Category Archives: Music Calendar

Bob Dylan, Bob Dylan albums, Music Calendar

Today: Bob Dylan released Down In The Groove 25 years ago

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“Bob’s bad stuff is better than other musicians’ best”

Down in the Groove is singer-songwriter Bob Dylan‘s 25th studio album, released by Columbia Records 30 May 1988. Egil here at Johannasvisions rate it as maybe Dylan’s lowest point. Me? I’m not so sure anymore…

It got pretty terrible reviews upon it’s release. Many reviewers compared it to his previous album, Knocked Out Loaded, and not in a favourable way.

Wikipedia:
“A highly collaborative effort, it was Dylan’s second consecutive album to receive almost unanimous negative reviews. Released during a period when his recording career was experiencing a slump, sales were disappointing, reaching only #61 in the US and #32 in the UK.”

How is it in hindsight? Was it unfairly slated? I think it’s better than reported and as usual Dylan’s standards were expected to be higher than anybody else’s. We cannot expect a masterpiece every time. Can we?

The album was delayed for more than six months and the track listing changed at least three times. The tracks that made the final album come from many different recording sessions spread out over a long time (six years?).

Rick Griffin Down in the Groove
Rick Griffin was asked by Dylan’s management to come up with a cover design for what was to be the ‘Down In The Groove’ album. Rick produced many designs and, apparently, became somewhat exasperated as his ideas were rejected and changed. This seems to have reflected the overall situation surrounding the album at the time (bonhams)

I’ve always thought of it as a strangely confusing album, but it gets less confusing with each listen session. It has some very good cover songs. Let’s Stick together opens the record in an energetic way, I would love to hear it live!

The comes the song I think is not very good at all, the cover When did you leave heaven. Very eighties drum sound, strange production, it just sounds a bit off, I don’t think the song suits Dylan, and it ends kind of funny.

Sally Sue Brown, the third track is another rockn’roll/soul standard that gets a good run through. I prefer Arthur Alexanders classic, but it is not bad at all.

The last three songs on the album are also cover songs (Ninety Miles an Hour (Down a dead end street), Shenandoah and Rank Strangers To Me, and they are all quite good actually.

I like Rank Strangers To Me best (the closing track). Dylan sings beautifully.

Let’s also include a fine live version from Wembley 1997:

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Music Calendar

Today: it is 16 years since Jeff Buckely died

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“He really wasn’t built for the strand of rock music borne of rebellion or release; he was a songbird…”
– Dominique Leone (Pitchfork)

Today marks the sixteenth anniversary of Jeff Buckley’s tragic drowning in the Wolf River. Jeff Buckley was a man who shunned celebrity, he had spent two years touring in support ofGrace, before recording what he intended be his next album, My Sweetheart the Drunk.

He never got to see its release. In 1997, while re-recording a few songs, Jeff Buckley drowned after going for a swim. It was was ruled an accidental drowning.

It was posthumously released under the name Sketches For My Sweetheart The Drunk after Buckley’s mother asked for a title change because of the unfinished state of  the songs.

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“Jeff Buckley was a pure drop in an ocean of noise.”
– Bono

Jeffrey Scott “Jeff” Buckley (November 17, 1966 – May 29, 1997), raised as Scotty Moorhead, was an American singer-songwriter and guitarist. He was the son of Tim Buckley, also a musician. After a decade as a guitarist-for-hire in Los Angeles, Buckley amassed a following in the early 1990s by playing cover songs at venues in Manhattan’s East Village, such as Sin-é, gradually focusing more on his own material. After rebuffing much interest from record labelsand his father’s manager Herb Cohen, he signed with Columbia, recruited a band, and recorded what would be his only studio album, Grace. (wikipedia)

Documentary from Columbia Records on the making of Grace:

Awards and nominations

  • MTV Video Music Award nomination for Best New Artist in a Video for “Last Goodbye”, 1995.
  • Rolling Stone magazine nomination for Best New Artist, 1995.
  • In 2006, Mojo named Grace the #1 Modern Rock Classic of all Time. It was also rated as Australia’s second favorite album on My Favourite Album, a television special aired by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation on December 3, 2006.
  • Grammy Award nomination for Best Male Rock Vocal Performance for “Everybody Here Wants You”, 1998.
  • Grace was ranked #303 of the 500 Greatest Albums by Rolling Stone in 2003.
  • Buckley’s cover of “Hallelujah” was ranked #259 of the 500 Greatest Songs by Rolling Stone in 2004.
  • Rolling Stone ranked Buckley #39 in its 2008 list: The 100 Greatest Singers of All Time.
Hallelujah (Leonard Cohen) – Jeff Buckley:

The Album of the day is of course Grace:

Other May-29:

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John Fogerty, Music Calendar

Today: John Fogerty is 68 – Happy Birthday

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I’ve always felt that with true talent, and a commitment to hard work, it is possible to achieve an enduring respect and appreciation. In other words, I don’t take my fans for granted.
– John Fogerty

John Cameron Fogerty was born May 28, 1945. He is a songwriter, and guitarist, best known for his time with the swamp rock/roots rock band Creedence Clearwater Revival (CCR) and as a #1 solo recording artist.

Mystic Highway (Letterman, May 2013) – John Fogerty:

 Fogerty has a rare distinction of being named on Rolling Stone magazine’s list of 100 Greatest Guitarists at #40 and the list of 100 Greatest Singers at #72. The songs “Proud Mary” and “Born on the Bayou” also rank amongst the Greatest Pop songs (“Proud Mary,” #41) and Guitar songs (“Born on the Bayou,” #53).

