If, like many Dylan Daily readers, you already have the two Traveling Wilburys albums, should you bother with the new product, due for (UK) release on Monday 11 June?
Well, for £15.25 (delivered), the best price I’ve seen for the De Luxe version, from cd-wow.com, you get four extra audio tracks, five DVD tracks, a 40 page “collectible” book and “certificate of authenticity” (wow!), as well as the packaging. The Dylan content is still minimal, though – just a few tracks.
Worth buying? Maybe. Probably. Just.
Gerry Smith
Monday 28 May 2007
Tuesday 22 May 2007
Seven Ages Of Rock – daft, plain daft
Jimi Hendrix was the key figure in 1960s rock: “Within days of his arrival (in London), Jimi Hendrix would change the face of music… .” Tee hee.
There’s more: “He redefined the whole period in which he existed…”.
That’s if you believe Seven Ages of Rock, the disappointing new BBC/VH1 rock history series which started airing over the weekend.
Bob Dylan, the prime mover in the genesis of rock, was accorded a mere five minute sequence, bowing in the direction of Like A Rolling Stone.
Now, there’s no doubt that Hendrix was a great, and influential, musician – he raised the game in guitar playing in the same way that Coltrane set new benchmarks for the saxophone. But let’s not forget that he was responsible for a massive catalogue of, er, three moderately successful albums still played today.
Rock music tends to encourage hyperbole in the early school leavers amongst those who play it and write about it, but this poor first programme set new lows in rockist bullsh*t. You couldn’t fault a commentator like Charles Shaar Murray for his typically incisive comments on Hendrix, but they were swamped in a wrong-headed script which, at times, had me laughing uncontrollably.
The launch programme not only exceeded my worst fears, outlined in a series preview on www.musicforgrownups.co.uk (below) - it went further, by imposing on the 1960s material the big idea that Hendrix was the pivotal figure.
Daft. Plain daft.
Gerry Smith
Series preview, previously posted:
Seven Ages Of Rock – a pessimistic preview
The BBC is pushing the boat out for its major new series, the Seven Ages Of Rock, which launches on Saturday on BBC2 21.10~22.10 - hyping it on chat shows on its missable mainstream radio stations and promoting it with four different collectable covers of Radio (sic) Times, its mass circulation weekly programme guide. (Who on earth would want to collect the Radio Times?)
Without having seen even a trailer or promo clip, I can safely report that:
* as it’s by the same team that produced the brilliant Lost Highway series on country music, Seven Ages will be stylish, informative, intelligent television…
* it will include maybe 20 great musicians for grown-ups
* 95% of its airtime will deal with musicians unworthy of grown-up attention
* the series will be rendered virtually unwatchable by an endless succession of talking boneheads who should have stuck to the day job, stacking supermarket shelves or fixing dodgy old cars.
How do I know this?
Because that’s the nature of rock music - 5% timeless great art (Dylan, Stones, Beck, Bright Eyes, Smiths, Joy Division, Everly Brothers, Bowie…), and 95% dubious glitzy, chemically-enhanced showbiz pap.
I’ll be taping - to race through afterwards, luxuriating in the grown-up bits. (Or to recant, if appropriate.)
Gerry Smith
There’s more: “He redefined the whole period in which he existed…”.
That’s if you believe Seven Ages of Rock, the disappointing new BBC/VH1 rock history series which started airing over the weekend.
Bob Dylan, the prime mover in the genesis of rock, was accorded a mere five minute sequence, bowing in the direction of Like A Rolling Stone.
Now, there’s no doubt that Hendrix was a great, and influential, musician – he raised the game in guitar playing in the same way that Coltrane set new benchmarks for the saxophone. But let’s not forget that he was responsible for a massive catalogue of, er, three moderately successful albums still played today.
Rock music tends to encourage hyperbole in the early school leavers amongst those who play it and write about it, but this poor first programme set new lows in rockist bullsh*t. You couldn’t fault a commentator like Charles Shaar Murray for his typically incisive comments on Hendrix, but they were swamped in a wrong-headed script which, at times, had me laughing uncontrollably.
