny sang "Ballad Of Easy Rider" had some country elements but was much more British folk, The lines in the song could have been written about the one of the motorcycle hippie characters in the film: "All he wanted was just to be free, that’s the way it turned out to be. Flow river flow, let your waters wash down, take me from this road to some other town. Flow river, flow, flow to the sea." It is clear that on <span style="font-style: italic;">Unhalfbricking</span> Sandy Denny and Richard Thompson shared most of the createive control, which was a huge shift from the first album when Ian Matthews and Judy Dyble shared power.<br /><br />The cover to <span style="font-style: italic;">Unhalfbricking</span><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjORCOfF8M77ho-RMJMY2SvdAVZwFLsK-4RJh7sadU9PpVkPf7LHWavnC826t2f6vbRd7Hby456vd0jO7uhCcn50cS_9X8hHIqM3YE9rSxFM-7bS3Vu716XdcXbiGk8vTZ5l98jRghiKDKB/s1600-h/Unhalfbricking+cover.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 126px; height: 110px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjORCOfF8M77ho-RMJMY2SvdAVZwFLsK-4RJh7sadU9PpVkPf7LHWavnC826t2f6vbRd7Hby456vd0jO7uhCcn50cS_9X8hHIqM3YE9rSxFM-7bS3Vu716XdcXbiGk8vTZ5l98jRghiKDKB/s400/Unhalfbricking+cover.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5329531446191304690" border="0" /></a><br />Allmusic.com points out Dave Swarbrick’s contribution to Fairport Convention's transitional stage on <span style="font-style: italic;">Unhalfbricking</span>, "The clear signpost to the future was their 11-minute take on the traditional song "A Sailor's Life," with guest fiddle by Dave Swarbrick, soon to join Fairport himself and make his own strong contribution toward reshaping the band's sound." Fairport Convention definitely created an incredible sound in their masterpiece "A Sailor's Life."<br /><br />It was unfortunate that the beautiful vocal combination of Ian Matthews and Sandy Denny could not remain intact once Matthews departed the band. And yet, it was clear Matthews was moving in a far different direction than the rest of the band. He didn't want traditional British folk rock as much as he wanted to explore the psychedelic sounds of the1960s, which he thought Fairport Convention had done a great job on with the first self-titled album. The rest of their material just wasn't jelling with his style. The band would continue on to record their best-known album to date...an album that many folk rock fanatics would rank as the greatest album of 1969: <span style="font-style: italic;">Liege & Lief.</span><br /><br />Sandy Denny in Fairport Convnetion's hey-day<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUFnAPMsHOUyjzcCxwFjfKVeXi2DZP_oauduvu5Vcnh8lZzYNoi1xswn2W7tJLyKifsT2sqUaMk4jqurbwvWgrkChvdjZ7rsXQwtOJsF8mKeaMFz_TpOMny-kTj_FKb3KI9CG9khR93ROR/s1600-h/sandy52.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 270px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUFnAPMsHOUyjzcCxwFjfKVeXi2DZP_oauduvu5Vcnh8lZzYNoi1xswn2W7tJLyKifsT2sqUaMk4jqurbwvWgrkChvdjZ7rsXQwtOJsF8mKeaMFz_TpOMny-kTj_FKb3KI9CG9khR93ROR/s320/sandy52.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5329532664882007810" border="0" /></a><br /><br />Coming soon: a review of Liege & Lief.Bob Spilsburyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00433521057898667416noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4692808728945392087.post-40463805430751752202009-03-11T13:59:00.000-07:002011-01-07T17:33:56.045-08:00Love: Forever Changes; The Sound of 1967<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_Jf4BMiPiOncCtRkWkD_OBvWuaLO1JfNOouRmtKNb59y8qt8fD4BTnR5SHYnR9rAnaiXJsSKJcQj5J4ZpCuExiZmiEubJyqDaQEqG4Z4yGuVV6CdEP5YK5q-6kudaUWBm3Kej6PMiNkhw/s1600-h/love-pic111.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 265px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_Jf4BMiPiOncCtRkWkD_OBvWuaLO1JfNOouRmtKNb59y8qt8fD4BTnR5SHYnR9rAnaiXJsSKJcQj5J4ZpCuExiZmiEubJyqDaQEqG4Z4yGuVV6CdEP5YK5q-6kudaUWBm3Kej6PMiNkhw/s400/love-pic111.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5312038205690795042" border="0" /></a>Love started out as a house band at Bido Lito's, which was located in an alley off Hollywood Blvd. in Los Angeles. By the time their self-titled album was released on Elektra records they had already built up a strong local following. Love's music was a mixture of the British Invasion sound (most particularly The Rolling Stones) mixed with the L.A. folk rock of The Byrds, except having more of a dark sinister edge to it. They were also one of the first integrated groups, as two of their members, including vocalist and band leader Arthur Lee and guitarist Johny Echols, were African Americans.<br /><br />The legacy of Love lies largely in the summer of love 1967, when they released their two most well known albums<span style="font-style: italic;"> De Capo</span> and <span style="font-style: italic;">Forever Changes</span>. <span style="font-style: italic;">De Capo</span> marked the end of Love's sounding like The Byrds, as they were replaced by melodic art songs with a jazzy and classical influence. Songs like "She Comes In Colors," "Stephanie Knows Who," and to the garage rock "7 and 7 Is" showcased Love's new musical style, which they were starting to turn towards. Still after <span style="font-style: italic;">De Capo,</span> Love seemed to be on a downward spiral, as they were taking far too many drugs and not focusing on touring or recording their next album. It got to the point where Bruce Botnik brought in session musicians to record for Love. The band was so horrified that after just two songs with the session musicians they got rid of them, and in a tearful state pulled themselves together one last time to make one of the greatest records in rock history, <span style="font-style: italic;">F</span><span style="font-style: italic;">orever Changes.</span><br /><br />Love: Forever Changes Album Cover<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4l2uZ4UJbHsoPhGjMTTAM15fbQqjq5pa34XLgZmVjYz9VlGB9SazvdrhQ7l5nyuyuV9v6OhjxIsLm-swScx5gn3_7QmRzHksjrNaCw73C9Fbz-dFWN7hL2QnsOqTjVBcBvUTrMTZ6jD2M/s1600-h/LoveForeverChanges.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4l2uZ4UJbHsoPhGjMTTAM15fbQqjq5pa34XLgZmVjYz9VlGB9SazvdrhQ7l5nyuyuV9v6OhjxIsLm-swScx5gn3_7QmRzHksjrNaCw73C9Fbz-dFWN7hL2QnsOqTjVBcBvUTrMTZ6jD2M/s320/LoveForeverChanges.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5312038387123460626" border="0" /></a><br /><br />Love guitarist Bryan MacLean, who had been a roadie for the band prior to joining as a guitarist, stepped up to become a big songwriter alongside Arthur Lee. MacLean wrote the leadoff track on <span style="font-style: italic;">Forever Changes</span> "Alone Again Or," which was actually the only hit off the album. With its flamenco break in the middle and layers of acoustic guitars and saxophone playing, "Alone Again Or" has come to be known as Love's most renowned recording. MacLean seemed to point the song in two directions, as his lyrics focused on "being in love with everyone and I think people are the greatest fun," while he would go on to say, "and I will be alone again tonight with you." This song proved that MacLean could write material right along the lines of the genius of Arthur Lee, as these two would power out all the great songs on <span style="font-style: italic;">Forever Changes. </span>Love's producer and Engineer for Elektra Records Bruce Botnick comments in Richie Unterberger's book <span style="font-style: italic;">Eight Miles High</span>, "Bryan brought another sensibility, as deep as what Arthur was writing, but coming from a different direction. He was very sensitive."<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Forever Changes</span> would come to be known for its cult status more than for its sales, as critics would hail it as a landmark album for a band and also a testament for something musicians could only capture once but never again touch upon in their recording careers. The album was surprisingly more popular in the United Kingdom then in America, but Love still had a cult following in places like L.A., where they were considered to be a cutting edge band just like The Doors. One of the reasons Love was never popular in the rest of America was their constant refusal to tour and support themselves as a band, as they scarcely played any shows in the 1960s outside of L.A. One of the reasons why <span style="font-style: italic;">Forever Changes </span>was such a great album was it found Love getting back to its original folk rock roots as opposed to the 19-minute unfocused rambling of "Revelation" that was the only song on side two of the <span style="font-style: italic;">De Capo</span> LP. As writer Richie Unterberger says in <span style="font-style: italic;">Eight Miles High,</span> "Acoustic folk rock flavorings would resurface with a vengeance on late 1967's <span style="font-style: italic;">Forever Changes</span>, a classic fusion of seductive melodies and gentle, shimmering guitar strums, with opaque psychedelic lyrics and Arthur Lee's choked Johnny Mathis with an intellect crooning. The Latin influenced fox hunting horns and brass added to the seductive oddity of a dreamy folk rock masterpiece. Every listen reveals new shades of good and evil struggling for the soul of Arthur Lee and the sunset strip hippiedom."<br /><br />Arthur Lee; the vocalist and band leader of Love<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3oQOniZottMn8kqvjqGXrG_cYwsgyrGlNWb9mJz0ggja0HlqbNfDkBXyo08iPD3VlHNPLsSc9DQTBoabN-z7c2tZZkBfL4Rb1B2AURbYAPaDf3e_V0kDvybWk9sy8hQQurPSv2aL5QGFL/s1600-h/arthur_lee%5B1%5D.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 254px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3oQOniZottMn8kqvjqGXrG_cYwsgyrGlNWb9mJz0ggja0HlqbNfDkBXyo08iPD3VlHNPLsSc9DQTBoabN-z7c2tZZkBfL4Rb1B2AURbYAPaDf3e_V0kDvybWk9sy8hQQurPSv2aL5QGFL/s320/arthur_lee%5B1%5D.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5312040159502038770" border="0" /></a><br /><br />Arthur Lee's lyrics on <span style="font-style: italic;">Forever Changes </span>were extremely captivating and went along well with the glistening string arrangements. A great example of this is the second song on the album "A House Is Not A Motel." The song begins with wonderful acoustic strumming and then Arthur Lee's soothing voice comes in, "At my house I've got no shackles. You can come and look if you want to. In the halls you'll see the mantles. Where the light shines dim all around you, and the streets are paved with gold and if someone asks you, you can call my name." The third song off the album "Andmoreagain" is even more of an emotional ballad which, as Unterberber writes is, "so pretty on the surface, that it took awhile to get to the sad questioning, sometimes bitter observations underneath. The lyrics had a surrealistic ambiance quite different than Dylan's but rewarding and intriguing for those who took up the challenge of mulling over their meaning."<br /><br />Other songs that really stood out on <span style="font-style: italic;">Forever Changes</span> were "Old Man" and "The Red Telephone," which are built around interwoven acoustic guitars and subtle orchestration that is a sharp contrast to the sharp electric guitars that dominated Love's first two records. The lyrics in "Red Telephone Line," became Arthur Lee's most famous lines as he commented to <span style="font-style: italic;">Rolling Stone</span> in 2003 , "When I did that album, I thought I was going to die at that particular time, so those were my last words." "Sitting on a hillside, watching all the people die. I'll feel much better on the other side."<br /><br />Drugs were undoubtably ruining the band around the time <span style="font-style: italic;">Forever Changes</span> was released, as both Bryan MacLean and Arthur Lee were addicted to heroin. Allmusic.com writes about the album, "While Arthur Lee and Bryan McLean wrote some of their most enduring songs for the album, the lovely melodies and inspired arrangements can't disguise an air of malaise that permeates the sessions. A certain amount of this reflects the angst of a group undergoing some severe internal strife, but <i>Forever Changes</i> is also an album that heralds the last days of a golden age and anticipates the growing ugliness that would dominate the counterculture in 1968 and 1969; images of violence and war haunt "A House Is Not a Motel," and the street scenes of "Maybe the People Would Be the Times or Between Clark and Hillsdale" reflects a jaded mindset that flower power could not ease."<br /><br />"The Good Humor Man He Sees Everything Like This," was another beautiful composition off <span style="font-style: italic;">Forever Changes</span>, and its lyrics vividly depicted what it was like living in the summer of love in 1967. "Hummingbirds hum, why do they hum. Little girls wearing pigtails in the morning, in the morning. La da da, da da da da. Merry-go-rounds are going around in and all over the town in the morning, in the morning. La da da, da da da da. Summertime's here and look over there, flowers everywhere in the morning, in the morning. La da da, da da da da." The last song on <span style="font-style: italic;">Forever Changes </span>"You Set The Scene," was the only other single released on the album besides "Alone Again, Or," and despite the fact it was not a success on the charts it was undoubtably one of the best songs off the album. The song goes through several complex transitions and is definitely the start of what would become rock operas. Especially the ending where Arthur Lee goes into the final three verses and the bridge of the song singing:<br /><br />"This is the time and life that I am living and I'll face each day with a smile. For the time that I've been given's such a little while and the things that I must do consist of more than style. There are places that I am going. This is the only thing that I am sure of and that's all that lives is gonna die. And there'll always be some people here to wonder why. And for every happy hello, there will be good-bye. There'll be time for you to put yourself on. Everything I've seen needs rearranging and for anyone who thinks it's strange, then you should be the first to want to make this change. And for everyone who thinks that life is just a game, do you like the part you're playing?"<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgix5Y34icp4i0OuIR2YgXJMHDa7eb2XUT1ViMSciGMOxvqgYqL3dDQbNh9bwvRojf41UiSlVbfSUzXkstUyphNo-XmPw0_EI1OH9fvP8ZRR20Nn2OTiJruyz4LdJxyMOJyE42PbSpDdmAv/s1600-h/Lovealbum.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 317px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgix5Y34icp4i0OuIR2YgXJMHDa7eb2XUT1ViMSciGMOxvqgYqL3dDQbNh9bwvRojf41UiSlVbfSUzXkstUyphNo-XmPw0_EI1OH9fvP8ZRR20Nn2OTiJruyz4LdJxyMOJyE42PbSpDdmAv/s320/Lovealbum.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5312404666756941170" border="0" /></a><br /><br />Love never were able to re-generate the same kind of amazing album after <span style="font-style: italic;">Forever Changes</span> was released, and Bryan MacLean soon departed from the band leaving Arthur Lee as the band's lone star. As Allmusic writes about the band's songs that definitely capture the state they were in, "The promise of the psychedelic experience decays into hard drug abuse in "Live and Let Live," and even gentle numbers like "Andmoreagain" and "Old Man" sound elegiac, as if the ghosts of Chicago and Altamont were visible over the horizon as Love looked back to brief moments of warmth." The article goes on to comment, "<i>Forever Changes</i> is inarguably Love's masterpiece and an album of enduring beauty, but it's also one of the few major works of its era that saw the dark clouds looming on the cultural horizon, and the result was music that was as prescient as it was compelling." It is hard to believe when you hear <span style="font-style: italic;">Forever Changes </span>that Love would never be able to recapture the magic that was on that record, but as producer Bruce Botnik is quoted in <span style="font-style: italic;">Eight Miles High</span>, 'The band was really at the end of the road by the time <span style="font-style: italic;">Forever Changes </span>came out. It was really Arthur and Bryan's record. The other guys were just sidemen. Some of us have a short run. Some of us have a long run. Some of us have something to say in a very short period of time." The following albums Love released were much more hard rock and the folk rock component along with its classical acoustic melodies were all but forgotten. None of these subsequent recordings Arthur Lee composed with different musicians were well received, and his genius craft as a songwriter was somehow gone. <span style="font-style: italic;">Forever Changes </span>may not have sold that well either but at least critics regarded it as a great album, and it is still thought of as one of the best psychedelic rock albums of all time, even being ranked #40 on the Top 500 Albums of all time in <span style="font-style: italic;">Rolling Stone.</span> As Unterberger writes, "<span style="font-style: italic;">Forever Changes</span>, in spite of its modest impact at the time of its 1967 release, became the biggest cult album of all time, its following just growing and growing through subsequent decades and generations. Several great folk rock/psych records have been discussed in this chapter and the preceding one such as Jefferson Airplane-<span style="font-style: italic;">Surrealistic Pillow, </span>The Byrds<span style="font-style: italic;"> Younger Than Yesterday</span>, and Buffalo Springfield-<span style="font-style: italic;">Again. </span>But Love-<span style="font-style: italic;">Forever Changes</span> may be the greatest of them all."