Neil Inducts Tom

A few years back, musing about what I would take with me to the "desert island", Tom Waits immediately was on the short list ... and still is. I have long wanted to post something worthy of the man and his beautiful work, and try occasionally (just do a search in this blog's archives) but there is SO much to choose from. Here is something very special -- again I must credit friend John for finding this clip from the March 14, 2011 ceremonies -- which gets another of my favorites, Neil Young, in on the proceedings. If you don't know Tom Waits by now, this is a wonderful introduction.



Visit the Tom Waits site anytime. Buy his music; he's been making records since the 70s. Tom Waits feels like an old friend.

Captain Beefheart, Gone For Now

I remember when I brought my first Don Van Vliet (aka Captain Beefheart) album, Trout Mask Replica, home to my late 60s Hollywood apartment, where a co-worker had stopped by to drop off some papers and asked how I could possibly listen to that stuff. I wondered how he couldn't. I came upon Beefheart through his association with the wonderful Frank Zappa. When I hear people like Dr. John and Tom Waits, the Captain often comes to mind. Beefheart was a sort of psychedelic blues musician and an avant-garde precursor to punk. He was a poet, sculptor and painter (one of my treasures would be his Doc At The Radar Station album that features cover art that Beefheart painted himself). Captain Beefheart died today, but let's see if we can find some Captain Beefheart for you now:



More ...



Here's a piece from the LA Weekly blog today: "Top 14 Reasons Why Captain Beefheart Was a True American Genius".

Peter Gabriel Covers Tom Waits For The Voice Project

Peter Gabriel » Tom Waits from The Voice Project on Vimeo.

Thanks again to John for turning me onto The Voice Project and sharing with me our interest in the music of Tom Waits.

A Couple For Valentine's Day

First, the Tom Waits classic:

And something for Kim (by Roberta Flack):

Howlin' Wolf

My "Top Ten" musings of the other day set me thinking, especially about Tom Waits. So I sat at a computer for a few hours and listened to some of my old T.W. favorites, which triggered thoughts about Captain Beefheart, who surely has to be considered a forerunner or earlier influence for Waits. Somewhere, but where I know not, I have an old vinyl Captain Beefheart down in the basement. Couldn't locate it yet, but that led to thoughts of Howlin' Wolf (one of my possible Top Ten candidates) and how I swear I hear him in Tom Waits. About that time, I happened to be browsing Netflix and spotted a 2003 film, "The Howlin' Wolf Story", which I immediately sent to the top of my queue. (Watch for comments in the near future) In the meantime, I did some digging at YouTube (while watching the third presidential debate) to find something to supplement what I have in my library. Here are some of my favorites, along with some I hadn't heard ...

How Many More Years



Moanin at Midnight



Meet Me At The Bottom



Dust My Broom



Smokestack Lightnin



And here is Little Red Rooster (famously done by the Rolling Stones early in their career):



While we are at it, let's check out the fabulous rendition of Little Red Rooster by legendary Big Mama Thornton:



Another Howlin' Wolf standard, Killing Floor, was performed by the incredible Jimi Hendrix at Monterey in 1967:



Well, this has been a great way to get through the McCain-Obama thing, multi-tasking thanks to the MacBook and headphones!

But I have run out of time before I could put together some Tom Waits/Captain Beefheart/Howlin' Wolf back-to-back. Later, but soon...

Top Ten?

In the mid or late 70s, I used to listen to KCRW, Santa Monica College's public radio station (and I still hear KCRW's Internet streams). One program featured a weekly guest (usually a celebrity musician, actor, artist or the like) who would describe and play his/her selection of music that they would most want to take with them to live out their remaining time on a desert island. (Guess this assumed that electricity and some level of requisite equipment and other conveniences would also be available.) Can't recall if the exercise was limited to their top five or top ten or what, but I sometimes think about how I would form such a list. Everytime I try this, the list changes, but some pieces crop up consistently enough that I might add them to the list of stuff I might grab in the case of a house fire or impending flood. You might have fun playing this little game yourself. Today, just off the top of my head, here are some that come to mind for a Top Ten ...

To begin with, there are three immediate must-take-alongs from ye olde music collection:

1. Bob Dylan (but would it be Blood on the Tracks? Bringing It All Back Home? Greatest Hits vol 1/vol 2? Planet Waves? Blonde on Blonde?)
2. J.S. Bach (how to choose ... Goldberg Variations? Mass in B Minor? Well-Tempered Clavier?)
3. Tom Waits (again, would I choose Frank's Wild Years? Bone Machine? Rain Dogs?)

The next seven vary depending on my particular frame of mind at the time I think about these things ... so, in no particular order:

4. Max Richter - Blue Notebooks
5. Jalan Jalan - Bali
6. Jacqueline du Pre - Elgar E Minor Cello Concerto
7. Miles Davis - Sketches of Spain? Kind of Blue?
8. Dmitri Shostakovich - 24 Preludes & Fugues (Bach homage)
9. Talking Heads - Fear of Music (among others)
10. Radiohead - Kid A? Amnesiac?

And what about Arvo Part (Tabula Rasa, Spiegel im Spiegel, Frates, etc)? Gorecki Symphony #3 (Symphony of Sorrowful Songs); Rachmaninoff Vespers? Portishead (Dummy)? Schubert Impromptus? Or Movies Go To The Opera (really recommended to anyone who doesn't yet know that they like opera)? Something from Howlin' Wolf? Muddy Waters? Louis Armstrong? Ramayana Monkey Chant (Balinese)? Laurie Anderson (Big Science)? Lots of other Philip Glass I love, too. Oy vey, I forgot about all my NONESUCH South Indian albums, too.

Almost impossible ...

Thinking about what I would retrieve in the event of an emergency makes me realize that -- as a computer professional, for shame -- I really haven't adequately provided for a good off-site backup plan for my music (MP3's on the iPod Nano don't really count as most wouldn't sound like the originals, plus some of the vinyl versions have almost irreplaceable album art and liner notes). But as cheap as storage is (today I saw that we could get 500GB Seagate SATA drives from one of our suppliers for just over $60 each) I ought to be thinking about making lossless digital copies of some of my stuff.b