Wings For Wheels

Some laughs to get your week started right – Peter Cook and Dudley Moore reprising their legendary Beyond The Fringe sketch, “One Leg Too Few.” My mp3 of this from Cook & Moore’s “Good Evening” album came up on shuffle play as I was drifting off last night and I decided to look for a video of it. Success!

I first saw this about 15 years ago on Comedy Central (it may have been this very show. It was definitely a charity benefit) and my jaw simply dropped at the brilliance of the line, “Neither have you.” Remember John Cleese’s monologue in A Fish Called Wanda about how English politeness is built upon the fear of asking an inappropriate question? That’s exactly what Cook, a huge influence on Cleese (and all the Pythons, for that matter), does in this performance. And Moore’s no slouch here, either. But that’s also partially because there are no walls.

The video for one of my favorite songs of the year, “Bottled In Cork” by Ted Leo and the Pharmacists. Directed by Tom Scharpling, host of the appropriately named Best Show On WFMU, and featuring comedian Paul F. Tompkins, writer Julie Klausner and WFW friend John Hodgman.

The news of Bruce Springsteen’s long-awaited Darkness On The Edge Of Town box set (wasn’t it supposed to be in 2008 to commemorate the 30th anniversary?) was officially released today and, holy Christ, does it sound amazing.

Columbia Records will release Bruce Springsteen’s ‘The Promise: The Darkness on the Edge of Town Story’ on Nov 16. The Deluxe Package comprises over six hours of film and more than two hours of audio across 3 CDs and 3 DVDs. The media contents are packaged within an 80-page notebook containing facsimiles from Springsteen’s original notebooks from the recording sessions, which include alternate lyrics, song ideas, recording details, and personal notes in addition to a new essay by Springsteen and never-before-seen photographs. Containing a wealth of previously unreleased material, ‘The Promise: The Darkness on the Edge of Town Story’ offers an unprecedented look into Springsteen’s creative process during a defining moment in his career. ‘The Promise: The Darkness on the Edge of Town Story’ will additionally be released as a 3CD/3 Blu Ray disc set.

The pre-order page has a couple of shots from the book and this sneak preview of the documentary was also given as a teaser to make me drool even more.

Elizabeth: How can I say in a few minutes what it’s taken me a lifetime to understand?
Dr. Frankenstein: Won’t you try?
Elizabeth: Alright.

Earlier today I got the news via Twitter that today is the 35th anniversary of the release of Born To Run. I celebrated in the best way I knew, by cranking the 2005 reissue, followed by the August 15, 1975 concert from The Bottom Line and the Born To Run portion of the show here last year. When listening to the original, I focused deep into the mix to see what popped out. Part of the beauty of Born To Run is that it’s a dense production but its joys are on the surface. Still, if you listen underneath the melodies, you can get a greater sense of how “composed” the songs are (Bruce’s description, from the documentary in the box set).

When you listen this way, Garry Tallent’s contributions come through in ways you never expected. On “Night,” you can hear how well he links up with Bruce’s guitar during the verse, working mostly on the root. But he opens up in the lines before the chorus, much in the way that James Jamerson did on “Reach Out (I’ll Be There)” by The Four Tops. The Jamerson influence continues on “Backstreets,” staying low on the verse and moving up the neck on the chorus and bridge. And his work in the coda is masterful.

Some of the other things that pop out:

• There’s a strange note that gets played in “Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out” just before “And I can’t go home” that’s not played in the intro, which uses the same progression. The chord should be a Bbsus2, but it sounds like David Sanborn is playing an Eb on the baritone sax. It’s a sublime hook that helps set up the final verse.
• Does Bruce have a more overlooked song than “Meeting Across The River?” I heard it today and thought it was the ultimate portrayal of what Jon Stewart said during the Kennedy Center Honors. “When you listen to Bruce’s music, you aren’t a loser, you’re a character in an epic poem…about losers.”
• Clarence’s solo on “Jungleland,” celebrated as it should be, is really not that difficult to play. I’ve been fiddling around with it on guitar and it’s a repeating series of notes in one octave of an Eb blues scale. But it soars because of the changes, playing either the Eb or Cm every fourth bar, with Roy adding some harmonic depth.

