Running Down A Dream

Here's a trailer for 'Running Down A Dream', a documentary about Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers directed by director Peter Bogdonavich of 'The Last Picture Show' fame. It's about 40 bucks inside in Zavvi in town. The reason it's so expensive is because the documentary is a mammoth 4 hours long, spread across two discs and comes with another disc of the Heartbreakers' 30th anniversary concert and a cd of Petty rarities. All in all, a fairly savage package. Realistically, I don't see myself not picking this baby up sometime during the next week, despite its hefty price tag. Afterall, I do love music documentaries!



In other news, I bought 'The Nightfly' a solo album by Donald Fagen of Steely Dan today. It's essentially a concept album roughly exploring the themes that defined Fagen's experience growing up in the Northeastern U.S. in the late '50 and early '60s. So far my favourite track is 'New Frontier', which gets its title from one of JFK's electoral slogans from 1960 - class. The album's best achievement is that despite having a sound very much of its time (1982), it still manages to evoke a smoky black and white feel of the time period in question. In this regard the album cover certainly helps.





Fagen discusses his formative years:

"There was a great emphasis on technology at the time. The Cold War was going strong. Kids, through the media and what the government and their parents wanted them to know, grew up with a certain vision of the world. I think my discovery of black music and the hipster culture really broke all that apart. It made me see it a different way. And that's basically what the record is about."


I absolutely love the liner notes of the album too:

"The songs on this album represent certain fantasies that might have been entertained by a young man growing up in the remote suburbs of a northeastern city during the late fifties and early sixties, i.e., one of my general height, weight and build.
D.F."


Ah Steely Dan, you gotta love 'em.

Words of Wisdom from the 37th President

Good ol' Tricky Dicky, even if carrying his gigantic memoirs in my bag around college (and town) was an ill-advised and painful endeavor, I just can't be mad at the man. Dick Nixon is always good for a laugh.
Check out this shocking piece of tape where Nixon discusses his opinions of some of the wealthier people in San Fransisco.



The absolute best part of it all, and I include Watergate etc in this, is that Nixon insisted on recording all conversations in the White House so that his place in history could not be obscured or twisted by 'liberal' historians. Heh.

The Bourgeois Blues

Given that a considerable amount of this past week was spent agonisingly writing an unmercifully broad essay on Marxism, it seems fitting that I stumbled across this video of Taj Mahal doing 'The Bourgeois Blues' whilst looking for Ry Cooder stuff on youtube. As it happens, I really pussied out on this essay.  Despite believing personally that the writings of Marx were more or less totally of their time and any transportation out of the mid to late 1800s virtually guarantees Pol Pot/Mao/Stalin style despotism, I nonetheless argued throughout my 'Why Read Marx?' essay that his writings are off the flamin' 'ook so to speak and are insanely relevant and pertinent in today's day and age.  I got the bloody thing done which was grand and lovely but when it all comes down to it I wish I had just taken that extra time to argue what I actually believe.  I would have gotten more into the essay and it would have been a whole lot better. Ah the easy way out, it is as easy as it is unrewarding. Dose.

Anyway, I really like the song, I've always been a fan of Mr. Mahal's singing and am impressed by his piano chops in this video.  He's accompanied by Yank Rachelle on mandolin who's considered to be the father of blues style mandolin playing.  I'm not so sure I like what he does, (I'd much rather Sam Bush in there rockin' it) it's very staccato and he doesn't hit too many clean notes but i you want to see his influence at work listen to Ry Cooder play the mandolin. he plays EXACTLY like Yank does.  

Incidentally, according to some of the comments by other viewers of the video on youtube, Taj Mahal himself is far from a proletariat, living and playing in the nice as pie Berkeley California throughout the rough civil rights years of the 60s and then selling millions of alums of watered down calypso-blues later in his career.  Sounds pretty bourgeois to me....  

In any case I don't think you should have to 'live' what you sing.  When it all comes down to it a good song is a good song and that's all that matters.  *EXCEPT in the case of totally softcore skinny indie gimps pretending to be hardcore.*  I'm going to have to crack down on that one.

Reelin' in the Years

Greetings one and all and welcome to a deliciously pointless new addition to the blogosphere. I'd like to open my account on this blog with a video of one of my all time favourite tracks from a great band by the name of Steely Dan. This video is from the early 70s as the band promoted their debut album 'Can't Buy a Thrill', an effort I would argue is one of the most accomplished and incredibly coherent debut albums of all time. The eponymous debut from Roxy Music may be a more strikingly profound mission statement but Steely Dan's first long player is a more even and consistent work. 'Reelin' in the Years' is a quick paced rocker in 6/8 time with great conversationalist vocals from Donald Fagen in a style that Phil Lynnot would make his own a couple of years down the line as Thin Lizzy moved into their classic Gorham & Roberson twin guitar phase. In fact, the 6/8 timing and twin guitar harmonies featured in this track would also later become hallmarks of Lizzy's 'trademark' sound. Hmmmm....



In any case, 'Reelin' in the Years' is pure quality despite the bands ever so dodgy attire. Walter becker (the large bearded individual on rhythm guitar) looks like a total legend though.

Also, in case anyone was wondering what the deal was regarding the name of this blog, it's a pun on the title of Bruce Springsteen's totally class second album, 'The Wild, The Innocent & The E Street Shuffle", with my initials filling in for the 'E'. Somewhat lame but hey, it's gotta be called somethin'.