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Thursday, January 1, 2009

GMVW # 52: "Natural Wonders"

Gem Music Video of the Week # 52: Natural Wonders
Song: Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald by Gordon Lightfoot
(Songwriter: Gordon Lightfoot)
January 1, 2009

Musical taste covers the gambit, so I’m sure nobody has agreed with every single one (or even a majority) of the gem choices I made over the past year (if I were to guess, I would think Mac comes closest).  Most of the gems have been rock-n-roll songs, and I know at least several on this email list who would much rather listen to classical, jazz, country, or blues.  Others seem more inclined to listen to music more for the dance beat than the lyrical content.  I also know a few who turn to music more often as a temporary reprieve from the daily dose of negative news that floods the airways…this would be the soft-rock/easy listeners among us. 

Kinder, gentler musicians certainly have an appeal in this dog-eat-dog world.  Personally, if a musician has a soft side, they also need to throw a reality check at me every so often.  Neil Young does a masterful job of this, composing a wide range of music, from easy listening to hard edge rock and a plethora of great heavy-subject-matter songs.  This is a rare feat, though.  Most musicians are allied to either one camp or the other.  Easy-listen musicians rarely break the mold.  One of the kindest, gentlest souls in the easy-listen music world had to have been John Denver.  Yes, I can appreciate to a degree, but there’s nothing in his catalog that rises to the level of Gem for me.  A shame, because this week’s theme is about the grandeurs of the natural world, and if any acclaimed musician can be associated with the great outdoors it’s John Denver.  However, one of John Denver’s favorite places to sing about was the Rocky Mountains, which is a wonderful thing because this helps me segue into the next paragraph.

This week’s Gem has two stories behind it.  The first took place in the Canadian Rockies, where Fred, Mac, John, Kurt and I (and other Franklin-ites) went on a ski trip in the winter of 1988.  Most of the trip was spent on the slopes, including Lake Louise and Banff (Sunshine).  There was one day during the week, however, when we rented a car and took the 3 hour drive north to Jasper through the Canadian wilderness.  It was an amazing journey through valleys surrounded by high peaks, and on a picture-perfect day to boot.  Mountain goats, big horn sheep, bison, moose, eagles and elk were all common sightings along the park road.  It was also along this route where an uncommon event occurred:  Kurt belted out a song.  There was no music playing on the radio.  No accompaniment whatsoever.  This would have been standard fare for me, but Kurt is generally more reserved.  What could have caused this momentary lapse of reason?  I have to give all the credit to the scenery around us.  It was the most unique aspect of that moment. I don’t believe I had witnessed Kurt singing a-cappella before, and I have yet to see it again. 

Anyhow, the song Kurt sang, from beginning to end, was this week’s Gem:  Gordon Lightfoot’s ‘The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald’.  Go figure!  Here we were surrounded by some of the Rocky Mountain’s highest peaks, and Kurt was singing about a sinking ship.  Looking back, though, there was a correlation, because as much as Lightfoot’s gem of a song is about a sinking-ship disaster at “sea”, it’s also about the majesty of the Great Lake it sank in.  Driving through the Canadian Rockies gave Kurt (and the rest of us) the same sense of wonderment one can get from viewing the Pacific Ocean, the Grand Canyon, Niagara Falls, Yosemite, a glacier, an iceberg, giant sequoia trees, or …..a Great Lake.

So it was, several summers later (1992), that Nancy and I took an actual Great Lakes trip.  Perhaps it was inspired by Kurt’s rendition of the Ed Fitz.  Whatever the reason, our 2-week trip included visits to all of the Great Lakes, most notably a circumvention of Lake Superior, the largest of the five, and the geographic heart of Lightfoot’s tale.  The Great Lakes region is extremely underrated as a vacation destination.  There are so many natural wonders, including the Bruce Peninsula, the Apostle Islands, Niagara Falls, Mackinac Island,  Sault St Marie, Pukaskwa National Park (Canada), Sleeping Giant Provincial Park (Canada), Georgian Bay (including Parry Sound, Bobby Orr’s hometown, where Nancy and I met Orr’s brother at his clothing store, and when I told him we were from Boston, he took us in the back room and gave us a handful of Orr/Bruins memorabilia), and so much more.

A long-standing memory I have of this trip was when we pulled into Duluth, Minnesota, bordering the west coast of Lake Superior.  This was the farthest western point of our trip, which called for a reward of sorts.  We walked thru town and into an old record store, where we purchased a Gordon Lightfoot tape, which included ‘The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald’.  We must have played the song 40 times over the next week as we drove north and east around the greatest of the Great Lakes.  The drive made it abundantly clear how a ship as large and solidly built as the Edmund Fitzgerald could have sunk:  Lake Superior (or as the Chippewa call it “Gitche Gumme”) had all the characteristics of the open ocean.  A natural wonder if there ever was one.

