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Post by petrolino on Mar 15, 2024 0:07:10 GMT
Big Star & Raspberries : 'Power Pop Launchpad ~1972'
Power pop has always struck me as a somewhat vague term when it comes to defining a particular form of popular music. I like that it was coined by the Who. It's like Suicide advertising one of their early gigs as a "punk mass", some years before punk became a musical term adopted by music critics and industry types who were aiming to lump bands together, compartmentalise them for public consumption, and then further commercialise and monetise. In America, as far as I'm aware, the different bands most strongly associated with the power pop movement were spread out across the country, so the idea of power pop wasn't built around the actions of any particular scene, nor was it applied to the roster of a particular music label.
The American power pop bands I like from the 1970s were more refined than garage rock, carried more amp power than beat pop, exchanged ribaldry for the cheeky humour of bubblegum pop, and lacked the unifying aesthetics of glam rock. They were less ornamental than baroque pop, though their compact song structures often housed similarly complex musical arrangements. They were stylistically more contained than psychedelic pop and space rock, though they used similarly unusual chord structures, and the best of them, such as Big Star and Raspberries, were also highly experimental inside the studio. All of which are somewhat crass generalisations that I'm making, but I'll go out on a limb and state that power pop fans know a power pop anthem when they hear one, as these songs do tend to carry distinct stylistic and musical commonalities.
"On the album Pete Yorn recorded with actress Scarlett Johansson, the pair covered early Big Star member Chris Bell’s woefully underrated "I Am the Cosmos." They handled the delicate track with grace -- and got us thinking about the Big Star influence on Yorn’s own work. Critics love to namedrop Bruce Springsteen when they talk Yorn, because he’s a Jersey guy, but his masterful layering of power-pop chords, acoustic guitars and virile lyrics smack of Big Star lead singer Alex Chilton. See albums Musicforthemorningafter and Day I Forgot for what we’re talking about."
- Will Levith, Diffuser
Big Star ~ Chris Bell, Alex Chilton, Andy Hummel & Jody Stephens
Power pop is also about attitude. This aligned it to the emerging glam rock movement which was becoming prevalent in the U K, though some of the artier glam rockers prided themselves on exhibiting a certain kind of boyish insouciance. In America, it also led to power pop coming to be described as punk's kindly step-sister, as these concurrent art movements both drew heavily from the jagged edges of garage rock and the wild abandon of psychedelia. Punks and power poppers seemed to actively seek to distance themselves from what they perceived as being the pomp and circumstance of the progressive rock movement, largely eschewing the excesses of lengthy, classically-inspired stadium anthems which were taking the rock world by storm (only a genuine musical prodigy like Eric Carmen could have concocted a compacted, 8-minute power pop epic like 'I Can Remember' in 1972 and done it with such panache).
In the case of heavy metal, too, musicians had witnessed the influence of 3-minute beat rockers turned psych pioneers like the Beatles, the Hollies, the Kinks and the Who. Ozzy Osbourne has said on numerous occasions that he owes a great debt to the Beatles, adding that the first time he heard their song 'She Loves You' was a watershed moment. As avowed psychedelicists of an experimental bent, Black Sabbath knew their garage rock too. On their first album, 'Black Sabbath' (1970), they recorded a cover of Crow's song 'Evil Woman (Don't Play Your Games With Me'); Crow had mainstays of the Minnesota rock scene in their line-up, including former members of the Castaways.
"Most lists of the greatest-ever powerpop tunes feature Raspberries' Go All The Way at or near the top, usually duking it out with Todd Rundgren's Couldn’t I Just Tell You or Big Star’s September Gurls. It’s got it all: Beach Boys harmonies, Beatles melody, Who power with a dash of Stones raunch (that title/lyric). A US top five hit in July 1972, Go All the Way was also one of the few powerpop success stories. The Raspberries are why many think of powerpop as a simple, sustained act of homage to a bygone era, probably because, unlike their peers, they wore matching suits, at least when they started.
But their music offered more than Fabs fetishism. It helped that they had at the helm the bouffant boy wonder, Eric Carmen, one of several powerpop dreamboats who looked like David Cassidy’s fucked-up older brothers – they could, in another universe, have been teen idols themselves. Carmen wrote a mean ballad, and indeed he became a sort of American Elton when he went solo in 1976 with All By Myself. But there’s nothing sappy about Go All The Way.
“I’d never had an easy relationship with a woman that didn’t degenerate into some kind of deception or bad feeling,” Alex Chilton once said, neatly capturing the powerpop ethos of drama and dishevelled desperation. That powerpop has become synonymous with the grinning dorks of the “skinny-tie” scene is a joke. These were barbed love songs that often deconstructed or subverted pop-romance tropes. The spelling of “gurls” in September Gurls is key: this is an askew take on female worship. “I loved you, well, never mind,” drawls Chilton in that disconcertingly high voice of his, followed by: “I’ve been crying, all the time.” If you want to find out what he’d been up to during the summer of 1973 when he wrote this song, read all about it in Holly George-Warren’s fascinating 2014 tome, A Man Called Destruction. And if you want to know why Big Star are rated as highly as the 60s gods who inspired them, check out 1974’s Radio City, their second album, from which this object lesson in warped dynamics and daisy-glazed harmonies is taken."
- Paul Lester, The Guardian
The Choir & The Yardbirds in 1967
Crossing the bridge between garage rock and psychedelia in America was instrumental in the development of power pop and punk. It was there in the Routers' much-imitated cheerleader anthem 'Let's Go (Pony)' from 1962 (as referenced by Beth Thornley's 2010 indie anthem 'You're So Pony'), a band that at times featured Ohioan Scott Walker on bass. It was there when Texan guitarist Roky Erickson developed regional hits he'd recorded with the Spades to become psychedelic mindbenders for the 13th Floor Elevators. And it was there when power pop progenitors, the Flamin' Groovies of San Francisco, California, and the Nazz of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, started pushing a new kind of sound. Here in the U K, the job fell to the formidably-named Badfinger.
“We thought that before any of us die, this would not be a bad time to do it,” says Eric Carmen in describing why the Raspberries chose 2005 to mount a ten-date reunion tour. The last stop on this trek, at Hollywood’s House of Blues, was recorded by Mark Linett and recently released as a two-disc set by Rykodisc entitled Live on Sunset Strip.
Perhaps Carmen’s recent jaunt with Ringo Starr’s All-Starr Band gave him new urgency to reunite the band. After all, only Starr and Paul McCartney are left from the Beatles, making any future Fab Four reunion anticlimactic.
Unlike the Beatles, the Raspberries weren’t together nearly long enough to get sick of each other. They released only four studio albums, the last one ironically titled Starting Over. But rather than being crushed by the weight of personality clashes — an all-too-common cause of death for many rock bands — Ohio’s Raspberries quickly realized their unusually melodic rock just didn’t fit well in the midst of the overblown ’70s progressive rock age.
“The Raspberries was formed as kind of a reaction to prog rock, which we didn’t like.” Carmen explains. “‘Let’s bring some songwriting and harmonies back to music.’ And we did that. And the idiots that we were, we actually had hits, which is the absolute kiss of death. Rock critics seemed to get what we were about. The 16-year-old girls seemed to get it. But their 18-year-old album-buying brothers, who were listening to Jethro Tull, didn’t get it; didn’t want it. So eventually our sense of frustration caused the band to implode, which we did in about 1974. We had banged our head on the wall long enough and said, ‘This isn’t going to work.’ And I guess we weren’t the only ones that felt that way. From what we read, Big Star and Badfinger were kind of feeling the same way.”
These days, the Raspberries are viewed as a groundbreaking band. The music they made, along with Big Star and Badfinger, inspired oodles of great modern acts. But while the critics picked up on this quartet’s rare beauty — as did guys like Bruce Springsteen, who wore out his Raspberries cassette tape — the wider public did not.
“It was easy for people to be derisive about our music because they saw what we were doing as retro,” Carmen elaborates. “But we were like barbarians trying to crash the gates of the bloated progressive rock that we despised. A lot of people just didn’t get it. But over the years, it seems like they [began to] get it. Sometimes it takes a while, but now there’s a whole different kind of reverence for what we’re doing, which didn’t happen at the time.”
Carmen is sometimes surprised by the Raspberries’ unusual fan demographic.
“Some of our biggest fans are musicians, which you would have thought in 1972 that the musicians would have really been big fans of Jethro Tull [instead], not these lightweight Raspberries,” he marvels. “When I was on tour with Ringo, we had Jack Bruce, the bass player/singer of Cream, who was their head songwriter; we had Simon Kirk on drums, who was from Bad Company and Free; the great rock guitarist Dave Edmunds; and Ringo and me. We were sitting in a room one day doing an interview and the interviewer said to the band, “Whose songs were hardest to learn?” And without a second beat, the entire band wheeled around and pointed at me: ‘Eric’s!’ I think Dave Edmunds said, ‘There’s a fucking chord for every word!’ He’d never seen anything like that when I tried to show him ‘Go All The Way’. ‘I’ve got to sing and play all these chords and remember all this stuff?'”
- Dennis MacIntosh, Pop Matters
Raspberries ¬ Jim Bonfanti, Wally Bryson, Dave Smalley & Eric Carmen
So, I sometimes ask myself, how do I personally perceive power pop to be? Well, for me, it does come down to several things I've outlined above. Challenging arrangements, which were the backbone of 1960s pop and rock development, aligned to driving rhythms. Engaging chord progressions, soaring harmonies, and perhaps more than anything, the conjuring of strong melodic hooks within a relatively complex composition, which I feel is what makes great power pop songs so darned catchy.
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8 Defining Power Pop Plays Of The 1970s
01) Todd Rundgren
I consider Todd Rundgren to be the godfather of the power pop movement. His work with the Nazz became a primary influence on the subgenre, he continued to evolve relevant musical templates with Runt, and his solo work included songs that would go on to be embraced as power pop staples, including a "bouquet of ear-catching melodies" heard on the album 'Something/Anything?' (1972) which was released during power pop's ground year zero.
Essential Template : 'Couldn't I Just Tell You' (Released : February, 1972)
Nazz drummer Thom Mooney was a member of Tattoo in the mid-1970s alongside Raspberries guitarist Wally Bryson. The band recorded just one studio album, 'Tattoo' (1976), for the music label Prodigal Records who were based in Detroit, Michigan.
Power Pop Masterpiece : 'I Saw The Light'
02) Raspberries
The Raspberries came fast out of the gate. What's especially significant about their contribution to the emergence of the power pop sound is that they carefully maintained the essence of this style across four albums. What's equally notable is that their first two albums, 'Raspberries' (1972) and 'Fresh Cream' (1972), both arrived in 1972.
Wally Bryson (who was born in Gastonia, North Carolina) brought country music stylings to Raspberries for 'Last Dance', while Eric Carmen explored gospel with compositions like 'I Saw The Light' and 'I Reach For The Light'. As a group, they continually weaved different musical styles into their compositions which added an element of unpredictability to their songwriting.
Raspberries were able to absorb line-up changes better than some of their contemporaries. When their rhythm section left following the recording of their third album, Carmen and Bryson brought in bassist Scott McCarl who'd been a member of Yellow Hair, and drummer Michael McBride who'd played alongside Carmen in the Quick and Cyrus Erie.
Essential Template : 'Don't Want To Say Goodbye' (Released : April, 1972)
Fotomaker were a power pop group formed in the late 1970s by Wally Bryson and members of rock 'n' roll band the Young Rascals. They recorded three albums in less than two years, between 1978 and 1979. Their self-titled album, 'Fotomaker' (1978), has been called the most disturbing 33rpm power pop record ever committed to vinyl. Today, rightfully or wrongfully, I suspect they'd be cancelled within a New York Minute due to a latter-day, online controversy apparently provoked by one of their three album covers (~ though it appears to my ill-informed English eyes to rather accurately depict a proud American subculture of launching child beauty pageants and anointing teen queens). Regardless, some of Bryson's guitar work with the Rascals was as good as you'll ever hear.
Power Pop Masterpiece : 'Ecstasy'
03) Big Star
Big Star's sound shifted quite dramatically across the three albums they recorded in the 1970s because the band kept getting smaller. On their first album, '#1 Record' (1972), guitarist Chris Bell really drove the power pop sound forward by applying a hard edge. Guitarist Alex Chilton brought elaborate song constructions to the table, and songs like 'Thirteen', 'Try Again' and 'I'm In Love With A Girl' were noted more for their country-tinged, acoustic balladry.
Essential Template : 'In The Street' (Released : August, 1972)
Their second album, 'Radio City' (1974), followed Bell's departure. Chilton filled the void by writing some of the great power pop tunes of the 1970s, songs like 'You Get What You Deserve', 'She's A Mover' and 'September Gurls' (which was later covered by the Paisley Underground's budding power pop icons, the Bangles).
By the time of their third album, 'Third/Sister Lovers' (1977), bassist Andy Hummel had quit Big Star, leaving Chilton and drummer Jody Stephens to record with a line-up of session musicians at Ardent Studios. For the good at least, they were able to keep playing back home in Memphis, Tennessee and the results were quite extraordinary, though a long way from their power pop roots.
Power Pop Masterpiece : 'Back Of A Car'
04) Milk 'N' Cookies / The Nerves
In the middle of the decade, punk was the talk of the town and power pop had been deemed a commercial failure by record labels. Milk 'N' Cookies had a foot in both camps. Though they only recorded one studio album, 'Milk 'N' Cookies' (1975), it became a cult favourite among punks and power poppers alike.
The Nerves were equally unlucky in their commercial endeavours. They only recorded one 4-track EP in 1976, but their influence has remained palpable. One of their songs, 'Hanging On The Telephone', was covered by New York punk group Blondie who wrote the original playbook on bubblegum power-punk pop alongside their contemporaries, the Ramones. After their sudden dissolution, members of the Nerves went on to play in a number of key power pop groups including the Breakaways (which also featured ex-members of Milk 'N' Cookies), the Beat and the Plimsouls.
'Chance To Play'
05) Cheap Trick
Cheap Trick once enjoyed a bad reputation for being a raucous underground rock 'n' roll band based in crime-crazy Rockford, Illinois, so it came as a surprise to some when they started crafting clean, melodic power pop tracks fit for radio airplay. Their seminal live album, 'Cheap Trick At Budokan' (1978), which was recorded on tour in Tokyo, Japan, has been hailed as the greatest live power pop album of all time; in 2020, it was selected by the Library of Congress for preservation in the United States National Recording Registry for being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".
'Takin' Me Back'
06) The CarsThe Cars were initially described as a new wave band but were embraced by hardcore power pop fanatics looking for an alternative to novelty power pop acts like Elton Duck and the Rubinoos. The Cars became one of the four pillars of American power pop, bookending the late 1970s alongside Cheap Trick, to stand opposite subgenre innovators Big Star and Raspberries. Together, these four pillars created a power pop temple akin to Mount Rushmore. The Cars possessed a sharp, synthesised edge which they were able to meld into powerful power pop compositions.
'Bye Bye Love'
07) The Shivvers
The Shivvers never got to record a full studio album and might have been lost to this world, had it not been for the emergence of the Wisconsin-based rock 'n' roll compilation, 'Lost Hits From Milwaukee, 1979 - 1982'. They could have been serious contenders for the power pop crown if things had worked out different, but alas, it wasn't to be.
'Teen Line'
08) The Knack
There were plenty of bands active in 1979 who might have put a lid on power pop, as well as bands ready to take up the mantle for the 1980s like the emerging dB's. The Knack were a highly experienced musical outfit who just happened to be in the right place at the right time. Their compulsive superhit 'My Sharona' became a rock 'n' roll anthem, finally bringing power pop to the forefront of the musical landscape when it reached the number 1 position on the Billboard Hot 100.
'Maybe Tonight'
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Eric Carmen & Alex Chilton : 'Hyperballadeers'
It might be said that power pop bands were an emotional bunch. Great Britain's power pop progenitors Badfinger composed the power ballad 'Without You' (1970) which was successfully covered by Harry Nilsson and Mariah Carey. Sadly, the band's co-writers Tom Evans and Pete Ham both committed suicide. Eric Carmen was one of America's great balladeers. His 1975 solo recording 'All By Myself', built around the music of classical piano virtuoso Sergei Rachmaninoff, was a seismic power ballad that went on to be covered by many. Carmen's solo work was often rooted in the sincere, blue collar balladry of Raspberries compositions like 'Don't Want To Say Goodbye' and 'Waiting'. Big Star were noted for their country-tinged, acoustic balladry which reflected their roots in Memphis, Tennessee. Songs like 'I'm In Love With A Girl', 'Thirteen' and 'Try Again' are now acknowledged as a primary influence on the mellow country pop subgenre, "sunkissed acoustica". Alex Chilton's balladry reached extraordinary heights while plumbing emotional depths during the recording of 'Third/Sister Lovers' (1978) which produced haunting compositions like 'Big Black Car' and 'Holocaust'. "None of the Big Star albums were commercially successful upon their release; each was its own preposterous farrago of record company hijinx, poor timing, and possibly the full-borne fruits of a highly defeatist attitude. (It is generally taken that both the name Big Star and the album title #1 Record were intended ironically.) Nevertheless, each has become a key touchstone to contemporary pop music. Who knows what difference it might have made for good or ill in the life of Alex Chilton (or Chris Bell for that matter) had those records been codified as the classics they are as soon as they were released? Would Chilton have been the same broken man who released Sister Lovers and went on to alternately resent and occasionally indulge in his cult status? Could Big Star ever really have become the American Beatles? It’s an odd thought, but it doesn’t matter, really.
One would think with only three albums to choose from, ranking 10 songs couldn’t be that difficult. In fact the opposite is true — you could rank 28 of these fuckers and not hit on a bad one. But no one ranks the top 28 anything, so for all of us who never travel far with out a little Big Star, let’s give this a shot."
- Timothy Bracy & Elizabeth Bracy ('The 10 Best Big Star Songs'), Stereogum
'Feel'
Though often referred to as a soul group, the Box Tops recorded songs written by established country songwriters like Wayne Carson, Mark James and Mickey Newbury. They also recorded a number of compositions by Alabaman songwriting partners Spooner Oldham and Dan Penn. Box Tops singer Alex Chilton later produced the debut album of psychobilly punks the Cramps, 'Songs The Lord Taught Us' (1980). The intersection that brought Chilton together with songwriter Chris Bell is said to have been his on-stage participation in concerts given by garage band the Jynx, of which Bell was a core member. Bell played in several bands in Memphis in the 1960s, including the groups Icewater and Rock City which both featured a revolving line-up of local musicians that included bassist Andy Hummel and drummer Jody Stephens - this became the nucleus of Big Star. Bell was a close associate of multi-instrumentalist Terry Manning (the Wild Ones & the Wallabies). He played some wild licks on Manning's psychedelic album 'Home Sweet Home' (1970), a production experiment awash with studio effects that included a clanging cover of Johnny Cash's rockabilly staple 'Guess Things Happen That Way' (1958). Big Star's regular record producer was John Fry, founder of Ardent Records in Memphis. In addition to producing the band's first two albums, Fry had a hand in recording their third album which was overseen by producer Jim Dickinson (the Dixie Flyers).
"Alex Chilton defined the term cult hero. He was difficult, mercurial, endlessly self-sabotaging and, for a brief time, utterly brilliant. His 70s group Big Star remain almost unknown to the mainstream but are one of the key abiding influences in rock music of any calibre, their short life only fuelling their near-mythical status. "I never travel far without a little Big Star," sang the Replacements on their strange love song, "Alex Chilton". Several influential rock groups, from REM to Primal Scream, Teenage Fanclub to Wilco, would echo that sentiment. REM's Peter Buck once described Big Star as "a Rosetta stone for a whole generation".
Chilton found fame early, aged 16, as lead singer of the Box Tops, who scored a hit on both sides of the Atlantic in the summer of 1967 with the tough blue-eyed soul song "The Letter". He formed Big Star in 1971 with Chris Bell, Jody Stephens and Andy Hummel, and, the following year, their debut album, No 1 Record, was greeted with critical acclaim but disappointing sales. That set the tone for much of what was to follow in their brief tempestuous lifespan. The follow-up, Radio City, was also lauded by music writers but failed to even dent the charts. The group's swan song, Third/Sister Lovers, was made by Chilton and Stephens with the help of the great Memphis producer Jim Dickinson in 1974. By then, Chilton was out on the edge. "I was getting pretty crazy and into some pretty rotten drugs and drinking a lot," he told the music writer Barney Hoskyns years later. The result was a darker, more raggedy affair that was deemed too uncommercial for release on its completion. It finally surfaced in 1978 and remains, arguably, Chilton's most influential, if uneven, album. On songs such as "Holocaust" and "Kangaroo", Chilton sounds just this side of unhinged.
In 1978, Big Star's other troubled genius, Chris Bell, died in a car crash, having ingested downers and alcohol before speeding away from a Memphis studio into the night. By the mid-80s, Chilton was everywhere and nowhere, having fallen out of sight while a whole generation of British guitar groups were in thrall to the lost genius of classic jangly pop-rock.
Chilton himself, post-Big Star, surfaced only intermittently, most notably on his wilfully lo-fi solo album Like Flies on Sherbert, from 1979, and as a producer of the Cramps album Songs the Lord Taught Us, released the following year. "There were guys with guns, man, all sorts of crazy things," the late Lux Interior told the music writer Nick Kent when quizzed about the making of the album. "He's a real southern boy, is Alex. He believes in the Lord and the Lord sure as hell takes care of him."
Or maybe not."
- Sean O'Hagan, The Guardian
'My Life Is Right'
Raspberries were often noted for their evocation of music associated with the "British Invasion" of the 1960s. I think it's important to note that they themselves were active musicians in the 1960s, just like the members of Big Star. The thing I admire about Raspberries is they filled their songs with so many riffs, hooks and musical ideas, if one musical part did bring an earlier group or song to mind, they were usually already on to the next section before it had even registered. A good example of Raspberries' ability to do this can be heard on the title track from their fourth album, 'Starting Over' (1974). It's been speculated that John Lennon (the Beatles) may have had a hand in co-producing the band's song 'Overnight Sensation' during the recording sessions for this album, which has tended to cause English music critics to overlook the rest of the songs on the album. The E Street Band members have debated possible influences behind 'Starting Over' long in to the night, a song they consider to be a pop rock masterpiece. I will say its central piano motif is almost certainly a nod to the piano riff used by Elton John to anchor the song 'Tiny Dancer'. When Eric Carmen went solo, he worked with members of John's regular band and undertook some studio recording sessions with Gus Dudgeon who'd produced that song's parent album, 'Madman Across The Water' (1971). But far from being a song that simply sounds like 'Tiny Dancer', 'Starting Over' develops in to a composition of such stirring, unerring complexity, it transcends any influences, be they conscious or otherwise. Once the soloing begins, the group take an extended trip through the baroque period of 1960s pop. "Our Top 10 Raspberries songs list takes a look at an early 1970s band that released their first album in 1972 and over the course of two years released four studio albums and then broke up. That’s rock and roll! However during that course of two years from 1972 to 1974, the Raspberries became a very influential band on future rockstars. The Raspberries were an interesting group. They crossed the genres of rock and pop music blending a British Invasion influence stirred up with sweet melodies fueled by power chords and brilliantly addicting songs. Their top five hit “Go All the Way,” released in 1972 still sounds as fresh and as fun in 2021 as it did 48 years ago.
While The Raspberries sound certainly was influenced by The British Invasion, the group was actually from Cleveland, Ohio. The group’s original lineup consisted of Eric Carmen on bass and lead vocals, Wally Bryson on lead guitar and vocals, Dave Smalley on rhythm guitar and vocals and Jim Bonfanti on drums. That lineup would be responsible for their first three albums. Their first album was released in 1972 entitled Raspberries. The band followed up their debut album that same year in 1972 with an album entitled Fresh. The Raspberries third album was released in 1973 and titled interestingly Side 3.
In 1974, The Raspberries had a major lineup change. There was a 50% turnover in the group. Eric Carmen and Wally Bryson continued on as the Raspberries but both Dave Smalley and Jim Bonfanti were replaced by Scott McCarl and Michael McBride. The Raspberries fourth and final album entitled Starting Over was released in 1974. It was a spectacular album filled with a much heavier sound that fans and critics loved. One year later in 1975, The Raspberries broke up."
