Van Morrison from Versatile 2017 to Accetuate The Positive 2023

It hasn't been easy keeping up with Van Morrison these last few years. He's been cranking out records like crazy. Since Roll With The Punches in 2017, he's released no less than nine records, including three in 2023.

Versatile 2017 is mostly a jazz album with a few Morrison originals that shows Van to be, well, pretty versatile. It is a solid record with plenty of jazz classics, and Van's originals fit nicely. I wasn't wowed by it, but it was enjoyable, and it pretty much lived up to the title. There are better versions of most of these chestnuts for sure, but Van certainly holds up his end quite well.

You're Driving Me Crazy and The Prophet Speaks, both from 2018, feature Joey Defrancesco's quartet with his Hammond B3 and trumpet plus guitar (Dan Wilson), drums (Michael Ode), and saxophone (Troy Roberts). Both feature Morrison originals as well as jazz and R&B compositions, and both are very good. Morrison seems thrilled/motivated by a different, and jazzier band, than his usual highly skilled accompanists. You're Driving Me Crazy has a more interesting song selection, especially the Morrison originals, all songs that had been recorded previously over the years.

2019 saw Van return to his own band for Three Cords And The Truth. The record features the bluesier side of R&B, and Van writes all the songs for the first time since Keep Me Singing in 2016 (which contained one cover song). The "three cords and the truth" quote from Harlan Howard refers to country music, but thankfully the record has nothing to do with country music. It is merely another very good record from Morrison along the lines of Magic Time 2005 or Keep It Simple 2008, both examples of Morrison's late career resurgence.

I reviewed Latest Record Project Vol. 1 2021 and What's It Gonna Take? 2022, both generally good music dragged down by Van's Covid and divorce inspired whining and bitching. I also reviewed Moving On Skiffle 2023, a relief after the previous two, but not a terribly exciting record.

And that brings us to the other two 2023 Van Morrison records. The first, which is available from Van's web site, is Beyond Words: Instrumental. Other than the pretty awful scatting that is the first song, most of the record is mildly enjoyable. An archival release of instrumentals recorded in the 1970s and 80s, it is mostly studio jams on generally minor musical statements, but it makes nice easy listening (in a good way). It is probably best left to the devoted.

And finally, there's Accentuate The Positive 2023. As with the previous skiffle outing, this one is all covers, except this time it's old time 50s rock and roll with a few country, R&B and pop tunes thrown in. I have mixed feelings about the record. The band is the usual stellar line-up that Morrison assembles, and many of them have been with him for a while now. They take the punch out of some of these oldies, but mostly they sound highly skilled and engaged in the material, and maybe even just having fun. Morrison sings these gems with reverence and genuine excitement and joy. In fact it is remarkable how well Van Morrison still sings. But it is an oldies cover record, and like most of those things, only one or two songs will compete with the originals.

I did a career overview back in 2011, and I have now reviewed or at least mentioned the fourteen records he's made since then in one or more of these Morrison related entries.

Zappadan 2023

It's Zappadan 2023. It might not be the biggest deal it has ever been, but there are quite a few acknowledgements of the festival.

I've reassessed my love of Frank's music this year, and have found that I have less tolerance for his juvenile, misogynistic, let's-push-the-envelope humor, and that reduces my love of at least some of his music. I also feel that his eighties xenochrony method of building songs around isolated guitar solos is evidence of his remarkable editing skills, but not evidence of his best songs in many cases.

But that still leaves a lot to love. If you are new to Zappa and want to know the best place to start, I'd say it's One Size Fits All from 1975. It is one of Frank's best bands playing some of his most accessible material. After that, you could explore any of these:

Freak Out! 1968

We're Only In It For The Money 1968

Hot Rats 1969

Burnt Weenie Sandwich 1970 

Weasels Ripped My Flesh 1970
The Grand Wazoo 1972
Apostrophe(') 1974
Orchestral Favorites 1979
The Best Band You Never Heard In Your Life 1991
The Yellow Shark 1993

 

Some of my favorite Zappadan material comes from the wonderful piano player Fred Handl: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vsi7u7DmVE0&t=55s

https://www.youtube.com/@FredHandl/videos

 

Here's some other recent Zappadan posts on the intertubes:

The Association for the Recognition and Celebration of Zappadan

https://www.zappanews.co.uk/

https://united-mutations.blogspot.com/2023/12/happy-zappadan.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sySJTjKePZc 

 

And you can also check out my own past Zappadan efforts: 

https://kleaveburg.blogspot.com/search/label/Zappadan

 

Ted Gioia Music: A Subversive History 2019

Ted Gioia has written extensively on music and is clearly well versed in delivering a theory and supporting it with extensive research. 

This is an interesting take on music history that postulates music as a subversive element, challenging the status quo and involving violence and societal change, and not just recently, but from the beginning of civilization. Once the upheaval is over, these new musical trends become subsumed and made profitable by mainstream society. Furthermore, musical change/new musical expression/progress comes exclusively from those marginalized on the fringes of society. 

That's a pretty big theory, and Mr. Gioia backs it up with a ton of research. Clearly an academician, his writing occasionally shifts from engaging to pedantic, but not too often. Most of the time the book is quite readable, and the historical episodes he uses to support his theories are interesting in and of themselves.

Like most academic research, data that doesn't support the hypothesis is mostly ignored, or explained away as somehow actually in line with the premise. Still, the book does a good job of digging deep into the subject and Gioia is a skilled writer and explainer of things. 

It is not a holistic history of music, so you should not expect that. It is an alternative to the musical history told by those who have subsumed and monetized radical musical elements into the mainstream. As such it is a fascinating read, and quite unlike anything else on the topic. 

Mr. Gioia has written quite a few interesting sounding books about music. If those other books are as good as this one, you might be reading his work for a while.

Warren Zevon Warren Zevon 1976

I've written a couple of "Perfect (Or Near Perfect)" entries, and there's been plenty of lists of things I love. Nothing can really atone for the omission of this Warren Zevon record from among those lists.

Zevon had a varied, and mostly unsuccessful (commercially, not artistically) career. After the debut Wanted Dead or Alive that sold maybe 500 copies in 1970, this was for most of us, our introduction to Warren Zevon. Produced by Jackson Browne with Waddy Wachtel hanging around, and featuring guest appearances from everybody: Browne, Stevie Nicks, Lindsey Buckingham, Phil Everly, Jorge Calderon, Rosemary Butler, Bonnie Raitt, Glenn Frey, Don Henley, and Carl Wilson, the record sounds great. And the songs, oh my, the songs.

There are so many great songs. Hasten Down The Wind, with a beautiful harmony from Phil Everly, outshines even the excellent Linda Ronstadt version. I can't say this enough. Listen to Everly's harmony. It is breathtakingly gorgeous. 

Mamma Couldn't Be Persuaded, Poor Poor Pitiful Me, I'll Sleep When I'm Dead and Join Me In L.A., all rock hard with super arrangements, killer playing, and whip smart, often sardonic, lyrics. And then there's Mohammed's Radio (an ode to the power of music), Carmelita (a sad ode to heroin addiction), and Desperados Under The Eaves (a sad ode to alcoholism), three beautiful ballads on side two.

Frank and Jessie James is a sympathetic spin on the outlaws, Backs Turned Looking Down The Path is a gentle love song, and The French Inhaler is a scathing put-down of an ex lover. There really isn't a bad (or even middling) song.

The music is performed by A-list SoCal professionals brought together by Browne and Wachtel. It's as close to perfect as anything needs to be, and closer than Zevon ever came, although Excitable Boy 1977 is almost as good.

