Patti Smith excels with Twelve, her new album of covers

I approached Twelve, Patti Smith’s new covers album, with some trepidation: I’m generally not fond of the covers genre; I normally avoid Dylan covers (unless they’re by Bryan Ferry or Van Morrison); and my admiration for Ms Smith is not unreserved.

But my, how I’ve been enjoying Twelve, and particularly the excellent Dylan track, Changing Of The Guards. Smith’s version of the iconic Street Legal opener is compelling – her insouciant style is ideally suited to the mystery and majesty of the lyrics. I found myself listening anew to a song that’s fast becoming one of my favourite Dylan compositions.

The album is chock full of tasty selections – some of the finest songs in the rockpop canon. Hell, I even like the Beatles choice!

Are You Experienced?
Everybody Wants To Rule The World
Helpless
Gimme Shelter
Within You Without You
White Rabbit
Changing Of The Guards
The Boy In The Bubble
Soul Kitchen
Smells Like Teen Spirit
Midnight Rider
Pastime Paradise


Twelve: recommended!




Gerry Smith

Recommended Rick Rubin profile in New York Times

Thanks to Mark Hall for a link to a highly recommended profile of music biz player Rick Rubin in Sunday’s New York Times.

The Music Man, by Lynn Hirschberg, is a long revelatory feature article, based around interviews with the legendary founder of Def Jam and agenda-setting producer (Beastie Boys>Johnny Cash), now co-head of Columbia Records, parachuted in by Sony to save the company from becoming irrelevant in the new music economy.

Rubin’s first two signings have been a rock band, Gossip, and an English operatic tenor, Paul Potts.


www.nytimes.com/2007/09/02/magazine/02rubin.t.html?_28&oref=slogin&oref=slogin



Gerry Smith

Dylan’s poetry to be taught in English schools

While a few university courses have been scrutinising Dylan’s work for years, not many school pupils have studied his songs as part of the official curriculum.

That’s about to change with the news (in yesterday’s Independent On Sunday) that lyrics from a range of songs, including I Dreamed I Saw St Augustine, are to be included on the national curriculum for English schools, thus ensuring the widest possible exposure for Dylan’s art among the iPod generation.

Some English teachers, of course, have been slipping Dylan into lessons for decades – Anne Ritchie, a good friend of The Dylan Daily, was exposing her 12-16 year old North London classes to Zim, alongside the Romantic poets and the Beats, 35 years ago. She wasn’t alone.

The welcome news of Dylan’s elevation is likely to resurrect the spurious media “debate” of a decade ago which attempted to belittle Dylan by comparing his poetry with that of Keats. It’s a wrong-headed exercise - if you’re going to compare Dylan with heritage poets, why bother with minor talents like Keats? The only worthwhile comparison is with Shakespeare.


Gerry Smith

Free Springsteen track

Thanks to Lawrence Kirsch for news that the forthcoming Springsteen album is being promoted by a new online track, and to Mike Ollier for a link:

"The Graunidad is offering a free download of a track from the new Springsteen album, for one week only;

http://music.guardian.co.uk/

The best of the Elvis 30th anniversary product

Most of the Elvis product launched to exploit the 30th anniversary left me unmoved. I admire Elvis’s best music, but much of his work – and the surrounding three ring circus – bores me silly.

A couple of products impressed:

* Elvis – The King, a chart-topping new supermarket-friendly compilation album. If I didn’t already have all the music, this 2CD 50-odd track release would have been a must-buy.

* Elvis – The Official Collector’s Edition is a beautifully conceived and well executed part work series. The bargain launch issue (99p!) was everywhere in the High St and on TV last week. You can buy the 26 issues with or without 13 optional DVDs.

As most Elvis movies are unwatchable, I’d forego the DVD option. And think carefully about effectively shelling out about £75 for an Elvis book, delivered in parts. Nice looking artefact, though.


Gerry Smith

Leonard Cohen - live: looking a bit more likely

Earlier speculation about possible Leonard Cohen London shows (see below) looks a bit more accurate with the news that Lenny is appearing in a free pre-show “conversation” with Philip Glass at The Barbican at 6pm on Sat 20 0ctober.

The show itself is a performance of Glass’s treatment of Book Of Longing, Cohen’s new volume of poetry, set for voices and instruments (but not, note, Leonard himself).

Leonard Cohen? Free? What?

Well, there’s a snag – you need a ticket for the main gig to get in to the pre-show talk. And the main gig is, er, sold out. It was already sold out in the new Barbican programme - which arrived today. I wonder where it was first advertised?

And, call me a cynic, but I can't believe that Leonard would travel all that way just to be one half of a joint free talk. Lenny in London gigs about to be announced? Here's hoping.



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PREVIOUS ARTICLE:

Leonard Cohen set to tour?

Leonard Cohen’s portrait on the cover of new issue of The Word, following loads and loads of recent UK press, makes me think that we’re about to see Leonard touring England - after such a long break.

He can’t surely be doing the press rounds in support of the slightly expanded reissues of the first three albums, or Anjani, his companion’s, new album of Leonard material. There simply has to be a bigger picture.

I’ve never seen Lenny live, but, then, who has? He hasn’t toured – anywhere - in 14 years…

If, like many grown-ups, you’re excited by the interface where pop culture (rock) meets high culture (literature), Lenny is certainly your man.

Watch this space…



Gerry Smith

New Neil Young album - Chrome Dreams II - due in October

Neil Young’s web site has news of a new album, Chrome Dreams II, scheduled for 16 October. Seven of the ten songs are newly written; two of the tracks promise to be ambitious works, running to 18 and 13 minutes. Young is set to tour to support the release.

Chrome Dreams was the title of an album aborted in 1977, though the project supplied several Young classics, notably Like a Hurricane, Powderfinger, and Pocahontas for later album releases. A widely circulating 12-track bootleg has been a fan favourite since the early 1990s.

If Chrome Dreams II is as impressive as the bootleg, it will banish the memory of the disappointing Greendale and Living With War, and continue the strong recent run started with the must-have Live At the Fillmore East (1971>2006) and Live At Massey Hall (1971>2007) CD/DVD.

http://www.neilyoung.com


Gerry Smith

Joni Mitchell's new album - lyrics and cover art

Thanks to Steven Pearce:

“For those interested (and, surely, who wouldn't be?) here's a link to the new lyrics and cover art of Joni Mitchell's upcoming album, Shine:

http://jonimitchell.com/musician/album.cfm?id=28

“Plus, we have the knowledge there's at least one more album on the way... “

English rockers dominating the newsstands

It doesn’t happen often, but the current issue of all three London poprock monthly mags has an Anglo musician on the cover: Keith Richards on the front of MOJO, Paul Weller on UNCUT and Johnny Marr fronting the new issue of The Word.

The only other Anglo clean sweep in the last 20 months consisted of The Beatles, The Smiths and Amy Winehouse, in February this year.

The three mags regularly cover home-grown talent alongside N American peers, but it’s rare for English musos to dominate the newsstands in this fashion.

The best-loved popular music of the last century was predominantly American, and US musicians have dominated rock ever since Bill Haley signaled the end of the road for the post-WW2 crooner generation. Since The Beatles, however, English musicians have punched above their weight in most world markets – if you doubt it, visit any record shop anywhere in Europe and count the Anglos.



Gerry Smith

Scorsese on his new Stones film, The Last Waltz and Dylan in No Direction Home

Thanks to Martin Cowan for the link to a revealing interview with ace director Martin Scorsese in Sunday’s Observer Music Monthly. In the course of promoting Shine A Light, his forthcoming Rolling Stones concert film, Scorsese also discusses The Last Waltz and Bob Dylan in No Direction Home:

http://observer.guardian.co.uk/omm/story/0,,2144026,00.html

The Biggest Bang – new Stones 4DVD box

It’s a well-kept secret, but The Biggest Bang, a new Stones 4DVD box set, featuring footage from the current world tour, has just been released. Best price I’ve seen is £30 at Asda, the UK Wal-Mart subsidiary. My local HMV hadn’t heard of it, and suggested In The Park as the “new Stones DVD”.

Far more tempting than Forty Flicks, the massively overpriced last Stones DVD box (£40-£50 – at that sort of price, they’d have to throw in a week at Sir Michael’s Loire Valley chateau to interest me.)

Along with the Martin Scorsese-directed Stones concert film, set for release (US) on 21 September, these are exciting times for Glimmer film collectors.


Gerry Smith

Top 50 Elvis songs

Elvis Presley recorded over 700 tracks. Writing in The Times last Friday, critic Bob Stanley ranked his top 50.

It’s an invaluable guide for anyone starting to explore Elvis’s catalogue or compiling a basic set of tunes. Here’s a taster of the listing:

1. HOUND DOG - The intro explodes into your ears, and into the public consciousness, as only A Hard Day's Night and Anarchy In The UK have since. So intense, two minutes of sustained viciousness and sheer malicious glee.
2. SUSPICIOUS MINDS
3. MYSTERY TRAIN
4. HEARTBREAK HOTEL
5. I JUST CAN'T HELP BELIEVING…

The highly recommended full article is here:

http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/music/article2186173.ece




Gerry Smith

Paul Weller for beginners

As main man in The Jam and Style Council and as a solo artist, Paul Weller has been a prolific songwriter, with over 300 songs already to his credit - and the flow shows little sign of abating.

