The inside story of working with Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds is told by Warren Ellis in the new issue of Uncut, dated April 2015 and out today (February 24).
Ellis, who has performed with Cave and his collective for over two decades, reveals just how the group operate in the studio, and just what...
The inside story of working with Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds is told by Warren Ellis in the new issue of Uncut, dated April 2015 and out today (February 24).
Ellis, who has performed with Cave and his collective for over two decades, reveals just how the group operate in the studio, and just what makes their leader tick.
“The thing about Nick is, Nick works,†says Ellis. “He loves to work, he has this incredible drive and a belief in what he’s doing. He’s always challenging himself.
“He’s very encouraging. I remember buying a mandolin – in 2000 or so, before folk music was popular – and he said, ‘What an inspired choice.’ He doesn’t seem to stop. People talk about ‘the drug years’ and so on, but he just works non-stop.
“He won’t let things go: this thing of trying to get things through, not giving up on an idea. There’s things we’ve had for 10 years that we’re trying to get through and probably never will. It’s funny.â€
The whole feature can be found in the new issue of Uncut, out now.
In this rare, amazing interview from Uncut’s December 1997 issue (Take 7), Cohen, then a Zen monk, looks back on 30 years as the laureate of romantic gloom and erotic distress. Words: Nigel Williamson
_____________________
Leonard Cohen is running two hours behind schedule. After a hectic day of...
By this time, Cohen’s basso profundo had dropped almost another octave, reaching improbable depths.
“I knew I was no great shakes as a singer but I always thought I could tell the truth about a song. I liked those singers who would just lay out their predicament and tell their story, and I thought I could be one of those guys. But I didn’t know where to put my voice and I didn’t have the interior authority to tackle some of my greatest songs. On I ‘m Your Man, my voice had settled and I didn’t feel ambiguous about it. I could at last deliver the songs with the authority and intensity required.â€
The follow-up, The Future, appeared in 1992 and remains Cohen’s last studio album. The themes of love and redemption are still dominant but, for the first time, there is a political edge as well, with songs such as the title track and “Democracy” name-checking Tiananmen Square, Stalin, Hiroshima and the Berlin Wall.
“I was living in LA through the riots and the earthquakes and the floods,†he remembers. “And even for one as relentlessly occupied with himself as I am it is very hard to keep your mind on yourself when the place is burning down, so I think that invited me to look out of the window.â€
___________________________
Cohen seems to have cracked the art of growing old gracefully. Three years ago he split up with the actress, Rebecca DeMornay, his partner of several years’ standing. She admitted publicly that the age gap – she is almost 30 years his junior – played its part, so I asked him how he dealt with ageing.
“It’s the only game in town,” he said. “But it puts you off a lot of other games you’ve become attached to, like romance, because there’s nothing more inappropriate than seeing an old guy coming on.
“You still feel like an 18-year-old full of hunger and desire, but there is a certain restraint because as you grow older the possibility for humiliation in these matters becomes more abundant and you have a few little experiences that cement your determination not to put yourself in dangerous situations. But the perspective that age brings, dismal as some of the views are, is fascinating.â€
And Cohen’s own future work?
“I’ve got a lot of songs half-finished. There’s a few perplexing lyrics that I’ve been working on for a long time. Things are still moving on that level but it’s on the backburner and touring seems an even more remote possibility.â€
Yet he is contemplating another novel, which would be his first since 1966.
“Just lately, I’ve been thinking about blackening some pages, that enterprise of writing which I blew when I got into this songwriting racket. I don’t know exactly what I would say, but I feel I’ve had some experience and would like to lay some things out.â€
Nor does Cohen rule out a return to what he calls civilian life.
“Roshi is now 90,†he says, “and I want to take advantage of his time. I’ve committed myself for the duration but I don’t know how long that is and I don’t really care.
Last night, after dinner, I listened to the Arsenal match on the radio, watched the last episode of Silicon Valley on DVD and, because I am addicted, looked at Twitter from time to time. Like most other people in the UK, I guess, my timeline was full of people watching the BRIT Awards, splenetically...
Last night, after dinner, I listened to the Arsenal match on the radio, watched the last episode of Silicon Valley on DVD and, because I am addicted, looked at Twitter from time to time. Like most other people in the UK, I guess, my timeline was full of people watching the BRIT Awards, splenetically. What did we all do before social media, I wondered? Avoid TV shows we knew we’d hate?
That’s what I do, or at least have done for the past few years: there are too many things I like out there for me to expend so much time and energy on things I dislike. It’s bad for my health. And, while I appreciate the cultural and professional imperative that lies behind a bunch of music journalists feeling obliged to watch an awards show that’s central to their industry, it still all left me a bit confused and disappointed; much more disappointed, in a way, than I was by the fact that a load of successful musicians I’m not much interested in won some awards.
Plenty of what people were writing on Twitter was undoubtedly funny (though the glee which greeted Madonna’s accident wasn’t entirely edifying, on reflection). It occurred to me, though, that Twitter provides a very easy option for critical snark: how much easier to be droll about Ed Sheeran in 140 characters than to actually analyse what is so interesting about him to so many music fans? Or, indeed, how much more apparent fun it is to take the piss out of George Ezra’s music than to recommend music that you find genuinely exciting?
As Tim Jonze pointed out in his Guardian piece a couple of days ago, there’s a disconnect right now between journalists (or tastemakers) tipping a certain breed of new artists (cf James Bay), then complaining when the same, expertly bland new artists become successful. I’ve written plenty in the past about the invidious nature of the start-of-year tipping business, and it’s odd that, say, the Natalie Prass album has been so lavishly reviewed in the past couple of months without her really showing up in any of the start of 2015 business.
The sanctimonious point I’m building to, of course, is that I’ve been writing about Prass for years, and that I’m immensely lucky to be able to ignore all these mainstream pressures in my job, and concentrate on the great weight of records coming out every month that, contrary to doomsayers’ perspectives on the industry, are still compelling. Hence these weekly playlists, which hopefully give a positive insight into the musical riches to be found if you switch off the BRITS and dig deeper. Not as many good gags, I’ll admit, but I’ll take new Michael Head, Hurray For The Riff Raff, Cannibal Ox and Godspeed You Black Emperor over Paloma Faith jokes, anyday…
Broadcast are to have their back catlogue reissued on vinyl by Warp Records on March 9, 2015.
The reissues include their three studio albums, two compilations and a collaboration with The Focus Group.
Broadcast's soundtrack for Berberian Sound Studio is not included.
Trish Keenan
The ful...
Broadcast are to have their back catlogue reissued on vinyl by Warp Records on March 9, 2015.
The reissues include their three studio albums, two compilations and a collaboration with The Focus Group.
On the occasion of his 70th birthday in late January, I was re-reading my 2007 interview with Robert Wyatt. We were talking about national identity and about how, in spite of all his cosmopolitan influences and interests, Wyatt is always seen as an indelibly British artist. "No-one," he said, "has a...
On the occasion of his 70th birthday in late January, I was re-reading my 2007 interview with Robert Wyatt. We were talking about national identity and about how, in spite of all his cosmopolitan influences and interests, Wyatt is always seen as an indelibly British artist. “No-one,” he said, “has allowed and welcomed, as a xenophile, non-English cultures so wholeheartedly into their lives and into their brains and into their food more than I have. And yet I don’t feel the slightest bit compromised or diluted or melted as a human being. I’m as English as my Staffordshire great-grandparents.”
