it has been over five years since mark knopfler’s last record, and i think it is a great addition to his catalog. as he ages, each successive release gets a little mellower, but his songwriting and guitarwork are still very much there, and there is a nice variety of genres to keep things interesting.

the album and the title track both reference the river tyne, which bisects his childhood home of newcastle. the cover depicts the bridge that traverses the river, the same river he crossed in 1973 after he left his wife and his job to move to london to seek out his musical career. he recalls that moment on ‘watch me gone’.

many of the stories seem to be looking back in time, either true or fictional. ‘tunnel 13’ is a real life tale of a train robbery gone bad, and ‘sweeter than the rain’ seems to try to reconstruct a difficult encounter with a past partner.

he assembled a large batch of musicians who have played with him before and the sound is very comfortable and inspired. it was recorded in his british grove studio, one of the highest end studios in england.

as the spring weather is breaking, this is a good one to put on at the end of the day with your favorite beverage (or two).

off to new orleans later this week for jazzfest, and i hope to come back with some good discoveries.

as i mentioned in my last post, this is the point of time in the year when i tend to hibernate in the redeyegin mancave and get into some books. so i am going to give a quick summary of a few i have finished since then, and then i hope to move back to my more traditional new music release reviews. i have a few on the shelf for you.

so here are four for your consideration, in the order i read them:

‘george harrison – the reluctant beatle’, philip norman

this is a new biography of george, released late last year, and it is the first one i have read of him. this is the author’s fourth book on the group, having already written an accounting of the group as a whole (‘shout’), and a biography of lennon and mccartney. i found it to be fair and informative, showing george’s strengths and weaknesses (a common theme you will find in all of these books). it also spends a decent amount of time focusing on george being the outsider in the creative structure of the beatle’s songwriting process (obviously dominated by lennon and mccartney), and how it was eventually one of the pivotal issues that led to the group’s demise.

and it gives a strong background on his life after the beatles, a span much longer and fulfilling for him than the time he spent in that band. of all of the members of that group, george’s first solo album - ‘all things must pass’ – was the most commercially successful and has withstood the test of time the best, in my opinion. you will also learn about his spiritualism and his charitable work, most notably the ‘concert for bangladesh’ and all the money it raised for the humanitarian crisis of the time.

it does not pull any punches on his personal life, specifically with his various wives. if you are familiar with the history of his marriage to patty boyd, and the entanglement that ensued with his best friend eric clapton (‘layla’ was partially based on the affair), then you will find the details here interesting.

all in all i learned a lot about the most misunderstood beatle, and have a greater appreciation for the man and his music.

‘scattershot’ – bernie taupin

of all these selections here, i think i can safely say i enjoyed this one the most. i think most people who might be reading this know of bernie, but if you do not, he is the less famous of the songwriting duo that wrote some of the more memorable songs of the seventies and eighties – elton john being the other half.

he is less famous for a number of reasons, not the least of which being that elton was an international superstar and sang and performed all the songs. bernie wrote all the lyrics and was usually in the studio when they recorded, and often travelled with the band on tour, but he was not out in the spotlight. the other main reason was that he was a fairly private person and did not seek that spotlight. that is why his autobiography was highly anticipated and does not disappoint.

you learn about his hardscrabble upbringing, how he met elton, and how they quickly bonded and toiled in the songwriting stables of london in the early sixties for years, until they finally hit it big with ‘your song’. you learn of their skyrocketing success of the seventies and all the excesses that were typical of rock bands at that time, and how their friendship was part of what kept it all together.

as with the harrison book, you also get a glimpse of his post elton life, be it the horse rancher, starting his own band and touring the states, and his success as a sculpture artist.

he is quite honest about his failings, but i get the impression of a person who tried to make the world a better place, and certainly a life well lived.

‘all the leaves are brown – how the mamas and the papas came together and fell apart’ – scott shea

the title pretty much tells it all, as this is a book about one of the more iconic groups of the late sixties and early seventies. how they all came from completely different backgrounds and somehow found their way into the musical vanguard of that turbulent era.

like most musical groups who eventually hit it big, theirs is a story of barely surviving for years until they caught on nationally with the huge hit – ‘california dreaming’. it is also a story about how greed and excesses can quickly consume whatever talent they did have. one day they are living out of their cars in los angeles, and in less than a year they are raking in tons of money and hobnobbing with the beatles and stones on their tour of england, and basically entering the upper atmosphere of rock cognoscenti.

