20 March 2013 (Day 79) – More Soul Bargains

After yesterday’s road trip I was ready to dive back into the Atlantic Soul Legend’s box of 20 albums.  Following my discovery of this box, I went online to see if this was an isolated release.  It turns out that there are a handful of others out there, some even incorporating 25 albums, including two jazz collections, a blues one, a country one (all four seemingly put out by Sony with the title The Perfect [insert your genre] Set.  I also found boxes specifically related to the Elvis Presley and Miles Davis catalogues.  With the possible exception of the blues box, none of the others tempt me for a variety of reasons, but I like the idea of the single artist collection provided there is an act I’ve yet to discover that has released over 20 albums that I’d want to own. 

But back to the Atlantic box.  The majority of today’s listening is mostly by artists with whom we traditionally associated (at least in Australia) with the one major hit.  The various albums in the box are, in all probability, albums that were quickly put together after the artist had that hit in order to maximise the financial return.  After all, all of these albums were released at a time that most record companies assumed that an act’s chart life was likely to be short.  This is reflected by the running times for these albums that are all around the so minute mark, short even for the capacity of the vinyl LP.

Just about the only album today for which these comments don’t apply is from one of the greatest male soul singers of all time:

(220) Solomon Burke – If You Need Me

One of the individuals credited with inventing the term “soul music”, in my opinion Burke ranks just behind Otis Redding and Sam Cooke and might even rank higher if I was to think exclusively in terms of soul ballads.  This is not to infer that he was a one trick pony; his voice was capable of singing just about anything but it was the control that was able to bring to bear on tender ballads that was astonishing.  This album provides plenty of evidence in favour of this assessment beginning with the legendary title track and others almost as good such You Can Make It If You Try, Send Me Some Lovin’ and I Said I was Wrong.  

(221) Ben. E King! – Don’t Play That Song

OK make it that most of my comments don’t apply to the first two albums listened to today. Stand By Me isn’t on this album.  It is instead based around a song that became an even bigger hit for the mighty Aretha Franklin.  Don’t Play That Song (You Lied) is one of those songs only the truly great singers should ever attempt owing to the enormous amount of anger and bitterness it contains.  (I can remember a Australian Idol contestant singing this with a smile on her face leading to just about the only time judge Marcia Hines was moved, quite rightly, to anger – “Why are you smiling girl?  He lied to you.  HE LIED!” – that the poor contestant was voted off that same week.)  That King could pull this off was a triumph for which he’s been largely forgotten in the wake of his other hit and Aretha’s version.  Unfortunately, the rest of the album, whilst perfectly acceptable, simply pales in comparison.

(222) Bar-Keys – Soul Finger

The Bar-Keys was another soul instrumental group in the mould of Booker T and the M.G’s and one which, if Booker T’s liner notes are to be believed, were actually groomed for success by them. The title track is justifiably known as a classic and Bar-Keys Boogaloo follows in a similarly lively vein.  Theme From Hell’s Angels interestingly employs a martial beat to great effect and You Can’t Sit Down sounds like some of that “groovy” music Hollywood liked to put in the background of scenes in 60s movies when they wanted to lampoon hippies.  Wisely almost all of the tracks in which they really do sound like the M.G’s, such as Pearl High, Hole In The Wall and Don’t Do That, are placed at the end of the album.

(223) Eddie Floyd – Knock On Wood

This was his debut album featuring a rather dodgy cover of him about to hit a tree with an axe.   (Wouldn’t that make the lyric, chop on wood?)  I’d only really associated Eddie Floyd with that track but in addition to that, this album also contains the standard Raise Your Hand and a slightly slower take on the Wilson Pickett hit 634-5789 to make for pretty entertaining listening.

(224) Percy Sledge – When A Man Loves A Woman

The title track is one of my least favourite soul numbers, mainly due to the number of screeching cover versions performed by other acts wanting to prove their vocal ability.  Invariably, they miss the almost hymn like qualities of Sledge’s version underpinned by organ and the utter conviction of his vocals.  He is similarly convincing for most of the remainder of this album especially on When She Touches Me (Nothing Else Matters) and Love Me Like You Mean It.  The one exception is You’re Pouring Water On A Drowning Man on which he employs a mystifying lighter tone.

(225) Arthur Conley – Sweet Soul Music

My knowledge of Conley’s music is minimal other than the title track which is close to my all-time favourite soul number. It has a combination of great music and a wonderful vocal from a then unknown singer joyfully testifying to all of his illustrious predecessors. There’s a lot of great material here such as Take Me (Just As I Am), Who’s Foolin’ Who and I’m Gonna Forget About You which makes me wonder who he failed to become a greater star.

By my count that makes 13 albums done and another seven to go.

19 March 2013 (Day 78) – On The Road Again

Another day on the road and another chance to play the type of music “M” hates with the added, though remote, possibility of scaring cows, sheep and crops along the way.  It was also a chance to counter program my listening against yesterday’s soul revue.   

My trips require a bit of planning because, ideally, I would like to get to my destination without any unnecessary stops.  Last time I had to stop to scroll through my iPod and was determined that not reoccur.  This time I decide to have the next album set up in it so that as soon as the first album ends, I can pick up the iPod, click to get me out of that album and then go straight to the first track on the next.  In other words, just two clicks without having to take my eyes off the road.

