Soul pioneer Isaac Hayes, who was sadly taken in by Scientology cult scammers in his later years, was found dead in his home near his treadmill. One can assume he had a heart attack while exercising. No matter his misguided beliefs, his award-winning music will never be tainted. The famous "Theme from Shaft" changed the face of Hollywood scores and the whole soundtrack is still an amazing album. Personally I prefer Hot Buttered Soul, another one of his great albums. The man had talent, and before he was "Chef" on South Park, he was the Duke of New York, A number One, in the post-apocalyptic classic Escape from New York, one of the iconic films of the early '80s. Before that he was Truck Turner, in the blaxploitation classic; he also popped up in one of the early great Wayans comedies, I'm Gonna Git You Sucka. It's a damn shame that later in life he was best known for leaving a show at the urging of money-grubbing cultists instead of for his great talents as a musician, and yes, even as a character actor. RIP, Isaac- I'll throw your music on the stereo and try to remember the great art you shared with us. May your family be consoled for their loss, and I hope you didn't leave everything to the "church."
The Cure played Radio City last night, and Firecracker took me for my birthday. I like their music but I couldn't name a lot of the songs- though I'm glad they played my favorite, "In Between Days." It was a great, 3 hour show. It's often best to see a tour at the beginning or the end, and this was the tail end of the U.S. tour, so they went all out.
65 Days of Static opened for them, but we only caught the end of one noisy electronic song, which was pretty cool. We had a nice view from the mezzanine. From my perch, I realized that Robert Smith looks like Edward Scissorhands. He had on a shirt with sleeves that were too long and flapping around when he wasn't playing guitar, probably to hide the scissors. Either that or his mecha wings for when he had to defeat MechaStreisand earlier that day. Smith also climbed up both sides of the extended stage, and security had to run up, because it wasn't planned. He went so far up the spotlight couldn't follow him. Quite the showman, though the closer he got in his all-black baggy outfit with his Dylan meets Einstein hair and black eyeliner, he looked like a reanimated Raggedy Emo coming to get you. Since my videos suck, here's video from the same show of them playing Lullaby.
They put on a great, energetic show with 3 encores, for 3 hours straight. Most of our favorites came at the end, "Just Like Heaven," and "Boys Don't Cry." I was very surprised that encore #2 included the first song of theirs I'd ever heard, "Killing an Arab." It's about the Albert Camus book, The Stranger, absurd existentialism that I read in high school. A fellow weirdo named Colin, who like me walked around wearing torn fatigues looking like Columbine waiting to happen, introduced me to the Cure when he saw me reading the book for Ms. Stolfi's Great Books class.
My crappy video of them playing it.
Part of me thought that they'd never play it for the un-PC title and chorus, but also they seemed to concentrate on their late 80's era. I was pleasantly surprised. They're a real audience-pleasing band, I can't remember the last concert I went to that went on for 3 hours with one band. Tom Waits did it at the State Theater in Minneapolis back in '98 or so. The Police have been putting on a long show during their reunion tours. Great band, great tour.
Rabid fans and murder theorists probably liberated them.
According to the News Of The World, the Nirvana frontman's remains – the location of which has previously been kept secret – were taken from the Los Angeles home of his widow Courtney Love.
The ashes were said to have been kept in a "pink teddy bear-shaped bag along with a lock of his hair" and were taken with some jewellery and clothes.
Love is quoted by the paper as saying: "I can't believe anyone would take Kurt's ashes from me. I find it disgusting and right now I'm suicidal. If I don't get them back I don't know what I'll do."
Some of the Nirvana frontman's ashes were previously scattered near his home in Washington State and some at a New York Buddhist temple, with his widow retaining the rest.
She added: "They were all I had left of my husband. I used to take them everywhere with me just so I could feel Kurt was still with me. Now it feels like I have lost him all over again."
I like "Celebrity Skin" as much as the next guy but Courtney's been somewhat unhinged for the last decade, and while I don't buy the murder conspiracies surrounding Cobain's death, she may not be the best parent for her child right now. Money can get you a lot of leeway with the courts. Hubby's ashes are probably in a dumpster somewhere, and Courtney remains an example of the dangerous side effects of fame with a dash of heroin.
