Category Archives: lawr

Night Music: Meat Loaf, “Paradise by the Dashboard Light”

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I confess to a strange and circuitous relationship with Meat Loaf’s Bat out of Hell album.

I did buy the album when it came out, and remember selling a friend–John Takauchi–the poster from within the album for $10, a hefty sum at the time. I do see the original album goes for $35 or so on Ebay, but did not see any posters that came with the initial pressing of the 1977 disc.

I did like the album, though I thought Jim Steinman’s songwriting a little overwrought and too angst-ridden, but Meat sings well, the band is great, and well, Todd Rundgren produced the whole thing and played guitar and those are good credentials.

The album came and went but suddenly I crossed paths with Meat who is a big Fantasy Baseball player, for we met a couple of times years ago when the National Fantasy Baseball Championship drafts were held in Las Vegas.

However, in 2011, after Diane and I had actually been together for a half-dozen years, Meat dropped in again.

I have to remind readers old and advise readers new, that my partner in life, Diane Walsh and I share very little musically. Over our 10 years together we have attended only one life concert together that did not involve either my band, or the band of a friends.

She likes the hit WTF and Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap and Thrift Shop just to give an idea of the range of what she will listen to, but, as for liking bands or albums or things I like, we are on not just different planets: more like as I have written that music, for Diane, is something to listen to while at the gym.

Di and I have driven cross country a couple of times, and I mostly tried to mitigate the gap in our musical tastes by finding classic 80’s and 90’s, living on Boston and Georgia Satellites and their ilk while in the car.

But, during our second trip from Chicago to Berkeley we traveled Route 66, and during the end of May and we ran into some torrential rain just outside of Tulsa. The rain pelted us on the Interstate so hard that we had to pull over.

As we sat there, mesmerized by the crazy falling water, Paradise by the Dashboard Light came on the radio. Diane and I had never discussed this song (I might have mentioned that I met Meat) or album, but I started singing Meat’s part when the vocals came on, something not unusual for me. The cool thing was that right on cue, Diane began singing the Ellen Foley part, and we sat there, on the side of the freeway, pouring rain, singing the duet to and with one another about as spontaneously as permits.

It was quite fun, and one of those little magic moments in relationships, and as it is, a bunch of the songs from the album are on my shuffle for times when a cross pollination of our musical tastes is appropriate.

But, a week ago, as I was surfing for something to watch among the 300 derelict channels we get, the film Meat Loaf: In Search of Paradise was on and I found it pretty fun and interesting.

There was a clip of Paradise that is not the one below, but it does appear to be from the same tour. But, Meat and Karla DeVito (I believe) are great in the performance. And, overblown or melodramatic or whatever, the song and performance make pretty good theater.

Afternoon Snack: Marvin Gaye, “Let’s Get it On”

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When I was first really nailed by the radio, in 1962, Marvin Gaye’s Hitch Hike and Can I Get a Witness were the hits of the great Motown singer.

Old Marvin kept producing, but by the mid-70’s, when I finished college, I got my first “real” job as a social worker working for the Oakland Housing Authority.

My work day was in the midst of the African American community in Oakland, a culture that is both rich in custom and heritage, yet sadly overlooked and dismissed.

Well, Marvin was at his peak over the decade I worked in West Oakland, producing such great songs as Mercy Mercy Me, Got to Give it Up, and for sure Let’s Get it On.

These songs were great, and they come up once in a while, but I stuck a Motown greatest hits collection on my Playlist, sort of randomly–that is without looking at any of the titles, since I could guess, and liked most–and the other day Let’s Get it On came on and reminded me not just how great Gaye was, but how fantastic the Funk Brothers and Motown musicians and arrangers and producers were.

Let’s Get it On sort of typifies this for me, with a great song and melody, fantastic production (listen to the Wah Wah guitar fills through the verse till the drums come and and the horns phatten the sound duplicating the guitar line).

And, everything just builds, sort of like the song, sort of like the subject of the song.

Great stuff from a great, albeit troubled artist. Why are these things so often linked?  Sigh.  BTW, there were a lot of takes of the song out, but somehow this vid, from Soul Train, seemed the right way to go.

Night Music: Black Crowes, “Hotel Illness”

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The Black Crowes came to me at an interesting crossroads of my life. I was just finishing graduate school, while working full time. My son, Joey, was a handful of years old, and I saw the Crowes, touring behind their first album, along with Jellyfish, also hot locally at the Warfield in San Francisco in March of 1992.

