Is That All There Is?: Two Classic Songwriting Teams Lose Their Partners

A few days late, but I want to say a few things about the passing of Jerry Leiber, half of Leiber & Stoller (with Mike Stoller), and of Nick Ashford, half of Ashford & Simpson with his wife Valerie Simpson.

NICKOLAS ASHFORD (May 4, 1941 – August 22, 2011)

Ashford left us, and his partner Valerie, on Monday after succumbing to throat cancer. He was 70 years old. His legacy had been cemented since the sixties and seventies, for co-writing (with Simpson) the iconic and epic love songs “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough” and “Ain’t Nothing Like the Real Thing” and the couple’s rare own recording of “Solid” which was one of the most played songs of 1984-5:

I have a short personal story about “Solid”. When that single came out, I was working at an office job where we had the radio on all day. I was even more of a music snob back in the day, so after fighting to have the “alternative” channel on, against the protestations of the accounting department, it was very difficult for me (and some of co-workers, Ken and Kevin) to give the local, smooth Lite FM channel a chance. There was some pretty dismal drivel on that station, despite the fact that the signal was smooth and clear, like filtered water. But here’s where my “snob” met up with my “songwriter”.

When “Solid” came on, I think I already knew who Ashford & Simpson were, I mean, I knew they’d written “Ain’t Nothing Like the Real Thing” which had been the signature tune for the short-lived but legendary team of Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrel:

Also, Ashford & Simpson’s song “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough” was not only another hit for Gaye & Terrel

but the song was  later resurrected by Diana Ross (Nick & Valerie provided the backups on that one):

And of course, they wrote “I’m Every Woman”, a classic Chaka Khan single  (later covered whole cloth by Whitney Houston).

But “Solid” won me over, instantly. It was as slick as anything, and yet, the impassioned delivery and true love in the grooves reached out across the Lite FM channel, and made a human connection. How could you not love this song? Very few of the 80s classic R&B hits feel this way to me, especially some of the over-produced ones of the same year. But “Solid” remains special for me.

Nick Ashford made this world a better place, as he wrote in “Reach Out (and Touch Somebody’s Hand)”

And then there was one of the original R&B songwriting greats…

JERRY LEIBER (April 25, 1933 – August 22, 2011)

Last year, I read Ken Emerson’s Always Magic In The Air: The Bomp And Brilliance of The Brill Building Era, which chronicles the golden era of New York songwriting teams in the Brill Building and Aldon Music Building. The book shows the clear lineage from Jazz and Blues to the classic R&B and pop songs that Tin Pan Alley wrote for America, and by extension the world. The book talks about the great teams, The subtitle for the book is . [I wrote about that book in the second half of this entry (click through).]   Within that book’s richly researched historical account of a pivotal time in the history of American song, we start to see how the great song teams – Bacharach & David, Goffin & King, Sedaka & Greenfield,  Barry & Greenwich – were driven by the influence of one of the first teams, Leiber & Stoller (who were in turn influenced by Pomus & Shuman)

Leiber and Stoller’s go-get-em, instinct driven sense of fun and danger was one of  Elvis Presley’s secret weapons, and his version of “Hound Dog” (cribbed from the Big Mama Thornton original recording) is the best known:

Leiber died of cardiopulmonary failure on Monday, at age 78, and had 61-year songwriting and producing career, mostly with Mike Stoller.

They wrote Elvis’s “Jailhouse Rock”

Ben E. King’s “Stand By Me” covered here by John Lennon:

Bad Company had a great rock version of their song for The Coasters “Young Blood”:

Originally from Baltimore, young Jerry moved to Los Angeles where he met Stoller at schooll. They were both fans of R&B and soon began writing songs of their own. Stoller brought the tunes, while Leiber was the wordsmith, redefining what pop songs could be about. They even produced Steeler’s Wheel’s “Stuck in the Middle With You”:

I didn’t realize until yesterday that Leiber, in a rare co-write without Stoller, wrote “Jackson” (with Billy Edd Wheeler). The Johnny Cash & June Carter version is the definitive, but I have a soft spot for the Nancy Sinatra and Lee Hazelwood version, I recall from some corny TV show:

In 2009, Leiber & Stoller wrote a memoir, with David Ritz, entitled Hound Dog.

I feel like the last word should be from their 1969 hit for Peggy Lee (with lovely orchestral arrangements by Randy Newman):

“Is That All There Is?”

Singing the praises of Jack Layton (1950-2011) R.I.P.

After a long and, sadly, recurring bout with Cancer, Jack Layton, leader of Canada’s New Democratic Party who raised a “third party” brand into the mainstream position of Canada’s Official Opposition Party, has succumbed. I was an admirer who voted for him and his party when I lived in my homeland, and many of my friends knew him personally. I never knew him one-to-one like that, but if you can judge a man (or woman) by the works they do on earth, I can attest without a doubt that Jack (for we all knew him as just Jack) was that rare politician of decency and humanity, who was truly about “public service” rather than ego gratification. You sensed you weren’t voting for “him” but for the notion of what Canada is really about, and what it could become. It’s not for nothing that many embraced the image above, a blatant homage to  Shepard Fairey’s iconic Obama Hope poster. His passing is sad not only for his family and friends, but for Canadian politics which has lost a true champion of the people.

From Toronto, here’s what Broken Social Scene’s Kevin Drew tweeted:

I heard about this in a little round up over at Spinner featuring a selection of musicians praising Jack, you can read that here.

They also included a tweet from the UK’s voice of the working person, Billy Bragg, who was well aware of Jack’s values:

And of course, my good friend, ex-Barenaked Ladies singer Steven Page, who knew and worked for Jack on a few campaigns.

