Recent CD Purchases

This is for all non-EC or peripheral-EC topics. We all know how much we love talking about 'The Man' but sometimes we have other interests.
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Re: Recent CD Purchases

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They definitely were the pros' 'pros'!--what I purchased is the compilation of the box set- "Best of the Bootleg Vol.1". The box is too pricey for me at this time. There does seem to be repetition in the box- same song different nights. The Best cd has two evenings- one in Antwerp on 10/28/67 and Copenhagen 11/2/67. I have all the studio reissues from that time so the box would seem redundant to me. Picked this one up yesterday for $8.99- not bad for a brand new cd. The youtube clip I attached is not from this cd but from the same tour so it gives a close approximation to the fun on this cd. As good as Davis was, I think he was supreme at surrounding himself with superlative players. Williams is one of them and to think he was only all of 21 when this was made and still a teenager when he joined the band a few years earlier. Just as we note the cohesiveness of Wilco- this and the first Quintet from the Fifties are the models.

Otis- this is from the Best of set and it is delightful:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AVHTWTWp ... re=related
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Re: Recent CD Purchases

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Ryan Adams- "Ashes and Fire". A most consistent record that scales back his excesses and then, to my ears, makes an effective and honest assessment of his first decade as a singer songwriter, building on a seeming newly found emotional honesty. Too often he has grasped at genres; exceeding his reach for my ears. Here he stays close to home and offers many strong songs which take a lyrically critical look at his past excesses and which appear to find a renewed and simply elegant joy in a pared down life that is made whole by his brush with health problems and an apparently happy marriage. I really like that he seems to have tapped into Neil Young for renewed inspiration-spare, emotionally and melodically solid reflections, taking those 'ashes' out of the past and finding a subtler 'fire' in the coals. Having Norah Jones sing backup does not hurt either. The biggest strength on this record is his vocals. Always a distinctive singer, he never hits a false note on this record. He has one of the nicest voices in 'pop' these days. I really like this record for that aspect alone. Here is a taste:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nQobe6Jf3wk
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Re: Recent CD Purchases

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Otis Westinghouse wrote:I'm keen to hear St Vincent too (I was very impressed indeed by her two song contribution to the 'Rain Dogs Revisited' show I saw this summer, Steve Nieve et al). She was a bit like current hot UK ticket Anna Calvi, slashing at her Fender and coming over as scary but engaging. Loved it.
I love the new St. Vincent album, completely different from her previous one. To me it seems like she uses her voice a lot more. The guitar work is amazing and the songs are much more personal and captivating.

I keep wanting to compare her to Kate Bush or Bjork (the first track definitely could be mistaken by Bjork but that's where the comparison ends) but with each listen I realize that she's a completely different artist. I can't wait to hear what she does next.

Here's a clip of her doing "Surgeon," she kills it on the guitar towards the end.



Picked up the new Wilco album, along with Keren Ann's 101 and the Civil Wars' Barton Hollow. Recommend them all. The Wilco album has specially surprise me since I'm a fair-weather fan. I usually hate songs that go on more than 7 minutes but One Sunday Morning is gorgeous.
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Re: Recent CD Purchases

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Jill Barber's "Chances" and "Mischievous Moon"- two very solid efforts that show there is still life and emotional vitality in the chanteuse form. These two records have invaded my home and for many evenings now they accompany our dining just as if I was in some brasserie in Montreal, or Paris, for that matter. Her voice is a delightful reminder of Blossom Dearie and the music is not retrograde- a throwback to the 40s and 50s. Instead it takes that musical time and upgrades it- giving it a shine that is as bright as the musical arrangements that accompanies the songs. Strings that are never too intrusive, a small combo with lively jazz guitar and flute and vibraphone and clarinet- this is music that would have played very well in the background of Woody Allen's latest, "Midnight in Paris". Most of all I love her voice and its independent phrasing. I thank PD profusely for bringing her to my attention; he is lucky to have her living in his city and performing there. Just another great Canadian talent-in fact she makes wonderful usage of another Canadian talent- Ron Sexsmith with four songs on these two records co written with him. It is intelligent, adult and slyly swinging; most infectious.

