Hopes are high for the new John Legend release coming to retail and e-stores on 21 September. The album, entitled Wake Up!, is a collaboration with The Roots. This past weekend at the Troubadour in West Hollywood, they test drove some of the songs to be included on Wake Up! plus some old Legend gems and inspired covers (including Stevie Wonder's "I Love Every Little Thing About You").
And speaking of covers, looking at the track listing of the new record reveals a healthy dose of them, including Les McCann & Eddie Harris' classic anti-war raver "Compared To What," Marvin Gaye's spiritual masterpiece "Wholly Holy" and a very fine version (below) of The O'Jays' 1974 social justice hit "Wake Up Everybody" which features Melanie Fiona and Common.
If your bus from downtown doesn't stop until 82nd Street uptown, TNOP's got some news to keep you company and while away the time . . . A double CD of a 1966 Otis Redding show at Hollywood's Whisky-A-Go-Go, Otis Redding - Live On The Sunset Strip, was released this week. Pop & Hiss brings us a great story on the gigs, taped over four nights, using a noted eye-witness as its main source: Ry Cooder, who was playing guitar at the time for the warm-up act, Taj Mahal. "It was unbelievable," recalled Cooder. "He'd get up, stomp his foot, wave his arm, grab a microphone and sing with such searing intensity, I thought, this man's going to have a heart attack if he keeps this up. He's not going to make it. But it was good -- a great R&B show, the likes of which I'd never seen."
Step right up! Mr. Tom Waits edits the 200th issue of Mojo, on newstands in the UK soon. Wait a couple of weeks for it to show at your favorite bookstore in the US. Features in the July edition include Waits' interview of Harry Belafonte, a 15-song CD selected and sequenced by the singer and the magazine's guide to all of the Waits album catalog.
U2 had to cancel as the headliner at the massive Glastonbury Festival on opening night, 25 June. But The Guardian reports that Gorillaz have stepped into the breach. Speaking on behalf of 2D, Murdoc, Noodle and Russel Hobbs, Damon Albern said, "it was us or The Beatles, and they split up years ago."
The Cute Beatle visits The White House next week, feted by a number of noted musicians, including Stevie Wonder, Elvis Costello, Jack White and Emmylou Harris. Click Track gives us a Macca song wish list. TNOP agrees wholeheartedly that "We Can Work It Out" is the hands-down choice for The Wonderous One.
OK. So you are in your cap and gown at Brooklyn's Pratt Institute and thinking what boring commencement speaker am I going to have to suffer through? And out walks . . . Patti Smith! And she not only is funny, entertaining, name-dropping and emotional, but sings a couple of songs too! And how can't you love this send-off into the world: "be happy, take care of your teeth, always let your conscience be your guide. well, i wish you god and good luck." The Awl gives great video and The Smoking Bop Gun provides the transcript.
TNOP UK music correspondent and all-around bon vivant Miles Gallagher has been talking up Rock Island, Illinois singer-songwriter Lissie Maurus over the past couple of weeks. Now a great new video of a live performance with Ellie Goulding at the Brighton Great Escape has surfaced. Enjoy Lissie's composition "Everywhere I Go" (via TwentyFour Bit).
Here's a great excuse to escape to a great city: NXNE takes place 14-20 June in Toronto. Billed as "650 Bands - 7 Days - 40 Films - 50 Venues" the festival music headliners include Iggy & The Stooges, De La Soul and The Ravonettes and screens Don Letts' documentary on the late Joe Strummer.
To coincide with the 1974 release of Brian Eno's Here Come The Warm Jets (which, by the way, contained the classic track "The Paw-Paw Negro Blow Torch"), a pre-Pretenders Chrissie Hynde was sent by NME to interview the ex-Roxy Music chameleon. He answered the door to his London flat in a red satin kimono and black satin dress pants. Ah, those were the days . . .
Well, our stop's coming up. Before we step off into the hustle and bustle of the big city, slip on your earbuds and listen to Stevie Wonder sing maybe the best Beatles' cover ever.
James Jamerson, pictured above, using "the hook" on his 1962 Fender electric bass, which he famously nicknamed "The Funk Machine."
He has been called the most influential electric bass player in the history of rock and roll by his peers. The most noted comments came in a 1995 interview, when Paul McCartney recalled his training on the instrument, saying "I started listening to other bass players, mainly Motown. As time went on, James Jamerson became my hero . . . because he was so good and melodic." Motown founder Barry Gordy described him as "a genius on the bass . . . an incredible improviser in the studio and somebody I always wanted on my sessions."
James "Igor" Jamerson was the undisputed anchor of the Motown house band known as "The Funk Brothers." With the drummers Benny Benjamin and Uriel Jones, the famously unknown rhythm section played on more number one hits than the Beatles. The Sound of Young America pumped out successful 45s throughout the 1960s with nary a session credit mentioned anywhere on record sleeves or newspaper stories. It took he 1988 book by Alan Slutsky on Jamerson and the subsequent excellent documentary Standing In The Shadows of Motown to bring Jamerson and other Funk Brothers to the forefront. [The story of Jamerson's recording of the bass lines on Marvin Gaye's What's Goin' On is worth a view of the movie alone.]
Jamerson died tragically at the young age of 45 in 1983. He was posthumously elected to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2000. It would have been his birthday today, so let's celebrate his genius by spinning a few of his most endearing performances:
Taken from the rarely seen documentary Save The Children, Marvin Gaye sings 'What's Goin' On" and "What's Happening Brother" in concert from 1973. About 2:30 into the clip, watch for Jamerson and observe his unique index finger bass playing style (known as "the hook").
Now isolate the bass on your stereo and marvel at the bass line Jamerson delivers on Stevie Wonder's smash "I Was Made To Love Her."
And one of the crowning achievements of the Motown catalog: The Four Tops sing "Bernadette" in 1967. Written by Holland-Dozier-Holland. Levi Stubbs on lead vocal. Jamerson scales the heights of the bass matching the driving beat of Benny Benjamin.
Hopes are high for the new John Legend release coming to retail and e-stores on 21 September. The album, entitled Wake Up!, is a collaboration with The Roots. This past weekend at the Troubadour in West Hollywood, they test drove some of the songs to be included on Wake Up! plus some old Legend gems and inspired covers (including Stevie Wonder's "I Love Every Little Thing About You").
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