Jeff Beck's Truth And Beck-Ola Reviewed: They Coulda Been Led Zeppelin

Music Review: Jeff Beck Truth and The Jeff Beck Group Beck-Ola Enhanced Editions

In light of the curcuimstances surrounding the making of the first two--now classic--Jeff Beck albums, it's not only amazing just how good they turned out, but that they were even made at all.

Jeff Beck, considered even back then a Guitar God on a par with Hendrix, Page, and Clapton, had just left an eighteen month stint as guitarist for the Yardbirds. One that just happened to coincide with the band's most commercially successful period.



The most notable single from that period, "Shapes of Things," shows up as the lead-off track to Beck's first solo record Truth in a much heavier, rocked-up version highlighted by the throaty vocals of a then unknown young singer named Rod Stewart.

Jeff Beck's original vision of his new group was to make as heavy a noise as humanly possible. But not everyone involved agreed with Beck's idea. Record Producer Mickie Most, who saw dollar signs in Beck's good looks and already established "name", wanted more of a pop direction for the Jeff Beck Group (and there are some hilarious examples of that "direction" included here as bonus tracks). Most also was not fond of "that poof" Rod Stewart.

But there was also the little problem of actual songs. Without a clearcut songwriter in the band, enough material to fill a single disc, let alone the two they eventually made, would prove no small hurdle for Jeff Beck's first recordings as a solo artist.



Amazingly, not only did both records eventually get made and released--they have also both stood the test of time remarkably well. 1968's Truth is in fact today considered something of a classic. The new enhanced version of Truth which is released next Tuesday along with 1969's followup Beck-Ola, sounds just as good now as it did way back then.

Before Led Zeppelin became the biggest band in the known universe, most of the industry and critics buzz was already on Beck (with Stewart on vocals) to be the next big thing in what would later be termed 'heavy metal." Its not hard to see why here. Although I still prefer the Yardbirds original version over the one found on Truth, "Shapes Of Things" starts things off with a nice burst of power as Beck expands the dimensions of the guitar sound and Stewart turns in a vocal performance which quickly establishes his own credentials.

Its actually amazing just how good Rod Stewart sounds here. Young and obviously hungry, Stewart's performances on songs like "You Shook Me" (later covered on Led Zeppelin's debut album) and "Blues Deluxe" display a range of raw emotion that quickly served notice to the rest of the British Rock world just who the new young lion on the block was.

That Stewart pushes his limited range to the max throughout this disc (something Beck himself has complained about) is of no small consequence. The bottom line is that the young blues shouter who belts the songs on Truth out for all their life, bores little resemblance to the man we find pimping his soul to everything from Disco to Broadway today. Stewart's now trademark whiskey rasp sounds rawer and dirtier here than ever.

As with Stewart, Beck's guitar is much more raw and guttural sounding here than the jazz-fusion technician he would evolve into in later years. The sustained notes which open a fine cover of Willie Dixon's "Aint Superstitious" give the song a feel of dark menace right away, that soon gives way to growling wah-wah's that prowl alongside Stewart's own black cat moans. Future Rolling Stones guitarist Ron Wood, relegated to bass duties here, rounds out the rock steady rhythm section with drummer Micky Waller.



Of the few originals included here however, none have stood the test of time like the brilliant instrumental showcase for Beck's guitar prowess, "Beck's Bolero." Recorded with an all-star lineup that includes Keith Moon and what would become half of Led Zeppelin (Jimmy Page on twelve string guitar, and John Paul Jones on bass respectively), "Bolero" is one of rock's all-time instrumental classics. In it's roughly three minutes, "Bolero" goes from classical staccato to a hypnotic, almost Hawaiian like twang, to a full throttle rock assault and then back again. It remains just a gorgeous piece of music.

Moon shows up again banging the tympanis on "Ol Man River" in a way that anyone who has ever heard The Who's rock operas will instantly recognize. Session giant Nicky Hopkins turns in some fine piano work throughout the album.

As for those bonus tracks? There are alternate takes of "Bolero" and "Blues Deluxe", as well as those previously mentioned "poppier" tunes Mickey Most wanted Beck doing full time that were issued as singles. The less said about "Hi Ho Silver Lining" and "Tallyman" the better--though their inclusion here pretty much brings home the point that we can thank Jeff Beck for standing his ground, and winning the argument against Mickie Most way back then.

Not everything on "Truth" is perfectly executed--the canned audience noise on "Blues Deluxe" for example sounds a little corny here. But for an album recorded this quickly, with a lack of original material to boot, the classic status of "Truth" all these years later is a deserved one.



