I'm currently camping in the Rockies, but on a brief foray down to buy supplies, I find that one of the monsters of hard rock, Ronnie James Dio, has died at the age of 67.
A superstar, regarded by many as the finest voice of heavy metal, Dio replaced Ozzy Osbourne as the singer in Black Sabbath, prior to which he sang for Richie Blackmore's Rainbow. His later career included Heaven & Hell, and the self-titled Dio.
The singer revealed last year that he was suffering from stomach cancer, shortly after finishing a US tour with his band.
Dio's wife, Wendy, said that her husband died on the morning of Sunday, May 16, adding her heartfelt comment that "Today my heart is broken."
Black Sabbath's ninth album, Heaven & Hell, which was released in 1980, is considered by many fans to be the finest heavy metal album ever recorded.
Lou Reed has always gone against the grain. During 1967's so-called summer of love, his band The Velvet Underground
released a debut album about prostitution and heroin addiction. Then,
when the hippy revolution turned sour, the VU released their happy,
trippy pop album, Loaded, starting with the decidedly hippyish "Who Loves The Sun."
But most contrary of all was Reed's 1975 solo album, Metal Machine Music
(1975), four sides of unlistenable noise which divided fans: 99% hated
it, while 1% considered it a challenging but worthwhile work of
conceptual art. Last year a Rolling Stone reviewer described it live as
"a continuous blaring fog that rose and decreased in its deafening
intensity, marked by shrill electronic shrieks, long demented sax solos
and Reed’s occasional yelling voice."
Warning: This video should not be listened to by anyone
Great news (!) - Lou Reed is
taking his blaring fog, shrill shrieking and demented soloing on tour!
So far only European dates have been announced, but the April shows
will coincide with a full reissue program which will include Metal Machine Music on Blu-Ray for the first time. Perhaps a marginal improvement in audio clarity will make it an easier listen? Probably not.
April dates:
17 Cambridge, England - The Cambridge Junction 18 Oxford, England - O2 Academy 19 London, England - Royal Festival Hall 21 Paris, France - La Cigale 22 Brussels, Belgium - A/B (Domino Festival) 24 Copenhagen, Denmark - DR Koncerthuset 26 Oslo, Norway - Sentrum Scene 27 Bergen, Norway - Ole Bull Scene (Bergen Festival) 30 Mallorca, Spain - Teatre Principal de Palma
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The world needs more music critics like Charles Shaar Murray. Looking forward to the release of Jimi Hendrix's Valleys of Neptune (yes, a new Hendrix album!), I've been reading Murray's Crosstown Traffic. It's brilliant writing. Hendrix is the book's centerpiece, but there's a load to learn here for anyone who likes books about music. The subtitle of its best chapter yet asks, "So was Jimi Hendrix a sexist pig or what?"
Murray argues that "the sexuality expressed through the blues gradually mutated into the penile dementia of heavy-metal rock." And with what fervor. He exemplifies the point by comparing Muddy Waters' "You Need Love" -- warm, avuncular, intimate, relaxed, utterly sensual -- with Led Zeppelin's "Whole Lotta Love":
"Led Zeppelin, by contrast, come on like thermonuclear gang rape. The woman -- who, in Muddy Waters' song, is evoked as a real person with real emotions in a real situation -- is here reduced to a mere receptacle; an entirely passive presence whose sole function is to receive the Great Zeppelin (as depicted on the group's first two album covers: lumbering facetiousness posing as irony) with a suitable degree of veneration and gratitude. Even her response is superfluous: Zeppelin's vocalist Robert Plant virtually has her orgasm for her. After all, the satisfaction of the woman in the case is not intended for her benefit, but for his: it is the validation of his masculine prowess and the price of his admission to the alpha-male society. The stud-strut of heavy metal is a ritual by which men celebrate each other; it is not primarily intended for women, who -- at British metals shows, if not at their American counterparts -- demonstrate their understanding of the nature of the event by not showing up."
As Murray goes on to say, "The technical term for this stuff is 'cock rock'."
Seems hard to believe, but The Wallby Pink Floyd was released 30 years ago today, November 30, 1979.
And, even harder to believe, the WTO protests in Seattle, also known fondly as The Battle in Seattle or N30, started 10 years ago today, November 30, 1999.
Both of these N30 anti-establishment zeitgeists featured elements of rioting, burning rubbish, and gas masks. Coincidence? I
think not.
There are plenty of live albums issued solely as afterthoughts or
contract fulfillments, but there are plenty that are as transcendent as
the best in-person concert experiences, only with zero lines at the bathroom. For
this particular list we came up with the following criteria:
• Only one album per artist.
• Albums were been performed live in front of an audience, but don't necessarily have to be culled from a single performance.
• No EPs or singles—this list is about albums
• We decided to limit this list to music, which means no comedy. We
wanted to save those records for a separate list for laffers.
Of course, we exercise their judgment regarding quality and/or
historical significance. If you disagree with our choices (and there's
a good chance you will), let us know in the comments.
As an incidental result of listening to a lot of Brother Ali's Us, R.E.M.'s Accelerate, and the Beatles' Revolver this week, my coffee table happened to be strewn with these three great black-and-white albums covers.
