Ill Winds Blow No Good

January 28, 2009 by Frank Gannon | Filed Under Culture, Ethics, Faith, History, In Memoriam, Money, Music, Perfect Songs | Leave a Comment 

OK — the Co-operative Group has a long, distinguished, and principled history since its founding in 1863. Sure — it’s green and enlightened. No doubt — it can see you sustainably through from cradle to grave.

But it is now complicit in an indignity of almost unimaginable proportions — in which it will be aided and abetted by the most unlikely co-conspirator.

The bad news is reported in today’s Daily Telegraph.  Read it and weep:

In a commercial tie-up that might shock Dylan fans almost as much as his famous switch from acoustic to electric, he has agreed the use of the track in a new ad for the Co-operative Group.

The ad campaign is the culmination of a two-year rebranding exercise by the group, which runs funeral, travel and legal services as well as a chain of supermarkets.

It is the first time Dylan has allowed one of his recordings to be used for an advert in the UK.

The philosophical questions the 1960s protest anthem poses about war, peace and freedom and the fuzzy, vaguely optimistic refrain it gives in response – “the answer is blowin’ in the wind” – made it a favourite of civil rights and anti-Vietnam war protests in the 1960s and 70s.

Blowin’ In The Wind was originally released in 1963 on the album The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan, and Rolling Stone magazine put it 14th on its list of the 500 greatest songs of all time.

The Co-op runs its business according to ethical guidelines on environmental impact, fair trade and social responsibility, and a spokesman for Dylan’s record label, Columbia, said this influenced his decision to approve the use of the song.

As of today, 28 January 2009, we have the answer to the age old question: Is nothing sacred?

The answer is: No.

Now is the time for your tears.

Echoes Of The Seventies

January 8, 2009 by Robert Nedelkoff | Filed Under Comedy, Entertainment, Frost/Nixon, In Memoriam, Music, Perfect Songs, Presidents, Richard Nixon | Leave a Comment 

Since Monday when he modestly expressed his appreciation of being named the winner in Minnesota’s Senate race by that state’s Canvassing Board, Al Franken has remained in Minnesota, pending the result of litigation over the result, and has scarcely been heard from.  To compensate for this uncharacteristic silence, I present a somewhat timely transcript of an old Saturday Night Live sketch from 1976 – a takeoff on the original Frost/Nixon interviews with Eric Idle as the future Sir David and, of course, Dan Aykroyd as RN.  Since Franken and his then-partner Tom Davis worked on most of the show’s political material at the time, and since this was a followup to their infamous “Final Days” sketch on SNL, it seems a safe bet that they wrote most of this, though the opening is clearly an update of Idle’s “Timmy Williams” takeoff on Frost from Monty Python.

That said, as I recall this sketch from the one time I viewed it when it was first aired nearly 33 years ago, it was pretty thin stuff, and the transcript seems to confirm this.  Franken and Davis may have written “The Final Days” under the influence of LSD, as they have long claimed, but this seems to be the product of a couple of pots of Postum.  If Franken’s Senate stuff (assuming he ever makes it to his seat) is on a par with this, the Democrats may not have to worry about his utterances being dissected by Limbaugh and Hannity.  One line is rather funny – Aykroyd/Nixon responding to Idle/Frost’s greeting with “It’s really nice to be here, Johnny,” which still worked 30 years later when Will Ferrell, playing Robert Goulet, said it to Conan O’Brien – but other than that, the whole thing is anticlimactic.

One interesting thing about this show is that Idle clearly had a hand in choosing the musical guests – Alan Price and Neil Innes, neither of them artists with much of an American following.  It’s been a very long time since SNL executive producer Lorne Michaels allowed a guest host to have anything to do with the show’s music.  In his book about the series Tom Shales mentions an occasion in the 1990s when Alec Baldwin, before one of his frequent appearances, suggested to Michaels that Rosemary Clooney perform, which suggestion was politely but summarily dismissed.

Two days ago I posted about the death of Stooges guitarist Ron Asheton at the age of 60.  Yesterday, the free-form FM station WFMU in New Jersey paid tribute to his memory with a three-hour show devoted to just one of his songs – that is to say, each and every one of the almost 30 takes of “Loose,” the second track on the Stooges’s phenomenal 1970 album Fun House. The music itself takes up less than half of the three hours; the rest involves WFMU air personality Kenny G (no relation to the saxophonist, it’s safe to say) and various guests discussing the late musician’s life and work.  I have to admit I got through half of the show before I had to take a break.  But I have the feeling I’ll listen to the other half sometime.  Neither I nor my wife Rene can get enough of a 23-year-old Iggy Pop screaming and yowling while his cohorts (Ron, his drummer brother Scott, and bassist Dave Alexander) raise spectacular sonic pandemonium behind him.  (In 2000 Mix magazine published an article about the Fun House sessions that makes useful reading when listening to this, though it erroneously states that the band’s sax player Steve Mackay is deceased.)

Perfect Songs: “For Unto Us A Child Is Born” (1761)

December 22, 2008 by John H. Taylor | Filed Under Perfect Songs | Leave a Comment 

From the Bethany College “Messiah”

Perfect Songs: “Amen” (1761)

December 20, 2008 by John H. Taylor | Filed Under Music, Perfect Songs | Leave a Comment 

The Bethany College Choir, Bethany, West Virginia, performing the closing chorus from “Messiah” by G. F. Handel

Perfect Songs: “Like A Rolling Stone” (1965)

December 16, 2008 by John H. Taylor | Filed Under Music, Perfect Songs | Leave a Comment 

Bob Dylan in 1966, with musicians who would later be known as The Band (although that doesn’t look like drummer Levon Helm)

Perfect Songs: “Do You Hear What I Hear” (1962)

December 15, 2008 by John H. Taylor | Filed Under History, Holidays, Perfect Songs | Leave a Comment 

Perry Como. The song was written by Noel Regney and his wife, Gloria Shayne Baker, during the Cuban missile crisis.