1969's followup record Beck-Ola doesn't work quite as well. By this time, Rod Stewart and Ron Wood were already halfway out the door to form the Faces with Ian McLagan, Ronnie Lane, and the rest of the leftovers of the Small Faces. The band would later end up essentially blowing off a potentially star making appearance at the Woodstock festival. And the lack of a principal songwriter was also still a big problem.

As a result, Beck-Ola in ways sounds like a largely pieced together effort tying raucously played Elvis covers like "All Shook Up" and "Jailhouse Rock", with a few originals like "Plynth (Water Down The Drain)." The good news is the band sounds looser than ever, and especially on the Elvis covers they rock far harder than they do on the bluesier sounding Truth

For all the in-fighting said to have been going on within the band at the time, Beck, Rod, Woody and the rest of the boys sound like they are having a great time in the studio here. Of the few originals included on Beck-Ola's seven tracks, "Plynth" is the clear standout, anchored by a great Jeff Beck guitar riff and some nice piano work from Nicky Hopkins.

Hopkins, who had by this time been recruited as a full time member, actually bangs the hell out of the keys throughout. Beck, for his part displays more of the pyrotechnics that would later help earn him the nickname "guitar mechanic." Perhaps reflecting the looser feel, Ron Wood even gets to shine for a brief, but tasty bass solo on "Spanish Boots."

Bonus Tracks on Beck-Ola include early versions of "Jailhouse Rock" and "All Shook Up," as well as a cover of B.B. King's "Sweet Little Angel". On the King song, mysteriously left off the original album, they pick up the blues explorations right where Truth left off and expand upon them. Although the track might have been a little out of place on Beck-Ola it could stand alongside any of Truth's great blues-rock workouts.

Both of these discs also feature extensive liner notes from U.K. journalist Charles Shaar Murray, and in the case of Beck-Ola, extensive commentary from Jeff Beck himself.

Although today, these two albums can probably be looked back upon as springboards for a group of guys who would later go on to bigger, better things--Beck as a guitar legend, Wood as a Rolling Stone, and Stewart as, well as Rod Stewart--they shouldn't be overlooked in their own right. The original Jeff Beck Group could more than hold a candle up alongside the other british blues rockers of their sixties heyday.

Hell, in another life they could have well turned out to be Led Zeppelin.

Music/Movie Review: The US vs John Lennon

I have to be honest here, and somewhat reluctantly admit I was a little bit disapointed with the much ballyhooed John Lennon documentary film The US vs John Lennon after finally going out and seeing it last week.


Not that it isn't a good film. Because it most certainly is.

I'm not sure how long this movie actually is, but it's got a great pace to it. It tells it's story both succinctly and well in what seems to go by like about ninety minutes.

Which is actually my one relatively minor beef with the film. Given it's rather weighty subject, and in particular the period of his life this film zeroes in on--when Lennon was the subject of some very dubious political hijinx because of his outspoken views--the movie just seems to zip by not unlike the way a VH1 Behind The Music does.



Which I guess shouldn't be too surprising given VH1's name being prominent in the production credits.

But most of the information revealed here in interviews and stock footage, is hardly new to anyone who has followed Lennon (or this story) through the years. It's pretty much a matter of public record nowadays that Lennon was harrassed by the FBI, through every means from surveillance to wiretaps because of his associations with figures of the radical left. People like John Sinclair, Abbie Hoffman, and Jerry Rubin.



It also eventually came to light in the post-Watergate years that Lennon's much publicized Immigration problems (until he finally got his green card) could be directly traced to people close to Richard Nixon and the Republican Party.



So none of this is exactly new. In fact, for those of you really interested in the conspiracy theories this movie only scratches the surface of, I'd reccomend reading Fenton Bresler's bizarre, yet riveting book "Who Killed John Lennon?".

Still, as an insight into a fascinating historical period, and into one of the most truly enigmatic and influential men of his time, The US vs John Lennon is an absolutely fascinating and entertaining ride.

Part of what makes the trip worthwhile is the rare footage from Lennon's family life with Yoko and Sean. There is also footage from the 1971 Concert/Rally to free John Sinclair in Ann Arbor.

The story is further told through interviews with people from both sides--right and left--who were there in the sixties. Former Watergate conspirator G. Gordon Liddy tells a particularly funny story about how he made practical use of a candle carried by one of those no-good peaceniks during a protest march.

That one made me laugh so loud I got a few stares in the theatre.


But what really makes The US vs John Lennon a good, if not quite great, movie is it's soundtrack. And despite the fact that I was able to sneak a quickie review (okay, maybe not-so quickie) of the movie in here, the soundtrack to The US vs John Lennon, now out on CD, is what we are really here to talk about.

