6 May 2013 (Day 126) – Live Music DVDs or The Format Previously Known As The Live Album

Monday is normally the start of the new work week but, on this occasion, it comprises my one day weekend. I’d negotiated a deal at work that I would take today off to recharge following the five day week followed by the weekend conference. Even better “M” has a rostered day off.  She lets me sleep in until 7am, an absolute luxury for me, when she wakes me convinced I’ve had enough sleep...

... except that I hadn’t and could have gladly slept in until Midday at least.  But I knew I had to make it up to her for being away over the weekend so don’t complain.  After breakfast and a quick scan of the match reports about the Bulldogs 70 point loss to West Coast in Perth last night, I commit to her suggestion of a long walk. 

If you’ve never tried it, I recommend taking a long walk on a Monday morning after everyone around you has gone to work.  It’s quite a surreal feeling when the only people you come aacross are just those older than you or yummy mummies talking their children to school or kindergarten.  Otherwise, streets are quiet (except for the shopping strip), houses vacant (except for tradesmen) and even the now empty commuter trains appear to make no noise.  We stop off at a café for coffee and feel quite decadent. 

After that “M” and I decide to watch a DVD at home.  I go through some recent purchases we’ve yet to see and select the Mark Whalberg political thriller The Shooter.  Like most movies of this type, it has a preposterous storyline, but contains enough internal movie logic to enable to suspension of disbelief necessary for it to be quite entertaining.  After this “M” dozes off and I decide to check out some music DVDs.

Almost there are some great music documentaries out there, the great bulk of my reasonably small music DVD collection is of live performances.  I’ve started to collect these as it has dawned on me that these have effectively replaced the live album.  Think about it; when was the last time a major act released a live album that was not part of a package containing a live DVD of the same performance.  (My comments here obviously exclude live CDs released by acts more or less as historical artefacts from much earlier in the careers and for which footage does not exist such as The Who’s Live In Hull recorded the day after their seminal Live In Leeds.)  It’s reasonably hard to think of one, but there’s an incredible number of live DVDs now on the market.  Some acts, among them Metallica, Bruce Springsteen, U2, The Rolling Stones and many, many, more, now routinely release live DVDs after each of their tours.  It seems this is done as a necessary action to counteract the massive flood of gig footage available on YouTube, to provide punters with a quality souvenir of a typical show from the tour, to document significant shows in the act’s history, and to maintain the product flow in the gaps between albums.   It might even be viewed as a means to recoup some of the losses from sales of studio albums, etc resulting from illegal downloads.  

I managed to watch two DVD’s this afternoon, starting with a souvenir from a reunion tour;

(Audio visual # 5) Jane’s Addiction – Love Voodoo (2010)

Jane’s Addiction originally broke up in 1991, not that long after completing their first Australian tour.  Indeed I’m reasonably sure the Melbourne gig I saw at what was then called The Metro was their third last gig.  There were reformations subsequent to that for live shows and the Strays CD but these versions of the band did not include original bass player Eric Avery.  This DVD, is from a period when Avery did re-join, this performance taking place in New Orleans during 2009.  The disc captures a solid performance by the band playing tracks exclusively from the pre Strays era.  Some props and dancers provide reminders of past live hi jinx and everyone appears to be in great shape and sound but the whole thing appears too ordered.  At their prime, there was an element of danger implicit in their performance -  you’d think that something untoward was going to happen such as an onstage fight or nudity – but nothing really seems to be inferred or indeed happen.  Part of this may be due to the way the show appears on screen.  All shots appear to have been taken by cameras that are off stage and unseen; I don’t recall seeing anything that was shot on stage.  Additionally, the coloured lights seem to settle over the screen on a great number of occasions making the vision look like it’s been filmed on second hand video tape.

