Tony's Guitarist Picks - Mike Campbell

For the faithful at Tom Petty Nation, most of whom probably know infinitely more about what I write here than I do… 😊

I’ve written about quite a few guitar players over the years – the Allman Brothers duo of Duane Allman and Dickey Betts, Pink Floyd’s David Gilmour, and my original guitar hero George Harrison, just to name a few.  Now I’m finally getting around to Mike Campbell.  To the Tom Petty faithful this may appear like heresy to write about such a fine guitarist as if he was an afterthought, but here is my explanation.  I was always a casual fan of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers.  My foremost musical loves have always been the Beatles, the Allman Brothers Band, and Pink Floyd.  Tom Petty’s music was always in the background.  It was because of that I took his music for granted.  I had a few of his albums, but though I liked his music I wasn’t what one would call a hardcore fan.  Unfortunately, it took his death for me to dig deep beneath the radio hits and find the treasure trove that is his catalog.  Having done so, I found what the Tom Petty faithful have always known – TP’s co-pilot Mike Campbell is a damn fine guitar player.  I suppose in the back of my mind I always knew that too.

The guitars.  When you start a band, more than likely you have to borrow money to get your first good guitar.  When you make it big, guitar companies give you guitars.  Mike Campbell is one of those guys.  When he made it big, guitar companies [Duesenberg comes to mind immediately] gave Mike guitars.  But he also has money, and a serious case of guitar lust.  He’s got quite a collection.  Some guitarists are associated with one guitar – Jimmy Page [’59 Gibson Les Paul], Eric Clapton [Fender Stratocaster], Angus Young [Gibson SG] – just to name a few.  Not so Mike Campbell.  His collection is truly impressive.  Mike Campbell is a man of many guitar sounds.

In 2012, Mike did a film with Justin Kreutzmann about his guitars.  This film project [roughly 90 minutes long] is invaluable for anybody who wants to know the tools of Mike Campbell’s trade.  There are 15 short chapters [approximately 5-7 minutes each] where he talks about specific guitars in his collection.  He walks the audience through which guitars he used on specific songs.  Most of the chapters are about just guitars.  He talks about his first acoustic guitar in Chapter 1.  In the second chapter, he reveals his 1964 Stratocaster was the Heartbreakers’ “sound” for the first couple of records.  TP played the ’64 Strat, while Mike played a Broadcaster that he thought was a “perfect complement” to the Strat [discussed in Chapters 3 & 4].  He never modified the Broadcaster, going as far as to forbid his roadies to remove any of the road grime that has accumulated over the years.  The grime is part of the vibe, part of the sound, and he doesn’t want to muck up the sound.  The Broadcaster is the sound you hear on Breakdown. 

In Chapter 5, he discusses his ’67 [or ’68 – he isn’t sure] Goldtop Les Paul that he bought the same day he bought his Broadcaster.  He wrote Refugee on this guitar.  In Chapters 6 & 7, he talks about “the Rickenbacker sound”.  The Rickenbacker 12-string TP poses with on the cover of Damn the Torpedoes is actually Mike’s guitar.  He bought it from a guy in Anaheim for $120.  He was bummed that it wasn’t the same kind of Rickenbacker that Roger McGuinn owned [a Rickenbacker 360, one of which he acquired years later], or like what George Harrison played.  Once he got the guitar home, he discovered it had a great sound.  Later on, as he toured the Rickenbacker factory, he found out his guitar was the one that was made immediately after one of George Harrison’s guitars.  His “pride and joy” is a ’67 Rickenbacker 12-string that’s like the one George Harrison played on A Hard Day’s Night. 

Chapter 8 is devoted to Gretsch guitars [In Between Bright and Heavy: The Gretsch Tone].  He has a Gretsch 6129 Chet Atkins model [with the Bigsby tremolo].  He has a Gretsch Country Gentleman [again, like George Harrison] that he traded stage clothes for.  He has a Gretsch Clipper that he acquired at a video store [WTH?!?] that he used for his slide solo on I Won’t Back Down.  Chapter 9 is devoted to Vox, which Mike describes as a whole studio in one guitar because it has so many gadgets.  Those gadgets include a wah-wah “pedal” you can play with your palm, a fuzztone button, a tone filter, and a “repeater”.

Chapter 10 is Biting Clear and Loud: The Gibson Les Paul Jr. and SG.  He bought the Les Paul Jr. at the same time he bought the Gretsch Clipper.  It’s the guitar he used to record Running Down a Dream.  He used a ‘64 SG when the Heartbreakers played You Wreck Me live.  They’d play the song a little longer than what appeared on the recording, and he would play in the style of Jerry Garcia.  It’s one of his favorite guitars.  Chapter 11 is Begging To Be Played: The 1959 Gibson Les Paul.  His ’59 Les Paul is “the motherlode of all guitars” which he claims cost more than his house.  It’s the only guitar he keeps in its case.  It does not go on the road with him.  It’s a studio-only guitar.  The ’59 Les Paul is the sound of the Mojo album [maybe that’s why I like that album so much].  I think he used it a lot on Hypnotic Eye [another album I like very much] as well.   

Chapter 12 is The Surf Sound of the Fender Jaguar – The Mike Campbell Duesenberg and the Super Bowl.  During a 30-date stand at San Francisco’s Fillmore, Mike came up with a “surf arrangement” of Goldfinger [found on Live Anthology].  That’s the sound of the Jaguar.  While on tour with the Black Crowes Mike noticed a Duesenberg guitar.  He asked a roadie about it.  The roadie told Mike the Duesenberg USA rep had brought the guitar to see if TP was interested.  He wasn’t interested but Mike was.  After he played it, he met the Duesenberg USA rep, who offered to make a Mike Campbell Duesenberg model.  He played one such model at the Super Bowl halftime show.

As for acoustic guitars, Mike and TP used mostly Gibsons or Martins.  Mike has a pretty good memory for the tones of each guitar.  While he’s listening to a track-in-progress, this memory comes in handy for choosing which guitar will fit a song or a part of a song.  He talks about his guitars the same way an artist talks about different paints – how different guitars give different colors to music.  That’s why he used so many guitars on Heartbreakers recordings. 