The second terrific album by Same Lee, “The Fade In Time”, is driven by a fundamentally similar mindset. Lee is, notionally, a folk singer, and the 12 old songs on “The Fade In Time” are all drawn from British tradition, in many cases learned from gypsies and travellers. For all his meticulous historical research, however, Lee is not much of a traditionalist. Instead of preserving the songs in aspic, he treats his material as part of a living tradition, and subjects it to radical, internationalist treatments.
So a mystical Scottish hunting song like “Jonny O’The Brine” is given a woody, organic momentum, tablas to the fore, that makes it sound like a kind of acoustic techno, then layered with horns inspired by Tajikistan wedding bands. Japanese kotos and Indian shruti boxes underpin Romany laments and tales of sacred hares. Jazz trumpets and chamber strings tangle, elegantly, with banjos and fiddles. And, on the outstanding “Bonny Bunch Of Roses”, a Napoleonic ballad is played out over a crackly Serbian 78. But whatever Lee throws at the songs, their Britishness is never diminished, but critically augmented and expanded.
The “Fade In Time” is a phrase lifted from “Over Yonders Hill”, but Lee characterises it as “the textural decays, the transience of time we pass through while listening, and that temporal trance we enter into when listening.” In that spirit, Lee slips field recordings of old singers into his mix (as he did on his 2012 debut, “Ground Of Its Own”), prefacing his subtly orientalised version of the Scottish “Lord Gregory” with a moving recitation by one Charlotte Higgins, recorded in 1956. Time, cultures, national identities collapse again and again, with uncommon empathy and grace.
Lee is a charismatic figure at the heart of all this, as theatrically attuned as he is scholarly: other details on his CV include burlesque dancing, anthropology, performing with the Yiddish Twist Orchestra and being taught wilderness skills by Ray Mears. Occasionally, his adventurousness – and his serene, inflected voice – can recall Damon Albarn. On “Moorlough Maggie” and “The Moon Shone On My Bed Last Night”, Jonah Brody’s koto and ukulele – a frequently twee instrument transformed into something ethereal – are reminiscent of the way a kora added exotic, harmonious new dimensions to Albarn’s “Dr Dee” project.
“Moorlough Maggie”, too, exemplifies the force of Lee’s own personality on these songs, laden as they are with so much inherent and applied cultural baggage. A love song that involves grand promises of flocks of sheep, herds of cows and, perhaps optimistically, about a hundred ships, “Moorlough Maggie” is taken with such measure and emotional investment that it becomes Lee’s own “Song To The Siren”. In the midst of it all, he provides a calm, steadying anchor; ambitious, eclectic but, ultimately, dedicated to the enduring passions that resonate through this treasure trove of great song.
“Memorials, Forensics!? This stuff is alive!…”: A Q&A with SAM LEE
JM: I was thinking about Robert Wyatt a while back, and about how, while he’s so often described as “quintessentially English”, he’s also such a committed internationalist, and anything but parochial. It occurs to me that this seems really relevant to The Fade In Time; is it something you recognise in your work?
Sam Lee: Yes, completely so. I look at my work and my representation of folk a little bit the way we imagine a walk in an English country garden. To anyone in it, it feels unquestionably like you’re in a garden in England, but in actuallity we are surrounded by imported plants from all over; the Himalayan mountainsides, South American temperate forests, Roman apothecaries etc. I want my music to feel local, a ‘home from home’. The sonic beddings which appeal to me most are ones that have an ability to induce, to transport, to alter the state of the listener and give the sense also of being part of a much deeper and geographically indefinite place. I don’t want to get stuck on how folk (or any song for that matter) should sound. To me, it’s a more ephemeral thing.
JM: Does having such a strong connection to Gypsy/travelling culture allow you to see British folk songs in a broader international context?
SL: I guess the nature of being close to a community seen as pariahs and ‘outsiders’ permits me to see the music with an objective freedom and not be so bound by too many assumptions or affectations. The Gypsy Travellers are imaginative geniuses, especially when it comes to appropriation and assimilation, which I admire and aspire to.
JM: Of the many tricks you pull off on The Fade In Time, I think my favourite might be the way you plant the old Serbian record into “Bonny Bunch Of Roses”. Can you tell us a little about this, and the thinking behind it?
SL: Am really glad you like that one. You have picked out exactly where I’m sonically trying to explore the idea or process of ‘The Fade in Time’; the textural decays, the transience of time we pass through while listening, and that temporal trance we enter in when listening… I wanted to touch upon the boldness of that Slavic choral music in this east meets west, as it kind of honours my own Eastern European Ashkenazi routes. Some of my predecessors were tailors to the Tzars’ army, so I wanted to explore the sonic landscapes of the east. This is folk song which I’ve loved for so long.
JM: How do the old singers and folk musicians that you know react to your experiments with tradition? I guess I’m thinking especially of Stanley Robertson; does The Fade In Time exist in part as a memorial to his cultural knowledge?
SL: Less memorial, more safari.. It’s certainly not dead, even if most carriers of the ‘keepers of the lore’, as Stanley called them, have passed on. They seem, for the most part, thrilled by the music – sometimes overwhelmed by the journey it has taken and get very emotional.. When I played back “Bonny Bunch Of Roses” to Freda Black (the 86-year-old Gypsy who taught me the song) she cried and said it gave her a feeling of her mother singing. That meant a lot…
I am actually making a film at the moment capturing the act of returning these album tracks to the families and then asking the singers to take me to where the song came from, be it a known location or tell me about their history of the song. It’ss really fascinating seeing their reactions to the material. Most of the time…
JM: What are your favourite memories of/stories about Stanley?
SL: Our first meeting will never leave me… It was in a mighty gale, climbing the cliffs at Whitby. He reached the top, with me, nervously, following behind, waiting to introduce myself. Stanley was clutching a giant whale bone arch. I stopped him to thank you for his songs in the concert I had just discovered and he turned around ‘wee a stern look in his ee’ and he growled out in full proud drama “ I ken a thoosand balladsâ€. It was awesome, like a moment out of Tolkien… You just sensed this ancient magic about him and a power… he had such incredible psychic abilities. He would tell me everything about my life, even things I would deem very private… He’d just announce them as they hit him, usually in really inappropriate moments, too. He would travel alongside me when I went abroad and tell me on the telephone things that were happening in my life he had no way of knowing (he called it the astral travelling). To me it seemed real and indisputable, nothing was private and nothing could be hidden. That is the Travellers for you. They are a very gifted people.
JM: Do you think the possibilities of history and tradition are underused in contemporary British music?
SL: ‘History’ and ‘tradition’ are such loaded words. The world of contemporary music is all about the forward thinking, the now, the new, the next. The closest thing we get to history in a lot of music I hear is all the stuff that references the ’70/’80s, electronica or sounds that were engineered within recent memory. That’s history for a lot of listeners and makers. And I think that is great! I love modern sounds and the ephemerality of it. However, I think there is much more scope to marry these styles with a musical connection to the more distant past, dare I say to explore a more ‘spiritual realm’ – without being millstoned by stereotypes. I’m interested in re-wilding and getting back to the roots of things.
JM: How long does it take for you to put together an album like this? It strikes me that, long before the music is even started, there’s an incredible amount of forensic fieldwork involved?
SL: Memorials, Forensics!? This stuff is alive! I guess this new album has taken a couple of years to put together, but that’s only in a very practical sense. It’s not been a direct journey from field to table (record) with many of these songs. Some I’ve sung for years and are longtime friends who have just found their way into the record. Others I’ve been told about, heard other singers along the way – or have developed songs with the band until they felt right to include. There are a few songs on the album which didn’t spend very long in transit till they reached the pot. Others, I feel I’ve known my whole life.
