Author Archives: Tom Muscarella

Song of the Week – Acknowledgement, John Coltrane

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This week marked the 50th anniversary of the recording of one of the most important jazz recordings — perhaps one of the most important recordings of any genre – John Coltrane’s A Love Supreme.

The personnel on the album were Coltrane (saxophones), McCoy Tyner (piano), Jimmy Garrison (double bass), and Elvin Jones (drums). Legend has it Coltrane’s band had little idea what they would be doing when they arrived in the studio on December 9th, 1964… but Coltrane was on a mission. His goal was to make a recording that somehow captured the spiritual essence of the world’s religions. He once told Newsweek “My goal is to live the truly religious life and express it in my music.”

Today’s SotW is the first movement of the four-part suite – “Acknowledgement.”

Wikipedia describes the piece like this:

The album begins with the bang of a gong (tam-tam), followed by cymbal washes. Jimmy Garrison follows on bass with the four-note motif which structures the entire movement. Coltrane’s solo follows. Besides soloing upon variations of the motif, at one point Coltrane repeats the four notes over and over in different modulations. After many repetitions, the motif becomes the vocal chant “A Love Supreme”, sung by Coltrane (accompanying himself via overdubs).

This piece forms the musical foundation for the improvisational journey that continues from there.

Tyner once told NPR:

“I remember they cut the lights down kind of. The lights were dimmed in the studio. I guess they were trying to get a nightclub effect or whatever. I don’t know if it was John’s suggestion or whatever. I remember the lights being dimmed.”

Do yourself a favor – recreate that setting and find the time to listen to the entire 33 minute suite. Even during this busy holiday season it would not be a waste of time.

Enjoy… until next week.

Song of the Week – F.U.C. Her, The New Barbarians

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This was a terrible week for rock and roll. We lost two giants in the field, albeit they were guys that toiled in the background. Sax man Bobby Keys died last Tuesday at the age of 70. Ian McLagan died the next day at the age of 69.

I needn’t reiterate their bios here. Anyone that reads these posts already knows who they are and appreciates the huge contributions they made to rock music. In fact, for just that reason I hadn’t planned to dedicate today’s SotW to them. But Friday my friend John S. reminded me that they toured together in 1979 as the New Barbarians – a band Ron Wood and Keith Richards assembled to help Keith meet some obligationsto the Canadian government and to support Ron’s solo effort, Gimme Some Neck. That confluence is just too good to pass up. (Thanks John!)

The SotW is dirty little number called “F.U.C. Her” from the first leg of that tour.

The reason I’ve chosen this song from the album is because it highlights the contributions of McLagan and (especially) Keyes better than most of the others on the album. The band plays it fast and loose, just as you would expect from this group of hell-raisers. A little past the midpoint, Keyes rips off a sax solo that highlights his playing style. The only problem with the performance is that the vocals are unbearable – so just hang in there for the sax solo.

So thank you Bobby and Ian for adding your magic to hundreds of great recordings we all know and love and sing and play. Your memory will live on for decades. Rest in peace.

Enjoy… until next week.

Song of the Week Revisited – Whatever Gets You Through the Night, John Lennon

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Today the great sax player, Bobby Keys, died at the age of 70. In his honor I’m re-posting a SotW I originally sent out 2 years ago tomorrow – November 3, 2012.

One of my favorite session men is tenor sax player Bobby Keys. Known mostly for his long association with the Rolling Stones – that’s Keys on “Brown Sugar”, “Can’t You Hear Me Knocking” and all over Exile on Main Street – Keys also made significant to contributions to recordings by everyone from Joe Cocker, to George Harrison, to Harry Nilsson, to Buddy Holly.

He played the sax on Elvis Presley’s “Return to Sender.” That’s him again on Dion’s “The Wanderer.”

Keys rock star lifestyle excesses are legendary. In February he published an autobiography titled Every Night’s a Saturday Night: The Rock ‘n’ Roll Life of Legendary Sax Man. I haven’t read it yet, but I’m certain it contains some great stories.

