Happy New Year Again – Live with the Grateful Dead

We started a tradition of sorts last year when we offered some live Doors music for a New Year’s Eve party. Let’s keep it going: this year, we can all dig the Grateful Dead.

When the Grateful Dead were walking the earth, it was a tradition too that they played New Year’s Eve some place, usually some place in California. They shut down the Winterland Arena in San Francisco in 1978, playing the venerable venue’s last show ever (with the Blues Brothers).

The Grateful Dead’s legendary live shows, with large chunks of improvised performance, are noteworthy for their sheer passion and depth of virtuosity, if not also for their length. When you hear today about some guy or some band playing a three or four-hour show,  just know that long ago The Grateful Dead did it first.

The band wrote a lot of its own music and many of those songs – including “Sugar Magnolia,” “Estimated Prophet” and “Fire On The Mountain” – are classics. But they knew how to play those cover versions too.

Many people are not fans of The Grateful Dead, that’s for sure. But for every one of those there has to be at least four or five devoted fans – surely the Dead have one of the largest and most loyal fan bases in all of rock and roll.

This is a pretty decent audience recording, from Dec. 31, 1980, at Oakland Coliseum. What you have here is only a part of the show – the last part – and if you want the whole concert you can go here and download it. Thanks to the Internet Archive for the loan of the downloads.

MP3: “China Cat Sunflower”

MP3:  Countdown to Midnight

MP3: “Sugar Magnolia”

MP3: “Scarlet Begonias”

MP3: “Fire On The Mountain”

MP3: “Estimated Prophet”

MP3: “The Other One”

MP3: “Wharf Rat”

MP3: “Around and Around”

MP3: “Sunshine Daydream”

MP3: “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction”

MP3: “Brokedown Palace”

Lost Classics!: Di$co Time!

Would Gene Simmons and KISS go disco? You bet! (Photo by Keith Leroux for KISSOnline)

A few years ago, while riffling through my closet, I came across my old pea green leisure suit. In one pocket was a ticket stub to a Bee Gees concert, circa 1979 in the Houston Summit. (Yes, that was the one with the guest dancer appearance by one Mr. John Travolta, in town filming Urban Cowboy). Horrified at this perfect polyester time capsule, I bundled it up and gave it as a Christmas white elephant gift at the office party.

I bet there are some pretty famous people who can’t get rid of their disco mistakes so easily. Remember the Beach Boys’ disco cash-in from 1979, “Here Comes The Night”? So do we, unfortunately. How about the Electric Light Orchestra hiding behind an Olivia Newton-John vocal for the horrid “Xanadu” (1980)? Or Paul McCartney’s “Goodnight Tonight” (1979)? Truly frightening.

Unbelieveable, really.

Even artists you wouldn’t expect to do disco, people with a lot artistic integrity, did some booty-shaking tracks back in the day. They may have tried to disguise it, but a disco by another color still smells … well, you know. How about Bruce Springsteen’s “Cover Me” (1984) – a bit late in the game but you can’t deny that driving backbeat. The Eagles doing “One Of These Nights” (1975) might have been a little early in the curve so you can give them the benefit of the doubt, but had it come out a few years later it would be disco. And what about “The Magnificient Seven” by the Clash (1981)? Hmmm.

Then there are the Rolling Stones. How many disco songs did they actually do? Aside from “Miss You” (1978), there’s “Emotional Rescue” (1980) and probably “Beast of Burden” (1978). And the less said about “I Was Made for Lovin’ You” by KISS (1979), the better.

So do you have a leisure suit in the closet? Break it out, dust off your old dance moves and let’s shake some tail on this Saturday night to your favorite rock acts gettin’ down with some disco!

MP3: “One Of These Nights” (live) by the Eagles

MP3: “Cover Me” by Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band

MP3: “Goodnight Tonight” by Paul McCartney & Wings

MP3: “Here Comes The Night” (1979 version) by the Beach Boys

MP3: “Xanadu” by Olivia Newton-John & the Electric Light Orchestra

MP3: “The Magnificent Seven” by The Clash

MP3: “I Was Made For Lovin’ You” (2009 version) by KISS

MP3: “Discotheque” by U2

MP3: “Emotional Rescue” by the Rolling Stones

MP3: “Shakedown Street” by the Grateful Dead

MP3: “Run Like Hell” by Pink Floyd

And why not?

