DVD Review: Leonard Cohen – The Live Broadcast Sessions 1985-1993

Text © Robert Barry Francos / FFanzeen, 2017

Images from the Internet

Leonard Cohen: The Live Broadcast Sessions 1985-1993

Go Faster Records / MVD Visual

118 minutes, 2016

www.mvdvisual.com

When Leonard Cohen died in November 2016, he was a Canadian, certified Zen monk and orthodox Jew who often sang songs using Christian symbolism, and he left the world a better place. There are many who call him “Canada’s Bob Dylan,” but honestly I would say it was the other way around, and Dylan was “American’s Cohen,” even though Dylan achieved fame first. Sure, Dylan has a way with words, and he’s now won a Nobel Prize for his songs/poetry, but if there was any justice, Cohen’s poems would be more recognized as they were more striking, lyrical and, structured. Dylan likes to rhyme lots of words together, but Cohen built his words into a tower of song, if you will.

However, one thing they definitely have in common is that their voices could be considered less than – err – culturally standard. Dylan’s is generally high and whiney, where Cohen’s is a low rumble, like a storm coming over the horizon.

I came to be a Cohen fan late, after his seminal Various Positions LP (1984), still my favorite set of his tunes, perhaps rivaled only by his Best of collection. I feel extremely lucky to have had the chance to see him perform live a couple of years ago, during his final tour. Sure I sat towards the rear, and yet it was a magical evening.

For this DVD, they compiled some live footage from European television during three tours. Being the day of VHS (or most likely PAL), the images have been significantly cleaned up (or taken from the master tape), though are still a bit grainy – though better than the clip below – but the sound is clear.

The first four cuts are from June 1985, at the Kalvøyafestivalen (Kalvoya Island Festival), in Sandvika, Norway. The 26-minute section starts off with a doo-wop tune (of all things) called “Memories,” from Death of a Ladies Man (1977). On stage, he is smoking a cigarette, puffing during the musical interludes of the songs. The last few albums were nearly whispered, and I wonder how much of that had to do with his heavy leaning on ciggy-butts at that time, because while his voice may not be the prettiest, he has some strong lung power and hits some notes at full volume. Also interesting is how he uses 1950s wrappings to discuss the possibilities of seeing his date’s naked body, or vice versa. “Heart With No Companion” is from Various Positions, a country-tinged tune (there is more than one on this release), mixed with a militaristic marching rhythm. It’s a tricky song because the verbiage sounds negative (e.g., “I sing this for the captain, whose ship has not been built”), but it’s actually about sending love to those who are suffering.

“The Story of Isaac” is from 1969’s Songs From a Room. It tells the Old Testament story of Abraham taking his son up the mountain to sacrifice to the new God to prove his devotion, but it’s taken from the perspective of the young Isaac. The set ends here, and Cohen leaves the stage to come back for the encore, with the apt “I Tried to Leave You,” from New Skin For the Old Ceremony, in 1974. Thematically it’s similar to Paul Simon’s “Overs,” in that the topic is the failure of a relationship breakup. This song goes on for a meandering 10 minutes as Cohen riffs commentary while introducing the band. Honestly, I was getting impatient after about the halfway point of the intros.

The second set, from May 1988, was also recorded in Norway, this time at the Oslo Konserthus (Oslo Concert House). This section is 50 minutes long, but also intersperses short interview segments; more on that later. This was aired as a complete program titled “Take This Waltz,” and it is shown here complete, including the full end credits, I’m happy to say.

The first cut is the powerful and heavily orchestrated “First We Take Manhattan,” a nice way to start off. It comes from the 1988 I’m Your Man record. The band here is tight, and the two women doing the background vocals are killer synced. This is one of the weirder songs in Cohen’s canon, as it is more opaque than most of his others as far as figuring out just what the significance is, and it has been discussed many times. It’s a great one and oft quotes (well, paraphrased), but I still don’t know what “First we take Manhattan / Then we take Berlin” means.

It’s also worth noting the stark difference between the previous 1985 show and this one. Only three years later and there is a cognitive shift going on. The first is still in the tail end of Cohen’s folk-singer-songwriter phase, but this is a turning point into full tilt mode. He’s mostly put down the guitar and began in earnest his trademark way to grasping the microphone cord; his look is also more stylized (which he would keep to the end, though no hat yet) including the loss of his trademark 5 o’clock shadow; his sound is more honed and pre-arranged, and his use of a wider orchestration is in play.

This is even true with some of the older songs, such as the next, “Joan of Arc,” from 1971’s Songs of Love and Hate. Here we are presented with an imagined conversation between Joan and the fire that would envelop her. It’s a brilliant piece that I’ve always liked from the first time I heard it. Here he shares the vocals ably with Julie Christensen (of the California alt-country punk band, The Divine Horsemen!), supported by Perla Batella. It’s an odd love song followed by one of an extreme level of lust, “I’m Your Man,” the title track off the 1988 album. Parts of it have the lyrical tone of Tom Lehrer’s “Masochism Tango,” or a list of possibilities like the Temptation’s “Can’t Get Next to You,” but with Cohen’s basso slow burn in sharps and flats with his patterned growl, it’s way more sensual.

Actually, it makes sense that this would be followed by “Ain’t No Cure for Love,” also from I’m Your Man. If I may digress for a second, between each songs are interviews by Vera Kvaal, who hosted the “TopPop” show at the time, from which I believe this was taken. Cohen discusses his writing, his mother, and his life, among topics. While it’s all very interesting, it kind of takes away from the music. For some songs that’s literally true because we only get to see an excerpts, starting while the song is in progress after the interview clip, and then it cuts away a few times after during the tune. Let me say, sighhhh.

