Author: thedailyrecord

Bob Dylan – “Workingman’s Blues No. 2”

by thedailyrecord, posted in Bob Dylan, Song Review
(Above: Happy Labor Day! Bob Dylan’s tribute to Merle Haggard and the working man.)

Bob Dylan – “Workingman’s Blues No. 2”

By Joel Francis
The Daily Record

Merle Haggard was on a roll in 1969. In just three years he had racked up seven No. 1 hits and released eight albums. Haggard’s days digging ditches and toiling in prison were finally receding, but he refused to forget the unlucky people he labored beside for so long. “Working Man Blues” was Haggard’s tribute to his fans and his roots.

More than 35 years later, Bob Dylan turned Haggard’s tribute into a personal homage. Abandoning the Bakersfield sound that Haggard helped popularize, Dylan’s “Workingman’s Blues No. 2,” is a nostalgic ballad, introduced by a piano and accented with touches of violin.

Haggard’s “Working Man Blue” is a blazing portrait of a hard-workin’, hard-drinkin’ man with nine kids struggling to make ends meet. In the prime of his career, Haggard’s hero might “get a little tired on the weekend, but “Monday morning, I’m right back with the crew.”

Dylan catches up with a similar blue collar man thousands of shifts later. Worn by hard work and tight budgets, the place he loves best is a “sweet memory.” Too tired to get his boots and shoes, all the weary man can muster is to try “to keep the hunger from creeping its way into my gut.”

Dylan matches Haggard’s detail, but also pulls the camer back a bit, opening with a portrait of “an evenin’ haze settlin’ over the town/starlight by the edge of the creek.” Doubling the number of verses and tripling the song’s length also gives Dylan to explore the weary worker’s love life. The nine kids have moved out and the wife is gone, leaving the fatigued to wonder “am I wrong in thinking/That you have forgotten me?” and imagining his love returning to lead him off to dance in a new suit and a world where he doesn’t have to live on rice and beans.

“Workingman’s Blues No. 2” is less a celebration of the working man than a compliment to Haggard, who toured with Dylan shortly before the sequel was written. At the time it was rumored Haggard would return the favor by penning “Blowing in the Wind 2.” That song hasn’t come to light, but pair of “Working Man” songs provide a perfect Labor Day soundtrack. Play Haggard’s at the outdoor cookout while clutching a cold one; save Dylan’s for some midnight, pre-shift soul searching.

(Below: Merle Haggard’s original “Working Man Blues.” Kick up your heels before the whistle blows.)

Releasing Jazz from Aspic

by thedailyrecord, posted in Industry commentary, Kansas City music scene

(Above: Ornette Coleman jams with the Roots. Improbably, people respond positively to the non-traditional collaboration.)

By Joel Francis

In 1958, Danny and the Juniors sang “Rock and Roll is Here to Stay.” Although the genre was only seven years removed from the its birth on the “Rocket 88” single and three years from its explosion into the mainstream with Elvis Presley, Danny White was right. Sixty years later, it is hard to imagine American culture without rock and roll.

It is also hard to imagine what the malt-shop teens and leather jacket hoods of the Eisenhower administration would have thought about auto-tune, power pop and nu-metal. Although the seeds of today’s rock were planted in the 1950s, the resulting flora has blossomed into hybrids that bear little resemblance to the original crop.

Picture how different today’s musical landscape would be if anything that varied from the pre-British Invasion strains of rock and roll were bastardized. If songs bearing the touch of John Lennon and Paul McCartney or Mick Jagger and Keith Richards were decried as impure for straying from the “true” roots of Chuck Berry and Buddy Holly.  Or if anything after the summer of punk and the rise of synthesizers was kept at arm’s length and segregated from the great Rock Cannon.

Would we expect our children to dig out old Bill Haley and Beach Boys albums if this were the case? Teach them “Fun Fun Fun” and “Maybelline” as historical exercises? Of course not. They would shrug, pay us lip service and invent their own confounding strain of music. The ties to existing music would be obvious – nothing emerges in a vacuum – but nothing we couldn’t dismiss as the impure follies of youth.

