Tom Petty's Damn The Torpedoes Gets The Classic Albums Treatment


DVD Review: Tom Petty And The Heartbreakers: Damn The Torpedoes (Classic Albums Series)

Tom Petty And The Heartbreakers' classic third album, 1979's Damn the Torpedoes, is the latest to receive the in-depth, behind-the-scenes treatment of Eagle Rock's excellent Classic Albums DVD series. Previous entries in the series include everything from the Doors' landmark debut to (most recently) Black Sabbath's heavy metal masterpiece, Paranoid.

What makes this series so great is the way that it gives you a ringside seat into the way that such groundbreaking rock and roll albums were created in the studio, as well as filling in the blanks of exactly how the artists involved got there in the first place. This entry for Petty's Damn The Torpedoes is no exception.

With this roughly one-hour presentation (not counting the extras), brand new interviews with producers Jimmy Iovine and Shelly Yakus, as well as with Petty and members of the Heartbreakers themselves, transport you back to the heady late seventies period when the band was making what was then their "make or break" third record — which would ultimately come to be regarded, and rightfully — as a rock and roll classic. Producer Jimmy Iovine, who was an obvious believer in the Heartbreakers' potential from the get-go, provides particularly revealing insight.

"I'm a great believer in third albums," the producer explains, pointing to Bruce Springsteen's Born to Run and Patti Smith's Easter (the latter of which he was directly involved in) as just two of the more obvious examples.

Petty himself describes the album's subsequent success as the point where "the dam burst, and nothing was ever going to be the same again." At another point, keyboardist Benmont Tench describes calling the local radio station and disguising his voice in the process to request his song, only to be told "we don't play that shit."

Although the details of what got Petty and his band of "goober rednecks in velvet clothes" (Tench's description) there in the first place are a little less telling here, the basic story of Petty's journey from Gainesville, Florida to L.A. in search of a record deal is retold in brief, but vivid detail.

Interspersed with all of the in-studio details of the recording process (which, as is the norm with this series, take place behind a recording console) are some all-too-brief snippets of Tom Petty And The Heartbreakers live from this same period performing such chestnuts as "Even The Losers," "American Girl," "Listen To Her Heart" and "Refugee" in concert.



The DVD extras here (which most likely wont be seen when this airs as the inevitable one-hour special on VH1 Classic) include the original TV commercial for Damn The Torpedoes and Heartbreakers' guitarist Mike Campbell discussing the 12-string Rickenbacker guitar that Petty is pictured holding on the now iconic album jacket ("probably the best $150 I ever spent").

To be sure, a lot of this is mostly nerdy stuff that will appeal mainly to tech-heads and rock historians who uniquely appreciate what goes into the making of a rock and roll classic. But there is just enough of the backstory here to appeal to the rest of us as well.

In short, this is another fine entry in Eagle Rock's Classic Albums DVD series, and Tom Petty's Damn The Torpedoes is the sort of rock and roll classic that more than warrants the inclusion.

Neil Young Is Chasing Double Rainbows

Mark Olson's Quietly Elegant Romantic Folk-Pop

Music Review: Mark Olson - Many Colored Kite

For his first solo album since 2007's The Salvation Blues — as well as his first since reuniting with ex-Jayhawks partner Gary Louris for 2009's Ready For The Flood — Mark Olson seems to have rediscovered his inner romantic.

Many of the songs on Many Colored Kite share the same themes of heartbreak and regret that dominated The Salvation Blues, an album at least partially inspired by his divorce from ex-wife and Creekdippers bandmate Victoria Williams. But even on these, Olson colors this regret with a new-found, almost glowy sort of optimism. His voice also sounds better than ever.

Part of this could be due to the fact that on many of these great new songs, the sweet-sounding, Burritos-era Gram Parsons inspired folk-pop harmonies are shared with his girlfriend, multi-instrumentalist Ingunn Ringwold.

On songs like the title track and "Bluebell Song," these same harmonies also recall those between Olson and Louris on such Jayhawks albums as Hollywood Town Hall and the best songs from them like "Take Me With You (When You Go)." The arrangements may be a bit smaller here, but there's no mistaking the same lush romanticism found on those great records.

On "Wind And Rain" Olson splices lines like, "I won't ever deceive you babe," with spoken-word memories of a drive through rural Nebraska, conjuring the sort of pastel images of a distant, but simpler time found in the paintings of Norman Rockwell's America.

Mostly, though, the songs found on Many Colored Kite find Mark Olson walking a fine line between wistful yearning and guarded optimism. On the opening "Little Bird Of Freedom," for example, he views his life through a rear-view window in lyrics like, "These are the days we remember," even as he eyes the open road ahead when he sings, "Our life is a river." He takes this sentiment deeper still on "Morning Dove," a beautiful solo acoustic performance, with the simple lyric, "Be still, we can know our lives are true."

