Hoot '12: Steely Dan/ Nick Lowe

This wraps up the Hoot '12 recordings: "Barrytown" b/w "(What's So Funny About) Peace, Love & Understanding".   Consider the decks cleared for Hoot '13, which convenes in Harpswell next weekend!

Jerky deal goes down!

"Barrytown" is a weird, old Steely Dan song from the weird, old Steely Dan-- 1974's "Pretzel Logic", which any major dude with half a heart surely will tell you is their best album by far.  Hmmm... Now there's an idea for some future Hooting...  Anyway, Mr. Bonanos carried the weight on this one, taking up the Wurlitzer, singing lead and overdubbing some fine guitar.

Elvis Costello may have made the definitive angry young man version of "...Peace, Love & Understanding" but Nick the Knife wrote it.  Nick's versions are a little slower and a little sweeter and a little more jangly, and that's what you get here.  Few musical turns have warmed my heart so much as Nick Lowe's late-career renaissance.  After starting up in the late '60s, achieving minor-league stardom in the late '70s, and hitting the shoals of major-label downsizing in the '80s (coincident with some stagnant songwriting and period-specific over-production), the Silver Fox commenced to putting out a series of great, low-key, soulful, funny records in '94 and probably hasn't looked back since.  You should hear him or see him if at all possible.  Just sayin'.

jk

"Barrytown":  https://www.box.com/s/ylkqjl5vvrzksvlkrxym


"(What's So Funny About) Peace, Love & Understanding":
https://www.box.com/s/p9ypl7fquvswa9cziwa9

Hoot '12: Simon & Garfunkel/ the Who covers

Hoot '12: "The Only Living Boy in NY" b/w "Mary Anne with the Shaky Hand"

We were down for maintenance at the RKBS site but are back up and running... Don't forget to check out the other great Hoot covers posted recently, and we hope you dig these.

My history with Simon & Garfunkel is tangled and, truth be told, I really just never much cared for them.  Being a child of the '70s, I could never really avoid them though, echoing across the airwaves and culture as they were. But listening to their records is tied in my mind to some very specific tedious, bleak, stuffy, precious (in the bad way) moments, such as dissecting "Richard Corey" in Miss Sweeney's afternoon English class,  spring 1983.  Few units of time are as long as the eternity that follows someone putting, say, "Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme" on the turntable and saying "We'll hit the road right after this side is done....  Uggghhhh...  I get a shiver even now.  Still, every once in a while there's something I really love, whether the Concert in Central Park, or some lyric or musical turn or general vibe in "America" or "The Boxer", or the fraying working relationship on display on the beautiful "Bridge Over Troubled Water" album. And off that  album, "The Only Living Boy in NY" is an an absolute favorite, and a song that says a whole lot while not saying much at all.  It'll jerk a tear to yer eye!  Plus the original version features some of LA's top "Wrecking Crew" hands: the great Joe Osborne (bass), Hal Blaine (drums), Larry Knechtel (organ) and Fred Carter, Jr (guitar)-- men who built a good number of your musical memories, whether you know it or not.  So, yeah, we took a crack at it anyway, and turned Paul C loose on the bass and Paul B on the take-off guitar.

Now, the Who?  I was always on-board for them from the moment I bought my "Hooligans" best-of compilation cassette at Sam Goody or Musicland in the Galleria in White Plains.  We were children of "Who's Next" and "Quadrophenia" primarily,  Dillo and me, and the whole pre-"Tommy" output always confused me a bit.  What was up with the baked beans, giant deodorant, zit cream, leopard skin and general shirtlessness of "The Who Sell Out"?!? As with the Kinks and Stones, this meant that a lot of the early gems went undiscovered for a while.  Among them, "MaryAnne with the Shaky Hand".  That's Paul B on the keys, RK power-popping it on the drums, Dillo on the bass and me on the Rickenbackers.

