The First Cut Is The Deepest

When you’re huge, you’re huge, and after you’ve been around a while, your entire body of work tends to morph into one, uh, huge, thing.

So it begs the question, who would we still view – years later - as huge if they had stopped after only one album?  Hendrix, Deep Purple, Led Zeppelin, The Cars, Buddy Holly  …

After that, I dunno.  Adele?  The Band?  The Byrds?  Crosby Stills and Nash?  Dire Straits?  Eagles?  Elvis?  Jeff Beck?  Steely Dan?  Maybe.

There are a lot of names from the rock pantheon missing, a lot of acts that took a couple or three albums to really establish a place in music history.  The Beatles, The Stones, The Who, U2, Pink Floyd, Chuck Berry, AC/DC …

Maybe we’d remember them all, but more as flashes in the pan than big influencers.  But not many artists nailed it the first time out.

The Bad, The Ugly & The Good

When you’re listening to a song and it comes to the guitar solo, do you ever think to yourself, “Boy!  What a bad guitar solo, but it’s good.  I like it?” 

I’m not talkin’ about uninspired or lame.  I’m talkin’ awful, as in, “What’s he doin’?”

For me, a prime example would be Eight Miles High by the Byrds.  Every time I hear it, my initial reaction is, “Sheesh!  That’s the worst good guitar solo ever.”  But by the end of the solo, I’m thinking, “I dig it.  It really fits.”  Which is the ultimate compliment for a guitar solo.

Neil Young’s also excels at being not so good in a compellingly good sort of way.  As does Robby Krieger of the Doors, Dave Davies, John Lee Hooker, and a cat named John Lennon.

It’s a taste thing, of course.  But it’s interesting how we can embrace music that falls short of our personal standard of what constitutes “good.”  One more of the many mysteries of music.

Double The Pleasure

Now here’s a fresh list on an overdue subject:  Guitar World’s Top 30 12 String Guitar Songs of All Time brings some attention to an underappreciated instrument.

America, Dylan, The Hollies, The Byrds,  … the people/bands you quickly identify with 12 string are all there.  And some surprises too.  OK, maybe not surprises, but people/bands you wouldn’t immediately associate with the sound:  Hendrix, Queen, Bowie, The Who.  For me, anyway, the tendency is to associate the 12 string with folk, delta blues and country, so if you say 12 string guitar my mind gravitates to folk rock tunes.

And songs like Maggie May, As Tears Go By, Mr. Tambourine Man and Free Falling are all there.  As are classics like A Hard Days Night and Stairway to Heaven.  Um, OK, these aren’t folk rock, but you do expect to find them on the list.

But there are songs I would have forgotten about, like Closer To The Heart, More Than A Feeling or Wish You Were Here.

Anyway, whether electric or acoustic, the 12 string guitar produces such a beautiful rich sound.

I don’t own one though, as much as folk rock is pretty much home base for me.  I can barely keep my 6 strings in tune.

Runnin’ Down a Dream

Here’s the bio for the perfect rock ‘n’ roll star:  Grew up during a time when The Beatles, The Stones, Dylan and The Byrds dominated the airwaves.  Grew up in a place where there’s no shame in a country song, and rockabilly is still revered.

Had all the talent to write and perform some hard-driving rock that was at once familiar yet fresh.

Was lucky enough to meet – and become friends with – some of his boyhood idols.  Even made a record with them.  Then he used another member of this supergroup, an English cat who shared the same childhood idols, to produce his best work yet.  Through all the shifts and changes in pop music, he remained true to his roots, and his fans adore him.

Wait a minute; I’m describing Tom Petty.

8 Miles High

Well, why not?  40 Great Stoner Albums, a list of albums Rolling Stone says are “great for blazing along, but also great when you’re not high as a giraffe.”

Item one:  I’m no stoner.  I only owned 3 of the 40 albums listed, and I only recognized 14 album titles in total.  Tons of bands/artists I had never heard of!  I kinda always thought that drug and pop culture weren’t that far apart, and that you didn’t need to partake to get it.  Maybe I’m wrong.

Item two:  item one aside, I wonder if all these records are for stoners, or if some of them are just by people who were stoned.  David Crosby’s, If I Could Only Remember My Name, for example.

Item three:  Rock & Roll is an interstellar escape pod?  Pardon?  What does that mean, exactly?  I must be straighter than I thought.

Item four:  there is no item four.  Still trying to deal with item one.  I mean, I expected to see one or two blues greats, maybe Cream, Zeppelin, Dylan, The Byrds, Neil Young, Deep Purple (Mark I), Donovan, Tull, one of the 70’s Brit prog bands, someone from California other than The Dead …  Just three albums (Axis, Dark Side and Rubber Soul).  Sheesh!