Mark Olson's Many Colored Kite is beautiful, quietly elegant folk-pop at its finest, painted with all the strokes of a true Americana master. Maybe we should just make this guy an ambassador or something.

R.I.P. Ben Keith 1937-2010

Ben Keith, the multi-instrumentalist and producer best known for his work with Neil Young for nearly four decades, has died at the age of 73.

In addition to being Neil Young's pedal steel guitarist on albums like Harvest and Harvest Moon (which he also co-produced with Young), Keith was the primary musical collaborator on a number of albums spread throughout Young's legendary career, including Tonight's The Night, Time Fades Away, American Stars And Bars, Comes A Time, Prairie Wind, and Chrome Dreams II. Keith also played pedal steel with a number of Young's touring bands including the Santa Monica Flyers, International Harvesters, and most notably the Stray Gators.

Ben Keith was first tapped in 1972 by Neil Young to work with him on what would end up being Young's biggest selling album, the worldwide #1 smash, Harvest. After a chance meeting in Nashville, where he was taping a broadcast of The Johnny Cash Show, Young was introduced to Keith by bassist Tim Drummond.
Along with Drummond and drummer Kenny Buttrey, Young and Keith then formed the Stray Gators and began a concert tour to promote the Harvest album, which later carried over into shows featuring the newer, less radio-friendly songs eventually documented on the 1973 live album Time Fades Away.

Keith stayed on with Neil Young for the dark masterpiece Tonight's The Night and remained a constant on his albums from that point forward. Eventually the Stray Gators officially reformed for the Harvest "sequel," 1992's classic Harvest Moon album. At the time of his death, Ben Keith had been staying at Neil Young's California ranch and working on Neil's upcoming new album with producer Daniel Lanois.

In addition to his work with Neil Young, Ben Keith has worked with such artists as Todd Rundgren, Waylon Jennings, Linda Ronstadt, The Band, Ringo Starr, and Jewel (Keith produced her multi-platinum seller Pieces Of You). Most recently, Ben Keith played on the Foul Deeds album by Neil Young's wife Pegi and had just last month completed a short West Coast club tour with the Pegi Young Band supporting Bert Jansch.





As early reports of Keith's passing first began surfacing on the Internet late yesterday, there were few details about the nature or even the exact time of his death. However, in a Los Angeles Times report published earlier today, film director Jonathan Demme, who filmed both Young and Keith in the concert documentaries Heart Of Gold and Neil Young's Trunk Show, says that Keith died of a heart attack.

Speaking about Ben Keith in the same article, Demme said that Keith was “an elegant, beautiful dude, and obviously a genius. He could play every instrument. He was literally the bandleader on any of that stuff… Neil has all the confidence in the world, but with Ben on board, there were no limits. Neil has a fair measure of the greatness of his music, but he knew he was even better when Ben was there.”

Neil Young himself acknowledged Ben Keith's passing onstage at a concert in Winnipeg this past Monday night. Dedicating the song "Old Man" to his friend and longtime collaborator, Young said "This is for Ben Keith. His spirit will live on. The Earth has taken him."

As of this writing, there has been no official statement from Ben Keith's family, or any word on a funeral service.

This article was first published as R.I.P. Ben Keith 1937-2010 at Blogcritics Magazine.

How The "Third Elvis" Became The Comeback King

Book Review: Return of the King: Elvis Presley's Great Comeback by Gillian G. Gaar

When it comes to Elvis Presley, most people tend to remember him in two distinct eras. One, as the rebellious rock and roll firebrand who forever changed the face of American culture with songs like "Heartbreak Hotel," even as he shocked the older generation with his appearances on television programs like The Ed Sullivan Show (shot from the waist up as they were).

The other Elvis we remember more sadly is, of course, the bloated, more Vegas-y caricature of himself he had become in the years leading up to his death. It's not at all surprising that when America chose to honor the King with a postage stamp, they chose the former, far sexier Elvis over the latter.

But Seattle based author Gillian G. Gaar's Return Of The King explores another Elvis altogether. For lack of a better description, you could call this third version of Elvis the "comeback Elvis." In this very well written and researched book, Gaar conducts new interviews with longtime fans and associates to gain a better perspective on Elvis' comeback period from roughly 1968-1971.

During his carefully crafted, latter-day resurgence — which began with the now legendary 1968 NBC TV Special most now refer to as "the comeback special" — the King would record what many feel to be some of the strongest work of his career in songs like "In The Ghetto" and "Suspicious Minds," and albums like From Elvis In Memphis.

By 1967, after a string of bad movies accompanied by equally lackluster soundtrack albums, the once mighty "King Of Rock And Roll" had become largely irrelevant. With the sixties' rise of the Beatles, followed in short order by Bob Dylan and the psychedelic rock of groups like the Doors and Jefferson Airplane, the youth of America by now regarded Elvis as outdated and uncool — a fact of which the King himself was painfully aware.

