Gotta Lovett

If You Were to Wake Up:

Fire And Ice

"Some say the world will end in fire,
Some say in ice.
From what I've tasted of desire
I hold with those who favor fire.
But if it had to perish twice,
I think I know enough of hate
To say that for destruction ice
Is also great
And would suffice."

Robert Frost

That's about all I have to say about love and politics today. And, as usual, someone else said it first and best.

Another version of Fire And Ice below.

Ahh Brooklyn, Brooklyn take me in, Are you aware the shape I’m in?

My friend and co-blogger on the other site is packing her bags, loading up the dog, hauling the kid, and joining her Doctor on a move to America's arch. God speed, Joan Glenn!

Summertime, And the livin' is easy/There Ain't No Cure For The Summertime Blues

I apologize to my blog colleagues and our readers that I haven't posted lately. Sometimes life just gets in the way. I think this is a good way to get back into my groove.

Take Five

My heartfelt wishes for a speedy recovery go out to Al Jarreau. I'll never forget you and your wife having me over for Thanksgiving when I lived in LA. Take Five Al, and get well soon!




Update (SteveAudio): I second that emotion, Sailor. I've never worked with Al, but he's a national treasure, to be sure.

For reference, here's Take 5 performed by the original artist, some guy called Dave Brubeck:

The Byrds

McGuinn and McGuire couldn't get no higher
But that's what they were aimin' at.
They so totally posed for me they were Vogueing.

And as I wonder where you are I'm so lonesome I could cry

Live performance. The song is wonderful, performance is pure, steel guitar is sublime.

Lyrics:

Hear that lonesome whippoorwill
He sounds too blue to fly
The midnight train is whining low
I'm so lonesome I could cry

I've never seen a night so long
When time goes crawling by
The moon just went behind a cloud
To hide its face and cry

Did you ever see a robin weep
When leaves began to die?
That means he's lost the will to live
I'm so lonesome I could cry

The silence of a falling star
Lights up a purple sky
And as I wonder where you are
I'm so lonesome I could cry

American poetry at its best.

Musick hath Charms to sooth a savage Breast

People who know me know that after 20 years in the music industry as a live and recording engineer I was pretty fed up with the bidnez. Going out to see live music is a busman's holiday for me. If I go out it's to see friends play, and it's more about the social aspect than about the music. But I caught an act the other night that reminded me of why I've always loved music.

When I worked at the China Club I had an unofficial deal with a label as an A&R scout on spec. If I saw a band I thought they should sign, and they signed them, I'd get points on the album. In 2 years I recommended 3 bands. They didn't sign them, I didn't get the points. I think these guys would have made the cut.

I was trying to think of a description of this band, sorta like ... no, that's not quite right, they're more like ... umm, no, they sound kinda like ... I've got it, they sound like the Jenn Cristy Band!

She's a powerful singer and pianist with great stage presence. The 22 yr old guitar player has subtlety and a pedal board out of the 80's and knows how and when to use it. The bass player is so freaking solid and appropriate you take for granted he's there because the foundation is so tight. In some ways the drummer makes the band, not flashy, but great work on the high hat, side stick and toms, and a solid kick sound that, even before it's miked, thumps your chest.

The 4 of them have big, big sound. If the world was right they might be giants.

Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome the Jenn Cristy Band!


More here. Even more here.



Cross posted at VidiotSpeak

The Definition of Dichotomy ...

... is watching American Beauty and I walk The Line at the same time.

Well, I'm going where the water tastes like wine

There were many wonderful bands in L.A. in the late '60s. Among them was a blues band called Canned Heat. I was lucky to see them several times, including both these memorable gigs:

Also recorded live at the Kaleidoscope around this time was the album which would find later 1971 release with the deceptive title, Live At Topanga Corral (later renamed Live at the Kaleidoscope), under Wand Records; as Liberty Records didn’t want to release live album at the time and manager Skip Taylor did not want a lawsuit.^[9] The band would end 1968 in a big way at a New Year's show in L.A.'s Shrine Auditorium with Bob Hite riding a painted purple dayglo elephant to the stage^[10].

