Chris Squire - RIP

Ah, the college years…that’s when I started to get serious about breaking out of my Beatles comfort zone.  When I was a freshman at the University of Colorado [Boulder], one of the guys who lived next door played lots of Yes and Emerson, Lake & Palmer.  At that time all I knew about Yes was Roundabout. He had the triple live album Yessongs [1973] and he loaned it to me as a primer.  On the plus side the drummer was ok, and the guitarist and keyboardist sounded great.  On the minus side the vocalist sounded like a bit like a Vienna choirboy twerp [he still does].  Given all these things, what really grabbed my attention was the bass guitarist, Chris Squire.  He had a big sound.  I like big bass sounds.  As there was more playing than there was singing, the plusses outweighed the minuses.  I noticed in the liner notes that Squire was mentioned often as one of the songwriters.  How could that be in a band with Steve Howe and Rick Wakeman, both talented musicians that surely had a wealth of musical ideas?  But there it was, in black and white.  I wanted to check out who these guys were.

Of my Top 5 rock bass guitarists, three of them are now dead – first John Entwistle [#1 – died 2002], then Jack Bruce [#2 – died 2014], and now Chris Squire [#3] last week.  Yes isn’t a band that is in my regular rotation.  Progressive rock is an acquired taste, and a lot of times it sits quietly in my musical closet.  If not for their vocalist [pick one, any one], I’d probably listen to Yes more often.  Every now and then I take Yes out for a spin.  I always marvel that in a band of virtuosos [Steve Howe – guitar, Rick Wakeman – keyboards] Chris Squire managed to make himself heard.  Given the musical company he kept, that’s quite an achievement.  Chris Squire was the one constant in the ever-changing Yes universe [six keyboardists, four lead singers, three guitarists, and two drummers, but only one bassist].  It is fitting that as that one constant, the bass guitarist with the unique Rickenbacker 4001/Rotosound strings sound was the anchor of a band that had many flights of fancy [Tales of Topographic Oceans, anyone?].  When Yes plays without him in August this year, it will be the first time in the 45-year history of the band that they’ve played without him.

Why the bass:  I found an interview with Chris Squire from years ago.  I’ll let him tell the story – “I had buddy at school who was a trained classical guitar player, a guy called John Wheatley. We decided we would start a band together. He got an electric guitar and he just said to me, ‘You’re tall and you’ve got big hands. You should play bass.’ I said, ‘Okay, I’ll be the bass player, then.’”  Yeah, he was big.  He made a Rickenbacker bass look almost like a regular guitar in his hands.

The sound:  Combine the melodicism of Paul McCartney, the aggression of Jack Bruce, and the tone of John Entwistle, and you have Chris Squire.  He confessed he started using a Rickenbacker bass with Rotosound strings because that’s what John Entwistle did.  He rewired his RM1999 into stereo.  The signals from the bass and treble pick-ups each went into separate amplifiers. The signal from the bass pick-up went to a bass amp, and the signal from the treble pick-up went to a guitar amp.  This gave him a brighter high-end while maintaining the growl of the low end.  John Entwistle did something similar to get his sound.

Tony’s Favorite Chris Squire Moments:

There are many great recorded moments that captured Chris Squire’s brilliance, but I will choose only a handful to illustrate:

Siberian Khatru [Close to the Edge – 1972]

After Yes let each of the members explore solo pieces on Fragile, it was time for them to explore longer song forms.  There were two songs over ten minutes on Fragile [South Side of the Sky and Heart of the Sunrise]. But the band wanted to push the envelope further.  They decided on an album where one song takes an entire side [Close to the Edge], and two smaller compositions on the flip side.  The first of the two compositions [And You and I], was a delicate, dare I say “pretty song” with Steve’s Howe’s acoustic guitars and Rick Wakeman’s magisterial Mellotron doing the heavy lifting.  But it leaves one ill-prepared for what was to come next – Siberian Khatru.  To put it plainly, Siberian Khatru is a healthy kick in the ass the shows that despite all its pomposity, Yes was still a rock band that could kick serious ass when it wanted to.  All the musicians are superb on this yet it is Squire's bass that is a standout.  Siberian Khatru has an intense organ riff running through the opening, Howe giving us a superb guitar performance, and Squire's bass driving the piece.  Squire lays down some excellent bass, weaving in and out of Wakeman's harpsichord, and not to mention the superb guitar solo.  This is my favorite Yes song, and it is quite obvious why the band chose this song to open many shows.  It’s very intense stuff.

