John Prine - RIP

Wildly imaginative, witty, humble, hilarious, wry, tender, offbeat, empathetic, insightful, spine-chilling, magnetizing, lighthearted, illuminating, overpowering, honest, simple, timeless, introspective, heartfelt, challenging, influential, underappreciated, under the radar, hard-to-categorize, straightforward, whimsical, fatalistic.

Since John Prine died the first week of April, I’ve been scouring the Internet to find adjectives written by people who write much better than I to describe John Prine’s music.  I found a lot of them.  I’m quite sure the list I’ve compiled is incomplete, but each one applies.  A friend of mine from the old neighborhood said “there’s no such thing as a bad John Prine song” – and she’s right.  If there is one, I haven’t heard it.

As is my wont, whenever a musician I like passes away, I do the deep dive into the songbook and try to create a good playlist.  Keeping in mind my friend’s thoughts about there being no bad John Prine songs, some are more equal than others.  Otherwise, my playlist would be every song John Prine ever recorded.  Not all the songs on my list were written by him.  There’s a Hank Williams song here, and A.P. Carter song there, and a Buck Owens song somewhere else, but I like how he played them.  The entire debut album is here because it was that good.  There is much to enjoy.

Here’s my playlist.  As always, it’s just one pinhead’s point of view [mine].

Illegal Smile [John Prine, 1971]

Spanish Pipedream [John Prine, 1971]

Hello In There [John Prine, 1971]

Sam Stone [John Prine, 1971]

Paradise [John Prine, 1971]

Pretty Good [John Prine, 1971]

Your Flag Decal Won't Get You Into Heaven Anymore [John Prine, 1971]

Far From Me [John Prine, 1971]

Angel From Montgomery [John Prine, 1971]

Quiet Man [John Prine, 1971]

Donald and Lydia [John Prine, 1971]

Six O'Clock News [John Prine, 1971]

Flashback Blues [John Prine, 1971]

The Late John Garfield Blues [Diamonds in the Rough, 1972]

Sour Grapes [Diamonds in the Rough, 1972]

Billy the Bum [Diamonds in the Rough, 1972]

The Frying Pan [Diamonds in the Rough, 1972]

Yes I Guess They Oughta Name a Drink After You [Diamonds in the Rough, 1972]

Sweet Revenge [Sweet Revenge, 1973]

Please Don't Bury Me [Sweet Revenge, 1973]

Christmas In Prison [Sweet Revenge, 1973]

Blue Umbrella [Sweet Revenge, 1973]

Mexican Home [Sweet Revenge, 1973]

Often Is a Word I Seldom Use [Sweet Revenge, 1973]

Linda Goes to Mars [German Afternoons, 1986]

Let's Talk Dirty in Hawaiian [German Afternoons, 1986]

Dear Abby (Live) [Sweet Revenge, 1973]

Other Side of Town (Live) [Fair & Square, 2005]

Quit Hollerin' at Me (Live) [Live on Tour, 1997]

Space Monkey (Live) [Live on Tour, 1997]

He Was In Heaven Before He Died [Common Sense, 1975]

The Accident (Things Could Be Worse) [Sweet Revenge, 1973]

Bruised Orange (Chain of Sorrow) [Bruised Orange, 1978]

That's the Way the World Goes Round [Bruised Orange, 1978]

Come Back to Us Barbara Lewis Hare Krishna Beauregard [Common Sense, 1975]

Jesus, the Missing Years [The Missing Years, 1991]

Lake Marie [Lost Dogs and Mixed Blessings, 1995]

Everything Is Cool [A John Prine Christmas, 1994]

The Sins of Memphisto [The Missing Years, 1991]

Great Rain [The Missing Years, 1991]

Ain't Hurtin' Nobody [Lost Dogs and Mixed Blessings, 1995]

In Spite of Ourselves [In Spite of Ourselves, 1999]

Mental Cruelty [For Better, or Worse, 2016]

Just Waitin' [For Better, or Worse, 2016]

Crazy as a Loon [Fair & Square, 2005]

Bear Creek Blues [Fair & Square, 2005]

Lonesome Friends of Science [The Tree of Forgiveness, 2018]

Summer's End [The Tree of Forgiveness, 2018]

When I Get to Heaven [The Tree of Forgiveness, 2018]

RIP John Prine, and thank you.