<br /><br />What happened to the members of Love in their lives after the 1960s ended is extremely sad when you consider the promise they once showed as musicians. Arthur Lee did absolutely nothing in the 1980s, withdrawing from the public eye and caring for his father who was dying from cancer. Lee was also arrested in California on three separate occasions, one for assault, another for drug possession and possession of an illegal firearm. He served six years in prison during the late 90s as part of the California "three strikes you're out" rule, and refused to have any visitors or contact with anyone whom he had known while incarcerated. Bryan MacLean died of an unexpected heart attack in 1998, while Lee was in jail forever ending any possibility of an original Love reunion. Arthur Lee was finally released from prison in 2001 and immediately began making up for lost years by reforming Love with original guitarist Johnny Echols. The band began performing <span style="font-style: italic;">Forever Changes </span>in its entirety at live performances and toured all over the U.S, Europe and Australia, even releasing a <span style="font-style: italic;">35th Anniversary Live Forever Changes</span> album from UCLA in 2003. Love could have kept touring and bringing fans back to that special time and place they were a part of but Arthur Lee's health would not permit it as he had been diagnosed with acute myloid leukemia and died in 2006 in Memphis, Tennessee. Despite the fact Love no longer exist we will always have that music to hang on to, and if we listen to it and connect with it, it will always remain a part of us.<br /><br />Arthur Lee with his good friend and fellow genius musician of the 1960s Jimi Hendrix photograph: Jeff Eisen<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWEvN205puORD5kIt4NQ4lwd-kFSqp729zjr-8tjFjQz27X0iGJmwnb5sJZm2qsAi0-YJn3kKJmvQQoC_-OP1lK39h8jYJHaQ3wKVkn2xgtj5MJFGC1hP-Akt99FcOHvwWzOUBs7jMZORF/s1600-h/Arthur++Lee+and+Hendrix.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 232px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWEvN205puORD5kIt4NQ4lwd-kFSqp729zjr-8tjFjQz27X0iGJmwnb5sJZm2qsAi0-YJn3kKJmvQQoC_-OP1lK39h8jYJHaQ3wKVkn2xgtj5MJFGC1hP-Akt99FcOHvwWzOUBs7jMZORF/s320/Arthur++Lee+and+Hendrix.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5312424316433072786" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><script type="text/javascript"><!-- google_ad_client = "pub-0966066601148165"; google_ad_width = 160; google_ad_height = 600; google_ad_format = "160x600_as"; google_ad_type = "text_image"; google_ad_channel ="2417338461"; google_color_border = "FFFFFF"; google_color_bg = "FFFFFF"; google_color_link = "0000FF"; google_color_url = "000000"; google_color_text = "000000"; //--></script> <script type="text/javascript" src="http://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/show_ads.js"> </script><script src="http://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/expansion_embed.js"></script><script src="http://googleads.g.doubleclick.net/pagead/test_domain.js"></script><script>window.google_render_ad();</script><br /><script type="text/javascript"><!-- google_ad_client = "pub-0966066601148165"; google_ad_width = 160; google_ad_height = 600; google_ad_format = "160x600_as"; google_ad_type = "text_image"; google_ad_channel ="2417338461"; google_color_border = "FFFFFF"; google_color_bg = "FFFFFF"; google_color_link = "0000FF"; google_color_url = "000000"; google_color_text = "000000"; //--></script> <script type="text/javascript" src="http://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/show_ads.js"> </script><script src="http://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/expansion_embed.js"></script><script src="http://googleads.g.doubleclick.net/pagead/test_domain.js"></script><script>window.google_render_ad();</script><ins style="border: medium none; margin: 0pt; padding: 0pt; display: inline-table; height: 600px; position: relative; visibility: visible; width: 160px;"><ins style="border: medium none; margin: 0pt; padding: 0pt; display: block; height: 600px; position: relative; visibility: visible; width: 160px;"><iframe allowtransparency="true" hspace="0" id="google_ads_frame1" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" name="google_ads_frame" src="http://googleads.g.doubleclick.net/pagead/ads?client=ca-pub-0966066601148165&dt=1236888935383&lmt=1226316326&format=160x600_as&output=html&correlator=1236888935383&channel=2417338461&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.utterlyrics.com%2Fl%2Flove%2Fforever-changes-1967%2Fthe-good-humor-man-he-sees-everything-like-this.html&color_bg=FFFFFF&color_text=000000&color_link=0000FF&color_url=000000&color_border=FFFFFF&ad_type=text_image&ref=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.utterlyrics.com%2Fl%2Flove%2Fforever-changes-1967%2F&frm=0&ga_vid=766599443.1236881539&ga_sid=1236887617&ga_hid=971876369&ga_fc=true&flash=9.0.151&u_h=640&u_w=1024&u_ah=556&u_aw=1024&u_cd=24&u_tz=60&u_his=4&u_java=true&u_nplug=4&u_nmime=80&dtd=48&w=160&h=600&xpc=NYJ14datDi&p=http%3A//www.utterlyrics.com" style="left: 0pt; position: absolute; top: 0pt;" vspace="0" frameborder="0" height="600" scrolling="no" width="160"></iframe></ins></ins><br /><!-- END #banner --> <!-- BEGIN #mainindex --><br /><p align="left"><br /><br /></p>Bob Spilsburyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00433521057898667416noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4692808728945392087.post-21695816247375631612009-03-10T13:13:00.000-07:002009-03-10T13:26:41.009-07:00Elliot Smith New Moon Review<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJRWQgFiG3rR_K6W3kmjENctNpcN5V5n5ffeGkQgM0txj8NOwoQC8f4vK5kfCcTDmc1XuRVCv41_Gmw9WfeJ4MwZVz0XPijYap7pZ5fwY3WaXtNYE7Bodc2Yd_8mHc7NfPayavKO6Rwh41/s1600-h/New+Moon.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJRWQgFiG3rR_K6W3kmjENctNpcN5V5n5ffeGkQgM0txj8NOwoQC8f4vK5kfCcTDmc1XuRVCv41_Gmw9WfeJ4MwZVz0XPijYap7pZ5fwY3WaXtNYE7Bodc2Yd_8mHc7NfPayavKO6Rwh41/s320/New+Moon.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5311657532518486082" border="0" /></a><br />Elliot Smith’s newest album <span style="font-style: italic;">New Moon</span> has been posthumously released in 2007. Written and recorded between 1994 and 1997, <span style="font-style: italic;">New Moon </span>offers two discs of unreleased material, that Smith mostly recorded by himself with a four track recorder. Some of Elliot Smith’s songs on this album sound a lot like the songs on his self titled <span style="font-style: italic;">Elliot Smith</span> album or even <span style="font-style: italic;">Either/Or </span>back when he was on the Kill Rock Stars record label before signing to Dreamworks and producing his albums heavily with intruments on albums like <span style="font-style: italic;">XO </span>and <span style="font-style: italic;">Figure 8</span>. This album was recorded in the height of Smith’s musical recording productivity as all twenty four songs on this album had never been released during his lifetime amazingly enough and plenty of them are better then the material that was on his debut album<span style="font-style: italic;"> Roman Candle</span>.<br /><br />The opening track “Angel In The Snow,” has that sad, quiet sweetness of Elliot’s voice that recall many of his other best songs, along with the clean strumming of the acoustic guitar. The second song on the album “Talking To Mary,” is said to be about Elliot’s mother whom he had a rocky relationship with growing up in Texas. Smith sings this song in his usual soft pensively brooding voice “Taking to Mary, you know you don’t have to shout. She can hear what you’re thinking like you were saying it right out loud. Sure she sees behind that dirty look. It was her that followed down every step and turn you took.” Other songs recall similar themes in other Smith albums such as being a junkie, or “Going out in my car, straight to the bar where my sweattie pours the beer,” in “New Monkey.” Smith paints pictures of both hope and depression in “New Monkey,” closing out the song with the verse, “Anything is better than nothing.”<br /><br />The best song on<span style="font-style: italic;"> New Moon</span> is “Looking Over My Shoulder,” with its great guitar hook and Smith’s incredible harmony in his voice. As allmusic.com states, “It’s catchy in that monotonously melodic kind of way Smith knew how to do best.” Smith sings the song with a slight anger in his voice, “You’re always coming over with all your friends and all their opinions I don’t want to know. And I’m looking over my shoulder, booking away with nowhere to go.”<br /><br />The next song on the album “Going Nowhere,” follows a similar theme to “Looking Over My Shoulder,” in the sense that Elliot seems lost somewhere with nowhere to go and nobody to turn to. According to allmusic “There is a depth in New Moon that is more than pure sadness, that reveals a kind of self pity for Smith’s subject.” The lyrics in “Going Nowhere,” seem more sentimental of Smith longing for a more innocent time in his life full of an old lover, daydreams and old records, where things were more simple.<br /><br />“The clock moved a quarter of a turn. The time it took a cigarette to burn. She said you got a lot of things to learn. Going nowhere…The steps made a pattern I'd never seen. I felt like a kid of six or seventeen. I was off in some empty day dream. Going nowhere.<br />It's dead and gone matter of fact. Maybe for the best, said some things you can't take back. The old records sitting on the floor. The ones I can't put on anymore. He walked over to her like before. Going nowhere.”<br /><br />Elliot Smith strumming his acoustic guitar at a live show<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjiQr2sxTna4yT_0kkvoEueXN7vpxjnt4HzwSLrqnVu9h6qrFl9-uingbFsKhB9Vg9ZMozHJGnbJXZm1qq8uPYWTl7ZPrEnQQ10BdieveCGgU6C-o469on83mCpoGi4771ZtotIFqbYGQMw/s1600-h/elliot-smith-723154.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 289px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjiQr2sxTna4yT_0kkvoEueXN7vpxjnt4HzwSLrqnVu9h6qrFl9-uingbFsKhB9Vg9ZMozHJGnbJXZm1qq8uPYWTl7ZPrEnQQ10BdieveCGgU6C-o469on83mCpoGi4771ZtotIFqbYGQMw/s400/elliot-smith-723154.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5311657689731848162" border="0" /></a><br /><br />The end of Disc One of <span style="font-style: italic;"> New Moon</span> features the original version of “Miss Misery” the song that launched Elliot Smith into stardom when he re-recorded a second more produced version for Gus Van Zant’s 1997 film Good Will Hunting. Smith was eventually nominated for an Oscar for the song and played at the Academy Awards wearing a sharp white suit. Disc Two is not nearly as strong as Disc One of <span style="font-style: italic;">New Moon</span> as it features the song “Either/Or” which is also the name of Smith’s third album that helped get him signed to a major record label Dreamworks. Also a rendition of Ray Charles’s “Georgia, Georgia” sounds alright but not nearly on the same caliber as some of Smith’s recordings that made it on his studio albums. The same can be said for his alternate rendition of “Pretty Mary K,” which would eventually be re-recorded and sound much better being released on 2000’s <span style="font-style: italic;">Figure 8</span>. While <span style="font-style: italic;">New Moo</span>n may not be Elliot Smith’s best recorded album, lacking some of the musical complexity that made some of his later material such as <span style="font-style: italic;">XO</span> and <span style="font-style: italic;">From A Basement On The Hill </span>two of his best albums, allmusic does point out that Smith’s songs were far more positive in these early 90s recordings, than they would later be towards the end of Smith’s life as he battled depression, as well as serious drug addiction and alcoholism. Allmusic writes, “That’s the overall feeling that <span style="font-style: italic;">New Moon </span>gives, a sense of opportunity, of possibility, of life within the bleak reality. The album portrays a more stable Smith and promises something brilliant to come, full of words and chords that will touch thousands, alluding to the future and the past, but mostly, in its own quiet way, screaming to show off the immense talents of one man and his songs.” In this sense it is quite fitting that <span style="font-style: italic;">New Moon</span> may be the last album of original Elliot Smith material to ever be released.<br /><br />Elliot Smith playing "Miss Misery" live at the Oscars in 1997<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQXkR1IP0rV63Sfl01nvOh-k5kIbhz9pBS-DBvv0YydeRkqURp8DIXpg8KZ2kp6S9-gJFOVP09vQss1P6jHDKhIfEUVctbsGOJxe4bntgSiGMfvQ-2qJP_qbGqa0cXBcqysMYzX4BGXTHZ/s1600-h/Elliottsmith+oscars.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 290px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQXkR1IP0rV63Sfl01nvOh-k5kIbhz9pBS-DBvv0YydeRkqURp8DIXpg8KZ2kp6S9-gJFOVP09vQss1P6jHDKhIfEUVctbsGOJxe4bntgSiGMfvQ-2qJP_qbGqa0cXBcqysMYzX4BGXTHZ/s400/Elliottsmith+oscars.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5311657945006234242" border="0" /></a>Bob Spilsburyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00433521057898667416noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4692808728945392087.post-3016828001608730602009-03-10T13:05:00.000-07:002009-03-10T13:28:50.552-07:00Marcy Payground Concert Preview<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAuTFhyesPke9D0OaaqyQHtVvDmjoSZly89LQNij7k8y_zUgY3fjXjyN3q5dlx_Ryjvz6rRYCyR5xhJw225YDz9M1aM3c3tVhoR2e0Mc1yyETt844qtw23HqfuGEwhke9kYCZ_hBZ1x38f/s1600-h/John+Wozniac.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAuTFhyesPke9D0OaaqyQHtVvDmjoSZly89LQNij7k8y_zUgY3fjXjyN3q5dlx_Ryjvz6rRYCyR5xhJw225YDz9M1aM3c3tVhoR2e0Mc1yyETt844qtw23HqfuGEwhke9kYCZ_hBZ1x38f/s400/John+Wozniac.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5311653900875682130" border="0" /></a>This Sunday Marcy Playground will be playing The Red Devil Lounge on Polk St. in San Francisco. Marcy Playground may be best known for their 1998 radio smash hit “Sex and Candy” which was on their self titled debut album. “Sex and Candy” absolutely blew up the charts when it was first released, as it spent fifteen weeks at number 1 on the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks charts. Eventually <span style="font-style: italic;">Marcy Playground</span> the album went platinum and two other hit singles were released, “St. Joe and His School Bus” and “Sherry Fraser.” Marcy Playground were highly influenced by nineties grunge music, especially their vocalist John Wozniac, who claims Kurt Cobain and Nirvana had a huge influence on him. Wozniac went to Evergreen State College in Olympia, WA at the height of when the Grunge movement was penetrating Seattle, so he was more than exposed to the great music coming out of the Northwest side of America.<br /> Marcy Playground songs run in different styles and tones throughout their incredible debut album. Some of of Wozniac’s songs have a folk element to them, while others have undertones that they could be childrens songs. Some are just plain drug references, such as the first song on the album “Poppies,” and “Opium.” In “Ancient Walls Of Flowers” the sound of psychedelia makes an appearance as Wozniac sings,<br /><br />“Ancient walls of flowers tumbling down, black cat petals and a smiling clown. I like to keep to keep them in a jar inside. Just enough to mess my mind inside. But I never heard you calling from the sun. Did you ever care to to shoot your silver gun. No one ever heard you calling from the moon. Did you ever care to sing your free love to.”<br /><br /> Such lyrics as these paint a picture that many of the songs Marcy Playground sound like. It is not surprising that the cover of the album featured a dummy face of a man with yellow flowers circling around his head in what vividly shows you what type of psychedelic songs will be on the album.<br /><br />The Marcy Playground debut record cover.<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfUO7k0hI5bRWZtRk7M2Ca_F5ReqXORmUmRnVpNruj5GQh7Z8mE7oGRskzUHzROjU09HCJScP_LKALTJMu9ni4jCJTppyeDjRu72dg1UVByPAB8iBpo-Cr8gEl3ljZWMIzdSTJFK5IuZYQ/s1600-h/Marcy+Playgroundalbum.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 318px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfUO7k0hI5bRWZtRk7M2Ca_F5ReqXORmUmRnVpNruj5GQh7Z8mE7oGRskzUHzROjU09HCJScP_LKALTJMu9ni4jCJTppyeDjRu72dg1UVByPAB8iBpo-Cr8gEl3ljZWMIzdSTJFK5IuZYQ/s320/Marcy+Playgroundalbum.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5311654132273414530" border="0" /></a><br /><br /> While Marcy Playground may not have done much since the release of that 1998 debut album that promised so much for this future band, they should not be missed at The Red Devil Lounge. Their last two albums “Shapeshifter,” and “MP3” have not sold nearly as well as their debut album but something about this band still remains relevant today. Maybe it is because they are actually better than a lot of the other bands out there dominating the current pop music charts. They bring back good memories of a time in the late 90s when you could show up to a festival and Marcy Playground would be somewhere in the middle of the bill of a ton of great alternative acts and they were just one of a ton of great bands back then, but today we lack a lot of that great music that was coming out in that time in America.Bob Spilsburyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00433521057898667416noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4692808728945392087.post-33525148404018446482009-02-25T10:56:00.000-08:002009-02-26T14:35:03.373-08:00Jeff Buckley: Twelve Years After His Death His Musical Legacy Lives On<span style="font-size:100%;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhsYBmohIqrX4i5zOib4tFp3FQzzw81Gt5qEuRVt-3iEvTtUflIMTiOjgiTKGvF6gRmNeEpNIxXsE-lqvx8R7UtYsTWcZa_H0elZbE4ZMatC1SwUPLwlbzhoyWkkRO0JirHtreueJMkppd/s1600-h/Jeff+Buckley+1.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 345px; height: 394px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhsYBmohIqrX4i5zOib4tFp3FQzzw81Gt5qEuRVt-3iEvTtUflIMTiOjgiTKGvF6gRmNeEpNIxXsE-lqvx8R7UtYsTWcZa_H0elZbE4ZMatC1SwUPLwlbzhoyWkkRO0JirHtreueJMkppd/s400/Jeff+Buckley+1.