Bang The Drum All Day: June 2012

Saturday, 30 June 2012

My old tapes in a magazine article on cassette culture

Most people have probably thrown away their old cassettes. In these days of digital music and the resurgence of vinyl, it's easy to see why. Now, bizarrely, cassetttes are also making a comeback, of sorts.

I kept mine and they have recently gained a high profile. When The Word magazine's David Hepworth asked readers for photos of their old cassettes, I sent one from my home in New Zealand via email. He wrote back, delighted to find The Word was reaching an audience so far away from their tiny office in North London. The picture below shows how they appeared across two pages in the March 2012 edition of The Word magazine.

Most of these tapes date from between 1975 and 1985 and reflect my fairly eclectic tastes during that period, from rock to funk via folk and psychedelia. I have never boxed them up. Wherever I have lived - in London, in Shropshire, in New Zealand - they have always been racked up on shelves. Right now, they even have their own wooden cabinets, which were considerately installed in my work room by the previous owners.

Some notables in there: My tapes of Live Aid recorded from Radio One on 13 July 1985.

A collection of bootleg highlights and one tape containing the Little Feat bootlegs Electrif Lycanthrope and Aurora Backseat (Santa Monica 73).

Rare pre-recorded tapes, including the pre-Fleetwood Mac Buckingham Nicks album and the Nick Drake compilations Time Of No Reply and Heaven In A Wildflower.

My recording of Led Zeppelin at Earls Court in 1975 is in there as well. Plus a bunch of live tapes of my own bands in the 1980s.

If you'd like to read the article on Cassette Culture, you can see it online by clicking on this link:
http://developmenthell.ceros.com/the-word-digital-edition/march2012/page/58

Sunday, 24 June 2012

'A Wizard, A True Star' - my all-time favourite album

I love this record. For me, it's the greatest album ever made.

I bought Todd Rundgren's 'A Wizard, A True Star' in 1974 - it was the record that awakened my sense of musical wonder. Although it is over 45 years old, it still sounds, as the author Barney Hoskyns puts it: "more bravely futuristic than any ostensibly cutting-edge electro-pop being made in the 21st Century."

A Wizard, A True Star was a single album that had more musical ideas on it than many artists could muster in a whole career. It ranges across a variety of styles, reflecting a precocious talent channelling everything from The Beatles and Laura Nyro to glam rock, classic soul and Jimi Hendrix.

I came to know Todd Rundgren via the single I Saw The Light, which was a radio play hit in the UK, with its catchy piano melody and George Harrison-like guitar solo.

I decided I wanted to investigate further. I can remember standing looking up at the albums on display in the record shop. I don't remember what the price difference was, but I couldn’t afford Something / Anything, the album that contained 'I Saw The Light', because it was a double. His follow-up album was also on sale and I was attracted to its kaleidoscopic cover.

Having broken through in the singer songwriter style with 'Hello It's Me'
and 'I Saw The Light', Todd confounded his new audience with his next record

So I bought that instead. It’s fair to say the record blew my mind.

From the opening fuzz tones of ‘International Feel’, it was clear that 'A Wizard, A True Star' wasn't going to sound anything like 'I Saw The Light'. This was exciting though; I had something none of my friends had. My musical universe was about to expand.

That first side has 12 tracks on it; it's like watching a fast action cartoon. Todd's influences are all over the shop but if you can keep up with the stylistic shifts and the slightly crazed delivery, it's a wild ride. I was 15 at the time, a suburban kid eager for just this kind of adventure. If a record can be life changing, this was it.

The mood and style of side two is in marked contrast; Todd takes a more measured approach, with the middle of the side devoted to his soul medley.

Rolling Stone magazine's review considered the soul medley to be "the highlight of the record, in which Todd plays tribute to the Impressions, the Miracles, the Delphonics and the Capitols.