True Love Travels On A Gravel Road

 

 

One of my favorite songs ever. Great melody, beautiful lyric, and several fine performances. Written by the songwriting team of Arthur Owens and Dallas Frazier, the first performance was by Duane Dee, and it's a good version that made it to #58 on the country charts. 

In 1969, Elvis Presley recorded it on his fabulous comeback record From Elvis In Memphis, and it is certainly the definitive version. The Memphis guys play it perfectly, and Elvis is fully invested in the lyric, and sings it straight from the heart. A highlight of what is arguably Elvis' best record.

Next up was a soul version by Percy Sledge, taken maybe a little too fast, but Percy sings it big like he usually does. Another solid interpretation, but nothing beats Elvis.

In 1992, The Afghan Whigs covered the song, and it is a different interpretation for sure. I haven't warmed to it much. Not great, not terrible.

In 1994, both Nick Lowe and The Highwaymen covered the song. Nick Lowe's version is a lovely, heartfelt take, and the Highwaymen do a decent job even with the four of them taking vocal turns.

Ultan Conlon, an Irish singer-songwriter did a nice version featuring Katie Theasby in 2020.

Louis Cole Quality Over Opinion 2022

Here's something you don't see on this blog very much these days. It's a new record by a contemporary artist that doesn't sound like it could have been made years ago. It's actually heavily synthesized, with treated and/or falsetto vocals, some spoken word/rap lyrics, and mostly electronic drums. That's four things I usually don't care for. It's modern, and surprisingly, I like it very much. I never would have picked it out myself - my son-in-law sent it to me. We both love music, and our tastes in music are approximately 180 degrees apart. I try to find stuff he might like and he does the same, but it doesn't work every time for either of us.

The record opens with the title track, a spacey synth orchestra piece with a spoken word/rap lyric that has a lot of words that are interesting. It's good. I should mention that on most of this record, I wouldn't get any of the lyrics without the lyric sheet, so thank goodness they included it. Next up, Dead Inside Shuffle has great funky beats, treated vocal, horns, and sounds a bit like a Prince tune. Not Needed Anymore has a fast monotone beat, and guitar that I would not have identified as guitar without the credits, and another good lyric. Shallow Laughter uses more spacey synthesizer plus violin and cello and incomprehensible lyrics. Bitches follows with another hot beat and fast tempo. Message is a sad ballad with interesting instrumentation. And that's only side one of four.

Side two opens with Failing In A Cool Way, a highlight for sure, with great drums, funky rhythm, and another great lyric. Disappear is a mellow ballad with more obscure vocals. I'm Tight is another great one featuring fast and hot drums, a trance-like beat, and a lot of wordy lyrics. True Love gets a synth sound from treated guitar and has a nice, almost discernible lyric.

Four of the five songs on side three feature more great funky drumming. Planet X is another Prince-like fast rap, Let Me Snack goes from a quiet start to a hard rock/metal section and more squiggly synths, Forgetting has a nice lyric, Park Your Car On My Face makes the best use of horns anywhere on the record and has some naughty lyrics, and Don't Care has a fine guest vocal that you can hear and a nice jam with bass, drums, and synth. 

Laughing In Her Sleep is a beautiful love song. Outer Moat Behavior is mostly groove, and it's a good groove. When is another love song featuring a nice guest guitar at the end. Let It Happen is a slow building beauty with a big sound, and Little Piano Thing is sweet and simple to close the record.

Of the twenty songs, ten are outstanding and the rest is almost as good. There are no songs that spoil the party, and that's impressive. The lyrics are interesting, sometimes funny, and occasionally downright charming. The falsetto voice he uses most of the time is fine. His synthesizer work and the compositions themselves are very good, and interesting. But the highlight, at least for me, is when he's behind the drum kit. He's a really great drummer, creative, sometimes jazzy, always funky, and consistently hot.

Wow, something really new that I really like.

The James Gang The Best of the James Gang Featuring Joe Walsh 1973

Joe Walsh made three records with the James Gang, a formidable power trio with Jim Fox on drums and Dale Peters on bass. None of those three records was great, but they all included great moments, which is what this record is about.

The hits are here (Funk #49, Walk Away, Must Be Love) but so are a nice set of album tracks that show the band as more than just a power trio. Walsh had a ballad side that almost lives up to his rocking.

Walsh went on to a lengthy solo career and of course joined the Eagles and made a ton of money while raising that band from country-rock status. That's him and Don Felder rocking the twin guitar parts on the title track of Hotel California. I know plenty of people are sick of that song, and for good reason, but it is an outstanding guitar duet.

This one isn't available on CD, and the available CDs have too many other songs on them to really be called "best of". A great find for a vinyl hunter, and an excellent example of why Pete Townsend admired Walsh as a guitar player.

Todd Rundgren Runt 1970 and alternate reissue 2023

I broke one of my own "rules" just this week. I purchased the new reissued Runt album. I have bought many expanded and remixed records over the years and I generally find little of importance in the "bonus" tracks, and the newly remixed or remastered versions may sound a little better, but rarely enough to make the purchase essential. I had mostly given up on the whole reissue idea, at least if I had the original.

Sal Nunziato over at the Burning Wood blog went gaga over this reissue a couple of weeks ago, and he is a bona fide Rundgren afficianato. I think he likes everything Todd ever did, even the recent stuff. But he knows his Todd, and I always liked this debut. Also, I always thought that the first print Ampex copy I own didn't really sound that great. Sometimes it sounds like there's tape wobble changing the pitch of the piano, and there are other problems. I think the spindle hole is too far off center.

This reissue is significantly different from the original pressing (I haven't heard the other reissues). There are new songs. One is Say No More, which seems to serve as an intro to Birthday Carol. It's nothing special. There's also Hope I'm Around, which was on his second album in essentailly the same arrangement. Devil's Bite opens the record in place of Broke Down And Busted (the two songs swap positions on side one). Right from the get-go, the mix on Devil's Bite is vastly superior to the original. We Gotta Get You A Woman also sounds better, but not enough to buy this record.

But here's the coolest thing. I always loved the three song medley of Baby Let's Swing/The Last Thing You Said/Don't Tie My Hands. On this new version, the songs from the medley are each presented as separate songs, and both Baby Let's Swing and The Last Thing You Said have additional verses not included in the medley. It is a treat to hear the three of them, and the medley is on the flip side of the We Gotta Get You A Woman 45 that accompanies the LP, so you get that too.

But I have to say that having heard this version, I'd be OK without it. I mean really, how bad did I need to have this version of a record I have enjoyed for 50 years? Then again, the sound of the mix is certainly an improvement on the original. Any way you cut it, it is an excellent record, and this new one sounds much better than the original. But I won't be changing my basic opinion of reissues in general, and it'll probably be a while before I break the rules again.

P. Hux As Good As Advertised 2023

Parthenon Huxley has been around since the early eighties producing finely crafted power pop, as well as completing two stints (1999-2007, 2011) with ELO Part 2/The Orchestra, the touring band that kept ELO alive after Jeff Lynne departed. You can hear how Huxley would do a fine job with Lynne's vocal parts with ease. Plus he's a talented guitarist.

The P. Hux albums have all been great power pop gems, and this one is no exception. A highly capable writer, Huxley pens hooky tunes with smart lyrics and melodies that sound familiar but are hard to place. He has an outstanding voice and as mentioned, plays hot and tasty guitar. Add to all that a talented band with Dave Phenicie on bass, Ricky Wise on drums, and Daniel Clarke on keyboards. Clarke's piano and organ really add a lot of color to these songs. He decorates the melodies and plays some lead keyboard breaks that add depth to the basic trio sound he admirably expands.