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5307202649600940898" border="0" /></a><br /></span><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:100%;" >Jeff Buckley 1966-1997</span><span style="font-size:100%;"><br /><br />Jeff Buckley was the son of American folk rock artist Tim Buckley, although he never really knew his father. Tim Buckley divorced Jeff's mother Mary <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">Guibert</span> and remarried, adopting his new wife's other child and hardly seeing Jeff in the following years to come. After Tim Buckley died of a heroin overdose at the age of 28 in 1975 Jeff was primarily raised by his mother Mary. Despite hardly knowing his father Tim who was a great folk artist in the 1960s, Jeff still had music in his bloodline and grew up in Los Angeles idolizing bands like Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, and Kiss. Buckley also developed a personal taste for progressive rock bands like Yes and Genesis, and after graduating from high school moved to Hollywood to attend the Musicians Institute. This only lasted a year as Jeff would wind up spending the next six years working in a hotel and playing guitar for various struggling bands.Jeff <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1">Buckley's</span> big break didn't come until he moved from Los Angeles to New York and played a tribute concert for his father Tim. The concert was held in Brooklyn on April 26, 1991. Jeff Buckley denied the notion that he was using this opportunity to launch his career although he made a stronger impression than he ever had live at this concert. Buckley later explained his reasoning for playing the concert to Rolling Stone "It wasn't my work, it wasn't my life. But it bothered me that I hadn't been to his funeral, that I'd never been able to tell him anything. I used that show to pay my last respects." The Tim Buckley Tribute concert proved to be Jeff's first step into the music industry that had somehow eluded him for years.<br /><br />Buckley began playing several clubs in the lower Manhattan and also writing some of his best songs like 'Grace', and "<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_2">Mojo</span> Pin," that would be released on his first album.<sup id="cite_ref-41" class="reference"><br /><span style="font-size:100%;">Buckley began performing at a small Irish cafe called The Sin-e in 1992 and made that his main venue, covering a diverse range of artists from Led Zeppelin, to Robert Johnson, and even </span><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_3" style="font-size:100%;">folkies</span><span style="font-size:100%;"> like Leonard Cohen and Bob Dylan. Soon record label executives were lining up outside The Sin-e in </span><span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_4" style="font-size:100%;">limousines</span><span style="font-size:100%;"> on nights Jeff Buckley was playing, hoping they could sign him to a record contract. Eventually Buckley signed with Columbia and began recording his debut album. In the meantime a four song live Jeff Buckley </span><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_5" style="font-size:100%;">EP</span><span style="font-size:100%;"> was released titled </span><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:100%;" >Live At Sin-E</span><span style="font-size:100%;">, which featured a great cover of Van Morrison's "The Way Young Lovers Do."<br /><br />Jeff Buckley recruited a good backing band and producer Andy Wallace, (who had produced Nirvana's groundbreaking multi-platinum </span><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_6" style="font-size:100%;">Nevermind</span><span style="font-size:100%;"> album), and moved to Woodstock, New York to record </span><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:100%;" >Grace,</span><span style="font-size:100%;"> his first studio album. </span><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:100%;" >Grace</span><span style="font-size:100%;"> really allowed Jeff Buckley to evoke how well his vocals had developed over the years as he proved he was able to hit several high octaves most singers could only dream of hitting in songs like "Grace" and "So Real." There was so much emotion, love, pain, and vivid memories drenched in songs like "Lover You Should Have Come Over," and "</span><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_7" style="font-size:100%;">Mojo</span><span style="font-size:100%;"> Pin." </span><span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_8" style="font-size:100%;">Buckley</span><span style="font-size:100%;"> wrote some of his best lyrics in "Lover You Should Have Come Over," </span></sup><span style="font-size:100%;"><br /></span><br />"When <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_9">i'm</span> broken down and hungry for your love with no way to feed it. Where are you tonight, child you know how much i need it. Too young to hold on and too old to just break free and run.<br />Sometimes a man gets carried away, when he feels like he should be having his fun. And much too blind to see the damage he's done. Sometimes a man must awake to find that really, he has no-one."<br /><br />The song breaks down in a final mournful Buckley chant, "It's never over, my kingdom for a kiss upon her shoulder. It's never over, all my riches for her smiles when i slept so soft against her. It's never over, all my blood for the sweetness of her laughter. It's never over, she's the tear that hangs inside my soul forever."<br /><br />As <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_10">allmusic</span>.com writes on their review of the album</span><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:100%;" >,"G</span><span style="font-size:100%;"><i>race</i> is an audacious debut album, filled with sweeping choruses, bombastic arrangements, searching lyrics, and above all, the richly textured voice of Buckley himself, which resembled a cross between Robert Plant, Van Morrison, and his father Tim". Some songs especially towards the latter half of the album like "Dream Brother" and "Eternal Life" sounded like Led Zeppelin but others like "Lilac Wine" sounded like folk music mixed with lounge jazz.<br /><br />Perhaps the best song on </span><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:100%;" >Grace</span><span style="font-size:100%;"> was the title track itself. The song opens with a great Buckley guitar intro with Jeff singing dreamily "There's the moon asking me to stay long enough for the clouds to fly me away. Well it's my time coming, I'm not afraid to die." As the song builds to a crescendo Buckley wails louder than any other point on the album during the chorus, "And the rain is falling and I believe my time has come. It reminds me of the pain I might leave behind. Wait in the fire." With his voice hitting so many incredible octaves, you don't know where it's going next. "Grace" is one of those songs you can listen to driving late at night on the highway in the pouring rain and it will bring you into another world.<br /><br />The big single on </span><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:100%;" >Grace</span><span style="font-size:100%;"> was "Last Goodbye," a song Buckley probably wrote about his break up with his girlfriend <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_11">Rebbecca</span> Moore. The video for the song became a huge hit as did "So Real" which followed soon afterwards. Another song written about <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_12">Rebbecca</span> Moore, "Forget Her" was one of the best songs Jeff Buckley ever wrote, but for reasons left unknown, when it came down to do the final mix for </span><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:100%;" >Grace</span><span style="font-size:100%;">, Jeff insisted the song be left off the album. It may have been the song was just too personal to him to have other people listen to it, but in terms of quality it would have been right up there with the top songs off of </span><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:100%;" >Grace</span><span style="font-size:100%;">. The chorus features some of Buckley's most heartfelt lyrics, "Don't fool yourself, she was heartache from the moment that you met her. My heart is frozen still as I try to find the will to forget her, somehow.She's somewhere out there now."<br /><br />The slower covers off </span><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:100%;" >Grace </span><span style="font-size:100%;">were also big highlights on the album. Buckley's cover of Nina Simone's "Lilac Wine," makes you feel tipsy just listening to Jeff's amazing voice harmonizing "Lilac wine is sweet and heady, like my love. Lilac wine, I feel unsteady, like my love." "Hallelujah," the best Leonard Cohen cover ever recorded by an artist, was also featured on </span><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:100%;" >Grace. </span><span style="font-size:100%;">The song wasn't immediately noticed when the album was released as it was overshadowed by some of the other great songs but over time it has come to be renowned as possibly the best song on </span><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:100%;" >Grace</span><span style="font-size:100%;">. In fact in 2008 over eleven years after Jeff Buckley's death the song reached number one on I Tunes which made it the first number one Billboard single for Buckley.<br /><br />Meanwhile </span><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:100%;" ><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_13">Grac</span></span><span style="font-size:100%;">e started out selling slow because the songs on the album didn't generate all that much airplay despite extremely positive reviews. The album eventually did go Gold in the U.S. in 2002 but that was already five years after Buckley's passing. </span><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:100%;" >Grace </span><span style="font-size:100%;">was most popular is Australia where it sold six million copies and also had a good review in The Sydney Morning Herald. The article stated, "</span><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:100%;" >Grace </span><span style="font-size:100%;">is a romantic masterpiece and a pivotal, defining work." Even some musicians that Buckley idolized were throwing big compliments at him, as Led Zeppelin's guitarist Jimmy Page claimed </span><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:100%;" >Grace </span><span style="font-size:100%;">was his favorite album of the 1990s. David Bowie said it would be one of the ten albums he would bring to a deserted island, while Bob Dylan proclaimed "Jeff Buckley is one of the greatest songwriters of the decade," during an interview with The Village Voice. Eventually </span><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:100%;" >Grace </span><span style="font-size:100%;">was ranked at #303 on Rolling Stone's Top 500 Albums Of All Time list.<br /><br />Buckley during the recordings of Grace<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhoZ5_rPUUH9sVEkLhDuK3gNQ6m9tbNIxWKJrNLDIpA09Ts6-wB_Bp7m4_7n2sJIWgqqpBHt0GFvBpQKCfh5Uf0L6wQjStrFmvRzlsHARvDbrWfL_pZLdqrYE0VTB0N2j_QJYaeR7Gyg37y/s1600-h/jeffBuckely2.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 299px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhoZ5_rPUUH9sVEkLhDuK3gNQ6m9tbNIxWKJrNLDIpA09Ts6-wB_Bp7m4_7n2sJIWgqqpBHt0GFvBpQKCfh5Uf0L6wQjStrFmvRzlsHARvDbrWfL_pZLdqrYE0VTB0N2j_QJYaeR7Gyg37y/s400/jeffBuckely2.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5307203480645369938" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><br />Buckley spent the next year and half touring multiple countries in support of his album. The first half of the tour was in the U.S. and called The Peyote Radio Theater Tour. Next Buckley would also prove successful going on the road in other countries like the U.K., France, Australia, Japan, and Canada. While in France Buckley played what he would consider one of his finest concerts at the Paris Olympia, which would be made available in 2001 as a live album titled </span><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:100%;" >Live a L' Olympia</span><span style="font-size:100%;">. When Buckley toured both Sydney and Melbourne in <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_14">Australia</span> he called this half of the tour Mystery White Boy</span><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:100%;" > </span><span style="font-size:100%;">and had most of his shows recorded for yet another live album.<br /><br />After the long tour finally ended Buckley began writing songs for his much anticipated second album which he planned to call </span><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:100%;" >Sketches For My Sweetheart The Drunk</span><span style="font-size:100%;">. Buckley began working with producer Tom Verlaine in Manhattan but not <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_15">much</span> materialized in the sessions. Buckley wrote a few new solid songs, "The Sky Is A Landfill," "Everybody Here Wants You,"and "Yard Of <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_16">Blond</span>e Girls," which he debuted live at a concert in New York City. Soon though it was clear Buckley was dissatisfied with some of the recordings he had made as he moved to Memphis, Tennessee, and fired Verlaine as his producer, while re-hiring Andy Wallace who had produced </span><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:100%;" >Grace</span><span style="font-size:100%;">. He had scheduled his band to do more recordings on May 29, 1997 in Memphis and had his band fly in from New York. The night his band flew in to Memphis Jeff Buckley decided to go swimming in the Wolf River Harbor, (which is a channel of the Mississippi River), with all his clothing on including a pair of heavy boots, and singing Led Zeppelin's "Whole Lotta Love." One of Buckley's roadies Keith <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_17">Fotti</span> was on the shore while Buckley was swimming and reports that Buckley just disappeared under water. A Police search was issued that night but Buckley remained missing. On June 4, a tourist spotted his body washed ashore, Jeff was dead at age 30, just two years older than his father Tim had been when he died. It was a tragic end to such a promising musical talent as one can only imagine how many more classic Jeff Buckley albums could have been released in the last twelve years since his passing. The autopsy taken to clarify the cause of Buckley's death proved he had taken no drugs on the night he drowned. A statement was eventually released from the Jeff Buckley estate saying, "Jeff Buckley's death was not "mysterious," related to drugs, alcohol, or suicide. We have a police report, a medical examiner's report, and an eye witness to prove that it was an accidental drowning, and that Mr. Buckley was in a good frame of mind prior to the accident."<br /><br />Whatever truly happened to Jeff Buckley that night nobody will ever really know. It's hard to believe anybody in their right frame of mind would go swimming in the Mississippi river with boots on and fully clothed without thinking they are risking their lives. Jeff will always be remembered for the beautiful music he wrote and the wonderful harmonies he sang. Since his death </span><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:100%;" >Sketches For My Sweetheart The Drunk </span><span style="font-size:100%;">has been released and is a double album. Songs like "Opened Once" and "Nightmares By The Sea" provide a haunting ending to Buckley's songwriting career that was cut so tragically short. While it is not as strong an album as Grace, one must remember it still wasn't finished at the time of Buckley's death and if given more time it could have catapulted him even further into the realm of super-stardom. Jeff may not have liked more of the fame though that would have surely come to him as he preferred playing in small cafes like The Sin-e much more than big venues.<br /><br />Jeff Buckley posing with his acoustic guitar<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikVTFXO0YJcgCues9nVp3xzx85jOwE347whuKmQDM5GPf2v8prjfKsvmfEFn6n3bRI4qymg2V2zMZcdEI6xRe4npwaf2G0WF9-42isaJDso6fzYcweH6XHFfA7uuI0ZDrHcccqzPXtMVTT/s1600-h/jeffbuckley.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikVTFXO0YJcgCues9nVp3xzx85jOwE347whuKmQDM5GPf2v8prjfKsvmfEFn6n3bRI4qymg2V2zMZcdEI6xRe4npwaf2G0WF9-42isaJDso6fzYcweH6XHFfA7uuI0ZDrHcccqzPXtMVTT/s400/jeffbuckley.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5307205606255672274" border="0" /></a><br />" Just like the ocean, always in love with the moon. It's overflowing now, inside you. We fly right over the minds of so many in pain. We <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_18">ar</span>e the smile of light that brings them rain. In the half light where we both stand. In the half light, you saw me as I am. I am a railroad track abandoned with the sunset. Forgetting I ever happened. That I ever happened."<br />-Jeff Buckley "Opened Once"<br /></span><span style=";font-family:Verdana;font-size:180%;" ><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /></span><br /><br /><br /></span></span>Bob Spilsburyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00433521057898667416noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4692808728945392087.post-57808377177859991712009-02-17T12:17:00.000-08:002009-02-17T16:28:28.593-08:00My Top 20 Albums of All Time<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWHOlU9VnauZOaly8bL-kN_Ab9b1sgdI94bmqirEs5Qy1773rN9kpIJdYQfZbuWfKtwpfGtdYSSgZWnJ_4w6EwXyEUl9pyPeUruGBLlYhlY1HOSr_3twdaoC29sdUdTorXrQYx2g679X6K/s1600-h/cream.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWHOlU9VnauZOaly8bL-kN_Ab9b1sgdI94bmqirEs5Qy1773rN9kpIJdYQfZbuWfKtwpfGtdYSSgZWnJ_4w6EwXyEUl9pyPeUruGBLlYhlY1HOSr_3twdaoC29sdUdTorXrQYx2g679X6K/s400/cream.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5303913513087144114" border="0" /></a><br /><div>Alright my friend Nick Eskow has started a chain of coming up with your Top 20 Albums and then explaining why and what they mean to you, make you think of in a place or time and most importantly how they make you feel. If this interests any of you please come up with your own top 20 albums list and send it to me.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdgxtNntYIZlFwf-zQP0O8gyhPUfvgoDb77fVZnb-fcOlS5-NiEnY6JJUFicc9b-yL9TFHLbZVN3orpKfnrX-sCr9F-yzYY_Dzpnu8CeISTdYd6xPWfS5VDJreCoyizydgxQIpFdQx2HNV/s1600-h/cream+disraeli+gears.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdgxtNntYIZlFwf-zQP0O8gyhPUfvgoDb77fVZnb-fcOlS5-NiEnY6JJUFicc9b-yL9TFHLbZVN3orpKfnrX-sCr9F-yzYY_Dzpnu8CeISTdYd6xPWfS5VDJreCoyizydgxQIpFdQx2HNV/s200/cream+disraeli+gears.