Doing the Cabo Wabo
Fifteen or so years ago, when I was still married, the ex and I took a weeklong trip to Cabo San Lucas. Coming from the deserts of Southern California, we were ill-equipped to handle the brutal humidity we found there. But the subsequent sweatfest was only the beginning of the fun.
A couple of nights into the trip, we made the obligatory trip to Sammy Hagar’s bar, Cabo Wabo, where mucho drinking ensued, natch. The bar was way crowded and at some point another couple ended up at our table. They seemed decent enough, so we had drinks with them. Then at some point before closing time, they disappeared. When the tab appeared, guess who hadn’t paid? The ex and I were young, drunk, and in love, and decided, fuck this: We threw our share on the table and beat it out the door.
This might seem hard to believe, but in Cabo there’s not much to do at night except drink. So, a couple of nights after the discrepancy with the tab, we found ourselves headed back at Cabo Wabo. You would think that in a town filled with gringo tourists, one would pretty much look like another. No way. Cabo Wabo’s managers and bouncers were on us before we could even sit down.
“You skipped out on your bill,” they said.
“Wtf?” we said.
Our explanation of being stiffed by the other couple seemed to hold no
agua with these guys and they promised there would be police involvement if we didn’t pay up.
After a brief conference, we decided it would be in our best interest to pay the tab and consider it a lesson learned. I forked over a credit card, signed as appropriate, and managed to look sufficiently contrite as the manager told us we were not welcome back in his bar.
And that, my friends, is the story of how I was banned for life from Cabo Wabo.
This track comes from Van Halen’s 1993 album,
Live: Right Here, Right Now.
You Really Got Me / Cabo Wabo.mp3 Labels: guitar heroes, live albums, rock
'Last Night On Earth'
I kinda-sorta remember seeing Green Day play live on some New Year’s countdown show a couple of nights ago. What continues to impress me is the power of the band in a live setting. While the albums have become increasingly grown up (I’m not saying that’s a bad thing – how many more songs about masturbation do we really need?), Green Day live are still the sneering kids we loved 15 years ago.
A couple of months ago Green Day dropped a Japan-only live EP,
Last Night On Earth (Live In Tokyo), that pulls in some of that live energy and offers a brief career retrospective. The six-song disk opens with “21st Century Breakdown” and finishes a quick 20 minutes later with “Geek Stink Breath.” When I looked at the track list, I thought it might be strange to hear the new “adult” stuff alongside hits from
Dookie. Funny enough, it wasn’t. It all fit together nicely.
Since this is an official release, I’m not going to post the whole EP. It saw release in the U.S. as an import last month, so I’m sure you can find the whole thing if you try.
Last of the American Girls.mp3 Basket Case.mp3 Labels: imports, live albums, punk
Steven Tyler Done With Aerosmith?
The gossip around the Internet is that Steven Tyler is leaving Aerosmith. That move, which would for all intents and purposes break up the legendary band, seemed to be confirmed in an interview Joe Perry gave the
Las Vegas Sun newspaper.
“Steven quit as far as I can tell,” Perry told the paper in an interview published Friday. “I don’t know anymore than you do about it. I got off the plane two nights ago. I saw online that Steven said that he was going to leave the band. I don’t know for how long, indefinitely or whatever. Other than that, I don’t know.”
Most of Aerosmith’s recent world tour was canceled in August after Tyler fell from the stage at a Sturgis, S.D., concert and broke his shoulder. The band members were unhappy with Tyler over the incident. However, Aerosmith salvaged the final leg of the tour, including two shows in Hawaii and one at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix before more than 50,000 fans.
Perry told the
Sun he hopes to keep Aerosmith together, with or without Tyler, but he was so stunned by recent developments he doesn’t know what’s going to happen.
Meanwhile, talk on the
AeroForceOne message boards was mostly about Tyler’s selfishness and the idea that “he's not Rod Stewart that split from the Faces while still in his 30's and had a whole career ahead of him.”
There’s no confirmation or denial from Steven Tyler at this point, other than a statement he made in an interview with
Classic Rock magazine regarding his future plans: “It's definitely going to be something Steven Tyler, working on the brand of myself — Brand Tyler.”
In my opinion, Aerosmith is past their prime and would do well to call it a day. They haven’t been able to keep it together like the Stones have and they haven’t been able to consistently turn out rock music on a par with their earlier successes. The slick pop of albums like
Just Push Play is an embarrassment to the band and to those of us who used to be fans.
Here are a couple of things from the 1991
Pandora’s Box compilation.
Lord of the Thighs (live-1978).mp3 I Wanna Know Why (live-1978).mp3 Chip Away the Stone (alt version).mp3 Helter Skelter.mp3 Labels: Aerosmith, classic rock, covers, current events, live albums, outtakes
Alice for All Hallows' Eve
Alright – here’s the deal. As you may or may not have noticed, posts have been few and far between these last few weeks. I’ll tell you the truth: I’ve kind of lost my excitement for blogging. I’ve been doing this for about three-and-a-half years. At first it was great fun and I was finding and sharing a lot of great music. Recently, though, I haven’t heard much that’s really excited me. When I feel half-arsed about the music, my lack of enthusiasm tends to come across in my posts, and as something I’m doing for fun, I don’t think I should have to fake anything.
