Tag Archives: Bob Dylan

Bob Dylan, Bob Dylan recording sessions, Music Calendar

Today – Bob Dylan – 15th Infidels recording session in 1983 – 30 years ago

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infidels

…..I did the album, and I call it that, but what it means is for other people to interpret, you know, if it means something to them. Infidels is a word that’s in the dictionary and whoever it applies to… to everybody on the album, every character. Maybe it’s all about infidels.
~Bob Dylan (to Kurt Loder in March 1984)

Foot of Pride:

 “Bob’s musical ability is limited, in terms of being able to play a guitar or a piano,….. It’s rudimentary, but it doesn’t affect his variety, his sense of melody, his singing. It’s all there. In fact, some of the things he plays on piano while he’s singing are lovely, even though they’re rudimentary. That all demonstrates the fact that you don’t have to be a great technician. It’s the same old story: If something is played with soul, that’s what’s important.”
~Mark Knopfler

“I’ve made shoes for everyone, even you, while I still go barefoot”
~Bob Dylan (from “I and I”)

Studio A
Power Station
New York City, New York
27 April 1983

Produced by Mark Knopfler and Bob Dylan

  1. From Paul
  2. Foot Of Pride
  3. Foot Of Pride
  4. Foot Of Pride
  5. Foot Of Pride
    ….Composing it was alright, it probably had a bunch of extra verses that probably… most likely weren’t necessary, they should have been… they should have been combined. But, the reason why it was never used was because the tempo speeded up, but there wasn’t any drum machine used on that, the tempo just automatically took off, for some vague and curious reason.
    ~Bob Dylan (to Eliot Mintz – March 1991)
    –
    Foot of pride is in fact, in the words Dylan used to describe the composition “Like A Rolling Stone,” “a long piece of vomit”. … it’s about how pride destroys us and turns us into monsters.
    ~Paul Williams (BD performing artist 1974-86)
  6. Union Sundown
  7. Union Sundown
  8. (Unidentified Song)
  9. (Harmonica)
  10. (Unidentified Song)
  11. I And I
  12. I And I
  13. I And I
  14. I And I
  15. I And I
  16. I And I
    …according to author/critic Tim Riley, “updates the Dylan mythos. Even though it substitutes self-pity for the [pessimism found throughout Infidels], you can’t ignore it as a Dylan spyglass: ‘Someone else is speakin’ with my mouth, but I’m listening only to my heart/I’ve made shoes for everyone, even you, while I still go barefoot.'” Riley sees the song as an exploration of the distance between Dylan’s “inner identity and the public face he wears”.
    ~Wikipedia
    –
    “I and I”, the other epic from these sessions, is a beautiful song, powerfully sung, with a wonderfully moody and evocative instrumental setting….
    ~Paul Williams (BD perfroming artist 1974-86) 
  17. I And I
  18. I And I
  19. I And I
  20. Julius And Ethel
  21. Julius And Ethel

infidels back

Musicians:

  • Bob Dylan (vocal, harmonica, keyboards & guitar)
  • Mark Knopfler (guitar)
  • Mick Taylor (guitar)
  • Alan Clark (keyboards)
  • Robbie Shakespeare (bass)
  • Sly Dunbar (drums)

6, 7, 20, 21 Clydie King (backing/shared vocal)

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Great albums, Johnny Cash, Music Calendar

Today: Johnny Cash released American Recordings in 1994 – 19 years ago

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johnny cash-american-recordings

…Always, the choice of material is a revelation. The Beast In Me (written by former son-in-law, Nick Lowe) could be autobiographical. And while writers like horrorpunk figurehead Glenn Danzig or Tom Waits probably would never have figured on his radar were it not for Rubin; time and again the duo found songs that were, in Cash’s hands, to take on new life. This willingness to experiment was to set a precedent: Subsequent albums were to see him work magic on material from Nine Inch Nails to U2 and Depeche Mode. But Johnny Cash’s final road to redemption and artistic fulfillment starts here…
~Chris Jones (bbc.co.uk)

American Recordings did something very important — it gave Cash a chance to show how much he could do with a set of great songs and no creative interference, and it afforded him the respect he’d been denied for so long, and the result is a powerful and intimate album that brought the Man in Black back to the spotlight, where he belonged.
~Mark Deming (allmusic.com)

#1 – Delia’s Gone

Wikipedia:

Released April 26, 1994
Recorded May 17, 1993 – December 7, 1993
Genre Country, country folk, americana, folk rock
Length 42:45
Label American/ Sony
Producer Rick Rubin

American Recordings is the 81st album by the country singer Johnny Cash. It was released in April 1994, the first album issued by American Recordings after its name change from Def American, the album being named after the new label. In 2003, the album was ranked number 364 on Rolling Stone magazine’s list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.

