Music: The Scenic Route

I don't listen to the radio very often.

Every now and then I'll hound loved ones for what they are listening to. I don't really You Tube either apart from nabbing links for The Whisky Bar, and forget Myspace. I've always wanted a job in a music store, but they're harder to get than a job in a surf shop when you're a teenager.

It's not that I want to avoid technology despite being fairly technologically inept. It's more because I am desperately holding on to the rituals of flicking through cds at music stores on solo missions that can last for hours, reading Rolling Stone, or issues of NME and Q passed on to me from my Britpop fiend friend. I love reading an artist's cd jacket or typing in one name on Google, Wikipedia to see who influenced them during their rise to fame. I continue to idolise Nick Hornby's Rob in High Fidelity (by the way, what was John Cusack thinking with this new movie 2012? Hideous!)

It doesn't matter whether these influences have been correctly identified by the biographer/Wikipedia jock or not, it can often be band/artist I've never heard of, or better yet, can lead to making 'that' discovery we have all had at some point: imagine only just discovering that Bob Dylan, George Harrison, Tom Petty, Roy Orbison & Jeff Lynne were the men who comprised Travelling Wilburys... thinking 'who is Jeff Lynne?'...you then encounter the magical hit Evil Woman sung by Electric Light Orchestra- Lynne was lead singer.

Discovering (thanks to one of NZ's best guitarists) fallen-through-the-cracks rock band Ten Years After, and growing to love their epic blues numbers and guitar riffs has been a fantastic little epic journey for me. Then to read that they are named so because in 1966, it had been ten years since Elvis Presley burst onto the scene, and changed the face of music, rock n roll, society, forever made me smile even more.

It makes me a massive nerd, this I realise, but how much fun it is to be on a seemingly endless little journey through music history. The greatest thing about music is how it's replenished decade after decade with new genres or dynamics that have facets of ingenuity combined with elements of music that harks back to previous eras of blues, soul, jazz, rock, country, bluegrass, roots, taking a little bit of world music and combining it with pop (think Graceland, think Michael Jackson, think Timberlake. Think Public Enemy's remake of Buffalo Springfield's For What It's Worth). Cross-pollenation of genres when Chris Cornell lends his voice to Billie Jean, when Pavarotti sings with Bono on Miss Sarajevo..no no, even better, Bryan Adams.

I plan on marrying (one of many weddings to musicians...) Ray La Montagne. This self-assurance cemented when I read that he turned his back on music due to a rubbish father who was a musician. Ray was terrible at school, got a job in a shoe store, heard Stephen Stills' (Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young) Treetop Flyer and bang. Done. Musician. Heartbreaker. Heartwarmer. All thanks to Stephen Stills. And I thought everyone only focused on Crosby and Young...

In December Fleetwood Mac visits New Zealand as yet another classic band to hop on the bandwagon of reunion tours. Sold out for the first concert and no doubt hugely popular second concert, New Plymouth will be home to tonnes of black and purple velvet, white gypsy skirts and black eyeline for three days as folk from all over New Zealand flock to hear their favourites. Fleetwood Mac t-shirts will be aplenty. But what makes Fleetwood exciting is that a) there are 2 'eras' of the band which both have so much to offer, and b) you could put a song like Go Your Own Way or Everywhere (late 80's Fleetwood, focus had shifted from Buckingham to the girls by this point), on at an event today, and most people will know their songs.
This is what is exciting about the scenic route in music: the more you know, the more you want to learn. You get hungry for more music. And why shouldn't you? It's an international language. Everyone can take what they want from it, whenever they like. And sometimes, the only way you'll find some of this music is by stopping into a record store, having a sift, a peruse of the bargain bins or the store guy's recommendations...or for those who are content with technology, checking out Last FM...

Until next time!
L.

La douleur exquise* (the exquisite pain): the blues.

‘Eric Clapton: knows that I steal his ideas and is still cool with it’ – John Mayer

Following on from my post the other day about figures in past music decades, and the post script which mentioned Motown and the reunion that is planned, I thought I'd carry on down the blues path. On the latest Ben Harper album, ‘White Lies for Dark Times’, track 4 is…and fans of early Ben Harper will scoff at such a claim, but track 4 is one of my favourite Ben Harper songs. Ever.

The best line from the song (entitled Lay There and Hate Me) for me, ‘never trust a woman who loves the blues’ just makes me smile. The first time I heard it I immediately thought about the music industry and how it owes such a lot of its existence today to the blues.

I love the blues Ben.

Anyway. It’s the attitude of the song. The pain, the despair, the getting lost in one’s own world. But it’s also about appreciating what one can do, loving the music so much that you feel the pain of the artist, but also get a real rush from it too. It’s amazing. Exquisite. A good blues song can be the piece de resistance for someone who needs to prove they’ve got the good, or a good blues song can be what makes an artist (Miles Davis, Clapton).

