Yep for me Atlantic Crossing/ Night On the Town were basically the last Rod records I bought or had interest in. Some cuts were better than others, for example at the time Killing of Georgie was extremely risky career wise. I saw the AC tour at IU, and then at some point I saw a concert in Indy where Rush and Rod sort of shared the bill with Rush opening. THAT was a weird crowd mix...
The Music Thread
- Thread starter TheOriginalHappyGoat
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They have absolutely nothing to do with each other, but for some reason the name Lone Justice caused me to think of a truly iconic, if short lived band from the late 60s, that just sort of faded away...I think it kind of triggered a Lone Ranger (LONE justice) vine with Silver (his horse's name) in my brain. Hence Quicksilver and the song that everyone knew, without knowing the actual title...
And of course their fellow Bay Area contemporaries who achieved more fame and later notoriety...I loved Grace's vocals on the songs she sang, but Marty had an incredible voice and vocal style...
Along that same vein, a show from 1970 when I was 15. This may have been a 1 hit wonder, as I can't ever recall listening to an entire It's A Beautiful Day album. But in 1970, everyone knew this song...
One of the first concerts I attended at around 14 maybe 15 was Sabbath w/Ozzy, Journey with Steve Perry opened... Journey was a pretty good band before Perry, great roster, they were still pretty good after, in spite of Perry .... The crowd, full of Sabbath fans booed them. Can't say I was upset ..
I may have told this story/posted this song on OTF previously... But the dorms at IU used to have a phone box between your room and your suitemates room. Each room had a small door smaller than a medicine cabinet that allowed them to access the phone which was on a swivel inside the box.
You could open the door in your room to use the phone, or you could just talk to your suitemates thru the hole in the wall and not have to go out into the hall and into their actual room. Probably sounds weird now, but it was just something we took for granted...
So one year my suitemates were a couple of really nerdy guys who we called Jesus Freaks. For some reason they would have these annoying gatherings mid week, which was basically a prayer meeting with a bunch of their friends who didn't live on our floor...
I honestly don't know why I found them so annoying, but the rooms weren't soundproof so the sounds of their revival meeting would basically invade my "space". If I was partying in another room it wasn't a big deal. But when I was trying to study, or more commonly had people in my room partying it was annoying...
So one of my favorite tactics to return the favor was to crank up some Bowie on my stereo and open the phone box door in my room. We'd play Suffragette and songs off of Ziggy of course, but tunes like Rebel rebel and Cracked Actor were our way of showing our adolescent defiance. We'd always make it a point to shout along with the "outrageous" lyrics of Cracked Actor which we assumed they'd find extremely offensive
"Suck baby suck, give me your head"...
I always loved the ACL theme (London Homesick Blues). Pretty sure that Gary P Nunn's royalties from ACL using this as their theme will fund the rest of his life. Here's a version with Jerry Jeff...
Speaking of Jerry Jeff, he and Buffet have been buddies for a LONG time and have some great stories to tell...Here are a couple of hilarious clips from a 1991 episode of Texas Connection which I assume was taped in Austin...
In the first Jimmy tells how he met "Fingers" Taylor after a concert at So Miss, and they tell the hilarious story of how Jerry Jeff screwed up Jimmy's phone bill (back before cell phones). Brief part of Margaritaville included...
This clip is even funnier, and includes an awesome version of Pirate Looks at 40... They talk about legendary Key west Bartender Phil Clark, who is the real life inspiration for Pirate. Like many of the screwballs Jimmy knew in Key west and immortalized in song, Pirate captures the essence of Phil perfectly...
Sad to watch this and realize that Jerry Jeff is gone, Fingers has slipped into dementia, and Jimmy is a shell of his former self...
I'm getting freaking old...
I was introduced to James Gang as a freshman in college...From my roommates 8-track
So here are a couple of current college students (circa 2020) being introduced to James Gang. These guys are not my favorite "reaction channel" and I don't always agree with their opinions. But I do think it's interesting to compare their first listen to Joe Walsh (when they aren't aware of the connection) to my first listen to a relatively unknown at the time Joe Walsh...
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Are you a fan? Off that album, my favorite song is Play Me the Waltz of the Angels with Buck Owens:
Happy Birthday to Born To Run, released this date in 1975 as Hoosier fans everywhere were anticipating an NCAA title, with some thought of an undefeated season...
Perhaps the most underrated work on the entire album is Meeting Across The River which might best be characterized as a precursor to The Sopranos. Everything about Meeting from the mournful trumpet to the understated piano and lyrics that reek of desperation and mob slang screams Sopranos. Guys that "don't dance" and "Stuff this in your shirt, it'll look like you're carrying a friend"...