Alfred Hitchcock 1940-1976 – Tony’s Picks

Don’t let the dates mislead you.  Alfred Hitchcock lived much longer than the 36 years indicated in the title.  1940 was the year of Alfred Hitchcock’s first movie made in the United States.  Before he came to this country at the behest of producer David O. Selznick, he made forty-six movies for British cinema [only two of which I have seen – [39 Steps (1935) and Sabotage (1936)].  After his arrival in the United States in 1939, he made twenty-nine feature length movies [only three of which I haven’t seen – Mr. & Mrs. Smith (1941), The Paradine Case (1947), and Under Capricorn (1949)].  I have these films broken out into three categories – 1. Must See; 2. Good, but not essential; 3. See Once, then Never Again.

1.     Must See

Rebecca [1940] – “Plain” and socially unexperienced Joan Fontaine meets and falls in love with rich, suave and debonair Laurence Olivier.  They marry, but Fontaine finds that she’s competing for Olivier’s affections [so she thinks] not only with the ghost of Olivier’s first wife [Rebecca, whom you never see], but also Olivier’s formidable housekeeper, Judith Anderson.  Anderson was close to Rebecca and was determined to keep her memory alive.  She was truly scary.  This was the only movie Hitchcock made that won the Academy Award^© for Best Picture.

Foreign Correspondent [1940] – The year is 1939.  Hitler has annexed Austria and Czechoslovakia. The war drums are beating.  Joel McCrea is an American reporter who is sent overseas by his editor to cover the crisis in Europe.  McCrea’s first assignment is to cover Herbert Marshall, who is the leader of a fictitious Universal Peace Party that is trying to prevent World War II.  He meets a Dutch diplomat named Van Meer, who is the guest of honor at an event hosted by Marshall’s character.  Van Meer doesn’t show for the event – he went to Amsterdam for a conference.  But McCrea does meet the daughter of Marshall’s character, played by Laraine Day.  Things get in a twist when “Van Meer” is assassinated right in front of McCrea after he tracked him down in Amsterdam.

Suspicion [1941] – Unlike her character in Rebecca, Joan Fontaine is the daughter of a wealthy father.  She’s part of a family used to having money.  She meets playboy Cary Grant on a train.  He charms her into eloping.  She isn’t a ravishing beauty, she feared she’d spend her life as a spinster, so getting married to Cary Grant was an easy sell.  It isn’t until after the honeymoon that Fontaine finds out her husband is allergic to work, gambles a lot, and lives on other peoples’ money.  After Grant’s character is fired from a job for embezzlement, Fontaine’s character suspects her husband is trying to kill her for insurance money.  Until this movie, Cary Grant was renowned for being in comedies, but here he gets the opportunity to play a fairly dark character.

Shadow of a Doubt [1943] – Charlie Newton [Teresa Wright] is a bored teenager living in Santa Rosa, California.  Nothing exciting happens in her life except whenever her namesake uncle Charlie [Joseph Cotten] visits.  Suddenly, Charlie’s wish to alleviate her boredom is granted when Uncle Charles shows up [unannounced] to pay a visit.  What Charlie doesn’t know is that her uncle Charles is on the run.  Charlie finds out that her uncle is suspected of murder.  Not to give away everything between here and the end of the movie, there are two attempted murders and a death on a train.

Spellbound [1945] – Ingrid Bergman is a psychiatrist who works at an insane asylum.  Gregory Peck is the new director of the asylum as the old director is forced into retirement.  Only Peck isn’t really a doctor, plus he doesn’t know who he really is.  Of course, a murder is involved.  Once Peck is exposed as an imposter, he goes to Rochester with Dr. Ingrid to see her old mentor in order to try to recover Peck’s memory.  Of special note, there’s a surreal Gregory Peck dream sequence conceived by Salvador Dali.  The movie is very good, and Dali’s dream sequence pushes it over the cliff [pun intended once you see the movie].

Notorious [1946] – Cary Grant, Ingrid Bergman and Claude Rains.  What could go wrong?  Nothing does in this movie.  Ingrid Bergman is a German émigré whose father was convicted for being a Nazi spy.  Cary Grant is a US spy trying to recruit Ingrid Bergman to get information about her father’s associates who fled to Brazil after World War II.  Claude Rains is one of the associates who always had a crush on Ingrid Bergman.  Rains and Bergman get married, despite Rains’ mother’s protestations.  Claude Rains’ suspicious mother looks a lot like Anthony Hopkins.

Strangers on a Train [1951] – Farley Granger is a tennis pro who wants a divorce from his promiscuous wife so he can marry someone else.  She doesn’t want a divorce.  Robert Walker is a spoiled psychopath who wants to murder his father.  They meet on a train and as they get to know each other, Walker suggests they “swap murders” – that he kill Granger’s wife and that Granger kill Walker’s father.  Walker does his bit, but when Granger doesn’t return the favor, Walker tries to frame Granger for his wife’s murder.  The story climaxes on an out-of-control carousel ride.