Next, since he’s doing love songs, it’s time for an anti-love one, so he picks up his acoustic black Gibson tell does “Chelsea Hotel #2,” from New Skin…, which is about his brief fling with Janis Joplin. It’s a slow, explicit ballad that is touching and sad, like Harry Chapin’s “Taxi,” of a love that never grew beyond the physical. It’s full of remorse and nostalgia.

For the first of two times on the DVD, is his most covered song, “Hallelujah,” from Various Positions. While it’s a great number, for me it’s overplayed to the point where I’m getting a bit weary of it, when played by another than Cohen, surprisingly. Here, though, they only show part of what’s known as the “profane” version of the lyrics. This is followed by the quasi-doo-wop influenced paean to music, “Tower of Song,” from the I’m Your Man collection. With just the vocal back-up and Cohen on Technics electric piano with a pre-set rhythm keeping time, he gives us a love song not to a person, but to what he’s given his soul (music). Well, that’s how I interpret the lyrics, with music being anthropomorphic in a similar way as Chuck Berry did with a car in “Maybellene.” He finishes this segment with “Take This Waltz,” again from I’m Your Man.

The final 43-minute grouping is from May 1993, recorded at the Palau Municipal d’Esports, in Barcelona, Spain. It starts off strong with one of his then-later songs, “Closing Time,” off of his 1992 album, The Future. Again, this is a complete program that aired on Spanish television that they titled after his opening tune. It says something about the man that nearly 10 years later, he is still being backed vocally by Christensen and Batella. As for Cohen, his hair if definitely graying but his voice is still holding strong, with perhaps a bit more bass to it.

While the previous two shows were visually cleaned up digitally, here you can see a bit of the noise of the PAL transfer as lines will occasionally break out here and there. It’s definitely a fuzzier image than the earlier clips, but it’s also pretty clear relatively, especially when the lights are their brightest. Plus all the songs are captioned in Spanish, and the sound is still great.

Next up is the whispy and whispery “The Sisters of Mercy,” from Cohen’s first album, Songs of Leonard Cohen, in 1967. A tribute to prostitutes, I found the original recorded song a bit “tinny” on the vocals, but here they are quite a bit smoother as his voice has aged. The next tune is also a ballad, from I’m You’re Man, “I Can’t Forget.”

This time when we hear “Hallelujah,” we get most of the song without interruption, in all its (if you’ll pardon the pun) glory. It starts a couple of stanzas in, with “Baby, I’ve been here before…” and I don’t understand why they don’t just play the whole (again the pun) damn thing. His voice definitely has more growl on the powerful parts. Following is the repeated, lovely “I Tried to Leave You.” And again, it’s a long version, as Cohen introduced the band as each member plays a solo.

The final cut is “Democracy,” from The Future. This is a sarcastically timely song at the moment, especially since his death the day before the American election, as the line “Democracy is coming to the USA.” We can only hope that it will return soon, but I digress. This is one of the more powerful songs from his later period, in my opinion, so it is a good choice to close out the collection.

Leonard Cohen is sorely missed. I can honestly say that we own every one of his records (in various forms), though there are some I know better than others. If you are curious to know what you are missing, this is a nice collection through his work (well, until 1992, or course) to give you some idea of why he is mourned so deeply by so many. His death has definitely been a crack in our musical history, but a DVD like this is how the light gets in. RIP, Leonard, and thank you.

1985 Set List:

Memories

Heart With No Companion

Story of Isaac

I Tried to Leave You

1988 Set List:

First We Take Manhattan

Joan of Arc

I’m Your Man

Ain’t No Cure For Love (excerpt)

Chelsea Hotel #2

Hallelujah

Tower of Song

Take This Waltz

1993 Set List:

Closing Time

Sisters of Mercy

I Can’t Forget

Hallelujah

I Tried to Leave You

Democracy

From the 1988 set in Norway:

Jennifer Warnes, Broadway Theatre, Saskatoon, 20 September 2011

Text and photos © Robert Barry Francos, 2011



While Jennifer Warnes was a regular on the Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour television program during the 1960s and known simply by her first name, I was unaware of her. Didn’t watch the show much, in fact, immersed as I was in such other intelligent programming such as The Munsters, Gilligan’s Island, and Petticoat Junction. You know, high brow. I had enough of the troubles of the day in real life, so I escaped into mindless shows. And yet, I was a fan of the Smothers Brothers. Don’t know how I worked that out, actually.

Years later, in 1975, there was a brief reboot called The Smothers Brothers Show, on which she made an appearance. It was love at first voice. From there, I bought many of her early albums, such as I Can Remember Everything (on reel-to-reel!), See Me, Feel Me, Touch Me, Heal Me, and the John Cale produced Jennifer. Around this time, I also borrowed a Mason Williams album on which she appeared (…Ear Show) from my pal Bernie Kugel, which I eventually returned once I had found a copy of my own (which is not listed on her discography on Wikipedia, for some reason…).

When she came out with her country rock album, Right Time of the Night, I picked it up at the local EJ Korvettes. Happily, I saw her play the Bottom Line in 1977 (Jonathan Edwards opening). While Right Time was a hit, it was her all-Leonard Cohen Famous Blue Raincoat collection that brought her notoriety. And rightfully so, I may add. It came after years of touring and friendship with Cohen, and even had some sensitivity in spots that was lacking on the originals. She did the stunning “Song of Bernadette” from that album on the The Smothers Brothers 20th Anniversary Show in 1988.