He was a smart and friendly man who liked to laugh and sing as well.
Here he was in 2005 singing the “new NDP Theme Song” (to the tune of Roger Miller’s “King of The Road”):

And here, he was interviewed by another Canadian institution, Narduar The Human Serviette:

His wife, Olivia Chow, also a politician, has released the letter to Canadians that Jack wanted published upon the sad eventuality of his death. I think you don’t have to be Canadian to feel this message. Also, I am hoping it is legal for me to reprint it here in full, my intention is to keep his word alive:

Letter To Canadians by Jack Layton

Dear Friends,

Tens of thousands of Canadians have written to me in recent weeks to wish me well. I want to thank each and every one of you for your thoughtful, inspiring and often beautiful notes, cards and gifts. Your spirit and love have lit up my home, my spirit, and my determination.

Unfortunately my treatment has not worked out as I hoped. So I am giving this letter to my partner Olivia to share with you in the circumstance in which I cannot continue.

I recommend that Hull-Aylmer MP Nycole Turmel continue her work as our interim leader until a permanent successor is elected.

I recommend the party hold a leadership vote as early as possible in the New Year, on approximately the same timelines as in 2003, so that our new leader has ample time to reconsolidate our team, renew our party and our program, and move forward towards the next election.

A few additional thoughts:

To other Canadians who are on journeys to defeat cancer and to live their lives, I say this: please don’t be discouraged that my own journey hasn’t gone as well as I had hoped. You must not lose your own hope. Treatments and therapies have never been better in the face of this disease. You have every reason to be optimistic, determined, and focused on the future. My only other advice is to cherish every moment with those you love at every stage of your journey, as I have done this summer.

To the members of my party: we’ve done remarkable things together in the past eight years. It has been a privilege to lead the New Democratic Party and I am most grateful for your confidence, your support, and the endless hours of volunteer commitment you have devoted to our cause. There will be those who will try to persuade you to give up our cause. But that cause is much bigger than any one leader. Answer them by recommitting with energy and determination to our work. Remember our proud history of social justice, universal health care, public pensions and making sure no one is left behind. Let’s continue to move forward. Let’s demonstrate in everything we do in the four years before us that we are ready to serve our beloved Canada as its next government.

To the members of our parliamentary caucus: I have been privileged to work with each and every one of you. Our caucus meetings were always the highlight of my week. It has been my role to ask a great deal from you. And now I am going to do so again. Canadians will be closely watching you in the months to come. Colleagues, I know you will make the tens of thousands of members of our party proud of you by demonstrating the same seamless teamwork and solidarity that has earned us the confidence of millions of Canadians in the recent election.

To my fellow Quebecers: On May 2nd, you made an historic decision. You decided that the way to replace Canada’s Conservative federal government with something better was by working together in partnership with progressive-minded Canadians across the country. You made the right decision then; it is still the right decision today; and it will be the right decision right through to the next election, when we will succeed, together. You have elected a superb team of New Democrats to Parliament. They are going to be doing remarkable things in the years to come to make this country better for us all.

To young Canadians: All my life I have worked to make things better. Hope and optimism have defined my political career, and I continue to be hopeful and optimistic about Canada. Young people have been a great source of inspiration for me. I have met and talked with so many of you about your dreams, your frustrations, and your ideas for change. More and more, you are engaging in politics because you want to change things for the better. Many of you have placed your trust in our party. As my time in political life draws to a close I want to share with you my belief in your power to change this country and this world. There are great challenges before you, from the overwhelming nature of climate change to the unfairness of an economy that excludes so many from our collective wealth, and the changes necessary to build a more inclusive and generous Canada. I believe in you. Your energy, your vision, your passion for justice are exactly what this country needs today. You need to be at the heart of our economy, our political life, and our plans for the present and the future.

And finally, to all Canadians: Canada is a great country, one of the hopes of the world. We can be a better one – a country of greater equality, justice, and opportunity. We can build a prosperous economy and a society that shares its benefits more fairly. We can look after our seniors. We can offer better futures for our children. We can do our part to save the world’s environment. We can restore our good name in the world. We can do all of these things because we finally have a party system at the national level where there are real choices; where your vote matters; where working for change can actually bring about change. In the months and years to come, New Democrats will put a compelling new alternative to you. My colleagues in our party are an impressive, committed team. Give them a careful hearing; consider the alternatives; and consider that we can be a better, fairer, more equal country by working together. Don’t let them tell you it can’t be done.

My friends, love is better than anger. Hope is better than fear. Optimism is better than despair. So let us be loving, hopeful and optimistic.

And we’ll change the world.

All my very best,

Jack Layton

Jack Layton (1950-2011) Image by Matt Jiggins

Java Blues: Wake Up And Smell The Playlist

If you know me, and my apologies if you do, you’ll know that one of my few remaining vices is espresso coffee. Here at Pulmyears Studio I burn through espresso machines like some people go through metaphors for things that get used up a lot. I love lattes, make about four to five a day on my home machine, I trade intel with fellow coffee drinkers about where the best coffee is: “Have you tried Four Barrel?” “I swear by Blue Bottle” “Portland? Take me to Stumptown” and so on.

One of my favourite of my many unfinished songs, “Outside The Lines”, begins with the autobiographical couplet: “I drink a lot of coffee in the morning, and the afternoon / I kid myself that it inspires me / As I bounce around the room.” Gotta finish that song one day.

Coffee and songs got me thinking yesterday about some great coffee songs. Between espressos, and with the help of some Facebook friends, I  put together this coffee playlist celebrating the aromatic stimulant that fuels my world.

