Bootleg Friday: Sam & Dave, 1967

There are two kinds of improvisation in music. One kind is self-conscious. It is improvisation for improvisations sake (countless jam bands). Then there is the kind of improvisation that exists because the performers can't be contained within the known limits of a song. The songs from this Sam & Dave show in Stockholm, 1967, are examples of the latter. The greatest of all soul duos take some of their best known songs and recreate them - slow them down, expand them, inject subtle changes in tempo and feeling and make them overwhelming.

Stax's Spring 1967 tour of Europe was one of their greatest triumphs. Greeted with a love and an un-ambivalent respect that they could not receive in America, they responded by delivering shows that forty years after the fact, remain legend. The four songs contained here are a small example of the fire they brought to the stage every night. Both Michael Jackson, who used to watch them in the wings at the Apollo, when the young Jackson 5 was playing the chitlin circuit, and Bruce Springsteen, who went to see them in the 70's, both said they stole liberally from Sam & Dave's show. Mediocre artists borrow, great artists...

Download: "You Got Me Hummin'" - 5/2/67, Stockholm, Sweden
Download: "Soothe Me" - 5/2/67, Stockholm, Sweden
Download: "When Something Is Wrong With My Baby" - 5/2/67, Stockholm, Sweden
Download: "Hold On, I'm Coming!" - 5/2/67, Stockholm, Sweden

A Perfect Hour In Preservation Hall

Earlier this month, I was in New Orleans, and while there, I went to Preservation Hall to see the Preservation Hall Jazz Band. It was an experience I haven’t been able to get out of my mind.

Preservation Hall itself, located in the French Quarter, is the rawest, funkiest space I’ve ever been in. The building that houses the venue is over two centuries old, and judging from the looks of the interior and exterior, very little, if any work has been done to it.

I walked in, and took a place in the back of the tiny room. There were about 30 seats inside, and the rest was standing room only, taking in probably another 75. The room was dimly lit, in a warm amber hue that only enhanced the feeling of being out of time. Some large and gothic paintings of musicians hung from the walls. There was no bar and the packed crowd, mainly tourists, milled about in an expectant air.

The Preservation Hall Jazz Band formed in 1963, and its membership is a floating one. Countless jazz musicians have played under its name. Its original members could lay claim to playing with Louis Armstrong, Jelly Roll Morton and Buddy Bolden. For twenty-five years, they’ve toured around the world as ambassadors of New Orleans Jazz – the essence and root of the music itself.

When the band came on (six-pieces on that night: trumpet, clarinet, sax, piano, bass and drums) and plowed into the first song, “His Eye On The Sparrow,” I experienced as pure a feeling of joy as I’ve ever experienced in music. I felt like I was in the same room that jazz was born in, and even though I knew intellectually that it wasn’t true, I experienced it as such.

The music was immensely celebratory, defiantly so, for in each note of the music was the blues, and with it, an acknowledgment of the travails and disappointments of life. The crowd grinned, danced and sang. And they listened. They really listened. The applause that followed each solo was in direct proportion to the skill with which the solo was played. I’m used to the New York music business style listening, which usually consists of, “Is this happening? Is this cool? Will other people like this?” This listening was something entirely different, much purer, a communion with the essence of one of music’s main functions; the celebration of being alive.

The sixty-minute show passed blissfully, the crowd hollering the verses and choruses of “Shake That Thing” with love and reverence. My own personal history of music flashed before my eyes, and the world of ephemera disappeared; for a little while, I felt enveloped in the real thing, and the real thing only. It was cleansing. It was perfect. My girl and I walked out of the hall after the 60 minute set, grinned at each other, and barely said a word, except to ask each other where we should eat.

Download: "His Eye Is On The Sparrow"
Download: "Shake That Thing"

Bruce And The Super Bowl

I never thought Bruce Springsteen would play the Super Bowl. Too obvious. Too gross. Too much of what represents everything wrong with America. And then when he announced that he and E Street Band would play it, I got psyched.

Here's a great piece from Sports Illustrated about the conflict many Springsteen fans feel about him performing at the halftime show. Very worthy reading.

Review: Bruce Springsteen - Working On A Dream

Sometimes, I think, it’s got to be hard to be Bruce Springsteen. Even as he nears 60, there are many, many great expectations placed upon his music. While Dylan fans never know what to expect and are thrilled when Bob releases an album good enough to put his 80’s output further in the rearview mirror, hard-core Bruce fans expect something that is more than just good – at our core, we still hope and expect that he’ll deliver his best music yet. Not Born To Run II mind you (although I’m sure there are some fans who’d be thrilled with that), but something that powerfully and intensely illuminates and deepens our own lives and experiences – like a combination of The River and Tunnel Of Love. And Springsteen has been so remarkably consistent throughout his career, with such an incredible body of work that it almost seems unfair to judge him against his past, but fair or not, that’s how the great ones are judged.

I’ve been trying to write a review of his new album, Working On A Dream, for the past week. But I have found myself confounded by it. On one level, it contains some of the most beautiful music he’s ever made, grand and orchestral, with swirling string sections, stately melodies and symphonic pop that goes in directions that Bruce has never quite gone before. But on another level, at least half the songs feel somewhat hollow at their core. The resonance of Springsteen’s greatest music – where the song hits you right where you live, in the most authentic part of your being, well, in that context, the tank is running low here. Somehow, Bruce Springsteen, an artist who has made his career subverting form for content, has made a record that uses form to disguise the fact that most of his new songs aren’t great.