When you read a book about a celebrity you love, you expect them to have feet of clay nowadays. Crystal Zevon's biography of Warren does not disappoint. You get to see the Excitable Boy in all his raving glory, and the pain he left in his wake. You learn the stories behind Roland the Headless Thompson Gunner, Lawyers, Guns and Money, and of course, Werewolves of London. It has all the debauchery you'd expect from a hard-living party animal of the 70's, "painted in the corner of a limousine," the tortured artistry of a musical Hemingway, and the difficulty friends and family had living with it all.
The book is an easy read because it's constructed mostly around interviews with people who knew him. Each chapter begins with a short introduction, and then cuts to related anecdotes and remembrances, so it feels like you're reading the script to a documentary. I enjoyed the style, and was surprised to find out how many artists I admire who were friends and fans of Warren. It shouldn't have been surprising, given the literary tone of his songwriting. He was a huge fan of hardboiled fiction, whether it was Norman Mailer (he stamped and mailed her, she said so long, Norman) or Ross MacDonald, James Crumley, or Carl Hiaasen. He became good friends with Hiaasen, one of my favorite authors and journalists. The cover photo of "Mutineer" was taken when they were out fishing for bonefish and tarpon. I think I like Hiaasen's recollections of him best; he has the perspective of distance.
Zevon's family, like any family who has to deal with a serious alcoholic, is coming from the point of view of the wounded, even if they've forgiven him since. In fact, he reminded me of my own father a lot- the narcissism masking a deep self-loathing or feeling of inadequacy, which manifested itself in a macho persona defined by sexual conquests, belittling those around him, and a fierce self-centeredness. It was all so familiar that he became the antagonist of the story for me, while I empathized with Jordan and Ariel, his children.
Springsteen on the VH1 special
Lawyers, Guns and Money was truer than I could have ever imagined; when I first discovered his albums, I thought he effected the persona of a James Bond type, like in the Envoy. His world involved seedy bars, mercenaries, criminals and wildmen. In reality, his father "Stumpy" Zevon was a small-time gangster who certainly kept his son flush with money, if not lawyers and guns when necessary. When in Spain, he played in a bar he met a soldier and came up with Roland; stories like "Jungle Work" probably sprung from the same place.
"Enjoy every sandwich, I guess."
I also watched the VH1 special "Inside Out" on the making of his final album, The Wind, after he was diagnosed with terminal cancer. It's a great companion to the book, which has interviews with Dave Barry and Billy Bob Thornton- both appear in the special. Dave Barry suggests that he get a tattoo, since he'll regret it for the rest of his life. Bruce Springsteen shows up to do a rip-roaring solo in "Disorder in the House," with lyrics so funny that he can't even sing along. "Even the Lhasa Apso looks ashamed" was the zinger. It was a parting shot at W's regime, and with lines like "the less you know, the better off you'll be," he and Jorge Calderon pretty much hit the nail on the head when it comes to defining the past 8 years of politics. The DVD has a bunch of extras, including uncut interviews with Warren and music videos; I believe its out of print, but I got it on Amazon for $13 shipped, sealed. A must have for the Zevon fan.
The man may not have been a headless Thompson gunner, but he led an adventurous life and certainly lived it as he sang it. His songs speak to you on a visceral level, echoing the prose of the hard-boiled tales he liked so much. I wonder if he ever read any Andrew Vachss, just about the only writer who goes places that might have been too dark for Warren Zevon. Carl Hiaasen was a perfect match- the blackest of humor with a glimmer of hope, carrying the torch and looking for a better way. Hunter S. Thompson was another close friend, which didn't surprise me at all. Photos of him shooting off huge guns somewhere on HST's compound seem oddly fitting for a guy who was scorned for an album cover that had a pair of ballet shoes next to a machine pistol, spent shells everywhere. Bad Luck Streak in Dancing School is still one of my favorite albums, from the whimsically cynical "Bill Lee" to the classic "Play It All Night Long," the cute and catchy "A Certain Girl" and the heart-wrenching blues song "Bed of Coals," it's a classic rock album of the 80's with a tone like no other.
The book tells his rise from songwriter (he wrote "He Quit Me" from Midnight Cowboy) to bandleader for the Everly Brothers, something I never would have suspected. His "Piano Fighter" days of hammering out tunes in bars in Spain and elsewhere, his meetings with Stravinsky as a young piano player, and how friends like Jackson Browne fought hard for him and helped produce his records, are all documented here. It doesn't gloss over the rough times in the late 80's and early 90's, when I think he was doing some of his best work, and sales nosedived. Mr. Bad Example is one of my favorite albums, with the ultimate break-up song "Finishing Touches," with lines like "I'm sick and tired, and my cock is sore" and "you can screw everybody I've ever known, but I still won't talk to you on the phone," and so on- I was shocked to find it's out of print and selling for big bucks.
