Ronnie Wood: 6 String Slinger, Perpetual Party Boy and now...Professional Yarn Spinner

If you know me, you know me as a serious music fan. I am not just a fan of all of the sounds and songs...I am a fan of all of the stories that live within the songs.  The folks and the lore that are intertwined within the songs are where you get access...the dirt. 

I love books written by flies-on-the wall or first hand accounts. I love the documentaries, too. I have never been one for straight concert films, but I love the docco's that dig deep and reveal lots. If you are like me and have a ridiculous R&R Fantasy, the books, the doccos, the interviews...this is where you get to play along. (Speaking of which, did you see the docco put out to celebrate the 40th anniversary of The Stones, 'Exile on Main St."?  No?  Run, don't walk, brothers and sisters...you got to move.)

Usually the best stories are told by those that experienced them...those that were there and lived to tell. There may be no one in R&R that has had more experiences and been there, more than Ronnie Wood. He is the ultimate "surprise guest" at gigs, the perennial last-one-to-leave-the-party and now he has his own radio show where he gets to spin some of the coolest fucking R&R yarns ever heard. 

Find the show at Ronnie Wood Radio and follow it on Twitter @ronniewoodshow

Ronnie telling us about what he will be telling us about...

Actually, the show has been around since March 2010...I just stumbled across it. I have been locked into this since I found out about it. If you are down with the stories found in the sound...check this shit out. It's chock full of pics, audio and vids...and, of course, Ronnie. 

Check it out...latest of nineteen audio casts of  Ronnie Wood Radio: 

</object><span><a href="http://soundcloud.com/ronnie-wood-show/show-19">Show 19</a> by <a href="http://soundcloud.com/ronnie-wood-show">Ronnie Wood Show</a></span>

Check this out, too...

Ladies and Gentlemen...The Rolling Stones in Exilre Trailer:

Tagged Music Radio Rolling Stones Ronnie Wood Stories video

Wishing all Those Old Things Were New: "First-Feelings"

 

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I was standing out infront of my old apartment in Boston yesterday. I last lived there in that specific spot in 2000.  "Wishing all these old things were new" is a song by Merle Haggard. It is off his 2000 album, "If I Could Only Fly". The song is less of a lament than it is a reflection on those "first" feelings. I was thinking about this song while standing out infront of my old Boston place. My time in Boston was chock full of first-feelings. 
 
It is Monday morning. I spent the weekend in Boston on a journey through my past. I ran into the ghost of many first-feeling while I was there. I caught up with old friends and retraced some steps that I took when I was Beantown bachelor. One of my fave first-feelings I tried to recapture was attending a Red Sox game. When I lived in Boston I went to dozens of games. I love taking a Sunday Boston Globe sports section to my seat, sipping on a ice cold beer and watching the Sox "Play Ball!". I remember the first Sox game I went to when I was a kid. I might as well have gone to Jupiter to meet aliens. Everything about it was awe-inspiring, overwhelming and flat-out thrilling. 
 
 
Of course, I couldn't hit that same raw nerve again yesterday, but it was still a great feeling to be out there in the stands backing the hometown team. In between innings at games they play random songs. They played a lot of country songs yesterday. I was surprised, but maybe I shouldn't have been. Country is a consistent seller these days. Today's country is a lowest common denominator play: BBQs, Gap influenced cowboy and cowgirl garb, cheesy lyrics and a pop sound. It's not my thing, but then again, I am not part of the lowest common denominator crowd. 
 
One song that came blaring out of the speakers was the Stones, "Jumping Jack Flash". I hadn't heard it in a long time. I have heard it countless times. Hearing it yesterday was jarring and exciting. It sounded fresh. You here old songs that you have listened to so much that you build up a callous to them. You forget how damn good they are and how much you like them. They don't hit bone like they used to.  Yesterday's serendipitous Stones song surprise felt like a first-feeling. 
 
 
Music, unlike other media (movies, books, magazine articles, photo books, etc.) has repeat use. You play certain songs to invoke memories, to fuel a workout, to send a message to a lover, to kick-off a Saturday night's partying...you fave tune is always a play button or needle dropping away. You can't replicate the first feelings of a first listen. You can try and conjure them up when you fire-up that fave song.
 
