Neil Young – Citizen Kane Junior Blues
1-11
Recorded live at The Bottom Line in New York on May 16, 1974
12
Recorded live during 1973, location unknown
13
Recorded live at the Carnegie Hall in New York on December 5, 1970.
Neil Young – Citizen Kane Junior Blues
Before the days of the internet, this bootleg was often considered the holy grail of Neil Young bootlegs particularly for its inclusion of many On The Beach tunes. It is also an unannounced set. The story goes that Neil Young, who was at the Bottom Line in New York on May 16, 1974 to see Ry Cooder, was so inspired that he did a special one-hour acoustic guest set after Cooder. Neil Young is very upbeat and talkative during this set. In the set he tells numerous stories – including how to make “honey slides” and why he doesn’t play Southern Man anymore.
Here’s some bootleg info I found to make it interesting:
“Neil did not tour as a solo act during 1974 (he did a brief tour with CSNY), and therefore his excellent On The Beach stuff doesn’t show up on many bootlegs. This (is) an all-acoustic show featuring Neil performing solo during his supposedly “depressed” period (after the OD deaths of his guitarist and roadie) between On The Beach and Tonight’s The Night. Can’t tell he’s depressed here – he’s friendly and talkative and doesn’t even get upset when a few members of the small crowd yell for Southern Man – instead he tells a funny story about the same thing happening in LA. What really makes this one stand out, besides the happy/chatty Neil is the setlist, which includes some rare appearances of a few songs from the aforementioned NY album On The Beach, including Motion Pictures, Revolution Blues, On The Beach,and the quintessential Neil tune Ambulance Blues.
“With the exception of Helpless, all of the songs were unreleased at the time of this performance, making for some interesting first impressions by the crowd. On The Beach is the backdrop for this recording, with four of its songs performed live. Renditions of Pardon My Heart, Long May You Run, Roll Another Number and Flying On The Ground Is Wrong” (recorded in a 1970 Carnegie Hall performance) round out the songs. This has been called a SBD, but it is clearly not – some distance between the mic and Neil is apparent; however, it is a quality audience tape, with Neil’s guitar/harmonica and voice all clear.”
Kevin Ayers and the Whole World live in Driebergen Holland 1970
This Kevin Ayers bootleg is called as “Colours of the Day”, it features a live concert at Driebergen, Holland, broadcast by VPRO on 30 July 1970. In it, Kevin Ayers plays songs off of his first two solo records with some Soft Machine standards mixed in.
KEVIN AYERS
Driebergen, Holland, July 30, 1970FM broadcast – (53′22″)
01 – The oyster and the flying fish
02 – Lady Rachel
03 – We did it again
04 – Hat song
05 – Clarence in Wonderland
06 – Colores para Dolores
07 – Why are we sleeping?
Kevin Ayers
Lol Coxhill
David Bedford
Mike Oldfield
Robert Wyatt
and Bridget St. John on track 1
The American Metaphysical Circus (1969)
“The American Metaphysical Circus is a landmark psychedelic recording of the late 1960s, largely unparalleled in having remained in print for nearly 20 years. It was recorded by Joseph “Joe” Byrd after his departure from the band The United States Of America, and featured some of the earliest recorded work in rock music utilizing extensive use of synthesizers and vocoder, along with an extended group of West Coast studio musicians he named as Joe Byrd and the Field Hippies.“ – Wikipedia
The American Metaphysical Circus (1969)
“The album is most noted for “The Sub-Sylvian Litanies” which opened Side A. This three part-suite has been described as “an entire acid trip in 11 minutes”. Other album highlights include the similarly-oriented “The Elephant At The Door”, and the politically-charged “Invisible Man”, written for and aimed squarely at President Lyndon B. Johnson. Two of the more unusual tracks on the record are “Mister Fourth Of July” – a ragtime tune complete with scratchy 78RPM-style effects, and “Leisure World”, featuring narration from long-time ABC voice-over and “Ghoulardi” originator Ernie Anderson in an ode to California’s first retirement mega-community.
Among the musicians featured on the record are prominent West Coast studio musicians Tom Scott and the late Ted Greene, who is credited with the album’s stellar guitar work in one of his few recorded appearances. Meyer Hirsch was a member of the Buddy Rich Big Band. Vocalist Victoria Bondhas gone on to a prominent career as a classical composer, conductor and vocalist. Fred Selden, a student of Byrd’s at UCLA, joined the Don Ellis Orchestra (led by Byrd’s partner in the UCLA New Music Workshop), received a Grammy nomination, and later returned to UCLA to receive his PhD.