An enticing and intriguing possibility has me thinking- as she is now residing in the same city as EC[Vancouver] I would welcome a collaboration with EC on some sophisticated, adult cabaret music- might well make for a worthwhile listen- would love to hear her tackle "Jimmy" or "You Hung the Moon" or newer material?


Here are some samples:

http://youtu.be/T6YvRl6aOOE

http://youtu.be/guVjJC9A_hM

http://youtu.be/9NTHjWB2-sU

http://youtu.be/C1W9aY0zt64

http://youtu.be/QuZGejW4zHw

http://youtu.be/zLKJ42TUj08

http://youtu.be/wzGkH6F5Nos
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Re: Recent CD Purchases

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Yet another strong Canadian- one of the strongest for me- Leonard Cohen's new one after some eight years- Old Ideas. Yes old in that he breaks no new thematic ground instead honing and paring and finely tuning the eternal ones that have illuminated his songs over the decades- spirituality, love[both carnal and divine], death, exhaustion and how to live in a world that is seemingly empty of real meaning. Spare arrangements, quick hooks and simple instrumentation make these quiet lyrics shimmer in the ear. By going small and shrinking his sound he has actually expanded his sound palette with just his voice. That is the real enjoyment on this record. It is sepulchral in its tone[he has always had that tone] but it is now deeper, more resonant, dripping with his years and his experience. There are moments on this record when it seems like he is signaling for his listeners to gather closer to the speakers as he whispers in his deeply life enriched baritone his life lessons.

I love the jokiness to be found in a song like "Going Home" where God is looking for a character named Leonard who is "a lazy bastard Living in a suit". It is time to come 'home' and Leonard needs to spread the word. I have been spending time lately rereading St Augustine and it now strikes me that Leonard is a modern version, particularly in a song like "Amen" where he enumerates a souls passage from the carnal to the spiritual. In "Darkness" I have found a close affinity to the mood that a great deal of Larkin gives me including his tremendous "Aubade" or "Toads Revisited". That is no mean feat and the B3 organ is delicious.

This is a peaceful record in its coming full circle to a state of grace. I only hope I have an equal equanimity when I more succinctly face my end- "it's coming for us all, darling." Leonard has done something that Tom Waits failed to do last year- re entered the musical stage with some life and vigor in his material.

A wonderful disection that came out recently in Slate as a retrospective:

http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/musi ... ingle.html
Last edited by Jack of All Parades on Fri Feb 10, 2012 10:57 am, edited 2 times in total.
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Re: Recent CD Purchases

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Otis Westinghouse wrote:Image
New Wilco, though not out till late September, it's sure to be at least superb, and probably something more than that. Curiously Amazon here are charging £1.60 less for the 2 CD bonus version, cover above, than the differently covered single CD version:

Image

Bonus CD includes a cover of Nick Lowe's 'I Love My Label', not a song I know, but I'm sure others do.

Haven't been here for a while mate, but you appear to be convert! I recall you referring to Tweedy's voice as unlistenable!
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Re: Recent CD Purchases

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:lol: It was a bit of an acquired taste for me, though I remember writing that after being underwhelmed by some of the singing on YFH having previously loved Summerteeth. Now I'd rate him as one of my favourite current singers and Wilco as very high up my list of favourite bands. And every bit deserving of their live reputation.
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Re: Recent CD Purchases

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Image

Rushed to Fopp to buy the deluxe version with DVD before the shop closed. Joked with the cashier about re-living my teenage years. He understood the urge and regretted the thrill being lost to him given that they all roll in as stock. Am half way through. Some lovely stuff there, classic Lambchop stillness, calm, detail, melancholy, and full of songwriterly and musicianly magnificence. It probably will need 5 plays + to really hit home, but I suspect it won't scale the heights to the extent the predecessor OH (Ohio) did, but how could it? That was one of my favourite CDs ever.

