tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-59069205545472451282024-03-05T15:26:11.489+10:30Dr Robert Muller - Psychedelic Hippie FashionLearn all about hippie fashion, culture and music from the 1960s and 1970s. Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger631125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5906920554547245128.post-87130206046648647482018-01-31T20:24:00.001+10:302018-01-31T20:24:54.785+10:30The Horns on “Lady Madonna”<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">by <a href="http://www.culturesonar.com/author/culturesonaradmin/">The CS Team</a>, Culture Sonar:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><a href="http://www.culturesonar.com/the-horns-on-lady-madonna/">http://www.culturesonar.com/the-horns-on-lady-madonna/</a></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large; word-spacing: 1px;">There are plenty of interesting tidbits associated with “Lady Madonna.” It was the final single on the Parlophone label (future releases were on Apple Records). It was inspired in part by Fats Domino, who did a version of it later that year in 1968 (it’s also been covered by a slew of other artists such as Elvis Presley, Richie Havens, and Barry Gibb). But what might be most interesting about this tune is its brass section. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; word-spacing: 1px;">While the Fab Four were known to try on different instruments on occasion - Lennon on bass, Harrison on sitar, McCartney on drums - “Lady Madonna” probably marks the only time all four were responsible for the horns … in a manner of speaking. Watch this clip from </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><a href="https://shop.culturesonar.com/collections/deconstructing-the-beatles/products/deconstructing-the-beatles-white-album" rel="noopener" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #dd3333; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: 0.15s ease-in-out; vertical-align: baseline; word-spacing: 1px;"><em style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Deconstructing The White Album</em></a><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; word-spacing: 1px;"> for further details.</span>
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5906920554547245128.post-33512467160417102342018-01-13T22:37:00.000+10:302018-01-13T22:37:51.688+10:30Blind Faith Jars Rock Out of Its Doldrums<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">by John Morthland, Music Aficionado: <a href="https://web.musicaficionado.com/main.html?utm_source=email&utm_campaign=WeeklyRecommendations#!/article/Original_Blind_Faith_Review_by_rocksbackpages">https://web.musicaficionado.com/main.html?utm_source=email&utm_campaign=WeeklyRecommendations#!/article/Original_Blind_Faith_Review_by_rocksbackpages </a></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">The year 1969 has not been a very good one for rock and roll. Outside of <a class="PlayableAnchor" href="https://web.musicaficionado.com/main.html?utm_source=email&utm_campaign=WeeklyRecommendations#!/album/737831279" style="border: 0px; color: #a47f2d; text-decoration-line: none;">Tommy<span class="PlayableAnchorBox" style="white-space: nowrap;"><img class="PlayButton InlinePlayButton" data-route="#!/album/737831279" src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dm1lthkbw/image/fetch/w_25,d_missing_image_pixel_kktrqk.jpg,c_limit/https%3A%2F%2Fweb.musicaficionado.com%2Fimages%2FPlay_Gold_Circle_Outline.png" style="cursor: pointer; display: inline-block; margin: -2px 0px 0px 5px; max-width: 100%; padding: 0px; vertical-align: middle; width: 22px;" /></span></a> and <a href="https://web.musicaficionado.com/main.html?utm_source=email&utm_campaign=WeeklyRecommendations#!/artist/The%20Band" style="border: 0px; color: #a47f2d; text-decoration-line: none;">the Band</a>'s decision to go on tour, we haven't had much to get excited about.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">But the other arts have suffered as well. Like Jim Morrison in Miami and <a class="PlayableAnchor" href="https://web.musicaficionado.com/main.html?utm_source=email&utm_campaign=WeeklyRecommendations#!/album/910049942" style="border: 0px; color: #a47f2d; text-decoration-line: none;">John and Yoko on their album cover<span class="PlayableAnchorBox" style="white-space: nowrap;"><img class="PlayButton InlinePlayButton" data-route="#!/album/910049942" src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dm1lthkbw/image/fetch/w_25,d_missing_image_pixel_kktrqk.jpg,c_limit/https%3A%2F%2Fweb.musicaficionado.com%2Fimages%2FPlay_Gold_Circle_Outline.png" style="cursor: pointer; display: inline-block; margin: -2px 0px 0px 5px; max-width: 100%; padding: 0px; vertical-align: middle; width: 22px;" /></span></a>, the 'best' of the novel—Portnoy's Complaint, film—I Am Curious (Yellow) and theatre—numerous examples, have practically had to jerk off to their audiences in order to draw attention to otherwise-undistinguished products.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Art theorists have hypothesized that artists are usually most inspired in times of crisis, that the forces of history push them to greater personal achievements. Perhaps the reason this does not hold true today is that while crisis is one thing, times are getting out of hand. With scientists calmly packing away quart bottles of nerve gas that can kill fifty people with one drop, military helicopters staging air attacks on their own populations, and atrocities bizarre beyond the imagination, the artist, too, must eventually feel the strain. Art suffers at the hands of Reality.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><a href="https://web.musicaficionado.com/main.html?utm_source=email&utm_campaign=WeeklyRecommendations#!/artist/Blind%20Faith" style="border: 0px; color: #a47f2d; text-decoration-line: none;">Blind Faith</a> can be viewed as an attempt to jar rock out of these doldrums. The group is based on the idea that if you take three of the best soloists around and form them into a single smooth-functioning unit, the result will be one incredible rock band. Ego conflicts must be kept at a minimum; solos are taken not because someone feels like flashing for a while, but because the song calls for a solo at that point.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">The formula works nearly perfectly <a class="PlayableAnchor" href="https://web.musicaficionado.com/main.html?utm_source=email&utm_campaign=WeeklyRecommendations#!/album/849443008" style="border: 0px; color: #a47f2d; text-decoration-line: none;">on this album<span class="PlayableAnchorBox" style="white-space: nowrap;"><img class="PlayButton InlinePlayButton" data-route="#!/album/849443008" src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dm1lthkbw/image/fetch/w_25,d_missing_image_pixel_kktrqk.jpg,c_limit/https%3A%2F%2Fweb.musicaficionado.com%2Fimages%2FPlay_Gold_Circle_Outline.png" style="cursor: pointer; display: inline-block; margin: -2px 0px 0px 5px; max-width: 100%; padding: 0px; vertical-align: middle; width: 22px;" /></span></a>—when it is followed. The music is phenomenal in places, weak in others. Unfortunately, the weakest song on the album is fifteen minutes long and takes up almost a whole side.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">By far the best song is <a class="PlayableAnchor" href="https://web.musicaficionado.com/main.html?utm_source=email&utm_campaign=WeeklyRecommendations#!/track/849443008/849443050" style="border: 0px; color: #a47f2d; text-decoration-line: none;">Presence of the Lord<span class="PlayableAnchorBox" style="white-space: nowrap;"><img class="PlayButton InlinePlayButton" data-route="#!/track/849443008/849443050" src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dm1lthkbw/image/fetch/w_25,d_missing_image_pixel_kktrqk.jpg,c_limit/https%3A%2F%2Fweb.musicaficionado.com%2Fimages%2FPlay_Gold_Circle_Outline.png" style="cursor: pointer; display: inline-block; margin: -2px 0px 0px 5px; max-width: 100%; padding: 0px; vertical-align: middle; width: 22px;" /></span></a>, an <a href="https://web.musicaficionado.com/main.html?utm_source=email&utm_campaign=WeeklyRecommendations#!/artist/Eric%20Clapton" style="border: 0px; color: #a47f2d; text-decoration-line: none;">Eric Clapton</a> hymn which explains in part how Blind Faith ever came to be. The majesty of the organ even makes it sound like a church song, until Clapton wah-wahs off on a quick solo that's so good it makes me want to apologize for every snide thing I've ever said or thought about him. The first time I heard this song, it brought me out of my listening chair, mouth wide open in awe. It still does. Never has a guitarist said so much so beautifully in such a short time. The solo is so inspirational it can't help but make the lyrics that much more believable.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><a class="RelatedItemAnchor" href="https://web.musicaficionado.com/main.html#!/track/849443008/849443037" style="border: 0px; color: #a47f2d; text-decoration-line: none;"></a></span><br />
<div class="RelatedItemTitle" style="color: #444444; line-height: 1.1em; margin-bottom: 3px; max-height: 3.2em; overflow: hidden; padding-left: 0px; vertical-align: top; width: auto;">
<a class="RelatedItemAnchor" href="https://web.musicaficionado.com/main.html#!/track/849443008/849443037" style="border: 0px; color: #a47f2d; text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Can't Find My Way Home</span></a></div>
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</span></a><img class="AppKindIconInTextArea" src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dm1lthkbw/image/fetch/w_15,h_15,d_missing_image_pixel_kktrqk.jpg,c_limit/https%3A%2F%2Fweb.musicaficionado.com%2Fimages%2Ficon_track.png" style="filter: invert(100%); float: left; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-right: 5px; margin-top: 1px; max-width: 100%; opacity: 0.75; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: middle; width: 12px;" /><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Blind Faith</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><img class="PlayButton" data-appid="849443008" data-id="" src="https://web.musicaficionado.com/images/Play_Gold_Circle44px.png" style="cursor: pointer; display: inline-block; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 5px; max-width: 100%; opacity: 0.75; padding: 1px; vertical-align: middle; width: 22px;" /><br />
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Listen Now</div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">In fact, it's so good it tends to overshadow two other very fine cuts on the album. <a class="PlayableAnchor" href="https://web.musicaficionado.com/main.html?utm_source=email&utm_campaign=WeeklyRecommendations#!/track/849443008/849443035" style="border: 0px; color: #a47f2d; text-decoration-line: none;">Had to Cry Today<span class="PlayableAnchorBox" style="white-space: nowrap;"><img class="PlayButton InlinePlayButton" data-route="#!/track/849443008/849443035" src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dm1lthkbw/image/fetch/w_25,d_missing_image_pixel_kktrqk.jpg,c_limit/https%3A%2F%2Fweb.musicaficionado.com%2Fimages%2FPlay_Gold_Circle_Outline.png" style="cursor: pointer; display: inline-block; margin: -2px 0px 0px 5px; max-width: 100%; padding: 0px; vertical-align: middle; width: 22px;" /></span></a> goes through several interesting changes, Clapton always bringing it back to the main theme. The choice of Rick Grech, heretofore almost unknown, as bassist is fully justified by his work on this song. <a class="PlayableAnchor" href="https://web.musicaficionado.com/main.html?utm_source=email&utm_campaign=WeeklyRecommendations#!/track/849443008/849443037" style="border: 0px; color: #a47f2d; text-decoration-line: none;">Can't Find My Way Home<span class="PlayableAnchorBox" style="white-space: nowrap;"><img class="PlayButton InlinePlayButton" data-route="#!/track/849443008/849443037" src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dm1lthkbw/image/fetch/w_25,d_missing_image_pixel_kktrqk.jpg,c_limit/https%3A%2F%2Fweb.musicaficionado.com%2Fimages%2FPlay_Gold_Circle_Outline.png" style="cursor: pointer; display: inline-block; margin: -2px 0px 0px 5px; max-width: 100%; padding: 0px; vertical-align: middle; width: 22px;" /></span></a>, a pleading <a href="https://web.musicaficionado.com/main.html?utm_source=email&utm_campaign=WeeklyRecommendations#!/artist/Steve%20Winwood" style="border: 0px; color: #a47f2d; text-decoration-line: none;">Stevie Winwood</a> tune, features <a href="https://web.musicaficionado.com/main.html?utm_source=email&utm_campaign=WeeklyRecommendations#!/artist/Ginger%20Baker" style="border: 0px; color: #a47f2d; text-decoration-line: none;">Ginger Baker</a>'s highly innovative percussion and the delightful line, <em style="color: #444444;">'Well I'm wasted and I can't find my way home.'</em></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><a class="RelatedItemAnchor" href="https://web.musicaficionado.com/main.html#!/track/849443008/849443056" style="border: 0px; color: #a47f2d; text-decoration-line: none;"></a></span><br />
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<a class="RelatedItemAnchor" href="https://web.musicaficionado.com/main.html#!/track/849443008/849443056" style="border: 0px; color: #a47f2d; text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Do What You Like</span></a></div>
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</span></a><img class="AppKindIconInTextArea" src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dm1lthkbw/image/fetch/w_15,h_15,d_missing_image_pixel_kktrqk.jpg,c_limit/https%3A%2F%2Fweb.musicaficionado.com%2Fimages%2Ficon_track.png" style="filter: invert(100%); float: left; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-right: 5px; margin-top: 1px; max-width: 100%; opacity: 0.75; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: middle; width: 12px;" /><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Blind Faith</span></div>
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<div class="PlayButtonWithLabel" data-playrecid="" data-playroute="https://web.musicaficionado.com/main.html#!/track/849443008/849443056" style="border-radius: 5px; border: 1px solid rgb(136, 136, 136); display: inline-block; line-height: 1em; margin: 0px; opacity: 1; overflow: hidden; padding: 8px; width: auto;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><img class="PlayButton" data-appid="849443008" data-id="" src="https://web.musicaficionado.com/images/Play_Gold_Circle44px.png" style="cursor: pointer; display: inline-block; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 5px; max-width: 100%; opacity: 0.75; padding: 1px; vertical-align: middle; width: 22px;" /><br />
<div class="PlayButtonLabel" style="color: black; display: inline-block; font-family: SlateStd-Medium, HelveticaNeueW01-55Roma, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 1.2em; text-transform: capitalize; vertical-align: middle;">
Listen Now</div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><a class="PlayableAnchor" href="https://web.musicaficionado.com/main.html?utm_source=email&utm_campaign=WeeklyRecommendations#!/track/849443008/849443056" style="border: 0px; color: #a47f2d; text-decoration-line: none;">Do What You Like<span class="PlayableAnchorBox" style="white-space: nowrap;"><img class="PlayButton InlinePlayButton" data-route="#!/track/849443008/849443056" src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dm1lthkbw/image/fetch/w_25,d_missing_image_pixel_kktrqk.jpg,c_limit/https%3A%2F%2Fweb.musicaficionado.com%2Fimages%2FPlay_Gold_Circle_Outline.png" style="cursor: pointer; display: inline-block; margin: -2px 0px 0px 5px; max-width: 100%; padding: 0px; vertical-align: middle; width: 22px;" /></span></a> is a fine five-minute rock song which is destroyed when it is dragged out ten extra minutes by solos for the sake of solos. Baker's lyrics state the Blind Faith formula (<em style="color: #444444;">'Do right use your head/Everybody must be fed/Get together break your bread/Yes together that's what I said.'</em>), but the music then proceeds to obliterate it. Winwood's solo is the only one worthy of remaining in the song; he is the most consistent musician on the album. Clapton's is perfectly competent, but nothing new or exceptional. Baker confuses quantity with quality; his solo starts out nicely enough, but quickly falls apart despite his insistence on continuing. Poor Ginger is bound and determined to someday match the original version of <a class="PlayableAnchor" href="https://web.musicaficionado.com/main.html?utm_source=email&utm_campaign=WeeklyRecommendations#!/track/849405759/849405783" style="border: 0px; color: #a47f2d; text-decoration-line: none;">Toad<span class="PlayableAnchorBox" style="white-space: nowrap;"><img class="PlayButton InlinePlayButton" data-route="#!/track/849405759/849405783" src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dm1lthkbw/image/fetch/w_25,d_missing_image_pixel_kktrqk.jpg,c_limit/https%3A%2F%2Fweb.musicaficionado.com%2Fimages%2FPlay_Gold_Circle_Outline.png" style="cursor: pointer; display: inline-block; margin: -2px 0px 0px 5px; max-width: 100%; padding: 0px; vertical-align: middle; width: 22px;" /></span></a>; he is, at this rate, destined to retire a very frustrated drummer. The bass solo is sheer self-indulgence.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">I don't know what the explanation for this cut is, but I could venture a calculated guess. Atlantic President Ahmet Ertegun was recently quoted as saying, 'If we'd known they were going to do this well (on the American tour), we wouldn't have rushed the album'. I wouldn't be surprised if this song falls into the throwaway solo rut because Blind Faith didn't have enough new material to fill an album in time to meet Atlantic's deadline, and resolved the problem by extending a song they already did have. If so, add avaricious businessmen to the list of handicaps the artist must face.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">This album is better than any of <a href="https://web.musicaficionado.com/main.html?utm_source=email&utm_campaign=WeeklyRecommendations#!/artist/Cream" style="border: 0px; color: #a47f2d;">Cream</a>'s and about as good as any of <a href="https://web.musicaficionado.com/main.html?utm_source=email&utm_campaign=WeeklyRecommendations#!/artist/Traffic" style="border: 0px; color: #a47f2d;">Traffic</a>'s. On the basis of the potential shown in the best cuts, and writing off "Do What You Like" as a fluke mistake that won't be repeated, I'm already anxious for the next Blind Faith album. If they ever get it together all at once, rock and roll will never be the same.</span></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5906920554547245128.post-22500621279760202142017-11-27T21:25:00.001+10:302017-11-27T21:25:55.843+10:30They Got High With a Little Help from Their Friends<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">by <a href="http://www.culturesonar.com/author/holden-mcneely/">Holden McNeely</a>, Culture Sonar: </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://www.culturesonar.com/beatles-and-drugs/?mc_cid=678aeb5401&mc_eid=66f62f01ac">http://www.culturesonar.com/beatles-and-drugs/?mc_cid=678aeb5401&mc_eid=66f62f01ac</a></span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSvPfnrkjWe8bLBOYMH8avRNoZEyjz_JLeVY8odI7hXXkyVMrQfB-LoyuQ6bwrkjuko9V_oOV6REU-Bz0O3Pho-ZdFpmA18somDtD_uVnj6yXk_mXgf9tHn8XXNFN5rt6N4ZXU9urcUu1h/s1600/Beatles-drugs-Getty.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="540" data-original-width="960" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSvPfnrkjWe8bLBOYMH8avRNoZEyjz_JLeVY8odI7hXXkyVMrQfB-LoyuQ6bwrkjuko9V_oOV6REU-Bz0O3Pho-ZdFpmA18somDtD_uVnj6yXk_mXgf9tHn8XXNFN5rt6N4ZXU9urcUu1h/s640/Beatles-drugs-Getty.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">One of the most important traits of The Beatles was their ability to embody the <em style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">zeitgeist</em>. The swinging ‘60s, the hippie movement, the <a href="https://www.aarp.org/politics-society/history/info-2017/remembering-the-summer-of-love-50th-anniversary.html" rel="noopener" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: 0.15s ease-in-out; vertical-align: baseline;">Summer of Love</a>, and recreational drugs all came into play in their music at the pinnacle of their career – the primary mind-altering substances being marijuana and LSD. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Who turned them on to pot? None other than <a href="https://www.bobdylan.com/" rel="noopener" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: 0.15s ease-in-out; vertical-align: baseline;">Bob Dylan</a>! According to Peter Brown’s <em style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">The Love You Make</em>, Dylan had misinterpreted the lyrics for “I Want To Hold Your Hand” — by mistaking “I can’t hide” for “I get high.” And so he brought a big bag of weed to the band during one of their NYC visits.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit; font-size: large; word-spacing: 1px;">In George Case’s </span><em style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-size: x-large; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-spacing: 1px;">Out of Our Heads</em><span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit; font-size: large; word-spacing: 1px;">, Ringo recalls, “That was the first time that I’d really smoked marijuana and I laughed and I laughed and I laughed.” Per </span><em style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-size: x-large; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-spacing: 1px;">The Quotable Stoner</em><span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit; font-size: large; word-spacing: 1px;">, Paul McCartney also reminisced about that encounter: “Bob came round to our hotel, and he said to us, ‘Here, try a bit of this.’ It is very indiscreet to say this, because I don’t know whether Bob is telling people he turned the Beatles on to marijuana. But it was funny.”</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit; font-size: large; word-spacing: 1px;">For the next stretch of their careers, The Beatles were, well, periodically stoned. Don’t believe us? Here’s a quote from Jacqueline Edmondson’s biography </span><em style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-size: x-large; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-spacing: 1px;">John Lennon</em><span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit; font-size: large; word-spacing: 1px;"> about their performances in the hit movie </span><em style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-size: x-large; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-spacing: 1px;">Help!</em><span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit; font-size: large; word-spacing: 1px;">: “The movie was out of our control. With </span><em style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-size: x-large; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-spacing: 1px;">A Hard Day’s Night</em><span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit; font-size: large; word-spacing: 1px;">, we had a lot of input, and it was semi-realistic. But with </span><em style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-size: x-large; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-spacing: 1px;">Help!</em><span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit; font-size: large; word-spacing: 1px;">, [director] Dick Lester didn’t tell us what it was about… partly because we were smoking marijuana for breakfast… Nobody could communicate with us; it was all glazed eyes and giggling all the time.”</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit; font-size: large; word-spacing: 1px;">The influence of marijuana on their music became pronounced in 1966, via their album </span><a href="https://www.thebeatles.com/album/revolver" rel="noopener" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-size: x-large; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: 0.15s ease-in-out; vertical-align: baseline; word-spacing: 1px;"><em style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Revolver</em></a><span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit; font-size: large; word-spacing: 1px;">. Which wasn’t necessarily a bad thing. In Brian Roylance’s </span><em style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-size: x-large; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-spacing: 1px;">The Beatles</em><span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit; font-size: large; word-spacing: 1px;">, their personal assistant/road manager </span><a href="https://www.beatlesbible.com/people/neil-aspinall/" rel="noopener" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-size: x-large; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: 0.15s ease-in-out; vertical-align: baseline; word-spacing: 1px;">Neil Aspinall</a><span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit; font-size: large; word-spacing: 1px;"> said of pot during the recording sessions, “I guess it made recording a bit slower, but it didn’t affect the quality of the work.” At points, the influence was stronger than others: Lennon attributed the backwards guitar effect in the song “Rain” directly to being high.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit; font-size: large; word-spacing: 1px;">“I got home from the studio stoned out of my mind on marijuana and, as I usually do, I listened to what I’d recorded that day. Somehow I got it on backwards and I sat there, transfixed, with the earphones on with a big hash joint. I ran in the next day and said, ‘I know what to do with it, I know…Listen to this!’ That one was a gift of God – of Jah, actually, the god of marijuana. Jah gave me that one” (from David Sheff’s </span><em style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-size: x-large; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-spacing: 1px;">All We Are Saying</em><span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit; font-size: large; word-spacing: 1px;">).</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit; font-size: large; word-spacing: 1px;">Around this time, the “Wicked Dentist” (revealed in </span><em style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-size: x-large; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-spacing: 1px;">Sex, Drugs and Rock ‘n’ Roll</em><span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit; font-size: large; word-spacing: 1px;"> to be John Riley) famously introduced George Harrison and Lennon to LSD. It’s a sprawling story, but the long and short of it is that Riley invited the two Beatles </span><em style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-size: x-large; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-spacing: 1px;">and</em><span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit; font-size: large; word-spacing: 1px;"> their wives over for dinner one night and dosed their coffee. He had intended to try and spark some kind of orgy but instead the foursome ended up in an elevator at a London nightclub shrieking madly as they hallucinated that their transport was engulfed in flames. Lennon remarked on this moment that, “The lift stops and the door opens and we’re all going ‘Aaahhhh’, and we just see that it’s the club.” As bad trips go, it could’ve been worse.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit; font-size: large; word-spacing: 1px;">Yet the after-effects were profound. Quoted in </span><em style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-size: x-large; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-spacing: 1px;">Rock ‘n’ Roll Myths</em><span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit; font-size: large; word-spacing: 1px;">, George Harrison had this to say: “The first time I had acid, a light-bulb went on in my head and I began to have realisations which were not simply, ‘I think I’ll do this, or ‘I think that must be because of that.’ The question and answer disappeared into each other. An illumination goes on inside: in ten minutes I lived a thousand years.” The band mates’ subsequent experiences on acid led to several songs such as “She Said, She Said” — inspired by a trip at an LA house party where a young </span><a href="http://www.peterfonda.com/" rel="noopener" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-size: x-large; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: 0.15s ease-in-out; vertical-align: baseline; word-spacing: 1px;">Peter Fonda</a><span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit; font-size: large; word-spacing: 1px;"> whispered in Lennon’s ear, “I know what it’s like to be dead.”