"The first three selections, 'I'm So Proud', 'Ooh Baby Baby' and 'La La Means I Love You', feature Rundgren's plaintive singing that conveys a feeling of a kid vocalizing along with the originals late at night, fantasising about crooning to his dream girl," said the review. "The lovely synthesizer and harpsichord arrangements reveal Todd's respect for Stevie Wonder's recent recordings."

Unlike side one, where the tracks come thick and fast, on side two each track is a given the chance to soar. The songs still seque into each other, but do so beautifully, particularly towards the end, as the fuzz guitar of ‘Hungry for Love’ tails off to the solo piano of ‘I Don’t Want To Tie You Down’ which in turn echoes away into the guitar frenzy of ‘Is It My Name’.

The album ends with the majestic ‘Just One Victory’, the national anthem of Utopia as Todd called it.

It's a trip - in less than an hour you've heard a whole world of music. Because he had crammed so much on the record, Todd urged the listener to crank up their stereo to get the full effect. In fact he suggested people tape the record and then crank it up, to avoid having the stylus jump off the vinyl.

The inside gatefold

First issues of the vinyl LP in the US were dye-cut, giving the record sleeve an odd shape, and psychedelic images on both sides of the gatefold cover. I have an early US pressing and I have to say the sound is superior to my UK copy. There's a lot more detail audible and you really get a sense of how amazing the mix is considering the amount of instrumentation and studio effects there are on a lot of the tracks.

The original album package also included a ‘band aid’ poem written by Todd’s friend Patti Smith, as well as a postcard encouraging purchasers to send their name to be included on a poster, which was given away with Todd's next album.

John Siomos, Ralph Shuckett, John Siegler and Moogy Klingman
the core band members, at Secret Sound recording AWATS

Rundgren has always made it clear this album was not a solo performance, like much of Something/Anything where he played all the instruments on three sides of the album. 'Wizard' was recorded at Secret Sound, a small studio created in a loft apartment in New York that was rented by keyboard player Mark 'Moogy' Klingman.

Secret Sound was really Todd's creation, said Moogy. He did all the wiring and the equipment installation himself. "That studio was really put together with band aids and bubble gum. It just barely held together.”

A Wizard, A True Star was one of the very first things they recorded at Secret Sound. In Paul Myers' book about Todd's recording sessions in the 1970s, Moogy recalls, "One day Todd said ‘Okay I’m gonna start recording'. He was in the room by himself and he laid down the bass part to “International Feel” and then he started adding on to it. I said wow he’s making some really weird noisy sounds.

"Then he was overdubbing and it started to sound like something and he said 'OK Moogy, I want you to bring your band in and we're gonna do the track. One of the first tracks we did was 'Toot Toot Tootsie Goodbye' but he’d changed it to 'Da Da Dali'.

"We spent the next month or so recording A Wizard, A True Star with Todd as the sole engineer. We didn’t even have an assistant to just watch the levels and bring things down a bit. But that’s how he liked to work. He was a solo guy, he was a hermit nerd.”

The list of session musicians on AWATS includes the Brecker Brothers, Rick Derringer and David Sanborn. Moogy was responsible for bringing in all the musicians. The contribution of drummer John Siomos (who later played on Frampton Comes Alive) is also important, providing the solid groove and highly distinctive snare and tom-tom fills for much of the album’s more soulful and rocked-out moments.

Patti Smith's beat prose inspired review of 'A Wizard, A True Star' for Creem Magazine in April 1973, described the album as "Rock and roll for the skull. A very noble concept. Past present and tomorrow in one glance. Understanding through musical sensation. Todd Rundgren is preparing us for a generation of frenzied children who will dream in animation."

inner sleeve side one

inner sleeve side two

By the time he came to record 'A Wizard, A True Star', Todd had tasted success with the hit singles 'Hello It’s Me' and 'I Saw The Light'. But he set the template for the rest of his career, by not giving the fans or the record company more of the same.

On this swing to the left, Todd said: "I threw out all the rules of record making and decided I would try to imprint the chaos in my head onto a record without trying to clean it up for everyone else's benefit. The result was a complete loss of about half of my audience. This became the model for my life after that."