One thing that totally perplexes me is that the very good bonus DVD contains a Nov 2010 live Berlin (where they open their tour with two nights at the end of this week, they just love 'em in Germany) recording with 10 or so songs, but not one is from 2008's OH, it's mainly from the excellent earlier classics Nixon and Is A Woman, and therefore mainly songs that came on the Royal Albert Hall DVD that came with the Nixon reissue. What a missed opportunity! It's great stuff, but heck, I don't think there's even anything from the predecessor Damaged. Odd really. the stuff related to Mr M is great, though, three songs being played by them in their Nashville basement (I think in Kurt's house), and then interviews with him about the album, and the wrestler-featuring video for the excellent Gone Tomorrow:


I love this band.
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Re: Recent CD Purchases

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The above is dedicated to Vic Chesnutt, who I confess has only been a distant name for me until now. Originating from Athens GA and with early albums produced by Michael Stipe, he moved in later years to Nashville, so I guess hung out with Kurt there. Wheelchair-bound from the age of 18, he died from an apparently deliberate overdose of muscle relaxants on Christmas Day 2009. I started exploring with this song on the NPR Tiny Desk archive, and find it incredibly moving, as does he, tears in his eyes at the end.

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Re: Recent CD Purchases

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Otis- I have always been partial to a song by him titled "Flirted With You All My Life"-about suicide. He clearly read poetry and put his studies to good use within his lyrics. There was a poignant album of covers of his songs released last year by The Cowboy Junkies titled "Demons"-something he knew a considerable deal about in his short life.

Here it is if you are interested:

http://youtu.be/V4Z-kjr4BLs

It has always had a visceral impact on me as a listener.
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Re: Recent CD Purchases

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Yes, that's the other song I was listening on exploring. Absolutely amazing. 'Oh death...'. Both of these sobering and remarkable songs are on his late album At The Cut. Will have to check it out. Scarily, he was prolific and made a whole bunch of them. Still, you can never have enough good music. I'm grateful to Kurt Wagner for getting me interested. Details of his life here, including how post car accident with broken spine he spent 4 months listening to Costello and Dylan and reading the likes of Whitman and Auden:

http://altmusic.about.com/od/artists/a/vicchesnutt.htm
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Re: Recent CD Purchases

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Amazing song:

"When the bottom fell out
There wasn't any doubt
I just suddenly found myself free falling
And from such a height
The wind, it had a bite
And it took all my might to fight the fight

The fell in spread-eagled
Must've found an airfoil
Or some kinda wing
And I gained some equilibrium
Caught myself gliding

When the bottom fell out
Observers heard me shout
So long, It's been good to know ye
But when I finallly smash
Into that verdant grass
I will say It's been pretty great going"
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Re: Recent CD Purchases

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Otis, I recall an interview with him from many years ago where he discussed his love of poetry and how he had home schooled himself on the American classics- Whitman, Frost, Dickinson and, strangely enough to me, Wallace Stevens and not to mention , as you said Auden. All roads seem to lead to him. I find in his lyrics a particular attention to detail and a mystic line which I think is echoed in his past readings. He is a very strong lyric writer and well worth spending some extended time with in his songbook.

I would like to recommend one more for you. Bill Morrissey. Sadly, I only recently learned of his death this past July alone in a motel room while on tour down South. Besides sharing a name with someone you hold dear- he shares an equally strong lyric talent with Mr. Chestnut. He was a lifelong alcoholic and his songs are filled with the small incidents that fill an ordinary life. That is what perhaps makes them so poignant and telling. He has a writer's eye for the right detail. In fact he is on record as stating that he learned to write by reading his favorite authors- and then constantly revising. He was not prolific- some 9 records over his recording career but they are well worth exploring. He is a master of the dramatic dialogue in song like his fellow New Englander Robert Frost. He writes poignant little dramas concerning everyday people like us at our most vulnerable. They are internally lit by specific details that make the individual songs reverberate for me long after I have heard them. His albums "Standing Eight", "Night Train" and "North" are good places to start. He even wrote a novel Edisonthat was well received. Here is a song called "Birches" that shows off his craft-listen for the capping 'even trade' -I loved how he said in an interview to a question as to how long it took him to write this song 'Fifteen years and twenty minutes[ that is years to live it and twenty minutes to put it down]- hope you enjoy it.

