QUOTE OF THE DAY

 "When power leads man toward arrogance, poetry reminds him of his limitations. When power narrows the areas of man's concern, poetry reminds him of the richness and diversity of his existence. When power corrupts, poetry cleanses, for art establishes the basic human truths which must serve as the touchstone of our judgment." - John F. Kennedy

Check out my poetry blog at POETRY FROM THE PORCH

NEW DYLAN COMING

Now that may sound like a headline from the golden days of New Dylan sightings...Donovan, Joni Mitchell, John Prine, Bruce Springsteen, even Elliot Murphy all got the nod at one point or another. Then there was the band THE NEW DYLANS who had a brief run-in with critical acclaim in the mid-80s.

But, as always, the only new Dylan we need is whatever new-fangled Dylan, Bob himself gives us. There have been rumblings in Dylan's camp about a new record coming this fall and today there is some concrete news. His new album will be called TEMPEST and will be released on September 11.
Featuring Dylan's touring band as well as David Hidalgo from Los Lobos, this is Bob's 35th studio album and comes on the heels of four strong and critically acclaimed studio albums since 1997.


Bob talks about TEMPEST from the 8/16 issue of ROLLING STONE
 Here is the track listing of TEMPEST:

http://www.bobdylanisis.com/contents/en-uk/d19.html



1. Duquesne Whistle
2. Soon After Midnight
3. Narrow Way
4. Long and Wasted Years
5. Pay In Blood
6. Scarlet Town
7. Early Roman Kings
8. Tin Angel
9. Tempest
10. Roll On John

So the final song, "Roll On, John" is proported to be a new song by Bob about John Lennon and features lines from various Beatles songs according to a variety of sources in the various Dylan forums online. It is NOT the traditional song of the same name that Dylan performed on Cynthia Goodin's radio program in 1962 (hear it below) which has been widely bootlegged over the years. Below also is a version by the Greenbriar Boys from 1970 which just illustrates how much more authentic Dylan sounded then the average folk artists when he sprang on the folk music scene in NYC in the early 60s. The polish exhibited by so much of the music of the early 60s folk music revival was not Dylan's forte or his mode of expression. His individual style was based more on the organic folk process of taking your own stylistic idiosyncrasies and adapting existing folk material and references from a variety of sources that not only pay tribute to the original songs and performances but apply one's own intent and interpretation upon them to put forward a newer perspective on an older theme. He does this to this day with his "appropriations" of titles, grooves, imagery and melody. The Great Assimilator.

Here is the official press release from www.bobdylan.com:

July 17, 2012
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

NEW BOB DYLAN ALBUM – TEMPEST - SET FOR SEPTEMBER RELEASE
COLLECTION OF TEN NEW BOB DYLAN SONGS
MARKS MUSICIAN’S 50TH ANNIVERSARY AS A RECORDING ARTIST

Columbia Records announced today that Bob Dylan’s new studio album, Tempest, will be released on September 11, 2012. Featuring ten new and original Bob Dylan songs, the release of Tempest coincides with the 50th Anniversary of the artist’s eponymous debut album, which was released by Columbia in 1962.

Tempest is available for pre-order now on iTunes and Amazon. The new album, produced by Jack Frost, is the 35thth studio set from Bob Dylan, and follows 2009’s worldwide best-seller, Together Through Life.

Bob Dylan’s four previous studio albums have been universally hailed as among the best of his storied career, achieving new levels of commercial success and critical acclaim for the artist. The Platinum-selling Time Out Of Mind from 1997 earned multiple Grammy Awards, including Album Of The Year, while “Love and Theft” continued Dylan’s Platinum streak and earned several Grammy nominations and a statue for Best Contemporary Folk album.

Modern Times, released in 2006, became one of the artist’s most popular albums, selling more than 2.5 million copies worldwide and earning Dylan two more Grammys. Together Through Life became the artist’s first album to debut at #1 in both the U.S. and the UK, as well as in five other countries, on its way to surpassing sales of one million copies.

Those four releases fell within a 12-year creative span that also included the recording of an Oscar- and Golden Globe-winning composition, “Things Have Changed,” from the film Wonder Boys, in 2001; a worldwide best-selling memoir, Chronicles Vol. 1, which spent 19 weeks on the New York Times Best Seller List, in 2004, and a Martin Scorsese-directed documentary, No Direction Home, in 2005. Bob Dylan also released his first collection of holiday standards, Christmas In The Heart, in 2009, with all of the artist’s royalties from that album being donated to hunger charities around the world.

This year, Bob Dylan was the recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the country’s highest civilian honor. He was awarded a special Pulitzer Prize in 2008 for “his profound impact on popular music and American culture, marked by lyrical compositions of extraordinary poetic power.” He was also the recipient of the French Commandeur des Arts et des Lettres in 1990, Sweden’s Polar Music Award in 2000 and several Doctorates including the University of St. Andrews and Princeton
University as well as numerous other honors.

Tempest is available for pre-order now on iTunes and Amazon.

##

Here's a segment of one of the new tunes as debuted in the trailer for the Cinemax show, Strike Back...courtesy of RollingStone.com:

http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/listen-bob-dylans-new-song-early-roman-kings-20120801

BEACH BOYS ACOUSTIC CELEBRATE 50 YRS

So I will gladly admit that I'm a huge Beach Boys fan. PET SOUNDS is Top Ten LPS for me. In my hard core Beatlemania years (aged 8-10, '64-66) I used to tear out the pages in the Beatles mags that had the Stones or the Beach Boys or The Dave Clark Five pictured and toss them away. But when I heard Pet Sounds all of those earlier records by the Beach Boys sounded better some how. I understood instantly how advanced that harmony was, how interesting the musical arrangements and choices were.