Catchy pop/rock dominates the record, and As Good As Advertised, Til The World Looks Right, Rainbow, This Song Reminds Me Of You, Human Again, and Bitter Tears are all solid, with great vocals, guitar and keyboards, and hooks galore. The ballads are equally strong, with What's It Gonna Take, Sad About The Boy and Uncivil War all keeping the quality high. Uncivil War could be about a disappointing relationship or maybe its about the political polarization of our country. It works both ways. Finally, Mister Black Sky answer's the old ELO hit and includes some of that Jeff Lynne reverb on Huxley's vocal. There isn't a weak song on the disc.

This is about as good as modern rock/power pop gets. Lots of bands have done this gig in the past and many continue today, but nobody does it any better than Parthenon Huxley.

Lucinda Williams Lu's Jukebox Six Releases 2021-2022

From October through December 2020 during Covid lockdown, Lucinda Williams performed a series of live in the studio sets for streaming, with proceeds going to music venues financially hit by closed doors. She ended up doing six of them altogether, and each night was a themed concert featuring cover versions. CDs of the performances were released in 2021 and 2022. The idea is certainly cool, and Lucinda most likely drew a good deal of ticketed streaming. I'll take them in the order they were released.

Lu's Jukebox Vol. 1 – Runnin' Down a Dream: A Tribute to Tom Petty is a pretty good show, and Williams clearly loves the Southern connection she shares with Petty, and hits on quite a few of his Southern themed songs. Lucinda sounds great, and the band is solid. Rebels, Runnin' Down A Dream, Louisiana Rain, I Won't Back Down, and You Know How It Feels are highlights, but there are none of his early rockers that I love, so it's not the set I would have wished for. And no Magnolia? You may like it more than I did.

Lu's Jukebox Vol. 2 – Southern Soul: From Memphis to Muscle Shoals is a great set that plays to Lucinda's strengths. There's not a misstep anywhere. Ode To Billie Joe, I Can't Stand The Rain, It Tears Me Up, Rainy Night In Georgia, all have Williams digging deep into her soulful delivery. Games People Play, Take Me To The River, and Williams' own Still I Long For Your Kiss are also highlights, but every song is a winner. If I had to pick just one of these Jukebox releases, this is the one.

Lu's Jukebox Vol. 3 – Bob's Back Pages: A Night of Bob Dylan Songs isn't the thrill it seems like it should have been. I can't really pinpoint why it was a disappointment for me, but it was. Song selection wasn't always great, and even some of the ones that sound like a great idea for Lucinda were just not that exciting. It Takes A Lot To Laugh, It Takes A Train To Cry was my favorite, but not much else wowed me.

Lu's Jukebox Vol. 4 – Funny How Time Slips Away: A Night of 60's Country Classics seems like a great idea, especially after the success of Vol. 2. I can't say I was thrilled with the song selection, and the band, with too much pedal steel guitar, sounds like a cover band from anywhere. Lucinda sings most of it well, but even Night Life, Long Black Limousine, Gentile On My Mind, and the title track are just not great deliveries.

Lu's Jukebox Vol. 5 – Have Yourself a Rockin' Little Christmas with Lucinda is a huge letdown. Not really a surprise when the artist is known for material ranging from melancholy to downright sad (and occasionally bitterness) but a letdown all the same. Santa Claus Wants Some Lovin' is fun, and a few others should be, but Lucinda's delivery just doesn't have the lighthearted positivity that these songs beg for.

Lu's Jukebox Vol. 6 – You Are Cordially Invited...A Tribute to the Rolling Stones ends the series on a high note. She sticks to the great sixties/early seventies material the band is famous for, and anger is a very good match for her voice. And the band rocks. Early songs Satisfaction, The Last Time, Get Off My Cloud, Paint It Black are great. Street Fighting Man, You Gotta Move, Sway, and You Can't Always Get What You Want rock hard and Lucinda tears 'em up.

Vol. 1, Vol. 2, and Vol.6 are recommended. You may like the others more than I did, but only if you think she can do no wrong, or maybe if you just can't get enough Dylan.

Bob Dylan Shadow Kingdom 2023

This new Bob Dylan record is an odd entry in the catalog, and a good one in most ways. The studio recording was used as the soundtrack to the "concert" film Shadow Kingdom: The Early Songs of Bob Dylan by Alma Har'el. It was recorded in early 2021 with a drummer-less band featuring Don Was, T-Bone Burnett, Greg Leisz, Jeff Taylor, Doug Lacy, and Tim Pierce.The arrangements are acoustic, the songs are from Dylan's catalog, originally released between 1965 and 1989, with one new instrumental, the lovely Sierra's Theme that closes the album. 

The arrangements are all very different from their original versions, most of them strikingly so. Some of the songs fare better in these new arrangements than others, but the approach is admirable and certainly more interesting than a simple re-recording of past material. The arrangements are generally sparse, and feature accordion on almost all tracks. Dylan plays harmonica quite a bit, and the band is loose and casual sounding. Nothing is "thrown off", but some of it is meant to sound that way. Dylan's singing is quietly up front and very expressive, especially since he doesn't have to sing "over" the music. 

The set opens with When I Paint My Masterpiece, and it takes a while to realize it's the same song. That happens quite a few times on the earliest work such as Most Likely You Go Your Way (And I Go Mine), Queen Jane Approximately, Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues, and Pledging My Time. There are versions of To Be Alone With You (Nashville Skyline), What Was It You Wanted (Oh Mercy), The Wicked Messenger and I'll Be Your Baby Tonight (John Wesley Harding), and an especially poignant Forever Young, one of several standouts.

Compared to most legacy artists, Dylan continues to find new approaches while refusing to do the same thing. During the eighties and most of the nineties, that produced mostly disappointing results, while more recently it has produced some great records. I don't know if this is essential Dylan, but if you think any of his work in the last twenty years is essential, then you should at least hear this one.

The Rolling Stones

I'm not fanatic about the Stones, but I'm a fan, and I've been surprised by their longevity and the quality of much of their work, even after 1971. 

The Stones got started with a bang. Their early records were all worth hearing. The debut, England's Newest Hit Makers 1964, is an amazing first effort. The covers of American R&B are all solid, and there's even an early Jagger/Richards classic in Tell Me. Now! 1965 is the debut's equal with more great R&B covers, and Jagger/Richards' Heart of Stone and Off The Hook are solid. More great covers and even stronger Jagger/Richards efforts fill Out Of Our Heads 1965, with Satisfaction, The Last Time, Play With Fire and The Spider and the Fly showing off their quickly developing writing prowess. December's Children 1965 is a collection of songs not previously released in the US with a few US singles. No new recording sessions were done for the record,  It is another fine blend of covers and originals (half of the songs). Get Off My Cloud, As Tears Go By, and I'm Free are standout originals, and although it was cobbled together for the US market, it is another worthy outing from the early Stones.

The Stones were treated similarly to the Beatles in that their US and UK records were not the same, even though many were released with the same title. The first five UK releases were turned into seven albums in the US, with the addition of singles and UK EPs. 

