Author Archives: Lawr Michaels

Night Music: Lucinda Williams, “Car Wheels on a Gravel Road”

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A while back I wrote about the Faces, noting when Rod Stewart became the lead singer of the band.

Peter commented that one of the strengths of Stewart was that of a storyteller, and if you listen to some of Rod the Mod’s early stuff, like Gasoline Alley and Every Picture Tells a Story, Don’t It, you will hear that Peter is more than correct.

Well, at birthdays and holidays, I like to burn mix discs (I guess they used to be called mix tapes, back in the days of cassettes) for my niece Lindsay (who also burns said discs for me).

This way she can keep me up to date on the likes of bands like Starfucker and Deerhunter, and I can make sure she has Miles Davis, Cracker, and Bill Frisell on her shuffle.

I made Linds an Xmas disc last week, and since I have worn thin the number of artists I wanted to turn her onto, I noticed there is no shortage of great songs I can dig up.

So, this disc I focused on just that: deadly songs, some of which made the list by virtue of that strong storytelling. And, for my money, Lucinda Williams is as good as it gets at painting said visual picture with words. And, her song Car Wheels on a Gravel Road, from album of same title, is my favorite said example.

It made Lindsay’s Xmas playlist, but here it is for your New Year’s Day ears.

 

 

Night Music: Bonzo Dog (Doo Dah Band) – “The Intro And The Outro”

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Peter and I have written back and forth about what it is that triggers the “Night Music” pieces, at least for us.

For me, sometimes the impetus is simply hearing a song on the radio (yes, I still listen to that old fashioned medium) or on my shuffle. Sometimes a tune just pops into my head. Sometimes something will occur during band practice and remind me that “Can’t Get Enough of Your Love” was not a bad tune and one the Biletones could cover.

And, sometimes it is a stimulus-response thing, as in one of us will write about a song and band, and that starts the whole association moving along.

So, Peter, writing about the Rutles has done for me.

As an already crazy Python fan when The Rutles All You Need is Cash was released in 1978, I watched it, loved it, and even bought it on DVD years later.

I am still a fan of all things Python related, but my familiarity with the music of Python pre-dated my seeing the comedy act by a handful of years. Before that, my friend Stephen Clayton and I had been big fans of the Bonzo Dog (Doo Dah Band), whose principle song writer was Neil Innes.

Innes moved on to do the music for the Python films, and as Peter noted, headed up the Rutles (with Eric Idle, from Python) and also did some solo stuff. Innes also appeared on Saturday Night Live, when I believe Idle was the guest host, and if memory serves, he wore white and played a white grand piano, a la Lennon, and performed the Rutles Cheese and Onions.

The Bonzo Dog band were a goofy consortium of great British musicians with a slight twist on everything, pre-dating quasi pop-rock Big Band sound Squirrel Nut Zippers and their ilk produced by nearly 30 years.

The band’s biggest hit–at least in England–was the venerable I’m the Urban Spaceman but my fave song of theirs was the opening cut to the album Gorrilla from 1968 called The Intro and the Outro, a shameless grab of Duke Ellington’s C-Jam Blues, although in the Bonzo’s treatment,Count Basie gets the nod over the Duke lyrically, shall we say.

Still, a great riff, funny words, and everything that is Innes, Bonzo, and Python.

Night Music: Cheap Trick, “Sgt. Pepper Reprieve” and “A Day in the Life”

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A lot of Beatles buzz on the site the last few days, and I wondered how much of the world knew that Cheap Trick actually covered the entire Sergeant Pepper album a few years back, taking it to the road (kind of like Phish, who do someone’s classic album every Halloween)?

Though I was a big Trick fan during their early years–especially In Color and Black and White,  Heaven Tonight, and Dream Police–I sort of lost track of their newer stuff after that (shame on me, as that is when Buddakon came out, but as good a live band as the Trick are, that one seemed like too much hype too after I had found them).

