This is Miles and his septet at their best defining jazz/rock fusion. With John McLaughlin, Herbie Hancock, Keith Jarrett, Billy Cobham, Sonny Sharock, and Michael Henderson, Davis and his band totally kick the shit out of this instrumental that was produced as the soundtrack for an animated film on the life of boxer Jack Johnson.
Perhaps this is why Miles is in the R’n’R HOF, although it is ridiculous to consider who is in and out of that stupid museum, although I actually I do want to go there: I just don’t care who is in much anymore.
To the point, Deep Purple is in on the strength of two hits and a so-so album. This cut from Miles, along with the back side (a track called “Yesternow”) is better than anything Deep Purple ever imagined.
Add in Bitches Brew to the cartel of fusion Miles did, not to mention his incredible albums, Kind of Blue, and In a Silent Way and it is pretty easy to see why Miles et al are so highly thought of by all who love brainy music.
We could write tributes to those who have passed nearly every day. Today it is for Bonny Rice, whose biggest hit was released as Sir Mack Rice, who was a member of the Falcons in Detroit (with Wilson Pickett, Eddie Floyd, and Joe Stubbs), but who is best known for writing Wilson Pickett’s hit, Mustang Sally, and cowriting the Staple Singers’ Respect Yourself (with Luther Ingram).
The best anecdote from the NY Times’s obituary today: The song was originally called Mustang Mama, but Aretha Franklin, who played piano on the demo, convinced him to change the name.
Here’s the Wilson Pickett version, which was an R&B and pop hit. After the song there are some details about the writing of the song.
If there is an ur-moment of the birth of rock ‘n’ roll I would name the Sun Sessions with Elvis Presley. This is Elvis at his greatest, with a band that cranks it up.
If asked about the birth of rock I would chatter about Joe Turner and Little Richard. These are the giant creators of rock ‘n’ roll. And there was more going on at Sun than just Elvis in 1954.
But there are two records I put on when I want to hear the original stuff. The Sun Sessions with Elvis Presley and whatever compilation of Buddy Holly tunes I can find at hand.
Scotty Moore had jazz ambitions, but he gladly took the session backing Elvis. And you can hear in the finger picking that he inserts along with his rhythm part that his ambitions are greater than simply sideman.
Moore’s guitar is essential to Mystery Train.
What surprised me reading about this legend’s career was that his footprint wasn’t large. He made a deep impression early, and had influence forever, but there is not a big body of work out there that is Scotty Moore’s.
Still, this grab from Wikipedia explains his importance and his reticent impact:
“Moore is given credit as a pioneer rock ‘n’ roll lead guitarist, though he characteristically downplayed his own innovative role in the development of the style. “It had been there for quite a while”, recalled Moore. “Carl Perkins was doing basically the same sort of thing up around Jackson, and I know for a fact Jerry Lee Lewis had been playing that kind of music ever since he was ten years old.”[7] Paul Friedlander describes the defining elements of rockabilly, which he similarly characterizes as “essentially … an Elvis Presley construction”: “the raw, emotive, and slurred vocal style and emphasis on rhythmic feeling [of] the blues with the string band and strummed rhythm guitar [of] country”.[8] In “That’s All Right”, the Presley trio’s first record, Scotty Moore’s guitar solo, “a combination of Merle Travis–style country finger-picking, double-stop slides from acoustic boogie, and blues-based bent-note, single-string work, is a microcosm of this fusion.”[9]“
Everybody knows Jonathan loved the Velvet Underground. And John Cale produced the first Modern Lovers album, which is one of fewer than five epochal punk albums.
Later, Jonathan released this old-school rock ‘n’ roll sound, which has a fabulous sense of rhyme.
A few months ago, Austin based White Denim released their 7th album (well, 7th including their debut EP), Stiff. White Denim is an indie rock band from Austin that covers a wide range of musical styles – blues, rock, soul – in their repertoire.
The band was launched in 2006 as a trio – James Petralli (vocals, guitar), Joshua Block (drums), and Steve Terebecki (vocals, bass). In 2010 the band added Austin Jenkins as a second guitarist. But in 2014 Block and Jenkins hooked up with fellow Texan Leon Bridges during a White Denim hiatus, but decided to be a permanent part of his group. For a while that left the status of the group in limbo.
But Petralli and Terebecki hired Jonathan Horne (guitar) and Jeffrey Olson (traps) as replacements and picked up right where they left off.
The band has always had a knack for creative promotional gimmicks to foster a loyal fan following. Their first recordings were self-released on iTunes only. Their EP Workout Holiday was only sold at their gigs. A 2008 release called 11 Songs was sold on their 2008 spring tour as a CD-R. (It was later given a proper release under the title Explosion.)
