This day in history - August 15, 1969: The Woodstock Music and Arts Festival opens

By Richard K. Barry

I've been to Woodstock. Actually, it was about five or six years after "the" Woodstock happened and I was just killing time with a friend on a bit of a day trip. I grew up probably about an hour and a half from where the festival was staged and thought it might be nice to see where it all happened. 

As you can imagine, by the mid-'70s there wasn't much to see. Nice area, though. 

But, between August 15-18, 1969, in the town of Bethel, New York in Sullivan County, about 43 miles southwest of the town of Woodstock, an event billed as "An Aquarian Exposition: 3 Days of Peace and Music" took place at Max Yagur's dairy farm. 

On these three days, 32 acts performed for around 500,000 people, when only between 150,000 and 200,000 were expected. 

Acts included: Richie Havens, Ravi Shankar, Tim Hardin, Melanie, Arlo Guthrie, Joan Baez, Country Joe McDonald, John Sebastian, Santana, Canned Heat, The Grateful Dead, Credence Clearwater Revival, Janice Joplin, Sly and the Family Stone, The Who, Jefferson Airplane, Country Joe and the Fish, Joe Cocker, Ten Years After, The Band, Blood, Sweat & Tears, Johnny Winter, Crosby, Stills & Nash, Paul Butterfield Blues Band, and Jimi Hendrix. 

Pretty good lineup. 

The closest I got to Woodstock that weekend was when my father mentioned that he had been on the New York State Thruway and that a whole slew of beat up cars and vans were clogging up the road heading south (probably on August 18th) and they were completely full of mud. 

(Cross-posted at Lippmann's Ghost.)

The Traveling Wilburys' "End of the Line"

Music on Sunday @ The Reaction

By Richard K. Barry

Here's a classic. I was at a great poolside party yesterday and the host mentioned that if he were to meet an untimely demise, he'd like the Traveling Wilburys' "End of the Line" to be played at his funeral.

Maybe it's a morbid thought, but I hardly see the harm in taking some control of your final arrangements. Then someone asked if I had any idea what I'd like played for me. The truth is that I haven't turned my mind to it, but maybe now I will.

The Traveling Wilburys were an English-American supergroup made up of Bob Dylan, George Harrison, Jeff Lynne, Roy Orbison, and Tom Petty. Can't really go wrong with that crowd.

They recorded two albums in 1988 and 1990, though Roy Orbison died before the second was recorded.

"End of the Line" is a pretty upbeat song for, well, the end of the line. But maybe that's the way it should be if you've done things right.

(Cross-posted at Lippmann's Ghost.)

MTV and the death of democracy

By Carl 

It was thirty years ago today, Robert Pittman taught the band not to play.

MTV launched on August 1, 1980, and literally changed the face of music forever, although you wouldn't know it from the first video, "Video Killed the Radio Star" by The Buggles, a band composed of Trevor Horn and Geoff Downes, both later joining Yes. In the video, the lighting and the costuming and set were all designed to be particularly unflattering to a band whose members were not exactly Hollywood star-material.

OK, so Downes was not ugly, but... did you know that "Video" charted at #444 years before MTV used it?

I digress.

The immediate impact of MTV's popularity was the development in earnest of the music video. Prior to the launch, artists since the 1960s created promotional films for top 40 songs, sometimes even albums. The first true "music video" was for "Surf City" by Jan & Dean in 1964. The later Beatles' albums featured several of these, which were distributed to variety shows worldwide so that "The Beatles" could make an appearance on the show.

These were mostly performance clips of the band, although with the release of Sgt. Pepper, The Beatles went a little avant garde with theirs.

More and more, bands provided short films for their record companies to show in movie theatres, on television variety shows and to various conferences and conventions to promote a band's music.

The music. Not the band. MTV changed that.

I noticed this over the weekend while watching an old Journey video for the song "Seperate Ways," and realizing, damn! That band was uggggggggggleeeeee! The song was released in the MTV generation, to be sure, but the band predates it.

No longer was it enough to be able to sing or play an instrument and/or write a song. Now you had to have "it." You had to be good-looking enough to wet panties and cause wet dreams worldwide. Or, failing that, you had to hire a really expensive and really creative producer to set up your video so it featured really pretty men and women. That means money and that means your record sales and music were beholden to the suits at the label. There was corporate rock before MTV (hello, Monkees!), but the visual aspect and the brand spanking new markets it opened up to songs made corporate rock inevitable.

