Tuesday, December 21, 2010

The Alabama Singers


This is one I discovered recently, during a late August trip to Vancouver. I’ve been trying to find some cool gospel, but it’s a tricky genre. I prefer southern Baptist spirituals as opposed to Methodist hymns for example. It can be tough to find a genre that doesn’t really exist in your geographic area (Canada). But, I came across the Alabama Singers record at Vinyl on Hastings, a great store with a huge selection. I’d never heard, heard of or seen anything by the Alabama Singers. But, I recognized some of the song titles and thought I’d give it a shot. The cover is pretty striking too, pictures from a very dark chapter in American history. But it's also where the title "Negro Spiritual Music" and the songs came from.
Turned out to be a fantastic find! It was released in 1969 and has really good production for the time. Doesn’t sound like a lot of late 60’s music, mainly because of the genre. It’s a lot brighter than the sound of pop and rock music from that time. The songs bounce from uppity hand clapping numbers to mid-tempo rollers and sorrowful ballads. The performances are superb and the level of vocal talent is second to none. The lead singers switch between male and female and all are top notch. This record is a great example of the voice as an instrument, with songs like Go Down Moses, Poor Pilgrim Of Sorrow and I Can Do Better Than That. The latter being one of my favourites!
The soul is intense, (He’ll Never Let Go Your Hand, Yes Indeed, Walk Around) and the ballads can bring you to tears. Motherless Child is about as moving as it gets, it’ll literally make you stop what you’re doing. That’s one of the things I really love about gospel, it’s straight from soul. There’s nothing in between the belief and the song.
It’s quick, only 33 minutes and not one song cracks 3:00 (the longest being 2:58, the shortest 1:44). So it has lots of songs (14), which means a good batch of tunes. It doesn’t slow down, even with the ballads, because the songs are so short. That’s another thing I’ve always enjoyed, short albums. You don’t want it too short, like 15 minutes. But between 30 and 45 minutes works perfect. If it’s good, you’ll listen to it again. And I’ve listened to this record a lot!
I haven’t found this album anywhere for download, although I have seen a copy of the vinyl on ebay. There is an album on itunes which looks similar, but it also features the Downtown Sisters and is called, “Gospels and Spirituals”. Only 4 of the songs are the Alabama Singers too.

The true origin of the Alabama Singers has been discovered! New link and update a couple of posts up.

Tuesday, December 14, 2010

David Bowie's missing album?



The Outside Outtakes have always confused me. I discovered them in 2003, when they first surfaced online. What I got was from 2 different sources from the great Bowie Audio site. I put them on 2 different CD’s and aside from a few confusing listens they’ve basically sat in my CD rack since. A lot of it kept sounding familiar and due to the nature of the recordings, I just figured that’s the way it was. There was the 22 minute Inside that I listened to a few times, but never got a grasp of what was going on. Plus several other songs that just sounded like sections of Inside (I Am With Name, The Leek Soldiers, Laugh Hotel, etc.) Throw in a few separate bits of Creep Together, 2 OK Riot’s and you can see why things are confusing. Not to mention the herky jerky nature of the recordings…..abrupt starts, chopped endings. After going through another Outside phase recently and wanting to hear more from the period, I decided to figure out the Outside Outtakes once and for all.
If you don’t know about the story, there are a couple of sites with the details here and here There’s info on the songs, but a lot of that info also adds to the confusion. You can also search youtube and hear a lot of the raw tracks. Most of them are in a pretty scattered state though, especially Inside. Although, there is a great video of “The Enemy Is Fragile” that is worth checking out. All together from my discs, I have 18 different tracks.
Out of the 18, 7 were pieces of Inside and 3 others fit together to make I’d Rather Be Chrome/We’ll Creep Together. After cleaning all that up, I did a little flipping around and found an order that works really well. It was literally a musical jigsaw puzzle. There are obviously pieces still missing. As a result, it's still a little herky jerky in parts, but that’s adds to the overall feel of the album too. And Inside definitely needs to be listened to as a whole. It’s a pretty cool 22 minutes of music, definitely one of Bowie’s finest unheard statements. With much thanks and credit to his collaborators/band at the time.
I made no adjustments to sound quality (hissing, pops, etc), just pieced together the parts. I used every bit that I have too, nothing has been left out. I did create the fade at the beginning of the first song from the existing intro. I reversed it, slowed it down and faded it in to give it a nice start. The story goes that Bowie, Eno and Reeves wanted Outside to be 2 CD’s. The first disc being Outside and the second called Leon featuring the outtakes. But they couldn't find anyone interested in releasing it. This is my version of Leon.
I think it fits really well together and would sound great on LP. It has 2 parts (2 sides) at just over 40 minutes long. Part 1 is 18 minutes long and begins and ends with an OK Riot. Part 2 is 22 minutes long and in 6 different sections. Near the beginning of the disc we meet the, “number one packet sniffers” and hear of “a superhighway of information”. And near the end “it’s time to round up the packet sniffers” and “someday the internet may become an information superhighway”.


