Bruce Springsteen, Video, video of the day

Video of the day: Rosalita (Come out tonight) – Live, July 8, 1978 – Phoenix, Arizona

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Seeing the video as a thirteen-year-old, I felt my brain exploded…. this was honest, and true, and it made me feel. Really feel.
— Robert J. Wiersema

From Wikipedia:

“Rosalita (Come Out Tonight)” is a 1973 song by Bruce Springsteen, from his The Wild, The Innocent, & The E Street Shuffle album, and is especially famed as a concert number for Springsteen and The E Street Band. The song, which clocks in at just over seven minutes, is a story of forbidden love between the singer and the titular Rosalita, whose parents disapprove of his life in a rock and roll band. It is included on the compilation albums The Essential Bruce Springsteen and Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band Greatest Hits.

In the early 1980s, many years after the song’s initial release, MTV began showing a music video for the song. The video was a straight concert performance (from a Darkness Tour performance on July 8, 1978 at the Arizona Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Phoenix, Arizona) that included band introductions and numerous adoring females rushing the stage. While only adequate technically, the video captured the energy and playfulness of Springsteen and the E Street Band in concert, and was the first such introduction many casual fans had.

For many years, dating back virtually to when the song was written, “Rosalita” always closed the regular set in Springsteen concerts, often elongated to incorporate extended band introductions. It was the one “sure thing” in a Springsteen set list and celebrated as such. Steven Van Zandt used this time to shine on backing vocals, as his voice changed on performances of the song from the Born To Run Tours to the The River Tour.

However, on October 19, 1984 in the Tacoma Dome in Tacoma, Washington, during the Born in the U.S.A. Tour, this suddenly changed; “Rosalita” was dropped from the show..

The goodies:

Lyrics:

Spread out now, Rosie, doctor come cut loose her mama’s reins
You know playin’ blind man’s bluff is a little baby’s game
You pick up Little Dynamite, I’m gonna pick up Little Gun
And together we’re gonna go out tonight and make that highway run
You don’t have to call me lieutenant, Rosie, and I don’t want to be your son
The only lover I’m ever gonna need’s your soft sweet little girl’s tongue
Ah, Rosie, you’re the one

Dynamite’s in the belfry, baby, playin’ with the bats
Little Gun’s downtown in front of Woolworth’s, tryin’ out his attitude on all the cats
Papa’s on the corner, waitin’ for the bus
Mama, she’s home in the window, waitin’ up for us
She’ll be there in that chair when they wrestle her upstairs, ’cause you know we ain’t gonna come
Ah, I ain’t here on business, baby, I’m only here for fun
And Rosie, you’re the one

Rosalita, jump a little lighter
Senorita, come sit by my fire
I just want to be your lover, ain’t no liar
Rosalita, you’re my stone desire

Jack the Rabbit and Weak Knees Willie, don’t you know they’re gonna be there
Ah, Sloppy Sue and Big Bones Billy, they’ll be comin’ up for air
We’re gonna play some pool, skip some school, act real cool
Stay out all night, it’s gonna feel all right
So Rosie, come out tonight, oh, baby, come out tonight
Windows are for cheaters, chimneys for the poor
Oh, closets are for hangers, winners use the door
So use it Rosie, that’s what it’s there for

And Rosalita, jump a little lighter
Senorita, come sit by my fire
I just want to be your lover, ain’t no liar
Rosalita, you’re my stone desire
All right

Now, I know your mama, she don’t like me ’cause I play in a rock and roll band
And I know your daddy, he don’t dig me, but he never did understand
Your papa lowered the boom, he locked you in your room
I’m coming to lend a hand
I’m coming to liberate you, confiscate you, I want to be your man
Someday we’ll look back on this and it will all seem funny
But now you’re sad, your mama’s mad
And your papa says he knows that I don’t (have any money)
Whoa, your papa says he knows (that I don’t have any money)
Whoa, so your daddy says he knows I don’t have (Papa says he knows that I don’t have any money)

Well, tell him this is his last chance to get his daughter in a fine romance
Because the record company, Rosie, just gave me a big advance
And my tires were slashed and I almost crashed, but the Lord had mercy
And my machine, she’s a dud, out stuck in the mud somewhere in the swamps of Jersey
Well, hold on tight, stay up all night, ’cause Rosie, I’m comin’ on strong
By the time we meet the morning light, I will hold you in my arms
I know a pretty little place in Southern California down San Diego way
There’s a little café where they play guitars all night and all day
You can hear ’em in the back room strummin’
So hold tight, baby, ’cause don’t you know daddy’s comin’
Oh, everybody, so!

Rosalita, jump a little lighter
Senorita, come sit by my fire
I just want to be your love, ain’t no lie
Rosalita, you’re my stone desire
Oh, yeah
(Oh, yeah, oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah)

 

I HAVE to include the Passaic-78 version as well:

-Egil

Bob Dylan, Music Calendar

Today: Bob Dylan recorded Master version of “Like A Rolling Stone” in 1965 – 47 years ago

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Bob Dylan’s second best song ? or best ? iow – best or second best song ever recorded.

It doesn’t really matter.