Dial M for Murder [1954] – Ray Milland suspects his wife Grace Kelly is cheating on him [he’s right].  He had a plan to kill her – he even had an alibi.  He didn’t count on Grace surviving the attack.  This is one of several movies where Grace Kelly had a very annoying fake British accent.  I think because she said “oh, Tony…” with that bad accent so many times that I was rooting for Ray Milland to succeed.  Oh well…

Rear Window [1954] – Jeff Jeffries [James Stewart] is a professional photographer laid up with a broken leg.  He gives voyeurism new meaning because the only way he can pass the time is to watch his neighbors across the courtyard from his own apartment through his rear window [hence the name].  Lisa Fremont [Grace Kelly] is his girlfriend, who luckily doesn’t have a bad British accent.  As Jeffries people-watches, he notices the bedridden wife of a traveling salesman [Raymond Burr] goes missing.  He also sees the salesman cleaning off a knife and a hacksaw…

The Man Who Knew Too Much [1956] – Dr. Ben McKenna [James Stewart] is on vacation in Morocco with his wife, popular singer Jo Conway [Doris Day], and their son Hank. They meet a Frenchman named Louis Bernard.  Bernard invited the McKennas to dinner, only to be blown off by Bernard at the restaurant when Bernard meets some stranger.  The McKennas went to a Moroccan market in Marrakesh, only to find a man with a knife in his back being chased by the police.  The guy who was stabbed in the back turns out to be Bernard [a French intelligence agent] in disguise.  Before he dies, he tells Dr. McKenna about a foreign dignitary who is to be assassinated in London.  Young Hank is kidnapped by the group of assassins.  The McKennas go to Scotland Yard.  All roads lead to a concert at the Royal Albert Hall, where the dignitary in question is the target.  Doris Day sings Que Sera, Sera, for about three minutes too long.

Vertigo [1958] – The movie gets its name from James Stewart’s character, a San Francisco cop named Scottie Ferguson who developed a severe fear of heights [and the resulting case of vertigo thereof]. This movie is quite creepy in that James Stewart’s character finds a woman [Kim Novak] who is a dead-ringer for another woman whom Stewart’s character desired while he was shadowing her for a client.  To prove her “love” for Ferguson, she changes her wardrobe and her hair to look exactly like the woman over whom he obsessed.  It’s almost as if Ferguson not only has a fear of heights and vertigo, he also has necrophilia.

North by Northwest [1959] – My favorite Hitchcock movie.  Cary Grant is Roger Thornhill, an advertising executive bachelor who lives with his mother.  Thornhill is mistaken for a secret agent named George Kaplan.  He’s kidnapped by henchmen employed by a convincingly-menacing James Mason.  He breaks free from his kidnappers, gets drunk, and gets arrested for drunk driving on purpose.  Then he’s framed for murdering a UN diplomat, escapes on a train where he meets Eva Marie Saint.  Then he gets buzzed by a crop duster, nearly run over by a gas tanker, supposedly shot to death at the Mount Rushmore visitor center, and has a climactic encounter with another Mason henchman [Martin Landau] on Mount Rushmore itself.  But there is a happy ending… I can’t make up my mind who is a hotter Hitchcock blonde – Kim Novak or Eva Marie Saint? [My friend Tom would say Janet Leigh]

Psycho [1960] – What can be said about this movie that many people don’t already know?  Janet Leigh, the shower scene, the murder weapon that is never seen to touch Janet Leigh, Martin Balsam falling down a stair case after he gets sliced and diced, and an insane Norman Bates [Anthony Perkins] who keeps his dead mother upstairs.  Then there’s the music…

The Birds [1963] – This movie was my introduction to Alfred Hitchcock, thanks to my mom. Mom was kinda weird.  She let me see this and The Godfather when I was little, but wouldn’t take me to see The Exorcist. To this day I still get a little suspicious whenever I see a large group of birds in one place.  This is the last great Hitchcock movie. Two more words – Tippi Hedren.  ‘Nuff said…

2.     Good, But not Essential;

Saboteur [1942] – Factory worker Barry Kane [Robert Cummings] is suspected of committing sabotage at a Southern California aircraft manufacturing plant.  The fire at the plant kills a co-worker, so Kane is also suspected of murder.  Like OJ Simpson, Kane’s efforts to find the “real killer” take him to a ranch in California’s High Desert.  Kane finds the ranch owner supports the real saboteur(s), and after his niece tries to take Kane to the police, Kane kidnaps her instead. After he convinces her of his innocence, they somehow foil plots to blow up Boulder Dam and the launching of a new US Navy ship in New York.  By the way, they did find the real killer, unlike OJ.

