Tony's Picks - 2021

It has been a few years since I last wrote of my music picks for a given year. Back then, and the years preceding, I concentrated on new music released by people I like. This year I’m doing something different. Here I will discuss music that is new to me. Most of the folks I’ve listened to for many years haven’t released much new music lately. It was time to look for new stuff [new to me] to listen to, a good deal of which has been in circulation for some time.

Porcupine Tree/Steven Wilson – Before this year I had never heard any songs by either Steven Wilson or his band Porcupine Tree. I knew of him through his remix of the back catalogs of Black Sabbath, Jethro Tull, King Crimson and Yes [just to name a few]. I enjoyed his work on those albums, but I didn’t know where to start on his own music. A month ago I heard a new Porcupine Tree song called Harridan. It’s their first new work since 2009. That was as good a place as any to start, and since then I’ve done my usual obsessive musical deep dive. Wilson has an affinity for records made by progressive rock bands of the 1970s. His music [and that of his band Porcupine Tree] combines the sprawl of Yes and the technical execution and ferocity of Rush or Tool while avoiding the pomposity of Emerson, Lake & Palmer. Unlike Jon Anderson, who writes lyrics for the sole purpose of how the words sound rather than by what they mean, Wilson tells stories.  He’s as literate as Roger Waters, but not obsessive about subject matter like Waters. One hears more than a hint of King Crimson in some places and Pink Floyd in others. Albums that are in current heavy rotation include:

Porcupine Tree

In Absentia [2002]
Fear of a Blank Planet [2007]
The Incident [2009]

Steven Wilson solo

The Raven That Refused to Sing (And Other Stories) [2013]
Hand. Cannot. Erase. [2015]
To the Bone [2017]

Opeth – Opeth hails from Stockholm, Sweden. Singer/guitarist/main songwriter Mikael Åkerfeldt has been the lone constant in the band since their formation in 1989. What started out as a death metal band with the growling vocals that go with it, Opeth has evolved into what critics would label as “progressive metal.” At first a band with two guitars, bass and drums, they added acoustic guitars and keyboards [Mellotron, Hammond organ, piano] to the mix.  Imagine if you will, Metallica [only faster and with a better drummer] adding elements from Robin Trower, Deep Purple, King Crimson, and the folk leanings of Jethro Tull and you get the idea what Opeth have become.

Blackwater Park [2001]
Deliverance [2002] and Damnation [2003] – recorded together, released separately
Ghost Reveries [2005]
Watershed [2008]
Heritage [2011]
Pale Communion [2014]
Sorceress [2016]
In Cauda Venenum [2019]

Mastodon – This metal quartet from Atlanta came to me via my son Mark. He and his girlfriend were taking me to dinner after we put Carol in a memory care facility when I first heard them. I like what I heard. Their album Crack The Skye [2008] was the hook. Then I heard Emperor of Sand [2017] to confirm the offering. I have one complaint. Their drummer [Brann Dailor - one of three guys who sings] sounds too “poppy” for the music. He needs to sing less. However, he’s a fantastic drummer. They don’t consider themselves to be metal, but I beg to differ. There are too many skull-crushing riffs to be considered anything else. Their follow-up to Emperor of Sand is Hushed and Grim, released in October. They’ve worked with Brendan O'Brien,  Nick Raskulinecz, and David Bottrill, so you know they’re going to have great-sounding recordings.

Paul Weller – The Modfather. For as long as I can remember, I have been a sucker for good English pop music. Paul Weller’s music is in that category. He’s a musical chameleon. He produced punk-influenced power pop with The Jam and explored jazz and soul in The Style Council. His early solo work [Wild Wood (1993), Stanley Road (1995), and Heavy Soul (1997)] have that vibe that combines Low Spark of High Heeled Boys-era Traffic, acoustic folk and soul. His middle years were labeled “Dad rock”, whatever the hell that is. For the past ten years or so, his need to experiment has seen him develop what I call “modern psychedelic music”. It has that mid-1960s vibe but created with newer sounds [and some old ones, too].

22 Dreams [2008]
Wake Up the Nation [2010]
Sonik Kicks [2011]
Saturns Pattern [2015]
A Kind Revolution [2017]
On Sunset [2020]
Fat Pop [2021]

Dave Alvin – I saw him with the Blasters when they opened for Eric Clapton at Red Rocks in 1983. He’s not much of a singer [that’s his brother Phil’s department]. He more or less talks through his songs, which is good enough for me.  His guitar playing and songwriting more than make up for his limited vocal abilities [at least they’re in tune]. After he played with X and The Knitters, I lost track of him for a long time. I found two albums on iTunes - Eleven Eleven [2011] and Old Guitar: Rare and Unreleased Recordings [2020]. I was hooked thereafter and like the obsessive I am, I have most of the rest.

Adele – She’s a pretty English girl who sings sad songs, and she does it well. Carol liked Adele. It has been a sad year, so I was more than ready to hear sad songs. Before this year I could name three songs [Rolling in the Deep, Hello, and Skyfall]. Then I heard Easy On Me – I’m in love.

Along the way, I filled in the holes of my collections of Joe Bonamassa, Leslie West, Boz Scaggs, Parliament and Funkadelic, John Prine, Little Feat, John Hiatt, Jimmy Cliff, Johnny Winter, Rory Gallagher, and Gary Moore.

1971: The Year That Music Changed Everything?