Like many creatives, Weller’s early stuff is the most highly regarded. In a lengthy feature in the new (Sept) issue of UNCUT, the music and movies monthly, celeb muso votes for his best songs produce a top 30 which is two thirds Jam songs. And a top ten with 9 Jam songs.

The top three, fairly predictably, are:

1. Going Underground
2. Town Called Malice
3. That's Entertainment

If you need to catch up on Paul Weller (as I did), the new issue of UNCUT offers you an expert dissection of his work.

www.uncut.co.uk



Gerry Smith

Waterboys’ Fisherman’s Blues - bargain at Borders

Having damned Borders’ CD offering with faint praise on Friday - “But I don’t often buy music there – the CD/DVD stock lacks depth and is often uncompetitive on price”, it’s a slightly embarrassing pleasure to report that, less than 24 hours later, I picked up a long-sought album – The Waterboys’ Fisherman’s Blues, Collectors Edition (2CD, 2006) - at a knockdown £4.99, reduced from £15.99.

The 2CD version of Fisherman’s Blues, an album regarded by many aficionados as Mike Scott’s finest hour, brings to four albums the imaginative reissue programme. Earlier reissues of the classic Big Music trilogy – The Waterboys, Pagan Place and This Is The Sea – added a total of 25 new tracks to the catalogue. The Fisherman’s Blues adds a further 14 songs.

This peak period Waterboys material is life-enhancing music. And, at the Borders discount price, a must-buy.


Gerry Smith

Joni Mitchell signs with Starbucks for two more albums

As widely forecast, after retiring in disgust from the music biz, Joni Mitchell has, er, changed her mind. According to Variety, she's signed a two album deal with Starbucks' new label, Hear Music. The first release, on Tuesday 25 Sept (USA), is entitled Shine.

Mitchell has already curated two albums for the label - Mitchell Artist's Choice, a compilation of songs by artists who had influenced her; and Joni Mitchell: Selected Songs, her recordings chosen by other musicians. If you've ever seen either of them, you're very lucky - I ain't.

Variety also reveals that Travelogue, Mitchell's sublime 2CD set, reinterpreting the cream of her immense catalogue with orchestral/jazz backings, sold a mere 72,000 copies. Criminal neglect by the millions of Baby Boomers, I'd say. I wonder what wall-to-wall crap they bought instead?

The Doors – the celebration continues

After the superlative 2007 best-of product aimed at Doors beginners, the surviving members of the band have turned their attention to hardcore fans, with the release of another high quality set, Live in Boston, April 10, 1970:

“Featuring more than three hours of music and mayhem, LIVE IN BOSTON finds keyboardist Ray Manzarek, drummer John Densmore and guitarist Robby Krieger at the peak of their powers as Jim Morrison leads them on a booze-fueled romp through "Roadhouse Blues" and "Light My Fire", plus mind-bending journeys for "When The Music's Over" and Elvis Presley's "Mystery Train". Morrison scatters spoken word gems throughout both performances, including a short riff on Adolf Hitler where he professes: "Adolf Hitler is still alive? I slept with her last night."

LIVE IN BOSTON is mixed and mastered by engineer Bruce Botnick, who recorded several shows from The Doors' 1970 tour on multi-track tape for the Absolutely Live album. The superior quality of the original tape reflects Botnick and his team's attention to sonic detail. All but two tracks on this collection are previously unreleased. "These concerts are really interesting and very enjoyable," Botnick writes in the liner notes. "The opening scream going into "Roadhouse Blues" from the first show is stunning and worth the price of admission."



Tracklisting:
Disc 1 - First Show
[Total Time 77:59]

1. Start [1:44]
2. All Right, All Right, All Right [0:13]
3. Howling & Moaning [0:40]
4. Roadhouse Moan [0:34]
5. Roadhouse Blues [4:48]
6. Ship Of Fools [6:34]
7. Alabama Song (Whisky Bar) [2:02]
8. Back Door Man [2:17]
9. Five To One [10:26]
10. When The Music's Over [15:00]
11. Rock Me [7:03]
12. Mystery Train [7:15]
13. Away In India [1:54]
14. Crossroads [5:14]
15. Prelude to Wake Up! [0:48]
16. Wake Up! [1:33]
17. Light My Fire [12:07]

Disc 2 - Second Show
[Total Time 70:22]

1. Start [1:22]
2. Break On Through [8:12]
3. I Believe In Democracy [0:33]
4. When The Music's Over [14:19]
5. Roadhouse Blues [5:53]
6. The Spy [5:43]
7. Alabama Song (Whisky Bar) [1:40]
8. Back Door Man [2:27]
9. Five to One [7:05]
10. Astrology Rap [0:38]
11. Build Me A Woman [4:18]
12. You Make Me Real [2:58]
13. Wait A Minute! [0:52]
14. Mystery Train [8:26]
15. Away In India [2:27]
16. Crossroads [3:21]

Disc 3 - Second Show Continued
[Total Time 36:17]

1. Band Intros [0:35]
2. Adolf Hitler [0:23]
3. Light My Fire [5:47]
4. Fever [0:23]
5. Summertime [7:26]
6. St. James Infirmary Blues [0:49]
7. Graveyard Poem [1:13]
8. Light My Fire [1:45]
9. More, More, More! [0:19]
10. Ladies & Gentlemen [0:13]
11. We Can't Instigate [0:13]
12. They Want More [1:16]
13. Been Down So Long [6:46]
14. Power Turned Off [9:08]

More on the new Bruce Springsteen album

Thanks again to Lawrence Kirsch:

“There's a local (Canadian) arts magazine that I read today, which had an in-depth interview with Brendan Obrien. According to Obrien, the new record will be released as "Bruce Springsteen And The E Street Band." No mention as to a specific title for the album.

The album apparently takes a cue from Jackson Browne's Running On Empty. The songs were recorded mostly in one take with Bruce AND the band.

“Forget all the talk of the different members only coming in to do their specific parts. Also, they recorded material for it everywhere- Obrien specifically mentions Bruce recording with Clarence and Steve backstage during the Devils tour. Apparently they recorded a lot of material at Bruce's house with Landau overseeing the sessions.

“Musically, Obrien compared it to Blonde on Blonde. Three song titles were given when Obrien described some of the songs as resembling the Stones' Sticky Fingers and Exile on Main Street material, as well as resembling some early Faces records. The titles he named were "The Blind Spot," "Taxi Cab Alley," and "One Dead Ringer."

“Nothing else was mentioned in regards to the new album. Obrien did talk about Bruce some more and their working relationship.


#2
“A post on RMAS and GL yesterday included a copied post from someone who claims to work for Sony and was told that the new album's working title is "Dead Ringers," and that another song on the album is called "Sabres, Steel, and Spades." Take with a grain of salt.

“However, it was pointed out to me yesterday that Bruce registered five songs with the Library of Congress Copyright office on June 15, 2006, none of which I was familiar with:

Where you goin'?
Faithless.
All God's children.
God sent you.
Goin' to California.

“Usually, Bruce doesn't register a song unless: he has performed the song live; he's giving it to another artist (see I'll Be There For You Always); or he's about to release it. In addition to these five, the other exceptions are Blindspot, Between Heaven and Earth, and Father's Day (copywritten in spring 1995 at the same time as Missing).”

New Bruce Springsteen album and world tour

Thanks to Lawrence Kirsch:

“A little Bruce news... I'm afraid I do not know the source of this info, but I believe it is quite accurate:

“About as certain as we can get at this point: The new album has been recorded with members of the ESB already having contributed. “Additional tracks are being recorded with and without the ESB. As can best be described at this point is the album is a cross between TOL and The Rising with some "rock" songs and a number of songs pared down. Having trouble describing the sound, but a lot of production is being used with the versions already recorded. Different versions of each song are being recorded (with and without members of the ESB) and the final versions of about half the album have not been settled on. It was agreed to go ahead with announcing a new recording since it is fully anticipated the final recording phases will go very
quickly. The good news is a flurry of recording will be ongoing over the next few weeks with August to be the month of final production, etc. Although a given, the album will have a least 10 songs with a goal of about 13 being projected.

“What is interesting is the most definitive and positive news relates to the tour, which will be the last for the entire ESB. Rehearsals for the tour are once again scheduled for AP around Labor Day. Look for the tour to kick off on or about 10/02/2007 in New York with a quick swing around the country until the end of November. All of the major cities, to include LA, DC, Philly, Boston, Chicago, etc. will be covered. The month of December will include a quick tour of Europe, about 10 shows or so. January and part of February look to be time off with a full world tour to begin in full effect during the Spring of 2008 (Feb/March) with outdoor arena shows scheduled for the summer of 2008. The U.S., Canada, Europe, and Australia, will all be on the schedule. Bottom line is that we are now entering the final stages in preparation for the final ESB world tour. Stay tuned.”


(If the owner of this copy contacts info@musicforgrownups.co.uk with a request to add a credit, or delete, we’ll be happy to comply. Gerry Smith, Editor.)

At The Movies – an intriguing celebration of the art of Van Morrison

At The Movies, the 2007 Van Morrison compilation released before the even more recent Best Of Vol 3, is a wonderful anthology.

It reveals Morrison as a sometime great songwriter. Just listen carefully to the lyrics of Someone Like You, Real Real Gone, Moondance and Have I Told You Lately That I Love You – pop for grown-ups doesn’t get any better than this.

