Rolling Stones Raw and Rocking on Voodoo Lounge Uncut

Not for the first time in their fabled history, the Rolling Stones faced a dire moment of truth. Such was first the case in 1969 when, on the eve of an anticipated U.S. tour, the band effectively fired its drug-addled founding member, Brian Jones—he was soon found dead in his swimming pool—in favor of lead guitarist Mick Taylor, arguably the most proficient guitarist the Stones had ever held in their ranks. Six years later, Taylor quit, leaving the door open for the Faces’ amiable Ronnie Wood to pick up the slack. Finally, after the Stones finished their round-the-world tour in support of their 1989 LP Steel Wheels, original bassist Bill Wyman retired, leaving an unenviable space to fill. A lesser band would have called it quits.

Rather than packing it in, however, the Stones still continued to roll, recruiting bassist Darryl Jones—the formidable musician’s credentials included live and session work with the likes of Miles Davis, Eric Clapton, Sting, and Madonna—to round out the lineup (though, unfortunately, not as an official member). With Jones in tow, the Stones suitably stepped up their game on their subsequent album, 1994’s Voodoo Lounge, arguably their strongest since 1978’s Some Girls. Perhaps the acquisition of Jones inspired this improvement, or maybe the band’s thirtieth anniversary compelled the remaining members to harken back to former glories; regardless, Voodoo Lounge represented a solid step up for the “world’s greatest rock ’n’ roll band.” 

Road tested on the concert stage is where such efforts live or die, though, and with a massive tour in support of Voodoo Lounge, the Stones—including their latest recruit in Jones—laid it on the line. 

On a late-November night at Miami’s Joe Robbie Stadium, the band more than demonstrated its mettle, the chemistry between the old guard and the new blood coming across with fearsome, raw power. Voodoo Lounge songs like the seething sleaze of “Sparks Will Fly,” the punk-like punch of “You Got Me. Rocking,” and the achingly forlorn Keith Richards ballad “The Worst” are indeed redeemed here, summoning both potency and edge. Mick Jagger flits, slithers, and struts across the end-zone-wide stage, proving why he is rock’s most charismatic frontman. Other highlights include both rarities (“Rocks Off” “Monkey Man”) and ballads (“Beast of Burden,” “Angie”), not to mention the usual warhorses (“Sympathy for the Devil,” “Miss You,” “Brown Sugar,” “Jumpin’ Jack Flash,” etc.), making for an ecstatically fantastic performance and an overall searing document of a stellar Rolling Stones tour.

Read on...

Write on Music’s Favorite Songs of 2015

Even later than last year, it’s Write on Music’s Favorite Songs (in alphabetical order) of 2015:

The 1975 – “Love Me”: Clearly these brazen British upstarts were schooled at some point on '80s Duran Duran and INXS, not to mention David Bowie’s '70s plastic soul gems like “Golden Years” and “Fame,” because this bit of slinky rock ‘n’ roll delirium boasts all such influences with the utmost of ballsy irreverence. It’s all uphill from here, lads.




Adele – “All I Ask”: Nostalgia is a crucial theme throughout Adele’s third LP, 25, but on this particular song (co-written with Bruno Mars) nothing means so much as the here and now. “It matters how this ends,” Adele sings, her almost bittersweet desperation acknowledging that, whatever becomes of the fateful moment at hand, it will never be this good again.


Alabama – “Come Find Me”: Whether they're singing about young love or "maybe we ain't that young anymore" love, Ft. Payne's favorite sons have evoked authentic, in-the-moment intimacy in a long line of classics, from “Feels So Right” to “Face to Face” to “When We Make Love.” Here, lead singer Randy Owen takes the band through one more.




Banditos – “Still Sober (After All These Beers)”: This sputtering, snarling blast of Southern indignation raises the kind of high-octane, honky-tonk ruckus your Saturday nights have likely been lacking for too damn long.




Cloves – “Don’t You Wait”: 19-year old Australian-born, London-based singer/songwriter Kaity Cloves — who goes by her surname — conjures a somber yet almost unwittingly sensual ode to (first?) love, the song’s minimalist arrangement accentuating an utterly enthralling vocal.



Darlene Love – “Forbidden Nights”: Save for a few notable exceptions (like her annual Christmas appearances on The Late Show with David Letterman, and her 2011 induction to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame), this legend’s career largely and preposterously played out in the shadows of history. Yet with her current LP, Introducing Darlene Love, the lady at last receives her due on record. Overflowing with joyous, immaculately sung songs written to order by the likes of longtime fans Bruce Springsteen, Steven Van Zandt, and Elvis Costello, who penned this particular selection, the album is a hard-won triumph.