Roundabout [Fragile, 1972]

By far Yes’ most popular song, this is the gateway drug to all things Yes.  Steve Howe’s classical guitar intro is unmistakable, and when he’s finished with his intro, the rest of the band barges in, with Chris Squire’s spidery bass playing a countermelody to Steve Howe’s chord work.  When Steve Howe went back to Asia years ago, the band decided they would play one song from each of the band member’s past.  For Steve Howe, the song was Roundabout.  John Wetton had the unenviable task of both singing and playing Chris Squire’s bass parts.  Wetton said it was a nightmare to do but he pulled it off.  Playing the bass part is hard enough without having to sing.  Like Siberian Khatru, Roundabout has a bass part with immense driving power.  This is the song where I first heard Chris Squire’s sound.  It was fast, it was trebly, and it didn’t get in anybody else’s way.  He could keep the time while still being melodic, and when he needed to he could keep up with Steve Howe.  I like that in bass guitarists.  This song is probably Chris Squire at his best.

Heart of the Sunrise [Fragile, 1972]

In the early Seventies, this song would follow Siberian Khatru in the set list.  But instead of one constant barrage of hyperactivity, Heart of the Sunrise has a fast-slow, fast-slow quality to it.  During the fast parts, Chris Squire keeps up with Steve Howe note-for-note.  In some of the slow parts, Squire plays the melody while Wakeman lays a Melltron over the song like a thick carpet while Howe darts in and out of the mix.

Sound Chaser [Relayer – 1974]

Tales of Topograhic Oceans [1973] was a four-sided exercise in over-indulgence – one song per side.  It was a Jon Anderson/Steve Howe trip, with the other three members along for the ride.  We didn’t hear much from Chris Squire.  One can hear Squire going along with the flow, but there was nothing outstanding bass-wise in the tracks contained therein.  Rick Wakeman claims he was so bored making the album that he spent more time in the bar than he did in the studio.  He was able to find time to lay down synthesizer track for Black Sabbath’s Sabbath Bloody Sabbath album [they were recording next door].  After completion of the album and the tour that followed, Rick Wakeman bailed from Yes.  Replacing him was Swiss-born Patrick Moraz [later of Moody Blues fame].  With Tales of Topograhic Oceans out of their system, Yes returned to the Close to the Edge format – a single song on one side, two shorter songs on the other.  The B side of the album shows Howe and Squire's manic display of dexterity and virtuosity on Sound Chaser. Sound Chaser is the closest Yes ever got to sounding like jazz fusion. Moraz uses a lot of synthesizer here to good effect. The tempo keeps changing throughout the whole song. Squire does some of his best bass playing.  Sound Chaser contains some brilliant bass work from Squire. 

Does It Really Happen? [Drama – 1980]

Drama was the first album without Jon Anderson.  Rick Wakeman was gone, too.  Drama’s predecessor, Tormato [1978] sounded like a tired band on its last legs.  It had its moments, but you had to look hard for them [Don’t Kill the Whale, Onward].  They were replaced by Trevor Horn and Geoff Downes [aka The Buggles] respectively.  As seen through the hindsight of 35 years, Drama is an underrated album.  Geoff Downes wasn’t a virtuoso like Rick Wakeman, but not many people are.  He fit into the Yes sound.  Trevor Horn sounded somewhat like Jon Anderson.  When recording his own songs in the studio, he sounded fine.  It was on the road where he tried to sing Jon Anderson’s songs that he ran into trouble.  After Yes finished their tour obligations for Drama, the band called it a day.  But that is not to say that Drama is a bad record – quite the contrary it’s pretty good, and a definite improvement over Tormato.  There are at least three nuggets on Drama – the opener Machine Messiah, Tempus Fugit, and my favorite Does It Really Happen?  Why is it my Drama favorite?  Chris Squire’s bass is the reason.  The song starts with a monster bass riff that sets the pace.  This was not to be a leisurely Yes song.  This one is more along the lines of Siberian Khatru.  The stringed instruments [guitar and bass] drive this song rather than the keyboards.  The centerpiece of the song is Chris Squire’s Rickenbacker.

Tributes to Chris Squire have poured into Yes’ website.  Of all those tributes I’ll print only one that pretty much says it all:

“Simply put, Chris Squire was one of the greatest rock bassists of all time.”