</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit; font-size: large; word-spacing: 1px;">Other trippy examples abound: tracks like “Tomorrow Never Knows” and “Strawberry Fields” have hallucinatory qualities; albums like </span><a href="https://www.thebeatles.com/film/yellow-submarine" rel="noopener" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-size: x-large; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: 0.15s ease-in-out; vertical-align: baseline; word-spacing: 1px;"><em style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Yellow Submarine</em> </a><span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit; font-size: large; word-spacing: 1px;">and </span><a href="https://www.thebeatles.com/album/magical-mystery-tour" rel="noopener" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-size: x-large; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: 0.15s ease-in-out; vertical-align: baseline; word-spacing: 1px;"><em style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Magical Mystery Tour</em></a><span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit; font-size: large; word-spacing: 1px;"> are entire odes to the psychedelic experience. Ironically, The Beatles were largely turned off to further experimentation after a visit to Haight-Ashbury, arguably </span><em style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-size: x-large; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-spacing: 1px;">the</em><span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit; font-size: large; word-spacing: 1px;"> countercultural capital of the time. In fact, The Beatles cleaned up for a time after that in a big way. They traveled to India where they gained sober enlightenment with </span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Maharishi-Mahesh-Yogi" rel="noopener" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-size: x-large; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: 0.15s ease-in-out; vertical-align: baseline; word-spacing: 1px;">Maharishi Mahesh Yogi</a><span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit; font-size: large; word-spacing: 1px;">. Drugs aren’t the only way to get high, you know.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit; font-size: large; word-spacing: 1px;">–</span><a href="http://www.culturesonar.com/team/" rel="noopener" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-size: x-large; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: 0.15s ease-in-out; vertical-align: baseline; word-spacing: 1px;" target="_blank">Holden McNeely</a><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit; font-size: large; word-spacing: 1px;">PS: We dig into some </span><a href="http://www.culturesonar.com/concept-albums/" rel="noopener" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-size: x-large; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: 0.15s ease-in-out; vertical-align: baseline; word-spacing: 1px;" target="_blank">other concept albums</a><span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit; font-size: large; word-spacing: 1px;"> worth another listen. Plus, a look at some more recent projects </span><a href="http://www.culturesonar.com/spirit-of-the-60s-albums/" rel="noopener" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-size: x-large; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: 0.15s ease-in-out; vertical-align: baseline; word-spacing: 1px;" target="_blank">keeping that ’60s vibe going</a><span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit; font-size: large; word-spacing: 1px;">.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit; font-size: large; word-spacing: 1px;">Photo: Jim Gray/Keystone/Hulton Archive, courtesy of Getty Images</span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5906920554547245128.post-66206166361440573042017-11-14T20:09:00.001+10:302017-11-14T20:09:36.293+10:30VIDEO: 23-Year-Old Eric Clapton Demonstrates the Elements of His Guitar Sound (1968)<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">by <a href="http://www.openculture.com/author/zmspringer">Mike Springer</a>, Open Culture: </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://www.openculture.com/2017/11/23-year-old-eric-clapton-demonstrates-the-elements-of-his-guitar-sound-1968.html">http://www.openculture.com/2017/11/23-year-old-eric-clapton-demonstrates-the-elements-of-his-guitar-sound-1968.html</a></span><br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="480" mozallowfullscreen="" src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/8119784" webkitallowfullscreen="" width="640"></iframe><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">In the fall of 1968, Eric Clapton was 23 years old and at the height of his creative powers. His band, </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Cream_of_Clapton" sl-processed="1" style="font-family: inherit; font-size: x-large; line-height: 24px; outline: none;">Cream</a><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">, was on its farewell tour of America when a film crew from the BBC caught up with the group and asked the young guitar virtuoso to show how he created his distinctive sound.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br />The result is a fascinating four-minute tour of Clapton’s technique. He begins by demonstrating the wide range of tones he could achieve by varying the settings on his psychedelically painted 1964 Gibson SG Standard guitar. His wah-wah pedal (an early Vox model) was critical to the sound of so many Cream classics, like “<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u8hLc_nqx8g" sl-processed="1" style="background-color: white; line-height: 24px; outline: none;">Tales of Brave Ulysses</a><span style="background-color: white;">.” In the film, Clapton really has to stomp on it to get it working.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><br />One of the most difficult skills to master, Clapton says, is the vibrato. In a <a href="http://www.guitarplayer.com/miscellaneous/1139/gp-flashback-eric-clapton-june-1970/12798" sl-processed="1" style="line-height: 24px; outline: none;">1970 interview with </a><em><a href="http://www.guitarplayer.com/article/flashback--/September-2010/120153" sl-processed="1" style="line-height: 24px; outline: none;">Guitar Player</a></em> magazine he goes into more detail: “When I stretch strings,” he says, “I hook my thumb around the neck of the guitar. A lot of guitarists stretch strings with just their hand free. The only way I can do it is if I have my whole hand around the neck—actually gripping onto it with my thumb. That somehow gives me more of a rocking action with my hand and wrist.” If you watch the BBC clip closely you will see this in action.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">The interview was conducted with Clapton seated in front of his famous stack of Marshall amplifiers. In the <em style="background-color: white;">Guitar Player</em></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: white;">interview,</span></span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"> however, he admits he rarely used both at the same time. “I always had two Marshalls set up to play through,” he says, “but I think it was just so I could have one as a spare. I usually used only one 100-watt amp.”</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Clapton’s demonstration (along with interviews of bassist Jack Bruce and drummer Ginger Baker) was incorporated into Tony Palmer’s film of <em style="background-color: white;"><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2tAE2K3YT_A" sl-processed="1" style="line-height: 24px; outline: none;">Cream's Farewell Concert</a></em><span style="background-color: white;">, which took place on November 21, 1968 at the Royal Albert Hall in London. The original six-song version of </span><em style="background-color: white;">Cream's Farewell Concert</em><span style="background-color: white;"> is </span><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2tAE2K3YT_A" sl-processed="1" style="background-color: white; line-height: 24px; outline: none;">available on YouTube</a><span style="background-color: white;">. An extended 14-song version is </span><a data-amzn-asin="B000ANVQ6E" href="http://aax-us-east.amazon-adsystem.com/x/c/Qr2OFzjKTVXBiEDVskHc5oAAAAFfud15QAEAAAFKAdYMQCY/https://assoc-redirect.amazon.com/g/r/http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000ANVQ6E/ref=as_at?imprToken=DqJ4OqRAzIIcdKqrCJM.ig&slotNum=0&ie=UTF8&tag=openculture-20&linkCode=xm2&camp=1789&creativeASIN=B000ANVQ6E" sl-processed="1" style="background-color: white; line-height: 24px; outline: none;">available for purchase here</a><span style="background-color: white;">.</span></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5906920554547245128.post-35761686083563485532017-11-06T22:40:00.000+10:302017-11-06T22:40:14.477+10:30The 10 Best John Lennon Songs You May Have Never Heard<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #444444; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; font-size: 20px; margin-bottom: 35px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-spacing: 1px;">
by <a href="http://www.culturesonar.com/author/jim-beviglia/">Jim Beviglia</a>, Culture Sonar: <a href="http://www.culturesonar.com/john-lennon-songs/">http://www.culturesonar.com/john-lennon-songs/</a></div>
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Because his life was cut so short, and also in part due to his long “house-husband” phase in the late ‘70s, John Lennon released only seven post-Beatle studio albums — some in conjunction with wife <a href="http://imaginepeace.com/" rel="noopener" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #dd3333; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.15s ease-in-out; vertical-align: baseline;">Yoko Ono</a>. It’s impressive that during that short span and with a relatively small output, so much of Lennon’s solo material made a significant impact. Yet there are still album tracks whose airplay and exposure pale in comparison to the mammoth hits still ingrained in the culture. In that spirit, here are ten John Lennon songs which deserve a little more recognition than they currently enjoy.</div>
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<b style="box-sizing: border-box;">1. “Isolation” (1970)</b><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /><em style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band</em> was the album on which Lennon finally got to say everything he wanted without having to worry about operating under the <a href="https://www.thebeatles.com/" rel="noopener" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #dd3333; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.15s ease-in-out; vertical-align: baseline;">Beatle</a> banner. He used the opportunity to lay bare his demons in harrowing, haunting songs that were often screamed more than sung. But on this restrained (for the most part) track, he sings almost meekly over somber piano chords about his all-encompassing fear (“We’re afraid of everyone / Afraid of the sun”) and loneliness, his cries for help made clearer without any Beatlesque exuberance to hide them.</div>
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<b style="box-sizing: border-box;"><iframe class="alignright" frameborder="0" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" src="http://ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?region=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&OneJS=1&Operation=GetAdHtml&MarketPlace=US&source=ss&ref=ss_til&ad_type=product_link&tracking_id=cultur04-20&marketplace=amazon&placement=B003Y8YXFI&asins=B003Y8YXFI&linkId=DGJQFSEETVP4VISP&show_border=true&link_opens_in_new_window=true" style="border-style: initial; border-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; float: right; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; height: 240px; margin: 0px 0px 24px 25px; max-width: 100%; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 120px;"></iframe>2. “Crippled Inside” (1971)</b><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />On his second proper solo release, Lennon was canny enough to realize he needed more than just critical appreciation, which is why <em style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Imagine</em> is filled with accessible melodies and lush production. In many ways, “Crippled Inside” deals with similar subject matter as the songs on <em style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band</em>. But it’s delivered with saloon piano (played by studio ace <a href="http://www.nickyhopkins.com/?page_id=5" rel="noopener" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #dd3333; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.15s ease-in-out; vertical-align: baseline;">Nicky Hopkins</a>), a frisky dobro solo (from <a href="http://www.georgeharrison.com/" rel="noopener" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #dd3333; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.15s ease-in-out; vertical-align: baseline;">George Harrison</a>) and cheeky enthusiasm from Lennon. The end result is as catchy a song about inner torment as you’re likely to encounter.</div>
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<b style="box-sizing: border-box;">3. “New York City” (1972)</b><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />Well-intentioned as it might have been, <em style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Some Time in New York City</em> was a misstep, as Lennon proved a surprisingly heavy-handed protest singer. But this <a href="https://youtu.be/9oDJrFPpljE" rel="noopener" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #dd3333; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.15s ease-in-out; vertical-align: baseline;">playful rocker</a> survives the wreckage with its humor intact. The music is a bit shambolic, but achieves some excellent forward momentum; Lennon’s recounting of his time in the Big Apple, complete with bizarre characters and welcoming landmarks, proves that he could do a <a href="http://www.chuckberry.com/" rel="noopener" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #dd3333; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.15s ease-in-out; vertical-align: baseline;">Chuck Berry</a> <em style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">homage</em> as well as anybody.</div>
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<b style="box-sizing: border-box;">4. “Tight A$” (1973)</b><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /><a href="http://www.mickjagger.com/" rel="noopener" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #dd3333; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.15s ease-in-out; vertical-align: baseline;">Mick Jagger</a> gets all the credit for songs with salacious intent, but Lennon was no slouch in that department. This funky rocker from <em style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Mind Games</em> shows him indulging in some naughty wordplay and barely-couched innuendo. That’s not enough to make a song, which is why the excellent chemistry from the studio band (with the invaluable <a href="http://www.rollingstone.com/music/lists/100-greatest-drummers-of-all-time-20160331/jim-keltner-20160325" rel="noopener" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #dd3333; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.15s ease-in-out; vertical-align: baseline;">Jim Keltner</a> providing the backbeat) is so important. The Carl Perkins influence is palpable — even if Carl might have blushed at the lyrics.</div>
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<b style="box-sizing: border-box;">5. “Aisumasen (I’m Sorry)” (1973)</b><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />Lennon’s separation from Yoko Ono (around the time that <em style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Mind Games</em> was recorded) seems to be the inspiration for this ballad. It strolls along at a measured pace, giving ample room for Lennon to emote with his lead vocal. There’s nothing too fancy going on here, yet Lennon’s uncanny ability to evoke pain and vulnerability is enough to push this song a long way. This one is largely forgotten, coming as it did on an uneven album, but it has soul to spare.</div>
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<b style="box-sizing: border-box;">6. “Steel and Glass” (1974)</b><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />Beatle fans might not have been too happy to hear Lennon savaging <a href="https://www.beatlesbible.com/people/allen-klein/" rel="noopener" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #dd3333; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.15s ease-in-out; vertical-align: baseline;">Allen Klein</a>, since the lawyer took <em style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">his</em>side over Paul McCartney during the Fab Four’s breakup wars. But there’s no denying how effectively he takes Klein apart in this song from <em style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Walls and Bridges</em>. The fact that he reuses many of the same riffs that he used in “How Do You Sleep?” (his takedown of McCartney from a few years earlier) seems like Lennon’s tacit admission that he may have backed the wrong horse.</div>
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<a href="https://shop.culturesonar.com/collections/rare-unpublished-classic-rock-jazz-photos-1" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #dd3333; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.15s ease-in-out; vertical-align: baseline;"><img alt="" class="aligncenter wp-image-10587 size-full" height="300" sizes="(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" src="http://smhttp.59631.nexcesscdn.net/8043173/resources/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/Simon-Garfunkel.png" srcset="http://smhttp.59631.nexcesscdn.net/8043173/resources/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/Simon-Garfunkel.png 300w, http://smhttp.59631.nexcesscdn.net/8043173/resources/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/Simon-Garfunkel-150x150.png 150w" style="background: none; border: none; box-sizing: border-box; display: block; height: auto; margin: 0px auto 35px; max-width: 100%; padding: 0px; position: relative; vertical-align: middle;" width="300" /></a></div>
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<b style="box-sizing: border-box;">7. “Nobody Loves You (When You’re Down and Out)” (1974)</b><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />Lennon allegedly wrote this song with Frank Sinatra in mind, but he actually provides a telling snapshot of his own emotional health (or lack thereof) in this after-hours ballad from <em style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Walls and Bridges</em>. It reflects both the emptiness of fame (“It’s all showbiz,” he drily laments) and his loneliness without Ono. Jesse Ed Davis adds a weeping guitar solo that plays beautifully on the drunken horns. Mid-‘70s Lennon often gets overlooked, but this stunner is evidence that that era should get another glance.</div>
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<b style="box-sizing: border-box;">8. “Just Because” (1975)</b><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />This 1975 album (<em style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Rock ‘n’ Roll), </em>with production by Lennon and <a href="http://www.philspector.com/" rel="noopener" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #dd3333; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.15s ease-in-out; vertical-align: baseline;">Phil Spector</a>, casts a hazy cloud on many early rock chestnuts. However, they get it right on the album’s closing track, largely by getting out of the way of this Lloyd Price classic and letting Lennon (or “Dr. Winston O’Boogie” as he calls himself here), wringing every last bit emotion out of the descending melody. It’s far and away his finest interpretation on the record.</div>
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<b style="box-sizing: border-box;">9. “I’m Losing You” (1980)</b><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />Many people forget that <em style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Double Fantasy</em> was actually an album split right down the middle, between performances by Lennon and Yoko Ono. As a result, most of Lennon’s songs on the project either became huge hits in the aftermath of his death or have become well-known since. “I’m Losing You” sort of slips through the cracks, perhaps because it bucks the perceived notion of the album as one filled with marital bliss. Instead, it’s a bluesy rocker that includes some of Lennon’s grittiest vocals since the Plastic Ono Band days.</div>
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<b style="box-sizing: border-box;">10. “I Don’t Want to Face It” (1984)</b><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />Right before his death, Lennon was clearly energized to re-enter the recording world, so much so that he had recorded nearly enough material for a follow-up to <em style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Double Fantasy</em>. Those songs were collected on a posthumous release in 1984, entitled <em style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Milk and Honey</em>. “Nobody Told Me” became a hit, and “Grow Old With Me” became one for the ages. But this rip-roaring track, complete with Lennon’s faux-German count-in and his falsetto vocals, features him dissecting hypocrisy with all of the old humor and insight intact.</div>
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–<a href="http://www.culturesonar.com/team/" rel="noopener" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #dd3333; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.15s ease-in-out; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">Jim Beviglia</a></div>
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PS. Read about some great, underrated solo tracks by Lennon’s Beatle bandmates <a href="http://www.culturesonar.com/george-harrison-songs/" rel="noopener" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #dd3333; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.15s ease-in-out; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">George Harrison</a> and <a href="http://www.culturesonar.com/paul-mccartney-songs/" rel="noopener" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #dd3333; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.15s ease-in-out; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">Paul McCartney</a>.</div>
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Photo: Hulton Archive/Getty Images</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5906920554547245128.post-67445838264429094632017-10-31T11:53:00.000+10:302017-10-31T11:53:22.984+10:30Film Review: ‘My Generation’<div class="c-meta c-meta--review" style="background-color: white; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(150, 150, 150); box-sizing: inherit; font-family: "Graphik Web", Arial, sans-serif; margin-top: 0.9375rem; padding-bottom: 1.125rem;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJXzGmbSSBgeYzYs8E1oARZG65Xsj2FkN1YqYDMExZTHnhAPyD-xg7n07kvIzDN-QGLTbjjrmfrshv4ZdUFPsGI04dZml9CqwKMEKSJJddWoX5LmOztuiw8XbsEZUmSRGf7YRd2KXO_d1V/s1600/my-generation-e1508814421956.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="393" data-original-width="700" height="179" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJXzGmbSSBgeYzYs8E1oARZG65Xsj2FkN1YqYDMExZTHnhAPyD-xg7n07kvIzDN-QGLTbjjrmfrshv4ZdUFPsGI04dZml9CqwKMEKSJJddWoX5LmOztuiw8XbsEZUmSRGf7YRd2KXO_d1V/s320/my-generation-e1508814421956.jpg" width="320" /></a>
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<dt style="box-sizing: inherit; display: inline;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="color: #4a4a4a; white-space: nowrap;">by </span><a href="http://variety.com/author/jay-weissberg/" rel="author" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: inherit; color: black; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; text-transform: capitalize; transition: color 0.12s ease-out; white-space: nowrap;">Jay Weissberg</a>, Variety.com: <a href="http://variety.com/2017/film/reviews/my-generation-review-1202595221/">http://variety.com/2017/film/reviews/my-generation-review-1202595221/</a></span></dt>
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<dt style="box-sizing: inherit; display: inline; font-size: 0.875rem;">Director:</dt>
<span style="font-size: 0.875rem;"> </span><dd style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #4a4a4a; display: inline; font-size: 0.875rem; margin: 0px;">David Batty</dd>
<dt style="box-sizing: inherit; display: inline; font-size: 0.875rem;">Cast:</dt>
<span style="font-size: 0.875rem;"> </span><dd style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #4a4a4a; display: inline; font-size: 0.875rem; margin: 0px;">Michael Caine</dd></dl>
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<span style="box-sizing: inherit;">85 minutes</span></div>
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<a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt6264954/reference" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; box-sizing: inherit; color: #107bce; text-decoration-line: none; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility;" target="_blank">http://www.imdb.com/title/tt6264954/reference</a></div>
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There’s a tremendous amount of pleasure to be had in <a data-tag="david-batty" href="http://variety.com/t/david-batty/" id="auto-tag_david-batty" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border-bottom: 0.125rem solid rgb(255, 243, 184); box-shadow: rgb(255, 243, 184) 0px -0.1875rem 0px inset; box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; transition: background-color 0.2s cubic-bezier(0.33, 0.66, 0.66, 1);">David Batty</a>’s “<a data-tag="my-generation" href="http://variety.com/t/my-generation/" id="auto-tag_my-generation" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border-bottom: 0.125rem solid rgb(255, 243, 184); box-shadow: rgb(255, 243, 184) 0px -0.1875rem 0px inset; box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; transition: background-color 0.2s cubic-bezier(0.33, 0.66, 0.66, 1);">My Generation</a>,” a sloppy wet kiss to <a data-tag="michael-caine" href="http://variety.com/t/michael-caine/" id="auto-tag_michael-caine" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border-bottom: 0.125rem solid rgb(255, 243, 184); box-shadow: rgb(255, 243, 184) 0px -0.1875rem 0px inset; box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; transition: background-color 0.2s cubic-bezier(0.33, 0.66, 0.66, 1);">Michael Caine</a> and British youth culture of the 1960s. Loaded with great footage from the era and accompanied by superbly cleaned-up music tracks from the Kinks, the Beatles, the Rolling Stones and many others, this love letter-as-documentary offers 85 minutes of good old fun. What it doesn’t do is posit any genuine analysis or even make a head-nod to diversity. But this is Caine’s narrative about the unapologetic working class taking over popular culture, and the writers as well as music mogul Simon Fuller, acting as top producer, have no interest in countering their star’s gleefully empowering chronicle of his youth. Voiceover interviews with such key players of the era as Paul McCartney, Marianne Faithfull, Twiggy and Mary Quant add to the overall feast, making the film an attractive offering for all platforms.</div>
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Britain in the 1950s was dull, announces Caine, though doesn’t every generation say that about the era before their own gloriously self-satisfied arrival? What’s undeniable is the momentous shift toward youth culture beginning in the 1960s, as well as the opening up of opportunities for white working-class creative types who no longer submitted to makeovers designed to smooth out their roughness. In one of the more telling anecdotes, Caine talks about auditioning for “Zulu,” his breakthrough role, and accurately suggests that had the director, Cy Endfield, been British instead of American, Caine’s working class London accent would have eliminated any hope of being cast in the role of an upper-class officer. That’s an undeniable fact.</div>
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Far more shaky is the suggestion that the working class in the 1960s was the first generation in Britain to thumb its collective nose at convention. On-the-street interviews from the era with stuffed shirts bemoaning the appearance of long-haired men in flowery blouses expose middle-class attitudes, but the filmmakers choose to ignore the fact that the upper class has always played with transgression in ways designed to shock the bourgeoisie. What made the 1960s different was that the working class was playing the same game, and emulating “our betters” was no longer an acceptable form of behavior. Nor was emulating our elders: Freedom from convention was the hallmark of a social revolution that impacted everything from art, music and clothing to changing concepts of morality. Of course, every Englishman knows the class system remains the key determinant of opportunity, but in the art and entertainment world, coming from the wrong side of the tracks is actually now more desirable than a boarding school certificate, and that’s definitely due to the upheavals of the 1960s.</div>
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Batty divides the film into three parts, roughly corresponding to the awakening, the flourishing and the decline of 1960s pop culture. Alongside nods to expected historic markers like the Beatles performing at Liverpool’s Cavern Club are more unanticipated moments, such as Roger Daltry talking about the profound impact of seeing Elvis perform: “For the first time in my life, I saw someone who was free.” That’s about the only time in the film there’s a mention of transatlantic influences on the British scene.</div>