A month later I would have a Masters Degree in English, have completed a novel, and my marriage was over.

It was all very strange, and it was a tough time, but it all led to where I am today, and for that I could not be happier.

Anyway, while building up my playlist the other day, I was thinking of songs–just cuts, not necessarily albums–that were fun and this song by the Crowes popped up.

It is indeed a pop rocker, but quite tuneful, and really well executed. And hey, talk about upbeat.

Breakfast Blend: Fleetwood Mac, “Underway/Show Biz Blues”

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Perhaps no band in rock history is more enigmatic than Fleetwood Mac.

Among a zillion brilliant refugees from John Mayalls Bluesbreakers, John McVie (bass) and Mick Fleetwood (drums) started a great blues band right around the same place and time that the Stones were forming and playing under the same aegis of Brian Jones’ love for American Rhythm and Blues.

Augmented by guitarists Jeremy Spencer, and the brilliant Peter Green, and then joined by Danny Kirwin as a third guitar player, the Mac produced a handful of killer pop tunes that slowly started to move towards mainstream. Two albums, Fleetwood Mac and Mr. Wonderful preceded the iconic Then Play On which featured Green’s equally iconic Oh Well, Parts I and II.

Then Play On featured a great variety of killer songs, and this one, Show Biz Blues really drives home the guitar band’s focus.

But, after the release of Then Play On, leader and guitar player supreme Peter Green (check out how much Carlos Santana plucked from Green’s style) left due to deteriorating mental and physical health, and McVie’s wife, Christine joined the band as they put together arguably the most beautiful homage to 50’s rock, Kiln House ever recorded in my meager view. And, this cut, Station Man pretty much defines the period.

Then came the dull Bob Welch years, but following the departure of the guitarist/Dodgers pitcher, Buckingham/Nicks joined and though not so much true to the original vision of Green, the band still killed on some great pop tunes and produced their biggest and most accessible album, Rumors which gave us this killer tune with great Lindsey Buckingham guitar pyrotechnics complementing McVie’s and Fleetwood’s ever steady rhythm section.

 

Love the Mac. For sure.

Something About What Happens When We Talk: Lucinda Williams

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OK, a big hiatus from writing, and I don’t so much have an excuse as I do a reasonable explanation.

Back in April, during our insanely fun Passover Sedar, my friends Debbi Berenberg and Barbara Kweller told me I needed to throw a party for my partner Diane who recently graduated from UC Davis, at age 57, with a BS in Animal Biology.

Since Barbara and Debbi’s suggestion was public, I was kind of stuck, but I knew Diane’s best friends, Dee Dee Huebner who is getting a PhD in Fairbanks, and her cousin Cherie Dudek, would be out our way in August, so I thought I would throw the soiree when Di’s buds were out.

In the mean time, Diane and I made our way to New York City where I attended the FSTA Summer conference, and where we stayed for the whole week as our main summer vacation. Di and I have been to Manhattan a handful of times over the nine years of our relationship, and have had a lot of fun, had great walks and meals, and seen wonderful plays. But, we had never really had a fancy dinner out together, and I knew Diane kind of coveted such an experience.

So, I made reservations at Tavern on the Green and then thought she might like it if we went on a horse driven carriage ride around the park, under the stars when we were finished eating. And, before we left, as I considered the party, Dee Dee and Cherie coming out, and with this romantic opportunity, maybe after all these years I would ask Diane if she wanted to get married. That way we could have a combined wedding and graduation party while Di’s mates were around.

So, we rode and I asked and she said ok, and the gears started turning, churning towards last Saturday, August 20, 2016 as the anointed date.

Indeed last Saturday we were wed, on the on the sand in the little town called Stinson Beach, near San Francisco. Our friends Rob Lewis and Mary Ford have a lovely house they let us use for the post beach wedding party, and my childhood mate and sometimes band partner Stephen Clayton, who also owns a house at Stinson with his wife and another life long friend Karen, let our contingent stay and base out of their house in the town.

More friends, Zoe Pollock and her mom Jeanne Schumann (yet another music mate, as are Mary and Rob from time-to-time) made our cake so the whole affair was pretty cozy and within our music and Passover (there are usually 40-plus humans at Pesach) communities making for a lovely day and party.