Dwight Yoakam – “V’s of Birds”: While this proverbial honky-tonk man is best known for turning out Bakersfield-bred, rockin’ country hits like “Guitars, Cadillacs” and “Fast as You,” the highlight of his latest LP, Second Hand Heart, is this melancholy, gospel-tinged ballad. Written by veteran singer/songwriter and guitarist Anthony Crawford (who recorded his own version on his 1993 self-titled album), Yoakam draws on the lyric’s metaphorical imagery to summon one of his most moving performances in years.




Glen Hansard – “Her Mercy”: Fragile as a hymn at first, the music builds — with drums and guitar leaning into the mix while select brass punctuates later passages — until a choir unites with Hansard’s increasingly inspired vocal in a climax of exhilarating reward and resonance. The Irish singer/songwriter is no stranger to composing and performing impassioned works, but with this one he’s outdone himself. Stunning.




Grace Potter – “Look What We’ve Become”: The problem with a lot of contemporary dance music is a lack of originality, how it unironically boasts recycled beats and rhythms without adding anything imaginative or otherwise satisfying to its grooves. Having transcended her jam-band roots to embrace this disco-rich throwdown, however, Potter clearly doesn’t have that problem.




Holly Miranda – “All I Want Is to Be Your Girl”: This could very well be the most fun, naughtiest song of the whole damn year. Miranda’s been making music for a while — well over a decade — and she’s earned her fan base the old-fashioned way: touring her ass off, releasing copies of her music at the gigs in each town she plays. Maybe this song will reach a wider audience than much of her previous work, but who knows? One thing’s for sure, though. It’s irresistible. Seriously. Go ahead, turn it on, turn it up, and try not to dig it… You’re welcome.




Jason Isbell – “If It Takes a Lifetime”: Hard lessons and memories of hard living inform Isbell’s latest LP, Something More Than Free, and in this song that opens the album he runs through a bunch of both. This side of Springsteen, no one is writing narrative-based songs with as much insight and resourcefulness as Isbell, and it’s astounding to consider that he’s only now just hitting his stride.




Keith Richards – “Trouble”: The man’s got more riffs than any guitarist’s got a right to possess, and this gnarly groove — courtesy of a jam session between Richards and producer/drummer extraordinaire Steve Jordan — is just the latest incriminating example in a devastating mountain of evidence.




Leon Bridges – “Coming Home”: The song’s throwback/Sam Cooke vibe may hearken back to bygone era, but the Fort Worth, Texas talent performing it evokes the sort of innate soul and songwriting chops that are nothing short of timeless.




Lianne La Havas – “What You Don’t Do”: Gifted with gobs of talent — so much so that even Prince took notice, inviting her to sing on his 2014 LP, Art Official Age — the British-born La Havas complements old-school R&B with ultra-modern pop with beguiling results like this highlight from her current album, Blood.




Nadia Kazmi – Father Knows Best: At turns coquettish and brashly sirenic, Kazmi tears through this shameless rocker like she could’ve stood on the CBGB’s stage circa 1977, dodging beer bottles with a wicked grin on her face and attitude to spare. Check out the EP from which this track is found, LAMB, for more ear-splitting, soul-stirring moments like this.




Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds – “The Right Stuff”: In an era inundated by disposable singles, Noel Gallagher still makes albums worth listening to from start to finish. What’s more, since splitting from the Oasis fold in 2009, he has evolved into an even more intriguing and eclectic artist, experimenting with all sorts of sonic textures and styles — not unlike his mate Paul Weller has done since disbanding The Jam and The Style Council. Altogether, the results, like this dark and sensual slowburner, are intoxicating.




Tame Impala – “’Cause I’m a Man”: When Kevin Parker’s Australian outfit released its most recent LP, Currents, word was it sounded a bit like disco-era Bee Gees, and this song in some ways evokes a comparable disposition and mood to music heard on Main Course and Children of the World. If that’s indeed where Parker gleaned inspiration, good. More power to him, actually, because this here is a bold, synth-drenched tour de force.




Tess Henley – “Wonderland”: Calling to mind ‘70s R&B classics from the likes of Minnie Riperton and Natalie Cole, the title track to this native Washington singer/songwriter’s current EP demonstrates the seamless, soulful maturity of an artist living up to the full measure of her talent. The foundation Henley has crafted on her two previous albums (High Heels & Sneakers and Easy to Love) proved her musical instincts and potential were aimed in the right direction. Now that promise is paying off in a major way.




