Rock Turtleneck

R.I.P. Don Cornelius: All Aboard that Soul Train Line in the Sky

2012-02-02T11:46:00.002-05:00

Soul Train svengali Don Cornelius tragically hopped off the life train yesterday, dying at age 75 of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

Soul Train, of course, was the hipper, blacker counterpart to Dick Clark’s American Bandstand. Both shows showcased the newest sounds and freshest dance moves of the day.

But the Genius o' Cornelius was to populate a dance show with people who could actually dance, as opposed to the white folks on Bandstand who so often looked like guests at a wedding reception doing the white man's overbite.

Case in point: the moneymaker-shaking Soul Train Line, a funky testament to what white people think they look like when they dance, but never, ever in a million years actually do.

YouTube has dozens of priceless clips of Soul Train funkitude such as this one to Kool & the Gang's "Jungle Boogie," made famous many years later by its use in Pulp Fiction.

It’s acually kind of amazing that Soul Train debuted a good decade after Bandstand. Usually the white man takes the music from the black man, like when Pat Boone used to score hits of vanilla versions of Little Richard songs. But in the case of Soul Train, the black man got the Payback. and the results, as demonstrated in this James Brown clip, were often Superbad.

In addition to being a brilliant music impressario and businessman, Don Cornelius also possessed one of the coolest names ever. There's simply no way to grow up with the name Don Cornelius and not becaome a badass mutha.

Don only joined the Soul Train Line once in his career, appropriately enough to James Brown's "Doing it to Death." (He was joined by Mary Wilson of the Supremes.) And when he did, he showed the kids that funky is as funky does.

R.I.P. and TCB, DC. Thanks for bringing the funk.

Get 100 Soul Train Hits for just $24.99 on iTunes here.

R.I.P. Smokey the Hamster: The Tears of a Clown

2012-01-30T23:20:00.000-05:00

Smokey, our beloved family hamster, passed away last night under some mysterious, Bob Crane-like circumstances which I don't care to get into. I'm not sure how old he was or if he leaves any survivors, but my kids are devastated.

Smokey got his name for his smokey-colored mane, not for any resemblance to Motown's great singer/songwriter/producer Smokey Robinson, whose "Tears of a Clown" is one of my all-time favorite songs.

The music for "Tears of a Clown" was written in 1966 by Stevie Wonder and his partner at Motown Hank Cosby. Though they loved the instrumental track they'd created, Stevie couldn't come up with a lyric or melody that he thought was worthy of it, so he asked Smokey if he had any ideas.

Smokey said the song reminded him of the circus and immediately got to work writing a tune wherein the subject of the tune compares himself to the sad opera clown Pagliachi.

The tune was released in 1967 but didn't strike it big till 1970, when it was issued as a single and went straight to #1 in the US and UK. Amazingly, it was Smokey's only #1 hit with the Miracles.

Eleven years later the English Beat did a fine ska-tinged version of "Tears of a Clown" on their classic debut LP I Just Can't Stop It that was a big hit on the college/new wave radio party circuit.

As Smokey says in the song, There's some sad things known to man, but there ain't too much sadder than a dead hamster. I'm paraphrasing of course. R.I.P., Smokey.

Get "Tears of a Clown" on iTunes here:
Smokey Robinson & the Miracles
The English Beat

Pete Townshend's "Corrina, Corrina": One of the Highlights of the New Bob Dylan/Amnesty International Benefit Record

2012-01-27T22:46:00.003-05:00

I've been digging into the house of mirrors that is Chimes of Freedom: The Songs of Bob Dylan, the new 4-CD, 73-track tribute to the Zim-master that honors and benefits Amnesty International.

Pay a visit to Amnesty's website and you'll learn their mission is to "Expose and prevent human rights abuses." Hard to argue with that.

Amnesty was founded 50 years ago by English labour lawyer Peter Berenson the same year Dylan released his first LP, so a Dylan-themed project was a natural. Plus, the guy wrote the best Amnesty- ready tunes ever, such as "Blowin' in the Wind" and "I Shall be Released." For this project, Bob kindly offered up his peerless song catalog up for free to everyone who wanted to do a cover, and pretty much everyone asked said yes.

Participants run the gamut from My Morning Jacket to Lucinda Williams to Bryan Ferry to Adele to Miley Cyrus to a lot of interesting, international artists I've never heard of, like Ximena Sariñana. Most of the versions are good or at least interesting. If you are a Dylan fan, it's a must buy.

One of my favorite tracks thus far has been Pete Townshend's gentle take on "Corrina, Corrina," an old folk tune which Dylan recorded for on his second LP The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan, and I think the only song on the tribute that he didn't actually like. You can hear Dylan's version here.

Pete's been playing it live recently, and he talks about the origins of the tune here.

Townshend and Amnesty go way back - he's probably done more than any other public figure to bring the organization's mission to the public light.

He also did one of the great unplugged performances of all time in 1979 as part of the Amnesty-benefiting Secret Policemen's Ball. Best was this performance of the Quadrophenia track featuring some career-best singing and guitar playing. Had The Who never happened, Pete would have made a fine singer-songwriter.

Chimes of Freedom: The Songs of Bob Dylan is priced to move. You can download it on Amazon for $19.99 or a get a physical copy for a dollar less below.

Monday Monday: The #1 Song on the Day I Was Born

2012-01-23T17:21:00.001-05:00

The latest parlour game to sweep social media is "What Was the #1 Song on the Day You Were Born?” All you do is go to Google and type in "#1 song on" followed by the date and year of your birth.

The chart-topping song on the day I was born happens to be a perfect song for a melancholy Monday: “Monday Monday,” the first hit by The Mamas and the Papas.

Though they came and went in a flash, The Mamas and the Papas were one of the most enduring groups of the 60s.

Mama Cass Elliot, Denny Doherty, and husband and wife Papa John and Michelle Phillips sprung from the Greenwich Village coffeehouse circuit that also produced Bob Dylan, The Byrds and The Lovin' Spoonful to form a vocally stunning folk-rock sound that was an instant worldwide smash. Their improbable rise to fame was chronicled in their cheeky classic "Creque Alley":

Despite their offbeat visual appeal and wholesome image, The Mamas and the Papas were one of the hardest-partying bands of all time. sleeping with each other in almost every conceivable combination. Leader Papa John Phillips' appetite for drugs was so legendary he made Keith Richards look like Mitt Romney.

In addition to a string of beautifully produced hits that also included "California Dreamin,'" The Mamas and the Papas also organized the first-ever rock festival, 1967's Monterey Pop, which turned Jimi Hendrix, Otis Redding, Janis Joplin and The Who into superstars in the Summer of Love.

So great was the impact of these acts that the Mamas and Papas themselves were overshadowed. Nevertheless, they put on a great show.

Here they are getting very groovy at Monterey on one of their best deep cuts, “Straight Shooter.”

Make your Monday Monday a little brighter - get some Mamas & Papas on iTunes here.

What was the #1 song on the day you were born? Rock Turtleneck wants to know. Please leave a comment below.

2011: A Banner Year for Critically Acclaimed Yet Unlistenable Music

2012-01-21T11:13:00.001-05:00

2011 was perhaps the best year ever for music that was adored by critics yet unlistenable to laypeople.

The other day, the Village Voice published its annual Pazz & Jop Critics Poll, which surveys hundreds of music critics around the country to create something more or less like a consensus of the the best records of the year. Usually, an undeniable instant classic like The Clash's London Calling, Nirvana's Nevermind or Bob Dylan's Time Out of Mind rises to the top.

This year the surprise #1 record of 2011 was whokill, by a shift key-challenged artiste called tUnE-yArDs (seen above). I’d heard the name but knew nothing of the music, and now I know why - it is tUnE-lEsS.

According to the Voice poll, his/her/their/its song "Bizness" was the 12th best song of the year. To me it sounds like an unholy alliance betwen Adam and the Ants, Joan Armatrading and a crystal meth addict.

Over at the indie-snob mecca Pitchfork, the best record of the year was the self-titled sophomore album by the Minneapolis singer-songwriter and Kanye West pal Bon Iver.

I thought tUnE-yArDs' reckless use of upper and lower case type was pretentious, until I found out that Bon Iver is supposed to be pronounced in French, ala bonjour, as opposed to the American way like Bon Jovi. Translated loosely from French, "Bon Iver" means "don't bother."

Bon Iver's record was celebrated by millennial hipsters for dredging up the sonic palette of 80s dreck like Toto and Bruce Hornsby without irony in songs like "Beth/Rest." Which begs the question, if Bon Iver's watered-down merde is an album for the ages, then why isn't Peter Cetera in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame?

As they are with so many trends, Radiohead was way ahead of the curve in 2011, releasing The King of Limbs, their most unlistenable record to date. Rather than rehash the details, I'll simply refer you to Rock Turtleneck's Onion-esque April 1 post entitled "Radiohead Brilliantly Experiments with Sucking on New LP. "

To the band's credit, that live versions of this material have been far superior, this version of "Little by Little" being a case in point. This was also the case with their albums Kid A and Amnesiac.

Radiohead are the greatest band since R.E.M., so I'm sure they'll bounce back with something fantastic in the near future. tUnE-yArDs and Bon Iver? Don't hold your breath.

Buy them on iTunes if you dare:
tUnE-yArDs, whokill
Bon Iver, Bon Iver
Radiohead, The King of Limbs

Yet More Best-of-2011 Awards from Rock Turtleneck

2012-01-12T22:23:00.000-05:00

Following up on our previous awards post, Rock Turtleneck has a couple more awards to hand out in recognition of the excellent and otherwise in 2011.

Best reissue: The Rolling Stones, Some Girls

It felt like just about every record I've ever loved was reissued this year in various Deluxe and Uber-Deluxe incarnations - Nevermind, Achtung Baby, Lifes Rich Pageant - but the best was the Rolling Stones' gritty 1978 return to form Some Girls. The album itself is probably the best Stones record outside of their Beggar's Banquet-Exile on Main St. golden era. As Keith Richards said in his book LIfe, Some Girls was a reaction to the punk movement, but by guys who could really play their instruments.

But whereas the demos and outtakes on the Nirvana, U2 and R.E.M. reissues were by and large underwhelming, The Stones' bonus disc was a true revelation, because it was full of Some Girls-quality songs that just didn’t have quite the same rundown Summer-of-Sam flavor as the official album, such as the Dateline NBC-worthy true crime murder ballad "Claudine."

Best Record by a Septugeneraian: Paul Simon, So Beatuiful or So What

Edie Brickell’s lesser half is still delivering great music at age 70. A handful of songs on So Beautiful or So What were as good as Graceland, and that's saying something. Best of all was the closing title track, which combined time-honored wisdom with Big Easy cooking instructions in the best stanza of the year:
I’m going to make a chicken gumbo
Toss some sausage in the pot
I’m going to flavor it with okra
Cayenne pepper to make it hot
You know life is what we make of it
So beautiful or so what

Best Record of 2011 That Actually Came Out in 2010: Mumford and Sons, Sigh No More

Sigh No More was probably the record I listened to and enjoyed most all year long. If I had to place my bets on one current young band destined for R.E.M.-level greatness, it would be Mumford & Sons.