In Return Of The King, Gaar revisits how an interesting group of players ranging from Elvis' notoriously controlling manager Col. Tom Parker to record company and television executives engineered his miraculous, if brief, artistic comeback — even as they often seemed to be working against each other. Garr paints a particularly vivid picture of the intimate concerts taped in the NBC studios that would become the comeback special.

For fans, her detailed, song-by-song descriptions of these shows are the real collective high point of the book. They instantly transport you there in such a way as to send you scrambling to dust off that old DVD copy of the 1968 comeback show.

Equally interesting are behind-the-scenes accounts of the various attempts by Parker and others to water down the presentation in such a way as to potentially sabotage it. The backstage stories of a very nervous pre-show Elvis (he repeatedly asks anyone willing to listen if "you think they'll like me?"), reveal a far more insecure and even vulnerable King Of Rock And Roll than one would normally picture in such a towering figure of American culture.

Gaar also recounts the American Studios sessions for From Elvis In Memphis, an album many regard to be his finest. As was the case with the comeback special, Parker and various RCA suits nearly derail the album over issues like publishing rights. But ultimately producer Chips Moman, along with the seasoned crew of Nashville session musicians, is able to rein the session and the egos in by asserting control in a way that Elvis was previously unaccustomed to. Here again, Gaar's detailed account of the sessions is an eye-opener.

From there, Return Of The King jumps right off into Elvis' subsequent decline, following the triumphs of 1968-1971. What's never fully explained here is how or why Elvis' allowed this to happen after fighting so hard to regain control of his career, and especially after winning that battle. Exactly why the same record company practice of glutting the market with inferior product is repeated — particularly after it had already come close to destroying his career once before — is never really made clear, nor is why Elvis himself once again surrendered complete control over these decisions to Parker and others.

What does become clear though is that it had a deep personal impact on Elvis. In mostly shutting himself out from the outside world, he became bored artistically, and deeply depressed and lonely on a personal level. In a modern-day context, perhaps Michael Jackson provides the closest comparison to this sort of isolation.

Return Of The King is also dotted with numerous interesting anecdotes about Elvis along the way, such as how he originally met George "Dr. Nick" Nichopoulos, and how Parker deep-sixed a deal that would have given Elvis a much coveted serious acting role alongside Barbra Streisand in A Star Is Born. Garr also devotes nearly an entire chapter to the infamous story of Elvis' meeting with then President Richard Nixon to offer his services in the War On Drugs (as it turns out, all he wanted was the badge).

Return Of The King is a well written and researched effort by Gaar, that also contains just enough new information to qualify as a welcome addition to any Elvis fan's library. It is also one of the more engrossing reads about Elvis' "comeback years" to come down the pike in awhile.

This review was first published as Book Review: Return of the King: Elvis Presley's Great Comeback by Gillian G. Gaar at Blogcritics Magazine.

Even After All These Years, They've Still Got The Blues

Music Review: Various Artists - This Is The Blues (Volumes 3 & 4)

As was the case with the first two installments of this series (both were released last month), the third and fourth volumes of Eagle Records' This Is The Blues bring together the cream of the original British blues/rock crop. Jeff Beck, Mick Taylor, Jack Bruce and members of several classic rock bands most popular in the sixties and seventies — groups like Uriah Heep, Jethro Tull, Ten Years After, Humble Pie and Foghat — are among those who pay tribute here to the blues.

Like the previous two volumes of the series, these two discs also lean heavily on the work of blues legends like John Lee Hooker and Willie Dixon, as well as that of one of British blues/rock's own in original Fleetwood Mac guitarist Peter Green.

So this is really more of a classic rock treatment of the blues than the more authentic experience many blues purists might be seeking. That's the disclaimer. Even so, as evidenced by the many fine live concert videos this label is best known for (by many of the same artists represented here), nobody does classic blues/rock quite like Eagle Rock. They have once again done a fine job here.

The thirty songs heard over these two discs are all drawn from a series of tribute recordings produced by Peter Brown that include Clarksdale to Heaven: Remembering John Lee Hooker and Rattlesnake Guitar: The Music Of Peter Green. This somewhat explains the curious inclusion of the British guitar great being celebrated in the same company as American blues legends like Hooker.

With that said, there's a lot of really great music to be found here. Peter Green himself kicks things off by invoking the dark growl of John Lee Hooker's "Crawlin' King Snake," followed in short order by a version of Green's "If You Be My Baby" featuring Foghat's Lonesome Dave Peverett and Rod Price, as well as New Jersey's own Southside Johnny Lyon on mouth harp.

