This week's musical miscellany

I've gotten way behind on my weekly collections of interesting and noteworthy musical tidbits, so let me see if I can catch up . . .

The biggest news of the past few weeks was the announcement of the 2011 Class of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.  This year's inductees include Dr. John, Tom Waits, Neil Diamond, Alice Cooper, Darlene Love, and Leon Russell.  Congratulations to them all!

Dr. John, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Inductee, Was 'Surprised' By the News (Andy Greene, Rolling Stone)

Dr. John a deserving Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee (Keith Spera, NOLA.com)

Tom Waits issues statement regarding his induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (Randall Roberts, Pop & Hiss/LA Times)

Neil Diamond, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Inductee, Says He Feels 'Very Lucky' (Andy Greene, Rolling Stone)

Alice Cooper, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Inductee, Was 'Elated' When He Got the News (Andy Greene, Rolling Stone)



Chuck Berry collapsed during his performance New Year's Night at Chicago's Congress Theater.  He was assisted offstage but returned, only to be led off again.  He apologized to the crowd before leaving, getting in a few of his famous duck-walk steps on his way out.  He was examined by paramedics at the venue and apparently refused hospital treatment, leaving instead in a limousine.  His agency posted an official statement on his website Monday, stating that "he is fine and has returned to his home near St. Louis."

The NPR blog All Songs Considered asked its readers to comment on why Chuck Berry matters, even though modern rock sounds almost nothing like it did in Berry's heyday.  It's simple: One must know what the rules are in order to break them and create something original, and Berry helped write the rule book. His signature, driving riff is at the very foundation of rock and roll, and all of the innovators who've come after him - the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, and Bob Dylan are only three - went through him first. One revolution inevitably inspires another.

"If you tried to give rock and roll another name, you might call it 'Chuck Berry.'" - John Lennon

"To me, Chuck Berry always was the epitome of rhythm and blues playing, rock and roll playing.  It was beautiful, effortless, and his timing was perfection.  He is rhythm supreme.  He plays that lovely double-string stuff, which I got down a long time ago, but I'm still getting the hang of.  Later I realized why he played that way--because of the sheer physical size of the guy.  I mean, he makes one of those big Gibsons look like a ukulele!" - Keith Richards

‎"In my universe, Chuck is irreplaceable . . . All that brilliance is still there, and he's still a force of nature. As long as Chuck Berry's around, everything's as it should be." - Bob Dylan, from his latest Rolling Stone interview (#1078).  

Official Statement from Chuck Berry's Agency, CMG Worldwide

Before his collapse, Berry was complaining, cutting songs short (Dave Hoekstra, Chicago Sun-Times)

Chuck Berry's Collapse Reminds Us How Much He Matters (Bob Boilen, All Songs Considered/NPR)

Berry performs at least once a month at the St. Louis venue Blueberry Hill and other tour dates as they are announced on his website.  I see a road trip at some point in my future!

Just a few days before his Chicago performance, his first hit "Maybellene" turned 55 years old.  Get well soon, Mr. Berry, and long may you rock!

Levon Helm was also recently hospitalized, but has since been released and has returned to performing. Helm has chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD); a cold aggravated the condition, and he was admitted to a New York hospital for nearly a week, forcing him to miss a scheduled Midnight Ramble at his Woodstock home and studio.  He was released on December 17 and performed at the Ramble the next night.  Levon, we love you, and we're glad you're feeling better!

Levon Helm hospitalized, but OK (John W. Barry, Poughkeepsie Journal)

Levon Helm home from hospital (Poughkeepsie Journal)

The music world lost Captain Beefheart on December 17 and Stealers Wheel's Gerry Rafferty on January 4.  Rest in peace, gentlemen.

