Dennis the Peasant

Friday Music...

This week's new release recommendation is Johnny Winter: The Woodstock Experience. It's a two CD offering that packages Johnny Winter's full set at Woodstock 1969 with a remaster of Winter's first solo album, Johnny Winter.

Now I realize those of you who are non-turkeys already own a copy of Johnny Winter...

Right?

Well, this just means you'll have a copy to keep in your car. Because let's face it, we're talkin' Dallas here, Johnny's finest acoustic blues song of all time. We're talkin' Be Careful With A Fool, as well as Mean Mistreater and Good Morning Little School Girl. We're also talkin' the finest version of that great old warhorse, I'll Drown In My Own Tears, that you'll find this side of Ray Charles. Bottom line? Any CD collection worth a damn has to have two copies of Johnny Winter in it. Period.

Good as Johnny Winter is though, that isn't why you're buying Johnny Winter: The Woodstock Experience. You're buying it for the set he played at Woodstock. Johnny and the band just rip it up. And when I say rip it up, I mean rip it up big-time...

Understand that that was the first track. Johnny's just flexing his fingers at that point, OK? Getting warmed up, as it where... He goes on to tear apart Leland Mississippi Blues, Mean Town Blues and You Done Lost Your Good Thing Now, and then brings out baby brother Edgar for a three song set that includes a version of Tobacco Road that can peel paint! The set closes with Johnny roaring through Johnny B. Goode like a bat out of Parma. Despite the fact that there are now five CDs in the Bootleg Live series that showcase Johnny Winter live, this Woodstock concert is the place to start when it comes to his live work, if for no other reason than to hear him playing with Edgar.

Dennis commands you to buy Johnny Winter: The Woodstock Experience. Those who do not will forever be regarded as complete turkeys who are fit only for the sort of barbed mockery that has made me what I am on the internets.

By the way, here's the list of the Johnny Winter CDs all non-turkeys will have in their collection...

1. Johnny Winter
2. Second Winter
3. The Progressive Blues Experiment
4. Johnny Winter: The Woodstock Experience
5. Live Bootleg: Vol. 1
6. Live Bootleg: Vol. 2
7. Live Bootleg: Vol. 3
8. Live Bootleg: Vol. 4
9. Live Bootleg: Vol. 5

And although this video opens with the cover to Johnny Winter, the recording itself is from The Progressive Blues Experiment...

Some Music...

There's a new Morphine release on Rhino that is, in the opinion of Your Humble Blogger, a required purchase. It's a two CD collection of alternate takes and live recordings called At Your Service...

As far as I am concerned, every CD collection worth a hoot must have the following Morphine titles in it:

1. Cure For Pain
2. Yes
3. Bootleg Detroit
4. And now, At Your Service

If you do not have these titles, your must purchase them immediately or forever be regarded as a complete turkey while you are within the hallowed halls of DtP. That is a fate you should strive to avoid at all costs.

Have I made myself clear?

 

Some Music...

Hey, Kiddies...

'Tis time for some blues music for (mostly) electric guitar...

This is Jeff Beck playing Ray Charles' Drown In My Own Tears. He's OK, I guess...

If you like talent.

Speaking of talent, here's Johnny Winter playing Be Careful With A Fool. For many years I was of the opinion that if I could, I'd love to be reborn to play guitar like Pete Townshend. Now I'm thinking it would be better to be reborn to play like Johnny Winter.

Here's Mississippi Fred McDowell playing Louise. McDowell is as good as it gets when it comes to blues on the electric guitar. Hunt his music down and buy it.

Here's some nifty guitar work by Furry Lewis on Furry's Blues. As far as I know he never used an electric guitar, which is a shame given his technique.

Let's finish it off with some real down and dirty blues guitar, courtesy of Junior Kimbrough and I Gotta Try You Girl.

Damn It!

Sad news. Jim Carroll, author of the Basketball Diaries, has died at age 60. Carroll also made some fine music in his day, and  Catholic Boy remains one of the best albums to come out of the late '70's, early '80's New York Punk/New Wave scene.

