Live Albums - 2000 to 2010
The last of this Live album sequence. By the end I'll have covered 66 albums. I started in the summer of 2017, so I should finish a short way into 2019. The last run of albums covers the whole of the 21st century so far, and my Facebook cronies and I could only come up with 5 albums since the millennium that we considered worthy of inclusion. This tells you far more about how small-c conservative we are than anything about the quality of the live rock and roll experience since the turn of the century. Also, everyone selected predates the year 2000 by quite some time.
Live In Galway :The Saw Doctors (Jul-03)
Minimum Maximum:Kraftwerk (Jun-04)
REM Live: REM (Feb-05)
Satriani Live: Joe Satriani (May-06)
Dream Attic: Richard Thompson (Feb-10)
LIVE IN GALWAY
Recorded: 30th July 2003
The Saw Doctors
March 17th 1993 at the Brixton Academy (I reckon - it's remarkably hard to find firm confirmation of the year and it's so long ago, I could be an entire year out, but I'm pretty certain I'm not). St Patrick's Day and the loudest, most raucous concert I've ever been to. Ears were absolutely ringing at the end and the Saw Doctors put on a probably the most joyous show I've ever seen. Giant snakes assaulted the stage, but St Paddy was on hand to drive them back. This comes from 10 years later, but they've lost none of it by this time and it's still life affirming stuff.
The Saw Doctors whole proposition is good-time celebration of growing up in provincial Ireland with a combination of traditional music and loud and fast rock and roll. By the time they recorded this, they had their core of crowd-pleasers and had been playing them for a good 10 years. So this includes all the live favourites of 'N17', 'I Useta Love Her', 'That's What She Said Last Night', and 'Why Do I Always Want You'. For me the standout sums them up completely, the sublime 'Red Cortina'. In introducing the song, the explanation was that when you were a kid there, your dad, and everybody else's dad, always stuck with one make of car. My dad too went through a series of Ford Cortinas in the seventies. So when the protagonist's first love steps out of her dad's car on the way to school you can tell it's probably about as truthful a song as you'll ever hear. As an exercise in innocent nostalgia it's pretty hard to beat. 'I Useta Love Her' is a bit more earthy, but deserves lots of credit for working in the words 'ostentatious contribution' into the lyric.
In comparison to my memories of seeing them live - I saw them 3 times in the mid nineties I think, Brixton, Guildford and Finsbury Park - this seems quite contained, but it is 10 years down the line, they were probably slowing down.
Band Bantz: "Ye didn't think we were goana stop just now, now did ye?" sez Davy Carton just before the encore. Well, it was pretty unlikely.
Heckles and Coughs: Enthusiasm. Not wanting it to end. Plenty of participation. They all know the songs and contribute to the full.
Next Track Off The Rank: A Pair Of Brown Eyes by The Pogues.
Live In Galway :The Saw Doctors (Jul-03)
Minimum Maximum:Kraftwerk (Jun-04)
REM Live: REM (Feb-05)
Satriani Live: Joe Satriani (May-06)
Dream Attic: Richard Thompson (Feb-10)
Recorded: 30th July 2003
The Saw Doctors
March 17th 1993 at the Brixton Academy (I reckon - it's remarkably hard to find firm confirmation of the year and it's so long ago, I could be an entire year out, but I'm pretty certain I'm not). St Patrick's Day and the loudest, most raucous concert I've ever been to. Ears were absolutely ringing at the end and the Saw Doctors put on a probably the most joyous show I've ever seen. Giant snakes assaulted the stage, but St Paddy was on hand to drive them back. This comes from 10 years later, but they've lost none of it by this time and it's still life affirming stuff.
The Saw Doctors whole proposition is good-time celebration of growing up in provincial Ireland with a combination of traditional music and loud and fast rock and roll. By the time they recorded this, they had their core of crowd-pleasers and had been playing them for a good 10 years. So this includes all the live favourites of 'N17', 'I Useta Love Her', 'That's What She Said Last Night', and 'Why Do I Always Want You'. For me the standout sums them up completely, the sublime 'Red Cortina'. In introducing the song, the explanation was that when you were a kid there, your dad, and everybody else's dad, always stuck with one make of car. My dad too went through a series of Ford Cortinas in the seventies. So when the protagonist's first love steps out of her dad's car on the way to school you can tell it's probably about as truthful a song as you'll ever hear. As an exercise in innocent nostalgia it's pretty hard to beat. 'I Useta Love Her' is a bit more earthy, but deserves lots of credit for working in the words 'ostentatious contribution' into the lyric.
In comparison to my memories of seeing them live - I saw them 3 times in the mid nineties I think, Brixton, Guildford and Finsbury Park - this seems quite contained, but it is 10 years down the line, they were probably slowing down.
Band Bantz: "Ye didn't think we were goana stop just now, now did ye?" sez Davy Carton just before the encore. Well, it was pretty unlikely.
Heckles and Coughs: Enthusiasm. Not wanting it to end. Plenty of participation. They all know the songs and contribute to the full.
Next Track Off The Rank: A Pair Of Brown Eyes by The Pogues.
N17
To Win Just Once
Red Cortina
What A Day
Bless Me Father
Share The Darkness
Green And Red Of Mayo
I'll Be On My Way
Same Oul' Town
Joyce County Ceili Band
Exhilarating Sadness
Clare Island
Why Do I Always Want You
That's What She Said Last Night
I Useta Love Her
Hay Wrap
MINIMUM-MAXIMUM
Recorded: 2004
Kraftwerk
Surely a Kraftwerk live album is an exercise in demonstrating their mastery of control over their output and therefore is a little bit pointless since, if it doesn't resemble a studio offering, then it amounts to something of a failure? Plus, you're inevitably going to have all of that nasty, random applause coming in between tracks. Who wants to hear that? I suppose you do get a unique sequence of songs which is kind of akin to a greatest hits package.
However, you'd have to admit that in the matter of reproducing the clinical feel of the studio, they are pretty successful here and the echoey-ness of the live venues does add something ethereal to them. It's sometimes tough to know what they're doing about the vocals too. Are they delivered into a microphone live, or just sequenced from machine? Does it matter? For 'The Model' and 'Autobahn', at least I think we can be certain that a human voicebox and a microphone are being utilized.
There's a lot to digest too. We're looking at 22 tracks with a running time of two hours. They certainly cover all the best known songs, 'Tour de France', 'The Model', 'Trans Europe Express', 'The Robots' (or 'The Rowboats' as I like to think of it) and most pleasingly of all for me, 'Musique Non Stop'. There's not a lot of mileage to be gained from trying to deconstruct the songs from this album, we'll leave that to when I ever take on the full studio catalogue. I was pleasantly surprised by the lyrical quality of some of the songs, there's room for emotion and wistfulness in songs like 'Neon Lights'.
Band Bantz: You might think we have two hopes, and one of them is Bob. Not engaging outside the strictly controlled confines of their music is Kraftwerk's first principle, so there's no song or band intros. (On keyboards, Henning Schmitz! On keyboards, Fritz Hilpert! On keyboards, Florian Schneider! And on keyboards, and vocals, Ralf Hutter!). However, Ralf does pull a surprise out of the bag right at the death of 'Musique Non-Stop'. "Auf Wiedersehen. Do Svidaniya Moskva!"
Heckles and Coughs: Plenty of enthusiasm. Good reactions to pivotal points in well known songs. Probably a fair amount of vigorous rug-cutting going on during the more upbeat numbers, but everyone probably knows they might as well try and engage with a brick wall.
Next Track Off The Rank: Don't You Want Me by the Human League. No doubt Phil Oakey and co would be proud and flattered to be the first thing that springs to Spotify's mind when type in 'Kraftwerk', but they really are quite a different proposition. 'Don't You Want Me' is always a treat though.
Band Bantz: You might think we have two hopes, and one of them is Bob. Not engaging outside the strictly controlled confines of their music is Kraftwerk's first principle, so there's no song or band intros. (On keyboards, Henning Schmitz! On keyboards, Fritz Hilpert! On keyboards, Florian Schneider! And on keyboards, and vocals, Ralf Hutter!). However, Ralf does pull a surprise out of the bag right at the death of 'Musique Non-Stop'. "Auf Wiedersehen. Do Svidaniya Moskva!"
Heckles and Coughs: Plenty of enthusiasm. Good reactions to pivotal points in well known songs. Probably a fair amount of vigorous rug-cutting going on during the more upbeat numbers, but everyone probably knows they might as well try and engage with a brick wall.
Next Track Off The Rank: Don't You Want Me by the Human League. No doubt Phil Oakey and co would be proud and flattered to be the first thing that springs to Spotify's mind when type in 'Kraftwerk', but they really are quite a different proposition. 'Don't You Want Me' is always a treat though.
The Man Machine
Planet Of Visions
Tour De France Etape 1
Chrono
Tour De France Etape 2
Vitamin
Tour De France
Autobahn
The Model
Neon Lights
Radioactivity
Trans Europe Express
Metal On Metal
Numbers
Computer World
Home Computer
Pocket Calculator
Dentaku
Elektro Kardiogramm
Aero Dynamik
Musique Non-Stop
SATRIANI LIVE!
Recorded: 2nd May 2006
Joe Satriani
Brace yourselves for a ham-fisted metaphor. Bruce Springsteen sang, on Thunder Road, "Well I got this guitar and I learned how to make it talk". Satriani, it seems, got a guitar, fed it week-old oysters and gave it the runs. But before you devotees of the noodliest of guitar noodlers get angry with me, I did enjoy this perfectly well, and if my metaphor was ham-fisted, then Joe certainly isn't. In fact I was advised before embarking on this one, that you really need to see this kind of act in person, just to see how much they're doing with their instrument.
I've never really got it though, to the point that I've never listened to a Satriani, Steve Vai or Stevie Ray Vaughn record from start to finish. Out of curiosity, I dug out a list of 100 greatest guitarists of all time. The one I landed on was Guitar World's list from 2012. Although it's seven years old at time of writing, I doubt much will have changed, you have to have put in the long hours to get respect from the no doubt ultra-conservative readers of GW. Satriani was fifth, coming in behind (from 1st to 4th) Eddie Van Halen, Brian May, Alex Lifeson and Hendrix. So he's clearly king of the solo twiddlers.
The other difficulty for me, both from the point of view of creating this post and my general appreciation of the performance, is that there's no words. So it really is just about admiring what they can do. Can you connect emotionally to this stuff? I daresay it's possible, but not for me. He tries, he really does. There's a song called 'The Meaning Of Love' which is slow and measured, although the final extended note does come across as a scream of agony. Elsewhere his subject matter is rather more mechanistic and presumably appealing to his predominantly male audience. So we get 'One Robot's Dream', 'Ice 9', 'Circles' and Surfing With The Alien'.
He may be a little lacking in self-awareness too. If you're promoting an album called Super Colossal and the title track involves lots of overstated big sounds, then I might respectfully suggest you go back and have another watch of Spinal Tap. But, he is really, really great at what he does, and I reckon his band are no slouches either.
Band Bantz: Joe probably sends himself to sleep thinking about his guitars and his picks. He certainly seems to want to tell the audience all about them at every opportunity. Generally, his guitars and plectrums (plectra?) are "crazy"
Heckles And Coughs: There's a track called 'Crowd Chant' which is essentially a call and response exercise between Joe's guitar and the audience. It's quite good though.
Next Track Off The Rank: Cause We've Ended As Lovers by Jeff Beck (only number 39 according to Guitar World's 2012 readership).
DREAM ATTIC
Recorded: February 2010
Richard Thompson
Short of Bruce Springsteen, Richard Thompson may be the artist that I've seen live most often, although it's going to be a close-run thing with Loudon Wainwright III, I must have seen both at least four times which shades out the Saw Doctors at three, and, kind of oddly, Big Country a couple of times, although never because they were the first choice reason for going to the gig.
So, obviously I'm a bit of a fan, and this is a great record by him, although I was reminded recently when Mirror Blue had a 25 year release anniversary, that in the late eighties and early nineties he put together an astonishingly good run of albums through Amnesia, Rumour and Sigh and Mirror Blue, so I guess I hit a particularly sweet spot in his career when I first became aware of him. Dream Attic feels like it falls just short of those, kind of like a set of demos for songs that didn't quite make it onto those albums.
One thing that has always struck me is Thompson's singing accent. These are a big thing in the RockOdysseys world. British artists pretending to be American gospel/soul singers are guaranteed to get the R.O. back up. Now English folk singers, into which group I have to put Thompson, are notorious for strangling their vowels into some kind of mythical 'English' accent that doesn't actually belong anywhere. Take Kate Rusby singing 'Underneath The Stars'. Kate is as northern as they come and Barnsley is about the most northern-named place in the entire country (we'll ignore Oughtibridge for purposes of my argument), but even so she manages to caricature her own accent by saying "Oonderneath The Stars". Thomson isn't from the north but Notting Hill, so I guess he has the excuse that there isn't really a clear West London accent anyway, but he seems to want to lengthen his vowels and add in a few extra r's. So "drowning" on 'Haul Me Up' is "draarning", "precious" on 'Burning Man' is "praercious" and "strutting" on 'Here Comes Geordie' becomes 'straurting'. I hesitate to sully this piece, but the best parody I ever heard of this particular phenomenon came from late seventies, novelty hit peddlers the Barron Knights, with 'The Hand On The Ear Folk Song', which you can listen to here ("his accent sounded like a Geordie Cornishman from Brum").
This is all rather beside the point however, you don't really listen to Thomson for the singing, although the lyrics are often acerbic and witty, it's the almost impossible guitar playing that really sets him apart, able to sound like an entire band without the benefit of a loop pedal. Although this is counted as a live album, these are all new, previously unrecorded songs that he rehearsed, performed and recorded live. It's a fine idea, but ultimately it's a bit hard to see the reasoning behind it, other than to emphasize that he can manage perfection in a single take, these songs sound so good.
He runs the gamut of the types of song he's known for. Political commentary on 'The Money Shuffle', what could be an 18th century traditional folk song with 'Among The Gorse, Among The Grey', melancholy despair on 'Burning Man' and absolute effing chaos with 'Sidney Wells', a song of psychopathy (a common Thompson theme) which is a kind of mix of celtic reels, dervish dance and words that just come tumbling over each other until it descends into screaming guitar madness as his protagonist goes on his murderous way. There's plenty of catch in the songs though, Thompson has never been interesting in just impressing you with his ability, he wants to entertain.
Band Bantz: In this respect, this album is a disappointment. Thompson has a good line in chat when performing live and can be really funny. I used to have a recording of '1952 Vincent Black Lightning' which he introduced with "This is a song about motorcycles and the people who sit on them". But there isn't anything really here, just a brief sign off at the end of 'If Love Whispers Your Name'
Heckles and Coughs; Just applause after each song. Thompson fans are pretty respectful when he's playing, but they aren't scared to call out requests. In this case they wouldn't have known any of the songs, so they just have to take what they're given.
Next Track Off The Rank: Who Knows Where The Time Goes by Fairport Convention. Spotify really can't be arsed thinking about it to be honest.
R.E.M. Live
Recorded: February 26th and 27th 2005
R.E.M.
It feels a little like I'm experiencing an Emperor's new clothes moment with REM and listening to this. Are they actually rather dull? In the intelligent rock wastelands of the late eighties and early nineties, did Stipe and Co benefit from a lack of serious opposition beyond the U2 juggernaut? There's some great songs on here, but 102 minutes does seem a tad too much.
I've seen REM live, at Milton Keynes Bowl in July 1995 on the Monster tour. On Internet checkback, I was somewhat amazed to see that Blur supported them. I barely remember them to be honest. Other Britpop hangers-on were Belly and Magnapop, and if any, I'd say Belly were the most memorable. And, you know, REM weren't that memorable either. The setlist indicates that they didn't stint on the crowdpleasers, but Monster represented a bit of a dip in quality anyway,
Stipe is so dominant on this. I heard an interview podcast with him on a long-haul flight last year and he certainly has a high opinion of his artistic abilities, but I'd say he's the factor that standardizes REMs music. Interesting tunes and instrumentation is obscured by a sheen of Stipe's wheezy delivery. It works best on the big hits. 'The One I Love', 'Losing My Religion' and 'Orange Crush' are still great on this but I still have a minor problem with maintaining interest in 'Everybody Hurts'. The Mills-sung '(Don't Go Back To) Rockville' does make a nice change when it comes along near the end.
Band Bantz: When I'm looking for examples of BB I often skim quickly through the first few seconds of each song and it's notable that Bill Berry's count-in on his drumsticks is quite prominent on every track. Stipe might be moonlighting for the American Tourist Board (if such a thing exists) as he introduced consecutive songs 'Boy In The Well' and 'Cuyahoga' with "This song is set in the beautiful state of Tennessee" and "This song is set in the beautiful state of Ohio" respectively.
Stipe introduces 'I Wanted To Be Wrong' and 'Final Straw' as "songs that we wrote as protests against actions of our government and the current administration". This is 2005 remember, so the target of their ire is presumably Dubya. if he wanted to write a new song criticizing the administration in 2019, he might need to be a little less elliptical in his lyrics (assuming they wanted the current incumbent to stand any chance of understanding it).
Heckles And Coughs: These performances were recorded in the Point Theatre in Dublin. It's worth noting that as I've gone through these live albums, the character of the audience has slowly been diluted out of the recordings. Most of the time now, you're simply aware that they are there, but there's rarely a contribution that can be picked out. The best I can do here is that they fill in the "Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah"'s on 'Man In The Moon'
Next Track Off The Rank: Psycho Killer by Talking Heads.
I Took Your Name
So Fast, So Numb
Boy In The Well
Cuyahoga
Everybody Hurts
Electron Blue
Bad Day
The Ascent Of Man
The Great Beyond
Leaving New York
Orange Crush
I Wanted To Be Wrong
Final Straw
Imitation Of Life
The One I Love
Walk Unafraid
Losing My Religion
What's The Frequency Kenneth?
Drive
(Don't Go Back To) Rockville
I'm Gonna DJ
Man On The Moon
Recorded: 2nd May 2006
Joe Satriani
Brace yourselves for a ham-fisted metaphor. Bruce Springsteen sang, on Thunder Road, "Well I got this guitar and I learned how to make it talk". Satriani, it seems, got a guitar, fed it week-old oysters and gave it the runs. But before you devotees of the noodliest of guitar noodlers get angry with me, I did enjoy this perfectly well, and if my metaphor was ham-fisted, then Joe certainly isn't. In fact I was advised before embarking on this one, that you really need to see this kind of act in person, just to see how much they're doing with their instrument.
I've never really got it though, to the point that I've never listened to a Satriani, Steve Vai or Stevie Ray Vaughn record from start to finish. Out of curiosity, I dug out a list of 100 greatest guitarists of all time. The one I landed on was Guitar World's list from 2012. Although it's seven years old at time of writing, I doubt much will have changed, you have to have put in the long hours to get respect from the no doubt ultra-conservative readers of GW. Satriani was fifth, coming in behind (from 1st to 4th) Eddie Van Halen, Brian May, Alex Lifeson and Hendrix. So he's clearly king of the solo twiddlers.
The other difficulty for me, both from the point of view of creating this post and my general appreciation of the performance, is that there's no words. So it really is just about admiring what they can do. Can you connect emotionally to this stuff? I daresay it's possible, but not for me. He tries, he really does. There's a song called 'The Meaning Of Love' which is slow and measured, although the final extended note does come across as a scream of agony. Elsewhere his subject matter is rather more mechanistic and presumably appealing to his predominantly male audience. So we get 'One Robot's Dream', 'Ice 9', 'Circles' and Surfing With The Alien'.
He may be a little lacking in self-awareness too. If you're promoting an album called Super Colossal and the title track involves lots of overstated big sounds, then I might respectfully suggest you go back and have another watch of Spinal Tap. But, he is really, really great at what he does, and I reckon his band are no slouches either.
Band Bantz: Joe probably sends himself to sleep thinking about his guitars and his picks. He certainly seems to want to tell the audience all about them at every opportunity. Generally, his guitars and plectrums (plectra?) are "crazy"
Heckles And Coughs: There's a track called 'Crowd Chant' which is essentially a call and response exercise between Joe's guitar and the audience. It's quite good though.
Next Track Off The Rank: Cause We've Ended As Lovers by Jeff Beck (only number 39 according to Guitar World's 2012 readership).
Flying In A Blue Dream
The Extremist
Redshift Riders
Cool #9
A Cool New Way
Satch Boogie
Super Colossal
Just Like Lightning
Ice 9
One Robot's Dream
Ten Words
The Mystical Potato Head Groove Thing
The Meaning Of Love
Made Of Tears
Circles
Always With Me, Always With You
Surfing With The Alien
Crowd Chant
Summer Son
Recorded: February 2010
Richard Thompson
Short of Bruce Springsteen, Richard Thompson may be the artist that I've seen live most often, although it's going to be a close-run thing with Loudon Wainwright III, I must have seen both at least four times which shades out the Saw Doctors at three, and, kind of oddly, Big Country a couple of times, although never because they were the first choice reason for going to the gig.
So, obviously I'm a bit of a fan, and this is a great record by him, although I was reminded recently when Mirror Blue had a 25 year release anniversary, that in the late eighties and early nineties he put together an astonishingly good run of albums through Amnesia, Rumour and Sigh and Mirror Blue, so I guess I hit a particularly sweet spot in his career when I first became aware of him. Dream Attic feels like it falls just short of those, kind of like a set of demos for songs that didn't quite make it onto those albums.
One thing that has always struck me is Thompson's singing accent. These are a big thing in the RockOdysseys world. British artists pretending to be American gospel/soul singers are guaranteed to get the R.O. back up. Now English folk singers, into which group I have to put Thompson, are notorious for strangling their vowels into some kind of mythical 'English' accent that doesn't actually belong anywhere. Take Kate Rusby singing 'Underneath The Stars'. Kate is as northern as they come and Barnsley is about the most northern-named place in the entire country (we'll ignore Oughtibridge for purposes of my argument), but even so she manages to caricature her own accent by saying "Oonderneath The Stars". Thomson isn't from the north but Notting Hill, so I guess he has the excuse that there isn't really a clear West London accent anyway, but he seems to want to lengthen his vowels and add in a few extra r's. So "drowning" on 'Haul Me Up' is "draarning", "precious" on 'Burning Man' is "praercious" and "strutting" on 'Here Comes Geordie' becomes 'straurting'. I hesitate to sully this piece, but the best parody I ever heard of this particular phenomenon came from late seventies, novelty hit peddlers the Barron Knights, with 'The Hand On The Ear Folk Song', which you can listen to here ("his accent sounded like a Geordie Cornishman from Brum").
This is all rather beside the point however, you don't really listen to Thomson for the singing, although the lyrics are often acerbic and witty, it's the almost impossible guitar playing that really sets him apart, able to sound like an entire band without the benefit of a loop pedal. Although this is counted as a live album, these are all new, previously unrecorded songs that he rehearsed, performed and recorded live. It's a fine idea, but ultimately it's a bit hard to see the reasoning behind it, other than to emphasize that he can manage perfection in a single take, these songs sound so good.
He runs the gamut of the types of song he's known for. Political commentary on 'The Money Shuffle', what could be an 18th century traditional folk song with 'Among The Gorse, Among The Grey', melancholy despair on 'Burning Man' and absolute effing chaos with 'Sidney Wells', a song of psychopathy (a common Thompson theme) which is a kind of mix of celtic reels, dervish dance and words that just come tumbling over each other until it descends into screaming guitar madness as his protagonist goes on his murderous way. There's plenty of catch in the songs though, Thompson has never been interesting in just impressing you with his ability, he wants to entertain.
Band Bantz: In this respect, this album is a disappointment. Thompson has a good line in chat when performing live and can be really funny. I used to have a recording of '1952 Vincent Black Lightning' which he introduced with "This is a song about motorcycles and the people who sit on them". But there isn't anything really here, just a brief sign off at the end of 'If Love Whispers Your Name'
Heckles and Coughs; Just applause after each song. Thompson fans are pretty respectful when he's playing, but they aren't scared to call out requests. In this case they wouldn't have known any of the songs, so they just have to take what they're given.
Next Track Off The Rank: Who Knows Where The Time Goes by Fairport Convention. Spotify really can't be arsed thinking about it to be honest.
The Money Shuffle
Among The Gorse, Among The Grey
Haul Me Up
Burning Man
Here Comes Geordie
Demons In Her Dancing Shoes
Crimescene
Big Sun Falling In The River
Stumble On
Sidney Wells
A Brother Slips Away
Bad Again
If Love Whispers Your Name
And so, finally, I get to the end of this live album list. I started in the Summer of 2017, about 18 months ago now, with James Brown and the Famous Flames knocking out 30 minutes amid the Cuban Missile crisis at the Apollo in 1962. I've covered 65 albums and it was touch and go with some. Joe Ely's Live Shots gave me sleepless nights. Tori Amos was the only one who ultimately didn't make it, but I'll make it up to her eventually. Some I'll go back to (Some Enchanted Evening, Rust Never Sleeps, No Sleep..., Career Moves), some I never want to hear again (KISS Live). Coming to the end is good though, I can clear the decks and think about another big sequence to take on. Suggestions are welcome!
Live Albums - 1990 to 1999
Things thin out in the nineties and the advent of MTV Unplugged - discussed in the first Clapton post below has a big impact. Here are the albums in this post:
Unplugged - Eric Clapton (Jan 92)
Career Moves - Loudon Wainwirght III (Jan 93)
Live: Shit, Binge Purge - Metallica (Mar 93)
MTV Unplugged - 10,000 Maniacs (Apr 93)
MTV Unplugged in New York - Nirvana (Nov 93)
Storefront Hitchcock - Robyn Hitchcock (Mar 1998)
UNPLUGGED
Recorded: 16th January 1992
Eric Clapton
So what do we think of the version of 'Layla' that is on this? That's right, I've had a little break and I'm coming back all fired up with heretical opinions. But before we get into that, it's worth reflecting that this entire post will be dominated by MTV Unplugged offerings. I'm not so sure about what prompted it at the time but the accepted wisdom was that MTV had hit musical credibility gold by getting major artists into a TV studio and making them go acoustic. Praise be that Bruce told them exactly where they could stick their non-existent jackplugs.
Maybe we were all jaded with the inevitable stadium shows of the late 1980s and so started congratulating ourselves that we could appreciate a more pure form of live music. "Stripped down" was the watchword.
Anyway, 'Layla' on this is a prime example of one of the times the whole experiment failed. He turned a searing, exciting, howlingly emotional song with a killer riff into a right old dirge. What's worse, everyone lapped it up as a masterful reinterpretation of a signature song. Well, no thanks all the same Eric.
For the rest, it's pleasant enough, but slow blues from white middle-class Englishmen having a bad-hair decade are unlikely to float my boat. I do like the classical guitar of the opening Signe, and my heart isn't stony enough that I'm going to slag off 'Tears In Heaven', for which he's joined by Andy Fairweather-Low
Band Bantz: "See if you can spot this one" he says before 'Layla'. Well, some do (or at least pretend to) but the rest need the first line before they cotton on.
Heckles And Coughs: There's an air of smugness that radiates out from the recording. They feel they're witnessing something special - the 'real' Clapton. If I'd been there I think I might have wanted to see him rock out.
Next Track Off The Rank: Helpless - CSNY
CAREER MOVES
Recorded: 8th January 1993
Loudon Wainwright III
I love this album. Had it since its release and it captures everything that is great about Loudon Wainwright. He's funny, stupid, nostalgic, sad, odd, joyful, unsettling and at various points throughout this. It's also a good live album because it captures him in a fairly intimate setting with a small crowd, so when we get the Band Bantz and Heckles and Coughs sections there's plenty of material to go on.
For the funny stuff there's 'I'm Alright', the "happy blues" where he's overjoyed to discovered waxed floss in his hotel room. He laments the problems of having a long a complex name on 'TSMNWA' (they spelt my name wrong again). He even does a sort of take on Victoria Wood's 'Ballad Of Barry and Freda', a dialogue between a sexually keen woman and a not-so-keen man, with 'He Said, She Said'. The Acid Song is about as stupid and goofy as you can get and confirms that you really need to be on it to appreciate the Grateful Dead.
Nostalgia? 'Five Years Old'. Written to celebrate daughter Martha's fifth birthday, but the tone of the song is that it's a written letter, he's not actually at the birthday party, so it's a subtle combination of joy at the simple requirements of a young child, and sadness that he can't experience it first hand. Probably his own fault mind you.
As for sadness. 'Your Mother and I', is pretty grim and he compounds it by doing it straight after 'Five Years Old, just in case you didn't quite realize why he was missing his kid's birthdays. He also picks at the running sore of entrenched family tensions in 'Thanksgiving'
For sheer oddness 'The Man Who Couldn't Cry' takes the honors. The story of a man who couldn't weep and was locked away in prisons and asylums could mean anything really. In the end he starts to cry whenever it rains until he cries himself to death and then the world runs out of water.
