Favourites 3 : Neil Young Freedom

I am not sure why so many good bands and musicians were crap in the 1980s.  Maybe it was drugs.  Maybe it was too much money. Maybe it was because none of them really expected to still be making money 20-30 years into a career they never thought would be a a career. Maybe it was because most of the 1980's music was crap and there was no competition to spur people on to make better music - and many of the best new bands like Talking Heads were blazing new paths. Anyway it is hard to argue that Dylan, the Stones, Paul McCartney, Stevie Wonder or Neil Young put out much good music for most of the 1980s.  Neil Young was even sued by his record company!

Anyway something seemed to wake Neil Young up in the late 80's It's almost as if he said to himself "let's cut the crap and get back to business".  It started in 1988 when he recorded This Notes For You a pretty solid album with lots of brass but some pretty good songs.  He then released an ep, Eldorado only in NZ, Australia and Japan I think. Even though I did not buy a copy (fool that I am as it now sells for over $100!) I did hear a friends copy and it certainly showed promise.

Then came Freedom - one of my all time favourite Neil Young albums.  It really is a strong selection of songs including Someday, Wrecking Ball, Crime in the City, Too far gone, Don't Cry, Too Far Gone and of course Rockin' in the Free World.  I certainly believe if it had been recorded in the 70's it would probably be considered by many to be an all time classic.  Timing is everything I suppose.

Young's purple patch continued after this album with Ragged Glory, Harvest Moon and the sublime Sleeps with Angels.  A series of albums, that stand up well beside the albums from Everyone Knows This is Nowhere to Rust Never Sleeps.  

Now Playing : Amazing Rhythm Aces : How the Hell do you spell Rhythum?

What a good question - I always have difficulty

I have liked The Amazing Rhythm Aces since hearing their "hit" Third Rate Romance in the early 70s.  I picked up this terrific album last week at Real Groovy in Auckland.  There were a few of their albums in the second hand bin but I picked this one up mainly because it was recorded at Muscle Shoals Studio where I doubt it is possible to make a bad album.  Having songs by Dan Penn, Delbert McClinton, Eddie Hinton and Van Morrison also helped!  For those unfamiliar with their work The Aces explore the area between R'nB and Country and they do it very well.  One of those bands that don't make bad records and do not get the recognition they deserve.  Think of a more country version of Little Feat. 

Favourites 2 : Dan Penn : Do Right Man - one of my most played albums

I bought this album from a record shop when I lived in Invercargill after Elvis Costello mentioned it in his extensive and excellent liner notes to the underrated Kojak Variety. I do remember that I paid full price as it was not on sale and that at the time I really had no idea of who Dan Penn was.

Dan is a songwriter from Alabama who spent much time in and around Muscle Shoals who was part of small band of people who crossed the white/black/country/soul boundaries in the late 60's.  He wrote many classic songs over about a five year period.  Songs like;
Dark End of the Street : James Car
It Tears Me Up Percy Sledge
I'm Your Puppet : James and Bobby Purify
Do Right Woman : Aretha Franklin

However apart from an obscure release in 1971 (which I now have) he really had not recorded anything other than demos until he released this album.  To record it he assembled many of the musicians that had recorded on the original versions and made this collection of many of his most famous songs.  In my opinion apart from Dark End of the Street (which he does a great job on) he improves on all the originals.  It really is a superb album and whenever I play it with friends over at least one person will ask WHO IS THIS?

So if you ever get a chance to buy this album I strongly suggest you do. You will not regret it.

If you get hooked like I did there are now a lot of gems to search out.  He is now self releasing albums of demos he is still recording which you can get directly from his website.

However it is worth chasing out Dan was effectively the staff writer for Fame Studios in Muscle Shoals and he wrote and demoed many of his songs so he could show the singers how they might sing and record them. Last year ACE records released a double album of these demos called Fame Recordings.  This is well worth checking out as because Dan had access to many of the best studio musicians of the day the demos are better than many full recordings.





ACE have also released two collections of Dan's songs recorded by other artists and they too are uniformly excellent. Sweet Inspirations : The Songs of Dan Penn and Spooner Oldham and A Road Leading Home.

Unsung Heroes 6 : Dr John

I am not really sure whether someone who has been in the business for 60 years and has recorded with just about everyone qualifies as an unsung hero, but I am always surprised by how few people know of (and appreciate) Dr John.  I first became aware of him when I heard Right Place Wrong Time and Such a Night on American Top 40 in what must have been 1974. It was so different to everything else at the time. However I did not buy that then.  I waited a few years.