Geddy Lee, Rush

Great Rock Sounds

There are great sounds in rock and roll.  They could be the unique sounds of a certain bands. Some guitarists have a unique sound that when you hear the first few notes that are played, you know immediately who it is.  There’s the cliché that some singers would sound great if they “sing the phonebook.”  There are the collection of sounds that we call songs that define the bands that play them.  Last night I did a stream-of-consciousness thing.  I looked at my CD collection and just wondered “out of all this, what really sounds ‘cool’”?  Here’s what I came up with, in no particular order.

1.  Jon Lord's Hammond organ through a Marshall stack

2.  The twin guitars of Duane Allman and Dickey Betts

3.  Jack Bruce's distorted bass

4.  John Entwistle's trebly bass

5.  Beatles harmonies

6.  Tony Iommi's riffs

7.  Keith Richards' 5-string Telecaster tuned to Open G

8.  Gregg Allman singing...anything

9.  David Gilmour's guitar tones from The Wall (esp. Hey You and Comfortably Numb)

10.  Pete Townshend's power chords, esp. Who's Next and Quadrpohenia

11.  Eric Clapton's "Woman Tone"

12.  Johnny Winter's slide [Dust My Broom]

13.  Jimi Hendrix's wah-wah [Voodoo Child (Slight Return)]

14.  Malcolm Young's rhythm guitar

15.  John Lennon singing, esp. "Twist and Shout" and "Yer Blues"

16.  The Mellotron

17.  SRV's massive guitar tone

18.  Creedence

19.  Paul Rodgers singing...anything

20.  Michael Schenker guitar solos

21.  Lemmy Kilmister's Rickenbacker bass and "Murder One"

22.  George Harrison's guitar and a Leslie rotating speaker

23.  Joe Walsh's talk box guitar on "Rocky Mountain Way"

24.  Jimmy Page's acoustic guitars all over Led Zeppelin III

25.  Billy Gibbons - tone, taste & tenacity

26.  John Bonham's drums, esp. "When the Levee Breaks"

27.  Ray Manzarek

28.  Ronnie James Dio...anytime

29.  Ian Gillan 1969-73

30.  Whipping Post

31.  Frank Zappa - Dumb All Over [live]

32.  Ritchie Blackmore and Jon Lord trading solos

33.  The opening chord of "A Hard Day's Night"

34.  Byrds harmonies

35.  Tomorrow Never Knows

36.  Santana 1969-72

37.  Neil Young's Old Black

38.  Garth Hudson's intro to "Chest Fever"

39.  Levon Helm

40.  Gregg Allman’s Hammond B-3

41.  Los Lobos

What are your great rock sounds?

Waylon Jennings - Don't You Think This Outlaw Bit's Done Got out of Hand

This song [which appears on the album I’ve Always Been Crazy] was completely written and inspired by Waylon Jennings.  It’s also a true story…

After Waylon Jennings hit the big time he traded amphetamines for cocaine.  It was a serious habit - a $1500/day habit.  More than once he pulled a Keith Richards and stayed awake for seven days straight.  His habit was well-known, and it attracted the attention of the DEA.  They got wind of a package that was sent to him from New York.  He was in Nashville recording some music for a Hank Williams, Jr. album.  Evidently an individual working in Neil Reshen’s office [Waylon’s manager at the time] was trying to curry favor with Waylon and sent him an unsolicited package of cocaine.  Within minutes of the package’s arrival, the DEA paid a visit to Waylon in the recording studio.  They knew about the package and followed it to the recording studio.

To hear Waylon tell the story [go to YouTube to hear him or read his autobiography Waylon], Richie Albright [his drummer and the producer of this particular session] was in the control room while Waylon was in the studio.  Waylon had received the package but didn’t open it, and when he saw the DEA in the control room, he threw the package over his shoulder and it got stuck under one of the baseboards on the other side of the studio.  All the while this was going on, Richie had the talk-back button pushed and Waylon could hear everything that was said [but the agents couldn’t see Waylon].  Waylon then came into the control room and read the warrant for his arrest and the search warrants.  The search warrant was screwed up – it allowed the DEA to search Waylon’s Nashville office, but not the recording studio.  The DEA couldn’t go in there.

While Waylon was engaged with the DEA agents, Richie went into the studio under the pretext of moving around some baffles.  But what he really did was find the cocaine and take it to the bathroom.  Before everyone knew it, the toilet flushed for all to hear.  One of the DEA agents got really pissed and asked where the cocaine was.  Waylon responded “if it ever was here it ain’t here no more.” 

