Remembering Scott Kempner and the Del-Lords

The news that Scott Kempner - guitarist, songwriter, and co-lead vocalist of the Del-Lords - had died last November, after having been diagnosed with dementia in 2021, had completely escaped me.

The name is probably not one that will be known to a lot of people, and it seems highly unlikely that the band that he led in the 1980s will be enshrined in the Rock 'n Roll Hall of Fame. Having said that, both Kempner and the Del-Lords deserve at the very least a footnote in the history of the genre.  

Pictured in the photo at left is Frontier Days, their debut (and best) album.  It's straight-forward rock and roll with plenty of Byrds-like guitars, and a dash of country thrown in for good measure. It more or less stuck out like a sore thumb in 1984. The second British Invasion was in full swing, synth-pop was the order of the day, and I can't think of a single time that I heard one of the album's songs on the radio.  That the band stayed together long enough to record three more good albums by decade's end was a testament to their commitment and the overall quality of their work.

There are two songs on Frontier Days that are right up there in my own "personal pantheon juke box."  One is the album's closer, "Feel Like Going Home," one of the best songs ever written about the vastness of this imperfect country we call home, and the longing for one's loved ones while out on the road.  The second is the song that opens Side Two, "Burning in the Flame of Love."  The song has been a staple of my collections for years, whether they were in the form of a mixtape, a CD, or a playlist.  

But I know what comes next

All the promises that will one day be broken

Hearts will be broken

And, ain't I the perfect fool

Cause I know what love can do but I still need to touch the fire

I still need to stand in the fire

But as time goes by and the seasons turn it's a lesson I'll never learn

Cause in my heart I knew that when I got next to you that 

I'd be burning in the flame of love

Once again I'm burning in the flame of love

R.I.P., Scott Kempner.  You led a really great band.  In my book there are few better epitaphs than that.

Just Another Hall of Fame Band from East L.A.

In 1993, Slash Records released a Los Lobos anthology album with the title, "Just Another Band from East L.A."  While accurate as far as it goes, that's a little like calling The Beatles "just another band from Liverpool."  

Los Lobos have of course never come close to matching the popularity of the Beatles, nor have they had the cultural impact with the general public the way those lads from Liverpool did.  In a perfect world it would be a different story, and Los Lobos would be one of the most popular bands in the world.  

Last week, Governor Gavin Newsom and the first partner Jennifer Siebel announced this year's inductees into the California Hall of Fame, and along with fellow L.A. icons The Go-Go's (whom I'll write about in a separate post), Los Lobos was on the list.

The announcement sent me down a deep Los Lobos rabbit hole.  As it turns out, I own 12 of their albums on physical media - 3 on vinyl, 9 on CD - and I've spent the last week giving them all a listen.  First, it was a very enjoyable experience.  Second, I left the exercise (well, it's probably not quite over yet) with the following observations:

- Los Lobos have never made a bad album.  Sure, some are better than others.  And while that may not sound like such a big deal, there really aren't a lot of artists you can say that about.  For example, Bob Dylan has made a bad album (several, in fact).  Neil Young has made a bad album (Neil has had bad decades, for that matter!).  R.E.M. made a bad album.  Prince made a bad album (although to be fair, the guy was so damn prolific that with him, it's not that bad).  The Rolling Stones?  Historically great.  Numerous bad albums.  Don't despair - these are all members of various Halls of Fame; it just comes with the territory.  

- The band's masterpiece, to these ears, is 1992's Kiko.  But there are others that come close: How Will the Wolf Survive? (1984), The Neighborhood (1990),  and Colossal Head (1996) are all a solid A (on the Christgau scale), and By the Light of the Moon (1987), The Ride (2004), and The Town and the City (2006) are an A-.  The rest?   Somewhere between A- and B+, and every single one features at least one track that's an absolute killer.

- The Lobos have been self-producing their albums for a while now, but it's fascinating to compare their earliest work with T. Bone Burnett at the helm to their middle (and probably best) period, where Mitchell Froom and Tchad Blake really took the bad in directions that few bands are capable of going.  If you look at the band's Wikipedia page, it lists eight genres that the band's work falls under: Chicano rock, Roots rock, Latin rock, Tex-Mex, Country rock, Americana, Heartland rock, and Cowpunk (which I admit is a new one for me).  And it's really not a stretch.

Heartiest of congratulations to Los Lobos - David Hidalgo, Louie Perez, Cesar Rosas, Conrad Lozaano, and Steve Berlin - on their achievement.  And thank you for more than four decades of incredible music.  If you're interested, head on over to my Spotify page (I think you can find your way) for my 60-song tribute to the band.

Resurrection Walk, Michael Connelly

 

The "resurrection walk" referred to in the title of Michael Connelly's 38th (!) novel is a reference to the moment at which someone who has been unjustly imprisoned one again tastes freedom.  The book begins with Mickey Haller, "the Lincoln Lawyer," having successfully achieved such a walk for one of his clients.  Flush with that success and always on the lookout for a potentially lucrative addition to his practice, Haller decides to try and find another "needle in the haystack," as he puts it, among the many letters he's received from prisoners claiming that they've been imprisoned unjustly. 

Though billed as "A Lincoln Lawyer Novel," Harry Bosch makes an appearance in the book's very first chapter, having agreed to assist his half-brother in finding that needle, and then helping Haller thread it through the legal process towards the elusive walk to freedom.  Bosch finds a case that might fill the bill - Lucinda Sanz, in prison for the past five years for killing her ex-husband, a sheriff's deputy.  Something about the case and its investigation doesn't add up for Bosch, and before too long Haller and Bosch are working with Sanz to secure her freedom.

