Uncommon Threads

I Shot a Man in Reno...

2009-10-27T10:56:00.000-07:00

I Shot a Man in Reno: A History of Death by Murder, Suicide, Fire, Flood, Drugs, Disease and General Misadventure, as Related in Popular
Song by Graeme Thomson

I strongly recommend this book by Graeme Thomson, and not justbecause the title contains that classic line from the man in black, the one and only Johnny Cash.

Listening to my parent’s copy of Live at Folsom Prison was the first time I experienced a powerful narrative voice speaking from somewhere outside of time. Johnny Cash was, and is, eternal.

That spoken introduction, “Hello, I’m Johnny Cash…” still gives chills. Those Folsom County prisoners must have realized they weren't there for a group strip search. Those words were
purposefully hypnotic. He could have played anything past that point. He had them at hello…

For those unfamiliar with his work, Graeme Thomson is the author of by far the best Elvis Costello biography, Complicated Shadows: The Life and Music of Elvis Costello. His latest is an attempt to chart the ebb and flow of murder music; the attitudes and responses to death, guns, drugs, disease and other maladies as related through popular music.

Thomson does his due diligence. He touches on everything from the 50’s teenage heartbreak ballads like “Last Kiss” by J. Frank Wilson & The Cavaliers to Mississippi John hurt’s “Stack O’Lee Blues” on up through Metallica’s “Fade to Black” and beyond.

The real joy of the book is how Thomson charts the commonalities and differences that transcend genre, transferring gracefully back and forth between the work of bands like My Chemical Romance, The Cure, Nick Cave, Bob Dylan, Jellyroll Morton and 50 Cent, to see what they say, and to see what their music’s resonance says about us.

The book is compellingly readable and expertly handled, despite the occasional (British) cheekiness which occasionally fails to register (not my cup of tea, perhaps). The greatest feat for an entire book written on a topic such as death was the fact that it never grew obsessively morbid or morose, and eventually resolves poignantly and resolutely. Though we all stand in the shadow of death, the ability of the greatest artists (and of someone such as Thomson himself) to look that reality in the eye, and live (or write or sing) even more fully because of it, is what makes living worthwhile.

There was one passage in particular on p. 203 that registered especially deeply. It seems to accurately express where music is at in the age of the internet and shares something with what I’ve intended to accomplish with this blog:

“It’s become increasingly obvious that the linear view of music history, plotting on a graph the line connecting one great artistic breakthrough to the next, though persuasive and comforting, is unhelpful and unrealistic. Instead, the past meets the future every second of every day, in an untidy, ungainly embrace. Everything happens all at once, all the time, meaning popular music in its broadest sense doesn’t so much progress or regress as expand. The musical past is always with us, right alongside the present, continually open to reinterpretation, more so than ever in the wider present of the current age, where a considerable portion of its long history is available instantly at the click of a button, arriving without announcing either its intent or its original context.”

And isn’t that just about where we’re at? Whatever your view on file sharing, my space or the loss of sound quality in the mp3 format, we’ve never had so much music at our fingertips. It is also a world where one can be a fan of Green Day without recognizing their debt to the Beatles, or be familiar with the various incarnations of Jack White and never heard a note of Beefheart. Without the safety of the old narrative timeline we need new tools to keep track of ever expanding connections and to fully appreciate how music influences and interprets our cultural history.

This blog is intended as nothing more or less than a new tool in that pursuit. I hope it leads you to new sources of inspiration and surprise, as well as to a greater understanding of our times through their reflections cast in sound.

Favourite Things

2008-03-21T11:04:00.000-07:00

Here are a few things that I’m into at the moment…

BitTorrent: Despite Van Morrison’s recent request that his live shows be pulled from sites like dimeadozen.org there is still a great deal of quality live shows by artists such as Elvis Costello, Nick Cave, Springsteen, Dylan and others of every genre. Since these are bootlegged shows and not official releases they are permitted, or at least tolerated, by most artists.

Last week I downloaded 3 of Neil Young’s recent concerts from his early March residency in London and a couple of Elvis’s 1996 shows with the Attractions. Brilliant stuff.

Hard drive space challenged beware, however. These shows are in FLAC format and usually clock in at half a gig a show. You’ll need a torrent tool like Azureus to capture them and a player like Winamp to listen, but they are worth the setup, and the sound quality blows MP3s out of the water.

The Castle in the Forrest by Norman Mailer: The last novel published before Mailer passed away in November of 2007. Its great to see a literary legend dying with his boots on, producing challenging work right up to the end. The novel is the dark and lyrical story of Adolph Hitler’s youth, told from the viewpoint of his guardian devil. It is a twisted and at times piercingly truthful story that could only have been produced by the Maestro himself.

Spring Training: Hope springs eternal, as they say. The Tigers have re-tooled and look tough. A health Jays squad might have their best chance in years to challenge the Yanks and Sox for the American League East. The Giants will have their work cut out for themselves in the suddenly super-competitive National League West, and the Mets will have a lot of ground to make up for after their spectacular collapse last September. Let’s play ball.