(Audio visual # 6) Primal Scream – Screamadelica live (2011)

This is a live DVD of a significant event – the band’s first performance of their classic Screamadelica album in full along with a set of catalogue highlights played beforehand.  It captures a lavish recreation of the album incorporating a number of horns, back up signers and a full gospel choir to great effect.  Movin’ On Up and the closing trio of High Than The Sun, Loaded and Come Together benefit greatly from this.  The non Screamadelica numbers don’t come off as well especially the revised arrangements given to Swastika Eyes and Rocks.  Shoot Speed/Kill Light is massive though. The DVD has been brilliantly directed to give views a magnificent sense of the electronically animated back projections that were generated for the tracks.  Unfortunately, the two sets are separated on the disc and cannot be viewed as one program. 

4 & 5 May 2013 (Days 124 & 125) – otis.youth live!

The weekend arrived but I’m still at work.  I’ve spent it representing my employer at a conference as well as delivering a paper and doing some speaker introductions.   

I’ve never seemed to have a problem with public speaking, which is something I’ve done on numerous occasions in the past.  I have few concerns about my paper which is on a topic I’ve frequently spoken.  Therefore my worries are strictly about my delivery, or dare I say it, the quality of my performance.

During a spare moment to myself, I muse about just how analogous my situation would be to that of the average rock star. Some of the differences are fairly obvious - no backstage, no rider, a much smaller crowd and absolutely zero prospect of groupies.   But I suspect the similarities are much more striking.  As I’m not disconnected from reality by alcohol or drugs, I worry about whether I don’t sound as though I’m delivering a rote, practically committed to memory presentation completely devoid of personality.  I hope I don’t forget lyrics (i.e fluff key points), that the P.A system (a microphone actually) I’ll be given to use works and that my back projection (i.e my PowerPoint presentation) doesn’t malfunction.

As I’m appearing at a conference, it could also be suggested that I’m not headlining my own gig but is one of numerous acts at a music festival.  I’m presenting in the area with the greatest audience capacity so it’s safe to suggest I’m on the equivalent of the festival main stage.   As my presentation is not a keynote address, it’s also safe to say I’m not the headliner, despite going on late in the day.  Despite being on a festival bill, I suspect I’ll be largely speaking to those who would want to hear “my message” or are “fans” (in this instance of my employer, not me).  There is a possibility though, should the punters not want to attend the parallel sessions on offer on the other “stages” that I’ll pick up a few curious onlookers and convert them to our cause.

And so it’s gig time.  I don’t have a walk on theme but I do receive a nice introduction from the President of the organising body.  I’m handed the mic and step into the limelight.  The conference “roadies” had already loaded my presentation into the computer and so I’m straight into it.  From this point onwards, I’m focused on my presentation and am especially conscious of the need to stay within the allocated time. I speak well although I occasionally send the presentation into reverse but the feedback is good.  Afterwards, a number have stayed behind to chat.  I give time to everyone even though I’m itching to check into my hotel for the night, grab something to eat and speak to “M”.

Of course, I could not do this all on my own.  For inspiration, I needed something reflective and yet simultaneously inspirational for my lengthy drive to and from the gig venue.  The following album delivers this in spades;

(# 339) Metallica And The San Francisco Symphony Orchestra – S + M (1999)

I must admit that I was dubious when I first heard about this album.  How could a symphony orchestra possibly compete with the kings of all things heavy? Fortunately, unlike other bands who have attempted this in the past, Metallica hit on the perfect collaborator for such a project. Michael Kamen had composed full bore orchestra scores for such Hollywood blockbusters as the first three Die Hard movies a couple of Lethal Weapons and other like films in which he was able to use the orchestra to either counter point or underscore various explosions and other similar moments.  He succeeded brilliantly in this task, finding tracks in their catalogue where sufficient space existed for the orchestra’s inclusion.  Of course, none of this would have mattered had the band not performed at maximum intensity ion the nights this was recorded; indeed, they seemed to play with such a ferocity that I don’t think I’ve heard on their mass released live recordings.  If it exists, I’d love to obtain a copy of this album without the orchestra.

