Cuts for Cooky: Donny Hathaway, "For All We Know"

Juke

KD was busy doin' work during the lockout.

Cuts for Cooky: Amalia Rodrigues, Mariza, Cristina Branco

I've a work in progress on Occupy, but it'll have to wait, as it's way too involved. I've a lot to say, as befits me prolix.

But one of the weird things about EM08 is the far reach, indeed, infecting virtually all corners of the world. I heard an interview today with a Portuguese man, and he was very angry yet plaintive about the state of things, as Portugal's just one more in the line of suckers with Greece, Italy, France and Spain who were looted by Goldman and the rest of the American thugs. The interviewer said that the situation looked grim, and the man verbally shrugged; "that's why we have fado."

I thought it was an artistic answer.

First up, the doyenne, the late Amalia Rodrigues, then the beautiful Mariza, and, in one of my favorite kind of formats, Cristina Branco in an informal chamber setting; a living room. She kills it.

Cuts for Cooky: X: I Must Not Think Bad Thoughts

I saw X last year, actually Exene and Doe, and when they played this, one of my favorite X tunes, it was so moving, because of the times and the personal feeling of being under the gun.

What an appropriate anthem this song is for today's crazy world... I don't know where this version was shot, but it's quality is bad. In some ways it adds to the punk aesthetic, much like the vid of White Girl I posted a while back.

Stick around til the bitter end; Doe basically love trashes LA. I'm headed back for an extended visit in about three weeks. I can't wait.

Cuts for Cooky: Lady Gaga's The Edge of Glory

I'm not a Gaga fan, but recognize her talent, although it can be hard to find through all of the gratuitous garishness of her shows and production. Take this song in its album version and it's a dance tune, but as a ballad with just her singing with piano and it's better.

Leave it to the Stern Show's long history of bringing out the best in talent, whether in interviews or performing. It just figures that after her appearance, I'd post a song of hers; it's all Stern's fault. What's missing  here is the long preamble where she goes into the genesis of the song, how it's about her grandfather who at the time was dying, and her grandmother who wouldn't leave his side. Gaga explained that she told her grandmother that he didn't want to die in front of her, that (being Italian) he was too proud. So she convinced her grandmother to leave after having been there for something like two weeks, and a couple of hours later he passed. Gaga used being on the edge as that moment when one is about to cross over.

I guess I'm a sucker for these kinds of stories, and her setup made the song moving to my sappy sentimentality. As DeNiro says to Minnelli toward the end of New York, New York; "Sappy Endings."

From the Vaults: Korean History Channel

Many moons ago I was researching a bunch of AA stand ups and discovered something; there are some really talented brothers out there. In fact, Fish and I saw Dr. Ken before he broke and we both knew he had it but wondered if the machine was ready or willing to give him a shot.

Now in the Internet era there are some pretty creative AA kids. Bart and Joe are two of them, under the moniker, "Just Kidding Films" on YouTube. This one's kinda long but like most, yours truly included, editing is one of the flaws in their game. Still, the bright spots are what to look for, and the thing to look for here in this first vid is the Korean soap parody.

As a viewer put it: with a seashell cover her nipperl I was like wow you a beautiper...

They're still rough around the edges but you can see they have talent. Anyway, a while back I think it was Renee that first turned me on to them and showed me this next one; I 'bout shit my pants laughing.

The Show Must Go On

Ya gotta hand it to this kid, Kate Wilson, she soldiers on. And thank god she does -- this is funnier than shit! I like the ones she tries to stifle... LMAO!


Hat tip to the Stern Show.

Cuts for Cooky: Esperanza Spalding

Every once in a while I come across a young artist that really brings it. Just today I was checking out Olly Moss' graphic art and plan on hittin' it with a piece, he's that good, as in a Saul Bass heir. This piece, however, is about a musician.


