Canadian, poet, novelist, singer, songwriter and musician. Which of these things does not go with Leonard Cohen.
Some would say singer. And yet, that, and songwriter are probably what he’s known most for. His song ‘Hallelujah’ has many great covers (Jeff Buckley, Willie Nelson, k.d. lang, Justin Timberlake, just to name a few.) But some still enjoy Cohen’s own version best. I prefer Buckley’s but I do prefer Cohen’s version of Suzanne more than the interpretations by other singers.
Cohen whisper-talks in deep basstones. He doesn’t really sing. But it can be very effective as on his 1988 album, “I’m Your Man.” On this album that I have on vinyl, Cohen uses more instrumentation than usual to back his whispery poetry. It’s right catchy. Highlights include the title song, ‘First We Take Manhattan’ and probably the album’s best song, ‘Tower of Song.’ It’s kind of like old white man rap.
With Cohen, it’s all about the words. He’s basically a poet, who learned to turn his provocative verse into song. He was apparently in his 30s before he even used music as vehicle for expression. He was a novelist and poet with several published works.
Cohen’s lyrics are always enigmatic, earthy and sophisticated at the same time. Here’s some passages from ‘Tower of Song:’
Well my friends are gone and my hair is grey
I ache in the places where I used to play
And I’m crazy for love but I’m not coming on I’m just paying my rent every day Oh in the tower of song
Cohen died at 82 in 2016.
Rolling Stone wrote: Cohen was the dark eminence among a small pantheon of extremely influential singer-songwriters to emerge in the Sixties and early Seventies. Only Bob Dylan exerted a more profound influence upon his generation, and perhaps only Paul Simon and fellow Canadian Joni Mitchell equaled him as a song poet.
I would argue with Rolling Stone over that last statement. Lennon-McCartney, Van Morrison and even Bruce Springsteen should be in that conversation. (Springsteen would be more in the late 1970s.
My favorite Cohen lyric is from the song Anthem. Think about this one:
The birds they sang
At the break of day
Start again
I heard them say
Don’t dwell on what
Has passed away
Or what is yet to be
Yeah the wars they will
Be fought again
The holy dove
She will be caught again
Bought and sold
And bought again
The dove is never free
Ring the bells (ring the bells) that still can ring
Forget your perfect offering There is a crack in everything (there is a crack in everything) That’s how the light gets in
Counting down my 678 vinyl records before I die of brain disease.
Porter with dad Michael at 12-month old birthday party. (Mike Oliver).
I started writing about Porter Heatherly long before I was diagnosed with my own brain disease. The first story was published Oct. 31, 2013. It was based on my visit to the Heatherlys in Opelika on Porter’s 1 year birthday.
Here’s how that story started:
Like a big boy, Porter Heatherly sat back in the infant seat like it was a throne, holding up his arm from time to time and smiling as if to acknowledge his subjects.
Two dozen people, many relatives, stood around the blond boy in the bib and sang Happy Birthday.
Cameras and camera phones snapped and flashed.
A few brushed away tears.
Porter was 1-year-old on this day, Sept. 14, 2013.
I continue.
Sara Richter and Michael Heatherly were high school sweethearts in Cullman, where they both grew up. Both went to Auburn University, got married, got jobs and settled in neighboring Opelika.
Unbeknownst to them, both were carriers of a rare genetic disorder.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-==
I learned a lot that birthday visit in Opelika. It would not be my last Porter birthday visit. I met family and friends. I found out about the disease.
A Heatherlys Christmas with Porter.
Porter had a rare incurable genetic condition called gangliosidosis type 1 or GM1.
I later called the UAB specialist who diagnosed Porter.
“There is no cure,” the doctor said. “It’s an inherited disorder and progressively destroys the nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord.”
She said life expectancy is about 2 years.
I also learned that this 1 year birthday wasn’t really his first birthday celebration. The parents had decided to celebrate Porter’s birthday once a month. So, in their eyes, it was Porter’s 12th birthday, going by months.
I had some quiet time on the drive back to Birmingham and the more I thought about it, the more I loved the Heatherlys’ idea of monthly birthdays.
By doing that, the parents were choosing to stretch time making the most of the time remaining. They may not have had more time, but they sure as heck could create more moments.
