I had had been seeing that the great Dark Song team had kept rolling with the demise of ZeRO and since I have always enjoyed making collections with both of them, I dropped them a line about this concept: If you could travel back and see any concert or tour of any artist, when in time would it be? Without further adieu, I present you Time Traveling Tours:
Disk 1
Doowad
01 Bob Dylan - It Takes A Lot To Laugh, It Takes A Train To Cry (Rolling Thunder Revue, 1975)
Naturally, there are very few tours that I would not want to have seen Bob on, but for me, the Rolling Thunder Revue would have been the toppermost of the poppermost.Robert Song
02 Cat Stevens - If I Laugh (1972)
With the release of Mona BoneJakon in 1970, and then Tea for the Tillerman, Teaser and The Firecat and Catch Bull at Four in less than 2 years , Cat Stevens was at the height of musical output.I had the good fortune to see him in 1972. He never really reached those highs again.
Johnny Dark
03 The Yardbirds - You're a Better Man Than I (1967)
Would certainly have liked to have seen The Yardbirds (Beck/Page era) when they toured Australia in 1967. Unfortunately just a little young.Doowad
04 The Doors - Twentieth Century Fox
They have been running a lot of Doors docs lately and it has rekindled my lost love of them, especially thinking about seeing them in 1966 at the Whiskey-A-Go-Go before the first record.Robert Song
05 Stevie Wonder Superstition (Wonder Dream Concert Jamaica, 1975)
The Wonder Dream Concert was an historic concert held on October 4, 1975, at the National Stadium in Kingston, Jamaica. The concert was headlined by Stevie Wonder who was joined on the bill by Bob Marley & The Wailers and his former bandmates Peter Tosh and Bunny Wailer. The concert is sometimes known as the Wailers Reunion Show, as it was the first time the original Wailers had performed together since 1973 and the last time they ever would.The concert was a benefit concert for the Jamaican Institute for the Blind and was opened by Third World. Harold Melvin & The Bluenotes were scheduled to play but did not show [1]
For Stevie Wonder's encore, Stevie called for Bob to join him on stage and they played "I Shot The Sheriff" and "Superstition" together. Another notable moment was the last performance of the original Wailers' first hit "Simmer Down", originally from 1964.
Stevie was on a roll in the early part of the 70s with Talking Book, Innervision and Fulfillingness' First Finale. To have see him and Bob Marley doing Superstition would have been memorable indeed.
Johnny Dark
06 David Bowie Sound and Vision (Low/Heroes tour, 1978)
Another 1978 concert at the same venue where I'd seen Dylan earlier that year. No counterfeit ticket this time for me though. This one was billed as Bowie's Low/Heroes tour.Recall very little of the concert save for the memory of having my not exactly lightweight girlfriend perched on my shoulders for the duration, which left me aching for days.
Doowad
07 Louis Armstrong & Dave Brubeck They Say I Look Like God (Monterey Jazz Festival in 1962)
Very nice, both. I am going back a little further. This is not from a tour, but from a one-off performance of The Real Ambassadors at the Monterrey Jazz Festival in 1962. No recordings are available of this landmark in American music. The most important thing any of the artists ever did, as long as you don't count Satchmo inventing modern Jazz and all that!The Real Ambassadors was able to capture the often complicated, and sometimes contradictory politics of the State Departments tours during the Cold War Era. Addressing African and Asian nation building in addition to the U.S. civil rights struggle, it satirically portrayed the international politics of the tour.[4] The musical also addressed the prevailing racial issues of the day, but did so within the context of witty satire. Below is an excerpt of Armstrong's opening lines to the piece "They Say I Look Like God".
They say I look like God.
Could God be black? My God!
If all are made in the image of thee,
Could thou perchance a zebra be?
He's watchin' all the Earth.
He's watched us from our birth.
And if He cared if you black or white,
He'd a mixed one color, one just right.
Black or white... One just right...
Louis Armstrong, The Real Ambassadors, "They Say I Look Like God".