Why, then, do we place the same parameters around jazz and feign surprise with then inevitable occurs?

It seems every year a new study comes out showing the median age of jazz listeners climbs while attendance drops. The latest is a National Endowment for the Arts Survey of Public Participation in the Arts conducted through the U.S. Census Bureau. Predictably, the self-appointed Guardians of Jazz like Wall Street Journal columnist and former Kansas City resident Terry Teachout are freaking out. But all this hand-wringing is like an ordinary bicycle enthusiast fretting while the chain-driven model populates the streets. The vehicle is still very much alive, it’s just been modified and influenced by culture.

Too many jazz museums and concert curators suffer from WWWS: What would Wynton say. Would Wynton Marsails, the genre’s most prominent performer and steadfast caretaker, approve of their exhibit or event? While Marsalis is a talent trumpet player who deserves every bit of his fame and credit for bringing jazz to the masses, he is conservative and traditionalist to a fault. Museum directors and concert promoters should be following their own muse and vision, not looking to someone as restrictive as Marsalis for tacit endorsement.

The growth of jazz from Dixieland to big band to bebop is celebrated, but somewhere along the line – about 1965, shortly before John Coltrane’s death, when free jazz and fusion started to creep into the mix – a line was drawn. In shorthand, acoustic Herbie Hancock playing with Miles Davis and recording for Blue Note is “good” jazz; synthesizer-rocking Hancock’s best-selling “Head Hunters,” though, is “bad.”

If directors and promoters must get the thumbs-up from a Marsalis, could it please be Branford? Although a lesser celebrity, the tenor saxophone player and older brother of Wynton has equally distinguished jazz pedigree. He’s also allowed jazz to grow, branching into pop with Sting, serving as musical director for the Tonight Show and working with hip hop artists.

If the stodgy stylistic caretakers turned up their noses when jazz artists, the highest pedigree of musicians, started dabbling in rock and funk, they have completely ignored most jazz performers slumming with rappers in a genre oft-maligned for possessing the lowest level of musicianship.

The elitists are missing the point. At their best, jazz and hip hop are better together than chocolate and peanut better. The improvisational aspect of jazz fits the free-flowing poetry delivered by a great MC. The swing of the instruments matches the swagger of the beats. Dig the way DJ Logic’s turntable work complements Medeski, Martin and Wood’s “Combustication” album, how Mos Def and Q-Tip’s rhymes soar over Ron Carter’s live basslines, or how Roy Hargrove’s trumpet pushes and accentuates Common’s poetry.

Teachout and Wynton Marsalis’ simplified stances ignore the long history of jazz in popular culture. The enduring standard “Someday My Prince Will Come,” was plucked from Disney’s “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.” Although both Dave Brubeck and Louis Armstrong released albums of Disney material, it is doubtful Wynton Marsalis would record a song from a children’s cartoon.

The Chicken Little jazz forecasts don’t show that jazz is less popular or interesting today. The news they bring is even more disturbing: hard evidence that the standard-bearers of the genre are increasing ignorant to how their beloved music has grown, changed and been embraced. They’re the ones missing the party, but don’t worry – their numbers are dwindling.

(Below: More Ornette Coleman with the Roots for all the alarmists. Note how well the musicians play together despite being from the disparate worlds of jazz and hip hop. Surely this is a sign of the apocalypse.)

Smokey Robinson and the Miracles – “More Love”

by thedailyrecord, posted in Motown, Song Review

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Smokey Robinson and the Miracles – “More Love,” Pop # 23, R&B # 5

By Joel Francis

Smokey Robinson has penned dozens of gorgeous love songs throughout his career, but few are affecting as “More Love.” The reassuring lyrics speak to the tragedies the couple suffered as a result of life on the road. Between 1957 and 1964, Claudette Robinson had eight miscarriages. This heartbreaking back story adds to the romance of the chorus:

“More love, more joy,
|Than age or time could ever destroy.
My love will be so sound,
It would take about a hundred lifetimes
To live it down, wear it down, tear it down.”