Even during the years where Carl Wilson was steering things and Al Jardine and Mike Love were finding more room for their artistic choices, albums like Holland and Surf's Up were a wonderful bridge between the early, pop kitsch, the psychedelic leaps and the coming country/rock sound started by the Byrds, Buffalo Springfield and the Flying Burrito Brothers which led way to CSNY, The Eagles, Jackson Browne, Poco, and all of the heavily harmony based bands of the early 70s.

Brian's love of the Four Freshman and doowop and Phil Spector's layered production style, Carl's Chuck Berry fixation and rock n roll heart, their friendly competition with the Beatles for cultural and musical significance, Dennis' California lifestyle of surfing and cars and girls, Mike's incredible range and vocal leaps from low to high, and Al's rhythm guitar and warm vocal bed in the middle of the pack all melded in to something bigger than any one point of view. For people in the middle of the country who never got near an ocean the Beach Boys exemplified California. To musicians their earlier roughness gave way to a studio prowess based on Brian's genius for putting sound together and the flawless blend of vocals that only family could blend. And don't forget Mike Love (Wilson family cousin), Al Jardine (childhood friend) and David Marks (who left the band after the first wave of hits on but who grew up living across the street and learning music alongside the Wilson boys and who is back in the fold for this 50th anniversary) are really all family.

Speaking of musician's reaction to the Beach Boys, a handful of years agao, I had picked up the great jazz vocalist Kurt Elling from his hotel in Philly for a trip to a radio interview and en route I had been listening to the Pet Sounds boxed set. I'd turned it down to chat with Kurt and when we came to a stop at an intersection there was a quiet moment and he said, "Could you turn that up...what is that?" It was a stack-o-tracks mix of the vocals only from one of the tunes on the album. I wish I could recall which. "That's the Beach Boys." "Wow. It sounds like the Four Freshman doing Bach," he keenly observed. "Now that's hip!" 

Forget the years of in-fighting, the drugs, the deaths, the illness and the misguided business and musical decisions of the last couple of decades. This is your chance to see what the buzz was truly about. Picture them 50 years ago, fresh faced and taking the music world by storm. Go back and listen to not just the hits packages but the B sides, the forgotten albums, and the classics. Give 'em some props.

By the way, it is fascinating to me to hear Fleet Foxes along with a 21 year old friend of mine and point out the tremendous amount of Beach Boys references from bass lines, vibes, rhythm patterns to vocal layers to multiple instruments playing in unison to specific melodic cues and phrases. I adore the Fleet Foxes and while their vocals generally have a rougher edge and the density of the instrumentation is a bit more rootsy, their use of echo and some of the structure and instrument choices are so instantly recognizable. I can't recommend them highly enough although the videos don't do their records justice either. She said, "I just think of "Surfin USA" and "California Girls" when I think of the Beach Boys." Well, dig deeper girl because your favorite new band sure has.

Here's a treat from ROLLINGSTONE.COM. I wish they would've played some of the more obscure and magnificent tunes but it sounds like the set lists have been remarkable for the shows. I'm sad I missed the California shows. hope I can catch a show somewhere down the line. I'd hate to miss this. The vocals live are always a tad iffy compared to studio but that is par for the course with practically every band who isn't using pitch-shifters and pre-recorded vocals but boy, the vocals on this Rolling Stone link are spot on!

HERE'S A SAMPLE SETLIST FROM THE TOUR:  It's what they played at The Beacon in NYC on 5/9/12. Some are surprised to see John Stamos listed but he has been a member of the band on and off (and/or one of the members' spin-off bands) for years.

setlist:
Do It Again
Catch a Wave
Hawaii
Don't Back Down
Surfin' Safari
Surfer Girl
Please Let Me Wonder
You're So Good to Me
Wendy
Then I Kissed Her
The Little Girl I Once Knew
Why Do Fools Fall in Love (Frankie Lymon & The Teenagers cover)
When I Grow Up (to Be a Man)
Cotton Fields (Lead Belly cover)
Disney Girls
Don't Worry Baby (with John Stamos on drums)
Little Honda (with John Stamos on drums)
Be True to Your School (with John Stamos on drums)
Little Deuce Coupe (with John Stamos on drums)
409  (with John Stamos on drums)
Shut Down (with John Stamos on drums)
I Get Around (with John Stamos on drums)
Second Set
California Dreamin' (The Mamas & the Papas cover)
Sloop John B
Wouldn't It Be Nice
Forever (with John Stamos on vocals)
Sail on, Sailor
Heroes and Villains
In My Room
All This Is That
This Whole World
I Just Wasn't Made for These Times
God Only Knows
That's Why God Made the Radio
California Girls
All Summer Long
Help Me, Rhonda
Rock and Roll Music (Chuck Berry cover) (with John Stamos on drums)
Do You Wanna Dance? (Bobby Freeman cover) (with John Stamos on drums)
Barbara Ann (The Regents cover) (with John Stamos on guitar - Brian plays bass)
Surfin' USA (with John Stamos on guitar - Brian plays bass)
Encore:
Kokomo (with John Stamos on congas)
Good Vibrations
Fun, Fun, Fun (with John Stamos on guitar) 

Click on the link below to hear 3 live acoustic tunes and an interview. The "IN MY ROOM" is just so cool.

BEACH BOYS LIVE ACOUSTIC 2012 at ROLLING STONE.COM

Listen to the entire PET SOUNDS album here

but if you are interested in just a couple of tunes...hard to pick but I will randomly pick a couple beauties...or I could've picked "Caroline No" (what a vocal from Carl), or "Don't Talk"...