JM: Could you ever envisage yourself making a record without that level of deep research? A set of original songs, say?
SL: Yes. I’m sure that time will come, but right now I have the luxury of being able to forage for these songs, an experience I love. I love the people who I learn them from. I feel a profound honour in both spending time with these ancient remenants of an ancient world and helping to bring a bit of attention to their unbelievable treasures. I think the world can probably wait for my own latest heartbreak/confession etc a bit longer.
JM: What do you find so appealing about singing stereotypically “women’s” songs – songs from someone else’s perspective?
SL: Funnily enough, I don’t see these as women’s songs at all. They have been sung for generations by men and women alike; with no particular rules of appropriateness to gender or sexuality. That seems like a relatively recent way of looking at things. I like to sing songs that bare their heart, and those songs told from the women’s point of view are often ones that deal with universal themes most honestly abandonment, rejection, loss and compassion. These are things men and women experience equally. Folk music allows men and women to tackle big issues in a powerful way. It’s a bit like group therapy. I often get grown-men crying at my gigs. I think that’s pretty cool.
Led Zeppelin’s sixth album, was also, to varying extents, Led Zeppelin’s third, fourth and fifth albums – the fifteen-track running order, consuming 82 minutes and four side of vinyl, consisted of eight new songs, amalgamated with seven out-takes from III, IV and Houses Of The Holy. When Zeppe...
Led Zeppelin’s sixth album, was also, to varying extents, Led Zeppelin’s third, fourth and fifth albums – the fifteen-track running order, consuming 82 minutes and four side of vinyl, consisted of eight new songs, amalgamated with seven out-takes from III, IV and Houses Of The Holy. When Zeppelin began work on Physical Graffiti, in what proved to be abortive early sessions in late 1973, they were – with apologies possibly due to The Rolling Stones – arguably the biggest, certainly the most infamous, rock’n’roll band in the world.
All that remained was the creation of a definitive magnum opus – their own gatefolded masterpiece to file alongside Exile On Main St, the White Album and Quadrophenia. Physical Graffiti could – and in less adroit hands, assuredly would – have been preposterous, the moment at which Zeppelin’s imperial phase collapsed in a goutish wheeze of decadent hubris. Instead, it’s magnificent: the Rome that wouldn’t fall.
This reissue appears in a panoply of formats. There’s a straightforward double CD, a triple CD including a bunch of hitherto unreleased stuff, vinyl and digital equivalents of both those options, and a “super deluxe†box set including all of the above along with alternate cover art, a book of previously unseen photographs, and a print of the original cover, the first 30,000 of which will be individually numbered. It has also been remastered by Jimmy Page, indefatigable curator of Zeppelin’s legacy, who may be unique in being able perceive significant difference between this and the original, or in thinking there was much wrong with the way Physical Graffiti sounded the first time.
The enticement of this reissue is a batch of previously unheard early versions of seven of the fifteen tracks which comprise the epic sprawl of Physical Graffiti. These latest exhumations from Jimmy Page’s attic contain few forehead-slapping revelations. “Brandy & Cokeâ€, an early take on “Trampled Under Footâ€, comes much cleaner on the finished song’s debt to Stevie Wonder’s “Superstitionâ€. “Driving Through Kashmirâ€, part of the journey to one of Zeppelin’s loftiest peaks, suggests that there was a point at which an argument was made for turning up the trumpets slightly.
A shorter, softer instrumental version of “Sick Again†permits appreciation of how pretty Zeppelin were capable of being when dropping to the swaggering priapic metal colossi schtick for a couple of minutes, and also spares the listener Robert Plant’s exposition of the sexual politics of Hollywood’s groupie scene of the early 70s (“The fun of comin’/The pain in leavin’,†etc – arguably, you had to be there.) Of the new versions of “In My Time Of Dyingâ€, “Houses Of The Holyâ€, “Everybody Makes It Through The Night†and “Boogie With Stuâ€, it is difficult to sum up much reaction beyond the thought that they’re not as good as the familiar, finished versions – of some interest to completists and/or musicologists, perhaps, but not worth the price of re-purchase.
This is, of course, the nature of early takes – although, at the risk of prompting another deluge of expensive reissues, it might be more interesting to hear some really early takes. Where, for example, does one even begin assembling something as monumental as “Kashmir� What were the first notes plucked or prodded that eventually became “In The Light� From where did Zeppelin find the nerve to run “In My Time Of Dying†out to eleven – still utterly compelling – minutes?
It’s this ironclad – metalclad, if you will – confidence that makes Physical Graffiti such a gripping listen. So very many things could have gone wrong; none of them do. When Zeppelin are silly and puerile, they manage to sound guileless and charming – just as Plant is possibly not really singing about a car when he begs to be permitted to pump gas and dig under the hood on “Trampled Under Footâ€, it’s plausible that “Custard Pie†is not actually about dessert. When Zeppelin are pompous and preposterous, they’re also perfectly poised – in the years ahead, many would seek to conquer the heights of “Kashmirâ€, and most would pratfall spectacularly. And the rare excursions into modesty are all the more affecting amid the sturm and drang elsewhere – Page’s acoustic instrumental noodle “Bron-Yr-Aurâ€, named for the Welsh cottage where Zeppelin composed much of III, and originally recorded for that album, is a deceptively nonchalant expression of his mastery of his instrument.
In retrospect, Physical Graffiti stands as Peak Zeppelin. Its sheer size and scope, and the epoch-spanning, piecemeal nature of its assembly, give it the feeling of an accidental best-of. And while Zeppelin’s two subsequent proper studio albums, Presence and In Through The Out Door, had their moments, they also – substantially as a function of having to follow Physical Graffiti – felt somewhat like exercises in decline management. The album endures as a bequest to the bogglement of the ages.
Red House Painters are to have their first four albums re-issued as a box set.
The collection, limited to 1,500 copies, will be released on Record Store Day 2015; April 18 in the UK.
The albums, originally released between 1992 and 1995, are Down Colorful Hill, Red House Painters (Rollercoaster), ...
Red House Painters are to have their first four albums re-issued as a box set.
The collection, limited to 1,500 copies, will be released on Record Store Day 2015; April 18 in the UK.
The albums, originally released between 1992 and 1995, are Down Colorful Hill, Red House Painters (Rollercoaster), Red House Painters (Bridge) and Ocean Beach (which has been reformatted as a double 12†to also include the Shock Me EP).
The boxset comes with a unique design from Chris Bigg (v23), with each album pressed on bronze vinyl, and download codes also included.
Red House Painters box set
The tracklisting is:
Red House Painters –Â Down Colorful Hill –Â CAD 3408 A1. 24
A2. Medicine Bottle
A3. Japanese To English
B1. Down Colorful Hill
B2. Lord Kill The Pain
B3. Michael
Red House Painters –Â Red House Painters –Â CAD 3409 A1. Grace Cathedral Park
A2. Down Through
A3. Katy Song
A4. Mistress
B1. Things Mean A Lot
B2. Funhouse
B3. Take Me Out
B4. Rollercoaster
C1. New Jersey
C2. Dragonflies
C3. Mistress (Piano Version)
D1. Mother
D2. Strawberry Hill
D3. Brown Eyes
Red House Painters –Â Red House Painters –Â CAD 3410 A1. Evil
A2. Bubble
A3. I Am A Rock
A4. Helicopter
B1. New Jersey
B2. Uncle Joe
B3. Blindfold
B4. Star Spangled Banner
Red House Painters – Ocean Beach – CAD 3411
A1. Cabezon
A2. Summer Dress
A3. San Geronimo
A4. Shadows
B1. Over My Head
B2. Red Carpet
B3. Brockwell Park
B4. Moments
C1. Long Distance Runaround
C2. Drop
C3. Brockwell Park (Part Two)
D1. Shock Me
D2. Sundays And Holidays
D3. Three Legged Cat
D4. Shock Me (Acoustic)
Red House Painters –Â Red House Painters –Â CAD 3411 A1. Cabezon
A2. Summer Dress
A3. San Geronimo
A4. Shadows
B1. Over My Head
B2. Red Carpet
B3. Brockwell Park
B4. Moments
C1. Long Distance Runaround
C2. Drop
C3. Brockwell Park (Part Two)
D1. Shock Me
David Gilmour’s new solo album “sounds fantasticâ€, Phil Manzanera reveals in the new issue of Uncut, dated April 2015 and out now.
