Category Archives: Music

Documentary view — Beware of Mr. Baker

Rock musicians are notoriously eccentric as a whole, particularly those whose heyday was back in the anything goes, drug-infused 1960s and 70s. But legendary drummer and wild man Ginger Baker stands out from the crowd in terms of pure insanity and fearsome ill temper. A very large redheaded man with a seriously bad attitude and a taste for mind-altering drugs, Baker is most famous for being one third of the best power trio of all time, Cream. Along with the late Jack Bruce on bass and primary vocals and the inimitable Eric “Slowhand” Clapton on guitar, Cream redefined the sound of heavy blues in the late 1960s and made an incredible impact on Rock despite the fact that the volatile trio could only keep it together for 2 years. The outstanding 2012 documentary Beware of Mr. Baker chronicles those heady days as well as the pure obstreperousness of its larger-than-life subject who left a trail of destruction in his wake across several continents in the years that followed.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wqrigN8jxj8

With his gaunt appearance, madman’s eyes and predilection towards random acts of violence and self-destruction, Baker makes an ideal subject for a film. Beginning in the present at Baker’s fortified South African compound and horse farm and tracing his life back to his boyhood during Blitz-ravaged London, Beware makes use of lovely interstitial animation to add graphic novel vividness to the biography and never flinches from recounting the legendary drummer’s troubled life starting with the loss of his tough father in WWII. Baker, who might today have been diagnosed with ADD as a boy, subsequently finds his special quality when he realizes that he has “perfect time” and becomes enthralled as a teenager with Jazz drumming. He was taken under the wing of Phil Seaman, the greatest of the English Jazz drummers in the Gene Krupa style, who turned Baker on to two exceptionally important things that would impact the rest of his life: African rhythms and heroin. By his late teen years, Baker was not only a smack addict but also one of the most preeminent and technically accomplished drummers in England or anywhere else. This naturally led to his contributing to the intense and percolating London R&B scene and he quickly established himself as a force to be reckoned with in The Graham Bond Organisation, one of those big-in-England-but-not-in-the-States-type groups. With an appetite for drugs even greater than Baker’s, Bond’s band soon collapsed but not before Baker fatefully met Scottish bassist and vocalist Jack Bruce. These two polar opposites somehow attracted and were soon to become the fiery odd couple of British R&B making Rock history in the process.

While Ginger Baker disparages Bruce throughout Beware (as well as pretty much every other non-Jazz musician on the planet except Clapton), it’s clear that despite their mutual antipathy the two men fed off each other to achieve the greatest of musical heights. When Eric Clapton tired of his purist exploits in John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers and chose to return to the heady world of amplified R&B, Bruce and Baker were a ready made fit for Rock’s first power trio, emphasis on power: The Cream. Continue reading →

What We’re Listening To – U-Mass by The Pixies

Once in a while you are reminded of a great song. You put it on, and it blows you away, reminding you of how great music can actually be. It’s subjective, because we’ve all got our own lists of songs that light that fire in our hearts and bellies, but one at the top of my list is U-Mass, by The Pixies. The Pixies are still a great band, but in 1991, when they released their final studio album “Trompe le Monde” after a 5 year run together, they seemed somehow even better. The late 80’s and early 90’s were a weird and great time for music, a kind of last gasp before the “alternative” became the mainstream. Stalwarts of the dangerous and subversive fringe of rock & roll like Jane’s Addiction were calling it quits after beating their heads  and hearts against the wall of society for half a decade, despite Lollapalooza having hit the amphitheaters and coming out a huge success, while Nirvana, Mudhoney, and seemingly everyone else in Seattle were taking the baton for a few more years of legitimate thrashing around before the whole thing blew up in a sad mess of sanitized, canned angst, a la Weezer and Bush. On MTV you were likely to see a Soundgarden video bracketed by C+C Music Factory on one end and Color Me Badd on the other. It was a confusing time. No wonder so many of us young guys wore nail polish.

