I know you love those alternate history stories. The ones where they go back in time and send Hitler to art school, or put a bullet-proof vest on Lincoln or convinced Buddy Holly to take the tour bus.
Here's an alternate music history story . . .
You may know Neil Young's "Powderfinger" from Side 2 of 1979's "Rust Never Sleeps." But Young had been hanging onto that song for a while.
There are (unreleased) acoustic versions of the song that go back to 1975. And reportedly, Young sent one of these versions to Ronnie Van Zandt, for Lynyrd Skynyrd to use on their next album.
Van Zandt died in a plane crash in 1977, and as far as anyone knows, his band had not recorded a version of Neil Young's song.
But imagine if they had, prior to the unfortunate plane crash? Imagine if Van Zandt had sung Young's lines:
Just think of me as one you never figured
Would fade away so young
With so much left undone
Remember me to my love; I know I'll miss her
No doubt that right now in an alternate timeline, "Freebird" is a forgotten hit of the 70s, and when the bar band is between songs, the drunk idiots yell:
I'm filling in for Barbara Dacey on Friday night, for her show "Uncharted Waters."
Usually, it's a plum gig. Barbara spends a full hour playing new releases, and when I fill in, it's my chance to champion some of the great new music out there.
But this is perhaps the worst week of the year to have to host the program.
Record labels basically take the month of December off. The last new releases of the year hit around mid-November, and little to nothing comes into the station until the 2nd week of January. The few that come in do get played on Uncharted Waters over the course of the month. But by the first Friday night of the new year, every new song has been played.
So I have an hour to fill, and literally not enough new songs to fill it.
Unless . . .
One of the independent promoters I talk to, JB Brenner, has mentioned this Neil Young cut to me a couple of times. Not because he's promoting it---he's not. Just because he's a Neil Young fan.
He thinks it's one of Neil's best songs in a long, long time. He even put in a call to Neil's record label rep, to suggest they put it out as a single.
But to do that, the label would have to make an edit. Because no station is going to play a single that is nearly 17 minutes long.
No station, except . . .
Yes, the final third of tonight's "Uncharted Waters on mvyradio" will be one very, very long Neil Young tune.
And if you are at work and you have a lot of time to kill, you can enjoy it now in the video below!
I've heard this song for years on mvyradio. Played it as a DJ, heard it when I was just listening.
I don't think I really knew it, before coming to work at mvyradio. The song came out when I was still in diapers. But I always like the simple crunchiness of a good Neil Young tune. But didn't have any particular feeling beyond that.
Last week a I walked into the studio at 1pm, as I do every day. Barbara Dacey was finishing up her shift and clearing out to turn things over to me. She had "The Loner" cranked on the studio speakers, and was really into it.
She started talking about what it felt like to her, when the song came out. That she remembers it so clearly. That it seemed a step beyond anything that had come before it.
She marveled at the amazing diversity within the songs structure. The acoustic guitar that starts the track that sounds like a typical acoustic tune, followed immediately by the clear-but-fuzzy lead guitar riff. At :40 seconds strings suddenly appear, and come and go throughout the song. At :55 seconds everything stops as Neil sings "The Loner . . ." and everything halts for a moment, followed by a short bridge, then back into the main riff. At 1:50 it goes into a piece of music entirely different from the rest of the song, before the lead coaxes the tune back. The long outro is a dance between the delicate acoustic and strings, coupled with the pointed, noisy-but-direct electric guitar.
Barbara talked at length about the complexity of the tune, of how it was such a composition on a level about what the others in Neil Young's cohort group were doing a the time.
I have to admit, I had never heard the tune like that before.
While I am familiar enough with the song that I guess I could have identified the various parts, if you had just asked me about the tune without me hearing it, I probably would have only heard the crunchy riff in my head, not recognizing the complexity.
The other thing that is evident about Barbara's reaction versus mine, is context.
At the time this song came out, Barbara was already an avid music listener and consumer. She was also a musician. She heard the song in the context of the time it came out, and could compare it to other things she'd been listening to. And compared to other songs out at the time, Barbara felt it was a big innovation, and her reaction to the song, even today, is colored by that excitement.
At the time this song came out, I was working on chewing solid foods. So I never heard the song in the context of its day.
For me, this song is neither before nor after "Times They Are A' Changing" or "London Calling" or "Born To Run" or "Let It Be." They ALL fall under the category of "before I started listening to music." So the song could never really hit me in the same way as it hits Barbara.
You listen to the radio day after day, and it's simply not possible to dive into every single song and react to every single song and pick apart every single song.
But it really lifts the listening experience when you can grab ahold of just one tune, and shake it for all it's worth.
We've come a long way from Neil Young's "This Note's For You."
In the last decade, more and more young, credible artists, are turning over their talents to TV commercials. It's a way for a struggling newcomer to cash a check that allows them to make the next record, buy that new touring van, or just eat something that isn't Ramen Noodles for a change.
Some musicians just license the songs they've previously written.
And others are actually recording things specifically for the spots.
This one goes a step further.
The super-talented and entertaining Julian Velard provides the voice (talking and singing) for the main character, Pete, in this extended Coca-Cola commercial/animated short.
There's something oddly appropriate about this new Neil Young & Crazy Horse video.
Like the song, the video has an elusive nature (like Bigfoot), is psychedelic (like the patterns), feels home-made a little half-assed, yet charming, and has parts that seem too go on for too long (like the patterns).
As I've written before, I've got some ambivalent feelings about John Mayer.
At times, I've been a John Mayer apologist, saying that even if you don't like his Middle-Of-The-Road-Singer-Songwriter Stuff, don't write him off. If he can stand on the Crossroads stage with Clapton, et al, then he's For Real, and someday he may make a record you'll like.
The problem with the former of the two arguments, is that there hasn't been a ton of evidence to support it, at least as far as radio songs go.
But with "Queen Of California" I feel like I have something to talk about.
Now, how much you like this song is entirely dependent on your appreciation for a certain Classic Jam Band, but for me, the playing, the music, the groove on this track brings out something I haven't felt before, about Mayer's music. There's a level of substance there that was heretofore lacking for me.
Maybe in a few albums, the idea of being an apologist will fade, and I can just be a fan.
Postscript: While I wanted to write something positive, because I really, sincerely love this track, I can't let it go without saying that there's an amazing lyric, that drives me just a little bit nuts. "Joni wrote 'Blue' in a house by the sea/I gotta believe there's another color waiting on me." While, at first, I was struck by the cleverness of the line, I then was kinda put off because it sounds like John is equating himself with one of the most acclaimed songwriters of all time, suggesting that he probably has an album on the level of "Blue" within him. Change the line to "I wanna believe . . ." and it takes out the certainty of his statement.
Sometimes, in the modern age of too much information, I feel like learning too much about an album/artist really takes away from making a fair and proper judgement of the work.
I mean, when I was in the Sistine Chapel, I wasn't looking at the ceiling thinking, "I wonder if Michaelangelo's recent breakup had a major effect on the tone of this work?" Or even, "I wonder what kind of research Michaelangelo did when plotting out this piece?"
No, I was more thinking, "Holy smokes this work of art is incredible!"
So there is a part of me that wants to shut out all the extraneous noise about a record, and just hear the record as the artist's statement, rather than hear the artist in an interview making a statement explaining his statement.
On the other hand, sometimes hearing from the artist can improve your view of the art's intentions.
I heard an interview that cause me to reconsider Neil Young's "Americana" and to disabuse myself of a previously-conceived notion.
Yes,
Young has a reputation for being a provocateur---whether that means
writing an anti-War album in the middle of a War, or excoriating
Pop-Sacred-Cows on songs like "This Note's For You."
