Radio Daze: Rock Hype on the Airwaves

Back in the day, radio was the only way to get out the word about a new album. Of course, it helped that disc jockeys actually played songs from a new album – but record labels wanted to rack up sales right out of the box. And movies too – what better way to get the word out to the “kids” than through that boss, groovy local radio station?

So they worked up little spots to play on the hip-cool radio station in your town. Nowadays, with traditional terrestrial radio pretty much dead, these old radio spots are fodder for CD re-releases.  Let’s queue up a bunch and spin ’em!

MP3: The Monkees Present radio promo (The Monkees)

MP3: Live Dead radio promo (The Grateful Dead)

MP3: Help movie promo (The Beatles)

MP3: Cahoots radio promo (The Band)

MP3: Sweetheart of the Rodeo radio promo (The Byrds)

MP3: Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere radio promo (Neil Young)

MP3: I Got Dem Ol’ Kozmic Blues Again Mama! radio promo (Janis Joplin)

MP3: Head movie promos (The Monkees)

MP3: Electric Warrior radio promo (T. Rex)

MP3: Aqualung radio promo (Jethro Tull)

MP3: Ballad of Easy Rider radio promo (The Byrds)

MP3: Easy Rider movie promo

On The Road Again

It may not look like much in the photo, but this is the largest convenience store in the world.

In most places around the country, gasoline prices are dipping. You know what that means – summer’s here and the time is right for piling the kids and/or the dog into the car for a road trip.

We were on the road this past week, and deep in the heart of the Lone Star state we wheeled in to a truly awe-inspiring site: the Buc-ee’s truck stop/convenience store just north of New Braunfels, Texas, between San Antonio and Austin.

Buc-ee’s is a chain of stores found along the highways of Texas. They sell typical convenience store junk food, some hot kolaches and fudge and their own brand of beef jerky, hot peanuts, etc. They also sell a wide variety of knick-knacks, cheap Texas souvenirs and similar crap. We’ll get back to that in a moment.

But this Buc-ee’s we visited, it was friggin’ massive! It was at least the size of a Walmart and sure enough, my research tells me at 68,000 square feet it is truly the largest convenience store in the world (Wikipedia is your friend). It also has 60 gas pumps, about 78 toilets and 250 employees.

The Buc-ee’s beaver mascot.

This is the largest store in the Buc-ee’s chain and I’m told when it opened in May there were cars stretched up and down the frontage road just waiting to get in there. People in Texas love Buc-ee’s for some reason; everywhere, I see people wearing t-shirts with the logo featuring a goofy cartoon beaver. Instead of a Disneyland or Six Flags shirt; like Buc-ee’s is the destination tourists really want to make pilgrimage to.

Anyway, back to the crap they sell in the store. There’s a huge rack of CDs, mostly country music, but because it’s Texas the selection is considerably more choice than your typical roadside truck stop. You got yer George Jones, yer Willie Nelson, some Ray Price and even a disc of Johnny Bush. A Dolly Parton disc and wow, even Robert Earl Keen! Unfortunately, there’s Pat Green too.

There were some copies of the great series from New West Records, Live From Austin TX – glorious audio tracks of performances from the great “Austin City Limits” TV show. Here’s Willie Nelson on the show, Robert Earl Keen, Billy Joe Shaver, Kris Kristofferson, even the Texas Tornados (which IMO is the best of the series). You don’t have to go to Buc-ee’s to find these; your friendly neighborhood record store ought to have a good selection, or you can shop online.

There are also discs from Icehouse Music, a company that rack-jobs music from Texas, Americana and roots artists. That’s the label where you can find the great Johnny Bush (he wrote “Whiskey River” for Willie) and his autobiographical Kashmere Gardens Mud, as well as the incredible two-disc tribute to Guy Clark This One’s For Him: A Tribute to Guy Clark, which features Robert Earl, Willie, Joe Ely, Steve Earle, Emmylou Harris and many more.

Some years ago I picked up a CD at a truck stop, California Jukebox by the Flying Burrito Brothers. Now this isn’t the Gram Parsons-Chris Hillman Burritos, it’s the 21st century version, with John Beland and Gib Guilbeau and featuring guest shots from David Allan Coe, Waylon Jennings, Sonny Landreth and even original Flying Burrito steel guitarist “Sneaky Pete” Kleinow. It came out in 2001 from the last incarnation in a long line of imitation Flying Burrito Brothers. It overcomes low expectations and it was a pleasant surprise for me – dig one up if you can. It’s on Icehouse Records, apparently no relation to Icehouse Music above.

Well, this tirade has arrived at a place far from where we started – that’s a nice summer road trip. So, for your summer road trip, here’s a soundtrack for ya.

