Hey strangers-- Turns out another Thanksgiving just rolled by, didja know, and now has only receded further into the past as I've dawdled? But before every last good intention slid into history, I wanted to post a couple cover songs. This is partly brought on my a pre-holiday trip to see the great Chris Robinson Brotherhood down at the Capitol Theater back in my NY metro homeland. It was as good as hoped, but I was sad to have to miss the upcoming 2016 version of their Thanksgiving-time celebration of the Band's "Last Waltz". So I had the Band on the brain, and it turns out they were on quite a few other folks' minds as well, so I figured I'd go back out to the well.
Though most of the famed West Saugerties, NY "Basement Tapes" sessions were actually in the spring and summer of 1967, the vibe of the audio record is so autmnal and I've been spinning the beautiful recent completist vinyl box set a lot, as is typical this time of year. Maybe the autumn association is cemented in my mind because of the full-on band recordings made after Levon' arrived in October, and I have no doubt it's partly because of the dusty, wistful, timeless quality to the songs. Certainly that their Thanksgiving farewell celebration became cultural semi-touchstone "The Last Waltz" don't hurt.
So here are a few songs for you: First is a group electric, sloppy and semi-raucus version of "Odds and Ends" from the 2011 Harpswell Hootenanny. That one's got the Pauls Bonanos and Cardillo on guitars, Roadkill on drums and me on bass and overdubbed keys. Also you've got here some more austere lonely home studio versions of their beautiful late-era (1975) final masterpiece "It Makes No Difference" and another Saugerties tune, "Katie's Been Gone". Hope you enjoy.
Link to the original post, with some background, discussion, etc is here:
http://roadkillbuttsteak.blogspot.com/2013/01/the-band-covered-acoustically.html
Songs are here:
Odds and Ends (Band cover):
https://app.box.com/s/jfz4nmqhfmm20tyoyog2
It Makes No Difference (Band cover):
https://app.box.com/s/jwn3nd9ztf731mw9uxuahxp9oth68tvh
Katie's Been Gone (Band cover):
https://app.box.com/s/iz6mhsz6ee0yqgwe1ebuyldkejo7ikok
Thursday, December 8, 2016
Tuesday, June 28, 2016
"Up Above My Head" rebroadcast, part 5 of 5
This trio wraps up the rebroadcast in fine aeronautical fashion: Disconnected, demoralized, dashed to the ground, strewn in pieces and still full of wonder, hope and anticipation. Just like goddarned life, huh?
"Amidships" looks at the drudgery and isolation behind the glamour of flight, "...Wreckage..." at the straightfaced equality of mortality, and "Wingwalkers" at a beautiful horizon of clouds and sun.
Playing spot-our-own-influences, I'd say (in order): mid-era Cracker, late-era Pink Floyd and not-otherwise-specified Americana (...OK.. maybe some Paul Burch in there...). More importantly, playing spot-the-incidental-background-noise, that's an enthusiastic poodle with a squeaky toy at about 1:55 in "...Wreckage...".
Peace/ out
jk
"Amidships":
https://app.box.com/s/1b747xk8ewqi2oy5gigi8qghxj9nc3mz
"The Wreckage Looks the Same":
https://app.box.com/s/lpen8nx4p2x10ssne2v3d9h1if94yt87
"Wingwalkers":
https://app.box.com/s/hmsvgwk5kbsh3g9ihwwzxdgd9diybi2f
"Amidships" looks at the drudgery and isolation behind the glamour of flight, "...Wreckage..." at the straightfaced equality of mortality, and "Wingwalkers" at a beautiful horizon of clouds and sun.
Playing spot-our-own-influences, I'd say (in order): mid-era Cracker, late-era Pink Floyd and not-otherwise-specified Americana (...OK.. maybe some Paul Burch in there...). More importantly, playing spot-the-incidental-background-noise, that's an enthusiastic poodle with a squeaky toy at about 1:55 in "...Wreckage...".
Peace/ out
jk
"Amidships":
https://app.box.com/s/1b747xk8ewqi2oy5gigi8qghxj9nc3mz
"The Wreckage Looks the Same":
https://app.box.com/s/lpen8nx4p2x10ssne2v3d9h1if94yt87
"Wingwalkers":
https://app.box.com/s/hmsvgwk5kbsh3g9ihwwzxdgd9diybi2f
Tuesday, May 31, 2016
"Up Above My Head" rebroadcast, part 4 of 5
Too darned busy ovah heah. Nearly abandoned even the re-posting/ filler project out of pure neglect... Thanks to Ted for the reminder to get my crap back in order, or at least to try and do so....
