In 1974 Neil Young played The Bottom Line in New York and his set included songs from his upcoming On The Beach.”
Here’s your chance to download the show.
Head over to the Aquarium Drunkard site and go for it.
Or stream it here:
Track listing:
Pushed It Over The End (AKA Citizen Kane Jr. Blues)
Long May You Run
Greensleeves
Ambulance Blues
Helpless
Revolution Blues
On The Beach
Roll Another Number
Motion Pictures
Pardon My Heart
Dance Dance Dance
– A Days Of The Crazy-Wild blog post –
Some months back the extraordinary experimental guitarist Henry Kaiser dropped an advance of his upcoming collaboration with free jazz guitarist Ray Russell, The Celestial Squid.
The album is a free jazz mindblower.
Today a 12 minute promo video for the album was released:
I’ve been digging Kaiser’s music since the late ’70s when I wrote a short article about him for New West magazine. We subsequently became friends. Recently, in December, we collaborated when Henry improvised as i read from my novel, True Love Scars, at Down Home Music in El Cerrito, CA.
Here’s info on the album direct from Cuneiform Records, which will release it on February 3, 2015.
Guitar summits don’t ascend higher than when legendary British free-jazz pioneer and longtime session ace Ray Russell meets the brilliant California avant-improv overachiever and Antarctic diver Henry Kaiser in the realm of The Celestial Squid. With more than countless session and soundtrack performances to his credit, including the early James Bond film scores, Russell is returning to his bone-rattling, noise-rocking roots for the first time since the very early 70s. You’ll be shaken and stirred as Kaiser, Russell and eight super friends deliver a no-holds-barred, free-range sonic cage match.
Russell created some of the early ’70s’ most outrageously outside music, releasing hallmark works of guitar shock-and-awe. Russell’s “stabbing, singing notes and psychotic runs up the fretboard have nothing to do with scalular architecture,” wrote All Music’s Thom Jurek, “but rather with viscera and tonal exploration.” Russell anticipated the wildest and most intrepid vibrations of Terje Rypdal, Dave Fuzinski, Sonic Youth, Keiji Haino, Tisziji Muñoz and their boundary-dissolving ilk. Russell is hardly a niche performer, though. Untold millions of music and film fans have actually, if unknowingly, already enjoyed Russell’s riffs – at least if they saw any of the James Bond films that John Barry scored, beginning with Dr. No in 1962.
For over 40 years, Russell would not make such exploratory music until West Coast guitar experimentalist Henry Kaiser called him out of the blue and asked if he would be interested in co-leading an ensemble in the style of his ’71 masterpiece, Live at the ICA: June 11th 1971. Russell was surprised and delighted by the offer, and readily accepted. Why had he waited so long to once again explore the free-jazz spaceways you might well wonder? Simple – no one had asked him to do so!
So on April 12, 2014, Henry Kaiser and Ray Russell – along with drummers Weasel Walter and William Winant, bassists Michael Manring (electric) and Damon Smith (acoustic), and saxophonists Steve Adams, Joshua Allen, Phillip Greenlief, and Aram Shelton – entered Berkeley, California’s Fantasy Studios for a day-long session that resulted in The Celestial Squid, a nearly eighty-minute embryonic journey through the deepest waters and most cosmic heights of improvised music. Except for melodic heads and compositional structures, everything on The Celestial Squid is improvised, down to some astonishing extemporaneous horn arrangements. While The Celestial Squid echoes the raw energy and youthful bravado of Russell’s earliest achievements, this music synergizes the combined power and imagination of all ten of these musical masters into a force to be reckoned with.
guitars: Henry Kaiser, Ray Russell
saxophones: Steve Adams, Joshua Allen, Phillip Greenlief, Aram Shelton
electric bass: Michael Manring
acoustic bass: Damon Smith
drums: Weasel Walter, William Winantrecorded live by Adam Munoz at Fantasy Studios, Berkeley, CA on April 12, 2014
mixed by Henry Kaiser, Adam Munoz, Weasel Walter at Fantasy Studios, Berkeley, CA
mastered by Paul Stubblebine
artwork and art direction by Brandy Gale
production by Henry Kaiser
– A Days Of The Crazy-Wild blog post –
Bob Dylan wrote “I Don’t Want To Do It” in 1968 according to Wikipedia, but never recorded it.
George Harrison recorded an acoustic demo during the All Things Must Pass sessions in 1970, but didn’t record a finished version until November 1984 at the Record Plant West in Los Angeles. It was produced by Dave Edmunds.
That version ended up on the “Porky’s Revenge” soundtrack.