The first disc of this double CD is nothing short of perfect and could have easily been released as a standalone album.  It begins with the orchestra playing their rendition of Metallica’s traditional walk on music, Ennio Morricone’s The Ecstasy Of Gold.  (Listen for the roar of the audience when they realise this was occurring.)  The band then joins them for the 9 minute instrumental The Call Of Ktulu, a fitting nod to co-writer Cliff Burton who had posed the idea years previously prior to his death and, for once, a deserved winner of that year’s Grammy Award for that most ridiculous of categories “Best Rock Instrumental Performance”.  This leads straight into a truly awesome rendition of Master Of Puppets, arguably the band’s best ever of this chestnut, with a major sing-along rendition by the audience. A turbocharged version of Fuel (easily outstripping the original studio version in power), The Memory Remains and the unreleased No Leaf Clover also stand out and Bleeding Me provides an enigmatic end to the first disc. Nothing Else Matters and Until It Sleeps starts the second disc in a similar mode which is quickly redressed by For Whom The Bells Tolls and Wherever I May Roam.  However, after this the quality dips.  There is a seriously heavy Sad But True but, for the first time, the orchestral accompaniment sounds like it’s been thrown on after the fact.  A shortened version of One simply doesn’t work, the orchestra merely plays along with Enter Sandman and is overwhelmed at the end by a ferocious Battery.  It almost sounds as though Kamen had produced his score in the order in which the songs were to be played in the shows and simply ran out time to do justice the final numbers.  Still, don’t let this deter you.  This is the one album that demonstrates that a mixture of classical and hard rock can actually work.

3 May 2013 (Day 123) – American Rockers

I’m not sure what happened today but found myself more or less going on a regional rock ‘n roll tour of the States. 

This something I would dearly love to do at some stage of my life.  Take a trip across the highways of the USA and visit all of the sites associated with the music that obsesses me.   I’m not exactly just how I would structure it, but I think I would start in Chicago and their blues sights and then travel south to New Orleans with a side trip into Texas before heading north again, through Memphis and Nashville up to New York City and Boston.  But if time was my enemy, I think I’d take Amanda Petrusich’s brilliant book It Still Moves Lost Songs Lost Highways & The Search For The Next American Music and retrace her steps.  Although the specifics escape me as I write this, I was particularly taken by her stay in cotton sharecropper shacks in the South that have been converted into tourist accommodation.  I’d go in summer, take a view beers and sit on the porch and ponder the harsh life that gave birth to the blues and ultimately rock’n’ roll.

These are the sorts of through that go my head these days whenever I play albums by some of these dyed in wool, heart on sleeve American rockers starting with:

(#335) Tom Petty And The Heartbreakers – Southern Accents (1985)

Hard to believe now but I seem to remember that this album wasn’t all that well received in the States when it was originally released.  I suspect it is because Petty was trying to assert his pride in the Southern States of his childhood.  Whatever you might think about that stance – to an Australian like myself, I find it irrelevant – this album probably contains his best batch of tunes.  Rebels is a great rocker and perfect opener, Don’t Come Around Here No More injects some welcome psychedelica and Dogs On The Run employs horns to great effect.  But ultimately everything is shadowed by the closer, the sublime The Best Of Everything which sounds like The Band taking on Van Morrison’s horn driven classic Wonderful Remark.

(#336) John Cougar Mellencamp – Uh-Huh (1983)

Whilst known as Johnny Cougar, this artist had a couple of hits in Australia where he was ultimately regarded as a top 40 singer.  Although this was something like his seventh album, it was the first one to reveal that there was any real substance.  Basically, it’s a rather nifty collection of rocking tunes, some of which, Pink Houses and Authority Song hinted at the social commentator role to which he aspired and evolved.  But it was the straight ahead relatively meaningless rockers such as Crumblin’ Down, Play Guitar, Serious Business and Lovin’ Mother Fo Ya that best hit the mark.

