Why I Like Iron Maiden

Iron Maiden has been around a very long time.  They are not trendy, they do what they want at their own pace.  They know what their fans want and expect, and they deliver.  They get no support from radio yet they still sell out live shows.  Aside from those clichés, what are the things that make me like Iron Maiden?

Literate songwriting.  If you are looking for songs about sex, drugs, and rock ‘n’ roll, Iron Maiden is not the band for you.  Both Bruce Dickinson and Steve Harris draw lyrical inspiration from history, television, movies, folklore, religion, science fiction, mythology, the occult, current events, etc.  Their sources for inspiration are endless. 

The Epics.  Before Maiden the only band that I could think of that regularly had songs that lasted more than ten minutes was The Doors. Maiden regularly create songs that last more than eight minutes, and sometimes they break the ten-minute barrier.  Their most epic is Rime of the Ancient Mariner, which is almost fourteen minutes.  One might think this is just a band that doesn’t get to the point, but with all those guitarists, why not let them play?  Steve Harris has often talked of his love of progressive bands like old Genesis, old Yes and Jethro Tull [Maiden once covered Cross-Eyed Mary].  These bands liked to play long songs to give their musicians the chance to stretch out and play.  Maiden usually has one or more “epic” on each of their albums, and the guitarists get to play…a lot!  There is no downside to this.

The live shows.  I have never seen them in person, but I have the live DVDs Rock in Rio, Death on the Road, Flight 666, and Live After Death.  These guys put on a great show.  They are fun to watch.

Bruce Dickinson.  This man is nicknamed the Air Raid Siren for a reason.  The dude is in his fifties and he can still out-sing most people half his age.  But in the early Eighties I was drawn to this guy for a different reason.  Back in 1983, one of the biggest albums out at the time was The Police’s Synchronicity.  In many an interview at the time Sting used to drone on and on about what book he’s currently reading.  I think he was just trying to show he isn’t a prototypical idiot rocker.  Or maybe he was just a pretentious shithead, who knows…  But one day I saw Bruce give an interview where he said “I read just as many books as Sting does…I just don’t make a big deal about it.”  You sold me, Bruce.  Is there a more energetic frontman in rock?  If there is, I haven’t seen him.  And wherever he goes, he has the audience in the palms of his hands, especially when he demands “Scream for me!”  And like me he is a history nut. J  In the early Nineties he had the balls to walk away from the Iron Maiden gig so that he could prove himself as a solo performer.  Having done so with Accident of Birth and The Chemical Wedding, he made better albums than Maiden did with Blaze Bayley [although The X Factor is better than Fear of the Dark and No Prayer for the Dying].  He’s back in Iron Maiden because he wants to be there, not because of any failed solo career [Note: it was a pretty successful one…]. 

The Three Amigos.  Iron Maiden is the only heavy metal band that I know of that has three guitarists –Dave Murray, Adrian Smith, and Janick Gers.  Each has his own style.  Dave Murray is the guy who can play whatever comes to his mind.  His inspiration is Hendrix.  He doesn’t look it, but he’s the “assassin” of the three guitarists.   Adrian Smith takes a more deliberate approach to his playing.  He likes to work out his solos ahead of time, and of the three guitarists he is the one most likely to assume the rhythm guitarist role [which he likes].  Both Dave and Adrian are precise in their playing.  Janick Gers is the wild card of the bunch.  He’s more loose in his playing like Jimmy Page.  They like playing together and don’t step on each other.

Steve Harris.  Make no mistake – Iron Maiden is Steve Harris’ band.  He is the “first among equals,” and he is the visionary one in the band.  His songs established Iron Maiden as a band to be taken seriously.  He has written the lion’s share of Maiden’s songs, though lately he has relaxed his creative stranglehold because he has five other capable songwriters to work with.   He has a unique bass playing style – he sounds like a galloping horse.  It’s a very distinctive, almost percussive sound and if you hear it, you know exactly who it is.  In all the videos and DVDs in which I’ve seen him play, his fingers are a blur.  I don’t know how he does it.

Nicko McBrain.  Yes, that really is his name.  He doesn’t use double-bass drums like some drummers do [Alex Van Halen, Neil Peart], but he sounds like he does.  The man is tireless.  Tommy Lee once described him as an octopus [a description I’ve also heard applied to Ginger Baker].  He has a huge drum kit, and he uses every drum on his kit.  He and Steve Harris make a fantastic rhythm section.  He has been in the band since Piece of Mind.  Only Steve Harris and Dave Murray have been in the band longer.

Eddie.  Not many bands have their own mascot, but Maiden has Eddie.  He started out as just a skull called Eddie the Head.  Is he a mummy or a zombie?  I’m not really sure, but he’s been on almost every Iron Maiden album cover [I think the original Live at Donnington is the lone exception].  Iron Maiden probably have the coolest album covers and Eddie is a big reason why.  Eddie is iconic – he’s synonymous with Iron Maiden.  A creation of artist Derek Riggs, Eddie has appeared in many guises, to include [but not limited to]:

a Pharaoh/God on Powerslave

a tank-riding soldier on A Matter of Life and Death

a straight-jacketed mental patient [complete with lobotomy] on Piece of Mind

a puppeteer of Satan on The Number of the Beast

the Grim Reaper on Dance of Death

a tree monster on Fear of the Dark

a futuristic Terminator on Somewhere in Time

half of his body removed on Seventh Son of a Seventh Son

an axe murderer on Killers

Iron Maiden has put out many compilation albums.  I don’t know why they felt the need to put out so many compilations, but they did.  They include:

Best of the Beast [1996]

Ed Hunter [1999]

Edward the Great [2002]

The Essential Iron Maiden [2005]

Somewhere Back in Time: The Best of 1980-1989 [2008]

From Fear to Eternity: The Best of 1990-2010 [2011]

If I was going to put together a 2-CD compilation of what I think is Maiden’s best work, it would look like this:

Paschendale [Dance of Death, 2003] – The setting of this is the World War I battle of the same name fought in Belgium.  Maiden incorporated strings into their music in a big way on the Dance of Death album, especially this epic about the horrors of war in the trenches on the Western Front.