While the Warnes fan will note all the above, if there is anyone who doesn’t know her by name, all one has to do is sing a bit from her multi-award-winning duo work, such as “Time of My Life” (with Bill Medley of the Righteous Brothers) from Dirty Dancing or “Up Where We Belong” (with Joe Cocker), the theme of Top Gun to get an “oh, yeah,” from just about anyone. There’s the also-award-winning theme to Norma Rae, of course.

Well, here it is many years and a some albums later, and I learn that Jennifer Warnes is not only on tour through Canada, but she is scheduled to be playing at the 430-seat Broadway Theatre on Sunday, September 18; of course, they needed to add a second night the next day. My tickets were for the second show.

We arrived early, and our tickets were waiting. The acoustics of the Broadway is impeccable, no matter where one sits, and we were happy to be there, even in the back row. Thrilled, actually. The crowd slowly came in to the sold out house, and by showtime, the place was packed, mostly with people in their 50s and above.

The stage was sparse, with two stools to the left and right, and in the middle, a sheet music stand next to a small table with glasses and water bottles. Behind, projected across the back curtain, was a blue light pattern in a series of stationary wavy, interconnected lines.

Introducing the show was the promoter, Jim Hodges, who did a fine job keeping all entertained with comments like mentioning that we owe a debt a thanks to the previous night’s audience because if they didn’t turn out and buy tickets so quickly, there would be no show this evening as it was added later. He also explained how Warnes wanted to play smaller houses on this limited, mostly cross-Canada tour.

Her backing group entered first, with guitarist Billy Watts on the left and bassist Taras Prodaniuk on the right. Then Jennifer entered the stage, with her classic look: white shirt, black vest, and red scarf.

She opened the show with Van Morrison’s ballad, “Carrying a Torch,” which set the mood for the rest of the show. It is amazing how after all these years, her voice is still like a fine wine that has mellowed, and yet retains every bit of power that was there from the ‘60s.

Thinking back to her earliest releases, her voice has deepened a little bit, in a way that actually better suits her present material. I believe that perhaps that’s why, in part, Famous Blue Raincoat was such a milestone record for her, because that is about when her voice settled into its present register.

As an expository, Jennifer posited that thanks to earlier business successes, she’s in a position in her life where she doesn’t need to promote anything, so she can happily sing whatever she wants to, and the audience was definitely warn to the concept by the round of applause the comment received.

In fact, there was a lot of talking on stage between numbers, and none of it felt out of place in the evening of song. We all enjoyed the banter among the three musicians, who seem genuinely fond of each other as they discussed their experiences in Saskatoon (e.g., having Saskatoon berries for the first time, Ukrainian restaurant food, Canadian content). More than once, Ms. Warnes broke out in a hearty laugh at one of the band’s comments. It never felt scripted or preplanned, in that Thank you [name of city], you’ve been great way, or any other. All the comments felt from the heart, whether it was a song descriptor or intra-band banter. It also helped make the show all the more intimate, like a house concert rather than a theater.

One of Jennifer’s comments that received a large round of applause was when she stated, “Thank you for letting me borrow your national poet for 40 years.” There was no need to explain who that was, as she told stories of some of their interchanges before breaking out into an absolutely stunning version of “Night Comes On” from Cohen’s Various Positions. I’d never heard her sing this one, and I sincerely believe she improved it, giving it a rich depth of emotion by saying certain lines as almost a whisper.

The opening song, though, was Van Morrison’s “Carrying a Torch,” followed by Jackson Browne’s “The Late Show.” She explained how she grew up with Browne, hanging out with him in her teens.

Throughout the show, she used the forum of the stage to promote some of her favorite songwriters, such as Stephen Bruton (“Heart of Hearts”) and Mickey Newbury (“So Sad”). With the exception of “Lights of Louisianne," a lovely song written by Warnes (prefaced by the story of how she saw her very first firefly in the Deep South, which inspired it), from The Hunter album, the evening was filled with covers, which she of course made her own.

After nearly an hour, the band left the stage for a 10 minute intermission. She kept her promise of not sticking only to her canon, and gave the audience new material to appreciate.


When they came back (heck, when we all came back), Taras was wearing a 10 gallon hat, which apparently was apropos as they broke into the fastest song of the night, the C&W drenched “Slow This Son of a Bitch Down” (I think that was the name, anyway). Keeping the genre (and Canadian content) going, this tune was followed by one written by Alberta’s country legends, Ian Tyson.

From there, the band shifted gears into Blues territory, including “Go Crazy” and Allen Toussaint’s wonderful “It’s Raining.” After the beautiful “Angel Mine,” Warnes described in an amusing anecdote how she met Bob Dylan and recorded “Every Grain of Sand” with him, which appeared on Dylan’s Bootleg series.. She then began Dylan’s “Deal Goes Down,” after praising his early 1990’s period.

Yet, somewhere I suppose she knew that the audience had some level of expectation, as much as the crowd had enjoyed the dozen or more songs that were presented so far. So, towards the end of the set, she relented and did Cohen’s “No Cure for Love,” to the crowd’s delight; it was a huge Canadian radio hit at the time of its release. After the applause eventually died down a bit, she went on to explain how Buffy Sainte-Marie brought her a song that spiritually changed her life. As the audience writ large know “Up Where We Belong,” it was an upbeat theme produced with a jingoistic air for a war film, but on this night, Warnes sang it as a slow ballad, giving it an entirely new meaning, proving it actually is a better song than many of us were aware (okay, than I realized, happy?).