My pick for the SotW is John Lennon’s collaboration with Elton John – “Whatever Gets You through the Night.”

I chose this song because Lennon really created a lot of space for Keys to do his thing. (And let’s face it; it’s a really fun song that you probably haven’t heard in a dog’s age.) From the opening note, Keys is blaring away. Then he gets a couple of opportunities in between each verse and chorus to add short solos. He really makes the song.

As a side note, WGYTTN has an interesting story to go along with it. Apparently, in the recording studio Elton predicted it would be a hit. Lennon didn’t agree, so they made a bet. If the song reached #1, Lennon would have to appear on stage to perform it with Elton. Indeed, the song hit #1 on the Billboard charts on November 16, 1974. Lennon made good on his wager and appeared with Elton at Madison Square Garden on Thanksgiving Day, November 28, 1974.

Enjoy… until next week.

Song of the Week – Freaks’ Lament/Sawdust and G-Strings, Carny Soundtrack

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Carny1Robbie Robertson broke up The Band and documented their last show in a film directed by Martin Scorsese. The Last Waltz was recorded on Thanksgiving Day 1976 and the film was released in 1978.

From this experience, Robertson caught the film bug and began work on Carny (1980) – starring Gary Busey, Jodie Foster and Robertson – which he co-wrote and produced. It’s a decent movie that you should try to catch if you haven’t seen it yet.

It also resulted in an interesting soundtrack album. Side 1 has six “songs” and side 2 is more traditional movie music, credited to Alex North. But the instrumental songs on side one, except for Fats Domino’s “The Fat Man,” were mostly written by Robertson. It’s hard to be certain because the credits are so sketchy.

Today’s SotW is “Freaks’ Lament/Sawdust and G-Strings.”

Carny – Freaks’ Lament/Sawdust and G-Strings

Robertson wrote “Freaks’…” but “Sawdust…” was written by Davis Causey and Randall Bramblett. Keyboardist and sax player Bramblett has performed with top name acts, including The Allman Brothers, Bonnie Raitt, Sea Level and Elvin Bishop. Guitarist Causey has been a key member of Sea Level.

“Freaks’…” is a swampy mood setter designed to showcase a bluesy guitar solo then transitions into “Sawdust…”, a funky, sax driven groove that could fit nicely on a post-Lowell George Little Feat album (or Sea Level disc). Bramblett plays the horn on this one.

Enjoy… until next week.

Song of the Week – Day of the Eagle, Robin Trower

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Forty years ago, Robin Trower released his second solo album – Bridge of Sighs – named after the famous 17th century Italian structure in Venice.

To be honest, it’s not an album that I paid much attention to when it spent 31 weeks on the charts in 1974. On several occasions my good buddy Steve S has mentioned to me how much he loves this album. He was in Venice recently and it made me wonder if he was able to get to the famous Bridge to check it out. That all got me to thinking that since I have so much respect for Steve’s taste in music that I should give the record a spin again to see if it connects with me now in a way it hadn’t before.

I must admit it’s a pretty damned good album. Trower’s guitar playing is terrific, the songwriting is solid and the vocals by James Dewar (he plays bass as well) are bluesy and soulful.

The SotW is the lead of track from the album, “Day of the Eagle.”

It starts off with an aggressive guitar riff reminiscent of some of the work Trower did with Procol Harum prior to going solo, like “Whiskey Train,” but with more of a Hendrix styled power trio edge to it. This is a record meant to be played loudly!

About 3 minutes in, the song slows to a swampy blues crawl and a veeery slow fade out that provides Trower the room to throw off some tastefully emotive licks.

And it all sounds outstanding thanks to production by Trower’s former bandmate, Matthew Fisher and engineering by Geoff Emerick of Beatles fame.

Trower is still in the game. His most recent album, Roots and Branches, was released in 2013. He continues to gig and has tour dates scheduled in the UK for the spring of 2015.

Enjoy… until next week.

