The better part of a week on the road, without the inet some of the time, and with other things to do than listen to music some of the rest of the time. Not that much of a tourist, but this song says welcome home better than most.
In Memoriam
Just got word that our good friend and used-to-be regular Rock Remnants contributor was eaten by a Great White shark off the coast of Brooklyn.
Please send all contributions directly to me.
Sincerely as hell,
Steve
Real Thing New To Me
These guys have the right idea.
Lunch Break: The Band “Chest Fever”
Of course I am working, and streaming KTKE (still the best radio on earth in the best traditional listening to the radio sense) and The Band’s Chest Fever hit the airwaves.
The studio version is among my favorite songs by the iconic group, but I found this live version from Woodstock that is so good (too bad no real video).
Aside from the killer church organ intro, the group pushes this cranker forward in such a relaxed fashion, that it just flies by.
Really love the drums and Robbie Robertson is as good as they come on the guitar. Vastly under-rated.
Elvis Costello’s Top 500 Albums
My friend sent this to me so I thought I’d pass it along.
http://www.elviscostello.info/articles/t-z/vanity_fair.001101a.html
Seems like a good list for you snobby folks who don’t care for loud guitars. It’ll justify your good taste and make you feel self-righteous.
Song of the Week – Look at the World It’s Changing/You Because You Know Me, Heads Hands & Feet
IGNORED OBSCURED RESTORED
I went to a record collectors show a few weeks ago. One of the vendors had a box of records for $5 each. I ended up buying two or three simply because I had never seen them before. That’s pretty unusual for me. I come across a lot of records I don’t own, but very few I’ve never heard of or seen.
One was a double album by a band called Heads Hands & Feet. Have you ever heard of them? Well, they were pretty damn good.
I had to do a lot of digging on the web to learn about them. Here’s what I found. They were a British sextet made up mostly of professional session musicians. Chas Hodges (bass, violin, vocals) had been around the block, working with Joe Meek, Shirley Bassey and Jerry Lee Lewis. Lead guitarist Albert Lee went on to a long career in the music biz including work with Eric Clapton, Dave Edmunds and Willie Nelson. He was best known as James Burton’s replacement in Emmy Lou Harris’ Hot Band, contributing to several of her best known albums including Luxury Liner and Evangeline. His reputation rests on his ability to play very fast. Tony Colton (lead vocals) and Ray Smith (guitar) co-wrote most of the songs.
Most of the info I found on the band describes them as a country band. If you check out their YouTube videos they definitely live up to that billing. But the disc I bought (their debut) is much more expansive.
Take, for example, today’s SotW – “Look at the World It’s Changing/You Because You Know Me.”
Heads Hands & Feet – Look at the World It’s Changing/You Because You Know Me
The first song in the suite, “Look at the World…,” sounds more like early prog rock to me — a bit of Pink Floyd here, a dash of The Strawbs there. Drummer Pete Gavin’s style reminds me of ELP’s Carl Palmer. It also has a pretty nifty alto sax solo by guest Elton Dean. Dean had played with Reginald Dwight in Long John Baldry’s band. (Dwight combined their first names to come up with his famous stage name – Elton John.)
“Look at the World…” segues gently into “You Because…” which is a beautiful folk song. It has certain elements that could have been lifted out of the Paul Simon songbook.
So the record show was a success for me. I scored a good record and learned about a band I’d never heard of before. I love it!
BTW – This cut is a vinyl rip because the song isn’t available for download. Nor is it available on YouTube or Spotify. It’s just too rare.
Speaking of vinyl records… today is Record Store Day. Please try to support your favorite local record store. You can probably find a cool special edition collectible by one of your favorite artists or some unexpected gem like today’s SotW.
Enjoy… until next week.
Breakfast Blend: In The Midnight Hour
I’ve been listening to Roxy Music lately and their version of Wilson Pickett’s In the Midnight Hour is notable for a total lack of dirtiness. The blurps and beeps in the arrangement, which float far in front of a very solid sounding horn part, render this modern, even though Ferry plays it straight. This came shortly after Elvis Costello’s fairly triumphant cover of Pickett’s I Can’t Stand Up For Falling Down, and an Englishy buzz about Stax and Atlantic soul. I may not be totally cool with the sound, is it gimmicky? But I like it.
But not as much as I like the first version I knew. Which had nothing on what I later heard from Pickett himself, but which is an exemplar of the blue-eyed sound. The Rascals were great.
Night Music: Wilson Pickett, “The Midnight Hour”
Holy cow, it’s the midnight hour, and Wilson Pickett and Steve Cropper wrote a song about it!
Pickett may have my favorite voice in all of soul, a fantastic blend of grit and croon, and The Midnight Hour was his first big hit. This track is an indelible pleasure, even when you consider the delights that came later.
Lunch Break: Roxy Music, “Virginia Plain”
Like late 19th-century English literature, I know far more about Roxy Music from those they’ve become or those they’ve influenced than their actual elpees. That’s because I’ve never owned a Roxy Music album (but I own plenty of Eno), and I’ve never read a Jane Austen novel (though I’ve seen plenty of the stories on a movie or television screen).
The last couple of days I’ve been playing the Essential greatest hits el=pee, which starts with the fantastic Re-Make/Re-Model and ends with a live and somewhat lachrymose version of Jealous Guy. In between is their first single, from 1972, the rollicking Virginia Plain, which seems to mash just about every style of rock under a Velvets’ kind of chug.
Obit: Arthur Smith
The movie Deliverance was a horror movie based on the idea that educated adventurers rafting through West Virginia were somehow better than the impoverished folks who lived there. But one of the movie’s most memorable scenes was a bit of music that was written by a man named Arthur Smith, who died earlier this week, which showed a shared core of delightful string picking.
Smith had a long career as a songwriter, performer and television host. He also owned a recording studio in Charlotte, N.C., where James Brown recorded Papa’s Got a Brand New Bag.
The NY Times obit ends with an anecdote. It seems that when the guitarist in a fledgling rock band called the Quarrymen bungled the lead line in Smith’s Guitar Boogie, the band moved Paul McCartney to bass player and brought in George Harrison as a guitarist.