With that, they left the stage to an audience that was not going to leave without an encore, as the ovation indicated. Sure enough, they returned to the stage, with Jennifer apologetically explaining that the desert air of Saskatoon was having an effect on her throat, so it would be the last song. She went on to once again connect to this specific city’s audience that she was a huge Joni Mitchell fan, and while on the Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour in the ‘60s, she tried to sing her songs twice, and they were terrible (her description). Instead, she left us all with Dylan’s beautiful “To Make You Feel My Love.”

At this point I would like to digress and comment on how accomplished her accompaniment was this evening. Watts, who is from the Canadian Maritimes, has a way around the guitar that can be both gentle and strong, crossing many genres. He’s played with Eric Burdon and the Animals, Buck Owens, and many others. Bassist Prodaniuk, who engages lead bass in an Entwhistle style, has played with Dwight Yokum, Spencer Davis Group, Blue Rodeo, and Richard Thompson. Unlike the Who member, he was physically active, though without stealing attention, bowing as he played, or walking over to Warnes. It was easy to see she was impressed by them as well, once asking Watts to repeat a riff that she enjoyed.

They all took a bow to another standing O, and left. The lights came on and, being the polite group Saskatoonians are, we all left with a big smile on our faces. It was a warm night for a late September eve as we spilled out into the street, content.

Somewhere across the city, at the same time, Mudhoney opened for Pearl Jam, which may explain the lack of a younger age group of the audience in part, but I was where I wanted to be, and made the right choice.

This blog is dedicated in thanks to Dee Perez and Jim Hodges.

DVD Review: “Leonard Cohen’s Lonesome Heroes”

Text © Robert Barry Francos/FFanzeen, 2010
Images from the Internet

Leonard Cohen’s Lonesome Heroes
Pride DVD (UK), 2010
110 minutes, USD $19.95
MVDvisual.com

Along with the likes of Bob Dylan and Townes Van Zandt, Leonard Cohen is considered one of North America’s great singer-songwriters in the poet tradition. The focus of this bio, as with a recent one about Frank Zappa, is to look not just at the man and his work, but what influenced him to be such a macher in his field.

While I have seen a few documentaries about Cohen, they rarely go beyond the singer-songwriter, whereas this one discusses his pre-song work during his time in Montreal at McGill University, and in New York (1956-57) while attending Columbia, and carries through when he had retired to seek solace in Buddhism.

But surpassing even that, there is a secondary level that increases the interest to me. For example, the film describes how a young teen Lenny becomes impressed with Spanish martyr poet Federico Garcia Lorca and decides to write poetry as well. At this point, there is a narrative of Lorca’s poetry followed by a Lorca expert describing both his poetry and Leonard’s, and compares them. Later, when Cohen lives in New York during the beat era, not only do we hear a recording clip of Allan Ginsburg’s Howl and Jack Kerouac’s On the Road,” and we also hear some of Cohen’s two novels, which has a similarity in style to Road,” and a Beat Generation expert discusses both. So you get a play-by-play not just by experts on our Canadian subject and how he was influenced, but also analytical details about the heroes.

With the many clips used of the influences, of the experts (including the expected music-related academics, and two critics from Rolling Stone magazine), of the original artists, and of course Leonard himself, the pace is actually pretty fluid, and is kept interesting. I found Judy Collins’ taking about how she acquired Cohen’s songs for an album before anyone else, and how she helped him as a performer, as riveting. It’s interesting how she describes how he played her “Suzanne” in a hotel room, and he tells the tale as doing it over the phone. Ah, gotta love oral histories.

Among all these influences are ones the viewer may not have thought of, such as Hank Williams and Ray Charles, but played beside each other, the flux is definitely there. As for the two Hanks mentioned (Williams and Snow), well, Cohen has done country songs, such as “The Captain” (Various Positions).

An obvious one here is Bob Dylan. Dylan’s breaking away from traditional folk and moving into singer-songwriter poetry styles – not to mention that Dylan can hardly be called a classic style singer – surely showed Cohen that his voice could be accepted as-is. Though closer to Dylan in voice, Cohen often wished he could sound as versatile as Ray Charles, who also was influenced – and was influential – by and in country & western (“Unchain My Heart,” “You Don’t Know Me,” etc.). Another is phenomenal French songwriter Jacques Brel, whom Cohen would certainly have heard growing up while living in the French city of Montreal. Brel’s complex lyrics and song structure, and even occasional themes (for example, both write about prostitutes, such as Brel’s “Amsterdam” and Cohen’s “Sisters of Mercy”), can be found in both.

As a quick sidebar, I’d like to ask an open question to all Leonard Cohen documentarians: why is it no one ever interviews Jennifer Warnes? She is seen in the background of one of the clips doing back-up, but she was as much a muse as she was a support, as she was as well to Mason Williams. She is part of what made albums like Various Positions so magical, especially the much covered “Hallelujah.” But I digress…

To bring this digression into the review conversation, there are a lot of clips of Cohen’s songs throughout the DVD, obviously from many periods of his career, which compiled together make an interesting notation of watching him aging, as a performer. As he looks more and more like another Leonard – Nimoy – after all these years he still sings with his eyes closed, and his voice has mellowed and deepened (from cigarettes?).

