Between My Heart & My Brain A Battle Rages or The Eagles Studio Albums 1972 -1979

March 18, 2015March 19, 2015 / ds barrett / 6 Comments

Sitting uncomfortably on a fence is not a pleasant place to be. It isn’t that I’m worried about outside opinions at this point in my life. My friends and relations will still be the same regardless of my commentary on the Eagles. Although, I know that many would be in shock to find me not coming to the defence of my once favorite band and side with critics on many levels… but still…

I spent a decent amount of cash to buy this limited (5000 copies) edition copy of the Eagles Studio Albums all of which have been re-mastered for this 180 gram audiophile vinyl re-release of their six albums proper. Six studio albums that were inspired by the sounds and formula laid out entirely by others and turned from coal into diamonds by the combo of Henley/Frey and associates.

The best explanation for why a large group of people hate the Eagles was best represented in the Big Lebowski by “the Dude” himself. On the other hand, the cab driver in that same scene shows exactly how much a ‘real’ Eagles fan wants to hear that… not only can a ‘real’ Eagles fan not comprehend your criticism, but they could resort to violence just to get you to “shut the fuck up.”

So about this fence… well in one previous blog I spoke about my past and reviewed Eagles Live… sort of. It’s just that those thoughts and feelings come from a decade when I had my head stuck up the ass of classic rock. While it wasn’t called “classic rock” in the 80’s, it was a genre type that most people recognize today that encompasses a large amount of bands that rose to prominence in the 60’s, 70’s and a bit into the 80’s and then stopped cold. In the world of ‘Rock Radio’ it was if music stopped being made one day. I’m not sure what day that was. Maybe it was the death of John Lennon or John Bonham; maybe it was when Van Halen became Van Hagar; maybe it was the release of one too many Asia records; whatever the reason… “Rock Radio” became “Classic Rock Radio” and the airwaves became filled with, well – crap. That is when the fence went up.

It isn’t that I hated the music I had once loved. That couldn’t happen. But I did get bored. Seven thousand, nine-hundred and thirty-seven listens to the same songs by the same bands just made me search for something new instead of being fed the same old shit. So, my cassette copies of the Eagles sat in plastic racks by the stereo gaining dust while I listened to Dinosaur Jr. Boston sat quietly in a box while Nirvana (yes I know what you’re going to say) was spinning on a nice carousel CD player. And… Uncle Tupelo had me searching out the influences to the band I once loved (the Eagles), because they offered those similarly influenced groups praise where the Eagles rarely did.

Here’s the thing, I never heard Henley or Frey once refer to Gram Parsons. Sure they dropped the names of the Burritos and the Byrds, but… not the guy who convinced them to go in that country direction. That’s just something that, to quote Homer Simpson, “grinds my gears”. Then there is the soulless nature of the music. Sure Frey can turn a phrase, and Henley can go all epic about the death of the American dream or environmental causes… BUT, it all seems very manufactured. Manufactured in a way that manipulates an emotional response like so many animated Disney films that would rather create your response than allow a story to ‘move you’ by a true emotional connection to the subject matter.

Oh… I hear ya. You want a better example. OK, I can do that.

“The Long Run” is a classic boy meets girl, boy might lose girl cliché driven song. It is harmony gold sung by a great vocalist and given power by an amazing band. You can hum, sing along and even play air guitar to it, but in the end it says shit-all about the truths of being in that relationship. “We can handle some resistance, if our love is a strong one…” is hardly what one would see as depth.

“Thirteen” is a classic boy meets girl, boy might lose girl song. It is driven by the desperation of young person who hasn’t got a clue how the world works and just wants to be with the girl he has fallen for. The first two lines as sung by Alex Chilton blow the crap out of the tired cliché by giving it desperation and emotional resonance. Without the benefit of harmony vocals and big honkin’ guitar solo (which they were quite capable of doing), Big Star stick to an acoustic guitar and a singer who places himself in the part.

In the end, what has me buying Eagles records is nostalgia, what has me buying Big Star records is a connection with the music.