Of course, if proving her innocence were easy there wouldn't be much of a story, and before long numerous roadblocks present themselves. First, the case has to be tried in federal court, where in the words of Haller, "defense cases went to die."  This does provide Connelly with the opportunity to introduce a new character, Judge Ellen Coelho, who brooks no nonsense from any of the attorneys trying the case.  There are mysterious suspected break-ins at the residences of both Haller and Bosch.  And before long, we find out that what happened involved rogue cops, sheriff's gangs, and even the FBI.  The game is on.

Connelly has been on quite a roll lately.  I haven't watched either of the television productions of his two main characters, but I've read every one of his books.  What I've enjoyed in his recent work is that he's allowed his characters to age, and to change over time.  Unlike some other series that I've enjoyed over the years (Crais' Elvis and Joe books, Coben's Win and Myron series) you get the sense that Bosch won't last forever.  He's never been a superman, but his mortality has now become a character of its own.  Where will it all lead?  It will be really sad when he is gone, but it seems inevitable.  

In the meantime, Connelly's work over the past three decades is a landmark in detective fiction.  Enjoy it while you can.

"The Ties That Bind" ("The River" Reimagined)

The second in a series begun by my online friend Larry, where double albums are winnowed down to one strong, two-sided album.

October 1980 - Berkeley, California

Upon entering UC Berkeley as a transfer student in September 1980, I thought I was doing a noble thing by leaving my stereo and record collection at home.  It took me about two weeks to realize what a bad decision that was, and when my parents and brothers visited in early October they brought the stereo as well as a couple of dozen records to tide me over until Winter Break.  Even then, my entire collection would have been a little too big for the dorm room - Rob, Han Song and I were in a "triple," with a bunk bed, a regular bed, three desks, a couple of dressers of drawers, and a closet.  Tight quarters, and if memory serves the stereo ended up in part of the closet.  

At that time I was a Bruce fan, but had never seen him live.  As fate would have it, he was scheduled to perform two shows in late October at the Oakland Coliseum Arena.  As fate would further have it, Rob was a huge Springsteen fan, and along with some of his friends who drove up from Southern California, was planning to sleep overnight in the Arena parking lot in order to buy tickets.  That's how it was done in those days, unless one was willing to shell out the big bucks to a scalper.  And because Rob was a great and very cool guy (as an aside, he would go on to become an Assistant Deputy Secretary of State for Middle Eastern Affairs), he was happy to score two tickets for me without me actually having to stay up all night for them.

Over the years, I would end up seeing Bruce 10 times.  It would be next to impossible for me to choose my favorite among those ten concerts.  The Tunnel of Love tour show I saw in 1988 at Shoreline Ampitheatre is widely considered to be the best of that tour.  The October 1999 Reunion Tour show at the [new and mostly improved] arena in Oakland was amazing, if for no other reason that it was far from certain whether we'd ever have the chance to see Bruce play with the E Street Band again.  Seeing the final leg of that tour at Madison Square Garden the following June...Bruce at MSG?!?  You've got to be kidding me.  And taking my parents to see him at the late (and sometimes lamented) Arco Arena in Sacramento (the Magic tour) was also a highlight.

"The River" 

My introduction to "The River" was not to hear the song, but to read about it - in Greil Marcus' review of No Nukes, the documentary about the 1979 concerts organized by MUSE (Musicians United for Safe Energy).  Marcus, to put it mildly, did not care for the film: "As a film, it's second-rate.  As music and politics, it's a study in puerility."  Springsteen was a late addition to those shows, and it seems possible (if not likely) that he was invited to ensure that the shows would sell out.  

So what did Greil think about Bruce's portion of the show?  Not much:

"Which leaves, as far as No Nukes in concerned, one overriding question: what about Bruce?  It's Springsteen's picture in the ads that's bringing the crowds into the theaters, and it's his performance - or his mere appearance - that has the fans cheering.  Well, he's all right.  He sings "The River," the title tune from his soon-to-come album; it's a well meant tale of working-class defeat, but "Up Shit Creek" might better describe both the fate of the song's characters and the song itself.  He performs "Thunder Road" messily and closes with a spirited "Quarter to Three," which is sabotaged by atrocious sound.  He was far more exciting tossing out a bit of "Rosalita" in last year's TV special Heroes of Rock 'n Roll - but that was a far more exciting film."

It's clearly an important song to Bruce - over the course of his career, he's played only 15 songs more often.  Surprisingly (at least to me), played "The River" more often than "Jungleland," "Growin' Up," "Spirit in the Night," "Backstreets," "She's the One," "Cadillac Ranch," and "No Surrender."  But is it a great song?  On the plus side, the E Street Band sounds magnificent on it.  And musically, it's beautiful.  Unfortunately, and it took me a long time to get there, Marcus' opinion is more right than wrong.  It's difficult to articulate, but forty years on, it comes across as "Springsteen-lite."  There's little in the song to suggest the depth of emotions and the exploration of the human condition that jumps out of the grooves of later songs such as "Nebraska," "Mansion on the Hill," "Born in the USA," "The Ghost of Tom Joad," or even "The Rising."

So the most difficult question in this reimagining was answered: "The River" would not be a part of the "new" album.

"The Ties That Bind" - 1979 Version

As originally recounted in Dave Marsh's 1981 update of his first Springsteen biography and confirmed decades later when the original album was included as part of "The River" box set (which was called "The Ties That Bind"), Bruce had an album set for release in 1979, hot on the heels of his incendiary 1978 tour.  To be titled "The Ties That Bind," the album would include five songs that would show up on "The River" - The Ties That Bind, Hungry Heart, The River, The Price You Pay, and I Wanna Marry You.  The album would have included alternate versions of Stolen Car (a good, but not approaching the greatness of the version that ended up on The River), You Can Look (But You Better Not Touch) done up rockabilly style (tough call on which version is better), and three songs that would never appear on any album outside of compilations - Cindy (no great loss), Be True (great song, was the B-side of Fade Away), and Loose Ends (a real shame this version never ended up anywhere, but the mix is definitely superior to the version that ended up on "Tracks" in 1998).

