Song of the Week – Old Times Good Times, Stephen Stills

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IGNORED OBSCURED RESTORED

Stephen Stills had a pretty good career going by the end of 1968. He’s already scored a hit with “For What It’s Worth” and several critically acclaimed albums with the Buffalo Springfield and recorded the Super Session with Al Kooper and Mike Bloomfield.

But it wasn’t until he teamed up with David Crosby and Graham Nash that he really broke through to super stardom with the release of Crosby, Stills & Nash in 1969 and Déjà vu with Neil Young joining in 1970.

By November of ’70, Stills was already trading on his brand with his first solo album, Stephen Stills. It’s a good, but not great album and contained another of his hits – the gospel infused “Love the One You’re With.” The album also holds the distinction of being the only album that both Eric Clapton and Jimi Hendrix play on (though not together).

Hendrix contributed to today’s SotW, “Old Times Good Times.”

The song’s lyrics trace from Stills’ youthful days in New Orleans through to his time in New York City and later California.

When I was young and needed my time alone
Jump in the pirogue, pole down the Bayou
Bogue Falaya river was dark and cold
Seven years old, I couldn’t find my way home

When I was twelve, I learned how to play the guitar
Got myself a job in a jax beer bar
Got myself together, went to New Orleans
Found myself workin’ for rice and beans
And it was good times

New York city was so damned cold
I had to get out of that town before I got old
California and rock and roll dream
Got too high and we blew our whole scene
But we had a good time

Old times, good times
Old times, good times

It’s a rocker that follows the template drawn up with songs such as the Spencer Davis Group’s “I’m a Man.” It’s a vehicle for an R&B jam session, albeit a very short one. It chugs along with Stills on organ and Hendrix on guitar trading riffs most of the way through.

I don’t know the exact date of recording session for this song, but the album was recorded in June/July 1970. Hendrix died a couple of months later on September 18th, 1970, making this one of his last sessions. (Stills dedicated the album to Hendrix on its back cover.) Too bad, I would have liked to hear them work together again, perhaps with both on guitar another time. Sadly that’s wasn’t to be. But at least we have “Old Times Good Times.”

Enjoy… until next week.

Am I The Only One Who Doesn’t Know This?

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I’ve pretty much given up on the new Iggy album. Concept – A+, Execution – D+. But in interviews about the new album, Josh Homme goes on and on about the genius of Iggy’s The Idiot and Lust For Life – two albums I never had nor heard.

So, since they’re real cheapos on Amazon, I bought both. Listened to The Idiot for the first time yesterday and it’s pretty good, initially. Homme talks of the two albums being almost one, with The Idiot as the dark side and Lust For Life the lighter side.

What struck me most about Idiot is Iggy’s China Girl, which, believe it or not, I don’t think I’ve ever heard before.

Don’t know if it’s because I’ve heard the Bowie version a billion-trillion times at this point, but the Iggy version sounds good to me. I always thought Iggy wrote the song and Bowie covered it, but, in actuality, they wrote it together and both recorded it.

What do you think?

Iggy And Josh

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Can’t say I’ve looked forward to receiving a musical Amazon shipment in a while as much as I looked forward to this one.

I’ve only listened a couple times so far, but I’m disappointed. For one, Iggy’s vocals are just flat-out bad to me; his range must’ve dropped two octaves since his prime. One listens to Search And Destroy and it’s hard to believe it’s even the same guy.

For two, Iggy’s lyrics are downright silly and amateurish sometimes as well. I’m no stickler for lyrics and silly, amateurish lyrics certainly work for me at times (T. Rex), but perhaps in tandem with the dry, tenor vocals, these are worse, for me at least.

There’s Queens influence all over this album, but not enough for me, as Josh Homme has graciously planted himself firmly into the background for Sir Iggy.

The song I give you here is my favorite, probably by far so far, and it finishes the album. I love the beginning a cappella part, which initially makes no sense but comes around at the end in a very typical, wonderful, grinding, monotonous Queens crunch (although not as powerful as the Queens).

I could see these guys in Philly in a couple weeks, but at $45 for the cheapest ticket, I’m not sure.

I’ll keep at it.

Lou Reed, How Do You Think It Feels

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We watched Bridge of Spies tonight. Spielberg working from a Coen Brothers rewrite. What could be bad?

It isn’t bad, but it is thematically and historically weak. Donald Trump would say, Low energy. And it’s a fine reminder about the Cold War.

But this Lou Reed song, which is a major theatrical event, trumps. (No pun intended.) Because of the guitars. (Squaring the circle, it’s from the album Berlin.)

Afternoon Snack: Love, “7 And 7 Is”

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I was streaming 60’s hits on Spotify as I drove to meet the family for dinner Friday evening, and the lovely Alone Again, Or by Love came willowing out of the speakers via my IPhone.

I was always a big Love fan, but the song that really did it for me was this one, 7 And 7 Is. I was 13 when the song was released in June of 1966 and along with I Fought the Law the song was easily my favorite of the summer (though You’re Gonna Miss Me by the 13th Floor Elevators ranks right there too).

Clearly, the wall of guitars and driving beat prove I was a rocker of the highest order, even back then. And, well, when I pulled the song up on YouTube this morning, 7 And 7 Is had lost none of its punch.