Esperanza is so self-possessed it's a marvel. Jesus I've been in college and wondered how in the hell those kids even got in. Home-schooled, vibrant, articulate, smart as a whip, she's a triple + threat; bass, voice and pen. And at age 28 or so, along with Christian Scott, is one of the youngins devoting herself to jazz! For all of the ragging I do on kids these days, Esperanza -- as befits her name -- gives us old farts hope.


There's tons of her performance stuff out, but I'm posting these interviews because I think it's important for Renee to hear Esperanza talk about her life.

One More Time

One of my favorite configurations in music is a great singer and a piano. The Tony Bennett and Bill Evans albums (and the recent release of the outtakes on the complete version) are special works of art, like the rarest jewels, never to be duplicated.

So here we are one more time with Teena Marie and a piano, running down one of her classics, If I Were a Bell. If you've ever been close to a great singer it's really something else, and I don't know how Donnie withstood this. She pulls out all the stops, and this particular rendition is not an easy song to sing -- there's some technique flowing here.  Stick around to the end which packs a punch and a good line by Donnie.

Cuts for Cooky: Jackie DeShannon

Jackie DeShannon in '68, in what the caption on NPR's site called the "notorious Laurel Canyon," situated a bit north of LA in the Hollywood Hills.

Jackie DeShannon was interviewed on NPR's "Fresh Air" hosted by Terry Gross, and I have to admit, I was pretty taken. Her legend precedes her, of course, and I can remember being a terribly young boy and thinking she was cute, in the way that the teen girls were then to a little boy; kinda grown up, but way more fun and unattainable simply cuz I was a kid.

There are some quibbles with technicalities on the comments of the "Fresh Air" page, but I kinda think certain of the audience were listening to or for other things than I was. DeShannon's story, making it as a writer as a teenage girl (!) and using it as an entry into performing, is incredible enough. But she's very candid about her place as a woman in that men's world of that time; that's the bigger message, I think, and one that I felt important for Renee to know about. DeShannon said something very poignant about this subject in a very succinct manner; listen for it.

It's always cool to turn Renee onto the icons of my generation. I happened to be driving and the interview came on and I pulled over to text her back in LA to listen up. I just had a feeling that she'd dig DeShannon. Sure enough, Daddy knows his girl.

There's an element, maybe it's depth - whatever that means but hopefully conveys - to DeShannon that reminds me of Karen Carpenter and Patsy Cline. I don't know exactly what it is, but there's weight, a dimension to their singing that I like. And too, I like the dichotomy; pop songs with that je ne sais qua. It reminds me of what Brando said one time about Garland singing "Somewhere Over the Rainbow;" how it's utterly insipid - can it be any more puffy than little blue birds flying over a rainbow? - and yet, it brings tears to your eyes when you watch "Dorothy." I suppose some would also say it's analogous to soul and black singers, but I don't think so, because listening to Marvin Gaye, who for my money is soul embodied, produces a very different feeling for me. The life experiences, manifested in the different genres and feeling, no doubt have something to do with it.

Collaborating early on with Jimmy Page - whom she would date, break up with and allegedly be the inspiration for "Tangerine" on Zeppelin III - and Randy Newman, the first a certified legend and the latter a stellar writing and performing pro, it seems Jackie DeShannon is never mentioned when it comes to great musicians of that era. This week she's being inducted into the Songwriter's Hall of Fame, and I think her having roots in writing has something to do with having that depth.

Earlier today, I happened to come across a maker of preserves, June Taylor, here in Berkeley. She crafts everything by hand from organic ingredients culled from local growers as well as her own. During our conversation, she mentioned that she was in Santa Monica recently on a research mission, to a special collection of 16th century books on preserve making. This is something that's utterly lost on today's mechanized, bigger, stronger, faster, society - craftsmanship and knowing one's place in history, the mother of all subjects. (I recommend her: www.junetaylorjams.com)

I mention June Taylor because I think craftswomanship has something to do with Jackie DeShannon, because she has an obvious love and affection for historical influences. Plus, the act of crafting a song is a much different process than, say, performing it. I don't mean to diminish performers, because I have all the respect in the world for comedians, actors, singers, musicians, but I happen to be prejudiced; I think an artist of the caliber of a Ralph Ellison - even if he basically only produces one work - is, in general a far more profound artist. To make a crude analogy, writing implies thoughtfulness and a material process in time, while performing is not thinking but doing in the moment.