I’ve paid for my host through June of next year, so I will continue to post until then, and continue to share new and old music that I enjoy. Once my host expires, I’ll make a decision as to whether I want to continue. Right now I’d have to say I probably won’t continue. But before you get all teary-eyed, remember that is still several months away.
With that said, Happy Halloween.
Ever since I’ve gotten too old for trick-or-treating I haven’t cared much for Halloween. Costume parties have never held an attraction for me – I usually get tired of the costume after a couple of hours and want to change. My last “costume” involved a mullet wig, which I might still have.
But since it is Halloween, I thought I could at least
post something appropriate. I dug through my CDs for one of my all-time favorite live albums,
The Alice Cooper Show.
Warner Records released
The Alice Cooper Show in December 1977, while Alice was in treatment for alcoholism. The album came from two shows recorded in August of that year at the Aladdin Hotel in Las Vegas. It was during that tour (the “King of the Silver Screen” tour) that Alice was reported to have hit his alcoholic peak, downing as much as two cases of Budweiser and a bottle of whiskey a day. You can tell on the album that he sometimes sounds a little frayed around the edges.
Under My Wheels.mp3 Is It My Body.mp3 I Never Cry.mp3 Labels: classic rock, Detroit, holiday, live albums
Stuck on 17B - Day Three-and-a-half
Woodstock organizer Michael Lang: “Jimi Hendrix wanted to close the show because the headliner does close the show. [Jimi’s] manager, Michael Jeffery, insisted. I said, ‘Listen, it’s not like that. They’re all headliners. Why don’t you go on around midnight?’
“Jeffery said no. Hendrix has to close the show. So I said, ‘OK. You got it,’ even though I knew it was not really a great spot to have, waiting up all night and knowing many of the people would have left already. On Monday morning, Hendrix did play an incredible set, but by the time he got to the stage there were only about 60,000 people left.”
Impatience became anticipation as everyone warmed to the first rays of the new rising sun. Melting rainbow watercolors seeped through the sunrise sky and inspired a new title for Jimi’s band. He walked out in to the dawn of a Gypsy Sun, with multicolor streaks stretched across the sky.
A blissful afterglow radiated over the site as his Gypsy Sun & Rainbows Band took positions on stage. It wasn’t until this moment that history could claim Woodstock as the apex of the decade.
“I see that we meet again....”from the liner notes,
Jimi Hendrix: WoodstockVoodoo Chile (Slight Return).mp3 Star Spangled Banner.mp3 Purple Haze.mp3 Labels: classic rock, current events, guitar heroes, hard rock, live albums
Stuck on 17B - Day Three
Days Two and Three at Woodstock seem to kind of blur together, with no real separation: Although technically part of Saturday, The Who didn’t go onstage until about 4 a.m. Sunday morning. Jefferson Airplane, also technically scheduled for Saturday, finally went on at around 8 a.m. Sunday.
Day Three of Woodstock officially started at 2 p.m. when Joe Cocker took the stage. The fuzziness of each days’ borders would continue – aided by the rains, which would periodically bring everything to a standstill – through to the
next morning, when Jimi Hendrix would finally close the festival at about 11 a.m.
As the Airplane took the stage, Grace Slick introduced the band with the words, “All right friends, you have seen the heavy groups, now you’ll see morning maniac music, believe me....”
Day Three performancesJefferson Airplane
Plastic Fantastic Lover.mp3White Rabbit.mp3Joe Cocker
Let’s Go Get Stoned.mp3Ten Years After
I’m Going Home.mp3The Band
The Weight.mp3Blood Sweat And Tears
Johnny Winter
Tobacco Road (w/Edgar Winter).mp3Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young
Suite: Judy Blue Eyes.mp3Sea of Madness.mp3Paul Butterfield Blues Band
Love March.mp3Sha-Na-Na
Labels: classic rock, current events, live albums, live music, Neil Young
Stuck on 17B - Day Two
I left home with friends; told my mother “I was going to a concert.” By Sunday, she had me reported as a missing person. I was one of the “mud sliders.” Oh what a feelin’. I just wanted to see Janis J. She was sooo great. We survived on the “grub” we took with us. We found people who didn't mind sharing food for some tent space to sleep and get out of the rain for a little while. I love seeing the look on peoples faces when I say, “I was at Woodstock.” Good people, good music, good memories. ~ Joni, Philadelphia, Penn.
I got pneumonia, and I got knocked up at 15. But it was the best high of my life! ~ Karen, Memphis, Tenn.
Born in New York, my sister got her license and off we went. Got stuck in the mud in some field. She kept covering my eyes with her hands because of the naked people. Boy, were our parents mad because they had to come pull us out of the mud. ~ Judy, Little Chute, Wis.
One of the most terrifying things was the predominant sound of helicopters. When you’re on acid, right in the middle of Vietnam, it was really bone chilling. We thought they were going to start dropping napalm – and of course, we believed the Government was quite capable of that shit as well. ~ David Dalton, former Rolling Stone writer.
Saturday on Yasgur’s farm started just after noon with Quill and ended sometime early Sunday morning following The Who’s set. In between were several of the greatest bands of not only that era, but of decades to come: CCR, Janis Joplin, Santana, and the Grateful Dead.