Apple TV+ has a musical documentary titled ‘1971: The Year That Music Changed Everything’.  I haven’t seen it, nor am I likely to since I don’t subscribe.  I don’t know the arguments that are made to establish 1971 as a year that “changed everything.”  I remember Joe Frazier beating Muhammed Ali in the “fight of the century.”  I remember Alan Shepard golfing on the Moon.  I remember my parents always yelling at the TV when Richard Nixon’s face appeared on it.  Coming at the tail end of the Baby Boom, I was only eight years old for most of that year [I turned nine in November].  It is only in retrospect that I know that 1971 was a significant year in music.  Duane Allman, King Curtis, Louis Armstrong and Jim Morrison would not survive the year.  George Harrison staged what is recognized as the first big concerts for charity, the Concerts for Bangladesh.  Several big bands released what are recognized [by some, anyway] as their best works – the Rolling Stones [Sticky Fingers], The Who [Who’s Next], Jethro Tull [Aqualung], and Led Zeppelin [the ‘untitled’ fourth album].  The Allman Brothers Band finally hit the big time with their live At Fillmore East album.  It would be certified “gold” four days before Duane Allman was killed.  The best-selling album of 1971 [and one of the best-selling of all time] came from a female singer/songwriter – Carole King [Tapestry].

As a kid growing up in the Dayton, Ohio area, rock was not the only thing on the radio.  R&B and soul got equal airtime.  What was a white, eight-year-old kid from the Ohio suburbs doing listening to soul music?  Back then, this eight-year-old made no distinction between rock, soul, or funk.  Why would I?  I had my own radio, I liked what I heard on it, wherever the dial happened to sit.  Music radio wasn’t segregated then like it is now.  Some of my favorite soul music emerged from 1971 – Marvin Gaye’s What’s Going On examined ecology, Vietnam, and poverty, although those themes escaped these then-eight-year-old ears.  Sly & the Family Stone’s There’s a Riot Goin’ On was their answer to Marvin Gaye’s musical question.  Bill Withers had Ain’t No Sunshine; The Undisputed Truth had Smiling Faces Sometimes.  Isaac Hayes’ Theme From Shaft was everywhere.  Funkadelic made the darkest record of them all – Maggot Brain.

I have a pretty good album collection.  A good number of those albums came from 1971.  Rock music today is homogenized for the most part.  At the risk of sounding like the old guy that yells at kids to “get off my lawn”, there is a sameness that seems to infect today’s rock music.  You couldn’t say that about the music of 1971.  Jethro Tull sounded nothing like Emerson, Lake & Palmer, who sounded nothing like Santana, or Traffic.  None of them sounded like Alice Cooper, which was a band before the singer struck out on his own.  There’s a variety of sound from that era that is missing today.  As I surveyed my collection, I was struck by how many of them came from 1971.  I don’t claim to be musically aware of all this stuff when I was eight.  It takes a while to collect all this stuff.  Here they are:

The Allman Brothers Band - The Allman Brothers Band At Fillmore East

Jethro Tull - Aqualung

Janis Joplin - Pearl

Carole King – Tapestry and Music

Led Zeppelin – Untitled [aka LZ IV]

Alice Cooper - Love It To Death and Killer

Marvin Gaye – What’s Going On

Sly & the Family Stone – There’s a Riot Goin’ On

Badfinger  - Straight Up

The Band - Cahoots

Booker T & The MGs – Melting Pot

Creedence Clearwater Revival - Pendulum

David Bowie - Hunky Dory

Jack Bruce - Harmony Row

Albert King - Lovejoy

BB King – Live In Cook County Jail

Black Sabbath – Master of Reality

David Crosby - If I Could Only Remember My Name

Miles Davis – Jack Johnson

Deep Purple - Fireball

The Doors – L.A. Woman and Other Voices

Dr. John - The Sun, Moon and Herbs

Elton John - Madman Across the Water

Emerson, Lake & Palmer - Tarkus

The Faces – Long Player and A Nod Is As Good As a Wink... to a Blind Horse

Rod Stewart - Every Picture Tells a Story

Funkadelic – Maggot Brain

Grateful Dead – Skull & Roses

Humble Pie – Rock On and Performance: Rockin’ the Fillmore

Jeff Beck Group - Rough and Ready

Jefferson Airplane – Bark

Hot Tuna - First Pull Up, Then Pull Down

John Lennon - Imagine

Little Feat - Little Feat

The Meters – Cabbage Alley

The Moody Blues - Every Good Boy Deserves Favour

Paul McCartney - Ram

Van Morrison – Tupelo Honey

Mountain - Nantucket Sleighride

Pink Floyd – Meddle

John Prine – John Prine

Rolling Stones – Sticky Fingers

Taj Mahal - Happy Just to Be Like I Am

Todd Rundgren - Runt. The Ballad of Todd Rundgren

Santana – Santana III

Stephen Stills – Stephen Stills 2

Traffic - The Low Spark of High Heeled Boys

The Who – Who’s Next

Yes - Fragile

Tony's Picks - Top 10 Dylan Albums

Bob Dylan has been recording for Columbia Records [except for two albums for Asylum in 1974] since 1961.  The size of his output is staggering.  He’s released thirty-nine studio albums, almost one hundred singles, a “bootleg” series that encompasses alternate versions, outtakes, live recordings from specific periods, and a dozen live albums.  He’s done two albums of entirely traditional folk songs, and three albums from the “Great American Songbook” all of which have some connection to Frank Sinatra.  He found time to record two albums as a Traveling Wilbury.  He contributed an entire side of The Concert for Bangladesh [1971].  Other artists have recorded his songs, so many of which I don’t know where to start counting. 