http://youtu.be/Xnp5E1Hm3Lw

Here is another song by him titled "Inside"

http://youtu.be/CxttvnCCTB8

and one more from his last record "Thirty Years"- by way of summation

http://youtu.be/4w0QDBA5t-s

and one last one - a favorite love song in which I have always admired its 'disguised simplicity' "She's That Kind of Mystery"

http://youtu.be/nlHvXkVEYbs
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Re: Recent CD Purchases

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"Wrecking Ball"- Bruce Springsteen. Have been warming to this record since first purchasing it two weeks ago. I am not the biggest Springsteen fanatic; I value aspects of his past work but I also have a strong aversion to the bombast that makes up a great deal of his early material and to the persona he developed as an arena performer and the overally enamoured fans he has attracted in past years and tours. I am much more attracted to his character driven songs that are etched with specific images and details. That said I find myself very much attracted to the anger, vitriol and, yes, 'bombast' that fills this record. It is about time someone put a sound to how I feel after these past dozen years, the frustration I have inside me as I see the life I live and the lives of those around me painfully wither as we are left holding the bag for our long national nightmare as it unravels. This record is the first one that seems to take real stock, cliched maybe, but it still feels like it is a flesh and blood response to the upheavel we are all dealing with daily. It is an acknowledgement that we no longer have responsible governing in this country, that we no longer seem to have shared hopes and aspirations and rewards, that what we have is broken and that there is plenty of guilt to go around.

I like that he does this record without his band. I like the updating of the sound with tape loops and female choruses and choir and folk chants. It fits the mood and the material. It is populist and rightly so. Mostly I like the sentiment- "hold tight to your anger/And don't fall to your fears". I can do without the triteness and cliche of the opening song but the core of the album resonates powerfully for me in its simple and fiery songs of misuse and despair. And I really appreciate the affirmation to be found in his remake of "Land of Hope and Dreams". Curtis Mayfield would be proud.

It is music for the streets and campfires and for hopefully a rejuvination of one's heart and spirit. At least that is what the record is providing me. It is easy to denigrate Springsteen's liberalism but it is cheap to do so. I truly think he feels his sentiments and has lived them as he has traveled this country and become an engaged citizen/performer. This record and his earlier efforts in this vein has also provided a backing soundtrack to my re-engagement with the true tenants of liberalism as put forth in my re- readings of two giant thinkers- Isaiah Berlin and Charles Taylor-respect and fairness for all.
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Re: Recent CD Purchases

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Christopher Sjoholm wrote:"Wrecking Ball"- Bruce Springsteen. Have been warming to this record since first purchasing it two weeks ago. I am not the biggest Springsteen fanatic; I value aspects of his past work but I also have a strong aversion to the bombast that makes up a great deal of his early material and to the persona he developed as an arena performer and the overally enamoured fans he has attracted in past years and tours. I am much more attracted to his character driven songs that are etched with specific images and details. That said I find myself very much attracted to the anger, vitriol and, yes, 'bombast' that fills this record. It is about time someone put a sound to how I feel after these past dozen years, the frustration I have inside me as I see the life I live and the lives of those around me painfully wither as we are left holding the bag for our long national nightmare as it unravels. This record is the first one that seems to take real stock, cliched maybe, but it still feels like it is a flesh and blood response to the upheavel we are all dealing with daily. It is an acknowledgement that we no longer have responsible governing in this country, that we no longer seem to have shared hopes and aspirations and rewards, that what we have is broken and that there is plenty of guilt to go around.

I like that he does this record without his band. I like the updating of the sound with tape loops and female choruses and choir and folk chants. It fits the mood and the material. It is populist and rightly so. Mostly I like the sentiment- "hold tight to your anger/And don't fall to your fears". I can do without the triteness and cliche of the opening song but the core of the album resonates powerfully for me in its simple and fiery songs of misuse and despair. And I really appreciate the affirmation to be found in his remake of "Land of Hope and Dreams". Curtis Mayfield would be proud.