The Dead’s appearance has become notable as one of their worst performances ever, due to technical and substance problems. They turned in a five-song set, hour-and-a-half set, including a 50-minute version of “Turn On Your Lovelight”.
What’s referred to as “The Abbie Hoffman incident” is maybe the most memorable from a performance that Roger Daltrey has called “The worst gig we ever played.”
Hoffman attempted to go on stage just after the band played “Pinball Wizard.” He grabbed the mic and began to yell, “I think this is a pile of shit! While John Sinclair rots in prison....”
Already annoyed with the presence of the camera crews on stage, Pete Townshend cut Hoffman off: “Fuck off ... fuck off my stage!”
Accounts vary as to whether Townshend hit Hoffman with his guitar or merely bumped into him; regardless, he quickly ended Hoffman’s attempt at a revolutionary statement to the Woodstock Nation. Townshend said, “I can dig it,” but moments later added, “The next fucking person that walks across this stage is gonna get fucking killed!”
Day Two performancesQuill
Keef Hartley Band
Country Joe McDonald
Fish Cheer / Feel-Like-I’m-Fixin’-to-Die Rag.mp3John Sebastian
I Had a Dream.mp3Santana
Jingo.mp3Canned Heat
Going Up the Country.mp3Mountain
Theme for an Imaginary Western.mp3Grateful Dead
Creedence Clearwater Revival
Born on the Bayou.mp3Bad Moon Rising.mp3Janis Joplin with The Kozmic Blues Band
Work Me, Lord.mp3Piece of My Heart.mp3Sly & the Family Stone
I Want to Take You Higher.mp3The Who
We’re Not Gonna Take It.mp3Abbie Hoffman Incident.mp3Underture.mp3Labels: classic rock, current events, folk, hard rock, live albums, live music, rock
Stuck on 17B - Day One
Like the rest of the free world, I’m spending this weekend nostalgizing about Woodstock. Never mind that I was five years old at the time and lived at the opposite end of the country. I’m sure that, had I known about Woodstock, I would have said to my parents something along the line of, “Look, you know that bicycle I’ve been saying I wanted for my birthday? Well, I’ve got a different idea....”
Growing up in a time where there is a Fest this and a Fest that, it’s hard sometimes to understand the cultural significance of Woodstock. I’m not going to get into a whole dissertation, because that would be well beyond the realm of this blog. In 2001, Dr. Michael Doyle, at the time an assistant professor in the history department at Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana, published a 12-page paper titled “Statement on the Historical and Cultural Significance of the 1969 Woodstock Festival Site.” In that paper he wrote:
The myth of Woodstock is that in a time of military conflict abroad, racial and ethnic strife at home, when a deep social division known as the “generation gap” separated parents from children, a half a million mostly young people removed themselves from proximity to these conflicts and went “back to the garden” to “try and set [their] soul[s] free.” Attracted by the largest lineup of popular music talent ever showcased at one venue, these young people endured inclement weather, and critical shortages of food, water, shelter, dry clothing, and sanitation facilities; in sum, most of the basic necessities of life. Despite these hardships, for three days they lived peaceably in a state of harmony and love, sharing what limited resources they had with one another (my emphasis).
The sharing, the community, the peace, the love; if anything, that would be the significance and the legacy of Woodstock. That people
could come together and be together and get along. In a country reeling from an unpopular war and a generation gap never before seen, that was a powerful statement.
There are reams and reams of books, articles, Web pages, etc., on Woodstock, so I won’t go on any more about the history or whatever its significance was. For the next three or so days, I’m going to post some music from the bands and artists that performed at the festival. I won’t be able to post stuff from everyone, because I couldn’t find music from all of the bands. I drew from various sources, so in some instances the sound quality won’t be so great, but overall it’s mostly pretty good.
Day one kicked off at 5:07 p.m., with Richie Havens taking the stage. Sweetwater were supposed to be the opening act – and were supposed to have gone on at about 3:00 – but got waylaid in traffic. A very pregnant Joan Baez was the last act of the night, taking the stage at about 1 a.m.
Day One performances:Richie Havens ~
Freedom.mp3Swami Satchidananda ~ gave the invocation for the festival
Sweetwater
The Incredible String Band
Bert Sommer
Tim Hardin ~
If I Were a Carpenter.mp3Ravi Shankar
Melanie ~
Beautiful People.mp3Arlo Guthrie ~
Coming into Los Angeles.mp3Joan Baez (w/Jeffrey Shurtleff) ~
Drug Store Drivin’ Man.mp3Labels: classic rock, current events, folk, live albums, rock
‘This is a song Charles Manson stole from the Beatles...’
For my entry in the macabre post of the month sweepstakes, it was 40 years ago tonight that Charles Manson sent four of his followers to Cielo Drive in Los Angeles to commit the gruesome murders that were supposed to lay the groundwork for his vision of Helter Skelter.
As Manson interpreted it, Helter Skelter would be an apocalyptic war that would arise from tension over racial relations between blacks and whites. In his courtroom testimony, prosecution witness and Family hanger-on Paul Watkins explained how it would happen: “There would be some atrocious murders; that some of the spades from Watts would come up into the Bel-Air and Beverly Hills districts and just really wipe some people out, just cut bodies up and smear blood and write things on the wall in blood.
