This album, American Beauty, was released 42 years ago today. It is one of the two best Grateful Dead albums, the other is of course, Workingman’s Dead.
There are many good songs on this record, my favourite is Friend of the Devil. It is a refinement of their country rock sound from Workingman’s Dead.
I lit up from Reno I was trailed by twenty hounds Didn’t get to sleep that night Till the morning came around
I set out running but I’ll take my time A friend of the Devil is a friend of mine If I get home before daylight I just might get some sleep tonight
I ran into the Devil, babe He loaned me twenty bills I spent that night in Utah In a cave up in the hills
Lyle Pearce Lovett (born November 1, 1957) is an American singer-songwriter and actor. Active since 1980, he has recorded thirteen albums and released 21 singles to date, including his highest entry, the number 10 chart hit on the U.S. Billboard Hot Country Songs chart, “Cowboy Man”. Lovett has won four Grammy Awards, including Best Male Country Vocal Performance and Best Country Album. (- Wikipedia)
Lyle Lovett – Simple Song:
From Allmusic:
by Stephen Thomas Erlewine
Lyle Lovett was one of the most distinctive and original singer/songwriters to emerge during the ’80s. Though he was initially labeled as a country singer, the tag never quite fit him. Lovett had more in common with ’70s singer/songwriters like Guy Clark, Jesse Winchester, Randy Newman, and Townes Van Zandt, combining a talent for incisive, witty lyrical detail with an eclectic array of music, ranging from country and folk to big-band swing and traditional pop.Lovett’s literate, multi-layered songs stood out among the formulaic Nashville hit singles of the late ’80s as well as the new traditionalists who were beginning to take over country music. Drawing from alternative country and rock fans, Lovett quickly built up a cult following which began to spill over into the mainstream with his second album, 1988’s Pontiac.
His eight best albums are not at any streaming services (that I can find), but we present his ninth best, which is pretty damn good too!
Lyle Lovett – Step inside this house:
Other 1 November:
1970: American Beauty by Grateful Dead was released
American Beauty is the sixth album by the rock band the Grateful Dead. It was recorded between August and September 1970 and originally released in November 1970 by Warner Bros. Records. The album continued the folk rock and country music explored on Workingman’s Deadand prominently features the lyrics of Robert Hunter.
In 2003, the album was ranked number 258 on Rolling Stone magazine’s list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.
Jace Everett and his excellent band gave us a sweet but short concert in Haugesund last night, maybe it was because they had caught “The Svalbard Flu” that it was over so fast or maybe that’s the way they do it. I prefer longer shows, but I know a lot of people who prefer them short and sweet.
Mr. Everett clearly struggled with sickness but he gave his best, and we got some great tunes, old and new.
The following song was described as “A blues in E for those of you who keep track of those things” I cannot recognise the song. It might be from his new album, which he described as an album of religious songs, ” it should fit right in here in Norway”.
Edit: Thanks to Lisafemmeacadienne (check the comments)who told me the song was One of them from the 2010 album Red Revelations. How did I miss that! I think I should also say that the comment about the song and Norway was delivered in a very “tongue in cheeck” manner.
The song has some strong religious images, and it kinda reminds me of a song Tom Waits/Nick Cave could do. Good song.
“I wanted to sound like an entire record when I played. Yeah, it’s all kinda of ringy and melodic, and…. There’s a lot of emotion in there, I think. So I …I play that way cause that’s how I feel.” – Johnny Marr
“I’ve been in the studio with him, and there’s nothing he cannot do on guitar, the man’s a fuckin’ wizard.”
– Noel Gallagher
Johnny Marr (born John Martin Maher; 31 October 1963) is an English musician and songwriter. Marr rose to fame in the 1980s as the guitarist in The Smiths, with whom he formed a prolific songwriting partnership with Morrissey. Marr has been a member of Electronic, The The, and Modest Mouse. In 2008, he joined The Cribs after touring with them on 2008’s NME Awards Tour, a group in which he would remain until 2011.
Marr’s jangly Rickenbacker guitar-playing in The Smiths proved to be popular among other musicians and has influenced many guitarists that followed particularly in the Britpop era.
Marr was voted the fourth best guitarist of the last 30 years in a poll conducted by the BBC in 2010.