Seventh Son of a Seventh Son [Seventh Son of a Seventh Son. 1988] – The title track from the “concept album” is the lynchpin of the entire album that is core to the story.  One of many Maiden epics that is both loud and quiet, fast and faster, brilliant in its execution.

Stranger in a Strange Land [Somewhere in Time, 1986] – This has absolutely nothing to do with the Robert Heinlein book of the same name.  It has a rock-steady beat that one doesn’t often hear in a Maiden song.  It’s actually about a doomed Arctic expedition, one of the survivors of which Adrian Smith actually met.

The Clairvoyant [Seventh Son of a Seventh Son. 1988] – This one starts with a memorable Steve Harris bass riff.  The Seventh Son can’t tell the difference between his normal vision and what he dreams. He wonders why he seems to be growing stronger, and he’s scared he can’t control his growing power anymore. Then in mid-song, the narration goes from first person to third person. The narrator is somewhat befuddled that the Seventh Son, despite all his powers of clairvoyance, couldn’t foresee his own death.  But what really killed him? Did his supernatural powers consume him, or did the people from the village do the deed?

Tailgunner [No Prayer for the Dying, 1990] – This is the leadoff track from the first album with Janick Gers.  Iron Maiden did a lot of songs with a “war” theme.  This is one of them.  This is written from the point of view of a bomber tailgunner.

Aces High [Powerslave, 1984] – This is the leadoff track from Powerslave, written from the point of view of RAF fighter pilots who fought the Battle of Britain.

2 Minutes to Midnight [Powerslave, 1984] – This reference to the Doomsday Clock is a Smith/Dickinson masterpiece.  It is proof that Steve Harris couldn’t write all the great Maiden tracks himself.

The Wicker Man [Brave New World, 2000] – After a long absence Bruce Dickinson and Adrian Smith returned to Iron Maiden in 1999.  This is the first song from their first album back in the fold.   Welcome back gents!

Wildest Dreams [Dance of Death, 2003] – This one is a very catchy, short burst of high energy to kick off Dance of Death.  Steve Harris’ lyrics paint a picture of a guy snapping out of a funk and taking charge of his own life.  Great solo from Adrian Smith.

Moonchild [Seventh Son of a Seventh Son. 1988] – This is the opening track from Maiden’s lone “concept album,” Seventh Son of a Seventh Son.  Lucifer [“the bornless one,” “the fallen angel watching you”] comments on the birth of “the chosen one” and also warns his mother that no matter what she does “this child was born to die.” 

Ghost of the Navigator [Brave New World, 2000] – If you’ve been navigating on the seas of life you might run into this character… Janick Gers came into his own as a songwriter when he wrote this – it’s a damn good one.

The Reincarnation of Benjamin Breeg [A Matter of Life and Death, 2006] – Who is Benjamin Breeg?  Only Steve Harris knows, but he did something terrible for which he feels a lot of guilt.  It is one of Maiden’s slower songs.  Adrian Smith is the more rhythm-oriented player of the three Maiden guitarists, and he locks in tightly with Steve Harris and Nicko McBrain and beats the listener into submission.  Great solo from Dave Murray.

Journeyman [Dance of Death, 2003] – Maiden unplugs for this one that closes Dance of Death.  Like Paschendale before it, Journeyman features a string arrangement that works very well.  By far this is the most unique song of the entire Maiden canon.  Like Wildest Dreams that opened Dance of Death, this is another song of empowerment – I know what I want/I’ll say what I want/ and no one can take it away… Bruce’s singing is simply magnificent.  There’s an electric version of this song – I haven’t heard it, I don’t need to hear it.  This one is perfect.

Rime of the Ancient Mariner [Flight 666, 2009 – original version on Powerslave, 1984] – This is what NOT to do if your bird shits on you… This is inspired by the Samuel Taylor Coleridge poem of the same name, and the most epic of all Maiden epics [13:41!!!].

Wrathchild [Rock in Rio, 2001 – original version from Killers, 1981] – Something old, something new, something from our Jurassic period…

Powerslave [Powerslave, 1984] – I don’t wanna die, I’m a god, why can’t I live on?  Even pharaohs can’t escape the power of death.

The Trooper [Piece of Mind, 1983] – A song inspired by the Charge of the Light Brigade, this song probably has the most memorable riff of any song in the Maiden canon.

The Number of the Beast [The Number of the Beast. 1982] – Christians everywhere were convinced this song was proof that the guys in Iron Maiden were devil worshipers.  Steve Harris claims the song was a result of a dream he had after watching Damien: Omen II.  He also claims to have been influenced by Robert Burns’ Tam o’ Shanter when writing the song. Bruce’s scream at the end of the first verse was a result of pent-up frustration because Martin Birch made him sing the first verse over and over again.  That scream must have been very cathartic.  For the record, Vincent Price did NOT read the verse from Revelations.  He wanted too much money – Maiden couldn’t afford him.

Run to the Hills [The Number of the Beast. 1982] – This one documents the clash between American Indians and European settlers who pushed westward to settle in America’s heartland.

Flight of Icarus [Piece of Mind, 1983] – He flew too close to the Sun you know…  I think this is the first song Bruce Dickinson wrote for Iron Maiden [or was it Revelations?  I’m not sure…].  Like Stranger in a Strange Land that came three years later, this one is at a slower pace with a rock steady beat.

Hallowed Be Thy Name [The Number of the Beast. 1982] – The singer is waiting in a cold jail cell, reflecting on his life while waiting for his date with the Hangman.  A song that starts out quietly and slowly gets loud and fast in a hurry.  By my count there are three tempo changes throughout, but the guys in Maiden handle it with no problem.  Is it Maiden’s best song?  Probably.

El Dorado [The Final Frontier, 2010] – Bruce the “snake oil salesman” recruits others to help him on a fool’s errand to look for the lost City of Gold.

The Longest Day [A Matter of Life and Death, 2006] – A turning point in the history of Western Civilization is June 6, 1944 – the invasion of Normandy.  It was the beginning of the end for Hitler’s Germany.  A movie with the same name about that momentous day came out fifty years ago.