The song opens with some gospel chords on the piano before the gently insistent bassline enters. Robinson’s voice appears on a pillow of strings, as the arrangement slowly builds underneath. After Robinson delivers the chorus a second time, the performance pulls back to that great bassline before reaching a climax that sustains through the rest of the song.

Foreshadowing Motown’s cross-country relocation, the track was performed by Los Angeles session musicians before the Miracles – including Claudette – overdubbed their voices in Detroit. It’s unclear why Robinson, who also produced the cut,  bypassed the Funk Brothers, but the public didn’t seem to mind. The song was wedged near the top of both the pop and R&B charts in the spring of 1967.

Foreshadowing another Motown move, “More Love” was the second single credited to “Smokey Robinson and the Miracles.” Berry’s decision to give Robinson top billing started the avalanche that benefitted Diana Ross and Martha Reeves but doomed David Ruffin and the Temptations.

Smokey and Claudette eventually had two children, both named in tribute to Motown. Son Berry Robinson was the namesake of label founder Berry Gordy, and daughter Tamla Robinson was named after the Hitsville subsidiary.

Former New Christy Minstrels singer Kim Carnes had a No. 10 hit on the Adult Contemporary charts in 1980 with her reading of “More Love.” The song was her biggest hit until “Bette Davis Eyes” hit No. 1 the following year. “More Love” has also been covered by Paul Young, Barbara McNair and the 5th Dimension.

Review: Lee “Scratch” Perry

by thedailyrecord, posted in Concert review, Kansas City Star
(Above: The eccentric Lee “Scratch” Perry give a tour of his Black Ark studio in Kingston, Jamaica. Perry produced reggae greats Junior Murvin, Bob Marley and the Wailers, Max Romeo, U-Roy and many more at Black Ark before it mysteriously burned to the ground.)

By Joel Francis
The Kansas City Star

Halfway through the third song of the night, Lee “Scratch” Perry ordered the band to halt. He wasn’t feeling it from the crowd, and reggae can’t be performed without the proper energy. After admonishing the audience and getting the desired feedback, Perry and his four-piece backing band resumed the number.

The request may have seemed more reasonable had it occurred hours earlier. The hundred or so fans who populated the Beaumont Club Sunday evening had patiently waited through two bands and an overlong DJ set. As the clock tipped toward Monday, they had a right to be tired.

Fortunately, both the crowd and Perry were rejuvenated by the time-out. The 73-year-old reggae legend delivered over an hour of his favorites and four songs by Bob Marley, one of the scores of reggae greats Perry has produced throughout his five-decade career.

Marley’s songs were nearly unrecognizable. Perry didn’t own them as much as deconstruct the numbers, turning them into springboards for his chanted verses and call-and-response choruses. “Kaya,” a number Perry co-wrote and produced with Marley closed the night, while “One Drop,” a number Marley wrote and recorded alone, concluded a trio of interpretations.

With scores of albums to his name, Perry had more than enough original material to draw from. “Roast Fish and Cornbread” came from his heyday in the late ‘70s, while set opening “Secret Laboratory” hailed from a decade later. The playful “Pum Pum” came from last year’s collaboration with “Party Hard” rocker Andrew W.K.

Although Perry’s arrangements are similar, Lionized, the four-piece Maryland band backing him, did a good job of mixing textures and varying tempos. They knew how to push both Perry and the crowd for maximum effect.

Lionized got 40 minutes for themselves before Perry took the stage. They were preceded by local DJ FSTZ, who spun dub, trance and techno for 70 minutes. 77 Jefferson took the stage when the sun was still up with an upbeat 40-minute set.

The diminutive Perry took the stage at 11 p.m. carrying a suitcase and wearing enough bling to make Flavor Flav and Lil Jon blush. Rings decorated every finger and multiple bracelets adorned each wrist. Mirrors and amulets were stuffed into every surface of his cap and spray-painted work boots. More than a dozen charms dangled around the microphone head.