Mike Campbell’s guitar heroes.  Chet Atkins, George Harrison, Roger McGuinn, Jerry Garcia, Carl Wilson, Keith Richards, Eric Clapton, Chuck Berry.  If there are more, he doesn’t mention them.

The Slide.  If George Harrison says you’re a good slide player, take it to the bank.  George knew a thing or two about guitar players.  He uses a glass slide and plays in standard tuning.  My favorite Mike Campbell slide moment: Learning to Fly.  A close second is A Face in the Crowd, which is more sedate than the in-your-face slide on Learning to Fly, but equally effective.

Finger-picking.  For a long time, I didn’t know that this was in his bag of tricks.  Then I heard Don’t Fade on Me.  Need I say more?

Favorite Mike Campbell moments.  I might be in the minority, but I tend to like Tom Petty’s music from Wildflowers through the second Mudcrutch album more than what came before.  Here are my favorite Mike Campbell moments, mostly in no particular order:

1.      Got My Mind Made Up – This is a cool headphone song.  This is proof that a song doesn’t need a guitar solo to be cool.  TP is jamming away on the acoustic in the right ear, Stan is doing the Bo Diddley rhythm thing, and Mike is in the left ear.  How he got that shimmering, metallic-slide sound I’ll never know, but it gets your attention.

2.      So You Want to Be a Rock 'n' Roll Star [Live] – For a little less than four minutes, Mike turns into Roger McGuinn on a Rickenbacker twelve-string.

3.      Makin' Some Noise – This one has a pretty twisted riff.

4.      Walkin' From The Fire – Why didn’t this one make Southern Accents?  As swampy as this one is, it would’ve fit the whole Southern concept thing perfectly.

5.      Running Down a Dream – While Mike Campbell is like George Harrison in that he plays exactly what the song needs, and his guitar solos are concise and to-the-point.  Sometimes a guitar player has to step on the gas and just blow.  This is that song.

6.      Goldfinger [Live] – Mike Campbell plays a Fender Jaguar where Shirley Bassey’s voice would be.  This rendition of a Bond theme is as cool as it is unexpected.

7.      Can’t Stop the Sun – Most of Mike Campbell’s solos are usually two to four bars and not much longer.  He gets to stretch out on this one.

8.      Room at the Top – There’s some wonderful interplay between Mike’s guitar and Benmont Tench’s clavinet, which almost sounds like a guitar.

9.      Two Men Talking – There’s some Allman/Betts-like harmony guitars going on here.  It would not have been out of place on Mojo.  I wonder how good it was live…

10.  Mojo [First Flash of Freedom, I Should Have Known It, Something Good Coming, Good Enough].  Anytime the leader of a band wants to make an album for the expressed purpose of highlighting his guitarist’s playing speaks for itself.  Some critics claimed TP & the Heartbreakers lost their identity with this record.  I think they took a chance to break out of their comfort zone to do something different.  You can hear the ghosts of the Allman Brothers, the Beatles, and Led Zeppelin all in one album.  I like it.

11.  Hypnotic Eye [Fault Lines, Red River, All You Can Carry, Forgotten Man] – I like to hear the songs I listed from Mojo and these songs from Hypnotic Eye in this sequence [Fault Lines coming right after Good Enough]. I don’t know why, but hearing these eight songs in a row like this sounds right.   On Fault Lines, Mike Campbell gives us what Duane Allman would call the Gibson “full tilt screech”.  There are some nasty guitar sounds on Forgotten Man.

12.  Hungry No More – Another George Harrison comparison [forgive me].  Mike’s guitar fills and solos sound like they were recorded backwards, like George did on I’m Only Sleeping.  At first, I thought it was just a studio thing, then I heard the live version from An American Treasure and heard the same thing. To be able to do such a thing in a studio takes some time to work out, but to do it live and on-the-fly is something else.  Very impressive.  One needs some serious chops to do that.

13.  Crystal River – I had to go to the videotape to confirm what I thought I was hearing.  Mike was getting some otherworldly sounds out of his B-Bender-equipped Telecaster. 

14.  You Got Lucky – Mike gives us the twang of a Gretsch.  Can you imagine any other guitar sound on this song?

15.  Bootleg Flyer – Mike trades solos with Tom Leadon.  Mike is playing a Telecaster, and Tom L is playing a Gibson 335.

16.  A Woman in Love (It's Not Me) – Sometimes the easiest solos to play are the most memorable.  Mike’s solo in the middle [2:18 – 2:41] is one of those solos.  Extra credit goes to the riff that introduces the song and repeats three more times therein.

17.  Oh Well – Mike played this with the Heartbreakers, and is his spotlight with Fleetwood Mac.  My comments about Running Down a Dream above apply here as well.  Mike can wail with the best of them.

Written by Tom Petty & Mike Campbell.  Mike Campbell is not just a guitarist.  He writes as well.  One can fill an entire CD worth [and more] of songs written by both Tom Petty and Mike Campbell.  They include:

