This Date In Rock History: 3 May

Ladies and Gentlemen! Mr. Please, Please, Please! The Godfather of Soul! Mr. Dynamite! The Hardest Working Man In Show Business! Happy Birthday to James Brown, who would have been 77 today, had he not gone a-way.

Watch him tear it up at The T.A.M.I. Show in 1964:

Spanning The Globe . . .

. . . to bring you the constant variety of music, TNOP brings you the latest news.

We've been an occasional user of the music service Lala over the years as a convenient service to stream albums new and old. Apple bought out Lala last year for $89 million. Now, Apple will shut down Lala on 31 May. Go figure. Pop & Hiss discusses.

Veteran rock crit David Fricke makes the case for reissue of The Jimi Hendrix Experience's Axis: Bold As Love. Better than Are You Experienced? and Electric Ladyland. Um, well . . .

Rick Mason of the City Pages interviews legendary keyboardist Al Kooper about his extraordinary career. And according to Kooper, The Mighty Max Weinberg won't be joining Conan O'Brien on TBS.

Greil Marcus' new book is When That Rough God Goes Riding: Listening to Van Morrison. He talks about that and much, much more in a frank, fascinating, extended talk with PopMatters.

Yeasayer brought their tour to Metro in Chicago the other night. Greg Kot was there.

The anticipation is high for the 14 May release from The National, High Violet. Nicholas Dawidoff writes an in depth profile of the band and the painstaking process of the making of the record for the New York Times Magazine.

Colin Meloy of The Decemberists tried out a couple of new tunes at PDX Pop Now! in Portland. Stereogum has the video.

It appears Neil Young is holed up in the studio with uber-producer Daniel Lanois making a new album. At least according to David Crosby. We believe him. But if this was twenty years ago . . .

The Belfast Telegraph reports Paul Hewson met with President Obama at the White House Friday to discuss development in Africa.

Josh Ritter's busy. A new album, a novel and an extensive tour of Ireland. The Irish Times fills us in.

Patron Saint vs. Poet Laureate? TNOP has no comment. But this column by Tony Norman in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette is well-researched and very thoughtful about the recent comments attributed to Joni Mitchell about Bob Dylan.

Nialler9 gets Jim Carroll to sit down and write about his Top 5 Irish Acts right now. We dig Villagers too. And Celtic Ray suggests you check out The Cast of Cheers and download their album Chariot for free.

The Queen of Soul abruptly cancelled her scheduled appearance for Friday night at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival. While that seems to be the way of the world (Aretha stood the festival up last year as well), the mighty, mighty Earth, Wind & Fire was nearby and stepped in to pinch hit. NOLA.com gives them some deserved love. And so does TNOP, as we bid you adieu from the news desk good ladies and gentlemen . . .

MGMT To Webcast Concert On CBS.com

In coordination with their appearance on The Late Show with David Letterman set for Tuesday, 11 May, MGMT will webcast a full concert from New York's Ed Sullivan Theater on CBS.com starting at 8.00pm EDT/5.00pm PDT. In an e-mail to its fans yesterday, the band indicates that the concert "will be a full set spanning both albums."

You can get a sneak preview of MGMT's live prowess by viewing performances of "Flash Delirium" and "Brian Eno" from an SNL appearance earlier this month. And the group's adventuresome sophomore album, Congratulations, can still be streamed for free at MGMT's website.

Your Weekly Dylan Cover (#2)

Sufjan Stevens
"Ring Them Bells"
Original Dylan version found on Oh Mercy (1989)

[Ed. note: Regular readers of this blog know that Bob Dylan is affectionately referred to as the "Patron Saint" of TNOP. This weekly feature sifts through the thousands of cover versions of Dylan songs and provides you with our favorites, as well as a quick memory of our first exposure to the Dylan original.]

Sufjan Stevens is a native Michigander who has been a prolific singer-songwriter over the past ten years. A multi-instrumentalist, Stevens' unique voice on the music scene has drawn both heavy critical praise as well as a few accusations of pretentious navel gazing.

