Category Archives: Les

Clapton/Gibson/Fender

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I’m not much of a Clapton fan. As a matter of fact, anything he did in the past 25 years I likely don’t know.

But there’s a new Showtime doc on Clapton that you guys are bound to run into pretty soon. I stumbled into it and was interested enough to stick with it from about Cream through the middle of Clapton horndogging after George Harrison’s wife. Switched to the local news then, but I recorded it to watch the rest of what I want to later.

Anyway, Clapton went to see the Allmans. which led to the recording of Layla, of course. What struck me was a quote from Duane Allman saying something like, “I played the Gibson all the way through and he played the Fender all the way through.”

The movie then plays the Allman Layla guitar track naked and I never realized how much that gritty Gibson undertune contributes to the greatness of the song.

Forgive me if this is common knowledge to the Dave Marshers. I point it out because the Dave Marshers usually point out stuff like lyrics and jazz.

I’ve always been a Gibson man.

Wish I had the naked Allman track, but the best I can do is the whole song. Hopefully you can pick out the Gibson base guitar part (not bass guitar part). Watch the movie.

Night Music: David Bowie, “Panic in Detroit”

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Among the litany of puns fostered by auctioneer Brian Feldman during Sunday’s NL Tout Wars auction, came the inevitable  “Panik Attack” that follows Giants second sacker Joe Panik.

Never satisfied with just one pun, my brain went after a trade possibility to the Tigers, meaning the results would be “Panik in Detroit.”

So, now that I am safely back home in Berkeley, we can honor Bowie, Panik, and a great Tout weekend.

A splendid time was indeed guaranteed for all. Swear.

 

Afternoon Snack: Ani DiFranco and Ry Cooder, “Deportee”

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Congressman Steve King blasted the President yesterday because the first family invited Ana Zamora–a Dream Act candidate–to sit with Michele Obama during the State of the Union speech.

Zamora did not merit being referred to by name: rather King tweeted “#Obama perverts ‘prosecutorial discretion’ by inviting a deportable to sit in place of honor at #SOTU w/1st Lady,” King wrote. “I should sit with Alito.”

Basically that means King is in congress to represent the xenophobes and bigots within our population (you know who you are).

I tweeted back that King should check out the Lucinda Williams/David Rodriguez  song, Deportee. In the tweet I noted that he would like the song since all the undocumented die in a plane crash at the end of the song.

I have a live version my friend Les burned for me (by Williams and Rodriguez), but I could not find it on YouTube. But, in searching, I discovered the song was written by Woody Guthrie, and is based upon a real incident (the actual title is Deportee (Plane Crash at Los Gatos).

Anyway, I found this cool version by Ani DiFranco and Ry Cooder. Good stuff.

And, fucking bite me Steve King. Good thing you descended from Native Americans, and not from immigrants (that was sarcasm Steve: I forgot, you are not smart enough to understand sarcasm without an explanation).

Night Music: Dave Davies/The Kinks, “Strangers”

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Timing is such an odd thing.

A few weeks back, my friend Les Ogilby, who has chimed in on the site and also contributed Top 10 Beatles and Stones lists, was up in the Bay Area.

Part of the reason is that Les, who is a killer blues harmonica player, agreed to come up north (Les and his wife Janet live in Seal Beach, Ca.) and join the BileTones when we played our holiday set at our fave dive bar, Roosters Roadhouse.

A couple of evenings before the gig Les, and his long time bud (and mine for a shorter time) Mike Volk came over to play some music and eat some pizza and play some records and have some fun together.

Well, the last album to take a spin on the turntable was the very same Lola versus Powerman and the Money-Go-Round (Part 1), the very same album that Peter grabbed the Powerman track from last night.

The spin here is Les wanted to hear the cut written by Ray’s brother, Dave, Strangers, which is indeed a lovely song.

Not to mention Dave, lead guitar player for the band, is largely credited with inventing feedback and the power chord. Go Dave!

The clip I copped is actually the album track, but it is also on the soundtrack of Anderson’s film, The Darjeeling Limited.

Ogilby: My Impossible Stones Top 10

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by Les Ogilby

A Rolling Stones Top 10?! Impossible! I agonized while eliminating favorites from my initial list of about 18. I also thought, “How much credibility can I have when no songs from Exile made my top 10?” As I looked at my list that leans heavily on the Stones’ 60’s output, I think I figured out how this happened. When Mick Taylor joined, they were introduced at concerts as “The Greatest Rock ‘n’ Roll Band in the World” and they were! As a live act, no one could touch them. They had all these great songs, and in concert they put a different spin on every song every time (prompting us to buy stacks of bootleg concert LPs), and they had the unsurpassed guitar interplay of Mick Taylor and Keith Richards. So unless I just say that my top 10 list is everything on “Get Your Ya-Ya’s Out”, I gotta go with these brilliant, creative and mostly 60’s studio efforts that often featured unique musical ornamentation by Brian Jones. The first five get 4 points each and the last five get 2 points each. I hated leaving off “Ruby Tuesday” and “Mona”.

Under My Thumb – What a brilliant intro. That rolling drum rhythm, Brian Jones’ marimbas and Mick’s fabulous singing! How was this NOT a single? Biggest mistake since the Beatles not releasing “Yesterday” as a single in the UK. I also love the 90 mph version of this song kicking off the “Got Live If You Want It” LP.

Sympathy For the Devil (Beggar’s Banquet) – How did Keith come up with that sinister guitar solo? Who else could come up with a solo like that? Also love the Mick T. and Keith guitar solo trade-off on the live version on “Get Yer Ya-Ya’s Out”.

Everybody Needs Somebody To Love (UK) – I credit this song for plunging me into record collecting. I heard it on a late night FM station about 1969. The DJ (Humble Harve – Los Angeles) explained that this was the UK version from the “Rolling Stones No. 2” import. Import?!I didn’t even know there were import versions of Beatles and Stones albums before that and I had to find them. This recording is usually referred to as the long version, but it is really the only version that was supposed to be released. The wrong master was used on the USA “Rolling Stones Now!” LP, so we got the shorter, live in the studio, raw run-through, instead of this carefully crafted masterpiece. Also, it is worth seeking out the stereo version of this recording – It will change your life.

Spider and the Fly – I took up the harmonica because of this brilliant song. Mick and Keith write their own blues classic.

Paint It Black – Brian and Keith attack with sitar and guitar! Brian just picked it up the sitar (after hearing George Harrison) and without researching the proper way to play it, started playing it his own way and it rocks!

Going Home – The ultimate jam. It wasn’t supposed to be nearly 11 minutes long, but the Stones were all dialed into one another and they just kept the tapes rolling. Mick’s best vocal performance ever.

Brown Sugar – When I first heard this I just couldn’t believe how great it was. Has that trademark Stones’ electric guitar plus acoustic guitar thing happening.

Let Me Go – from 1980’s “Emotional Rescue”. A lot like “Hang Fire” but better. It wasn’t until 1978’s “Some Girls” that their recording engineers finally figured out how to mic Charlie Watts’ drums and crank him up. We finally can hear him loud and clear and he is the star of the show on this track.

Long, Long While – a great forgotten ’66 b-side that is really spooky.

Faraway Eyes – The Stones dabbled in country music with songs like “Dear Doctor”, “High and Dry”, “Factory Girl” and “Sweet Virginia”. They pioneered country rock with “Dead Flowers”. “Faraway Eyes” is a bit campy, but the music is undeniably great and Jagger’s spoken parts are unique, charming, and really funny.