Category Archives: night music

Night Music: tUnE yArDs: “Doorstep”

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Lindsay dropped this cut on my Xmas disc a couple of years back, and there is something so basic and rhythmic about it, although to be truthful, I cannot put my finger on specifically what kills me about the song.

I do think there is something hypnotic about repetition in music when pulled off right. Prince’s Purple Rain being a great example of a song that seems like the only real words are in the chorus, for example, although there is some actual substance beneath that repetitive portion of the tune that draws us in.

Much the same is this one by the tUnE yArDs (hey, that is their spelling, not mine, though I confess as a fan of e.e. cummings, I love lower case letters dominating) during which we only seem to hear the scary chorus over and over (listen carefully, cos it ain’t pretty) although the sweetness and innocence of the voice of band brain child and leader Merrill Garbus somehow transcends the ugly scene.

http://youtu.be/cbWqhITwgL0

 

 

 

 

 

Night Music: Donovan, “Young Girl Blues”

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This gets complicated fast. I didn’t know this song except I’ve been reading Rachel Kushner’s “Novel of the Year,” The Flamethrowers.

And in it there is reference to this Donovan song, which describes the interstices between the fashion and the art world just the way the novel does.

But this isn’t a great song, and when Dylan mocks him in that movie (D.A. Pennebaker’s Don’t Look Back) it’s because Donovan at that point was a bigger star with fewer chops, and I suppose both knew it. But only Dylan was the asshole. Dylan was also the Flamethrower.

If you read the Flamethrowers, which has lots of historical tourism in 1975-1977 artworld Soho and Little Italy NYC, you are likely to be massaged and blown away by Rachel Kushner’s writing. She brings both sensual immediacy and historical fluidity.

I’m less sure of her emotional center, but that’s not a talk for now or this song by Donovan, which is not surprisingly deep. But sounds nice.

Night Music: Richard and Linda Thompson, “Walking On A Wire”

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Richard and Linda Thompson were members of the great English folk group, Fairport Convention. They left and made an amazing sequence of great albums of folk/rock music, which culminated with their breakup album, Shoot Out the Lights, which rocked as hard as their hearts undoubtedly hurt.

It is a harrowing collaboration telling the story of their estrangement, its vortices and its troughs. Afterwards, Linda of the lovely voice lost her ability to sing for a while, but managed to win an Oscar for best song anyway. But Richard never stopped playing the songs, no matter how darkly he was implicated. Making such solos seems to be why he is here.

Night Music: John Lennon, “Oh Yoko”

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I was in a bar tonight, the Gate, with my buddy Jon.

For my beery friends I had a Bell’s Java Porter, a Captain Lawrence IPA x 2, and a Boat Beer from a brewery in New Jersey.

The Bell’s is fantastically rich and wonderful, desert, dinner and an aperitif all at once. The Captain Lawrence is super hoppy, while the Boat Beer, a session lager, was a little citrusy, but also reminded that the New Jersey water isn’t perfect. Not bad at all, but not delightful.

As for the jukebox, it was prime. But the tune that stood out was this one, which seems to have a pretty nice slide show to go with it. Unless you have a unnatural hatred for Yoko. I don’t. I loved her movie with the camera tilts up legs.

 

 

Night Music: Canned Heat, “Rollin’ and Tumblin'”

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This is a Muddy Waters tune, and Canned Heat does a great job. Enjoy.

At the same time, it should be noted that these are the least authentic looking but good sounding Blues guys you can imagine. I mean, the band was never in danger of being sharecroppers.

So, big surprise, nerdy Blues aficionados rocking the blues. It happens in every college town. And has forever.

But Bob Hite is a charismatic guy with an original bluesy voice.

The filmmaker seems mostly interested in the gals.

 

Night Music: Bob Dylan, “Stuck Inside of Mobile with the Memphis Blues Again.”

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Bob_Dylan_-_Blonde_on_BlondeBob Dylan has been mentioned all over the place on the site since we started waxing quasi poetic about what music means to us. And, Dylan’s phenomenal Blonde on Blonde made the group’s consensus Top 50.

But, I cannot remember a Dylan song actually being singled out in the same way all the other stuff works its way to the top of our collective creative urges.

Blonde on Blonde is my favorite Dylan album by a long shot, and that actually says a lot.

But, my  love for it traces back to around April, 1967, when my parents celebrated their 25th wedding anniversary. For that year, in honor of the occasion, my father bought my mother–and I suppose the family–a big Magnavox stereo in a big piece of mahogany furniture.

That was ok, but what it really meant was that I could lay claim to the family’s portable Admiral phonograph, which I then stashed in my bedroom.

I had pretty much stopped buying singles by that time anyway, so every night, before free-form FM worked its way to the Sacramento airwaves to which I would be stuck for a few more years before I could return to my beloved bay area for good, I would drop a stack of albums on the spindle to lull me to sleep.

The Beach Boys All Summer Long and Surfin’ USA were staples in those days, along with early Beatles and Stones. But, since albums cost a lot–$4 in those days, which was a lot–I did not purchase too many, too often. Meaning like when I first was buying 45’s, five years earlier, I would listen to both sides of everything simply because the song was there and I could.

So, every night side two of disc one, which feature I Want You, Leopard Skin Pillbox Hat, Just Like a Woman, and the clip link linked below, of Blonde on Blonde hit the changer as well.

With Al Kooper on keys, and Robbie Robertson on guitar, along with Rick Danko and Joe South among others, Blonde on Blonde was recorded both in Nashville, then New York.

And, well, spending the past few days in New York, in anticipation of Tout Wars, I thought a number of times about early Dylan while enjoying walking up and the streets, cos New York is such a great walking city. But I also thought of the man, and just what a great artist, singer, songwriter, and generally pretty good guy he has been, and is.

Further, I would like to think that his deconstruction of his own catalogue over the years has been brilliant, keeping him and his songs fresh and valid in a way the audience might not appreciated, but that I hope I do.

In fact this version of Stuck Inside of Mobile with the Memphis Blues Again is quite different from the one I fell in love with as I went to sleep in the later 60’s, but it is just as great and fun.

Love ya Bob. Always will!

http://youtu.be/_hKSEIAXzCU

 

 

 

NIGHT MUSIC: The Clash, “Guns on the Roof”

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After success, our boys are conflicted. Issues erupt, involving drugs and guns. They’ve been in court and are obliged to tell the truth, the whole truth.

The band’s second album seethes with rock arguments for their acting out and recognizing (but not apologizing) that maybe they’ve crossed the line. Embarrassed by misdemeanors? I suspect yes, even though this song makes no apologies.

“I like to be in Europe man, say goodbye to everyone.” That’s dark.

NIGHT MUSIC: Elvis Costello and the Attractions, “Shot With His Own Gun”

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Steve Nieve’s ability to harness bombast and make it feel like something more specific is extraordinary, while Costello’s talent for unrelenting wordplay soars here. Allusion and implication make for an elusive and compelling story about, um, what exactly? It doesn’t matter. Daddy’s keeping mum.