MP3: “On The Road Again” (live at Austin City Limits) by Willie Nelson

MP3: “White Line Fever” by Joe Ely

MP3: “Truckstop in La Grange” by the Bastard Sons of Johnny Cash

MP3: “Bloody Mary Morning” by Johnny Bush

MP3 ” (Is Anybody Goin’ To) San Antone/Texas Tornado” (live at Austin City Limits) by the Sir Douglas Quintet

MP3: “Endless Highway” by The Band

MP3: “Automobile” by John Prine

MP3: “Truck Stop Girl” by Little Feat

MP3: “Highway Cafe” by Kinky Friedman

MP3: “California Jukebox” by the Flying Burrito Brothers

MP3: “Honkin’ Down The Highway” by the Beach Boys

MP3: “Goin’ Down To Mexico” by ZZ Top

MP3: “Roadhouse Blues” by The Doors w/John Lee Hooker

MP3: “Sweet Hitch-Hiker (live) by John Fogerty

MP3: “Life Is A Highway” by the Tom Cochrane Band

MP3: “I’ve Been Everywhere” by Johnny Cash

MP3: “Highway Star” by Deep Purple

MP3: “Let Me Drive Your Automobile” (live at Woodstock 40th anniversary) by Canned Heat

MP3: “Born To Be Wild” by Steppenwolf

MP3: “Call Me The Breeze” (live) by Lynyrd Skynyrd

MP3: “The Road Goes On Forever” (live at Austin City Limits) by Robert Earl Keen

Video Du Jour: The Band

This is an awesome video clip – Garth Hudson, Robbie Robertson and Levon Helm of The Band desconstruct the classic “Up On Cripple Creek.”

 

Video/Levon Helm Tribute Du Jour: John Fogerty & the Black Keys

Levon Helm

There have been a lot of tributes to fallen singer Levon Helm since he died last week – none better, though, than this affectionate yet clear-eyed appreciation by Peter Gerstenzang that appeared in the Village Voice. Here is one appropriate excerpt:

“After I got the news yesterday that he’d died, I got into the car to drive around and think, two things I’m never good at doing simultaneously. Foolishly, I turned on the radio, expecting to hear The Band’s music blasting, from one end of the dial to the other. I forgot about how doomed my expectation was. Corporate radio was not going to budge its mix of Def Leppard and Rihanna for five fucking minutes to fete this great master of American Music. I thought, none of these programmers realize what terrible fate is awaiting them. And, that, as they say down South, Hell is only half-full. So, I turned off the radio and just started singing “The Weight,” one of the biggest hits The Band ever had and a song that introduced, to most of us little hippies, the first Southern voice since Elvis that didn’t seem scary, or possessed by a guy who had a shotgun pointed at the front wheel of our motorcycle.”

Read the entire Village Voice piece here.

In related news, this appeared on Facebook today:

Message to Robbie Robertson from Dennis Miele: “Robbie, there seems to be a debate about the lyrics to “The Weight”. Can you confirm that the line is ‘Take a load off FANNY’?’

Robbie Robertson: Fanny.

If you are near your computer tonight KUT-FM in Austin remembers legendary musician Levon Helm. Tune in to hear “Levon Helm Rambles Home: An Appreciation,” produced by Paul Ingles, by streaming it on the KUT home page. Show starts at 8 p.m. CDT.

And finally, this tribute to Levon Helm by the Black Keys and John Fogerty took place over the weekend at Coachella:

Levon Helm official website

Levon Helm, R.I.P.

Levon Helm, with the Band. (Photo by Art Meripol)

Sad news from Woodstock, N.Y., today: Levon Helm, drummer and singer for The Band and a Grammy Award-winning solo artist, has died.

Helm, 71, was diagnosed with throat cancer in the late 1990s. Intensive radiation treatment left him with a raspy voice that can be heard on the album Dirt Farmer (2007). Nevertheless, the Arkansas native carried on a busy touring schedule and hosted “Midnight Ramble” events at his barn in Woodstock.

The Band in the 1980s - Garth Hudson (left), Rick Danko (center) and Levon Helm (far right). (Photo by Art Meripol)

After backing Bob Dylan on his notorious 1965-66 “electric” tours, The Band released its first album in 1968, Music from Big Pink, which included one of the group’s signature songs “The Weight.”  The Band followed that with The Band album, which included “Up On Cripple Creek,” “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down” and “Rag Mama Rag.” Helm played drums and sang with The Band until 1999, when bassist-singer Rick Danko died.