Regardless of personal opinion, there is to be no argument that Stevens makes selected songs of other artists he admires (Joni Mitchell, Daniel Johnston and Lennon/McCartney, for example) his "own," rearranging melody and sometimes adding new verses. This Dylan cover is no less different.

When one considers the whole of Stevens' career to date, his selection of Dylan's "Ring Them Bells" for inclusion in the I'm Not There soundtrack makes perfect sense. The themes of faith and justice weave themselves through Stevens' albums, but in a subtle way. As he told The Village Voice in 2005, "I don't think music media is the real forum for theological discussions. I think I've said things and sung about things that probably weren't appropriate for this kind of forum. And I just feel like it's not my work or my place to be making claims and statements, because I often think it's misunderstood."

*************************************
Like many a Dylan fan(atic) back in 1989, the pending release of a new album from my favorite artist was a reason for cautious excitement. While Down In The Groove and Knocked Out Loaded were bitter disappointments, and the much-ballyhooed tours with Tom Petty and The Grateful Dead mostly hype, word was leaking out that a "return to form" was surely on the horizon. First, the previous fall George Harrison - who had recently worked with his long-time pal in The Travelling Wilburys - had enthused to a reporter about a cache of songs Dylan supposedly was holding close to the vest. Within a few months, the same story had surfaced, this time linking U2's Bono to the chorus of encouragement.

But Dylan supposedly was down about the method in which his more recent albums had been recorded. Enter Daniel Lanois, the then 38 year old Canadian musician and producer who was surely on a hot streak. In succession, he had been at the helm of Peter Gabriel's So, U2's The Joshua Tree, Robbie Robertson's self-titled solo effort and was about to enter the studio to record another album which would be lauded, Yellow Moon by The Neville Brothers. Given Lanois' involvement with Bono and Robertson, it was easy for Dylanophiles to connect the dots.

Dylan talks at length about the recording process and the great vibe of New Orleans, where Oh Mercy would be recorded, in his book Chronicles, Volume One. It makes for great reading.

Personally, I was excited about the album as a whole when it was released in September 1989, particularly the sequencing of the ten tracks. But "Ring Them Bells" stood out for its musical simplicity as well as lyrical complexity. Aside from the background sonic accents from (I think) Lanois' omnichord, it is just Dylan sitting at the piano alone, singing this compelling, plaintive narrative about age-old, wearying challenges that all walks of life confront and the accompanying faith that may in fact keep a "world on its side" from tipping completely over.

It is vintage Dylan with juxtaposition of "right and wrong" on one side of the scale and "the shepherd and his lost sheep" on the other. While all of his literary tricks seem to be in play here, I remain convinced that Dylan has not cavalierly named three saintly presences simply as a ruse. St. Peter (a disciple who publicly sinned three times and then would lead a movement dedicated to a nonviolent revolutionary), Martha (the wife of Lazarus and sister of Mary, who anointed Jesus' body) and St. Catherine (a highly learned woman who was brutally murdered for espousing and practicing her beliefs) are all symbols of humility and the virtue of the underdog.

But serious contemplation aside, the memory that sticks most permanently with me about "Ring Them Bells" is that this song could have been nestled quite comfortably within the tracks of New Morning (1970). While Oh Mercy seemed to mark a new, fruitful chapter in Dylan's career, I kept thinking of the photo on the back of that particular album. It seemed like in the best of all worlds, blues singer Victoria Spivey would be playing the gospel piano, harmonizing on the chorus while Dylan cut this song in one, live take.

Maybe he was thinking of her when he wrote it.

Original Listening: Bob Dylan, "Ring Them Bells"

Another Cover Version: Ron Sexsmith (with Elvis Costello & Sheryl Crow), "Ring Them Bells" (2009)

Ultimate Singles Jukebox [Slot 116]

Twenty-Five Miles

b/w "Way Over There"
Edwin Starr

Written by Johnny Bristol, Henry Fuqua & Edwin Starr

Produced by Norman Whitfield (?)

