Today's Boom Tune
Right at that moment when the Rolling Stones were moving from being the world’s proudest purveyors of anglicized American rhythm & blues, “Under My Thumb” captures them tearing off into new territory. Aftermath announced they’d become full-on songwriters, capable of filling a whole album of their own music without falling back on the wonders of Chuck Berry, Bo Diddley, Sam Cooke or any of their other early inspirations. Now the group was off in new waters, what with Brian Jones’ dulcimer and sitar in tow and the eleven-minute “Goin’ Home” reflecting the psychedelic revolution knocking on the Stones’ front door. There are any number of sizzling signs of growth here, but it’s “Under My Thumb” that really points the way to their future: a concise composition that nails its subject, but also takes four or five instrumental elements and melds them into one breathing beast. Kicking off with Charlie Watts’ signature backbeat soon joined by guitar accents and a marimba, Mick Jagger takes over as only he can. Naturally, he has to brag about the revenge he’s plotting against a wayward woman. Somehow, though, his new bragging rights don’t sound so assured, and the cracks in the façade are growing by the moment as the singer tries to convince himself he’s still got the upper hand. By the end, we finally figure out the secret to the song’s allure is really the marimba, and Mick Jagger’s panting sounds are more like an obedient dog than the lord of the manor. A few other albums down this road led directly to Their Satanic Majesty’s Request before the band got back to where they once belonged on Beggars Banquet. Whew. 0 Comments
Marty Balin is able to sing a love song better than just about anyone alive. And it’s been that way forever, from early solo singles, as a member of the folkie Town Criers, in the band he built from scratch, Jefferson Airplane, and then Jefferson Starship and his own albums.
More | 0 CommentsHis name might be forever associated with the Tex-Mex treasure “She’s About a Mover,” but Sir Douglas Sahm was by his own admission a man of many worlds.
More | 1 CommentsThe late ‘70s were a time of total invention. The railings had been ripped off the road and anyone with an attitude and even a small amount of ability could create a new noise.
More | 0 CommentsPro surfer turned musician Donavon Frankenreiter sets the tone of his third studio effort with an uplifting pop anthem that celebrates the three most important aspects of the human experience...
More | 0 CommentsIt starts out like something from the Redd Foxx Show, but “Hallelujah Time” quickly jumps into deep love by reggae’s all-time favorite aggregation. Singer Bunny Wailer has a soul man’s light inside his voice.
More | 0 CommentsHaunting. There is no other word to describe “Slippery Slope.” It’s the dread that overtakes you when you know that life has changed for the worse, at least for now, and there is absolutely nothing to be done about it.
More | 0 CommentsOf all the rockers who came out of the ‘60s, John Cale is one of the most individualistic. Before co-founding the Velvet Underground with Lou Reed, he was a classically-trained musician and also worked with avant-garde legend Lamonte Young.
More | 0 CommentsOriginally a hit single for Michael Stipe and REM when they released the "love" song in 1987 at the height of their career, "The One I Love" has been widely and inappropriately dedicated to, well, loved ones for over twenty years now.
More | 0 CommentsHow to describe what it was like in 1976 when the following all started to storm American stages: Mink Deville, Elvis Costello & the Attractions, the Sex Pistols, Southside Johnny & the Asbury Jukes, the Clash, Television, Talking Heads...
More | 0 CommentsIf The Band had been Levon Helm and four of his Arkansas first cousins instead of all those moody Canadians, they might have sounded something like Ramsay Midwood. He appears full-blown out of a backwoods gully, untamed by the parameters of traditional musical convention.
More | 0 CommentsKnown more for his songwriting and production smarts, Allen Toussaint is also one of New Orleans’ most soulful singers, which is really saying something. His voice is an instrument of coolness; he never breaks a sweat...
More | 0 CommentsJerry Garcia was not a good singer, but he was a great singer. And in the oddity of that equation lies his real magic. Known for helping create psychedelic music as a life pursuit, the man once nicknamed (against his wishes) Captain Trips...