Though it was a dumb move, we did hire a DJ. Di really wanted one, though as I have noted before, she and I don’t share a lot of music other than some Meat Loaf. But the DJ is what she wanted, so she got one. But, we never really had a chance to give the DJ hired a set list or anything before the festivities began.

When we walked back to Mary’s from the beach, the guy had this awful sappy wedding crap playing, and as soon as I noticed I grabbed a copy of my CD Downward Facing Dog and told the DJ to get the horrible sappy shit off and just play the album till Diane could find him and give a set list.

The guy was lost when I told him to play I Knew the Bride (when she used to rock’n’roll) and he blew off Diane’s request for Surfin’ Bird, but we had a great time, and he did get our first dance down.

That dance was to Lucinda Williams’  Something About What Happens When We Talk which is sort of our song. Diane and I met via meetings we coordinated–her from Chicago, me from the Bay Area–when groups we managed had weekly discussions while we worked at ATT.

Di and I did change jobs, but six years after we met Diane came to the west coast to visit and suddenly we were in a relationship, and well, five years ago, after retiring from ATT and starting at Harper Community College in Chicago, Diane moved to California for good, into our home in El Cerrito, and began the second half of her college career commuting to Davis to finish her degree.

Before the move, however, we both worked for ATT, and we had essentially free land lines and long distance, so we spent hours on the phone after work, watching TV shows together long distance, having long philosophical discussions, and falling asleep with the phone off the hook (check out my song Geography Matters from Downward Dog which is about just that).

So, via the phone is how Diane and I actually fell in love, and that makes Lucinda’s song all the more poignant and special.

Hence, making plans for the wedding on the beach took front seat over the past couple of months and the best I can offer is Lucinda and her band simply killing it on a beautiful tune. And one that is our tune, I might add.

And, here is a pretty cute photo of Diane and me sort of cutting the cement to Lucinda (I am holding her mortorboard in my hand).

Everything is “Beautiful”

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The last couple of years Diane and I have vacationed in New York, we have hit a couple of plays. Last year, The Book of Mormon and Larry David’s Fish in the Dark were it, and this year, I grabbed tickets to The Humans which had just moved to Broadway a month before our trip, and perfectly, the play won four Tonys including best play, actor, and actress, two nights before the tix I copped.

But, for the second show, I opted for Beautiful: The Carole King Musical. There is no question how much I loved King’s songwriting, then with her (now late) husband Gerry Goffin. The Locomotion, Up on the Roof, Chains, and especially Will You Still Love Me, Tomorrow?–which is among my favorite songs ever–are all such great and timeless cuts.  In fact, I wrote this obit when Goffin passed away a couple of years back.

But, last year, when Di and I were in NYC for the FSTA, as we walked up Broadway to Central Park, I noticed the Brill Building for the first time, so I stopped, and looked and took a photo of the front.

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Somewhere, that shot was lost, but this year when we walked by I got another snap, and though I knew the bulk of the Brill Building story, the show brought out so much and so many great songs and just what amazing and productive songwriters like Lieber and Stoller, and Neil Sedaka, and Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil in addition to Goffin and King, and all of this orchestrated by Don Krischner.

One of the things that plagued Goffin and Mann, in particular, with the British invasion and new propensity for bands to write their own materiel was writing songs that were relevant, rather than just pop tunes that appealed to the generally superficial life of teenagers.

Goffin. who wrote the words, and King banged out this really great tune immortalized:

 

Obit: Bernie Worrell (1944-2016)

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Bernie Worrell, the influential keyboard player first for Parliment/Funkadelic, and then the Talking Heads and various cool bands who were clear just how killer Worrell’s playing was, has passed away at age 72.

I was not only lucky enough to catch the Heads on the “Big Suit” tour when Worrell toured with the band, but I also actually saw Parliment at a Lollapalooza in 1994. And, they were unquestionably the best live band I ever saw.

Mind you, I have seen a lot of bands, and as a result a lot of killer sets and performances, but note for note, player for player, no band was as tight and energetic with such a full and powerful sound as George Clinton and his mates.

Period.

Check the band out doing Rumpofsteelskin with Bernie on keys, and let by Clinton and Bootsy.  Peace out Brother Bernie…

 

 

 

 

 

 

Oh The Times Square They are a Changing

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Diane and I are in New York for our vacation. Actually, I came to participate in the FSTA football draft, which is great as it means seeing so many friends from the fantasy sports world. The draft was part of the annual summer convention put on by the organization and since we both love visiting our most vibrant city so much, the convention was an easy excuse to plan an hiatus around.