From there comes something of a "whatever happened to?" moment as the original rhythm section of Ten Years After — bassist Leo Lyons and drummer Ric Lee — back up vocalist/guitarist Vince Converse on a tasty version of Hooker's "Bad Like Jesse James." Blues guitar whiz Gary Moore and Cream bassist Jack Bruce likewise collaborate on a slowly simmering version of Hooker's "Serves You Right To Suffer."

For Peter Green's "Showbiz Blues" (which is said to have been inspired by the notoriously reclusive guitarist's disdain towards the music business), Irish guitarist Rory Gallagher picks up the bluesy pace by letting things rip a bit more with both his guitar and vocal.

Returning to the "whatever happened to?" department for a moment are former Humble Pie guitarist Clem Clempson with a bluesy rendition of "I've Got News For You," former Jethro Tull guitarist Mick Abrahams with "The Same Way," and former Uriah Heep keyboardist Ken Hensley (who also turns in some nice slide guitar) on Robert Johnson's "Hellhound On My Trail." Volume 3 of This Is The Blues closes with Jeff Beck turning in his always stunning guitar work, backed here by the Kingdom Choir on a gospel rave-up of "Will The Circle Be Unbroken."

The fourth volume of the series kicks off with more fine slide work from former Stones' guitarist Mick Taylor on the blues-shuffle "This Is Hip." The Pretty Things (anybody remember them?) contribute another standout with a version of "Judgment Day" that rocks more than just about any other track found on these two discs. British blues shouter Maggie Bell (who, like the Pretty Things, is another largely forgotten alumnus of Led Zeppelin's Swan Song label) also shows she's still got it on "Blind Man," tastefully backed by guitarist Big Jim Sullivan.

On one of the more curious tracks here, Jethro Tull's Ian Anderson delivers a very folky, very British sounding take on Green's "Man Of The World," complete with his signature flute. It sounds fine and all, but also kind of stands out like a sore thumb amongst all the bluesier fare otherwise found here.

Equally strange is original British wildman Arthur "I Am The God Of Hellfire" Brown's avant blues/jazz/metal rendering of Green's "The Green Manalishi." Brown's vocal sounds far closer to Judas Priest's Rob Halford's version than it does to Green's original — but I still like it. A lot, actually.

It's primarily due to the strange, but interesting placement of more eclectic sounding tracks like those by Brown and Anderson (amongst the more straightforward blues and rock offerings found here) that I can heartily recommend these latest two volumes of This Is The Blues.

It's also nice to see such strong performances from all these largely forgotten guys from bands like Humble Pie, Uriah Heep and Ten Years After. They've mostly all still got it even after all these years too.

A Beatles Book For Tech-heads and Fab Fanatics Alike

Book Review: Beatles Gear: All the Fab Four's Instruments from Stage to Studio by Andy Babiuk

At first blush, Andy Babiuk's exhaustively researched Beatles Gear might seem like a book with somewhat limited appeal, even to the most diehard Beatles fan.

While it is true that in many respects, this detailed study of the musical instruments used by history's most celebrated rock group is geared most towards tech-heads — there is also a lot to like here for those of us who may not know the difference between a Rickenbacker and a Les Paul.

For starters, if you love the Beatles at all (and who doesn't?) the pictures in this book will quite simply take your breath away. Beatles Gear is lavishly illustrated with hundreds of beautiful photographs of the Beatles' musical tools of the trade. In addition to what fans would expect — such as McCartney's violin-shaped Hofner bass, Lennon's trademark Rickenbacker, George's Gretsch hollow-body, and Ringo's Ludwig drum kit — many of these photos are rarer, never-before-seen shots of the less historically celebrated instruments owned at one time or another by the Fabs.

Many of these previously unpublished photos were obtained through auctions and other means. There is also a multitude of shots featuring the Beatles themselves, many of which capture the group practicing their craft both onstage and in the studio.

Babiuk's text, while rich with the sort of detail that is sure to make any self-respecting musical gear-head's mouth water, also unfolds in a chronological, easy-to-follow order that even the most technically challenged Beatles fan will find engaging. While the focus here is definitely on the gear, Babiuk's narrative also doubles as a history of the band from their earliest days (and instruments) in such incarnations as the Quarrymen to the their final days together at Abbey Road studios and, of course, the breakup which eventually shocked the music world.

In addition to the Beatles themselves, Babiuk's story also covers the Beatles' most important musical associates and accomplices — from George Martin and Alan Parsons to Billy Preston and Eric Clapton. Side projects like Lennon's Plastic Ono Band and Harrison's experiments with both Indian and electronic music also receive considerable ink — revealing that while Lennon and McCartney may have been the band's creative force, it was probably George who was the most purely musical Beatle.

There are also new details on some of the more exotic instruments used on latter day Beatles records — like Harrison's sitars and the mellotron — all accompanied by more of those gorgeous photographs. Of particular note to Beatles historians are insider accounts of the sessions for albums like Abbey Road and Let It Be — made as the group was essentially imploding — that transport the reader to the studio itself.

