Happy Thanksgiving: The Last Waltz

The greatest Thanksgiving-related event in rock is easily The Last Waltz. Held on Turkey Day in 1976, The famous farewell concert by The Band featured a litany of guest stars to help them bring it all back home.

Filmed and directed by Martin Scorcese, who infused the concert with the same energy that drives Taxi Driver and Raging Bull, The Last Waltz stands atop the heap of all-time great rock-docs. Simply putting the last song of the night - and of their career - at the start of the film is a bold act of genius:

The Band, "Don't Do It"

While many are familiar with the show and its many high points, it's easy to forget that it was much more a once-in-a-lifetime concert. For the whopping price of $15, ticketholders were also treated to a full Thanksgiving feast and ballroom dancing before the show.

Dinner, dancing, plus The Band, Neil Young, Joni Mitchell, Muddy Waters, Eric Clapton, Van Morrison, Dr. John, Neil Diamond (!) Bob Dylan amd many others? Forget all the crap about frontier myths and Americana etc. - the Band were unmatched at delivering value for the dollar.

Not long ago, I saw a DVD of The Last Waltz on sale at Shop Rite for $9.99, right by the checkout counter. So skip the yams this year, and serve up an extra helping of The Band. In the meantime, here are a few of the greatest clips from the event. In the inimitable words of Rick Danko, Happy Thanksgiving.

The Band, "It Makes No Difference" (Dig the way Garth pops in for the sax solo)

Neil Young & the Band, "Helpless"


Muddy Waters & The Band, "Mannish Boy"


Neil Diamond & The Band, "Dry Your Eyes" (smoke 'em if you've got 'em)


Bob Dylan & The Band, "Forever Young"/"Baby Let Me Follow You Down"


The Band, "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down"


The Band w/Mavis Staples, "The Weight"

Birthday: Happy 40th to The Beatles' White Album

Happy 40th birthday to The Beatles, aka The White Album.
In addition to being fantastic musicians and songwriters, The Beatles were also brilliant conceptual artists, and the White Album is their greatest concept of all. It's a concept about the lack of a concept, unified by a lack of unity, with no cover art as its cover art.

The Beatles, "Helter Skelter" fan video w/White Album studio footage


Some, like the Beatles' producer George Martin, have argued that the White Album would have been better as a tight single album rather than a sprawling, chaotic double. But the sprawl and randomness of the White Album captured the vibe of 1968 with its wars, riots assasinations and hippies - and the growing tensions within the band - perfectly.

By the way, copy 0000005 of the White Album is for sale on eBay. Early editons of the LP were serial numbered. Copies 1-4 belong to the members of the band. Bid now - it makes a great stocking stuffer!

In honor of this momentous anniversary, here's a great clip of sessions from the White Album. With all this video floating around, it's a wonder there's no making-of-the-White-Album documentary. Paul, Yoko, Ringo & Olivia, get on that. Cheers mates.

Next Stop: Funkytown

Rock Turtleneck Train Week: Day Three

Yes, the locomotive is the ultimate Americana metaphor: the high lonesome whistle echoing across the plains, traveling westward to a land of freedom and opportunity. But as today's featured train artists have proved, the train is also an ideal vehicle for some first-class booty shaking.

Case in point: Soul Train. Hosted by Don Cornelius, this Afro-American answer to American Bandstand offered concrete proof in the form of videotape that white people can't dance, but black people can. There's nothing wrong with that, it's just the way it is.

In a piece of Train Week serendipity, The O'Jays, the giants of Philadelphia-style soul, hopped aboard the Soul Train in 1973 to play their latest hit: "Love Train." Unlike, say Johnny Cash's "Orange Blossom Special," the Love Train traveled a global route through Africa, China, Egypt and Israel too.



A decade later, the Gap Band ushered us all aboard the "Party Train." This irresistible single capped the funky trifecta the band had started with "Early in the Morning" and "You Dropped a Bomb on Me." With scores of breakdancers and bikini-clad babes throwing down on what looks to be Venice Beach, the video plays up the Party and plays down the Train.


Bringing up the rear quite literally are the Quad City DJs, who kept the funk train a-rollin' with their 1996 smash "C'mon Ride It (The Train)." Like "Party Train" this video has no train in sight. It looks like a cross between House Party and 2001: A Space Odyssey. In fact, watching it, I'm not even sure if it's really a train they're talking about. But don't let that stop you from getting on board.

Don't Say I Never Warned You When Your Train Gets Lost

Rock Turtleneck Train Week: Day Two



Being an acolyte of Woody Guthrie, Hank Williams and Johnny Cash, 'tis no surprise that Bob Dylan also worked in the mileu of the train song. In fact, his 1962 debut Bob Dylan contained a track called "Freight Train Blues":


But his most celebrated train song is easily "It Takes A Lot to Laugh, It Takes a Train to Cry" from his towering masterpiece Highway 61 Revisited. It's a slow-burn Chicago-style blues with a soaring melody and plenty of Dylanesque put-downs (not to mention a killer title):


"It Takes a Lot to Laugh" began in a much faster form as "Phantom Engineer" which was released on the first Bootleg Series record. But not completely happy with the results, Dylan sent his band out to lunch and came up with the stately groove that makes the song so distinctive.