There must thousands more out there, but what are the best?
I've already got a graphic artist interested in putting together a collage of these, which is where you come in. Leave comments with your suggestions for great black-and-white album covers. I'll collect them and--eventually--post the artist's finished collage.
As you play your shiny new copy of The Beatles: Rock Band, listen to the newly remastered albums, and otherwise indulge in yet another wave of Beatlemania, get excited about the upcoming The Beatles: Guitar Hero, discussed here in detail. (Disclaimer: This video is not for the reflexively literal-minded.)
It's 09/09/09, and, here in Seattle, Beatles Day is winding down. I'm exhausted and elated, but most of all, I'm in awe.
Working on the Beatles has been a bit of a head trip, and not in the way you might think. I was beyond excited when I learned that the remastered catalog was going to be released, but I quickly discovered that my excitement for the remasters, not to mention my love for the Beatles, both paled in comparison with the enthusiasm, devotion, and somewhat mind-blowing level of knowledge displayed by the Beatles fans in our discussion forums.
Everyone knows that the Beatles are iconic. Everyone knows that the Beatles were instrumental in shaping rock music as we know it today. But working on the Beatles remasters has shown me that I never fully understood the breadth of their appeal, nor did I grasp the extent to which we as a society have integrated the Fab Four into our collective cultural fabric.
Normally, I tend to eschew any form of hype. But in the case of the Beatles remasters, the "hype" (if you can even call it that) had a different quality to it. The excitement surrounding the Beatles felt "pure," somehow, and legitimate: true fans doing what fans do best: exchanging opinions, sharing knowledge, and expressing their love and appreciation for the Fab Four and the music.
So, as Beatles Day winds to a close, I'll say what I never thought I'd say: in this case, I believe the hype. Happy Beatles Day, everyone.
It's a miracle I didn't call in sick today, 09.09.09. By noon the faithful brown box was sitting on my doorstep.
Help!, so to speak. Weigh in and tell me if you've heard the mono box set, and what your first impressions are. My listening has been totally random. I've listened to Help! (mono set), Hard Day's Night, Sgt. Pepper's, and Disc 1 of Mono Masters.
Unless you've got a stupidly high end gramophone player and a collection of pristine LPs (for the stuff that was ever on LP vinyl) - have they ever sounded this good? Certainly in 20 plus years since these came out on CD the first time, technical advances alone, make them sound way better, but I like the unobtrusive hand with which Abbey Road have polished these up. To my ear they're not only clean as a whistle but the dynamic range seems huge and there is infinitesimal tweaking that you seldom notice. A little lift in the bass here, guitar there. I haven't done an A/B comparison yet, which will be the true test.
I can't list everything that's struck me in the last couple of hours (mostly positive), but if you've snagged a copy of these, check out the woodwinds at the beginning of "When I'm Sixty-Four", all the percussion in the reprise of "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" (Strewth! - Chad Smith and Alan White etc. owe Ringo a debt of gratitude). The Mono Masters is mostly stuff I haven't really heard unless it was on the radio or from a jukebox, so things like the depth of the sound at the opening of "Love Me Do" (single version), left their mark.
Packaging is cute too. I have to laugh at the irony of reducing the original album art to the size of a CD. Anyone old enough to remember this stuff, first time around needs a lot of help reading the original notes!
Ex-Dire Straits guitarist and front man Mark Knopfler has a new album, Get Lucky, and we talked to him about in this recent interview. Mark sounded pretty mellow, and so does the album. But fans of Dire Straits and his solo material should enjoy another fine offering from the Sultan of Swing.
And no, I did not ask him if he still wants his MTV. Damn, I wish I had thought of that one sooner. Then again, not.
Instrumentalist, entertainer, and inventor of the guitar model that bears his name, Les Paul passed away today in White Plains, New York, at the age of 94.
Born in Waukesha, Wisconsin, on June 9, 1915, Paul began performing in public as a "honky-tonk" guitarist at the age of 13. In the 1930s and '40s, he played with bandleader Fred Waring and many popular singers, including Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra, and The Andrews Sisters. It was Crosby that gave Paul an early tape recorder that he began to modify, allowing him to pioneer the art of multi-track recording.
An electronics enthusiast since his youth, Les Paul began experimenting with new guitar designs in the ‘30s. As ensemble sound levels were growing with amplification, his goal was to improve tone and sustain, while minimizing feedback, so he designed an instrument with a solid body, reducing vibration in the frame and concentrating it in the string.
His initial design was given the unflattering name "The Log" because of the solid construction. It was 10 years before a manufacturer picked up a refinement of this design, and the first Les Paul was produced by Gibson in 1952. Since that date the "Les Paul" has gone on to be one of the most recognizable sounds in rock, famed for its dominance and versatility of tone.
In 2008, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame paid tribute to Les Paul in a week-long celebration of his life, which culminated with a live performance by Paul himself. He is the only individual to share membership of the Grammy Hall of Fame, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, the National Inventors Hall of Fame, and the National Broadcasters Hall of Fame. Until recently he continued to perform two weekly New York shows with the Les Paul Trio, at the Iridium Jazz Club in New York City. -- Hugo Munday
