Author: mark

‘get back’, the beatles

well, i have been waiting for this for a long time, and i finally got to watch the finished product when it debuted over the weekend. originally scheduled to be released in movie theaters about this time last year, the schedule was changed a number of times due to covid and other editorial reasons. directed by peter jackson, they eventually settled on a three part documentary to be available for streaming in three episodes.

the original premise was to revisit the 55 hours of footage taken of the recording of the ‘let it be’ album, which had been in a vault for 50 years untouched. the filming was used to create a documentary to coincide with the release of the album, which eventually did happen in 1970. although i have not seen that in a long time (and i could not find a current version on any streaming services i have), there is some thought that the way the material was presented for that version gave support to the theory that yoko ono was one of the drivers of the band breaking up soon after the album was released. i also recall that it gave the impression that the sessions were full of tension.

paul and ringo, as well as the surviving spouses of john and george (yoko and olivia), gave full support to the project, and gave jackson full latitude to present it as he saw fit. i get the impression from interviews that they all disagreed with the premise of the first one, and were hoping to have the world see it for how it really was. and maybe they succeeded.

so here are a few of my takeaways after watching all three episodes:

it is a lot of material, with the whole thing clocking in at 8 hours. this is the main criticism it has received, and i think that it is warranted if you are only a casual and curious beatles observer. however, if you are a student of the band’s history, it gives significant granularity to what happened during this critical era. nearly all of it had to be presented to show the true dynamics between the band members, and the pressure of the situation they were under. maybe it could have been trimmed an hour or so, but i was fine with the length. i watched one each night.
as opposed to the aforementioned tension, it seems clear to me that they were still great friends, but sometimes cracked under pressure. the original project was to write and record fourteen songs in about three weeks, perform a live concert immediately after that, and have the film and album released that summer. they were disciplined in the studio, and got through the stress by constantly joking around. that is a constant throughout all three episodes. sure, george quits the band at the end of the first episode. but he was trying to make a point and eventually they came around to him.
usually lennon gets the blame for the tension in the studios, but the footage presented here shows that it might have been mccartney. their previous manager died unexpectedly, and paul was trying to assert himself to keep things going. when pushed back on this, he said something to the effect that they needed a leader, and he was only doing it because no one else would. but i also think that he is the creative leader for this portion of their career, and the shots of them writing songs from scratch show that. others may see it differently.
as for yoko, she may get a little vindication here. it is pretty annoying in the first episode when she is sitting in a chair between john and paul all the time while they are playing. but she certainly isn’t intervening – she just sits there and writes or sows. as the episodes move on, she is barely involved or seen, and indeed linda eastman (later mccartney) is around a lot more. maybe yoko was more involved in the abbey road sessions, which were recorded later that summer, but she seems pretty benign here.

all in all i learned a lot. and i will probably watch it again in the not to distant future, to see if i pick up things i missed before. i would encourage you to at least watch the two trailers to get a feel for it. the first one here is from peter jackson from last year, explaining why the movie was being delayed, and the second is the official trailer for the final release.

enjoy.

seth james, ‘different hat’

we were introduced to seth james by guitarist bob britt, a good friend of the founder of the company i work for. when originally introducing him to our group, bob said something to the effect of ‘not only is he a great musician, but a great person as well’. in his subsequent interview i was convinced that bob was right. dressed in western gear and a big cowboy hat, he regaled us with his stories of growing up in west texas on a horse ranch, and the life lessons he learned there.

by looking at him, i was expecting that the music would be somewhere in the country vein, maybe even the red dirt country genre that is based in that area. but i really could not have been more wrong. growing up on that ranch, he didn’t have access to radio while on a horse. and so he listened to albums from a very wide swath of influences, from chicago blues, memphis r&b to new orleans funk.

and all those influences are readily apparent throughout the entire album of fourteen tracks. it opens with ‘mamarita’, a big funky song with a new orleans/dr. john style piano up in the mix. next up is ‘solid gold plated fool’, written by delbert mcclinton. if you are a fan of little feat, this will sound right to you. ‘she likes to run’ is a song where it is hard to tell if he is talking about a horse or a woman. ‘raisin’ kane’ is a cover of a j.j cale song that not even he recorded. it was a demo that was given to seth. and lord knows we could use some more j.j.cale in this world.

seth either writes or cowrites most of the songs here, and i think his work continues in the fashion of the great writers from texas. the overall arrangements are catchy and inviting. as mrs. redeyegin said, ‘i can dance to that’. the horn charts are great, and the backup singers provide even more punch.

seth is a long time fan of delbert mcclinton (even touring with him), and the band here is to a large degree borrowed from delbert (including bob britt on rhythm guitar). they sound like they have been playing together for a long time, mostly because they have. i think you will enjoy it.

emmylou harris and the nash ramblers, ‘ramble in music city – the lost concert’

many times in my life i will get an interest in a particular musician or genre and go down a rabbit hole for a while. i can’t remember exactly when i went down the bluegrass rabbit hole, but it was certainly in the early nineties, and one of the albums that likely triggered my interest was the 1992 grammy winning ‘at the ryman’ by emmylou harris and the nash ramblers. the concert’s and album’s high acclaim are given near-universal credit for the renewed interest in reviving the dilapidated ryman auditorium as an active venue after nearly 20 years of dormancy. soon after, the building was completely renovated and has since become a world-class concert hall.