The song is also notable for its first verse, "Well I ride on a milk train baby/Can't buy a thrill" which inspired the title for Steely Dan's debut album. It was also covered for many years by the Grateful Dead and the Jerry Garcia Band.

Dylan has returned to the song again and again, such as this version here with George Harrison and Leon Russell at the 1971 Concert for Bangladesh:



... And at the second Woodstock festival in 1994. Don't say I never warned you:

If You Want To Ride You Got To Ride It Like You Find It

Rock Turtleneck presents: Train Week.

Ever since Rock Turtleneck rewrote the rules of the rock blogosphere back in aught-6, we have been meaning to do Train Week. Well the train called destiny has pulled into the station, so all aboard as we ride some mighty musical rails.

Let's pick up where we left off: with Johnny Cash. Trains are for Johnny Cash what transvestite junkie chic is for Lou Reed: the bedrock for their entire ethos.

To Johnny Cash, the train is a symbol of freedom, hard work and good old American know-how. It's where Mr. Rockefeller, Mr. & Mrs. John Doe and Willie the Hobo ride in separate cars, but I'll be damned if they don't get where they're going at exactly the same time.



Johnny Cash's train songs are legion, but my favorite is his version of the Lead Belly classic "Rock Island Line":







"Rock Island Line," 1969


His most famous ode to the rails is "Orange Blossom Special" wherein he does some mighty impressive dual-harmonica work.

"Orange Blossom Special," Live at San Quentin, 1969



Johnny didn't just write songs about trains; he wrote entire albums about them, including 1960's Ride this Train and Come Along and Ride this Train from 1969:

"Come Along and Ride this Train," 1969


Playing the part of musical caboose is "Train of Love" one of his earliest hits:

"Train of Love" circa 1960


Bob Dylan did a memorable, touching cover of "Train of Love" for a Johnny Cash tribute special back in 1999. All aboard.

Carryin' on with Johnny & June

The weekend's almost here. So grab an ice-cold bottle of Lone Star, grab your old lady (or old man) and watch Johnny Cash and June Carter Cash take care of business (TCB) at Cummins prision in Arkansas in 1969 with "Long Legged Guitar-Pickin' Man," the lead track from their fine, fun LP Carryin' On.

June really digs in on this one, with a growl worthy of the First Family of Country Music.


Carryin' On also featured their signature duet "Jackson" with it's telling opening stanza "We got married in a fever/Hotter than a pepper sprout." Here they are TCBing "Jackson" on the Johnny Cash Show, also in '69.


Many years later, in 1992, I had the good fortune to see Johnny & June sing "It Ain't Me, Babe" at the Bob Dylan 30th Anniversary tribute show at Madison Square Garden. It was an honor just to be in the same room with them. TCB, JC & JCC.

He Don’t Live Today: R.I.P. Mitch Mitchell

Mitch Mitchell 1947-2008

To stand out whilst backing the Greatest Guitar Player Who Ever Walked The Earth is not an easy feat, but that’s exactly what Mitch Mitchell accomplished as drummer for the Jimi Hendrix Experience.

Mitchell passed away this week in Portland, OR at the age of 62, shortly after finishing a tour with the Experience Hendrix tribute tour. Sadly, he was the last surviving member of the Experience, and rock’s greatest power trio has left this mortal coil.

Hastily hired in 1966 with bassist Noel Redding to back the explosive young Chitlin Circuit guitarist, the twenty-ish Mitchell underscored the jazz and blues sensibilities of Hendrix’s guitar stylings, a psychedelic stew which also contained heady doses of surf, soul and genius.

With his nimble, driving, trebly playing, Mitchell made the Experience swing. Without said swing, they may have plodded instead, and Hendrix would have had taken fewer of his freak-flag flights of fancy.

In fact, for all of Hendrix’s mind-blowingly fluid playing, several of his records, such as “Fire” “Manic Depression”, “Spanish Castle Magic” and “Hey Baby (New Rising Sun)” are just as notable for Mitchell’s drumwork.

Jimi Hendrix Experience, "Fire" Royal Albert Hall, Feb 24, 1969


Let us not forget that Mitch also played in perhaps the greatest all-star group of all time: The Dirty Mac. In 1968, for The Rolling Stones Rock & Roll Circus TV special, Mitchell backed up Keith Richards on bass, Eric Clapton of The Cream on lead and a cat named John Lennon on vocals and guitar for a dirty take on The Beatles’ “Yer Blues.”

The Dirty Mac, "Yer Blues" The Rolling Stones Rock & Roll Circus, 1968



Yer Blues, Mitch. RIP and TCB from all of us at RT. Let's take it home with a wild clip from The LuLu Show in 1969.

Jimi Hendrix Experience: "Voodoo Child/Hey Joe" LuLu Show, 1969

Astral Years: Van Morrison's Astral Weeks

Van Morrison’s 1968 LP Astral Weeks is one of those records that always shows up on critic’s all-time top 10 lists, alongside Exile on Main St, Highway 61 Revisited, Pet Sounds, Revolver. It’s part of the rock canon.

