Category: Music

The Who Sell Out

The Who Sell Out (1967) was released in a deluxe edition in 1967. It was a bold album that was structured like a radio broadcast with commercials. Back before Tommy, the Who had a great sense of humor. The album also includes “I Can See for Miles” a blast of tough rock and roll.

I don’t miss vinyl records

I grew up with vinyl but I don’t miss it. My lack of nostalgia probably goes back to my college days. Do you have any idea how hard it was to put a needle on a record when you were drunk or high?

I still own some records and certainly the packaging is better than with CDs (or downloads). However, I have bought very few CDs that were damaged compared to records. I don’t have a turntable.

If you like it:

Bob Dylan and the Band – 1974 tour

Bob Dylan and the Band toured for two months at the beginning of 1974. I saw the January 6, 1974 afternoon show at the Spectrum in Philadelphia. The music from the tour has been well captured on the album Before the Flood which is basically a shorter version of the show. For instance the album has three solo acoustic songs while he actually did five. The album has eight songs by the Band while they really did 11.

The concert was outstanding. Dylan and the Band performed everything as loud rock – listen to t “Lay Lady Lay” and “It Ain’t Me Babe” which are very different than the original versions.

The Band was excellent. However, the audience just kept shouting for Dylan while they were on. They played a few obscure songs from their catalog – “When You Awake” and “Long Black Veil”.

Dylan and the Band played several songs from their new Planet Waves album. The Band played nothing from Moondog Matinee, released just a few months earlier.

Several shows were recorded but I doubt that we will ever get a Bootleg Series release of them. There are bootlegs of many of the shows, some of which are soundboards. I have read that Dyan wasn’t happy with the tour. I guess it didn’t have the elements of innovations and controversy that his 1966 tour did. This time, Dylan was the establishment.

Ben Fong-Torres wrote a book about the tour.

Dylan and Helm

Howard Grimes

Howard Grimes, the drummer on many great R&B records recorded in Memphis, died on February 12, 2022. Fortunately, he wrote an autobiography that was published last year. I recommend it for his stories about the artists and recordings. I will post links below to a few videos of songs he played on. This is a link to information on the book, Timekeeper. This links to his discography.

The Beatles on the Ed Sullivan Show – 2/9/64

This was an amazing event. The Beatles, who most of us didn’t know about a few months earlier, were on the Ed Sullivan Show, a TV variety show that also included plate twirlers and Topo Gigio. The show was watched by a record 73 million people. The Beatles were very young and handled their sudden fame with incredible grace and humor.

With hindsight, the Beatles deserve even more credit than they got when they were around. They could have played it safe and kept doing simple rock and roll based on R&B but they took lots of chances. It’s a long way from “She Loves You” to “Strawberry Fields Forever” but it was only four years in actual time. All kinds of musicians followed the path blazed by the Beatles.

Initially, they paved the way for other British groups, known as the British Invasion. As I recall, the second most popular British group when the Beatles first became popular was the Dave Clark Five. Their popularity only lasted a few years and they were eclipsed by bands like the Rolling Stones, the Kinks, and the Who who have created enduring music.

Near the end, they got back to their roots with songs like “Get Back”, “The Ballad of John and Yoko” and “Don’t Let Me Down”. These are some of their finest records.

Bob Marley’s birthday – February 6th

“Coming in from the Cold” is my favorite of Marley’s many great songs.

New Republic article on Spotify and musician royalties