'April Fool's Day Morn' is the unsettling one. A tough reminiscence of getting drunk, violent and abusive as a young man before making his way home to a forgiving mother.
But I think of it all, it's the final, title track that I love the most. Wainwright distils his entire career into a touching reflection on why he loves what he does so much, singing "again and again, about unhappy love".
Band Bantz: Loudon gets some additional musicians onstage about halfway through and they immediately start lamenting male pattern baldness and excess hair coming from various orifices. It's that kind of gig.
Heckles and Coughs: After a while the audience gets a bit bolder and start calling out song requests but he stoically resists and goes on with 'Unhappy Anniversary' although it's possible someone shouted it out. Shortly after a woman in the audience calls out for 'Motel Blues' but he politely rejects, explaining that his therapist has told him to be more assertive with women and not to do stuff that he doesn't want to do for them.
Next Track Off The Rank: Ruby by Dave Rawlings Machine
Unplugged - Eric Clapton (Jan 92)
Career Moves - Loudon Wainwirght III (Jan 93)
Live: Shit, Binge Purge - Metallica (Mar 93)
MTV Unplugged - 10,000 Maniacs (Apr 93)
MTV Unplugged in New York - Nirvana (Nov 93)
Storefront Hitchcock - Robyn Hitchcock (Mar 1998)
Recorded: 16th January 1992
Eric Clapton
So what do we think of the version of 'Layla' that is on this? That's right, I've had a little break and I'm coming back all fired up with heretical opinions. But before we get into that, it's worth reflecting that this entire post will be dominated by MTV Unplugged offerings. I'm not so sure about what prompted it at the time but the accepted wisdom was that MTV had hit musical credibility gold by getting major artists into a TV studio and making them go acoustic. Praise be that Bruce told them exactly where they could stick their non-existent jackplugs.
Maybe we were all jaded with the inevitable stadium shows of the late 1980s and so started congratulating ourselves that we could appreciate a more pure form of live music. "Stripped down" was the watchword.
Anyway, 'Layla' on this is a prime example of one of the times the whole experiment failed. He turned a searing, exciting, howlingly emotional song with a killer riff into a right old dirge. What's worse, everyone lapped it up as a masterful reinterpretation of a signature song. Well, no thanks all the same Eric.
For the rest, it's pleasant enough, but slow blues from white middle-class Englishmen having a bad-hair decade are unlikely to float my boat. I do like the classical guitar of the opening Signe, and my heart isn't stony enough that I'm going to slag off 'Tears In Heaven', for which he's joined by Andy Fairweather-Low
Band Bantz: "See if you can spot this one" he says before 'Layla'. Well, some do (or at least pretend to) but the rest need the first line before they cotton on.
Heckles And Coughs: There's an air of smugness that radiates out from the recording. They feel they're witnessing something special - the 'real' Clapton. If I'd been there I think I might have wanted to see him rock out.
Next Track Off The Rank: Helpless - CSNY
Signe
Before You Accuse Me
Hey Hey
Tears In Heaven
Lonely Stranger
Nobody Knows You When You're Down And Out
Layla
Running On Faith
Walkin' Blues
Alberta
San Francisco Bay Blues
Malted Milk
Old Love
Rollin' & Tumblin'
Circus
Recorded: 8th January 1993
Loudon Wainwright III
I love this album. Had it since its release and it captures everything that is great about Loudon Wainwright. He's funny, stupid, nostalgic, sad, odd, joyful, unsettling and at various points throughout this. It's also a good live album because it captures him in a fairly intimate setting with a small crowd, so when we get the Band Bantz and Heckles and Coughs sections there's plenty of material to go on.
For the funny stuff there's 'I'm Alright', the "happy blues" where he's overjoyed to discovered waxed floss in his hotel room. He laments the problems of having a long a complex name on 'TSMNWA' (they spelt my name wrong again). He even does a sort of take on Victoria Wood's 'Ballad Of Barry and Freda', a dialogue between a sexually keen woman and a not-so-keen man, with 'He Said, She Said'. The Acid Song is about as stupid and goofy as you can get and confirms that you really need to be on it to appreciate the Grateful Dead.
Nostalgia? 'Five Years Old'. Written to celebrate daughter Martha's fifth birthday, but the tone of the song is that it's a written letter, he's not actually at the birthday party, so it's a subtle combination of joy at the simple requirements of a young child, and sadness that he can't experience it first hand. Probably his own fault mind you.
As for sadness. 'Your Mother and I', is pretty grim and he compounds it by doing it straight after 'Five Years Old, just in case you didn't quite realize why he was missing his kid's birthdays. He also picks at the running sore of entrenched family tensions in 'Thanksgiving'
For sheer oddness 'The Man Who Couldn't Cry' takes the honors. The story of a man who couldn't weep and was locked away in prisons and asylums could mean anything really. In the end he starts to cry whenever it rains until he cries himself to death and then the world runs out of water.
'April Fool's Day Morn' is the unsettling one. A tough reminiscence of getting drunk, violent and abusive as a young man before making his way home to a forgiving mother.
But I think of it all, it's the final, title track that I love the most. Wainwright distils his entire career into a touching reflection on why he loves what he does so much, singing "again and again, about unhappy love".
Band Bantz: Loudon gets some additional musicians onstage about halfway through and they immediately start lamenting male pattern baldness and excess hair coming from various orifices. It's that kind of gig.
Heckles and Coughs: After a while the audience gets a bit bolder and start calling out song requests but he stoically resists and goes on with 'Unhappy Anniversary' although it's possible someone shouted it out. Shortly after a woman in the audience calls out for 'Motel Blues' but he politely rejects, explaining that his therapist has told him to be more assertive with women and not to do stuff that he doesn't want to do for them.
Next Track Off The Rank: Ruby by Dave Rawlings Machine
Road Ode
I'm Alright
Five Years Old
Your Mother And I
Westchester County
He Said, She Said
Suddenly It's Christmas
Thanksgiving
T S M N W A
The Swimming Song
Absence Makes The Heart Grow Fonder
Happy Birthday Elvis
April Fools Day Morn
The Man Who Couldn't Cry
The Acid Song
Tip That Waitress
Career Moves
LIVE SH*T: BINGE AND PURGE
Recorded: Feb-March 1993
Metallica
Can you get too much of a good thing? Metallica test the question to its limits here. There's nearly 3 hours of concert here across 3 CDs and, for the first time, I've been defeated by an album. I'll sit through 3 hours of Bruce in the flesh with no difficulty and be disappointed when it finishes, and I love a bit of Metallica, but 'a bit' is all I need. It's strong meat and there are only a limited number of ways it can be cooked, so I got to the end of Disc 1 and had had my fill. Binge and Purge indeed.
They really are coy about the word 'shit' on the cover too. Is it just because it's intended for public display? I have a sneaking suspicion that Metallica are not averse to playing the Corporate Shill and will toe the line for furtherance of their brand. See also a willingness to appear to play along with a dodgy hedge fund manager in Season 1 of Billions.
But, but, but. It is all great, driving, exciting, visceral music and every Metallica song you could ever want is here. 'Enter Sandman', 'Harvester Of Sorrow', 'The Unforgiven', 'Master Of Puppets', 'Nothing Else Matters', 'One' and all the rest. In fact they have so much that they need to get through that most of the And Justice For All album is dashed off in a medley. However the 18 minutes of solos at the end of Disc 1 would try the patience of the Grim Reaper himself.
Band Bantz: The language! Effing and jeffing every other word. The audience are expected to do everything like 'motherfuckers' and all of their material is 'this shit'. I'd be offended if it were me. They're in Mexico, and Hetfield may have exhausted his Spanish vocabulary after the word 'cervesas'.
Heckles And Coughs: Perhaps the most disappointing thing for me was my favorite song of theirs, 'Master Of Puppets', where Hetfield leaves most of the song to the audience. Worse than Robbie Williams doing 'Angels' at Knebworth (well, nothing's quite that bad).
Next Track Off The Rank: No Excuses by Alice In Chains
The Ecstasy Of Gold/Enter Sandman
Creeping Death
Harvester Of Sorrow
Welcome Home (Sanitarium)
Sad But True
Of Wolf And Man
The Unforgiven
Justice Medley
Solos
Through The Never
For Whom The Bell Tolls
Fade To Black
Master Of Puppets
Seek And Destroy
Whiplash
Nothing Else Matters
Wherever I May Roam
Am I Evil?
Last Caress
One
Battery
The Four Horsemen
Motorbreath
Stone Cold Crazy
MTV UNPLUGGED IN NEW YORK
Recorded: 18th November 1993
Nirvana
The early nineties was an odd time for me. I was on the cusp of carefree student (and job-seeking) years and starting my first proper job with the looming prospect of mortgages and pension arrangements. While all this is going on, a wave of American Indie and Grunge bands were setting the musical pace. The likes of Nirvana, Smashing Pumpkins, The Pixies and, featured also on this record, The Meat Puppets all kind of passed me by really. It was probably the first time that I was a tad too old for the contemporary rock music of the day, and I did regard it a little as self-pitying nonsense. Also, if I wanted crunchy, wall of sound guitars and feedback, I could satisfy myself with the much more credible (to my mind) Neil Young. So I have no real emotional attachment to Curt Cobain, who is truly the James Dean of rock due to the brevity and quality of his legacy.
Anyway, it means I come to this about as fresh as it is possible to be. Of course I know Nirvana's core of songs but this reveals Cobain to be a much deeper and more engaging talent than a superficial interest will suggest. Mind you, I do find it hard to really see why Dave Grohl has managed to become some kind of rock everyman in the intervening 25 years since this was recorded. The opening song is 'About A Girl' from the debut Bleach album, and well, it's about as good an early Beatles pastiche as you're ever likely to hear.
He makes the most of the unplugged idea and you do feel like he's wiping all the slathered-on grease and grime away from some of these songs, such as 'Come As You Are'. However he doesn't try to use it to deconstruct 'Smells Like Teen Spirit'. It is ignored and left alone to stand as it is. Unimproved because it is unimprovable, if only Clapton had realized the same about Layla.
Cobain's cover version choices are great too. 'The Man Who Sold The World' convinces you it is his own song and he turns The Vaselines' 'Jesus Doesn't Want Me For A Sunbeam' into something resembling a traditional folk song. He finishes with a Leadbelly song, 'Where Did You Sleep Last Night' proving that it really is all just the Blues at the end of the day.
Band Bantz: Cobain is convinced he's going to make a cock-up of The Man Who Sold The World and helpfully informs the ignoramuses in the studio that it is a David Bowie song.
Heckles and Coughs: Do guest stars Cris and Curt Kirkwood of the Meat Puppets count for this bit? In the absence of anything significant from the plebs they'll have to do. They introduce themselves as Seussian Things One and Two.
Next Track Off The Rank: Alive by Pearl Jam. About the only contemporary grunge band whose album I purchased.
STOREFRONT HITCHCOCK
Released: 27th October 1998
Robyn Hitchcock
I can't be certain who suggested I added this to the list but I suspect it might have been a wise man (geddit? Maybe one or two will). Anyway, I'm grateful. Robyn Hitchcock was little more than a name I was aware of before this. I might have thought he was a kind of heavy rocker, or possibly something more whimsical in the Jonathan Richman mould. The latter is probably closer, but I really wasn't expecting a weird, stream of consciousness journey into the surreal and macabre.
This has something firmly in common with Talking Heads 'Stop Making Sense', in that it is a soundtrack to a Jonathan Demme movie. The concept being a Hitchcock live performance in a New York store window. I haven't watched the film, although that is rapidly becoming a more common occurrence for me these days, because it is quite hard to come by, but YouTube has plenty of clips, so here's a taste.
If you watch this, and don't know Hitchcock then you can probably hear that his vocal style lies somewhere between the flattened vowels of Mick Jagger and the nasal whine of Liam Gallagher. He's a decent guitarist too, some of the intricacy would make Richard Thompson proud ('I'm Only You' has some Thompson-esque diversions), and they're catchy songs too. He introduces 'Let's Go Thundering' by not introducing it, explaining that songs should speak for themselves and not be named in advance. He proves his point as well. It's a bit of an earworm, but you'd be hard-pressed to interpret it either in advance, during or after it's finished.
Then there's The Yip! Song, which might justify my Richman comparison, cos it has something of 'Roadrunner' about it. Also, I refer you back to my musings on the inclusion of cattle-disease brucellosis in Warren Zevon's 'Play It All Night Long', Hitchcock throws in 'septicaemia' in this one. Diseases are always a good bet in the single-lyrical-mention-ever game.
He only strays from his own material once, with a reasonably straight cover of Hendrix's 'The Wind Cries Mary'.
Band Bantz: Oh God. There's so much. Hitchcock's musings between songs are tracks in their own right. It could be tightly scripted or he might be making it up as he goes along, but he touches on exploding spleens, people as nuclear bombs, retort stands, minotaurs and coffee. Much of it seems to be John Carpenter inspired body horror.
Heckles and Coughs: The only thing that stood out for me was audience approval when he asserts that he believes in God and is a spiritual person (oh dear) but disapproves of religion because it is the politicization of spirituality and is therefore 'perilously close to pornography'. Now for my part he's lost me a bit here and it's the one moment when I suspect that he's coming perilously close to simply spouting utter bollocks all the way through.
Next Track Off The Rank: Summer's Cauldron by XTC
MTV UNPLUGGED
Recorded:21st April 1993
10,000 Maniacs
Another week in the 90's live albums and another MTV Unplugged. This is quite heavily reliant on their previous three albums-proper, the breakthrough In My Tribe, the sometimes-challenging Blind Man's Zoo and, to a lesser extent the latest, at the time, Our Time In Eden. For an Unplugged offering, there is some difficulty in seeing the point of the gimmick. These songs are pretty faithful to the album versions, 10,000 Maniacs, despite their name, are hardly heavy-rockin', amp-ed up speed fiends.
Which is a long-winded way of saying that this captures 10,000 Maniacs pretty much perfectly. I'll probably go through the entire back catalogue eventually, but there are so many bands and so little time. I'll focus on my personal favourites from this performance, which are the ones you'd probably expect if you know their work - 'Like The Weather', 'What's The Matter Here', 'Eat For Two' and 'Trouble Me'.
Let's start with 'What's The Matter Here', a child abuse song that perhaps shares some commonality with Suzanne Vega's 'Luka'. I have a slight problem with it, which is Merchant's seeming ambiguity about, well, actually doing something about the abuse she's witnessing. "I'm tired of the excuses, everybody uses; He's your kid, do as you see fit". I think she's just saying "I'm tired of hearing this and it's not acceptable", or is she just, at the end of the day, stepping back and letting it happen with a shrug of the shoulders? Anyway, what I do like about it is that it is direct and tells a clear and detailed story within the structure of a 5 minute song.
'Like The Weather' always seemed to me to be fairly light and inconsequential, which means I've probably never listened to it properly beyond the light bright melody before, so this time I concentrated. Oh yeh, it's about the debilitating effect of depression stopping you from functioning through day-to-day life. She's a clever one that Natalie Merchant, perhaps a bit too clever if the meaning is getting lost in the perfection of the music.
'Eat For Two' is dark, dark, dark. But it's an unwanted pregnancy song, so she's hardly going to stick a whistling solo in the middle-eight is she? By the end of it she's struggling to breathe with the stress and despair of the baby inside her. I think it might be their most powerful song, at least of the ones I know.
And 'Trouble Me' is a song I love. A simple statement of "I'm here for you" from a friend to someone struggling to cope. It's got a great structure with an impatience at the start of each verse, as if Merchant can't stop herself from offering a shoulder to cry on.
The real selling point of this album for me at the time was the inclusion of a performance of 'Because The Night'. Does she pull it off? I'm not so sure, it's one of Bruce's best and I'm used to extremely muscular live performances of it from him. Patti Smith was quite abrasive with it too. For me Merchant smooths out the rough edges a bit too much, but by no means ruins it, that would be impossible.
Band Bantz: Not sure if it really counts as Band Bantz, but in doing this I at least finally looked into the spoken part at the start of 'Gold Rush Brides'. You can tell from the tone that it is a text which is contemporaneous to the setting of the song. It comes from 'Women's Diaries Of The Westward Journey' by Lillian Schlissel. Merchant must have included just for this performance I guess (or possibly used it every time they performed it), since it seems to not be part of the album version of the song.
Heckles And Coughs: The problem with the Unplugged series is that the audience have a much better opportunity to impose themselves on the performance, which usually reveals them to be the types who want to demonstrate how into the band they are. Here there are only a couple of minor infractions
Next Track Off The Rank: Sister Europe by the Psychedelic Furs. I just don't see it.
These Are The Days
Eat For Two
Candy Everybody Wants
I'm Not The Man
Don't Talk
Hey Jack Kerouac
What's The Matter Here
Gold Rush Brides
Like The Weather
Trouble Me
Jezebel
Because The Night
Stockton Gala Days
Noah's Dove
Recorded: 18th November 1993
Nirvana
The early nineties was an odd time for me. I was on the cusp of carefree student (and job-seeking) years and starting my first proper job with the looming prospect of mortgages and pension arrangements. While all this is going on, a wave of American Indie and Grunge bands were setting the musical pace. The likes of Nirvana, Smashing Pumpkins, The Pixies and, featured also on this record, The Meat Puppets all kind of passed me by really. It was probably the first time that I was a tad too old for the contemporary rock music of the day, and I did regard it a little as self-pitying nonsense. Also, if I wanted crunchy, wall of sound guitars and feedback, I could satisfy myself with the much more credible (to my mind) Neil Young. So I have no real emotional attachment to Curt Cobain, who is truly the James Dean of rock due to the brevity and quality of his legacy.
Anyway, it means I come to this about as fresh as it is possible to be. Of course I know Nirvana's core of songs but this reveals Cobain to be a much deeper and more engaging talent than a superficial interest will suggest. Mind you, I do find it hard to really see why Dave Grohl has managed to become some kind of rock everyman in the intervening 25 years since this was recorded. The opening song is 'About A Girl' from the debut Bleach album, and well, it's about as good an early Beatles pastiche as you're ever likely to hear.
He makes the most of the unplugged idea and you do feel like he's wiping all the slathered-on grease and grime away from some of these songs, such as 'Come As You Are'. However he doesn't try to use it to deconstruct 'Smells Like Teen Spirit'. It is ignored and left alone to stand as it is. Unimproved because it is unimprovable, if only Clapton had realized the same about Layla.
Cobain's cover version choices are great too. 'The Man Who Sold The World' convinces you it is his own song and he turns The Vaselines' 'Jesus Doesn't Want Me For A Sunbeam' into something resembling a traditional folk song. He finishes with a Leadbelly song, 'Where Did You Sleep Last Night' proving that it really is all just the Blues at the end of the day.
Band Bantz: Cobain is convinced he's going to make a cock-up of The Man Who Sold The World and helpfully informs the ignoramuses in the studio that it is a David Bowie song.
Heckles and Coughs: Do guest stars Cris and Curt Kirkwood of the Meat Puppets count for this bit? In the absence of anything significant from the plebs they'll have to do. They introduce themselves as Seussian Things One and Two.
Next Track Off The Rank: Alive by Pearl Jam. About the only contemporary grunge band whose album I purchased.
About A Girl
Come As You Are
Jesus Doesn't Want Me For A Sunbeam
The Man Who Sold The World
Pennyroyal Tea
Dumb
Polly
On A Plain
Something In The Way
Plateau
Oh Me
Lake Of Fire
All Apologies
Where Did You Sleep Last Night?
Released: 27th October 1998
Robyn Hitchcock
I can't be certain who suggested I added this to the list but I suspect it might have been a wise man (geddit? Maybe one or two will). Anyway, I'm grateful. Robyn Hitchcock was little more than a name I was aware of before this. I might have thought he was a kind of heavy rocker, or possibly something more whimsical in the Jonathan Richman mould. The latter is probably closer, but I really wasn't expecting a weird, stream of consciousness journey into the surreal and macabre.
This has something firmly in common with Talking Heads 'Stop Making Sense', in that it is a soundtrack to a Jonathan Demme movie. The concept being a Hitchcock live performance in a New York store window. I haven't watched the film, although that is rapidly becoming a more common occurrence for me these days, because it is quite hard to come by, but YouTube has plenty of clips, so here's a taste.
Then there's The Yip! Song, which might justify my Richman comparison, cos it has something of 'Roadrunner' about it. Also, I refer you back to my musings on the inclusion of cattle-disease brucellosis in Warren Zevon's 'Play It All Night Long', Hitchcock throws in 'septicaemia' in this one. Diseases are always a good bet in the single-lyrical-mention-ever game.
He only strays from his own material once, with a reasonably straight cover of Hendrix's 'The Wind Cries Mary'.
Band Bantz: Oh God. There's so much. Hitchcock's musings between songs are tracks in their own right. It could be tightly scripted or he might be making it up as he goes along, but he touches on exploding spleens, people as nuclear bombs, retort stands, minotaurs and coffee. Much of it seems to be John Carpenter inspired body horror.
Heckles and Coughs: The only thing that stood out for me was audience approval when he asserts that he believes in God and is a spiritual person (oh dear) but disapproves of religion because it is the politicization of spirituality and is therefore 'perilously close to pornography'. Now for my part he's lost me a bit here and it's the one moment when I suspect that he's coming perilously close to simply spouting utter bollocks all the way through.
Next Track Off The Rank: Summer's Cauldron by XTC
1974
Spleen Rap
Let's Go Thundering
Carcasses Rap
I'm Only You
Glass Hotel
Minotaur Rap
I Something You
Problem With Physics Rap
The Yip! Song
Electric Coffee Rap
Freeze
Minneapolis Rap
Alright, Yeah
Where Do You Go When You Die?
The Wind Cries Mary
No, I Don't Remember Guildford
TS Eliot Rap
Beautiful Queen
Dinner Conversation
Classic Live Albums Part 6 - 1979 - 1981
Next, part of the sequence goes from 1979 through to 1981. Some great records here.
Paris: Supertramp (29th November 1979)
Exit Stage Left: Rush (June 1980 and March 1981)
Stand In The Fire:Warren Zevon (August 1980)
Fleetwood Mac Live: Fleetwood Mac (Up to 1980)
No Sleep 'Til Hammersmith: Motorhead (28-30 March 1980)
Live Shots - Joe Ely (Feb 1980)
The Concert In Central Park: Simon and Garfunkel (19th September 1981)
RUST NEVER SLEEPS
Recorded: Mainly through 1978
Neil Young And Crazy Horse
I reckon there are at least three Neil Young live albums that deserve a place in any list of the greatest. This, 1991's Weld and the MTV Unplugged from 1993. There's a fair amount of overlap as well between the tracklists, but I''ll focus on Rust Never Sleeps since it contains classic songs close to the time when he wrote and released them. You can expect a little bit of cross-referencing however.
He starts and finishes with what counts as the title track - 'My, My, Hey, Hey (Out Of The Blue)' at the beginning and 'Hey, Hey, My, My (Into The Black)' at the end. On Weld you only get the knackered-amped up '...(Into the Black)' part, but I think it's a slightly better version on the later album. Lyrically it follows the rather-difficult-to-justify-once-you-pass-50 sentiment of "it's better to burn out than to fade away". See also The Who's My Generation. Kurt Cobain wrote it on his suicide note, which apparently knocked Young for six and led to the rather brilliant 'Sleeps With Angels' album (according to Wikipedia anyway). Well, I love 'My, My, Hey, Hey' and will happily forget that I have led a safe, conformist life, never came close to burning out and will probably get old before I die. I would dispute the idea that Rust Never Sleeps however, a little prudently applied mental and physical lubricant can stave off the most corrosive aspects of growing old.
It's one of a number of songs on here that don't appear on a studio album and apparently come from the unreleased album 'Chrome Dreams'. 'Pocahontas', 'Powderfinger' and 'Sedan Delivery' all originate there, along with the Unplugged song 'Stringman'. 'Pocahontas' makes it onto the Unplugged album and 'Powderfinger' onto Weld, so whatever the reasons for the album not making it to release, Young clearly values the songs and has kept them alive in concert. 'Pocahontas' is mirrored by Weld's 'Cortez The Killer', suggesting that Young sees himself as some kind of apologist for the fate of the native American at the hands of European conquests.
Also turning up on both Rust Never Sleeps and Weld is 'Welfare Mothers', with an equivalent amount of crashing chaos on both versions. As for 'Ride My Llama', well your guess is as good as mine. If I had to call out anything from the other two albums it would be Young doing a Hendrix Star Spangled Banner job on Dylan's Blowing In The Wind (Weld) and 'Like A Hurricane' (Unplugged). The latter was a pub rock standard during my student days when The Borough in Sunderland Town centre had a band on on Thursday and Sunday nights. And of course you have to give a shout out to the visceral 'Rockin' In The Free World' on Weld.
Funnily enough I never bothered to investigate the one hour of feedback that Young issued on the extended 'Arc Weld' album.
He starts and finishes with what counts as the title track - 'My, My, Hey, Hey (Out Of The Blue)' at the beginning and 'Hey, Hey, My, My (Into The Black)' at the end. On Weld you only get the knackered-amped up '...(Into the Black)' part, but I think it's a slightly better version on the later album. Lyrically it follows the rather-difficult-to-justify-once-you-pass-50 sentiment of "it's better to burn out than to fade away". See also The Who's My Generation. Kurt Cobain wrote it on his suicide note, which apparently knocked Young for six and led to the rather brilliant 'Sleeps With Angels' album (according to Wikipedia anyway). Well, I love 'My, My, Hey, Hey' and will happily forget that I have led a safe, conformist life, never came close to burning out and will probably get old before I die. I would dispute the idea that Rust Never Sleeps however, a little prudently applied mental and physical lubricant can stave off the most corrosive aspects of growing old.
It's one of a number of songs on here that don't appear on a studio album and apparently come from the unreleased album 'Chrome Dreams'. 'Pocahontas', 'Powderfinger' and 'Sedan Delivery' all originate there, along with the Unplugged song 'Stringman'. 'Pocahontas' makes it onto the Unplugged album and 'Powderfinger' onto Weld, so whatever the reasons for the album not making it to release, Young clearly values the songs and has kept them alive in concert. 'Pocahontas' is mirrored by Weld's 'Cortez The Killer', suggesting that Young sees himself as some kind of apologist for the fate of the native American at the hands of European conquests.
Also turning up on both Rust Never Sleeps and Weld is 'Welfare Mothers', with an equivalent amount of crashing chaos on both versions. As for 'Ride My Llama', well your guess is as good as mine. If I had to call out anything from the other two albums it would be Young doing a Hendrix Star Spangled Banner job on Dylan's Blowing In The Wind (Weld) and 'Like A Hurricane' (Unplugged). The latter was a pub rock standard during my student days when The Borough in Sunderland Town centre had a band on on Thursday and Sunday nights. And of course you have to give a shout out to the visceral 'Rockin' In The Free World' on Weld.
Funnily enough I never bothered to investigate the one hour of feedback that Young issued on the extended 'Arc Weld' album.
Band Bantz/Heckles and Coughs - There really is nothing. Rust Never Sleeps is very nearly a studio album, so far back in the mix are the audiences, and Young just doesn't seem to engage.
Next Track Off The Rank: The Weight by The Band. Canada, harmonica and strummed acoustic guitar must feature strongly in Spotify's algorithm.
My, My, Hey, Hey (Out Of The Blue)
Thrasher
Ride My Llama
Pocahontas
Sail Away
Powderfinger
Welfare Mothers
Sedan Delivery
Hey, Hey, My, My (Into The Black)
PARIS
Recorded:29th November 1979
Supertramp
Now look. I can't like everything, and Supertramp are, let's face it, quite fucking dull. I apologize to whoever it was suggested it, because this does have an iconic reputation among live albums. However the combination of everything being led by electric piano and Jesus-a-like Roger Hodgson's whiny, wimpy vocals makes it all rather pedestrian and boring.
Even the swearing is pretty low-wattage, "Bloody well right", "Bloody marvelous". All the well known songs are here - except go-to TV telethon song 'Give A Little Bit' - and in isolation all of these are just about fine. When they crop up on the radio, you think, 'Oh yeah. I know this one'. But it's all rather too clever-clever. 'The Logical Song' is ultimately quite irritating and 'Breakfast In America' is just too arch. On the plus side, 'You Started Laughing' has a promising sad-sounding delicate intro. They attempt a touch of gravitas by closing with 'Crime Of The Century', but you'd be better off listening to anything by Pink Floyd instead.
Even the swearing is pretty low-wattage, "Bloody well right", "Bloody marvelous". All the well known songs are here - except go-to TV telethon song 'Give A Little Bit' - and in isolation all of these are just about fine. When they crop up on the radio, you think, 'Oh yeah. I know this one'. But it's all rather too clever-clever. 'The Logical Song' is ultimately quite irritating and 'Breakfast In America' is just too arch. On the plus side, 'You Started Laughing' has a promising sad-sounding delicate intro. They attempt a touch of gravitas by closing with 'Crime Of The Century', but you'd be better off listening to anything by Pink Floyd instead.