A nice live version of Gordon Lightfoot singing the wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald is below as this week’s Gem.

Happy New Year!  Here’s a resolution: Get out and enjoy the natural world.    There’s plenty of it here in the Pepperell area. If you want a guide, give me a call.

You can even sing about it if you feel the urge.

- Pete

“Lake Huron rolls, Superior sings
In the ruins of her ice water mansion
Old Michigan steams like a young man's dreams,
The islands and bays are for sportsmen.

And farther below Lake Ontario
Takes in what Lake Erie can send her
And the iron boats go as the mariners all know
With the gales of November remembered.”





About the video: I never found the ideal Edmund Fitzgerald video.  This one was a little grainy, so the video is still up in the air.

Video Rating: 2

Best Feedback: Tina

dear peter,
thank you so much for keeping me in your music loop. even though i seldome write, i am always delighted with stories and your musical selections. you are like a music encyclopedia and i like the way your brain ties everything together.
happy new year and love to all,
tina


Also: John

Wow.  That was a shocking video.  I used to tape his music from the vinyl onto cassettes, because his was good music to listen to on long drives (
Carefree Highway
?), especially if you were by yourself or with a young lady in a tank top.  I remember his album covers and him being a robust, good looking dude with that curly blonde hair, not a gray haired, gaunt and sickly looking old man.  So first, I must be getting old, and second, thank the Lord I never was a smoker. 

And third, what ever happened to that young lady in the tank top?

Thursday, December 25, 2008

GMVW # 51: "Counter Culture Foundations"

Gem Music Video of the Week # 51: Counter Culture Foundations
Song: Love is Just a Four Letter Word by Bob Dylan
Covered Here By: Joan Baez
(Songwriter: Bob Dylan)       
December 25, 2008


Harvard Square
has seen its share of great places come and go. There was the dark, bordering on gloomy, two-floor Bavarian restaurant, the Wursthaus, a true bohemian hideout if there ever was one, which met its demise about 10 years ago.  Along with the Wursthaus, the wrecking ball took out the very tiny diner, The Tasty (I ate there twice > the night before my wedding and the night before Charlotte was born).  There was also a favorite restaurant of Nancy & I, Grendel’s Den, and the original House of Blues (where we once celebrated a boisterous Gospel music breakfast with Mom & Dad).  All these locations are nothing but a wide range of eclectic memories now. 

However, a number of long standing places still survive.  There’s the Globe Corner Book Store, where I have purchased many a globe, map and travel book (and still the best place to get USGS topographic maps).  There’s Shay’s Pub, the wine bar where Mac & I connect over a few glasses of port wine every Christmas season.  The Border CafĂ© still stands, where Amy and Paul treated Nancy and I to dinner the night of their engagement. There’s Leavitt & Pierce Tobacco, still a great place to buy cigars in bulk for a first-time Dad.  The Hong Kong remains the home of the best of all scorpion bowls (and numerous related memories).  There’s also Charlie’s Kitchen, The Brattle Theatre, Out of Town News, Cardullo’s Gourmet Shoppe, The Harvard Coop, and The Harvard Museum of Natural History.  All continue to give
Harvard Square
that certain charm that can be found nowhere else.

There are some places that also give
Harvard Square
a secure place in American music history.  Club Passim ranks at the top of the list.  Passim, which has survived
Harvard Square
’s frequent overhauls, has for many years hosted the best that the folk scene has to offer.  Along with the Iron Horse in Northampton, it’s the perfect venue to see folk music (as was the long-gone Old Vienna Kaffeehaus in Westborough).  The musician who more than any other gave Passim its long-standing reputation is Joan Baez, who played there quite often in the 60’s.  This week’s Gem is a Baez cover of the Dylan song ‘Love is Just a Four Letter Word’.  I first heard her cover this song on the album ‘Any Day Now’, which is an entire album of Dylan songs covered by Baez.  Joan Baez has always been mesmerized by Bob Dylan’s talent (although a great songwriter in her own right), and it certainly is apparent in her delivery of his songs on that album and in this live version of ‘Love is Just a Four Letter Word’.