Not all of Dylan’s albums are stone-cold classics.  He’s had his share of missteps.  Self Portrait [1970] was a double album of songs [half of which written by him, the other half covers] recorded at a time in his life where he just wanted people to leave him alone.  Critic Greil Marcus began his Rolling Stone review of Self Portrait with a question – “What is this shit?”  At the tail end of the 1970s and the beginning of the 1980s, Dylan converted to Christianity.  He recorded three albums that expressed his devotion to his new-found faith.  Some people liked them – many didn’t.  The 1980s were not kind to Dylan.  He put out one good album [Infidels, 1983] and one great one [Oh Mercy, 1989].  The albums in between are forgettable.  During this time, Dylan had burned out.  He was suffering from writer’s block.  In his book Chronicles: Volume One, he confessed he had lost his muse and couldn’t relate to his own songs.  He also confessed this situation made him contemplate retirement.

There are three noteworthy periods in Bob Dylan’s recording career – the first period [1961-66], he was the “spokesman for a generation,” a tag that he absolutely hated. When he stopped writing “folk” songs and “went electric” in 1965, the reaction of many fans was that of betrayal.  One attendee of a concert in Manchester, England in 1966 called him “Judas!”  Regardless of what the folkie purists thought, some of his best work came during 1965-66.  His motorcycle crash in 1966 came at a time when Dylan and his wife were starting a family.  Dylan wanted to get off the road and rest, and the crash was a convenient way to get off the album/tour/album/tour grind.  In his second period he re-emerged with The Band in 1974, when he resumed touring.  The mid-1970s were productive and produced music of great quality.  Coincidentally [or not – it depends on who you ask], it was during this time Dylan’s marriage was on the rocks.  As for the third period, we’re living it right now.  It started with 1997’s Time Out of Mind.  He took a detour during this time to produce three albums of American standards [one of which is a triple album (Triplicate)] and one Christmas album.  His albums of original music since then have been top notch.

As with my list of Dylan songs, this isn’t a “best of” album list.  This is a list of my personal favorites.

10.  The Bootleg Series, Vol. 8: Tell Tale Signs - Rare and Unreleased, 1989-2006 – This collection captures several stray tracks that can be found only on movie soundtracks.  It contains alternate versions of songs and unreleased songs recorded for the albums Oh Mercy, Modern Times, and Time Out of Mind.  The quality of the songs contained herein are such that they would have made the albums for which they were intended better.  Had the versions for Modern Times been included on that album, Modern Times would be on this Top 10 list.  He had an abundance of riches for 1989’s Oh Mercy, the outtakes of which are found here.

9.  The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan [1963] – This is where Dylan the Legend began.  How does someone 21 years old come up with songs like Blowin' in the Wind and A Hard Rain's a-Gonna Fall?  Whenever I hear Masters of War, the mental image I have is of Robert McNamara.  I know this song predates our involvement in Vietnam, and the song speaks more to those who produce weapons rather than those who command troops, but it still resonates with me in that way given McNamara’s lack of candor with the American public.  Don't Think Twice, It's All Right was written in response to a long separation between Dylan and his girlfriend [who is on the album cover] Suze Rotolo.  It’s not a break-up song per se, but it sure sounds like one of the best kiss-off songs one is likely to hear.  Waylon Jennings did an outstanding cover not too long after this original was released.  Oxford Town is Dylan’s account of James Meredith enrolling at Ole Miss.  It’s a “topical song”, which is interesting in that Dylan claimed to NOT write topical songs.  Phil Ochs wrote “topical songs,” to which Dylan criticized him for being a “journalist” rather than a singer.  Talkin' World War III Blues is in the same vein of songwriting as Woody Guthrie.  Dylan used the “talkin’ blues” format to sing about serious subjects with a wicked sense of humor.  A similar song [and funnier], Talkin' John Birch Paranoid Blues, was recorded for this album but removed by Columbia since they didn’t want a defamation suit from the John Birch Society.

8.  Blonde on Blonde [1966] – This is rock’s first double album.  To steal a phrase from the Grateful Dead, Blonde on Blonde is a long, strange trip.  Can you get more strange than Rainy Day Women #12 & 35?  And that’s the first song.  How could you not like an album with Leopard-Skin Pill-Box Hat?  Robbie Robertson, guitar hero, is born here.  But believe it or not there’s another version with Michael Bloomfield on lead guitar that’s even better [The Bootleg Series, Vol. 7: No Direction Home: The Soundtrack].  Blonde on Blonde was recorded quickly with top Nashville session musicians.  He took blues, country, rock, and folk, threw them into a blender, and came up with this.  Some of the lyrics of the songs are so bizarre that they probably made John Lennon jealous.  It was arty for arts’ sake.  Dylan described the album as “the closest I ever got to the sound I hear in my mind… It’s that thin, that wild mercury sound. It’s metallic and bright gold, with whatever that conjures up…” On an album full of surrealism, Visions of Johanna is Dylan at his most surreal - ‘the ghost of electricity howls in the bones of her face / but these visions of Johanna have not yet taken my place.’  Many of the songs are about women [Pledging My Time, I Want You, Just Like a Woman, One Of Us Must Know (Sooner Or Later)], and one is for one woman in particular [new wife Sara] – the side-long Sad Eyed Lady Of The Lowlands.

7.  The Times They Are a-Changin' [1964]  For a guy who claimed to not write “topical songs’, there sure are quite a few of them here.  This is his first album [his third overall] to feature songs all of which are written by him.  The title song needs no explanation.  It is an enduring anthem for change.  He addressed poverty [Ballad of Hollis Brown], the murder of Medger Evers [Only a Pawn in Their Game], the outsourcing of American jobs overseas [North Country Blues], and the killing of a black woman by a young, rich white man [The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll].  Folkies itching for social justice ate it up.  My favorite from this album is When the Ship Comes In.  Dylan wrote this in a single night. Joan Baez said this was inspired by a hotel clerk who didn't want to rent a room to Dylan because he looked like an unwashed bum.  It’s Dylan giving the finger to those in power who will get their comeuppance soon.

