If you are a frequent visitor to this blog you know that I am a huge fan of John Darnielle’s band, The Mountain Goats. His excellent lyrical ability combined with catchy chords and his emotion takes The Mountain Goats’ music to an empyrean level of musical bliss. Today, I found a new way to use one of the Mountain Goats’ song…besides just listening to and enjoying it.
John Darnielle
If you have ever seen Darnielle in concert you can vouch for me. He is nuts. The man is incredibly emotional about his trade…and his trade is rocking out on the acoustic guitar. When I saw him in Ithaca he broke a guitar string. I was surprised he did not break any more strings, or the guitar itself. When I sat down on a gym bench today to do a back exercise, “This Year,” off of The Sunset Tree, released in 2005, a song that focuses on Darnielle when he was a 17-year-old struggling to break through the last year of his childhood, came on, on my extensive Ipod Favorites playlist.
The opening repetitive riff leads perfectly into Darnielle’s first verse which immediately pumped me up before I did my set. In the chorus Darnielle sings, “I am going to make it through this year if it kills me,” and, while it is not yelled with a heavy guitar solo and fireworks, it provides just enough passion to hide the weight you are lifting. Not to mention this awesome backing vocals and Darnielle’s amazingly intense voice. As the acoustic was strummed with hard down strokes and Darnielle ended the song, I found myself pretty surprised with the weight I was lifting. I did make it through the set.
A few days ago I reported that David Gilmour will join Roger Waters for the performance of “Comfortably Numb” at one of Waters’ “The Wall” concert dates (https://musiccourt.wordpress.com/2010/07/16/david-gilmour-and-roger-waters-will-reunite-at-least-once-more-for-one-song/). Waters and Gilmour, both great showmen, will leave a lot of eager ticket holders and fans obscured by clouds and in the dark on where Gilmour will join Waters on stage (I’m sorry, Pink Floyd puns are so tempting). Will it remain a surprise? Probably. I can’t see Waters revealing this information when it stands to make him even more money than the epic tour already stands to make. But, that does not mean I cannot guess.
Awesome Floyd Wallpaper (www.wallpaperbase.com)
In my mind, Waters and Gilmour will choose from one or two options. Gilmour can surprise the world, and a very pleased New York crowd, and make his grand appearance at either of the Madison Square Garden dates in early October. If this does happen, it most definitely demonstrates Gilmour and Waters’ willingness to play more concerts in the United States area. Now, don’t get your hopes up entirely because I am pretty sure this will not happen and, even if it does, it does not guarantee a combined tour at all. But, a Floyd fan can dream, right?
My guess is that Gilmour joins Waters at the 02 Arena in London on Tuesday, May 17, 2011. Yes, the tour reaches far into the new year. The 02 Arena is in a convenient location – it is near Gilmour’s residence – and the date is the last in the straight series of five shows played in London, only a mere hour away from the original Pink Floyd stomping grounds, Cambridge. It just all seems to perfect. But, like most things, we must wait and see. So, for now, please enjoy Floyd playing “Comfortably Numb” at Live 8 while tightly holding your tickets and hoping that maybe, just maybe, you will soon see history:
“Alcohol may be man's worst enemy, but the bible says love your enemy.” Frank Sinatra
Tomorrow, I turn 21 years old. And, in the United States, that means I will be of the legal drinking age. Now, among the youth of the nation this is quite a remarkable day where friends attempt to kill you by shoving drinks down your throat while they proudly shout out “shot, shot, shot” like that idiotic song, turning you into a one-day drinking glutton with vomit-stained clothes. No, this is not your normal bar crawl, it’s your 21’st birthday alcoholic hullabaloo. If your 21’st does not turn you into a raging alcoholic (hey, at least you can buy the stuff now), it turns you off to drinking entirely and you never want to drink a beer again (not even take a shot)…at least for a week or two.
Yes, this is the 21-year-old misadventure, a stumbling art of regret. And, tomorrow I enter into the realm. No need to worry about me blogosphere, I have work on Monday and therefore, unless I want to throw up while conducting an interview, I will only be partaking in one or two recreational alcoholic beverages. But, being that I am turning 21, I thought we could temporarily turn the Music Court into a grand revelry. Time to party with a poll. What do you think the best alcohol-related rock song is?
My five choices are below with video and a drinking quotation from the song. Have one you think should be on the list? Let’s talk. Vote other and comment below!
“Well my baby she gone, she been gone two night
I ain’t seen my baby since night before last
I wanna get drunk till I’m off of my mind
One bourbon, one scotch, and one beer”
“Well, show me the way
To the next whisky bar
Oh, don’t ask why
Oh, don’t ask why”
“Im Dizzy, drunk and fightin’
On tequila white lightnin’
My glass is getting shorter
On whiskey, ice and water
So come on and have a good time
And get blinded out of your mind”
“I blew out my flip-flop
Stepped on a pop-top
Cut my heel had to cruise on back home
But there’s booze in the blender
And soon it will render
That frozen concoction that helps me hang on”
“Well I woke up Sunday morning,
With no way to hold my head that didn’t hurt.
And the beer I had for breakfast wasn’t bad,
So I had one more for dessert.