Waylon was charged with possession of cocaine, but the charges were dropped because of “lack of evidence.”  But he got a song out of it, one that he used to open many shows.  It has his trademark thumping bass, four-on-the-floor driving rhythm that works very well as a show opener.  He often followed with with JJ Cale’s Clyde, a song about a bass-playing dog – it was a good one-two punch [see video].  Until Waylon Jennings came along, country music didn’t sound like this.  His lawyer freaked out because he heard the song and thought it was a “confession.”  Waylon didn’t care…

I'm for the law and order the way that it should be
This song's about the night they spent protecting you from me
Someone called us outlaws in some old magazine

New York sent a posse down like I ain't ever seen

Don't you think this outlaw bit's done got out of hand?
What started out to be a joke the law don't understand
Was it singing through my nose that got me busted by the man?

Maybe this here outlaw bit's done got out of hand, out of hand

We were wrapped up in our music that's why we never saw
Cars pull up, the boys get out and the room fills up with law
They came boundin' through the backdoor in the middle of a song

They got me for possession of something that was gone, long gone

Don't you think this outlaw bit's done got out of hand?
What started out to be a joke the law don't understand
Was it singing through my nose that got me busted by the man? Oh Lord
Maybe this here outlaw bit's done got out of hand

Don't you think this outlaw bit's done got out of hand, out of hand? 

Tony's Picks - BB King

Many tributes have been written about BB King since his passing on May 14^th.  I can’t possibly match the eloquent tributes to the man who came to symbolize the blues to audiences worldwide.  But I can talk about his records that I like the most.  Of all the time BB King recorded and played for live audiences, my favorite era of his music is bookended by two live albums – Live at the Regal (1965) and Live in Cook County Jail (1971).  Live at the Regal has been cited by many critics as BB’s best live album, and one of the best live albums by anybody.  It has the songs Sweet Little Angel, It’s My Own Fault, and How Blue Can You Get?, the same three songs recorded as a medley by a group called The Hourglass.  For those who know your music history, The Hourglass was a forerunner to the Allman Brothers Band.  At the time they were under contract to Liberty Records, who allowed them to record only songs picked by the record company.  The band didn’t like the material Liberty provided them.  They booked studio time and recorded their BB King Medley, the result of which can be found on the first Duane Allman anthology as well as the ABB’s box set Dreams.  It was an important milestone for what became the Allman Brothers Band, but I digress.  My point here is the influence BB King had on two white kids from Daytona Beach, Florida.  

Confessin’ the Blues (1966), Blues on Top of Blues (1968) and Lucille (1968) each have the same horn-laden, big-band blues sound.  It’s all good stuff, but the horns get in the way of hearing BB wail on Lucille.  That having been said, there is the title track to Lucille is a ten-minute guitar track that tells the story of what his guitar means to him, and how his guitar got its name.  When BB isn’t telling the story of his life, he lets Lucille “sing.” The only music Lucille likes to play is the blues.  The funny thing about Lucille is the cover.  From 1959 until his death, Lucille was a Gibson ES-355, but the guitar on the cover is a Gibson Les Paul.  But I quibble…the music contained therein is great.

Joel Selvin used to be the pop music critic for the San Francisco Chronicle.  Recently he published a story about “a night at the Fillmore changed B.B. King’s career forever.”  The night in question was in February 1967.  He had played the Fillmore West several times before this night, but when he stepped out on stage that evening he saw something he’d never seen before – a roomful of white hippies.  BB King had played to exclusively black audiences [older black audiences at that] until this show.  Selvin described BB’s career at that time as “in decline” because the music he played [the blues] was a reminder to black audiences of the bad times and of Jim Crow.  Soul music was now the sound of the black community.  But the hippies liked the blues, and they liked them hard.  They had taken to Albert King’s guitar-driven blues, and they liked what they heard from BB King as well.  The record company took notice of the “new” demographic to whom BB King appealed.

In 1969, BB’s record label pared him with producer Bill Szymczyk, who later went on to work with the likes of The James Gang, Joe Walsh, The Eagles and The Who.  The two did four albums together, the first of which was Live & Well (1969).  Half the album was recorded live with his road band [“Live”], the other half was recorded in the studio [“Well”].  For the studio cuts, Szymczyk brought in studio musicians like Hugh McCracken, Paul Harris and Al Kooper.  The horns are still there, but they aren’t as prominent as they were on the preceding three studio albums.  Lucille and BB’s voice are brought to the fore, and the white studio guys could actually play the blues.  The blues feel is there.  There was a harder edge to the music.  The highlight for me on Live & Well is the closer Why I Sing The Blues, which clocks in at 8:37.  Short songs from BB King are ok, but I like to hear him stretch out and play.