1. “Java Blues” Rick Danko

2. “The Coffee Song” Osibisa (suggested by Stewart Mason)

3. “Espresso (All Jacked Up) Todd Rundgren

4. “Black Coffee In Bed” Squeeze

5. “Joed Out”  Verlaines (suggested by Stewart Mason)

6. “Black Coffee” kd lang & Grover Washington, Jr. (suggested by Les Doerfler)

7. “Coffee And Cigarettes” Never Shout Never

8. “Coffee And TV” Blur

9. “The Cappucino Song” Tanita Tikram

10. “Starfish And Coffee” Soulwax (cover of Prince song)

NOTE TO SHELF: Seconds of Pleasure (and Live At Montreux) by Rockpile

I recently started a brand new feature here on The Pulmyears Music Blog which I call Note To Shelf. In this space, I recommend, or just blather on about, a recording from my shelf that I feel you should know about. I won’t do this everyday but when I do, it will be about recordings that “glow” or scream “play me” when I walk by the shelf (or the virtual iTunes shelf).
I recently went to the shelf to retrieve Seconds Of Pleasure (1980) by Rockpile.

Considered Pub Rock’s first Supergroup, and a rock force only rivaled by Dr. Feelgood, Rockpile was comprised of bassist/singer Nick Lowe, guitarist/singer Dave Edmunds, lead guitarist/singer Billy Bremner and drummer Terry Williams. The reason I took their ONLY official studio album, Seconds of Pleasure off the shelf this week was because I had been listening to an advance of the upcoming live album, Rockpile Live At Montreux 1980, recorded around the same time.  Williams is an undisputed master of the back-beat, shuffle and swinging R&B, walloping and galloping and driving the machine. Basher Lowe’s bass is right there with him, elegantly directing that rhythm toward the melodic instruments. Bremner is a fire cracker of lightning lead breaks unrivaled by anyone except perhaps his counterpart Edmunds, who not only plays a mean guitar, but sings with an authentic drawl and twang that belies his Welsh ancestry. And the set list for the Montreux show draws on the strengths of all four men.

Opening with “Sweet Little Liza” followed quickly (maybe via editing) into “So It Goes”, “I Knew The Bride”, “Queen Of Hearts” and “Switchboard Susan,” you’re left as breathless as Nick and Dave seem by the time they hand off lead vocals to Bremner for “Trouble Boys”, with Williams sounding like a dog let of a leash. This band actually had hits, together and apart, and their biggest collective single, “Teacher Teacher” is here too, along Dave’s hit “Girls Talk” (written by Elvis Costello), and “I Hear You Knockin'”. But there are literally NO dull moments here, “Crawling From The Wreckage”, “3 Time Loser” and “You Ain’t Nothin’ But Fine” also stand out. While the recording is a bit squashed sounding, I suspect it was done for a radio broadcast, and the mix has a few errors (Nick’s voice is awfully quiet on “So It Goes” and elsewhere, lead guitars seem buried and under-mixed), but by the time you’re done with closing song “Let’s Talk About Us”, there is little doubt that this is a strong testament to the sheer performance energy of a seasoned, and well-oiled, rock and roll band.

But let’s talk about the studio album, Seconds of Pleasure.

Formed around a 1970 Edmunds solo album and tour, back when Nick was still with Brinsley Schwarz, for whom Edmunds produced an album in 1974. At the time, Edmunds was still signed to Led Zeppelin’s Swan Song label and it took a few years of negotiating solo band members contracts for Rockpile to get the chance to legally record as a group. By 1980, they were free and clear, to enter Eden Studios, in Chiswick, with Lowe acting as titular producer as he had, by then. made his reputation as Elvis Costello’s producer and as a solo artist in his own right with Jesus Of Cool a/k/a Pure Pop For Now People and other albums.  Incidentally, I just read that the distinctive jacket artwork, credited to “Dag” is in fact who I always thought it was, the late great Barney Bubbles, who also did Costello’s Imperial Bedroom and other great sleeves of the day.

Seconds of Pleasure opens with a song even the casual listener should know,  “Teacher Teacher”, a fairly big hit (Billboard #51 single) that I only recently realized was not written by the group but by Kenny Pickett and Eddie Phillips, from the 60s UK act, The Creation.

Then they lay into a great Joe Tex song, “If Sugar Was As Sweet As You”

Next Billy Bremner sings Nick’s “Heart”

After “Now And Always” they move into  the Kip Anderson’s comical blues tune “A Knife And A Fork”

And Nick’s “Play That Fast Thing One More Time” before “Wrong Again (Let’s Face It) (by Squeeze’s mainstays, Difford & Tilbrook):

Then a Rockpile original that actually sounds like another Squeeze song, “Pet You And Hold You” (oh, and forgive the LONG intro on this clip, I obviously didn’t make this):

http://youtu.be/1RT2-JdxV6I

And it wouldn’t be a party without a Chuck Berry cover,  “Oh What A Thrill“, followed by one of my all time favourite Nick Lowe songs, “When I Write The Book” (WARNING: Whoever loaded this to YouTube kind of gave up before the song was over (??!?!?!?))

After Nick’s “Fool Too Long“, they close the album (proper) with a cover of Rockin’ Sidney’s  “You Ain’t Nothin’ But Fine”

Back when the vinyl album was released, some people got a bonus 4-song EP Nick Lowe & Dave Edmunds Sing The Everly Brothers.