Captain Beefheart Dead at Age 69 (Maura Johnston, Rolling Stone)

Don Van Vliet, Known To Rock Fans As Captain Beefheart, Dies (Rick Carr, NPR)

Captain Beefheart: A Rock Critic Fable (Mitch Myers, All Songs Considered/NPR)

Gerry Rafferty dies at 63; Scottish pop singer-songwriter had a hit with 'Baker Street' (Keith Thursby, LA Times)

Remembering Songwriter Gerry Rafferty (NPR)

RIP Gerry Rafferty, Whose 'Baker Street' Changed the Sax Solo (Rob Sheffield, Rolling Stone)

Robbie Robertson has announced the release date for How To Become Clairvoyant, his first solo album since 1998's Contact From the Underworld of Redboy.  It comes out on April 5, just in time for my birthday - thanks, Robbie!  Now if only you'll tour, my year will be complete . . .

How To Become Clairvoyant, Robbie Robertson's First Album in Over a Decade, Is Due Out April 5, 2011 on 429 Records (Digital Journal)

The album art is up on the front page of Robbie's official website.  The title track was previously released on the HBO series True Blood and is included on the show's latest soundtrack.  You can preview another song, "When the Night was Young," here.  

Two movies and a musical:  The Phil Ochs documentary There But For Fortune opens today at the IFC Center in New York City.  Director Kenneth Bowser and Ochs' brother Michael will be present tonight and tomorrow night at the 7:20 and 9:30 showings.  Wish I could be there!

While researching something for a friend yesterday I ran across the blog A Warehouse On Tchoupitoulas. Apparently there is a film in the works about the late, legendary New Orleans musical venue The Warehouse, which during the '70 hosted everyone from The Who to the Allman Brothers to Bob Dylan's Rolling Thunder Revue. The Grateful Dead played the inaugural weekend, and their subsequent arrest for drug possession inspired their classic "Truckin'"; the Doors played their final concert there.  The filmmakers are trying to raise $40,000 to pay for the film's soundtrack.  Take a look at the blog, and donate if you feel so inclined.  Good luck, y'all - I really want to see this film!

(P.S. If anyone out there can tell me the exact location of the Warehouse at 1820 Tchoupitoulas, I'd be grateful.)

A Gram Parsons musical? Yes, please - especially when it sounds this good.  Grievous Angel: The Legend of Gram Parsons wrapped a West Coast tour in October, and there are rumors of an East Coast tour in the works.  Check out a video from the show, and you can preview other tracks from the soundtrack and order a copy of it here.



Neil Young and Daniel Lanois are on the cover of the current issue of American Songwriter, and the unabridged interview by Jann Uhelszki is available to read online. 

Neil is also on the cover of the latest issue of MOJO.  Try their Neil Young "Name The Album" quiz - it's just as hard as the previous Dylan one!

Speaking of Dylan, my favorite of Rolling Stone's recent playlists is from Patti Smith - she focuses on Bob Dylan's love songs.  Bob is not primarily known for his romantic ballads, yet Patti and I are in agreement that few songwriters can turn heads quite like the Bard of Hibbing.

"What is sadder than 'One Too Many Mornings,' more troubling than 'Ballad in Plain D' or more poignant than 'Love Minus Zero'? And from a female point of view, what testament is more breathtaking than the words, "Love you more than madness" in 'Wedding Song'?"

What indeed, Patti.  Check out the the rest of her list here: Patti Smith: Bob Dylan's Love Songs 

And here is perhaps my favorite version of "Love Minus Zero/No Limit," from Bootleg Series Vol. 5: Live 1975 - The Rolling Thunder Revue. 

The Washington Post recently featured Dylan in their "On Success" section.  In response to the recent Wall Street Journal concert review I wrote about earlier, several commentators offered essays answering the musical question, "Are there age limits on success?" Some, like Virginia Bianco-Mathis', are laughable and extremely out-of-touch; to say that a Pulitzer Prize-winning songwriter - make that the first rock songwriter to be given such an award - in the middle of a golden career renaissance, and whose shows regularly sell out, has "flopped" as a touring act says more about Ms. Bianco-Mathis than it does about Dylan.