It is music for the streets and campfires and for hopefully a rejuvination of one's heart and spirit. At least that is what the record is providing me. It is easy to denigrate Springsteen's liberalism but it is cheap to do so. I truly think he feels his sentiments and has lived them as he has traveled this country and become an engaged citizen/performer. This record and his earlier efforts in this vein has also provided a backing soundtrack to my re-engagement with the true tenants of liberalism as put forth in my re- readings of two giant thinkers- Isaiah Berlin and Charles Taylor-respect and fairness for all.
Hear hear! I share Chris's ambivalence about Springsteen, and also about the first track on this album, which comes off as straight-up flag-waving even though it's not meant to be (much more ambiguous than the similarly misunderstood 'Born in the USA,' it almost invites such misinterpretation). That being said, albums like Nebraska and, especially, Devils and Dust are favourites. This album, though, is another beast entirely: thunderous, anthemic, slickly-produced, soaring, it is a piledriving re-imagining of the Pete Seeger tradition of communal folk song. From the stomping crime-spree of 'Easy Money' to the paint-stripping protest of 'Death to My Hometown,' from the angry and dead-eye nostalgia of the title track to the ghostly communal campfire of the closer, or the spirituality of the key tracks 'Rocky Ground' and the devastatingly moving 'Land of Hope and Dreams' - this is a mighty album by a performer suddenly hitting a mighty peak. It just might be (gulp!) Bruce's greatest album outside his quieter folk excursions. Again, I'm no uncritical Springsteen fanboy, but I really can't recommend this particular record highly enough.
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Re: Recent CD Purchases

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Christopher Sjoholm wrote:I like that he does this record without his band.
He's doing it with session musicians as opposed to E-Street Band? Certainly a big, powerful band sound. Sounds either like the E-Street band backing, or that it was made to tour with them, which of course he is, though sadly without The Big Man (CC's nephew will be part of it, though).

Seen lots of positive reviews. Listening on Spotify. Sounds good. Good on him for still making vital music that reflects its times and touches a nerve or is simply moving in itself. I found The Rising did that. Listening right now 'Jack of All Trades' touches that nerve. If it wasn't Springsteen, it would be corny, and even if it still is, it still has real power. not always easy to do something 'obvious' but imbue it with power the way he does. Just the line 'we'll be all right' puts a lump in the throat.

Funnily enough I picked up Devils and Dust cheaply and haven't listened much. Didn't overly grab me. Should go back to it. Any particular songs?
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Re: Recent CD Purchases

Post by Jack of All Parades »

Otis- it is a very strong-vibrant record filled with a real passion and PD gets it right with his description of it as a 'pile-driving' assault. Yes, no E Street band in the recording but contributions on a few songs from some members. Instead he uses good studio musicians who I think provide him with a more urgent sound, especially the guitar work provided by Tom Morello and the gospel inflections that fill the later songs on the record. The core song "Wrecking Ball" is heartbreaking. PD is right- "Land of Hope and Dreams" is mightily brought to life in its re-imagining on this record. It is a powehouse of hope.

I will let PD make his "Devils & Dust" suggestions- mine are the title track, "All The Way Home", Maria's Bed", "All I'm Thinkin' About" and "Matamoros Banks. I really thought he broke new ground on this record in writing about relations in families, in communities, and between men and women. I also continue to admire his exploration of the use of a falsetto voice in this record. I have always thought this record got short shift from the listening public- they always seem to only want the 'bombast' Bruce.
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Re: Recent CD Purchases

Post by Poor Deportee »

Otis Westinghouse wrote:
Christopher Sjoholm wrote:I like that he does this record without his band.
Funnily enough I picked up Devils and Dust cheaply and haven't listened much. Didn't overly grab me. Should go back to it. Any particular songs?
Funny you should say that. I had a similar initial response to Devils and Dust. I didn't hear any hooks there or much of particular interest (apart from the immediately enjoyable "All I'm Thinkin' About," which I still think is a lot of fun). And then one day I (ahem) dusted it off, took it for a spin and something just clicked. Indeed, I listened to it relentlessly for weeks thereafter. I think highly of this album and don't know if I can articulate its merits in a way that does it justice, but I started to see how subtle these songs were, how they portrayed characters caught in moments framed by the hope, or dream, or loss of, some kind of mysterious redemption. There's a quiet light that runs though these songs and it's more than just that of mundane dreams.