Song of the Week – Everyday Feels Like Sunday, of Montreal

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Ten years ago television commercials started to use some really cool music. I’m not sure if that was because marketing departments became more hip or because artists began to cash in, no longer fretting over the “sell out” label. HP used The Kinks “Picture Book” to advertise a line of printers. (It was named “Campaign of the Year” in the February 7, 2005 issue of Adweek magazine.) Apple used The Vines’ garage rock influenced “Ride” and U2’s “Vertigo” (their last great rocker) in their iPod campaign.

Today’s SotW, of Montreal’s “Everyday Feel Like Sunday”, was even used in an ad for NASDAQ. NASDAQ!?!

This wasn’t the first, or last, time that of Montreal licensed a song for a commercial. “Wraith Pinned to the Mist” was used earlier for a popular Outback Steakhouse ad. Later Comcast used “A Sentence of Sort in Kongsvinger” and T-Mobile used “Gronlandic Edit” in their campaigns.

Athens, Georgia based of Montreal is the main creative outlet for Kevin Barnes. Describing their style is very difficult because it has changed and evolved so many times since the band formed in 1996.

Beside their repertoire of eclectic songs, the band also has a very unique stage presence. I was able to see the once in San Diego in 2009 and the show lived up to expectations. Much like The Flaming Lips, their show is an extravaganza of music, costumes, lights, props, etc. In a word – bizarre. There are plenty of examples to check out on YouTube.

Enjoy… until next week.

Song of the Week – Delta Lady, Leon Russell

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If I told you that almost 45 years ago someone recorded an album that had appearances by 2 Beatles (Harrison and Starr), 3 Stones (Jagger, Wyman and Watts), 2 Blind Faith (Clapton and Winwood) a Domino (Jim Gordon – as in Derek & The…) Joe Cocker, Klaus Voormann and others – would you believe me?

Leon Russell released his first solo album in 1970 with that stellar cast of backing musicians. Of course, they didn’t all perform on every song. And I’ve scoured the internet trying to find the details of who played on which songs but thus far have come up empty. But one thing is for certain, Leon Russell is a great album.

Leon had a great career. Early on he made his way from Oklahoma to LA where he was a member of Phil Spector’s “Wrecking Crew” and played on many of the most important records in Rock history. In the mid 60s he was a member of the house band for the pop music TV series Shindig! that ran for two seasons on ABC.

By the late 60s/early 70s he hooked up with Delaney & Bonnie and then Joe Cocker – he was the musical director for Cocker’s famous Mad Dogs & Englishmen tour. He also did a great set at George Harrison’s Concert for Bangladesh. If you’re over 50 you’ve probably heard it. If not, you should check out his “Jumping Jack Flash/Youngblood Medley.”

Today’s SotW is “Delta Lady” from that debut solo album mentioned earlier. Here’s the album version.

But you should really check out this live version too. I have no idea where it was filmed. It seems to be on a soundstage somewhere. After a couple of false starts, Leon and the band really kick into gear. (Also check out the backing vocals by Cathy McDonald. Amazing!)

Many of you will recognize the song from the “more popular” Joe Cocker version. But Leon’s is much earthier. It is a prime example of Russell’s own brand of American roots music. It’s funky, bluesy, gospely (is that a word?) and sung with his trademark Southern drawl. (Rita Coolidge was his inspiration for the song.)

“Delta Lady” is one of Russell’s best known songs but others were even more popular. His single “Tightrope” almost cracked the Top 10 in 1972. Its flip side, This Masquerade” was the most popular song on George Benson’s hit album Breezin’ (1976). That song was also recorded by The Carpenters, who strangely (IMHO), had a strong connection with Russell’s songs. They hit with “Superstar” — co-written by Delaney Bramlett – (#2, 1971) and used “A Song for You” as the title song for their 1972 album.

In 2010, Elton John cited Russell as one of his biggest influences. He rescued Russell from near obscurity and they recorded an album together, The Union, that reached #3 in the US charts.

Enjoy… until next week.