Back in the early '70's, Carroll and Patti Smith were the two Young Turks of poetry in New York City. Unfortunately for all of us, the less interesting (and less talented) Smith came out on top. If you don't own Catholic Boy, I suggest you get it right away.

Friday's Music Post...

I have some things to do today. Here's some music to keep you occupied until I come back...

And Now For Something Completely Different...

Somebody who actually knows what the fuck he's doing...

Friday Video's Are Back (If For No Other Reason Than To Avoid Posting Something That Will Bring Yet Another 2,000 Heavily Armed Big Fat Lesbians To This Site)...

Here's some Johnny Winter...

Live Bootleg Vol. 4 is now out and well worth the coin.

Here's a wonderfully quirky tune by The Damned...

This is from Strawberries which, with The Black Album, are musts for the discerning listener.

Next comes a healthy dose of New York Dolls...

Their first album, New York Dolls, is simply as good as it gets.

It's a little known fact that President Obama's choice for Surgeon General has a second career as a nightclub singer...

Here she is giving a tuneful lecture on women's health issues. Things get especially interesting at about the 5'15" mark, when the lecture turns to the subject of exercise. Somebody should probably think about putting out parts of this as a fitness game for Wii.

Friday's Music Videos: Do Da Gitmo Shuffle... Boogie Your Bad Self On Down, 'Cause You're Gonna Be There For A While!

I managed to find a much better video of R.L. Burnside doing Rollin' and Tumblin' than the one I posted a few weeks ago. Nobody did this song better than R.L.:

What R.L. understood was that when playing Rollin' and Tumblin' on electric guitar, it's the lick that counts... not the song. And that's why everyone from Cream to Bob Dylan never got this one right; the only thing that matters is that guitar lick.

Here's the superb I Gotta Get You Girl from Junior Kimbrough:

I love Kimbrough's electric guitar work.

And then there's Sallie Mae by another master blues guitarist, T-Model Ford:

Finally, we'll finish up with Mississippi Fred McDowell doing John Henry:

Blues guitar just doesn't get any better than that.

Tonight's All Too Appropriate Musical Interlude... Dedicated To Poor, Helpless Nancy Pelosi

The Republican Party's Theme Song...

Friday's Music Picks From The World's Foremost (And Famous) Boogyin' Accountant...

First up, we have Plynth (Water Down The Drain) from the 1969 album Beck-Ola by The Jeff Beck Group. Consisting of Beck, Rod Stewart, Ronnie Wood, Nicky Hopkins and Tony Newman, the Jeff Beck Group ripped off this gloriously sloppy, paint-peeling album in four days. The mix is lousy, the songs uneven, and the performances punctuated by a certain number of missed notes (and beats), but it doesn't really matter... There's power here that most bands can't even imagine. One can only wonder what would have happened if Beck had managed to keep this lineup together... even if for just another year or so. One of the great "what if" groups of rock.

Several comments and emails indicated that last week's R.L. Burnside selection was appreciated. That's good, because I feel like putting up some more of his work. This is It's Bad You Know from the Come On In album. Of all the old blues masters that came to prominence in the 80s and 90s, it was Burnside that sounded the most contemporary. This song is an excellent example of that sound... Trance Blues.

An excellent measure of the relatvie worth of any record collection can be easily obtained by counting the number of Tom Waits albums within. The more Waits, the better the collection. Here we have Warm Beer And Cold Women, which comes from the superb Nighthawks At The Diner album. The back story on this album is a hoot: Waits couldn't convince his record company to record a live album, so he piled a bunch of his friends into the studio and proceeded to record one anyway! If you don't have any Waits in your collection, Nighthawks is the place to start. If you do have some Waits, but not this album, all I can say is, "What are you thinking?"

Finally, we've got Junior Kimbrough doing Sad Days, Lonely Nights from the album of the same name. Sad Days, Lonely Nights is, quite simply, a must-own album. Period.