So Bruce, thanks for being desperate enough to write these songs, while still having faith in your vision and talent. These songs have kept me good company since I discovered them 25 years ago, and they will be with me forever.

My sister posted this on her Facebook page yesterday and it’s been in my head ever since. Tyler Gildin and Evan Krumholz’s rewrite of Jay-Z’s “Empire State Of Mind” for my hometown of Nassau County, Long Island.

It captures the mentality of living in Nassau County so poetically, especially the couplet, “Westchester’s for pussies/Nothing stinks like Jersey.”

Back in the days of the WFW Podcast, I always had Nils Lofgren in the back of my mind as a potential guest. It was one of those things that made sense for a whole bunch of reasons. I just wanted to wait until the time was right before making the contact. But then the E Street Band went on tour in late 2007 and by the time they stopped, I stopped the podcast.

A few weeks ago, Matt generously sent me a copy of Cry Tough, Nils’ new DVD of concerts he filmed for “Rockpalast.”  I was glad, but I didn’t think anything of it until last week, when he e-mailed me asking if I wanted to interview Nils for Popdose. He had an in through his day job in Cleveland radio. Naturally, I jumped at the chance. I even briefly thought about resurrecting the podcast after the piece ran. By the way, there’s a new Popdose Podcast – some outtakes from the first year of the show – up as of last week if you haven’t already seen it. But now I have to be nice to Matt for a while, which is tough given that I found out last night that he collects Toto bootlegs.

But I was able to get a good 30 minutes with Nils, who was as nice and as genuine as you would expect. But I knew that because he and I had met before. I used to run a record store in Gaithersburg, MD, near his old house, and he came in a few times while I was there. He remembered the store, which closed in late-1995, and he moved to Arizona shortly afterward.  I didn’t put that in the piece, but you can read everything else we talked about over at Popdose.

I first heard this when it came out about a year ago and, while I’m not surprised it’s become a big hit in the past few months, I do wonder what took it so long to find its audience. Still, I can’t think of a song that’s left me so conflicted as to what to think of it.

The chorus is about as perfect as any concept ripped off from a Billy Joel song can be. It’s simple, warm, and joyous. And it holds up to the constant repetition at the end because it reinforces the theme of the song so well. Even though I’ve never seen them in concert, I can imagine that it works really well live because they can break it down and get the crowd involved.

But those verses, especially the first, are horrible.”I do love my Ma and Pa,” “Holy moley, me oh my?” They sound like a parody of country music written by someone who doesn’t like country music, especially when coupled with the fake southern accents. It threatens to sink the song because it makes the chemistry between the two singers sound forced (they’re hardly Johnny and June or George and Tammy to begin with, but they seem to be having fun).

So this leaves us with a few things to ponder. Either Sharpe (the stage name of Alex Ebert – and I’ll rant about pseudonyms soon enough) isn’t secure enough in his understanding of folk music to avoid the worst cliches or he’s not genuine. I don’t think it’s the latter, or at least I don’t want to think so because he clearly hit on something, probably better than he expected. And I think Sharpe knows the verses are weak, too, which is why he stopped at two and the chorus is so heavily pushed.

What do you think?

On Friday, my girlfriend and I biked the North Branch Trail up to the Chicago Botanic Garden up in Glencoe, about 14 miles each way. Unfortunately, the combination of a late start on the day and plans later in the evening meant that we didn’t get to see as much of it as we would have liked, but what we saw was beautiful.

I have to say that the camera on the new iPhone does a very nice job with these. They could use a little more depth and saturation, but I’m satisfied with the results, given that it’s a phone.

Best of all was this spot that I couldn’t capture with just one shot, so, rather than take a handful of pictures and try to piece them together, I took a video of it.

Hopefully we’ll get back up there soon to see the whole place, and I’ll bring my actual camera instead of just my phone. In the meantime, for more great photos, visit my friend Mindy’s blog. She’s been uploading a different photo every day and does some excellent work.

A few weeks ago it struck me why rock has been in such a horrible state for so long. I realized it’s because rock n’ roll has already achieved perfection. It happened during a Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band concert at Cleveland’s Agora Theatre 32 years ago today. So, in honor of its anniversary, I thought I’d discuss it. Over the years I’ve listened to this show so many times, breaking down all the performances, analyzing the way the setlist flowed, trying to put myself in the crowd that night, and I simply can’t come to any other conclusion.