Mother of Mercy [The Final Frontier, 2010] – Here’s another “war” song, told from the point of view of a soldier fighting in one.

Sign of the Cross [Rock in Rio, 2001 – original version on The X Factor, 1995] – This was the first song from the first album with Blaze Bayley.  It’s inspired by Umberto Eco’s The Name of the Rose.  I picked this version because Bruce sings it better.

Tony's Guitarist Picks - Ritchie Blackmore

When I started to broaden my musical tastes in the early 1980s beyond the Beatles, I started with The Doors and Pink Floyd.  Once I absorbed them I moved on to lots more stuff, including [but not restricted to] Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin and Deep Purple.  I’ve already written at length about Tony Iommi, and a blog on Jimmy Page will come at another time.  Today I devote this space to Ritchie Blackmore.

The original Deep Purple [Ritchie Blackmore, Jon Lord, Ian Paice, Rod Evans, and Nick Simper] formed in 1968.  They recorded a trio of albums that were more on the progressive side of things with the emphasis on Jon Lord’s keyboards.  Jon Lord had a keen interest in fusing pop and classical music.  Ritchie wasn’t too interested in that direction.  Ritchie wanted to make music with a harder edge.  After seeing Led Zeppelin, he saw the direction he wanted to take Deep Purple.  In Ritchie’s mind, the singer [Rod Evans] and the bassist [Nick Simper] weren’t the people to get Deep Purple where he wanted them to go.  After seeing an Episode Six show and liking what they saw and heard, Ritchie and Jon enticed their singer [Ian Gillan] and bassist [Roger Glover] to abandon Episode Six and go with them.  As a bonus, Gillan and Glover were already a songwriting team.  But strangely enough, the first project for the new lineup of Deep Purple [the “Mk II” lineup] was a Concerto for Group and Orchestra. The project got Deep Purple noticed, but the resulting album didn’t sell well.  Ritchie didn’t like the Concerto.  He said:

“I wasn't happy with that.  I wanted to play more rock.  And I said to Jon "um, look, let's give this heavy heavy riffy rock a chance and see how it goes, and if it doesn't work then I'll play with orchestras the rest of my life…”  It wasn't until Led Zeppelin came along that we really had a direction.  We thought 'well, that's the type of music that we want to play, the really heavy rock, the riffy kind of rock.’"

It was Ritchie’s way of saying “we did it your way, it didn’t work, let’s try it my way.”  The result of the “new direction” was Deep Purple In Rock.  The entire album, from the beginning of Speed King, through the epic Child In Time, the searing power chords of Flight of the Rat, to the raucous finale Hard Lovin’ Man, you knew Deep Purple meant business.  They could contend with the heavy guys like Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath.  After the initial trio of albums with the Mk I lineup and the Concerto for Group and Orchestra, Ritchie made seven more albums with Deep Purple.  Some of those albums were great [Deep Purple In Rock, Machine Head, Made in Japan, Burn], some that were good but not great [Fireball, Who Do We Think We Are], and one that was just plain awful [Stormbringer]. 

After Stormbringer, Ritchie bolted Deep Purple to form his own group, Rainbow. In Rainbow, Ritchie teamed up with vocalist Ronnie James Dio [from Elf] and a revolving cast of musicians to record some of his finest work – Ritchie Blackmore’s Rainbow, Rising, On Stage, and Long Live Rock ‘n’ Roll.  These albums saw more of Ritchie’s classical influence brought to hard rock paired with Dio’s knack for lyrical fantasy themes.  It was great music, but it didn’t sell well.  Ritchie wanted a more commercial direction [$$$], but Dio would have none of that.  Dio split, Ritchie first brought in Graham Bonnet, then Joe Lynn turner as vocalists.  IMHO, the music wasn’t as good, but it had its moments.  After four albums with these guys, Ritchie reformed Deep Purple with the rest of the MK II lineup and made a very good album, Perfect Strangers.  Then boredom set in for Ritchie again. After three more albums with Deep Purple and one more with Rainbow, Ritchie tired of making hard rock music and dedicated himself to quieter Renaissance music.  He’s been doing that with his wife Candice Night ever since.

What was it about Ritchie Blackmore that appealed to my ears?  Consider the following:

The riff – Though he is not as prolific a riff writer as Tony Iommi, Ritchie Blackmore has produced his share of memorable riffs.  The most famous of these riffs is Smoke on the Water.  It is one of the most famous, most indestructible riffs in all of rock music.  It’s a very simple riff – but then so is the intro to Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony.  Pluck it with your fingers, don’t strum with a pick.  More memorable riffs include Lazy, Woman From Tokyo, Burn, Man on the Silver Mountain, Black Night [which he admits he pinched from Ricky Nelson’s Sunshine].  Those are just the famous riffs.  Another cool riff of Ritchie’s is Flight of the Rat [Deep Purple In Rock].  On that album I wasn’t sure how Deep Purple would follow the monumental Child In Time, but Flight of the Rat did the trick.  It’s a very intense piece of work.

Speed kills – while my favorite player David Gilmour is much slower and deliberate in his playing and his soloing, Ritchie Blackmore really is a “speed king.”  It’s one thing to be fast, but Ritchie is also very precise.  A sloppy player Ritchie is not.  Of Ritchie Blackmore writer Chris Welch once said "He had this combination of finesse, imagination and taste.  That's the important thing about Ritchie Blackmore." He's the original shredder who didn't lose any ability with age.

Solos – Ritchie admits to having a horrible technical memory and has committed one solo to memory – Highway Star.  But having an inability to remember solos does not equate to being a bad soloist.  In Ritchie’s case, I have never heard him play a bad solo.  If his solos sound like he’s “winging it,” it’s because he is.  Although he is winging it, it always sounds like he knows exactly how to end a solo.  His profound sense of melody gives him that ability to think ahead and know what will work and what will not work.  He seems to get it right every time.  Many guitarists don’t know how to finish a solo.  They’ll play faster until they get to the end.  Not so Ritchie – he knows how to end a solo.  A good example is Street of Dreams.  Forget that it’s a pop song – listen to the solo.  Conversely, there is one example where he doesn’t take a solo at all – Perfect Strangers.  He doesn't solo here because he doesn't need to.  He had the melodic sense to know the song was good enough without one.