Those who have followed his career know about his dive into Zen Buddhism, which lead to his retirement for a number of years. For me, this only makes sense as he as been exploring religious themes in his music since the beginning. It is interesting to hear from both is mentor, Kigen, and also from another Zen Buddhist priest (one of those experts I was mentioning earlier). There are clips of Cohen in the Buddhist Mount Baldy Centre, where he has also achieved priesthood, which I have never seen before. This later period was as much a mystery for me about the man as was his pre-“Suzanne” days, when he was a published poet and novelist.

While this DVD was not authorized by Cohen, it is respectful without being genuflecting, which is a nice break from the norm. Perhaps because it is more “experts in the field” rather than other musicians, there is less “we’re-not-worthy” moments, and more introspection to output, which is a nice touch for a tributary discussion. Even Judy Collins, who is just a bit gushy, pre-dated Cohen’s music, so she comes off as much as mentor as fan. It’s also a risk as Collins is probably the only recognizable name to most people, but that is also part of what makes this so compelling.

As these kind of DVDs go, this is one is one I can happily recommend, including to people not very familiar with his music. By the end, the viewer will have more of an idea of L. Cohen’s work.

The bonus side is kind of slim, though I’m not complaining. Along with the bios of the “panel” (as the talking heads who discuss Cohen are called), there is a further clip of Judy Collins discussing Cohen and his music. There is one thing she says that bothered me a bit, is when she states that perhaps it was for the better that all of Cohen’s retirement money was ripped off so that he had to go back to touring and working (two albums have come out since), thereby giving the world more of Cohen’s words and music. That comes off as highly presumptuous to me. But as she did some of her best work in the later stages of her career (e.g., “The Blizzard”), and she is perhaps viewing the situation though that filer, I’ll give her that much.

Bonus Video:

Ode to a Mixed Tape – Nova Scotia, Fall 2003

Text © Robert Barry Francos
Images from the Internet

This tape was created for a very long drive from New York to Nova Scotia. It was the last tape I made before switching to mixed CDs. As always, I have tried to find the original release of the song as it appears on the tape, and if that’s not possible, a live version. However, much of the music I listen to is indie stuff, so it’s kind of hard to find.

SIDE ONE

Mary Lou Lord – His Indie World
This was off her first EP, arguably one of the strongest of her releases, on SubPop. She recorded in Seattle (before being famously chased off by an off-center rocker rival), but comes from Boston, with a history of busking on the subways there. In this tune she complains that her boyfriend wants to listen to said indie music while she’s more interested in “my Joni (Mitchell), my Nick (Drake), Neil (Young) and Bob (Dylan), you can keep your Tsunami, your Slant 6 and Smog.” In this song, she mentions a ton of bands, most of who went on to further fame: “I said ‘What’s the story?’ / He said ‘Butterglory’ / I said, ‘What’s the news?’ / He said ‘The Silver Jews’”). Check out the lyrics on the Web, they’re quite fun.

The Good – Judy
Bernie Kugel redid the song when he was in Mystic Eyes, but way before that, his original band, the Good, did a lower-fi version for Tommy Calandra’s BCMK Records (that’s Buffalo College of Musical Knowledge). The swirling keyboards take the listener on one of Bernie’s many great pop garage tunes of the era. While we’re still waiting for “Mail on Sundays” to come out, I am happy with this cut. Both versions of this song are great, but this one, being the one I heard and learned to love first, holds a warm spot in my heart.

The Byrds – Eight Miles High
As someone who is not into hallucinogenics (though the band seemed to have been from the video I’ve seen of them doing this song live on German TV, they’re so obviously stoned), I still find this song to be powerful. McGuinn’s 12-string just sings in this classic. Yeah, Husker Du did a decent version, but cannot compete with this one. Usually, long songs with solos are not my speed, but this one is different. Yet, my fave Byrds song remains “Child of the Universe,” their theme song to the film Candy (I have it on another tape).


Blues Magoos – (We Ain’t Got) Nothin’ Yet”
This is one of those iconic guitar-and-keyboards songs from the late ‘60s, with a pounding, dum-dum-da-dum rhythm. You hear any part of this song, it’s instantly recognizable. One of the first hit self-bragging songs I know of (“You know we’ve got what it takes / But we ain’t got nothin’ yet.). Couldn’t copy the song, so here’s the link: youtube.com/watch?v=GOGRTLn2uKY

John Otway – Josephine
I’ve been a fan of Otway since the late ‘70s, when his Stiff Records were released. Teamed with fellow guitarist Wild Willy Barrett, he was just insane, but after they split, John started his second stage, which allowed him to do more serious songs, such as this one. The topic is of a local harvest festival, and the teen that is chosen to lead it (“And the crowd screams “Josephine / Our May Day eyes are on you”). Otway has a unique voice, both phrasing and style, and he always seems to be enjoying himself. There is a greatest hits package of his, and I highly recommend it.


Phil Ochs – The Highwayman
One of many songs based on the Alfred Noyes poem (actually, John Otway has one, as well); this is probably the best known. It’s a long piece (and a longer poem), but Phil keeps the interest high as “Bess the landlord’s daughter” makes a futile sacrifice for her highwayman lover. It’s a romantic piece, for sure, but the title character’s actions at the end seem to nullify. And yet, it remains a beautiful song. The video is a wilted, live version, rather than the feisty recorded one.