Continue reading →

What we’re listening to — The Replacements

I was surprised and delighted to find out the other day that 80s Indie stalwarts and coulda been contenders The Replacements had just played a sold out show out in Forest Hills, Queens apparently having lost none of their edge. It’s always somehow reassuring to see that the heroes of one’s youth are still kicking ass even if three members from their heyday have died, become too ill to perform or gone missing. But as long as the formidable Paul Westerberg still roams the earth I hope these guys will keep performing their hits with their characteristic ragged gusto and swagger.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gZi-dw03fE8

And what hits they were. With a combination of pop sensibilities and punk ethos, The Replacements blew out of Minneapolis in the mid-80s like a bracing, whiskey-soaked wind of Rock on the rocks. Along with the harder-edged but excellent Hüsker Dü (who they aped unsuccessfully early on) and the almighty Prince, it seemed like 1985 was the year that put the Twin Cities on the map musically… if only for that fleeting moment that finds a city du jour that is not New York or LA ever so briefly anointed as the New Happening Place for Music™. It wasn’t to last, of course, and neither were The Replacements. But they made a hell of a heavenly racket while they did.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ar4bhxR4ZK0

Starting out as drunk punk wannabes, Westerberg was joined by brothers Bob Stinson on guitar and Tommy Stinson on bass with drummer Chris Mars pounding the skins, and the group rapidly developed a winning brand of punk-infused pop that wasn’t afraid to take on the more sentimental side of adolescent angst. Continue reading →

What we’re listening to — Take Five by The Dave Brubeck Quartet

If you are just starting a Jazz collection there are a few seminal records you should acquire right out of the box. Anything by the Miles Davis Quintet from the 1950s, any of Coltrane’s Atlantic recordings, Stan Getz’s Bossa Nova years just to name a few. Another certain must-have is 1959’s Time Out by The Dave Brubeck Quartet. Looking nothing like reefer-smoking beatniks with their spit-and-polish suits and heavy frame glasses, this classic ensemble featured Brubeck on piano, the great and super smooth Paul Desmond on alto sax, Eugene Wright on bass and the wonderfully nuanced Joe Morello on drums. But the four were actually radicals in geeky disguise. Inspired by Turkish and Bulgarian folk music, the whole album features compositions with weird time signatures like 9/8 and 6/4 and “Take Five”, credited to Desmond, swings ever so propulsively in 5/4 time.

Radiating cool and sophistication, “Take Five” sounds as fresh today as it did in 1959 even as it has permeated the entire pop culture subconsciousness with its omnipresence for over 50 years. It’s a must-have for the beginner, intermediate or expert Jazz fan because it is quite simply one of the greatest compositions in 20th century popular music. Put it on the hi-fi then slip into your smoking jacket, mix up some ice cold martinis for you and that special someone and see if you don’t feel like Hef at the Playboy Mansion.

Somewhat amazingly, you can get free unlimited streaming of Time Out and a ton of other classic Jazz albums with a subscription to Amazon Prime.

What we’re listening to — Free

Before the excellent blue-eyed soul vocalist Paul Rodgers came to Top 40 omnipresence with 1970’s Crap Rock powerhouse Bad Company he was the frontman for English blues rockers Free. With a harder, less polished sound than Rodgers’ later endeavor and avoiding the easily parodied obsessions with American Western imagery, Free cranked out some of the best and most righteous hard rock of the early 70s. With the twin forces of one of the best vocalists in Rock history ably abetted by the superlative guitarist Paul Kossoff, Free reached their commercial zenith in 1970 with the smash hit that became an evergreen of Classic Rock radio, “All Right Now”.