Are there better career retrospectives of John Lennon out there? Sure. Look no further than Working Class Hero:The Definitive John Lennon or even Shaved Fish. For the completist, I'm sure there is also one of those pricey boxed sets out there. But as a soundtrack to a film about John Lennon's so-called "political years" from the late sixties to the mid-seventies, this CD wraps things up in a very nice little package, thank you very much.


All of the obvious choices are included here, from "Power To The People," to "Instant Karma," and of course, the anthem "Give Peace A Chance" itself. The Beatles of course are also represented here with "The Ballad Of John & Yoko."

But there are also some choices here from that period which, while far less obvious commercially speaking, really complete the picture of just who John Lennon really was at that time. While "Working Class Hero" and "I Don't Wanna be A Soldier Mama I Don't Wanna Die" leave little room for doubt as to Lennon's political leanings, a song like "God," from his so-called Primal Scream Therapy period reveals so much more about Lennon the man it's almost painful to listen to.

The choice of the song "Scared" here is even more interesting, especially in the context of how it is used in this film. Here the song becomes a backdrop for Lennon discussing his growing paranoia over the US government which was by this time shadowing his every step.
The rarities are of course what the diehard Lennon fan will seek out here, and they are an interesting, if not exactly earth-shattering lot. From the 1971 Sinclair Rally we get Lennon's live performances of "Attica State" and "John Sinclair."



But perhaps most interesting to the hardcore Lennon fan, is the alternate instrumental track for "How Do You Sleep," a song widely believed to be a scathing attack on his former songwriting partner Paul McCartney when originally released. The track, when stripped bare, is both sparse and minimal. There is a haunted sort of quality to the music as revealing in it's own way, as the lyrics about his old Beatles feud would later prove to be.

In the relatively brief history of pop music, there has rarely, if ever, been a figure as simultaneously polarizing and influential, while at the same time being as wildly popular as John Lennon.

Let's look at the competition. Paul McCartney was too busy being the "cute one." Mick Jagger, for whatever lip service he paid to the sixties revolution on "Street Fighting Man," was far more interested in playing a Satanic popstar role that eventually bit him on the ass at Altamont.

And Bob Dylan? Both the press and the heartstruck teens of the sixties found Lennon far more interesting. That is unless you count a lot of girls in berets (and a few guys in turtlenecks), who followed Dylan around at the time.

As soundtracks go, The US vs John Lennon compliments it's celluloid counterpart perfectly and serves as a brief, but very effective snapshot of where Lennon's head was during those volatile years when some viewed him as a national threat.

It's True! It's Damn True! The GlenBlog Is A Year Old! (So, Now What?)

Oh, It's true. As my boy Kurt Angle would say, "it's damn true".

The World Wide Glen will celebrate it's first year online this weekend.

Which beckons the obvious question (after the not quite as obvious "what the fuck?") of "So Now What?"

But in order to address that, and before we actually do, we should probably take a look back at just what has transpired in what I will deem as "Year One" of the life of The World Wide Glen (and to my friends who right about now will be chiming in with the usual accusations of being a pompous or pretentious prick--well, what can I say?)

...At least other than ...

This one's for you!

But never mind that.

For now, let's go back.

Let's go back about one year ago to be exact.

I started the World Wide Glen based largely on two things. First and foremost, was a desire to write again.

I may be pretty much useless on nearly level imaginable, but as anybody who knows me will tell you (at least if they are being honest), I can write.

And my writing, at least from my own perspective, is a gift that God himself gave me. Nothing else explains it. I may not be the worthiest individual to have received this gift, but received it I did. From the time I was reading newspaper ads at three years old to being put in third grade reading at age six there was just something a bit, well "different" about this kid.

But for whatever reasons, I chose to ignore my writing gift and stick it in some faraway little corner for the better part of about ten years. This is outside of my efforts, if you would even call them that--for a couple magazines in the nineties where my soul was simply not in it.

So at right around this time last year, I decided it was time to reawaken the writing beast within.

But this time I decided it was gonna be different.

Nothing--not a pre-determined criteria of what to write, and certainly not the limitations of some self-serving "editor", with his own agenda or (in some cases) a personal ax to grind--was gonna stop me.

Nope. Not this time. This time I would write what I really wanted to write and only what I really wanted to write. The only agenda here would be mine.

In other words, this was gonna fucking rock.

So lets get to the genesis.

First the inspiration.

The guy who really finally got me off me my ass and convinced me I could do this blogging thing was a guy named Dan Charnas. More specifically, it was when I discovered Dan's own blog, that I decided to do one of my own.

Dan's a guy I used to work with at Def American Recordings, who I not only liked a lot, but I also truly respected.

Truth be told, Dan played a major role in me getting my gig there. But beyond that, once I was actually in the door there, Dan was the one guy in a world full of people who we're basically full of shit in the most fucked up music business way you can imagine, who was always straight up and honest with me.