There weren't bands anymore. They became brands. Brands, the goal of so many people in the blogosphere and even Blogtopia (© Skippy).

Sure, there were exceptions and parodies, most notably "Money For Nothing" by Dire Straits, but these were few, far between, and badly needed.

Corporate music begets a bland, pablum of ear candy designed and honed over the years to not offend but to not excite either. It's meant to not make you think: no longer did you have to ponder the lyrics to a song. All you had to do was turn on MTV and voila! Some suit had decided what the song means to you. It moderates everything. There is no radicality except in small pockets of outliers who never really gain acceptance in the mainstream.

To me, it's no surprise that we haven't had another Beatles since MTV. Nor have we had a significant new direction in music since punk, pre-1981. Sure, there was rap, but rap rose without the benefit of MTV and the moment MTV got its hands on it, that was the death knell for bands with a point, like NWA. It stopped being about the music and started being about the heavy rotation.

We all started listening to the same things. Maybe not identical, but all the same things in form. We all needed like-minded entertainment.

It gets worse. MTV created an entire new requirement for filmmakers, who had somehow to reconcile movies and TV to the new form of entertainment. No longer could the camera linger on a scene, establishing mood. Two cigarettes burning down in an ashtray meant two people making love. Now that all had to be established immediately and undeniably. You couldn't infer. You had to state. The attention span of America was quickly narrowing and no one wanted to think anymore.

Maybe you've already guessed from the headline where this is going, and maybe you've started to put the clues together. I'm tempted to stop here but like I just said...

MTV gave us reality TV, too. It started with "slice-o'-life" videos depicting the singer/band in a real-world scenario (usually lost love, or famously Madonna's "Papa Don't Preach," about teen pregnancy). It moved onto the Real World programs and continues to this day with Jersey Shore. We've become conditioned to accepting, no, demanding a titillating look into people's closets from MTV. We won't accept a thick line between the public persona of someone and their private life. We *know* there's something illegal or illicit or just plain immoral going on behind the scenes that they must be hiding and we want to know, if only to celebrate the fact that, there but for the grace of God, go we.

Birthers are the logical outgrowth of this. Birthers and shrill harpies of the right who find boogeymen in little children camping on an island.

I could probably go on, from talking about how MTV made it possible for fashion to become really pretty crappy to the fulfillment of Andy Warhol's "fifteen minutes of fame" prophesy to any number of terrible impacts on society.

That's not to say MTV has been all bad. For instance, it was MTV that broadcast Live Aid to try and fight famine in Ethiopia, and it was MTV that gave Bill Clinton the youth vote (and probably Barack Obama as well.) And Jon Stewart got his start on MTV and became a nightly treasure on a spin-off of MTV's Ha! channel. I'm sure if I really sat and thought more on it, I could probably balance this post out with more positives.

But that would make this corporate blogging. :-)

(Cross-posted to Simply Left Behind.)

Guy Clark: "Dublin Blues"

Music on Sunday @ The Reaction

By Richard K. Barry

Every now and then, I fool around with songwriting. Not that I think I'll ever be any good at it. I don't. But I am so impressed with the craft that I can't help but dabble in the process just on the possibility that something interesting and unexpected might happen when I put words to music.

Mostly I just love great songwriting. If I knew what it was about it that I loved so much maybe I'd be better at it myself, but I do recognize quality when I hear it.

Guy Clark is a phenomenal songwriter. He's had a great career writing mostly in the country / folk / Americana genre. Those who have recored his songs include Jerry Jeff Walker, Johnny Cash, Vince Gill, Ricky Scaggs, Steve Wariner, Alan Jackson, Brad Paisley, Rodney Crowell, Asleep at the Wheel, and Jimmy Buffet. And a lot of artists have charted with songs written by Clark.

He is also known for helping Steve Earle develop his career and for his friendship with the late Townes Van Zandt, whom Clark credits as a major influence in his own songwriting.

There are a lot of names mentioned here that you may know better than Clark's, but he's probably okay with that as long as the royalty checks keep on rolling in.