The vocals – particularly the towering performances on Caravan and Comfortably Numb –remind you that Van The Man has the finest singing voice in rock. And if you haven’t heard Morrison for a while, you might well be surprised at the sheer musicality of his catalogue.

At The Movies is an intriguing release, though. Why are there so many live tracks? Presumably so that Morrison receives royalties that would otherwise go to Warner Brothers if their album tracks had been used.

Why was Brown-Eyed Girl re-recorded? Presumably to divert royalties to Morrison and away from Bang, Morrison’s hated first label as a solo artist.

And why was the cinema on the cover artwork given the exceedingly unlikely name of “CALVIN”? Presumably it’s a joke by a very witty Belfast Calvinist. It certainly made this fellow Calvinist laugh out loud!

Super album: a must-listen for grown-up fans of mature popular music.



Gerry Smith

Elvis Presley’s great 1956 recordings

Elvis Presley’s massive catalogue might be the least consistent of any major musician, but the early material – the Sun sessions and the early recordings for RCA – are beyond reproach.

Elvis and Elvis Presley, the first two RCA LPs, are widely available on CD, with added tracks. Borders is currently offering a 2CD, 35 track package at a mere £6.99. Elvis 1956, the beautifully designed repackaged compilation which has all 22 non-film recordings from an epochal year in popular music, is also being discounted by Borders at £7.99. One or the other is a must-have in any grown-up collection.

But the best value package of The King from 1956 has to be the new Elvis Presley: Original Recordings, in the Icons series released by budget label Green Umbrella. Its two CDs pull together 47 tracks, including the first two LPs – all the post-Sun early Elvis you’re ever likely to need. I bought mine from supermarket chain Morrison’s for the princely sum of £3.39: any cheaper and they’d be paying customers to cart the stuff away.

www.guentertainment.co.uk

(nb: the enterprise is so new, the site isn’t fully operational; linked here because it looks worth watching…)



Gerry Smith

How to enrich Bryan Ferry’s Dylanesque with bonus tracks

On release in the UK several months ago, Dylanesque, Bryan Ferry’s covers CD, got great press – positive reviews and a very high profile in the English media.

Some reviews of the new American release are less positive. Probably because, while Ferry is respected (even revered) in his homeland the US has never been so receptive.

Thanks to Martin Cowan for this link: “Amusingly scathing review of the latest Ferry CD from Pitchfork here”:

http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/article/record_review/43837-dylanesque

Pity. Ferry’s the real deal – a grade one popular musician. Dylan is the preferred singer of Dylan songs, but Ferry’s one of only two singers I’d have entrusted with a covers album. Van Morrison’s the other contender, as most who’ve seen him perform outstanding versions of Just Like A Woman and It’s All over Now, Baby Blue in concert will testify.

If you buy Dylanesque, you can enrich its 11 songs by burning a new CDR to include as bonus tracks Ferry’s earlier Dylan covers:

* A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall (These Foolish Things, 1973)

* It Ain’t Me Babe (Another Time Another Place, 1974)

* It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue (Frantic, 2002)

* Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right (Frantic, 2002)

They make a strong album even stronger.




Gerry Smith

UNCUT – Dadrock and films mag – celebrates its tenth birthday

UNCUT, the Dadrock and films monthly, is celebrating its tenth birthday with a special issue which has just hit the news-stands.

The mag’s coverage is mostly outside the scope of Rock for Grown-Ups, but it occasionally crosses over with a judicious cover feature: I’ve enjoyed the 9 (of 123) issues I’ve bought over the years.

Here’s the ranked list of musicians who’ve stared out from the news-stands on the front cover of a decade’s worth of UNCUTs:

1. Beatles - 11 covers
2. Dylan – 7 covers
3. Stones – 6
4. Pink Floyd – 5
5= Smiths/Mozz; Who; Led Zep; Clash; Bruce; Bowie; REM – 4 covers

Two thirds of the 123 covers feature 1960s/1970s rockers.



Gerry Smith

Morrison’s slash CD prices

Morrison’s, the UK “value” supermarket chain, has launched an aggressive discounting campaign, pricing its chart albums (eg the White Stripes’ Icky Thump and the new Clash compilation) at a challenging £7.

The prices are only available in-store – Morrison’s doesn’t sell CDs online.

Best value has to be new The Traveling Wilburys Collection, at £10. At that price, even those who bought the originals on release might now add the reissue to their collection; at £10, the extras – four bonus tracks, DVD, booklet and packaging – are probably worth having. For the fan, there’s a price point below which every Dylan product, bar none, is worth having. Wilburys at £10 is such a point.

Yet one more reason to shop at Morrison’s… .


Gerry Smith

White Stripes bonanza on BBC

BBC radio and TV are throwing serious resources at Icky Thump, the new White Stripes album. BBC Interactive and the web site are currently showing a 25 minute loop of the exciting gig the duo just recorded at Maida Vale studios, to be aired in full on Wednesday, as part of Radio 1’s White Stripes Day.

It’s not often that Music for Grown-Ups trails Radio 1 programmes, but the White Stripes are an exception: they’re the future of rock music. Or, maybe, its last, dying gasp? An unmissable band, White Stripes have now released half a dozen splendid albums for grown-ups.




www.bbc.co.uk/radio1


Gerry Smith

This Week’s Rock for Grown-Ups on TV

Thanks to compiler Mike Ollier

Friday/Saturday/Sunday on BBC2/BBC3/BBC4 at various times

* Glastonbury Festival
Well, glad I'm not there… crack a warm can open (preferably Fosters or some other equally pissy 'beer'), sit in the shower with a gro-bag, invite a burglar into your home, drop an E or two and have some felafel. Watch on TV. Ah, the festival experience in your own home, and a handy, safe toilet. There, I've saved you a few hundred quid and you haven't contracted trench foot.

You'll have to check times yourself, cos it's on all weekend across three channels (and some radio coverage), but on Friday you'd be a fool to miss Arcade Fire. Amy Winehouse is promised and some loud wannabes. Probably. John Fogerty and Iggy Pop are promised on Saturday.

However, you'll also have to put up with a bunch of entirely unnecessary celebrity presenters, who just get in the way of the music. One can only hope that professional good egg Mark Radcliffe is introducing/interviewing the more watchable performers.

Friday BBC1 22.35 ~ 23.35

* Friday Night with Jonathan Ross
Arcade Fire play live tonight. Knowing the Beeb it will probably clash with their appearance at Glastonbury on one of their other channels. Tape Wossy (Pete Doherty is also a guest tonight… oh good), miss out all the crap (most of the show) and see the last 10 minutes. How can Ross be so awful on TV but present a corker of a radio show on a Saturday?

Saturday BBC2 21.300 ~ 22.30

* Seven Ages Of Rock: Left Of The Dial ~ American Alternative Rock
REM, Nirvana, Pixies et al… fast/slow quiet/loud ad nauseam. I do hope that nice Courtney Love is on.

Leonard Cohen set to tour?

Leonard Cohen’s portrait on the cover of new issue of The Word, following loads and loads of recent UK press, makes me think that we’re about to see Leonard touring England - after such a long break.

He can’t surely be doing the press rounds in support of the slightly expanded reissues of the first three albums, or Anjani, his companion’s, new album of Leonard material. There simply has to be a bigger picture.

I’ve never seen Lenny live, but, then, who has? He hasn’t toured – anywhere - in 14 years…

If, like many grown-ups, you’re excited by the interface where pop culture (rock) meets high culture (literature), Lenny is certainly your man.

Watch this space…

And don’t forget – Lenny is on BBC Radio 2 tonight at 1930 BST, talking about songwriting. As Mike Ollier wrote on Monday:

Friday Night Is Music Night Presents Leonard Cohen On Songwriting - The Word's Mark Ellen laughs with Len and quizzes him about his most famous songs and how he wrote them. Hopefully BJs, Janis and The Chelsea Hotel will turn up.


www.bbc.co.uk/radio2



Gerry Smith

Traveling Wilburys Collection: worth buying?

If you already have the two Traveling Wilburys albums, should you bother with the new Traveling Wilburys Collection, released on Monday? Well, for about £14 in your supermarket/online, you get four extra audio tracks, five DVD tracks, and a short book. Worth buying, then? Maybe. Probably. Just.

If you didn’t buy the albums first time round - what were you thinking of? These vastly enjoyable good-time romps should be in the collection of any half serious rock fan.

The two Traveling Wilbury albums were cherished on initial release by Dylan fans as a sign that, after the multiple disappointments of the 1980s, Uncle Bob might not be quite ready for the scrap heap. Alongside Biograph, Oh Mercy and Bootleg Series vols 1-3, the Wilbury albums presaged a return to form.

