Back in the sixties and seventies it was not uncommon for smaller rock venues  to have two shows a night. During this time most of the rock bands tours stopped at these smaller venues. This was generally theatre type places with around 3000 seats. There were also smaller clubs that might hold anywhere from 200 to 500 people. For economic and logistical reasons (ticket demand) these smaller places had an early and a late show.

There were three places in New York City that dominated this scene. From 1968 until 1971 the premier showcase for rock (and other musical genres^[1]) was the 2700 seat Fillmore East run by the legendary impresario Bill Graham^[2]. It was known for its great acoustics and psychodelic light show. Some of the great live albums of the time were recorded at the late shows where bands didn’t have the time constraints of the early show. The Allman Brothers “At Fillmore East”, Derek and the Dominoes “In Concert” and Jimi Hendrix “Bank of Gypsies” to name a few that were second show recordings. All the popular bands on the concert circuit coming through New York City would play the Fillmore East. 

The other popular theatre venue in NYC was the Academy of Music^[3] which was re-branded in 1976 as The Palladium. The Band recorded their legendary live album “Rock of Ages” there in a series of concerts around New Year’s 1970/71. It became the main concert spot in New York City after the Fillmore East closed in 1971. Especially since Bill Graham stipulated that acts performing at his venue were prohibited from performing at any other theatre with 75 miles for the following four months.  I saw Traffic there on their last tour in 1974 (early show).

Then there was the Bottom Line in Greenwich Village; a 400 seat club that served drinks and dinner that opened in 1974. The most famous run there being Bruce Springsteen in August 1975 doing ten shows over five nights just before the release of “Born to Run”.  Rent increases drove the club out of business in 2004

Outside of Manhattan there was the 3,200 seat Capital Theatre in Passaic, NJ. The Capital, which opened in October 1971, also benefited from the departure from the area of the iron-fisted Bill Graham and his 45 day no other show clause.  John Scher, a young NJ rock promoter, seeing an opportunity after the Fillmore East closed, bought the Capital, which was operating at that time as an adult movie theatre, and transformed it into a rock venue until 1989 when it closed. 

The Fillmore East was just before my time so I never saw any shows there. It was re-branded for a while after it closed as NFE Theatre (standing for New Fillmore East). My friends and I went to the opening night in December 1974 to see The Bachman Turner Overdrive, who was very popular at the time with their hit “Taking Care of Business’. The interesting thing about that show was there were two other bands on the bill and the group that opened was Bob Seger and The Silver Bullet Band (pre-Night Moves breakout). We paid little attention – if we only knew! I did however have the chance to take in a few late shows in my time.  

The Greg Allman Band, Capital Theatre, Passaic, NJ, April 1974.  Gregg Allman had just released his first solo album “Laid Back” in late 1973. Sometime in the late winter one of my close friends got tickets to see him in April  on his solo tour. I was 15 at the time so there were only two catches to this seemingly good fortune: the show was at the Capital Theatre and it was a midnight show. The Capital Theatre happened to be in Passaic, a notoriously run-down, moderately crime-ridden small NJ city.  This was not really the place suburbanites in their early teens should be walking around at all, let alone late at night. Being only 15 at the time negotiating a late show in Passaic would be tricky. Passaic, from a safety perspective, was only slightly above Newark, the standard by which all urban undesirability was measured. My friend’s older brother would be the driver and perhaps that helped to get the greenlight from my parents. I remember this from the show: it was still cold for early April, we had good seats in the balcony and Allman played with an orchestra. The show was also recorded and some of the performances were included on a live album of the tour. 

Neil Young and Crazy Horse, The Palladium, NYC, November 1976. I wrote an essay about this show already so I won’t go into too much about it here. For those who may remember that post getting a ride to the show was also a big variable. It was the only late show in a three day run that was added because of the strong demand. Second shows were beginning to fade by this time though there were a number of late shows on this tour (e.g., Boston and Atlanta). This is one of my top five concerts.^[4]

J.D. Souther, The Bottom Line, NYC, November 1979. I came up from college in Pennsylvania with my roommate to see this show. Souther was touring his (only) hit album, “You’re Only Lonely”. I had been a fan since buying “Black Rose”, his second album, my senior year in high school.^[5]Souther, one of the founding fathers of the seventies Southern California rock scene, is probably best known for co-writing some of the The Eagles biggest hits.

Warren Zevon, The Bottom Line, NYC, February 1983. I had already seen Zevon twice in and around Philadelphia when I was in college but took in this late show with my future wife. Why we chose the late show I’m not sure since we were both working full-time jobs. Zevon was touring behind “The Envoy” album. Having already seen him at this peak in the seventies I’m also not sure why we decided to brave the late night February cold for this show.^[6]

Starting in the early seventies the rock concert industry began to move more and more to sports arenas, like New York City’s Madison Square Garden, and to sports stadiums, like New Jersey’s Meadowlands. These venues could hold up 20,000 (and the stadiums much more). More money, fewer shows, etc. The sound quality and intimacy of the smaller venues were sacrificed for the economics of the larger venues. This is what drove Bill Graham to close his Fillmore venues in 1971. The other theatres and clubs mentioned above hung on but eventually went out of business and closed. 

 Also in the mid-seventies, the larger outdoor covered arenas (“sheds”), like The Garden State Arts Center in Holmdel, NJ., began dominating the rock and pop summer tour schedule. In the early seventies, before the Arts Center, Roosevelt Stadium, an old minor league baseball stadium, in Jersey City, NJ was the summer stop for all the big rock bands. It felt like going to a late show because many of the concerts went well past midnight.^[7] Jersey City was a little rough around the edges back then. The stadium was a dump and the security was almost non-existent (I was on line once waiting to get in and there was a guy behind me with a keg on a hand truck). When the Arts Center was built Roosevelt Stadium fell out of the rotation and was torn down not much later.  