I agree with Christopher about "Matamoros Banks," a terrific song which typifies what I'm talking about: the unsettling vision of a corpse disintegrating in a river gives way before the couplet

The things of the earth, they make their claim
That the things of heaven may do the same


followed by a haunting and grateful farewell to the love lost. By the end you feel you almost know the character, his poverty and his redeeming love.

One of my favourites is the controversial 'Reno.' A lot of critics winced at its nearly pornographic imagery and seemed to feel that's all there was to the song. But that's obviously not all there is; the whole sad encounter with a prostitute is framed by heartbreak:

She pulled off her stockings, held them in my face
She had your ankles...
I felt filled with grace


The song's ultimate argument is that genuine love sanctifies the sexual act in a way incomprehensible to those who have not experienced it. In that sense it's a fundamental refutation of the 'pornography' of which it's been accused.

Said, 'here's to the best you ever had!'
We laughed and made a toast
Wasn't the best I ever had
Not even close


'Silver Palomino' is another. A beautiful little song about...what? A wild horse that stands as a kind of mythic symbol of freedom - 'in my dreams bareback I ride...' But it goes beyond that. Somehow the vision of the horse beneath the scrub-desert moon becomes a path to a healing reconciliation with a mother's death. Relatively little narrative is conveyed and yet a whole story opens up.

It's this spiritual quality, both nuanced and surprisingly profound, in my opinion, that makes this one of my very favourite records.

Finally, I'd also like to pitch for 'Long Time Coming.' It's a fairly familiar-sounding 'Springsteen' song, but I dig the vivid desert imagery and the earthy realities it shares. In fact, I find deeply satisfying, simple truth in lines like

If I could have one wish in this Godforsaken world, kids,
It's that your mistakes would be your own
That your sins would be your own


That's it, that's parenting in a nutsheel. You want to empower your kids to make their own damned mistakes - unburdened by yours, by your hang-ups, your sins.

The whole album is filled with these moments. I'm not surprised it was lost on much of his fanbase, and who knows, maybe this is some peculiarity of mine, but it means a lot to me.

That's the thing with Springsteen - I'm lukewarm toward quite a bit of his work. But when he nails it, he really nails it, at least for me.
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Re: Recent CD Purchases

Post by Kevin Davis »

I'm surprised neither of you mentioned "Black Cowboys"--I'd rate that among the best songs Springsteen has written.

This is a tune I'd recommend to any fan of Springsteen's D&D material. It's an outtake from his "Ghost of Tom Joad" album, which is an extremely uneven record that produced 4-5 near-perfect tracks, this being my favorite of the bunch:


Saigon, it was all gone
The same Coke machines
As the streets I grew on
Down in a mesquite canyon
We come walking along the ridge
Me and the brothers under the bridge

Campsite's an hour's walk from the nearest road to town
Up here there's too much brush and canyon
For the CHP choppers to touch down
Ain't lookin' for nothin', just wanna live
Me and the brothers under the bridge

Come the Santa Ana's, man, that dry brush'll light
Billy Devon got burned up in his own campfire one winter night
We buried his body in the white stone high up along the ridge
Me and the brothers under the bridge

Had enough of town and the street life
Over nothing you end up on the wrong end of someone's knife
Now I don't want no trouble
And I ain't got none to give
Me and the brothers under the bridge

I come home in '72
You were just a beautiul light
In your mama's dark eyes of blue
I stood down on the tarmac, I was just a kid
Me and the brothers under the bridge

Come Veterans' Day I sat in the stands in my dress blues
I held your mother's hand
When they passed with the red, white and blue
One minute you're right there ... and something slips...
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Jack of All Parades
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Re: Recent CD Purchases

Post by Jack of All Parades »

Kevin- this one line is quite telling for me:

"One minute you're right there ... and something slips..."

that is the sign of a strong writer for me-to let the immediacy of the moment be painted with understatement- to let the words drift off and not embellish the moment.