I’ve made this discovery as a result of wearing out the CD player in the car.  As I plan to get a new car before year’s end, I’ve decided not to replace it.  Instead I’ve got one of those devices that you plug into both the iPod and the car cigarette lighter and which enables you to play music from it through the car speakers on a radio frequency.  This device has a lengthy cord so it sits far closer to me than the CD player, adding to driver safety provided you’ve prepared yourself beforehand.

And so on to the day’s listening which commenced with an album from the masters of stoner rock;

(217) Monster Magnet – Powertrip

This is 1970s era Hawkwind as retooled by Americans.  A long slow build up heralds the start of the magnificent Crop Circle, a track I heard for the first time when I had the pleasure of watching these guys on the main stage of the Pukkelpop Festival in Belgium in 1998. There is a case to be made that this is their best album, given that it also contains the title track, the incredibly funky (for stoners anyway) Space Lord, Bummer Temple Of Your Dreams and Atomic Clock.

(218) Various Artists - American Hardcore.  The History Of American Punk Rock 1980 – 1986

This was the album I wanted to play on my last trip only to be stymied by my re-import troubles.  It is, apparently, the soundtrack to a film documentary and this is where I have a minor problem.  If you use the definitive article as has been here, the onus is on you to make this the definitive collection because this is “The History”.  If you can’t get clearance for some of key acts from the era, as I suspect is the case here, such as the Dead Kennedys and The Germs, the best claim that can be made is that this is “A History”.  But I'm being pedantic.  This provides a fine overview of the scene including acts such as Minor Threat, Bad Brains, Flipper, Black Flag, D.O.A and the Circle Jerks.  But as is inevitably the case with compilations like this, it is the acts you haven’t heard that grab the attention.  That was certainly the case with me being tremendously impressed by the contributions from Battalion Of Saints, 7 Seconds and Really Red.

(219) The Sex Pistols – Filthy Lucre Live

Never Mind The Bollocks, Here’s The Sex Pistols is an acknowledged classic but this is my Sex Pistols album of choice.  This is the live recording of their comeback gig at Finsbury Park London on 23 June 1996.  It reveals the Pistols for what they truly are, essentially pub rockers who played much faster than usual.  More importantly, it demonstrates just how crucial Glen Matlock is to the band as his basslines provide the songs with the bottom end that they really needed.  (If you’ve ever seen or heard live footage of the band with Sid Vicious on board, you’ll know what I mean.)  The other advantage is that the album functions as a live best of because tracks not on Bollocks such as Satellite, the cover of (I’m Not Your) Steppin’ Stone and Did You No Wrong get a run here.  Why their performance of No Fun from the gig was not included is a mystery.  Bodies, God Save The Queen, New York, EMI, Pretty Vacant and Anarchy In The UK are all sensational inspiring the audience (and yours truly behind the wheel) to sing along with gusto. 

18 March 2013 (Day 77) – A Soul Bargain

It’s amazing what you can miss when you don’t look closely enough.  For a few months now, I’ve seen an Atlantic Records box in some CD stores.  I didn’t bother to examine it closely because the cover had the classic Atlantic records logo and I assumed that it was another repackaging of their great 1947-1974 compilations which I already own.  A box set of those albums was released about 10 years ago which had practically the same cover so I felt justified about not examining the package more closely.  Never was Benny Hill’s “never assume because it will make an ass of u and me” gag more appropriate.

Yesterday I’m in a JB HiFi, despairing of finding something to take advantage of their 20% off weekend, when I came across this new box and the small print finally caught my eye.  “Soul Legends. 20 Original Albums From The Iconic Atlantic Label”.  What did this mean?  The box sides were identical and the rear had a different look featuring a number of album covers.  I then looked at the bottom.  There I found listed 20 different albums including some classics of the genre.  My goodness, 20 different albums for $86, but $68 when I apply the discount. ? And I don’t have any of them.   Sold!

I take my new purchase home, rip off the plastic and take off the lid.  There sitting in the box are 20 albums in cardboard slip covers.  This is not an Original Album Classics el cheapo job.  Each of the covers has a spine with the album and artist clearly visible.  Not only that, Atlantic/WEA/Rhino records Art Department re-sized the cover artwork so that liner notes, track titles, those commentaries found on 60s albums, everything, is easily readable.  There’s even a booklet.  Great job everyone but why didn’t you create a more distinctive cover

With that trivial gripe out the way, I started ploughing through the albums today, starting with the stone cold dead classics:

(210) Ray Charles – What I’d Say

I already owned all of the music on this one courtesy of Atlantics wonderful The Birth Of Soul box set, but it’s great to have Rockhouse (Pts 1 & 2), Roll With Me Baby, That’s Enough and the immortal title track as they originally released.

(211) Booker T & The M.G’s – Green Onions

The magnificent title track, one of the greatest rock instrumentals ever released, dwarfs just about the rest of the album, especially what I presumed to be a follow up titled, Mo’ Onions.  But there is fun listening to a range of covers as disparate as I Got A Woman, Twist And Shout, Lonely Avenue and, would you believe, Aker Bilk’s Stranger On A Shore.