Between the playful pick up banter of the lyrics over the tense staccato guitar licks giving way to a smooth flowing bass groove on the hooky chorus and the mid song break for Kossoff’s elegant, high hat-supported solo, “All Right Now” was five and a half minutes of irresistible good time music that put Free on the map on both sides of the Atlantic. But with nimble teenage bassist Andy Fraser and steady Simon Kirke on drums supporting Rodgers and Kossoff, Free was ever so briefly more than the sum of its parts and produced several stone classics that rival “All Right Now” even if they’re not as well known. Among those was the killer title track from the same album, “Fire and Water”.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B7lso-vgRvw

Equal parts heavy licks and carnal yearning, “Fire and Water” pointed Free down the path of that most abused sub genre in Rock, the power ballad. But Free had the knack, whether through Rodgers’ beautifully gritty and emotive voice or the bands’ razor edge as a whole, to transcend schmaltz and deliver the softer stuff with real passion and expressiveness. The resigned sadness of “Soon I Will Be Gone” is one of the finest exemplars of their sensitive side in action.

But despite their skill and seemingly unlimited future success, Free imploded, like so many other bands, due to drug and ego problems. The great Paul Kossoff in particular developed a terrible heroin addiction that proved the real undoing of the band. After a breakup in 1971, reunion in 1972 and the release of the decent but not really Free Heartbreaker in 1973 (it was mainly Rodgers and Kirke with hastily assembled support when Kossoff couldn’t and Fraser wouldn’t go), the band finally called it quits for good. Rodgers and Kirke went on to even greater fame and fortune with Bad Company and Fraser eventually became one of the 70s preeminent songwriters for mainstream rockers. Sadly, Kossoff’s masterful licks were forever silenced in 1976 by a heart attack at the age of 25, undoubtedly caused by the ravages of his addiction.

Kossoff

But the music, as they say, lives on. In their brief and tumultuous existence at the dawn of the 70s, Free produced a brand of hard, bluesy Rock music that made most of what was to come in that genre look a like slick, soulless imitation. The outstanding compilation Molten Gold testifies to that excellence with its 30 standout tracks. “Molten Gold” was also one of Kossoff’s finest contributions even if it is technically a solo work, his valedictory as one of the best, if now sadly overlooked, of the great British rock guitarists.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WmKPNaV2HX0

What we’re listening to — Not Ready Yet by Eels

Since depression is the watchword the past few days, I think this Eels song from 1996’s Beautiful Freak does an amazing job of encapsulating the hoepless feeling and the futility of someone else telling you to buck up. Listen to the lyrics and tell me if you don’t agree.

Sometimes the best way to beat sadness is to listen to sad music, especially when the singer has more than a passing knowledge of what he’s talking about (as frontman E certainly does). Not everyone’s preferred therapy, I’m sure, but works for me.

What we’re listening to — The Yardbirds

There’s no arguing that The Yardbirds were one of the most important bands at the forefront of the British Invasion following the Beatles trans-Atlantic seismic smash-through. They were also an incubator of greatness. There is no other band in Rock history that can boast of having three of the most legendary guitarists grace their lineup at different points in its evolution. But with first Eric Clapton then Jeff Beck and finally Jimmy Page, The Yardbirds can stake exactly that claim. While they were somewhat eclipsed as a band by their illustrious members’ later fame and renown, it’s important to remember just how bloody good and groundbreaking The Yardbirds really were.

They started out by covering American Blues with an original lineup consisting of lead singer Keith Relf, Paul Samwell-Smith on base, Chris Dreja on rhythm guitar, Jim McCarty on drums and the short-lived Anthony Topham on lead guitar. When Clapton replaced Topham and the band took over the Rolling Stones’ spot at the famed Crawdaddy Club in 1963 the word was out in R&B-mad London that there was a new force to be reckoned with. But, much like the Stones and the Animals, The Yardbirds were not content with traditional Blues covers despite their proficiency and they rapidly branched out into offbeat, minor chord arrangements and a desire to push the Blues further into a heavy rock feel by utilizing distortion and feedback. It’s no accident that the last incarnation of The Yardbirds was actually the first coming together of Led Zeppelin in all but name only. It can be argued that there is a direct line from The Yardbirds fist pioneering improvised raveups circa 1964 to the heavy English Blues explosion of the later 60s that led to not just Zep but Cream, Iron Butterfly, Free, Deep Purple and a million other hard rocking white boys, eventually morphing into Glam and Heavy Metal.