- Brian Kachejian ('Top 10 Raspberries Songs'), Classic Rock History
'Play On'
Like Big Star, Raspberries were blessed with having multiple songwriters who exerted strong, individual voices within the band. They were all totally up front about their feelings regarding musical fandom and songwriting inspirations, which is something I respect in any musician (effectively, they were nerds). Everybody is influenced by somebody. Raspberries once evoked the intricate, melodic interplay and close-set harmonies of the Hollies so successfully, with their track 'It Seemed So Easy', it was positively eerie. Their Beach Boys-styled rock stomper 'Drivin' Around' neatly presaged Eric Carmen's later composition, 'She Did It', which was hailed upon its release as being "the best Beach Boys song Brian Wilson never wrote ..." - yet this was no accident, as Brian Wilson and Bruce Johnstone provided backing vocals on the song's parent album, 'Boats Against The Current' (1977). The direct inspiration for the song 'Drivin' Around', which was later given the companion piece 'Cruisin' Music', was the Beach Boys' influential surf pop record, 'Do It Again' (so, the Raspberries did it again while cruisin' ...) ...
"The Top 10 Raspberries Songs demonstrate why they remain the definitive power pop band. Early examples of this equally loved and misunderstood sub-genre can be found on records by the Who, Hollies and others, but from the moment the Raspberrries burst out of radios in 1972, it was clear they had perfected the art of wedding power chords to pure pop melodies. Though dismissed by the rock elite at the time as being unhip, pre-teen fodder, songs like 'Go All The Way' and 'Ecstasy' have stood the test of time some 40 years on. If we go a bit overboard in our enthusiasm, too bad. It is with great pride that we salute the Raspberries!"
- Dave Swanson ('Top 10 Raspberries Songs'), Ultimate Classic Rock
'It Seemed So Easy'
Both Alex Chilton and Eric Carmen were held in high regard in Ohio and Minnesota, the American Midwest's first two states of punk. Having been warmly embraced by the punk scene, Chilton produced the Cramps' debut album, 'Songs The Lord Taught Us' (1980). The Cramps had roots in California and Ohio. Punks had long acknowledged the Raspberries as an influence. When the Dead Boys of Ohio disbanded, Stiv Bators undertook recording sessions for his debut solo album, 'Disconnected' (1980), announcing to the music press he wanted to be the "thinking punk's Eric Carmen." Bators recorded a cover of 'It's Cold Outside' (1966) by the Choir in 1979. It's said that Paul Westerberg of the Replacements was inspired to become a rock star after seeing Raspberries on television. The Replacements were huge fans of 1970s power pop and brought in Chilton, Jim Dickinson and the Memphis Horns to record their album 'Pleased To Meet Me' (1987) which included the song 'Alex Chilton'. They even undertook recording sessions at Ardent Studios. Bob Mould, of Minnesota hardcore pioneers Hüsker Dü, channeled the textural soundscaping and unusual song structuring of Big Star and Raspberries in the writing of his next band Sugar's debut album 'Copper Blue' (1992).
Baby doll punk pioneer Kat Bjelland left the west coast of America for Minnesota and formed Babes In Toyland in Minneapolis. The group recorded a harrowing cover of Carmen's powerballad, 'All By Myself'.
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Big Star
'#1 Record' (Ardent/Stax, 1972)
"It was great, because back then, Beck was heavy into experimenting with open tunings and unusual scales, listening to a lot of Indian music. Liz Phair has had this strange fascination with India for as long as, you still hear this in her music today, she'd even referenced Andy Hummel's India Song in demo lyrics. They sparked off each other, got along real well."
- Celestine Fontaine, 'Candy, Kit-Bags & Cartwheels : Out On The Road Again'
'When My Baby's Beside Me'
'Radio City' (Ardent/Stax, 1974)
“A band I really continue to dig is Big Star. I would suggest their Radio City album as a start, but also the off-the-rails followup, Third (also called Sister Lovers). #1 Record is also a classic, and features tremendous stuff by band mate Chris Bell. Alex Chilton had a commanding slant in the delivery of his various personal sides, and was as unafraid of extreme musical intimacy as he was delivering a raging rant. In this regard, Alex, to me, was like a John Lennon, someone who put all his feelings into song and had a great courage in his reaching. Beyond all this, crazy great guitars and drums are to be had throughout Big Star’s work. I highly recommend checking them out!”
- Matthew Sweet, Rock Torch
'Way Out West'
'Third/Sister Lovers' (PVC, 1978)
"This Mortal Coil often relied on covers rather than their own written material, their interpretations were very characterful. Featuring on It’ll End In Tears, Howard Devoto provides the vocal part for This Mortal Coil’s cover of Alex Chilton’s ‘Holocaust’, which originally depicted the increasingly strung-out and emotionally unhinged side of the Big Star songwriter. The album also features another Chilton cover, ‘Kangaroo’. The musical arrangements of ‘Holocaust’ were provided by Simon Raymonde, and it has a similar feel to Cocteau Twins in terms of its murky quality. As with much of This Mortal Coil’s material, processing ‘Holocaust’ requires a lot of emotional investment from the listener; the song refers to a particularly low point in Chilton’s life, with strong allusions to the destructive nature of his addictions."
- Lottie Brazier, The Quietus
'Nighttime'
'In Space' (Rykodisc, 2005)
"As far as guitar playing goes, I was totally in my element with Throwing Muses. I’m really attracted to intricate, mathematical stuff, but as far as being a songwriter, I’m more attracted to straightforward, universal songs, though for me, it’s less The Go-Go’s or girl groups and more Big Star and Neil Young."
- Tanya Donelly, 'Rhode Island Odyssey'
"Baby wyatt used to dance to Big Star in the french quarter."
- Kristin Hersh, Twitter
'Take Care'
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Raspberries
'Raspberries' (Capitol, 1972)
“I remember when I first heard the Raspberries. Big Star were in a van travelling around doing some dates and we heard 'Go All the Way' on the radio, and we said, ‘Wow, those guys are really doing it!’ I thought that was a great song.”
- Alex Chilton, The Guardian
"All the parts fit : There's not too much bridge, and the chorus doesn't repeat too many times. It's exciting."
- Rick Nielsen selects 'Go All The Way' by Raspberries at number 1, 'Cheap Trick’s Rick Nielsen : Five Songs I Wish I’d Written'
'Go All The Way'
'Fresh/Fresh Raspberries' (Capitol, 1972)
"A monster hit in 1972, “Go All The Way” put Raspberries on the musical map. Through the years, the band has boasted some serious heavyweight fans numbering the likes of John Lennon, Tom Petty, Paul Stanley, Rick Springfield, Axl Rose and Jon Bon Jovi. Bruce Springsteen, in particular, has been a fervent champion of the iconic power pop group, dedicating a song to the band at a few concerts in the summer of 2005: “I had this white Ford pickup. It had a cassette player in it — there weren’t any CDs at that time. Around the late ‘70s, I kept this small cassette of the Raspberries Greatest Hits. They still haven’t gotten the respect they deserved — the Raspberries. Why, I don’t know? They wrote a bunch of great songs. They had an especially great record called ‘Overnight Sensation,’ which was a classic and beautiful pop record. It’s one of the best little pop symphonies you’ll ever hear. If you haven’t heard it, go get ‘Overnight Sensation.’ It’s a great record.”
Years after their dissolution in April of ‘75, the Raspberries are hailed as the quintessential power pop group, inspiring a string of power pop groups, from Cheap Trick to the Gin Blossoms. With classic hits like “Go All The Way,” “I Wanna Be With You,” “Let’s Pretend,” “Tonight”, “Ecstasy” and “Overnight Sensation (Hit Record),” the band fused elements of The Beatles, The Beach Boys, The Who, The Small Faces, The Left Banke, Phil Spector and the girl group sound into a thrilling tsunami of slashing power chords, melody, hooks and harmonies. For years, the group’s loyal fan base held out hopes for a reunion of Cleveland’s Fab Four. And finally, 31 years after the original band splintered, Raspberries answered the call and reunited to perform a sold out show at Cleveland’s House of Blues on November 26, 2004. That historic show, now preserved on the new 2-CD set, “Pop Art Live,” captures that unforgettable night. Oh what a night"
- Bernie Hogya & Ken Sharp, Goldmine
"I was looking for a lighter guitar because my Les Paul was heavy and it was starting to hurt my shoulder. They heard that Eric Carmen, who played in this great power pop band called the Raspberries, was selling his Melody Maker and thought it would be perfect for me and they were right. I put a Velvet Hammer pickup in it, and it became my number-one guitar and the Les Paul became my backup. I didn't really know the history of the guitar and I started wondering whether it was the one Eric used on their classic songs like "Go All The Way." Much later I found out it was.
I used that Melody Maker on "I Love Rock 'N' Roll," "Crimson and Clover," "Do You Wanna Touch Me" and "Bad Reputation," so it has quite a history. Not only was it on all our hits, but it was used on all the Raspberries hits as well. I recently took it off the road, because I was afraid something was going to happen to it. The white paint is all cracked and it's sort of yellowing, but in an awesome way. That's my baby."
- Joan Jett, Guitar World
'Let's Pretend'
'Side 3' (Capitol, 1973)
"You know, it's only been in the last couple of years that we became aware of it. I'd heard rumors in the past. We both worked in the same studio – The Record Plant, in New York – and it was kind of right after we did; we were there from '72 to '74, and I think Bruce Springsteen started in '74 or '75. But we worked with the same engineers in the same studio, and I think Bruce and I are about a month apart, birthdaywise – mine's this Saturday (Aug. 11), and his, I think, is about a month after that (Sept. 23) – so all of us came up at that moment in music. We came of age … I mean, we were 14 in 1964, when The Beatles were on "The Ed Sullivan Show" for the first time, and it had such a huge impact on everything. On the world. In those days, we were coming out of the Pat Boone era, and, all of a sudden, you've got the British invasion, you've got the Ronettes, you've got Motown, and for the first time, music really began to drive the culture. And I think that, throughout the '60s and '70s, it really did. Particularly in the '60s. I mean, The Beatles just changed everything, and that was a really amazing time to be a teenager, and to hear these changes taking place. The difference between hearing Pat Boone's "Tutti Frutti" on the radio and then hearing "I Can See For Miles" (laughs) I mean, it was, like, "WOW! What is THIS?!?" Or "Satisfaction," by The Rolling Stones. This was some big changes going on, and it was all great. And I think it inspired a lot of people, and I think the primary difference between Bruce and me is that he spent more time listening to Dylan, and I spent more time listening to The Beatles! (laughs) But a lot of the other influences are very, very similar, and I hear it in his records. Oddly enough, when I was writing my second solo album, Boats Against The Current, I used to play Born To Run every day, just to get me started. And when Bruce and I met the first time, he said, "Wow, I think I wore out that Raspberries' greatest-hits album!" And I said, "And, you know, I think I wore out Born to Run!" But I think you can see, there are things, if you listen closely. If you listen to "Jungleland," and then listen to The Raspberries' "Starting Over," from our 1974 album, those piano intros sound kind of similar. And we had heard that Bruce had listened to "I Wanna Be With You" and wanted to do an intro kind of like that for "Born to Run." And then I recently read somewhere where someone was talking about they got the idea from "The Locomotion," which is exactly where I took the idea for "I Wanna Be With You" from! (laughs) We actually played "Locomotion" at Carnegie Hall in 1973 because I just loved that record. And when it came time for me to write something, I thought, "Wow, that's a great intro! I think I'll just work that into this song!" And that's how that all works."
- Eric Carmen, Bullz-Eye
"When I was playing and recording with Grin, we enjoyed listening to Raspberries."
- Nils Lofgren, Warehouse Tapes
'I Wanna Be With You'
'Starting Over' (Capitol, 1974)
'One of the greatest bands of all time. Extraordinary records. Arguably the most powerful records ever produced. For real."
- Steve Van Zandt on Raspberries, Twitter
“Give me the Raspberries. Give me Small Faces. Give me Big Star.”
- Paul Stanley, The Guardian
The Raspberries : In Concert In 1973 [ _ "Country Coda" _ ]
{ : 'Go All The Way' / 'Tonight' / 'I Can Remember' / 'Drivin' Around' / 'I'm A Rocker' / 'Last Dance' : }
# 'Eric Carmen & The Chairman Of The Board' : Frank Sinatra got hooked on the music of Eric Carmen, guitarist-pianist in power pop band Raspberries, and couldn't let go. He performed 'Never Gonna Fall In Love Again' in concert in Chicago, Illinois, a song recorded by John Travolta whose 'Grease' co-star Olivia Newton-John recorded Carmen's song 'Boats Against The Current'. Eyewitness reports suggest Sinatra sang the Raspberries' 'Let's Pretend' in his dressing room. When asked if this was true, he replied, "I never pretend, baby, it's all real." |
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Post by ShadowSouL Likes This on Mar 15, 2024 1:18:38 GMT
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Post by petrolino on Mar 15, 2024 3:20:33 GMT
The only C&W albums I ever owned – a long time ago - were by the crossover superstar Johnny Cash, but at one point in my life I could sing you every song on both albums. 
I watched pianist Jools Holland (Squeeze) present a special country edition of 'Later ...' last week which opened with a performance of 'Folsom Prison Blues' by Johnny Cash, I think from 1994 (great double bass work). Charley Pride closed this archive compilation show, with John Prine and Willie Nelson marking out structural acts as part of the veteran contingent.
Among the post-1970s crowd being featured, my favourite was Brandi Carlile.
From The Archive : 'The Story ...' [Later ...]
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Post by petrolino on Mar 24, 2024 0:31:55 GMT
I recently watched Ken Burns' documentary series 'Country Music' (2019) which takes a liberal look at the history of country music. The series is divided in to eight chapters and features interviews with numerous contributors from the music industry. The show's creator Ken Burns opts to focus on individual artists, providing a basic chronology of events and general overview of the business. The artists in focus helped mould the business in to what it is today, an enormous, global moneymaking machine that can fill stadiums and arenas around the world.
Chapter 1. 'The Rub (Beginnings - 1933)' : Fiddlin' John Carson / Uncle Dave Macon / The Stonemans / The Carter Family / 'The Blue Yodeler' Jimmie Rodgers / The Grand Ole Opry
'That's All Right' (1954) - Elvis Presley [Sun Records]
Chapter 2. 'Hard Times' (1933 - 1945) : Gene Autry & The Singing Cowboys / Bob Wills / Bill Monroe
'Folsom Prison Blues' (1955) - Johnny Cash [Sun Records]
Chapter 3. 'The Hillbilly Shakespeare' (1945 - 1953) : Flatt & Scruggs / Ernest Tubb / Lefty Frizzell / Hank Williams
'Honey Don't (1956) - Carl Perkins [Sun Records]
Chapter 4. 'I Can't Stop Loving You' (1953 - 1963) : Sun Records / Elvis Presley / Johnny Cash / Patsy Cline / Loretta Lynn
'Defrost Your Heart' (1956) - Charlie Feathers [Sun Records]
Chapter 5. 'The Sons And Daughters Of America' (1964 - 1968) : Buck Owens / Merle Haggard / Charley Pride / Dolly Parton
'Devil Doll' (1957) - Roy Orbison [Sun Records]
Chapter 6. 'Will The Circle Be Unbroken?' (1968 - 1972) : George Jones & Possum Panties / Tammy Wynette / Kris Kristofferson
'I'll Make It All Up To You' (1958) - Jerry Lee Lewis [Sun Records]
Chapter 7. 'Are You Sure Hank Done It This Way?' (1973 - 1983) : The Outlaw Country Movement / Willie Nelson / Waylon Jennings / Emmylou Harris
'Uranium Rock' (1958) - Warren Smith [Sun Records]
Chapter 8. 'Don't Get Above Your Raisin' (1984 - 1996) : Ricky Skaggs / Marty Stuart / Dwight Yoakam / Garth Brooks & Stadium-Arena Big Top Country
'What's In My Bag?' with Marty Stuart
'Country Music' is narrated by actor Peter Coyote, one of the founding members of musical comedy troupe, the Diggers. Political operative Dayton Duncan had a hand in the writing and perhaps this is why Johnny Cash is painted as a social justice warrior and repeatedly placed front and centre. Staunch traditionalist Jean Shepard, who once served as President of the Association of Country Entertainers, an organisation of dissent that was formed in response to Olivia Newton-John's somewhat controversial Country Music Association (CMA) Female Vocalist of the Year Award given in 1974, is here reduced to a couple of soundbites which I found particularly disappointing. Aside from being one of the greats of country music herself, some would argue Shepard's been proven right in some of her criticisms of the pop influences that were coming in to country music at the time, changes that were being actively encouraged by music executives for purely commercial reasons. Either way, she should have been allowed to speak.
“We knew that by studying the buffalo we would be able to see from a different perspective, a kind of reverse engineering, the biography of the interrelationship between Native peoples that has gone on for 600 generations and at best six generations among Europeans and Americans.
If you need an operation and one doctor has performed it 600 times and another doctor’s performed it six times, which one would you take? These people have had 600 generations of experience with this and white people at best have had six.
It was something to say that the animal’s at the centre of an American experience, one that we tend to gloss over. We see it as a logical extension of our Declaration of Independence that we get the whole continent without any sort of real consideration of the calculus of what would take place, not just to Native peoples but to the animal that they revered and that made the Great Plains in the 19th century such a spectacularly diverse place, literally until it wasn’t."
- Ken Burns on making 'The American Buffalo' (2023)
'Lonely Weekends' (1960) - Charlie Rich [Sun Records]
One of the more interesting parts of 'Country Music' is its study of the relationship between rockabilly music and country music, whose paths are entwined. It achieves this in part by looking at differences between the music scenes in soul city Memphis, on the Mississippi River (look out for Wolf River), and country town Nashville, where the Cumberland River meets the Stones River, a Tennessee geography that plots a multicultural map housing a myriad of creative influences, something that's beautifully described by Mississippian musician and musicologist Marty Stuart in the documentary. Though the focus is placed squarely upon Elvis Presley ('The King') and Johnny Cash ('The Man In Black'), artists as diverse as Carl Perkins, Charlie Rich, Conway Twitty, Jerry Lee Lewis, Wanda Jackson and Brenda Lee were instrumental in bringing rockabilly techniques to traditional forms of country music.
"In its original version, “Fujiyama Mama” wasn’t a particularly successful record, but Wanda Jackson heard it on a jukebox and fell in love with the record. She quickly learned the song and added it to her own act.
In 1957, Jackson was in the studio recording a country song called “No Wedding Bells for Joe”, written by a friend of hers called Marijohn Wilkin, who would later go on to write country classics like “Long Black Veil”.
For the B-side, Jackson wanted to record “Fujiyama Mama”, but Ken Nelson was very concerned — the lyrics about drinking, smoking, and shooting were bad enough for a girl who was not yet quite twenty, the blatant female sexuality was not something that would go down well at all in the country market, and lyrics like “I’ve been to Nagasaki, Hiroshima too/The things I did to them I can do to you” were horribly tasteless — and remember, this was little more than a decade after the bombs were dropped on those cities.
Nelson really, really, disliked the song, and didn’t want Jackson to record it, and while I’ve been critical of Nelson for making poor repertoire choices for his artists — Nelson was someone with a great instinct for performers, but a terrible instinct for material — I can’t say I entirely blame him in this instance.
But Wanda overruled him — and then, when he tried to tone down her performance in the studio, she rebelled against that, with the encouragement of her father, who told her “You’re the one who wanted to do it, so you need to do it your way”.
In the last episode about Jackson, we talked about how she’d tried to do her normal growling roar on “Hot Dog! That Made Him Mad!” but was let down by having drunk milk before recording the song. This time, she had no problem, and for the first time in the studio she sang in the voice that she used for her rock and roll songs on stage."
- Andrew Hickey, 'A History Of Rock Music in 500 Songs'
'Fujiyama Mama' (1958) - Wanda Jackson
Country music was also a driving force behind the rockabilly movement and it wasn't always down to regional influence as there were active migration trails. I believe Buddy Holly and the Everly Brothers transitioned from performing country music with family members to writing and recording rock 'n' roll music. Del Shannon, Elvis Presley, Gene Vincent, Eddie Cochran and Ricky Nelson incorporated country techniques in to a variety of rock stylings. George Hamilton IV went from being a rockabilly teen idol to becoming a country superstar. Warren Smith was embraced by the psychobilly scene in the 1970s which saw him return to the country circuit.
"Our first banger! In 1957, a former Army serviceman and Major League Baseball prospect named Harold Lloyd Jenkins, originally from Mississippi, changed his name to Conway Twitty and started making rock ‘n’ roll, recording with Sam Phillips at Sun Studios in Memphis. While playing shows in Hamilton, Ontario, Twitty and drummer Jack Nance wrote “It’s Only Make Believe,” a heart-crushed ballad about wishing someone loved you as much as you love them. It started out as a B-side, but the B-side won. Twitty would go on to country-music legend status over the next few decades, but “It’s Only Make Believe,” which topped charts around the world, would always be his biggest hit."
- Tom Breihan, Stereogum
'It's Only Make Believe' (1958) - Conway Twitty
Here in the U K, there was a deep thirst for "bad boy" culture, something exploited mercilessly by powerful pop impresario Larry Parnes who simply wouldn't take no for an answer. Parnes made arrangements to have regular meetings with young male talent in the Soho district of London where he held business stakes, providing him with the means to build a "bad boy" pipeline that proved lucrative.
"Larry Parnes was the first major British rock manager, working with Tommy Steele, Billy Fury, Joe Brown, and a host of singers with improbable show business names, including Duffy Power, Johnny Gentle, Marty Wilde, Vince Eager, and Dickie Pride. Indeed, Parnes' stable encompassed most of the most successful pre-Beatles British rock singers. The Beatles and other groups of the British Invasion, however, brought an end to his reign, as their superior musical quality and more individualistic attitudes made the kinds of acts with whom Parnes worked passe.
Parnes was a shopkeeper who got involved in theater production and club management in the mid-'50s. He got into music management with Tommy Hicks who, as a renamed Tommy Steele, was Britain's first rock star, or sort of rock star, as a much watered-down counterpart to American singers like Elvis Presley. Fury and the others followed by the end of the '50s. Although some, such as Fury and Power, had some genuine talent as rock singers, it's fair to say that Parnes' performers were groomed as teen idols, rock music being a convenient way to eventually establish all-around entertainers who could also work in straight pop music, variety shows, and film. Image, more than content, was essential to the appeal of Parnes' protégés, although in some cases it wasn't enough to guarantee large record sales. He was also a leading organizer of British package tours, and brought in American rock stars Eddie Cochran and Gene Vincent for a fateful 1960 tour in which Cochran died in a car crash.
Parnes had his fleeting contact with the Beatles and the Liverpool rock scene in 1960, when he put on Gene Vincent's concert there, with local Liverpool bands filling out the bill. Parnes then held auditions in Liverpool for groups to back solo singers that he managed on-stage. One of those groups were the Beatles, who backed Johnny Gentle on a short Scottish tour in mid-1960, although Parnes didn't work with them again. It would be foolish, though, to criticize Parnes for missing his chance to sign and groom the Beatles; at that point they were just another Liverpool rock band, and not nearly as good as they were when they were signed by Brian Epstein a year and a half later."
- Richie Unterberger, AllMusic
"Marty Wilde – the original ’50s pioneer of British rock and roll, veteran recording artist and songwriter – is still performing live and very much kicking. Speaking to him ahead of his show in Wimborne Minster on December 1, we get chatting about Elvis Presley and he says The King was a huge influence on his early career. “We all wanted to be Elvis. Me, Cliff (Richard) and Billy (Fury), we all copied him – the hair, the clothes, the dancing, the turned-up collars and rolled up sleeves. It took me a while to realise that I wasn’t Elvis and needed to do my own thing.”
Marty did do his own thing, racking up hit after hit with the likes of Bad Boy, Sea of Love, Endless Sleep and Teenager in Love. Then he wrote songs for Lulu, Status Quo, and the massive next-generation teen anthem, Kids in America, for his daughter Kim Wilde.
“You could feel the excitement in those early Elvis performances and that’s the thing that’s stayed with me,” he said. “It’s what I still aim to bring to every show I do.”