Despite Iola Brubeck's intention for some of her lyrics to be light and humorous in presentation [believing that some of the messages would be better accepted, if presented in a satirical manner], Armstrong saw this performance as an opportunity for him to address many of the racial issues that he had struggled with for his entire career, and he made a request to sing the song straight. In one 2009 interview with Dave Brubeck, he remarked on Armstrong's seriousness: "Now, we wanted the audience to chuckle about the ridiculous segregation, but Louis was cryin'... and every time we wanted Louis to loosen up, he'd sing 'I'm really free. Thank God Almighty, I'm really free'."[5] After years of demeaning roles in his public performances, the collaboration in The Real Ambassadors offered Armstrong material that was closer to his own sensibility and outlook.[4]
The recording with the Iola Brubeck lyrics being presented dead seriously, with the Brubeck jazz-blues melody sung by Armstrong against the gorgeous background vocal parts Dave Brubeck had written for Lambert, Hendricks and Ross to sing, combined with Brubeck's subtle piano 'comping, was done in one take, and reportedly everyone there in the recording studio in 1961 was then crying their eyes out.
Later, at the live performance of "The Real Ambassadors" with Armstrong at the Monterey Jazz Festival in 1962, Lambert, Hendricks and Bavan put on sackcloths and hoods over their heads (they then lifted the hoods up to sing their parts) just before "They Say I Look Like God" started. Dave Brubeck still regrets not having $750 in cash on hand (which the camera crew filming at the 1962 Monterey Jazz Festival stated was the fee required to film the performance), and feels that it was a "terrible goof" that the live performance wasn't filmed.
Robert Song
08 Les Ambassadeurs Du Motel De Bamako - Mbouram Mousso
I had been planning to have the Rail Band of the Buffet Hotel de Bamako as my next pick but given Derek's Real Ambassadors track, I saw it as a sign to use the Les Ambassadeurs Du Motel De Bamako instead.When Mali became independent in the early 60s, the Government made considerable effort to promote traditional culture including music but also encouraged its evolution and integration with the new world.
The Government sponsored Orchestras and Instrumental Ensembles in all the various Regions of Mali and had regular Biennial Contests to see which were the best performers.
The Ministry of Rail employed musicians to play at railway station hotels and the most famous of these bands was the Rail Band of the Buffet Hotel in Bamako. In 1970 Salif Kieta first started singing with the band. They were given the brief to adapt traditional music to be played on both traditional instruments (balafon,ngoni,kora) and Western instruments (guitar,sax,bass) and they became incredibly popular in Mali and West Africa.
Across town at the Motel de Bamako, the Minister of Police also employed a band Les Ambassadeurs to entertain guests. In 1972 when Salif Keita was persuaded to switch from the Rail Band and join Kante Manfila at the The Motel it cause quite a stir in Government circles.
It was a golden age in Malian music and one which ensured that its musical heritage was refreshed rather than usurped by outside influences. Sadly today music in Mali is under threat by Islamic extremists who for some God forsaken reason believe that music is evil.
Johnny Dark
09 Todd Rundgren - I Saw the Light (Utopia, 1974)
Always had the desire to see at least one of the Beatles and have long been a Todd Rundgren fan. So here comes a chance to kill two birds when Todd features in Ringo's All-Star Band touring here next month. I'd certainly like to have seen Todd during his Prog-Rock Utopia days.Doowad
10 The Beatles - I Me Mine (Imaginary Farewell Tour, 1970)
Hot track, Graham, and stone-cold classic, Wayne. And with your Beatles mention in your notes, it inspired my pick. However, mine is from an imaginary tour, if Paul would have had a bit more pull than Yoko and gotten the boys out on the road for a final run in 1970 (the Mexican expression that I use to explain how my wife got me is apropos here: Jalan más dos tetas que una carreta. "Two tits pull more than a wagon"). And I picked the song that most explains why they didn't want one more round of Beatlemania. Oh, and i figured the Let it be naked version would be best, since that was also Paul's preference.Robert Song
11 The Mighty Sparrow - Mae Mae (Trinidad Carnival 1960)
At Carnival in Trinidad in 1960, the Mighty Sparrow won the title of Carnival Road March Title with "Mae Mae". He also won Calypso Monarch with his tunes "Ten To One" and "Mae Mae".Johnny Dark
12 The Jam - The Great Depression (Farewell Tour, 1982)
Although Paul Weller has toured here a few times, The Jam regrettably never made it to Australia.This track was recorded at a Wembley concert on their farewell tour in 1982.