Completely Well (1969) was an all-studio record.  With the exception of Al Kooper, the same studio musicians that played on the “Well” side of Live & Well are also present on Completely Well.  Producer Szymczyk strikes the same balance between horns, Lucille and BB’s voice on the first side of Completely Well as he did on Live & Well.  The other side of the LP is another story.  On this side, BB gets to cut loose on Lucille like I’ve never heard him before.  BB and company revisit a couple of songs BB recorded in the 1950s – Confessin’ the Blues and Cryin’ Won’t Help You Now.  These newer versions are more loose, and they sound more raw and angry.  Cryin’ Won’t Help You Now turns into a studio jam and clocks in at over twice the length of the original (6:27).  BB and the other musicians weren’t ready to quit, so the jam continued on You’re Mean for an additional ten minutes.  At the end of the jam you can hear BB say “damn, whatcha y’all tryin’ to do, kill me?”  This was a blues-meets-rock aesthetic to which BB King was more than able to tackle.  The last song is The Thrill Is Gone.  This is the song that will be forever connected with BB King, even though he didn’t write it.  The song was written by blues musician Roy Hawkins in 1951, and it was a hit for him that same year.  Bill Szymczyk got BB to record it.  When BB first heard the result, he wasn’t too sure if he liked it.  Then Szymczyk recorded that magnificent string arrangement and put it on the record.  BB liked it after that – a classic was born.  The string arrangement for The Thrill Is Gone was a first for BB King.  The song is BB King’s biggest hit, and also served as a blueprint for the follow-up album to Completely Well.

Indianola Mississippi Seeds (1970) was that follow-up.  It’s the one with the watermelon that’s made to look like a guitar.  The music contained therein sounds like The Thrill Is Gone.  For this album, producer Szymczyk dispensed with the horns all together and added string arrangements to most of the songs.  The results are very good.  The strings are present without getting in the way of the musicians.  Live & Well and Completely Well were recorded in New York.  Indianola Mississippi Seeds was recorded in Los Angeles, and with a change of scenery came a change of studio musicians.  Szymczyk used a different crew of studio musicians, including Joe Walsh on rhythm guitar, Leon Russell and Carole King (yes, that Carole King, the great songwriter who produced Tapestry the following year.).  With Carole King on electric piano (and the ever-present strings), the true follow-up to The Thrill Is Gone single is a song called Chains & Things.  Both songs are minor-chord blues and sound similar in their arrangements, but they’re different enough from one another to dismiss any notion that Chains & Things is simply a Thrill Is Gone knock-off.  Chains & Things stands on its own merits.  Leon Russell contributed his own Hummingbird to the proceedings, and did his own string and “angelic choir” arrangements for the songs.  Merry Clayton and Clydie King were part of the angelic chorus that closes out the song and the album.

As good as Live at the Regal is [and it’s very, very good], I actually prefer Live at Cook County Jail.  The music contained therein is as good as its Regal predecessor.  The blues is what Keith Richards call “adult music.”  Given this description, the screaming girls that reminds one of Beatlemania somewhat detract from the Regal show.  Both BB and Lucille are in fine voice.  There is one drawback to Cook County Jail – BB talks too much.  Maybe the captive audience didn’t want to interact with BB, hence the excess chatter from BB.  With all the time spent talking to the inmates, two or three more songs could have been squeezed out of this show.  The live version of The Thrill Is Gone makes up for it.  This isn’t Johnny Cash At Folsom Prison, but then again the music doesn’t lend itself to that kind of rowdiness.

Confessin’ the Blues, Blues on Top of Blues and Lucille are nice to have.  They’re nice, and they’re polite.  But for my money Live & Well, Completely Well, Indianola Mississippi Seeds, Live in Cook County Jail and Live at the Regal are essential BB King listening.

RIP BB King.