After the game I went back to my hotel room and trolled through my itunes library and played some other old faves. The difference this time is that I listened to them. I listened for those bits that struck sparks with me so many listens ago. It felt good. Do that this week. Go find old faves and actually listen to them as if you've never heard them before. It is a refreshing and exciting. 
 
I thought back to my old Boston apartment again.  It was amazing to me to think about what I've done since I lived there. In eight short years, I got married in the Dominican Republic. I moved to Florida. I moved to Australia and lived and worked in Sydney for five years. I moved to London where I live today. I have traveled to many cool places around the world. There are lots of first-feelings mixed in there. I'm not big on living out my past over and over again. The past is just a record of where you've come from. I'm most interested where I am going next...looking for more firsts. 
 
Tagged Boston First-Feelings Life Merle Haggard Music neil young Rolling Stones Tune Tags

"Now, the album is the thing": a look at the contents of the Super-Deluxe "Exile on Main St." Re-issue

That picture is a page from picture book, with photos by Ethan Russell, on the making of the "Exile on Main St.". It is included in the whiz-bang edition of the "Exile" release. The quote is from the Riff Sorcerer himself, Keith Richards. Oh, Keith...if you only knew then what would become of the album now.  Not only are we back to singles...most of them are shit. The album, pity the poor album. Only a few dedicated fans of it left...so they say. 

I don't believe them though, dearest Keef. I am on the album's side...a true Champion, in fact. I love the album...so much so that I have reverted back to the black circle, where the album was born. You would be proud, Keef...I have a rule now. When I buy a new album I have to listen to it straight through, first song to last, at least ten times before I start cherry picking songs. 

By dong this, I get the flavour of the set...the way the artist intended it. Plus, I get a better feel for each of the songs as they were sequenced...they were done so for a reason, right? Who's with me? Who will fight he good fight...?

Newcomers, now is your chance. Go out and buy one of Keef's children: The "Exile" re-issue. It doesn't have to be the super-deluxe package, it can just be the CD.  The important part is that you get it and listen to it front to back. If you have virgin "Exile" ears, believe me and millions of others, you will be floored at the diversity and dynamism of this collection of sounds, riffs, honks and yelps.

This is an album in the truest sense of the word. It demands to be listed from start to finish in its entirety. You will thank us, the Album Champions, later for it. 

                                   
Click here to download:
now-the-album-is-the-thing-a-look-at-the-contents-of-the-super-deluxe-exile-on-main-st-re-issue-luHllsovzwCsJszzhIue.zip (16316 KB)

Here are some snaps of the super-deluxe "Exile on Main St" re-issue package. It just showed up at my office. I am definitely sneaking out early to get home and devour this tonight...from start to finish. 

Tagged Album Champions Keith Richards Music pics riffs Rolling Stones Vinyl

Rock & Roll Booty Call: 'Dem ol' Pirates, Keith & Mick, dig up buried treasure from Exile on Main St.

Buried treasure usually stays buried for a reason. Someone, a pirate perhaps, buries the treasure so no one can get at it. A massive half-way to China hole is excavated in the Earth-crust.  This hole is most often dug deep in a deep woods, or in the middle of an expansive wide open field void of markers. Intricate maps are created on parchment or in glyphs or codes to confuse poachers and crooks and jackpot seekers.

 Treasures are usually buried for a reason. In a basement in the south of France, in a mystical castle called Villa Nellcote, a cache of treasure lay buried for nearly forty-years. This treasure is not the booty that you would expect.  Once opened one finds a chest not full of rubies, gems and gold bouillons; rather it is filled with relics covered in grime and sweat, funk and mould, a little bit of country and a whole lotta rock and roll.

 The treasure in question belongs to those old rock and roll pirates ("Ladies and Gentlemen…") The Rolling Stones. The graybeards of rock and roll are releasing their masterwork, Exile on Main St. and giving it the whiz-bang, full-assed, super-deluxe treatment. The question myself and many others punters with a keyboard across the interworld are asking is, “should we have dug up these old bones?”