MP3: “Do Ya Think I’m Sexy?” by Rod Stewart

MP3: “Stayin’ Alive” by the Bee Gees

(More Than) 40 Years Out: Celebrating Woodstock

Marker overlooking the Woodstock Music and Arts Fair grounds near Bethel, NY.

There isn’t much more to say about Woodstock that we didn’t say here, here or here … but the 43rd anniversary of the historic music festival is coming up this week (Aug. 15-17) and we thought it would be a good opportunity to look back for a few minutes.

Why should we celebrate Woodstock? Someone asked that once, then he answered his own question: it was just a weekend when a whole lot of dirty hippies gathered in one place to smoke dope, get naked with each other and bitch about all of the things they took for granted. And I said yeah, exactly! The one thing he didn’t add was that those 500,000 so-called dirty hippies gathered there because nobody stopped them from doing it.

Even in 1969, while there were riots in the streets and war protests across the country, we were still the Land of the Free. All of those people initially drawn to Woodstock went for the music, but once they got there it was something else: a festival that got out of control, a cluster fuck with a soundtrack. It was, ultimately, a peaceful happening in a time of war and personal conflict.

John Sebastian playing for the masses at Woodstock.

Woodstock was a good thing that happened in a troubled time. When assassins took the lives of Martin Luther King Jr., Robert F. Kennedy and Malcolm X, those were bad things. When a police riot disrupted protests in Chicago during the 1968 Democratic National Convention, that was also a bad thing. When American National Guardsmen shot and killed unarmed students at Kent State, that was certainly a bad thing.

Most of all, Woodstock was a celebration of freedom. People went to Woodstock to celebrate the rights that we are guaranteed as Americans, and the privileges we think we deserve as a rich, prosperous nation. Including freedom of speech – the same right used back then to protest the Vietnam War, and the same right guaranteed today to guys who own fast-food chicken restaurants as well as to people who disagree with what he says.

So maybe Woodstock should join our calendar of national celebrations, another occasion to appreciate the many great things we have here in America. Maybe you shouldn’t take the day off work, but on Wednesday, Thursday or Friday of this coming week just take a moment to remember a time of peace and music – and freedom.

And you can play these as your soundtrack … they’re not all from the original Woodstock, but each one has the proper spirit.

MP3: “Woodstock” by Joni Mitchell

MP3: “Freedom” (2009 version) by Richie Havens

MP3: “Kiss My Ass” by Country Joe & the Fish

MP3: “Green River” (live at Woodstock) by Creedence Clearwater Revival

MP3: “The Brown Acid Is Not Specifically Too Good” stage announcement at Woodstock, 1969

MP3: “Goin’ Up The Country” (live at Bethel Woods 2009) by Canned Heat

MP3: “Dance To The Music” (live at Woodstock) by Sly and the Family Stone

MP3: “Wooden Ships” by Crosby, Stills & Nash

MP3: “Piece Of My Heart” by Big Brother & the Holding Company

MP3: “China Cat Sunflower” (live) by The Grateful Dead

MP3: “Johnny B. Goode” (live at Woodstock) by Johnny Winter

MP3: “Volunteers/With A Little Help From My Friends” (live at Bethel Woods 2009) by Jefferson Starship

MP3: “For Those of You Who Have Partaken of the Green Acid” stage announcement at Woodstock, 1969

MP3: “Star Spangled Banner/Purple Haze” (live at Woodstock) by Jimi Hendrix

 

MP3: NBC News report on Woodstock, 1969

(More Than) 40 Years Out: Tranquility Base Here

Buzz Aldrin on the moon, 1969.

On this day in 1969, man set foot on the moon for the very first time. Looking at the photographs the astronauts shot that day, the moon seems like a fairly peaceful place. In fact, they called the landing site “Tranquility Base.”

Back on Earth, things weren’t so tranquil. Americans marched on Washington, D.C., to protest our involvement in the Vietnam War. The story of the My Lai massacre, where women and children were lined up in a ditch and shot, broke in the news. British troops were deployed to try and calm tensions in Northern Ireland. And so on.

It seemed like, on that one Sunday afternoon and evening, everything and everyone in the world just kind of stopped – if only for a few minutes, while two humans kicked up dust on the lunar surface. Many of us watched the shadowy figures on TV, live and in glorious grainy black and white.

Probably nobody really stopped what they were doing, but a teenager in Texas back then thought it would have been really cool if they did. And if we would have paid attention for a while, maybe we would have stopped fighting and yelling long enough share a little bit of wonder and pride in human accomplishment.