6.  Time Out of Mind [1997] - Time Out of Mind won the Grammy® for Album of the Year. It was heralded as his return to form after years of sub-par albums [like Knocked Out Loaded, Down in the Groove, and Empire Burlesque]. Time Out of Mind was produced by Dylan and Daniel Lanois, the Canadian producer and musician who has turned out many great works with U2 [The Unforgettable Fire, The Joshua Tree, Achtung Baby], Peter Gabriel [So, Us], Willie Nelson [Teatro], the Neville Brothers [Yellow Moon] and Emmylou Harris [Wrecking Ball]. The two men also worked together on Oh Mercy in 1989. Lanois’ productions [at least the works of which I own a copy] have been described as ‘ambient,’ ‘atmospheric,’ ‘wrapped in gauze,’ ‘smoky,’ ‘spooky,’ while containing lots of echo and reverb. One might think I write this because I think it’s a bad thing – it isn’t. For productions like Oh Mercy and Time Out of Mind, this style works, but it’s more of a Daniel Lanois trademark than what one would associate with Bob Dylan.  Prior to recording this album, Dylan had produced two albums [Good as I Been to You (1992) and World Gone Wrong (1993)] that were traditional folk songs, performed by him alone with only an acoustic guitar and a harmonica to accompany him.  These albums served to get Dylan reacquainted with the music that inspired him in the first place, and they appear to these ears that they achieved the desired result.  This album was recorded with top-drawer session musicians in Miami, who according to sources had to be told more than once to play less.  Contained herein are songs of death, lost love, lust, insanity, and depression.  Four months after completing the album, Dylan nearly died from acute pulmonary histoplasmosis—a nasty fungal infection caused by bird-and-bat feces, which he inhaled during many motorcycle trips across America.  But he recovered, as did his music.  This album began a winning streak of albums with original Dylan music that has continued until the present day.

5.  Bringing It All Back Home [1965] – Dylan goes electric.  He ditched the folk songs and pissed off a lot of the folkie faithful who thought they “owned” him.  When Dylan wrote he wasn’t going to work on Maggie’s Farm anymore, I think [yes, this is an opinion] that he was addressing the folkie faithful in that regard – he wasn’t “theirs” anymore.  That audience could have also been the target of It's All Over Now, Baby Blue, but Dylan has never said.  Instead of writing about the “political” concerns of the day, Dylan tapped into to his own imagination to delve into more personal things.  The first side of the album is electric, while the other side is acoustic.  The songs are outstanding - Subterranean Homesick Blues - She Belongs To Me - Maggie's Farm - Love Minus Zero / No Limit - Outlaw Blues - On The Road Again -  Bob Dylan's 115th Dream - Mr. Tambourine Man - Gates Of Eden - It's Alright Ma (I'm Only Bleeding) - It's All Over Now, Baby Blue.  "You don’t need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows..."

4.  Highway 61 Revisited [1965] - Not only is Dylan “electric” on this album, Dylan borrowed Michael Bloomfield from the Paul Butterfield Blues Band.  In the pre-Hendrix era, Bloomfield could be mentioned in the same breath as Eric Clapton or Jeff Beck.  If that wasn’t enough, the songs are fantastic - Like a Rolling Stone – Tombstone Blues - It Takes a Lot to Laugh, It Takes a Train to Cry - From a Buick 6 - Ballad of a Thin Man - Queen Jane Approximately - Highway 61 Revisited - Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues – Desolation Row.  This album is packed with quality from start to finish.  On top of that, Positively 4th Street, which is lyrically similar and equally as scathing as Like a Rolling Stone, was recording during these sessions but released as a stand-alone single.  Dylan was well and truly on top of his game.

3.  Oh Mercy [1989] – The 1980s were not kind to Bob Dylan.  He ended the 1970s having made a good album [Slow Train Coming – 1979] after his conversion to Christianity.  The rest of what followed wasn’t so good.  He recorded six more albums [Saved (1980), Shot of Love (1981), Infidels (1983), Empire Burlesque (1985), Knocked Out Loaded (1986), Down in the Groove (1988)], only one of which was any good [Infidels].  He toured with the Grateful Dead in 1987, from which emerged an album [Dylan & the Dead] that wasn’t very good either.  But during this time Bob Dylan injured his hand in what he called a freak accident.  He had lost inspiration.  He didn't feel any connection to his own songs.  He wanted to retire.  He never expected to write any more songs.  In 1988 there was a flicker [and a very funny one at that] of Dylan at his best.  It came in the form of a very funny spoof of Bruce Springsteen on the first Traveling Wilburys album – Tweeter and the Monkey Man.  Then one night, alone at his kitchen table, the muse found him.   He started to write twenty verses of a song called "Political World."  It was the first of about twenty songs [by his estimate] he would write.  Before he knew it, Dylan had a bunch of songs.  Those songs turned into Oh Mercy, which he recorded in New Orleans with Daniel Lanois.

