There’s a lot of Springsteen love on this site and I figured this might be something them lovers ain’t heard, since Bruce didn’t let Kevin Rowland include this on his album of covers (that infamous album with Rowland in crazy drag) due to Rowland’s lyrical changes.
Found this while searching for Janis Joplin at Hellacopters gigs.
My apologies to all the other Remnants for not commenting (posts have been extra interesting and comment-worthy lately), but my comment tool is broke – no kidding – and Peter is working hard to fix it.
Over the years I’ve listened to a lot of The Fall records, and liked all of them. But I never was a fan. There is probably a conversation to be had about that.
Mark E. Smith, the singular head of The Fall, the constant amidst constant change over 40 years, died this week. The first video of them I found was this, which doesn’t seem typical, but does kind of get a vibe going.
The younger Fall is what I remember better. And it isn’t that different.
Watching that Totally Wired clip I could imagine why I would fall in love with this band, this guy, this poet. But that wasn’t a connection I made. At the same time, I was totally down with the Fall as a great band. Why? Because of a Barbara Manning song. Her endorsement meant everything.
We’ve discussed Kevin Rowland and Dexys here before, maybe too much. This is fucking bizarre. The high-stepping bass player, the worried accordion player, the fiddler who just won’t sing with enthusiasm, Bob Geldorf on acoustic guitar. . .
In typical backwards fashion, I’ll confess that Too-Rye-Ay led me to Moondance.
The subject applies to so many things these days, but of course the subject is the name of a song. A Rolling Stones’ song.
It is a Rolling Stones’ song from the days of Andrew Loog Oldham, Brian Jones, and Nanker Phelge, attributed to Jagger-Richards. Recorded in 1965, it was the Stones’ first No. 1 hit. Mick Jagger said the song is the one that made the Stones different than other bands. He’s surely right, at least up to a point a few years later.
So it isn’t amazing or anything that the Stones played this song at their 1969 shows at Madison Square Garden. These shows became the meat of Get Yer Ya Yas Out, one of the great live albums of all time.
But what I found tonight was the video of the Stones playing the song at the Garden during those Ya Yas shows, mostly because I was looking for Janis Joplin things and she was standing beside the stage that night.
The original is a riff-based song where the music totally propels the satirical lyrics.
This live version introduces Mick Taylor to the band, and the results are not surprisingly magical. What is old becomes new. This doesn’t diminish the brilliance of what Mick and Keith started, and Brian Jones arranged, but how awesome to add lovely guitar solos!
I hadn’t heard this before. If you have, please be patient. I’m not saying it’s the best version. But it is a fantastic version by a band operating at peak effect.
And Janis Joplin, how I got here, is standing in the crowd.
We’ve talked about them but not enough. They’re every bit as good the Beatles and the Stones and the Dolls and Howlin Wolf. The truest mark of greatness is that it keeps revealing. As it happens I have a dead speaker, which means I only hear one channel. Listening to Roxy with only one channel is amazing. What a band, including every single bass player, and there’s a different great one on every album. I mean, check out the bass on this, not to mention everything else. I also believe that Ferry writes lyrics to match anyone’s, including this song if only because he’s “growing potatoes by the score.”
My appreciation for the music of Donovan (Leitch) has been somewhat of a roller coaster ride.
When I was a kid I was captivated by some of the early hits by Donovan. “Sunshine Superman” reached #1 and “Mellow Yellow” came close, stopping at #2, both in 1966.
As my taste in music became more mature, I looked back on those hits as novelties and moved on. That caused me to ignore future hits like “Hurdy Gurdy Man” (a weak Dylan rip off) and “Atlantis.”
But several years later I learned that he wrote a Judy Collins song I liked, “Sunny Goodge Street,” and “Season of the Witch” that was the highlight of the Kooper/Stills/Bloomfield Super Session album.