More | 2 CommentsIt starts with a piano riff right out of Floyd Cramer’s “Last Date.” Then William Bell’s voice comes in with such strength and clarity it seems to take all the air out of the room, leaving only a clear light of sound.
More | 0 CommentsNew York City is a constant inspiration to composers and writers, few more so than Garland Jeffreys. Part of Lou Reed’s college circle in the ‘60s, he formed Grinder's Switch shortly after (not to be confused with the Southern rockers of the More | 0 Comments
This song first appeared in the mid-‘70s like an outer spaceship landing on Earth. Roky Erickson had gone from being the lead singer in ‘60s psychedelic pioneers the 13th Floor Elevators to inmate in a hospital for the criminally insane. And More | 0 Comments
This is either the most cold-blooded song ever written, or the sharpest satire to grace an album in many years. Nick Lowe is no stranger to the sardonic, that’s for sure, but he also possesses one of the biggest hearts in rock & roll. One More | 0 Comments
Of all the different styles of blues, Piedmont might be the least heard. It comes mainly from the Carolinas, and the banjo is often the featured instrument. It’s not as low-down as Mississippi Delta blues by any stretch...
More | 0 CommentsThere is no way to describe what this album sounded like when it was released in 1969. It was a musical postcard from so far beyond the edge that the edge had disappeared into an inner outer space.
More | 0 CommentsThere aren’t many artists more important to modern music than Sister Rosetta Tharpe. Born in Arkansas and raised in Chicago, she began recording in 1938. More | 0 Comments
At such a late stage in The Band’s career, it was almost too much to hope for a song this good. But “Twilight” felt like it could have been on one of their early albums, those collections that not only defined what it felt like to be alive then, but also changed the course of rock & roll.
More | 0 CommentsStanton Moore sits atop the throne now for young drummers in New Orleans. Considering the heritage of that position (Earl Palmer, Ed Blackwell, Charles "Hungry" Williams, John Boudreaux, Zigaboo Modeliste...
More | 0 Comments“Out there it’s summertime/milk and honey days….” All across America in 1968 much of the country’s youth wanted to drop everything and move to San Francisco immediately.
More | 0 CommentsSometimes darkness is a scary concept. For many it brings to mind a coffin, or "the long home" as it's called in certain circles. For others, it's the night, which depending on where you are can indeed be a frightening thought. When it comes to More | 0 Comments
You would think with the condition the world is in, blues would be king right now. But except for a few signs of life here and there, it's not really true. Watermelon Slim is ready to take care of that problem.
More | 0 CommentsWhen a song evokes the past, it's easy to file it under nostalgia and let it go. It's not really the artist's fault. They're just trying to express something at their center, that feeling that pushes people to create something from nothing. More | 0 Comments
The history of jazz is one of hidden masters, those players who may have never made a major name for themselves, but their beatific charms are known by all the insiders. Saxophonist Don Wilkerson is one of those musicians.
More | 0 CommentsThere aren't many artists that can sing Bob Dylan songs and make them their own. Jerry Garcia had an uncanny knack for it, as did Roger McGuinn, but too often the interpreters miss the mark.
More | 0 CommentsSeveral chords played by guitar, bass and drums--from that, lives can change when the words of a song convey a reality beyond what is being offered at the time.
More | 0 CommentsThe way that Steely Dan captures isolation suggests they live in a bubble, away from all human contact. Considering their prowess in recording studios, maybe that isn't too far from the truth, either.
More | 1 CommentsFrom the very first notes of any song Stevie Ray Vaughan ever recorded, you knew it was him. It was something from the beyond that signals it. There is a treacherousness of tone that no other guitarist had.
More | 1 CommentsGive the Silver Fox a sad song, and he'll not only take it all the way downtown, he'll go out the back door of the building and into the alley, where he'll find the loneliest spot behind the trash cans and sit there through the night...
More | 0 CommentsIt may start out like a slight offshoot of Tommy James & the Shondells’ “Crystal Blue Persuasion” with Carlos Santana sitting in. After the first five words, “Rosewood” heads off for parts unknown.
