Peter Guralnick has written excellent books on blues, country and rock artists. Ray Charles’ Atlantic recordings were revolutionary and wide ranging. This great box set appears to be out of print.
Peter Guralnick on the Revolution of Ray Charles’ ‘I Got a Woman’ – Rolling Stone
Here’s a scene from the film Ray:
Uncle Tupelo was an influential alt-country band that added a rougher punk element to country music. My favorite of their albums was their last one, Anodyne, from 1993 which has been re-released with additional tracks. Jay Farrar went on to form Son Volt while Jeff Tweedy founded Wilco with the remaining members of Uncle Tupelo. I have a separate post on Anodyne.
Factory Belt: The Unofficial Uncle Tupelo Archives is a fine site for more information. Another site is here.
Uncle Tupelo’s ‘Anodyne’ at 25: An Oral History
Many early singles by the Who were very funny in an English sort of way. Their sense of humor was not American and the songs failed here. There’s “I’m a Boy” (1966) about a child made to dress as a girl, “Pictures of Lily” (1967) about porn, “Substitute” about not being what you appear to be. “Substitute” (1966) has the great line “I was born with a plastic spoon in my mouth.” The Who Sell Out (1967) album has radio commercials. Starting with Tommy, it seems like their sense of humor disappeared. The only exception was “Squeeze Box” (1975) which sounded like a throwback to their early days.
Get Happy!! is my favorite Elvis Costello album. The album benefits from not having one single dominant great song like “Alison” or “Radio Radio”. It has 20 mostly brief songs of consistently equal quality. I have favorite songs on most albums which are consistently the same but not with this one. My opinion of the best song varies. My favorite lines are from “Opportunity”
I’m in a foxhole. I’m down in a trench.
I’d be a hero but I can’t stand the stench.
It reminds me of Exile on Main Street, another album that actually benefits from not having one standout song. There’s no “Gimme Shelter” or “Sympathy for the Devil”, just 18 songs that work together to form the album.
I would like to note the covers “I Can’t Stand Up for Falling Down” and “I Stand Accused”. Costello and the Attractions rush through these former ballads at a Ramones-like pace.
Here’s a tweet that links to a fine essay about it:
I remember plate spinners on TV shows like the Ed Sullivan show. They were usually accompanied by “Sabre Dance” by composer Aram Ilyich Khachaturian.
Like this author, I was unable to find a video of plate spinning accompanied by “Sabre Dance” but I always link the two.
Then there’s this version of “Sabre Dance”:
George Perkins wrote “Cryin’ in the Streets” which was released in 1970. It’s a very underrated soul classic inspired by the Dr. Martin Luther King assassination and the civil rights movement. I first heard it on Sweet Soul Music, a CD released in 1992 to accompany the book by Peter Guralnick.
I recently watched Dont Look Back (1967) and Rolling Thunder Revue: A Bob Dylan Story by Martin Scorsese in outstanding Blu-ray editions from the Criterion Collection.
Rolling Thunder Revue chronicles Dylan’s 1975 tour. Scorsese made the strange decision to add fictional characters in with the real people. It makes you wonder what’s real and doesn’t add anything to the film. Howard Alk, who shot the footage in 1975 which is the basis for most of the film, doesn’t get much credit, just a brief acknowledgement in one of the supplements. Alk did a great job capturing Dylan’s performances close up. The restoration demo on the Blu-ray shows how much work went into cleaning up the footage and what a great job they did.
Dylan’s performances are excellent, much more passionate than usual for him based on the six of his concerts I have seen. Most people won’t agree but I like Desire (the 1976 album many songs here appear on) more than 1975’s Blood on the Tracks which is usually regarded as one of Dylan’s masterpieces. One of the supplements is a performance of “Tonight I’ll Be Staying Here with You” with revised lyrics which are not as good as the original version. Dylan has revised lyrics to other songs and I have not heard one that improves on the first version. Dylan always revises his performances of songs and I admire this. He doesn’t treat the records as the definitive version. The film has a great electric version of “A Hard Rain’s a-Gonna Fall”.
“This Land is Your Land” was used to close out the concerts but it’s not in the film. It wasn’t in the Bootleg Series 5 two-disc set taken from the concerts. It was in the 14 disc set released around the same time as the Scorsese film.
I then watched Dont Look Back which in which D. A. Pennebaker documents Dylan’s 1965 tour of England. It mostly focused on interactions with the media and other people involved in the tour and has little music. It does have the great placard video for “Subterranean Homesick Blues”
Dylan is very confrontational throughout but a lot of the people he meets clearly don’t understand him.
This was a solo acoustic tour but he had already released Bringing It All Back Home which has many electric songs.
One of the musicians on the Rolling Thunder tour:
The first concert was in New York on January 20, 1968. Bear Family has issued a deluxe 3 CD set of the 1968 Carnegie Hall and 1970 Hollywood Bowl concerts.
Bob Dylan and the Band (not named that yet) performed three songs. The recording quality is not good but the performances are great – loud rock and roll.
Bob Dylan Turns Up For Woody Guthrie Memorial – Rolling Stone
Bo Diddley, born 12/30/28 is the most under-recognized rock and roll pioneer. He had great songs and was way ahead of his time as a guitar player.
1990’s The Chess Box has the classic records but it appears to be out of print.
Born on this date in 1940 in Baltimore
Zappa led the Mothers of Invention and had a long solo career. I saw the Mothers twice – in 1969 and on Mother’s Day in 1970. My favorite Mothers album is We’re Only in It for the Money which combines expert musicianship with sharp satire. I am not that familiar with his solo career. A new film about him has just been released.
this has a great line about Santa
Sad! 