Anyway…

I’m not regretting buying the box. In fact, I was rather blown away by the quality of the recording to vinyl. Using “Witchy Woman” from the debut Eagles record and listening to my old cassette, a CD, Spotify, and the 180 gram vinyl, the wax wins by far. It has a clear and crisp detail that just doesn’t even come close on a digital transfer, and seeing as my tape was 30+ years old, and crossed the country a couple times over, its best days were left behind a few miles back.

If you’re a fan, you will love the box, I do, but at the same time, I love discovering new things even more, and the Eagles didn’t offer that even when they were one of the biggest bands on the planet.

Another Frickin’ Hospital Story… no, wait it’s The New Mendicants

March 16, 2015 / ds barrett / Leave a comment

A lifetime ago I sat in a hospital bed and listened to the Pernice Brothers Over Come With Happiness. It was my introduction to all things Joe Pernice – Scud Mountain Boys, Chappaquiddick Skyline, and the already mentioned Pernice Brothers. Possessed with one of the most extraordinary voices since Matthew Sweet, he can move you into different emotional levels in just a few notes.

Sitting on the table beside it was Songs From Northern Britain by one of my favorite bands, Teenage Fanclub. Of course Teenage Fanclub could boast having several great voices in the same band, but the one that always stood out to me was Norman Blake. “Can’t Feel My Soul” takes on a whole new meaning when the lights of your eyes flicker with the synergy created by multiple prescription pain killers.

Of course, at that time I had no idea that both would end up living in my fair city and start creating music together. Talk about synergy, while both had been putting out really good records within the context of their own careers, the combination is stellar. Into the Lime is at times folksy, and others full of power pop bliss, yet overall it creates an atmosphere of perfect harmonized glory.

Sometimes it can be hard to find music that speaks not to the person you were in decades past, but the person in the now. The hardships of everyday living as a regular dept paying adult in relationships long past the honeymoon stage of life, but Pernice and Blake pull it off in dark heartbreaking details. Take “A Very Sorry Christmas” with lines like “I’ve hurt so many people along the way” and instead of going into Beatles-esqe sentimentality, crush you with “some are dead, and some they really hate me.” All the more fascinating is the fact that the music feels so damn light with subjects that are so damn heavy.

Finding this on vinyl is going to be a little work if that is your format. They only printed a 1000, and their website sold out… but if enough people ask, I’m sure they’ll re-print.

I’m just hoping this record will be followed by others, lots of others. This is a combination that works.

Driven to Far: An Autobiographical Music Review – Dark Night of the Soul – Sparklehorse & Danger Mouse

March 9, 2015April 13, 2015 / ds barrett / 3 Comments

Driving

I suppose I could have added up the kilometres, but that information wasn’t relevant.

Distance

Doesn’t have a goddamn thing to do with how far you have travelled.

Locked in thoughts of where you were and where you’re going without the benefit of perspective. Each moment passing without the ability to reflect on it, because time passes and you can’t grasp it. Words linger without being able to wrestle them to the ground and beat them for information.

Instead there is only me, the kilometres and the music I’ve chosen to spend my time with.

Driving back and forth through snowstorms, Mark Linkous sings “When you raise your head from your pillow don’t delay / Because people decay / Will you let the rays of the sun help you along / I woke up and all my yesterdays were gone.” I might have a tear. It depends on which day; which snowstorm; they kinda blend together like the snow as it settles on the ground.

December 24, 2009 is the last Christmas I have with my parents. It isn’t pleasant. Sick people don’t make for good company… and by this time we’re all sick. They have cancer – I have depression. Everyone else is just sick with worry. None of us know yet.

Dark Night of the Soul is playing in the car on the ride home – another snow storm. Vic Chesnutt is singing “What went on in my horrible dream / I was peering in through the picture window / It was a heart-warming tableau / Like a Norman Rockwell painting / Until I zoomed in / I was making noises in my sleep / But you wouldn’t believe me when I told ya / That I wasn’t with someone in my dream / Catfish were wriggling in blood and gore in the kitchen sink / Yeah, I told ya / I told ya / I told you / Now sweetie, promise me / That you won’t sing /This sad song, grim augury.”

