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Jimi Hendrix — 434, 433, 432, 431, 430, 429

ALBUMS: The Jimi Hendrix Experience – Axis: Bold as Love (1967); Electric Ladyland (1968); Band of Gypsies (1970);  Smash Hits (1968); Midnight Lightning (1975);  Odds and Ends (1973);

MVC Ratings:  Axis 5.0/$$$$$; Gypsies 4.5/$$$$$; Ladyland 4.5/$$$$$; Smash Hits; 5.0/$$$$$; Midnight Lightning 4.0/$$$$; Odds and Ends 3.5/$$$$

People fall into two camps with Jimi Hendrix — and maybe a third if you don’t call it a cop-out.

Group 1: Loves Hendrix. Thinks he’s the best guitarist ever in the world.

Group 2: Pretty much can’t tolerate Hendrix, says music sounds like so much noise.

Group 3: Admires his ability and innovations but just can’t listen to a lot of the psychedelic, feedback sound he created .

True Hendrix, who was the definition of counterculture at the time, could make some noise. He could do things with distortion and feedback that people had never heard.

At Woodstock, he played the National Anthem on guitar, a scorching version in which he actually made the sound of whistling bombs exploding during the ‘Rockets red glare … and bombs bursting in air’  part.

Another song, Machine Gun, he created the sound of the rapid fire gun with his guitar.

I believe I would be correct if I  said  Hendrix is probably listed as the top guitarist most best-of lists.

That’s not to say there’s not some good argument.

Above link at Debate.org, there’s lots of rational arguments on both sides of this subjective debate. One naysayer wrote:  “There is no denying how innovative the man was. Saying he was the best is just too final of a statement to me. The best guitar players are typically jazz players or metal heads. The former using scales rock and blues dudes never touched; the latter using micro scales like Robert Johnson used to.”

Kind of amazing. Hendrix came out of session music for up and comers at the time like Tina Turner, Sam Cooke, B.B. King, and the Isely Brothers.

These session guys and gals were some of the top players in the game. Hendrix, self-taught, came out blazing.  He was an African – American super hippie from Seattle with a guitar ability no one had seen.

For those on the fence, that third group, maybe even some of the second group, I’m going to link to five songs that will attempt to  change your mind about Hendrix and his ability. I  grew up with the idea that Hendrix was the best and untouchable at No. 1 guitarist that I’m hard pressed to move off of that stand. Hendrix died of Asphyxia due to aspiration of vomit in 1970 at 27 years old. If  you are going to get one album with the big hits, get ‘Smash Hits’ or the first album, Are You Experienced. They have Purple Haze and Foxy Lady.

 5. Castles Made of Sand

4. The Wind Cries Mary

3; All Along the Watch Tower

2. Crosstown Traffic

  1.  Little Wing

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Steve Harley and Cockney Rebel — 436

 

ALBUM: Face to Face (live, 2  LPs 1976)

I bought it at a community flea market in Athens, Ga.,   because it was cheap, interesting cover and the live album led off with ‘Here Comes the Sun,’ the George Harrison/Beatles song. I listened to it a few times but it never really registered until I got to the last song called ‘Make Me Smile.’

How did I never hear this song before? Cool tune with several long stops and silent holds. Its stop-start delay effect is effective  — and you can dance to it. Love the song. I later found that I had it on a compilation record called Monument to British Rock. I think I probably like the studio version even more with it’s exaggerated Dylan vocal style.

My understanding this band was big in England, even huge in the 1970s.

Not a lot of love in the states though. I’m sure Cockney Rebel–  the band’s name left many Americans scratching their heads. And maybe it is a British thing in the way that British comedy often leaves Americans wondering what they missed.

See the video of Make Me Smile. Fave line:‘Maybe you’ll tarry for a while.’

 

 

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George Harrison — 437

ALBUM: Thirty-Three & 1//3  (1976)

MVC Rating: 4.0/$$$$ (NOTE: I bought several months ago the latest reissue of George Harrison’s classic ‘All Things Must Pass,’ which I mention in another post.