With the charismatic Relf’s distinctive, somewhat ominous baritone and the band’s penchant for offbeat tempos and Eastern influences, The Yardbirds consistently produced some of the most interesting singles of the 60s, beginning with their breakout hit, “For Your Love.”  Continue reading →

RIP Bobby Womack, 1944 – 2014

R&B and Soul legend Bobby Womack has passed away at the age of 70. One of the classic “middleweights” of the African-American music scene in the 1960s & 70s, Womack made hugely popular singles that, like Tyrone Davis and Johnny Taylor, charted big time in R&B but did not have the crossover appeal of a Marvin Gaye or Al Green as radio was becoming more & more re-segregated.

Mentored by the legendary Sam Cooke, Womack followed a similar trajectory by emerging from strong Gospel roots to perform “profane” secular music. That connection was further cemented when Womack married Cooke’s widow not long after the latter’s shooting death, a move which many found distastefully opportunistic and led to de facto blacklisting by the music industry. But, as Womack always maintained, it was probably just a case of two people devastated by the loss of the most important person in their lives who found solace with each other.

In any event, Womack recovered after many years in the shadows doing important back up work with the likes of Sly and the Family Stone and Janis Joplin to release two exceptionally strong albmus in the early 1970s, Communication and Understanding. These yielded a string of major hits including “That’s the Way I Feel About ‘Cha”, “Woman’s Gotta Have It” and the quirky “Harry Hippie”. Womack also scored with the socially conscious “Across 110th Street”, the theme to a mediocre 1972 Blaxploitation movie that was reused 20 years later by Quentin Tarantino for Jackie Brown, his excellent homage to that unique genre.

Womack stayed busy and relevent to the end, recording with the Rolling Stones, The Roots, Mos Def and Gorillaz among many others. But it is for his special run of 1960s and 70s hits that he will be best remembered. One thing’s for sure: ain’t nobody gonna forget about Bobby Womack.

His full New York Times obituary is here.

What We’re Listening To – “Lazaretto” by Jack White

Jack White has only himself to blame. I thought admitting I’ve got mixed feelings about Jack White’s latest record would be a good, or at least honest, way to start a review. Of course that blame I put on his shoulders assumes Jack White cares one fig about whether or not I’m conflicted about his newest album, “Lazaretto”, which I am, and which I’m certain he does not, but c’est la vie. Here I go anyway…


Continue reading →

Earworm of the day — Take It to the Limit by the Eagles

I have been playing this song lately as if it were brand new instead of nearly 40 years old. Between the hooks, the polished perfection of the band and the melancholy wanderlust, it feels like the ideal warm weather driving song. Here’s a primo live performance from ’77 with Randy Meisner singing his classic composition shortly before he quit the band.

Meisner didn’t write many Eagles tunes but “Take It to the Limit” is a beauty. The Eagles get a tough rap in “serious” rock criticism as being somehow too polished and slick, too SoCal for their own good, as if massive popularity somehow made the band unworthy of respect. But maybe all those millions of record buyers knew better than the critics after all. I think with the perspective of time and not hearing their songs every 10 seconds on the radio one can now appreciate just what kind of chops they had. Their lyrics are sharp, the vocal harmonies are Byrds-level good and the hits still sound fresh after all these years due to the super-crisp production. The Eagles gave the people what they wanted and they did it damn well. The next time you’ve got a long road trip go ahead and cue up Greatest Hits Volume I & Volume II. Despite the fact that it’s all the same band, the songs are so diverse I bet you’ll keep coming back for more on the way home.