Not that I ever wrote the band off: I still love all three of those albums from the Rockford band (about 40 miles from where Diane lived in Algonquin) who so emulated the Beatles with their own spin. Though the Trick have been a lot more. Poppy, tuneful, funny, and they don’t take themselves too seriously, which to me means if they take from other bands (like the great bridge chords in I Know What I Want and I Know How to Get It that are lifted from Eight Days a Week)  it is more of an homage than a rip.

Well, a few years ago my friend, drummer Steve Chattler turned me onto the Trick doing Sergeant Pepper in its entirety, and the band does a killer job.

See for yourself. I mean, this is nothing like watching a tribute/cover band.

Happy Holidays: Dropkick Murphys, “The Season’s Upon Us”

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I have to admit that for the most part Christmas music does very little for me.

A lot of that is probably rooted in my Semitic upbringing.

Not that Little Saint Nick, or especially Father Christmas (which Peter gave a nod too earlier) are not great tunes. Hell, even though I am not even close to being an Adam Sandler fan, I do love his Hanukah song.

However, the other day the ever unpredictable KTKE played a pretty cool tune by the Dropkick Murphys that I liked a lot.

Meaning this is likely to be my only contribution to this genre (but you never know).

RIP: Peter O’Toole (1932-2013)

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220px-Peter_O'Toole_--_LOA_trailerDiane just advised me that the wonderful British actor, Peter O’Toole has passed away.

I get this is a rock’n’roll site–or at least largely a music site–but often music and film are inexorably linked.

Although, I must admit, not so much in O’Toole’s case.

It is more of a case that his face is as iconic as the roles he played.

Among those films of his I love:

Lawrence of Arabia (1962): O’Toole’s mesmerizing film debut (also Omar Sharif’s) was in arguably one of the greatest cinematic achievements ever. I think the first half of this film is as fine a piece of film making–as in script, photography, acting, and music–as has ever been assembled.

The Lion in Winter (1968): Incomparable historical piece with O’Toole as Henry II to Katherine Hepburn’s Elanor of Aquitaine, with a witty and intelligent a script that allow the brilliance of the actors to shine (this time Anthony Hopkins made his film debut).

The Ruling Class (1972): As dark as dark and funny can get, O’Toole plays the mad 14th Earl of Gurney. O’Toole thinks he is Jesus (he has a big wooden cross on which he roosts from time-to-time) although he likes to be referred to as either “Bert” or “JC,” though his given name is Jack. The catch is his relatives want to seize the assets that are Bert’s, but in order to do that, he has to be declared insane and a threat. So, they marry him off to his uncle’s mistress so they can have a child/heir, and thus simplify the insanity process. Of course nothing  goes according to plot, but ultimately Jack is forced to jettison his loving and happy-go-lucky Jesus alter ego, and assumes that of another Jack, as in The Ripper.

The Stunt Man (1980): O’Toole as an autocratic film director who pushes a walk on stunt man (Steve Railsback), who is on the run from the law, into going further and further on a limb with the stunts. O’Toole is great at this–roles on the verge of losing it–and this film is no exception. Also filmed around the lovely Hotel Del Coronado, in San Diego, where Some Like it Hot was also largely set.

My Favorite Year (1982): A lovely sentimental comedy about TV in the 50’s, ostensibly based upon Mel Brooks’ early days writing for Sid Caesar and his Show of Shows. O’Toole plays Allan Swann, an Errol Flynn-like swashbuckling star of the 30’s who can still give women wobbly knees. He accepts a role on a TV show in order to earn some extra moolah and even himself out with the IRS.  This movie, directed by comedian Richard Benjamin, is as sweet as they come.

Amazingly, O’Toole was nominated for the Oscar for all five of the above (I did not realize that when I picked them as my faves as I was thinking about it) and had a total of eight nominations (also Becket, Goodbye Mr. Chips, and Venus), but never actually won for those films. Rather, he did get a lifetime achievement award from the Academy in 2003.

Night Music: The Pixies, “Dig for Fire,”and Frank Black “(I Want to Live on an) Abstract Plain”

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I had to drive up to our house near Lake Tahoe on Wednesday for the simple task of installing our new DSL modem.