Told that Porter’s life expectancy would be 2 years, they chose to have more than 20 birthday celebrations instead of just 2.
The Heatherlys ended up having many more than 20 birthdays with Porter but let’s not get ahead of ourselves here.
I was so impressed with their decision that I asked Michael and Sara if they would help me put together a post for AL.com on each monthly birthday, the 14th that would give an update on Porter’s condition, activities and such. They bravely said yes. They bravely agreed to, in this time of grief and hardship, open up their lives for the sake of helping people and research.
The monthly posts, which were usually in Sara’s own words but sometimes in Michael’s, were successful, chronicling medical triumphs and set-backs, good days and bad days, Auburn football games attended, fishing exploits and other activities. But they couldn’t help but reveal that the nature of Porter’s illness meant that he was slowly getting worse.
Porter was regressing as he passed his 24-month birthday which was his average expected life expectancy. He continued through and past his 3rd year. All the while, he was helping raise awareness and money for research.
The irony as you can read in my earlier stories is that Auburn University was a world leader in this kind of research, a fact the Heatherlys accidentally discovered at church when they ran into a researcher there.
(A side personal note: The Auburn United Methodist Church is the same one I attended as a child when we lived for a short time in Auburn during the 1960s. And to continue with these so-called coincidences, the research was being conducted through the Scott-Richey Foundation, a research funding entity created by Dr. Frank Hoerlein, who was a friend, teacher and colleague of my father, John E. Oliver.)
Sadly, although there had been some great breakthroughs, a medicine to stop the disease’s growth or prevent the disease was not yet developed.
With GM1, Porter’s body lacks enough of an enzyme to break down GM1 ganglioside, a substance important for normal brain cell function.
The parents understood the reality of what would happen.
Porter’s smiling face, captured in memories and photographs at his 12-month birthday had, as he faced his 4th year, faded to a mostly blank stare.
Moving forward to present day, I struggle to type now because of some symptoms I’m having at night affecting my right hand and arm. If you are on this blog you likely know my story. If not check out the About Me button at the top of the page. Or a story I wrote after diagnosis.
I have Lewy body dementia, a degenerative brain disease (talk about irony).
It’s not like Porter’s, which starts at birth. But it is incurable like Porter’s. In other words, realistically, I will not get better only worse.
I have to say, I fear the blank stare.
The average life expectancy after diagnosis is 5 to 7 years.
Or, let me put it another way. My average life expectancy after diagnosis is 60 months to 84 months. Thanks Heatherlys. I’m 58 now, I’ll easily live to be 100 with the Porter method of counting.
I am also vowing to celebrate (however small the celebration) my birthday, Nov. 9, every month on the 9th.
Porter doubled his expected lifespan. Porter died, Nov. 10, 2016, at age 4.
That’s about the time that I got a confirmed diagnosis of Lewy body dementia. I just now noticed that as I wrote these words. (Note to myself: Check the date of my official diagnosis.)
At the time I wrote this for AL.com:
Porter Heatherly, the 4-year-old boy with a rare genetic disease called gangliosidosis type 1 or GM1, died Thursday morning at his home in Opelika surrounded by his parents and a hospice nurse.
“There is some kind of relief to know that the fight is now over for him, to know he is not suffering anymore,” said his mother, Sara Heatherly.
The Heatherlys say that they will continue to work to help Auburn University where researchers are looking for a cure for the inherited disorder. The disease progressively destroys the nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord.
Porter’s father, Michael Heatherly, said between $90,000 and $100,000 has been raised for Auburn research at two fund-raisers to benefit CureGM1 Foundation.
“He’s impacted so many people through helping the research and raising awareness of the disease,” Michael said.
AL.com began following Porter soon after his first year’s birthday with monthly updates labeled Porter’s Precious Birthdays.
Sara once said in one of her updates that it was amazing how much she and Michael could love someone who couldn’t talk.
“Porter never did reach out to touch my face or things like that, but there was a special bond with him,” she said.
What did Porter do? What did his life mean? He couldn’t walk, talk or even roll over. As time went on he didn’t interact at all.
But he inspired thousands. He brought people together in a circle of love. He helped raise money for research which hopefully will help other children in generations ahead. He touched my heart.