The song below, "Dublin Blues," performed by Guy Clark, was on my iPod for the longest time. It really does set a mood.

(Cross-posted at Lippmann's Ghost.)

Bruce Springsteen's Top 10 has absolutely nothing to do with the debt ceiling

By Richard K. Barry and Michael J.W. Stickings

RKB:

For some reason, my mind is in New Jersey today, which is, by the way, a very beautiful, though sometimes maligned, state. I grew up in New York on the Jersey border, and sometimes made it down to the Jersey Shore, so I guess I'm allowed.

Partly, I just can't think about the debt ceiling for another second without driving myself crazy, so I'm surfing today.

While looking for something entirely different, I came across a website that purports to be able to rank Bruce Springsteen's top 10 hits. The site is called ...ology. They appear to cover off a lot of topics, so their sports page is called "sportsology," and the music page "musicology," etc. You get it.

If for some reason you didn't know that Springsteen was from New Jersey, I should make that clear. Hey, I guess some people wouldn't know.

I like Springsteen, though I'm not a huge fan only because I never really turned my attention to him in any systematic way. It's great rock 'n' roll, make no mistake.

But any website that not only has an opinion on his top 10 but goes to the trouble of posting a YouTube clip for every last one gets my attention.

If you have nothing better to do with your time, as we try to outlast this nasty hot summer, and want to enjoy some great videos, the link is here.

Here's their list:

1. Jungleland

2. Thunder Road

3. Born to Run

4. Hungry Heart

5. Dancing in the Dark

6. Atlantic City

7. Santa Claus is Comin' to Town

8. Racing in the Street

9. The Rising

10. Rosalita (Come Out Tonight)

Final note: I have no skin in this game of ranking hits by The Boss. If you do, by all means, tell us how the folks at ...ology got it wrong (or right).

And not a word about the debt ceiling, please.

(Cross-posted at Lippmann's Ghost.)

**********

MJWS:

Not a word about the debt ceiling here. Of course you're welcome to comment on our many debt ceiling posts.

(But it's good to take a break from it! Political paralysis and possible economic catastrophe -- not so fun.)

Now, I actually lived in New Jersey for several years as a teenager, graduating from West Morris Mendham High School before heading up to Tufts for college. The state has a reputation for being "the armpit of the nation," but that's really only true of parts of the state, the industrial parts across the river from NYC. It's an ugly, smelly part of the country, but probably no worse than many other parts. And much of the rest of the state, including Mendham, in Morris County, in the north-central part of the state, is extremely beautiful, far removed from the reputation.

I lived there but wasn't of there. It's not that I didn't like my time there -- I really did -- but I have more of an affinity for Boston than I do for New Jersey. (Not Boston's sports teams, mind you, just the whole Boston area, a fantastic place to spend four collegiate years.) I don't like Bon Jovi, for example, and don't you have to to be an honest-to-goodness New Jerseyan/Jerseyite? And you probably have to love The Sopranos as well. Me? I never watched it.

As for Springsteen, well, sure, fine. "Born to Run," "Jersey Girl" -- these are songs you just can't avoid there. They are New Jersey. If you're from there, they're part of you. I'd call myself a casual fan. I respect him and admire him as an artist, and he's done a lot that I like, but I can't say I've ever made a point of seeking out his music, beyond a few songs here and there.

Well, okay, I do have the 3-CD Live/1975-85 album with the E Street Band. So maybe I'm more of a fan than I think I am.

For what it's worth, my picks... my Top 20:

1. Streets of Philadelphia
2. Tunnel of Love
3. Secret Garden
4. Brilliant Disguise
5. Human Touch
6. Born in the U.S.A.
7. My Hometown
8. The Rising
9. Born to Run
10. I'm on Fire
11. Atlantic City
12. Devils & Dust
13. Darkness on the Edge of Town
14. Thunder Road
15. Jungleland
16. The River
17. Racing in the Street
18. Dancing in the Dark
19. Badlands
20. Glory Days (a song I occasionally loathe, I admit, but I should tack it on here at the end)

No huge surprises there, I'm sure.