(wikipedia)
He is also an often used session guitarist (Pretenders, Bryan Ferry, Dinosaur Jr. and more)
Here he tries to explain his very distinct playing style:
“Rolling Stone Magazine voted him at 51 when making a list of the 100 best guitarists of all time:
“The Smiths’ guitarist was a guitar genius for the post-punk era: not a showboating soloist, but a technician who could sound like a whole band. As a kid studying Motown records, Johnny Marr would try to replicate not just guitar riffs but piano and strings too, all with his right hand. His voluptuous arpeggios – often played on a chiming Rickenbacker with incredible flow and detailing – were every bit as essential to the Smiths’ signature sound as Morrissey’s baritone. And he was a tireless explorer: For 1983’s “This Charming Man,” Marr dropped knives onto a ’54 Telecaster, a revelatory incident that Radiohead may have been alluding to in their Smiths-inspired “Knives Out.” “He was a brilliant rhythm player, rarely played solos, so full of sounds,” said Radiohead’s Ed O’Brien – part of an entire generation of British guitarists who took their cues from Marr…” Read more
He should have been much higher on the list of course, but great praise anyway.
The Smiths, Big Mouth Strikes Again:
Happy birthday, Johnny Marr!
Album of the day, The Queen is dead by The Smiths:
John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers, Fleetwood Mac,Peter Green Splinter Group,Gass, Peter B’s Looners, Otis Spann,Willie Dixon, B.B. King
Peter Green (born Peter Allen Greenbaum, 29 October 1946) is a British blues rock guitarist and the founder of the band Fleetwood Mac. Inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1998 for his work with the group, Green’s songs have been recorded by artists such as Santana, Aerosmith, Midge Ure, Tom Petty, and Judas Priest.
A major figure and bandleader in the “second great epoch” of the British blues movement, Green inspired B. B. King to say, “He has the sweetest tone I ever heard; he was the only one who gave me the cold sweats.” Eric Clapton and Jimmy Page have both lauded his guitar playing.Green’s playing was marked with idiomatic string bending and vibratoand economy of style. Though he played other guitars, he is best known for deriving a unique tone from his 1959 Gibson Les Paul.
He was ranked 38th in Rolling Stone’s list of the “100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time”.
His tone on the Bluesbreakers instrumental “The Super-Natural” was rated as one of the fifty greatest of all time by Guitar Player.
In June 1996 Green was voted the third-best guitarist of all time in Mojo magazine.
Some of the best “white” blues ever – “The World Keep On Turning”:
From allmusic.com – Mark Allan: Peter Green is regarded by some fans as the greatest white blues guitarist ever, Eric Clapton notwithstanding. Born Peter Greenbaum but calling himself Peter Green by age 15, he grew up in London’s working-class East End. Green’s early musical influences were Hank Marvin of the Shadows, Muddy Waters, B.B. King, Freddie King, and traditional Jewish music. He originally played bass before being invited in 1966 by keyboardist Peter Bardens to play lead in the Peter B’s, whose drummer was a lanky chap named Mick Fleetwood. The 19-year-old Green was with Bardens just three months before joining John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers, whose rapidly shifting personnel included bassist John McVie and drummer Aynsley Dunbar. A keen fan of Clapton, Green badgered Mayall to give him a chance when the Bluesbreakers guitarist split for an indefinite vacation in Greece. Green sounded great and, as Mayall recalls, was not amused when Clapton returned after a handful of gigs, and Green was out. …read more @ allmusic.com
Album of the day:
Fleetwood Mac (1968):
Fleetwood Mac’s debut LP was a highlight of the late-’60s British blues boom. Green’s always inspired playing, the capable (if erratic) songwriting, and the general panache of the band as a whole placed them leagues above the overcrowded field. Elmore James is a big influence on this set, particularly on the tunes fronted by Jeremy Spencer (“Shake Your Moneymaker,” “Got to Move”). Spencer’s bluster, however, was outshone by the budding singing and songwriting skills of Green. The guitarist balanced humor and vulnerability on cuts like “Looking for Somebody” and “Long Grey Mare,” and with “If I Loved Another Woman,” he offered a glimpse of the Latin-blues fusion that he would perfect with “Black Magic Woman.” The album was an unexpected smash in the U.K., reaching number four on the British charts.
~Richie Unterberger (allmuisc)
