Artwork by the legendary Robert Crumb
It ain’t but the one thing,
That give a man the blues.
He ain’t got no bottom
In his last pair of shoes.
But someday baby,
You ain’t worry my mind any more.
~Someday Baby Blues (trad) first recorded by Sleepy John Estes
Someday Baby Blues (audio):
Continue reading “June 5: Blues legend Sleepy John Estes passed away in 1977”
I was eight years old and running with a dime in my hand
Into the bus stop to pick up a paper for my old man
I’d sit on his lap in that big old Buick and steer as we drove through town
He’d tousle my hair and say son take a good look around this is your hometown
This is your hometown
This is your hometown
This is your hometown
Bruce Springsteen released “Born in the U.S.A.” on this day – June 4 – in 1984. “My Hometown” is my favourite song from this great album. Here are 5 brilliant live versions of this beautiful song.
In ’65 tension was running high at my high school
There was a lot of fights between the black and white
There was nothing you could do
Two cars at a light on a Saturday night in the back seat there was a gun
Words were passed in a shotgun blast
Troubled times had come to my hometown
My hometown
My hometown
My hometown
Continue reading “Bruce Springsteen: 5 Wonderful live versions of “My Hometown””
Continue reading “May 25: Keith Moon’s Last Concert with The Who (1978)”
Van Morrison
In Performance with Derek Bell & Clive Culbertson
In Conversation with Martin Lynch, Professor Bob Welch & Derek Bell
Riverside Theatre
New University of Ulster
Coleraine, Ireland
April 20th 1988
Ulster Television Production
“Setlist”:
-Egil
What’s Going On is not only Marvin Gaye’s masterpiece, it’s the most important and passionate record to come out of soul music, delivered by one of its finest voices, a man finally free to speak his mind and so move from R&B sex symbol to true recording artist.
~John Bush (allmusic.com)… Marvin Gaye then did something no other Motown artist had ever dared. With What’s Going On (1971), he started a revolution. Although it spawned three hits—the antiwar title song, the ecological plea “Mercy Mercy Me,” and “Inner City Blues”—this was Motown’s first true album. Its blend of unembarrassed spirituality and unflinching social realism, as well as relentless percussion set against lush orchestration, was unlike anything that came before it in both form and content. For Gaye, it was a self-produced declaration of independence.
~ The New Rolling Stone Album Guide
What’s Going On:
Continue reading “May 21: Marvin Gaye released What’s Going On (album) in 1971”
“Why did you leave America
Why did you let me down,
And now that things seem better off,
Why do you come around,
You know I just can’t see you know,
In my new world crystal ball,
You know I just can’t free you now,
That’s not my job at all.”
– Van MorrisonHis Band and the Street Choir is another beautiful phase in the continuing development of one of the few originals left in rock. In his own mysterious way. Van Morrison continues to shake his head, strum his guitar and to sing his songs. He knows it’s too late to stop now and he quit trying to a long, long time ago. Meanwhile, the song he is singing keeps getting better and better.”
– John Landau, Rolling Stone Magazine (1971)Morrison is still a brooder–“Why did you leave America?” he asks over and over on the final cut, and though I’m not exactly sure what he’s talking about, that sounds like a good all-purpose question/accusation to me–but not an obsessive one, and this is another half-step away from the acoustic late-night misery of Astral Weeks. As befits hits, “Domino” and especially “Blue Money” are more celebratory if no more joyous than anything on Moondance, showing off his loose, allusive white r&b at its most immediate. And while half of side two is comparatively humdrum, I play it anyway. A
~Robert Christgau (Consumer guide)
Continue reading “Great Album: Van Morrison – His Band and the Street Choir (1970)”