Here the man who was one-quarter of the Beatles seems in good spirits.

He even lets off a little steam with a critique of the court case which found Harrison guilty of plagiarizing. His song, My Sweet Lord, sounded too much like the Chiffon’s ‘He’s so fine.’

And. It did.

But George is going to be passionate in a song defending his side. And George’s ordeal with the legal battle highlights the fine line between borrowing and plagiarism. (See Led Zeppelin.)

Harrison is so easy to listen to. Great, underrated voice and some good solid guitar playing and songs that, while not quite Beatles, you can easily hear at least one-quarter of the  Beatles.

With “This Song’ he  delivers a scathing (for him) rebuke of the plagiarism controversy. Of course George lost that dispute and  the songs do sound very much alike. But I don’t think he did it on purpose.

This Song l

This song has nothing tricky about it 

This song ain’t black or white and as far as I know 
Don’t infringe on anyone’s copyright

When the Beatles broke up I was just becoming aware of who the Beatles were at about 10 years old.  My mother dropped me in downtown Athens at the Georgia Theater – yes that used to be a movie theater before becoming a music venue — where I went in to see ‘Let it Be,’ the bittersweet documentary of the Beatles recording one last time before breaking up. I was alone. Yes that’s kind of weird, but I’d often go see movies by myself as young’un. Saw ‘Vanishing  Point’ my favorite B-movie when I was 12. But I digress.

Billy Preston played on Thirty-three and 1/3.

Beatles became my favorite band and probably shaped  my future view of rock and roll.

When they broke up, it was hit or miss for me in getting their solo material.

My brother had ‘Venus and Mars’ and ‘Band on the Run from McCartney and listened to those sometimes inane — but rockin’ — albums. I never bought a Ringo record, bless his heart. I’ve had several John Lennon albums including his classic, but dark, first solo album.

The one thing I regret is not having picked some more Harrison, especially All Things Must Pass. I am  going to pledge that I will use a coveted bucket list item to listen to  All Things Must Pass all 3  records in the box from start to finish.

On this album, 331/3, ‘Dear One’ is a personal favorite.

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Halloween songs

I’m looking for suggestions as we enter the Halloween season.

I’m just going to start with one song that is big time on my playlist right now. My NP is a Brummies song, and it really has  nothing much  to do with Halloween other than it’s “Haunted.”

I’m counting down my 678 vinyl records before I die of brain disease.

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TIm Hardin — 439, 438

ALBUMS: Suite for Susan Moore (1969); The Shock of  Grace (1981) 

MVC Ratings: Suite 3.5/$$$$; Shock 3.5/ $$$$

My vinyl collection of Tim Hardin is not representative of his work. The essential Hardin is caught mostly in his first few 2 albums and also in compilations with those songs from the first two.

I have a compilation of some of his more obscure experimental songs and a key album that fed  that compilation. Suite for Susan Moore is as provocative as it is frustrating. Interesting jazzy acoustic guitar is spoiled when Hardin goes on these spoken word jags that sound more dippy than trippy. Too bad because there was clearly interesting  music going on.

Allmusic.com has an interesting take on this part of his career: Even the folkier and more upbeat tunes had a casual and distended air: Hardin added to the strangeness by occasionally reciting somber poetry, both unaccompanied and to meandering, jazzy instrumental backing. The drowsy mood, both affectionate and vulnerable, is more important than the message on this haunting album. That means it’s not recommended as the first Hardin recording for neophytes, but it is recommended to those who already like Hardin and are up for something more obtuse than his early records.

His better known songs — which I have somewhere on CD —  are well-cover classics and near classics:  ‘Reason to Believe;’ ‘If I Were a Carpenter; ‘Lady Came from Baltimore’; How Can you Hang on to a Dream.’ ‘Black Sheep Boy; ‘Misty Roses,’ ‘Don’t Make Promises’ and more. Some of those like ‘Reason’ are classics. (I like Rod Stewart’s version of that song as well as Hardin’s.)