So one night sitting at my computer, more than likely with a few drinks under my belt, I got a wild hair up my ass and decided I wanted to know what Dan was doing these days.

What I discovered was Dan's blog and it was a mixed bag to be sure.

On the negative side, I discovered that Dan had bought into the whole New Age Transcendental Meditation thing that Rick Rubin had sold him on while at Def American hook line and sinker (and Dan, though I promise to respect your spiritual beliefs as surely as I know you'll respect mine--if we ever meet again in this life I gotta talk to you about that).

But on the positive side, I also discovered Dan was still one kick-ass writer (which was always the basis of ny respect in the first place). Especially when it came to hip hop and issues of culture and race in America, Dan's stuff was well written and about nine times out of ten, it was also spot-on.

I always loved that about my boy (and if he ever reads this, I know he wont mind me calling him that) Dan Charnas.

So anyway you can still find Dan writing great stuff at his blog Dantrification. He's not writing quite as much there lately, but it's still a great read, and one which I highly recommend. So Anyway...

What I also found was that his blog was hosted for free by these kind folks at Blogger. As if I needed any further inspiration or arm-twisting, I knew what I had to do right then and there.

Now that I had the domain, there was the matter of the name.

A year ago, I worked for Comcast.

I made decent--not great, but okay--money there. But I hated the oppressive and borderline hostile to employees atmosphere there pretty much from day one. Anyway, I don't work there anymore.

But when I did, there was this really funny company wide email that went out one day about an apartment complex called "The Glen."

Which I of course had to respond to claiming that I, and I alone, was "The Glen." This got some equally funny responses but the one saying I was "The World Wide Glen" stuck.

My Blog had a name. Well at least half a name.

It was also time to liberate a word I'm pretty sure I invented about twenty years ago, with the original intention of using it for a novel. That word is "Thoughtmare."

And I felt it was time to bring the word "Thoughtmare" into the public domain before somebody else stole away my creation for good. Because it's a pretty cool word, wouldn't you agree?

Anyway, I figured it was high time to take my unique name into the public domain before someone else did.

Hence "The World Wide Glen: Welcome To My Thoughtmare".

Because it fits. And because "Thoughtmare" is now a matter of public record as being mine. That business had to be attended to before somebody else got the idea.

So with the name established, I made one simple rule for myself as to the content:

Go Naked.

As in write absolutely blindly and honestly as though you we're writing in a personal diary (albeit one that potentially millions of people have access to).

This has made for some embarassing moments over the past year, as I've laid my soul fairly bare here more than a few times.

Anyway...

In the early days of this blog, I laid some fairly personal thoughts out there.

There are a lot of reminiscenses of my days as "The Shockmaster" of Seattle's hip-hop scene for example. I enjoyed reliving those days here on the blog a lot actually.

If there is actually a such thing as leaving a legacy, that's not necessarily the one I would have chosen (I've always fancied myself more the Dylan type to be honest), but it's apparently the one I've got and the one I'm stuck with.

And I have absolutely no regrets about that. It was a lot of fun reliving that here in the early days of the blog too.

No regrets at all. And much love to my Poi Boy Nasty Nes long as I'm on this subject.

But that's not who I am anymore at age 50. A fifty year old white guy? Who I am kidding? I mean, let's get real right?

So there came a point around last Feburary that I shifted the focus of the World Wide Glen away from the various personal issues of yours truly, and more towards what I've always thought I do best anyway--and thats reviewing records, concerts and writing articles on cultural topics and such.

The reasons for this are twofold.

The most obvious is that if I simply continued crying into my beer before a potential readership of millions, I was going to lose the far smaller actual audience I already had (though 10,000 hits in less than six months aint half bad with no publicity).

More importantly, last February, I once again, for the first time in ten years became a professional writer, doing reviews for Blogcritics, (where I just published my 50th article last week). And not just writing about music either (though I've done a ton of music articles for them), but actually writing about all the shit I love to write about. Wrestling, TV--I may even eventually get to my UFO conspiratorial bullshit--you name it.

The bottom line is there are no limits and no constraints as to what I can write about and Blogcritics is read by about 100,000 people daily.

So you do the math. Needless to say, I've rediscovered my writing muse and have fully embraced it.

So for all my good friends who loved to read the dirty laundry I hung out to dry for all the world to see in the early days of this journal a year ago--and who bitch that all I do is music reviews anymore--well I'm sorry.

And I'll also tell you that theres probably gonna be a lot more of those type of reviews in the days and months ahead.

If there is one thing this blog has done, it's reawakened me to the fact that when it gets right down to it, the one single thing I'm pretty good at is evaluating music. If thats gonna be my legacy (and I'm not at all sure its the one I would have chosen given the choice), then so be it.