Helm was also an actor; he appeared in a number of theatrical and TV movies, including Coal Miner’s Daughter (1980), The Right Stuff (1983), Fire Down Below (1997) and In The Electric Mist (2009).

Thanks to Art Meripol for graciously allowing the use of his photos.

Levon Helm obituary from the Poughkeepsie Journal

MP3: “The Weight” by The Band

MP3: “Up On Cripple Creek” by The Band

MP3: “Take Me To The River” by Levon Helm

MP3: “Tennessee Jed” by Levon Helm

MP3: “Hurricane” by Levon Helm

MP3: “Summertime Blues” by Levon Helm

MP3: “Atlantic City” by The Band

MP3: “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down” (live) by The Band

YouTube: “I Shall Be Released” by Levon Helm and friends (2010 Newport Folk Festival)

YouTube: “Poor Old Dirt Farmer”

YouTube: “Ophelia” (2009)

Levon Helm official website

Playing with the Band in Arkansas, during the 1980s. (Photo by Art Meripol)

Rock Moment: The Day The Music Died

Repost: Published in 2009, still of interest today.

To this day, people still mourn the musical talent who died in a plane crash in the early morning hours of Feb. 3, 1959.  A small airplane, carrying rock stars Buddy Holly, J. P. “The Big Bopper” Richardson and Ritchie Valens, crashed only minutes after taking off from Mason City, Iowa, in a snowstorm.

The three had just played the “Winter Dance Party” and were heading to the next stop in Fargo, North Dakota.  Richardson was 28, Valens was 17, and Holly was only 22 years old.   Richardson, from Beaumont, Texas, was already a proven commodity with not only his own hits, but songs he wrote – “Running Bear” for Johnny Preston and “White Lightning” for George Jones – becoming hits as well.  Valens influenced such later acts as Los Lobos and Los Lonely Boys and was the subject of a 1987 hit movie.

But perhaps the greatest loss was Buddy Holly – he was certainly one of the most original musicians ever, and a monumental talent in rock and roll.  In only two short years he had grown powerful enough to control everything he wrote and recorded and at the time of his death he was planning to produce music for other artists as well as his own.  Holly was the iconic rocker, the first to perform as the leader of his own band and the first to employ the now-standard singer/guitarist/bassist/drummer lineup.

If he had lived, perhaps Holly would have faded away or would have deteriorated like Elvis into a paunchy embarrassment playing Vegas casinos.  But I don’t think so.  You see what Buddy Holly could have been when you look at great artists who have survived and thrived over decades – artists with great integrity like Bob Dylan, the Beatles, the Rolling Stones and Bruce Springsteen.

Even though he had a relatively short musical career, and even though he was only 22 years old at the time of his death, and more than 50 years after his plane nosedived into a snowy Iowa cornfield, Buddy Holly remains one of the most important artists ever in rock and roll.

YouTube: Buddy Holly & the Crickets performing “Peggy Sue” in 1957

MP3: “Rave On” by Buddy Holly

MP3: “Not Fade Away” by Buddy Holly & the Crickets

YouTube: “American Pie” by Don McLean

MP3: “Buddy Holly” by Weezer

YouTube: “Rock Around With Ollie Vee” from The Buddy Holly Story biopic

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)

New album coming from Robbie Robertson

Robbie Robertson - Photo by David Jordan Williams

Robbie Robertson, former guitarist and songwriter for The Band, will release his first solo record in more than a decade this spring.  On April 5, 2011, 429 Records will release How To Become Clairvoyant, Robertson’s fifth solo album.  Guests include Eric Clapton (who co-wrote three tracks with Robertson), Tom Morello and Robert Randolph, Steve Winwood, Trent Reznor and vocalists Angela McCluskey, Rocco Deluca, Dana Glover and Taylor Goldsmith of Dawes.  Bassist Pino Palladino and drummer Ian Thomas lay down the groove throughout.

On his last two albums, Music for The Native Americans (1994) and Contact from the Underworld of Redboy (1998), Robertson explored his ancestry.  Now, with How To Become Clairvoyant, he takes on his rock heritage, delivering his first-ever song about leaving The Band, the evocative “This Is Where I Get Off.”  You can preview “When The Night Was Young” off the new album by clicking here.

Your Sister’s (Record) Rack: Rick Danko

Riffling through my big sister’s stack of records I found an album that many people would consider a lost classic: Rick Danko, the 1977 solo debut album from the bass player and singer from the Band.  It was the first solo LP by a member of that beloved group, which had famously disbanded the year before with its “Last Waltz” concert in San Francisco.