The next time I came across him was when he played Such A Night on the The Last Waltz which for me was definitely one of the highlights of that great movie.   As is usual for me I took a rather circuitous route into the good Dr's music starting first with Dr John's Gumbo the first of his tribute albums to his home town of New Orleans. This was also my first real introduction to some of the sound of New Orleans that now makes up so much of my music collection and lead me to searching out music by Professor Longhair and Huey "Piano" Smith.



Over the years I slowly acquired more and more music by Dr John and now have about 20 albums. In addition to that I probably have at least another 20 where he contributes, vocals, piano or production.  I will highlight a few that I particularly like.

They are not all good but many of them are just excellent.  The next one that really caught my attention was one recorded about 20 years later and was indeed his next tribute to New Orleans the excellent Goin' Back To New Orleans. This album rocks more than Gumbo and really has a mardi gras feel to it as evidenced by the Indian costume he wears on the cover. There are some great classic and non classic songs on this album. The perennial Careless Love and also songs like Cabbage Head and How Come my Dog Don't Bark When You Come Around?



Rolling Stone Magazine recognises Dr John's first album Gris Gris as one of the most important albums of all time fusing New Orlean's voodoo, funk and second line jazz with rock.  It is not an easy listen and one track I Walk on Guilded Splinters has been  covered by many people including Paul Weller and Cher!! I particularly like Cher's version which was recorded at Muscle Shoals with the Swampers. Maybe the best thing she has ever done?




In later life he has recorded a number of solid albums.  I enjoy In a sentimental mood for its selection of songs included great big band versions of Making Whoopee (with Ricki Lee Jones on whose debut album he played) and Accentuate the Positive.








I eventually picked up a copy of In the Right Place and wonder why I waited so long.  The mixture of great songs, playing by the Meters and Allen Toussaint's production.  The closest thing to a hit album he has ever had! Highly recommended.







After Hurricane Katrina he recorded The City that Care Forgot which was probably his most political set where he attacked the politics of neglect that followed the Katrina.  On that album he was assited by Eric Clapton - playing with a bit of fire in his belly for once and Willie Nelson.  I finally managed to see him at the Auckland Town Hall when he toured following this album.

Two years ago he teamed up with Dan Auerbach from the Black Keys and recorded Locked Down.  On that album he swapped his piano for an organ and together produced what, at 72 may be the best and funkiest album of his career.  It not only sold better than his more recent albums but earned him new fans and a Grammy for best R'n'B album.  While many late career comeback albums are rated more for nostalgia than quality this really is a stunning album worth investigation.  The title track  does not sound like a pensioner trading on his past but some one still providing vital music.

Obscure Favourites 1 : Til The Night is Gone : Tribute to Doc Pomus

My collection is full of records and CDs that no one I know has heard of but when I play them always get people asking who or what is that?  So this new series will highlight some of those albums.

I bought this album mainly because it had tracks by some of my favourite artists at the time (and still now).  Those involved included Dylan, Los Lobos, John Hiatt,The Band and Dr John.  I knew some of the songs but I did not really know anything about Doc Pomus.  So I started to read about him and was impressed by the range of songs he wrote.  He had Polio as a child but that did not stop him first becoming a blues singer (on crutches) and then later becoming a Brill Building songwriter in the 50's.

There are some great versions on the album but Shawn Colvin's Viva Las Vegas gained a lot of attention when it appeared on the closing credits of (maybe my all time favourite movie) The Big Lebowski.   Here is the full track listing

1. Lonely Avenue - Los Lobos

2. Boogie Woogie Country Girl - Bob Dylan

3. Viva Las Vegas - Shawn Colvin

4. A Mess Of Blues - John Hiatt

5. This Magic Moment - Lou Reed

6. Blinded By Love - B.B. King

7. Young Blood - The Band

8. There Must Be A Better World Somewhere - Irma Thomas

9. Turn Me Loose - Dion

10. I Count The Tears - Roseanne Cash

11. I'm On A Roll - Dr. John

12. Still In Love - Solomon Burke

13. Sweets For My Sweet - Brian Wilson

14. Save The Last Dance For Me - Aaron Neville

The Dr John song made me realisd that an old Dr John album I had , City Lights, was in fact a collaboration with Doc so  rekindled my interest in that and I also checked out a new singer's albums of Doc's songs Johnny Adams' The Real Me.

Both of those albums are well worth checking out.

Journey Through The Past 19 : Microdisney, The Clock Comes Down the Stairs

This album one of my favourite covers.  I bought it solely because of the cover sometime in the 1980s.  It was on sale.  I knew nothing about the band at all and pieced together what I know following it.  My LP is in storage in Christchurch and I have been trying to get a copy of it on CD for sometime.  However I never wanted to pay the money the CD was fetching on eBay.  And then this year it was re-released so I got a copy from Amazon UK - and their debut which I had never heard.