He went on to make other classic records, confounding expectations at every turn, which his fans learned to tolerate, or not. For me personally, I still listen to his other albums, skipping the odd jarring, self-indulgent track. There have been times when he has unfuriated me in a live situation - ignoring his considerable body of work to play an extended version of 'Peter Gunn' on the 'Liars' tour, for example. It's never been easy being a TR fan, and he is unapologetic about that. A Wizard, A True Star, though, is the high point of a prolific musical journey.

The following links include some rare footage from the 1970s and some more recent clips, including some good quality film of the performance of AWATS 10 years ago.

1974 low-fi film of Todd and the AWATS band, playing material from the album including Just One Victory.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q8gpABtL7sk&fbclid=IwAR26QUOjPxSzryBZTl8vp2-UWuWySGey7aOIljBDUmSSSRVyCNZpCs2-DbY

Here's video of Todd appearing on the Daryl's House show, singing Sometimes I Don't Know What To Feel

And here, as part of the 2009 AWATS shows, he performs I Don't Want To Tie You Down

Monday, 18 June 2012

Joni Mitchell in the 70s (3) - Hejira

As an artist whose favoured means of expression is painting, Joni Mitchell empathises with the view that the true artist should make no attempt to please their audience, only to please themselves.

As she stated on the Miles of Aisles album: “nobody said to Van Gogh, paint A Starry Night again, man!”.

Having really stretched her creativity on the 1975 album The Hissing of Summer Lawns, with tremendous results, Joni was stung by the criticism it attracted (see the previous Joni post). It’s hard to believe people could have been so angry and disappointed by it. But it wasn't Court and Spark or Blue and people don’t like change, especially when their favourite artist becomes less accessible.

Mitchell’s new direction was already set, though. A year after ‘Hissing’, she released Hejira, a quite different record musically, with more of the familiar confessional style in its lyrics. The words form the bedrock of the album and are amongst the best she ever wrote.

In his review for Melody Maker in 1976, Michael Watts noted that Hejira is “the first Joni Mitchell record for which the song sheet is indispensable. Her use of language...is pretty marvellous. As a popular lyricist in the romantic tradition, she has no equal outside the Broadway musical.”

Joni ice skating on Lake Mendota, Wisconsin

A hejira is a journey of discovery - the bleak terrain of Joni’s hejira is reflected in the soul searching of the lyrics and the simple yet haunting musical accompaniment.

Joni told Rolling Stone magazine, "I knew I wanted to travel. I was sitting out at the beach at Neil’s [Young] place. Two friends of mine came to the door and said, 'We’re driving across country'. I said, 'I’ve been waiting for you; I’m gone'. So we drove across country, then we parted ways. It was my car, so I drove back alone. The Hejira album was written mostly while I was traveling in the car. That’s why there were no piano songs.

Mitchell said of Hejira: "the whole album was really inspired... there is this restless feeling throughout it... The sweet loneliness of solitary travel.

Joni and John Guerin

"Hejira was an obscure word, but it said exactly what I wanted. Running away, honorably. It dealt with the leaving of a relationship (with drummer John Guerin) but without the sense of failure that accompanied the breakup of my previous relationships. I felt that it was not necessarily anybody’s fault. It was a new attitude."

In late 1975, Joni had joined Bob Dylan's Rolling Thunder Revue. "I joined Rolling Thunder as a spectator," she told Rolling Stone. "I would have been content to follow it for three cities just as an observer, but since I was there I was asked to participate. Then, for mystical reasons of my own, I made a pact with myself that I would stay on until it was over."

Joni on Bob Dylan's Rolling Thunder Revue tour in 1975

Although Joni obviously enjoyed the experience, it took a toll on her health and her cocaine use escalated. She said, "Rolling Thunder was mad. Heavy drama, no sleep – a circus."

There were concert dates scheduled to promote The Hissing of Summer Lawns, but as well as being in poor health, the story goes, Joni had a big bust up with Guerin and she took off.