Cash was approached by producer Rick Rubin and offered a contract with Rubin’s American Recordings label, better known for rap and heavy metal than for country music. Under Rubin’s supervision, he recorded the album in his living room, accompanied only by his guitar. For years Cash was often at odds with his producers after he had discovered with his first producer, Sam Phillips, that his voice was better suited to a stripped-down musical style. Most famously he disagreed with Jack Clement over his sound, Clement having tried to give Cash’s songs a “twangy” feel and to add strings and barbershop-quartet-style singers. His successful collaboration with Rick Rubin was in part due to Rubin seeking a minimalist sound for his songs.

johnny cash american recordings

#3 – The Beast In Me:

The songs “Tennessee Stud” and “The Man Who Couldn’t Cry” were recorded live at the Viper Room, a Sunset Strip, Los Angeles nightclub owned at the time by Johnny Depp. “The Beast in Me” was written and originally recorded by Cash’s former stepson-in-law Nick Lowe.

The video for the first single, the traditional song “Delia’s Gone” (directed by Anton Corbijn, featuring Kate Moss), was put into rotation on MTV, and even appeared on Beavis and Butt-head, Beavis asking if Cash was Captain Kangaroo. The album was hailed by critics and many declared it to be Cash’s finest album since the late 1960s, while his versions of songs by more modern artists such as Tom Waits and Glenn Danzig (who penned a song called “Thirteen” specifically for Cash, in just twenty minutes) helped to bring him a new audience. American Recordings received a Grammy for Best Contemporary Folk Album of the Year at the 1994 Grammy Awards. The album cover was photographed whilst Cash was visiting Australia, at Werribee near Melbourne.

johnny cash rick rubinJohhny Cash & Rick Rubin in studio

#5 – Why Me Lord:

Track listing:

  1. “Delia’s Gone” (Karl Silbersdorf, Dick Toops) – 2:18
    Originally recorded by Cash for The Sound of Johnny Cash (1962)
  2. “Let the Train Blow the Whistle” (Cash) – 2:15
  3. “The Beast in Me” (Nick Lowe) – 2:45
    Originally recorded by Lowe for The Impossible Bird (1994)
  4. “Drive On” (Cash) – 2:23
  5. “Why Me Lord” (Kris Kristofferson) – 2:20
    Originally recorded by Kristofferson for Jesus Was a Capricorn (1972)
  6. “Thirteen” (edit) (Glenn Danzig) – 2:29
    Full-length version appears on Disc 5 of the Unearthed Box Set. Written by Glenn Danzig for Cash. Later recorded by Danzig for Danzig 6:66 Satan’s Child (1999)
  7. “Oh, Bury Me Not (Introduction: A Cowboy’s Prayer)” (John Lomax, Alan Lomax, Roy Rogers, Tim Spencer) – 3:52
    Originally recorded by Cash for Sings the Ballads of the True West (1965)
  8. “Bird on a Wire” (Leonard Cohen) – 4:01
    Originally recorded by Cohen for Songs from a Room (1969)
  9. “Tennessee Stud” (live) (Jimmy Driftwood) – 2:54
    Originally a hit single for Eddy Arnold (1959)
  10. “Down There by the Train” (Tom Waits) – 5:34
    Written by Waits for Cash. Later released by Waits on his Orphans: Brawlers, Bawlers & Bastards rarities collection.
  11. “Redemption” (Cash) – 3:03
  12. “Like a Soldier” (Cash) – 2:50
  13. “The Man Who Couldn’t Cry” (live) (Loudon Wainwright) – 5:03
    Originally recorded by Wainwright for Attempted Mustache (1973)

Personnel:

  • Rick Rubin – producer
  • Johnny Cash – acoustic guitar, vocals, main performer, liner notes
  • Jim Scott – mixing
  • David Ferguson – sound recordist
  • Stephen Marcussen – mastering
  • Christine Cano – design
  • Martyn Atkins – art director, photographer

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David Bowie, Great albums, Music Calendar