The Improvisations – Certain compositions in the Deep Purple repertoire were good vehicles for improvisation and extended soling.  Look no further than Deep Purple In Concert 1970/72, and the listener is treated to three such showcases for both Ritchie Blackmore and keyboardist Jon Lord to stretch out:  Wring That Neck, Mandrake Root and Space Truckin’.  During the Mark II phase of the band (1969-73), the band was very loud, very aggressive, and quite unpredictable.

The Blues – As loud and brash and in your face that Ritchie Blackmore could get, sometimes he could just lay back and play the blues.  He only hinted at it during Purple’s MK II period with Lazy [Machine Head, 1972].  Ritchie once said he tried to emulate Eric Clapton’s Steppin’ Out from the Bluesbreakers period [see also Live Cream Volume II].  There is quite a similarity between the two.  After Ian Gillan and Roger Glover left the band in June 1973, Ritchie wanted to go more in a blues direction.  He slowed things way down with a long slow blues from Burn [1974] called Mistreated.  Ritchie liked the song so much he took it with him to form Rainbow in 1975.      

Classical – Ritchie brought a classical influence to hard rock guitar [see Highway Star].  He injected rock guitar with the classical scales and chord progressions that inspired future legions of rock guitarists. He also brought medieval, baroque influences to his music. These influences particularly color Ritchie's terrific melodic sense.   Since Ritchie tired of playing rock in the mid-1990s, he’s gone all the way over to playing Renaissance music.  I hope someday he will come back, but I don't see it happening.  The guy is going to be 67 next month, so he probably prefers things to be a lot quieter now.

The Slide – Ritchie uses a metallic slide.  Most other players prefer to use glass because it produces a warmer sound.  Ritchie liked his slide sound a bit more harsh.  He doesn’t use it very much, and you have to dig deep into his catalog to find it, but it’s there to be found on No No No [Fireball – a good headphone song BTW], Mary Long [Who Do We Think We Are], Sail Away [Burn], Difficult to Cure [Finyl Vinyl], the aforementioned Catch the Rainbow [Ritchie Blackmore’s Rainbow], and his epic solo on Stargazer [Rising].

These are things I like about Ritchie Blackmore.  However, he has been described as moody, sullen, incredibly stubborn, and difficult to work with.  He does nothing to dissuade people otherwise.  Ozzy Osbourne claims to be the “Prince of F**king Darkness,” but he has nothing on Ritchie Blackmore.  Lemmy Kilmister once told a story about Ritchie that, if true, depicts a purely evil guy.  The story goes like this – one time while on tour Ritchie got extremely annoyed with a tour manager.  To show his displeasure with this guy he slipped him a mickey in his drink.  While the guy was unconscious Ritchie and company took this poor bastard, stripped him naked, loaded him in a car, put the car on a ferry to Iceland, and left the car without any keys.  That’s just pure, vindictive malice.  I believe the story to be true.  Ritchie is one of those guys that if he is bored or just not inspired, you know it right away.  About half of Who Do We Think We Are, most of The House of Blue Light, and all of Stormbringer contain evidence of Ritchie “mailing it in.”  He’s demolished as many guitars as Pete Townshend and Jimi Hendrix.  I saw him destroy a TV camera during the California Jam in 1974.  During that same show he also set his amps on fire. 

 

There have been eight different incarnations of Deep Purple.  In my view, the incarnation of the band that is the best included Ritchie Blackmore, Ian Gillan, Roger Glover, Jon Lord, and Ian Paice [the so-called "Mark II" line-up].  Yes, that means when it comes to Deep Purple, I am a purist.  Ritchie left the band twice.  He was followed [notice I did not say "replaced"] by Tommy Bolin [1975] and Steve Morse [1994].  I saw the band with Ritchie in 1985, and I saw the band with Steve Morse in 1998.  The 1985 show was a great show.  The 1998 was a good show.  This is not a knock on Steve Morse as he is a fine guitar player.  Steve is a very versatile player who can play in many styles, and can probably play rings around most guitarists past and present.  But the intangible magic that was present in 1985 wasn't there in 1998.  Ritchie and Jon established the classic Deep Purple sound in the early 1970s, and it was a unique sound.  That sound remained intact with the change in vocalists from Ian Gillan to David Coverdale in 1973.  It remained intact with the changing of bass players [also in 1973] from Roger Glover to Glenn Hughes.  But when Ritchie left, the dynamic changed.  The albums that came after Ritchie say "Deep Purple" but they don't sound like Deep Purple.  In concert they sound like a cover band that plays Deep Purple songs.  On their own merits any Deep Purple albums without Ritchie have good music, they just aren't "Deep Purple."

There are many places to find the greatness that is Ritchie Blackmore.  Being the Deep Purple fanatic that I am, I have most of the albums.  I first discovered Rainbow on a British import collection, The Best of Rainbow.  It features all the guys who sang for Rainbow until the time of its release [Ronnie James Dio, Graham Bonnet, and Joe Lynn Turner].  I’m partial to the Dio years.  Below are his essential recordings [IMHO].  These are the albums that you can pick any song and you can't go wrong.  I chose my favorites, those that stand out above the rest.  Even on those Deep Purple or Rainbow albums where the entire album isn't up to scratch, there are nuggets to be found if you want to look for them.  Those nuggets are listed here as well.