This is my favorite Jackie DeShannon song, one of her earliest, performed here on the happening show of the time, "Hullabaloo." One of the elements I appreciate on this song is its production which has a Phil Spector feel. I also love good riffs - Page has said that Zep was, if nothing else, a riff heavy band - and this is one, a simple arpeggio with panache. Watch for her miscue in the beginning as this is lip synched; it's pretty cute as she catches herself. In the NPR interview, it's interesting to hear her talk of the way she had to present herself, and to then watch her shimmy shamming here in light of that.

I do know this now after hearing her interview; it's easy to see why she's adored by musicians and fans alike.

Cuts for Cooky: Etta James, Sugar on the Floor

I heard Miss Etta sing this not too long ago, and though she's lost a lot of technique and skill because of age - she sings exclusively sitting down these days - I remarked to Fish that she still brings it. That's due to the fact that she's lived, something that can't be taught, only experienced. And what a life, one that Beyonce's portrayal can only hint at.

This song, written by disco princess and sometime Elton John collaborator Kiki Dee, was prefaced when I heard her later version as being her mama's favorite song. This version's from back in the day as her afro attests to, and she here says it's her own favorite.

The Art of the Steal

[NOTE: Spoiler Alert]
By today's standards, an estimated $25-$30 billion art theft seems ho-hum quaint next to a Bernie Madoff ($50+ billion), let alone uncle scam's historic TARP+ at some $14 trillion theft to the pig banks.(*) However, what cuts the theft of Dr. Albert C. Barnes' foundation from the same notorious cloth is the fabric of war woven by the eCON elites upon a man's vision, his will and those entrusted to protect his estate.

Thanks to the diligence of filmmaker Don Argott and his team, this war story now makes it to the screen and hopefully to a wide consciousness. The sheer outrageousness, the hubris of the eCONs is something to behold. It's like being a silent witness to the ouster of Native Americans from Georgia; you watch them trudge off on the Trail of Tears while white men swoop in behind them and plunder the land for gold. All with the blessing of President Jackson and wrapped in the arms of uncle scam's flag.

It is no less in principle with the Barnes Foundation. With the Philadelphia apparatchiks - both state and local - and the judiciary doing the strongarm stuff at the behest of very powerful commercial interests such as the Pew Trust - the hunters circle the bison then wipe them out. Once again and in clinical fashion and gory details, we see the myth of "inefficient government" being blown to bits.

Stories like the fate of the Barnes Foundation are particularly poignant in the midst of EM08 to the point where they no longer function as metaphor or allegory, but as corollary - just as the Madoff case. Sadly, the looting of Dr. Barne's school and the rape of his will is nothing less than perfect harmony to the ultra-violence being done via EM08.

It really is an excellent movie, if you've the stomach for it.

Painting by Giorgio de Chirico, portrait of Dr. Albert C. Barnes


TAotS Site




TRAILER


==============
* I say "TARP+" because the money stolen from innocent people and given to the pig banks is far beyond TARP itself, which was about $750 billion. To wit, see Nomi Prins:


Even worse, no one in congress has said ANYTHING about the CRAs and the conflict of interest relationship with the pig banks at the heart of EM08, regulating the shadow derivatives market that Brooksley Born warned about before being silenced by the three headed hydra of Greenspan, Rubin & Summers and last but not least, separating the investment and commercial banking interests a'la Glass-Steagall before Phil Gramm led the charge to decimate it via the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, with the backing of shitheads like Jamie Dimon coach Sandy Weill and even foreign banks like UBS. In an astounding coincidence, Gramm now helps run UBS's investment banking division. Small world, eh?