I'm going with it. I'm not ignoring it any longer.

There will also gonna be the occasional foray into things like the wrassling, the weird, and the other shit I love--and yes, I may even cry into my beer every now and then.

So having said that, I'm gonna end this with one of those personal entries that my oldest friends claim to miss (for what I often suspect must be masochistic reasons). Regardless, they used to be my specialty here, so here's the last little personal nugget you'll get from me for awhile.

Lick It Up.

The good news is I'm working again.

As I alluded to above, Comcast sucked and I needed to leave that environment, and have no regrets that I did (regardless of the curcuimstances).

Anyway, I absolutely love what I'm doing right now--for anybody who knows me for the true music geek I am--this is a dream job, as what is basically a content editor for a digital music provider.

The only part that sucks--well actually theres two things--is that this is a contract position. So I have no idea of whether or not I'll still have the gig next week or month. The good news is I think they are gonna keep me around awhile.

But there is no guarantee of that. None whatsoever.

The other bad news is that the money pretty much sucks. It's barely--and I mean barely--enough to pay my bills.

I haven't been this broke since I was the twenty something year old "Shockmaster" working at Music Menu--now there's some irony.

The other side of this whole thing though, is that I can honestly say I have not been as personally happy or as relatively "unstressed" at a job in something like twenty years.

So whats the trade off? You tell me.

In the meantime, I thank the roughly 30,000 people (that's in combined hits) who have read this blog over the past year and continue to do so.

Whats next? You tell me. I'm praying for better things next year, and have faith they will come. Either way, you'll hear it here first.

Guaranteed.

20,000

And The Hits Just Keep On Coming!!

Thank You From The World Wide Glen

The Case For Jeff Lynne's Electric Light Orchestra (ELO, Baby)

Music Review: Electric Light Orchestra - On The Third Day, Face The Music, A New World Record (Remastered Versions)


I have to be honest here and say that I'd completely forgotten just how great these albums actually are.

It was easy to do.

So much has happened in music since the late seventies to early eighties heyday of Electric Light Orchestra (or ELO as they are affectionately known by fans). Between MTV, Punk Rock, Hip Hop, and everything else that has come and gone since they married symphonic rock with impossible to deny pop sensibilities, ELO has, at times, seemed to have been reduced to some sort of punchline in the greater scheme of rock history.

They appeared so many times on Burt Sugarman's Midnight Special, for example, that in some quarters they will always be remembered as the guys Wolfman Jack barked out to with the initials "ELO" — somewhere in between "BTO" and "ELP.

"Which is really too bad. Because Jeff Lynne and ELO wrote some really damn great songs.

Lynne himself has long since gone on to considerable renown as a producer of the highest order, manning the boards for everyone from George Harrison to Bob Dylan to Tom Petty (his most significant work as a producer).

Anyway, Sony has simply done a bang-up job on the remastering of ELO's catalog. In this latest installment of that effort, the best of those years are represented here in these three discs. All of which came out before ELO began to decline in later years with albums like Discovery (which my friends in the seventies used to jokingly refer to as "Disco, Very").

If you were to do a Google search on ELO today, what you would likely come across is the fact they did rather extravagant tours in the seventies and eighties, complete with orchestras, lasers, and even a landing UFO at one point.

Which is all true. But it still completely misses the point.

Jeff Lynne had an ear for the pop hook that was virtually unmatched at the time, which is probably why everyone from Dylan to Petty would later beat a path to his door to produce their records.

These three records (along with 1974's criminally underated Eldorado), represent the peak of Lynne's powers both as a songwriter and as a master pop craftsman. ELO essentially started as a symphonic experimental offshoot of the Move, the band Lynne founded with another forgotten genius, Roy Wood. The idea here was to wed rock and roll with bigger, orchestral arrangements.

Which up until the records so beautifully restored here had met with only moderate commercial success, most notably in the form of ELO's melding of Chuck Berry's "Roll Over Beethoven," with the classical composer's own Fifth Symphony. By the time of Face the Music, ELO had carved itself out a commercial and critical niche by taking the musical reach of the progressive bands of the day — think Genesis and especially The Moody Blues here — and binding them to a string of brilliantly constructed three to four minute pop songs.

And damned if there weren't a ton of them.

From Face the Music alone there's "Evil Woman" and "Strange Magic" for starters. Less heralded (and certainly less played on classic rock radio these days), but equally strong, are forgotten chestnuts like "Nightrider," "Poker," and the beautifully haunting "One Summer Dream," which closes the album. And let's not forget the magnificent "Fire On High" which opens this album.

There is nary a pop hook to be found here.