As an aside, another song whose success has always mystified me is "Hungry Heart" - it just never worked for me, so it does not end up on my reimagined version.  And because I wanted to stay as true to the original as possible, none of the alternate versions or "substitute songs" make it on either.  Which brings us to...

"The Ties That Bind" - 2023 Version

Side One

The Ties That Bind            3:33

Out in the Street                4:17

You Can Look (But You Better Not Touch)        2:35

Jackson Cage                      3:03

Stolen Car                            3:52

Whatever you call the album you put it on, "The Ties That Bind" is the perfect opener.  "Out in the Street" and "You Can Look" continue the generally upbeat vibe, until "Jackson Cage" and especially "Stolen Car" give us a hint that Bruce's thinking is taking a darker turn.

Side Two

Point Blank                        6:06

I Wanna Marry You            3:26

Two Hearts                          2:42

Cadillac Ranch                    3:03

The Price You Pay                5:26

The second side begins with another song that is frankly somewhat terrifying; I can still remember being transfixed the first time I heard it (on a live radio broadcast of one of his legendary Winterland shows in December 1978).  We begin to ascend from the darkness with "I Wanna Marry You" and "Two Hearts" (are better than one, after all), and bring the album to a close with one of Bruce's greatest rockers and what has always felt to me like a vastly under-appreciated gem.

There you have it, only four months after I began working on this.  You might say I overthought it.  But I'm also OK with where it ended up.

The Double Album Challenge #1: Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, Elton John

Prelude - 1992

Remember the early days of the Internet?  I can't pinpoint the exact day when the Internet became a reality for me, but it would have been sometime in early 1992, when I was working for the California State University's Office of Governmental Affairs.  Because the main CSU Chancellor's Office was in Long Beach and our office was in Sacramento (across from the State Capitol), we were always the last to get the new technology.  When I began working for CSU in June 1991, the office was in the dark ages of computer technology, outfitted with a Wang computer system (does that company even exist today?).  For the first few months, I didn't even have a desktop computer, because the office had been told that fancy Apple computers were on the way.  So whenever I needed to write something (which was fairly often, since writing was a pretty big part of my job), I had to use the terminal in the kitchen.  This led to a lot of jokes when visitors from Long Beach were in town ("So Jeff, I guess you're still on probation?"), but it also taught me something which was worth its weight in gold - the ability to focus on the task at hand, while tuning everything else out.

When the blessed day arrived, our IT person hooked me up first - which I think was my reward for having suffered for so long.  I even remember his name - Dan DuBois.  And when Dan set up my new system, he told me about this really cool thing called the World Wide Web.  My initial reaction was probably along the lines of "yeah, ok, can you just get this set up so I can start writing these bill letters?"  Little did I know that the biggest challenge to my focus was about to enter my life.  This was long before anyone had ever talked about toxic social media, and the need to shelter children from it.  Long before the days of computer viruses, long before Facebook, long before Twitter, long before guys like Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk became household names.  No, back in those days, the Internet was fun.  Want to read the latest edition of Blue and Gold Illustrated for the latest analysis of Notre Dame football?  Check.  Want to read special versions of Peter King's football columns?  Check.  Stuff about movies?  Check.  Internet only music publications like Addicted to Noise?  Just about every kind of weird stuff you can possibly imagine, arcane but entertaining?  Check.  You could even access Playboy, including the centerfolds (but I only read it for the articles, I promise).

But for me, the most fun part about the early days of the Internet were the connections you could make.  You could find people with like interests from all over the country (or beyond).  You could find someone like Sheila O'Malley, who on her blog wrote brilliantly (and still does today) about film and acting, about Elvis (some of the best Elvis essays this side of Greil Marcus, Dave Marsh and Peter Guralnick), about James Joyce, about her "dead boyfriend" Alexander Hamilton, about family and many other things.  You could find someone like the late David Mills, who wrote for great TV shows like NYPD Blue, ER, and Treme (I once recommended a record store in New Orleans to David).  You could find someone from Berkeley, who like yourself loved Bruce Springsteen, and then actually run into that person at a Bruce concert and introduce yourself (that would be Steven Rubio).  And you could engage in online conversations with them, at least some of the time wondering why they would even give you the time of day.  It was pretty damn cool.  After a few years of reading blogs by others and commenting on their posts, in 2006 I started this blog, which for a while was very active.  Not so much today.  Why?  Let's just say that life has a way of taking one down some interesting and unexpected paths.  

I have to admit I don't remember exactly how and when I connected with Larry Aydlette.  I'm guessing it was probably through comments on Sheila's blog or Facebook page?  But no matter.  We've never met in person, but if and when we do, I think we'd have a pretty good conversation.  We have similar tastes on a lot of different fronts, and even though we live on opposite sides of the country, I suspect we might share similar views on a lot of "topics of the day," shall we say.  Like me, Larry is a big music fan, and on that front we also share similar (but not identical) tastes.

On his Substack, Larry came up with the idea of exploring double albums (a concept which probably makes sense only to persons of a certain age), and the question of whether all of them would be better as a single album.  And for nearly all of them, the answer is probably "yes."  Off the top of my head, I can think of three albums where I'd argue to the death that removing even a single song would be blasphemy: The Rolling Stones' Exile on Main St., London Calling by The Clash, and Blonde on Blonde by Bob Dylan.  The rest, even the ones I love (e.g. Bruce Springsteen's The River), are fair game.

Larry's first choice was Elton John's Goodbye Yellow Brick Road.  In this post, I take up the challenge.  But before we get there, let's take one more journey into the WayBack Machine.

First Listen - Summer of '74

In 1974, Elton John was my musical hero.  My music listening habits to that point had been honed by a steady diet of AM Top 40 Radio, which at the time was exhilarating and exasperating in equal measure.  At any given moment, you could hear one of the greatest songs ever written, followed by a song that made you feel embarrassed for everyone involved in its creation.  