Maybe I need to take a dreadlock holiday.

Far Out, Man

According to Wikipedia, psychedelic music covers a range of styles and genres, is inspired by psychedelic (drug) culture, and emerged in the mid-60’s among folk rock and blues rock bands.  Wikipedia also notes that these bands went to on to create prog rock, heavy metal and a bunch of other new genres.  But you knew all that.

The article mentions a bunch of bands you’d expect – The Beatles, Floyd, Hendrix, The Byrds – but no Led Zeppelin.

Ya?  So go listen to How Many More Times.  Seems to me that, exotic instrumentation excepted, this song has most of the characteristics listed: complex song structure, strange lyrics, extended solos, distorted guitar, wah wah, elaborate studio effects …  this song is a trip.

It’s always bugged me that Zeppelin was jammed into the heavy metal pigeon hole.  I get the name and their influence and all that, but they had too much depth and range.  And for my money, Zeppelin I is every bit as trippy as Pepper, Are You Experienced?, or Disraeli Gears.

Just goes to show that labels don’t mean nothin’. 

Hey!  Wait a minute!  Cream doesn’t get a mention in the article either.  Guess it needs some updating.

Highway 61 Revisited Revisited

Gibson’s When Rockers Cover Dylan points out that the man has provided a gold mine of material for other artists.

It lists some great examples, some interesting analysis, and a variation on the “be true to the original, but make it your own” mantra: “completely restructure it until it sounds like you.”  Dunno about the “completely restructure it” part, but “sounds like you” is right.

The examples include:

Hendrix – Watchtower

Johnny Winter – Highway 61 Revisited

George Harrison – If Not For You

The Byrds – Mr. Tambourine Man

GNR – Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door

I guess the winner is All Along the Watchtower, because covers by Hendrix, Dave Matthews and U2 all get a mention (I would add, BTW, a great live version by Neil Young from Dylan’s 30^th Anniversary Tribute concert).

In terms of the “be true to the original, but make it your own” cliché

-       Hendrix and Winter take the prize for outright theft

-       The Byrds and George provide the best examples by doing a straight cover that nevertheless sounds like themselves

-       I wish no one – including Clapton – had covered Knockin’ on Heavens’ Door.  Dylan’s version is unbeatable.

But that’s maybe the only such song on the list.  I’ve always felt that a good song had a life of it’s own, and Dylan has provided a bunch of examples.  He might have created them – or opened a door through which they entered our lives – but once they arrived, they kind of became everybody’s songs.

Under Cover

Another intriguing list, Gibson's Top 50 Cover Songs of All Time

No surprise to me, #1 is Jimi Hendrix's version of Dylan's All Along The Watchtower. The old saying about doing a cover is, "be true to the original, and make it your own." Well, Hendrix stole this song. It's his song now, not Dylan's.

Some others that come close to theft are:
#10 - Aretha Franklin's version of Respect (oh, did Otis Redding write that?)
#20 - The Who's version of Young Man Blues (who is Mose Allison actually?)
#23 - The Black Crowe's version of Hard To Handle (who knew Otis wrote southern rock?)
#49 - CCR's version of Suzie Q (that song defined them)

The songs that come closest to the maxim (balancing respect with a fresh sound) are:
#2 - The Beatles version of Twist And Shout
#7 - The Byrd's version of Mr. Tambourine Man
#10 - Elvis's Hound Dog
#27 - Talking Head's version of Take Me To The River
#29 - Elvis's Blue Suede Shoes (sorry Carl)

In the "decent cover ... interesting take" category, I'd place:
#13 - Stevie Ray Vaughan's cover of Hendrix's Little Wing
#18/#24 - The Stones' covers of Not Fade Away and Love In Vain
#28 - Red Hot Chili Peppers' version of Higher Ground

In the "some songs just shouldn't be covered" (and therefore should not be on the list) category, I'd put:
#17 - GNR's molestation of Dylan's Knockin' On Heaven's Door
#26 - Ike & Tina Turner's cartoon version of Proud Mary
#33 - Van Halen's disfiguring of Oh Pretty Woman
#35 - Aerosmith's criminal rendition of Come Together

Interesting, isn't it, that a bunch of these artists are on the list as coverers and coverees: The Beatles, Hendrix, The Stones, CCR, and Otis (not mentioned above, but he is).

Interesting, too, that so many songs on the list are rediscovering of old blues tunes.