These days there are still many small venues in New York City. Places like the Bowery Ballroom, Webster Hall and Town Hall are still popular spots for up and coming artists. The big bands don’t stop at these places anymore and there are no late shows. As for the theatres there is really just The Beacon which still attracts some name acts but the really big artists are still exclusively playing the arenas and stadiums.  Outside the city there is the recently refurbished The Capital Theatre in Port Chester, NY. It is a beautiful place to see a show (see last year’s Bob Dylan post). For places like the Beacon and The Capital there are no longer late shows.  Artists now do residencies like the Allman Brothers annual March stand at that Beacon in the early 2000’s.

^[1] In March 1970 Neil Young and Crazy Horse were paired on the bill with Miles Davis.

^[2] Graham also ran a number of venues in San Francisco including The Fillmore West and Winterland.

^[3] It was such a skeevy place that it was nicknamed the Academy of Mucous.

^[4] The other four being: Led Zeppelin at The Nassau Coliseum, February 1975; Bruce Springsteen at The Providence Civic Center, December 1981; U2 at the Meadowlands Arena, September 1987 and; REM at the Beacon Theatre, July 1984. Honorable Mention: Jackson Browne at the Garden State Arts Center, July 1978. 

^[5] “You’re Only Lonely” was his third album. I sort of stole his 1972 self-titled debut from my college radio station where my roommate was a late-night DJ (“watch that dead air!”). I borrowed it and just never returned so there wasn’t an intent to steal. JD took his time between releases. The next one would be in 1984 and then nothing until 2008! 

^[6] The better small venue show that my wife and I took in, though not a late show, was at the Lone Star Café in March 1987 to see JD Souther and Karla Bonoff.

^[7] I saw the Allman Brothers there in the summer of 1974 and the show was still going when I left around 1:30am.

Last Thursday, October 20th, A Leg To Stand On (ALTSO) returned to The Hard Rock Cafe in New York with their Rocktoberfest charity event for the first time since 2019. ALTSO provides physical, social, and upward mobility for children living with limb disabilities around the world. Seven bands on the main stage and eight acts on the acoustic stage provided the entertainment for the crowd of 1,200. I played a five-song set on the acoustic stage. Greg Dabal (lead guitar) and Bruce Torley (bass) joined me on our new single “Love Is Real”. Thanks to my sponsors: Wells Fargo, Clear Street, BMO and Goldman Sachs.

Set List:

Love Is Real (with Greg and Bruce)

Leave Well Enough Alone (unreleased)

Hold On To Me (unreleased)

Tribes

Normal

A Leg To Stand On (altso.org) returned to the Bitter End in New York City on Tuesday for its pre-Rocktoberfest jam session for the first time in three years. Eight bands and solo artists took the stage for 20 to 35 minute sets. I kicked things of with a solo acoustic set. The set list follows:

Normal (on piano)

Outrage (unreleased)

Better Off Without Me

Tahiti (unreleased)

Thanks to everyone who came and listened to support this very worthy cause helping children around the world with limb disabilities. Rocktoberfest is Thursday, October 20th at The Hard Rock Cafe in Times Square. I’ll be playing in the acoustic room. Hope to see you there.

The Wall Street Journal column last November by Andy Kessler (“A Long Time Since ‘Zeppelin IV’”) comments on the unusually high number of classic rock albums released in 1971. Kessler’s column contends that “More legacy-defining albums were released in 1971” than any other year. “Legacy-defining” being somewhat in the ears of the beholder, 1971 was a big year for rock music. These albums put a stake in the ground for the seventies being THE decade of rock music. These albums are still getting maximum airplay today on classic rock stations, satellite radio and streaming services.  The column reminded me that others in the media (books, television, online) have also recently been weighing in on the best years of the seventies. I’ll offer my own thoughts as well.^[1]

The streaming service Apple TV+, aligning with Kessler, had a program last year called “1971: The Year That Music Changed Everything”. The show presents a view of the year’s music and how the social and political environment influenced the artists and vice versa. There is some overlap with the WSJ article (e.g., Marvin Gaye’s “What’s Going On”). Each episode focuses on a different genre and social backdrop like George Harrison’s “Concert For Bangladesh” which was the first rock benefit concert. 

Paste (online pop culture daily) recently listed its top albums for 1972. This included “Close to the Edge by Yes, “Eat a Peach” by the Allman Brothers Band, “Rock of Ages” by The Band, “Harvest” by Neil Young, “Exile on Main Street” by The Rolling Stones, “Let’s Stay Together” by Al Green, “Super Fly” by Curtis Mayfield and  “Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars” by David Bowie.  1972 certainly has a strong case. 