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From there, the documentary plunges headlong into the intoxicating psychedelic playpen of Pop Art, Vidal Sassoon haircuts, and Mary Quant micro-miniskirts, reminding audiences (or teaching them for the first time) that in the 1960s, color and pattern were transgressive and hip, unlike today’s tediously conformist black monochromaticity. Suddenly, thanks to the British Invasion, being young and British meant you were cool, stylish and glam, tuned into the best music, clothes and art movements. Models such as Jean Shrimpton and Twiggy set new standards for beauty, and groups like the Animals, the Kinks, the Stones and of course the Beatles set the tone, guiding a generation from the innocent charm of “Love Me Do” to the raucous hunger of “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction.” By the end of the decade, hedonism took a darker turn. The Vietnam War acted as a political coming of age, and the destructive nature of so much heavy drug use began to take its toll, symbolized by the death of Brian Jones and Faithfull’s near-fatal drug overdose, both in 1969.</div>
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<span style="text-align: center;">For Caine, “</span><a data-tag="my-generation" href="http://variety.com/2013/biz/news/watching-live-tv-vexes-the-on-demand-generation-1200671602/" id="related_article_link_my-generation" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border-bottom: 0.125rem solid rgb(255, 243, 184); box-shadow: rgb(255, 243, 184) 0px -0.1875rem 0px inset; box-sizing: inherit; text-align: center; text-decoration-line: none; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; transition: background-color 0.2s cubic-bezier(0.33, 0.66, 0.66, 1);">My Generation</a><span style="text-align: center;">” is a chance to look back in nostalgic delight at his salad days, allowing him to gamely reminisce about his time as one of the “it” boys of London. He even gets to swan around in the original Aston Martin DB4 he drove in “The Italian Job.” None of the others interviewed are seen on screen — whether that’s because the producers wanted to maintain the aura of 1960s youth, or it was the only way to get these people to talk, remains open for speculation. It’s also likely that writers Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais allowed themselves to be guided by Caine’s insistence on working-class culture, ignoring the fact that some of those included, most especially Faithfull, are from posh backgrounds.</span></div>
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If you set aside analytical skills however, it’s easy to sit back and enjoy the wealth of archival clips accompanied by fantastic music tracks that seem to have been remastered for the occasion (lord knows how much all the music rights must have cost). Ben Hilton’s editing successfully crams in a great deal without a sense of whiplash.</div>
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Film Review: 'My Generation'</div>
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Reviewed at Venice Film Festival (Out of Competition), Sept. 4, 2017. (Also in London Film Festival – Journey.)</div>
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<span style="box-sizing: inherit; text-transform: uppercase;">PRODUCTION</span>: (Documentary — U.K.) An XIX Entertainment presentation, in association with IM Global, of a Raymi Films production, in association with Ingenious Media. (International sales: IM Global, Los Angeles.) Producers: Simon Fuller, Michael Caine, Dick Clement, Ian La Frenais, Fodhla Cronin O’Reilly. Executive producer: James Clayton. Co-producer: Ben Hilton. CREW: Director: David Batty. Writers: Dick Clement, Ian La Frenais. Camera (color): Ben Hodgson. Editor: Ben Hilton. Music supervisor: Tarquin Gotch.</div>
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<span style="box-sizing: inherit; text-transform: uppercase;">WITH</span>: Michael CaineVoices of David Bailey, Twiggy, Terry O’Neill, Roger Daltrey, Marianne Faithfull, Paul McCartney, Lulu, Joan Collins, Sandie Shaw, Penelope Tree, Dudley Edwards, Mary Quant, Mim Scala, David Putnam, Barbara Hulanicki.</div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5906920554547245128.post-21086313075283707462017-10-23T11:45:00.000+10:302017-10-23T11:45:41.001+10:30VIDEOS: When Pink Floyd Tried to Make an Album with Household Objects: Hear Two Surviving Tracks Made with Wine Glasses and Rubber Bands<span style="background-color: white; color: #414141; font-family: Lora, Lora, Times, serif; font-size: 16px;">by </span><a href="http://www.openculture.com/author/jdavidjones" rel="author" sl-processed="1" style="background-color: white; color: #0183b2; font-family: Lora, Lora, Times, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 19.2px; outline: none;" title="Posts by Josh Jones">Josh Jones</a>, Open Culture: <a href="http://www.openculture.com/2017/09/when-pink-floyd-tried-to-make-an-album-with-household-objects.html">http://www.openculture.com/2017/09/when-pink-floyd-tried-to-make-an-album-with-household-objects.html</a><br />
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There are bands one casually encounters through greatest hits or breakthrough albums, on which they sound exactly like themselves and no one else. It’s impossible to imagine anyone but Fleetwood Mac making <em>Rumors</em> or <em>Tusk</em>. Or anyone but Pink Floyd recording <em>Wish You Were Here</em> or <em>Dark Side of the Moon</em>. But just like Fleetwood Mac, when we look back before Floyd’s best-known work, we find, as Mark Blake <a href="http://teamrock.com/feature/2016-06-22/kettles-and-chaos-the-crazy-story-of-pink-floyd-s-lost-album-household-objects" sl-processed="1" style="color: #0183b2; font-size: inherit; line-height: 24px; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;">writes at Team Rock</a>, that “they were a very different proposition.”</div>
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And yet it wasn't that Pink Floyd radically shuffled the lineup—though they had, since their first album, lost founding singer and guitarist Syd Barrett to mental illness and taken on David Gilmour to replace him. It’s that the same four musicians who re-invented psych-rock in the early 70s with “Money,” “Time,” and “Great Gig in the Sky,” sounded nothing like that blues/funk/disco/prog hybrid in the late 60s. Some of the same elements were there—the sardonic sense of humor, love for sound effects and extended jam sessions—but they cohered in much more alien and experimental shapes.<br />
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The <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S7RL1F7hqRc" sl-processed="1" style="color: #0183b2; font-size: inherit; line-height: 24px; outline: none;">title track of 1968’s <em>Saucerful of Secrets</em></a>, for example, opens with four minutes of dissonant horror-movie organ drones, which give way to primal drumming around which piano chords and sci-fi noises fall haphazardly, then resolve in a closing wordless choral passage. Not a single, cynical lyric about the pains of modern life to be found. The following year’s <em>Ummagumma</em> continued to build the band’s experimental foundations, and in-between these projects, they recorded film soundtracks that, again, do not make one think of laser-lit arena rock shows.</div>
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But there is plenty of connective tissue between the various phases of Floyd, much of it, like the bulk of their <a href="http://www.openculture.com/2017/09/the-lost-pink-floyd-soundtrack-for-michelangelo-antonionis-only-american-film-zabriskie-point-1970.html" sl-processed="1" style="color: #0183b2; font-size: inherit; line-height: 24px; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;">1970 soundtrack for Antonioni’s <em>Zabriskie Point</em></a>, officially unreleased. We can add to that list an attempted album called <em>Household Objects</em>, which they began in 1970 and abandoned in ’74. The project, drummer Nick Mason admitted, represents the then-largely-instrumental band “still looking for a coherent direction,” and in so doing, abandoning instruments altogether. On <em>Household Objects</em>, they made serendipitous discoveries using—as the title clearly stated—found sounds, in the vein of John Cage or the avant-garde composers of musique concrete.</div>
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In 1971, Abbey Road studios tape operator John Leckie, who went on to produce the heavily Floyd-influenced Muse, remembers the band “making chords up from the tapping of beer bottles, tearing newspapers for rhythm, and letting off aerosol cans to get a hi-hat sound.” Keyboardist Richard Wright recalls spending “days getting a pencil and a rubber band till it sounded like a bass.” The idea began two years earlier when the band performed a composition called <em>Work</em> that “involved,” writes Blake, “sawing wood and boiling kettles on stage.”</div>
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<em>Household Objects</em> recording sessions, <a href="http://www.rollingstone.com/music/lists/15-legendary-unreleased-albums-20160518/pink-floyd-household-objects-1974-20160518" sl-processed="1" style="color: #0183b2; font-size: inherit; line-height: 24px; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;">writes <em>Rolling Stone</em></a>, “consisted of Pink Floyd playing songs on hand mixers, light bulbs, wood saws, hammers, brooms and other home appliances. Recording in this manner was excruciating.” Wright and Gilmour grew exasperated and the band moved on to other things, namely <em>Wish You Were Here</em>. All that seemingly remains of <em>Household Objects</em> are the two tracks here, “The Hard Way” (an instance where rubber bands sound like a bass) and “Wine Glasses,” the latter employing, you guessed it, wine glasses. But like so much of Floyd’s lesser-known or forgotten experimental work, these sessions created the backdrop for their more accessible hits. “Wine Glasses” survived in “Shine on You Crazy Diamond.” In the video just above, you can see David Gilmour work out the glass arrangements for his performance of the song in the 2006 Royal Albert Hall concert film <em><a data-amzn-asin="B000OYC7A8" href="http://aax-us-east.amazon-adsystem.com/x/c/QkVAmTM5IrZCRjxIqQ56k3oAAAFfRslcZwEAAAFKAcO9o7k/https://assoc-redirect.amazon.com/g/r/https://www.amazon.com/David-Gilmour-Remember-Night-Albert/dp/B000OYC7A8/ref=as_at?creativeASIN=B000OYC7A8&linkCode=w61&imprToken=7iDQHozcOC9d5qz7S2-qXQ&slotNum=0" sl-processed="1" style="color: #0183b2; font-size: inherit; line-height: 24px; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;">Remember That Night</a></em>.</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5906920554547245128.post-36896104767196516952017-10-09T20:38:00.001+10:302017-10-09T20:38:50.539+10:30The Smithsonian Presents a Gallery of 6,000+ Rare Rock ‘n Roll Photos on a Crowdsourced Web Site, and Now a New Book<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyGED_NK8FOkfc6gEO2JowJTGMtQ1saXVnUtBGo9BsL0Fv5EPfn6hl2vF3VqtfdSUl7t4EtQNaTtYOVIgmC6Vwj6ksNc34kqWR3hWjO9y837GUTwBank_N9GplZNdzmUul4XCwSSHqWe8t/s1600/smithsonian-rock.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="951" data-original-width="900" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyGED_NK8FOkfc6gEO2JowJTGMtQ1saXVnUtBGo9BsL0Fv5EPfn6hl2vF3VqtfdSUl7t4EtQNaTtYOVIgmC6Vwj6ksNc34kqWR3hWjO9y837GUTwBank_N9GplZNdzmUul4XCwSSHqWe8t/s640/smithsonian-rock.jpg" width="604" /></a></div>
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Rock photography is an art form in itself, as demonstrated by books and exhibitions of some of its masters like Mick Rock, Jenny Lens, Pennie Smith, and so many others. But two years ago, <a href="https://rockandroll.si.edu/" sl-processed="1" style="color: #0183b2; font-size: inherit; line-height: 24px; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;">the Smithsonian turned to the crowd</a>, to the fan, to the amateur photographer, with a call to submit photos from over six decades of rock and roll that weren’t hanging on gallery walls, but sitting in a shoebox somewhere. From fans with instamatic cameras to amateurs covering concerts for their school paper, the Smithsonian wanted another angle on our cultural obsession.</div>
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Many of the contributions<a href="https://rockandroll.si.edu/" sl-processed="1" style="color: #0183b2; font-size: inherit; line-height: 24px; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;"> now live on a crowdsourced website. </a>And a resulting book <a href="http://amzn.to/2fLlWNx" sl-processed="1" style="color: #0183b2; font-size: inherit; line-height: 24px; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;"><em>Smithsonian Rock and Roll: Live and Unseen</em></a> collects the best of these in a chronological history of the genre, from post-war blues to the late 20th century. It will be officially released on October 24, though <a href="http://amzn.to/2fLlWNx" sl-processed="1" style="color: #0183b2; font-size: inherit; line-height: 24px; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;">you can pre-order now</a>.</div>
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Websites <a href="http://mashable.com/2017/10/01/live-and-unseen/#DGVF1TmqjaqJ" sl-processed="1" style="color: #0183b2; font-size: inherit; line-height: 24px; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;">Mashable</a> and <a href="http://dangerousminds.net/comments/rare_concert_photos_of_blondie_zappa_iggy_fugazi_and_more_from_the_smithson" sl-processed="1" style="color: #0183b2; font-size: inherit; line-height: 24px; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;">Dangerous Minds</a> present a selection of photos from the book, such as a shot of Sly Stone at the height of his powers (and belt buckle size), a pic of the Talking Heads on stage in Berkeley, 1977; a dark and mysterious glimpse of Bonnie Raitt, circa 1974; and a shot of Cream playing the Chicago Coliseum taken from the side of the stage, with Ginger Baker’s head a complete blur. Also find Joni Mitchell at Kleinhans Music Hall. And The Ramones in Tempe, Arizona, circa 1978.</div>
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<small><em>Bonnie Raitt at the Harvard Square Theatre, by Barry Schneier/Smithsonian Books</em></small></div>
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It’s a reminder of how unpretentious these live shows could be, happening in a world with the simplest of lighting rigs and decades from the big screen projections even up-and-coming bands now indulge in. For the most part, this was an intimate contract between the artist and the audience, all crammed into small clubs with smoke, sweat, heat, and, most importantly, electricity in the air.</div>
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<a href="http://amzn.to/2fLlWNx" sl-processed="1" style="color: #0183b2; font-size: inherit; line-height: 24px; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;">The new book</a> also features tales from the people who took the photos, along with some more professional photos to “flesh out this overview of rock and roll,” according to the introduction by organizer Bill Bentley. He adds: "The results, spanning six decades, aim for neither encyclopedic authority nor comprehensive finality, but rather an index of supreme influence."</div>
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<img alt="" class="alignleft size-full wp-image-1043151" height="460" src="http://cdn8.openculture.com/2017/10/04222612/ramones-smithsonian-fb-e1507181186902.png" style="display: block; height: auto; margin: 0px auto; max-width: 100%; text-align: center; width: 789.469px;" width="900" /></div>
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<small><em>The Ramones in Tempe, Arizona, by Dorian Boese/Smithsonian Books</em></small></div>
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That supreme influence continues to be felt, for sure. Although the submission window is now closed, the <a href="https://rockandroll.si.edu/" sl-processed="1" style="color: #0183b2; font-size: inherit; line-height: 24px; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;">Smithsonian's website</a> allows you to look through the hundreds of submissions to the project.</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5906920554547245128.post-33056202782909715672017-10-03T10:28:00.002+10:302017-10-03T10:28:52.184+10:30VIDEO: Inside the 1969 Bob Dylan-Johnny Cash Sessionsby <a href="http://www.openculture.com/author/zmspringer">Mike Springer</a>, Open Culture: <a href="http://www.openculture.com/2012/06/the_1969_bob_dylan-johnny_cash_sessions_twelve_rare_recordings.html">http://www.openculture.com/2012/06/the_1969_bob_dylan-johnny_cash_sessions_twelve_rare_recordings.html</a><br />
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Bob Dylan and Johnny Cash had formed a mutual admiration society even before they met in the early 1960s.</div>
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"Of course, I knew of him before he ever heard of me," Dylan wrote shortly after Cash's death in 2003. "In '55 or '56, 'I Walk the Line' played all summer on the radio, and it was different than anything else you had ever heard. The record sounded like a voice from the middle of the Earth. It was so powerful and moving."</div>
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When the young Dylan arrived on the scene in 1962, Cash was impressed.</div>
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"I was deeply into folk music in the early 1960s," he wrote in <em>Cash: The Autobiography</em>, "both the authentic songs from various periods and areas of American life and the new 'folk revival' songs of the time, so I took note of Bob Dylan as soon as the <em>Bob Dylan</em> album came out in early '62 and listened almost constantly to <em>The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan</em> in '63. I had a portable record player I'd take along on the road, and I'd put on <em>Freewheelin'</em> backstage, then go out and do my show, then listen again as soon as I came off."</div>
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Cash wrote the young Dylan a fan letter, and they began corresponding. When they met at the 1964 Newport Folk Festival, Cash gave Dylan his guitar as a gesture of respect and admiration. Five years later, when Dylan was in Nashville recording his ninth studio album, Cash was recording in the studio next door. He decided to drop in. On February 17 and 18, 1969, Cash and Dylan recorded more than a dozen duets. Only one of them, a version of Dylan's "Girl From the North Country," made it onto the album, <em>Nashville Skyline</em>. The others were never officially released, but have long been circulating as bootlegs. In the video above, Dylan and Cash work on one of two versions they made of "One Too Many Mornings," a song originally recorded by Dylan in 1964 for <em>The Times They Are a-Changin'</em>. The outtakes Dylan and Cash recorded together <a href="https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=bob+dylan+johnny+cash" sl-processed="1" style="color: #0183b2; font-size: inherit; line-height: 24px; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;">are all scattered around Youtube</a>. One Youtuber<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HL1LC25m-yM" sl-processed="1" style="color: #0183b2; font-size: inherit; line-height: 24px; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;"> posted a compilation back in 2013.</a></div>
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A few weeks after the release of <em>Nashville Skyline</em>, Dylan and Cash performed "Girl From the North Country" on <em>The Johnny Cash Show</em>. It was taped on May 1, 1969 at the Ryman Auditorium in downtown Nashville. A rough video clip (around the 30 minute mark) captures the moment. Despite Dylan's reported nervousness, the performance was well-received. "I didn't feel anything about it," Cash said later. "But everybody said it was the most magnetic, powerful thing they ever heard in their life. They were just raving about electricity and magnetism. And all I did was just sit there hitting G chords."</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5906920554547245128.post-83165742649913217922017-09-28T12:37:00.000+09:302017-09-28T12:37:15.309+09:30Ready for Their Closeups: The Top 5 Beatles Music Videos<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBSArdV4d9waMbH1GzfgXihFaXkJEsW73VGtoTL_CkhYCrfAnfSw6OXrrN9UEWH20z9aKFN7bQtbqg4EBS5I_NwBFxgpuERmDVwWhGM6vqOv-vx-empOr_Q1BUjVZBASy_UsJM96dpO6Mb/s1600/beatles-directors-chairs-getty.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="540" data-original-width="960" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBSArdV4d9waMbH1GzfgXihFaXkJEsW73VGtoTL_CkhYCrfAnfSw6OXrrN9UEWH20z9aKFN7bQtbqg4EBS5I_NwBFxgpuERmDVwWhGM6vqOv-vx-empOr_Q1BUjVZBASy_UsJM96dpO6Mb/s640/beatles-directors-chairs-getty.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; word-spacing: 0.05em;">Let’s put aside their individual mega-hits post-breakup like “Imagine,”</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; word-spacing: 0.05em;">“Band </span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; word-spacing: 0.05em;">on the Run,” </span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; word-spacing: 0.05em;">and “Got My Mind Set on You.” Let’s also take out of </span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; word-spacing: 0.05em;">consideration such memorable covers as Marvin Gaye’s exquisite</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; word-spacing: 0.05em;">rendition </span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; word-spacing: 0.05em;">of “Yesterday” and The Fifth Dimension’s rockin’ “I’ve Got a </span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; word-spacing: 0.05em;">Feeling.” </span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; word-spacing: 0.05em;">Instead, let’s focus specifically on the official videos on YouTube</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; word-spacing: 0.05em;">— in </span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; word-spacing: 0.05em;">particular, on</span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; word-spacing: 0.05em;"> </span><a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC4dqLAF7yT-_DqeYisQ001w" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #dd3333; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: 0.15s ease-in-out; vertical-align: baseline; word-spacing: 0.05em;">The Beatles Vevo</a><span style="font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; word-spacing: 0.05em;"> </span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; word-spacing: 0.05em;">channel. What are people</span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; word-spacing: 0.05em;"> </span><em style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-spacing: 0.05em;">watching</em><span style="font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; word-spacing: 0.05em;"> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; word-spacing: 0.05em;">when </span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; word-spacing: 0.05em;">it comes to Fab Four songs? Well first and foremost, it is not “Let It </span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; word-spacing: 0.05em;">Be.” </span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; word-spacing: 0.05em;">Below is a list of the five music videos with the most views to date on </span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; word-spacing: 0.05em;">Vevo. At least so far …</span></div>
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<span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: 700; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><iframe class="alignright" frameborder="0" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" src="http://ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?region=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&OneJS=1&Operation=GetAdHtml&MarketPlace=US&source=ss&ref=ss_til&ad_type=product_link&tracking_id=cultur04-20&marketplace=amazon&placement=B073LNY27M&asins=B073LNY27M&linkId=DGJQFSEETVP4VISP&show_border=true&link_opens_in_new_window=true" style="border-style: initial; border-width: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; float: right; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; height: 240px; margin: 0px 0px 24px 25px; max-width: 100%; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 120px;"></iframe>1. <a href="https://www.vevo.com/watch/the-beatles/dont-let-me-down/GBUV71501391" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #dd3333; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.15s ease-in-out; vertical-align: baseline;">“Don’t Let Me Down”</a>: 88 million plays and counting</span><br />
It might not feature their most beloved song or their most popular one but<br />
this video does commemorate the Fab Four’s final public performance via<br />
their immortal rooftop concert at Apple Studios in London circa 1969 —<br />
with both <span style="font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; word-spacing: 0.05em;">Lennon and Harrison decked out in furs, McCartney sporting a</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; word-spacing: 0.05em;">thick beard, and Ringo upstaging them all with his red plastic jacket. Pay </span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; word-spacing: 0.05em;">close attention and you’ll spot Billy Preston accompanying the guys on </span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; word-spacing: 0.05em;">the keyboards, too.</span></div>
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<span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: 700; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">2. <a href="https://www.vevo.com/watch/the-beatles/hey-jude/GBUV71501362" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #dd3333; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.15s ease-in-out; vertical-align: baseline;">“Hey Jude”</a>: 74 million plays and counting</span><br />
First seen on the fairly short-lived <em style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Frost on Sunday</em> on LWT (a.k.a. London<br />
Weekend Television) in 1968, this video encored in America on <em style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">The </em><br />
<em style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour</em> later that same year. Stick around past<br />
the 47-second intro and you’re brought up close to McCartney’s face<br />
singing straight into the camera, with some cut-aways to the other band<br />
members — most memorably a gum-chewing Lennon who looks to be<br />
making faces at McCartney at one point in an attempt to make him laugh.<br />
The emergence of a studio audience onstage at the end doubles as a<br />
time capsule of period fashions.</div>
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<span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: 700; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">3. <a href="https://www.vevo.com/watch/the-beatles/hello-goodbye/GBUV71501360" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #dd3333; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.15s ease-in-out; vertical-align: baseline;">“Hello, Goodbye”</a>: 56 million plays and counting</span><br />
The eye-popping, candy-colored, silken military uniforms of <em style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Sgt. Pepper</em>‘s<br />
fame may partially distract you from some lip syncing that doesn’t always<br />
sync up and those preposterous hulu dancers who suddenly pop up at<br />
the end. This is actually one of a trio of videos that McCartney himself<br />
directed for the song and it debuted on <em style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">The Ed Sullivan Show</em> in<br />
November 1967. (It was <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hello,_Goodbye" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #dd3333; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.15s ease-in-out; vertical-align: baseline;">banned on Britain’s <em style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Top of the Pops</em></a> because of<br />
its illegal use of miming!)</div>
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<span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: 700; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">4. <a href="https://www.vevo.com/watch/the-beatles/a-day-in-the-life/GBUV71501383" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #dd3333; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.15s ease-in-out; vertical-align: baseline;">“A Day in the Life”</a>: 48 million plays and counting</span><br />
Given the song pays homage to avant-garde titans John Cage and<br />
Karlheinz Stockhausen among others, the video’s experimental feel —<br />
part light show, part cinema verite, part family home movies — feels<br />
perfectly appropriate. Quick glimpses of Mick Jagger and Keith Richards<br />
amid a montage of increasingly hallucinatory power adds a layer of<br />