2.  “Love And Theft” [2001] - Many Dylan albums have been reviewed with the words “the best Dylan album since Blood on the Tracks.”  A bit of hyperbole, but this time all the critics were correct for once.  This is the best one since then.  “Love And Theft,” Bob Dylan’s 31st studio album, was released on September 11, 2001. Dylan reportedly took the album’s title from Eric Lott’s book Love & Theft: Blackface Minstrelsy and the American Working Class, hence the album title in quotation marks.  In retrospect Things Have Changed, the song that won Dylan an Academy Award® for Best Original Song for a motion picture, provided a hint of the direction Dylan would take after Time Out of Mind. On Things Have Changed and later “Love And Theft” Dylan took over the production duties himself under the pseudonym Jack Frost. Gone are the ambience and atmospherics of the Lanois productions. With “Love And Theft” we get Dylan without any frills. He took his road band into the studio this time. These guys [including Larry Campbell and Charlie Sexton on guitar, Tony Garnier on bass, David Kemper on drums] had been touring with Dylan on his “Never Ending Tour” for years, so they instinctively knew what he wanted. What he got was a combination of jazz [Po’ Boy], swing [Summer Days], hard roadhouse blues [Lonesome Day Blues], country [High Water (for Charley Patton)], rockabilly [Tweedle Dee & Tweedle Dum], ballads [Sugar Baby] and some of the hardest rock one has heard from Dylan in a long time [Honest With Me]. With all these quintessentially American forms thrown into the mix, critics would label this music “Americana.” It’s not the first-time critics have used this word [music from The Band comes to mind], but since critics need a label for whatever they review, Americana was the only one that fit for them.

1.  Blood on the Tracks [1975] – Many have called this Dylan’s “breakup album.”  Dylan denies this, but his own son Jakob describes this album as a conversation between his parents.  Dylan does accept that maybe some of what was happening in his life showed up in this collection of songs, but he complained in an interview after this album’s release “a lot of people tell me they enjoyed that album. It’s hard for me to relate to that — I mean, people enjoying that type of pain.”  It’s not that people enjoy it - they can empathize with it.  The New Yorker described Blood on the Tracks as “a ten-song study in romantic devastation, as beautiful as it is bleak.” The “tracks” are brutally honest.  There’s desperation, determination, and a healthy dose of vitriol.  But amidst all this, there is also hope.  Unlike Dylan’s best work of the 1960s, his words are concise – there’s nothing surreal here.  Who doesn’t have these feelings when they’re in a relationship that’s going South?

Bob Dylan - 80

Bob Dylan turns 80 a week from today. There are articles aplenty from critics who have picked their Top 80 songs from Dylan. Rather than comb over every song like music critics have done, all these songs are on my iPod, added over the years.  They may not be Dylan’s best, but they are my favorites. I put that disclaimer in so that no one will play “what about…” with me. I have ranked my Top 10 all-time favorites and have listed the remaining 70 songs in the order which they were recorded. To rank all 80 would take more time than I’m willing to dedicate. This is not a “best of” list – that is arbitrary, and my definition of “best” probably doesn’t agree with yours. These are my favorite Bob Dylan songs as recorded by Bob Dylan. I don’t include covers by others [All Along the Watchtower [Jimi Hendrix], If Not For You [George Harrison], just to name a couple]. That’s for another list… 

1. Tangled Up In Blue – Blood on the Tracks, 1975 

2. Like A Rolling Stone - Highway 61 Revisited, 1965 

3. High Water (For Charley Patton) - Love And Theft, 2001 

4. Love Sick – Time Out of Mind, 1997 

5. Masters Of War - The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan, 1963 

6. When The Ship Comes In - The Times They Are a-Changin', 1964 

7. Ballad Of A Thin Man - Highway 61 Revisited, 1965 

8. Highway 61 Revisited [Alternate Version] - The Bootleg Series Vol. 7: No Direction Home, 2005 – recorded 1965 

9. Leopard-Skin Pill-Box Hat [Alternate Version] - The Bootleg Series Vol. 7: No Direction Home, 2005 – recorded 1966 

10. Desolation Row - Highway 61 Revisited, 1965 

1. Don't Think Twice, It's All Right- The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan, 1963 

2. A Hard Rain's a-Gonna Fall - The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan, 1963 

3. Talkin' World War III Blues - The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan, 1963 

4. Talkin' John Birch Paranoid Blues - The Bootleg Series, Vols. 1-3 (Rare & Unreleased) 1961-1991, 1991 – recorded 1963 

5. Chimes of Freedom - Another Side of Bob Dylan, 1964 

6. It Ain’t Me Babe - Another Side of Bob Dylan, 1964 

7. The Ballad of Hollis Brown - The Times They Are a-Changin', 1964 

8. One Too Many Mornings - The Times They Are a-Changin', 1964 

9. The Times They Are A-Changin' - The Times They Are a-Changin', 1964 

10. It's Alright, Ma (I'm Only Bleeding) - Bringing It All Back Home, 1965 

11. Subterranean Homesick Blues - Bringing It All Back Home, 1965 

12. Gates of Eden - Bringing It All Back Home, 1965 

13. She Belongs To Me - Bringing It All Back Home, 1965 

14. Love Minus Zero/No Limit - Bringing It All Back Home, 1965 

15. It's All Over Now, Baby Blue - Bringing It All Back Home, 1965 

16. Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues - Highway 61 Revisited, 1965 

17. Tombstone Blues - Highway 61 Revisited, 1965 

18. It Takes A Lot To Laugh, It Takes A Train To Cry - Highway 61 Revisited, 1965 

19. Positively 4th Street – single, 1966 

20. Visions Of Johanna [Alternate Version] - The Bootleg Series Vol. 7: No Direction Home, 2005 – recorded 1966 

21. The Ballad of Frankie Lee and Judas Priest -John Wesley Harding, 1967 

22. Lay Lady Lay – Nashville Skyline, 1969 

23. Knockin' On Heaven's Door - Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid, 1973 

24. Forever Young (Continued) – Planet Waves, 1974 – This is the shorter, mire funky version. The version everyone else likes is boring to me. 