These London lads also put in the best musical performance I saw on TV all year, their amazing trilogy with the Avett Brothers and a crazy old coot named Bob Dylan. (For some copyright reason this video is reversed so all the lefties are really righties. But you'll get the idea.)

Buy on iTunes:

Some Girls (Deluxe Edition)

So Beautiful or So What

Sigh No More

Take a Load Off, Mavis: Wilco, Nick Lowe and Mavis Staples Carry "The Weight"

2012-01-09T22:38:00.003-05:00

A wonderful video clip has been making the rounds among the music-obsessed. It's a dressing-room run-thorugh of The Band's classic "The Weight" by Wilco, Nick Lowe and Mavis Staples, filmed before a recent Wilco show at the Civic Opera House in Chicago.

It took me a while to figure out what I liked so much about the video, besides the fact that it’s some of my favorite musicians doing one of the all-time classics of the rock & roll canon. But I think what's great about the performance is watching the players arrange the song as they play it, through nonverbal cues like head nods, and hand gestures.

It's as good an example of music being a universal language as anything you'll see, and it brings the song's message of "carrying the load" to life. Everyone's pitching in, helping out, doing their thing and asking nothing in return.

Mavis of course did a famous version of "The Weight" with The Band (the Wilco of their day) about 35 years ago, during a beatifully filmed offstage segment in Martin Scorcese's rock-doc The Last Waltz.

The segment was filmed because there were technical difficulties during the version played at the actual Last Waltz concert. Since inclusion of The Band's most famous song was a must, they decided to play up the tune’s soul and gospel leanings by recording it with The Staples Singers. Mr. Lowe deserves props for his spot-on Pops Staples impersonation in the newer clip.

"The Weight" was written by Robbie Robertson and appeared on The Band's debut LP Music from Big Pink. For years, it was rumored that the tune was actually written by Robertson's old boss, Bob Dylan, (it has much of the feel of the tunes Dylan was writing at the time, such as "I Shall Be Released" and "Dear Landlord") but that has never really been substantiated.

Everyone and their mother has taken a crack at "The Weight" over the years - it's a top-shelf rock standard, right up there with "Yesterday" and "Hallelujah." One of the best is by Lady Soul, Aretha Franklin, with some killer slide guitar by Duane Allman.

Get "The Weight" here:

The Band, Music from Big Pink

The Band & Mavis Staples, The Last Waltz

Aretha Franklin, This Girl's In Love With You

More Best-of-2011 Awards from Rock Turtleneck

2012-01-05T23:43:00.001-05:00

Following up on our Album of the Year award to R.E.M. for their swan song Collapse Into Now, here is the first in a series of additional but equally prestigious year-end awards, celebrating the brilliant, wild and thewacky in the world o' music.

Best R.E.M. Tribute/Rip-off: The Decemberists' "Calamity Song"

The King is Dead was one of the year's best records, and the whole record felt like a well-timed R.E.M. homage. "Calamity Song," however, was the R.E.M.iest, featuring Peter Buck playing a variation on his part from "Talk About the Passion." The video alludes to a fictional sport played in Infinite Jest, the magum opus by the late great author David Foster Wallace, or so I've heard; I've never read the book.

Buy on iTunes here

Best Use of Autoharp: PJ Harvey, Let England Shake

Polly Jean Harvey might be the greatest musical chameleon since David Bowie. For this record, a song cycle about the ravages of war, she changed her voice and started rocking the autoharp. Somehow she made it work, delivering her best record since 2001's incredible Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea.

Buy on iTunes here

Best Driving Song: Death Cab for Cutie, "Doors Unlocked and Open"

This deep cut from their excellent Codes and Keys has the propulsive drive of classic road tunes like "L.A. Woman," "Radar Love" and "Blue Monday." This version recorded for KCRW shows that DCC is a pretty excellent live band, too. Step on it.

Buy on iTunes here

Best Opening Track: Wilco, "Art of Almost"

I still haven't decided where The Whole Love resides in the Wilco canon, but "Art of Almost" is almost definitely their best opening track ever. From its Radiohead-esque intro to the Mahavishnu Orchestra-like guitar coda by Nels Cline, "Art of Almost" instantly takes its place in the top rung of Wilco fan favorites alongside "Jesus, Etc.," "The Late Greats," "Impossible Germany" and "California Stars."

Buy on iTunes here

R.E.M.'s "Collapse Into Now": Rock Turtleneck's 2011 Album of the Year

2012-01-03T17:41:00.000-05:00

In 1987, Paul Newman won the Best Actor Oscar for the film The Color of Money. It was far from his best-ever performance or his best film. But Newman was getting on in years and he had never won an Oscar. So when he won, everyone knew that it was not only for The Color of Money, but for Hud and Cool Hand Luke and Butch Cassidy andThe Verdict and his salad dressing and for just being Paul Newman.

Well that’s what Rock Turtleneck is doing this year by naming R.E.M.’s Collapse into Now our 2011 Album of the Year. Was it the best album of 2011? Probably not. But then again there were no other clear winners in my book. (We'll discuss some runners-up later this week.)

But to many Gen-Xers like me, R.E.M. were like The Beatles, with an incredible sense of unity and a string of albums that seemed to mirror and inform my growth as a humanoid in some sort of non-linear yet unmistakeable way.

And R.E.M.’s announcement on September 21st that they were breaking up felt like the end of an extended adolescence that began the first time I heard their song “1,000,000” on the Garden City, NY station WLIR.

Collapse Into Now is full of typically fine songs, fierce guitar work by Peter Buck and the sweet harmonies of Mike Mills. It nods to practically every style of music they touched on in their amazing 31-year career (well 17 years or so of it was amazing). If R.E.M. was our Beatles, then this was their Abbey Road. After years of discord and barely hanging on, they dug down deep to make one last record the way they used to.

They knew it was their last hurrah when they recorded it. In fact, Stipe has said that the picture on the cover is him waving goodbye to his fans. And he does the same thing lyrically in “All the Best”:

I'm in a part of your dreams

That you don't even understand

It's just like me to overstay my welcome man

Let's sing it and rhyme

Let's give it one more time

Let's show the kids how to do it fine, fine, fine, fine

While “All the Best” sounded like it could have been on 1986's Lifes Rich Pageant, the post-Katrina dirge "Oh My Heart" was served up Automatic for the People.

While no masterpiece on the level of Automatic or Document, Collapse Into Now was R.E.M.’s best record since the departure of drummer Bill Berry in 1997. (It's hard to believe, but R.E.M. was together without Berry almost as long as with him.)

It’s also an impressive rebound from 2004’s Around the Sun, one of the lamest records ever made by a major artist. In fact, the band said that the atrociousness of that record inspired them to go out on a strong note with Collapse and 2008's Accelerate.

Collapse Into Now begins and ends with “Discoverer,” which Stipe says is a reminiscence of discovering New York City when R.E.M. first started touring by van in the early 1980s. It turns out that this take at Hansa Studios in Berlin, where they recorded the record, is supposedly last performance they ever did together as a group. Maybe that's why they all clap at the end.

Congratulations, R.E.M. on this incredible career-capping award. And thanks for Murmur, Reckoning, Document, Out of Time, Automatic for the People, New Adventures in Hi-Fi and your... umm... salad dressing. Belong.

Buy R.E.M.’s Collapse Into Now on iTunes here.

The Last Day of Their Acquaintance: Sinead O' Connor's 18-Day Marriage is Over

2011-12-29T14:26:00.000-05:00

Congratulations and consolations to fiery Irish singer Sinead O'Connor, who ended her fourth marriage this week after a mere 18 days. The dumpee is a fella named Barry Herridge, whose career as a drug counselor did not gel with O'Connor's penchant for marijuana, which she tried to score on her wedding night by driving into a shaky part of town.

I hadn't really listened to Sinead's music in years, but hearing this story brought back memories of "The Last Day of Our Acquaintance," a whisper-to-a-scream breakup ballad that was a high point of her 1990 masterpiece I Do Not Want What I Haven't Got, an album which is basically Blood on the Tracks for women.

O' Connor's career never really recovered from the tumult of the fall of 1992 when she ripped up a photo of Pope John Paul II on Saturday Night Live and her confrontational appearance at the "Bob-fest" Bob Dylan tribute concert at Madison Square Garden a few weeks later.

She was planning to sing "I Believe in You" from Dylan's born-again Slow Train Coming LP but was taken aback by the loud boos in the audience. (I was at the Dylan tribute show and remember there were just as many people applauding her as booing her.) So instead of singing, she launched into an angrily shouted version of Bob Marley's "War."

While I respect Ms. O'Connor's right to free speech (and the audience's right to boo her) I've always thought the right thing to do as an entertainer would have been to launch into her song and win the crowd over that way. It could have been an incredibly powerful moment, but she blew it by throwing a hissy fit. It's a shame, because her version of "I Believe in You" (which she recorded for the charity record A Very Special Christmas 2) is beautiful, as shown in this clip from a 1999 Linda McCartney tribute at the Royal Albert Hall demonstrates.

Anyway, best of luck in the future to Ms. O' Connor in her future romantic and musical endeavors.

Buy Sinead O'Connor's I Do Not Want What I Haven't Got on iTunes here.
Buy "I Believe in You" here.

He's Mr. Heat Miser

2011-12-22T23:08:00.000-05:00

With only three days until Christmas the temperature in New York around 60 degrees farenheit this afternoon, one thing is very clear: the Heat Miser is back. But did he ever really leave?

Gen-X'ers know Heat Miser from the above appearance in the 1974 Rankin-Bass holiday film The Year Without a Santa Claus, wherein he spars over control of global weather patterns with his brother Snow Miser, who is his polar opposite — literally.

Watching HM's Busbee Berkeley-style number and catty comments for the first time in many years, I'd forgotten (or never realized) how, shall we say, flamboyant Mr. Hundred-and-One is, with a snarky attitude that was pure Paul Lynde.

Snow Miser, conversely, seems to take his cues from Vaudeville, in the tradition of Jimmy Durante with a smidge of Fred Astaire thrown in.

Despite the Miser Brothers' status as generational touchstones, The Year Without a Santa Claus remains a disturbingly under-the-radar Christmas special, unlike A Charlie Brown Christmas or The Grinch Who Stole Christmas, which have a prime-time, major network showing every season. But that makes stumbling across it during a run through the cable channels so sweetly satisfying.

It's also worth noting that Heatmiser was the name of the great singer-songwriter Elliott Smith's first band. Despite having all of Smith's albums, I have none of Heatmiser's, but I think that may have to change. Here's a fine tune I found on YouTube called "Plainclothes Man" from their final record. 1996's Mic City Sons.

Get Heatmiser's Mic City Sons on iTunes here.

Happy 68th Keith Richards: Dig the Stones at the Marquee in 1971

2011-12-18T20:31:00.003-05:00

Rock Turtleneck wishes a Happy 68th Birthday to Keith Richards: bluesman, guitarist, singer, songwriter, best-selling author, survivor family man and world-class bon vivant.

To see Keef doing what he does best — i.e., rocking — check out the following 1971 club show from the Rolling Stones at the Marquee in London.