“So, in retaliation,” Watkins continued, “this would scare; in other words, all the other white people would be afraid that this would happen to them, so out of their fear they would go into the ghetto and just start shooting black people like crazy.”
The resultant rampage by frightened whites would be exploited by militant blacks to provoke a war of mutual near-extermination between racist and non-racist whites over the treatment of blacks. The militants would arise to finish off the few whites that had survived.
In this holocaust the members of Manson’s Family would have little to fear; they would wait out the war in a secret city underneath California’s Death Valley. As the sole remaining whites, they would emerge from underground to rule the now-satisfied blacks, who, as the vision went, would be incapable of running the world.
When you’re discussing how Manson managed to twist the Beatles’ lyrics into these bizarre ideas, your guess is as good as mine. We’re obviously not dealing with a rational mind. According to Vincent Bugliosi, prosecutor on the Manson case and author of the book “Helter Skelter,” Manson believed that the lyrics “When I get to the bottom I go back to the top of the slide / Where I stop and I turn and I go for a ride” was an obvious reference to the Family's emergence from “the Bottomless Pit” – the underground hideaway. Manson also twisted “Helter Skelter... She's coming down fast” to mean that race war was imminent.
Of course, the Beatles were shocked to learn of Manson's interpretation of their lyrics. As Ringo Starr would later say, all the Beatles ever stood for was peace, love, and harmony.
Helter Skelter.mp3 ~
The BeatlesHelter Skelter (take 2).mp3 ~
The BeatlesHelter Skelter (live).mp3 ~
U2 Helter Skelter.mp3 ~
AerosmithHelter Skelter.mp3 ~
Motley CrueHelter Skelter (live).mp3 ~
Motley CrueMy Monkey (demo).mp3 ~
Marilyn MansonHelter Skelter.mp3 ~
Henhouse ProwlersHelter Skelter (Dizmaster remix).mp3 ~
Sam Punk~~~~~
By the way, if you haven't read
"Helter Skelter" by Vincent Bugliosi, it's a fascinating and very readable account of the events leading up to the Tate/LaBianca murders and the subsequent trial. I fully recommend it to you.
Also, if you're wondering, the bottom picture is an actual
Helter Skelter.
Labels: alt.country, Beatles, classic rock, covers, glam, industrial, live albums, metal, outtakes, remix
Rockin' by Hisself
I’ve been in the mood lately to listen to rockabilly, and in addition to the classic stuff, I’ve also been listening a lot to my generation’s premier practitioner, Brian Setzer.
A disk I’ve had on the shelf a long time and never gave a proper listen to is Setzer’s 1998 solo album,
Rockin’ By Myself. I think the disk was recorded in 1993 during a show in Japan. I do know it was a Japan-only release, although the copy I have is lettered in Russian.
Setzer recorded this performance a couple of years after he started the Brian Setzer Orchestra, but this is a stripped down show: Just Brian on guitar, accompanied on a couple of songs by his brother, Gary. No band, no garnish. Setzer’s underrated talent as a rock guitarist is really on display here. Not the flash typical of some early-90s rock guitarists, but a technical skill that rarely surfaces on his studio recordings. Just listen to him tear it up on “Mystery Train” and “Be-bop-a-lula.”
Since this was technically an official release, I’ll just sample a few things and leave it to you to track down and listen to the whole disk. The tracks I picked are pretty representative of the album; there were a lot of oldies and a couple of Stray Cat songs.
Runaway Boys.mp3 Be-bop-a-lula.mp3 Rebelene.mp3 Summertime Blues.mp3 Mystery Train.mp3 Labels: covers, live albums, oldies, rockabilly
Finland Rocks
If you noticed in the “Other Media” column (conveniently located to your right), I recently watched the Bam Margera movie “Where the #$&% Is Santa?” There’s a good chance this flick will never become a classic of the road comedy genre, but there are some hilarious moments and I’m not going to say I didn’t like it.
The basic plot, if you’re interested, involves Bam Margera and his buddies taking a spur-of-the moment trip to Finland in an effort to locate Santa Claus and bring him back to Pennsylvania in time for Christmas. The group lands in Helsinki and travels north into the Lapland Region, where Santa supposedly lives (not the North Pole as most believe). I won’t spoil the movie for you by telling you whom they find.
An interesting subplot involves Bam going out of his way to visit, drink with, and listen to various Finnish rock bands, particularly the not-so-elegantly wasted Andy McCoy of Hanoi Rocks fame. Several Finnish bands – some known, some not-so-known – provide a lot of the soundtrack for the movie, which rocks like you’d expect if you’re familiar with Radio Bam on SiriusXM.
So it was “Where the #$&% Is Santa?” that got me on the Internet this morning, looking for Finnish rock bands. I managed to dig up some pretty decent information (there is a
Wikipedia entry and at least one
Website dedicated to Finnish rock music), and then managed to turn that information into actually locating some of the music and deciding to share it.
In keeping with the theme of “Where the #$&% Is Santa?”, I narrowed down to just a few bands, including a couple featured in the movie: Bullet Treatment and Turbonegro. The songs here by those two bands were both in the movie. I also dug out the Suicide Twins, which featured Andy McCoy, along with Nasty Suicide. The 69 Eyes and Children of Bodom are both Finnish rock bands, and although neither were in the movie (as far as I remember), they have been featured on various
Viva La Bands compilations that Bam has assembled. And no mention of Finnish rock would be complete without Hanoi Rocks. The two songs here come from their 1984 live album
All Those Wasted Years.
