Accompanied by acoustic guitar, Boy George performed an unexpectedly great version of “It Ain’t Me Babe” on June 21, 2014 at the En Lefko Festival in Athens, Greece.
— A Days Of The Crazy-Wild blog post —
Tag Archives: news
Audio: Bob Dylan Sings ‘All Along The Watchtower’ – Wiener Stadhalle – June 28, 2014
Bob Dylan and his band performed “All Along The Watchtower” the other night, June 28, 2014, at Wiener Stadhalle in Vienna, Austria.
[In August of this year I’ll be publishing my rock ‘n’ roll/ coming-of-age novel, “True Love Scars,” which features a narrator who is obsessed with Bob Dylan. To read the first chapter, head here.]
–- A Days of the Crazy-Wild blog post: sounds, visuals and/or news –-
Watch Spoon Play ‘Rainy Taxi’ & ‘Rent I Pay’ on ‘Kimmel’
Great to hear these two songs, “Rainy Taxi” and “Rent I Pay,” which Spoon performed on Kimmel this past Thursday night.
They are both on the upcoming album, They Want My Soul.
Now watch Spoon Play ‘Rainy Taxi’ & ‘Rent I Pay.’
“Rainy Taxi”:
“Rent I Pay”:
[In August of this year I’ll be publishing my rock ‘n’ roll/ coming-of-age novel, “True Love Scars,” which features a narrator who is obsessed with Bob Dylan. To read the first chapter, head here.]
–- A Days of the Crazy-Wild blog post: sounds, visuals and/or news –-
Audio: R.I.P. Dept.- Soul Great Bobby Womack Dead at 70 – Hear Some of His Hits
Soul man Bobby Womack, whose numerous R&B hits included “Lookin’ For A Love,” “That’s The Way I Feel About Cha,” “Woman’s Gotta Have It” and “If You Think You’re Lonely Now,” died today according to the artist’s label, XL Records.
The cause of death has not been revealed, but Womack had been suffering from colon cancer and diabetes.
In 1964 Womack and his brothers, recording as The Valentinos, released a song Womack had written, “It’s All Over Now.” A month later the Rolling Stones released their version, which became a #1 hit on the UK sales charts and introduced the singer’s song to a generation of white teens, including me.
I loved “It’s All Over Now,” though it was years before I noticed that the songwriter was Bobby Womack.
I interviewed Womack in 1984 at his home in the Hollywood Hills for Rolling Stone when he was in the midst of one of many comebacks — this one had started with 1981’s The Poet.
At the time we talked, Womack had another hit album,The Poet II.
I asked Womack what his reaction was back in 1964 when he first learned that the Rolling Stones had a hit in England with his song.
“Tell them to get their own fucking song!,” he said. “I never was happy about that until I saw a check.”
Womack became friends with Ron Wood of the Stones, and played on several of Wood’s solo albums.
When he learned of Womack’s death, Ron Wood Tweeted:
“I’m so sad to hear about my friend Bobby Womack ~ the man who could make you cry when he sang has brought tears to my eyes with his passing.”
Womack had problems with drugs — in particular, cocaine. “The biggest downfall for any entertainer is drugs,” Womack said. “I ain’t saying I was totally out there, but I had my share.
During that interview he said he’d been clean for six months and told me he was excited to be touring with a hit album.
“I don’t know about everyone else, but I want to live,” he told me. “I have two sons. I have a beautiful wife. And music, the gift that God gave me, means more to me today than it’s ever meant.”
Read the New York Times’ obit here.
Read Rolling Stone’s obit here.
Read NPR’s obit here.
“If You Think You’re Lonely Now”:
“Woman’s Gotta Have It”:
“Across 110th Street”:
“Across 110th street” live, 1973, on Soul Train:
The Valentinos, “Lookin’ For A Love”:
Bobby Womack, “Lookin’ For A Love” (remake):
The Valentinos, ‘It’s All Over Now:
The Rolling Stones, “It’s All Over Now”:
“The Bravest Man In The Universe” (from Womack’s 2012 album for XL):
“Please Forgive My Heart” (from Womack’s 2012 album for XL):
Bobby Womack at Glastonbury 2013:
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So, Would You Want the Newport Guitar or Bob Dylan’s ‘Like A Rolling Stone’ Lyrics?
In response to my post yesterday, “Bob Dylan’s ‘Like A Rolling Stone’ Manuscript Sells for $2 Million But Dylan’s Secrets Remain Secret,” Mike Jones commented:
The LARS lyrics went for more than I thought they would…how are a few pieces of paper worth more than the Newport guitar? I don’t get the whole ephemera thing. I guess people like to have historical stuff, just to look at or whatever. But I would much rather have the Newport guitar, which sold for like half as much. That seems very strange to me.
I understand why some folks, especially musicians, would want the guitar Bob Dylan played at the Newport Folk Festival gig that drew the line between the old Dylan, and the new.
For me though — and I’m not saying paying $2 mil makes any kind of sense — between the guitar and the manuscript, I’d go for the manuscript.
Guitar:
Here’s why.
Certainly the guitar is an iconic object, symbolic of Dylan’s rejection of so-called ‘folk music’ for rock ‘n’ roll, but he could have played any Strat that day and made the same music, made the same impact. Dylan’s art and his creativity didn’t hinge on that particular guitar. In fact, he played many guitars over the years. It’s always been Dylan, not his instruments, that makes the difference.
But that manuscript.
That’s the artist at work. That’s the artist in the throes of the creative process.
On those pages we see the song take shape. Words crossed out and other words written in. The chorus forming before our eyes from page to page.
