I hope everyone had a great Christmas. Now that the dust has settled and the last of the guests have departed, there is time to look through this year’s music related gifts. Most of the gifts I receive every year are books and music (CDs, DVDs, albums…).
Among this year’s offerings let’s start with the books:
MURMUR by J. Niimi. This is part of the 33 1/3 series. Various authors write short paperbacks (usually around 120 pages) on a particular album. It’s a fun series that covers quite a bit of musical ground from Bowie to the Stones to current day artists like Kanye West. This one is a dissection of R.E.M.’s first full length album. The time period it covers (1983) generally coincides with my discovery of the band so I am looking forward to digging into this one.
Live At The Fillmore East and West by John Glatt. Another of my musical obsessions is the Fillmore East. All my early faves performed there (Neil Young, Traffic, Allmans, Derek and the Dominoes…) and alas by the time I was of concert going age the Fillmore East was gone. I heard about this book just last week from a guy at our Irving Plaza show (see last week’s post). We were standing off stage watching our friend’s band. We got to talking about Irving Plaza as one of the last great small places to see a show and he mentioned he had just read a review of this book.
Now on to the music…
History Of The Eagles (DVD). Some obsessions become less healthy over time. I saw the first two discs of this DVD in 2013 on Showtime. The first disc covers the band from its inception to the break up in 1980 after The Long Run. In retrospect The Eagles were the most successful but the least interesting of the southern California group of artists from that time. I would include in this group Jackson Browne, Warren Zevon, J.D. Souther, Karla Bonoff and Little Feat. The second disc covers the time from the Hell Freezes Over reunion tour to the present day. This disc is a real eye opener into the evolution of Henley and Frey from being the creative core of the band to greedy, blood sucking bosses whose other band mates are treated, and paid, like back up musicians. The third disc is a concert performance in Maryland from the 1977 Hotel California tour which should be cool to see. However it’s hard to un-ring the bell from the second disc.
Looking Into You. A Tribute To Jackson Browne (CD). I’ve had my eye on this one for awhile. I was trying to see if it was available in vinyl but I don’t there there was a pressing. Nevertheless this is worth having on CD. The song selection touches all the bases and the artist list, though it has a few of the usual suspects, it a bit eclectic. The way these things usually work is the artists selected get to pick songs in which they are interested. I’m particularly looking forward to “These Days” by Don Henley, J.D. Souther’s take on “My Opening Farewell” and Karla Bonoff on “Something Fine”. Though I’m sure there are other interpretations here that will provide new and interesting spins on some of JB’s classic tunes.
Rolling Stones From The Vault: L.A. Forum Live In 1975 (2 CD and DVD) This looks like it could be a really interesting series. Like many late stage classic rock bands, The Stones have started putting out previously (commercially) unreleased recordings (CD and DVD) of shows from their concert tours. They start off with a show from the legendary 1975 Tour of the Americas. I remember reading the reports from this tour in Rolling Stone when I was in high school. It was arguably their biggest tour ever (except maybe the 1969 U.S. tour) with the Stones at the peak of their powers on this tour if not musically, certainly in stature and reputation. This is the first tour with Ronnie Wood (who replace Mick Taylor who many believe played on the best Stones albums and tours) and with Keith in his full on heroin phase staying up for days at a time. This is still the pre-stadium tour Stones, performed in arenas like the L.A. Forum (I believe the first stadium tour is Tatoo You in 1981 which is chronicled in the second release of this series). 1975 also marked the beginning of the Rolling Stones’ big production tours with the unfolding star stage and various onstage props. It’s only rock and roll but I like it. Looking forward to more from this series.
Happy New Year to all!