Video Du Jour: Bob Dylan/Farm Aid

This weekend’s Farm Aid 2012 in Pennsylvania’s Hersheypark Stadium will be the 25th event staged to help America’s farmers (actually in 1989 they took Farm Aid on the road).

Willie Nelson, John Mellencamp, Neil Young & Crazy Horse, Dave Matthews and many more will play on Saturday, Sept. 22, 27 years to the day of the very first Farm Aid concert.

Farm Aid was inspired, of course, by Bob Dylan’s offhand comment at Live Aid in 1985 that he hoped some of the money would help American farmers in danger of losing their farms through mortgage debt. Nelson and Mellencamp took up the mantle and went to bat for U.S. farmers.

So, to celebrate Farm Aid, here’s Bob Dylan along with Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers and Willie Nelson, doing “Maggie’s Farm” at the 1985 event in Champaign, Illinois.

Farm Aid official web site

Christmas Song of the Day: “Little Drummer Boy” by Bob Dylan

Here is our old buddy, Bob Dylan, with his unique take on the “Little Drummer Boy.” No funny hats that make him look like Tom Petty this time around like his last video, “Must Be Christmas.” Enjoy the animation.

Dylan’s Christmas In The Heart is the famed songwriter’s 47th album and all the money goes to charity. Way to go, Bob.

Bob Dylan’s Official Website

Lost Classics! Lone Justice/Maria McKee

In the 1980s, Los Angeles was the birthplace of a curious genre called cowpunk, a mashup of punk rock with roots music.  Among the more famous practitioners were the Beat Farmers, the Blasters, Los Lobos, Green on Red and of course, Lone Justice. 

Lone Justice came together in 1982 under the guidance of guitarist Ryan Hedgecock and singer Maria McKee, an L.A. singer whose half brother was Bryan McLean from the psychedelic band Love.  In their early days, Lone Justice was a hot band in the L.A. area – thanks in part to having famous champions and fans like Linda Ronstadt and Benmont Tench, Tom Petty’s keyboardist and Maria McKee’s boyfriend.

Geffen Records put out Lone Justice’s self-titled debut album in 1985 and although a few songs (most notably the Tom Petty-penned “Ways To Be Wicked”) got radio airplay, the album didn’t sell as well as everyone hoped it would.  Maybe Lone Justice wasn’t really a true cowpunk band – the first album showed evidence of ambition beyond the boundaries of the genre.  To my ears, Lone Justice sounded more like a California-style U2 rather than the other bolo tie bands that were out at the time.

Halloween Pot Luck, Part 2

It has been pointed out that if we post something called “Halloween Pot Luck,” as we did yesterday, possibly it should have something to do with Halloween.  Well, OK … but it was a nice photo, eh?  Anyway, let’s try again with some genuine Halloween music.  Enjoy your Halloween, remember to use your powers for good and not evil, and be safe tonight. 

MP3: “Werewolves of London” (live) by Warren Zevon

MP3: “Wake The Dead” by Alice Cooper

MP3: “It Came Out Of The Sky” (live) by Creedence Clearwater Revival

One for the ladies!

MP3: “Buried Alive” by Motörhead

MP3: “Nightmare” by Ozzy Osbourne

MP3: “Long Black Veil” (live) by Johnny Cash

MP3: “Sympathy For The Devil” by the Rolling Stones

MP3: “Loving The Alien” by David Bowie

MP3: “Zombie Zoo” by Tom Petty

MP3: “Friend Of The Devil” (live) by the Grateful Dead

Review: “Mudcrutch,” Mudcrutch

 

It’s no big secret that Mudcrutch, the band, is the Gainesville, Florida, band that served as the prototype for Tom Petty’s Heartbreakers.  Petty is back at the mic for the 2008 version of Mudcrutch, also featuring Heartbreakers keyboardist Benmont Tench and guitarist Mike Campbell.  Original Mudcrutch members Randall Marsh (drums) and Tom Leadon (guitar), brother of Eagles and Flying Burrito Brothers member Bernie Leadon, are also in the lineup.  Mudcrutch is a 14-song catalog of country rock and apparent Heartbreakers outtakes that wouldn’t have diverted anyone’s attention from the Eagles or the Byrds if it had been released in the early 1970s.  Those two groups are the obvious touchstones here – “Lover Of The Bayou” is indeed a Byrds tune, one of three cover songs on the album, and “Orphan Of The Storm” (another Katrina-related song) has an Eagles-like lilt.  Leadon takes over lead vocals on “Queen Of The Go-Go Girls” and Tench and Campbell even sing a bit on the album too. “Scare Easy” has that familiar Heartbreakers sound and will likely be the bait that lures the listener inside.  Recorded in a two-week period, this is a little too accomplished to pass off as garage rock but Mudcrutch is a perfect throwback to those early ’70s days when bands knew how to play and, uh, take it easy.

MP3: Scare Easy

Mudcrutch official website

Rock Moment: Bob Dylan and Tom Petty, 1986

With just a few words, Bob Dylan started a movement.  At the end of the big 1985 Live Aid concert he said something like “It would be great if some of this money could help the farmers in this country.”  Thus, Farm Aid was born.  In September of that year, he appeared at the first Farm Aid concert with Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers as his backing band.

Dylan apparently liked the matchup so much that we went on tour with Petty.  The next year he released Knocked Out Loaded, with the Heartbreakers playing behind him, and came up with an odd title song for a movie, Band Of The Hand.

The “True Confessions” tour was a rockin’ experience and a kick in the pants for the careers of both performers. Two years later, Petty and Dylan would have a hit on their hands when the first album from the Traveling Wilburys scaled the charts.  But that’s another story.

MP3: Band Of The Hand (single)

MP3: You Wanna Ramble (from Knocked Out Loaded)