Beatles tech-heads will find Beatles Gear nothing short of manna from heaven itself. For the rest of us, it makes for a worthy addition to any Beatles collection, and perhaps even a somewhat essential one for the historical completists. Whichever camp you choose to pitch your tent with, Beatles Gear is a book that any Beatles fan can agree on.

This article was first published as Book Review: Beatles Gear: All the Fab Four's Instruments from Stage to Studio by Andy Babiuk at Blogcritics Magazine.

The Rockologist: His Purple Highness Said What?

For my first Rockologist column in awhile, I thought I'd write about Prince. Anybody remember him?

Anyway, a week or so back his Purple Highness made some news with his comments in an interview with London's Daily Mirror to the effect that "The Internet Is Over".

Oh, really?

I've always liked Prince. Musically, the guy is just about as close to genius as it gets (or at least he once was), and for awhile there back in his Purple Rain eighties he was commercially pretty much unstoppable as well. Like a lot of the great ones who've had ten year lapses between great records — Springsteen, Dylan, and Neil Young all spring to mind here — I also never counted out the possibility of a miraculous full-on artistic comeback for Prince.

He's definitely still got the musical chops to pull it off for one thing. As recently as 2004, I witnessed a Prince show (touring behind his then current album Musicology) that I'd rank as among the most electrifying live performances I've ever seen.

But let's face it.

Prince's greatest songs — which are what it really comes down to anyway — are long since behind him. By my own estimate, the last truly great Prince album — start to stop — was 1987's Sign O' The Times. In 2010 terms, what this means is that when it comes to anything being truly "over," Prince may just want to consult his mirror.

Still, naively flawed as it may be, I have to admire Prince's Purple way of thinking, at least in principle.

Like many forward thinking artists, Prince chose early on to take a proactive stance towards the challenges posed by the emerging internet technology of the time, and the resulting new paradigm of marketing music.

Some of his ideas were good ones too. Coldplay and Tom Petty (among others) have long since adopted Prince's original idea of giving away CDs at their concerts for example. Some of his other ideas — like going after internet sites and blogs who dared to reproduce his exalted Purple likeness — well, maybe not so much.

Even so — and you can debate his Purple wisdom until you find yourself under your own personal Cherry Moon — I have to applaud a statement that gets so directly to the heart of the matter as this one:

"I don't see why I should give my new music to iTunes or anyone else. They won't pay me an advance for it and then they get angry when they can't get it."

That to me says it all right there.

This so-called, great new paradigm of commercial music distribution via the internet is no more a revolution than it is a case of trading one devil for another. The suits may be new ones, but they are still suits just the same. For all of this talk of a wild, wild west atmosphere affording greater and freer access to music at the click of a mouse or the touch of an iPhone, today's corporate technology behemoths seek to control this — most often at the expense of the artists — every bit as much as yesterdays major label distribution system once did.

On that point, his Purple Majesty is spot on.

Which is exactly why the most forward thinking artists — like Radiohead and most recently Wilco — have sought out their own distribution models.

The recording industry is not alone in its troubles though. It's hardly news to anyone at this point, but 2010 has proven to be a tough year for the concert business as well.

Some of this can be easily explained away of course. Nobody was counting on Bono breaking his back on the eve of the West Coast leg of U2's 360 Tour, or on Art Garfunkel pulling out of the latest Simon & Garfunkel reunion for similarly health-related reasons. Other factors in the downturn of ticket sales however, aren't quite as easily explained.

Take the return of Sarah McLachlan's Lilith Fair festival for example. After an absence of more than a decade, surely the idea of bringing back a little late nineties-style "grrrl power" had to be a no-brainer, right?

As well-intentioned as the whole Lilith Fair idea might have been in the nineties, the combination of softer leaning rock and feminist politics just doesn't seem near as attractive now as it did back then. Even with the hip-hop flavor of Mary J. Blige co-headlining some of the shows, this just doesn't add up to a can't-miss lineup in times where the entertainment dollar might normally buy you that type of a soapbox.

McLachlan herself is a wonderfully gifted artist, but is years between albums and artistic relevance. She is best known today as the face and the voice of those late-night TV animal cruelty ads. Once Carly Simon pulled out of Lilith Fair, McLachlan was left with a supporting cast of artists like Sheryl Crow, Heart, and Erykah Badu — all of whom bring considerable artistic credibility, but limited box-office appeal to the table.

What's missing, but sorely needed to sell tickets — for better or for worse — is the star power of a Beyonce or a Lady Gaga. The fact that Lilith Fair is in commercial trouble this year should surprise no one who was paying any kind of attention.