But the spoken "madness... madness," which swirls around the menacing-sounding strings, sticks in your head every bit as much as anything else found on this album. Among the bonuses found on the newly remastered version here are earlier versions of that song, as well as "Evil Woman" and "Strange Magic."

By the time of A New World Record, ELO were bonafide worldwide superstars, and the hits just kept on coming. "Telephone Line," "Do Ya," and especially "Living Thing" are the big ones here.

The remastered disc puts a damn fine accent on the way the strings swirl around "Living Thing," for example, which is just a great pop tune to begin with. A New World Record is far from being my favorite ELO record (I'm much more partial to Eldorado and Face the Music), but it arguably does represent the band's commercial peak. The extras here include two alternate versions of "Telephone Line" and a really great little guitar driven pop tune called "Surrender" that wouldn't sound at all out of place done by somebody like The Raspberries.

Of these three reissues, On The Third Day is probably the hardest nut to crack. Lynne had yet to fully embrace the latent pop nerd lying deeply within, and as a result the more ambitious fare found here doesn't always reach the mark it aims for. There's more meandering orchestral passages here than found on the band's later albums. Still, Lynne's later and fully to-be-realized pop sensibilities are very much in evidence on tracks like the very Beatlesque — Lennon-style — "Oh No Not Susan," and the hit single "Showdown," (where the remixed guitar here is crisper than ever).

I will say this much about On The Third Day.

Of the three albums here, it rocks the most and the guitars are largely mixed front and center on this remastered version.

And once again, as with the other titles in the series, Sony has done an ace job of remastering. For audio freaks, the sound on these tracks probably represents the best of the three. Extras here include alternate takes of "Ma Ma Belle," when it was still known as "Auntie."

So for my money, all three of these wonderful reissues warrant consideration for either the hardcore ELO fan or someone looking to discover the band for the very first time

For the more selective among you, I'd head straight for Face the Music, and if you don't already have it, Eldorado.

When Is It Okay To Feed The Writers Ego?

The following article was originally written for Blogcritics, where I have been a regular contributor since February of this year.

As we speak, there is currently something of a hot debate taking place over at Blogcritics within our private e-mail group. It seems that what goes on behind the scenes there can be quite the little soap opera at times.

Anyway, the subject of the debate revolves around the comments section there. Specifically, the writer's comments. The question is when and how often is it appropriate for a writer to comment on his own articles, a subject some there have privately referred to as "feeding" the comment box.

Here at my own personal blog, this is not exactly a hot-button issue. The World Wide Glen gets something like about 100 hits a day. Which isn't bad. But Blogcritics is read by something like 100,000 people daily. So for the writers there, getting their work good placement on the site can be a pretty big deal.

So anyway, this whole subject got me to thinking of the broader (and certainly the truer as it relates to this particular discussion) issue of the Writer's Ego.

The Writer's Ego is that ever present little thing anyone who has ever been published knows all too well.

He can be your best friend when he's actually doing the job he's paid for--which is giving the writer the confidence (some would say the "balls") to put his or her thoughts out there for the whole world to see.

Or he can be that nasty little devil that sometimes makes those around the writer choose to regard you (often rightly so) as a pompous, arrogant prick. When on it's worst behaviour, the Writers Ego can make you do things so stupid it would make the worst blacked-out alcoholic blush.

The Writers Ego at it's core begins first with the desire to write at all. From there it really starts to manifest itself when the writer comes to the realization that he can actually write, and has something important enough to say that other people might actually be interested in reading it. From there The Writers Ego can either become a healthy non-inhibitor, or it can become something more akin to a dangerous addiction.

I use the analogy to addiction because the most common manifestation of a Writers Ego is the buzz the writer gets from seeing his work published. The rush is seriously comparable to what I'm sure an alcoholic feels when he downs a shot of Jaeger or a junkie shoots a fix into his veins.

For me, when I first started getting my work published the rush was positively indescribable. It was a mixture of honest pride in my accomplishment combined with a a genuine burst of elation and exhilaration. It honestly felt like being high.

I can remember at my very first professional writing gig, (for a small community newspaper here in West Seattle) getting such a rush off of seeing my first review published that I actually grabbed a stack of about 25 newspapers and then spent hours in a coffee shop reading over and over that first article.

The rest of the newsroom thought I was nuts carting out all those papers under my arm, and I wont even go into what the waitress at the coffee shop must have been thinking. But that habit actually continued for several years. To this day, there are several boxes of old Rocket magazines (the Seattle music rag I was a contributing editor at for about ten years) sitting in my basement gathering dust.

I made about $20. an article at that community newspaper. I made even less at the Rocket. Which brings me to another important point as to the function of the Writers Ego:

Motivation.