The launch programme not only exceeded my worst fears, outlined in a series preview on www.musicforgrownups.co.uk (below) - it went further, by imposing on the 1960s material the big idea that Hendrix was the pivotal figure.
Daft. Plain daft.
Gerry Smith
Series preview, previously posted:
Seven Ages Of Rock – a pessimistic preview
The BBC is pushing the boat out for its major new series, the Seven Ages Of Rock, which launches on Saturday on BBC2 21.10~22.10 - hyping it on chat shows on its missable mainstream radio stations and promoting it with four different collectable covers of Radio (sic) Times, its mass circulation weekly programme guide. (Who on earth would want to collect the Radio Times?)
Without having seen even a trailer or promo clip, I can safely report that:
* as it’s by the same team that produced the brilliant Lost Highway series on country music, Seven Ages will be stylish, informative, intelligent television…
* it will include maybe 20 great musicians for grown-ups
* 95% of its airtime will deal with musicians unworthy of grown-up attention
* the series will be rendered virtually unwatchable by an endless succession of talking boneheads who should have stuck to the day job, stacking supermarket shelves or fixing dodgy old cars.
How do I know this?
Because that’s the nature of rock music - 5% timeless great art (Dylan, Stones, Beck, Bright Eyes, Smiths, Joy Division, Everly Brothers, Bowie…), and 95% dubious glitzy, chemically-enhanced showbiz pap.
I’ll be taping - to race through afterwards, luxuriating in the grown-up bits. (Or to recant, if appropriate.)
Gerry Smith
Friday 18 May 2007
Dylanesque/Bryan Ferry’s London Sessions DVD – only £6.75!
Thanks to Nigel Boddy:
“Further to your spotting the `bargain of the year' at cd-wow.com for the Dylan Don't Look Back Special Edition DVD, I've noticed the Bryan Ferry - London Sessions (Dylanesque) DVD is priced at £6.75, delivered. (I know it's not released until late June, but it's a still good saving).”
“Further to your spotting the `bargain of the year' at cd-wow.com for the Dylan Don't Look Back Special Edition DVD, I've noticed the Bryan Ferry - London Sessions (Dylanesque) DVD is priced at £6.75, delivered. (I know it's not released until late June, but it's a still good saving).”
Thursday 17 May 2007
Seven Ages Of Rock – a pessimistic preview
The BBC is pushing the boat out for its major new series, the Seven Ages Of Rock, which launches on Saturday on BBC2 21.10~22.10 - hyping it on chat shows on its missable mainstream radio stations and promoting it with four different collectable covers of Radio (sic) Times, its mass circulation weekly programme guide. (Who on earth would want to collect the Radio Times?)
Without having seen even a trailer or promo clip, I can safely report that:
* as it’s by the same team that produced the brilliant Lost Highway series on country music, Seven Ages will be stylish, informative, intelligent television…
* it will include maybe 20 great musicians for grown-ups
* 95% of its airtime will deal with musicians unworthy of grown-up attention
* the series will be rendered virtually unwatchable by an endless succession of talking boneheads who should have stuck to the day job, stacking supermarket shelves or fixing dodgy old cars.
How do I know this?
Because that’s the nature of rock music - 5% timeless great art (Dylan, Stones, Beck, Bright Eyes, Smiths, Joy Division, Everly Brothers, Bowie…), and 95% dubious glitzy, chemically-enhanced showbiz pap.
I’ll be taping - to race through afterwards, luxuriating in the grown-up bits. (Or to recant, if appropriate.)
Gerry Smith
Without having seen even a trailer or promo clip, I can safely report that:
* as it’s by the same team that produced the brilliant Lost Highway series on country music, Seven Ages will be stylish, informative, intelligent television…
* it will include maybe 20 great musicians for grown-ups
* 95% of its airtime will deal with musicians unworthy of grown-up attention
* the series will be rendered virtually unwatchable by an endless succession of talking boneheads who should have stuck to the day job, stacking supermarket shelves or fixing dodgy old cars.
How do I know this?
Because that’s the nature of rock music - 5% timeless great art (Dylan, Stones, Beck, Bright Eyes, Smiths, Joy Division, Everly Brothers, Bowie…), and 95% dubious glitzy, chemically-enhanced showbiz pap.