Taking both McLachlan and U2 out of the equation for a minute though, the current woes of the concert business run far deeper. While there's no Coldplay, Radiohead or Springsteen level sure-fire ticket selling bet out there this summer, what's left has been strangely hit and miss.

Some acts — like Roger Waters and Neil Young — have been doing surprisingly well.

In the case of Waters, a chance to see The Wall performed in it's entirety, complete with all the props of the original show (which only played a few cities during its original 1980 run) comes as close to a Pink Floyd reunion as its likely to ever get. Neil Young's Twisted Road shows offer a rare opportunity to see a living legend in an intimate setting where he's been dividing the sets between the acoustic folky-favorites, full-on electric solo shreds with Old Black, and premiering brand new songs like "Love And War."



Meanwhile, normally solid summer tour warhorses like the Eagles and the American Idol franchise are seeing empty seats and canceled shows.

The Eagles inflated ticket prices are most likely finally catching up to them, and quite frankly it's about damn time. Hell froze over long ago gentlemen, as did the price for a nostalgic evening at the Hotel California.

Similarly over-priced acts (and I'm talking to you, Neil Young) might want to take note. As for American Idol? Well, a season whose brightest light was Crystal Bowersox will only carry you so far, right?

Getting back to Prince, there is one other comment he made in that London Daily Mirror interview that I think bares repeating here:

"The Internet's like MTV. At one time MTV was hip and suddenly it became outdated."
Amen, brother.

Like the psychedelic sixties before it, today we think of the eighties/MTV era as a time of great new artistic breakthroughs and possibilities. Some of those who pioneered them — like David Bowie, U2, or even Prince himself — remain either active or influential today.

Others — like Duran Duran, Cyndi Lauper and Boy George — have lingered on as reminders of a simpler time every bit as rooted in nostalgia as the love beads, tie-die, and patchouli incense of the sixties.
It's time for the next New Paradigm.

This article was first published as The Rockologist: His Purple Highness Said What? at Blogcritics Magazine.

Jefferson Airplane/Cheap Trick Sets In Legacy's Setlist Series Smell Like Knockoffs

Music Review: Jefferson Airplane - Setlist: The Very Best of Jefferson Airplane Live; Cheap Trick - Setlist: The Very Best Of Cheap Trick Live

Both of these albums are part of a just-issued new batch of live recordings from Sony/Legacy called the Setlist Series. It also includes concert compilations from a variety of top-selling artists from the Sony and RCA catalogs, ranging from classic rock and metal acts like Kansas, Quiet Riot, Judas Priest and Ted Nugent, to country artists like Willie Nelson, Johnny Cash and Alabama.

In theory at least the Setlist series seemed like a pretty good idea, particularly given Legacy's normally decent-to-excellent track record with these sort of collections of repackaged material.

Of the numerous Legacy repackages out there which spring immediately to mind, I'd point towards the remastered editions of classic albums by Willie Nelson (Stardust) and Cheap Trick (the Budokan! box set) as two recent examples where the sort of loving standards you hope for were not only realized, but were actually exceeded. Each of them featured superior remastering jobs, deluxe packaging, and the sort of unreleased live performances, outtakes and rarities that made them worth their inflated price. Hell, the Cheap Trick box even has a rare DVD of the live performance from Budokan.

Not so with the Setlist Series, or at least with these two entries from Cheap Trick and Jefferson Airplane. The fact is — at least from what I've seen thus far — everything about this series seems closer to the sort of "Special Products" offerings that wind up in cut-out and overstock bins and on late night TV commercials than the sort of consideration you normally expect from Legacy Recordings.

The problems here begin with the packaging. While I am all for the Green, eco-friendly sort of packaging that saves trees and protects the environment, the trend towards cheap, non-user-friendly CD sleeves that are prone to scratches is one I've become increasingly uncomfortable and irritated with.

Both of these CDs are packaged in cheap, fold-out cardboard jackets with minimal artwork and liner notes, which looks to be the template for the entire series. Frankly, I've seen better looking packaging on some bootlegs. Worse though, the CD itself is very difficult to remove (at least when it doesn't just finally fall out of the sleeve altogether). Scratching is pretty much a guarantee here, and probably sooner than later. Whatever happened to the both eco and user-friendly digi-pak anyway?

As for the albums themselves, they seem to be very hastily thrown together collections with very little real care or thought behind them.

Of the two I've listened to, the Cheap Trick set probably fares the best. But this is hardly surprising since it contains material that has all been previously released in one form or another — which also begs the question: What's the point?

Fans will already have all of this stuff anyway, and for newer converts seeking a definitive live Cheap Trick album, Live At Budokan already covers that in spades — especially if you go with the box set. Still, I suppose having live versions of everything from "Surrender" to "The Flame" to somewhat rarer tracks like "Mrs. Henry" all assembled in one place serves some sort of purpose. Anyway, it's cheaper than the box, right?

