Category Archives: Lunch Break

Lunch Break: Jim Carroll Band, “Wicked Gravity”

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What else would I be doing during the day than working and listening to KTKE? Even if baseball is on in the background, the volume is down, essentially sparing me the observations of commentators explaining what I can see for myself.

This time, the nugget from the past they hit me with was Wicked Gravity by the Jim Carroll Band

Carroll was a young poet who emerged from the New York arts scene of the late 70’s, along with Patti Smith and Robert Maplethorpe, with whom he apparently shared living space as the punk movement was burgeoning.

He published an autobiographical volume, The Basketball Diaries, in 1978 that dealt with his adolescence, sex, shooting hoops in high school, and drugs, specifically the author’s heroin addiction.

Largely a product of a Catholic upbringing, the young poet hit the music scene to, forming a band and releasing a decent enough first album, Catholic Boy.

The big hit from the disc was For All the People Who Died, but I always dug the cut here, Wicked Gravity a little more as a song.

Apparently this clip was posted on YouTube by Carroll Band bass player Steve Lisnley, who noted the video is from the band’s final live performance.

Carroll produced music, prose, and poetry through 2000. He passed away in 2009 at the age of 60 from a heart attack, and one posthumous volume, The Petting Zoo was released in 2010.

 

Lunch Break: BB King at Crossroads, “Paying the Cost to be the Boss”

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BB King is the most facile and appealing blues guitarist I know. Live at the Regal sets the standard for blues recordings.

Still, it’s amazing to see the 81 year old BB King, not that good at walking, play the guitar so fluidly, and lead the band and big crowd so ably.

Eric Clapton is right to stay in the shadows. This isn’t a great tune, but it certainly shows how great a player and performer BB King was.

Lunch Break: The Band “Chest Fever”

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Of course I am working, and streaming KTKE (still the best radio on earth in the best traditional listening to the radio sense) and The Band’s Chest Fever hit the airwaves.

The studio version is among my favorite songs by the iconic group, but I found this live version from Woodstock that is so good (too bad no real video).

Aside from the killer church organ intro, the group pushes this cranker forward in such a relaxed fashion, that it just flies by.

Really love the drums and Robbie Robertson is as good as they come on the guitar. Vastly under-rated.

 

Lunch Break: Roxy Music, “Virginia Plain”

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Like late 19th-century English literature, I know far more about Roxy Music from those they’ve become or those they’ve influenced than their actual elpees. That’s because I’ve never owned a Roxy Music album (but I own plenty of Eno), and I’ve never read a Jane Austen novel (though I’ve seen plenty of the stories on a movie or television screen).

The last couple of days I’ve been playing the Essential greatest hits el=pee, which starts with the fantastic Re-Make/Re-Model and ends with a live and somewhat lachrymose version of Jealous Guy. In between is their first single, from 1972, the rollicking Virginia Plain, which seems to mash just about every style of rock under a Velvets’ kind of chug.

Lunch Break: Richard Thompson, “Feel So Good (I’m Gonna Break Somebody’s Heart)”

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When we were discussing Wreckless Eric and the Stiffs Live a few weeks back, I thought of Richard Thompson with a smile.

He is indeed my very favorite guitar player (though watch it Richard, Mick Ronson and Bill Frisell are gaining on you), singer/songwriter, and live performer.

Since Peter brought Richard and Linda and Shoot Out the Lights to the forefront, such is my opening.

Just about everything Peter culled about Richard’s career is correct, although Thompson did take a break from performing in the 80’s at some point.

I am not sure exactly when, though I suspect it was the early 80’s, or perhaps even the late 70’s.

I know this because I caught the Austin City Limits with him many years back, and during an interview the guitarist noted that he had turned to selling antiques for a while, a gig for which he admitted he was not very good at.

But, he returned to music, and the interviewer asked what brought him back, and Thompson noted, “The Sex Pistols.”

When asked to elaborate, Thompson said, “I realized I didn’t have to turn into Elton John.”

Sometime after Amnesia ( which features the terrific Valerie) was released, then the closest thing to a breakout for Thompson with Rumor and Sigh.

It was then that I truly fell in love with Richard, for though I saw Fairport Convention in the early 70’s, the first time I saw him solo was opening for Crowded House around 1988, touring solo acoustic behind that album.