You see, even though the house is buried in the Tahoe National Forest, and we neither get–nor want–television or our cell phones to work, we do often have to work from the house. So, being able connect with the world is essential.

My whole time at the house took about 20 minutes for the install, but the drive is around three hours each way. But, since we do rent the house out, particularly to skiers this time of year, and we advertise the house has high-speed, well I had to make sure we delivered upon what was advertised.

I usually would have just streamed KTKE in Truckee (the town about ten miles from our house) but for some reason I just plugged in my iPhone, put it on shuffle, and let it go.

Most of the storage on my iPhone is gobbled up by music (7.2 GB as I write) so there is a pretty good array of stuff, and it was good fun listening to the digital DJ take a turn at spinning tracks, and as Pavlov (one of our dogs joined me for the trek) and I wound our way up in altitude, shuffle handed out a few songs by The Pixies, a band I really love a lot.

Among them was  Dig For Fire from the band’s terrific Bossanova album. Such a great cut (I saw the band once, opening for U2 on the Achtung Baby tour).

Well, since I am a big Pixies fan, it presumes I am also a Frank Black (aka, Black Francis) fan as well, so I figured I would throw in a cut from his album Teenager of the Year, with Frank and his band The Catholics.

Night Music: The Faces, “Three Button Hand Me Down”

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A few weeks back Peter wrote about Humble Pie and their terrific tune, I Don’t Need no Doctor.

Humble Pie was led by Steve Marriott, who not only had among the best and most recognizable rock voices, but was also a founding member of the great Brit pop band, The Small Faces.

Mostly known in the states for their catchy psychedelic hit Itchycoo Park, The Small Faces were far more than the bulk of the states ever appreciated. Their 1968 album Ogden’s Nut Gone Flake broke as many rules as an album could in those days. First, the cover of the album was totally different than anything before. It was released in a plastic sleeve, with a fold-out that surrounded the record.ogden Add to that the entire second side was a fairy story song about Happiness Stan’s search for what he thinks is the missing half of the moon. (BTW, Ogdens Nut Gone was one of my Top 50 essential albums.)

The remaining Faces–Ronnie Lane, Ron Wood, Ian McLagan, and Kenny Jones–all hung  with the departure of Marriott, adding Rod Stewart as their new lead singer (Wood invited Stewart to join after the pair worked together on Jeff Beck’s first album, Truth).

The first album the new quintet produced was a fun, bluesy, and listenable work called The First Step, and the other day, as I was streaming KTKE, my Truckee radio station, damned if they did not play a cut from that album, Three Button Hand Me Down.

The Faces were such a great band, both with Marriott and Stewart, and in a way, they were sort of Triple-A Rock and Roll, to the Majors where the players wound up.

Stewart went on to his sort of over-the-top glam career, while Wood joined the Stones, with McLagan supporting the band at times. Kenny Jones drummed with The Who for a while after Keith Moon’s demise, and Ronnie Lane played bass on all of Pete Townshend’s early solo material.

That is a pretty good resume.

So, here is Three Button Hand Me Down

Night Music: Petra Haden and The Who, “Armenia City in the Sky”

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Peter’s fantastic Chet Baker and Charlie Haden post of earlier today got the gears in my brain going.

That is because Charlie’s daughter, Petra, did one of the most amazing musical feats ever accomplished: Petra redid The Who’s fabulous, and my very favorite album of theirs, The Who Sell Out. The catch is that Haden did the entire album with voice only: that is, the singing, harmonies, guitars, effects, bass, drums, everything was sung by Petra.

To make the whole thing complete, she even copied the crazy cover of the album, substituting her own beak as necessary for the members of The Who. To me, this is as loving and beautiful an homage to any band or album as anyone could ever do.

Below is Haden’s cover of Armenia City in the Sky, the opening track of the phenomenal 1967 album:

And, as a means of comparison, here is the original by my all time favorite band: