only rock ’n’ roll
The Dirtbombs, live, Birmingham, Ala., 2008
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lagniappe
musical thoughts
When I turn to rock ’n’ roll, I’m not looking for poetry. I go to poetry for poetry. Nor am I looking for brilliant musicianship. That I can find in classical music and in jazz. I’m not looking for roof-raising fervor, either. Gospel music gives me that. What I’m looking for when I turn to rock ’n’ roll is something I can’t find anywhere else—rock ’n’ roll.
only rock ’n’ roll
Some bands I keep coming back to.
The Dirtbombs, “Ever Lovin’ Man,” San Francisco (Amoeba Music), 2008
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lagniappe
reading table
Odd, I have now a mania for shortness. Whenever I read my own or other people’s works it all seems to me not short enough.
—Anton Chekhov (1860-1904)
only rock ’n’ roll
The Dirtbombs, live, Hamtramck, Mich. (outside Detroit), 2012
#1
#2
Who wouldn’t want to go to such a heaven?
Soul Stirrers (feat. Jimmy Outler), “Listen to the Angels Sing,” TV show, early 1960s
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lagniappe
listening room: (some of) what’s playing
• The Dirtbombs, Ultraglide in Black (In the Red)
• Robert Glasper Experiment, Black Radio (Blue Note)
• Shabazz Palaces, Black Up (Sub Pop)
• Terrie Ex, Paal Nilssen-Love, Hurgu! (PNL Records)
• Anthony Braxton Quintet (Basel) 1977 (hatOLOGY)
• Miles Davis, Live in Europe 1967 (Sony Legacy)
• ICP Orchestra Performs Herbie Nichols & Thelonious Monk (ICP)
• George Lewis & The NOW Orchestra, The Shadowgraph Series: Compositions for Creative Orchestra (Spool)
• Misha Mengelberg, Steve Lacy, Goerge Lewis, Harjen Gorter, Han Bennink, Change of Season (Soul Note)
• Pharaoh Sanders, Karma (Impulse!)
• Charles “Bobo” Shaw & Lester Bowie, Bugle Boy Bop (Muse)
• Reverend Claude Jeter, Yesterday and Today (Shanachie)
• This May Be My Last Time Singing: Raw African-American Gospel On 45 RPM (1957-1982) (Tompkins Square)
• J. Berg’s A Cappella Archives (Vol. 3), Royal Rarities (Vol. 3) (Rare Gospel)
• Congotronics 2: Buzz ’n’ Rumble in the Urb ’n’ Jungle (Crammed Discs)
• Pandit Pran Nath, Midnight: Raga Malkauns (Just Dreams)
• Nikhil Banerjee, Afternoon Ragas (Bhimpalasri, Multani) (Raga Records)
• John Luther Adams, Songbird Songs (Mode Records)
• John Luther Adams, Clouds of Forgetting, Clouds of Unknowing (New World Records)
• John Cage Edition—Vol. 23: The Works for Violin 4 (Irvine Arditti, violin; Stephen Drury, piano) (Mode Records)
• Morton Feldman, Trio (Aki Takahashi, piano; Marc Sabat, violin; Rohan de Saram, cello) (Mode Records)
• Tristan Murail, Gondwana, Desintegrations, Time and Again (Disques Montaigne)
• Peter Serkin Plays the Music of Toru Takemitsu (RCA/BMG)
• The Incomparable Rudolf Serkin (Beethoven, Piano Sonatas Nos. 30, 31, 32) (Deutsche Grammophon)
• WKCR-FM (broadcasting from Columbia University)
—Bird Flight (Phil Schaap, jazz [Charlie Parker])
—Eastern Standard Time (Carter Van Pelt, Jamaican music)
• WFMU-FM
—Mudd Up! (DJ/Rupture, “new bass and beats”)
—Sinner’s Crossroads (Kevin Nutt, gospel)
—Cherry Blossom Clinic (Terre T, rock, etc.)
—Fool’s Paradise (Rex; “Vintage rockabilly, R & B, blues, vocal groups, garage, instrumentals, hillbilly, soul and surf”)
—Downtown Soulville (Mr. Fine Wine, soul, etc.)
two takes
“Kung Fu” (C. Mayfield)
The Dirtbombs, live, New York (Southpaw, Brooklyn), 2008
*****
Curtis Mayfield, recording (Sweet Exorcist), 1974
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lagniappe
found words
Yesterday, in Cambridge, Massachusetts (where I am for my son Alex’s college graduation), sitting on a brick sidewalk in Harvard Square, a panhandler with a sign:
OBAMA’S NOT THE ONLY ONE
WHO WANTS CHANGE
Let’s go to church.