The guitarist also discusses the future of Roxy Music, and recalls working with Brian Eno, Nico, David Bowie and Bob Dylan, in the 'audience with' piece.
“Itâ€...
David Gilmour’s new solo album “sounds fantasticâ€, Phil Manzanera reveals in the new issue of Uncut, dated April 2015 and out now.
The guitarist also discusses the future of Roxy Music, and recalls working with Brian Eno, Nico, David Bowie and Bob Dylan, in the ‘audience with’ piece.
“It’s going very well,†Manzanera says of the Pink Floyd leader’s album, the follow-up to 2006’s On An Island. “I think it sounds fantastic, people will be very happy.â€
Manzanera co-produced On An Island with Gilmour and Chris Thomas, and also contributed guitar and vocals to the record.
Discussing Roxy Music and their supposed break-up in the feature, he says: “Last year, I said, ‘I think our job is done.’ “Everyone thought, ‘Roxy’s split – again.’ Not at all! If we fancied having another go, there’s no rules.
“That’s what’s great about Roxy. It’s not over ’til you’re 10 feet under…â€
The new issue of Uncut, with Joni Mitchell on the cover, is out now.
“Have I ever played any song twice exactly the same?â€
“No, Bob, no.â€
“See? I don’t do that.â€
In this week’s very special archive feature (from November 2008, Take 138), Uncut talks to the musicians, producers and crew who have worked with him from 1989 to 2006, where an unprecedente...
MODERN TIMES (2006)
Dylan goes digital! But he does it his own way on the LP that extends “Love And Theftâ€â€™s methodology, and, at the age of 65, sees him hit No 1 on the Billboard charts for this first time since 1976’s Desire.
Chris Shaw, engineer: “On both “Love And Theft†and Modern Times, Bob would sometimes come in with reference tracks, old songs, saying, ‘I want the track to be like this.’ So on Modern Times, there’s the Muddy Waters track [‘Trouble No More’] that became ‘Someday Baby’. It was a case of him trying to get the band to play songs the way he heard them. Sometimes that meant going down all these detours. Like on the new Bootleg Series record, there’s the slow, kind of gospel version of ‘Someday Baby’. That was when he was getting frustrated with the ‘Muddy Waters’ version not coming together. After dinner, he walked back into the room and George Receli, his drummer, was tapping out that groove. Bob sat down at the piano, and all of a sudden they came up with that version. We raced to record that. It was only done for one or two takes. And I think the reason he abandoned that was he was still stuck on the Muddy Waters version. And, also, because he may have thought it sounded a little too much like Time Out Of Mind.
“There was a lot of editing done on “Love And Theftâ€. ‘High Water’, for example, the verse order was changed quite a few times, literally hacking the tape up. He was like, ‘Nah, maybe the third verse should come first. Maybe we should put that there.’ But the big breakthrough on Modern Times was that we didn’t do it on tape at all. It was the first album he’d ever done using [digital production system] Pro Tools. That whole record was done digitally.
“Actually, it wasn’t difficult to get him to go for using that. Between “Love And Theft†and Modern Times, we did a couple of film soundtrack things. When we did ‘’Cross The Green Mountain’, for [2003 film] Gods And Generals, I said, ‘Y’know, since this is just a one-off, it’s not for an album, I wouldn’t mind trying Pro Tools, just so I can show you the benefits.’ He said, ‘Okay, whatever.’ We did a take, and he was like, ‘Okay, I want to edit out the second verse and put the fourth verse in there.’ By the time he walked into the control room from the studio, I had it done. His eyes opened wide. ‘You can edit that fast?’ ‘Yeah.’ ‘And you can keep everything?’ You could just see the gears in his head suddenly spinning. Thing is, now he’s gotten so used to the speed of that, when we were doing Modern Times, he was actually getting impatient with the machine.
“But, working with Bob, everything is always live. He might edit the structure, switch verses around because it tells the story better, but we never go in and do these micro-edits or tuning or other tweaking people do. To him, the computer is just one big tape machine. So, yeah, it was recorded using new technology, but we used an old desk, old mics, old pre-amps. The downside is, a couple of times, the computer crashed, in the middle of a take. I’ll tell you right now, there is no worse feeling in the world than having to walk out into a live room while the band is playing and have to stand in front of Bob Dylan and make him stop because a computer has crashed.
“The studio, recording, for him is sort of a necessary evil. He enjoys it, but he hates the time it takes. He’s always talking about when he used to make albums: ‘This record, we did, like, four songs in one day.’ Bob was always playing these old Carter Family albums, old Bob Wills records in the studio. He’s really enamoured with the technology back then – a Carter Family record, that’s them just standing around one microphone. He’d talk about how immediate, how raw and vital it sounds. So we’re trying to get that sound with modern techniques. And he understands it all, he’s not ignorant of modern technology. He just hates how records sound today. He has said, ‘I wanna do a record with just one mic.’ So, who knows, we might be doing that on the next record. It might start that way…
“For him, a recording is a document of the song at that moment in time. My favourite Bob Dylan song is probably ‘It’s Alright Ma (I’m Only Bleeding)’. He has this wicked way of playing it live now, and I saw him backstage once after a show, and I said, ‘Hey, I love the new version of “It’s Alright Ma†– but do you ever play it like the original recording?’ And he looked at me, and he said: ‘Well, y’know, a record is just a recording of what you were doing that day. You don’t wanna live the same day over and over again, now. Do ya?’
Interviews: Allan Jones, Damien Love, Alastair McKay, Rob Hughes
_______________________
WHO’S WHO
…in the School Of Bob, 1989-2006
DANIEL LANOIS
The Joshua Tree producer was recommended to Dylan by Bono for 1989’s Oh Mercy, and he returned almost a decade later for Time Out Of Mind. The pursuit of Lanois’ signature sonic ambience resulted in two of Dylan’s most significant albums – and one of his most combative musical relationships.
MALCOLM BURN
Multi-instrumentalist and recording engineer on Oh Mercy, Burn has produced a variety of albums, including Emmylou Harris’ Red Dirt Girl and Iggy Pop’s American Caesar.
MARK HOWARD
An engineer and producer for everyone from Tom Waits to Harold Budd. The other engineer on Oh Mercy, he returned with Lanois for Time Out Of Mind.
MASON RUFFNER
Texas-born “guitar slinger†drafted in for Oh Mercy by Lanois. “Bags of explosive licks with funky edges, rockabilly, tremolo-influenced,†Dylan wrote in Chronicles. “Mason had some fine songs.â€
DON WAS
Along with fellow Was (Not Was) mainstay, David, the man born Don Fagenson was invited by Dylan to produce 1990’s routinely underrated Under The Red Sky. “The precursor to Modern Times,†he says today.