(212) Otis Redding – Otis Blue

For reasons I can’t fathom this is subtitled “Otis Redding Sings Soul”, surely as ridiculous a guide to contents as say, Exodus – Bob Marley Sings Reggae.  But this is its only fault.  A scared text in Southern Soul Music, it contains Respect, his take of Change Gonna Come, I’ve Been Loving You Too Long, Shake, You Don’t Miss Your Water and his wonderful cover of The Rolling Stones Satisfaction.  Nothing more needs to be said.

(213) Aretha Franklin – Lady Soul

This is another sacred text this time from Soul Woman #1.  This one contains Chain Of Fools, (You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman, SINCE You’ve Been Gone (Sweet Sweet Baby) and her take on People Get Ready.  But for me the biggest surprise is the stupendous Good To Me As I Am To You, an Aretha track I don’t think I’d heard previously.  Taken by the magnificent guitar work on the track I looked at the liner notes and discovered that that this was played by “Eric Clapton of “Cream”  “.

(214) Sam & Dave – Hold On I’m Comin’

The title track is just about their best known and loved track.  This also has You Don’t Know Like I Know, I Take What I Want and the brilliant ballad Don’t Make It So Hard On Me.

(215) Wilson Pickett – In The Midnight Hour

The title track is the big hit on this one but, unlike many soul albums of the era named after the hit track, this one is wall to wall quality.  A Teardrop Will Fall, Don’t Fight It, Take This Love I’ve Got and Let’s Kiss & Make Up are just as good.

(216) The Drifters – Under The Boardwalk

For me, The Drifters are the acceptable side of male vocal harmonising and are far superior to just about any do-wop act you could name. The key is probably the songs.  This album alone has the title track, On Broadway, Up On The Roof, I Feel Good All Over and In The Land Of Make Believe just for starters.

Seven down, thirteen to go.  That won’t happen tomorrow though as I have a work road trip which means the opposite side of the sonic coin.

16 & 17 March 2013 (Days 75 and 76) – Dear Jon

(When I tried to think up a theme for this weekend’s post bemoaning my inability to catch the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion on Saturday night, the idea of writing a Dear John letter proved irresistible. Being a bloke happily married to a beautiful woman, this disturbs me greatly.)

----------------------------

Dear Jon

I’m writing to you to apologise for not being able to attend Saturday night’s performance of your mighty Blues Explosion.  I’m sure the gig went off like a bomb as your shows inevitably do.

This was the first JSBX gig that I’ve missed in quite a few years and I put it down to becoming a happily married man.  Not that I’m blaming my wife “M”.  Marriage can do strange things to you, like eschewing many things you previously held dear because you want to spend time with your beloved.  And let’s face it; we’ve seen the inside of a quite few Aussie pub venues over the journey and they’re not exactly the most stylish of venues.  At least the beer is great, but you can’t snuggle up to that on a cold Saturday night (like the one just past); God knows I’ve tried!

Personally, I’d prefer to point the finger at the combination of Messrs Bob Mould, Neil Young and their promoters for their scheduling of their gigs on the nights immediately preceding yours.  And I also blame your promoter for not putting your tickets on sale before theirs and the invisibility of their marketing campaign.  But then again you did play to full houses, so they must have done something right. 

And I guess I’ve got to take some of the blame too.  It’s not as though I now have the stamina to do things like attend two gigs in one night or hit the circuit for nights on end.  There was that sequence in 1993, for example, when I saw Chris Whitley on a Wednesday night, The Cruel Sea and Robyn Hitchcock on the Thursday, Babes In Toyland on Friday, best man at a wedding on the Saturday, The Angels on Sunday and Alice In Chains on the Monday.   I remember turning to someone at the latter gig, asking what night it was and on getting a response uttered, “Monday. Then this must be Alice In Chains”.  But alas those days, and a bachelor’s life are now like Alice In Chain's Layne Stayley, long gone.

But I digress.  My point is that due a combination of all of the above, I had to think of my wife.  Would I be pushing it to get a leave pass for a third night in a row and a Saturday at that?  Especially with the AFL footy season about to start and the dual pain of turning “M” into a football widow and watching the Western Bulldogs this season?  No.  Like you I subscribe to the notion of “Happy Wife, Happy Life”.  I figure you must understand because you’ve done roughly the same thing in the past by putting the Explosion into hibernation whilst gigging with your missus Christina Martinez in Boss Hog.  (And before that being with her in Pussy Galore.)

So ultimately Jon, I have to say this, it’s not you, it’s me.  I’m not saying that I’m not just that into you anymore.  Far from it.  The memories of your gigs have sustained me through many a barren musical time and I’ve paid you the ultimate compliment. I bought a print of that wonderful tour poster of your 1999 tour and I’ve hung it up in my music hall of honour in my downstairs toilet.  Every time, I’m there I see the posters of you and many other memorable gigs from my past and give thanks for the life I’ve led and now partially leave behind.

