SCHLOCK, THE MONKEY - cultural claptrap: Aug 17, 2012

What You'll Find Here: Music, Movies and Me

Since May 1976, I have written in journals. When I have nothing particularly resonant to say about my own inner turmoil, philosophic ramblings, sexual peccadillos or whining on about the state of the world around me...I have always fallen back on reporting the cultural time consumption that takes up in inordinate portion of my daily goings on.

In the 40+ years since my first concerts seeing Children's Symphony presentations on Sundays at the Pasadena Civic or The Hot Jazz Society's monthly Dixieland romps in an old meeting hall on the edge of the L.A. "River" across from Griffith Park, I have been sold heavily on the magic of live music. As Neil Young so aptly put it, "Live music is better bumper stickers should be issued."

Growing up a few orange groves and canyons length away from Hollywood also contributed greatly to my family's addiction to movie going. From the time I was a small there were weekly trips to the drive-in theaters that dotted the landscape, or the local Temple theater for the Saturday matinees. Once in a while we'd drive the 12 miles into Hollywood and see something in one of the magnificent old movie palaces like Grauman's Chinese, the Egyptian, The Pantages or later the Cinerama Dome. My dad loved Westerns and War movies, as if he didn't get enough shoot-'em-up as an L.A. County Sheriff in his day gig, my mom adored musicals and comedies. My brother and I loved them all.

At SDSU, I played in my first gigging band and began booking concerts on campus as part of the well-funded Cultural Arts Board, kindling for my future life in and around music.

So it's not surprising that my first jobs out of college were working in local video rental places (which were all the rage) or managing a couple of Sam Goody record stores in Mall's on the East Coast where we marveled at the new CD format and sold the first home computers and video games (yes Commodore and Pong and Atari).

So these are really just extensions of all of those journal entries talking about the great new movies I was seeing and LPs/CDs I was listening to.

Though iPODS/iPADs, apps, smart phones and downloads now make music and movies accessible in your own pocket, there is still nothing like sitting in front of a stack of speakers with a room full of people swaying to music created before your eyes. Nor is there anything that works quite so well for me to escape the real world and all of it's pressures just outside than two hours in a dark theater, absorbing the stories flickering across that wide screen as they pull you into their world.

But a really good taco runs a close third...

Friday, August 17, 2012

HOW DID I MISS THIS?: JONI MITCHELL / JAMES TAYLOR / PHIL OCHS - LIVE IN 1970

2CD SET CELEBRATES

AMCHITKA: The 1970 Concert That Launched Greenpeace

FEATURES SETS BY JONI MITCHELL, JAMES TAYLOR and PHIL OCHS

I just heard a couple of wonderful tracks from this 2009 CD release and I've ordered up my copy and can't wait to hear the whole thing. This previously unreleased live concert recording from October of 1970 at the Pacific Coliseum in Vancouver was a free show that helped launch the newly founded GREENPEACE organization.

This features James Taylor at the height of his early stardom, Joni Mitchell at her early commercial peak before she began jazzing up her music with full bands and jazz harmony, still pristine and folkie and delicate, and Phil Ochs who often got lost in the shuffle of the 60s folk movement due to his sticking to his political/protest stance while Dylan led the charge away from that same place and into the rock n roll world. These three solo acoustic sets by these major stars had long been unavailable until the release of these historic concert tapes to celebrate 40 years of GREENPEACE.

There are some real treats here for long-time fans. Mitchell's song "Hunter" had never previously published by Joni on any recordings (though she played it live at the time)*. There is also a very rare cover by Joni tagged onto the end of her then biggest hit "Big Yellow Taxi": she adds a fun version of the early rock classic originally a hit in 1957 by Larry Williams', "Bony Moronie". There is a rare and wonderful duet with Taylor and Mitchell chiming in on Bob Dylan's classic, "Mr. Tambourine Man". You'll also hear many of your early favorites from each of them, songs that became signposts of the singer-songwriter era.

Phil Ochs was near the end of his storied career though he lived until 1976 when he tragically took his own life. He was a master of the topical song and a riveting performer in his early years before bipolar disorder and alcoholism stripped him of his focus in the early 70s. This is a great chance to hear the artist in front of a packed house singing some of his best known tunes like "I Ain't Gonna March Anymore" and "Changes". His voice is crystal clear at this show and is a wonderful introduction to those who may have missed out on him the first time around. Worth checking out also is the moving Ken Bowser documentary film, Phil Ochs: There But for Fortune which was released in 2010.

All proceeds from the sale of this compact disc release or download go to GREENPEACE. Read more about the story behind the concert, reviews of the CD, hear excerpts from the show and buy the CD at the AMCHITKA CONCERT website.

*Here is a rare video of Joni performing the unpublished tune "Hunter" just about a month before the Amchitka Concert. I am always so stunned by early video of Joni. How strongly formed her artistic sensibilities were, how she changed so from album to album, a true artist on her own terms. Her voice so angelic and taking what the pure vocal sound of Joan Baez had led with in the years before Joni sprang from the Saskatchewan wilderness of her youth. Mitchell's unique guitar tunings, flowing melodic invention and striking beauty drew you into some of the most distinctively iconoclastic lyrical perspective this side of Bob Dylan.