Band Bantz: I could do better with my O-level grade C French than they manage. The preamble to 'Breakfast In America' is every random French-sounding foodstuff listed out. Mousseline, Langoustine, Creme Caramel, Beaucoup de Vin, and a few Italian dishes as well. These continentals, they're all the same.
Heckles And Coughs: The not notorious for being easily pleased Parisians are enthusiastic about it all so maybe I'm missing something.
Next Track Off The Rank: Rikki Don't Lose That Number by Steely Dan. Different league.
School
Ain't Nobody But Me
The Logical Song
Bloody Well Right
Breakfast In America
You Started Laughing
Hide In Your Shell
From Now On
Dreamer
Rudy
A Soapbox Opera
Asylum
Take The Long Way Home
Fools Overture
Two Of Us
Crime Of The Century
EXIT STAGE LEFT
Recorded: June 10-11 1980 and March 27 1981
Rush
On the rare occasions that the subject of New Order comes up in conversations here at RockOdysseys HQ, Mrs R.O. always dismisses them as 'a bloke's band'. You have to bear in mind our particular vintage. We were students in the heyday of Bernard Sumner , Peter Hook and co, and what I always take this comment to mean is that they were definite favorites of males of our age because they represented 'serious' contemporary music (depressing, Mancunian and mostly boring). Now you may be wondering why I raise this in a piece on Canadian rock darlings Rush? Well I would contend that the epithet 'bloke's band' was pretty much made for them. Their proposition is intricate lead guitar work, fiddly basslines and complicated drumming (with more cow-bell action than is really warranted). No woman really likes that kind of thing, which is a sweeping generalization of the worst kind, but I doubt any female would consider it a serious insult to to their sex, nor to the fight against the patriarchy.
Rush do sometimes cross the line into the turgid and a live double album, I'll admit, tried my patience a bit. Which is a shame because I love hearing 'Spirit Of The Radio' and 'Tom Sawyer' on the rare occasions they make it onto the radio. But you can have too much of it, and Geddy Lee's nasal shriek is fine for a while, until you start to worry that he's going to give himself a sore throat or at least blow out his sinuses. 'Xanadu' is included too. Samuel Taylor Coleridge's 'Kubla Khan' is irresistible to nitwit popstars because it speaks to their sense of power and pompousness (they never do 'Ozymandias' do they?), but at least Frankie Goes To Hollywood showed some self-awareness and mischief by changing the words to "In Xanadu, did Kubla Khan, stately pleasuredome ERECT!".
But don't get me wrong. Rush are great in the right context and I'd recommend listening to this double album one side at a time, or simply go for 'Spirit Of The Radio', 'Xanadu' and 'Tom Sawyer' and skip the rest.
Rush do sometimes cross the line into the turgid and a live double album, I'll admit, tried my patience a bit. Which is a shame because I love hearing 'Spirit Of The Radio' and 'Tom Sawyer' on the rare occasions they make it onto the radio. But you can have too much of it, and Geddy Lee's nasal shriek is fine for a while, until you start to worry that he's going to give himself a sore throat or at least blow out his sinuses. 'Xanadu' is included too. Samuel Taylor Coleridge's 'Kubla Khan' is irresistible to nitwit popstars because it speaks to their sense of power and pompousness (they never do 'Ozymandias' do they?), but at least Frankie Goes To Hollywood showed some self-awareness and mischief by changing the words to "In Xanadu, did Kubla Khan, stately pleasuredome ERECT!".
But don't get me wrong. Rush are great in the right context and I'd recommend listening to this double album one side at a time, or simply go for 'Spirit Of The Radio', 'Xanadu' and 'Tom Sawyer' and skip the rest.
Band Bantz: 'Red Barchetta' is "a song about a car". See? Bloke's Band.
Heckles And Coughs: They take the vocal duties for the appropriate parts of 'Closer To The Heart' and Neil Peart's drum solo on 'YYZ 'brings them to raptures. The question that has nagged me for about 40 years now is, how do you pronounce 'Peart'? is it "pert", as in "bum", or "part" to rhyme with "fart"?
Next Track Off The Rank: Jump by Van Halen.
Spirit Of The Radio
Red Barchetta
YYZ
A Passage To Bangkok
Closer To The Heart
Beneath, Between & Behind
Jacob's Ladder
Broon's Bane
The Trees
Xanadu
Freewill
Tom Sawyer
La Villa Strangiato
STAND IN THE FIRE
Recorded: August 1980
Warren Zevon
Here's a fun game to play with your mates when you are down the boozer and 4 pints into the evening. Think of a word that has only ever been used once in a popular song. If someone can think of another song that uses the same word, you lose. My banker for this would be 'brucellosis' which turns up in Zevon's 'Play It All Night Long', but I'd like to think that if I discovered that someone else had managed to shoehorn it into a song, I'd be happy to take my forfeit and would immediately seek it out.
'Play It All Night Long' doesn't even feature on the original release of this, but is one of a number of bonus tracks released on a remastered version in 2007. In fact these four tracks were almost the highlight of the album for me, which is saying something because this is a dark joy from start to finish.
In an earlier post I suggested that Ian Anderson of Jethro Tull was the Medieval Court Jester of Rock (or at least he thinks so), if so then Zevon must be something like the Bill Hicks. His songs are darkly funny. Take 'Play it...' for example, your have to wonder whether he thinks Neil Young rather soft-pedaled in his attack on Alabama and so decided he was really going to go for the jugular. There's incest, PTSD, drinking to oblivion, elderly incontinence and dementia - "sweat, piss, jizz and blood" indeed (oh, and the cattle have the obscurely named disease). But he also somehow seems to communicate a grudging admiration of the stoic acceptance and the will to keep going on "we'll get by somehow". There's also 'Excitable Boy', where a psychopathic youth follows a trail of destruction ending in rape and murder, while everyone shrugs their shoulders and puts it down to him just being an "Excitable Boy". And there's pretty much more of the same on 'Poor Poor Pitiful Me' where, of course, it's all the fault of the women.
The version of 'Werewolves Of London' on this features some adaptations, with some of the action being displaced to California and cameo appearances from Brian De Palma mutilating the little old ladies, James Taylor being sought by the lycanthrope and Jackson Browne with a perfect heart. I never heard the 'R' at the start of "Rah-hoooo!" on the howls before now either.
But there is light as well, usually around the redemptive power of music. So 'Mohammed's Radio' tells of how a night-time radio station lifts people out of the daily grind and bonus track 'Johnny Strikes Up The Band' is simply a joyous celebration of dancing to rock and roll.
Band Bantz: 'Hasten Down The Wind' is the last bonus track and Zevon explains how he was in bad place when he wrote it, but is now glad to be alive. During the song he asks for the house lights to be raised so he can see his friends. It's a touching moment during a great song.
Heckles And Coughs: He asks what they want to hear just before 'Johnny Strikes Up The Band'. Whether they actually asked for it is unclear. This was recorded in The Roxy Theatre in West Hollywood. It feels intimate and closes with a chant from the audience of "Zevon, Zevon, Zevon, Zevon"
Next Track Off The Rank: Go Back Home - Steven Stills. Spotify places Zevon alongside the likes of CSN&Y, Little Feat and Jackson Browne, so clearly he's pigeonholed as a 'California' artist.
Stand In The Fire
Jeannie Needs A Shooter
Excitable Boy
Mohammed's Radio
Werewolves Of London
Lawyers, Guns And Money
The Sin
Poor Poor Pitiful Me
I'll Sleep When I'm Dead
Bo Diddley's A Gunslinger
Bonus Tracks
Johnny Strikes Up The Band
Play It All Night Long
Frank And Jesse James
Hasten Down The Wind
Recorded:1977-1980
Fleetwood Mac
This was cobbled together from the Rumours and Tusk tours, and, you know, Fleetwood Mac are nothing if not polished, so you can reasonably expect that cherry-picked performances from a three year period are going to be pretty good. I did find 'Dreams' a bit underpowered with neither Nicks or Buckingham being very convincing, and she's as unintelligible as ever on 'Rhiannon'. 'Go Your Own Way' is a bit of a shambles, but they redeem it with a decent version of 'Don't Stop' afterward. The closing version of the Beach Boys 'The Farmer's Daughter' seems a little tacked-on, and although no doubt it is Live, it doesn't really sound it.
The only nod to the pre-Nicks/Buckingham era is a version of Peter Green's 'Oh Well', but it's - well, what's the opposite of 'stripped back'? Overdressed? There's quite a lot of (cow)bells and whistles added on, but it works pretty well and is a good performance from Buckingham. No quite so sure about whether he pulls off a punk attitude on 'Not That Funny', he's rather like someone who's learned to do a Mick Jagger impression by correspondence course, and the quiet bit in the middle just becomes tedious, especially when the screaming starts. But when you've got an ego the size of a planet you don't really care whether you're actually being entertaining so, sorry folks, he will be drawing this out for 9 minutes. His performance of 'I'm So Afraid' is also rather overwrought and florid.
I do like 'Never Going Back Again', but it's a song that fails in live performance. The precision that makes it so special on the studio version can't be achieved and it seems diminished here. The best tracks, as always, owe the most to Christine McVie, so 'Over My Head' provides a nice smooth contrast to Nicks' subsequent abrasive 'Rhiannon'.
So this is all fine, but just that. There are good songs that we all know and they're very competent and know their business, but it's not really uplifting, or saying anything interesting.
Cover photo: How times have changed. Now it is de-rigeur to get a selfie of the band with the adoring horde in the background. Back in 1980 you had to rely on a bombed-out roadie who might well be unable to hold the camera still. Looks like Buckingham would rather show the audience his arse.
Band Bantz: Christine McVie comes across as rather diffident in her intros. Almost apologetic for not having done anything from Tusk so far as she introduces 'Over And Over', which she helpfully tells the audience is track 1 on side 1 - just in case they want to go away and look it up.
Heckles and Coughs: They go wild after 'I'm So Afraid'. I might have required a nudge before I reacted. The applause after The Farmer's Daughter defines the word 'desultory'
Next Track Off The Rank: Ohio by Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young.
Monday Morning
Say You Love Me
Dreams
Oh Well
Over & Over
Sara
Not That Funny
Never Going Back Again
Landslide
Fireflies
Over My Head
Rhiannon
Don't Let Me Down Again
One More Night
Go Your Own Way
Don't Stop
I'm So Afraid
The Farmer's Daughter
LIVE SHOTS
Recorded: Feb 1980
Joe Ely
This
one has a long history in the RockOdysseys context. When I first put
out the call for great live albums to cover this was a slightly
leftfield suggestion that I was assured would repay my attention.
However it's unusual these days in that it's not available on Spotify. I
looked on Amazon but the only versions available were coming in at over
100 nicker - which suggested it was either insanely rare or so good you
had to pay top dollar to hear it. In the end I had resigned myself to
go for a different Ely Live album. But, when the time came I checked
online again and lo and behold, there it was, second hand for £1.98 plus
post and packing. So this is also rare in that I actually bought the
bloody thing in order to hear it.
The
recording was made in London when he was supporting The Clash in 1980
on their tour for London Calling. He seems an odd choice, God knows what
the fanbase made of Ely's fairly conventional brand of rock and roll,
Southern boogie and country and western. However, they're certainly
respectful enough, and the Clash were never straightforward punks
anyway. I've pinpointed the date as February 1980 from online archives
of the Clash's tour dates and it will have been either at the Electric Ballroom in Camden or down in darkest Lewisham.
So
knowing most of this before I started didn't really prepare me for what
Joe Ely had to offer, which goes from Jerry-Lee style piano thumping
rawk of 'Fingernails' to almost Hispanic croons like 'She Never Spoke
Spanish To Me'. He also delivers two songs that refer to 'Honky-Tonk'
which got me thinking that I've never really properly understood what is
meant by the term. I mean, I can recognize it when I hear it -
piano-based southern rock - but Wikipedia reckons that it might just be a
onomatopoeic description of the music played in a certain kind of Southern bar. The
two songs in question are 'Honky Tonk Masquerade' and 'Honky Tonkin'',
in which Ely is ably assisted by Carlene Carter.
He's good though, there's no doubt. There's a searing guitar solo on 'Johnny's Blues' and he really does give The Killer a run for his money on the piano. The recording is clean too, so it's a pleasure to listen to.
The version I got has four bonus tracks, the Texas Special EP, which, rather like with Zevon's Stand In The Fire are sometimes the most enjoyable. They include the rather daft 'Crazy Lemon' and a cover of 'Not Fade Away.
Band Bantz: Ely gets the crowd going a little with some light howling during 'Long Snake Moan'.
Heckles and Coughs: The urban warriors that were following Joe Strummer and co around the capital are quiet as mice, possibly dumbstruck by the idea that not every song needs to be a howl of righteous anger.
Next Track Off The Rank: Well, there isn't one, since it's not on Spotify.
Fingernails
Midnight Shift
Honky Tonk Masquerade
Honky-Tonkin'
Long Snake Moan
I Had My Hopes Up High
She Never Spoke Spanish To Me
Johnny's Blues
Fools Fall In Love
Boxcars
Crazy Lemon
Not Fade Away
Treat Me Like A Saturday Night
Wishin' For You
NO SLEEP TIL HAMMERSMITH
Recorded:1980 and 28-30th March 1981
Motörhead
No mucking around, Lemmy's bass buzz starts straight up and he begins howling his way through 'Ace Of Spades', a song that defies any criticism for it's sheer brain-haemorrhaging excitement. Like quite a lot of Motörhead's songs the lyrics are pretty much a list of gasped out phrases. At the time of recording Lemmy was about 35, an age when many professional sportsmen are, if not at their peak, then certainly in their prime. Lemmy is too, but being a warty leather-clad rock and roll warrior takes it's toll on your vocal cords and your respiratory system.
However, they are relentless. You could say they're one-dimensional, but then you'd be missing the point. Motörhead are a hammer and everything looks like a nail to them. Mind you, they don't really try to stray too far from what they know, so it's all about life on the road, motorbikes and hard living. Don't come here for relationship advice.
Side 2 begins with 'Ace Of Spades - Reprise'. Oh sorry, it says 'Overkill' here on the track listing but it's essentially the same song, at least at first. 'Capricorn' is possibly the most measured and thoughtful of everything on the album, which is to say it goes at a slightly slower pace and has what might be called a 'guitar break' in the middle.
The original issue ends with their eponymous song. Yet another headlong roar of guitars, drums and throat nodules. The 'Deluxe Edition' has loads more including outtakes of pretty much every track on the original record. Oh, and did I mention that the whole thing is amazing?
Band Bantz: Lemmy dedicates a lot of songs to various groups and people. 'Iron Horse' is for the "Angels", and '(We Are) The Roadcrew' is for...well you can guess. In a rare attack of clear enunciation, he pronounces the middle 'b' when announcing 'Bomber'. 'Capricorn' is "a love song that I wrote for myself"
Heckles and Coughs: Well y'know, the audiences probably can't even hear themselves think, so speech is unlikely to be possible. Despite the album title all the tracks were recorded in Leeds and Newcastle and Hammersmith was not even a date on the tour (according to Wikipedia at least).
Next Track Off The Rank: Hush by Deep Purple. Which perfectly illustrates how a nice idea can eventually just get out of hand.
Ace Of Spades
Stay Clean
Metropolis
The Hammer
Iron Horse
No Class
Overkill
(We Are) The Roadcrew
Capricorn
Bomber
Motorhead
THE CONCERT IN CENTRAL PARK
Recorded: 19th September 1981
Simon And Garfunkel
I remember this being a big deal at the time, although as I was only 14 my knowledge of Simon and Garfunkel would have been sketchy. They would have been familiar to me as an act, and I'd have definitely known songs like 'Mrs Robinson', 'The Sound Of Silence' and 'The 59th Bridge Street Song' (although I would have almost certainly called it 'Feeling Groovy'), but I was hardly their target audience. However, this was An Event, and probably for all of the following reasons
- It was free to attend
- It represented the coming together of a famously estranged musical duo
- It was a local act playing their local park
- More than 500,000 people turned up
- It was on the telly all over the world
- They didn't disappoint
- It represented the coming together of a famously estranged musical duo
- It was a local act playing their local park
- More than 500,000 people turned up
- It was on the telly all over the world
- They didn't disappoint
This last point is in some ways the most surprising, and what I mean by it is that they didn't insult the audience by playing anything obscure (although Art manages to winkle in 'A Heart In New York' off his new album - see Band Bantz below). Nope, this is like a Greatest Hits package. It's also a remarkably good quality recording. Goodness knows how hard it would have been getting decent acoustics in a venue like that, although I guess it's taken straight off the sound board for the record itself.
So, anyway, it's a joy from start to finish. You can't really go wrong with this collection of songs, and they're performed well too.
Band Bantz: Simon's choicest moment comes when he thanks the organizers and city authorities and pledges that those selling loose joints will be donating half their profits. Garfunkel makes a point that 'A Heart In New York' is about the only non-Paul Simon song in the set. In fairness he doesn't sound too bitter (and it's a Gallagher and Lyle song anyway). At least he didn't resort to bunny-apocalypse song 'Bright Eyes'.
Heckles And Coughs: There's more than half a million of the buggers and they're getting it for free, so no complaints, and you'd never be able to hear them if there were. Art asks if they're cold in advance of 'The Boxer', but no, they collectively confirm that they are fine. References to large crowds of people in the closing 'The Sound Of Silence' gets the expected response.
Next Track Off The Rank: A Horse With No Name by America.
Mrs Robinson
Homeward Bound
America
Me And Julio Down By The Schoolyard
Scarborough Fair
April Come She Will
Wake Up Little Susie
Still Crazy After All These Years
American Tune
Late In The Evening
Slip Slidin' Away
A Heart In New York
Kodachrome
Bridge Over Troubled Water
50 Ways To Leave Your Lover
The Boxer
Old Friends
The 59th Street Bridge Song
The Sound Of Silence
Classic Live Albums Part 5 - 1977 to 1978
You'd expect punk to be starting to crop up around now, and the next 10 albums, covering 1977 and 1978 do indeed feature The Stranglers and The Ramones. But then, you also get Jackson Browne and Blue Oyster Cult, so it was hardly all-conquering was it? Also, I suspect that there are few early punk live recordings that are worth listening to today. The full list for the next post consists of:
I've also added a new section to these, 'Next Track Off The Rank' which is the first track by a different artist played by Spotify after the end of the album.
SECONDS OUT
Jun-76 and Jun-77
Genesis
It's nice to discover new artists and music, but there's a special relief that comes when the next album in this line of live classics is by an artist you know and like. The pleasure in not having to first break into the feel of the band and just get on with thinking about what this particular album is offering is a good one. Seconds Out is interesting because it comes at an important point in Genesis's evolution. Steve Hackett handed his cards in just as the album was being mixed (Tony Banks apparently quipped that they immediately turned down the faders on his guitar and it's certainly true that the keyboards are the dominant instrument) so this represents the 'Trick Of The Tail'/'Wind And Wuthering' period where they went from Gabriel-fronted, scholarly art-rock outfit to the Collins-dominated rock-pop behemoth that trundled on through the late seventies and eighties. It's not really as simple as that, it wasn't an immediate sea-change and 'And Then There Were Three' and 'Duke' were further staging posts on the road to album-chart friendly fodder like 'Invisible Touch'. It presents a chance to try and get inside Collins' head. What did the Artful Dodger think about delivering Gabriel's often arcane lyrics and stories? By the time they were touring in the eighties, the 'old' songs amounted to a dashed off medley built around 'In The Cage' and the 'Carpet Crawl'. If you were lucky. Here though, you get 'The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway', 'Firth Of Fifth', 'The Cinema Show', 'The Musical Box' and 'Supper's Ready'. I suppose they had less back catalogue to draw on, and these songs were still reasonably fresh anyway, but it's interesting to hear Collins' take. 'Supper's Ready' is the most revealing. His stage school background serves him well in trying to pull off some of the more out-there vocal moments. Occasionally it sounds like he might just be taking the piss - he sails close to the wind on the spoken parts of 'I Know What I Like (In Your Wardrobe)' - but I think his intentions are pure. 'Lamb' is played absolutely straight and is a superb performance of the song. If anything it's the later, non-Gabriel songs that he goes over the top on. 'Robbery, Assault And Battery' includes a full on nasal Mancunian Frank Sidebottom delivery of the "'Allo son, I 'ope yer havin' fun" line. 'Trick Of The Tail' also awarded them a perfect show closer in 'Los Endos'. It's got great artwork too.
Band Bantz: There's little retained on the recording. The performances are mainly from two concerts in Paris, a year apart, with the 1976 material amounting to just 'The Cinema Show'. Collins does ad lib "Hello Paris in the springtime" near the end of 'I Know What I Like'
Heckles And Coughs: Mainly reactions to unseen antics on the stage.
Next Track Off The Rank: Give A Little Bit by Supertramp. Kind of inevitable really.
RUNNING ON EMPTY
Aug-Sept 1977
Jackson Browne
This one had me wrong-footed for a moment, although the reason was not simply that this isn't a live album in the normal sense. Instead, the production on the opening title track is so clean that I was convinced it wasn't being performed live anyway and I stopped and checked that I had the right album. In fact only around half the tracks on here are performed live, the rest were produced on the road. It makes for an interesting twist on the idea of a live album. This is more of a 'tour' album, capturing the sights, the sounds... the smells (sorry) of Jackson and co on the road without making any attempt to pretend that this represents a single performance (most live albums aren't anyway, but they are generally intended to give you the live concert experience). Apparently nothing on here comes from a previous album, so it kind of counts as a studio album too in that sense. Browne treads a fine line for me, he risks being as dull and predictable as The Eagles, but there is something more genuine about him than them. He also rings the changes quite nicely within the remit of smooth Americana, so 'You Love The Thunder' could easily be a Fleetwood Mac track (I could believe that's Christine McVie on backing vocals) and 'Shaky Town' has a great steel guitar part. The themes are hotel rooms, tour buses, the people around him and the old Colombian marching powder. On this last, I'm sure I'm surprising nobody when I say that I've never even seen a class A drug in my life, but isn't cocaine supposed to make you talk nineteen to the dozen and be very boring? So why are all the songs about it slow and melancholy? There are some nice touches, 'The Road' segues seamlessly from hotel room recording to live performance midway through. The closing version of Frankie Valli's 'Stay' is great too. My only gripe? It's hard to relate to the ennui that Jackson exudes about his life on the road, cruising through the American midwest with his groupies and his blow when you are trudging into a London office at 7:00 am on an icy March morning.
Band Bantz: Wikipedia reckons that even the tour bus gets in on the act on 'Nothing But Time' and you really can hear it rumbling away in the background if you listen hard enough. There's some sniffing and general stoner conversation at the end of 'Cocaine' too. Browne also debuts 'Nothing But Time' as a tribute to the hired help.
Heckles And Coughs; Hard to pull anything out, especially due to the more disjointed nature of how the material is presented.
Next Track Off The Rank: Cowgirl In The Sand - The Byrds
IT'S ALIVE!
AT BUDOKAN
Seconds Out - Genesis (Jun-76 and Jun-77)
Running On Empty - Jackson Browne (Sep-77)
Running On Empty - Jackson Browne (Sep-77)
What Do You Want From Live - The Tubes (Nov-77)
It's Alive - The Ramones (Dec-77)
Live And Dangerous - Thin Lizzy (Jan-78)
Cheap Trick at Budokan - Cheap Trick (Apr-78)
Some Enchanted Evening - Blue Oyster Cult (Jun-78)
Babylon By Bus- Bob Marley and The Wailers (Jun-78)
Live Bursting Out - Jethro Tull (May - Jun 1978)
Live Bursting Out - Jethro Tull (May - Jun 1978)
Live Cert X – Stranglers (Sep-78)
Strangers In The Night - UFO (Oct-78)
I've also added a new section to these, 'Next Track Off The Rank' which is the first track by a different artist played by Spotify after the end of the album.
Jun-76 and Jun-77
Genesis
It's nice to discover new artists and music, but there's a special relief that comes when the next album in this line of live classics is by an artist you know and like. The pleasure in not having to first break into the feel of the band and just get on with thinking about what this particular album is offering is a good one. Seconds Out is interesting because it comes at an important point in Genesis's evolution. Steve Hackett handed his cards in just as the album was being mixed (Tony Banks apparently quipped that they immediately turned down the faders on his guitar and it's certainly true that the keyboards are the dominant instrument) so this represents the 'Trick Of The Tail'/'Wind And Wuthering' period where they went from Gabriel-fronted, scholarly art-rock outfit to the Collins-dominated rock-pop behemoth that trundled on through the late seventies and eighties. It's not really as simple as that, it wasn't an immediate sea-change and 'And Then There Were Three' and 'Duke' were further staging posts on the road to album-chart friendly fodder like 'Invisible Touch'. It presents a chance to try and get inside Collins' head. What did the Artful Dodger think about delivering Gabriel's often arcane lyrics and stories? By the time they were touring in the eighties, the 'old' songs amounted to a dashed off medley built around 'In The Cage' and the 'Carpet Crawl'. If you were lucky. Here though, you get 'The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway', 'Firth Of Fifth', 'The Cinema Show', 'The Musical Box' and 'Supper's Ready'. I suppose they had less back catalogue to draw on, and these songs were still reasonably fresh anyway, but it's interesting to hear Collins' take. 'Supper's Ready' is the most revealing. His stage school background serves him well in trying to pull off some of the more out-there vocal moments. Occasionally it sounds like he might just be taking the piss - he sails close to the wind on the spoken parts of 'I Know What I Like (In Your Wardrobe)' - but I think his intentions are pure. 'Lamb' is played absolutely straight and is a superb performance of the song. If anything it's the later, non-Gabriel songs that he goes over the top on. 'Robbery, Assault And Battery' includes a full on nasal Mancunian Frank Sidebottom delivery of the "'Allo son, I 'ope yer havin' fun" line. 'Trick Of The Tail' also awarded them a perfect show closer in 'Los Endos'. It's got great artwork too.
Band Bantz: There's little retained on the recording. The performances are mainly from two concerts in Paris, a year apart, with the 1976 material amounting to just 'The Cinema Show'. Collins does ad lib "Hello Paris in the springtime" near the end of 'I Know What I Like'
Heckles And Coughs: Mainly reactions to unseen antics on the stage.
Next Track Off The Rank: Give A Little Bit by Supertramp. Kind of inevitable really.
Squonk
The Carpet Crawl
Robbery, Assault And Battery
Afterglow
Firth Of Fifth
I Know What I Like (In Your Wardrobe)
The Musical Box
Suppers Ready
The Cinema Show
Dance On A Volcano
Los Endos
Aug-Sept 1977
Jackson Browne
This one had me wrong-footed for a moment, although the reason was not simply that this isn't a live album in the normal sense. Instead, the production on the opening title track is so clean that I was convinced it wasn't being performed live anyway and I stopped and checked that I had the right album. In fact only around half the tracks on here are performed live, the rest were produced on the road. It makes for an interesting twist on the idea of a live album. This is more of a 'tour' album, capturing the sights, the sounds... the smells (sorry) of Jackson and co on the road without making any attempt to pretend that this represents a single performance (most live albums aren't anyway, but they are generally intended to give you the live concert experience). Apparently nothing on here comes from a previous album, so it kind of counts as a studio album too in that sense. Browne treads a fine line for me, he risks being as dull and predictable as The Eagles, but there is something more genuine about him than them. He also rings the changes quite nicely within the remit of smooth Americana, so 'You Love The Thunder' could easily be a Fleetwood Mac track (I could believe that's Christine McVie on backing vocals) and 'Shaky Town' has a great steel guitar part. The themes are hotel rooms, tour buses, the people around him and the old Colombian marching powder. On this last, I'm sure I'm surprising nobody when I say that I've never even seen a class A drug in my life, but isn't cocaine supposed to make you talk nineteen to the dozen and be very boring? So why are all the songs about it slow and melancholy? There are some nice touches, 'The Road' segues seamlessly from hotel room recording to live performance midway through. The closing version of Frankie Valli's 'Stay' is great too. My only gripe? It's hard to relate to the ennui that Jackson exudes about his life on the road, cruising through the American midwest with his groupies and his blow when you are trudging into a London office at 7:00 am on an icy March morning.
Band Bantz: Wikipedia reckons that even the tour bus gets in on the act on 'Nothing But Time' and you really can hear it rumbling away in the background if you listen hard enough. There's some sniffing and general stoner conversation at the end of 'Cocaine' too. Browne also debuts 'Nothing But Time' as a tribute to the hired help.
Heckles And Coughs; Hard to pull anything out, especially due to the more disjointed nature of how the material is presented.
