Three Chords and the Truth

All I’ve got is a red guitar, three chords and the truth

All I’ve got is a red guitar, the rest is up to you

The above lyric, inserted into U2’s rendition of Dylan’s All Along the Watchtower, got me thinking about the power of music and art to rise above simple entertainment and get us worked up about serious issues.

OK, I’m as guilty as the next person as far as not wanting to be lectured, and sometimes musicians, actors, etc. can get a bit too full of themselves.  But I’ve never subscribed to the notion that artists should just shut up and perform.  As Neil Young would say, “What?  Just because I’m a singer means I’m not entitled to an opinion?”

Anyway, if art is a reflection of life, how can art not be making a statement?

So here’s to Bono, and Dylan, and Lennon, and Springsteen, and Young, and Woody, and Marley, and all the other cats that have the courage to tell it like it is.

The rest is up to us.

Twisted, Sister

How do people even come up with this stuff?  Rolling Stone did a reader’s poll on 10 Artists Who Should Return As Holograms.

The poll was taken after Snoop Dogg had a hologram of Tupac Shakur during a concert, or something.  So, the morbid question is “Hey kids!  What dead people do you want to see on stage?  Cool!  Fun!  Woot!” 

And the list is: Jimi Hendrix, Kurt Cobain, John Lennon, Freddie Mercury, Jim Morrison, Jerry Garcia, Janis Joplin, Michael Jackson, Bob Marley, Notorious B.I.G..

Hey kids!  Anybody not guess who would be on the list?  OK, I guessed Keith Moon instead of Notorious.  Drummers never did get enough respect.

More than a little sick, and absolutely pointless.

Oh, and apparently there is some ongoing tour out there featuring an Elvis hologram.  Talk about the heebie-jeebies!

I liked it better when they just sold those Elvis-on-black-velvet paintings at corner gas stations.  When it comes to cheese, I’ll take low tech.

Time Changes Everything

If nothing changed we’d all be stuck in a sort of groundhog day and life would get pretty boring.  Things change, we change, what we like and don’t like changes.

Dunno about you, but my musical tastes have changed a lot over the years, and it’s not just about getting mellower as I get older.  I hope.

For example:

Extreme changes, from “Hate it” to “Love it” – Van Morrison, The Band

Major changes, from “Don’t like it but respect it” to “Love it” – CCR, Motown, Blues, (some) Country

Minor changes, from “Like it” to “Love it” – Stones, AC/DC, Bob Marley

Minor changes from “Adore it” to “Love it” – Zeppelin, Deep Purple, Jethro Tull

Minor changes from “Love it” to “Like it” – Hendrix, The Who

Major changes from “Love it” to “Ya it was OK then but don’t care now” – The Byrds, The Cult, Humble Pie

Extreme changes from “Love it” to “Let’s pretend it didn’t happen” – Wang Chung (I don’t know; I really don’t know), Genesis, a lot of prog rock

Some things just wear thin over time.  Others seem to get better as I discover more and learn to appreciate what I’m hearing.

And some things don’t change.  In the “Can’t imagine ever not loving it” category – Clapton, Dire Straits, Bonnie Raitt, The Cars, The Police, Cat Stevens, James Taylor, Tom Petty.

And in a category of their own, the “this is perfect” category – The Beatles.  Sheer joy, any time at all.

Got Your Back

Gibson has this list of 10 Backing Bands Who Propelled Their Leaders To Fame and Glory.

The Spiders From Mars (David Bowie)
The Band (Bob Dylan)
The Heartbreakers (Tom Petty)
The Revolution (Prince et al)
Booker T. and the M.G.'s (Various)
The Experience (Jimi Hendrix)
The Attractions (Elvis Costello)
The Wailers (Bob Marley)
The E Street Band (Bruce Springsteen)
Crazy Horse (Neil Young)

Not sure I can think of any substitutes, but I gotta question The Band and Crazy Horse. Can anyone seriously contend that Bob Dylan wasn't already a household name before he hooked up with The Band? Or that he needed them afterwards? Ditto Neil Young. I've seen/heard Neil Young fill an arena with just his warbly voice and an acoustic guitar. With all due respect to Crazy Horse, any backup band would do.

BTW, can anyone name those guys?

Along the same lines, although Hendrix was not a household name before he teamed up with Noel Redding and Mitch Mitchell, and as good as they were, I wonder how long it would have been before he took the world by storm anyway.

At the opposite end of the scale: as strong as they were - and as much as they were the obvious leaders and the driving creative forces - I find it hard to distinguish between Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, between Marley and The Wailers, between Springsteen and the E Street Band. They were units. The leaders were part of the band.

Probably the most interesting band on the list is Booker T and The M.G.'s. Those guys were the backup band. Sam and Dave, Wilson Pickett, Otis Redding, Albert King ... the list goes on.