glamor. Why are the tuxedoed orchestra members wearing<br />
<a href="http://www.themortonreport.com/entertainment/music/the-beatles-1-to-be-reissued-with-new-audio-remixesand-videos/" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #dd3333; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.15s ease-in-out; vertical-align: baseline;">strange noses and silly hats</a>? Because they were asked to!</div>
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<span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: 700; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">5. <a href="https://www.vevo.com/watch/the-beatles/penny-lane/GBUV71501358" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #dd3333; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.15s ease-in-out; vertical-align: baseline;">“Penny Lane”</a>: 44 millions plays and counting</span><br />
Deemed by none other than the Museum of Modern Art to be among the<br />
most influential music promos of its time, this 1967 short was helmed by<br />
Peter Emmanuel Goldman, a now largely-forgotten director who<br />
<a href="https://www.moma.org/explore/inside_out/2014/02/25/peter-emanuel-goldmans-echoes-of-silence/" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #dd3333; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.15s ease-in-out; vertical-align: baseline;">Susan Sontag referred to as “the most exciting filmmaker in recent years.”</a><br />
So decades before MTV came into existence, The Beatles were ahead<br />
of their time in yet another art form: the music video.</div>
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– The CS Team</div>
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PS. If you want to watch more of The Beatles, check out<br />
<a href="http://www.culturesonar.com/beatles-movies/" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #dd3333; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.15s ease-in-out; vertical-align: baseline;">our post on 5 movies by the Fab Four</a>. You may also enjoy<br />
<a href="http://www.culturesonar.com/ringo-starr-films/" rel="bookmark" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #dd3333; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.15s ease-in-out; vertical-align: baseline;">The Fascinating But Forgotten Films of Ringo Starr </a>and<br />
<a href="http://www.culturesonar.com/yesterday-covers/" rel="bookmark" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #dd3333; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.15s ease-in-out; vertical-align: baseline;">8 “Yesterday” Covers to Make Paul McCartney Proud.</a></div>
<div style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin-bottom: 35px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
Photo: Keystone/Stringer (courtesy Getty Images)</div>
</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5906920554547245128.post-29403519260180901742017-09-16T15:59:00.002+09:302017-09-16T15:59:49.488+09:30Hear Lost Acetate Versions of Songs from The Velvet Underground & Nico (1966)by <a href="http://www.openculture.com/author/cjmarshall" rel="author" title="Posts by Colin Marshall">Colin Marshall</a>, Open Culture: <a href="http://www.openculture.com/2013/01/hear_newly_released_material_from_ithe_velvet_underground_nicosi_lost_acetate_version_1966.html">http://www.openculture.com/2013/01/hear_newly_released_material_from_ithe_velvet_underground_nicosi_lost_acetate_version_1966.html</a><br />
<br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="406" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/HfCQWnN-4xo" width="626"></iframe><br />
<br />
While the first Velvet Underground album may only have sold 30,000
copies, everyone who bought one started a band. You know, if you have
even a faint acquaintance with rock history, that that well-worn
observation comes from producer, artistic innovator, and "non-musician"
musician Brian Eno.<br />
<br />
And whether you could get into it or not, you've no
doubt heard at least parts of that first album, <a href="http://amzn.to/XgGbzm"><i>The Velvet Underground & Nico</i></a>,
the 1967 release that brought together such soon-to-be rock luminaries
as Lou Reed, John Cale, and the titular German vocalist/Warhol Superstar
Nico.<br />
<br />
The whole album, in fact, appeared under Warhol's aegis, and like
most works associated with him, it tends to push opinions far in one
direction or the other. <i>The Velvet Undergound & Nico</i> may still move you to found a rock band - or to scrap your interest in rock altogether - 45 years after its first release.<br />
<br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="406" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/S3eCQbJifUE" width="626"></iframe><br />
<br />
I refer to the record's "first release" because it's recently
undergone a couple more, both of which originate in a version never even
intended for market. "In 2002, a fellow paid 75 cents at a New York
City flea market for a curious acetate recording of the Velvet
Underground," <a href="http://boingboing.net/2013/01/17/velvet-underground-nico-lost.html?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter">reports Boing Boing's David Pescovitz</a>.<br />
<br />
"Turns out, the acetate contained early recorded takes and mixes of
songs in different form." That man had stumbled upon the coveted <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Velvet_Underground_%26_Nico#Scepter_Studios_acetate_version">Scepter Studios acetate version</a>
of the album that launched 30,000 bands, bootleg files of which soon
began circulating on the net.<br />
<br />
The acetate received a legitimate release
last year as part of <i>The Velvet Underground & Nico</i>'s "45th Anniversary Super Deluxe Edition," and you can hear cuts from it, like "<a href="http://youtu.be/HfCQWnN-4xo">Heroin</a>" at the top of this post and "<a href="http://youtu.be/S3eCQbJifUE">All Tomorrow's Parties</a>"
just above. For Velvet Underground purists, of course, only hearing the
acetate disc itself will do. They'll have a hard time doing so - it
last changed hands for $25,200 - but luckily they can now get at least
one step closer with its <a href="http://amzn.to/WLU4FO">brand new vinyl release</a>.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5906920554547245128.post-52497656130263237822017-08-28T20:44:00.000+09:302017-08-28T20:44:22.755+09:30Live Yardbirds Tracks Coming Home to Roost<div style="color: #333333; font-family: "Droid Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 22px; padding: 0px 0px 15px;">
<img alt="Yardbirds live recording" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-13489" height="258" src="http://psychedelicsight.com/wp-content/uploads/yardbirds-live-1968.jpg" style="background-color: white; border: 4px solid rgb(238, 238, 238); display: block; height: auto; margin: 0px auto 10px; max-width: 100%; padding: 1px;" width="514" /></div>
<div style="color: #333333; font-family: "Droid Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 22px; padding: 0px 0px 15px;">
No bull: The long-lost Yardbirds live recording of 1968 is making a comeback.</div>
<div style="color: #333333; font-family: "Droid Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 22px; padding: 0px 0px 15px;">
Due Nov. 5, “Yardbirds ’68” contains the Anderson Theatre recordings of late March 1968. That NYC set — complete with bogus audience cheers reputedly taken from bullfights — was released in 1971 as “Live Yardbirds: Featuring Jimmy Page” and later withdrawn after protests from group members.</div>
<div style="color: #333333; font-family: "Droid Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 22px; padding: 0px 0px 15px;">
“Yardbirds ’68” also contains eight “studio sketches” tracks from the period.</div>
<div style="color: #333333; font-family: "Droid Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 22px; padding: 0px 0px 15px;">
The new 18-track album was produced by Jimmy Page. The mastering is credited to John Davis, who worked with Page on the Led Zeppelin remasters of several years back.</div>
<div style="color: #333333; font-family: "Droid Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 22px; padding: 0px 0px 15px;">
The Anderson Theatre songs are highlighted by “Dazed and Confused” — the famed psychedelic Led Zeppelin track developed while Page was a Yardbird — as well as his guitar instrumental showcase “White Summer,” a number also shared by the two bands.</div>
<div style="color: #333333; font-family: "Droid Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 22px; padding: 0px 0px 15px;">
Other live tracks include “Train Kept A Rollin,'” “Over Under Sideways Down” and an expanded “I’m a Man.” (“Dazed and Confused” was mistitled “I’m Confused” on the original live album.)</div>
<div style="color: #333333; font-family: "Droid Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 22px; padding: 0px 0px 15px;">
The lineup remained the quartet from “Little Games,” the last studio album. Attempts to record another album for Columbia fizzled and the hitmaking British band broke up in the summer of 1968.</div>
<div style="color: #333333; font-family: "Droid Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 22px; padding: 0px 0px 15px;">
A statement from Yardbirds survivors Jim McCarty, Chris Dreja and Page reads: “We thought this might be lost forever, but we’ve rediscovered it, remixed it. It’s of great historical importance. We’re delighted to see the release.” (Singer Keith Relf, the fourth member of the 1968 Yardbirds, died eight years later.)</div>
<div style="color: #333333; font-family: "Droid Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 22px; padding: 0px 0px 15px;">
“Yardbirds ’68” debuts on double CD, vinyl at standard pricing — and in a pricey “Signed Deluxe Edition” with signatures of Page, McCarty and Dreja. The signed collector’s version goes for just north of $500. So far, the album is only <a href="http://www.jimmypage.com/news/yardbirds-68" style="color: #e88e05; text-decoration-line: none;">available for preorder</a> on Page’s British web site</div>
<div style="color: #333333; font-family: "Droid Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 22px; padding: 0px 0px 15px;">
The new album, alas, comes without James Grashow’s beloved woodcut of a bird above New York City (above, right). That cover has been replaced by a psychedelic painting featuring the Yardbirds logo that retains the purple color scheme (top).</div>
<div style="color: #333333; font-family: "Droid Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 22px; padding: 0px 0px 15px;">
The spring of 1968 found the Yardbirds in a strange place. The group’s last attempt at a single, “Goodnight Sweet Josephine,” flopped. Guitarist Page wanted to continue with the psychedelics of late-period Yardbirds tracks such as <a href="http://psychedelicsight.com/happenings-10-years-time-ago/" style="color: #e88e05; text-decoration-line: none;">“Happenings Ten Years Time Ago.”</a> Relf sought a classical-folk fusion. And audiences demanded the hits such as “Heart Full of Soul.”</div>
<div style="color: #333333; font-family: "Droid Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 22px; padding: 0px 0px 15px;">
When the Yardbirds played the Anderson, they already had decided to break up. They played their last show a few months later in L.A.</div>
<div style="color: #333333; font-family: "Droid Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 22px; padding: 0px 0px 15px;">
Page, particularly, objected to Epic Records’ two releases of the “Live Yardbirds” album, which was perceived as a cash-in on the success of his Led Zeppelin. After a 1976 revival of the live album by Columbia Special Products, Page reportedly took legal action and had album materials destroyed or returned to the band. Both versions of the live album remained collector’s item for decades and were heavily bootlegged. The post-production shenanigans such as the bullfight cheers are attributed to the poor original recording done at the Anderson. Those adds-on do not appear on the source tapes and will not be heard on the new album.</div>
<div style="color: #333333; font-family: "Droid Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 22px; padding: 0px 0px 15px;">
The “Yardbirds ’68” studio tracks mostly feature drummer McCarty on vocals, as singer Relf was fading from the band at that point. The producer was Manny Kellem (“Love Is Blue”), who apparently recommended the project be abandoned. Some of the studio tracks surfaced in rough mixes on the (since withdrawn) Yardbirds odds-and-sods album “Cumular Limit” of 2000, although the latest versions may differ and almost certainly will benefit from improved sonics.</div>
<div style="color: #333333; font-family: "Droid Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 22px; padding: 0px 0px 15px;">
The studio tracks:</div>
<ul style="color: #333333; font-family: "Droid Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 15px;">
<li style="list-style-type: square; margin: 0px 0px 0px 30px; padding: 0px;">Avron Knows</li>
<li style="list-style-type: square; margin: 0px 0px 0px 30px; padding: 0px;">Spanish Blood</li>
<li style="list-style-type: square; margin: 0px 0px 0px 30px; padding: 0px;">Knowing That I’m Losing You (Tangerine)</li>
<li style="list-style-type: square; margin: 0px 0px 0px 30px; padding: 0px;">Taking a Hold on Me</li>
<li style="list-style-type: square; margin: 0px 0px 0px 30px; padding: 0px;">Drinking Muddy Water (version 2)</li>
<li style="list-style-type: square; margin: 0px 0px 0px 30px; padding: 0px;">My Baby</li>
<li style="list-style-type: square; margin: 0px 0px 0px 30px; padding: 0px;">Avron’s Eyes</li>
<li style="list-style-type: square; margin: 0px 0px 0px 30px; padding: 0px;">Spanish Blood</li>
</ul>
<div style="color: #333333; font-family: "Droid Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 22px; padding: 0px 0px 15px;">
“Knowing That I’m Losing You” was reworked as “Tangerine” on Led Zeppelin’s third album.</div>
<div style="color: #333333; font-family: "Droid Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 22px; padding: 0px 0px 15px;">
McCarty continues to tour with a version of the Yardbirds. Dreja was a member of <a href="http://psychedelicsight.com/concert-review-yardbirds/" style="color: #e88e05; text-decoration-line: none;">21st century Yardbirds</a> lineups but apparently has retired due to health issues. McCarty’s Yardbirds are expected to release a studio album next year.</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5906920554547245128.post-52469368549496415922017-08-22T16:36:00.000+09:302017-08-22T16:36:09.620+09:30What Happened To Savoy Brown?<span style="font-size: large;">by <a href="https://web.musicaficionado.com/main.html?utm_source=email&utm_campaign=WeeklyRecommendations#!/member/jimfarber">Jim Farber</a>, Music Aficionado: <a href="https://web.musicaficionado.com/main.html?utm_source=email&utm_campaign=WeeklyRecommendations#!/article/what_happened_to_savoy_brown_by_jimfarber">https://web.musicaficionado.com/main.html?utm_source=email&utm_campaign=WeeklyRecommendations#!/article/what_happened_to_savoy_brown_by_jimfarber</a></span><br />
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Savoy Brown</div>
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Listen Now</div>
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<a href="https://web.musicaficionado.com/main.html?utm_source=email&utm_campaign=WeeklyRecommendations#!/artist/Savoy%20Brown" style="border: 0px none; color: #a47f2d; cursor: pointer; text-decoration-line: none;">Savoy Brown</a> has never had a song on the pop charts and none of their albums have ever inched above the top thirty anywhere in the world. Yet, for aficionados of British blues, they hold a unique place. Between 1967 and 1974, Savoy Brown released nearly a dozen notable albums that took a holistic approach to the blues, snaking through an ever-evolving mix of boogie, R&B, jazz, and psychedelic rock.</div>
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The story of how those albums came to be contains a drama rife with personality clashes, exacerbated by a pitched resistance to the slickness of pop stardom. Over the years, the band switched line-ups as often as Imelda Marcos changed shoes. Yet their music achieved a consistent quality that deserves a rehearing by anybody who appreciates blues with a hard rocking edge.<br />
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: , , "helvetica neue" , "helveticaneue" , , "helvetica" , "arial"; font-size: 28px; letter-spacing: 0px;">Simmonds At The Center</span><br />
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Kim Simmonds - Savoy Brown's stalwart leader, and sole consistent member - rates as one of the most emotive and flexible guitar heroes Britain has ever produced. His love of the blues began after he heard the American pioneers featured in his brother's record collection. "It was the honesty of the music that attracted me," the guitarist said. "There was none of the nonsense of pop. It's simple music, yet at the same time there's great art in it."<br />
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<a class="RelatedItemAnchor" href="https://web.musicaficionado.com/main.html#!/album/573963650" style="border: 0px none; color: #a47f2d; cursor: pointer; text-decoration-line: none;">Shake Down</a></div>
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Savoy Brown</div>
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Hear This Album</div>
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Simmonds formed his baby step version of Savoy Brown in 1965, when he was just 18. Their initial line-up featured six players, including harmonica player John O'Leary, and singer Bryce Portius, perhaps the first black musician to be part of a British rock band. The latter hire reflected Simmonds' upbringing in a racially mixed area of South London. In their early gigs, Savoy played the same clubs as <a href="https://web.musicaficionado.com/main.html?utm_source=email&utm_campaign=WeeklyRecommendations#!/artist/Fleetwood%20Mac" style="border: 0px none; color: #a47f2d; cursor: pointer; text-decoration-line: none;">Fleetwood Mac</a>, opened for <a href="https://web.musicaficionado.com/main.html?utm_source=email&utm_campaign=WeeklyRecommendations#!/artist/Cream" style="border: 0px none; color: #a47f2d; cursor: pointer; text-decoration-line: none;">Cream</a> at some of that group's earliest shows and even served as John Lee Hooker's band on a full U.K. tour. Their growing reputation as a live act got them a deal with Decca Records. But by the time they cut their first album, <a class="PlayableAnchor" href="https://web.musicaficionado.com/main.html?utm_source=email&utm_campaign=WeeklyRecommendations#!/album/573963650" style="border: 0px none; color: #a47f2d; cursor: pointer; text-decoration-line: none;">Shake Down<span class="PlayableAnchorBox" style="white-space: nowrap;"><img class="PlayButton InlinePlayButton" data-route="#!/album/573963650" src="https://web.musicaficionado.com/images/Play_Gold_Circle_Outline.png" style="cursor: pointer; display: inline-block; margin: -2px 0px 0px 5px; max-width: 100%; padding: 0px; vertical-align: middle; width: 22px;" /></span></a>, they had already replaced two of their initial players and added a second guitarist: Martin Stone. The band's debut, 'Shake Down', released in September of '67, featured production from Mike Vernon, blues-rock's ultimate go-to guy for his work with <a href="https://web.musicaficionado.com/main.html?utm_source=email&utm_campaign=WeeklyRecommendations#!/artist/John%20Mayall" style="border: 0px none; color: #a47f2d; cursor: pointer; text-decoration-line: none;">John Mayall</a>, Fleetwood Mac, and later, <a href="https://web.musicaficionado.com/main.html?utm_source=email&utm_campaign=WeeklyRecommendations#!/artist/Ten%20Years%20After" style="border: 0px none; color: #a47f2d; cursor: pointer; text-decoration-line: none;">Ten Years After</a>.<br />
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Savoy Brown</div>
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Cover versions of classic blues songs ate up their debut, with the exception of one cut written by Stone. From the album's first song, the focus fell on Simmonds' shivering tone and limber leads. Yet only one track gave him room to stretch out, a final 6 minute take on the traditional blues <a class="PlayableAnchor" href="https://web.musicaficionado.com/main.html?utm_source=email&utm_campaign=WeeklyRecommendations#!/track/573963650/573963666" style="border: 0px none; color: #a47f2d; cursor: pointer; text-decoration-line: none;">Shake 'Em On Down<span class="PlayableAnchorBox" style="white-space: nowrap;"><img class="PlayButton InlinePlayButton" data-route="#!/track/573963650/573963666" src="https://web.musicaficionado.com/images/Play_Gold_Circle_Outline.png" style="cursor: pointer; display: inline-block; margin: -2px 0px 0px 5px; max-width: 100%; padding: 0px; vertical-align: middle; width: 22px;" /></span></a>.<br />
<h2 style="clear: both; color: #222222; font-family: SlateStd-Medium, HelveticaNeueW01-55Roma, "Helvetica Neue", HelveticaNeue, HelveticaNeue-Light, Helvetica, Arial; font-size: 28px; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: 0px; line-height: 1.2em; margin-bottom: 12px; margin-top: 30px;">
Going On A Firing Spree</h2>
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Savoy Brown</div>
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Play Album</div>
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The band's tentative first-steps necessitated a strong rethink before Simmonds cut album No. 2. Four of the band's six members got pink slipped, leaving only their leader and pianist Bob Hall. (For a blink-and-you-missed-it moment, Savoy had at its drummer <a href="https://web.musicaficionado.com/main.html?utm_source=email&utm_campaign=WeeklyRecommendations#!/artist/Bill%20Bruford" style="border: 0px none; color: #a47f2d; cursor: pointer; text-decoration-line: none;">Bill Bruford</a>, who went on to great success with <a href="https://web.musicaficionado.com/main.html?utm_source=email&utm_campaign=WeeklyRecommendations#!/artist/Yes" style="border: 0px none; color: #a47f2d; cursor: pointer; text-decoration-line: none;">Yes</a>). The band's more defining hires turned out to be second guitarist "Lonesome" Dave Peverette, a friend of Simmonds' from childhood, and frontman Chris Youlden. Though he owns one of rock's burliest, and most emotive voices, Youlden lacked the look of a showman. So the band's manager (Simmonds' brother Harry) created an image for him, outfitting the frontman with a distinct bowler hat and a monocle. The unit's debut, <a class="PlayableAnchor" href="https://web.musicaficionado.com/main.html?utm_source=email&utm_campaign=WeeklyRecommendations#!/album/6240743" style="border: 0px none; color: #a47f2d; cursor: pointer; text-decoration-line: none;">Getting To The Point<span class="PlayableAnchorBox" style="white-space: nowrap;"><img class="PlayButton InlinePlayButton" data-route="#!/album/6240743" src="https://web.musicaficionado.com/images/Play_Gold_Circle_Outline.png" style="cursor: pointer; display: inline-block; margin: -2px 0px 0px 5px; max-width: 100%; padding: 0px; vertical-align: middle; width: 22px;" /></span></a>, released in July of '68, bold-faced their reboot with eight original pieces. The slow blues, <a class="PlayableAnchor" href="https://web.musicaficionado.com/main.html?utm_source=email&utm_campaign=WeeklyRecommendations#!/track/6240743/6240436" style="border: 0px none; color: #a47f2d; cursor: pointer; text-decoration-line: none;">Flood In Houston<span class="PlayableAnchorBox" style="white-space: nowrap;"><img class="PlayButton InlinePlayButton" data-route="#!/track/6240743/6240436" src="https://web.musicaficionado.com/images/Play_Gold_Circle_Outline.png" style="cursor: pointer; display: inline-block; margin: -2px 0px 0px 5px; max-width: 100%; padding: 0px; vertical-align: middle; width: 22px;" /></span></a>, offered a nice showcase for Youlden's inventive vocals, as well as Simmond's intuitive guitar. But a cover track - <a href="https://web.musicaficionado.com/main.html?utm_source=email&utm_campaign=WeeklyRecommendations#!/artist/Willie%20Dixon" style="border: 0px none; color: #a47f2d; cursor: pointer; text-decoration-line: none;">Willie Dixon</a>'s <a class="PlayableAnchor" href="https://web.musicaficionado.com/main.html?utm_source=email&utm_campaign=WeeklyRecommendations#!/track/6240743/6240562" style="border: 0px none; color: #a47f2d; cursor: pointer; text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #a47f2d;"><span style="border-color: initial; border-image: initial; cursor: pointer;">You Need Love</span></span><span class="PlayableAnchorBox" style="border: 0px none; color: #a47f2d; cursor: pointer; white-space: nowrap;"><img class="PlayButton InlinePlayButton" data-route="#!/track/6240743/6240562" src="https://web.musicaficionado.com/images/Play_Gold_Circle_Outline.png" style="cursor: pointer; display: inline-block; margin: -2px 0px 0px 5px; max-width: 100%; padding: 0px; vertical-align: middle; width: 22px;" /></span></a> -<br />
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Savoy Brown</div>
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Listen Now</div>
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has intrigued historians most. Youlden's cry of "deep down inside, woman, you need love," later struck some listeners as a precursor to Robert Plant's famous use of those lines in <a class="PlayableAnchor" href="https://web.musicaficionado.com/main.html?utm_source=email&utm_campaign=WeeklyRecommendations#!/track/836967288/836967297" style="border: 0px none; color: #a47f2d; cursor: pointer; text-decoration-line: none;">Whole Lotta Love<span class="PlayableAnchorBox" style="white-space: nowrap;"><img class="PlayButton InlinePlayButton" data-route="#!/track/836967288/836967297" src="https://web.musicaficionado.com/images/Play_Gold_Circle_Outline.png" style="cursor: pointer; display: inline-block; margin: -2px 0px 0px 5px; max-width: 100%; padding: 0px; vertical-align: middle; width: 22px;" /></span></a>, released one year later. Simmonds believes some of his licks also had an influence on that track. "We did dates with <a href="https://web.musicaficionado.com/main.html?utm_source=email&utm_campaign=WeeklyRecommendations#!/artist/The%20Yardbirds" style="border: 0px none; color: #a47f2d; cursor: pointer; text-decoration-line: none;">The Yardbirds</a> when <a href="https://web.musicaficionado.com/main.html?utm_source=email&utm_campaign=WeeklyRecommendations#!/artist/Jimmy%20Page" style="border: 0px none; color: #a47f2d; cursor: pointer; text-decoration-line: none;">Jimmy Page</a> was in the band," Simmonds said. "I wouldn't doubt that he heard some of that material."<br />
<h2 style="clear: both; color: #222222; font-family: SlateStd-Medium, HelveticaNeueW01-55Roma, "Helvetica Neue", HelveticaNeue, HelveticaNeue-Light, Helvetica, Arial; font-size: 28px; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: 0px; line-height: 1.2em; margin-bottom: 12px; margin-top: 30px;">
Expanding The Blues</h2>
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<a class="RelatedItemAnchor" href="https://web.musicaficionado.com/main.html#!/album/341995" style="border: 0px none; color: #a47f2d; cursor: pointer; text-decoration-line: none;">Blue Matter</a></div>
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</a><img class="AppKindIconInTextArea" src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dm1lthkbw/image/fetch/w_40,h_40,d_missing_image_pixel_kktrqk.jpg,c_limit/https%3A%2F%2Fweb.musicaficionado.com%2Fimages%2Ficon_album.png" style="filter: invert(100%); float: left; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-right: 5px; margin-top: 1px; max-width: 100%; opacity: 0.75; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: middle; width: 12px;" /><br />
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Savoy Brown</div>
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Listen Now</div>
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Savoy greatly widened their melodic reach on 1969's <a class="PlayableAnchor" href="https://web.musicaficionado.com/main.html?utm_source=email&utm_campaign=WeeklyRecommendations#!/album/341995" style="border: 0px none; color: #a47f2d; cursor: pointer; text-decoration-line: none;">Blue Matter<span class="PlayableAnchorBox" style="white-space: nowrap;"><img class="PlayButton InlinePlayButton" data-route="#!/album/341995" src="https://web.musicaficionado.com/images/Play_Gold_Circle_Outline.png" style="cursor: pointer; display: inline-block; margin: -2px 0px 0px 5px; max-width: 100%; padding: 0px; vertical-align: middle; width: 22px;" /></span></a>. The key track, <a class="PlayableAnchor" href="https://web.musicaficionado.com/main.html?utm_source=email&utm_campaign=WeeklyRecommendations#!/track/341995/341991" style="border: 0px none; color: #a47f2d; cursor: pointer; text-decoration-line: none;">Train To Nowhere<span class="PlayableAnchorBox" style="white-space: nowrap;"><img class="PlayButton InlinePlayButton" data-route="#!/track/341995/341991" src="https://web.musicaficionado.com/images/Play_Gold_Circle_Outline.png" style="cursor: pointer; display: inline-block; margin: -2px 0px 0px 5px; max-width: 100%; padding: 0px; vertical-align: middle; width: 22px;" /></span></a>, threaded four muted trombones behind Simmons' valiant solo, while the vocal from Youlden nailed the existential pull of the lyric. The band devoted half of the album to live tracks, cut the previous December at a gig which Youlden missed due to a bad case of tonsillitis. His loss gave the band two gains: Guitarist Peverette got to show off his own skills as a vocalist, and the musicians got to stretch out on tracks that lasted up to nine minutes. The concert format re-emphasized Savoy's forte as a live band. Subsequently, the group began to concentrate on touring, particularly in the U.S., where they headlined the Fillmore East and West several times.</div>