When I picked up the Canadian CD, a long time back, they had added in the Everly EP at the end. The set was “Take A Message to Mary”, “Crying In The Rain”, “Poor Jenny” and “When Will I Be Loved”.  I found this audio only clip of Nick and Dave doing an Everly set at Capital Radio;

NOTE; A subsequent 2004 CD reissue of Seconds of Pleasure added in three more live tracks, including “Back To Schooldays” and “They Called It Rock” from a 1977 BBC session, and “Crawling From The Wreckage” from the  Concerts For The People Of Kampuchea (produced by Chris Thomas). 

Rockpile. Now THAT was a rock ‘n’roll group.

Saturday In The Park (I Think It Was The 13th Of August) **UPDATED

This past Saturday, I found myself on two different guest lists for Outside Lands, in Golden Gate Park, here in San Francisco.

I tend to avoid big festivals but I will admit that I DO go to the GG park every October for Hardly Strictly Bluegrass, financier Warren Hellman’s FREE festival which, true to its name, is only very slightly about bluegrass music. Spoiled by the free-ness of that festival, and probably spoiled by the comp culture of being a journalist and musician, I find it hard to spend the money on big package tickets for PAY Festivals like Outside Lands. Still, the rewards are there, tons of bands, spending a day outdoors, and food on sticks. Yep. It’s like the Iowa Caucus with music to rock us. No fried butter though.

Roots official photo (Owen Biddle far left)

When I saw that The Roots were appearing at this years festival, I made a note that I should very much like to groove in “the glow of their majestic presence” (to borrow a phrase from They Might Be Giants). But being a spoiled, entitled freebie hog, I politely asked my friend Steven Mandel, who works with the Roots on Late Night With Jimmy Fallon, if  I could squeeze in just for their set. After a bit of wrangling, Steven came through (thanks man). But while I was waiting, I heard that another Twitter acquaintance of mine, the brilliant comedian Paul F. Tompkins, was also appearing that day. So I hedged my bets by asking him as well. He also came through, which was super nice in that we’d never actually met before and this was an awfully sweet leap of faith and generosity.

After a traffic hassle on the drive to Golden Gate park, and a huge pedestrian jam at the gates, I entered the Outside Lands area. It was like a circus, with tents and amusements and food, food, food. Although, this being the Bay Area, there were several upscale wine merchants tents and booths showcasing Napa vintages.

OKGo (found photo)

I suddenly heard the strains of OKGo in mid-set. They were as awesome as ever, and I hadn’t even come to hear them, didn’t even know they were on the bill. Sweet.

I bought lunch/dinner at the Asqew Grill booth that was serving Thai BBQ Beef over Jasmine Rice (8 dollars) and picked up a Sprite (a rare, for me, sugary soda) which was a whopping 4 dollars. Still, they both did the trick and after the hassle getting to and in, I was finally enjoying myself.

As I was eating, my ears picked up something really great floating over from the Sutro Stage. It was Vetiver.

Vetiver's Andy Cabic (found photo)

To be honest, I’d only ever heard a couple of things by them before, but everything I heard on Saturday made me believe that they are a fine, fine group. They played with the confident maturity of a band twice their age, evoking a kind of slow-motion version of Wilco. I am sold, I will pursue this band further.

I bumped into Owen Biddle, bass player from the Roots, walking through the grounds with Jonathan Cohen, the man who books all the amazing musical acts for Late Night With Jimmy Fallon. Jonathan’s booking skills have made him sort of a hero to me, and he’s a nice guy too. I told them that I couldn’t wait to see The Roots set, later on the Twin Peaks stage, and let them go about their business.

[UPDATE: In my haste to post this on Monday, I neglected to mention Arctic Monkeys]

While looking around I noticed that Arctic Monkeys were already well into their set, so I walked toward the stage in time to hear a few songs. They have never sounded better and, while they may not be front of mind to a lot of people, they are quietly becoming a classic live band. Alex Turner is as impressive as ever, and they’re still playing the song that started it all for them, “I Bet You Look Good on The Dance Floor”, as though it was their new single. It occurred to me that “Dancefloor” is to Arctic Monkeys, what “Rock Lobster” was to the B-52’s, a timeless debut single that never seems to wear out its welcome.

Here’s a photo of Alex Turner, looking very “Beatles Hamburg era”, which I nabbed from The Audio Pervwebsite (which you should totally check out) taken by photographer Marcello Ambriz, who is also awesome. (I’ll take it down if you want, guys).I was looking for Paul F. Tompkins, mainly to apologize to him for missing his set, due to all the frustrating delays in entering the grounds. As it happened, I had just missed his 3 pm show. I started tweeting him and walked toward the Sutro Stage where The Old 97s were starting.

While I’ve never actually met Rhett Miller of the Old 97s, he’s also a Twitter pal and we have a ton of actual mutual friends like Jon Brion, Tom DeSavia and Craig Northey.  I really loved their set, loose and swaggering in all the right places, with that tumbling quality of an Irish dance hall band or the vaguely drunk sound of vintage Replacements, only twangier. I kept checking to see if Paul was gonna respond on Twitter, when I noticed that he had just tweeted a picture of The Old 97s in action. His view of the stage was almost identical to my view of the stage. I turned around and there was Paul F. Tompkins! We’d never met before, only chatted online, but hey, I know what he looks like from TV and he at least recognized me from my Twitter avatar pic. We shook hands and I handed him a copy of my Todd Rundgren book, which he accepted although I’m not really sure if he really wanted it. (He has since told me he’s reading it and enjoying it, so that’s nice.) Then I took this picture:

We chatted some, and then both laughed, in a delighted and decidedly non-spiteful way, at this dude dancing:

Then I bid him adieu and made my way over to the Twin Peaks stage.