1.      First Flash of Freedom – Mojo [2010]

2.      I Should Have Known It – Mojo [2010]

3.      Good Enough – Mojo [2010]

4.      Fault Lines – Hypnotic Eye [2014]

5.      Can't Stop the Sun – The Last DJ [2002]

6.      Bootleg Flyer – Mudcrutch [2008]

7.      You Wreck Me – Wildflowers [1994]

8.      Don't Fade on Me – Wildflowers [1994]

9.      Blue Sunday – The Last DJ [2002]

10.  Climb That Hill - Songs and Music from "She's the One" [1996]

11.  All or Nothin' - Into the Great Wide Open [1991]

12.  Makin' Some Noise - Into the Great Wide Open [1991]

13.  Love Is a Long Road – Full Moon Fever [1989]

14.  Runnin' Down a Dream – Full Moon Fever [1989]

15.  Down The Line – Playback [1995 - Full Moon Fever outtake]

16.  Ways to Be Wicked - Playback [1995 – recorded in 1986]

17.  Jammin' Me - Let Me Up (I've Had Enough) [1987]

18.  Runaway Trains - Let Me Up (I've Had Enough) [1987]

19.  My Life/Your World - Let Me Up (I've Had Enough) [1987]

20.  All Mixed Up - Let Me Up (I've Had Enough) [1987]

21.  Let Me Up (I've Had Enough) - Let Me Up (I've Had Enough) [1987]

22.  Dogs on the Run - Southern Accents [1985]

23.  You Came Through – Playback [1995 – recorded in 1988]

24.  You Got Lucky - Long After Dark [1982]

25.  Finding Out - Long After Dark [1982]

26.  The Same Old You - Long After Dark [1982]

27.  Between Two Worlds - Long After Dark [1982]

28.  A Woman in Love (It's Not Me) - Hard Promises [1981]

29.  Nightwatchman - Hard Promises [1981]

30.  You Can Still Change Your Mind - Hard Promises [1981]

31.  Here Comes My Girl - Damn the Torpedoes [1979]

32.  Refugee - Damn the Torpedoes [1979]

33.  Casa Dega- B-side [1979]

34.  Baby's a Rock 'n' Roller - You're Gonna Get It! [1978]

35.  Hurt - You're Gonna Get It! [1978]

36.  Rockin' Around (With You) - Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers [1976]

37.  Stop Draggin' My Heart Around – Bella Donna [1981]

Tom Petty let one get away – Don Henley’s Boys of Summer.  Mike co-wrote The Heart of the Matter with Henley, too.

That’s all I have.  I came late to the party, but as is cliché, better late than never.  Thanks for reading.

Bob Mould - Silver Age/Beauty & Ruin/Patch the Sky

Twenty years ago, Bob Mould put out a record called The Last Dog and Pony Show.  At the time he put it out, he mused that the tour to support this album would be his last time out with a loud electric band.  At the time, the loud rock guitar trio thing was something he had been doing for 20 years and he thought it was time to think about doing other things.  He enjoys the “loud guitar thing” but he didn’t want it to become a parody.  He was 38 then, and he didn’t want to look forward to being like Neil Young when he was 50.  In that, he meant the acoustic shows were something beautiful, but he wasn’t sold on the work with Crazy Horse.  Playing the loud guitar music and jumping around was “a young man’s game” and he didn’t want to be that guy when he was 50.  He didn’t know whether he would be concentrating on solo acoustic performances or “something else”. 

We got a hint of that “something else” from inside The Last Dog and Pony Show [with Megamanic] – electronic music.  He discovered while making that “song” he had fun in the studio, something that usually eluded him.  His next album was full of dance and electronic “music” [Modulate].  Some people liked it, but most didn’t [including me].  It was around this same time that Bob Mould finally came to grips with being gay, and in his memoir See a Little Light, he wrote that "In order to have a new life, I had to have new music."  And so he did.  Whether or not he wanted to be like Neil Young, there is a parallel in that Neil also made music in the 1980s that didn’t endear himself with his fan base [electronic music (Trans), 1950s retro (Everybody’s Rockin’), and country (Old Ways)].  At least Bob Mould didn’t get sued by his own record company for not being himself.

Something happened with See a Little Light.  He unburdened himself of a lot of stuff, stuff that would take an entire other blog post to explain.  One would say the experience of writing the book was cathartic.  He found himself and actually started to like himself and his lifestyle.  So with much of his own personal turmoil behind him, he also found two musicians with whom enjoyed working - bassist Jason Narducy and drummer Jon Wurster.  He was back in a power trio format, just like Hüsker Dü and Sugar.  He was back in the loud electric band format he swore off in 1998, and I am happier for it.  He’s in his fifties, playing the loud guitar music that he decried as a “young man’s game”.  Maybe 52 is the new 38.

In 2012 he released Silver Age, which to these ears sound a lot like what Sugar would be doing today if they hadn’t broken up in 1996.  This is a good thing, especially when one considers what that band did with Copper Blue and Beaster.  Silver Age brings back the Bob Mould of old – melodic punk-pop with doses of introspection.  There’s no sin in sounding like one’s self [AC/DC and Motðrhead did it all the time], unless you’re John Fogerty.  He isn’t reliving past glories; he’s just doing what he does best.  The volume is turned up, but the rage, while still there, is toned down ["I'm never too old to contain my rage”].  He need not have worried that his music sounded like it was played by an “old man”.  On the contrary, the young ones could still learn something from Bob Mould.  He took one lyrical shot at the American Idol generation.  Star Machine was his way of telling those folks that if they don’t like being pop stars, then they should stop being pop stars.  Mould once described Silver Age as a “party record.  Who am I to argue?  It sounds like he's enjoying himself for once.

He followed Silver Age with Beauty & Ruin [2014] and Patch the Sky [2016].  He told Rolling Stone in 2014 “I’ve realized that one of my strengths as a songwriter is writing very catchy songs with very down lyrics.  People enjoy it. I enjoy it. It seems to be one of those things that I do regularly and do well. That kind of contrast is important to me.”  So it is with Beauty & Ruin.  The album has four main themes - loss, reflection, acceptance and the future.  Not long after the release of Silver Age, his father died.  He had a complicated relationship with his father.  He was an alcoholic who beat Bob’s mother and older brother, and who also played mind games with his sister.  For some reason, Bob didn’t get such treatment from the abusive father, but he refused to accept his son’s homosexuality.  He entered a “rough patch” following his father’s death.  Again, he told Rolling Stone –

“I’m getting to that point in my life, where I’ve been losing people and people are getting really sick around me.  It’s weird. It can be a downer, but it can also be very enlightening. I’m very grateful that I’m in a line of work where now that I’ve stayed around long enough, sadly I get this perspective. It’s not a popular one in rock music.”