Then there is the book “Rock Me On The Water: 1974-The Year Los Angeles Transformed Movie, Music and Television” by Ronald Brownstein. The author makes the case for 1974 being seminal year for southern California being the driver of American culture. Brownstein casts his nets wider to include movies^[2] and television. For the music of 1974 he focuses on Linda Ronstadt and Jackson Browne. Though Ronstadt broke that year with “Heart Like A Wheel” and Browne released his masterpiece “Late For The Sky” I would argue that the peak of southern California music was still a few years away.^[3]  In 1974 I was still a year away from discovering Jackson Browne and Linda Ronstadt. My southern California tastes ran to Neil Young (“On The Beach) and the Eagles (“On The Border). It is also hard to make the case that Los Angeles was the only region creating influential music in 1974. From England we had Eric Clapton emerging from his heroin exile with “461 Ocean Boulevard”^[4] , The Rolling Stones released “It’s Only Rock and Roll” and Elton John continued on his seventies roll with “Caribou”. Also, from England, Emerson, Lake and Palmer were dominating the prog-rock scene with the live album “Welcome Back My Friends…”. Back in the American the Georgia-based Allman Brothers were still riding high from 1973’s “Brothers and Sisters” with their hits “Ramblin’ Man” and “Jessica” still all over the radio. Mid-west transplant Dan Fogelberg released the guest-player heavy “Souvenirs”.  There is no debate that a lot of great music was coming out of Los Angeles in 1974 but I think Brownstein is selectively picking his examples to make them fit his thesis. 

Two other periods of the seventies deserve consideration for delivering some of the best rock albums. First, there is late 1975 through early 1977. Some of the biggest selling albums of all time were released during this period. The list includes Fleetwood Mac’s “Rumours”, Eagles’ “Hotel California”, Boston’s first album, Steely Dan’s “Aja” and “Frampton Comes Alive!”  There were also one-hitters like Al Stewart’s “The Year of the Cat”. These albums were on everyone’s turntables at the time.

The other period is 1978-9 and the emergence of next generation of stars with artists including the likes of Bruce Springsteen (“Darkness on the Edge of Town”^[5]), Tom Petty (“Damn The Torpedoes”) and Elvis Costello (“My Aim Is True”). Neil Young came out with one of his best albums of the seventies with “Rust Never Sleeps”. This time period had its own blockbusters like the Doobie Brothers “Minute by Minute” (and the ubiquitous single “What A Fool Believes”). My own favorites from that time include Graham Parker’s “Squeezing Out Sparks”^[6] and Lowell George’s solo album “Thanks I’ll Eat It Here”.^[7]

In the final analysis no one year can tell the story of rock music in the seventies. The decade has to be viewed as a whole to understand how things evolved from year to year and the evolution was drastic at times. New kids from early in the decade became bloated superstars (e.g., Fleetwood Mac and the Eagles) and crash-landed into the eighties. The next generation (e.g., Springsteen, Petty) took the baton.  The seventies had every kind of music. In addition to rock there was punk, disco, post-punk and new wave. It was a glorious mess of a decade. I’m so glad this was the time of my youth.  Here is Kessler’s list of albums from 1971 as he presented it, titles only (I’m sure you can guess the artist or band):  

“Sticky Fingers,” “Who’s Next,” “L.A. Woman,” “Aqualung,” “Tapestry,” “What’s Going On,” “Fragile,” “Imagine,” “At Fillmore East,” “Madman across the Water,” “Pearl,” “Anticipation,” “Shaft,” “The Low Spark of High Heeled Boys,” “The Concert for Bangladesh.” How many did you get? Now add the Grateful Dead’s first gold album, and of course “Led Zeppelin IV,” sometimes known as Zoso.”

ARTS ROUNDUP

Streaming – I have been watching a few series lately that have what I would call The “Big Con” theme.  First there is “Inventing Anna”,  starring Julia Garner, which is a true story about a woman passing herself off as a rich European socialite. Anna gets the gullible around her (friends, banks) to pay for her lifestyle until she runs out of rope and winds up in jail (where she it today). Next there is “We Crashed” about the WeWork founder Adam Neuman and his wife Rebekah (Jared Leto and Anne Hathaway). Trying to pass off a shared workspace company as the next Amazon, Neumann raises tons of money (J.P. Morgan and Soft Bank) and spends it lavishly. Finally it all comes tumbling down as a planned IPO smokes them out. Finally we have “The Dropout” about Elizabeth Holmes and her company Theronos. Like Anna this is a con from the get-go because the technology (rapid blood tests) doesn’t work. Still Holmes raises lots of money and attracts A-list people and companies (George Schultz, Walgreens) before… well you know how this turns out. 

Books – “Sea of Tranquility” by Emily St. John Mandel. The author of the hit book “Station Eleven” is back with a shape-shifting story of time travel spanning five centuries and people commuting from earth to colonies on the moon via advanced air ships. A novel about how humanity grapples with the passing of time. I don’t read books that quickly but I read it in three days. From the non-fiction aisle there is “The Nineties: A Book” by Chuck Klosterman. Klosterman made his name as a writer by being an astute observer of popular culture. I picked up this book just to read him but it was fascinating to remember all that went on in the nineties: groundbreaking music (e.g., Nirvana), the rise of the internet, movies (e.g., “Titanic”), politics (the Clinton years) and lots more. Check it out. He’s fun to read. 

Music – “Raise the Roof”, Robert Plant and Alison Krause. It’s been 14 years since the 2008 release “Raising Sand” but it has been worth the wait. This one is as good and in some ways better than the first one. I’ve been playing it a lot. 

Podcasts – “Fresh Air”. The NPR series hosted by Terry Gross. Gross is legendary and I’ve been sampling her artist interviews. It’s a varied list that includes musicians like Dave Grohl and Richard Thompson and actors like Sam Waterston and Adam Scott. Gross, like the best interviewers, seems genuinely interested in her guests. 

^[1] I was in high school and college during the seventies. So many rites of passage with this music as the soundtrack to those years.

^[2] Certainly, films like 1974’s “Chinatown” were high water marks but this was hardly the end of the artist driven period for movies which would continue into the late seventies with movies like “The Deer Hunter” and….  For a more expansive take on the movies in the seventies I would recommend the book “Easy Riders, Raging Bulls”  by Peter Biskind.