Most of us writers make precious little in the way of actual income sharing whatever pearls of wisdom we choose to impart to the world. For every big-name journalist out there pulling down the big bucks of a steady gig at Time or Rolling Stone, there are hundreds if not thousands of us starving writers, and now bloggers, who choose to share our thoughts and observations with you the reader for little to no pay.

Fewer still of us have actual social lives, so yes the stereotype is somewhat true there as well (though not in my case of course...nudge, nudge...wink, wink...).

So what drives the bus here in terms of an actual reason to write?

The Writers Ego of course. Which in this case manifests itself when we writer's see the reaction to our work by you the reader. At Blogcritics, this reaction is measured in two ways. One is the little system of accolades our peers there have put together. This comes in the form of things like the Blogcritic Of The Day and the weekly Editor's Picks, both of which are published there.

Occasionally our work is also syndicated through Advance.net to several newspapers throughout the country. I'm proud to say that my own work has been chosen as an Editors Pick on a number of occasions and that I've also been syndicated. Good for me right?

But I also have to admit for example, that my own Writers Ego pretty much pitched a fit when my recent review of Bob Dylan's New Album wasn't chosen as an Editors Pick last week.

I thought that was the best damned review I'd done in awhile, and my Writers Ego loved it so much I must have re-read it fifty times. It was however spotlighted over the entire Labor Day weekend on the music page though, so I probably wisely kept my mouth shut about the slight I felt it received.

The other way a lot of us writers measure reaction, and hopefully feed the ever ravenous Writers Ego, is through the comments made by our readers. Which leads me back to that controversial little discussion currently raging among a few of the writers over at Blogcritics.

When and how often does a writer respond to one of his own articles via the comment box?

When I first began writing for Blogcritics back at the beginning of this year, I didn't respond to my articles at all. I was actually afraid it might be considered tacky. Then I read somewhere that one of the basic rules of blogging etiquette was to respond to those who took the time to comment on your article. Made sense, so I now make it a point to do my best to respond whenever someone comments on something I wrote.

That is, at least within reason.

My review of Neil Young's Living With War CD from earlier this year has generated something like 400 comments at Blogcritics (I think it got like two or three here at The World Wide Glen).

So my Writers Ego should be positively elated right? Wrong.

More than half of these--well more than half actually--have come from one person who has an ax to grind with the politics of that album. As of right now, the discussion there has very little to do with the review I actually wrote and I've simply taken myself completely out of it. Frankly, this is a case where Writers Ego or not, I wish that article would just die the nice dignified death it should have months ago. So this would be that rare example of a Writer's Ego actually not welcoming the comments at all because the thread has turned into something of an embarrasment.

Hey, even the Writers Ego has feelings right?

So the other question--the one so hotly debated at Blogcritics--is when does a writer inappropriately "feed his comments"? The net result, and benefit to the Writers Ego of course, is the better placement it will get you on a site that is as "busy" as Blogcritics. You get enough comments, and your story gets nice placement in either the "Most Popular" sidebar or better yet, the "Hot Topics" splashed dead center of the page.

The uglier flipside to this of course, is that in "feeding" comments, you place the importance of your own story over those of the other writers there. And when we're talking about something like 1400 contributors at Blogcritics, that's potentially going to be a whole hell of a lot of bruised Writers Egos to deal with.

Personally, I think it's something of a judgment call.



I know for sure that I have done it, just as many others have. Hell, I'll confess right here and now I've done even worse. There have been a couple of times (only a couple though okay?) where my Writers Ego has sat and watched an entire day go by without a comment to something I just wrote.

Mr. Ego, being the nasty little devil he is, then put an idea in my head. Why not post a comment under a different name? A pseudonym, yeah thats it. One comment certainly should begat another right? And besides, nobody'll know the difference anyway.

Right?

Well, actually they will. At Blogcritics there are some very good comments editors. And they know the IP addresses that each and every comment come from. I actually found this out recently when my ever trusty Writers Ego actually had me believing for about ten seconds that Neil Young himself had responded to one of my articles.

When the comments editor exposed the apparent hoax, my Writers Ego was a little disapointed. But I also learned a very important lesson and I wont be posting any comments under a pseudonym ever again. My Writers Ego is just going to have to learn some patience from now on.

So when is it appropriate for a writer to comment on his own articles?

Again, it's what I'd call a judgment call. Certainly, blogger's etiquette dictates we acknowledge our readers who take the time to comment. They are after all, helping feed our good friend the Writers Ego and should be recognized for it.

I also think that when a writer has something to add to his story that might have been missed it can be appropriate and perhaps even necessary. At Blogcritics, my blogger buddy Jet In Columbus suffers from diabetes (as do I though I was fortunate enough to get diagnosed sooner than Jet).