It's 37 minutes of the band at their absolute peak, right around the release of Sticky Fingers, which I would say is probably their single greatest album. And it's one of those YouTube clips you discover every once in a while that you can't believe actually exists. As Keith might say, "Marquee Show baby - where you been all my life? (gravelly laugh)

In addition to Keith, the Marquee Show also feautres plenty of handclaps and rooster moves from Sir Michael Jagger and some truly stunning guitar work from the much-missed Mick Taylor. Some really great versions here of the fresh Fingers material, particularly the stately Otis Redding style torch ballad "I Got the Blues."

There are rumors that Taylor may come back on board with the Stones as they embark on a (gasp) 50th anniversary tour next year. Keith and Mick, please make it so.

But without further ado, dig the Stones at the Marquee. Happy Birthday Keith - may you bury us all.

Simple Twist of Fête: Bob Dylan's "Must Be Santa" Video

2011-12-14T22:29:00.004-05:00

With the Holiday Party season in full swing, it's time for Rock Turtleneck to dig out Bob Dylan's amazing video for his cover of the Mitch Miller classic "Must Be Santa."

The video depicts a Dylanesque shindig gone awry, and reminds me in several ways of parties I have attended recently. It's proof positive of the adage that It ain't a party 'till something gets broken. Blame it on a simple twist of fête.

Zimmy's Christmas in the Heart collection came out in 2009 and is a must own for fans who like their Yuletide hymns delivered by a croaky-voiced troubadour.

All U.S. royalties from the collection benefit Feeding America, the nation's leading domestic hunger-relief charity. So feed your head and feed some fellow humans and get yourself a copy pronto.

Buy Bob Dylan's Christmas in the Heart on iTunes here.

Dylan Christmas Bonus: Dylan Thomas reads A Child's Christmas in Wales

Bowie and Bing: They Can Be Heroes Just for One Day

2011-12-11T20:17:00.001-05:00

If you need proof that Christmas miracles really do happen, look and listen no further than the legendary 1977 duet between Bing Crosby and David Bowie. Filmed for Bing's 1977 Christmas TV special, it features Bowie, who at the time was the most outré star on the planet, similar to Lady Gaga I suppose, getting all demure with the biggest living legend of the time.

The set-up, where Bowie stops by unannounced, is surprised to find the person he came to visit is not around, and asks if he can come in anyway, is straight out of a 70s porno movie. But instead of getting their freak on, they sing a tender medley of"Little Drummer Boy" and "Peace on Earth."

The only thing that could have made the duet better is if Bowie had still been in the midst of his Ziggy Stardust phase. Bing would have had his fatal heart attack right then and there.

The duet was legendary from the moment it first aired and has only grown in stature over time. Last year Taladega Nights co-stars Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly filmed a surprisingly straight to the bone parody for Ferrell's Funny or Die website - you can see it here.

Bowie also sang a solo number on the Crosby show, a new song and perhaps his best song, "Heroes." Many years back, my friends George and Rich and I played a parlor game wherein we each wrote down our 10 favorite songs of all time. "Heroes" was on all three lists. So it must be good.

Get Bing and Bowie's "Little Drummer Boy/Peace on Earth" on iTunes here.
Get Bowie's "Heroes" here

Have Yourself A Very She & Him Christmas

2011-12-06T23:24:00.001-05:00

I make a point of buying one Christmas album every year, and this year it's A Very She & Him Christmas.

She & Him as Rock Turtleneck readers well know, is the duo of M. Ward and multitalented New Girl star Zooey Deschanel, who is for my money the finest singer of the female persuasion going right now. Their classic style is perfectly suited for the Yuletide genre and the album lives up to its promise.

She & Him stopped by lantern-jaw Jay Leno's show a couple weeks back to perform "The Christmas Waltz," a tune I first heard on The Frank Sinatra Christmas Album many years back.

The tune features the enchanting vocals of the newly single Ms. Deschanel, along with some tasty Willie Nelson-inspired gut-string guitar work by Ward.

This week, the dynamic duo dropped by the Ellen DeGeneres show for a more upbeat number, "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree."

With its enchanting music and retro cover art, A Very She & Him Christmas is guaranteed to warm the stockings of your favorite aging hipster. You can even pick it up on Starbucks along with a Venti Zooey-latte. But if you have an aversion to physical media you can also get it here on iTunes.

35 Years Ago: The Almost-Assassination of Bob Marley

2011-12-04T12:11:00.001-05:00

So there I was eating chili at a school fundraiser yesterday when my buddy Owen informed me that it was the 35th anniversary of an assassination attempt on Bob Marley.

I am a big fan of Marley (or so I thought) but had no idea that he had ever been shot. But on December 3, 1976, his Kingston home was invaded by some thugs who shot him in the arm and chest, shot his wife Rita in the head, and shot his manager Don Taylor too.

Though the gunmen were never found, it's believed they attempted to take Marley's life to prevent him from playing the Smile Jamaica concert, a show he'd organized to help calm the political unrest in Jamaica at the time, but which had been co-opted by the ruling party.

Bob, Rita and Don survived and amazingly, Bob played the Smile Jamaica concert a couple days later, turning a scheduled one-song appearance into a 90-minute shamanistic ritual, which turned him from a pop star into a living legend.

When Bob was asked why he decided to play the show, he replied, "The people who are trying to make the world a worse place are not taking a day off. Why should I?" Well put.

Here's a fascinating documentary about the assassination attempt and concert from back in the day.

Part I:

Part II:

The legend of Bob Marley goes way beyond Legend. A great place to start is his 1975 Live! album with the Wailers, which you can get on iTunes here for a mere $7.99.

The Black Keys Rev Up Their Bitchen "El Camino"

2011-11-29T17:03:00.001-05:00

I resisted the furious charms of The Black Keys for way too long. I naively assumed that my guitar-drums blues revivalist duo needs were being more than adequately filled by the great White Stripes.

But Jack and Meg White called it a day earlier this year, which freed me up to get into the Keys.
And by the sound of the Keys' forthcoming record El Camino, escaping the shadow of the Stripes has freed them up as well.

El Camino comes out next Tuesday and it is already getting five-star reviews from the people who review things with stars. (Ironists will notice that the vehicle on the cover is not an El Camino but some sort of 80s minivan.)

The first single “Lonely Boy” is an instant classic will turn even a Tupperware Party into a bolt-the-doors rager. Just try and sit still while this tune is playing. Chances are you'll be shakin' your money maker sho'nuff like the dude in the video.

Guitarist Dan Auerbach and drummer Patrick Carney formed the Black Keys in Akron, Ohio (home of Chrissie Hynde) in 2001. After several well received records, they made it to the mainstream with their 2010 record Brothers.

Brothers was one of 2010's very best discs, led by "Tighten Up," and "Howlin' for You," an overloaded, supercompressed blast of neo-blues with a touch of glam, supported by this brilliantly Tarantinonian video.

Pre-order El Camino on iTunes here and you'll get "Lonely Boy" now.

Bonus clip: "Tighten Up" (also from Brothers) live on Late Show with David Letterman.

Get Brothers on iTunes here.

A-Ha's "Take On Me": A Video to Get Lost in (Literally)

2011-11-19T12:51:00.001-05:00

26 years ago, the #1 song in the land was A-Ha's "Take on Me," amongst the bounciest, catchiest pieces of synth-pop ever to emerge from Norway.

Even more enduring than the song was the innovative video, which used a technique called rotoscoping to combinepencil-sketch animation with live-action. The video remains captivating to this day. So captivating in fact, that my good friend George Feinn once went through the looking glass as it were and into the video himself (I know because I was there).

In this Rock Turtleneck exclusive, George recounts the time when he took on "Take on Me" — and lost.

The first time I saw A-Ha's “Take on Me” video was in the fall of 1985, in my friend Scott’s dorm room at the University of Connecticut. On Scott’s dresser was an old black & white TV thesize of a small microwave. Like Vinnie Barbarino talking to a girl betweenclasses, the set was always on.

One evening five or six of us (including Rock Turtleneck's Steve Walsh) sat in Scott's room to watch the show Friday Night Videos. It was about 1:35 am. An intoxicating mélange of smoke filled the air, and Cool Ranch Doritos filled our bellies.

A hauntingly melodic electronic drumbeat kicked in and I was instantlymesmerized. The action unfolded at a breakneck pace. A cartoon motorcycle racing champion falls in love with awoman in the "real" world. He catches her attention by winking to her fromthe pages of the book in which he lives and she agrees to join him in the comic book. Now that’s love.

Or so I thought. Suddenly, the man’s fellow bikers show upwielding monkey wrenches. I knew I had to help. My buzzin full swing, I had an "a-ha" moment of my own — I was in the video, too. As the hero, heroine and I were beingchased down the penciled hallways, I started screaming “Go left! No, right!No left!” I was in a video game-fever dream with no controls, yelling at a TV inthe middle of the night, with no escape in sight.

We rounded a corner, I turned around and there I was, back in Scott’sroom, amongst my friends, sweaty and disheveled. Like our two heroes, I'd miraculously managed to escape.

To this day, I still long to transport myself back into that comic book every time I hear thesong. And I play at least ten times a day.

Thank you, George for a touching anecdote.

George is far from the only person to be taken by "Take on Me," as this clip from The Family Guy so poignantly demonstrates.

Explore the surprisingly large A-Ha oeuvre on iTunes here.

About a Kurt: Nirvana Unplugged in New York 18 Years Later

2011-11-15T07:22:00.001-05:00

The late great Kurt Cobain has been on my mind and in my ears more than usual of late.

Perhaps it was all the brouhaha over the 20th anniversary (!) of Nevermind. More likely, it was because of my absolutely uncanny resemblance to Kurt this past Halloween, when my wife and I dressed as members of the so-called 27 Club. (She was Amy Winehouse).

The Mrs. has a green cardigan identical to the one famously worn by Kurt on Nirvana’s Unplugged in New York set 18 years ago this month. Once I put it on, along with my “grunge” wig, "Hi, How Are You?" T-shirt and ripped Levi's, all I could say is “This song is on our first record. Most people don’t own it.”

“About a Girl,” was indeed on Nirvana’s first record, Bleach. But a lot more people own it now than in 1993. The album as a whole is more on the doom & gloom end of the grunge spectrum, with dropped-down guitar tunings and more emphasis on raw emotion than melody.

But “About a Girl” was the glaring exception. It's a total John Lennon homage and hinted at the pop genius to come on Nevermind. Cobain allegedly wrote it after spending four hours listening to Meet the Beatles and it captures the spirit of Lennon’s songs from that LP, particularly “Not a Second Time.”

Nirvana’s Unplugged in New York was released in the fall of 1994, about six months after Kurt blew his brains out. Like many Nirvana fans, I recognized its greatness immediately; a tape a friend made from the TV broadcast was in heavy rotation on my Walkman long before it was released officially.

In the opinion of Rock Turtleneck, it's the best Nirvana record, and the best record of the 1990s. Amazingly, the entire show was done in a single take, with no edits. So much for the Generation X slacker myth.