Four Sides of The Mule

What started out as a “side project” for Warren Haynes and Allen Woody during their down time from the Allman Brothers Band, Gov’t Mule has been around for twenty years now [they released their first album Gov’t Mule in 1995].  This year they are commemorating this milestone in a unique way by opening their vaults and releasing some live shows from the years gone by.  Every year The Mule has two special days on their concert calendar – Halloween and New Year’s Eve.  In the spirit of Halloween, where kids put on costumes and pretend to be someone else, The Mule does the same thing.  Instead of being The Mule, they pretend they’re another band.  They began this tradition in 2007, when they decided they would play Led Zeppelin’s Houses of the Holy album in its entirety.  To up the cool quotient of this show, John Paul Jones joined them for that night.  Robby Krieger of The Doors did the same thing in 2013, playing two Doors-heavy shows in California.  Since The Mule started making every show available on their Mule Tracks website, here’s what their Halloween shows have looked like:

2007 – Led Zeppelin – Holy Haunted House [Houses of the Holy in its entirety]

2008 – Pink Floyd – Dark Side of the Mule

2009 – The Rolling Stones – Stoned Side of the Mule [vinyl only]

2010 – The Who [Who’s Next in its entirety]

2012 – Jimi Hendrix

2013 – The Doors [two shows with Robby Krieger]

2014 – Neil Young

To begin their twentieth anniversary celebration, they released part of the 2009 Halloween show, the vinyl-only Stoned Side of the Mule.  I haven’t heard it, but I read about it.  The sight of drummer Matt Abts prancing on-stage like Mick Jagger while singing Shattered was oft-cited to be a highlight.  That’s about all I can say about it until I get the show online [I don’t buy vinyl anymore].  National Record Store Day wasn’t too long ago, and The Mule released the rest of their Stones songs on another piece of vinyl, the cleverly-titled Stoned Side of the Mule Vol. 2.  Perhaps someday the show will be mine…

The rest of the shows in this blog ARE mine, and I’m damn glad to have them.  In 2008, Jorgen Carlsson became the permanent bass player for The Mule, and Warren really threw him in the deep end [no pun intended] of the pool.  Their second gig with Jorgen was on Halloween night, so in addition to learning all The Mule’s songs [they never play the same setlist two nights in a row], Jorgen had to learn a bunch of Pink Floyd tunes as well.  Judging from what I heard, Floyd songs are not much of a problem for Jorgen Carlsson.  The Pink Floyd show [recorded in Boston], dubbed  Dark Side of the Mule, appeared right after Thanksgiving last year.  I happened to be in Hawaii at the time, and I picked up the single-disc version that documents just the Floyd set, while a multi-disc CD/DVD edition not only has the audio of the entire show, but it was also filmed.

I had some minor reservations about how this would sound.  Pink Floyd shows were very tightly-scripted affairs [I saw two of them in 1994].  How would a band such as Gov’t Mule, one that thrives on spontaneity and improvisation [I saw them in Pensacola last October], fare in playing tightly-constructed music?  Well, I must admit that when I heard them play Money, they just about drove over the cliff during the sax solo-to-guitar solo transition, but the sufficiently recovered to avoid complete disaster.  The Mule played the Floyd tunes fairly straight and stuck with the original arrangements.  The big surprise for me was Fearless.  On Meddle, it’s a quiet, pastoral piece.  In Warren Haynes’ hands it became dark, electric 12-string menace.  I think I like it better than the original [Heresy! Burn the heretic!].  On Comfortably Numb I expected Warren to go balls-out with face-melting solos like I know he’s capable – I saw David Gilmour do it twice, but Warren opted not to go there - very curious, but the crowd seemed to like it anyway.  What Warren held back in Comfortably Numb he more than made up for it in the last half of Shine On You Crazy Diamond.  The Mule finished with an electric version of Wish You Were Here, with Danny Louis playing what sounds like a lap steel.  Except for Fearless, Warren eschewed his usual Gibson arsenal and played with Stratocasters and Telecasters to give the Mule a finer stiletto-edged sound like David Gilmour.

Warren Haynes wrote in the liner notes that there were several reasons why they decided to release their Pink Floyd Halloween set.  The show took place at the Orpheum Theatre in Boston, one of their favorite places to play.  He noted this was Jorgen Carlsson’s second gig with The Mule, so “why not?”  He also noted that Rick Wright’s death only a month prior to the show made it appropriate that they should release some kind of tribute to him.  And to that end, this set is dedicated to him.

The Pink Floyd Set:  One of These Days / Fearless / Pigs on the Wing Part 2 / Shine On You Crazy Diamond Parts I-V / Have a Cigar [Matt Abts sings!] / Breathe in the Air / Time / Money / Comfortably Numb / Shine On You Crazy Diamond Parts VI-VIII (no Part IX ‘Funeral March’) / Wish You Were Here

“The band is just fantastic, and I think that’s really cool, by the way – which one’s the Mule?”