Yet I must admit that I’d never heard the album until about a week ago, when I saw it available on iTunes for a paltry $5.99.

From the second I dropped the metaphorical needle on the record, I was spellbound. At the expense of sounding like a namby-pamby, its beauty is breathtaking.

Like all great works of art, Astral Weeks is full of contradictions – blush with youth with a wisdom well beyond its years. It’s baroque yet jazzy, folksy yet rocksy. Stream-of-consciousness yet tightly orchestrated. Sophisticated yet naïve.

Listening to Astral Weeks on the train the other night, I felt like I was eavesdropping on a mystical world of young lovers and hobbits. I wanted them to accept me as one of their own.

The sound and passion of Astral Weeks is echoed in many of the great records of the past 30 years: Out of Time, Imperial Bedroom, Blood on the Tracks, I Do Not Want What I Haven't Got, to name a few.

Van the Man is playing Astral Weeks in its entirety in two special shows this Friday and Saturday at the Hollywood Bowl. The shows are being recorded for a future CD/DVD release.

For decades, Van refused to speak about the album, presumably letting it speak volumes for itself. But in conjunction with these shows he talked about it with the LA Times – you can read it here.

I’m sure the show is sold out, so if you can’t be there, head over to the iTunes store and pick up Astral Weeks, one of the pillars of the Rock Parthenon, for the price of a couple lattes. Then pour yourself a nice Jamesons, dim the lights, throw some peat on the fire and turn it up.

Herewith a couple performances from the Astral Weeks show in Spain. This is presumably what the Hollywood Bowl shows will look like, minus the giant digital watermark.

Van Morrison, "Cyprus Avenue" Castellon, Spain


Van Morrison, "Astral Weeks" Castellon, Spain

Signed, Sealed, Delivered

Many congrats to Barack Obama on his historic win for the top job in the land.

Watching Obama's speech gave one (i.e., me) chills and pause. 'Twas one of those rare occasions where you know you are watching a moment that will be talked about for decades as it's happening. The fact that it was so positive, unlike other seismic moments like 9/11 or the Challenger explosion, made it all the more powerful and moving. Kudos also to John McCain for his dignified and honorable consolation speech.

Now all Obama has to do is safely get us out of two wars, find Bin Laden, get us out of a Depression, balance the budget, make college affordable, save the planet, create jobs and repair America's relationship with every country in the world - then everything will be hunky dory.

Anyway, one of the many plusses of the Obama victory is that it gives Rock Turtleneck an excuse to dig up this super-vintage 1970 clip of Stevie Wonder performing what would become Obama's theme song: "Signed, Sealed, Delivered." A true Motown classic, with one of the greatest bass lines ever laid down. The groove is so funky, that lil' Stevie has to get up and shake his thang. I know how he feels.

Stevie Wonder, "Signed, Sealed, Delivered" 1970


Bonus History-Making Clip: Barack Obama's Presidential acceptance speech, Grant Park, Chicago 11/4/08

Honest to Goodness, the Bars Weren't Open this Morning - They Must've Been Votin' for a New President or Somethin'

X, "The New World" More Fun in the New World


Honest to goodness, the bars weren’t open this morning
They must have been votin' for a new President or somethin'
Do you have a quarter? I said "Yes," because I did
Honest to goodness the tears have been falling all over the country’s face

It was better before, before they voted for what’s-his-name
This is supposed to be the new world!

Flint Ford auto Mobile Alabama
Windshield wiper Buffalo New York
Gary Indiana don't forget the Motor City
Baltimore and D.C. now all we need is -

Don't forget the Motor City
This was supposed to be the new world!

All we need is money just give us what you can spare
Twenty or thirty pounds of potatoes or twenty of thirty beers
A turkey on thanksgiving like alms for the poor
All we need are the necessities and more

It was better before they voted for what-his-name
This is supposed to be the new world!
Don't forget the Motor City
This was supposed to be the new world!

X, "The New World" semi-recent live version, year & venue unknown.

Born to Busk

Bruce Springsteen has been doing an admirable job busking for Barack Obama these past few weeks. And that can means only one thing: the Boss is back in full Woody Guthrie/early Dylan mode: flannel shirt, harmonica holder, hillbilly drawl, drawn-out spoken intros.

Turns out Obama isn't the only one with a stump speech.

Bruce Springsteen Busks for Obama, Philadelphia Voter Registration Rally, 10/4/08


Watching the above from Philadelphia, I could only think of this famous clip of Dylan from Don't Look Back. While Dylan is in his hipster cat mode in Swinging 1965 London, a reporter asks "Bob, how did it all begin for you" and we cut to 1963 protest Dylan, singing "Only a Pawn in Their Game" at a voter registration rally in the deep South.

Bob Dylan, "Only a Pawn in their Game" Don't Look Back


Tomorrow the Rock Turtleneck staff will be voting for Mr. Obama - not because the Boss told us to, but because this land was made for you and me. Take it away Woody:

Woody Guthrie, "This Land is Your Land"