I came across this Hank Williams cover, which rocks pretty hard and stokes my fear or heights.
Which reminded me of this other Hank Williams cover.
Turbonegro Must Be Destroyed
Belated concert review from Monday, 6/27:
Everything started out well enough. I love Underground Arts. But I knew the Turbonegro set list had changed. You see, one of the greatest regrets of my life is having never seen the real Turbonegro with Hank Von Helvete. The last time I saw them (and the first time I saw them) a few years ago in New York, it was their comeback tour, with new singer Tony “The Duke Of Nothing” Sylvester. For that tour, they were more or less a Hank tribute band, playing all the household name Turbonegro hits. It wasn’t perfect, but it was pretty good.
Since then, Turbonegro has changed. Their new sound is way, way too poppy. The set list two Mondays ago was dominated by new stuff and Party Animals, my personal choice as the worst Hank Turbonegro album. And only one song from Ass Cobra, arguably the best hardcore album ever. That’s a toughie.
But nothing could prepare me for the very long encore. Each member of the band was introduced to an extended mostly-awful cover song. I remember Saturday Night’s Alright For Fighting (the best), Van Halen’s Jump, and The Heat Is On (the worst – forget who does that and I’m not gonna go look either).
It was like a nightmare.
Finally, the band took a bow and left the stage to. . .I couldn’t make this up. . .We Built This City.
Typing this out, it seems like they were simply playing some over-the-top “let’s offend the audience as best we can” routine. If it was that, I’m really glad, but I don’t think so.
In any case, I’m completely through with Turbonegro until I have conclusive evidence things have gone back to semi-normal.
Here’s a video, of their latest crappy song that I posted a few weeks ago. You can see my fuzzy head in the bottom right corner, starting at about the 45 second mark.
LINK: Lou Reed Press Conference from 1974
Very funny five minutes of journalists asking questions. Lou answering.
Followed by some fine stripped bare hits live with excellent dancing by Lou.
LINK: The Prince Online Museum
Prince is pretty famous for not licensing any of his music to any streaming service but Jay Z’s Tidal.
But he should also be famous for initiating many online services with various plans to serve music and publicity and other ideas over the years. After all, he was a major artist who went indy after his falling out with Warner Brothers.
He left the label, but they owned his music, so he presented himself as a slave and wouldn’t use the name Prince, since that was his slave name.
Prince’s various online ideas have now been collected at the PrinceOnlineMuseum.com. I’ve only browsed so far, so I have no tips, but this is stuff Prince did online.
Mink DeVille, “Let Me Dream If I Want To”
This is a live cut. It’s a very fine rock song, and it only appears on the CBGB live compilation album, which was something of a survey of the bands who played CBGB who hadn’t yet signed major label deals. Mink DeVille, the Shirts, and Tuff Darts did, I don’t think the others did, but it’s still a pretty fun slice of the times.
Mink DeVille, Mixed Up Shook Up Girl
I can’t believe we haven’t posted this one before. This is one of my favorite songs of all time.
Willy DeVille’s romantic songs kill me. This is pitch perfect, as is the whole Cabretta album. This music was taken at the time as some sort of revivalism, which as Gene said in the earlier post wasn’t handled all that much by the critics of the time, but that view misses the genius that somehow transforms that old time into the modern age. These songs aren’t oldie goldie mimicry but cries from the heart that use the languages available to express themselves most fully and directly.
In other words, rock ‘n’ roll.
Mink Deville, “Gunslinger”
One way to go with Mink Deville is the hard rock. Go here:
The sound of this YouTube clip and all those I listened isn’t as rich as the album, but this is an extraordinary rock ‘n’ roll performance from top to bottom.
Straddling Lines
Part of the fun and most of the drawback in writing about music is finding comps. Tracing the roots and the blending of styles is a great game, but it tends to rob the artists of their own identities. The more traditional the music the harder it is to escape the trap in print. The J. Geils Band, George Thorogood, ZZ Top – I mean, they were all really popular but not critically respected. Mink DeVille was another, not as successful but they could have been. The big critics hardly wrote about them. Christgau dismissed them with faint praise as genre-mongers, Greil Marcus never heard of them (or the Dolls or the Heartbreakers either, he probably hated Humble Pie and The Stooges too). I don’t think Lester Bangs said anything. Only Robert Palmer ever gave them their due: “Mr. DeVille is a magnetic performer, but his macho stage presence camouflages an acute musical intelligence; his songs and arrangements are rich in ethnic rhythms and blues echoes, the most disparate stylistic references, yet they flow seamlessly and hang together solidly. He embodies (New York’s) tangle of cultural contradictions while making music that’s both idiomatic, in the broadest sense, and utterly original.”
Something very few if any critics ever say: these guys rock. It’s the crucial datum scrupulously avoided.
Mink DeVille was one of the few real rocknroll bands in the early CB’s/Max’s scene. They opened for The Heartbreakers many times and always knocked us out.
As Palmer noted, they straddled genre lines. This song has John Lee Hooker and rockabilly and Aftermath but is a thing of its own. It’s not even their best song but I’ll hear it out every time.
Song of the Week – Bluebird, Buffalo Springfield, The James Gang, Hookfoot
IGNORED OBSCURED RESTORED
Today’s post is another entry in the Evolution Series. This time focused on Stephen Stills’ “Bluebird.”
“Bluebird” was originally recorded when Stills was with the Buffalo Springfield. Another song supposedly written for Judy Collins (Suite: Judy Blue Eyes being the other), it was released in multiple versions. The first was on Buffalo Springfield Again (1967) and ran about 4½ minutes. It was also released as the follow up single to their big hit “For What It’s Worth” in a version edited down to 2 minutes. In 1973, the band released a 2 disc “greatest hits” compilation simply titled Buffalo Springfield that contained a longer 9 minute version. That’s the first SotW.
This is a vinyl rip because this version has never been released on CD and is currently out of print. The psychedelic Technicolor extended jam, and Stills and Young guitar solos (a preview of what would come from CSNY) begins right about where you would expect the banjo ending to start in the standard album version.
A couple of years later, in 1969, Joe Walsh’s James Gang released their first album, Yer’ Album. This disc contained a slowed down, dreamy 6 minute version of “Bluebird.”
As proof that you can’t keep a good song down, it was recorded again by Hookfoot and chosen as the lead off cut for their 1971 self-titled album. Hookfoot was a band featuring members of Elton John’s earliest touring band – guitarist Caleb Quaye, Ian Duck, Roger Pope and David Glover — all of whom also played on John’s Tumbleweed Connection, one of his best albums.
Their version is a little peppier, funkier and more guitar driven.
Other versions are also available for you to check out. Bonnie Raitt included it on her debut record and Stills, who has been known to recycle his own songs, closed Stephen Stills 2 with “Bluebird Revisited.”
One more thing… For kicks and giggles you should check out this YouTube video of a 1967 episode of the CBS detective show Mannix that features Buffalo Springfield playing “Bluebird” in a “hippy” nightclub scene.
Enjoy… until next week.
The Young Rascals, “Mustang Sally”
My first experience of Mustang Sally was this single by the Young Rascals.
The history of white acts covering hits originally performed by black acts is long, deep and full of argument.
I mean, Pat Boone?
The Rascals, as they grew up to be known, were better than exploiters, but where you draw the line concerning cultural appropriation might color your opinion. What I’m sure of is the Rascals loved R&B music, and brought their own shape (my first thought was to say color, but that would be wrong) to it.
If you doubt the Rascals soul, try this: