Maybe we should just change the title of this here blog to "Better Late Than Never"', as finally, finally we get around to Hootenanny '13. I'm not sure what we might manage to shake together in Baltimore this year, but last spring we were here in Harpswell and in fine form, the full Hoot lineup to date, that is: Roadkill (Baltimore), Paul B (San Fran), Paul C (Chapel Hill), and Roger (Northampton).
Might as well start this series off with two great tastes that, well, I don't know how in the real world they'd ever have much to do with one another. Ummm, aside from the recreational accoutrements of choice, I suppose, if you know what I mean....
First up is David Bowie's "Moonage Daydream", which beat out "Queen Bitch" and a few others by a nose in the Hootenanny Songs to Cover polling. Off 1972's legendary "Ziggy Stardust...", it's a crystal distillation of glam-era Bowie if there ever were one, with all the oblique lyrics and hook-y choruses and operatic swells the kids loved to boo-gie to.... the inimitably dry rhythm section of the inimitably named Trevor Bolder (bass) and Woody Woodmansey (drums)... thanks ever and always to Mick Ronson, that delicious guitar crunch. Roggie stepped way up to the plate to sing this one, an excellent development I'd not at all foreseen.
Serving as a sherbet-like palate cooler, then, is Jackson Browne's (or Danny Kortchmar's, actually) "Shaky Town" off the equally genre-defining "Running On Empty" record, from the far end of the 70's. I admit that this one was all my suggestion, being a sucker for a well-done trucker tune, but the gents locked in hugely and came out sounding like LA session guys to me: Paul B on the Wurlitzer and Roger on the tasteful lead guitar, and Roady and Dillo anchoring the whole thing. A real dream come true, after all the years of hearing it on vinyl and 8-track and cassette and bits and bytes.
Moonage Daydream: https://app.box.com/s/ndvtgnq0n3phl4n7x9ib
Shaky Town: https://app.box.com/s/ou7g6ffb14v2tllnw3ex
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