The Village Voice has published their 41st annual music critic poll (Pazz & Jop 2013). Below are the first 30 albums on the list.
For the rest plus essays on the year in music, head here.
1 Kanye West, Yeezus
2 Vampire Weekend, Modern Vampires of the City
3 Daft Punk, Random Access Memories
4 Beyoncé, Beyoncé
5 Chance the Rapper, Acid Rap
6 My Bloody Valentine, m b v
7 Haim, Days Are Gone
8 Janelle Monáe, The Electric Lady
9 Kurt Vile, Wakin on a Pretty Daze
10 Kacey Musgraves, Same Trailer Different Park
11 Neko Case, The Worse Things Get, the Harder I Fight, the Harder I Fight, the More I Love You
12 Savages, Silence Yourself
13 Disclosure, Settle
14 Arcade Fire, Reflektor
15 David Bowie, The Next Day
16 Sky Ferreira, Night Time, My Time
17 Jason Isbell, Southeastern
18 Drake, Nothing Was the Same
19 Deafheaven, Sunbather
20 The National, Trouble Will Find Me
21 Queens of the Stone Age, …Like Clockwork
22 Run the Jewels, Run the Jewels
23 Ashley Monroe, Like a Rose
24 Parquet Courts, Light Up Gold
25 Lorde, Pure Heroine
26 Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Push the Sky Away
27 Danny Brown, Old
28 M.I.A., Matangi
29 The Knife, Shaking the Habitual
30 Pusha T, My Name Is My Name
-– A Days of the Crazy-Wild blog post: sounds, visuals and/or news –-
Bruce Springsteen and Jimmy Fallon as Springsteen.
This is tremendous. Last night Bruce Springsteen appeared on “Late Night With Jimmy Fallon” and turned “Born To Run” into a sarcastic commentary on the Governor Chris Christie Bridgegate scandal.
-– A Days of the Crazy-Wild blog post: sounds, visuals and/or news –-
In the fall of 1969, some months after the release of Nashville Skyline, Rolling Stone publisher/Editor in Chief Jann Wenner interviewed Bob Dylan in a New York hotel room.
The interview ended like this:
Jann Wenner: You’ve heard the Joan Baez album of all your songs…
Bob Dylan: Yeah, I did… I generally like everything she does.
Wenner: Are there any particular artists that you like to see do your songs?
Dylan: Yeah, Elvis Presley. I liked Elvis Presley. Elvis Presley recording a song of mine. That’s the one recording I treasure the most… it was called “Tomorrow Is A Long Time.” I wrote it but never recorded it.
Wenner: Which album is that on?
Dylan: Kismet.
Wenner: I’m not familiar with it at all.
[Actually, “Kismet” is a song that appeared on Elvis’ Harum Scarum scoundtrack; “Tomorrow Is A Long Time” isn’t on that album. According to Wikipedia: “Elvis Presley recorded the song (‘Tomorrow Is A Long Time’) on May 26, 1966 during a session for his album How Great Thou Art. The song originally appeared as a bonus track on the Spinout movie soundtrack album… According to Ernst Jorgensen’s’ book, Presley got into the song via Charlie McCoy, who had previously participated in the Highway 61 Revisited and Blonde on Blonde sessions. McCoy played the 1965 Odetta album Odetta Sings Dylan before an Elvis session and Presley “had become taken with ‘Tomorrow Is A Long Time.'”]
Dylan: He did it with just guitar.
Below is Elvis’ version of “Tomorrow Is A Long Time,” the Odetta version that inspired Elvis to record the song, and then two versions by Bob Dylan plus Joan Baez’s version.
Elvis Presley, “Tomorrow Is A Long Time”:
Bob Dylan,”Tomorrow Is A Long Time” (April 12, 1963, Town Hall, New York City):
Odetta, “Tomorrow Is A Long Time” (1964 recording):
Bob Dylan,”Tomorrow Is A Long Time” with intro (April 12, 1963, Town Hall, New York City):
Bob Dylan,”Tomorrow Is A Long Time” Whitmark Demos, December 1962):
Joan Baez, “Tomorrow Is A Long Time” (early 1963):
-– A Days of the Crazy-Wild blog post: sounds, visuals and/or news –-
Tom Waits has abandoned his Robert Wilson theatrical collaboration, “Death Car,” according to a spokesperson for Waits, but Waits remains involved with director Aaron Posner and Teller’s (of Penn & Teller) production of the Shakespeare play “The Tempest,” to which Waits and his wife Kathleen Brennan are contributing songs and music.
“Death Car” is based on the story of Bonnie and Clyde. The production was to premiere at the Royal Theater in Copenhagen on November 7, 2014, but has now been pulled from the Royal Theater’s 2014 schedule, according to the Danish newspaper Metroxpress.
Waits’ “agent” told the Royal Theater “he does not feel that he can complete the project as planned,” Metroxpress reported.
“It was a huge shock. It was completely unexpected,” the play’s producer Nicolai Vemming told Metroxpress.
