R.E.M.: Radio Free Europe
John Mayall: Have You Heard
[purchase]
I mentioned here that John Mayall was the center of the British blues-rock scene of the 1960s. Most of the major figures in the scene perfected their art in Mayall’s band the Bluesbreakers, before going off on their own. Most notably, that’s Eric Clapton on lead guitar on Have You Heard. Jimmy page also did time in John Mayall’s band. Mayall himself plays harmonica, piano, and rhythm guitar, and does a fine job in each case.
So why isn’t John Mayall better known? First of all, there is his voice. Mayall almost always insists on taking the lead vocals. To be kind, his voice is an acquired taste.
I think there is also another reason. John Mayall’s artistry belonged to a particular time and place. As blues-rock faded from view, Mayall tried to adapt and change his sound to fit the times. He relocated to California and his sound mellowed, but he never sounded comfortable or passionate about what he was doing on his 1970s releases. More recently, he has tried to return to his earlier sound, but he doesn’t seem to be able to recapture the early spark. But, for a brief moment, he created some of the most impassioned music you could ever care to hear.
Bonus Track:
Fleetwood Mac: Drifting
[purchase]
Back here, I made a side comment about Fleetwood Mac starting out as a blues band. Original members included Mick Fleetwood on drums, John McVie on bass, and Peter Green on lead guitar and vocals, as well as Jeremy Spencer on slide guitar. Spencer is the only one who did not come out of John Mayall’s band. Fleetwood and McVie are the only remaining original members, and their last names are where the band got its name.
I am amazed that John Gorka is still available on day 4 of Johns week. In honor of that fact, I thought I would post four of his songs, to give an idea of his consistency. Gorka has a wonderful baritone voice, and his lyrics always manage to put across his ideas beautifully. His melodies and guitar playing never call attention to themselves, but always serve the song perfectly. As it happens, the four songs I have present a fifteen year span in exactly five year intervals.
John Gorka: Jack‘s Crows
[purchase]
John Gorka hit the ground running. 1991 saw the release of the album Jack’s Crows, which included what has become one of his signature tunes, I’m From New Jersey, which was presented during Fifty States week. Here is the title track.
John Gorka: My Invisible Gun
[purchase]
Of all the songs I am presenting, My Invisible Gun, released in 1996 on the album Between Five And Seven, shows Gorka working with the fullest arrangement. The production on this sounds to me like an attempt at crossover success, but is still an enjoyable track.
John Gorka: Let Them In
[purchase]
By 2001, on the album The Company You Keep, Gorka was back to using sparer arrangements. Guests on this album included Ani DiFranco and Mary Chapin Carpenter. Let Them In is a political song from an artist who is not usually known for them.
John Gorka: The Lock Keeper
[purchase]
Finally, 2006 saw the release of Writing in the Margins. The Lock Keeper has the sparest arrangement of any of the tracks I am presenting. The song features little more than voice and guitar, but little else is needed.
J. J. Cale: Closer To You
[purchase]
John Cale: Adelaide
[purchase]
According to our usual sources, John W. Cale changed his name to "J. J." way back in the mid sixties at the urging of a "sunset strip nightclub owner" so as not to be confused with John Cale of the Velvet Underground. To be honest, it's hard to mistake the former Cale's seminal swamp of laidback southern/cajun bluesrock, which helped define the Tulsa Sound, for any of the various genre incarnations, from seventies folk-pop to the stylized artrock and protopunk of the eighties and nineties, that the latter Cale turned to after leaving the Velvet Underground at the end of that same decade. But I suppose it would be a bit startling to show up at some venue expecting to hear J.J.'s expansive, improvisational original takes on the songs that made other people famous -- Clapton's After Midnight and Cocaine, Lynard Skynard's Call Me The Breeze -- only to be confronted with a weird dude playing noisy experimental dronerock on the electric viola.
More likely comparisons would put J. J. Cale against fellow guitarslinging bluesrock jamsmen Clapton and Mark Knopfler, while the vast bulk of the work of John Cale might be more easily confusable with anyone from John Cage to Patti Smith, both of whom he's collaborated with in the past. That said, John Cale's early work has a bit of the same summery rock and roll sound that has made J. J.'s career, and J.J.'s not afraid to experiment. Here's the evidence for both.
John Flynn: Dover
[purchase Two Wolves]
Back here, I described the workings of a successful political song. John Flynn, with Dover, has provided a remarkable example. The song manages the neat trick of honoring our fallen soldiers in Iraq while also delivering a strong message against the war.
John Flynn is based in the Philadelphia area, and can often be heard on the wonderful station WXPN, where I first heard him. In addition to his adult material, Flynn is also responsible for some wonderful kid’s music.