It feels very Floydian to me. I put it together with that in mind and organized the tracks to flow as a whole piece, each leading into the other. There is a little overlap between some of them but nothing is missed. I did smooth out beginnings and ends to eliminate clicks between tracks. Also, the files are wav. Not necessarily for sound quality reasons, but to keep the flow of the album. If you burn it onto CD, there are no spaces between the songs. MP3 files always add that little space between tracks.
And does it sound better! Either as one full album or 2 seperate parts. I’ve always liked, I’d Rather Be Chrome, Nothing To Be Desired and The Enemy Is Fragile, but have really grown to love them. They’re fantastic tunes! It used to be just a cool bootleg , that I didn’t really listen to. Now it’s a missing album that I’ve been listening to alot! Maybe someday the Outtakes will actually get an official release. This is what Bowie said in 2003.
“The one thing I can truly, seriously think about in the future that I would like to get my teeth into—it's just so daunting—is the rest of the work that Eno and I did when we started to do the Outside album. We did improv for eight days, and we had something in the area of 20 hours' worth of stuff that I just cannot begin to get close to listening to. But there are some absolute gems in there...
Click the title below

David Bowie - Leon
Part 1

I’d Rather Be Chrome 5:26 – The beginning is the end with an ad of an OK Riot. This has been floating around in 3 different pieces, but finally put together here as, “I’d Rather Be Chrome”. After 2 and a half minutes it begins the segue into We’ll Creep Together Pt. 1 and then the speech, “friends of the trust, you’ve been a breadth filled crowd tonight, you’ve been positively fly boys, we are surely on our way, upon that superhighway of information, as far as I’m concerned, you are all number one packet sniffers…so sing with me”.
Dead Men Don’t Talk 1:19 – interlude. Studio chatter and experimentation. This song actually comes from the Eart_hl_ing sessions and is featured on the documentary, "Inspirations". It was included with the Outtakes when I first got them and I didn't realize it's true origins until just recently. Thanks to Maarten for the info. I've decided to keep it in here because it fits really well.
Nothing To Be Desired 2:09 – A funky chanting number “Nothing to be desired, it leaves nothing to be desired, nothing….”, “mind changing, mind changing, change your mind changing, mind changing…” with a cool wah-wah guitar. This song was officially released, on the U.S. only CD single for “Hearts Filthy Lesson” and also on a 2004 limited double CD. I have the CD single and aside from the better quality, being official and all, it’s the same song. For consistency though, I stuck with the outtakes version.
Inside The Motel 1:56 – interlude. Experimentation at first, then becomes a short, early version of “The Motel” from “Outside”.
The Enemy Is Fragile 4:07 – One of his best unreleased songs. A great beat, great bass line and great lyrics. “Hello Leon, would you like something really fishy?”…”the enemy has always been here”. No real verse, chorus or structure…but oh so cool!
Baby Fingers :10 – interlude. Very short and sinister.
The First Time 1:53 – A track that’s obviously missing pieces. Abrupt start, then settles down with some soothing vocals. But ends quickly after Nathan happened to “look up at the blood red sky and I saw the words, Ramona A Stone”.
OK Riot 1:21 – The end is the beginning with an ad of an OK Riot. Part one finishes…..repeating, distorting and fading away.
Part 2
Inside 22:06 – It’s identified in 6 parts….
a)       I Am With Name – The first 3:39, almost the same as album version.
b)       Anxiety Descending - Begins at 3:40 when the guitar swoops in and anxiety descends on Bowie, “It won’t eat me, it will hide me, he should take them, I wont kill it, she can’t take them…” “She can’t hide me, he said do this, he said tell it, I wont take them, she can’t eat me, he said kill that…”. At 6:10 begins an early version of a segue from Outside. Followed by another speech that ends up as a segue on the official release. Ten minutes in, the chaos end with “At this time you can think of me as a sillanabot, someone who eats their own words”
c)        We’ll Creep Together pt. 2 – Begins at 10:20. Slows down to jazzy piano and guitar. Bowie crooning, “We’ll creep together……..we’ll creep together…..you and I”. Very cinematic and ends with, “You’d die for diamonds but you would live for love”
d)       She’s All I’ve Got (This Is The Chrome) – Begins at 13:02. The piano picks up and Bowie sings, “She’s I don’t wanna bitch, it plays like I don’t wanna bitch, she’s I don’t wanna bitch, but sheeee’s….she’s all I’ve got”. At least I think that’s what he’s singing.
e)       The Leek Soldiers – Begins at 15:25……..“Then there was nothing left to do but to bring on the Leek soldiers, round up the packet sniffers and clear up what remained of that sensational life”. Segues into, “Here they are, the Leek Soldiers” and “Twist-fly-boy, twist-fly-boy, twist-fly-boy…”.
f)        The Laugh Hotel – Begins at 18:00. The buzz saw guitar returns and then another future segue, “At this time, before yous could say boo to the troops, Leon was up on that oh so vividly wide stage with a criss criss machete, he could not wait for 12 o’clock, midnight…he slashes around and cuts a zero in everything, I mean a zero in the fabric of time itself”. Then back into, “they will kill that, it will hide me, he should take them, I won’t tell it, she can’t take them, it will do this, he said, he said smell this…”  Slowly fades out.
“Say goodnight honey….”