You can hear what’s wrong with Working On A Dream on “Outlaw Pete,” an Ennio Morricone influenced tall tale that isn’t funny enough to be taken satirically, nor is it affecting enough to be taken seriously as an epic. The music soars at moments, but it never fully lifts off. It’s stuck in some sort of weird middle ground, and at 8 minutes, it goes on for about four minutes longer than necessary. It’s all very interesting – interesting and a little cerebral as opposed to viscerally powerful the way great Springsteen music is. “Queen of the Supermarket” is another interesting song – Bruce being enraptured by the sensuality of the truly super market, and falling in love with the cashier. It occurs as a clichéd parody until the last verse, when Bruce drops an F-bomb that brings it all back to reality, and you end up wondering whether the whole song is brilliant – or just a very interesting songwriting device by a master writer. If you have to ask…

“My Lucky Day,” “This Life,” “Good Eye,” “Tomorrow Never Knows,” "Surprise, Surprise," “What Love Can Do,” “Life Itself…” none of these songs are bad. Hell, If Tom Petty wrote “My Lucky Day,” it’d be heralded as a classic. There are lovely melodies, exuberant choruses, plaintive sentiment…and it just doesn’t doesn’t work at Springsteen’s usual level.

Only on two songs, “Kingdom Of Days” and “The Last Carnival,” does Springsteen hit the levels we're accustomed to. “Kingdom Of Days” is a soaring mid-tempo reverie of a love and life that is made more resonant by the consciousness of its finiteness. The towering melody, lovingly detailed lyrics and especially the gorgeously romantic instrumental bridge are the sound of peace, gratitude and acceptance – it’s as though Springsteen has finally arrived in the spot he wrote about in "Born To Run;" where he's gotten to that place he's wanted to go, and is walking in the sun.

“The Last Carnival,” a meditation on the death of founding E Street Band organist Danny Federici, is an out and out Springsteen classic. Over a simple guitar riff, gorgeous background vocals that sound like they’re out of a Simon & Garfunkel song, and lyrics that recreate the circus life of “Wild Billy’s Circus Story” from The Wild, The Innocent And The E Street Shuffle, the song is a tear-jerking elegy to a fallen comrade that transcends mere sentimentality. It’s a sublime love song.

Musically, the album showcases Springsteen’s love and exploration of the sound of the white pop/rock of his adolescence. The Beach Boys, the Beatles, the Byrds, the Righteous Brothers and Roy Orbison are all present and accounted for. It's a sound that works well, but the lushness and prettiness of the sonic template doesn't always feel a match for Springsteen's grittiness. Where Springsteen's soul sound always feels like can extension of the man himself, these pop sounds occur more like a coat he's trying on temporarily.

Working On A Dream is a good album. Sometimes it is very good. But Bruce Springsteen is capable of making a better one. Perhaps that is harsh. I consider it a compliment. When no one expects greatness from Bruce Springsteen anymore, he’ll truly be finished.

A Happy 74th To Elvis Presley!

Had he lived, Elvis Presley would be 74 years old today. He has long since passed into the realm of myth - a Rorschach test upon which people project their thoughts, opinions, desires, feelings, resentments and dismissals about almost any conceivable topic: Music, America, race, culture, materialism, decline and a few hundred subjects.

I've never cared much about any of that. The fact is that Elvis was a sublime singer and a singular presence as a performer and instigator of a cultural movement whose repercussions we continue to live with today. It's a common canard that Elvis won his acclaim because he was white and some of his other contemporaries (Chuck Berry, Little Richard, etc.) were black, and that he was just derivative of them. But Elvis Presley released his first singles in 1954, before Chuck Berry and Little Richard ever released a record. (And Elvis was more charismatic than Chuck, and prettier and more versatile than Richard.) He could sing anything - rock, country, r&b, gospel - and when he was at his best, during the 50's and his late 60's comeback, he wove together those various strands of American music to create something mythic in scope, a force which resounded all over the world.

Unfortunately, his music, like much early rock, gets far less respect and acclaim than it deserves; it’s been subsumed by the myth. To many, the songs sound like quaint period pieces. I think they are still stunning. “Hound Dog” remains explosive. “Mystery Train,” “Baby Let’s Play House,” “Milkcow Blues Boogie,” “Good Rockin’ Tonight,” “Trying To Get To You,” “Heartbreak Hotel,” and “Jailhouse Rock” continue to provide joy, delight, and a far greater sense of risk, danger and sex than the most rebellious punk band you can find.

Happy birthday Elvis! For my money, you are still, and will always be, the King.

Buy Elvis Presley at Amazon (No record collection should exist without The Sun Sessions, his Greatest Hits, or the NBC-TV Special!)

Download: Bruce Springsteen "I Can't Help Falling In Love With You" 8/27/85, Toronto, ON (A very great version preceded by Springsteen talking about what Elvis meant to him - both as possibility and warning.)

New Orleans: Soul City

I spent a few days last week in New Orleans. I had been there once before, but only for a one night business trip, so last week my first real opportunity to spend a significant amount of time there and get to know the city.

I fell in love.