Today, Feb. 14, Porter would be celebrating his 53-month birthday.
ALBUM: Joe Cocker/With a Little Help From My Friends (1969)
MVC Rating: 5.0/$$$$
When you see Joe Cocker writhing on stage, singing in his most gravelly-gritty Joe Cocker voice, having what appears to be an epileptic seizure, you just want to take a stick and poke him (from a distance).
“Bear. bear. are you all right?’
(Growl).: You feelin’ alright?
I’m not feelin’ too good myself
Well, you feelin’ alright?
I’m not feelin’ too good myself
Cocker had perfected the Ray Charles-Otis Redding growls and gravel throated singing style. Cocker turned it into a great career of interpreting other people’s songs. Popular songs from the Beatles, Dylan and Dave Mason.
Inexplicably he writhed, and contorted himself while singing; it was kind of a cross between playing air guitar, air piano and air drums with a touch of the palsy. All the while he is putting so much emotional grit in each word of a song.
“Well, I’ll try with a little help from friends.”
Jimmy Page among those on Cocker’s debut album.
The sad bear eyes and vocals indicating great inner turmoil made you want to take a thorn out his paw.
He had a good humor though about his seemingly uncontrolled histrionics.
In 1976 on Saturday Night Live John Belushi joined Cocker as Cocker and they both went through some contortions.
Although he went on to bigger things with Top 40 ballads (You are So Beautiful) and some duets (Up Where We Belong w/ Jennifer Warnes), this album, his debut, was his prime rock and roll album with covers of Feelin Alright, With a Little Help from My Friends and Just Like a Woman.
Check him out on video.
Counting down my 678 vinyl records before I die of brain disease.
Nat King Cole was a smooth guy. Frank Sinatra-like in Cole’s crooning phase. My father tells me he was a big jazz guy with a trio in his earlier days. This album with a few pops and snaps has the brass blasting and retreating behind universal themed lyrics of love lost and found. “A Cottage for Sale” sets the tone with its title.
My favorite is ‘These Foolish Things Remind Me of You,’ partly because it is a great song but also because I had heard Bryan Ferry of Roxy Music do it. So I had familiarity going in.
A cigarette that bears a lipstick’s traces An airline ticket to romantic places Still my heart has wings These foolish things remind me of you
A tinkling piano in the next apartment Those stumblin’ words that told you what my heart meant A fair ground painted swings These foolish things remind me of you
Ahh, timeless stuff. And you followers of my blog know I have spent some time thinking about time.
Cole was a great piano player and singer. He became in the late ’50s the first black host of a TV series, a variety show.
He was born in Montgomery, yes, Alabama. But his family moved to Chicago when he was a tyke of 4.
As may be expected Cole dealt with his share of racism in the 1950s and 60s including an incident in Birmingham where he was performing in 1956.
According to the Birmingham News three members of the Alabama Citizens Council attacked and tried to kidnap him before being thwarted by law enforcement.
He didn’t finish the concert and never again played in the South.
Counting down my 678 vinyl records before I die of brain disease.
Cockburn, a Canadian folk singer, is smart, a great musician, serious, not so much the life of the party. A self-proclaimed Christian, Cockburn writes melodic dirges, melodic folk/country and melodic rants. Much is about politics.
Put another way, Cockburn is a dude who reads the NY Times and listens to NPR every morning and absorbs it.
He’s smart and he’s pissed.
To be fair he has also traveled extensively on various human rights causes.
Look and listen to the lyrics of “And They Call it Democracy.’
North, south, east, west Kill the best and buy the rest It’s just spend a buck to make a buck You don’t really give a flying fuck About the people in misery
I-M-F dirty M-F Takes away everything it can get Always making certain that there’s one thing left Keep them on the hook with insupportable debt
See the paid off local bottom feeders Passing themselves off as leaders Kiss the ladies, shake hands with the fellows And it’s open for business like a cheap bordello
And they call it democracy And they call it democracy
Have you heard of any other pop artists write songs railing against the International Monetary Fund?
I have to say as much as I admire his writing and Berklee College of Music training, I don’t and/or haven’t listened to this album much. It’s in mint condition. It is packed full of polemics and politics, good music, great guitar playing, but little humor.