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<a class="RelatedItemAnchor" href="https://web.musicaficionado.com/main.html#!/album/347325" style="border: 0px none; color: #a47f2d; cursor: pointer; text-decoration-line: none;">A Step Further</a></div>
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Savoy Brown</div>
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Listen Now</div>
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Youlden more than compensated for his absence on the live part of 'Blue Matter' by dominating the writing on the first side one of the band's next album, <a class="PlayableAnchor" href="https://web.musicaficionado.com/main.html?utm_source=email&utm_campaign=WeeklyRecommendations#!/album/347325" style="border: 0px none; color: #a47f2d; cursor: pointer; text-decoration-line: none;">A Step Further<span class="PlayableAnchorBox" style="white-space: nowrap;"><img class="PlayButton InlinePlayButton" data-route="#!/album/347325" src="https://web.musicaficionado.com/images/Play_Gold_Circle_Outline.png" style="cursor: pointer; display: inline-block; margin: -2px 0px 0px 5px; max-width: 100%; padding: 0px; vertical-align: middle; width: 22px;" /></span></a>, released in late '69. He proved a striking songwriter, even on the instrumental track <a class="PlayableAnchor" href="https://web.musicaficionado.com/main.html?utm_source=email&utm_campaign=WeeklyRecommendations#!/track/347325/347319" style="border: 0px none; color: #a47f2d; cursor: pointer; text-decoration-line: none;">Waiting In the Bamboo Groove<span class="PlayableAnchorBox" style="white-space: nowrap;"><img class="PlayButton InlinePlayButton" data-route="#!/track/347325/347319" src="https://web.musicaficionado.com/images/Play_Gold_Circle_Outline.png" style="cursor: pointer; display: inline-block; margin: -2px 0px 0px 5px; max-width: 100%; padding: 0px; vertical-align: middle; width: 22px;" /></span></a>, which was fired by a charging horn section. Again, the second side of the album went the live route, devoting 22 minutes to <a class="PlayableAnchor" href="https://web.musicaficionado.com/main.html?utm_source=email&utm_campaign=WeeklyRecommendations#!/track/347325/27997615" style="border: 0px none; color: #a47f2d; cursor: pointer; text-decoration-line: none;">Savoy Brown Boogie<span class="PlayableAnchorBox" style="white-space: nowrap;"><img class="PlayButton InlinePlayButton" data-route="#!/track/347325/27997615" src="https://web.musicaficionado.com/images/Play_Gold_Circle_Outline.png" style="cursor: pointer; display: inline-block; margin: -2px 0px 0px 5px; max-width: 100%; padding: 0px; vertical-align: middle; width: 22px;" /></span></a>, a fast-paced medley of songs like Chuck Berry's <a class="PlayableAnchor" href="https://web.musicaficionado.com/main.html?utm_source=email&utm_campaign=WeeklyRecommendations#!/track/564976753/564976799" style="border: 0px none; color: #a47f2d; cursor: pointer; text-decoration-line: none;">Little Queenie<span class="PlayableAnchorBox" style="white-space: nowrap;"><img class="PlayButton InlinePlayButton" data-route="#!/track/564976753/564976799" src="https://web.musicaficionado.com/images/Play_Gold_Circle_Outline.png" style="cursor: pointer; display: inline-block; margin: -2px 0px 0px 5px; max-width: 100%; padding: 0px; vertical-align: middle; width: 22px;" /></span></a>, Hendrix's <a class="PlayableAnchor" href="https://web.musicaficionado.com/main.html?utm_source=email&utm_campaign=WeeklyRecommendations#!/track/357225315/357225355" style="border: 0px none; color: #a47f2d; cursor: pointer; text-decoration-line: none;">Purple Haze<span class="PlayableAnchorBox" style="white-space: nowrap;"><img class="PlayButton InlinePlayButton" data-route="#!/track/357225315/357225355" src="https://web.musicaficionado.com/images/Play_Gold_Circle_Outline.png" style="cursor: pointer; display: inline-block; margin: -2px 0px 0px 5px; max-width: 100%; padding: 0px; vertical-align: middle; width: 22px;" /></span></a> and even <a class="PlayableAnchor" href="https://web.musicaficionado.com/main.html?utm_source=email&utm_campaign=WeeklyRecommendations#!/track/412055797/412055841" style="border: 0px none; color: #a47f2d; cursor: pointer; text-decoration-line: none;">Hernando's Hideaway.<span class="PlayableAnchorBox" style="white-space: nowrap;"><img class="PlayButton InlinePlayButton" data-route="#!/track/412055797/412055841" src="https://web.musicaficionado.com/images/Play_Gold_Circle_Outline.png" style="cursor: pointer; display: inline-block; margin: -2px 0px 0px 5px; max-width: 100%; padding: 0px; vertical-align: middle; width: 22px;" /></span></a> It introduced fast and loose boogie to Savoy's usual repertoire of hard and steady blues.<br />
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Enter Jazz</h2>
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<a class="RelatedItemAnchor" href="https://web.musicaficionado.com/main.html#!/album/347349" style="border: 0px none; color: #a47f2d; cursor: pointer; text-decoration-line: none;">Raw Sienna</a></div>
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Savoy Brown</div>
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Hear This Album</div>
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The band made an even greater leap on their fifth album, <a class="PlayableAnchor" href="https://web.musicaficionado.com/main.html?utm_source=email&utm_campaign=WeeklyRecommendations#!/album/347349" style="border: 0px none; color: #a47f2d; cursor: pointer; text-decoration-line: none;">Raw Sienna<span class="PlayableAnchorBox" style="white-space: nowrap;"><img class="PlayButton InlinePlayButton" data-route="#!/album/347349" src="https://web.musicaficionado.com/images/Play_Gold_Circle_Outline.png" style="cursor: pointer; display: inline-block; margin: -2px 0px 0px 5px; max-width: 100%; padding: 0px; vertical-align: middle; width: 22px;" /></span></a>, resulting in what some see as their studio masterpiece. Released in March of 1970, 'Raw Sienna' seemed to provide a U.K. answer to the jazz-rock trend exploding out of America in bands like <a href="https://web.musicaficionado.com/main.html?utm_source=email&utm_campaign=WeeklyRecommendations#!/artist/#!/artist/Blood,%20Sweat%20and%20Tears" style="border: 0px none; color: #a47f2d; cursor: pointer; text-decoration-line: none;">Blood Sweat & Tears</a> and <a href="https://web.musicaficionado.com/main.html?utm_source=email&utm_campaign=WeeklyRecommendations#!/artist/Chicago" style="border: 0px none; color: #a47f2d; cursor: pointer; text-decoration-line: none;">Chicago</a>. In fact, Simmonds took his inspiration from <a href="https://web.musicaficionado.com/main.html?utm_source=email&utm_campaign=WeeklyRecommendations#!/artist/Ray%20Charles" style="border: 0px none; color: #a47f2d; cursor: pointer; text-decoration-line: none;">Ray Charles</a>, <a href="https://web.musicaficionado.com/main.html?utm_source=email&utm_campaign=WeeklyRecommendations#!/artist/Little%20Milton" style="border: 0px none; color: #a47f2d; cursor: pointer; text-decoration-line: none;">Little Milton</a> and the classic recordings of Blue Note. The full-bodied horn section, used throughout, added muscle to the best compositions of Youlden and Simmonds' careers. Youlden wrote six songs, including the heartfelt <a class="PlayableAnchor" href="https://web.musicaficionado.com/main.html?utm_source=email&utm_campaign=WeeklyRecommendations#!/track/347349/347341" style="border: 0px none; color: #a47f2d; cursor: pointer; text-decoration-line: none;">I'm Crying<span class="PlayableAnchorBox" style="white-space: nowrap;"><img class="PlayButton InlinePlayButton" data-route="#!/track/347349/347341" src="https://web.musicaficionado.com/images/Play_Gold_Circle_Outline.png" style="cursor: pointer; display: inline-block; margin: -2px 0px 0px 5px; max-width: 100%; padding: 0px; vertical-align: middle; width: 22px;" /></span></a> and the sexy <a class="PlayableAnchor" href="https://web.musicaficionado.com/main.html?utm_source=email&utm_campaign=WeeklyRecommendations#!/track/347349/347343" style="border: 0px none; color: #a47f2d; cursor: pointer; text-decoration-line: none;">Stay While The Night Is Young<span class="PlayableAnchorBox" style="white-space: nowrap;"><img class="PlayButton InlinePlayButton" data-route="#!/track/347349/347343" src="https://web.musicaficionado.com/images/Play_Gold_Circle_Outline.png" style="cursor: pointer; display: inline-block; margin: -2px 0px 0px 5px; max-width: 100%; padding: 0px; vertical-align: middle; width: 22px;" /></span></a> while Simmonds contributed the emotive <a class="PlayableAnchor" href="https://web.musicaficionado.com/main.html?utm_source=email&utm_campaign=WeeklyRecommendations#!/track/347349/347333" style="border: 0px none; color: #a47f2d; cursor: pointer; text-decoration-line: none;">That Same Feelin'<span class="PlayableAnchorBox" style="white-space: nowrap;"><img class="PlayButton InlinePlayButton" data-route="#!/track/347349/347333" src="https://web.musicaficionado.com/images/Play_Gold_Circle_Outline.png" style="cursor: pointer; display: inline-block; margin: -2px 0px 0px 5px; max-width: 100%; padding: 0px; vertical-align: middle; width: 22px;" /></span></a>, along with the album's most animated track, <a class="PlayableAnchor" href="https://web.musicaficionado.com/main.html?utm_source=email&utm_campaign=WeeklyRecommendations#!/track/347349/347335" style="border: 0px none; color: #a47f2d; cursor: pointer; text-decoration-line: none;">Master Hare<span class="PlayableAnchorBox" style="white-space: nowrap;"><img class="PlayButton InlinePlayButton" data-route="#!/track/347349/347335" src="https://web.musicaficionado.com/images/Play_Gold_Circle_Outline.png" style="cursor: pointer; display: inline-block; margin: -2px 0px 0px 5px; max-width: 100%; padding: 0px; vertical-align: middle; width: 22px;" /></span></a>. A jazz-rock instrumental, "Hare" suggested a caffeinated version of a <a href="https://web.musicaficionado.com/main.html?utm_source=email&utm_campaign=WeeklyRecommendations#!/artist/Dave%20Brubeck" style="border: 0px none; color: #a47f2d; cursor: pointer; text-decoration-line: none;">Dave Brubeck</a> classic. Regardless, the album underperformed on the charts, inching up to just No. 121 in the U.S.<br />
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</a><img class="AppKindIconInTextArea" src="https://res.cloudinary.com/dm1lthkbw/image/fetch/w_40,h_40,d_missing_image_pixel_kktrqk.jpg,c_limit/https%3A%2F%2Fweb.musicaficionado.com%2Fimages%2Ficon_track.png" style="filter: invert(100%); float: left; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-right: 5px; margin-top: 1px; max-width: 100%; opacity: 0.75; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: middle; width: 12px;" /><br />
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Savoy Brown</div>
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For another blow, Youlden announced right after finishing recording that he was finished with the group as well. "He wanted to go in a more singer-songwriter direction, and I wanted to go more towards the guitar," Simmonds said. Personal problems also contributed to the split. "We didn't get along too well," the band leader said.<br />
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Lose One Singer To Discover Another</h2>
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<a class="RelatedItemAnchor" href="https://web.musicaficionado.com/main.html#!/album/347368" style="border: 0px none; color: #a47f2d; cursor: pointer; text-decoration-line: none;">Looking In</a></div>
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Savoy Brown</div>
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Luckily, the band had Peverette in their back pocket as a vocalist. More, Simmonds had already written material he knew was among his strongest for a potential follow-up work. Released just seven months after 'Raw Sienna', in October of 1970, the <a class="PlayableAnchor" href="https://web.musicaficionado.com/main.html?utm_source=email&utm_campaign=WeeklyRecommendations#!/album/347368" style="border: 0px none; color: #a47f2d; cursor: pointer; text-decoration-line: none;">Looking In<span class="PlayableAnchorBox" style="white-space: nowrap;"><img class="PlayButton InlinePlayButton" data-route="#!/album/347368" src="https://web.musicaficionado.com/images/Play_Gold_Circle_Outline.png" style="cursor: pointer; display: inline-block; margin: -2px 0px 0px 5px; max-width: 100%; padding: 0px; vertical-align: middle; width: 22px;" /></span></a> album not only revealed a new lead singer but a whole new sound. With its tighter, four man line-up, Savoy Brown set its sights on hard rock, giving the music more punch and weight. After opening with a gorgeous solo guitar piece from Simmonds, the band launched into <a class="PlayableAnchor" href="https://web.musicaficionado.com/main.html?utm_source=email&utm_campaign=WeeklyRecommendations#!/track/347368/347360" style="border: 0px none; color: #a47f2d; cursor: pointer; text-decoration-line: none;">Poor Girl<span class="PlayableAnchorBox" style="white-space: nowrap;"><img class="PlayButton InlinePlayButton" data-route="#!/track/347368/347360" src="https://web.musicaficionado.com/images/Play_Gold_Circle_Outline.png" style="cursor: pointer; display: inline-block; margin: -2px 0px 0px 5px; max-width: 100%; padding: 0px; vertical-align: middle; width: 22px;" /></span></a>, a titanic rocker that honed the new tone. Peverette, a formerly shy singer, presented a newly assertive vocal style, while Simmonds kept the songwriting level high with the slinky <a class="PlayableAnchor" href="https://web.musicaficionado.com/main.html?utm_source=email&utm_campaign=WeeklyRecommendations#!/track/347368/347362" style="border: 0px none; color: #a47f2d; cursor: pointer; text-decoration-line: none;">Money Can't Save Your Soul<span class="PlayableAnchorBox" style="white-space: nowrap;"><img class="PlayButton InlinePlayButton" data-route="#!/track/347368/347362" src="https://web.musicaficionado.com/images/Play_Gold_Circle_Outline.png" style="cursor: pointer; display: inline-block; margin: -2px 0px 0px 5px; max-width: 100%; padding: 0px; vertical-align: middle; width: 22px;" /></span></a> and the jazz-tinged <a class="PlayableAnchor" href="https://web.musicaficionado.com/main.html?utm_source=email&utm_campaign=WeeklyRecommendations#!/track/347368/159251737" style="border: 0px none; color: #a47f2d; cursor: pointer; text-decoration-line: none;">title track<span class="PlayableAnchorBox" style="white-space: nowrap;"><img class="PlayButton InlinePlayButton" data-route="#!/track/347368/159251737" src="https://web.musicaficionado.com/images/Play_Gold_Circle_Outline.png" style="cursor: pointer; display: inline-block; margin: -2px 0px 0px 5px; max-width: 100%; padding: 0px; vertical-align: middle; width: 22px;" /></span></a>. The latter boasted dueling guitars from Simmonds and Peverette that wouldn't be out of place in the <a href="https://web.musicaficionado.com/main.html?utm_source=email&utm_campaign=WeeklyRecommendations#!/artist/The%20Allman%20Brothers%20Band" style="border: 0px none; color: #a47f2d; cursor: pointer; text-decoration-line: none;">Allman Brothers</a>. Together, it gave the band the highest chart score of its career, cracking the American Top 40 for the first, and only time.<br />
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Savoy Brown</div>
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You'd think that success would encourage Simmonds to stick with the formula. But, in an exceptionally gutsy move, he challenged the other players to explore something dramatically different for their follow-up. "I wanted to go for a tighter, R&B sound." he said.</div>
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When the rest of the band proved ill equipped, or unwilling, to make that change, he fired all of them. The three - Peverette, bassist Tone Stevens and drummer Earle - took some ideas Simmonds had blueprinted and used them to form a new group, <a href="https://web.musicaficionado.com/main.html?utm_source=email&utm_campaign=WeeklyRecommendations#!/artist/Foghat" style="border: 0px none; color: #a47f2d; cursor: pointer; text-decoration-line: none;">Foghat</a>. By buffing up the sound, and simplifying their approach, Foghat became a huge act in the U.S. Their willingness to standardize Savoy's style, offers a key explanation for why they, rather than Simmonds' group, achieved sustained stardom.<br />
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Simmonds insists he "was very happy for them. And we remained great friends. I still get a thrill when I hear <a class="PlayableAnchor" href="https://web.musicaficionado.com/main.html?utm_source=email&utm_campaign=WeeklyRecommendations#!/track/1098935593/1098935842" style="border: 0px none; color: #a47f2d; cursor: pointer; text-decoration-line: none;">Slow Ride<span class="PlayableAnchorBox" style="white-space: nowrap;"><img class="PlayButton InlinePlayButton" data-route="#!/track/1098935593/1098935842" src="https://web.musicaficionado.com/images/Play_Gold_Circle_Outline.png" style="cursor: pointer; display: inline-block; margin: -2px 0px 0px 5px; max-width: 100%; padding: 0px; vertical-align: middle; width: 22px;" /></span></a>on a Nike commercial," he said.<br />
<h2 style="clear: both; color: #222222; font-family: SlateStd-Medium, HelveticaNeueW01-55Roma, "Helvetica Neue", HelveticaNeue, HelveticaNeue-Light, Helvetica, Arial; font-size: 28px; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: 0px; line-height: 1.2em; margin-bottom: 12px; margin-top: 30px;">
The Move To R&B</h2>
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<a class="RelatedItemAnchor" href="https://web.musicaficionado.com/main.html#!/album/347390" style="border: 0px none; color: #a47f2d; cursor: pointer; text-decoration-line: none;">Street Corner Talking</a></div>
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Savoy Brown</div>
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A shake-up in a fellow blues band helped the resourceful Simmonds rebound from the three man loss. As it happened, Stan Webb, czar of the Brit blues at Chicken Shack, had just jettisoned three members of his band. Recognizing an opportunity, Simmonds hired every one of them. The new line-up jelled remarkably well, especially with the addition of singer Dave Walker, whose deep voice had some of the throaty command of Youlden. The unit's debut, <a class="PlayableAnchor" href="https://web.musicaficionado.com/main.html?utm_source=email&utm_campaign=WeeklyRecommendations#!/album/347390" style="border: 0px none; color: #a47f2d; cursor: pointer; text-decoration-line: none;">Street Corner Talking<span class="PlayableAnchorBox" style="white-space: nowrap;"><img class="PlayButton InlinePlayButton" data-route="#!/album/347390" src="https://web.musicaficionado.com/images/Play_Gold_Circle_Outline.png" style="cursor: pointer; display: inline-block; margin: -2px 0px 0px 5px; max-width: 100%; padding: 0px; vertical-align: middle; width: 22px;" /></span></a>, released in September of '71, made good on Simmonds' goal to bring steely R&B to the blues, evident in a convincing cover of <a href="https://web.musicaficionado.com/main.html?utm_source=email&utm_campaign=WeeklyRecommendations#!/artist/The%20Temptations" style="border: 0px none; color: #a47f2d; cursor: pointer; text-decoration-line: none;">The Temptations</a>' <a class="PlayableAnchor" href="https://web.musicaficionado.com/main.html?utm_source=email&utm_campaign=WeeklyRecommendations#!/track/347390/347374" style="border: 0px none; color: #a47f2d; cursor: pointer; text-decoration-line: none;">Can't Get Next To You<span class="PlayableAnchorBox" style="white-space: nowrap;"><img class="PlayButton InlinePlayButton" data-route="#!/track/347390/347374" src="https://web.musicaficionado.com/images/Play_Gold_Circle_Outline.png" style="cursor: pointer; display: inline-block; margin: -2px 0px 0px 5px; max-width: 100%; padding: 0px; vertical-align: middle; width: 22px;" /></span></a>. </div>
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The song received wide play on FM rock stations as did a catchy original, <a class="PlayableAnchor" href="https://web.musicaficionado.com/main.html?utm_source=email&utm_campaign=WeeklyRecommendations#!/track/347390/347384" style="border: 0px none; color: #a47f2d; cursor: pointer; text-decoration-line: none;">Tell Mama<span class="PlayableAnchorBox" style="white-space: nowrap;"><img class="PlayButton InlinePlayButton" data-route="#!/track/347390/347384" src="https://web.musicaficionado.com/images/Play_Gold_Circle_Outline.png" style="cursor: pointer; display: inline-block; margin: -2px 0px 0px 5px; max-width: 100%; padding: 0px; vertical-align: middle; width: 22px;" /></span></a>. Both cuts showcased a slicker, more streamlined production sound.<br />
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Savoy Brown</div>
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The groove on 'Street Corner' proved deep enough to inspire a strong restatement on its follow-up, <a class="PlayableAnchor" href="https://web.musicaficionado.com/main.html?utm_source=email&utm_campaign=WeeklyRecommendations#!/album/347414" style="border: 0px none; color: #a47f2d; cursor: pointer; text-decoration-line: none;">Hellbound Train<span class="PlayableAnchorBox" style="white-space: nowrap;"><img class="PlayButton InlinePlayButton" data-route="#!/album/347414" src="https://web.musicaficionado.com/images/Play_Gold_Circle_Outline.png" style="cursor: pointer; display: inline-block; margin: -2px 0px 0px 5px; max-width: 100%; padding: 0px; vertical-align: middle; width: 22px;" /></span></a>, released just five months later. The album found a highlight in <a class="PlayableAnchor" href="https://web.musicaficionado.com/main.html?utm_source=email&utm_campaign=WeeklyRecommendations#!/track/347414/347412" style="border: 0px none; color: #a47f2d; cursor: pointer; text-decoration-line: none;">the nine minute title cut<span class="PlayableAnchorBox" style="white-space: nowrap;"><img class="PlayButton InlinePlayButton" data-route="#!/track/347414/347412" src="https://web.musicaficionado.com/images/Play_Gold_Circle_Outline.png" style="cursor: pointer; display: inline-block; margin: -2px 0px 0px 5px; max-width: 100%; padding: 0px; vertical-align: middle; width: 22px;" /></span></a>, which remains a part of Savoy Brown's set to this day. The mix of R&B, boogie and blues hit a trifecta with 'Lion's Share', released late in '72. But, like all shades of Savoy Brown, this incarnation wasn't built to last.</div>
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By the end of that year, frontman Walker bolted to join the equally peripatetic Fleetwood Mac. His replacement, Jackie Lynton, proved a pale substitute, something the group tried to camouflage by surrounding him with scores of female backup singers on his sole album with them, 'Jack The Toad'. After Lynton left, Simmonds made another ballsy move by hooking up with peer Stan Webb for a double-guitar assault of an album, 'Boogie Brothers' in 1974. After that, Simmonds himself took over the singing, though he never considered himself a top vocalist. Savoy Brown's audience began to taper at that point, a trend which didn't dissuade Simmonds from continuing to lead some version of his brand through all the decades since. Along the way, he has released scores of albums and toured regularly.<br />
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The Yardbirds, John Mayall and 16 others</div>
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In the 50 years since Savoy Brown released their debut, they've run through over 60 (!) musicians, with Simmonds serving as their sole through line. "I can be a difficult person," the band leader admitted. "And I don't want to stand still. Once I've climbed a mountain, I want to climb another. If a band weren't willing to do that, I would get another band."</div>
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The subsequent roller-coaster ride hasn't deterred Simmonds. For the band's fiftieth anniversary this fall, Simmonds will release yet another new Savoy Brown album and tour to back it. "I have a strong motivation to continue,' he said. "A famous poet once said "the deed can never be done without need.' There's something in me that's gotta come out. Through all of it - the band's changes, the music, and the fifty years - the one tie-in is my guitar playing. That's what keeps it all going."</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5906920554547245128.post-2861909008344685942017-07-25T19:08:00.000+09:302017-07-25T19:08:44.319+09:30Where George Martin Found His Post-Beatle Groove<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhZViFLjaRYDD4abaHfbZMob4MndELSl7103lvgb0y8_gSzTVyNctnux802roicW68l555wcX8TrW_BJc9tmBeOsZL4vOATlwzRvSFedK4RNMMBfSuVhdml5H7HNUaqgznOi5c8bEdzLw8/s1600/montserrat.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="540" data-original-width="960" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhZViFLjaRYDD4abaHfbZMob4MndELSl7103lvgb0y8_gSzTVyNctnux802roicW68l555wcX8TrW_BJc9tmBeOsZL4vOATlwzRvSFedK4RNMMBfSuVhdml5H7HNUaqgznOi5c8bEdzLw8/s640/montserrat.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Montserrat</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "lato" , sans-serif;">by </span><a href="http://www.culturesonar.com/author/patrick-foley/" style="font-family: Lato, sans-serif;">Patrick Foley</a><span style="font-family: "lato" , sans-serif;">, Culture Sonar: </span><a href="http://www.culturesonar.com/george-martin-montserrat/" style="font-family: Lato, sans-serif;">http://www.culturesonar.com/george-martin-montserrat/</a></div>
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Montserrat is a tiny mountainous island in the Eastern Caribbean. It was “discovered” by Christopher Columbus on his second voyage to the New World but the famous explorer didn’t land on the island because of its lack of a safe harbor. Instead, he simply christened it “Montserrat” because its tall, sharp mountain peaks reminded him of the terrain near a Spanish monastery of the same name. Over time, the island was claimed by the French, the Spanish and the British. It remains a British colony today.</div>
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I’ve been involved in music and music-related business most of my life. Way back in 1963, well before The Beatles’ <em style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Ed Sullivan Show</em><br />
appearance, my family in London had been sending me newspaper clippings and photos of John, Paul, George and Ringo. (They didn’t realize the band wasn’t known stateside yet.) By the time Beatlemania took over the US in 1964, I was intimately familiar with the Fab Four. In fact, I instantly became the expert of all things Beatles at my elementary school.</div>
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In 1977 when I was much older, I left Detroit for Los Angeles — following not only Motown Records but many Motor City musicians who’d made the trek before me. After 15 years in LA and five in Montserrat, I moved to Nashville where I eventually worked for the Gibson Guitar Company. In my role as Global Artist Relations Director based in both Nashville and London, I worked with an extensive list of iconic artists like Jimmy Page, Jeff Beck, Eric Clapton, and Paul McCartney on limited run artist-signature guitars. In 1999, Sir George Martin kindly invited my assistant, Juliette Avery and I to use AIR Studios London and co-hosted an event, both honoring Elvis guitarist Scotty Moore, and launching our new Gibson artist office on Denmark Street. In attendance was a who’s who of iconic UK-based guitarists. Among the many artist guitars that I was privileged to help develop in subsequent years was the 1963 Paul McCartney Epiphone Texan.<br />
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While living in the UK, my wife and I attended the final night of the Paul McCartney tour at the Kings Docks Liverpool in June 2003 and got an opportunity to speak with Paul afterwards. I suggested the idea of creating a signature model to generate funds and awareness for Paul’s then-favorite charity “Adopt a Minefield.” As a result, we worked closely together on a limited run of exact copies of the famous acoustic guitar on which he had written “Yesterday” and that he had played on that first <em style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Ed Sullivan</em> show. But let’s get back to Montserrat.</div>