The Jefferson Airplane set is even more problematic though. Because the Airplane went through so many incarnations over the years, drawing randomly from such opposing sources as 1969's amazing Bless Its Pointed Little Head, and later, mostly inferior live albums like 1973's Thirty Seconds Over Winterland just doesn't paint a fair or even accurate picture of the Airplane as a live act. We're talking about two completely different band lineups for one thing.

Of the high points here, a previously unreleased live performance of "White Rabbit" from 1966 at the Fillmore is decent, but marred by a very flat sounding recording. There is also a previously unreleased 1967 performance of "It's No Secret" from the Fillmore, which suffers from a muffled recording that all but buries Marty Balin's vocal (curious, since they could've just as easily gone with the superior version from Pointed Head — as they thankfully did with "Plastic Fantastic Lover"). Come to think of it, if you want a great live Jefferson Airplane CD, just go with Head. You can't miss there.

Forgive me for saying so Legacy, but if these two albums are any indication, this Setlist Series has knockoff written all over it. As for calling either release the "Very Best Of," well, that's just false advertising. Hopefully though, this is just a blip and nothing more.

This review was first published as Music Review: Jefferson Airplane - Setlist: The Very Best of Jefferson Airplane Live; Cheap Trick - Setlist: The Very Best Of Cheap Trick Live at Blogcritics Magazine.

This Is The Blues And This Collection Makes A Great Mixtape

Music Review: Various Artists - This Is The Blues (Volumes 1 & 2)

This Is The Blues is the name of a series of recordings from Eagle Records (the audio arm of Eagle Rock — who are best known for such concert video productions as the Live At Montreux DVD and Blu-ray series). This series focuses on, you guessed it, the blues.

So far, two volumes of the series have been released, with another two discs expected to arrive on July 20. Beyond that, who knows?

In the meantime, we have these two discs containing a buttload of pretty great sounding, mostly unheard blues/rock recordings. The loose theme here appears to be mostly contemporary — and mostly British — musicians covering the work of American blues masters like Willie Dixon, Robert Johnson, and John Lee Hooker.

The list of participants is an impressive one too, including the likes of Jeff Beck, Mick Jagger, Rory Gallagher, Southside Johnny, and former members of Foghat (Lonesome Dave Peverett, Rod Price) and Cream (Jack Bruce). Peter Green, who as the founding guitarist of Fleetwood Mac falls more under the "contemporary" label himself, is also the subject of numerous cover tributes here.

Of these, Larry McCray plays a blistering guitar solo on a version of "Black Magic Woman" that owes as much to Carlos Santana's rendering of the song as it does to Green's with Fleetwood Mac. There's also an extended dual guitar workout on Green's "Rattlesnake Shake" from guitarists Vince Converse and Innes Sibun (and no, I've never heard of them either). Green himself turns up later on the second disc of the series with a version of "Traveling Riverside Blues."

Jeff Beck also turns in one of his signature "less is more" solos on John Lee Hooker's "Hobo's Blues," that is full of the short, staccato blasts that Beck so excels in. While former Rolling Stones guitarist Mick Taylor's solo on Dixon's "You Shook Me" wont make you forget the Led Zeppelin version anytime soon, it does offer a more tasteful and less bombastic sounding counterpart.

Cream bassist Jack Bruce's dark vocal tones on Hooker's "I'm In The Mood" likewise work well against the great Gary Moore's more straight forward blues licks on guitar. One of the nicer things about these This Is The Blues discs is that there really is a lot of great guitar work spread out over these tracks.

Mick Jagger backs up his kid brother Chris on harmonica, as the latter sings a version of "Racketeer Blues" that has the sort of funky, countrified-blues feel of some of the tastier tracks from the Stones' own classic Let It Bleed album. Irish guitar great Rory Gallagher's take on "Leaving Town Blues" falls into much the same funky, laid back category of country blues while adding some tasty slide and Celtic touches to the mix.

Lonesome Dave and Rod Price of Foghat offer up a version of "Love That Burns" that is as about as far away from that band's seventies mega-hit "Slow Ride" as it gets. Backed by what I am assuming is Southside Johnny's "Uptown Horns" section (since Price also plays on the Southside track here), the track slowly builds in intensity before climaxing with some nice trade-offs between Peverett on mouth-harp and Price on guitar.

The horns sound great here, just as they do on Southside Johnny's "Baby When The Sun Goes Down." New Jersey's "Southside" Johnny Lyon remains one of rock's most underrated blues and soul shouters, and the Uptown Horns are simply incomparable.

John Lee Hooker and Booker T perform a rare duet on Jimi Hendrix's "Red House," where Booker's ever-eerie-sounding organ parts compliment Hooker's elegant guitar work perfectly. The liner notes here describe the sound as hypnotic, and I wouldn't disagree one bit. Peter Green's beautiful instrumental "Albatross" is given a more subdued, atmospheric reading than the Fleetwood Mac original by former Jeff Beck Group sidemen Bobby Tench and Max Middleton.