Take my old adversary, Robert Christgau, well not yet but once he reads my blog he’ll turn into my adversary, I’m sure. The blatant plagiarism (on both sides). Look what he says about Cockburn in his same review or review of the same album. Here’s his review:
World of Wonders [MCA, 1986] Cockburn’s a very smart guy with as tough and articulate a line on imperialism as any white person with a label deal. Few singer-songwriters play meaner guitar, and as befits an anti-imperialist he knows the international sonic palette. Unfortunately, his records never project musical necessity. The melodies and/or lyrics carry the first side anyway, but though I’m sure Cockburn has some idea what the synthesized pans are doing on the cry of politico-romantic angst and the vaguely Andean fretboards on the Wasp dub poem, what the world will hear is the oppressive boom-boom of four-four drums. B Robert Christgau.
Now that’s what I wanted to say.He stole it. Aha, but I stole it back, slightly altering the lede, the middle and of course came up with a different ending.
I certainly missed the impressive boom-boom of four-four drums. Shame.
One thing to note: His Christmas album, titled just that, Christmas, is excellent. One of the best of my very extensive collection of holiday music (mostly digital).
Counting down my 678 vinyl records before I die of brain disease.
ALBUMS: The Harder They Come (1973); We all are one (12-inch single, 1983)
MVC Rating: Harder 4.5 $$$$; One 3.5 $$$
Jimmy Cliff, mon. If somebody walked up to me right now and said they don’t know anything about reggae music and wanted to buy something, relatively cheap, to see if they like this genre, I’d waver on a recommendation.
It’s a tough one to choose between Bob Marley’s ‘Natty Dread’ and the Jimmy Cliff vehicle soundtrack ‘The Harder They Come.”
‘Natty Dread’ was my introduction many years ago and ‘No Woman No Cry’ is in my Top 10 song list (It is? Ok for now it is.) And when I first heard Marley sing in Rebel Music: “Hey Mr. Cop, I ain’t got no birth-surf-a-ticket on me now,” I thought it was the coolest thing. I still pronounce birth certificate like that to this day.
But as much as I love that album, I might steer this newby to the Cliff album. Esteemed and rarely demeaned Rock Critic Robert Christgau, whom I cite a lot in my musical meanderings, called this the best rock movie soundtrack ever or the soundtrack to the best rock movie or the best rock compilation…Oh you read it, I can’t keep jumping back to Christgau’s Consumer Guide, he’ll think I’m plagiarizing him.
The soundtrack featuring Cliff and others is indeed excellent. Cliff’s ‘Many Rivers to Cross’ is on my Top 10 list of great songs, and so is the Melodians ‘Rivers of Babylon. OK my list is going to need some work pruning and expansion. But the above two songs prove if you got rivers you got good reggae.
Let the words of our mouth and the meditations of our heart Be acceptable in thy sight here tonight
Let the words of our mouth and the meditation of our hearts Be acceptable in thy sight here tonight
By the rivers of babylon, there we sat down Ye-eah we wept, when we remembered zion
I also have from 10 years later a promotional single. I distinctly remember buying this from Charlemagne Records in Birmingham probably 1983 or so. (I also bought a 12-inch single by Niles Rogers, which I hope to find and review when I get to the ‘R’s.).
We all are one (We all) We are the same person (Same person) I’ll be you, you’ll be me (I’ll be me, you’ll be you) We all are one (We all), same universal world I’ll be you, you’ll be me
\The only difference I can see
Is in the conscience And the shade of our skin Doesn’t matter, we laugh, we chatter We smile, we all live for
We all are one … now here’s a great rendition by Cliff himself of his classic:
So if you’re walking down the street sometime And spot some hollow ancient eyes Please don’t just pass ’em by and stare As if you didn’t care, say, “Hello in there, hello”
John Prine
Staying on topic again. Lewy body dementia. Quick quiz.
I’ll answer for you.
Do you forget things, names for example? Um, sometimes.
Are you constipated? Um, sometimes.
Do you have muscle and joint stiffness? Um, sometimes.
Do you have vivid dreams? Well the other night I had some jalapenos on my nachos and man I was dreaming of …..oh, so? um sometimes.