You hear a blues song, no matter what genre and you think ‘I hear ya mate, I feel your pain’, but you also can’t help but marvel and feel at ease at the same time. It’s incredible. The blues is the type of music you almost don’t want to share with anyone. But then you do because everyone should be educated on what construes a good dose of blues!

While not a constant rule, and it would be a dull world without exceptions, the blues should start off with one line of dramatic ‘depths of despair’ notes. Slow, and definite. The drums usually come in after this and then you just get drawn in. A small guitar or piano solo to let us know what we’re in for. The instrumentals should outweigh the singing. I mean, let’s be honest. If it’s the blues, you can’t say much more than ‘I want to drink very heavily right now and keep my door closed because my heart is broken’ or ‘God I’m so tormented and tired right now, someone dim the lighting so I can have a whinge for 5 minutes’. So what is left, but to cut the talk and get strumming/playing the ivories.

Let it Loose by the Rolling Stones is a good example of how they’ve adopted the blues, but retained that quintessential Stones ‘flavour’ if you like to the song. On the other hand, the John Mayer Trio’s Out of My Mind is textbook blues. You could be forgiven for thinking it’s Clapton, especially after hearing his Driftin’ Blues…although in saying that, it kind of sounds like Clapton has more of a…hmm…steely sound.

Badly Drawn Boy have successfully ‘modernised’ the blues with the song Delta (Little Boy Blues) by injecting a slightly whimsical sound to the tune. One could argue however that it’s because it was written for the film About A Boy.

Funnily enough, Nick Hornby (author of About A Boy) does have a quirky little crack regarding blues and soul: “Have you got any soul?" a woman asks the next afternoon. That depends, I feel like saying; some days yes, some days no. A few days ago I was right out; now I've got loads, too much, more than I can handle. I wish I could spread it a bit more evenly, I want to tell her, get a better balance, but I can't seem to get it sorted. I can see she wouldn't be interested in my internal stock control problems though, so I simply point to where I keep the soul I have, right by the exit, just next to the blues.”

On Love and Theft, Bob Dylan funks up the blues a bit with his Lonesome Day Blues. It actually sounds slightly reminiscent of Bad to the Bone which I found slightly disturbing, particularly as Bob seems to have found some sort of hoarse and gravelly aspect to his voice….

It was very exciting to find a 1920’s King Oliver tune which is flapper music type incorporating the blues: the Dippermouth Blues. It’s pretty cute, and while not quite what I’d deem your typical bluesy number, it still contains that yearning sound that one possess. Plus it’s lyric-less. Really, in that era you don’t need to go too further past Billie Holiday Gloomy Sunday or I’ll Be Seeing You.It was timely that I ventured out on Friday to yet another NZFF film: this one being a pretty special get together of guitar legends Jimmy Page, The Edge and emerging legend Jack White for the documentary It Might Get Loud.

The three give us their childhood backgrounds, provide original footage from various projects (Page's post session guitarist era involvement with The Yardbirds and Led Zeppelin; The Edge's U2; White's The White Stripes, The Upholsterers, The Raconteurs), general jamming and discussion on early influences, their guitars and of course, their raisons d'etre.

There were some classic moments in the film, Page is a real character; an earnest child that soon realised his talents took him to commercialism; being milked for his skills, showcasing other people's work and not making waves himself. This all, of course, before creating some of rock's best music. On the other side of the coin, The Edge remains earnest. Ireland's bloody history is a constant troubling tempest in his thoughts, and the technical side to his music writing was a great insight. It was, dare I say this, extremely refreshing to see U2's music and history narrated, touched upon, by someone other than Bono. It..relieved I guess, the glorification of their music which I think happens quite often. It made me remember that U2 started out, and continue to be, advocates for anti-war, that they're patriots, and, at the risk of sounding trite, they really have injected hope into the lives of many around the world.

Thirdly, we got to see a little bit more of what makes Jack White tick. I said to my friend afterward that after seeing It Might Get Loud, that I hope Jack White enjoys longjevity with his career. Seeing him in his home environment cranking improvised blues tunes, playing the piano, the guitar, the drums, handmaking objects, this guy is awesome. He has his own distinct style, and has the potential to revitalise the blues in the future. And he made a fantastic statement regarding the blues:

"if you're digging round for the beginning of rock and roll, you're on the free train to the blues"

So: the exquisite pain of the blues and the adrenaline of rock and roll. Hand in glove as it turns out.

Til next time!

L.

*'La douleur exquise' is the title of an episode in Sex and the City, Season 2.

the remaker, the prodigy, the bygones

I was cranking a little bit of procrastination earlier on in the week and as I tap tap tapped (digress here, every time I’m on the golf course and miss an easy putt I take on Adam Sandler’s bizarre baby voice in Happy Gilmore and angrily mutter that ‘tap tap tap’ line…) my fingers along to the Velvet Underground’s Sweet Nuthin’ I got thinking about the music industry in the mid 60’s through to the later 70’s.