and then the infighting over money, the drugs, and the affairs started quickly tearing the group apart. at least part of why it fell apart so quickly was that none of the members had much of a moral compass, some less than others. cass elliot, denny doherty, and john and michelle phillips all obviously had musical talent and drive. but none of them were able to stay sober enough to keep the fire going for very long. they really only put out a few albums, none as good as the first. when they started running out of money, a half hearted reunion was tried, but all of them eventually went their separate ways, with only marginal success (michelle actually became an actress and had a very good run with that the rest of her life – she is the only surviving member).

there is some great musical history here, which i always love to consume, especially the background of the famous monterey pop festival, of which john phillips was one of the main organizers and promoters.

but i looked forward to finishing it, as it became more and more depressing as it went on. i will say that the accounting in here of john phillips’ life (and that is the main focus – he was the leader of the group) is not pretty. he was a despicable human being, and it is well documented here. cass elliot to me comes off the best, and she was probably the most talented.

so this might not be the one i recommend, but maybe you love that group and want to learn more about them.

‘the magic years – scenes from a rock and roll life’ – jonathan taplin

this is an interesting biography of a man who seemed to be in the right place at the right time for most of his life. from his middle class upbringing in shaker heights, ohio to his days in east coast boarding schools and then princeton. there he would eventually become associated with bob dylan and al grossman as bob was about to embark on his transformative rock tour after the newport folk festival . he would help manage that, where he got introduced to robbie robertson. from there he went on to eventually manage the band and their tours for years. he would meet janis and jimi at the monterey pop festival, and basically be just about everywhere in the seventies, including being an integral part of the production of the band’s ‘last waltz’ concert and eventual film. there he met martin scorsese, which was a gateway for him into the movie producing field, and he toiled in that space moderately successfully for quite some time. it goes on and on. it moves quickly and was highly entertaining, especially early on. a child of the sixties, he is still infused with the culture it inspired, but i felt that he started to weave in his social commentaries more and more as the book wore on. as his life moved away from the music industry and more into high finance in his later years, the political commentary wore me down a bit. but it is his book and life, and i can roll with that. as with bernie taupin’s book, this was obviously a life well lived. oh the stories he can tell.

hat tip to my friend roger on this last book.

bonus:

while writing my rough drafts for this post, i took some time to take in the recent documentary on willie nelson. i found to be very well done and i learned a lot about the man. he is a national treasure.

i don’t watch much television, other than sports. so once the baseball season is over (and once my team is eliminated, the season is over), i tend to start reading books more often. so for my music fans, here are a few i read recently that i thought were worth sharing.

jeff tweedy – ‘world within a song’

this one just came out last week. i received it the first day it was out and finished it within about 36 hours. i really liked jeff’s first two books, but i really think this is his best. he is of course the founder of the band wilco, and before that uncle tupelo. this is somewhat similar to the book dylan put out just about a year ago (‘the philosophy of modern song’) in that he spends most of the book talking about ‘music that changed my life and life that changed my music’. the main difference is the latter part of that equation. jeff goes off on tangents both in song descriptions and sidebar chapters where he ties in small vignettes from his personal life. as in his previous two books, he is quite open about his passions and his weaknesses. there are about 50 songs that are commented upon and, unlike dylan’s book, he can be both effusive in his praise for some and downright damning of others (he eviscerates bon jovi’s ‘wanted dead or alive’). he is considered one of the more original and prolific songwriters out there, but what he shows here is that he is also a very good prose writer. he is very capable of describing what inspiration he derives from a song, and usually sprinkles in his true knack for dry humor. similar to dylan’s book, i only knew about half the songs he writes about, and i immediately started reading it again – the second time by my computer where i could pull up the songs on youtube and learn them for myself. of course i love to listen to music, but i also love to learn about the artists and the music making process itself, and so i really enjoyed this one.

holly gleason – ‘prine on prine’

this one came out a little over a month or so ago. my dad is a big fan of his, and he turned me on to this one. holly gleason is music journalist, amongst other titles, and she also served as john’s manager for a number of years. this is essentially a series of interviews and articles that have been written with or about john prine over the course of his career, and holly weaves them together with editorial notes. i have been a fan of john’s for decades, and so i was looking forward to learning more about him. he really did have an amazing and blessed life, and holly is able to use this source material to flesh the details out for the reader. the main problem i started to have is that many of the stories that were told about him started repeating many of the details of his life, especially the early years. for most of his career he was a bit of a cult figure, and so when these writers were trying to help introduce him to a larger audience, they felt the need to tell how he was discovered in a small bar in chicago by kris kristofferson, who introduced him to jerry wexler who flew him to new york the next week and signed him to a record contract right then. i am not exaggerating when i say that this story is repeated at least a dozen times in the book. and this is just one example. after a while i just skipped over that part of the story and moved on to see if the writer had something else to offer (which they usually did).

