All posts by Hallgeir

Blues, Jazz, Music Calendar, Soul

October 1: The late Donny Hathaway was born in 1945

donny hathaway

Donny Edward Hathaway (October 1, 1945 – January 13, 1979) was an American jazz, blues, soul, and gospel vocalist and musician. Hathaway contracted with Atlantic Records in 1969 and with his first single for the Atco label, “The Ghetto, Part I” in early 1970, Rolling Stone magazine “marked him as a major new force in soul music.” His collaborations with Roberta Flack scored high on the charts and won him the Grammy Award for Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals for the duet, “Where Is the Love” in 1973. At the height of his career Hathaway was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia. On January 13, 1979, Hathaway’s body was found outside the luxury hotel Essex House in New York City; his death was ruled a suicide.

He was a tremendous singer.

These are my 5 favorite Donny Hathaway songs:

The Ghetto
Flying Easy
Someday we’ll all be free
A Song for you (Leon Russel)
“I (Who Have Nothing)” (Jerry Leiber, Mike Stoller, Carlo Donida) with Roberta Flack

All his studio albums are good, but his live album, Live is fantastic!

Spotify Don Hathaway – Live:

Hallgeir

Bob Dylan, Cover versions, The White Stripes

3 good and 3 great versions of Bob Dylan’s Love Sick

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love_sick_2

3 good and 3 great versions of Bob Dylan’s Love Sick

“I’m sick of love but I’m in the thick of it”
– Bob Dylan (Love Sick)

Love Sick is a song by Bob Dylan, released on his 30th studio album Time Out of Mind in 1997 and released as the second single from the album on June 1, 1998.

He sounds like he will but can not give up on love. It has a hard , dark rhythm that pounds through the song, hammering the ominous lyrics into our ears. It’s a deceptively simple structure, the more you listen to it the better it gets. It is not easy making things simple and naked. The melody is perfect for the lyrics, the narrator is hesitant in his quest, but he have no choice. He must give in to love. Well, that’s my take on it.

I love the melody, I love the song. It is a masterpiece.

Let us start with the 3 good ones.

The White Stripes :

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Bruce Springsteen, Great albums, Music Calendar, Sound

September 30: Bruce Springsteen released Nebraska in 1982

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nebraska

They declared me unfit to live, said into that great void my soul be hurled. 
They wanted to know why I did what I did; 
Well sir, I guess there’s just a meanness in this world.
– Nebraska

 

“The fact that you didn’t intend to release it makes it the most intimate record you’ll ever do. This is an absolutely legitimate piece of art.” Steven Van Zandt

“I felt that it was my best writing. I felt I was getting better as a writer. I was learning things. I was certainly taking a hard look at everything around me.”
Bruce Springsteen

Nebraska posts on Johannasvisions:
Nebraska covered part one
Nebraska covered part two
Unreleased – The Losin’ Kind

I really love this album. I did not buy it in 1982 I got it a few years later, I listened to it at the record store when it was released, but it didn’t impress me. I couldn’t connect to it musically or lyrically. It is not an album that imidiately catches your attention, it needs to be listened to, properly.

When I did that I became very impressed!

Some facts (from Wikipedia):

Released September 30, 1982
Recorded Mostly January 3, 1982 at Springsteen’s Colts Neck, New Jersey bedroom
Genre Americana, folk rock, folk
Length 40:50
Label Columbia
Producer Bruce Springsteen

Nebraska is the sixth studio album by Bruce Springsteen, released in 1982 on Columbia Records.

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Jerry Lee Lewis, Rock'n Roll

30 Best live albums countdown: 20 – Live at the Star Club Hamburg by Jerry Lee Lewis

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live at the star club 1964

I have 20 albums left in my top 30 live albums countdown, it is getting extremely difficult to say that one is better than the other. Now I continue on “gut feeling” and even if it is a carefully thought out list, it may well look different tomorrow (or even later today). But don’t take it too seriously, we’re just having fun here.

Live At The Star Club, Hamburg is not an album, it’s a crime scene: Jerry Lee Lewis slaughters his rivals in a thirteen-song set that feels like one long convulsion. – Rolling Stone Magazine

Live at the Star Club, Hamburg by Jerry Lee Lewis is the best classic rock’n roll live album ever made. No, it is not from Lewis’ golden age, the 50’s, it is from The Star Club in Hamburg in 1964.

It was not released in the U.S. until the early nineties when Rhino re-issued it on CD. That’s when I heard this thunderstorm of a record.

From the liner notes (the Rhino re-issue):
What do you think of when you think of the Star Club? “Well, that’s obvious. That’s where The Beatles played.” Right and wrong. If you’re a regenerate rocker, you’d say, “That’s where Jerry Lee Lewis recorded the greatest album ever made.”

It’s a speed driven, frenzied, rock’n roll moment, luckily it is captured for posterity.

Mean Woman Blues:

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Bob Dylan, Bob Dylan video, Neil Young

Bob Dylan sings 2 versions of Old Man by Neil Young (Videos)

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2002_dylan

Bob Dylan has written many songs that are done by a lot of artists. One of the best Dylan interpreters is Neil Young, he has done wonderful versions of Bob Dylan songs.

Today we will post two great Bob Dylan takes on Mr. Young’s classic, Old Man.

Neil Young wrote Old Man when he was 27!  Young was probably 24 years old when he wrote the song! (see the comments)

Oldman45

Continue reading Bob Dylan sings 2 versions of Old Man by Neil Young (Videos) →