For just a minute or two … then we could get right back to killing each other. Which is what happened anyway.

Maybe one day we’ll go back to the moon, but many people will tell you there are infinitely more important ways to spend our time and money. And I suppose they are right. Still, somebody is going to get back there eventually. Tranquility Base will always be there, ready and waiting for us to start dreaming again.

MP3: “Moonlight” by Bob Dylan

MP3: “Bad Moon Rising” by Creedence Clearwater Revival

MP3: “Yellow Moon” (live) by the Neville Brothers

MP3: “Armstrong, Aldrin and Collins” by The Byrds

MP3: “Silver Moon” by Michael Nesmith & the First National Band

MP3: “Halo ‘Round The Moon” by Steve Earle

MP3: “Moon Dawg” by The Beach Boys

MP3: “Man On The Moon” by R.E.M.

MP3: “Moonlight Drive” (live) by The Doors

MP3: “Armstrong” by John Stewart

MP3: “Blue Moon” by Elvis Presley

MP3: “Kiko and the Lavender Moon” by Los Lobos

MP3: “Bark At The Moon” by Ozzy Osbourne

MP3: “Mountains Of The Moon” (live) by The Grateful Dead

MP3: “Brain Damage/Eclipse” by Pink Floyd

Chuck Berry’s Covers

Chuck Berry, still rockin' at age 85.

Long past the half-century mark, rock and roll is now nearing senior citizen status. Yesterday we marked the 53rd anniversary of the deaths of Buddy Holly, the Big Bopper and Richie Valens, and we’ve had some tragic losses in the past couple weeks (Etta James, Johnny Otis, etc.).

But one of our greatest original rockers is still with us – Chuck Berry, still rockin’ (sometimes) at age 85. He has some health issues, but he apparently still performs at the Blueberry Hill restaurant in St. Louis, where he lives.

Berry, of course, is the wellspring of some of rock’s greatest songs: “Johnny B. Goode,” “Sweet Little Sixteen,” “Roll Over Beethoven” and many more. Rockers following in his giant footsteps have all burned through a Chuck Berry song or two, so today let’s celebrate the legacy of this great performer with a handful of Berrys – by himself and by others.

MP3: “Roll Over Beethoven” by the Beatles

MP3: “Sweet Little Sixteen” (live) by the Rolling Stones

MP3: “Promised Land” by Elvis Presley

MP3: “Around and Around” (live) by the Grateful Dead

MP3: “Rock and Roll Music” by the Beach Boys

MP3: “Johnny B. Goode” (live) by Johnny Winter

MP3: “Memphis” by the Faces

YouTube: “Johnny B. Goode” by Chuck Berry and Bruce Springsteen

MP3: “You Can’t Catch Me” by Chuck Berry

MP3: “No Particular Place To Go” by Chuck Berry

MP3: “Brown Eyed Handsome Man” by Chuck Berry

YouTube: “Maybelline” by Chuck Berry

We can share the women, We can share the wine

Editor’s note: This news item was submitted by our L.A. correspondent Randy Fuller, who drinks wine all the time and writes a cool blog of his own, Now and Zin.

Wine and rock music have blended together for a number of interesting – and some perplexing – results. One outfit that seems to have the idea boiled down to its essence is Wines That Rock, a Ukiah, California wine company which specializes in marketing its wines directly to fans of rock music.

Wines That Rock already has vintages called Forty Licks Merlot (for Rolling Stones fans), Dark Side of the Moon Cabernet Sauvignon (Pink Floyd), Synchronicity (The Police) and Woodstock Chardonnay. Now they have added some Deadhead red to the lineup.

The Grateful Dead Red Wine Blend 2009 is said to “capture the essence of the live energy of the Grateful Dead.” The wine is a heady blend of Syrah, Petite Sirah, Zinfandel and Grenache, all taken from California’s Mendocino County. The winemaker promises flavors of “black cherry and peppered bacon with a velvety vanilla and caramel finish.” To properly emulate the Grateful Dead’s live shows, one would imagine that finish to be quite lengthy.

The environmental notes show sustainable farming, 100% green power, eco-friendly packaging and carbon neutrality. All should be a hit with the target audience.