Past eras have provided foundations for so many avenues of music that I don’t think we’ve quite realised the half of yet. We’re happy to recognise that Madonna’s Hung Up is loved mainly because of the background tune that was first made famous by ABBA’s Gimme Gimme Gimme…yet this generation that may not have known this if their parents didn’t play ABBA in the car or they had been ferreting around themselves in some class music history. David Gray’s Say Hello, Wave Goodbye is a poignant remake of Softcell’s (of Tainted Love…’notoriety’) original.

What makes the latter however seem a tad more credible than Madonna’s mutilation of ABBA’s tune is that Gray made the song his. We’ve heard this kind of comment from judges in American/New Zealand/British/Moroccan Idol, but it does maketh the song. On the reality/talent show Rockstar: Supernova, I absolutely fell in love with Ryan Starr’s version of REM’s Losing My Religion; what warm-blooded straight female who heard it didn’t, (Jason Newstead, bassist of Metallica/Supernova can be quoted as saying “dude, you are so going to get laid tonight”) and Chris Cornell can be heard singing an evocative version of Michael Jackson’s Billie Jean.

We see Justin Timberlake and marvel at how the man has basically created a genre of his own, yet Michael Jackson’s early days, middle days and early 90’s days live on through J.Timberlake’s own beat of the music, suave moves and in some cases, attire.

While JT may be the go to guy for, well, everything these days in terms of party music, sing along songs, background music, running music, he is really just another enigmatic prodigy in a long line of similar such wonders.

Ian Curtis, lead singer, and…wait for it, Ice-T pun coming… ‘Original angster’ of late 70’s pioneer post-punk/precursor to the New Wave genre band Joy Division, was an introverted trouble teenager who basically followed the same tumultuous issues that Bowie had faced in suburban north England growing up. The sense of knowing that Salford (Curtis’ hometown) was not, and could not be the extent of his life, Curtis I think was genuinely torn between his roots and wholesome life with his wife and the excitement that fame, and therefore exotic European locations brought to his existence. If you listen hard, past Joy Division’s ‘eerie’ (I cannot claim to be the first to use this adjective to describe the band’s sound) songs, you’ll note that the lyrics (Transmission, Love Will Tear Us Apart (Again), Isolation) just cry out for a helping hand (or rather, the acknowledgment that one's hand would probably be rendered useless by Curtis!) and yet drug king Iggy Pop (as per the mandatory watch of a film Control) was pretty much the catalyst for Curtis to make his way in the music world…and in my mind Iggy is one of the most comical characters to affront the world with his music!

We all know the Fast Times in Tahoe like-life of Jim Morrison, so I won’t bang on about him...but these two figures are just the start of intriguing folk that we idolise, appreciate, yearn to know more about, or are content to merely love their work and sing along.

I suppose that while imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, today’s generation of musicians has a music bank with plenty to work with. And in this social environment where we want something right here, right now, it’s easy to draw inspiration…and consequently the music rights, to create a new and improved version of songs. Remakes have of course happened prior to the late 90’s/2000’s hundreds of times: two of my favourites are Creedence Clearwater Revival’s version of I Put A Spell On You and the Red Hot Chilli Pepper’s version of Stevie Wonder’s Higher Ground.

But when I heard Snoop Dogg’s ‘version’ of The Doors’ Riders on the Storm, all I thought to myself was “Jesus”. While the man is just so facetious in his work and while I’m sure I’d be ‘dealt with’ if I ever confronted those who live and would die by the gospel of Snoop, I don't see Snoop as a legend, unless you're talking about how mint his character was in the remake of Starsky & Hutch.

Tell me when the last time was you heard an original song like Sweet Nuthin’, got to a point like the one at 5 min 7 sec in such a song and subtly got sucked into a cheeky little 1 minute 27 sec rock riff on the old guitar. You're left at the end of the song simply thinking 'sheer music brilliance'. I still get dumbfounded with such moments. Hendrix & Watchtower, Pearl Jam & that almost shrill yet still oddly comforting intro of Once; the epic piano solo in Des'ree's Kissing You (blast from the past teenage Leo lovers?!), the chorus of one of my Dad's favourites, The Boxer by Simon & Garfunkel, John Mayer's fantastic tease of a version of Ray Charles' I got a woman; the 1 min 17sec intro of U2's Where the Streets Have No Name....you get the drift and I would hope you have your own!