- Lorraine Gibson, The Purbeck Gazette (article published October 10, 2022)
"She could be tough, but treated me with great love and spoiled me. When I made it in the industry, she was so proud. Girls would trundle from all corners of Britain to my house in Greenwich. Mum never turned them away. They were all taken in for tea and cakes."
- Marty Wilde remembers his mother, The Guardian
'Full English Breakfast _ Early Rock Pioneers : The Big 5'
{ : Left To Right ~ Marty Wilde, Billy Fury, Joe Brown & John Leyton : }
Marty Wilde (born April 15, 1939, Blackheath, London, England - 'Wild Cat' released October 1957)
'Bad Boy' - Marty Wilde & The Wildcats (the collapsing "breakdown" guitar solo is said to have influenced a generation of young British rock guitarists)
Adam Faith (born June 23, 1940, Acton, Middlesex, England - '(Got A) Heartsick Feeling' released January 1958)
'Country Music Holiday' - Adam Faith
Cliff Richard (born October 14, 1940, Lucknow, United Provinces, British India - 'Move It' released August 1958)
'Schoolboy Crush' - Cliff Richard & The Drifters (later to become the Shadows)
Billy Fury (born April 17, 1940, Liverpool, England - 'Maybe Tomorrow' released January 1959)
'Phone Call' - Billy Fury
Joe Brown (born May 13, 1941, Swarby, Lincolnshire, England - 'People Gotta Talk' released November 1959)
'Jellied Eels' - Joe Brown & The Bruvvers
'Country Music' has been screened on television this year in its entirety by the British Broadcasting Corporation. It may still be available to view through their online service (BBC I-Player) if you're a license-paying resident of the U K.
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Post by petrolino on Mar 29, 2024 0:49:05 GMT
'Three Amigos' : Inside The Brill Building
Neil Sedaka (born March 13, 1939 in Brooklyn, New York City, New York, U.S.) has been mistaken for a country artist on occasion, such is the vastness of his repertoire. The boogie-woogie rockabilly of 'I Go Ape' found him top-trilling at the piano's treble end like Jerry Lee Lewis on steroids and was a sign of things to come. 'The Same Old Fool' was punctuated by a lead guitar line that was pure country, '(Is This The Way To) Amarillo' was designed as a country hiking song, 'One More Mountain To Climb' ascended in to country gospel via an elevated chorus line and the melodious 'Sad Eyes' burrowed piano and guitar counter-melodies beneath a flowing country blues rhythm line. He even shot a barrel house piano through the honky tonk heart of 'Adventures Of A Boy Child Wonder' ...
"Going into the Brill Building, it was full of little rooms owned by small music publishing firms that were dedicated to finding young writers for the teenage record market. Howard Greenfield and I wrote songs in one of those rooms, with just a piano and a desk, five a days a week, from 10 in the morning till five in the evening. It was a great training ground."
- Neil Sedaka, The Guardian
Neil Sedaka performs 'The Same Old Fool' ...
Connie Francis recorded the album 'Country Music - Connie Style' (1962) and followed it up with a companion piece that saw her collaborate with Hank Williams Jr., 'Connie Francis And Hank Williams Jr. Sing Great Country Favorites' (1964). Francis had previously recorded two songs written by Sedaka and Howard Greenfield that were also given rockabilly makeovers by Wanda Jackson, 'Fallin' and 'Stupid Cupid', the latter having been performed a number of times in concert by Patsy Cline.
'Neil Sedaka : The Complete - 1956 - 1966 (8-CD Deluxe Box Set) | 8-CD Box (LP-size) with 108-page book, 220 tracks, playing time 574:33 minutes.
~ Neil Sedaka is one of the rare geniuses of popular music, and his golden decade was from 1956 until 1966. He wrote hit songs for Connie Francis (Stupid Cupid, Where The Boys Are, among others), and began his recording career as one of the founding members of the legendary doo-wop group, the Tokens. And then in 1958 he signed with RCA, and scored an unbroken string of hits that includes some of the era's most memorable songs : The Diary, I Go Ape, Oh! Carol, Stairway To Heaven, You Mean Everything To Me, Run Samson Run, Calendar Girl, Little Devil, Happy Birthday Sweet Sixteen, Breaking Up Is Hard To Do, Next Door To An Angel, Let's Go Steady Again, and many more.
These were the songs that paved the way for artists like Neil Diamond, Elton John and Barry Manilow ... and even the return of Neil Sedaka himself!
This 8 CD-set is the last word on Neil Sedaka's golden decade. It contains his ultra-rare recordings for Melba, Decca, Legion, and Pyramid (most unreissued until now), as well as the complete RCA recordings, including 15 previously unissued masters. Many of the RCA recordings are mixed to true stereo by Bill Inglot for the first time.
This set also contains all of Neil Sedaka's foreign language recordings in German, Hebrew, Italian, Japanese, and Spanish, as well as his Christmas Greeting, New Years Greeting, station breaks, plus an exclusive message to his Japanese fans, and movie tracks!
The hardcover book contains many rare pictures. The text was written by Brian Gari with the full cooperation of Neil Sedaka.'
- Bear Family Records
'Oh Carol!' ~ Neil Sedaka : The Complete Recordings 1956 - 1966 (8-CD Deluxe Box Set - Bear Family Records)
Swamp pop idol Jimmy Clanton recorded 'Another Sleepless Night', Elvis Presley recorded 'Solitaire' and Barbi Benton and Billy Larkin both found success with '#1 With A Heartache', confirming Sedaka's status as a country fan favourite.
"Oh, I loved writing with Neil Sedaka. He was the first major songwriter that I ever got to write with. He was a star when I was at Screen Gems and I asked him would he write with me sometime and he said ‘Oh yes, I’d love to.’ He was just so filled with life and fun and music – so filled with music. His wife, Liba, would send him to the city; he was like a kid, with a certain amount of money that he could use on the subway to get home. It was almost like he had a nametag but we had so much fun. We had songs recorded by the Monkees and by Steve Lawrence and Mimi Gourmet. What I loved mostly is when he sat down and played a song, you could hear his joy in his melodies. It was a lot of fun for me and a great honor.
The first song I wrote with Neil Diamond was a song called ‘On The Way To The Sky’ and it was just such a thrill to write with Neil Diamond. Just to hear his voice and go ‘That’s Neil Diamond. We grew up on that voice and now I’m writing with him.’ It’s that kind of thing. That’s how I felt my whole life when I would hear people that I idolized for so many years sing my songs. From Aretha Franklin to Barbra Streisand, its like ‘Oh my god, these voices are singing some song that I wrote the lyrics to.’ So writing with Neil was spectacular, and then when I started to go out with Burt (Bacharach), I wanted to share my experiences in writing with Burt so we wrote together sometimes with a third person and Neil was one of them and we wrote ‘Heartlight.’ We had a lot of fun together, we really did, and I keep those memories of Neil in my writing because they’re very special to me."
- Carole Bayer Sager, 'Carole Bayer Sager - Collaborators'
Carole Bayer Sager, Neil Sedaka & Davy Jones
Captain & Tenille recorded about a half dozen Sedaka compositions in the 1970s, including what became their signature tune, the feminist anthem 'Love Will Keep Us Together' which was also performed by Dolly Parton during live shows. Toni Tenille was an accomplished singer-songwriter from Alabama (her father sang with Bob Crosby's Bob-Cats) with a background in musical theatre. Having gotten together with keyboardist Daryl Dragon (the Yellow Balloon), who'd been working as a regular touring member of the Beach Boys' live ensemble, the duo Captain & Tenille also recorded songs written by country humourists Jerry Reed and Ray Stevens. The Beach Boys recorded a characteristically layered cover of Sedaka and Howard Greenfield's composition 'Calendar Girl' in the 1970s that went unreleased.
Neil Diamond (born January 24, 1941 in Brooklyn, New York City, New York, U.S.) recorded the country album 'Tennessee Moon' (1996) which included vocal contributions from Waylon Jennings, Buffy Lawson and Beth Nielsen Chapman. Diamond assembled a diverse line-up of musicians to realise what was described as a dream project, including guitarist Chet Atkins, organist Al Kooper and the Nashville String Machine. Over the years, Diamond's worked and performed alongside some of country music's biggest superstars including leading members of the country pop movement that took the world by storm in the 1990s.
"Neil Diamond grew up in Coney Island, Brooklyn, the son of Jewish immigrants who ran a clothing store; on Saturdays, he would spend his time spooning housewives into complicated foundation garments. After attending the same school as Neil Sedaka and Barbra Streisand, he went to New York University on a fencing scholarship and began studying to become a doctor.
But he was also a keen guitarist, a skill picked up at camp in the Catskills and, in 1962, he dropped out of of college to become a $50 a week Brill Building songwriter at the offices of Leiber and Stoller. In 1967, he wrote the Monkees' number one hit, 'I'm A Believer'. He did not receive so much as an extra dime for this but, no matter; by now, he was cutting his own songs: 'Solitary Man', 'Cherry, Cherry' and 'Kentucky Woman'. He has since sold more than 120 million albums. His last American tour was the biggest grossing of the year.
Good songs are about discipline, he says. You need that 'spark' to set the whole thing in motion, but after that, it's about application."
- Rachel Cooke, The Observer
'Kentucky Woman' - Waylon Jennings
Truth be told, country artists have been recording Diamond's compositions since the 1960s. Jim Ed Brown ('You Don't Bring Me Flowers'), Elvis Presley ('And The Grass Won't Pay No Mind'), Johnny Cash ('Solitary Man'), Waylon Jennings ('Kentucky Woman'), Roy Drusky ('Red Red Wine'), Johnny Paycheck ('Song Sung Blue') and Tommy Overstreet ('Forever In Blue Jeans') are among those who took a liking to Diamond's songcraft. The Box Tops recorded his song 'Ain't No Way' in 1969.
"Once I had a chart record of my own, I was no longer a kid knocking around on the streets. I was now - well, we didn't call them artists at that time. We called them vocalists. But I was a vocalist, and it was a whole different thing. I was writing for myself, so I had to really dig in and write as well as I possibly could. And I have to say, before that time, I don't know if I was doing that. I was just writing, and writing, and writing, maybe just to get an advance from a publisher. But there was not a lot of me in those songs. And "Solitary Man" was the first of a long line of me songs, my experience songs. When I was signed to a staff publishing company, a music company, I would go in as often as I possibly could. The subway train from Brighton Beach, where I lived, that took us to New York University, went also a few more stops further to Tin Pan Alley. So there was a lot of cutting of classes, going up and trying to peddle the newest song, probably that I had written in one of the classes at school. So it was an attraction. It was a seduction that was just a couple of stops beyond NYU. And I unfortunately spent a lot of time skipping that, the NYU Eighth Street stop, and going up to the 49th Street stop, which is where Tin Pan Alley was. And that was great fun, too.
It was that era when rock 'n' roll had just come in. And anybody, anybody, could get a listening to their music because the publishers didn't understand what rock 'n' roll was. And they were willing to listen to anybody and sign anybody that they thought might have the vaguest chance of having some success. So it was an open game for a number of years. But then things got serious. I got married. I was having a baby on the way. And I had to get serious. Enough with this fun."
- Neil Diamond, National Public Radio
Neil Diamond & Lulu
In the 1970s, Dolly Parton included 'Brother Love's Travelling Salvation Show' for a time as part of her concert playlist. She also incorporated sections of the song into medleys.
Carole King (born February 9, 1942 in Manhattan, New York City, New York, U.S.) and Gerry Goffin's songs have been recorded by countless musical artists including country singers Sandy Posey, Anne Murray, Rita Coolidge, Linda Ronstadt and the Partridge Family. Their song 'I Can't Stay Mad At You' became another watershed moment for country music when it was recorded at RCA Studio B in Nashville by Skeeter Davis, under the aegis of producer Chet Atkins. Released as a single in 1963, 'I Can't Stay Mad At You' was a top 20 hit on the Billboard Hot Country Singles Chart and a top 10 hit on the Billboard Hot 100 Chart. Davis recorded a second song by King and Goffin that was also released in 1963, 'Keep Your Hands Off My Baby'.
'But Carole King was just 15 when she and three classmates formed a vocal quartet called the Co-Sines at James Madison High School. At night, she attended disc jockey Alan Freed's concerts — a veritable "who's who" of rock 'n' roll performers — and later set up a meeting with Freed, an internationally known rock promoter she thought could help her break into the songwriting business. Freed told her to look up the names of record companies in the phone book.
She recounts the story in her memoir, A Natural Woman, explaining that she called Atlantic Records and arranged a meeting. Soon after, she wrote her first big hit — the Shirelles number, "Will You Love Me Tomorrow?" — with Gerry Goffin, who would later become her husband. She met Goffin at Queens College, where she also met Paul Simon, Art Garfunkel and Neil Sedaka. Simon and King helped record demos for other bands but never wrote together. Instead, King collaborated with Goffin.'
- National Public Radio
'I Can't Stay Mad At You' - Skeeter Davis
The City were formed by Carole King in the late 1960s. They recorded just one album which was produced by Lou Adler, 'Now That Everything's Been Said' (1968). The stellar line-up for these recording sessions consisted of King on keyboards, Danny Kortchmar on guitar, Charles Larkey on bass and Jim Gordon on drums.
"There aren't many singer-songwriters whose ongoing impact compares to Carole King. The native New Yorker co-wrote the Shirelles' No. 1 Billboard Hot 100 classic "Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow" when she was still a teenager and went on to change the genre with 1971's Tapestry, which topped the Billboard 200 for 15 weeks and continues to inspire everyone from Taylor Swift to Mary J. Blige.
Inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame back in 1990 (along with ex-husband and songwriting partner Gerry Goffin) for her songwriting, King woke up to a text message from a friend on Wednesday (May 12) morning informing her that she'll be inducted into the Rock Hall's Class of 2021 as a performer.
"It was a 'wow' moment," King tells Billboard over the phone from Idaho. When told that this makes her the first person, period, inducted as a performer and non-performer in the Rock Hall's history, King sounds genuinely exuberant. "That rocks. I have nothing better to say than 'that rocks,'" she says, laughing.
While the honor is richly deserved, King never planned on becoming a famous singer in her youth. When she initially entered the music business as a Brill Building scribe in the late '50s, she only saw herself as a songwriter.
"I became an artist [in the late '60s], not reluctantly, but it was just the right circumstances that brought me into being an artist," King recalls to Billboard. "And really, as a songwriter, you're always the artist when you're presenting the song to another artist. Through Lou Adler and with James Taylor's help, I took ownership of being the artist who sang my own songs."
- Joe Lynch, Billboard
'All My Time' - The City
The Everly Brothers recorded King and Gerry Goffin's composition 'Chains', as well as 'Crying In The Rain', a song written by King and Howard Greenfield. King and Goffin's song 'Don't Ever Change' was also offered to the Everlys who passed on it (it was subsequently recorded by both the Beatles and the Crickets). Their song 'Goin' Back' was recorded by the Byrds as a country rock song, having first been recorded by Genya Ravan (Goldie And The Gingerbreads & Ten Wheel Drive) in 1966.
"Brian Wilson tells how he is having lunch in New York in 2006 with two friends. He has already seen Carole King at another table, but of course he does not dare to address her. Then Brian has to go to the bathroom.
“I went to the men’s room, opened the door, and the first person I saw was Barry Mann. Now I thought I was dreaming, maybe. Pass the Brill Building, walk to lunch, imagine you see Carole King, and then see Barry Mann? He co-wrote so many great songs with his wife, Cynthia Weil. “Uptown” and “We Gotta Get out of This Place” and “I’m Gonna Be Strong”. I said ‘hi’ to Barry and took him to the table to meet the guys. I asked him if he wanted to sit with us.
“I’d love to,” he said, “but I’m sitting over there with Carole.” There was a silence at the table, which I guess he thought meant he had to explain. “Carole King,” he said. “And Cynthia.”
“Cynthia Weil?” I said. I was still thinking of all the songs they wrote together. I don’t know which one was in my head by that point. Maybe “He’s Sure the Boy I Love” or “Walking in the Rain”. Barry laughed. “Walk over there with me.”
To his unspeakable joy Brian is greeted warmly and embraced by Carole King and Cynthia Weill. On cloud nine he floats back to his table, overjoyed.
“Can you believe running into Barry Mann in a goddamned men’s room in New York?” I said. “I’ll be goddamned. We’re in the room with three of the greatest songwriters ever.”
- Tony Attwood, Untold Dylan
Cynthia Weil, Carole King, Barry Mann & Gerry Goffin
Gayle McCormick (with Smith), Kenny Rogers (with the First Edition) and Bobby Bare recorded versions of 'What Am I Gonna Do' which was written by King and Toni Stern.
- - -
Brill Building Partnerships In The 1960s : '12 Songs'
{ : Debbie Harry & Ellie Greenwich : }
01. 'You're The Boss' - LaVern Baker & Jimmy Ricks (1960, Jerry Leiber & Mike Stoller)
02. 'Will You Love Me Tomorrow' - The Shirelles (1960, Gerry Goffin & Carole King)
03. 'You Mean Everything To Me' - Neil Sedaka (1960, Howard Greenfield & Neil Sedaka)
04. 'Crying In The Rain' - The Everly Brothers (1962, Howard Greenfield & Carole King) 05. 'Foolish Little Girl' - The Shirelles (1963, Howard Greenfield & Helen Miller)
06. 'Walk On By' - Dionne Warwick (1963, Burt Bacharach & Hal David)
07. '(The Best Part Of) Breakin' Up' - The Ronettes (1964, Peter Anders & Vini Poncia)
08. 'Maybe I Know' - Lesley Gore (1964, Jeff Barry & Ellie Greenwich) 09. 'You've Lost That Loving Feeling' - The Righteous Brothers (1964, Barry Mann & Cynthia Weil)
10. 'Make The Music Play' - Frankie Valli (1968, Carole Bayer Sager & Neil Sedaka)
11. 'Nobody's Home To Go To' - Jackie DeShannon (1968, Carole Baye Sager & Toni Wine)
12. 'Workin' On A Groovy Thing' - Patti Drew (1968, David Atkin & Neil Sedaka)
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Post by petrolino on Apr 13, 2024 4:23:49 GMT
I'd like to directly address a historic controversy by way of respected online sources, one that seems to pop up periodically, as in, the age-old story of how 'The All American Boy' came about. This month, on 7th April, singer-songwriter Bobby Bare turned 89, so he's no spring chicken. For the record, his friend Willie Nelson is 90 years of age, with a birthday upcoming (born 29th April) later this month.
'After Bobby Bare left the army, he became roommates with Willie Nelson. During this time, he decided to become a pop singer.'
- Spotify
Bobby Bare, Willie Nelson & Waylon Jennings prepare for a performance backstage ...
"The All American Boy" is a 1958 talking blues song written and sung by Bobby Bare, but credited by Fraternity Records to Bill Parsons, with songwriting credit to Bill Parsons and Orville Lunsford. While Bare was in the army, Parsons lip synced the record on television. The song reached number 2 on the Billboard chart, kept from the number one spot by "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes" by the Platters.'
- Wikipedia
'The All American Boy' - Bobby Bare
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Post by petrolino on Apr 14, 2024 0:15:02 GMT
The work of Billy Sherrill and Glenn Sutton at Columbia Records in the 1960s came to define what's been termed the "countrypolitan sound", a sophisticated make-up noted for its integration of exuberant choirs and lush orchestration in to traditional country set-ups. In the majority of cases I can think of, the architects of Nashville's modern musical styles were musicians and songwriters as well as working record producers, as was the case with Sherrill and Sutton.
'As America was pulling out of the Great Depression, the fifth of ten children was born to Hoit Adrian and Allie Mae (Isaac) Shepard. Ollie Imogene Shepard was born November 21, 1933, in the town of Paul's Valley, Oklahoma. The family lived a hardscrabble life trying to eke out an existence as sharecroppers. Says Jean, "We were farmers. Loretta Lynn talks about being poor, believe me she can't spell it compared to what were." She continues, "Her daddy worked for the coal mining company and her daddy could go to the company store and he could get things. Sharecroppers couldn't do that. We raised everything we ate. I didn't taste beef until I was about 14 years old. We ate chicken and pork. My mother canned everything."
The family moved in 1936 about 350 miles southeast to Hugo, in Choctaw County. There they continued to farm a modest plot of land. During those very early childhood years in Oklahoma, Jean began to develop her musical ear. Jean and her nine siblings all sang in church, and according to Bakersfield musician Bill Woods, "all of the kids were good singers, especially her sister Corlew." She also cut her teeth on the music of the Light Crust Doughboys, Bob Wills, and Jimmie Rodgers. And like nearly every country singer whose career broke in the 1940s and 1950s, the Grand Ole Opry was also a Saturday night ritual. With few other diversions from the daily grind, the family would gather around a battery-powered radio to listen to the famed broadcast over WSM's 50,000-watt clear-channel station.'
- Bear Family Records
'A Dear John Letter' (1953) - Ferlin Husky & Jean Shepard
Billy Sherrill served an apprenticeship under Sam Phillips, founder of Sun Studios in Memphis. When he stepped up to produce records in Nashville, it's said he drew inspiration from a number of sources including the polished production work of country classicist Paul Cohen, the dulcet studio tones created by Englishman abroad Don Law, the subtle studio stylings of cool jazz innovator Voyle Gilmore, the ethereal studio dynamics of Ken Nelson and the imposing "wall of sound" created by visionary pop producer Phil Spector.
"As a producer, songwriter, and A&R man, Billy Sherrill was one of the most influential non-performing figures in country music of the '60s and '70s. Sherrill was responsible for shaping the lush countrypolitan sound that helped change the production styles of country music during the '70s. Instead of relying on standard country instruments like steel guitars and fiddles, he recorded with string sections and vocal choruses, often overdubbing parts to give the music a grandiose, epic sound; in essence, it was the country version of pop producer Phil Spector's famous Wall of Sound. Some critics complained that his style wasn't pure country, yet there is no denying that he helped bring country music to a pop audience with the recordings he made with George Jones, Tammy Wynette, Charlie Rich, and Johnny Paycheck, as well as many, many others. Sherrill also helped build up the Epic artist roster during the '60s, making it into a formidable country label. Furthermore, he wrote and co-wrote many songs that have since become country classics, including "Stand by Your Man," "Your Good Girl's Gonna Go Bad," "I Don't Wanna Play House," "We Can Make It," and "The Most Beautiful Girl."
For someone with such an important place in country music history, Sherrill ironically wasn't interested in the music at all as a child -- initially, he was attracted to blues, R&B, and jazz. Born and raised in Alabama, Sherrill was the son of an evangelical preacher. He learned how to play piano when he was a child, and he often played at revival meetings and funerals his father held. When he was a teenager, Sherrill learned how to play saxophone and led a jump blues band that played R&B and jazz. Soon, he was touring the South, playing in R&B and rock & roll combos. Eventually, he was signed as a solo artist by a small independent label in the late '50s, but none of his singles made any impact."
- Stephen Thomas Erlewine, AllMusic
'Jeopardy' (1958 - produced by Ken Nelson) - Jean Shepard
Billy Sherrill and Glenn Sutton found a trusted associate in sure-handed George Richey, though his rich studio productions weren't always embraced by the performers he worked with. For example, Wanda Jackson expressed a level of creative frustration she'd experienced when working with Richey in her autobiography 'Every Night Is Saturday : A Country Girl's Journey To The Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame' (2017), having moved on swiftly after collaborating with him on the albums 'Wanda Jackson Country!' (1970) and 'A Woman Lives For Love' (1970). Connie Smith also parted ways with Richey abruptly, the two of them having collaborated on a pair of albums in the early 1970s, 'God Is Abundant' (1973) and 'A Lady Named Smith' (1973). Smith cited a general dissatisfaction with the creative process, a process which yielded unsatisfying results. Like Jackson, Smith had enjoyed a consistent run inside the studio before Richey was appointed to be her producer, creating one dynamic record after another (their regular producers had been Ken Nelson and Bob Ferguson respectively).
"Nashville has long been considered the capital of country music. Owen and Harold Bradley helped make that possible when they opened the Bradley Studios in the '50s, in the heart of Music Row. After adding on the Quonset Hut Studio, they ushered in a style of country music that crossed over in the pop markets, with songs like Patsy Cline’s "Crazy," Brenda Lee’s "I’m Sorry," and Bobby Vinton’s "Blue Velvet." When Columbia Records bought the studio in the 1962, the hits continued with artists like Johnny Cash and Bob Dylan."