^[3] Browne subsequently released “The Pretender” (1976) and  “Running on Empty” (1977). Rondstadt, who had a run of hit albums, hit ever-higher commercial peaks into the late seventies.

^[4] A set of shuffling songs that played down his guitar pyrotechnics with Cream and Derek and the Dominoes.  

^[5] Bruce saved his career with 1975’s “Born to Run” but some consider Darkness his masterpiece.

^[6] There was a great radio bootleg from the summer of 1979 which was better than the studio album. It was a treasured recording which I mourned when the cassette tape broke some years later.

^[7] George died a few months later on tour in support of the album.

A few months ago, I read that Bob Dylan was going on tour. I sent off an email to my friend, who immediately scored two tickets for November 23^rd at the Capital Theatre in Port Chester, NY. We have seen a few shows at the Capital since it was renovated a few years ago. Back in the seventies it was a regular stop for all the big bands (e.g., Grateful Dead). Neither of us had seen Dylan and with Bob now 81 it seemed like if we were going to do it now was the time. 

I have been a Dylan fan since high school.  My first exposure to Dylan was the album “The Concert For Bangladesh”, the George Harrison 1971 benefit show for this beleaguered country. Dylan was an unannounced guest and his five-song set took up one side of the three-album set. This was one of Dylan’s few appearances since his motorcycle accident in 1966. In my opinion,  this is one of Dylan’s best live recordings. The side opens up with a passionate reading of “A Hard Rain’s Gonna Fall” and closes with the quintessential version of “Just Like A Woman”.  His voice is incredible and his performance brings the house down.

In early 1974 Dylan announced a national tour with The Band, his first full tour since 1966. I was getting into music and was starting to get out to shows but somehow, I missed this one.  My friends and I all got his next album, “Desire”, that was released in 1975. This record spawned the Rolling Thunder Review tour, a rambling minstrel show with a host of guests (Roger McGuinn, Joni Mitchell et al). I didn’t get to see Dylan then either but I followed the coverage in Rolling Stone. 

From there my relationship with Dylan and his music went dormant only to be re-kindled in the late nineties when I picked up one of his bootleg series albums; a live recording of one of 1966 shows in England. This was the tumultuous tour where the crowds booed and threw things at the stage during the electric set with The Band. Dylan started releasing expanded studio and live recordings under his Bootleg Series in 1991 and, like so many other things, he set the standard for artists’ archival recordings. The series includes live shows and studio outtakes from all phases of his career.

In the past few years Dylan has become more important to me and my appreciation for him has grown. I am particularly taken by his quotes, his philosophy towards life and his style (e.g., the Nobel Prize kerfuffle). There is a great podcast interview of Ethan Hawke^[1] where at one point he talks about Dylan and his “density”, meaning how he lets nothing in that he doesn’t want to let in. Lately when I perform my own music I have been closing the set with a Dylan cover (never play Dylan BEFORE your own songs). I had low expectations for this show. Bob’s voice and delivery for the past few decades render most of his old songs unintelligible. I had checked on setlist.fm and the tour set list was unchanged each night. It was also mostly songs from his new album, “Rough and Rowdy Ways” with a few older songs mixed in. The point was to see Bob Dylan and hopefully the music would be passable. 

Port Chester is the last exit on route 287 in Westchester County before it merges into route 95 which takes you east into Connecticut or south to New York City. The exit dumps you on Westchester Avenue which is a straight shot down to the Capital Theatre. I got there a little after 6:00, parked in the train station lot and met my friend for dinner at a Mexican restaurant next to the Capital. We went over to the theatre around 7:30. The show being in New York it was a vax-only show. Our seats were a few rows up in the balcony. The Capital is very strict on cell phone use for photos – threatening to eject you if you used your phone. I heard some rumblings from people sitting around me about Bob playing the old favorites. These people had not prepared for what was about to come and would probably be disappointed. Need to manage those expectations. This was not 1966 or even 1974. 

There was no opening act and Dylan and his band appeared on stage at exactly 8:00 (actually 7:58). Dylan was right center stage on piano^[2] with the band fanned out behind him. There were two guitars, a multi-instrumentalist, bass (sometimes an upright) and drums. As expected the show consisted mostly of material from his new album. The older songs included “When I Paint My Masterpiece”, “Most Likely You’ll Go Your Way and I’ll Go Mine” and “I’ll Be Your Baby Tonight”. The new songs were pretty good and, in a way,  it was probably a better experience than a show laden with mostly older songs. Dylan was clearly into performing these new songs. He finally addressed the crowd before the last song when he introduced his band. There was a flash of the old Dylan wit when someone yelled his name and he responded “Bob? There’s no Bob up here you must be at the wrong show.” With that they went into the final song “Every Grain of Sand”. When the song ended Dylan and his band left the stage and that was it. No encore. Thank you and goodnight. It was 9:30. I guess there’s no late nights when you’re 81. You have to give Dylan credit though, he still does what he wants (in this case a set of mostly new songs) and not what the crowd expects. As we shuffled out with the rest of the crowd onto Westchester Avenue and made our way to our cars I thought that after all these years I had finally seen Bob Dylan. 

ARTS ROUNDUP

Streaming

“Only Murders In The Building” (Hulu). Steve Martin, Martin Short and Selena Gomez play three tenants in a New York City apartment building who come together to solve a murder of one of the tenants. Each of them has a back story that is slowly revealed as their investigation proceeds. Martin, Short and Gomez are excellent.  

“Succession” Seasons 1 -3 (HBO Max). We were definitely late to this party but we have barreled through the three seasons. It is that unique show in that there are no likeable characters but it is so well produced you can’t look away.  

