Artists You Loved Who Began to Believe They Were Something Other Than What They Were and Sucked Thereafter

 Posted by
Apr 082009
 

Without sound recordings, how will future generations surfing the Web have the chance to assess the half dozen years or so when James Blood Ulmer was onto something with his gutbucket take on rural blues, folk, and harmelodic jazz? As long as videos have been posted on the Web I’ve been searching for live, recorded concert performance evidence of the Ulmer music I’ve loved since stumbling on Are You Glad to Be in America through Odyssey and the countless live albums that recycled the guitar-drums-violin approach of that last great studio album. I’ve had no luck finding video evidence of the Blood I knew and loved…until now!

Chances are you won’t get it, but I thought this was somewhat visionary, mind-expanding music when I heard it in my late teens and early 20s. I still find the best of his work during these years to be inspiring and, somehow, representative of deep American values, as corny as that sounds. For this discussion, however, I’m not so much interested in focusing on my personal experiences with Ulmer, but in examining artists we loved who began to believe they were something else and sucked thereafter.

In Ulmer’s case, who’s to say? The man had to pay the bills. As real bluesmen kicked the bucket, he must have seen an opportunity to occupy a Last Man Standing position and earn a few long-overdue paychecks. When you’re James Blood Ulmer, forgotten hope of the early ’80s NY jazz scene and Martin Scorcese wants to feature you in his highly anticipated documentary on da blooz I guess you put down the harmelodics, suck it up, and crank out a pointless cover of “Spoonful.” While you’re at it, get Vernon Reid, another Great Black Rock Hope of your era, to plug in and jam along with you. If you run out of white folks to eat it up in the US, the French are seated at the dinner table, waiting for their serving.

So my example is James Blood Ulmer. He got to thinking he was an honest-to-goodness bluesman, and he’s sucked ever since. It saddens me. Has an artist ever abandoned him- or herself – and sucked thereafter – in your eyes? Do tell.

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I don’t feel like dancin…

 Posted by
Apr 052009
 

My significant other will tell you that I am a man of endless pet peeves. People who drive slow in the left lane. People who have tiny apartments always inviting you to a party there. DJs (not the Alan Freed kind).

At the risk of coming off as excessively curmudgeonly, I want to share one pet peeve has been bothering me more than the others lately.

So here it is: There are endless songs, almost an infinite number it would seem, that proclaim the dance floor as the ultimate spiritual salve. Don’t you know that getting on the dance floor will solve all your problems, Mr. Uptight?

Did you recently lose your job at GM? Well,then: “kick it out on the dance floor like you just don’t care” (REM). House foreclosed?: “Just dance, gonna be ok, just dance, spin that record babe” (Lady Gaga). Going through a painful divorce? Well: “I hope you dance” (Lee Ann Womack)

Enough already. This hippy sentimentality does nothing for me. A moratorium on songs suggesting dancing will solve your problems. It’s time for the truth. Lost your job at GM? “One Bourbon, one Scotch and one Beer…” House foreclosed? Don’t worry, we’ve got “Two More Bottles of Wine.” Going through a painful divorce? “Have a Drink on Me.”

Please help me compile a list of these songs with misguided dancing sentiments and suggest rock and roll drinking alternatives to them.

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Amon Düül II: What Jefferson Airplane Could Have Been?

 Posted by
Apr 042009
 


I’m not going to get caught up in some pointless discussion centered around notions of Krautrock. I’ve been gaining interest in a couple of these German bands from the ’70s, but thinking of them as some separate movement solely based on their nationality seems wrong to me, like comparing The Busboys to Chuck Berry and Jimi Hendrix just because they are all black.
Continue reading »

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Almost Good

 Posted by
Apr 032009
 

I came across this 1974 clip by a Mickey Most-produced Glam band called Arrow. See what you think of it.

What I found fascinating in my initial viewing is how close these guys are to being good while falling just short of that mark at every turn. See if you don’t agree and can’t help me identify some of the points in this song where they drop the ball. I’ll think about this some more and try to give them my advice – 25 years too late!

If you disagree with my premise and find this an undeniably good song, feel free to give me hell. As I watched this I couldn’t help but think what Sweet, for instance, might have done to turn this bad boy into a hit song.

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