The reggae equivalent of Sun Ra, Perry has claimed to be from outer space at various times throughout his career. He proved it a couple times on Sunday night by dumping a bottle of water over his cap-covered head and right shoe while dancing what looked like the hokey pokey during “Roast Fish and Cornbread.” Later in the set he flicked his lighter and licked it with his tongue.

The small crowd negated any sightline issues – there was more than enough room for everyone on the dance floor. Sound was good, but clarity isn’t Perry’s aim. He mixes everything into a large, murky soup. Although instruments were discernable, his voice wasn’t. Drenched in artificial echo and natural patios it was hard to make out what he was saying.

It wasn’t difficult to figure out what Perry wanted, though. Jah and love, sure, but also lots of dancing and movement. Once Perry threw down the gauntlet, an unspoken agreement was struck: You give me what I want, and I’ll give you what you came for. Although it took longer than either anticipated, both sides ultimately got what they wanted.

Setlist (as written, though not performed in this order): Secret Laboratory, Inspector Gadget, Jungle Safari, Roast Fish and Cornbread, Jah Live, Sun is Shining, One Drop, I Am A Mad Man, Devil Dead, Wait Inna Babylon, Kaya, Pum Pum

Peter, Bjorn and John Heart Hip Hop

by thedailyrecord, posted in band feature, Kansas City Star

(Above: Kanye West and Peter, Bjorn and John marry indie rock to hip hop in  “Young Folks.”)

By Joel Francis
The Kansas City Star

The distance between whistling and beat-boxing shrank considerably once Kanye West got involved.

When West sampled Peter, Bjorn and John’s whistle-based sensation “Young Folks” for his mixtape, he not only united the worlds of indie rock and hip-hop, he also awakened Peter, Bjorn and John’s burgeoning love of urban music.

“When I first heard his version I thought it was a joke,” drummer John Eriksson said. “I didn’t think it’s strange, though, because a lot of hip-hop artists are trying to get more rock with a lot of electric guitars and the rest.”

West proved his indie rock cred when he asked the Swedish trio to perform the mashup during his set at the 2007 Way Out West festival. The collaboration helped open the band’s ears to new ways of presenting its music. The commercial follow-up to “Young Folks” was this year’s “Living Thing,” which disposed of guitars and traditional drumming and embraced icy synthesizers, spare arrangements and altered percussion.

“Many people think the drums on ‘Living Thing’ are programmed, but it’s not,” said Eriksson, whose band performs Friday night at the Granada in Lawrence. “Eighty percent of the sounds are acoustic but turned to make it sound like a drum machine or given a spaced-out, futuristic sound.”

Hip-hop wasn’t much of an influence when the band formed in 1999, but at the end of the “Living Thing” sessions, singer Peter Moren tried what would have been unthinkable 10 years ago and rapped an entire song.

“I didn’t think it was good enough (to make the album), so we tried to get someone else to do the vocals,” Eriksson said. “That’s how we met Mick Boogie, who helped us come up with the idea of having other people rap over all of our songs.”

The resulting remix album was dubbed “Re-Living Thing” and features original rhymes by GZA, Talib Kweli, Three 6 Mafia, Bun B and Rhymefest, with production from Jazzy Jeff, 6th Sense and Apple Juice Kid.

“I’ve only heard three versions so far. Jazzy Jeff did a fantastic job on his track, and I can’t wait to hear the others,” Eriksson said. “Knowing GZA from Wu Tang is on there makes me want to cry, almost. It seems surreal he’s doing something with one of our songs. I don’t know how Mick convinced him to take part. Maybe they played chess and Mick won.”

After the band released an online- and vinyl-only instrumental album last year and commissioned friends to make different arrangements of past singles for vinyl release, Eriksson feels like Peter, Bjorn and John fans should be up for anything.

“I think our fans are used to us doing weird, surprising stuff. A couple tracks on last year’s instrumental album have a Swedish narrative in the old dialect,” Eriksson said. “After five albums, by now people should be open to who we are. Maybe our next album will be trash-metal mixed with Stockhausen.”