Tobias Jesso Jr. – “How Could You Babe”: On his plaintive, piano-driven debut LP, Goon, this Canadian singer/songwriter often brings to mind ‘70s-era defining works by Harry Nilsson and, in a sense, Carole King. Yet the unguarded vulnerability he expresses throughout its songs — and especially on this one — is singularly breathtaking. As if composing one of the year’s most compelling debuts wasn’t achievement enough, Jesso found out (with the rest of the world) that a song he’d co-written with Adele, “When We Were Young,” was included on her latest album, 25, which has sold eight million copies to date in North America. All in all, a not-too-shabby 2015, Mr. Jesso.




Wolf Alice – “Your Loves Whore”: With a slew of rave live reviews already under its collective belt — including memorable sets at festivals from Reading to Glastonbury — this nascent British rock quartet delivered the best rock debut of 2015 (My Love is Cool), a feat this fierce track proves in spades.

Read on...

DVD/2CD Review: The Rolling Stones - From The Vault: L.A. Forum (Live in 1975)

As recording artists the Rolling Stones by 1975 were, depending on your perspective, either trudging through a provisional rut or growing accustomed to the status of a legacy act. Their magnum opus, Exile on Main Street, was ensconced three years in the past; their brazen resurgence (or anomalous triumph), Some Girls, lay three years ahead; and their weakest effort in the interim, It’s Only Rock ‘N’ Roll, was what they’d ostensibly mounted their much-hyped Tour of the Americas to promote.

Of course by this point the Stones didn’t need to release a spectacular album to sell concert tickets. Not only was their reputation as live performers arguably unsurpassed in this era but, as evidenced on L.A. Forum (Live in 1975) — recorded during a five-night stand at the Forum, bootlegged for years thereafter, refurbished and most recently released as a DVD/2CD set by Eagle Rock — utterly justified.  


With the ever gregarious lead guitarist Ronnie Wood now in tow after having replaced the often taciturn Mick Taylor, the band is especially rambunctious during the 24-song set, even by Stones standards — not unlike Wood’s old mates, The Faces, veritable connoisseurs of errant behavior both on and off the stage. Auxiliary musicians (including percussionist Ollie E. Brown, saxophonist Trevor Lawrence, and keyboardist Billy Preston) no doubt enrich the sound and each man has his moments, but ultimately it’s the Stones stalwarts (Ian Stewart, Bobby Keys) that prove indispensable.


Flamboyant to a fault, Mick Jagger unleashes a primal, savage growl throughout that gives even the ballsiest songs (“Rip This Joint,” “Star Star,” “Brown Sugar”) an added guttural thrust. On the rare ballad (most notably “Angie”) he summons a soul man’s urgent ache, his gruff vocal suggesting Otis Redding’s raw, Southern-bred inspiration. Yet it’s on a torrid, sixteen-minute romp through “Midnight Rambler” that Jagger is at his most intoxicating, at turns humping and writhing atop the stage floor, brandishing his glittered belt like a whip as if in a masochistic fit. It’s a steal-the-show moment in any other band’s show. But this is the Rolling Stones in their prime as live performers, and L.A. Forum (Live in 1975) thrills from start to finish. 

Read on...

Album Review: Crossroads Guitar Festival 2013 (2CD)

In April of this year Eric Clapton staged his fourth Crossroads Guitar Festival over back-to-back days at Madison Square Garden, marking the first time the all-star benefit (in support of the Crossroads Centre at Antigua) was held in New York City. In another first, while all four festivals to date (including preceding ones from Dallas and twice from Chicago) are documented on assorted video formats, Crossroads 2013 is also chronicled on a double-disc live album. 

Having serious musical chops is no doubt the prime prerequisite to receiving Clapton’s invitation to this event. Yet even the most proficient artists seem to have upped their game when it came time to play, yielding standout performances from the likes of Gary Clark, Jr. (“When My Train Pulls In”), John Mayer and Keith Urban covering The Beatles (“Don’t Let Me Down”), and the Allman Brothers Band, Warren Hayes, and Derek Trucks covering Neil Young (“The Needle and the Damage Done”). Clapton seems to have upped his game as well, whether in shuffling cool through “Lay Down Sally” with Vince Gill or undulating the blues of “Key to the Highway” with Keith Richards. He summons his most potent moments, though, on Derek & The Dominoes classics “Got to Get Better in a Little While” and “Why Does Love Got to Be So Sad,” the latter with the Allmans. On the whole it’s a wonder that past Crossroads Festivals haven’t found their way onto live albums such as this, but Crossroads 2013 nevertheless has made for a most-enjoyable one.