Patch the Sky mines similar lyrical territory.  Between the release of Beauty & Ruin and Patch the Sky, Mould’s mother died.  On top of that, Mould found himself single again.  With the turmoil of those events, Mould locked himself away for six months to write the songs for Patch the Sky.  As he told one interviewer not too long ago:

“I wrote alone for six months. I love people, but I needed my solitude. The search for my own truth kept me alive. These songs are my salvation.  I’m being very upfront. I’ve had a lot of loss in the last handful of years, and contrasting that with all the critical acclaim and this sort of resurgence – I mean, best of times in public, worst of times in private. As opposed to trying to hide the content of the record, it’s like, ‘Here. It’s a dark record. I went through a dark period. I felt very isolated. I took six months away from the excitement of life to sit and contemplate the meaning of the rest of my life, and here it is.’  That’s the good news with Patch the Sky, is that instead of weighing down these dark emotions with dark tempos and dark melodies, to have that contrast and be aware of it as I’m writing the music and words – that was nice that it unfolded that way.”

That has been Bob Mould’s stock-in-trade for many years – catchy songs with not-so-catchy lyrics.  He tends to bury his voice in the mix, so even if the words are a bummer, listening to the songs doesn’t make you want to slit your wrists.  Beneath the catchy pop songs, there is depth if you want to take the time to find it.  He tends to write about himself, and usually that “self” is less than happy.  It’s not his way to hold a mirror to the world and rail against hypocrisy – that’s what we have Roger Waters for.  If you want “angry Bob Mould”, go listen to Hüsker Dü.  Pete Townshend once said that rock and roll won’t solve your problems, but it will let you dance all over them.  Bob Mould’s music is his way of dancing on his problems.  Although his works are postcards from the dark side of emotion, it’s still nice to hear from an old friend.  He’s a good rhythm guitarist [and a very fast one when the mood strikes], an “OK” singer, and [in his words] a simple lyricist.  But what is evident is that he’s in his comfort zone with two bandmates who he wants to work as long as they want to work with him.  Who needs the Foo Fighters when you have Bob Mould?

Bob Mould’s next album, Sunshine Rock, will be available February 9^th, the title track of which has already been released digitally.  The album cover will be familiar to most folks over the age of 50 – it’s the Orange and Yellow swirl of the 45s put out by Capitol Records.  If I was going to guess what this album will sound like, I’ll go out on a limb and say “Pet Sounds with guitars”, but it’s happy.  It sounds like more of what you get with Silver Age, Beauty & Ruin, and Patch the Sky [with an orchestral twist], and hopefully the rest of the album follows that vein.  Bob Mould is in a late-career resurgence, and I highly recommend checking out what he’s done since that resurgence began in 2012.

Tony's Guitarist Picks - Jerry Cantrell

Most of the guitarists I’ve written about are guys whom I’ve seen in the flesh.  This week I finally got to see Jerry Cantrell live when Alice in Chains played in New Orleans.  Don’t get me wrong [no pun intended], I’ve always enjoyed Jerry’s playing.  He makes fantastic guitar records.  I saw Alice in Chains’ MTV Unplugged special back in the day when Layne Staley was still alive, but that live context only captured the acoustic Jerry.  During the show in New Orleans, my sons Greg and Mark endured the opening act, The Pink Slips, with me.  The singer for that band is Duff McKagan’s daughter.  She sounded like a cross-between Gwen Stefani and Candi Slice [Gilda Radner’s character from SNL].  After putting up with their music [and I use that term loosely] for about 30 minutes, Jerry started Alice’s set with the sinister riff from Bleed the Freak.  Hearing that riff was a godsend.  All I could think was “holy shit – this guy is great!” Of course, I knew that before, but this just sealed the deal. To paraphrase Marlon Brando from Apocalypse Now, the riff was pure, crystalline, and hit me between the eyes like a diamond.  This foreboding sound rips your face off and kicks you in the ass. Jerry Cantrell is a true guitar god.

They're not grunge – they're metal, dammit! – The concert I attended had precious little if nothing to do with “grunge”. Just because they’re from Seattle, Alice in Chains got the “grunge” tag because music journalists and marketers at the time were lazy.  Seattle grunge was Green River, Mudhoney, Nirvana, and Soundgarden, and a bit of Pearl Jam.  Grunge blends alternative rock, punk, and heavy metal.  I don’t hear much [if any] punk in Alice in Chains – I hear detuned metal like Black Sabbath.  I’ve never heard Black Sabbath described as “grunge”, and my ears put Alice in Chains in the same category as Sabbath.  I don’t hear anything “alternative” or “indie” in Alice in Chains’ music, either.  Their third eponymous album is pretty sludgy, though.  But then again, so was Sabbath’s Master of Reality.  They only thing that I might concede to be “grungy” in their music is the subject matter in their lyrics – drugs, depression, loneliness, etc.

Influences.  He considers Tony Iommi, Ace Frehley, Angus Young, Eddie Van Halen and Jimmy Page to be his major musical influences growing up.  He also cites Elton John as his reason for wanting to become a musician.  In a 1996 interview with Guitar World, he said about the influences that came out on the then-new eponymous album: “I could point out 50 of them, from Brian May to Lindsey Buckingham, Davey Johnstone to Hendrix, Iommi to Page; there's all kinds of shit in there.”

“Guitar Army.”  Jerry may cite AC/DC as a primary influence, but much of his recorded work speaks “Jimmy Page”.  Like Jimmy Page, he layers lots of guitars.  He made Facelift and Dirt with a Bogner-modified Marshall JCM800.  When Alice In Chains worked with Dave Jerden he got Jerry to fatten his guitar sounds with different guitar/amp combos, so he used Oranges, Laneys, and Vox AC30s in addition to the modified Marshall.  He also colors his songs with acoustic guitars like Jimmy Page did on Zeppelin albums before Physical Graffiti.  He has a gorgeous blend of acoustic and electrics in his music.  Alice in Chains did two EPs that were primarily acoustic – Sap and Jar of Flies.  The best-known songs from these EPs are Got Me Wrong, Nutshell, and No Excuses.  Apart from those acoustic EPs, Jerry has added his of acoustic guitar many songs, to include:  