I’m predicting:
A Tigers v.s. Cubs World Series.
The Jays will win the American League Wild Card.
Barry Bonds will get signed by the Anaheim Angels, never play a game and wind up in prison by the end of the year.

What I’m listening to:
Buck 65 - The Situation
Nick Cave – Dig, Lazarus, Dig
Various Artists – Starbuck’s Artist Choice: Bob Dylan, Music That Matters to Him

Review: The Police and Roger Waters in Toronto

2007-09-27T15:15:00.000-07:00

Police guitarist Andy Summers has claimed that the 2007 Police regrouping is not a reunion tour.

Seeing the group on July 23rd at Toronto’s Air Canada Centre, it was hard not to agree. I have never experienced three musicians performing together so obviously in their own musical worlds. The fact that they were on the same stage was about all these musicians shared. Well, that and the profits.

Personally, I was hoping for some of the youthful new wave fire that the band demonstrated on their early albums like 1979’s Reggatta de Blanc. Instead the early tunes were de-reggaefied, and the later tunes sounded as if they could have been outtakes from Sting’s bland 1985 solo album Dream of the Blue Turtles.

Familiar tunes like “Roxanne”, “Walking on the Moon” and “Every Little Thing She Does is Magic” were reworked into showcases for Sting’s admittedly great voice or Summers’ and Copeland’s chops, just never at the same time. The musicians were so careful enough not to step on each other’s toes that it made for a remarkable safe performance.

The Police of 2007 seem to have little interest in being a rock and roll band. For these three enormous egos to perform acrimoniously, it was obviously necessary to put aside their differences. Too bad that tension was what made the Police’s music interesting in the first place.

Roger Waters at Roger’s Centre on July 14th was an entirely different experience.

From the opening licks of “In the Flesh”, the show was all that Floyd fans could have asked for (besides having the original musicians together on the same stage).

Performing the entire Dark Side of the Moon album without the original players held great potential to disappoint, but the performance didn’t suffer for their absence. The assembled musicians upheld the spirit of the album without trying to follow too closely in their predecessor’s footprints.

Long-time Waters guitarists Snowy White and Andy Fairweather-Low were superb. Earnest Dave Kilminster was competent covering most of Gilmour’s vocals, especially on the Dark Side material, and his playing often echoed Gilmour’s licks within Kilminster’s flashy seventies hard rock style.

Waters himself made the most of his limited vocal range, without pushing past his limitations. This was the last show of the tour, and it showed in the polished performances and the efforts of the performers to leave it all on the stage.

The real star of the evening though, was the state-of-the-art 3600 quadraphonic sound system. It made the performances of songs like “Every Brick in the Wall Pt. III” resonate with all the power of the studio versions. One was tempted to duck when hearing the approaching helicopter effects, and the child choir on the refrain held all the menace and spookiness of the album cut.

These were two distinctly different performances from artists heading in opposite directions. While Roger Waters attempted to look back and re-create the past as faithfully as present circumstances would allow, the Police seemed more intent on transforming their material into mellow, easy listening anthems they assumed reflected their grown-up audience’s current musical tastes. While Waters was able to briefly recapture the magic and immediacy of the past, the Police only made one feel that there was truly no way to get back there again.

Bob Dylan at CasinoRama

2007-07-13T20:13:00.000-07:00

Bob Dylan – CasinoRama
July 7,8th 2007

Here are my reflections from last weekend’s Bob Dylan shows at CasinoRama in Orillia, Ontario.

Saturday, July 7th

Bob’s voice was far more expressive than I have heard in years. The band picked up on this and repeatedly dropped low to let the vocals shine. At times they were playing more like a jazz combo than the blues bar band treatment they gave every song at their ACC show last November. Everything was getting the “Modern Times” treatment, and even songs I had heard many times before were interesting again.

I’m not going to say the crowd was old, but the largest cheer of Saturday night came for the lines:

“You think I'm over the hill / You think I'm past my prime / Let me see what you got / We can have a whoppin' time…”

Highlights:

Just Like a Woman: Amazing. When he hit the chorus and the word “Please” in “Please don’t let on/ that you knew me when” his voice had a vulnerability and desperation that I have never heard before.

Tangled up in Blue: Every verse was sung with a different melody, until he hit the last verse and sang it as if he was playing a harmonica solo.

Lowlights:

Blowing in the Wind: A schmaltzy pop arrangement sucked the remaining life force out of this once vital anthem.

Vocal Quality: A
Song Selection: B-
Band: A-

Sunday, July 8th

Maybe it was the back-to-back shows, but the croaky, hoarse voice was back. Disappointing, especially considering my raised expectations after the show the night before. Still, it was nice to see that the set list varied widely from the night before, and at times seeing Bob leaning back while playing guitar evoked footage from the Rolling Thunder Revue.

Highlights:

I Believe in You: where did this come from? It wasn’t Every Grain of Sand, but it would do.

Bob must have been feeling in a religious mood this Sunday. Not only did he play I Believe in You, but I picked up on crucifixion references in two other songs: “She took my crown of thorns” in Shelter from the Storm and “We all wear the same thorny crown” in When the Deal Goes Down.