On boxing day, as I drive alone towards my parents house I hear of Chesnutt’s death. He took a bunch of muscle relaxants on Christmas Day and never came back. Some tears hit me and I’m not sure if they are for me or him. He was such an awesome songwriter.

New Year’s eve, my parents are both being taken from their home by ambulance. My mom needs surgery, my father can’t take care of himself and I can’t be with both at the same time. Separate rooms in palliative care two hours away from me. Peterborough – nice city, full of shitty memories. I’ve grown to hate Highway 115/35.

Frank Black is screaming “I’m pluckin’ all day on my angel’s harp / Shoutin’ at the rising moon / Knowin’ that I will soon stay” and I’m driving in another snowstorm… following an ambulance from Peterborough to Toronto. Cars are sliding around, but I take my time, life has handed me enough drama, it doesn’t need me to create more by being an idiot.

After the surgery my mom is in and out of consciousness, sometimes doing well and sometimes not; talking to doctors about my parents is like watching a yo-yo go up and down without any tricks.

Iggy Pop sings “A massive headache in my aging skull / Means I do not feel well / Pain, pain, pain / Bad brains must always feel pain.” Maybe, but I’ve got a steady diet of pain killers and muscle relaxants to keep that shit at bay. There are too many places to be and I‘m never in the right place.

She died. My mom. I don’t know what I was listening to when I found out. I was five minutes from the hospital in another fuckin’ snowstorm. And after, I was alone in the parking lot, distraught, destroyed, and I don’t remember what I was hearing or seeing.

February turned to March, and there was more snow and more trips and the doctors and nurses knew me by name and the Black Keys, Patsy Cline and Johnny Cash had joined the soundtrack of my trip along with Dark Night of the Soul. Two days before my father died Mark Linkous (Sparklehorse) shot himself.

“Our souls / Time slippin’ by / I call out your pain / All alone / Shadows movin’ / Shadows movin’ / Shadows have long gone by / Dark night of the soul”… words, they haunt you more if you place them into your own context. They take on meanings that the writer never had. I slip further in thought.

Like Chesnutt, Linkous music had meant a lot to me. It had seen me through some good and bad times… and there should have been more. Both had put out an amazing repertoire of tunes and suddenly – like my parents, they were gone.

When the hell everything turned to shit I don’t know, but when my mourning turned into a full out depression, I got help. That was four years ago.

“Daddy’s Gone” spins on the turntable. A tear drops. Not for my parents… it’s for my kids. Cancer doesn’t just rob the sick of life; it steals time from the living; it steals focus away from happiness and places it squarely in survival mode. Caregivers and their families endure but those too young to understand see smiles slip away when heads turn from their eyes to look upon the photos on the wall. Funny, was I just describing cancer or depression?

Every few months I listen to this record and it takes me to places to important to forget. The emotional resonance just pulls me in and washes over me. Then, for a short time, I mourn again, and then I move on.

Lament for a world gone by… Queen – The Game

March 6, 2015 / ds barrett / Leave a comment

We would stay up and just talk until the wee hours. It was a bond we had, although it probably meant way more to me than her. Cousins, although not by blood, when my aunt said we were too old to sleep in the same room, we instead just went to the sofas down stairs and kept the conversation going.

There wasn’t any specific music as we chatted, it’s just that Queen’s The Game reminds me of those times. It was at at my cousins place where I first listened to this record but over the years it began to fade into the background, until I recently picked up this used copy on vinyl. It was the only format that I really wanted to own it on. I’m sentimental that way. If I originally heard it on vinyl, then that is how I want it now.

Queen put out ‘better’ records of course. (Although, The Game has sold more than any other Queen record due to two number one hits “Another One Bites The Dust” and “Crazy Little Thing Called Love.”)