DAVID LINDLEY
A guitarist sought out by Warren Zevon, Graham Nash, Ry Cooder and Curtis Mayfield, and one of the ever-revolving cast assembled for Under The Red Sky.
ROBBEN FORD
Another of the guitarists parachuted in for Under The Red Sky. Worked with Miles Davis and toured in the bands of Joni Mitchell and George Harrison.
MICAJAH RYAN
Ryan’s engineering career has taken him from John Prine through Guns N’ Roses, all the way to Megadeth. One of the few witnesses to the creation of Dylan’s bare-boned acoustic albums, Good As I Been To You and World Gone Wrong.
AUGIE MEYERS
First met Dylan in 1964 as part of Doug Sahm’s Sir Douglas Quintet. “Bob always liked us. We were one of his bands.†Dylan called for his “magic Vox†organ for Time Out Of Mind and “Love And Theftâ€.
JIM DICKINSON
Out of Memphis, the great rock’n’roll pianist and producer played on the Stones’ “Wild Horses†and was another of the Wild Bunch of veterans Dylan recruited for Time Out Of Mind.
JIM KELTNER
One of Time Out Of Mind’s three drummers, Keltner first recorded with Dylan in ’71 and has worked with him often since, including the session that produced “Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door†– “I actually cried while we were recording it.â€
DAVID KEMPER
In the Jerry Garcia Band for over a decade, Kemper signed on as drummer in Dylan’s road band in 1996 and stayed until 2001. “And I’m sorry not to be in it today. I miss Bob and I miss that band.â€
CHRIS SHAW
Dylan’s engineer of choice since the turn of the millennium. Previously worked with Booker T And The MGs and Jeff Buckley, but he got the gig with Dylan “when he heard I got my start doing Public Enemy recordsâ€.
__________________________
Tell Tale Signs – Allan Jones’ take
May, 2008. The door of the hotel room opens and I’m introduced to someone who looks not unlike Billy Bob Thornton: tall, elegant, sharply turned out in a black suit. This is Dylan’s manager, Jeff Rosen, here to play Sony BMG’s London chiefs tracks from the latest in the Bootleg Series he initiated in 1991.
Rosen first of all plays me a revelatory early version of “Most Of The Timeâ€, stripped of the swampy atmospherics producer Daniel Lanois surrounded it with on Oh Mercy, and performed as it might have been for Blood On The Tracks, just Bob on guitar and harmonica. I’m flabbergasted, listen to about nine more tracks in wonder, and can’t wait for the thing to be released.
Six months later, here, finally, it is: Tell Tale Signs: The Bootleg Series Volume 8 – 39 rare and previously unreleased Dylan tracks, available as a 27-track double-CD with a 60-page booklet, and a Limited Edition Deluxe Collectors’ Edition, with the content from the 2CD set complemented by a further 12 tracks, a 150-page hardcover book of vintage single sleeves and a seven-inch single. There’s also a four-LP vinyl set.
The material in all formats is drawn from the past 20 years of Dylan’s career, the bulk of it from the sessions that produced Oh Mercy and Time Out Of Mind, with outtakes elsewhere from World Gone Wrong, and two startling alternative versions of two key tracks from Modern Times. Additionally, there are eight live tracks, including a thunderously exciting “Cold Irons Boundâ€, first hearings for two tracks from the unreleased 1992 sessions with guitarist David Bromberg (covers of Jimmie Rodgers’ “Miss The Mississippi†and the traditional “Duncan And Bradyâ€, a former concert opener), as well as a smattering of songs written for movie soundtracks, including the hitherto unreleased “Can’t Escape From You†and the great Civil War epic, “’Cross The Green Mountainâ€. Finally, there’s “The Lonesome Mountainâ€, a duet with bluegrass icon Ralph Stanley, from the latter’s Clinch Mountain Country album.
There have already been rumblings about the apparent eking out of what is clearly an abundance of previously unavailable material and the consequent duplication of songs – there are three versions, for instance, of “Love And Theftâ€â€™s “Mississippiâ€, the earliest dating from the Time Out Of Mind sessions, and there are two versions each of seven other tracks. Where, the plea goes up, are the rest of the Bromberg tracks? And why hasn’t there been a live album, culled from the shows Dylan played at New York’s Supper Club in 1993, which on the evidence here of “Ring Them Bells†would be mindblowing?
These may be legitimate quibbles, but you’d have to say in reply that whatever way you look at it, there are treasures here galore for the avid Bobcat and an opportunity to consider the many ways Dylan sees a song – an opportunity, that is, to appreciate his relentlessly myriadic vision. And who would put a price on that?
There are alternative takes here of familiar songs that differ not just in mood and tempo from the versions we know, but boast partially or completely different lyrics – as with the solo piano demo of “Dignity†and the jaunty rockabilly incarnation of “Everything Is Brokenâ€. The two songs from Modern Times, meanwhile, are a radically altered “Someday Babyâ€, set to a slow martial beat, and a mesmerising early go at “Ain’t Talkin’â€, with a swathe of new words.
I remember after seeing Dylan’s Temples In Flames tour in 1987 trying to explain to sceptical colleagues how astonishing it had been to hear Dylan tearing up classics from his vast repertoire, in some instances reinventing them brutally. Their reaction was much the same as many of the people who’d been sitting around me at the gig: why didn’t Bob just play the songs like he recorded them?
For these people, Dylan’s evisceration of his back catalogue was typically capricious, perverse, wilful vandalism, nothing less, and ruined their evening. The hits were played, perhaps, but you sometimes had to sit through half a song before you realised what it was. Clearly, for Dylan there was nothing to be gained by the faithful reading, replicated nightly with numbing repetition. For him to continue to make sense of his songs, they would have to be approached anew whenever they were played, as his moods dictated, and everybody would have to get used to that.
It’s become such an embedded part of the Dylan myth that he never repeats himself that we perhaps take it for granted. On the following pages, however, as our Tell Tale Signs special continues, there’s ample testimony from some of the people who have worked with Dylan over the past two decades about his quixotic urgency, the impatient imperatives that drive him, his almost phobic insistence on not doing something twice the same way.
In these days of boxset anthologies with innumerable extras, we’re used to hearing how songs develop from rough-sketch demos to the finished thing, which then becomes the unalterable text, omnipotent and inviolate, embellished occasionally in concert but usually recognisably the song you know from the record. With Dylan it’s different, as it usually is.
Tell Tale Signs is awash with evidence of his staggering mercuriality, his evident determination even in the studio to repeat himself as little as possible, re-takes not merely the occasion for refinement, the honing of a song into static finality, but serial re-imaginings. Witness the three versions of “Mississippi†– all of them as different from each other as they are from the one on “Love And Theftâ€. You can hear on them the working of nuance, a successive revealing of things. Similarly fascinating are the two versions of “Can’t Waitâ€, both more desperately intimate than the Time Out Of Mind recording. The first, piano-led, is fleetingly reminiscent of Planet Waves’ “Dirgeâ€, dark and unsettling. The second, with glowering organ and a vocal drenched in reverb, is a doom-laden trip, eerily reminiscent of “Under Your Spellâ€, an unlikely collaboration with Carole Bayer Sager from Knocked Out Loaded, with a lyric that went on to become part of “Love And Theft’â€s “Sugar Babyâ€.