Elton was a hit machine in those days, and that May his 1972 album Honky Chateau was the first album that I bought with my own money.  Goodbye Yellow Brick Road had been released the previous fall, and of course I'd heard the hits (the title track, and almost 50 years later I'm still pissed that the execrable "Top of the World" kept it from hitting #1; and the still amazing "Bennie and the Jets," which did hit #1), but I'd always loved "Rocket Man," and being a single album it was less expensive.

I remember exactly when I heard GYBR for the first time in its entirety - it was at Jeff Bickford's 14th birthday party, about a week after 8th Grade promotion.  I even remember everyone who was at the party - Craig Kreeger, Thomas Schroeder, and the late Mike Gowen on the male side; and Karen Koch, Laura O'Donnell, Alisa Craft, Lori Asbury, and Ellen [last name escapes me] on the female side.  It was the first party I'd ever been to where both boys and girls were invited.  And yes, we played Spin the Bottle; I was pretty good at the bottle spinning part of the game.  When Jeff B. put the album on the stereo, I can even remember saying, upon the first notes of "Funeral For a Friend," something along the lines of "wow, this sounds like something you'd hear at a funeral."  Smart kid, my 14-year old self was.

I knew right away that I had to get the album, right away.  Probably mowed a few additional lawns that week to pay for it.  And I loved it.  I still love it but concede that, as with all Elton albums from that golden period, there are a handful of tracks that are...let's just say dispensable.

With all that background history out of the way, let's dive in.

Goodbye Yellow Brick Road (Aydlette version)

I would encourage everyone to read Larry's great write-up on his Substack.  But for those without the time, here is his version:

Bennie and the Jets

Grey Seal

Jamaica Jerk-Off

The Ballad of Danny Bailey (1909-34)

All the Girls Love Alice

Your Sister Can't Twist (But She Can Rock 'N Roll)

Saturday Night's Alright for Fighting

Roy Rogers

Social Disease

Candle in the Wind

Goodbye Yellow Brick Road

Harmony

Total Time: 48 minutes

Goodbye Yellow Brick Road (Vaca version)

My approach was a bit different than Larry's.  What he appears to have done is to pare the original album down to roughly standard CD length.  I decided to pare it down even further, with the goal of ending up with a 40-minute album, while being mindful of having two sides of roughly the same length.  Having created mixtapes, "mix-CDs," and now Playlists for more than four decades now, pacing and flow are important to me.  You can have two great songs that don't necessarily sound good back-to-back.  So every transition was tested, and I think it works.  Lastly, I tried to cast off and anchor each side (i.e. first and last cuts) with very strong songs.

Here we go:

Side One

Bennie and the Jets.  Larry had more or less announced from the get-go that this was going to be his opening track, and at first I was determined not to use it.  But there really is no other choice.  As Todd Rundgren wrote in his liner notes for Something/Anything, he put "I Saw the Light" first because it was the obvious hit.  So he did exactly what Motown used to do on their albums, which was to put the hit first.  That is very much the case here.  No question that it's an oddball song, but it's also an all-time classic.  And yes, much like Larry, I and my friends would frequently make "electric boobs" jokes.  As an aside, one of my aforementioned friends was convinced that drummer Nigel Olsson was a woman, and I was sure to remind him of that at one of our high school reunions.  I can be nasty that way.

Harmony.  A little bit of a down-shift after the opening track.  Both Elton and Larry used this as the album closer, but I like it here.  

Roy Rogers.  This may be the best ear-worm on the entire album.  I've lost track of the times that apropos of nothing, it suddenly appeared in my brain, which naturally means that it has to be sung out loud.  I'd love to hear a version of this by Jason Isbell, with Amanda Shires singing harmony.  If anyone out there knows Jason, please let him know.

Goodbye Yellow Brick Road.  Admittedly, this is an odd place for the title track, but as Larry noted, it's got to be on the album somewhere.  I do like the song, but I'm not sure I'd classify it as top-tier Elton.  My parents liked it when it was on heavy radio rotation, which was a good thing because my dad had a quick trigger-finger on the car radio if a song came on that he didn't like.  Trust me, there were many songs falling into that category.

All the Girls Love Alice.  So let's end Side One with a banger, which I promise is not something I'd ever say in real conversation.  In his piece, Larry does an excellent job of laying out the problematic nature of the lyrics.  He wonders aloud whether Bernie Taupin may have been "trying to depict the horror of self-absorbed, monied-class abusers," but I have to wonder whether that could have been done just as effectively (not to mention more accurately) in a song called "All the Rich Men Love Alice."  But there's no denying the musical chops of the song, and as Larry also notes, at least it's not as bad as "Dirty Little Girl."

While we're on the topic, the misogynist nature of much of 70s rock is something that I think about fairly often.  Once Elton cooled off (which is putting it mildly) in 1976 with the horrible Blue Moves, the band that moved into the slot of being my favorite rock artist was the Stones.  Let's face it, and it is all well documented, the Stones during their tours of 1969, 1972, 1975 and 1978 engaged in a lot of very bad behavior, including towards women.  I admit it, it all sounded pretty cool to my 15-17 year old self.  One of my favorite rock books is "On the Road With the Rolling Stones" by the late Chet Flippo, who covered the '75 and '78 Stones tours for Rolling Stone magazine.  It's all in there, and when I read it now, I  cringe from time to time.  But Exile on Main St. is still my favorite album, and Some Girls is one of the Stones' very best (if you're not familiar with the song, read the lyrics of the title track sometime). Should I feel guilty about that?  Honestly I don't, but it is something that I think about.

Side Two

Saturday Night's Alright For Fighting.  This may be Elton's finest rocker.  I'm not really sure there's anything else to say.  It's the perfect song to lead off Side Two.