Song of the Week – The Gouster samples, David Bowie

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Rock and roll has a long history of albums recorded by big name acts that never saw release (except on bootlegs, of course). There was The Beach Boys’ SMiLE (but that’s now been released), The Who’s Lifehouse (though many of its songs came out on various other Who albums), The Kinks’ Four More Respected Gentlemen (most of which was released on The Village Green Preservation Society and The Kinks Kronikles) and Prince’s The Black Album (ultimately released 7 years after the originally planned release date). As you can tell, these recordings almost always eventually see the light of day.

But back in 1974-75, David Bowie was working on an album tentatively titled The Gouster. (If you want to know what a gouster is, check out this post at darkjive.com.

DarkJive.com – Gouster or Ivy Leaguer?

The Gouster may have been Bowie’s prototype for the “Thin White Duke.”

It turns out, early in the sessions, Bowie recorded about five songs in the Philly soul style that was popular at the time that never made it onto the album that was ultimately released as Young Americans. Three of them were released on either the Sound + Vision boxed set on Rykodisc (1989) or as bonus cuts on the remastered release of Young Americans (2007). They were:

– John, I’m Only Dancing
– Who Can I Be Now?
– It’s Gonna Be Me

But there were two other songs that have never been released – “I Am a Lazer” and “Shilling the Rubes.”

We only have these snippets to hear for now. Where did they come from? In 2009 a reel of tape from the sessions came up on eBay for $15,000. The seller let us “sip out of the cup” in order to validate the tape’s authenticity. The speculation has always been that Bowie bought back the tape to prevent it from being exploited.

In any case, we only have these fragments to whet our appetite for full versions sometime in the future.

Enjoy… until next week.

Song of the Week Revisited – As You Said, Cream

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Anyone that follows this blog has already heard that Cream bassist/vocalist Jack Bruce died today at the age of 71. I had the privilege to see him perform a few songs back in 2008. That performance inspired me to write a song of the week in August of 2008 that I’m re-posting today.

One of the things that I enjoy most about the “song of the week” is keeping my ear open for musical gems that have slipped by my attention. I discovered another one when I attended the Hippiefest at the Mountain Winery in July. Amongst a pleasant evening of light pop nostalgia acts – Badfinger, The Turtles, Jonathan Edwards — was one giant of serious rock, Jack Bruce.

Bruce, now 65, was a child prodigy, multi-instrumentalist, with training in both jazz and classical music. After working his way through the early 60s British blues fraternity (Alexis Korner, Graham Bond, John Mayall, etc.) he landed with Eric Clapton and Ginger Baker in Cream.

At the Hippiefest, he opened his brief set with a solo, 12-string acoustic guitar version of “As You Said” from Cream’s 1968 album Wheels Of Fire. I must admit, this isn’t a song I ever really “heard” before. But Bruce’s performance was sublime! It really captured my attention.

The version included here is the original studio recording. It is driven by a simple open tuned guitar and cello pairing that sets the perfect mood to support its haunting lyrics. The soaring vocals may have been an influence on Jeff Buckley’s Grace.

I think you’ll enjoy this. Until next week…

Song of the Week – I’m On Fire, Dwight Twilley Band

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In the mid to late 70s the Dwight Twilley Band was trying to find its niche. Their brand of rockabilly influenced rock (power pop, really) didn’t have a clearly segmented audience like so many other genres of the day like southern rock, progressive rock, glam, punk or even disco/funk.

Yes, there were a few others travelling down the same road – Cheap Trick comes to mind – but to me, Twilley was closer to Springsteen in his approach.

His first album, 1976’s Sincerely on Leon Russell and Denny Cordell’s Shelter Records, contained a genuine power pop classic – “I’m On Fire”.

This song has snap, crackle and pop. Right out of the gate, the guitars sizzle and the cymbals crash. Dwight Twilley and partner Phil Seymour, two Oklahoma boys, “one up” the best of the British Invasion.

Both the song and album suffered from the poor distribution that Shelter was known for, so they never attained the popularity they deserved. But that’s what the SotW is for!

Enjoy… until next week.