New Orleans, for those of you who haven’t been there, is the most European of American cities. The French Quarter, especially, resembles the old centers of so many European cities. The languid pace, the wonderful food, the public drinking, the music everywhere – it is certainly the most anti-Puritanical city in the U.S. And given that it’s in the American South, there is also an element of a somewhat tacky American shopping plaza (especially so when 75,000 college football fans are in town for the Sugar Bowl). It’s a mixture of the wonderful and horrible – some of the best hospitality, people, food and music one can imagine, and some of the most glaring decay I’ve ever seen. I experienced a lot of the wonderful and only saw a tiny bit of the horrible, from the safety of a van touring the city. I was a tourist, and while I sought out as much of a “native” experience as possible, I certainly didn’t see how 70% of New Orleans truly lives.

New Orleans is an elemental city – it runs on food, drink, sex, music, art, history and the celebration of pleasure -the good time in the face of struggle, without the pretenses of fashion or trends. It is not looking for the next big thing. There is a distinct lack of irony in New Orleans, or at least the sort of deadening post-modern irony that suffuses so much of modern art and music. It is a city that is all about the expression of authentic feeling and engagement: of joy and wonder, of sorrow and grief. Yes, there is plenty of cool, but it’s a city that defines as cool as willing to let yourself go, rather than taking on a studied and jaded affectedness.

As a lover of the music that was born in New Orleans and emerged from it, I felt at home the whole time I was there. There are a few places in the world where my soul feels like it belongs: New York City, Montauk, Italy and now, New Orleans.

I’ll be writing about some of the music and sights I saw last week over the next couple of weeks.

Ed Rivadavia On Ron Asheton Of The Stooges

Ron Asheton, guitarist for the Stooges, died sometime at the beginning of the year. Ed Rivadavia, music executive for the RCA Music Group and writer for AMG, contributes the following:

The passing of guitarist Ron Asheton due to an apparent heart-attack in his Ann Arbor, Michigan home, some time during the start of 2009 (an official coroner’s report is still pending as of this writing), robbed the world of rock and roll of perhaps its ultimate punk rock guitar icon. The amazing thing is that, were it not for The Stooges’ unlikely reunion in the early ‘00s, Asheton’s death would probably have elicited only the scarcest and briefest obits beyond the ultra-specialized rock press – the likes of which would have made the recent en masse Ramones deaths seem like widely covered, major events. Ironically, I suppose even the worst-case scenario would be somewhat fitting, in the end, for a musician whose limited technical ability essentially defines what punk rock – in the most enduring definition of the oft-abused, and stylistically spread-thin term – is all about.

And in my opinion, no song exemplifies that genre’s pure, D.I.Y. (do-it-yourself) spirit better than The Stooges’ original recording of “I Wanna Be Your Dog” on their eponymous 1969 debut album.

Sure, the Ramones (one of my all-time favorite bands), the Sex Pistols, and any number of other major and obscure punk, pre- and post-punk bands have produced songs that were arguably just as timeless over the years (The Kingsmen’s “Louie Louie,” for example, being one of several worthy precursors), but I don’t think anything quite compares with Ron Asheton’s raw, uncivilized, and obviously untutored down-picked barre chords on “I Wanna Be Your Dog,” as complemented by that brilliantly droning open E-String. Unless it is Ron’s notably uncomplicated guitar solo, launched a few minutes later, which likewise stumbles (literally, it sounds like Asheton is stumbling along, trying to get the notes right) upon a supernatural ‘feel’ that music only seems capable of achieving in its most spontaneous and unrehearsed form.

The word ‘primitive’ always springs to mind when I think of that riff, solo, and song, and I mean that as a compliment because, curiously, it never sounded as great when bolstered with extra speed and adrenalin by the countless bands that later covered it; nor even the older Ron himself, on those oft-times transcendental Stooges reunion shows of the mid-‘00s. (Being a traditionalist music snob, I’m usually dismissive on principle of such belated reunions, even when most all of the original members are involved, but I’ll be the first to admit that I was powerless to resist the sheer brilliance of a reconvened Iggy Pop, Asheton brothers, and bassist Mike Watt.) Ron may have been a far better guitar player – technically speaking – by the time he was brought out of forced retirement for those new millennium tours; but his improved chops were simply no match for the poor playing and unadulterated spirit (emphasis on ‘adult’) captured by that long-gone, stoned-out teenager, and his fellow delinquent band members: Iggy Stooge, drummer Scott ‘Rock Action’ Asheton, and long-deceased bassist Dave Alexander.

No, “I Wanna Be Your Dog” is pretty close to untouchable where primal, non-conformist, and positively unique rock and roll statements are concerned.

And even though first impressions of this song will almost inevitably result from Iggy’s sublimely twisted lyrics (a topic we’ll save for discussion in another written appreciation, hopefully still many years in the future), for me it will always be Ron’s guitar work that holds the secret of its dark, elusive magic. As with all of Ron Asheton’s few but crucial contributions to the long thread of rock and roll history, this one will undoubtedly be eclipsed by Iggy’s blinding presence, but there are far worse fates than that, and ultimately who cares?

Immortality, by any measure of scale, still means ‘forever.’

Bootleg Friday: The Faces, 1973

The Faces. June 4, 1973. Enjoy. I can't think of anything necessary to add.

Download: "Cindy Incidentally" 6/4/73, London, England
Download: "Angel" 6/4/73, London, England
Download: "I'd Rather Go Blind" 6/4/73, London, England
Download: "Jealous Guy" 6/4/73, London, England
Download: "You Wear It Well" 6/4/73, London, England
Download: "Maggie May" 6/4/73, London, England
Download: "Borstal Boys" 6/4/73, London, England
Download: "We'll Meet Again" 6/4/73, London, England

Letter Of The Day

This is from a dear friend and former boss of mine who is now out of the music business. I found the second half of the letter rather moving and would like to share it with you.