Thankfully Rhino is releasing it in June. Pre-order here.
The book contains many snippets of his journals, including many personal and revealing entries. So while you won't get an autobiographical "confessions of an excitable boy," you do get an insight of what it was like to be him, and what he went through. His ashes were scattered, so us fans don't have a gravestone to put shell casings or little werewolf figures on; maybe we can all go for a beef chow mein at Lee Ho Fook's someday. The Soho one. In the rain.
Whether you're a rabid fan or a casual one, the book is an unflinching look at the man and his life, without veering into "Doors movie" territory that was best described by Denis Leary: I'm drunk I'm nobody, I'm drunk I'm famous, I'm drunk I'm fucking dead. Thankfully Warren led a more colorful life than that, and while parts 1 and 2 might describe a few early chapters, there's plenty in here to keep you chuckling and shaking your head. He was one of a kind, and if you only know his hits, you'll find by delving into his albums that he was a singer-songwriter who was hard to match.
Saw the Aussie band Crowded House last night at the Fillmore, and they put on a pretty good show. Most famous for "Don't Dream it's Over," aka the "Hey now, hey now" song, they're a solid late 80's band who put on good set of hits and new songs. The concert got to a late start with doors at 8 and a folk singer with an unpronounceable name as the opener. He was a New Zealander and played a good set, and had some good humor with the audience. Aussie bands, like Scottish bands, have the tallest audiences outside of a Masai jazz fusion quintet. We couldn't score our favorite spot behind the upstairs soundboard because there were a bunch of kids sitting there- at the time we didn't know why. So we staked out a spot in front of the downstairs one, and a crowd of 6'7" Aussie football players, crocodile wrestlers, shark molesters and their Amazon women stood in front of us. Before the band came on, that gaggle of kids came onstage, and we learned they were the choir from P.S. 22. They sang "Personal Universe" and "Put a Little Love in Your Heart" by themselves, and then backed up the band on a few other songs, which was pretty cool. It's too bad they couldn't come back to sing behind "Don't Dream It's Over," which would have been great, but it was past their bedtime by then, I'm sure. Afterwards they launched into an hour-long set. I remember "Weather with You," "Catherine Wheels," "Four Seasons in a Day" ... "Mean to Me," "Something so Strong" and "The World Where you Live..." The last encore was of course "Don't Dream It's Over," which was a deserving worldwide hit back in the day. They've still got it, it sounded like it would have 20 years ago. It was a great show, and I'm glad they're touring their reunion album here in the states.
So what's "The Elder" and why did Kiss make music from it? That's a good question, and today it will be answered in detail beyond your wildest dreams. It's a famous flop, born of hubris, hobbits and excess.
Back in 1980 I was in 4th grade, and Kiss was the greatest band in the universe. It didn't help that my older cousins liked to dress up as Ace Frehley and Paul Stanley for Halloween, and had painted the Destroyer album cover on the wall in my grandmother's spare room. I had Destroyer on cassette and played it incessantly, until it wore out and "God of Thunder" played extra-slow on the stretched tape. Me and my sister preferred it broken, because the giggling children in the song were creepier that way. I also had a single of "Detroit Rock City" that we played over and over, trying to make sense of it. We knew it had a car accident and dancing in it, but before the blessed interweb there was only the rumor that it was about a fan who died in a car accident on the way to a Kiss concert. Unfortunately I got into Kiss right when their career took a "downturn," or nosedived into the shitter because of the flood of Kiss dolls (had 'em, lost 'em, cried when I saw them on ebay) and other merchandise. They haven't learned, either- you can be buried in a Kiss coffin, if you're a diehard fan (rimshot). In 1980 they came out with Unmasked, trying to shed their glam rock image and get a broader fan base. I had that album and remember feeling gypped that there were no photos of them without make-up in there. The cover had a cheesy comic book story on it, and in the end, they really look like that under their masks! It was the equivalent of "Remember to Drink Your Ovaltine" in A Christmas Story for me.