“I Don’t Want To Do It”:
“I Don’t Want To Do It” (acoustic demo):
Thanks to Bill Holdship for turning me on to these tracks.
– A Days Of The Crazy-Wild blog post –
Fifty years ago, on January 14, 1965, Bob Dylan returned to Columbia’s Studio A in New York for his second day of sessions for Bringing It All back Home.
Unlike the previous session, this time, Dylan and producer Tom Wilson had assembled a group of musicians to record with Dylan.
On hand were Al Gorgoni (guitar), Kenneth Rankin (guitar), Bruce Langhorne (guitar), Joseph Macho Jr. (bass), William E. Lee (bass), Bobby Gregg (drums), Paul Griffin (piano), John Sebastian (bass) and John Boone (bass).
As photographer Daniel Kramer recalled in his book, “Bob Dylan: A Portrait of the Artist’s Early Years,” “Between takes, Dylan would work individually with the musicians until he was satisfied with what was happening. He was patient with them and they were patient with him. His method of working, the certainty of what he wanted kept things moving. He would listen to the playbacks in the control booth, discuss what was happening with Tom Wilson, and move on to the next number. If he tried something that didn’t go well, he would put if off for another session. In this way, he never bogged down — he just kept on going.”
Eight songs were recorded that day. Five of them — “Love Minus Zero/No Limit,” “Subterranean Homesick Blues,” “Outlaw Blues,” “She Belongs To Me,” and “Bob Dylan’s 115th Dream” — were used on Bringing It All Back Home. A version of “I’ll Keep It With Mine” was eventually released on Biograph.
While Dylan’s previous albums are amazing — I’ve been listening to them for decades — it was with Bringing It All Back Home that Dylan made his (post-success) move into making what Greil Marcus called “noisy rock ‘n’ roll songs” at the same time his songwriting and lyrics took yet another leap forward. In retrospect, it is incredible that Dylan could record all of the tracks for Bringing It All back Home in two sessions — this one and another on the following day.
In his book, “Like A Rolling Stone: Bob Dylan At The Crossroads,” Marcus summed up side one of Bringing It All Back Home. “It [‘Subterranean Homesick Blues’] was followed on the album by ‘She Belongs To Me,’ ‘Maggie’s Farm,’ ‘Love Minus Zero/No Limit,’ ‘Outlaw Blues,’ ‘On the Road Again’ and ‘Bob Dylan’s 115th Dream,’ most of them scratchy, clanging, written with flair, sung with glee, Dylan and his backing musicians in moments thrilled at their own new clatter.”
If you have not read Marcus’ book, I suggest you do. Among the many amazing passages are six pages devoted to “Bob Dylan’s 115th Dream.”
Marcus says of the song: “It is a protest song about a country that is ridiculous before it is anything else. It is, among other things, a rewrite of Ralph Ellison’s 1952 novel, ‘Invisible Man,’ a comic version of the story Dylan would tell a few months later in ‘Like a Rolling Stone,’ and a picture of a life that hasn’t changed — a common, modern story that doesn’t make any more or less sense than it did when it was first told.”
What would be even more mind-blowing than Dylan’s accomplishments with Bringing It All Back Home, during the next seven months he would record both Highway 61 Revisited and Blonde On Blonde and do significant touring.
And so, in a little over seven months — just 25 actual days in the studio — Bob Dylan recorded three of the greatest albums.
(Check out my other posts on the Bringing It All Back Home sessions: January 13, 1965 and January 15, 1965.)
Below are some of what I believe are outtakes from the January 14 session (let me know if I’m wrong), along with the tracks that ended up on Bringing It All Back Home:
“Love Minus Zero/No Limit” (outtake):
“Love Minus Zero/No Limit” (official release, Bringing It All Back Home):
“Subterranean Homesick Blues” (official release, Bringing It All Back Home):
“Outlaw Blues” (official release, Bringing It All Back Home):
“She Belongs To Me (outtake):
“She Belongs To Me” (official release, Bringing It All Back Home):
“Bob Dylan’s 115th Dream” (official release, Bringing It All Back Home):
“On The Road Again” (official release, Bringing It All Back Home):
“I’ll Keep It With Mine” (eventually released on Biograph):
“I’ll Keep It With Mine” (instrumental):
If you liked this post, check out my previous post on the first Bringing It All Back Home sessions here.
Here’s some info about the session from www.bjorner.com:
Studio A
Columbia Recording Studios
New York City, New York
January 14, 1965
The 2nd Bringing It All Back Home recording session, produced by Tom Wilson.
