Without much fanfare, current Rolling Stone Ron Wood released his solo album I Feel Like Playingat the end of September. Last night he turned up at London's 100 Club for a benefit performance, hoping to help save the venerable small venue which has been the site of early gigs for groups like The Stones, The Sex Pistols and Oasis.
Joining him on stage was his predecessor on guitar for The World's Greatest Rock 'n Roll Band, Mick Taylor. After being in the shadows for a number of years, Taylor seems to be coming back into the light, albeit slowly. Earlier this year, Mick & Keith brought Taylor into the studio to record new guitar overdubs on the Exile On Main St. outtakes included in the deluxe reissue. Here's a video of the two jamming on "Fancy Pants," a track off of the new Woody record.
On this date in 1936, Charles Hardin Holley was born in Lubbock, Texas to Lawrence and Ella Holley. He would have been 74 years old today, had he not gone a-way.
Known always as "Buddy" to his parents and two older brothers, he learned to play various string instruments at an early age from them and starting singing with a junior high school friend at clubs and talent shows.
By the time Buddy was 19, he opened for Elvis Presley and Bill Haley & His Comets when the two stopped in Lubbock for concert appearances. Merging rockabilly with Chet Atkins style guitar, Buddy's unique "hiccup" vocals earned him a trip to Nashville. There he recorded some sides with his band The Crickets (Jerry Allison - drums; Joe B. Maudlin - bass; Niki Sullivan - guitar) for legendary producer Owen Bradley. A couple of those sessions resulted in a few sides released on Decca, and went nowhere. Decca didn't pick up a option to keep him on the label.
But agent and producer Norman Petty saw the potential in Holly and his mates. They recorded material in a more up-beat fashion in Clovis, New Mexico. Out of those sessions came the smash "That'll Be The Day" and "Peggy Sue," both of which were performed by Buddy Holly & The Crickets on The Ed Sullivan Show on 1 December 1957.
Most of you know the rest of the story, including the tragic plane crash that took the 22-year old Holly's life in 1959. But it is always worth mentioning the massive influence he has had on rock and roll history.
It wasn't just Elvis that helped bridge the divide between black rhythm and blues and white based country and swing. Buddy Holly & The Crickets eventually won over the tough audiences at Harlem's Apollo Theater, the only white group playing with pioneers Chuck Berry and Little Richard.
Forty years after Holly's death, Bob Dylan reminisced at the 1998 Grammy Awards in an acceptance speech about seeing The Crickets as a youth: "And I just want to say that when I was sixteen or seventeen years old, I went to see Buddy Holly play at Duluth National Guard Armory and I was three feet away from him...and he looked at me. And I just have some sort of feeling that he was — I don't know how or why — but I know he was with us all the time we were making this record in some kind of way."
The Beatles didn't just name their group as a nod of respect to The Crickets. The Fab Four regularly covered Holly in their days apprenticing in England and Germany. They also recorded "Words of Love" and "Mailman, Bring Me No More Blues." Paul McCartney holds the rights to the Buddy Holly song catalogue. George Harrison saw Holly as a youth and patterned his rockabilly style guitar licks after many of his recordings. John Lennon recorded "Peggy Sue" on his Rock 'n Roll covers album.
Keith Richards openly has discussed his admiration for Buddy Holly. He has been quoted as saying he too attended a Holly performance in London, where he heard "Not Fade Away" for the first time. The Rolling Stones' bone-shaking version of that song - itself a deep bow by Holly to Bo Diddley - is the classic version in the Holly covers canon.
Bruce Springsteen told Dave Marsh in 1978 that "I play Buddy Holly every night before I go on; that keeps me honest." The Boss has covered Holly on stage numerous times, including takes on "Not Fade Away" and "Rave On."
To coincide with Britain's Record Store Day this past Saturday, the Rolling Stones' famed hype machine has started to go into overdrive. With the deluxe version of the band's venerated Exile On Main St. set to be released on 18 May (complete with ten never released tracks and a DVD of the infamous Cocksucker Blues), we've been sneaked "Plundered My Soul," featuring a fiery Mick Jagger vocal and some tasty blues guitar from Mick Taylor. Apparently recorded during the 1972 Exile sessions, "Plundered" was passed over for inclusion on the double-LP, as well as a B-side or candidate on other albums. [We will pass on discussing how much overdubbing or rerecording may have been involved with the final result; both Jagger and producer Don Was have hinted there may have been some of both.]
NPR Music is streaming the new Gorillaz album, Plastic Beach. We're a couple of spins through and its true to the groove. While there doesn't appear to be a song like "Feel Good Inc." or "Clint Eastwood" that immediately catches the ear, the Lou Reed tune, "Some Kind of Nature," is especially cool. And you can also check out 2D, Murdoc and Noodles being pursued by Bruce Willis in the video for the first single, "Stylo." Where's Russel? Stay tuned.