3 Days Grace – I Hate Everything About You
This song came to me by way of a three-song give-away disk at some store. I was instantly entranced by the emotion of it. At the time, I mentioned it to a friend, Vonny, and she said that she didn’t like the singer’s voice. Thing is, she’s actually right. Yes, I still like this song, but every other thing I’ve heard from the band has left me cold. Good call, Vonny! My one amusing story about this band is when I was in an Ontario Zeller’s, and this song came over the PA. Seemed like an odd choice, even if the band is from Canada. There’s an official music video to this, but it’s verbally edited, so here is this one.


Linda Ronstadt – I Can’t Help It
The original Hank William’s one is arguably superior, but I don’t own any of his material on CD (the source for the rest of the songs), so I went for the Linda R one instead. I run hot and cold with Ronstadt: her ‘60s stuff (such as “Different Drum”) and Heart Like a Wheel country material are enjoyable, but I find the period after that and on (covers of Buddy Holly, etc.) kind of flat. This song shows some of her range.


Linda Ronstadt – Keep Me From Blowing Away
This sad, wistful song has a country feel, but it’s more modern country pop. And yet, again, I like it a lot. There have been many times I’ve felt like this song, wanting some kind of anchor, something solid in my life, to keep me grounded. She emotes well here, that feeling of restlessness.


Kris Delmhorst – Hurricane
This remains my favorite Kris Delmhorst song (so far). She equates a hurricane to the volatile relationship to which she’s currently involved (“I’ve always kept the company of clouds / I like my lightning bright, my thunder loud / I was never one for bluer skies / All that bright sun droning in my eyes / So blow me down, blow me down and leave me lying in your wake”). She’s still early on in her career, so there’s bound to be more great music to come. This is a live video, which is a bit distorted, but the sense is there.


Contraband – Hard Life
Howard Bowler and his brother David, of the Marbles in the heady CBGBs days, lead this folk / country / rock / jazz band, and now have at least three full length CDs out. A Howard original, this song is almost oppressive in its negative charge, with dissonant notes and pressed lyrics (“The sun is shining / And all I get is rain / Comin’ down so hard / It’s drivin’ me insane”). It’s actually a powerful song, and Howard’s vocals shine with just the right unflinching tip of bitterness. Like the blues, it’s in your face, and yet somehow makes the listener feel better.

Dusty Springfield – The Look of Love
Has anyone ever done a sexier version of this song than Dusty? Can they? I mean, she has a sultry voice to begin with, but this is one of her finest in this romantic mode. She practically whispers in your ear. Even her phrasing with pausing between words keeps you on your seat. Herb Albert’s horn also stands out here, with a couple of interesting false endings. This song just lulls me, from the first time I heard it in the ‘60s version of Casino Royale (as Ursula Andress seduces Peter Sellers).


Bob Crewe Generation – Peter Gunn
This makes me think more of Courageous Cat and Minute Mouse more than Peter Gunn, but it’s a great iconic television theme song from the golden era of television; a classic noir in aural form.


SIDE TWO

The BKE – TBD
Can’t talk about these two demos yet, but there are gonna be a lot of happy fans out there.

Margo Hennebach – After All
There are two versions of this song, one on Margo’s second collection, Big Love, and one with her trio, Mad Agnes, Live at UH. This one is from the former, but they’re both done excellently, and I tend to listen to them both; I just had this one when I made the tape, though. Margo is one of my favorite modern singer-songwriters in the journeymyn tradition. With a hint of the Celtic, her songs are strongly supported by guitar and piano (both hers). I interviewed her the day of Woodstock II, just across the Hudson River from it, in fact. It was an enjoyable day, sitting on her porch and talking music (that interview can be read at this blog, dated October 26, 2008).

CSNY – Suite: Judy Blue Eyes
My cousin Ken’s favorite song, but I didn’t know that when I put this tape together. While CSNY were one of those groups that annoyed the crap out of me in the early ‘70s (along with Yes, Kansas, America, and all those other bands that it seems everyone listened to when I was in college before punk hit), but someone gave me a greatest hits CD, and this one grew on me. It’s a long ode to Judy Collins (from Stephen Stills), but it changes often (hence the “suite”), and is not cloying.


Maria McKee – You Gotta Sin to Get Saved
It was not Lone Justice that got me interested in Maria McKee, but an appearance on a TV show called Night Music, singing “Breathe” from her first solo release. Love at first hear. While there is a lot of subtly in Maria’s voice, damn she can belt them out good. This live in the studio recording from her record by the same name, is a bluesy, ballsy gospelly number that is nearly the female side of “Lightenin’ Strikes.” She tells her boyfriend “I could never shame you / Honey, you’re by pride and joy / But what’s a girl to do, now, daddy / I’m drowning in a sea of boys.” She further explains that “If I make an honest vow / To someday where a dress of white / ‘Cause scarlet’s what I’m wearing now.” Great song with a fun call-and-response chorus.

Al Yankovic – The Saga Begins
A freakin’ brilliant cover of “American Pie,” but with lyrics reflecting the fourth Star Wars film, Chapter 1. Weird Al tells the entire story here, in his usual witty way, using similar rhyme patterns to the original (“Oh my, my this here Anakin guy / May be Vader someday later / Now he's just a small fry / He left his home and kissed his mommy goodbye / Sayin' ‘Soon I'm gonna be a Jedi’”). I laughed all the way through it the first time I heard the song. It still bemuses me.