Well of course the answer is yes. If you are a natural born Stones freak, you want access to this music (treasure). You want to hear the legendary, long-lost tracks (“Aladdin’s Story”) or hear the early versions of classic riff-monsters (“Good Time Women” cum “Tumblin’ Dice”).  You want to hear the nuances in a Keef lick; can you trace back his sound today to way back then; has it matured?; does it still have its youthful kick?; is it knowing or is it naïve?; does he still kick ass? (Fuck yes)

I want to eat these tunes alive…feel a little blood spurt out when I bite in. I can’t get enough.  But, there is a bit of a bad taste in my mouth. As reported and confirmed, some of these old ‘70’s tunes have been given the sonic twenty-ten brush-up. Despite Keef’s claims of “not screwing up the bible” and “not painting a smile on the goddamned Mona Lisa”…there is another mule kicking in this stall.

There are ten tracks that were unburied to celebrate this rerelease. The fun (or forced) part of listening to them is to play, Spot the New Mick Vocal Track. Fuck me. Why? Why did they have to do this?  The magic and the mystery of ‘Exile’ was represented in those dirty and desperate times. The debauched displacement that was their predicament was embedded in the grooves of this double-disc, dirge and surge, mishmash masterpiece.

Let it Breathe. You don’t uncork a 40 year old scotch whiskey and try to add fresh barley. Let it Breathe, Mick…no matter how foul the smell.

Oh, Mick. You ego-fucking-tistical bastard, you. You never did like the mix of your vox on the first go ‘round. The word was that you were lost in the sound, no one could understand the lyrics and you there you were standing in the shadows, baby.  No one had a problem with it…well, except for you. If you ever did have dirt underneath your fingernails, you cleaned your claws before anyone could see you’d been digging in the yard. They say that cleanliness is next to Godliness; mate, you shouldn’t aim so high.

Your very own soul brother, ol’ Mr. Rock & Roll himself, always had dirt under his nails…and made no attempt to clean up for the cameras. The Riff Sorcerer knew then and knows now not to mess with Mother Nature; Exile on Main St. is an organic thing of beauty, not an act of god.

Ok, there is still some soil on these songs. Not all of it has a glossy new coat of paint. All up, I haven’t heard each of them in their new release form (I have most all on bootlegs).  The ones I have heard still have me tapping toes and flapping a chicken-wing  even though they have some 2010 on them. For instance, take the single, “Plundered My Soul”.  

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New Mick vox on this. All of his phrasing, nuances and ticks sound like something off of  “The Biggest Voodoo Steel Bridge”.  Fine. As much as I would have liked the old vox track, I have to say, I think this is one of the best vocal performances Mick has delivered in the last twenty-years.  I do. Why?  If he didn’t…his past would have caught up with him.

The music track on “Plundered” still has the good grease on it.  The sloggy, soggy, riffy-rhythm churns and chugs along in the background. It pulls the cart loaded up with horns and drums and bass behind it at a steady pace. What really makes this track work and makes the New Mick vox work is the original Old Dirty Bastard: Keef Riffhard.

In that sweet spot Stones recording period, “Let It Bleed” through “Exile”, Keith was in his finest vocal form. Now, that may not say a lot considering his cracked croak, but when it comes to singing the harmonies, Keef has no peers. Actually, I like to call it the anti-harmony. It is so fucking wrong that it makes things right. 

He did it on the entire of side one of “Exile”.  Back then he shadowed Mick and challenged him for alpha-dog on the vocal track. Not on “Plundered”, though. With Mick and Don Was (please, enough with Was) at the buttons and knobs, Mick sits high on top of the Keith anit-harmony. Ugh.

That’s OK…we know better.  While the moms and dads and the know-nothings dote on Sir Mick, there is Keith: down by the boiler and shoveling coals into the engine...The Soot Master…Anti-…Dirty.

Keith is nitty, gritty and glorious and he is the owner of the soul and the guts of the legacy of rock and roll.  As addled as people think he is, he is lucid and he is chock full of authenticity and integrity (just what these “Exile” outtakes should have been).  He is The Man. Game over.