Gordy/Motown Records

Released 1969

Rock critic Dave Marsh called Edwin Starr a "Motown minor leaguer." Did he mean this as a put-down or a simple statement of fact? After all, when Barry Gordy bought out the small Detroit label Ric Tic in the late 1960s, The Sound of Young America, though starting to wane, was still flush with a galaxy of stars: Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder, The Jackson Five, The Temptations and Diana Ross.

Born in Cleveland, Starr (real name Charles Hatcher) had made his musical bones with a couple of hits that flirted with the Top 20: "Agent Double-O Soul" (1965) and "Stop Her On Sight (S.O.S.)." After toiling away for a year at Motown with only a mediocre album and no hits to show for it, Starr cut "Twenty-Five Miles," a song that brought his powerhouse soul voice to national attention.

Ironically, Starr's vocal style was more akin to the Stax gut-bucket rhythm and blues than the sweet, clean sound that Gordy had made famous resulting in hit after hit (after hit). "Twenty-Five Miles" could have been under the influence of hot new Motown producer Norman Whitfield, who had recently given the The Temps a harder-edged pop to their records. More likely it was the writers' nod to Wilson Pickett's "32 Miles From Waycross (Mojo Mama)," recorded in 1967.

Either way, good move. Starr's strong baritone more than fits the bill, accompanied by the muscular drumming of the legendary Motown session man Benny Benjamin and a horn chart that is familiar to anyone who has heard a marching band at half-time of a football game.

The lyrics are just as much of a hook for the listener. We never find out what happens when Starr reaches his destination, but the energetic vocal definitely proves that getting there is half the fun.

"Twenty-Five Miles" made it all the way to #6 on the Hot 100 Pop Chart. Yet for some reason it seldom appears in the Motown canon of classics. Despite its stomping beat, the only notable group to cover the song regularly over the ensuing years was Charles Wright and The Watts 103rd Street Rhythm Band. (Maybe we'll drop a line to Galactic or Kings Go Forth with the suggestion.)

Edwin Starr, of course, would follow Whitfield into the studio again a year later and be handed a song that was deemed too socially controversial for The Temptations to release as a single: "War." It went to #1.

After a few minor hits in the disco era of the 1980s, Edwin Starr moved permanently to England and became an icon of the Northern Soul movement. He died in 2003.

Jakob Dylan Concert Broadcast

The good folks at 88Nine Radio Milwaukee will be broadcasting the Jakob Dylan concert from The Pabst Theater live tomorrow night, Wednesday, 28 April, from 8.00pm CDT. The emphasis will no doubt be on the new record Women + Country, produced by T-Bone Burnett. The show could be a keeper given the added presence of Neko Case and Kelly Hogan.

The Night Owl will have to catch the rebroadcast as we have a prior commitment a few blocks away at the Daytrotter Barnstorming Tour (watch for The Live Vault review later on this week), but we welcome your comments whether you are catching Dylan The Younger at the venue or via the airwaves.

Here's Jakob's recent appearance on The Late Show with David Letterman, performing "Nothing But The Whole Wide World." TNOP likes the fact that Dylan's apparently been digging into his John Prine collection lately . . .

The (Young) Rascals Reunite (with UPDATE!)

In the words of one of their songs, "It's Wonderful."

One of the top purveyors of blue-eyed rock and soul, The Young Rascals rode a wave of Top 40 hits in the late 1960s all the way to induction in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. But they hadn't appeared and played together in public for 40 (count 'em) years . . . until last night in New York. With the (persistent) assistance of fellow New Jersey native Little Steven Van Zandt and his wife Maureen, the quartet performed at a benefit for the Kristen Ann Carr Fund at Robert De Niro's Tribeca Grill.

"We first met around 1980 to discuss reuniting the band and have tried every five years or so," Stevie said. "Maureen suggested we give it one more shot and sure enough it took Kristen's amazing spirit to finally get it done."