On May 18, Universal Music will reissue one of the most critically acclaimed rock records of all time, The Rolling Stones' Exile On Main Street. The new package will include four never heard tunes produced by Jimmy Miller, Don Was and The Glimmer Twins (Mick & Keef).
The Morning Benders, a three piece outfit from Berkeley, California, have warmed up for some significant indie acts (Grizzly Bear, The Kooks and Ra Ra Riot, to name a few) over the past couple of years. Now they may be on the verge of breaking out with their pending CD Big Echo. You can stream the whole album over at Muzzle of Bees. And the band lets you download their Phil Spector Wall of Sound influenced opening track, "Excuses," for free at their website.
The Choice Music Prize is Ireland's annual bow to the best pop music on the Emerald Isle. The Irish Times gives us a run-down on all the nominees and sets the odds of winning, as well.
Finally, The Band's multi-instrumentalist and vocalist Richard Manuel passed away 15 years ago today. In gracious memory of his extraordinary talent, listen to his lead on "Tears of Rage" at Woodstock in 1969. The footage is rare and quite coarse, but it's worth it. As Levon Helm put it, ". . . once he got started, man: drums, piano, play it all, sing, do a lead in one of them high, hard-assed keys to sing in. Richard just knew how a song was supposed to go. Structure, melody; he understood it."
Fifty-one years ago today, in Clear Lake, Iowa, rock and roll lost three of its pioneering artists in a plane crash. Perishing in a cornfield in the dead of winter were Texan Buddy Holly, Californian Ritchie Valens and DJ J.P. "The Big Bopper" Richardson, along with pilot Roger Peterson. All three singers were riding the crest of a wave of music popularity.
Holly, who had already established a solid career at the young age of 22 with hits like "Not Fade Away," "Peggy Sue" and "Rave On," would become hugely influential in the careers of The Beatles and The Rolling Stones, among many others.
Buddy Holly & The Crickets, "Peggy Sue" (1957)
Buddy Holly interview with Red Robinson, Vancouver, October 23, 1957.
Valens, born Richard Valenzuela, was only 17 at the time, and had broken out with the rocking "Come On, Let's Go" and then topped the charts with the ballad "Donna." The teen would later be immortalized in the movie La Bamba and his music would again be brought to the masses by Los Lobos.
Ritchie Valens, "Donna" (live recording 1958)
Richardson, from Texas, had a novelty record called "Chantilly Lace" that gathered attention. What most do not know is that he was also the author of "White Lightning," a tune George Jones took to the top of the charts after the crash.
The famous odd-man out on the fatal plane ride? Waylon Jennings, whose playful comments with Holly about the cold and its potential effects on their respective means of transportation would haunt him until his death in 2002.
FURTHER LISTENING AND VIEWING: The Rolling Stones perform Buddy Holly's "Not Fade Away" in a 1964 television appearance:
The talented but troubled music critic Robert Palmer was recently profiled in the New York Times. His estranged daughter has produced a documentary of her late father's travels in search of the muse and writer Anthony DeCurtis has edited a compilation of Palmer's essays.
Speaking of the cinema, the end of the year means the push for the Oscars is about to begin. Potential soundtrack entries are no exception. Stereogumprovides streaming audio of U2's "Winter" from Jim Sheridan's upcoming film Brothers as well as a couple of tunes by Nick Cave & Warren Ellis featured in the adaption of the Cormac McCarthy novel The Road.
The so-called "Never Ending Tour" of Bob Dylan wrapped up its latest chapter with multiple nights in, fittingly enough, New York City. TNOP thought the review from Roger Catlin at the Hartford Courantwas interesting, particularly his discussion of the atmosphere created during Dylan's set and the words devoted to his under appreciated opening act, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee Dion DiMucci.
Happy birthday to film director Martin Scorsese. But rock 'n roll, you ask? Absolutely: check out the ever-present soundtrack running in the background of Goodfellasand Casino. More importantly, Scorsese (shown with The Band's Robbie Robertson, above) has turned out to be one of the more influential figures in rock documentaries. He was a young camera operator and editor on Woodstock. He chronicled The Band's swan song with an incomparable guest list at San Francisco's Winterland Ballroom back in November 1976, resulting in The Last Waltz. In recent years, Scorsese has tackled the rise of Bob Dylan in No Direction Home as well as the career of The Rolling Stones in Shine A Light. A bio-pic on Frank Sinatra and a documentary on George Harrison are now in the works.
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