I really like all those listed above except ‘Carpenter’ which just irritated me as it was covered by what seems like every crooner who crooned. Also I can’t listen to it these days because the “would you have my baby’ line reminds me too much of that awful Paul Anka song “Having My Baby.”

On the vinyl I have, as I said, there’s some interesting jazzy-blues work but at this time Hardin was deep into the heroin. The Vietnam veteran of the U.S> Marine Corps. died of an overdose in 1980. He is buried near his hometown of Eugene, Oregon.

I onetime had an idea of doing a book profiling Tim Hardin, Elliott Smith, and Chris Whitley, all pioneering songwriters whose voices were as distinct as their lives were troubled and cut short. Artists whose legacy teeters on the songs that are left behind.

I thought of it when I started taking my youngest, Claire, to school at the University of Oregon in Eugene and upon learning Hardin was from there and Smith was based in Portland. Dunno, bit depressing, but also I thought the three would be interesting case studies, exploring the parallels. Sadly I  think I’d start already knowing the parallels: D&D. Drugs and Depression.

Video below shows couple of Hardin’s classics.

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His and Hurricanes in the future (Part. 2)

 …continued

(Scene is End of the Line Tavern in the year 2525)

 Old Timer: “People say it’s climate warming or global changing or some shit like that. Ha. They been having them for years. The one in 2511 is legend.”

Of course Prosby knew the 2511 storm. Everyone with a well-made Walkie Talkie knows that one. Cat 5 with sustained winds of 220 mph. Turned St. Petersburg  into Florida’s Venice.

Forty-foot storm surge dug its own canals.

Old Timer: “Glad I wasn’t down there at the time. You know 678 people died.”

Both men knew that much of Florida is underwater now. There is some dry land in Bithlo, but then you gotta live in Bithlo.

Lightning storms and meth heads made it difficult to venture out in that area of Florida anyway. Refugees from the now underwater Daytona Beach came to occupy Bithlo bringing more drugs upon drugs.

Prosby looked for the bartender, sat in silence for a while and then asked a question of the Old Timer.

“What is it then that storms coming out of nature keep getting bigger and bigger. If not climate change, what is it? God trying to kill us or trying to scare the hell out of us?”

“Don’t be skeered,” Old Timer said. “Just watch the spirals.”

Unconsciously Prosby put my hand on my gas mask, a high end military grade CBRN. Most folks wore them outside and lived in highly filtered airtight homes or apartments. If you didn’t wear one outside, it would only take a month or so before you were coughing up blood.

“Spirals? You mean these hisicanes and hurricanes?”

“No, something bigger,” he said, strapping on his pistol as he made a move for the door.

TO BE CONTINUED…

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Guadalcanal Diary — 440

ALBUM: Jamboree (1986)

MVC Rating: 4.0

‘Fear of God’ off of their third album is the perfect song to show the uninitiated what one key element of the Athens, Ga., music scene sounded like, especially as that sound proceeded to emanate out of Southeastern university towns all through the 1980’s.

Athens, Atlanta, Birmingham, Chapel Hill.

REM and the B-52’s were the most successful purveyors of the scene if not the sound. REM created a new sound with the jangly Byrdsian  guitar cut through with the lead singer’s heartfelt mumbles. B-52’s had a frenetic pop-punk sound.  Guadalcanal Diary featured both styles. ‘Cattle Prod’ is right out of the B-52’s playbook, which also crosses over with Atlanta’s Swimming Pool Q’s (anybody remember ‘Rat Bait?’)

Guadalcanal  Diary’s members were mostly from the  Atlanta area but made sure they were connected to the Athens scene.

Other  bands in this arena — ‘Let’s Active,’ the dB’s, Pylon, Love Tractor, the Brains, Primitons. The ‘Athens’ influence is much bigger than that of course and remains a creative spot for cutting edge rock music, having spawned or adopted bands such as Neutral Milk Hotel, Widespread Panic and Drive-by Truckers,  Of Montreal, among many others.