And of all the solo projects by the members of the Band, only Rick Danko features each member of the group.  Other friends and guests included Eric Clapton, Ron Wood, Doug Sahm, Blondie Chaplin (then of the Beach Boys), Gerry Beckley (of America) and David Paich (who would later become part of Toto).  Danko wrote most of the tracks with lyrics by actor/comedian Emmett Grogan and Louisiana singer/songwriter Bobby Charles, who was a friend of the Band.

Many people have said this is the best solo effort by any member of the Band, but I think those assessments were made before Levon Helm’s more recent success (Dirt Farmer, Electric Dirt).  Rick Danko would certainly rank up there among the best, though.

Songs like the opener “What A Town,” “New Mexico” and “Small Town Talk” – all co-written with Charles – sound most like the Band.  “What A Town” is an uptempo lope a lot like “Ophelia” and Ron Wood, who was in the Rolling Stones by this time, contributes a sweet guitar solo.  Another highlight is “New Mexico,” flavored by the accordion of Garth Hudson and the guitar of Eric Clapton.

“Tired of Waiting” sounds a lot like a Doug Sahm tune, and in fact Sir Doug himself lays down some vocal harmonies and a guitar solo on this track.  When Bobby Charles did “Small Town Talk” on his own solo album he took an almost acoustic, singer/songwriterly approach.  Danko’s version of the song lays on the horns for fuller production – and Danko himself plays lead guitar on this highlight.

Robbie Robertson takes a turn on guitar with “Java Blues” and it’s one of his better solo riffs.  By the time Levon Helm lends his singular vocal twang to harmonies on “Once Upon A Time,” you can close your eyes and hear the Band at Woodstock.  But that was the final tune on the album – although a rich experience, it seems very short to me.

Danko would of course be part of the reunion of the Band (minus Robertston) in the 1990s.  After Richard Manuel’s suicide, Danko and Helm handled most of the vocals on the three studio albums under the Band imprint.  Danko also cut a few folk-oriented albums with singer/songwriter Eric Andersen and Norwegian roots artist Jonas Fjeld and one of them, Danko/ Fjeld/ Andersen from 1991, won a Grammy Award.  Danko would tour with Ringo Starr’s All-Starr Band and cut a few more solo albums before his death in 1999.

MP3: “What A Town”

MP3: “Java Blues”

MP3: “Once Upon A Time”

The Band official website (with extensive info on all the members’ solo projects)

Your Sister’s (Record) Rack: Woodshedding at Woodstock

Editor’s Note: We are expanding this feature for this week only, to help call attention to Record Store Day on Saturday.  Independent record stores are dying on the vine, go out on Saturday and show ‘em that you love them by purchasing some vinyl.

Today we travel about 1,500 miles to the hamlet of Woodstock, New York, comfortably situated in the rustic Hudson Valley north of the Big Apple.  Now this isn’t the place where the big Woodstock festival took place (that was in Bethel, about 40 miles to the northeast) – the town of Woodstock is a haven for artists, musicians and the like.  One of the town’s most famous residents is Levon Helm, best known as the drummer for the Band.

The stories are rock legend: about the Band backing Dylan as he went “electric” in the mid-1960s, how a discouraged Helm quit, how the group reunited with Dylan in Woodstock, then finally how Helm rejoined and recorded the landmark Music From Big Pink.  By 1975, Levon Helm was a big-time rock star.  He had just married a young lady he first met while working in L.A., and he moved back to bucolic Woodstock to make his permanent home. On his 20-acre homesite, Helm built a huge timber-framed barn with only wooden pegs and locally quarried bluestone.  Overlooking a bass-filled lake and shadowed by Overlook Mountain, Helm’s barn was to double as a recording studio.

The studio was nearly complete in 1975 when Helm welcomed his first client, Chicago blues great Muddy Waters.  Helm and his business partner songwriter/producer Henry Glover invited some of the A-list musicians to sit in on the sessions with Waters and his touring band.  The result was The Muddy Waters Woodstock Album, released in 1975.  Among the musicians on the album were guitarist Bob Margolin and pianist Willie “Pinetop” Perkins from Muddy’s band, blues-harp monster Paul Butterfield and hot session guitarist Fred Carter as well as Helm and Garth Hudson from the Band.

The album kicks off with “Why Are People Like That,” written by Louisiana singer/songwriter Bobby Charles (who was also living in Woodstock at the time).  Waters wrote five songs his own bad self, including “Born With Nothing” (on which Muddy plays a wicked slide guitar) and “Going Down To Main Street” (with Garth Hudson on accordion).  The accordion wasn’t known as a blues instrument (outside of  Clifton Chenier’s neighborhood, of course) but Hudson turns it into a blistering blues tool, particularly on “Caledonia,” a cover of the hot Louis Jordan tune.