Stage Fright [1950] – Jane Wyman is an aspiring actress and student at London’s Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts [RADA].  A fellow student [Richard Todd] comes to Wyman for help.  He tells Wyman of a flashback that his lover [Marlene Dietrich] confessed to killing her husband.  Not everything is as it seems while various and sundry people try to clear their names.  This one is worth the time because of Marlene Dietrich, but the story is really good.

I Confess [1953] – This one was made before Montgomery Clift started mumbling his lines in movies.  Clift is a priest accused of murder.  He can’t reveal the real murderer because that person made a confession to Clift’s character.  Clift is tried and acquitted, but still remains under suspicion from the locals.  Clift is attacked by a crowd, but he escapes being killed by them when the killer’s wife reveals the true murderer.

To Catch a Thief [1955] – Cary Grant is a retired jewel thief.  He’s living in comfortable retirement on the French Riviera.  Lots of jewels belonging to Riviera vacationers turn up missing.  Many think Cary Grant did it [he didn’t].  Grace Kelly is a nouveau rich bitch with that lousy, cringe worthy British accent again.

The Trouble with Harry [1955] – Of all the Hitchcock movies I’ve seen, this one is by far the most bizarre.  It’s a black comedy. The “Harry” in question is a corpse.  The story takes place in a small New England village.  “Harry” keeps popping up in scene after scene, even though he’s dead.  He’s buried four times.  Nobody seems to think it’s odd there’s a dead body out in public.  Even stranger, nobody thinks to call the police to report a dead body.  Very strange…

Torn Curtain [1966] – Paul Newman is a rocket scientist and physicist.  Julie Andrews is his assistant [and fiancée].  They’re traveling to a conference in Copenhagen, where he gets a note to pick up a certain book.  Abruptly, Newman tells Andrews he has to fly to Stockholm immediately, but he really flies to East Berlin.  Unbeknownst to Newman, Andrews follows him to East Berlin, where she discovers he’s “defecting” to East Germany.  What is really happening is that Newman is freelancing his own spy thriller in order for the East Germans to give up their secrets concerning missile defense.  Strange casting, but the movie is “ok”.

Topaz [1969] – Another Cold War drama, this time it takes place during the Cuban Missile Crisis.  The American CIA is trying to find out about Soviet missiles in Cuba, while simultaneously trying to uncover a Soviet mole within NATO [who happens to be French].  Once you get past seeing ‘Dean Wormer’ [John Vernon] playing a Cuban who is close to Fidel Castro, it’s still a pretty good movie.  For me, this was Hitchcock’s last really good movie.

3.     See Once, then Never Again

Marnie [1964] – Tippi Hedren is a kleptomaniac with mommy issues.  Sean Connery is slumming between James Bond movies.  That’s all you really need to know.  Tippi is nice to look at, but her looks can’t save this movie.

Lifeboat [1944] – A U-Boat sinks a passenger vessel.  The movie is set entirely in the lifeboat.  By the way, the U-Boat captain is also in the lifeboat.  A lot of professional critics love it.  I’m not a professional critic and I don’t love this one.

Rope [1948] – As with Lifeboat, this movie is set in one location – the apartment of two guys who think they are intellectually superior to the rest of their fellow humans.  The plot is about how these two clowns commit what they think is the “perfect murder”.  The movie begins with the two strangling a former Harvard classmate, then hiding his corpse in a large chest that serves as a MacGuffin for the movie. There’s a party at the apartment later that day, and the chest with the corpse served as a serving table for the party.  James Stewart’s character, the murderers’ prep-school housemaster, is the one who put the ideas of Nietzsche’s Übermensch in their heads in the first place.  He finds redemption at the end of the movie [somewhat] by solving the “perfect murder” and renouncing his previous thoughts of one group of people having “superiority” over another.

The Wrong Man [1956] – This one is painful to watch.  It’s filmed as a docudrama.  Henry Fonda is a jazz musician who is arrested, tried but later exonerated for a crime [armed robbery] he didn’t commit.  We the audience know that he didn’t do it.  Henry Fonda’s character seems like he’s more inconvenienced than pissed off that he’s wrongly accused.  Vera Miles plays his wife.  Her character’s slow descent into clinical depression is what makes this movie hard to watch.  This film showed that police procedurals really weren’t part of Hitchcock’s skill set.

Frenzy [1972] – A serial killer in London who sometimes passes himself off as an RAF officer.  Pretty dull.