Previously, the Bootleg Series has given us unreleased gems like 1965’s pivotal “Farewell Angelinaâ€, “Up To Meâ€, dropped from the final version of Blood On The Tracks, which itself exists in two different forms, and “Blind Willie McTellâ€, unfathomably not included on Infidels.
Their equivalents here would be a majestic “Born In Time†on Disc One that’s in every way superior to its Under The Red Sky incarnation, and three tracks from the Time Out Of Mind sessions that didn’t make the album. This is extraordinary in the case of the eight-minute cantina reverie of “Red River Shoreâ€, which is high-tier late Dylan, fatalistic and windswept. And only slightly less so in the cases of the gospel-based “Marchin’ To the City†– which turned later into “Till I Fell In Love With You†– and “Dreamin’ Of Youâ€, Dylan wounded and haunted, much as he haunts us all.
Thom Yorke and Massive Attack's Robert Del Naja have released their joint soundtrack to UK Gold, an upcoming documentary on tax avoidance.
The 12-track score is available to stream via the UK Uncut website.
It also features contributions from Jonny Greenwood, Elbow's Guy Garvey and Euan Dickinson....
Thom Yorke and Massive Attack‘s Robert Del Naja have released their joint soundtrack to UK Gold, an upcoming documentary on tax avoidance.
The 12-track score is available to stream via the UK Uncut website.
It also features contributions from Jonny Greenwood, Elbow’s Guy Garvey and Euan Dickinson.
UK Gold, which explores the history of tax avoidance, is directed by Mark Donne and narrated by Dominic West.
You can watch a clip below, in which Channel 4 News host Jon Snow discusses the UK tax haven network.
Speaking to NME, Thom Yorke said, “For all the current government’s talk of standards in the Financial Industry it comes as no surprise perhaps that the reality beneath reveals their staggering hypocrisy.”
He continued: “Now is the time to reveal the revolving doors between government and the City that has bred lies and corruption for so long, siphoning money through our tax havens for the global super rich, while now preaching that we the people must pay our taxes and suffer austerity. Just who does our government work for?”
UK Gold will air on London Live tonight [February 25] at 8pm.
Suede debuted a new song, "What I'm Trying To Tell You", at last week's NME Awards 2015 with Austin, Texas.
The track was part of a six-song set which included classics such as "Animal Nitrate", "Filmstar" and "Trash".
Earlier in the evening, Suede collected the Godlike Genius Award at the NME Awa...
Suede debuted a new song, “What I’m Trying To Tell You“, at last week’s NME Awards 2015 with Austin, Texas.
The track was part of a six-song set which included classics such as “Animal Nitrate”, “Filmstar” and “Trash”.
Earlier in the evening, Suede collected the Godlike Genius Award at the NME Awards 2015 with Austin, Texas. The band were presented with the award by Bernard Sumner.
A special video, featuring the band’s former manager, comedian Ricky Gervais, was also shown. “I did help this band out a little bit in the early years,” Gervais said. “When I told them I couldn’t manage them anymore, there were no tears, they didn’t beg – and that’s when their career really took off.”
Awarding the gong to Suede, Bernard Sumner joked: “I’ve just had a text from Kanye West and he said you should have won Best Book and I’m really fucking annoyed.” He then added: “I thought I was presenting an award to Slade and then I heard it was Suede.”
Accepting his award, Brett Anderson said: “Thank you so much. What an honour it is to meet Mr Sumner. I spent much of my teenage years listening to Unknown Pleasures. 21 years ago we received best band award at the NME Awards so it’s genuinely touching to get this. It’s been a long strange heartbreaking journey but well worth it.”
Previous winners of the Godlike Genius Award include Blondie, The Clash, Paul Weller, The Cure, Manic Street Preachers, New Order & Joy Division, Dave Grohl, Noel Gallagher and Johnny Marr.
How do you choose the greatest Joni Mitchell song - or even, abandoning the wild goose chase of objectivity, your personal favourite Joni Mitchell song?
It's a daunting challenge, and one that not all of the illustrious contributors to this month's Uncut cover story would accept. When we asked Davi...
How do you choose the greatest Joni Mitchell song – or even, abandoning the wild goose chase of objectivity, your personal favourite Joni Mitchell song?
It’s a daunting challenge, and one that not all of the illustrious contributors to this month’s Uncut cover story would accept. When we asked David Crosby to pick a song, he gave us another one of his delightful pro-Joni and anti-Dylan rants, and scrupulously avoided specifics. “There’s so many songs of hers that are so brilliantly written,” he countered. “You can’t say which one is the best. There are 30 or 40 best ones.”
In the end, and with the help of Pink Floyd, Roger McGuinn, Matthew E White, Graham Nash, Linda Perhacs, Mike Heron and quite a few more, we settled on 30 songs. To rank them in any kind of order, though, struck us as an excruciating and ultimately pointless procedure; to be honest, we bottled it. In the new Uncut that’s out today, then, you’ll find 30 insightful pieces on 30 exceptional Joni songs, arranged in the order they were released, beginning with Radiohead’s Philip Selway on “Both Sides, Now” and ending with the 2002 orchestral version of “Amelia”, nominated by Robert Plant.
Elsewhere in this Uncut, there’s a pretty intense, exclusive interview with Sufjan Stevens, an insight into life alongside Nick Cave by the trusty and mercurial Warren Ellis, and further chats with Julian Cope, Phil Manzanera, The Yardbirds, The The, The Dave Clark Five (a weird and fascinating story, there) and, I’m particularly excited to say, Alejando Jodorowsky, whose story involving a swimming pool, a naked George Harrison and a hippopotamus is one of the highlights of the issue.
Reviews include reissues from The Specials (featuring a revealing Jerry Dammers Q&A), Bob Marley, John Coltrane, new ones by Mark Knopfler, Laura Marling, Bjork and three big personal favourites by Matthew E White, Ryley Walker and Sam Lee. Those last three also feature on the issue’s free CD, which we’ve been working hard on to make a bit more eclectic and representative of the range of new music that we cover in the magazine each month: also on there you’ll find Johnny Dowd next to an extract from Cat’s Eyes’ soundtrack to The Duke Of Burgundy and, in a fantastically unlikely segue, Marc Almond next to the tempestuous Lightning Bolt. Good stuff, I hope you’ll agree.
All this, a piece about Chile’s equivalent to Woodstock, an in-depth examination of country music’s brightest new stars, and a memorably deranged archive piece with Kim Fowley, in which he reveals that “The 16-track studio has become the heroin needle of the record industry.”
Let me know what you think about it all; as ever, I’m genuinely keen to hear from you. The email address for letters is uncut_feedback@timeinc.com, and you can find me on twitter at www.twitter.com/JohnRMulvey. Oh, and one last thing: you may have noticed we’ve radically spruced up www.www.uncut.co.uk in the past week, with lots of new features and the sort of responsive design which means you can now usefully read our stories on phones and whatever other devices you might have to hand from moment to moment. Again, drop me a line with your thoughts about this; early days, but it seems to be working smoothly right now…
The End Of The Road festival have announced an additional 26 names to the line up for this year's event.
My Morning Jacket, Mark Lanegan Band and Saint Etienne are among the acts confirmed. They join Sufjan Stevens, The War On Drugs and Tame Impala - who were announced last month - at this year's f...
The End Of The Road festival have announced an additional 26 names to the line up for this year’s event.
My Morning Jacket, Mark Lanegan Band and Saint Etienne are among the acts confirmed. They join Sufjan Stevens, The War On Drugs and Tame Impala – who were announced last month – at this year’s festival, which takes place between September 4 – 6 at Larmer Tree Gardens.