Although I have to confess that I'm still not entirely sure what the point of this series is — at least not beyond that of compiling a bunch of great performances of blues standards by mostly British musicians (Southside Johnny being the most noteworthy American of the contemporary players represented here) — I've really got no complaints at all with these discs.

If nothing else, This is The Blues represents a pretty great, if somewhat random sounding, sampler of some pretty damn fine sounding blues/rock tracks. Likewise, I have to admit this has me looking forward to Volumes 3 & 4.

Need a good mix tape for your next blues-themed cocktail party? Look no further.

This article was first published as Music Review: Various Artists - This Is The Blues (Volumes 1 & 2) at Blogcritics Magazine.

Mom, Apple Pie, Baseball, And John Fogerty

Music Review: John Fogerty - Centerfield (25th Anniversary Edition)

As these sort of classic rock album upgrades go, the 25th Anniversary edition of John Fogerty's 1985 "comeback" album Centerfield isn't really that big of a deal — at least not in terms of any added razzle-dazzle.

Outside of two bonus tracks — the B-side covers of Rockin' Sydney's Zydeco hit "My Toot Toot" (with Sydney himself on accordion) and "I Confess" by Bay Area gospel group The Four Rivers — there aren't really any extras to speak of. It does come with a fairly standard CD booklet with newly written liner notes, and the album has been given the now standard remastered treatment for classic reissues of this type.

But this is hardly the sort of deluxe package you might expect for an artist of John Fogerty's pedigree and influence. The remastering job is mostly kept simple. There is none of the sort of massive digging through the vaults for bonus live material or alternate takes which normally serve to expand such an original classic out to a double-disc version (or more).

But perhaps this is for the best. Fogerty's genius has always been with his unique gift for keeping things at their simplest and most basic anyway. Anything more than an upgrade here might have been considered excessive. Besides, the original Centerfield album sounds so good even now, who can really complain?

At the time of Centerfield's original 1985 release, John Fogerty had been out of the music game for ten years, and hadn't had a hit to speak of since his glory days with Creedence Clearwater Revival. As lead singer, guitarist, and songwriter for CCR, Fogerty racked up an astonishing string of hit singles and albums over a roughly four year period from 1968-72.

Fogerty's absence from the spotlight in the years since, came at least partially as a result of legal and personal wrangling with both his former CCR bandmates (including his brother Tom) and his former label, Fantasy Records and its owner Saul Zaentz.

Fogerty has since mended fences with Fantasy (which was taken over by Concord Records in 2004 after being sold by Zaentz), but remains estranged from the surviving members of Creedence (Stu Cook and Doug Clifford), who continue to perform Fogerty's songs as Creedence Clearwater Revisited on the oldies circuit. Tom Fogerty died in 1990.

Regarded as his comeback at the time, 1985's Centerfield surprised everyone — including his new label Warner Bros. — by going straight to number one on Billboard and spawning three hit singles in "Rock & Roll Girls," "The Old Man Down The Road," and the title track.

In retrospect, the success of the album should have been a surprise to no one. Fogerty's string of hits with Creedence had never stopped being played on oldies, classic rock, top forty, and even some country stations. And Centerfield picks things up right where those old hits left off.

The first single, "Old Man Down The Road," is in fact such a dead-ringer for Creedence's "Run Through The Jungle" (not to mention using a guitar riff straight off of "Green River," another big CCR hit), that it prompted an unauthorized use lawsuit from former Fantasy owner Saul Zaentz (who still owned the rights to Fogerty's songs). Fogerty eventually won that suit, but lost another over the use of one of Centerfield's other songs, "Zanz Can't Dance" (which he later had to change to "Vanz Can't Dance" to appease its original target, Saul Zaentz).

But what Centerfield is most remembered for today is the title track, a song which has become as synonymous with baseball as "Take Me Out To The Ball Game." John Fogerty is in fact about to become the only musician to be honored by both the Rock And Roll Hall of Fame and Baseball's Hall of Fame, when the song "Centerfield" is inducted in Cooperstown, New York, by the latter this month.

Like his great work with Creedence, Fogerty's songs on Centerfield combine his twangy guitar sound and high pitched vocal wail, with the potent blend of country, rockabilly, and thick-as-gumbo Louisiana blues that has earned his unique sound the well deserved label of "swamp rock."

No razzle-dazzle here, and you know what? That's just fine. Fogerty's sound is as American as Mom, apple pie, rock and roll, and yes, baseball. This album remains one of the best reminders why.

This article was first published as Music Review: John Fogerty - Centerfield (25th Anniversary Edition) at Blogcritics Magazine.