(#337) Bob Seger And The Silver Bullett Band – Live Bullett (1976)

Take a regional rock hero such as Seeger, put him in from of his home crowd of Detroit at practically the height of his fame, record it and release it as a two disc vinyl set and you’d think you’d have the sort of  release that today gives the live album a bad name.  But there are two problems with such an attitude.  First, this was released in 1976, before all those horrible Frampton Comes Alive knock offs came out.  But even more importantly, this is really, really, seriously good.   It kicks off with a great reworking of Nutbush City Limits, encompasses a solid take on Van Morrison’s I’ve Been Working, a nice version of Bo Diddley and closes with a rousing Let It Rock. In between is basically the cream of the Seger catalogue up to that moment, the then unknown Travelin’ Man and Beautiful Loser segueing beautifully into each other, a strong Turn the Page and ball tearing versions of Katmandu and Get Out Of Denver.

(#338) The Hold Steady – Boys & Girls In America (2006)

A few years ago, The Hold Steady were being touted as the next big rock act with Craig Finn’s songwriting skills and the word “Springtseenesque” frequently appearing in the same sentence.  This album and its successor, Stay Positive were the reason for the fuss.  Both combined no frills rock with Finn’s literate lyrics as on this album’s highlights, Chips Ahoy!, Chillout Tent (a story of love lost and found at a music festival) and Southside Girls.  However, Finn’s voice is not to everyone’s taste and their most album Heaven Is Whenever wasn’t either.

2 May 2013 (Day 122) – Soothing Sounds …..and Turbonegro

I was in a mellow mood at work today despite the heavy load.  I’d made a couple of speculative world music purchases over the weekend and I was keen to give them a listen starting with:

(# 330) Ceu – Self Titled (2006)

It’s not that often that I’m swayed into buying an album by a sticker or overlay but this is one of the cases.  Even more remarkably, on this occasion the description is so spot on I may as well repeat it here.  “Just when you think that Brazil must surely have exhausted its supply of jazzy, funky, sexy, soulful electro-pop, singer songwriters, someone like Ceu comes along and irresistibly mixes samba, reggae, dub, electronica and soul music and makes you think that maybe that particular well is bottomless after all.”

(# 331) Fatoumata Diawara – Fatou (2011)

Born in Cote d’Ivoire to Malian parents, Fatoumata Diawara is a female guitarist singer/songwriter who sings in the Malian language.  On the basis of this CD, her debut full length release, all I can say is that she no less than the female version of Mali’s greatest musical export, Ali Farka Toure. (Little wonder that musicians of the calibre of Tony Allen and John Paul Jones make cameo appearances.)  This package’s booklet removes the language barrier by providing lyrics also in French and English as well as her comments on each track.  From this I know that she sings about African conflicts and the difficulties of being a child, a woman and a mother there. It’s pretty sobering, yet impressive stuff.

(# 332) Grace Jones – Nightclubbing (1981)

I can’t believe it took me the best part of 30 years before I bought this.  It is a strong moody album characterised by a great selection of material including her well known covers of Flash And The Pan’s Walking In The Rain, Iggy Pop’s title track, Bill Withers’ Use Me and The Police’s Demolition Man. Best of all is I’ve Seen That Face Before (Libertango) where she sings part of the lyric in French to incredible effect.  All this and the hit Pull Up To The Bumper too.

(# 333) The Blue Nile – A Walk Across The Rooftops (1984)

This is a synthetiser album from the 1980s.  If you’ve never heard this, I bet you’re thinking something along the lines of Gary Numan/Tubeway Army or Erasure or Soft Cell.  Well this is not like any of those acts, being essentially adult songs graced with the distinctive, slightly gravelly voice of Paul Buchanan.  The title track, Tinseltown In The Rain, Stay and Heatwave are all graceful atmospheric tracks that are brilliant to hear on headphones and are perfect for a cold winter’s evening in front of a fire. 

