Changing Of The Guards (2007)

Another Dylan cover:

I Believe In You (2008)

This is a cover of a Bob Dylan song from his 1979 album "Slow Train Coming"

Her cover version retains the same words and lyrics of Dylan's orginal but taken out of context of Dylan's album, she could be singing about faith in another person.

I saw Cat Power perform this song at San Diego's "Street Scenes" music festival a few years ago. Here are links to that which I want to watch later on. link  Her guitar player was a guy named Judah Bauer who played in the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion.

Lily, Rosemary, And The Jack Of Hearts (1975)

If You See Her, Say Hello!

Bob Dylan's RMS Tempest

I've been thinking about the 14 minute song called "Tempest" on Bob Dylan's eponymous new album. I had some thoughts, but then went fact checking and ran across this site which has a head start.  I especially liked the insight into the old Carter Family song which I linked after the lyrics below:

The pale moon rose in its glory
Out on the Western town
She told a sad, sad story
Of the great ship that went down

T'was the fourteenth day of April
Over the waves she rode
Sailing into tomorrow
To a golden age foretold

The night was black with starlight
The seas were sharp and clear
Moving through the shadows
The promised hour was near

Lights were holding steady
Gliding over the foam
All the lords and ladies
Heading for their eternal home

The chandeliers were swaying
From the balustrades above
The orchestra was playing
Songs of faded love

The watchman, he lay dreaming
As the ballroom dancers twirled
He dreamed the Titanic was sinking
Into the underworld

Leo took his sketchbook
He was often so inclined
He closed his eyes and painted
The scenery in his mind

Cupid struck his bosom
And broke it with a snap
The closest woman to him
He fell into her lap

He heard a loud commotion
Something sounded wrong
His inner spirit was saying
That he couldn't stand here long

He staggered to the quarterdeck
No time now to sleep
Water on the quarterdeck
Already three foot deep

Smokestack was leaning sideways
Heavy feet began to pound
He walked into the whirlwind
Sky splitting all around

The ship was going under
The universe had opened wide
The roll was called up yonder
The angels turned aside

Lights down in the hallway
Flickering dim and dull
Dead bodies already floating
In the double bottom hull

The engines then exploded
Propellers they failed to start
The boilers overloaded
The ship's bow split apart

Passengers were flying
Backward, forward, far and fast
They mumbled, fumbled, and tumbled
Each one more weary than the last

The veil was torn asunder
'Tween the hours of twelve and one
No change, no sudden wonder
Could undo what had been done

The watchman lay there dreaming
At forty-five degrees
He dreamed that the Titanic was sinking
Dropping to her knees

Wellington he was sleeping
His bed began to slide
His valiant heart was beating
He pushed the tables aside

Glass of shattered crystal
Lay scattered roundabout
He strapped on both his pistols
How long could he hold out?

His men and his companions
Were nowhere to be seen
In silence there he waited for
Time and space to intervene

The passageway was narrow
There was blackness in the air
He saw every kind of sorrow
Heard voices everywhere

Alarm-bells were ringing
To hold back the swelling tide
Friends and lovers clinging
To each other side by side

Mothers and their daughters
Descending down the stairs
Jumped into the icy waters
Love and pity sent their prayers

The rich man, Mister Astor
Kissed his darling wife
He had no way of knowing
It'd be the last trip of his life

Calvin, Blake and Wilson
Gambled in the dark
Not one of them would ever live to
Tell the tale on the disembark

Brother rose up 'gainst brother
In every circumstance
They fought and slaughtered each other
In a deadly dance

They lowered down the lifeboats
From the sinking wreck
There were traitors, there were turncoats
Broken backs and broken necks

The bishop left his cabin
To help others in need
Turned his eyes up to the heavens
Said, "The poor are yours to feed"

Davey the brothel-keeper
Came out dismissed his girls
Saw the water getting deeper
Saw the changing of his world

Jim Dandy smiled
He never learned to swim
Saw the little crippled child
And he gave his seat to him

He saw the starlight shining
Streaming from the East
Death was on the rampage
But his heart was now at peace

They battened down the hatches
But the hatches wouldn't hold
They drowned upon the staircase
Of brass and polished gold

Leo said to Cleo
I think I'm going mad
But he'd lost his mind already
Whatever mind he had

He tried to block the doorway
To save all those from harm
Blood from an open wound
Pouring down his arm

Petals fell from flowers
Til all of them were gone
In the long and dreadful hours
The wizard's curse played on

The host was pouring brandy
He was going down slow
He stayed right to the end and he
Was the last to go

There were many, many others
Nameless here forever more
They never sailed the ocean
Or left their homes before