Something old, something new…it’s still the Stones. What all this tells me is that when Mick is spurred on by the good stuff, he delivers.  Keith is rusty (he said so himself).  Once Keith starts tinkering again, maybe he will reach back for some Nellcote magic and conjure some of that Exile sound. When the Glimmers are on, they deliver. I think the Stones have one more legend-work left in them. I hope all this digging around for their lost, buried treasures sets them on course for new worlds to conquer and crowds to please.

Good pirates always leave at least one last booty grab and land to plunder.

 

Tagged Dirty Exile on Main St. Keith Richards Mick Jagger Pirates Plundered My Soul riffs Rolling Stones Treasure vintage Vinyl

"Any minute any hour, we're waiting on a call from you..." - My Keefified iPhone

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Tagged iPhone Keith Richards Music Rolling Stones Tune Tags

My shit-box stereo and the case of the missing Bobby Keys sax solo

When I was in college I had to borrow a pot to piss in. Like most all college students, I didn't have a lot of money.  What money I did have went to the essentials: beer, parties, beer, music, beer and food (in that order). I didn't have many possessions either. Living in a fraternity house for three years teaches you a thing or two.  One of which is to protect the things you love most; if you don't, they will get chewed up and spit out in that madcap, 24/7, party carnival environment. 

Of my possessions, the one thing everybody knew not to touch, was my music collection. Back then it was much, much smaller than what it has become today (1,500 albums strong: Judd's Juke Joint). It was cassettes mostly (I graduated uni in '94); the majority of which were Rolling Stones albums. I also had a few dozen mixes that I had made over the years. I called this gang of mixes the Frankenstein Collection.  I had dug up lost causes and old faves and created some monster mixes that kept parties rollickin' until many a sun-up.

My room I lived in was small. The closet was almost as big as the room itself. In fact, I chose to stuff my single mattress in the closet and sleep in there. I did this for two reasons: one winter we didn't have any heat in the house, so we were forced to hunker down in our rooms with space heaters, and two, I wanted everyone to hunker in my room to party...so I need to clear space.

People liked hanging in my room because I never closed the bar and because I had the best tunes. I had a chest of drawers in my room; the top two of which held all of my tapes and what few CDs I had. My stereo was a complete and utter piece of shit. It was a set of scrapheap components consisting of a tuner, tape deck and a cd player.

The tuner had been through the ringer: beer spilled into it, fuses blown, dropped a half a dozen times and it had a big dent in the side for good measure. Near the end of its life, it only played music through the right speaker channel. Back then, the fact that the music was only coming through one channel didn't matter to me. I wasn't listening to the music as much as I was just hearing it. I never really thought about the different instruments being played...I just liked the song, the story and the attitude that came out of the speakers.

I remember the night the tuner blew out in the left channel.  We were having a few-hundred beers and listening to Sticky Fingers.  We were right in the middle of "Brown Sugar" when the left channel went dead. At first no one noticed it. When the song made its way to Bobby Keys sax solo...it wasn't there?!  I stopped the tape and rewound it.  Nope, it was gone. I knew I was drunk...but drunk enough to lose a Bobby Keys sax solo?

After I slapped and shook the tuner, I realised that the left channel went kaput. Short of administering drunken CPR to my stereo, there was nothing I could do to fix it...and I never did.

I didn't party because I didn't have the cash to replace the stereo and party because I had stumbled upon a whole new way to listen to the songs I thought I knew so well. When I lost Booby Key's wailing, cock-sure, sax strut I gained a pulsing, driving Keef Richards rhythm machine. It was always there all along, but I had never really listened to it. Without the sax, the rhythm was isolated and I realised that it was underpinning the song. It was the spine of the song and the sax was the flesh on the bone.

I started to re-listen to all of my music again...through only the right channel. There was so much there that I had missed! 
My listening habits were forever changed. There was no turning back...my ears had been opened and tuned to listen to the layers of the songs. The song may be the sum of the parts, but the individual parts have their own stories to tell, too.