It was only later that I discovered Kiss's next album, quizzically titled Music from "The Elder." It was a huge flop, apparently. They didn't even tour for it. But I didn't know that then- I was a fan of the Highlander movie, and David Eddings' Belgariad Tolkien ripoff, I started playing Dungeons & Dragons, so when I found a fantasy concept album by Kiss I was totally into it. Looking back on it now, it seems like they watched the Ralph Bakshi movie of Lord of the Rings a few times, came up with some generic plotline about an ancient cabal who trains a hero every generation to fight whatever evil has risen in the world, and recorded some songs about it. Some of these songs are pretty damn good, but wow, as producer Bob Ezrin confessed, some are "the product of a serious cocaine addiction." Ace Frehley left the band over the direction the group took, and while he may have never succeeded above his great single "Back in the New York Groove," I will posit that the "Space Ace" was the one with his faculties in the finest order during this period. They wanted to make a movie using the proceeds of the album, and Christopher Makepeace (Rudy from Meatballs) was credited on the album. If this was anything like Lord of the Rings mixed with Kiss Meets the Phantom of the Park, it would have been epic. The gatefold sleeve of the album lacks any image of the band, so it's sort of like The Black Album by Spinal Tap- you can't immediately recognize it as a Kiss album. It looks more like a disc of Gregorian Chants than hard rock- it was a huge mistake to not go the Molly Hatchet route and put a Boris Vallejo cover on it. Just imagine the band done Vallejo style, swinging axes and breathing fire while riding a manticore. Now, that would have gotten your attention. Instead, you open the gatefold and see a big wooden table with a candle on it, and the inscrutable verses that read:
"When the earth was young, they were already old..." Since the dawn of time, the Elder have watched silently over a virgin world and all its creatures... Now, they have assumed the form of mortals so that they might walk amongst men and guide them. The Elder are an ideal...They embody the wisdom of the ages and the power of goodness and knowledge... But the Elder were not alone in the beginning and are not alone still...Another force has existed eternally...
In every place, in every time, an evil is loosed whose sole purpose is to destroy all that is good. And in every time, and every place, it is the task of the Elder to find and train a warrior...a champion to conquer the evil. As the looming clouds gather, the council of the Elder sits at their ancient table under the sign of the Rose. Once again they must combat the evil that is lurking in darkness and spreading throughout the world. They await the word from Morpheus, the caretaker, whether the boy be deemed ready for the sacred rite of accession to the Order of the Rose...and for the pronouncement of his sacred duty...
The odyssey begins...
Beyond being a crime against ellipses, it sounds like something your brother makes up in between bong hits after watching The Beastmaster or Dragonslayer. I think the horrible fantasy novel I was writing in junior year of high school was something along these lines (It is long since burned, before you ask). The lyrics vary from as bad as this to actually pretty damn good- they did begrudgingly include "The Oath" and "A World Without Heroes" on a box set. The ballads sound nothing like Kiss, but the rockers are some of their best stuff in my obviously biased opinion.
The album originally began with some medieval-sounding horns called "fanfare" which now comes after "The Oath." According to wikipedia, this throws off the story of the album, but we never noticed. If it began with a processional fanfare, it would have scared off any fans that figured out it was a Kiss album, so it was the right choice.
Like a blade of a sword I am forged in flame Fiery hot Tempered steel fire-bright to the night I take I fear not
The fanfare thing sounded all fantasy-ish back in the 80's of course, when if you mentioned The Lord of the Rings, you meant the Bakshi movie or the Hobbit movie with "Yo ho, my lads! Down down to Goblin towwwn!" and the Keebleresque elves of Elfquest and their ilk.
Then you cut into "Just A Boy," where Paul Stanley sounds like he lost his testicles. It's not badly written, but it was a horrible choice to have the chorus sang in a castrato. There's some nice guitar work in it, and it does draw you in to the fantasy tale quite well.
Who steers the ship through the stormy sea If hope is lost then so are we While some eyes search for one to guide us Some are staring at me
They smartly stick a rocker between this and "Only You" (not the Platters song) called "A Dark Light." Despite the lyrics of this one being vague and cryptic, it's a good song and has a good guitar riff. However, you can tell that Kiss isn't cut out for prog rock. Things really don't pick up until the end of side 2. "Under the Rose" is a dark and dreary tune that sounds more like a funeral dirge than a Kiss song, and works well for the concept. If you play it alone, you'll be horrified. I always thought the lyric was "Only you... are the magi" but I've been told it is "manchild," which is even worse.
(sub rosa- get it??)