25. Dirge – Planet Waves, 1974 

26. Wedding Song – Planet Waves, 1974 

27. Simple Twist Of Fate - Blood on the Tracks, 1975 

28. Shelter From The Storm – Blood on the Tracks, 1975 

29. Idiot Wind – Blood on the Tracks, 1975 

30. You're Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go – Blood on the Tracks, 1975 

31. If You See Her, Say Hello – Blood on the Tracks, 1975 

32. Buckets Of Rain – Blood on the Tracks, 1975 

33. Isis – Desire, 1976

34. Black Diamond Bay – Desire, 1976

35. Slow Train - Slow Train Coming, 1979 

36. Gotta Serve Somebody - Slow Train Coming, 1979 

37. The Groom's Still Waiting At the Altar – Shot of Love, 1981 

38. Every Grain of Sand – Shot of Love, 1981 

39. Man Of Peace - Infidels, 1983 

40. Blind Willie McTell - The Bootleg Series, Vols. 1-3 (Rare & Unreleased) 1961-1991, 1991 – recorded in 1983 

41. Tweeter & the Monkey Man – The Traveling Wilburys Volume 1, 1988 

42. Political World – Oh Mercy, 1989 

43. Everything Is Broken – Oh Mercy, 1989 

44. Where Teardrops Fall – Oh Mercy, 1989 

45. What Was It You Wanted – Oh Mercy, 1989 

46. Man in the Long Black Coat – Oh Mercy, 1989

47. Series of Dreams - Bob Dylan's Greatest Hits, Vol. 3, 1994 [Oh Mercy outtake, 1989]

48. Dignity - Bob Dylan's Greatest Hits, Vol. 3, 1994 [Oh Mercy outtake, 1989]

49. Born In Time - Tell Tale Signs: The Bootleg Series Vol. 8, 2008 – recorded 1989

50. Dirt Road Blues – Time Out of Mind, 1997 

51. Dreamin' Of You - Tell Tale Signs: The Bootleg Series Vol. 8, 2008 – recorded 1997 

52. Things Have Changed – The Essential Bob Dylan, 2000 

53. Tweedle Dee & Tweedle Dum - Love And Theft, 2001 

54. Lonesome Day Blues - Love And Theft, 2001 

55. Honest With Me - Love And Theft, 2001 

56. Cry a While - Love And Theft, 2001 

57. Down In The Flood [Live] – Masked and Anonymous, 2003 

58. Cold Irons Bound [Live] – Masked and Anonymous, 2003 

59. Tell Ol' Bill - Tell Tale Signs: The Bootleg Series Vol. 8, 2008 – recorded 2005 

60. Thunder On The Mountain - Modern Times, 2006 

61. Someday Baby - Tell Tale Signs: The Bootleg Series Vol. 8, 2008 – recorded 2006 

62. Ain’t Talkin' - Tell Tale Signs: The Bootleg Series Vol. 8, 2008 – recorded 2006 

63. Beyond Here Lies Nothin' - Together Through Life, 2009 

64. It's All Good - Together Through Life, 2009 

65. Pay In Blood – Tempest, 2012 

66. Early Roman Kings – Tempest, 2012 

67. Scarlet Town – Tempest, 2012 

68. False Prophet – Rough And Rowdy Ways, 2020 

69. Goodbye Jimmy Reed – Rough And Rowdy Ways, 2020 

70. Crossing the Rubicon – Rough And Rowdy Ways, 2020

Peter Frampton - All Blues/Frampton Forgets the Words

In his recently published autobiography [Do You Feel Like We Do?], Peter Frampton detailed personal health issues which have materialized within the past few years.  Sometime during his 2013 tour, Peter Frampton and his band were playing with a Frisbee backstage prior to a show.  He noted at the time that he was having difficulty running.  He chalked that up to “getting old”.  During a show two years later in Walker, Minnesota, he was kicking a beach ball off the stage and he fell.  He and his band joked that it was an “I’ve fallen, and I can’t get up” moment.  Three weeks later, it happened again as he tripped over a guitar cable.  It was then he thought something was amiss.  He went to see his doctor during a break in that tour.  His doctor referred him to a neurologist. 

He told the neurologist that he was having trouble with his arms and legs feeling weaker, and that putting anything in the overhead compartment of a plane was becoming more and more difficult.  The doctor had him do a finger flexor test, as well as having him hop on each leg ten times.  He was fine with his right leg, but not so good with his left leg.  Whatever was affecting him didn’t affect both sides of his body.  Since whatever was bothering Frampton didn’t affect both sides of his body, the doctor eliminated Lou Gehrig’s Disease [Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis] as a cause but zeroed in on Inclusion Body Myositis [IBM].  Unlike ALS, IBM is not life-threatening, but it is life changing.  The disease is a progressive muscle disorder – he’s getting weaker in his legs, arms, hands and fingers.  IBM progresses at different speeds for different people.  Luckily for him, IBM is progressing slowly.  The disease’s progression is slow enough for him to decide he wants to record as much new music as possible before he can’t do it anymore.

Given his IBM diagnosis, Frampton and his band recorded three and a half album’s worth of material between September 2018 and April 2019.  The first installment of these recording is All Blues [2019].  He got the idea to do a blues album from a couple of tours he did with Steve Miller.  During Miller’s set each night, the two musicians would play a handful of blues numbers.  One such number was Freddie King’s Same Old Blues, which is the final song on All Blues.  I admit to having a bit of trepidation about this release.  Why?  Eric Clapton always refers to himself as a bluesman, but with him the results are mixed [in my opinion, anyway].  For all the great guitar playing, there is still the voice of a white Englishman singing songs written by black men from Mississippi.  Irish guitarist Gary Moore tired of the heavy metal game and remade himself as a “bluesman”.  He had the same vocal problem as Clapton, and as good a guitarist as he was, sometimes he tended to overplay like he was getting paid by the note.  Irish guitarist Rory Gallagher is the other side of the white blues coin.  Rory oozed the blues.  Rory thought of himself as a student of the blues, but he had the indescribable “IT” when it came to the blues.  I bring up these guys in the context of a piece about Peter Frampton because I had to wonder this – would a Frampton blues project be more like Clapton or Moore, like Rory Gallagher, or does it lie somewhere in between?  Then I reminded myself that the blues was nothing new to Peter Frampton.  Before Frampton Comes Alive made him a megastar, he played the blues with Humble Pie.  He still plays Four Day Creep in his sets [I saw him in 2011].  Having reminded myself of his Humble Pie past, I took the plunge into All Blues.