Actually, it was the Shrine Exposition Hall, on the north side of the Shrine Auditorium, where many great concerts took place in the mid-late '60s. The elephant with Bob 'Bear' Hite riding came in from the main entrance doors, and walked slowly toward the stage. Bear was wearing nothing but a diaper, as a proper New Year's baby should do. When they got to the stage, Bear hopped onto the stage and the elephant, who I assume was being led by a handler, left peacefully.

Here's a poster from the Kaleidoscope concert. I'm pretty sure it was Saturday, March 23 when I went with 2 friends/band members:


I had a poster for this show for many years, I guess it's lost now. The building housing the Kaleidoscope has been many venues during its life, as this web site presents:

The glamorous supper club - theatre was built by Carroll to supplement his highly successful New York landmark. The lavish establishment featured a huge revolving stage, swings which dropped from the ceiling, &
"The Most Beautiful Showgirls
in the World".

After Carroll's death in a 1948 plane crash, the theater was sold, then reopened in 1953 as a dinner club, the Moulin Rouge, home to 50's TV show "Queen For A Day".

Later, in the mid 60s, after the successful run of John Hartmann's Kaleidoscope, The theater was home to Gary Bookasta's "the Hullabaloo", a popular teen hangout/nightclub which featured many of the popular new bands (Yellow Payges, Palace Guard, Wild Ones, Pat & Lolly Vegas, etc.), of the era.

The theater would later undergo major renovations and reopen as the Aquarius Theatre, home of the West Coast production of the revolutionary stage musical, "HAIR". The Aquarius also became known for staging Rock Concerts featuring many of the biggest 60s groups.

Here's what was special about Canned Heat. From the Playboy After Dark series, this live appearance shows both raw blues as well as the lovely "Going Up The Country" as sung by Alan 'Blind Owl' Wilson. Note especially Blind Owl's superb blues harp playing. The opening and ending are cut off, but it's still a fine performance by one of L.A.'s best blues bands:

Rock'n'roll will never die

Things to be thankful for this Thanksgiving, in no particular order:

1. My family is mostly close by, and mostly happy

2. No one in my family is Republican

A. No one in my family has been sucked in by Sarah Palin's idiocy

B. Everyone in my family is pretty healthy

3. Rock'n'roll will never die

4. My brain still works fine, even though my knees & fingers, eh, not so much

5. Isabella Carolina Zumaya:

6. Republicans are mostly out of power in DC (yeah, I know . . .)

7. I can still afford my health insurance, which, through Kaiser, is still pretty good

8. I seem to have steady work in this crappy economy

9. My co-bloggers are the best!

10. Mrs. Cupcake

11. Dick Cheney has disappeared . . . oh, wait.

12. GWBush has disappeared.

13. Indy record labels are doing well, like Dangerbird Records

14. Guitars still rule rock'n'roll

Anyone want to contribute comments, please feel welcome.

And co-bloggers, feel free to add to the list, it's all good.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone.

And I think to myself, what a wonderful world

I think this is really cool:

Like a Skyline Is Etched in His Head

In a helicopter above the city on Friday, Stephen Wiltshire of London looked down at the streets and sprawl of New York. He flew for 20 minutes. Since then, working only from the memory of that sight, he has been sketching and drawing a mighty panorama of the city, rendering the city’s 305 square miles along an arc of paper that is 19 feet long. He is working publicly in a gallery at the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn.
[...]
“I always memorize by helicopter,” he said on Tuesday, pausing from detailing the corners of a street on the Brooklyn side of the Williamsburg Bridge.

Mr. Wiltshire sees and draws. It is how he connects. Until age 5, he had never uttered a word. One day, his kindergarten class at a school for autistic children in London went on a field trip.

When they came back, he spoke.

“He said, ‘Paper,’ ” his sister, Annette Wiltshire, said. “The teacher asked him to say it again. He said it. Then they asked him to say something else, and he said, ‘Pen.’ ”

Check out his website, and check out his work.

IMHO, this is the best rendition of What A Wonderful World:


To paraphrase Warren Zevon IRT Tom Waits: I can sing like Louis ... once.



Cross posted at VidiotSpeak

Under the milky way tonight

Skippy and I have a thing going, a friendly agree/disagree re: cover versions of songs. I'm not in favor of them most of the time.

But this is a version of The Church's "Under the Milky Way Tonight" that is nicer than the original, while taking nothing away from the original.

Sia's version:

Addendum by The Sailor: My favorite cover of all time is this cover of Tainted Love. IMHO, sometimes the cover is better than the original, and I really liked the original.