Uncut will be hosting a stage at this year’s festival; check back here for updates.
You can find further details about tickets and the line-up at the festival’s website.
Pete Townshend has announced details of a major reissue campaign.
11 of his solo albums will be remastered ahead of a digital release on February 23. They will then be released on CD in stages throughout the rest of 2015 and into 2016.
The 11 digital album releases cover Who Came First, Rough Mix ...
Pete Townshend has announced details of a major reissue campaign.
11 of his solo albums will be remastered ahead of a digital release on February 23. They will then be released on CD in stages throughout the rest of 2015 and into 2016.
The 11 digital album releases cover Who Came First, Rough Mix – his collaboration with The Faces’ Ronnie Lane – as well as his albums Empty Glass, All The Best Cowboys Have Chinese Eyes and the live album Deep End Live, featuring David Gilmour.
The albums will all be released on UMC/Universal Music are:
Who Came First
Rough Mix
Empty Glass
All The Best Cowboys Have Chinese Eyes
White City
Iron Man: The Musical
Psychoderelict
Scoop
Another Scoop
Scoop 3
Deep End Live
News of the reissues arrives soon after The Whoconfirmed plans to release a 7″ singles and all studio albums on vinyl.
Meanwhile, later this year, Townshend will premier a new orchestral version of Quadrophenia at London’s Royal Albert Hall.
The Who are also due to play London’s Hyde Park on June 26, 2015.
Joni Mitchell has been writing songs recently, a close collaborator reveals in the new issue of Uncut, dated April 2015 and out now.
Jean Grand-Maître, artistic director of the Alberta Ballet, mentioned Mitchell’s recent activities as he picked his favourite of her songs in our cover feature.
â...
Joni Mitchell has been writing songs recently, a close collaborator reveals in the new issue of Uncut, dated April 2015 and out now.
Jean Grand-Maître, artistic director of the Alberta Ballet, mentioned Mitchell’s recent activities as he picked his favourite of her songs in our cover feature.
“I was at her birthday party in LA last year,†the choreographer, who worked with Joni on 2007’s The Fiddle And The Drum show, says, “and she’s got more energy than ever. Her mind never stops, it’s a locomotive of thinking and feeling.
“I think there’s always a chance of new music. She was writing a few months ago – but there was the event at the Hammer Museum in LA, so I think she put that on hold to finish the Love Has Many Faces boxset. The ideas are always there.â€
Mitchell’s last studio album was 2007’s Shine, released on Starbucks’ Hear Music label.
Robert Plant, Pink Floyd, Radiohead, Graham Nash, REM, Laura Marling, Roger McGuinn, Elbow and more also pick their favourite songs by Joni Mitchell in our countdown of her greatest tracks, in the new Uncut, which is out now.
In this feature from the Uncut archive, Roger Daltrey reviews his side of The Who's story, providing track-by-track commentary on 20 of The Who’s most explosive singles. From Uncut's October 2001 issue (Take 68). Words: Simon Goddard
_______________________
A miserable October day in London,...
Who Are You? (Townshend)
Producer: Glyn Johns and Jon Astley
B-side: Had Enough (Entwistle)
Released: July 1978
Highest UK chart position: 18
Though revered by punks, Townshend was fully aware that by 1977 The Who represented everything The Sex Pistols and their ilk sought to destroy – artistically complacent, country house-dwelling millionaires. “I used to wake up in the night, praying to be destroyed,†he said.
Fittingly, his self-effacing acceptance of punk played a major part in a drunk and disorderly day that would later form the basis of “Who Are You?†– the title cut of what perhaps should have been the final album. On the day in question, January 20, 1977, Townshend emerged from a rancorous publishing meeting to iron out the group’s finances several thousand pounds better off but depressed that rock’n’roll could be reduced to the language of accountancy. Deciding to drown his sorrows at London’s Speakeasy club, he happened upon the Pistols’ Steve Jones and Paul Cook. Faced with one of their idols drunkenly babbling on about how he’d sold them out and losÂt his ideals, Jones and Cook retorted, “That’s a shame, we really like The ’Oo.â€
A severely pissed and emotional Townshend then staggered off into the Soho night where, hours later, slumped in a doorway, he was awoken by a policeman. Recognising this celebrity vagrant, the bobby advised him to “get up and walk away†or risk a night in the cells. At which point Townshend apparently slurred, “ ’oo the fuck are you?â€
Edited down from its full six minutes for single release, against this real-life narrative “Who Are You?†still owed less to punk than it did to The Who’s track record for chugging synth-rock leviathans; a big, boisterous din but stadium rock by any other name. Their first new 45 after a two-year lay-off, they were big men but out of shape, none more so than Keith Moon, whose performance on the LP was below par.
Tragically, it was to be his swan song – just three weeks after its release, on September 7, 1978, Moon ‘The Loon’ died in his sleep, having accidentally overdosed on downers. Even if his death didn’t kill off the group, after the loss of their crucial rear guard, The Who would be incomplete thereafter.
Daltrey: “We were getting incredible accolades from some of the new punk bands. They were saying how much they loved The Who, that we were the only band they’d leave alive after they’d taken out the rest of the establishment! But I felt very threatened by the punk thing at first. To me it was like, ‘Well, they think they’re fucking tough, but we’re fucking tougher.’ It unsettled me in my vocals. When I listen back to ‘Who Are You?’ I can hear that it made me incredibly aggressive. But that’s what that song was about. Being pissed and aggressive and a c***! It was only a few years after that I realised what a great favour punk did the business. We toured with The Clash in 1982, we took them to the US with us, and I used to fucking love watching ’em. I’m still a huge Joe Strummer fan.â€
________________________ You Better, You Bet (Townshend)
Producer: Bill Szymczyk
B-side: The Quiet One (Entwistle)
Released: February 1981
Highest UK chart position: 9
Though many purists put a full stop to The Who after the death of Moon, the band’s reaction was to soldier on. On the evidence of their final two studio albums with ex-Faces drummer Kenney Jones – Face Dances (1981) and It’s Hard (1982) – maybe they should have called it quits. Jones was no substitute as a musician, nor as a mediator between Daltrey and Townshend. Even Entwistle would reflect that his memories of recording both records were far from happy and “a kind of blankâ€.
Still, as a post-Moon postscript there’s no denying the former album’s “You Better, You Bet†was Townshend’s last truly inspired Who anthem. It certainly bears all the hallmarks, from aerated synthesizer intro to rebounding power chords and Daltrey’s yobbish choruses (“you bettarrr!â€).
All this and a namecheck for T. Rex. The single fought its way into the UK Top 10, past Adam & The Ants and The Human League, to claim The Who’s place as old but obstreperous gatecrashers at the early-’80s pop party. Probably their last convincing shot of maximum R’n’B.
Daltrey: “A wonderful, wonderful song. The way the vocal bounces, it always reminds me of Elvis. But it was a difficult time, yeah. The Moon carry-on was much harder than carrying on after John, because we’re more mature now. I hate going over this but, in retrospect, we did make the wrong choice of drummers. Kenney Jones – don’t get me wrong, a fantastic drummer – but he completely threw the chemistry of the band. It just didn’t work; the spark plug was missing from the engine.
“The first tour Kenney did with us, though, he was absolutely fucking brilliant. But after that he settled into what he knew, which was his Faces-type drumming, which doesn’t work with The Who. In some ways I’d like to go back and re-record a lot of the songs on Face Dances, but ‘You Better, You Bet’ is still one of my favourite songs of all.”