Side 2 starts off with the single "A World Without Heroes," which Lou Reed (!!!) helped pen. It's a bittersweet ballad and the best known song off the album, which would have worked as a quiet interlude as the camera panned over the landscape, or Christopher Makepeace was molested by orcs. It would be especially fitting, since he was the Dungeon Master in Mazes and Monsters.
A world without heroes Is like a world without sun You can't look up to anyone Without heroes And a world without heroes Is like a never ending race Is like a time without a place A pointless thing devoid of grace
Then we're introduced to what must be the villain- Mr. Blackwell, which sounds suspiciously familiar.... was he named after the famously acerbic fashion critic? By the way, if the music links stop working, the entire album is on youtube, and accessible via this Mr. Blackwell link. With a chorus like:
You're not well, Mr. Blackwell And we can tell You're not well, Mr. Blackwell Why don't you go to hell
Sung back and forth between Gene Simmons as the evil Mr. Blackwell and the scorn of the chorus, it's very silly but still a bit of fun.
Next is another instrumental called "Escape from the Island" that has sirens in it for some reason. It still sounds exciting and makes me want to escape from an island, chased by goblins in Kiss make-up, but I always wondered why a fantasy tale would have air raid klaxons.
9. Escape from the Island
Possibly then worst song on the album is "Odyssey," which has the most pretentious and nonsensical lyrics I've read in a long time. I mean, even as a teenager they sounded dumb, and I was a really dumb teenager.
Through the luminescent night On beams of neon light You and I in wing-ged flight As we cross the starry sea, powered by what we see Now and then, the victory
Once upon not yet, long ago someday Countless times we've met, met along the way
I won't subject you to the awful verse about the stallion and the mare.
One of the best songs rounds out the album, simply titled "I," with the rocking chorus, "I believe in me." They even end the chorus with "I wanna rock 'n roll all nite!" to throw a rockin' bone to the fans.
The story ends with the boy being accepted into the fellowship (where have I heard that before) so maybe they imagined this as the first in a trilogy. That was rather ambitious of them, don't you think?
The finale, with the raspy voiced Elders and Morpheus who sounds vaguely familiar...
It's too bad it was such a failure, but you can sort of see where it overreached itself at nearly every step. I really enjoy listening to it, and not just for nostalgic reasons. As pretentious and vague as some of the songs are, you do get a hint at what the movie would be like. The back of the album says it would include Christopher Makepeace, Antony Parr and Robert Christie- all whom share being involved in a show called "The Littlest Hobo," about an intelliget German shepherd walking th' Earth and having adventures. Just imagine the fantasy epic they would have created. The album doesn't deserve to be on a "worst of all time" list, which it is, but it was certainly a disappointment for fans, especially after Unmasked, which if I recall, had a song called "She's So (European)" on it. The band doesn't disown the album, and I like the self-effacing quotes from Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley regarding it:
"I go on record saying it's not a great KISS record but I think it's a really great record." – Paul Stanley, 1996
"As a KISS record I'd give it a zero. As a bad Genesis record, I'd give it a two." – Gene Simmons
"We've done a lot of fuck me suck me songs and we thought we might like to go a slightly different route." – Paul Stanley, 1982
That's right up there with "Lick My Love Pump," from Spinal Tap if you ask me. Pure classic. Whats even better, is I remember who introduced me to this album, which requires a careful dive into the shipwreck of my high school life. He was a rather insane Kiss fan, and is probably a four-star general in the Kiss Army now. He's probably better known nowadays as Maul Stanley or C.C. Banana, and while I slap my forehead at the realization that I hung out with this guy, part of me rejoices that if I ever go to a class reunion, it doesn't matter if everyone else in my class is a Captain of Industry, at least I'm not the C.C. Banana guy.
Though I've found out where the church they used for the album cover is on Park Avenue, and I might have to go take a photo of it. Just not in a banana costume. If you want to experience this album at its fullest, find the vinyl on ebay like I did (yeah I sold my original ages ago) or get the CD off amazon:
And walking them hard. They still rock out the foot-stomping crowd-pleasing chants, and there's a lot more to them than "I'm Gonna Be," the real title of the 500 miles song. Saw them at B.B. King's in NYC the other night, probably the most expensive venue drink-wise, $21 for a beer and a vodka cocktail. No wonder the tickets are generally inexpensive there. It's not my favorite venue but you take what you can get. Definitely get some pre-game on when you see a band there.
Jeremy Fisher singing Solsbury Hill.