Early on they did the prog thing, and then they started this hybrid roaring twenties in the distant future bit. Honestly, I always pictured Queen as being at their best when imagining a movie cross of styles between Metropolis and Blade Runner. While Mercury and May were always a pretty much “over the top” duo, The Game along with the Flash Gordon Soundtrack was the end of the FM years for Queen as they began turning towards Mercury’s more ballad and broadway inspired material. He has always been the greatest vocalist to come out of “Rock”, but in the 80’s and 90’s it was as if he wanted to prove it… in my experience, when the ego gets bigger than the music, that’s when an artist begins to really… um… suck!

From The Works on I just couldn’t get into it. “Radio Ga Ga” was a song that just forced a change in the station. Maybe the Brits at Live Aid were into it, but that song drove me insane.

So it was nothing new after that. Sure I would, and did go back to listen to Night at the Opera and Day at the Races, but it was like photographs of days gone by. The Game, is a great classic record, but it is best suited as an entrance to memories. My cousin and I see each other now and then, but it’s been a long time since we sat up talking late into the night about nothing and everything. Meanwhile Queen keeps trying to keep memories alive, and in the process kinda ruin the legacy they have.

Joan Jett & the Blackhearts Greatest Hits – It’s Rowan Approved!

March 1, 2015 / ds barrett / 1 Comment

As I first sat down to write this, I desperately tried to separate Jett the rock star, from Jett the ‘female’ rock star. Just look at the music by itself without the distraction of a person’s gender and ‘rock mythology’ getting in the way.

Couldn’t do it. The very first song on this record is “Cherry Bomb,” a tune about youth rebellion, underage girls and promiscuity all from the female viewpoint.

My opinion is that next to the Ramones, Joan Jett is the ‘coolest’ (not to be confused with ‘Best’ ‘Greatest’ or ‘Favourite’) rock star to have walked the earth. Gender is part of that package. When I was a skinny kid on my banana-seat bike she was belting out “Cherry Bomb” with the teenage Runaways appealing to both the stoner set and emerging punk scene. During my own adolescence as big hair metal was killing the airwaves, she was singing about loving rock ‘n’ roll in a way that was both kiddie-pop and rock power simultaneously, and being welcomed into the boys club as a peer. Then in 90’s she was rock aristocracy as a virtual ton of female driven bands claimed her as influence and anointed her to the status of ‘rock god.’ Who else but Jett could be welcomed into the fold by rockers, punks and metal-heads a like.

This all came about not because she sang meaningful folk songs, or using her sexuality to sell records through image, but by jumping into the ‘rock’ game straight up and singing about being a disaffected youth and sex from a female perspective. These being two of the most common themes of rock music coming from her rock ‘n’ roll heart. Like the Ramones, she didn’t follow a trend, her jeans and leather image never really changed from beginning to present. Instead she just turned the amp up and rocked out.

It is hard to imagine a world where Hole’s Live Through this, Phair’s Exile On Guy Street and even Morrisette’s Jagged Little Pill exist without Jett blazing a trail of ‘fuck you – I’m a woman who rocks’ right down the middle of male dominated guitar/loud amp highway. As if to prove this point Jett is the first woman to win the Revolver Golden Gods Award which honours metal performers. Put it this way, when record companies wanted nothing to do with her in the post Runaways era – she just started her own label and then sold records in the millions.

So I pick up this “Cherry Bomb” red vinyl copy of Joan Jett and the Blackhearts Greatest Hits (ordered from Newbury Comics http://www.newburycomics.com/rel/v2_viewupc.php?storenr=103&upc=103-2040175N ) and my kids immediately start bouncing their heads around and dancing at the lunch table to “Bad Reputation.” My ten year old says “does this mean she doesn’t care what people think of her.”

Me: Yep.

Him: That’s cool.

Me: Yep

Him: Who is that?

Me: Joan Jett and the Blackhearts.

Him: Can we listen to this again?

Me: Any time you please.

Him: Can I work the turntable?

Me: Not a chance.

So, we have an incredible record and it is Rowan approved. What more can you ask for?