I was listening to NPR on the drive home last night, as I usually do, and was surprised to hear Robert Christgau doing a review and was blown away for the featured selection. It was his pick for the best record of the year: Francophonic Vol.1 1963-1980- a collection of Congolese music that knocked me out. When I got home I fired up the P2P, and not finding it, bought it from Amazon as a download—great collection. It got me to thinking about Bob and all the articles over the years that I’ve read of his from the Village Voice and other print outlets and how my relationship with him has gone hot and cold. I have found him imperial and impervious, pompous and pedantic, passionate and boring. But I think the overarching quality of his writing, to me, has been that of being dull- it is ultimately academic and not proletarian except when he is fulfilling what I think is the primary purpose-being a conduit. One of the things (actually, in truth, the only thing) that I really loved about being in radio was having the opportunity to turn people on to music that excited me, thrilled me, made me ecstatic, brought me to tears-music that made me get up and dance around the room with unabashed joy. That was fun! And I was lucky to be able to do that during some very exciting times (very early 70s and mid 80s). That was also what made working in a record store a treat—I worked with some heavy vinyl junkies who really knew their shit and access to the store turntable was done through a Rota system. Nick Hornsby came close to it with “High Fidelty” but the ultimate “throw down” amongst the staff was how many copies you could sell of a record that you picked to play. So what's my point?

I found some blog writing of Christgau’s and again, his shit is so dry and dull and academic—he plays to the band (others of his ilk like the mook from The New Yorker with the kinda French sounding name-feh! [That would be Sasha Frere-Jones, ed.]) and NOT to the audience. Yet he’s at his best when he is “turning people on.” To me, I would think that is a primary function—and my further point is that you are at your best when you are writing about things that you are excited about…end of lecture.

The Franco record is an absolute gem. It gave me the same chills I got when I first heard Fela or Sunny Ade-who I got to meet once- I was the first DJ in America to play him and he was very gracious-I then introduced him to 20,000 people at an outdoor Summer gig in Chicago…one of those truly transcendental musical moments. He and his band were on fire and so was the audience.

I am getting old and am becoming frighteningly more and more aware of it and it really sucks. I am significantly closer to the end then I am from where I started and it triggers an old Buick 6 full of fear and loathing, that’s for sure. BUT, it never ceases to amaze how I can still find joy, comfort, inspiration and sustenance from music…and the passing of time and it’s attendant drama is soften by the knowledge that no matter what, I will always find what I need from my unending love affair with all things musical.

Two Masters

Coleman Hawkins and Charlie Parker, 1950.



And one more piece of Coleman circa 1958, for good measure. I always found his sound to be the sound of loneliness. But he always made it sound so goddamn romantic!

A Treasure Trove Of Soul

The more I learn about soul, the more I realize how truly little I know. I was once again confronted with that fact when a friend sent me a link to Sir Shambling's Deep Soul Heaven, a treasure trove of lesser known soul artists and songs, with links a plenty to many obscure and great soul songs from the sixties up to 1980 . I'm looking at the list of artists that he's posted, and I've heard of barely any of them. This site is a gold mine.

A Deeper Shade Of Soul's Top 40 Songs Of 2008

Compiling this list the top 40 songs of the year was an energizing experience - there was a lot of great music released this year. I'm not sure it was a great year for albums, but who listens to those anymore, anyway? Technology has, for all practical purposes, turned everyone into their own DJ and jukebox, and it's all about find the great songs amidst the torrents of music waiting to get into our hard drives, iPods and broadband connections. Attaching "good" or "bad" to such developments is pointless. It just is, and is getting more so.

With that being said, I am noticing a few things about this list:

1. Music is simultaneously more private and more shared than ever. I can find a group of rapid fans to discuss any artist I want - but the hope that that artist is going to broaden the culture at large, well, not so much. My little group has our music, your little group has yours, and maybe we'll read about each other on someone's blog. Fragmentation wins.

2. There's no hip-hop on it, which I ascribe far more to my own current lack of interest in the genre than anything I would be foolish enough to say about the music itself. Common thinks that Obama is going to change the music. I think he's kidding himself.

3. We're all indie, and if we're not, we will be soon. Once upon a time, this list would have been 95% major label artists. Ten years ago, it would have been 70% major label. In two years, it will most likely be 15% major label. There's no middle ground anymore in major label land. You're either pop, crossover...or you're a vanity project. That's not necessarily a permanent development, but it sure feels like it.

And with that, here we go...

1. Jackie Greene - “Animal”

Brilliantly arranged, written and sung, Jackie Greene's "Animal" has it all - smarts, soul and sex. Like a lot of artists post-industry collapse, he's going his own way, but where most give lip service to being empowered by the new paradigms, he truly is. Giving Up The Ghost, one of the best albums of the year, showed Greene hitting his stride, and beginning to deliver on his promise.

Animal - Jackie Greene

2. Adele - “Chasing Pavements”

A big sounding ballad that Diane Warren could have written (but thankfully didn’t), that hit me right where I lived. Estelle should keep her mouth shut about Adele until she can match her emotion. Of course, if she could match Adele's soul, she wouldn't need to pop off so much.

Chasing Pavements - Adele

3. The Hold Steady - “Sequestered In Memphis”

I still don’t think the album is all that, although I liked it. But this song, passionate, incisive and swaggering, delivered on everything that’s been claimed for them.

