video

reviews of things i have watched

‘deliver me from nowhere’ – warren zanes

this is the book that the current movie by the same name showing in theaters around the country is based on. the movie looked interesting and my friend who suggested the book to me only a week or two before the movie was debuting assured me that it was a pretty quick but very good read. he was right on both accounts.

the premise of the book is to do a deep dive into the making of his album ‘nebraska’. it doesn’t spend a great deal of ink on the rest of his career – there are plenty of other books that can help you there. the author is of the impression that this is his most important work in many ways, and makes a very good case throughout the book. bruce had just had his biggest commercial success so far in 1980 with ‘the river’, and was under some pressure after the tour promoting the album to follow up with another release.

but as the book and the movie make clear, bruce was exhausted from the tour, and on top of that was beginning to deal with some inner demons. he rented a place in a small town in new jersey with the idea that he would buckle down and start writing some songs. his roadie set him up with a fairly new tape machine that could add four track recording onto a standard cassette tape you could buy in a drug store at the time.

the solitude led to an outpouring of creativity but also a wellspring of emotions revolving around his troubled childhood in freehold, new jersey, which was just down the road. i will let the book and the movie flesh out more of the details here, but the songs that he was writing here were starting to break down into two categories – a handful of tunes that were more on the possible commercial side (and many would eventually show up on the the ‘born in the u.s.a’ album), but then at least a dozen that were much darker in material and characters.

it is this latter batch of songs that would eventually be the basis for the ‘nebraska’ album. and the album would eventually use the tracks he made on that cassette tape in the bedroom of that rental, crude as they were. against great market pressure, bruce was adamant to release it as is with no marketing, tour, or press.

i am not the biggest bruce fan around – i was into him quite a bit early on, but started to lose interest in the late eighties. but i do think that ‘nebraska’ is certainly one of my favorites, and so the story was very compelling to me.

i finished the book this morning, and went to see the movie in the local theater this afternoon. i was glad i read the book first, but also glad to see the movie. i think that it also helped that i relistened to the album all the way through about three times while reading the book. the book helped to prepare me for a lot of the material and topics in the movie. i think that the movie was well done – emotional and well acted. obviously there is a lot in the book that did not make it to the big screen, and there are parts in the movie that are not in the book (probably the biggest one being a focus on his relationship to a local waitress at a diner in town). i don’t think you need to read the book to appreciate the movie. but if you enjoy the latter, maybe you might be interested enough to circle back on the book.

hat tip to kevin for the suggestion.

jeff beck, ‘still on the run’

i was a bit stunned when i heard the news yesterday that jeff beck had passed on to that great rock and roll band in the sky. i don’t profess to say i was a huge fan of his – in other words having all of his albums and following his long career. but i do have a few treasured albums of his, with certain songs showing up often in my playlists. and i certainly respect and admire his long and varied career as a pioneer in the evolution of the blues guitar. from his early days in the yardbirds and a significant player in the british invasion, including the earlier forays as a solo artist, to his heavily instrumental (pun intended) influence on the 70’s jazz/rock fusion movement, he has been a force to be reckoned with.

in some of the several articles i read today about him, the documentary shown below was recommended as a great summary of his life and career. i just finished watching, and i can agree wholeheartedly and can recommend spending 90 minutes in tribute to him. it is amazing how many artists he has influenced. one could argue that if it was not for jeff beck, you likely would never know who rod stewart is, to name just one example.

this is one my favorite songs (an outtake i believe) off of one of my favorite albums of his (“truth”), and was thinking about it last night, but never teed it up. i was running on my treadmill early this morning to one of my random playlists which has at least 1600 songs on it. at about the 20 minute mark of my workout it showed up as the next selection. you can’t make this shit up.

one of the things that was covered extensively in the documentary was the collaborations he did with so many artists – many without any credits on the album – and this is one of my favorites:

as my brother steve texted me last night, one of the biggest blues guitarist fans i know – ‘they don’t make them like that anymore’.

january blues

if, like me, you find yourself lying low like i have for the last few weeks, i may have a few viewing suggestions. these are just a few random documentaries that i have run across since thanksgiving. no particular theme, and in no particular order. i have not bought any new music for a while (i got some great books for christmas, though), so i thought i would just generate a short post to throw these out there to you.

‘revival: the sam bush story’

a star studded tribute to, in my opinion, the best mandolin player on the planet.

‘the velvet underground’

a very innovative look at an underrated band. if you are a fan of them like i am, then i think you will enjoy this. one of my favorite observations was when someone said that only a few thousand people bought their legendary ‘loaded’ album, but they all started a rock and roll band.

‘summer of soul’

some great music. very entertaining, but also very informative. i learned a lot about what was going on in the harlem community (and around the country) in the late sixties.

‘gordon lighfoot: if you could read my mind’

an honest look at one of the great songwriters of the sixties and seventies.

hope you enjoy them. what are you watching?

‘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.

mccartney 3-2-1

just a quick little post to bring your attention to an interesting series that has been showing on hulu for a couple of weeks now. it features the legendary producer rick rubin interviewing paul mccartney in a studio setting. they explore and dissect various tracks from the beatles’ catalogue, as well as some of paul’s solo material. they also delve into the history of the band, their relationships, and then their ultimate demise. paul is candid but respectful. i gained new found respect for ringo. i think my favorite element is how he describes how creative and revolutionary they were in the studio, always supported by their longtime producer george martin. broken up into 6 bite size episodes, i think every beatles fan will find it useful.

at the very least it is a good appetizer for the much awaited documentary coming out soon by peter jackson – ‘get back’.

hat tip to freddie…..