Purists, or rather fans of the more raw Boss of the early years, might object to "Streets of Philadelphia" and "Secret Garden" being so high, or listed at all, but they're wonderful songs. And I suppose I like his 1984-92 period more than the older classics, which is why songs like "Tunnel of Love," "Human Touch," and "Brilliant Disguise" are higher than, say, "Born to Run." And while I have a few more recent songs on here, like "Devils & Dust" and "The Rising," I'm not as familiar with his recent work as I am with the songs I grew up with.

How ironic, though, that in my opinion his best song is about Philadelphia, which, while right across the river from New Jersey, isn't New Jersey. But, then, his art, not to mention his appeal, extends well beyond The Garden State, as much a part of it as he remains.

Hot town, summer in the city

Music on Sunday @ The Reaction

By Richard K. Barry

Okay, let's go for the obvious today for our Sunday music post: The Lovin' Spoonful's "Summer in the City."

It was a #1 hit on the Billboard charts in August of 1966 and was written by Mark Sebastian, the brother of band principle John Sebastian, and Steve Boone.

It does a not bad job of giving the feel of sweltering heat in an urban setting, complete with honking car horns and jackhammer sounds. Unbelievable heat in an urban setting is certainly where I found myself this week. I don't think I had ever noticed before that wind could feel that hot.

Anyway, back to the song. The Lovin' Spoonful had a bunch of hits in the mid-'60s, including "You Didn't Have to Be So Nice," "Daydream," and "Do You Believe in Magic."

I've always been partial to the band because they typified the relationship between the earlier folk music scene of the '50s and '60s and what became the rock and pop of the '60, much of which that music influenced. That's one of my hobby-horses, but I won't bore you with it.

As for "Summer in the City," I suppose we can say that something has actually made it as a cultural marker when it's featured on The Simpsons, as the song was in an episode called "Poppa's Got a Brand New Badge."

(As a totally gratuitous aside, John Sabastian had a #1 single in 1976 as a solo act with "Welcome Back," the theme song to the Welcome Back, Kotter television show, which, if you have been living in an alternate universe for awhile, or you're just young (same difference), you may not know was John Travolta's first vehicle to stardom).

Without further ado, I give you "Summer in the City." Stay cool.

(Cross-posted at Lippmann's Ghost.)

Billie Jean is not my lover

By Michael J.W. Stickings

I recently discovered The Civil Wars, the duo of Joy Williams and and John Paul White, while checking out KINK 101.9 radio in Portland, a funky folk-oriented station that has hosted an impressive line-up of artists at its Bing Lounge, including -- and this is what brought me there in the first place -- the wonderful Sarah Jarosz. 

They're a compelling pair -- and here, at The Bing Lounge, is their very fine cover of Michael Jackson's "Billie Jean":

"Woman of Labrador" by Figgy Duff

Music on Sunday @ The Reaction

By Richard K. Barry

In a little less than two weeks I will be on my way to Labrador, which is, of course, a part of Newfoundland and Labrador. If you are in the U.S. and don't know a great deal about Canadian geography, get a map, go to the east coast of Canada, find the island of Newfoundland and then go more or less north until you hit Labrador.

My wife was born in a small town in Newfoundland and then relocated to Happy Valley-Goose Bay, Labrador as a child. Her father worked at the U.S. military base there, which may be the only reason I had ever heard of the place growing up in the U.S. It was a stop along the way for American soldiers who had to cross the Atlantic Ocean and in that context I'm fairly sure I'd heard it mentioned now and again.

So, I will be there soon. I am assured it is a beautiful place with breathtaking landscapes. I'm sure that's true. My wife will arrive a week before me for what they call a come home week, which should be pretty self-explanatory. I'm looking forward to it.

The song featured below is called "Woman of Labrador," which is an absolutely haunting tune written by Andy Vine. I know very little about him except that he is still working as a musician on the west coast of Canada and is best known for having written this song.

The performance is by a legendary Newfoundland group called Figgy Duff, with Pamela Morgan on vocals.

(Cross-posted at Lippmann's Ghost.)

This day in history - July 12, 1962: The Rolling Stones perform their first ever concert, at the Marquee Club in London

By Richard K. Barry

A short while ago, I posted a reference to the date on which Paul McCartney and John Lennon met. It seems only fair to give the Stones their due. Maybe it's because I'm working my way through Keith Richard's bio that I'm thinking of the group.

