Monthly Archives: November 2013

John Fogerty On Creedence Clearwater Revival: “the fine running machine was starting to get a little wobbly”

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Creedence publicity still. John Fogerty at far right.

John Fogerty talks about why he’s playing the entire Creedence album Cosmo’s Factory, in an interview with the Washington Post that ran today.

“Well, it was actually an idea my wife said to me one day. . . ,” Fogerty said in the interview. “I went: ‘Gee, I don’t know, honey. Why would anybody want to do that?’ But the more I thought about it, what it did was it kind of placed you in that era. And it made you remember a lot of stuff that was around the album. I’m a fan, I buy albums, too. I sure remember sitting with Elvis’s first album, I don’t know how many thousands of times. Or Buddy Holly and the Crickets’ first album. And you sit there and you’re listening. You’re just in that place because it was so magical. And somehow that stays in you. That little chapter gets tucked away in your brain even though you live another 40 years. But somehow going and doing that, listening to the whole record puts you right back in that place you were all those years ago when you did it that way. . . . It’s a pretty fascinating phenomenon really.”

Talking about his role in Creedence, Fogerty said, ” I was a very strong leader, and I had a mountain, a whole roomful of musical ideas. So I was sort of an unstoppable force. Basically the hardest part was just getting the band up to speed musically so they could record and accomplish these songs. And also just to be in sync and on the same page, wanting to do it. As the success and time went on and got greater there was more and more dissension within the band. You mention how other bands are. What happens then is you spend half your time in the political realm, meaning, well, ‘I don’t know if I want to do that song.’ Or, ‘I want to come up with my own song.’

“That takes time,” Fogerty continued. “There’s a lot of time being consumed in bands where everybody’s having their say, then you have a meeting, you take a vote — you see what I’m getting at. But basically, Cosmo’s Factory was really the very end of me being very strong and very pure and very clear in my direction. And after that . . . the fine running machine was starting to get a little wobbly. Democracy’s a wonderful thing. But as we all know in America, it’s really hard to manage.”

For more, head to the Washington Post.

Check out Creedence live at the Royal Albert Hall, 1970:

Watch: WikiLeaks Julian Assange Gives Short Speech Before M.I.A. NYC Show

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M.I.A.

Last night at Terminal 5 in NYC, Julian Assange spoke via Skype, before M.I.A. hit the stage. M.I.A. and Assange are a mutual admiration society of two. Assange is an uncredited co-writer of the track “AtTENTion” on M.I.A.’s new album, Matangi, according to The Guardian. You can stream the album, which will be released Tuesday, here.

Check out Assange’s ten minute speech:

Thanks Stereogum!

Listen: Loop’s “Forever” Is The End Of The End

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loop-665x400

I’m reading Simon Reynolds excellent “Blissed Out” and I just got to an essay in which he talks about the British band Loop. I’d never heard them so I put on their debut album, 1987’s Heaven’s End and wow, what a mindblower. Definitely an early The Stooges vibe.

Here’s one of the tracks off it:

And here’s “Black Sun” from their 1988 album Fade Out.

Songs For Slim Benefit LP Due Nov. 11 Features Jeff Tweedy, Lucinda Williams

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A two-CD benefit album for former Replacements guitarist Slim Dunlap will be released on Nov. 11.

The album is titled Rockin’ Here Tonight: A Benefit Compilation For Slim Dunlap.

Disc one includes all of the songs from the Songs For Slim benefit EPs and singles that were released and auctioned over the past year. Artists include Jeff Tweedy, Lucinda Williams, Steve Earle, Frank Black, Craig Finn and John Doe.

A second CD features heretofore unreleased tracks by The Jayhawks’ pseudonymous LP.ORG, Soul Asylum, The Young Fresh Fellows, Peter Holsapple (The dB’s) and more.

The recordings that were auctioned off have raised about $200,000 according to Pitchfork. The money goes to help Slim, who suffered a debilitating stroke.

Here’s an update from Slim’s wife Chrissie Dunlap that appeared on Pitchfork:

“His comfort has been interrupted by many trips to the hospital, but his will to live is strong. His mantra is ‘Fight, fight, fight.’ All of us who love him are fighting with, and for, him. His strength, along with the love and support of so many wonderful friends and fans, has kept him going. Slim is so grateful for the Songs For Slim project and takes great joy in listening to his songs performed by some of his favorite musicians and friends. The revenue from the project has saved us from financial ruin, enabled us to hire nursing help and therapists, and helped to make him as comfortable as possible. Slim and the family send our love and gratitude to New West and everyone involved in the project, and everyone who bought a song for Slim. Special thanks to our long time friend, Peter Jesperson, who worked tirelessly to produce Songs for Slim, and to whom we are eternally grateful.”