This portion of the program constitutes tributes to each of the US Navy's dirigible fleet back between the wars, and these puppies were the germ from which the whole airship-themed bunch of rock songs sprung:
"Akron (Queen of the Skies)":
https://app.box.com/s/0umwkt3bv86knuqurhqc4i9q95eibw31
"Macon (The Happiest Ship)":
https://app.box.com/s/y5zxxsrwj9ncj5rhsj6ez0etx6och0jf
"Los Angeles":
https://app.box.com/s/43o0248l57dzn43cb7knly9msrur78qq
"Shenandoah (Daughter of the Stars)":
https://app.box.com/s/l2exjd9yn4uny4pdkp3xj4coh3n3ltt9
This portion of the program constitutes tributes to each of the US Navy's dirigible fleet back between the wars, and these puppies were the germ from which the whole airship-themed bunch of rock songs sprung:
- The Shenandoah was the first, commissioned in 1923 and going down over Ohio in a fierce storm. Fourteen men died but, amazingly, 29 others lived, as the airship literally broke into several sections, some of which were subsequently piloted by airmen and guided to the ground by controlled venting of the helium cells (i.e., they literally slashed them with knives). Absolutely nuts.
- Also after two years in service, the Akron crashed off New Jersey in 1933, with the loss of 73 (of 76) lives, mostly to drowning.
- The Akron's sister ship, the Macon, also went down over the ocean, off Big Sur, CA in 1935, after a similar 2 year lifespan, but with the loss of only 2 men (as life rafts and flotation devices had been instituted).
- The Los Angeles was actually acquired as war reparation from Germany in 1924 and was decommissioned in 1932 (without actually crashing!) and dismantled in 1939, having outlived all her peers.
"Akron (Queen of the Skies)":
https://app.box.com/s/0umwkt3bv86knuqurhqc4i9q95eibw31
"Macon (The Happiest Ship)":
https://app.box.com/s/y5zxxsrwj9ncj5rhsj6ez0etx6och0jf
"Los Angeles":
https://app.box.com/s/43o0248l57dzn43cb7knly9msrur78qq
"Shenandoah (Daughter of the Stars)":
https://app.box.com/s/l2exjd9yn4uny4pdkp3xj4coh3n3ltt9
Thursday, March 24, 2016
"Up Above My Head" rebroadcast, part 3 of 5
First two here are about Otto Lilienthal, third is about the Big Daddy himself- Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin. Hit your Wikipedia, friends!
Lilienthal #1: https://app.box.com/s/ucooxe6mjdd96hnmt71dpusehvzen0pq
JK
Lilienthal #1: https://app.box.com/s/ucooxe6mjdd96hnmt71dpusehvzen0pq
Lilienthal #2: https://app.box.com/s/y6vpzeqh2w91aicthc65lr022aozs080
Pheonix at Echterdingen: https://app.box.com/s/a4t9457l56890c900ll5wzknk6imxg9z
Pheonix at Echterdingen: https://app.box.com/s/a4t9457l56890c900ll5wzknk6imxg9z
Tuesday, March 1, 2016
"Up Above My Head" rebroadcast, part 2 of 5
So, having some generally thematic pop hits out of the way, this is the part of the record where actual "rock opera" could have launched off. That is, had I the ability to actually get a libretto together. You know, some dialogue/ plot/ etc. Instead, we went the "photo album" route, which enabled us to cover a lot more ground (no pun intended).
A reminder that the whole batch of songs is also up at the Roadkill-Buttsteak SoundCloud page. Please follow/ subscribe to either /or if you'd like, which saves me some mental wear and tear on the emails. Or just tell me to bugger off. No offense taken.
Today's examination material:
Alberto Santos-Dumont (1873-1932) was the unlikely aeronautic mega-hero of both Brazil and France, having emigrated from the former to the latter as a young man. He was a designer and pilot of lighter than air balloons and then dirigibles, and made his fame in 1901 when he earned the Deutsch prize for flying from the Parc Saint Cloud, around a bend on the Seine about 4 miles southwest of Paris, to the Eiffel Tower and back in under 30 minutes.