I have to credit good friend, Jeff Strause for opening my eyes to folk music.  One great thing about a folk show (solo or festival) is that the crowd really does bond in a way that is hard to replicate at larger and louder rock events.  There’s often a nice interchange between artist and audience.  A good folk musician feeds off the crowd and allows them to be part of the show.  Jeff should know.  He’s been to more folk shows than the musicians themselves. 

Below the Joan Baez Gem are links to a few other folk singers who have inspired Jeff (and I) over the years.  Below those links are the lyrics to ‘Love is Just a Four Letter Word’.

- Pete

Gem of the Week ‘Love is Just a Four Letter Word’

Utah Phillips ‘Banks of Marble’

Nancy Griffith and Carolyn Hester ‘Boots of Spanish Leather’

Shawn Colvin ‘Wichita Skyline’

Tom Rush ‘No Regrets’

The Nields ‘When I Let you into my Closet’

‘Love is Just a Four Letter Word’ lyrics

Seems like only yesterday
I left my mind behind
Down in the Gypsy Café
With a friend of a friend of mine
She sat with a baby heavy on her knee
Yet spoke of life most free from slavery
With eyes that showed no trace of misery
A phrase in connection first with she occurred
That love is just a four-letter word

Outside a rambling store-front window
Cats meowed 'til the break of day
Me, I kept my mouth shut,
To you I had no words to say
My experience was limited and underfed
You were talking while I hid
To the one who was the father of your kid
You probably didn't think I did, but I heard
You say that love is just a four-letter word

I said goodbye unnoticed
Pushed towards things in my own games
Drifting in and out of lifetimes
Unmentionable by name
After searching for my double, looking for
Complete evaporation to the core
Though I tried and failed at finding any door
I must have thought that there was nothing more absurd
Than that love is just a four-letter word

Though I never knew just what you meant
When you were speaking to your man
I could only think in terms of me
And now I understand
After waking enough times to think I see
The Holy Kiss that's supposed to last eternity
Blow up in smoke, its destiny
Falls on strangers, travels free
Yes, I know now, traps are only set by me
And I do not really need to be assured
That love is just a four-letter word

Strange it is to be beside you, many years the tables turned
You'd probably not believe me if told you all I've learned
And it is very very weird, indeed
To hear words like "forever" plead
so ships run through my mind I cannot cheat
it's like looking in a teacher's face complete
I can say nothing to you but repeat what I heard
That love is just a four-letter word.


About the video: Austin City Limits show, not sure of the year (late 90’s?).  The band includes a 2nd guitarist and a bongo drummer.

Video Rating: 1

Best Feedback: Tom

Pete - you never cease to amaze me ... even on Christmas day you're sending the weekly out faithfully.  Hope yours was a good day, and that Charlotte and Peter both enjoyed their new gifts.  Thomas of course had a blast - his being very much into art drawing etc.  He also got a bunch of Spiderman and Batman stuff - with his love of superheroes too.  Will be up to see Steve and Tim this coming week.

Of your latest, I recall walking by the original House of Blues - having tried to get into a concert there once (I believe BB King, my having seen him and Johnny Lang in CT in mid-90's and loving it).  The Coop is a familiar stomping ground too, with lunch at John Harvard's with a couple of their brews.  But all these other mentioned places sound swell - will keep as a list of good places to eat etc in the future.

If I don't talk to you before - Happiest of New Year's to you, Nancy, Charlotte and Peter.

Tom


Also: Madeline

Thanks Pete! I feel like going to the Square right now!

Are you guys up to seeing your 'ol New Years friends this year???

Let us know!

Thursday, December 18, 2008

GMVW # 50: "Seasons Greetings"

Gem Music Video of the Week # 50: Seasons Greetings
Song: Father Christmas by The Kinks
(Songwriter: Ray Davies)
December 18, 2008

Season’s Greetings!

A few weeks ago, The Who were paid tribute to at the 31st Annual Kennedy Center Honors (the show will broadcast on CBS December 30th).  They were the first band to receive this prestigious award (several other recipients this year include Barbara Streisand and Morgan Freeman).  In an interview with the Washington Post prior to the event, Pete Townshend admitted that the prize was stirring up some complicated feelings:  “We’d never been heard,” he said, referring to his British working class roots.  “So we created our own language, which was rock ‘n’ roll.  And this honor is the establishment saying, ‘We hear you.’  And that’s a strange thing, because if they can hear us, maybe we don’t need to do this anymore.  It’s like somebody saying to Tupac Shakur, ‘Ah, I understand what you’re saying.’  Well, you’re not supposed to understand what he’s saying.  You’re supposed to be (expletive) scarred!”

OK….but since this week’s Gem is aimed at the spirit of the season, what does any of the above have to do with Christmas?

