Farewell, Lou Reed

One of my early favorites during his Velvet Underground years and solo beyond, Lou Reed passed away today.  I will probably never forget some of his work, particularly Sweet Jane, Walk on the Wild Side, and of course Heroin. So let's see if we can find some performances:

circa 1972?

1982, live:

circa 1967 (Velvet Underground & Nico)?
from Rock n Roll Animal (there are at least three or four distinctly different versions of Sweet Jane)


Brian Eno is to have said that even though very few people heard his first album, almost all of those who did, formed a band. Lou Reed, rock on.

Stairway to Heaven, Heart Cover

Ann and Nancy Wilson beautifully cover the Led Zeppelin classic at the 2012 Kennedy Center Honors event, while the surviving band members, Robert Plant, Jimmy Page, and John Paul Jones  , along with the Obamas, look on.   (Jason Bonham, son of the late Led Zep member, John Bonham, plays drums in this performance.)

 

Hear comments by the Wilson sisters here about the experience.

 A tribute to the band by President Obama:

 

 And here is an early live rendition by LZ in 1973:

 

The Beatles, A Capella

Making its way around the Interwebs is this vocal only 16-minute Abbey Road medley.  Try this one with headphones.

Valerie June Revisited

Hear more from Valerie June -- last featured here -- in this August 9, 2013 NPR interview.  Yep, I'm still big on this woman and her sound.

Holiday in Cambodia

You're a star-belly sneech | You suck like a leech | You want everyone to act like you
Kiss ass while you bitch | So you can get rich | But your boss gets richer off you
Well you'll work harder | With a gun in your back | For a bowl of rice a day
Slave for soldiers | Till you starve | Then your head is skewered on a stake
Now you can go where people are one | Now you can go where they get things done

What you need, my son…
Is a holiday in Cambodia | Where people dress in black
A holiday in Cambodia | Where you'll kiss ass or crack
Pol Pot, Pol Pot, Pol Pot, Pol Pot, etc…
And it's a holiday in Cambodia | Where you'll do what you're told
A holiday in Cambodia | Where the slums got so much soul

- "Holiday in Cambodia" by the Dead Kennedys

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Yesterday, my brother told me of his experience of sitting through a grim, grisly documentary of the murder of Filipino civilians in the 60s.  

This brought immediately to mind the Khmer Rouge genocide under dictator Pol Pot in Cambodia during the VietNam war era, perhaps best known to many through the award-winning "Killing Fields" film.  But, for me, the Dead Kennedys and its vocalist, Jello Biafra (aka Eric Reed Boucher) was the early 80s punk-era social protest band that made the definitive anti-Pol Pot comment in "Holliday in Cambodia".  

One of my very favorite bands of the era, Dead Kennedys put out much other controversial material, ranging from "Too Drunk to Fuck" to "Moral Majority".  Great stuff.  Jello Biafra made for a memorable live act.  And don't miss the drumming work of D.H. Peligro, added to the ensemble a bit later.

(As an aside: The band's name was not meant to insult the Kennedy family, but according to Biafra, "to bring attention to the end of the American Dream".)

JJ Cale, RIP

Passing last night with a heart attack at age 74. Neil Young once famously declared his the second best electric guitar to Jimi Hendrix. JJ Cale could do it all: rock, blues, jazz, you name it. Here's a performance of After Midnight in 1971:




And here, a few years later, with Eric Clapton:

Sarah Neufeld and Hero Brother

Here's one release, set for mid-August,  that I am eagerly anticipating.  Sarah Neufeld, probably best known as Arcade Fire's violinist, springs forth with her first solo album, Hero Brother, influenced by such figures as Steve Reich and Bela Bartok.  Recorded in Berlin in venues ranging from an orchestral hall to a parking garage to a geodesic dome, Neufeld's violin work can be previewed here:




Hear the entire track, entitled "Forcelessness", here.