“Until I Die,” Pilgrim Rest Baptist Church, Winston-Salem, N.C., 2001
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lagniappe
reading table
On the Death of Friends in Childhood
We shall not ever meet them bearded in heaven,
Nor sunning themselves among the bald of hell;
If anywhere, in the deserted schoolyard at twilight,
Forming a ring, perhaps, or joining hands
In games whose very names we have forgotten.
Come, memory, let us seek them there in the shadows.
—Donald Justice (Collected Poems, 2004)
***
“[We find] it impossible, when we have to analyze death, to imagine it in terms other than those of life.”
—Marcel Proust, The Fugitive (translated from French by Peter Collier)
*****
listening room: (some of) what’s playing
• The Dirtbombs, Ultraglide In Black (In the Red Records)
• Wild Flag (Merge Records)
• That’s What They Want: The Best of Jerry McCain (Excello)
• The Best of Slim Harpo (Hip-O)
• Ambrose Akinmusire, When the Heart Emerges Glistening (Blue Note)
• Lester Bowie’s Brass Fantasy, I Only Have Eyes For You (ECM)
• Anthony Braxton, 9 Compositions (Iridium)
• Chicago Tentet, American Landscapes 1 & 2 (Okka)
• Steve Lehman Octet, Travail, Transformation, and Flow (Pi Recordings)
• Joe McPhee, Nation Time (Unheard Music Series)
• Weasel Walter, Mary Halvorson, Peter Evans, Electric Fruit (Thirsty Ear)
• J. Berg’s Royal Rarities Vols. 2-3; A Cappella Archives, Vol. 3; Gospel Goldies, Vol. 2 (Rare Gospel)
• The Fisk Jubilee Quartet, There Breathes A Hope (Archeophone)
• This May Be My Last Time Singing: Raw African-American Gospel On 45 RPM 1957-1982 (Tompkins Square)
• Bach, Suites for Unaccompanied Cello, Pierre Fournier, (Archiv Production/DG)
• Mozart, Piano Sonatas Nos. 16 and 17, Peter Serkin, piano (Pro Arte)
• Arnold Schoenberg, Das Klavierwerk, Peter Serkin, piano (Arcana)
• The Art of Joseph Szigeti (Biddulph Recordings)
• Anton Webern, Five Movements For String Quartet, Op. 5; Six Bagatelles For String Quartet, Op. 9; String Quartet, Op. 28; Quartetto Italiano (Philips)
• Anton Webern, Complete Works for String Quartet and String Trio, Artis Quartet Wien (Nimbus)
• Music of Stefan Wolpe, Vol. 6, David Holzman, piano (Bridge)
• WKCR-FM (broadcasting from Columbia University)
—Bird Flight (Phil Schaap, jazz [Charlie Parker])
—Traditions in Swing (Phil Schaap, jazz)
—Eastern Standard Time (Carter Van Pelt, Jamaican music)
—Rag Aur Taal (various, Indian)
• WFMU-FM
—Mudd Up! (DJ/Rupture, “new bass and beats”)
—Sinner’s Crossroads (Kevin Nutt, gospel)
—Cherry Blossom Clinic (Terre T, rock, etc.)
—Fool’s Paradise (Rex; “Vintage rockabilly, R & B, blues, vocal groups, garage, instrumentals, hillbilly, soul and surf”)
• WHPK-FM (broadcasting from University of Chicago)
—The Blues Excursion (Arkansas Red)
*****
radio
Happy Birthday, Duke!
only rock ’n roll
The Dirtbombs, “Ode to a Black Man” (P. Lynott), live
Seattle, 2008
***
New York, 2008
only rock ’n roll
The Dirtbombs, live, New York (Other Music), 2009
Vodpod videos no longer available.Note: If this doesn’t play properly, make sure the “HD” option is turned on (lower righthand corner).
More? Here.
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reading table
to the west
is Buddha’s paradise . . .
withered fields—Kobayashi Issa (trans. David G. Lanoue), 1819
only rock ’n roll
(an occasional series)
The Dirtbombs, “Stop,” New Jersey (Asbury Lanes, Asbury Park), c. 2007
Vodpod videos no longer available.Anybody can play in tune.
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lagniappe
reading table
welcoming in loads
of new year’s rain . . .
trashy house—Kobayashi Issa (1763-1827), trans. David G. Lanoue