Coke Nose.mp3 ~ Bullet Treatment
What is Rock!.mp3 ~ Turbonegro
TV Eye (Iggy Pop cover).mp3 ~ The 69 Eyes
Blooddrunk.mp3 ~ Children of Bodom
Countrified Inner-City Blues.mp3 ~ the Suicide Twins
Lightnin’ Bar Blues (live).mp3 ~ Hanoi Rocks
Under My Wheels (live-Alice Cooper cover).mp3 ~ Hanoi Rocks
Labels: covers, glam, live albums, metal, punk, rock
Happy St. Patrick's Day
Happy St. Patrick’s Day.
Today seems like an appropriate day to pull out some Dropkick Murphys. And what better than a few songs from their 2002 live album,
Live on St. Patrick's Day from Boston, MA.
Live on St. Patrick's Day was recorded, obviously enough, during three shows at the Avalon Ballroom in Boston over the March 15-17 St. Patrick’s weekend. The album was released in September 2002.
The Boston St. Patrick’s shows are a long-standing DKM tradition. If you’re in the Boston area tonight, of course the Dropkick Murphys will be there, closing out a weeklong stand at the House of Blues.
If you – like me – are not in the Boston area, enjoy whatever it is you do and take care: there are going to be lots of amateur Irish out tonight.
Sláinte!
For Boston.mp3 Rocky Road to Dublin.mp3 Finnegan’s Wake.mp3 Spicy McHaggis Jig.mp3 Amazing Grace.mp3 Dirty Water.mp3 Labels: holiday, live albums, punk
Lights Out
There were a couple things behind today’s decision to post some old UFO: First, I still occasionally see hits on a
UFO post I did in September 2006 (the music is on my old host, but the links seem to still be good); next,
Strangers in the Nights is right up there as one of my all time favorite albums.
Strangers is UFO’s 1979 live album. Recorded in late 1978 at shows in Chicago, Ill., and Louisville, Ky., this disk has the band’s classic line-up of Phil Mogg, Micheal Schenker, Pete Way, Paul Raymond, and Andy Parker. Schenker left the band right after this tour ended. It has been rumored that he refused to record any overdubs for the album, which would make this an accurate account of his live guitar work.
Despite often being cited by fans and critics as
one of the best live rock albums of all time,
Strangers in the Night never charted higher than number 42 in the U.S. and number 8 in the U.K.
For me, this is one of the albums I never get tired of hearing. I bought the double vinyl release back when it first came out, then replaced it years later with the CD. Like many of my favorites, it’s hard to put my finger on the exact reason for its lasting appeal. But maybe that’s the secret of something so classic.
Out in the Street.mp3 Lights Out.mp3 Shoot Shoot.mp3Labels: classic rock, guitar heroes, live albums, rock
Thanksgiving and Hendrix's Birthday. All at once.
To those of you who celebrate it, Happy Thanksgiving. To the rest of you, today is Jimi Hendrix’s birthday, so you, too, should join in the party.
Had Hendrix lived, he would have been 66 years old today. Hard to imagine what the flamboyant guitar god would be doing now. Would he have mellowed into an elder bluesman? Or would he have become a nonstop touring nostalgia act? Sadly, we’ll never know.
To mark Jimi’s birthday, I dug out a box set released in 1990 on what would have been his 48th birthday. It’s called
Lifelines: The Jimi Hendrix Story. I skipped this back when I was doing the “Saturday Boxing” series because of the way this collection was put together.
Over the 1988 Labor Day weekend, the Westwood One Radio Network aired a program called “Jimi Hendrix – Live & Unreleased,” hosted by Bruce Gary. This
Lifelines collection is from that program and includes excerpts from several interviews with Hendrix. To me, the dialogue was annoying, interrupting the flow of some great music. As such, I’ve only listened to the entire thing once or twice, and I decided to skip it when I posted selections from my box sets.
When I was thinking about posting something for Hendrix’s birthday, I thought back to this set. I gave it another listen and decided that not only is the music great, but it’s interesting
now to hear Jimi’s thoughts. The dialogue also provides you some information about the tracks you might not otherwise have known.
With that in mind, here are a few tracks from
Lifelines: The Jimi Hendrix Story, dialogue and all. I’ve also included the liner notes for each track.
I’m a Man (live).mp3 ~ with Curtis Knight and the Squires
Recorded live in Hackensack, NJ, in December 1965. One of the earliest examples of Hendrix singing in front of a band, this Bo Diddley classic demonstrates Jimi’s blues and R&B roots – as well as how his guitar playing was already becoming quite stylized.
Drivin’ South.mp3 Recorded in the BBC’s London studios on Oct. 17, 1967, this may well be the guitar showpiece of this collection. Jimi used to perform this in the early days with Curtis Knight, but he never released his own version.
Voodoo Child (Slight Return).mp3 The original version appeared on 1968’s Electric Ladyland album. This alternate take is take four of eight takes recorded at The Record Plant in New York on May 3, 1968. Of the eight takes of “Voodoo Child (Slight Return),” take four (this one) was the longest run-through before the selected master take (number eight).