- Stephen Allbritten, Tape Op
Sue Thompson recorded the single 'Say Something Nice To Me' (1960), using the stage name Taffy Thomas, with producer Mitch Miller who was an influence on certain studio techniques used to create the "countrypolitan sound"
Chet Atkins and sound engineer Bill Porter were spearheading their own sonic revolution at RCA Victor Studios, where they helped define what came to be known as the "Nashville sound". They were helped on their way by early mentor Owen Bradley, one of country music's great producers who pioneered a mid-century Nashville sound model that introduced elements common within jazz to the recording mix.
Bob Ferguson worked as a technical assistant in the studio during this time and he became something of a right-hand man to Atkins, a relationship they retained for many years. Ferguson later took on full-scale production duties, establishing himself as one of the most prolific producers in all of country music.
“Chet (Atkins) said, ‘Dolly, you’re going to need to get rid of all that because people are never going to take you serious if you look like that; you’re just looking too gaudy,” she recalls. “So, after I became a big star, looking the same way -- and even worse at that time -- Chet came up to me and said, 'Boy, I’m sure glad you took my good advice.’
"He thought he was giving me good advice," Parton adds with a laugh, "but I didn’t do it, and it still worked out for me.”
Of course, Dolly Parton went on to become a country music icon, big blonde hair and bedazzled outfits and all. Last year, Parton told Woman’s Day that her appearance isn’t necessarily reflective of the "real her."
“I know I look totally artificial, but I’d like to think I’m real where it really counts,” she told the magazine. “It’s how people treat one another and what they do and the way they do it — that’s what should matter. And that takes some time to figure out — you don’t know right away.”
- Amy McCarthy, The Boot
'Chet Atkins - 'Mr Guitar' : A Tribute' [2015, Documentary filmed at RCA Victor Studio - Gretsch Guitars]
It was often said by those who were directly involved that it was a team of musicians, songwriters and technicians - pooling resources and working together - that propelled a wave of studio innovations in the late 1950s, forming the backbone of what came to be known as the "Nashville sound". These men were joined by Cowboy Jack Clement, Danny Davis and Felton Jarvis behind the mixing desk in the 1960s, augmenting a formidable line-up that was responsible for engineering some of the finest country & western recordings of the decade. There's a lot of debate as to what the first recorded example of the "Nashville sound" is. I think these things are usually evolutionary. A couple of key recordings to contemplate are 'Gone' (1957) which united Ferlin Husky with Millie Kirkham and the Jordanaires under producer Ken Nelson and 'Four Walls' (1957) for which Jim Reeves modified his microphone technique at the behest of producer Chet Atkins.
'Music does not and should not stand still; instead it follows a continual arc, complete with sidesteps, repetitions and leaps, pushed forward by a combination of innovations and happy accidents. The early 1950s saw the emergence of a new style of pop, gospel and blues that became known as rock’n’roll, a form that would grow to consume the pop charts and impact the sales of those that had occupied that space previously.
Country music was one such industry that found itself suddenly out of step, necessitating something new to regain the record buying public’s attention. What emerged was a series of releases out of Nashville’s RCA Victor studios produced by Chester Burton ‘Chet’ Atkins and the pioneering engineer Bill Porter that became known as ‘the Nashville sound’, and caused country music to become a greater commercial enterprise than ever before. Atkins began his musical career as a guitarist, developing a finger-picking style that utilised his first three fingers with his thumb used for the bass strings. He was signed by Stephen Sholes, the A&R director of country music, in 1947 and moved to Nashville while backing the Carter Family in the mid-‘50s, during which time he scored several hit singles such as ‘Mr. Sandman’ and ‘Silver Bell’, and became a design consultant for Gretsch.
In 1955, Sholes also signed a 20-year-old Elvis Presley to RCA, buying out his contract from Sun Records for an unprecedented US$40,000. The following year saw the release of Elvis Presley, which began a successful commercial run of 15 charting singles produced for the King that resulted in Sholes’ promotion to RCA’s pop singles manager. He was also able to convince the label to build a new recording studio, of which Atkins was placed in charge.'
- Mixdown ('Musicology : The History Of The Nashville Sound')
'I'm Tired' (1958 - produced by Don Law, co-written by Ray Price & Mel Tillis) - Ray Price
'Oh Lonesome Me' (1958 - produced by Chet Atkins) - Don Gibson
'Some Of These Days' (1959 - produced by Owen Bradley) - Brenda Lee
'Wings Of A Dove' (1960 - produced by Ken Nelson, written by Bob Ferguson in 1958) - Ferlin Husky
RCA Victor house band Homer And Jethro parodied the rise of the "Nashville sound" with their satirical album 'Any News From Nashville?' (1966) which melded together a plethora of roots-based musical styles. They went on to form a musical unit with producer Chet Atkins called the Nashville String Band. One of my favourite examples of Atkins' genius is the story behind the creation of Skeeter Davis' debut album 'I'll Sing You A Song And Harmonize Too' (1959) which I recently heard for the first time. Just as he had done when working with Jim Reeves, Atkins was bold enough to tell Davis that there were issues with her vocal style when it came to the material she was tackling, and she was wise enough to trust in Atkins and experiment. It's unlike any album I ever recall hearing, particularly among those I've heard, regardless of genre, that were released before it.
'I'll Sing You a Song and Harmonize Too was recorded in three recording sessions at the RCA Victor studio in Nashville, Tennessee, United States. The first session took place in May 1958, followed by January 30, 1959, and then ending in September 1959. The album took its name from Chet Atkins' idea of harmonizing Davis' vocals with herself. Atkins used this technique because Davis' vocals were not suited to singing lead vocals, as she had previously sung harmony as part of The Davis Sisters. By using the technique of harmonizing with herself, it gave her voice a fuller sound and production.'
- Wikipedia
'Fiddle Diddle Boogie' (1955) - The Davis Sisters
'Standing In The Shadows' (1959 - produced by Chet Atkins) - Skeeter Davis
When it came to making new sounds in country music, the 1960s proved to be a golden era inside the studio, bouyed by brilliant studio musicians who were willing to take risks and free-thinking producers who were able to think outside the box. Here's some interesting takes on 2-part harmonies, 3-part harmonies, guitar line melodies and duality lyrics, some of the calling cards of modern country music.
'The Lot Scene : So, Chet Atkins, a name that would be familiar to you, notably credited you with “single-handedly saving Country Music” many years ago, back in the ‘80s. Obviously things had moved from their roots and your style and your energy brought things back to center. Recently in 2013 there was a PBS interview, in a small quote from you talking about Europeans and how they really appreciate traditional country and bluegrass and don’t like being spoon-fed the “new crap being coined as Country music”. So, in your opinion, is the state of popular Country Music today back to where it was before you saved it, and if so, what do we need to do to save it again?
Ricky Skaggs : Well, it certainly has gotten away from any semblance of traditional Country that we grew up playing and listening to in my day. But, you know, my heart has really softened so much toward music and toward people that want to play. My hope is that whoever is playing whatever they’re playing will get young kids engaged in the music, engaged in Country Music. And then maybe they’ll start doing some searches and they’ll go back and they’ll start discovering traditional Country Music and Bluegrass and that kind of stuff. I always tell people I think Chet was off his meds that day when he said that.'
- Parker (article published at The Lot Scene, November 10, 2015)
Chet Atkins & Dolly Parton in Nashville, 1967
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2-Part Harmonies
'Lulu In The Valley' (1937 - 1938) - The DeZurik Sisters (aka. The Cackle Sisters)
'Above And Beyond' (1962) - Porter Wagoner & Skeeter Davis
'Out Of Our Minds' (1965) - Bobby Bare & Skeeter Davis
'Put It Off Until Tomorrow' (1966) - Bill Phillips with Dolly Parton
'Rings Of Gold' (1969) - Connie Smith & Nat Stuckey
'Let's Make Love Not War' (1970) - Bobby Bare & Skeeter Davis
'Run That By Me One More Time' (1970) - Porter Wagoner & Dolly Parton
- -
3-Part Harmonies
'How'm I Doin' (1933) - The Aaron Sisters (aka. The Randall Sisters)
'Which One Is To Blame?' (1967) - Bobby Bare, Liz Anderson & Norma Jean
'Stand Back (There's Gonna Be A Fight)' (1969) - Liz Anderson
'Baby Take Your Coat Off' (1978) - Dave & Sugar
- - -
Guitar Line Melodies
'The Mysteries Of Life' (1956) - Jean Shepard with a snaking steel guitar
'Billy Broke My Heart At Walgreens' (1966) - Ruby Wright in internal conversation with a talking guitar
'In The Park After Dark' (1968) - Norma Jean with a classical steel guitar
'The Call' (1969) - Connie Smith with a dancing "raindrop" steel guitar (- Smith was effectively harmonising with steel guitar from her beginnings in Nashville, at times playing around with inner monologue, a common device used in country songwriting to transmit a narrator's thoughts, as well as call and response, a popular rhythm and blues device; substitute a vocal line for the wandering guitar line heard on 'If I Talk To Him' for example, then overlap the parts, you'll find a strange kind of melodic, harmonic invention at work ...)
I've had fun exploring some of the production processes involved in the making of modern country music. There's a wealth of written material available to read online on this subject and many books have been published that cover this period in the studio. It was a time of experimentation, innovation and adventure.
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Post by petrolino on Jun 14, 2024 22:47:59 GMT
Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band : 'Rancho Grēgórios'
Today marks the 5th anniversary of Bruce Springsteen's album 'Western Stars' (2019) which was released on 14th June, 2019. Springsteen co-directed a concert film to accompany the album, 'Western Stars' (2019), with editor and regular collaborator Thom Zimny who'd directed the excellent documentary 'The Promise : The Making Of Darkness On The Edge Of Town' (2010).
'Once I was shot by John Wayne, yeah, it was towards the end,
That one scene's bought me a thousand drinks,
Set me up and I'll tell it for you, friend,
Here's to the cowboys, and the riders in the whirlwind,
Tonight the western stars are shining bright again,
And the western stars are shining bright again ...'
'Western Stars'
Now in his seventh decade of producing music, Springsteen has a massive back catalogue taking in a wide range of musical styles, but it was with 'Western Stars' that he fully incorporated some of the sights and sounds readily associated with country music. Springsteen has long evoked the history of country music within his work, be it through the rollicking rockabilly of tracks like 'Working On The Highway' and 'Stand On It', unusual compositions like 'Shackled And Drawn' which invokes cajun gospel with a hoedown spirit, or the sculpting of ambitious storytelling epics like 'Outlaw Pete' which pays homage to the history of western cinema. Nonetheless, I think it was with 'Western Stars' that this immersion became more intense.
"Bruce Springsteen and Merle Haggard have much in common as songwriters. Though writing in two different musical genres, both speak to and for the common man – those people who get up every day, go out and do their job, then come home to spend time with their husband, wife, children, girlfriend, boyfriend and other loved ones. The people who appreciate the songs written by these two men are the backbone of America – the working men and women – for they not only see their friends and neighbors in the songs, but they see themselves and in so doing can directly identify with what the men are writing about.
“I’ve always felt I write well about these things,” Springsteen agrees. “Those elements are where the blood and the grit of real life mix with people’s spiritual aspirations and their search for just, decent lives.”
- Vernell Hackett, American Songwriter (article published March 1, 2003)
Bruce Springsteen & The Sessions Band perform 'Long Time Comin' at the Point in Dublin, Ireland in 2006
The relationship between the E Street Band and country artists has been reciprocal. Springsteen's songs have been covered by countless musicians working in the country fold, from Linda Ronstadt, Emmylou Harris and the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, to Travis Tritt, Kenny Chesney and the Mavericks. He's shared the stage with many a country legend in his time. The tribute album 'Reason To Believe' (2004) was subtitled 'A Country Music Tribute To Bruce Springsteen' for a reason.
"Meet the new Boss. Same as the old Boss. He’s just taken on a different context.
Bruce Springsteen, the most prominent rocker of the 1980s, is now a symbolic fencepost in modern country. If there’s any doubt how much the New Jersey singer/songwriter is influencing the heartland-entrenched genre, take a look at the top 10 of this week’s Country Songs. Eric Church’s “Springsteen” is lodged at No. 8, while newcomer Kip Moore, whose “Somethin’ ‘Bout A Truck” is at No. 5, has been praised as a “hillbilly Springsteen” for his gritty story songs and blue-collar viewpoint. Further underscoring the point, Kenny Chesney has covered two of Springsteen’s songs – “I’m On Fire” and “One Step Up” – on albums in the last decade. The lyrics of Rodney Atkins’ 2009 hit “It’s America” ranked Springsteen songs alongside Chevrolet and NASA moon flights as symbols of U.S. patriotism, while Pat Green’s “Feels Just Like It Should” (No. 13, 2006) finds a couple singing “Born To Run” while cruising down the highway in a convertible. And the new Josh Abbott Band album, Small Town Family Dream, currently at No. 5 on Country Albums, contains “I’ll Sing About Mine,” a song that takes issue with the trend, lamenting that songs about “the Dairy Queen, pickup trucks and Springsteen/Make the place I love sound like a bad cartoon.”
- Tom Roland, Billboard (article published May 8, 2012)
'Highway Patrolman' - Johnny Cash
Springsteen's own music has always leant more heavily on his roots in folk music. So it was a nice surprise when he emerged with 'Western Stars', a panoramic excursion through the expanse of America I'd rank as one of his finest albums released this century.
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Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band
Some time around the summer of 1972, Bruce Springsteen entered in to a recording studio to lay down a series of demo tapes that later came to be known within music circles as "the London publishing demos". These bare-bones recordings feature Springsteen on guitar and piano. Some compositions were later developed in to songs featured on future albums, while others were not. Soon after, Springsteen gathered together members of the E Street Band to embark upon a series of recording sessions for what would become their debut album together, 'Greetings From Asbury Park, N.J.' (1973).
'At night the moon stretched tight light across the plains,
As real cowboys sat around real campfire flames,
And the county wolf called as if to explain to his son,
The way the west was won ...'
'Saga Of The Architect Angel' (1972) - Bruce Springsteen
- -
On The Road Again ...
'She moves up, she moves back
Out on the floor there just is no one cleaner
She does this thing she calls the "Jump back Jack"
She's got the heart of a ballerina ...'
Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band perform 'Thundercrack' at the Ahmanson Theater in Los Angeles, California in 1973
'Bruce Springsteen grew up idolising internationally renowned stars like The Beatles and Elvis Presley, but they always seemed out-of-reach for a kid from New Jersey. On the contrary, The Motifs grew up on the same streets as Springsteen and inspired him from an early age.
Unlike his other childhood favourites, The Motifs never managed to connect with a mainstream audience, but that didn’t matter to Springsteen. The band were led by brothers Walter and Raymond Cichon, who mentored Bruce and took him under their wing. They were crucial in him learning his craft, and by studying them at work, ‘The Boss’ decided his calling was to follow in their footsteps.
Springsteen has never been shy about handing them props when he’s given an opportunity, and there was even a section of his Broadway show dedicated to the Cichons. As he talked fans through his life, Bruce took time to pause and reflect on two of the most important figures on his journey.
Around the halfway point in the show, Springsteen brought up the brothers and told the crowd, “They were gods”. He then individually praised each brother, starting with Walter, “On stage, he was deadly, and he was aloof and raw and sexual and dangerous.” Meanwhile, on Raymond, Bruce added: “Raymond was my guitar hero.”
Springsteen name-dropped only a handful of people during his Broadway show, which speaks volumes about his respect for the Cichon brothers. He has also previously revealed they are the inspiration for his track ‘The Wall’ and said The Motifs were “a head above everybody else.” Springsteen continued: “Raw, sexy and rebellious, they were the heroes you aspired to be. But these were heroes you could touch, speak to, and go to with your musical inquiries. Cool, but always accessible, they were an inspiration to me and many young working musicians in 1960s central New Jersey . . ."
- Joe Taysom, Far Out (article published August 4, 2022)
Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band perform 'Kitty's Back' at the Hammersmith Odeon in London, England in 1975
'Bruce Springsteen started off his recording career with two albums in 1973, Greetings from Asbury Park, NJ, released in January, and The Wild, The Innocent, and the E Street Shuffle, released in September. Both albums were produced by the team of Mike Appel & Jim Cretecos and both were well-received critically but had little commercial success at the time. Both albums also used musicians that would be later make up the E Street Band (at the time known as the “Bruce Springsteen Band”), however Springsteen’s best friend guitarist Steve Van Zandt was all but shut out from the sessions due to budgetary constraints. The pair would not perform again together for several years.
Springsteen had been playing acoustic guitar, in the tradition of early Bob Dylan style folk, for more than half a decade before his management signed a record deal with Columbia Records in June 1972. When planning began for the debut album, Springsteen had advocated for a band arrangement but the label’s A&R man John Hammond wanted a more solo-dominated album, reflecting the live sound. Eventually a compromise was reached where the album would consist of five “band” recordings and five solo recordings. However, when then-CBS President Clive Davis listened to the ten tracks he commented that not he strongly preferred the band tracks, and also felt that the album lacked a potential hit single.
Springsteen composed two more commercial-sounding songs (“Blinded By the Light” and “Spirit In the Night”) and reached out to saxophonist Clarence Clemons of a rival North Jersey band to add a new element to these new songs. Three Springsteen solo tracks were omitted from Greetings from Asbury Park, NJ bringing the total track count to nine, seven band and two solo tracks. Despite this effort to further “commercialize” the album is was a major flop sales-wise upon its release. According to a local Freehold, NJ record store owner, the Partridge Family far outsold the hometown Springsteen during the very first week that the album was released and it wouldn’t be until years later when Springsteen became nationally famous that anyone would even hear of this album.'
- Classic Rock Review
Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band perform 'Candy's Boy' in Holmdel, New Jersey in 1976
“It’s 1978, and Bruce Springsteen is in town doing a series of concerts. He drove over to the Strip to see his billboard, and he hated it. At his concert the next day, he talked to the people in the crowd and said, ‘Hey, go up on the Strip and see the billboard. My nose is too big,’ or something. So they went and climbed up on the building that it was on with a bunch of spray paint. Bruce was on [the E Street Band’s saxophonist] Clarence Clemons’s shoulder, trying to paint a mustache on himself. But he couldn’t reach that high, so he settled for writing ‘Prove it all night.’”
- Robert Landau, 'A Visual History Of L.A.’s Greatest Rock-n-Roll Billboards' (article published at 'Andy Warhol's Interview' on June 20, 2019)
Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band perform 'Candy's Room' in Houston, Texas in 1978
"Just over an hour into his marathon show at West Hollywood’s Roxy Theatre in the summer of 1978, Bruce Springsteen offers a confession: He doesn’t know how to fix a broken-down car. While this information might seem irrelevant to the night’s proceedings, it’s an important breakthrough in the action-packed group therapy session that is an E Street Band concert. After all, the man on stage — sprightly and clean-shaven, not yet 30, seemingly fueled entirely by adrenaline — had written nearly half his songbook about cars : building and tearing them apart, driving till dawn and finding redemption underneath their hoods. (He was also dressing a little like a car mechanic around this time.)
“But I think I understand,” he continues, “the spiritual and religious significance of the 396.” The crowd at the 500-capacity theater roars and Springsteen introduces “Racing in the Street,” a highlight from Darkness on the Edge of Town, released just a month earlier. On the record, it’s the bleakest thing he’s ever recorded; tonight, it becomes something else."
- Sam Sodomsky, Pitchfork
Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band perform 'The Promised Land' at the Memorial Coliseum in Phoenix, Arizona in 1978
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<> Entering The Studio ...
"In some far off parallel world, Bruce Springsteen signed a record contract with Bill Graham for his band Steel Mill. Instead of saxophones, the sound was defined by soaring guitar licks, thundering drums, and pounding bass and the E Street Band was never formed. Steel Mill took their legions of fans in New Jersey and Virginia and became one of the major rock bands in the country playing music festival after festival. And judging by the tunes found on Steel Mill's second release, "All Man The Guns For America", that might not have been such a bad thing.
While the first Steel Mill record featured some of the band's most popular and enduring songs like "The Wind & The Rain" and "Going Back To Georgia" (tunes of lore through the art of bootlegging) - this new disc by the legendary E Street and Steel Mill drummer Vini Lopez sounds fresher and more alive than the first. The songs also hint of the songwriting genius that was to come and the enduring legend of the band.
Vini Lopez was one of the original members of Steel Mill, a band that became a legend along the Jersey Shore and Richmond, Virginia. They did, in fact, travel out to California to record a 3-song demo for Bill Graham, but turned his contract offer down. The band soon morphed into the Bruce Springsteen Band following their return to the east coast. Fast forwarding about 30 years or so, Vini Lopez asked his old friend if he would be ok with him if he brought the Steel Mill tunes back to life. Springsteen agreed and the songs, which were among the earliest written by Springsteen, were no longer relegated to the quality heard by 1969 bootlegs."
- Gary Wein, New Jersey Stage (article published August 16, 2009)
'The Wind and the Rain is a song written by Bruce Springsteen probably sometime in late 1968 or early 1969. The song is known to have been performed live in 1969, but it became a popular number in 1970. Audio recordings for a couple of performances from mid-1970 are in circulation.
Steel Mill may have recorded The Wind and the Rain at Challenger Eastern Surfboards in Asbury Park, NJ. The surfboard factory was also Springsteen's home from late 1969 thru late 1970, and a makeshift studio environment of sufficient standard to produce reasonable quality recordings. Although the song may have been recorded as part of ongoing rehearsals at Challenger Eastern Surfboards, none of these 1969 and 1970 recordings is currently in circulation. The reel-to-reel tapes were often reused due to financial restrictions. Consequently there is a distinct possibility that much of what was recorded at Challenger no longer survives, even in Springsteen's personal archive.'
- Springsteenlyrics.com
Steel Mill perform 'The Wind And The Rain' in 1970
"The energy of Bruce Springsteen’s debut album soared on a societal diatribe akin to the songwriting that had first flung him up by the bootstraps and ushered him towards entering music. As he recalls in his autobiography : “Highway 61 Revisited and Bringing It All Back Home were not only great records, but they were the first time I can remember being exposed to a truthful vision of the place I lived… The world he described was all on view, in my little town, and spread out over the television that beamed into our isolated homes, but it went uncommented on and silently tolerated. He inspired me and gave me hope.”
In fact, when Bob Dylan first heard ‘the next Bob Dylan’ he announced with an ironic vein of self-reflection: “He better be careful, or he might go through every word in the English language.” As it happens, Springsteen’s debut was even presented to the world with the PR tagline of ‘the next Dylan’. The issue was that Dylan had hardly gone anywhere and if there was to be a ‘this town ain’t big enough for the both of us stand-off’ then only one winner was assured.
Ultimately, aside from the fact that Dylan and Springsteen were fellows from the same figurative side of town and pondered the whys and wherefores of American society in some of their songs, the difference between them was marked. Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J. is crammed full of Springsteen’s individualism and the sort of visceral energy that has always gave even his most tender songs a thundering undercurrent.
Tracks like ‘It’s Hard to Be a Saint in the City’ might contain uncomfortably dated language, but the artistry registered on David Bowie’s radar, and he declared it one of his favourite tracks of the era and this helped to bring publicity to Springsteen after the album initially flopped. Bowie even went on to cover the track ‘Growin’ Up’ from the album, identifying with the song’s cacophonous melody, post-modernist poetry and introspective look at the world, all riding on a wave of performative bravado.
The album might have announced Springsteen tentatively in a commercial sense, but ultimately, it contains all the tenets of his work to come. It has the usual singalong chorus in the form of ‘Blinded by the Lights’, the solemn reflection of the scintillating ‘Spirit in the Night’ and the ballad stylings of ‘The Angel’. Everything yet to come from Springsteen was laid out in style, and this in itself is not only indicative of a great debut album but the creative sincerity of an artist who would later connect with millions and never lose sight of the idealism that spawned his stirring work."