1. Love Minus Zero/No Limit
2. Love Minus Zero/No Limit — used on Bringing It All Back Home .
3. Love Minus Zero/No Limit
4. Subterranean Homesick Blues
5. Subterranean Homesick Blues
6. Subterranean Homesick Blues — used on Bringing It All Back Home .
7. Outlaw Blues
8. Outlaw Blues
9. Outlaw Blues
10. Outlaw Blues — used on Bringing It All Back Home .
11. She Belongs To Me
12. She Belongs To Me — used on Bringing It All Back Home .
13. Bob Dylan’s 115th Dream — intro used on Bringing It All Back Home .
14. Bob Dylan’s 115th Dream — used on Bringing It All Back Home .
15. On The Road Again
16. On The Road Again
17. On The Road Again
18. On The Road Again
19. Love Minus Zero/No Limit
20. I’ll Keep It With Mine — used on Biograph.
21. It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue
22. Bob Dylan’s 115th Dream
23. She Belongs To Me
24. Subterranean Homesick Blues
1-18 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),
Paul Griffin (piano).
19-24 Bob Dylan (guitar, harmonica, vocal), John Hammond Jr. (guitar), Bruce Langhorne (guitar), John Sebastian (bass), John
Boone (bass).
There’s more into here.
-– A Days of the Crazy-Wild blog post: sounds, visuals and/or news –-
Fifty years ago, on January 13, 1965, Bob Dylan entered Studio A, the Columbia studio that he favored, and during a three-hour session with Tom Wilson producing, recorded 14 songs.
This session, the first of three for an album, Bringing It All Back Home, that would be his transitional move toward rock music, was pretty much business as usual. On that day Dylan mostly recorded alone (although John Sebastian played bass on a few of the songs), accompanying himself, as he had done for his previous albums, on guitar and piano and harmonica. There are wonderful takes that were recorded that day, but clearly Dylan was ready to try something new, and he did during the sessions that followed.
From Wikipedia:
The first session, held on January 13, 1965 in Columbia’s Studio A in New York, was recorded solo, with Dylan playing piano or acoustic guitar. Ten complete songs and several song sketches were produced, nearly all of which were discarded.
None of the versions recorded that day were used on Bringing It All Back Home.
“I’ll Keep It With Mine” was included on Biograph, and “Subterranean Homesick Blues” and “Farewell Angelina” are on The Bootleg Series Vol. 1-3. One of the “Outlaw Blues” takes was released as an iTunes exclusive in 2005. “California” is on 2009’s NCIS: The Official TV Soundtrack – Vol. 2.
(Check out my other posts on the Bringing It All Back Home sessions: January 14, 1965 and January 15, 1965.)
“I’ll Keep It With Mine” (with Dylan and producer Ton Wilson talking before Dylan plays the song):
“It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue”(outtake):
“Love Minus Zero/ No Limit” (outtake):
“Subterranean Homesick Blues #10” (outtake):
“Farewell Angelina” (outtake):
“You Don’t Have To Do That” (fragment):
“Outlaw Blues” (outtake):
“California” (outtake):
Here’s some info about the session from www.bjorner.com.
If you liked this post, check on the one I did on the second Bringing It All Back Home session here.
Writer Michael Krogsgaard got access to Sony Records’ archives in New York and has published detailed information online.
Here’s his information about the January 13, 1965 session:
Studio A
Columbia Recording Studio
New York City, New York
January 13, 1965, 7-10 pm
Produced by Tom Wilson.
Engineers: Hallie and Catero.
1. Love Minus Zero/No Limit CO85270 Take 1b
2. Love Minus Zero/No Limit Take 2C
3. I’ll Keep It With Mine CO85271 Take 1C
4. It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue CO85272 Take 1C
5. Bob Dylan’s 115th Dream CO85273 Take 1b
6. Bob Dylan’s 115th Dream Take 2C
7. She Belongs To Me CO85274 Take 1C
8. Subterranean Homesick Blues CO85275 Take 1C
9. Sitting On A Barbed Wire Fence CO85276 Take 1C
10. On The Road Again CO85277 Take 1C
11. Farewell Angelina CO85278 Take 1C
12. If You Gotta Go, Go Now CO85279 Take 1C
13. If You Gotta Go, Go Now (Addition) Take 1
14. Bending Down On My Stomick Lookin’ West CO85280 Take 1C
15. Love Minus Zero/No Limit CO85270 Take 3C
16. She Belongs To Me CO85274 Take 2C
17. Outlaw Blues CO85281 Take 1b
18. Outlaw Blues Take 2C
1 and 2 “Dime Store” on recording sheet.
3 “Bank Account Blues” on recording sheet.
