Category: Uncategorized

History of the Grateful Dead, Volume 1 (Bear’s Choice), Grateful Dead, Warner Bros., 1973 (recorded 1970)

The Wikipedia article for this record says a lot, partly by what it leaves out. It was intended to be the first of a series; there weren’t any others. Owsley ‘Bear’ Stanley produced it as a tribute to Ron McKaren, aka Pigpen, who died as it was being produced. Garcia said the band had to agree to this in order to get Europe ’72 the way they wanted. ‘We had to give them four records to get two. It represents us in early 1970, when we’d never done a record,’ he said. Someone’s memoir said that McKaren played a solo acoustic set, which he rarely did, which inspired Garcia and Weir to play a set with just their acoustic guitars. What they left out: None of it was good. I only play this one when I am playing them all.

But if this record was necessary for Workingman’s Dead, American Beauty, and Europe ’72, then I give my heartfelt thanks to everyone involved.

Anthem of the Sun, Grateful Dead, Warner Brothers-Seven Artists, 1968

Alligator is a favorite of mine. The rest of this is a struggle for me. The words I noticed in a quick look through this record’s Wikipedia page—60-cycle hum and microphone feedback, erratic, experimental, mixed for hallucinations, psychedelic listening experience, songs were mirrors of infinity. That’s the sound of people trying to be nice. My notes: for a jam band with two guitar players, this has a LOT of kazoo in it.

The band didn’t like being in the studio, it is said, and they spent a lot of time getting comfortable. One Warner Brothers exec said it was the most unreasonable project the company did. Here are some cuts. See what you think.

Walt Kelly poem about the Aurora Borealis

I have carried this in my head for 60 years—something about ‘roar a roar’ appealed to me. It was in a collection of Pogo comic strips. Now I have an excuse to share. Hope you saw just as much as you wanted.

O roar a roar for Nora
Nora Alice in the night
For she has seen Aurora Borealis burning bright
A furor for our Nora
And applaud Aurora seen!
Where throughout the summer has our Borealis been?

—Walt Kelly

Choice Cuts 2010, National Record Store Day, Universal Music Group promotion

There are 16 songs by 16 bands. Side 1 is Violent Soho, ‘Jesus Stole My Girlfriend.’ Neon Trees, ‘Animal.’ Paper Tongues, ‘Ride to California.’ Findlay Brown, ‘Love Will Find You.’ Anberlin, ‘Mother.’ Imelda May, ‘Johnny Got a Boom Boom.’ Kelis, ‘Acapella.’ And Major Lazer, ‘Pon the Floor.’

Side 2 is Moreland & Arbuckle, ’18 Counties.’ Alpha Rev, ‘New Morning.’ Kevin Hammond, ‘Broken Down.’ Peter Wolf, featuring Shelby Lynne, “Tragedy.’ Shel, ‘The Latest and Greatest Blueberry Rubber Band.’ Aqualung, ‘Fingertip.’ Four Year Strong, ‘Wasting Time.’ Steel Panther, ‘Don’t Stop Believin.’’

It is mostly good. I have included my two favorites here. By the way, Steel Panther nails ‘Don’t Stop Believin’’ You may wonder why they would bother—from what I found on the Web, they like comedy and parody.

The Best of Carly Simon, Elektra, 1975

Somehow I never realized that Carly Simon’s greatest hits are 40 minutes of unrelentingly cynical disappointment about love and long-term romance. I love it. One reason I hadn’t listened much was the ketchup commercial, and another was her being married to James Taylor. ‘The Berkshires seemed dreamlike on account of that frostin’ is not an honest description of driving in bad weather. That probably wasn’t fair to hold against her, and they are long divorced, so there’s nothing holding me back. In That’s the Way I’ve Always Heard It Should Be, she says of older married people: Their children hate them, they hate each other, they hate themselves. ‘Silent rooms, tearful nights, angry dawn’—that’s poetry. In The Right Thing to Do, so long as you stay, loving you is right. In Mockingbird, all the gifts to express love might fail. In Legend in Your Own Time, her lover started early by disappointing his mama. In I Haven’t Got Time for the Pain, she lays in on so thick I think she’s trying to kid herself: ‘Open up and drink in the white light pouring down from heaven.’ In Anticipation, these are the good old days for the simple reason that it’s all downhill from here. In (We Have) No Secrets, Simon agrees with Bob Seger: Wish I didn’t know now what I didn’t know then.