Next up was Aftermath 1966, the first Rolling Stones release with only Jagger/Richards originals. It is highly regarded as a classic, and I'm not one to argue, but the US release is front-loaded with many of the best songs, kicking off with Paint It Black, Stupid Girl, Lady Jane, and Under My Thumb. Their songwriting is strong and the performances are excellent, with Brian Jones becoming more a multi-instrumentalist than merely a guitarist, and adding color and variety in the process. 1967 saw the release of Between The Buttons, another all-originals set, and while not quite as fine as Aftermath, it's very close, and more varied in both writing and performance. Brian Jones plays no less than twelve instruments in addition to guitar, and Jagger/Richards produce a varied set of strong tunes. While it is ostensibly a compilation, Flowers 1967, released in the US only, had three songs that had never been released, and two others had only appeared as singles in the US market. Although derided as a promotional ploy for the US market, it has plenty of good songs, and a few that were only available on this release at the time. 

December 1967 brought Their Satanic Majesties Request, the first Rolling Stones record that received mixed-to-poor reviews. The record was their first self-produced effort, their only psychedelic release, as far from rhythm and blues as they would ever stray, and mostly a mess. She's A Rainbow and 2000 Light Years From Home save it from the junk bin, but it is their only early stinker.

Beggar's Banquet 1968 began the run of their four finest records, all produced by Jimmy Miller, and released between 1967 and 1972. A grand mix of rockers and blues, it is a classic from start to finish. With Sympathy For The Devil, Street Fighting Man, and Salt Of The Earth showing their mature songwriting and arranging, and the funky blues of Stray Cat Blues, it is just a fine record. It is also the first time that they adopt a country sound for some songs, a trend that will continue throughout this classic period and beyond.

Let It Bleed 1969 continues in a similar vein to Beggar's Banquet. Rockers, country and blues all show up in spades, and it is another Stones classic. The record has a darkness to both the music and lyrical themes that sets it apart from anything they did before it. Gimme Shelter, Let It Bleed, Live With Me, Midnight Rambler, and You Can't Always Get What You Want all rock hard, and Love In Vain and Country Honk show off their country blues to fine effect. Another one that rewards listening all the way through, just like it was 1969 again.

That brings us to Sticky Fingers 1971. With the full integration of Mick Taylor's guitar, and a near-perfect set of songs, it is the Stones' finest hour. Brown Sugar, Can't You Hear Me Knocking, Wild Horses, Bitch, You Gotta Move, and Dead Flowers are all stand-outs, and there isn't a song, or even a note, out of place. They have done much good work since this one, but they've never bettered it.

At this point I should mention Singles Collection: The London Years 1989, a compilation on 3 CDs or 4 LPs that contains all the singles and B sides from 1963 to 1971. There are a ton of Stones compilations, and  a few really good ones, but this one is just the bomb. Quite a few lesser known B sides, and a great overview of the most interesting period for the band.

Which brings us to Exile On Main Street 1972. It is a shambles, and it is great. It is the most Kieth Richards of any Stones record. A friend recently derided Kieth's technique as primitive and sloppy (I know, shocking, right?). But that's at least partly true, and this record is the proof. And it is also a really fun sort of Mott The Hoople kind of mess. I love it, then I'm less crazy about it, but it is a singular record in the Stones catalog, and maybe anyone else's. Recommended tracks: Side 1, Side 2, Side 4, and more than half of Side 3.

I'm not so aligned with the more recent positive reassessments of Goat's Head Soup 1973. It was always a disappointment, and maybe the bar was too high after the four beforehand. It has good songs- Angie, Heartbreaker, Star Star- but the lesser songs sound like a band running on fumes and bubbles. 

It's Only Rock and Roll 1974 was a mixed bag, but the high points got higher than Goat's Head Soup. Ain't Too Proud To Beg, Time Waits For No One, and the title track stand up to their best work. But this is going to be the way ahead for most Stones records to come. A few solid singles destined for the next compilation (they released more compilation albums than studio records), and a lot of mediocre other stuff.

I'll just shorten things up here and say that description applies to all of the following: Black And Blue 1976, Emotional Rescue 1980, Tatoo You 1981, Undercover 1983, Dirty Work 1986, Voodoo Lounge 1994, Bridges To Babylon 1997, and A Bigger Bang 2005. If your favorite is in there, that's fine, they all have a few tasty morsels, but limited moments of high quality rock and roll.

So what were the standouts since 1972? Some Girls 1978 qualifies as a really good one. When The Whip Comes Down, Beast Of Burden, Shattered, Miss You and the title track are hot, and they sound rowdy and young and full of themselves, which has always worked for the Stones. Steel Wheels 1989 was a solid return to form after a pretty awful decade. Even if the singles didn't outshine their past, the record as a whole held up quite well. And the featured ballads, Almost Hear You Sigh and Slipping Away, are both classics. Stripped 1995 is shockingly good at this point in their career. I'm not spending time with their plethora of mostly dull live records, but Stripped, billed as live, has only 6 live tracks recorded in small venues, and 8 "live in the studio" tracks. Jagger sounds particularly inspired, and the acoustic guitars and mix of songs are a blast.

I don't quite know what to say about Blue & Lonesome 2016. It's all old blues songs rendered with respect and reverence. It's OK. Maybe you loved the early sixties R&B material and hear a resemblance. But it is not R&B, it's straight blues, and it just never grabbed me. While Kieth Richards and Ronnie Wood are good guitarists, they are not really blues players. Your mileage may vary.

There are a lot of compilations covering various periods, and most are pretty good. GRRR! 2012 is the most complete career overview, and does a good job if you want the hits and a few other standouts. It came in 2, 3, and 4 disc versions, with 2 missing too much, 4 a bit of overload, and 3 just right, Goldilocks.

Allen Toussaint The Allen Toussaint Collection 1991

Allen Toussaint is an interesting artist, producer, and songwriter whose work helped to define New Orleans modern-day funky soul. As a producer, arranger, pianist and songwriter, he contributed to the work of Lee Dorsey, Ernie K Doe, Erma Thomas, Art and Aaron Neville, The Meters, Etta James, Robert Palmer, The Wild Tchoupitoulas, Patti LaBelle, Dr. John, The Band, Elvis Costello, Paul McCartney, Eric Clapton, Cyndi Lauper, and more.

He had a late career renaissance with The River In Reverse 2006 (with Elvis Costello), The Bright Mississippi 2009, Songbook 2013 and American Tunes 2016 (released posthumously).

This collection is a best-of from his four seventies records that tried to turn him into a solo star- From A Whisper To A Scream 1971, Life, Love and Faith 1972, Southern Nights 1975, and Motion 1978. The compilation pulls the stronger material from each record, and is a fine set of Toussaint's New Orleans soul-funk-pop. From A Whisper to a Scream and Night People (both covered by Robert Palmer), On Your Way Down (covered by Little Feat), What Do You Want The Girl To Do (Bonnie Raitt), and Southern Nights (Glen Campbell) all sound as good here as their more famous covers. 

The rest of the songs are equal to the more famous ones, with What Is Success, Soul Sister, Motion and Happiness showing off Toussaint's sly funk-soul to good effect, and several fine examples of Toussaint's way with a ballad. Drawing 3-6 songs from each album makes for a very strong collection, without a weak song in the set.

Originally released on CD in 1991, it saw its way to vinyl in 2017 as a three-sided LP. Although Toussaint generally preferred his work behind the scenes, he was a fine performer, and returned to touring outside of New Orleans (post-Katrina) in his later years. I had the extreme pleasure of seeing him live in Cleveland in 2014 with The Preservation Hall Jazz Band just a year before he died while on tour in Spain, and he put on a fabulous show.

You can't go wrong with this collection. I'm sure it leaves out quite a few other good songs, but the ones that made the cut are all top notch.