Track Listing:

Disc One
TRAVELING WILBURYS VOL. 1
1. Handle With Care
2. Dirty World
3. Rattled
4. Last Night
5. Not Alone Any More
6. Congratulations
7. Heading For The Light
8. Margarita
9. Tweeter And The Monkey Man
10. End Of The Line
Bonus Tracks:
11. Maxine*
12. Like A Ship*

Disc Two
DVD - The True History Of The Traveling Wilburys
Music Videos:
1. Handle With Care
2. End Of The Line
3. Inside Out
4. She’s My Baby
5. Wilbury Twist

Disc Three
TRAVELING WILBURYS VOL. 3
1. She’s My Baby
2. Inside Out
3. If You Belonged To Me
4. The Devil’s Been Busy
5. 7 Deadly Sins
6. Poor House
7. Where Were You Last Night?
8. Cool Dry Place
9. New Blue Moon
10. You Took My Breath Away
11. Wilbury Twist
Bonus Tracks:
12. Runaway (B-side to “She’s My Baby” UK CD and 12”)
13. Nobody’s Child (previously released on Nobody’s Child: Romanian Angel Appeal)

*previously unreleased



Gerry Smith

The Best Of Van Morrison, Volume 3 – impressive duets, disappointing solo material, puzzling timing

The Best Of Van Morrison Volume 3, released yesterday in the UK (and in the USA on 19 June) is a 2CD album with 31 tracks, dating from the early 1990s to mid-Noughties, including previously unreleased collaborations, as well as duets with greats like John Lee Hooker, B.B. King and Ray Charles.

If you don’t have an extensive Van Morrison collection, the new release – available online from £8.95 delivered – is an impressive round-up of Morrison’s multifarious outings with some of the greats of postwar blues and soul music. Highlights? The Junior Wells and Hooker duets – both spellbinders.

But for this formerly heavy duty Van consumer, CD2 (see below) illustrates just how The Man’s art has careered uncontrollably towards pop pastiche/showbiz/showband in the last ten years, jettisoning former hardcoristas like me along the way. You couldn’t give me most of the solo tracks on CD 2: I’d have dropped them all, in favour of more duets.

The timing of the release, a bare four months after At The Movies, the last EMI Catalogue compilation of Morrison tunes, is puzzling, too. Presumably it’s a new contract and the label wants to maximize its return - rapido. They won’t get much help from me - I haven’t bought a new Van M album this Millennium, and Best Of Volume 3 won’t change that.


Disc 1
1. Cry For Home (with Tom Jones) (previously unreleased)
2. Too Long In Exile
3. Gloria (with John Lee Hooker)
4. Help Me with Junior Wells (live)
5. Lonely Avenue / 4 O' Clock In The Morning (with Jimmy Witherspoon, Candy Dulfer & Jim Hunter) (live)
6. Days Like This
7. Ancient Highway
8. Raincheck
9. Moondance
10. Centerpiece (with Georgie Fame & Annie Ross)
11. That's Life (live)
12. Benediction (remix) (with Georgie Fame & Ben Sidran)
13. The Healing Game (re-mix)
14. I Don't Want To Go On Without You (with Jim Hunter)

Disc 2
1. Shenandoah (with The Chieftains)
2. Precious Time
3. Back On Top (remix)
4. When The Leaves Come Falling Down
5. Lost John (with Lonnie Donegan) (live)
6. Tupelo Honey (with Bobby Bland) (previously unreleased)
7. Meet Me In The Indian Summer (orchestral version) (remix)
8. Georgia On My Mind
9. Hey Mr. DJ
10. Steal My Heart Away
11. Crazy Love (with Ray Charles)
12. Once In A Blue Moon
13. Little Village
14. Blue and Green
15. Sitting On Top Of The World (with Carl Perkins)
16. Early In The Morning (with B.B. King)
17. Stranded



Gerry Smith

Waterboy Mike Scott interview in new Bowie fanzine

Tirelessly promoting Book Of Lightning, the new album, Mike Scott, Head Waterboy, has been turning up all over the media. But nowhere as surprising as the Bowie Zone Fanzine (www.bowiezone.net), the impressive new unofficial website celebrating the art of the great chameleon art rocker.

Scotty fans will love the interview. Bowie followers will want to check out this lovely new site. Grown-up rockers will get a double buzz.


http://www.bowiezone.net/11343/98901.html



Gerry Smith

Bob Marley’s Exodus – 30th anniversary

Exodus, the quintessential Bob Marley album, first released 30 years ago, has been treated with respect by record label Island/Universal.

Having released re-mastered single CD and De Luxe 2CD versions in 2001, Island have just released no fewer than five 30th Anniversary versions of the great album: single CD, CD/DVD, vinyl LP and – here’s the interesting bit – CD/SD memory card version and CD/USB memory stick version.

The CD/DVD combo looks like the pick of the crop.

Exodus: Bob Marley and The Wailers, a new book (ed Richard Williams, Weidenfeld and Nicholson, £25), published on Thursday, gathers together a collection of articles on the seminal album. Looks interesting.

Bob Marley’s Exodus, Sunday’s Arena programme on BBC2, was disappointing. It made the schoolboy error of playing the album tracks under a series of ill-chosen, unrelated contemporary news clips. And compounded the error by inserting an endless series of inconsequential comments on the album by anonymous wo/men in the street.

The leitmotif of clips from a ceremony dedicating a plaque on a block of flats off London’s Tottenham Court Rd., where Marley briefly lived, was the most squirm-inducing bit of TV I’ve seen for ages.

The Arena documentary was nowhere near as good as three earlier Marley TV documentaries I have on VHS tape: largely unwatchable; a missed opportunity.


Gerry Smith

Major new Paul Weller photo exhibition

Birmingham’s Snap Galleries is notching up some top rock photography exhibitions. Following a top quality Doors show, they’re about to host first major exhibition of Paul Weller photographs, by Lawrence Watson.

Thanks to Guy White, Gallery Director, for details:

Modern Rock ‘n’ Roll - Paul Weller - The Solo Years: The photographs of Lawrence Watson. Saturday 7 July 2007 to 8 September 2007


Lawrence Watson’s first major Paul Weller exhibition to be held in Birmingham

Snap Galleries, a gallery specialising in rock ‘n’ roll photographs, will host a major exhibition of photographs from Lawrence Watson’s renowned Paul Weller archive starting on Saturday 7 July 2007. Snap Galleries is based in a 2,000 sq ft space in Fort Dunlop, one of England’s most recognisable buildings, just outside Birmingham.

The exhibition focuses on Paul Weller’s entire sixteen year (and counting) solo career, a period photographed in its entirety by Lawrence. He first photographed Paul Weller in the last days of The Style Council, and is still photographing him today.

In January 2007 he flew to New York to shoot the three consecutive concerts Paul held play songs from The Jam, The Style Council and his solo period.

Lawrence’s photographic credits do the talking - his work appears on most of Paul Weller’s albums and singles, and his photographs documenting the first few years of Paul Weller’s solo career were published in the 1995 book ‘Days Lose Their Names And Time Slips Away’.

Perhaps Lawrence’s most instantly recognizable image is the silhouette of Paul Weller strumming his guitar in a doorway with a dappled summer scene in the background, used on the cover of 1993’s ‘Wild Wood’. The exhibition features this and a feast of other work, none of which has been exhibited before.

As a video director, Watson also made the acclaimed ‘As Is Now’ DVD documentary, which will be screened regularly throughout the exhibition.

A Thousand Things: the exhibition coincides with the publication of ‘A Thousand Things’, the forthcoming luxury limited edition book by Genesis publications, which covers Paul Weller’s career from The Jam to the present day, and features Lawrence’s photographs alongside images by many other photographers. The book will be available to purchase at the gallery throughout the exhibition.

Snap Galleries Limited, Fort Dunlop, Fort Parkway, Birmingham B24 9FD
www.snapgalleries.com; email: info@snapgalleries.com

Opening Hours: Tuesday to Friday 10.30am-6.00pm, Saturday 11.00-5.00pm


Further background on Lawrence Watson

Lawrence Watson was 17 when he hustled a freelance job at the NME. His first commission was a portrait of a group called Southern Death Cult, who later became The Cult, and whose singer, Ian Astbury, replaced Jim Morrison when The Doors reformed.

He was soon shooting covers on a regular basis. His first was not a musician but a comedian-turned-film star - Eddie Murphy was in town to promote Beverly Hills Cop when Lawrence persuaded him to leave his hotel suite and travel to Bow Street police station, where he posed him beside a pair of London bobbies. For NME he shot, amongst others, The Smiths, David Bowie, KLF, BB King, INXS, Madness and Neneh Cherry.

He shot Lenny Kravitz in Bar Italia, Michael Jordan in his San Antonio dressing room, Snoop Doggy Dogg in a California police cell, and Bobby Womack in what looks like Berwick Street fruit-and-veg market.

More recently Lawrence worked with the artist Peter Blake to photograph the ‘Stop the Clocks’ album cover for Oasis. Lawrence had shot the cover for their album ‘Don’t Believe the Truth’, and accompanied Noel Gallagher on his warm-up gig in Moscow for the Teenager Cancer Trust concerts.

As a video director he has worked with Cast, Echo and the Bunnymen, One Dove, Ian Brown, Travis and, of course, Paul Weller.

For further background on Paul Weller: www.paulweller.com

Background on ‘A thousand things’, the forthcoming limited edition book by Genesis Publications: www.genesis-publications.com

Seven Ages Of Rock (again)

The second age in BBC/VH1’s new Seven Ages Of Rock, shown at the weekend, confirmed the suspicion that the disappointing first programme was no fluke.

After the looney call to focus on Jimi Hendrix in the ‘60s programme, the ‘70s chapter concentrated on Pink Floyd.

Gimme a break.

I just can’t wait to see who the remaining five programmes revolve around. U2 in the ‘80s? George Michael in the ‘90s?

According to the new canon being advanced by this missed opportunity of a series, rock’s even less interesting than I thought.