I’ll be taping - to race through afterwards, luxuriating in the grown-up bits. (Or to recant, if appropriate.)
Gerry Smith
Friday 4 May 2007
Another 100 songs that changed the world: new MOJO cover feature
The new (“June”) MOJO cover feature - 100 songs that changed the world, or some such - seems very familiar.
I respect MOJO (“The Music Magazine”) – it caters for its Dadrock audience far better than they deserve. And it’s beautifully designed. Occasionally, it carries a long sequence of articles on a favoured muso and I buy a copy.
I only buy one issue in 20 or 30, though. Mostly it just ain’t music for grown-ups – delves far too deeply in a rock genre with shallow roots, covering far too many no-hopers; wallows in nostalgia; overplays the importance of music; and has a show biz tone.
The odd issue is a gem, but my musical life’s far too short to read MOJO regularly. There are 100,000+ regular buyers who disagree, but I’d hate to have to live with their CD collections.
Case in point this month: songs change NOTHING - except the bank balances of those involved.
Gerry Smith
I respect MOJO (“The Music Magazine”) – it caters for its Dadrock audience far better than they deserve. And it’s beautifully designed. Occasionally, it carries a long sequence of articles on a favoured muso and I buy a copy.
I only buy one issue in 20 or 30, though. Mostly it just ain’t music for grown-ups – delves far too deeply in a rock genre with shallow roots, covering far too many no-hopers; wallows in nostalgia; overplays the importance of music; and has a show biz tone.
The odd issue is a gem, but my musical life’s far too short to read MOJO regularly. There are 100,000+ regular buyers who disagree, but I’d hate to have to live with their CD collections.
Case in point this month: songs change NOTHING - except the bank balances of those involved.
Gerry Smith
Thursday 3 May 2007
McCartney v Bjork, Uncut v les Inrockuptibles
The new issue of Uncut has a Paul McCartney cover: zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz. Another mag I keep an eye on, Les Inrockuptibles, a French weekly with a far more edgy view of contemporary culture, currently has a portrait of Bjork on the cover.
Guess which mag I bought? And guess which singer I regard as suitable for grown-ups? Clue for new readers: she’s not from Liverpool.
Gerry Smith
Guess which mag I bought? And guess which singer I regard as suitable for grown-ups? Clue for new readers: she’s not from Liverpool.
Gerry Smith
Wednesday 2 May 2007
Barbra Streisand on tour, at £100+ per ticket: no thanks
Barbra Streisand is about to tour Europe, with a London gig on 18 July. Tickets, according to a report in yesterday’s Independent, are priced from £100 to £500 each.
I don’t get the attraction of Ms Streisand. I wouldn’t go to this gig if she paid me £100 and transported me by helicopter to my free front row seat: I’d much rather stay home and toughen up the pit bull terrier or clear the pond of duck weed.
But this isn’t really about Babs. It’s about how ticket prices for Baby Boomer gigs are creeping ever upwards. I once paid £450 for three front row seats at the Royal Opera House and have been sick at the thought of it ever since.
I vowed never again. Now I struggle to justify paying £30 for a gig ticket. Hell, you could buy 5 good albums, or 10 shirts, for that sort of dough! £50 for a Stones show, along with 75,000 other suckers in a football stadium? Non merci.
If I pay over £30 now, it has to be a rarity gig (Leonard Cohen?) in a decent venue. If Lenny charges £40 or plays Wembley Arena, he can stick it - I won’t be helping him rebuild his depleted pension fund.
Gerry Smith
I don’t get the attraction of Ms Streisand. I wouldn’t go to this gig if she paid me £100 and transported me by helicopter to my free front row seat: I’d much rather stay home and toughen up the pit bull terrier or clear the pond of duck weed.
But this isn’t really about Babs. It’s about how ticket prices for Baby Boomer gigs are creeping ever upwards. I once paid £450 for three front row seats at the Royal Opera House and have been sick at the thought of it ever since.
I vowed never again. Now I struggle to justify paying £30 for a gig ticket. Hell, you could buy 5 good albums, or 10 shirts, for that sort of dough! £50 for a Stones show, along with 75,000 other suckers in a football stadium? Non merci.