His mind-blowing, show-closing performance of Lead Belly’s “In the Pines” (here renamed “Where Did You Sleep Last Night?”) is one of the greatest, most terrifying rock performances of all time.

Kurt’s legacy would have been much more two-dimensional were it not for Unplugged in New York.

For it showed that more than being a quote-unquote grunge rocker, Kurt was an Aberdeen bluesman at heart who was only beginning to explore the extent of his talents. RIP.

Buy Nirvana's Unplugged in New York on iTunes here.

Happy 66th Birthday Neil Young

2011-11-12T21:19:00.001-05:00

There's more to the picture than meets the eye.

11.11.11.: Happy Nigel Tufnel Day. It's One Louder

2011-11-11T14:01:00.001-05:00

In addition to being Veteran's Day today, 11.11.11 is also Nigel Tufnel Day.

Rock Turtleneck readers know and worship Tufnel as one of the lead guitarists for Spinal Tap, the legendarily loud British rock band chronicled in Marty DiBergi's revealing 1984 documentary This is Spinal Tap.

In a key scene of the film, Tufnel takes DiBergi through his impressive collection of music gear. He is most proud of his stack of customized Marshall amplifiers, whose knobs, rather than going to the standard 10, go one louder, to 11. DiBergi seems flummoxed by the concept, but Tufnel's logic is impossible to dismiss:

"You see, most blokes, you know, will be playing at ten. You're on ten here, all the way up, all the way up, all the way up, you're on ten on your guitar. Where can you go from there? Where? Nowhere. Exactly. What we do is, if we need that extra push over the cliff, you know what we do? Eleven. Exactly. One louder."

Spinal Tap also included fellow visionary David St. Hubbins on lead guitar and Derek Smalls on bass, plus a seemingly endless procession of doomed drummers. The group enjoyed a brief mid-80s renaissance when their tune "Sex Farm" made the top 10 on the Japanese music charts. They're currently residing in the "Where are they Now?" file.

For Rock Turtleneck's money, Tap was never better than in their prog-metal magnum opus "Stonehenge," ("Where the Banshees live/And they do live well"). The legendarily disastrous performance captured here in This is Spinal Tap led to the temporary departure of their longtime manager Ian Faith.

Buy on iTunes:
This is Spinal Tap (film)
This is Spinal Tap (soundtrack)

Zo40: Led Zeppelin IV Forty Years Later

2011-11-08T23:01:00.001-05:00

Two score ago today, Led Zeppelin released their fourth album. The record had no title, no song listing, no serial number and no mention of the gentlemen who recorded it.

What it did have was the mightiest slab of blues-based hard rock and acoustic hobbit-folk to ever grace the ears of mortal man.

Led Zeppelin IV (aka ZoSo among many other names -- be sure to vote in the RT ZoSo poll in the upper righthand corner) is one of those records that is so ingrained iinto the DNA of the late baby-boomer, Gen- X crowd lhat it is hard to think of it objectively, to think of a record that was written, recorded, produced and released. It seems like it was handed down from the gods of rock, Ten Commandments style, from the hermit on the inner gatefold.

One afternoon, when I was in eighth or ninth grade, and was just starting to explore the classic rock canon, I went to the local record store and picked up ZoSo and Are You Experienced by the Jimi Hendrix Experience. Once I could drop the needle “Black Dog” or "Misty Mountain Hop" or "Purple Haze" anytime I wanted, instead of waiting for it to be played on WPLJ, the world was a more macho, slightly more satanic place.

Just as powerful as ZoSo's macho come-ons were the ballads, beautiful ones. “The Battle of Evermore” sounded like it was written in Stonehenge and featured lovely vocals by Sandy Denny who was in the English folk group Fairport Convention. And on Side 2 was “Going to California” a tribute to band hero Joni Mitchell (whose recent Blue LP had a tune called "California") that is the loveliest song they ever recorded.

The album closes with the mighty blues "When the Levee Breaks" which features perhaps the fiercest drum sound ever captured on tape. In the must-see 2007 guitar doc It Might Get Loud, Zep overlord Jimmy Page explains how he got the sound in Mick Jagger's country home, where ZoSo was recorded.

I forgot to mention the record contains "Stairway to Heaven," the most popular epic rock song of all time. The tune, which Rober Plant introduces here as a "song of hope" begs the musical question, Does anybody remember laughter?

If you haven’t given ZoSo a spin in a while, you should, because it is without question one of the most overpowering displays of sheer awesomeness ever recorded, right up there with Revolver, Hightway 61 Revisited, Who’s Next, Sticky Fingers, London Calling, Purple Rain and Slippery When Wet.

Buy on iTunes: Led Zeppelin IV/ZoSo

A Lotta Love from Neil Young and Nicolette Larson

2011-11-06T08:45:00.001-05:00

For no reason in particular, I found myself starting the day listening to Neil Young's "Lotta Love," from his understated, underrated 1978 LP Comes a Time. It's one of his most heartfelt, melodic ballads, and that is saying something, as he has more of those than just about anyone. Here he is doing the tune in the acoustic portion of his film Rust Never Sleeps.

Like many of us, I first came to know "Lotta Love" via the version by Nicolette Larson, which was a huge hit in '78, making it to #6 on the charts. Larson was a backup singer on Comes A Time (recommended to Neil by Linda Ronstadt) and I imagine Neil threw her the tune as a thank-you.

Nic's version is very late-70s adult-contemporary, with a disco-fied string section and an overall production that owe much to the sound of the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack, especially Yvonne Eliman's "If I Can't Have You."

Neil Young wasn't really on my musical radar when Nicolette's version rocketed up the charts, and I'm not even sure when I realized that "Lotta Love" was a Neil Young song. It may have been in college. Sadly, Larson passed away in 1997.

Anyway, Comes a Time should be part of any Neil fan's music library. While it was a very popular record back in the day, it's turned into something of a hidden gem in the Neil catalog, overshadowed by towering classics like After the Gold Rush and Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere.

Comes a Time also contains "Look Out for My Love" - the only song I know of that mentions Daylight Savings Time. Maybe there was a reason for this post after all. Don't forget to set your clocks back!

Buy on iTunes:
Neil Young, Comes a Time
Nicolette Larson, Nicolette

R.E.M. Go Back to Where They Belong (Sort Of)

2011-11-03T23:42:00.000-04:00

R.E.M. called it quits for good a couple months ago, but they are not quite done yet. On November 15, just in time for the holiday season they are releasing a career-spanning 40-song retrospective called Part Lies Part Heart Part Truth Part Garbage 1982-2011.

I believe the title of the record is from something Peter Buck said in an interview in Rolling Stone back in the 1980s. It's a nice mix of early classics like "Gardening at Night" and "Driver 8," megahits like "Losing My Religion" and "Man on the Moon" and well-chosen deep cuts like "Begin the Begin" and "New Test Leper."

Part Lies also features three new songs, "A Month of Saturdays," "Hallelujah" (not the Leonard Cohen standard) and "We All Go Back to Where We Belong," which has already been turned into a video featuring different people of relative photogenicity standing around looking thoughtful, including the lovely Spiderman starlet Kirsten Dunst.

"We All Go Back to Where We Belong" is a pleasant tune in their EZ-listening Burt Bacharach mode, which is probably my least favorite R.E.M. mode. Personally, I wish they would bow out with something a little more rocking. "All the Best," from their last studio record, the mostly excellent Collapse Into Now, seems a much more fitting farewell. Musically it sounds like it could have been on Document, and the lyrics wryly allude to their 31 year-old work ethic and the fact that they are about to pack up the R.E.M. tent for good.

I'm in a part of your dreams
That you don't even understand
It's just like me to overstay my welcome, man
Let's sing it and rhyme
Let's give it one more time
Let's show the kids how to do it fine, fine, fine, fine

Here are R.E.M. giving "All the Best" one more time in Hansa Studios in Berlin, where they recorded Collapse Into Now. It's also where U2 recorded Achtung Baby in 1991 and David Bowie cut his famous 1970s "Berlin Trilogy" of "Heroes," Low and Lodger - all with Brian Eno.

R.E.M. on iTunes:
Buy Collapse Into Now here
Pre-order Part Lies Part Heart Part Truth Part Garbage 1982-2011 here

Steve Jobs' Favorite Bob Dylan Song: "One Too Many Mornings"

2011-10-26T22:16:00.000-04:00

The next time someone mocks your all-consuming obsession with Bob Dylan, you can now say "Let me tell you about another Bob Dylan fanatic — a different-thinking kid named Steve Jobs."

With the release of Walter Isaacson's epic, authorized, eponymous biography of Jobs, we are learning much about the man that had only been hinted at before, including his love of Dylan.

A Jobs/Dylan summary from Rolling Stone detailed that Jobs and Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak first bonded over their love of Dylan's music. They would go on expeditions to Berkeley to track down reel-to-reel Dylan bootlegs and would spend hours listening dissecting his lyrics. This, said Jobs, "struck chords of creative thinking." Well put.

We also learn that Jobs and Dylan met a couple of times, first in 2004 when Dylan's tour rolled into Palo Alto, CA.

On their second meeting, Jobs told Dylan his favorite song of his was "One Too Many Mornings," a forlorn ballad from his 1964 The Times They Are A-Changin' LP, and Dylan played it for him in concert that night.

Dylan has revisited "One Too Many Mornings" again and again throughout his career. He did an epic version on his 1966 tour with The Hawks (later The Band) with a nice support vocal from Rick Danko on the word "behind."

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A few years later, a gum-chewing Dylan took a crack at the tune with his pal Johnny Cash during the sessions for Nashville Skyline, which also produced their wonderful album-opening duet of "Girl from the North Country."

Dylan did a sweet version during the final weary leg of the Rolling Thunder Revue tour in 1976, captured on the underrated Hard Rain live record and film.

Like Jobs and Dylan, "One Too Many Mornings" was done by Joan Baez. Jobs earned his status as a hall-of-fame Zimmermaniac by dating Baez in 1982, when he was 27 and she was a cougarish 41.

She also supposedly had a fling with John Lennon during the height of Beatlemania in the mid-60s, making her the only person to TCB with the three most creative people of the last 50 years. Maybe Isaacson should do a book about her next.

One question remains: of the many versions of "One Too Many Mornings," which one was Jobs' favorite? I guess the answer is blowin' in the wind.

Get yer Bob Dylan on iTunes here

Wilco's Tiny Desk Concert: A Gen-X Perfect Storm

2011-10-20T07:33:00.000-04:00

The idea of Wilco playing an acoustic set up in the offices of NPR as part of their Tiny Desk Concert series is some sort of left-wing Gen-X, latte-loving, Wall Street-occupying perfect storm. A bigger mutual love-fest is unimaginable.

Good thing Wilco is an transcendent band that's well suited for any venue, from big old theatres to tiny desks. And they sound fantastic and full here, even with virtuoso drummer Glenn Kotche reduced to playing a drum kit from Staples.

It's important to note that while Jeff Tweedy may be the leader, singer and songwriter for Wilco, he's far from a solo act. Everyone has an important role to play and does it well, particularly with the backing vocals of nimble bassist John Stirratt and pan-instrumentalist Pat Sansone (pictured above with Tweedy.)