The extensive use of effects, delays, echoes, backwards vocals and other recording tricks and techniques are reminiscent of some of the experiments and work carried out by George Martin on behalf of The Beatles during their psychedelic phase of the late 1960’s, as well as Pink Floyd – Byrd in fact referenced Martin in a 2004 interview.
The album’s cult status was confirmed by its presence in the Columbia Masterworks catalog for an estimated twenty years. Byrd reported in 2002 in an interview published on Salon.com and follow-up in regards to a letter filed in the infamous Napster music copyright case, that despite estimated sales of at least 100,000 units for The American Metaphysical Circus alone, he had never received a penny of royalties for either The United States Of America or The American Metaphysical Circus from Sony/Columbia/CBS.
Because “The American Metaphysical Circus” offered a markedly different sound in its intense horn and woodwind arrangements and even more novel content than on the earlier “The United States of America” release, many fans of the earlier record are not as enchanted with the latter, and vice-versa. In the UK, the first United States of America was more well-known and highly regarded, in part because of the inclusion of one track on a popular Columbia sampler album, The Rock Machine Turns You On, which was not released in the United States. In the U.S. the remarkable persistence of “The American Metaphysical Circus” kept it in print for nearly twenty years in the Columbia catalog, whilst “The United States of America” was relegated to cut-out bins shortly after its 1968 release. The fact the United States of America remained largely obscured, as discussed by lead singer Dorothy Moskowitz in a 2003 interview , until a revival driven by English bands including Portishead, Broadcast and Radiohead in the 1990’s, speaks to the historical significance of each release in each country.
It has become a popular and oft-repeated misconception, with the more recent revival of interest in The United States of America, that The American Metaphysical Circus was not as popular or a commercial success, whereas factual information discussed by Byrd surrounding the Napster case and the experience of American record enthusiasts confirms exactly the opposite.
Prior to its re-release, mint vinyl copies of The American Metaphysical Circus were sold by collectors for prices sometimes in excess of $100US, and the both the original 1969 issue and 1996 CD still command premium prices on collector Web sites. Atlantis Records described the 1999 re-release as “sought after 60’s American Psych/Electronic rock classic from United States of American mainman Joseph Byrd” . Gatefold Records offered “Welcome re-issue of the 1969 followup to the United States of America album (Joe Byrd was the leader of that group). Trippy Moog and electronics noodling mixed with stunning bursts of fuzzed out guitars and acid-damaged lyrics”.
lot of people overlook that this is a concept album about death, dying and decline.
The deaths (or invitations to death) are 60s current-event related — death by ghetto violence, by the Vietnam War, or by taking LSD and jumping out the window. What? you might ask. When on the album does someone take LSD and jump out a window?
Maybe they don’t, but maybe they do. This album is open to myriad interpretations. The first words on the album are the chant, “Waiting to die,” the end product of a contemplative or drug-induced trance from which immediately springs the song “You Can Never Come Down.” Come down from acid? Sure, that’s the initial interpretation. After all, she tells him that he’s “Trapped on a mountain nobody can climb.” But how about if she were alluringly singing that he can’t come down if he jumped out the window?
“Come fly, angel, come fly gentle
Over your lady’s heathered meadow”
With Susan de Longe’s incomparably seductive voice, a sexual interpretation here is initially unavoidable, especially given some of the other lyrics. But do women generally seduce men who can never come down? (I suppose one could see him as being unable to come down from great success, but it doesn’t fit the attitude of the album.) Her last words to him are
“Come fly with me
Come die with me”
My preferred interpretation here is that she is illusory, the voice of LSD, enticing him to die, which he has been waiting for since before the song began. It is possible that she’s inviting him to have an orgasm — which the French call “petite morte,” or little death. Or perhaps she’s telling him to grow old with her until death.
Indeed, most of Side Two is taken up with songs about old age. Or, to put it another way, about not dying young. Some people don’t like side two, which at times is like listening to The Firesign Theatre with much blacker comedy. (A great comic moment from Side One: No one remembers President Johnson’s name in Johnson City.) This band is not above playing
nursing home music and doing a mock commercial for a retirement community, depicting Victoria Bond, another of the band’s singers, as a senior citizen, to make their point about living and dying, regardless of how unhip the sound.
Side Two is indeed blighted with a supposedly gospel song that actually sounds more like Salvation Army music. But as god-awful as the gospel song is, the side is redeemed by, “The Elephant At The Door.” This masterpiece of a song is both brutal about dying and cheerful about death. It describes an old person’s final decline in a way that could make you think
that jumping out the window on acid isn’t such a bad way to go. And that going isn’t such a bad thing to do.
