When I was a kid, my sister dated Sky. One night, my dad came home and found the singer's car in the driveway, Now, Sky had been officially banned from our house for one crime or another. So my father parked behind him, blocking him in. Sky, fearing a showdown, kissed Sue, jumped off the couch, dove in his car and drove off across our front lawn, leaving a trail of mud in the green grass.
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I saw them in San Bernadino, in 1965. My older brother took me as a present for my 11th birthday. (Thanks bro.) What I remember, was this huge wave of sound and rhythm, coming from Brian's side of the stage. Keith was playing great Chuck Berry style leads and fills. But Brian was doing everything we came to love Keith for in latter years. I was wild for guitars, and I have almost no memory
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There is something about "I'll See You In My Dream", that never fails to get me. My favorite version is by Cliff Edwards, Ukulele Ike. In fact, I've been listening to it a lot this week. In this recording, Edwards loses time, inserts extra heartbreaking words, and seems about to break down himself. It's one of the most nakedly emotional performances I've ever heard
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Thank you Rocky. It may be the great interpretive discovery of my life. I'm pretty sure somebody sequenced those songs like that intentionally. But,I still wonder, if they ever tried to do that again?
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On "Between The Buttons", the Stones do this thing where they take the theme of one song and turn it on its head on the next track . The question of "Who wants yesterday's girl?", is answered by "Ruby Tuesday", a song about a man who really does. "She Smiled Sweetly", is sung by somebody who loves a woman who never gets flustered. "Cool, Calm, C
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It would matter to his family.
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Unfortunately, it is true. He was listed as the writer, true, but had to fight for years to get paid. I heard the money eventually came through, but not until it was too late to make a real difference in his life.
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The end of Layla always did sound like the bridge to Monkey Man. The Layla coda is weird, if you just let it wash over you, it's pretty moving. But, listened to closely, it's a mess. I was lucky enough to have played in a band with Jim Gordon, at the end of his career. He confirmed the story, that the instrumental portion of the song, was something the drummer recorded on his own
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The crazy, oppositional nature of Hamsun's personality can be seen in the fact that at his one meeting with @#$%&, they got into a huge dust-up. It ended with the writer muttering something like, "Talking to him, is like talking to a brick wall!" However, it must be said, that almost every other major artist of the day was able to see what was going on in Germany. You can love a pe
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I just finished reading Per Petterson's "Out Stealing Horses", a book that captures some of the tone of the master. Fitzgerald, I. B. Singer,and Henry Miller would have been very different writers if they had not studied Hamsun. My favorite is "Mysteries".
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Well, I just watched them both, and I'm amazed how great The Stones were. Bruce played a safe set, that had some warmth, but no real fire. The Stones, in retrospect, sounded like a rock and roll band. And, in Keith's solo I hear the sound, noise, and fury that brought me to the music so many years ago. At the time I thought their performance was nothing. But put up against a "pr
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In a recent review of the book, "It Still Moves: Lost Songs, Lost Highways, and the Search for the Next American Music", by Amanda Petrusich, Boyd writes: "Someone will one day write a book setting forth clearly why the stars and the technology aligned between 1927 and 1967 to produce a flood of sublime popular music, and why this flow began to evaporate in the subsequent 40 ye
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An Oscar? I didn't think the movie was that bad.
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Another good station gone. I too loved KRLA, particularly Humble Harv, who had a Stones fixation. But truly, I don't think Los Angeles ever recovered from the loss of KPPC out of Pasadena. It was probably the second underground station in the world, and certainly the best of its type. They started broadcasting out of the basement of a church, but the station itself became a bit of a religio
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It is a good song, showing the musical influence, I think, of Mimi and Richard Farina. I've always seen it as part of a four song sequence, with the question of "Who wants yesterday's girl?", being answered by "Ruby Tuesday", a song about somebody who does. "She Smiled Sweetly", is a love song for somebody who never loses her composure, while "Cool, Ca
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I always thought that the Stones studied the way the two guitars work together on Ms. Wright's hit. There are two interlocking guitar parts on that record that are fun to play. I might be wrong, but I think one of the parts was played by Little Beaver who was supposedly considered for the M. Taylor slot. Is there any recordings of the Stones with that great musician?