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5303914294773481138" border="0" /></a>1.Cream-Disraeli Gears-Reminds me of senior year of high school when I was first discovering psychedelic rock and was inspired by Eric Clapton's luminescent guitar along with Jack Bruce's surreal lyrics about building castles high up in the clouds. Songs like "Strange Brew," Tales Of Brave Ullysses and "Swlbar" are still classics in my mind that we never hear much anymore. Whoever saw Cream at Madison Square Garden a few years back I am envious of you!<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2hYVZ-U4DOz3ewdmDzVDxS5gj4suhNaub3bB0rVQouSvL-bXruH3wfLZX9uGY3gE5GP6XqsCFnuBZePtmMp48B6C3z_tBKcI7npE6JQbchc6Xq0K4LCiSE_psFNQce1JpNMCi79-agnvq/s1600-h/led+zeppelin+iv.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2hYVZ-U4DOz3ewdmDzVDxS5gj4suhNaub3bB0rVQouSvL-bXruH3wfLZX9uGY3gE5GP6XqsCFnuBZePtmMp48B6C3z_tBKcI7npE6JQbchc6Xq0K4LCiSE_psFNQce1JpNMCi79-agnvq/s200/led+zeppelin+iv.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5303915644413796034" border="0" /></a>2.Led Zeppelin IV-This album was the soundtrack to countless snowboarding trips and represents the magic of being out there blazing down trails with the music cranked. You really get a feel for songs like "Black Dog" and "Rock N' Roll," then you can listen to the quieter songs like "Battle Of Evermore" and "Stairway To Heaven" on the chairlift ride up. This whole album represents that magic you feel being out in a forest or a mountain surrounded by nature and beauty.<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdEr6akTW6nDMVUjbJDuY_pRtiTXwg3dQPa6FJftvGuRvnRglQVaG7Bf2g9PT6H1K9Q9Pq3vIwi3R13JXy5JGYyD5o3G6xYWayg27gGdSIeHhbbieggEz5VQ54RQt5tHLxV9zRBeY50fhe/s1600-h/dark+side+of+the+moon.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdEr6akTW6nDMVUjbJDuY_pRtiTXwg3dQPa6FJftvGuRvnRglQVaG7Bf2g9PT6H1K9Q9Pq3vIwi3R13JXy5JGYyD5o3G6xYWayg27gGdSIeHhbbieggEz5VQ54RQt5tHLxV9zRBeY50fhe/s200/dark+side+of+the+moon.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5303916386022455090" border="0" /></a>3.Pink Floyd-Dark Side Of The Moon-This is hands down the best Pink Floyd album out there. It's when the band really hit a creative peak as a cohesive unit in the post Syd Barrett era. After this album Roger Waters really took over and while The Wall is still great it's not as orbital as Dark Side. Lets face it you don't hear songs like "Time" or "The Great Gig In The Sky'" everyday. I love all the commentary by the Abbey Road studio doorman that you hear if you listen very closely on headphones. This album captures of the essence of great sound.<br /><br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVTVT2AfZslTtiqFKXUAKIv7xko3EklqO-5od7NyxnYG_8IZ2o7wR6ZhiF_Bs60VMeBQRwIdZAAYYYwbnUPh-pGpaNpTf1_DnsLycs1hTU-XUAeJuSp1pRadBL6jvejBfvACeinRC21tBZ/s1600-h/Deja+Vu.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVTVT2AfZslTtiqFKXUAKIv7xko3EklqO-5od7NyxnYG_8IZ2o7wR6ZhiF_Bs60VMeBQRwIdZAAYYYwbnUPh-pGpaNpTf1_DnsLycs1hTU-XUAeJuSp1pRadBL6jvejBfvACeinRC21tBZ/s200/Deja+Vu.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5303917034485110514" border="0" /></a>4.Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young-Deja Vu-CSNY got that much better when they added Neil Young as his songs like "Helpless" and "Country Girl." Stephen Stills was also such a huge talent writing the opener "Carry On," which always brings me back to sophomore year at K dorm playing the whole record countless times on my turntable. David Crosby's "Almost Cut My Hair' is one of his best songs he has ever written. These guys really represent the woodstock era of the 60s music scene and really made folk rock more popular than anybody would have ever conceived it could be.<br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjA-EuOZrknuihX7M8amxTGolONNmYmMRM8Lae-7lyAy72I4020iR4F9lQagdJD_eyaTV75HCdqwGE90D-8q8Eeiz2p6ijMERObqBn0O5146Xwts8cd0II503zkHVu201QnIoyec_LRCJnq/s1600-h/beatles_abbey_road.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjA-EuOZrknuihX7M8amxTGolONNmYmMRM8Lae-7lyAy72I4020iR4F9lQagdJD_eyaTV75HCdqwGE90D-8q8Eeiz2p6ijMERObqBn0O5146Xwts8cd0II503zkHVu201QnIoyec_LRCJnq/s200/beatles_abbey_road.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5303918080778690162" border="0" /></a>5.Beatles-Abbey Road-A lot of people like the early Beatles Hard Days Night era which I don't understand. The Beatles perfected their craft as the 60s wore on and cut their best album with Abbey Road. George Harrison was finally being allowed to compose some of his best music with songs like "Something" about his wife Patti Boyd, and "Here Comes The Sun" that he wrote while hanging out with Clapton in his garden. I think another reason I'll always love this album is because my cousin Eddie gave me a tape of it when I was about ten and it was really the first Beatles I ever heard so it would really influence my younger years a lot.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMvjIL8N_vy10S1vD2h28oXIXXWW5-31X98HdXxeaZHWfG9cGJrZDPQ8IlenLaRX8Iacabpu8qwVHDJHyfG2-7OaITKZRyIRcrRgetYD2fJGw8W_VklZJLN423iJ4RUSex3ATyg2YYHwXm/s1600-h/pet_sounds.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMvjIL8N_vy10S1vD2h28oXIXXWW5-31X98HdXxeaZHWfG9cGJrZDPQ8IlenLaRX8Iacabpu8qwVHDJHyfG2-7OaITKZRyIRcrRgetYD2fJGw8W_VklZJLN423iJ4RUSex3ATyg2YYHwXm/s200/pet_sounds.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5303918524755206290" border="0" /></a>6.Beach Boys-Pet Sounds-Another band that really dates back to my back pages is The Beach Boys. I started listening to them through Eddie around the same time that I got into The Beatles. I've always liked Pet Sounds the best because that's just Brian Wilson hitting his genius before he had that huge nervous breakdown. "Caroline No," "God Only Knows," and "Wouldn't It Be Nice" have always been some of my favorite songs of all time. These aren't songs about surfing anymore Brian had developed into a serious songwriter, and I think if "Good Vibrations" had made it on this record it could have been even better.<br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTltQJBqNaCtI7BYHRLuhwdX3ioiVprjpUSqmD6TRz7HRSY3mAdy8yAjNuiAv5VCPCbSQ5OcW8w9-DOm8Eok8_IZILZ985rg39euBTSV5s_WirRRhUhB5E4Gbv-zlwEwCGqjp6qIpayjb0/s1600-h/byrds+notorious+album.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTltQJBqNaCtI7BYHRLuhwdX3ioiVprjpUSqmD6TRz7HRSY3mAdy8yAjNuiAv5VCPCbSQ5OcW8w9-DOm8Eok8_IZILZ985rg39euBTSV5s_WirRRhUhB5E4Gbv-zlwEwCGqjp6qIpayjb0/s200/byrds+notorious+album.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5303919714851536786" border="0" /></a>7. The Byrds-The Notorious Byrd Brothers- I've only gotten into The Byrds in recent years but I'm starting to dive into them more and more as time persists and the more I listen the better they continue to sound. This is another band that had a ton of internal talent with Roger McGuinn, David Crosby, Gene Clark, and Chris Hillman all capable of writing outstanding compositions. Their covers are sometimes their best though especially Pete Seegar's "Turn! Turn! Turn!, Carlole Kings "Goin' Back," and of course Bob Dylan's "Mr. Tambourine Man"<br /><br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhaFxgcXawadIa1drSKqzHEqPaOgC7rco9ASlNH-b6Okx21skPB2SVebPdcbtD94Z7qwB4PB4LHm6BlwWEf84GpdOJMTeVMQp_3Qm9iCGYYIeD5KokM4cdhLLY9YU00i9jxc11coIelvV9p/s1600-h/The-Rolling-Stones-Sticky-Fingers.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 199px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhaFxgcXawadIa1drSKqzHEqPaOgC7rco9ASlNH-b6Okx21skPB2SVebPdcbtD94Z7qwB4PB4LHm6BlwWEf84GpdOJMTeVMQp_3Qm9iCGYYIeD5KokM4cdhLLY9YU00i9jxc11coIelvV9p/s200/The-Rolling-Stones-Sticky-Fingers.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5303920292062209634" border="0" /></a>8.Rolling Stones-Sticky Fingers-I love The Stones as they progressed and carried on despite the loss of Brian Jones. Mick Jagger and Keith Richards really took a firm hold of the band and wrote their best material. "Wild Horses" is their most beautiful song ever and "Brown Sugar" might be their most rocking. Their are countless other songs that sound nothing like The Stones were doing on prior albums like "Dead Flowers" and "Sister Morphine" as well as the sax driven "Can’t You Hear Me Knocking."<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOtvx9YY-zUEQUnXeez-wkOIJgEDQVPyMsUpRr-kdTLQSzXr5FwFF6gJBQftVZlDdMWDHSlaCLpSaOuz7xBKMMlc5sTlOGlusuO3qoJU_KJiABG9UsDiKZZppqVL2nXm-2wG6pcdYYBHoE/s1600-h/doors.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 196px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOtvx9YY-zUEQUnXeez-wkOIJgEDQVPyMsUpRr-kdTLQSzXr5FwFF6gJBQftVZlDdMWDHSlaCLpSaOuz7xBKMMlc5sTlOGlusuO3qoJU_KJiABG9UsDiKZZppqVL2nXm-2wG6pcdYYBHoE/s200/doors.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5303920807275627986" border="0" /></a>9.The Doors-The Doors-I remember buying my first Doors album in 10th grade not long after seeing Oliver Stone's movie on the band. I was amazed how much they could go into these long solos like on "Light My Fire" where organist Ray Manzarek and guitarist Robbie Krieger go back to back. Also "The End" was a tune I would always play in my Dad's basement back in DC for some reason and I would hook up my microphone I had bought to an amp and try to sing over it. Jim Morrison was a true poet just listen to "The Crystal Ship" and "End Of The Night' and it's obvious enough<br /><br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEioHcXS1nKa9GCnXGPGERiRSCtCpmvqYtkROnzUEJr68-l46sMZqx_H4H_2hZsskRWeIdpaBhQ419En3_h760pdToOBPsxrErG6Rf-QikSO82VqsAYrxCv6-c0fH1amAECSTsKYmOcml4OE/s1600-h/tom-waits-rain-dogs.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEioHcXS1nKa9GCnXGPGERiRSCtCpmvqYtkROnzUEJr68-l46sMZqx_H4H_2hZsskRWeIdpaBhQ419En3_h760pdToOBPsxrErG6Rf-QikSO82VqsAYrxCv6-c0fH1amAECSTsKYmOcml4OE/s200/tom-waits-rain-dogs.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5303921179290247026" border="0" /></a>10.Tom Waits-Rain Dogs-This was the soundtrack of my six months working at Rasputin Records. I listened to it practically every day at work as I was just starting to discover him last year and either this album or Bone Machine was usually on at some point during the day. His songs on Rain Dogs are all really short but somehow he gets to the point really fast on songs like""Jockey Full of Bourbon," and Anywhere I Lay My Head," and god that voice is so powerful and amazing when he spouts off crazy lines like, "Let me fall out of the window with confetti in my hair. Deal out jacks or better by a blanket by the stairs. Tell you all my secrets but I lie about my past. Send me off to bed forevermore." -Tango Til They're Sore<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIPhBuoijUPCqkd0p048E2NqP9JUjivxm3fFfzGAKZXHf6bk78xFgg-HbQM15p-9NzTPjucj2TCs6Q7G4_AHJtsZA2Ol-wwh8u-leUS8gafyiYjtVcNlhIx_NnqQKFEiOVmWzUZdKNiXkr/s1600-h/The-Band-The-Band.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 192px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIPhBuoijUPCqkd0p048E2NqP9JUjivxm3fFfzGAKZXHf6bk78xFgg-HbQM15p-9NzTPjucj2TCs6Q7G4_AHJtsZA2Ol-wwh8u-leUS8gafyiYjtVcNlhIx_NnqQKFEiOVmWzUZdKNiXkr/s200/The-Band-The-Band.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5303921637698407234" border="0" /></a>11.The Band-The Band-The Band are the best band to ever come out of Canada and they don't even sound Canadian! Levon Helm was actually from Arkansas and he did sing the great anthem on this album about the Civil War "The Night They Drove Ol' Dixie Down." As much as I love Helm I'll always be a bigger Richard Manuel fan with his beautiful high voice on ephereal songs like "Whispering Pines" that take you into another world. Rick Danko also wrote some killer songs off The Band. This album will always make me think of summer 2006 hanging out with Joel, Colby and Tim at their place on Parker and Grant many a late night and singing along to "Up On Cripple Creek", "Rocking Chair" and "When You Awake."<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEVuBkeL0mmaIVQVqJhYW-A00rGIGi6tECv3Oxsu8L_KY3TMy0wLeqk4vWBhhcOJGg4-H7WNdKKg2i2utPENjbJ52D98EOCI4NDf-NVee8BKUYQ-W5rtQygEltFm4OA3D4yJ8JOEeUbXF7/s1600-h/electricladyland.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEVuBkeL0mmaIVQVqJhYW-A00rGIGi6tECv3Oxsu8L_KY3TMy0wLeqk4vWBhhcOJGg4-H7WNdKKg2i2utPENjbJ52D98EOCI4NDf-NVee8BKUYQ-W5rtQygEltFm4OA3D4yJ8JOEeUbXF7/s200/electricladyland.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5303922590963649186" border="0" /></a>11.Jimi Hendrix Experience-Electric Ladyland-This was the third and final album by The Experience and it took them out even further then either Are You Experienced or Axis: Bold As Love into the realm of Hendrix’s exceptional guitar wailing. The songs became longer and more improvised like the fifteen minute jam “Voodoo Chile” between Hendrix and guest musician Steve Winwood on organ. There is no doubt Hendrix was striving for perfection with his explorations of the guitar on this record as he would do over forty takes for some of the key songs on this album like the Dylan cover of “All Along The Watchtower” and “Voodoo Child (Slight Return).” This album reminds me of Sophmore year of college listening to songs like “Rainy Day Dream Away” on the turntable on days when it was too wet to go outside and do anything<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-spJxU5YG1NGtpVRdTKwcrDFGiMWLbAjEkZ8kIeeYgfxU4f2n_lLd64n51BtYNE2JJ-Qc4Ju7IHFYR07jrzahMCapA1nqApI0Iu_9ViGF307rvQkEDMojHVCt1UKwnh3an61qJEC5F8s0/s1600-h/harvest.jpj"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-spJxU5YG1NGtpVRdTKwcrDFGiMWLbAjEkZ8kIeeYgfxU4f2n_lLd64n51BtYNE2JJ-Qc4Ju7IHFYR07jrzahMCapA1nqApI0Iu_9ViGF307rvQkEDMojHVCt1UKwnh3an61qJEC5F8s0/s200/harvest.jpj" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5303922997994625842" border="0" /></a>12.Neil Young-Harvest-It’s hard to pick a favorite Neil Young album because there are so many great ones from After The Goldrush to Tonight's The Night all the way up to Rust Never Sleeps. Still if I had to go with just one on a deserted island it would have to be Harvest. I think Harvest was the first Neil album I heard after getting his Decade album which is all his hits. Harvest has so many peaks from Young’s only number one hit “Heart Of Gold,” to the banjo driven “Old Man,” which will always make me think of my Dad because as different as we are we are still very similar in a lot of ways. The steel guitar on some of these songs is also incredible as are the backing vocals by Linda Ronstadt and James Taylor.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhc6YlIERhMDjA9eMVIMjLa0NCYkOjmCq46MIa4p0TvL-wrzbz-iqt2apaIA4YtGYsJbkArAH391xi0filCaYxW6mJcPbx7sh9HjnbBmExJmV9T05yC9GEQWOILe12F7o9eKOxjhrM36itx/s1600-h/Grateful_Dead-American_Beauty.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhc6YlIERhMDjA9eMVIMjLa0NCYkOjmCq46MIa4p0TvL-wrzbz-iqt2apaIA4YtGYsJbkArAH391xi0filCaYxW6mJcPbx7sh9HjnbBmExJmV9T05yC9GEQWOILe12F7o9eKOxjhrM36itx/s200/Grateful_Dead-American_Beauty.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5303923531693167218" border="0" /></a>13.Grateful Dead-American Beauty-As much as people like to believe The Grateful Dead were only a good live band, this album will prove they also rocked in the studio. After years of sub par studio efforts The Dead finally perfected their songwriting craft in 1970 when they came out with their two best studio recordings, American Beauty and Workingman’s Dead. Beauty was slightly better as every song on the album was unique in a different way. I got into The Grateful Dead around the same time I was getting into jam bands like The Allman Brothers, and Phish during my senior year of high school. I remember hearing “Box Of Rain” a song Phil Lesh wrote for his dying father for the first time and it really touched me. “Look out of any window, any morning, any evening, any day.” There are countless other down home stoner country classics on this album from “Friend Of The Devil” to “Brokedown Palace,” to what would become one of The Dead’s live anthems “Truckin'.”<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0PN81uNdwa9Dk7e6yCRM6Y3HscmpnHQ3YuhwxLcVmQBtm22yG-43CbQ2ME0HHPrEISNWDTIKT4Hkf5_RE8TK7tlPYuY6YoQfriLF6vY-dpgj5Rg-Lwz1ovbWBITGplHF5EROgF8s5lOQt/s1600-h/yes_fragile.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0PN81uNdwa9Dk7e6yCRM6Y3HscmpnHQ3YuhwxLcVmQBtm22yG-43CbQ2ME0HHPrEISNWDTIKT4Hkf5_RE8TK7tlPYuY6YoQfriLF6vY-dpgj5Rg-Lwz1ovbWBITGplHF5EROgF8s5lOQt/s200/yes_fragile.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5303923945050910386" border="0" /></a>14.Yes-Fragile-The first time I heard Fragile was freshmen year at Evergreen and it was my first exposure to Yes. I remember driving around cool places like The Grand Tetons with Dan or Lake Tahoe area with Eli blasting this record. Lets face it this band was talented with a keyboardist like Rick Wakemen and guitarist Steve Howe just rocking out for over ten minutes at a time on songs like “Heart of The Sunrise.” I remember getting my brother Joe into “Roundabout” when I brought a copy of Fragile home from college. I still love Yes and songs like “Long Distance Runaround” and “South Side of the Sky” are still my favorites. This band really opened my mind up to listening to more progressive rock as I’ve gone on to love bands like King Crimson and Emerson, Lake, and Palmer<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYfBV3B_AVPRpty2g18_jScO7JwV8hphnt8Bn9TU1R5KRj28Fj5WuVUQZ1H1VuxEtt-TyptvrJGlqLz2IA69W63bMzefPoVn0cY3YRaxIpwOaeUdiQI_Kgd7oMwX3D9Zv-Wzx6RNirfFQ4/s1600-h/LaylaCover.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYfBV3B_AVPRpty2g18_jScO7JwV8hphnt8Bn9TU1R5KRj28Fj5WuVUQZ1H1VuxEtt-TyptvrJGlqLz2IA69W63bMzefPoVn0cY3YRaxIpwOaeUdiQI_Kgd7oMwX3D9Zv-Wzx6RNirfFQ4/s200/LaylaCover.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5303924473280597922" border="0" /></a>15.Derek & The Dominoes-Layla & Other Asssorted Love Songs- Eric Clapton was in so many brilliant bands from The Yardbirds, to John Mayall Blues Breakers, to Cream, to Blind Faith, and then he joined one of his best bands ever Derek and The Dominoes where he finally embraced being a frontman. This is the best double album ever to be released! Clapton recrutied most of the members of Delaney & Bonnie like drumer Jim Gordon and keyboardist Bobby Whitlock, while also recording with Allman Brothers late guitarist Duane Allman. This album is always great to put on when something goes wrong in a relationship. You can really feel Clapton’s mournful lyrics in “Nobody Knows You When You’re Down and Out.” Most of the songs ont this record were written to seduce George Harrison’s wife at the time, Patti Boyd. The title track “Layla,” “Have You Ever Loved A Woman,” and “I Am Yours” would be some of the best material Clapton woud ever write. Also The Dominoes cover of Hendrix’s “Little Wing” amazing and much longer then the original version.