And when I heard "Americana" my first impression was that the Neil
was messing with us. Why record an album of Folk songs, using his most
rocking, loud backing band, Crazy Horse? Why plunk away at some of the
most childish, rudimentary tunes around, for anything other than a lark?
My initial feeling was that this was not unlike Bob Dylan's
"Christmas In The Heart" album, which seemed to have been created to deliberately
defy expectations of what and who the artist is supposed to be.
Then I heard Young on Fresh Air, and I thought that I should reconsider my position.
Here's where the light-bulb went on: Neil Young might be a provocateur, he might be occasionally cantankerous, he might willfully defy expectations . . .
But if there is one thing he is not, it's insincere.
I don't think he's messing around with us. I don't think he did these songs on a lark. I don't think he finds these songs rudimentary (in a bad way).
I think he's sincerely interested in the melodies, and the lyrics, and the origins of these songs. And I think he's sincerely interested in sharing what he's discovered through playing them.
So I'll listen again. Will I like the album? I don't know. Not necessarily.
But at least I now feel like I'll hear the album, in a manner closer to how Young intended.
"Jesus' Chariot" is "She'll Be Coming Round The Mountain" closer to its original form. Where I remember it as kind of a dumb tune about a woman on a wagon, Young peels back the lyrics to reveal that this is actually an old spiritual, about full of symbolism relating to the return of Jesus . . .
But this time, adding a layer of bizarreness/hiliarity, is the fact that it is/purports-to-be a cover song.
Young's forthcoming "Americana" album is a collection of traditional roots and public domain songs, with the sonic-attack of a traditional Crazy Horse album.
That's the information I had going into my first listen of the song.
I know the song "Oh Susannah" from my childhood. And I have to say, on my first listen, I wondered if my understanding of what this record was, was wrong.
The second time I listened to it, I could hear some lyrics that I recognized, but it still seemed like he was only grazing the original.
Maybe if I keep listening to it, it will sound like the same song that they used to sing in grammar school.
PS. Does this song seem like a future candidate for "Let Me Ruin This Song For You?" If you'd like to have it ruined, so that you'll never hear this song without thinking of a completely different one, then by all means, click here.
After last weekend's weekend posts about bands that seemed to have the talent to break through in the 90s,
but didn't quite get there, I went searching for a few more of my
favorites.
Victoria Williams was beloved enough by other musicians in the 90s, that when she got sick, a Who's Who of great 90s bands made a fundraiser record of her songs.
Maybe the masses couldn't quite hook into her voice, but damn her songs are good. I mean, you can probably name 10 artists right off the top of your head who's singing voice you'll forgive, because their writing is so strong (I'll get you started . . . Bob Dylan, Lou Reed, Richard Thompson, Tom Waits, Leonard Cohen . . . ).
Even if you don't love her female-Neil-Young-ish voice, how can you not be charmed by lines like:
Jesus walked on water/He turned the water into wine, Go down to the drunkards/Tell them everything is fine.
Weekend posts are a chance to revisit songs that have happy memories, not of anything in particular, other than just hearing the tunes.
Many of these songs were tracks that I played during my 90s stint as an Alternative/Modern Rock radio show. They're tunes that I hardly hear these days, but are wonderful to revisit.
Click on the "Weekend Posts" label below, to see other posts like this.
I have, what is practically a yearly ritual with Barbara.
After some thoughtful, but resigned listening, I bring the new Neil Young CD to her and say, “Well, we should play it, right? I mean, it’s Neil Young.”
I guess I’m looking for her to deliver, what the Catholic Church might consider “dispensation.”
Regardless of the quality of a new song by, say, Neil Young or Jack Johnson or Sheryl Crow, if we didn’t play it, people who listen to mvyradio regularly, would find that weird. Sometimes, you play a song in rotation, for a short time, and then drop it, just to let people know the record exists, and this is what it sounds like.