5-6 “B. Dylan’s Later Dream” on recording sheet.
7 “Worse Than Money” on recording sheet.
8 “Subterranean Homesick Blues #10” on recording sheet.
9 “Barbwire” on recording sheet, corrected on the tape box to “Sitting On A Barbed Wire Fence”. On the copyright card listed as “Outlaw Blues”.
11 “Alcatraz To The 5th Power” on recording sheet.
12 and 13 “You Gotta Go” on recording sheet.
17 and 18 “Tune X” on recording sheet, corrected to “Key To The Highway” on one tape box and to “Outlaw Blues” on another. This CO number is not listed in the contract cards.
3 released on Biograph.
8 and 11 released on The Bootleg Series.
-– A Days of the Crazy-Wild blog post: sounds, visuals and/or news –-
Here’s a song off the upcoming album, Chasing Yesterday, from Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds.
The song is “Ballad Of The Mighty I” and Johnny Marr guests on it.
– A Days Of The Crazy-Wild blog post –
Today a bootleg recording of Nirvana allegedly playing at the Satyricon in Portland on January 12, 1990 was uploaded to YouTube by someone using the tag WY97212.
Here’s what WY97212 wrote on YouTube:
January 12 1990. A band called Nirvana are playing at Portland’s Satyricon. A show with some minor significance as Dale Crover is playing drums. And because Kurt meets someone named Courtney.
I was there. I recorded their set. And I put it away in a box of tapes…
Today marks the 25th anniversary and it seems like the right time to let people hear this. Enjoy and Play Loud.
Recording is raw in accordance with the equipment and tape used at the time.
Set List:
Scoff
Floyd the Barber
Love Buzz
(Shocking Blue cover)
Dive
Polly
Big Cheese
Spank Thru
Sappy
Breed
Molly’s Lips
(The Vaselines cover)
School
Been a Son
Stain
Negative Creep
Blew
-A Days Of The Crazy-Wild blog post –
A benefit concert for Bay Area bluesman Johnny Harper and Paul Geremia will be help on January 28, 2015 at the Freight & Salvage in Berkeley, California.
Among the artists playing the benefit are fold-blues legend Maria Muldaur, former Asleep At The Wheel singer Chris O’Connell, and singer Barbara Dane,
Johnny Harper is a superb guitarist, bandleader, singer and songwriter. Paul Geremia is a highly respected acoustic blues performer, finger-style guitarist, and songwriter, with ten solo albums to his credit. Both men have recently suffered serious health issues.
Here’s Johnny Harper on the concert:
Why a benefit? Many of you do not know that I’ve been dealing with a very tough health situation this past fall. I was hospitalized from early September to mid-November. The reason was a blood-clotting problem called a pulmonary embolism. This is very, very serious; the doctors were very doubtful that I would survive it. But survive it I did. Then there was a long period of recovery from the trauma; a lot of physical therapy was needed to help me get my strength back. I’m home now, and feel pretty good in most respects. I am getting around well, am doing physical therapy exercises daily and taking care of myself. I am playing guitar well again, and am starting to teach some of my guitar students. But there are other respects in which I’m still in the recovery phase. Also, of course, I lost months of work, months of income, and have unpaid medical bills which are not entirely covered by my health insurance.
So some friends in the musical community – spearheaded by the tireless organizer and great fiddler/ singer Suzy Thompson – have put together this wonderful Acoustic Blues Festival night at Freight and Salvage, as a benefit for me and also for Paul Geremia, a distinguished acoustic blues artist of many years’ standing, who has also suffered difficult and costly health setbacks recently.
The Freight is of course the West Coast’s premier folk music venue, and now holds 400 in its very comfortable downtown Berkeley location.
I’ll say more about the stellar lineup of performers in a moment. But the main message is, this will be a wonderful night of music with lots of terrific artists playing. And also – well, both Paul and I have played many benefit shows over the years, for friends in need and for causes we believe in. This time around, we will sure be grateful for whatever support you can give us.
AMONG THE PERFORMERS YOU’LL BE HEARING:
Maria Muldaur, a true star of Americana music, has been knocking listeners out since her early days with the Jim Kweskin Jug Band back in the 1960s. She has recorded 30 albums under her own name, starting off with her self-titled first record which made her famous for the hit “Midnight at the Oasis.” Her albums and performances cover a vast range of American roots music styles – uptown urban blues, down home country blues, jazz and swing, gospel, New Orleans R&B, and more. She remains a sultry, vivacious singer and a powerful performer. In 2004 I played a brief tour as her lead guitarist, filling in for her regular guy. See much more on her albums and upcoming performances at www.mariamuldaur.com.