Peter Jackson’s Beatles documentary “Get Back” (Disney+). Almost nine hours of watching the most famous band in the world sit around in the studio and work out new songs for what became the “Let It Be” album. Fascinating and tedious at the same time. 

Music

The War On Drugs, “I Don’t Live Here Anymore”. The latest from one of my favorite new bands. I have to say this one hasn’t clicked for me yet like the previous two records. There are some minor annoyances too like the strange LP packaging (there’s a flap that has to be moved to get the records out). Also, the album is only 52 minutes spread across four sides which makes for some sub-ten minute album sides. I’m giving it some time. 

Julien Baker, “Little Oblivions”. I’ve had this one on my Spotify playlist for about six months. I keep coming back to it. Baker is among a group of introspective female singer-songwriters^[3] that have emerged on the scene over the past few years. The full-band arrangements give “Little Oblivions” more punch than her previous records.

Snail Mail, “Valentine”. I just started listening to this one last month. This is the second album from Lindsay Jordan’s indie rock project. The songwriting is solid and the production keeps you listening. 

Books

“Thursday Murder Club” by Richard Osman. Clever story about four septuagenarian friends in an English assisted living facility who get together on Thursdays to work on solving old murder cases (supplied by one of the friends who somehow gets access to these old files). Then one day a real murder takes place on the grounds of the facility and the four begin working the case (much to the chagrin of the local police). Good fun and rumored to be a movie soon. The second book in the series is supposed to be even better. 

“Gentleman In Moscow” by Amor Towles. A Russian aristocrat, Count Alexander Ilyich Rostov,

 is put under house arrest for life in an attic room at the Hotel Metropol across from the Kremlin. The Count makes the hotel is base of operations as the years in exile unfold inside and outside the Metropol. An absorbing and well written story. 

Podcasts

I’ve been listening to a lot of episodes of “Rolling Stone Now”. Recent episodes include interview with Alison Krause and Robert Plant, a new book on Paul Simon, a tribute to Charlie Watts and a review of the The Beatle’s “Get Back” documentary. 

^[1] The Sam Jones’ “Off Camera” series. 

^[2] Dylan hasn’t played guitar on stage for several years. Arthritus is one explanation that has made the rounds though Dylan has never confirmed this. 

^[3] This group includes Phoebe Bridgers and Lucy Dacas.

It seemed for a while that every day there was another story of a famous aging rock star selling his or her music catalog to some music publishing conglomerate for millions, sometimes hundreds of millions, of dollars. Dylan, Stevie Nicks, David Crosby, Neil Young, the list goes on. The explanation for this flurry of selling activity is that this is a way for these musicians to get their estates in order for their heirs. Sounds more like a Fidelity commercial than The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame but there it is. I think there are perhaps other reasons for the recent selling of song catalogs.

The first reason is Spotify. I was an early adopter of this market-leading streaming service. Most of the songs ever recorded are at your fingertips for $10 a month. It is a great deal for the music lover not so much for the music maker. I’ve seen the Spotify musician royalty math and it is not good. Though Spotify pays out a huge chunk of its revenues to the music companies very little makes it to the recording artist. Basically, making money off your recorded work has been cut off by streaming. All that was left for the recording artists and bands to make money was touring. Then came the pandemic and that avenue was shut down for over a year and counting.^[1]How was a musician going to make any money? For the younger artists this was, and remains, a hug problem. For the long-established artists, icons of the classic rock era, there was one more way to make some money: their song catalog. We got a glimpse of the worth of song catalogs by watching the kerfuffle between Taylor Swift and Scooter Braun when he bought her publishing company Big Machine in 2019 (and then subsequently sold it to PE firm Shamrock Group). Her masters were trading hands for $300 million. The aging rock stars were watching as were the publishing companies When times get tough you hock the jewelry – in this case the crown jewels. And so it began and continues.

This is depressing on a number of levels. Selling out was always the ultimate uncool thing to do in rock and roll. Selling all your songs to huge corporations? What could be more uncool? And what about new songs that get written? Are they also the property of the new owners? Talk about working for the man! Then there is the underlying issue that these heroes of our youth have reached the end not only of their productive lives but soon the end of their actual lives. We’ve lost so many in the past few years. It’s like watching one of the last links to your youth fading away. As to the selling of their catalogs (Paul Simon announced that he sold his to Sony as I am writing this) I don’t blame the artists but it is a shame it had to come to this.  

ARTS ROUNDUP

Books

Chris Knopf, “Deep Dive”. The latest entry in the Sam Acquillo Hampton’s mysteries. This time Sam’s good friend Burton Lewis is the suspect in a local murder. One of my favorite series.

Joan Didion, “The Year of Magical Thinking”. Didion’s account of the year after her husband’s sudden death days before New Year’s in 2003.

Michael Connelly, “Law of Innocence”. Latest in the Mickey Haller (the Lincoln Lawyer). Mickey is jailed on murder charges just before the pandemic hits.

Don DeLillo, “Underworld”. I wanted to read something by DeLillo. This is a sprawling epic novel covering the last half of the 20^th century. 

Music

Julien Baker, “Little Oblivions”. Third album from Baker. Solid songs and the production shimmers. 

Lydia Loveless, “Daughter” – Loveless has been off the radar since 2016. Nice comeback effort.  Stream “Dead Writers.” 

Sweater Curse, “Close” (single). Super infectious single. Catch it on YouTube.

Kings of Leon, “When You See Yourself”.  Despite the mostly negative reviews I like this album. Less anthemic rock than past albums and a more atmospheric sound. Decide for yourself. 