Hesitant or curious fans won’t have to part with much to hear the results. “Re-Living Thing” will be released online today for free.

“That’s just how it works these days. Music is free,” Eriksson said. “When you make music, you don’t think about how to make money. Usually other people do that.”

Eriksson said most of the band’s money comes from licensing songs like “Young Folks” to TV shows and commercials. The corporate funds pay for the band’s creative ventures, like jazz and hip-hop remixes.

“When people ask us if they can use songs in commercials, we think about what the commercial is for. We won’t say yes to banks, McDonald’s and things we don’t agree with,” Eriksson said. “When it’s something we like — like TV shows, beer, maybe ice cream, stuff people need — we have no problem. It’s the only way we can make money. I wish we could sell albums, but most of our money is from that.”

Friday
Peter, Bjorn and John perform Friday night at the Granada, 1020 Massachusetts in Lawrence. Cowboy Indian Bear opens at 9 p.m. Tickets to the all-ages show are $15. Visit www.thegranada.com.

Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell – “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough”

by thedailyrecord, posted in Motown, Song Review

mountain
Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell – “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough,” Pop # 19, R&B # 3

By Joel Francis

Marvin Gaye found his greatest early success as a duet partner. The 1964 album “Together” was his first album to chart, and his duets placed in the Top 20 with a consistency that eluded him as a solo artist. Unfortunately, Gaye’s soul partners, Mary Wells and Kim Weston, both left Motown for (allegedly) greener pastures shortly after collaborating with Gaye. As established Motown solo artists, pairing of Gaye with Wells and Weston made sense. The teaming of Gaye with Hitsville newcomer Tammi Terrell, however, was inspired.

Terrell arrived at Motown in 1965 after bouncing from Scepter Records, where she recorded as Tammy Montgomery, James Brown’s Try Records and the Chess Records subsidiary Checker. Her initial Motown singles didn’t much fare better than her previous efforts, but “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough” took both her and Gaye’s careers to a new level.

Motown’s new singing pair was paired with the songwriting team Berry Gordy hired to replace the gradually exiting Holland-Dozier-Holland squad. Husband and wife Nickolas Ashford and Valerie Simpson came to Gordy’s attention in 1966 with their No. 1 hit “Let’s Go Get Stoned” for Ray Charles. (Ironically, “Stoned” was Charles’ first single after leaving rehab for his heroin addiction.)

“Mountain was a heck of a debut for both Ashford and Simpson and Gaye and Terrell. It’s obvious from the few seconds of spoken introduction that the signers have great rapport and their voices dance perfectly on the chorus. Although Gaye and Terrell sound like they’re giggling from the same care-free piano bench, their vocal parts were actually recorded separately. Terrell felt like she hadn’t rehearsed the lyrics enough to record with Gaye, so after some coaching with producers Harvey Fuqua and Johnny Bristol she cut her part alone.

Although Fuqua and Bristol had helmed dozens of Motown hits, “Mountain” doesn’t have the expected Hitsville sound. The most obvious explanation is that Ashford and Simpson were an “outside” songwriting team and that Holland-Dozier-Holland were on their way out. It also highlights that when people talk about the “Motown sound” they are often talking about Holland-Dozier-Holland’s signature production style. Holland-Dozier-Holland’s defection not only deprived Motown of its greatest songwriting team, but also Gordy’s vaunted “sound of young America.”

As one team of stars left, another was being born. The success of “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough” helped transform Gaye into one of Motown’s biggest and most enduring performers, whose brightest days were yet to come.

Four Tops – “Bernadette”

by thedailyrecord, posted in Motown, Song Review

Four-tops-bernadette
Four Tops – “Bernadette,” Pop # 4, R&B # 3

By Joel Francis

Levi Stubbs’ performance on “Bernadette” cements his status as Motown’s greatest male vocalist. The magnificent feats Stubbs laid down on the Four Tops previous pair of singles, “Reach Out” and “Standing in the Shadows of Love” reaches an impassioned crescendo on “Bernadette.” Stubbs joy, appreciation and devotion to Bernadette is still making women envy that name and that kind of partner.