Well, despite many attempts, rock music has only produced a handful of great Christmas songs and Townshend’s recent comments pretty much explain the dilemma the genre has with writing them.  Sure rock singers can belt out a great cover version of an old standard: Elvis Presley singing ‘Blue Christmas’; Bob Seger’s version of ‘Little Drummer Boy’; Bruce Springsteen’s overplayed cover of ‘Santa Claus is Coming to Town’; The Pretenders with ‘Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas’; or David Bowie singing ‘Silent Night’ with Bing Crosby.  Yet, when it comes to orchestrating original compositions many rock musicians struggle to connect with the core meaning of Christmas, and as a result most of their efforts fail to gain an enthusiastic audience.  I believe this is actually a struggle for musicians of all music genres, but where many of the other genres can get away with writing songs that celebrate the pomp and circumstance that surround Christmas, rock music cannot. Tradition and mainstream acceptance are simply not in its genes.  If a Christmas rock song is going to make it, it has to: 1) Break establishment norms 2) Stay honest and true to the spirit of Christmas and 3) Get to the point.  For such a long-standing Christian celebration, this can be hard to pull off.

But it can occur. A year or two ago, in a family email exchange, Jen asked everyone what their favorite rock Christmas song was (in hindsight it may have been the seed that got me started with these weekly rantings/gems).  Several songs came to mind.  There was obviously John Lennon and Yoko Ono’s passionate Christmas song, ‘Happy Xmas War is Over’.  The Pogues and Kirsty MacColl’s ‘Fairytale of New York’ is a fantastic song, as is Band Aid with ‘Feed the World’.  But for me, there was no dispute.  The one song (this week’s Gem) that has been on the top of my list for some time now is ‘Father Christmas’ by The Kinks.  It succeeds at all 3 of the qualifications listed above with ease.  Part of what makes it so alluring is that it has a drive-home message (second to last stanza near the end of the song), when all music fades out (including the jingle bells), and Ray Davies is left to sing without accompaniment.  When a song has a good drive home message, it can find a way to rise to another level.  Even the Fools song ‘Life Sucks (then you die)’ pulls that off at the end (“People say that life is good, Give thanks for what you have, When all you have is nothin’, Nothin’ makes you glad”).  Another great thing about this week’s gem is how Davies appears to be portraying the antagonistic gang of kids as believing in Santa despite the anger they direct at him.  Well done.

Unfortunately the video quality is pretty poor, but the audio is just right (although a bit out of synch).  Below the ‘Father Christmas’ link are several other Christmas inspired links.  Below those are the lyrics to ‘Father Christmas’. 

Have a very Merry Christmas!

- Pete (and Nancy)

The Kinks ‘Father Christmas’ (lyrics way below)

Here are 2 links to the Christmas Carol movie which starred Albert Finny as Scrooge.  Both are of same song, ‘Thank You Very Much’ but at different parts of the movie.  The first is when Scrooge is still in hot water with the 3rd Spirit.  In this version, Scrooge thinks the crowd is thanking him but not sure why.  He is oblivious to the fact that he has just died in the not-to-distant Christmas future (it’s his casket they dance on), but the reason the crowd is thanking him is because they all owed him money (with compound interest!).  Of course, the crowd does not see Scrooge in this first link.  The second link is at the end of the movie, when Scrooge absolves them all of their debt to him.  This song is a favorite of Mom, Dad, Charlotte, and I.



The Pogues and Kirsty MacColl ‘Fairytale of New York

John Lennon and Yoko Ono ‘Happy Xmas War is Over’

Bob Seger’s version of Little Drummer Boy

Lyrics to The Kinks ‘Father Christmas’

When I was small I believed in santa claus
Though I knew it was my dad
And I would hang up my stocking at christmas
Open my presents and Id be glad

But the last time I played father christmas
I stood outside a department store
A gang of kids came over and mugged me
And knocked my reindeer to the floor

They said:
Father christmas, give us some money
Dont mess around with those silly toys.
Well beat you up if you dont hand it over
We want your bread so dont make us annoyed
Give all the toys to the little rich boys

Dont give my brother a steve austin outfit
Dont give my sister a cuddly toy
We dont want a jigsaw or monopoly money
We only want the real mccoy

Father christmas, give us some money
Well beat you up if you make us annoyed
Father christmas, give us some money
Dont mess around with those silly toys

But give my daddy a job cause he needs one
Hes got lots of mouths to feed
But if youve got one, Ill have a machine gun
So I can scare all the kids down the street

Father christmas, give us some money
We got no time for your silly toys
Well beat you up if you dont hand it over
Give all the toys to the little rich boys

Have yourself a merry merry Christmas
Have yourself a good time
But remember the kids who got nothin
While youre drinkin down your wine

Father christmas, give us some money
We got no time for your silly toys
Well beat you up if you dont hand it over
We want your bread, so dont make us annoyed
Give all the toys to the little rich boys

-------------------------------------------------

About the Video: Made for MTV type video

Video Rating: 2 (if I great live version could ever be found)

Thursday, December 11, 2008

GMVW # 49: "Luck of the Draw?"