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So sorry to report the death of Delaney Bramlett. Along with Keith, he was one of the best rhythm guitarists to ever drive a band. He had a sweet voice that was neither blues nor country, but something all his own. The songs he wrote like "Superstar", "Never Ending Song Of Love", and "Let It Rain" will outlive us all.
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It is a bit weird. When I was a student at this same school, the principal once got on the intercom to announce that he had heard on the radio, that the Stones had been arrested for drugs in London. And that was why he going to be banning all issues of Rolling Stone from the campus. This kept us laughing for weeks.
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Last week I was asked to be one of the judges at an 8th grade speech contest. The first girl up, gave a stirring speech about the Stones. She called them a "time machine" that lets their listeners experience music from the past as well as pointing out the direction future bands might take. She called them the "ultimate jukebox", because they play songs from so many genres. She
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If you read the next line, I said that I wanted my kids to discover the records on their own. But you do suggest a point. I want them to have this image of the Stones as a group that put out these amazing, consistent records. Which is the way they were for me in my youth. This desire may also be connected to my own hopes for myself as a parent. By the way, I'm on the the planet where we
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I thought long and hard about what track to play first for my son and daughter. Finally,I decided on "Ruby Tuesday". It worked like a magic charm. They have only heard, "Satanics", "Between The Buttoms", and "Let It Bleed", "Beggar's" and "Goats Head". I'm not sure why, but I worry about playing the rest of the catalogue for th
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Well, you can even go further. I've been collecting 78's since I was a kid, and for certain things they can't be beat. If you've never heard Little Walter or Muddy on a Chess 10 inch, or Little Richard on Specialty, you will be amazed. Particularly for the Chess label, the 78's sound so much more alive than even the best LP or CD pressing. Of course, they are also frag
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I would love to hear Stills sing something by Brother Ray. Like Richard Manuel, singing "You Don't Know Me", these singers are able to use the limitations of their overcooked vocal chords to best advantage when they turn to the songs they loved in their youth. The song writing question is weird though. Brain damage can only explain so much. The mediocre writers can grind out med
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Agreed. How is it possible that the muse can quit you like that? Mick and Keith may no longer be turning out masterpieces, but at least their songs still exhibit some craft and bite. Others like Stills, and Paul M. seem to have forgotten what a song is. They must know it too, and I think it has to hurt. However, his solos show a sense of adventure and structure his songs sadly lack.
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When I was a kid, Steven Stills was perhaps, my favorite American musician. I learned more from him and that long list of influences on the back of the second Springfield record, than I ever did in class. However, I haven't given him much thought in about thirty years. In fact, he seemed, along with Stevie Winwood, the saddest waste of talent in all of rock and roll. On a whim, my wife and
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The song is usually attributed to Fred Mcdowell. I think the Stones covered a country blues song on every album from Let It Bleed to Exile. Sam Cooke also cut the tune, but he changed its direction. He heard it as a song about a man, somewhat weakly, laying down the law to a woman. The years from Let It Bleed to Exile coincided with the most amazing stream of reissues of traditional music. T
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Yes, it is Salty Dog Blues. If I had to guess, I'd say he learned it from a live Flatt and Scruggs record that came out on Columbia around 1962. Keith's acoustic playing is always a wonder. Funny, I listened to Procol Harum's "Salty Dog", just this morning. Of course, only a a slender thread connects those two songs.
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Thanks so much for for posting that footage. How amazing to see a Jagger performance with virtually no Jagger mannerisms or cliches. Watching this, suggests that Mick could have had a career in silent films or in the English music hall, had he been born a little earlier. Here, he seems influenced by Jolson, or Charlie Chaplin, not James Brown or Tina Turner. What a great artist Jagger is. His
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It was the summer of 1965, and I was marooned at summer camp. I had told my parents that I didn't mind not being at hame for my 11th birthday, but I must have been kidding myself. I felt forsaken and lonely. Then I heard a voice singing from across the yard. It sounded like, "Happy Birthday- on me!" I followed the sound to a counselor's cabin. She told me the singer was rea
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1] Michael Hurley- The Werewolf 2] Van Dyke Parks- Sweet Trinadad 3] Al Jolson- Steppin' Out 4] Phil Ochs- No More Songs 5] Jump In The Water- Whiskey Johnny 6] Bo Carter- Bootlegger's Blues
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