"Sharon I left a man, in a North Dakota junction"

This link is for the website tracking the Rolling Thunder Revue show by show. At the foot of the page you can download one of the first shows where Joni appeared.

It was clearly a transitional period for Joni, with at least one affair, with Sam Shepard during Rolling Thunder, thrown into the mix. That all fed into the record.

"It was a trial of sorts for me. I went out in a foot soldier position. I made up songs onstage. I sang in French, badly. I did a lot of things to prevent myself from getting in the way.

"What was in it for me hadn’t anything to do with applause or the performing aspect. It was simply to be allowed to remain an observer and a witness to an incredible spectacle."

We see her playing an early version of Coyote in an upstairs room at Gordon Lightfoot's house in Toronto.

In 1976, she also appeared at The Band's farewell concert that was filmed for the movie The Last Waltz. As the film footage shows, she more than held her own in that company.

For the recording of Hejira, Joni went back to basics, relying on her now familiar and distinctive open-tuned guitar voicing as the main accompaniment. The album also marks the beginning of a prominent role for the electric bass on her records. The inclusion of Jaco Pastorius in her musical backdrop was an inspired move. I think it represents one of the all-time great musical collaborations, especially when we include her next album, Don Juan's Reckless Daughter; a unique sound and interplay that brought out the best in both Joni and Jaco.

Hejira is the album where Joni asserts, or reasserts, in the face of such criticism, her need to evolve. In the DVD ‘A Woman of Heart and Mind’ she tells how in 1971 she had rejected Graham Nash’s marriage proposal because she felt she couldn’t subsume her desire for personal growth to become just a part of someone else; that she owed it to previous generations to go out and live life to the full.

The song 'Amelia' is as much about Joni as it is about Amelia Earhart. Joni said: "I was addressing it from one solo pilot to another... sort of reflecting on the cost of being a woman and having something you must do."

Joni the existentialist seeks out meaning in her emotional turmoil, while also reflecting an awareness of mortality. On the title track, Joni sings…”we all come and go unknown / each so deep and superficial / between the forceps and the stone.”

In 'Song For Sharon' she describes the life she might have if she wasn't still filled with wanderlust and the quest to "find another lover".

Sharon you've got a husband and a family and a farm
I've got the apple of temptation and a diamond snake around my arm
But you still have your music
And I've still got my eyes on the land and the sky
You sing for your friends and your family
I'll walk green pastures by and by

On the final track, Refuge of the Roads, the image is of “a photograph of the earth / taken from the moon / and you couldn't see a city / on that marbled bowling ball / or a forest or a highway / or me here least of all.”

The original Norman Seeff photo used on the montage for the Hejira album cover

Reviewers at the time, while appreciating the lyricism, didn’t exactly warm to the music. Creem magazine’s Ken Tucker wrote: “It took me almost two weeks of steady listening to decide that this is a good album. I knew from the first that Hejira contained her most audacious lyrics—the preciseness of her imagery is extraordinary and unobtrusive, the latter no small part of her achievement. But I sure didn't hear any catchy melodies."

Again, reviewers could not resist attacking Joni for her movement away from the popular song. Watts spoils an otherwise excellent review of Hejira by suggesting that “On Summer Lawns only Shades Of Scarlet Conquering could be said to be tuneful and accessible and even that was a difficult song.”

I mean, that’s a frankly ridiculous comment, but it is a good illustration of the limitations of music criticism at the time. Rolling Stone’s review said that while “it recoups much of the ground lost with last year's The Hissing of Summer Lawns, both musically and lyrically… in the end Hejira is a bit too cerebral for its own good.”

All this probably made Joni even more determined to strike out on her own. One of my favourite lines from the Hejira album is “and we laughed at how our perfection would always be denied.” The lyric has many meanings, I’m sure, but it could easily be applied to the album itself - and to the purity of Joni Mitchell's artistic expression in the late 70s.

A beautiful rendition of 'Amelia' performed at Wembley Arena in 1983.

I was there and I have never been to a better sounding arena show.