“The things that sit and wait for you
To stumble in the dark
Will take the cobwebs from your eyes
And plant them in your heart
And sleep will come in different colors,
Clearer than you’ve ever seen before.”
The album does suggest reincarnation, such as the reprise from the geriatric “Sing-Along Song” being played on a baby’s cradle toy, and the album’s opening sung line, “Waitin’ to die for the seventeenth time.” The 17th time of waiting or dying?
As with life and death, the rules are unclear and subject to interpretation.
Despite it’s flaws, which include a bit of instrumental aimlessness, this is one of my 10 favorite albums of all time, famous or obscure, in any genre. “ – Wikipedia
The Sub-Sylvian Litanies
01. “Kalyani” – 3:52
02. “You Can’t Ever Come Down” – 3:02
03. “Moonsong: Pelog” – 3:47
American Bedmusic – Four Dreams For A Departing President
04. “Patriot’s Lullabye” – 2:49
05. “Nightmare Train” – 3:20
06. “Invisible Man” – 3:33
07. “Mister 4th of July” – 1:48
Gospel Music For Abraham Ruddell Byrd III
08. “Gospel Music” – 4:29
The Southwestern Geriatrics Arts and Crafts Festival
09. “Sing-Along Song” – 4:05
10. “Elephant at the Door” – 5:13
11. “Leisure World” – 2:36
12. “Sing-Along Song (Reprise)” – 0:48
Alien City – Alien City (1979)
Alien City – Alien City (1979)
“Originally released in a limited pressing of 500 copies, this album took five years to complete. That’s an absurd amount of time for a microscopically small, self-financed recording at any time — perhaps more so in the ’70s, when not everybody had the means of producing, pressing and distributing an album electronically like so many bedroom artists today. The man responsible for Alien City was a Seattle, WA native named Jon Turnbow, and his labor of love is actually a concept album. The concept is a little vague, it is described as “the Incarnation of Celestial Visitors,” but the message gets a bit lost over the course of the album.
The best description one could give of Alien City would be “Ziggy Stardust” or “Aladdin Sane” era Bowie, a little more glam/prog, a little less punk, and a bit more out of left field. Reports indicate that Jon might have spent time in an asylum after recording this album.“ – http://www.swanfungus.com
“Alien City was composed over a period of five years. It is a song cycle of epic proportions centering around the incarnation of Celestial Visitors to this planet. They take youthful bodies with the soul mission off increasing the intelligence of the human race. Alas, in their compassionate endeavors they become trapped in the pernicious web of the world and their aim becomes warped and sarcastic. In taking mortal bodies they lose their reference point, their center of gravity, and they eventually become as depraved and stupified as the very people they initially intended to illuminate. There is no story line; no characters are introduced. The work is arranged in four movements.“ – Liner notes
“‘Alien City’ is definitely different. Having listened to the album a dozen times, I’ll readily admit I’m still confused by the story. While the concept was certainly unique, Turnbow didn’t have much of a voice. On the other hand, exemplified by tracks such as “Information Overload”, “Older Men” and the instrumental “Suffer”, had a knack for crafting surprisingly catchy material. A couple of brief reviews compare the effort to mid-career Bowie. That’s not a bad comparison – think “Ziggy Stardust” era glam and you’ll have a feel for much of the project. ‘Alien City was composed over a period of five years. It is a song cycle of epic proportions centered around the Incarnation of Celestial Visitors to this planet’. Jon reportedly spent some time in an asylum after recording this LP“ – Acid Archives
Fleet Foxes (mp3) (video)
Watch out. These dudes take themselves pretty damn seriously.
Fleet Foxes – A Take Away Show from La Blogotheque on Vimeo.
Fleet Foxes Self Titled LP 2008
Fleet Foxes – Sun Giant EP 2008
Fleet Foxes – Live at Hi-Dive in Denver, Colorado (2008-04-14)
Fleet Foxes Self Titled EP (2006)
Dust Congress – Egg Tooth EP (mp3)
One of the best records of last year. Less than 15 minutes long. Good for cold weather. Slightly used. Made in Denton. No refunds. No calls after 9pm. Thx.
Jackson C. Frank (mp3)
Jackson C. Frank led a life filled with tragedy. His story is compelling if not downright unfortunate. If you haven’t read up on him, I’ve included his Wikipedia article below.
This post includes his Blues Run The Game – Expanded Edition. The sleeve of this CD claims to have captured every known recording by Jackson C. Frank. This collection can be a bit much, but there are some great songs in here.
Recommended tunes: Milk and Honey, Blues Run The Game, My Name Is Carnival, I Don’t Want To Love You No More.
Blues Run The Game – Expanded Deluxe Edition (Disc 1)
Blues Run The Game – Expanded Deluxe Edition (Disc 2)
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Jackson C. Frank.
