Yo, how does it feel?

A whole book on one song sounds a bit rich, even if the song in question is Like A Rolling Stone. But in Like A Rolling Stone - Bob Dylan At The Crossroads, author Greil Marcus showed it could be done. Easily. Anyway, this post is not about that book, it´s about a cover version of Dylan´s masterpiece that Marcus mentions quite enthousiastically. About an outfit called the Mystery Tramps and their hiphop-stylee cover version of Like A Rolling Stone. And since I´m both a Bobcat and a sucker for curios, I just had to check it out .

The cd single was released in 1993 on ä records and is long out of print, but I managed to hunt it down and yo, it´s not bad at all. Funny enough it starts with a sample of the original intro (that masterly organ riff by Al Kooper). The - white - rapper is hamming it up just a bit too much for my liking, but the talking girl ("spare change, anybody?" and "hey! where´s my stuff") cracks me up every time. Plus it´s rather alienating to hear such a familiar song in such a completely different musical setting. "This is a story about a girl who goes from riches to rags, and it´s a drag, so check it ouuuut."

Mystery Tramps - Like A Rolling Stone MP3

Got a broke down engine

Finally got my iMac back from the repair centre. And guess what: the hard disk was broken and they had to put in a new one. Set me back 200 Euros plus. No sorry no nothing from Mr. Computer Repair Man. "Yeah, that happens sometimes." Just my luck. Happened only two months after the one year warranty from Apple had expired, and I didn´t even get to use it for 4 months as I was living abroad at the time...

So now I´m busy rebuilding and mourning the loss of my address book, bookmarks and - even worse - loads and loads of MP3´s. You guys all make back ups right? Well, I didn´t. Anyway, glad to be back on track now. Bluesman Blind Willie McTell was already singing about these kinds of problems back in the thirties. "Feel like a broke down engine, momma ain´t got no driving wheel." Haven´t read it yet btw, but there´s a very promising book out on Blind Willie by Dylan scholar Michael Gray: Hand Me My Travelin´Shoes - In Search Of Blind Willie McTell.

Blind Willie McTell - Broke Down Engine MP3

Treasure chest anyone?

It's not often that you discover a CD that resembles a treasure from some long forgotten cave. I stumbled upon one recently though, and it's called The Very Best Of Ethiopiques. A double album on the Mateca label, it contains many a gem from the heyday of Ethiopian music. Now I for one never knew that this poor African country even had a flourishing music scene in the sixties and seventies, let alone that it produced such exciting sounds.

In the years between the end days of emperor Haile Selassie's reign and the emergence of a brutal new regime in the mid seventies, some great stuff was being recorded in the Addis Ababa scene. The diversity of musical styles is striking: some tracks sound more or less as one would expect of 'world music', but you also get funky instrumentals with horns a la The Bar Kays or Junior Walker & The All Stars, soul singers just as inspired as James Brown or Wilson Pickett, and plenty of jazzy stuff to boot... The singing is all in the main Ethiopian language Amharic, so you won't understand a word of it, but that all adds to the mystique. Open Sesame...

Tlahoun Gèssèssè - Tchuhetén Betsèmu MP3
Mulatu Astatqé - Yèkatit MP3
Alèmayèhu Eshèté - Tchero Adari Nègn MP3

Mercer's back

Allright... back with a vengeance (albeit on somewhat ancient equipment for the time being) and with a sign of life from the one and only Glenn Mercer. Once he was the leader of the mighty Feelies, the archetypical eighties cultband from Haledon, New Jersey. They never made it big commercially, but they had a huge impact on lots of new bands back then. R.E.M. or Yo La Tengo anyone? I bet you they listened to Crazy Rhythms and The Good Earth a lot... Most of my friends still get that faraway look in their eyes when the Feelies are mentioned. Gone, but certainly not forgotten. 

After the demise of the Feelies Mercer played in a lot of different combos, most recently Wake Ooloo. A hiatus of four years followed, but now there's Wheels In Motion, his first ever solo effort (Pravda records). As he sings in In Real Time: "When it's time to tell the story, take your time and get it right". Well, I guess he did. A quality collection of well-crafted songs, Wheels In Motion has all the ingredients you would expect from a proper Feelies album.

Stop press: most Feelies albums are very hard to find on CD, but all four will luckily get a re-release later this year, so you can start saving up already. But be sure to pick up Wheels In Motion first ok?

Glenn Mercer - Two Rights MP3
Glenn Mercer - In Real Time MP3

Patience is mine said the Lord...

I'm having some serious problems with my iMac at the moment, so please bear with me. Normal service will resume as soon as the >*$"~! thing is out of the techie lab. Soon, soon.

Keep hummin´

I had never heard of Johnnie & Jack until Bob Dylan suddenly opened quite a lot of his concerts with a song called Humming Bird back in 2001. I fell in love with it right away. This was when His Bobness employed what I think was his last truly great live band, featuring guitarists Charlie Sexton and Larry Campbell, who also provided some stunning vocal harmonies. Soon I found out that Humming Bird was originally recorded by a duo called Johnnie & Jack.

Johnnie Wright and Jack Anglin were stars on the Louisiana Hayride in the fifties and scored many a hit until Jack´s untimely death in 1963. He met his fate - can you believe it - in a car accident on the way to the funeral of Patsy Cline. Johnnie & Jack may sound like a true brother team, but they were just brothers in law. Wright is long married to country singer Kitty Wells by the way, and managed her career next to his own. As far as I know both are still alive and must be well in to their nineties now.