Sometimes The Mule treats New Year’s Eve the same way they treat Halloween – an excuse to pay tribute to the music of others.  2014 saw The Mule play 18 AC/DC songs with singer Myles Kennedy.  In 2012 they did a tribute to The Three Kings [Albert, BB and Freddie], while in 2008 there was a Seattle music theme [Soundgarden, Pearl Jam, Alice in Chains, Nirvana, Temple of the Dog].  That would make an interesting release.  In 1999, they played a six-song set with Little Milton Campbell as well as lots of covers from the likes of The Beatles, Hendrix, Alice Cooper, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Humble Pie, and more [all documented in the three-CD Mulennium].   My point is that on New Year’s Eve, one can expect a show of nothing but The Mule, or anything BUT The Mule, or something in between.  In 2006, the audience at the Beacon Theatre got something in between.

Dub Side of the Mule sounds vastly superior to the dub/reggae album they released in 2007, Mighty High.  I never thought I would say this about any Gov’t Mule album, but I hate Mighty High.  This document with Toots Hibbert should have been released in its place. It sounds great, and it is obvious that a great time was had by all.  In addition to some of Toots Hibbert’s songs, you’ll find a couple of tunes by Otis Redding.  The real curve ball here is a reggae version of a Radiohead song [Let Down].  Al Green’s I’m a Ram [one of the very few things I like about Mighty High] kicked off this set.  My favorite song from this set is Hard Road.  It alternates between being laid back and being intense.  The blues standard Turn On Your Love Light also gets the reggae treatment.  To me it sounds more like ska, but I quibble.  I like it.  It kicked off the New Year.  Warren’s Soulshine got a reggae makeover [Reggae Soulshine].  It’s ok, but I didn’t need yet another version of this overplayed song.

The reggae set:  I’m a Ram / 54-56 Was My Number / Hard To Handle / True Love Is Hard To Find / Pressure Drop / Let Down / I’ve Got Dreams To Remember / Reggae Got Soul / Hard Road / Turn On Your Lovelight / Reggae Soulshine

Sco-Mule had been sitting in the can for the longest time of these archive releases.  Warren Haynes wrote a very detailed story about how he met with guitarist John Scofield about 25 years ago and how he came to invite Scofield to play two shows with them in Georgia in September 1999.  The Mule was a rock power trio then [Allen Woody was still alive and well].  They had recorded some jazz-influenced instrumentals for their first two albums [Trane, Birth of the Mule, Thelonius Beck], and at this point they got in the habit of changing their setlists from night to night as well as expanding their repertoire.  They were looking for new musical areas to explore.  Why not do something all-instrumental?  So they got together with John Scofield and worked out some tunes – some of Scofield’s, some of theirs, and others like Mongo Santamaria’s Afro Blue.  After the shows Warren listened back to what they played and mixed the shows for eventual release.  They had already begun recording their third album Life Before Insanity, but these shows might have been the release following LBI.  That was not to be because Allen Woody died unexpectantly in 2000.  After a period of time where the band didn’t know whether to continue without Woody, they decided to record the two volumes of The Deep End as well as the live The Deepest End as a tribute to him.  Once that project was behind them, the focus was to find a permanent bass player, move ahead and create new music.  The time never felt right to release Sco-Mule…until now.

Sco-Mule track list:

Hottentot / Tom Thumb / Doing It to Death / Birth of the Mule / Sco-Mule / Kind of Bird / Pass the Peas / Devil Likes It Slow / Hottentot [alternate version] / Kind of Bird [alternate version] / Afro Blue

Gov’t Mule and John Scofield just recently completed a month of shows together, all of which were recorded.  Warren hints that there might be a Sco-Mule 2 in the future.  One can only hope!

Johnny Winter - Roots/Step Back

In 2004, Johnny Winter released an album [at that time his first in 12 years] called I’m a Bluesman.  It was a good record, but not a great one.  Some complained [rightly so] that his vocals had lost their ferocity, as had his playing.  There is a reason for this.  Johnny’s former manager, Teddy Slatus, kept him secluded, and kept him on methadone [for 30 years!] and anti-depression meds.  Slatus even kept his brother Edgar away from Johnny.  But Johnny Winter had a secret weapon.  His name is Paul Nelson.  Already the second guitarist in Johnny’s road band, he asked Nelson if he would be his manager.  He did so after Johnny fired Slatus, and Nelson began to make some changes.  He allowed people to communicate with Johnny Winter, who also credited Nelson to getting him kick all the drugs, all the booze, and even quit smoking.  He once said “I never thought I would see the day that I didn’t have any vices at all.”  Once all those vices were gone, the voice got stronger, and the playing got stronger.