Lowlights:

Shelter from the Storm: Never mind the fact that I was hoping for Simple Twist of Fate.

I’ve never been a fan of Bob reducing the melody of a song to the same note over and over again, except for the last word of a line, which is sung slightly higher. It’s something like: “Do-Do-Do-Do-Do-Do-Fa,” over and over again. I’ve heard him do entire shows with every song like this, and while this wasn't that bad, I was left longing for the beauty of the original version.

Vocal Quality: B
Song Selection: B+
Band: B

Rock Bottom in NYC

2007-06-17T20:38:00.000-07:00

The most surreal moment of my recent trip to N.Y.C. had to be seeing the Rock Bottom Remainders, a "band" consisting of authors Stephen King, Mitch Albom, Amy Tan, Dave Barry and others.

No great musical chops here (Stephen King in particular seemed profoundly uncomfortable on rhythm guitar and pained vocals), but there were the good vibes of a bunch of writers living out their secret rock star fantasies.

The group was joined by Byrds legend Roger McGuinn for a few songs (Mr. Tambourine Man, Turn Turn Turn, Chimes of Freedom and You Ain't Goin Nowhere). Always enjoy hearing that 12 string Rickenbacker and his understated vocals. Even backed up by surely the worst supporting band of his career, he pulled it off beautifully.

Outside the venue, saw Stephen King leaving with friends to hop a cab. Chased after and took a really bad picture with my cell phone camera. King awkwardly loping away, makes eye contact for a moment. I can tell he's thinking: "what the hell are you chasing me for?" Good question. What am I chasing him for? I must have been caught up in the moment.

Also picked up a copy of the new Warren Zevon biography "I'll Sleep When I'm Dead", signed by the author, Warren's ex-wife Crystal Zevon, who was at the show.

Its a hair-raising tale of rock star excess told by those who knew him best. What really comes through is how far he went to sabotage his own success with a truly out of control alcohol problem and a bad attitude. Any more successful and the man would have expired long before he finally succumbed to lung cancer in 2003 at the age of 56.

Zevon was his own worst enemy. Fortunately he was intelligent and funny and honest enough to pull it off. He was full of contradictions, like his music, often veering between brutal cynicism and unexpected sweetness. What a glorious mess. Dirty life and times, indeed.

Rolling Stone's 15 Worst

2007-05-16T21:25:00.000-07:00

Rolling Stone magazine has published a list of the 15 top worst albums by undeniably great bands.

You can check out the list here:

http://www.rollingstone.com/rockdaily/index.php/2007/05/14/rolling-stones-15-worst-albums-by-great-bands

I guess it is a testament to an artist's longevity that eventually you are going to produce a few lemons. In thinking about whether I agree with the selections I was struck by the relative ease with which I was able to name several other candidates for worst album for almost every example.

Think Down in the Groove is Dylan's worst? I actually liked the album much better than 1986's Knocked Out Loaded.

What about the 1973 contractual obligation album Dylan, featuring unconvincing attempts at covers like "Big Yellow Taxi" and "Mr. Bojangles"? To be fair, the album was never intended for release. I can only assume Rolling Stone was looking to avoid the easiest pickings.

Dylan was Columbia's attempt at revenge for Dylan having left the label for Geffen (only temporarily, as it turned out) by releasing the outtakes from his previous low point: Self Portrait. Either could easily be counted his worst. Beloved critical hero Greil Marcus said it best in the opening of his 1971 review of Self Portrait in Rolling Stone:

"What is this shit?"

Perhaps more disturbing was the ease with which I was able to name several Neil Young albums that I considered far worse than Old Ways, an album I liked at the time and was a refreshing change of direction after the abysmal Landing on Water. The incomprehensible albums Reactor and Trans, produced while Neil was experimenting with new communication methods to reach his sons despite their cerebral palsey, were both noble experiments gone horribly awry.

Again from the contractual obligation department: Lou Reed's Metal Machine Music and Led Zepplin's Coda. Both far worse than the albums Rolling Stone names.

Elvis Costello's Mighty Like a Rose instead of the truly bleak Julliet Letters?

The exercise left me surprised that I could recall so many albums by artist that I esteemed so highly which sucked. Not that it lessens my respect for the artists or the contributions they have made, and I can still easily name far more of their best albums.

Ultimitely it might be easier to take Rolling Stone to task for their selection of "undeniably awesome bands." Morrisey is considered undeniable? Really? And no Bruce Springsteen, Grateful Dead or the Beatles?

What do you have to do to make this list, anyway?

Uncommon Threads

2007-05-01T21:16:00.000-07:00

Welcome to Uncommon Threads, home to my views on the intersecting worlds of music, literature and popular culture.

You will find here a potent stew of criticism, conjecture, opinion, rant, bias, truth, fiction and autobiography. That's right. Uncommon Threads makes no attempt to feign objectivity in order to achieve a tone of moral authority. This is not what is politely referred to in some circles as "mainstream media."

Instead you will bear witness to a blurring of the lines between journalism and memoir, serious musicology and unapologetic opinion. Along the way I will explain why certain artifacts matter to me, and why they should mean something to you too.

Dig in. Respond. Check back. Enjoy.