Gerry Smith

Don’t Look Back De Luxe 2DVD edition in short supply

The De Luxe 2DVD version of Don’t Look Back, film of Bob Dylan's 1965 tour of England, is in very short supply. Having been let down by my first choice of supplier (see below), I’ve now also been let down by second choice, cd-wow. (I won’t be using either supplier again for a while, if ever).

Seeking a third choice online supplier, including one or two I wouldn’t touch with a very long bargepole, I found most out of stock – Virgin, HMV, Tesco, Play.com, SpinCD can’t supply either. Fopp has it, and so have some Amazon traders, but I don’t like their prices.

Looks like I’ll have to bite the bullet and scour the High Street. Or wait a year or so for the release of a few million more “limited edition” copies and buy at the £6 discounted price I recently paid for No Direction Home 2DVD at Borders.


Gerry Smith


RELATED ARTICLE:

Don’t Look Back 2DVD – now only £12.99

Don’t Look Back (the De Luxe 2DVD version, Region 0) is on the cd-wow.com website at a bargain £12.99 delivered, easily the cheapest I’ve seen, and just over half the list price. It’s a cd-wow “warehouse sale”, so the offer might be short-lived.

I ordered a copy after cancelling my order with 101cd, as I hadn’t received the goods, or any warning/apology, 17 days after release date, or any reply to my query. Byeeeeeeeeeeee, 101cd. Hello, cd-wow.


Gerry Smith

Scott Walker: the grown-up musician’s grown-up musician

Last week’s BBC TV airing of slabs from the spellbinding new Scott Walker film, 30 Century Man, in its Imagine slot, showed just why Walker is the grown-up musician’s grown-up musician. Top art rockers – Eno, Bowie, Jarvis, Radiohead et al - queued up to praise the artistry of the lugubrious baritone.

Walker’s career has been a succession of highs and lows (sometimes simultaneous), and his discography is patchy. But he’s a vastly underrated musician with at least three albums which should be considered for any grown-up collection: Scott Walker 3, Scott Walker 4, and Tilt. Last year’s The Drift is no slouch, either.

Go on, give Scott Walker’s mature music a chance…



Gerry Smith

New Traveling Wilburys release: worth buying?

If, like many Dylan Daily readers, you already have the two Traveling Wilburys albums, should you bother with the new product, due for (UK) release on Monday 11 June?

Well, for £15.25 (delivered), the best price I’ve seen for the De Luxe version, from cd-wow.com, you get four extra audio tracks, five DVD tracks, a 40 page “collectible” book and “certificate of authenticity” (wow!), as well as the packaging. The Dylan content is still minimal, though – just a few tracks.

Worth buying? Maybe. Probably. Just.


Gerry Smith

Seven Ages Of Rock – daft, plain daft

Jimi Hendrix was the key figure in 1960s rock: “Within days of his arrival (in London), Jimi Hendrix would change the face of music… .” Tee hee.

There’s more: “He redefined the whole period in which he existed…”.

That’s if you believe Seven Ages of Rock, the disappointing new BBC/VH1 rock history series which started airing over the weekend.

Bob Dylan, the prime mover in the genesis of rock, was accorded a mere five minute sequence, bowing in the direction of Like A Rolling Stone.

Now, there’s no doubt that Hendrix was a great, and influential, musician – he raised the game in guitar playing in the same way that Coltrane set new benchmarks for the saxophone. But let’s not forget that he was responsible for a massive catalogue of, er, three moderately successful albums still played today.

Rock music tends to encourage hyperbole in the early school leavers amongst those who play it and write about it, but this poor first programme set new lows in rockist bullsh*t. You couldn’t fault a commentator like Charles Shaar Murray for his typically incisive comments on Hendrix, but they were swamped in a wrong-headed script which, at times, had me laughing uncontrollably.

The launch programme not only exceeded my worst fears, outlined in a series preview on www.musicforgrownups.co.uk (below) - it went further, by imposing on the 1960s material the big idea that Hendrix was the pivotal figure.

Daft. Plain daft.


Gerry Smith



Series preview, previously posted:

Seven Ages Of Rock – a pessimistic preview

The BBC is pushing the boat out for its major new series, the Seven Ages Of Rock, which launches on Saturday on BBC2 21.10~22.10 - hyping it on chat shows on its missable mainstream radio stations and promoting it with four different collectable covers of Radio (sic) Times, its mass circulation weekly programme guide. (Who on earth would want to collect the Radio Times?)

Without having seen even a trailer or promo clip, I can safely report that:

* as it’s by the same team that produced the brilliant Lost Highway series on country music, Seven Ages will be stylish, informative, intelligent television…

* it will include maybe 20 great musicians for grown-ups

* 95% of its airtime will deal with musicians unworthy of grown-up attention

* the series will be rendered virtually unwatchable by an endless succession of talking boneheads who should have stuck to the day job, stacking supermarket shelves or fixing dodgy old cars.

How do I know this?

Because that’s the nature of rock music - 5% timeless great art (Dylan, Stones, Beck, Bright Eyes, Smiths, Joy Division, Everly Brothers, Bowie…), and 95% dubious glitzy, chemically-enhanced showbiz pap.

I’ll be taping - to race through afterwards, luxuriating in the grown-up bits. (Or to recant, if appropriate.)


Gerry Smith

Dylanesque/Bryan Ferry’s London Sessions DVD – only £6.75!

Thanks to Nigel Boddy:

“Further to your spotting the `bargain of the year' at cd-wow.com for the Dylan Don't Look Back Special Edition DVD, I've noticed the Bryan Ferry - London Sessions (Dylanesque) DVD is priced at £6.75, delivered. (I know it's not released until late June, but it's a still good saving).”

Seven Ages Of Rock – a pessimistic preview

The BBC is pushing the boat out for its major new series, the Seven Ages Of Rock, which launches on Saturday on BBC2 21.10~22.10 - hyping it on chat shows on its missable mainstream radio stations and promoting it with four different collectable covers of Radio (sic) Times, its mass circulation weekly programme guide. (Who on earth would want to collect the Radio Times?)

Without having seen even a trailer or promo clip, I can safely report that:

* as it’s by the same team that produced the brilliant Lost Highway series on country music, Seven Ages will be stylish, informative, intelligent television…

* it will include maybe 20 great musicians for grown-ups

* 95% of its airtime will deal with musicians unworthy of grown-up attention

* the series will be rendered virtually unwatchable by an endless succession of talking boneheads who should have stuck to the day job, stacking supermarket shelves or fixing dodgy old cars.

How do I know this?

Because that’s the nature of rock music - 5% timeless great art (Dylan, Stones, Beck, Bright Eyes, Smiths, Joy Division, Everly Brothers, Bowie…), and 95% dubious glitzy, chemically-enhanced showbiz pap.

I’ll be taping - to race through afterwards, luxuriating in the grown-up bits. (Or to recant, if appropriate.)


Gerry Smith

NOT Rock for Grown-Ups

* Van Morrison at London’s Roundhouse, according to Pete Paphides in The Times – “parodically grumpy old man… uninterested and uncommunicative… gang of middle-aged session musicians… hotel-lobby R & B arrangements… listless professionalism…” I know what he means: a former serial Vangig attender (c65 shows), I quit for those kind of reasons about five years ago.

* Rolling Stone 40th Anniversary issue: great design and illuminating Dylan interview apart, a mish-mash of superannuated celebs bullsh*tting for America, the politics of the liberal playground, and the silly underlying philosophy that music changes the world. Kiss mine.



Gerry Smith

The Waterboys put smiles on faces in Milton Keynes

Thanks to Paul Blake:

“A 4pm sit-down show on a Sunday doesn’t sound like a very promising set-up to see a rock band, but those turning up for the Waterboys show at the tiny Stables in Wavendon last weekend needn’t have worried – Mike Scott and his crew were in rambunctious form. As the man himself said halfway through the set, ‘here is a band working its balls off for you’.

“For me, it is always interesting to see a musician at work close up (we had tickets in the second row) and watching Mike Scott I was struck by how self-conscious he is with the wild rock ‘n’ roll poet persona he has created for himself. It is both his defence as a human being and his vehicle as a performer, and, if he didn’t quite look comfortable, it still made for compelling theatre. Perhaps it is just his time of life, as my wife mused afterwards.

“Certainly the Book of Lightning album, on which much of the set is based, is dominated by ‘my baby done me wrong’ songs and in a live setting they begin to sound a little like a man protesting too much (are you sure you didn’t contribute just a bit to the break-up, Mike?) - even if the band play them with muscular grace. And there is much to enjoy at a Waterboys gig, not least the violin playing of Steve Wickham, who gives his boss a good run for his money on the charisma stakes.

“The set veers on the side of rock workout – we get Medicine Bow, a compelling Red Army Blues, and a hammered out version of Old England, but little of the gentler side of the Waterboys. Still, there is something life-affirming about seeing Mike Scott up there doing his stuff all these years.

“The audience has aged with him, and it is touching to see long-term partners and parents with young children dancing to Fisherman’s Blues during the encore. It leaves us all with both a sense of community and smiles on our faces. The band leave the stage grinning as well and in Mike Scott’s smile I can finally see the man behind the persona. He looks contented after a job well done. As Gerry Smith said when he saw him last year – he gives good gig.”

Another 100 songs that changed the world: new MOJO cover feature

The new (“June”) MOJO cover feature - 100 songs that changed the world, or some such - seems very familiar.