- Tom Taylor, Far Out (article published January 5, 2022)
'It's Hard To Be A Saint In The City' (1973, 'Greetings From Asbury Park, N.J.') - Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band
"It starts with a chaos of horns warming up, quickly supported by the jangliest of guitars, and a musical sense of urgency building to what is perhaps the coolest opening line ever sung: “Sparks fly on E Street when the boy prophets walk it handsome and hot. Teenage tramps in skintight pants wander the street, feel its heartbeat, and avoid the heat (cops) in a world all their one, as a girl called Little Angel elicits a full and gloriously sloppy chorus, ‘Everybody form a line!’” Welcome to Bruce Springsteen’s mystical, romantic, dangerous, wild, and innocent land of hope and dreams.
To a kid growing up in Jersey, rock and roll was all about escape, release, and finding joy in a dreary world. But Chuck Berry and Elvis had only taken the imagery so far. It took a bunch of hippies to take the art form in its second decade into trippier, weirder, more impressionistic territory, both lyrically and musically. Bruce Springsteen was a teenager in the ‘60s, the perfect age for the groovier “Sgt. Pepper” experimentations, but he would favor that earlier stuff that rocked.
In Roy Orbison, he heard a sense of drama and depth in rock. It was the difference between fantasy and reality.
They say you have 20 years to make your first album and less than a year to make your second. The sophomore slump has killed many a promising artist’s career; the great ones make it to that third album and their own destiny.
There is no better example of this than Bruce Springsteen. His first album had created a world of madman drummers, bummers, Indians in the summer and teenage diplomats, setting the stage for a vast body of work unlike any other before or since. His third album would land him on the covers of Time and Newsweek, with a title track that captured all the aspirations of every young person dreaming of a meaningful life ahead. “Born to Run” is still recognized, rightly so, as one of rock’s most successfully ambitious statements.
But it was that unsung second album, released just eight months after “Greetings from Asbury Park, New Jersey,” that masterfully gave rock and roll its most cinematic experience. “The Wild, the Innocent and the E Street Shuffle” is to this day Springsteen’s most overlooked album, but to those who know its seven richly vivid songs, it is recognized as an innovative masterpiece."
- (Gold) Rush Evans, Goldmine (article published June 21, 2011)
'Rosalita (Come Out Tonight)' (1973, 'The Wild, The Innocent & The E Street Shuffle') - Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band
"How do you review the Sistine Chapel? You don’t; you simply stand back and marvel at it. I feel the same way about Bruce Springsteen’s Born to Run album, though I did give it a shot back in August with a nine-part series for the album’s 46th anniversary (you can find that here). But since I recently began song-by-song reviews of Springsteen’s albums, I will have to try my best to express the inexpressible here.
There are certain dates that are indisputably pivotal in the history of mankind; for some people it’s July 4, 1776 while for others it’s December 25, 4 B.C. (give or take a year). For me, it’s August 25, 1975, the year that the greatest record ever made, containing the greatest song ever, was released (if you thought this was not going to be a biased review, you’ve never read my stuff before). On that balmy 90-degree day (in Ocean City, New Jersey at least) everything changed. Everything.
Born to Run is Springsteen’s third studio album, and though it’s hard to believe now it was basically his last chance as far as Columbia Records was concerned. His first two albums were critically acclaimed but had not sold well and the record execs were past impatient with their new would-be star. He needed a hit; what he delivered was a monster home run that cleared the left field wall at Yankee Stadium and hasn’t landed yet, 16,990 days later."
- Paul Combs, Medium (article published March 1, 2022)
'Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out' (1975, 'Born To Run') - Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band
"My mother was an Elvis Presley fan. She had him and on TV and she used to listen to him on the radio every morning in my house. Come down before you go to school, my mother’s cooking and would have the radio on, on top of the refrigeration turned on the AM station ever since I could remember. So something connected then but I was a little young and I didn’t have the discipline to stick with it.
Then when I was 13 the English thing happened, The Beatles, The Animals, The Rolling Stones … that really kicked it off for me. I said, “Well that looks like something that’s good to get into.”
The point was to have some say in the way you’re going to live, in the thing you’re going to do. For the first time, in a long time, during the 'Born To Run' thing, I felt it slipping away. I felt the old gas pedal stuck to the floor of a runaway car. I was lucky enough to realize it and grind it to a halt. There was a moment where I assessed my strengths and weaknesses you know. I’m glad it happened. I don’t have one regret about one second of the past three years because I learned a lot about it."
Bruce Springsteen in conversation with Dave Herman (article published July 9, 1978 - logged at the Bill Graham Archives)
'Something In The Night' (1978, 'Darkness On The Edge Of Town') - Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band
"Chronologically, “The River” occupies a curious spot in Bruce Springsteen’s discography, the dénouement to “Darkness on the Edge of Town” and a precursor to “Nebraska,” the bleak folk record Springsteen put out in 1982. “Nebraska” is defiant in its wounded depictions of American strife : “Everything dies, baby, that’s a fact,” Springsteen sings on “Atlantic City,” the album’s spectral, ominous second track. And he means everything : not just our corporeal selves, but our devotions, obsessions, sacred oaths. Somehow, that’s not even the song’s most shattering bit : “I got debts no honest man can pay,” Springsteen concedes in the second verse. It is as pure an admission of spiritual defeat as any other line in American verse. “Nebraska” surprised fans and critics — Springsteen made it at home in Colts Neck, New Jersey, without the E-Street Band, using a four-track Portastudio tape recorder — but plenty of its themes, both musical and lyrical, were seeded on “The River,” which I still believe to be Springsteen’s most self-probing album. These songs — some crushing, some jubilant — explore how hard it is not to love but to be loved, to be held accountable to the devotion you’ve inspired in another person, to receive it without collapsing. The anxious narrators of “The River,” sometimes they get it right. Mostly they don’t. It doesn’t matter : the road goes on forever."
- Amanda Petrusich, The New Yorker (article published November 3, 2015)
'Wreck On The Highway' (1980, 'The River') - Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band
"In early 1982, Bruce Springsteen was living in a rented house in Colts Neck, New Jersey, recuperating from a year-long tour following his 1980 double album The River. His band played 140 marathon shows and were on their way to becoming one of the biggest rock acts in the world. During this period, Springsteen tasked his guitar tech, Mike Batlan, with buying a simple tape recorder so that he could tinker with some new songs and arrangements without having to bother with renting studio time. Batlan picked up a Teac Tascam 144 Portastudio, a then-new device that was the first piece of equipment to use a standard cassette tape for multi-track recording. The new machine arrived in Springsteen’s life at the perfect moment, during what was arguably the most fruitful songwriting period in Springsteen’s long career, one that would produce enough material for two albums (1982’s Nebraska and 1984’s Born in the U.S.A.) with dozens of additional songs to spare. On it, he would craft what is still the most singular album in his catalog.
Nebraska remains an outlier for Springsteen, a record that sits uneasily in his discography. Instead of making an impact upon release, Nebraska has been accruing weight gradually over the last four decades, becoming a marker of its socioeconomic era as well as an early document of the later home-recording revolution. It stands alone partly because Springsteen didn’t tour behind it — his work is ultimately about his connection to his audience, and that connection is felt most intensely when he’s performing onstage — and partly because the record itself is kind of an accident, something that fell into place before Springsteen knew what to do with it. “I had no conscious political agenda or social theme,” he later wrote of this time in his autobiography, Born to Run. “I was after a feeling, a tone that felt like the world I’d known and still carried inside me.” Springsteen’s initial burst of material in Colts Neck clustered around isolation and disillusionment. There were connections to his earlier work in these new songs — two tracks on The River, “Stolen Car” and “Wreck on the Highway,” conveyed a similar feeling of despair — but the new work was different. Springsteen seemed both emotionally closer to his characters but also less interested in judging them. These songs had no heroes and no villains, everyone in them was making their way with what they were given, every grim or brutal scene had its own context and its own internal logic.
Early in his career, Springsteen’s work thrived on personal instinct, but in isolation, it became more reliant on specific inputs. He’d transform ideas he discovered in books and films and the news into frameworks for songs: the short stories of Flannery O’Connor, which detailed the harsh lives of people living on the margins; Ron Kovick’s Born on the Fourth of July, in which a gung-ho soldier becomes deeply scarred by the actions of his government. At some point, he saw Terrence Malick’s Badlands on television, a film based on the 1957–58 killing spree of Charlie Starkweather. The Starkweather murders were meaningless, and the randomness of that violence and inability to explain it fit with the mood of Springsteen’s songwriting.
Once the new songs recorded on the Portastudio began to gel, Springsteen selected some of his favorites, ran his simple arrangements through a Gibson Echoplex unit to add some reverb and echo, and mixed them down to a boombox he had laying around the house. He sent the tape to his manager, Jon Landau, with handwritten notes on the songs and ideas for how they might find their way on to a new record. Springsteen’s letter to Landau, reproduced in his book of lyrics, Songs, suggests that the album that was emerging was mysterious even to its creator. “I got a lot of ideas but I'm not exactly sure of where I'm going,” he wrote."
- Mark Richardson, Pitchfork (article published March 18, 2018)
'Used Cars' (1982, 'Nebraska') - Bruce Springsteen
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¬ Last Orders ...
“You can never go wrong with being p*ssed off in rock ‘n’ roll. I have spent my life judging the distance between American reality and the American dream – how far is that at any given moment? If you go back to the work that I did beginning in the late ’70s, I’m always measuring that distance: how close are we, how far are we, how close are we? Everything from 'Darkness On The Edge Of Town', 'The River', to 'Nebraska',' Born In The U.S.A.', 'The Ghost Of Tom Joad' ... those are all records that were always taking the measure of that distance.
‘Wrecking Ball’ was something that seemed like a metaphor for what had occurred over the last 30 years. It’s an image where something is destroyed to build something new, and the flat destruction of some fundamental American values and ideals.
The Wall Street Crisis acted as an enormous fault-line that cracked the American system wide open and its repercussions are just beginning to be felt. There was really no accountability for years. People lost their homes and nobody went to jail. People lost enormous amounts of their net worth.”
- Bruce Springsteen speaking with Antoine De Caunes in Paris, France in 2012
'Stolen Car' - Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band
Bruce Springsteen was inducted into both the Songwriters Hall of Fame and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1999. The E Street Band were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2014. |
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Post by petrolino on Jun 22, 2024 0:17:36 GMT
'Bruce Springsteen : On The Run' - Random Thoughts On 1978 ...
In 1976, Ronnie Spector (the Ronettes) got together with Southside Johnny And The Asbury Jukes to record 'You Mean So Much To Me', a song written by Bruce Springsteen. In 1977, the E Street Band were able to realise a lifelong dream by backing Spector on 'Say Goodbye To Hollywood', a song that had been written by Billy Joel with the Ronettes in mind. It was around this time that something rather strange happened to Springsteen, something that caused music to pour out of him like a suitcase full of wine. Springsteen and Spector were both present on the New York punk scene at a time when underground activity was at an all-time high.
"She was great live and was a terrific singer. She also sang on “You Mean So Much to Me” on our debut album, another Bruce Springsteen composition, which made for a great finale. We all were on the same bus together and she just fit right in. We really loved having her on the bus. She was so much fun and was very easy to talk to. Ronnie (Spector) was just glad to be working on the road and had a great time working with the band. When she would walk on stage, the crowd would go crazy, which took some of the pressure off of me. Offstage she was very down to earth, funny, sweet and complimentary to the guys. She was someone really good to hang out with and was not a diva in any way."
- Southside Johnny, Goldmine
'Adam Raised A Cain' (1978) - Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band
What followed is an artistic whirlwind that's perhaps best captured by the release of the off-cuts album 'The Promise' (2010), a collection of recordings cut by the E Street Band between 1977 and 1978 when they were busy in the studio making 'Darkness On The Edge Of Town' (1978). Springsteen found himself in a similar place to where Dolly Parton had been several years earlier, in that he couldn't stop writing songs. His compositions during this time ranged from two minute drills and three minute singles to epic jams and pocket symphonies that were clocking in closer to the ten minute mark. Springsteen's numerous songwriting ideas eventually coalesced around the album as the band crafted their sharpest set of songs to date. 'Darkness On The Edge Of Town' is imbued with a kind of desperate urgency that feels like it could only have come out of the late 1970s. Springsteen said he was inspired by the audacity, creativity and political engagement of some of the young musicians he was meeting at the time.
"Um, “Badlands” I guess. It was hard to sing. What happens is when I sit down to write, I play the music, because I usually write the music first, then I think, “Oh brother. I’ve got to write lyrics.” I had chord changes and we go in the studio and we laid the track down. I had a vague outline. I’d go home and write the words but I wouldn’t say them out loud, I’d do them in my head. So then I’d go into the studio and sing it. I’d realized that what I’d written was hard to breathe and sing all at once. So that was hard to sing. Some of the new songs are physically harder to play than the older ones. “Born To Run” was hard too though, because that’s sort of the way I do it."
- Bruce Springsteen speaking with Dave Herman (article published July 9, 1978)
'Wrong Side Of The Street' (1978) - Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band
Springsteen played keyboards on his composition 'Fire' when it was recorded by Robert Gordon (Tuff Darts) for his album 'Fresh Fish Special' (1978), a collaboration with Link Wray featuring vocal contributions from the Jordanaires. 'Fire' was also a hit for the Pointer Sisters in 1978. Southside Johnny And The Asbury Jukes' third album 'Hearts Of Stone' (1978) took its title from a Springsteen composition. I've read online that the album was almost entirely composed by E Street guitarist Steve Van Zandt but Springsteen did gift a second song to their sister group, 'Talk To Me'.
"I think Darkness came out of a place where I was afraid of losing myself. I had the first taste of success [with Born to Run], so you realize it's possible for your talent to be co-opted and for your identity to be moved and shifted in ways that you may not have been prepared for. I was the only person I'd ever met who had a record contract. None of the E Street Band, as far as I know, had been on an airplane until Columbia sent us to Los Angeles. It was a smaller, smaller world. And we were provincial guys with no money. So there was this whole little street life in Asbury Park, and New York was a million miles away. Localism, as a movement, hadn't occurred yet in music. So there was nobody saying, 'I need to see what those bands in New Jersey are doing.' It was a very different time. But the good part about it was you were very, very connected to place and you had a real sense of place. And it was unique, the place where you lived and where you grew up."
- Bruce Springsteen, National Public Radio
'Talk To Me' (1978) - Southside Johnny And The Asbury Jukes
In 1978, Bruce Springsteen presented Patti Smith with the song 'Because The Night' for which she retooled the lyrics, he performed a spoken word part for Lou Reed's pocket symphony 'Street Hassle' and he sang backing vocals on 'Faster And Louder' by the Dictators ... among other things ...
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Patti Smith, The Velvets & Laurie Anderson { : Bruce Springsteen & Patti Smith performing at the Bottom Line in Manhattan, New York City, New York in 1976 ... : )
Patti Smith was born on December 30, 1946 in Chicago, Illinois. Her mother Beverly Smith was a jazz singer who worked as a waitress and her father Grant Smith was a machinist. The family moved from Chicago to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and then on to Deptford Township, New Jersey. Smith graduated from Deptford Township High School in 1964 and went to work in a factory. Smith was under consideration to become lead singer of rock band Blue Öyster Cult; it didn't happen but she did contribute lyrics to several of the band's songs. She performed her own material with guitarist Lenny Kaye in the early 1970s. She then formed a solid touring group around a nucleus made up of core musicians who'd been hand-picked from the New York art scene. The Patti Smith Group featured Kaye on guitar, keyboardists Richard Sohl and Bruce Brody, bassist Ivan Kral and drummer Jay Dee Daugherty.
"With its confluence of culture and artistic disciplines, New York City in the mid-Seventies was the backdrop to the story of Horses, and its greatest contextual influence. Patti Smith left her working-class town in New Jersey for New York in the late Sixties, befriended future superstar photographer Robert Maplethorpe and became an artist in a complete sense of the word and ideal. Then the city moulded her.
She worked in bookshops, met Gregory Corso, Allen Ginsberg and William Burroughs while living at the Chelsea Hotel, starred alongside drag performance artist Wayne County in plays Femme Fatale and Islands, co-wrote with and starred in lover Sam Shepard’s play Cowboy Mouth, and not only read her poetry but performed it, accompanied by her friend, guitarist Lenny Kaye, at the St. Mark’s Poetry Project before a star-studded audience including Warhol, himself.
The other major force that helped give birth to Horses is the opening of a certain venue on The Bowery. The rise of CBGB’s and its dynasty of acts including Television, The Ramones, The Talking Heads and Blondie, not only mirror, but frame the rise of Patti Smith and her group. Along with Kaye, Patti enlisted keyboard player Richard Sohl, bassist Ivan Kral (poached from Blondie), and drummer Jay Dee Daugherty from The Mumps to form her group. CBGBs afforded the band the artistic freedom to explore their musical ideas and congeal their interplay, song writing and performance.
Journalists and A&R record execs started trekking downtown to check out the commotion and CBs became the nexus of a bonafied ‘scene’. Patti Smith and her group were working hard, and along with Television, performed two-shows-a-night, four-nights-a-week for seven-consecutive-weeks. It was during this stint that legendary A&R man Clive Davis signed her to Arista Records and The Patti Smith Group’s recording career started in earnest.
Patti wanted to salute those who had paved the way. The group returned to Jimi Hendrix’s Electric Lady studios (where Patti and Lenny had recorded their first single) and enlisted John Cale, the former cellist with The Velvet Underground, as their producer as they admired the unbridled sound of his solo work. Having one of the leading forces behind an already legendary group breathing life into one’s debut record certainly racked up the rock points.
Within the grooves of the album, Smith summoned up some of the great spirits of rock including one of her idols Jim Morrison who she saw as an angel with stone wings in her dream and she cried for him to ‘Break It Up’, which became the title of the tune she wrote with Televsion’s Tom Verlaine. The album’s closing song, “Elegy” was recorded on the 18th September, the anniversary of Hendrix’s death. Much in the way she paid tribute to her rock n roll heroes, Smith also invokes the spirit of literature, name-checking her muse Rimbaud and referencing the beautiful, sexual male Johnny from her friend William Burroughs’ novel The Wild Boys in her song ‘Land’.
Patti Smith 1975 Robert Mapplethorpe 1946-1989 ARTIST ROOMS Acquired jointly with the National Galleries of Scotland through The d’Offay Donation with assistance from the National Heritage Memorial Fund and the Art Fund 2008
Finally, there is the musical cross-pollination which again reflected the band’s coming of age in a musically diverse downtown scene with the reggae-inflected ‘Redondo Beach’ or the improvisation inspired by Cale on ‘Birdland’, a song based on Peter Reich’s memoirs about his father Wilhelm Book of Dreams (as is Kate Bush’s ‘Cloudbusting’). There is also a gloriously cathartic punky version of the Van Morrison-penned classic ‘Gloria’.
Just like the downtown New York City from which is sprang, ‘Horses’ is marked by a sense of urgency and liberation. It is galvanising in its sense of purpose. But the word that defines it through and through is ‘Freedom’: the social and sexual freedom of the era, the artistic freedom of a crime-ridden and economically decayed city, the freedom of rock n’ roll, the freedom of Burroughs’ Johnny and The Wild Boys, the freedom of wild horses."
- Colleen ‘Cosmo’ Murphy, Classic Album Sundays
Patti Smith : 4 Studio Albums ~ 1970s
'Horses' (1975) - Patti Smith
'Radio Ethiopia' (1976) - Patti Smith Group
'Easter' (1978) - Patti Smith Group
'Wave' (1979) - Patti Smith Group
'A Conversation With Todd Rundgren And Patti Smith' Mini-LP [Radio Sampler, 1979]
Smith has authored poems, penned lyrics, written articles, plays, essays and stories. She's a keen artist whose drawings have been exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Her book 'Just Kids' (2010) is a memoir documenting her relationship with artist and photographer Robert Mapplethorpe. 'M Train' (2015) is another memoir, one that also comes as an audiobook and a spoken word album. “You could say that Mozart was a punk rocker. I was just looking at an article today about a group called Fat White Family, and I liked very much the things that they were saying, because their whole idea is that punk rock isn’t just reactionary, but is in pursuit of the new, of making space, of not being confined or defined. Artaud, Rimbaud and Daumal : All three of them were very much seeking the new, seeking to topple the gods of the past.”
- Patti Smith, The Independent
'Because The Night' (1978) - Patti Smith Group
Lou Reed was a country music fan. The influence of country music can be heard in a number of songs by the Velvet Underground, particularly on their album 'Loaded' (1970) which brought country music themes and stylings to story-based tracks like 'Cool It Down', 'Lonesome Cowboy Bill', 'Train Round The Bend' and 'Oh! Sweet Nuthin'. The whirring, interwoven clockwork rhythms heard on the Velvet Underground's song 'What Goes On' (1969) - which are led by a circular guitar riff - become floated over by a melodic, wavering, high-pitched guitar drone, for which the band drew inspiration from some of the slides, bends and distortions they'd heard being made by steel guitars in 1960s country recordings.
“Lou Reed’s Berlin (1973) is a disaster, taking the listener into a distorted and degenerate demimonde of paranoia, schizophrenia, degradation, pill-induced violence, and suicide. There are certain records that are so patently offensive that one wishes to take some kind of physical vengeance on the artists that perpetrate them.”
- Stephen Davis, Rolling Stone
"By 1977, Lou Reed's influence could be seen and heard across the era's musical landscape. Facets of the budding punk and new wave genres boasted a raw sound, transgressive lyrics, and a blasé counterculture image that matched the blueprint Reed had established with The Velvet Underground a decade earlier.
Reed was “happy to lap up his newfound adulation,” wrote Mick Wall in the biography Lou Reed: The Life. He spent time “checking out the new wave of bands then playing CBGBs” and “talking trash to the kids from the new fanzine Punk, getting off on seeing how much they were getting off on the fact he was talking to them.”
The new punk kids on the scene, however, helped throw a wrench in his 1977 European tour plans. That May, Reed was set to play a series of shows at the London Palladium to promote his album Rock and Roll Heart. The 2286-seat venue had hosted American musical dignitaries like Frank Sinatra, Judy Garland, Nat King Cole, Johnny Cash, and Roy Orbison. However, Lou Reed would have to wait to join that celebrated list; on March 20, the Palladium canceled his May shows—and some of the blame was placed on the new legion of his musical offspring.
As Reed was preparing to cross the Pond, The Sex Pistols had smashed their way into the British public's consciousness. They were known for their rowdy, booze-soaked concerts, and on December 1, 1976, the band made a notorious TV appearance where they cussed out Thames Television host Bill Grundy. According Punk Diary: The Ultimate Trainspotter's Guide to Underground Rock by George Gimarc, a media frenzy followed, and venues across the country responded by canceling shows the band had booked for their "Anarchy in the UK Tour."
At the time, Reed had no direct association with The Sex Pistols; he was a 35-year-old introspective musician whose latest album featured a number of throwback songs about boogying. Shortly after the cancelation, Reed told British music publication Melody Maker the venue pulled his show because they had lumped him in with the most controversial band in the UK, The Sex Pistols. Due to his influence, he was deemed punk by association.
Still, The Sex Pistols may not have been entirely to blame. In Dirty Blvd.: The Life and Music of Lou Reed, Aidan Levy speculates that the owners of the Palladium may have also remembered Reed’s infamous February 1975 visit to the Palazzo Dello Sport in Rome. Protestors angry about the high price of concert tickets became unruly and ripped apart pieces of the venue, costing extensive damage. This event also contributed to the slowdown of rock show imports to Italy.
Nonetheless, Reed was deeply upset about being deemed persona non grata by the Palladium. "I’m on the way to Stockholm where the temperature is below zero,” Reed said in a press conference after the cancelation, “but it’s much colder in the heart of the person who banned me.”
- Nick Keppler, Mental Floss
Funeral Playlist : 10 Songs { : Lou Reed, Bruce Springsteen, Dion, Billy Joel & Rubén Blades : }
'Andy's Chest' (1972, 'Transformer') - Lou Reed
'Lisa Says' (1972, 'Lou Reed') - Lou Reed
'The Kids - The Bed - Sad Song (Closing Death Song Suite)' (1973, 'Berlin') - Lou Reed
'N.Y. Stars' (1974, 'Sally Can't Dance') - Lou Reed
'Waves Of Fear' (1982, 'The Blue Mask') - Lou Reed
'Martial Law' (1983, 'Legendary Hearts') - Lou Reed
'It Wasn't Me' (1990, 'Songs For Drella') - Lou Reed & John Cale
'Harry's Circumcision' (1992, 'Magic And Loss') - Lou Reed
'White Prism' (2000, 'Ecstasy') - Lou Reed
'Waves Of Fear' (1982, 'The Blue Mask') - Lou Reed
'Street Hassle ("Waltzing Matilda" / "Street Hassle" / "Slipaway" ~ Pocket Death Symphony)' (1978) - Lou Reed with Bruce Springsteen
John Cale produced the Patti Smith Group's debut album 'Horses' (1975) and he played organ on Smith's album 'Gone Again' (1996).