Neil Young has made more great records and written more great songs than near-about any person who has ever lived.
But Neil Young also has a pretty insouciant attitude toward commercial viability. He goes in the studio, he makes the record he makes and he puts it out. Some are better than others.
The singles off “Prairie Wind” where pretty single-y. But for much of the last decade, Young has released some material that could be described, generously, as “loose.”
I mean, there’s a charm to unedited garage rock. It just doesn’t always lend itself of radio play.
So I gave a quick listen to the new track, “Walk With Me,” and wandered to the studio where Barbara was, prepared to have our usual conversation:
PJ: What do you think? BD: It’s a little rough. But it’s Neil Young. We probably should play it.
But instead, I got an entirely different response.
She had listened far more intently than I had, I guess. Because she started talking about his detailed playing and the repeated musical phrase under the surface of the song and the complexity of it all and about how great it sounded.
I have to admit, I hadn’t heard all that. Did you?
PJ is taking some time off for the birth of his second child. Guest Blogger (and Dad) Bill Eville, former mvyradio employee, freelancer writer and Vineyard resident fills in.
PJ asked me to be his guest blogger this week as he becomes a father twice-over. Years ago, PJ and I worked together at the station. At the time we were both leading a carefree, childless existence. We could talk all day about music and go see a show on a moment’s notice. PJ still gets to see live acts. It is his job, after all. I must make do with a different kind of interaction with the musicians I enjoy. I rent concert videos and watch them with my five-year old son, Hardy.
Those long ago shows of old, The Kinks at Madison Square Garden when I was just thirteen and much too full of Jack Daniels to remember much, following the Dead up and down the east coast, and catching Springsteen all over New Jersey, even at the Stone Pony, when he surprised us all by jumping onstage, out of nowhere, to sit in with Warren Zevon, were filled with beautiful moments. I must admit, though, to feeling an even deeper connection to the music and it’s relevance while tucked away with my boy in our basement; our own man and man-cub’s cave.
Last night Hardy and I rented "Heart Of Gold," the 2005 Neil Young concert video directed by Jonathan Demme. We were playing Lego’s at the time and at first I wasn’t sure how Hardy felt about Neil. But he was very quiet, not going on about how The Battle of Endor space station was way cooler than the Death Star. I took this as a good sign.
At the end of the concert, there is a clip from Neil’s younger days, when he appeared on the Johnny Cash show. Neil is much thinner and shaggier. While singing "The Needle and the Damage Done" he gazes intensely into the camera. After the song finished, Hardy looked down and studied his toy Chewbacca for a long time. “That was cool,” he finally said. “That song. But what was he talking about? That needle thing?”
I paused before answering. Difficult subjects with my son are new terrain for me. I realize these will only get more complex as he grows older so I try to set the right tone now.
“Well,” I began. “You know how Daddy enjoys a glass of beer or wine at dinner. Well, sometimes people can’t just stop at one. They keep drinking and it gets bad for them. The needle thing Neil is singing about is like that, only worse.”
Hardy nodded and went back to playing, apparently satisfied with my answer. As I looked on, though, I understood that in the future I would need to revisit this conversation and tell him about the days when Daddy couldn’t stop at just one. Hopefully, this conversation is still many years away.
I'm the Program and Music Director of mvyradio, a broadcast and internet station on the Island of Martha's Vineyard. You can hear it here.
I've been in radio since the early 90s, programming shows. As Music Director, I receive dozens of CDs and songs every week, from Record Labels, Promotion People and Independent Artists. I try to listen to everything anyone asks me to.
So the old iTunes list is pretty long.
The idea of this blog is to go to that list, grab one (usually at random, but not always) and write about it. Every song has a story. How it fits into the artists oeuvre. What it meant to me when I first heard it.
I'll try to post the song in full, whenever possible, and I invite you to listen and tell me what it makes you think of.
And for more great music, you can stream mvyradio from anywhere in the world, here.