Family Plot [1976] – Hitchcock’s last movie.  Two plotlines weave together.  One plotline involves a fake psychic and her taxicab boyfriend who is trying to find the missing heir to a fortune of a rich old woman.  The other plotline involves a couple of jewel thieves, one of whom turns out to be the missing heir the old woman hired the fake psychic to find.  This movie is kinda goofy and entertaining, but you aren’t missing anything.

Haven’t seen because they’re Nearly Impossible to Find:

Mr. & Mrs. Smith (1941) – Ok, I lied.  This one is On Demand…

The Paradine Case (1947) – But this one isn’t…

Under Capricorn (1949) – And neither is this one…

Michael Nesmith & the First National Band Redux/The Mike & Micky Show Live

Fifty years ago, Mike Nesmith was an ex-Monkee.  He had written a bunch of songs while he was in the Monkees, but not necessarily for the Monkees.  But being a guy from Texas, Papa Nez knew how to write songs a certain way.  That “certain way” was not necessarily for what music executives thought pop music consumers wanted to hear.  According to Papa Nez, music executives thought his music sounded too ‘twangy’.  The way he tells it, music producers would tell him “don’t put any twang in there because twang sounds ignorant to the Upper Northeast, while it might be appealing to the Lower Southeast.  Most of our audience is US Northeastern television watchers, and they notoriously turn off twang when they hear it.  First of all, we don’t like it because it’s twangy, and it’s country, and it sounds like you’re stupid.  And second of all, we don’t know what you’re singing about – this sounds like acid flashes, like you’re smoking a bunch of dope, and you don’t really know what you’re talking about.”  Snobby assholes, those record execs…

Such was Michael Nesmith’s life as a suffering songwriter while he was a Monkee.  Every now and then, he would get a few crumbs and some of his songs appeared on Monkees albums.  Of the four Monkees, he was the prolific songwriter [because that’s where the money is], while the other three sang songs written by professional songwriters like Carole King, Neil Diamond, Harry Nilsson, and Tommy Boyce/Bobby Hart.  When he went his own way, he was an RCA artist, but at least he could record his stuff in Nashville without the condescension of music execs in Los Angeles.  He formed his First National Band [pedal steel guitarist O.J. “Red” Rhodes and bassist John London (RIP), and drummer John Ware] and recorded a trio of albums - Magnetic South [1970], Loose Salute [1970], and Nevada Fighter [1971].  The albums didn’t sell much [like what happened to the Flying Burrito Brothers and Gram Parsons].  Oddly enough, with a similar sound the Eagles started printing money a couple of years later.  The sound was not-quite-country, not-quite rock, a not-quite-folk, but all fused with a bit of psychedelia.

In early 2018, Nesmith put together a new First National Band.  Since the drummer is retired and the other two members are dead, he appended the “Redux” tag.  On January 25^th, this band [which includes two sons Jonathan and Christian Nesmith on guitars, Christian Nesmith’s musical partner Circe Link on harmony vocals, and Pete Finney (pedal steel)] played a sold-out show at LA’s Troubadour club.  This show has been released as Michael Nesmith and The First National Band Redux: Live at The Troubadour. From the opening Nevada Fighter to the closing Thanks for the Ride, the audience had a great time while the band was firing on all cylinders.  Christian Nesmith mixed the album, and it shines!  The set list included most of what appeared on those first three albums, and a couple of surprises.  Papa Nez said in his liner notes that he has never been happier with any record he had done, that he was at the top of his form and this was the best that he could do.  The results therein confirm Nez’s pride in this album.  The only gripe I have is that Rio is a bonus track on vinyl only.

Nevada Fighter [Nevada Fighter, 1971]

Calico Girlfriend [Magnetic South, 1970]

Nine Times Blue [Magnetic South, 1970]*

Little Red Rider [Magnetic South, 1970]*

The Crippled Lion [Magnetic South, 1970]*

Joanne [Magnetic South, 1970]

Dedicated Friend [Loose Salute, 1970]

Grand Ennui [Nevada Fighter, 1971]

Lady of the Valley [Loose Salute, 1970]

Propinquity (I've Just Begun to Care) [Nevada Fighter, 1971]*

Different Drum

Papa Gene's Blues

Tengo Amore [Loose Salute, 1970]

Keys to the Car [Magnetic South, 1970]

Mama Nantucket [Magnetic South, 1970]

Bye Bye Bye [Loose Salute, 1970]

Some of Shelly's Blues [Pretty Much Your Standard Ranch Stash, 1973]*

Silver Moon [Loose Salute, 1970]

Thanx for the Ride [Loose Salute, 1970]

