Digging Up Bones
Special to The Review
Woodstock Turns 40: Dirty, Stinking Hippies

In a genteel game of word association I’ll say “Woodstock” and you’ll say “Hippies.” I’ll let your response hang in the air for a long, awkward moment, then you’ll add “dirty, stinking hippies,” and follow up rapidly with “Hendrix,” “Star Spangled Banner,” “lighter fluid,” “flaming guitar,” and so on. On another day you might say “Santana” or “Richie Havens” or “Sly & The Family Stone.”

Chances are, we could add a player or two and continue this exciting game forever without anyone ever shouting “Tim Hardin,” or “Sweetwater.” If someone suddenly barked out “Keef Hartley,” then we’d know that time itself had come to an end.

As the "festival-to-end-all-rock-festivals" reverberates into its fourth decade, I wondered if there was anything left on that old rock-n-roll bone. Turns out, yeah. But you’ve gotta forget about the acts that parlayed a drug-addled weekend into superstardom, and look to the ones that time forgot.

Tim Hardin, the ex-marine and Vietnam vet who had a taste for heroin and lazy folk guitar. Sweetwater, a Los Angeles group with about eighty members, who regularly opened for The Doors, traveled in a beautiful, beautiful balloon, and occasionally drifted into preachy social commentary. Keef Hartley, the British drummer who once replaced Ringo Starr in a pre-Beatles outfit. (I include Hartley’s band here simply for their mind boggling ability to roll James Gang guitar, Spencer Davis Group organ, Blood Sweat & Tears horns, and Mountain vocals into a single, 6-minute jam.)

The Paul Butterfield Blues Band is here, too. They suffered the indignity of having to open for Sha-Na-Na -- yep, that Sha-Na-Na. And that’s reason enough to give ‘em three of the eight slots on an obscure music blog. That, plus their “Love March” could have just as well been a Sly Stone number.

(Playlist to the left.)

JH

Digging Up Bones
Special to The Review
Les Paul Dead at 94

My earliest memories of Les Paul are all bad. Back in my rock band days, it seemed that every guitarist had a Les Paul this or a Les Paul that, and never, ever would the damn things stay in tune! This made for embarrassing moments on stage and wasted time and money in the studio. Of course, Les Paul, the man, had nothing to do with any of this. He simply invented that chunk of lumber and magnets that would eventually turn so many kids into guitar gods…as soon as they learned how to tune the ^@#%& thing!

While everybody knows about Paul’s guitar, his inventing the eight-track recording machine is less (no pun intended) widely known, but perhaps just as important.

Here are some more fun facts:

-A teacher once informed Les’s mother that the young genius would never learn music.

-Les Paul was also known by several different stage names including The Wizard of Waukesha & Rhubarb Red.

-After a car accident crushed his left arm, his elbow would become immobile. Les had the elbow set to heal at an angle that would allow him to continue to play guitar.

Les Paul, an American great, died from complications of pneumonia yesterday in White Plains, N.Y.

Long live Les Paul!

New York Times Obit

Chasing Sound

JH

Digging Up Bones
Joe Strummer & The Mescaleros
Streetcore
(October 21, 2002 – HellCat/Epitaph)

Had Joe Strummer lived to see this release, the outcome would have been different. Since every musician is either a self-flagellating tyrant or a delusional buffoon – and often a combination of the two in any given moment – there’s nothing gained in speculating about how it would have been different. Strummer died unexpectedly of heart failure in December of 2002, and the record wasn’t finished. A gaggle of folks, including a couple of the Mescaleros and a Rick Rubin, saw the production through to its release ten months later.

Strummer purists might have a fit, but I'll have my cake and eat it too. I like to think that Strummer was well on the way to his finest collection since he broke up The Clash with his Mick Jones Communique. Also, I think that he would have fallen short without relinquishing the production reins. (See his catalogue up to Streetcore.) Sometimes you can’t see the barn for the horses. (See paragraph one, line two.)

Did I say there was nothing gained through speculation?

Streetcore opens with an average, pop-punk number, “Coma Girl”. Nothing to get riled up about, but it grows on you in a mindless-fun way. Then the Mescaleros "let that ragga" drop with “Get Down Moses,” a fine drum-and-bass groove with evocative lyrics and plenty of Stratocaster and Hammond in just the right spots. Enter unadorned acoustic guitar and deep, melodic vocals in a tribute to Johnny Cash, “Long Shadow.” The scenery quickly shifts again with a pounding rocker about…well, rockin’ (or rioting) in “Arms Aloft.” “Ramshackle Day Parade,” a plaintive, sing-along, fit for Combat Rock follows. There’s a break for a cover of Bob Marley’s “Redemption Song,” then Streetcore starts to rumble again…

I’ll snuff the urge to pummel you with notes on notes. Just these: Strummer’s vocals are nowhere stronger, the scope is broad, the lyrics are intelligent, and the production is stellar… and I don’t give a damn who produced it. Streetcore is Clash quality.

JH