JK

"The Only Living Boy in NY":            https://www.box.com/s/t65sp35v7r8pp5jvrlih


"Mary Anne with the Shaky Hand":   https://www.box.com/s/uvgui0s9yjujd76hkjcq

Hoot '12: Neil Young/ Dream Syndicate covers

 Hoot '12: "Don't Cry No Tears" b/w "Still Holding On to You"

This raucous posting from the 2012 Harpswell Hoot is brought to you by The 2-Guitars,-Bass-and-Drums Corporation of America.  For that is rock.  I'd hoped to have some more pics posted, but missed that boat while in Harpswell over the weekend, so perhaps next time...  As it turns out, these were last year's bookends:

The "A" side is courtesy of peak-era Neil Young and Crazy Horse ("Zuma", 1975).  It's the kind of song that's perfect for getting sessions rolling (or for anytime at all, really), and it kicked us off at the '12 Hoot.  Goes to show how deep Neil's catalog is, or maybe how shallow FM radio is and often was, that a tune this catchy is relegated to being a "deep album cut".  Instrument-wise, Paul B played the part of Neil, I got to Gretsch it up as the Poncho Sampedro/ Danny Whitten figure, Dillo thumped it up as Billy Talbot and Roadkill got his Ralph Molina on.  He'll deny it, but it's something he does, that Roadkill.

The "B" side comes from L.A.'s Dream Syndicate, from their red-hot "Medicine Show" record (1984).  This was a quintessential 80's underground guitar band centered on songwriter and guitar-strangler Steve Wynn (fortunately still carrying the flag with his band The Miracle 3). They leaned heavily on Crazy Horse and the Velvet Underground, spun pretty dark tales and never made a mainstream ripple  The tale of the tape is that their recorded legacy of live stuff packs much more of punch than their studio records.  Much as I'd like to, maybe can't blame the listening public.  Sadly this was a band that even I, particularly when flipping through the LP bins, would now and again mix up with the cruddy Dream Academy (you kept going past Thomas Dolby and Dramarama, and if you got to Dreams So Real, you'd gone too far).  On our version, Roady kept the drum throne, the Pauls Bonanos and Cardillo played the guitars and I took up the bass.  This was the last song we planned to cut, and we almost gave up on it-- We were losing patience trying to get on the same page as far as the verse-chorus structure and breakdown in the middle, and were ready to send it to the trash heap but, lo and behold, upon listening to the tapes afterwards we realized that it was a pretty damn solid version after all.  Happens all the time.

Don't Cry No Tears:        https://www.box.com/s/ytlj37c9j8cs6w6gl6nd


Still Holding On to You:   https://www.box.com/s/teg0rm2ly4vxj3id1hhg

Hoot '12: Clash/ Brian Eno covers

Hoot '12: "Julie's in the Drug Squad" b/w "King's Lead Hat"

More goods from last year's springtime Harpswell Hoot and beer-slaughterin'!

First one's originally off the Clash's rock-solid second album, "Give 'em Enough Rope" from '78.  Second's off Eno's '77 "Before and After Science".

Dillo educated us to the fact that "King's Lead Hat" is an anagram of "Talking Heads", a band that Eno had just gotten to know at the time.  You can certainly see the (mutual) influence even in our spastic version.  It's a crazy chugging locomotive of a song, nonsensical though it may be.

I'm educating you to the fact that if it's the Clash  that somebody's spinning, well, you'd better listen up because the odds tell you that it's probably gonna be goddarned great.  Shaddup-a-you-face!

 jk

"Julie's in the Drug Squad" (The Clash):
                       https://www.box.com/s/mz9mxos0kjeu27646zwi


"King's Lead Hat" (Brian Eno):
                      https://www.box.com/s/vlp2jryl5jcxohs0e4hb

Hoot '12: NRBQ/ Billy Joel covers

Hoot '12: "Riding in My Car" b/w "Sleeping With the Television On"

Finally, finally, finally!  With Harpswell Hootenanny 2013 almost upon us, we get around to sharing the hit rekkids we laid down at Hoot '12!  Thems the hooty fellas responsible up there in the picture:  Dillo, me, Paulie Bonanos and Mr. Roadkill.  Roggie had to sit one out on account of a family addition, but the rest of us soldiered on in the face of all the drinks and fine dining.  Looks like we'll be up to full strength by the end of May '12...

But, back to this post's fare... "Riding in My Car" is from one of the great all-purpose pop-rock-roots-bar bands ever: The New Rhythm and Blues Quartet.  NRBQ to you n' me.  Always loosey-goosey, they could be spastic, wacky, cornball, hangdog or heartbroken, and they were plum loaded with shoulda-been hits from their various incarnations.  This one was a perfect little gem from 1977.  On our version, Paul B played those clean little leads, I got to layer on some percussion and have fun singing some harmonies, and Dillo and RK breezily loped along in summery fashion.