TRACKLISTING

Disc 1 (The 45s)
1. Busted Up (The Replacements)
2. Radio Hook Word Hit (Chris Mars)
3. Times Like This (Steve Earle)
4. Isn’t It? (Craig Finn & Friends)
5. Partners In Crime (Lucinda Williams)
6. Nowheres Near (Tommy Keene )
7. Rockin Here Tonight (The Minus 5 feat. Curtiss A)
8. Cozy (Tim O’Reagan & Jim Boquist)
9. Ain’t No Fair (In A Rock ‘N’ Roll Love Affair) (Jakob Dylan)
10. Taken On The Chin (Joe Henry)
11. Just For The Hell Of It (John Doe)
12. From The Git Go (Deer Tick + Scott Lucas + Vanessa Carlton)
13. The King & Queen (Frank Black & The Suicide Commandos)
14. Ain’t Exactly Good (You Am I)
15. Hate This Town (Patterson Hood)
16. Loud Loud Loud Loud Guitars (The Young Fresh Fellows)
17. The Ballad Of The Opening Band (Jeff Tweedy)
18. From The Git Go (Lucero)

Disc 2 (unreleased bonus tracks)
1. Laugh It Up (it’s all a big joke anyway) (Peter Holsapple)
2. Girlfiend (John Eller)
3. Little Shiva’s Song (Soul Asylum)
4. Slim’s Place (The Young Fresh Fellows)
5. Two By Two (Bee, Louie & Brien)
6. When I Fall Down (Chris Mars)
7. Chrome Lipstick (Chan Poling)
8. Times Like This (Frankie Lee)
9. The Ballad Of The Opening Band (LP.ORG)
10. Love Lost (The West Saugerties Ale & Quail Club feat. John Sebastian)

Dave Pirner of Soul Asylum talks about Slim:

Mojo Readers Pick 20 Best Albums Of Magazine’s Lifetime

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This is a weird one. Mojo magazine asked its readers to vote for the 20 best albums released during the magazine’s existence. Crazy, right. I’d call that narcissistic, egomaniacal, or just plain ridiculous. I like Mojo. I read the magazine most months. But come on. Why would anyone use the lifetime of a magazine as the context for a best-of list?

Anyway, if you care, here are the winners:

1) The White Stripes, Elephant
2) Arcade Fire, Funeral
3) Bob Dylan, Time Out Of Mind
4) Radiohead, OK Computer
5) The Strokes, Is This It
6) The Flaming Lips, The Soft Bulletin
7) Fleet Foxes, Fleet Foxes
8) Wilco, Yankee Hotel Foxtrot
9) DJ Shadow, Endtroducing…..
10) Arctic Monkeys, Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not
11) Beck, Odelay
12) Jeff Buckley, Grace
13) Mercury Rev, Deserter’s Songs
14) Radiohead, In Rainbows
15) PJ harvey, Let England Shake
16) Oasis, (What’s the Story) Morning Glory?
17) Portishead, Dummy
18) Pulp, Different Class
19) Nirvana, In Utero
20) The Libertines, Up The Bracket

Check out the Mojo Blog

Iconic Object: Bob Dylan’s 1965 Strat Up For Auction

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Via Rolling Stone and the Michael Ochs Archive.

Bob Dylan played a Fender Stratocaster guitar when he went electric at the Newport Folk Festival on July 25, 1965. It was a big deal. People booed.

Backing Dylan were Michael Bloomfield of the Paul Butterfield Blues Band on lead guitar and Al Kooper on organ, both of whom had played on “Like A Rolling Stone.” Also in Dylan’s band were bassist Jerome Arnold, drummer Sam Lay of the Butterfield Band, and Barry Goldberg on piano.

They played three rock ‘n’ roll songs with his electric band: “Maggie’s Farm,” “Like a Rolling Stone” and “Phantom Engineer” (an early version of “It Takes a Lot to Laugh, It Takes a Train to Cry”).

Now the guitar that Dylan played at Newport will be auctioned in New York at Christie’s on December 6th. The guitar is expected to sell for around a half million dollars. Five sheets of handwritten and typed fragments of lyrics that would later appear in “In the Darkness of Your Room,” “Absolutely Sweet Marie” and other songs will also be auctioned, according to Rolling Stone. The lyrics, found in the Strat case, could sell for between $3000 and $5000.

Read more at Rolling Stone.

Check out the guitar in this video:

Jim James On Touring With Dylan: “”We never talked to him once…”

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Jim James of My Morning Jacket says he was surprised to discover, when his group toured with Dylan for six weeks, that the legendary artist chose to have almost no contact with his opening acts.

“Bob really wasn’t around,” James told Rolling Stone. “We never talked to him once once. He does not hang, which is fine and understandable . . . or it’s kind of understandable. I don’t know.”

However Dylan did join James and Jeff Tweedy onstage during the tour. Check out the fan shot videos below.

“Bob doesn’t want videos and cameras at his shows,” James told Rolling Stone. “All that stuff is Bob’s call. It’s his world, and when you’re in somebody else’s world, it’s their call and you gotta respect that. The whole tour was a huge honor and I’ll never forget it.”

For more of the story head to Rolling Stone.