The Genius of Miles
I listened to sides 3/4 of Miles Davis‘ ‘Bitches Brew’ on the way home from work today. Windows down, volume way up… it had been a while since I took a listen to this groundbreaking album, and I felt compelled to share a tune for the uninitiated…
…the stellar “Miles Runs the Voodoo Down,” echoes the influence of Jimi Hendrix; with its chuck-and-slip chords and lead figures and Davis playing a ghostly melody through the shimmering funkiness of the rhythm section, it literally dances and becomes increasingly more chaotic until about nine minutes in, where it falls apart. Yet one doesn’t know it until near the end, when it simmers down into smoke-and-ice fog once more. – review from All Music
Miles Davis: Miles Runs the Voodoo Down – From: Bitches Brew, 1970.
Old School 87 – BDP “South Bronx”
G-Unit, The Game, Lil Jon, Lil Dik-Dik, blah blah. I don’t know, I guess I’m getting old, but give me the pioneers of hip hop any day over those thugs. Today I take you back to the old school to join KRS-One and Scott LaRock in the South Bronx, the South South Bronx.
Boogie Down Productions released ‘Criminal Minded’ in 1987, a great year for the rap pioneers: Eric B. and Rakim’s ‘Paid in Full’ and Public Enemy’s debut, ‘Yo! Bum Rush the Show’ hit the streets (including the mean streets of Wind Point on the outskirts of Racine, Wisconsin, byotch). I was rollin’ in my mom’s Buick Park Avenue back in those days, 17 years of hard living coursing through my veins…
Boogie Down Productions: South Bronx
From ‘Criminal Minded.Photo credit: From Wikipedia.
A Song about War – Marah’s Round Eye Blues
OK, so I keep coming back to Marah. Yeah, well, I love ’em… their second album, ‘Kids in Philly’, includes a poignant, powerful, and very well-written tune from the perspective of a Vietnam veteran. The song is “Round Eye Blues”, and it’s full of intense imagery and musical references of the day:
The chorus:
“Take the hits boys take the hits
don’t smoke your bible and lose your wits
’cause the sky is filled with shrapnel,
& your eyes are filled with tears.
Hold your breath boys hold your breath,
finger your trigger and welcome death
’cause the choppers’ filled with your gutshot friends
& your hearts are filled with fear.”From the opening cadence of the drums to the outro to the tune of the Ronette’s “Be My Baby”, this song’ll grab you by the shirt collar and take you on a journey…
Marah – Round Eye Blues
Photo of Marah @ Long Wongs, Tempe, AZ – August 2000, 280 degrees F
I’ll kiss you for each leaf on every tree
In between 1996’s ‘Being There’ and 1999’s ‘Summerteeth’, Wilco sat down with Billy Bragg and a bunch of Woody Guthrie lyrics to write and record 1998’s “Mermaid Avenue”. The album is a journey through Guthrie’s wildly imaginative, erotic and brilliant words, and the superb musicianship of Bragg and the boys from Wilco.
One of my favorites on the album is “Hesitating Beauty”. It’s an uplifting plea to Nora Lee, the object of the singer’s desires:
For your sparkling cocky smile I’ve walked a million miles
Begging you to come and wed me in the spring
Why do you my dear delay
What makes you laugh and turn away
You’re a hesitating beauty, Nora Lee
Well I know that you are itching to get married, Nora Lee
And I know how I’m twitching for the same thing, Nora Lee
By the stars and clouds above we could spend our lives in love
You’re a hesitating beauty, Nora Lee
We can build a house and home where the flowers come to bloom
Around our yard I’ll nail a fence so high
That the boys with peeping eyes cannot see that angel face
My hesitating beauty Nora Lee
Well I know that you are itching to get married Nora Lee
And I know how I’m twitching for the same thing Nora Lee
By the stars and clouds above we can spend our lives in love
If you quit your hesitating, Nora Lee
We can ramble hand in hand across the grasses of our land
I’ll kiss you for each leaf on every tree
We can bring our kids to play where the dry leaves blow today
If you quit your hesitating, Nora Lee
Well I know that you are itching to get married, Nora Lee
And I know how I’m twitching for the same thing, Nora Lee
By the stars and clouds above we could spend our lives in love
If you quit your hesitating, Nora LeeIf anyone out there has Bright Eyes’ latest album, ‘I’m Wide Awake, It’s Morning’, listen to the similarities between “At the Bottom of Everything” (track 1) and Wilco’s “Hesitating Beauty”.
Do yourself a favor and buy Mermaid Avenue!
Here’s Wilco’s performance of the tune from the 1998 Farm Aid.
“Wilco MassMoca AustinNelson” by Austin Nelson is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Down in the Basement
Basement Apartment. This Minneapolis band came to my attention recently while listening to Radio Paradise. From the handful of samples I’ve heard, they’re a mellow bunch. To me, they remind me of a little Mazzy Star here, a little Luna there. This song, “Empty Skies” is a right up my alley. Laid back slide guitar, beautiful harmonies, and basically just a breath of nice clean air.
The audio to “Empty Skies” is from the Quicktime video available on their web site, which I highly recommend checking out. Go to their web site, click the Images link, and you’ll see the link for the QT video. They also offer a few mp3 downloads, as does CNET’s Download.com.