Jeremy Fisher opened for them- a solid folky alt rock singer. He sang "The Scar That Never Heals," "Lay Down" and a good cover of "Solsbury Hill" by Peter Gabriel. That's my favorite song of Gabriel's, so it was amusing when he messed up the verse When illusion spin her net/ I'm never where I wanna be/ and liberty she piroutte/ when I think that I am free. He played through it well, recovering with a self-effacing laugh. His single "Cigarette" is probably his most famous song, and it's pretty damn good. He definitely has a Dylan feel without being obnoxious, and Firecracker thought he sounded like Paul Simon on a few tracks. He has his own sound but I'm sure you can count them as influences. His new album Goodbye Blue Monday has most of the songs mentioned here, and I'll be picking it up.
One half of the trademark glasses
The Proclaimers played a great set to an older and definitively Scottish crowd. It sounded like Billy Connolly and Craig Ferguson were in the audience shouting requests. And one was taller than the other, making it difficult for short little Italian guys to see the show. I felt like a midget extra in Highlander. But the music was great. They played songs new and old, with standards like "On my Way" and "Sunshine on Leith" giving a good balance between their familiar chanting crowd-pleasers and their sadder ballads, such as "I Hate My Love."
and the other half
I didn't know they sang "The Whole Wide World," which was featured in Stranger Than Fiction, but sung by Wreckless Eric. They also played "Sean," dedicated to one of their sons, and some songs off their new album Life With You, like the great title track. Overall they put on a fine show and a good 1+ hour set of crowd-pleasing music. Their most famous stuff is easy to sing along to, and their lesser-known ballads are bittersweet and enjoyable even if you don't know the tune. They saved their best known song for last but didn't make us endure an encore to hear it. That's good manners. Too bad B.B. Kings doesn't have any good scotch ales on tap, and I sure wasn't going to get a single malt there, I'd probably need a cosigner to get it at their prices.
Warren Zevon has always been one of my favorite singer-songwriters. He calls himself a folk singer, but he rocks out here and there. Most famous for "Werewolves of London" and "Lawyers, Guns and Money," he's been writing songs for a long time. In fact he had one in Midnight Cowboy, sung by someone else. He was thought of as a 70's wild man and a has-been rockstar, when he was really more of a folk singer who had a few big hits. He's been called "folk noir," but he really follows the murder ballad tradition that goes beyond American folk roots. Sort of a Jelly Roll Morton or a Leadbelly in L.A.
My friend Peter the English teacher/bare-knuckled brawler in Japan introduced me to Warren Zevon back in '87 or so. Trading vinyl, and performing the horror of horrors, home taping, when we couldn't find the records at Mickey Music or Giovine's. How could we resist songs like "Roland the Headless Thompson Gunner?" I have all of his albums, even Wanted Dead or Alive, which sounds more like something from the Easy Rider soundtrack than his more famous stuff. The Rhino records retrospective I'll Sleep When I'm Dead is a good start, but you might as well just pick up Excitable Boy and his self-titled 70's debut if you want a taste of his music. For a live set, like "Learning to Flinch," which is acoustic but still full of raucous energy. His first live album, Stand in the Fire was recently re-issued, and is a great set, but I liked his later years better. I don't think he's had a bad album, really. Bad Luck Streak in Dancing School is an 80's classic, with "Play it All Night Long," and Sentimental Hygiene is another favorite, with "Boom Boom Mancini," and "The Factory." Warren even did a concept album called Transverse City about a dystopian future, a lot of which you can see coming true. It's an underrated album and I'll give it a full review someday when I start my concept album column, as soon as I find a stupid enough name for it. I saw Warren play at First Avenue in Minneapolis in the late 90's. It's one of the most memorable concerts I've been too. It's a small, comfy venue and he played acoustic for 2 hours, playing all our favorite tunes, and as always, personalizing "Werewolves" for our city. At that time "The Indifference of Heaven" and "Splendid Isolation" were two of my favorites, and he played both. That was before he got mesothelioma. Yep, that asbestos disease you hear about mostly on local access cable from lawyers. He was given 3 months to live, but held on for over a year and managed to release more albums with some great songs on them. Most notably "Keep Me in your Heart for a While" off of The Wind. It's a very touching song, and helped me get by after the death of my grandmother. Warren had a unique voice, and while he's best known for a howl, he has a heartfelt touch with a tender or sad ballad. "Desperadoes Under the Eaves" and "The French Inhaler" are certainly evidence of that. He created a dark and dirty world, peppered with heartfelt moments and hilarity, in his songwriting. I grew up there in my adolescence, and in the 80's it was easy to dream of living in a world full of mercenaries, envoys, werewolves and lounge lizards. For a long time my internet handle was "Mr. Bad Example" after his album of the same name; I still think it's one of his best. That's where "Things to Do in Denver When You're Dead" comes from, a song that sort of had a movie made about it. It certainly could have been written by Warren, with Critical Bill the gun nut, Andy Garcia knowing he's dead, and Christopher Walken as a paraplegic mob boss, in one of his more memorable roles. He covered for Paul Schaffer on the Letterman show; he was friends with Miami's pen-wielding crusader, Carl Hiaasen, and they co-wrote some songs together.
