These give a sense of what the Paris shows were like. I dig “Pay In Blood” especially.
“Pay In Blood,” at the Grand Rex in Paris, Nov. 12, 2013.
“Blowin’ in the Wind,” at the Grand Rex in Paris, Nov. 13, 2013.
And another fan’s video:
“Love Sick,” at the Grand Rex in Paris, Nov. 13, 2013.
“All ALong the Watchtower” at the Grand Rex in Paris, Nov. 14, 2013.
Johnny Marr performed “Please, Please, Please Let Me Get What I Want” on “Late Night with Jimmy Fallon” Friday night. This is a beautiful version.
This new one, “Generate! Generate!,” off Marr’s album,The Messenger is pretty good. It’s growing on me. Cool guitar.
The Beatles performed Buddy Holly’s “Words of Love” on the BBC in 1963, a year before they recorded it for their UK album, Beatles For Sale.
Check it out.
Joan Jett has been booted off South Dakota’s float for Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade after ranchers complained that the rock ‘n’ roller is a vegetarian, and supports People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA).
“I’ve decided to switch from South Dakota to another float because people’s political agendas were getting in the way of what should be a purely entertainment driven event,” Jett said in a statement released Friday. “I will remain focused on entertaining the millions of people watching, who will be celebrating a great American tradition.”
South Dakota Cattlemen’s Association President Cory Eich told Associated Press on Friday that it was a mistake to select Jett.
“Coming from such a rural state where livestock is such a part of our life, we didn’t think it was appropriate,” Eich told AP.
Meanwhile Iggy Pop who has endorsed the “Keep Michigan Wolves Protected” campaign to stop the trophy hunting of wolves and restore the right of Michigan voters to have a say over wildlife policy, according to The Humane Society of the United States. Michigan’s first wolf hunt in decades began yesterday.
In a letter to Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder, dated Nov. 12, 2013, Pop write: “As a Michigan native and someone who has cared about animals, both wild and domestic, for as long as I can remember, I was dismayed…that a bill you signed last May (S.B. 288/P.A. 21) gave Michigan’s Natural Resources Commission the authority to decide which animals can be hunted…which resulted in the first authorized wolf hunt since wolves underwent state protection in 1965.”
“To further compound the issue Mlive.com just unveiled several investigative reports that reveal the state used ‘half-truths’ and ‘falsehoods’ to support authorizing a hunting season on wolves in Michigan. The reports make clear that the decision to approve wolf hunting was based on fraudulent information and not sound science,” the letter continued.
“I am asking all of my fans in Michigan to sign up and help gather signatures to reverse this decision and protect the wolf from future hunts. The senseless killing of these majestic animals for sport is a disappointment to the people of Michigan and a stain on its Government.”
Iggy called on Gov. Snyder to “do the right thing by staying the hunt and allowing the people’s voice to be heard” on the issue.
And then there’s Jack White. The White Stripes frontman thinks he’s doing poor folks a favor by launching “The Great Third Man Turkey Drive” this month.
He’s not.
Rather than promote the murder of turkey’s and the feeding of dead flesh to poor people, White could offer delicious plant-based whole food meals that are healthy, life-affirming and don’t contribute to climate change, as the raising of animals for foods does.
A batch of “recently discovered” song lyrics that Bob Dylan wrote in 1967 for the recording sessions in the basement of Big Pink,The Band’s pink house in West Saugerties (near Woodstock), have been turned over to T Bone Burnett by Dylan for the purpose of making a new album.
However, Dylan himself may not appear on the album. In a press release announcing Burnett’s new Electromagnetic Recordings label, the Basement Tapes project was mentioned in a list of recordings Burnett has planned:
The Basement Tapes…Continued: Bob Dylan’s music publishing company recently discovered lyrics Dylan wrote in 1967 for informal sessions with members of The Band that later became known as The Basement Tapes. Dylan has entrusted Burnett with these lyrics, and early next year – nearly 47 years since the legendary original sessions – Burnett will assemble a select group of contemporary recording artists in the famed Capitol Studios to complete the songs and record them as a band. Fans will experience this historic creative collaboration through an album release, as well as a documentary film and book of photography by award-winning filmmaker and photographer Sam Jones (The Wilco documentary, I Am Trying To Break Your Heart, and his interview show, Off Camera with Sam Jones). Burnett’s association with Bob Dylan began in 1975 when he became a guitarist on Dylan’s famed Rolling Thunder Revue tour.