In order to promote the new album, this winter the band did a series of “pop up” shows in small clubs in Austin. The photo below was taken at a show my nephew and cousin attended on February 18th at the Hotel Vegas, a venue that could only accommodate 150 fans.
Today’s SotW is “Had 2 Know (Personal)” from Stiff.
This is the first song on the album and kicks it off like horses coming out of the starting gates at Churchill Downs. It has a classic rock sound, much like contemporaries The Black Keys – big guitar riffs and strong vocals. These good ‘ol boys are throwing a party and all you have to do is sing along to be a part of it.
If you don’t believe me just watch the video of them playing the song in a local music store that the band produced in April. The tablature scrolled across the bottom so viewers could learn to play it and upload their own versions to the band’s web page, Instagram or Twitter accounts by May 6th.
They promised to award a signed vinyl copy of Stiff, a limited-edition tour poster and a set of custom guitar picks to the winning musicians making the best version.
Since it appears the fight is over after one round, I was thinking further about why rock ‘n’ roll discussion always has to include discussion of music that isn’t rock ‘n’ roll.
If this was Country Remnants, we wouldn’t be discussing disco. If this was Disco Remnants, we wouldn’t be discussing Black Sabbath.
What are Donna Summer and Miles Davis doing in the Rock ‘N’ Roll Hall Of Fame? Does the Jazz Hall Of Fame feel obligated to induct The Beatles? Surely there were bits and pieces of jazz in Beatles’ music. (The Miles Davis Wiki listing says, “In 2006, he was inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame, which recognized him as ‘one of the key figures in the history of jazz.'” Huh? It ain’t “The All Kinds Of Music Hall Of Fame”, boys and girls.)
What is rock ‘n’ roll? It works like the porn test, when I hear it, I’ll tell you.
Was also thinking we should change the name of this blog to “Rock ‘n’ Roll Remnants – And Disco.”
Bernie Worrell, the influential keyboard player first for Parliment/Funkadelic, and then the Talking Heads and various cool bands who were clear just how killer Worrell’s playing was, has passed away at age 72.
I was not only lucky enough to catch the Heads on the “Big Suit” tour when Worrell toured with the band, but I also actually saw Parliment at a Lollapalooza in 1994. And, they were unquestionably the best live band I ever saw.
Mind you, I have seen a lot of bands, and as a result a lot of killer sets and performances, but note for note, player for player, no band was as tight and energetic with such a full and powerful sound as George Clinton and his mates.
Period.
Check the band out doing Rumpofsteelskin with Bernie on keys, and let by Clinton and Bootsy. Peace out Brother Bernie…
Frankly, my defense of disco would last about 100 words. It was unapologetic dance music that was the soundtrack to a great public flowering of gay and interracial utopias, hedonistic, aspirational, happy, at a time when really the whole world was going to hell.
The funny thing is that it wasn’t too long before this culture, so flamboyant and energetic and just plain wonderful, was destroyed by the darkness of AIDS.
The music, which started out as dance music by Kool and the Gang and the Ohio Players and the Commodores among many others, really straight up R&B, evolved into that pulsing 128 BPM sheen, a music that sacrifices swing for relentless intensity and pistonlike movement. This wasn’t music for sitting around and contemplating, this was music for getting sweaty on the dancefloor and sweaty in the bathroom and more sweaty at home, if you know what I mean. Utilitarian music, dance music, sex music.
Alright, that’s 154 words. Here’s a link to a story by a younger guy from Macon who explains it more, if you’re interested. The story starts out at Duane Allman’s grave, which is kind of cool.
Here are a few songs I think of as liking from that time, when you would go into a club and everyone would feel like they were in the minority. Everybody felt like they were venturing out, being a little dangerous, and also connecting to a world that hadn’t ever really existed before, to people they may not have seen before. Oh, I should also mention cocaine and amyl.
I guess my point is that you can freely hate all this music, these tunes, the beats, the arrangements, the crappy clothes the singers wore, but it really isn’t fair to say Disco Sucks. That’s because Disco was so much more bigger than the music.
1) Just started reading Under The Big Black Sun:A Personal History Of L.A. Punk by John Doe. It’s a little pretentious (like X) but I can tell it’s gonna be a great read. Highly recommended.
2) Despite overwhelming contrary consensus here (some rock ‘n’ roll site, huh?), the book reminds me that disco truly did (and does) suck.
3) Was forced to listen to Down At The Sunset Grill at the supermarket this morning. Sheesh, what a piece of dog shit. Toggles between droning (not in a good way) and meandering. What is the appeal of this music? Someone, please tell me.