Otto Lilienthal (1848-1896) was the German pioneer in glider design. An obsessive about avian aerodynamics, he applied much of that knowledge to his devices, some of which he tested from his own man-made, 50-foot hill. Predictably, after a couple thousand flights, he suffered severe injuries in a crash in 1896, breaking his neck and dying the next day. His last words were reported to be "Sacrifices must be made".
JK
"Santos-Dumont of Brazil":
https://app.box.com/s/xix9l7xod8x9gxftbyinmpm7h61r31o2
"Lilienthal #1": https://app.box.com/s/ucooxe6mjdd96hnmt71dpusehvzen0pq
"Lilienthal #2": https://app.box.com/s/y6vpzeqh2w91aicthc65lr022aozs080
A reminder that the whole batch of songs is also up at the Roadkill-Buttsteak SoundCloud page. Please follow/ subscribe to either /or if you'd like, which saves me some mental wear and tear on the emails. Or just tell me to bugger off. No offense taken.
Today's examination material:
Alberto Santos-Dumont (1873-1932) was the unlikely aeronautic mega-hero of both Brazil and France, having emigrated from the former to the latter as a young man. He was a designer and pilot of lighter than air balloons and then dirigibles, and made his fame in 1901 when he earned the Deutsch prize for flying from the Parc Saint Cloud, around a bend on the Seine about 4 miles southwest of Paris, to the Eiffel Tower and back in under 30 minutes.
Otto Lilienthal (1848-1896) was the German pioneer in glider design. An obsessive about avian aerodynamics, he applied much of that knowledge to his devices, some of which he tested from his own man-made, 50-foot hill. Predictably, after a couple thousand flights, he suffered severe injuries in a crash in 1896, breaking his neck and dying the next day. His last words were reported to be "Sacrifices must be made".
JK
"Santos-Dumont of Brazil":
https://app.box.com/s/xix9l7xod8x9gxftbyinmpm7h61r31o2
"Lilienthal #1": https://app.box.com/s/ucooxe6mjdd96hnmt71dpusehvzen0pq
"Lilienthal #2": https://app.box.com/s/y6vpzeqh2w91aicthc65lr022aozs080
Wednesday, February 17, 2016
"Up Above My Head" rebroadcast, part 1 of 5
Hey peoples. What do they say on the medias? "Stay tuned for a very special encore episode from RKBS studios. No callers, please."
That said, this here "Up Above My Head" song cycle/ album-ish thing is indeed very near and extremely dear to Mike and me and our conjoined musical heart. It's the bunch of tunes that sprung, in 2010, from my love of lighter-than-air rigid frame dirigible airships and their (often literal) rise and fall at the start of the 20th century. Recapping, much of the details were copped from John Toland's The Great Dirigibles, Their Triumphs and Disasters, which is still well worth a read if you're of a mind. There remain a ton of other things in the cooker on this end but we've been meaning for a long while to get this back out to your digital selves. We honestly do love it that much.
I've broken the thing down into five easily digestible individual posts for your comfort, with songs also up at the Roadkill-Buttsteak SoundCloud page.
These first three cuts are pretty straightforward and non-historical. Just trying to set the pop/ rock table with the usual themes of technological advancement and engineering marvels, love and longing and separation and all that jazz. First cut, "Up Above My Head" is a cover of the Jayhawks' cover of Sister Rosetta Tharpe's great gospel song, with obligatory Gibson SG on board. Then the Rickenbacker 12 string steps up into the co-pilot seat, with "Gravity" about one's relation with the grand forces in life, and "Lighter Than Air" just a metaphorical chiming pop song. From here on out things get more historical...
JK
Up Above My Head:
https://app.box.com/s/7zd5w5slsgze10yh8uaylehi4sxkddrf
Gravity:
https://app.box.com/s/9oprdzrs51x6hy1wsv7j4s2zq3nw5x4o
Lighter Than Air:
https://app.box.com/s/cycow9i54hdbdmbpl65eyqj0ujqpqpz6
That said, this here "Up Above My Head" song cycle/ album-ish thing is indeed very near and extremely dear to Mike and me and our conjoined musical heart. It's the bunch of tunes that sprung, in 2010, from my love of lighter-than-air rigid frame dirigible airships and their (often literal) rise and fall at the start of the 20th century. Recapping, much of the details were copped from John Toland's The Great Dirigibles, Their Triumphs and Disasters, which is still well worth a read if you're of a mind. There remain a ton of other things in the cooker on this end but we've been meaning for a long while to get this back out to your digital selves. We honestly do love it that much.