Do you see things out of the corner of your eye, turn to look and it’s gone? Um, sometimes but that’s because I have floaters in my eyes.
Do you have Lewy body dementia? I dunno. What’s Lewy body dementia?
I’ve gone over these angles before but I recently read a research paper published in 2015 that generally backs up much of what I’ve been saying. But it does so in other words, which I found helpful.
I was (mis)diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease first in 2016 and then diagnosed with what we are pretty certain is Lewy body dementia a few months later. What was frustrating as a newcomer to these diseases, is how little absolute knowledge there was because everybody is different, brains are extraordinarily complex and what the hell are all these alpha-synuclein proteins really doing in my brain?
Lewy Bodies in the brain. Public domain Wiki.
The research I was reading was posted on the Bio-Med Central website and authored by Brendon P. Boot of Alzheimer’s Research and Therapy.
Boot said while Lewy body has been pegged at being about 4 percent of all dementia patients, the figure is actually much higher.
“Dementia with Lewy bodies is an under-recognized disease; it is responsible for up to 20 percent of all dementia cases,” wrote Boot. “Accurate diagnosis is essential because the management of dementia with Lewy bodies is more complex than many neurodegenerative diseases. This is because alpha-synuclein, the pathological protein responsible for dementia with Lewy bodies (and Parkinson’s disease), produces symptoms in multiple domains.”
This is great stuff. This is why I have been harping about why the medical community needs know about Lewy, what it is and how to monitor. When a 58-year-old constipated man, who ate recently at Pete’s Nachos and who keeps seeing little bugs scurry across the floor comes into your office, let’s assess for Lewy body, as well as Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s.
Let’s keep going.
“By dividing the symptoms into cognitive, neuropsychiatric, movement, autonomic, and sleep categories, a comprehensive treatment strategy can be achieved.”
Yes!
“Management decisions are complex, since the treatment of one set of symptoms can cause complications in other symptom domains. Nevertheless, a comprehensive treatment program can greatly improve the patient’s quality of life, but does not alter the progression of disease,” wrote Boot.
That’s what I’m talking about.
Let’s continue.
“Dementia with Lewy bodies is an under-recognized disease. The diagnostic criteria have low sensitivity (12 to 32 %) and high specificity (>95 %) [1], so many cases are not diagnosed,” Boot wrote.
So many cases are not diagnosed. Did you understand the explanation in the that sentence? The thing about the criteria having low sensitivity and high specificity?
Me neither.
Onward.
“Parkinson’s disease dementia (PDD) accounts for a further 3 to 5 percent of dementia cases .”
That’s on top of that 20 percent. (But of what? Need to find total number of dementia patients to put 20 plus 5 percent in context.”)
“Both DLB and PDD are due to the pathological accumulation of alpha-synuclein.” Know this already.
“But patients with parkinsonism for 1 year prior to cognitive decline are classified as PDD [4].”
So they have all these umbrella diseases based on the excess of alph-synuclein AKA as Lewy bodies. And they have to make their educated guess on whether it’s PDD, LBD or DBL, or PD, or whatever, by which symptoms are showing and when, in what sequence, did these symptoms start showing.
Now here’s the kicker, and this is why everyone needs to be able to navigate the system as a patient or caretaker.
“Cognitive decline and parkinsonism are insidious, so the distinction can be difficult to draw and may be influenced by the subspecialty interest of the diagnosing neurologist (for example, movement disorder versus behavioral neurology) [1, 7]. Data on the relative frequency of DLB and PDD may be similarly affected by this subspecialty referral pattern. Whether or not the distinction has treatment implications is difficult to determine.”
So what do we know? We don’t know the cause of Lewy. We don’t know of anything that will cure Lewy or slow its progression. We don’t know how to predict its speed or debilitation because ‘everybody is different.”
How many Lewy cases are out there? I want to know. Docs and patients work together to get diagnoses early and often so we can study this disease. Break down silos between memory specialists and movement disorder experts. They should be in the same place, same building, same floor, same parking deck.
Patients be patient but pressing. Time is precious.
I am channeling my focus on improving the treatment and getting more research based on the words of numerous patients and caretakers with a brain disease who have reached out after my public story. My own situation is working well so far.