Doowad
13 Los Fabulosos Cadillacs - Revolution Rock (Gira Vasos Vacíos, 1994)
Cool beans, the Jam made me think of the Clash which brought me to these boys, who are still together, but this was their peak (also the time Matador became an international hit). The kings of Latin skaRobert Song
14 Fela Kuti & Africa 70 – Zombie (1977)
I guess around 1977 Fela Anikulapo Kuti was at his peak. I would have loved to have seen him in Lagos at his nightclub The Shrine which was close to his compound/commune The Kalakutu Republic. He would later declare it's independance from Nigeria as well as trying to run for President.But his outspoken politics which he spread through his music ( like Zombie) were too much in the end for the Government and they sent 1,000 soldiers to the Kalakuta Republic and destroyed the place and crushed the people there including fatally injuring Fela's mother by throwing her out of a first floor window (and yes Derek that would be second floor in the US).
Johnny Dark
15 Elvis Costello - Penny Lane (In Performance at the White House Celebrating the Music of Paul McCartney: The Library of Congress Gershwin Prize, 2011)
This track was sourced from a concert celebrating the music of Paul McCartney which took place in the East Room of the White House in 2011.I'd have been pleased to have had a front row seat next to the president, but it looks like preference was given to an ex-Beatle.
Doowad
16 The Faces - Around The Plynth (The Turning Point UK Tour, 1971)
Always a Rod fan from the good ole days, but getting even more into the Faces lately, this one would be appropriate since it is from the year of my birth, actually while I was still in the womb (in Panama)Robert Song
17 Benny Goodman - Sing, Sing, Sing (Carnegie Hall 1939)
Finally back around to responding on this. Ex tropical cyclone (hurricane) Oswald has been making thinks difficult of late with wind and rain all down the eastern coast of Queensland and New South Wales but all good now. Power back on, though still no phone.I love the big band swing era and what better concert to have been at then Benny Goodman at Carnegie Hall 1939.
Carnegie Hall concert
“In bringing jazz to Carnegie, [Benny Goodman was], in effect, smuggling American contraband into the halls of European high culture, and Goodman and his 15 men pull[ed] it off with the audacity and precision of Ocean's Eleven.”
—Will Friedwald[24]
In late 1937, Goodman's publicist Wynn Nathanson attempted a publicity stunt by suggesting Goodman and his band should play Carnegie Hall in New York City. If this concert were to take place, then Benny Goodman would be the first jazz bandleader to perform at Carnegie Hall. "Benny Goodman was initially hesitant about the concert, fearing for the worst; however, when his film Hollywood Hotel opened to rave reviews and giant lines, he threw himself into the work. He gave up several dates and insisted on holding rehearsals inside Carnegie Hall to familiarize the band with the lively acoustics."[25]
The concert was the evening of January 16, 1938. It sold out weeks before, with the capacity 2,760 seats going for the top price of US$2.75 a seat, for the time a very high price.[25] The concert began with three contemporary numbers from the Goodman band—"Don't Be That Way," "Sometimes I'm Happy," and "One O'Clock Jump." They then played a history of jazz, starting with a Dixieland quartet performing "Sensation Rag", originally recorded by the Original Dixieland Jazz Band in 1918. Once again, initial crowd reaction, though polite, was tepid. Then came a jam session on "Honeysuckle Rose" featuring members of the Count Basie and Duke Ellington bands as guests. (The surprise of the session: Goodman handing a solo to Basie's guitarist Freddie Green who was never a featured soloist but earned his reputation as the best rhythm guitarist in the genre—he responded with a striking round of chord improvisations.) As the concert went on, things livened up. The Goodman band and quartet took over the stage and performed the numbers that had already made them famous. Some later trio and quartet numbers were well-received, and a vocal on "Loch Lomond" by Martha Tilton provoked five curtain calls and cries for an encore. The encore forced Goodman to make his only audience announcement for the night, stating that they had no encore prepared but that Martha would return shortly with another number.[26]
By the time the band got to the climactic piece "Sing, Sing, Sing", success was assured. This performance featured playing by tenor saxophonist Babe Russin, trumpeter Harry James, and Benny Goodman, backed by drummer Gene Krupa. When Goodman finished his solo, he unexpectedly gave a solo to pianist Jess Stacy. "At the Carnegie Hall concert, after the usual theatrics, Jess Stacy was allowed to solo and, given the venue, what followed was appropriate," wrote David Rickert. "Used to just playing rhythm on the tune, he was unprepared for a turn in the spotlight, but what came out of his fingers was a graceful, impressionistic marvel with classical flourishes, yet still managed to swing. It was the best thing he ever did, and it's ironic that such a layered, nuanced performance came at the end of such a chaotic, bombastic tune."
