This period of gospel Bob would be problematic, except that so much good music came out of it.
Category Archives: peter
Crawling From the Wreckage
This live version from 1980, is like the studio version, full of Lowe-isms while popping Dave Edmunds up front. I’m sure that’s Elvis Costello introducing the tune, by the way.
I’m not sure of the pedigree of this Graham Parker version. He wrote the song, of course. It’s certainly styled less to please pop, more skiffle and Dylan than Chuck Berry. But Parker knows how to sing and that drummer knows how to make a shoe box rock. For better or worse, you decide that, Parker gives his words more attention here.
Ornette Coleman is Dead!
I went to an Ornette Coleman tribute Hal Wilner put on in the park near my house just about one year ago today.
Ornette is a jazz guy, perhaps the most popular of the free jazz players, and a musical giant. What I learned a year ago was that Lou Reed loved Ornette, but then so do many. I remember at poker games in the loft on Lispenard Street I would sometimes put Ornette on as a distraction, but somehow the beauty of his sounds won the day more often than I won the hand.
This one is live from Prince Street in 1970, same neighborhood as the poker (though 10 years earlier), and chosen especially because of the groovy vibe. (That’s Charlie Haden on the bass, Dewey Redman on tenor, and Ed Blackwell on the drums. )
45th Anniversary Review of Sticky Fingers
I remember reading the review of Sticky Fingers in Rolling Stone, when the record was new, and thinking how sad the reviewer’s job must be to be disappointed in this fantastic record. Today Slate’s Jack Hamilton reviews the original album (not the new double and triple disk versions meant to cash in on enthusiasm for the anniversary) and it’s a much happier and appropriate piece, and he mentions those less than enthusiastic reviews.
Because we’ve posted most of the songs from the album here over the years, especially the terrific Sway and the majestic Moonlight Mile, here is a version of Wild Horses from the Flying Burrito Brothers, which came out a year earlier than the Stones’ version.
The Belles, Melvin
Was listening to a compilation of girl garage bands in the 60s, and came up this one from The Belles, which seems particularly fitting, given that baseball’s Melvin Upton Jr. is off the DL. Finally!
Peter Wolf, I Don’t Wanna Know
On Late Night with their orchestra, and it isn’t awkward. He’s great.
Peter Wolf, Tragedy
This is a live video recorded on, maybe, an iPhone a couple of years ago. It got me thinking about what a Remnant is. The first two J Geils Band albums are great, and the next three were hugely popular. This is a guy who had Mick Jagger singing backup vocals on one of his solo records, and is still playing out, in smaller venues.
He’s put together what sounds like a pretty fine band, and is entertaining fans now more than 40 years after the debut J Geils Band album. More power to him, for sure. A classic and a remnant, at once.
The Angels, Am I Ever Gonna See Your Face Again
The Angels were big in Australia in the 80s, though it seems like even in Australia a band should have known enough not to call themselves the Angels. This is a band playing funny looking instruments, and a singer who gives away the song’s best joke with his t-shirt. But the joke is funny enough (in the crowd’s enthusiasm) to keep on giving, all the way to the end.
The Go Betweens, “Was There Anything I Could Do”
I came to the Go Betweens backwards. I fell for a band called Stars, from Montreal, in the early aughts, and discovered the Go Betweens through various recommendation engines from there.
The Go Betweens are named after a Joseph Losey movie, which immediately tells you they’re not grinding, but they’re terrific songwriters and a strong band in every way. They are not twee even if they are not hard.
This song gets the call tonight because I just found this charming video, which is perfectly undercutting and musical at the same time.
John Cale, “Pablo Picasso”
Compared with the David Bowie version, this is genius. It was the first version I heard, and was more rudely funny than anything.