My favorite is by Seth Kagan, who offers the following astute observations:

"If your primary aim is to establish a legacy, then, sure, leave while at the top of your game. But that is a more selfish motive than a true artist pursues. The expression and application of creative skill and imagination is the ongoing destination of every creator worth his or her salt. That is what Dylan continues to do . . . As long as he can wrangle a stage, he is entitled. And all the pundits who spin their thread on his dime have a choice. They can spit and castigate or they can take note of an aged poet and his mysterious process."

Or to put it in that mysterious poet's own words, "he not busy being born is busy dying" - a great meditation for a new year.

This week's musical miscellany

The legendary New Orleans band The Radiators are hanging up their rock and roll shoes after 33 years together, Keith Spera reported in Tuesday's Times-Picayune.  They will honor all currently scheduled gigs through next June, so catch 'em while you can!  I myself am looking forward to seeing them, the Honey Island Swamp Band, Papa Grows Funk, Jon Cleary, and the Rebirth Brass Band at Sunday's New Orleans Po-Boy Preservation Festival on Oak Street in Carrollton.

Another musical event of note in the Big Easy this weekend is the Congo Square Rhythms Festival, sponsored by the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Foundation.  It's Sunday from 11-7 pm at the Old U.S. Mint on Esplanade.  Admission to both festivals is free.

In other NOLA music news, music journalist Alison Fensterstock sent out this tweet on Wednesday:

AlisonF_NOLA Alison Fensterstock 

We hear the Mother-In-Law Lounge is closing, again. Final garage sale scheduled for Dec. 4th and 5th.

10 Nov Favorite Retweet Reply

Very sad news indeed, as Ernie K-Doe's Mother-in-Law Lounge is an irreplaceable New Orleans historical and cultural landmark.

I've been grooving lately to an advance copy of Gregg Allman's new album, Low Country Blues.    Produced by T Bone Burnett, it consists of 11 classic blues and soul covers and one original, "Just Another Rider," co-written with Warren Haynes.  I heard Allman perform this song live back in May at Bluesville at the Horseshoe Casino in Robinsonville, Mississippi.  Check it out:



The album is currently scheduled to drop on January 18, 2011, and is highly recommended.  I predict it will be another feather in T Bone's storied cap, and a triumph for Allman.

My friend Carol Caffin runs a beautiful blog dedicated to the memory of her friend, The Band's Rick Danko.  Here's Rick performing a bittersweet cover of the Grateful Dead song "Ripple," from his final solo album Times Like These.  He's joined on the track by fellow Band-mates Levon Helm and Garth Hudson.



Speaking of The Band, here's an interview with Robbie Robertson from the National Museum of the American Indian's blog.  Robertson is currently featured in their exhibition "Up Where We Belong: Native Musicians in Popular Culture," and in the Q&A he discusses his Native American heritage and how it has influenced his music-making.

And one more Band-related item: Garth Hudson Presents A Canadian Celebration of The Band drops on November 16.  The album features such artists as Bruce Cockburn, the Cowboy Junkies, Chantal Kreviazuk, and Neil Young, and Garth plays keyboards on every track.  Sounds like a winner to me!

Though we celebrated Gram Parsons' birthday here last week, I wanted to share today's post from the fine LA-based music blog When You Awake on the story behind the song "Return of the Grievous Angel."

Finally, just for fun, courtesy of MOJO Magazine: How many Bob Dylan album covers can you name?  Try it - it's tougher than you'd think!

Happy birthday, Gram Parsons

He would have been 64 today.

To celebrate his memory, here's a few of my favorite songs/videos.  The first is my preferred version of his most famous duet with his protégée Emmylou Harris, Boudleaux Bryant's "Love Hurts."  It's taken from a radio interview that Gram, Emmylou, and N. D. Smart recorded for Boston's WBCN station during the 1973 Fallen Angels tour.  It opens with a snippet of their conversation with host Maxine Satori, and then segues into the song.  The bone-chilling beauty of their harmonies shines through the inferior sound quality of the tape.  They always sang this one like they meant it.

This recording is included on the Rhino Records collection Gram Parsons: The Complete Reprise Sessions, a set which I highly recommend.