One Happy Night at a Bar – Ryan Adams & Elton John (p.s. Evan turns six on Sunday)

February 26, 2015 / ds barrett / Leave a comment

When I first started venturing my way back towards vinyl in the late double zeros, I was walking through snow covered sidewalks in downtown Toronto. My wife sent me out of her hospital room for a couple hours as my worried eyes just wouldn’t allow her a moment to rest. All the concern I was showing was ‘overly concerning’ to her about how much sleep I was getting. As if I was the person who people needed to be worried about. So I decided to wander over to the record store to pick up some music.

I needed to get something that brought back a good memory, something powerful, so I knew what I was hoping to buy. Sure enough, both Heartbreaker and Gold were in stock and I bought them. As I went back into the cold my mind wandered back a few years.

In 2001, I had been having a very rough year… I had back surgery that saw a couple discs removed from my spine, and the medication I was taking for pain had sent me into a very deep and extreme depression. As I sat in a hospital room of my own, de-toxing from prescription medication, I leaned heavily on music to see me through. Lucinda Williams, The Pernice Brothers, Deathray Davies, Dressy Bessy, Whiskeytown and Ryan Adams were beside me as I spent many an hour contemplating a single orange screw in the ceiling of my room.

(I know it doesn’t sound happy, but I’ll get there)

Anyway, shortly after my ‘little vacation’ and of course 9/11, Ryan Adams released Gold, which was a phenomenal record, and in the lead up had done Austin City Limits with Elton John. Anyway, I had a $15.00 ticket to see Ryan Adams on a nice warm October night at Lee’s Palace, a bar where I had seen many a band play before.

So, I walked in and the bar was filled with friends and acquaintances from my university days who were all there to check out this guy who seemed to turn heartbreak into a sweeter kind of sorrow; the kind of pain you can live through.

Anyway, the set began, and the crowd was really into it. Smiles and drinks and laughs and a set that was pulling people together, a community of strangers were having a great time. In the crowd I noticed a local musician(Ron Sexsmith), which was pretty standard for shows here, except that, well, he looked to be more excited than the audience. It was at this point, perhaps about 10 songs into the set, that Adams smiles and introduces his friend – Elton John.

Elton “F’n” John… in Lee’s “F’n” Palace… Sir Elton “F’n” John

The energy level in the bar went through the roof. I honestly can’t say how many concerts I have seen over the years, but nothing compares to the moment when Elton John took the stage. They began to play “La Cienega Just Smiled” with John behind a piano and taking over a good chunk of the vocal duties. Then Ron Sexsmith and a couple other local songwriters took the stage and the gathering blazed into John’s “Rocket Man (I Think It’s Going To Be A Long, Long Time).” With smiles going from ear to ear and every person on stage staring at Elton John; it seemed to me that the knighted one was the only person in the bar to have any semblance of calm.

So the night went on. John would stick around for “New York, New York” and depart leaving Adams to play two sets of encores that lasted out for another eight songs. By the time we all exited the bar there was a sense of euphoria that I had never felt leaving any concert either before or since. People were happy. I was happy. In the midst of my shittiest year to date, a year when the whole world looked to be falling into chaos, I went to this concert expecting only music and instead found a life affirming spectacle. Lee’s Palace is only a 600 person venue, but that night felt like a friendly get together with a musician I adore and his friend the living legend. It was the kind of night, the kind of memory, that you can cling to as the weather grows colder.

The snow that night kept falling as I walked back to the hospital holding tight to my vinyl. Several hours after visiting hours I was sent home. Of course, I didn’t sleep, but I did spin my albums, as I watched the clock that would give me permission to go back. Two days later, my wife gave birth to my second son, and after a bit of scary, crazy… stuff – things were good. Yeah, life has provided more snowy nights than I care to think about, but little moments like that night (and the birth of my kids) continue to see me through to another spring. Evan turns six on Sunday.

Thanks Ryan & Elton

Holy Bat-Signal Batman; Is that a vinyl record or a ‘baterang’? – Where to buy S#!t vol. 2 – Mondo

February 24, 2015May 29, 2015 / ds barrett / 6 Comments

With a quicker step than usual Tristan and I would beat a hasty retreat from the ugly Mackinnon Building to the drafty basement of Johnston Hall; not because the food on campus was any better there than anywhere else, but because there was a TV.

