Carolyn Wonderland at Skipper's Smoke House: Texas Burnin', with a Cherry Red Custom Telecaster and a Lone Star Lady Singin' the Blues

Carolyn Wonderland at Skipper's Smoke House (April 8, 2014)

Carolyn blew my socks off. Carolyn was on fire, Texas style. Here's a little recent evidence:

TEXAS BURNING with Carolyn Wonderland: I Live Alone With Someone

Stephen Stills' "Manassas": "Both of Us (Bound to Lose)" (1972)

In the spring of 1972 perspective, Stephen Stills' band Manassas, Crosby and Nash, and Neil Young shared the Top Ten Billboard LP charts with three separate releases. During this record dominance by former members of the shattered supergroup, Rolling Stone found it "reassuring to know that Stills has some good music still inside him". (RS (109). Manassas stands by far as the best of what those artists released in '72. And with this record Stills expands on his original song structures.

Suite: Judy Blue Eyes established Steven Stills as a composer who could take three shorts songs about his ex-girlfriend and form an exquisite suite. On Manassas, each of the double albums four sides consist of a multi-song suite. Below is the track Both of Us (Bound to Lose) that closes the side one -- Suite: The Raven. On this track Stills not only gets to show off his harmony vocal prowess with Chris Hillman, but the song also closes with a fine latin rock movement powered by Joe Lala's percussion. Stills' deft electric lead guitar is on display throughout.

Yep, it was 1972.

(Manassas percussionist and Tampa native Joe Lala passed away this month. This one's in memory of you, Joe.)

"I Feel Alright Tonight"

Steve Earle (1996)

"I feel alright tonight!"

"Methamphetamine" - Old Crow Medicine Show (redux; studio version)

Since Ronnie Van Zandt of Lynyrd Skynyrd died, I have been waiting for someone to pick up this fallen torch and run with it. Neil Young has kept the flame alive -- take the acoustic version of "Keep On Rockin' in the Free World" from his album Freedom, for example -- but now Ronnie's heirs are on the job.

Old Crow Medicine Show will. "... [r]ock You Like A Hurricane, Meth-am-pheta-meeeen" -- and this story is set in the poorest part of Appalachia, with roots down to northern Florida. You can beat the South at Appomattox, but stubborn hillbillies, crackers and rednecks (me included) just won't sign up for most of the Yankee agenda.

It's only too late if you think it is -- give a spin to "Mother's Little Helper" (Stones), "That Smell" (Lynyrd Skynyrd), "Keep on Rockin'" by Neil, and "Meth" by our young Medicine Show friends. And "Don't Forget this fact, we can't get [David Ruffin] back, Cocaine." (-- J.J. Cale classic song broken by me to honor the late Temps lead singer.

In this drug war, just who is the enemy? Eh?

... "There Goes Your Freedom of Choice, There Goes the Last Human Voice"... : Tom Petty (2002)

When Tom Petty and his band-for-life the Heartbreakers, finished cutting this one, they knew they had audio-napalm on their hands, but no one knew if Tom could sell it the executives ("the suits") at their label. Tom played the completed studio track for the boys upstairs, not sure, but in his heart not caring, if his slash and burn ballad would blow up right there and be over. Or should I say, fodder for another fight.

As the song progressed during the meeting, the room grew quiter. There was dead silence in the conference room when the song ended. After a minute or so, one of the executives pulled himself together and remarked, trying to break the tension, "That's not about us, is it?" Now, more silence from the executives but one of their own had summed it all up. (Source: interview with Tom Petty in Peter Bogdanovich's comprehensive documentary on the band, Chasing Down a Dream).

Petty articulated, and the Heartbreakers brought home the message that real radio was dead to the children of the millenium. If these 21st century rules (see lyrics below) applied in 1957, Elvis Presley would be a retired truck driver who sang in church; Chuck Berry would be a local hero as a club act in St. Louis. There would be no Beatles, no Stones, no Motown. If the suits and the corporations won, my brothers and sisters born in the 50s, and everybody going forward, would be the new Lost Generations. And so it came to pass, we lost, but keep fighting. But I'll let Tom tell it.