Next Track Off The Rank: Cowgirl In The Sand - The Byrds
Running On Empty
The Road
Rosie
You Love The Thunder
Cocaine
Shaky Town
Love Needs A Heart
Nothing But Time
The Load Out
Stay
WHAT DO YOU WANT FROM LIVE
November 1977
The Tubes
I know nothing of The Tubes going into this, but it's not long before I start to get the picture. The delinquent child of Frank and the Mothers and Rocky Horror. It's all very theatrical and the band are occasionally very convincing in being rather dangerously off their heads. They are at the Hammy Odeon as London lay bruised and gasping in the aftermath of the summer of punk so their outrageous schtick probably fit the bill perfectly. The show appears to be just that - a coherent, planned, scripted show with a proper overture and everything. But, the music is good, varied and well executed, if not entirely groundbreaking. Perhaps most notable is The Beatles 'I Saw Her Standing There' performed with The Damned's 'New Rose' punk riff. I'd also swear that there is a tiny bit of larceny on 'Smoke (La Vie En Fumer)' regarding 'Gimme Shelter'. The 'Crime Medley' at least probably isn't pretending to be particularly original and I'd guess that there were plenty of accompanying visuals to help carry it off. They are slaves to 70's rock concert convention in one sense, there is a drum solo. Rather like the short corner kick in football (some say soccer), the reason why anyone would choose to do it defeats me. They finish off with some good old-fashioned audience participation in 'Stand Up And Shout' followed by what counts as their Big Hit 'White Punks On Dope', so for all the outrage and stagecraft, they reveal that they know they still need to give the punters what they want.
Band Bantz: It's a key part of the show and probably more important than the music. They break with convention at the very start and introduce the band in the introduction. That's just crazily confusing. There is obviously lots going on that 12 inches of black vinyl simply cannot convey and most of it is fairly lewd. The intro to 'Smoke' sees one of them (I have no idea who is who in the band) taking their ease with a gasper - couldn't do it in the 'Eventim Apollo' now, with any kind of leaf. And since they are in London, it means they have to give the worst possible example of an American doing a London accent at the end of 'Boy Crazy'. It is Dick-Van-Dyke-as-Bert-the-Chimney-Sweep level.
Heckles and Coughs: Poor Chrissie from West London is dragged up on stage during 'What Do You Want From Life' and offered a number of irresistible prizes including an imitation Indian beaver coat (they don't have beavers in India so it has to be imitation). She understandably goes for the lifetime supply of alcohol, possibly to get over the experience.
Next Track Off The Rank: 'Hello It's Me' by Todd Rundgren. Really? Well I suppose it's rather calming after all that.
Overture:Up From The Deep
Got Yourself A Deal
Show Me A Reason
What Do You Want From Life
God Bird Change
Special Ballet
Don't Touch Me There
Mondo Bandage
Smoke (La Vie En Fumer)
Crime Medley
I Was A Punk Before You Were A Punk
I Saw Her Standing There
Drum Solo
Boy Crazy
You're No Fun
Stand Up And Shout
White Punks On Dope
31st December 1977
The Ramones
It's also a double album consisting of 28 tracks and coming in at 53 minutes 49 seconds. I'll do the maths for you, working out averages contributes about 73% of my day job, and can tell you that's a smidge over 1 minute 52 per track. If they'd tried hard they could probably have crammed it onto one disc. So efficiency is the name of the game here, and you have to think that the Ramones and their reputation is a triumph of distilling the essence of a musical style and repeating it over and over again. Here it is fairly conventional rock 'n' roll tunes with a pounding drum beat and a white noise guitar riff. Et voila! Punk Rock is invented (or at least isolated, concentrated and bottled) and a place in the popular music pantheon is assured. Throw in some black leather biker jackets, hairstyles that look like they've been poured over your head and a cute trick of assuming identities that make you seem like a family band (the Wilburys nicked it shamelessly) and iconic status is a shoo-in. Of course it doesn't work if you don't do it with commitment, style and panache and the Ramones seem to have all three qualities in spades, so it might be samey, relentless and noisy, but it doesn't outstay its welcome. Anyway, it isn't as if they're doing anything I didn't expect. It's kind of pointless to single much out for all the reasons described above. Track three is 'Blitzkrieg Bop' and you would be hard pressed to tell it apart from the studio version. Some of their subject matter shows a paucity of creativity too. Thematically and musically you couldn't really slip a cigarette paper between 'Sheena Is A Punk Rocker', 'Judy Is A Punk' and, indeed, 'Suzy Is A Headbanger'. They risk losing the audience with boredom when they go on and on and on for a patience-testing 2 minutes and 55 seconds of 'Here Today, Gone Tomorrow', they even let up on the guitar thrashing for it. Listening to their version of 'Do You Wanna Dance' would serve as an equivalent to the set of shelves in the library of my childhood which were labeled 'For people in a hurry'. It provides pretty much the entire Ramones experience in a couple of minutes.
Band Bantz: In the intro to 'I Wanna Be Well' Joey Ramone acknowledges the local Finsbury Park cuisine by saying "Well, after eating that chicken vindaloo...I wanna be well"
Heckles And Coughs: Wikipedia describes the concert at the Rainbow Theatre thus: "the New Year's Eve performance was chosen (for live release) because ten rows of seats were thrown at the stage after the concert and it was considered the best of the performances at the venue." Not many bands would consider the destruction of the auditorium in order that they could be assaulted with the furniture as being an artistic high point, but maybe we must apply different standards to The Ramones. If the sound of the incident is recorded on the album then it is undetectable among the rest of the mayhem that is going on. It may have been a rough gig, but it was probably pretty exhilarating too.
Next Track Off The Rank - Train In Vain by The Clash. Positively pedestrian.
Next Track Off The Rank - Train In Vain by The Clash. Positively pedestrian.
Rockaway Beach
Teenage Lobotomy
Blitzkrieg Bop
I Wanna Be Well
Glad To See You Go
Gimme Gimme Shock Treatment
You're Gonna Kill That Girl
I Don't Care
Sheena Is A Punk Rocker
Havana Affair
Commando
Here Today, Gone Tomorrow
Surfin' Bird
Cretin Hop
Listen To My Heart
California Sun
I Don't Wanna Walk Around With You
Pinhead
Do You Wanna Dance?
Chainsaw
Today Your Love, Tomorrow The World
Now I Wanna Be A Good Boy
Judy Is A Punk
Suzy Is A Headbanger
Let's Dance
Oh Oh I Love Her So Much
Now I Wanna Sniff Some Glue
We're A Happy Family
LIVE AND DANGEROUS
November 1976 to January 1978
Thin Lizzy
Lizzy are buzzy and fuzzy throughout this and no-one is going to argue that their sound is not distinctive. I didn't realize until I started to read around them that going concern Black Star Riders sound so much like Thin Lizzy because, well, they ARE Thin Lizzy. They're probably the ultimate manifestation of cock-rock and I should imagine their gender fan gap is pretty huge (which, admittedly, is going to be true of most of the bands I write about). Titles like 'Massacre', 'Warriors', 'The Rocker' and 'Suicide' tell you exactly where they are coming from. Phil Lynott has a mixed reputation in my mind. When he died in early 1986 most of the narrative around him was that he was this really sweet guy whose rock and roll bandito image served to mask the real Phil. Indeed, one of the most startling and memorable TV moments of my childhood was when he suddenly pitched up on This Is Your Life after Eamonn Andrews had popped out from behind a curtain at the London Palladium (probably) to clobber light entertainment ledge Leslie Crowther with the Big Red Book. Turned out Phil was the Crackerjack and Stars In Their Eyes frontman's son-in-law. One can only guess at what they discussed round the Christmas lunch table. Lynott has been on UK TV screens recently due to re-runs of Top Of The Pops from 1985 when he was dashing off every guitar-rock cliche he could find with Gary Moore on their hit single 'Out In The Fields'. The Victorian military jackets suggested a Hendrix fixation. (plenty more on the TOTP reruns here). However, in these performances, captured over 3 concerts in London, Philly and Toronto, you can tell that they were an exciting live proposition and they are much more than a heads-down boogie band. 'Johnny The Fox Meets Jimmy The Weed' is a slithery blues-funk whereas 'Sha-La-La' gets pretty close to full-on metal. Many of the classics are here too. I'd be lacking in my duties if I did not make the point that I think we can be quite sure of where the 'Jailbreak' will be happening in the town. 'Dancing In The Moonlight' includes the immortal line "I always get chocolate stains on my pants' and Phil lets himself down again by adding the refrain "So get your knickers down" as a reply to "The boys are back in town". That really is THE Huey Lewis that is introduced on harmonica on 'Baby Drives Me Crazy' as well.
Band Bantz: Lynott's voice makes his every utterance sound like a death threat (see also his rather overwrought turn as Parson Nathaniel on The War Of The Worlds) but his interplay with the audience has not worn well. At the start of 'Emerald' he asks "Is there anyboy there with any Oirish in them? Is there any of the girls who would like a little more Oirish in them?". Oh dear. It may have been original in the mid-seventies (although I'm not sure it was ever funny), but it hasn't stood the test of time.
Heckles and Coughs: Before they come on, the faithful are chanting "Lizzy, Lizzy, Lizzy"
Next Track Off The Rank - 'Hush' by Deep Purple. Well, I suppose it fits although it's a song that always surprises me that it's by the Purps in the first place.
Jailbreak
Emerald
Southbound
Rosalie/Cowgirl's Song
Dancing In The Moonlight
Massacre
Still In Love With You
Johnny The Fox Meets Jimmy The Weed
Cowboy Song
The Boys Are Back In Town
Don't Believe A Word
Warriors
Are You Ready
Suicide
Sha-La-La
Baby Drives Me Crazy
The Rocker
April 28th and 30th 1978
Cheap Trick
For me there is great confusion between Cheap Trick and Killing Joke and I've spent a good deal of my spare mental processing power this week trying to work out why. Here's what I've come up with. They are broadly contemporary. I only really know one song from each of them (I Want You To Want Me/Love Like Blood), and here's the clincher, their names consist of two words, a mildly negative adjective and a noun for a slightly abstract concept. I tell you, it's exhausting inside my head sometimes. However, listening to this has at least resolved the confusion (more or less). There's no justification for it musically. Killing Joke are pioneers of slightly echo-ey anthemic 80's rock. A baton eventually taken up by U2, Simple Minds and a few also-rans such as Then Jericho and The Alarm. Cheap Trick are much more on the cusp of Glam and Punk (Gunk? Plam?). This is recorded in their fan heartland of Tokyo.'I Want You To Want Me' was a single release but not the massive hit I remember, only 29 in the UK. 'Surrender' that follows clearly influenced Oasis and Liam Gallagher in particular. There's also a version of Fats Domino's 'Ain't That A Shame' which they take an absolute age to work up to via a good 2 minutes of intro. (more Gallagher-esque "Sheeee-ame" on the pronunciation). Like so many bands around this time, there's a certain showmanship and sense of occasion about how they present themselves, they start with 'Hello There' and finish with 'Goodnight'. Rather literal really.
Band Bantz: The on-stage announcements seem to show an awareness of the language barrier. 'Surrender' is introduced very slowly and precisely.
Heckles And Coughs: The atmosphere is like an international schoolgirls hockey match. High pitched screams which apparently almost drowned out the band.
Next Track Off The Rank: Can't Get Enough by Bad Company, who seem a rather more serious proposition than 'The Trick' (as I'm sure no-one calls them)
Hello There
Come On, Come On
Lookout
Big Eyes
Need Your Love
Ain't That A Shame
I Want You To Want Me
Surrender
Goodnight
Clock Strikes Ten
SOME ENCHANTED EVENING
December '77 - June '78
Blue Oyster Cult
Took me by surprise when it started because there is no fade in, we simply drop into the middle of a bit of tuning up before the band is announced and they launch into 'Are You Ready To Rock'. Also surprising is the reasonably straightforward rock-out nature of most of what they do. It shouldn't surprise me because I know this pretty well. Big brother had a taped C60 of it, so if you're looking for the place where music died due to home taping, look no further than a midlands bedroom in the late 1970's. However, the unexpected thing is that Blue Oyster Cult have a poncey name. With an umlaut. And album titles tended toward the faux-cerebral with fantasy-inspired artwork. So you might expect quite a lot of noodling and general mucking about. But no, this is thoroughly enjoyable and downright stupid in places ('Godzilla'). Admittedly, 'Astronomy' goes on a bit and has clear pretensions to depth, but even that is good fun. They also have a go at the MC5's 'Kick Out The Jams' ("Brothers and Sisters!", not "Melonfarmers!") and any song with the line "Oh no. There goes Tokyo. Go go Godzilla!" is worth spending some time listening to. Does the Japanese ranting in the middle make any sense? Who cares but they're probably just making it up. Of course, Blue Oyster Cult are only known by 99% of the world's population for one thing, which is (Don't Fear) The Reaper, nicely trotted out here to an appreciative audience. They close with a a pretty faithful cover of The Animals 'We Gotta Get Out Of This Place'. Unusually for a live album there is no photography in the artwork. Just an admittedly scary looking Grim Reaper.
Band Bantz: The album tends to give the impression that this is a recording of a single concert in Atlanta (Atlanta seems to get a disproportionate share of live album settings) and it's reinforced by the title of the album too but in fact the tracks come from four different venues including Columbus, Little Rock and, ahem, Newcastle-Upon-Tyne. However the opening 'Are You Ready To Rock' involves quite a bit of hollering about how great it is to be back in HOTlanta! The cherrypicking of tracks from different concerts is a refreshing approach, it means you're probably getting the best one each time. It's also refreshingly short. Live albums tend to tempt bands into a double every time, but this gets everything done and dusted in about 40 minutes.
Heckles And Coughs: We don't really hear much from the audience other than that they certainly (Don't F.) the R.
Next Track Off The Rank: Thick As A Brick by Jethro Tull. JT turn up at regular intervals on the Spotify radio based on this album, but they seem quite distantly related really. Maybe this album is untypical of B.O.C's usual output.
Are You Ready To Rock
E.T.I. (Extra Terrestrial Intelligence)
Astronomy
Kick Out The Jams
Godzilla
(Don't Fear) The Reaper
We Gotta Get Out Of This Place
(Get a) Grip (on Yourself)
BABYLON BY BUS
25th -27th June 1978
Bob Marley And The Wailers
This has proved pretty problematic for me. Not because of
it’s quality, it’s great, but critiquing Bob and the Wailers is fraught with
difficulty at the best of times. If you’re inclined to be flippant then it just
gets harder, because Bob was IMPORTANT see? He represented something and that something was to do with a black
cultural experience informed heavily by the history of oppression through
slavery. For someone who didn’t really encounter a black person until they were
about 10 years old to hold forth opinions about Bob Marley and his art would
seem to be a bit presumptuous. So the difficulty is that I’m second thinking
everything and have a nagging anxiety about being disrespectful. I needn’t
worry that I’m going to find it ridiculous, this isn’t KISS after all, but if I
opined that all that going on about Haile Selassie struck me as perhaps a teeny
bit daft then I’d be clearly marking myself out as having succumbed to
Imperialist brainwashing. But, for white western men to identify as Marley fans
(as many seem to do) smacks of virtue signalling of the most pompous kind.
So maybe listening to this for the last week has been good
for me, because I’ve got past thinking about what I should think and the sheer significance of it all and started to
just listen to and enjoy the music. Marley has a great voice. I read it
described once as embodying the idea of freedom (if a voice could embody
anything) and it does have a really soaring, joyous quality. The musicianship
is brilliant too. Roots Reggae needs to sound loose and unfettered, but in fact
I suspect the band have to be tight as a drum to achieve it. There is also no
getting away from it, Bob Marley and the Wailers are intensely political,
whilst giving the impression they’re having the greatest time ever. I tend to
listen early in the mornings, on the way to daily grind, so Bob’s musings on
the ‘Rat Race’ hit home quite accurately. With ‘War’ he gives it to you
straight without the need for any metaphorical mucking around. Of course
sometimes it does seem to be mostly just about having a good time (“Punky
Reggae Party”, “Positive Vibration” and “Kinky Reggae”). There’s also a
sprinkling of classics – ‘Exodus’, ‘Is This Love’ and ‘Jammin’ and ‘Steer (I
mean Stir) It Up’.
Band Bantz: I will not pretend that I decoded his opening
salvo completely. “Greetin’s in the name of His Majesty Emperor Haile
Selassie-I – Sha! Ras Tafari. Ever-livin’. Ever faithful. Ever sure…Haile
Selassie the Furss” and so on.
Heckles and Coughs: The audience are clearly seen as a vital
part of the whole performance. Bob and the Wailers concerts were clearly a
shared experience and while he has great backing singers, he uses the
thousands-strong choir too.
Next Track Off The Rank: ‘Who Knows’ by Protoje. Never heard
of it, but it fits.
Positive Vibration
Punky Reggae Party
Exodus
Stir It Up
Rat Race
Concrete Jungle
Kinky Reggae
Lively Up Yourself
Rebel Music (3 O’Clock Roundabout)
Medley: War/No More Trouble
Is This Love
Heathen
Jammin’
BURSTING OUT
May - June 1978
Jethro Tull
If you're a Jethro Tull fan, and I suppose I have to admit that I am, then this is pretty much everything you could ask, musically at least, we'll come onto Ian Anderson's between-song announcements in the Band Bantz section. This was recorded over the 1978 European Heavy Horses tour and it does tend toward presenting Tull as the hefty folk-rock outfit that they pretty much were at the time. As is so often the case with seventies live albums, there is an intro by some local muso luminary, in this case it's Montreux Music Festival founder Claude Nobs, who in true Eurovision style goes through German, Italian, French and English before introducing "and evening with Jethro Tull". They open with the aptly named 'No Lullaby' - not designed to rock you to sleep. Tull have always been keen on a festive tune, but since this all probably comes from early summer 1978, it's hard to see why Anderson goes from his flute improv section (porcine grunts and all) to 'God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen'. It's good though, as is the rest of it all, great versions of 'Songs From The Wood', 'Hunting Girl', 'Too Old To Rock And Roll', 'Minstrel In The Gallery', 'Aqualung', 'Cross-Eyed Mary' and an encore of 'Locomotive Breath'
Band Bantz: There's a bit too much if truth be told. Ian Anderson has always fancied himself the court-jester of rock with just a touch too much leaning toward ribaldry. For 'Skating Away (On The Thin Ice Of A New Day)' he suggests that they are all swapping instruments for the song, so we have Martin Barre on Marimba ("Hooray!"), Bassist John Glascock is on Lead Guitar, John Evans is on accordian and Barriemore Barlow is on glockenspiel. Meanwhile David Palmer is supposedly offstage taking his ease, so when greeted back at the end there has to be a mention of "giving it a good shake". Not sure why he insists on making a point introducing 'Jack(s) In The Green(s)' ("They are plural!"), why would we care? In the introduction to Thick As A Brick he suggests that he is trying to weed out the "over-25's". The over-25's!! In 1978 Rock and Roll veterans were approaching 30 years old. Mind you , Anderson looked about 50 even in 1970 when he was doing 'Witches Promise' on Top Of The Pops'. There's more unnecessary suggestion of sexual deviancy on the part of Glascock before 'Hunting Girl', tempting you to think"oh please do grow up".
Heckles And Coughs: They can't get a word in edgewise for Anderson's verbal diarrhoea, but he does at least relent at the end of 'Thick As A Brick' to let them supply the last word. He's all heart.
Next Track Off The Rank: Give A Little Bit by Supertramp. Get lost.
Next Track Off The Rank: Give A Little Bit by Supertramp. Get lost.
No Lullaby
Sweet Dream
Skating Away (On The Thin Ice Of A New Day)
Jack In The Green
One Brown Mouse
A New Day Yesterday
Flute Solo Improvisation/God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen/Bouree
Songs From The Wood
Thick As A Brick
Hunting Girl
Conundrum
Minstrel In The Gallery
Cross-Eyed Mary
Quatrain
Aqualung
Locomotive Breath
The Dambusters March
LIVE (X CERT)
June/November 77 and September 78
The Stranglers
For the first few years of their existence, The Stranglers were straightforward and not a little frightening, before they went a bit weird and arty and started doing stuff like 'Golden Brown'. The Stranglers sound here is pretty uniform throughout. Burnel's down-in-the-gut thrumming bass and Dave Greenfield's rippling, ascending and descending keyboards dominate everything. In fact you might be forgiven for thinking they don't have a lead guitarist, because it's not very much in evidence. Some of the subject matter and song titles are rather suspect too. I list them all below but I'm guessing they don't revisit track 6 very often these days. They're promoting the albums 'No More Heroes' and 'Black And White' on this, although the title track of the former is a glaring omission. But there is the over-bracketed (Get A) Grip (On Yourself)', along with 'Hanging Around' and 'Go Buddy Go'
Band Bantz: There's a shout-out for a benefit gig at Middlesex Poly for those detained at her Majesty's pleasure, "featuring 999 and Stray". Hugh explains the the original meaning of Jubilee was about setting people free, "and they're not doing it this year" - as if he's expecting mass royal pardons for all the old lags down in Wandsworth and the Scrubs.
Heckles And Coughs: We're only a few months on from punk rock's year zero and Hugh sounds like he's thoroughly fed up with the whole idea. He berates the audience for spitting at him in the manner of a rather jaded and bad-tempered schoolteacher who is only a couple of years away from retirement. He sounds like he's tempted to keep everyone behind until someone owns up to shouting out "W****r!" during the intro to 'Dead Ringer'. In fact he only just stops short of trotting out the "It's your own time you're wasting" line.
Next Track Off The Rank: 'Virginia Plain' by Roxy Music. I don't think so.
Dagenham Dave
Burning Up Time
Dead Ringer
Hanging Around
I Feel Like a Wog
Straighten Out
Curfew
Do You Wanna?
Death and Night and Blood (Yukio)
5 Minutes
Go Buddy Go
Go Buddy Go
STRANGERS IN THE NIGHT
October 13-18 1978
UFO
When I was compiling this list of live albums, Strangers In The Night by UFO was one of those that someone or other said was the obvious choice of Greatest Live Album Of All Time. Well these things are subjective, but my experience of UFO was nothing more than a passing familiarity with 'Doctor, Doctor', although I would have been hard pressed to name the band responsible for it. However, I will happily agree that this is a cracking live album and I should think that UFO deserve any reputation they have of setting a standard for a certain genre of music. This may be from 1978, but it seems to be a template for much of the heavy rock/metal that was to come in the early eighties. Driving, loud, fast, guitar and drum led rock that would certainly have got the blood pumping without much difficulty. They seem to be both derivative and influential, so the intro to 'Cherry' has a bit of Neil Diamond's 'America' and a bit of Cher's 'If I Could Turn Back Time' whereas 'Lights Out' might have inspired Heart's 'Barracuda'. Meanwhile, 'Only You Can Rock Me' has a fairly standard Keef-style opening riff. Of course, Spinal Tap sequenced and cloned the DNA of every English 1970's rock band and it's hard to think that 'Rock Bottom' didn't inspire Tap's 'Big Bottom', it's certainly overblown enough. They do a decent big rock ballad too, 'Love To Love' has power-grabs a-plenty. Singer Phil Mogg's voice has that slightly operatic cadence that you get with Planty and the double whammy of 'Mother Mary' followed by 'This Kid's' does sound a little like a Zep tribute.
If you're puzzled by the tracklist below, I listened to the 1999 reissue, which has a different running order from the original issue and a couple of extra tracks right at the start, 'Hot and Ready' and 'Cherry'.
Band Bantz: I assume it's lead singer Phil Mogg making the announcements from the stage. He does sound like he's half-cut, but maybe that's just his way and it's an Ozzy-style drawl. Three songs in and the producer isn't happy with the microphones, so he has to fill while they are replaced. He's not that good at it if we're honest, but they're soon fixed and they're off on the Maiden-style gallop of 'Let It Roll'.
Heckles And Coughs: They've all been waiting for the chugachugachuga of 'Doctor, Doctor', and receive it enthusiastically. They request, and get, 'Rock Bottom'. All eleven-and-a-half-minutes of it.
Next Track Off The Rank: (Don't Fear) The Reaper - Blue Oyster Cult. As predictable as I am.
Hot 'n' Ready
Cherry
Let It Roll
Love to Love
Natural Thing
Out in the Street
Only You Can Rock Me
Mother Mary
This Kid's
Doctor Doctor
I'm a Loser
Lights Out
Rock Bottom
Too Hot to Handle
Shoot Shoot
Classic Live Albums Part 4 - 1974 - 1976
Part four covers 1974 to 1976, but it only contains three albums from those two years and the rest come from 1975. They are:
Miles of Aisles - Joni Mitchell
Caught In The Act - Grand Funk Railroad
Caught In The Act - Grand Funk Railroad
Bongo Fury - Frank Zappa and Captain Beefheart
Kiss Alive - Kiss
Another Live - Utopia
Frampton Comes Alive - Peter Frampton
One More From The Road - Lynyrd Skynyrd
MILES OF AISLES
March and August 1974
Joni Mitchell
Joni Mitchell hits a sweet spot in my nostalgic memory. That gentle style of female singer-songwriter folk-pop always plunges me straight back to that portion of childhood which for me was the early 1970s. You're at junior school, no real worries in life, no-one is pressurizing you or expects anything of you. What I'm saying is that I think I reached my peak when I was six years old. What else do we know of Joni? Well according to the movie Love Actually you give her albums as gifts to your partner when your marriage has gone stale and you're thinking of having an affair. For the record, I've never given Mrs RockOdyssey a Joni Mitchell album. Anyway, I found this a quiet joy. Mitchell soothes with her voice, but there is a hard edge to the messages in many of her songs. 'Cold Blue Steel and Sweet Fire' may come in beautiful packaging but the subject matter is quite harrowing once you start to pay attention. Right after the opening 'hit-song-written-as-a-sarky-response-to-record-company-request-for-a-hit-song'of 'You Turn Me On, I'm A Radio', we get 'Big Yellow Taxi', but not the version we always hear on the radio. This is much better because she doesn't do the stupid voice nor the giggle. There's also a much richer, funkier sound to the song. For me it stands with 'After The Goldrush' as the first prominent environmental protest pop song, although today it also sounds hopelessly naive as well. Who cares about piddling problems around pesticides these days? I always had the impression that Mitchell probably didn't know much about DDT, what it did, nor the reasons why it might be used. It's about a bit more than just preventing spots on your apples after all. The other thing about BYT, and still in that part of the song as well, is the reference to 'Hey Farmer, Farmer'. I always feel compelled to replace this with 'Hey Farmer Palmer' after the dog-slaughtering Farmer from Viz comic. ("Eee, wuz worryin' moi sheep. Get orrrrff moi laaaaand!"). I did not realise that 'Woodstock' was one of hers, and I think I'm probably more familiar with the Judy Collins version of 'Both Sides Now'.Most of the performances are from the Universal Amphitheater in LA in August 1974 with just a couple from Berkeley in March.
Band Bantz: In the intro 'Circle Game' she laments the plight of the poor singer, who, unlike a painter, has to keep doing the same song over and over again. It's sweetly done, but underneath it, you can tell there is just a hint that she really does get fed up with having to do 'the hits' all the time.
Heckles And Coughs; 'Circle Game' is also audience participation time but the joining in with the chorus is a bit lacklustre. Joni suggests it benefits from being sung out of tune and she does indeed take some downward tonal swings as she goes along.
Side 1
You Turn Me On I'm A Radio
Big Yellow Taxi
Rainy Night House
Woodstock
Side 2
Cactus Tree
Cold Blue Steel And Sweet Fire
Woman Of Heart And Mind
A Case Of You
Blue
Side 3
Circle Game
People's Parties
All I Want
Real Good For Free
Both Sides Now
Side 4
Carey
The Last Time I Saw Richard
Jericho
Love Or Money
CAUGHT IN THE ACT
February 1975
Grand Funk Railroad
About two thirds through this album, Grand Funk Railroad play their song 'We're An American Band'. As statements of the bleedin' obvious go, it takes some beating. In fact, as purveyors of s's of the b.o. Grand Funk Railroad are clearly world champs. At the end of 'Heartbreaker' they inform the crowd "Thanks. That's Heartbreaker". Well we kinda guessed guys, because every third lyric seems to be "Heartbreaker". Also the lyrics to 'Rock 'N Roll Soul' go "The name of this song is Rock 'N' Roll Soul'. GFR's raison d'etre appears to follow the advice of Tap keyboard player Viv Savage. "Have a good time, all the time. That's my philosophy Marty", and the fans know it, expect it, want it and have a high old time enjoying it when they deliver. It's easy to try and attribute the invention of something to any band, but it's possible that GFR had nailed crowd-pleasing stadium rock at an early point in it's history. They're quite up front about it too. They get down to business straightaway with 'Footstompin' Music' (the b.o. again) and the opening lyric is "Come on everybody, we're gonna have a good time". Another trick they have up their sleeve is to cleverly play on their name in their choice of songs, so we have their own 'The Railroad' (their slow ballad) but also 'The Loco-Motion', a song whose vibrancy even Lou Reed would struggle to dampen down. It sort of seems that sometimes they are simply running the gamut of Rock and Roll cliche, kind of like a generic rock and roll band tribute act. There's an extended drum solo on T.N.U.C. (Oh dear, I was looking it up on Google, but before I could delve deeper, as it were, I suddenly got it without their help) and 'Shinin' On' has that hazy shimmery rockabilly opening so effectively appropriated by the Sex Pistols a couple of years later on Pretty Vatnac. Even the artwork is a rip-off tribute to the Deep Purple In Concert album. Of course, needless to say, I loved it all.