More | 0 CommentsComebacks, even when they're short-lived, are the stuff of legend. Rick Nelson was rock & roll's first television star, performing on his parents' program starting in the 1950s. His dreamy good looks captivated viewers, and the music was plenty rocking enough to kick in for the kids.
More | 0 CommentsSometimes the unknown heroes are the ones who last the longest. Look at O.V. Wright. A soul singer who many swear is one of the best ever, he battled against obscurity and other stronger demons for most of his life.
More | 0 CommentsCreating beauty is no easy task. Neither is recording a Beatles song, especially one like “The Fool on the Hill.” For starters, it’s one of the English band’s most elusive: “The fool on the hill/sees the sun going down/and the eyes in his head/sees the world spinning ‘round.”
More | 0 CommentsJohn Hammond has the touch, going all the way back to his first albums in the early ‘60s on Vanguard Records. He was a bluesman through and through, even while his wealthy father was the most revered talent scout in the music business.
More | 0 CommentsHow is it that a song will crawl inside your ear and stay there forever? Years can go by and you don't hear it, but then one morning it's the first thing that comes to mind when you open your eyes.
More | 0 CommentsSome people like to hide out, even when they’re in plain sight. Underneath a straw cowboy hat pulled low enough so there’s no way to tell if he even has eyeballs, Bo Ramsey stares into the void.
More | 0 CommentsThe Freewheelers never got much past the first rung, but to their fans the Portland band meant a lot. Luther Russell was their leader, so he obviously meant the most. After several solo albums, Russell really gets it right on Repair.
More | 0 CommentsNew Orleans will put some voodoo on you, whether you believe in it or not. When you’re walking down Decatur in the French Quarter, or riding the streetcar out St. Charles, there is something in the air. You can’t see it, but you can definitely feel it.
More | 0 CommentsWith an air of mystery surrounding it, the song was first listed on this album as “Flamenco Sketches.” No matter what it’s called, the recording stands as a crowning moment in jazz, that place where musicians come together and create a whole world with only their instruments and how they play them.
More | 0 CommentsOne of the great album-openers ever, “Call Me the Breeze” starts with a short but serious case of the mumbles. Then a finger-picked acoustic begins the song proper, before J.J. Cale’s switchblade Silvertone guitar slices off a few slippery lines...
More | 0 CommentsBy all accounts, Sheffield, England is no easy place to grow up. It's a mining town. Joe Cocker is from Sheffield, and is said to sound like the city feels.
More | 0 CommentsHow about this for going beyond the bounds of normality? Former Spacemen 3 founding member and now proud participant in Spectrum, Sonic Boom continues his travels around the fringes of acceptable behavior, finding himself finally at the Zebra Ranch in Tate County, Mississippi.
More | 0 CommentsThe playful piano licks thrown out before the song starts are a sideways riff likely inspired by Little Feat's "Dixie Chicken." Then things get serious, as the guitars from heaven begin and Eric Clapton announces his presence.
More | 0 CommentsSome bands have reputations that grow person by person and show by show. They might not break through--now or ever--but chances are their music affects listeners in ways that mainstream artists will never attain.
More | 0 CommentsEvery city has a street that threatens to fall off the end of the Earth. The ones where people who call it home must wake up every day and wonder how in the world they got there. In the Fifties, that was Fannin Street in Houston.
More | 0 CommentsWhy do some songs jump off an album and clear the competition away with one clean sweep? There is such an overwhelming sense of destiny that it feels like the notes are golden and the lyrics are written in honey.
More | 0 CommentsThere's nothing like the unlikely mix of country and psychedelic music. It does strange things to the nervous system, but somehow still works. At its beginning, Mother Earth was one of the most glorious examples of a hybrid band that ever existed...
More | 1 CommentsHere's someone who out-outlawed the outlaws. Waylon Jennings would never behave. When the cosmic cowboy craze threatened to overrun the country, Jennings made a point of breaking the rules of the rule breakers.
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