Shane McGowan, RIP

by | Dec 20, 2023 | Wednesday Rock Blogging | 1 comment

A good old Irish Christmas song this week, in honor of Shane McGowan – who was born on December 25, 1957!

Hat tip Richard!

The Pogues were an English or Anglo-Irish Celtic punk band fronted by Shane MacGowan and others, founded in King’s Cross, London, in 1982, as Pogue Mahone—an anglicisation by James Joyce of the Irish phrase póg mo thóin, meaning “kiss my arse”. Fusing punk influences with instruments such as the tin whistle, banjo, cittern, mandolin and accordion, the Pogues were initially poorly received in traditional Irish music circles—the noted musician Tommy Makem called them “the greatest disaster ever to hit Irish music”—but were subsequently credited with reinvigorating the genre. The band later incorporated influences from other musical traditions, including jazz, flamenco, and Middle Eastern music.

The band started off playing in London pubs and clubs, and became known for their energetic, raucous live shows. After gaining wider attention as an opening act for The Clash on their 1984 tour, and shortening their name to the Pogues—to circumvent BBC censorship, following complaints from Scottish Gaelic speakers—they released their first studio album, Red Roses for Me, in October 1984.

In 1987, the Pogues’ arrangement of the folk song “The Irish Rover”, a collaboration with the Dubliners, reached number one in Ireland and number eight in the UK; the two bands performed the song on Ireland’s The Late Late Show and the UK’s Top of the Pops. Later in 1987, the Pogues released the Christmas single “Fairytale of New York”, co-written by MacGowan and Jem Finer and recorded as a duet between MacGowan and Kirsty McColl, which reached number one in Ireland and number two in the UK. The song remains a perennial Christmas favourite in the UK and Ireland; in December 2022, it was certified quintuple platinum in the UK, having achieved three million combined sales.

It was reported in July 2023 that MacGowan was hospitalised in an intensive care unit. Following treatment for an infection, he was discharged from St. Vincent’s University Hospital in November 2023. On 30 November 2023, after receiving last rites, MacGowan died from pneumonia at his home in Dublin with his wife by his side; he was 65.

Following MacGowan’s death, Tom Waits wrote on X: “Shane MacGowan’s torrid and mighty voice is mud and roses punched out with swaggering stagger, ancient longing that is blasted all to hell. A Bard’s bard, may he cast his spell upon us all forevermore”.[83]

Nick Cave called MacGowan “the greatest songwriter of his generation, with the most terrifyingly beautiful of voices”. Bruce Springsteen said the “passion and deep intensity of [MacGowan’s] music and lyrics is unmatched by all but the very best in the rock and roll canon… I don’t know about the rest of us, but they’ll be singing Shane’s songs 100 years from now”.

When Bob Dylan performed a concert in Dublin in 2022, he paid tribute to MacGowan while onstage, describing the former Pogues frontman as one of his “favourite artists”.

Paul Simon said MacGowan was “that kind of artist that needed to burn very brightly and intensely. Some artists are like that. They produce work that we treasure but they pay for it with their health – their bodily health and their mental health. That was Shane”.

https://www.loudersound.com/news/shane-macgowan-victoria-clarke-pogues

Mellow Mafia

by | Dec 13, 2023 | Wednesday Rock Blogging

About 50 years ago, a quartet of L.A. session musicians became so synonymous with the era-defining soft-rock scene — headlined by James Taylor, Carole King, Jackson Browne, Linda Ronstadt, Crosby, Stills & Nash and Fleetwood Mac among others — that they were dubbed the Mellow Mafia.

Danny Kortchmar (guitar), Russ Kunkel (drums), Leland Sklar (bass) and Waddy Wachtel (guitar) made their way to Los Angeles through various sliding doors. By the early ’70s, they frequented the same studios, worked with the same engineers and played the same sessions. Championed by the English producer Peter Asher, the four became in-demand separately and in different configurations for their technical capabilities, inventiveness and gift for bringing live sound to the studio.

In 1971, Kortchmar and Kunkel appeared on King’s bestselling, Grammy-winning “Tapestry” and were joined by Sklar on Taylor’s “Mud Slide Slim and the Blue Horizon.” Two years later, Wachtel played on Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham’s debut, “Buckingham Nicks,” and Wachtel and Kunkel helped shape Nicks’ 1981 solo debut, “Bella Donna.” All four have joined Ronstadt, Browne and Taylor on tour. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg: Individually and together, they’ve appeared on about 5,000 albums.

