When I first learned about Elvis Costello and Nick Lowe and Graham Parker, I first learned that they grew out of a scene that was exemplified by the Brinsley Schwarz band. Pub rock, they called it.
This wasn’t a little thing. But I’m surprised I have to admit that I’ve never actually listened to Brinsley Schwarz until today. So this cut jumps out. A goofy Nick Lowe. What more could you ask for?
It is the League of Alternative Baseball Reality (LABR) weekend in Phoenix, and that means time with my bestest industry friends.
Later today I will see fellow Remnant Steve Moyer, but for the most part this week I have been traipsing from ballpark-to-ballpark with my running buddy Steve Gardner.
Steve and I always have so much to talk about: baseball, food, and especially music.
As we ate breakfast the other morning, we were talking about country and alt-country, and I remembered this anecdote from my youth.
When I was eight or so–so this is 1960-61–and was a cub scout, our little pack got tickets to the local NBC affiliate’s Saturday afternoon variety show. Remember that at that time there were just three TV networks, and nothing like cable. In fact I am not sure if PBS had a presence as of yet.
I remember the show was hosted by the news anchor, who also hosted the kids Saturday morning/weekday afternoon kids cartoon show, along with that variety thing (which was that period’s time of local cable access filler).
Well, when I was in the audience, the musical guest was Buck Owens, and he sang his new hit, Tiger by the Tail.
It was just Buck, though he surely had a shiny suit and flashy guitar (at least to an eight-year old), so no Buckaroos. And, I am pretty sure Buck had an electric (not as cool as the metalflake vintage Tele being played below) but was not plugged into anything.
Furthermore, this was my first exposure to lip syncing, in its most rudimentary form.
On the floor, in one corner of the little studio, was a little plug-in Admiral, much like the phonograph we had at home, and someone dropped the .45 single on the turntable at the right time, dropped the tone arm, turned up the volume, and the race was on (ok, George Jones reference) so to speak.
Funny how we remember. Before Buck was big stuff, for sure.
IGNORED OBSCURED RESTORED
As a music lover and record collector, I’m always interested in checking out the CDs and albums other people have in their homes. You know what I mean. Just like people who read; they always peruse the bookshelves when they visit someone’s home.
I’ve often thought that it would be especially interesting to browse the collections of celebrities, especially rock stars. What unusual gems were they listening to and influenced by?
I recently read an essay by Jeff Gold who runs the website Recordmecca that tells the tale of Jimi Hendrix’s record collection. Gold knows what he’s talking about – he acquired, at auction, part of the collection (the rest is on display in Seattle’s Experience Music Project Museum).
Here’s a list of some of Jimi’s discs:
Robert Johnson “King of the Delta Blues Singers”
Muddy Waters “The Real Folk Blues”
John Lee Hooker “Drifting Blues”
Wes Montgomery “A Day In The Life”
The Roland Kirk Quartet “Rip, Rig and Panic”
Ravi Shankar “India’s Master Musician” and “Portrait of a Genius”
The Jimi Hendrix Experience “Electric Ladyland”
The Dream “Get Dreamy”
Howlin Wolf “The Howlin’ Wolf Album” and “Moanin’ In The Moonlight”
Bob Dylan “Greatest Hits” and “Highway 61 Revisited”
Elmore James “Memorial Album”
James Brown “Showtime”
Clara Ward “Gospel Concert”
Acker Bilk “Lansdowne Folio”
The Beatles “Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band”
Various “Chicago The Blues Today” and “American Folk Blues Festival ‘66”
Bill Cosby “Revenge
Lots of blues, some jazz, rock, R&B and gospel. No surprises here. But Get Dreamy by The Dream? Now that’s something that arouses my curiosity. Here’s what Gold says about the album:
The rarest album in the bunch was “Get Dreamy” by The Dream, a 1967 LP by a Norwegian psychedelic quartet. This album featured what has to be the earliest ever Hendrix tribute, their song “Hey Jimi” (Hendrix’s debut single, “Hey Joe” was first released in December 1966.) This copy was inscribed to Jimi by Dream guitarist (and later celebrated ECM jazz guitarist) Terje Rypdal, who wrote “With all the respect we can give a fellow musician, we wrote “Hey Jimi” as a tribute to you. We hope you like it and enjoy the rest of the LP too. On behalf of the Dream, Terje Rypdal.” In 2005 I googled “Terje Rypdal” and “Jimi Hendrix” and found an interview where Rypdal mentions sending a copy of the album to Hendrix through a friend of a girlfriend of Jimi’s, but never being sure it got to him. I found an email address for his manager and sent him a message that the album had indeed found it’s way to Jimi, and got a message back that Terje was thrilled to know that Jimi had received it—and letting me know that if I ever wanted to sell it, “mail us first !!!!!” However, this one’s not going anywhere!
So let’s get to it! Today’s SotW is “Hey Jimi” by The Dream.
Follow this link if you’re interested in reading Gold’s complete article:
Jeff Gold – Jimi Hendrix’s Record Collection
Enjoy… until next week.
Go to sleep.
Many of our regular commenters are in Phoenix this week, enjoying the pleasures of Spring Training, the LABR auctions, and the visual stimulation of Old Scottsdale.
No better time to run Barbara Manning’s post solo band up the center field flag pole. I know of no other rocker with cooler baseball bona fides. The art with this post is the cover from her album One Perfect Green Blanket, which is quite perfect.
The song commemorates Doc Ellis’s No Hitter, pitched while on LSD. We’ve posted the cartoon video about this event before, on askrotoman.com. But we’re not stalking. Just marveling. And Barbara’s song is great, too. Direct link to Ellis on LSD.
Whenever Gene posts the Raveonettes I’m reminded of this Dutch band I liked in the early 90s. Not as shimmery as the nettes, not really that similar (too slackerish maybe), but it has the layered guitars thing.
Now this has little of the 50’s element but lots of that rocking sadness. It’s a shitty world when their songs aren’t all over the radio. This is new too, 2011 anyway.
Eddie Cochran became a rock legend. Hank Cochran was not related, and didn’t become a star (but did have a long career as a songwriter and performer, with seven songs that made the country charts), but the two performed as the Cochran Brothers in 1956 and recorded some sides. I’ve been listening to Eddie Cochran a lot lately, but knew nothing about this group until I found these songs on a “greatest hits” album. These tunes weren’t hits when they were made, in Southern California, but what a fantastic rockin’ sound! Eddie, by the way, would be 17 here.
Seems that Mick had a photo op with Taylor Swift and Ellie Goulding. You know all these names. You know Steve’s bile level has just spiked.
Ellie Goulding’s team Instagrammed the photo with an unfortunate caption.
This isn’t an indictment of Goulding, probably, but a reminder that to the young the old are mostly old. Or, admirably old.
Some white reggae cum SOCA on the first Talking Heads cut on the first Talking Heads album. Who would have thought!
I was parking the car today, something we do in this city, and heard this on the radio. Wow. I hadn’t forgotten it. I’m sure I’ve heard it sort of recently, but dropped into the auto experience, I was blown away.
It sounded great, immediate, powerful, and reminded me of just how into this band I was when they were in their simple state. They got groovier later and that stuff is fantastic, but man oh man there is good music here in the working it out stage.