The watchman, he lay dreaming
The damage had been done
He dreamed the Titanic was sinking
And he tried to tell someone

The captain, barely breathing
Kneeling at the wheel
Above him and beneath him
Fifty thousand tons of steel

He looked over at his compass
And he gazed into its face
Needle pointing downward
He knew he lost the race

In the dark illumination
He remembered bygone years
He read the Book of Revelation
And he filled his cup with tears

When the Reaper's task had ended
Sixteen hundred had gone to rest
The good, the bad, the rich, the poor
The loveliest and the best

They waited at the landing
And they tried to understand
But there is no understanding
On the judgement of God's hand

The news came over the wires
And struck with deadly force
Love had lost its fires
All things had run their course

The watchman he lay dreaming
Of all the things that can be
He dreamed the Titanic was sinking
Into the deep blue.

__________________________

Is Happiness Overrated?

Happiness is not on my list of priorities. I just deal with day-to-day things. If I’m happy, I’m happy–and if I’m not, I don’t know the difference.

~Bob Dylan (link)

Happiness is so important that we're entitled to its pursuit. And yet, the word itself must be carefully parsed lest one feel entitled to equate it with mere gratification or the right to be left alone. Of course one can make that equivalence, but I don't think that's what Jefferson had in mind. What he did have in mind might be found here: Link.

Words change with time. The original concept of happiness is closely linked to luck or good fortune:

Happy

late 14c., 'lucky, favored by fortune, prosperous;' of events, 'turning out well,' from hap (n.) 'chance, fortune' + -y (2). Sense of 'very glad' first recorded late 14c. Ousted O.E. eadig (from ead 'wealth, riches') and gesælig, which has become silly. Meaning 'greatly pleased and content' is from 1520s. O.E. bliðe 'happy' survives as blithe. From Greek to Irish, a great majority of the European words for 'happy' at first meant 'lucky.' An exception is Welsh, where the word used first meant 'wise.'

Blake quotes Will Durant: "Societies enter stoic and exit epicurean."

Added: Sole reader of this blog post, Calypso Facto quips:

'Societies enter stoic and exit epicurean'- Hopefully that was the banner hanging over the secret, star-studded White House Halloween party.

'Umble Pie

[I changed the title from "Humbler Pie" to 'Umble Pie because it reminded me of the Artful Dodger]

I guess Steve Marriott is an acquired taste. I'll never forget him as the leader of Humble Pie, the very first rock concert I saw. But he was more than that. He was a defining face (albeit a small one) of the 1960's rock and roll scene in Britain. I did a brief homage to him a year ago: link. But I forgot to mention that he was an uncredited inventor of Led Zeppelin's Whole Lotta Love (well, he along with Willie Dixon).  Listen to this 1966 version of "You Need Loving" and tell me it didn't influence Robert Plant three years later:

Of course both Led Zeppelin and the Small Faces were copying Muddy Waters' 1962 version of Willy Dixon's "You Need Love."  Dixon sued Led Zeppelin in 1985 over copyright infringement and prevailed. He never sued Marriott. In the words of Plant:

well, you only get caught when you're successful. That's the game.

The whole story reminds me of Bob Dylan recording Dave Van Ronk's version of "The House Of The Rising Sun" in 1962 and then being one-upped by The Animal's version a year or so later as told in Martin Scorsese's "No Direction Home."

50 Years Of MyTunes: 1979

Putting this together I was struck by how familiar some of the linked videos are. This is because I remember most of them from the upcoming MTV era.

The Wall ~ Pink Floyd. This was a much improved concept album after their heavy-handed Animals. I didn't realize how "Roger Waters" the whole concept was at first. Maybe I wasn't paying close attention. Now things read to me like Waters became a control freak after this point and the band never fully recovered.

London Calling ~ The Clash. Rather than write anything new, I'll just link to this two thumbs up comment by Michael Haz (which includes video links).

Stop Your Sobbing and Brass in Pocket ~ Pretenders. I admire Chrissie Hynde. She played hard in what was still a man's world and she did it as an American abroad. That took something special. Their version of Stop Your Sobbing was true to the original version by The Kinks and she caught the eyes and ears of Ray Davies (among other parts of him :). I never saw the original Pretenders but I did get to see their second incarnation a few years latter in Akron OH, of all places.

Wave ~ Patti Smith Group. She and her original group hit the highest mark of their careers together--and she retired after a disastrous concert which I described here. Frederick, her touching paean to Fred "Sonic" Smith -- future husband and father of her kids, was lyrically gorgeous. Dancing Barefoot, with its evocative lapsed Catholicism, was just as memorable.

Damn the Torpedoes ~ Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers cornered the market on male teenage angst--at least my share. Even The Losers.