Which leads me to one of the most unheralded music documentary series ever: "Classic Albums". Have you seen any of the documentaries in this series?  If so, you are nodding your head and smiling. If not, here is what it is all about:

Musicians, producers, music biz'ers and the like talk about a particular album. They discuss how they made the album or how they were affected by it. The music, and its production, is dissected by the musicians and/or producers. They sit at the mixing console and play the multitrack recordings and spotlight the individual instrumental and vocal tracks. The insights they give into how the songs and the sounds were made is captivating.

I love this series for the storytelling. There are so many stories that exist within songs; stories about the instruments; stories about the musicians; stories about the studio; stories about the culture; stories about the stories. I am completely transfixed when the producer and musician are sitting at the console and isolating a particular piano part or back-up vocal and talking about how/why it was created. You really start to get a feel for what it was like to be in the studio.

My fave episode focuses on The Band's, "The Band" album. If you have followed along on this blog you know that Levon Helm is one of my heroes and I have said that if there was one band I could have been in, it would be the The Band...and this album is one of my top five faves of all time. This episode is all killer, no filler. Front and centre are Levon, Robbie and Rick as well as the producer John Simon.  

The beauty of The Band's music was the juxtaposition of song-simplicity with a rich cache of a multifarious, layered instrumental supporting tracks. This particular album is steeped in integrity. When you watch this episode, nothing expresses this more than watching Levon tell his stories. 

As John Simons says in this episode, "Levon sings in his own voice".  So true. Levon does not sing in a southern accent, rather he is his southern accent. This integrity, this realness is so very evident in the songs on this album. One of my fave scenes in the episode is when Levon and Simons are sitting at the console picking "Rag Mama Rag" apart.

Look how much fun Levon is having!  You hear a lot of artists say,"oh, I never listen to any of my records".  Not Levon. The songs are his life, his memories and he doesn't leave them on a shelf collecting dust. How could you not want to be hanging with Levon in the studio...

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At seven minutes into this next clip, Levon and Simons start to pick "Rocking Chair" apart. They are talking about the vocal harmonies, specifically the sweet sound of Richard Manuel's voice. It is fascinating to watch Levon relive the recording. I want to pop a couple beers and put my cuban heeled boots up on the console and kick back my chair...

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The next vid clip finishes up that segment. At one point (0:18 into it), Simons says, "I love this part".  Levon quickly follows with a, "me too". How many times have you, I, been sitting with friends talking about a song just like this: "I love this part...listent to that piano...that guitar fill just kills me...".  

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(I love the comment from Levon on "that Chinese ending")

You really should watch the entire episode on "The Band" album. Click through the vids I have here and you can watch it all...it is broken up into five parts. There are other bow-down episodes I like, too: I like the one on The Dead's, "American Beauty" (watch Bob Wier cringe when he hears his isolated vocal on Sugar Magnolia), The Who's "Who's Next", Lou Reed's "Transformer" and John Lennon's "Plastic Ono Band".  

Check out the Classic Album YouTube Channel
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When I first saw this series I thought back to my shit-box college stereo.  Essentially it was the same type of sound discovery and isolation of the bits and parts; the Classic Album series took it to another place entirely. 

The music industry critics talk about how the model for selling and distributing the music/content is changing...whether the big labels like it or not: the death of the album...subscription models...streaming services, etc.

What I want is a way to get more involved with the music.  I do that with vinyl because I actively need to make time to listen to an album front to back as well as to physically be involved in flipping the album over to side two. When I listen to my music in bits and bytes, I would like more access to it to pick it apart and play with it...I want to explore the songs the way they do on the Classic Album series. 

Why can't I buy a digital version of "The Band" on iTunes that gets played only through my Mac software, "Garage Band".  Here I can use the "mixing board" to isolate instruments or vocals...pull the song apart and listen to the guts of it. THAT would be cool. THAT would be something I would get lost in for hours. THAT would be something I would pay a few extra dollars for. If Classic Albums sold this as a special edition for each episode, I'd be first in line. 

Until then, I will do what I do with every new album by a fave artist that I get. I play it for one month as intended....through both the left and right channels. Then for one week I play it through the left channel and follow that with a week's worth of the right channel only. After that, I'm back to the right and left combo. 