In I Am a Rock, Paul Simon urges us to avoid entanglements. Carly Simon sounds more like Muhammad Ali looking back at long career of engagement.

In My Life, Judy Collins, Elektra, 1966

I started singing ‘I Think It’s Going to Rain Today’ when I was out in the rain recently. (I can be a master of irony.) It is a great song by Randy Newman from the mid-Sixties (many artists covered it before Newman released it in 1968). ‘Tin can at my feet/think I’ll kick it down the street/that’s the way to treat a friend.’ The people under 60 who have heard of Newman think of Toy Story and You’ve Got a Friend in Me. Older people mostly remember ‘Short People.’ That saddens me because he did a lot of good work about race. He had a chip on his shoulder, though, and used divisive language just to make a point. That hasn’t aged well.

When I played Collins’s album I realized it is MUCH better than I remember. She did a great job with Pirate Jenny, Suzanne, La Colombe, Marat/Sade, and Dress Rehearsal Rag, for example; I’m embarrassed I didn’t have those on my collection of Songs of Alienation and Despair. La Colombe (The Dove) is a powerful anti-war song that is timeless. Jacques Brel wrote it about French colonialism in Algeria, but it could be about the Spanish Civil War or the Cold War.

Bob Seger, Smokin’ OP’S, Palladium, 1972

If one bums cigarettes (instead of buying a pack), one could be said to be smoking the brand OP’s (for Other People’s). This is an album with two original songs and seven OPs. I found out today that the E. Anderson with song-writing credit for Let It Rock was Charles Edward Anderson Berry. For years I thought it was the folk singer Eric Anderson who had perhaps won a bet that he could write a tune that sounded just like Chuck Berry. I love the Innertubes.

Seger doesn’t sing many songs of the ‘I love my baby and my baby loves me’ type. His are more of the ‘failed high school passion viewed 10 or 20 years down the road’ type. So it was a change to hear him sing Love the One You’re With. I like it, but Seger went back to the ‘wish I didn’t know now what I didn’t know then’ songs.

For years, Seger did everything he could to limit the availability of his first five albums. We’ve all done some things we regret later, but I’m saying Smokin’ OP’S is something to be proud of.

Faces, Long Player, Warner Brothers, 1971

I liked Every Picture Tells a Story and Gasoline Alley, so when I saw this in a used record store I took a chance. I’m always interested in hearing Big Bill Broonzy songs, and I’d heard Had Me a Real Good Time on the radio and hoped it could be part of my philosophy of life. It isn’t bad advice: I was glad to be here, I’ll be sad to go, as long as I’m here I’ll have me a real good time. That will do for retirement. The problem with the album is that there’s nothing as good as Cut Across Shorty, much less Maggie May.

For years I was hoping to find a song about going to Jerusalem I‘d heard in the dorm in 1968. When I saw Jerusalem was on this album, I thought I had a chance. Not close, but I finally found it thanks to the Innerwebs. It was by Hello People, named (As, I Went Down to) Jerusalem. There’s a scratchy version on YouTube.

Johnny Cash, The Legend, Sun, recorded 1955-58, compiled and released 1970

Cash had a weekly television show for about two years starting in 1969. It was a big step for him on his path to The Man in Black. He’d had at least three brushes with the law, as they say, in the mid ‘60s. News magazines said he had problems with diet pills. It was time for him to straighten up. Bob Dylan was a guest on his first show. Dylan needed to buff his image as well. He hadn’t released a record in a while; the news magazines speculated he’d rehabbed a heroin habit. They sat down and did Girl from the North Country. It was exciting to see them together; they certainly hadn’t rehearsed too much. This record of Cash’s old material was released to take advantage of the popularity of his TV show.

The songs are in blues format, but Cash doesn’t seem to feel them. The lyrics to I Walk the Line are soul-felt, but Cash’s delivery seems matter of fact. (Ring of Fire isn’t on this record for comparison.) Folsom Prison Blues is stiff compared to the live version he released later.

Vinyl LPs have so much more than CDs and streaming. Some of it is big, such as album covers. What caught my attention about this double record it that the first disc has Side 1 and Side 3; disc 2 has sides 2 and 4. I puzzled about that for a bit—it’s for the all-in-one record players. Put Side 1 and Side 2 facing up on the tall spindle, move the arm over, and hit play. When the second record is done, turn them over and repeat. You’ve played them both in order with no fuss. Me, I had to either put the first disc away to play Side 2 or play the sides out of order. I saw a Spirit album cover today that featured a phone booth prominently. Times and technology change.