Reading Richard's book, one is reminded how important the blues tradition was to The Rolling Stones and how completely immersed in it they were before they became one of the most notable Rock 'n' Roll bands of all time.

Here's a clip from 1966 of the boys doing "Paint It Black."

(Cross-posted to Lippmann's Ghost.)

Bring back the Pet Rock

By J. Thomas Duffy 

When they get around to making the Idiocracy sequel, this has got to find its way into the script.

On July 4th, while many where camped out on blankets, or stuck in traffic, awaiting the evening's display of incendiary pop, I was doing some work, and had the radio on, only stopping, mouth agape, to shake my head in disbelief, when this report came on.





It was from PRI's "The World": 

Digital Pop Star Hatsune Miku’s First Live Concert 

This weekend, one of the hottest tickets in Los Angeles was to a concert by Japanese pop culture icon Hatsune Miku. She’s a big persona but not a flesh-and-blood person. And her sold-out show, “Mikunopolis,” marked her debut in the US.

[snip]

But Miku is neither animal nor human. She’s a virtual “singer” whose only appearance on stage is as a life-like 3D hologram. She’s what you’d call a Vocaloid — basically the consumer-friendly interface for sophisticated voice-synthesizing software.

[snip]

Vocaloid was spawned far from the shores of LA. Hideki Kenmochi developed Vocaloid at Yamaha Corp. in Japan; then a host of other companies created characters and voices — like Miku, whose parent is Crypton Future Media — that give Vocaloid technology a more human range.

[snip]

The Vocaloid process does for singing what a keyboard synthesizer does for pianos. In the Vocaloid scene, this means a gifted songwriter may not have to rely as much on their own pipes or looks. But despite the sold-out concert in LA, the Vocaloid style is still an acquired taste, most popular among early cultural adopters in Japan

“According to our research,” Kenmochi says, “eight percent of female teenagers listen to only Vocaloid music. That’s amazing statistics.” 

(Go here to listen to the podcast.) 

Sold-out show? Shrieking fans?

Over a synthesized 3-D hologram?

Even Woody Allen, in his 1973 futuristic Sleeper, didn't dream of such dreck.

Give me a F'ing break?

With all the music, hundreds-upon-hundreds-of-thousands, made by real, live human beings, available (an entire second argument on if it's good or bad), across a multitude of genres, and people are actually going gaga over, as the article ends, "partying in a concert-sized video game"?

Didn't Denzel Washington and Russel Crowe do this before? 

Help Me Mister Wizard! 

Methinks this audience would be prime to bring back the Pet Rock as well. 

Wait ... wait ... 

Even better... a synthesized 3-D hologram Pet Rock!


 


Bonus Riffs 

Adam Frank:  Rise Of The Machines: Japanese Popstar A Computer Construct

Pop Star Turns Out To Be Computer Generated 

Jena Isle:  Aimi Eguchi and Hatsune Miku: Japan’s Computer-Generated Pop Stars Gain Millions of Fans; Miku has Upcoming Debut in Los Angeles

Idiocracy - trailer 

Idiocracy Brawndo's Got Electrolytes

Idiocracy, the Sequel 

(Cross-posted at The Garlic.)

This day in history - July 6, 1957: John Lennon and Paul McCartney first meet

By Richard K. Barry

John Lennon and Paul McCartney of The Beatles (as if you didn't know) were introduced on this day in 1957 when Lennon's band, The Quarrymen, performed at the St. Peter's Church Hall fete in Woolten.

Some might argue that this hardly qualifies as a momentous historical occasion. I would argue that they are wrong. I prefer to live in a world where The Beatles once existed and their music is still frequently heard. Yes, I feel pretty strongly about that.

And I will also admit that I posted this for the immensely cool picture.

(Cross-posted to Lippmann's Ghost.)

Sarah Jarosz: "Run Away" and "My Muse"

By Michael J.W. Stickings

I think I'm in love.

I'm generally not much of a fan of bluegrass (nor of "country," broadly speaking), but Sarah Jarosz transcends the genre and is simply amazing.

Such talent. Such a glorious voice. Unbelievable.

