Thursday, January 23, 2025
Tuesday, January 21, 2025
I spent Sunday listening to vinyl, starting with Eric Clapton's No Reason to Cry. I must have read something during the week about the studio where it was recorded- Shangra-La, in Malibu, built by The Band. I've writen before about this Clapton set, but for some reason I was in a receptive frame of mind this time. It is sort of Clapton backed by The Band, and it showcases how tastefull they were. (There aren't individual credits for each song, which is annoying.) I followed that up with Rick Danko's solo set, which I quite like, and then on to The Basement Tapes. Of the latter it seems to me that Robbie Robertson, who produced it, was making the case that he and Dylan were peers and full-fledged collaborators. There must have been something in the zeitgeist because Garth Hudson died this morning, the last surviving member of The Band, and, for me, the member whose sound defined them. Garth and Robbie were the two members that didn't sing- Robertson says in his memoir that he wrote for the voices of Richard, Rick and Levon which is why he didn't take on vocals. Presumably Garth didn't sing because he was too busy playing organ, saxaphone, accordian and whatever else came to hand.
I spent some time a couple of years ago reading Helm's and Robertson's memoirs. The memoir I wish existed was Garth's.
Does anyone read E. L. Doctorow today? Like William Kennedy, another writer who seemed to have caught lightning in a bottle, the parade seems to passed him by, and I wonder why that is.
Monday, January 20, 2025
The Whole Earth Catalogue I have no patience for the belief that the idealism of the late 60's and early 70's was somehow betrayed. The world that Stewart Brand envisioned was exactly the selfish, libertarian society we live in today, dressed up in hippie motley...
As Brand’s current associate Bezos takes a seat on the inauguration platform this month, alongside Zuckerberg and Musk, the politics of their tech-based corporations have become more obvious, and more poisonous, than ever. The legacy of The Whole Earth Catalog has given Silicon Valley philosophical cover, as it were, for decades – associating corporate strategies with the anti-establishment attitudes of 1960s youth culture. But that cover has not only worn thin, it’s in shreds as these “disruptors” claim their place in an anti-democratic oligarchy.
Tuesday, January 14, 2025
Outstanding discussion by Ethan Iverson about Sluggs' Saloon and late 60's/early 70's jazz. , along with a list, curated by Iverson.
Wednesday, January 08, 2025
I don't trust lists generally, and lists about Bob Dylan are particularly suspect, but this one corresponds with my taste, kinda, so I am making an exception. I'll add this: Greatest Hits Vol II is my go-to for introducing people to his work.
Tuesday, January 07, 2025
The indispensable Sheila O'Malley on The Great Escape.
The idea that a person’s soul is uncapturable is at the heart of The Great Escape’s enduring appeal; the movie’s unfettered spirit ricochets around within its tight structure, igniting multiple storylines.
Thursday, January 02, 2025
I'm still processing "A Complete Unknown", but I certainly enjoyed it. One of the things that I think was notable about it was that it seemed to lean into Dylan's relationships, and the songs that he wrote about them more than his social consciousness, and the songs that social activists thought defined his work in that period. The "protest" material is there, of course- it has to be- but the movie does a nice job of placing that material in context.
As I grope towards my Unified Theory of Bob Dylan one key element for me is that he came on the scene absorbing everything, reflecting on it, then writing about it from his personal perspective. When he saw injustice he wrote about it; when the threat of nuclear annihilation was in the air he wrote about that. But he also wrote about being in love, and being heartbroken, and about being in the world. The movie does a good job of showing us that world, which puts his songs in a context that the various Dylan documentaries, good as the are, sort of miss. Pennebaker, Scorsese and the rest focus on Bob. ""A Complete Unknown", much like "I'm Not There" focus on the context that the young Dylan lived in.