Essential Stuff

Deep Purple In Rock [1970]

- Speed King, Child in Time, Flight of the Rat

Fireball [1971]

- No No No, Strange Kind of Woman, Demon's Eye, No One Came

Machine Head [1972]

- Highway Star, Pictures of Home, Smoke On The Water, Lazy

Made in Japan [1972]

- Highway Star [best version ever!], Smoke on the Water, Space Truckin'

Burn [1974]

- Burn, You Fool No One, Sail Away, Mistreated

Rising [1976]

- Stargazer, A Light in the Black, Tarot Woman

Long Live Rock 'n' Roll [1978]

- Gates of Babylon, Kill the King, The Shed [Subtle], Lady of the Lake

Good Stuff

Who Do We Think We Are [1973]

- Woman From Tokyo, Mary Long, Rat Bat Blue

Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow [1975]

- Man on the Silver Mountain, Catch the Rainbow, Still I'm Sad

Deep Purple In Concert 1970/1972 [1980]

-Wring That Neck, Mandrake Root

Down to Earth [1979]

-Weiss Heim [instrumental, originally a B-side to All Night Long]

Bent Out of Shape [1983]

- Street of Dreams, Desperate Heart, Fire Dance, Snowman

Perfect Strangers [1984]

- Perfect Strangers, Knocking at Your Back Door, Not Responsible, A Gypsy's Kiss, Nobody's Home, Under the Gun

Finyl Vinyl [1986]

-Difficult to Cure [Beethoven’s Ninth] (Live)

The House of Blue Light [1987]

- Bad Attitude, The Unwritten Law, The Spanish Archer

The Battle Rages On [1993]

- The Battle Rages On, Anya, Time to Kill, Twist of the Tale

Chimes of Freedom - The Songs of Bob Dylan

It’s been 50 years since Bob Dylan released his first album.  It’s also the 50^th anniversary of Amnesty International.  This isn’t necessarily a coincidence, but it is an act of serendipity.  Many of Bob Dylan’s early songs addressed the injustices of groups of people [or in some cases, specific individuals] suffered at the hands of others.  Other songs addressed, to steal a phrase, hope and changes that were coming.  Amnesty International is all about fighting injustice wherever they see it.  To commemorate the anniversary, Bob Dylan gave the ok to donate proceeds from any songs on this collection to be donated to Amnesty.  Out of the 73 songs on this collection, there are lots of good renderings of Dylan’s work.  Some are just ‘ok,’ others are cures for insomnia.  There are some versions that are interesting because they just seem to come out of left field,  while a few should never have seen the light of day.  All ratings are subjective of course…

The REALLY Good Stuff

Drifter’s Escape – Patti Smith

Ballad of Hollis Brown – Rise Against

Love Sick – Mariachi El Bronx

Blowin’ in the Wind – Ziggy Marley

Outlaw Blues – Queens of the Stone Age

One More Cup of Coffee (To the Valley Below) – Lucia Micarelli/Steve Earle

No Time to Think – The Belle Brigade

The Times They Are A-Changin’ – Flogging Molly

Abandoned Love – Paul Rodgers/Nils Lofgren

Señor (Tales of Yankee Power) – Dierks Bentley

Chimes of Freedom – Bob Dylan [Duh!]

The Good Stuff

Blind Willie McTell – Tom Morello

This Wheel’s On Fire – Charlie Winston

You’re Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go – Miley Cyrus [Surprise!]

Lay Down Your Weary Tune – Billy Bragg

Love Minus Zero/No Limit – Jackson Browne

Seven Curses – Joan Baez

Make You Feel My Love – Adele

She Belongs to Me – Neil Finn/Pajama Club

Buckets of Rain – Fistful of Mercy

Property of Jesus – Sinéad O’Connor

Don’t Think Twice It’s All Right [Instrumental] – Kronos Quartet

Political World – Carolina Chocolate Drops

Bob Dylan’s 115^th Dream – Taj Mahal & the Phantom Blues Band

One of Us Must Know (Sooner or Later) – Mick Hucknall

Tryin’ to Get to Heaven – Lucinda Williams

Quinn the Eskimo (The Mighty Quinn) – Kris Kristofferson

Gotta Serve Somebody – Eric Burdon

John Brown – State Radio

Heart of Mine – Blake Mills

4th Time Around – Oren Lavie

I Shall Be Released – Maroon 5

Somewhat Interesting

Subterranean Homesick Blues – Michael Franti

Mr. Tambourine Man – Jack’s Mannequin

All I Really Want To Do – Sussan Deyhim

It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue – Bad Religion

Desolation Row – My Chemical Romance

Shelter From the Storm – Ed Roland/The Sweet Tea Project

Forever Young – Pete Seeger [Just because a 90-year old dude is singing it…]

Zzzzz….. [Not terrible, just incredibly dull…]

Corrina, Corrina – Pete Townshend

Most of the Time – Bettye LaVette

Simple Twist of Fate – Diana Krall

Girl From the North Country – Sting

Restless Farewell – Mark Knopfler

Rainy Day Women #12 & 35 – Lenny Kravitz

License to Kill – Elvis Costello

Tonight I’ll Be Staying Here With You – Sugarland

Just Like a Woman – Carly Simon

Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door – RedOne

It Aint Me, Babe – Band of Skulls

Like a Rolling Stone – Jeff Beck/Seal

Bob Dylan’s Dream – Bryan Ferry

I’ll Remember You – Thea Gilmore

Mama, You Been On My Mind – We Are Augustines

Meh…[I could have gone my entire life without hearing these versions…]

Leopard-Skin Pill-Box Hat – Raphael Saadiq

You Ain’t Goin’ Nowhere – Brett Dennen

Changing of the Guards – The Gaslight Anthem

Not Dark Yet – Silversun Pickups

You’re a Big Girl Now – My Morning Jacket

Boots of Spanish Leather – The Airborne Toxic Event

Lay Lady Lay – Angelique Kidjo

Ring Them Bells – Natasha Bedingfield

With God on Our Side – K’NAAN

I Want You – Ximema Sariñana

Tomorrow Is a Long Time - Zee Avi

New Morning – Darren Criss

The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll - Cage the Elephant

Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right – Ke$ha

All Along the Watchtower – Dave Matthews Band

Man of Peace – Joe Perry

What Were They Thinking?

One Too Many Mornings – Johnny Cash & the Avett Brothers

I’d Have You Anytime – Evan Rachel Wood

Baby Let Me Follow You Down – Marianne Faithfull

Tony's Guitarist Picks - David Gilmour

In retrospect, the last blog I wrote about Duane Allman was [in my view] extremely long-winded.  Today I will keep it much shorter.  The object of today’s exercise is David Gilmour, the man with the humungous Fender who is responsible for all the guitar noise from Pink Floyd.