Keith Jarrett, “The Sun Bear Concerts”. Back in 1976 everyone seems to own “The Koln Concert”. Meanwhile Jarrett was in Japan performing a series of shows that would become this 8-disc box set. All improv as always. Amazing.

Film/Television/Streaming

“The Dig”. Starring Carrie Mulligan, Ralph Fiennes and Lily James. An archeological excavation in 1938 on a widow’s English farm uncovers an ancient sailing ship. I’ll watch anything with Carrie Mulligan.

“The Bookshop”. Starring Emily Mortimer, Bill Nighy and Patricia Clarkson. A woman (Mortimer) opens a bookshop in a small English town against the opposition of the local power structure led by Clarkson. Nighy plays the town recluse who comes to her aid.

“Justified” (season 2). The backwoods mayhem of Harlan County, Kentucky continues. Margo Martingale guest stars as the manipulative matriarch of the Bennett crime family. 

Podcasts

I’ve been hitting the Malcolm Gladwell and Rick Rubin “Broken Record” podcast hard lately. Interviews included Bruce Springsteen, Mike Campbell (Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers), Nick Lowe, Lisa Robinson (rock journalist) and Jeff Tweedy (Wilco). I think this is the best music podcast. 

^[1] In a recent podcast interview Bruce Springsteen said he thought it would be mid-2022 before he would be able to tour again. 

A few weeks ago I subscribed to the Apple TV+ streaming service so I could watch Bruce Springsteen’s documentary of his new album “Letter to You”. The documentary was shot in gorgeous black and white in November 2019  at Springsteen’s home studio in central New Jersey. Bruce’s narration, eloquent as always, over beautiful aerial shots of his house in the woods, sets the stage for each of the musical segments.

The songs are among his strongest in years, marking the end of what I would call Bruce’s memoir period that started with his 2016 book “Born To Run”, then the two year run of “Springsteen on Broadway” through last year’s “Western Stars”. 

The E Street Band does their part bringing these songs alive. This is the first album with the band since 2009’s “Working On A Dream” and they have never sounded better. These sessions feel like a family reunion, the band in high spirits with Bruce as the father figure. We see Bruce running down the songs on his acoustic guitar with the band around him taking notes. Long-time producer Jon Landau drifts in and out of the sessions in his role of eminence grise.

Since the passing of Clarence Clemons and Danny Federici, the E Street Band has been rounded out by saxophonist Jake Clemons (Clarence’s nephew) and organ player Charles Giordano. In the credits these two are listed separately from the E-Street band. The E Street Band is a closed brotherhood and has been since the “Born To Run” tour in 1975. The exceptions being Nils Lofgren^[1], who replaced the temporarily departed Steve Van Zandt, and of course Mrs. Springsteen, both invited into the fold during the “Born In The USA” tour. 

The documentary showcases a good portion of the new album. The strongest of the new songs include “Last Man Standing”, “The Power of Prayer” and the soaring “Ghosts”.  The songs taken together feel like a testimony to the power of music to change people’s lives and all those Bruce encountered on his musical journey (e.g., “House of a Thousand Guitars”). 

Mixed into the set are three songs from the early seventies. They are instantly identifiable as being from his pre-Landau period^[2]. The songs are long (six minutes plus) with dense, almost Dylanesque, lyrics. Any of these songs would have fit seamlessly onto his first album. It is interesting that they were included here. Perhaps as a bow to the past and the recent passing of the last member of his first band The Castiles.  I like “If I Was The Priest” and “Song For Orphans” the best, but “Jeannie Needs A Shooter” is also solid.^[3]  These older songs create an interesting contrast between the young Bruce writing about his struggles to find his future versus the current Bruce looking back and making peace with his past. It reminded me of that Joan Didion essay about staying on good terms with our former selves.^[4]

One criticism I have is that the instrumental sections on a number of the songs tend to repeat the main melody (either the guitars or Roy Bittan’s piano). This part of the arrangements could have been a bit more varied. Also despite the overall strength of the set “Rainmaker” doesn’t seem to fit. But these are minor trifles. There is no getting away from the fact that this is one of the more inspired albums that Bruce and The E Street Band have put out in a long time. That an artist as accomplished as Springsteen can put out a record like this at this stage of his almost 50 year career is astonishing. The acid test I have for new music is do I want to hear it again after the initial listen. I want to hear “Letter To You” again. 

ARTS ROUNDUP

Books: “Squeeze Me”, Carl Hiaasen. A python is loose in the privileged town of Palm Beach, Florida. After it is sighted at one of the town’s gala events animal control expert Angie Armstrong is brought in to remove the intruding snake. It also seems that one of the rich dowagers from the party has also gone missing. Thus starts the latest over the top sunshine state saga from Hiaasen. This time he spices up the adventures by including the town’s most famous resident and his wife. Whoever said truth is stranger than fiction never read anything by Carl Hiaasen.

Streaming: “The Queen’s Gambit” (Netflix). This is a seven-episode miniseries about a female chess prodigy. Beth Harmon (Anya Taylor-Joy) learns chess in the basement of her orphanage from the custodian. Beth also has her introduction to drugs with the tranquilizers that the orphanage uses to control the girls. After Beth is adopted she begins her climb through the ranks of competitive chess on her quest to be the world’s greatest player. As her chess prowess grows so do her emotional and substance abuse problems. Taylor-Joy is hypnotic in her portrayal of Beth and the supporting cast also shines. 