*Recorded for [and rejected by] the Monkees

After Papa Nez did his short tour with his The First National Band Redux, he did a tour with Micky Dolenz called The Mike & Micky Show.  They didn’t bill themselves as “The Monkees” since Peter Tork didn’t participate.  They had to cut short the tour when Papa Nez fell ill [quadruple by-pass surgery], and Peter Tork later succumbed to cancer in early 2019.  After his death, Mike & Micky resumed their tour, one show of which was recorded.  Oddly enough, since there was no television show to present the songs, quite a few “twangy” songs magically appeared in the set list.  Adding to the twang was Christian Nesmith [guitar], Pete Finney [steel guitar] and Circe Link on harmony vocals from the FNB Redux.  Sometimes this live document sounds like the FNB Redux, but that’s not a bad thing.  Funny how that happens…

Mike & Micky don’t hide that they’re happy playing together.  The friendly atmosphere is quite evident.  Not only did they play the hits, they dug real deep into their catalog.  A couple of tracks from their most recent disc, Good Times! (2016) appear as well. Micky Dolenz sang two songs associated with Davy Jones.  There’s also a brief “unplugged” segment in the show.  Mike & Micky are in good voice, singing in the same keys they sang over 50 years ago.  Since they have additional musicians playing with them, the songs sound more like [but not exactly like] the original arrangements.  As with the FNB Redux album, Christian Nesmith mixed The Mike & Micky Show, and it too shines.

Last Train To Clarksville [The Monkees, 1966]

Sunny Girlfriend [Headquarters, 1967]

Mary, Mary [More of the Monkees, 1967]

You Told Me [Headquarters, 1967]

For Pete's Sake [Headquarters, 1967]

The Door Into Summer [Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn & Jones Ltd., 1967]

You Just May Be The One [Headquarters, 1967]

A Little Bit Me, A Little Bit You [single, 1967]

The Girl I Knew Somewhere [B-side, 1967]

Birth Of An Accidental Hipster [Good Times!, 2016]

St. Matthew [Missing Links Volume Two, 1990 – recorded 1968]

As We Go Along [Head, 1968]

Circle Sky [Head, 1968/Justus, 1996]

Pleasant Valley Sunday [Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn & Jones Ltd., 1967]

Papa Gene's Blues [The Monkees, 1966]

Randy Scouse Git [Headquarters, 1967]

Tapioca Tundra [The Birds, The Bees & The Monkees, 1968]

Me & Magdalena [Good Times!, 2016]

Auntie's Municipal Court [The Birds, The Bees & The Monkees, 1968]

Goin' Down [B-side, 1967]

Sweet Young Thing [The Monkees, 1966]

(I'm Not Your) Steppin' Stone [More of the Monkees, 1967]

Daydream Believer [The Birds, The Bees & The Monkees, 1968]

Listen To The Band [The Monkees Present, 1969]

I'm A Believer [More of the Monkees, 1967]

If you’re an old fan of the music, buy these two sets.  You won’t be disappointed.

Slowhand at 75

Eric Clapton turned 75 this week [March 30^th].  It seems like he’s been in the music game forever.  Since he made his first record with the Yardbirds in 1963, for somebody my age it has been forever.  He made his fearsome God-like reputation by the age of 25, and he had all the music from since the days of John Mayall, Cream, Blind Faith, and Derek & the Dominos behind him.  Then he fell in love with another man’s wife, fell into a heroin habit and dropped out of sight.  Pete Townshend getting him to play a concert at London’s Rainbow Theatre really was an act of altruism.  That one act alone didn’t awaken EC from his drug-induced fog, but it was a first step.  This week Guitar World magazine did an article on what they thought were the best things he’s done under his own name.  As musically-opinionated as I am, I think half their list is wrong. 

Comin' Home [Delaney & Bonnie w/ Eric Clapton, 1970] – Delaney & Bonnie Bramlett were the opening act for Blind Faith’s only tour of the US.  EC tired of the star trip in Blind Faith and sought anonymity while playing with Delaney & Bonnie.  Even George Harrison went on the road with them in Europe after Abbey Road was finished.  This song was the beginning of EC’s recorded collaboration with the duo.  Good stuff.

Easy Now [Eric Clapton, 1970] – Long before he Unplugged in 1991, EC played this acoustic gem from his solo debut.

Let It Rain [Eric Clapton, 1970] – The solo debut featured players who would become the “Dominos” to EC’s Derek.  This is a song from EC’s solo debut that I will never tire of hearing, unlike Layla or I Shot the Sheriff.  A true story – the first time I saw EC at Red Rocks in 1983, he sang this song an it immediately started raining. He really is God… 😊 By the way, that’s Stephen Stills playing the solo.  EC would later return the favor on Stills’ eponymous debut.