Perfect (or near perfect) again

I've approached this topic several times before here and here and here and here. It is a fun thing to consider, but also clearly a matter of taste, and so not everyone will agree. I won't be listing any Genesis or Yes albums, or anything by the Jam or Pink Floyd, even though I know people who would certainly have those bands' records on a list like this. This time I'll stick closer to the "classics" perhaps than my previous posts.

Obviously, I find Rubber Soul to fit the description, but with one caveat. I think the original American release is perfect, but I don't feel quite the same about the UK version, which became the standard once the Beatles were on CD. Of course now the American releases can be had on CD (individually since 2014, or in a 2006 box set).

Elvis Costello and the Attractions This Year's Model and Imperial Bedroom. For This Year's Model, I prefer the UK release because it included I Don't Want To Go To Chelsea, maybe the best song on the record, and not included on the original American release. Imperial Bedroom is the last great record with the Attractions, and the most Beatles-like record in Costello's catalog.

The Who Who's Next. Almost as interesting a story as the record itself. In the wake of Pete Townsend's overblown expectations and failed completion of his Lifehouse project, the best of that project and a few others were recorded for the Who's finest moment. A classic radio staple, it got played to death and still somehow sounds great today. One of many fantastic Glyn Johns produced records.

The Clash London Calling. They hit it out of the park. Nothing else compares to it. Not as punk as their earlier records, and not as indulgent (or in the case of Combat Rock, lame) as what came after it.

Moby Grape Moby Grape. A fabulous debut that the band could never again match. They had some great songs, but never again a great LP.

Bob Dylan Blond On Blond. It's hard to digest in one sitting, but any side is enjoyable on its own. There are of course other Dylan records to consider (Bringing It All Back Home, John Wesley Harding, Blood On The Tracks, Time Out Of Mind, "Love And Theft"), but Blond On Blond is the one that almost no one will disagree with as a perfect (or near perfect) outing.

David Bowie Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From Mars. Again, every song a winner. Would we even have a glam rock category without this record? It also makes a case for Mick Ronson being one of the most underrated guitarists in rock.

Rolling Stones Sticky Fingers. This one is about the songs. The record contains the most consistently strong list of Jagger-Richards compositions of any Stones album. The pinnacle of their amazing 1968-1972 run of four great ones.

Kelly Willis What I Deserve. Perfect country record. Easy and Translated From Love come in awfully close. Willis has a great voice, writes great songs (many with husband Bruce Robison), and lays off the "modern" country sound that emulates 80's arena rock to stick to a more traditional mainstream.

Allen Toussaint The Bright Mississippi. Just right New Orleans jazz, and Toussaint's late career masterpiece.  Not "challenging" jazz, but melodic and skillful. As near perfect as music gets these days, and timeless.

Irma Thomas Love Is The Foundation. Another New Orleans classic, Thomas has made a lot of fine music in her career. This one was recorded and released by Newvelle Records, a pricey niche vinyl-only label that produces (mostly) jazz records. Again, a late career masterwork.

I don't discuss jazz here as often as I listen to it, but here's three slices of jazz perfection: Nat King Cole After Midnight, Bill Evans Sunday At The Village Vanguard (both classics from the golden age of jazz in the 50s and 60s) and Stacey Kent Breakfast On The Morning Tram, a more recent choice, but no less compelling.

Involuntary Musical Imagery (Earworms)

Like many others, I am prone to getting a song stuck in my head. All day long I'll be humming, whistling, or singing the same tune, unable to escape the melody. I'm not usually too bothered by this, but sometimes they get stuck for just too darn long. I can usually remedy the problem by listening to the song, and then listening to something else. I do occasionally get a new song stuck, but mostly these songs come from my formative years, songs I've known and loved for decades. In fact, these are all from the sixties. Here's my top five most likely to be earworms for me:

5. Suspicious Minds- Elvis Presley  Elvis's last number one, and one of his best.

So if an old friend I know
Stops by to say hello
Would I still see suspicion in your eyes?
Here we go again
Asking where I've been
You can't see the tears I'm crying

We can't go on together
With suspicious minds
And we can't build our dreams
On suspicious minds

 

4. The Poor Side Of Town- Johnny Rivers   One of a very small number of songs Rivers actually wrote, and another number one hit.

 

How can you tell me
How much you miss me
When the last time I saw you
You wouldn't even kiss me

That rich guy you've been seein'
Must have put you down
So welcome back baby
To the poor side of town

 

Do-doo-doo-wah, shoo-be-doo-be

3. It's A Beautiful Day Today- Moby Grape.  A lovely ballad with great guitar parts.

Dawn to dawn a lifetime
The birds sing and day's begun
The heavens shine from dawn to dusk
With golden rays of sun

People on their way
Beginning a brand new day
I love hearing people say
It's a beautiful day today

2. Chapel Of Love- The Dixie Cups  Just a perfect melody, and the Dixie
Cups make it into one of the great girl group singles, and again, a number one hit.

Bells will ring, sun will shine, whoa
I'll be his and he'll be mine
We'll love until the end of time
And we'll never be lonely anymore

Because we're goin' to the chapel
And we're gonna get married
Goin' to the chapel
And we're gonna get married
Gee, I really love you
And we're gonna get married
Goin' to the chapel of love

1. Expressway To Your Heart- The Soul Survivors   This one gets stuck in 

my head all the time. The opening bass and drums intro always starts the earworm, and it's always hard to get out of my head. Usually, its an all day affair.

I was wrong, baby, it took too long
I got caught in the rush hour

Fellas started to shower
You with love and affection

Now you won't  look in my direction

On the expressway to your heart
The expressway, not the best way
At five o'clock it's much too crowded
Much too crowded, so crowded
Oh, too crowded

Dave Edmunds Get It 1977

So Dave Edmunds recorded a classic in 1977. It is almost a Rockpile record, but without Billy Bremner.

Get It is essentially perfect. Edmunds made several others that came close, but this is the bomb.

What makes it so great? Well, Edmunds is an excellent guitarist, a fine singer with just a touch of nasal twang in his voice, and a lover of, and skilled practitioner of, all things rockabilly and/or early rock and roll. And he writes songs almost as good as the tasty covers he chooses.

And what a list of great covers: Bob Seger's rocking Get Out Of Denver, Graham Parker's rockabilly Back To School Days, Rogers and Hart's tender Where And When, Jim Ford's Ju Ju Man, Bob Kelly's Get It, Otis Blackwell's great Let's Talk About Us, Hank William's Hey Good Lookin', and Arthur Crudup's My Baby Left Me. I mean the man has studied the classics of early rock and roll, country and rockabilly, and his choices are hard to criticize. 

Add to that Nick Lowe's wonderful I Knew The Bride (the fast version) and What Did I Do Last Night? as well as Edmunds own Worn Out Suits, Brand New Pockets, and two co-writes with Lowe, Little Darlin' and Here Comes The Weekend.

Only two songs are more than three minutes long. There isn't a wasted note. Edmund's voice is a perfect vehicle for these mostly rockabilly gems. His twangy guitar is always spot on. Lowe contributes bass and Terry Williams drums, thus the "almost Rockpile" reference.

The whole record is on YouTube, if you're so inclined. The two before this one, Rockpile 1972 (with his only hit single, from 1970, I Hear You Knocking), and Subtle As A Flying Mallet 1975, cover similar terrain, and are also well worth your time.

Van Morrison Moving On Skiffle 2023

Van Morrison's new record is both a welcome return to form, and a bit of a disappointment. 