On All Blues, Frampton and his band played Frampton’s favorite blues songs, but with their own spin, their own arrangements.  Frampton’s playing is, as always, impeccable.  He doesn’t overplay.  Most of these songs I know – some of them I don’t.  The opening track is Muddy Waters’ I Just Want To Make Love To You.  With Kim Wilson [of Fabulous Thunderbirds fame] blowing the harp alongside, this was a good opening number.   There are Taj Mahal’s She Caught The Katy and Freddie King’s Me And My Guitar. They are closer to how Led Zeppelin might do them [think I Can’t Quit You].  I wondered how he was going to do Georgia On My Mind.  This song is so identified with Ray Charles, how could one cover it without sounding sacrilegious?  As I listened, the answer was simple – Frampton let his guitar do the singing for him.  I had the same thought about The Thrill Is Gone, BB King’s signature tune.  There aren’t that many words for Frampton to sing, which he does passably, but it just doesn’t feel right.  The saving grace here is Louisiana slide maestro Sonny Landreth.  For all the good guitar playing, he should have passed on this one.

Frampton then throws the listener a curveball with the title song, All Blues.  This isn’t blues – it’s jazz.  Not only jazz, but Miles Davis jazz.  This song is from Kind Of Blue.  Frampton brings guitarist Larry Carlton [four albums with Steely Dan] along for the ride.  Not only do the two guitarists sound magnificent, Frampton’s keyboardist Rob Arthur is simply perfect here.  Somewhere, Bill Evans is smiling.  Frampton’s cover of Bo Diddley’s You Can’t Judge A Book By The Cover doesn’t utilize the signature Bo Diddley beat, but the rhythm section of bassist Glenn Worf and drummer Dan Wojciechowski still make it work.  Frampton’s slide playing is very tasty.  St. Louis Jimmy Oden’s 1942 standard Going Down Slow sounds tailor-made for Frampton’s current health struggles.  Frampton and his band dig deep for this one – it’s very well-done.  The same goes for Slim Harpo’s I’m a King Bee, where Frampton’s talk box makes an unexpected appearance [“buzz awhile…”].  The finale of All Blues is Freddie King’s Same Old Blues.  This version is faithful to the original, even down to the background singers. 

If Peter Frampton the 1970s megastar had made this album back in the day, he probably would have lost his audience, and critics would have savaged him.  But the megastar is long gone, replaced by a rock elder statesman.  As such, Peter Frampton made an excellent homage to the blues.  Though it isn’t perfect, it succeeds more than I thought possible.  Blues purists [of which I am not] might even like it.  The answer to the question I asked earlier [Clapton/Moore or Rory Gallagher], the answer, to these ears anyway, is closer to Rory.

Last Friday [April 23^rd] the second installment of Frampton’s “last recordings” dropped, the title of which is Frampton Forgets the Words.  As the title suggests, it’s an instrumental album.  Frampton has been here before, with his album Fingerprints [2006].  The album’s songs were mostly Peter Frampton originals, the lone exception being Soundgarden’s Black Hole Sun.  Frampton Forgets the Words, like All Blues before it, consists of covers of other people’s music.  His reasoning for this approach is simple – to write original music for as much as Frampton wanted to record would have taken a very long time.  He didn’t know how much longer his muscles would last to make/record more music.  Lack of time was the root of the problem that came with I’m In You, the album that followed Frampton Comes Alive.  The way he saw it, I’m In You was doomed because he didn’t have much time to work on it.  All the songs from the live record were many years in the making, but the record company wanted more “product” to sell to take advantage of Frampton’s wave of superstardom.  It matters not to me with All Blues and Frampton Forgets the Words because I have more of his guitar playing to hear. 

Frampton and his extremely capable band put down ten no-vocal versions of songs from artists ranging from Marvin Gaye and Lenny Kravitz to David Bowie and Sly & The Family Stone.  Frampton and company cast a wide net to capture music from different genres, from soul, funk, jazz, art rock, country, and a solo Beatle.  Of the ten songs, I knew six of them.  His take of Sly & The Family Stone’s If You Want Me To Stay [from 1973’s Fresh] is a better listen than Sly’s original.  There are two other soul covers – Marvin Gaye’s One More Heartache and Stevie Wonder’s I Don't Know Why.  I don’t know either one, so I don’t have any preconceived notions of what they are supposed to sound like.  One reviewer described Frampton’s version of One More Heartache as “soul, psychedelia, and the blues coexisting in the exact same moment.”  I’m not sure I’d go that far, but I don’t have better words to describe it so I’ll go with it.  The jazz number is Michel Colombier piece Dreamland, where Frampton plays Jaco Pistorius’ bass parts on his 1954 Les Paul.  This was an inspired choice.

Peter Frampton cites Roxy Music’s Avalon album as one of his all-time favorites.  He chose to record the title track.  Roxy Music and Bryan Ferry’s lounge lizard schtick never appealed to me, but it’s his album, not mine.  Frampton does a good take of a sleepy song.  To each his own, I suppose.  Frampton also felt compelled to record his own version of Lenny Kravitz’s Are You Gonna Go My Way.  My only comment about this song is this – why?  He’d probably answer with “why not?”  As inspired a choice as Dreamland was for this album, I put these two songs in the “uninspiring” category.