Motherless Children [461 Ocean Boulevard, 1974] – After lying low for three years with a heroin habit, 461 Ocean Boulevard is Slowhand’s comeback record – and it’s a pretty good one.  I overlook I Shot the Sheriff because it’s one of those songs I can go the rest of my life without ever hearing again, and I’d be ok with it.  Motherless Children is a traditional blues that comes storming out of the gate to begin 461 Ocean Boulevard.  It’s a great concert opening number, too [as I saw and heard for myself in 1985 at Red Rocks].  EC is no Duane Allman on electric slide, but he’s good enough here.

Let It Grow [461 Ocean Boulevard, 1974] – This is a love song for the ex-Mrs. George Harrison.  Once you get past the mushy “love is lovely” bit, there’s some fine playing here.  EC plays a very tasty dobro solo.

Steady Rolling Man [461 Ocean Boulevard, 1974] – Look! A Robert Johnson song!  And a very well-done version of a Robert Johnson song to boot.

Mainline Florida [461 Ocean Boulevard, 1974] – Clapton’s second guitarist George Terry wrote this one.  Sometimes it’s best to save your best song for last to have your public wanting more.  This song fits that description.  Check out EC on the talk box.

Better Make It Through Today [There’s One in Every Crowd, 1975] – This song is about as laid back as Clapton could get without being boring.  That said, organist Dick Sims plays a wonderful Hammond B-3 solo.  It’s all about the song and the spirit, and Sims brings it home.

I Found a Love [There’s One in Every Crowd outtake, 1975] – I first heard this on the Clapton boxset Crossroads [1988].  This has more energy than all the songs from There’s One in Every Crowd put together.  That’s probably why it wasn’t included on that album – it would have stuck out too much.

County Jail Blues [No Reason to Cry, 1976] – In 1968, EC heard The Band’s Music from Big Pink, and according to him it changed his life.  He wanted to quit Cream and join The Band.  The problem was The Band already had a pretty hot guitarist [and a better songwriter] named Robbie Robertson.  In 1976, The Band joined him to make No Reason to Cry.  Ron Wood joins the fun with a nasty acoustic slide.  Richard Manuel’s piano adds the right touch; gives the song a more bluesy edge. EC doesn’t sound too bad, either. It’s a fine song on an otherwise forgettable album.

The Core [Slowhand, 1977] – Slowhand’s post-Layla output was usually very laid back.  This song is an exception.  Instead of another guitarist, EC duels with saxophonist Mel Collins.  Twice during this eight-minute workout [3:53-4:46 and 7:29-8:45, if you’re curious] EC reminds us there’s a guitar hero hiding in plain sight.

Mean Old Frisco [Slowhand, 1977] - EC demonstrates he’s a pretty decent acoustic slide player.

After Midnight [Just One Night (live), 1980] – EC has recorded this JJ Cale number three times – once for his solo debut, another time for a beer commercial.  This one recorded live at Tokyo’s Budokan absolutely smokes.

Double Trouble [Just One Night (live), 1980] – This one is a fine Otis Rush blues originally released on No Reason to Cry.  There’s loud and there’s very quiet, thanks to the polite, reserved Tokyo audience.  At times it’s so quiet you can hear Slowhand gently picking Blackie during the solo.  The studio version is good – this version is better.

Cocaine [Just One Night (live), 1980] – This one borders on having been heard too much.  This version from the Budokan is twice the length of its studio counterpart. Both EC and Albert Lee get the chance to stretch out.

Everybody Oughta Make A Change [Money & Cigarettes, 1983] – This blues from Sleepy John Estes sees Slowhand playing with Ry Cooder on slide guitar.  It seems EC doesn’t really push his playing unless somebody like Duane Allman is pushing him.  Since Duane was dead for 12 years by the time this was made, Ry Cooder was a suitable substitute.

The Shape You’re In [Money & Cigarettes, 1983] – Instead of Ry Cooder pushing him, Albert Lee does the honors on this one.  Newly sober, EC had written this as a warning to his wife Pattie, who was a bit of a wino herself then.

Forever Man [Behind the Sun, 1985] – This one is a sentimental favorite.  This was written by professional songwriter Jerry Williams.  The production screams “1980s”, but it has one standout feature; Clapton’s Black Stratocaster “Blackie” had not screamed like this since the Layla era.  When fist hearing this I thought “Eric, where have you been all these years?”