WIlco play four songs: "Dawned on Me,"" The Whole Love," and "Born Alone" from their new record The Whole Love, and go out with Yankee Hotel Foxtrot's "War on War." Without further ado, here's the band in action.

When you're done, you can also download an mp3 of the set here. Might as well - your tax dollars are paying for it!

Buy Wilco's The Whole Love on iTunes here.

Hail! Hail! Chuck Berry: Happy 85th Birthday

2011-10-18T22:50:00.001-04:00

Rock Turtleneck wishes a Happy Birhtday to Chuck Berry, who turns a whopping 85 today.

The idea of an 85 year-old rock star is a little disconcerting, sort of like a 30 year-old paperboy or a 12 year-old bride.

But he is one of the two or three key creators of the greatest music genre known to mankind. Chuck wasn’t all that young when he got started — he didn't his first hit "Maybelline" till he was around 30. If Elvis was still alive (he is, by the way), he would be a relatively young 76 right now.

Let’s celebrate the great man with a clip RT has been wanting to showcase for a long time. It's from the must-see 1988 documentary Hail! Hail! Rock & Roll, Keith Richards' musical love letter to his idol. After Keith admits it's because of Chuck that he plays guitar, we cut to a clip of them having a row over the intro to "Carole." Chuck is a mean sonofabitch, but then again, so is Keith. And when the two go at loggerheads, my advice is to get out of the way.

Chuck is a legendary miser. Rather than pay the road expenses for a proper band, and plays with a pick up band of local musicians wherever he goes. He drives himself and inisists on being paid in cash before every show. And he's still doing it at 85.

Keith made Hail! Hail! Rock & Roll because he knew Chuck deserved better, and wanted to give him the experience of playing live with top-shelf musicians, including the great drummer Steve Jordan (who would join Keith in the X-Pensive Winos), Chuck's original pianist Johnnie Johnson, Eric Clapton, Robert Cray and Keith himself, who plays some mean guitar throughout. We are all the better for it.

HB and TCB from the RT, Chuck.

Get some essential Chuck Berry on iTunes here

Wilco: They Love Their Label (And Nick Lowe Too)

2011-10-12T22:56:00.000-04:00

After taking a week or so to mourn the official passing of R.E.M., I have been getting into Wilco's latest release The Whole Love big time. Like R.E.M. from the early 80s to the mid-90s, Wilco is on a seemingly endless run of great albums, each with a distinct personality, each showing growth from the previous effert, and The Whole Love shows the band putting on a dazzling display.

If you have not ordered The Whole Love yet, I strongly suggest you spend a couple extra bucks on the Deluxe Edition, which contains four extra songs. It's worth it alone for their cover of Nick Lowe's "I Love My Label," a tune from Lowe's classic first LP Jesus of Cool.

The tune has special meaning for the band. Like many big acts whose major label conglomerate contracts have expired, Wilco has started their own label dBpm records. I think it stands for "decibels per minute" which is some sort of music-geek joke. I'm laughing on the inside.

Here's the band recording "I Love My Label" in their Chicago loft studio, quite possibly the greatest man-cave in North America.

Lowe opened for Wilco on their most recent tour, and has become something of an elder-statesman among singer-songwriter types. A recent profile of Lowe in the New York Times mentioned that Lowe had been in pretty dire financial straits in the early 1990s until a cover of his song "(What's So Funny About) Peace, Love and Understanding" was featured on the soundtrack to the 1992 Whitney Houston/Kevin Costner film The Bodyguard. The soundtrack wound up selling 40 million copies and Lowe made a life-changing pile o' quid as a result. I like it when the good guys win.

Here's Lowe doing a countrified version of his musical 401(k) on Jimmy Kimmel's show.

And here's a vintage clip of Lowe and his great band Rockpile (featuring Dave Edmunds) doing his classic "And So It Goes" (also from Jesus of Cool) on The Midnight Special in 1978. Hmmm.... sounds a lot like Wilco.

Buy on iTunes:
Wilco, The Whole Love (Deluxe Edition)
Nick Lowe, Jesus of Cool

Here, There & Everywhere: Macca Ties the Knot Again

2011-10-10T18:03:00.002-04:00

Cheers to Sir Paul McCartney and his new bride Nancy Shevell, who exchanged vows in London yesterday. This is their official wedding portrait, a very cheeky, slightly twee snapshot taken by Paul's daughter Mary.

The former Ms. Shevell is intelligent, well liked by Paul's children, business-savvy (she runs her family's trucking company and is on the board of New York's Metropolitan Transit Authority) and independently wealthy. And these are just a few of the ways she has a leg up on Heather Mills, Paul's gold digging, double-crossing second wife, who is quite possibly the most despised woman in England.

Interestingly, the two made it legal at Marylebone Register Office, the same place where Paul wed Linda Eastman on March 12, 1969. The first marriage of the Cute Beatle set off riots in front of the courthouse. Here's some footage from the era, set to a couple of Paul's early solo career odes to Linda, "Maybe I'm Amazed" and "Lovely Linda."

After yesterday's wedding, Paul, Nancy and a legion of fabulous guests (including Ringo and Ronnie Wood) allegedly had a raucous party at Macca's digs in St. John's Wood, a stone's throw from Abbey Road studios. (Rock Turtleneck's Evite apparently got snagged in our spam folder. Bugger that.) Supposedly the cops were called to the house due to noise complaints from neighbors. Really, who calls the pigs on Paul McCartney on his wedding day — Yoko?

Anyway, let's go out with Paul's 1991 Unplugged performance of "Here, There and Everywhere" from Revolver, which he has said may his favorite song he's ever written. And he's written some good ones.

Like yours truly, Macca has married himself a Jersey girl. Well done, old man! Hope the third time's the charm.

Buy on iTunes:
The Beatles
Paul McCartney

R.I.P. Steve Jobs: The Next Dylan

2011-10-06T21:58:00.005-04:00

The "Next Dylan" was a moniker that was thrown around often beginning in the late 60s, used to describe the heir to the Bob Dylan visionary troubador throne, when it became clear that it was a throne Dylan was never really interested in in the first place.

The "Next Dylan" title was almost exclusively applied to singer songwriters with acoustic guitars, gravely voices and harmonicas around their neck, including Leonard Cohen, Loudon Wainwritght III, Bruce Springsteen, Tim Buckley, Jeff Buckley, Beck and Conor Oberst. Yet the label never stuck, chiefly because anyone with a Dylan-sized ambition would never follow directly in Zimmernan's footsteps. They would blaze their own trail and find a different way to change the world.

That is exactly what Steve Jobs did. But rather than a guitar and a harp, technology for the masses was the medium for his message.

Jobs was a well-known music lover, not surprising for the inventor of iTunes. Among living artists, Jobs held Dylan in the highest regard, even to the point of dating Joan Baez in the 1980s. Jobs used Dylan and The Beatles as inspiration in his own work. He featured Dylan and John Lennon in Apple's famous "Think Different" campaign, and would name-check them in public any chance he got, as this montage demonstrates:

Like Dylan, Jobs had a blazing intelligence, vision and drive that enabled him to do things in his chosen field that no one had ever dreamed of and make it look effortless.

Both men would surely say that it was simply the result of hard work, and while this is true, they both posess that spark of genius that comes along a few times in a century.

As a Jobs quote from his obituary in the New York Times noted, Apple's amazing products were, above all, a triumph of taste, of “trying to expose yourself to the best things humans have done and then trying to bring those things into what you are doing.”

Rock Turtleneck tries to do the same, and has found immeasurable inspiration from all of these men over the years, and herewith with two of Steve Jobs' favorites from Bob Dylan and The Beatles.

R.I.P. and TCB, Mr. Jobs. You are missed.

Living in the Material World: The George Harrison Documentary Worth Getting HBO For

2011-10-05T14:38:00.000-04:00

I’m actually thinking about starting a subscription to HBO tonight, just so I can watch George Harrison: Living in the Material World, Martin Scorcese’s three or four-hour, two-part documentary about the magical, mystical Beatle.
The film was created with the cooperation of George’s wife Olivia and son Dhani, and features a treasure trove of previously unseen footage, plus interviews with rock royalty including Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, Tom Petty, and wife-swapping buddy Eric Clapton.

The following preview clip recalls the history of perhaps his greatest song, “Here Comes the Sun,” which he wrote whilst strolling around Slowhand’s country estate. Interestingly, "Here Comes the Sun" is the most downloaded Beatles song on iTunes. Take that, Macca!

Harrison was an interesting cat, perhaps the most interesting of The Beatles, and a documentary devoted solely to him is more than justified. He helped define the school of modern rock guitar playing, was one of the first to merge Eastern and Western music, and wrote several of the Beatles most beloved tracks. He was also the coolest-looking Beatle. Amazingly, he was only a wee 26 years old by the time The Beatles broke up.

At the same time, Mr. Within-You-Without -You was also a devotee of recreational drugs, a lifelong womanizer, a race-car driver and a devoted gardener. And only through the quick thinking of his wife and a nearby lamp was he not the second Beatle to be assassinated. So there is much to chew on here.

Living in the Material World won’t be available on DVD until the spring of 2012, which sounds like a long time from now. Bad Karma on the part of on the Harrison organization for holding me hostage to premium cable. Very un-George-like.

As long as we’re on the subject of “Here Comes the Sun,” let’s go out with a lovely version of that optimistic Abbey Road ditty from the Concert for Bangladesh in 1971. I believe the guy accompanying him on guitar is the late Pete Ham from Badfinger.

Get George and the Fabs on iTunes:
The Beatles
George Harrison

Presenting Rock Turtleneck's Turtleneck Rockers of the Month: Johnny Headband

2011-10-03T21:24:00.001-04:00

The Rock Turtleneck in-box is overflowing with solicitations from hungry young musical artists looking for the career-making RT Seal of Approval, the musical equivalent of getting your novel in Oprah's Book Club. Very few make the cut, but a recent musical solicitation, "Over There" by Johnny Headband makes the grade in spades, and it all started with a mutual love of turtleneck-based rocking.

Dear Rock Turtleneck,
I'm writing on behalf of a music video I just directed. In the video the two main band members wear turtlenecks and sport coats. The video was just released on Monday, and I found you today — the blog serving the aging hipsters. Hopefully it doesn't feel like a waste of 3.5 minutes, as I enjoy your blog writings, and have believed in the school of Stevie Wonder since I was a young lad (pre turtleneck years).
Best regards,
Chad Thompson

Chad Thompson (I'm not sure if he's on the right or the left) is very modest. He not only co-directed the video, he's in the band along with his brother Keith, and in "Over There," they have created one of the catchiest most infectious pieces of electronic pop I've heard in a long time.

"Over There" recalls contemporary electronic artists like MGMT and Air, but also reaches back to Roxy Music and Berlin Trilogy-era David Bowie. The video, directed by Chad and Keith, is a hoot too - these guys know what they're doing in every way.

Johnny Headband - Over There from Johnny Headband on Vimeo.