Rumor and Sigh featured the great Vincent Black Lightning 1952, Read About Love, and the song below, Feel So Good. The You Tube version is culled from Letterman, and his band is the Letterman band, meaning Paul Schafer is on keys.

Just a great great song.

 

Lunch Break: The War on Drugs, “Red Eyes”

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They played in the city last week and I saw some video of their shows in Philly, which the writer at Gothamist raved about. I didn’t get real excited by the tunes, but for modern jangly indie rock they sounded pretty good. I thought I’d keep my eye out, in part because they have a good name.

They also have a new album coming out. I haven’t heard it, but I have heard this:

I like the propulsion, the simple drumming, the guitar and layers of shimmery sounds, and I like the way it breaks a couple of times (you’ll see what I mean if you listen). I’m not keen on the reverby buried slurred vocals. I’m not predicting this is going into my rotation, though it might, but it is new rock of some interest, which is rare.

Lunch Break: Frank Zappa, “Eddie Are You Kidding?”

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As a result of some odd Tout Wars drafting machinations last weekend, I was prompted to write about that, and in the process, brought up Frank Zappa and his band The Mothers of Invention.

After which it occurred to me that we have never given the brilliant, funny, and iconoclastic–not to mention great guitar player–much due on this site.

So, I will try to rectify that.

My appreciation of the man dates back to 1968, when as a long haired kid I attended a John Birch Society meeting wherein the backwards rednecks presented a program on how rock music corrupts our youth, making them become long haired degenerate dope smokers (just like me?).

I went with a handful of friends, and it was very scary as these guys were–and still are–neo-Nazis, but now I can look back on the whole affair with some kind of romantic eye.

A few years later my oldest and closest friend, Stephen Clayton and I saw the Mothers, on one of the weirdest bills ever. Opening was the band founded by then ex-Quicksilver guitar player, John Cippolina, Copperhead. Next was the jazz fusion band, Weather Report (who I have since seen three more times), and then Zappa and his mates hit the stage, playing Chunga’s Revenge that I can remember.

Zappa has also been sort of an American version of John Mayall, with the likes Lowell George, George Duke, Terry Bozio, Ansley Dunbar, and eventually Mark Volman and Howard Kaylan (AKA Flo and Eddie, ex-patriots of the Turtles), among other luminaries, in his band.

The tune I picked for today’s edification is the eternally funny Eddie Are You Kidding from the album Just Another Band From L.A. (note too that Zappa’s influence moved, as year’s later the great Los Lobos paid homage by naming their compilation album, Just Another Band from East L.A.).

Just for fun, I also added this terrific clip of Zappa appearing before Congress in 1985, testifying before Tipper Gore’s stupid committee who were monitoring music and lyrics at the time for appropriateness. Note that Zappa, John Denver, and Dee Snyder–three artists who could not be more different–all testified, and all three dissed the whole process as a bunch of shit.

Rightfully so! Anyway, Zappa was smart, funny, and eloquent as you will see if you hit the clip below.

 

 

 

Lunch Break: The Clash, “Stay Free”

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In the midst of the Punkmania, a film was released called Rude Boy. It was kind of like the Clash’s Hard Days Night, about a roadie working with the band on tour. Except much more of the movie was about the roadie than the band. I haven’t seen it since seeing it in a theater in 1978 or so, but it was a rough movie with a pretty good heart. A rock movie about a band of stars that focused on the workers who supported them.

Good stuff, not hurt by the fact that the band was making great music. This is apparently a clip from the movie, though the production values seem stronger than I remember. Whatever. This song from Give ’em Enough Rope is epic and emotional (sentimental too) and rocks, as well.

Lunch Break: Wilson Pickett, “Hey Jude”

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This clip starts with Eric Clapton talking about how great Duane Allman is on this song, and he is great. Towards the end, when the horns are pounding, Duane’s searing lead guitar is a harmony and a challenge at the same time. That makes  the arrangement all the richer.

Still, listening now, the audacity comes from the idea of an Atlantic artist covering a No. 1 hit song in a deep an meaningful way. That may have happened before, but it never happened before more beautifully.

Duane was a part of that, but it is the overall arrangement that makes this one of the great R+B cuts of its time.