Derek and the Domino's on the Johnny Cash Show (1971)

The Johnny Cash Show was just a blip on the radar screen of one of country music’s all-time greatest stars. And just like with everything else, his selection of entertainment was a fascinating variety of musical genres from which his own brand of music had emerged.

One night he had Louis Armstrong on and they recreated the original July 1925 session of what is considered to be the first country record ever made. In the video he recounts the story of that recording and then plays the song “Blue Yodel” with Johnny Cash accompanying him on guitar. It’s almost as good as the original recording. Here’s a link to that one;

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RsUtKgzInI4

And when it came time to recognizing the revitalization the “English Invasion” had brought to the American music scene, he was no less grand in his acknowledgment to those artists. In the video above he hosts Derek and the Domino’s for a great set.

Johnny Cash was kind of an enigma. He was anti- war during the Vietnam War at a time when “Stand By Your Man” and Okie from Moskogie” were like national anthems in that part of the country. (Yes, he was ant-war; you can read about in his autobiography, he tells it better than I do.) But at the same time he did the USO shows to entertain the troops, paying his own way on several occasions.

The next thing you knew he was doing a film about Jesus called “The Gospel Road”, and in his final years he was busy with producer Rick Rubin, re-interpreting some of the music of the younger generation such as Smashing Pumpkins and even U-2. His version of “One” is still my favorite.

If you have a favorite group, then chances are they were on the Johnny Cash Show. Just hit you tube find out.

"Trying to Get to You" - Elvis Presley (1968)

In 1968 Elvis Presley did a TV special just before Christmas. It was a mixture of a variety show format, with musical numbers featuring Anne Margaret and a host of dancers. But the best part was the half hour or so when Elvis came out with his band, sitting in chairs facing one another, and played some real Sun Records rock and roll.

“Trying to Get to You” was a show stopper for me. Clad in leather and leading the band with his vocals, as well as his more than competent guitar playing, this may have been the best performance of the last decade of his life. It was almost as if, in response to the “British Invasion”; which was at its peak in 1968; he needed to show he was still relevant after almost 10 years of making pretty bland films on the West Coast. 

In a way, this show was a reminder that the sounds coming back at us from Europe had begun here in the good old USA. And Elvis, along with the rest of the “Million Dollar Quartet” at Sun Records, had been there at the beginning, when blues, country and jazz all fell in with one another and gave birth to a new sound called rock and roll.

This is just a short sample of the magic which was Elvis when he was really being Elvis, and not playing a movie role. After making all those movies he must have had to really practice a bit for this special in order to capture that original magic. Ironically, that probably makes him the greatest Elvis impersonator of all time. Hit You Tube for the full show at;

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fipT2RRvdLY

"Who I Am" by Pete Townshend (2012)

Art schools, or colleges, in England during the late 1950’s and early 1960’s, produced some of the most influential musicians of the modern age. From the Beatles to groups such as the Kinks, Rolling Stones and even the Who, these “art schools” played a tremendously important part in the cultural upheaval that defined the 1960’s. With it came the friction between 2 generations; one tested by 2 world wars and an economic Depression; the other born after those hard days were over. It’s almost as if, after fighting for so long, the older generation had to fight with someone, and so the new enemy became the new youth culture.

“A Quick One”, performed on “The Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus”, was the initial influence for the later creation of the rock opera “Tommy”. The song had been born of necessity as the group had 10 minutes left to fill an album, prompting Pete Townshend to write the 10 minute “mini-opera”. It is largely autobiographical, as were parts of “Tommy.” This was a very fascinating section of the book for me, as I have always been a fan of “A Quick One”, and having its meaning explained in terms of the author’s own experiences growing up makes it even more enjoyable to listen to. The story involves Mr. Townshend’s growing up in a very dysfunctional home, with his mother having an intense affair, which split the family apart and had Pete living with his grandmother, who was also equally dysfunctional. It was during this period of his youth that he was molested. These early years would come to define much of his life and the choices he made regarding his expressions of anger and violence in his work.

Exploring the early work of bands such as The Small Faces; later The Faces with Ronnie Wood and Ronnie Lane; Mr. Townshend is able to paint a vivid picture of the arts scene in England at the time, and which would then reverberate around the world. His work on his solo albums, as well as the story behind his all too brief collaboration with Ronnie Lane on “Rough Mix” was of special interest to me. That album, which is one of my favorites, encompasses folk, country, rock and even a wonderful number called “Street in the City”, in which Mr. Townshend accompanies an orchestra with his acoustic guitar to create a musical portrait of a city street on a “working day.” I was surprised at the many characters in that song who come from the author’s own childhood.

This is also the story of Jim Marshall and the creation of the Marshall Stack amplifiers, which were a great leap forward as they allowed the musician to recreate, in person, the power formerly relegated to the studio.  Also of great interest are Mr. Townshend’s own contributions to the fusion of light and sound in order to bring to life the visions in his own head and create a “new” form of musical expression.

In so many ways The Who enabled the arrival of bands such as Led Zeppelin, and even Jimi Hendrix, who first came to Pete Townshend for help in creating his sound using the Marshall Stack system. But the music scene was a two-way street, and Mr. Townshend freely admits his admiration for groups such as The Kinks, and their early attempts at rock operas such as “The Village Green Preservation Society” and their later album “Arthur-The Fall of the British Empire”, as influences on his own work.

