June 26: The Band Rockpalast Loreley 1996 (video)

The Band 06/23/96
Rockpalast Festival,
Loreley, St. Goarshausen, Germany
===============================

This is from the tour in support of their album, High on the hog. It is one of the last concerts by The Band, they ended the tour in august 1996, and they played a few stand-alone gigs after that. I think this is the last filmed concert by The Band (correct me in the comments if I’m wrong).

Interesting show, good picture and sound, enjoy!

loreley-778x1024

Continue reading “June 26: The Band Rockpalast Loreley 1996 (video)”

June 21: Ray Davies was born in 1944 Happy Birthday

“No one can penetrate me. They only see what’s in their own fancy, always.”
– Ray Davies

June 21: Ray Davies was born in 1944 Happy Birthday

Sir Raymond Douglas “Ray” Davies, CBE (born 21 June 1944) is an English musician. He was the lead vocalist, rhythm guitarist and main songwriter for The Kinks, which he led with his younger brother, Dave. He has also acted, directed and produced shows for theatre and television.

Ray Davies is one of my favorite british songwriters, he really is up there with Lennon/McCartney and Jagger/Richards. He is that good!

Ray+Davies

Ray Davies’ influence on british music is large and important. It really became visible during the brit-pop period, but I can hear his way of talking about the english way of live in today’s pop and rap/hip-hop also. They might not know why they do it the way the do, but we do, it is the way Ray Davies taught them through his songs .

While almost every other songwriter working in a rock band at the time was talking about altered states or sticking it to squares, Ray Davies developed a vocabulary of traditional English life, and even mocked Carnaby Street fashion on “Dedicated Follower of Fashion”. The Kinks were culture without the “counter” prefix, a rock band that anomalously acknowledged the dignity in the middle-aged woman who went out and bought a hat like the one Princess Marina wore, the one that adopted the mannerisms of music hall without pastiche or irony, the one that sang about tea and gooseberry tarts and favoring neighborhood life over new patterns of development.

– Pitchfork (Joe Tangari)

20 Century Man (Storytellers, vh1):

Continue reading “June 21: Ray Davies was born in 1944 Happy Birthday”

June 19: The Late Nick Drake Was Born In 1948

A singular talent who passed almost unnoticed during his brief lifetime, Nick Drake produced several albums of chilling, somber beauty. With hindsight, these have come to be recognized as peak achievements of both the British folk-rock scene and the entire rock singer/songwriter genre.
~Richie Unterberger (allmusic.com)

Northern Sky:

I never felt magic crazy as this
I never saw moons knew the meaning of the sea
I never held emotion in the palm of my hand
Or felt sweet breezes in the top of a tree
But now you’re here
Brighten my northern sky.

Continue reading “June 19: The Late Nick Drake Was Born In 1948”

June 18: Happy 76th Birthday Paul McCartney

“I think people who create and write, it actually does flow – just flows from into their head, into their hand, and they write it down. It’s simple.”
― Paul McCartney

“What I have to say is all in the music. If I want to say anything, I write a song.”
― Paul McCartney

Neil Young inducts Paul McCartney into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1999:

Continue reading “June 18: Happy 76th Birthday Paul McCartney”

June 8: Van Morrison: Too Long in Exile (1993)

too-long-in-exile

Too long in exile
Too long not singing my song
Too long in exile
Too long like a rolling stone
Too long in exile

I  love this album and I dig John Lee Hooker’s presence. Some wonderful songs & as always loads of interesting lyrics.

Released 8 June 1993
Recorded The Wool Hall Studios, Bath, England;
The Record Plant, Sausalito, California
Genre Rock
Length 77:04
Label Polydor
Producer Van Morrison

Continue reading “June 8: Van Morrison: Too Long in Exile (1993)”