Today: David Bowie released Diamond Dogs in 1974 – 39 years ago

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david bowie diamond dogs

Throughout the album, there are hints that he’s tired with the Ziggy formula, particularly in the disco underpinning of “Candidate” and his cut-and-paste lyrics. However, it’s not enough to make Diamond Dogs a step forward, and without Mick Ronson to lead the band, the rockers are too stiff to make an impact. Ironically, the one exception is one of Bowie’s very best songs — the tight, sexy “Rebel Rebel.”
~Stephen Thomas Erlewine (allmusic.com)

When this came out in 1974, it was roundly dismissed as Ziggy Stardust’s last strangled gasp. In hindsight, Diamond Dogs is marginally more worthwhile; its resigned nihilism inspired interesting gloom and doom from later goth and industrial acts such as Bauhaus and Nine Inch Nails.
~Mark Kemp (rollingstone.com in 2004)

#2 – Diamond Dogs:

Well.. most the critics dismissed (and still – in hindsight – dismisses) this album. I’ve always liked it. Best to play it all through in one sitting…

Wikipedia:

Released 24 April 1974
Recorded October 1973 – February 1974 at Olympic Studios and Island Studios, London, and Ludolf Studios, Hilversum, Netherlands
Genre Rock, glam rock
Length 38:25
Label RCA
Producer David Bowie

Diamond Dogs is a concept album by David Bowie, originally released in 1974 on RCA Records, his eighth album. Thematically, it was a marriage of the novel Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell and Bowie’s own glam-tinged vision of a post-apocalyptic world. Bowie had wanted to make a theatrical production of Orwell’s book and began writing material after completing sessions for his 1973 album Pin Ups, but the late author’s estate denied the rights. The songs wound up on the second half of Diamond Dogs instead where, as the titles indicated, the Nineteen Eighty-Four theme was prominent.

david bowie diamond dogs 2

#6 – Rebel Rebel:

Although Diamond Dogs was the first Bowie album since 1969 to not feature any of the ‘Spiders from Mars’, the backing band made famous by Ziggy Stardust, many of the arrangements were already worked out and played on tour with Mick Ronson prior to the studio recordings, including “1984” and “Rebel Rebel”.

In the studio, however, Herbie Flowers played bass with drums being shared between Aynsley Dunbar and Tony Newman. In a move that surprised some commentators, Bowie himself took on the lead guitar role previously held by Mick Ronson, producing what NME critics Roy Carr and Charles Shaar Murraydescribed as a “scratchy, raucous, semi-amateurish sound that gave the album much of its characteristic flavour”. Diamond Dogs was also a milestone in Bowie’s career as it reunited him with Tony Visconti, who provided string arrangements and helped mix the album at his own Good Earth Studios in London, on a Trident B-range console, brand new from Trident at the time. Visconti would go on to co-produce much of Bowie’s work for the rest of the decade.

david bowie diamond dogs tour

#7 – Rock’n Roll With Me:

The record was Bowie’s glam swansong; according to author David Buckley, “In the sort of move which would come to define his career, Bowie jumped the glam-rock ship just in time, before it drifted into a blank parody of itself”. At the time of its release Bowie described Diamond Dogsas “a very political album. My protest … more me than anything I’ve done previously”.

Diamond Dogs’ raw guitar style and visions of urban chaos, scavenging children and nihilistic lovers (“We’ll buy some drugs and watch a band / And jump in the river holding hands”) have been credited with anticipating the punk revolution that would take place in the following years.

Track Listing:

All songs written by David Bowie, except where noted.[14]

  1. “Future Legend” – 1:05
  2. “Diamond Dogs” – 5:56
  3. “Sweet Thing” – 3:39
  4. “Candidate” – 2:40
  5. “Sweet Thing (Reprise)” – 2:31
  6. “Rebel Rebel” – 4:30
  7. “Rock ‘n’ Roll with Me” (lyrics: Bowie; music: Bowie, Warren Peace) – 4:00
  8. “We Are the Dead” – 4:58
  9. “1984” – 3:27
  10. “Big Brother” – 3:21
  11. “Chant of the Ever Circling Skeletal Family” – 2:00

david bowie diamond dogs 3

 

Personnel:

  • David Bowie – vocals, guitars, saxes, Moog synthesizer, Mellotron, producer, mixing engineer
  • Earl Slick – guitar on “Rock ‘n’ Roll with Me”
  • Mike Garson – keyboards
  • Herbie Flowers – bass guitar
  • Tony Newman – drums
  • Aynsley Dunbar – drums
  • Alan Parker – guitar on “1984”
  • Tony Visconti – strings, mixing engineer
  • Keith Harwood – engineer, mixing engineer