Fear Of Music  ~ The Talking Heads. "This ain't no party, this ain't no disco..."

Low Budget ~ The Kinks.  Even the Kinks cashed in on the disco craze. Ray Davies hammed it up on wry with his reference to "Stayin' Alive" in Superman LOL!

Armed Forces ~ Elvis Costello. His best work IMHO. The best known song (What's So Funny 'Bout) Peace, Love and Understanding was written by Nick Lowe.

Slow Train Coming  ~ Bob Dylan became more unpopular than Jesus in San Francisco when he released this to his flock. Really, the same people who dissed him then and continue to hide their copies of this (if they ever even owned one) are the same people who despise Sarah Palin. Get over yourselves already! I'm embedding a cover version of "I Believe In You" by Cat Power which is astonishingly good and deserves to become the definitive version of Dylan's song:



Rust Never Sleeps ~ Neil Young & Crazy Horse. Neil Young reinvented himself yet again and the man is still a legend today.


Notable Singles from 1979

Video Killed the Radio Star ~ The Buggles. This band had the distinction of being the very first music video aired (cabled?) by MTV when they debuted 2 years later in 1981. But the song actually predated MTV and they weren't referring to MTV at all at the time.

What I Like About You ~ The Romantics. Lurved it for some reason.

Broken English ~ Marianne Faithfull. Now here's a woman scorned with a broken voice. She really hit the skids. Reading about her in Life by Keith Richards made me want to read her side of the story of what happened between her and Mick Jagger.

Sara ~ Fleetwood Mac. I already considered this heart rending song, but not in a good way, back here.

Heart of Glass ~ Blondie rocked!

I Wanna Be Sedated ~ The Ramones

_________________
The Doors enjoyed a brief resurgence in sales due to the use of their music in Francis Ford Coppola's Apocalypse Now.

Revisiting Highway 61

That photo was taken along Minnesota's Highway 61 by my late father sometime in the 70's. The concrete wall is kind of unsightly (imagine it's not there) and is a safety eyesore only then recently added. [Added: that stretch of Highway 61 no longer exists and has been replaced by a tunnel].

State Highway MN 61 follows the Lake Superior coastline from Duluth all the way to Canada. Prior to 1991, MN 61 was part of US 61, or as Dylan referred to it, Highway 61 (yes, that Highway 61).  Highway 61 was also called the "Blues Highway" and it stretched from Canada all the way to New Orleans. Before the interstate system, US 61 was a main route north-south, much like US 66 was a main route east-west. In my humble opinion, that particular stretch of MN 61 is one of the most beautiful and scenic drives in the continental US (and I'm including both coastal California and New England!).

Minnesota's Lake Superior coastline is shipwreck rich. Map The reason there are so many wrecks is simply because there were so many ships and also because the lake was a cruel and harsh place to navigate before modern navigational equipment. Duluth was once a leading shipping port city (at one time it had more millionaires per capita than any other America city). The ships came first to carry away furs and pelts from the interior; then they came for timber and grain; then for copper, and then finally, for the iron.

The Iron Range is (or was) a massive geological deposit of iron ore-so much that it fed the entire steel industry "downstream" at the other Great Lakes [added: about a quarter of it came from just one pit]. Great old industrial cities like Detroit, Cleveland and farther inland, Pittsburgh were built from it. Arguably, the only physical reason those cities were ever great (laying aside the great people for a moment) was simply the melding together of Appalachian coal and Minnesota iron to make American steel. The boom years lasted for well over a half century.

My dad started scuba diving up there in the early 1960's. He had an acquaintance who lived up there and who had discovered one or two shipwrecks. Back in those days scuba diving was still relatively uncommon, not at all like it is today. There were no dive shops (in Madison at least). Scuba tanks could only be filled at welding shops or fire stations. Some gas stations had air-compressors that went to high enough pressures but they usually didn't filter and the compressed air tended to be contaminated with pump oil. Diving gear had to be bought by mail order from companies that advertised in the back of magazines like Skin Diver or the likes. Most equipment was still manufactured either in California or Italy (it's probably all made in China now like everything else).

When I was 15 my dad took me on a scuba trip to Lake Superior along Minnesota's North Shore. My brother and I had been around diving since we were little kids, but he waited until we were older and had passed a certification course before taking us up there. He took us separately (there's a 3 year age difference there), mostly for reasons of space and equipment limitations: we always drove up from Madison and had to pack a week's worth of gear, camping equipment, and food.  I recently got around to digitizing some slides he took and so have decided to start yet another blog post series to remember all these things before I get old and forgetful. I'm still looking for some photos I took. At least there'll be pictures this time so don't go away.