__________________________

The Last DJ

by Tom Petty

Well you can't turn him into a company man
You can't turn him into a whore
And the boys upstairs just don't understand anymore
Well the top brass don't like him talking so much
And he won't play what they say to play
And he don't want to change what don't need to change
And there goes the last DJ
Who plays what he wants to play
And says what he wants to say
Hey, hey, hey
And there goes your freedom of choice
There goes the last human voice
There goes the last DJ
Well some folks say they're gonna hang him so high
Because you just can't do what he did
There's some things you just can't put in the minds of those kids
As we celebrate mediocrity all the boys upstairs want to see
How much you'll pay for what you used to get for free
And there goes the last DJ
Who plays what he wants to play
And says what he wants to say
Hey, hey, hey
And there goes your freedom of choice
There goes the last human voice
And there goes the last DJ

[Instrumental break]

Well he got him a station down in Mexico
And sometimes it will kinda come in
And I'll bust a move and remember how it was back then
There goes the last DJ
Who plays what he wants to play
And says what he wants to say
Hey, hey, hey
And there goes your freedom of choice
There goes the last human voice
And there goes the last DJ

R.E.M.: Requiem for a Heavyweight Band

I was listening to Lucinda Williams from her 1993 Live at the Filmore (West) yesterday morning early, watching the birds out my back door. I was on one of my reveries, this one about lyrics, Lucinda's Reason to Cry and Fruits of My Labor.

And then the news I'd caught by accident a few days earlier hit home: R.E.M. was gone.

The band announced via its website that as of September 21, 2011, the band would "calling it a day as a band". (Hilton, Robin (September 21, 2011). "R.E.M. Calls It A Day, Announces Breakup" NPR.org.)

A year ago. The end of carrying on since Bill left for his farm in 1997. And all this time I thought they might be hunkered down in a studio. The obits pile up too quickly these days

Think of it this way. We were shiny, happy people in our glory days.

R.E.M. & Kate Pierson rehearse Shiny Happy People - 1991 (for SNL)

And some of us are angry:

Orange Crush (live in Germany, 2003)

And often reflective, as I was sitting yesterday morning, having my coffee and watching the birds in the early morning light.

Nightswimming (Michel Stipe vocals, Mike Mills piano;
Undated, Live in Jool, Netherlands)

Yeah, reflective, like the mood I'm in now. Michael, Peter, Mike and Bill -- to your band R.E.M., Requiescat in Pace.

The Shape I'm in

"The Shape I'm in", sung by the late Richard Manuel, The Last Waltz, The Band

I've written about The Last Waltz concert film elsewhere. Here's one of my favorite servings of this rock n' roll gumbo.

Duane Allman Wednesdays at The Florida Cracker

Wednesday October 21st's Duane Pic Florida-Cracker.org

Come join the merry band of Duane fans who gather `round on Wednesdays to check out a new, sublime photo of the legendary guitarist and band leader. One can learn a lot from webmistress Donnah and this diverse group, brought together by a continuing appreciation of one of our era's greatest slide guitarists.

Stop on by and shout out a "Wail on Skydog!" some time.

"Abscessed Tooth Ache Blues"

I never did find out which one of the usual suspects, most likely Southern Woman on the Web Donnah in her Owen McQueen outfit, wrote this number. I do know Little Starla queen of my hearta sent me da 12 bar blues below.

And deadlines, dear readers, are deadlines.

This post goes to press today, for you, and for all the merry blues crew on the Wednesday morning Skydog beat at Florida Cracker:

Abscessed Tooth Ache Blues
*****

*****

Grievous Angel

Emmylou Harris and Gram Parsons
(Photo Credit: Pubic Domain)

You gotta pay to play. All traditional blues songs -- the form itself -- started out as a way for a man to express heartache over a woman.

".... Love is Like a Flower, Holds a Lot of Rain ...."