Some people dream of playing on classic albums...I dream of producing them.
Tagged Albums Music Production Riffs Rolling Stones The Band vids

Old Time Used To Be's: "Well I went down, to the Chelsea Drugstore..."

The King's Road is a very famous street here in London and is a stones throw (pun intended) from where we live. In it's 60's heyday, it was a major place for hipsters and happenings. The usual R&R lore applies...Ringo & George shared a flat here, the "Swan Song" record label, home to Led Zeppelin, was here, etc. 


The Chelsea Drug Store (circa early 1970's)


Living in London, I hear all kinds of stories such as this. A local know-it-all-told me about one cool place in particular: The Chelsea Drug Store. Yes, that same Chelsea Drug store from the Stone's, "You Can't AlwaysGet What You Want".

We all know the lyric:

"Well I went down, to the Chelsea Drug Store
 To get your, prescription filled
 I was standin' in line, with Mr. Jimmy
 Man, didi he look pretty ill"

I hadn't put it all together before: I live in Chelsea, the Stones are English, the Chelsea Drug store (if it was an actual place) should be somewhere in the neighbourhood. Honestly, in the context of the song, I thought it was a reference to a local "dealer's" house where, ahem, illegal prescriptions got filled. 

The guy I was speaking to told me where the Chelsea Drug Store was.  I knew exactly where he described it to be, so I heel-toed it over there an snapped this picture.



It's a McDonalds now. Figures...only Burger King allows you to "have it your way".

Oh, and speaking of R&R lore and legendary tales: have a look here to read up on a theory of who "Mr.Jimmy" actually was.

For the record, this song is off of my fave Stones album Let it Bleed. I've often referred to it as my fave start-to-back album of all time (still holds true). It is Keith's album. He plays most all the guitars on it. Plus, you know you are in for a ride when the album starts of screaming, "Gimme" and then decides that, in the end, you can't always get what you want...

Here is a version of You Can't Always Get What You Want" from the famed Stones bootleg, Brussel's Affair ('73). The sax on it is top shelf...

(download)

_____

Here is a bit on the Chelsea Drug Store from the Royal Borough of Kensington's website:

The modern glass and aluminium frontage of the Chelsea Drug store shocked Royal Avenue residents when it opened in July 1968. They were even more appalled by the clientele. The residents demanded that access to the King's Road was closed, which was done in 1971. Chelsea Drugstore was modelled on Le Drugstore on Boulevard St Germain in Paris. Arranged over three floors the complex included bars, food outlets, a chemist, newsstand, record store and boutiques. It was open 16 hours a day, seven days a week. A major attraction was the ‘flying squad’ delivery service. This was made up young ladies in purple catsuits using motorcycles to make home deliveries.
Tagged Albums Albums Chelsea Chelsea London London Music Music R&R Lore R&R Lore RIffs RIffs Rolling Stones Rolling Stones

Old Time Used To Be's: "Well I went down, to the Chelsea Drugstore..."

The King's Road is a very famous street here in London and is a stones throw (pun intended) from where we live. In it's 60's heyday, it was a major place for hipsters and happenings. The usual R&R lore applies...Ringo & George shared a flat here, the "Swan Song" record label, home to Led Zeppelin, was here, etc. 


The Chelsea Drug Store (circa early 1970's)


Living in London, I hear all kinds of stories such as this. A local know-it-all-told me about one cool place in particular: The Chelsea Drug Store. Yes, that same Chelsea Drug store from the Stone's, "You Can't AlwaysGet What You Want".

We all know the lyric:

"Well I went down, to the Chelsea Drug Store
 To get your, prescription filled
 I was standin' in line, with Mr. Jimmy
 Man, didi he look pretty ill"

I hadn't put it all together before: I live in Chelsea, the Stones are English, the Chelsea Drug store (if it was an actual place) should be somewhere in the neighbourhood. Honestly, in the context of the song, I thought it was a reference to a local "dealer's" house where, ahem, illegal prescriptions got filled. 

The guy I was speaking to told me where the Chelsea Drug Store was.  I knew exactly where he described it to be, so I heel-toed it over there an snapped this picture.



It's a McDonalds now. Figures...only Burger King allows you to "have it your way".