But there is only so much, style and sophistication I can take in a day.  I scrolled for something that is the complete opposite of this and came up with;

(# 334) Turbonegro – Darkness Forever! (1999)

Turbonegro are a Norwegian punk band that refuses to take anything seriously.  On stage they are a hoot, churning out straight ahead punk on tunes with titles such as Don’t Say Motherfxxker Motherfxxker, I Got Erection, Good Head, Rock Against Ass and Are You Ready (For Some Darkness), all of which are present here.  This is their only live album to date which includes tracks recorded at their final show before they disbanded for the first time, but their more successful era was still to come.  It more or less also functions as a demented best of lacking only the fake blood and gore they threw into the audience as they did on the time I saw them.

1 May 2013 (Day 121) – Selections From Shuffle Sessions #4

The idea that came to my last night was a simple one.  There are always tracks in a Shuffle Session that provoke a response to play the parent album, so why not do it?

Well that’s as good an excuse to play an album isn’t it?  It’s no more or less valid a reason that others, for example;

- in tribute to someone who’s just died,
- hearing a track from an album in the media or on a movie soundtrack,
- seeing the album in a best of list or the subject of a retrospective article in the rock media,
- hearing a track or the artist mangled by an Idol/Voice contestant, the cast of Glee or some other misguided artist,
- boning up on artist’s catalogue before seeing them live,
- to impress somebody else or on a trusted firend or critic’s recommendation
- for company on a lonely day, night or long drive (especially after a loss at the footy)
- by sheer impulse, or, of course
- for the purposes of writing a music blog.

The one thing that I’ll never do is to utilise something like the Apple Genius in which some form of, presumably computerised, program tries to guess what I’d  be interested in.  I’d also assume that this would be based on my prior listening history.  Now I don’t have anything against the concept, but I’d hate to have music chosen for my pleasure on the basis of a calculated analysis of my listening (or, market research, if you will) when just about all of the examples cited in my list above are emotional choices. (It’s for much the same reason that I no longer listen to commercial radio.)  More importantly, should such a selection be based on my previous listening habits, the chances of such means enabling me to discover new (or should that be, different) music would be significantly reduced and thus shunned on principle.

All of which is a long winded way of saying, here’s the three albums I played today that were inspired by track I heard in yesterday’s Shuffle Session, starting with;

(# 327) Rocket From The Crypt – Live From Camp X-Ray (2002)

Rocket From The Crypt is one of the many vehicle for guitarist John Reis also from Drive Like Jehu and Hot Snakes.  All of these bands employ full bore, driving rock which always manages to stop just that one step away from being punk.  Rocket From The Crypt had more of a 60’s garage band feel augmented, at times, with frantic horns.  Despite the title, this is not a live album.  That honour fell to the next release, R.I.P which documented their final show, although at the time of posting, they’ve just finished a reunion European tour.  This is an extremely short – about 27 minutes – release of mainly top notch material, including I’m Not Invisible, I Can’t Feel My Head, the string enhanced I Wanna Know What I Wanna Know and Too Many Balls.  Brilliant stuff.

(# 328) Shearwater – The Golden Archipelago (2010)

Shearwater specialise in a form of quiet indie rock/Americana punctuated by the occasional outburst of louder stuff, usually at times you don’t expect it.  This is their sixth album, being released after two extremely well reviewed predecessors in Palo Santo and Rook.  It’s a good solid album, far better that I remembered on first listening and it may well provide to be one of those albums that will improve with age.   For the most part, it’s the tracks which break the mould that tend to stand out.  Black Eyes sounds like a very good musical tribute to David Bowie and God Made Me should become mandatory listening to anyone wanting to learn how to construct a slow/fast/slow number.

(# 329) The Twilight Singers – Powder Burns (2006)

Greg Dulli is one of the great, largely, unsung heroes of rock ‘n roll.  He was the leader and main force behind the magnificent Afghan Whigs, who released a number of brilliant alternative rock albums during the 1990’s.  The Twilight Singers was the band he formed after breaking up the Whigs and this is their fourth – and best – album.  Many of the tracks here would not sound out of place on an Afghan Whigs album including There’s Been An Accident, Underneath The Waves and the grand ballad I Wish I Was.