Band Bantz: Inside Looking Out is dedicated to "Everyone out there who is putting that funky smell into the air". There's loads more, mostly along the lines of checking in on everyone that they are feeling alright.
Heckles and Coughs: They finish with a bit of a hamfisted version of the Stones' 'Gimme Shelter' and the crowd are clearly going berserk at this stage. They are present throughout. Band and fans in perfect synch in their determination to Have A Good Time.
Footstompin' Music
Rock 'N Roll Soul
I'm Your Captain/Closer To Home
Heartbreaker
Some Kind Of Wonderful
The Loco-Motion
Black Licorice
The Railroad
We're An American Band
T.N.U.C.
Inside Looking Out
Gimme Shelter
BONGO FURY
May 20th and 21st 1975
Frank Zappa, The Mothers and Captain Beefheart
Standard procedure during the creation of any Rockodyssey album post is to bung the album title into Google and find the Wikipedia entry. Normally, the top answer will be related to the album in question. Perhaps appropriately, when I typed 'Bongo Fury' into the box, the top answer was 'Welcome to Bongo Fury - All you need to know about Mazda Bongos and Ford Freda MPVs & Campervans'. I wouldn't mind betting that that would have amused both Zappa and Beefheart if they were here to see it. It certainly sounds like a usable lyric. The surprising thing about this album is that it combines two artists who are shorthand for what we can most accurately summarize as 'weird shit', and yet it is all rather accessible. Much more so than my previous encounter with Frank and The Mothers at the Fillmore East. But nevertheless, it messes with your head in all sorts of ways. Let's take a line from 'Carolina Hard-Core Ecstasy' where it goes "I had a Roger Daltrey cape on", which is a baffling enough line as it stands, but then you start to wonder if they mean "a Roger Daltrey capon". Now I daresay that Rodge has kept chickens at some time in his life, so the potential double meaning becomes even more plausible. Then you start to think about the Who frontman in some kind of medieval banquet setting, wearing a period costume, including a cape, and chewing thoughtfully on a chicken leg. See what I mean? The thought that Frank and Don are simply chanting stream-of-consciousness nonsense rhymes gets relegated to third most likely explanation. Anyway, otherwise Carolina 'Hard-Core Ecstasy' is a pretty enjoyable listen. Beefheart takes the vocal duties on most of this, and seems to be somewhere between old-testament prophet and rambling wino. 'Muffin Man' is also a highlight, Frank corpses about halfway through the spoken intro (which is studio recorded), and Beefheart comes in rich and fruity when the singing starts, some pretty impressive guitar riffing too.
Band Bantz: Frank introduces "sort of a cowboy song", 'Poofters Froth Wyoming Plans Ahead' by offering a warning that the bicentennial is around the corner and so the audience will be bombarded with offers of things that "you probably shouldn't ought to buy".
Heckles and Coughs: There's not much to go on, some shout-outs as Beefheart rambles on 'Sam With The Showing Scalp Flat Top'
Alive!
May-July 1975
KISS
KISS fall between several ludicrous Rock and Roll stools. Camper than Queen, but not as outrageously so as Twisted Sister. Less committed and downright terrifying than Alice Cooper (and probably not as self-aware either). Their stagewear not quite as leftfield as Angus Young's schoolboy outfit. A taste for greasepaint that suggests cynical image-creation rather than the artistic expression you might associate with Bowie or Gabriel. They even suggest that their name is an acronym by presenting it in capitals, but can't actually come up with something as moderately offensive as WASP (if you're being beaten by Blackie Lawless and crew then you need to worry). The problem can be adequately summarized by considering that Robbie Williams thought that emulating them was a good idea in his 'Let Me Entertain You' video. However, if screaming guitars and screaming vocals are your thing, then KISS are the band for you. It's all quite relentless and although I've given this a fair crack of the whip, it's hard to isolate anything that stands out. There are sirens at the end of 'Firehouse', will that do? There was definitely a drum solo somewhere. One of the songs was a bit slower than the others, but not significantly so, and they still screamed it. If 'She' had been a cover of the Charles Aznavour song, that might have been interesting. I know they have a following and I never try to offend anyone but the artist, who will never read this, but can anyone really put up with this stuff? But what do I know? The modern oracle that is Wikipedia tells me, and I quote, " It is considered to be their breakthrough and a landmark for live albums.". Well, it's a landmark like an abandoned warehouse, empty and a bit of an eyesore. And just look at the state of them on the cover. I ask you.
Band Bantz: Can't you guess? RAWK AND ROLL! IT'S GONNA GET HOT IN HERE TONIGHT. YEAH!
Heckles and Coughs: Being part of the KISS horde is an undemanding task. They scream "ROCK AND ROLL!". You scream "ROCK AND ROLL!" back. Job done.
ANOTHER LIVE
August 1975
Utopia
In my mind, Todd Rundgren seemed to have a reputation as something of a joke in the rock and roll pantheon, but I suspect that, by virtue of a different vowel and the same number of syllables, I was getting him confused with Ted Nugent. Anyway, I'm glad I was pointed in his direction, this is terrific stuff. Prog rock with a clear love of melody and no fear of looking uncool by taking on a bit of populist classicism like West Side Story. Sometimes they sound like Yes (swirling synths) and sometimes like Genesis (hints of 'The Fountain Of Salmacis' in 'The Seven Rays', which also mixes in something that sounds like The Who at the same time. Some trick). I guess if you take those three bands and distill what they have in common then it is a feel for the grandiose, and Utopia achieve that without resorting to a hefty sprinkling of cheese. When 'Something's Coming' started, having not at that stage actually read the tracklist, I thought, oh dear, they've ripped off Bernstein, but then realized that, no, they were actually covering it. That song always reminds me of a TV documentary on the making of a recording of West Side Story, conducted by Bernstein and performed by Jose Carreras (I think) as Tony and Kiri Te Kanawa (definitely) as Maria. It was memorable because Carreras (or whoever) just couldn't sing that particular song to Bernstein's satisfaction. They swing straight away from that into 'Heavy Metal Kids', the most straightforward rocker in the set, but still sounding slightly like it's being performed by The Kids From Fame. The cover of ELOs 'Do Ya' feels like it's going to warp into The Sweet's 'Fox On The Run' at any moment but no-one in their right mind is going to object to that.
There are some moderately frustrating and distracting parts. The enunciation on 'The Wheel' is terrible, and seems to be about someone called Sweel O'Comma. In fact I thought it might be a biting takedown of capitalist ideology in pointing out that you can't get off the "wheel of commerce", but it's much more mundanely hippy-dippy than that and is banging on about "karma" in a sixth-form poetry sort of way.
Band Bantz: Not much grist for the mill here. Just a "Thank you and goodnight" at the end of 'Just One Victory'
Heckles and Coughs: Nah. Just enthusiastic cheering throughout.
Band Bantz: Frank introduces "sort of a cowboy song", 'Poofters Froth Wyoming Plans Ahead' by offering a warning that the bicentennial is around the corner and so the audience will be bombarded with offers of things that "you probably shouldn't ought to buy".
Heckles and Coughs: There's not much to go on, some shout-outs as Beefheart rambles on 'Sam With The Showing Scalp Flat Top'
Debra Kadabra
Caroline Hard Core Ecstasy
Sam With The Showing Scalp Flat Top
Poofters Froth Wyoming Plans Ahead
200 Years Old
Cucamonga
Advance Romance
Man With The Woman Head
Muffin Man
May-July 1975
KISS
KISS fall between several ludicrous Rock and Roll stools. Camper than Queen, but not as outrageously so as Twisted Sister. Less committed and downright terrifying than Alice Cooper (and probably not as self-aware either). Their stagewear not quite as leftfield as Angus Young's schoolboy outfit. A taste for greasepaint that suggests cynical image-creation rather than the artistic expression you might associate with Bowie or Gabriel. They even suggest that their name is an acronym by presenting it in capitals, but can't actually come up with something as moderately offensive as WASP (if you're being beaten by Blackie Lawless and crew then you need to worry). The problem can be adequately summarized by considering that Robbie Williams thought that emulating them was a good idea in his 'Let Me Entertain You' video. However, if screaming guitars and screaming vocals are your thing, then KISS are the band for you. It's all quite relentless and although I've given this a fair crack of the whip, it's hard to isolate anything that stands out. There are sirens at the end of 'Firehouse', will that do? There was definitely a drum solo somewhere. One of the songs was a bit slower than the others, but not significantly so, and they still screamed it. If 'She' had been a cover of the Charles Aznavour song, that might have been interesting. I know they have a following and I never try to offend anyone but the artist, who will never read this, but can anyone really put up with this stuff? But what do I know? The modern oracle that is Wikipedia tells me, and I quote, " It is considered to be their breakthrough and a landmark for live albums.". Well, it's a landmark like an abandoned warehouse, empty and a bit of an eyesore. And just look at the state of them on the cover. I ask you.
Band Bantz: Can't you guess? RAWK AND ROLL! IT'S GONNA GET HOT IN HERE TONIGHT. YEAH!
Heckles and Coughs: Being part of the KISS horde is an undemanding task. They scream "ROCK AND ROLL!". You scream "ROCK AND ROLL!" back. Job done.
Deuce
Strutter
Got To Choose
Hotter Than Hell
Firehouse
Nothin' To Lose
C'mon And Love Me
Parasite
She
Watchin' You
100,000 Years
Black Diamond
Rock Bottom
Cold Gin
Rock And Roll All Nite
Let Me Go, Rock 'N Roll
August 1975
Utopia
In my mind, Todd Rundgren seemed to have a reputation as something of a joke in the rock and roll pantheon, but I suspect that, by virtue of a different vowel and the same number of syllables, I was getting him confused with Ted Nugent. Anyway, I'm glad I was pointed in his direction, this is terrific stuff. Prog rock with a clear love of melody and no fear of looking uncool by taking on a bit of populist classicism like West Side Story. Sometimes they sound like Yes (swirling synths) and sometimes like Genesis (hints of 'The Fountain Of Salmacis' in 'The Seven Rays', which also mixes in something that sounds like The Who at the same time. Some trick). I guess if you take those three bands and distill what they have in common then it is a feel for the grandiose, and Utopia achieve that without resorting to a hefty sprinkling of cheese. When 'Something's Coming' started, having not at that stage actually read the tracklist, I thought, oh dear, they've ripped off Bernstein, but then realized that, no, they were actually covering it. That song always reminds me of a TV documentary on the making of a recording of West Side Story, conducted by Bernstein and performed by Jose Carreras (I think) as Tony and Kiri Te Kanawa (definitely) as Maria. It was memorable because Carreras (or whoever) just couldn't sing that particular song to Bernstein's satisfaction. They swing straight away from that into 'Heavy Metal Kids', the most straightforward rocker in the set, but still sounding slightly like it's being performed by The Kids From Fame. The cover of ELOs 'Do Ya' feels like it's going to warp into The Sweet's 'Fox On The Run' at any moment but no-one in their right mind is going to object to that.
There are some moderately frustrating and distracting parts. The enunciation on 'The Wheel' is terrible, and seems to be about someone called Sweel O'Comma. In fact I thought it might be a biting takedown of capitalist ideology in pointing out that you can't get off the "wheel of commerce", but it's much more mundanely hippy-dippy than that and is banging on about "karma" in a sixth-form poetry sort of way.
Band Bantz: Not much grist for the mill here. Just a "Thank you and goodnight" at the end of 'Just One Victory'
Heckles and Coughs: Nah. Just enthusiastic cheering throughout.
Another Life
The Wheel
The Seven Rays
Intro/Mister Triscuits
Something's Coming
Heavy Metal Kids
Do Ya
Just One Victory
FRAMPTON COMES ALIVE!
Jan-Feb 1976
Peter Frampton
I included this almost out of a sense of duty. It's almost a by-word for the quintessential live rock album and sold by the truckload in the US. Wikipedia alleges 8 million Stateside and 11 million worldwide. Sure enough, it's fine. Enjoyable, well performed and with a few quirks that mark it out from the herd (ho ho), but it's hardly exceptional. A straightforward mid-seventies rock performance. BBC film critic Mark Kermode, in speculating what movie will win the Best Picture oscar this year, has a theory that, it's often the movie that the voting members of the academy dislike the least that wins. That logic might apply to this. It's a good rock-out which will offend no-one. Maybe people just added it to their collection so that they had a live album by a reasonably well established rock star in their collection. Of course the thing that really sets it apart is his use of this new-fangled 'talk box' thing on 'Show Me The Way' and, with much tedious messing about on the final track, 'Do You Feel Like We Do'. It made him look like he was being force fed because he was hunger strike. There's also 'Baby I Love Your Way' which was mashed up with Lynyrd Skynyrd's Freebird by Will To Power (spooky, as Lynyrd Skynyrd are the very next live band in this particular queue). I never liked their version of the song because 1. it's drippy as hell and 2. they give up making the effort halfway through and just sing "la-di-da". I not mad keen on Frampton's original either. The opening track, 'Something's Happening' reminded me of the BBC Saturday afternoon sportsfest, Grandstand theme tune, slowed down to about half pace mind you. It's been driving me mad because I am sure there was a proper, really rather good chart song with the same tune, but for once I simply can't place it, nor find a Google search strategy that will take me to it. Never pass up a Tap reference, that's my motto, so is '(I'll Give You) Money' a reply song? There is also a rather underpowered rendition of 'Jumping Jack Flash'. The Stones knew they had a surefire winner on their hands and it benefits nothing from being messed about with and given a bluesy makeover. He clearly suffers a Jesus-complex judging by the cover, or perhaps The Darkness's Justin Hawkins managed to circumvent the time-space continuum somehow? I've seen him perform, playing second guitar banana to Bowie in the rain in 1987.
Band Bantz: "We'd like to get a little bit funky now. This one's called Doobie Wah" Are you sure Pete? Not Doobie Brothers rip off? And there's simply no excuse for introducing anything as 'an oldie but a goodie'.
Heckles and Coughs: The paying public are trusted with helping out on 'All I Want To Be (Is By Your Side)', but only on the bracketed part. They do provide some much needed 'atmosphere'.
In an earlier post, Deep Purple's 1971 In Concert album, includes Ian Gillan advising us, "Here's a bit of boogaloo!" Well here's a lot of boogaloo. Southern boogaloo to be precise. For me, before listening to this, Lynyrd Skynyrd would be reductively characterized as redneck southern boogie merchants, mainly due to viewing them through the prism of the Southern Man/Sweet Home Alabama song axis. But no. In fact they seem to be pretty complex, thoughtful and reasonably varied too. Before we go on however, it has to be said that this is one of those albums where, if you want to get the experience of listening to the original vinyl release, at least in terms of tracklist and running order, then you have to do a lot of research. There are three versions on Spotify, and I'm not convinced that any of them are a true reflection of the first version. There's a 'Rarities Edition' of 8 tracks, an 'Expanded Edition' (17 songs) and a 'Deluxe Edition' (24 songs). According to Wikipedia, the original double album had 14 tracks, so none of these quite match, but 'Expanded' seems close enough. The running order is different, there are two versions of 'Sweet Home Alabama' and we get 'Simple Man' and 'Gimme Back My Bullets' as well. I enjoyed this a lot, although it did suffer from circumstances which slowed down my album listening pace a little, so I've probably over-listened to it. As a result, the songs have run into each other by now although there is a lot of whiskey drinking and gunplay going on. The opening rebel yell on 'Working For The MCA' is quite exhilarating though and is reminiscent of the middle part of the Beastie Boys 'Sabotage'. This version of 'Sweet Home Alabama' is featured on 'Guitar Hero - World Tour' and I can report from experience that it is a bugger to play on that, when all you have to do is keep the rhythm and arrange 3 of the 5 fingers on your left hand. It all ends with a 13 minute version of 'Free Bird' (admittedly not much longer than the original studio album release), another of those songs that, for me, doesn't really deserve it's reputation and popularity, probably because it does go on waay too long.
Band Bantz: Ronnie Van Zant's stage pronouncements are affable and warm. 'Simple Man' is a song about "what my Grandma told me" and ends it with how he wrote it after being asked by a writer "What are you man?". He admits to having a minor memory lapse before he remembers that they are doing 'Whiskey Rock-a-Roller' next (on the version I listened to, ignore the track listing below if you want this post to make any internal logical sense)
Heckles And Coughs: The performances are from the Fabulous Fox Theater in Atlanta, so if their fan base did rely on an empathy with the Southern way of life, they are preaching to the choir here. There isn't much to pick up from the crowd noise, other than that they love it.
Jan-Feb 1976
Peter Frampton
I included this almost out of a sense of duty. It's almost a by-word for the quintessential live rock album and sold by the truckload in the US. Wikipedia alleges 8 million Stateside and 11 million worldwide. Sure enough, it's fine. Enjoyable, well performed and with a few quirks that mark it out from the herd (ho ho), but it's hardly exceptional. A straightforward mid-seventies rock performance. BBC film critic Mark Kermode, in speculating what movie will win the Best Picture oscar this year, has a theory that, it's often the movie that the voting members of the academy dislike the least that wins. That logic might apply to this. It's a good rock-out which will offend no-one. Maybe people just added it to their collection so that they had a live album by a reasonably well established rock star in their collection. Of course the thing that really sets it apart is his use of this new-fangled 'talk box' thing on 'Show Me The Way' and, with much tedious messing about on the final track, 'Do You Feel Like We Do'. It made him look like he was being force fed because he was hunger strike. There's also 'Baby I Love Your Way' which was mashed up with Lynyrd Skynyrd's Freebird by Will To Power (spooky, as Lynyrd Skynyrd are the very next live band in this particular queue). I never liked their version of the song because 1. it's drippy as hell and 2. they give up making the effort halfway through and just sing "la-di-da". I not mad keen on Frampton's original either. The opening track, 'Something's Happening' reminded me of the BBC Saturday afternoon sportsfest, Grandstand theme tune, slowed down to about half pace mind you. It's been driving me mad because I am sure there was a proper, really rather good chart song with the same tune, but for once I simply can't place it, nor find a Google search strategy that will take me to it. Never pass up a Tap reference, that's my motto, so is '(I'll Give You) Money' a reply song? There is also a rather underpowered rendition of 'Jumping Jack Flash'. The Stones knew they had a surefire winner on their hands and it benefits nothing from being messed about with and given a bluesy makeover. He clearly suffers a Jesus-complex judging by the cover, or perhaps The Darkness's Justin Hawkins managed to circumvent the time-space continuum somehow? I've seen him perform, playing second guitar banana to Bowie in the rain in 1987.
Band Bantz: "We'd like to get a little bit funky now. This one's called Doobie Wah" Are you sure Pete? Not Doobie Brothers rip off? And there's simply no excuse for introducing anything as 'an oldie but a goodie'.
Heckles and Coughs: The paying public are trusted with helping out on 'All I Want To Be (Is By Your Side)', but only on the bracketed part. They do provide some much needed 'atmosphere'.
Side 1
Something's Happening
Doobie Wah
Show Me The Way
It's A Plain Shame
Side 2
All I Want To Be (Is By Your Side)
Wind Of Change
Baby I Love Your Way
I Wanna Go To The Sun
Side 3
Penny For Your Thoughts
(I'll Give You) Money
Shine On
Jumpin' Jack Flash
Side 4
Lines On My Face
Do You Feel Like We Do
ONE MORE FROM THE ROAD
July 7-9 1976
Lynyrd Skynyrd
Band Bantz: Ronnie Van Zant's stage pronouncements are affable and warm. 'Simple Man' is a song about "what my Grandma told me" and ends it with how he wrote it after being asked by a writer "What are you man?". He admits to having a minor memory lapse before he remembers that they are doing 'Whiskey Rock-a-Roller' next (on the version I listened to, ignore the track listing below if you want this post to make any internal logical sense)
Heckles And Coughs: The performances are from the Fabulous Fox Theater in Atlanta, so if their fan base did rely on an empathy with the Southern way of life, they are preaching to the choir here. There isn't much to pick up from the crowd noise, other than that they love it.
Side 1
Workin' For The MCA
I Ain't The One
Searchin'
Tuesday's Gone
Side 2
Saturday Night Special
Travelin' Man
Whiskey Rock-a-Roller
Sweet Home Alabama
Side 3
Gimme Three Steps
Call Me The Breeze
T For Texas
Side 4
The Needle And The Spoon
Crossroads
Free Bird
Classic Live Albums Part 3 - 1972-1973
So 1971 was a remarkable year, but in terms of Live albums, it's 1972 and 1973 that reflect this as the artists who broke through in '71 went out and delivered the goods on stage during that period. Part 3 of the Live Album Odyssey covers these two years and specifically it will include:
Deep Purple In Concert - Deep Purple
- Mar 72
Elvis At Madison Square Garden - Elvis Presley - Jun 72
Yessongs - Yes - Dec 72
On The Road - Traffic - Apr 73
It's Too Late To Stop Now - Van
Morrison - Jul 73
Ziggy Stardust The Motion Picture -
David Bowie - Jul 73
The Song Remains The Same - Led
Zeppelin - Jul 73
Brussels Affair - The Rolling Stones
- Oct 73
Rock And Roll Animal - Lou Reed -
Dec 73
19th February 1970 and 9th March
1972
Deep Purple
A double with the first disc coming
from 1970 and the second from 1972, hence I've placed it in the latter date for
chronology. It adds an interesting dimension in fact, because they were quite a
different band in the 1970 performance to where they were in 1972, on the brink
of releasing Machine Head. A bit of factual housekeeping first. This was pulled
together from two BBC 'In Concert' performances and so features interjections
from John Peel on the 1970 session and Mike Harding (not that one, some
Scottish geezer) in 1972. Peel has not yet dialled the Liverpudlian irony up so
far as he eventually did and so speaks like the well brought up grammar schoolboy he was. Harding
has a slightly disapproving and absent minded air, seemingly disappointed by
rowdy behaviour at the back of the room and tolerantly amused by those
scallywags in the band and their wild rock n' roll ways. As is often the case
there are myriad versions out there with different running orders and more or
less of the chat between songs. What I hadn't quite appreciated about the Purps
was that despite having arguably the greatest guitarist ever who created
undoubtedly the greatest guitar riff ever, so much of their material is driven
by Jon Lord's keyboards, and the 1970 material is particularly heavy on the old
Hammond organ. The audience in 1970 is very respectful too, it's almost like a
classical concert where, when the music almost stops in the middle of a piece,
everyone knows that they need to wait and not applaud or make any noise,
because they haven't finished yet. By 1972 the barbarians are at the gates and
they're chanting out The Stripper like a bunch of footy hooligans. But it has
to be said that the 1972 stuff is much more fun. 'Highway Star', 'Strange Kind
Of Woman', 'Space Truckin'' (it's possible even *I* could play Roger Glover's
bass intro to that) and of course 'Smoke On The Water'. I remind you that
Machine Head wasn't out yet, so these must have been very early performances of
a lot of these songs. Gillan deploys his banshee scream liberally. Oh, and
there's nearly 22 minutes of Space Truckin'. I mean, I love it, but there was
enough there in the first 5 minutes to establish the blueprint for an entire career for
Metallica. With 'Smoke...', what you notice is that the intro builds from
Blackmore's opening riff, adding in Paice's drums, and Lord's keys, then
there's the low rumble of Glover's bassline before Gillan delivers the
disapproving account of Zappa's close shave. They finish with 'Lucille' and Gillan
delivers the immortal line "Here's a bit of Boogaloo!". Of course, this is great, and I have my eye on
the Purps for when I move on to a fresh Odyssey.
Band Bantz: Gillan actually indulges in bantz with Blackmore's guitar on 'Strange Kind Of Woman', but I think it's clear that Ritchie will be holding on to the day job for a while yet. He puts on his "Hey, I know what I'm going on about here" voice when introducing 'Maybe I'm A Leo' and in general his spoken interludes feel a bit forced don't really fit with the Wild Man Of Rock persona that he has when singing.
Heckles And Coughs: Since he's not in the band, let's count Harding as audience for our purposes. Due to the nature of the recording we hear a lot from him, and even more on some of the alternative versions. He initially pronounces Gillan as Jillan, but gets it right later on (maybe someone had a word), but he does give the impression (and pretty much admits) that he's reading from a script. He runs through the lineup, noting that it hasn't changed for a while and invents a new word: "pyromanackery". One female member of the audience expresses approval that Frank and The Mothers lost their equipment in Montreux.I'm guessing she wasn't a fan.
Side 1
Speed King
Wring That Neck
Side 2
Child In Time
Mandrake Root
Side 3
Highway Star
Strange Kind Of Woman
Lazy
Never Before
Side 4
Space Truckin'
Lucille
Side 1
Also Sprach Zarathustra
That's All Right
Proud Mary
Never Been To Spain
You Don't Have To Say You Love Me
You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin'
Polk Salad Annie
Love Me
All Shook Up
Heartbreak Hotel
(Let Me Be Your) Teddy Bear
Love Me Tender
Side 2
The Impossible Dream (The Quest)
Introductions By Elvis
Hound Dog
Suspicious Minds
For The Good Times
An American Trilogy
Funny How Time Slips Away
I Can't Stop Loving You
I Can't Help Falling In Love
End Theme
AS RECORDED AT MADISON SQUARE GARDEN
June 10 1972
Elvis Presley
To set an atmosphere of portent, The King comes on to Strauss' 'Also Sprach Zarathustra', but it's not a recording, I think the band are doing the best they can with the instruments at their disposal. It gets a bit shaky near the end. From the track listing, you might be forgiven for thinking that this was a double album at least, but no, the 22 tracks were crammed onto a single disc of vinyl, and that includes a medley of 'Don't Be Cruel' and '(Let Me Be Your) Teddy Bear', Here's the thing I've never quite got about Elvis, his success was always reputedly based on the fact that he was a white guy who sang like a black guy, but I've never really heard that in him. He just sounds like, well, Elvis, and he doesn't have that raw edge that characterises so many early bluesmen. Listening to this first time round I was convinced that this must contain the version of 'Love Me Tender' where he collapses in giggles over the warbling of the backing singer, because she's doing the same act on this too, but it isn't and this time he holds it together. There are some interesting cover versions, 'You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin'', 'Proud Mary' and 'The Impossible Dream (The Quest)'. This last might have been written for him as the ultimate Elvis song, but before I could look it up, serendipity found me watching the latest series of The Trip - this time to Spain, and Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon entered into a full throated version as they drove down some Spanish road and subsequently discussed how it came from the musical 'Man Of La Mancha' about Don Quixote. He barely breaches the 1 minute mark on the frenetic 'All Shook Up' and in fact the last six songs on Side 1, from 'Love Me' to 'Love Me Tender' come in at under 8 minutes in total. On Side 2 he does an interesting, wah-wah heavy version of 'Hound Dog'. In some ways he spoils it by not resisting urge to bring it home in a more recognizable Presley style. The inclusion of "shove it up your nose' during 'Suspicious Minds' seems to have been a fairly common occurrence as a follow up to the 'saw an old friend of mine' line. For me the biggest disappointment here is the performance of American Trilogy, which is spoilt by a squawk of "what!"from someone near the beginning. As with the Band and 'The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down', it's another song that offers challenges around American history, by combining a blackface minstrel song with the Battle Hymn of the Republic and it being delivered by a modern icon of both America as a whole and the South at the same time. But, like Robertson's song, writer Mickey Newbury did manage to produce something majestic (and therefore fit for the King).
Band Bantz: "Thangyouladiesngennelmunyoureawunnderfulaudience". "I'll be up in a minute baby", he interjects near the end of 'Love Me Tender". He does a complete run through of the band and singers and he's got a good sized band up there with him. At the end, they really do announce "Ladies and Gentlemen, Elvis has left the building"
Heckles and Coughs: High pitched screams whenever he so much as twitches his hips.
