“It may have taken years to gain traction, but nothing would ever be the same after White Light/White Heat – not least the Velvets, following Cale’s enforced departure in autumn 1968. It’s one of a precious handful of albums that helped rock music turn a significant corner… before dragging it down an alley and beating sense into it.”
Some of the tracks on Led Zeppelin sounded like they were being jammed, but there’s a real magic in that. Good Times Bad Times is the perfect way to kick off an album; and I prefer the studio version of Dazed And Confused to the live one on The Song Remains The Same.
I also like what they did with Willie Dixon’s You Shook Me, although their electrified versions of Chicago blues songs caused some to accuse them of plagiarism. To me, that was complete rubbish. Zeppelin were covering songs by artists whose time had gone, bringing them new respect. No way did any of their treatment of those songs sound like black Delta bluesmen.
Neil Young, Lindsey Buckingham, Shakira, and others recently sold their song catalogs to the flashy music publishing upstart Hipgnosis, in deals that have implications for the future of the recording industry.
SIZZLING–geddit?–PLATTER OF THE WEEK: David Bowie – Blackstar (ISO) :: You’d think that suffering a heart attack after recording the less than holy holy Heathen would’ve warned him to resist the dark side, but nooooooooooooo.
Various Artists – Moogfest 2006 Live (MVD Visual DVD) :: When it comes to aural affection, Moog synthesizer adherents are the most avid. Jan Hammer hurts ’em with a solid set that spans his solo career, from his work with Steve Kindler and Jeff Beck to his Miami Vice days. Meanwhile, an unrecognizable Keith Emerson knifes away through a marathon performance of “Tarkus” using his trademark 15-foot-high patch board. Both lads still have their speed freak chops intact; close your eyes and you’ll swear it was 1973. If you still delight in the classic Moog “bee-yow” synth sound, then this DVD’s for you.
Rick Wakeman – Amazing Grace (MVD Visual DVD) :: Wherein the world’s greatest rock ‘n’ roll keyboardist sits down at the grand piano for an acoustic interpretation of the world’s greatest rock of ages hymns. This one features live and studio performances along with-don’t laugh-some truly evocative scenes of nature. Rick also personally introduces each hymn with an educational historical overview. And since his speed freak chops are still just as fast as Emerson’s, it’s interesting to compare Rick’s reverent rendition of “Jerusalem” with Keith’s electronic one on Brain Salad Surgery.
Prince rarely gave live interviews, but when he did, he had a way of mesmerising the audience. We dug up this rare clip from 1985 when the artist agreed to talk in front of cameras for the first time ever. It’s a rather peculiar conversation in which his then-manager Steve Fargnoli (who later sued the singer for defaming him in one of his songs), asks questions provided by MTV. Filmed in Nice, France while shooting his music video for America, Prince is surrounded by hired extras who appear to be hanging on his ever word. Both a playful confidence and vulnerability shines through in his answers as he responds to provocative topics such as “selling out to a white audience”. Resisting the urge to become defensive, he maintains an magnetic charm. So without further ado, here’s a moment with Prince soothe the soul…
I saw Carlos Alomar play with Iggy Pop in a couple of different venues. Always so cool and conscious of the impact he made on stage with his instrument. This is a great read.
Station To Station and the Berlin Trilogy
When we went to California to do Station to Station, and we did the other albums later, the Brian Eno stuff and even beyond that, as musicians we had to listen. We were making tracks before we knew what David’s lyrics or melodies were. But there’s music in the holes. I got that from James Brown, when I was playing guitar for him. He was like, ‘Son, calm down. Why are you playing so much stuff?’ And really, when you’re playing with three guitar players, it’s easy to calm down. They’ve got it covered. Less is more.And David liked to put things together like a jigsaw puzzle, so we couldn’t put too many notes in there. That’s why I asked him, ‘Please, no keyboard players. Keyboard players have two hands, and they’re constantly playing full chords, two or three inversions. It doesn’t leave anything to the imagination.’ So when I played with David, instead of playing one guitar that’s got five fabulous things in it, I’d play one guitar that played only one part of it. Then later I’d play the other part, so one was on the left side and one was on the right side. Then, if he wanted, I’d do another one on the upper right side, and then the upper left, so that all together in the stereo placement it might be four or five guitar parts.It ends up so awesomely cool that you’re going, ‘Dude, that is awesome and cool!’ That’s the way we kind of worked together. Less is more in the case of trying to construct songs. Otherwise you get so heavy-handed that you can’t do arrangements like there were on Station to Station. You can’t do these songs like Wild Is the Wind or Word On A Wing. Those are somewhat classic songs for a guy like David to tackle, but he wanted to do them with a skeleton crew of musicians, so it wouldn’t be too heavy-handed. So the parts were really developed, but who shines? David. With such simple arrangements, David’s got to carry that. And he did.
“We wrote the Rebel Yell songs ‘Flesh for Fantasy,’ ‘Eyes Without a Face,’ and some others during rehearsals,” Stevens recalls. “But ‘Rebel Yell’ didn’t come about till we went to Electric Lady Studios to start recording. We had the music first. We ran tape as we were demoing it, and, little by little, we started to think that we had something.”
“Of course, nobody knew the impact it would have at the beginning,” Rossi continued, “but even then I was aware that most of big business just kept its head down and thought, ‘We’ll let these rock’n’roll dickheads do this and it will go away’. And it did. And that annoyed me.
“I mean, there was this British Airways TV advertisement that they’d spent £2 million on, just to tell us they were the world’s favourite airline. And I was thinking, ‘Who gives a shit?’ How often do you book a flight and say, ‘I want to travel on this airline?’. They could have done themselves a lot more favours by giving that money to Live Aid.
“And the oil companies, they could have donated their budget for that one day’s global advertising – all that stupid bollocks about how ‘our petrol makes your car go faster’ – and we could have raised twice as much. But they didn’t rise to it. And I find that a bit sad,” he concluded with a shrug.
PRS for Music suggest otherwise
Neil Young, Lindsey Buckingham, Shakira, and others recently sold their song catalogs to the flashy music publishing upstart Hipgnosis, in deals that have implications for the future of the recording industry.