30 April 2013 (Day 120) – The Shuffle Sessions # 4

I’d originally envisaged that I’d do one of these per month and so this one is to bring me up to date, so to speak.

A curious thing happened after I hit the shuffle button.  Song number 1 turned out to be Gene Vincent’s Pink Thunderbird.  Wasn’t this the same track that led off Shuffle Sessions # 3?  I quickly leafed back through the pages of my music journal had this confirmed. 

Now I don’t know about you, but I get deeply suspicious when something like this happens.  Was this truly coincidence?  I thought not and hit the forward button – yep, Trouble Every Day by The Mothers Of Invention, track # 2 of the previous shuffle.  I hit it again and up came the same Muddy Waters track and then I knew; my iPod was repeating the previous shuffle.

Rather than set a new shuffle, I took this one to the end point of Shuffle Sessions # 3 (Whispers by Luna) and decided to continue from the next item:

56.          Earth – High Command (from Pentastar In The Style Of Demons)
57.          The Modern Jazz Quartet –Two Degrees East, Three Degrees West (from At Music Inn, Guest Artist Jimmy Giuffre)
58.          Common - Everywhere (feat. Martina Topley-Bird) (from Universal Mind Control)
59.          Waylon Jennings - Brown Eyed Handsome Man (from The Best Of Johnny Cash TV Show)
60.          Marshall Crenshaw – Someplace Where Love Can’t Find Me (from Good Evening)
61.          John Coltrane – Naima (from Giant Steps)
62.          The Reverend Horton Heat – Liquor, Beer & Wine (from Liquor In The Front)
63.          Ramones – Bop ‘Til You Drop (from  Ramonesmania)
64.          The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band – And So It Goes (from Will The Circle Be Unbroken Vol. 2)

Then disaster struck.  In relocating the iPod I somehow managed to break the shuffle and the reluctantly had to set a new one.  A shame because the brace:

1.       Black Cab – Sword & Shield (from Call Signs)

2.       The Ruts – Babylon’s Burning (from Grin & Bear It)
3.       Siouxsie & The Banshees – Cities In The Dust (from Tinderbox)
4.       Rocket From The Crypt – I Wanna Know What I Wanna Know) (from Live From Camp X-Ray)
5.       Smashing Pumpkins – Mellon Collie And The Infinite Sadness (from Mellon Collie And The Infinite Sadness)
6.       Paul Kelly – Feelings Of Grief (from Stolen Apples)
7.       Camper Van Beethoven – Tania (from Our Beloved Revolutionary Sweetheart)
8.       Sleepy John Estes – Drop Down Mama (from Let Me Tell You About The Blues – Chicago)
9.       The Beta Band – It’s Over (from The 3 E.P’s)
10.   Shearwater – Landscape At Speed (from The Golden Archipelago)
11.   The Mars Volta – Eriatarka (from De-loused In The Comatorium)
12.   Les Paul & Mary Ford – It’s A Lonesome Old Town (Greatest Hits!)
13.   John Lee Hooker – This Is Hip (from Mr. Lucky)
14.   John Mayall & The Bluesbreakers – It Ain’t Right (from Blues Breakers With Eric Clapton)
15.   Joni Mitchell – Just Like This Train (from Court And Spark)
16.   XTC – Standing In For Joe (from Wasp Star. Apple Venus Volume 2)
17.   Dire Straits – Sultans Of Swing (from Dire Straits)
18.   Diana Ross – Ain’t No Mountain High Enough (from Hitsville U.S.A. The Motown Singles Collection 1959 – 1971)
19.   Bruce Springsteen And The E Street Band - The Promised Land (from Live 1975 – 1985)
20.   The Belle Stars – Sign Of The Times (from The Stiff Records Box Set)
21.   The Twilight Singers – My Time (Has Come) (from Powder Burns)
22.   Bruce Springsteen – My Love Will Not Let You Down (from Tracks)
23.   Neil Young And Crazy Horse – Cowgirl In The Sand (from Road Rock Vol. 1)
24.   Otis Spann – Nobody Knows Chicago Like I Do (Party Blues Line) (from Down To Earth.  The Bluesway Recordings)
25.   Eels – Agony (from Shootenanny!)
26.   The Gun Club – Field Holler (live) (from The Birth The Death The Ghost)
27.   Concrete Blonds – Darkening Of The Light (from Bloodletting)
28.   Guided By Voices – Secret Star (from Live From Austin Tx.)
29.   Pixies – The Happening (from Bossanova)
30.   Omar Rodriguez Lopez – Thermometer Drinking The Business Of Turnstiles (from Se Dice Bisonte, No Bufalo)
31.   Tony Joe White – I Want To Be With You (from The Collection)
32.   Sepultura – Slave New World (from Chaos A.D)
33.   Todd Rundgren - Tic Tic Tic It Wears Off (from A Wizard, A True Star)
34.   Tom Petty – Feel A Whole Lot Better (from Full Moon Fever)
35.   Money Mark – Harmonics Of Life (from Push The Button)
36.   The Neville Brothers – Voo Doo (from Yellow Moon)
37.   Wall Of Voodoo – Spy World (from Call Of The West)
38.   Basement Jaxx – Stop 4 Love (from Remedy)
39.   New Order – Every Second Counts (from BBC Radio 1. Live In Concert)