Now I’m a big T Bone Burnett fan, but this one makes me wonder. What I love about the original Basement Tapes recordings is the ragged quality, and Dylan’s voice, and how The Band supports the songs, and The Band’s background vocals, which fit perfectly with Dylan’s singing.
That said, there are amazing covers of Dylan’s Basement Tapes songs including The Band’s version of “I Shall Be Released,” and more recently, Jim James version of “Goin’ To Acupulco.” So I guess I’ll wait and see how this turns out.
And who know, maybe Dylan himself will put in an appearance.
But what I’m waiting for is an official release of all the Basement Tapes recordings. What a box set that would make. Some on Sony Legacy! Come on Bob! Come on Jeff Rosen! I’m not the only one waiting.
Good story about the Burnett album here.
Some successful covers:
Jim James & Colexico, “Goin’ To Acupulco”
The Band, “I Shall Be Released”
Sonic Youth, “I’m Not There”
The Byrds, “You Ain’t Goin’ Nowhere”
These next aren’t covers of a Basement Tapes song but they’re great.
Fairport Convention, “I’ll Keep It With Mine”
Nico, “I’ll Keep It With Mine”
This morning Darkside — Nicolas Jaar and Dave Harrington — performed live on KCRW’s “Morning Becomes Eclectic” this morning. You can listen right now.
The live performance starts at two hours, eight minutes.
Today The Guardian published a fascinating exchange of letters that took place from January 2013 to mid-July 2013 between imprisoned Pussy Riot member Nadezhda Tolokonnikova and Slovenian philosopher Slavoj Žižek.
Žižek begins the exchange:
Dear Nadezhda,
I hope you have been able to organise your life in prison around small rituals that make it tolerable, and that you have time to read. Here are my thoughts on your predicament.
John Jay Chapman, an American political essayist, wrote this about radicals in 1900: “They are really always saying the same thing. They don’t change; everybody else changes. They are accused of the most incompatible crimes, of egoism and a mania for power, indifference to the fate of their cause, fanaticism, triviality, lack of humour, buffoonery and irreverence. But they sound a certain note. Hence the great practical power of persistent radicals. To all appearance, nobody follows them, yet everyone believes them. They hold a tuning-fork and sound A, and everybody knows it really is A, though the time-honoured pitch is G flat.” Isn’t this a good description of the effect of Pussy Riot performances? In spite of all accusations, you sound a certain note. It may appear that people do not follow you, but secretly, they believe you, they know you are telling the truth, or, even more, you are standing for truth.
In her response Tolokonnikova writes:
We are the rebels asking for the storm, and believing that truth is only to be found in an endless search. If the “World Spirit” touches you, do not expect that it will be painless.
Laurie Anderson sang: “Only an expert can deal with the problem.” It would have been nice if Laurie and I could cut these experts down to size and take care of our own problems. Because expert status by no means grants access to the kingdom of absolute truth.
Two years of prison for Pussy Riot is our tribute to a destiny that gave us sharp ears, allowing us to sound the note A when everyone else is used to hearing G flat.
At the right moment, there will always come a miracle in the lives of those who childishly believe in the triumph of truth over lies, of mutual assistance, of those who live according to the economics of the gift.
Nadia
Read all of the letters at The Guardian.
Last night three-quarters of R.E.M. reunited at Athens, GA’s 400 Watt Club and played a groovy version of “(Don’t Go Back To) Rockville” from 1984′s Reckoning.
Mike Mills and Bill Berry joined Peter Buck, who was there to perform with Kevin Kinney of Drivin’ N Cryin’. Michael Stipe was in the audience, according to a Twitter post by a fan who was there, but Stipe failed to take the stage.
You can listen right now to the demos for Wilco’s awesome 1999 album Summerteeth at the website Captains Dead.