'Just a perfect day
You made me forget myself
I thought I was someone else
Someone good ...'
'Gideon's Bible' (1970) - John Cale
When reading musicians' favourites lists that have been posted online, I find it can be hard to verify whether they were originally submitted that way, or simply pieced together from different interviews. Still, there's a lot of these I see that make some kind of sense, and in the case of Lou Reed, I've yet to see any of these selections being strongly contested. His top 100 songs I've read online take in blues, jazz, country, experimental music and a lot of the old-time tunes he drew inspiration from as a working songwriter.
There's also a list of Reed's top albums I've seen, which has been published online. It's taken from a scribbled note sent by Reed to a magazine in 1999, and the original note includes a couple of singles too. The list looks hastily cobbled together by Reed, possibly while answering a direct question being posed to him, but it does feature several artists I know he admired, such as Al Green and Scott Walker.
Reed said in interviews he always tried to pick up the latest Bob Dylan album, once adding, “Bob Dylan can turn a phrase, man”. I really need to hear some of Roland Kirk's work, I know he influenced some musicians I like, like Howard Devoto and Paul Weller. Lou Reed : 10 Favourite Albums
Ornette Coleman – 'Change Of The Century' (1960)
Scott Walker - 'Tilt' (1995)
Al Green - 'Belle' (1977)
Anything by Jimmy Scott
Bob Dylan – 'Blood On The Tracks' (1973)
Little Richard’s Specialty Series
Hank Williams’ Singles
Harry Smith Anthology
'Does Your House Have Lions : The Rahsaan Roland Kirk Anthology' by Roland Kirk
Laurie Anderson - 'Big Science' (1982)
'The Gambler' (1978) - Bobby Bare
{ ... it's been described as the country anthem of its year, released in April 1978, and followed by new takes from Johnny Cash and Kenny Rogers in November 1978 ... }
There are many other musicans that Reed spoke fondly of across the years, such as John Lennon, or Brian Wilson. I've read that he was crazy for the guitar work on some of Neil Young's albums recorded with Crazy Horse. I know he appreciated Elton John's ability to compose music for the piano, and he was a staunch admirer of poet Leonard Cohen, whom he formally inducted in to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2008. Of course, he could just as easily slate the very same people five seconds later, such was his generally cantankerous behaviour and seemingly irascible nature. "Leonard Cohen will be saying So Long to Montreal's Marianne street as he embarks on a world tour this summer, his first in 15 years. The tour takes him through the UK, Ireland and Europe, including stops at the Glastonbury, Montreux and Benicassim Festivals. He will also appear at London's O2 Arena, Edinburgh Castle, the Manchester Opera House and at three hometown Montreal dates. Ticket prices for the Montreal dates, which went on pre-sale yesterday, begin at about £75. Given the rarity of Cohen's live appearances, fans are unlikely to struggle with this. I certainly didn't: seat J26, you are mine.
Cohen has spent the past 15 years recording privately (he's maintained his partnership with the singer Anjani). He buys freshly squeezed orange juice from a place just down the street from us, and makes sporadic public appearances, such as his 2007 collaboration with Philip Glass.
He's also struggled with legal issues, suing his long-time manager Kelley Lynch for misappropriation of funds. Although Cohen won the case, it's understood that Lynch's sins left a major dent in Cohen's finances.
On a happier note, Leonard Cohen was inducted earlier this week into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Lou Reed introduced the songwriter at the ceremony, and Damien Rice performed a rendition of Hallelujah in tribute to the man. (Please let this be as close as Damien Rice ever comes to being inducted into the Hall of Fame.)
The critic Jon Landau once said: "I have seen the future of rock'n'roll, and he is not Leonard Cohen." Perhaps Cohen is not the future, but he is one of our favourite parts of its past."
- Sean Michaels
'Georgia' (1978) - Elton John with B.J. Cole (Cochise) on steel guitar
Laurie Anderson was born on June 5, 1947 in Glen Ellyn, Illinois, a suburb located about 24 miles due west of downtown Chicago. She was encouraged to question by her parents and she grew up to become an exceptional student. She has a range of educational honours and continues to receive citations to this day (she was selected to be the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's first resident artist).
"It was ahead of its time back in 1982, but now Laurie Anderson's debut sounds just right for a world gone totally wrong.
"In September 2001, I was on tour and played 'O Superman' at Town Hall in New York City," writes Laurie Anderson in the liner notes to her newly reissued Big Science. "The show was one week after 9/11, and as I sang, 'Here come the planes/ They're American planes,' I suddenly realized I was singing about the present."
"Suddenly?" Methinks Anderson is being a touch disingenuous. On the night of September 11, 2001, Anderson was performing at the Park West in Chicago. The air was heavy with dread, confusion, and anger. Waiting for the show to begin, the crowd was talking amongst itself, conversations running the gamut between those three poles. Anderson herself had allegedly spent much of the morning on the phone with her partner Lou Reed, who was back in New York -- and supposedly sitting on the roof of their building watching the Twin Towers burn -- though she made nary a mention of the day's events once she started performing.
The crowd was dead silent throughout, but when Anderson began "O Superman" you could hear the room shift as the already menacing song took on new layers of eerily contemporary meaning. "Hello? Is anybody home? Well, you don't know me, but I know you. And I've got a message to give to you. Here come the planes. So you better get ready." The lyrics chimed out like an answering machine message sent to the future, picked up several decades too late.
That song's mix of politics, Zen-like aphorism, and sentimentalism hit like a punch to the gut as the nation stood on the precipice of the unknown, and the toll the collapse of the Twin Towers would truly take on this country -- and the world -- hadn't quite settled in. So : "suddenly?" No, surely Anderson recognized the renewed power of her (sole) unlikely hit well before she made it home to New York City. Then again, the almost mystically timeless song was in a way always about the shifting "present." Anderson writes that "O Superman (For Massenet)" was inspired by a composition from Jules Massenet's opera Le Cid, "O Souverain", which in turn reminded Anderson of Napoleon's fall at Waterloo. She had also taken into account the bungled U.S. rescue mission in Tehran. It's a song of military arrogance, failure and the price we all pay, recorded for a modest $500 with an NEA grant. In 1981, it went to No. 2 in the UK.
Big Science comprises songs from Anderson's also quite prescient United States project, a multimedia performance art piece cum opera ("It seemed like everyone I knew was working on an opera," she recalls) that depicted America on the brink of digital revolution and capitalist nirvana, where the dollar trumped tradition and the apocalypse-- cultural, political, technological-- loomed large. In fact, given its themes and presentation, much of Big Science sounds every bit about "the present" as "O Superman" does, and its idiosyncratic execution (with stylistic nods to the minimalists and pal William S. Burroughs) has helped the disc weather the passage of time remarkably well. It's less a document of the early 1980s than it is a dark glimpse of the future recorded at the dawn of the Reagan era.
Anderson's ingenious move, musically, was utilizing the vocoder not as a trick but as a melodic tool. It's the first thing you hear on Big Science, looped in "From the Air" like some bizarre man-machine synth. The rest of the track revolves around a circular pattern of blurted sax figures and hypnotic drums. There's virtually nothing about it that screams its age as Anderson intones a wry announcement from a (caveman) pilot of a plummeting flight. "There is no pilot," she speaks. "You are not alone. Standby. This is the time. And this is the record of the time." It's a metaphor for every frightening thing about 20th (and now 21st century) living you can think of, and in its spare way it's enough to scare you silly."
- Joshua Klein, Pitchfork
Laurie Anderson : 4 Studio Albums ~ 1980s
'Big Science' (1982) - Laurie Anderson
'Mister Heartbreak' (1984) - Laurie Anderson
'Home Of The Brave' (1986) - Laurie Anderson
'Strange Angels' (1989) - Laurie Anderson
'Setting Me Up' (1978) - Dire Straits
Anderson is also an enthusiastic inventor, sometimes working alone, sometimes working in collaboration. Perhaps her most famous musical creation is a tape-bow violin she plays. She's co-creator of a talking stick and has experimented extensively with synthesisers and vocal filters. Her genre-defying work as composer, performance artist and conceptual artist has allowed her free reign to conduct investigations into memory, psychology, philosophy and astronomy. She's also produced and directed a range of multimedia projects including 'Home Of The Brave' (1986), 'What You Mean We?' (1987) and the transitory diary 'Heart Of A Dog' (2015). "You know, one thing I’d really like to do is take a year and just make a gigantic landscape painting. It’s something I wish I had the time to do, with really thick paints. I love making paintings.
It’s exactly like music. It’s the same thing as bowing — the same stroke, the same decisions. You look at it and think, “Is it complex enough, weird enough, empty enough, full enough, connected enough?” All the same things that you ask about a piece of music."
- Laurie Anderson, Andy Warhol's Interview
Floridian gothic Lilly Jane experiences the Bee Gees performing 'Too Much Heaven' (1978)
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One evening in the spring of 1979, Bruce Springsteen was chatting with Joey Ramone, who requested he write a song for the Ramones to record. Around this time, Springsteen wrote the song 'Hungry Heart' which took its title from the 19th century poem 'Ulysses' by Alfred Tennyson. Jon Landau is said to have advised Springsteen against passing the song on, so instead he went in to the studio with the E Street Band and cut a take. As the recording session developed, Springsteen experimented with a production technique Brian Wilson had used for the song 'Caroline, No' which appeared on the Beach Boys' album 'Pet Sounds' (1966). Dire Straits had recently utilised this same speed-tracking technique while recording 'Setting Me Up', a song that generated a degree of interest in America when it briefly entered the Country Music Chart. Springsteen invited members of the Turtles to sing backing vocals on 'Hungry Heart' which became the E Street Band's first top ten single. "When the Beatles and The Beach Boys reminded everyone that an ‘album’ did not have to be 12 singles and B-sides, that it could be a ‘journey’, they changed musical history. This album, Pet Sounds, is a work of the pure genius of Brian Wilson. Caroline No is a favourite. This album and Sgt. Pepper moved popular music forward by miles."
- Graham Nash, Louder
Bobby Bare's Prison Blues
Johnny Cash & Carl Perkins discuss music on 'Bobby Bare & Friends'
Floridian swamp celestial Lilly Jane explores the outer reaches of country interpretation and western interpolation with Johnny Cash
Springsteen began working extensively with one of his musical heroes around the turn of the decade, singer Gary U.S. Bonds, and they performed together on the song 'Jole Blon' when Springsteen dropped his own recording of it from the proposed line-up for 'The River' (1980). The E Street Band and Bonds have continued to work together across the decades, which this century has taken in new recordings with Bonds' daughter with Laurie Cedeno, songwriter and record producer ... Laurie Anderson. |
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Post by petrolino on Jun 28, 2024 22:38:55 GMT
Joni Mitchell : 'Tornado Of The Prairie Provinces'
Joni Mitchell was born Roberta Joan Mitchell on November 7, 1943 in Fort Macleod, Alberta, Canada, a barrack town located about 36 miles north of Cardston (where actress and writer Fay Wray was born). Her mother, schoolteacher Myrtle Marguerite (née McKee), was of Scots and Irish ancestry. Her father, William Andrew Anderson, was a Royal Canadian Air Force flight lieutenant and flight instructor of Norwegian ancestry. She spent time at different Canadian military bases during the early part of her childhood. When she was starting primary school, the family settled in Saskatchewan. When she was ready to start her secondary education, the family made their home in Saskatoon, the largest city in Saskatchewan. "She was born Roberta Joan Anderson in 1943. Like many pop musicians, she suffered a childhood of utter tedium, a bright star against the faint backdrop of Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. On the airwaves, she heard “Mantovani, country and western, a lot of radio journalism,” and, once a day for an hour, “The Hit Parade.” A soulful girl, she watched the trains approach and depart, or pored over the Sears catalogue. (She called it “the book of dreams.”) When Mitchell was eight, she contracted polio and was quarantined, for several months, in a hospital close to home. Her mother came to see her once, on Christmas; her father never did. Polio patients were told to keep perfectly still — it was believed that any movement might cause the disease to spread — so she spent the time alone and on her back. When she was released, her left hand was damaged (it would make conventional guitar playing difficult for her, and led her to experiment with her own, idiosyncratic tunings) and she had lost the speed in her legs. But, she said, she “came back a dancer.”
It was painting that took her away from Saskatoon. It is practically a default for aspiring musicians to attend art schools—“holding pens for dropouts and rejects,” as Yaffe puts it — and Mitchell soon enrolled in the Alberta College of Art and Design, in Calgary, paying the bills by working as a model at a department store. She taught herself to play the guitar by listening to a Pete Seeger instructional record, and played the ukulele in coffeehouses around the city. But performing was a “hobby” — she reserved her ambition for the canvas."
- Dan Chiasson, The New Yorker
'The Long Black Veil' - Johnny Cash & Joni Mitchell
Mitchell learnt folk music around the campfire and enjoyed singing outdoors. She studied the ukelele and progressed to guitar and piano. She was also a keen painter and a promising poet. She contracted polio at the age of eight and took up smoking the following year. Her condition left her with a weak left hand so she experimented with alternative tunings to nullify this potential physical weakness. In doing so, she developed a gift for crafting unusual harmonies and complex song structures. This was to serve her particularly well when she began incorporating jazz techniques into her playing style. "I think you're the greatest lyricist that has ever lived."
- Morrissey compliments Joni Mitchell while interviewing her in 1997, Rolling Stone
'The Circle Game' (1970) - Joni Mitchell with the Lookout Mountain United Downstairs Choir
Mitchell performed her first concerts in Canada where a new generation of songwriters was making waves on both sides of the Canadian-American border. Her contemporary Buffy Sainte-Marie (born February 20, 1941, Qu'Appelle Valley, Saskatchewan, Canada) was a local artist active in Saskatchewan. Another acquaintance was Winnipeg-based folk singer Neil Young (born November 12, 1945, Toronto, Ontario, Canada) who joined the Mynah Birds back home in Toronto. Young's idol in Winnipeg was local star Randy Bachman (born September 27, 1943, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada) of the Guess Who. Tommy Chong (born May 24, 1938, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada) was a member of Little Daddy & the Bachelors in British Columbia in the early 1960s. Gordon Lightfoot (born November 17, 1938, Orillia, Ontario, Canada) travelled and performed successfully in Europe at this time. Poet and novelist Leonard Cohen (born September 21, 1934, Westmount, Quebec, Canada) was an established figure in New York City, New York and this is where Mitchell headed. In 1965, Mitchell moved to New York where she became instrumental in the greater popularisation of the Greenwich Village folk scene. This same year she gave birth to her daughter Kelly Dale Anderson who she put up for adoption (they've since been reuinted), and she married fellow folksinger Chuck Mitchell in Rochester, Michigan. It was a heavy year for the young singer-songwriter who spent several more years playing small clubs on the east coast of America. "Prince's touchstones quickly became apparent as he began tangling, however reluctantly or high-handedly, with the press. In his Rolling Stone interview from 1985, Prince called Joni Mitchell's The Hissing of Summer Lawns, from 1975, "The last album I loved all the way through." He also put on Stevie Wonder's Journey Through the Secret World of Plants and Miles Davis's brand new You're Under Arrest. When Rolling Stone's Neal Karlen asked how Prince felt about his new Around the World in a Day being labeled "psychedelic," he responded, "I don't mind that, because that was the only period in recent history that delivered songs and colors. Led Zeppelin, for example, would make you feel differently on each song."
- Michaelangelo Matos, Minnesota Public Radio
'California' (1971) - Joni Mitchell with Sneaky Pete Kleinow on pedal steel guitar
Around 1968, Mitchell moved to Los Angeles, California and began playing regular gigs on the west coast of America. She became one of the instigators of the Laurel Canyon sound and developed strong working relationships with some of the movement's key players. Her collaborators on her early records included Jeff 'Skunk' Baxter (Ultimate Spinnach), Tommy Chong (Bobby Taylor & the Vancouvers), David Crosby (The Byrds), Glenn Frey (The Eagles), Sneaky Pete Kleinow (The Flying Burrito Brothers), Russ Kunkel (Things To Come), Graham Nash (The Hollies), J.D. Souther, Stephen Stills (Buffalo Springfield) and Neil Young (Buffalo Springfield). During this period, Mitchell secured the services of record producer Paul Rothchild who was elemental to the development of recorded folk music and worked as a house producer at Elektra Records where his clients included Tim Buckley, the Paul Butterfield Blues Band, Clear Light, the Doors, Love and Rhinocerous. Rothchild produced original demos for a new supergroup known as Crosby, Stills, & Sebastian, before John Sebastian (The Lovin' Spoonful) departed, and Graham Nash and (later) Neil Young were recruited. Just as important to Mitchell was some of the other artists Rothchild had worked with, including folk musicians Fred Neil, Tom Paxton and Tom Rush. "I used to be a breathy little soprano. Then one day I found that I could sing low. At first I thought I had lost my voice forever. I could sing either a breathy high part or a raspy low part. Then the two came together by themselves. It was uncomfortable for a while, but I worked on it, and now I've got this voice."
- Joni Mitchell speaking in May 1969, Rolling Stone
'Cold Blue Steel And Sweet Fire' (1972) - Joni Mitchell with James Burton on electric guitar
Mitchell worked regularly in the 1970s with members of the Jazz Crusaders and L.A. Express. Her albums became more experimental, leading to fateful collaborations with Michel Colombier, Stanley Clarke, Eddie Gomez, Jan Hammer, John McLaughlin, Gerry Mulligan, Charlie Mingus, Jaco Pastorius, Dannie Richmond, Wayne Shorter, Tony Williams and Phil Woods, which is testament to Mitchell's musical abilities. In the 1980s, Mitchell extended her musical company further by featuring guest vocalists plucked from all areas of popular music. "Oh yes, I had the respect of my musicians. In jazz circles, the girl singer was tolerated and called “the chirp.” For the most part, these women were accused of having bad timing and not being able to spontaneously compose. I heard sessions with Billie Holiday where she would have no power in the room. It’s a man’s world. Men wrote most of the songs for women and they were mostly tales of seduction. I wrote my own songs. That ended that."
- Joni Mitchell, Maclean's
'Free Man In Paris' (1974) - Joni Mitchell with José Feliciano on guitar
Joni Mitchell is one of Canada's greatest artists. She was inducted into the Canadian Music Hall Of Fame in 1981, the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame in 1997, received a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2002 and was made a Companion of the Order Of Canada in 2004. Though her artistic achievements were once said to be at risk of being erased, due to the album jacket for her album 'Don Juan's Reckless Daughter' (1977) featuring a photomontage that includes an image of Mitchell's alter-ego, passionate black hipster Art Nouveau, her work has (so far) survived the cut. "When I met Johnny Rotten, I liked him immediately. He was younger than I was, but he was a lot like I was in high school : fashion conscious . . . kind of pale and pimply and avoiding the sun. But I’m a punk. I’ve never really been in the mainstream. Not that being a punk is a good thing, necessarily [laughs]."
- Joni Mitchell, Rolling Stone
'In France They Kiss On Main Street' (1976) - Joni Mitchell
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Joni's Arc
Joni Mitchell's recording career has seen her embrace a number of different musical styles, though her name is synonymous with folk and her faculty may be jazz. The path she's taken has seen her collaborate with numerous musicians, writers and artists, young and old. In recent times, she's been stepping out with Brandi Carlile.
“It’s not just the artifact — music and lyrics — that Joni gives us. Her artistry leaves us, ourselves, changed. She has shifted things around inside us. And that’s how artists change the world.”
- Meryl Streep, liner notes for 'Joni Mitchell ~ The Asylum Albums (1976 - 1980)'
Joni Mitchell Talks ‘Blue’, “Both Sides Now”, & Newport Folk Festival with Elton John | Apple Music
Assessing the influence that country music has had on Mitchell's career may seem complicated, but in some ways, it's the story of Canadian music in the rock 'n' roll era. Nova Scotians Wilf Carter ('The Yodelling Cowboy') and Hank Snow ('The Yodelling Ranger') were inducted in to the Nashville Songwriters Hall Of Fame in 1971 and 1978 respectively. Snow joined the Country Music Hall Of Fame in 1979, becoming the "first non-American performer inducted"; I'm not sure if any solo performer has been inducted since who was born outside of America. In mythic terms, the trip down to Nashville from Canada may have begun here, but it's remained a lure that musicians have found impossible to resist.
“Almost a decade before Joni Mitchell and Anne Murray, Canada had its own international million-selling recording artist: Lucille Starr. She was born Lucille Marie Raymonde Savoie in St. Boniface, MB in 1938. Lucille was a natural musician and could play guitar, bass and mandolin.”
- Red Robinson, Red Robinson's Legends
“Lucille Starr is one of Canada’s most successful pioneering musical acts, and should be recognized with the country’s highest honour for her profound impact upon Canadian culture. She is one of a handful of Canadian popular musicians to successfully record in both English and French. Lucille was the first female inducted into the Canadian Country Music Association’s Hall of Honour in 1987. Two years later, she was one of the inaugural inductees into the Canadian Country Music Hall of Fame.”
- Larry LeBlanc, Red Robinson's Legends
'The French Song ("Quand le soleil dit bonjour aux montagnes")' (1964) - Lucille Starr
Buffy Sainte-Marie recorded the album 'I'm Gonna Be A Country Girl Again' (1968) with Nashville session players. Lucille Starr recorded the album 'Lonely Street' (1969) with country producer Billy Sherrill, having cut a record deal with Epic that stationed her in Tennessee. Leonard Cohen undertook recording sessions in Nashville for the albums 'Songs From A Room' (1969) and 'Songs Of Love And Hate' (1971), both of which feature session musicians who were based in Nashville. Cohen would later explore a range of global musical ideas with the album 'Recent Songs' (1979), while working closely with producer Henry Lewy who was noted for his work inside the studio with Mitchell. This included studies of Chinese, Arabic, Persian, Slavic, French, Acadian and Cajun phrasing. The album also features a mariachi horn section on three songs - 'Ballad Of The Absent Mare', 'The Guests' and 'The Lost Canadian (Un Canadien errant)'.
"When I started out in the sixties there weren’t many women writing music, but Buffy Sainte-Marie was an exception to the rule. Whenever Buffy came through town I went down to the coffee house to hear her play. Her songs were so smart, so well-crafted, and her performances were stunning. She was different from the stereotypical music industry old boys’ club. When I moved to Toronto to pursue music, I stopped at the Mariposa Folk Festival on the way to see Buffy perform. A year later, I played that same festival, so you could say I followed in Buffy’s footsteps.
Buffy really helped me at the beginning: before I was well-known, she performed songs I wrote, bringing them to a wider audience, and she played my tape for anyone who would listen. Over the years since, Buffy and I have maintained a long-distance mutual respect.
We have ties to Saskatchewan, but we share more than just a home : we both write songs with emotion, songs with a message. And to this day, we both walk our own path. I’ve watched Buffy’s long career with admiration, and I’m honored to write this foreword to her authorized biography. Buffy Sainte-Marie is one of folk music’s unsung heroes, and her inspirational life is a story that deserves to be read.'
- Joni Mitchell, American Masters (excerpt from a foreword written for 'Buffy Sainte-Marie : The Authorized Biography' by Andrea Warner)
'Take My Hand For A While' (1971, written by Buffy Sainte-Marie) - Françoise Hardy
'En écoutant Elton John' (1972) - Diane Dufresne
'Tout est cassé, tout est mort' (1972) - Veronique Sanson (she married Stephen Stills in 1973)
Having dipped in to his country palette for 'After The Gold Rush' (1970), Neil Young recorded the album 'Harvest' (1972) with backing from the Stray Gators, a session group he'd assembled in Nashville, who worked alongside some of Young's trusted musical collaborators from the L.A. scene.
