Dear Greil. Love your substack webpage. I think i built a wing on Rather Ripped records. I made many first finds there including a rare original copy of Albert Collins first album. Coincidentally i heard “Hunky Dory” for the first time at RRR. Never became a fan of Bowie’s. My question reading your account of the Stones at Altamont: doest it feel that the time is right for a modern Dylan to step forth and start capturing the times in which we live. I believe that songwriter will come out of the Americana pool. Id vote for Jason Isbell or Sturgill Simpson. Per your description of your favorite live band moment in an Aspen bar, i have lots of favorite music moments but two especially come to mind. Both the original Blasters and Willie DeVille at the Old Waldorf. Ive gone on to interview Dave Alvin several times as well as have his first Guilty Men play my 50th birthday. There was a punk magazine called Atomic Voodoo for music that produced an out of body experience. Both these groups repeated that experience many times. I hope your health has improved and life is treating you well. Take care
It was at Rather Ripped Records (the aforementioned Berkeley record store) that I first heard The Sex Pistols. And it was the aforementioned Winterland where I saw The Sex Pistols. No real reason to mention this, but one thing I've always loved about your writing is your location, which is often the same as mine. Plenty of other great critics, but you are the only one I am aware of that saw Prince at the Stone the same night l did, and then wrote about it so eloquently.
I found my first copy of "Anarchy in the UK" there, then "God Save the Queen," but neither came across fo me until "Pretty Vacant," which maybe because it was closer tro. a Beatles song turned our to be the Rosetta Stone. Then I could hear it all. That horrible power of "Anarchy in the UK." I thought it was a scary record. That same year I played it for the photo-historian Michael Lesy, one of the more morbid-armored people I know. He knew nothign about the Sex Pistols. I just said, "This is something I want you to hear." He didn't move through the whole thing. Then he started to shake.
No one asked, but I'll reply to the question of best/worst concert experience, at least from an artistic standpoint. Worst: Gordon Lightfoot at Ravinia Park north of Chicago, probably late 70's or early 80's. Short show, perfunctory hits blended together like a K-Tel commercial. During his alcoholic days, I think. Best: Easy one. Levon Helm and Rick Danko doing a one-off acoustic show in a University of Chicago classroom on a Friday night in February 1983. My friend and I sat a few feet away from The Band's rhythm section who whooped and hollered through a set of great Band songs as well as covers from, what I assume, had to be when they were The Hawks: Short Fat Fannie, Caledonia, Willie And The Hand Jive. Danko on guitar and Helm on mandolin and harmonica. Of course, they, along with Richard Manuel, were the voices of The Band and to hear them sing, basically, in a living room setting (basement, anyone?) was a time unsurpassed for me insofar as seeing a rock 'concert' if you will. And this week, we learned of Garth Hudson's death, so The Band is all gone now. I would see several of their 'reunion' (sans Robbie Robertson) shows over the 80's and 90's, but those became increasingly dispiriting. Only the Danko solo shows in Chicago bars caught some of the same intimacy and fun of that show with Helm in '83.
Lasalle is one of my favorite critics but when he recently praised Timothee Chalamet's Xerox of Karaoke singing because anyone can sing like Dylan I had to assume that Bob isn't exactly his fave rave.
“[H]ow love is the choice that can avert catastrophe” seems like an unJagger-like sentiment—do lots of people really see “Gimmie Shelter” as uplifting in this way?
Loved the reference to the band covering Paul Revere and the Raiders! In sort of the same vein, I find irresistible the YouTube clip of the Red Hot Chili Peppers's hard rocking cover of the Looking Glass '70s hit "Brandy (You're a Fine Girl)."
Things to Come. Diane saw a black cat. She ordered the video and we had fun following the big black tabby around.
Diane is sick. I'm caring for her. Trying to make our interior life interesting. Neil Young's Barn anyone?
I like Owen. Not trying to pick fights. But he stimulates thoughts. For Riot I like Family Affair, You Caught me Smiling, Running Away, Just Like A Baby, sometimes Spaced Cowboy and the part conceptual Thank You For Talking to Me Africa. I always saw it as a companion record to Lou Reed's bombed out Sally Can't Dance. They complete each other. Virtues-the empathy on Family Affair and Billy. That as Lester Bangs said about Van Morrison's Astral Weeks they both care about people for whom nobody else gives a shit. That's needed in the age of Trump. Emilia Preez-I'll have to check out others of his. The other two are the best songwriters I have ever known..
I thought the sound at Altamont was terrible. I was standing on a hill to the right of the stage. I’d been in front of the stage but left there when the Angels started causing trouble. The sound was so bad that my girlfriend and I left after four or five songs.I was 16.
"Elvis Dilaudid." From the original Dr. Nick recipe. Available now at CVS and Walgreen's. No prescription needed.
You may not be a "completist" but, for crissakes, you're a "Dylanologist." You protesteth too much. Stay well.
