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December 21, 2007
* "between the worlds of men and make-believe...."
News of Dan Fogelberg's death earlier this week hit me a little harder than I expected, given that it's been a long time since I really held the guy up on any sort of personal pedestal. But the thing is, he definitely did rank very high in my book at one point, and without question played a fairly significant role in the evolution of my musical taste and my appreciation for singer-songwriters.
For me, the graduation process went like this: Barry Manilow led to Dan Fogelberg led to Jackson Browne led to Bob Dylan. (Really nowhere higher to go once you get to Dylan.) That progression occurred when I was between the ages of 10 and 20.
"Mandy" hit when I was just about to turn 10, and immediately made me an unabashed fan of Mr. Manilow -- which I still am, despite the ridicule that inevitably accompanies such an admission (or the chuckles that invariably follow the acoustic-guitar arrangement of "Mandy" I've been known to deliver from the stage on occasion).
My older brother Si was a pretty good early guide to music that was a little bit beyond the Top-40 AM-radio staples of the mid-'70s, and one of the first artists he led me to was Fogelberg. He and his wife included "Longer" in their wedding ceremony in 1980; I'd heard that song and "Heart Hotels" on the local FM pop/rock station by then, but soon afterward I took the time to delve into Fogerty's earlier records, via dog-eared LPs at the used-vinyl store.
Souvenirs (his second, from 1974) was probably the best, with a minor hit in "Part Of The Plan" and a lot of country-rock accents/influences on songs such as "Illinois" and "Morning Sky". Captured Angel (1975) and Nether Lands (1977) had their moments, though the fact that the sixteen Fogelberg downloads I purchased this evening included just one song from the former and two from the later suggests those were overall somewhat lesser of the bunch, at least in my memory.
Phoenix (1980) was more or less his pop breakthrough, with not only "Longer" but also "Heart Hotels" making the singles charts. A more ambitious artistic statement was 1981's double-album The Innocent Age, which pretty much marked the peak of Fogelberg's career creatively. Its yuletide-chestnut-to-be ("Same Old Lang Syne"), while probably his best-known song, wasn't really representative of the full depth and breadth of the work. I was rather amused and heartened to discover a few years later that one of my late-'80s undeground-rock-obsessed musician roommates also had a real soft spot for The Innocent Age.
I went out and bought Fogelberg's subsequent album, 1984's Windows And Walls, upon its release, but I sensed a pretty clear dropoff in quality. Or maybe it was just my own perspective: I was headlong into Jackson Browne by then, and Dylan was waiting just around the corner. For whatever reason, none of Fogelberg's subsequent releases ever connected with me, though the bluegrassy High Country Snows from 1985 seems probably worth revisiting at some point.
The record I do still go back to on a regular basis, though -- seems like I pull the old vinyl copy off the shelves and put Side One on the turntable every couple of years or so -- is Fogelberg's very first album, 1972's Home Free. The songwriting's pretty green, really, but endearingly so, and quite good considering that Fogelberg was just 21 when the record came out. (He was 56 when he died this past Sunday of prostate cancer.) Musically there's real beauty in the arrangements, from the swinging country twang of "More Than Ever" to sweet swelling strings of "Hickory Grove" to the soft, simple piano touches of the opening track "To The Morning" -- one of the best first-songs-of-a-career that any artist ever had, from where I sit.
As it happens, today is my brother Si's 51st birthday, so I suppose this blog-entry can be considered an acknowledgment of thanks to him for helping to lead me down the musical path I wound up following all those years ago. And, also, an acknowledgment of thanks to Fogelberg, for making music that was such a significant step along that road.
Posted by Peter at 1:02 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)
December 18, 2007
* "He said, 'I met you at the Crocodile'..."
In my very first blog-entry on this website, I mentioned the above lyric, which is from the Kevn Kinney song "Trail Of Seasons". It wasn't the original lyric -- initially Kinney had written it as, "...at the Uptown" (after a favorite haunt in his Athens, Georgia, stomping-grounds) -- but he eventually changed it as a nod to the impression that playing a great many shows at Seattle's Crocodile Cafe had left on him.
The Crocodile left a similar imprint on me, and on countless others, judging from the posts I've read tonight on various blog-pages in the wake of Monday's news that the legendary venue had closed after 16 years in operation (that's gotta be well over 100 in human years).
