I read on some website today that Mick says this is the song he could not write today. As for the lyrics, absolutely, but to marry them with such a killer riff is perverse.
Scott Asheton RIP LAMF
www.youtube.com/watch?v=-U7lfbada-Y
RIP: Scott Asheton
He was the only drummer the Stooges had until he was cut down by a stroke a few years ago. And while he stopped touring he still played. He died today, some five years or so after his brother Stooge and brother brother Ron died of a heart attack.
Iggy released a statement saying he’d never heard any drummer play with more meaning than Scott, which sounds perfect.
Lunch Break: The Clash, “Stay Free”
In the midst of the Punkmania, a film was released called Rude Boy. It was kind of like the Clash’s Hard Days Night, about a roadie working with the band on tour. Except much more of the movie was about the roadie than the band. I haven’t seen it since seeing it in a theater in 1978 or so, but it was a rough movie with a pretty good heart. A rock movie about a band of stars that focused on the workers who supported them.
Good stuff, not hurt by the fact that the band was making great music. This is apparently a clip from the movie, though the production values seem stronger than I remember. Whatever. This song from Give ’em Enough Rope is epic and emotional (sentimental too) and rocks, as well.
NIGHT MUSIC: The Clash, “Guns on the Roof”
After success, our boys are conflicted. Issues erupt, involving drugs and guns. They’ve been in court and are obliged to tell the truth, the whole truth.
The band’s second album seethes with rock arguments for their acting out and recognizing (but not apologizing) that maybe they’ve crossed the line. Embarrassed by misdemeanors? I suspect yes, even though this song makes no apologies.
“I like to be in Europe man, say goodbye to everyone.” That’s dark.
Breakfast Blend: Hey Joe!
Jimi Hendrix Experience owns Hey Joe, right?
But the song first became a hit for an LA band called the Leaves.
The song was apparently written by a folk singer by the name of Billy Roberts, who at one point assigned the rights to the song to his buddy Dino Valenti when Valenti was in jail, so that he’s have something of his own when he got out. Valenti was a founding member of Quicksilver Messenger Service, and is perhaps most famous for writing the song Get Together, under his pen name Chet Powers.
Love had a hit with a great version of the song, though it pales besides Hendrix. As does everything.
For instance, The Offspring in 1993.
Back in 1975, Hey Joe was Patti Smith’s first single. In recent years jazz musicians like Medeski Martin and Wood, Vijay Iyer and Brad Mehldau have found melodicism in slow quieter versions. Patti got the slow part first.
NIGHT MUSIC: Elvis Costello and the Attractions, “Shot With His Own Gun”
Steve Nieve’s ability to harness bombast and make it feel like something more specific is extraordinary, while Costello’s talent for unrelenting wordplay soars here. Allusion and implication make for an elusive and compelling story about, um, what exactly? It doesn’t matter. Daddy’s keeping mum.
I LIKE THIS SONG: Fred Eaglesmith, “Time To Get A Gun”
I just heard this for the first time about an hour ago, and I’m smitten. It’s a part of my musical DNA bullseye.
Personal, hand made, not amateur at all, but not at all slick. Still, self aware enough that it isn’t possible to read the attitude as sincere, though there is that possibility. Singalongy, too, but fresh. Great stuff. Just don’t get a gun.
Lunch Break: Wilson Pickett, “Hey Jude”
This clip starts with Eric Clapton talking about how great Duane Allman is on this song, and he is great. Towards the end, when the horns are pounding, Duane’s searing lead guitar is a harmony and a challenge at the same time. That makes the arrangement all the richer.
Still, listening now, the audacity comes from the idea of an Atlantic artist covering a No. 1 hit song in a deep an meaningful way. That may have happened before, but it never happened before more beautifully.
Duane was a part of that, but it is the overall arrangement that makes this one of the great R+B cuts of its time.
Breakfast Blend: More Steve Gibbons Band
So, appalling sexual politics aren’t all Steve Gibbons delivers.
These two tunes are full of stylistic and rhetorical contradictions, none more clear than Gibbons reacting to the English punks and their obvious rock appeal, while maintaining his own solid rock fundamentals. Eddie Vortex is a straight ahead rockabilly ride, full of style signifiers that Gibbons says are okay, though at that point he’s not having much of it. Eddie Vortex ain’t too bad.
No Spitting comes a year later, and Steve is dressing more like a modern rocker while playing a Bo Diddley-White Reggae hybrid. This is the music of uprising, both of the 50s and Kingston, but in the voice of a man for whom a part of the job is maintaining public order and getting people to work.