Ah, hold on a minute! If we're going to include backup bands that supported more than one act, where are The Funk Brothers, who played on more hit records (for Motown) than everyone on the list combined?

Been Down So Long It Looks Like Up To Me

With a nod to the great/ongoing recession, Gibson has a list of 10 Songs For Hard Times.

Here's the list:
Patches, by Clarence Carter
Nobody Knows You When You're Down and Out, by Derek and the Dominos
Coal Miner's Daughter, by Loretta Lynn
Busted, by Ray Charles
Inner City Blues, by Marvin Gaye
Aqualung, by Jethro Tull
Kill The Poor, by The Dead Kennedys
Waitin' on a Train, by Jimmie Rodgers
No Woman, No Cry, by Bob Marley
Why I Sing The Blues, by B.B. King

Lotta time, ground and genres covered by this list.  In fact, not sure many of these tunes live up to the genre in the title "Poor Man's Blues: 10 Songs For Hard Times."

A little curious about Aqualung, 'cause frankly I never saw him as a sympathetic character.  Surprised not to see anything by the likes of Woody Guthrie or Pete Seeger.  I might have added:
Hobo's Lullaby, Woody or Arlo Gurthrie's versions
Match Box Blues, anyone's version, including (especially?) Ringo's
House Rent Boogie, by John Lee Hooker
Soon As I Get Paid or Crapped Out Again, by Keb Mo

What's surprising, really, is that there aren't a lot more current songs out there.  I'm pretty sure people are suffering, and they appear to be more than a little ticked off.

Where's the musical expression, people?

The Rhythm Is In The Guitars

So said The Beatles before they had a steady drummer.

I'm starting to believe that I prefer short lists to longer ones. For example, Gibson's 10 Greatest-Ever Rhythm Guitarists, has less to take issue with than Guitar Player's 50 Greatest Rhythm Guitarists.

Maybe it's that on a shorter list, you lower your expectations; like, gee, there's only room for 10 so I can't expect all my favourites on the list, right? So the Guitar Player list is easier to pick apart.

For starters, John Lennon doesn't make the Top 50? You kidding me? (He is on Gibson's Top 10. Well done, Gibson.)

And is the Guitar Player list the 50 greatest guitarists who happened to do some cool rhythm work, or the 50 greatest guitarists who specialized in the role? I mean, does anyone seriously consider Jimi Hendrix a rhythm guitarist? Sure he played chords, and yes he had some funky rhythmic chops, but Jimi's idea of chords was to hint at one while he hammered on, pulled off, slid up, skipped down and bent into all kinds of notes decidedly not in the chord. His idea of not soloing was to solo less, not play rhythm. Jimi was Jimi.

Both lists have Chuck Berry, Angus Young, Pete Townshend, Jimmy Page and of course Keith Richards - although Guitar Player ducks the issue of who's in the top 10 by listing the players alphabetically.

I guess the longer list does allow for more names, so it was nice to see Bo Diddley, Steve Cropper, The Edge and Bob Marley on the Guitar Player list. In fact, I would argue that they all belong on Gibson's top 10 list.

Oops! Just argued with the shorter list, didn't I?

On Tour On Your Stereo

Dunno 'bout you, but I didn't buy many live albums because they weren't that great. Poor sound quality, maybe substance-induced sloppy performances ... who needs that?

Things changed a bit in the video era when rehearsing, Broadway-like production, showmanship - not to mention digital editing - became the norm. But the early days were rather rough.

Interesting, then, that Gibson's recently published The Top 10 Live Albums Of The Rock Era is all from the 60's and 70's. Here's the list:

1. Live Cream
2. Woodstock Soundtrack
3. The Who, Live At Leeds
4. Bob Marley, Babylon By Bus
5. Rolling Stones, Love You Live
6. James Brown, Live At The Apollo
7. The Band, The Last Waltz
8. The Allman Brothers, Live At The Fillmore
9. Jimi Hendrix, Band Of Gypsies
10. Led Zeppelin, How The West Was Won

Pretty good list, especially the 1st four entries, which would exactly match my sequencing. All of them have exciting moments, but all of them also support my points. The sound quality is poor compared to what can be achieved now, and doesn't stack up to the studio albums made by the same bands.

And while one of the things that makes live music exciting is the risk involved, there are some "ouch" moments, not to mention downright sloppiness.

Didn't stop me from wearing out Live At Leeds though.

Rolling Stone 100 Greatest Artists

The Rolling Stone 100 Greatest Artists list is a little closer to good enough.  A little.