The disappointment, at least for me, is that it is a skiffle record. Skiffle is a distillation of simple blues, country, and gospel traditional music played on acoustic, often homemade instruments, and wildly popular for a relatively brief period in the UK of the 1950s, Morrison's childhood.

But that's about the only thing wrong with it. Morrison adds piano, organ, drums, as well as harmonica and sax to the simple acoustic guitar and washboard percussion of the classic skiffle sound. This certainly fattens up these simple tunes, and makes the form at least somewhat more interesting. Morrison did a live record with Lonnie Donegan back in 2000 that stuck to the skiffle tradition, and this is way better than that one.

And Van Morrison is obviously delighted by these tunes, and he sings the heck out of them. His voice and it's application have lost nothing, and at 77, he can sing as well as ever, which is pretty remarkable. 

It is notable that since these are all covers, this also means that the political tirades of his last two records are absent from this outing, and that makes it a welcome respite.

The band cooks, but only so much, because this isn't rock and roll, it's skiffle, and the form is by it's nature pretty limited. The arrangements and the band improve on skiffle, even while the simplicity remains intact, so it remains a skiffle record, even with the updates to the style. And Van sounds happy singing these tunes from his childhood, and he sings them as well as we could expect. His voice sounds great.

Is it a welcome break from his last two? You bet it is. Is it essential Van Morrison? Not even close, but it is good, especially given the limitations of the style.

Moby Grape

Their debut album from 1967 is as close to perfect as rock and roll records get. Thirteen tracks, every one a winner, and all but two under three minutes long. A perfect blend of musical styles, great vocals, outstanding three-guitar interplay, and excellent songs. It's really all there. The record sold reasonably well and made it to #24 on the Billboard album charts. But Columbia records decided to promote the record by audaciously releasing five singles from the album on the same day of LP's release. Only Omaha cracked the top 100 because DJs had no idea with what to do with five simultaneous singles. This was 1967, and "hype" was a bad word in the counter culture, so that just made things worse.

As brilliant as they were musically, they were naive and ill-guided in the legal department. Their manager Matthew Katz, who had also managed Jefferson Airplane (they fired him before Moby Grape formed) and It's A Beautiful Day, was a special kind of dick. He ended up owning the rights to their name as well as to their publishing, and the legal dispute continued for over 30 years until 2006 when Katz at last lost in court, but only after destroying any chance the band had of making some sort of comeback. 

Add to that, during the recording of their second LP, Wow/Grape Jam, Skip Spence went nuts when his manic depression was stoked by LSD and hard drugs. He tried to attack his fellow band members, and eventually arrived at the studio with axe in hand, only to be carted off by police. Spence wound up spending six months in Bellevue being treated for psychosis.

 Wow 1968 received a lukewarm reception at the time, and while it is certainly indulgent, it has a number of fine tracks. Murder In My Heart For The Judge, Can't Be So Bad, He, Bitter Wind, and Miller's Blues are all solid. The record charted at #20, and the Grape Jam record was included in the package for the price of a single record. Which was certainly appropriate since it was nothing special.

With Skip Spence on extended hiatus due to instability, the other four got back to work and produced Moby Grape '69, an outstanding record that almost equals their debut. It didn't crack the top 100 on the charts. The buying public had been disappointed by Wow, and maybe there was limited promotion, but Ooh Mama Ooh, Ain't That A Shame, It's A Beautiful Day Today, Trucking Man, and Spence's Seeing are all good songs performed well. The record has a little more of a country feel than they had previously established, but the rockers rock.

They owed Columbia one more record, and that's why there's Truly Fine Citizen 1969. Bob Mosley had left to join the marines (!), so Peter Lewis, Don Stevenson, and Jerry Miller recorded this one in Nashville with famous session bassist Bob Moore on bass. The record was recorded in just three days, and while it has some fine moments, mostly from Peter Lewis's pen, it is a disappointing outing at best.

Then in 1971, all five members reunite to record 20 Granite Creek for Reprise. It has a strangely murky sound, but there are a bunch of solid songs in Gypsy Wedding, I'm the Kind of Man That Baby You Can Trust, Going Down To Texas, Road To The Sun, and Ode to the Man at the End of the Bar. It's better than Truly Fine Citizen at least, but the magic of the debut and '69 are missing.

The band would reunite for Moby Grape '84 and again in 1989 for Legendary Grape. I've heard them both, and while they are still a talented bunch, neither record lives up to their reputation. Columbia released a two CD compilation in 1993 titled Vintage: The Very Best of Moby Grape that contains the entire first album, tracks from Wow, '69, and Truly Fine Citizen, plus a number of live, demo, and assorted alternate versions. It has good sound and is worth seeking out.

Based on Wow and '69, the band had at least one more great record to make after the debut. Legal woes with a terrible manager, and bad decisions by Columbia, not to mention psychological troubles for both Spence and Mosley, all add up to a classic could have been, should have been story that seems far too familiar in the annals of rock and roll.

Cyndi Lauper At Last 2003

Cyndi Lauper's solo career started with the one-two punch of She's So Unusual 1983 and True Colors 1986, both of which charted top ten, had multiple hit singles, and sold millions. Her third, A Night To Remember 1989 had her rocking harder and sold less well, even though it contained her last top ten single. Her next two recordings received critical praise but disappointing sales. So it was time for a covers record.

Ostensibly her jazz album, the record is a mix of jazz, standards, and pop and soul songs from the fifties and sixties. Lauper has the pipes to do anything, and her vocals are the star of the show. Some arrangements are straight covers, but most songs receive unique arrangements or significant tempo variations from their originals. Russ Titelman produced with Lauper, and the record has all the hallmarks of a highly professional production.

The title track kicks things off, and it is an instrumentally spare, relatively slow tempo version of the Etta James classic. Lauper sings the daylights out of it. That is followed by a slow, delicate Walk On By with small combo accompaniment, and again Lauper digs deep into the emotional core of the song. After two slow ones, Stay is presented in upbeat Latin mode, with Shiela E percussion and a horn section. It's hot, and fun. La Vie En Rose follows, and while it can't make you forget Edith Piaf, the slow, spare version here works fine. That is followed by another slow one, the beautiful Unchained Melody. There are a million versions of this song, and this is one of the good ones. If You Go Away is presented in a jazzy arrangement, and again Lauper invests herself in the lyric. 

About this time, the record could use some energy, and Stevie Wonder's (and Aretha Franklin's) Until You Come Back To Me has a backbeat and Stevie himself plays harmonica. The jazz standard My Baby Just Cares For Me swings nicely with electric keys from Steve Gaboury and a casual feel from Lauper. Next is a duet with Tony Bennett on Makin' Whoopie, and while it doesn't set a new standard, it's good. The slow returns with a smoldering version of Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood, closer to Nina Simone's version than the Animals'. A super slow, super spare version of Smokey Robinson's You've Really Got A Hold On Me seems like an odd choice for the song, and could have added some pace to the record with a more upbeat version. Hymn To Love is an Edith Piaf song that continues the slow pace of the record, but it is a lovely song. On The Sunny Side Of The Street closes the show with a bang, a needed shot of adrenaline, and a good job on the old chestnut.

So the record could use a few less languid versions. With thirteen songs, only four get upbeat treatments. That is not to say that these slow versions don't work, most of them do. Cyndi Lauper sings everything from the heart, and really, it's a nice showcase for her impressive voice.