Anyway, Jet has recently had some very severe health problems as a result.

So he recently wrote what I feel is a very important article dealing with preventing the effects of that disease. Personally, I feel every man over 50 in America should read Jet's article (it also deals with certain male issues).



Jet has also posted a number of comments which (I feel at least) add to the information presented in the original piece.

This is what I personally would call an instance where the so-called practice of "feeding" is justified. The topic is an important one and the information presented in the additional comments was both valid and in this case warranted.

But thats just my opinion.

As for the rest of the time, I think that good old common sense should come into play. It's no secret that there are plenty of threads going on right now at Blogcritics that are basically little more than a discussion between a few people, and some of them happen to be the writers themselves. Personally, I don't have a problem with that. They have even made for some pretty damn good reading in and of themselves in certain instances.

These are after all, writers we are talking about here.

Writers with Writer's Egos.

As always, your comments are welcome and appreciated. Like you needed reminding right?

Just Shut The Hell Up And Play...And On This Night, They Did...

DVD Review: Eric Clapton - Live At Montreux 1986

You know how there are certain musicians you just want to tell to shut the hell up and play?

Well, for me Eric Clapton and Phil Collins are two guys who pretty much top that list.

In Clapton's case, it's when he veers away from what he does best--playing the guitar--and tries to reach that "wider audience" record company execs talk about in their corporate boardroom meetings by making pop records with people like Babyface and Lionel Richie.

And speaking of Lionel Richie, let's talk about his whiter eighties counterpart, one Mr. Phil Collins.


There was a time in said eighties that I was seriously convinced Collins had to be the Antichrist.

First he ruined Genesis, turning the once proud prog-rock pioneers into a hit machine complete with corny chereographed videos like the atrocious "I Can't Dance." And then there were those God-awful solo albums. Collins is still for my money one of the best drummers on earth. But I swear to God in heaven, for awhile there in the eighties I wanted nothing more than for Phil Collins to "Su-Su-Sussudio" right the hell off of my radio and my MTV.

So what happens when guys like this--great musicians that they are--simply do what they really do best and play? Well what can happen, and did happen in this particular case, is you get a really great concert like the one captured on the DVD Eric Clapton Live At Montreux 1986

Clapton's career at the time of this recording was on an upswing, and he was touring with a leaner, meaner band that not only included Collins on drums, but crack session guys Greg Phillinganes on keys and backing vocals, and bassist Nathan East (who remains with Clapton today).

Touring between two of Clapton's eighties albums, Behind The Sun and August, the emphasis of the show was strictly on the music, and the performances here are nothing short of stellar.

The show kicks off with a couple of old chestnuts from Clapton's Cream days, "Crossroads" and "White Room." Here the performances are servicable enough, but certainly nothing special (although the rearrangement of "Crossroads" is an interesting one).

But by the third number, "I Shot The Sherriff" of all things, Clapton takes off on something of a guitar tear and basically never looks back for the rest of the concert.


With his very eighties (and very pre-metrosexual) bright orange shirt soaked in sweat, Clapton shows for all the world to see just why he has developed the reputation he has as one of rock's premier guitarists.

Normally a master of understatement in the latter stages of his career, Clapton basically just lets it rip here. For his part, Collins drumming is equally frenetic, mixing plenty of Rastafarian flavored rimshots with his more trademarked mix of power and finnese.

I swear, "I Shot The Sherriff" never sounded so damn good.

From there, several songs from the still unreleased August are previewed, including one that never made it to the actual record, "I Wanna Make Love To You" (which later did finally show up on Clapton's Crossroads box set).

Here Clapton is allowed to really stretch out his solos and there is some great improvisational interplay with Collins in particular. If you appreciate watching really great musicians the same way I do, this moment alone is worth the DVD's $15. price tag.


Later in the show they get back to the hits, and there is a nice segueway from "Badge" to "Let it Rain" which once again finds Clapton just soloing his ass off. From there, Collins gets his solo turn for "In The Air Tonight" and it proves to be a bit of a buzzkill.

I'm sorry but as much as I love Collins the drummer, I loathe Collins the song and dance man.

As the show begins to wind to it's inevitable close the hits just keep on coming.

A very tasty "Cocaine" is followed in short order by an absolutely blistering "Layla." Clapton begins his signature tune with a beautifully played slowed down bluesy intro and then tears into the song as though he were playing it for the very first time, rather than the thousands of nights and stages this classic rock staple has no doubt seen. Greg Phillinganes handles the keyboard parts of the songs second half so well you half expect to see Joe Pesci running out to claim his shinebox from Goodfellas.

And thats what happens when really great musicians like these guys just shut up and play.