Disk 2
Johnny Dark
2-01 The Highwaymen - Death and Hell
I regret not catching The Highwaymen when they toured here in the early 90's. Could've killed 4 birds.Doowad
2-02 Neil Young & Crazy Horse - Roll Another Number (Tonight's The Night Acetate (1973-74))
I would like to think I would have been enough of a Neil fan to have "gotten" his concerts at the time, but who knowsAfter a month of recording, they had an album’s worth of material, complete with between-song raps, monologues and drunken ramblings from Young. It was time to take the new material on tour. Young excluded almost all older material from the shows, just playing the still-unreleased Tonight’s The Night in its entirety. Just to annoy his audience further, as the night neared the end, he’d say: “Here’s one you’ve heard before”, then proceed to play Tonight’s title track for the second time in the set.
The crowds didn’t take to Young’s new approach: “People were pissed off. It wasn’t funny,” said Young associate Joel Bernstein Young’s producer David Briggs noted: “It was so intense. I’d look at the crowd going out, and I never saw such a drained bunch of people before or since.” The reviews were also hostile: “Banal” said Rolling Stone; ”Tedious. He talked too much about nothing and went on too long”, said Melody Maker. It didn’t help that Neil and the band were invariably intoxicated on stage.
Despite the displeasure of the audience, or maybe because of it, Young enjoyed himself greatly: “Tonight’s the Night was a lot more fun. ‘Cause I was with my friends. I was having a fantastic time. it was dark but it was good. That was a band with a reason. That’s maybe as artistic a performance as I’ve given… But the audience didn’t know if I knew what I was doing. I was drunk out of my mind on that tour… I was f*cking with the audience.” Nils Lofgren agrees about the mood on the tour: “We had a party. We were releasin’ all that dark stuff – on a nightly basis.”
Robert Song
2-03 Franco et le T.P. OK Jazz - Sandoka
I would really have liked to have seen a lot more Congolese live music in my time.I saw a Melbourne Band of Congolese refugees in Brisbane about five years ago. The atmosphere was tremendous even though they weren't exactly the greatest musicians. At Womadelaide in 2008 Toumani Diabate's Symmetric Orchetra played a Congolese song at one of their performances that was exquisite. It went on for about 40 minutes. And I caught a fantastic show from Staff Benda Bilili in San Francisco last year.
But how good would it have been to be at one of the Grand Master Franco's gigs. But Franco was never too interested in Western success and never really tried to break into that market. He did do a couple of shows in the US one of which well known music critic Robert Christgau attended.
His live shows, celebrated throughout Africa but staples at the club he owned in Kinshasa's Matonge quarter, really were carnivals. He appeared only twice in New York, first on a frigid November night in 1983. Not really knowing much about him, my wife and I got to the Manhattan Center late. The lobby was dead, the elevator lonely, the list makeshift. Then we opened a door and wham--lights, action, music. I don't want to say it was like being teleported to Zaire, I've never been to Zaire, but that was certainly the illusion. Though the room wasn't jammed full it seemed to be teeming, perhaps because there were some 40 people on the stage, all surrounding a fat man who sat on a chair and played guitar. Beyond a vague vision of the color and motion of the female dancers and a physical memory of rippling sebenes, I can't bring back a single detail. But none of the hundreds of soukous albums to come my way since then has matched the experience. And Ewens says that wasn't even a good show! Anyone who could have made such a thing happen thousands of times inhabited a different reality than you or me.
Johnny Dark
2-04 Bee Gees - Take Hold Of That Star
Would like to have seen the Bee Gees in their formative years, in Brisbane and Sydney.This track from their first album, recorded in '65
Doowad
2-05 Dean Martin - June In January
I'll take it back further, to the good ole' Mafia days of Vegas. Now Vegas (and Times Square) and most of America is Disneyfied and homogenized. Just a few dirty pockets of "deep" American culture left. You drive 5 miles west of where I live and you will have no idea what town you are in, could be Phoenix or Bristol, Connecticut. This is the Vegas of Fear & Loathing, dirty and corrupt, but none of this slick shit we have nowadays.Robert Song
2-06 Talking Heads - Crosseyed And Painless (1981)
I saw Talking Heads in London in Dec 1979 and they were touing as a four piece and supporting Fear Of Music.The Stop Making Sense Tour was in 1984 (I think) and thanks to the superb Johnathn Demme movie I don't feel I missed out on that tour.
So the one I would really like to travel back to is the one in between in late 1980 / early 1981 when they first went out with the extended 10 piece band and unleashed the tracks from Remain In Light that were so heavily influenced by Afro-beat and Fela.