Thank you for reminding me.
"....there's a merry song that starts in 'I' and ends in 'You', as many famous pop songs do....'
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Otis Westinghouse
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Re: Recent CD Purchases

Post by Otis Westinghouse »

Yep, sounds like a Springsteen classic to me.

I'm at the stage with Lambchop's Mr M where every song is now tangible and familiar, and the elusive subtleties you have to grapple with at first are a memory. It already feels like an old friend. Very likely to me a 2012 fave for me, if not the most fave. Wagner talked about it in terms of feeling he had one more good Lambchop album in him, but I am sure he really has another five. I just hope they get made.
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Jack of All Parades
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Re: Recent CD Purchases

Post by Jack of All Parades »

The Wainwright family- two latest-Father Loudon's "older than my old man now" and son Rufus's "Out of the Game".

Loudon's record is my favorite record at this near mid point for 2012. Literate, funny, musical, dead pan, self deprecating and insightful all at once. It is a scathing re evaluation of a life and the relationships that make up that life. He plays the death card with vibrant humor and real introspection. It hits hard and each listen has made me uncomfortable-there is not a weak track amongst the fifteen songs. This is a 'great' record. A judgement that is quickly thrown around but one I suspect this record will wear well in the decades to come. It is art made up of the whole cloth/'rag and bone' shop of a life- or, as Loudon says in the poignant song "In C"-"and if families didn't break apart, I suppose there'd be no need for art". That pithily sums up this record's impact for my listening ears and thinking mind.

Rufus is a close second on his new gem- is there nothing he cannot do in the studio?- his melodic-ism has never been so intoxicating. His voice is a national treasure and when he tones down the camp he can be a most affecting observer of the myriad ways that human relationships mutate over time. I also like the way he continues the family tradition of addressing the next generation as he talks to his baby daughter in the song "Montauk"

Have to also note the latest by Norah Jones- "....Little Broken Hearts"- working with Danger Mouse ,like James Mercer did recently, she has nicely expanded her sound in a new and enticing direction and captured my listening ear in the process. The song "Happy Pills" is sincere in its infectious melody.
"....there's a merry song that starts in 'I' and ends in 'You', as many famous pop songs do....'
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Otis Westinghouse
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Re: Recent CD Purchases

Post by Otis Westinghouse »

Am impressed by the rocked up sound of Richard Hawley's new one Standing at the Sky's Edge, even though it's the gentler songs that et me every time, and it doesn't match the brilliance of Truelove's Gutter.

Alabama Shakes' debut is wonderful too. great face, great to hear a trad sounding soul/R & B group sounding fresh and interesting, same way Fleet Foxes trade off old influences but create something uniquely theirs.
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Jack of All Parades
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Re: Recent CD Purchases

Post by Jack of All Parades »

I will sample both on Spotify based upon your recommendation.

Purchased a month or so ago "Chopin Meets the Blues" by the Dutch pianist, Peter Beets and his quartet with my brother-in-law, Joe Cohn, playing some exceptional guitar. Premise is that they are riffing off of some Chopin melodies. The tunes are buried under the jazz arrangements but the playing is excellent and I love the idea of building upon those melodies. If I can get the word out about this record and Joe's newer effort from last year "Del Fuego" I am glad to do so. He is a most accomplished guitarist and his work here with Beets is quite unusual. Here is a sample featuring the Mazurka in A Minor- hope you enjoy it and see if you can hear it within the arrangement:

http://youtu.be/p619yIrr5Zc
"....there's a merry song that starts in 'I' and ends in 'You', as many famous pop songs do....'
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Who Shot Sam?
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Re: Recent CD Purchases

Post by Who Shot Sam? »

Andrew Bird - Break It Yourself
Nick Lowe - That Old Magic
Beach House - Bloom
The Walkmen - Heaven
Norah Jones - Little Broken Hearts
The Black Keys - El Camino
Bon Iver - Bon Iver
Mother, Moose-Hunter, Maverick
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