Oh, and speaking of R&R lore and legendary tales: have a look here to read up on a theory of who "Mr.Jimmy" actually was.

For the record, this song is off of my fave Stones album Let it Bleed. I've often referred to it as my fave start-to-back album of all time (still holds true). It is Keith's album. He plays most all the guitars on it. Plus, you know you are in for a ride when the album starts of screaming, "Gimme" and then decides that, in the end, you can't always get what you want...

Here is a version of You Can't Always Get What You Want" from the famed Stones bootleg, Brussel's Affair ('73). The sax on it is top shelf...

(download)

_____

Here is a bit on the Chelsea Drug Store from the Royal Borough of Kensington's website:

The modern glass and aluminium frontage of the Chelsea Drug store shocked Royal Avenue residents when it opened in July 1968. They were even more appalled by the clientele. The residents demanded that access to the King's Road was closed, which was done in 1971. Chelsea Drugstore was modelled on Le Drugstore on Boulevard St Germain in Paris. Arranged over three floors the complex included bars, food outlets, a chemist, newsstand, record store and boutiques. It was open 16 hours a day, seven days a week. A major attraction was the ‘flying squad’ delivery service. This was made up young ladies in purple catsuits using motorcycles to make home deliveries.
Tagged Albums Albums Chelsea Chelsea London London Music Music R&R Lore R&R Lore RIffs RIffs Rolling Stones Rolling Stones

B.B. King out Ya-Ya's the Stones: Why he sings the blues...because he can, dammit!

In December of 2009, the Stones put out a 40th anniversary box set of "Get Yer Ya-Ya's Out". In the deluxe versions, the sets from opening acts Ike & Tina Turner and B.B. King were included.  If you need the low-down on the original "Ya-Ya's" set...I envy you. You are in for a treat, and, quite possibly, a life-changer.  Where to start to find out about it?  Start with Lester Bang's bow-down review of the original set from 1969. 

If you are a Ya-Ya's fan like me, the deluxe set was a must buy. The remastered Stones tracks are worth the price alone.  But...the real-deal, bow-down, shuck and jive toe tappers in this box set come from B.B. King. 

The B.B. tracks are comprised of five smoking hot scene stealers. This is raw blues power.  The performance is full-tilt from the horns to the rhythm section to the two stars of the show: Lucille and B.B.'s boom box vocals. 

Buckle up and have a listen to one of those tracks that I have uploaded for you: "Why I Sing the Blues"

Lucille jump starts the track and the rhythm sections churns out a bedrock backbeat. B.B. belts out the lyrics in his tenor horn howl (you know that B.B. never sings and plays at the same time, right?). 

At 1:58 in song, B.B. takes Lucille for a spin and rips off a solo sprint for over a minute. At the 3:30 mark, B.B. heads for the wings (this was the last song of the set before the encore). This is when the band takes over and lays down a stone groove...how fucking tight can one rhythm section be?!?

B.B., ever the crowd pleaser, comes out for a quick 30 seconds of guitar picking before the band pulls the emergency break and stops that groove dead in it's tracks (if only instruments had airbags). 

But enough hot air from me...go ahead, hit play.

(download)

p.s. I love the way B.B.'s guitar sounds like a horn. More and more, as he gets on in age and style in his playing...I think Keith Richards plays like B.B.'s horn-ified guitar sound. To see/hear what I mean, check out the Scorsese docco, "Shine a LIght" (short clip below).  Keith is honking his guitar like a chuck-riff saxo-trumpet. 

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Tagged B.B. King Blues Keith Richards Lester Bangs Music Riffs Rolling Stones Tune Treats

10 lbs. of Shit in an 8 lbs. Bag: A request for keeping music simple in 2010

"Too much of anything is too much for me. Too much and everything gets too much for me". - The Who

That is a line from the chorus of the song of the same name, "Too Much of Anything". Strangely enough, this was a bonus track off the 1995 reissue of the always-delivers Who album, "Who's Next". I say "strangely" for two reasons: one, the original version of  this album was nine songs of bow-down material and two, the fact that this song was a bonus track is fucking ironic. 

Too much of anything, indeed.