The Ballad of Danny Bailey (1909-34).  Fully agree with Larry on this one - this is one of Elton's best songs, and some of Bernie's best lyrics.  It's also a great showcase for Elton's piano playing, and for once Gus Dudgeon's production is perfect, and not overwrought.  Nor really a "rocker" per se, but it keeps the momentum going from the previous track.

Jamaica Jerk-Off.  I hated this song for a really long time.  And it's still dumb.  But it is very catchy, and fits in with the flow of Side Two.

Grey Seal.  Another great showcase for Elton at the keyboards, and a chance for the entire band to shine.  Davey, Dee and Nigel would come and go on a number of occasions during the course of Elton's career, but they really were a great band.  

Candle in the Wind.  After this many years of being overplayed, and especially after the post-Diana tragedy rewrite, everyone must have an opinion about this song.  In that regard, it's got to be right up there with songs like "Stairway to Heaven" and "Free Bird."  For me, this is essential Elton.  It's a beautiful song, and it's the perfect song to close out the album.

Total Time: 40:49

So there you have it.  I was sorry to have to leave "I've Seen That Movie Too" off the album, because I do think it's one of Elton's best ballads.  I'd like to think that this version of the album would have gotten at least an A- from Christgau.  

Future Choices?

Will Larry and I turn this into a regular gig?  Only time will tell.  In his piece he mentions The Beatles (White Album) as a possible candidate, and there are several others that come to my mind:

Bruce Springsteen - The River

Led Zeppelin - Physical Graffiti

Stevie Wonder - Songs in the Key of Life

Fleetwood Mac - Tusk

Prince - Sign 'O the Times

Todd Rundgren - Something/Anything

The Clash - Sandintista! (OK, that's a triple album, but certainly one that could use some trimming)

Stay tuned! 

Top Albums and Songs of 2022

A couple of years ago, I was accepted into a Facebook Group called “Village Voice Pazz & Jop Rip-Off Poll,” which for someone like me – a guy who dreamed at age 15 of becoming the record reviews editor of Rolling Stone magazine – was like a dream come true.  For the uninitiated, Pazz & Jop was begun by Robert Christgau in 1971, took a couple of years off, and then ran in the Voice annually from 1974 through the late 2010s, whenever it was that the once-great periodical finally bit the dust for good.  An indispensable archive of poll results can be found on Christgau’s website.

The way that P&J worked, each participant had 100 points to distribute to 10 albums, with a maximum per-album allocation of 30 and a minimum of five.  During the time that Greil Marcus participated in the poll , he was always open about the fact that he’d award 30 points to an album (for example, Bryan Ferry’s 1978 The Bride Stripped Bare) just to give it a boost in the final rankings.  Others took the “10 albums, 10 points each” approach, and a third group would painstakingly attempt to assign the exactly appropriate number of points to each of the albums on their list.  People who know me well will not be surprised to hear that I fall into the third group.

This year was really hard.  In 2021, I had difficulty coming up with 10 albums that truly fit the definition of what I would normally call a Top Ten candidate, but this year there were probably two dozen albums that fit the bill.  Complicating matters, SZA had to go and release one of the year’s best records A WEEK AGO, which required some additional thought on my part.  But without further ado, presenting my Top Ten Albums of 2022:

Beyoncé, RENAISSANCE – 20 points

Mountain Goats, Bleed Out – 17

Amanda Shires, Take It Like a Man – 12

Lizzo, Special – 11

SZA, SOS – 10

Wet Leg, S/T – 8

Drive-By Truckers, Welcome to Club XIII – 7

Kendrick Lamar, Mr. Morale & the Big Steppers – 5

Miranda Lambert, Palomino – 5

The Paranoid Style, For Executive Meeting – 5

Random thoughts on the Top Ten:

·         From the very first time I listened to the new Beyoncé, I suspected that it would be my #1 – but I didn’t realize how close an album would come to pushing it out of the top spot, which Bleed Out nearly did.

·         Mountain Goats, like Drive-By Truckers before them, is a band to which I’m a late convert, but now I realize that I’ve really given them short shrift over the years.

·         Amanda Shires has been great for a while, but she really took a quantum leap forward on the new album.

·         It is nearly impossible to resist the overall positivity of the Lizzo experience, and in doing so one can have a few laughs along the way.

·         Wet Leg and The Paranoid Style both made me feel like I was back in Cheney Hall at UC Berkeley (Spoiler Alert: it was a long time ago).

·         Miranda Lambert continued the groundbreaking (and I’d argue under-noticed) work she’s been doing for well more than a decade now.

·         DBT had scored in recent years with a series of acutely political albums, and it was a bit of a relief to hear them take the foot off that gas pedal for a bit.

·         And, last but certainly not least – I don’t know I’ve spoken to or read anyone who thinks Mr. Morale is Kendrick Lamar’s best album, but the highs are incredibly high (see below for evidence of that).

The next ten, which in another year might have easily cracked my Top Ten:

Willie Nelson – A Beautiful Time

Bruce Springsteen – Only the Strong Survive

Maren Morris – Humble Quest

Beach Bunny – Emotional Creature

Taylor Swift – Midnights

Danielle Ponder – Some of Us Are Brave

Laura Benitez and the Heartache – California Centuries

Soccer Mommy – Sometimes Forever

Arcade Fire – WE

Sunny Sweeney – Married Alone

And some honorable mentions, in no particular order:

Big Thief – Dragon New Warm Mountain

The Black Keys – Dropout Boogie

Harry Styles – Harry’s House

Jack White – Entering Heaven Alive

Dylan Triplett – Who is He?