Dear Greil. Love your substack webpage. I think i built a wing on Rather Ripped records. I made many first finds there including a rare original copy of Albert Collins first album. Coincidentally i heard “Hunky Dory” for the first time at RRR. Never became a fan of Bowie’s. My question reading your account of the Stones at Altamont: doest it feel that the time is right for a modern Dylan to step forth and start capturing the times in which we live. I believe that songwriter will come out of the Americana pool. Id vote for Jason Isbell or Sturgill Simpson. Per your description of your favorite live band moment in an Aspen bar, i have lots of favorite music moments but two especially come to mind. Both the original Blasters and Willie DeVille at the Old Waldorf. Ive gone on to interview Dave Alvin several times as well as have his first Guilty Men play my 50th birthday. There was a punk magazine called Atomic Voodoo for music that produced an out of body experience. Both these groups repeated that experience many times. I hope your health has improved and life is treating you well. Take care
It was at Rather Ripped Records (the aforementioned Berkeley record store) that I first heard The Sex Pistols. And it was the aforementioned Winterland where I saw The Sex Pistols. No real reason to mention this, but one thing I've always loved about your writing is your location, which is often the same as mine. Plenty of other great critics, but you are the only one I am aware of that saw Prince at the Stone the same night l did, and then wrote about it so eloquently.
I found my first copy of "Anarchy in the UK" there, then "God Save the Queen," but neither came across fo me until "Pretty Vacant," which maybe because it was closer tro. a Beatles song turned our to be the Rosetta Stone. Then I could hear it all. That horrible power of "Anarchy in the UK." I thought it was a scary record. That same year I played it for the photo-historian Michael Lesy, one of the more morbid-armored people I know. He knew nothign about the Sex Pistols. I just said, "This is something I want you to hear." He didn't move through the whole thing. Then he started to shake.
No one asked, but I'll reply to the question of best/worst concert experience, at least from an artistic standpoint. Worst: Gordon Lightfoot at Ravinia Park north of Chicago, probably late 70's or early 80's. Short show, perfunctory hits blended together like a K-Tel commercial. During his alcoholic days, I think. Best: Easy one. Levon Helm and Rick Danko doing a one-off acoustic show in a University of Chicago classroom on a Friday night in February 1983. My friend and I sat a few feet away from The Band's rhythm section who whooped and hollered through a set of great Band songs as well as covers from, what I assume, had to be when they were The Hawks: Short Fat Fannie, Caledonia, Willie And The Hand Jive. Danko on guitar and Helm on mandolin and harmonica. Of course, they, along with Richard Manuel, were the voices of The Band and to hear them sing, basically, in a living room setting (basement, anyone?) was a time unsurpassed for me insofar as seeing a rock 'concert' if you will. And this week, we learned of Garth Hudson's death, so The Band is all gone now. I would see several of their 'reunion' (sans Robbie Robertson) shows over the 80's and 90's, but those became increasingly dispiriting. Only the Danko solo shows in Chicago bars caught some of the same intimacy and fun of that show with Helm in '83.
Lasalle is one of my favorite critics but when he recently praised Timothee Chalamet's Xerox of Karaoke singing because anyone can sing like Dylan I had to assume that Bob isn't exactly his fave rave.
“[H]ow love is the choice that can avert catastrophe” seems like an unJagger-like sentiment—do lots of people really see “Gimmie Shelter” as uplifting in this way?
Loved the reference to the band covering Paul Revere and the Raiders! In sort of the same vein, I find irresistible the YouTube clip of the Red Hot Chili Peppers's hard rocking cover of the Looking Glass '70s hit "Brandy (You're a Fine Girl)."
Greil that was great. You kinda faked me out.
I disagree with one violence reference..
Things to Come. Diane saw a black cat. She ordered the video and we had fun following the big black tabby around.
Diane is sick. I'm caring for her. Trying to make our interior life interesting. Neil Young's Barn anyone?
I like Owen. Not trying to pick fights. But he stimulates thoughts. For Riot I like Family Affair, You Caught me Smiling, Running Away, Just Like A Baby, sometimes Spaced Cowboy and the part conceptual Thank You For Talking to Me Africa. I always saw it as a companion record to Lou Reed's bombed out Sally Can't Dance. They complete each other. Virtues-the empathy on Family Affair and Billy. That as Lester Bangs said about Van Morrison's Astral Weeks they both care about people for whom nobody else gives a shit. That's needed in the age of Trump. Emilia Preez-I'll have to check out others of his. The other two are the best songwriters I have ever known..
I thought the sound at Altamont was terrible. I was standing on a hill to the right of the stage. I’d been in front of the stage but left there when the Angels started causing trouble. The sound was so bad that my girlfriend and I left after four or five songs.I was 16.
Who’s going to listen to Gimme Shelter 5 times today? Me, and I guess I won’t be the only one.
Although it is funny that an early Stones peak was “Not Fade Away” but their peak is “I’m gonna fade away.”
Bingo.