I respect MOJO (“The Music Magazine”) – it caters for its Dadrock audience far better than they deserve. And it’s beautifully designed. Occasionally, it carries a long sequence of articles on a favoured muso and I buy a copy.

I only buy one issue in 20 or 30, though. Mostly it just ain’t music for grown-ups – delves far too deeply in a rock genre with shallow roots, covering far too many no-hopers; wallows in nostalgia; overplays the importance of music; and has a show biz tone.

The odd issue is a gem, but my musical life’s far too short to read MOJO regularly. There are 100,000+ regular buyers who disagree, but I’d hate to have to live with their CD collections.

Case in point this month: songs change NOTHING - except the bank balances of those involved.



Gerry Smith

New version Don’t Look Back DVD released today

The new version of Don’t Look Back on DVD is finally released today in England. It looks like the product of the year.

While the new standard edition single disc hardly excites – Pennebaker’s masterpiece has been available on DVD for several years - the double disc box (details below) is a must-buy.

But you’d be silly to pay full price (£23). I’ve ordered my copy from 101cd.com, at £15.95 delivered, the best deal I could find - amazon.co.uk were selling at £12.99 but you had to make the order up to £15 to get free del and they were quoting 7 weeks wait when I looked last week.


Earlier article on sister site, The Dylan Daily:

Don’t Look Back on DVD - biggest Dylan event of 2007 to date

The DVD re-release of Don’t Look Back, the classic fly-on-the-wall documentary, looks like being the biggest Dylan event of 2007 to date. Pre-orders on amazon.com have already put it inside the online retailer’s top 10,000 DVD titles.

The film tracks Dylan at his iconic, sneering, imperious peak (as well as his court of jesters) on the 1965 English tour. It has long been a must-have for aficionados.

There’ll be two new DVD versions of Don’t Look Back – a single disc release of the original film, remastered, plus a new 2DVD package:

Disc 1:
* Bob Dylan: Don't Look Back
* Commentary by director D.A. Pennebaker and tour road manager Bob Neuwirth
* Five additional uncut audio tracks
* Alternate version of the Subterranean Homesick Blues cue-card sequence
* Original theatrical trailer
* Pennebaker filmography
* Bob Dylan discography
* Cast and crew biographies

Disc 2:
* Bob Dylan 65 Revisited – new documentary compiled by Pennebaker from over 20 hours of unseen footage
* Commentary by Pennebaker and road manager Bob Neuwirth
* book (168pp) including a complete transcript, over 200 photos, and a new foreword by Pennebaker
* Collectible Subterranean Homesick Blues flipbook

Don’t Look Back on DVD is due for release in N America on 27 February, so presumably in the UK on Mon 26 February or Mon 5 March.

It’s a must-buy, even for those like me who’ve had the VHS and original DVD versions for years – a well-conceived new product, with loads of added value in the new two disc package.


Gerry Smith

The Smiths: a light that will never go out

Let’s be honest, I’d seen the listing in the TV/radio guide and decided naaaah – not even worth recording… it’ll be yet another tedious, glum Manc love-in, blighted by the usual show biz bonehead yap-yap production values of BBC Radio 2.

But, three days later, curiosity led me to “Listen Again” via the web to Radio 2’s Salford Lad, the first in a two-part documentary on Morrissey/The Smiths. I am rather partial to The Smiths’ music, after all…

Confounding my prejudices, it was a lovely programme. Most of the motley crew of interviewees, presenter Stuart Maconie included, had something worthwhile to say. Some of them even said it well.

Mixing the voices of key players, especially Morrissey and Marr, with some spectacular music reminded you just how good The Smiths really were.

I won’t be missing the second part, aired on Saturday 28 April at 2000. It covers Morrissey’s solo career, a yawning gap in my musical knowledge.

You can hear the first programme via the web until Saturday, then the second for the following seven days:

www.bbc.co.uk/radio2


Radio 2 billing (with corrections!):

“Saturday 21/28 April 2000-2100
“It is almost twenty years since Morrissey, England’s most thoughtful and enduring lyricist and singer, launched his solo career. Ever since his emergence as front man with the Smiths in the 1980s his songs have been pored over, analysed and quoted.

“In this two part series for BBC Radio 2 Stuart Maconie tells the story of the Manchester lad who became a British icon. We hear from friends, fans, colleagues and fellow musicians including: Richard Boon, Mike Hinc, Jo Slee, Andrew Paresi, Willy Russell, Badly Drawn Boy, Zoe Williams, John Hegley, Preston, Stephen Street, Tony Visconti, Andy Rourke and Suggs.”



Gerry Smith

Elliott Landy exhibition opens next week

Thanks to (rock photographer) Lawrence Kirsch for sending a link to an NME news story of an exhibition of the photography of Elliott Landy, due to open in London next week.

Landy is best known for his Woodstock-period Dylan shoots. His work also adorns the cover of Van Morrison’s Tupelo Honey album, and he photographed many other 1960s/70s rock musicians.


http://www.nme.com/news/27617



I’ll be going!



Gerry Smith

The Doors – stunning new photo exhibition

Thanks to Guy White, Gallery Director, for details of a stunning new exhibition of Joel Brodsky’s iconic photos of The Doors.

Snap Galleries aim to get you to say “WOW!” when you enter their Birmingham exhibition space. I found myself “WOW!”-ing, involuntarily, even as I opened the link below.

The recently deceased Brodsky’s collection is one of the most striking portfolios of photography in music history: Snap’s wonderful exhibition is a fitting showcase.

Details from Guy White, Snap Gallery:
“… your subscribers might be interested in the exhibition of ultra large Jim Morrison / Doors photographs that we are launching at our gallery from this Saturday, 21 April 2007.

“Here's the link to all the info:

http://www.snapgalleries.com/scalinglizardking.html

Snap Galleries Limited
Unit 7 - Ground Floor
Fort Dunlop
Fort Parkway
Birmingham
B24 9FD
Tel 0121 748 3408
info@snapgalleries.com

Well worth a visit if you’re anywhere near.



Gerry Smith

The Best Of Van Morrison, Volume 3 - due in June

The Best Of Van Morrison, Volume 3 will be released in the USA on 19 June. The 2CD album has 31 tracks, dating from the early 1990s to mid-Noughties, including previously unreleased collaborations, as well as duets with greats like John Lee Hooker, B.B. King and Ray Charles.

Disc 1
1. Cry For Home (with Tom Jones) (previously unreleased)
2. Too Long In Exile
3. Gloria (with John Lee Hooker)
4. Help Me with Junior Wells (live)
5. Lonely Avenue / 4 O' Clock In The Morning (with Jimmy Witherspoon, Candy Dulfer & Jim Hunter) (live)
6. Days Like This
7. Ancient Highway
8. Raincheck
9. Moondance
10. Centerpiece (with Georgie Fame & Annie Ross)
11. That's Life (live)
12. Benediction (remix) (with Georgie Fame & Ben Sidran)
13. The Healing Game (re-mix)
14. I Don't Want To Go On Without You (with Jim Hunter)


Disc 2
1. Shenandoah (with The Chieftains)
2. Precious Time
3. Back On Top (remix)
4. When The Leaves Come Falling Down
5. Lost John (with Lonnie Donegan) (live)
6. Tupelo Honey (with Bobby Bland) (previously unreleased)
7. Meet Me In The Indian Summer (orchestral version) (remix)
8. Georgia On My Mind
9. Hey Mr. DJ
10. Steal My Heart Away
11. Crazy Love (with Ray Charles)
12. Once In A Blue Moon
13. Little Village
14. Blue and Green
15. Sitting On Top Of The World (with Carl Perkins)
16. Early In The Morning (with B.B. King)
17. Stranded


Yippee! UK date, and discussion of the release, to follow.




Gerry Smith

Neil Young, Live At Massey Hall - a must-buy

Neil Young - Live At Massey Hall

Neil Young’s new release, Live At Massey Hall, the famed 1971 acoustic gig in Toronto, doesn’t ring my bell quite as much as the earlier Live At The Fillmore East, backed by a powerful, mighty Crazy Horse.

Young’s Massey Hall performances – vocals, acoustic picking and piano - of his prime early ‘70s balladry are exceptional. They remind you forcefully why Young was such massive box office in those far-off days. And the close-miked sound quality is staggeringly good.

The DVD in the Special Edition’s a beaut, too. And the packaging design, like all the recent Shakey product, is delightful.

Live At Massey Hall: a must-buy.

The sheer quality of the music means that three minor whines pale into insignificance. But let’s have them, anyway:

· Young’s sub-hippy shy boy between-song mumblings. Yeeuuugh!
· The pathetically salivating Canuck crowd, far too high in the mix, roaring over-enthusiastically at the merest mention of “Canada”, “Ontario” and the rest. Provincials!
· Dysfunctional packaging. Both CD and DVD easily fall out of the gatefold sleeve – I had to add a couple of paper disc sleeves to prevent the precious artefacts getting wrecked.



Gerry Smith

Springsteen - Seeger Sessions v The Rising

When Bruce Springsteen’s Seeger Sessions aired on TV last year, I could hardly believe my ears. Having taped, watched once and hastily filed, I thought I’d better give it a second chance. Just in case I’d been unfair.

But no change, I’m afraid: music I find tedious, with performances to match – a wholly alienating experience.

So I had to reassure myself about Springsteen generally and chose to re-listen to The Rising. Thank the Lord: it sounds just as powerfully revelatory as it did when it drove me to write the review below for Music for Grown-Ups.