Purchase note: I have provided the link to purchase the album directly from John Flynn’s web site. It’s a little pricy, but Flynn is a self-everything indie artist who needs the support.
"Johnny Horton reportedly had experienced premonitions several months before his own death about the possibility of dying in a car crash caused by a drunk driver. He always said that if he was in a head-on situation to drive into the ditch. His accident took place on a bridge so there was no ditch for which to head.
In connection with these premonitions, a story circulates that Horton, known to detest musicians who drank, had agreed to send his friend Merle Kilgore a message from beyond the grave. Ten years later, Kilgore heard from a group of psychics from New York of an apparition in a cowboy hat, whose message was 'the drummer is a rummer and can't hold the beat.' (recounted in "The View From Nashville", by Ralph Emery)
Both Horton and Hank Williams were married to the same woman [Billie Jean Jones] at the time of their death, and played their last shows at the Skyline Club in Austin, Texas."
John Sebastian and the J Band: Got No Automobile
[purchase]
Boyhowdy’s mention of the hit to cheese ratio brought to mind the fact that I wanted to post John Sebastian this week. Sebastian first came to light as the leader of The Lovin’ Spoonful. Some people consider their music to be bubblegum music, lumping them in with The Archies, The Monkees, and so forth. But there was always more going on with The Lovin’ Spoonful. John Sebastian would talk in the liner notes to their albums about his influences, from folk and bluegrass to classic blues. In fact, it was a similar musical stew to the one that influenced The Grateful Dead, but with very different results. In particular, Sebastian paid tribute to classic country and bluegrass in the song Nashville Cats.
In due course, The Lovin’ Spoonful broke up, and Sebastian went solo. You may recall his one big hit, the theme from Welcome Back Kotter. And commercially speaking, that was it. No one ever heard from him again.
So what has John Sebastian been up to? He formed a band called the J Band to perform and record the music he always loved best. And that is jug band music. If you don’t know what jug band music is, the jug is played by blowing air over the top, just as you might play a bottle. The band that goes with it usually uses a washboard for percussion. Aw heck, the best way to explain is: give a listen. And enjoy.
John Renbourn: The Pelican
[purchase]
Digging up those covers of John Henry last week for Darius reminded me of my long-standing admiration for acoustic guitar wizard John Renbourn, who made his name in the seminal britfolk scene of the sixties as a founding member of Pentangle, and remains one of the most respected fathers of the contemporary british folk movement.
As a seventies child, I grew up with John Renbourn's instrumental folk record The Black Balloon as a household deep cut, something which seemed well-worn but which I never heard my father actually spin; I had to dig it out on my own, and when I did, I was hooked, and permanently haunted. The record was one of the first I purchased for my own collection when I left his albums behind with my childhood. Even today, in my quietest, stillest hours, Renbourn's utterly peaceful The Pelican plays in my mind.
John Prine: Quit Hollerin' At Me
[purchase]
John Prine: Sam Stone
[purchase]
We've posted several John Prine classics here at Star Maker Machine in the few months since this wonderful collaborative took root, and with good reason: this John knows how to rock the weariness, saving his strength for just the right moment, the perfect sighing phrase, the delicate guitar solo.
As a cover collector, I hear Prine's songbook plenty; no matter who sings it, something of the outsider's awe that characterizes his narrative explorations of topics from love lost to heroin addiction always shines through. But John Prine's power is in his performance, not solely his songcraft; his own take on his work deserves respect and careful listening. Here's one of my favorite live cuts from a decade back, and a much quieter but no less powerful piece from September 2001; though Prine on record makes for some incredible, precious folkpop, his blueswork has been stuck in my brain recently.
As a bonus, head back to this old post about Angel From Montgomery to hear the original songwriter with one of his most famous songs, though most people know it through the work of blueswoman Bonnie Raitt. Something about that emotion Prine brings to the first line -- the way we are immediately confronted with the rough, masculine voice claiming that he is an old woman; the way we accept it anyway -- says everything about Prine: who he is, what he can do, and why we should care.
(1) Clever lyrics (a pun, a joke, or a play on words, preferably in the title of the song);
(2) A storyline based, at least in part, on regret (good for fostering tears in beers);
(3) A stalwart, but flawed, protagonist;
(4) A peddle steel guitar;
(5) Alcohol (thanks to David Allan Coe and a host of others); and
(6) Reverence for the land, especially the South.
Judy in disguise, well that's what you areLove the sixties.
Lemonade pies with a brand new car
Cantalope eyes come to me tonight
Judy in disguise, with glasses
Roll outta my coffin
Drink poison in my chalice
Pride begins to fade
And y'all feel my malice