The Roots were incendiary.

Drummer, leader (and commanding presence) Questlove slammed down the beats, funk over funk, coupled with slabs of big funk bass from my new friend Owen, who covered more bass than ever as tuba player Tuba Gooding, Jr’s horn valve had been damaged in transit, so he had to sit out the gig. They played original Roots tunes. Singer/Rapper Black Thought (a/k/a Tariq Trotter) barked with rhythmic authority while flash guitarist (Captain) Kirk Douglas was all flash and dexterity on his sunburst Les Paul, wailing impressive melodies over the funk soup. They covered Guns N Roses at one point, then broke into an urgent cover of Gil Scott-Heron’s “The Bottle” in tribute to the fallen poet.

After the show, I was just going to split when I noticed Owen walking amid the crowd, looking for someone. He told me that his folks were there and that they were all heading over to the big stage to see Muse. We found his parents, two very delightful and hip people, and walked toward the pulsing and glowing Muse stage, which looked like a space ship landing in a farmer’s field.

Muse's Matt Bellamy (found photo)

I have to admit, having only seen the band on TV, I had never really warmed to them. I always thought that Matt Bellamy sang with far too much of the kind of histrionic affectation inherent in Midge Ure of Ultravox (think “Dancing With Tears In My Eyes”) and my take on their overall sound was lots of bombast signifying nothing. Yeah, I know, I can be harsh sometimes. Anyway, I kind of take some of that back, because in the flesh, standing before one of the most beautiful stages I’ve seen in a while — all neons, hexagon screens, platforms and Ikea microphone stands (kidding about the Ikea part) — the music really makes sense. It’s like the pomp of, say, Rush with the Indie emotion and longform pop songs of a Radiohead. It kinda works, and hey they’re huge right?

After the show, me and Owen and his parents, made our way out of the park, walking and walking and walking until we were very tired of walking. (Note to Outside Lands, next year MORE public transit to get people out of the GG park area, okay?)

My feet and calves were killing me when I finally got back to Berkeley but, all in all, it was nice day in the park.

CSNY: OHIO (A Facebook Theatre Production)

I have creative friends, many of them are on Facebook…

Sometimes, a comment can trigger a “thread”, and the topic becomes like one of those oversized beach balls at an outdoor summer concert, everybody swatting around until it hits a guitar tech or somebody knocks it over the rear fences.

Yesterday, I posted a simple, okay jokey, status on my Facebook page:

Tonight on CSNY:Ohio: Detectives Young & Stills follow a trail of blood stains leading to the discovery of “four dead in Ohio.” Meanwhile back at the station, Detective Nash investigates “two cats in the yard.”

What follows is a sampling of the response. Thanks to everyone who played. All names are real unless faked for Facebook.

Keith Porteous: While Detective Crosby is on leave while attending rehab.

Justin Smallbridge: Det. Stills: The question, Neil, is how can you run when you…[puts on sunglasses]…know? Roger Daltrey: Yeeeaaahhh!

Eric Ruben: Det. Crosby gets assigned to undercover. And to think, he almost cut his hair.

Darin J. Addison: Det. Crosby is undercover investigating an armed robbery at a sperm bank.

Elizabeth Racz: Det. Young is Wonderin’ how the powder got on the finger

Paul Myers: An interdepartmental conflict with Det. Stills forces Det. Young to temporarily leave the force, searching for the illusive, “heart of gold.”

Eric Ruben: That’s when he stumbles upon a dead man lyin’ by the side of the road…

Paul Myers: ‎”Don’t let it bring you down,” said Det. Young, removing his Ray Bans, “it’s only castles burning.”

Justin Smallbridge: Det. Crosby: It was like looking in my rear-view mirror and seeing a police car. Then I realized it was the backup I’d called for. Plus, I’m not giving an inch to fear. I promised myself this year.

Det. Young: The question, Dave, it whether you felt like you…[puts on sunglasses]…owed it to someone.

Roger Daltrey: Yeeeaaahhh!

Paul Myers: ‎“Traveling twice the speed of sound,” said Det. Nash, putting on his sunglasses, “It’s easy to get BURNED.” Roger Daltrey: Yeeeaahhh!

Charlie Salmon: Detective Young drops in on Starsky & Hutch.”Well Hello Mr. Soul -I dropped by to pick up a reason”..

Aaron Rubin: In this week’s episode, Long May You Run, Detectives Young and Stills team up, leaving Detective Crosby to ask “why can’t we go on as three?”1

Justin Smallbridge:  CSINY (CBS. 9:00) Tonight’s Episode — “Cortez The Killer.” Det. Young finds himself locked in a deadly battle of wits with a serial killer who may or may not be a professor of Mesoamerican history or a Spanish explorer. Musical montage: “Conquistador,” by Procol Harum & the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra.

Paul Myers: SPIN-OFF: From the creator of CSNY:OHIO, it’s GREENDALE. After leaving the big city CSNY force, Det Young settles into life down the pacific coast from San Francisco. In the pilot episode, Det Young investigates the death of Officer Carmichael, a credit to the force.

Justin Smallbridge: CSIN&Y (CBS. 9:00.) “Powderfinger”: There’s a white boat coming up the river with a big red beacon and a flag, and a man on the rail. It’s less than a mile away. It’s got numbers on the side and a gun and it’s making big waves. Det. Young suspects it don’t look like they’re here to deliver the mail.

Aaron Rubin: Det. Stills: “Young, there’s something happening here.”

Det. Young: “You’re right Stills, but what it is ain’t exactly clear.”