Getting the Parkinson’s diagnosis first was not unusual for Lewy body patients for reasons I’ve pointed out many times. I have a neurologist who has helped me get to the right balance of medications to treat Lewy. So I’m all right for now, just fine.
Bye. Heading out for nachos.
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I get asked all the time how am I doing. I guess everybody asks everybody that as an informal greeting. But since I came out publicly with my degenerative brain disease called Lewy body dementia, both the question and answer take on an added layer of significance.
Sometimes I say ‘fine.’ But Catherine has trained that answer right out of me. Those who know my wife know that she responds to people who say they are fine by saying: FINE stands for Frustrated, Insecure, Nervous and Emotional.
So how am I doing?
Not fine. I mean not Catherine’s fine. I feel pretty good. Most of the time.
My disease affects 1.4 million Americans and is the second leading cause of dementia after Alzheimer’s. There is no known cause or cure. Average life expectancy is 5 to 7 years after diagnosed. I am 58 and about 15 months past my diagnosis of Lewy.
So I am not fine. Or, I am indeed Catherine’s FINE. Some of the time.
You could say my awareness that something was wrong with me was nearly two years ago. The key indicator was that my arm was involuntarily pulling up into what Parkinson’s patients recognize as the gunslinger’s position, near where your holster would be if you had one.
So in August of 2016, it was no surprise that when we went to the doctor and neurologist that we came home with the diagnosis of Parkinson’s. I say ‘we’ because Catherine is so interwoven into the fabric of my being and is taking this thing on at my side. And so are my daughters, and my friends and my employer and my… well you get the picture. I have a lot of people who care for me.
But other things — the advantage of hindsight and lots of research — led to other things. I had been having some memory problems for a while, also sleeping problems and also anxiety of the likes I’d never had. This led to a psychological evaluation, which led to the conclusion that while I was no Einstein to begin with, I appeared to have lost some cognitive function. Enough that the diagnosis came back Lewy bodies, which simply means that i have been having cognitive problems from at least the onset of the gunslinger, and probably before that.
With Lewy body patients, an initial Parkinson’s (mis)diagnosis is not unusual. In the brain, the disorder is practically the same malfunction in Parkinson’s and Lewy’s patients. An overabundance of proteins from who knows where are killing neurons which are pretty vital as part of the brain’s communication hub to the rest of your body and mind.
It’s like an airplane (slowly) losing it’s ability to communicate with air traffic controllers. Oh, and automatic pilot quits working as well.
According to neuroscientists most folks are losing about 7,000 brain cells a day. Even though you have 100 billion brain cells to start with, if you start losing millions to the alpha synuclein hordes, it’s going to wreak a little havoc.
So Lewy is similar to Parkinson’s and some doctors go so far as call it a type of Parkinson’s. Here’s the difference, Lewy by definition affects a person’s mental faculties. There’s dementia all the time with Lewy. Not so with Parkinson’s, although eventually Parkinson’s patients, if they live long enough, may show dementia, as do many people when they age. Many Parkinson’s patients present symptoms of uncontrolled movement or shaking, like Michael J. Fox. That side can come with Lewy’s as well.
Here’s the Lewy Body Dementia Association’s explanation.
In a way, it’s all semantics. There is no definitive tests for these diseases until we open up the skull and take a look. There’s even research that maybe its not the proteins that are killing the neurons after all.
I do know there is no clear prediction on my future. I know I may not have much more time. But I might be around for a while and the medications, which are not a cure, keep symptoms tamped down.
It’s a disease or an umbrella of diseases that has different effects on different people. The key is figuring out how to treat it.
After years of suffering and misdiagnoses, Robin Williams killed himself. When they looked at his brain, they found it was full of this flopping protein, Lewy bodies.
So we need awareness. We need more research. We need it urgently. Someone who has Lewy who is misdiagnosed with Alzheimer’s may face serious harm or death if given certain medications to treat symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease — such as some anti-psychotic drugs.
So how the heck am I?
I’m happy to be able to write this to get the word out.
I am happy to see people who care.
I am happy to care for people while I still can.
I am sad to see tears and am happy when they turn to smiles, in the moment.
In this moment, I feel as good or better than I did a year ago, thanks, I believe, to finding the right balance of medications.