“The problem is linked to the music,” Vemming said. “When all this being said, I am grateful to Tom Waits makes the assessment that he can not reach to complete on time, and that he will not deliver a bad product. He feels bad about it, but the decision is taken.”
Robert Wilson is still working on “Death Car,” which was also to be performed in Germany, Norway and The Netherlands.
Meanwhile, “The Tempest” will premiere at The Smith Center for Performing Arts in Las Vegas in early April of this year.
Experience Prospero’s wizardry as never before in this startling production, featuring magic created by Teller (of the legendary duo Penn & Teller). When shipwrecked aristocrats wash up on the shores of Prospero’s strange island, they find themselves immersed in a world of trickery and amazement, where Tom Waits’ Dust Bowl balladry and Teller’s magic animate the spirits and monsters.
-– A Days of the Crazy-Wild blog post: sounds, visuals and/or news –-
Fiona Apple and her sister, cabaret singer Maude Maggart, join forces on Anton Karas’ “I’m In The Middle Of A Riddle” for the Valentine’s Day compilation, Sweethearts 2014.
-– A Days of the Crazy-Wild blog post: sounds, visuals and/or news –-
Although I previously posted one video from this show at Kingsbury Hall in Salt Lake City, Utah that took place Dec. 6, 2013, now there are more videos.
Check them out:
A selections of songs, “At Least That’s What You Said,” “I’m Always In Love,” “Remember the Mountain Bed”:
“I Am Trying To Break Your Heart”:
“The Late Greats”:
“Casino Queen”:
“A Shot In The Arm”:
“Acuff-Rose”:
-– A Days of the Crazy-Wild blog post: sounds, visuals and/or news –-
There is some confusion as to whether Bob Dylan’s January 15, 1965 session at Columbia Studio A in New York was the last for Bringing It All Back Home.
Two writers who had access to Columbia’s archives — Clinton Heylin and Michael Krogsgaard — have documented three sessions that took place on January 13, 14 and 15.
However the Bootleg Series Vol. 7 album, No Direction Home: the Soundtrack, includes a recording of “It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue,” that is dated January 16, 1965.
Of course Columbia’s record keeping regarding the Dylan sessions is, as Dylan might put it, “mixed up confusion,” so perhaps that recording was from one of the other sessions.
However photographer Daniel Kraemer writes in “Bob Dylan: A Portrait of the Artist’s Early Years” that he attended “the next to last session” where he says Dylan recorded “Mr. Tambourine Man,” It’s Alright Ma, I’m Only Bleeding” and “Gates of Eden,” so that had to be the January 15 session. (If you have info on whether there was a January 16 session, please let me know.)
In any case, the January 15 session was momentous. Dylan recorded killer takes of “Maggie’s Farm,” “On the Road Again,” “It’s Alright Ma, I’m Only Bleeding,” “Gates of Eden” “Mr. Tambourine Man” and “It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue,” all of which were used for Bringing It all Back Home.
In his book, “Like A Rolling Stone: Bob Dylan at the Crossroads,” Greil Marcus writes about side two of Bringing It All Back Home: There was no laughter on the other side of the album. There, except for ‘Mr. Tambourine Man’ and ‘It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue,’ where single backing instruments were so subtle they seemed more like emanations from the songs than pieces added to them, this was Bob Dylan as he had always been, alone, with his guitar and harmonica. The side comprised four long songs, all of which promised they would never get near Top 40 radio — and they were so self-evidently full of meaning, so strking, so important, so elegant and so beautiful that their quiet drowned out the noise of the songs on the other side. Bob Dlan may haave meant to draw a line, but it was in a furrow already plowed, and flowers grew over it. The faster he moved, the more his trap held.”
Studio A
Columbia Recording Studios
New York City, New York
January 15, 1965
The 3rd and last Bringing It All Back Home recording session, produced by Tom Wilson.
1. Maggie’s Farm
2. On The Road Again
3. On The Road Again
4. On The Road Again
5. On The Road Again
6. On The Road Again
7. On The Road Again
8. On The Road Again
9. On The Road Again
10. On The Road Again
11. On The Road Again
12. On The Road Again
13. On The Road Again
14. It’s Alright, Ma (I’m Only Bleeding)
15. It’s Alright, Ma (I’m Only Bleeding)
16. Gates Of Eden
17. Mr. Tambourine Man
18. Mr. Tambourine Man
19. Mr. Tambourine Man
20. Mr. Tambourine Man
21. Mr. Tambourine Man
22. Mr. Tambourine Man
23. It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue
24. If You Gotta Go, Go Now
25. If You Gotta Go, Go Now
26. If You Gotta Go, Go Now
27. If You Gotta Go, Go Now
1-13, 24-27 Bob Dylan (guitar, harmonica, vocal), Al Gorgoni (guitar), Kenneth Rankin (guitar), Bruce Langhorne (guitar), Joseph
Macho Jr. (bass), William E. Lee (bass), Bobby Gregg (drums), Frank Owens (piano).
14-23 Bob Dylan (guitar, harmonica, vocal).