It was the week between the last day of high school and graduation.  I decided to expand my musical horizons beyond the Beatles, so I bought four albums – two by the Doors [Morrison Hotel, LA Woman] and two by Pink Floyd [The Dark Side of the Moon, The Wall]. What struck me about Pink Floyd besides all the cool sound effects was the guitar playing of David Gilmour.  I noticed that he didn’t get very many songwriting credits while Roger Waters was in the band, but I did notice that fact didn’t stop David Gilmour from shining brightly.  Gilmour sang well [much better than Roger Waters], he played lots of different guitars, and he played them with an economy unheard of in most bands, especially the metal bands.  I thought he played a lot like George Harrison in that he always seemed to choose his notes wisely, the notes that he chose always seemed perfect for any song he played, and he was never in any hurry to say what he wanted to say musically.  In short, Pink Floyd was a very cool-sounding band.  After the Floyd reportedly went their separate ways after The Final Cut [1982], both Roger Waters and David Gilmour put out solo albums [The Pros and Cons of Hitchhiking and About Face, respectively].  What caught my ear was how much Gilmour’s album sounded like Pink Floyd, and how much Roger Waters’ album did not sound like Pink Floyd. That little tidbit didn’t escape Kurt Loder either when he reviewed The Pros and Cons of Hitchhiking for Rolling Stone.  I believe his comments were along the lines that Gilmour had the patent on Pink Floyd’s sound, and that About Face had taken on a new luster in comparison with Roger’s work.  But I’m not here to trash Roger Waters.  Roger may have had all the songs, but without Gilmour to give them shape and form I didn’t think they were as good as what he produced when he was the guiding hand of Pink Floyd.  David Gilmour really was [and still is] “the guitar and voice of Pink Floyd.”  And as such, he also became my favorite guitar player.  What makes David Gilmour such a standout?  Let me count the ways…

The acoustic – Given all of their electronic wizardry, Pink Floyd doesn’t come to mind as a group that would play what David Crosby calls “wooden music.”  Given the opportunity, Gilmour can unplug with the best of them.  Wish You Were Here is the obvious example of Pink Floyd going “unplugged.”  Fat Old Sun from Atom Heart Mother is another good example.  He uses the acoustic as a soloing instrument on songs like Lost For Words [from The Division Bell] and Near the End [from About Face].  He’s used it as a rhythm instrument – the rhythm track for Dogs [Animals, 1977] is acoustic.  He’ll play half a song on an acoustic before abruptly switching to an electric for solo work like On the Turning Away [A Momentary Lapse of Reason, 1987].  He did a live DVD where he unplugged for Shine On You Crazy Diamond.  I wasn’t sure how he’d pull that off, but he did so effortlessly.  Another good usage of the acoustic is found on Murder [About Face].  His use of a capo [on the second fret, I think…] makes the song sound like Norwegian Wood [both songs are in the same key].  That’s appropriate since the subject of Murder is John Lennon.

The “Nashville” tuning - This tuning on an acoustic guitar substitutes the wound E, A, and D strings with lighter gauge strings of the pairs of a twelve-string guitar.  The guitar sounds like it’s an octave higher.  Gilmour replaced the lower E string with a second six-string high E.  I first heard this tuning utilized by Keith Richards on the Stones Wild Horses [Sticky Fingers, 1971].  Keith’s usage made Wild Horses sound more like a country song [hence the name of the tuning], but Gilmour’s use lends a shimmering, ethereal quality to whatever song he thinks needs such a quality.  Gilmour first used it on I Can’t Breathe Anymore [David Gilmour, 1978].  He also used it for Hey You, Mother and Comfortably Numb.

The lap steel – Sometimes Gilmour used the lap steel for coloring [Breathe, Hey You, The Great Gig in the Sky, Comfortably Numb], other times he used it for soloing [Shine On You Crazy Diamond Part VI, High Hopes], and one time [the only one I can think of] he used it for taking over a song [One of These Days].  Until I heard One of These Days [Meddle, 1971] I had no idea you could play very loud power chords on a lap steel.

Speed kills – David Gilmour can wring more emotion out of four notes than Yngve Malmsteen or any other shredder [ahem…Steve Vai or Joe Satriani] can with one hundred.  Why four notes?  Shine On You Crazy Diamond.  Those four notes that start Part II [3:56] of this song were all that Roger Waters needed for inspiration to write about Syd Barrett.  How else can one make those long string bends that he gets on Part I of the same song?  You can’t get there by playing lightning fast.  Since Gilmour plays slowly compared to many guitarists, he can inject a lot of melody into his playing.  You can practically sing his solos [I’m listening to Mother as I write this…].

The solos – David Gilmour’s soloing prowess is legendary.  His solos are not terribly complex.  It’s the age-old argument of “speed vs. feeling.”  David Gilmour has feeling in abundance.  For him, soling is a fun thing to do.  He told a BBC interviewer once that he can’t imagine what it’s like being in the audience and listening to it.  He went on to say that soloing “is the best way that some of us express ourselves.”  He has a bunch of great ones [in no particular order]:  Young Lust, Mother, Hey You, Wish You Were Here, SOYCD, Dogs, Time, Money, High Hopes, Have a Cigar, The Final Cut, On the Turning Away, Another Brick in the Wall Pt 2, Echoes, Comfortably Numb.  Those are just the ones off the top of my head.

I remember one particular moment when I thought Gilmour’s playing coerced a “wow!” out of me.  It was at a midnight movie showing of Pink Floyd: The Wall.  Movies shown in a theater are fairly loud, but on this night it seemed especially loud [maybe because I wasn’t sober? who knows?].  The moment happened on the second song, The Thin Ice.  The song itself is quiet, the piano sounding almost like someone is playing “Chopsticks” until suddenly there’s a drum break and there’s Gilmour’s guitar.  The sound was ominous, sinister, and HUGE.  It was a definite “whoa!” moment.  It definitely set the tone for what came later.  There’s a certain quality to Gilmour’s soloing that makes one drop what he’s doing and pay attention to the music.  Comfortably Numb does that for me.  I’ve heard that song hundreds of times, but whenever I hear the solos [especially the second one] I have to stop what I’m doing [unless I’m driving], crank up the volume and enjoy.