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Creedence Clearwater Revival’s music is still a staple of American and worldwide radio airplay and often figures in various media. The band has sold 26 million albums in the United States alone. Creedence Clearwater Revival was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1993. They were ranked at 82 on Rolling Stone’s 100 greatest artists of all time.

Someday Never Comes (Letterman, May 2013) – John Fogerty and The Dawes:

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Album of the day @ JV is his marvelous comeback album from 1985, Centerfield:

Allmusic:

Since Fogerty always romanticized a past he never lived, these sepia tones suit him but it also helps that he’s written a clutch of terrific songs: that giddy ode to his beloved game, the equally sunny rocker “Rock and Roll Girls,” the snappy Sun tribute “Big Train from Memphis,” the gently swaying “I Saw It on TV,” the rip-roaring “I Can’t Help Myself” (only slightly undone by its hyper-active drum programming) and, of course, “The Old Man Down the Road,” a callback to CCR’s spooky swamp rock so successful that Saul Zaentz, the then-president of Fogerty’s former label Fantasy, sued John for plagiarizing himself.

A great artist, a great rock guitarist and singer,
Happy birthday John Fogerty!

 

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Bob Dylan, Bob Dylan albums, Music Calendar

Today: It is 50 years since Bob Dylan released The Freewheelin Bob Dylan

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” I think it was the first time I ever heard Dylan at all… And for the rest of our three weeks in Paris, we didn’t stop playing it.” 
– John Lennon

Dylan had already moved on to other songs when his first masterpiece was released. Contrary to his first album, this album mostly has songs penned by the man himself.  With songs like Blowin’ in the Wind, Girl From The North Country, Masters Of War,  and  Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right  that are still a big part of Dylan’s concerts half a century later,  Freewheelin’ is an album whose music will live long after anyone who is  reading this post is gone.

Facts from Wikipedia: 

Studio album by Bob Dylan
Released May 27, 1963
Recorded April 24–25, July 9, October 26, November 1 and 15, December 6, 1962, and April 24, 1963 at Columbia Records Studio A, 799 Seventh Avenue, New York City
Genre Folk
Length 50:04
Label Columbia
Producer John Hammond, Tom Wilson

The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan is the second studio album by American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan, released in May 1963 by Columbia Records. Whereas his debut album Bob Dylan had contained only two original songs, Freewheelin’ initiated the process of writing contemporary words to traditional melodies. Eleven of the thirteen songs on the album are original compositions by Dylan. The album kicks off with “Blowin’ in the Wind”, which would become one of the anthems of the 1960s, and an international hit for folk trio Peter, Paul & Mary soon after the release of Freewheelin’. The album featured several other songs which came to be regarded as amongst Dylan’s best compositions and classics of the 1960s folk scene: “Girl from the North Country”, “Masters of War”, “A Hard Rain’s a-Gonna Fall” and “Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right”.

A Hard Rain’s Gonna Fall:

Dylan’s lyrics embraced stories ripped from the headlines about civil rights and he articulated anxieties about the fear of nuclear warfare. Balancing this political material were love songs, sometimes bitter and accusatory, and material that features surreal humor. Freewheelin’ showcased Dylan’s songwriting talent for the first time, propelling him to national and international fame. The success of the album and Dylan’s subsequent recognition led to his being named as “Spokesman of a Generation”, a label Dylan came to resent.

The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan reached number 22 in the US (eventually going platinum), and later became a number one hit in the UK in 1964. In 2003, the album was ranked number 97 on Rolling Stone magazine’s list of the 500 greatest albums of all time. In 2002, Freewheelin’ was one of the first 50 recordings chosen by the Library of Congress to be added to the National Recording Registry.

Girl from the North Country:

Even if you were among the handful of people who bought Bob Dylan’s 1962 self-titled debut, you couldn’t have predicted The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan, the 1963 folkie touchstone where Dylan transformed American songwriting and blew the minds of everyone from his coffeehouse compatriots to the Beatles.

– The Rolling Stone Magazine

Album of the day @ JV:

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Jazz, Music Calendar

Today: The late Miles Davis was born in 1926 – 87 years ago

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Don’t play what’s there, play what’s not there.
– Miles Davis

Miles Davis is my definition of cool.
– Bob Dylan

 I discovered Miles Davis through Prince. Prince talked about Miles and they played together, they played each others songs and I got curious. My first meet with Miles Davis was in the eighties, the years that some hard-core Miles fans consider the decline or the lost years. Not for me, I love 80s Miles Davis, and what I heard made me go back in time. What a world that opened up!

I got to see him in concert, once in 1988. To a young and recent fan it was mind-blowing!

Tutu, Stuttgart 1988:

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From Allmusic:

Throughout a professional career lasting 50 years, Miles Davis played the trumpet in a lyrical, introspective, and melodic style, often employing a stemless Harmon mute to make his sound more personal and intimate. But if his approach to his instrument was constant, his approach to jazz was dazzlingly protean. To examine his career is to examine the history of jazz from the mid-’40s to the early ’90s, since he was in the thick of almost every important innovation and stylistic development in the music during that period, and he often led the way in those changes, both with his own performances and recordings and by choosing sidemen and collaborators who forged new directions. It can even be argued that jazz stopped evolving when Davis wasn’t there to push it forward.
– William Ruhlmann

The best Jazz song in music history, So What:

I have choses On The Corner (1972) as today’s album, my favorite Miles record is Kind of Blue, but I thought it would be nice to focus on one of my other favorites. It is a an album that was loathed when it was released. Miles Davis was accused of selling out (just as he was in the 80s). When listening to the album today it is hard to understand what he was selling out to…

At the time, everyone loathed Miles Davis’s On the Corner – even the people who played on it. But now, some of the coolest names in music are proud to name it as a major influence. – Paul Tingen (The Guardian)

other 26 May:

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