Butterflies Above Our Nation

Sure, I know that Woodstock started out as a commercial enterprise.  I realize that it was basically a disaster.  I understand that most of the positive things happened by accident.  And I accept that the ‘Woodstock Nation’ was an illusion that would never materialize.

To which I say this: If we don’t grasp at illusions, if we don’t embrace fantasies, if we don’t chase dreams, there can be no magic in our lives.

And what’s the point of that?

Rockumentary Heaven

Rolling Stone’s 40 Greatest Rock Documentaries nicely illustrates just how much good video is out there to enjoy.

Dylan, Page, White, U2, Rush, Bowie, Neil Young, James Brown, The Stones, Hendrix, The Who, Zep, Floyd, a little band out of Liverpool called The Beatles  - they’re all there.

Kinda like my desert island playlist, but without enough blues and folk.

Some masterpieces (Talking Heads), some silliness (Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus), some cultural chronicles (Monterey, Woodstock), and a lot of great music.

The list has something for everyone, so I won’t complain, other than to say I would have included:

The Concert For George – my favourite concert video, period

AC/DC Live at Donnington – killer performance, surpassed only by

Queen Live At Wembley – Freddie’s control over the audience is simply mesmerizing.

Speaking of which, there’s a lot of rubbish (OK, music that didn’t age too well) on the Live Aid video, but some of it is great, so it deserves at least an honourable mention.  Maybe?

Are the Kids Alright?

OK, so readers’ polls can result in some weird stuff.  Take, for instance, Rolling Stone’s Best Rock Documentaries, and – as George would say – spot the loony.

  1. The Last Waltz

  2. Woodstock

  3. This Is Spinal Tap

  4.  Gimme Shelter

  5.  The Kids Are Alright

  6.  Pearl Jam 20

  7.  No Direction Home

  8.  The Beatles Anthology

  9.  Beyond the Lighted Stage

 10. It Might Get Loud

Aw, come on, people!  Spinal Tap is wonderful, but can we check the dictionary here?  It’s brilliant.  It’s an accurate reflection of the culture.  It’s funny.  And it’s fake! 

Documentary:  noun, providing a factual record or report

Mockumentary:  brings up spellcheck

Do these same people also believe Sacha Cohen is a real journalist from Kazakhstan?  Help!  I mean, a joke takes the place of Rattle and Hum or Standing in the Shadows of Motown?  Mercy!

By the way, otherwise, great list.

Let’s Work Together

Today is Robert Ernest Hite’s 70^th birthday – at least it would have been if he hadn’t died of a heart attack in 1981.

And who was Robert Ernest Hite, you ask?  He was aka Bob The Bear Hite, one of the singers and guitarists in Canned Heat, a truly great boogie rock blues band from the late 60’s.  Oh, and he played flute on Going Up the Country, the unofficial anthem of Woodstock, where they also played.  And some harmonica.

This is the band that gave us On the Road Again, the trippiest blues song ever.  But it was their cover of Wilbert Harrison’s Let’s Work Together (originally Let’s Stick Together) I love best.  Straight ahead blues rock and a sentiment that pretty much summed up the way most folks felt at the time.

I mean, why not work together?  ‘Cause:

            Together we will stand and divided we’ll fall

            Come on now people let’s get on the ball

            And work together, come on, come on let’s work together

Maybe it’s good that Bob The Bear died at the tender age of 38.  He’d be pretty sad with the state of things today.

Happy birthday, Bob.  I’m sticking with you.

Last of the Brooklyn Cowboys

I saw Arlo Guthrie in concert a while back.  What a treat.

He is still a hippy.  Self-deprecating, but not apologetic.  Sincere, but not cynical.  Kind of like, “ya I guess we were kinda naïve, but we were on the right track, don’t you think?”

It can’t be easy being Arlo Guthrie.  A legendary father, a luminous host of friends and mentors.  A past he can’t walk away from, even as he moves steadily forward.

Well, he did a fine job.  Great tunes, funny stories, honesty and integrity all wrapped up in a real nice vibe.

Attaboy, Arlo.  Keep chasing that happy feeling all over the world.