So, rather than chocolate eggs or a spiral ham for Easter, you can get a virtual slug in the chest from the late great Arthur Lee and his mates. And, tell me if the song doesn’t sound as good and advanced today as it did 50 years ago?

 

 

Song of the Week – Dog on a Chain, Emitt Rhodes

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IGNORED OBSCURED RESTORED

I’ve always been an Emitt Rhodes fan. I liked his early work with the Merry-Go-Round and his classic early 70s power pop solo records. In fact, I featured both in a SotW on July 16th, 2011. So I was very excited a few months ago when I read in Mojo that he would be releasing his first full length album since 1973. But I wondered if it would be even slightly possible that he could make an album up to his prior standards after all these years.

Well it’s out now and the answer is a resounding YES!

He can still sing, he can still craft a catchy melody and his lyrics reflect the maturity you would expect from a guy that’s had 43 years to sort out song ideas he’s kept stuffed in envelopes all this time. But what impresses me most is how much feeling these songs convey.

Rhodes, who was famous for playing all the instruments on his 70s solo albums is no one man band this time around. He’s enlisted the help of some younger power pop artists — Roger Joseph Manning Jr. & Jason Falkner of Jellyfish (refer back to SotW on May 23rd, 2015), Aimee Mann (‘Til Tuesday), Susanna Hoffs (whose Bangles recorded the Merry-Go Round’s “Live”), Taylor Locke (Rooney) and drummer Joe Seiders (New Pornographers). This was clearly a labor of love for all involved.

Today’s SotW is the album opener, “Dog on a Chain.”

It starts out like a folk song – just guitar and vocals. After the first verse and chorus the full band joins in and the song gets a lift. Aimee Mann provides a vocal harmony and Jon Brion, who was in ‘Til Tuesday’s touring band and played on Jellyfish’s Spilt Milk, adds additional harmony and a nice guitar solo. . (This is a very incestuous group of musicians, isn’t it?)

The lyrics tells the familiar story of a man who has sacrificed his own desires to please his woman only to find she no longer loves the man she molded him into and wants a divorce. With his tail between his legs he says:

I was led along like a dog on a chain
Out in the cold, out in the rain
I was led along like a dog on a leash
I did as told while she did as she pleased

and

She berates me
Calls me crazy
Certifiably insane
Once she praised me
Now she hates me
I can’t see how I have changed

The entire album is available on Spotify. Go check it out.

Enjoy… until next week.

Afternoon Snack: The Yardbirds, “Shapes of Things”

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The Biletones are gearing up for summer with a new cluster of songs. Summer means a gig back at The Bistro in Hayward end of June, two dates in Madison, Wisconsin and then back to Frankie’s Blue Room in Naperville, Illinois late July/early August, and then a gig in at Raymond’s, in Cazadero, on the California Russian River.

One of the tunes to make the potential set list is the Yardbirds Heart Full of Soul which is great as my rhythm-playing lead singer mate Tom Nelson and I have been lobbying to do something by the band for at least five years.

It should not be necessary to acknowledge that the Yardbirds were the greatest guitar band ever: Just the fact that Jeff Beck, Eric Clapton, and Jimmy Page each held the main axe slot confirms this maxim.

I was sort of shocked when I ran a search on the site here and did not see any entries for the band, so I figured that needed to be corrected.

As it was, I made a Spotify playlist of the songs the band is working on, and after Heart Full of Soul finished, I decided to add The Yardbirds to my artist’s list, and started streaming them as I drove home from golf this morning.

On the way, I had to stop and run an errand, so I stuffed my IPhone–which was doing the streaming–into my pocket, and as I walked to the shop in the little circus, I could hear Still I’m Sad, ostensibly piping through the muzak system. “Such an odd coincidence,” I thought, and then when Shapes of Things came on, I decided whoever controlled the mall streaming was a fan and having a go at it.

Until I realized the music was emanating from my IPhone, which managed to get to “play” in my butt pocket.

So, ok, maybe there is no god, but no denying what a great band The Yardbirds were, and what a great cut Shapes of Things is.

Check it out and try to argue, but you will lose. Every time

 

 

Afternoon Snack: The Fresh & Onlys, “Waterfall”

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I was talking music during Tout Wars with Sirius/XM’s Kyle Elfrink, continuing a discussion we had begun a couple of weeks earlier at LABR.

As part of the process I sent vids of Jefferson Airplane and now Richard Thompson to Kyle, while he turned me onto this Northern California band, The Fresh & Onlys.

I am not so sure about the name, and I listened to the entire album, Play it Strange which is ok, but somewhat limited in sound scope in my opinion.

But, the bay area band does deliver on this tune which hearkens both The Flaming Groovies and the Bodeans to me.

Still, like this song a lot!

 

The Diane Linkletter Story

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The day after Diane Linkletter, daughter of the tv celebrity host, defenestrated herself while on LSD (a cautionary tale of the time in my junior high), John Waters made this cruddy movie, apparently while testing sound gear. It was never released as anything and the transfer here on YouTube is clearly the result of plenty of generations of VHS copies.

For me, despite all the production value problems, Waters and his actors (including Divine, as Diane), are technically clumsy but emotionally on it. This is like rock ‘n’ roll without music and rhythmic pleasure. But at times funny.

A campy and surprisingly, to me, excellent find, a jolt to the heart of parental paranoia.