It’s often been debated which is the best show on the ‘78 tour, but even though the Roxy, Capitol Theatre, and Winterland concerts are all brilliant and have their boosters, but the Agora stands above them. The Roxy show has some jerk up front screaming in between nearly every song. The Capitol Theatre, being in his backyard, it almost plays like a victory lap, and Winterland always sounds way too fast. The Agora has all of the pluses and none of the minuses.

So, I can hear you asking, is there a particular moment when in this show that stands out above all else, and therefore, marking the very Moment When Rock Achieved Perfection? I’m glad you asked, because I actually have thought about that. Without even listening to it I can name several that stand out:

• The Bm chord that opens “Prove It All Night” proper after Bruce’s blistering intro guitar solo
• Roy’s piano interlude forming the bridge between “Racing In The Street” and “Thunder Road.”
• The scream that kicks “She’s The One” into eighth gear.
• The final cry of “STOP!” in “Backstreets/Sad Eyes”

But there’s one spot that captures it all, everything we, as rock fans, have been looking for. In the middle of “Growin’ Up,” Springsteen breaks the song down and tells a story about how, as a wayward teenager, his parents sent him to his priest to discuss his future, but telling him not to say anything about his “goddamned guitar.” Unfortunately, Father Ray can’t give him a proper answer, so he instructs him to talk directly to God, but not to mention his “goddamned guitar.” Bruce doesn’t know where to find God, but Clarence does. So, after a trip to Earl Scheib to spiff up his car, the two of them go out to a field that night to discuss what he’s going to do with his life, oh, and also try to find out who stole Clarence’s Nakamichi tape player last night. Bruce continues:

I’m walkin’ around…I bump into Kid Leo!

“Kid, what are you doin’?”

He says, “Prayin’ for more watts. I gotta blast this baby all the way to New Jersey.” Crazy man up there.

So I find myself a quiet place. I kneel down. I say, “God…my father wants me to be a lawyer. My mother wants me to be an author. But I got this guitar, you see.” And all of a sudden, I heard this thunder…

(Max pounds on his toms)

…See this lightning comin’ out of the sky…It was real quiet for a while…Then I heard just three words…

“LET IT ROCK!!!!”

And with that, the song crashes back in with an unbelievable force for the final verse. And it’s been downhill ever since that moment for rock music.

My friend Lawrence Kirsch’s excellent book The Light In Darkness has, as its centerpiece, an in-depth account of this show by people who were incredibly lucky enough to be there. If you haven’t already done so, pick it up.

Yesterday Aaron tweeted a link to this article by Simon Kuper, the noted author of several excellent books that look at world soccer through political and economic angles. The World Cup would normally be a perfect opportunity for his brand of analysis, which is why I was disappointed by his piece. Judging by the events on display over the past month in South Africa, he concludes that soccer no longer explains the world, a reference to Franklin Foer’s renown book that touches on Kuper’s ground.

My first thought was, “It’s a transatlantic duel between intellectual Jewish soccer geeks,” so naturally I felt a need to get involved in it. But I got busy with a few other things and couldn’t get to this until just now. Kuper writes:

The sorry truth is that the World Cup is losing its geopolitical meaning altogether…soccer is ceasing to explain the world. There were still some political observations to make about the host country, South Africa, and the winning country, Spain. But for the most part, this tournament exemplified how everywhere on Earth is becoming the same place.

I agree with every point Kuper’s article makes, except for that conclusion. It’s not that soccer no longer explains the world, but rather that it explains a new and different world. He even says as much.

So why have the geopolitics drained from soccer? First, because the world has changed. The era of dictatorships, hypernationalism, country vs. country wars, and festering resentments held over from World War II is passing. Most wars today are civil wars.

…

These days, however, the World Cup rewards globalization, and the homogenization of styles helped make this a post-nationalist World Cup. Everyone plays much the same way now… The key to success in modern soccer seems to be to dilute your inherited national style.

He’s right that countries that stuck with their traditional stereotypes (notably England and Italy) underperformed where countries that veered away from them and incorporated other national styles (notably Spain and Germany) did well. But at a time where I can explore and communicate with the world without ever leaving my apartment, then isn’t soccer reflecting a world that’s more interconnected than ever before?