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In the early 1600s, Montserrat was a refuge for Irish indentured servants earning their freedom from servitude. Unlike most British territories at the time, Montserrat permitted them to practice their Catholic faith freely. Even today most family and place names in Montserrat are distinctly Irish. It is commonly referred to as “The Emerald Isle of the Caribbean” because of its Irish history and a physical resemblance to Ireland. Most local citizens share both Irish and African heritage and are proud of both. Indeed, St. Patrick’s Day is a national holiday celebrated for a full week every March.</div>
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During the 1960s and ‘70s, Montserrat was re-discovered by some more adventurous expatriate Americans, Brits, and Europeans, including a handful of writers and a few celebrities. They loved it for its unspoiled beauty and friendly people. But things really began to change in 1979 when Sir George Martin opened AIR Studios Montserrat. Which brings me to my own backstory.</div>
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I personally have been visiting Montserrat regularly since 1975. My father was a former Royal Air Force pilot who continued to fly all his life. Perhaps it was a mid-life crisis or just his adventurous streak but he began flying his single-engine airplane south to Florida, then Jamaica then down to the Leeward Island chain until he discovered this little gem called Montserrat and was immediately captivated. One day in 1977 while I was living and working in LA, I got a rare phone call from my dad telling me that he had brought the Beatles “manager” to the Island and that he would be staying for a week or so.</div>
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Me: “Wait, the Beatles manager was Brian Epstein and he’s dead. What are you talking about?”</div>
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Dad: “Well he’s a very nice fellow named George Martin.”</div>
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Me: “Are you kidding?”</div>
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Dad: “No, he’s very interested in aircraft and was in the Royal Navy’s Fleet Air Arm. We met in Antigua. He’s thinking of building a studio in the Caribbean and I suggested Montserrat.”</div>
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What happened next? Well, to quote from the AIR Studios web site:</div>
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“In 1977, Sir George [Martin] fell in love with Montserrat and decided to build the ultimate get-away-from-it-all recording studio. Opened in 1979, AIR Studios Montserrat offered all of the technical facilities of its London predecessor, but with the advantages of an exotic location.”</div>
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Fast forward to the studio opening in 1979. The first band to record in the new space? The Climax Blues Band. Next up was James Taylor and Jimmy Buffet. Ultimately, the studio hosted a laundry list of top artists including Dire Straits (<em style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Brothers in Arms</em>) and The Police (<em style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Synchronicity</em> and <em style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Ghost in the Machine</em>, the former ranking as the band’s final and most successful album which won three Grammy Awards). After that there was McCartney, Stevie Wonder, Elton John, Duran Duran, Ultravox, Lou Reed, Michael Jackson, Black Sabbath, Pink Floyd, Eric Clapton, and The Rolling Stones (who came on the recommendation of Keith Richards who’d recorded <em style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Talk Is Cheap</em> there with his band The Xpensive Winos). So many musicians recorded multiple albums there that the island and the studio alike eventually gained a reputation as a refuge from the stresses of life in the fast lane. Of course, it was also a world class facility with top engineers on staff who rotated down from AIR London.</div>
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Those were truly magical times in Montserrat. These icons could spend days on the beach, hiking, or even windsurfing (as Sting, and Guy Fletcher and Alan Clark of Dire Straits did) then in the evening, they’d go to work. Paul and Stevie used to jam at the local pub The Agouti while recording “Ebony and Ivory.” In 1981, Sir Paul recorded his <em style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Tug of War</em> album there which <em style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Rolling Stone</em>’s Stephen Holden hailed as “the masterpiece everyone has always known Paul McCartney could make.”</div>
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One evening, local singer Eloise Lynch, who had several popular songs on ZJB’s Radio Montserrat, was asked to perform at the seaside restaurant somewhat ironically named the Yacht Club. The idea was that the Stones (who had a BBC crew in tow) would arrive and then dance to local music. The filming was to take place between 9:30 and 10PM. Since word had got out among students at the American medical school, the place that night was packed. Ten o’clock came and went but no Stones. By midnight the crowd was getting rowdy and Eloise had waited long enough. She said either we play now or go home. Just as the band got started, the camera lights came on as Ron Woods, Charlie Watts, Mick Jagger and their small entourage walked in.</div>
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Afterwards one of the girls, who had been dancing with the Stones came over and said to Eloise, “Mick wants to meet you.” Her response was “then tell Mick that he shouldn’t have kept me and the band waiting for over two hours.” This was somewhat typical of the down-to-earth attitude of the Montserratian people. Eloise couldn’t have cared less about an inconsiderate English rock star. The Stones album <em style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Steel Wheels</em>turned out to be the last recording done at AIR before the damage from Hurricane Hugo followed by changing conditions in the recording industry had forced the closure of AIR for good.</div>
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Even so, Sir George made helping Montserrat recover from the devastation caused by Hugo and a later volcanic eruption a priority for the rest of his life. He organized the <a href="https://video.search.yahoo.com/yhs/search;_ylt=A2KLqIQAVllZFk4AS4Q0nIlQ;_ylu=X3oDMTBncGdyMzQ0BHNlYwNzZWFyY2gEdnRpZAM-;_ylc=X1MDMTM1MTE5NTcwMARfcgMyBGFjdG4DY2xrBGJjawNiaDlkZXIxY2JydmhyJTI2YiUzRDMlMjZzJTNENGoEY3NyY3B2aWQDZ0dOblhEazRMakc0cGE3WVdMMy5Pd1l2TVRjeUxnQUFBQUJvaXBXaARmcgN5aHMtaXRtLTAwMQRmcjIDc2EtZ3AEZ3ByaWQDVDZJOUltUVJSb09rUDhxcGVZcmQ4QQRtdGVzdGlkA251bGwEbl9yc2x0AzYwBG5fc3VnZwMyBG9yaWdpbgN2aWRlby5zZWFyY2gueWFob28uY29tBHBvcwMwBHBxc3RyAwRwcXN0cmwDBHFzdHJsAzIxBHF1ZXJ5A211c2ljIGZvciBtb250c2VycmF0IAR0X3N0bXADMTQ5OTAyNzM2NAR2dGVzdGlkA251bGw-?gprid=T6I9ImQRRoOkP8qpeYrd8A&pvid=gGNnXDk4LjG4pa7YWL3.OwYvMTcyLgAAAABoipWh&p=music+for+montserrat+&ei=UTF-8&fr2=p%3As%2Cv%3Av%2Cm%3Asa&fr=yhs-itm-001&hsimp=yhs-001&hspart=itm#action=view&id=23&vid=0074809b73a94508b9354b53abb80a9f" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #dd3333; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.15s ease-in-out; vertical-align: baseline;">Music for Montserrat concert </a>in 1997, and created a very limited-edition reproduction of the string score which he had written for the song “Yesterday.” Both he and Sir Paul hand-signed each framed copy which were titled <a href="http://www.culturesonar.com/george-martin-montserrat/%E2%80%9Dhttps://www.abbeyroad.com/news/limited-edition-yesterday-score-by-sir-george-martin-for-the-beatles-2199%E2%80%9C" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #dd3333; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.15s ease-in-out; vertical-align: baseline;">“Yesterday for Montserrat.”</a> Produced in the UK, these prints were made to museum-quality specification on Somerset Enhanced 100% cotton rag paper with hand-finished edges. The money raised from this and other various fundraising efforts were used to build a community center on the island which broke ground in 2001.</div>
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In my capacity as Artist Relations Director for Gibson Guitar Company and Slingerland Drums, I had the pleasure of working with Sir George on the Music for Montserrat charity event held at the Royal Albert Hall on Sep. 15, 1997. The concert featured Jimmy Buffett, Mark Knopfler, Sting, Elton John, Eric Clapton, Paul McCartney, Midge Ure, Phil Collins, Carl Perkins and many others who had recorded on and inevitably fallen in love with the island.</div>
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– <a href="http://www.culturesonar.com/team/" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #dd3333; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.15s ease-in-out; vertical-align: baseline;">Patrick Foley</a></div>
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PS. <a href="http://www.culturesonar.com/fifth-beatle/" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #dd3333; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.15s ease-in-out; vertical-align: baseline;">Find out why George Martin truly qualifies to be called the Fifth Beatle.</a></div>
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All photos courtesy of Patrick Foley.</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5906920554547245128.post-42168348912412584402017-07-17T12:45:00.000+09:302017-07-17T12:45:19.983+09:30VIDEOS: Pink Floyd Performs on US Television for the First Time: American Bandstand, 1967by <a href="http://www.openculture.com/author/jdavidjones">Josh Jones</a>, Open Culture: <a href="http://www.openculture.com/2016/04/pink-floyd-performs-on-us-television-for-the-first-time-american-bandstand-1967.html">http://www.openculture.com/2016/04/pink-floyd-performs-on-us-television-for-the-first-time-american-bandstand-1967.html</a><br />
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<a href="http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2yvxsd" target="_blank">Pink Floyd - Apples And Oranges - 1967 American...</a> <i>by <a href="http://www.dailymotion.com/pentathlonstart" target="_blank">pentathlonstart</a></i>
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You may have noticed we’ve been in the midst of a mini-sixties revival for the past decade or so—what with the retro soul of Alabama Shakes or the late Amy Winehouse, the garage rock of Ty Segall, and the California psych of Australia's Tame Impala. That’s to name but just a few students of sixties’ sounds; many hundreds more populate events like the Psych Fests of <a href="http://levitation-austin.com/" sl-processed="1" style="color: #0183b2; font-size: inherit; line-height: 24px; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;">Austin</a> and <a href="http://www.liverpoolpsychfest.com/" sl-processed="1" style="color: #0183b2; font-size: inherit; line-height: 24px; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;">Liverpool</a>. And before these bands, late eighties/early nineties brought us a British re-invasion of sixties garage rock and pop like the Jesus and Mary Chain, the Chameleons, the Stone Roses, Oasis, and many other jangly, fuzzy, dreamy bands.</div>
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All of that is to say it’s nearly impossible to hear anything sixties rock with fresh ears. Not only has the incessant nostalgia dimmed our senses, but we’ve seen the ideas of the sixties evolve into myriad subcultures variously indebted to the decade, but no longer even in need of direct reference. What would it mean, however, to hear the far-out sounds of a band like Pink Floyd for the first time, a band who may at times sound dated now, but much of whose more obscure catalog remains shocking. And it’s easy to forget that when Pink Floyd—or “The Pink Floyd” as they tended to be called—got their start with original singer and songwriter Syd Barrett, they made a much different sound than those we’re familiar with from <em>The Wall</em> or <em>Dark Side of the Moon</em>.</div>
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If you haven’t heard the sound of the band circa 1967, when they recorded their first album <em><a href="http://amzn.to/1qvoYJh" sl-processed="1" style="color: #0183b2; font-size: inherit; line-height: 24px; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;">Piper at the Gates of Dawn</a></em>, then you may nod along with Dick Clark’s ambivalent introduction of them to U.S. audiences in the <a href="http://societyofrock.com/pink-floyds-first-u-s-appearance-on-american-bandstand/" sl-processed="1" style="color: #0183b2; font-size: inherit; line-height: 24px; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;">’67 <em>American Bandstand</em> appearance </a>above---their first visit to the States and first time of TV. They do indeed make “very interesting sounds”: specifically, “Apples and Oranges,” the third single and the final song Barrett wrote for the band before he suffered a psychotic break onstage and was replaced by David Gilmour. There isn’t much in the way of performance. (But stick around for the interviews around 3:25.) As pretty much everyone did at the time, Barrett, Roger Waters, Nick Mason, and Richard Wright mime to a prerecorded track. And Barrett looks particularly out of it. He was close by this point to the crippling mental health crisis that would eventually end his career.</div>
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But Syd Barrett did not disappear from music right away. The unreleased “Scream Thy Last Scream,” slated to be the next single released after <em>Piper at the Gates of Dawn</em>, gave much indication of the musical direction he took in two 1970 solo albums, <em><a href="http://amzn.to/1Na44UK" sl-processed="1" style="color: #0183b2; font-size: inherit; line-height: 24px; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;">The Madcap Laughs</a></em> and <em><a href="http://amzn.to/1TDiLq8" sl-processed="1" style="color: #0183b2; font-size: inherit; line-height: 24px; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;">Barrett</a></em>. Like later Barrett, early Pink Floyd is not music for everyone. Instead of the familiar stomping funk of “The Wall” or the soaring blues of “Comfortably Numb,” the songs meander, twist, turn, and wobble, often indicating the state of Barrett’s troubled soul, but just as often showcasing his brilliant compositional mind. Barrett is gone, as is keyboardist Richard Wright, and Pink Floyd is no more. But their legacy is secure. And we still have mad geniuses like Austin psych legend <a href="http://www.rokyerickson.com/" sl-processed="1" style="color: #0183b2; font-size: inherit; line-height: 24px; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;">Roky Erickson</a> to kick around, as well as all the many thousands of musicians he and Barrett inspired.</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5906920554547245128.post-46134359822067806162017-07-14T16:21:00.003+09:302017-07-14T16:21:57.674+09:30VIDEOS: Frank Zappa Explains the Decline of the Music Business (1987)<span style="background-color: white; color: #414141; font-family: Lora, Lora, Times, serif; font-size: 16px;">by </span><a href="http://www.openculture.com/author/jdavidjones" rel="author" sl-processed="1" style="background-color: white; color: #0183b2; font-family: Lora, Lora, Times, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;" title="Posts by Josh Jones">Josh Jones</a>, Open Culture: http://www.openculture.com/2016/09/frank-zappa-explains-the-decline-of-the-music-business-1987.html<br />
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“Remember the 60s?” says Frank Zappa in the interview above, “that era that a lot of people have these glorious memories of?... they really weren’t that great, those years.” Ever the grumpy uncle. But Zappa does get nostalgic for one thing, and it’s an unexpected one: the music business. “One thing that did happen in the 60s,” he says, “was some music of an unusual and experimental nature did get recorded, did get released.” The executives of the day were “cigar-chomping old guys who looked at the product and said, 'I don’t know. Who knows what it is? Record it, stick it out. If it sells, alright!'”</div>
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“We were better off with those guys,” says Zappa, “than we are with the hip, young executives,” making decisions about what people should hear. The hippies are more conservative than the conservative “old guys” ever were. This Zappa of 1987 recommends getting back to the “who knows?” approach, “that entrepreneurial spirit” of the grand old industry barons of the 60s. One can almost imagine Zappa—in the 60s—pining for the <a href="https://medium.com/@Vinylmint/history-of-the-record-industry-1877-1920s-48deacb4c4c3#.d5lw9tq8u" sl-processed="1" style="color: #0183b2; font-size: inherit; line-height: 24px; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;">days of Edison</a>, who refused to give up on the wax cylinder but would also <a href="http://www.openculture.com/2009/11/tchaikovskys_voice_captured_on_an_edison_cylinder_1890.html" sl-processed="1" style="color: #0183b2; font-size: inherit; line-height: 24px; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;">record virtually anything</a>. If both the time of Edison and the time of Zappa were bonanzas for makers of novelty records, so much the better. Zappa was novel. </div>
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Still it seems like a funny sentiment coming from a guy who built most of his career in opposition to the record industry. But it was in the period of alleged decay that Zappa broke with Warner Bros. and founded his own label in 1977, making a deal with Phonogram to distribute his releases in the U.S. When Phonogram refused to release his 1981 single “I Don’t Wanna Get Drafted,” Zappa created another label, Barking Pumpkin Records, making sure he got to make and sell the music he wanted to.</div>
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In many ways people like Zappa---or later Kate Bush or Prince---anticipated our current music industry, in which we have artists starting labels left and right, controlling their own production and output. But those artists are mostly a tiny handful of hugely successful stars with mogul-sized ambitions. Does this help or harm the music economy as a whole? Independent musicians very rarely get the smallest window on how things work at the level of Beyonce, Jay-Z, or Taylor Swift (who "<em>is</em> the industry," <a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2014-11-12/taylor-swift-and-big-machine-are-the-music-industry" sl-processed="1" style="color: #0183b2; font-size: inherit; line-height: 24px; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;"><em>Bloomberg</em> once breathlessly proclaimed</a>). But as Zappa notes, “the person in the executive chair may not be the final arbiter of taste for the entire population.” Even if those executives are themselves artists, we may greatly benefit from a wider range of "unusual and experimental" sounds in popular culture. Zappa suggests the way to do that is to get the "cigar-chomping old guys" (and they were all guys) back in charge. </div>
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The rest of Zappa’s interview concerns the bogeyman of 80s and 90s music, the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parents_Music_Resource_Center" sl-processed="1" style="color: #0183b2; font-size: inherit; line-height: 24px; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;">PMRC</a>, and his very strong feelings about censorship, social control, and sex. It’s classic Zappa and won’t raise any eyebrows now, but it is interesting to hear his take on the decline of the music business since the 60s. We use different criteria to measure the apex of the industry---often depending on whether the labels or the artists made more money. Whichever period we lionize, for whatever reason, within a hundred-year window a tiny handful of musicians and record executives made enormous, dynasty-making fortunes. It just so happens that these days it's an even tinier handful of musicians and executives at the top, making even huger fortunes. And there's a lot more synergy between them. </div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5906920554547245128.post-34128755621219159362017-07-03T11:28:00.000+09:302017-07-03T11:28:14.924+09:30The Crooked Path to Badfinger’s “Straight Up”<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #444444; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; font-size: 20px; margin-bottom: 35px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-spacing: 1px;">
by <a href="http://www.culturesonar.com/author/john-visconti/">John Visconti</a>, Culture Sonar: <a href="http://www.culturesonar.com/badfinger-straight-up/">http://www.culturesonar.com/badfinger-straight-up/</a></div>
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Badfinger — the band that first found fame with the Paul McCartney penned “Come and Get It” — was riding high in 1971 following the recent release of its well-received album <a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003XKMS9K?ie=UTF8&linkCode=as2&camp=1634&creative=6738&tag=cultur04-20&creativeASIN=B003XKMS9K" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #dd3333; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.15s ease-in-out; vertical-align: baseline;"><em style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">No Dice</em></a> on the Beatles’ Apple label and its breakout hit “No Matter What” (written by band front-man <a href="http://peteham.net/" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #dd3333; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.15s ease-in-out; vertical-align: baseline;">Pete Ham</a>). But when the band returned to the studio to record their follow-up, no one could have anticipated the twists and turns it would take to complete this next project. Working at first with Geoff Emerick, the producer-engineer for <em style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">No Dice</em>, who’d also worked on the Beatles’ <em style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Revolver</em> and <em style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Abbey Road</em>, the band was under a super-tight deadline, what with a pending US tour.</div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; font-size: 20px; word-spacing: 1px;">Yet despite the intended quick turnaround, when the completed tracks from the sessions were presented to Apple execs, they were uniformly rejected. Even a remix of “Name of the Game,” drawing on the talents of Phil Spector (working for the label at the time) and George Harrison, who were looking to repackage it for release as a single, was turned down. Eventually, six of these discarded tracks would be re-worked for</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; font-size: 20px; word-spacing: 1px;"> </span><a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003XSSR4W?ie=UTF8&linkCode=as2&camp=1634&creative=6738&tag=cultur04-20&creativeASIN=B003XSSR4W" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #dd3333; font-family: inherit; font-size: 20px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.15s ease-in-out; vertical-align: baseline; word-spacing: 1px;"><em style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Straight Up</em></a><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; font-size: 20px; word-spacing: 1px;"> </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; font-size: 20px; word-spacing: 1px;">while a few more would be generated from scratch and added to the track list, but only after the band spent even more time in the studio. For much of the next phase on the album, Harrison worked closely with the band to help them craft their sound, even going so far as to sit in on a couple of tunes — playing guitar on “I’d Die Babe” and participating in a slide guitar duet with Ham on “Day After Day.” That memorable tune, which also featured piano work from Leon Russell, became the band’s biggest US hit.</span><br />
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But just as things were coming together for Badfinger, Harrison got pulled in another direction, preparing the live album and film of his <em style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Concert for Bangladesh</em> at which Badfinger had actually performed. Busy with other concerns, Harrison told the members of Badfinger that he wouldn’t be able to finish his work on the album, so Apple then brought in<a href="http://www.todd-rundgren.com/" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #dd3333; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.15s ease-in-out; vertical-align: baseline;"> Todd Rundgren</a>. The multi-talented Rundgren fostered the band, as they fine-tuned some songs, including Ham’s Bangladesh tribute “Take It All” while also assisting them as they re-recorded several tunes from the previous sessions. One of the new songs that resulted was “Baby Blue,” written by Ham as a tribute to a girl he’d dated during the band’s US tour. (While a hit for the band at the time, this song is now best known for its use in the series finale of <em style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Breaking Bad</em>)</div>
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There were some other new songs completed during this period such as guitarist Joey Molland’s rocker “Sometimes” and now-bassist Tom Evans’ elegiac closing track “It’s Over.” What had been a drawn out process was wrapped up in a mere two weeks with Rundgren. The results are remarkable. While the band members sometimes clashed with Rundgren during their sessions, there’s no doubt he was a key factor to the record’s success. His polished production and pop sensibilities combined with the excellent songwriting and instrumentation to create an acknowledged power pop classic.</div>
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– <a href="http://www.culturesonar.com/team/" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #dd3333; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.15s ease-in-out; vertical-align: baseline;">John Visconti</a></div>
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PS. Badfinger and <em style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Straight Up</em> are included in our post about bands following in The Beatles’ footsteps. Read more about the others like them <a href="http://www.culturesonar.com/beatlesque-bands/" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #dd3333; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.15s ease-in-out; vertical-align: baseline;">here</a>. Plus, for some more thoughts on George Harrison and Todd Rundgren, check out our posts <a href="http://www.culturesonar.com/george-harrison-influence/" rel="bookmark" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #dd3333; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.15s ease-in-out; vertical-align: baseline;">The “Quiet” Beatle’s Huge Influence </a>and <a href="http://www.culturesonar.com/rock-hall-snubs/" rel="bookmark" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #dd3333; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.15s ease-in-out; vertical-align: baseline;">Rock and Roll Hall of Fame: And the Nominees Should Be…</a></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5906920554547245128.post-33091178855307713832017-06-28T12:56:00.000+09:302017-06-28T12:56:18.189+09:30VIDEO: Animated Interview: The Great Ray Charles on Being Himself and Singing Trueby <a href="http://www.openculture.com/2013/10/animated-interview-the-great-ray-charles-on-being-himself-and-singing-true.html">Mike Springer</a>, Open Culture: <a href="http://www.openculture.com/2013/10/animated-interview-the-great-ray-charles-on-being-himself-and-singing-true.html">http://www.openculture.com/2013/10/animated-interview-the-great-ray-charles-on-being-himself-and-singing-true.html</a><br />
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"You know," says <a href="http://rockhall.com/inductees/ray-charles/bio/" sl-processed="1" style="color: #0183b2; font-size: inherit; line-height: 24px; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;">Ray Charles</a> in this new animated interview from <a href="http://blankonblank.org/" sl-processed="1" style="color: #0183b2; font-size: inherit; line-height: 24px; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;">Blank on Blank</a>, "what I got to live up to is being myself. If I do that the rest will take care of itself."</div>
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Charles always sounded like no one else. When he played or sang just a few notes, you would immediately recognize his distinctive sound, that unique blending of gospel and blues. As he explains in the interview, his style was a direct reflection of who he was. "I can't help what I sound like," he says. "What I sound like is what I am, you know? I cannot be anything other than what I am."</div>