Tuesday, October 19, 2010

Best rock album of the 90's!


Pearl Jam - Yield
I heard a song on the radio back in 1998 and didn't who it was, but I really liked it! After a little research, turned out the song was called, "Do The Evolution". When I found it was Pearl Jam, I couldn’t believe it. It had been a couple of years since “No Code” and I was living and working on small town radio, so not up with the rock world. But I picked up "Yield"and have loved it ever since. It also features, "Given To Fly", “Brain Of J”, “MFC” and "Wishlist" and is easily one of my most listened to albums.
It's a simple, rock album with great songs, great sound and a great pace. It's almost half over before you even realize it. The first seven songs being a journey that usually leaves me out of breath by song 4. They even things out with, "Wishlist" and "Pilate" before launching into Evolution. Only 4 of the 12 songs are 4 minutes or longer and the whole disc clocks in at a, short attention span friendly, 48 minutes and change.
Jack Irons was the bands drummer since 1996 and left shortly after the recording of this album. His playing is one of the reasons I'm so fond of Yield. It's a tour de force of drumming. The drums sound great! Vs is a great sounding drum record too, but Yield is a little crisper. And the songs are much more mature than the second record. Top if off with Jack's talent, easily the best drummer in PJ's rotating line up behind the kit.


His untitled (well, ... on the sleeve) compostition represents the middle point of the album. A nice divider to get you into the second half of the album. More great songs (In Hiding) and not only one of the better album closers, but one of the best decade closing songs in, "All Those Yesterdays".


An overlooked and underappreciated edition of the Pearl Jam catalog.

Watch this video and listen to this song!


Wednesday, September 15, 2010

Neil's finest moment!



Neil Young - Landing On Water


Released in 1986 on Geffen Records, Neil was a little pissed off at the time, taking a lot of heat for trying some different artistic directions. He was actually in the process of being sued by the head of his record company, David Geffen for making, "unrepresentative, uncommercial music". Which was true, he'd done 2 experimental synth albums, a rockabilly album and a country album just before this one. They were all commercial and critical failures. But in my mind, it was the time of Neil's greatest work and if the critics and public don't like it, who's to say it's a failure. When it comes to great music, it usually takes most a few years to catch up anyway. He'd been experimenting with synths since 1981's "Re-ac-tor" when he started using the synclavier. This album would be the climax of that experiment. There's no bass player credited on the album, the sync takes that role. This only adds to the overall sound of the album. And it features easily one of my favourite performances from a drummer...


Steve Jordan is the man on the kit and the combination of the 'whap' of the acoustic drums along with synths and Neil's crunchy, sloppy guitar gives it a great sound. He doesn't get too fancy with fills or anything, keeps it nice and simple. The production is great too, especially for the time. Alot of music recorded in the 80's sounds very dated, especially 1986! And especially the drums, everything was about electronic drums for most of the 80's, this album has the exact opposite. There's such a great sound to the drums, crisp and loud, but not too overbearing. And simply, some of his coolest songs too. I actually had the CD first, in the late 80's when I first came upon this album. Lost that along the way and picked up a copy on vinyl, tres cool!


Some hilarious videos for this one too, Neil most have been in a silly mood. I've seen clips for, Weight Of The World, People On The Street, Touch The Night and Pressure. Watching Neil Young tap dance through the streets of San Fransisco in white tux and tails is classic! The lyrics are fantastic on this record too.


I play this record for anybody and everybody! Great for anytime of the day, any event, any guest. It's not an album alot of Neil Young fans like, gets a pretty bad rap on the web. But if you can imagine the Killers 20 years earlier, only not as flashy and with Neil Young singing, you would be listening to "Landing On Water". Easily one of my most listened to and never get tired of records, number one desert island pick. Track by track....


Weight Of The World - Remember seeing the video for this. He's a rich rockstar, who jumps in his pool with his clothes on and lip synchs the song, under water. Haven't been able to find it on youtube though, it seems to have dissappeared. The drums and synclavier sync up beautifully here.