Adam Sobolak: Somehow, I can picture CSNY as a contemporary version of Dick Tracy Show characters like Joe Jitsu, Go Go Gomez, Hemlock Holmes, Heap O’Callory…

Jeff Norman:  The dying man lay on the shore. Horror gripped them as they watched him die. All they could do was echo his anguished cries. They stared – all their human feeling died. “We are leaving. You don’t need us.” Det. Crosby turned around, eyeing the wooden police boat: “Guess I’ll set a course and go.”

Jeff Norman: Det. Stills: “Can you explain your whereabouts Friday evening, or Sunday in the afternoon?”

Jaimie Vernon; Det. Young to grieving man on the banks of the Ohio: “Down by the river. Is that where you shot your baby?”

Jeff Norman: CSNY: Vice Squad – Det. Young, in front of a desert whorehouse: “Hello, cowgirl in the sand – is this place at your command?”

Mike Macfarlane: Finally, at the end of the Season, they return to the original scene at Ohio state, and Det. Young says [as he puts on sunglasses]…

“We have all been here before”…

Mike Macfarlane: ‎(Roger Daltrey: Yeeeaaahhh!)

Adam Sobolak: There ought to be room for Dallas Taylor and Greg Reeves as semi-regulars

Luke Jackson: Man, I used to LOVE The Crosby Show.

Jeff Norman: I remember when Crosby used to advertise Jell-o. Or at least, have huge gobs of it stuck in his beard.

Violet Benny: Hands down, one of the best threads I’ve ever read! To quote Rodger Datrey, “Yeeeaaahhh!”

Jeff Norman: Back to the original post: Pretty sure that trail of blood stains was on a four-way street.

NOTE TO SHELF: Cosmic Thing by The B-52’s

I recently started a brand new feature here on The Pulmyears Music Blog which I call Note To Shelf.

This is the space where I recommend, or just blather on about, a recording from my shelf that I feel you should know about. I won’t do this everyday but when I do, it will be about recordings that “glow” or scream “play me” when I walk by the shelf (or the virtual iTunes shelf).
Today, I glanced at the shelf and noticed Cosmic Thing by The B-52’s. What follows is something I have been meaning to write for years.

Cosmic Contradiction? America’s favorite party band’s most commercial release is also a deeply spiritual and personal concept album. A celebration of cosmic transcendence you can dance to.

By 1987, the B-52’s, America’s favorite New Wave party band™, had seen better days.

Following the death of founder guitarist Ricky Wilson (in 1985 from complications of AIDS), the rest of the Athens, Georgia collective — Fred Schneider, Kate Pierson, Keith Strickland and Ricky’s sister Cindy Wilson — were at a musical and spiritual crossroads. It had been six years since they had broken through with their eponymous 1979 debut, surely one of the most ubiquitous party albums of its day. And while they certainly made some impressive follow-ups — including 1980’s Wild Planet, 1982’s critically acclaimed Mesopotamia EP (produced by David Byrne) and 1983’s Whammy! – by 1986’s Bouncing Off the Satellites, they seemed rudderless without Wilson’s signature Mosrite surf-guitar.

Ricky’s loss hit them hard; so much so that they found it impossible to tour behind the album and pulled off the road entirely for a few years.

But the party wasn’t over, they just needed to adjust their view of themselves. Maybe switch things up.

Thus, when the original four reconvened, Keith Strickland stepped from out behind his drumkit and taught himself how to play guitar in more or less in the identical style of his fallen friend. They could adjust the sound, but death had affected them. What did they want to say about the world? Could they somehow fold into their music their own politically aware, socially conscious, LGBT friendly worldview? Sure, even at their most camp, the band’s songs barely concealed an almost hippie penchant for social activism; they had always known that “art” is the middle word in “party”.
If there was going to be a wake for Ricky, it was going to be one hell of party.

The tribute would be, quite simply, a cosmic thing.

Working with some of the best producers of their day, Don Was and Nile Rodgers, and with instrumental support from cool bass player Sara Lee and groove monster drummer Charlie Drayton, the B-52’s created a record that was both their most artistic and personal album ever and, paradoxically, the most mainstream commercial release of their career.

As the catchy single “Love Shack” shot out of MTV and the radios of the world, in the summer of 1989, who would have guessed that this southern juke joint party was in fact a treatise on cosmic transformation? In other words, spirituality you can dance to.

Perhaps this was the B-52’s mission statement all along. To reach as many people as possible and get their toes tapping long enough to get them thinking about broader topics.

Underlying Kate and Cindy’s hippie harmonies, which had never been sweeter or tighter, or more in stark contrast to carnival barker Fred Schneider’s call-outs, songs like “Roam” “Dry County” or “Deadbeat Club” present a lyrical theme of wistful nostalgia, longing, loss and the quest for transcendence.

And you can party down to them. But then comes the album’s instrumental coda.

“Follow Your Bliss”, provides the final clue about the album’s transformative treatise. With a title based on Joseph Campbell’s three word secret of life, the piece is weighted by an elegiac, big-note surf guitar figure reminiscent of Ricky Wilson; a “missing man formation” in song. It is also uncharacteristically free of novelty – for once cosmic trumps comic – vacillating between an insistent keyboard figure and angelic female vocal “ahhhs”. Schneider respectfully stays out of the whole thing.

In context to the rest of Cosmic Thing, it comes off like the end theme to a particularly poignant film; the cosmic punch line to an album that, up until that moment, has quite literally danced around the subject.

And now a bonus find, the rehearsal run through of the band doing “Cosmic Thing” (in curlers) on SNL in 1990.