(-- Gram Parsons (performed with Emmylou Harris))

"The River's Gonna Run" - Sam Bush (with Emmylou Harris)

Sam Bush and Emmylou Harris (2006) during "Laps in Seven" Sessions

Sam Bush and Emmylou Harris collaborate brilliantly on this searing version of Julie Miller's "The River's Gonna Run"


'A storm of love going wild...'

"World Leader Pretend", R.E.M. (live, with new opening, 1989)

More Music of the Eighties that Matters:

R.E.M With A Little Help From A Friend: "Shiny, Happy People"

Video, R.E.M.'s "Shiny Happy People" (featuring Kate Peirson)

From Sublime Stratocaster Prowess to Texas Flood Blues in a Hurricane: SRV

"It took me quite a while to realize that THE REAL DEAL is to be enough of a person on your own to know when somebody loves you and cares about you."
(-- Stevie Ray Vaughn)

Starting today, we will be mainlining Stevie Ray Vaughn and Double Trouble as our September Featured Artist on my black jukebox in the left column here. Today we start with with two peaceful electric cuts, SVR covering Hendrix' Little Wing in the YouTube live clip above, and Tin Pan Alley (The Roughest Place) as the lead cut on my jukebox. Each day I will add a cut filling in the raw power he holds in check with today's sublime warm up masterpieces.

Fasten your electric blues-rock safety belts. Nobody of his era shredded notions of what was possible on a Strat the way Texas-born SRV did.

SRV, as immortal as your music is, we miss you. Another victim of the road.

[Editor's Note, 18Jun2011: The black jukebox referred to above is lost to the blog-o-sphere.]

Invasion of Cosmic American Music into the Golden Age of Hollywood

See:

Paco's Juke Box, Starting Today: An Instant Classic Covering Four Genres Featured

The Allman Brothers Band: "In Memory of Elizabeth Reed"

The above YouTube clip of The Allman Brothers Band playing In Memory of Elizabeth Reed -- from the Fillmore East 23 September 1970. One note from me: watch Dickie Betts as he plays, using the volume control on his guitar to get certain notes to fade out in this blues /jazz fusion composition of his.

The following information comes from the comment archives of the Florida Cracker, December 13, 2006 -- all in response to my question "Who was Elizabeth Reed?":

Allmans guitarist Dickey Betts wrote this. Elizabeth Reed Napier is buried at the Rose Hill Cemetery in Macon, Georgia, where Betts would often write. He used the name from her headstone as the title because he did not want to reveal who the song was really about. If you are really interested, you can visit "Elizabeth" while paying homage to Duane and [Berry Oakley] who are nearby.
(Posted by wilmarwil)

Elizabeth Reed Napier's grave was probably a very nice place for writing. It's shaded with cedars ... and has a little bench for sitting. I suspect the use of the first and middle/maiden name came from the way the headstone is arranged. As was common at the time, the family name, Napier, was displayed prominently, and the individual members were listed by first and middle names only. ...
(Posted by Juan Paxety)

I was there ! On our way to the D.C. mall (for the 1976 celebration on July 4) my brother and I (both [Air Force] vets) decided to take the long way...we left [Jacksonville, FL] on the Sunday week before, and wound our way up A1A as much as we could...stopping to replenish the cooler along the way.
MY primary 'special' stop was to visit Rose Hill. It overlooks a river, and within sight of DA and BO's graves is the Otis Redding bridge. When we went, you could actually drink beer and stand right beside the grave(s) littered with joints, pills, and various empties...foregoing a few roaches and somehow magically abandoned fifths of Jack.
Now I understand it has been fenced [...] off from close observation... We listened to Highway Call almost exclusively..except for an occasional Dylan tune or two. [...] By the way, the Napier family(s) were one of the first to settle in Georgia..
(Posted by csason)

The fencing of the graves was a very contentious time. It was initiated by Candy Oakley Johnson, Berry's sister and [Jai Johanny "Jaimo" Johanson's] ex-wife. She said she was tired of the trash, litter and carryings on at the grave site and, as I understand it, put up a tall fence. The historical folks had a fit - none of the other famous graves in the cemetery are fenced off. They finally compromised on a lower, less intrusive fence. ... BTW, Berry's fatal wreck happened on Napier Avenue, named for the same family.
(Posted by Juan Paxety)

Enjoy!