Why the hell did we need bonus tracks for this masterstroke? We didn't.  Pete & The Who made a brilliant, time-tested album that consisted of nine crowd pleasing, beer hoisting tunes. Nine. Here we go again...gorging ourselves on a great meal; bloated and reaching for the bicarbonates. Too much.  

I am fed up with "too much".  This year I am bringing it all back home: keeping everything as clean and simple as I need it to be. Near the end of 2009 I started to think about  clarity: eliminating variables; reducing clutter; focusing on less to enjoy more. 

I am not preaching purely simplicity for simple's sake. I am talking about clarity. Clarity doesn't sacrifice depth at simple's alter. "Focusing on less to enjoy more" is about clarity; lucidity. It is a concept that I am (forever forward) latching on to and enveloping myself in...including my music listening habits.  

I find myself gravitating to music that is much more lucid and clean of complexities...but, not lacking depth. Case in point: the Black Keys' "Chulahoma: The Songs of Junior Kimbrough".  

I am a Black Keys fan. They aren't always on my playlist, but I enjoy them from time to time. I did not own this album prior to my hearing it. Recently I was in a crowed and very loud bar. Nothing on the juke box was cutting through the din until I heard this album being played. Whoever was at the controls, decided that they need to play this album in its entirety. The groove was so pronounced and clear, it drowned out the noise in the room and filled all the spaces like a welcome mist. It felt calming and clean to me (even amongst all the clutter in the bar). I went out and bought it the next day. 

Lucidity, clarity and depth are full frontal on this set of six songs. The straightforward, two-fisted, Corsican Brother drum and guitar approach of Dan Auerbach and Patrick Carney lends itself to the clarity/simplicity + depth credo. There is no gratuitous flutes or overdubs or 16 track recordings...just two dudes, two instruments and a half a dozen of a simple bluesman's simple blues songs.  By simple I mean uncomplicated, not simpleton or unsophisticated or naive. No, these songs have depth and sagacity. 

Junior Kimbrough didn't make it on the blues scene until the 1990's, but he'd been cutting tracks as early as 1968. Junior was a Mississippi Hill Country native and legend. His blues is a hypnotic, sauntering groove that preaches a knowing simplicity and bares warts, proudly. This blues holds you in it's vibe and makes it hard to pull away. Every time I put it on, I know it is going to be a happening. I know I need to dedicate at least 20-30 minutes to it's gravity.

Here is a clip from Robert Palmer's brilliant expose on the raw, country blues: "Deep Blues". If you have not seen this, you MUST do so soon. More-so, read the book that preceded the movie. It is widely thought of as a classic in the genre; a career high for Robert Palmer in career filled with tall peaks.

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(Junior also had the coolest album titles: "God Knows I Tried" & "Most Things Haven't Worked Out")

The Black Keys decided they needed to have a go at Junior's music. They gave it a richer, thicker sound...while keeping the ethos of it intact. They added to it without complicating it: less is more.  This is my fave track of the set:

What do you think? Does that feel like less is more to you?
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Nine songs. I like that. "Who's Next" wasn't the only great album with nine songs: "Let It Bleed" had nine songs, too.  That is my favorite album of all-time (a post for another day). Conversely, the Stone's 2005 Masterplunk, "A Bigger Bang", had 16(!) songs. Too much. 

I'd like to make a request of all music makers in 2010: please, don't try to cram ten pounds of shit in an eight pound bag.  Focus on reducing the clutter on your albums. Just because you can crowd16 songs on a CD doesn't mean you have to. I don't want more from you, I want less...and I want depth.

Excuse me while I go off to listen to some Charlie Patton...

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Regarding my personal thoughts on "too much": 

Too much of my time was being wasted worrying about things I manufactured or labeled as important.  Whether they were tasks or audacious (unattainable) goals or simply over thinking decisions or situations, the importance that I gave these things, put undue emphasis on them; one more thing I had to worry about. 

Here is a bit, from a larger mindmap (on my 2010 thoughts), on "reducing the clutter"

(download)

Tagged 2010 Black Keys Blues Brevity Charley Patton clutter Junior Kimbrough Less More Music Rolling Stones The Who Tune Tags
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