Here's the Top 25:
 1. The Beatles.  Correct.
 2. Bob Dylan.  Good.
 3. Elvis.  Sure.
 4. Rolling Stones.  Lookin' pretty good so far ...
 5. Chuck Berry.  Man, they're gettin' this about right!
 6. Jimi Hendrix.  Can't argue there!
 7. James Brown.  Sigh.  Just too good to last, I suppose.
 8. Little Richard.  Curious, but nice.
 9. Aretha Franklin.  Surprisingly low, no?
10. Ray Charles.  Sure.
11. Bob Marley.  Ya mon!
12. Beach Boys.  Inevitable, I guess.
13. Buddy Holly.  Good.
14. Led Zeppelin.  Yep.
15. Stevie Wonder.  OK, fine.
16. Sam Cooke.  Higher, I think.
17. Muddy Waters.  OK, these people do know what they're doin'.
18. Marvin Gaye.  Ya, maybe, 'cause I feared higher here.
19. Velvet Underground.  Oh for cripesakes, why this enduring lie?
20. Bo Diddley.  Alright, the list-makers have redeemed themselves.
21. Otis Redding.  OK, OK.
22. U2.  Yes.
23. Bruce Springsteen.  No.  Top 10.
24. Jerry Lee Lewis.  Ya, I get it.
25. Fats Domino.  Not sure I do.

So this is artists here.  We're not talking just playing, singing, writing or performing, right?  But all the above.  And influence and impact and all that, right?

Therefore Howlin' Wolf is not #51.  And Clapton at #53 is crazy.  And how can James Taylor be only #84?  How can Booker T be all the way down at #93, when he backed up, inspired or otherwise impacted half the list above him?  And Tom Petty is absent from the list?

Thanks for keeping Aerosmith in the bottom half, though (#57).

Now, can someone explain to me where they sold that koolaid that made you think the Velvet Underground were so freakin' cool?  'cause I never drank that stuff, brother, never a sip.

The Endless Groove

People tend to associate the groove with American R&B, but endless groove are everywhere.

You've got your Irish groove (U2, Bad), your American groove (John Lee Hooker, Boogie Chillun),  your Jamaican groove (Bob Marley, Get Up Stand Up), your English groove (The Cult, She Sells Sanctuary), your Guyanese groove (Eddy Grant, Electric Avenue), and your good old Canadian groove (April Wine, Say Hello).

You've got your classic soul groove (Aretha Franklin, Chain of Fools), your 80's New Wave R&B groove (The Fixx, One Thing Leads To Another), your low-down moanin' blues groove (John Lee Hooker, Tupelo), and your psychedelic boogie groove (Canned Heat, On The Road Again).

You've got your electrofunk groove (Marrs, Pump Up The Volume), your reggae groove (Bob Marley, Stir It Up), your folk groove (Donovan, Riki Tiki Tavi), your dance groove (k-os, Crabbukit), and your I-am-all-genres-at-once groove (Lenny Kravitz, Fly Away).

You wouldn't call Bob Dylan or Jimi Hendrix R&B guys, but they did it (All Along The Watchtower). Ditto Steve Miller (Wintertime), Bruce Cockburn (If A Tree Falls), and Collective Soul (December).

Maybe black people "own" the groove, 'cause they do dominate the list.  But white boys can definitely hold their own (Eric Burden, Spill The Wine; Van Morrison, Gloria; George Thorogood, Bad To The Bone; Warren Zevon, Werewolves Of London).

The groove is elemental.  It knows no boundaries.  It unites us all.

Groove on, people.

A Lovely Kind Of Groove

Q: what do Blur and Bo Diddley have in common?

No, it's not names that start with B or guitars.  It's the groove.

Song2 is built on a groove, just like Bo Diddley's Bo Diddley.  An incessantly repeated pattern.  Not just the foundation for the song like your garden variety hook, it is the song.

You've got your two chord groove (Joe Cocker, Feeling Alright), and your three chord groove (Steve Miller, Take The Money And Run).  Sometimes you even get a four chord groove (U2, With Or Without You) - even a five chord groove (Hendrix, Hey Joe).

Sometimes there's only one chord and the bass gives you the groove (War, Low Rider).  Or the drums (Beatles, Tomorrow Never Knows).  Or a guitar acting like drums (Bo Diddley, Who Do You Love?)  Maybe it's a guitar riff (Howlin' Wolf, Smokestack Lightnin').  Or two guitar riffs (Howlin' Wolf, Back Door Man).  Or a keyboard riff (Bill Withers, Lean On Me).  Maybe it's riff over chords (Springsteen, Born In The U.S.A.).  Or just the lyrics (Armand Van Heldon, Funk Phenomenon).  Sometimes it's "what's that chord anyway?" (Talking Heads, Once In A Lifetime).  Sometimes it's a bunch of instruments each jamming to its own groove (Bob Marley, Exodus).

Lots of different approaches, but they all feature endless repetition.  And the magic is that you don't get bored.  In fact, the reverse happens; you get drawn into the groove, hypnotized, transported.  You surrender to it.

Hmmmm.  This might go on a while.  Best make this a two parter...