One of the things I always do when I am in the Big Apple is stop by Rudy’s Music, on W. 48th street. Aside from just loving to look at guitars, Rudy’s always has, or had, a bunch of beautiful vintage axes that are more than wonderful to gawk at.

Over the years, I have purchased stuff there, too. Before boutique pedals were as readily available as they are today, I got my “King of the Brits” pedal and also my Fulltone “Choral Flange” at Rudy’s who always had easy access to such stuff when all Guitar Center would carry was BOSS (not knocking that company, in fact I use their digital tuners for all my setups).

Even more, I fell in love with Hofner basses at Rudy’s, playing one there, and then knowing that was my next purchase (Diane actually bought one for me as a present some years back and I do indeed love it to pieces).

So, this trip, first day of stumbling around mid-town, we met my cousin Richard at Virgil’s for lunch (another serious ritual, and if you like wings, Virgil’s has the best ones on the planet) and were walking around just soaking the city in when I suggested walking over to Rudy’s. Last year, I got a leather necklace there with a little carved guitar, and somewhere the guitar got lost, so I wanted to get a new one.

Much to my shock and dismay, Rudy’s was gone, and all that remained was an empty storefront. There is still the Rudy’s in Soho, functioning away, but no more mid-t0wn. So, at least to get in a guitar fix, I walked up the street to Manny’s, a music store possibly more famous than Rudy’s as that is where the Ramones hung and bought their gear, for example.

But Manny’s too was gone, again leaving an empty storefront in its wake.

I talked to a couple of people and asked what happened, and, well, the Times Square area is indeed undergoing a major renovation, and property is being snatched up, and Rudy’s and Manny’s were part of the toll of progress.

I understand this: the past will inevitably fall behind and become quaint (although nostalgia does often foster a comeback from falling out of favor) and outdated and dismissed in lieu of the next big relative thing. And, of course, profit will always sneak into the equation as well.

Anyway, for some reason, as I mused the loss of Manny’s and Rudy’s, I kept coming to this 1965 hit by the Trade Winds, New York’s a Lonely Town which essentially has nothing to do with any of this save the NYC locale, and perhaps the thoughts of things lost.

So, here it is. The song is kind of hoaky, but in a perfect 60’s way, I think.

Everything Changes, Nothing Changes

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The most surprising aspect of our Spotify subscription is that Diane is crazy for it. She is admittedly not a music junkie like any of us here at the Remnants, in fact I asked what artists she followed and she promptly replied, “none.”

She just likes listening to playlists with high energy stuff she can work out to, and soul and funk from any era she can bop to while driving her car. But, I was surprised when she sent me a link to a song the other day, and I could not help but think of the song as analogous to other generations of horny post pubescent music junkies.

The first instance of song where boys are pleading for sex I could think of was the wonderful Good Golly Miss Molly by the one and only Little Richard, who was certainly clear about the whole sex/music thing in the fifties. This was at a time when saying words like “panties” were verboten on screen, for example, as shown in this clip from the Otto Preminger’s 1959 film, Anatomy of a Murder.

This clip of Richard, covering his tune, released in 1958, a year before Anatomy of a Murder came out, speaks for itself with respect to lyrical content, but this  clip was so perfect, as it is Richard live, playing for Muhammad Ali’s 50th birthday. And, well I have been thinking a lot about the loss of the great Ali as well as that of Prince, recently, and what a huge loss to our planet their spirits is.

The 60’s were not much better, and though this is indeed my favorite song by the Beach Boys, it is so lily-white in the Pat Boone’s cover of Little Richard’s Tutti Fruitti, sense, it makes my skin crawl. But, Brian Wilson could only hint at a time when “making love” still was kind of like Laurence Olivier suggesting the wooing of Joan Fontaine in Rebecca meant sweet talk behind a potted plant.

Here is the Beach Boys supporting that in the middle class white world very little changed over the 20 or so years between Rebecca and Don’t Worry Baby (which included that awful Boone shit in the middle of the time span). By the way, I love the song, but is this the worst “video” ever?

But, 50 years after Don’t Worry Baby, reality has struck and the world has simultaneously gone to hell in a hand basket, as witnessed by this song, by Strip Johnny, that popped up on Diane’s “Discover Weekly.” She heard it and  just had to share with me.

Truth is, I really like this last song a lot! Not as much as Little Richard, though. At least not just yet.