The opening notes of Danny Elfman’s score would begin and then the greatest superhero show of them all would start – Batman: The Animated Series. A show so cool it didn’t even bother putting the name of it on during the opening theme.

During that first season in ‘92, it was on right after class and we wouldn’t say a word until the commercials. To this day, the debate over who is the best ‘Batman’ is so frickin obvious I scoff at anyone who denies it.

Kevin Conroy (the voice of the Bat & Bruce). You may never see him in the costume… but he is the Bat!

The official series may have finished many years ago, but to fans, it lives large in the psyche. So imagine my fan-boy glee when I’m looking at different types of collectibles and this appears…

The opening and closing themes on bat-shaped vinyl! Bat –shaped and with grey splatter on the variant limited edition. ( http://mondotees.com/products/batman-the-animated-series-die-cut-12-single?variant=967910731)

Now, that is the thing about Mondo (http://mondotees.com/), the good people who have released this glorious single, everything they do is limited and outstanding and is collectors gold. In fact, this isn’t even the first time they’ve released the theme on vinyl. Others in the series include covers of the Joker, Harley Quinn, Clayface and Man-Bat.

In terms of vinyl, they pretty much only release soundtracks. So, in addition to my bat-vinyl I also picked up the Jon Brions’ original soundtrack to Paranorman.

However, they got all kinds of wonderful things for those geeky folks who seem impossible to buy for. Iron Giant t-shirts, Fargo knit-wear, and a Gremlins Christmas sweater are hi-lights of the clothing, but it’s the posters and original artwork you really want to see.

Coinciding with the 75^th anniversary of Batman, there is certainly a lot of material for fans to choose from, but honestly, that just scrapes the surface. Big with Mondo is variant movie posters released in limited edition. They are mostly based on cult horror or sci-fi/fantasy films, and are absolutely incredible. Here are a couple examples…

The other thing that is a little on the insane side is the resale value, or at least what people are selling them for on e-bay.

This Guardians of the Galaxy poster originally sold for $60.00 and was limited to 750 copies.

On e-bay sellers are now asking for more than $750.00 for it. Oh, and don’t for one second think this is an anomaly. In ten minutes of research I could literally find dozens of examples. Just this week I tried to order an X-Men: Days Of Future Past poster and the damn thing sold out in the 45 minutes I was away from the computer. So, if you’re looking for a unique gift for that crazy super-fan or collector… keep an eye on Mondo. Now, maybe I could call Tristan up for a Batman: The Animated Series marathon. In fact, I think maybe a whole party or something… I am such a geek.

Oh Gloria, where the hell did you come from? Jimi Hendrix : “Gloria”

February 16, 2015 / ds barrett / 3 Comments

My wife and I have been going through boxes of stuff lately. You know, the kind of boxes that traveled from one residence to another but never got opened. It just keeps getting shoved aside for one reason or another, and gets forgotten until a cold day comes along and you begin to dig.

Within a shoebox filled with pictures and letters from my teens is a single of Hendrix covering “Gloria.” It is marked as first time available in United States with a release date of 1979. Weird that I should have no idea how I got it and where it came from. Side ‘A’ plays great with barely a hint of buzz or crackle, while the B-side (the unedited side) starts with a bunch of ‘pop and hiss’ before settling down and letting Jimi ‘take over’. (OK, that wasn’t funny)

I stare at it for a long time trying to see if it will stir a memory. I listen to it, and still nothing. In fact, I don’t recall even having heard Hendrix cover the old Them track. This lack of insight gets a little embarrassing as Hendrix starts taking extreme liberties with the lyrics while my kids are eating lunch.

It’s one thing to explain profanity in music and movies; I’ve gotten pretty good at explaining ’emphasis of anger’ or the decrease of IQ during moments of ‘jocularity’. BUT DAMN, I’m not ready to explain the sexual references and language of a 60’s rock god.