"On March 20th, 1973, Young sat down at his piano during a performance in Bakersfield, California and let out one of his most touching songs, ‘Sweet Joni’. Young has rarely played the song since, and it remains one of the unattainable tracks in his catalogue. It’s difficult to understand the track as anything but a lilting love letter. Not only is it flecked with some of Young’s more vulnerable lyrics, but his few performances have always been delivered with a lump in his throat. It is perhaps this song which leads people to assume that he and Mitchell shared a romantic relationship.
The duo have continued to be friends both in and out of the public eye, exchanging performances and helping musically to create one of the sweetest friendships in music.
Judging by the song Neil Young wrote for Mitchell, there may well have been a time when it could have been more. But, for now, we have the mesmeric songs they wrote for each other."
- Jack Whatley, Far Out
“She was the whole package : a lovely, sylphlike woman with a natural blush, like windburn, and an elusive quality that seemed lit from within.”
- Graham Nash on Joni Mitchell, 'Wild Tales'
'Our House' (1970) - Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young with Joni Mitchell (a song written about her house in Laurel Canyon)
'Laughing' (1971) - David Crosby with Joni Mitchell, Graham Nash & the Grateful Dead (including Jerry Garcia on pedal steel guitar)
'Another Sleep Song' (1974) - Graham Nash with Joni Mitchell and Ben Keith on dobro (a song written at Barbra Streisand's house in San Francisco)
Canadian artists who appear on Anne Murray's album 'Anne Murray Duets : Friends & Legends' (2007) include k.d. Lang, Shania Twain, Céline Dion and Isabelle Boulay, all of whom were inspired by the Canadian country legend.
'Unlike Elton (John), (Brandi) Carlile came to Joni (Mitchell) much later in life, something she's been candid about. Well before acknowledging that Mitchell was in the house and going to perform, Carlile played a song she said was the first of hers to be inspired by Joni.'
- Google Answers (Q : "What's the connection between Brandi Carlile and Joni Mitchell?"), October 15, 2023
Sheriff Elton John shakes down urban fugitive France Gall
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¬ Canadian Mix Tape ( ... Country Characteristics Creeping ... )
'A Steel Guitar And A Glass Of Wine' (1962) - Paul Anka 'A Child's Claim To Fame' (1967) - Buffalo Springfield 'Brown To Blue' (1967) - Zalman Yanovsky 'Jickson Johnson' (1968) - Ian & Sylvia
'Cajun Love' (1969) - Lucille Starr 'Disappearing Woman' (1969) - Great Speckled Bird 'God Fearing Man' (1969) - Steppenwolf
'Cinq minutes d'amour' (1972) - France Gall
'Just Another Whistle Stop' (1970) - The Band
'One Divided' (1971) - The Guess Who 'Shadows On My Wall' (1971) - Denny Doherty
'Bad Side Of The Moon' (1972) - April Wine
'Country Girl (i. "Country Girl Of Mine" / ii. "The Devil And Miss Lucy" / iii. 'She Used To Be My Woman")' (1972) - Five Man Electrical Band 'Clocks Don't Bring Tomorrow - Knives Don't Bring Good News' (1973) - Bruce Cockburn 'Dixie (Une toune qui me revient)' (L'été et l'arrivée de la chaleur)' (1975) - Harmonium
'La quatrième chose' (1972) - France Gall
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Post by petrolino on Jul 4, 2024 22:46:38 GMT
Avril Ramona Lavigne : ' The Real Ramona ' { : Accepting Life, Death And The Resurrection : }
Singer-songwriter / multi-instrumentalist Avril Lavigne appeared on stage with Shania Twain when she was 15 years old. In 2017, Lavigne was ranked as one of the five-best-selling Canadian female artists of all time alongside Céline Dion, Shania Twain, Sarah McLachlan and Diana Krall. She was born in Belleville, Ontario. Her name Avril comes from the French word for the month of April. The name Lavigne comes from the French for vine, or vineyard; Avril's paternal grandfather Maurice Yves Lavigne was from Saint-Jerome in Quebec, and he married Lucie Dzierzbicki, a French native of Morhange.
“I can sing different ways and I grew up in church performing gospel music and I grew up singing country music at the fairs when I was a young girl. And then when I got into high school I was listening to punk rock bands, you know? I stated writing my own music at 14, I was, like, kind of more rock influenced. But, yeah, I grew up singing, listening to, different styles and genres.”
- Avril Lavigne speaking in 2019, Lehigh Valley Music
"Too rock for the country world, too punk for the pop world, too pop for the punk world. Maybe, Avril, this world in general is just not good enough for you."
- Mike Rampton, 'Everything We Owe To The Misunderstood Genius Of Avril Lavigne'
'Smile' [Walmart Soundcheck, 2011]
When she was a small child in Ontario, Lavigne's father, Jean-Claude Lavigne, converted a room situated inside their family home into a small music studio, complete with microphone set-up, drum kit, keyboard and guitars. Lavigne eagerly rotated the set-up while teaching herself how to play different musical instruments and she began writing her own songs as a teenager. She sang pentecostal hymns at the Third Day Worship Centre in Kingston where her father played bass guitar on the worship team.
"Avril is a punk chanteuse, a post-grunge valkyrie, with the wounded soul of a poet and the explosive pugnacity of a Canadian."
- Sir Ian McKellen on Ms. Avril Lavigne
Avril Lavigne & Jean-Claude Lavigne
Lavigne performed at karaoke functions and country fairs before winning herself an opportunity to join Shania Twain up on stage in Ottawa. A prodigious musical talent, she landed a recording contract in the year 2000 that was estimated to be worth somewhere between $1,000,000 and $2,000,000. Though her career was taking shape rapidly, she was yet to reach adulthood.
'He was a boy,
She was a girl,
Can I make it any more obvious?
He was a punk,
She did ballet,
What more can I say?
He wanted her,
She'd never tell,
Secretly she wanted him as well,
But all of her friends,
Stuck up their nose,
They had a problem with his baggy clothes ...
He was a skater boy,
She said, "See you later, boy"
He wasn't good enough for her ...
She had a pretty face,
But her head was up in space,
She needed to come back down to earth ...'
'Sk8er Boi' ... [Glastonbury Festival, 2024]
- - - | - - -
7 Albums
'Let Go' (2002)
"Musical snobs over the age of 21 are likely to be highly suspicious of Avril Lavigne. She's only 17, she's pretty, she's sold a zillion albums already, she talks a lot about keeping it real : she must be rubbish, right?
Wrong. Avril's current single 'Sk8ter Boi' is brilliant. It's a classic high energy pop song with crunchy guitars and a great hook. Its tale of a snobby girl who rejects the loser who becomes a grunge superstar while she turns into a single mum is as slick and clever as an episode of Buffy. It bowls you over with its energy and sticks in your mind."
- Nick Reynolds, The British Broadcasting Corporation
"So I never really listened to the entirety of Let Go until last year. And wow, it’s a great album!
The first thing that stuck out to me is the quality of the production. I should say first of all that if you’re sensitive to compressed loudness, it’s a pretty loud album. It’s not the loudest album the “loudness wars” have produced, but it’s not as dynamic as something like Daft Punk’s Random Access Memories. In spite of this it’s very polished and well-produced.
In 2002 I did most of my music listening on cheap Sony headphones or computer speakers. Neither setup held a candle to the nicer stuff I use today. Let Go benefits a surprising amount from proper audio gear. It uses a vast swathe of the frequency range. The instrumentation and soundstaging are complex, and always toeing the line of sounding cluttered, but Lavigne’s vocals stay intelligible throughout. “Sk8er Boi” has some profoundly deep sub bass hits in it that startled me the first time I actually heard them. Every song on the album features a blend of crisp highs, strong mids for vocals, and deep deep bass.
This album seems like it was mixed for gear that most mainstream listeners didn’t have access to in 2002. Most people have probably heard these songs on mall speakers, car radios, or cheap bundled headphones. Today, audio gear is much more accessible, prominent, and desired by home consumers. Let Go is a surprisingly good album to test out your gear with. And not just because it’s well-produced…it also has an identity crisis.
Let Go is not a pop punk album. It’s like a weird…it’s like a weird pop thing? I don’t know what genre to put it in. Some songs are punk-y (“Sk8er Boi”). Some have an alternative, Alanis Morrissette-esque sound (“Complicated”). Other songs are pleasant acoustic things that wouldn’t be out of place in the corner of a cafe (“I’m with you,” “Tomorrow”). Every track feels like it could have come from a different album.
I love this.
The songs are thematically tied together, and Avril’s vocals are consistently on-point, but otherwise, it’s a varied collection of sounds. It seems like each song was written to be a standalone hit single. In a world where most albums have to conform to a certain genre or sound, Lavigne bucked that trend. I’m also impressed at the range on display. The contrast between Sk8er Boi and I’m With You is profound and crazy.
I don’t have much more to say really. You’ve probably already decided what you think about this album, since you’ve had 14 years. You either think Avril is a-ok or kind of annoying, if I had to guess. If you’ve got a decent pair of headphones or speakers though, give this album a re-listen: it might just surprise you."
- Alex Rowe, Medium
"Avril Lavigne conquered the pop charts by refusing to get dirty. No skimpy clothes, no suggestive dancing, no tabloid adventures, no hip-hop collaborations, no provocative lyrics. She was both more defiant and more clean-cut than her peers : Her just-say-no message intrigued millions of kids while reassuring their parents.
But Avril Lavigne might also be the most inscrutable teen-pop star of all time. For the past couple of years, her army of Avrilites has been staring at her, eagerly and hungrily, and she has stared right back, betraying nothing. Even now, after the years-long media blitz that followed the extravagant success of her debut, Let Go, Lavigne still seems somehow unsullied by it all: a nineteen-year-old blank slate.
That blankness is what makes her best songs so irresistible. Whether it’s a fit of faux punk or a maudlin ballad, she sings it all absolutely straight : You can hear whatever you want to hear. Her music is maddeningly (and admirably) difficult to categorize : The hit “I’m With You” had an almost imperceptible country twang, a vaguely new-metal melody and a chorus that wouldn’t be out of place on American Idol, though none of the contestants would have had the good sense to sing it so plainly."
- Kelefah Sanneh, Rolling Stone
Weird Al Yankovic interviews Avril Lavigne
'Under My Skin' (2004)
"If there's anything that sets Under My Skin apart from its predecessor, 2002's Let Go, it's the decidedly darker tone. Whereas Avril was originally a winsome and carefree ingenue, she has evolved into something of a vengeful virago. The ticklish good humor of "Sk8er Boi" has been subsumed by the sardonic regret of "My Happy Ending".
The first indication that things have changed can be found on the album's cover. Whereas the Avril of Let Go was accessibly insouciance, the Avril of Under My Skin is ominously forbidding. It only makes sense. The onset of sudden superstardom creates a natural backlash that sublimates any character eccentricities. Whereas her original appeal lay in a nuanced (if slightly contrived) expression of vulnerability, her new persona has retreated from any overt emotional intimacy. The charmingly cheesy fake-punk fashion sense has been replaced by a steely and unwelcome sensuality, represented by tight corsets and intimidating ice-queen glances."
- Tim O'Neil, Pop Matters
'My Happy Ending' [AOL Session, 2011]
'The Best Damn Thing' (2007)
"To while away the time before the arrival of Avril Lavigne's new longplayer, I imagined what the cover art might look like. In the end, I settled upon a reworking of Blondie's Parallel Lines with Lavigne taking up the Debbie Harry position, moody and 'tudey at the front. But instead of darkly besuited Blondie blokes in the background, stand a bunch of marketing bods, making percussion by clicking their Parker pens and printing out unit speculations.
But why'd I have to go and make things so complicated? It's hardly news that pop runs on bankable propositions. And if you're looking for the acceptable face of mass-marketed teen rebellion, Avril Lavigne beats the stripey socks off the competition. Let's face it, while there are mirrors in bedrooms and hairbrushes to be sung into, while The OC needs emotion-ridden soundtracks, we need teen rock.
So step up, Ms Lavigne. For, anyone who includes this amount of hand claps on a single record is OK in my book. The album kicks off with its first single release ''Girlfriend'', a piece of pep rally power pop which shamelessly drags Tony Basil's ''Mickey'' out of the crates and sets the standard for the rest of the record. Following this, the title track shakes its pom-poms with a 'give me an a-v-r-i-l' cheer. Later, ''I Don't Have To Try'' kicks off with the Peaches-like chant 'I'm the one, I'm the one who wears the pants. I wear the pants!'.
Alongside all of its bolshy, brattish choruses and boyfriend baiting, the album also offers surprisingly touching moments. ''Innocence'' features the endearing lyric 'This innocence is brilliant, I hope that it will stay ... don't let it pass you by'. A rare oasis of calm amidst the stiletto-heeled frenzy that powers the album.
In all of its foot-stompin', hand-clappin' splendour, this parade of hollaback hymns to bad boyfriends, bad girlfriends and bad behaviour shows an Avril Lavigne who, on her third album, knows the secret to a great pop chorus and isn’t taking herself too seriously. The Best Damn Thing might be taking it a bit too far. If she'd consulted me, I'd have called it 'How I Stopped Worrying and Learned to Love Lavigne'."
- Nickie Latham, The British Broadcasting Corporation
'Girlfriend' [Sirius XM - Pandora Small Stage Concert, 2022]
'Goodbye Lullaby' (2011)
"Avril Lavigne is a romantic. That’s a hard concept to wrap your mind around. For nearly a decade, she has been pop’s most unregenerate grump, sneering contempt for everything over bubblegum-punk hooks. Her latest hit, “What the Hell,” offers more of the same : Avril in mean-girl mode, inflicting psychological torment on her boyfriend. But “What the Hell” turns out to have been a bait-and-switch. Goodbye Lullaby is lovelorn and introspective, full of gusty tunes with a surprising message : Avril cares."
- Jody Rosen, Rolling Stone
'What The Hell' ['The Tonight Show', 2011]
'Avril Lavigne' (2013)
"A first taste like honey, you were so yum/Can't wait for a second, cause it's so fun," is a line from the song "You Ain't Seen Nothin' Yet," off Avril Lavigne's self-titled fifth studio album. It's a line that's cutesy and cloying, but look, if you can, beyond it, and soak in the beautifully crafted pop song that houses it. From "Sk8er Boi" to "Girlfriend" to the underrated "What The Hell," Lavigne has always released pop music that defies dissection, ruffling the feathers of scholars with cries of "Hey, hey! You, you! I don't like your girlfriend," and disregarding high art for a meaty chorus. The thing is, Lavigne has always been highly skilled at this practice -- ever since she began spitting the polysyllabic pile-up of the "Complicated" chorus, Lavigne has stayed in her lane, cranked out an album's worth of enjoyable pop-rock every three years or so, and kept her image and integrity intact. For someone who often focuses on the irresponsibilities of youth, Lavigne has proven herself as one of mainstream music's most reliable personalities; her commitment to bestowing us with impudent anthems is almost workmanlike.
There are new faces on "Avril Lavigne" -- notably her husband, Nickelback's Chad Kroeger, who co-wrote most of the album and sings with Lavigne on "Let Me Go." There is a new label, Epic Records, which reunites Lavigne with Antonio "L.A." Reid, who helped bring her music to the masses. But for the most part, Lavigne's fifth full-length encapsulates everything worth loving about the 29-year-old's long-running artistry. There are zero attempts at growing up, but instead there is "Here's To Never Growing Up," the album's marvelous lead single, as well as a kick in the groin called "Bad Girl," featuring Marilyn Manson; "Bitchin' Summer," about how awesome the summer is going to be; and "Falling Fast," a love song that could soundtrack a flurry of proms come springtime. In spite of the subject matter, the songwriting has never been sharper, and unlike 2011's "Goodbye Lullaby," which featured moments in which Lavigne sounded unsure of herself, the singer is fully in control here. When she concludes that line from "You Ain't Seen Nothin' Yet" with "Third base, I'm headed for a home run/Don't stop baby, don't stop baby now," she tries to sell her words with the most charming of poses. Needless to say, she succeeds."
- Jason Lipshutz, Billboard
'Here's To Never Growing Up' [The Voice, 2013]
'Head Above Water' (2019)
"Pop stars – especially women – are frozen at the age they become famous. Breaking the ice usually involves a bad-girl reinvention, if not a genuine breakdown. Somehow, this tension never affected Avril Lavigne, the Canadian pop-punk star who arrived in 2002 aged 17 with the brilliant Complicated, a heaving teenage sigh directed at some poseur boy. It’s not that she didn’t have an indelible look: her low-slung skate pants, tie and ramrod-straight hair are an enduring fancy-dress costume. It’s that she never seemed to want to grow up.
Her alternately fun, angsty debut album, Let Go, seemed authentic enough – she played guitar! The lyrics were handwritten! – to convince a generation of teenage girls that she, and by association, they, were more credible than Britney. Then 13, I was one of them; I wore Dad’s tie to the shops and wasted hours learning how to copy her handwriting. It was music many quickly graduated from, to acts whose credits didn’t list multiple co-writers: the drug of authenticity hooks teenagers fast. But there is no shame in being a gateway artist, a role Lavigne seemed surprisingly happy to keep playing.
After an emotionally intense second album, she seemed to dial back the years with 2007’s The Best Damn Thing, led by single Girlfriend, a Hey Mickey-style rager about homewrecking. Goodbye Lullaby (2011) had What the Hell (“All I want is to mess around”) and her 2013 self-titled album boasted Bitchin’ Summer (ie School’s Out with swearing) and Here’s to Never Growing Up (“We’ll be running down the street, yelling, ‘Kiss my ass’”). She was 29. A year later, she started feeling inexplicably exhausted. Doctors tried to diagnose her with anxiety and chronic fatigue, even though she was sure she had Lyme disease. Finally, she got a vindicating diagnosis and spent two years in bed on antibiotics, certain, at one point, that she would die.
What happens when a teenage immortal faces death? Lavigne, now 34, doesn’t want to talk about that. “It was a relief” to get the diagnosis, she says tersely, calling from Los Angeles. “I was like: ‘OK, now I can at least start treating something.’” She was treated at home. Who cared for her? Her manager interrupts and insists we “really focus on the music”. But it is hard to separate Lavigne’s illness from her sixth album, Head Above Water, named after a song that came to her as she lay in her mother’s arms, feeling as if she was drowning. It is her best song in years, an emphatic, gothic ballad that is doing well on the US Christian singles chart and has 57m YouTube views. “It just felt really good to be singing,” she says. “The emotion was so raw.”
Despite Lavigne’s illness, she says she never doubted her capacity to commit to a whole album. She started writing on guitar in bed, graduating to piano when she felt stronger ..."
- Laura Snapes, The Guardian
'Head Above Water' [Henson Recording Studios - Honda Stage, 2019]
'Love Sux' (2022)
"I think I would probably die without my eyeliner, but besides that I'm pretty basic."
- Avril Lavigne
“Everything about 'I'm With You' is brilliant : the distinctive intro with the cello, the impressive range of dynamic and emotion of the vocal, the subtle production touches – ever noticed that the bass slides up on lines 1 and 2, but not 3 and 4 in verse 2? Beautiful. And, of course, one of the greatest middle 8s in history - it’s up there with Aerosmith’s Don’t Wanna Miss a Thing in terms of ‘massive high notes that everyone attempts to scream’. The final ‘I’m With Yoooooo’s - just magical. It’s nothing short of a power ballad masterpiece that you could imagine Dolly Parton coming up with.”
- Dave Fawbert dissects 'I'm With You' at Ultimate Power
"There are a few clues that a song is in 6/8. These are also things to think about when playing 6/8 yourself.
The main attribute of a 6/8 time signature is that it has a waltz feel, very different from a left-right marching feel of a 2/4 beat or the steady straight-laced feel of a 4/4. Although it has a waltz feel it’s not as rigid as the traditional 3/4 waltz.
Another useful word used to describe 6/8 is shuffle or lilting. It feels looser and a bit more playful than a 3/4 time signature."
- Christopher Sutton, Music University
'I'm With You' ... [Glastonbury Festival, 2024]
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Avril Lavigne : ' Guitar Evolution '
'For an artist who's known for the stunning production of her albums, Avril is surprisingly comfortable with intimate and minimal performances, featuring just voice and acoustic guitar. "I love stripping down a song," she says. "That way, you get to showcase both the song and the vocal performance."
Lavigne plays both electric and acoustic guitar in her shows, including Yamaha's APX9C acoustic electric steel-string guitar, an innovative model that features a two-way piezo/condenser mic preamp for a full, round sound. "It's a really consistent guitar!" enthuses Avril. "I enjoy playing it, and I think it looks good--it's black and small." Lavigne also has a second APX9C in a natural satin finish.
Avril usually tours with a Yamaha MPC7 MIDIPiano, a classic 7'6" acoustic grand with built-in digital piano sounds, direct audio out, and other high-tech features. When circumstances don't permit her to use the large, MIDI-enhanced grand piano, Yamaha's P250 professional stage piano is a capable stand-in. "Sometimes I put the keyboard in a piano shell when I'm touring," Lavigne explains, "as it can be difficult traveling with a real piano, especially overseas--getting piano tuners in each of these foreign countries is a challenge." In addition to the P250, she and her band also use a Yamaha P60 digital piano and the rackmount version of the Motif synthesizer.
She is also the proud owner of a Yamaha MPC2 PE 5'8" Grand MIDIPiano. "It's at home, in my music room," Avril says. "I love having it in the house. People come over and enjoy playing it, and it's really nice as a writing tool."'
- Yamaha All Access (reporting in 2006)
'Fender has released a second Avril Lavigne signature guitar in the form of the Avril Lavigne Newporter. The black acoustic features a Telecaster headstock, skull and crossbones inlay, laminated mahogany top and Fishman preamp. Fender´s Avril Lavigne Newporter acoustic is based on her signature Squier® Telecaster® guitar, with all the distinctive punk-pop charm you´d expect from the top-selling Canadian songstress. It´s a concert-size beauty with all black finish, binding and tuners, and featuring a specially designed "star" rosette, 12th-fret skull and crossbones inlay and Lavigne´s signature on the Telecaster headstock.
Other features include an all-laminate mahogany top, back and sides with quartersawn scalloped “X” bracing; black-bound mahogany neck with “C”-shaped profile and 19-fret rosewood fingerboard, Fender “Viking”-style rosewood bridge with white pins; three-ply black pickguard; and Fishman® preamp system with built-in tuner.'
- Music Radar (reporting in 2013)
Avril Lavigne performs 'Runaway' in Chicago, Illinois [March 21, 2008]
Avril Lavigne has taken on a lot of different projects and explored many creative avenues in her short time here on planet Earth. With five years out battling lyme disease - a dangerous condition that took Kathleen Hanna out of the game for several years - I suspect exhaustion also played a part in Lavigne's lengthy recuperation process. After all, she's contributed to several Olympic ceremonies and carried out extensive work for the Special Olympics, she's marketed three perfumes (Black Star, Forbidden Rose & Wild Rose) and introduced her own clothing line (Abbey Dawn which created a special line inspired by Tim Burton's 2010 fantasy 'Alice In Wonderland' for which Lavigne contributed the song 'Alice'), she's worked on the manga comic 'Make 5 Wishes' while making great strides to stay connected to her fervent fanbase in Japan (to whom she dedicated the song 'Hello Kitty'), and she's been a great ambassador for Canada. She's also acted in television shows and films including Mark 'Hardbodies' Griffiths' teen comedy 'Going The Distance' (2004), Richard Linklater's corporate expose 'Fast Food Nation' (2006) and Andrew Lau's political mystery 'The Flock' (2007).
"Joining Snail Mail in the Gen X reboot are Soccer Mommy’s Sophie Allison (her September Dublin show is already a sell-out), slacker revivalist Courtney Barnett (also Dublin-bound) and Waxahatchee, aka one-woman indie disco Katie Crutchfield. The trend has even spread to Ireland in the form of Pillow Queens, whose single Favourite sounds like the snotty cousin thrice-removed of Suede’s 1993 hit Animal Nitrate. It’s as if Ginger, Sporty et al’s prophecy had come belatedly true and girl power has finally swooped to rule the day.