She wouldn't chart this high again until her next two covers records, Memphis Blues 2010 and Detour 2016 (country covers). In 2012 she wrote the music and lyrics for the Broadway musical Kinky Boots, for which she won a Grammy in 2014 and a Tony in 2013. She stays in the public eye through tours, activism and guest spots, and she's opening for Rod Stewart on a nine date tour of Australia right now.

Jimmy Buffett A1A 1974

I know, Jimmy Buffett, really? These days Buffett runs his very own nostalgia empire, and he has done quite well for himself with tours, books, merchandising, recordings both studio and live, and Margaritaville properties. His net worth is estimated at 500 million. I was a fan for many years, and I still like some of his work. I bought most of his records from 1973-1985 (12 of them), and I own his 1992 four-CD box set Boats, Beaches, Bars, and Ballads, which is pretty well curated with the hits and album tracks most anyone would ever need. At 76, he's still at it these days, and his records still chart pretty high. His good time beach bum message is still popular, and he teamed up with country stars for some of his relatively recent hits.

The record that got me hooked was his 1974 effort A1A. Named after Florida's eastern beach access road, it was the third of the four recordings in his Don Gant produced, Key West inspired era of early, fairly modest, success (All four are worth hearing even if imperfect). Two records later would come Changes In Latitude, Changes In Attitude 1977, produced by Norbert Putnam and including the hit Margaritaville, and from there Buffett's recording and touring career skyrocketed, especially his live tours. Who doesn't like a good party?

A1A isn't perfect, but it comes mighty close, and it is definitely his early highlight. The album opens with Makin' Music For Money, a cute country number that eschews capitalism back when Buffett could actually mean it. Door Number Three is a funny novelty song about Let's Make A Deal. Dallas is an upbeat country tune with a catchy chorus and pedal steel guitar break. Presents To Send You, Stories We Could Tell, and Life Is Just A Tire Swing all show off Buffett's way with a sentimental lyric and his penchant for the country/Caribbean sound he was perfecting. 

Side two is my favorite Jimmy Buffett experience. His classic A Pirate Looks At Forty opens the side, and it is a great tune about a life style that disappeared two hundred years before the singer wants to live it. It is a great song, and stayed in rotation at his live shows for many years. Migration is a quick jaunt of a country ode to the keys, with a melancholy, hook-filled chorus. Trying To Reason With Hurricane Season is the perfect beach bum treatise, and one of Buffett's classic Key West numbers, and yet another fine chorus. Nautical Wheelers is a country waltz that expresses his love of sailing as well as any of his songs that cover the topic. The album closes with Tin Cup Chalice, and if any song encapsulated a record perfectly, this is it. Images of the beach, the sky, the ocean, of "shrimp boats tied up to the piling", it's another great ballad from his pen.

Changes In Latitude, Changes In Attitude kicked off a series of pretty solid Buffett records, and there were at least two excellent songs on everything through Last Mango In Paris 1985. That's when I pretty much stopped listening, so I can't tell you about his last 14 or so records. Of the ones before 1986, I'd say the strongest records with the most good material would be Volcano 1979, Coconut Telegraph 1981, and One Particular Harbour 1983.

Calexico Hot Rail 2000

In more recent years Calexico records have been built on songs mostly, incorporating their southwestern and Spanish influences into a style all their own. Their early work was more experimental, and may be too much noodling around for some listeners. Hot Rail, their fourth LP, is clearly in that early experimental mode, but it also includes plenty to enjoy of their developing style.

The record opens with a bang on the instrumental El Picador. In service to their love of all things Ennio Morricone, it features fine guitar and trumpets, and sounds like a theme from a Spanish movie. Ballad of Cable Hogue folllows, with twangy guitar, shuffle beat, guest female vocals, and a strong melody. The short spacey interlude of Ritual Road Map gives way to the airy Fade. Slowly developing from the whispered vocals of the atmospheric start to the loud drums/guitar/cornet cacophony ending, it deserves the almost eight minutes it fills. Untitled III is a spacey, ambient drum and accordion piece. Sonic Wind has more breathy vocals, vibes and drums that builds to a nice shuffle beat. Muleta ends side one with Spanish melancholy imbued with fine lead guitar courtesy of Nick Luca as well as tasty violin and trumpets.

The drum and bass groove of Mid-Town opens side two, and evolves into a drum roll with spare guitar overlay. Service And Repair has Joey Burns singing a strong melody, and features quest pedal steel guitar. Untiltled II is another spacey interlude, this time with little to redeem it. Drenched features more nice Luca guitar work and too quiet vocals, but you can hear their future work forming. The percussion and noise interlude of 16 Track Scratch follows, and then it is on to Tres Avisos, a solid southwestern melancholy instrumental ala Morricone again, with violin and trumpets bringing the big Spanish vibe. The title track comes last, and it is more spacey guitar and loops.

The best songs feature additional musicians assisting John Convertino and Joey Burns to realize their vision. The four songs with trumpets and violin, as well as Nick Luca's lead guitar are the most developed and interesting. The songs where Convertino and Burns run the show are (mostly) interesting dalliances, but the band will make better records when they write more songs and avoid the experimentation. Later records have Burns developing more confidence in his voice, and both of them developing as songwriters. The pivot of their career, when they became the great band they are today (while still a bit experimental), is 2003's Feast Of Wire. Anything from 2003 and after is worth a recommendation. One thing you can get from any or all Calexico records, including this one, is that John Convertino is a brilliant, world class drummer.

Mitsuko Uchida in recital: Beethoven Sonatas Nos. 30, 31, 32 February 26, 2023

I am hardly an expert on classical music, but I like it, and it challenges my musical acumen and tastes beyond my usual pop, rock and jazz interests. My wife and I subscribed to Cleveland Orchestra performances for some 10-12 years, seeing between four and six concerts per year, although we stopped attending regularly a few years ago. 

During the time we went frequently, we became enamored with Misuko Uchida, who performed and conducted from the piano a series of Mozart Piano Concertos. Twice. The second time around they were recorded live for release on Decca CD. I discussed one of those performances previously.

Yesterday we saw Ms. Uchida perform Beethoven's last three piano sonatas in solo recital at the orchestra's home in Severance Hall, a beautiful place worth seeing even without music. Beethoven has a heavier hand than Mozart certainly, and these late period pieces are challenging both technically for the artist and for the listener. Strong, powerful music, expressive and emotive. Mitsuko Uchida thrilled us.

While Sonatas 30 and 31 challenge and expand the form, 32 is a very real derivation. Parts of the structure had a jazz-like quality, and it almost felt at times like Ms. Uchida was playing one of Kieth Jarrett's solo improvisations. Someone with more understanding of classical music forms could explain it better. It was a little strange to these ears, but in a good way. I guess I liked the first two sonatas more, but the entire evening was riveting.

Johnny Rivers Anthology 1964-1977 1991

While I'm here in the sixties, why not take a look at another classic sixties artist. Johnny Rivers had a bunch of big hits: seven in the top ten in the sixties and another two in the seventies, and many others that rode a somewhat higher chart position. Like many artists that didn't write most of their own material (although he did write his biggest #1 hit, Poor Side Of Town), Rivers was seen as a lesser artist by the late sixties/seventies hippie set. But the guy had a great, slightly nasal voice, and with producer Lou Adler, could find great songs to cover. He was a sharp rhythm guitarist that played some fine lead riffs when necessary (Secret Agent Man comes to mind), and he produced no less than 30 original studio and live LPs.