"Run Away," in particular, I find mesmerizing (see here for a performance with the great Shawn Colvin).

Billy Bragg at the Clearwater Festival: June 18, 2011

Music on Sunday @ The Reaction

By Richard K. Barry

I traveled to near New York City for the Clearwater Folk Festival this weekend. I was born and raised a few miles away from the festival site but moved away years ago. I still try to get down for this annual event whenever I can.

If you don't know, this festival has been the brainchild of music and political organizing legend Pete Seeger so, as you might imagine, the weekend has significant elements of political activism associated with it - lots of tables for all sorts of progressive causes in addition to all the great music.

It's a terrific place to pick up clever bumper stickers. For example, my favorite of the weekend was "My Comedy Channel? Fox News. My News Source? Comedy Central." Yeah, that's about right. I picked up a few of those.

Besides 90 plus year old Pete and Arlo Guthrie and so many others, Billy Bragg was there to do a crisp one hour set. If you are at all worried that progressives in America lack the passion to take the fight to the crazies on the right, the audience response to Bragg's message might put your mind at ease. It was quite moving really.

Bragg is a fine musician, but a great speaker and political voice as well. One of the key messages of his stage patter was that we should try to understand the fears of those who have, perhaps only temporarily, aligned themselves with the right-wing. We should continue to respect the source of many of their anxieties as we make our case that their interests are not served by aligning with the likes of Mitt Romney and Michele Bachmann. Good message.

Here's a clip of Bragg doing There is Power in a Union, in this case at the Shrewsbury Folk Festival in England in 2010. He did the same number this past weekend at Clearwater and it was powerful. Excellent stuff.

(Cross-posted to Lippmann's Ghost.)

John Coltrane: "My Favorite Things"

Music on Sunday @ The Reaction

By Richard K. Barry

I like jazz. I even understand it after a fashion having played sax and guitar for a lot of years. On good days I even make a few bucks in a local band, though no one will ever confuse me for a talented jazz musician, in fact, it's blues and rock we play in our band. Still, I get some of the music theory behind jazz and know what I'm listening to when it's being played. Best of all, I know enough to be especially amazed and delighted when real geniuses pick up their axes and do the things they do.

Speaking of which, I've been listening to John Coltrane today. I can't get into everything the man did, particularly the spacier, atonal stuff, but there is so much in his repertoire that is incomparable.

Much as Coltrane's version of "My Favorite Things" may by now be a musical cliche for some, maybe like Brubeck/Desmond on "Take Five," I still rank it among my favorite (both of them, really).

The thing about "My Favorite Things," the title track from a 1961 album, is that it is a modal rendition of the classic. Without getting into too much detail, modal music allows the jazz improviser to really forget about the changes the rhythm section is playing and just get into, as completely as possible, an improvisational head space.

In other words, in more typical jazz improvisation, the soloist has to be thinking a little bit more about what the accompanists are playing and play, more or less, within those chord changes -- with an emphasis on what is changing. In modal music, for reasons that have to do with the purity of the musical structure and the fact that it doesn't change, the soloist can climb inside his or her performance in a way that can be truly magical. Now, I am sure that every Berklee grad can give you ten reasons why what I just said is wrong or oversimplified, but I'm close enough.

This is what Coltrane is doing on "My Favorite Things," as are the other players when it comes their time to improvise.

The instrument Coltrane is playing in the clip is a soprano saxophone, or straight sax. It sounds higher than other saxes but it is played in exactly the same way. I once read that Coltrane liked it because it could be played faster than other larger saxes, like a tenor, which is the instrument with which a lot of people associate him.

Coltrane was known as someone who took very seriously the spirituality of music. The clip is about 10 minutes long, and, if you are anything like me, and have the time to listen all the way through, I think you will notice it is simply and purely a meditative experience. Very cool.

I should say that it's McCoy Tyner on piano, Elvin Jones on drums, and Steve Davis on bass.

(Cross-posted to Lippmann's Ghost.)

Moby: "Pale Horses"

Music on Sunday @ The Reaction

By Michael J.W. Stickings

I like Moby. A lot.

Emerging from his roots on the club scene, Play (1999) and 18 (2002) were great (and justifiably celebrated) breakthrough albums that took his ambient, chill-out sound mainstream, pop electronica but with such amazing depth and such transcendent feeling that it stands apart, at least to me, from anything else of its kind.

