Muddy "Mississippi" Waters live. Muddy Waters

You can listen to 'She's nineteen years old' here.

On the occasion of Muddy Waters' 100th day of birth I re-posted a blog on 'Checkerboard lounge', the DVD of Muddy playing together with three (or four) Stones in Buddy Guy's Chicago club. I promised then to listen to some of Muddy's albums and write a review. Let me start with the first one I ever heard.

Around 1980 I had a friend who basically changed his life's rhythm pattern in the summer holiday. From day to night, listening to the radio all night, picking up new music and old. One of his tips was this live album that remained one of my favourite live albums ever.

Muddy Waters', born McKinley Morganfield in 1913, recording career started on a farm somewhere in the Mississippi delta where Alan Lomax recorded him on his porch, decennia later released as 'The complete plantation recordings'. Like many other coloured Americans he took his chances and moved north to Chicago, where he emerged with an electric guitar being one of the pioneers of electric blues. His career was revived, especially in Europe, through the blues bang in the UK in the early to mid 60s. In the 70s Johnny Winter revived Waters' career again by producing three albums in which most of Muddy Waters' best songs were rerecorded in a modern studio with modern techniques. Blasphemy to some, the best thing that could have happened as the songs now stand out as an epitome of electric blues. This live album was the third album in a row of four with Johnny Winter in control. Since several years the original album is also available as a legacy edition with more than twice as many songs on the second disc.

Looking at the original album there are just seven songs, recorded at three different locations in 1977 and 1978, released in 1979. Not even the musicians are all the same. Despite that, this was how blues was supposed to sound to me when I was twenty and some years old. It took me years before I could appreciate the original thing. Now in 2013 that has changed, just like blues does not offer many surprises any more. It has become good time party music to listen to live every once in a while. This album, together with 'Hard again', Muddy Waters' first release with Johnny Winter, are the exceptions. Before Live I had hardly ever heard anyone play a solo like Luther "Guitar Jr." Johnson. This solo that sort of goes on and on, where it is "supposed to stop" at the turn around at the 12th bar, but doesn't.

There are other instances of fine musicianship. The mouthharps of James Cotton and Jerry Portnoy. The call response between singing and harp were all new then to me and still sound fresh and fun to me now. The piano of "Pinetop" Perkins that rolls in the background and at times comes forward.

Muddy Waters by that time was an older man. Looking like a benevolent grandfather, which he was many times over. (At the same time, he had a much, much younger girlfriend, 'She's 19 years old', 'Deep down in Florida' seem to have to be taken literally here.) At shows he used to sit on a stool and mostly reserved his energies for his singing. The band did everything for him, making sure things gelled and rocked, whether slow or fast. At times Muddy lets things rip in a fiery solo, like in 'Howlin' wolf' and 'She's nineteen years old'. As slide guitarist he may not be flawless, but certainly full of passion and great attack. There's no mistaken who is satisfying who through the solo in 'She's 19 years old'.

Should anyone be wandering what thé version of 'Baby, please don't go' is, just listen to this one. Everything is on a roll here. The rolling drums of Willie "Big Eyes" Smith drives the song forward as the drumming on this song is superb. The rolls and fills are in all the right places giving 'Baby, please don't go' the steampower it needs.

Muddy "Misissippi" Waters live is an album that has the right balance between hard rocking blues, subtlety and virtuosity. The band is a great dynamic machine, serving the right mood in the right places of a song. Solos are dispensed by Waters to all band members who get the chance to shine in his sun. There's no misunderstanding about who's the boss here. Just listen to the cheers of the audience at specific parts of the lyrics. At most of the tracks where Winter's playing he gets a little extra attention, being a star in his own right, somewhat consumed by alcohol and heroine, but a star of late 60s and 70s blues in the U.S.

The legacy version gives more, which I will not discuss here. The original LP is enough. That had the strong impact on me and defined my taste in blues. Let me end with referring you to a Muddy Waters biography that is well worth the read: 'Can't be satisfied: The life and times of Muddy Waters' by Robert Gordon.

Wo.

Strange pleasures. Still Corners

You can listen to 'Strange pleasures' here.

In my top 10 album list of the year 2011 there were only ten spots to give away. 'Creatures for one hour' was one of the last albums to be scratched just before publishing. One of the ones that was hardest to do so. Perhaps quite rightly so, as I have not played the album often since. This spring I was pleasantly surprised by the band's second effort, Strange pleasures. The album has rotated on my iPod regularly in the past months.