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEid47s4owwIiyw4Nvlb4U3tCNJlh-qcpXJWxtjNZEWfaiz-u79G09If9Jg4p1yoGUDz13LGI1fqrVY1gUz-vMmTWzdZ1RYIm3IKybr26kfbs-5o_dVRbbVgw1DAjLwaCDQY2lnAvnufRkF9/s1600-h/nirvana-in_utero.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEid47s4owwIiyw4Nvlb4U3tCNJlh-qcpXJWxtjNZEWfaiz-u79G09If9Jg4p1yoGUDz13LGI1fqrVY1gUz-vMmTWzdZ1RYIm3IKybr26kfbs-5o_dVRbbVgw1DAjLwaCDQY2lnAvnufRkF9/s200/nirvana-in_utero.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5303925104602477650" border="0" /></a>16.Nirvana-In Utero-Before I even got into classic rock I was into grunge. Nirvana-Nevermind was actually one of the first tapes I got when I was in sixth grade but it wasn’t until In Utero that I truly fell in love with Nirvana’s music. I really love the slow songs that sound a little Beatlesque, “Heart Shaped Box,” “Pennyroyal Tea,” and “All Apologies.” You can really feel the scalding pain in Kurt Cobain’s voice in songs like “Frances Farmer Will Have Her Revenge On Seattle” where he wails “I miss the comfort in being sad.” “Rape Me” was also a great testement to how he felt the press was treating him and his wife Courtney Love as they really had no respect for him.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIK6mbDdHdn7DfGC3vfXw4MAlJ1r1WH7yy-kUN-a_cCIbpan9kRzDRN6W-TUhN7MKE0nAoWJY_hqCx9xwbQsnopHKyxX-5-GikDf9unUTUaVgkxmqCObABuPOpcIuSa23JZaJdIE4DQVd4/s1600-h/pj_ten.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 199px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIK6mbDdHdn7DfGC3vfXw4MAlJ1r1WH7yy-kUN-a_cCIbpan9kRzDRN6W-TUhN7MKE0nAoWJY_hqCx9xwbQsnopHKyxX-5-GikDf9unUTUaVgkxmqCObABuPOpcIuSa23JZaJdIE4DQVd4/s200/pj_ten.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5303925709762553346" border="0" /></a>17.Pearl jam-Ten-This is another grunge album that rocked my early years. I would always listen to Ten on tape right before going to bed in middle school so songs like “Even Flow,” “Black” and “Jeremy” will always be a part of my collective unconscious. I’ve seen Pearl Jam live more than any other band and will continue going to their shows as long as they’re around. Eddie Vedder is one of the best vocalist still around and Mike McCready is a guitar wizard with his beautifully long solos in songs like “Alive”<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjv0B5z4JPDXvhmzivZ3sXfA9lUl8jQ89t6ZgdIAVou35e875H30uTC-oEFS8HYbnoTaMz44pvkWMojJjt9urZ9fa4V-IMPJu7UTL7-sGnpl7hR6HX-YF7Iu9ZuvE8bsW-gbMU_N_djghXu/s1600-h/Pink+Floyd+-+Wish+You+Were+Here+.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 198px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjv0B5z4JPDXvhmzivZ3sXfA9lUl8jQ89t6ZgdIAVou35e875H30uTC-oEFS8HYbnoTaMz44pvkWMojJjt9urZ9fa4V-IMPJu7UTL7-sGnpl7hR6HX-YF7Iu9ZuvE8bsW-gbMU_N_djghXu/s200/Pink+Floyd+-+Wish+You+Were+Here+.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5303926250776178402" border="0" /></a>18.Pink Floyd-Wish You Were Here- This was the follow up to Dark Side of The Moon and it was dedicated to Syd Barrett who was the bands first guitarist and lead singer but left the band after Piper At The Gates of Dawn because he was taking way too much acid. All the lyrics in each song is about Barrett as they paint a poignant picture of him. “Remember when you were young, you shone like the sun. Now there’s a look in your eyes like black holes in the sky. Shine on you crazy diamond.” –“Shine On You Crazy Diamond (Part 1) My brother and I usually end up jamming out to “Wish You Were Here,” he’ll play accoustic guitar and I’ll just sing, “How I wish, how I wish you were here, we’re just two lost souls swimming in a fish bowl, year after year. Running over the same old ground but have we found the same old fears. Wish you were here.”<br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPhjhUSLdmSDSQoLXX8sFmwHGkRoB0jdgcSr-8EOYlh7EI2eUT1ui4nCSvBsIoBT87hJWA06wF0aJhHSyauSFhxYqI99T4A110gQvH6SLFtCKhg2CfFaMPI84jxKTeesPLf79LWYZb65Em/s1600-h/NickDrakePinkMoon.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 198px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPhjhUSLdmSDSQoLXX8sFmwHGkRoB0jdgcSr-8EOYlh7EI2eUT1ui4nCSvBsIoBT87hJWA06wF0aJhHSyauSFhxYqI99T4A110gQvH6SLFtCKhg2CfFaMPI84jxKTeesPLf79LWYZb65Em/s200/NickDrakePinkMoon.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5303926810989641250" border="0" /></a>19.Nick Drake-Pink Moon-I got into Nick Drake the last year or so but he has already become one of my favorite folk rock artists. He was so talented that it only took him a couple of nights to record Pink Moon and then he died shortly afterwards of an overdose of his antidepressant medication. Some say if the songs were as dark as the lyrics on Pink Moon it might be unlistenable but Drake’s lyrics are soothing in songs like “Place To Be,” and “Know.” My favorite track on the album is “Things Behind The Sun.”<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi72aOwo03ttk5ox_LMUEfmDE1QJwZlC-uIsv3_YzLfWwXpXEa2AiBMq492JIR6JQZPBlTl4L52eNIP8moCCkvsTqK4LSQ56L8jFKSU3R_YBy3yOFuQ75HIkQwwkAHiSkfCxfoXYACD88rv/s1600-h/Elliott_smith_from_a_basement_on_the_hill_cover.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi72aOwo03ttk5ox_LMUEfmDE1QJwZlC-uIsv3_YzLfWwXpXEa2AiBMq492JIR6JQZPBlTl4L52eNIP8moCCkvsTqK4LSQ56L8jFKSU3R_YBy3yOFuQ75HIkQwwkAHiSkfCxfoXYACD88rv/s200/Elliott_smith_from_a_basement_on_the_hill_cover.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5303927225804509794" border="0" /></a>20.Elliot Smith-From A Basement On The Hill- With all the great albums Elliot put out it was hard to pick one favorite but if I had to it would be his last album From A Basement On The Hill. As much as I love his independent shit with Kill Rock Stars as well as his well produced music with Dreamworks I think this album is a bit in between and finds the perfect balance. He was definitely trying to be more raw then he was with XO and Figure 8 which are both great albums respectively but Elliot just kept pushing his musical boundaries into another realm. Songs like “Fond Farewell To A Friend,” “Kings Crossing,” and “Lets Get Lost,” show Smith at the peak of his songwriting capabilities. Elliot should have written so many more good albums it’s really a tragedy what happened to him.<br /><br />Note: Sorry if this list leaves off a lot of important bands. I know I had to cut out a few artists I really wanted to include like David Bowie-Ziggy Stardust, Jeff Buckley-Grace, George Harrison-All Things Must Pass, The Beatles-White Album, Blind Melon-Soup, Guns N’ Roses-Appetite For Destruction, Velvet Undrerground & Nico, and Van Morrison- Moondance. I could really come up with a Top 100 if I had more time.<br /><br /></div><div class="photo photo_none"><div class="photo_img"><a href="http://www.new.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=1326854&op=1&view=all&subj=129216355415&aid=-1&oid=129216355415&id=827379113"><img style="width: 460px;" src="http://photos-g.ak.fbcdn.net/photos-ak-snc1/v2254/141/108/827379113/n827379113_1326854_3722.jpg" alt="" class="" onload="var img = this; onloadRegister(function() { adjustImage(img); });" /></a></div><div class="caption">Pink Floyd back in the 60s when Syd Barrett still graced the band.</div></div>Bob Spilsburyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00433521057898667416noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4692808728945392087.post-40540151249041522792009-02-13T11:11:00.000-08:002009-02-20T18:43:37.302-08:00Obituraries for Billy Powell, Delaney Bramlett and Ron Asheton<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUWAWdgqb8hL5Ri-Z6th_QQhUWulqFeGXlxjGirIeM2CZkZNLPssv-UNf9EGC8bsXp_o5mXqtE7KSv3fY7dq7CH0jp6AUGBGVokOS1j06LUOEu7VfBggIo0y9HNYqx6c2AjHsXBbH4a30s/s1600-h/lynyrd-skynyrd-061013.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 224px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUWAWdgqb8hL5Ri-Z6th_QQhUWulqFeGXlxjGirIeM2CZkZNLPssv-UNf9EGC8bsXp_o5mXqtE7KSv3fY7dq7CH0jp6AUGBGVokOS1j06LUOEu7VfBggIo0y9HNYqx6c2AjHsXBbH4a30s/s400/lynyrd-skynyrd-061013.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5305066270204805938" border="0" /></a><br />Lynyrd Skynyrd in their 1970s heyday before the plane crash happened. Billy Powell who just passed away is second man on the left holding a beer can.<br /><br />The start of 2009 has not been a happy one for some classic rock fans as it has witnessed the death's of three very talented musicians; Ron Asheton the lead guitarist for The Stooges, Delaney Bramlett who formed Delaney and Bonnie, and, and Lynyrd Skynyrd keyboardist Billy Powell. It's hard to beleive that in less than two months all three of these great musicians could pass away. When you think of 2008 you think of the sad passings of original Pink Floyd keyboardist Richard Wright who died of cancer, and drummer Mitch Mitchell, who was the only original member left of The Jimi Hendrix Experience trio. Mitchell died of heart failure late last year in a hotel in Portland while he was on tour still playing the Hendrix classics he had mastered so many years ago. Now three more musicians have left this world and I will explain their importance to the world of music.<br /><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Ron Asheton 1948-2009</span><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhA97_xBi2R6CoP21HWuzJaqMbF5WskH9JGN5geivSR11YNolPdutD2R3A1OPZNiiRmGhUv0HWP3gGnTCioqVQLXp0sHhRnNbb3Wz9vgF5U0mhchQpV9ZsENCw1Td0T7B_n2vffcN9uo5ej/s1600-h/ron+asheton.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 319px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhA97_xBi2R6CoP21HWuzJaqMbF5WskH9JGN5geivSR11YNolPdutD2R3A1OPZNiiRmGhUv0HWP3gGnTCioqVQLXp0sHhRnNbb3Wz9vgF5U0mhchQpV9ZsENCw1Td0T7B_n2vffcN9uo5ej/s320/ron+asheton.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5305045997934346258" border="0" /></a><br />Ron Asheton was found dead of a heart attack in his Ann Arbor home. He helped lead The Stooges; possibly one of the most innovating bands from 1967 through 1974. The Stooges were one of the first bands to use elements in their music that would eventually come to defined later on as punk rock, alternative rock and even heavy metal. While the band was never that popular in their existence, it has been a cult following because of their musical impact similar to that of The Velvet Underground which has kept music fans interested in them after all these years. The Stooges formed in Ann Arbor Michigan and built up a following playing live in Ann Arbor, and then on to bigger venues with bands like The MC5 in Detroit. Their live performances were known to be wild and primitive with Iggy Pop the groups vocalist often cutting himself onstage or even flashing his genitalia.<br /><br />The Stooges first record was much different then there next two in the sense that it was less punk rock psychedelic as it was the late 60s and they were obviously influenced by the times in songs like the ten minute plus "We Will Fall." There were signs of The Stooges heading towards a punk direction though with Asheton playing a great intro guitar lick in the second and best song on the album "I Wanna Be Your Dog." Iggy Pop talked about his late bandmate recently in Rolling Stone saying, "I saw those hands and thought, that guy can do it. His sound was the tone of the universe, the stars at night. It was a highly ambient tone. He was listening as much as he was playing." Ron Asheton's main influence on guitar was Jimi Hendrix as he was known to jam out to "Stone Free" and "Highway Chile" both off the first Jimi Hendrix Experience album <span style="font-style: italic;">Are You Experienced</span>.<br /><br />Asheton helped create the masterful sound on The Stooges second and best album <span style="font-style: italic;">Funhouse</span>. The album was much more loud and chaotic than The Stooges self titled dubut. Songs like "T.V. Eye" and "Loose" were not noticed much by the public at the time but would go on to become punk rock anthems in decades to come. The Stooges were simply ahead of their time as not enough people appereciated them in 1970 when <span style="font-style: italic;">Fun House </span>was released. There were also great experimental songs on <span style="font-style: italic;">Fun House<span style="font-style: italic;"> </span></span>like the title track which ran for nearly eight minutes and had great saxaphone solos going on. Also the out of control "1970" anthem is unforgettable where Iggy Pop yells "Out of my mind, Saturday night. 1970 rollin' in sight. Radio burnin' up above. Beautiful baby feed my love. All night I blow away. I feel alright."<br /><br />It would be another three years until The Stooges would even record another album as every member in the band other than Ron Asheton sank deep into heroin addiction. Iggy Pop would often not even be able to stand on stage when the group performed live. Luckily David Bowie came to the rescue after The Stooges were released from Elektra records following their first two poor selling albums. Bowie was in the height of his Ziggy Stardust fame and wound up producing <span style="font-style: italic;">Raw Power</span> the final classic Stooges album. While <span style="font-style: italic;">Raw Power </span>didn't end up gaining much comercial interest at the time it might be the most influential Stooges album on our current genteration. Musicians over the years have given their tribute to songs off the <span style="font-style: italic;">Raw Power</span> album. Red Hot Chili Peppers covered the song "Search To Destroy" and Guns N' Roses wound up covering "Raw Power" on their covers album <span style="font-style: italic;">The Spaghetti Incident</span>? The biggest travesty of all is that The Stooges have yet to be inducted into the Rock N' Roll hall of fame despite six separate nominations over the years, including one in 2009. The only person to be inducted this year who had been around as long as The Stooges and had as much as an impact is Jeff Beck who has already been inducted once into the Hall as a member of The Yardbirds. You could also say Metallica deserves to be inducted this year as they were one of the only bright lights coming out of a horrible music scene in the 1980s.<br /><br />Ron Asheton will be remembered fondly by the two surving membes of The Stooges Iggy Pop and Ron's brother Scott Asheton. The three had recently gotten back together in 2003 at The Coachella Festival in California and were popular than ever. Iggy describes this period of Stooges history in Rolling Stone by saying, "Ron had a lot of pride in the group. And in the end he made peopele happy. All those numbers we played when we got back together in 2003 sent people into another dimension. When we hit the openings of "I Wanna Be Your Dog" it was like a genie coming out of a bottle. Ron waited a long time for that. In these last six years he became a full fledged rock powerhouse. His dream came true."<br /><br />The Stooges in 1970<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsL3VHGYH6pfgcqPMEUbXdxDAlTWY5vVnqfuLCwNq-nAeMmmobvKTpYp_qZtQtPnG-0OM4TGzBc_quoiXa_W0xfQUf4YlMIJwrFlN6x44yflQiHPvAR-6kov8JTiOolcH3N1x8Q7ak5oFH/s1600-h/stooges1.JPG"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 256px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsL3VHGYH6pfgcqPMEUbXdxDAlTWY5vVnqfuLCwNq-nAeMmmobvKTpYp_qZtQtPnG-0OM4TGzBc_quoiXa_W0xfQUf4YlMIJwrFlN6x44yflQiHPvAR-6kov8JTiOolcH3N1x8Q7ak5oFH/s320/stooges1.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5305047740925562178" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Delaney Bramlett 1939-2009</span><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEih8zmE5tEkIDi43gBcSVIR21LvlrtohGqPAfYlR89N1gQXoX2TOZ7lQBpFQAXue4o4-rlsUbjwMpF20Z5wCnZZjIdysm4AUQOramFptW-gQqGsZumIBDmTczRzhyq2W467llK26ZH7WOeQ/s1600-h/DelaneyBramlett.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEih8zmE5tEkIDi43gBcSVIR21LvlrtohGqPAfYlR89N1gQXoX2TOZ7lQBpFQAXue4o4-rlsUbjwMpF20Z5wCnZZjIdysm4AUQOramFptW-gQqGsZumIBDmTczRzhyq2W467llK26ZH7WOeQ/s320/DelaneyBramlett.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5305050587563117842" border="0" /></a><br />Delaney Bramlett who played with the influential band Delaney and Bonnie died at the age of 69, suffering complications from gaul bladder surgery. Bramlett had battled alcoholism in the past but had been clean since 1987 when he entered a detox program. Bramlett was a musician from Pontotoc, Mississippi who made his fame touring with his wife Bonnie Lynn O" Farrell forming the group Delaney and Bonnie. They toured with Blind Faith in 1967 and guitarist Eric Clapton was so impressed with their band he spent more time backstage jamming with the members of Delaney and Bonnie then he did with his own band members. This of course angered Blind Faith's organist and vocalist Steve Winwood and Blind Faith immediately disbanded following the tour. Clapton would then form Derek and the Domioes with three other members from Delaney and Bonnie drummer Jim Gordon bassist Carl Radle and keyboardist Bobby Whitlock. Meanwhile Delaney found himself jamming with some great musicians like George Harrison, Dave Mason, and Leon Russell on "<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ir2eAEhtXvE">Poor Elijah</a>." George Harrison gave Delaney Bramlett the solid Rosewood slide guitar that he had played in the Let It Be movie as thanks that Delaney had taught him how to play slide. Delaney also worked with original Allman Brothers Band slide guitarist Duane Allman who would also wind up playing on that timeless Derek and The Dominoes album <span style="font-style: italic;">Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs. </span>Bramlett is one of the peopel who first told Eric Clapton he had to sing while he was producing his 1970 self titled debut ablum. Clapton has said,"Delaney told me I had a gift from god and that if I didn't sing God would take it away. All I was doing was really copying Delaney<span style="font-style: italic;">." </span>As<span style="font-style: italic;"> </span>Bonnie Bramlett recently told Rolling Stone, "Delaney just opened the doors, and he didn't wait for you to step through them. To work with him you had to be on your toes. Delaney was the real deal."