If I pay over £30 now, it has to be a rarity gig (Leonard Cohen?) in a decent venue. If Lenny charges £40 or plays Wembley Arena, he can stick it - I won’t be helping him rebuild his depleted pension fund.
Gerry Smith
Tuesday 1 May 2007
Amy Winehouse in concert in Bristol - magnifico
Amy Winehouse, the first subject in a new series of Vodafone TBA gigs, aired on Sunday night on Channel 4, was filmed in a Bristol church. The exciting new diva – one of the few pop singers to whom that over-used term can be accurately applied – responded with a suitably divine performance. Stone cold sober (see below), she showed just what a strong performer she is.
The TBA series concept is clever marketing – Vodafone txt msgs subscribers to announce a free gig by a hot name, to be held a few hours later. Kids in the area who are up for it presumably register and hurry to the venue (no doubt after texting a few hundred mates).
That said, the Winehouse programme was a disappointment. Its Yoof TV production values restricted clips of the performance to half a dozen three minute songs - in a one hour programme - with the balance taken up by fan vox pops, a presenter loping round scenic Bristol tourist spots, and Amy spouting to camera. Focus on the music, stoopid!
Earlier Music for Grown-Ups feature on Amy Winehouse:
Amy Winehouse live – music for grown-ups, boozing for losers
Amy Winehouse, the exciting young Brit chanteuse, is currently managing the almost impossible - attracting demanding jazz fans, while getting the mass bonehead market to shake its collective ass and persuading 30-something supermarket impulse buyers to throw the new album into the trolley alongside the baked beans and the cat food.
It can’t last forever – at some point, hard artistic choices will have to be made. But, for the moment, Amy Winehouse is setting the popular music agenda in these parts. And producing some great art.
Friday’s screening by BBC 1 of a recent London hotel gig underlined just why she’s making waves – great voice, charismatic on-stage persona, strong material, and a wonderful band.
It also reminded you how it could all end up in tears. Much as a I value non-conformity, the sight of Winehouse clearly under the influence of booze, seeking refuge in a glass throughout the gig, exchanging “f*ck off!s” with a heckler, was dispiriting.
Somebody may be persuading her that playing a foul-mouthed lush is a good career move. Music fans will be praying that wiser counsels prevail. Amy Winehouse is an outstanding young musician; here’s hoping she doesn’t p*ss it all away in show biz excess. Boozing brazenly in public is for losers.
Gerry Smith
The TBA series concept is clever marketing – Vodafone txt msgs subscribers to announce a free gig by a hot name, to be held a few hours later. Kids in the area who are up for it presumably register and hurry to the venue (no doubt after texting a few hundred mates).
That said, the Winehouse programme was a disappointment. Its Yoof TV production values restricted clips of the performance to half a dozen three minute songs - in a one hour programme - with the balance taken up by fan vox pops, a presenter loping round scenic Bristol tourist spots, and Amy spouting to camera. Focus on the music, stoopid!
Earlier Music for Grown-Ups feature on Amy Winehouse:
Amy Winehouse live – music for grown-ups, boozing for losers
Amy Winehouse, the exciting young Brit chanteuse, is currently managing the almost impossible - attracting demanding jazz fans, while getting the mass bonehead market to shake its collective ass and persuading 30-something supermarket impulse buyers to throw the new album into the trolley alongside the baked beans and the cat food.
It can’t last forever – at some point, hard artistic choices will have to be made. But, for the moment, Amy Winehouse is setting the popular music agenda in these parts. And producing some great art.
Friday’s screening by BBC 1 of a recent London hotel gig underlined just why she’s making waves – great voice, charismatic on-stage persona, strong material, and a wonderful band.
It also reminded you how it could all end up in tears. Much as a I value non-conformity, the sight of Winehouse clearly under the influence of booze, seeking refuge in a glass throughout the gig, exchanging “f*ck off!s” with a heckler, was dispiriting.
Somebody may be persuading her that playing a foul-mouthed lush is a good career move. Music fans will be praying that wiser counsels prevail. Amy Winehouse is an outstanding young musician; here’s hoping she doesn’t p*ss it all away in show biz excess. Boozing brazenly in public is for losers.
Gerry Smith
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