"I speak on behalf of the band when I say all the money offers in the world could not entice the Rascals to reunite," said guitarist Gene Cornish, "but four phone calls from Stevie and without hesitation we enthusiastically and immediately agreed to both support this wonderful cause and honor Stevie and Maureen."

Here are Felix Cavaliere (organ, vocals), Eddie Brigati (vocals), Gene Cornish (guitar) and Dino Danelli (drums) from a March 1966 episode of The Ed Sullivan Show:



UPDATE!
The set list from the show Saturday night below reads like a gold-plated jukebox. And if you want to listen to the complete show (including the guest shot by The Boss on "Good Lovin'," just click here.)

Setlist (tip of the hat to VintageVinyl):

I’ve Been Lonely Too Long
In The Midnight Hour
I Ain’t Gonna Eat Out My Heart Anymore
You Better Run
It’s A Beautiful Morning
Love Is A Beautiful Thing
Groovin’
A Girl Like You
How Can I Be Sure
Come On Up
What Is The Reason
People Got To Be Free
Good Lovin’ (with Bruce Springsteen)

Gorillaz Rock The Colbert Nation

Various blogs are abuzz, understandably, today about last night's Gorillaz interview and live performance of "Stylo" last night on The Colbert Report. They noted Damon Albern and the featured appearance of Bobby Womack, and they lamented the absence of Mos Def and the subliminal images of Jamie Hewlett's (left to right above) Noodle, 2-D, Russel Hobbs, 2-D and Murdoc Nicalls.

But why no mention of these two blokes?

Yep, that's ex-Clash bassist Paul Simonon and guitarist Mick Jones. (The two played with Gorillaz last weekend at Coachella and are featured guests on the band's latest release, Plastic Beach.) Granted, last night both were sporting caps right off a Gilligan's Island set, but they sure do know how to help pace the rhythm.

Your Weekly Dylan Cover (#1)

The Tallest Man On Earth
"I Want You"
Original Dylan version found on Blonde On Blonde (1966)

[Ed. note: Regular readers of this blog know that Bob Dylan is affectionately referred to as the "Patron Saint" of TNOP. This new weekly feature sifts through the thousands of cover versions of Dylan songs and provides you with our favorites, as well as a quick memory of our first exposure to the Dylan original.]

The Tallest Man On Earth is the stage name of 27 year old Swedish national Kristian Matsson, an up and coming folk singer definitely hatched from the (now) generations old Dylan tree. Manning only a banjo, his cover of "I Want You," culled from a fine Daytrotter session last year, puts a personal stamp on the tune.

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

There are three pop songs I first remember hearing as a child. Two regularly blasted from the jukebox affixed to the wall of the bar at my grandmother's restaurant: "Java" by New Orleans trumpet legend Al Hirt; and "Oh, Pretty Woman," the rock 'n roll classic from Roy Orbison. The third was a track I picked out of a promotional album shipped by Columbia Records to radio stations titled Our Best To You '66, a compilation of the label's pop roster of the time, including The Cyrkle, Simon and Garfunkel and Paul Revere & The Raiders. My father managed the local FM station at the time, but it was predominated (as most frequencies on that band at the time) by classical music. He'd bring home promo albums on occasion and invite me to listen to them on my portable record player down in the basement.

Maybe it was the wailing - but still somewhat understated - harmonica matched with the shuffling drum that caught this then eight year old lad right off the bat. Or the rambling organ complimenting the jaunty rhythm. But it was probably the voice that purposely emphasized the rhyme of the like-no-other pop verses (The silver saxophones! The Queen of Spades! The dancing child with the Chinese suit!) leading to an universal, plaintive chorus that made it so unique, so memorable.

All these years later, it's still thrilling to listen to "I Want You."


Original Listening: Bob Dylan, "I Want You" (album version)

The Rolling Stones - "Plundered My Soul"

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.]