The Vandoliers – S/T

Loudon Wainwright III – Lifetime Achievement

Chris Canterbury – Quaalude Lullabies

Courtney Marie Andrews – Loose Future

Ashley MacBryde Presents: Lindeville

Plains – I Walked With You a Way

Carly Rae Jepsen – The Loneliest Time

Angel Olsen – Big Time

Chris Isaak – Everybody Knows It’s Christmas

 

Since I’m on a roll, my Top Ten Songs of 2022:

Kendrick Lamar (feat. Beth Gibbons) – Mother I Sober.  Triumphant transformation.

Taylor Swift – Anti-Hero.  The earworm and catch phrases of the year.

Lizzo – About Damn Time.  Out on the dance floor – now!

Wet Leg – Chaise Longue.  “Would you like us to assign someone to worry your mother?” was the line of the year.

Laura Benitez and the California Heartache – Plaid Shirt.  Just your everyday instant classic country breakup song.

Beyoncé – Virgo’s Groove.  NSFW, and I learned that the hard way.

Drive-By Truckers – The Driver.  In seven minutes, a distillation of everything they do best.

Bruce Springsteen – Night Shift.  How had I forgotten what a great song this is?

Angel Olsen – All the Good Times.  Dusty Springfield, meet Tammy Wynette.

SZA – Blind.  Also NSFW, but quite likely the best verbal interplay of the year.

 

And what the heck, since I never got around to posting it this year, here’s my Top Ten of 2021:

1. James McMurtry, The Horses and the Hounds

2. Liz Phair, Soberish

3. Alison Krauss & Robert Plant, Raise the Roof

4. Aimee Mann, Queens of the Summer Hotel

5. Lana Del Rey, Blue Banisters

6. Sleater-Kinney, Path of Wellness

7. Courtney Barnett, Things Take Time, Take Time

8. Hayes Carll, You Get It All

9. Jason Isbell & the 400 Unit, Georgia Blue

10. Mickey Guyton, Remember Her Name

Rock on!  See you in 2023.

The Duke

It's been a long time since I've gone down the Duke Ellington rabbit hole.  Last week, what sent me down was a tweet (a retweet, actually) from a music writer whose name I can't even recall off the top of my head, with his list of the 30 Greatest Big Band Jazz Albums of all time.  I figured there had to be a Duke album on the list, and the writer did not disappoint.  The album in the photo at left was not the album on the list, but we'll come back to that in a moment.  

I knew who Duke Ellington was from an early age, but my first real exposure to his music came in the late 1970s.  My then-girlfriend's father was a jazz fan, and he owned the indispensable collection, The Smithsonian Collection of Classic Jazz.  My own tastes in music were starting to expand around that time, and he was kind enough to loan me the album, which I promptly recorded on cassette.  I still have one of the tapes, Memorex no less, but its useful, listenable life is long past.

I don't know that the Smithsonian Collection remains available today, but it has been re-created on Spotify by enterprising listeners, and the same is probably true for the other major streaming services.  It's a treasure trove, and particularly useful in helping to determine exactly what types of jazz music are palatable to a listener's ears.  For me, the two major discoveries were Ellington and Charlie Parker.  Going back through the Spotify playlist, it is striking how well the curators did with their selections of Ellington tunes for the collection:

East St. Louis Toodle-Oo (two versions, and yes, the Steely Dan version of the song was the first I'd heard)

Creole Rhapsody

Harlem Air Shaft

Concerto for Cootie

Cotton Tail

In a Mellotone

Ko-Ko

Diminuendo and Crescendo in Blue

Blue Serge

Brilliant songs all, and brilliant selections, considering there are better known tunes in the Ellington pantheon.

Back to the album pictured above - also a Smithsonian collection, a Christmas gift in 1980 from the same then-girlfriend.  However, by then I had gone to school in Berkeley and she had gone to UCLA, where she met her husband-to-be the first week she was there.  The gift exchange at Christmas might have been a bit awkward - I don't remember what I bought for her, but I'm quite confident it wasn't as nice as what she gave me.

The 1940 version of the Ellington Big Band is remembered today as the absolute pinnacle of his career.  It's come to be known as the "Blanton-Webster" version of the band, after the brilliant young bassist Jimmy Blanton (who would tragically succumb to tuberculosis at age 23) and the equally great tenor saxophonist Ben Webster.  Six of the ten songs listed above were recorded by the Blanton-Webster band, and there are at least a dozen others on the two-record set that are equally good.  It's that good.

Fortunately, the songs all exist today - the album to seek out on your streaming service is Never No Lament - The Blanton-Webster band, which collects all of the tunes the band recorded together.  Listening to it today, it's obvious why Ellington is considered one of the great musical artists in American history.  A rabbit hole well worth going down.  Besides, it's cooler down there.

"Maus" and Why It Matters

 

The first political science course I took in college (at American River College, here in the Sacramento area) was taught by a gentleman who had lived in Tennessee until he graduated college, after which he and his wife moved to California.  During his lectures, he frequently referred, in a sarcastic manner,  to his birth state as "enlightened Tennessee."

Dr. Striplin is no longer with us, but "enlightened Tennessee" has been all over the headlines this month, courtesy of the decision by the McMinn County Board of Education to remove "Maus" from the curriculum.  In a statement released on Thursday, the Board said that it voted to remove the graphic memoir from the county's schools "because of its unnecessary use of profanity and nudity and its depiction of violence and suicide."  The statement goes on to note that school administrators have been asked to "find other works that accomplish the same educational goals in a more age-appropriate fashion."

The question that comes to my mind is this: what could be more age-appropriate for young learners than an historically accurate, well-written depiction of the Holocaust in the graphic format?  Yes, it is a book filled with pain and suffering - how could it not be? -  as well as one that demonstrates in stark fashion how the impact of the Holocaust crossed entire generations.  But what are we afraid of here, exactly?  And how about we show a little respect for those young learners, who I can't help but think have a greater capacity to understand challenging topics than is assumed by the McMinn board of education.