The latest release is Preludes, rare and unreleased recordings. It's really for big fans and completists. The best part is the second disc, which has a long interview interspersed with some solo acoustic tracks. It was nice to listen to a long and casual interview with Warren. His stage persona was a bit unhinged, so it's good to see the man behind it talk about life and music.
The first disc of unreleased tracks is little spotty, because so much has already been released. I really enjoy "Steady Rain," for one. It's a sad and touching ballad. There's an alternate take of "Werewolves of London" which echoes and sound effects that's fun and creepy, but the mix is so different that it's strange listening to it, when you know the original by heart. "Tule's Blues" is another nice ballad that shows off his piano work.
The 2 CD set comes with a booklet with short writings by his son Jordan Zevon, Jackson Browne, and others who worked with Warren. The one thing it lacks is a lyric sheet for the new songs, or much info on where the alternate takes come from. His son Jordan found many of the songs on reels in storage with no notes, but maybe there's more over on the Warren Zevon website. Some of them have lyrical changes, like an early cut of "Carmelita," one of my favorites, about a smack-addicted songwriter yearning for his girl. But here, instead of pawning his Smith-Corona, he's pawning a Smith & Wesson. I always felt a sort of Hemingway/Burroughs vibe when it was about pawning a typewriter, about a man so lost in his addictions that he pawns his writing instrument.
There's a truncated version of "Studebaker" that Jordan sang on the tribute CD that came out a year or so back. It's nice that he finished the song for his father. He does a great job with it, it's the highlight of the tribute album if you ask me. It's called Enjoy Every Sandwich, which is what Warren said when someone asked what he was going to do, after being diagnosed with terminal cancer. Now there's a sentiment I can agree with.
This album came out in 1975 but it's new to me- it was released on CD back in 2005, but was still hard to get. I called the Louisiana Music Factory, a great source of all musica Louisianica, but they didn't have it. So I sent George Schmidt an email. He's the singer and bandleader of The New Leviathan Oriental Fox-Trot Orchestra, who I met a few months back when I was in New Orleans for work.
He's very friendly fellow, full of stories and even bursts into a song now and then. When I told him they were out of the album, magically a week or so later I get an email from the store saying that they have it in stock. Lovely how things work out. I bought a copy and through the magic of the internet it arrived at my door.
I've spoken about them before, but they are a revival band that plays vintage music from the turn of the 20th century to the 30's. The style of music that gives them their name, "oriental fox-trots," are a style of music from when America was beginning to get interesting in the cultures of the Middle and Far East. Many of the songs are about Middle Eastern maidens such as "Leena from Palesteena," "Rebecca came back from Mecca," and my favorite "Egyptian Ella," about a dancing girl who got too chubby to swing it in the states, so she dances for the sheiks now. It captures an innocent and naive era when foreign lands were full of adventure and romance, and not a bunch of people angry at having bombs dropped on them.
click to read the bit about "traveling round the world"
There are many instrumentals in the genre as well, that would fit in an Indiana Jones type movie when they're sneaking through the treasure room seeking the Three-Eyed Statue of Mongallah or something. NLOFTO (as the orchestra will be called for ease of typing) also does ragtime and other genres from the time, and have a lot of fun with it- their name is also a gag on a real ship's orchestra, and they often pretend in concert that they're playing on that ship. Or a submarine, as in the case of the excellent live album Burning Sands, where they supposedly played for the troops in Iraq by sneaking in with a sub and playing the music for them.