His latest album, Destroyed (2011), is the latest addition to my iPod. It's really good, if somewhat derivative and not quite at the level of his best work. And his best work, I think, is Wait For Me (2009), less pop than Play but in a way the epitome of everything Moby is about as an artist, an artist at the very peak of his talents.

It isn't often that I listen to an album all the way through for the first time and without reservation consider it a masterpiece. I'm not talking about Sgt. Pepper's or Dark Side, just about new albums that have come out in recent years. Green Day's American Idiot comes to mind, as does Portishead's Third. I'd also say God is an Astronaut's All is Violent, All is Bright, and maybe Vienna Teng's Dreaming Through the Noise and Thea Gilmore's Avalanche. (You get the point. I'm sure you have your own list.)

Well, Wait For Me belongs in that exclusive category. It's an incredible album, and if you're not familiar with it, I recommend it highly. One of its best songs is "Pale Horses." Here's the video. Enjoy.

Pink Floyd, reunited: David Gilmour joins Roger Waters for "Comfortably Numb"

Music on Sunday @ The Reaction

By Michael J.W. Stickings

This hardly needs an introduction. Pink Floyd fans everywhere know just how significant this was. I am still in awe.

Last year, David Gilmour told Roger Waters that he would join him to perform "Comfortably Numb" on Waters's tour of The Wall. It was a return favour for Waters performing with Gilmour at a Hoping Foundation charity event. It was just a matter of when and where, but London seemed to make sense, and last Thursday, at London's O2 Arena, there was Gilmour atop the wall, and for a brief time, I'm sure, the world seemed perfect.

I heard about it on Twitter and quickly went to YouTube. A clip was up, but it wasn't the whole song. The next day, I went to Brain Damage, my favourite Floyd site, and found what I was looking for, a clip of the whole song along with a second of "Outside the Wall," the show's final song, performed after the wall comes crashing down, the most intimate part of the show. Gilmour was there again, and so was Nick Mason, Floyd's drummer.

These are the three remaining members of Pink Floyd. (Rick Wright, the keyboardist, died in 2008 -- see here and here. Syd Barrett, one of the band's founding members, died in 2006 -- see here.) I cannot really explain what it means to me, and of course to so many others, to see the three of them together again, if only for a short time, if only for a couple of songs. Live8 was incredible, and this... this was what so many of us had dreamed about for so long. Yes, of course, I'd love it if they would reunite for a tour, but that might be hoping for too much. These one-offs seem more likely, and they are amazing.

Pink Floyd has been my music since I was a teenager. I have fairly eclectic tastes and I like a lot of music, a lot of different singers and musicians. I have thousands and thousands and thousands of songs on my iPod. But Floyd has always been much different for me. I love them and their music in a way that goes well beyond anything else. It is deeply personal for me, an indescribable connection that seems to go to my very core.

I saw Gilmour, Wright, and Mason as Pink Floyd at Foxboro Stadium in Massachusetts in 1994. I saw Gilmour here in Toronto several years ago. I saw two of Waters's Dark Side shows, and, last year, two Wall shows, in Toronto and also in Buffalo. There were times at both Wall shows when I felt like I would just break into tears, so intense were my feelings. I could hardly believe it was real, that I was really there, and the sheer enormity of it all really got to me. This music, my music, the music that had been with me for so long, for so much of my life, the soundtrack of my life, that was what was being performed, and it overwhelmed me.

And that was without Gilmour. I can hardly imagine how I would have felt had I been there on Thursday in London. All I can say is that for all that Pink Floyd has meant to me, and for all that Pink Floyd has gone through over the years, it is so wonderful that at long last there is peace, that Gilmour and Waters can perform together, and with Mason as well, briefly reunited, reconciled, making us all so extremely happy.

Here, via Brain Damage, are the clips. Enjoy. 

Bob Dylan in China - same as he ever was

By Richard K. Barry 

Bob Dylan just released a reply of sorts to those who considered his concert in China last April as not in keeping with whatever mythologized idea they have of him.