David Wilcox – The Kind of Love You Never Recover From
Off a sampler CD (two songs each from 5 albums), this was part of a tribute release for Christine Lavin, who wrote the songs. Wilcox’s reading is very spare, and full of emotion. The song is about wishing you had said something – the right thing – before your lover leaves (“At times like this when the moon is right / When the air is foggy like it is tonight / She'll think about what might have been / If she had just held on to him.”). It’s a sad song, but as with just about everything Lavin writes, it has a strong heart.

Barbara Kessler – Attainable Love
Another Christine Lavin-er from the same sampler, this time the topic is being in love with someone who is commitment phobic, wishing she could change someone unchangeable (“Add me to the list of women / Who think you'll be different with me / Add me to the list of fools / Who flatly refuse to see / That just like me....”).

Susan McKeown – Winter King
A strong Celtic tune from someone deeply associated with the genre. However, in this piece, McKeown also modernizes the arrangement to make it something else. Not with a disco-like beat some Celtic artists seem to have added (since those annoying dance-track Gregorian Chants), this is more rockish. I was going to put the next song from the CD, her killer version of “Aud Lange Syne,” but decided against it.

Leonard Cohen – Take This Longing
Gotta say, the opening guitar chord to this song is not my favorite. It’s clanky and annoying, but once the listener gets past that, the song unfolds. Unfortunately, I found after listening to this tape on the road that I had to crank the volume all the way up, because the car noise was drowning out Cohen’s soft voice. Still a great song, though (“Take this longing from my tongue / All the useless things these hands have done / Let me see your beauty broken down / Like you would do for one you love”). Yes, the man is more than just “Suzanne” and “Hallelujah.”


The Dictators – Next Big Thing
“I didn’t have to be here you know. I didn’t have to show up here. With my vast, financial holdings, I coulda be basking in the sun in Florida. This just a hobby for me. Nothin’, y’hear? A hobby!” With that, the opening cut to the ‘Tator’s first album starts strong and doesn’t let up. As they say later on in the tune, “We knocked ‘em dead in Dallas / And we didn’t pay our dues / Yeah, we knocked ‘em dead in Dallas / They didn’t know we were Jews.” Ah, the boys from the Bronx. I say again, DFFD. The video is a live version, without the intro, unfortunately.
s

Mainstream Women

Text and photo © Robert Barry Francos
Videos from the Internet

Anyone who has read my columns or blog knows that I often rail against mainstream music and labels, and almost always write about independent music, or those who have not been promoted well and fallen under the radar.

For this column, I would like to discuss some artists that were on the majors; some have been in the top leagues, some well regarded, and then there is the cult musician who didn’t really get the recognition she deserves. Again, these are in no particular order.

Jennifer Warnes – Jennifer Warnes
Jennifer Warnes – Famous Blue Raincoat
When Jennifer Warnes was a regular on The Smothers Brothers Show, known only as “Jennifer,” honestly, she never raised a blip to me, and I didn’t remember her. Hey, I was a kid. She entered my radar, however, when she performed on a Smothers Brothers reunion show in the early ‘70s. Soon as I heard her voice, my jaw dropped. Simply beautiful. When I mentioned her to Bernie Kugel, he showed me two Mason Williams albums on which she had done either some background or co-singing, and it took about 5 years for me to give them back (after I had replaced them in my collection; I’m sure I’ll be writing more about Mason in a future blog). During the mid-‘70s, I bought her first few albums in thrift and used shops, including I Can Remember Everything, See Me Feel Me Touch Me Heal Me, and Jennifer (produced by John Cale). To promote her then-latest song, “Right Time of the Night” (from her self-titled album), she played the Bottom Line in New York (4/8/77, with Jonathan Edwards opening), which is the only time I saw her live (I took some really dark instamatic slides, as it was about a month before I had a real camera). Jennifer Warnes stayed on my turntable for a long time, especially the killer version of “Love Hurts,” “Mama,” “Don’t Lead Me On,” and especially “I’m Dreaming.” In fact, there really isn’t a filler track on the entire collection. The same can be true for arguably her most popular collection, Famous Blue Raincoat, which is her interpretation of Leonard Cohen songs; she had been backing him for years on some of his best albums (e.g., Various Positions). Jennifer is, of course, also known for her film song collaborations, including, “Up Where We Belong” (Officer & a Gentleman) and “Time Of My Life” (Dirty Dancing).
www.youtube.com/watch?v=aZIFavgLd38

Lisa Loeb – Firecracker
Truly, I don’t remember who gave me the CD, and it was a while before I started playing the thing. But the more I heard it, the more I wanted to play it. I’d take notice of her first song, “Stay,” and thought it was okay, but this release was different. With few exceptions, nearly every song on Firecracker is filled with break-ups and bitterness, but at the same time there was a strength to the protagonist of the song, where you just knew no matter what, she was going to come out of it. While every cut is a gem, and I mean that sincerely, the closest to a hit she had from the CD is “I Do,” which is a perfect example when she quietly purrs, “I’m starting to ignore you.” She follows this up with some great songs in this theme, including “Truthfully,” “How,” and “Furious Rose.” I also enjoy the sheer tenseness and angst of “Wishing Heart” (“I was restless… / I just want this to be good… / But you don’t understand / You don’t understand me / And I want to be understood”), and the lyrical play of “Dance With the Angels” (“But you want to fall fashionably in love with a woman / In love with a life you’ll adore”). The one happy, peppy song is “Truthfully,” which was written for a film but never used. After this CD, she released a few more, and made some bizarre reality television choices, but I mostly enjoyed her work on MadTV singing the theme of – and appearing in – a hilarious sketch, Pretty White Kids with Problems.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=OiwX2-0RZdg