On a Night Like This

Best Concert Movies of All Time list takes on a whole new dimension.  Here’s the list:

 1. The Last Waltz – The Band et al

 2. The Song Remains the Same – Led Zeppelin

 3. Stop Making Sense – Talking Heads

 4. Woodstock – everyone who was big at the time, and then some

 5. Rattle and Hum – U2

 6. Gimme Shelter – The Rolling Stones

 7. Live at Pompeii – Pink Floyd

 8. Shine a Light – The Rolling Stones

 9. Sign O’ the Times – that guys whose name keeps changing

10. Bullet in a Bible – Green Day

It’s fitting that the Stones get on the list twice, as it is that Scorcese directed two of these gems.

I wish that Led Zeppelin had made another film, though.  Or maybe I just wish there were none of those lame fantasy sequences.  Zep was fantastic in concert, and so they need to be on the list.  I just wish …

Speaking of wishing, a few shows I wish I’d been at and would therefore nominate for this list:

The Concert for George

AC/DC Live at Donnington

Queen Live at Wembley

Bonnie Raitt’s Road Tested

Anyway, no quarrel with The Last Waltz topping the list.  A superb performance from a great band – a smart band who went out on top - aided by an all-star guest line up.  R.I.P. Levon

Back To The Garden

The Woodstock Festival ended 43 years ago today.  For a year or so afterwards, everything was so cool, so groovy, so possible.

Woodstock was a feeling, an attitude, a nation.  Then it became a ghost, a legend, maybe even a joke.

When did it die?  Five months later when a Hells Angel stabbed someone at the Stones concert at Altamont?  When Hendrix, Joplin and Morrison added their names to the celebrity death roll?  When the Vietnam War ended and there was no longer a unifying cause?  When glam rock, disco and prog rock snuck onto the scene?  Or was it already dying while Hendrix played his plaintiff guitar instrumental as people picked through the mud and the garbage to find shoes to wear home?

In the end, it was just a music festival, I guess.  A few nice ideas, but no substance.  But it could have been so much more.

One thing is for sure:  we’re no longer all feeding each other.

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.

On a Night Like This

With the recent passing of Levon Helm, Rolling Stone’s Best Concert Movies of All Time list takes on a whole new dimension.  Here’s the list:

 1. The Last Waltz – The Band et al

 2. The Song Remains the Same – Led Zeppelin

 3. Stop Making Sense – Talking Heads

 4. Woodstock – everyone who was big at the time, and then some

 5. Rattle and Hum – U2

 6. Gimme Shelter – The Rolling Stones

 7. Live at Pompeii – Pink Floyd

 8. Shine a Light – The Rolling Stones

 9. Sign O’ the Times – that guys whose name keeps changing

10. Bullet in a Bible – Green Day

It’s fitting that the Stones get on the list twice, as it is that Scorcese directed two of these gems.

I wish that Led Zeppelin had made another film, though.  Or maybe I just wish there were none of those lame fantasy sequences.  Zep was fantastic in concert, and so they need to be on the list.  I just wish …

Speaking of wishing, a few shows I wish I’d been at and would therefore nominate for this list:

The Concert for George

AC/DC Live at Donnington

Queen Live at Wembley

Bonnie Raitt’s Road Tested

Anyway, no quarrel with The Last Waltz topping the list.  A superb performance from a great band – a smart band who went out on top - aided by an all-star guest line up.  R.I.P. Levon.

What Happened

I'm back on to the lists. Here's an interesting one, Gibson's 10 Events That Changed Rock & Roll Forever

1. Ike Turner records Rocket 88 - arguably the first rock song.
2. Elvis records at Sun Studios - got it going for the white folk
3. Buddy Holly dies in a plane - who knows what he could have accomplished?
4. The Beatles Appear on Ed Sullivan - and changed everything, forever
5. Bob Dylan Goes Electric - the stuff of legend, but can't say I noticed
6. Woodstock - we actually thought we would change the world, versus vice versa
7. The Sex Pistols release Never Mind the Bollocks - well, punk arguably saved rock. I guess.
8. MTV Launches - and it was so very exciting for a couple of years, then Broadway took over.
9. Nirvana topples Michael Jackson - yes, and that was cool, but have we ever recovered?
10. Napster - well, we certainly haven't recovered from piracy, have we?