The rhythm – Overlooked in Gilmour’s playing is his rhythm prowess.  One needs to look no further than Have a Cigar [Wish You Were Here, 1975] where Gilmour injects a shot of rhythm and blues after the bleak Welcome to the Machine.  Another Brick in the Wall Part 2 [The Wall, 1979] is another example of rhythm playing at its most un-Floydian.  His rhythm guitar sounds almost like Chic.  Then there’s the aforementioned Dogs.  His acoustic rhythm playing sounds like a scythe cutting through the fog.

Know when to support, know when to lead – Gilmour knows when to play, and more importantly [I think, anyway…] when not to play.  When Dick Parry plays his sax solo in SOYCD Part V, Gilmour plays a nice arpeggio figure in the back.  He also does the arpeggio thing on Dark Side of the Moon’s Us and Them.  No guitar solo is required for this song, but his playing on top of Rick Wright’s song sets the appropriate mood.  As good a support player that he is, he also knows when to step to the forefront.  Hey You [The Wall, 1979] is Roger Waters’ song, but it has Gilmour’s stamp all over it.  He throws in practically everything in his guitar arsenal into the song.  The intro is played on an acoustic guitar in the “Nashville tuning.”  He sang the verses before the guitar solo, he played the fretless bass as well as all the guitar solos and acoustic overdubs.  Plus, he’s got the lap steel on there that you can hear right after he finishes the guitar solo.  Everything you want to know about David Gilmour’s talent as a guitar player and arranger can be found in Hey You.

Have guitar, will travel – In addition to his work with the Floyd and his own solo work, Gilmour lends his talents to other people as a session player.  He’s worked with the likes of Bryan Ferry, Paul McCartney, Supertramp and Kate Bush.  His latest contribution outside his own work came with The Orb.  Such was the nature and extent of his contribution to their work, their latest album [Metallic Spheres] was credited “The Orb featuring David Gilmour.”  My favorite bit that he did for someone else was to provide the lead guitar for Pete Townshend’s song Give Blood [White City: A Novel, 1985]. 

Careful With That Axe, Eugene – Gilmour’s axe of choice on the electric side is a Fender Stratocaster.  I have seen him use other guitars though.  For his solo on Another Brick in the Wall Part 2 he used a Les Paul.  He uses a Fender Esquire with the heavy E string tuned down to D for playing Run Like Hell.  I saw him use a white Fender Telecaster for Astronomy Domine.  For Sorrow [A Momentary Lapse of Reason, 1987] he broke out a headless Steinberger to get a tone from Hell.  For some of his solo work he has taken to playing a Gretsch Duo-Jet.  He uses it to great effect on Where We Start [On an Island, 2006].  It’s a very nice sounding guitar – I want one!  For acoustic work he’ll use a Taylor 712 CE acoustic steel string, a Martin D-28 acoustic steel string, a Jose Vilaplana acoustic nylon string, and an Ovation Custom Legend 1619-4 acoustic steel string with high strung unwound strings.  They all sound very good in his hands.

I won’t go into what amps or other gear he uses.  There is a website called Gilmourish [http://www.gilmourish.com/] that provides an exhaustive look at how David Gilmour gets the sounds that he does.  It claims to be the largest David Gilmour gear source on the net.  And having looked through the site, I believe them.  If you’re a gearhead, and especially a David Gilmour gearhead, this site is your one-stop shopping to get your gear fix.  It’s a very good site.

Not much else needs to be said about David Gilmour the guitar player.  Carol and I had the pleasure of seeing him in person twice, both times on Pink Floyd’s last tour in 1994.  The sound was crystal clear, the laser lights were very cool, the films shown on the round screen behind the stage complemented the music well.  Throw in a giant mirror ball and a couple of inflatable pigs for good measure and you’ve got yourself a very good show.  With Rick Wright’s death a few years ago, Pink Floyd is now history.  David Gilmour has seen it all and done it all.  He doesn’t have to work if he doesn’t want to.  I understand that he’s working on another record these days.  If so, it will be mine!

Tony's 2011 Picks - Eleven from '11

I didn’t buy a lot of “new” music in 2011.  There wasn’t a lot of new music that jumped out and screamed “buy me.”  Some of those that I did buy I’ve already written about at length.  I pretty much stuck to stuff that’s come out in years past that I didn’t get when they were new.  So my list of favorite releases from 2011 is a short one.  Ten of them contain new music, and one of them is a monster of a box set.  As one would expect from me, the list is filled with the usual suspects, but as long as the usual suspects continue to make new music, I’ll continue to buy it and write about it.

Tom Waits – Bad As Me The only surprise about this Tom Waits release is the brevity of the songs.  All thirteen songs (16 if you got the “deluxe” version) run under five minutes.  Sound-wise, there are no surprises.  The “human beatbox” that was prevalent on 2004’s Real Gone is gone, and keyboards that were absent from that release make their return on Bad As Me.  As usual, Tom Waits barks, hollers, croons, and rasps.  Keith Richards makes an appearance on four of the songs, the funniest of which is Satisfied.  Here Tom Waits mocks Mick and Keith by name and tells him that, unlike the singer who “can’t get no satisfaction” he will be satisfied by the time it’s his turn to depart planet Earth.  There’s an anti-war rant called Hell Broke Luce, which features machine-gun fire and snarling guitars.  He’s got poetic ballads like Back in the Crowd and Kiss Me.  Bad As Me has the mix of the old-timey and the surreal one expects of any Tom Waits release.  The songs sound like they were recorded after all the bars closed.  There’s dark humor and sorrow, anger, disgust and heartbreak.  The disgust comes in Talking At The Same Time: “We bailed out all the millionaires/They got the fruit, we got the rind…”  The sadness comes in Pay Me where the singer tells of his family who pays him not to come home.  The only way down from the gallows is to swing… To borrow a phrase, Bad As Me is chock full of brawlers, bawlers and bastards.  It is essential for any Tom Waits fan.  Same as it ever was…