Tell me when you last heard someone that could get away with a song like Patti Smith’s version of Van Morrison’s Gloria with her opening the song in one monotonous line Jesus died/for somebody’s sins/but not mine…

I’ll never forget when I was in the UK and met this 40 year old character who lived with his mother (no kidding, they were old money and he was clearly quite happy to forever indulge in the comforts of home) in Oxfordshire. Now before this starts sounding dodgy, can I just say he really wasn’t. The guy was a gentle soul, just a bit…of a character. Anyway. He introduced me one day to Led Zeppelin’s How the West Was Won which is a 3CD/DVD set of original footage of the band over the years. Many of you have no doubt heard this yarn, but my goodness. John Bonham, Moby Dick, 18 minutes, drum solo. Just like the Hendrix: Live at Woodstock footage I was lucky to view recently (incidentally, CCR performed I Put A Spell On You at Woodstock...so, just tying things up there within the post)....anyway, the Youtube clips I found for the post are RUBBISH. Invest in the box set, go on- you won't regret it!

I have rambled, as per, for far too long. My wish for today? Ryan Adams and Bob Dylan combine harmonicas. To the extent of my knowledge on such a duet, it hasn't been done. If Johnny Cash can find new fans through Trent Reznor and NIN, then hell, get Bob on board with the self-indulgent youth of today that take Adams not as the prodigal son of country music that he is, but the borderline emo-ballad writer that he unfortunately comes across as being at times...if you haven't already been privy to his astounding version of Oasis' Wonderwall, you're crazy. Listen to it here, and I guess I'll catch ya later!

Ciao,

L.

PS. Motown revival at the Mission Concert next year...you'd be crazy not to go if you're in the country!

First up...

Bonjour!


Well, for some years now various folk have urged me to get writing on the old blog system. I set up an account last year, but until now it remained rather...derelict.

You may have seen/read/been a part of Lushmail or even been privy to the 'odd' rambling email/letter. I love to write. It's not Chekhov, or Wordsworth, Winton or Starkey, but I love to write just the same.

One friend started his own blog a couple of weeks back, and I tell ya, it was the catalyst I reckon to get going.


Although worlds apart, (you can find his here, thought provoking and articulate compared to the walffle you'll encounter in The Whisky Bar!), I suppose the purpose of our blogs, and indeed anyone who takes time out to write one is to share (with those interested) thoughts on what makes us tick, what drives us, what evokes passion for something, and what we feel are things we need to inform others of.

There's also room for self-indulgence on the old blogger sites, and in this day and age, that should come as no surprise.

I suppose you'll find here at The Whisky Bar an array of topics. There'll be some obvious calls, some obscure calls and some outrageous calls, but I hope they all provoke thinking. Or smiles at the very least.


So, welcome to The Whisky Bar. Many personal connotations are associated with this, but foremost is the fact that I have, over the years, come to crave, love, live for and absolutely adore music despite being...well, pretty much tone deaf; thus the affiliation with The Doors hit, The Whisky Bar (Alabama Song).

I don't know much about whisky itself, apart from having to memorise 150 odd when I lived in Scotland- location, levels of peat, age etc. What I can say though is Laphroiag is simply...exceptional. And the only whisky to be allowed into the US when being pioneered due to it's marketing as 'medicinal'...clever stuff from that distillery all those years ago!


I am on a neverending mission to learn more about music. The diverse group of friends I have means I can avoid mainstream radio but still know the words to songs at the pubs, clubs and parties. I love seeing any friend in action, regardless of genre. Death metal, heavy rock, classical, country, musical theatre. You name it, I've been there.


I am on a blues buzz at present. I haven't been able to get past John Mayer in awhile, well, in actuality the John Mayer Trio with the very versatile Pino Palladino on the bass (incidentally he toured with The Who on their recent trip to NZ). Palladino is a name I'm eager to hear more on. His presence in the music world makes me smile. And he's not alone with this...'honour'.

Music figures like that intrigue me. Are they similar to the ever-cast 'side kick' roles in Hollywood? Almost ubiquitous yet rarely credited with the praise duly deserved?

Elton John owes half his career to Bernie Taupin...Fleetwood Mac would be nowhere without the foundations laid by Peter Green; Joe Cocker has 50/50 praise/criticism due to not being a writer himself yet happy to have a career spanning decades; Hendrix was backed not by the Experience at Woodstokc, but by 3 random gypsy folk who happened to have a couple of bongos and a spare guitar; Clapton established The Yardbirds, Cream, Derek and the Dominoes with artists who went on to join The Who, Led Zeppelin, Rolling Stones and the Spencer Davis Group....no doubt more will spring to mind once I've wrapped this up.

Anyway, once a month at Bodega, 3rd Thursday of the month, you'll find Blues month at Bodega (fantastic interview here with bar manager Murray)...some might say it's one more place Wellingtonians can don their fedoras, I say it's been a long time coming and gives one a reprieve (if only brief and not from desperation, merely change of scene) from the dulcet yet sometimes monotonous tones of Wellington's mellow scene...look to checking it out.

Until next time,

L.