The Rolling Stones headline Saturday night at the Glastonbury Festival 2013. All the material The Rolling Stones allowed to be broadcast is here.
“Haven’t slept since Wednesday afternoon, Waitin’ for that Glastonbury girl, She took all my ecstasy now she’s off at Primal Scream,” Mick Jagger sings to the crowd. Changing the words of ‘Factory Girl’ from ‘Beggars Banquet’. Great fun!
They still got what it takes and did a great set! Nice to see Mick Taylor back on stage with The Stones to.
The full BBC broadcast of the Rolling Stones at Glastonbury 2013:
Bill Withers is not underrated by people who know about him and who recognizes his music, but he is unknown and criminally overlooked by the general public. He is in fact one of the greatest singer/songwriters in music history. He is soulful, but his music is not constrained to the soul genre. He writes good songs and he is a marvelous performer.
Bill Withers became a part of the L.A. music scene in the late 60s after a period in the Navy. While he was assembling airplane toilets for Boeing he was signed to the Sussex music label (in 1970) and had instant success with his first album, Just As I Am, and the acoustic ballad, Ain’t No Sunshine. Bill Withers had more in common with the singer/songwriters than with the rising disco/soul, even though there’s a strong groove in his songs, sometimes even a funky rhythm. His second release, 1972’s Still Bill, became a career high point, it contained songs like Use Me and Lean On Me, big hits both of them. The album cemented his position in music history.
In 1972 he also recorded the fantastic live album, Live at Carnegie Hall (released 1973). Nowhere is his narrative prowess and powerful vocal style more clear. This is number 19 on my list of the best live albums of all time.
The opener is a slow version of Use Me that Bill Withers turns into a seductive almost nine minute jam.
Use Me (Soul Train, 197?), not nearly as good as the Carnegie Hall version, but very good anyway:
The album also has the definitive version of Ain’t no Sunshine, a faster more jazzy interpretation than usual.
There are many great songs on the album, but the real masterpiece is Grandma’s Hands and especially Bill Wither’s long intro, he is reminiscing about his grandmother playing tambourine in the church. We hear him describe the dancing and preaching at the church, his grandmother banging on the tambourine in joy, it’s an incredible story. He then launches into a heartfelt version of the song which, again, bests the original by miles. After hearing this version and his strong introduction, you will experience the song in new and deeper way.
Grandma’s Hands (audio with slide show):
“Grandma them had one a them churches where they sung “If you wanna help me Jesus, it’s alright. If you wanna help me Jesus, it’s alright”. And at the funeral they used to have to tie the caskets down! Yeah. Yeah.” – Bill Withers from the introduction
Allmusic (Steven McDonald): A wonderful live album that capitalizes on Withers’ trademark melancholy soul sound while expanding the music to fit the room granted by a live show. Lovely versions of “Grandma’s Hands” and “Lean on Me” are balanced by heartfelt downbeat numbers like “Better Off Dead” and “I Can’t Write Left-Handed,” the latter being an anti-war song with a chilling message. The set finishes off with the lengthy “Harlem/Cold Baloney,” with lots of audience-pleased call-and-response going on. One of the best live releases from the ’70s. Continue reading 30 Best live albums countdown: 19 – Live at Carnegie Hall by Bill Withers→
“He quite clearly had his feet on the ground and his head and his imagination was flying way, way out there, beyond, beyond.”
– Jimmy Page
I remember when I first heard Jeff Buckley at a record store, I bought Grace that day. After that I’ve gotten everything that was released by him.
This 2002 documentary, revisits the short life and times of the young artist. The movie has stories and testimonies from Jimmy Page, Patti Smith, Chrissie Hynde and many more of the people who were close to Jeff Buckley. It tells the story of his early work as a guitarist in Los Angeles and his emergence as a singer and songwriter in New York. There are 4 or 5 Jeff Buckley docus out there, but this is my favorite.
Everybody Here Wants You (documentary):
I’ve included a full set from Frankfurt in 1992, great quality, intense concert (as expected):
Setlist Jeff Buckley live in Sudbahnhof the 24/02/1995
01 – 00:03 – Chocolate
02 – 05:20 – Mojo Pin
03 – 12:15 – Band introduction
04 – 12:56 – So real
05 – 19:10 – Last Goodbye
06 – 24:00 – Jeff speaking
07 – 24:37 – What will you say (first time ever sung)
08 – 32:30 – Jeff speaking
09 – 33:47 – Lilac Wine (incredible version)
10 – 40:35 – Jeff speaking
11 – 42:05 – Grace
We have found four shows by The Jam (2), The Style Council and Paul Weller solo, they are all very, very good! I shouldn’t pick one of them but the greatest revelation is The Style Council’s set at the Roskilde Festival in 1985, it is just so good, they often get a bad rap but this proves that they were a great live band!
A short but sweet set from The Jam in Paris in 1981:
The Jam at Bingley Hall in 1982, an effing great show!
The Style Council – Live Roskilde Festival 1985:
From Paul Weller’s solo career we have chosen a great set from 2010 in Sidney were he mixes old Jam/Style Council stuff with his solo material:
I love to see the cottonwood blossom
In the early spring
I love to see the message of love
That the bluebird brings
But when I see you walkin’ with him
Down along the strand
I wish I were blind
When I see you with your man
I love to see your hair shining
In the long summer’s light
I love to watch the stars fill the sky
On a summer night
The music plays you take his hand
I watch how you touch him as you start to dance
And I wish I were blind
When I see you with your man
We struggle here but all our love’s in vain
And these eyes that once filled me with your beauty
Now fill me with pain
And the light that once entered here
Is banished from me
And this darkness is all baby that my heart sees
And though the world is filled
With the grace and beauty of God’s hand
Oh I wish I were blind
When I see you with your man
From Human Touch.
Herning, Denmark 2013 05 16, Wish I were blind:
Wonderful performance!
From songmeanings.net:
it’s basically about a guy who’s hung up on a woman he can’t have and it’s taken all of the good out of life. This song’s playing on the same ideas as ‘Man’s Job’. In that song he’s obsessed with a woman who is being taken out by another guy. In both songs he sees them dancing and in both songs all his dreams get brought down. In man’s job he sings ‘all my illusions slip away’. In this song he sings ‘these eyes that once filled me with beauty now fill me with pain’.