<br /><br />Eric Clapton, Bonnie Bramlett, Delaney Bramlett and George Harrison<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjusi7osVnBLhi-bNBP9-qeFrRifGQ_DsPHEuFPP5HvzdRzz4eaS7mY9gp_37Nn7ysbD6JpSqXqAvg2bjlr_OONaj_R3Ak-WJPxuqcRHej5Ig-KRvS4N8yVZAeGAP-ucULkEJa92zBRG9bV/s1600-h/eric_d&b_george.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 267px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjusi7osVnBLhi-bNBP9-qeFrRifGQ_DsPHEuFPP5HvzdRzz4eaS7mY9gp_37Nn7ysbD6JpSqXqAvg2bjlr_OONaj_R3Ak-WJPxuqcRHej5Ig-KRvS4N8yVZAeGAP-ucULkEJa92zBRG9bV/s400/eric_d&b_george.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5305059874700648578" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;"><br /><br />Billy Powell 1952-2009</span><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyjhChYoCfLau9gHnVUh4k3uG5a9gJ56HV6dICO9C3jky8uRwPn6bdR5xryV_qEa4LCB09j8kYr2JRxHQe4NFzdYRd3UQJcUpNpwIQrNbefkaAJl9HV3AQeuqF5nxuso13dkEQ7lE7DhFo/s1600-h/billypowell.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 318px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyjhChYoCfLau9gHnVUh4k3uG5a9gJ56HV6dICO9C3jky8uRwPn6bdR5xryV_qEa4LCB09j8kYr2JRxHQe4NFzdYRd3UQJcUpNpwIQrNbefkaAJl9HV3AQeuqF5nxuso13dkEQ7lE7DhFo/s400/billypowell.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5305064160531384914" border="0" /></a><br />Billy Powell called 911 a little after midnight on January 28th from his house in Orange Park Florida, saying he was having trouble breathing and had severe chest pains. By the time Police had arrived Powell had already died of a heart failure. He was due to see a doctor the following day for a heart check up as he had been experiencing heart problems for some time now. This now leaves guitarist Gary Rossington as the lone survivor of the original Lynyrd Skynyrd band that formed in Jacksonville, Florida back in 1972. Billy Powell had survived the October 17, 1977 plane crash that had killed Skynyrd vocalsit Ronnie Van Zant and lead guitarist Steve Gaines. Skynyrd had broken up after the plane crash but then reformed in the 1990s to tour with Ronnie's brother Johnny Van Zant as lead vocalist.<br /><br />Billy Powell will probably be most remembered for his graceful keyboard intoduction to Lynyrd Skynyrd's most popular song "Free Bird," He also contributed to other classics like "Tuesday's Gone" "Whiskey Rock -Roller," and "Whats Your Name?" Before joining the band Powell was a roadie for Skynyrd but was invited in as keyboardist right before the bands debut album <span style="font-style: italic;">Pronounced Leh-Nerd Skin-Nerd</span>. He added a whole new dimension to Lynyrd Skynryds three guitar booggie with Allen Collinss, Gary Rossington, and Steve Gaines. Skynyrd used an excellent blend of whiskey soaked rock, southern country harmony and blues. They didn't rely on the jazzy improvisations of their southern rock predesesors The Allman Brothers Band, they were more hard living, and hard playing. Unfortunately the talent Lynyrd Skynryd had was overshadowed by a redneck image they created by hanging confederate flags. Ronnie Van Zant also famously retorted back at Neil Young's "Southern Man" by writing, "Hope Neil Young can remember a southern man don't need him around anyhow in "Sweet Home Alabama," but who knows what he truly felt about Young as he would often wear a Neil Young-Tonights The Night t-shirt on stage. Whie Lynyrd Skynyrd did eventually decide to continue without Ronnie Van Zant it is unclear now if they will continue without Powell. Johnny Van Zant recently told Rolling Stone, "He took it to another level. I had goose bumps playing "Free Bird" with him every night. I don't think we can ever find anybody to replace him."<br /><br />Lynyrd Skynyd on the back of their <span style="font-style: italic;">Nuthin Fanc</span>y album. Billy Powell gives the camera the finger.<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjiNGH5ii8AbWTkxGRe68b9jr5oh1EzTx7qO62dW23Ui6bg0pCkQkDYsHN8hIPWVmu5iKBm2SdTfBiCi2ZZG7yVY1LQGh1vbRhuMttqDVCvSfcyT4ZxPLwdEP_u_Jkijje4nAFPZyjMxVci/s1600-h/nuthinfancyback.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 312px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjiNGH5ii8AbWTkxGRe68b9jr5oh1EzTx7qO62dW23Ui6bg0pCkQkDYsHN8hIPWVmu5iKBm2SdTfBiCi2ZZG7yVY1LQGh1vbRhuMttqDVCvSfcyT4ZxPLwdEP_u_Jkijje4nAFPZyjMxVci/s400/nuthinfancyback.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5305073906203025058" border="0" /></a>Bob Spilsburyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00433521057898667416noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4692808728945392087.post-39467744554409420972009-02-10T23:04:00.000-08:002009-04-09T17:22:05.210-07:00The Byrds Remembered as Folk Rock Greats<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTdc17mn2FLrAbMfqiGhgbTFTTxODJEhYReD98ZVVuaGW9Z8saEvpLzuqhKV4abGa4_EsD8jimo2eg3t-ibEANxmGs5c6muPh6_D09ahbSBFrhdextAX0aR2SS5_wmCBUbncXUxYvwRmkU/s1600-h/Byrds.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 360px; height: 326px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTdc17mn2FLrAbMfqiGhgbTFTTxODJEhYReD98ZVVuaGW9Z8saEvpLzuqhKV4abGa4_EsD8jimo2eg3t-ibEANxmGs5c6muPh6_D09ahbSBFrhdextAX0aR2SS5_wmCBUbncXUxYvwRmkU/s400/Byrds.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5312431225429184434" border="0" /></a>The Byrds are possibly one of the most forgotten about bands of the past in today's music scene. This band, that started playing shows on the Sunset Strip of Los Angeles at places like the Whiskey in 1965, don't get nearly enough credit for the way they evolutionized folk rock. They began mainly covering folk artists, such as Bob Dylan's song "Mr. Tambourine Man" on their first record, and Pete Seeger's "Turn! Turn! Turn!" on their second. While these songs may have propelled The Byrds to the pinnacle of their commercial popularity, the band would only continue to grow more creative as the 1960s continued. As The Byrds toured to support their first two albums, they would play a tape in the car, which had John Coltrane on one side and Ravi Shankar on the other. It was the only music they listened to on the whole tour and it definitely had a huge influence on their third album <span style="font-style: italic;">Fifth Dimension</span> released in mid 1966. The big single off <span style="font-style: italic;">Fifth Dimension</span>, "Eight Miles High," was released a few months before the album actually came out. It was really the first time all five members of The Byrds had contributed to writing a song together. Unfortunately, it also marked the end of The Byrds’ main songwriter, vocalist, and tambourine player Gene Clark's time in the band. Ironically, Gene Clark decided to quit because he had a fear of flying. The departure of Clark meant that the other band members, vocalist and twelve-string guitarist Roger McGuinn, vocalist and rhythm guitarist David Crosby, bassist Chris Hillman, and drummer Micheal Clarke, all had to step up and take charge of writing the rest of <span style="font-style: italic;">Fifth Dimension</span>. Meanwhile "Eight Miles High" was having a tough time getting played on some radio stations because their djs believed it had references to drug use, specifically the use of marijuana and LSD. For this reason the song only rose to #14 on the charts, and somehow The Byrds never managed to have another top 20 hit.<br /><br />"Eight Miles High" wasn't really about drugs as Roger McGuinn states in Ritchie Unterberger's book Eight Miles High, Folk Rock's Flight from Haight Ashbury to Woodstock. "It tells a story like a folk song. It's the story of The Byrds going to England in 1965, of experiencing culture shock. 'Rain gray town, known for it's sound' is London. 'Eight miles high and when you touch down you'll find that it's stranger than you've known' that's the airplane ride to England," says McGuinn in the book. The Byrds also faced the harsh British press who were critical of the band, although at the time they were being called America's answer to The Beatles. If you think about it, The Byrds had come a long way as musicians their first two years intact. Not only had they improved their playing, but now the press couldn't criticize them for just being a Bob Dylan or Pete Seegar cover band. As Unterberger writes, "Now The Byrds were in a league of their own. They would continue to take folk rock into the stratosphere throughout 1966 and 1967. Fifth Dimension marked the first album by early folk rockers to break away from folk rock into folk rock psychedelia. And where they flew many would follow."<br /><br /><span style="font-size:85%;">The Byrds onstage in the early days playing "Mr. Tambourine Man."<br />(left to right) David Crosby on guitar and vocals, Chris Hillman on bass,<br />Gene Clark on vocals and tambourine, Micheal Clarke on drums, and<br />Roger McGuinn on guitar and vocals.</span><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAna-wmsp9nqmP1ksbZWJAgNm9t4KvHZCaYqVKotOfvKPKycEO4Jtx2g3EG3KCeeo7KCYy2Bs2kT6Tk_uV0D_nisRVJDGMYj_PX05dS6mFB1LBBq7JrHFq4WxotgIiYTN5QgLCUb7iw1Jw/s1600-h/Byrds1.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 219px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAna-wmsp9nqmP1ksbZWJAgNm9t4KvHZCaYqVKotOfvKPKycEO4Jtx2g3EG3KCeeo7KCYy2Bs2kT6Tk_uV0D_nisRVJDGMYj_PX05dS6mFB1LBBq7JrHFq4WxotgIiYTN5QgLCUb7iw1Jw/s400/Byrds1.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5312435212094548946" border="0" /></a><br /><br />After Gene Clark's departure, Roger McGuinn became the band’s leader but shared much of the songwriting with David Crosby. You can immediately hear The Byrds expanding their sound on the brilliant <span style="font-style: italic;">Fifth Dimension</span> album. The second song "Wild Mountain Thyme," has some of the best harmonizing the band ever did together with amazing orchestration backing it. There is no doubt The Byrds’ folk harmonizing songs can be compared to bands like Simon and Garfunkel, The Beach Boys, and the super-group Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young. One thing to remember, though, is that none of the other bands mentioned ever came close to diving into the deep range of folk rock/psychedelia as The Byrds on <span style="font-style: italic;">Fifth Dimension</span>. Their lyrics were also a huge factor in bringing forth their music. The song "What's Happening ?!?!," David Crosby’s first song with The Byrds, has a sense of emotional confusion. Inside the liner notes to Fifth Dimension Crosby talks about the song, "It's a very strange song. It asks questions of what's going on here and who does it all belong to and why it is all going on. I just ask the questions because I really don't know the answers."<br /><br />The most haunting song on the album is "I Come and Stand at Every Door." The lyrics come from a poem by Nazim Hikmet, written in the voice of a seven year old who has been killed by the U.S. atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima during World War II. As Richie Unterberger points out, "I Come and Stand at Every Door," was taken even further from its origins by The Byrds' hypnotic electric chime-drone arrangement." The lyrics, along with McGuinn's stark voice, paint a dark picture, "I come and stand at every door but no one hears my silent prayer. I knock and yet remain unseen, for I am dead, for I am dead. I'm only seven although I died in Hiroshima long ago. I'm seven now as I was then when children die they do not grow." The song ends with the child pleading for peace, "All that I ask is that for peace, you fight today, you fight today, so that the children of this world may live and grow and laugh and play."<br /><br />As <span style="font-style: italic;">Fifth Dimension</span> continues it gets much more bluesy and electric with songs like the the band’s first instrumental recording "Captain Soul," which has some great harmonica playing. The strange "2-4-2 Fox Trot (The Lear Jet Song) " has all sorts of psychedelicized sounds to it, including airplane pilots talking on a radio with the Byrds chanting over it: "Go ride the lear jet baby.” One song that didn't make it onto the original album but deserved to be there was titled "Why." The song had been a B Side to the "Eight Miles High" single, and while The Byrds decided to include the latter song on the <span style="font-style: italic;">Fifth Dimension</span> a few months later, "Why" somehow didn't make the cut. With McGuinn playing his classic twelve-string Rickenbacker in a brilliant solo, "Why" has a classic Indian raga feel to it. It’s clear just how much Ravi Shankar was beginning to influence the band members , especially McGuinn and Crosby.<br /><br />Another David Crosby cut that failed to make the original release of the <span style="font-style: italic;">Fifth Dimension</span> LP, but is now included on the Bonus Tracks of the CD version, is "Pychodrama City," which shows how Crosby was stepping up to fill Gene Clark's shoes as a songwriter for the band.<br /><br /><span style="font-size:85%;">The cover to The Byrds </span><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:85%;" >Fifth Dimension</span><span style="font-size:85%;"> LP</span><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxX9Uaiz8_lKnw_X3fSbqH8ufiIZ43njv4EBLIt6R7ouKjhgnK2Yo1jzzSJ3GEE8qlsZz5A-UqqtTuCx3vJgNQuBno5wwWdvYCBh2QmB00rzswkFHKkvpOzFlZ5D7tm2OCygvgk-0pcN2_/s1600-h/1496.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 319px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxX9Uaiz8_lKnw_X3fSbqH8ufiIZ43njv4EBLIt6R7ouKjhgnK2Yo1jzzSJ3GEE8qlsZz5A-UqqtTuCx3vJgNQuBno5wwWdvYCBh2QmB00rzswkFHKkvpOzFlZ5D7tm2OCygvgk-0pcN2_/s320/1496.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5312431963971811058" border="0" /></a><br /><br />Despite the amazing the brilliance of <span style="font-style: italic;">Fifth Dimension</span>, The Byrds’ career was actually beginning to unravel. It wasn't just that their songs weren't topping the charts as they had with their first two albums, but also their live performances were getting worse. Somehow the superior material they were recording in the studio couldn't translate into their live shows, and the press began to notice their decline. As bassist Chris Hillman says in Unterberger's Eight Miles High book, "It's funny, we went from being better live in the early days to better in the studio later on, and became too lackadaisical onstage."<br /><br />The Byrds didn't even make the 1967 Monterey Pop Festival movie because their performance was so bad; David Crosby spent most of his time onstage endorsing LSD and talking about the conspiracy in President John F. Kennedy's assassination.<br /><br />Also, personal turmoil within the band was starting to tear the group apart. David Crosby's ego was starting to take over, and he and McGuinn often disagreed about recording songs. "He was becoming insufferable," Roger McGuinn confessed to the magazine Goldmire thirty-five years later. “He really didn't like us anymore. He was angry with all the rest of The Byrds. He would say things like, ‘You guys aren't good enough musicians to be playing with me.’" In the same Goldmire article, Crosby admitted, "I don't think I was easy to get along with or work with then. I think I was young, and egotistical, and wanting more space for myself. I wanted to do more writing and have more music credits. It's very unfortunate. It was one of the best musical chemistries ever." Also the entire band started to gang up against drummer Michael Clarke as they regarded him the least talented in the group and often taunted him if he didn't get his takes right. This can be heard on the bonus tracks of their fifth album, <span style="font-style: italic;">The Notorious Byrd Brothers</span>. Somehow, despite all the bickering within the band, they actually managed to put out two more classic albums with most of the original lineup intact.<br /><br />Their follow up to <span style="font-style: italic;">Fifth Dimension</span> was <span style="font-style: italic;">Younger Than Yesterday</span>, released in 1967. It ranked 124 in Rolling Stone’s top 500 albums of all time. Roger McGuinn and Chris Hillman wrote "So You Want To Be A Rock N' Roll Star," about their decline in mainstream music popularity. The Byrds also added another mind-blowing Bob Dylan cover, "My Back Pages," as well as recording "Have You Seen Her Face," which were both fantastic group efforts for The Byrds. Everything is there, the guitars, the percussion, the bass, the harmonies, everything. Unterberger makes a great point when he states, "’My Back Pages,’" ironically considering its lyric about turning a back on the past, was a retreat to the device that had brought them the stardom they mocked in ‘So You Want To Be A Rock N' Roll Star.’" The lyrics in the chorous of "My Back Pages": "I was so much older then, I'm younger than that now," also connected to the title of the album <span style="font-style: italic;">Younger Than Yesterday .</span><br /><br /><span style="font-size:85%;">left to right: David Crosby, Chris Hillman and Roger McGuinn of The Byrds onstage in the 1960s.</span><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOPYTf6NfnuTH-9J1JEbqudQZ-WphqnytISWJAJt7rSAsXpS2VfAICF1Gv7Y0gJqYBBi6mgsR67CutLVnz6l0chSZPHxXKsVU2N28VvPNEEAIYmSZMVq_P5z7cUk5hsPU-KeNQeIEg3zHP/s1600-h/The+Byrds+live.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 268px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOPYTf6NfnuTH-9J1JEbqudQZ-WphqnytISWJAJt7rSAsXpS2VfAICF1Gv7Y0gJqYBBi6mgsR67CutLVnz6l0chSZPHxXKsVU2N28VvPNEEAIYmSZMVq_P5z7cUk5hsPU-KeNQeIEg3zHP/s400/The+Byrds+live.