although the band was not technically built as a bluegrass band (their grammy was for best country album), they incorporated a lot of bluegrass elements to many of the songs. emmylou harris had been touring with her ‘hot band’ lineup for a few years before this, and she wanted to go in a different direction. the ramblers were all acoustic, and featured a number of well known musicians, most notably sam bush on violin and mandolin, roy huskey jr. on bass, and al perkins on dobro and guitar. the vocal blendings were stunning. i could go on and on. it is a near perfect presentation and i never grow tired of it.

so i was pleasantly surprised as i was driving back from chicago a couple of weeks back and heard that they had a new release coming out. i was listening to the ‘buddy and jim show’ on the outlaw country sirius station, and they had most of the surviving members of the band being interviewed about circumstances around the recording. (by the way, if you are an americana genre fan, buddy miller and jim lauderdale are great hosts and you will learn so much). this show happened about a year earlier than the ryman show and has almost entirely different material. all the members had not remembered it being recorded and had forgotten about the show. an archivist from rhino records discovered the tapes about a year ago and brought it to emmylou’s attention. as she says in the liner notes, they didn’t have to fix anything. the recording (and the playing) were so good they left it as is.

it is a great companion piece to ‘at the ryman’. if you know that one, this is a no brainer. if you don’t, and you like emmylou, get both.

dig the hair!

road trip chronicles, volume 3: dead and company at wrigley field

as a huge baseball fan, wrigley field has always been on my bucket list of places to go. so even though it wasn’t for a baseball game, i thought i would go there this past weekend to catch a dead and company show. it was also a good chance to meet up with an old college buddy of mine. john had been living in chicago ever since we graduated in the mid eighties. so between the fact that we hadn’t seen each other in about a decade, and the fact that i knew he would be a good source to figure out some pre show activities, it seemed like it could have the makings of a great weekend.

i drove over saturday morning and got to his place early afternoon. we caught up on a few things and then headed down towards the vicinity of wrigley field and had some cocktails and an early dinner. it was a beautiful saturday afternoon and we got down to wrigleyville in plenty of time to start heading to the show.

it had rained the previous evening, so much so that friday night’s concert was suspended in the first set. but tonight it was perfect, and so it was just a matter of getting in the building and getting situated. my friend kevin had secured two pit tickets for us, but we decided to explore more of the floor seating and then settle in later. more on that in a bit.

we had been debating the merits of the song ‘althea’ in the bar before the show, and sure enough they opened with that. it’s funny how things happen like that at a dead show. overall it was a very good first set, including two of my favorites: ‘jack straw’ and ‘brown eyed women’. it ended unusually with ‘one more saturday night’, which normally is a second set closer or encore. when i texted that to a group of friends back home, one said that means you will have a great second set.

and it was. if you are a fan of the classic pairing of songs the dead generated in the seventies, then you would likely be very happy with the song selections. first up was ‘china cat sunflower’ going into ‘i know you rider’ (‘china/rider’), and then ‘estimated prophet’ going into ‘eyes of the world’ (‘estimated/eyes’). a drums/space interlude was capped by a late period garcia tune named ‘days between’, and then they finished the set with the classic trilogy of ‘help on the way/slipknot/franklin’s tower’. those are all favorites of mine and i am not sure i could have scripted it much better.

we never did make it into the pit. covid protocols required everyone to show proof of vaccinations, which we had. you had to show that to get into the building (you got a wristband for that), and then show proof again to get on the floor (another wristband for that) and then show proof again to get into the pit (even though i already had two wristbands to that effect). the security line to get in was very long, and it looked very crowded in there. it just wasn’t worth it.

but overall it was a great show, a great night, and great friends. well worth the trip. great to see you, john. let’s do this more often.

charlie

the world lost one of the great rock and roll drummers today. he was also one of my favorite drummers as well. in the world of rock drummers, there are at least two categories. there are the showy and bombastic power drummers, epitomized by the likes of john bonham, ginger baker, keith moon and so on. and then there is the type that are known for their innate sense of time – their ability to lay the rhythmic foundation of the song down to such a degree that the other band members always knew where to land. ringo starr and levon helm come to mind, but so do so many others. in fact there are more drummers in the latter category, primarily for two reasons. the first corresponds to the fact that it does not require a lot of skill to be a more traditional small kit drummer. but the more important reason is that the primary job of the drummer is to keep the beat. if you can do that, most bands will find value in your musicianship.

i bring this all up of course because charlie watts, who died today at the age of 80, was one of the icons of the latter camp above. he was the bedrock of the rolling stones’ rhythm section for the last 58 years, keeping time for arguably one of the best rock and roll bands ever. the accolades have come pouring in all day, and most reference his rock solid drumming, but also his elegance and warmth as an individual.

i tried to find some good videos to accompany this post, showing charlie’s drumming prowess, but nearly everything featured the ‘stars’ of the band – keith and mick. charlie could always be seen in the background pounding away at his small four or five piece kit, but never being focused on. and he probably always preferred it that way. he didn’t really like the rock and roll lifestyle, especially being out on the road, but he did love to play.

although charlie was not in the press like his more flamboyant bandmates, there is no question that he commanded the respect of them. all members are on record for giving immense praise to his contribution to their overall sound and live performances. keith richards has been quoted often saying that ‘charlie’s drumming is the bed i lay in’.

there is a great story about a time when they were on tour, and mick called his hotel room late at night after a big party session, and yelled ‘where’s my drummer?’. charlie hung up, got out of bed and shaved, put on a suit and tie, then went down to the party room and punched jagger in the face, saying ‘don’t ever call me your drummer again. you are my f**cking singer’. mick apologized. he knew his place.

rest in peace, charlie.