Whither Bruce? Let’s hope he’s over his Seeger/heritage phase.



The Rising: A Modern Masterpiece

OK. This article is a full eighteen months late. There's a reason. When The Rising was released, in 2002, I collected the (mostly positive) reviews, filed them away, and added the album to my "must-buy" list. But I also decided to delay buying it until all the fuss had died down.

At his best, notably on Darkness on the Edge of Town and Nebraska, Springsteen is one of rock's handful of great creative artists - he's a doggedly original writer who draws convincing, spare vignettes of the urban struggles of oddballs and ordinary people. He's also a fine musician and an exceptional performer (even if his bombastic arena shows are too near to mainstream show biz for my tastes).

But there's another side to Springsteen, which has always tempered my admiration. It's the sing-along-a-Brooce anthemic sloganeering designed for very large crowds - Music for Middle American Males (eagerly adopted by their peers in the rest of the world). Much of this stuff sounds like (and is widely taken as) parochial bluster, regardless of its creator's avowed intentions. Mid-'80s Springsteen is absolutely NOT music for grown-ups.

It was partly a fear that The Rising would be a suffocating Good-ole-USA love-in that decided me to delay buying The Rising. Don't get me wrong, I'm not yet another knee-jerk anti-American. My respect for the US is boundless. It's just that indulgent patriotism - by the nationals of any country - makes me cringe, whether it's the God Bless America variety, or Flower of Scotland, Waltzing Matilda and, especially, the deeply objectionable God Save Our Gracious Queen.

So I was reluctant to pay to torture myself with what I feared might be indulgent parochialism, draped in maudlin Fourth of July/Independence Day/Thanksgiving/High School graduation references - cultural references as alien to me as the totems of Islam, the bhurka or the call to prayer.

And there was a strong suspicion that the enormous tragedy of 9/11 (as I have learned to call it) was far too sensitive an issue for mere entertainers to handle: schmaltzy crocodile tears, bogus sentimentality, inarticulate hearts worn on flashy sleeves are inherently unattractive. As is facile political analysis by people whose views are simply not worth hearing. Neil Young had done a fine job on 9/11 in Are You Passionate? But I wasn't sure Bruce was up to the task.

I shouldn't have worried. The Rising, which I finally listened to - very carefully - over the holidays, is nothing less than a modern masterpiece, a fitting evocation of the wrought emotions of 9/11 and its aftermath. A permanent memorial to the outrage. But it's also so much more.

Springsteen's achievement - 73 minutes of intense emotion, scarcely drawing breath, without even approaching a false note - is appropriately massive. The Rising is a near-perfect suite of 15 linked songs of a quality infrequently encountered; and, a rarity among rock albums - it doesn't have a single weak track.

The standout song, musically and lyrically, is You're Missing. Keening strings and organ showcase poignant lyrics which recite a litany of evidence that the partner won't be returning. Ever. The pathos in the voice is almost palpable.

Popular music has seen few, if any, evocations of pained loss which are even remotely as convincing as this: its direct line to that part of the brain which controls the tear ducts places the song alongside the greatest operatic arias, the ones occurring in the final scenes of the finest operas, when the heroine finally expires.

Into the Fire, with its gospel incantation: "... may your... give us..., may your..." is not far behind. The Rising is equally powerful. Nothing Man sees the tragedy from the point of view of the Ordinary Joe, and is appropriately written and performed. Mary's Place, the only concession to Springsteen's key constituency - 40 year old/middle American/male/trainers-and-blue-jean-wearers - while disguised as an obvious singalongaBrooooce air-punching anthem, complete with mandatory (unnecessary) rock sax, turns out to be a beautifully-crafted study in turn-the-other cheek stoicism.

The two songs which see 9/11 from a different perspective - Worlds Apart, which addresses the problems of star-crossed lovers in Afghanistan, and Paradise, spoken by a suicide bomber just before the final act - save the album from being too USA-centric, adding enormously to its worldview, and its complex evocation of humanist values.

The album's superior lyrics are enriched by the eclectic range of musical styles it employs, which will surprise listeners who associate Bruce only with arena anthems. To hear such powerful lyrics set in such a range of genres is an unexpected bonus. Gospel, blues (often in the same song), anthemic rock, tender balladry, Mid-Eastern devotional inserts, telling pop hooks, and even the effective use of strings, will ensure that this album will still sound fresh and inviting in fifty years.

What elevates The Rising way above contemporary reportage of the unspeakable, diabolic attack on the Twin Towers is the universality of its concerns. Like most great art, it can be read as a general, as well as a particular, statement. The sentiments so authentically explored in The Rising are applicable to any human crisis which evokes suffering, grief, loss, stoicism, anger, bewilderment, courage, resignation, heroism, comfort, and sadness.

Darkness on the Edge of Town revealed Springsteen as a uniquely gifted chronicler of the struggles of proletarian youth in urban America. Thirty years on, The Rising tracks him painting, equally successfully, a much larger canvas - the struggles of Everyman, everywhere.

Because of the scale of its ambition, and the seeming ease with which it realises it, The Rising is great art. It's a triumphant (but absolutely not, note, triumphal) response to a national tragedy, with universal resonance. Not only is it among the artist's finest work, it's one of the highlights of all rock music.

The Rising confirms Springsteen's stature as one of the giants of popular music - as if it was ever in doubt.



Gerry Smith

Dylan’s Top Ten Dylan albums

Bob Dylan’s Top Ten Dylan albums, judging by the set lists of the first ten shows of the Europe 2007 tour, are:

1. Modern Times (2006)
2. The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan (1963)
3. Highway 61 Revisited (1965)
4. "Love and Theft" (2001)
5. Another Side of Bob Dylan (1964)
6. Blonde on Blonde (1966)
7. John Wesley Harding (1968)
8. Nashville Skyline (1969)
9. Blood on the Tracks (1974)
10. Basement Tapes (1975)


Few surprises there, but ranking the playing of the back catalogue in more detail presents a few:

* Album rank – by different songs played

1. Modern Times (2006) 6
2. The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan (1963) 4
3. Highway 61 Revisited (1965) 4
4. "Love and Theft" (2001) 4
5. Another Side of Bob Dylan (1964) 3
6. Blonde on Blonde (1966) 3
7. John Wesley Harding (1968) 2
8. Nashville Skyline (1969) 2
9. Blood on the Tracks (1974) 2
10. Basement Tapes (1975) 2
11. Under the Red Sky (1990) 2
12. Time out of Mind (1997) 2
13. The Times They Are A’Changin’ (1964) 1
14. Bringing it all Back Home (1965) 1
15. Oh Mercy (1989) 1
16. Greatest Hits v2 (1971) 1
17. Best Of v2 (2000) 1


* Album rank – by number of performances

1. Modern Times (2006) 47
2. Highway 61 Revisited (1965) 22
3. "Love and Theft" (2001) 16
4. John Wesley Harding (1968) 12
5. The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan (1963) 11
6. Bringing it all Back Home (1965) 10
7. Blonde on Blonde (1966) 8
8. Under the Red Sky (1990) 8
9. Another Side of Bob Dylan (1964) 6
10. Blood on the Tracks (1974) 5
11. Nashville Skyline (1969) 3
12. Basement Tapes (1975) 2
13. Time out of Mind (1997) 2
14. The Times They Are A’Changin’ (1964) 1
15. Oh Mercy (1989) 1
16. Greatest Hits v2 (1971) 1
17. Best Of v2 (2000) 1


* Albums contributing no selections in first 10 shows

Bob Dylan (1962)
Self Portrait (1970)
New Morning (1970)
Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid (1973)
Dylan (1973)
Planet Waves (1974)
Desire (1975)
Street-Legal (1978)
Slow Train Coming (1979)
Saved (1980)
Shot of Love (1981)
Infidels (1983)
Empire Burlesque (1985)
Knocked out Loaded (1986)
Down in the Groove (1988)
Good as I Been to You (1992)
World gone Wrong (1993)



Gerry Smith

Dylan in Europe – Copenhagen last night

Thanks to: Mary, Tomas, Christian, Suzanne, Jon, Gustav, Per, Brian, Karl, Sven.

Last night in Copenhagen Dylan broke the run of samey setlists, introducing five new songs to the tour, and raising the number of different songs on the tour to 31, after only five shows - as you’d expect from the man with the most prodigious high quality songbook in the history of music. Highlight: Visions Of Johanna. Lo-light: Tweedle Dee & Tweedle Dum.