Facelift – Bleed the Freak

Dirt – Down in a Hole

Alice in Chains – Frogs, Heaven Beside You, Over Now

Boggy Depot [solo album] – Breaks My Back, Hurt a Long Time, Between

Degradation Trip [solo album] – Anger Rising, Angel Eyes, Solitude, Pro False Idol, Gone, What It Takes, Dying Inside, Hurts Don't It? [Instrumental], S.O.S., Give It a Name, 31/32

Black Gives Way to Blue – Your Decision, When the Sun Rose Again, Black Gives Way to Blue [an elegy to Layne Staley with guest Elton John]

The Devil Put Dinosaurs Here – Voices, Scalpel, Choke

2112 40^th Anniversary [Rush] - Trees

John Wick: Chapter 2 Soundtrack – A Job To Do

Rainier Fog – Fly, All I Am

The wah-wah pedal.  Jerry says the wah-wah is the one effect he uses the most.  In an interview with Musicradar, he said;

“It gives a guitar a voice; it makes it speak. I've always admired guys who incorporated that heavily into their sound. So it was and remains the one effect that I use the most. I also liked the way it changes a guitar's tone; when you have it on and it's sort of held wide-open, it makes the sound squashed and dark."

Having finally seen him live, he definitely rocked that Crybaby wah-wah a lot.  Dunlop makes a Jerry Cantrell Crybaby.

Other effects.  One listen to Man in the Box and you hear the Talk Box.  He doesn’t use it very often, but it’s prominent on that song.  Since he does a lot of singing, he limits himself to a few other effects – the Tube Screamer, a couple of Boss Choruses, and EVH Flanger, and an Eventide Tape Echo.  He refers to his tech Herb as his “co-pilot”.  Since he sings more now than when Layne Staley was alive, he can’t be stomping on a lot of boxes, so he works with Herb to know which sounds to dial in on particular songs.  Out front he uses just the Crybaby, the Dunlop Rotovibe and the Talk Box.

Gear.  Jerry likes to use different guitar/amp combinations for tones and textures depending on what he or his producer thinks the song needs.  Jerry likes Bogner amps.  He played Randall amps for a while – Dimebag Darrell turned him onto the Randalls.  There’s the aforementioned Bogner-modified Marshall on Facelift and Dirt.  He also likes various Bogner amps [Shiva, Shark, Uberschall, Alchemist, Fish pre-amps].  He used Fender Twin Reverbs on Jar of Flies.  Jerry worked with Dave Friedman [Friedman Amplification] to make the Friedman JJ-100 Jerry Cantrell Signature 100-watt tube head.  There are two of them [“Mad” and “Pissed”].

Guitars.  His main guitar of choice is the G&L Rampage.  You’ll hear him playing the Rampage more than anything.  After Leo Fender sold Fender, he started G&L with George Fullerton.  The Rampage guitar is like a Stratocaster with the darkness of a Les Paul [Motor City pickups, Kahler tremolo]].  He got his first two Rampages at a music store in Dallas where he worked in 1984/85.  He uses Gibson Les Pauls, Gibson SGs, G&L Telecasters [he used one on Your Decision in New Orleans].   Every now and then you’ll see him with a Fender Stratocaster.  His acoustics are Guild JF30 and D50.

Tunings.  Dropped D courtesy of Eddie Van Halen.  On other stuff all the strings are dropped a half step [Eb, Ab, Db, Gb, Bb, eb] for a darker, heavier sound [not as low as Tony Iommi would drop the strings, but that’s the Black Sabbath influence at work].

My current Jerry Cantrell iPod playlist

Bleed the Freak

Man in the Box

Got Me Wrong

Them Bones

Dam That River

Rain When I Die

Down in a Hole

Sickman

Rooster

Iron Gland

Angry Chair

Would?

No Excuses

Nutshell

What The Hell Have I

Again

Heaven Beside You

Over Now

Anger Rising

Angel Eyes

Solitude

Dying Inside

Leave Me Alone

Get Born Again

Hollow

Check My Brain

Voices

Your Decision

A Looking In View

Rainier Fog

Fly

A Job To Do

Trees

Phantom Limb

Scalpel

Choke

Never Fade

All I Am

Black Gives Way To Blue

The Moody Blues - Seventh Sojourn

The flautist and founding Moody Blues member Ray Thomas died on January 4^th at age 76.  He had been ill for some time [he had inoperable prostate cancer], so his death wasn’t unexpected [unlike other from the rock world the past couple of years], but that doesn’t make it any less sad.  But after I heard of his passing, as is my wont I went back to the music.  Instead of going back to the beginning, I went to my favorite Moody Blues album, Seventh Sojourn [released November 10, 1972 – the day I turned 10!].  The name is somewhat deceiving as this was the eighth album the Moody Blues released.  It happens to be the seventh album released with this group of people [Justin Hayward (guitar), John Lodge (bass), Ray Thomas (flute/sax/harmonica), Mike Pinder (keyboards), and Graeme Edge (drums)].  Beginning with Days of Future Passed in 1967, the group did seven classic albums in five years, with supporting tours between them.  Five straight years on the album-tour-album treadmill could and did get exhausting.  Deep Purple was on a similar mind-frying schedule, and by the time they made Who Do We Think We Are in 1973, the band’s fatigue was obvious.  Seventh Sojourn doesn’t exhibit the burnout shown by Deep Purple, but to be fair to Deep Purple the music of the Moody Blues was never as hard-driving as that of Deep Purple.  In retrospect however, Seventh Sojourn does close a chapter though they probably didn’t know it at the time.  There was a small [but not insignificant change] between Seventh Sojourn and the albums that came before it.

Lost in a Lost World [Pinder] - The lead-off song, Lost in a Lost World, is the first indication of change.  The ubiquitous Mellotron was replaced by the Chamberlin.  Both keyboard instruments are similar, but the Chamberlin was a more-reliable instrument.  It didn’t break down in mid-performance like the Mellotron, it sounds a little different, but just enough to be noticeable.  During either 1985 or 1986, I was making my monthly three-hour drive up to Fort Collins to see Carol.  After I got past Denver I was in range of Boulder’s KBCO.  That’s when I first heard Lost in a Lost World.  This song was different than other Moody Blues songs that I could remember at the time.  Instead of being hopeful, this one was full of despair.  Mike Pinder wrote this one.  His music, which is heavily Chamberlin-centric, conveyed the same mood as that of the vocals – despair.  But the word that always comes to mind when I think of the music in this piece is “apocalyptic”.  Lost in a Lost World is a dark piece, and a powerful one at that.  It is a compelling listen.  Once you hear it, you won’t forget it.  I didn’t…  The remastered CD has Pinder’s demo.  It’s very good without the vocals. 