Maria McKee – Maria McKee
First coming to the public’s eye in the band Lone Justice (with whom she recorded the brilliant “I Found Love”), she broke out with this eponymous titled solo release. But what made me notice her was a performance of “Breathe” she did on a late night music show called Night Music. It was jaw droppingly beautiful, as she swayed with her arms hanging in the air and her eyes closed and fluttering. Shortly, I went out and bought the CD, and it was a good choice. Another one of those every song is great collections. This is a woman who is not afraid to look at the dark side of living, as evidenced by songs like “Panic Beach,” “This Property is Condemned,” and “Drinkin’ In My Sunday Dress” (the latter only available on the CD, not the cassette). She is great in a rave up, such as the latter song I just listed, and the gospel-inspired “More Than a Heart Can Hold,” but it is the aching ballad that grabs my heart, such as the opener “I’ve Forgotten What It Was In You (That Put the Need in Me),” “To Miss Someone,” “Am I the Only One (Who’s Ever Felt This Way),” and one of my favorite cuts, the heartbreaking “Has He Got a Friend For Me.” The cover photo of the release, a plain sepia-textured photo of Maria, eyes filled with longing and a hint of hope, is just beautiful.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=RvRxYty2ie0

Kimm Rogers – Soundtrack of My Life
Probably the least known of the batch here, Kimm Rogers is a singer-songwriter whom I know so little about her. Hell, I am not even sure how I came across the CD, but it wasn’t long before I fell in love with her unique voice. The title of this is totally accurate as she tells stories of her life, starting with “My Dear Mama,” feeling “Desperate” (“Nobody loves you / When you’re desperate”), “On the Street,” the wonderful “Just Like a Seed” (actually, again, I like all the cuts on the collection), and the catchiest, and closest she’s had to a hit that I know of, “Right By You” (“I wanna be right by you / I wanna be left in your mind”). Kimm has a very sharp way with words that say exactly what she means, and yet does not lose any of its poetic leanings. Sometimes, her songs sound like diary entries, such as “A Lot on My Mind,” the title cut, and the looking ahead “2-0-19.” As far as I know, this San Diego-based singer has two full releases (yes, I own them both), and I would love to hear more.
Note that Universal will not let the video be copied so you’ll have to go here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FgvS1AhOCbE


The Murmurs – The Murmurs
Some time in the very early ‘90s, I was walking with Alan Abramowitz around Chinatown, near Wooster Street, when we heard this beautiful live singing being blasted through a PA. We followed the sound, and came across a blocked off street, and saw two women with guitars on a high platform with a large crowd around them. Asking around, we found out they were the Murmurs, consisting of Heather Grody and Leisha Hailey. We stood there enamored of them. After seeing them another time, Alan arranged for them to be interviewed on his cable access show, Videowave, and I was lucky enough to be the cameraperson for it (actually, thanks to the MTA I was late, and you can hear me entering during the first part of the shoot). The last time I saw them, again with Alan, was at the CBGB art gallery, next door (upstairs). They had just signed with their major label then. The Murmurs had great unique voices and a special harmony; plus, being a couple at the time, sometimes they would gently bicker onstage, such as what to sing next. Also, they had a great relationship with their audience, and their performances would come off almost as an intimate gathering. After a while, the Murmurs became a foursome, and then changed their name to Gush, though for me, their best work was as a duo. Eventually, they broke up when Leisha and Heather separated. Since then Leisha has gone on to other fame as a star of the ensemble show The L Word, and co-star of all those “It’s so good that…” yogurt commercials.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=mHBNmO5sjsA

The Bangles – Greatest Hits
During 1981, I received a 45 in the mail called “Getting Out of Hand,” and there was a handwritten note inside asking me to review it for FFanzeen, signed by the singer, Susanna Hoffs. The trio was called the Bangs, and would (for legal reasons) soon change their name to the Bangles. Most likely there is no more to the story I need to go into about the band itself, considering its huge string of hits. The Saw Doctors have a song called, “I’d Love to Kiss the Bangles,” he which the singer chants, “I’d love to have it off / With Susanna Hoffs,” interrupting himself to say, “Err, my favorite’s Vicky, actually.” Well, I’ve always had a soft spot for bassists, and Michael Steele is no exception (yeah, I know…). This is proven in her ballad, “Following,” my favorite song here, and arguably the least known from this collection.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=kd56iRhVzsA

Judy Collins – Fires of Eden
I have to say, during the height of her career, Judy Collins never really got to me, except possibly a duet with Theodore Bikel of “Greenland Whale Fisheries” from the Newport Folk Festival (released by Vanguard). Yes, that includes “Both Sides Now,” Cohen’s “Suzanne,” and “Amazing Grace.” When I heard this release, however, I liked it right off, especially for two songs. First one is the title cut, which has a catchy chorus (“Those fires of Eden / Still burn in this heart of mine”), is upbeat, and shows off her voice. The other one, especially, is “The Blizzard,” a long piece about being stuck in said Colorado blizzard leading to self-redemption after the end of a harsh relationship. Though lengthy, this song tends to fly by for me. The whole album is worthwhile, though it is these two that will remain in the forefront, and that I can listen to numerous times without getting bored.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v78Q6dyiplg

Bonus video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pWE0xkCKmSc