Once he was well enough to record, the plan was simple.  When JW asked Nelson what he should put down, Nelson suggested that JW record songs that inspired him.  JW liked the idea, and the concept of Roots was born.  Not only would they record one “roots” album, the two men planned on recording four of them.  Not only did they record blues songs, but also old rock and roll songs from the 1950s.  The plan was also to have other artists [most of whom had worked with JW before] make guest appearances.  Other older stars have made duet records before [Frank Sinatra and BB King immediately come to mind], but these “duet” records would have a twist.  The “duets” would not be with vocals [with two exceptions] – they would be with the instruments.  There are plenty of guitarists on these albums.  After hearing I’m a Bluesman, I was worried that any and/or all the guests would upstage Johnny.  I need not have worried.  Johnny Winter’s recovery from his addictions took hold, and he went toe-to-toe with his guests with ease. 

In 2014 Johnny Winter followed Roots with Step Back.  The plan for Step Back was the same as Roots.  I think of both albums as part of the same work, hence this blog about both of them.  When asked earlier in 2014 what was left for Johnny Winter to accomplish, he responded that he sure would like to win a Grammy®.  Last month, Step Back won the Grammy® for Best Blues Album of 2014.  Too bad Johnny Winter didn’t live to see it happen.

Roots [2011]

T-Bone Shuffle

Further On Up The Road

Done Somebody Wrong

Got My Mojo Working

Last Night

Maybellene

Bright Lights, Big City

Honky Tonk

Dust My Broom

Short Fat Fannie

Come Back Baby

Step Back [2014]

Unchain My Heart

Can’t Hold Out [Talk To Me Baby]

Don’t Want No Woman

Killing Floor

Who Do You Love

Okie Dokey Stomp

Sweet Sixteen

Where Can You Be

Death Letter

My Babe

Long Tall Sally

Mojo Hand

Blue Monday

The home runs:

Dust My Broom – words escape me on how good this one is.  Johnny Winter and Derek Trucks duel on the slide.  Too bad Derek doesn’t play like this on his own albums.

Death Letter – This is the only acoustic slide song between the two collections.  JW was always great at this sort of thing.  What a shame he never recorded an entire album of this stuff.

Don’t Want No Woman – Johnny Winter sure loved Elmore James.  Him and Eric Clapton together – what could go wrong?

Can’t Hold Out [Talk To Me Baby] – Ben Harper sings and plays his lap steel.

Met Expectations:

T-Bone Shuffle

Done Somebody Wrong

Sweet Sixteen

Where Can You Be

My Babe

Further On Up the Road

Short Fat Fannie

Muddy and The Wolf:  No album of blues covers is complete without at least a nod to Muddy Waters and/or Howlin’ Wolf.  Johnny Winter just happened to do my favorites from Muddy and the Wolf – Got My Mojo Workin’ and Killing Floor.  Very nice!

Instrumentals:  There are two of them, both from Clarence Gatemouth Brown:  Okie Dokie Stomp and Honky Tonk.  Both are very good.

The Pleasant Surprises:

Come Back Baby – I heard Clapton do this on his From the Cradle collection.  I liked that one a lot.  This one is better.

Mojo Hand – Joe Perry was pretty good here.  If he ever decides to stop playing chick music with Aerosmith, he could have a future in the blues.  Too bad he can’t sing…

Picks from Left Field:

Unchain My Heart – Johnny Winter takes a turn at an old Ray Charles song.  The result isn’t bad, it’s just mind-blowing.

Maybelline – Not only did I not expect Johnny Winter to do another Chuck Berry song in his career, I really didn’t expect Vince Gill to come along for the ride.  This is most excellent.

Blue Monday – Johnny Winter sings Fats Domino!  I didn’t see that one coming…

Songs I can do without: 

Bright Lights, Big City – There must be some clause in every contract that Derek Trucks signs that says “if you work with me, you have to work with my wife.”  In the blues community, Susan Tedeschi is becoming almost as ubiquitous as Sheryl Crow is in the rock/pop world.  That is not a compliment.   I’m still not a member of The Church of Susan.

Last Night – If you have heard one John Popper harmonica solo, you have heard them all.  He ruins an otherwise fine take on this Little Walter gem with his overplaying.

Long Tall Sally – The only person on the planet who should be allowed to sing Little Richard songs [besides the man himself] is Paul McCartney.  Vocally, Johnny Winter is no Paul McCartney.

Both Roots and Step Back are worthy additions to any Johnny Winter collections.  They make a fitting epitaph for a Texas bluesman who is sorely missed.