I’m also playing tribute by playing nothing but your music over the weekend, starting with;

(207) The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion – Controversial Negro

I have a bone to pick with you about this one.  It’s your only live album but you a) released only a handful of tracks from it on the Rocketship single here, whilst b) releasing this album in Japan.  It meant that I paid over the odds to get a copy which was fine until you recently released it properly with bonus tracks.  Still its bloody good and I have no quibbles with the track listing.  A hint: if you’re ever thinking to retrospective release another live album, why not consider the awesome show you played at the Palace Nightclub St. Kilda on 4 September 1997.  Now that was a blast!

(208) The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion – Now I Got Worry

What’s your favourite album Jon?  Many people reckon it’s got to Orange.  I think it’s this one and I can prove it for two reasons.  First, you re-introduced the world to the genius that was R.L Burnside (R.I.P).  More importantly, its got Skunk on it and Fuck Shit Up and 2Kindsa Love and Rocketship – basically a concise, rockin’ introduction to that fusion of alternative rock, blues and soul that you do so well.

(209) The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion – xtra acme USA

I also reckon that nobody has produced as many enjoyable remix or B-sides albums as your good self.  This album, containing all the additional tracks assocatoed with the Acme album is so good that its actually better than it.  The opening trio of Wait A Minute, Get Down Lover and Confused is fantastic.  Bacon is typical you, the remixes are great and, most of all, its got two of my old time favourite JSBX track and its an outtake (Chowder). I also love that humours radio advert you stuck on the end as a hidden track.

So anyway Jon, apologies once again for not making the gig.  Say hi to Judah, Russell and Christina, give my respects to R.L should you happen past his resting place and PLEASE mastermind another Andre Williams album.  He really needs you!

Regards and respect

Otis.Youth (pronounced Otis Dot Youth)

15 March 2013 (Day 74) – Gig # 699 Neil Young & Crazy Horse

It’s a new day rising (pun intended) as “M” sensibly lets me sleep in until the last possible moment before getting ready for work.  The memory of last night’s Bob Mould performance lingers in my mind for just the few seconds it takes me to remember I’ll be seeing Neil Young & Crazy Horse tonight.

Ahh, let me saviour that again.  Neil Young and Crazy Horse.  The gig’s been a bloody long time coming since I saw Neil in Melbourne on his legendary debut Australian tour in 1985.  On that tour, perhaps mindful of how long he had taken to come here, the show contained a healthy selection of solo acoustic material, a country set with The International Harvesters (The A Treasure CD gives a pretty good indication of what I heard) and a second half with Crazy Horse.  That show was, more or less, the equivalent of hearing the Decade compliation live and has very few contenders for the title of the finest show I’ve ever seen.

That gig was when I became completely sold on Neil and realised that this was a talent worth following.  I hadn’t fully appreciated the vast scope of his achievements up until then and became determined to remedy that mistake.  Since then I’ve heard almost everything he’s put out commercially, attempting to make sense of the stylistic turns he’s made but always appreciative of his desire, as he once put it,  “to head for the ditch” rather than travel along the middle of the road.  Very few acts have the courage to run their careers this way and I think this is why he is held in such esteem by just about every act passionate about rock.  Put another way he is one of the few acts that has earned musical integrity.  It doesn’t necessarily mean that everything he’s released is of the highest quality but the very last thing you could accuse him of is being boring or stale.

The next occasion I saw him live was an April 1989 show with The Lost Dogs at the National Tennis Centre.  This was seen as a controversial show by some quarters and any blame should sit squarely with the local mainstream commercial radio station that advertised the performances.  The adverts played nothing but tracks from Harvest as background music causing more than a few people to think it was going to be an acoustic show.  Yeah, an acoustic show with a band called the Lost Dogs; I figure anyone who didn’t figure out it was going to be a noisy electric show deserved to do their dough.  Anyway, this tour seemed to mark part of Neil’s re-emergence from his supposedly “non-commercial” era of the 80s and the show packed quite a punch.  I remembered a blistering version of Cocaine Eyes, and On Broadway (both from then Australian and Japanese only mini album El Dorado) and Touch The Night, the only track of any note from Landing On Water, my vote and only candidate for the honour of his worst album.  Unfortunately, I didn’t attend the previous night when the opening number was the completely unknown Ordinary People which wasn’t to be released for another 20 years.  A mate of mine who call with me that night is certain he played out but this hasn’t made its way onto the set list recorded on the Sugar Mountain website.

A lengthy gap ensured until he returned for the Geendale tour and a single Melbourne show on 22 November 2003 at the Myer Music Bowl.  The first half of the show was the Greendale album in its entirety.  How anyone regarded that show will have depended in part upon their reaction to that album; personally, I didn’t have a problem with it and the presentation actually helped me make greater sense of it, except for the artists painting on stage.   But it was the second half that everyone remembers with Crazy Horse.  This was one hour of classic music – Hey Hey My My (Into The Black), a cover of All Along The Watchtower, Powderfinger, Love And Only Love, Like A Hurricane and Rockin’ In The Free World – just about every track greeted with a roar of recognition from the audience.

The 28 February 2009 performance, also at the Bowl with his Electric Band, is remembered primarily for two reasons.  These were the unbelievable near 40 degree Celsius temperature at the start of the show and the resultant look of Neil in shorts.  But it was a great opportunity to hear a different selection of tracks with Words and Unknown Legend to the fore but, for me, the highlight came right at the end with his audacious cover of The Beatles A Day In The Life.