New Horizons [Hayward] – Here’s what you’d expect from the Moody Blues – dreamy atmosphere, good guitar solos, and excellent vocals from Justin Hayward.

For My Lady [Thomas] – When I saw the Moody Blues with the Virginia Symphony in 1994/95-ish, Justin Hayward introduced this song by Ray Thomas as a “beautiful song”.  Those in the know knew immediately which song he was talking about.  This was only one of two lead vocals Ray Thomas sang that night.  Since he didn’t sing lead that much, he was hailed like a conquering hero.  The song is like a romantic sea chanty.  Justin Hayward was right – it is a beautiful song.  This is his only songwriting contribution to Seventh Sojourn.  The one song that Ray Thomas wrote that is better than this one is Legend of a Mind.

Isn’t Life Strange [Lodge] – A strong ballad that is probably two minutes longer than it needs to, and at 6:10, this is the short version.  The remastered CD includes the full version with a two- minute instrumental break.  Back in the days of vinyl, this song came at the end of Side 1, making it a fairly strong side.  Side 2 wasn’t as strong.

You and Me [Hayward/Edge] – This song begins Side 2.  A good beginning, musically this sounds like a cross-between Lovely to See You and Question.  Lyrically it references Vietnam with the first line “There's a leafless tree in Asia”…

The Land of Make-Believe [Hayward] – This song is an ode to peace, love, and hippie shit.  Not bad, but not essential either.  This song and the one that follows is a bit of a lull.  I would classify this and When You're a Free Man as “filler.” They aren’t horrendous filler – they just aren’t very interesting.

When You're a Free Man [Pinder] – More peace, love, and hippie shit.  Let's be God's Children ... And live in Perfect Peace…It is the second Moody Blues song with Timothy Leary in mind.  He isn’t mentioned by name, though his wife Rosemary and their children are.  The song addresses Timothy Leary’s self-imposed exile to Algeria and Switzerland to escape US justice for various drug offences –

You left your country for peace of mind

And something tells me you're doin' alright

How are the children and Rosemarie?

I long to see you and be in your company

I'm Just a Singer (In a Rock and Roll Band) [Lodge] – For many who saw the Moody Blues as truth-seeking gurus dispensing all kinds of knowledge about the meaning of life, John Lodge had a simple message for them – “don’t ask me because I’m just a singer.”  This is a great song, by far the one with the fastest tempo of the eight songs on the album.

Island [Hayward] – There was an aborted follow-up to Seventh Sojourn.  This song from that aborted album that’s included on the remastered re-release.  I like it.  It fits well with the rest of the Seventh Sojourn material.

When I saw the band with the orchestra, they played half of this album [New Horizons, For My Lady, Isn’t Life Strange, and I'm Just a Singer (In a Rock and Roll Band)].  In the absence of Mike Pinder’s keyboards, these songs worked very well with the orchestra.

After this album and the year-long tour that followed, the Moody Blues went on hiatus until 1978.  Seventh Sojourn capped a run of seven successful albums in five years.  The album they recorded after their hiatus [Octave] was very underwhelming.  The true comeback came in 1981 with Long Distance Voyager [Mike Pinder left the band before they finished Octave].  If you have the chance to get Seventh Sojourn, do it!

Murder on the Orient Express [2017]

I’ve seen three different adaptations of Agatha Christie’s Murder on the Orient Express, and I read the book.  The first time I saw it was in the mid-1970s.  Albert Finney played Hercule Poirot, the retired Belgian police officer who is dubbed by Christie as “the world’s greatest detective”.  The next time was in 2010.  ITV produced a series spanning 24 years [1989-2013] called Agatha Christie’s Poirot.  It was shown weekly on PBS’s Masterpiece Theater.  If it wasn’t there, you could catch an episode on the A&E Network.  During that time, David Suchet was Poirot – Agatha Christie’s family wanted him to play Poirot, and for them [and me], Suchet is the quintessential Poirot.  He inhabited the role, or probably more correctly, the role inhabited him.  In 2010 ITV finally got around to doing their version of Murder on the Orient Express.  If you haven’t seen it, get it.  Last week I saw the latest version, with Sir Kenneth Branagh as Poirot.

If you have read all the Christie works that feature Hercule Poirot, or if you were like me and took the shortcut by watching the ITV series, you already know “whodunnit”.  When I learned there would be a new Murder on the Orient Express movie coming out this year, I had only one concern.  Could Branagh pull off a convincing Poirot?  I first saw him in Henry V, then other Shakespeare works Much Ado About Nothing and Hamlet.  He was quite convincing as Reinhardt Heydrich, the mastermind of the Holocaust in HBO’s Conspiracy.  But could he make Poirot his own, knowing that David Suchet is the gold standard?  I’m happy to say the answer to that question is a resounding YES – he’s pretty good.  Instead of Suchet’s “fussy” Poirot, Branagh’s Poirot has a very acute case of OCD.  But like Suchet’s Poirot, Branagh’s Poirot tosses out the stinging one-liners with incredible ease.

There aren’t many differences between the latest Murder on the Orient Express and those that came before.  There are minor tweaks to some of the characters.  Instead of the story originating in Syria, this one begins in Jerusalem, where Poirot was called to solve a theft from the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.  Once he solved this case he went to Istanbul to get some rest.  Here the story begins the familiar narrative.  The identities of some characters [but not very many] are changed.  The Swedish Greta Ohlsson [played in 1974 by Ingrid Bergman] is now Hispanic Pilar Estravados [Penélope Cruz].  The characters of Colonel Arbuthnott [Sean Connery] and Dr. Constantine [George Coulouris] are combined into a single character, Dr. Arbuthnot [Leslie Odom, Jr].  Cyrus Bethman Hardman [Colin Blakely] is now Gerhardt Hardman [Willem Dafoe].  The Italian chauffeur Antonio Foscarelli is now Cuban chauffeur Biniamino Marquez.  While the identities of some characters changed, their roles in the story remain essentially unchanged.  The location for the Daisy Armstrong kidnapping/murder was changed from Long Island to New Jersey.