I’ve written that this blog is therapeutic. I am counting down my 678 records as I go along. My goal, or rather MY PROMISE, is to finish off those records. I haven’t counted recently but I’m over 90.
I believe I am close to 100.
I believe I am close to. I believe I am close. I believe I am. I believe I. I believe.
ALBUMS: History of Eric Clapton (1972 2-record compilation); EC Was Here (live)(1975); Backless (1979); Crossroads (6-record boxed set 1988)
MVC Ratings: Boxed 5.0/$$$$$; History 4.5/$$$$$; EC 3.5/$$$$; Backless 3.5/$$$$
Do I have too much Clapton?
Like an unbalanced 401/K plan do I need to liquidate some Eric Clapton. Should I re-rebalance my portfolio of 678 records (which I am writing about in this blog) by selling some Clapton.
For example, I could sell some Clapton for Albert King, a key Clapton influence whom I don’t have. But that would almost be like buying more Clapton, an artist steeped in blues music. Or, should I diversify and maybe buy some Django Reinhardt, a Gypsy jazz guitarist from yesteryear who was at least as influential as Clapton but had a totally different style, outside the realm of blues.
As you can see above, I only have four separate Clapton ‘products’ But as you can also see, one is a 6-record box set, and another is a double record chronology. Pretty comprehensive.
That’s 10 vinyl slices totaling about six or seven hours of Clapton. That doesn’t include my two Cream albums, my Yardbirds album and my Derek and the Dominos double album set, all of which have Clapton in the mix. I will review separately when they come up in my alphabetical line-up. (I’m in the C’s so we’ll be doing Cream pretty soon).
I think I will hold off liquidating immediately.
If you are a Clapton fan, it is good to see the arc of his playing.
He is praised for his fluid improvisational guitar solos, mostly in a blues context. And he is cursed for his fluid improvisational guitar solos because they infiltrated rock and roll and pretty soon everybody and their brother-in-law’s cousin was strapping on a Fender Stratocaster aiming to be a lead guitarist.
As the low-solo 50’s melted away to the 1960’s, there was a nuclear arms race over how fast and long that guitar solo should be. Too many times the result was guitar for showmanship’s sake and not for song-sake. Granted these guitar jams tended to be used and abused more in the live concert setting, than in the studio.
In the studio you had a producer saying, ‘Uh, Jimi, I think we are good with that 37-minute version of the ‘Star Spangled Banner.’ You can flesh it out a little more on stage tonight if you want. I sure hope our flag is still there.’
Clapton can be accused of starting it. He and John Mayall developed a cult following in London, immersing themselves in blues.
“‘Clapton is God’ graffiti began appearing around the city, defining a central tenet of the Clapton mythology to this day,” wrote Rolling Stone writer Anthony DeCurtis in the Crossroad’s liner notes.
I don’t have ‘Tears in Heaven’ on any of these records. The soft rock tear-jerker about the tragic death of his child was one of his biggest hits but also fed into this view that he was going ‘commercial or soft as he got older, especially since he used to be such a purist.
Clapton himself said in the biography ‘Clapton!’: “I’m far too judgmental and in those days I was a complete purist. If it wasn’t black music, it was rubbish.”
Now we should give the man the benefit of the doubt on his sincerity behind ‘Tears’ given the subject matter.
But these softer songs and big hit covers like ‘Cocaine’ and ‘I Shot the Sheriff’,’ I think unfairly led to some in my generation and later generations to suggest he was overrated.
Um, no.
Listen to all six vinyl records in Crossroads. That includes his work with Mayall, the Yardbirds, Cream, Delaney and Bonnie, Blind Faith and Derek and the Dominoes.
D&D the double record studio production with Duane Allman and Eric trading licks on old school blues tunes and the ever-great title song is one of my desert island albums.
Sure he had some commercial schlock (full disclosure, I and mi esposa like ‘Wonderful Tonight’ as one of the soundtracks of our first dates in high school.) A critical observation may be’ look at what he hath wrought.’
But overrated? Don’t think so.
David Fricke, a rock critic for Rolling Stone magazine, said this:
“Clapton’s economy of style, clarity of technique and improvisatory firepower are the standard by which nearly all electric guitarists, blues or otherwise, have been judged for over twenty years.”