Que, Sarah, Sarah!?

Updated below.

Columnists award Palin dubious honor
Sitting Duck Award goes to 'the most ridiculed newsmakers in America'

[...]
Past president Mike Leonard, a columnist for The Herald Times of Bloomington, Ind.: "As a Hoosier, I feel that she's done something that Dan Quayle could never do. Which was to make Dan Quayle look good. ... After the election, the video of Sarah and the poultry processing factory ... that pretty much says it all. The gift that keeps on giving."

Update: In an interview with ABC ... wait, what!? It's the media's fault but she keeps doing everything she can to extend her 15 minutes of infamy!? Anyhoo

As to whether another pursuit for national office, as when she joined Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., in the race for the White House less than a year ago, would result in the same political blood sport, Palin said there was a difference between the White House and what she had experienced in Alaska. If she were in the White House, she said, the "department of law" would protect her from baseless ethical allegations.

"I think on a national level, your department of law there in the White House would look at some of the things that we've been charged with and automatically throw them out," she said.

The WH has a 'Department of Law!?' Huh, who knew?[/snark]

I've seen comments on other sites that the reason Dems & some Repubs are 'attacking' Sarah (if by 'attacking her' they mean 'letting her talk') is that we're scared of her.

I have to admit I'm scared .... but for her not of her. I'm scared she won't make it to 2012 if someone doesn't put her on a respirator stat! She's too stupid to breathe.

And I disagree with her latest award, she's not a sitting duck, she's a turkey in a hopper.




Cross posted at VidiotSpeak

Deer Prudence ...or ... the buck stops here

I just saw a fawn a block from my house. I live near the middle of a town of 70,000 people. And I like venison, but run, Bambi, run!





Cross posted at VidiotSpeak

Heaven's New Blue(s) Star

Koko Taylor has passed away, she was 80 and it was a helluva run.

I was lucky enough to work with her on two occasions, in two different towns, in two different states, 2 years apart, in the mid-1980's. The shows went great, she and her band were so tight and so good I wondered why the hell they were working clubs and allowing me to run sound for them. She had more W.C. Handy awards than any other artist.

If you ever saw her you know that she was a force of nature. A big woman with a voice to match but nice as pie and funny. There was nothing ladylike about her singing, just pure woman, and you knew this was not a woman to be messed with. She was nice to me but could be hell on club owners and booking agents. Yet another thing I admired about her.

When I worked with her she traveled with her husband, Pops Taylor. He was an almost diminutive man that dressed sharp and was fiercely protective in a professional and polite way. I remember when a friend told me of his passing in 1989 and I felt saddened and wondered how she could go on. But she did, and some of her best years were ahead of her. Amazing for a someone who didn't have a music career until she was 38.

At 80 she was still doing 70 dates a year and was looking forward to her next tour in Europe and developing new material.

Here's another personal remembrance by Blue Girl.

Koko, I just Can't Let Go:

He’s gotta make a living, he’s a Louisiana Man

After the political debacle that was the asshat Republicans voting to punish hard-working American auto workers, I felt like some good American folk music would be in order:



Doug Kershaw started singing with his brother Rusty, in the mid '50s. If like me, you were largely ignorant of Cajun music in the '60s, Doug's appearance on the seminal Johnny Cash Show in 1969 knocked you on your ass. And check out the great photos in the YouTube above.

From Wikipedia:

Born Douglas James Kershaw in Tiel Ridge, Cameron Parish, in an area known as Cajun country, he traces his ancestry to Acadians who were part of the Great Expulsion by the British authorities from their homeland in eastern Canada in 1755. He grew up surrounded by Cajun fiddle and accordion music, and as a 19-year-old, in 1955, he performed with his brother Rusty Kershaw on the Louisiana Hayride radio broadcast. The two were so popular that they were invited to perform at the Wheeling Jamboree in Wheeling, West Virginia and in 1957 appeared at the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville, Tennessee.