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Blank on Blank is a project that brings lost interviews with famous cultural figures back to life. The Charles video is the 12th episode in Blank on Blank's ongoing <a href="http://blankonblank.org/pbs/" sl-processed="1" style="color: #0183b2; font-size: inherit; line-height: 24px; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;">series</a> with PBS Digital Studios. The audio of Charles is from the <a href="http://blankonblank.org/pbs/" sl-processed="1" style="color: #0183b2; font-size: inherit; line-height: 24px; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;">Joe Smith Collection</a> at the Library of Congress. Smith is a former record company executive who recorded over <a href="http://www.openculture.com/2012/11/bowie_calls_jagger_conservative_in_music_execs_collection_of_intimate_interviews_.html" sl-processed="1" style="color: #0183b2; font-size: inherit; line-height: 24px; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;">200 interviews</a> with music industry icons for his book <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0446390909/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0446390909&linkCode=as2&tag=openculture-20" sl-processed="1" style="color: #0183b2; font-size: inherit; line-height: 24px; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;">Off the Record: An Oral History of Popular Music</a></em>. He talked with Charles on June 3, 1987, when the musician was 56 years old. You can hear the complete, unedited interview at the <a href="http://www.loc.gov/rr/record/joesmith/" sl-processed="1" style="color: #0183b2; font-size: inherit; line-height: 24px; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;">Library of Congress Web site</a>.</div>
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In the interview, Charles says that being true to himself was a night-by-night thing. "I don't sing 'Georgia' like the record. I sing it true," he says. "I sing what I sing true. Each night I sing it the way I feel that night." For an example of Charles being true to himself, here he is performing "Georgia On My Mind" on the Dick Cavett Show on September 18, 1972:</div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5906920554547245128.post-15142472028890802302017-06-19T13:36:00.000+09:302017-06-19T13:36:01.303+09:30Ken Kesey Talks About the Meaning of the Acid Tests<br />
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For me, there have always been at least three Ken Keseys. First, there was the antiauthoritarian author of the madcap 1962 classic <i><a href="http://amzn.to/ZZa0wl" sl-processed="1" style="color: #0183b2; font-size: inherit; line-height: 24px; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;">One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest</a>. </i>Inspired by Kesey’s own work as an orderly at a Menlo Park mental hospital, the author’s voice disappears into that of the narrator, Chief Bromden, and the dialogue of the most memorable ensemble of troubled personalities in twentieth century literature. Then there’s the Kesey of the 1964 <a href="http://amzn.to/Z1r52y" sl-processed="1" style="color: #0183b2; font-size: inherit; line-height: 24px; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;"><i>Sometimes a Great Notion</i></a>, a Pacific Northwest epic and the work of a serious novelist pulling American archetypes from rough-hewn Oregon logging country. Finally, there’s Kesey the Merry Prankster, the mad scientist who almost single-handedly invented sixties drug culture with his ‘64 <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2011/aug/06/lsd-ken-kesey-pranksters-film" sl-processed="1" style="color: #0183b2; font-size: inherit; line-height: 24px; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;">psychedelic bus tour</a> and acid test parties. It’s a little hard to put them all together sometimes. Ken Kesey contained multitudes.</div>
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The acid test parties began after Kesey’s experience with mind-altering drugs as a volunteer test subject for Army experiments in 1960 (later revealed to be part of the CIA’s mind control experiment, <a href="http://www.wired.com/thisdayintech/2010/04/0413mk-ultra-authorized/" sl-processed="1" style="color: #0183b2; font-size: inherit; line-height: 24px; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;">Project MKUltra</a>). Kesey stole LSD and invited friends to try it with him. In 1965, after Hunter S. Thompson introduced Kesey to the Hell’s Angels, he expanded his test parties to real happenings at larger venues, beginning at his home in La Honda, California. Always present was the music of The Grateful Dead, who debuted under that name at one of Kesey’s parties after losing their original name, The Warlocks. The cast of characters also included Jack Kerouac’s traveling buddy Neal Cassady, Allen Ginsberg, and Dr. Timothy Leary. Out of what Hunter Thompson called “the world capital of madness,” the psychedelic counter-culture of Haight-Ashbury was born.</div>
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In the interview above, Kesey talks about the acid tests as much more than an excuse to trip for hours and hear The Dead play for a buck. No, he says, “there were people who passed and people who didn’t pass” the test. What it all meant perhaps only Kesey knew for sure. (He is <a href="http://www.pbs.org/opb/thesixties/topics/culture/newsmakers_3.html" sl-processed="1" style="color: #0183b2; font-size: inherit; line-height: 24px; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;">quoted</a> as saying that he and his band of compatriots, the Merry Pranksters, were trying to “stop the coming end of the world”). In any case, it’s a strange story—stranger than any of Ken Kesey’s works of fiction: covert government mind control program turns on one of the generation’s most subversive novelists, who then masterminds the hippy movement. The video below, from the Kesey documentary <i><a href="http://www.magpictures.com/magictrip/" sl-processed="1" style="color: #0183b2; font-size: inherit; line-height: 24px; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;">Magic Trip</a></i>, takes us back to where it started with animation of a tape recording of Kesey narrating his first government-sponsored acid trip.</div>
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<em>Josh Jones is a writer and musician. He recently completed a dissertation on landscape, literature, and labor.</em></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5906920554547245128.post-28346485713675510492017-06-12T22:08:00.000+09:302017-06-12T22:08:06.277+09:30VIDEOS: The History of the Blues in 50 Riffs: From Blind Lemon Jefferson (1928) to Joe Bonamassa (2009)<div style="height: 0; padding-bottom: 56.25%; position: relative;">
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If you’ve ever had any doubt, for some reason or other, that rock and roll descended directly from the blues, the video above, a history of the blues in 50 riffs, should convince you. And while you might think a blues history that ends in rock n roll would start with Robert Johnson, this guitarist reaches back to the country blues of Blind Lemon Jefferson’s “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h3yd-c91ww8" sl-processed="1" style="color: #0183b2; font-size: inherit; line-height: 24px; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;">Black Snake Moan</a>” from 1928 then moves through legendarily tuneful players like Skip James and Reverend Gary Davis before we get to the infamous Mr. Johnson.</div>
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Big Bill Broonzy is, as he should be, represented. Other country blues greats like <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YEjyBLm9--4" rel="nofollow" sl-processed="1" style="color: #0183b2; font-size: inherit; line-height: 24px; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;">soft-spoken farmer Mississippi John Hurt </a>and hardened felon Lead Belly, “King of the 12 String Guitar,” are not. Say what you will about that. The recordings these artists made with Okeh Records and <a href="http://www.openculture.com/2013/10/alan-lomaxs-music-archive.html" sl-processed="1" style="color: #0183b2; font-size: inherit; line-height: 24px; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;">Alan Lomax</a>, despite their commercial failure in the 30s, midwifed the blues revival of the fifties and sixties. Hear Lead Belly's version of folk ballad “Gallows Pole” above, a song <a href="http://ultimateclassicrock.com/led-zeppelin-gallows-pole/" sl-processed="1" style="color: #0183b2; font-size: inherit; line-height: 24px; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;">Led Zeppelin made famous</a>. Lead Belly’s acoustic blues inspired everyone from John Fogerty to Skiffle King Lonnie Donegan, Pete Seeger to Jimmy Page, as did the rootsy country blues of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lightnin%27_Hopkins" sl-processed="1" style="color: #0183b2; font-size: inherit; line-height: 24px; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;">Lightnin’ Hopkins</a>, who is included in the 50 riffs. As are John Lee Hooker, Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf, and BB King’s electric styles---all of them picked up by blues rock revivalists, including, of course, Jimi Hendrix.</div>
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Hendrix’s “Red House” riff makes the cut here, as we move slowly into rock and roll. But before we get to Hendrix, we must first check in with two other Kings, Freddie and Albert—especially Albert. Hendrix “was star struck,” <a href="http://www.rollingstone.com/music/lists/100-greatest-guitarists-20111123/albert-king-20111122" sl-processed="1" style="color: #0183b2; font-size: inherit; line-height: 24px; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;">says <em>Rolling Stone</em></a>, “when his hero [Albert King] opened for him at the Fillmore in 1967.” For his part, King said, “I taught [Hendrix] a lesson about the blues. I could have easily played his songs, but he couldn’t play mine.” See King play “Born Under a Bad Sign” in 1981, above, and hear why Hendrix worshipped him.</div>
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Mississippi blues moved to Memphis, Chicago, New York and to Texas, where by the 70s and 80s, ZZ Top and Stevie Ray Vaughan added their own southwest roadhouse swagger. (No <a href="http://www.openculture.com/2014/07/blues-guitar-legend-johnny-winter-shines-live-on-danish-tv-1970.html" sl-processed="1" style="color: #0183b2; font-size: inherit; line-height: 24px; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;">Johnny Winter</a>, alas.) Many people will be pleased to see Irish rocker Rory Gallagher in the mix, and amused that The Blues Brothers get a mention. Many more usual suspects appear, and a few unusual picks. I’m very glad to hear a brief R.L. Burnside riff. The White Stripes, Tedeschi Trucks Band, and Joe Bonamassa round things out into the 2010’s. Everyone will miss their favorite blues player. (As usual, the powerhouse gospel blues guitarist <a href="http://www.openculture.com/2015/03/sister-rosetta-tharpes-100th-birthday.html" sl-processed="1" style="color: #0183b2; font-size: inherit; line-height: 24px; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;">Sister Rosetta Tharpe</a> gets overlooked.) I would love to see included in any history of blues such obscure but brilliant guitarists as Evan Johns (above), whose rockabilly blues guitar freakouts sound like nothing else. Or John Dee Holeman, below, whose effortless, understated rhythm playing goes unmatched in my book.</div>
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Like so many of the bluesmen who came before them, these gentlemen seem to represent a dying breed. And yet the blues lives on and evolves in artists like <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y7De_DDqBtc" sl-processed="1" style="color: #0183b2; font-size: inherit; line-height: 24px; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;">Gary Clark Jr.</a>, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ga8eRdFK710" sl-processed="1" style="color: #0183b2; font-size: inherit; line-height: 24px; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;">The Black Keys</a>, and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JbR999N5MiA" sl-processed="1" style="color: #0183b2; font-size: inherit; line-height: 24px; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;">Alabama Shakes</a>. And of course there’s the prodigy Bonamassa, whom you absolutely have to see below at age 12, jamming with <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mGGE4CrPvjU" sl-processed="1" style="color: #0183b2; font-size: inherit; line-height: 24px; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;">experimental country speed demon</a> Danny Gatton’s band (he gets going around 1:05).</div>
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If you’re missing your favorites, give them a shout out below. Who do you think has to be included in any history of the blues—told in riffs or otherwise---and why?</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5906920554547245128.post-56233308821499708752017-06-05T10:14:00.000+09:302017-06-05T10:14:00.325+09:30VIDEO: The Grateful Dead Play at the Egyptian Pyramids, in the Shadow of the Sphinx (1978)<span style="font-family: inherit;">by Dan Colman, Open Culture: <a href="http://www.openculture.com/2015/07/the-grateful-dead-play-at-the-egyptian-pyramids.html">http://www.openculture.com/2015/07/the-grateful-dead-play-at-the-egyptian-pyramids.html</a></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">In September of 1978, the Grateful Dead traveled to Egypt and played three shows at the Great Pyramid of Giza, with the Great Sphinx looking over their shoulders. It wasn't the first time a rock band played in an ancient setting. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Pink Floyd <a href="http://www.openculture.com/2012/04/pink_floyd_live_in_pompeii.html" sl-processed="1" style="color: #0183b2; line-height: 24px; outline: none;">performed songs in the middle of the Amphitheatre of Pompeii</a> in October 1971. But</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Floyd performed to an "empty" house, playing to no live fans, only ghosts (<a href="http://www.openculture.com/2012/04/pink_floyd_live_in_pompeii.html" sl-processed="1" style="color: #0183b2; line-height: 24px; outline: none;">watch footage here</a>.) </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">The Dead's shows, on the other hand, were real gigs, attended by Deadheads who made the journey over, and they could thank Phil Lesh for putting it all in motion. Lesh later said, "it sort of became my project because I was one of the first people in the band who was on the trip of playing at places of power. You know, power that's been preserved from the ancient world. The pyramids are like the obvious number one choice because no matter what anyone thinks they might be, there is definitely some kind of mojo about the pyramids."</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Logistically speaking, the concerts weren't the easiest to stage. <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20090116012423/http://www.rollingstone.com/artists/thegratefuldead/articles/story/23399948/the_dead_rock_the_pyramids" sl-processed="1" style="color: #0183b2; line-height: 24px; outline: none;"><em>Rolling Stone</em> reported</a> that an "equipment truck got stuck in sand and had to be towed by camels." Because the electricity in Egypt was an "a winkin', blinkin' affair," Bob Weir later recalled, the jetlagged band had difficulties recording the first of the three shows. But, as with most adventures, the inconveniences were offset by the wondrous nature of the experience. Weir captured it well when he said: "I got to a point where the head of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Sphinx_of_Giza" sl-processed="1" style="color: #0183b2; line-height: 24px; outline: none;">Sphinx</a> was lined up with the top of the <a href="http://www.nationalgeographic.com/pyramids/khufu.html" sl-processed="1" style="color: #0183b2; line-height: 24px; outline: none;">Great Pyramid</a>, all lit up. All of a sudden, I went to this timeless place. The sounds from the stage — they could have been from any time. It was as if I went into eternity." The Sphinx and Great Pyramid date back to roughly 2560 BC.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">The Dead were <a href="http://hightimes.com/read/lessons-ken-kesey" rel="nofollow" sl-processed="1" style="color: #0183b2; line-height: 24px; outline: none;">joined on this trip</a> by the counterculture author Ken Kesey (<span class="s1">not to mention <a href="http://www.billgrahamfoundation.org/bio.html" sl-processed="1" style="color: #0183b2; line-height: 24px; outline: none;">Bill Graham</a> and <a href="http://ftw.usatoday.com/2015/07/bill-walton-grateful-dead-tour-twitter" sl-processed="1" style="color: #0183b2; line-height: 24px; outline: none;">Bill Walton</a></span>) who apparently captured footage on Super-8 reels. (Watch it above.) Kesey himself later tried to explain the symbolism of the visit, saying: "The people who were there recognized this as a respectful and holy event that went back to something we can all just barely glimpse, them and us both. Our relationship to ancient humans. To this place on the planet. To the planet's place in the universe. All that cosmic stuff is what the Dead are based on. The Egyptians could understand that."</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">At the very top of the post, you can see the Dead performing "<span class="watch-title " dir="ltr" id="eow-title" title="Grateful Dead - Ollin Arageed - Egypt 9-16-78">Ollin Arageed," with Egyptian oudist <a href="http://www.hamzaeldin.com/" sl-processed="1" style="color: #0183b2; line-height: 24px; outline: none;">Hamza el-Din</a> and other local musicians, before seguing into <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SFYIsvcspmQ" sl-processed="1" style="color: #0183b2; line-height: 24px; outline: none;">"Fire on the Mountain."</a> The clip gives you a good feel for the awe-inspiring scene. Just above, we have a longer playlist of performances that took place on September 16, 1978 -- the same night there was a lunar eclipse. The complete 9/16/78 show can be</span><span class="watch-title " dir="ltr" id="eow-title" title="Grateful Dead - Ollin Arageed - Egypt 9-16-78"> <a href="https://archive.org/details/gd78-09-16.sbd.orf.2319.sbeok.shnf" sl-processed="1" style="color: #0183b2; line-height: 24px; outline: none;">streamed on Archive.org</a>, as can the shows<a href="https://archive.org/details/gd78-09-14.aud.dauria.6032.sbeok.shnf" sl-processed="1" style="color: #0183b2; line-height: 24px; outline: none;"> from 9/14</a> and <a href="https://archive.org/details/gd78-09-15.aud.dauria.4160.sbeok.shnf" sl-processed="1" style="color: #0183b2; line-height: 24px; outline: none;">9/15</a>.</span> A 2CD/1 DVD package (<em>Rocking the Cradle: Egypt 1978)</em> <a href="http://amzn.to/1O4YzrN" sl-processed="1" style="color: #0183b2; line-height: 24px; outline: none;">captures the Dead's visit and can be purchased online</a>.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">To get more on the Pyramid concerts, read Chapter 43 of Dennis McNally's book, <em><a href="http://amzn.to/1GgOUrD" sl-processed="1" style="color: #0183b2; line-height: 24px; outline: none;">A Long Strange Trip: The Inside History of the Grateful Dead</a></em>.</span></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5906920554547245128.post-25967491614034652482017-06-01T19:51:00.001+09:302017-06-01T19:51:24.885+09:30The Rolling Stones Introduce Bluesman Howlin’ Wolf on US TV, One of the “Greatest Cultural Moments of the 20th Century” (1965)<div class="recent_post" style="background-color: white; border-bottom: 1px dotted rgb(209, 204, 188); color: #414141; margin-bottom: 30px; padding: 0px 0px 30px;">
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<em style="color: #0183b2; line-height: 24px; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">by <a href="http://about.me/jonesjoshua" sl-processed="1" style="color: #0183b2; line-height: 24px; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;">Josh Jones</a>, Open Culture:</span></em></h1>
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<em style="color: #0183b2; line-height: 24px; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><a href="http://www.openculture.com/2016/08/the-rolling-stones-introduce-bluesman-howlin-wolf-on-us-tv.html">http://www.openculture.com/2016/08/the-rolling-stones-introduce-bluesman-howlin-wolf-on-us-tv.html</a></span></em></h1>
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<em style="color: #414141;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Josh is a writer and musician based in Durham, NC. Follow him at <a href="https://twitter.com/jdmagness" sl-processed="1" style="color: #0183b2; line-height: 24px; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;">@jdmagness</a></span></em></h1>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><a href="http://www.sunrecords.com/artists/howlin-wolf" sl-processed="1" style="color: #0183b2; line-height: 24px; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;">Howlin’ Wolf </a>may well have been the greatest blues singer of the 20th century. Certainly many people have said so, but there are other measurements than mere opinion, though it’s one I happen to share. The man born <a href="http://www.blackpast.org/aah/burnett-chester-arthur-howlin-wolf-1910-1976" sl-processed="1" style="color: #0183b2; line-height: 24px; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;">Chester Arthur Burnett</a> also had a profound historical effect on popular culture, and on the way the Chicago blues carried “the sound of Jim Crow,” <a href="https://muse.jhu.edu/article/450012" sl-processed="1" style="color: #0183b2; line-height: 24px; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;">as Eric Lott writes</a>, into American cities in the north, and into Europe and the UK. Recording for both <a href="http://www.history-of-rock.com/chess_records.htm" sl-processed="1" style="color: #0183b2; line-height: 24px; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;">Chess</a> and <a href="http://www.sunrecords.com/about" sl-processed="1" style="color: #0183b2; line-height: 24px; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;">Sun Records</a> in the 50s (Sam Phillips said of his voice, “It's where the soul of man never dies”), Burnett’s raw sound “was at once urgently urban and country plain… southern and rural in instrumentation and howlingly electric in form.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">He was also phenomenal on stage. His hulking six-foot-six frame and intense glowering stare belied some very smooth moves, but his finesse only enhanced his edginess. He seemed at any moment like he might actually turn into a wolf, letting the impulse give out in plaintive, ragged howls and prowls around the stage. “I couldn’t do no yodelin’,” he said, “so I turned to howlin’. And it’s done me just fine.” He played a very mean harmonica and did acrobatic guitar tricks before Hendrix, picked up from his mentor <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charley_Patton" sl-processed="1" style="color: #0183b2; line-height: 24px; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;">Charlie Patton</a>. And he played with the best musicians, in large part because he was known to pay well and on time. If you wanted to play electric blues, Howlin’ Wolf was a man to watch.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">This reputation was Wolf’s entrée to the stage of ABC variety show <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shindig!" sl-processed="1" style="color: #0183b2; line-height: 24px; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;"><em>Shindig!</em></a> in 1965, opening for the Rolling Stones. He had just returned from his <a href="http://www.openculture.com/2014/10/american-folk-blues-festival.html" sl-processed="1" style="color: #0183b2; line-height: 24px; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;">1964 tour of Europe and the UK</a> with the American Folk Blues Festival, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HTDjD_UdJYs" sl-processed="1" style="color: #0183b2; line-height: 24px; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;">playing</a> to large, appreciative crossover crowds. He’d also just released “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dOEildgmwNQ" sl-processed="1" style="color: #0183b2; line-height: 24px; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;">Killing Floor</a>,” a record <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=e_GKeKghxwkC&pg=PA300&dq=shindig+rolling+stones+howlin+wolf&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwj2sN-N9K_OAhUC6yYKHcPDBy4Q6AEILTAB#v=snippet&q=shindig%20wolf%20stones&f=false" sl-processed="1" style="color: #0183b2; line-height: 24px; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;">Ted Gioia notes</a> “reached out to young listeners without losing the deep blues feeling that stood as the cornerstone of Wolf’s sound.” The following year, the Rolling Stones insisted that <em>Shindig!</em>’s producers “also feature either Muddy Waters or Howlin’ Wolf” before they would go on the show. Wolf won out over his rival Waters, toned down the theatrics of his act for a more prudish white audience, and “for the first time in his storied career, the celebrated bluesman performed on a national television broadcast.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Why is this significant? Over the decades, the Stones regularly performed with their blues heroes. But this was new media ground. Brian Jones' shy, starstruck introduction to Wolf before his performance above conveys what he saw as the importance of the moment. Jones' biographer <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=tG3aCwAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=paul+trynka+brian+jones&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwizmor98a_OAhXDeSYKHXDaCBIQ6AEIHjAA#v=snippet&q=shindig%20wolf&f=false" sl-processed="1" style="color: #0183b2; line-height: 24px; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;">Paul Trynka</a> may overstate the case, but in some degree at least, Wolf’s appearance on <em>Shindig!</em> “built a bridge over a cultural abyss and connected America with its own black culture.” The show constituted “a life-changing moment, both for the American teenagers clustered round the TV in their living rooms, and for a generation of blues performers who had been stuck in a cultural ghetto.” One of these teenagers described the event as “like Christmas morning.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Eric Lott points to the show's formative importance to the Stones, who “sit scattered around the <em>Shindig!</em> set watching Wolf in full-metal idolatry” as he sings "How Many More Years," a song Led Zeppelin would later turn into "<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MpJDOXxuSLo" sl-processed="1" style="color: #0183b2; line-height: 24px; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;">How Many More Times</a>." (See the Stones do their <em>Shindig!</em> performance of jangly, subdued "The Last Time," above.) The performance represents more, however, than the "British Invasion embrace" of the blues. It shows Wolf's mainstream breakout, and the Stones paying tribute to a founding father of rock and roll, an act of humility in a band not especially known or appreciated for that quality.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">“It was altogether appropriate,” says music writer Peter Guralnick, “that they would be sitting at Wolf’s feet… that’s what it represented. His music was not simply the foundation or the cornerstone; it was the most vital thing you could ever imagine.” Guralnick, <a href="http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=130276817" sl-processed="1" style="color: #0183b2; line-height: 24px; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;">notes John Burnett at NPR</a>, calls it "one of the the greatest cultural moments of the 20th century." At minimum, Burnett writes, it's "one of the most incongruous moments in American pop music"---up until the mid-sixties, at least.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">Whether or not the moment could live up to its legend, the people involved saw it as groundbreaking. The venerable Son House sat in attendance---“the man who knew Robert Johnson and Charley Patton,” remarked Brian Jones in awe. And the Rolling Stone positioning himself in deference to “Chicago blues," Trynka writes, "uncompromising music aimed at a black audience, was a radical, epoch-changing step, both for baby boomer Americans and the musicians themselves. Fourteen and fifteen-year-old kids… hardly understood the growth of civil rights; but they could understand the importance of a handsome Englishman who described the mountainous, gravel-voiced bluesman as a ‘hero’ and sat smiling at his feet.”</span></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5906920554547245128.post-63997722494345691222017-05-24T21:21:00.001+09:302017-05-24T21:21:45.081+09:30Sgt Pepper's at 50: the greatest thing you ever heard or just another album?<img alt="File 20170510 21596 13cqs18" src="https://cdn.theconversation.com/files/168828/width754/file-20170510-21596-13cqs18.jpg" />
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Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band : is this the best popular music has to offer?