Podcasts: “Song Exploder”. The premise of this podcast is to interview musicians about how they wrote and recorded a specific song. The podcast has been around for a number of years and a few of the episodes are now available on Netflix. I watched the episode on REM’s “Losing My Religion” which was really interesting and included interviews with all the band members about the creation of the song. Interesting side story: The record company didn’t want to put out a single with a mandolin as the featured instrument. We know how that turned out. I also listened to Sleater-Kinney discuss “The Future Is Here” a song off their most recent album. Perfect show for music nerds like me.

^[1] This is the second time in the past year that Nils’ has appeared in a documentary by a rock icon recording a new album. He also appeared in Neil Young’s film of the recording of his latest album “Colorado”. Nils was again replacing another long standing guitarist, Frank Sampredo, who seems to have retired after being in Neil’s band Crazy Horse since 1975. 

^[2] Landau, Springsteen’s longtime producer starting with “Darkness On The Edge Of Town”, influenced Bruce’s move away from the longer, cinematic songs of his early albums. 

^[3] A version of which was covered by Warren Zevon in the early eighties.

^[4] The essay “On Keeping A Notebook” comes from Didion’s 1968 collection “Slouching Towards Bethlehem”.

It was a confluence of events that has led me to write this post. The first event was a new book I was reading the book “Why We Drive” by Matthew Crawford. The essential premise of the book is that driving is one of our essential freedoms that is being threatened by automation especially self-driving cars.^[1] The other event came from a photo sent to me by my childhood friend. We’ve known each other since I was ten and we both have been having fun recently discovering old photos. One of them was of the Fiat I drove when I was in college. It was a great car and what follows is its story which includes the book’s theme of driving as freedom.

First some of the back story. When I got my license my senior year in high school (I was young in my class so I didn’t drive until my senior year) my parents got me a 1966 sky blue Ford Galaxy 500 convertible. It was along the size of the Chrysler described in the song “Love Shack” (“it seats about 20”). It was a cool first car. It’s suspension was so loose I could go over the speed bumps in my high school parking lot without slowing down. I got it in September and it died in August just before I went off to college. 

When I returned home that Thanksgiving from my first semester at college I found that my parents had purchased a 1974 Fiat TC 1600. It was a small, boxy four-door sedan. It had small tires like those old Mini Coopers that were memorialized in “The Italian Job”. Inside it had an oversized steering wheel that looked like it was transplanted from a city bus. The other interesting feature was that the key was on the left side of the steering wheel (to this day I frequently put my keys in the left pocket of my pants). It only had an AM radio so I usually drove around with a small boom box listening to cassette tapes of Little Feat and The Band. My mother drove the car to work in the next town but during school vacations and the summer  the Fiat became my car. Sometimes something just fits who you are and that was the case with the Fiat. It was the car I was meant to be driving during those years. My aforementioned childhood friend had a similar relationship with one of his cars. It was a gray 1968 mustang that he dubbed “The Gray Ghost”. It had soul. 

In the spring of 1980 for some reason I brought the car back to college after Easter of my senior year. Most people didn’t have cars at school back then so the Fiat became a bit of a novelty. It also brings me back to the book and the freedom we feel when driving. Like I said most of us didn’t have cars and did very little driving during the school year. By the end of the second semester with exams looming the stress level was amped up. One day one of my close friends asked me if he could borrow the car. I said sure and asked where he was going. Nowhere he replied, he just needed get off campus and drive. No destination, just the sensation, freedom, of driving to let off a little steam. I thought of this again as I was reading “Why We Drive”. 

After college I went to gradute school in Boston. I took the Fiat and parked on the side street next to the house where I rented a room from Mrs. Stevenson (“No noise and no girls”). That first January in Boston was frigid. The Fiat wouldn’t start for most of that month. I watched the weather report every day to see if the temperature would rise into the 30’s and if I might have a chance of getting the Fiat off the curb. Sometime later that winter I got a notice in the mail that the Fiat was being recalled because of a corrosion problem with the steering column. I brought the car in to an inspection site in the area. After a brief examination I was informed that the corrosion problem was unfixable and they would have to take the car for which they paid me the princely sum of $1,000. I was rich but now carless. So that was the end. From the fall of 1976 to the spring of 1981 the Fiat carried me well and accompanied me on some fine times. As Neil Young said “Long May You Run”. 

ARTS ROUNDUP

Music: Neil Young, “Homegrown”. Speaking of Neil Young, this was the album that was scheduled to be released in the summer of 1975 when Young switched gears (as he often does) and released “Tonight’s The Night” instead.  “Homegrown” was shelved and, as one reviewer put it, stripped for parts as many of the songs showed up on later albums in their original (“Star of Bethlehem”) or reworked form (the title track). It’s always difficult to place an album like this back into its chronological slot. Much of Young’s mid/late 70’s output was not released chronologically but it’s still hard to imagine this record taking the place of “Tonight’s The Night” between “On The Beach” (1974)  and “Zuma”(1975).  Who knows when “Tonight’s The Night” (already delayed from its recording in 1973) would have been released.  Fortunately we don’t have to answer these questions and just enjoy this long lost record. 

Books: Stephen King, “If It Bleeds”. King present four novellas in his latest release.^[2] “Mr. Harrigan’s Phone” about a man’s cell phone remaining active after his death could have been a “Night Gallery” episode. “Rat” is an update on “The Monkey’s Paw”. The title story is a sequel to his novel “The Outsider”. “The Life of Chuck” is about Chuck Krantz an accountant who is dying. The story begins when Chuck is 39, during an apocalyptical future, and then works its way back in time to this childhood. King hasn’t lost a step. 