Emmylou Harris – Hard Bargain  For most of her career, Emmylou Harris has contented herself with being an interpreter of songs written by other people.  She’s always been insecure about her songwriting.  I think she sells herself short in that regard – she wrote From Boulder to Birmingham!  What I didn’t realize [and I probably should have – I have many or her albums] was that she was the primary songwriter for only three of her albums before Hard Bargain.  Emmylou wrote all the songs on Red Dirt Girl [2000] and Stumble Into Grace [2003], but returned to recording other peoples’ songs for All I Intended to Be [2008].  On Hard Bargain, Emmylou returned to songwriting and produced a wonderful collection of songs.  There are three elegies on Hard Bargain.   The Road is for Gram Parsons.  In this song she can still remember every song he played.  My Name is Emmitt Till is told in the first person, telling how a black boy from Chicago was murdered in 1950s Mississippi for talking to a white woman, how he was kidnapped from his uncle’s house, beaten, stabbed, shot, and thrown in the river “like trash when they were done.”  And she tells of how Emmitt Till’s mother kept the casket open to show her son’s mutilated body “for the whole wide world to see.”  Darlin’ Kate is for her late friend Kate McGarrigle, a frequent collaborator who lost her battle with cancer.

The album includes Six White Cadillacs.  Here, death is a welcome respite from the road that “we won’t have to wander anymore.”  The Ship on His Arm is about a wartime marriage that was inspired by her own parents, who married during World War II.  There’s New Orleans, where “the whole world stood to watch us drown,” but “to cut and run ain’t in our blood.”  It’s interesting how Emmylou chose to make “hurricane” and “Pontchartrain” rhyme in a song.  There are songs of lonely women – Lonely Girl and Nobody.  Given her long-time advocacy for animal rights, she even wrote a song about a Big Black Dog.  There’s a lot of melancholy on Hard Bargain, but it’s a good album nonetheless.  Her voice is still as angelic as ever.  I read in Billboard not too long ago that her next project will be a duets album with Rodney Crowell.  It’ll be good, that much is certain.

U2 – Achtung Baby Box Set Carol got me this for my birthday.  When author Bill Flanagan wrote his book U2 At the End of the World, he wrote about U2 in their Achtung Baby/Zooropa period.  Manager Paul McGuinness described this time as a three-year campaign.  This box set is the product of that period.  Included in this set are six CDs and four DVDs.  The six CDs include the original Achtung Baby remastered, the original Zooropa remastered, B-sides and Rarities, 2 CDs of remixes [the Über and Ünter remixes], and the “alternate” Achtung Baby.  The hardest core U2 fans have heard all of these before, but not me.  The remastered Achtung Baby and Zooropa sound as good as one would expect.  The B-sides and Rarities are interesting.  I could do without the remixes.  The “alternate” album [‘Kindergaten’] is for U2 what Let It Be…Naked is for the Beatles.  Take away the studio tricks and underneath you still get a pretty good album.  The DVDs include the documentary U2: From the Sky Down.  One DVD contains each of the videos made from the Achtung Baby/Zooropa period.  A third DVD is the Zoo TV – Live From Sydney concert.  This show was quite a bit of sensory overload, but it was good to see Bono not take himself so seriously for once.  The fourth and last DVD has lots of goodies – a Zoo TV special,  an MTV documentary, MTV’s show Most Wanted where a fan got to see a U2 show via satellite from his house, a video short about Trabants [‘Trabantland’], U2 on Naked City, U2 on TV-AM.  There’s CD-ROM content as well, complete with links to websites.  This is how to do a box set the right way.

Glen Campbell – Ghost On The Canvas  The country icon makes his final album and says goodbye to his fans.  http://tonysmusicroom.blogspot.com/search/label/Glen%20Campbell

 

Gregg Allman – Low Country Blues  Gregg’s first solo studio album in fourteen years has been nominated for a Grammy in the Best Blues Album category.  In fact, of the five albums nominated, three were made by members of the Allman Brothers Band.  Perhaps for this year they should rename the category “Best Blues Album by a member of the Allman Brothers Band.”  http://tonysmusicroom.blogspot.com/2011/08/gregg-allman-low-country-blues.html

Warren Haynes – Man in Motion  Also nominated for Best Blues Album [the third being the Tedeschi Trucks Band’s Revelator].  The hardest working man in the music business, Warren took a year off from Gov’t Mule to release and tour behind this soulful gem.  To these ears, Man in Motion is more of a soul album than blues, but I tend to nitpick.  http://tonysmusicroom.blogspot.com/2011/05/warren-haynes-tale-of-two-albums.html

Neil Young – A Treasure  Neil Young changed musical directions with every album he made for Geffen during the 1980s.  This CD captures Neil and some legendary Nashville studio pros in his “country phase.” http://tonysmusicroom.blogspot.com/2011/06/neil-young-treasure.html

Levon Helm – Ramble at the Ryman  Recorded at Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium in 2008, Levon Helm and friends keep the spirit of The Band alive.  Levon doesn’t do all the singing, but with Larry Campbell, Theresa Williams and daughter Amy Helm along for the ride, he doesn’t have to.  http://tonysmusicroom.blogspot.com/2011/06/levon-helm-ramble-at-ryman.html

        

Joe Bonamassa – Dust Blow  This is the first of three releases Joe Bonamassa put out in 2011 [the others being Black Country Communion 2 and Don’t Explain (with singer Beth Hart)].  With three releases in 2011 Joe is trying to take Warren Haynes’ title as the hardest working man in the music business.  Unwilling to be put in a blues-rock straight jacket, Joe goes in a more eclectic direction as he did with his previous two releases, Black Rock [2010] and The Ballad of John Henry [2009].  I love to hear this guy play.

http://tonysmusicroom.blogspot.com/search/label/Black%20Country%20Communion

Black Country Communion – 2  After a not-so-stellar first album,  Glenn Hughes, Joe Bonamassa and company fulfill their potential on their sophomore release.  At times Black Country Communion sounds like the second coming of Deep Purple.  Everything is better – Kevin Shirley’s production is better, Glenn is singing better, Joe is playing like a hard-rock guitarist, and Derek Sherinian can finally be heard in the mix.  Jason Bonham didn’t need to improve his drumming it’s still rock-solid as it was on the first album.  Father John would be proud.  http://tonysmusicroom.blogspot.com/search/label/Black%20Country%20Communion