The Holland-Dozier-Holland team that wrote and produced the previous two Tops singles once again employ the same lush orchestration, wrapping Stubbs’ urgent vocals in insistent strings, soaring background vocals and their signature propulsive snare drum.

“Bernadette” was the Tops last Top 10 hit until “Keeper of the Castle” took off in 1972. Perhaps coincidentally, “Bernadette” was also the Tops next-to-last collaboration with Holland-Dozier-Holland. The HDH-Four Tops swan song “7-Rooms of Gloom” hit No. 7 on the R&B charts in the summer of 1967.

Although Holland-Dozier-Holland had a handful of hits with Diana Ross and the Supremes before they left Motown in early 1968, “Bernadette” marks the last appearance by the incredible songwriting and production trio on the “Hitsville U.S.A.” set.

After Holland-Dozier-Holland departed, Berry Gordy placed all his best songwriters on Diana Ross and the Supremes and other pet artists like the Jackson 5. Groups that weren’t assigned to a producer – as the Temptations were to Norman Whitfield – floundered as the Hitsville transitioned. Many groups, including increasingly ignored girl groups like Martha and the Vandellas and the Marvelettes never regained their former glory.

As free agents, the Holland-Dozier-Holland team continued to turn out hits like Freda Payne’s “Band of Gold” and “The Day I Found Myself” by Honey Comb, but neither HDH nor Motown were ever as good again after they parted ways.

Review: Blondie

by thedailyrecord, posted in Concert review, Kansas City Star

(Above: Blondie perform “My Heart Will Go On” and validate the cliche: It’s the singer, not the song.)

By Joel Francis
The Kansas City Star

Blondie performed all four of their No. 1 hits during Tuesday’s concert at Crossroads KC, but they opened their encore set with someone else’s chart topper.

Playing with an energy that recalled their CBGB’s heyday, the sextet slammed through a surprising cover of Celine Dion’s “Titanic hit “My Heart Will Go On.” It is unsure what was more shocking: that Blondie covered Celine Dion; or that it was really, really good.

If Blondie ever get around to making another album, that cover should definitely be included. Until then, the back catalog satisfied the nearly full venue. The 80-minute set played like a greatest hits album and clocked in at about the same length.

High points included a blistering “Rapture” that went from the rap hit to punk to a blues jam and finally ended up in the band’s hip-hop update, “No Exit.” Debbie Harry’s voice isn’t as strong as it used to be, but “Maria” put to rest any questions on her strength as a singer. She nailed the big notes of the chorus and the lower register of the verses.

Drummer Clem Burke was the group’s secret weapon. Throughout the night, the founding member set the tone by opening and closing most numbers, driving the rest of the band with his powerful playing and delivering emphatic fills that always seemed to enhance the performance. His moody playing underlined the dark moodiness of the one-two of “Fade Away and Radiate” and “Screaming Skin.”

When the band stretched out on “Atomic,” Harry retreated to the shadows at the side of the stage. She may have been out of the spotlight, but it was clear with the two detours into her solo catalog that Harry was always in the driver’s seat.

Harry reclaimed center stage with the reggae sing-along of “The Tide Is High” that drew the biggest response of the night. Harry made sure the crowd stayed involved by switching from to a cover of “I’ll Take You There.” She may have transformed the Staples Singers’ hit from social anthem to come-on, but the audience still hung on every word. When the band flipped back to “Tide,” there were scores of arms waving and fingers aloft, responding to the chorus “The tide is high but I’m holding on/I’m gonna be your number one.”

Fifty minutes earlier it was the band holding one finger in the air, as the performers frantically signaled to the soundman to turn up their monitors. Opening number “Call Me” suffered from dropped coverage, with Harry’s weak vocals buried in a horrible mix that seemed to frustrate both band and audience. The sound improved during “Hanging on the Telephone,” the next number, but it took until the fourth song, “The Hardest Part,” for everything to click.