Well that’s it for another session and a pretty good one at that, even allowing for the need to reshuffle.  It's also given me an idea for tomorrow....

29 April 2013 (Day 119) – My Concert Bucket List

Well, I resisted and resisted and resisted but , amid the roar of the Aerosmith gig, I heard the sound of a dam being breached.  And so today I will finally cave in and post my first music list.

I wrote yesterday that I had crossed Aerosmith off my concert bucket list.  Of course, I didn’t literally have one, rather a mental reckoning of those acts I would love to see before my time is up. 

But there is a real danger attached in creating this list should “M” ever read this. It could be she will refer to this whenever I tell her about plans to buy a ticket to future gigs with an immediate riposte of “it’s not on your bucket list”.  Now she’s never actually denied me the opportunity of attending any show I really want to see, but you can’t foresee everything in the future.  Accordingly, I look upon this post as a form of “gig insurance”. 

And to further insure my attendance at a range of future gigs by favourite artists, I’d better set out my criteria for inclusion on this list.  “M”, if you’re reading, this list includes ONLY acts that;

1.       I have never seen before live
2.       who regularly perform around the world (This is insurance against the possibility of a now
defunct or retired act reforming or deciding to hit the road again. I shall call this my Television rule.)
3.       who I never spurned an opportunity to have seen live in the past, or
4.       I have been prevented from seeing live in the past owing to unfortunate clashes, my being overseas or ill, their gig selling out before I could get a ticket, my not having developed an awareness or taste for their musical abilities, their appearance in an otherwise crappy festival line up or due a failure of my brain.  (I shall call the latter the Lyle Lovett clause.  I still don’t know why I didn’t go even with the opportunity of half price tickets.).

Now I didn’t have much time to listen to stuff today courtesy of a half day corporate strategy planning session but decided to play material staring with act No 1 on my list:

(# 325) Van Morrison – No Guru, No Method, No Teacher (1986)

I love Van the man – his Have I Told You Lately? was “M” &  my wedding dance tune – and this is my favourite album of his.  Magnificently produced with musical backing that firmly put the spotlight on his remarkable voice, this is arguably one of the more logical entry points into his daunting catalogue due, in some part, to lyrics that are less oblique than on other albums. The best tracks – Foreign Window, In The Garden, Thanks For The Information and the incredibly literal Ivory Tower – ranks with the best of his career.  Even the two bonus tracks on the reissued version, especially Lonely At The Top, are worth hearing.