Next up is my favorite clip from Gandulf Hennig's fine documentary film Gram Parsons: Fallen Angel. Fellow Flying Burrito Brother and Mississippi native Chris Ethridge explains the genesis behind their song "Hot Burrito #1."  Film of Gram is sadly scarce; this doc contains some of the only footage of him known to exist.  Yet the all-too-brief glimpse of we have of Gram singing this song sold me immediately on his charm, charisma, and ability to put a song across to his audience.  And he knew it, too - notice at 1:11 how he turns to his bandmates with a huge grin on his face.

(I had the good fortune to meet Chris Ethridge at a symposium in his hometown of Meridian earlier this year.  He's a very sweet man, and when he speaks of Gram it's obvious how much he still loves and misses him.  Ethridge still performs around the Meridian area; I need to make it back up there and catch him live someday soon.)



Next up is another live video of Gram - again from the Fallen Angels tour, this is he, Emmylou, and company performing "Big Mouth Blues" during their four-night residency at Liberty Hall in Houston, Texas.  Present at these shows was a young Steve Earle, who has said that he "left a little bit in love and absolutely certain of what I was going to be when I grew up."  Neil Young and Linda Ronstadt joined the band on stage during the third night; it was the first time Ronstadt and Harris met, and another made-in-heaven vocal match was born (David N. Meyer, Twenty Thousand Roads, pp. 388, 390 - the most recent and thorough bio of Gram to date).

The video is grainy and plagued with a few pitch problems, but still worth viewing to see Gram and Emmy in action.  It's from an out-of-print Sierra Records VHS called Together Again For The Last Time.  Sierra is about to release an ambitious, decades-in-the-making box set, Gram Parsons: The Early Years, which will include a newly-remastered DVD of this film complete with bonus footage.



Finally, here's a fan video of my favorite Gram-penned song, "A Song For You."  The photographs are of turn-of-the-20th-century Florida and Georgia, where Gram divided his childhood.  It opens with a brief audio segment of Gram explaining the meaning behind the song; this is also included on The Complete Reprise Sessions.



The fine blokes over at Missing Parsons, in conjunction with the Sin City Social Club, have opened their guestbook for fans to post birthday greetings for Gram.  These will later be added to the Room 8 guestbook at the Joshua Tree Inn, where Gram spent his final earthly moments.  From these entries they will choose one winner to receive their book Live Fast, Die Young: Misadventures in Rock & Roll America, as well as a copy of the soundtrack CD and a T-shirt.

Most fans know the role Joshua Tree plays in Gram's story, but I've been surprised to find how many aren't aware that his final resting place is actually in Metairie, Louisiana.  Gram's stepfather Robert Parsons collected his remains after the infamous corpse-burning episode and flew them to New Orleans, where they were interred in a private ceremony at the Garden of Memories on Airline Drive.  For many years, only a simple, circular stone marker the size of a 45 record marked his gravesite, much to the consternation of his fans.  In 2005, shortly before Hurricane Katrina devastated the area, his family replaced this with an ornately carved bronze slab.  The new marker remains, though oxidized by the floodwaters.  You can see images of both gravestones here.

I've visited his Metairie grave three times now.  As I was leaving the cemetery that first time, I felt a deep sadness over the thought that he was buried in a place he didn't want to be, and surrounded by strangers to boot.  Yet as I made my way back to I-10, a casual glance at a road sign revealed a fact startling to this student of the blues: Airline Drive also happens to be the southern terminus for Highway 61.  Now I can't imagine that that's the reason Robert Parsons chose this cemetery for Gram's burial.  Nevertheless, in some way I found it oddly apropos - what better place for him to rest than alongside America's storied musical road?

You may bury my body down by the highway side
(Spoken: Baby, I don't care where you bury my body when I'm dead and gone)
You may bury my body, ooh, down by the highway side
So my old evil spirit can catch a Greyhound bus and ride
- Robert Johnson, "Me and the Devil Blues"

It don't matter where you bury me
I'll be home and I'll be free
It don't matter where I lay
All my tears be washed away
- Emmylou Harris, "All My Tears" (Julie Miller)

(Gram Parsons' grave, taken by me on October 11, 2009)