Sequestered In Memphis - The H...

4. Southside Johnny and La Bamba’s Big Band (w/Tom Waits) – “Walk Away”

The most playful track I heard all year. Two cult artists – one a tiny one, the other a big one, remind the few who are listening how much they have in common, and that life is a hell of a lot easier with a sense of humor.

Walk Away - Southside Johnny W...

5. Little Jackie - “The World Should Revolve Around Me”

Imani Coppola has found her stride - in admitting what a selfish pain in the ass she can be. She gets what it costs her, but she sure has a lot of fun with it.

The World Should Revolve Aroun...

6. Yeasayer – “Sunrise”

"Middle Eastern-psych-snap-gospel" they dub themselves. I immediately heard the gospel, and if I wasn't completely converted, it had me in the pew, listening hard. (2007)

Sunrise - Yeasayer

7. Lykke Li – “Let It Fall”

A couple of wrong turns and this could have been headed towards kitschy insufferablility, but she navigated the dangers well, and in risking looking foolish, she made some of the most powerful music made by anyone this year.

Let It Fall - Lykke Li

8. The Kills – “Black Balloon”

A song about reckoning and growing up. They got past their studied shallowness on this one.

Black Balloon - The Kills

9. Thao – “Bag of Hammers”

Like Mo Tucker fronting the house band a for children’s TV show. Delightful and irrepressible.

10. Santogold – “Say Aha”

Top 40 pop - for everyone below 14th Street.

Say Aha - Santogold

11. Raphael Saadiq – “Sure Hope You Mean It”

Old school sounding, old school feeling - and old school pleasure.

Sure Hope You Mean It - Raphae...

12. Benjy Ferree – “Fear”

Post-modern soul that's part Dischord and part Dion, from my (so far) most anticipated album of 2009 (sorry Bruce).

13. The Rolling Stones (w/Buddy Guy) – “Champagne & Reefer”

Jagger gets taken to school by a ferocious Buddy Guy. Once again, the Stones show they are at their (passionate) best when they drop the hits and go home to the blues. Somewhere, Ian Stewart is listening to this and smiling.

Champagne & Reefer - Buddy Guy...

14. Chris Pierce – “Beautiful Frustration”

Unsigned, he lit up a show at SXSW, which introduced me to him and this (should be) hit song.

15. Jamie Lidell – “Another Day”

The wanna-be soul man hits his mark on this churchy and joyous number.

Another Day - Jamie Lidell

16. Blue Giant – “Blue Sunshine”

17. Alejandro Escovedo – “Always A Friend”

The former punk comes back from a string of near misses and Hepatitis C, and lets it be known that great rock isn't dead yet. They don’t make ‘em like this anymore.

Always A Friend - Alejandro Es...

18. Duffy – “Warwick Avenue”

I’m not yet a believer that Miss Duffy is the real deal. But with a song as soaring as this one, she rendered the question moot, at least for a little while.

Warwick Avenue - Duffy

19. Ariel Abshire – “Exclamation Love”

You'll be hearing a lot more from her in 2009.

20. Eli “Paperboy” Reed & the True Loves – “(Am I Just) Fooling Myself”

A song and performance worthy of his studies. Late night desperation, grand passion and the all-too familiar knowledge of his own foolishness.

(Am I Just) Fooling Myself - E...

21. Bob Dylan – “Someday Baby”

I could have picked about ten songs from The Bootleg Series, Volume 8. I just happened to pick this one.

Someday Baby (Alternate Versio...

22. Sarabeth Tucek – “Nobody Cares”

Power-pop done 2008 style, with a healthy dollop of wisdom on the side.

Sarabeth Tucek's MySpace Page

23. Butch Walker – “Ponce De Lone Ave.”

For over a decade, since the first time their A&R person at Elektra played me the Marvelous Three, I’ve been somewhat immune to Walker’s charms. And as he’s grown from the record industry’s “Most Likely To Succeed” into a successful producer and songwriter, I still didn’t get it. This song may be changing that.

Ponce De Leon Ave - Butch Walker

24. The Killers – “Losing Touch”

The Duran Duran of our era made their second somewhat silly and overblown album in a row. (“Are we human/or are we dancer” is not this year’s “I’ve got soul/but I’m not a soldier.”) But “Losing Touch” shows they’ve got enough (accidental?) smarts and talent to keep a lot of people on the hook for at least one album more.

The Killers - Losing Touch - The Killers

25. The Kooks – “Sway”

For one song, at least, they had soul.

Sway - The Kooks

26. James Hunter – “Carina”

Could’ve been a Drifters song.

Carina - James Hunter

27. Drive-By Truckers – “The Righteous Path”

The sound of a fuck-up on his knees, praying for mercy from himself.

The Righteous Path - Drive-By ...

28. Leon Ware – “Blue Dress”

A piece of slinky early-80’s R&B that made me want to put a suit on, get in a convertible and take my girl for a ride.

Blue Dress - Leon Ware

29. MGMT – “Time To Pretend”

What it feels like after about two and a half drinks, beautiful women everywhere, and having just emerged from the bathroom after the first bump of what will be a long night-with no anticipated consequences.

It’s good to be young.

Time To Pretend - MGMT

30. Late of the Pier – “Broken”

An almost straight up Gang Of Four rip that’s done so well, I fell in love with its shamelessness. I doubt we’ll ever hear from these guys again, but this was a great moment.