Joni Mitchell, Nick Cave, Sufjan Stevens and PJ Harvey all feature in the new issue of Uncut, dated April 2015 and out now.
The incredible Joni Mitchell is on the cover, and inside, famous fans including Robert Plant, David Crosby and members of Radiohead and Pink Floyd pick the singer-...
Joni Mitchell, Nick Cave, Sufjan Stevens and PJ Harvey all feature in the new issue of Uncut, dated April 2015 and out now.
The incredible Joni Mitchell is on the cover, and inside, famous fans including Robert Plant, David Crosby and members of Radiohead and Pink Floyd pick the singer-songwriter’s 30 greatest songs.
Close friends and collaborators also choose their favourites, with recollections of Mitchell provided by Graham Nash, the Incredible String Band’s Mike Heron, Linda Thompson, Joe Boyd, members of LA Express, and Alberta Ballet’s artistic director Jean Grand-Maitre, who worked closely with the singer on 2007’s The Fiddle And The Drum ballet.
“I don’t think there’s a singer-songwriter in the world that hasn’t been affected by Joni,†David Crosby explains.
Elsewhere, Warren Ellis provides the inside story of life in the Bad Seeds, describing the way Nick Cave and the group go about their work. Scary silences, boils, Australian Goths and, of course, the evolving work of this enduring musical force, are included.
“Nick loves to work,†says Ellis, “he has this incredible drive and a belief in what he’s doing. He’s always challenging himself.â€
Uncut also heads to New York City to meet Sufjan Stevens and hear all about the musical polymath’s hushed, delicate new album, Carrie & Lowell, while editor John Mulvey reports from PJ Harvey’s pioneering Recording In Progress project, where fans can watch her working on a new album.
Also in the issue, Phil Manzanera answers your questions about Roxy Music, David Gilmour’s new solo album and his work with Nico, David Bowie, John Cale and Robert Wyatt.
Uncut meets a young breed of country artists, including Kacey Musgraves, Brandy Clark and Angaleena Presley, emerging from the US, positioned between the grit of Americana and mainstream glitz. “Go out on a limb. That’s where the fruit is,†we are told.
We also salute the late legend Kim Fowley, auteur, producer, Svengali and provocateur, with a hair-raising 1972 interview from the Melody Maker archives; meanwhile, Simple Minds’ Jim Kerr takes us through the records that informed his adolescence in this month’s My Life In Music piece.
Our ‘album by album’ feature this month comes from Matt Johnson, who guides us through his catalogue with The The and solo, while we also hear from The Dave Clark Five on how they created their transatlantic chart-topper “Glad All Over†and became the first British Invasion band to tour America.
Uncut’s 40-page reviews section looks at new releases from Laura Marling, Björk, Ryley Walker, Courtney Barnett and more, while we assess archive releases from The Specials, Bob Marley, Roxy Music and more.
Live, we catch Julian Cope on typically entertaining form in London, and Lambchop recreating their masterpiece, Nixon, in Berlin.
Kim Gordon’s memoir, Girl In A Band, and a new biography of Sandy Denny feature on our books page, while we look at films including Altman, Michael Winterbottom’s The Face Of An Angel and a new Joe Strummer documentary.
And finally, our free CD, Back To The Garden, includes songs by Sufjan Stevens, Matthew E White, Courtney Barnett, Marc Almond, Ryley Walker, Steve Gunn, Cat’s Eyes, Sam Lee and more.
Nile Rodgers has announced that Daft Punk have made a film to accompany the upcoming Chic album.According to Billboard, Rodgers announced the news on Twitter on February 21 by releasing a still from what he called a "touching film" made by Daft Punk.When asked when fans can view the video, the guita...
Nile Rodgers has announced that Daft Punk have made a film to accompany the upcoming Chic album.According to Billboard, Rodgers announced the news on Twitter on February 21 by releasing a still from what he called a “touching film” made by Daft Punk.When asked when fans can view the video, the guitarist responded “within the next few weeks”. Rodgers previously worked with Daft Punk on their single “Get Lucky“.
Nile Rodgers
In a blog post penned for his official website, Rodgers has also released a snippet of new music, previewing the track ‘I’ll Be There’.
Due to be released on March 20, the new record will be a double-sided 12-inch single and will come with B-side ‘Back In The Old School’.
According to Rodgers, “I’ll be there” were the “first words I spoke upon finding my partner Bernard Edwards, (RIP) dead after our last concert together”. Click above to listen to the preview.
Starbucks are reportedly to stop selling CDs in their stores worldwide, according to a story on Billboard.As well as selling music from major artists in their shops, the coffee chain also has its own Hear Music label.
The label has previously released original material from artists including Joni M...
Starbucks are reportedly to stop selling CDs in their stores worldwide, according to a story on Billboard.As well as selling music from major artists in their shops, the coffee chain also has its own Hear Music label.
The label has previously released original material from artists including Joni Mitchell, Paul McCartney and Elvis Costello. Now, they are to stop physical sales from March 2015, although digital music will still be available via Starbucks outlets.”We will stop selling physical CDs in our stores at the end of March,” a representative from the company told Billboard.”Starbucks continually seeks to redefine the experience in our retail stores to meet the evolving needs of our customers. Music will remain a key component of our coffeehouse and retail experience, however we will continue to evolve the format of our music offerings to ensure we’re offering relevant options for our customers. As a leader in music curation, we will continue to strive to select unique and compelling artists from a broad range of genres we think will resonate with our customers.”
Meanwhile, Neil Young recently urged fans to boycott Starbucks in response to the coffee house chain’s decision to ally with agrochemical company Monsanto in a lawsuit against the state of Vermont.
“Monsanto might not care what we think – but as a public-facing company, Starbucks does,” he wrote. “If we can generate enough attention, we can push Starbucks to withdraw its support for the lawsuit, and then pressure other companies to do the same.”
Young added: “Vermont is a small, entirely rural state with just 600,000 people. It’s a classic David and Goliath fight between Vermont and Monsanto. Considering that Starbucks has been progressive on LGBT and labour issues in the past, it’s disappointing that it is working with the biggest villain of them all, Monsanto.”
Brian Wilson has released a video for new song "The Right Time".
The song, which is taken from Wilson's upcoming new album, No Pier Pressure, also features fellow Beach Boys Al Jardine and David Marks.
The clip was filmed in-studio during the track's recording and includes the song's lyrics. Click...
Brian Wilson has released a video for new song “The Right Time”.
The song, which is taken from Wilson’s upcoming new album, No Pier Pressure, also features fellow Beach Boys Al Jardine and David Marks.
The clip was filmed in-studio during the track’s recording and includes the song’s lyrics. Click above to watch.
No Pier Pressure sleeve artwork
No Pier Pressure will be released on April 7. It features collaborations with a number of artists, including Jardine and Marks, She & Him’s Zooey Deschanel and country singer Kacey Musgraves.The tracklisting for No Pier Pressure is:
‘This Beautiful Day’
‘Runaway Dancer’ [featuring Sebu Simonian]
‘What Ever Happened’ [featuring Al Jardine and David Marks]
‘On The Island’ [featuring She & Him]
‘Our Special Love’ [featuring Peter Hollens]
‘The Right Time’ [featuring Al Jardine and David Marks]
‘Guess You Had To Be There’ [featuring Kacey Musgraves]
‘Tell Me Why’ [featuring Al Jardine]
‘Sail Away’ [featuring Blondie Chaplin and Al Jardine]
‘One Kind Of Love’
‘Saturday Night’ [featuring Nate Ruess]
‘The Last Song’
‘Half Moon Bay’