Podcast:  “Here’s The Thing: Patti Smith”.  Alec Baldwin interviewed Smith live for this podcast. I only know her from her early career and reading about some of the books she has written.^[3] The interview was a bit of a surprise. Smith is grounded, clear-eyed and grateful for all the things her life has brought. She didn’t want fame and fortune but just to create art that would last. The interview covers a lot of ground from her childhood in Southern New Jersey to her relationship with the late photographer Robert Mapplethorpe to getting married and moving to Michigan. She responded to a question from the audience saying that to be an artist you have to be prepared to sacrifice (Bob Dylan made a similar comment recently). Smith also tells a great story about writing the lyrics for “Because The Night” while waiting for her boyfriend to call (“Love is a ring, the telephone”).

^[1] Mitchell is also more than a bit paranoid about Google taking over our lives. 

^[2] Some of King’s best known works that became successful movies were novella’s like “The Body” (“Stand By Me”) and “Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption” (“The Shawshank Redemption”).

^[3] I also saw her open for Neil Young in 2012. 

Aside what it would take to survive if you were stranded on a desert island, what are the ten albums you would take with you. Pretend for now that you have electricity to run your stereo system with a turntable or CD player. No Spotify or streaming allowed in this game. Only the physical medium allowed. I recently re-watched “High Fidelity” and Rob’s (John Cusack) top five lists made me think it was time for another list post. However five won’t do for this list. Ten is the number. Even picking ten albums for the desert island wasn’t easy. My list of nominees ran to almost twenty.  It is interesting that the list I would have constructed while I was still in school would probably been have different from this one. It’s not just that there are albums that have been released since then that made the list.  Most of the records here are still from the seventies and eighties. It’s more that over the years the records I find myself coming back to on a regular basis have changed from that earlier time. So in no particular order here are the ten albums I would take to that desert island. 

“At Fillmore East”, The Allman Brothers Band. The re-issue, “The Fillmore Concerts” has more of the songs from these historic 1971 shows but the original still has its own special charm. 

“Close To The Edge”, Yes. I remember where I was when I first heard this album (listening to the 8-track on headphones) and being blown away by the title track. Every time I put it on it’s like hearing it for the first time.

“Kind of Blue”, Miles Davis. Arguably the finest jazz album of all time with an all-star lineup that features John Coltrane, Bill Evans and Cannonball Adderley. 

“John Barleycorn Must Die”, Traffic. Contenders included “Low Spark of High Heeled Boys” and the live import “On The Road” but song for song Barleycorn is Traffic’s finest moment. 

“Get Your Ya Ya’s Out”, The Rolling Stones. Recorded at New York’s Madison Square Garden during the band’s 1969 tour of the U.S. this album catches the Stones at the peak of their powers. Keith Richards and Mick Taylor pound the riffs senseless while Jagger presides over it all. Close second: “Sticky Fingers”.

“Houses of the Holy”, Led Zeppelin. Most Zep aficionados go for IV or “Physical Graffiti” but this one has always been my favorite. The opening one-two punch of “The Song Remains The Same” and “The Rain Song” never gets old. Then on side two there’s the romantic nostalgia of “Dancing Days” and the grinding menace of “No Quarter”. 

“Wish You Were Here”, Pink Floyd. From fallen bandmates (“Shine On You Crazy Diamond”) to the cynicism of the music business (“Have A Cigar”) to the desperation of stardom (“Wish You Were Here”) it is quintessential Floyd. 

“Rust Never Sleeps”, Neil Young and Crazy Horse. It was this one or 1975’s “Zuma” but Rust gets the nod based on the strength of the songs (e.g., “Thrasher”, “Pocahontas”, “Ride My Llama” and “Powderfinger”). 

“Damn The Torpedoes”, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. The band’s third album and commercial breakthrough as Petty’s songwriting jumped to another level. This is just one great sounding record (credit to producer Jimmy Iovine).  

 “Late For The Sky”, Jackson Browne. The one and only. Side one is singer-songwriter perfection.  

Honorable Mention: 

“Lifes Rich Pagaent”, REM. “Reckoning” was a close second but this album really rocks and Michael Stipes’ vocals finally emerge from the mix.

“Rock of Ages”, The Band. Forget about “The Last Waltz” this is the live Band album to take with you. Bonus: the unreleased “Get Up Jake”. 

“Beneath These Fireworks”, Matt Nathanson. Who? What? Stay with me on this one. One of the finest pop records of the 21^st century. In a perfect world this album would have been huge. Stream and you’ll see.

“Warren Zevon”, Warren Zevon. L.A. noir and heartbreak cinematically rendered. 

“musicforthemorningafter”, Pete Yorn. Hard to believe I couldn’t fit this one onto the list. What a fabulous debut album. One of the best.

ARTS ROUNDUP

Books: “Daisy Jones and The Six”, Taylor Jenkins Reid.  An oral history of a fictional band (The Six) that joins up with a groupie turned songwriter (Jones) to make an album together. The Six is already a band on the rise when Daisy teams up with the band’s leader and main songwriter Billy Dunne. Band angst develops on many levels until things begin spiraling out of control. In the end all bands are just collections of combustible individual egos and sometimes it’s only a matter of time until things explode. Think Fleetwood Mac on steroids

Streaming: “Chernobyl” (HBO). 2019 five part docu-drama about the 1986 explosion and fire at this Russian nuclear plant. It is incredible how close this disaster came to being much worse. The film captures the grimness of Russia in the mid-eighties. State scientist Valery Legasov (Jared Harris) is teamed with government bureaucrat Boris Shcherbina (Stellan Skarsgard) to investigate the accident. At first they are wary of each other but they eventually come together to unravel what really happened in the early morning of April 26, 1986.