Violent Side - Not so much on the synth for this one. More guitars, although a laid back tune. Sounds like a very touching song, but the subject matter is anything but. I love the conflict, "You got to fight to control your violent side". Great backing vocals.


Hippie Dream - More great lyrics, "Take my advice, don't listen to me"......."The wooden ships were just a hippie dream" into a nice feedback guitar solo. Appears to be a shot at C, S & N and the 60's idealism.


Bad News Beat - Groovy little mid-tempo number. No guitar riffs, cool staccato things to punctuate the synths.


Touch The Night - One of my favourite songs, ever. Dark and mysterious and loud! Story of an accident on the highway. Great video of Neil as a news reporter on the scene of the accident, with his backing vocalists in tow. Another highlight on an album of great drums. Lot of real good punch in this song, especially at the end of the last chorus, you have to hear it to know what I'm talking about. Then the backing vocals and guitar soar to the fade out. Simply awesome!


People On The Street - Did I mention the drums on this album. This song is killer, Steve Jordan is the master here. Great lyrics too, a subject he would also visit later and have much more success with "Rockin In The Free World".


Hard Luck Stories - This one makes it hard for me to believe there's no bass. That's some funky synth. Good solid foundation on this one from Mr Jordan.


I Got A Problem - Kick ass little rock tune, real simple. Mainly guitar and drums. The scream at the beginning is classic. Great guitar, one of Neil's finer moments. Simple and dirty. Love the lyrics to this one too, "Everytime we talk about it, I break out in a cold sweat". And I can relate, I got a problem too man.


Pressure - Back to the synclavier on a relatively short song, less than 3 minutes. Good funky/rocker song. The scream beginning, "I Got A Problem" ends this song. More great lyrics, "Too much pressure for peace on earth, too much trying to get your money's worth" Hilarious video!


Drifter - For me, this is the one. If there's any song I relate too, it's "Drifter". "I'm just a drifter, I'll stay until you try to tie me down"...."Don't try to tell me what I gotta do to fit". The synclavier is pretty heavy here, but barely noticeable at the same time. Thanks to a cool guitar lick, and did I mention Steve Jordan on the drums?

Watch this video!

Friday, September 3, 2010

Eddie! Eddie! Eddie!


















Eddie Hazel - Game, Dames and Guitar Thangs


After getting into Parliament and picking up a bunch of their killer 70's funk, I read about the band and the name Eddie Hazel came up, but I didn't think much of it, he wasn't on the albums I had. Then I stopped into Heritage Records one day and came across a copy of, "Game, Dames and Guitar Thangs", his 1977 solo album. It had the craziest cover I'd ever seen....Volcano's, a cadillac, mind fuck pharoah's and Eddie riding a horse in full funk costume (including wings) with guitar in one hand and some sort of bad-ass sabre in the other. And then there's the back cover....you have to see it to believe it. I didn't know anything about what it would sound like, but had read that he was pretty cool and with a cover like that, I had to get it.


It starts with a cover of "California Dreaming", pretty cool, kinda mellow, but funky with some great vocals. Then I started to fade on the next song and didn't really click with the album after the first listen. Filed it away until some other day.


That day came a couple months later. Summer day off, on the patio in the sunshine reading the paper and I put it on again. The paper was soon forgotten and I got hypnotized. This record is fantastic. It's got a pretty mellow vibe, more of a daytime listen and not something I'd throw on in the middle of a Saturday night party. But, it's perfect for anytime of the day.


There are only 7 songs, although one of those is a minute and a half reprise of the "Callifornia Dreaming" that closes the album. Along with "California Dreaming", he covers the Beatles, "I Want You (She's So Heavy)" to open side one "Physical Love" is a Bootsy Collins song that features a second lead guitar from the late Gary Shider. Three of the songs are instrumentals, for the rest the vocals are very chant like, adding to the depth of the vibe. The voice becomes more of an instrument and part of the mix, giving Eddie a chance to stretch throughout.


With longer songs, Eddie lays down a guitar clinic. He's not an over the top player, and compliments the atmosphere of each track beautifully. Some great solos, cool funky licks and wicked funky grooves turned this album into an instant favourite for me. I probably listened to it at least a half a dozen times that weekend. Like all great albums, it's not too long, so when it's done you usually wanna flip it over and listen to it again.


After that, I went searching for more Eddie and discovered, "Maggot Brain". There's not too much I can say about that song that hasn't already been said and if you play guitar, want to play guitar, or just like listening to people play the guitar, you have to listen to "Maggot Brain".


Eddie Hazel truly was not of this earth and we're all better for it.


Listen to this song right now!