And so, with this overview, you can see the reason for my excitement.  This will be the first, and possibly only time, I get to experience a gig of nothing but Crazy Horse.  With respect to all of Neil’s staggering achievements with Buffalo Springfield, Crosby Stills Nash & Young, Pearl Jam, Booker T & The MGs and his myriad of backing bands, Crazy Horse is the best context in which to hear his most inspired music.  But I do understand why he needs other outlets for his work.  Not everything is suited to this band, and let’s face it, they aren’t regarded for their high levels of musicianship but they provide exactly the right type of intense garage band backing necessary to these particular songs.  Most importantly, they provide the correct level of support that enables Neil’s incredible guitar playing to soar.

In his Year Of The Horse documentary, Neil explained that when he gets the need to rock out, he gets on the phone to the members of Crazy Horse and tells them the coming year is to be The Year Of The Horse.  Well, to prepare myself for the gig, I have deemed today to be the Day Of The Horse, staring with;

(203) Neil Young And Crazy Horse – Live Rust

Happily this was the first Young album I bought with my own money which I did so on the day of release.  Released following Rust Never Sleeps and in anticipation of the concert movie of the same name, it is roughly divided into acoustic and electric halves.  The lengthier electric tracks work best with a mighty Cortez The Killer and great versions of Like A Hurricane and Tonight’s The Night.  The acoustic selection is superb but, if I have a problem with the album today, it is the extent to which the sound of an over enthusiastic crowd intrudes on this tracks.  After The Gold Rush, in particular, is badly affected.

(204) Neil Young And Crazy Horse – Re-ac-tor

This was the last Neil Young album before his non-commercial period and could have been regarded as a classic. It features 30 minutes of some of his most underappreciated music including real gems such as Opera Star (which incredibly he’s been playing on the Australian tour), Surfer Joe And Moe The Sleaze and the extraordinary closing track and lost classic Shots.  However, it’s the other 9 minutes of album that people tend to remember, namely the infamous T-Bone.  This is simply the band riffing away whilst Neil randomly, repeatedly and pointlessly sings the less than memorable line “Got mashed potato/Ain’t got no t-bone”. Urgh!

(204) Neil Young And Crazy Horse – Ragged Glory

Never has an album been so aptly titled only for it to become a cliché employed by lazy journalists. (I’ve made a point NOT to use it here.)  It is arguably Neil’s greatest studio guitar fest (I say arguably because the tracks were recorded live in the studio), the headline acts being Young concert staples such as Over And Over, Love And Only Love and Fu%!in’ Up.  Other tracks such Love To Burn, Mansion On The Hill and his cover of Framer John are just as good.  And just to throw everyone off guard he concludes the albm with the weirdness of a live Mother Earth (Natural Anthem).

(205) Neil Young And Crazy Horse – Weld

This is to Ragged Glory what Live Rust was to Rust Never Sleeps.  Love To Burn, Over, Mansion, Fu%!in’ Up and Framer John all get second lives here but the highlights are elsewhere.  It opens with a ferocious version of Hey Hey My My (Into The Black) which leads to an even more brutal Crime In The City followed by an apocalyptic rendering of Dylan’s Blowin’ In The Wind .  Roll Another Number is an appropriate closer.  For added weirdness, you can buy this double CD with a third disc containing Arc, a 30 feedback collage.

Even with wealth of music listened, the day seems to drag forever, especially after I read a review Young’s first Melbourne show on Wednesday.  Playing at the 5,000 capacity Plenary in the Convention Centre , Neil appeared to dramatically overhaul the standard set he’d been playing on all of the other Australian dates of the tour.  My hopes rise for a similar overhaul tonight.

At lunchtime I speak to some colleagues of mine who are also going.  One of these is worried that a relative who’s going with him might not enjoy the show because she loves the Harvest album.  After lunch I check for starting times and find The Drones have been added to the bill.  I contact Mikey to organise an alternative collection time, not even bothering to check whether he’s a fan.  (Mikey is one of the best fans of Australian music you’d ever want to meet and so I know he’d want to see them.)  I also let “M” know that we’ll have to condense our after work activities even further.  She’s understands, bless her.

Eventually my uneventful work day ends.  I collect “M”, do a frantic bout of grocery shopping, wolf down dinner and head off to the gig, collecting Mikey on the way.  He’s got a seat in a different part of the venue but we go together anyway chatting excitedly just like we did when we went to our first gig together as teenagers.  At the venue we take photos of each other in front of the giant advertising billboard.  We'd gone together to the 1985 show; Mikey still has and proudly wears the tour t-shirt from that tour.

We separate and I find my seat in the second last row on the side at the mid point between the stage and the rear. I’m seated just in time for The Drones who deliver a crowd pleasing half hour set.  How they didn’t get the support gig originally has me beat.  During their set MJ joins me.  Like Mikey and Derek, MJ is my oldest friend going right back to my secondary school days.  His musical tastes have generally not proceeded beyond 1990 with a distinct fondness for 60’s music, electric blues and guitars.  Neil Young is thus right up his alley.

