Thursday, March 30, 2017

"Melancholy for a world that didn't seem to have a heart"

Can't recommend enough the interview Bob Dylan did with Bill Flanagan. Here's a taste:

Rock and roll was indeed an extension of what was going on – the big swinging bands – Ray Noble, Will Bradley, Glenn Miller, I listened to that music before I heard Elvis Presley. But rock and roll was high energy, explosive and cut down. It was skeleton music, came out of the darkness and rode in on the atom bomb and the artists were star headed like mystical Gods. Rhythm and blues, country and western, bluegrass and gospel were always there – but it was compartmentalized – it was great but it wasn’t dangerous. Rock and roll was a dangerous weapon, chrome plated, it exploded like the speed of light, it reflected the times, especially the presence of the atomic bomb which had preceded it by several years. Back then people feared the end of time. The big showdown between capitalism and communism was on the horizon. Rock and roll made you oblivious to the fear, busted down the barriers that race and religion, ideologies put up. We lived under a death cloud; the air was radioactive. There was no tomorrow, any day it could all be over, life was cheap. That was the feeling at the time and I’m not exaggerating. Doo-wop was the counterpart to rock and roll. Songs like “In the Still of the Night,” “Earth Angel,” “Thousand Miles Away,” those songs balanced things out, they were heartfelt and melancholy for a world that didn’t seem to have a heart. The doo-wop groups might have been an extension, too, of the Ink Spots and gospel music, but it didn’t matter; that was brand new too. Groups like the Five Satins and the Meadowlarks seemed to be singing from some imaginary street corner down the block. Jerry Lee Lewis came in like a streaking comet from some far away galaxy. Rock and roll was atomic powered, all zoom and doom. It didn’t seem like an extension of anything but it probably was.

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Monday, March 27, 2017

Blue Monday, Albert Collins & Buddy Guy edition

Friday, March 24, 2017

That cat's something I can't explain

Monday, March 20, 2017

Blue Monday, Muddy Waters and James Cotton edition

Saturday, March 18, 2017

Chuck Berry, America's poet laureate

RIP

I am pretty certain this is the first rock 'n' roll song I knew the lyrics for.



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Friday, March 17, 2017

James Cotton

Wednesday, March 15, 2017

Blue Monday (delayed), Son House edition

Friday, March 10, 2017

Get in to my big black car


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Wednesday, March 08, 2017

"In my defence...‘Fred Weintraub’ is a mighty difficult role.”

The founder of The Bitter End, RIP.

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"That's HEDLEY Lamarr!"

Robert Osborne, RIP.

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Sunday, March 05, 2017

Blue Monday, Howlin' Wolf

Thursday, March 02, 2017

It ain't funny/It ain't funny at'all

Wednesday, March 01, 2017

Didn't want to hurt his feelings

A 20 game winner for a 100 loss team. Ned Garver, RIP.

And all that on flat feet.

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