A new documentary about the group, “The Immediate Family,” will premiere Tuesday at Laemmle NoHo and debut in theaters and on streaming platforms Friday. Directed by Denny Tedesco (who made “The Wrecking Crew!,” about an earlier generation of renowned session musicians), the film chronicles the foursome’s decades-long work with musical icons through original interviews and archival footage. It’s named after the group’s current band with fifth member Steve Postell, which is set to release a new album, “Skin in the Game,” in February.

“We’ve been around such amazing people for so long that we’re sort of used to the attention, observing it and being a part of it,” Sklar explains of the film. “But seeing the movie is sort of a strange reality. We realize, ‘Oh my God, this is actually just about us. Wild.’ ”

https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/music/story/2023-12-11/immediate-family-carole-king-james-taylor-session-musicians-documentary

One of the 13 songs featured in the article – I was at this show:

U2 – Tiny Desk

by | Oct 11, 2023 | Wednesday Rock Blogging

Were you there at the US Festival when Bono climbed to the top of the lighting standard and we were all yelling for him to jump – he could have been memorialized right there! In the beginning he was a voice of freedom, and this video is a good reminder of those days. Laughter is the evidence of freedom!

Bob Dylan and the Heartbreakers

by | Oct 4, 2023 | Wednesday Rock Blogging | 1 comment

This guy is 82 years old! Bob Dylan made a surprise appearance on Saturday night at Farm Aid 2023 in Noblesville, Indiana. He played guitar (marking the first time he’d played guitar and not keyboard in live performance since 2012) and was joined by three members of Tom Petty’s Heartbreakers—Mike Campbell, Benmont Tench, and Steve Ferrone—for a performance of three songs from 1965: “Maggie’s Farm,” “Positively 4th Street,” and “Ballad of a Thin Man.”

Dylan, 82, began the set with his first “Maggie’s Farm” since he performed it at the 2011 Grammys, and followed it up with another song from 1965, “Positively 4th Street.” That single, which was released between Highway 61 Revisited and Blonde on Blonde, hadn’t been played since 2013. The closing song was “Ballad of a Thin Man,” from Highway 61 Revisited, which was aired for the first time since late 2019.

Watch it happen below.

Bob Dylan stunned the Farm Aid crowd outside Indianapolis last night (Sept. 23) with a surprise three-song set backed by members of the Heartbreakers, marking the first time he’d played guitar and not keyboard in live performance since 2012.

AROUND 10:20 P.M. on Saturday night, a shadowy group of figures walked onto the Farm Aid stage at the Ruoff Music Center in Noblesville, Indiana. This was supposed to be the moment where Wille Nelson wrapped up the night, but there was no sign of the Red Headed Stranger or his band. Instead, another act was plugging in instruments on the darkened stage. There was no announcement of any kind, and the large screens on both sides of the stage went completely blank for the first time all day. It took about 15 seconds for the screams to start once the light hit the face of the guy in the middle.

Bob Dylan was back on the Farm Aid stage for the first time since the inaugural event in 1985, which was inspired by his off-hand comments at Live Aid a few months earlier about helping family farmers. Joining him were 3/5th of the Heartbreakers — guitarist Mike Campbell, keyboardist Benmont Tench, and drummer Steve Ferrone — alongside members of Campbell’s other group, the Dirty Knobs. Dylan was playing electric guitar.

Dylan toured frequently with Petty and the Heartbreakers in 1986 and 1987, but the musicians shared a bill only twice afterwards, in August 2003 in Holmdel, N.J. Dylan also teamed with Petty, Roy Orbison, George Harrison, and Jeff Lynne in the Traveling Wilburys, capping a fruitful late ’80s run which included the surprise 1988 hit “Handle With Care.”

The Heartbreakers, who backed Tom Petty for more than 40 years until his death in 2017, were represented at Farm aid by guitarist Mike Campbell, keyboardist Benmont Tench, drummer Steve Ferrone, and were augmented by Campbell’s Dirty Knobs bandmates Chris Holt on guitar and Lance Morrison on bass.

Pin It on Pinterest