Once the sound was solved, the band rocked like a finely tuned machine. Although only half of the six musicians onstage were original members, most of the rest have been onboard since the band reunited 10 years ago.

The evening ended with three straight No. 1 hits. After the Dion cover and the disco thump of “Heart of Glass,” Blondie segued into “Don’t Stop ‘Til You Get Enough.” Michael Jackson moments have become the cliché of the summer, but this inspired pairing made complete musical sense and kept bodies moving.

Few of Blondie’s peers in the late ‘70s New York punk scene had as much mainstream success as Blondie, and even fewer of those acts are still going today. Although the night may have ended sooner than expected, there were few complaints with what it delivered. At this point, we’re happy to take what we can get.

Setlist: Call Me, Hanging on the Telephone, Two Times Blue, The Hardest Part, Fade Away and Radiate, Screaming Skin, Maria, Atomic, The Tide Is High/I’ll Take You There, You’re Too Hot, Rapture/jam/No Exit, One Way Or Another. Encore: My Heart Will Go On, Heart of Glass, Don’t Stop ‘Til You Get Enough

Review: Motley Crue

by thedailyrecord, posted in Concert review, Kansas City Star

motley

By Joel Francis
The Kansas City Star

Motley Crue’s “Dr. Feelgood” album may end with the ballad “Time For Change,” but Sunday night the band gave its fans at the Sprint Center nearly two hours of the same ol’ situation.

Celebrating the 20th anniversary of the “Feelgood” album, the hair metal icons spent the first hour of their set playing it in order. Kicking off with the title track, the band performed in a small padded cell erected onstage. It looked pretty cool head-on, but offered zero visibility from the sides or the rafters. Fortunately the cell went away and the stage opened up as the quartet slid into the second number, “Slice of Your Pie.”The performance capped the six-hour Crue Fest 2 that also featured Godsmack, Theory of a Deadman and Drowning Pool. The audio quality in the three-quarters-full arena was solid, given that the day’s style of music didn’t demand any attention to its nuances.

Resurrecting albums in concert is the latest rock trend, but it’s a rarely a sure-fire success. Most albums have – no matter how classic – have a few tracks that can be skipped, and what goes down well on album doesn’t always play well live.

“Feelgood” is a great example. On the one hand, fans got to live top-to-bottom the record from the band’s most successful period. However, there were good reasons why songs like “Without You” and “She Goes Down” were mothballed.

Pacing was another issue. The massive response to “Kickstart My Heart” was tempered by the ballad “Without You” and a bizarre Tommy Lee solo moment onstage where he chastised security for not tossing drumsticks into the crowd that landed short of the barricade.

The Crue seemed looser and happier when they shed the album cycle. After a Mick Mars guitar solo, the band tore through their favorites with an energy that ignited the already-reved crowed.

“Saints of Los Angeles” was one of two songs performed that didn’t date from the ‘80s and one of the stronger moments. Although it is just a couple years old, the audience sang along with every word. The pyro-heavy closing set was at its peak during “Wild Side” and “Shout at the Devil,” when flashpots erupted with every “shout.”

Lee slid behind the piano bench for “Home Sweet Home” as his bandmates crowded around the grand piano like drunken saloon crooners. After picking up an assist from the two omnipresent female backing vocalists/dancers during the electric section, the song ended with Lee and vocalist Vince Neil singing from the piano bench together.

The backing singers wore black leather boots that would have made Gene Simmons envious and legs that would have made him covetous. After one hour and 45 minutes onstage, the women – who were barely older than the “Dr. Feelgood” album the evening celebrated – showed off their assets as the band roared through “Girls Girls Girls.”

Godsmack: I arrived about 20 minutes into the metal quartet’s one hour set. The Massachusetts-based band had spent some time apart, but is back on the road for the first time in over a year celebrating its 10th anniversary. Their setlist was heavy on the hits, and included one new song, “Whiskey Hangover.”