the other aspect that turned me off a bit was trying to make john out to be some highly politically motivated individual. he was not shy about his opinions, but when pressed he usually tried to make the songs speak for themselves. you could argue that ‘sam stone’ was an anti war song, and maybe it is a little bit. but most of his characters are people on the outside of society looking in, and that is where his true songwriting talents lie. he could get inside of their mind and let us know what they were thinking, and let the listener interpret that on their own.

but the true prine fans will be able to get past both of those issues (if you indeed think they are issues at all) and get to know a man who was really one of a kind. he has been gone nearly four years now, and the world could still use a man like him around now.

alan paul – ‘brothers and sisters’

‘brothers and sisters’ was the most commercially successful album the allman brothers ever put out, and this book attempts to chronicle the history of the recording of said album, but also the dynamics of the band before, during, and after the sessions. it also looks to describe some of the things that were happening in the music world at the time, and the effect the album had on both. whether it be the hedonistic lifestyles, the history of capricorn records, jimmy carter’s presidential campaign, or the bizarre relationship between gregg allman and cher, the author has the goods and delivers. it is extremely well researched and written. for grateful dead fans, he spends a lot of time on the unique relationship with the two bands – from their legendary shows at the fillmore east promoted by bill graham, to the largest concert ever at watkins glen in 1973. (as a side note i might mention that mrs. redeyegin and i were at watkins glen last week, total population around 2,000. as we drove into town we both began to understand how a half million people descending into the valley would have caused the chaos that it did.)

alan paul is undisputedly the gold standard on this band’s history, and he timed the book to come out on the 50th anniversary of the album this past august. fans of the band will likely enjoy it, as well as his more comprehensive history of them, ‘one way out’.

lucinda williams – ‘don’t tell anybody the secrets i told you’

this one i actually read back in may during my trip to jazzfest in new orleans. lucinda has had an amazing career, and i have been a big fan of hers for a long time. like many, i discovered her when her breakthrough album ‘car wheels on a gravel road’ came out, and i have been dedicated to her career ever since. as with most musician memoir/autobiographies, she starts early in her youth and takes us up all the way through her present career. it is a pretty thorough and honest presentation, and she gives credit where credit is due. but she also pulls no punches, especially when she speaks of her early days as a solo female artist trying to break through into the music industry. she never compromised, and paid the price for a long time. she had a rough family life, and troubled boyfriends and marriages along the way. but her strong spirit and amazing talent eventually prevailed, and now she has the universal respect amongst the singer songwriter generations that have followed her, much like the aforementioned john prine does today. her dad was an author and a poet, and lucinda seems to channel that and does a great job delivering what she wants the world to know about herself.

i love this band. i think i was an early adopter and caught them right after their first album came out and dutifully followed them through the next few albums, saw them live once, and then they seemed to fall off the face of the earth. there seemed to be lots of rumors about broken marriages and alcohol abuse, and then the pandemic. but i started to hear glimmers of hope that they were coming back about a year ago, and they have now put out their first album in about six years, and i quickly picked it up as soon as it came out.

for those familiar with the band from the red dirt country of oklahoma, i think you will find this a welcome release. produced by shooter jennings (waylon’s son) at the legendary fame studios in muscle shoals alabama, it is a really great return to form for the entire band.

it became clear early on in their evolution that their lead singer and songwriter, evan felker, was becoming a key to their signature sound. he really has a knack for turning a phrase and painting pictures. but maybe just as importantly, crafting the lyrics to not only be clever, but lyrical as well. what i mean by that is that the songs are just so damn infectious. and for the most part he returns to form here. it is by now no secret that the main issue that they were facing in their hiatus was evan’s drinking problem, and he spends some time in some of the songs reflecting on that. but his new sobriety brings a clearer eye to his perspective on life, and we are all better for it.

this is not to diminish anything from the rest of this great band. they are all great musicians in their own right and work very cohesively here, as good as they have ever been. in fact, the vocal harmonies on this album are arguably more inclusive and better than on anything they have done before.

this is an album that will sound pretty good the first time you here it, and will get better upon repeated listening, especially as you try to better understand the tales that are being woven.

welcome back boys, and i hope to see you on the road soon.