So in the last week I plugged the CD in the car and have been listening to it on repeat.  It's not as good as I remember having a dated 80's feel to it BUT there are some outstanding tracks - in particular AND, Goodbye it's 1987, Horses Overboard and Genius. 

Microdisney was a group of politicised Irishmen in London writing and performing extremely caustic songs with lush arrangements so you could find yourself  humming along to very nasty lyrics.  Part of the attraction. 

I have about four of their albums but this one and Crooked Mile are my favourites.  

The band eventually imploded and the lead singer formed a new band Fatima Mansions where he abandoned all pretense at nice arrangements and went for all out aggression.  They opened for U2 on a european tour and apparently completely alienated the U2 audience who would have preferred their politics less intense.  I think their Viva Dead Ponies is magnificent with Blues For Ceausescu being an highlight with the chant of Die/Fuck Ceausescu stating things pretty plainly.

 

Unsung Heroes 5 : Dirk Hamilton

To people like me a good record store is a bit like a good pub.  A place where you see familiar faces either behind the counter or hogging the H bin that you are sure holds the gem you are looking for.

Today there are really just about only good record stores left - as the big impersonal chains have gone to that big retailer in the sky after being pummeled by iTunes, Spotify and Amazon, leaving behind stores run by enthusiasts.   The people behind the counters in good stores are always informed and opinionated and need to be - frequently they can be opinionated arseholes like Jack Black in this clip .  Mind you Jack is SO RIGHT.

There is always good music playing (ie music you either have already or want).  One such record store in Wellington was Colin Morris on Lambton Quay. An added advantage was that it was on the way (with only a little deviation) between Uni and the Railway Station.

In 1978 I bought a lot of records from that store.  Especially on a Friday night after a few beers and Dicky Barretts and a feed of oysters at the California Steakhouse.  Sadly all three institutions have now gone. Anyway one time in 78 I walked in and Colin was playing this album by a guy called Dirk Hamilton, whom I had never heard of.

Dirk Hamilton : Meet Me at the Crux

It immediately grabbed my intention and after listening to three or four tracks and talking to Colin about the similarities between what I was hearing and Van Morrison and Springsteen I walked with the record in hand. It is a great record - most of which stands the test of time.  In particular Billboard on the Moon, Meet me at the Crux, How do you Fight Fire (is "In the Land of the Lizard, under the bubbling mud"  a reference to NZ?) and my favourite Every Inch a Moon.

Two years later came Thug of Love - the last of his big label albums.  It took me a while to get into this album but it is now my go to album of Dirk's.  Strong songs throughout including Colder than the Mexican Snow, Moses and me, I will acquiesce, Change in child's hand and ... well all of them really.

Years later when Oasis released a song called Acquiesce (one of their better ones). They claimed it was the first time Acquiesce had been used in a song title to which I wanted to reply in terms they could understand "Fuck You, You C##ts!  Dirk was there first!!!"

By now I was hooked and found that he had released two earlier albums that had never made it to New Zealand.  It was before ebay and the internet so what to do.......  That's right send your brother off on a world wide trip to search out copies.  He did well and did find a copy of one of them, the improbably titled You Can Sing on the Left or Bark on the Right .  (I never told him that he was an inadvertent drug smuggler as when I opened up the gatefold cover a few grains of dope fell out - which probably tells you a little about this folky album!)  To me there is joyfulness about this album that was not as obvious in the following two albums.  All the same it is a solid second album signally where he was heading.  I particularly liked the songs The Sweet Forever, Grow a Rose, Wasn't that one night good, Little Big Time Man and When She Kiss Ya like she love love you (You know she do).

Listening to that album again as I write this what strikes me about his writing are his honest and simple observations on life and his nice turns of phrase which are clever without being too clever.   While he has frequently been compared to Van Morrison it is this simplicity that differentiates him.

Eventually I picked up his earlier album Alias I through ebay. But after reading about his retirement after Thug of Love I thought that was it.

Then one day I googled Dirk Hamilton and found out that he was back in the saddle so to speak.  Apparently he found out he was "big in Italy" and that rekindled something.  

After about 10 years away from the business he returned and has been releasing albums reasonably regularly ever since.  Eventually the first four albums were also released on CD with excellent booklet style packaging.

I have since bought many of his recent albums, either coming across them unexpectedly in record stores (I always check out the H bins) or directly from Dirk from his website.  All are solid albums but as is often the case while I enjoy them none of them connect with me in the way that the first two I heard did.  However I can recommend his live "The Relative Health of Your Horse Outside" "Sufferupachuckle" and "The Ghost of Van Gogh".

Interestingly some of the people in his current band were on that first record I heard almost forty years ago.  I think that tells you something about the guy.  So I have promised myself that one day, when in the states on business or some kind of musical odyssey I will look him up.  He seems like the kind of guy I would enjoy a beer with.