The Healing Power Of Rhythm Guitar

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I found the best live Led Zep album ever.

A friend of mine bought a huge box full of CDs for $30 at a yard sale and he let me pick through them after he took first dibs. I picked a bunch of later Beatles that I didn’t have (more on that later) a couple early Metallicas (maybe more on that later) and Jimmy Page and the Black Crowes – Live At The Greek.

Good God, the Page album kicks some serious ass. And you know why? Rhythm guitar. Go ahead, try and find me better live Zeppelin. Why the Zeps never bothered to just hire some schmuck to hammer out chords I’ll never know. Big mistake in my book.

Chris Robinson isn’t quite Robert Plant, but he’s damn close. And he’s certainly better than the current croaking Lawr version of Plant. The drummer? Hey, Bonham’s my favorite drummer of all, but I guess this teaches me that it was more his innovative style than difficult technique because I don’t miss anything here. This bass player can’t match JPJ on the Lemon Song solo, but it’s not that big a deal.

This has depth and crunch and balls like nothing Zep ever released live.

If someone were to find some buried old Led Zeppelin live tape and it sounded like this, the entire rock world would shit its pants. I swear to God.

Larry The Lamb

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Being the lemming I am, for all these years I’ve referred to Marc Bolan’s voice as “Larry the Lamb” because I’d read it elsewhere. This morning I realized I didn’t really know who Larry the Lamb was.

Mystery solved. He was a cartoon character in a Davey and Goliath/Gumby-like childrens show.

Take a look. It’s actually pretty funny for as long as you can stand it. Stick around for at least a minute and a half for this exchange:

Larry: I thought you were a fairy.
Cop: A fairy? Me? Do I look like a fairy?
Larry: I don’t know. I’ve never seen one. Baaah.
Cop: Then be careful what you say, my lad.

A Must-Have

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Got my copy of the pretty-recent double-CD reissue of the T. Rex album (you’ll recognize the front cover on the youtube).

It’s simply kick-ass fantastic. As epic as are Electric Warrior and The Slider it’s hard to find this any less epic while listening.

This is the transitional T. Rex album, sharing elements of acoustic Tyrannosaurus Rex before and electric T. Rex to come.

I’m the first guy to call bullshit on bands and so much of Marc Bolan/T. Rex is bullshit – the Larry the Lamb vocals, strings, the silly fairlyland lyrics. Hell, I’d say any rock music including bongo drums is two strikes into bullshit territory already.

But T. Rex is great bullshit. I liked this album back in the early 80’s when a real punk rocker I loaned this to made off with my copy (among other stuff) when he suddenly moved back to the LA Hardcore scene with no notice. I hadn’t heard all of it in a long time. The song I offer, Beltane Walk, along with Jewel and One Inch Rock are up there with just about anything. And most everything else is pretty darn close.

Beltane Walk is another choice of mine for a perfect pop song with its hooky chorus. I’m also a sucker for the upstroke guitar clucks during the verses. Love the guitar tone too.

The extra disc includes lots of raw stuff that’s fun to listen to. On one cut, Bolan honks a jump up to a Larry the Lamb falsetto with a frog in his throat and the recording ends right then and there.

I’ve said this many times before and I’ll say it many times again, but the fact that Bolan/T. Rex isn’t in the Rock Hall of Fame (and isn’t really even in the conversation) make the whole endeavor a joke all by itself.

“And then we’ll a-woke. . .”

Night Music: The Beattle-ettes, “Only 17”

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onlyseventeenThis orthographically challenged band poses something of a mystery. The song is credited to George Morton, the famed producer of the Shangri-las (and the New York Dolls–he produced Too Much Too Soon and wrote the song Great Big Kiss), but no one knows who the Beattle-ettes actually were. It is assumed that the extra t in their name is a mistake, though maybe it was some savvy copyright policing.

As it were, the record quotes liberally from the Beatles hits, though notably not My Sweet Lord. Maybe some Shangri-las sang on this or not, it really doesn’t matter. It’s a naked grab for cash, and still kind of catchy and sweet. And I had no idea it existed until yesterday (no quotes from that either).

Breakfast Blend: Stranger In The House

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Another of Elvis Costello’s secret songs was Stranger in the House. I have a copy that came as a bonus 45 in, um, Armed Forces, maybe. I can’t remember. Limited edition. Only a few thousand out there.

But then George Jones and Elvis recorded this duet, and the internet happened. I no longer believe my Stranger in the House b/w Neat Neat Neat is going to pay for my daughter to go to school for more than a day or two. But it’s still a great song. Heck, the Damned cover is awesome, too.

It is bizarre that Stranger in the House, Hoover Factory and Radio Sweetheart weren’t on My Aim Is True. Hard choices, I guess.

Here’s Radio Sweetheart as a singalong with a crowd that needed coaxing. I can’t imagine going there, but that’s a performer’s job.

Night Music: Elvis Costello, “Hoover Factory”

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This song is not on any regular Elvis Costello album. The first time I heard it was at a friend of my girlfriend’s house somewhere in Connecticut, on a record I was embarrassed I didn’t know existed, a bootleg, and it made a mighty impression. I played it over and over and over that day, and have ever since. When you watch recent live versions you can see how a performer can lose the meaning of the song. But this original is one of the great songs about architecture.

Song of the Week – Black Magic Woman, Fleetwood Mac & Gypsy Queen, Gabor Szabo

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IGNORED OBSCURED RESTORED

Santana’s most commercially successful album was probably Abraxas. Released in 1970 it contained three of the band’s best known songs – “Oye Como Va”, “Hope You’re Feeling Better” and “Black Magic Woman/Gypsy Queen.” Released in September 1970, the album reached #1 on the Billboard album charts – no doubt benefiting from the March 1970 release of the Woodstock movie where their incendiary performance of “Soul Sacrifice” was a highlight of the film.

“Black Magic Woman/Gypsy Queen” was not an original composition. In fact, it was a combination of two covers that are today’s Songs of the Week.

“Black Magic Woman” was originally recorded by Fleetwood Mac. Not the Bob Welch (Bare Trees, Mystery to Me) version or the Buckingham/Nicks (Fleetwood Mac, Rumours) version, but the Peter Green led band.

Peter Green was a blues guitar virtuoso that replaced Eric Clapton in John Mayall’s Blues Breakers. When his stint with Mayall had run its course, he formed the original Fleetwood Mac. “Black Magic Woman” was the first single from their 1968 debut.

“Gypsy Queen” was originally recorded by Hungarian jazz guitarist Gabor Szabo.

The Santana version follows the Szabo template very closely and signaled that Santana would soon be led into a more jazz influenced direction later in his career. Santana’s style is a bit “heavier” and more Latin influenced, but the guitar riffs are near identical.

Although I almost always favor the version of a song that I heard (and loved) first, it’s always interesting to hear the originals. Don’t you think?

Enjoy… until next week.