Still Corners is a duo from London. Songwriter/producer Greg Hughes teams up with singer Tessa Murray and they make music together since 2007, although the production between 2007 and 2010 was only one single. The offering on Still Corners' second album is not music for all times of the day. The music has a very dreamy quality, ethereal even. Almost as if it is not real. Influences go all the way back to Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark, without the overly poppy elements and the synth beats of Ultravox. The accents Still Corners puts down are more subtle, but in essence the same. There are definitely some new wave elements in here. The triphop of Portishead is not very far away either, but Still Corners has Tessa Murray who fits right in with all ladies in dreampop of the 10s. It is something in other words that I have to be in the mood for. One day it's fine. On another day I do not get passed the third song.

A fine song is 'Fireflies'. It has the same quality as Lana del Rey's best songs. Murray's voice is lighter, but she strikes all the right notes here to put 'Fireflies' close in league with 'Videogames' and 'Ride'. 'Berlin lovers' is to 80s to me in sound, beats and song. A few songs later the band surprises in the very dreamy 'Midnight drive', in which sustained synth chords are woven all over the song, with a very The Cure like guitar injection. One of the songs I like best is 'We killed the moonlight'. Tessa Murray harmonises with herself, in which she shows us a higher register, in a very convincing way and guitars, with delays switched on, kick in at intervals from different angles. And what to think of those Tubeway Army sounds that rustle in the background of the song? I like it, but it's over all to soon in this case. It is in these slightly darker moments that Strange pleasures becomes ever more interesting.

The song that starts the album off, 'The trip', is very much the right choice. Arguably the best song of the album, driven by an acoustic guitar, but I have to say that the second half of the album works best as a whole. There is more variation in sound and approach, although this is minimal in tempo. Greg Hughes delves deeper in his sound repertoire and arranging skills. With the obvious result that the songs stand out more and sound less more of the same, which is the case from song three onwards. If I wanted to approach the album negatively I could write here that there is not enough originality, too many familiar things going on, but I opt for glorious variation that leads to, well, strange, aural, pleasures.

In closing it becomes clear that Strange pleasures is an album to which I have an ambiguous relation. I love it or leave it depending on the day, place, time and mood. All in all it deserves attention on this blog, for the simple reason that Strange pleasures does something to me. It sticks out, in different ways, yes. But stick out it does.

Wo.

March of the dead zombies

There are slow zombies, and there are fast zombies.

28 Days Later: fast zombies
Dawn of the Dead (remake): fast zombies
Night of the Living Dead: slow zombies
Dawn of the Dead(original): slow zombies

When you run into zombies your odds of survival are higher when you are dealing with slow zombies, you've read the Zombiepedia survival guide (http://zombie.wikia.com/wiki/Zombie_Wiki), or your name is Brad Pitt.

If fast zombie have any music associated with them it is speed metal, perhaps, or 500 beats per minute speedcore. Slow zombies on the other hand are melodic by nature (if you can say that of a zombie). With their slow rhythmic pace, they seem to embody Rhythm and (lost) Soul. For slow Zombies the ideal day seems to be dancing while hunting for a tasty artery. A bunch of them always seem to be line dancing. Michael Jackson's Thriller zombies were a bunch of funky buggers, it is their nature.

Preparing myself for a Zombie wave I read the just mentioned Zombiepedia survival guide, an important recommendation was missing: Come armed with sax, turntable, rapper and a funky baseline. 

Jake Wherry en Ollie Teeba give an excellent demonstration here.

OMK

Memphis. Boz Scaggs

Je kunt hier naar 'Can I change my mind' luisteren.

Van de Amerikaanse muzikant Boz Scaggs had ik tot voor kort maar één plaat in huis, maar die heb ik ook wel direct drie keer. Zijn klassieker Silk Degrees uit 1976 heb ik op LP, op cd en als luxe heruitgave. Ik ben er altijd van uit gegaan dat Silk Degrees, waarop de wereldhits What Can I Say, Lowdown en Lido Shuffle staan, de enige interessante plaat was van de muzikant uit Canton, Ohio, maar dat blijkt zeker niet het geval. Inmiddels weet ik dat de man, die ooit begon in de band van Steve Miller, een hele stapel prima platen heeft gemaakt, waarvan er verassend genoeg flink wat uit de jaren 90 stammen. Ik ben op het spoor van deze platen gezet door het recent verschenen Memphis; een plaat die ik wel voorbij had zien komen, maar te makkelijk had afgeserveerd als een laatste stuiptrekking van een muzikant die al lang over zijn top heen was. Memphis blijkt echter een geweldige plaat. Boz Scaggs wordt dit jaar 69, maar klinkt op Memphis als een muzikant in de kracht van zijn leven. Op Memphis eert Boz Scaggs de Southern soul, maar blijkt hij ook niet vies van een heerlijk potje blues. Voor Memphis, als ik goed heb geteld de 18e (!) plaat van Boz Scaggs, kon de Amerikaan een beroep doen op flink wat grootheden uit de geschiedenis van de popmuziek en dat hoor je. De legendarische Steve Jordan tekende voor de productie en hiernaast speelden onder andere Ray Parker Jr., Keb Mo en Spooner Oldham mee op de plaat. Memphis bevat uitsluitend covers, maar Boz Scaggs zet ze stuk voor stuk naar zijn hand en doet dat op indrukwekkende wijze. De zang van de 68 jarige muzikant is van een opvallend hoog niveau en is bovendien veelkleurig. Boz Scaggs overtuigt makkelijk in lome en slepende songs, maar kan ook goed uit de voeten in bluesy songs waarin de gitaren voorzichtig mogen scheuren. Dankzij de inzet van een topproducer en muzikanten van naam en faam klinkt Memphis fantastisch. Memphis is zo’n plaat die je even alles doet vergeten, maar het is ook een plaat die gedurende de hele speelduur urgentie uitstraalt. Memphis is zo goed dat ik me diep schaam dat ik de plaat een aantal weken geleden zo makkelijk aan de kant heb geschoven. Boz Scaggs overtuigt met Memphis van de vroege ochtend tot de late avond en biedt zowel vermaak als troost. Het gitaarspel op de plaat is om van te watertanden en ook de bijdragen van blazers en strijkers zijn wonderschoon. Uiteindelijk is het toch echter vooral Boz Scaggs zelf die een diepe buiging afdwingt. De man die 37 jaar de wereld veroverde met What Can I Say en Lido Shuffle en vervolgens werd vergeten, keert terug met een plaat die je genadeloos inpakt en voorlopig niet meer los maakt. Heerlijk op de achtergrond op alle momenten. Groots wanneer je er met volle aandacht naar luistert.