In the face of this nonsense, of course I had to re-read the book.  The first part of Spiegelman's story was released in 1986 (on the left in the above photo), and though the exact circumstances of my first encounter with it are lost to the mists of time, I'm guessing that it was the Village Voice that alerted me to its existence.  

The genius of Maus is in the way that author Art Spiegelman makes the modern-day story of learning from his father just as compelling as the horrifying tale that his father is telling.  Spiegelman is brutally honest, even painfully so, about his father Vladek.  Vladek's experiences during the Holocaust were incredible, without question.  As Art himself comments in one scene depicted in the book, Vladek's ability to survive the horrors of that time was due in large part to luck, but also to his father's remarkable resourcefulness and present-mindedness.  That comes through powerfully throughout.  But while Vladek survived, something of his humanity did not.  The older Vladek is petty, often irrational, and as depicted in a memorable scene when Art's wife Francoise picks up an African-American hitchhiker with Vladek also in the car, is quite the racist.  

For me, Maus is a landmark book.  And while I've seen some write that it is inaccurate to say the book is being "banned," for me "removing from the curriculum" is at the top of the slippery slope that leads to banning.  It seems unlikely to happen, but here's hoping that the McMinn County Board reconsiders their decision.

Notable Albums of 2021 (Memorializing)

 Not a bad year at all.

• Lana Del Rey - Chemtrails Over The Country Club
• Rhiannon Giddens with Francesco Turrisi - They're Calling Me Home
• Eric Church - Heart
• Eric Church - Soul
• Tom Jones - Surrounded by Time
• The Black Keys - Delta Kream
• Chrissie Hynde - Standing in the Doorway: Chrissie Hynde Sings Bob Dylan
• Leftover Feelings - John Hiatt
• Lula Wiles - Shame and Sedition
• Liz Phair - Soberish
• Sleater-Kinney - Path of Wellness
• Lucy Dacus - Home Video
• Allison Russell - Outside Child
• Leon Bridges - Gold-Diggers Sound
• Jackson Browne - Downhill from Everywhere
• Rodney Crowell - Triage
• David Crosby - For Free
• Sarah Jarosz - Blue Heron Suite
• Cassandra Jenkins - An Overview on Phenomenal Nature
• Los Lobos - Native Sons
• Billie Eilish - Happier Than Ever
• Yola - Stand For Myself
• Emily Duff - Razor Blade Smile
• Jade Bird - Different Kinds of Light
• Kalie Shorr - I Got Here By Accident
• James McMurtry - The Horses and the Hounds
• Sturgill Simpson - The Ballad of Dood & Juanita
• Lorde - Solar Power
• Madi Diaz - History of a Feeling
• Kacey Musgraves - star-crossed
• The Felice Brothers - From Dreams to Dust
• Mickey Guyton - Remember Her Name
• Brandi Carlile - In These Silent Days
• Natalie Hemby - Pins and Needles
• Carolyn Wonderland - Tempting Fate
• Lilly Hiatt - Lately
• Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit - Georgia Blue
• Lana Del Rey - Blue Banisters
• Hayes Carll - You Get It All
• The War on Drugs - I Don't Live Here Anymore
• Pistol Annies - Hell of a Holiday
• Snail Mail - Valentine
• Aimee Mann - Queens of the Summer Hotel
• Amanda Shires - For Christmas
• Courtney Barnett - Things Take Time, Take Time
• Taylor Swift - Red (Taylor's Version)

Songs of the Year, 2021: A Little Soon To Say, Jackson Browne

Jackson Browne earned his spot in the Hall of Fame a long time ago, so it's OK that his late-career albums fall short of the standards he set early on.  None of them have been bad, don't get me wrong.  But you can always be sure you will get 1-2 political songs that are just a little too obvious (and probably a verse or two too long), and a couple of rockers that sound (more or less) like an old guy trying a little too hard to recapture his youth. 

But you can also count on 3-4 songs that can stand right up there as part of Browne's pantheon.  "A Little Soon to Say" is one of those songs, and with this one I'd go a bit further - this is one of the best songs he's ever written, one that perfectly captures the tone of our times. 

I wanna see you holding out your light
I wanna see you light the way
Beyond the sirens in the broken night
Beyond the sickness of our day
And after all we've come to live with
I wanna know if you're ok
I wanna think it's gonna be alright
It's just a little soon to say

It's distressing - amazing, really - that this is where we find ourselves at this point in our history, but this is where we are.  I too wanna think it's gonna be alright.  Only time will tell.

Songs of the Year, 2021: Hard Drive, Cassandra Jenkins

There is a LOT going on in "Hard Drive."  It's got a definite Laurie Anderson feel to it, almost as if it were a lost track from 1989's "Strange Angels."  Each verse tells a different micro-story, featuring a diverse cast of characters: the security guard, the bookkeeper, the driving teacher, and Peri.  The thread binding each of the stories together is what Jenkins addresses in her spoken intro - "our spirit, our humanity, our sense of self."

The emotional payoff, from both a narrative and a musical perspective, comes in the final verse:

I ran into Peri at Lowell's place
Her gemstone eyes caught my gaze
She said, "Oh, dear, I can see you've had a rough few months
But this year, it's gonna be a good one
I'll count to three and tap your shoulder
We're gonna put your heart back together
So all those little pieces they took from you
They're coming back now
They'll miss 'em too
So close your eyes
I'll count to three
Take a deep breath
Count with me"

It's an extraordinary song.

Songs of the Year, 2021: Calling Me Home, Rhiannon Giddens + Francesco Turrisi

The music that Rhiannon Giddens has made on her last two albums with Francesco Turrisi cuts like a scythe, slashing through fields of grain.  The emotional power of her voice combines with the miraculous but spare instrumentation from both artists to create an emotional power that more or less wipes every other song off the map.  When you listen, it's as if time is standing still.  