Jackson Carey Frank (Buffalo, New York, March 2, 1943 – Great Barrington, Massachusetts, March 3, 1999) was an American folk musician.
Contents |
Early life
At the age of 11, a furnace exploded, sending a ball of flames down corridors until it ended up in Frank’s music classroom in the Cleveland Hill Elementary School in Cheektowaga, New York. [1] The fire killed fifteen of his fellow students and hospitalized him for seven months. It was during his time in the hospital that he was first introduced to playing music, when a teacher, Charlie Castelli, brought in an acoustic guitar to keep Frank occupied during his recovery. When he was 21, he was awarded an insurance check of $100,000 for his injuries, giving him enough to “catch a boat to England.”
Music career
His 1965 self-titled album, Jackson C. Frank, was produced by Paul Simon while the two of them were also playing folk clubs in England. Frank was so shy during the recording that he asked to be shielded by screens so that Paul Simon, Art Garfunkel, and Al Stewart (who also attended the recording) could not see him, claiming ‘I can’t play. You’re looking at me.’ The most famous track, “Blues Run the Game“, was covered by Simon and Garfunkel, and later by Counting Crows and Colin Meloy, while Nick Drake also recorded it privately. Another song, “Milk and Honey”, appeared in Vincent Gallo’s film The Brown Bunny, and was also covered by Fairport Convention, Nick Drake, and Sandy Denny, whom he dated for a while. During their relationship, Jackson convinced Sandy to give up nursing (then her profession) and concentrate on music full time.
Although Frank was well received in England for a while, in 1966 things took a turn for the worse as his mental health began to unravel. At the same time he began to experience writer’s block. His insurance payment was running out so he decided to go back to the United States for two years. When he returned to England in 1968 he was deemed a different person. His depression, stemming from the childhood trauma of the classroom fire, had increased and he had no self-confidence. Al Stewart recalled that
“[Frank] proceeded to fall apart before our very eyes. His style that everyone loved was melancholy, very tuneful things. He started doing things that were completely impenetrable. They were basically about psychological angst, played at full volume with lots of thrashing. I don’t remember a single word of them, it just did not work. There was one review that said he belonged on a psychologist’s couch. Then shortly after that, he hightailed it back to Woodstock again, because he wasn’t getting any work.“
Woodstock 1970
While in Woodstock, he married Elaine Sedgwick, an English former fashion model. They had a son, though he died of Cystic Fibrosis, and later a daughter, Angeline. This sent Frank into a period of great depression, and he was committed to an institution. By the early 70’s Frank had become so pitiful that he began to beg aid from friends. Karl Dallas wrote an enthusiastic piece in 1975 in Melody Maker, and in 1978, his 1965 album was re-released as Jackson Frank Again, with a new cover sleeve, although this did not encourage fresh awareness of Frank.
1980s – death
In 1984, Frank took a trip to New York City in a desperate bid to locate Paul Simon, but he ended up sleeping on the sidewalk. His mother, who had been in hospital for open heart surgery, found him gone with no forwarding address when she arrived home. He was living on the street and was frequently admitted and discharged from various institutions. He was treated for paranoid schizophrenia when he actually had depression caused by the trauma he had experienced as a child. Just as Frank’s prospects seemed to be at their worst, a fan from the area around Woodstock, Jim Abbott, discovered him in the early 1990s. Abbott had been discussing music with Mark Anderson, a teacher at the local college he was attending. The conversation had turned to folk music, which they both enjoyed, when Abbott asked the teacher if he had heard of Frank. He recollected:
- “I hadn’t even thought about it for a couple of years, and he goes, ‘Well yes, as a matter of fact, I just got a letter from him. Do you feel like helping a down-on-his-luck folk singer?“
Frank, who had known Anderson from their days at Gettysburg College, had decided to write him to ask if there was anywhere in Woodstock he could stay after he had made up his mind to leave New York City. Abbott phoned Frank, and then organized a temporary placement for him at a senior citizens’ home in Woodstock. Abbott was stunned by what he saw when he travelled to New York to visit Frank.