Before You Accuse Me (Take A Look At Yourself) [Version 1] [Blues – 1999] – Eleven years before he released this song on Journeyman, EC recorded two versions [electric and acoustic] for his 1978 album Backless [or as I like to call it, Spineless].  This song is better than anything you’ll find on Backless.  It’s better than the version from Journeyman, too.

Five Long Years [From the Cradle, 1994] – Clapton always claimed to be a blues guitarist.  He always kept one foot in the blues by including at least [at most, usually] one blues song on every album he made.  In 1994 he finally jumped in the deep end and finally mad an album of nothing but the blues.  From the Cradle was recorded live on the floor, but it suffers from one thing – Clapton’s singing.  Some white men [Gregg Allman comes to mind] can sing the blues and convince you he’s living them.  Eric Clapton, English white guy, is not one of them.  That being said, the playing is superb. 

It Hurts Me Too [From the Cradle, 1994] – See my comments for Five Long Years.

Riding With the King (w/ BB King) [Riding With the King, 2000] – There’s no pretense at playing the blues here – just Eric Clapton and BB King getting together on a John Hiatt song and having a great time.  I love it.

If I Had Possession Over Judgement Day [Sessions for Robert J, 2004] – EC actually made two albums dedicated to Robert Johnson – Me and Mr. Johnson and Sessions for Robert J. [both 2004].  Like From the Cradle, these were recorded live.  But this version was caught during a rehearsal for one of EC’s Crossroads guitar festivals.  Bassist Nathan East is caught saying “this sounds better than the record.”  Indeed.

Milkcow's Calf Blues [Sessions for Robert J, 2004] – see my comments on If I Had Possession Over Judgement Day.

I will end my list here.  Slowhand has had some good moments.  Unfortunately for those of us who love his playing, he has nothing to prove.  It’s as if he’s been sleepwalking in Adult Contemporary Hell since he quit heroin.  Most of this list sounded almost too laid back at the time those songs first appeared.  Now, compared to his output since he “unplugged” [he emasculated Layla! - unforgivable], this output between 1974-83 is golden.  He was a drunk then, but his music was better.  Sometimes I miss the old Slowhand.

A post-script – there are two sessions EC did with other people that are just as godly as what he did with Cream and Derek & the Dominos.  One session is well-known – the other is not.

While My Guitar Gently Weeps [The Beatles, 1968] – This is a no-brainer.  Slowhand’s solo is nothing if not iconic.  One never heard soling like this on a Beatles record.  John and/or Paul usually gave George two bars to make a short musical statement, then get out so the singing would resume.  But since this was George’s song, he wanted the other Beatles to take it seriously [they hadn’t, yet].  He didn’t mind having a better guitar player on his song.  Whatever was good for the song was good for George.  Once George brought Slowhand to the studio, everyone was on their best behavior and this song got the attention that it deserved.

Go Back Home [Stephen Stills, 1970] – Stephen Stills’ eponymous album debut has the distinction of being the only studio album [not a compilation] to feature the playing of both Jimi Hendrix [Old Times Good Times] and Eric Clapton [Go Back Home].  Legend has it that Slowhand was warming up while listening to a playback of the song so he could become familiar with the piece before recording.  Unbeknownst to Slowhand, Stills recorded the practice run-through, and when it was over, he said to Clapton “we got it”.  Clapton thought he could do better, but having listened to the final product, Stills’ instinct was the right one. Ordinarily I would say that, nine and a half times out of ten, Hendrix would blow Clapton’s doors off.  But given what Clapton played for Go Back Home and what Hendrix played for Old Times Good Times, I can make the apples-to-apples comparison and I declare Clapton the winner, just this once.

2 Nights with the Allman Brothers Band – Between 1992 and 2014, March meant only one thing to Allman Brothers Band fans – their annual homestand at their home away from home, New York’s Beacon Theatre.  The band usually had guests sit in with them.  In 2009, they dedicated their Beacon run to Duane Allman and their 40^th anniversary as a band.  The band wrote a letter to EC, and Derek Trucks delivered it.  It was simple – “We’re the Allman Brothers Band.  We’re celebrating the legacy of Duane Allman – please come.”  On March 19 & 20, EC joined the Allman Brothers Band.  The songs they played over the two nights included: Key to the Highway/Dreams/Why Does Love Got to Be So Sad/Little Wing/Anyday/Stormy Monday/In Memory of Elizabeth Reed/Layla.  I have both nights – they were beyond great.  When it was all over, EC was heard to whisper to Derek Trucks that he hadn’t played like that since 1969.

Now I’ll leave with a taste of Eric Clapton at his best. This is a clip of him playing a Derek & the Dominos song that didn’t see an official release in completed for until 2010 – Got to Get Better in a Little While