Fortunately, they miss the lyrics as they rock out to the grove being put down by the Jimi Hendrix Experience.

So, is this worth owning? It is Hendix in his prime, although, that sounds redundant as Hendrix died in his prime. It’s just that, as a solo piece of work it doesn’t really add or subtract from his legacy. It’s three guys having fun playing a cover song that has ample room for Hendrix to do what Hendrix does.

You can still find it out on e-bay and Kijiji at all kinds of weird price points that start just under ten bucks and then sail to ten times that, but you know what. I’ll leave a youtube link below, you listen and decide. Me, I’ll file it under – “play only when the kids are at school.”

She danced like a ‘peanut’ – The Lowest of The Low – Musical Memories

February 15, 2015 / ds barrett / 1 Comment

She danced as if she was the missing peanut from the Christmas special. I’m imagining that “Linus & Lucy” is playing each time I see this dance.

Bouncing in spot with her hands in a cute chipmunk like groove that only works for her and it is a sheer joy to see. It’s a totally platonic friendship that means the world to me… her pure enjoyment of life mixed with a look that says “screw with me and you die” has me in awe. She is one of a very small group who can drag this sad “Charlie Brown” out and get him to laugh in a most animated way.

Except this isn’t a cartoon and only 15 people are in attendance as The Lowest of the Low play their songs as if to thousands. The lack of people only serves to give the lucky few more room to move… and they all do. The band seems delighted that everyone is having a great time, and so they are having a blast. At the end of the night I walk over to the ‘merch booth’ where the only thing being sold is the band’s debut Shakespeare… My Butt and slap my fifteen dollars on the table. The patrons are hanging out with ‘the Low’ and there are smiles all around.

http://www.maplemusic.com/product.asp?dept%5Fid=278&pf%5Fid=275%2D50&lang=EN

Seventeen songs play out the stereo. Seventeen songs play from my Walkman. Seventeen songs become part of the soundtrack of what turns into a pretty good summer. And as the fall semester begins I’m seeing the same band, at the same venue, playing the same songs, with the same power, but this time the Trasheteria is at capacity. She still stands out to me. In a sea of people who do the Simpson’s music festival dance (“Homerpalooza”), she is still a peanut.

Only difference is, this time we know all the words, and a group of us, a circle of friends, dance and sing together as “Rosy and Grey” and “Bleed A Little While Tonight” now take on meanings.

As winter begins, there are more shows, more splendid times with friends. One night you’re catching the Rheostatics another it’s Weeping Tile, and then you drive to Toronto to catch Sugar. After all, it’s the early 90’s, and there is always some cool band around to see. Still, even with all these shows and all these bands, The Lowest of the Low gets circled on the calendar in red marker.

Which makes it all the weirder as that less than a year from that first show I saw, I’m standing at the Ontario Place forum with thousands of people watching the Lowest of the Low play. However, this time it is different. The Edgefest crowd is having a good time, but she has stopped dancing, and our group of friends have begun to stare in quiet disbelief. Ron Hawkins, the Lowest of the Low’s main songwriter, singer and rhythm guitarist has begun to smash his guitar in angry spectacle. Sure, I’ve seen musicians smash instruments as part of the ‘rich rebel’ – ‘wow, did you see that’ theatrical display. Classic rock is full of that crap, but this was different… it was real… and it must have been expensive. This wasn’t some wealthy ‘rock star’ smashing his guitar. This was Ron Hawkins, who I’m guessing was just finally able to pay bills with their new found regional success.

When I asked the bands lead guitarist Stephen Stanley about it just a few days later at the Hillside Music Festival in Guelph, he kinda smirked, looked serious and hinted that I should “ask Ron”. Except his tone was saying that the last thing I should do was “ask Ron.”

What I did get is that a new album was imminent. The guys were excited as it was being produced by Don Smith who had worked with 54-40, Cracker and The Rolling Stones. In fact, it looked like everything was in place for this band to be HUGE! Of course, the idea of this is awesome; the band consisted of four great guys who had been working their asses off to get to this point.