They're probably best known for their next album, Old King Tut, but this old album from '75 showcases a lot of their best. It gives a real feel for what they're like. A newcomer would probably be best off getting Burning Sands or Favorites, which collects from different albums, but you can't go wrong with this. If you think old music is boring, their live tunes with George Schmidt's ribald humor will cure you of that. Maybe you heard "Egyptian Ella" on Carnivàle before HBO canceled that great show; it wasn't their version, but that's kind of music they often play. Perfect for dancin' the cooch.
I've been listening to this one a lot, and from the opener "I Ain't Gonna Give Nobody None o' this Jelly Roll" to "Poppy Time in Old Japan" and classics like "Rebecca Came Back from Mecca," there's not a dull song on it. If you're looking for something yet new, and definitely different, swing on over to the Lousiana Music Factory and pick it up. You can listen to some of the music there, too.
Unfortunately there's a dearth of their music on the 'net, including youtube. They're playing in Princeton in May, and I'm hoping to sneak down there- I think it's an alumni affair, though.
The Rutles are on tour, sort of. It's actually Rutlemania, which if you're old enough to remember Beatlemania, means it's a bunch of other guys touring playing their music. Somehow, it works. Neil Innes, who created and sang in the original Rutles, and also in the classic comedy group the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band was in the audience and we saw him after the show. Eric Idle of Monty Python fame was also in the original group, and apparently also touring with them, but it was his birthday and he was probably with friends and family.
Proper application of T&A makes any show better.
If you don't know who the Rutles are, go to Netflix and rent The Rutles: All You Need is Cash, the 1978 mockumentary that predates, and inspired This is Spinal Tap. If you're a Beatles maniac like Master Comedian and Leading Asshole in the State Adam Wilson, there are so many jokes and homages that you'll be snickering like... Adam seeing a 'giner. If you're a fan like me, the movie is still great. So you'll be snickering like me, when Adam pronounces the word "vagina." It helps to know the basics of Beatles music and history so you can get the parodies, but the music is quite good in itself. Neil Innes and Eric Idle's musical backgrounds help a lot here, and a few of the songs sound so reminiscent of Beatles songs, but subtly so, that you'll be tapping your foot but also be amused at how they cleverly take the musical spirit of several Beatles songs and merge them into one that sounds good on its own.
Blue Suede Schubert captures the Beatles' early sound.
We saw them at the Blender theater in Gramercy, where I recently saw the Pillows. It's a well-designed small venue. They had chairs out for this show and we were in the second row. The show is part musical revue, part movie, and part Broadway. The new Rutles come out and play, with some dancing girls, then the stage goes dark as the projection screen shows clips from the Rutles movies. Many of the clips were from the sequel Can't Buy Me Lunch, which mostly consists of celebrity interviews, and is quite funny. Then there are some short vignettes with the band making jokes. It was a great time to remember the Rutles and re-live some of the great gags from the movie, such as when Ron Nasty, the John Lennon-alike, starts dating an avant-garde Nazi artist girl whose father "invented World War II."
You can be my Yoko Ono...
They had many costume changes of course, and when they reached the Tragical History Tour era they threw beach balls in the audience.
They even showed the Yellow Submarine animation spoof from the movie during this era, one of the more clever gags of the film.
Soul pioneer Isaac Hayes, who was sadly taken in by Scientology cult scammers in his later years, was found dead in his home near his treadmill. One can assume he had a heart attack while exercising. No matter his misguided beliefs, his award-winning music will never be tainted. The famous "Theme from Shaft" changed the face of Hollywood scores and the whole soundtrack is still an amazing album. Personally I prefer Hot Buttered Soul, another one of his great albums.
RIP, Isaac- I'll throw your music on the stereo and try to remember the great art you shared with us. May your family be consoled for their loss, and I hope you didn't leave everything to the "church."
has most of the songs mentioned here, and I'll be picking it up.
" giving a good balance between their familiar chanting crowd-pleasers and their sadder ballads, such as "I Hate My Love."
, but sung by Wreckless Eric. They also played "Sean," dedicated to one of their sons, and some songs off their new album 
, like the great title track. Overall they put on a fine show and a good 1+ hour set of crowd-pleasing music. Their most famous stuff is easy to sing along to, and their lesser-known ballads are bittersweet and enjoyable even if you don't know the tune. They saved their best known song for last but didn't make us endure an encore to hear it. That's good manners. Too bad B.B. Kings doesn't have any good scotch ales on tap, and I sure wasn't going to get a single malt there, I'd probably need a cosigner to get it at their prices.
. I haven't read it yet, but as you can imagine, I'll review it here when I have.