Johnny Dark
2-07 The Groop - Sorry
Can recall, as a young teen, seeing this band on Saturday morning TV, around about the time when music was becoming something more than just the stuff emanating from my little transistor radio.Doowad
2-08 Little Richard - Oh Why?
It brought to mind Little Richard, who according to Lemmy from Motörhead is the inventor of rock n' roll. Must have put on a hell of a show in his prime.Robert Song
2-09 James Brown - The Payback
If you wanted to see a show than has there ever been more of a showman than James Brown. It would have been great to see him at The Apollo but I also would have liked to have been there in Kinshasha in 1974 in the lead up to The Rumble In The Jungle.Interesting Franco and TP OK Jazz were also on the bill and the show was put together by Hugh Masekela who I will be seeing a couple of weeks time at Womadelaide.
Here is the opening track from the concert.
Johnny Dark
2-10 Sam Cooke - Bring It On Home To Me
Along similar lines here's Sam live at the Harlem Square Club ,1963Doowad
2-11 Ray Charles - Jumpin' in the Morning
Well, this just seemed like a natural conclusion to your two picks, and to go back farther in time...just imagining the energy Ray Ray put out in those 50s concerts most of all.Robert Song
2-12 Pink Floyd - In the Flesh (London 1980)
In the mid 70s I really loved Pink Floyd. One of my university mates had a decent stereo system which was a bit of a rarity and many a time we spent marveling at how the opening heart beats on Dark Side of The Moon could rattle the windows. And despite punk and new wave lambasting them as rock dinasours, I still enjoyed there albums in the late 70s. So in 1980 in London I was delighted to get tickets to their first performance of The Wall at The Olympia. Sadly I had to suddenly return back to Australia when my mother died, so I missed the concert. And on that tour the band were building walls between each other and it was close to the end for them as a group.Johnny Dark
2 -13 Nina Simone - Backlash Blues
Would've liked to have seen Nina Simone at any stage of her career. She toured Australia in '73, 92 and '96Nina Simone biopic casting backlash > http://www.usatoday.com/story/life/people/2013/02/27/zoe-saldana-addresses-nina-simone-biopic-controversy/1952087/
Doowad
2-14 Louis Jordan & His Tympany 5 - Ain't Nobody Here But Us Chickens
I can’t imagine the energy Louis must have put out, hopped up on god knows how many pills to create his proto-rock n’ roll. Not sure how welcome my big White face would have been in some of those juke joints, but it would have been worth the risk!Robert Song
2-15 Ali Farka Touré - Bakoye
When I was at Womadelaide last weekend and was watching Vieux Farka Toure's set, I remembered back to a few years ago when I first saw him in Brisbane. He was signing Cds after the show and I got to meet and have a brief chat. I said to him it had always been one of my dreams to see his father play but sadly that was not now possible but his performance was as close as could get to fulfilling that dream.So my next choice is one of the first Ali Farka Toure songs I heard and still one of my all time favorite tracks. I first heard it on a World Circuit sampler CD "Boiling Point: Music From Hot Countries" which I purchased while in the UK for work in 1991.
Vieux seems at the moment to be intent on a loud electric desert blues sound and whilst Ali could do this and do it well, he also could do more acoustic and quieter songs like this one.
Johnny Dark
2-16 Johnny Keefe - Shout (Parts 1 & 2)
Johnny O'Keefe is widely regarded as Australia's first and perhaps greatest Rock 'n' Roller.Johnny was born a week after his idol Elvis, and died of a heart attack in 1978, aged 43.
No great shakes as a singer, but a dynamic stage performer.
Doowad
2-17 Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band - Frying Pan
Very nice, and here's a guy who was a hell of a singer, but may have been best to see very early in his career, before the weirdness set in. As the good doctor said, when the going gets weird, the weird turn pro.Robert Song
2-18 The Clash - The Magnificent Seven
I reckon we will have filled it up will this one and it will mean we all have had 6 picks.I would have to loved to have seen The Clash anytime between 1976 and 1982. But early 80s would have been my choice. By that time they not only had that great punk catalogue to draw on but they were the greatest assimilators of Jamaican rhythms into rock music and were proving to be just as adept at creating a new funk/rap/rock hybrid as demonstrated on one of my favourite tracks of theirs. 2-18 The Clash The Magnificent Sevenhttp://www.sendspace.com/file/roqh4hJohnny Dark
1 comment:
this looks cool!
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