NOTE TO SHELF: Spilt Milk by Jellyfish

I recently started a brand new feature here on The Pulmyears Music Blog which I call Note To Shelf.

This is the space where I recommend, or just blather on about, a recording from my shelf that I feel you should know about. I won’t do this everyday but when I do, it will be about recordings that “glow” or scream “play me” when I walk by the shelf (or the virtual iTunes shelf).

Today I want to recommend one of my all-time favourite power pop gems, a burst of  California tanned Anglophilia by a great and fleeting Los Angeles band who made two albums then splintered into a million other shards of greatness

The band is JELLYISH and the album today is  SPILT MILK (1993).

They were an ephemeral phenomenon, lasting only four years during which time they only made two albums, but San Francisco’s Jellyfish, who broke up in 1994, were too good to last. I had first heard them around 1990 just after their first album Bellybutton was released. A fellow Toronto musician, it may have been bass player Bob McKitrick, first showed me the CD jacket featuring the band, with drummer lead singer Andy Sturmer up front, part smirking Uncle Sam/ part sly Cat In The Hat, posed over a naked womanscape like it was the second Summer of Love. Sturmer, along with Roger Joseph Manning, Jr., Jason Falkner and some guests, including Steve McDonald (from Redd Kross), laid down a very XTC-ish sonic soup, and I was instantly intrigued by songs like “The Man I Used To Be”, “Baby’s Coming Back”, “That Is Why” and “The King Is Half-Undressed”:

They were so California, and yet I also pictured these guys listening to the same British records I did, from Queen to The Beatles and XTC, but then heading down to L.A. to record in the same high ceilinged room, Ocean Way, where Brian Wilson had once worked.

Cut to a few years later, 1992, and I’m starting to get my own band The Gravelberrys off the ground (still living in Toronto). When you start to get to know a lot of people in the music business, bootlegs and demo tapes just seem to come your way, shared under the silent secret code of working musicians. This time, somebody passed me a demo cassette for Jellyfish’s next album. There were about five songs on it, but these demos, which I later discovered was actually pre-production with Lyle Workman, were practically finished masters; multi-part layered vocal harmonies redolent of Queen or the Beach Boys, stabbing guitars, crazy drum fills and hooks galore.

And this was the DEMO? These songs went all over the map.

I was eagerly awaiting the finalized album, and when Spilt Milk was released on February 3, 1993, I bought it immediately. It became an instant favourite and remains as such to this day. The songs are mainly credited to Sturmer and Manning, and the band now featured bassist Tim Smith, who would later become a key member of Sheryl Crow‘s band. Interestingly, for fans of The Grays, Jason Falkner had left the band, so some of the guitars on Spilt Milk were handled by guest Jon Brion, along with Lyle Workman. Also of note, the late T-Bone Wolk, Daryl Hall’s former right hand man, guested on bass on one track.

They opened with“Hush”,  a track that felt like Freddie Mercury had remade Pet Sounds:

This dreamy opener was just a bit of misdirection to lull the listener before the sonic slam of “Joining A Fan Club”, perhaps their greatest rock song ever, to get the whole album cooking:

I could literally post the whole album, but for expedience sake, let me skip paste the awesome “Sebrina, Paste And Plato” to another of their greatest rock songs, (a sort of harder Ambrosia or Toto with balls), on : “New Mistake”:

Not ashamed to say that I get goosebumps and tear up a little when I hear that one. Euphoria never had such a loud kick drum. But this album doesn’t quit there!

There’s “The Glutton Of Sympathy”:

THEN, the best song about the music business, and prescient too, coming just a year before Kurt Cobain’s death:

“The Ghost At Number One”

After “Bye, Bye, Bye” we are treated to the onslaught of “All Is Forgiven” one of the five songs I had heard on the demo:

which is smash cut (on the album) to its polar opposite, the pleasantly San Franciscan, “Russian Hill”:

There’s three more great songs after after that. Spilt Milk was produced by Albhy Galuten, Andy Sturmer, Roger Manning and the great Jack Joseph Puig, who also recorded and mixed it (the man loves compression and so I love him) who also did The Grays album.

Trust me, this album has been in my top 20 for years now and it just gets better and better for me.

After the album, grunge probably made it difficult for a band with such curlicued tastes, and Sturmer and Manning eventually got on each others nerves, or so I’m told. Jellyfish packed it around the same time as Kurt Cobain did. Post-breakup, there was a Japan only best-of called The Greatest (1998), a four disc rarities set called Fan Club (2002) and the compilation, Best! (2006)

Andy Sturmer seems to do well in Japan, he’d produced and written for Puffy Ami Yumi and Yuki, and has worked with The Black Crowes and a lot of great L.A. acts. He’s kind of legendary now.

Roger Joseph Manning Jr has been a little more visible on these shores, and after a short-lived rock band (with former Jellyfish touring member Eric Dover) called Imperial Drag, he made two great instrumental synthesizer albums as The Moog Cookbook, with fellow synthesist Brian Kehew. Highly recommended. You may also know Manning as a sideman for Beck and Air.

Jason Falkner of course, teamed up with  Jon Brion (and Buddy Judge and Dan McCarroll) in The Grays, who made one legendary album, Ro Sham Bo, which is also in my all time top 20.

I also loved Jason Falkner’s Presents Author Unknown (1996), which I wrote about here for Crawdaddy, as well as most of his solo albums.

I read online that Manning and Falkner have reunited (along with ex Redd Kross member Brian Reitzell) as  TV Eyes. Reitzell and Manning also worked on the soundtrack for Sofia Coppola’s Lost in Translation. Recently, Falkner and Manning have been sidemen for Cheap Trick, and I hear they’ve opened some shows for Rockford, Illinois’s Finest.