Johnny Headband is a Detroit-based quartet that formed in Detroit in 2004. "Over There" is the very promising first single from the forthcoming record Who Cooks for You, to be released in early 2012. You can download "Over There" on iTunes here and their earlier records Happiness is Underrated and Phase 3 here.

Looking for the RT Seal of Approval? Drop us a line at rockturtleneck@gmail.com

I Want You to R.E.M.ember: R.E.M on Letterman 1983-1995

2011-09-28T22:04:00.000-04:00

Rock Turtleneck presents "I Want You to R.E.M.ember," the first in an ongoing series of tributes to R.E.M. on the occasion of their disbandment.

R.E.M.'s national television debut on NBC's Late Night with David Letterman in the fall of 1983 was the college rock equivalent of The Beatles playing the Ed Sullivan Show in 1964.

Music fans hungry for an alternative to the Foreigners and REO Speedwagons of the era saw a band of Southerners charge out of the gates with the seismic "Radio Free Europe" fueled by an energy, eccentricity and commitment that made it clear that this was a band to watch and listen to.

Their debut LP Murmur was already legendary, a strangely assured and worldly piece of work, despite being a mere six months old. Already a devoted fan, I stayed up that night to watch them play and taped it on my VCR - the tape still resides in the humidity-controlled subterranean RT archives.

After the commercial break, Letterman engaged in some awkward conversation with guitarist Peter Buck and bassist Mike Mills. Michael Stipe refrained from conversation due to shyness or affectation and sat on Bill Berry's drum riser, turning another rock convention — the singer as spokesman — on its head.

Then the band cemented their college rock-god status by not playing another track from Murmur in favor of a song they called "too new to be named" - the gorgeous "So. Central Rain (I'm Sorry)," which would be the lead single off their next LP Reckoning. Here was a band confident enough to suggest tha ast great as the songs on Murmur were, the next ones would be even better.

R.E.M. didn't return to Letterman's show for 12 years.

By 1995, both had graduated from fringe cult heroes to mainstream superstars. Letterman had the dominant 11:30 talk show on CBS and his own theatre — the Ed Sullivan Theatre, which The Beatles had rocked 30 years earlier.

In the midst of its worldwide Monster tour, R.E.M. was probably the biggest band in the world. Playing the post-glam "Crush with Eyeliner," it was obvious that they were a little older and a lot more professional, but still as compelling as they had been eight or so albums earlier.

At the end of the performance, Stipe, who'd long since shed his shell of shyness to become one of rock's most flamboyant frontmen, sat on his PA monitor rather than engage with Letterman - a subtle yet unmistakable nod to his fans that underscored how much had changed for all of us in all those years.

Bonus R.E.M./Letterman clip: "What's the Frequency Kenneth" featuring Dan Rather

Buy R.E.M. on iTunes here

Take a Picture Here, Take a Souvenir: R.I.P. R.E.M.

2011-09-21T23:55:00.000-04:00

2011 Austin City Limits Music Festival: the Rock Turtleneck Executive Summary

2011-09-20T23:36:00.018-04:00

Three days. Five stages. Six bloody marys. 130 bands. 70,000 hipsters. Countless pork products. Yes, it's going to take some time to process my magical experience at the 2011 Austin City Limits festival this past weekend.

Rock Turtleneck (seen here taking in the Mavis Staples show in the Gospel Tent) will be recapping ACL over the next week or so but in the meantime, here is what business school grads would call an Executive Summary of what I learned:

• Many of the best sets were by people I’d only vaguely heard of before I got there: Seattle-bred country spitfire Brandi Carlisle; Elbow, from Manchester – like Peter Gabriel with a sense of humour; and J Roddy Watson and the Business, who provided the ideal musical bed on which to play hacky sack with hipsters in skin tight blue and green body suits (long story).

• Nonviolence is best achieved not through Buddhism or Pacifism but through free water bottle refills courtesy of Camelbak.

• Coldplay sucks. Admit it - in your heart, you've always known it. Their headlining set was boring and their top billing exposed them as poseurs to the Important Band crown. They are musical Brylcreem: a little dab'll do ya. If Gwyneth Paltrow was at ACL, she’s probably already left her Coldplay-fronting husband for J Roddy.

• Stevie Wonder, who looks, sounds and acts almost exactly like he did 30 years ago (he said he's lost some weight), gave the Festival’s best performance (that I saw anyway).

As the truly amazing clip below shows, Stevie is also the only person on Earth who can look like a badass playing the Keytar. His playing alone justifies the ludicrous invention.

All other Keytar players should bring their Keytars to the nearest Keytar redistribution center, where they will be immediately redistributed to Stevie.

Plans are already underway for ACL 2012, which will happen in October this time. I found the festival incredibly well organized and the concertgoers to be a fine bunch of upstanding citizens. If you are interested in live music, Tex-Mex cuisine, margaritas, BBQ, swimming holes, and people watching, you should book your flight now.

Way to TCB, ACL.

Countdown to the Austin City Limits Music Festival: Stevie Wonder

2011-09-14T22:49:00.009-04:00

Arcade Fire. My Morning Jacket. Mavis Staples. Fleet Foxes. These are but a pittance of the many great acts I will be catching this weekend at the Austin City Limits Music Festival this weekend. (There are some other big ACL names, like Coldplay and Kanye, that I respect, but they just don't light the RT fire.)

But if I had to pick just one act to see the whole weekend, it would have to be Stevie Wonder, who is closing Saturday night's festivies, at the same time as My Morning Jacket, one of my favorite current bands. Which band to see? That's an uptown problem, as they say.

As much as I enjoy MMJ, especially their new record Circuital, Stevie is a true genius, and when he is in the house, you must pay proper respect.

"Genius" is a word that gets thrown around a lot in rock circles, to include charlatans like Axl Rose and Patti Smith, but it truly applies to Mr. Steveland Morris and a handful of others in the rock canon: Dylan, Lennon/McCartney, Prince, Bon Jovi... you get the idea.

Around 1996, Stevie played a free promo show at an HMV record store near my Upper East Side apartment at around 2am on a Tuesday night.

Sensing a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, I waited several hours in line alone to attend the show along with about 200 strangers and saw him rip through a few new tunes before going into classics like "Sign, Sealed, Delivered" and "Isn't She Lovely." I was lucky to be there.

This weekend, Stevie will be Livin' for a different City, the City of Austin thank you very much. Here's a vintage clip to show you the true genius in action.

Get yer Stevie Wonder on iTunes here.

Countdown to the Austin City Limits Music Festival: Gillian Welch

2011-09-12T21:52:00.017-04:00

The Austin City Limits Music Festival, which I will be attending this weekend, features over 100 acts on several stages, with many acts playing concurrently.

This embarrassment of riches means that there will be several conflicts that will have to be resolved in the moment. For example, on Saturday around 5pm there will be simultaneous sets by Wanda Jackson, the Queen of Rockabilly, whom I profiled earlier in the week. and Gillian Welch, who is something like the reigning Queen of Americana.

Welch and her guitar-slinging partner David Rawlings make a style of music that is pulled straight from the dust bowl and dropped down right here in 2011.

And while Welch she has little in common with Wandamusically, they do share a bond: Elvis Presley. Wanda actually dated the King back in the 1950s (who didn't?) and Welch wrote a magnificent tribute to the King called "Elvis Presley Blues," one of the highlights of her most celebrated record, 2001's Time (the Revelator).

I was thinking that night about Elvis

Day that he died, day that he died
Just a country boy that combed his hair
And put on a shirt his mother made and went on the air
And he shook it like a chorus girl
And he shook it like a Harlem queen
He shook it like a midnight rambler, baby,
Like you never seen

Welch is the adopted daughter of show-biz folk who were music writers for the Carol Burnett Show. She was in a goth band at UC Santa Cruz in the late 1980s until one day when someone dropped the needle on a Stanley Brothers LP and she had a life-changing epiphany. One might say it was the cure for The Cure, if one were into annoying puns.

She was also one of the guiding forces behind the hugely successful soundtrack to the Coen Brothers film O Brother, Where Art Thou? In a concert film recorded in conjunction with the soundtrack, she and Rawlings recorded my favorite song of theirs, "I Want to Sing that Rock and Roll," which features a magnificent guitar solo by Rawlings. I wish I could rock the acoustic like that.

After battling a nasty case of writer's block, Welch and Rawlings came back a few months ago with their first record in several years, called The Harrow and the Harvest.

I haven't heard much of it yet, but I am looking forward to hearing it ACL. Judging by this performance "The Way it Goes" on Conan recently, it's another in a long line of fine Americana.

See you at ACL — Stay hydrated!

Buy Gillian Welch on iTunes here:

Time (the Revelator)

The Harrow and the Harvest

Paul Simon's 9/11 Bookends: "The Boxer" and "The Sounds of Silence"

2011-09-11T20:17:00.008-04:00

Paul Simon played a magnificently moving version of "The Sounds of Silence" at the 9/11 10th anniversary memorial service today in downtown New York City.

It was a classic example of a song (which Simon wrote in 1964) taking on a completely new meaning in the light of its context, as great songs so often do. And you can see and feel the weight of that unimaginable day in Simon's singing and stately guitar playing.

Hello darkness, my old friend
I've come to talk with you again
Because a vision softly creeping
Left its seeds while I was sleeping
And the vision that was planted in my brain
Still remains
Within the sound of silence

In restless dreams I walked alone
Narrow streets of cobblestone
'Neath the halo of a street lamp
I turn my collar to the cold and damp
When my eyes were stabbed by the flash of a neon light
That split the night
And touched the sound of silence

And in the naked light I saw
Ten thousand people maybe more
People talking without speaking
People hearing without listening
People writing songs that voices never shared
No one dared
Disturb the sound of silence

"Fools," said I, "you do not know
Silence like a cancer grows
Hear my words that I might teach you
Take my arms that I might reach you"
But my words like silent raindrops fell
And echoed in the wells of silence

And the people bowed and prayed
To the neon god they made
And the sign flashed out its warning
In the words that it was forming
And the sign said "The words of the prophets are written on the subway walls
And tenement halls
And whispered in the sound of silence

Paul Simon is the most New York of songwriters; his songs embody the essence of the City in a way few others can. Perhaps that's because he and his partner Art Garfunkel were a couple of menschs from Queens who made good.

When Saturday Night Live returned to the air about 10 days after 9/11 in 2001, Simon opened the show with an incredibly moving version of perhaps his best song, "The Boxer." With New York's finest and bravest sharing the stage with him, it reminded us that "the fighter still remains" within us all.

Rock Turtleneck joins the millions who send their thoughts and prayers to the victims of 9/11 and their families.

Countdown to the Austin City Limits Music Festival: Wanda Jackson

2011-09-08T23:30:00.002-04:00

A week from now I will be touching down on the tarmac of Austin International Airport, in town to attend the 10th annual Austin City Limits Music Festival, a 3-day extravaganza featuring dozens of top-drawer acts that marks the close of the festival season. Over the next week, I will be featuring artists that I am particularly looking forward to seeing at ACL.

First up is Wanda Jackson, the Queen of Rockabilly, a hell-breathing spitfire of a woman who got her start back in the 50s and once dated an up-and-coming singin' hillbilly named Elvis Presley.