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5312432616355038002" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><br />The next Byrds album released in 1968, <span style="font-style: italic;">The Notorious Byrd Brothers</span>, is regarded by many to be their best work, which is hard to believe considering what went on in the studio during these recordings. David Crosby ended up writing three of his best songs ever for the album. "Draft Morning" was about the Vietnam War, with classic lines about what it was like to be a soldier, "Take my time this morning, no hurry, to learn to kill and take the will from unknown faces." He also wrote "Tribal Gathering," about the Gathering of the Tribes Festival in Golden Gate Park, San Francisco, and another song, "Dolphins Smile," which was the first showing of his fascination for the sea, which would come out in many more of his songs written with Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young like "Wooden Ships". Crosby also wrote a song The Byrds considered too controversial to put on the album called "Triad." It’s about a man trying to convince a woman to join him and another woman in a relationship of three people, with a chorus singing, "I really don't see, why can't we go on as three?" Because of The Byrds refusal to put "Triad" on <span style="font-style: italic;">The Notorious Byrd Brothers</span>, Crosby refused to even take part in the recording of possibly the best cover The Byrds ever did, "Goin Back," which was originally written by Carole King and Gerry Goffin. "Goin Back" as Rolling Stone writer David Fricke points out, "conveys a sense of irresistible longing for a golden age of childhood purity. Thematically, the song recalled the title of their last album <span style="font-style: italic;">Younger Than Yesterday</span>, which had touched on similar notions of wisdom in innocence." Because of Crosby's lack of participation, (supposedly he sat on the couch in the studio during the whole recording of "Goin Back"), coupled with his disagreeable manner, McGuinn and the rest of The Byrds decided to fire him in the middle of the recording sessions. Michael Clarke was the next Byrd to fly the nest, as he was tired of being told what to play and how to sound by the rest of the band. Drummer Jim Gordon who worked with Delaney and Bonnie as well as Derek and the Dominoes replaced Clarke as drummer for the remainder of the recordings. Yet Clarke's picture was shown on the cover of the album while Crosby's was blurted out with a horse, showing the other members anger towards him. Although it would be Crosby who would have the last laugh, as he would eventually form Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, which would surpass The Byrds in fame as the 1960s drew to a close; indeed the band became the biggest supergroup in folk rock history.<br /><br />The Byrds also did another extraordinary King/Goffin cover titled "Wasn't Born To Follow," which ended up on the cult 1960s motorcycle/road movie Easy Rider soundtrack. As David Fricke points out, "It was used in one of the memorable sequences to express the rider's sense of liberation from straight society." "Wasn't Born To Follow" had a great psychedelic breakdown in the middle with some of the best harmonizing The Byrds ever did, and it shouldn't surprise people that they were the main band on the Easy Rider soundtrack, along with Steppenwolf, representing the counterculture movement of the 1960s. You would think that the firing of Crosby and the departure of Clarke would cause <span style="font-style: italic;">The Notorious Byrd Brothers </span>to suffer now that The Byrds were down to just a two-piece band with Roger McGuinn and Chris Hillman, but somehow they managed. For one, Hillman stepped up to become a great songwriter with songs like "Artificial Energy," which unlike "Eight Miles High" was actually a song about drugs, but this time nobody batted an eye. Hillman also wrote the majestically beautiful "Natural Harmony," which Ritchie Unterberger calls, "a blend of rustic past and electronic future." McGuinn was also a key factor in making <span style="font-style: italic;">The Notorious Byrd Brothers</span> the best album in The Byrds’ catalog, as he was the most stable force within the group, and unlike Crosby was always was very professional to work with in the studio. McGuinn and Hillman would compose some of their best material together as a duo on the album with songs like "Get To You," "Change Is Now," and "Old John Robertson,” introducing a more country sound that complemented their folk rock, and signified the direction they would be headed in their sixth album <span style="font-style: italic;">Sweetheart At The Rodeo</span>. Perhaps McGuinn's strongest contribution to The Notorious Byrd Brothers was the final song on the album "Space Odyssey," which was based on an Arthur Clarke short story that Stanley Kubrick would also base his movie 2001: A Space Odyssey on. Unterberger writes about "Space Odyssey: "It was The Byrds furthest reaching electronic voyage. No other Byrds track reached at once so far back to the past and so far into the future. McGuinn had notions of taking that concept even further with The Byrds next album. But "Space Odyssey" was as far as he got due in part to the fashion in which Hillman and newcomer, guitarist/vocalist Gram Parsons, would become co-captains of the group's ship in 1968." Parsons would lead The Byrds even further into a country rock direction on <span style="font-style: italic;">Sweetheart At The Rodeo</span>, which also proved to be very influential in the evolution of folk rock into country, which Bob Dylan also explored in his Nashville Skyline album. Although Parsons was only a member of The Byrds for a short time there is no doubt he would deeply influence the future direction McGuinn would lead the band. Parsons would be fired from The Byrds tour by McGuiin and Hillman as he refused to perform at a concert in South Africa, which would end his brief stint in the band.<br /><br />Overall, there was nothing in folk rock like The Byrds from the years 1965-1968. Despite their brief stint at a creative peak, The Byrds accomplished more in four years than most bands can accomplish in decades of work. They just had so many creative forces in the band. First they had Gene Clark writing tons of great material; they also had the ability to make any Bob Dylan or Pete Seeger song sound different and original. Once Roger McGuinn and David Crosby’s songwriting abilities fully blossomed the band had the power to compose music along the lines of Lennon and McCartney. Yes, they were America's answer to The Beatles! Later, even Hillman would prove to be a great writer and would go off to form The Flying Burrito Brothers with Gram Parsons and Micheal Clarke, leaving McGuinn as the lone original member left in The Byrds’ nest While McGuinn's work with The Byrds minus the original members isn't as great to listen to, there are still songs like "Chestnut Mare" off The Byrds 1971 <span style="font-style: italic;">Untitled</span> album that still stand out. If you want to embrace a musical journey that leads you to the depths of these creative geniuses, nothing should be left unheard.<br /><br />Note: The site for Richie Unterberger, the author I quote in this article, is really worth checking out. He has also written a prequel to the Eight Miles High book called Turn! Turn! Turn! which covers The Byrds earlier folk-rock material in great detail.<br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg43DSf2P91morxoJMY9ZThtD2ojjhdjMY8pvAPVSX6XwYod_g8ouDTACZQzyR137kZssMEtwWM2LFhsd8mbXLd8uU7Mov4U4XzMP_YPITHAYdChIRFbxAhR6x02EIMVPCjsqfOaeuev9XH/s1600-h/byrd67mmmf.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 214px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg43DSf2P91morxoJMY9ZThtD2ojjhdjMY8pvAPVSX6XwYod_g8ouDTACZQzyR137kZssMEtwWM2LFhsd8mbXLd8uU7Mov4U4XzMP_YPITHAYdChIRFbxAhR6x02EIMVPCjsqfOaeuev9XH/s320/byrd67mmmf.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5303884396050028402" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="font-size:85%;">Roger McGuinn playing live in concert with The Byrds<br /></span><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><img src="file:///Users/bobspilsbury/Library/Caches/TemporaryItems/moz-screenshot.jpg" alt="" /><img src="file:///Users/bobspilsbury/Library/Caches/TemporaryItems/moz-screenshot-1.jpg" alt="" /><img src="file:///Users/bobspilsbury/Library/Caches/TemporaryItems/moz-screenshot-2.jpg" alt="" /><img src="file:///Users/bobspilsbury/Library/Caches/TemporaryItems/moz-screenshot-3.jpg" alt="" /><img src="file:///Users/bobspilsbury/Library/Caches/TemporaryItems/moz-screenshot-4.jpg" alt="" />Bob Spilsburyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00433521057898667416noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4692808728945392087.post-33347401009839871122009-02-03T12:57:00.000-08:002009-02-23T13:36:46.126-08:00Dark Oz and The Moody Lyons Rock the Retox Lounge<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhi3GzvDs3lcdtqotlJSa_bCtaxVBy0pmSOnHABZPcyfHqltCynTlR9W2txnuUw6Fl5CSsr1JnQ0pis0Sv2fOUXWlkltrsyX1X-qQ543VnsHL0QZENcjjTHkq_Dz-N-ipYrsEBRMrWBb6ky/s1600-h/Dark+Oz.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhi3GzvDs3lcdtqotlJSa_bCtaxVBy0pmSOnHABZPcyfHqltCynTlR9W2txnuUw6Fl5CSsr1JnQ0pis0Sv2fOUXWlkltrsyX1X-qQ543VnsHL0QZENcjjTHkq_Dz-N-ipYrsEBRMrWBb6ky/s400/Dark+Oz.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5306106739977770466" border="0" /></a><br />Dark Oz: Lady Layne and Brain Scarecrow take the stage.<br /><br />Arriving at the Retox Lounge last Thursday, January 29, I was struck with some deja' vu. I had been here once before a little over a year ago to see my friend Ryan play a show with his band. The basement where musicians perform has a very distinct look with the design of airline windows and flight seats, as well as a large Jimi Hendrix poster.<br /><br />The opening band that night was Dark Oz, who I hadn't even planned to film, but once I heard this two-piece band there was no way I could pass. Dark Oz, consists of two members, vocalist/guitarist/harmonica/mandolin player Brain Scarecrow and Lady Layne who plays the tambourine, xylophonics, and keyboards. Dark Oz list their main influences as Led Zeppelin and Jefferson Airplane on their myspace page, but you would never guess that with their slow, accoustic guitar driven sound. Their music is very laid back, and maybe you can hear a trace of <span style="font-style: italic;">Led Zeppelin III</span> with a song like "Scarecrow" when the harmonica comes in with a bit of folk rock/bluesy feel to it. The way the band describes their music as a phychic explosion, I can see in their music with songs like "Crystal Ship," or even the more electric "Stripper Song". Comparing them to Jefferson Airplane though, seems a bit far out especially after the Airplane's first album when they almost completely abandoned their folk roots to become an all out psychedelic/acid rock band.<br /><br />Dark Oz opened their set with the spacy accoustic guitar jam of "Crystal Ship," with the xylophone bringing in a in a high pitch of clarity. The lyrics to this song were so beautiful to listen to especially in quiet but distinct voice Brain Scarecrow uses. The song begins "Stars are falling, voices calling you. Time for leaving there must be something that you never knew." The lyrics get even better as the song goes into the chorus as Brain sings, "I was on a crystal ship that crashed into the mist. She was waiting on the shore where the sand the waves kissed." The lyrics continue to get more psychedelic as the song goes on, "Blanket memories that hold on tightly can you break free. When you're looking out the window can you even sometimes see emerald towers in the early hours of the afternoon. Blue moon rising, your sign is coming soon." This might be the best song Dark Oz has in their catalog right now, bringing fourth a bridge between human memory and illusion, and is probably the direction they want their music to head in as they progress in the future. The yellow brick road the band is on will only continue to grow beyond the reaches of the Golden Gate Bridge as Dark Oz have already been added to i tunes and have started to gain a nice following. As the i tunes review of Dark Oz states on their <a href="http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=245853135">myspace </a>page, "The songs are as diverse as the megaflora in this strange land, ranging from poppies to lollipops, talking trees to mushroom houses. Brain Scarecrow, your multi-instrumental visionary songwriter guide on this amazing journey, leads you through a dream of technicolor textures that is playful one minute and alarmingly surreal the next."<br /><br />"How do the vocals sound, did you guys here 'em'?" asked Brain after "Crystal Ship." The crowd cheered. With that, Brain, who was in stage costume with a Scarecrow outfit including yellow scarecrow straw hair, launched into a song that is not on their CD <span style="font-style: italic;">Blowin Breeze Through Talkin Trees</span> and according to him,"we never play live." The song has a similar feel to "Crystal Ship," but with a slightly more rocking feel to it. Still the lyrics are so innovative, and remind me of nothing coming out right now "I started dreaming beside that flower field. Seasons stole my heart and my desperation was revealed. I started sleeping beneath that blanket sun that burned straight through my eyelids and I knew my time was done. I've been out walking where the brick road meets the sand. Washed up and broken like shells from foreign lands." If this song had made it onto<span style="font-style: italic;"> </span><span style="font-style: italic;">Blowin Breeze Through Talkin Trees </span>it would easily be in the top three of best songs to listen to.<br /><br />Brain Scarecrow dressed up as a pirate at a previous show<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6pvqRVByowuxB_hEOSwfOBkG2Pi0xOkHBYOWW3ZE61q-8XU_r8PwOfjMjEOlIyRBXewuQlCi21kf5fFFzKrv90AZZvH_K1g_1ACYbcaQvlLwG2GvTBGuViFVSS4pFQBaFhpBukCjpZUdS/s1600-h/brainscarecrow.jpj.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6pvqRVByowuxB_hEOSwfOBkG2Pi0xOkHBYOWW3ZE61q-8XU_r8PwOfjMjEOlIyRBXewuQlCi21kf5fFFzKrv90AZZvH_K1g_1ACYbcaQvlLwG2GvTBGuViFVSS4pFQBaFhpBukCjpZUdS/s400/brainscarecrow.jpj.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5306108032993690290" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><br />Matt Harman of The Moody Lyons in the zone with his electric guitar<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjV7MVBTZV7-7xpK1XoXKeVlLMywsNSOO8UUkXuwl1aOXRJ5S4As8saydKfTM9fFJMR3YoTYcSTSNvN1BbbUQSMUb-ITPY7iBZOL52xX24VLzH24mWRJ_aTd4aruBPYrTKV-vCvY4qXngT6/s1600-h/Matt+harman.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 267px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjV7MVBTZV7-7xpK1XoXKeVlLMywsNSOO8UUkXuwl1aOXRJ5S4As8saydKfTM9fFJMR3YoTYcSTSNvN1BbbUQSMUb-ITPY7iBZOL52xX24VLzH24mWRJ_aTd4aruBPYrTKV-vCvY4qXngT6/s400/Matt+harman.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5306108565970443954" border="0" /></a><br />The Moody Lyons played a heavy and heartfilled long set that featured all their best known songs, including some newer ones that nobody had heard perfomed live before. Before the set even started everyone was singing a drunken happy birthday to Eric Olson who just turned 21. The lights were dimmed and then Matt Harman whacked the opening chords of "Broke Busted and Disgusted," which had a New York Dolls sound to it. The band played hard despite feedback, getting the crowd into it as Aaron shoved the mic into the crowds face during the chorus. The song ended with Harman and Matthew Kelly battling back and fourth with heavy guitar and drum playing showcasing their skills.<br /><br />The excitement of the show reached one of its peak levels when The Moody Lyons transititoned their melodic love song "She's So Fine," into their Ramones meets The Stooges inspired "Sometimes I Just Want To Sit." The whole crowd began chanting along to Harmon's vocals and the band slashed through some of their heaviest and most punk rock material. Harmon looking like a true rock star with a striped black and white shirt, shoulder-length hair, goatee, and big sunglasses, headbanging along as he sang about "tales from the crypt on Halloween". This may have been the highlight song fof The Moody Lyons all night as their sound was its most pure and there was hardly any of the guitar feedback that plagued their PA system. Kelly bashed out a killer drum solo seconds before the song came to a dramatic close.<br /><br />The Moody Lyons best song and the one I was looking forward to most "Lyons Lament" came a few songs later. Harmon introduced the song by saying, "Sometimes a lion has to lament and by lament we mean masturbating or taking shit or working some hard ass job that nobody else wants to do but us." Robert Serviss added, "This song is about a lion, it's about a lion that's past his prime. This song goes out to all you lions out there because you got to fucking roar." With that Eric Olson launched into his beautiful keyboard introduction, which led into Harmon's most psychedelic sounding guitar soloing. The lyrics did not sound as loud as they do on the Ep but that didn't matter as the soloing by Matt Harmon was phenomenally on key, while the rest of the band absolutely pounded their instruments. Matthew Kelly led another strong breakdown with his drums and soon Olson's keys could be heard above the rhythm section as he traded solos with Harmon. Soon were both were soloing at the same time building into a crescendo of somber reflection that the song portrays.<br /><br />Many may have thought this to be a suitable closer to The Moody Lyons set but the band wasn't quite ready to end things at The Retox. The Lyons launched into a series of covers by The Meters, J.J Jackson, and The Yardbirds. The most compelling of all was the cover of rock's first psychedelic sounding British Invasion band The Yardbirds "For Your Love." The song which is included on the <span style="font-style: italic;">Fear and Loathing In Las Vegas</span> soundtrack was actually the original reason Eric Clapton quit The Yardbirds because he thought they were getting too commercial. Clapton must have been crazy, as this is definitley one of the best songs written by a British band in the 1960s. The excitement reached another high during "For Your Love," as a random fan of the Lyons jumped onstage and occompanied Harmon, and rhythm guitarist Aaron chanting lines like "For your love, I'll give you everything and more and that's for sure. For your love, I'll bring you diamond rings and things right to your door. To thrill you with delight I''ll bring you diamonds bright. Lovely things that will excite to make you dream of me at night. For your love I would give the stars above." After the song was over the rude owner of the Retox shouted "Where is the funk dude?" which silenced the crowd who were actually quite happy hearing the Moody Lyons interpretation of "For Your Love.". After the show was over the owner continued to belligerently harass the band about their sound as I tried to interview them for this article. He not only gave unconstructive critcism but also prevented me from producing a solid interview. Overall though if the owner was angry at the sound of the band he only had himself to blame as he was also handling their pa equipment. I thought it was a solid performance and was glad The Lyons could expand their set to their liking and not be forced to play only a few numbers as they had in the past.