Critics of the movie lament there were few surprises in this latest version of the Christie story.  One can take just so many poetic licenses without betraying the Christie faithful.  Another critic moaned that the movie was too Poirot-centric, but that misses the point entirely.  Christie’s Poirot stories were written from Poirot’s point of view.  The only person whose mind will be blown away by the solution of the crime is that person who has never heard of the story.  The attraction of the movie is the cast.  One look at Johnny Depp and you know he is the movie’s designated mort.  Josh Gad as Hector MacQueen is especially slimy.  Michelle Pfeiffer as Caroline Hubbard nearly steals the show.  

For the outdoor scenes I’m sure plenty of CGI was used, but it wasn’t CGI-overkill.  Instead of the train being stopped by a mere snowdrift, the train is almost derailed and thrown off a bridge by an avalanche.  The climactic scene where Poirot reveals his two theories about “whodunnit” wasn’t in the dining car, but at a railroad tunnel entrance.  There is but one twist to the narrative and that comes at the very end.  When Poirot leaves the train in Yugoslavia to tell the authorities of his investigation of the murder and his conclusions, he is met by someone who tells him that he is needed in Egypt to solve a murder there.  Death on the Nile will be a sequel.  One thing is certain – Kenneth Branagh is a better Poirot than either Albert Finney or Peter Ustinov [who played Poirot in Death on the Nile].  He’s still got some catching up to David Suchet, however.

In short, it’s a fun movie and I liked it, even if it is a remake.  Go see it.

In Memoriam...

At the end of last year, CNN labeled 2016 as “the year the music died”.  As is their wont, they got it wrong.  CNN’s “year that music died” began the last week of 2015, when cancer claimed Lemmy Kilmister on December 28^th, 4 days after turning 70 and 17 days after his final show in Berlin.  No doubt that 2016 took its toll on the music.  Natural causes claimed all of these musicians except two [Keith Emerson and Prince].  Father Time began to take musicians in bunches from the time my favorite music was made [and these are just the ones I feel like mentioning]:

David Bowie - Jan. 10, 2016

Glenn Frey [The Eagles] - Jan. 18, 2016

Paul Kantner and Signe Anderson [Jefferson Airplane] - Jan. 28, 2016

Maurice White [Earth, Wind & Fire] - Feb. 4, 2016

Keith Emerson [Emerson, Lake & Palmer] - March 11, 2016

Merle Haggard - April 6, 2016

Prince - April 21, 2016

Guy Clark - May 17, 2016

Ralph Stanley - June 23, 2016

Bernie Worrell [Parliament-Funkadelic, Talking Heads] - June 24, 2016

Scotty Moore - June 28, 2016

Stanley "Buckwheat" Dural Jr - Sept. 24, 2016

Leonard Cohen - Nov. 7, 2016

Leon Russell - Nov. 13, 2016

Greg Lake [King Crimson, Emerson, Lake & Palmer] - Dec. 7, 2016

George Michael – Dec. 25, 2016

2016 was only the beginning.  More music “died” in 2017.  This year we said goodbye to two men who were there at the beginning of “rock & roll” – Chuck Berry and Fats Domino.  Natural causes claimed the “gentle giant” of country music, Don Williams.  Alzheimer’s claimed a legend, Glen Campbell.  Cancer took John Wetton, Grant Hart, Walter Becker, and Gregg Allman.  Depression reared its ugly head and prompted three musicians to take their own lives – Butch Trucks, Chris Cornell, and Chester Bennington.  A heart attack took Tom Petty from us, only one week after his final show at the Hollywood Bowl.  We didn’t see that one coming.  We’re still in a state of shock.  Wildflowers, Echo, Mojo, Hypnotic Eye and the two Mudcrutch albums have been in heavy rotation since that awful day.  Again, this list is not all-inclusive:

Butch Trucks [Allman Brothers Band] – Jan. 24, 2017

John Wetton – Jan. 31, 2017

Chuck Berry – March 18, 2017

J. Geils – Apr. 11, 2017
Col. Bruce Hampton [Ret.] - May 1, 2017

Chris Cornell – May 17, 2017

Gregg Allman – May 27, 2017

Chester Bennington – July 20, 2017

Glen Campbell – Aug. 8, 2017

Walter Becker – Sept. 3, 2017

Don Williams – Sept. 8, 2017

Troy Gentry – Sept. 8, 2017

Grant Hart [Hüsker Dü] – Sept. 13, 2017
Johnny Sandlin - Sept. 18, 2017

Tom Petty – Oct. 2, 2017

Gord Downie [Tragically Hip] – Oct. 8, 2017

Fats Domino – Oct. 25, 2017

Chuck Mosley [Faith No More] – Nov. 9, 2017

Malcolm Young – Nov. 18, 2017

Mel Tillis - Nov. 19, 2017

Pat DiNizio [The Smithereens] – Dec. 12, 2017

While I was caring for my wife as she was recovering from breast cancer, I discovered the industrial music of the German band Einstürzende Neubauten, and found Rammstein with all of their gratuitous pyrotechnic excess.  I reacquainted myself with the music of Alice Cooper, Steely Dan and the Smithereens.  My appreciation for the music of Jason Isbell [and his wife, Amanda Shires] grew by leaps and bounds.  My love for Tom Petty’s music was always there.

At the end of a calendar year, I look back and write a few words about the new music that I liked.  Usually I have a list.  This year I single out one album.  That album is Gregg Allman’s swan song, Southern Blood.  As Gregg Allman is my favorite singer, those who read these pages will not find this as a big surprise.  Released 3 ½ months after he died, Brother Gregg made his finest album in 44 years, and finally scored his first #1 [Billboard’s Americana Album chart].  What a shame he didn’t live to see it.