Gig # 699 Neil Young & Crazy Horse, Rod Laver Arena, National Tennis Centre, Melbourne

The lights go down and The Beatles A Day In The Life comes over the PA bringing us back to how Neil’s last show in Melbourne ended.  As it plays his roadies, dressed in white lab coats and wearing face masks, scurry around the stage, attending to chores and lifting the covers over the oversized amps.

The amps are the same oversized Fenders that were used on the Rust Never Sleeps movie/Live Rust album and the Weld album.  It then occurs to me that the current Alchemy tour to support the Psychedelic Pill album might represent the third act of a concept going back to Rust Never Sleeps that seems to imply continual improvement or development from a common starting point.  My (or should that be Neil’s?) logic goes thus:

1)      Neil unleashes Rust Never Sleeps, the concert movie of the same name and the harsher Live Rust

2)      Neil releases Ragged Glory and the very much harsher Weld.  Apparently, by welding in new steel you can patch up rust, which as he had previously advised, never sleeps.  

3)      Neil releases Psychedelic Pill and the resultant tour is called Alchemy.  According to www.yourdictionary.com alchemy is a power or process of changing one thing into another (usually gold); especially a seemingly micraculous power, or “changing a thing into something better”.  Is the instrument of change the psychedelic pill? Who knows. But the claim is being made that each show on the Australian tour is being filmed for a concert movie. I briefly wonder if a live album is also in the works.

My musing is brought to an end when Neil and band casually saunter onto the stage.  Band, roadies and others are lined up to attention, Advance Australia Fair is played and an Australian flag unfurled; the bemused audience stay in their seats.  Then everyone clears the stage and the band starts to play.  I pull out a pen and try to write down each song title in the darkness of my nosebleed seat.

As if to confirm my theory, the first number played is Powderfinger from Rust Never Sleeps, always a welcome addition.  Next comes the first surprise, apparently an Australian debut for Love To Burn from Ragged Glory.  The unfamiliarity of the tune appears to catch out Crazy Horse a couple of times during the number but its more than satisfactory.  This is the followed by, you guessed it, the first selection from Psychedelic Pill, the jaunty Born In Ontario. 

The first of the night’s extended workouts follows with Pill’s Walk Like A Giant leading to an unreleased tune everyone is citing as Hole In The Sky.  It’s a pleasant enough tune but scarcely worthy of the esteemed company with which it finds itself.  Then comes the acoustic section led off by Heart Of Gold, the start of which garners practically the biggest roar of the night.  Neil naturally heads for the ditch.  He kills off any audience expectation of more acoustic classics of that ilk by sitting behind a piano and playing a fairly faithful rendition of My Heart, the opening cut from Sleeps With Angels.  Twisted Road from Psychedelic Pill follows and then comes the night’s bizarro moment.  It’s another unreleased song, that is being titled on websites as Singer Without A Song.  On first listen, it sounds like a fairly unremarkable song with lyrics that, bluntly, Taylor Swift could have written.  Then mid-way through the tune comes something approaching chorography.  A lonesome blonde slip of a woman slinks across the stage, guitar case in hand, before lingering and disappearing stage left.  From a distance she could be mistaken for, ahem, Taylor Swift.  Is this a piss take?  I’d like to think so.

Such musing on my part disappears with the start of Pill’s mighty Ramada Inn.  It is a magnificent version and arguably the night’s highlight.  Then comes the night’s selection of classics; Cinnamon Girl, an awesome version of Cortez The Killer, F%!kin’ Up, Prisoners Of Rock ‘N’Roll from the grossly under rated Life album, and then a trio of tracks from Rust – Welfare Mothers, Sedan Delivery and the inevitable Hey Hey, My My (Into The Black).  By this part of the show, the band is absolutely flying with Neil sporting the biggest grin I’ve ever seen him give whilst attacking his famed guitar Old Blackie with the same fevered intensity as Homer Simpson strangling Bart.

For the sole encore Neil produces a Crazy Horse version of Mr Soul (adding to the Buffalo Springfield original and Trans electronic versions – another version of alchemy perhaps?) and wraps things up with Roll Another Number.  Two and a half hours have elapsed and I’m content.  Surely no other show on this tour could have possibly come close to matching this and I realise the gauntlet has been laid done to two of the world’s greatest live acts that I’ll be seeing later in month.  But until then, there is the memory of this gig to savor.

14 March 2013 (Day 73) – Gig # 698 Bob Mould

After a great night’s sleep I’m shaken awake by the ringing of the phone.  It’s my father-in-law ringing from Europe to inform us of the election of a new Pope.  It’s a lucky break; for some reason our alarm had failed to go off and we would have woken up at who knows what time.  Watching the excitement and smiles on the faces of the pilgrims in Rome, I realise tonight I’ll be experiencing similar sensations for far less devout and sacred reasons.  For tonight I will finally have a musicial ambition realised and I’ll be able to see and hear Bob Mould live with a band. 