Also Sprach Zarathustra
That's All Right
Proud Mary
Never Been To Spain
You Don't Have To Say You Love Me
You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin'
Polk Salad Annie
Love Me
All Shook Up
Heartbreak Hotel
(Let Me Be Your) Teddy Bear
Love Me Tender
Side 2
The Impossible Dream (The Quest)
Introductions By Elvis
Hound Dog
Suspicious Minds
For The Good Times
An American Trilogy
Funny How Time Slips Away
I Can't Stop Loving You
I Can't Help Falling In Love
End Theme
HOT AUGUST NIGHT
24th August 1972
Neil Diamond
Ladies, how would you feel about being referred to as a 'store bought woman'. Off the peg. Mass produced. Not exactly made-to-measure. As a romantic notion it falls rather short. So 'Cracklin' Rosie' is an odd proposition as a song. These little snatches of lyric sometimes send me scurrying to Wikipedia for explanations. On face value the song could be about a romantic attachment to a, shall we say 'female escort', but the real story seems rather more off-piste and suggests it was written specifically to prompt one DJ to play it on the radio (hence "play it now, play it now") and that the reference to 'Cracklin' Rosie' is actually about sparkling rose wine. On this the performance of the song is just a tad disappointing, since Diamond doesn't really make that massive key change in his voice for the "Oh I love my Rosie child"part. The Diamond voice may well have had the word "timbre" invented to be used in association with it. These days he could be accused of indulging in the recently identified phenomenon of 'vocal fry', i.e. putting a croak in your voice to convey some kind of emotion, but in his case I think it's genuine and it sets him totally apart from anyone else.At this point he's 31 years old, so his voice is well matured, and it is beautiful. He also comes across as quite a genuine chap on this too, if a little Mr Showbiz. He seems to be mainly concerned that the audience have a good time and, whilst his comments are somewhat cheesy, it feels warm and inclusive. Talking of cheesy, he has a food and drink obsession in his songs. 'Cherry Cherry', 'Porcupine Pie', 'Red, Red Wine', 'Soggy Pretzels', 'Cracklin' Rosie (OK, stretching now) and the opening 'Crunchy Granola Suite'. American friends, your breakfasts have always been a mystery to those of us in the old country, we're just about getting to grips with granola and have fully embraced hash browns, but 'grits' are things you spread on the road when you're expecting a hard frost. 'Red, Red Wine' is far better known in the UK for the UB40 cod-reggae version and most people would probably know 'Girl, You'll Be A Woman Soon' from the Urge Overkill version that featured in Pulp Fiction. All the hits (up to the date of performance here) are present too, 'Sweet Caroline', 'Play Me', 'Song Sung Blue' (as a child I think I thought it was 'Song, Song Blue') and 'I Am..I Said'. It's all quite pleasurable stuff and the recording is outstanding too.
Band Bantz: Diamond's patter is well represented, in fact the band intros merit a track of over 7 minutes of it's own, where Diamond affectionately runs through the players bona fides. There is discussion of men wearing dresses and whether anything should be worn underneath. Apparently people who wear dresses, such as women, sometimes wear something underneath and sometimes not. His colleague who is thus attired enjoys feeling the breeze.
Heckles and Coughs: The audience hardly come through on the recording, even when Diamond invites them to sing along. This was recorded at the open-air Greek Theatre in Los Angeles and it is clear that at least some folks have scaled the perimeter trees to get a free view. Diamond good naturedly congratulates them on their ingenuity.
Side 1
Prologue
Crunchy Granola Suite
Done Too Soon
Dialogue
Solitary Man
Cherry Cherry
Sweet Caroline
Side 2
Porcupine Pie
You're So Sweet
Red Red Wine
Soggy Pretzels
And The Grass Won't Pay No Mind
Shilo
Girl, You'll Be A Woman Soon
Side 3
Play Me
Canta Libre
Morningside
Song Sung Blue
Cracklin' Rosie
Side 4
Holly Holy
I Am,,I Said
Soolaimon/Brother Love's Travelling Salvation Show
YESSONGS
Feb - Dec 1972
Yes
I've spent a long time on this one. I like Yes and there are plenty of their best known songs on it. But I'm coming to the reluctant conclusion that it isn't really that great as an album. I think the problem is that Yes are the epitome of early-seventies prog rock noodlers and so spent an inordinate amount of time in the studio getting it right. That doesn't really chime with one-off, live performances in a big open space with lots of folks making background noise. The material is pulled from concerts throughout 1972. Wikipedia alleges Ontario, New York, Greensboro, Knoxville and the ultimate UK venue of the age, the Rainbow Theatre in Finsbury Park. As ever with Yes, the fluidity of the line-up means that there are two drummers on this album, Bruford and White, but otherwise it's pretty much the accepted A-Team of Anderson, Squire, Wakeman and Howe. Anderson's voice is in good nick, in the full Yes Odyssey it became apparent that this was the aspect of the Yes sound that most set them apart from the competition, but as noted above, the rest of it is just a little ramshackle at times. In the middle of it all, Rick Wakeman gets his own little section with 'Excerpts from The Six Wives Of Henry VIII'. Maybe he'd stamped his foot and threatened to walk if he wasn't allowed to promote his own material. It's pretty annoying because as well as the Tudor-themed organfest, he indulges in quite a bit of showing-off. Doing classical bits and silent movie accompaniments. Was he really THAT important to the band at the time? And his keyboard parts seem to be the most clattery and unfocussed of the lot of them. Compare the opening of 'Heart Of The Sunrise' on here to the original on Fragile. The furious guitar parts should be set against the light delicacy of the keyboards, but here it sounds like Wakeman is running his instruments on a triple-A battery at the end of it's useful life. And while abrupt changes of pace are their stock in trade, here it borders on the disjointed.
Track 1 is an excerpt from Stravinsky’s Firebird Suite. Bands of a certain type like doing this sort of thing as it establishes their musicianly chops. The upside is that, since it bears no relevance to the band themselves, once I’ve listened to it once I can immediately jump to ‘Siberian Khatru’. But, for all my complaints about the relative quality, they do at least pack this with all their best stuff, culminating in the truly uplifting ‘Starship Trooper’.
Track 1 is an excerpt from Stravinsky’s Firebird Suite. Bands of a certain type like doing this sort of thing as it establishes their musicianly chops. The upside is that, since it bears no relevance to the band themselves, once I’ve listened to it once I can immediately jump to ‘Siberian Khatru’. But, for all my complaints about the relative quality, they do at least pack this with all their best stuff, culminating in the truly uplifting ‘Starship Trooper’.
Band Bantz: Due to the nature of how this has been stitched
together from so many different performances, they appear to wind up the show
after track 8, 'Roundabout' and then proceed to continue with about an hour more
of material, an encore, had it been real, to rival even some of Bruce’s most
generous evenings. Anderson warbles something classical in advance of
introducing Wakeman for his 6 or so minutes in the limelight.
Heckles And Coughs: The crowd take the opportunity to whoop,
holler and generally make their mark on the recording during the quiet bits of
‘The Fish’
Side 1
Opening (Excerpt from the Firebird Suite)
Siberian Khatru
Heart Of The Sunrise
Side 2
Perpetual Change
And You And I
Side 3
Mood For A Day
Excerpts from The Six Wives of Henry VIII
Roundabout
Side 4
I've Seen All Good People
Long Distance Runaround/The Fish (Schindleria Praemeturus)
Side 5
Close To The Edge
Side 6
Yours Is No Disgrace
Starship Trooper
IT'S TOO LATE TO STOP NOW
24th May to 24th July 1973
Van Morrison
Now then. I own a Van Morrison album (Enlightenment) and I've seen him live (The Fleadh Festival in Finsbury Park in 1995. He wasn't headlining, that was The Beautiful South, whose performance I barely recall. The other major artist on the bill was Sinead O'Connor, whom I have to tell you, was excellent), so you can expect me to generally look on Morrison with a benevolent eye. But I'm afraid I do increasingly find myself viewing him as a one-trick pony. Positives first. Let's return to a recurring RockOdyssey trope, the false American singing voice. You might be tempted to accuse Van Morrison of it, but I'm convinced that his natural Ulster tones generally lend themselves to an authentic white soul sound. On 'Help Me' he sings about his "nightshoyte", but you don't feel he's trying to be Noo Yoik. So that's good. And no doubt he's a great musician and singer. On this journey through live recordings there are two general types of album under consideration. They are either great performances of artists at their peak, or they are exquisite examples of the live recording engineer's work. I feel that the reputation of this album is in no small part due to the almost perfect sound quality of the recordings that have been used to assemble it. It's all crystal clear. For me, the downside is that Morrison is too technical and too studied. I tore into Joe Cocker for a lack of authenticity, well, to paraphrase David St. Hubbins, Van Morrison has too much fucking authenticity. Taken as a whole, the album is a good listen, but it's background music and the songs really just run into each other. Maybe it's just not my thing. There are recognizable classics on here - 'Domino', 'Here Comes The Night' and 'Gloria' - which I remember from the Finsbury Park concert because it went on and on and on, maybe that's where he lost me all those years ago. I think, what I'm trying to say is that I find him a bit of a boring bastard.
Band Bantz: He introduces his band but otherwise it's fairly efficient progress through the songs with no idle chat.
Heckles And Coughs: Nothing significant. Gloria, of course, is audience participation time. I think that's what annoyed me about it back in 1995.
ON THE ROAD
April 1973
Traffic
OK. Not what I expected. I think in my head Traffic means moderately comical psychedelia in the mould of 'Hole In My Shoe'. There is also some conflation between Traffic and The Scaffold afflicting me too. Hey, a shared syllable can confuse a guy! So I was kind of expecting some quaint English hippy-dippy shit and instead you get full on jazz-rock fusion. Research was required. So this represents a second incarnation of Traffic, in which Winwood, Capaldi et al have reconvened following the Blind Faith excursion. On percussion is the magnificently named Rebop Kwaku Baah. By now they are taking themselves much more seriously than the days of hit singles, which means we are served up a double live album consisting of just 6 tracks. Like some that have gone before, much of it has washed over me, despite several runs through. But, I did enjoy this, the musicianship is very good and I can imagine that sitting quietly with a glass of Glenmorangie in hand late at night with this on would be a very rewarding experience. It's pretty short on vocals, we don;t hear much from Winwood throughout, but there is a fair bit of experimentation going on as well - in the middle of Side 1 you'd swear someone's ringtone has just gone off. I like the artwork, very moddren.
Band Bantz: On timbas and congas Rebop Kwaku Baah! Isn't that from The Lion King? And it's wound up very quickly with a 'Thank you and goodnight' No encores, real or manufactured on this recording.
Heckles And Coughs: Just a lot of cheering at the end. The audience is German after all.
Side 1
Glad/Freedom Rider
Side 2
Tragic Magic
(Sometimes I Feel So) Uninspired
Side 3
Shoot Out At The Fantasy Factory
Light Up Or Leave Me Alone
Side 4
Low Spark Of The High Heeled Boys
24th May to 24th July 1973
Van Morrison
Now then. I own a Van Morrison album (Enlightenment) and I've seen him live (The Fleadh Festival in Finsbury Park in 1995. He wasn't headlining, that was The Beautiful South, whose performance I barely recall. The other major artist on the bill was Sinead O'Connor, whom I have to tell you, was excellent), so you can expect me to generally look on Morrison with a benevolent eye. But I'm afraid I do increasingly find myself viewing him as a one-trick pony. Positives first. Let's return to a recurring RockOdyssey trope, the false American singing voice. You might be tempted to accuse Van Morrison of it, but I'm convinced that his natural Ulster tones generally lend themselves to an authentic white soul sound. On 'Help Me' he sings about his "nightshoyte", but you don't feel he's trying to be Noo Yoik. So that's good. And no doubt he's a great musician and singer. On this journey through live recordings there are two general types of album under consideration. They are either great performances of artists at their peak, or they are exquisite examples of the live recording engineer's work. I feel that the reputation of this album is in no small part due to the almost perfect sound quality of the recordings that have been used to assemble it. It's all crystal clear. For me, the downside is that Morrison is too technical and too studied. I tore into Joe Cocker for a lack of authenticity, well, to paraphrase David St. Hubbins, Van Morrison has too much fucking authenticity. Taken as a whole, the album is a good listen, but it's background music and the songs really just run into each other. Maybe it's just not my thing. There are recognizable classics on here - 'Domino', 'Here Comes The Night' and 'Gloria' - which I remember from the Finsbury Park concert because it went on and on and on, maybe that's where he lost me all those years ago. I think, what I'm trying to say is that I find him a bit of a boring bastard.
Band Bantz: He introduces his band but otherwise it's fairly efficient progress through the songs with no idle chat.
Heckles And Coughs: Nothing significant. Gloria, of course, is audience participation time. I think that's what annoyed me about it back in 1995.
Side 1
Ain't Nothin' You Can Do
Warm Love
Into The Mystic
These Dreams Of You
I Believe To My Soul
Side 2
I've Been Working
Help Me
Wild Children
Domino
I Just Want To Make Love To You
Side 3
Bring It On Home To Me
Saint Dominic's Preview
Take Your Hand Out Of MyPocket
Listen To The Lion
Side 4
Here Comes The Night
Gloria
Caravan
Cyprus Avenue
ZIGGY STARDUST AND THE SPIDERS FROM MARS (THE MOTION PICTURE)
2rd July 1973
David Bowie
Is it acceptable to write one of these while stocious? Well, yes. Of course. There are no rules on the internet. You don't have to nominate someone while you list out your 7 favourite colours in 7 days if you don't want to. And listening to and reviewing this while half cut actually makes sense. It probably adds all kinds of different dimensions to any of Bowie's output if you are indulging in some kind of chemical mood alteration.This is a magnificent thing, even if stone cold sober. I was tempted to view the whole movie, but those robbing bastards at YouTube want £3.25 for the privilege! Well they can go whistle. And anyway the audio is spectacular enough that you don't need the visuals. Mick Ronson's guitar grunts, squishes, farts and howls all the way through this in a way that makes you wonder how it is possible to conduct your life without this being fed directly to your brain via your earbuds. There's no messing about, 'Hang On To Yourself' just starts, ploughs forward and finishes before they launch straight into 'Ziggy Stardust' itself, with Bowie's opening 'OOOOOH, Yeh!"grabbing you by the throat. The recording is nigh on perfect, as you might expect for a concert recorded for a movie. There's a terrific version of 'All The Young Dudes' but I was expecting "Wendy's stealing clothes from Marks and Sparks" instead of "unlocked cars". The former is a better lyric, but maybe that's my preference for British cultural references coming through. 'Moonage Daydream' becomes a massive, monolithic presence in the middle of side 1 and then he blithely knocks out 'Changes' and 'Space Oddity' - a novelty record with meaning and depth. Now THAT'S a hard trick to pull off. Side 2 starts with Jacques Brel's 'My Death', a song that takes on several layers of meaning in the context of Bowie since that event has now occurred for him. 'Cracked Actor' leads to the moderately obscene 'Time' and then there is an extraordinarily visceral, 16 minute version of 'The Width Of A Circle' which is mostly a wild, but somehow tightly controlled freak out. God knows what Bowie was doing through most of it (although I guess the movie provides some answers) but the rest of the band spend the vast majority of the song making a mad cacophony.
Band Bantz: Ooh. There's lots of good stuff here. At the end of 'My Death', the announcement goes "Ladies and Gentlemen, this is the part of the performance, we call 'The Interval'. At the end of 'The Width Of A Circle, he introduces the band. WoodyWoodmansey is on 'percussive instruments' if you don't mind. No mere drummer he. After introducing Ronson, they gallop through 'Let's Spend The Night Together' for his benefit apparently. Of course, this includes one of the most famous stage announcements of all time. After an efficient execution of Lou Reed's 'White Light/White Heat' Bowie announces that this is not just the last night of the tour, but their last performance ever. The ambiguity of his statement was the real problem here. Was The Dame indicating that he was retiring for good, or was it just the end of this incarnation and, more specifically the Spiders From Mars? (the coolest band name ever btw). Rock music was young at the time, so it was possibly conceivable that Bowie might withdraw at the ripe old age of 27? The rest of the band may or may not have known that their P45s were in the post.
Heckles And Coughs: At the commencement of 'My Death' on side two. Dave insists that everyone has to shut the fuck up. He has limited success, some of the audience shout out despite his efforts to establish a mood. At the end of the song the final lyric is: "For in front of that door there is..." and it seems that every member of the audience squeaks "me!". At the very end of the concert, not the national anthem, like Dylan, but Land Of Hope and Glory
Side 1
Hang On To Yourself
Ziggy Stardust
Watch That Man
Wild Eyed Boy From Freehold/All The Young Dudes/Oh You Pretty Things
Moonage Daydream
Space Oddity
My Death
Side 2
Cracked Actor
Time
Width Of A Circle
Changes
Let's Spend The Night Together
Suffragette City
White Light/White Heat
Rock 'n' Roll Suicide
THE SONG REMAINS THE SAME
27th -29th July 1973
Led Zeppelin
The VHS of the movie of this knocked around our house all those years ago. I don't think I ever watched it through, the opening sequence was sufficiently bizarre that it prevented me from wanting to investigate further. I did occasionally fast forward to Stairway but, until now, it remained an experience that I had not indulged in in its entirety. There is also the matter of Planty's religion-revealing flared jeans. No wonder he squawked so much. Anyway, Amazon will let you rent the movie for a very reasonable £3.50 (I could probably have done the same with Ziggy, but that album stands up on its own without the visuals) so it's time to remedy this omission from my roster of life experiences. So let's get that opening sequence out of the way first of all. Gangsters, faceless men, a wolfman of some sort, that bloke's head falling off and streams of coloured paint spurting from the neck stump. Then we seamlessly move, via the opening credits complete with each member's symbol, to a sequence as we see our heroes enjoying the bucolic benefits of being a global mega-rock star until their tour dates arrive on what looks to be pieces of parchment. Cut to arrival in New York and police escort to the venue. As Bron-Yr-Aur swells up, we finally get to the concert, which kicks off with 'Rock and Roll'. Besides his circulation-limiting trousers (with attention drawing applique), Plant is wearing a shirt that must have shrunk in the wash. At every opportunity he stands with hands on hips, pelvis (and groinal-cuke) thrust forward and clearly adores himself. Page is star-spangled and energetic. On 'The Song Remains The Same' Page breaks out his double neck guitar and, all joking aside, you have to say that the song performances themselves are great. Plant DOES try too hard. All the vocal mucking about on things like 'Dazed and Confused' just gets annoying. And Page really does play guitar with a bow - which he ruins in the process. Plant introduces 'Stairway To Heaven' as "a song of hope", he interjects after "and the forests will echo with laughter" with a rather pathetic "does anyone remember laughter?". Satire lives. Iconic Rorschach effects of Page and the double neck are deployed during the guitar solo while Planty taps away on a tambourine and gets his own Harry Worth mirror moment near the end. It's kind of era-defining and ridiculous all-at-once. Led Zep may be an over-rated blues band, but Stairway has earned its place in the top 10 of any rock song list anybody ever compiled. Bonham's drum solo on 'Moby Dick' appears to be an excuse for his bandmates to go and have a cuppa and a comfort break. By the time he gets to playing them like tom-toms with his hands, you kinda wish we could move on, although the noise he makes just before the band cut back in is extraordinary. The performance ends with 'Whole Lotta Love' where they all go trough their paces and Page mucks about with a theremin. As a piece of Rock and Roll excess the whole thing cannot be beaten, but I'd challenge anyone to feel the need to watch it twice. The album has a lot more on it and is probably better simply because you don't get distracted by all the nonsense.
Band Bantz: Let's treat the 'fantasy sequences' as Band Bantz for our purposes here. First up, during 'No Quarter' we get John Paul Jones in a grotesque mask doing some kind of Hammer Horror/The Devil Rides Out pastiche.
Plant is a bouffant knight, natch, sailing in from the sunset to the strains of the title track, big sword in hand (too much hilt-fondling Bob). He looks intense in the firelight. He inexplicably acquires a falcon at some point in his quest, pushes his foe into the moat (not very chivalrous) but eventually gets the girl after seeing off a few inept men-at-arms.
Page climbs a mountain by moonlight to the rather tedious improvised section of Dazed and Confused and meets Gandalf-Wan-Kenobi at the top (its supposedly The Hermit from a tarot pack). There's a bit of light-saber work before we transfer back to Madison Square Garden to wind up D&C.
Meawhile, during 'Moby Dick' Bonzo plays with some of the Rock-star accoutrements he has acquired, some kind of vintage-hotrod hybrid, a Triumph motorcycle, a dragster and a Hereford bull. Oh, and a bit of DIY. According to Plant he is "130 lbs of glory"
Heckles and Coughs: The movie shows us plenty of the punters, including 3 lads who the cops seemingly let into the gig via the back door. There are also some extremely Tappish moments as manager Peter Grant berates a local concessions provider for allowing knock-off merch at the venue. In fact, it is clear that this is the primary inspiration for This Is Spinal Tap. The inclusion of the news footage of the theft of the band's cash from their hotel's safe-deposit box is a bit inexplicable. Wikipedia thinks a staff member subsequently fled to Jamaica. Figure that one out Miss Marple.
Plant is a bouffant knight, natch, sailing in from the sunset to the strains of the title track, big sword in hand (too much hilt-fondling Bob). He looks intense in the firelight. He inexplicably acquires a falcon at some point in his quest, pushes his foe into the moat (not very chivalrous) but eventually gets the girl after seeing off a few inept men-at-arms.
Page climbs a mountain by moonlight to the rather tedious improvised section of Dazed and Confused and meets Gandalf-Wan-Kenobi at the top (its supposedly The Hermit from a tarot pack). There's a bit of light-saber work before we transfer back to Madison Square Garden to wind up D&C.
Meawhile, during 'Moby Dick' Bonzo plays with some of the Rock-star accoutrements he has acquired, some kind of vintage-hotrod hybrid, a Triumph motorcycle, a dragster and a Hereford bull. Oh, and a bit of DIY. According to Plant he is "130 lbs of glory"
Heckles and Coughs: The movie shows us plenty of the punters, including 3 lads who the cops seemingly let into the gig via the back door. There are also some extremely Tappish moments as manager Peter Grant berates a local concessions provider for allowing knock-off merch at the venue. In fact, it is clear that this is the primary inspiration for This Is Spinal Tap. The inclusion of the news footage of the theft of the band's cash from their hotel's safe-deposit box is a bit inexplicable. Wikipedia thinks a staff member subsequently fled to Jamaica. Figure that one out Miss Marple.
Rock and Roll
Celebration Day
Black Dog/Bring It On Home
Over The Hills and Far Away
Misty Mountain Hop
Since I've Been Loving You
No Quarter
The Song Remains The Same
Rain Song
The Ocean
Dazed and Confused
Stairway To Heaven
Moby Dick
Heartbreaker
Whole Lotta Love
BRUSSELS AFFAIR
17th October 1973
The Rolling Stones
This one comes laden with baggage before I even start. It has been recommended as one of the, if not THE best live recording ever made - so what if I don't rate it? And can I do it justice either way? It's also hard to come by, since it has knocked around as a bootleg for most of it's life until it gained an official release in October 2011. It's rare and expensive however. Not on Spotify and you can't get it on Amazon for anything significantly below one hundred nicker. That means our old, unsatisfactory friend YouTube comes into play and the 'Definitive Edition' can be located and played with the odd interruption by ads. When the entire live album list was being put together, I asked of this was great just because it captures the Stones at their peak (certainly the date corresponds to that astonishing run of albums from Beggars Banquet to Exile) or is it just an almost perfect quality recording? The answer I got was that it was both, which I might have been able to predict. Funny thing is, when you do start searching around YouTube, there are various versions where the setlist is taken from other concerts on the tour, including a second one in Brussels, and the quality on those can be pretty ropey in places. However, this 'definitive version' certainly doesn't sound like it was recorded on magnetic tape from row CC of the balcony. It's crisp and all the instruments are present, correct and well balanced (although if any is sitting back in the mix, then it's Wyman's bass, but then I guess his genius was never being noticed unless he wasn't there), so I'm willing to believe it came "straight off the board" as I have been advised. The other thing that sets it apart is that this is indeed the Stones in their pomp and with them playing their very best songs to date. 'Brown Sugar' is quick and immediate, setting the scene and then there's that intro to 'Gimme Shelter'. The guitar solos in 'Dancing With Mr D.' form a minutely controlled contrast to Jagger's vocals. Billy Preston (who else) tinkles away exquisitely during 'Angie' and there are soft mournful horns at the opening of 'You Can't Always Get What You Want' and soaring saxophone at the end. 'Midnight Rambler' becomes a 13 minute movement of fuzzily distorted blues and Jagger pretty much making it up as he goes along, squawking and roaring depending on how the mood takes him. In fact 'You Can't...' and 'Midnight Rambler' form the centrepiece of the whole show (as represented here - I'm sure there must be edits), taking up the middle 25 minutes of the recording. After that it's efficient runs-through of the likes of 'Honky Tonk Women', 'Jumping Jack Flash' and 'Street Fighting Man' (with frenzied guitars and drums at the death). On the 'definitive' version I listened to, the closing 'Starfucker' just does not belong, it's quality is nowhere near good enough to stand with the rest. The artwork speaks for itself. Almost literally. So it is the greatest ever? I reckon it must be a contender for the greatest bootleg ever, just on the basis of the quality of reproduction, and it beats Live at Leeds for being totally genuine. Maybe not quite as viscerally exciting as Johnny Winter, but it does live up to its reputation.
Band Bantz: Mick practices his Franglais as he addresses the crowd, but he doesn't stretch himself. If he's fluent, it doesn't show and the "ooh la la"'s are borderline offensive. Keef is dragged front and centre early on for ''Appy' and even he is in halfway decent voice (well, relatively speaking), although Mick seems to take pity and picks up quite a lot of the vocal as it goes along. "Merci Keef. That was a good one" he sez at the end.
Heckles and Coughs: Mick gets 'em going during Midnight Rambler, but it's no more than a call and response of blues howling.
Brown Sugar
Gimme Shelter
Happy
Tumbling Dice
Dancing With Mr D.
Angie
You Cant Always Get What You Want
Midnight Rambler
Hony Tonk Women
All Down The Line
Rip This Joint
Jumping Jack Flash
Street Fighting Man
Starfucker
ROCK AND ROLL ANIMAL
December 21st 1973
Lou Reed.
Hmm. Lou Reed. Not an artist I've ever really felt the need to get to know. I'm too young to be significantly impressed by the Velvet Underground and their influence. Received wisdom is that he's a experimental grump who took too many drugs. Reductive? Me? Anyway, I will say this, he either cannot sing or doesn't feel the need to try. Probably the latter. So the Reed delivery is a kind of chanted declamation, regardless of the song. What did surprise me about this was quite how conventional it is for the time. The music itself is mainly well performed glam-rock riffs and not a little prog-style intricacy and Reed is just on vocals. So while these are great songs composed by him, the credit for the greatness of the performance has to lie largely with his band. Maybe his stage presence made up for it, but I just can't tell (there is little Band Bantz nor Heckles and Coughs to provide clues). I was struck by some similarities between 'Heroin' and 'Get The Message' by Electronic, however, if your vocal delivery is as much on the stave as both Reed and Bernard Sumner then it might be enough to render most of your songs as soundalikes.
Band Bantz: Does he have a little chuckle during 'Heroin'? He needs reminding that he has an image to maintain.
Heckles and Coughs: Just general enthusiasm. It was recorded at Howard Stein's Academy of Music in NYC and it sounds like it's a fairly intimate venue.
Side 1
Intro/Sweet Jane
Heroin
Side 2
White Light/White Heat
Lady Day
Rock and Roll
Classic Live Albums 1970-1971: Leeds, The Fillmore and More
Second instalment of the Live Albums journey. 1970-1971 was, in my view, when Rock and Roll moved to a different level. 1971 in fact is documented in David Hepworth's recent book '1971 - Never A Dull Moment' as the most fertile year of the Rock era. By coincidence, most of these albums are recorded at the Fillmore East in New York. There were a couple in the first post too. Here's what will be covered:
So first, the small matter of the greatest live album ever (according to some people)...
Live At Leeds
February 1970
The Who
Cards on the table, it IS a great live album, but it's status is just a little besmirched by the fact that it was taken from a concert specifically set up to produce a live album. That fact then makes you wonder what the audience were told or expected and whether their behaviour would have been different otherwise. I say this because although you wouldn't say they are muted, they do seem slightly...respectful? It's The Who's usual mix of moderately off-colour end-of-the-pier seaside postcard ribaldry and one or two moments that raise a questioning eyebrow for the modern ear (does that make sense or am I mixing up my facial features too much?). It is very much like you are on stage with them, every instrument is present and correct and clearly delineated, however apparently there were some problems with Entwistle's bass, and the subsequent recording at Hull was used to paper over some cracks. But these are just quibbles really. The musicianship and the force of Daltrey's singing are phenomenal. Moon's drumming is complex and precise and Entwistle's bass is intricate. The original release looks shockingly short considering it's reputation. 'Young Man Blues', 'Substitute', 'Summertime Blues' and 'Shakin' All Over' on Side 1 and extended version of 'My Generation' and 'Magic Bus' on Side 2. I therefore focused on the 25th Anniversary Reissue which has all these but quite a bit more besides. There's a 'Deluxe' edition too (of course) which includes a full rendition of Tommy. On this one, 'Substitute' forms the first part of a kind of medley with 'Happy Jack' and 'I'm A Boy'. This last is particularly good and although I already knew it well, this time around it reminded me in tone of Johnny Cash's 'A Boy Named Sue', as a parable of the reverse psychology of feminizing boys to toughen them up. Daltrey sounds like he's fuming about the whole thing throughout. The only listed parts of Tommy on the 1995 reissue is 'Amazing Journey/Sparks' (although they do chuck in additional bits in the extended 'My Generation'), which is great for me as I think it's probably my favourite bits of one of my favourite albums. The change of pace halfway through into the instrumental part is like bursting out of deep water into fresh air. The inclusion of 'Summertime Blues' and 'Shakin All Over', whilst firmly established as part of the Who standard set, seems moderately strange (given the tracklist of the original issue), since they are covers, and the Who had no problem producing top notch material of their own. Having said that, they make 'Summertime Blues' in particular completely their own and there's a weirdly fascinating not-quite-jarring synchopation between Moon's drums and Entwistle's and Townshend's guitars on the Johnny Kidd cover. As already noted, 'My Generation' is more of a launching pad for a greatest hits medley. The brown paper packaging and ink-stamp is supposed to suggest a bootleg, which it simply is not in any way.