Angel (home demo).mp3 Recorded on Jimi’s portable tape deck in early 1968, while he was composing songs for the Electric Ladyland project. “Angel” wasn’t recorded properly until 1970, during sessions for what would become The Cry of Love. A very intimate glimpse into Jimi’s songwriting process.
Send My Love to Linda.mp3 Recorded at The Record Plant in New York in August 1970, this comes from one of Jimi’s last recording sessions.
I Don’t Live Today (live).mp3 Recorded live at the Los Angeles Forum – Apr. 26, 1969
[No dialogue in this track.]
Labels: classic rock, demos, guitar heroes, holiday, live albums, outtakes
I'll be a Rock 'n' Rollin' Bitch for You
I mentioned
a week or so ago that I had recently got a copy of the newly-officially-released David Bowie album
Live Santa Monica ‘72. This album is an absolute must if you’re a Bowie fan. Or even if you’re not a Bowie fan, because it's that damn good.
Santa Monica ‘72 finally saw official release on July 22 here in the States. Taken from an FM broadcast, it was available only as a bootleg for more than 20 years. Possessing a copy was the test of a “proper Bowie fan,” according to author David Buckley. There have been two previous “official” releases: One in 1994, by the UK label Golden Years, and one in 1995 by Griffin Music in the U.S.
The Santa Monica recording is generally considered a superior representation of the Ziggy Stardust concerts both in terms of sound quality and the standard of playing. This recording also features a different set list than the one found on
Ziggy Stardust - The Motion Picture. This show comes from the Oct. 20, 1970, show at the Santa Monica (Calif.) Civic Auditorium, whereas the music on the “Motion Picture” album is from the tour’s final show nine months later in London.
Los Angeles Times critic Robert Hilburn (a copy of his original review is included with the album) wrote: “Bowie’s arrival on stage was accompanied by a marvelously designed slice of rock drama. The flashing strobe lights and strains of Beethoven’s ‘Ode to Joy’ combined perfectly with the band’s futuristic space suits and Bowie’s own bisexual image to provide an aura of Clockwork Orange, not so much in the sense of violence as in an incredible sense of ‘nowness’ and the wave of the future. Future shock had arrived.”
I’ve got for you tonight just a small taste of
Live Santa Monica ‘72.
Moonage Daydream.mp3 Buy it now!Labels: classic rock, live albums, new stuff
Dash Rip Rock
I finally got to see Bruce Springsteen last night. The E Street Band made up for – and then some – the show they had to cancel two weeks ago. They played a three-hour rock and roll party, with a mix of old and new, with Bruce even pulling hand-written requests from the audience. I really liked that they rocked so hard, with Bruce and Little Steven facing off in guitar duels and Bruce emphasizing his own guitar playing.
Heather over at
I am Fuel, You are Friends wrote an excellent entry last month about her first Bruce show and I think it’s worth reading. He had a slightly different set-list that night (and my beer cost $11, rather than $10), but the crowd emotion and reaction is the same. She also posted a few Bruce songs, which I’m not doing today.
And that provides a smooth transition to what I
am going to post today.
I don’t remember if I first heard of New Orleans rockers Dash Rip Rock on the blogs or if I found them somewhere else. Either way, this self-proclaimed “Greatest Bar Band in the World” lives up to the title. The live album from which I took today’s music,
Live at Schubas, leaves no doubt Dash Rip Rock is a helluva good time. They’re playing a couple of shows in Key West this summer and if I can find my way down US 1, I have no doubt there is a guaranteed good time awaiting me.
Some quick band history, in case you don’t know: Dash Rip Rock began playing in the summer of 1984 in Baton Rouge, La. The group formed when drummer Clarke Martty brought together Bill Davis and Ned Hoaky Hickel, Jr. for a rockabilly trio ala the Stray Cats.
They released their debut album in 1986 and began touring heavily through the southeast. It was there they developed a strong regional following, especially in college towns. Fueled by whisky and egged on by the raucous college crowds, Dash Rip Rock evolved into more of a bar band over time. One of their most successful recordings was a parody of Danny and the Juniors’ “At the Hop,” a song called “Let’s Go Smoke Some Pot.”
Drummer Fred LeBlanc, who had replaced Martty, left Dash Rip Rock after the second album, 1988’s
Ace of Clubs. He now fronts Cowboy Mouth.
The band’s name supposedly comes from the Beverly Hillbillies: Dash Riprock was a boyfriend of Ellie May’s.
Check out the band’s
Web site for more information, tour dates, and for some Free Downloads.
Locked Inside a Liquor Store.mp3 Delta Dawn (Tanya Tucker cover).mp3 I Saw the Light (Hank Williams cover).mp3 Let’s Go Smoke Some Pot 2005.mp3 Jambalaya (Hank Williams cover).mp3Labels: alt.country, garage rock, live albums, psychobilly
Blues Calendar Blues - Luther Allison
The first Sunday of the month came so far into the month I almost forgot about the Blues Calendar Blues. Fortunately not, though, because this month’s featured bluesman rocks.
I’ll admit my painful ignorance when I first opened this calendar and realized that, due to some gap in my education, I was pretty much unfamiliar with probably half of the artists. So I look forward to each month when I get to research, listen, and learn a little. If there’s just one other person who can say the same, I can go to bed happy tonight.