I wish that 2018 will see a smaller death toll among musicians that I enjoy, but seeing as how many are in their 60s and 70s I don’t see that happening.  Father Time is undefeated.

The Smithereens - An Appreciation

Here is another case of you not knowing what you're missing until it's gone.  Pat DiNizio, the lead singer and chief songwriter for The Smithereens, died on December 12th.  The Smithereens weren't a household name, but they were a good little band from New Jersey.  They first appeared on my musical radar in 1986.  In a time where New Wave was beginning to fade away and hair metal ruled the airwaves, The Smithereens were a breath of fresh air.  Their first single, Blood and Roses, was the hook.  The song’s ominous bassline was the hook inside the hook.  Combine that big drums, a melody mostly in E Minor, played loudly on a Rickenbacker semi-hollow body guitar, and you have a hit.  At first listen, the music sounds simple (it isn’t), but herein lies the charm.

This four-piece band of guitars, bass and drums were a throwback to the 1960s.  Their formula, from which they rarely strayed (if at all), was simple - make concise pop songs with as little pretense or conceptual bullshit as possible.  Their music was direct and tightly constructed.  Overdubs were kept to a minimum.  All their songs sounded like they were recorded with all the band in the room at the same time.  These weren't big productions that took months of studio time to perfect.  Sometimes you would hear the odd keyboard instrument here or there (a piano, an organ, or maybe an accordion), and on a few occasions one might here a saxophone or a trumpet.  But one got the feeling that whatever song the band played on an album, they would be able to reproduce it note-for-note in your local bar (or wherever they would play).  Neil Young once described his own music as “it's all the same song”, and so it is with The Smithereens.  Not that there's anything wrong with that... 

The Smithereens recorded five albums of original material until grunge nearly killed them stone-dead.  After 1999s God Save the Smithereens, the Smithereens took an extended break.  When they returned, they recorded two Beatles tribute albums [one of which is a track-by-track interpretation of Meet the Beatles called Meet the Smithereens], an album of covers of their favorite songs, and a tribute to the Who’s album Tommy.  The Beatles albums are ok, but they won’t make you forget the real thing.  The Tommy tribute, however, is a knockout.  They didn’t do the entire album, just the songs that matter.  As much as these guys like the Beatles, they cover The Who better.  In 2011, they recorded their first album of Smithereens originals in 12 years, a collection imaginatively titled 2011.  It reminds me of their 1989 album 11, which I think was the point of the exercise.

Pat Dinizio’s solo work is stuff that he couldn’t do with The Smithereens.  Some of the productions are a little more elaborate [you can find these on 1997’s Songs and Sounds]. In 2009 he did an album full of Buddy Holly songs.  In 2012 he released This is Pat DiNizio.  This collection has voice and guitar/piano renderings of a wide range of covers – from Burt Bacharach to Black Sabbath, and seemingly all points in between [the Beatles, the Beach Boys, Simon & Garfunkel, Henry Mancini, Roberta Flack, Jimmy Webb, etc].  Imagine a solo acoustic version of Paranoid with an entirely different melody…

Here’s my Smithereens iPod playlist:

Blood and Roses [Especially for You, 1986]

Behind the Wall of Sleep [Especially for You, 1986]

Crazy Mixed-up Kid [Especially for You, 1986]

White Castle Blues [Especially for You, 1986]

House We Used to Live In [Green Thoughts, 1988]

The World We Know [Green Thoughts, 1988]

Spellbound [Green Thoughts, 1988]

Drown in My Own Tears [Green Thoughts, 1988]

Yesterday Girl [11, 1989]

Blues Before and After [11, 1989]

A Girl Like You [11, 1989]

Room Without a View [11, 1989]

Top of the Pops [Blow Up, 1991]

Now and Then [Blow Up, 1991]

Indigo Blues [Blow Up, 1991]

Everything I Have Is Blue [A Date With The Smithereens, 1994]

Miles From Nowhere [A Date With The Smithereens, 1994]

Love Is Gone [A Date With The Smithereens, 1994]

Afternoon Tea [A Date With The Smithereens, 1994]

Long Way Back Again [A Date With The Smithereens, 1994] 

Gotti [A Date With The Smithereens, 1994]

Flowers in the Blood [God Save The Smithereens, 1999]

The Age of Innocence [God Save The Smithereens, 1999]

I Believe [God Save The Smithereens, 1999]

All Revved Up [God Save The Smithereens, 1999]

I Want To Tell You [God Save The Smithereens, 1999]

Afternoon Tea (Demo version) [God Save The Smithereens, 1999]

A World of Our Own [2011, 2011]

Keep On Running [2011, 2011]

Sorry [2011, 2011]

One Look At You [2011, 2011]

Overture/It’s a Boy [The Smithereens Play Tommy, 2009]

Amazing Journey/Sparks [The Smithereens Play Tommy, 2009]

Eyesight to the Blind [The Smithereens Play Tommy, 2009]

Christmas [The Smithereens Play Tommy, 2009]

Acid Queen [The Smithereens Play Tommy, 2009]

Pinball Wizard [The Smithereens Play Tommy, 2009]

Go To the Mirror [The Smithereens Play Tommy, 2009]

The Seeker [The Smithereens Cover Tunes Collection, 2014]

Shakin' All Over [The Smithereens Cover Tunes Collection, 2014]

Cry for a Shadow [B-Sides The Beatles, 2008]

Yer Blues [The Smithereens Cover Tunes Collection, 2014]

Nobody But Me [Pat DiNizio - Songs and Sounds, 1997]

Today It's You [Pat DiNizio - Songs and Sounds, 1997]

You Should Know [Pat DiNizio - Songs and Sounds, 1997]

This is approximately 3 hours of music.  If you want something a bit more concise, I highly recommend Smithereens 11 25th Anniversary Live At Electric Lady 1989.  The setlist is packed with songs from the first three Smithereens albums.  Good stuff.

RIP Pat DiNizio