"Sleeping with the Television On" was a no-brainer for us.  It's a rocking Billy Joel deep cut off of 1980's angry, wanna-rock, wanna-punk "Glass Houses".  Roger (Long Island) and Paul B (northern NJ) got the full Billy Joel indoctrination as young 'uns; me and Dillo (Westchester) listened to it on the 8-track back in the old Keating homestead; Roadkill soaked it up from afar down Roanoke way.  Paulie did the hard work on this version, mostly by teaching us the chords (!), plus playing the Wurlitzer and over-dubbing that great organ solo.

jk

"Riding in My Car" (NRBQ):
             https://www.box.com/s/b6lz152bimnuzm66tiwk


"Sleeping with the Television On" (Billy Joel):
             https://www.box.com/s/fv9vizen9ry1ku5e04mc

Holiday Special!: "Streams of Whiskey"

Ah, St. Patrick's Day just about sneaked up on me.  It is something that one tries to avoid up here in the Boston metro area, as you might imagine.  But I do have a soft spot and came up with a last-minute scheme to record an appropriately themed split single (appropriate for reinforcing stereotypes, that is!).  Sadly, time ran out on completing the full package but I was able to squeak out this one session late Monday afternoon, trying to keep the dog collar jingles and (surprisingly loud) cat kibble crunching kept down to a dull roar.  You'll have to wait a while for "The Old Black Rum" by Newfoundland's proud sons Great Big Sea...

So, yeah, the Pogues.  I really don't play the Irish traditional music, which requires too much speed and precision for us sausage-fingered pickers, but I figured a slightly slowed-down crack at this hell-raiser would be fun.  At the same time, it's a hard song to drain the brogue out of but it's worth trying, on account of it's such a a great free-standing song.  Plus, I ain't gonna fake no accent 'cause I ain't Irish.  Dirty secret: Neither were any of the Pogues except Shane MacGowan, who only barely squeaks by if you rummage carefully through the paperwork.

Fun tip!: You might want to write your Buttsteak representatives and suggest that they take this song up.

As we say in Harpswell: "Sláinte, y'all!!"

JK

Streams of Whiskey:  https://www.box.com/s/egqfybpwqukzs41c9smn

Dillo/ Buttsteak '11, part 3: Ringo plus Bee Gees plus...

Hey alls-  As winter continues to treat us northeasterners to yet another aggressive lion-lamb spiral, here's pretty much the last of the stuff that Dillo and I completed from our N.C. heatwave summer shack-up back in 2011.   In the interest of clearing the decks for the next batches of posts (the Harpswell Hootenanny, Stackpole and Roadkill-Buttsteak sessions from 2012), I figured I'd just send these off.  I do hope you're enjoying them, and do love to hear back your thoughts on things, so don't be shy!

"Photograph" was a Ringo-George co-write on the "Ringo" album from '73.  This particular version stays true both to the original version and the version by our old faves Camper van Beethoven off their late-80s chock-full-of-wonderful EP "Vampire Can Mating Oven".

"Massachusetts" goes even further back for the Brothers Gibb.  1967 to be precise.  That's a good ten years before their full swing through R&B and then disco and then all the smooth, horrible, weird stuff that they closed out with. 

There are a couple beautiful versions of "By the Time It Gets Dark" by Sandy Denny, she of Fairport Convention and "The Battle of Evermore" and a solo career and the usual substance-fueled self-destruction.  You can check the YouTubes for a nice, smooth, Bonnie Raitt-like one, or a spare solo acoustic version, both from around '77, methinks....  The one here toes a hard line to Yo la Tengo's cover version of the song that showed up on their also chock-full-of-wonderful EP "Little Honda" in '98.

jk

Photograph (Ringo Starr- George Harrison):
https://www.box.com/s/zl4zcedwai724jra15lu

Massachusetts (the Bee Gees):                
https://www.box.com/s/o2zukjg5k4decgbpwkp4

By the Time It Gets Dark (Sandy Denny):
https://www.box.com/s/222nokiqi9z10nx04ai4