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The Evolution of A Rock Band: Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers

Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers

When I was young, I had to piece together my knowledge of a rock band bit by bit, story by story, picture by picture, concert by concert. Now I've discovered Wikipedia, among other great things: an online encyclopedia of the history of rock and roll. But while the Wiki folks are still getting there, they can't provide me (yet) with clips of Roy Orbison, Bob Dylan, George Harrison, Jeff Lynne and Tom Petty sitting with their guitars in a studio working out a song. They don't have interview footage of how Tom Petty got his drummer to show up for a charity gig by telling him (truthfully) that Ringo would play it if he didn't. And most importantly, Wikipedia does not provide me with concert footage of songs as great as The Last DJ. But Runnin' Down A Dream: Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers does. And more.

This Peter Bogdanovich documentary gives us something I've never seen before: the credible, mesmerizing behind-the-scenes story of a real rock and roll band, fighting not only the record companies, but also their own personal demons, and creating great music all the time.

Two of my top 10 producers, Jimmy Iovine and Rick Rubin, come to life in the interview and recording session clips. The Heartbreakers are all lookin' like bad asses in the picture above, but in the film the gentleness, the musical tenacity, and on occasion the moodiness of these vulnerable men comes through.

Petty and Stevie Nicks recount the tale of Nicks' desire to leave Fleetwood Mac and join the Heartbeakers. "But there aren't any girls in the Heartbreakers" Petty tells her again and again. The result: one of several musical collaborations documented here that are now what I call music of the 80's that mattered.

I could go on and on, but I'd only be spoiling Bogdanovich's show. At the heart of this stellar documentary is the evolution of two things: a working rock band keepin' it all together over thirty years of turmoil, and the increasingly mature work of a songwriter/poet that will speak truth to power at any cost.

Of speaking truth to power, let me give you just one example, regarding my personal favorite in the Tom Petty songbook:

Well you can’t turn him into a company man
You can’t turn him into a whore
And the boys upstairs just don’t understand anymore
Well the top brass don’t like him talking so much
And he won’t play what they say to play
And he don’t want to change what don’t need to change

And there goes the last DJ
Who plays what he wants to play
And says what he wants to say
Hey, hey, hey
And there goes your freedom of choice
There goes the last human voice
There goes the last DJ

Well some folks say they’re gonna hang him so high
Because you just can’t do what he did
There’s some things you just can’t put in the minds of those kids
As we celebrate mediocrity, all the boys upstairs want to see
How much you’ll pay for what you used to get for free

And there goes the last DJ
Who plays what he wants to play
And says what he wants to say
Hey, hey, hey
And there goes your freedom of choice
There goes the last human voice
And there goes the last DJ

Well he got him a station down in Mexico
And sometimes it will kinda come in
And I’ll bust a move and remember how it was back then

There goes the last DJ
Who plays what he wants to play
And says what he wants to say
Hey, hey, hey
And there goes your freedom of choice
There goes the last human voice
And there goes the last DJ.

(The Last DJ by Tom Petty)

Corporate takeover of the music industry got the last free DJ. And I now have to pay for what I used to get for free. But the suits haven't cut down the fighters like Dylan, Neil Young, Willie Nelson, Bruce, Tom Petty, and community radio. And I've got hope.
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Hughie Thomasson: The Passing of an Outlaw

One of The Outlaws last gigs

On September 9, 2007, Hughie Thomasson, vocalist and influential guitarist for The Outlaws, passed away. Another loss of one of our greatest Southern Rock musicians.

On a personal note, The Outlaws formed in Tampa, Florida (my hometown), and the lightning-strike of a song Green Grass and High Tides was a huge part of my musical education. For videos of this song and interviews with the band, click here.

Hughie, rest in peace.