Barbara Dane is an American music legend, still a very powerful, moving, and creative singer at age 87! She’s a great performer of blues, folk music, and traditional jazz, and sings in various international idioms as well. She’s recorded in all these styles since the 1950s. She has worked with jazz giants Louis Armstrong, Earl Hines, and Jack Teagarden; blues masters Muddy Waters, Lightning Hopkins, and Memphis Slim; folk music legends Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger; and countless other important artists. Her lifelong commitment to peace and social justice still informs her song choices and the causes for which she performs. I have been lucky enough to work many shows with her, as accompanist and occasional band director, for the last 15 years. Details on her many recordings at www.barbaradane.net.
Chris O’Connell, famous for her 15-year stint as the original lead singer in Asleep at the Wheel, recently relocated to the Bay Area and released a fine new album. Steve James, veteran blues singer and fine finger-picking guitarist, has worked with John Sebastian, Cindy Cashdollar, Alvin Youngblood Hart, James McMurtry, Bo Diddley, Maria Muldaur, and many more. Catfish Keith specializes in the traditional “bottleneck”slide style played on the metal-bodied resonator guitar.
Several long-time Bay Area musical friends of mine are also featured. I’ve played informally with all these artists for many years. Eric and Suzy Thompson are well-known for playing old-time music, bluegrass, Cajun music, Greek music, and lots of traditional blues. Suzy’s powerful vocals and fine fiddling, and Eric’s fleet-fingered guitar and mandolin work, add life to every style they turn their hands to. Suzy has also written some fine songs. I produced an early CD of theirs, Adam and Eve Had the Blues on Arhoolie. Marc Silber’s long life story in music includes a stint in the early ’60s Greenwich Village folk scene. He is well known as a guitar dealer, but should be better known as the superb musician he is. His finger-style guitar playing and his deep, authentic feel for traditional blues are wonderful; his singing is captivating and soulful. Will Scarlett is a true virtuoso of the harmonica, seemingly able to jump in any song, in any style, in any key, at the drop of a chord change! He’s performed and recorded with many fine artists – Brownie McGhee, Jerry Garcia, Hot Tuna, Old and In the Way, David Bromberg, and Clifton Chenier, to name a few.
Paul Geremia, not expected to perform on this occasion, is the other beneficiary of this special concert; he’s been struggling with difficult health problems for the last year.
Those of us who really love the blues know that it’s music to celebrate life joyfully by – and also, music that can really help us, can be there for us to lean on, when we’re having hard times.
Come celebrate with us, come hear the blues in many styles and variations, on January 28th! Tell your friends! I hope to see you there.
– A Days of The Crazy-Wild blog post –
A decade and a half ago Bob Dylan was still filling his sets songs from his past.
On November 19, 2001 he brought his band to the Madison Square Garden Arena in New York and performed a set that included songs from many of the albums he recorded in the ’60s and early ’70s.
Someone was nice enough to share this very cool video of the show:
Set List:
Wait For The Light To Shine
It Ain’t Me, Babe
A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall
Searching For A Soldier’s Grave
Tweedle Dee & Tweedle Dum
Just Like A Woman
Just Like Tom Thumb’s Blues
Lonesome Day Blues
High Water (For Charley Patton)
Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right
Tangled Up In Blue
John Brown
Summer Days
Sugar Baby
Drifter’s Escape
Rainy Day Women #12 & 35
Things Have Changed
Like A Rolling Stone
Forever Young
Honest With Me
Blowin’ In The Wind
All Along The Watchtower
Forty-one years ago, on January 10, 1974, Bob Dylan and The Band played the second of a two-night run at the Maple Leaf Gardens in
Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
The 1974 tour had begun just seven days earlier at Chicago Stadium in Chicago, Illinois. The second Toronto show was Dylan’s sixth performance of the tour.
It was, of course, Dylan’s first tour with The Band since they had stormed through Europe together, dismaying many fans of Dylan’s ‘folk’ phase with some of the most exciting rock ‘n’ roll ever played on this planet.
It was a huge tour — the shows were held at arenas across the country. In Oakland in February 1974, for example, two shows at the Oakland Coliseum Arena sold out.
Here’s a recording of “As I Went Out One Morning,” from the second night at the Maple Leaf Gardens.
It’s from a bootleg of the show, As I Went Out One Evening.
According to www.bjorner.com this is the only time Bob Dylan has ever performed “As I Went Out One Morning” live.
“As I Went Out One Morning” appeared on John Wesley Harding.
Plus the John Wesley Harding version:
-– A Days of the Crazy-Wild blog post: sounds, visuals and/or news –-