<br /><br />The Moody Lyons will be sharing the bill again with Dark Oz at The Rockit Room in San Francisco on February 12.<br /><br />Dark Oz also has two more shows scheduled for this month on February 14 and February 28 both at Java Beach in San Francisco.<br /><br />Lady Layne of Dark Oz<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRUPcgxtIRF0UXkk2NiuHDO2AM_i612-j3urPyv2PE3MLzs1VfYf47IaCxLw6pZLsrHA68du99wBqP9DbYQNXBKHJdpKnwQJwcZLM9zyBjYxgu6aE8xltmb2bp57wgyhm87LlVC1jddTPA/s1600-h/Ladylayne.jpj.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRUPcgxtIRF0UXkk2NiuHDO2AM_i612-j3urPyv2PE3MLzs1VfYf47IaCxLw6pZLsrHA68du99wBqP9DbYQNXBKHJdpKnwQJwcZLM9zyBjYxgu6aE8xltmb2bp57wgyhm87LlVC1jddTPA/s400/Ladylayne.jpj.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5306109205816561538" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br />Eric Olson, keyboardist of The Moody Lyons<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxewjBq68eGZ-O7HjZA7VZkNk9EF6F8fRViU1E2IwN28lij0J51BYcVy_BaOytd10S-Zz8IZWzpvh9W1GaZl6iMznyrXfuPIpcsQ4QMq2byYgNcEnbFMdgypA-UJZDicDAVoeKCatO3EvN/s1600-h/Eric+Olson.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 267px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxewjBq68eGZ-O7HjZA7VZkNk9EF6F8fRViU1E2IwN28lij0J51BYcVy_BaOytd10S-Zz8IZWzpvh9W1GaZl6iMznyrXfuPIpcsQ4QMq2byYgNcEnbFMdgypA-UJZDicDAVoeKCatO3EvN/s400/Eric+Olson.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5306109690995515602" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Moody Lyons Setlist</span><br />1.Broke Busted and Disgusted<br />2.Lyons Theme Song<br />3.Cold As Hell<br />4.She's So Fine<br />5.Sometimes I Want To Sit<br />6.Cissy Strut<br />7.Paint The White House Black<br />8.Lyons Lament<br />9.Six Foot Strut (cover originally written by The Meters)<br />10.It's Alright (cover originally written by J.J. Jackson)<br />11.For Your Love (originally written by The Yardbirds)Bob Spilsburyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00433521057898667416noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4692808728945392087.post-84468050905389413852009-01-27T21:20:00.000-08:002009-04-10T10:17:40.937-07:00The Dead, Phish and The Allman Brothers Band Touring This Year<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbPkrrYWqNaaC7aJcuAgv7I_P_Snl-ycWH39iSbb3AsZxB7O6xcZzAxkmEmEavoa_haG_Enihlcfmh208MzuA-ni1XYBQetv-6XyM3esZvtxF8lsQ-qEjn-zVeP8lqKBcUZSaSgT4_Bczj/s1600-h/the_grateful_dead1.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 354px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbPkrrYWqNaaC7aJcuAgv7I_P_Snl-ycWH39iSbb3AsZxB7O6xcZzAxkmEmEavoa_haG_Enihlcfmh208MzuA-ni1XYBQetv-6XyM3esZvtxF8lsQ-qEjn-zVeP8lqKBcUZSaSgT4_Bczj/s400/the_grateful_dead1.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5303891956278808978" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:85%;" >The legendary original Grateful Dead lineup consisted of left to right:<br />drummer Mickey Hart, bassist Phil Lesh, guitarist/vocalist Bob Weir,<br />drummer Bill Kreutzman, keyboardist/vocalist Ron "Pigpen" McKernan,<br />and vocalist/guitarist Jerry Garcia<br /></span><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwyndBEQ6bfA1de3u4_R-tJlZsEYxapBdVHQjMqogGt6GazdofzEOaXwbVc73tA908teq12IzMa66XA8g28AS0GCPQf5BNqsGMPlFI0ovFYNql8AF6tXbE3E9n1aMyZSkjduhhNku5WS9g/s1600-h/bobweircolor.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwyndBEQ6bfA1de3u4_R-tJlZsEYxapBdVHQjMqogGt6GazdofzEOaXwbVc73tA908teq12IzMa66XA8g28AS0GCPQf5BNqsGMPlFI0ovFYNql8AF6tXbE3E9n1aMyZSkjduhhNku5WS9g/s320/bobweircolor.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5303886955030793042" border="0" /></a>Last year it seemed like jam bands were on the decline after the 90,000-person hippie festival Bonnaroo, held in Manchester, Tennessee, featured Metallica and Pearl Jam as the main acts. It appears that a few bands I never expected to play together again are going to hit the road this spring.<br /><br />To begin with The Dead have decided to tour starting this April 12, in Greensboro North Carolina. The tour will go until May 10, with a show in Mountain View, California. The Dead have not toured since 2004, when a bitter conflict between Phil Lesh and Bob Weir drove the band apart. From what I understand, the story goes that bassist Phil Lesh wanted to allow free Grateful Dead downloads while guitarist/vocalist Bob Weir was against it and wanted some sort of compensation for it. After this disagreement both Weir and Lesh did not speak to each other for a long time.<br /><br />I was shocked last spring of 2008, when I attended a Phil Lesh and Friends show at The Warfield in San Francisco, and Bob Weir walked out onstage to join Lesh in a full performance of the entire self-titled Grateful Dead debut album in the first set, and then came back on to perform <span style="font-style: italic;">Anthem of the Sun</span> in its entirety. It was hands down one of the best performances I had ever seen and it felt so good to know Bobby and Phil had finally buried the hatchet. Just seeing them go into an extended psychedelic jam in a song like "The Other One," or watching Weir chant, "Couple more shots of whiskey these Frisco girls start looking good," was an immaculate experience, especially because The Warfield is such a small venue, and even though I had seats on the balcony it felt close.<br /><br />When I heard The Dead were playing for the Barack Obama campaign I knew there was a distinct possibility they could get back together and tour. Now my wishes have come true, and I do hope to attend The Dead's concert in Mounain View. The lineup for the tour will feature the four original members who are still living, Bob Weir, Phil Lesh, and drummers Mickey Hart and Bill Kreutzmann. Mickey Hart recently told <span style="font-style: italic;">Rolling Stone Magazin</span>e, "We woke up and said 'why aren't we doing this?' It seems like it was one of the things we enjoyed most in our lives. The idea was to let it rest and let it come back to life on its own without pushing it. This kind of music you can't make unless you like this guy." Hart also mentioned he hopes the tour helps the country's overall mood and also the economy. He assumes it will be a successful as most Dead tours have been, even without Jerry Garcia who was the heart and soul of The Grateful Dead for most of their existence. Still there is no doubt that the rest of the band still has plenty of talent, as Weir and Lesh have both written some of the most memorable songs in The Grateful Dead catalog including Lesh's "Box of Rain" and Weir's "Sugar Magnolia," "Let It Grow," "Looks Like Rain," and "Jack Straw." Nobody should forget that Lesh and Weir helped Garcia write The Grateful Dead anthem "Truckin" off their incredible 1970 album <span style="font-style: italic;">American Beauty</span>. Other members to play with The Dead are keyboardist Jeff Chimenti and guitarist/vocalist Warren Haynes, also a member of Govn't Mule and The Allman Brothers Band. What a long strange trip it must seem to be at this point in The Dead's career. For more information on what both Phil Lesh and Bob Weir think of The Dead's reunion and also for a complete list of the upcoming concerts they will perform check out <a href="http://www.inquisitr.com/14430/the-dead-tour-dates-2009/">inquistir.com<br /></a><br />Another great jam band that broke up in 2004 and has now decided to reform is Phish. Guitarist Trey Anastasio, drummer Jon Fishman, keyboardist Page McConnell and bassist Mike Gordon will reform also this spring by kicking off a tour on March 6th in Virginia. The last tour date is June 21st in Wisconsin. To my disappointment there are no shows booked on the West Coast thus far, but hopefully if Phish still feels comfortable playing together they will add more dates later this year. It's strange to think this band is getting back together when four years ago I remember Trey Anastasio saying Phish was over for good, he could only take playing a sixteen-minute jam like "You Enjoy Myself" so many times. It will be interesting to see what Phish's setlist will look like for a band famous for once performing The Beatles <span style="font-style: italic;">White Album </span>in its entirety or The Velvet Underground's <span style="font-style: italic;">Loaded.</span> I just hope they come out and play some of the classics like <span style="font-style: italic;">"</span>Birds of a Feather", off <span style="font-style: italic;">Story Of A Ghost<span style="font-style: italic;">,</span></span> or the bass driven "Down With Disease," off <span style="font-style: italic;">Hoist</span>. For more info on Phish's reunion tour and how to score tickets to their first show in Hampton, Virginia check out this article on <a href="http://www.rollingstone.com/rockdaily/index.php/2008/10/01/phish-reunite-plan-virginia-concerts-for-march-2009/">rollingstone.com</a><br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:85%;" >Phish: left to right Jonathan Fishman, Trey Anastasio,<br />Page McConnell, and Mike Gordon</span><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghLOf_UlI8YtX-jk8Lc5DGEgMwKiQecF0vD8oQTIi7nALZE-0UuPd2hvDgax5cN8UroWVBDtZgIJYM9MvmK1tGt2EKrOTlYfhR7Lto9QHTVjac4W1s4UEUz9kIIbMBey4nXbfwH5ByqD8C/s1600-h/Phish+backstage"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 183px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghLOf_UlI8YtX-jk8Lc5DGEgMwKiQecF0vD8oQTIi7nALZE-0UuPd2hvDgax5cN8UroWVBDtZgIJYM9MvmK1tGt2EKrOTlYfhR7Lto9QHTVjac4W1s4UEUz9kIIbMBey4nXbfwH5ByqD8C/s320/Phish+backstage" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5303888782372972290" border="0" /></a><br /><br />The Allman Brothers Band, another jam band that has had decades of success, were recently out of action in 2008, due to vocalist/organist Gregg Allman's battle with Hepatitis C. They will return to action this year on March 9th at The Beacon Theatre in New York to play ten shows to celebrate their fortieth anniversary as a band. It's been confirmed by drummer Butch Trucks that there will be guest musicians on the bill that The Allman Brothers have specifically invited to play. The musicians rumored to be picked are guitarist Eric Clapton and Boz Scaggs, who both played with The Allman Brothers original slide guitarist, the late Duane Allman. As for the other recent rumor that the other original guitarist of The Allman Brothers Band, Dickey Betts, will play again with the band, after being fired in 2000, has been termed "way off," by Trucks. Hopefully it will be a great set of shows and will feature classic Allman Brothers tunes like "Dreams" and "Whipping Post" both live favorites off their original self titled debut album. Also let's all imagine how great it would be to see Eric Clapton soloing to a song like the electrifying instrumental "In Memory of Elizabeth Reed," while Gregg Allman plays the organ to compliment the beautiful sound. To read about the rumors swirling over who will play with the Allmans at The Beacon, and also hear what Allman Brothers guitarist Derek Trucks has to say about the upcoming shows check out this <a href="http://www.ericclapton-online.com/guest-sessions/eric-clapton-and-allman-brothers-band-at-the-beacon-theatre-2009.html">Eric Clapton</a> site.<br /><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-style: italic;">Gregg Allman of The Allman Brothers Band<br />playing guitar at Farm Aid, on Randall's Island,<br />New York, 2007.</span></span><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhECa5KpY6nxBjge0aNUdT4w8T8i7CP0O12HllEuuXKzDTh-NXU1FMPrsNXg4b8tqKs79jMDg4K0M7D-HSfK_g6Bs1l_mYbkhA2agZVlZwySNgcWHwgddj94kgaDEAp4imfhc9OzRj4UOU7/s1600-h/Gregg+Allman"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 238px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhECa5KpY6nxBjge0aNUdT4w8T8i7CP0O12HllEuuXKzDTh-NXU1FMPrsNXg4b8tqKs79jMDg4K0M7D-HSfK_g6Bs1l_mYbkhA2agZVlZwySNgcWHwgddj94kgaDEAp4imfhc9OzRj4UOU7/s320/Gregg+Allman" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5303890608287674962" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-style: italic;">Just thought I would add this great<br />Phish/Grateful Dead cartoon.</span></span><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjD7UCtJH7d7qT9P0XiRytNc80ua6iZEyPFrqGkbiNMJLsXCiFkPSujAR_ctZ5EZ8gsM6up9yD8YLbSYGJDqy5nFKBFJlFCk-k4Rn3yM48Q2tFBYEbGcccD_k2qJUr-2YoxFQxshMvapy2X/s1600-h/Phish+cartoon"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 269px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjD7UCtJH7d7qT9P0XiRytNc80ua6iZEyPFrqGkbiNMJLsXCiFkPSujAR_ctZ5EZ8gsM6up9yD8YLbSYGJDqy5nFKBFJlFCk-k4Rn3yM48Q2tFBYEbGcccD_k2qJUr-2YoxFQxshMvapy2X/s320/Phish+cartoon" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5303894239710771266" border="0" /></a>Bob Spilsburyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00433521057898667416noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4692808728945392087.post-91407758922627604142009-01-26T09:25:00.000-08:002009-02-23T13:42:06.657-08:00The Moody Lyons of San Francisco<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHWMYKKI-OJEVl3WdmKbFEgAvQ_SX7a5VXAScgy9muiW6WBJ-4bUq_XicBqlDSs1AjIEm8JQwE37Y0eq5OZOTZea3UQ_lryNMMGLsjbLnFlccuGANOi84kLjWVGe6dZHJTZ8Thrgjvdflz/s1600-h/The+Moody+Lyons.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHWMYKKI-OJEVl3WdmKbFEgAvQ_SX7a5VXAScgy9muiW6WBJ-4bUq_XicBqlDSs1AjIEm8JQwE37Y0eq5OZOTZea3UQ_lryNMMGLsjbLnFlccuGANOi84kLjWVGe6dZHJTZ8Thrgjvdflz/s400/The+Moody+Lyons.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5306110536674998594" border="0" /></a><br />The Moody Lyons are left to right, Eric Olson, Robert Serviss, Matt Harman and Matthew Kelly.<br /><br />Everyone should listen to the San Francisco band The Moody Lyons, who recently played a great show downtown. The four-piece band consisting of vocalist/guitarist Matt Harman, bassist Robert Serviss, keyboardist Eric Olson, and drummer Matthew Kelly, who all met at San Francisco State College, are now beginning to be very serious musicians. They all share a house in Daly City on the outskirts of San Francisco, where they have all their instruments set up to practice in the basement, where they play really loud.<br /><br />The Moody Lyons have recently released an EP titled <span style="font-style: italic;">Broke, Busted & Disgusted </span>that consists of four songs. The first one, "Sometimes I Just Want To Sit," reminds me a lot of The Ramones, who are one of the many bands the Moody Lyons worship. The band actually has a wide variety of influences that range from classic punk bands like The Clash, to glam punk like The New York Dolls, and then there is that 60s classic guitar rock influence like The Rolling Stones and The Yardbirds.<br /><br />"Sometimes I Just Want To Sit" is definitley a punk song with a lot of energy with the "Let's go! Alright!" chant sounding a lot like The Ramones "Blitzkrieg Bop," which has a similer tempo when they sing, "Hey oh, let's go." The verses sound punk mixed with a bit of a psychedelic rock sound as the background vocals go, "Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh," behind the main punk rock vocal melody. Robert Serviss also breaks down this song in the middle with a really nice bass solo, which leads into a shredding guitar solo by Matt Harman and then back into another bass solo, and then a drum solo by Matthew Kelly, displaying the wide variety of talent within the band.<br /><br />The second song "Paint The White House Black" has a similar punk sound to "Sometimes I Just Want To Sit," but this time Eric Olson's keyboards come out a lot stronger to drive the overall riff in the song. This song reminds me a lot more of a rock song even though it has punk elements to it; you can see the influence of bands like The Rolling Stones.<br /><br />"Cold As Hell" begins with clapping and progresses with some loud punk verses by vocalist guitarist Harman. The middle of the song has an interesting keyboard solo by Olson and some more nice riffs that are once again reminicent of The Ramones classic sound with Harman shouting, "She's cold as hell."<br /><br />The final cut on the EP, the six-minute-plus "The Lyons Lament," is by far the masterpiece of the four songs. It sounds nothing like the other three in the sense that it has a lot more classic rock influence then punk. The song begins with a magnificent keyboard intro by Eric Olson that reminds me a lot of Jethro Tull's "Locomotive Breath." Then Kelly's drums come in leading into the beautiful guitar soloing of Matt Harman.The lyrics work fantastically with the song's bluesy guitar melody, "You keep saying, somebody save me. You go crazy, you go crazy. You get older, your life's colder." The song then breaks down with some more solid jamming between band members and comes to a close with more of Olson's keyboard fading out.<br /><br />Matt Harman strumming an acoustic guitar<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgB1VL0SbbVt6ghs5c1JZM2HCxgSKP2kDk-ksl-OFaNXNbrlTLVmsvDxq2dcZQdVCx9qBw5vY5ntINcmdiYFmvmnAtRBB79IpA-0JA91VJPSD5W2TnVL1EPEImwui37Pf8D1T9P5oa7P94M/s1600-h/harman.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgB1VL0SbbVt6ghs5c1JZM2HCxgSKP2kDk-ksl-OFaNXNbrlTLVmsvDxq2dcZQdVCx9qBw5vY5ntINcmdiYFmvmnAtRBB79IpA-0JA91VJPSD5W2TnVL1EPEImwui37Pf8D1T9P5oa7P94M/s400/harman.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5306110916618389666" border="0" /></a><br /><br />Overall The Moody Lyons seem to have a lot of potential to break through in the San Francisco music scene. They'll play in San Francisco at the Retox Lounge this Thursday, January 29th and their EP will be available to purchase. Another Moody Lyons show will be on February 12, in San Francisco at The Rockit Room. If you want to listen to their songs on <a href="http://www.myspace.com/themoodylyons">myspace</a> you should check them out.Bob Spilsburyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00433521057898667416noreply@blogger.com1