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Great albums, Music Travel, Rolling Stones

Today: The Rolling Stones released Sticky Fingers in 1971 – 42 years ago

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The Rolling Stones - sticky-fingers

Sticky Fingers was never meant to be the title. It’s just what we called it while we were working on it. Usually though, the working titles stick.
~Keith Richards 1971

While many hold their next album, Exile On Main St., as their zenith, Sticky Fingers, balancing on the knife edge between the 60s and 70s, remains their most coherent statement.
~Chris Jones (bbc.co.uk)

#1 – Brown Sugar:

Wikipedia:

Released 23 April 1971
Recorded 2–4 December 1969, Muscle Shoals Sound Studio, Sheffield, Alabama; 17 February, March – May, 16 June – 27 July, 17–31 October 1970, and January 1971,Olympic Studios, London, UK; except “Sister Morphine”, begun 22–31 March 1969
Genre Rock
Length 46:25
Language English
Label Rolling Stones
Producer Jimmy Miller

Sticky Fingers is the ninth British and 11th American studio album by English rock band The Rolling Stones, released in April 1971. It is the band’s first album of the 1970s and its first release on the band’s newly formed label, Rolling Stones Records, after having been contracted since 1963 with Decca Records in the UK and London Records in the US. It is also Mick Taylor’s first full-length appearance on a Rolling Stones album, the first Rolling Stones album not to feature any contributions from guitarist and founder Brian Jones and the first one on which Mick Jagger is credited with playing guitar.

The album is often regarded as one of the Stones’ best, containing songs such as the chart-topping “Brown Sugar” and the folk-influenced “Wild Horses”, and achieving triple platinum certification in the US.

Rolling stones sticky fingers_spainSpanish Cover

#3 – Wild Horses:

During the tour of the States we went to Alabama and played at the Muscle Shoals Studio. That was a fantastic week. We cut some great tracks, which appeared on Sticky Fingers – You Gotta Move, Brown Sugar and Wild Horses – and we did them without Jimmy Miller, which was equally amazing. It worked very well: it’s one of Keith’s things to go in and record while you’re in the middle of a tour and your playing is in good shape. The Muscle Shoals Studio was very special, though – a great studio to work in, a very hip studio, where the drums were on a riser high up in the air, plus you wanted to be there because of all the guys who had worked in the same studio.
~Charlie Watts in 2003

Recording:

Although sessions for Sticky Fingers began in earnest in March 1970, The Rolling Stones had recorded at Muscle Shoals Studios in Alabama in December 1969 and “Sister Morphine”, cut during Let It Bleed’s sessions earlier in March of that year, was held over for this release. Much of the recording for Sticky Fingers was made with The Rolling Stones’ mobile studio unit in Stargroves during the summer and autumn of 1970. Early versions of songs that would appear on Exile on Main St. were also rehearsed during these sessions.

Rolling stones sticky fingers back

#9 – Dead Flowers:

To my mind the things that Ry (Cooder) plays on have a kind of polish that the Stones generally began to develop around that time. The rough edges came off a bit. Mick Taylor started putting on the polish that became the next period of the Stones out of the raw rock and blues band.
~Jimmy Miller in 1979

In 2003, Sticky Fingers was listed as #63 on Rolling Stone magazine’s 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.

Track Listing:

  1. “Brown Sugar” 3:48
  2. “Sway” 3:50
  3. “Wild Horses” 5:42
  4. “Can’t You Hear Me Knocking” 7:14
  5. “You Gotta Move” (Fred McDowell/Gary Davis) 2:32
  6. “Bitch” 3:38
  7. “I Got the Blues” 3:54
  8. “Sister Morphine” (Jagger/Richards/Marianne Faithfull) 5:31
  9. “Dead Flowers” 4:03
  10. “Moonlight Mile” 5:56

Personnel:

The Rolling Stones
  • Mick Jagger – lead vocals, acoustic guitar on “Dead Flowers” and “Moonlight Mile”, electric guitar on “Sway”, percussion on “Brown Sugar”
  • Keith Richards – electric guitar, six and twelve string acoustic guitar, backing vocals
  • Mick Taylor – electric, acoustic and slide guitar (not present during “Sister Morphine” sessions)
  • Charlie Watts – drums
  • Bill Wyman – bass guitar, electric piano on “You Gotta Move”
Additional personnel
  • Bobby Keys – saxophone
  • Jim Price – trumpet, piano on “Moonlight Mile”
  • Ian Stewart – piano on “Brown Sugar” and “Dead Flowers”
  • Nicky Hopkins – piano on “Sway”, “Can’t You Hear Me Knocking”
  • Jim Dickinson – piano on “Wild Horses”
  • Jack Nitzsche – piano on “Sister Morphine”
  • Ry Cooder – slide guitar on “Sister Morphine”
  • Billy Preston – organ on “Can’t You Hear Me Knocking” and “I Got the Blues”
  • Jimmy Miller – percussion on “Can’t You Hear Me Knocking”
  • Rocky Dijon – congas on “Can’t You Hear Me Knocking”
  • Paul Buckmaster – string arrangement on “Sway” and “Moonlight Mile”
  • Engineers – Glyn Johns, Andy Johns, Chris Kimsey, Jimmy Johnson
  • Cover concept/photography – Andy Warhol

rolling stones leeds 1970

We made (tracks) with just Mick Taylor, which are very good and everyone loves, where Keith wasn’t there for whatever reasons… People don’t know that Keith wasn’t there making it. All the stuff like Moonlight Mile, Sway. These tracks are a bit obscure, but they are liked by people that like the Rolling Stones. It’s me and (Mick Taylor) playing off each other – another feeling completely, because he’s following my vocal lines and then extemporizing on them during the solos.
~Mick Jagger in 1995

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Gospel, Jazz, Music Calendar, Soul

Today: Nina Simone passed away in 2003 – 10 years ago

nina_simone 2

Jazz is a white term to define black people. My music is black classical music.
~Nina Simone

Once I understood Bach’s music, I wanted to be a concert pianist. Bach made me dedicate my life to music, and it was that teacher who introduced me to his world.
~Nina Simone

Nina Simone was one of the most gifted vocalists of her generation, and also one of the most eclectic.
~Mark Deming (allmusic.com)

Ain’t Got No…I’ve Got Life:

Wikipedia:

Birth name Eunice Kathleen Waymon
Born February 21, 1933
Tryon, North Carolina, United States
Died April 21, 2003 (aged 70)
Carry-le-Rouet, Bouches-du-Rhône, France
Genres Jazz, blues, R&B, folk, gospel
Occupations Singer, songwriter, pianist,arranger, activist
Years active 1954–2003
Labels Bethlehem, Colpix, Philips, RCA Victor, CTI, Legacy Recordings
Website http://www.ninasimone.com/

Eunice Kathleen Waymon (February 21, 1933 – April 21, 2003), better known by her stage name Nina Simone /ˈniːnə sɨˈmoʊn/, was an American singer, songwriter, pianist, arranger, and civil rights activist widely associated with jazz music. Simone aspired to become a classical pianist while working in a broad range of styles including classical, jazz, blues, folk, R&B, gospel, and pop.

Born the sixth child of a preacher’s family in North Carolina, Simone aspired to be a concert pianist. Her musical path changed direction after she was denied a scholarship to the prestigious Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, despite a well-received audition. Simone was later told by someone working at Curtis that she was rejected because she was black. When she began playing in a small club in Philadelphia to fund her continuing musical education and become a classical pianist she was required to sing as well. She was approached for a recording by Bethlehem Records, and her rendering of “I Loves You, Porgy” was a hit in the United States in 1958. Over the length of her career Simone recorded more than 40 albums, mostly between 1958—when she made her debut with Little Girl Blue—and 1974.

nina_simone

“Feelings” (Montreux Jazz Festival):

Her musical style arose from a fusion of gospel and pop songs with classical music, in particular with influences from her first inspiration, Johann Sebastian Bach, and accompanied with her expressive jazz-like singing in her characteristic contralto. She injected as much of her classical background into her music as possible to give it more depth and quality, as she felt that pop music was inferior to classical. Her intuitive grasp on the audience–performer relationship was gained from a unique background of playing piano accompaniment for church revivals and sermons regularly from the early age of six years old.

In the early 1960s, she became involved in the civil rights movement and the direction of her life shifted once again. Simone’s music was highly influential in the fight for equal rights in the United States. In later years, she lived abroad, finally settling in France in 1992.

nina_simone 3

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