Songs of the Year, 2021: Tom Jones - I'm Growing Old

Over the next few days, in preparation for posting my Top Ten Albums of 2021, I'll be posting some of my favorite songs of the year from the albums that were Honorable Mentions.

First up, the great Tom Jones.  Still making great music, and in a sense reinventing himself, at the age of 80.  At the same time, recognizing his mortality.

...Ring in the New

And that bad boy in the middle now holds the place of honor previously occupied by the Technics Receiver.

So yeah, I no longer have the ability to listen to the radio, but considering I can't even remember the last time I listened to the radio, I think I'll survive.

So this should last me well into my 90s...

And what better CD to test it out than a little classic Steely Dan?

BTW, many thanks are due to my 31-year old son, without whom this would probably be sitting in its box for some period of time to be determined, given dad's lack of prowess with anything having to do with technology installation.

Happy New Year!

 

Ring Out the Old...

 

This bad boy served me well for close to 40 years, but it was well past the time to say farewell.  Little did I know that the frustrating glitches in my recent stereo listening experience were due, not to faulty speakers or speaker wires, but to the fact that this guy was just tired.

But hey - considering that among the first CDs I played with this setup were Springsteen's "Born in the USA" and Madonna's "Like a Virgin," I think I got my money's worth.  

R.I.P.

Memorializing

 2020 was the year that I made the transition from buying CDs (I've bought two this year) to listening to music almost exclusively via streaming.  It's scrambled my brain a bit, to be honest.  I've had to force myself to dedicate time to listening to full albums, because it's so enticing to come up with another playlist; another quest for the perfect segue between songs.  There are albums on the list below where I can't remember a single song.  That's not great, obviously - so for my 2021 sidebar list, I'm going to include only those albums that truly sunk in, that I've gone back to on a regular basis.  

The 2020 list:

• Starting Over - Chris Stapleton
• Generations - Will Butler
• Hey Clockface - Elvis Costello
• Love is the King - Jeff Tweedy
• Uncivil War - Shemekia Copeland
• On My Own - Lera Lynn
• Letter to You - Bruce Springsteen
• Serpentine Prison - Matt Berninger
• Cuttin' Grass, Vol. 1 - Sturgill Simpson
• Speed, Sound, Lonely kv (EP) - Kurt Vile
• Good Luck With Whatever - Dawes
• As Long As You Are - Future Islands
• Alone Together Sessions - Hayes Carll
• The New OK - Drive-By Truckers
• What Is There - Delta Spirit
• Aftermath - Elizabeth Cook
• Hearts Town - The War and Treaty
• Daughter - Lydia Loveless
• The Ascension - Sufjan Stevens
• Shore - Fleet Foxes
• Long Violent History - Tyler Childers
• Shallow Graves - India Ramey
• Blackbirds - Bettye Lavette
• Die Midwestern - Arlo McKinney
• The Beautiful Madness - Jerry Joseph
• Twelfth - Old 97's
• Total Freedom - Kathleen Edwards
• Xoxo - The Jayhawks
• The Dirt and the Stars - Mary Chapin Carpenter
• Such Pretty Forks in the Road - Alanis Morrisette
• Made of Rain - The Psychedelic Furs
• The Balladeer - Lori McKenna
• Old Flowers - Courtney Marie Andrews
• folklore - Taylor Swift
• Hate for Sale - Pretenders
• The Waterfall II - My Morning Jacket
• Gaslighter - The Chicks
• All the Good Times - Gillian Welch, David Rawlings
• That's How Rumors Get Started - Margo Price
• What's Your Pleasure? - Jessie Ware
• On the Road: A Tribute to John Hartford
• Women in Music Part III - HAIM
• No Dream - Jeff Rosenstock
• Homegrown - Neil Young
• Rough and Rowdy Ways - Bob Dylan
• Punisher - Phoebe Bridgers
• Built to Spill Plays the Songs of Daniel Johnston
• Self Made Man - Larkin Poe
• Introduction, Presence - Nation of Language
• All Visible Objects - Moby
• World on the Ground - Sarah Jarosz
• Dreaming Again - Lizzy Long
• RTJ4 - Run the Jewels
• Spider Tales - Jake Blount
• Folk 'n Roll Vol. 1 - J.S. Ondara
• A Different War - Daniela Cotton and the Church Boys
• Danzig Sings Elvis
• Neon Cross - Jaime Wyatt
• Tessy Lou Williams
• Dedicated Side B - Carly Rae Jepsen
• Chromatica - Lady Gaga
• Cold Water - Medhane
• Copy That - Sara Evans
• how i'm feeling now - Charli XCX
• Going to the Movies - Mark Fredson
• Reunions - Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit
• Beautiful and Strange - Chelsea Williams
• Bad Luck - Sylvia Rose Novak
• The Way It Feels - Maddie & Tae
• Invisible People - Chicano Batman
• We Still Go to Rodeos - Whitney Rose
• Alphabetland - X
• Future Nostalgia - Dua Lipa
• Lamentations - American Aquarium
• Walking Proof - Lilly Hiatt
• Fetch the Bolt Cutters - Fiona Apple
• The New Abnormal - The Strokes
• Mama's Biscuits - Kirby Heard
• Never Will - Ashley McBryde
• The Family Songbook - The Haden Triplets
• Saint Cloud - Waxahatchee
• Gigaton - Pearl Jam
• Anybody Out There - Sadler Vaden
• Your Life is a Record - Brandy Clark
• Expectations - Katie Pruitt
• The Dream - Hailey Whitters
• Saturn Return - The Secret Sisters
• Honeymoon - Beach Bunny
• color theory - Soccer Mommy
• Open Book - Kalie Shorr
• Miss Anthropocene - Grimes
• The Unraveling - Drive-By Truckers
• County Squire - Tyler Childers