After fulfilling his military obligation, Doug Kershaw returned to the music business scoring with an autobiographical song he wrote called "Louisiana Man". The song not only sold millions of copies but over the years has become the symbol of Cajun music. In June of 1969, Kershaw made his first network television appearance on the debut of the Johnny Cash Show. He capped the year with a much-publicized, week-long engagement at the New York City's Fillmore East as opening act for Eric Clapton's Derek & the Dominos. While it seemed, to many rock and pop fans, that Kershaw had appeared out of nowhere, he had already sold more than 18-million copies of the records he had done in the early '60s with his brother, Rusty. "Louisiana Man" had been a Top 10 country hit in 1961 and its follow-up, "Diggy Diggy Lo", had done almost as well. His dynamic performance in front of a national audience led to Warner Bros. Records signing him to a long-term contract. In November of that year, "Louisiana Man" was broadcast back to earth by the crew of the Apollo 12 moon mission. Beyond the southern venues, Kershaw's popularity soon extended to mainstream urban America, playing for packed audiences at major concert halls.

Like a lot of "vintage" artists, Doug's shows have become pretty camp. The songs get played too fast, and some of the rich subtlety of the early music gets lost. That said, the last time I saw Doug was around '88, and he was still rocking pretty hard.

Here he is from 1990:



For the curious who can't quite follow the Cajun French references, here are the lyrics to Louisiana Man .

Also, there are a few videos from the same show on YouTube that seem awfully post-produced. The sounds are beyond what would come from a good recording with Kershaw's likely budget, and some of the instrumental parts don't seem to match. Still good recordings, but with a caveat on the "live".

For the times they are a-changin

I'm lucky to have grown up when 2 things were happening:

1. The music was new and different every day.

and:

2. Music and politics were tied in a new way.

I'll debate (and win the debate, thank you!) on point 1 later. Here's what I mean by #2:

Musicians have always been listening to and commenting on politics. But in the '60s the synergy really came to a head. We had the urban folk scene, long politically aware, drift toward and eventually merge with the new and changing rock sensibility, and new things were being said and sung about daily.

Clearly one of the seminal figures at the nexus of folk, politics, and rock was a kid from Minnesota named Bob Zimmerman. He wrote stuff like this:

Come senators, congressmen
Please heed the call
Don't stand in the doorway
Don't block up the hall
For he that gets hurt
Will be he who has stalled
There's a battle outside
And it is ragin'.
It'll soon shake your windows
And rattle your walls
For the times they are a-changin'.

Indeed. Relevant much? Can you say FISA?

Here's Bob singing this song:

Confirm thy soul in self-control, Thy liberty in law!

The Star Spangled Banner is a silly song, awkward lyrics and difficult to sing.

God Bless America isn't a bad song, but has become trivialized by being sung at too many baseball games by too many weak singers.

America The Beautiful is the real national anthem, especially when sung by Brother Ray:

Hey Bo Diddley, Where ya gone?

December 30, 1928 – June 2, 2008
Ellas Otha Bates has shuffled of, in 5/4, this mortal coil

The Bo Diddley beat has been used by many other artists, notably Elvis Presley ("His Latest Flame"); Bruce Springsteen ("She's The One"); U2 ("Desire"); The Smiths ("How Soon Is Now?"); Roxette ("Harleys And Indians (Riders In The Sky)"); Dee Clark, a former member of the Hambone Kids (see above) ("Hey Little Girl"); Johnny Otis ("Willie and the Hand Jive"); George Michael ("Faith"); Normaal ("Kearl van stoahl"); The Strangeloves ("I Want Candy"); Ace Frehley ("New York Groove"); Guns N' Roses ("Mr. Brownstone"); David Bowie ("Panic in Detroit"); The Pretenders ("Cuban Slide"); The Police ("Deathwish"); Wayne Fontana & The Mindbenders ("The Game of Love"); The Supremes ("When the Lovelight Starts Shining Through His Eyes"); Jefferson Airplane ("She Has Funny Cars"); The White Stripes ("Screwdriver"); The Byrds ("Don't Doubt Yourself, Babe"); Tiny Letters ("Song For Jerome Green") and The Stooges ("1969").

They left out a few, but considering he had his first hit before I was born it's understandable.

I don't know, or even want to go, to that heaven preachers shout about
But if my dying I can't defeat, let me go out to the Bo Diddley beat
Go out, go out,
Let me go out to the Bo Diddley beat.

(Hey, who's that guy with his back to us in the corner playin' trumpet?
That's God man, he thinks he's Miles.)

Bo Diddley will be in good company for his next gig.