Good list. Glad to see Ike Turner instead of Bill Haley. Some other notable deaths might have made the list: Hendrix, Morrison, Joplin? 4-8-16-32 track recording? Synthesizers?

Nice to see a list without The Beach Boys on it, anyway.

I'll Be With You Darling Soon

True confession:  one of the worst records I ever bought was Live Cream Volume II.  It was just not very good.  Not as bad as Woodstock Volume II, which was unmitigated garbage, but pretty bad.

This was especially disappointing, since the live sides on Wheels Of Fire and Goodbye Cream contain some of the most thrilling live music ever captured.

So I definitely had mixed feelings when I first watched to the Cream Reunion (2005) concert DVD.  On top of the morbid "they're-so-old-they-might-die-on-stage" feeling I always struggle with, I worried about which Cream would show up.  And, you know, could they still do it?  It had been over 35 years!

Well, time - and probably restraint from substance abuse - has been kind.  What a treat!

What really jumps out at me as I watch the video is the intuition each of them shows, the silent, subtle - almost ESP-like - way they communicate with one another.

Yes, Cream was famous for squabbling and large egos.  And yes, every song comes across like a big contest, a struggle for supremacy.  And that hallmark Cream sound really is the sound of three guys doing non-stop solos right through the song - right over top of the other two guys.

Exhausting!

But even though that's all going on, you can see a level of co-operation that's uncanny.  Clapton is riffing away like mad, but he actually never wanders too far from the chords (or the base riff).  Instead of disconnected histrionics, he gives us theme-and-a-million-variations.  Jack Bruce almost never rests on the root of the chord, and seems determined to display more fireworks on the bass than Clapton is giving out on the guitar.  Yet Bruce never loses track of the chord, and in fact frequently fills in the empty space with chords.  Ginger Baker does the same with his drumming: going nuts but never getting lost.

It's the give and take between them that's so unbelievable.  Despite the contention for the spotlight, each of them pulls back, leaving a gap here and a space there for one of the others to jump in and grab the lead.  And one of them invariably does.

Oh, you're not ready for the change yet?  No problem.  Something told me to hold back half a beat, and so I didn't quite commit myself.  Whew!  Avoided that mistake!  Oh, you want to change now?  Yikes! Missed a beat a bit there, but caught up.

That's the magic.  Sure, they had the arm in the air to signal last time, the dramatic gesture, some eye contact  ...  all that usual stuff.  But they also used the music to signal intentions - a note here, a space there, a fill over there.  And where the signal was missed, they each have the uncanny knack of being able to instantaneously change course and avert disaster.

A contest, a competition, built over a co-operative spirit and unerring music sense.  Thrilling, dangerous - magical.

Take Another Little Piece of My Heart

Last week I saw a show billed as "Woodstock Festival Tribute."

The featured tribute artists were Melanie, Santana, CCR, Janis Joplin, Joe Cocker, CSNY, and Jimi Hendrix.  Also on the bill were The Doors and Jethro Tull.  Curious, really, since these two acts were not at Woodstock.

As it turned out it didn't really matter.  CSNY only did Neil Young solo songs - all from after August, 1969.  Tull and Santana also featured songs that couldn't have been performed at Woodstock.

But we live in an age when minor details and facts don't seem to matter.

Bending the truth a little might have been a smaller offence if the show had been good, but it was just OK.  Some good, some more bad.  When you find yourself thinking, sheesh, even the wig is bad, then you know it's pretty bad.

At least they didn't try and re-create the festival itself.  You know, warnings about bad acid and would you “please get down off the towers.”

I guess I made this point before, but: cover bands yes, tribute acts, I dunno.  Actually I do; no thanks.  I get manipulated enough as I go through life without paying for it.  Unless the act is mind-blowingly accurate, it's not entertainment, it’s just creepy.