Band Bantz: Townshend does most of the talking. On the intro to 'A Quick One While He's Away' Pete sounds a bit apologetic about the dodgy nature of the subject matter, while Moon provides some lascivious double entendres around the whole 'Ivor The Engine Driver' business. My go-to Who live album back in the day was Whos Last, which if ever an album warranted a question mark, was the one, seeing as it was recorded in 1982 and they are still tottering along to some extent today, but it is noticeable that both Daltrey and Townshend say "we'd like to carry on" on both albums. It always seemed to me a funny way to move the show along, I mean, what's the alternative? Are they just going to stop for no reason?
Heckles and Coughs: There doesn't seem to be much really. Someone seems quite distressed during the into to 'Magic Bus'
Mad Dogs And Englishmen
27-28 March 1970
Joe Cocker
Question. Was Joe Cocker any good? If you read these reviews you may know that I'm not keen on what I perceive as inauthenticity, and Cocker veers perilously close to simply being 'an act'. My opinion is not going to be helped by an intro which involves a vaudevillian fanfare and a mock French announcer. Let me draw a parallel on the basis of just one thing pertaining to Cocker. He's from Sheffield. So are the Human League. In nearly every other aspect they are completely different artists, but to some extent they do share a common background. When you look at their output, for all the clinical, programmed cleanliness of what the HL produced, the material is about them. It's about being in badly decorated, sticky-floored nightclubs in South Yorkshire in the early eighties. It's about dancing badly with your mates around your handbags (if you're a girl at least). How does Cocker's material relate to him and his life experience? Well not in any appreciable way at all I think. His sweaty, histrionic, soul agonizing is rather irritating. Which is not to say he isn't talented or a bad singer, clearly he is, but why is he doing it in the first place? My point is that the Human League showed more 'soul' than Joe Cocker. He reminds me of the guy who ends up lead singer of The Commitments in the movie (who effectively just does an impression of Cocker anyway). It's impressive that he can do it, but ultimately, is that it? Anyway, I suppose I should say something about the album, the highlight for me being, as you may have guessed, something that barely features Cocker, Rita Coolidge singing 'Superstar'. My understanding is that she's not all that well known at this time and is effectively a backing singer, but to return to my previous theme, this is a much more heartfelt and soulful performance of the song than the more famous Carpenter's version, good as that is. This was recorded at the Fillmore East, and so serendipitously fits nicely with most of the rest of the albums covered in this short period.
Band Bantz: He seems a little...preoccupied? Possibly the introduction to 'Let's Get Stoned' is as much a suggestion as an announcement. Leon Russell is there too, introduces Dylan's 'Girl From The North Country' and advises that you shouldn't get hung up about Easter.
Heckles and Coughs: The rabble are pretty much pushed to the back of the mix. Not much of note from them.
Live At Leeds - The Who - Feb-70
Mad Dogs and Englishmen - Joe Cocker - Mar-70
Live Johnny Winter - Johnny Winter - Nov-70
At Fillmore East - The Allman Brothers - Mar-71
Rockin' The Fillmore - Humble Pie - May-71
Live Fillmore East 1971 - Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention - Jun-71
Fillmore: The Last Days - Various - Jun-71
Rock Of Ages - The Band - Dec-71
So first, the small matter of the greatest live album ever (according to some people)...
February 1970
The Who
Cards on the table, it IS a great live album, but it's status is just a little besmirched by the fact that it was taken from a concert specifically set up to produce a live album. That fact then makes you wonder what the audience were told or expected and whether their behaviour would have been different otherwise. I say this because although you wouldn't say they are muted, they do seem slightly...respectful? It's The Who's usual mix of moderately off-colour end-of-the-pier seaside postcard ribaldry and one or two moments that raise a questioning eyebrow for the modern ear (does that make sense or am I mixing up my facial features too much?). It is very much like you are on stage with them, every instrument is present and correct and clearly delineated, however apparently there were some problems with Entwistle's bass, and the subsequent recording at Hull was used to paper over some cracks. But these are just quibbles really. The musicianship and the force of Daltrey's singing are phenomenal. Moon's drumming is complex and precise and Entwistle's bass is intricate. The original release looks shockingly short considering it's reputation. 'Young Man Blues', 'Substitute', 'Summertime Blues' and 'Shakin' All Over' on Side 1 and extended version of 'My Generation' and 'Magic Bus' on Side 2. I therefore focused on the 25th Anniversary Reissue which has all these but quite a bit more besides. There's a 'Deluxe' edition too (of course) which includes a full rendition of Tommy. On this one, 'Substitute' forms the first part of a kind of medley with 'Happy Jack' and 'I'm A Boy'. This last is particularly good and although I already knew it well, this time around it reminded me in tone of Johnny Cash's 'A Boy Named Sue', as a parable of the reverse psychology of feminizing boys to toughen them up. Daltrey sounds like he's fuming about the whole thing throughout. The only listed parts of Tommy on the 1995 reissue is 'Amazing Journey/Sparks' (although they do chuck in additional bits in the extended 'My Generation'), which is great for me as I think it's probably my favourite bits of one of my favourite albums. The change of pace halfway through into the instrumental part is like bursting out of deep water into fresh air. The inclusion of 'Summertime Blues' and 'Shakin All Over', whilst firmly established as part of the Who standard set, seems moderately strange (given the tracklist of the original issue), since they are covers, and the Who had no problem producing top notch material of their own. Having said that, they make 'Summertime Blues' in particular completely their own and there's a weirdly fascinating not-quite-jarring synchopation between Moon's drums and Entwistle's and Townshend's guitars on the Johnny Kidd cover. As already noted, 'My Generation' is more of a launching pad for a greatest hits medley. The brown paper packaging and ink-stamp is supposed to suggest a bootleg, which it simply is not in any way.
Band Bantz: Townshend does most of the talking. On the intro to 'A Quick One While He's Away' Pete sounds a bit apologetic about the dodgy nature of the subject matter, while Moon provides some lascivious double entendres around the whole 'Ivor The Engine Driver' business. My go-to Who live album back in the day was Whos Last, which if ever an album warranted a question mark, was the one, seeing as it was recorded in 1982 and they are still tottering along to some extent today, but it is noticeable that both Daltrey and Townshend say "we'd like to carry on" on both albums. It always seemed to me a funny way to move the show along, I mean, what's the alternative? Are they just going to stop for no reason?
Heckles and Coughs: There doesn't seem to be much really. Someone seems quite distressed during the into to 'Magic Bus'
Heaven And Hell
I Can't Explain
Fortune Teller
Tattoo
Young Man Blues
Substitute
Happy Jack
I'm A Boy
A Quick One While He's Away
Amazing Journey/Sparks
Summertime Blues
Shakin' All Over
My Generation
Magic Bus
27-28 March 1970
Joe Cocker
Question. Was Joe Cocker any good? If you read these reviews you may know that I'm not keen on what I perceive as inauthenticity, and Cocker veers perilously close to simply being 'an act'. My opinion is not going to be helped by an intro which involves a vaudevillian fanfare and a mock French announcer. Let me draw a parallel on the basis of just one thing pertaining to Cocker. He's from Sheffield. So are the Human League. In nearly every other aspect they are completely different artists, but to some extent they do share a common background. When you look at their output, for all the clinical, programmed cleanliness of what the HL produced, the material is about them. It's about being in badly decorated, sticky-floored nightclubs in South Yorkshire in the early eighties. It's about dancing badly with your mates around your handbags (if you're a girl at least). How does Cocker's material relate to him and his life experience? Well not in any appreciable way at all I think. His sweaty, histrionic, soul agonizing is rather irritating. Which is not to say he isn't talented or a bad singer, clearly he is, but why is he doing it in the first place? My point is that the Human League showed more 'soul' than Joe Cocker. He reminds me of the guy who ends up lead singer of The Commitments in the movie (who effectively just does an impression of Cocker anyway). It's impressive that he can do it, but ultimately, is that it? Anyway, I suppose I should say something about the album, the highlight for me being, as you may have guessed, something that barely features Cocker, Rita Coolidge singing 'Superstar'. My understanding is that she's not all that well known at this time and is effectively a backing singer, but to return to my previous theme, this is a much more heartfelt and soulful performance of the song than the more famous Carpenter's version, good as that is. This was recorded at the Fillmore East, and so serendipitously fits nicely with most of the rest of the albums covered in this short period.
Band Bantz: He seems a little...preoccupied? Possibly the introduction to 'Let's Get Stoned' is as much a suggestion as an announcement. Leon Russell is there too, introduces Dylan's 'Girl From The North Country' and advises that you shouldn't get hung up about Easter.
Heckles and Coughs: The rabble are pretty much pushed to the back of the mix. Not much of note from them.
Side 1
Introduction
Honky Tonk Women
Sticks and Stones
Cry Me A River
Bird On The Wire
Side 2
Feelin' Alright
Superstar
Let's Go Get Stoned
Side 3
Blue Medley: I'll Drown In My Own Tears/When Something Is Wrong With My Baby/I've Been Loving You Too Long
Girl From The North Country
Give Peace A Chance
Side 4
She Came In Through the Bathroom Window
Space Captain
The Letter
Delta Lady
Live Johnny Winter And
November 1970
Johnny Winter
Blood-dee Nora! He's committed isn't he? Kind of like what George Thorogood and the Destroyers could have been if they'd really put their backs into it. This is ferocious, mad, bad blues. There's not much on it and most of the tracks are early rock and roll standards, including a medley of 'Great Balls Of Fire', 'Long Tall Sally' and 'Whole Lotta Shakin Goin On' and a crazed version of Johnny B Goode - a song that has a baseline level of insanity that gives Winter plenty of theme to develop. There's a frenetic Mean Town Blues and a cover of 'Jumpin' Jack Flash' that puts Mick and Keef to shame for being guilty of not quite realising the potential of the song. It seems entirely likely that Johnny Winter really was born in a crossfire hurricane and never quite got the storm out of his soul. Underneath it all is hard, rapid virtuoso guitar playing. The interplay between Winter and his guitar partner Rick Derringer is extraordinary on 'Mean Town Blues'. It's possible that you probably need to go no further than 'Johnny B Goode' for the greatest rock song of all time. Winter bawls "Rock and Roll!" at the start and then proceeds to tear it up at ninety miles per hour. I've listened to a lot of live albums recently but this is one where I wish I'd been there (although I'd have had to travel to both New York City and Florida). It must have been terrifying and uplifting in equal measure to see him
Band Bantz: During Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On, Winter strongly suggests that he would like to see the audience shaking. The impression is that everyone had best get vibrating, since Johnny is quite clear that he will not accept any half measures, and no slacking at the back. No polaroid pictures here thanks.
Heckles and Coughs: They just obey Johnny in whatever he tells them to do, possibly in fear of their mortal souls if they do not.
Good Morning Little School Girl
It's My Own Fault
Jumpin' Jack Flash
Rock And Roll Medley
Mean Town Blues
Johnny B Goode
At Fillmore East
March 12-13th 1971
The Allman Brothers Band
In this game, you end up listening to a lot of white guys playing the blues. Far more than you do black guys playing the blues, because they seem to have got over it all, moved on and concentrated on integrating the much more interesting 'rhythm and' into their music. Alas, for me, the Allman Brothers only barely butter my parsnips. They're OK. Competent. Skilled even. But they are rather dull too. Johnny Winter left me scared for the audience's safety, but I think there isn't much to worry about for the Fillmore crowd here, they'll be fine. And the songs are loooong. It's a double album but they max out at three tracks on Side 1 before filling Side 2 with 'You Don't Love Me' and Side 4 with 'Whipping Post'. Even Side 3 only manages two tracks - 'Hot Lanta' and 'In Memory Of Elizabeth Reed'. To my original point, when you start encountering quite so many bands who want to indulge in extended blues riffs, you start to try and work out what, if anything, sets them apart. For the Allman Brothers it's a clean, picked sound, with a fairly heavy reliance on Gregg Allman's organ playing. And also, I guess, their USP was intricate, extended jams - even more than the rest. The closing part of 'You Don't Love Me' includes a brief snatch of 'Joy To The World' which baffled me, since it's not a Christmas gig. The band are best known in the UK for providing the theme tune to middle-aged-men-and-cars TV behemoth Top Gear, with 'Jessica', which isn't on this, although on 'Whipping Post' there's an arpeggio-ish section which is very reminiscent of the closing part of it.This album appears to have a great reputation, but maybe it is a little enhanced by the off-stage events later in the year around drug addictions and motorcycle/broken heart deaths.
Band Bantz: The paying guests are clearly not to be engaged with, lest it detracts from concentrating on all the twiddling. They do announce 'In Memory Of Elizabeth Reed' and 'Whipping Post'.
Heckles And Coughs: Approval is expressed at the prospect of 23+ minutes of 'Whipping Post'. It takes all sorts.
Side 1
Statesboro Blues
Done Somebody Wrong
Stormy Monday
Side 2
You Don't Love Me
Side 3
Hot Lanta
In Memory Of Elizabeth Reed
Side 4
Whipping Post
Performance: Rockin' The Fillmore
28th -29th May 1971
Humble Pie
In a previous life, Steve Marriott had sung "Oh wouldn't it be nice, to get on with me neighbours". Well if he was making a racket like this it's no wonder that next door were banging on the party wall. Humble Pie are something that should strike fear and dread into the heart of any rock fan - A Supergroup. Which basically means a coming together of a set of artists who have had previous success under a different name (see also Cream, Electronic and errm McBusted?). They're only any good if they are a reasonably serious proposition. Marriages of commercial convenience tend to promise more than they can deliver. So Humble Pie brings together Marriott, Frampton and Greg Ridley, a previous member of that epitome of not-quite-obscure-but-somehow-laughable-groups-with-stupid-names Spooky Tooth. There is also rookie drummer Jerry Shirley. Anyway, this is a lot of fun. Marriott's vocals approach Plant-like squealing levels and the style is full-on, fuzzy guitar rock. There are elements of what would become grunge and there's a touch of the 'Born To Be Wild' riff in 'Stone Cold Fever'. 'Rollin' Stone' suddenly shifts gear at the end into some extraordinary guitar pyrothechnics, and if you like Alice Cooper, you'll love 'I Don't Need No Doctor'.
Band Bantz: Oh dear. Marriott's Essex squawk just doesn't quite seem to fit with the setting, but I shouldn't criticize, there's no mid-Atlantic corruption to his spoken delivery whatsoever (the singing is a different matter). The choicest moment is when he tells the crowd: "We go 'ome on Munndy, But I wanna tell ya we ain't 'alf had a GAS this time, it's really been a GAS". It's almost as if he's been told he has to say 'gas' as some kind of code word and therefore must state it loudly, clearly and repeatedly. At the start of 'I'm Ready', he checks if the audience have also achieved preparedness for what is to come (he claims it's a long one, but at only 8:31, the likes of the Allman Brothers and the Dead would probably cock a snook) but he kind of sings his way through it, Southern Preacher style. He specifically addresses "All you people. Behind the glass plate. At the back of the hall", which raises a whole raft of questions.
Heckles And Coughs: Audience participation is definitely encouraged. In fact it wouldn't surprise me if Marriott wheeled on a giant lyric sheet to help them along, while he pointed with a long stick. Luckily the words aren't demanding, so all they have to shout out is 'Rollin' Stone' - and even then some geezer goes far too early. This is in fact the difference between Humble Pie and the last featured artist. They too do not shy away from vinyl-side hogging pieces like 'I Walk On Gilded Splinters' at 23 odd minutes, but the audience are expected to get involved and, you know, enjoy themselves.
Heckles And Coughs: Audience participation is definitely encouraged. In fact it wouldn't surprise me if Marriott wheeled on a giant lyric sheet to help them along, while he pointed with a long stick. Luckily the words aren't demanding, so all they have to shout out is 'Rollin' Stone' - and even then some geezer goes far too early. This is in fact the difference between Humble Pie and the last featured artist. They too do not shy away from vinyl-side hogging pieces like 'I Walk On Gilded Splinters' at 23 odd minutes, but the audience are expected to get involved and, you know, enjoy themselves.
Side 1
Four Day Creep
I'm Ready
Stone Cold Fever
Side 2
I Walk On Gilded Splinters
Side 3
Rollin' Stone
Side 4
Hallelujah (I Love Her So)
I Don't Need No Doctor
LIVE FILLMORE EAST 1971
June 5-6 1971
Frank Zappa And The Mothers Of Invention
Now I'm not daft, so I realized that this one would probably require an early start in the week in order to get to grips with it. Therefore I cleared the decks on Tuesday (away to the backburner Ringo The Fourth!) and called it up on Spotify. I should have read up on it much sooner as well, because by Friday morning I was kind of frustrated with it. Zappa is a byword for being weird, a good dollop of depravity and, yes, zaniness, but I was beginning to find it all quite tedious. It's possible that repeated listening is not the best approach. Anyway the impression I was taking away is that the 'comedy' is all a bit forced and goes beyond tasteless to downright misogynistic. However, it DID grow on me and once you realise that whilst being a live album, it's also something of a concept album then it begins to make more sense (to some extent). Anyway the 'story' covers the exploits of a rock band on the road, with reference to 'real' contemporary events. Many people who regularly read these posts and comment on them will know the story behind the mudshark, Vanilla Fudge and John Bonham. I didn't and I wish I still didn't. If you don't know it, don't look it up, you'll regret it (don't throw me in that briar patch Brer Fox). Anyway, it fascinated Frank and the Mothers enough to turn it into a song as part of this. Alas I have to admit that I enjoyed this most when they were playing it straight. The closing cover of The Turtles 'Happy Together' is great and the encores are good too. As for the rest, I'm tempted to say you probably had to be there, I reckon that there's a lot of visual stuff going on that doesn't translate to the recording. Oh, and Frank (or somebody) sometimes sounds like Axl Rose
Band Bantz: It's almost ALL Band Bantz, especially the portrayal of the groupies in 'What Kind Of Girl Do You Think We Are' and 'Do You Like My New Car?'. More of an extended comedy sketch than a musical performance.
Heckles And Coughs: Nothing significant, but they enjoy it.
Band Bantz: It's almost ALL Band Bantz, especially the portrayal of the groupies in 'What Kind Of Girl Do You Think We Are' and 'Do You Like My New Car?'. More of an extended comedy sketch than a musical performance.
Heckles And Coughs: Nothing significant, but they enjoy it.
Side 1
Little House I Used To Live In
The Mud Shark
What Kind Of Girl Do You Think We Are
Bwana Dik
Latex Solar Beef
Willie The Pimp (pt 1)
Side 2
Willie The Pimp (pt 2)
Do You Like My New Car?
Happy Together
Lonesome Electric Turkey
Peaches En Regalia
Tears Began To Fall
FILLMORE: THE LAST DAYS
June 29th to July 4th 1971
Various Artists
Or more accurately "Bill Graham Presents In San Francisco - Fillmore: The Last Days". Various Artists albums present their own set of challenges, and in this case I'm guessing that nothing here is particularly representative of where each artist was on their career arc. Also, as a whole, there is no story to tell about the contributors, it's about the event, and it's place in history. Just like Monterey in part one in fact. As a result, this washed over me. I enjoyed it and I really got a sense of time and place from it. At this point it is worth reflecting on everything that has gone before in this section, every performance except The Who has come from the Fillmore East in New York City. This is the last days of the Fillmore West in the San Fancisco Bay area. It took me a while to figure out the whole Fillmore arrangement actually. For some time I kind of assumed that both were in New York, one on the West Side and one on the East Side, but eventually I got round to looking it all up and getting it sorted in my head. It's interesting to compare this to the Fillmore East performances and the cliches about the different characters of the two cities do seem to come through. The East performances have been spiky and risky, even Zappa, despite his association (in my mind at least) with California, whereas this is much more laid back. The atmosphere around these performances is also tinged with the knowledge that the venue was closing down - however this seems to have resulted in more joy rather than less. I'm hard pressed to pick anything out for particular attention. The closing jams could have been tedious but everyone is enjoying it so much that I'm not going to play the churl. Of course our old friends The Grateful Dead put in an appearance so I won't resist the opportunity for a gentle dig. Their version of Johnny B. Goode is about half a step off the pace, and making another direct comparison with the Fillmore East, Johnny Winter's wins for me every time.
Band Bantz: There's plenty of comment on the imminent closure, bit only to acknowledge that everyone seems determined to put a positive gloss on it. The opening introduction by John Walker does give the impression that a local down-and-out has stumbled on stage and is rambling on about something or other.
Heckles and Coughs: The crowd are 'up for it', so to speak. Everyone is here to have a good time and give the place a fitting send off.
Side 1
Hello - John Walker
Hello Friends - Lamb
So Fine - Elvin Bishop Group
Party Till The Cows Come Home - Elvin Bishop Group
Pana - Malo
Side 2
Poppa Can Play - The Sons Of Champlin
White Bird - It's A Beautiful Day
Fresh Air - Quicksilver Messenger Service
Mojo - Quicksilver Messenger Service
Side 3
Introduction - Bill Graham
Back On The Streets Again - Tower Of Power
Baby's Callin' Me Home - Boz Scaggs
I Just Wanna Make Love To You - Cold Blood
Side 4
Passion Flower - Stoneground
Henry - New Riders Of The Purple Sage
Casey Jones - Grateful Dead
Johnny B. Goode - Grateful Dead
Side 5
Introduction - Bill Graham
Keep Your Lamps Trimmed And Burnin' - Hot Tuna
Incident At Nashabur - Santana
In A Silent Way - Santana
Side 6
Jam Session: We Gonna Rock - Taj Mahal, Elvin Bishop, Boz Scaggs and Friends
Jam Session: Long And Tall - Taj Mahal, Elvin Bishop, Boz Scaggs and Friends
Final Night Jam Session - Nigle Noble
ROCK OF
AGES
December
28-31 1971
The Band
In the
beginning there was Ronnie Hawkins, who gathered about him members of the tribe
of the Levonites and the tribe of the Mohawks and called them the Hawks. But
then Bob rose up and appeared to many and sayeth unto the Hawks, 'Verily, Ye
must come and be my backing band now'. And because everything about the Lord
Bob was completely definitive, the Hawks became just 'The Band', causing much
confusion in the far future when the need for 'a disambiguated Google search'
had not occurred to any of the prophets. But eventually The Band went forth
into the world of men and created their own music. And the world saw that it
was good. And then The Band founded a new movement which they called
'Americana'. Now Americana was a double-edged sword, for whilst the followers
of the true path, such as The Band themselves and the disciple Tom-who-Waits
made good stuff, it also gave rise to the utterly dull and pointless Eagles.
And so it was with much irony that the Hawks begat the Eagles.
So I
enjoyed this quite a lot. It's proper
songs. STORY songs. And nothing too long and drawn-out either. It also has an
added patina of quality in that a set of top-notch New York jazz musicians (including 'Snooky' Young and Earl McIntyre - they don't make em like that any more) make
up the horn section, and the extra dimension added is well worth it. The
melancholy and traditional air that this adds to all the songs really helps
define that Americana tag. I can't really pick out too much for special
attention, but 'The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down' deserves a blog post in
its own right (and believe me, there are several such). In the current age it’s
a compelling and confusing song. Riddled with contradictions. Written from the
point of view of a defeated Confederate soldier by a Canadian of native
American Mohawk descent, it is mournful and sentimental whilst being
non-judgmental about the reasons behind the American Civil War. Levon Helm was
the only band member from the South (Arkansas) and so he provides the authentic
vocal. With recent debates about tearing down statues, it provides another
point of view I guess. I'm sure it has been misappropriated at some point (some even accuse Joan Baez of treating it a bit shoddily), but it's
hard not to love it, of only for the feeling that it might actually date back to
1865. There's also 'This Wheel's On Fire', which to my shame I didn't realize was a Dylan/Danko composition. For me, Julie Driscoll is definitive. I understand that 'The Genetic Method' and 'Chest Fever' are important parts of Band lore, but I could have done without it, not least because Garth Hudson incorporates the tune to Auld Lang Syne since it was recorded on December 31st. In my childhood the correct words, as written by Burns were drilled into me by my Lochaber-raised father and his ex-pat cronies, and so the almost-always-heard 'for the sake of' is guaranteed to drive me up the wall.
Band Bantz: We appear to come in mid-way through, but maybe not, as the horns are introduced as 'trying something we've never done before'
Heckles And Coughs: Some indistinct requests, which may or may not have been responded to. The audience are quite respectful, there's that applause-after-the-first-line thing
Side 1
Introduction
Don't Do It
King Harvest (Has Surely Come)
Caledonia Mission
Get Up Jake
W.S.Walcott Medicine Show
Side 2
Stage Fright
The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down
Across The Great Divide
This Wheel's On Fire
Rag Mama Rag
Side 3
The Weight
The Shape I'm In
The Unfaithful Servant
Life Is A Carnival
Side 4
The Genetic Method
Chest Fever
(I Don't Want To) Hang Up My Rock and Roll Shoes
Classic Live Albums - 1962 to 1969
This is a list compiled after an appeal to friends for suggestions on the greatest live albums ever released. It is undeniable that the demographic of the selectors of this list are mostly white males between the ages of 40 to 65, and it probably shows. The posts will be broken up into manageable chunks, and this is the first covering 1962 to 1969. The albums covered below are:
Live At The Apollo 1962 - James Brown (May 1962)
Live At The Star Club - The Beatles (Dec 1962)
The 'Royal Albert Hall Concert' 1966 - Bob Dylan (May 1966)
Iconic Performances From The Monterey International Pop Festival - Various (June 1967)
Kick Out The Jams - MC5 (October 1968)
Bless It's Pointed Little Head - Jefferson Airplane (November 1968)
At San Quentin - Johnny Cash (February 1969)
Live/Dead - The Grateful Dead (March 1969)
Live At Woodstock - Jimi Hendrix (August 1969)
A few features I've introduced for these reviews:
Band Bantz - Any notable utterances from the performers
Heckles and Coughs - Any notable contributions from the audience
Live At The Apollo 1962
James Brown and the Famous Flames
October 24th 1962
They knew how to introduce an act back in 1962 Harlem. Here comes Fats Gonder introducing "The hhhhardes' workin' man in showbins", along with lots more well deserved hyperbole. Well the g.f. of s. may work hard, but he doesn't necessarily put in a long shift, he knocks this out in 30 minutes, and that includes over 10 minutes of 'Lost Someone'. It's exciting, tight and efficient and the musicians know their business. You never know with a live how much editing has gone on, but it does seem like James and the Flames just transition from one song to the next without a pause. After reassuring everyone that he feels alright (they guessed) Brown spends most of the time yowling like a tomcat, but there's a touch of subtlety too. He does slow it down for passages of 'Lost Someone'. He finishes with 'Night Train', which Fats promised the punters at the start. The whole thing captures the atmosphere of the night perfectly. It sounds fraught, sweaty and and a not entirely pleasant, which is probably the point.
Band Bantz - No time for any chit-chat. Brown is on a mission. He does however orchestrate the screams like a conductor and the audience are happy to play along, starting and stopping to order.
Heckles and Coughs - There's plenty of audience participation and a lot of shouting out, but nothing very audible.