For an excellent history of Jellyfish click through to: God’s Gift To Oxygen: A Brief History of Jellyfish

Crawdaddy Gets Pasted, Baldry on E, Wizard’s Big In Japan, & Other Loose Ends

LOOSE ENDS

Liza and I attended a taping of Late Night With Jimmy Fallon in May, 2011.

HELLO THERE!  If you follow this blog, and my thanks if you do, you’ll note that I often forget I have a blog. Blame Twitter, blame Facebook, blame my parents, blame the fact that I gots to gets paid now and then… Anyway, thanks for coming back to the well. Especially you, Dan.

As for that getting paid thing, you may want to check out some of my articles for web publications. Here’s the good news bad news about some of that: I was recently told by the fabulous Crawdaddy editor Angela Zimmerman that they will sadly cease to exist as a page of their own. They are now part of the Paste Magazine juggernaut, and all the pieces I did for them will be archived on their site here: http://www.crawdaddyarchive.com/  I believe if you type “Paul Myers” in the search there, you’ll find all the stuff I did for Crawdaddy, including some of my own favourite feature interviews with Daryl Hall, XTC’s Andy Partridge, Yes/King Crimson’s Bill Bruford, Liam Finn and my Canadian homeboys, Sloan. I think they’ll also have my record reviews for Sloan, Robyn Hitchcock and more. So at least my work will be available there, so that’s not a bad thing.

Losing Crawdaddy proper is a drag, but especially because Angela was one of the best and nicest editors I ever worked for, and I really liked writing stuff for her. Hopefully, this business being what it is, we’ll work on something together in the future. Happy Trails Angie!

Then, self-preservation kicked in and I wondered if Paste needed a great writer! Or me. Well, so far so good, as I recently contributed this Fountains of Wayne interview to Paste’s new mPlayer online magazine.

BALDRY’S OUT, IN KINDLE FORM!

Also in the electronic realm, I recently received word that D&M Publishers in Vancouver, BC, has made my 1997 book, It Ain’t Easy: Long John Baldry And The Birth Of The British Blues available as an “e-title” for the Amazon Kindle. No word on whether that means it’s available for iPad too. I’ll admit I don’t really know how that works, myself. All I know, is that a title that I’m extremely proud of is still accessible to anyone who needs to read about an unsung hero of the UK blues rock movement of the late 50s/early 60s. A book for which Cameron Crowe said “Paul Myers’s masterful book is a roller-coaster through the era, complete with all its chaos, glory and fortune. Rock on, and turn it up!” and Andrew Loog Oldham said “Paul Myers taps the source to reveal the bittersweet truth about the passionate, undisciplined, caring and often crazed world of our beloved John.” Thanks guys.

COOL PRAISE FROM THE UNCOOL

And speaking of Cameron Crowe, I once again received kind words from him in an interview on his own blog The Uncool: The Official Website For All Things Cameron Crowe. This time he’s talking about my Todd Rundgren book:

INTERVIEWER: You’ve mentioned Todd Rundgren as someone you didn’t want to like, but couldn’t help yourself…

CROWE: You touch on something that is one of the great things about loving bands, music or movies. Sometimes the ones you love the most are the ones that began by you arguing so aggressively with your friends that the group or the song is shit. It’s like something that kind of irks you ultimately can become the very thing that you cannot get enough of. It’s true in life too with relationships for sure.

Because of an album cover or a photo I’d seen, Todd seemed like an irksome dude. He had a smirk on his face. He had such a self-appreciative presentation that made me want to be the guy who said, “I don’t want to get it.” Of course now, I crave Todd Rundgren and I will forever. The YouTube performances of Todd, I mean I’ve lost entire days going through ‘em. (laughs) I think I’ve over-tweeted this issue with Paul Myers too. Paul wrote a great book on Todd (A Wizard. A True Star: Todd Rundgren In The Studio). There are a lot of songs and people that begin that way in your life. It’s the best cycle, it’s fandom.”

Thank you very, very much Cameron, I consider you a mentor at this point!

BIG IN JAPAN: IT’S TODDZILLA!

And thanks to Keiko, my Japanese Todd fan friend in Tokyo, I recently sent pics of the new Japanese edition of my book A Wizard A True Star: Todd Rundgren In The Studio.

Here’s an end-cap display for it at Tower Records/Books in Shibuya (Tokyo).

And she also told me, probably because Todd was over there playing, that my book was the  NUMBER ONE BEST SELLER in its category on the Amazon Japan.

So that’s cool. I love Japan.

WILLOWDALE REUNION: PAUL MEETS RUSH

And finally, through some awesome connections with some very nice people, I was able to get backstage at a recent Rush show at the Sleep Train Pavilion in Concord, California (a short drive north east of San Francisco). It’s important to note that when I was 16 years old, my very first band, Nighthawk, used to cover Rush songs (alongside KISS, BTO, Grand Funk and Led Zeppelin and our nascent “originals”). We rehearsed in the back room of the Advent Lutheran Church in Willowdale, the same suburban North Toronto neighbourhood where Rush had formed a bit before our time.

I took my friend John Elliott along, and it was gratifying to give my “plus one” to genuine fan who really got into it. We got to have informal chats with Alex Lifeson and Geddy Lee after the show, but also posed for the formal “Fan Lineup Shots” too. Here’s one. Note: I’m the silverhead grinning like the 16 year old I had become.

Gotta go now, I have a paying gig to finish. I’ll try to write more often, othewise, see you on Twitter: @pulmyears