Broken (Fairylights Remix) - L...

31. Al Green (w/Anthony Hamilton) – “You’ve Got The Love I Need”

Al, who told you that you needed anyone on your albums other than you? Don’t you know we just want to hear that voice? Regardless, this was one of the few songs on his new album that was worthy of your legacy.

You've Got The Love I Need (fe...

32. Erykah Badu – “My People”

If you wanted to know where the spirit of Sly Stone’s There’s a Riot Goin’ On was in 2008, you had to hear this. She’s as pretentious as ever, and sometimes, equally powerful.

Erykah Badu - My People - Erykah Badu

33. My Morning Jacket – “I’m Amazed”

Note to My Morning Jacket fans: Instead of saying the next album they release is going to be the one that blows them up, say instead that the next one is going to be a stiff. The reverse psychology may work. Good little song, though.

I'm Amazed - My Morning Jacket

34. Little Jackie – “The Stoop”

“I Wish,” 2008.

The Stoop (Explicit) - Little Jackie

35. Calexico – “The News About William”

Lushly and beautifully orchestrated, I could barely keep up with everything going on here. Indie-orchestral-pop. It’s beyond me, but damn if it didn’t remind me of The Basement Tapes.

The News About William - Calexico

36. Deastro – “The Shaded Forests”

I discovered this track on shuffle, while driving south on the New Jersey Turnpike. I turned up the volume. I sped up. It felt good.

The Shaded Forests - Deastro

37. Marching Band – “Makeup Artist”

A friend sent these guys to me, and when I saw that they’re a “Swedish Indie-Pop” act, I almost deleted the tracks out of pure exhaustion with “Swedish Indie-Pop.” But I’m glad I didn’t.

38. Death Cab For Cutie – “Cath…”

I’ve never really gotten these guys. But for one song, at least, they finally popped for me. Where they’ve always sounded foppish and fey to me, here they transformed into something gritty and substantive.

Cath... - Death Cab for Cutie

39. TV on the Radio – “Golden Age”

I respected Dear Science more than I enjoyed it. Except for this. The rhythm section says everything that I couldn’t understand in the lyrics.

Golden Age - TV On The Radio

40. The Gaslight Anthem – “Miles Davis & The Cool”

The ’59 Sound is getting some incredibly laudatory reviews. It’s a good record, not a great one, but this song is a bit more. Smarts meet soul and sparks fly.

Miles Davis & The Cool - The G...

30 Second Snippets Of New Springsteen

This weekend, Amazon UK posted 30 second sound clips of the upcoming Bruce Springsteen album, Working On A Dream. I'm of two minds after hearing the clips. One, I'm a little nervous, especially after two song releases that have not been what I would call thrilling. But secondly and more importantly, the clips don't really matter. I remember thinking, "Uh oh," when Amazon posted the 30 second snippets of the songs from Magic, and I ended up loving most of the songs on the album within one or two listens. Listen, enjoy (or not), and take it all with a major grain of salt.

Download: 30 second snippets of Springsteen's Working On A Dream

Bootleg Friday: Bruce Springsteen & Friends, 2000-2003

My favorite live rock and roll memories have come from Bruce Springsteen, and some of my favorite live Springsteen moments have come from the Christmas shows he did in the first half of this decade with the Max Weinberg 7 and assorted friends at Convention Hall in Asbury Park. Joyous, exuberant and soulful, filled with friends (various E Streeters, Southside Johnny) and special guests (Elvis Costello in 2001, Sam Moore in 2003), these shows have been celebrations of the Asbury Park sound, a soul/rock hybrid that at its best can leave you crying and shaking your ass simultaneously.

At the first Bruce Springsteen and Friends show on December 17, 2000, no one knew quite what to expect. What came was, if not shocking, a night of one "holy shit" moment after another: A country version of "Blue Christmas;" A killer, horn-led version of "Lucky Town;" Listen to the crowd explode when the horns play the intro to "The E Street Shuffle," and the screams of joy that emerge when Bruce plays the first notes of "Kitty's Back," not played since September, 1978. Little Steven and Bruce killed on the great "Until The Good Is Gone," from Steven's Men Without Women album. And then there was the debut of "My City Of Ruins," pre-9/11, which the audience fell in love with from the first chorus of "Rise up!"

In 2001, the crowd had a better idea of what would happen, so Bruce started bringing out more guests. Bruce Hornsby and Elvis Costello appeared at the show on December 8, 2001 and Hornsby plays some, uh, interesting accordion on a hilarious and great cover of Hot Chocolate's "You Sexy Thing," led by Springsteen. And Elvis Costello does a touching acoustic version of "Alison," with Bruce on background vocals in the choruses, leading into "Tracks Of My Tears"/"Tears Of A Clown." Southside Johnny does a great mini-set, especially on the sublime Springsteen-penned 1977 ballad, "Love On The Wrong Side Of Town."

2003 was my favorite year for the holiday shows for one reason: Sam Moore. I went to the first night, and seeing Sam and Bruce play together was pure joy and ecstasy. "When Something Is Wrong With My Baby" was astonishing; from the way that it was obvious that Sam still had it, and for Bruce's harmonies. Bruce debuted a beautiful cover of "(What's So Funny) 'Bout Peace Love and Understanding," that he would take out on the road for the Vote For Change tour the following fall. A great, great night.