Erwin Zijleman

BE. Beady Eye

You can listen to 'Flick of the finger' here.

To be or not to be, that seems to be the question for Liam Gallagher. If BE does not become a success, than sitting, sipping a drink on my terrace is an option, Gallagher appears to have said. Everyone who has read John O'Hara's seminal novel 'From the terrace', knows that sitting on the terrace is not everyone's voluntary choice. As far as I'm concerned there's no need to retire, BE is a great and diverse album that Beady Eye can be proud of.

The "strange" thing is of course that if Oasis was to convene tomorrow and tour millions of people would be trying to get a ticket for a show, while Beady Eye hopefully gets the Paradiso filled. Beady Eye is not Oasis and never will be. Neither is it 1994 all over again. What Beady Eye does succeed in is presenting itself in a broad and divers way with a keen eye for arrangements and musicality. The band proves that it does not need Noel Gallagher to make music. The combination of Liam, Andy Bell and Gem Archer works on its own. Chris Sharrock drums and Jeff Wootton is on bass, although he's been replaced for the tour by former Kasabian guitarist Jay Mehler.

Debut album 'Different gear, still speeding' was a bit bland to my ears, perhaps made just to fast. BE is all but. A lot is going on in the songs. Psychedelia, not completely strange to Oasis, is the best word to describe the wobbly things going on the back ground. As the 60s are the dominant factor in most of the songs. Beatlesque without great harmonising or The Hollies with a dark shroud thrown over. As Liam's always singing with a sneer and a snarl and on a bad day is whining, the quality of the songs determine what way they go. On BE it's mostly good. Like 'I'm just saying' has this poppy sprite and a positive, bubbly guitar solo that make it sparkle. Opener 'Flick of the finger' surprises with horns kicking in, filling everything and a Arnold Schwarzenegger (sound-a-like) cameo with some sort of a vague political message spoken word.

A lot of the songs are based on the acoustic guitar that at first listen sounded very repetitious. At closer listen there are these keyboard things going on in the background that make a song like 'Don't brother me' very interesting. 'Come on, give peace a chance', Liam's singing. A message to a beloved brother? Very sparse, but exciting. Bringing to mind all sorts of things Beatles, without being able to put my finger on anything specific. Yes, the outro does go on for a while, but in this case it's alright. Tribal drumming drives 'Shine a light', a song that sticks out not just for that reason. The cascading singing of the chorus aids there too.

What I can imagine is that if someone expects Beady Eye to rock out 'Rock and roll star' style (let's be honest here, if Oasis had only released the opening song of its first album, they would have left behind a statement of colossal proportions), that someone is bound to be disappointed. BE is mostly in mid-tempo with the surprises put in the details. My advise here is put on a good headset, turn the volume up mildly and immerse yourself in all these fun little things going on. The power of BE is the arranging skills that build out most songs into something memorable.

Taking BE all in, there's nothing to be ashamed of nor is there reason to despair. Beady Eye does not need Oasis to have a career of its own. It only needs Oasis if it wants to make millions of pounds fast. Artistically the band is totally its own and has made a more interesting album that the three albums that followed 'Morning glory'. Enjoy the terrace in your spare time Mr. Gallagher, enjoy a drink or two too if you like, but please continue to make some more music like this in the rest of your time.

Wo.