Then I fumbled through my closet for my clothes,
And found my cleanest dirty shirt.
An’ I shaved my face and combed my hair,
An’ stumbled down the stairs to meet the day.”
Finally, some hope for die-hard Pink Floyd fans. The Gilmour, Waters feud – which basically came to an end early last decade – may finally be put aside for a real reunion tour. But, for now that is just speculation. What some lucky fans at a choice venue will get is Gilmour joining Waters on stage to perform “Comfortably Numb” during one date of Waters’ 94-date “The Wall” anniversary tour. This all because of an agreement struck by the two musicians resulting in Waters’ performance of “To Know Him Is To Love Him,” at the Hoping Foundation benefit last week (reported here: https://musiccourt.wordpress.com/2010/07/12/monday-blues-and-pink-floyd-ruse/). It really may not be much of a ruse any longer.
Waters originally declined Gilmour’s invitation to perform “To Know Him Is To Love Him,” at the charity show because of the vocal difficulty of the song. Gilmour was persistent and fed into Waters’ longing for a true reunion tour (which now is impossible because of the 2008 death of keyboardist Richard Wright)), promising (e-mail conversation follows), “If you do ‘To Know Him Is To Love Him’ for The Hoping Foundation gig, I’ll come and do ‘C. Numb’ on one of your Wall shows.” What!?! Waters’ reaction similarly went, “”How f**king cool! I was blown away.” Gilmour, who according to Rolling Stone was uninterested in performing with Waters during the tour, set aside any reservations in order to get Waters to perform with him at last week’s Hoping Foundation show.
Okay, so Waters and Gilmour are playing us well. They have – to quote a Rolling Stones song – all fans under their thumbs. Tell me the date and the show so I can get an overpriced ticket and watch this collaboration. I don’t care if it is only on “Comfortably Numb.” In my opinion, they will play more than one song together. It is just too tempting. Yes, they had a large conflict but Gilmour and Waters just enjoy playing music with each other too much to pass up a convenient opportunity. Does this bode well for the future? In one word, yes. I am not saying they are going on tour…but, I am not saying it will not happen. Let’s just say there is a much better chance now than there was 10 years ago.
I don’t know if the crowd who came to see an obscure band in the basement of Temple De Hirsch in Seattle in the late 50’s really respected what they saw. Well, considering that this particular band was fired because of too wild playing, I am sure just one or two true rock n’ rollers in the crowd really enjoyed the concert. Around 10 years later, the band’s young guitarist played in front of a slightly larger crowd at White Lake, NY and propelled himself into the prestigious slot of the top 5 guitarists of all time. I am talking about the sultan of amplified guitar skill himself, Mr. Jimi Hendrix. And, after he received a $5 acoustic guitar from one of his father’s acquaintances, he simply did not turn back. Well, he did eventually switch to electric. Hendrix single handedly re-shaped the electric guitar and how it is even heard today. That is how influential he was…and that was only with the guitar.
Okay, now listen…I can go into an entire Hendrix biography and trust me I wouldn’t mind doing it. But, I will contain myself and show all readers that I can resist sharing tidbits of music minutia. Okay, maybe just one.
Did you know that Hendrix formed a band called the Blue Flame in 1966? The Blue Flame featured a 15-year-old guitarist named Randy Wolfe. It also featured a bassist who shared Wolfe’s first name. Hendrix, anticipated confusion and began calling Wolfe Randy California because he had just moved from there to NYC. Randy California would go on to form the band Spirit with his stepfather, drummer Ed Cassidy. Spirit, perhaps, is best known for being a huge inspiration to Led Zeppelin. Ed Cassidy often played extended drum solos with his bare hands which influenced John Bonham, Zeppelin’s drummer, to do the same. Also, Spirit’s “Taurus” is often cited as being “Stairway to Heaven” without the huge success. The famous Zeppelin riff is eerily similar to Spirit’s classic. Personally, I think “Taurus” is a better song. Shoot me. Now, back to Hendrix
Let’s look at one of my favorite Hendrix compositions, “The Wind Cries Mary.” Supposedly, Hendrix wrote this song after he and his then girlfriend Kathy Etchingham had an argument over her cooking. Kathy, I am so very happy your cooking did not please Jimi. Kathy, whose middle name is Mary, stormed out of the house and Jimi was left with a decision, eat the unpleasant food or write the song. Just kidding of course. Maybe Jimi was just not very hungry. Here are some lyrics:
“After all the jacks are in their boxes
And the clowns have all gone to bed
You can hear happiness staggering on down the street
Footprints dressed in red
And the wind whispers Mary
A broom is drearily sweeping
Up the broken pieces of yesterday’s life
Somewhere a queen is weeping
Somewhere a king has no wife
And the wind, it cries Mary”
Hendrix demonstrates a great adroitness for metaphor and sensitive repetition. I, obviously am partial to the court references, but, they work quite well in the song. “Somewhere a queen is weeping, Somewhere a king has no wife.” These two lines in the second verse are by far the best in the song. The words elevate the song to an ethereal level and help represent Hendrix’s situation mystically. And they said Hendrix was only good at the guitar. Well, the guitar definitely helps.
The Music Court 