The band also celebrated the acts that inspired them, tossing a bit of Pantera’s “Walk” into “Keep Away,” which drew a huge response. Later on, singer/guitarist Sully Erna hopped behind a second drumkit for a friendly drum duel. As the drummers went back and forth, the band slipped in snippets of their favorite tunes, letting the audience supply the words. Some of the choices, like “Back in Black,” “War Pigs” and Led Zepplin’s “Moby Dick,” were expected. “Aqualung” and “Tom Sawyer” hinted at a different side of the group.

After a one-two punch of “Whatever” and “I Stand Alone,” the band ceded the stage to Motley Crue with the promise of more new music to come. In a few years, it wouldn’t be surprising to see them headlining their own rock caravan.

Setlists

Motley Crue: the “Dr. Feelgood” album: Dr. Feelgood, Slice of Your Pie, Rattlesnake Shake, Kickstart My Heart, Without You, Same Ol’ Situation (S.O.S.), Sticky Sweet, She Goes Down, Don’t Go Away Mad (Just Go Away), Time for Change; guitar solo, Wild Side, Saints of Los Angeles, Shout at the Devil, Primal Scream/encore: Home Sweet Home, Girls Girls Girls

Godsmack (partial): Keep Away/Walk, Speak, Whiskey Hangover, Voodoo, Batalla de los Tambores, Whatever, I Stand Alone

Les Paul with Bing Crosby – “It’s Been A Long, Long Time”

by thedailyrecord, posted in Music history, Song Review

By Joel Francis
The Daily Record

“Kiss me once, then kiss me twice, then kiss me once again.”

Sammy Cahn’s lyrics spoke to millions of couples separated by … well the song doesn’t say, but everyone who sent it to No. 1 in two different versions at the end of 1945 knew all too well.

For six years the specter of World War II hung over America. A nation split by heated debates over participation until Pearl Harbor forced the nation’s hand became united through victory gardens and war bonds. The country was also united in its separation, as selective service split up thousands of couples when the men were called overseas.

But when Bing Crosby’s sweet voice sang “It’s Been A Long, Long Time,” the turmoil and anxiety of the war was finally fading. Effortlessly capturing the hope and sentimentality of the lyrics, Crosby couldn’t have needed more than a couple takes. What made the recording more interesting, though, was Les Paul’s guitar playing.

If Crosby’s voice was a bird chirping at the sunrise, Paul’s arrangement was the first rays of light piercing the horizon. His tone is just as mellow and natural as Crosby’s vocals. After opening with a few understated chords, Paul kicks into gentle jazz mode, strumming a countermelody that’s nearly as interesting as the one Jule Styne penned. The solo is understated, echoing the vocal line with a couple flourishes that show why Paul continues to influences the guitar gods of the 21st century.

That voice and that guitar was all the song needed to jump to No. 1. Sure, there’s a rhythm guitar in the background, but it’s only there to reassure the hapless listeners who couldn’t find the rhythm on their own.

Paul died last Thursday. He was 94. The legendary guitarist is best-known for “How High the Moon,” his signature Gibson guitar and recording innovations. Although his performance here predates those advances, it is no less inventive.

Crosby got most of the glory for “It’s Been A Long, Long Time,” which is probably right. The song and his singing resonate with the tenor of the times. (A competing version by Harry James with Kitty Kallen also hit No. 1 that winter.) Paul, however, visited the song repeatedly throughout his career. He cut a version with his wife Mary Ford in the 1950s and came back to it nearly 30 years later on the first “Chester and Lester” album with Chet Atkins. All readings are sublime, but none capture the wistful sentimentality and promise-filled romance of his pairing with Crosby.

There’s nothing harder than not knowing or being able to do anything about the well-being of a loved one. When I hear this song, I think about my grandparents. Both sets were separated by husbands who served in the war. I think about their joyful reunions and how they are now – temporarily – separated by the grave. But Les and Bing reassure us. And then we close our eyes and lean in for that kiss. Again.