It can be argued – reasonably well – that this type of wine relies less on taste than on the iconic imagery on its label. Think of it as “critter labels” for stoners. I have yet to taste one of the Wines That Rock, but at least their description and winemaking notes seem to take the wine more seriously than the labels may indicate.

MP3: “Jack Straw” (live, 1992)

MP3: “Ripple” (sorry, we couldn’t resist)

Follow Randy Fuller on Twitter

Ridin’ Out The Storm

Hurricane Ike from 2008.

By now everyone should be ready for this big storm. Just remember – when the wind’s blowin’ stay indoors, and try to find high ground when the floodwaters come. These big storms are gifts from Mother Nature, who doesn’t give a shit if you live in New York City or Podunk, Texas.

She couldn’t care less if you have someplace to be or something to do, and if you think you are going to show Mother Nature how tough you are then she may just want to show you back. That’s usually when we read about you in the paper – in the past tense.

Be smart, stay high and keep dry. Do that and you’ll stay safe. Here are some tunes to help you ride out the storm.

MP3: “Ridin’ The Storm Out” (live) by REO Speedwagon

MP3: “Stormbringer” by Beck

MP3: “Storm” by Blackmore’s Night

MP3: “Stand Out In The Rain” by the Jayhawks

MP3: “Into The Storm” by Yes

MP3: “Stormy Weather” by Dizzy Gillespie

MP3: “Thunder Island” by Jay Ferguson

MP3: “Rainy Night In Georgia” by Conway Twitty & Sam Moore

MP3: “Rainy Day Blues” by Lightnin’ Hopkins

MP3: “Box of Rain” by the Grateful Dead

MP3: “Didn’t It Rain” by the Band

MP3: “Rainy Day” by America

MP3: “Let It Rain” (live) by Derek & the Dominos

MP3: “When the Wild Wind Blows” by Iron Maiden

MP3: “Light From Your Lighthouse” by the Fireman

MP3: “After The Storm” by Mumford & Sons

MP3: “The Only Living Boy In New York” by Simon & Garfunkel

National Hurricane Center

The Weather Channel

Mike’s Weather Page (This excellent page is one of the best I’ve seen – it’s a virtual hurricane command center)

Attention, Walmart shoppers!

Treasures await you at Walmart.

The other day I cut out of work a little early because I had to get some groceries for supper. So I thought I’d save some time and pennies by dropping in to the local Walmart. My attention was diverted by one of their distinctive “discount bins,” this one with CDs for five bucks apiece.

All this for 20 bucks!

Now this bin had nothing really rare, and there was an awful lot of junk – Reba to rappers to crappy country, you had to dig for the rock and roll. And although I already own most of this music, I found some keepers: Destroyer by KISS, Captured by Journey, a Lynyrd Skynyrd collection.

I also picked up Flashback with the Grateful Dead, a shallow best-of on Rhino Records’ budget Flashback label. With “Truckin’,” “China Cat Sunflower,” “U.S. Blues,” “Shakedown Street” and “Touch of Grey” among others, it’s a nice one to have in the car. Same with Journey’s 1981 effort Escape: studio versions of “Don’t Stop Believin’,” “Stone In Love” and “Open Arms,” and four bonus tracks including live versions of “Believin'” and “Open Arms” (recorded in Houston!).

There were a lot of those Millennium Collection discs from the Who, Aerosmith, Eric Clapton, Steppenwolf and others, as well as must-haves like School’s Out by Alice Cooper, The Captain and Me from the Doobie Brothers and Live at Budokan from Ozzy Osbourne. And there were some Elvis collections, lumping his stuff in packages like Elvis Country and Elvis Rock – a few well-known tunes surrounded by a shitload of filler.

I really didn’t need another copy of Destroyer and I probably won’t listen to the live Journey Captured unless I’m really drunk. But it felt strangely good to buy music in a physical form, even if it was at a Walmart. So if you need to get your classic rock on, or just need a CD or two to spin at your July 4 cookout, you know where to go.

MP3: “King Of The Night Time World” by KISS (from Destroyer)

MP3: “Too Late” (live) by Journey (from Captured)

MP3: “Shakedown Street” by the Grateful Dead

70 Years Out: Bob Dylan

This week (May 24) Bob Dylan will celebrate his 70th birthday. Probably the most important figure in popular music, Dylan has built a body of work that is breathtaking in its scope. On top of that, it would be quite fair to say that when Dylan was at his peak in the 1960s his music helped change the world. Love him or hate him, you cannot deny his powerful influence on rock music. Thanks, Bob.