Its time had probably come -- Seattle's nightclub landscape has a lot more options, with a lot more variety, in 2007 than it did when the Croc opened in 1991 -- but that doesn't diminish the historical relevance of what the club did in its remarkably extended heyday. In the process of outlasting a slew of shorter-lived grungetown '90s hotspots (RKCNDY, Off Ramp, OK Hotel, Moe's, Sit & Spin, Colourbox, Weathered Wall, etc.), the Crocodile had a pretty long run as arguably the best nightclub in America.
Co-founder and owner-for-the-duration Stephanie Dorgan came along at the right time, and created a terrific space, staffed generally by top-notch folks. At its zenith, the club was booked by none other than Scott McCaughey, longtime Young Fresh Fellows/Minus 5 leader and R.E.M. sideman. And you could search far and wide and never find a soundman as good as the Crocodile's Jim Anderson.
Some of the best shows I ever saw took place there. If you really wanna go into detail, there's a list of every single one I attended from 1991-2000 posted here...
http://www.threeimaginarygirls.com/blogentry/2007dec/favoritecrocodilememories?page=1
...but just to pull a handful of quick highlights:
* Nirvana and Mudhoney, Sunday, October 4, 1992. An unannounced hometown show during a break between touring and recording. Pretty much as completely insane as you'd have expected it to be.
* Guided By Voices with Mary Lou Lord, Friday, April 14, 1995. Pollard and pals at the peak of their game, plus Mary Lou just as she was on the cusp of becoming an intimate indie-busking sensation.
* Backsliders, Tuesday, July 15, 1997. One of alt-country's little-bands-that-could, and they did, if only for a short time. This tour was right in the midst of the best of it, with frontman Chip Robinson sporting wildman curls like the Fremont Troll and twin-engine guitarists Brad Rice and Steve Howell delivering a spectacular clash-course in rocky-tonk.
* Silos (with Scott McCaughey & Peter Buck opening), Tuesday, November 9, 1993. One of America's best bands at that time, plus a local-ringer of an opener, with McCaughey & Buck also joining the Silos onstage near the end of the night. Sadly, it was the last show that Silos guitarist Manny Verzosa ever played; he died in a van crash in Wyoming on the way to the next gig.
* T Bone Burnett, Tuesday, August 18, 1992. I still frequently cite this one as the best club show I've ever seen when people ask me that question. It's somewhat difficult to explain exactly why it was that good, but everything about the experience was just...perfect.
Competition from quality venues such as the Showbox, the Tractor and the Triple Door, as well as from a litany of indie-come-lately dives, made things harder on the Croc in the new millennium, and it would seem in retrospect that its days were numbered when Dorgan and Peter Buck divorced earlier this year. For those in Seattle who were still faithful patrons of the club, its absence will no doubt leave a gap. For me, it's more a matter of remembering another place and another time. But, man, what a time it was. There will be no forgetting what went down inside those glass walls at Second and Blanchard.
after a while, crocodile....
peter
Posted by Peter at 12:06 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
December 11, 2007
* music in TV ads -- seeking your input
A year or two ago, I wrote a blog-entry discussing the pros and cons of artists licensing their songs for use in television commercials. My conclusion, ultimately, was that sometimes it seemed like a good idea for the artist, but it depended on the context and content of the ad.
The primary case-in-point when I wrote that entry was the use of the song "Stars", by the husband-and-wife duo the Weepies, in a commercial for the cable channel AMC (American Movie Classics). Recently, a remixed rendition of that same song has turned up in an Old Navy ad; furthermore, a new JC Penney spot is using a different Weepies song, "All That I Want", as its backing music. Both of these commercials are getting heavy play on the major networks, to the point that it's suddenly near-impossible to be flipping channels for an hour or two without hearing the Weepies on the TV.
Which is probably a very good thing for their profile. A quick web-search reveals quite a few online-inquiries on message-boards and such in which folks have asked, "Who's singing that song in that ad?" (with someone eventually replying that it's the Weepies). It's also a good thing for their family; a recent visit to the Weepies' website reveals that not only have they finished a new record due to be released sometime in 2008, they also just welcomed a new baby into the world. It tends to be easier to understand the economic push-and-pull of creativity vs. capitalism when young children are part of the equation.
The Weepies are, of course, far from the only band to have licensed music to advertisers; indeed, it's become an increasingly common practice in recent years, even for wholly unlikely songs (Mary Lou Lord covering Daniel Johnston's "Speeding Motorcycle" in a Target ad) or long-deceased artists (Nick Drake's "Pink Moon" in that landmark Volkswagen ad a few years back).