It’s hard sometimes to figure why some struck big and others didn’t.

But evidence from REM is perhaps as simple as its songs.

They have sold millions and here’s why: ‘Losing My Religion,’ ‘Fall on Me,’ ‘Orange Crush,’ ‘It’s the End of the World,’ ‘Man on the Moon,’ ‘E-bow the Letter,’ ‘Stand,’ ‘South Central Rain,’ ‘Leaving New York,’ ‘Radio Song,’ ‘Half a World Away,’ ‘The One I  Love.’ I could go on (Imitation of Life, What’s the Frequency Kenneth). Many of those are songs that’ll be around a lot longer than the band members themselves.

If you want to look at it that way. And I do.

Personal favorites:  Orange Crush. and E-Bow the Letter.

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His and hurricanes in the future

Part 1

It is the year 2525, and a storm described as ‘apocalyptic’ is barreling down on Florida and Alabama’s Gulf Coast.

The TV reporters hyperventilate and exaggerate their inability to stand in a stiff breeze.

But this is a big one. The biggest they say since the National Weather Service upped the gender equality correctness by calling the boy’ hurricanes, ‘hisicanes.’

This is Hisicane Donald.

Millions of Americans stared, transfixed by the spiral on TV screens.

Counterclockwise swirling. Hypnotizing.

It looked like the cosmic spiral of our galaxy.

Everybody asked: When is landfall? Where is landfall? When is that TV reporter going to be conked in head by a wind-driven coconut?

Hisicane Donald’s path had been surprisingly fast moving.

And it is upon us now.

Some people had chosen to flee, pack up the car and head out. Others chose to stay, shoring up their houses with boards and their doors and yards with sandbags.

And some, hesitated, caught up in staring at the spiral and wondering if it is really worth running from or should they just ‘hunker down.’

This is historic. Never been seen before, the TV blared.

“This your first ‘herckun?’ Old timer nursing a 16-oz PBR asks.

Prosby had just walked in and sat down at the End of the Line Tavern.

“Oh no, no,’ Prosby said.

To Be Continued …

 

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Poem Drop

Soul Sisters:  Caring, love as I rearrange everything

Hello again, and?

Ain’t life grand?

Now that you can see it.

Now that you can be it.

Any other explanation doesn’t stand

How it’s all connected, perhaps not quite perfected, like the best can come from breaking with the plan

 

Every place

My love for you I find

In heart, body and mind

Let go, let go and shine

Yes is the better answer, like a clinging leaf is the better dancer, most of the time

 

For more of what I call ‘Attempted Poetry’ hit the so-named button on the right of  yuor screen or just click here:  https://myvinylcountdown.com/category/warning-attempted-poetry/

 

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Addendum on Grateful Dead

In these blogs, I wrote a little earlier about the Grateful Dead.

Short take: I really never have understood the ulra-passionate appeal for a band whose songs, at least half, sound like sleepy Americana tunes, a genre that didn’t exist — at least in name — in the Dead’s heyday. Or it could also be described as Ronnie Lane music, only without the deep English musical accent that British musician layered on vocals and music.

I did promise  further research into the Dead, noting that the only vinyl album I had was ‘Terrapin Station.’  So since that time I found some Dead I’d had digitally, namely the albums ‘Workingman’s Dead’ and ‘American Beauty.’

Of course like many listening to music in the 1970s, I knew ‘Casey Jones’ and the classic band on the road song, ‘Truckin’ ‘ which blesses us with one of the shrewdest summation lines of these years: “What a long strange trip it’s been.”

So this little additional homework has left me with two observations.

  • The Dead are certainly good (in a down home sloppy sort of way). Listening to more of their music, I had my needle pushed above half a tank. I could listen to Ripple, Box of Rain, and Brokedown Palace on the porch with the sun shining all day.
  • But I still don’t get how they are in the conversation of best rock band ever. But that’s the rhetoric I’d hear in some circles (California especially.) Jerry Garcia would probably agree that’s a strawman argument.