Time is here today and because it keeps slipping, slipping into the future, I need to move on this. Here’s a 3-for-1 special. There’s nothing really that ties these albums together other than they happen to be next on my alphabetical list and the artists here all sing and play musical instruments.
Carlene Carter – 591
ALBUM: Musical Shapes (1980)
MVC Rating: 4.0/ $$
This is a cutout, meaning the record company, nicked the corner off or punched a hole in the cover’s corner. This meant they were slow sellers and the distributors were to mark them down. Cutouts were controversial in the industry, but I bought them regularly. That’s because I felt like I might find that rare album, the best of all time that no one ever heard of. I almost did many times.
I think I bought this in Athens, Ga., I remember reading a little about it. Carter was the daughter of June Carter Cash, by June’s first husband, and thus, she was the step-daughter of Johnny Cash. She is also the ex-wife of Nick Lowe, who plays bass on the album. Dave Edmunds, who played guitar on this album, was Lowe’s, co-band member in the great rock and roll group called Rockpile.
All said and done, this is a keeper. Her voice is good. Her cover of stepdad’s ‘Ring of Fire’ is pretty bad, though. ‘Sandy’ is good –“I like that cold cash, that cold hard cash. The duet with Edmunds, on ‘Baby Ride Easy’ is fun and sums up the tone of the album, a little rock but a strong extra dose of country. In fact it sounded like a party going on in recording this.
“I was too drunk to remember, I was too blind to see,” she sings.
Carter was in concert in her early years and she famously (or infamously) introduced a song by saying “Well this one will sure put the %$^& back in country.” She said a naughty word left when you take the ‘tree’ off the musical genre.
Unbeknownst to her, June and Johnny, slipped in to see Carlene’s concert that night.
(Story updated 2 p.m. Jan. 29 to reflect Carter was married to Lowe, not Edmunds).
City Boy– 590
ALBUM: Young Man Gone West (1977)
MVC Rating: 3.0/$$
What is this? 10cc cover band? Queen without Freddie Mercury? 5cc?
I like ‘She’s Got Style’ because it rolls along as if art students were on sabbatical in the Tulsa Time zone. Are they the embers of the Sparks?
‘The Man who Ate His Car.’ ?? Is there some subtle social commentary in there. I still have to go back to 10cc. That group was sometimes great. But sometimes good 10cc was bad 10cc. This is bad 10cc that may rhyme but has no reason.
Good guitar player though.
Lee Clayton — 589
ALBUM: The Dream Goes On (1981)
MVC Rating: 3.5/$$$
This album I know I bought in Auburn. I listened to this for the first time in years. Interesting cat, this Lee Clayton, growing up “surrrounded by fences” in Oak Ridge where he lived next to the Atom bomb factory, apparently. He’s still radioactive about it — at least on this album which came out in 1981.
Industry sucks, he seems to be saying, but, he acknowledges: “It makes me sick — and well.”
The vitriol and dramatic singing makes you wonder what really happened to him. In ‘Industry’ he talks about ‘the big boys’ and the people being ‘drug crazed’ and then he quotes the Constitution and then the Bible. In ‘Where is the Justice’ he rails on about a bad concert tour in Hamburg and Brussels where he saw ‘goose-stepping Russians.’
At one point he sings with great feeling about “23 hours of madness for one hour on that stage. That ain’t justice. That’s bad pay.” What?
And then (whew) he comes up with a simple sweet and lovely song that I remembered the words to after several decades of not hearing this song.
“Won’t You Give me One More Chance.”
“To make it with you. Forget about the bad we had, don’t believe its true come and lie with me like the way we used to do; you’re the only thing I’ve got to hold on to.”
I know this sounds like a strange and perhaps awful album as I describe it but it’s really not. He’s passionate, perhaps unbalanced and thus interesting. The music keeps it together.
On this album that I have on vinyl, Cohen uses more instrumentation than usual to back his whispery poetry. It’s right catchy. Highlights include the title song, ‘First We Take Manhattan’ and probably the album’s best song, ‘Tower of Song.’ It’s kind of like old white man rap.
Put another way, Cockburn is a dude who reads the NY Times and listens to NPR every morning and absorbs it.