And those cryptic notes to the side of the lyrics. “Al Capone,” “On the Road,” “Pony Blues,” “Butcher Boy.”
From these pages and the ones for “A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall” we get the curtain pulled back a little on Dylan’s creative process.
And when one combines what’s on these pages, with what he reveals in “Chronicles: Volume One” and elsewhere, we do get a vague sense of the Dylan mind at work.
We’ll never get to the bottom of it, and it’s probably better that way, but still.
So Bob Dylan’s ‘Like A Rolling Stone’ lyrics are very different from the Newport guitar. They’re a time machine that takes us back to that day (s) when Bob Dylan put the ideas that were in his head down on hotel stationary, and created a timeless song, a song that, nearly 50 years after he wrote it, stands tall.
But what do you think?
Would you opt for the Newport guitar, or the “Like A Rolling Stone” manuscript pages?
Manuscript:
Or is there something else that you’d go for instead. If you had the money, and if you could afford to spend it in this way.
Bob Dylan at the Newport Folk Festival in 1965 singing “Like A Rolling Stone”:
Bob Dylan – Like a Rolling Stone (Live… by toma-uno
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First Details of Karen O’s Solo Album, ‘Crush Songs,’ Revealed
Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ front woman Karen O’s solo album, Crush Songs, will be released on September 9, 2014 on Cult Records.
This is Karen’s O’s first solo album, although she has previously recorded and released solo material including the Oscar-nominated “The Moon Song.”
The album was recorded in 2006 and 2007 and is described in a press release as “an intimate collection of lo-fi bedroom recordings in the vein of Karen’s Oscar-nominated “The Moon Song.”
“The Moon Song”:
Here’s what Karen O says about the album:
Cult Records is The Strokes’ frontman Julian Casablancas’ label.
The album can be pre-ordered here. A vinyl version will include “personal drawings” by Karen O and handwritten lyrics.
— A Days Of The Crazy-WIld blog post —
Bob Dylan’s ‘Like A Rolling Stone’ Manuscript Sells for $2 Million But Dylan’s Secrets Remain Secret
The manuscript for Bob Dylan’s ‘Like A Rolling Stone’ (his first rock ‘n’ roll hit) sold today at auction for slightly over two million dollars — $2.045 mil to be exact — to a mystery buyer, according to Sotheby’s, the auction house that handled the transaction, but that buyer didn’t get a key to unlock the mysteries of the manuscript.
For instance, why did Dylan write “Al Capone” in the margin with a line from the gangster’s name to the word “direction” in the chorus?
“Al Capone” might have worked in terms of a rhyme, but it would make no sense in terms of what the song is about.
Dylan’s “A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall” sold for $485,000.
But back to Bob Dylan’s ‘Like A Rolling Stone’ manuscript:
There are various alternate phrases written on the manuscript that Dylan wisely rejected, but they don’t reveal much.
On the second page of the manuscript is a version of the chorus with “path unknown” as one of the lines.
At the top of page three is written: “How does it feel/ Behind the wheel.”
At the bottom of page three the chorus is again a work in progress:
How does it feel to be on your own
It feels real (dog-bone)
Does it feel real.”
Then he wrote “New direction home” but put a line through “new” and wrote “no” under it.
Then: “When the winds have (unreadable word that could be “flown”)
“Shut up and deal like a rolling stone
Raw deal
Get down and kneel.”
More interesting perhaps, Dylan has written names of songs and books on the pages, which may or may not relate to the song itself: “Pony Blues,” a song by Charley Patton; “Midnight Special” (and above it “Mavis”); “On the Road”; and “Butcher Boy,” which likely refers to “The Butcher Boy,” an old folk song that the Clancy Brothers recorded.
Other revisions.
There’s a mostly discarded verse that reads:
“You never listened to the man who could (illegible) jive and wail
Never believed ‘m when he told you he had love for sale
You said you’d never compromise/ now he looks into your eyes
and says do you want make a deal.”
And what ended up being the third verse reads like this in part:
“You never turned around
To see the frowns
On the jugglers and the clowns
When they all came down
And did tricks for you to shake the money tree.”
There’s a line drawn through that entire last line.
Two million bucks and change.
— A Days of the Crazy -Wild blog post —
Audio: Bob Dylan Sings ‘Blowin’ In The Wind’ in Istanbul – June 20, 2014
“Blowin’ In The Wind”:
Another fan recording:
— A Days Of The Crazy-Wild blog post —
Audio: Jamie XX Debuts New Track, ‘All Under One Roof Raving,’ On BBC Radio 1
Check out this new track from Jamie XX, “All Under One Roof Raving,” which he debuted on BBC Radio 1.
Listen here.
The song begins right around the 60 minute point in the show. By the way, right after the Jamie XX track is a cool one by Stevie Wonder, “AS.”
Here’s cool footage of the XX rehearsing “Angels”:
Thanks Pitchfork!
– A Days Of The Crazy-WIld blog post —
Video: Bob Dylan Sings ‘Forgetful Heart,’ ‘Blowin’ In The Wind’ & More in Dublin – June 17, 2014
More from the June 17, 2014 Dublin show at The O2.
The sound is quite good for these clips so I have included a few songs I posted yesterday. I think the quality is uniformly better today.
If you missed my previous post with clips from this show, here is is.
“High Water” (For Charley Patton)”:
“Simple Twist Of Fate”:
“Forgetful Heart”:
“Long And Wasted Years”:
“All Along The Watchtower”:
“Blowin’ In The Wind”:
— A Days Of The Crazy-Wild blog post —