This is actually pretty funny for those who have followed Dylan's career with even passing attention. On a date now etched in popular music history, July 25, 1965, Bob Dylan performed with a rock band at the Newport Folk Festival. The folk music establishment (interesting oxymoron that) criticized him for turning his back on political song writing. There are varying interpretations as to what really happened. Did he get booed by the audience, were there sharp words back stage? Whatever happened, it was clear that for some, Bob Dylan would forever have to meet their expectations or suffer the consequences, and their expectation were that he would forever be a protest song singer.

Rather famously, Dylan has always run screaming in the other direction from other peoples' expectations of what he is supposed to say and be and represent, which, to my mind, is a pretty radical message to send the world.

So, Maureen Dowd at The New York Times thought that Dylan should have gone to China, maybe sang "Blowin' in the Wind," and "The Times They Are a-Changin'."Then he should have made a political speech about China's woeful record on human rights. In other words, he should have been the Dylan we think we remember but who, if he ever existed, hasn't for a long time.

Apparently Dylan was asked to supply a set list to the Chinese authorities and did so, but he also claims that nothing in his performance changed as a result. I guess we'll have to take his word for it. But I have seen the man in concert over the past many years and I don't find that hard to believe. His concerts are not a '60s retrospective road show. Sorry Maureen.

If Dylan was still writing the old protest stuff and performing it every day and then went to China and censored himself then fine, get all high and mighty. But that is not what happened. That is not who he is anymore and if you want to talk about freedom, freedom is getting to decide for yourself who you are.

Isn't that what the '60s was supposed to be all about?

(Cross-posted to Lippmann's Ghost.)

Paul Simon's got a new album

Music on Sunday @ The Reaction

By Richard K. Barry 

I saw Paul Simon at Massey Hall in Toronto last night. Great show. He's flogging a new album called So Beautiful or So What, which is getting terrific notices.

If I counted correctly, he's got an eight-piece band with him that is simply unbelievable. I loved it when the lead guitarist picked up a baritone sax or when the drummer started playing rhythm guitar. It seemed like these guys could do anything. And the tenor sax player was making me crazy -- almost enough for me to throw my own horn in the dustbin (not quite).

Most people know this, but Paul Simon is not a nostalgia act -- never has been. There was never any fear that the audience would become frustrated that he didn't play enough of the older hits because everyone was there to hear what the man can do, what he can still do as he quickly approaches 70. Not that he isn't a consummate showman, though, so, yes, he trotted out a few of the classics from the '60s and the '70s.

For a long time now his thing has been about a great rhythm section, world music influences, always great songwriting, and superb musicianship. It was nice to see lots of young people in the audience as well.

Here's something from the new album called "The Afterlife."

(Cross-posted at Music Across the 49th.)

Downchild Blues Band

Music on Sunday @ The Reaction

By Richard K. Barry 

I saw a documentary last week about the Toronto-based Downchild Blues Band. It was, appropriately enough, called Flip, Flop and Fly: 40 Years of the Downchild Blues Band.

What may make this fact more interesting for Americans is that Dan Ackroyd, of Saturday Night Live fame, and movies and other television programs, narrated the film in part because he has been a friend of the group for a long time but also because he patterned the Blues Brothers act that he John Belushi perfected on Downchild. The nucleus of the group had for many years been brothers Donny and Hock Walsh, and it would be easy to see that Belushi borrowed from Hock, who died on New Year's Eve, 1999, not that that's particularly significant.

Ackroyd is quite clear that he and Belushi conceived the Blues Brothers after listening to Downchild. And I'm sure it didn't hurt Downchild's bank account that Ackroyd and Belushi recorded some of their tunes. Sure, the Saturday Night Live alumni were a stage act and not primarily a blues band, but anything that gets the music out there to a wider audience and helps other musicians get work is usually fine with me.

So here's a clip of Downchild doing "Sleep Alone" at Albert's Hall, which used to be upstairs at the Brunswick House in Toronto. Hock is singing. Donny is on guitar. The makeup of the band has changed a lot over the years, but they have always been, and continue to be, what you would call a "working blues band," constantly gigging.

And for no apparent reason, here's a clip of the Blues Brothers doing "Hey Bartender." It's a 1978 live performance. Nice. They always had a great band with them.

(Cross-posted to Music Across the 49th.)