Going to see Bruce in Asbury is akin to seeing Santa at the North Pole. These were joyous shows that brought the Christmas/holiday spirit like few things I've ever experienced. I hope Bruce and friends revive this tradition. It's a great one. If you're into the soul aspects of Springsteen, these shows are nirvana.

Download: "Blue Christmas" 12/17/00, Asbury Park, NJ
Download: "Lucky Town" 12/17/00, Asbury Park, NJ
Download: "The E Street Shuffle" 12/17/00, Asbury Park, NJ
Download: "Kitty's Back" 12/17/00, Asbury Park, NJ
Download: "Until The Good Is Gone" (Little Steven) 12/17/00, Asbury Park, NJ
Download: "Merry Christmas Baby" 12/17/00, Asbury Park, NJ
Download: "Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)" 12/17/00, Asbury Park, NJ
Download: "My City Of Ruins" 12/17/00, Asbury Park, NJ

Download: "You Sexy Thing" 12/8/01, Asbury Park, NJ
Download: "Intro" (Elvis Costello) 12/8/01, Asbury Park, NJ
Download: "Alison" (Elvis Costello w/Bruce Springsteen) 12/8/01, Asbury Park, NJ
Download: "Tracks Of My Tears"/"Tears Of A Clown" Elvis Costello w/Bruce Springsteen), 12/8/01, Asbury Park, NJ
Download: "This Time It's For Real" (Southside Johnny) 12/8/01, Asbury Park, NJ
Download: "Love On The Wrong Side Of Town" (Southside Johnny) 12/8/01, Asbury Park, NJ
Download: "It's Been A Long Time" 12/8/01, (Southside Johnny) Asbury Park, NJ

Download: "Hold On, I'm Coming" (Sam Moore w/Bruce Springsteen) 12/8/03, Asbury Park, NJ
Download: "When Something Is Wrong With My Baby" (Sam Moore w/Bruce Springsteen) 12/8/03, Asbury Park, NJ
Download: "I Don't Want To Go Home" (Southside Johnny) 12/8/03, Asbury Park, NJ
Download: "(What's So Funny) About Peace Love And Understanding" 12/8/03, Asbury Park,
NJ
Download: "Santa Claus Is Coming To Town" 12/8/03, Asbury Park, NJ

Chuck Vs. Keith

"You Want To Get It Right...Let's Get It Right."

Bootleg Thursday: Nina Simone - December, 1977

I posted far too few "Bootleg Friday" pieces this year. So I'm going to try to make up for it this month. Enjoy.

It took me a long time to like Nina Simone. It wasn’t that I didn’t like her voice. I did. A lot. But I found her music sanctimonious, arrogant, and even humorless. She sounded so “above it all” to me. It was obviously soul music, but it was soul with an edge that made me uncomfortable, in possession of none of the “everybody join in, everyone's invited” spirit of Otis, Aretha or James.

But then I read about her life, and I got her anger. I read about how at her first piano recital at age ten, her parents were made to move out of their seats and to the back of the hall. (Simone wouldn’t play until her parents were moved back to their original seats.) I read about her emotional troubles (she was bi-polar for roughly forty years), her estrangement from the United States, and her fury at what happened to the Civil Rights Movement. It was in that context that I got her music – music that demands it be gotten on its own terms, and no one else’s. She created unreasonable music.

The following selections are from a legendary show in December, 1977. In exile from the U.S., Simone plays for a worshipful crowd, but does not give them any of her most popular songs (“Young, Gifted and Black,” “To Love Somebody,” “Mississippi Goddam”). It’s music filled with fire that still burns - with anger, resentment – and yes, laughter and love as well. And it's a fire that sounds dangerous to me, even thirty years later. But I think that Nina Simone would have liked that - because she was never interested in the established order of anything.

Download: "Balm In Gilead" 12/77
Download: "Balm In Gilead (reprise)" 12/77
Download: "Rich Girl" 12/77
Download: "Little Girl Blue" 12/77
Download: "The Other Woman" 12/77
Download: "Turning Point" 12/77
Download: "Pirate Jenny" 12/77
Download: "Pirate Jenny (reprise)" 12/77

Candi Staton - "He Called Me Baby"

I'm testing a new file hosting service. Enjoy. This song is sublime.

Download: "He Called Me Baby"

James Hunter: The Hard Way

One album I missed this spring is James Hunter's The Hard Way, a delightful piece of late 50's - early 60's inspired soul. I've gotten into it recently (thanks to a personal reminder from Southside Johnny), and it's just one of those albums that makes it hard to repress a smile. Hunter is clearly a Sam Cooke fanatic, and much of the The Hard Way has a lightness to it that reminds me of some of Cooke's more pop feeling recordings. There's not a drop of pretension in this music - it's definitely worth your time. It just sounds good.

Download James Hunter at emusic
Download James Hunter at the Amazon MP3 store

Ariel Abshire's Exclamation Love

One of the most impressive debut albums I’ve heard this year is Ariel Abshire’s Exclamation Love. Abshire, a 17-year-old singer-songwriter from Austin, Texas, is in possession of a wonderful and versatile voice and a presence that demands your attention. The album is filled with excellent songs (more so on the first half) which bear repeat listens. Hearing her, you can hear echoes of pop, country, Texas soul and more – but it’s all of a piece and it’s all Abshire. This is truly a young artist to watch.

Ariel Abshire on MySpace
Buy Exclamation Love at the Amazon Mp3 Store

John Lennon, December 8, 1980 and Me

December 8, 1980 is, in retrospect, one of the most important days in my life.