Luther Allison, this month’s musician, is a prime example. How did I not know about this guy? It’s not like he was some obscure musician: No less an authority than Guitar Player magazine called Allison “a master storyteller with the elegance of B.B. King, the elasticity of Buddy Guy, and the big sting of Albert King.”
Here are the notes from my calendar:
Not even 10 years old, Luther Allison (1939-1997) roved from his home in Arkansas to black churches all over the South, singing with a gospel group called The Southern Travellers. On moving to Chicago he taught himself to play the bass and performed in bands led by his brothers (he was one of 15 children). Living on the West Side, in the same neighborhood as showy guitarists like Magic Sam and Freddy King, who soon became his models, Allison created an aggressive style and, in the late '60s, became a sensation at festivals where blues mingled with rock.
He liked to wander deep into ecstatic crowds, spinning out 10-minute-long solos on his Gibson Les Paul. A contract with Motown – rare for a bluesman – did little for his career, and Allison found his popularity in Europe waxing while his audiences thinned in the United States. Like many American jazz musicians before him, he moved to Europe, where he was much beloved in France and Germany. A recording contract with Alligator Records marked the renaissance of his American career, and in his 50s, Allison was much in demand. The year after his death, Allison received five WC Handy Awards; he had already won eight.
The suggested disks are
Love Me Papa (Evidence, 1977);
Soul Fixin’ Man (Alligator, 1994); and
Live in Chicago (Alligator, 1999).
I don’t have and couldn’t find those recordings, but I did manage to gather a couple of things that I think fairly represent the sonic blues of Luther Allison. “Watching You,” I believe, is also known as “Cherry Red Wine,” and comes from his 1995 release
Blue Streak. “You Can’t Always Get What You Want” is of course the classic Stones song – it comes the 1997 tribute disk
Paint It Blue: Songs of the Rolling Stones; and “The Sky is Crying” is the old Elmore James song, made popular by Stevie Ray Vaughan. This version comes from Allison’s
Where Have You Been? Live In Montreux 1976-1994, which was also released in ‘97.
Watching You.mp3 You Can’t Always Get What You Want (Rolling Stones cover).mp3The Sky is Crying.mp3Labels: blues, covers, live albums
Not Enough Junkie Business
I was listening to the radio the other day when a Johnny Thunders song came on. (Sirius Satellite Radio, of course – like government radio would play Johnny Thunders.) Hearing that song made me think I ought to post some of his music. There’s not enough junkie business in the blogosphere these days.
Then while checking Wikipedia for some bio info to sort of fill in the gaps of my post, I saw something interesting that I had not known before: The circumstances surrounding Johnny’s death. I had always assumed it was drug-related. The official story seems to indicate it
was drug related. But Johnny’s
Wiki page references a couple of sources that tell a different story. Apparently there are those, including Dee Dee Ramone, who believe Johnny was murdered. Here’s the cut-and-paste from Wiki:
Many rumors surround Thunders’ death at the St. Peter House in New Orleans, La., in April 1991. He apparently died of drug-related causes, but it has been speculated that it was the result of foul play. According to the autobiography “Lobotomy: Surviving The Ramones,” Dee Dee Ramone took a call in New York the [day after Thunders’ death] from Stevie Klasson, Johnny's rhythm guitar player. “They told me that Johnny had gotten mixed up with some bastards... who ripped him off for his methadone supply. They had given him LSD and then murdered him. He had gotten a pretty large supply of methadone in England, so he could travel and stay away from those creeps - the drug dealers, Thunders imitators, and losers like that.”
What is known for certain is that Johnny's room (No. 37) was ransacked and most of his possessions were missing (passport, makeup, clothes). Rigor mortis had set in with his body positioned in an unnatural state, described by eyewitnesses as “like a pretzel,” underneath a coffee table. Friends and acquaintances acknowledge he had not been using heroin for some time, relying on his methadone prescriptions. The police did not open a criminal investigation.
An autopsy was conducted by the New Orleans coroner, but served only to compound the mysteries. According to Thunders’ biographer, Nina Antonia, as posted on the Jungle Records Web site , the level of drugs found in his system was not fatal. And according to the book “Rock Bottom: Dark Moments in Music Babylon” by Pamela Des Barres, who interviewed Thunders’ sister Marion, the autopsy confirmed evidence of advanced leukemia, which would explain the decline in Thunders’ appearance in the final year of his life. This also sheds light on the interview in Lech Kowalski’s documentary “Born To Lose: The Last Rock and Roll Movie,” where Thunders’ sister Mary-Ann’s husband says, “Only Johnny knew how sick he really was.”
In a 1994 Melody Maker interview, Thunders’ manager Mick Webster described the efforts of his family: “We keep asking the New Orleans police to re-investigate, but they haven’t been particularly friendly. They seemed to think that this was just another junkie who had wandered into town and died. They simply weren’t interested.”
Fascinating stuff and another rock and roll mystery that seems unlikely to ever be solved.
Tonight’s music comes from the 1993 compilation
Chinese Rocks: The Ultimate Thunders Live Collection.