This is actually Mould’s third tour of Australia.  His first visit 22 years ago was a solo acoustic affair.  I saw the show at the Prince of Wales Hotel in St. Kilda, the staging of which verged on the shambolic.  In those days, the stage was quite a low one and no one knew that Mould was going to perform seated which initially meant that only those at the very front of the audience could actually see him. It gave rise to some ridiculous sights as venue staff attempted to build a platform during the show.  His next tour was 11 years later and ago and was more of the same.  This time, he brought his electric guitar which, at one point, I remember him plugging in to play over the electronic backing tracks from his Modulate album.  

But not only is Mould bringing a band, it will also be playing tracks from the two bands with which he is most commonly associated, Husker Du and Sugar.  As neither band toured Australia in their existence, this tour will be the first time Australian punters will hear songs from these acts in the way they were intended to be heard.  (I might be wrong on the Husker Du claim.  His songwriting and sparring partner from that band, Grant Hart, toured here a couple of years back but I couldn’t go and so don’t know what he played.) 

Ordinarily I never play music during the day of an act I’m going to see that night.  It reduces expectations and leads to great discoveries during a gig which influences my listening for the day after as I relieve the gig.  But that won’t be possible tomorrow because something even greater than Mould’s performance is going to occur and I will definitely want to prepare for THAT. 

Today’s starting point is the demise of Husker Du:

(197) Husker Du – The Living End

This is the live album culled from a variety of dates of the final tour of what is arguably rock’s finest 3 piece and almost certainly it’s most influential.  It starts with Mould’s New Day Rising, switches to Hart’s The Girl Who Lives On Heaven Hill and then, more or less, alternates between the two songwriters until their cover of the Ramones Sheena Is A Punk Rocker, one of their two alternating set ending covers.  (Third member Greg Norton has very few writing credits leaving him time to tend to his quite magnificent moustache.)   In between there are thrills galore – Ice Cold Ice, She Floated Away, Keep Hanging On, What’s Going On, Data Control and In A Free Land  - to satisfy even the most jaded soul.  Kudos also to the compilers for compiling an absolutely slamming set of some of the finest alternative/punk ever recorded and for seemingly keeping duplication of tracks with the subsequently released DVD Live At The Camden Palace to an absolute minimum.  That DVD contains their other set closer, Love Is All Around, aka the theme to the Mary Tyler Moore Show and an oblique nod to their home town of Minneapolis.

(198) Bob Mould – Workbook

Bob’s first album after Husker Du’s demise surprised nearly everyone.  Essentially an acoustic album it commenced with the lovely instrumental Sunspots and then continued through a number of remarkable, often cello accompanied songs, such as See A Little Light, Compositions For The Young And Old and the superb Brasilia Crossed With Trenton.  Electric guitar was integrated to good effect on several tracks such as Wishing Well and Poison Years but it was only the closing number Whichever Way The Wind Blows that approached anything resembling the power of his former band. It was also a potent hint of what was to surface on his next album, the dark and powerful Black Sheets Of Rain.

(199) Grant Hart – Intolerance

Hart’s first album is a different affair but, like Workbook, was much quieter and contained sounds not associated with Husker Du.  The opener, All Of My Senses begins with the sound of keyboards, Roller-Rink sounds like a catchy keyboard instrumental, Now That You Know Me (tried out on the last Husker’s tour and included on The Living End), a song more in the Workbook mould (ahem), included harmonica while The Main contained gospel overtones.  The album’s highlight, 2541, is a wonderfully minimalist ballad.  In short the album is no less a triumph than Mould’s.

(200) Sugar – Live At Cabaret Metro (Copper Blue Deluxe edition bonus disc)

After Black Sheets Of Rain, Mould formed Sugar, another three piece, and hit relative pay dirt with their debut album Copper Blue.  This show, recorded around the time of that album’s release was widely bootlegged (under the title Bleeding) and a number of tracks were used as B-Sides, but the entire show wasn’t released until last year’s 20^th Anniversary Edition of Copper Blue.  It is an absolutely cracking gig that highlights tracks from Copper Blue as well as the subsequent Beaster EP recorded at the same time as that album.  It is one of those shows where momentum is continually building.  By the time the band arrives at the combination of Slick, the instrumental Clowmaster, Beaster’s Tilted, a cover of The Who’s Armenia City In The Sky and Beaster’s demolition set piece J.C Auto, the band is absolutely flying.  There are very few more exciting passages than this on live albums released by anyone else.

(201) Nova Mob – The Last Days Of Pompeii

By the time Mould had unleashed Sugar, Hart had already formed his band and released this debut album.  Seemingly about, err, the last day of Pompeii and the death of Roman author, philosopher and naval commander Pliny The Elder whilst attempting a rescue mission, it took his musical approach on Intolerance and brilliantly applied it to a band context. It’s a marvellous album incorporating acoustic and full blown versions of Admiral  Of The Sea (the later with its relentless “Stroke, Stroke” outro, its brilliant centrepiece), great rockers in Getaway In Time, Over My Head and Werner Von Braun.  (If you've figured out what the latter was doing at Pompeii, please drop me a line.) The whole piece brilliantly ends with the explosion of Mt Vesuvius at the end of The Last Days Of Pompeii/Benediction.  Nova Mob released only one more album and, since then, Grant Hart has released a handful of solo albums, the latest of which, Hot Wax, only a few years ago.