Perfect Songs: “Tower Song” (1971)

December 7, 2008 by John H. Taylor | Filed Under Music, Perfect Songs | Leave a Comment 

Townes van Zandt

Perfect Songs: “Not Alone Anymore” (1988)

December 1, 2008 by John H. Taylor | Filed Under Music, Perfect Songs | Leave a Comment 

The Traveling Wilburys

Perfect Songs: “Blowin’ In The Wind” (1963)

November 27, 2008 by John H. Taylor | Filed Under Music, Perfect Songs | Leave a Comment 

Bob Dylan and Joan Baez

An exquisite audio-only recording of a different performance by the two is available here.

Perfect Songs: “In State” (2005)

November 23, 2008 by John H. Taylor | Filed Under Music, Perfect Songs | Leave a Comment 

Kathleen Edwards

I can spot your kind a million miles away
Buckle down boots and a bloodshot gaze
You talk so sweet until the going gets tough
The last job you pulled was never big enough

Don’t say you’ll change after the next time
You wouldn’t even be yourself if you weren’t telling a lie

Cuz I know where the cops hang out
I know where you’ll be found
I know what you’re all about
I know when you’re going down

You only call me honey when we’re alone
Hiding at your place up on slack road
You’ve got an answer for every little thing
You can’t even tell me where you’ve been

My face couldn’t make you leave it behind
Maybe 20 years in state will change your mind

Cuz I know where the cops hang out
I know where you’ll be found
I know what you’re all about
I know when you’re going down

Don’t say you’ll change after the next time
You wouldn’t even be yourself if you weren’t telling a lie
Maybe 20 years in state will change your mind

Cuz I know where the cops hang out
I know where you’ll be found
I know what you’re all about
I know you’ll never change now

I know my love was good enough
I know you would have shed my blood
I know you can’t shut me up
I know when you’re going down

Perfect Songs: “Pride (In The Name Of Love)” (1984)

November 16, 2008 by John H. Taylor | Filed Under Music, Perfect Songs | Leave a Comment 

U2

Perfect Songs: “Moonlight Mile” (1971)

November 10, 2008 by John H. Taylor | Filed Under Music, Perfect Songs | Leave a Comment 

The Rolling Stones

Perfect Songs: “Both Sides Now” (1967)

November 3, 2008 by John H. Taylor | Filed Under American Politics, Music, Perfect Songs | 1 Comment 

Joni Mitchell

Perfect Songs: “Brown-Eyed Women” (1971)

October 27, 2008 by John H. Taylor | Filed Under Music, Perfect Songs | Leave a Comment 

The Grateful Dead (lyrics: Robert Hunter, below; music: Jerry Garcia)

[For a superior audio recording of this song, go here.]

Gone are the days when the ox fall down
he’d take up the yoke and plow the fields around
Gone are the days when the ladies said “please,
gently Jack Jones won’t you come to me?”

Brown eyed women and red grenadine
the bottle was dusty but the liquor was clean
Sound of the thunder with the rain pouring down
and it looks like the old man’s getting on

In 1920 when he stepped to the bar
he drank to the dregs of the whiskey jar
In 1930 when the Wall caved in
he paid his way selling red eye gin

Brown eyed women and red grenadine
the bottle was dusty but the liquor was clean
Sound of the thunder with the rain pouring down
and it looks like the old man’s getting on

Delilah Jones was the mother of twins
two times over and the rest was sins
Raised eight boys, only I turned bad
Didn’t get the lickings that the other ones had

Brown eyed women and red grenadine
the bottle was dusty but the liquor was clean
Sound of the thunder with the rain pouring down
and it looks like the old man’s getting on

Tumble down shack in Bigfoot County
Snowed so hard that the roof caved in
Delilah Jones went to meet her God
and the old man never was the same again

Brown eyed women and red grenadine
the bottle was dusty but the liquor was clean
Sound of the thunder with the rain pouring down
and it looks like the old man’s getting on

Daddy made whiskey and he made it well
Cost two dollars and it burned like hell
I cut hick’ry to fire the still
Drink down a bottle and you’re ready to kill

Brown eyed women and red grenadine
the bottle was dusty but the liquor was clean
Sound of the thunder with the rain pouring down
and it looks like the old man’s getting on

Perfect Songs: “I’m Gonna Make You Love Me” (2000)

October 20, 2008 by John H. Taylor | Filed Under Music, Perfect Songs | Leave a Comment 

Gary Louris of the Jayhawks

Perfect Songs: “Promised Land” (1965)

October 14, 2008 by John H. Taylor | Filed Under Music, Perfect Songs | Leave a Comment 

Chuck Berry

Perfect Songs: “Return Of The Grievous Angel”

October 12, 2008 by John H. Taylor | Filed Under Music, Perfect Songs | 2 Comments 

Ryan Adams and Emmylou Harris (the Gram Parsons song was released in 1974)

Joshua Tree National Park, October 11, 2008

Perfect Songs: “If I Should Fall Behind” (1992)

October 7, 2008 by John H. Taylor | Filed Under Music, Perfect Songs | Leave a Comment 

Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band

Perfect Songs: “Speaking With The Angel” (1995)

October 6, 2008 by John H. Taylor | Filed Under Music, Perfect Songs | Leave a Comment 

Ron Sexsmith

Perfect Songs: “Take Me To The River” (1974)

October 1, 2008 by John H. Taylor | Filed Under Music, Perfect Songs | Leave a Comment 

Al Green & the Dave Matthews Band

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