Little Bit of Whore.mp3 Too Much Junkie Business.mp3Chinese Rocks.mp3 In Cold Blood.mp3Labels: live albums, punk
Billion Dollar Bonus
I’ve noticed a lot of hits from people searching for Amy Winehouse, since her near sweep at the Grammys on Sunday night. I suppose I could be a whore and post more Amy; I think I have another live show or two stacked away somewhere. But a more favorable ploy is to promise to post more soon and see if I can get people to keep coming back and, I hope, checking out the other stuff here.
That being my decision, I was pretty happy to get my hands on a couple of Alice Cooper disks the other day. The first is the bonus reissue edition of
Billion Dollar Babies and the other is Alice’s first official live album,
The Alice Cooper Show.
I used to have the vinyl version of
The Alice Cooper Show, but I’ve bitched about my vinyl issues before and won’t get into that again. I hope to sometime in the not-too-distant future spotlight a couple of tracks from that album, which is one of my favorite live disks. Tonight, though, I want to get into some of the bonus material from
Billion Dollar Babies.
Billion Dollar Babies was originally released in March 1973. AllMusic.com called the album, “probably the original Alice Cooper group's finest and strongest.” It included the hits “Elected,” “No More Mister Nice Guy,” and the title track. The album itself peaked at Number One on the Billboard charts.
The bonus disk in the re-release package includes 11 tracks recorded in Houston on the 1973 Billion Dollar Babies tour. There are also three previously unreleased songs: “Coal Black Model T,” “Son of a Billion Dollar Babies,” and “Slick Black Limousine.” “Coal Black Model T” is an early version of “Limousine.” “Limousine” was released in the UK as a free flexi-disc in NME magazine, and “Son” was an outtake that had been previously unreleased.
Billion Dollar Babies (live).mp3No More Mr. Nice Guy (live).mp3I Love the Dead (live).mp3Slick Black Limousine.mp3Labels: classic rock, live albums, outtakes
Edgeplay
Last night, I watched this documentary called “Edgeplay: A Film About The Runaways.” It was interesting for a number of reasons, but also disappointing due to a couple of omissions. The largest omission was Joan Jett, perhaps the most successful of the band’s alumnae. I don’t know if she refused to participate or if there is still animosity between her and Victory Tischler-Blue, nee Vicki Blue, the film’s producer and Runaways bassist during 1977-78. Leaving out Joan’s perspective, to me, left a large gap in the story.
The other thing missing was the inclusion of any of the Runaway’s original music. There were live clips of “Wild Thing” and “Rock and Roll,” but the soundtrack was mostly music by Suzi Quatro or solo Lita Ford. Although the band wrote or co-wrote their songs, I don’t know – and the movie doesn’t mention – who owns the rights, so maybe that was the issue with using the music.
One surprising inclusion was the participation of Kim Fowley, the band’s former manager. I say surprising because there is a
lot of straight-up hate between the band members and the man they claim manipulated and exploited them. At one point during the film singer Cherie Currie discusses telling her parents about Fowley: “I didn’t tell them everything he had done; my father would have absolutely taken out a gun and blown his brains out. I still hope one day someone does.”
Fowley, meanwhile, looked at the band as a business or a sports team, where several totally different individuals get together for the benefit of a bigger cause. He was the catalyst that put the band together (they were not pre-fabricated, but rather, as Fowley got word of the individual girls, he worked to put them in touch with each other). He ran herd over them like a drill instructor, using fear and belittlement to keep them in line. To him, the band seems to have been nothing more than project from which he could make money. (There is a stark contrast between this and Lita Ford looking back at how much she had believed in what Fowley told her about being a rock star and how much she really wanted that to happen.) The exploitation and alleged psychological and physical abuse of the girls was something Fowley seems not to have been concerned about. He talks about it as if it were just part of the process, like the military boot camps (yes,
camps – plural) he claims to have gone through because he “enjoyed” them.
The Runaways’ story is a fascinating look at a band that came up at the time punk rock was being born in the U.S. Because of their youth, their legitimacy is often overlooked, but the fact is they toured with the Ramones and Blondie, and ultimately were to become as much associated as the New York punks as they were with the California scene.
The Runaways’ full history, as well a link to help get them into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, is at the band’s Web site
here.
For some music, I’ve pulled a couple of tracks from the Runaways’ 1977 album
Live in Japan and a couple from a 1993 demos compilation titled
Born to Be Bad. The demos, I believe, are from the time when the Runaways were just starting out and were a trio with Jett, drummer Sandy West, and bass player Micki Steele.
Queens of Noise (live).mp3 Rock and Roll (Velvet Underground cover) [live].mp3 Cherry Bomb (live).mp3 All Right Now (Free cover) [demo].mp3Rock and Roll (Velvet Underground cover) [demo].mp3 You Drive Me Wild (demo).mp3Labels: covers, demos, live albums, movies, rock
A couple of nights into the trip, we made the obligatory trip to Sammy Hagar’s bar, Cabo Wabo, where mucho drinking ensued, natch. The bar was way crowded and at some point another couple ended up at our table. They seemed decent enough, so we had drinks with them. Then at some point before closing time, they disappeared. When the tab appeared, guess who hadn’t paid? The ex and I were young, drunk, and in love, and decided, fuck this: We threw our share on the table and beat it out the door. 
“You skipped out on your bill,” they said. 