From Mods and Rockers, and on through “Quadrophenia”, Mr. Townshend hacked out a new avenue of approach to the music of a younger generation. His destruction of musical instruments as a form of aggressive expression became a mainstay of the earlier Who performances, and the author credits the beginnings of his hearing loss to the explosion on the Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour in 1967.

Through his manic depression, drinking, and limited use of LSD, the author is honest and candid about his own failings, and unflinching in his criticism of others when they deserve it. In exploring his beginning interest in the teachings of Meher Baba; which eventually became his spiritual haven; he lends a unique insight into one of the world’s most well-known rock icons.

Surprisingly, though they were all close friends, they never did seem to share the camaraderie of let’s say the Beatles, or even the Rolling Stones. Mr. Townshend puts that down to two things; the first being that he is, by nature, a loner; the next being that he has never been comfortable with co-writing anything, let alone a song. In spite of their many differences over the years, the 4 men remained close until the untimely deaths of both Keith Moon and John Entwistle.

The author has penned one of the better rock autobiographies, and this book stands tall, right alongside them all. Being a rock star has a certain allure, but beneath it all, they suffer from  the same insecurities which afflict us all.

The Animals - Richmond Jazz Festival (1965)

The Animals were one of the most underrated bands of the 1960’s English “invasion”. With their mixture of blues and rock they infused the music scene with something a bit more edgy than the Beatles, or the Dave Clark Five. Groups like Herman’s Hermits and Freddy and the Dreamers, with their “bubblegum” brand of rock and roll, will always be remembered. At the same time, groups like The Animals are an example of the more serious of the bands that came over from England in the mid-sixties.

A blues based band, similar to the Rolling Stones in many ways, the band never sold out and kept on releasing blues-rock recordings, never giving way to the musical changes of the 1970’s. This version of “We Gotta Get Out of this Place” was recorded at the Richmond Jazz Festival in England sometime during 1965. It’s a great example of what the band was doing at the time. The mixture of blues and rock was already well established, but these guys took it to a darker place.

In this song you can feel the youthful frustrations which were rocking the world at the time. Released on the the heels of The Rolling Stones “Satisfaction”, this song highlighted a new generation’s dissatisfaction with the status quo. In Eric Burdon there was a match for the sneering visage of Mick Jagger. And both groups projected a menacing working class attitude that things needed to get better.

I know I am a dinosaur when it comes to the music I love, but what can I do? Groups like The Animals really influenced an entire generation of young people; for better or worse.

"B.B. King - Live By Request" (2003)

If you have never seen BB King live, then this is as good as it gets!

The nickname "B.B.",which is short for "Blues Boy" was first bestowed upon him in Memphis on Beale Street. It stuck. And the sound that he created has spawned a generation of guitarists, some equal to, and some even surpassing, this legendary musician.

This is a very personal performance, one in which B.B. seems a little nervous as he gets ready to field requests for any one of the hundreds of songs he has written and recorded over the past 60 years. And aside from the music, the stories he relates between phone calls and requests, are gems, some of which appeared in his autobiography, and some that didn't.

The story of his guitar, named Lucille (he is currently on Licille 18, though this film from 2003 has him playing Lucille 16) began in 1949 in a town called Twist, Arkansas. It was in a "juke joint", with a 55 gallon drum filled halfway with kerosene for heat. Two guys fighting over a woman knocked it over, burning the place down. BB ran back to get his guitar,(he claims to have been the first one out the door)and almost got killed. The next day he found out the 2 guys were fighting over a woman named Lucille, and so he named his guitar for her, as a reminder to never do that again!

Between each number he explores the impact that his music has had upon 3 generations, with particular emphasis on "The Thrill Is Gone" in 1969, which was on my first B.B. King album. That was the song that opened up the whole world to him, thanks in part to the "British Invasion", which had it's roots in American rhythm and blues. Due to that influence, he went on his first world tour in 1970. And he hasn't stopped since.

Jeff Beck takes stage with B.B. for 2 numbers, "Rock Me Baby" and "Key to the Highway", and also helps him close the show with "The Cost to Be the Boss." With his inimitable style of playing, he is proof of the impact that B.B. King has had on so many musicians over the years, and by extension, us.

Calls for requests came from everywhere! All over America, North and South, even as far away as Argentina. One man called, relating how he met his wife 25 years ago at a B.B. King concert. In between playing and taking requests, B.B. also offered his advice on going to school, graduating, majoring in something that you like to do, while learning something you can make a living at. He also advises that young folks stay single until they're 40.

B.B. even had a story to tell about meeting Pope John Paul II, he gave him a guitar as a gift. Though you are never to directly touch the Pope, instead of handing the guitar to the Pope's aides, he offered it directly to the Pope, who took it. He was strumming it when B.B. left.

Packed with some of the best songs he has ever done, and playing with his long time band, B.B., who had a real problem playing during the '90's due to the constant pricking of his fingers to monitor his diabetes, has never sounded better.

This DVD came to me through the courtesy of George Peterson, one of the librarians at the Cornelius branch of the Mecklenburg County Public Library. We are both Buddy Guy fans and he bought this DVD in from his personal collection for me to see. That's what I love about the libraries, not only are they are a refuge for the soul, but also a place where ideas are exchanged, and friendships are formed.