* Setlist - latest show – Copenhagen, Monday 2 April:

Tweedle Dee & Tweedle Dum
Man In The Long Black Coat
Watching The River Flow
It's Alright, Ma (I'm Only Bleeding)
When The Deal Goes Down
Highway 61 Revisited
Visions Of Johanna
Rollin' And Tumblin'
Desolation Row
Spirit On The Water
Stuck Inside Of Mobile With The Memphis Blues Again
Nettie Moore
Summer Days
Like A Rolling Stone
Thunder On The Mountain
All Along The Watchtower


* Tour debuts in latest show:

Desolation Row
Man In The Long Black Coat
Stuck Inside Of Mobile With The Memphis Blues Again
Tweedle Dee & Tweedle Dum
Visions Of Johanna


* All songs played on the tour so far:

All Along The Watchtower (5)
It's Alright, Ma (5)
Like A Rolling Stone (5)
Rollin' And Tumblin' (5)
Summer Days (5)
Thunder On The Mountain (5)

Highway 61 Revisited (4)
Nettie Moore (4)
Tangled Up In Blue (4)
Watching The River Flow (4)
When The Deal Goes Down (4)

A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall (3)
Cat's In The Well (3)
Spirit On The Water (3)

Country Pie (2)
Don't Think Twice, It's All Right (2)
Girl Of The North Country (2)
Honest With Me (2)

Desolation Row
I'll Be Your Baby Tonight
It Ain't Me, Babe
Lay Lady Lay
Man In The Long Black Coat
Most Likely You Go Your Way (And I'll Go Mine)
Not Dark Yet
Stuck Inside Of Mobile With The Memphis Blues Again
Tears Of Rage
To Ramona
Things Have Changed
Tweedle Dee & Tweedle Dum
Visions Of Johanna


* Different songs (5 shows): 31


* Itinerary:

April:
4 Hamburg
5 Münster
6 Brussels
8 Amsterdam
9 Amsterdam
11 Glasgow
12 Newcastle
14 Sheffield
15 London
16 London
17 Birmingham
19 Düsseldorf
20 Stuttgart
21 Frankfurt
23 Paris
25 Geneva
26 Turin
27 Milan
29 Zürich
30 Mannheim

May:
2 Leipzig
3 Berlin
5 Herning


* Gigs already played
March
27 Stockholm;
28 Stockholm;
30 Oslo
April:
1 Gothenburg
2 Copenhagen




Gerry Smith

The Doors – rock release of 2007

A very strong contender for rock release of 2007 has to be the 40th Anniversary compilation, The Very Best Of The Doors.

There are three versions: a single CD, in the supermarkets now; a better buy is the 2CD version; easily the best buy is the Limited Edition 2CD/DVD/book.

Both of the 2CD versions have virtually everything you need by the Doors:

Disc: 1
1. Break On Through
2. Strange Days
3. Alabama Song
4. Love Me Two Times
5. Light My Fire
6. Spanish Caravan
7. Crystal Ship
8. The Unknown Soldier
9. The End (full version)
10. People Are Strange
11. Back Door Man
12. Moonlight Drive
13. End Of The Night
14. Five To One
15. When The Music's Over


Disc: 2
1. Bird Of Prey
2. Love Her Madly
3. Riders On The Storm
4. Orange County Suite
5. Runnin' Blue
6. Hello I Love You
7. The W.A.S.P. (Texas Radio & The Big Beat)
8. Stoned Immaculate
9. Soul Kitchen
10. Peace Frog
11. L.A. Woman
12. Waiting For The Sun
13. Touch Me
14. The Changeling
15. Wishful, Sinful
16. Love Street
17. The Ghost Song
18. Whiskey, Mystics And Men
19. Roadhouse Blues

The packaging of The Very Best Of The Doors, with a naked torso shot of Mr Mojo Rising pointing at the camera, is stunning. If, like me, you already own all the audio tracks, the Limited Edition is worth buying for the booklet, DVD and the packaging alone. It’s available online for about £16, delivered. Bargain!



Gerry Smith

Dylan in Europe: a taste of things to come?

In anticipation of six weeks of Dylan-mania in Europe, starting tomorrow night in Stockholm, here’s a taster of what a few of the gigs could turn out like – my review of the great London gigs of November 2003, originally published on www.musicforgrownups.co.uk:


London dates underline Dylan's iconic status

The London dates which closed Bob Dylan's 2003 tour reminded English concert-goers that the musician's status is now well above that of mere "legend".

Towering above the competition - in any musical genre - Dylan is now an icon. Like all icons, he's worshipped. At the final London concert, his every statement, every nuance of phrasing, was received with something akin to rapture. In a lifetime of concertgoing, in smoky jazz club and grand opera house, rock stadium and pop arena, you'd be lucky to see a more tumultuous reception than that accorded Dylan on Tuesday night.

The four London shows started with an arena gig (Wembley), continued (after a detour to the Rust Belt) with a small theatre show (Shepherd's Bush Empire) and finished with concerts in two mid-sized theatres (Hammersmith Apollo and Brixton Academy). Each show garnered high praise; the only disagreements among aficionados concerned shades of excellence.

Taken together, the four set lists showcased Dylan's peerless songbook. Two thirds of the 68 songs performed were played only once. Recherche classics (Romance in Durango, Yeah, Heavy..., Jokerman, Blind Willie McTell) were interleaved with 1960s anthems (Like a Rolling Stone, Mr Tambourine Man), and the cream of the ballads, from tender love songs (Boots of Spanish Leather, Girl of the North Country) to hard-edged political tracts (Desolation Row and Hard Rain).

Even the four different versions of Like A Rolling Stone, the classic that the Dylanistas affect to deride, were among the best ever heard - the very pinnacle of rock music, sung with such deliberate gusto by its creator, its smart-ass put-downs never so meanly delivered... a B Minor Mass for the Baby Boomers lucky to be contemporaries of its creator.

The re-workings of songs from “Love And Theft” were revelatory. High Water (For Charley Patton) became an epic, the Hammersmith audience waiting for delivery of each line as if for tablets from on high. Floater, with Freddy Koella on violin and Tony Garnier on acoustic bass - a high risk arrangement - lent a rare jazz tinge to a Dylan gig.

The performances were outstanding. Dylan reinterpreted his canon with striking new emphases. The voice has rarely sounded more convincing - strong, melodious, impassioned. Many, hearing The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll, maybe for the hundredth time, will have experienced an involuntary dropping of the jaw as Dylan delivered the key line. Such powerful writing, so skilfully delivered, made the derisory sentence handed out to William Zanzinger sound as outrageous as it did the first time you heard it.

Dylan has always written for his own voice. His talking blues delivery is entirely appropriate for his material, so performing the catalogue doesn't need a technically refined instrument like Pavarotti's, or even a soul voice to match Van Morrison's. OK, you wouldn't cast Dylan as a principal at the Met. But then, Placido Domingo's Desolation Row wouldn't really be worth hearing, either.

Dylan played piano, standing, throughout, while directing the band. He's no McCoy Tyner, but his honky tonk chords added immeasurably to the mix. The piano liberated the singer.

Even the handful of slighter songs which crept into the London shows were beefed up by some soaring, competitive blues-rock riffing by the two virtuoso guitarists, Larry Campbell and Freddy Koella. The magnificent rhythm section, George Recile and Tony Garnier, anchored the shows, as well as contributing many telling passages.

The London shows underlined Dylan's claim to be regarded as one of the great creative forces of the age. It's no longer sufficient to discuss Dylan in the context of other popular musicians. Comparisons with poprock contemporaries - the Beatles, say, or the Stones, or the army of superannuated hoofers still peddling heritage entertainment to eager nostalgics - do Dylan a disservice.

Dylan should be judged, instead, by reference to the musical giants from all genres - Mozart, Bach, Miles Davis, Louis Armstrong, Callas... . And against the great writers, in all media, from all eras - Shakespeare, Joyce, Goethe, Cervantes... .

Bob Dylan's writing and performance art bridge the gap between popular entertainment and high culture. His is quintessential music for grown-ups.


Gerry Smith

New Dylan, Young, Morrison, Mitchell, Cohen product – 1970s re-run for Boomer rock fans

A fevered new release programme is making early 2007 seem like a re-run of the 1970s, with all the big beasts in the rock jungle stirring again:

* Dylan – Don’t Look Back de luxe DVD

* Neil Young – Live At Massey Hall; Archive series due to start

* Van Morrison – At The Movies compilation CD

* Joni Mitchell – new album, Shine, already being touted; remastered de luxe versions of the cream of her mid-‘70s albums set for release

* Leonard Cohen – de luxe versions of early albums imminent.

Rock for Grown-Ups doesn’t go in for nostalgia, but even nostalgia has its moments.



Gerry Smith

Three must-try young musicians for grown-ups

Whenever I mention the name Rock for Grown-Ups, most people immediately get the intended ambiguity. A few miss it completely, and assume I’m referring to Music for Olde Fartes – ‘60s rock or, even worse, the kind of hoary old pop singles endlessly recycled on Gold radio stations.

No, I patiently explain, there’s a constant stream of young musicians refreshing the grown-up core repertoire. At the moment, I’m listening a lot to three very different twentysomething magicians:

* Amy Winehouse – smokey, soulful torch ballads and funky r’n’b

* Conor Oberst (aka Bright Eyes) – dazzling American singer-songwriter. Just listen to his cover of Dylan’s Girl Of The North Country. My, my, my…

* Jim Moray – nu-folk pioneer, revolutionising the trad English songbook with electronica, and somehow burnishing its core beauty. Moray can’t decide whether he wants to be a folkie or a rock star. Result? Some great art.

All three fulfil all the criteria, especially the major one – they make excellent, original music.


Gerry Smith

Neil Young Archives - finally slated for 2007 launch

Many fans, like me, will have feared that the Fillmore East and Massey Hall albums, fine though they are, might be substitutes for the full Neil Young Archives project – promised for years, but repeatedly postponed.

But now it looks as if Shakey and Reprise are finally about to hit the streets with the first proper volume of the Archives - a bumper package of 8 CDs, 2DVDs, and a book - later this year.

Hallelujah! Greendale, Living With War – be gone!

Exult in this great news for grown-up rock fans here:

http://www.repriserecords.com/neilarchives/

Gerry Smith