David Shrigley & Chris Shepherd: Who I Am and What I Want

I first mentioned Who I Am and What I Want by Chris Shepherd and David Shrigley a couple of years ago. Yeah I get waylaid. anyway, I love its (unintentional...?) surrealism; I think Peret would love it. Here're some stills and the vid. It still holds up. Info on it is here.

You're OUTTA Here Man!

Here's that staged vid of the spoiled kid going freakshow; I thought I'd post this because it makes me think that this is how Jamie Dimon was as a kid.

I have to then follow that up with this by Mike Epps about these kinds of kids. Too funny.

Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow

A recent talk with Mikey has stuck with me where we were determining root causes of the mess we're in. By "mess" we mean that EM08 is just an expression of some things deeply wrong at base with our society. Lives of quiet desperation are now being heard, but it's not nearly enough in the face of forces with so much of a lead it's like running a mile race giving a 3 lap head start to the competition. How could it have gone so wrong?


Mikey mentioned he thought that much of it had to do with education, and I immediately agreed. We may differ a bit on certain particulars and/or exponents, but at base we think that it assumes responsibility for quite a bit that happens in society. Here are a few things I think are worthy of discussion when it comes to education:


1. One of the cliches we like to repeat here is the advocacy of literacy. This boils down here to reading, which is fine, but is not a rounded definition of "literacy." There are in the main 3 facets: reading, writing and speaking. Generally, until people have assimilated these basic tools, they will be unequipped to deal with the world in its varied forms in any way other than a reactionary one. In gambling terms, without these tools, they are in effect bred to be fish, the suckers who sit at the table and think they can play.


2. Relevance. Young people in particular are all about themselves, and in some ways, rightly so. They are the fawns on spindly legs, walking, but it's kinda awkward. That would tend to focus one's awareness upon one's self. Recently, I read an article stressing the need for us to get our young people inculcated into math and science because those are the skills that are going to be necessary to give one the odds for success in the future.


Oh really?


As they are handed down in Uncle Scam's system, math and science have been gutted of all forms of life and reduced to rote memory. This is why the liberal and fine arts in school have been destroyed in this country; because they get young people to creatively think, proactively think. And if they're lucky to have a teacher who's alive inside, all the better.


With the dominance of memorization in our schools, it's no wonder that young people are dropping out in record numbers. Educational curricula and methodology leave them bored - and rightly so.


3. What is it to be alive? A very wise man once said, "Point in any direction, and there's the infinite. But the shoddiness of our lives, the drudgery, dulls us to that astounding fact. Instead, most of us march to our graves, never gaining an inch on the most essential question of all; "Why was I born?"


This speaks to wonder, the essential mystery of life, which is completely removed from education, save for religious schooling which is a whole other can of worms. But I grew up in an overwhelmingly Catholic environment; my next door neighbor, Steve, went to parochial school, and I knew several others as well, and if it was one thing we public school plebes had in common with them it was our verdict that our schools were as interesting as watching paint dry.


If a lie is also the hiding of the truth, then the removal of this essential mystery from education is wrong from the very start. More accurately, it's dishonest. At first, young kids aren't stupid, but they can be pounded into submission and intellectual oblivion.


4. Why isn't education interesting, fun and dynamic? This is more a rhetorical question. But it does seem weird that the vast majority of school is boring, lifeless and dull, then when students enter the workforce their jobs are the same. Coincidence?


One of the most interesting things I ever learned was that seeing was not just physiological but psychological. Here's an example; take a pinball machine. As you play, you hear the bells and other associated noises, and you see the ball rolling around, hitting the bumpers and associated flippers. But what you "do not see" are the reflections on the top glass as you're involved in playing. I learned that from the great Noel Burch, a film theorist.