(202) Bob Mould Band – Live AT ATP 2008

After the demise of Sugar, Mould recorded a number of albums under his own name and LoudBomb including some fascinating experiments with electronic music. This live album was recorded at an All Tomorrow’s Parties gig in, I think, London with what is his current band.  Judging from online set lists, this album documnets a show containing a mixture of Mould solo, Sugar and Husker Du material of the type I can expect tonight.  Unfortunately it was only a 45 minute set but otherwise the band rocks like a mule.  It ends with a cover of New Day Rising which started my day on The Living End.  Sweet.

After a late dinner, I kiss “M” and head out to the legendary Corner Hotel in Richmond full of expectation.

Gig #698 Bob Mould – The Corner Hotel Richmond, Melbourne, 14 March 2013

This is Mould’s second show in Melbourne, the first being a sold out show at the same venue the previous night.  Disappointingly, the venue is only about two thirds full when the band take to the stage.  If Bob is disappointed by this, he doesn’t show it; a later call for hands in the air reveal that only a small number of hard core fans were there the night before.

With a Springsteen-esque, 1-2, 1-2-3-4, the band was off and running.  The first five tracks The Act We Act, A Good Idea, Changes, Helpless and Hoover Dam all come from Copper Blue and are played with maximum intensity.  The next 4 or 5 tracks are probably all from the current Mould album Silver Age which I’ve yet to get.  These sound pretty good,particularly  the raging second number.  

Come Again, the low key opener from Beaster is next, an odd choice, which briefly gets my hopes up that the next track would be the sensational Tilted into which it is welded on the EP.  My hopes are dashed by the first of the Husker Du numbers, Candy Apple Grey’s Hardly Getting Over It.  A ballad on that album, Mould’s band plays it at a slightly slower tempo and yet it sounds far heavier.  Could You Be The One?, the sole number from the Husker’s final and double album Warehouse: Songs And Stores comes next provoking a massive response from the audience.  This is followed by a tremendous version of Workbook’s See A Little Light. 

Almost the rest of the gig is given over to Husker Du.  Celebrated Summer from New Day Rising comes next.  With my hopes, expectations and body movements rising to unprecedented levels, my attempt at memorising the set list start to fall apart.  I reasonably sure that the next two numbers played is Rising’s, I Apologize followed by Zen Arcade’s Chartered Trips. The latter number might have also brought the main set to a close but by then my mind is frazzled by the heavy riff that Bob has sampled and looped through the PA system.

At this point, the show has been exactly what I hoped for.  The encores raise it to an entirely different level.  The first starts with Sugar’s If I Could Change Your Mind.  Then come the numbers that send the audience into an absolute frenzy, Zen Arcade’s Something I Learned Today and, miraculously the one track I had been hoping for but dare not expect, Everything Falls Apart’s, In A Free Land.  (Judging from the crowd’s eruption, I daresay it was the secret wish of most of the audience.)  By now, my body is moving in ways it hadn't for a few years as I drop all semblance of dignity and scream along to the “In A Free Land” responses in the choruses.

On the home straight now, the band returns for a final encore and Mould, sweat pouring from his body as he joyfully stomps all around the stage, plays a killer trio of tracks from Flip Your Wig.  The title track is first and surges with nary a breath into Hate Paper Doll and then, to top everything else, the track which was my working title for this blog, Makes No Sense At All.

It’s a brilliant show but I’d don’t stay to linger as I need to maximise my sleep. As absolutely sensational as tonight’s gig was, it can only be viewed as the preliminary bout to tomorrow’s absolutely heavyweight main event.

13 March 2013 (Day 72) – The Calm Before The Maelstorm

With quite a few work commitments today and a restaurant dinner with “M” after work, there wasn’t much opportunity for listening today.  But I’m not complaining; in some respects it was a welcome relief from the joyous noise that will descend around me over the course of the next 48 hours.

Keeping that in mind, I opted for some low key experimental noises starting with the band that’s provided half of my pseudonym;

(195) Sonic Youth – A Thousand Leaves

This is one of the more intriguing Sonic Youth albums.  It’s got a very loose almost improvised feel that isn’t anywhere near as loud as you think it should.  This doesn’t mean that they shied away from their patented brand of controlled guitar chaos; tracks like Sunday, French Tickler and Karen Koltrane take care of that.  Rather, many tracks provide the impression you’re listening to  Sonic Youth Unplugged, however this approach is wholly integrated into their traditional sound on tracks like Wildflower Soul, Hoarfrost and Hits Of Sunshine (For Allen Ginsberg).

(196) Tortoise – Self Titled

Tortoise is an experimental band from Chicago that specialises in languid instrumentals.  Such an approach was not altogether surprising given they were then without a recognised guitarist.  The line up for this album was essentially 2 bass guitars, drums and other percussion instruments resulting  in a great unreleased tension. The basses frequently throb with menace and you think the band is about to burst out a la Sonic Youth but it never really arrives; you might get a vibraphone explosion, as on the track titled Ry Cooder, but that’s about it.

And that’s how I feel as I’m about to go to sleep, sort of like the pilgrims at St Peter’s in Rome awaiting the election of a new Pope; excited but really wanting tomorrow to come in the expectation of greater things.