I've broken the thing down into five easily digestible individual posts for your comfort, with songs also up at the Roadkill-Buttsteak SoundCloud page.
These first three cuts are pretty straightforward and non-historical. Just trying to set the pop/ rock table with the usual themes of technological advancement and engineering marvels, love and longing and separation and all that jazz. First cut, "Up Above My Head" is a cover of the Jayhawks' cover of Sister Rosetta Tharpe's great gospel song, with obligatory Gibson SG on board. Then the Rickenbacker 12 string steps up into the co-pilot seat, with "Gravity" about one's relation with the grand forces in life, and "Lighter Than Air" just a metaphorical chiming pop song. From here on out things get more historical...
JK
Up Above My Head:
https://app.box.com/s/7zd5w5slsgze10yh8uaylehi4sxkddrf
Gravity:
https://app.box.com/s/9oprdzrs51x6hy1wsv7j4s2zq3nw5x4o
Lighter Than Air:
https://app.box.com/s/cycow9i54hdbdmbpl65eyqj0ujqpqpz6
Thursday, January 14, 2016
David Bowie, "Moonage Daydream"
I've gotta thank Dillo for the reminder that, duh, a bunch of Harpswell Hootenanniers cut a fine David Bowie cover just about 3 years ago! Extra dunce points to me, as "Moonage Daydream", off the 1971 "Hunky Dory" album, was actually the first song that I put on my "to cover" list for the gathering that year. It's a song that blasts out of the gate with a fistful of classic Bowie styling in the LP version: super-cleanly produced, dry crunching rock chords followed by delicate 12-string acoustic and piano and strings; drums pushed way up front of melodic bass; yelped rollercoaster vocal melodies with layered harmonies; lyrical-sequiturs with tons of space imagery and overtones of ambiguous love/ lust/ devotion; a weirdo sax-flute solo; a take-off guitar excursion from Mick Ronson. The whole darn enchilada.
With everybody else doing the heavy lifting, I think we pulled our version off OK. That's Dillo on the Trevor Bolder style bass and Roady on the "Woody" Woodmansey drums. Paul B is on the Wurlitzer and Roger on the lead vocals and lead guitar. I played rhythm guitar and overdubbed the other stuff.
Moonage Daydream (David Bowie cover):
https://app.box.com/s/lbqrnjfxdzvpqtuljv15dby89hxfsgsb
With everybody else doing the heavy lifting, I think we pulled our version off OK. That's Dillo on the Trevor Bolder style bass and Roady on the "Woody" Woodmansey drums. Paul B is on the Wurlitzer and Roger on the lead vocals and lead guitar. I played rhythm guitar and overdubbed the other stuff.
Moonage Daydream (David Bowie cover):
https://app.box.com/s/lbqrnjfxdzvpqtuljv15dby89hxfsgsb
Wednesday, January 13, 2016
David Bowie, "Ashes to Ashes"
Well, if anything qualifies as "unnecessary and half-assed" cover, it's this one, but I figured I'd share. I believe it was the start of 2013 that Roady and I took a stab at "Ashes to Ashes" off Bowie's "Scary Monsters" album from 1980. The song has been a fave for a long time, since my sister brought a copy
home (insert old man voice) "back in the WLIR days, when you had to ask the store clerk to unlock the
cabinet and retrieve the golddang cassette tape for you". That album was confusing and intimidating and mysterious and I just didn't get most of it for decades, but parts of it lodged in the ol' brainpan, and this was obviously the hit.
Anyway, my appreciation for Bowie is bottomless, and when I love a record of his (or, more typically, individual cuts off a record) that love is strong indeed. I honestly wish we had more covers in the vaults, but perhaps in the future...
JK
"Ashes to Ashes" (David Bowie cover):
https://app.box.com/s/273lqmozxapmuap8p9rm
Anyway, my appreciation for Bowie is bottomless, and when I love a record of his (or, more typically, individual cuts off a record) that love is strong indeed. I honestly wish we had more covers in the vaults, but perhaps in the future...
JK
"Ashes to Ashes" (David Bowie cover):
https://app.box.com/s/273lqmozxapmuap8p9rm
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