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/brizzlebornandbred/16600055975">Paul Townsend, flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
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<a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/liam-viney-175637">Liam Viney</a>, <em><a href="http://theconversation.com/institutions/the-university-of-queensland-805">The University of Queensland</a></em>; <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/adam-behr-205550">Adam Behr</a>, <em><a href="http://theconversation.com/institutions/newcastle-university-906">Newcastle University</a></em>; <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/catherine-strong-17003">Catherine Strong</a>, <em><a href="http://theconversation.com/institutions/rmit-university-1063">RMIT University</a></em>; <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/christine-feldman-barrett-121393">Christine Feldman-Barrett</a>, <em><a href="http://theconversation.com/institutions/griffith-university-828">Griffith University</a></em>; <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/james-arvanitakis-12196">James Arvanitakis</a>, <em><a href="http://theconversation.com/institutions/western-sydney-university-1092">Western Sydney University</a></em>, and <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/stuart-medley-122491">Stuart Medley</a>, <em><a href="http://theconversation.com/institutions/edith-cowan-university-720">Edith Cowan University</a></em><br />
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<em>The Beatles’ Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band turns 50 on June 1 and the anniversary of this legendary album will be <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2017/mar/22/liverpool-gears-up-to-celebrate-sgt-peppers-50th-birthday">celebrated in style</a>. But has this classic work - named <a href="http://www.rollingstone.com/music/lists/500-greatest-albums-of-all-time-20120531/the-beatles-sgt-peppers-lonely-hearts-club-band-20120531">the greatest album of all time</a> by Rolling Stone - stood the test of time? We asked six writers for their perspectives.</em> <img alt="The Conversation" height="1" src="https://counter.theconversation.edu.au/content/77458/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic" width="1" /><br />
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More than just mythology</h2>
While the cultural impact of Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band is hard to ignore, “greatest of all time” debates have the potential to obfuscate as much as clarify. White noise over Sgt Pepper’s place in some kind of dubious canon distracts us from its musical qualities, and its well-documented radical experimentation can be over-hyped in the melee. Thankfully, there’s more to the album than novelty and mythology.<br />
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Sgt Pepper’s outsized reputation stems partly from the sense that it paved the way for rock and pop’s subsequent expansion into more “lofty” realms of artistic expression. The album captured the world’s imagination thanks to its central conceit (the band’s alter ego that in truth only relates to the first two songs plus a reprise near the end), the creativity and variety of its psychedelic song-writing, production techniques and striking cover art, and its bold forays into territory such as avant-garde <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aleatoric_music">aleatoricism</a> and Hindustani classical music. <br />
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Yet for an album considered so forward-looking, it drew heavily on its time, place and even past. Frequently (and somewhat <a href="http://www.salon.com/2017/05/13/sgt-peppers-lonely-hearts-club-band-at-50/">misleadingly</a>) labelled the first “concept album”, Sgt Pepper’s was not so much a trailblazing bolt from the blue as a direct response to the Beach Boys’ brilliant <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pet_Sounds">Pet Sounds</a> (1966) - itself inspired by the Beatles’ Rubber Soul, (1965). <br />
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While the album’s palpable drug-haze augured the “Summer of Love”, the Edwardian flavour of the eponymous military/variety band thread could hardly be more disjunct with the times (at least on the surface). Both When I’m Sixty-Four and She’s Leaving Home are imbued with affection and empathy for older generations, a decided break from the norm in 1960s rock and pop.<br />
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Perhaps due to the combination of such idiosyncrasies with genuine experimentalism, the idea prevails that Sgt Pepper’s value lies in a perceived contribution to advancing musical “progress”. Some critics detect pretension and a kind of clinically manufactured zaniness to the whole project. So it’s worth examining at least one track - the very last one, A Day in the Life - to find something from the world of emotion in Sgt Pepper.<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/usNsCeOV4GM?wmode=transparent&start=0" width="440"></iframe>
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Famously a hybrid of two separate song ideas – the melancholic opening coming from John Lennon, the middle section from Paul McCartney – the song is widely considered the album’s best. Its epic feel arises from the juxtaposition of contrasting mood and tempo, along with the experimental “end of the world” orchestral crescendos and the ten-hand/four-keyboard power chord that closes the album. <br />
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While inventive within the context of commercial music at the time, these novel elements alone fail to explain our constant returning to the song. It could equally be subtleties such as the way Lennon’s poignant lyrics, drawn from a newspaper, manage to evoke the universal through the particular. It could be the opening melody circling through a major-minor progression (bright to pensive), the sadder harmonies corresponding to wilting lyrics such as “I read the news today, oh boy”, or the way Ringo Starr’s sensitive drum fills seem as much concerned with gently reflecting the text as laying down a beat. For this listener, these countless details of songcraft put Sgt Pepper’s into a category of music that never gets old, tired or boring - ultimately, the most likely reason for its longevity.<br />
<strong><br /></strong>
<strong>-Liam Viney</strong><br />
<h2>
Can we please move on?</h2>
Sgt Pepper’s is a very good album. I like it; most people like it. It was undeniably innovative, and helped to change the idea of what a rock album could do. That said, the way this album, and this band, along with a small group of their (white, male) peers from the same era, have come to dominate the rock canon and discussions of what constitutes good music needs to be challenged. <br />
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<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://cdn.theconversation.com/files/168830/area14mp/file-20170510-21613-gnlyit.jpg"><img alt="" src="https://cdn.theconversation.com/files/168830/width237/file-20170510-21613-gnlyit.jpg" /></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The famous Sgt Pepper’s album cover.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Sgt._Pepper%27s_Lonely_Hearts_Club_Band.jpg">EMI/CyberFatal01, Wikimedia Commons</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
The constant refrain that this is the best that popular music has to offer not only erases the African influences that led to The Beatles in the first place, but serves to devalue everything that has come since. The fact that we return so often to this band, and this era, also means there is so much less space for the music of today’s youth.</div>
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<div>
It is often said these days that rock is dead, or at least dying, and our increasing tendency to look backwards musically, and to fetishise the past, is part of what has brought this about. The initial spirit of rock and roll was supposed to be about rebellion, change, and a celebration of not doing things the way they had always been done.</div>
<div>
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But the deification of The Beatles is the opposite of this. No band could possibly be as good as the myth of The Beatles has made them out to be. It’s time to find some other music to talk about. <br />
<strong><br /></strong>
<strong>-Catherine Strong</strong><br />
<h2>
Forever young</h2>
Fifty years since the release of Sgt Pepper’s, The Beatles continue to attract new fans. Though their role as contemporary symbols of youth culture has long since passed, one of the band’s most significant legacies is how their music, style, and sensibilities continue to encapsulate the verities and complexities of “being young”. It is this album that showcases that legacy most eloquently.<br />
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Though Sgt Pepper’s reflects the ethos of 1967, the reveries of youth spring eternal through its songs. Young people’s search for both belonging and independence sound out in With a Little Help From My Friends and She’s Leaving Home. The psychedelia of Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds and A Day in the Life mirror the fearlessness of youthful adventure and risk-taking. Questions of identity and life’s meaning (present and future tense) are expressed in the wildly different Within You Without You and When I’m Sixty-Four. And just as Getting Better speaks to the optimism of youth, Good Morning Good Morning depicts the presumed dullness of adult life.<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/get0IP7wrE0?wmode=transparent&start=0" width="440"></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Trailer for the 2007 film Across the Universe, which is built around Beatles’ songs.</span></figcaption>
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These ideals and imaginings are embedded in a diverse soundscape that encompasses the carnivalesque and the sober; the flirtatious and fantastical. The inclusion of <a href="http://www.uaudio.com/blog/modulation-effects-basics/">flanged vocals</a> and notes that seem to echo forever demonstrates this experimentation best. Such sonic explorations created “young sounds” that endure. <br />
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As a Gen-X Beatles fan, this was the first of their LPs that I heard and it remains one of my favourites. As a youth culture scholar, it is clear to me that this album speaks a language that translates across the generations. So whether 17 or 70, today’s Beatles enthusiasts are all part of Sgt Pepper’s band. <br />
<strong><br /></strong>
<strong>-Christine Feldman-Barrett</strong><br />
<h2>
A change blowing in the wind</h2>
Sgt Pepper’s 1967 release represented, as <a href="http://livemusicexchange.org/resources/banned-censorship-of-popular-music-in-britain-1967-1992/">music scholar Martin Cloonan notes,</a> “pop’s slow climb out of a cultural ghetto”. This explosion of musical colour was significant in foregrounding the album as a statement of artistic intent. The creative strides that the Beatles made were an apogee of a larger shift that also saw musicians making use of the studio as a creative tool, not just a place to set down their songs. Sgt Pepper is, however, also an important illustration of a wider cultural and political context. <br />
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Changes in education saw the rising influence of <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=20n7CwAAQBAJ">art schools</a>, with popular musicians conceiving of what they did as more than just entertainment. As post-war austerity (and national service) receded, the “Summer of Love” also aligned with the ascendancy of a more open, political culture and came amid Harold Wilson’s socially reforming government. 1967 saw the <a href="http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1967/60/pdfs/ukpga_19670060_en.pdf">decriminalisation of homosexuality</a>, the legalisation of <a href="http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1967/87/contents/enacted">abortion</a> following on from 1965’s abolition of the death penalty and Wilson’s attempt to take Britain into the European Economic Community.<br />
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Sgt Pepper’s success was in hooking this forward-looking attitude to a sense of the past. The mysticism of Within You Without You and overt psychedelia of Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds sat alongside echoes of music hall and cross-generationally accessible songs such as When I’m Sixty Four. Its experimentalism pushed forward pop’s boundaries but simultaneously spoke to a country that was shaking off the dustier aspects of a more deferential and restrictive post-war culture. <br />
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As John Lennon was <a href="http://www.recmusicbeatles.com/public/files/bbs/jl_yo.playboy/lennon3.html">to put it</a>: <br />
<blockquote>
Whatever wind was blowing at the time moved the Beatles too. I’m not saying we weren’t the flags on the top of the ship. But the whole boat was moving.</blockquote>
<strong>-Adam Behr</strong><br />
<h2>
A still powerful concept</h2>
In December last year, I purchased a record player for my wife as a birthday present. It had been two decades since I owned one. Buying vinyl is a very different experience from CD: the art counts. It’s the classic listening experience of this format that contrasts with CDs, playlists and even streaming services, which now invite songs to be skipped and shuffled out of their original order.<br />
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The key to vinyl is that we listen to the album the way the artist intends: the order matters to the musical and lyrical story that unfolds. This was certainly the case when The Beatles released Sgt Peppers. What makes a concept album is a larger meaning that unifies the order and themes of the music. The collection is more than simply a range of individual tracks.<br />
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Concept albums became a scarce commodity as vinyl sales all but evaporated with the rise of digital. But with vinyl’s recent resurgence, we are reminded that music can still be presented as an immersive story.<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/i3VCM9CGzkg?wmode=transparent&start=0" width="440"></iframe>
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In Sgt Pepper’s, The Beatles take us on this rather experimental journey – perhaps more so because it was never meant to be toured. (The band actually planned to stop at the conclusion of their final August 1966 US tour after tensions were mounting). The reprisal of its title track towards the album’s close (known as bookending), and the thematic “military band” alter egos walk us through the album’s various stages. Listening to it, you can sense the specificity of the concept they imagined. Now, 50 years on, it is no less powerful.<br />
<strong><br /></strong>
<strong>-James Arvanitakis</strong><br />
<h2>
The album as (dated) art</h2>
If Sgt Pepper’s towers over the landscape of modern music, it’s not as the pinnacle of pop. It’s for predicting progressive rock: that loose genre praised and derided in equal measure for its musical, lyrical and, importantly, visual concept albums. Its lush arrangements and overwrought production, along with its celebrated album art, pointed the way to the sights and sounds of the Moody Blues, Yes and Genesis. <br />
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But Sgt Pepper’s concept is thin and was actually contrived after recording commenced. Its elusive Edwardian threads connect only the title track and its reprise to the vivid circus imagery of Being For The Benefit Of Mr Kite! and the fusty When I’m Sixty-Four, but are woven large by designers Sir Peter Blake and Jann Haworths and donned by the band on its cover. <br />
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<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://cdn.theconversation.com/files/168833/area14mp/file-20170511-21613-17hasah.jpg"><img alt="" src="https://cdn.theconversation.com/files/168833/width754/file-20170511-21613-17hasah.jpg" /></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The vinyl and album art for Sgt. Pepper’s.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/badgreeb_records/6471576373">badgreeb RECORDS, flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
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The sleeve’s gatefold cover with lyrics was an immersive canvas that invited train-spottery. In matching visual detail to multi-layered sounds, the concept of connecting audio to art soon became de rigueur. The big bands of the 70s were especially monogamous with their preferred designers: Pink Floyd had Hipgnosis; Yes had Roger Dean.<br />
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However, the sleeve-as-canvas was mortally wounded by the introduction of the CD in 1982. The rise of the immaterial MP3 then delivered the fatal blow. Sgt Pepper’s visual imagery has not survived these ravages well. Rather, Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon – which owes a massive audio engineering debt to The Beatles – bears a comparatively simple sleeve that predicted the nexus of shrunken packaging and time poverty. Sgt Pepper’s cover was nostalgic in its own day, but it’s merely obscure and arcane now.<br />
<strong><br /></strong>
<strong>- Stuart Medley</strong><br />
<em><br /></em>
<em>The Beatles will celebrate the 50th anniversary of Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band with <a href="http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/beatles-prep-massive-sgt-pepper-50th-anniversary-sets-w474974">several reissue packages</a> on May 26th.</em><br />
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<em>The authors of this piece will be available from 11am to answer your questions - post them below</em><br />
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<a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/liam-viney-175637">Liam Viney</a>, Piano Performance Fellow, <em><a href="http://theconversation.com/institutions/the-university-of-queensland-805">The University of Queensland</a></em>; <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/adam-behr-205550">Adam Behr</a>, Lecturer in Popular and Contemporary Music, <em><a href="http://theconversation.com/institutions/newcastle-university-906">Newcastle University</a></em>; <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/catherine-strong-17003">Catherine Strong</a>, Senior Lecturer, Music Industry, <em><a href="http://theconversation.com/institutions/rmit-university-1063">RMIT University</a></em>; <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/christine-feldman-barrett-121393">Christine Feldman-Barrett</a>, Lecturer in Cultural Sociology, <em><a href="http://theconversation.com/institutions/griffith-university-828">Griffith University</a></em>; <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/james-arvanitakis-12196">James Arvanitakis</a>, Professor in Cultural and Social Analysis, <em><a href="http://theconversation.com/institutions/western-sydney-university-1092">Western Sydney University</a></em>, and <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/stuart-medley-122491">Stuart Medley</a>, Associate professor, Design, <em><a href="http://theconversation.com/institutions/edith-cowan-university-720">Edith Cowan University</a></em><br />
<br />
This article was originally published on <a href="http://theconversation.com/">The Conversation</a>. Read the <a href="http://theconversation.com/sgt-peppers-at-50-the-greatest-thing-you-ever-heard-or-just-another-album-77458">original article</a>.</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5906920554547245128.post-13511588642861754932017-05-20T14:21:00.001+09:302017-05-20T14:21:24.901+09:30<a href="https://www.bloglovin.com/blog/1941639/?claim=vmxat574a6r">Follow my blog with Bloglovin</a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5906920554547245128.post-84069442125417997022017-05-19T12:06:00.000+09:302017-05-19T12:06:08.803+09:30Classic Album Series #18: Led Zeppelin – "Led Zeppelin IV"<a href="https://tomcaswell.files.wordpress.com/2017/05/led-zeppelin-iv-53d7c2dc62c11.jpg?w=150&h=150" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="led-zeppelin-iv-53d7c2dc62c11" border="0" class=" size-thumbnail wp-image-8682 alignleft" data-attachment-id="8682" data-comments-opened="1" data-image-description="" data-image-meta="{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"1"}" data-image-title="led-zeppelin-iv-53d7c2dc62c11" data-large-file="https://tomcaswell.files.wordpress.com/2017/05/led-zeppelin-iv-53d7c2dc62c11.jpg?w=620" data-medium-file="https://tomcaswell.files.wordpress.com/2017/05/led-zeppelin-iv-53d7c2dc62c11.jpg?w=300" data-orig-file="https://tomcaswell.files.wordpress.com/2017/05/led-zeppelin-iv-53d7c2dc62c11.jpg" data-orig-size="1000,1000" data-permalink="https://tomcaswell.net/2017/05/16/classic-album-series-18-led-zeppelin-led-zeppelin-iv/led-zeppelin-iv-53d7c2dc62c11/#main" height="320" sizes="(max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px" src="https://tomcaswell.files.wordpress.com/2017/05/led-zeppelin-iv-53d7c2dc62c11.jpg?w=150&h=150" srcset="https://tomcaswell.files.wordpress.com/2017/05/led-zeppelin-iv-53d7c2dc62c11.jpg?w=150&h=150 150w, https://tomcaswell.files.wordpress.com/2017/05/led-zeppelin-iv-53d7c2dc62c11.jpg?w=300&h=300 300w" style="display: inline; height: auto; margin-top: 0.5em; max-width: 100%;" width="320" /></a>by Tom Caswell: <a href="https://tomcaswell.net/2017/05/16/classic-album-series-18-led-zeppelin-led-zeppelin-iv/">https://tomcaswell.net/2017/05/16/classic-album-series-18-led-zeppelin-led-zeppelin-iv/</a><br />
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In the 18th instalment of my CLASSIC ALBUM SERIES I’m yet to cover a Led Zeppelin album, but that changes now with the incredible <em style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Led Zeppelin IV. </em>Released in 1971, their fourth album is my favourite of theirs and features eight incredible songs. Every album after this in my opinion struggled to match the greatness of the songs on this album, aside from perhaps <em style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Physical Graffiti. </em>But there’s no doubt when I say this one album contained their best work, their most consistent songs and their most focused and driven playing.<br />
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The song <em style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Black Dog</em> opens the album which features one of the most complex and exciting riffs that Led Zeppelin ever came up with. It was John Paul Jones that initially thought of it, having wanted to compose a riff that people found hard to dance to. You take away the drums and he succeeded. The band came up with so many infectious riffs in their career and <em style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Black Dog</em>, along with the following song <em style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Rock And Roll</em>, are two of their all time best. <em style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Rock And Roll</em> is a song all guitarists should learn to play at some point. The song is a pretty straight forward blues number but the opening drum sequence can really throw you off when you’re trying to play along. It’s almost like they deliberately tried to throw a spanner in the works with that one, but it fits the song perfectly. Looking back at their entire catalogue it’s easy to say that this song stands out as one of their most explosive. And it’s as addictive as hell.</div>
<ol style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; list-style-image: initial; list-style-position: initial; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em 1em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<li style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><em style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><strong style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Black Dog</strong></em></li>
<li style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><em style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><strong style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Rock And Roll</strong></em></li>
<li style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><em style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><strong style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">The Battle Of Evermore</strong></em></li>
<li style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><em style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><strong style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Stairway To Heaven</strong></em></li>
<li style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><em style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><strong style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Misty Mountain Hop</strong></em></li>
<li style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><em style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><strong style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Four Sticks</strong></em></li>
<li style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><em style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><strong style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Going To California</strong></em></li>
<li style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><em style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><strong style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">When The Levee Breaks</strong></em></li>
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Things head in a more mellow direction with <em style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">The Battle Of Evermore</em><em style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> </em>which features singer songwriter Sandy Denny on guest vocals. The song has a distinctive folk feel to it with Jimmy Page playing mandolin on the song which resulting in John Paul Jones playing acoustic guitar. It’s a song that doesn’t stand out initially compared to the others but the more you listen to it the more you fall in love with it. <em style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Stairway To Heaven</em> comes next which is probably my least favourite song on the album, yes you read that right. I’ve always considered this song overrated especially compared to the other songs on the album. I know it’s seen as one of the greatest songs of all time but I’ve never bought into that. While the guitar solo section in the final third of the song is exciting to listen to, everything else really doesn’t do that much for me. Just my opinion.</div>
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Things return to excellent form with <em style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Misty Mountain Hop</em>. The song begins with John Paul Jones on electric piano and it’s yet another Zeppelin riff that latches itself onto your mind and refuses to let go. Plant is exceptional here. <em style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Four Sticks</em> comes next but for me it’s always been the one track on this album that doesn’t seem to quite fit. Based around a riff that continues from start to finish with not much else going on, the song ends up feeling repetitive. Everything is righted with the next song, <em style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Going To California</em> which is one of the best songs in the Led Zeppelin catalogue. The song doesn’t feature Bonham at all, instead going down the folk route the band had previously visited in <em style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">The Battle Of Evermore</em>. The song is absolutely beautiful and doesn’t need a catchy riff to stay in your head. The blend of Plant on vocals with Page on guitar and Jones on mandolin is exquisite, resulting in one of the best songs on the album.</div>
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<em style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">When The Levee Breaks</em> is the final track and I don’t think the band could have picked a better song to end on. Anchored by Bonham’s incredible drumming, which was recorded at the bottom of a stairwell at Headley Grande in Hampshire, which is where the band recorded a lot of the album. The unique sound of the drums were created by the natural reverb located at the bottom of the stairwell. That combined with the vocals, guitar, bass and harmonica create one hell of a song and one of the greatest songs of all time, period. I also consider it the best Led Zeppelin track by a country mile, and that’s saying something because their entire catalogue is full of so many gems.</div>
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Overall <em style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Led Zeppelin IV</em> is a masterpiece even though I’m not a massive fan of <em style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Stairway To Heaven, </em>at least compared to the hype surrounding it. When looking at their whole catalogue this is probably their most consistent album from start to finish and at eight songs in length it really hits the spot quickly. There’s no messing around, it’s to the point. The band would go on to reproduce the greatness found on this album on their 1975 album <em style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Physical Graffiti</em>, which will be the focus of a future CLASSIC ALBUM SERIES article without a doubt, but <em style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Led Zeppelin IV</em> really sums the band up perfectly. Catchy riffs, screaming vocals, beautiful playing and exciting ideas. It’s a must have for any record collection.</div>
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