No fair schubert. Everyone pales in comparison with JSB ;-) . |
Steve, the story Eric tells (in The Last Waltz, I believe) is that his reaction upon hearing Music From Big Pink was "Music had been heading in the wrong direction for a long time. When I heard MFBP, I thought, well, someone has finally got it right." He told Ginger and Jack Cream was over, and headed to West Saugerties (the upstate New York hamlet in which the Big Pink house is located) to hang with The Band, waiting, he says, to get up the nerve to ask them to join. He then says it finally dawned on him---they neither required nor desired his services! |
I feel your pain, Steve. I too was enthralled with Ginger's playing, until I wised up ;-) . Buddy Rich referred to him as a clown. I didn't yet know Clapton had disbanded (heh) Cream after and a result of hearing The Band's debut album, but was still surprised to see him so soon again playing with Ginger in Blind Faith. Eric more than made up for that by enlisting Jim Gordon, a fantastic drummer (and all-around musician. Jim and Eric wrote "Layla", and Jim plays the piano part in the middle section of the song) in Derek & The Dominoes. But many disagree with we and Buddy, considering Ginger one of the all-time greatest. Different strokes for different folks! |
It is my heart Iris Dement effects, to the point of feeling it will burst. I swear, an Angel sent down from Heaven. |
@tostadosunidos, I always viewed those lyrics as The Chamber Brothers (siblings, not bruthas ;-) perhaps-cynical attempt to cash in on the counter-culture consumers, who making artists and entertainers rich. In an interview, Bill Graham said if your main concern is your wardrobe (as he claimed was the TCB's), you don't have much to offer. I didn't dislike them live, but didn't love them either. Cost me only three bucks to see them! Same price for Cream, Hendrix, and everybody else who played The Fillmore. Plus, free dope; joints were constantly being passed down each row of kids sitting on the floor. At Dead shows, there was a barrel of apples at the door, each injected with LSD. |
Dang, your right onhwy61, I forgot about The Chambers Brothers. I saw them at The Fillmore, in '68 I guess. So the last Band Of Gypsys was Hendrix, Billy Cox on Bass, and Mitch? When I saw the original Experience lineup the second time (at Winterland in '68), I sensed Jimi was bored, and looking for somewhere else to go with his music. Band Of Gypsys was that place. I too moved on, but in a different direction. |
There have been a lot of bands with all white musicians except for the black drummer. The Family (Sly Stone's band) were unique in being an all-black band with the exception of their white drummer! Great band. |
Atlantic Records in-house producer Jerry Wexler was given Wilson Pickett as a project by the label's president Ahmet Ertegun. When Wexler told Pickett they were going down to Muscle Shoals, Alabama to record, he recoiled in horror. Wilson, like many southern blacks, had fled the south to escape it's brutal racism. Wexler prevailed, and Wilson says when he entered Fame studios his worst fears were realized. Sitting around the studio were a group of "crackers"---chubby white guys with stogies in their mouths, hats pushed back on their heads. You can picture them, right? Wilson's fear dissolved when the group of crackers commenced playing; he says it was the funkiest band he had ever heard in his life! Bob Dylan knew before anyone else what those southern players had to offer; he had been going there to record since early-'65. Many others have gone their since, including Eric Clapton, The Stones, and on and on. Speaking of Clapton and Ertegun, here's how the latter characterized the Disraeli Gears album tapes the former turned over to Atlantic: "Psychedelic horsesh*t". Sound like any other recently-mentioned guitarist? Clapton soon thereafter saw the wisdom of that statement when George Harrison played him the Music From Big Pink album. That was the end of Cream (thank God ;-) . |
You are SO right, boxer. That album was a desperately-needed relief from what everyone was listening to (Jimi, Cream, The Dead---another band with fierce defenders, Zeppelin of course---who ended up being perhaps the most influential band of all time, for reasons which escape me). I love it's home-made, unprocessed sound. Speaking of a song being finished, The Band were really good at coming up song beginnings and endings, a talent not shared by many other bands. One big reason the album is as good as it is, is the production and arranging of John Simon, whom I have called their sixth member. |
Damn, I shoulda waited ’til I was more awake. Can’t be without Hank Williams (writing, singing), Buddy Miller (singing, guitar playing, producing, arranging), Ry Cooder (guitar, musicology), The Swampers (Fame Studios house band in Muscle Shoals), The Everly Brothers (everything), Felice & Boudleaux Bryant (songwriting), Rockpile (a super group that actually WAS super), and NRBQ and it’s fantastic bassist Joey Spaminato. I could go on for quite a while, much to the chagrin of some. One more comment on Saint Jimi: He had perhaps the worst guitar tone (aside from Erik Brann of Iron Butterfly; talk about corny!) I’ve ever heard. It sounded like barbed wire being played with a metal pick, and what it feels like to chew aluminum foil. Fans of Jimi Hendrix and Led Zeppelin, in particular, are very protective of them, moreso than any other artists I can think of. There was a period (the dreaded late-60’s/early-70’s hippie era) when I couldn’t get any musicians I knew to take The Beach Boys seriously, even after playing them the amazing Smiley Smile album. Until, that is, The Grateful Dead toured with them. Suddenly, instant and uncritical acceptance. It wasn’t them I liked so much, but rather of course Brian Wilson. He was still perceived as the Surf, Cars, and Girls guy. As if "Don’t Worry Baby" and "God Only Knows" weren’t masterpieces! "Foxy Lady" was intended as a joke. Of course a single song does not define one, but even "The Wind Cries Mary" rings hollow to me, just as does Jimi's music. Perhaps I'm just too shallow. |
Favorite Rock ’n’ Roller Dave Edmunds. Favorite songwriter Brian Wilson and Iris Dement. Favorite band The Band. Favorite singer George Jones, Tammy Wynette, Iris Dement, Emmylou Harris, Richard Manuel, Brenda Lee, Big Joe Turner, Howlin’ Wolf, Little Richard. Favorite drummer Roger Hawkins, Jim Gordon, Levon Helm, Richard Manuel. Favorite guitarist Dave Edmunds, Chuck Berry, Danny Gatton, Albert Lee, Steve Cropper, James Burton. Favorite bassist James Jamerson. Favorite composer JSB. |
I can't take seriously anyone who writes a song entitled "Foxy Lady". But then I have a low tolerance for corniness. At the time the lyrics to that song were being written, Van Dyke Parks was providing Brian Wilson with the lyrics for his Smile album. |
I saw Jimi, Noel, and Mitch live twice. I know a lot of ya’ll really love them, but I found "the middle" of the music missing in what they did. To speak in analogies, what they played created a "sphere" of music, with a hollow center. It’s like they are playing "around" where the music would normally be found, but is completely missing in theirs. With only a single guitar (yes, played by a very creative one), a mediocre bassist (Noel was a guitarist, not a bassist) who contributed little MUSICALLY, and a drumset (played by a real fine player)---no harmony singing (and lyrics of little interest), no instrument(s) playing chords and supportive parts, and, imo, rather pedestrian chord progressions and melodies---the resulting music I find very 1-dimensional (I can hear the howls of outrage from here ;-). But what I listen for in music is particular to me, as it is for everyone. @french_fries, as you like John Coltrane, give a listen to Ornette Coleman, another genius. Rock ’n’ Roll band NRBQ did some collaborations with another great, Sun Ra. Now THERE was a great band! |
J.S. Bach, the father of Western music. Not as good a hairdo as George Gobel, though, or early Buck Owens. Flat top with fenders. |