Gem Music Video of the Week # 49:  Luck of the Draw?
Song: If I Had a Million Dollars by Bare Naked Ladies
(Songwriter: Ed Robertson)
December 11, 2008

A number of years ago, Mom asked me if I thought the Beatles success was mostly luck.  Great question, as I have since pondered it quite often.  If the Beatles were lucky though, was Mozart?  Al Jolson?  Judy Garland?  Billy Halliday? Ted Williams? Andrew Carnegie? Albert Einstein?  Why do some hit the big time where many others who try do not?  Is it simply hard work, ambition, and talent, or is there something else at play, like being in the right place at the right time?  For musicians in particular, does staying grounded help?  Can this be done by somehow avoiding as long as possible the pitfalls of fortune and fame? (Pete Townshend did a pretty good job of staying in the red much longer than he should have by smashing his guitars and amps on a nightly basis).  Does the lap of luxury come with a price?  Is this why there are so many one-hit wonders?

Regardless of how it happens, much of the reason for a musician’s long term success can be traced back to his/her roots.  Some of the best stories, photos or footage of great musicians, are the ones that precede fame.  This is where you can get insight into how the seeds were sown.   The stories can reveal lives filled with wanderlust, adversity and surely some luck, while the photos or footage can show a confidence or talent that is beginning to gel. The early years of the Beatles had its share of character-building struggles including:  Borderline poverty in Hamburg, Germany; deportation (Harrison); and death (Lennon’s Mom and the 5th Beatle, Stu Sutcliffe).  Neil Young left his home in North Ontario and landed in Los Angeles where one of his first acts was purchasing the only car he could afford:  A used hearse to port around his equipment (probably not that far out of place in mid-60’s L.A.).  Garth Hudson had to tell his mother he was a music instructor for the other members of the Hawks (later The Band) so he could leave home and school for a chance to make it in the blues-rich Deep South.  Johnny Cash lost his only brother. 

I’m not all that aware of the stories behind the original two guys that make up the Canadian band ‘Bare Naked Ladies’ (BNL for short):  Steven Page and Ed Robertson.  But I love this pre-fame video link (below), which shows them performing one of their first songs, this week’s Gem ‘If I Had a Million Dollars’, later to become a minor hit in the States.  In the years following the filming of this video, BNL would release a series of hit songs that would lead them to stardom. I was searching for this great song and found a number of big-stage live versions, but none compare to the spontaneity of this earliest of videos, which is a snippet from a talk show they appear on.  Part of what I like about this video is the ‘Wayne’s World’-like host.  He’s somewhat annoying (laughing at almost everything Page and Robertson say/sing), but he has that Mike Myers thing going for him… only in Canada!  One other thought on BNL: Were they aware of the implications of searching their full name on YouTube?

Back to Mom’s question:  Were the Beatles lucky?  I guess so, but I think there are degrees of luck for each individual member.  On a scale of 1 to 10, with 1 being a mixture of skill and luck and 10 being pure luck:

John: 3
Paul: 4
George: 5
Ringo : 11 (actually, I change that to an ‘8’, now recalling Ringo shouting out “I’ve got blisters on my fingers!” at the end of Helter Skelter (after the 18th and final take) ).

- Pete

Gem Music Video: If I Had a Million Dollars

---------------------------------

About the Video:  Early video of BNL on a Canadian Show that reminds me of Wayne’s World

Video Rating: 1

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Best Feedback:  Jen

Hi Pete,

Interesting write up. I like the part about Neil Young and his hearse, and I was curious to read what you'd rate Ringo on the luck scale...I took a guess at "9", before I scrolled down, to the 11. Funny. When my Joe was really little, like 1 or 2, he used to like to hear, "If I had a Million Dollars" come on the radio, in the car. I think he found it fun and easy to sing along to.

-----------------------------------

And: John

Good video find, Pedro.  That clip must be 18 years old, and it shows what a gifted musician Robertson really is.  I saw them 3 years ago, and they interact and improvise just like that on stage, still.