His sixties and early seventies records featured the cream of the crop of LA studio giants Hal Blaine, Larry Knechtel, Joe Osborn, and Marty Paitch, with Adler producing, and his records were well received critically even if they didn't always sell that well. He continued to record occasionally in the 80s, 90s, and 2000s, and he never stopped playing live until 2021 when the covid threat finally got him off the road. 

The hits were great. Poor Side Of Town started a string of ballads featuring covers of Motown classics The Tracks Of My Tears and Baby I Need You're Lovin'. Before those he mostly rocked out in his Louisiana rockabilly style with Memphis, Mountain Of Love, Seventh Son, and Secret Agent Man. In the seventies he broke the top ten with Rockin' Pneumonia and the Boogie Woogie Flu and his last big hit, the 1977 mellow styling of Swayin' to the Music (Slow Dancin'). This two-CD anthology that Rhino produced in 1991 probably has a few more songs than you need, as it is filled out with album tracks and non-hit singles, but it holds up really well, and it seems like every single CD or LP best-of leaves off something really great. Some of those singles that didn't make the top ten are as good as the ones that did.

I was surprised when I read that he continued to perform live until fairly recently. There's some hot recent performances on YouTube.

The Best of The Box Tops... Soul Deep 1996

The Box Tops were the band that got Alex Chilton started in a pop career that had surprising longevity through his work as a solo artist and the band Big Star. The band released four LPs from 1967-1969, all produced by songwriter-producer Dan Penn or Chips Moman, both regulars at Moman's American Sound Studios, which produced many hits for pop, country and soul groups in the sixties, and where Moman produced Elvis Presley's From Elvis In Memphis, arguably Presley's best record.

Of course the hits The Letter (#1) and Cry Like A Baby (#2) are here, but their other charting songs as well as the album tracks included here make this more than you'd probably expect from a sixties pop group with two hits. She Shot a Hole in My Soul is a stone classic, as is I Met Her In Church. Neon Rainbow, a pop gem, and Sweet Cream Ladies, Forward March are both fun. They do a solid cover of I Shall Be Released (!), and there are a few early Chilton writing efforts that are good. And then there's Soul Deep, which got to #13 on the charts and deserved better.

While mostly a footnote these days, The Box Tops were a fine vehicle for Chilton's strong singing, and this compilation is a good way to appreciate their best work.

King Crimson 1969-2021

King Crimson isn't just one band. Over the course of their 50 years, they have been at least five different bands, some more successful than others. The only constant for the band has been Robert Fripp, with his guitar and mellotron, but several versions of the band have had reasonably long runs. 

The first iteration of the band produced their remarkable debut, In The Court of The Crimson King 1969, and even if Fripp doesn't like the term, prog rock took a big step forward. Over the next few releases, the band underwent multiple personnel changes, and In the Wake of Poseidon 1970, Lizard 1970, and Islands 1971 increased the use of jazz motifs while still mostly sounding like King Crimson, just not as good as the debut. The heavy songs were mixed with gentle ballads, and the sound was bolstered by the sax and flute of Mel Collins and drummer Ian Wallace. All three records have received mixed reviews, and all three have their fans.

The next edition of King Crimson is often cited as the strongest period for the band. An all new band joins Fripp, with the thunderous bass and mellifluous voice of John Wetton, the exceptional drumming of Bill Bruford, and David Cross on violin replacing Mel Collins' sax and flute as the color on top of Fripp's guitar. This augmented trio produced three outstanding if challenging records in Lark's Tongues In Aspic 1973, Starless and Bible Black 1974, and Red 1974. Influential records that paved the way for metal, thrash, hard punk, and other big loud rock forms, all three are excellent. I discussed the three in some detail here. Then Robert Fripp disbanded King Crimson. A good live record of this band recorded in 1974, USA was released in 1975. Later, when Fripp was releasing live documents from the band's career, other live releases documenting this frighteningly good band, including The Great Deceiver 1992 and The Night Watch 1997 were released.

And so it was, until 1980 when Fripp formed a new band called Discipline, with Bill Bruford, Tony Levin, and singer/guitarist/songwriter Adrian Belew. After playing together for a bit, Fripp decided that it was "King Crimson music", and the band became King Crimson. Or so the story goes. This band made three records, and they rarely "sound like King Crimson" if you ask me. My guess is that Fripp knew they would sell more records as King Crimson no matter what they sounded like. They do sometimes sound like a new version of King Crimson, but not very often. Belew brings with him African and other "world" rhythms, as well as a pop sensibility that was generally welcome in his work with Bowie and Talking Heads, but clearly at odds with a King Crimson sound. Like much eighties work, too many synthesizers don't help, including Bruford's new penchant for electronic drums. Discipline 1981 (the best of the three), Beat 1982 (the worst thing called a King Crimson record), and Three of a Perfect Pair 1984 all hold their good performances (there's no lack of talent), and all of them seem out of place if you've been listening to other King Crimson from before or after this version. Given the plethora of live recordings of the band released over the years, it is no surprise that only one of them, Absent Lovers 1998, is from this band's tenure. Then Robert Fripp disbanded King Crimson, again.

Until 1993/94, when Fripp decided (at Belew's urging) to reform King Crimson. After several others were asked to join, Fripp established the new King Crimson with Belew, Bruford, Levin, plus bassist Trey Gunn and drummer Pat Mastelatto. Often referred to as the "double trio", this phase of King Crimson, while still somewhat more pop oriented than the seventies bands, returned to the heavier, dense sound of their seventies work, and generally sounded more like King Crimson. The album Thrak 1995 was preceded by the EP Vroom 1994, and included rerecorded versions of most of the Vroom material. Belew still brings his quirky pop to the show, but Thrack is a more aggressive work than the eighties records, and restores much of the classic sound of the band, albeit updated with new electronics in the nineties. This unit was also represented on solid live records B'Boom 1995 and Vroom Vroom 2001 as well as a collection of improvisations from the 1995 tour titled Thrakattak 1996, mostly of interest to the obsessed.

Bruford and Levin left the band in 1999, and the remaining four made two more records, The Construkction of Light 2000 and The Power to Believe 2003. The band sounds more in line with the seventies band than the eighties band, and of course that is generally a good thing. Critics were generally mixed in their opinions, but reliable voices made positive reviews of both records, and both have plenty of hard-hitting instrumentals to offset Belew's sometimes lesser lyrical efforts. The band was represented on several live recordings, including Heavy Construkction 2000 and Elektrik 2003. After a period of inactivity from 2003-2007, a 40th anniversary tour (with Fripp, Levin, Belew, Mastelotto and new second drummer Gavin Harrison) was staged in 2008. Then Robert Fripp disbanded King Crimson, again.

Until 2014, when Fripp established a new line-up including new singer/guitarist Jakko Jakszyk, Mel Collins on sax and flute (last seen in the band in 1972), Tony Levin, and drummers Pat Mastelotto, Gavin Harrison, and Bill Rieflin (later replaced by Jeremy Stacey in 2016). This seven-piece toured fairly regularly from 2014-2021, and released no less than seven live recordings. The band played material from the band's entire career, including the mostly previously neglected 1970-1971 repertoire. Songs were rearranged for this formidable outfit, and the live recordings document a band clearly capable of anything. I have not heard them all, but Live In Toronto 2016, and the last one, Music is our Friend: Live in Washington and Albany, 2021 are both remarkable. 

King Crimson will always be thought of as Robert Fripp's band, but many other outstanding artists contributed, and Bill Bruford, Tony Levin, John Wetton, and Pat Mastelotto deserve special mention. Never a band for the feint of heart, if you can handle the occasional pummeling, there is some powerful and unique music to be had in King Crimson.