Frampton made a couple more interesting choices.  One was Radiohead’s Reckoner [In Rainbows, 2007].  I really like this one. Frampton replaces Thom Yorke’s falsetto vocals [an acquired taste that I have yet to acquire] with his guitar.  The song is much better for it.  I like it a lot – it has kind of a floating, spaced-out vibe to it.  The other choice from left field comes in an Alison Krauss song, Maybe [Forget About It, 1999].  Alison Krauss has one of the most angelic voices one could ever hope to hear.  Frampton’s guitar tone captures the mood of the song perfectly.

The remaining two choices of songs each has its own personal story behind it.  One is David Bowie’s Loving the Alien [Tonight, 1984].  David Bowie and Peter Frampton were friends dating back to their school days.  In 1987, Bowie did his Glass Spider tour.  By this time, Frampton’s career had gone downhill and picked up speed.  It had been eleven years since Frampton Comes Alive made him a star.  Bowie needed a guitar player.  He offered the job to Frampton, who jumped at the chance of being “just the guitar player” without the pressure of being the front man.  Bowie let him take a long solo during the show – this was the song.  Recording this song is Frampton’s way of saying “thank you.”  It’s a good one.  One final song is George Harrison’s Isn’t It a Pity [All Things Must Pass, 1970].  This isn’t Frampton first Harrison cover.  He also covered While My Guitar Gently Weeps [The Beatles, 1968] on his 2003 release Now.  Frampton said the reason he chose this one was because when he got the call to work on All Things Must Pass, Isn’t It a Pity was the first song he heard from the album when he first set foot in Abbey Road Studios.  Frampton effortlessly captured the power and majesty of George’s answer to Paul McCartney’s Hey Jude.

I mentioned that he recorded enough music for three and a half albums.  He has enough blues songs recorded for a second blues album, and the remainder are Frampton originals.  Now that COVID restrictions are lifting somewhat. hopefully he’ll find the strength to finish the fourth album.  When those two albums will come out is anyone’s guess.  In the meantime, All Blues and Frampton Forgets the Words will tide me over just fine. 

Dad Rock

I’ve been listening to a lot of Paul Weller’s music lately.  One term the British rock press has attached to his music is “dad rock.”  Perhaps I’m a bit slow on the uptake – what is “dad rock”?  Is it rock music your dad listens to?  In my case, that would be a “no.” My dad was born in the 1920s.  He couldn’t stand rock, even though he had two kids who came of age during the 1960s and one who did in the 1980s [me].  I consulted with the Urban Dictionary and found these choice words:

      1.      “Classic rock you first heard from your dad's old record collection.”

2.      “The standard set of albums from the 60s and 70s that every boomer likes.”

3.      “A variety of genres from the 60s and 70s that dads are most likely to enjoy. Dad Rock is made up of Psychedelic Rock, yearly Hard Rock, Progressive Rock, and Shoe Gaze.” [Editor’s note – what the fuck is “Shoe Gaze” music?]

4.      “Dad rock is defined as the genre of music that is listened to uniquely by fathers, not grandfathers or children or mothers (though mothers may have adapted survival strategies to tolerate or ignore dad rock music). To be a dad rocker, you must own albums by all of the following three defining bands of the dad rock genre: Tom Petty and the Heart Breakers, Phil Collins, and Sting. Dad rock is most commonly heard blasting out of Cameros, El Caminos, vans, and large trucks on cassette or from the home on vinyl or, occasionally, compact disc.”

5.      “Term used by children who are angry that most of the modern music they listen to from their generation is garbage in comparison. Unable to come up with viable comparisons to previous classic bands and musical artists, they resort to insulting all of them at once in a dismissive and condescending tone.”

Here’s a tidbit I found from author Jeremy Gordon:

“You might say dad rock means any rock n’ roll enjoyed by dads aged Boomer to Gen X, with millennials on their way — sprawling parameters encompassing most of mainstream rock music, from the Allman Brothers to Zappa.” [Editor’s note - I actually have music from A to Z [including the LA punk band X]].

The editors at Vice.com decided they would interview a bunch of dads ranging from ages 28-62 to see what they think of the term “dad rock”  It turns out there are as many different definitions of “dad rock” as there are dads.

Age: 58

Lives in: Fort Walton Beach, Florida

Children: 2

Last album purchased: Saturns Pattern, Paul Weller [2015]

Last concert: Dwight Yoakam

Does he own toe shoes or Crocs? Not only “no,” but “Hell No!”

Heard the term "dad rock" before? Sure I have.  How else would I be able to write this?

Thoughts on the term:  The term “dad rock” is used by some as a pejorative.  That’s fair from the POV of someone younger than me, since I go the other way and complain about today’s music with the phrase “yes, I’m old and your music really does suck!”  I listen to lots of dinosaurs [the good ones, at least].  “Old” doesn’t necessarily mean “great” because at the time my favorites made music, there was still a lot of crap to weed out.  I listen to Parliament/Funkadelic – does that make it “dad funk”?  I listen to Dwight Yoakam and Waylon Jennings – “dad county,” right?  I’ve seen comments about “dad rock” being the kind of music played by people too old to get angry or too old to want to change the world.  Neil Young is 75, and he’s still plenty angry about the environment.  Another comment I saw concerned whether the older musicians make any music that “pushes boundaries.”  I wonder what “boundaries” they refer to - boundaries of good taste, boundaries of melodic/not melodic, lyrics that insult the listeners’ intelligence, etc?  Bob Dylan will be 80 in three months, and he’s been creating his own genre of music since 1997 [others would argue sooner].

Is the music I listen to “dad rock”? You bet it is.  And when you get older, YOUR music will also be defined as such <giggle snort>.