The 'Royal Albert Hall Concert'
Bob Dylan
May 17th 1966
Or more accurately 'The Bootleg Series Vol. 4: Bob Dylan Live 1966, The "Royal Albert Hall" Concert. Or even more accurately the not recorded at the Royal Albert Hall at all, but at the Manchester Free Trade Hall concert. I find Dylan challenging enough without all these layers of confusion to contend with. This is the concert with the most famous heckle in the history of Rock and Roll, except on the recordings served up by Spotify it's not there, and the 'electric' songs appear to have been brutally edited for any interjections from either the audience or Dylan. But I'm getting ahead of myself. This is a double, with an acoustic set to start. Bob, harmonica and guitar and then the electric set with the Hawks (later the Band) on the second disc. Background reading tells me that the audience were pretty bad tempered after the jack plug had been inserted in the socket, but it doesn't come across here. Certainly, for the acoustic set they respectfully applaud after each song (no cheering) and there's none of: Bob sings the first line. Everyone realises what it is. Everyone goes into raptures. For my part, I'm glad he resorted to some amplification. Bob is a tough sell for me and the added interest of a full band performance distracts from his already distracting vocal style. I guess I have fairly modern ears and it can be hard to appreciate his importance from this far away. And had I been around in May 1966, I would almost certainly have been more interested in the doings of Roberts Moore and Charlton than Zimmerman. On the acoustic songs he's wordy, he's first and foremost a poet after all, and the musical accompaniment is mostly quite simple and straightforward. I was going to take him to task for some of the lyrics on 'Fourth Time Around', like when he resorts to straightforward rhymes like Rum, Come and Some, but then he confounded me by not doing it later on when he could have. It almost takes you by surprise when you realise that he's still on 'Desolation Row' 10 minutes down the line. But there is a lot to take in and the impression is that he makes his voice wilfully nasal and ugly, especially on 'Mr Tambourine Man'. The audience may not have approved but the band performance on the second disc is outstanding. Rock music (as opposed to Rock and Roll) was not so much in it's infancy in May 1966 as embyronic, so you can kind of understand that it was a shock to hear this loud, free-form, clattery music from an artist known for his carefully crafted lyrics and serious approach. You can imagine most of the audience were sitting there in their dark suits and ties and black square-framed specs and stroking their goatees (they're mainly men of course) 'appreciating' Bob's craft, and then he starts making all this fucking awful noise, with drums and organs and all that. What a betrayal. To me it sounds at least 5 years ahead of it's time. The J-word was deployed at the start of the final song 'Like A Rolling Stone' and all it achieves is to prompt Dylan and his band to rip the song up even more after telling them to "play it fuckin' loud'. You don't hear that on the version I listened to, but here's the footage:
The end of the album is quite odd. It all goes quiet and you wonder what is coming next, but then the National Anthem strikes up. It's a minor disappointment that we aren't treated to Bob singing "God SAVE our grAAAcious QuEEEEN! Long LIVE our nOOOOOOBle QuEEEEN" (it's very hard to render his vocal style in words).
Band Bantz; Besides the contretemps before 'Rolling Stone', about the only other thing is his "Thank you" at the end.
Heckles And Coughs: Fully covered above. The recording on Spotify gives the impression the audience were half asleep.
Live At The Apollo 1962 - James Brown (May 1962)
Live At The Star Club - The Beatles (Dec 1962)
The 'Royal Albert Hall Concert' 1966 - Bob Dylan (May 1966)
Iconic Performances From The Monterey International Pop Festival - Various (June 1967)
Kick Out The Jams - MC5 (October 1968)
Bless It's Pointed Little Head - Jefferson Airplane (November 1968)
At San Quentin - Johnny Cash (February 1969)
Live/Dead - The Grateful Dead (March 1969)
Live At Woodstock - Jimi Hendrix (August 1969)
A few features I've introduced for these reviews:
Band Bantz - Any notable utterances from the performers
Heckles and Coughs - Any notable contributions from the audience
James Brown and the Famous Flames
October 24th 1962
They knew how to introduce an act back in 1962 Harlem. Here comes Fats Gonder introducing "The hhhhardes' workin' man in showbins", along with lots more well deserved hyperbole. Well the g.f. of s. may work hard, but he doesn't necessarily put in a long shift, he knocks this out in 30 minutes, and that includes over 10 minutes of 'Lost Someone'. It's exciting, tight and efficient and the musicians know their business. You never know with a live how much editing has gone on, but it does seem like James and the Flames just transition from one song to the next without a pause. After reassuring everyone that he feels alright (they guessed) Brown spends most of the time yowling like a tomcat, but there's a touch of subtlety too. He does slow it down for passages of 'Lost Someone'. He finishes with 'Night Train', which Fats promised the punters at the start. The whole thing captures the atmosphere of the night perfectly. It sounds fraught, sweaty and and a not entirely pleasant, which is probably the point.
Band Bantz - No time for any chit-chat. Brown is on a mission. He does however orchestrate the screams like a conductor and the audience are happy to play along, starting and stopping to order.
Heckles and Coughs - There's plenty of audience participation and a lot of shouting out, but nothing very audible.
Intro
I'll Go Crazy
Try M
e
Think
I Don't Mind
Lost Someone
Medley - Please, Please, Please/You've Got the Power/I Found Someone/Why Do You Do Me/I Want You So Bad/I Love You, Yes I Do/Strange Things Happen/Bewildered/Please, Please, Please"
Night Train
Live At The Star Club, Hamburg
The Beatles
December 1962
I'm probably not going to say anything about this that hasn't already been said. Historically fascinating but a recording quality that suggests the reel to reel used might have been located at the bottom of the Star Club fish tank. It's suggested that this was recorded just before the Beatles played in Hamburg for the last time. Ringo not Best on drums and only two Lennon/McCartney songs in the set as presented. I say that as, unsurprisingly, these recordings have a checkered history and the final version I listened to on YouTube is a condensed version of a much larger set of source material. There's 26 songs here and it only takes them an hour and 10 minutes to get through them. If you've seen anything about the early days in Hamburg (my preferred source is the movie Backbeat) then you'll know what to expect. Energetic, hoarse, powerful performances of Rock and Roll covers. It's funny I think that the Beatles live reputation is so patchy. We know about this dues-paying period, the Cavern, the TV and radio appearances, Shea Stadium and the roof of the Apple building, but their legacy is almost completely built on their studio output and not their live prowess. What makes it even odder is that from this they clearly knew their business. But it was a different time. Album - Tour - Album - Tour hadn't really become the done thing (albums were only in their infancy). The Beatles finally gained the rights to these recordings after they had
been doing the rounds as bootlegs for a while and would probably have
preferred that they had never surfaced in the first place. The story goes that John gave permission for the recording verbally, which obviously kept some lawyers in gainful employment for several years.
Band Bantz - There is lots, but I'm not going to sit jumping around a 1 hour 10 minute YouTube clip trying to decipher it through the static and aural fog, They do address the crowd in German and English.
Heckles And Coughs - Too much of this, drowning out the performance in places.
Intro/I Saw Her Standing There
Roll Over Beethoven
Hippy Hippy Shake
Sweet Little Sixteen
Lend Me Your Comb
Your Feet's Too Big
Twist And Shout
Mr Moonlight
A Taste Of Honey
Besame Mucho
Reminiscing
Kansas City/Hey Hey Hey
Nothin' Shakin' (But The Leaves On The Trees)
To Know Her Is To Love Her
Little Queenie
Falling In Love Again (Can't Help It)
Ask Me Why
Be-Bop-A-Lula
Hallelujah I Love Her
Red Sails In The Sunset
Everybody's Trying To Be My Baby
Matchbox
I'm Talking About You
Shimmy Like Kate
Long Tall Sally
I Remember You
Bob Dylan
May 17th 1966
Or more accurately 'The Bootleg Series Vol. 4: Bob Dylan Live 1966, The "Royal Albert Hall" Concert. Or even more accurately the not recorded at the Royal Albert Hall at all, but at the Manchester Free Trade Hall concert. I find Dylan challenging enough without all these layers of confusion to contend with. This is the concert with the most famous heckle in the history of Rock and Roll, except on the recordings served up by Spotify it's not there, and the 'electric' songs appear to have been brutally edited for any interjections from either the audience or Dylan. But I'm getting ahead of myself. This is a double, with an acoustic set to start. Bob, harmonica and guitar and then the electric set with the Hawks (later the Band) on the second disc. Background reading tells me that the audience were pretty bad tempered after the jack plug had been inserted in the socket, but it doesn't come across here. Certainly, for the acoustic set they respectfully applaud after each song (no cheering) and there's none of: Bob sings the first line. Everyone realises what it is. Everyone goes into raptures. For my part, I'm glad he resorted to some amplification. Bob is a tough sell for me and the added interest of a full band performance distracts from his already distracting vocal style. I guess I have fairly modern ears and it can be hard to appreciate his importance from this far away. And had I been around in May 1966, I would almost certainly have been more interested in the doings of Roberts Moore and Charlton than Zimmerman. On the acoustic songs he's wordy, he's first and foremost a poet after all, and the musical accompaniment is mostly quite simple and straightforward. I was going to take him to task for some of the lyrics on 'Fourth Time Around', like when he resorts to straightforward rhymes like Rum, Come and Some, but then he confounded me by not doing it later on when he could have. It almost takes you by surprise when you realise that he's still on 'Desolation Row' 10 minutes down the line. But there is a lot to take in and the impression is that he makes his voice wilfully nasal and ugly, especially on 'Mr Tambourine Man'. The audience may not have approved but the band performance on the second disc is outstanding. Rock music (as opposed to Rock and Roll) was not so much in it's infancy in May 1966 as embyronic, so you can kind of understand that it was a shock to hear this loud, free-form, clattery music from an artist known for his carefully crafted lyrics and serious approach. You can imagine most of the audience were sitting there in their dark suits and ties and black square-framed specs and stroking their goatees (they're mainly men of course) 'appreciating' Bob's craft, and then he starts making all this fucking awful noise, with drums and organs and all that. What a betrayal. To me it sounds at least 5 years ahead of it's time. The J-word was deployed at the start of the final song 'Like A Rolling Stone' and all it achieves is to prompt Dylan and his band to rip the song up even more after telling them to "play it fuckin' loud'. You don't hear that on the version I listened to, but here's the footage:
The end of the album is quite odd. It all goes quiet and you wonder what is coming next, but then the National Anthem strikes up. It's a minor disappointment that we aren't treated to Bob singing "God SAVE our grAAAcious QuEEEEN! Long LIVE our nOOOOOOBle QuEEEEN" (it's very hard to render his vocal style in words).
Band Bantz; Besides the contretemps before 'Rolling Stone', about the only other thing is his "Thank you" at the end.
Heckles And Coughs: Fully covered above. The recording on Spotify gives the impression the audience were half asleep.
Solo Acoustic
She Belongs To Me
Fourth Time Around
Visions Of Johanna
It's All Over Now, Baby Blue
Desolation Row
Just Like A Woman
Mr. Tambourine Man
With The Hawks
Tell Me Momma
I Don't Believe You (She Acts Like We Have Never Met)
Baby Let Me Follow You Down
Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues
Leopard Skin Pill Box Hat
One Too Many Mornings
Ballad Of A Thin Man
Like A Rolling Stone
ICONIC PERFORMANCES FROM THE MONTEREY INTERNATIONAL POP FESTIVAL
Various Artists
June 16-18 1967
The problem for me with a 'Various Artists' album is that I feel duty bound to give attention to every song, whereas with a single artist I can conveniently ignore anything on which I can't find an angle. Fortunately the content here is pretty rich, so it's not too much of a challenge. Considering this was an outdoors event the quality of the recordings is very good and first up we have Buffalo Springfield drifting in on the breeze with 'For What It's Worth'. To my shame I know little of Buffalo Springfield beyond this song and the involvement of Neil Young, but this is a chilled performance, I imagine them occupying a spot around 3pm on the Saturday afternoon, while everyone has a doze. Young wasn't there so David Crosby sat in. The Paul Butterfield Blues Band put in 'Driftin' Blues', which lives up to it's name. Now, I know that some commenters on these posts are tie-dyed-in-the-wool fans of the Grateful Dead, so I must step carefully on 'Cold Rain And Snow'. Another band that have so far eluded anything but passing attention from me. Does Garcia always sing like that or was there some kind of vibrating stage set up that gives him that quaver? Grace Slick suffers from it a bit later on as well. Anyway, you'll be glad to know that I enjoyed the song. Next a barely audible (at first) Simon and Garfunkel with 'The Sounds Of Silence'. I've tried to figure out who is singing the 'lead' and who is providing the harmonies. I'm going for Garfunkel on lead. It's a bulletproof song and they perform it well, although Garfunkel shouts out 'FOOLS! said I you do not know", as if Paul has just pinched his bum. Laura Nyro puts in a great performance of 'Poverty Train'. Love the drum brushes simulating the steam engine. There's a terrific piece of jump jive from The Electric Flag with 'Wine' and then we get Jefferson Airplane's White Rabbit, which might contain drug references. Not sure. Next up, 'Ball and Chain' by Big Brother and the Holding Company and Janis Joplin, whom I think we can assume may have been quite difficult to keep up with if you were enjoying a few sherbets with her. It's certainly a big performance. Joss Stone can only dream of that level of commitment. The Who do 'My Generation', a remarkable song if only because it seems to be going so fast that it's tripping over its own feet. How the band manage to hold it together for the duration is a minor miracle, vocals, guitar and drums all appear to be in a breakneck race to the finish line. Didn't enjoy Hugh Masakela much. I mean the trumpet playing is fine, but the singing on 'Bajabule Bonke (The Healing Song)' feels more like kill than cure. Otis Redding seems knackered at the start of 'I've Been Loving You Too Long (To Stop Now)' but it's a great performance and he seems to have both the band and crowd onside. Hendrix does 'Like A Rolling Stone', warning the crowd that he's about to bore them for about 6 or 7 minutes. What a git, I bet they asked for their money back. It's the usual extraordinary set of noises that he manages to coax and bludgeon out of his guitar. He's utterly cheerful throughout, chuckling all the way through. And finally we get The Mamas and The Papas with 'California Dreamin' They must have been what amounted to the headline act since band member was an organizer. It's actually a bit of a rough performance when you consider their reputation for close harmony. The whole event probably heralded the oncoming Summer Of Love and was important for Joplin, Redding, Hendrix and The Who and this is a pretty enjoyable digest of some good performances.
Band Bantz: There's plenty and much of it sounds touchingly retro. Hendrix proclaims "Yeah, I dig brother" and declares the event "Really outta sight", while Mama Cass notes that it has been "so groovy", there have been "good vibrations" and the naysayers have been getting "up tight".
Heckles and Coughs: Otis gets the most out of the audience. He can definitely hear them say "yeah!"
For What Its Worth - Buffalo Springfield
Driftin Blues - The Paul Butterfield Blues Band
Cold Rain And Snow - Grateful Dead
The Sounds Of Silence - Simon and Garfunkel
Poverty Train - Laura Nyro
Wine - The Electric Flag
White Rabbit - Jefferson Airplane
Ball And Chain - Big Brother And The Holding Company and Janis Joplin
My Generation - The Who
Bajabula Bonke (The Healing Song)
I've Been Loving You Too Long (To Stop Now) - Otis Redding
Like A Rolling Stone - Jimi Hendrix
California Dreamin - The Mamas and The Papas
Kick Out The Jams
30-31st October 1968
MC5
This is the joy of doing these kind of blogs. We almost don't notice in the modern day that way back when, if you wanted to hear an album you either had to have a mate who owned it, or you had to go out and buy it yourself. Record libraries were an option I guess, but the inherent abuse suffered by the vinyl as it passed through dozens of sweaty hands of people with no reason to respect it meant that the quality was always going to be a problem. Now you can access pretty much anything (apart from a good chunk of Ringo Starr's back catalogue, but that's another story) and so the whole of musical history is available to you for a small monthly fee. That means I can compile a list of albums and immediately start working my way through them. The point I'm groping toward is that I would never normally have listened to this. In fact I was honestly unaware of MC5 at all and when they were suggested for inclusion I blanched a little inside and wondered what the hell I was going to encounter. For a start the band name itself isn't very 1968 is it? More suited to a gangster-rapper. And I didn't know the person who suggested it, so they could have just been making mischief. I knew the title track vaguely from the Blue Oyster Cult version (still to come) so I think I was vaguely aware that it would be fairly forthright, loud rock, and background reading told me that MC5 were 'proto-punk' (more alarm bells). Anyway, I needn't have worried. Clearly hugely influential, despite their short-lived reign of terror and about as un-1968 a sound as you could possibly imagine. I'm going to take issue with the 'proto-punk' label. This lot clearly paved the way for heavy rock, metal and thrash, while I think we have to credit the New York Dolls and the Ramones as the founding fathers of punk. It's visceral, exciting, noisy, rampant, political and not a little terrifying. I think that's an attempt at a falsetto on the vocal to the opening 'Rambling Rose', although possibly he's just got his gonads in a vice. There isn't a lot of point in trying to overly analyze the songs I think. It's mostly about being outrageous, sticking it to The Man and maximising the volume, but it is clear that they are a pretty tight outfit for all the raggedy edges. Recorded at the Grande Ballroom in Detroit, although not too many quicksteps possible to this particular beat.
Band Bantz: Is there an echo in here? Everything seems to require immediate repetition. It's the fire and brimstone evangelist preacher approach. Rev. Springsteen occasionally plays that game too. They whip the crowd up into a frenzy. Apparently the most famous quote of the original album is the opening to 'Kick Out The Jams' in which the Melon Farmer bomb was dropped. It's not on the Spotify version, probably since the record company cut it from the original recording too. They have lots more to say, most notably at the start of 'Motor City Is Burning' - "Brothers and Sisters! I wanna tell ya something. I hear a lotta talk. By a lot of honkys. Sitting on a lotta money. Tellin' me they're High Society. But I'll let ya know somethin'. If you ask me this is the High Society. This is the High Society!"
Heckles and Coughs: The punters can't compete with the band. They just acclaim everything they hear.
Intro/Ramblin' Rose
Kick Out The Jams
Come Together
Rocket Reducer No. 62 - Talk/
Borderline
Motor City Is Burning
I Want You Right Now
Starship
Bless Its Pointed Little Head
October - November 1968
Jefferson Airplane
Jefferson Airplane belong to a category of American bands that are known and appreciated in the UK but I don't think they ever really captured the British imagination. Coming up right after this are the Grateful Dead who have a similar profile (I would contend). And I'll be honest, they don't really capture my imagination on the strength of this either. It's all a little generic, woozy and unfocused. Which is not to say it's awful or unenjoyable, I've had no problem with repeat listens. A stand-out, probably because of its familiarity as well as anything else is 'Somebody To Love', which is like one of those 'magic eye' pictures that were all the rage 20 years or so ago, where you had to look at what first appeared to be a confusing pattern, cross your eyes and go into a trance-state before you could see a 3-D image of a dolphin (or at least a flat dolphin slightly raised from the page). So 'Somebody To Love' starts out like a jumbled auditory ramble but suddenly resolves itself into a familiar song. Just like the pictures, JA seem to find it hard to sustain the illusion and as each verse comes along you lose concentration and the confusion reappears. But its a great song nonetheless and has that urgency in the chorus that characterises virtually nothing else on this album. It's followed by the meandering, spaced out 'Fat Angel', where everyone is getting high and having their minds blown to a background of Indian tablas and sitars. In other places they deliver some pretty straightforward blues songs ('Rock Me Baby') and some good rockin'-out jams ('It's No Secret' and 'Plastic Fantastic Lover'). These were recorded at the Fillmore (East and West) and blog post number 2 in this series will focus heavily on performances at the Fillmore up to it's closure.
Band Bantz: 'Turn Out The Lights' seems to be an impromptu celebration that Grace has finally managed to convince the lighting crew to dim the house lights so that the audience can appreciate the on-stage illumination.
Heckles And Coughs: The intro is a bit strange, the audience seem to be watching the end of King Kong and are intermittently booing and cheering. Whether this is to show their support for Kong or the Airplanes is unclear. I guess it indicates that Jefferson Airplane were playing with a little theatricality before they made their entrance - or maybe they just showed the movie to the crowd while they waited for the band.
Side 1
Clergy
3/5 Of A Mile In 10 Seconds
Somebody To Love
Fat Angel
Rock Me Baby
Side 2
The Other Side Of This Life
It's No Secret
Plastic Fantastic Lover
Turn Out The Lights
Bear Melt
Live/Dead
At San Quentin
February 24th 1969
Johnny Cash
The perfect storm of Cash playing a concert at a penitentiary. And
clearly it's a calculating move on his part as it keys in perfectly with the
mythology of his own image. In this case the interaction with the audience is
easily as important as the performance itself and, if you'll pardon the phrase,
Cash walks a very fine line to perfection, managing to transmit respect to
everyone in the room. Cash has plenty of suitable material up his sleeve but
leaves it open to the old lags to holler out requests. He does a very short
version of Walk The Line. That humming he does between verses, which is on the
studio versions as well, is him finding the key each time, probably just
landing on what he thinks is right for that moment. June Carter and Carl
Perkins are there too, so woebetide any punter who complained about getting not
value for their entrance fee. I have no idea of what level of security of
inmate they were playing to, but they are pretty respectful to the few women in
the room. He airs his new song about San Quentin, which the audience lap up
"San Quentin, I hate every inch of you", "Mr Congressman, you
can't understand", "San Quentin, May you rot and burn in hell",
but there is acute scathing insight too, "Do you think I'll be different
when you're through?" he sings and claims he will emerge "a wiser and
weaker man". How he quite got away with such blatant rabble rousing is a
mystery - and he does it twice through as well. This includes the version of 'A
Boy Named Sue' that is most often heard. The inmates love the violence, and the
swearing. He and June so immediately soothe the atmosphere with 'Peace In The
Valley'. He finishes with 'Folsom Prison Blues'.
Band Bantz: Cash is on top form and connects with the audience like a
master. He's funny and self deprecating. He thanks the governor and guards,
which results in swelling jeers, to which he says "Aww. You don't really
mean that". He also tells of how he was fined $36 and banged up for
picking flowers. The inmates can relate because clearly they are also locked up
for things like stroking a cat, whistling a merry tune or helping an old lady
across the road.
Heckles and Coughs: They may be hardened criminals, but Cash keeps them
in line. An incoherent song request is met with "I didn't hear what you said
because I was talking". Classy.
Wanted Man
Wreck Of The Old 97
I Walk The Line
Darlin' Companion
Starkville City Jail
San Quentin
San Quentin (again)
A Boy Named Sue
(There'll Be) Peace In The Valley
Folsom Prison Blues
January - March 1969
The Grateful Dead
Whatever album I'm on, it quite often forms the soundtrack to my thrice-weekly self inflicted torture of a 5 km run. The mind is left clear by the physical activity to absorb the music and form thoughts, drag up memories and allow the forging of some wordplay around the experience. I'll rarely finish an album in the 30 minutes it takes me to cover the distance, but I usually get a fair way through. For the Grateful Dead I was just approaching the door at the end of the run and second track 'St. Stephen' was finally getting into its stride. So I'm thinking that the Dead are a band that you have to savour. Like a fine wine, you are not expected to gulp this stuff down, and the band are only going to feed it to you in small portions so that your experience is as protracted as they can manage. They clearly have the audience's best interests at heart and will not allow you to gorge yourself on such rich fare. This is a double and 'Dark Star' takes up all of side 1. In fact there are only 7 tracks on the entire thing and one of those is the 36 second 'And We Bid You Good Night'. Not that I'd know, but the literature informs me that this is considered something of a pivotal piece in Deadhead lore. To me it is a pleasant enough guitar noodling ramble that I'm sure the live experience and it's attendant pharmacological enhancements would have added several extra dimensions. When it finally arrives 'Saint Stephen' seems like a piece of fluffy pop in comparison, for all that it tops 6 minutes in length. Their bluesier numbers of 'Turn On Your Love Light' and 'Death Don't Have No Mercy' both feel very technically pure and crafted. Love Ron 'Pigpen' McKernan's twinkling, precise organ throughout the latter. AllMusic tells me that 'Feedback' was a fairly typical show-ending at the time. I daresay it takes some skill to control the effect in that way, but is it art? So evidently this is why the Dead are important. They introduced the concept of the extended, rock virtuoso jam. Now that presents fewer problems on a live album than on studio work, but the conclusion has to be that "You had to be there, maaan". I'm sure the live experience amounts to more than just seeing the band on stage and doing what they did and so listening to a recording of a live show is missing a bit of the special sauce. I guess I'm skirting around saying, it's fine, but it's not grab-you-in-the-nethers-and-transport-you-to-the-promised-land stuff. It certainly isn't the best music for running 5K on a cloudy morning at the Pembrokeshire coast, Jerry and the guys added almost 2 minutes on my normal time (along with that steep hill outside Aberaeron). A small-ish claim to fame is also that this is the first live album to use 16-track recording, and the quality of the sound on it is exceptional. Also, this is yet another recorded at the Fillmore (West).
Band Bantz: They are taciturn. The audience are advised to "keep it on" having had their Love Lights activated.
Heckles And Coughs: Not much to report. Maybe the crowd were too bombed or just beaten into submission. There is a fair amount of whooping during 'Turn On Your Love Light' which is admittedly quite a lot of fun for a 15 minute blues riff.
Side 1
Dark Star
Side 2
St. Stephen
The Eleven
Side 3
Turn On Your Love Light
Side 4
Death Don't Have No Mercy
Feedback
And We Bid You Goodnight
Live At Woodstock
18th August 1969
The Jimi Hendrix Experience
As I write this, I am currently on my annual holiday. We are
usually joined by my father-in-law, Tony, who is 78 or thereabouts, I forget.
It was my turn to cook the other night so I put this on while I pottered around
the kitchen. Whilst he never said anything, I could read his thoughts about the
infernal racket coming out of the speaker. Made me feel like a teenager again.
Anyway, pretty soon after there was some classical CD getting a loud airing in
the other room. Jimi Hendrix is so extraordinarily different from any other
artists. His purpose seems to be to push both his guitar to the limits of what
can be done with it and the audience to the limits of what they can endure. The
guitar screams either in agony or ecstasy, you are left to decide for yourself
I think. I think my first memory associated with Jimi Hendrix was to do with my
brother’s awe that he could play his guitar, with his teeth, behind his head
and while it was on fire. That’s showmanship. I needed to include something of
Woodstock on this list and I needed to include something of Jimi too. This
marks the end of the first instalment of this series of blogs and it seems
fitting that both event and artist represent the climax of the sixties and all
its excess and inventiveness. The first
half of this is what I (in my ignorance probably) would count as less well
known stuff, ‘Message To Love’, ‘Hear My Train A Comin’’, ‘Spanish Magic Castle’,
‘Red House’ and ‘Lover Man’. This last is particularly frenetic. Jimi sings (or
more-like chants), but that bit is hardly important, it’s the spiralling blues
jams and uber-distorted noise that matter. During ‘Spanish Magic Castle’ there’s
a drum and bass break during which he just chugs away at his guitar in the
background, and it’s still weirdly fascinating.
Then he moves on the stuff the layman is more likely to
associate with him. There’s the crashing, magnificent ‘Foxey Lady’ which at
moments he seems to pull back from the brink of collapsing into utter chaos.
Voodoo Child (Slight Return) (Spotify says ‘Child’, but it’s usually billed as ‘Chile’
isn’t it? – leading to my confusion when I was young that it should be
pronounced “Voodoo Chilli”, which makes a sort of sense anyway) gives him an
opportunity through the causally repeated riff to introduce the band. Hendrix
is probably not considered an overtly political artist, but of course this includes
his scorching rendition of ‘Star Spangled Banner’. Make of it what you will, a
sly poke at the establishment, reclaiming the song for his generation or an out
and out criticism dressed up as national pride (do you know how hard it is for
me to not mention Born In The USA here?...Oops). Probably all of the above but notably,
everyone knows the words, but no-one is singing along.
By the time he gets to ‘Purple Haze’ he seems to have
announced the end of the performance, but there is no evidence that he has left
the stage and come on for an encore, the numbers just flow on from each other
now, all the way through to ‘Villanova Junction’, when he does appear to have
gone off before coming back to nail ‘Hey Joe’.
The Jimi Hendrix Experience headlined probably the most
famous and significant festival ever, and on the evidence of this recording
(which benefits from top-notch quality – whatever the audience thought about
the mic levels – they were correct for the recording) they were the right band
at the right time.
Band Bantz: Jimi Hendrix seems to be the dead 27-year-old
that everyone agrees didn’t deserve to die because he was so sweet natured.
Here he is endlessly concerned that the performance is perfect for his
audience. He pauses to tune up after every song and doesn’t mistake volume for
quality. Just like at Monterey, he worries that the punters will get bored
while he amuses himself, thanks them for their patience and admits to nerves. At
the end of Voodoo Chile he advises that folk can leave if they want to since
they are ‘just jammin’’. He introduces the Experience under a new name, which
is (I think) Gypsy, Sun and Rainbows. He announces ‘Hear My Train A Comin’’ as “Something
to get the rats out of your bones” (again, I may have misheard). It probably
would at that.
Heckles and Coughs: “Wanna get high?” They shout at the
start. “I have mine thankyou” replies the ever-polite Hendrix. After ‘Hear My
Train..’ they plead for the voice to be turned up. Jimi does his best to
oblige.
Introduction (Live At Woodstock)
Message To Love
Hear My Train A’ Comin’
Spanish Magic Castle
Red House
Lover Man
Foxey Lady
Jam Back At The House
Izabella
Fire
Voodoo Child (Slight Return)
Star Spangled Banner
Purple Haze
Woodstock Improvisation
Villanova Junction
Hey Joe