- “When I went down I hadn’t seen a picture of him, except for his album cover. Then, he was thin and young. When I went to see him, there was this heavy guy hobbling down the street, and I thought, ‘That can’t possibly be him’…I just stopped and said ‘Jackson?’ and it was him. My impression was, ‘Oh my God’, it was almost like the elephant man or something. He was so unkempt, dishevelled.” a further side effect of the fire was a thyroid malfunction causing him to put on weight. “He had nothing. It was really sad. We went and had lunch and went back to his room. It almost made me cry, because here was a fifty-year-old man, and all he had to his name was a beat-up old suitcase and a broken pair of glasses. I guess his caseworker had given him a $10 guitar, but it wouldn’t stay in tune. It was one of those hot summer days. He tried to play Blues Run The Game for me, but his voice was pretty much shot.“
Soon after this, Frank was sitting on a bench in New York while awaiting a move to Woodstock, when someone shot him in his left eye and consequently blinded him. At first no reason was given for this but it was later determined that children from the neighborhood were firing a pellet gun indiscriminately at people and Frank happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. Abbott then promptly helped him move to Woodstock. During this time, Frank began recording some demos of new songs, but despite some beautiful lyrics and melodies they were unfortunately disappointing,[citation needed] deficient of the harmonious ease of his original album, although Frank’s resurfacing did lead to the first CD release of Jackson C. Frank.
Frank died of pneumonia and cardiac arrest in Great Barrington, Massachusetts on March 3, 1999, at the age of 56. Though he never achieved fame during his lifetime, his songs have been covered by many well-known artists, including Simon and Garfunkel, Counting Crows, Nick Drake, Sandy Denny, and Bert Jansch. In September 2006, an unreleased song, known only as Woodstock 1970 was offered as an audio track on a Norwegian only audiobook of a new novel titled “Babylon Badlands” by Levi Hendriksen.
Frank’s song “I Want To Be Alone”, also known as “Dialogue”, appeared on the soundtrack for the film Daft Punk’s Electroma.
Marianne Faithfull has recently covered Frank’s poignant folk song “Kimbie” on her latest album Easy Come, Easy Go. Faithfull has included the song in the repertoire of her 2009 tour.
Erland & The Carnival have also covered ‘My name is carnival’, apparently Frank’s favourite song. Bert Jansch has also covered this song as a gesture to Frank.
Sandy Denny’s song, “Next Time Around”, contains coded references to Frank, her ex-boyfriend.[2]
Discography
Albums
- Jackson C. Frank (1965)
Re-issues:- 1978 (‘Jackson Again’, vinyl), 1996 (CD), 2001 (vinyl), 2001 (CD), 2003 (2 CD)
Singles
- Blues Run the Game / Can’t Get Away From My Love (1965, 7″)
References
- ^ Rising to great acts of heroism, the tragedies of deadly school fires
- ^ “‘The lady she had a silver tongue’: Sandy Denny as singer-songwriter” by Philip M Ward (online article, 2005)
External links
- Jackson Carey Frank at the Internet Movie Database
- Jackson C. Frank homepage
- Jackson C Frank Complete Discography at the Folk Blues & Beyond website
- http://www.myspace.com/jacksoncfrank tribute album project
- Review of Jackson C. Frank at Crawdaddy!
Django Reinhardt (mp3) [2 LPs]
Nothing crazy here. Just two good Django records. Limehouse Blues man. Yeah.
Django Reinhardt – The Very Best of Django Reinhardt
Django Reinhardt – Swing From Paris
From amazon.com regarding Swing From Paris:
Although Django Reinhardt was famous for his mood swings and volatile temper, his unique guitar work remains beyond reproach and nearly impossible to copy. A fire cost him the use of two of his fingers on his left hand, but he turned this apparent handicap into an asset. Partner Stephane Grappelli was no doubt frustrated by Reinhardt’s fiery demeanor and his nearly confrontational rhythmic support, but Grappelli translated this frustration into musical magic–the unlikeliness of the pairing was central to its amazing success. On these late-1930s classics, Grappelli swings brightly and gracefully on violin while Reinhardt plays aggressively and often frenetically. Reinhardt’s conspicuous rhythm work is equally as impressive as his solos, often dominating the other three musicians and controlling the pace himself. “China Boy,” recorded six months before the famous Benny Goodman Trio recording, features the guitarist’s dramatic comping. Indeed, his passionate strumming threatens to swallow Grappelli’s solos at times, but the violinist always seems to respond with inspired licks. The two often play a game of one-upmanship, as the intensity builds to a blistering crescendo, Grappelli’s violin soaring over Reinhardt’s jagged rhythm. That’s not to say that Grappelli wasn’t capable of forceful and energetic lines, or that Reinhardt was unable to show sensitivity. Reinhardt’s pithy ideas reveal a vibrant sense of humor while his ballad style often uses sarcasm as a tool; Grappelli, in yet another contrast, usually treated these melodies with more respect. –Marc Greilsamer
Thurston Moore Interviews Beck and Mike D (video)
If you haven’t seen this yet, you probably should. It’s well worth trading a smoke break for a mid-90s “reality” check.