only rock ’n’ roll
The Wrens, “Happy”
Live, New York (Knitting Factory), 2007
***
Recording, The Meadowlands, 2003
One of the best albums of all time.
—my (24-year-old) son Alex, the other day, while playing this track
only rock ’n’ roll
A reader writes:
An old friend sent me this Youtube clip of a concert we attended back in high school. At the time I had never heard of Fleetwood Mac or Peter Green. They were the opening act and, not surprisingly, I have now forgotten who we went to see.
Fleetwood Mac, “Black Magic Woman,” live, Boston (Boston Tea Party), 1970
two takes
“Dirt” (D. Alexander, S. Asheton, I. Pop, R. Asheton)
The Stooges
Live, Detroit, 2003
***
Neneh Cherry & The Thing
Recording (The Cherry Thing), 2012
rock ’n’ roll
country
gospel
blues
jazz
A world without American music: what would it sound like?
The Blasters, “American Music,” Champaign, Ill., 1985
(Originally posted 7/5/10.)
*****
Merle Haggard, “Lonesome Fugitive,” Buck Owens Ranch Show, 1966
(Originally posted 4/6/12.)
*****
Slim and the Victory Aires, “Alright Now,” Paducah, Ky., 2008
(Originally posted 3/11/12)
*****
Johnny Shines (1915-1992), vocals, guitar; David “Honeyboy” Edwards (1915-2011), guitar; Big Walter Horton (1917-1981), harmonica; “For The Love of Mike,” 1978
(Originally posted 10/4/11.)
Von Freeman, tenor saxophone; Clifford Jordan, tenor saxophone (first solo); Willie Pickens, piano; Dan Shapera, bass; Robert Shy, drums; “Oleo” (S. Rollins), Chicago (Chicago Jazz Festival), 1988
(Originally posted 5/3/12.)
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lagniappe
radio
All Pops, all day:
Tune in on July 4th, Independence Day . . . as we celebrate the professed (although according to historians, not actual) birthday of Jazz great and American Hero, the trumpeter and vocalist Louis Armstrong, by playing 24 hours straight of his music, from midnight to midnight.
*****
encore*
Dave Alvin with the Blasters, “4th of July,” Berwyn, Ill. (Fitzgerald’s), 2010
*By popular demand (see Comments).
only rock ’n’ roll
Joy Division, live (TV show), England, 1979
“Transmission”
***
“She’s Lost Control”
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lagniappe
musical thoughts
On any given day—today, for instance—how many dozens, hundreds, thousands, millions of people will be making, or listening to, music?
basement jukebox
Ray Harris, “Where’d You Stay Last Night” (1956)
***
Ronnie Self, “Rocky Road Blues” (1957)
***
Johnny Powers, “Long Blonde Hair” (1957)
only rock ’n’ roll
Japandroids, “For the Love of Ivy”
Live, Austin (SXSW), 3/15/12
This is what rock ’n’ roll should sound like.
—my (24-year-old) son Alex, the other day, while playing their new album (Celebration Rock)
only rock ’n’ roll
Granted, there are no sure things in pop music; but how can a shaggy-red-haired sister-and-brother duo miss?
White Mystery, “Switch It Off,” live, New York, 2010
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lagniappe
reading table
World is crazier and more of it than we think,
Incorrigibly plural.—Louis MacNiece (1907-1963), “Snow” (excerpt)
Ever feel like wandering, aimlessly, in a fog?
The Velvet Underground and Nico, directed by Andy Warhol (shot at his NYC studio, The Factory), 1966
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lagniappe
reading table
More than twenty years west of Mount Yen . . .
when the moon lights the summit at night I sing—Stonehouse, The Zen Works of Stonehouse: Poems and Talks of a Fourteenth Century Chinese Hermit (translated from Chinese by Red Pine)
*****
Happy Birthday, Don!
Sixty-two?
I remember when you were twenty-six.
And six.
We met, as I recall, when you were two.
music clip of the day 