In Honor of the 53rd Anniversary Year of the Fender Stratocaster (Part II)

Who Played What?

(Preface: this list is not an attempt to be complete or correct. Rolling Stone magazine, a make-up rag 'no self-respecting fish would be wrapped in', tries similar tricks, to their chagin, quite often. Putting artists in order is futile: where do you rank Duane and Derek in Miami in 1070 or Duane and Dickie the at the Filmore East?

This list is an attempt to get the Strat, Tele, Esquire, and Gibson conversation going.)

********************************************
Jimi Hendrix (Fender Stratocaster)

Duane Allman (Gibson; Strat in the early days in Muscle Shoals during his Session Player years)

Eric Clapton (I've seen one photo of Slowhand at about 16 with a Tele; early days, Gibson, later switched to a Strat)

Carlos Santana (PRS Custom)

Stevie Ray Vaughn (Strat)
Keith Richards (primarily a 1952 Telecaster; often these days a Gibson ES-355 -- but he not only did he developed his own tunings, he will use any ax, modified ax, or dobro that would get the job done)

Lowell George (Strat)

Buddy Holly (Strat)

Lou Reed (Strat, among others)

John Fogerty (Gibson Les Paul Gold Top and Tele, among others)

Bruce Springsteen (Fender Esquire neck on a Telecaster body)

Dickey Betts (1961 Gibson SG; 1957 Gibson Les Paul, Strat)

Buddy Guy (Strat)

The Edge (Gisbon Explorer, Strat, Gibson Les Paul Custom)

John Frusciante (Strat)

Lucinda Williams (J45 Gibson ("the workhorse" acoustic flat-top), Fender Esquire)

Robbie Robertson (in the mid-Sixties with Dylan and The Band, a Tele; by the mid-Seventies, a Strat, among others)

Roy Clark (Heritage double cutaway semi-hollow body H-535; Roy Clark Signature model Heratige)
Ben Watt (British Issue Leo-era Stratocaster)

Robert Cray (Strat)

Richard Thompson ((see also recent club gig photos) (Strat))

Merle Haggard (Telecaster (including signature model) and Strat)

Ray Davies (Strat)

Ry Cooder (Strat)
********************************************
And on and on -- what do you think?

In Honor of the 53rd Anniversary Year of the Fender Stratocaster

(photo from: Wikipedia)

Photo from:
http://www.whereseric.com/photos/on-tour/3-april-1978-nassau-colliseum-long-island-ny-2.html

My first electric guitar was a 1974 Fender Telecaster -- second hand, tin-i-ness intact and the graphic equalizer and volume knob plate incomprehensibly reversed 180 degrees. My logic at the time was that it was the same model as the guitar Bruce Springsteen was holding on the cover of his break-out album Born to Run. Wrong. The ex-Local Hero's guitar is a Fender Esquire. The distinctions between the top-of-the-line Stratocaster, the often-preferred-anyway Telecaster and the sometimes-preferred Esquire are described the comprehensive Fender Frontline 2004 Special Edition marking the Strats 50th anniversary. As that publication is rarely available, except among hard core Stat players and fans, Wikipedia has all the information, and more, on the distinctions among the Esquire, the Telecaster and the Stat.

It should be clear to all informed readers that, with Strats made when Leo Fender owned the company, this writer would list Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton, Duane Allman during his Muscle Shoals session-man years, and Stevie Ray Vaughn took the instrument to places no one could have conceived.

***********************

Sidenote: Most Americans are unfamiliar with the work of Ben Watt of Everything but the Girl on a British Issue Leo-era Stratocaster -- check out, for example, their Amplified Heart album. On both the Mini-Moog and British Strat, Mr. Watt -- in his spare time as he is the musical czar and director of the London Club Scene -- creates background harmony and melody guitar for chanteuse Tracey Thorn that is smoother than Smokey Robinson's voice.

***********************

Happy Anniversary "Leo's pride and joy", you got the job done for most of the living and passed-on greats since you were invented. Dig.

In part II, who played what.

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