Mostly I'd like to use this blog-entry to open up the floor for discussion of this topic. I'd like to hear your thoughts as to whether hearing some of your favorite songs or artists in TV commercials is something you view as a welcome development, or a disheartening transgression, or somewhere inbetween.
The "comments" function on this blog has been a bit cantankerous at times, but I believe it's currently working properly, so give it a try and let me know what you think, if the subject interests you. Thanks in advance for anyone who replies; I'll make sure to check frequently over the next few days to approve and publish any comments that are submitted.
adios,
peter
Posted by Peter at 2:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)
December 7, 2007
* "if kerosene works, why not gasoline?"
A brief little drive-by today, brought up by some research-related surfing on a couple of music sites that eventually detoured down a different avenue.... but can someone please explain to me why, here it is 2007 now, and NOBODY has covered the Bottle Rockets' "Kerosene"???
Sometimes I judge a song by how quickly it seems to go by in my head. (Sort of a "time flies when you're having fun" corollary.) If it's a lousy song, just a few seconds in, I can't wait till it's over, and it seems like an eternity before the end mercifully arrives. If it's a half-decent song, I don't mind listening to it, perhaps enjoy it, but I don't really notice time passing any differently than normal. If it's a good song, I'm generally surprised when it ends, as if it doesn't seem like it's really been on for three or four or five minutes (however long it is). And with a really great song, I simply can't believe it's already finished when it ends, because it feels like the thing must have just started mere moments ago.
And I'm not sure any song I've ever heard has ever passed as quickly in my head as the Bottle Rockets' "Kerosene". That's how good it is.
In an ideal world I'd love to see a split-single with the Bottle Rockets covering Miranda Lambert's recent single "Kerosene" (her own tune, though she confessed borrowing from Steve Earle), and Lambert covering the Bottle Rockets' "Kerosene". My sense is that both artists would probably handle each other's song quite well.
We'll see how far that idea ever gets.
In the meantime -- somebody, SOMEBODY record this song on your next album. Big band, little band, country band, rock band, hillbilly punk band, "pickin' on" bluegrass cover band...somebody just get smart and give this song the respect, and legs, it deserves.
adios,
peter
Posted by Peter at 9:12 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
December 4, 2007
* I'm quite certain Hank didn't do it THIS way....
Back in our May-June issue earlier this year, we ran a news photo-caption item on Chuck Prophet which mentioned in passing that "he acknowledges getting sidetracked in the studio recently by a brainstorm to re-interpret Waylon Jennings’ classic 1975 album Dreaming My Dreams in its entirety." As it turns out, "getting sidetracked in the studio" hardly even makes a dent in the full extent of the story, if what's posted here is to be trusted:
http://dreamingwaylonsdreams.xbuild.com/
I suppose I've no real reason to doubt the account of the session as it's presented on that web page, other than it just all seems a bit too surreal to be real. But then, Chuck's artistry and personality is kinda that way too sometimes, so maybe it fits.
Whether or not this is the first album resulting from an accidental and involuntary lockdown is inconclusive -- but, most importantly, if you go to that website, you can not only read the whole sordid tale, you can also hear the recording itself, which is being streamed there for free (at least for the time being). Apparently they're also selling a thousand discs, but they're adamant about limiting the quantity to no more than that, so it would seem Prophet and his fellow Waylon players are mostly content to have this be primarily an internet-listening experience.
I'm not gonna insult Chuck by saying that this recording of someone else's songs is the best thing he's ever done ... but, well, there is something relentlessly, undeniably cool about it. I also have a first-hand awareness of what Prophet can bring to the table as an interpreter of great works, having enlisted him to do a song for a Mickey Newbury tribute I co-produced many years back. (He ended up contributing to another of the album's tracks as well.)
If I were Chuck, though, I'd be slightly paranoid about just how much this story, and the record that resulted from it, gets around. As good as Dreaming Waylon's Dreams turned out, he just might find himself in this position semi-frequently in the near future: Anywhere there are instruments and recording gear on the premises, he may suddenly notice he's been inadvertently "locked in" for an indefinite period with a bunch of supposedly innocent and clueless musical suspects, one of whom just happens to have a Fisher Price Plug-N-Play and a dog-eared vinyl copy of, say, Jimmy Webb's And So: On in his guitar case. Be prepared to have to jump out of a few plate-glass windows, Chuck.
adios,
peter
Posted by Peter at 6:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)