Wanda's music from back then, such as her must-own 1960 collection Rockin' with Wanda, still has a sharp edge today.

That's probably what attracted Jack White to record her recent comeback album The Party Ain't Over, which features a kick-ass cover of the rock & roll standard "Shakin' All Over." Here she is with Jack playing a smoldering version of the tune on David Letterman earlier this year.

I don't think Jack is in Wanda's touring band, but I am hoping that he will make a surprise guest appearance when she takes the stage at 5:45 pm on Saturday, as stars of his ilk are wont to do at these types of events.

The Party Ain't Over also features a cover of Bob Dylan's Modern Times classic "Thunder on the Mountain." Hey Bob, if you're not doing anything, why don't you swing by ACL and do a little duettin' with the Queen of Rockabilly?

Get yer Wanda Jackson on iTunes here:

The Party Ain't Over

Rockin' with Wanda

Rock Turtleneck Goes Back to School with Foster the People's "Pumped Up Kicks"

2011-09-05T22:11:00.010-04:00

Back to School season is upon us, and while it has been many years since I matriculated, I have several children who are kicking off their school years in the morning.

If I found myself going back in school, i.e. college, I have a feeling I would spend a lot of time cranking "Pumped Up Kicks," the smash hit by a band called Foster the People, out my dorm room window.

I first heard this song on a dance music station my daughters love that plays primarily auto-tuned artists of the Katy Perry/Black Eyed Peas variety.

When "Pumped Up Kicks" came on however, it immediately grabbed my ear. My daughters, of course, hated it.

Foster the People is an LA-based band that got together way back in 2009. The bands singer and leader is named Mark Foster. Originally the band was called Foster & the People, but at some point they parted ways with the ampersand.

"Pumped Up Kicks" was the first song FTP ever released, and they must be pleasantly shocked to see it go to the top of the singles charts in this day and age. The song is now available on their debut LP Torches.

I hope they enjoy their sudden success and invest their earnings wisely, because with its relentlessly catchy hooks and anonymous sounding singing, plus the amnesiac nature of the music business, "Pumped Up Kicks" has One Hit Wonder written all over it - and I mean that in the best possible way.

Buy "Pumped Up Kicks" on iTunes here

An Open Letter to Electricity from Rock Turtleneck

2011-08-31T23:22:00.001-04:00

Dear Electricity,

Welcome back. Hurricane Irene took you out of my life for 78 hours or so. But in that time, I realized that spiritually, I had been living in darkness my whole life.

Now I have seen the light, literally and figuratively, and I will never take you for granted ever again.

To that end, please accept this heartfelt musical tribute to your bold, beautiful current which powers my toaster, charges my iPod, brews my coffee and keeps my precious beer so frosty and cold. Don't Go Changin.'

Sincerely,
Rock Turtleneck

Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark (OMD), "Electricity"

Eddy Grant, "Electric Avenue"

Oasis, "She's Electric"

Talking Heads, "Electricity (Drugs)"

MGMT, "Electric Feel"

U2, "Electric Co"

Electric Light Orchestra, "Don't Bring Me Down"

That's Great, It Starts with an Earthquake: R.E.M.'s "It's the End of the World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine)"

2011-08-26T18:52:00.011-04:00

That's great, it starts with an earthquake,
birds and snakes, an aeroplane
and Lenny Bruce is not afraid.
Eye of a hurricane, listen to yourself churn,
world serves its own needs, dummy serve your own needs

If R.E.M. singer/lyricist/master of pretense Michael Stipe was correct that the end of the world "starts with an earthquake," then he is sure to go down as a rock & roll prophet on the level of Bobs Marley and Dylan.

(I don't want to alarm anyone, but my son found a snake in the front yard this afternoon.)

"It's the End of the World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine)" was the second hit off R.E.M.'s 1987 commercial breakthrough Document, following "The One I Love."

Document was a creative breakthrough as well, with hard edged singing, lyrics and playing that was miles away from early records like Murmur and Reckoning, but with every bit of brilliance.

A famous verse in the song describes a dream Stipe had about a birthday party where jelly beans were served and the guests all had the initials LB:

The other night I dreamt of knives, continental drift divide. Mountains sit in a line
Leonard Bernstein. Leonid Brezhnev. Lenny Bruce and Lester Bangs.
Birthday party, cheesecake, jelly bean, boom!
You symbiotic, patriotic, slam book neck, right? Right

"ITEOTWAWKI(AIFF)." prophecy or not, is a classic party record that serves a valuable lesson: if the world is indeed going to end, might as well keep your spirits up. As a friend said to me tonight, make sure you have plenty of celery on hand for your Bloody Marys.

Here's Hurricane Irene comes and goes with minimal interruption and destruction. In the meantime, here's Berry/Buck/Mills/Stipe doing a fun version on their magnificent 1991 appearance on MTV's Unplugged.

Get R.E.M.'s Document on iTunes here

Song for an East Coast Earthquake: Carole King's "I Feel the Earth Move"

2011-08-23T21:04:00.014-04:00

The 5.8 magnitude earthquake that was felt from North Carolina to the Obama compound in Martha's Vineyard appeared to have no significant impact whatsoever on anyone - in fact, in New York City, there was a palpable sense of disappointment. The earthquake, did, thankfully, stir up a new post on Rock Turtleneck.

Carole King's "I Feel the Earth Move" is a song about earthquakes of the romantic variety; the seismic shifts and tremors that new love can stir in a person.

"I Feel the Earth Move" was the first song on Tapestry, the LP that was King's coming-out party as a singer-songwriter after many years of success as one of the great songwriters-for-hire of the 1960s.

As part of the Brill Building staff, she and her partner Gerry Goffin were behind such hits as "The Loco-Motion," "Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow," "Some Kind of Wonderful" and personal favorite "Up on the Roof." But Tapestry showed that her singing and fierce piano playing were on par with her songwriting gifts. It remains one of the best selling LPs of all time.

As long as we're on the subject of professional songwriters par excellence, the world lost two of the greats yesterday: Jerry Leiber and Nick Ashford.

Jerry Leiber (right) of the legendary Leiber & Stoller team wrote the words for "Stand by Me," "On Broadway," "Kansas City," "Yakety Yak" and many Elvis Presley (center) classics including "Jailhouse Rock" and "Hound Dog."

Talk show host and amateur songwriter Steve Allen, who despised rock & roll, tried to humiliate Elvis by making him sing "Hound Dog" to an actual hound, but Elvis was totally game and showed Allen and the world why he's the King.

Nick Ashford of the husband and wife songwriting/performing team of Ashford & Simpson, wrote a slew of classics as part of the Motown songwriting stable. The best of these were performed by the duo of Marvin Gaye & Tammi Terrell, including "You're All I Need to Get By" and the immortal "Ain't No Mountain High Enough."

Buy on iTunes:
Carole King's Tapestry
Elvis: 30 #1 Hits
The Best of Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell

Soundtrack to the South of France: Joe Dassin's “Les Champs Ellyses”

2011-08-19T20:08:00.012-04:00

At Rock Turtleneck we rock hard, blog hard and play hard. And this year that meant a family vacation to the truly awe-inspiring South of France. It was a whirlwind of baguettes avec jamon, crisp, cool rose at the local vineyard, beaches full of smoking frenchmen and women, over-the-top yachts docked in St. Tropez and mirth and merriment with friends and family.

The unofficial soundtrack to the trip consisted of one song: “Les Champs-Elysees,” a 1969 French Pop classic by a cat named Joe Dassin. From what I can tell it is more or less the “Sweet Caroline” of France - the guaranteed, all-ages-welcome singalong.

And though the song celebrates the Parisian equivalent of Fifth Avenue, one need not be near it to be seduced by its charms.

I first heard the tune when my friend Ivan's son was singing it to himself repeatedly. That night, Ivan and I caught a set by a Spanish guitar playing vagabond at a campsite/nightclub. The show was relatively docile until he pulled le trumpe carde: "Les Champs-Elysees."

I am hardly the first American to fall under the spell of "Les Champs-Elysees" - the song was also featured in the Wes Anderson film The Darjeeling Express. And a glance around YouTube shows it's been covered more times than "All Along the Watchtower."

Let us bid au revoir with Dassin doing his signature tune in a tres bon live TV version in 1979. Cheers.

Get Joe Dassin's Les Champs-Elysees on iTunes here

Might As Well Face It, You're Addicted to Robert Palmer's "Addicted to Love"

2011-08-04T21:56:00.017-04:00

This week's tribute to MTV’s 30th birthday got me thinking some more about my favorite classic MTV videos, so here's another one - Robert Palmer’s "Addicted to Love" from 1986.

I remember reading in some sort of Rolling Stone Celebrates the 80s type of magazine Michael Stipe of R.E.M. saying that “Addicted to Love” was the defining song of the 80s and I think he’s right. (Of course, now I'm sure, Stipe would renounce that accolade in favor of an unreleased song-haiku by his dear friend and mentor Patti Smith.)

With its huge drum sound, disco bass groove and work-hard-play-hard ethos, "Addcited to Love" embodies the coke-fueled, power-mad Gordon Gekko 80s to the T. But the song also feels very tongue-in-cheek, and judging by the video, I have a feeling that Mr. Palmer thought the whole thing was kind of a joke.

The "Addicted to Love" video, with its wall to wall band of living female manequins, caused many women's studies majors around the world to pull the sexism card, but I think it’s really a satire. I think the concept is really as simple as "Hey I know a way to get people to watch our new video - let’s fill the screen with beautiful women instead of the pasty, homely session musicians who played on the tune."

Yes they may be dressed identically and have no singing parts, but the women are all playing their insturments and are making active contributions. They are not groupies, roadies or caterers, servicing or cleaning up after the man, etc. You go girlfriends!

Robert Palmer passed away before his time in 2003. He was an underrated artist who was never taken all that seriously, perhaps because, unlike all rock critics,he was handsome and lived a playboy lifestyle in Barbados. Before "Addicted to Love," Palmer was a well-established R&B artist with a penchant for New Wave, as in one of my favorite songs of his, the mime-infused "Johnny and Mary."

RIP & TCB RP. Get your Robert Palmer on iTunes here.

Happy 30th Birthday MTV: You Suck Now But You Were Great Back Then

2011-08-01T21:41:00.008-04:00

MTV Music Television debuted 30 years ago today by famously playing The Buggles' “Video Killed the Radio Star."

Looking back, 'twas not video that killed the radio star, but digital file sharing many years later. In fact, MTV made many radio stars, including Madonna, Duran Duran, Peter Gabriel and Dire Straits.

If you are younger than 40 it would be hard to understand what MTV was like back in the day. It was a huge deal when it joined your cable lineup and you couldn’t stop watching it. It was sort of like the dawn of TV itself. Before that, the only way to see an artist would be if they showed up on a talk show or something late at night like SNL or the Midnight Special. And there was much more mystery about the artist as a result.

Someone like David Bowie, for example seemed super exotic and enigmatic because he rarely mingled with mainstream entertainment. So when he shared the couch on the Dinah Shore show with The Fonz and Nancy Walker in 1975, he really was like the man who fell to earth.