It's really easy to visualize the protagonist of Meeting as any of the endless parade of losers on the Sopranos who were always trying to make their mark and usually ended up on the wrong end of a bullet. As the trumpet wails and fades into nothing, there is an overwhelming sense that tonight like every other night he'll end up blowing it and that will be the end for him and Eddie. Just another loser who met his fate...
At least that was my take in 1975, when his appearance on BTR seemed destined to be his finale. But later, it seemed likely that he had somehow managed to survive, and make his way to an even more desperate daily existence in Atlantic City. This time his ultimate fate is a little more ambivalent. Is Cherry the person he is sharing a Coast City bus ticket with? And did she fix her hair up pretty and meet him in AC on their way to where the "sands turn into gold"? We may never know...
Of course the fading trumpet of Meeting segues perfectly into the story of The Magic Rat and the Barefoot Girl. For my money it's still one of the best consecutive 1, 2 punches on an album side...
This is probably the most emotional rendering ever, the first time it was played live following Clarence's death. A real baptism under fire moment for Jake, in front of 60,000 people in Goteborg
Friday night Traffic jam (multiple puns intended)...
One interpretation is that the first verse is about shooting up (low spark= injection) of a speedball (high heeled boys). The name evolved from a note that Michael J Pollard passed to Capaldi while the two were travelling in Morocco in 1971. Pollard was the quirky character actor who first gained fame as the slow witted gas station attendant (CJ Moss) who joined up with Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway after they pulled into the gas station he was working at in Bonnie and Clyde...
I've also read that further lyrical references included Capaldi's cynicism and bitterness over aspects of the music business that he felt were exploitive. Lines like "man in the suit" and "profit he's made on your dreams" are pretty explicit...
So this morning a Ronstadt cover (that I had forgotten about) popped into my recommended list, and it made me think of "Rose music". Rose is my 91 yr old mother, and when she was younger she and my dad had quite the assortment of records. Songs like Kisses Sweeter Than Wine (Doris Day), and country classics like Walk on By, that she'd walk around the house singing along to as she did her housework...
All that changed after my Dad died- I don't remember Rose ever using the stereo and the radio was never turned on in the car. It was like all of the music (except church hymns) completely exited from her life. I was pretty young when she used to play a lot of these songs (and had no idea what they meant), but this is likely the original artist rendering of this song that she had. I'd have guessed Faron Young, but the main version I found was Leroy Van Dyke. At any rate, a classic...
I'm sure my mom's record of this was Patsy Cline and I'm 100% sure my mom has never heard of Linda Ronstadt. But Patsy released this in 1961 (I'd have been 6) and I think she died about a month prior to my 8th birthday. I think this cover really is done well, and judging by how much Dolly has always loved Linda, I think Patsy would love this version too. Live from the Troubador with Henley, Frey and others, and a pretty tasty slide show...
Another Rose song, but I don't really see her listening to the Everly Brothers original. So I'm not sure which version she had. But this has just been released as a duet by Rita Wilson and Jackson Browne, and even though again Rose has no idea who these folks are, it's a very nice cover...
Some interesting Allman Brothers vids crossed my recommended list today...
Exquisite version of Melissa from 1991,the Allman Brothers Blues Band featuring Gregg and Dickie...
A short but troubled life probably harder than it had to be. I always liked this song, and it sure rang true...
An amazing duet JB and Gregg on These Days, shortly before Gregg died. I remember thinking that Jackson wrote These Days about Gregg because it fit him so well. But it turns out that they were introduced to each other a few years after Jackson originally wrote it...
The song Jackson did write about and dedicate to Gregg from the same album that included These Days. Probably why in 1973 I was confused about the origins of These Days... (there was no internet to google)...
Great lyrics and as always incredible guitar and slide work from David Lindley. Lindley gets writing credit as well, and the very distinct piano comes from some dude known as "Rockaday Johnny...
And of course what may have been one of the initial live albums of the rock era, and the one that seemed to make the Fillmore East a household name
I guess the Dead's debut album version of this is one of the first covers, but I've heard Rod do it as well. The original artist is listed as Bonnie Dobson, a Canadian folkie. Here is an '89 version from Shoreline which features the Big Man during the ESB late 80s hiatus...
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OK, based on this tweet I'll admit it... I liked Nancy Sinatra back in the day. And I just might appreciate her more now...
I actually had a couple of her albums, and I really enjoyed her duets with Lee Hazlewood...
I have reminisced here in the past about "headphone music." These were the songs that were so powerful and meaningful, that my dad believed you could only appreciate them by listening through the big ol' earmuff headphones. We only had one set, so we had to take turns. One album we always played twice so we could both get a turn at every song was Buffalo Springfield. Another one was 4-Way Street.