Humming Bird is an ode to a named train that ran from Cincinatti to New Orleans since 1946. "I love to hear your lonesome whistle whine..." Where this song is pure country in the tradition of the Louvin Brothers and Bill Monroe, Uncle John´s Bongos is more of a novelty song, poking fun at the then flourishing beat generation. It became famous in Dylan circles when the former spokesman for a generation based his own Tweedle Dee & Tweedle Dum (from "Love & Theft") on it.

Johnnie & Jack - Humming Bird MP3

Bob Dylan - Humming Bird (Live Paris 29-4-´02) MP3

Johnnie & Jack - Uncle John´s Bongos MP3

Bob Dylan - Tweedle Dee & Tweedle Dum (Live Paris 29-4-´02) MP3

Way out there

I first came across Archie Shepp through Nick Cave. Way back in the eighties I was listening to a Dutch radio show in which Saint Nick was asked to present his favourite music. I vaguely recall him spinning some old blues stuff, some Elvis, Dylan and Cash; the usual suspects so to speak.

But then he played a song called Blasé by jazzman Archie Shepp and that bowled me right over. What a sound! Bluesy, way out there and not like anything I´d heard before. Worth the price of admission alone for that threatening piano intro. Shepp´s tenor playing is sparse but very effective and the inclusion of 2 blues harmonicas towards the end works surprisingly well.

There´s some seriously heavy shit going on in the lyrics: "Blasé ain´t you big daddy? You who shot your sperm into me, but never set me free". Right on. Jeanne Lee is the singer and yes that´s the mighty Philly Joe Jones on drums. The other 4 songs on the Blasé album (´69) aren´t half bad either by the way. "This ain´t a hate thing, it´s a love thing". Thanks for the tip Nick.

Archie Shepp - Blasé MP3

Cheers Stipey

It´s Michael Stipe´s birthday today. Well, happy birthday, Stipey. Can´t say I´ve listened to your music much over the last couple of years. R.E.M. never was my favourite band, but up until Document I faithfully bought your records and liked them quite a lot. I never did understand your mass appeal, but you´d probably say the same...

Your later albums frankly bored me a bit. But I give you this: even when you became a big millionselling rockstar you never made the headlines with cliches like lost weekends, dating airhead models, coke binges, reunions (admittedly easy as your band always stayed together), rehab stories etc. etc. And you actively campaigned against Bush. That´s cool enough for me.

So I´d like to celebrate your 48th birthday with a grand old song of yours, from Fables Of The Reconstruction. And with a beautiful song by fIREHOSE about you, which may very well be a deliberate pastiche of both the sound and the lyrics of Athens´ finest. Alright, you can cut the cake now.

R.E.M. - Green Grow The Rushes MP3

fIREHOSE - For The Singer Of R.E.M. MP3

Lee, where are you?

Picture this: a seedy bar in Oslo Norway, some time in the late eighties. Three local youths spend most of their nights in this watering hole. Make that every night, except for the rare occasion they´ve got a gig with their band. In between beers, the guys are always bugging the bartender to play their favourite albums. The one they request most of all is Naked Child by Lee Clayton. Just their kind of music, raw country rock from Nashville. 

One night a stranger in a long black coat walks up to them. He´d like to know just why they always want to hear that particular album. "Who wants to know?" they ask, just a tad irritated at the intrusion. "Well, I´m Lee Clayton," the guy replies. The rest is history. They decide to team up together and soon they´re playing all over Europe. A live album, Another Night, is recorded at the end of the tour in Oslo. Where else? But that´s also more or less where the Lee Clayton story ends. Sadly we haven´t heard much from him since. It´s about time he walked into another bar somewhere.

Lee Clayton - I Ride Alone (live in Oslo) MP3

Day of the Triffids

Over the past two years, Domino Records re-released three classic albums by one of my beloved bands of the eighties, the Triffids. Hailing from Perth, Australia, they moved to London in ´84 and gave themselves 3 months to make it.

Commercially they never really succeeded, but Born Sandy Devotional (´86), In The Pines (also ´86) and Calenture (´87) all prove that artistically they sure did. It´s hard to pick a favourite. Most of my friends go for Born Sandy, where the lush and lyrical major label debut Calenture has always been my personal pick. Lately I prefer In The Pines though, obviously the odd one out because it was recorded lo-fi in a sheep shed back in Oz. All three reissues are overflowing with bonus tracks, and - a rarity - that´s a case of all killer no filler too. Singer David McComb tragically died in a car crash in ´99: these reissues make one hell of an epitaph.

The Triffids - Stolen Property MP3

The Triffids - Jerdacuttup Man (demo) MP3

The Triffids - Bury Me Deep In Love (demo) MP3

A cool drink of water...

...is what you need the morning after the night before, right? Especially on January 1st. So that´s exactly what you´re going to get. Tommy Johnson´s woman gave him gasoline though. Shit happens. A song covered by many (Howlin´ Wolf did a great version) but never surpassed, because the guitars here are as sharp as razorblades and Johnson´s voice is pure icewater. Probably my favourite delta blues song of all time, and that´s saying a lot. You can find it on the Document album pictured above.

Cool Drink Of Water Blues was revived in the eighties by The Gun Club on their fine Fire Of Love debut. A good choice by Gun Club head honcho Jeffrey Lee Pierce, as his voice is quite similar to Johnson´s. Sorry I can´t put up that version - got it on vinyl only. Jeffrey Lee´s home recording - from the posthumous Early Warning on Sympathy - is not too shabby either though.

Tommy Johnson - Cool Drink Of Water Blues MP3

The Gun Club - Cool Drink Of Water Blues MP3