More importantly, I learned that Donovan went with the Beatles (my heroes) to Rishikesh, India in 1968. While there he taught Lennon and McCartney a finger picking guitar style that they soon employed on several White Album songs, like “Dear Prudence,” “Julia,” “Mother Nature’s Son” and the lovely evergreen “Blackbird.” That earned him some mega cred in my book.
So I did more digging and discovered this credibility and respect carried over to a long list of rock royalty… which brings me to the SotW.
“Epistle to Dippy” features Jimmy Page on guitar. Actually, Page played on numerous Donovan songs including the aforementioned “Season of the Witch” and “Sunshine Superman.”
This track “only” reached #19 in the US. The lyrics of “Epistle…” are written in the form of a letter to a friend that joined the army. In subsequent interviews Donovan has shared that he hoped is friend Dippy would hear the song and contact him. He also claims to have “bought” Dippy out of his service enlistment, apparently something you could do in England back then.
In 2008 the ithinkihatemy45s blog wrote:
The non-LP “Epistle to Dippy” is one of the best from this period, a lysergic, almost Barrett-esque single with sproingy guitars, sawing cellos, and a harpsichord break. Even though some of the lyrics are, uh, dated (“Look on yonder misty mountain / See the young monk meditating,” “Elevator in the brain hotel,” etc.), give it a pass for its great arrangement, great spaced-out vocal, and great melody; this is easily in the same league as killers “Hurdy Gurdy Man” and “Sunshine Superman.” Donovan’s psychedelic pop – “Dippy” in particular – seems to be the reference point for the Rolling Stones’ strange attempts at the form in 1967: “Dandelion” and “We Love You” take more from records such as this one than they do any, say, Beatles disc.
Another great Donovan song is the title track from the album Barabajagal (1969).
On this one, Donovan is backed by the Jeff Beck Group – including Beck (guitar) Ron Wood (bass) and Nicky Hopkins (keys). They rock out while at the same time giving the cut a jazzy feel. The blue chip trio of woman background singers — Lesley Duncan, Madeline Bell and Suzi Quatro – adds a special spark to the recording.
The lyrics are incomprehensible – mostly nonsense syllables – but fun to sing and listen to.
So I vote that you take Donovan seriously (if you don’t already) and give his back catalog a listen. You won’t be disappointed!
It’s an annual happy day today as my Fantasy Baseball Guide magazine arrived in the mail. Though I’m neither kissing a man nor smoking a fag in this year’s edition, it made me think of this Wire Pink Flag classic.
Every forming hardcore band that could hardly play covered this in the early 80s.
Thank you Peter Kreutzer and his superhero alter ego Rotoman.
New York based funk metal band Living Colour burst onto the music scene in 1988 with the release of their debut album, Vivid. That album was popular; reaching #36 on the album charts on the back of the video for “Cult of Personality” that was in heavy rotation on MTV. It ultimately earned them an armful of Grammys and MTV VMAs.
Today’s SotW is “Glamour Boys,” also from Vivid.
Mick Jagger saw the band perform at a club and offered to produce a few songs for them. “Glamour Boys” was one of them. This relationship ultimately led to an invitation for Living Colour to be the opening band for the Rolling Stones’ Steel Wheels tour.
It was written by band leader Vernon Reid. It’s a social commentary on the late 80s, New York club scene and the dress and behavior of the wannabe wealthy kids that frequented them. That was something Reid witnessed firsthand and gave him the authority to write about.
The glamour boys swear they are a diva
The glamour boys have it all under control
Always dancing and always laughing
The glamour boys are playing the role
The glamour boys never have no money
The glamour boys wear the most expensive clothes
The glamour boys are always at the party
Where the money comes from heaven only knows
“Glamour Boys” has a reggae-ish donut with a fast tempo, a pop filling, and with a metal glaze on the choruses.
Guitarist Fast Eddie Clarke died of pneumonia today and Motorhead joins another fave The Ramones as a band with no living members from the real lineup.