Another wise person once gave me the most sensible reason for why we're alive; "To grow perception, awareness."


Ask yourself if your education did that consistently for you. If not, why do you think that was?


I'm a big fan of John Taylor Gatto. Here's something basic from him:

Cuts for Cooky: Betty Mabry-Davis - They Say I'm Different

Of all the unsung badazzez from my day, I'd have to say Elaine Brown, Ericka Huggins and David Hilliard are at the top of my list. But this list is incomplete without Betty Davis.

A complete unknown to those under 50, I suspect with time she'll be co-opted. It's just a matter of time before Quentin or some other hipster "soundtracks her" in yet another self-conscious, self aware, self-referencing scene.

YAAAAAAAWN.

As for Ms. Davis, those who dug funk know she laid it down head to head with Funkadelic, Sly, Zapp and the best of them. Why she's unknown is one of those mysteries of the cosmos, because she is thoroughly bad. I think she also arranged and produced in addition to her writing and singing, making her a legit quad threat.

Married to Miles for a year - and supposedly influential in Miles' legendary turn toward rock/fusion, with Tribute to Jack Johnson and the better known Bitches Brew (both with a young John McLaughlin) - and thus the "Davis" surname, she's only in her early 60's, but lord knows where she is now, much less if she even has an interest in music.

Make no mistake; this is hard funk and this album kicks out the jams. The arrangements, the mix, the farfisa (?), the wah wah, the funky bass playing, shit, the funkiness.... This, the title joint, displays her knowledge of history, goin' all the way to the root down by the crossroads. That in itself is remarkable for a then young 20 something.

So hipsters and posers please, leave us old boomers something unsullied by your oh so smart britches, and we'll just slink off into the sunset, leaving you to your post-post-post... modern earful!

Damn, she was the nuts!

John Taylor Gatto

Wow. Telling it like it is. I have so much more to say about JTG, but for now, check these out.

Cuts for Cooky: Dylan's "Like a Rolling Stone"

It was ten pages long. It wasn't called anything, just a rhythm thing on paper all about my steady hatred directed at some point that was honest. In the end it wasn't hatred, it was telling someone something they didn't know, telling them they were lucky. Revenge, that's a better word. I had never thought of it as a song, until one day I was at the piano, and on the paper it was singing, 'How does it feel?' in a slow motion pace, in the utmost of slow motion.

-Wiki

Brutal honesty and raw emotion overflow here. Mix with one of the greatest rolling riffs, "the great white blues hope," Mike Bloomfield, a very young (21!) Al Kooper, the delivery of a hall of famer, and you get this cut.

I was very young when I got Bob Dylan's Greatest Hits, but this song stood out even amongst all his other great ones. Jimi covered it, and when I looked on Jimi's Smash Hits and saw who'd penned All Along the Watchtower I felt validated about my instincts. [Interestingly, Jimi's cover of Like a Rolling Stone isn't as good, but his cover of All Along the Watchtower is the definitive standard, even by Dylan's admission. More on that song in another post.]

At six minutes, it had an episodic quality, and the narrative made me feel like I'd voyeuristically peeked into something very personal in Dylan's life. (For me, looking back [Ha. Don't Look Back.] makes me see how something so personal was, paradoxically, epic feeling because of the music...? Hmmm, gotta think about that one a bit more.) It was probably one of the first times I'd realized that highly personal interpretations of reality were the ones to look for.

I'm not a Springsteen fan, but on the Wiki for LaRS, he says:

The first time I heard Bob Dylan, I was in the car with my mother listening to WMCA, and on came that snare shot that sounded like somebody had kicked open the door to your mind.

Now, over forty years later, this song has lost nothing.

The Musicians:
Mike Bloomfield - guitar
Al Kooper - organ
Paul Griffin - piano
Joe Macho, Jr. - bass
Bobby Gregg - drums.


Produced by Tom Wilson


June 15–16, 1965, Studio A, Columbia Records, New York City.