MP3: “Rainy Day Women #12 & 35” (live) by Bob Dylan & the Band

MP3: “Like A Rolling Stone” (live) by Jimi Hendrix

MP3: “Watching The River Flow” by Leon Russell

MP3: “One More Cup of Coffee” by Roger McGuinn & Calexico

MP3: “To Ramona” by the Flying Burrito Brothers

MP3: “Thunder On The Mountain” by Wanda Jackson

MP3: “It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue” by the Grateful Dead

MP3: “Girl From The North Country” by Johnny Cash & Joni Mitchell

MP3: “Si Tu Dois Partir” by Fairport Convention

MP3: “Groom’s Still Waiting At The Altar” by Bob Dylan

MP3: “My Back Pages” by the Hollies

MP3: “Masters of War” by Pearl Jam

MP3: “If Not For You” by Olivia Newton John

MP3: “Come Una Pietra Scalciata (Like A Rolling Stone)” by Articolo 31

MP3: “Chimes Of Freedom” (live) by Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band

MP3: “Wicked Messenger” by the Faces

MP3: “Everything Is Broken” by R. L. Burnside

MP3: “This Wheel’s On Fire” by the Byrds

MP3: “Gotta Serve Somebody” by Mavis Staples

MP3: “Highway 61 Revisited” by Johnny Winter

MP3: “Tweeter and the Monkey Man” by the Traveling Wilburys

MP3: “The Times They Are A-Changin’ ” by the Beach Boys

MP3: “All Along The Watchtower” (live) by Neil Young

MP3:  “A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall” (live) by Bob Dylan (w/George Harrison, Leon Russell & Ringo Starr)

MP3:  “Forever Young” by Bob Dylan & the Band

“Watching The River Flow” by Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Ronnie Wood, Bill Wyman, Charlie Watts and Ben Waters

It Came From Halloween – Scary TV and radio

Morgus The Magnificent

Television was the one thing found in just about every house in the 1960s.  I knew people living in mobile homes who didn’t have a dinner table, but they had a TV.  And I remember sitting in front of the damned thing for hours when I was a kid.  Radio, I suppose, had the same attraction for kids in the generations before mine – just as cable TV, video games, DVDs and the internet have enthralled generations after mine.

There was a local scary TV show host when I was growing up; I believe his name was Dr. Ghoul-man or something, he appeared late nights on TV around a rerun of some crummy horror movie.  People still talk rapturously about Morgus the Magnificent in the New Orleans area, or whoever did the hosting in your area (see link below).

Rod Serling

But the really scary shit on TV appeared on prime time: “The Twilight Zone” hosted by Rod Serling frightened the bejeezus out of me on more than one occasion, sending me to bed more than a little nervous.  Then later it was “The Outer Limits,” which was more science fiction but fairly scary nevertheless.  Now I grew up in Southeast Texas and whenever a hurricane blew in the TV stations in the late 1960s stayed on all night so they can provide weather updates (they usually signed off around midnight with the national anthem).   And in between weather reports, local TV played reruns of “The Outer Limits,” which added to the already-pretty-damn-real fear factor.  The Weather Channel today pales in comparison.

My kids were turned on by old “Twilight Zone” episodes, and the best of them are among the greatest things ever to appear on television.  You owe it to yourself to catch these on reruns, if you never have.  It’s prime chills, 1960s’ style: cheap thrills indeed.

MP3: “Twilight Zone” main title music

MP3: “The Addams Family” theme song by Vic Mizzy

MP3: “The Munsters” by the Comateens

MP3: “Whatever Happened To Eddie?” by Butch Patrick w/Eddie & the Monsters

YouTube: “The Munsters” TV show opening

MP3: “Morgus The Magnificent” by Morgus & the Ghouls (w/Dr. John)

MP3: “Frankenstein of ’59” by Buchanan & Goodman

MP3: “The Inner Sanctum” radio show – “Wailing Wall” w/Boris Karloff (1945)

MP3: “The Halloween Shop” Sears radio commercial by Bobby “Boris” Pickett

MP3: “The Halloween Song” by Bing Crosby, Victor Moore and Boris Karloff

MP3: “The Twilight Zone” 1985 show theme by the Grateful Dead

YouTube: “The Outer Limits” opening

Egor’s Chamber of TV Horror Hosts

Download a free Halloween music sampler at Amazon.com