Morrison has only ever toured Australia once, well before I developed an appreciation of his work.  I know he can be quite mercurial live but, in the end, I don’t care.  I just want to hear THAT voice and phrasing in a live environment, preferably Hamer Hall.   Seeing him live would also enable me to finally stop grumbling about stepping out of the main train station in Vienna on my 1990 trip, finding myself staring at a poster for a Morrison/Dylan gig and realising it occurred the previous night.

And so, on to No. 2 on my bucket list:

(# 326) Tom Waits – Small Change (1976)

I’ve always loved Waits’ lyrics but, more importantly, the way he juxtaposes his voice against whatever musical background he chooses.  And the instrumentation used over the 20 years or so has been nothing short of staggering, an triumphant union of rhythm and noise.  This album, though, places that voice against lush orchestration and a batch of some of his greatest songs – I Wish I Was In New Orleans, The Piano Has Been Drinking (Not Me) and the title track.  And as an Australian, just hearing that voice do a portion of Waltzing Matilda on Tom Traubert’s Blues, makes the hairs stand on the back of my neck every time. 

Tom is number 2 for the very simple reason that since the last time he toured Australia he has released Heartattack And Vine, Swordfishtrombones, Rain Dogs, Bone Machine, Mule Variations…….
Do I need to say anything more?                                  

And now to the remainder of my bucket list:

3. Aretha Franklin - To the best of my knowledge has never toured Australia. She is probably not likely to as well so I’ll have to fluke a rare gig in the States.

4.       Television - Yes I bought the ticket to their show in the reception place in Altona later in the year but things can still happen.  Not to be crossed off the list until Tom Verlaine walks online and starts strangling his guitar.

5.       Willie Nelson - I’ve twice held tickets to gigs which have been cancelled. He is now 80 and so I’m confident he'll be off the list in the next decade or so.

6.       Camper Van Beethoven - I had a ticket for the show they were going to perform in Melbourne on 24 May 1990.  It got cancelled because the band broke up.  They’ve since reformed and I’m still waiting to sing along to Live Is Grand.

7.       Boris - I only discovered the Japanese 3 piece noisemakers a couple of years back and have spent quality time catching up on their formidable back catalogue.  A tour will top off this voyage of discovery nicely.

8.       Mogwai - The Scottish alt-instrumental genii have been victim to clashes.  I also missed out on seeing them at a Belgian music festival in 1998 as they appeared on the day I didn’t get to.

9.       Richard Thompson Band - Ordinarily, I rate one of the present day masters of the guitar higher, but for the fact I’ve seen him at least twice in the past.  However, each occasion has been an acoustic affair, the latter at least with Danny Thompson on bass.  I’m not complaining but I do want to hear Valerie in its electric glory…and I Can’t Win...and Calvary Cross…and, well you get the idea, electric guitar solo heaven.

10.   Swans - It was only due to their tour after their reformation, that I really listened and started to truly appreciate their music.  Since then I bought up the key parts of the catalogue and was hoping for a return visit…..only for tickets to go onsale and sell out whilst I was blissfully ignorant overseas.

11.   Paul Westerberg - Paul.  Pick up your guitar, hop on a plane and come here. You’ll like it.  Really.  Come as Grandpa Boy if you like.  Surely you’ve had offers?  And The Replacements never toured her either, so some of their/your tunes would be appreciated as well.  Hell, we were able to lure Alex Chilton to play here before he died and we didn’t mind (well, too much) that he didn’t play any Big Star stuff.

12.   Bad Brains - I don’t know whether they’ve toured Australia and that’s a good enough reason to have them on my list.

13.   Van Halen - They have never played Melbourne with David Lee Roth.  Just recently did a single Australian show at a Sydney Festival along with Aerosmith.  What, Ed are we not important enough? May you continue to find brown M & Ms in your backstage bowls until you rectify this injustice.

14.   Lyle Lovett - What can I say other than I’m sorry - again.  

15. Kate Bush - Kate would be much higher on the list if not for the teeny weeny, insignificant minor detail of not having gone on tour for at least 30 years.  Gets on the list solely as extra extra extra insurance should she ever decide to give it a try. (I call this the Kate Bush rule.)