I was thinking about my favorite videos from the MTV glory days and I immediately thought of "Close to the Edit" by the Art of Noise. This band was a project by Trevor Horn, the uber-producer behind Frankie Goes to Hollywood and the Yes comeback of "Owner of a Lonely Heart." He had even sang for Yes for one record called Drama in 1980. But beefore that he was in, you guessed it, The Buggles.

The "Close to the Edit" video, directed by Zbigniew Rybczynski, portrays some sort of postapocalypitic, subterranean landscape populated with angry little people and chainsaw wielding maniacs dressed in black tie. It creeped me out in the Reagan era and it still does today. Happy Birthday MTV - you suck now but you were great back then.

What is your favorite MTV video of all time? RT wants to know - leave a comment below.

Amy Winehouse: Monkey Woman

2011-07-28T20:48:00.012-04:00

Once again, the untimely death of a talented musician has led to a spike in record sales.

Amy Winehouse’s Back to Black record is #2 on the iTunes chart; her relatively little-heard 2003 debut Frank is at #9; and in a refelection of her slim catalog, her collection of B-Sides is at #12.

The B-Sides are well worth getting , however, because they show that Winehuouse’s love of ska music was just as strong as the R&B for which she is known.

One of the best of the B's is her cover of the great reggae standard “Monkey Man” - not to be confused with the kickass Rolling Stones tune from Let it Bleed.

This "Monkey Man" has had a long and fascinating evolution. It's one of those tunes that everyone seems to take a crack at at some point, like "All Along the Watchtower," "Not Fade Away" or "Me and You and a Dog Named Boo."

The Specials did a famous version of the tune their must-own, Elvis Costello-produced 1980 debut LP:

But "Monkey Man" was originally written and performed by reggae pioneers Toots & the Maytals.

Toots is one of the giants of the reggae genre and he and his Maytals have many great songs, most famous being "Pressure Drop," which was featured on the legendary soundtrack to the Jimmy Cliff film The Harder They Come.

Here's Toots & Co. playing "Monkey Man" live in 1970 with a special cameo appearance by perhaps the greatest Monkey Man of them all, King Kong:

Get your Monkey Man on iTunes here Mon:
Amy Winehouse
The Specials
Toots & the Maytals

Happy 68th Birthday Mick Jagger: You're So Respectable

2011-07-26T20:41:00.010-04:00

Happy 68th to Sir Michael Jagger, lead singer of the hit-making, hip-shaking blues combo The Rolling Stones.

Befitting his status as a Knight, a title he’s held since 2003, let's cue up my favorite video by the Stones, "Respectable," from 1978's Some Girls.

In the tune, Jagger mocks a girl who used to be street trash but is now the toast of high society, sort of an inverse, interestingly enough, to Bob Dylan's "Like a Rolling Stone." We don't know if it's a specific girl he's talking to, but my guess is the girl in question is Mick himself.

"Respectable" is cliearly inspired by the energy of the punk movement which was in full force at the time of the release of Some Girls. That Anarchy-in-the-UK spirit also shines thorugh in this no-frills video, with Jagger part of the band instead of singing out front. Very punk rock.

Jagger is such a force of nature, it's easy to forget how talented he is. In addition to singing, songwriting and playing guitar, he is also a world-class blues harmonica player, plays drums and piano as well, which he shows here in a funny Some Girls track influenced by Bakersfield country instead of Brixton punk, "Far Away Eyes."

HB & TCB, MJ - Don't take my wife, don't come back.

Buy Some GIrls on iTunes here

R.I.P. Amy Winehouse: Welcome to the 27 Club

2011-07-24T16:37:00.007-04:00

The late great Amy Winehouse (1983-2011) posessed one of those once-in-a-generation voices, a smoky set of pipes that were drenched in whisky and sadness. Like Billie Holiday, Bessie Smith or Karen Carpenter, Amy could wring remarkable emotions from her material. She could make something lighthearted sound poignant and, in the case of her big brilliant hit "Rehab," (which she also wrote) something tragic seem entertaining and witty.

Winehouse's problems with drugs were at least as well known as her music. And music's loss is the so-called 27 Club's gain, for Ms. Winehouse is the latest gifted, doomed musician to pass away at that age.

Is it mere coincidence? Having survived my 27th year, I can guess that 27 is around the time when you stop being indestructible; the time when your body stops cashing the substance abuse checks you are writing. For someone who is hell bent on self destruction, like a Winehouse, Kurt Cobain or Jim Morrison, 27 would be a natural time to go.

Anyway, Ms. Winehouse's 2008 record Back to Black is brilliant front to back. My favorite track is the bluesy and jazzy "Me and Mr. Jones," which shows abundant hints of where she could have taken her gifts.

R.I.P. Ms. Winehouse, and thanks for the music. On a lighter note, be sure to vote in the newest RT Poll at the top of this page, which poses the tragic question, Who is your favorite member of the 27 Club?

Buy Amy Winehouse's Back to Black on iTunes here

U2 Get Stuck In a Beautiful Moment with David Letterman

2011-07-19T21:49:00.009-04:00

In a continuing effort to reverse the bad karma (and financial hemorraging) surrounding their Broadway show Spiderman: Turn Off the Dark, Bono and The Edge of U2 stopped by for a wonderful appearance on Late Show with David Letterman.

After talking about the play for a couple segments, Dave asked the two about their songwriting process. The Edge pulled out a Gibson jumbo acoustic from behind his seat and the two discussed the origins of their soulful ballad "Stuck in a Moment You Can't Get Out Of" from 2000's All That You Can't Leave Behind.

The tune began as a gospel number, but the tough-guy rhythm section of Adam Clayton and Larry Mullen Jr. thought it was too feminine. So Bono changed the lyrics and created what he called "a one-sided argument" with his friend Michael Hutchence of INXS, who had recently died a horrible, supposedly accidental death by autoerotic asphyxiation. The more direct lyrics gave the song the edge (pardon the phrase) it had been lacking.

The two played the finished product sitting on their guest chairs, by far the most intimate performance I've ever seen by these globetrotting, stadium-accustomed rock legends. With all their massive stages and electronic window dressing, it's sometimes easy to forget that they are musicians and soul brothers at heart.

My favorite moment in "Stuck in a Moment" is when Bono breaks the so-called fourth wall and sings "I'm just trying to find a decent melody, a song that I can sing in my own company." Seek and you shall find, my fellow Irish soul-bro. Here's the full band playing the same tune on Letterman almost 10 years earlier, in October of 2001.

Buy U2's All That You Can't Leave Behind on iTunes here

Paul McCartney Plays Yankee Stadium the Night Before (and the Night Before That)

2011-07-17T13:05:00.008-04:00

I am willing to forgive Paul McCartney for playing two nights at that monument to imperialist greed Yankee Stadum (and for supposedly being a Yankee fan) because he has clearly entered uncharted territory as an entertainer.

Flirting with 70 as if the age was a leggy blonde bird at the Bag O' Nails club in Swinging Sixties London, Macca has seemed to gain energy and power as a performer as he has gotten older. This weekend, the Cute One and his crack band played two 2-1/2 hour shows with over 30 songs per evening. Keep in mind that the legendary Beatles shows at Shea Stadium were under 30 minutes.

Macca sang, played bass, guitar, piano, ukelele (in a tribute to George Harrison of "Something") and left fans and critics alike in awe of his talent and generosity. He obviously doesn't need the money, and does it out of sheer love of entertaining and adoration, something that was apparent from his earliest days as a musician.

In addition to playing the musts like "Hey Jude" and "Band on the Run," Macca threw in some real chestnuts from his bottomless catalog, including a ditty he'd never played live before: "The Night Before."

McCartney probably wrote "The Night Before" in five or six minutes while sitting on the loo, but just about any songwriter of the era would have killed for something that catchy. Here are the lads playing it in the film "Help!" 46 years ago. Seems like only... yesterday.

Cheers, Macca. Keep up the good work.

Buy "The Night Before" on iTunes here

Enjoying a Cruel Summer with Bananarama

2011-07-11T21:48:00.008-04:00

With the mercury rising up toward the triple-digit mark, one song keeps playing in my head as I walk to my office in New York City's Flatiron District: "Cruel Summer" by Bananarama. This 1983 girl-group classic has aged remarkably well, and captures the sound of the hot city streets better than any song I can think of, with the possible exception of the Lovin' Spoonful's "Summer in the City."

It probably has a lot to do with the video, which features the three lovely lasses galavanting around early 80s pre-gentrification Big Apple. It was right around the time I started going into the city for wild times with my high school friends and that's exactly how I remember it looking - only we weren't hanging out with Bananarama.

Whilst contemplating Bananarama today, it occured to me that all of their songs are sung by all three members together - Siobhan Fahey, Keren Woodward and Sara Dallin. No one ever takes a lead vocal or sings a soaring counter-melody. Every word is sung by all of them, all at once.

Bananarama had a string of radio friendly classics in the 80s, and sold over 40 million records worldwide. Fahey left the group in 1988 after marrying Dave Stewart of the Eurythmics (Talk about your Banana Splits! - thanks, I'll be here all week), but the other two still perform as Bananarama to this day.

Here's another favorite from their 1983 record Deep Sea Skiving called "Really Saying Something," recorded with Fun Boy Three, an accurately named spinoff group from ska pioneers The Specials.

Get a bunch o' Bananarama on iTunes here.

Song of the Summer: My Morning Jacket's "Holdin On to Black Metal"

2011-07-08T09:38:00.015-04:00

Every summer should have a song that captures it and Rock Turtleneck's 2011 summer song thus far is “Holdin On to Black Metal” from My Morning Jacket’s wonderful new record Circuital.

"Black Metal" captures that feeling of running around outside on a hot humid day, with a sprinkler going strong and the Good Humor truck coming up the street. The vibe of the record is sweltering yet at the same time very fun and liberating, not unlike summer itself.

A recent Rolling Stone profile notes that Circuital was recorded in an abandoned high school gymnasium during some oppressive heat and A/C not an option due to recording purposes. Some of the sessions the “studio” was 100 degrees or so - and it sounds like it.

As with many MMJ tunes, “Black Metal” carries an eclectic mix of influences, few of which are metal, but some of which are black. I hear some innervisions-era Stevie Wonder and Curtis Mayfield-style Superfly soul for sure, conjured up by the background chorus of what sounds like inner-city schoolkids. I also detect a soupcon of the Ozark Mountain Daredevils' "Jackie Blue."

But after a few listens, I realized the tune has and influence from the opposite side of the musical spectrum: "Owner of a Lonely Heart," the Yes comeback single from 1984 that was a radical departure from their dreamier prog-rock sound. Jim James' Jon Anderson-like falsetto, the synth horn charts (they might be real horns), the fuzz bass line - it's all there, baby. "Black Metal" sounds like "Lonely Heart" but sweaty instead of sterile, like it was recorded by living, breathing humanoids.

"Black Metal" and all of Circuital is a must for the remainder of backyard BBQ season.

Buy My Morning Jacket's Circuital on iTunes for a mere $7.99 here

While you're at it, add "Owner of a Lonely Heart" by Yes to the mix here