The thing is, it was different that night at Hillside. There was no friend dancing to my imaginary “Linus & Lucy”, and the audience was more jocular than enthusiastic. The band seemed almost hesitant with material that they had played hundreds of times. It looked like colour had been bled from them and nothing remained but black and white stills with great music in the background.

Another fall semester began and ‘the Low’ had a show scheduled at the university. The new album Hallucigenia was supposed to be in the stores soon, and tickets for the concert were selling fast. My whole circle of friends would be there, either working or singing along. It was going to be a big party, and maybe… just maybe, our enthusiasm would reach the band and the colour would come back.

http://www.amazon.ca/Hallucigenia-Lowest-Low/dp/B00005B7XF/ref=sr_1_2?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1424024680&sr=1-2&keywords=lowest+of+the+low

It never happened.

The show was cancelled, the band had broken up, and I was left kinda shuffling my feet along the ground. It felt like a good friend had moved to another continent without so much as a “see ya later.” Other bands, other friends, had moved in and taken memorable places, but well, it just wasn’t the same.

The band would reunite a couple times over the years, but tickets would sell so quick, the show would be sold out the very moment I heard about it.

A couple years back I was in my favorite record store and spotted Shakespeare… My Butt on display in vinyl. The plastic hit the table and I forget how much I paid, but it did take me exactly where I wanted to be. As it spun on the turntable I lay upon my couch eyes closed and I could see, in perfect colour, a girl dancing like a ‘peanut’, a group of friends having a great time, and a band playing to a few people as if it was to thousands.

Thank You Lowest Of The Low

Remember that great classic record… that never happened – The Deepest Soul of Otis Redding: Lonely & Blue

February 12, 2015February 13, 2015 / ds barrett / 1 Comment

A number of years ago I stood in front of a very large glass case. Wreckage from a plane and a name on the wall beside it was the sheer bullshit that the rock hall had displayed… as if this was some kind of legacy worthy of the talent that had been Otis Redding.

As I looked around this Cleveland cathedral there was no explanation as to who he was and why he was in the hall of fame. The man who had put the mighty Stax on his back and commanded that you listen; the soul king who had the greatest band, Booker T & the MG’s as his own personal musicians in the studio; this giant who was arguably the strongest voice to emerge out of soul music’s greatest era (that saw the height of careers such as Ray Charles, Aretha Franklin, Wilson Pickett and James Brown); was reduced to a ridiculous display without context.

Message to the Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame…

If you are going to reflect on the legacy of a music “god”, you don’t create a display – “YOU BUILD A MOTHER FUCKIN’ ALTAR! SHRINE! & PYRAMID!”

Keeping that in mind, how would you create a new record worthy of that legacy?

Somehow the people at Stax records have managed just that… well, sort of.

Obviously Lonely &Blue is a compilation of previously released material, but wow, it was done right. While being a new collection it looks like a record put out in 1966. This includes a back cover testimonial about the potency of Redding written by the fictional Marty Hackman at WDHG Detroit and overall cover artwork that has the appearance of ‘record wear’ and stains.

The music itself is made up of Redding’s more ‘heart breaking’ material. Some of the songs are his more famous hits like “These Arms of Mine” and “I’ve Been Loving You Too Long (To Stop Now)”, but of far more interest (to me) was the inclusion of lesser known tracks like “Waste of Time” and “Everybody Makes A Mistake” which had not been included in the 1993 Definitive Box Set. While playing a rather sad tone throughout the entire record, it also displays the emotional depth that Redding seemed to tap with ease.

In addition to the great music, Lonely & Blue was put together with the turntable in mind. Once you open the vintage style package you find yourself looking at a beautiful piece of blue translucent vinyl.

This compilation isn’t just a great introduction into Otis Redding, but it also stands out as a wonderful exploration into his well mined theme of sorrow. So grab a glass of red wine, turn the lights low, and let a genuine soul Titan take you away to another time and place… that seems very familiar all the same.

barrettbites

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