«.. The Sound Is So Rich the Song Never
Plays The Same Way Twice»
– Greil Marcus

From Wikipedia:

“Like a Rolling Stone” is a 1965 song by American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan. Its confrontational lyrics originate in an extended piece of verse Dylan wrote in June 1965, when he returned from a grueling tour of England, exhausted.

After the lyrics were heavily edited, “Like a Rolling Stone” was recorded a few weeks later as part of the sessions for the forthcoming album Highway 61 Revisited. During a difficult two-day preproduction, Dylan struggled to find the essence of the song, which was demoed without success in 3/4 time. A breakthrough was made when it was tried in a rock music format, and rookie session musician Al Kooper improvised the organ riff for which the track is known.

However, Columbia Records was unhappy with both the song’s length at over six minutes and its heavy electric sound, and was hesitant to release it. It was only when a month later a copy was leaked to a new popular music club and heard by influential DJs that the song was put out as a single. Although radio stations were reluctant to play such a long track, “Like a Rolling Stone” reached number two in the US charts and became a worldwide hit.

 

B-side “Gates of Eden” (5:44)
Released July 20, 1965
Format 7″ single
Recorded June 15–16, 1965, Columbia Studio A, 799 Seventh Avenue, New York City
Genre Rock, folk rock
Length 6:09 (single)
6:13 (album)
Label Columbia
Writer(s) Bob Dylan
Producer Tom Wilson

 

Legacy:

The song’s sound was revolutionary in its combination of electric guitar licks, organ chords, and Dylan’s voice, at once young and jeeringly cynical. Critic Michael Gray described the track as “a chaotic amalgam of blues, impressionism, allegory, and an intense directness in the central chorus: ‘How does it feel'”. The song had an enormous impact on popular culture and rock music. Its success made Dylan a pop icon, as Paul Williams notes:

Dylan had been famous, had been the center of attention, for a long time. But now the ante was being upped again. He’d become a pop star as well as a folk star … and was, even more than the Beatles, a public symbol of the vast cultural, political, generational changes taking place in the United States and Europe. He was perceived as, and in many ways functioned as, a leader.
  • 2010 – rank 1 – 500 Greatest Songs of All Time (Rolling Stone Magazine) 
  • 2006 – rank 4 – 200 Greatest Songs of the 1960s (Pitchfork Media)
  • 2000 – rank 4 – 100 Greatest Rock Songs (VH1)

Live in 1966:

Original:

Spotify Playlist – different versions of this masterpiece:

Other June-16:

Continue reading Today: Bob Dylan recorded Master version of “Like A Rolling Stone” in 1965 – 47 years ago →

Country, folk, Singer Songwriter, Soul, video of the day

Video of the day: That Wasn’t Me – Brandi Carlile (feat. Kris Kristofferson)

“a song that happened by accident,
like all my favorite songs that I write do.”

She says that she listened to Border Song by Elton John and The Beatles’ Let it Be when she wrote it, and that gospel feeling that those songs have, Brandi Carlile mannages to bring into this great song, That wasn’t  Me.

Music video by Brandi Carlile performing That Wasn’t Me.

Live at Beer Creek version:

She told Rolling Stone Magazine:

“I literally could not believe my luck,” recalls Carlile about getting Kristofferson to appear in the video. “I was fortunate enough to hang out with Kris at the shoot, and he surpassed all my expectations and proved himself to be a kind, compelling and inspiring gentleman.”

Two incredibly good versions of the song!

– Hallgeir

Concert films, Country, Rock, Video

Dawes Live at WNCW 13th of June 2012

It’s not some message written in the dark,
Or some truth that no one’s seen,
It’s a little bit of everything.

The California-based quartet Dawes has  made a name for themselves with their great harmonies and songwriting.  With roots in the great Laurel Canyon sound of Gram Parsons, David Crosby, Jackson Browne, and other 70’s west-coast icons, bandmates Taylor Goldsmith, Griffin Goldsmith, Wylie Gelber and Tay Strathairn went into WNCW’s Studio 13th of June for a great performance and talk about Middle Brother, Robbie Robertson, and of course their own great recordings.

Dawes was a great discovery for us in 2011 and they just keeps getting better.

The fantastic Million Dollar Bill:

Interview about songwriting, Middle Brother and more:

Continue reading Dawes Live at WNCW 13th of June 2012 →

Music Calendar, Soul

Today: Spooner Oldham was born in 1943


(photo: Andrew Quist)

Spooner Oldham
Dewey Lindon “Spooner” Oldham (born June 14, 1943) is an American songwriter and session musician. An organist, he recorded in Muscle Shoals, Alabama and at FAME Studios on such hit R&B songs as “When a Man Loves a Woman” by Percy Sledge, “Mustang Sally” by Wilson Pickett and “I Never Loved a Man” by Aretha Franklin.
As a songwriter, Spooner Oldham teamed with Dan Penn to write such hits as “Cry Like a Baby” (The Box Tops), “I’m Your Puppet” (James and Bobby Purify), “A Woman Left Lonely” and “It Tears Me Up” (Percy Sledge).

I’m your Puppet (here with Dan Penn):

Oldham was inducted into the Rock’n Roll Hall of Fame in 2009, here’s his acceptance speech:

Other june-15:

Continue reading Today: Spooner Oldham was born in 1943 →

Focusing on Bob Dylan & related music