It was a Monday. I was in the 5th grade at Solomon Schecter Day School in Cranford, NJ, and we had the day off for some reason. My Dad and I were living alone in Plainfield, New Jersey, but I was spending the long weekend at my Godfather’s tiny studio in Manhattan on W. 72nd Street between Amsterdam and Columbus Avenue, one avenue away from the Dakota, where John Lennon and Yoko Ono lived.

My Godfather, Vincent Cavallaro, was a painter, and it was he who introduced me to fine art and what it is to be an artist. He was a wonderful painter and sculptor – one of very few artists commissioned by NASA to depict the space program in the 60’s. He was never financially successful (although he made his living solely through his art, which counts him as wildly successful in my book); his best work came in the 50’s and 60’s, and it didn’t quite follow the fashion of Abstract Expressionism in the 50's and especially not the Pop Art that Warhol and Rauschenberg ushered in during the early 60’s. By 1980, he was almost seventy, and his fire was beginning to go out.

But Jimmy (his nickname, which was the only name I ever called him) was the grandfather I never had – and he spoiled me rotten. Pretty much anything I wanted, he’d get it for me. One day in the spring of 1980, Jimmy had bought me a new pair of roller skates and we went to Central Park to try them out. On our way back to his place, I saw a couple walk out the very scary looking (to my eyes) Dakota building on the corner of 72nd and Central Park West, into a waiting car. The man was signing autographs before he got into the car. “Who is that,” I asked Jimmy. “John Lennon,” he replied. Even at the age of nine going on ten, I knew that John Lennon was someone important, and that he had been in the Beatles, and they were important, even though I didn’t really know anything about them yet.

My Dad picked me up early in the evening on December 8th, and I was home by around seven. I was asleep by ten. The following morning, I awoke and got the paper for my Dad, opened it up, and saw the headline in the upper left section: John Lennon Dead. I read the article, fascinated, my adrenaline beginning to pump, thinking that this murder had happened someplace I had walked by countless times – that I had just been there the day before - I had seen this man before.

And then I turned on the radio (I listened to WPLJ in those days - it was a rock station then), and then I started to get the depth of what had happened, what John Lennon had meant to people, and who the Beatles really were. The radio played the saddest Beatles and John Lennon songs. (I recall hearing “Strawberry Fields Forever,” “A Day In The Life,” “Let It Be,” and “Imagine” more than almost anything else.) And in hearing the listeners call in, anguished and crying, their grief touched me and clued me in that something historic was happening.

I was transfixed by the story and the footage I saw on TV. I related to Sean losing his father violently, as I had lost my mom violently in a car accident about three and a half years previously. I heard about John Lennon losing his mom twice; once as a young boy when his parents split, and then as a teenager when she was hit by a car - and how embittered it made him as a young man. Of course, it resonated with me completely.

And then I made a discovery. Underneath the stereo, there was a cabinet full of (vinyl) albums. I thought they were all opera albums belonging to my Dad, but as I went through the collection, I saw them – Rubber Soul, Revolver, Sergeant Pepper, the White Album and Let It Be. They had been left behind by my older brother and sister, and now they were mine.

I put on Revolver first, because I thought the cover looked cool. And from the first note of "Good Day Sunshine," (I put side two on first and yes, I know it's a Paul song) I was gone. I didn’t just listen to the music; I swallowed it whole, like air or water. By that Sunday, when there was a worldwide vigil for John, I had made tape recordings of all of those albums, and was playing them on my little Panasonic mono tape recorder, even taking the tape recorder into bed with me when I went to sleep at night. Yes, I felt the sadness of the moment – I related to that sadness all too well. But I heard the joy, pleasure and possibility in the Beatles, and I, thank God, related to that more. Like millions before me, I was now discovering the power of their music - and of rock and soul.

Within three months, I had every Beatles album and was fully obsessed with them. When I would see Jimmy, I would have him buy me books on the Beatles and rock n’ roll. And reading those books (Shout! by Philip Norman, The Rolling Stone Illustrated History Of Rock And Roll, The Beatles by Hunter Davies, Lennon Remembers) led to names that I had might have heard before, but that I certainly hadn’t yet reckoned with: Elvis Presley, Little Richard, the Everly Brothers, Chuck Berry, Buddy Holly, the Rolling Stones, the Who, Smokey Robinson, Billy Preston, Motown, Stax and more, all of whom in the months and years to come would be more treasure for me discover. In the Time Magazine with Lennon on the cover following his death, it covered Bruce Springsteen and Miami Steve Van Zandt’s reaction to Lennon’s death the following night in Philadelphia, and that Lennon had been warmly admiring of “Hungry Heart,” which had just been released. That led to me buying The River in February, 1981. I was gone, again.

Who I am, who I’ve been and who I will ever be as a music lover, executive, participant, producer, writer, critic, A&R man, and advocate was, in part, birthed in the aftermath of that horrible event on December 8, 1980. My relationship with John Lennon’s music – from the sublime way he sang “You’ve Really Got A Hold On Me,” to the anguished soul of Plastic Ono Band, is at the core of who I am. The soul of his music - romantic, cynical, hilarious, mocking, loving, angry, fun, questioning- is there with me always, as something to treasure, and a benchmark to aspire to. I’ve never stopped missing him and wishing I had had the opportunity to appreciate him while he was alive.

And I'm still pissed off he's gone.