The band is the brainchild of Vince Caro, who used to be in a band called Pilot Light. Don’t know anything about ’em, but – ah yes, – I shall investigate.
Erin go Bragh!
In honor of St. Patrick’s Day, here’s a Chieftains tune that I used to play incessantly on the jukebox at Murphy’s Irish Pub in Tempe, Arizona (back in my “socializing days”).
The Chieftains – “Boil the Breakfast Early” – from Boil the Breakfast Early (1979)
Buy Chieftains music.
Standing in the Rain in Vain with LKJ
Linton Kwesi Johnson was born in Kingston, Jamaica, and raised in the Brixton section of London.
Johnson invented dub poetry, a type of toasting descended from the DJ stylings of U-Roy and I-Roy. But whereas toasting tended to be hyperkinetic and given to fits of braggadocio, Johnson’s poetry (which is what it was — he was a published poet and journalist before he performed with a band) was more scripted and delivered in a more languid, slangy, streetwise style. Johnson’s grim realism and tales of racism in an England governed by Tories was scathingly critical. The Afro-Brits in Johnson’s poems are neglected by the government and persecuted by the police. – All Music.com
Well, my introduction to LKJ a few years ago didn’t come via a scathingly critical political song, but a laid back, sweet and humorous tune by the name of “Loraine”. It’s about his encounter with the lovely Loraine on a rainy day in May. Try as he might, ol’ Linton doesn’t get the girl, which gives us the great chorus:
Now I’m standin’ in the rain in vain, Loraine
Hoping to see you again
Tears fall from me eyes like rain, Loraine
A terrible pain in me brain, Loraine
You’re drivin’ me insaneI’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: I don’t know you (or maybe I do), but you’ll like this one.
Linton Kwesi Johnson – Loraine
Respect to the Lady in My Life
Today is my second wedding anniversary, so today, my lovely wife of two years picks a tune for you all. It’s her favorite Skatalites tune, “The Vow”. Fitting for an occasion like today, as the tune expounds on the promise and virtues of loving one person for the rest of your life. The very idea that I am married to a woman who hears the lyrics to this song, and thinks of me, is in itself amazing.
Here’s a song review from All Music:
Two of the The Skatalites’s singers pledge their troths to each other, while the band offer their congratulations on this celebratory single from 1965. The backing has an almost oom-pah Oktoberfest feel, as the entire group join in to emphasize the coursing rhythm, while overhead Johnny “Dizzy” Moore blows bubbles of trumpet notes into the air. His muted tones add to the joyful mood, while Roland Alphonso’s warm solo reminds one of the seriousness of the ceremony. Both Jackie Opel and Doreen Schaeffer give excellent performances within, he ever more passionately asking her to declare her eternal love, she warm and loving in response, and together when they launch into their duet finale, the romance kindles into fiery romance. – Jo-Ann Green, All Music.com
The Skatalites – The Vow” – featuring Jackie Opel and Doreen Shaffer – 1965
Buy Foundation Ska, a great Skatalites compilation, on Amazon.
Photo credit: From https://skatalites.com/history
Coolin’ on a Saturday Evening with Beck
As I lay on the couch tonight listening to American Routes, the baby asleep, the lights off, the fan blowing gently, and my body spent from a day in the 85 degree Arizona sun, Cookie & the Cupcakes’ “Sea of Love” piped softly over the speakers above me…. what followed was right in the same vein: a dream-inducing, gentle melody that I first thought to be from the late ’60’s / early ’70’s. But then it hit me, the voice I was hearing was Beck. I came to find out that the song, “We Live Again”, is on his 1999 ‘Mutations’ release, one of the few Beck releases I don’t own, and will soon remedy.
Buy Beck’s Stuff for crying out loud.
Charlie Hunter’s 8 String Funk
Every time I listen to this live track, or any Charlie Hunter song in general, I’m amazed that all of the sounds are emanating from one guitar. Charlie is a Bay Area master of his custom-made 8-string guitar. He plays the role of both bass and guitar player. Nope, there isn’t a bassist in the band. What you hear is coming from one man. On this song, “Crossings”, Charlie and Adam Cruz (on drums) lay out 12 and a half minutes of rhythmic laid back guitar funk. How Charlie can negotiate those kinds of bass and guitar parts simultaneously is beyond me.
About his guitar:
custom-made Novax eight-string…..Designed by Ralph Novak, the instrument features special frets and separate signals for its guitar and bass portions. Picking bass notes with his right thumb while fretting them with his left index finger (while at the same time fingerpicking guitar chords and single notes with his right hand’s remaining four digits as he frets with his left hand’s other three fingers), Hunter achieves the real sound of two-for-one. – from All Music
Huh? I lost track of all the fingers! If you want to see what his guitars look like, check out the cool Gear Page on his site. Anyway, this and a whole lot of others tunes are available to you on his web site, CharlieHunter.com. There’s a ton in the Audio section.
Facts of the day:
- Charlie used to be a member of the Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy, Michael Franti’s group before Spearhead.
- Jay Lane of Primus used to be Charlie’s drummer.
So without further ado:
Charlie Hunter (and Adam Cuz in drums) – “Crossings” – recorded live in Detroit, MI, 20 Nov 1999.
Buy Charlie’s music on Amazon (plus a lot of unreleased downloads available for purchase on his site).Photo from https://www.charliehunter.com/photos.
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