Many of the above artists are under 25, and a few barely out of their teens. Jordan was born in 1999, the year Pavement disbanded. On reflection the extreme youth of these participants is not a surprise. Liam and Noel Gallagher were too young to have any meaningful memory of The Beatles, yet Oasis’s appeal was built on their sounding like a lager-loutish Lennon and McCartney. Britpop similarly arrived 25 years on from the heyday of The Kinks and The Faces, whose Carnaby Street strut Blur and acolytes reappropriated for a new generation. For as long as teenagers have mooched in bedrooms learning guitar, the music of their extreme youth, haunting the furthest fringes of their memory, has exerted a fascination.
A surprising influence that comes up again and again talking to Lindsey Jordan and her peers is Canadian punk-popper Avril Lavigne. Jordan was just three when Sk8ter Boi was a hit (Soccer Mommy’s Allison is just a year older). Yet Lavigne’s music, with its implicit argument that a woman could rock as hard as any man, has clearly shaped their perspectives on life and on art.
“I remember going bowling to her songs,” says Jordan. “I don’t think there was ever a time I stopped up and said, ‘Oh, that’s a woman in music’. But I definitely saw a lot of myself in her at that time. She got me into music … into alternative music. She had this rebellious thing going on that was really cool. Even now I still like her music – I still go back.”
“You can just put those [first two albums] on in the car and every track – boom. Hit, hit, hit, hit,” Allison told Billboard in January. “[She was a] perfect blend of Elliott Smith meets Evanescence, with some ’90s dark grunge … That’s the kind of stuff I like that I can do.”
The other thread that connects the present generation of female rockers with the music scene of 20 years ago is gender. It’s not controversial to say women are making all the truly essential pop today, whether it be St Vincent in her guise as a 21st-century Bowie, Taylor Swift as a post-ironic American Sweetheart or, at the indie end of the spectrum, plucky outsiders such as Allison and Jordan.
Tellingly, one of Jordan’s mentors is Mary Timony, of the great lost 1990s group Helium (Timony’s historic association with Matador was one of the reasons Jordan signed with the label). And at high school her first taste of acclaim was fronting a Liz Phair covers band."
- Ed Power, The Irish Times
“I thought, ‘Avril Lavigne plays guitar — that looks cool.’ So I did that.”
- Lindsey Jordan, Rolling Stone
Avril Lavigne performs 'Forgotten' in Budokan, Japan [March 10, 2005]
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"A Mari Usque Ad Mare"
"A while ago, the web was awash with rumours that Lavigne had in fact died at the height of her fame and been replaced with a lookalike named Melissa. It was of course nonsense, and the Brazilian blogger who started the conspiracy theory freely admitted it was all nonsense, but it still got global news coverage, with reputable sites scrutinising pictures taken a decade apart to see how a human body might be altered by the passage of time. It was dumb, it was all dumb. The thing that is worth thinking about, though, is this: who else had death/replacement rumours spread about them? Paul McCartney, and to a lesser extent Elvis. That’s kind of a solid proof that she’s made it, that she’s getting the same treatment from overexcited fans as a flippin’ Beatle and the King of Rock’n’Roll. She genuinely came close to death more recently though, or at least felt like she did, battling Lyme disease for four years. She’s not been replaced: she’s unkillable."
- Mike Rampton, Kerrang
"In May 2017, Twitter user @wongkarswai (the account has since been deleted) posted a tweet that instantly went viral: “avril lavigne is dead and was replaced by lil uzi vert.” Attached to the tweet were two photos. One showed Lavigne at the zenith of her career, her blond hair dyed both pink and green; she was wearing a striped shirt. The other showed Lil Uzi Vert, in a similar striped shirt, the collar cut to expose his shoulders, and a pink handbag cradled in his arm. Prior to its deletion, the tweet had nearly 80,000 retweets and 190,000 faves.
There are many reasons the tweet went viral—it played, for example, on an impossible-to-kill internet myth that Lavigne died years ago and was replaced by a look-alike. And it was difficult to deny the resemblance in wardrobe. More than 15 years after she released Let Go, the chart-topping debut album that catapulted her into teen stardom, Lavigne’s distinctive style remains startlingly recognizable and, for a certain generation, inextricably linked to her: the pink-black color combo, the spiky silver jewelry, the dyed hair.
I don’t know whether Lil Uzi Vert is a Lavigne fan, or whether he took inspiration from her early aughts look. (The rapper was unavailable for comment, although my DMs are open.) But if he were, he wouldn’t be the first rapper to do so. There are traces of Lavigne’s influence scattered across contemporary rap and hip-hop, some more obvious than others. Former G-Unit member Lloyd Banks name-checks her in his angsty track, “It’s Okay (Born Alone, Die Alone),” in which he raps, “I'm TRL next to Avril Lavigne, all my karats are green/ The Buddha is purple, be rude and I hurt you.” Vic Mensa, who’s dabbled in skater and punk culture, shouted her out in “Almost There,” singing: “I'm still a skater boy, I'm flippin' out like Avril Lavigne/ I tweak on every little thing, that's why it took me so long.” In his The Marathon track “Dreamin,” California rapper Nipsey Hussle used an Lavigne reference to explain his rise to fame: “Most of the n*gg*s from back then in penitentiaries/ And now they see me on they TV like, "How can it be?"/ It's complicated how I made it like Avril Lavigne.”
It’s difficult to name another pop-punk princess with this much currency among rappers and hip-hop artists. And it makes sense. For a certain generation, Lavigne was one of the biggest pop stars in the game. Let Go was one of the top five best-selling debuts of 2002, and remained on the Billboard charts for two years in a row (Under My Skin, her sophomore follow-up, was there a subsequent two years). In 2007, after Lavigne released “Girlfriend,” rapper Lil Mama hopped on a wildly entertaining remix of the track. The genre crossover potential was so high that there were rumors (later denied by Lavigne's label reps) that she had a collaboration with Lil Wayne on the way.
“[Avril] was such a big pop star, and she was the kind of pop star who had the added image of being, like, 'edgy,' which is what I think a lot of the hip-hop community associates with [punk] music,” says rapper Fat Tony.
There are also, says Fat Tony, similarities between the two genres: The American punk music movement made way in New York City in the ‘60s and ‘70s, around the same time and place that hip-hop music was gaining popularity. They both have do-it-yourself cultures—the only barrier to making good hip-hop or punk music is talent; neither takes money in order to enter the field. As an artist who made pop music, Lavigne provided an accessible entrance to punk music and skater culture for kids who didn’t grow up listening to, say, the Ramones.
“If you're in the hip-hop community and you are kinda familiar with skaters and kinda familiar with punk and kinda familiar with pop music but don't know a whole lot about all three, she delivered a great visual catchy package that describes all of them,” says Fat Tony. “So if you were in the hip-hop community, or in the hood, and trynna f*ck with some skateboarding or some punk, Avril Lavigne was a gateway to it.”
For a new generation of young rappers, Lavigne remains that same gateway. Bali Baby, the 21-year old rapper and pop artist from Atlanta, explained to The Fader that her music video for “Backseat” was like “if [the] Disney Channel let Avril Lavigne have her own series in 2001.” John River, a 22-year-old Canadian MC, said the first album he ever bought was an Avril Lavigne record. Artist Noname, from Chicago, said there was a time where she listened to “nothing but Avril Lavigne.”
“She is a perfect representation of being hard and soft,” says DMV rapper Rico Nasty, explaining why she named one of her alter egos, Trap Lavigne, after Avril. “She hated the term punk. But she was sooooo PUNK rock. I mean, she was one of the first rebels I had seen growing up. She made me wanna be myself. ‘Cause that’s what she was. If it wasn’t for her, I wouldn’t have picked up a board.”
- Tasbeeh Herwees, Nylon
Teens react to Avril Lavigne (and associated conspiracy theories) in 2019 ... [REACT]
On August 31st, 2022, Avril Lavigne was honoured with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. On December 2nd, 2023, Lavigne was inducted in to Canada's Walk of Fame. On June 28th, 2024, it was formally announced that Lavigne would be appointed to the Order of Canada, a civilian honour that recognises outstanding achievements and contributions to the country of Canada.
"Avril Lavigne has two kinds of fans. The fans that stopped listening to her after Girlfriend, the chart-topping single of her third, 2007 album The Best Damn Thing, and the fans that found her at Girlfriend. The former, the purists, believe she sold out. Some of them, who have spent the last 12 years knee-deep in Reddit conspiracy theory threads, even think Avril died and was replaced by a doppelganger. The others, now in their mid 20s and eagerly awaiting Avril's first new album in six years (Head Above Water), are a rare breed. Together, they form one of the most curious fan bases of any mainstream musician of the last two decades. But then again, Avril is a curious star."
- Eleanor Halls, The Telegraph
Avril Lavigne chats with Howard Stern (October 15, 2013) ...
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Post by petrolino on Jul 5, 2024 23:15:29 GMT
Mary Margaret O'Hara : 'Miss Canada'
It's widely believed that singer-songwriter Mary Margaret O'Hara was born in Toronto, Canada, though nobody seems to know this secretive woman's date of birth (or age). Her older sister is actress and comedienne Catherine O'Hara (Mary Margaret sang at actor and comedian John Candy's funeral on March 21, 1994). She took courses at the Ontario College of Art and Design in the 1970s and was involved in several local bands including Dollars, Songship and Go Deo Chorus. Her departure from Go Deo Chorus in 1983 led her to go solo. O'Hara inked a deal with Virgin Records which proved to be an unhappy experience. She produced her one original studio album to date, 'Miss America' (1988), during her time at Virgin. The record label 4AD was interested to bring O'Hara into the fold when it was announced she'd parted ways with Virgin Records, but she walked away from the music industry and was largely absent for a good number of years (her guitarist Michael Brook did go on to work with 4AD band Clan Of Xymox). "Mary Margaret O’Hara read Ulysses at the age of 11 and thought : “Finally, someone is talking normal”. It’s a tall tale that nevertheless makes a certain kind of sense. At its most abandoned, the music made by this elusive, unclassifiable Canadian singer resembles a new kind of language. She still works in and on music, but she has not released an album since her debut, Miss America, in 1988 (the soundtrack for the film Apartment Hunting came out in 2001, but was never intended for release, and can’t be regarded as a “proper” follow-up album). This year sees her returning to public view, but only to appear alongside Jonathan Rhys Meyers and Fiona Shaw in The Rising, a biopic of Irish republican Seán Mac Diarmada. Acting is in the blood – her sister is Catherine O’Hara, who played Macauley Culkin’s mum in Home Alone and is a member of Christopher Guest’s repertory of ace mockumentarian – and in recent years we’ve been more likely to see her on the screen than hear her sing. Meanwhile, among her fans the faint but impatient thrumming for another record goes on. One listen to Miss America should explain why.
In the late 80s, a friend slipped me a tape of the album with, appropriately enough, some Patsy Cline tacked on the end. The clear, classic tone of Cline was just one of several disorientating elements in the Miss America mix. One minute O’Hara sounded like a heartsore country girl in a gingham dress, whispering in front of a ribbon mic. The next she was jumping between jagged art rock, jazz excursions and classic torch songs. The barely audible balm of You Will Be Loved Again gave way to the jittery funk of Not Be Alright, less a song than an aural anxiety attack. DX-7 rubbed against lap steel. Burbling five-string bass leached into Bill Frisell-like cascades of reverbed guitar. There was session-man sleekness and wild, free-jazz time keeping. All the while, O’Hara fell between purging and purring, both becalmed and berserk. On her rare appearances on stage, she seemed in the throes of some spell – twitching, making nervy jokes, muttering off mic."
- Graeme Thomson, The Guardian
"One of the most powerful singers I've ever heard."
- Michael Stipe on Mary Margaret O'Hara
'Dear Darling' - Mary Margaret O'Hara with Don Rooke on lap steel guitar
O'Hara may suffer from a strange case of stage fright. Her fellow Canadian Robbie Robertson (also from Toronto) dealt with stage fright his whole life (The Band recorded their 1970 album 'Stage Fright' with one eye on anxiety). O'Hara returned to recording to create the soundtrack album 'Apartment Hunting' (2001) for a romantic comedy directed by Canadian filmmaker Bill Robertson.
"Mary Margaret O'Hara's 'Miss America' - I talk about this album way too much. I feel like she probably has a restraining order out against me, because in terms of inspiration and musical love ... I can't think of one conversation I think I've had since I heard this album that doesn't include it. 'Miss America' was big, not just for myself but for Kristin (Hersh) and Dave (Narcizo) and the (Throwing) Muses as well. We were deeply in love with this album, and played in the bus constantly.
She came to see us once in London and we could barely get a sentence out. And at the time I was waiting for her next thing, because that's what you do when you love something. And it didn't come and it didn't come, and it became clear that it was not going to come, and then she started to say in interviews, it's not gonna happen, basically. And it's like a band breaking up that you love. It's disappointing. But I'm just so grateful for this collection of songs on this album. That's kind of enough for me. I feel like she made this wonderful thing, and I'm just grateful for it. And in a funny way, when I come back to this album, every song has a larger life because I know this is it.
Lyrically, these are relatively direct messages ... but the way she talks around a subject, there's just a conversational poetry. That's the way I always think of her songwriting. And I just feel also like there's so much care. This album oozes benevolence and caring and love. In an interesting, nuanced way. Then also just her voice is ridiculously beautiful. The way that she sings around the beat, she sings around the melody, everything is sort of alluded to instead of landed on. I'm very attracted to that. And the musicianship is amazing too. There's something just really thoughtful about the way those musicians play their instruments. They're playing to the song … I have such a strong visual in my head of lacy bridgework. They support her, but in this very fragile way. It's just beautiful."
- Tanya Donelly, The Quietus
"Mary Margaret O'Hara seems to have created her own set of self-expressive terms. In this, she resembles Kristin Hersh, who as a member of Throwing Muses and as a solo artist has often waited for songs to transmit themselves to and through her in late-night, dreamlike sessions. O'Hara's songs may be more constructed than received - she's writing "standards," after all, that lend themselves to being covered in a way that Hersh's songs never do - but she too is twisting logic and language to fit a vision (on one song she laughs a little, and it's hard to know how much calculation goes into that lightness, how much of that spontaneity is planned). In "Body's in Trouble," the next song, the body's both an object and a person. O'Hara never spells out the dilemma, just pushes and pulls and plays around with the idea of forces at work. Meanwhile, the music rises, dips, bends, and breaks."
- Kurt Wildermuth, Perfect Sound Forever
'Body's In Trouble'
O'Hara covered Vic Chesnutt's song 'Florida' for the tribute album 'Sweet Relief II : Gravity Of The Situation' (1996) for which Chesnutt performed the country torch ballad 'God Is Good' with Victoria Williams. Among the contributors to the album were two of Chesnutt's close friends and collaborators, Kristin Hersh and Michael Stipe.
“My notes were calendars and song notebooks,” the indie-rock musician Kristin Hersh says, sitting in her home in New Orleans. “A musician’s life is so repetitive that we had those experiences and conversations over and over again. I laid out memory photographs over each other until I had an essential image of the story.”
The result is a book. On the cover of Don’t Suck, Don’t Die: Giving Up Vic Chesnutt, is a languorous black-and-white photograph of a young man shooting a brooding glare over the lip of an oversized bathtub, looking not unlike a 1960s French film star. Chesnutt, who took his own life on Christmas Day in 2009, was a relentlessly prolific recording artist from Athens, Georgia. A car accident at age 18 left him paraplegic, but he toured extensively and despite being physically limited to simple guitar chords, he wrote 17 critically lauded albums. In 2006, NPR placed him on a list of its top 10 living songwriters.
A substantial amount of Chesnutt’s touring life was spent playing with Kristin Hersh, a founding member of pioneering indie band Throwing Muses. Chesnutt had always played his brand of poignant indie folk, a piece of string holding his guitar around his shoulders. His songs were unswervingly personal. “An autobiography in song, recounting a storied life, documenting strained relationships, and evoking perilous despair,” was how Pitchfork described his work.
Hersh and Chesnutt shared a commitment to musical authenticity, and also a vulnerability to challenges to their mental health. In other interviews, Hersh has talked about her series of misdiagnoses : first schizophrenia, then bipolar disorder. (More recently the doctors settled on dissociative disorder.) Meanwhile, Chesnutt battled addiction and the frustrations of his physical limitations."
- Paul Oswell, The Guardian
'Your Ghost' - Kristin Hersh & Michael Stipe
# Mary Margaret O'Hara sang 'Dark, Dear Heart' at John Candy's funeral where Catherine O'Hara delivered a eulogy. 'Couch Candy' is a chat show hosted by Jennifer Candy, daughter of John Candy. Her guests have included 'SCTV' regulars Joe Flaherty, Eugene Levy, Andrea Martin, Martin Short and Dave Thomas; you can see all five of these episodes on youtube. |
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Post by petrolino on Oct 5, 2024 19:50:54 GMT
Dolly Parton Remembers Kris Kristofferson | Bobby Bare & Connie Smith With Kris Kristofferson
Dolly Parton has joined with members of the music community to pay tribute to her friend Kris Kristofferson who died at the age of 88 on 28th September, 2024.
“Kris Kristofferson was the songwriter’s songwriter. We all looked up to him and wished we could have written with such ‘elegant simplicity.’ His music will live forever, and I will forever treasure the times I got to spend with him. Rest in peace, my friend, knowing that you were the best.”
- Bill Anderson
"A very sad loss of the great Kris Kristofferson, creator of some of the most beautiful, moving songs ever written and recorded. A talent with huge capability and intellect and a wonderful character whose legacy is powerful. RIP Kris : I hope your ‘soul’s in His Hands.”
- Tom Jones
“Kris and I shared a magical weekend together. We both were introduced by legends at The Newport Folk Festival in 1969. Johnny Cash brought him and introduced him. Pete Seeger brought me and introduced me. If that were not enough, other artists made their debut as well such as James Taylor and Van Morrison. To top it off we landed a man on the moon that weekend and everybody was writing songs. Whenever I saw him we would always talk about it. Kris was a fine man.”
- Don McLean
“The first time I saw Kris performing at the Troubadour club in L.A. I knew he was something special. Barefoot and strumming his guitar, he seemed like the perfect choice for a script I was developing, which eventually became A Star Is Born. In the movie, Kris and I sang the song I’d written for the film’s main love theme, ‘Evergreen.’ For my latest concert in 2019 at London's Hyde Park, I asked Kris to join me on-stage to sing our other A Star Is Born duet, ‘Lost Inside of You.’ He was as charming as ever, and the audience showered him with applause. It was a joy seeing him receive the recognition and love he so richly deserved. My thoughts go to Kris’ wife, Lisa who I know supported him in every way possible.”
- Barbra Streisand
“I’ll always cherish the memory of singing harmonies on ‘Why Me Lord’ with Kris and Willie on the country homecoming show — I recorded that song he wrote and sing it at every concert I do — thanks to my friend Kris.”
- Janie Fricke
"What a great loss. What a great writer. What a great actor. What a great friend.
I will always love you ...'
- Dolly Parton remembers Kris Kristofferson
- Selected tributes among those collected and published online at Cowboys & Indians
'Kris Kristofferson, Bill Anderson and Bobby Bare attend the Medallion Ceremony to celebrate 2017 hall of fame inductees Alan Jackson, Jerry Reed And Don Schlitz at Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum on October 22, 2017 in Nashville, Tennessee.' [Getty Images]
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Bobby Bare and Connie Smith were friends and early supporters of Kris Kristofferson who joined him on his spiritual and musical journey as both a political artist and a man of faith.
"The first song Kris Kristofferson ever wrote was a pro-Vietnam tune he later regretted. Across his career, he atoned for the misstep in any number of activist songs, including Bobby Bare’s 1969’s recording, The Law is for the Protection of the People, 1986’s What About Me, which questioned the rightwing military hostility in Central America, and 2006’s anti-war anthem In the News. At times, and in certain quarters, the political stance made the incline of his career a little steeper. “I found a considerable lack of work after doing concerts for the Palestinian children … and if that’s the way it has to be, that’s the way it has to be,” he once said. “If you support human rights, you gotta support them everywhere.” In 1992, he famously showed solidarity with the singer Sinéad O’Connor, who had left the audience of Saturday Night Live aghast when she tore up a picture of Pope John Paul II in protest against the Catholic church. Kristofferson strode out on stage at a Bob Dylan anniversary concert in New York City soon after and put an arm around her as the audience booed : “Don’t let the bastards get you down,” he told her."
- Laura Barton, The Guardian
"It is hard to imagine a world without Kris Kristofferson in it. Knowing and singing with him has been one of the greatest blessings of my life. I feel certain he will be holding court in heaven. RIP Kris. You will be missed. 💔 "
- Sheryl Crow, Instagram
"Just sitting in a hotel cafe and crying into my coffee today … "
- Brandi Carlile remembers Kris Kristofferson, Instagram
'Burden Of Freedom' (1972) - Kris Kristofferson
Here's excerpts from a couple of stories published at American Songwriter.
“The Law Is For Protection Of The People” - Bobby Bare (written by Kris Kristofferson)
Released in 1969 on Bobby Bare’s record, '(Margie’s At) The Lincoln Park Inn', this song is an anti-fascism, anti-police brutality track. Using irony in the tune, written by Kris Kristofferson, Bare sings of various people who are on the fringe of society, so they are just hauled away to jail. With a deep, Johnny Cash-like voice, Bare sings Kristofferon’s lyrics, showing how silly some laws can be, crooning ...
'Billy Dalton staggered on the sidewalk,
someone said he stumbled and he fell,
Six squad cars came screamin’ to the rescue,
hauled old Billy Dalton off to jail,
Cause the law is for protection of the people,
rules’re rules and any fool can see,
We don’t need no tramps like Billy Dalton,
scaring decent folks like you and me no siree ...'
- Jacob Uitti, American Songwriter
'The Law Is For The Protection Of The People' (1969) - Bobby Bare
"Kris Kristofferson’s “Why Me” was the singer-songwriter’s only No. 1 country hit as a solo artist, which is an appropriate accolade for such a deeply intimate and personal song. The man behind hits like “Me and Bobby McGee” and “Sunday Mornin’ Comin’ Down” wrote the song after an impromptu visit to Reverend Jimmie Rogers Snow’s church with fellow country artist Connie Smith. Kristofferson told the story behind “Why Me” on Ralph Emery’s Country Legends Vol. 2. He set the scene the day after he and fellow country singer Connie Smith were performing in Cookeville, Tennessee. Smith invited Kristofferson to church at Nashville’s Evangel Temple, led by famed musician and evangelist Reverend Jimmie Snow. Kristofferson said he had a “profound religious experience” for the first time in his life.
“Everybody was kneeling down, and Jimmy said something like, ‘If anybody’s lost, please raise their hand.’ I was kneeling there. And I don’t go to church a lot, and the notion of raising my hand was out of the question. I thought, ‘I can’t imagine who’s doing this.’ All of a sudden, I felt my hand going up,” Kristofferson recalled. “I was hoping nobody else was looking because they had their heads bent over.” “He said, ‘If anybody is ready to accept Jesus,’ something like this, come down to the front of the church,” he continued. “I thought that would never happen. And I found myself getting up and walking down with all these people. He said something to me like, ‘Are you ready to accept Jesus Christ in your life?’ And I said, ‘I don’t know. I didn’t know what I was doing there.’ He put me down, said, ‘Kneel down.’ I can’t even remember what he was saying but whatever it was was such a release for me that I found myself weeping in public. I felt this forgiveness that I didn’t know I needed.”
Sometimes, singer-songwriters draw inspiration from their imagination or past events, but Kris Kristofferson’s opening lines sound like they came straight from the altar. Why me, Lord, he begins. What have I ever done to deserve even one of the pleasures I’ve known? He sings in the chorus : Lord, help me, Jesus, I’ve wasted it. So, help me, Jesus, I know what I am. Now that I know that I’ve needed you. So, help me Jesus, my soul’s in Your hand. As can sometimes happen with artists’ most viscerally personal songs, Kristofferson’s “Why Me” received tremendous critical acclaim upon its March 1973 release."
- Melanie Davis, American Songwriter
“When The Oak Ridge Boys were searching for a way to grow our career we listened to Kris Kristofferson’s music. The stories in his songs were things we were experiencing. Then, he wrote, ‘Why Me Lord.’ When we heard that song the message struck home. It assured us that we were on the right track.”
- Duane Allen, Country Lowdown
'Why Me' (1973) - Connie Smith
Kris Kristofferson was one of life's great poets; may he rest in everlasting peace.
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