Dylan invited Bloomfield to participate, and Wilson chose the other musicians. Gregg and Griffin had previously worked with Dylan and Wilson on Bringing It All Back Home.[19] Kooper, 21 years old at that time, was not originally supposed to play at all, but was a guest of Tom Wilson.[20] However, as Wilson was not present at the time, Kooper sat down with his guitar with the other musicians. By the time Wilson returned, Kooper, who had been intimidated by Bloomfield's guitar playing, was away in the control room. Wilson moved Griffin from Hammond organ to piano. Kooper then went to Wilson, saying that he had a good part for the organ. Wilson belittled Kooper's organ abilities but, as Kooper later said, "He just sort of scoffed at me....He didn't say 'no'—so I went out there." Wilson, surprised to see Kooper at the organ, nevertheless allowed him to play on the track. Upon hearing a playback of the song, Dylan, despite Wilson's protestations that Kooper was "not an organ player," insisted that Kooper's organ be turned up in the mix

-Wiki

Read the rest on the Wiki for LaRS - it really is interesting, such as how the Columbia marketing department hated it. Stupid suits.

===================================================
Once upon a time you dressed so fine
You threw the bums a dime in your prime, didn't you?
People'd call, say, "Beware doll, you're bound to fall"
You thought they were all kiddin' you
You used to laugh about
Everybody that was hangin' out
Now you don't talk so loud
Now you don't seem so proud
About having to be scrounging for your next meal.


How does it feel
How does it feel
To be without a home
Like a complete unknown
Like a rolling stone?


You've gone to the finest school all right, Miss Lonely
But you know you only used to get juiced in it
Nobody has ever taught you how to live out on the street
And now you're gonna have to get used to it
You said you'd never compromise
With the mystery tramp, but now you realize
He's not selling any alibis
As you stare into the vacuum of his eyes
And say do you want to make a deal?


How does it feel
How does it feel
To be on your own
With no direction home
A complete unknown
Like a rolling stone?


You never turned around to see the frowns on the jugglers and the clowns
When they all did tricks for you
You never understood that it ain't no good
You shouldn't let other people get your kicks for you
You used to ride on the chrome horse with your diplomat
Who carried on his shoulder a Siamese cat
Ain't it hard when you discover that
He really wasn't where it's at
After he took from you everything he could steal.


How does it feel
How does it feel
To have you on your own
With no direction home
Like a complete unknown
Like a rolling stone?


Princess on the steeple and all the pretty people
They're all drinkin', thinkin' that they got it made
Exchanging all precious gifts
But you'd better take your diamond ring, you'd better pawn it babe
You used to be so amused
At Napoleon in rags and the language that he used
Go to him now, he calls you, you can't refuse
When you ain't got nothing, you got nothing to lose
You're invisible now, you got no secrets to conceal.


How does it feel
How does it feel
To be on your own
With no direction home
Like a complete unknown
Like a rolling stone?

Cuts for Cooky: Donny Hathaway's "Someday We'll All Be Free"

One of the greatest songs about the hope of hopes; freedom for all.

Donny was in that category with Marvin; he was, as we used to say, deep. Before I heard Extension of a Man he'd had success with Roberta Flack on some pop hits (Where is the Love the most well-known) and I just thought he was good, not great. The one exception that made me take note from the album with Roberta Flack was, For All We Know.

When I heard this cut I was a young man, and spinning out of control. It's safe to say that music let alone one song didn't turn me around, but it did mean a lot to me.

Today I listen to this and think about that time, the early 70's... a lot was happening besides me being crazy... Donny sounds even more relevant, powerful now, and, like Jimi and Marvin, deep.

Cuts for Cooky: Jimi's "Little Wing"

Taking a cue from the late great Man in Black, who left his daughter a list of 100 songs he felt she should be familiar with, this is your list, Renee.

This is the perfect song to lead off with because it reminds me of you.