Read on...

Rolling Stones Revisit Days of Exile in New Documentary

To coincide with the recent reissue of the Rolling Stones’ seminal work, Exile On Main Street, filmmaker Stephen Kijak collected a considerable amount of archival footage to present Stones In Exile, which summarizes the making of the album, its reception by critics and fans upon release in 1972, and its enduring legacy today.
 
Through cinematography that often blends still photography from the time and present-day, voice-over narration by the band and other principal figures, the film uniquely invites viewers back to Keith Richards’ 19th century mansion, Villa Nellcôte, where much of the album was conceived.
 
It was also where much decadence and depravity ensued and, over time, overwhelmed just about everyone involved. This is an authorized film, though—Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, and Charlie Watts serve as executive producers—so while some salacious behavior is acknowledged (drug use, mainly), details of the more incriminating, hedonistic kind are selectively overlooked. Nevertheless, the film does well in rendering an impressionistic portrait of the circumstances and chaos that saw the Stones at their most turbulent and, arguably, their most artistically profound.
 
Of the supplementary material that accompanies the main feature, the best is “Extended Interviews,” in which select band members (Richards especially, but also former Stones guitarist Mick Taylor and retired bassist Bill Wyman) offer up recollections that either didn't make it into the film proper or were cut short. Also, the “Exile Fans” segment injects a bit of welcome perspective and context—the most insightful coming from director Martin Scorsese and record producer Don Was—from outside the immediate Stones circle.
 
All together, while the film is more entertaining than revelatory, one does come away from it wondering (if you didn't already) how the band managed to make any music at all, especially under such trying circumstances, never mind the caliber of which graces Exile On Main Street.

Read on...

Rolling Stones Rule The Killing Floor with Shine A Light Soundtrack

Scoff all you want about their elder status in a young band’s domain. The Rolling Stones still run the Rock & Roll table at will. Issued to coincide with the theatrical release of Martin Scorsese’s film by the same name, the soundtrack to Shine A Light is a brazen, balls-to-the-wall live album.

Recorded over two nights at New York City’s Beacon Theatre in late 2006, the two-disc set comprises twenty-two tracks, four of which are not included in the film. The Stones wisely stick with what works, the most recent track dating back twenty-five years.

Armed with one of popular music’s ultimate catalogs, the band draws out rarities and hits with deliberate intent, brandishing them like select weaponry. Tenacious rockers abound – like “All Down The Line,” “Start Me Up,” “Brown Sugar,” “Shattered,” and “Jumpin’ Jack Flash” – while Charlie Watts keeps time with unassuming command.

Mick Jagger delivers more than a few electrifying performances, seldom sounding complacent, always exuding his roguish charisma. He swaggers through “Some Girls” and “Tumbling Dice” in inimitable cocksure form. He imparts “As Tears Go By” and “Faraway Eyes” with marked sincerity and, in the case of the latter, with a suitable honky-tonk twang. And he metes out an acerbic rendition of “Sympathy For The Devil,” his embodiment of Lucifer not only seeming absolute, but also strikingly appropriate.

Keith Richards, of course, musters up his own highlights at the microphone, as when he digs into “You Got the Silver,” singing out his ancient soul and trading dirty licks with Ronnie Wood. As well, on “Connection,” he shovels through the propulsive obscurity with certifiable cool.

Invited or not, artists who tread onto the Stones’ stage face an inherent risk, namely that they wind up looking foolish while attempting to hold sway with their hosts. Either they play it too safe or they try too hard, both scenarios rendering the same fate. Jack White, for instance, joins in on “Loving Cup,” but what should have inspired an assault of solos and riffs instead dwindles down to what sounds like a wholesome vocal duet. Conversely, all Christina Aguilera has to do is sing “Live With Me” with Jagger, but she exaggerates her voice – which ascends from wailing to howling to squealing – and overwhelms the song.

Leave it to Buddy Guy to get it just right. On the Muddy Waters barnstormer, “Champagne & Reefer,” the bluesman makes his total presence known, his booming voice and crying guitar steamrolling through – if not over – the playing of his loyal protégés. Damn right he’s got the blues and, at least for the duration of this song, Buddy Guy owns the Stones’ stomping ground too.

In the end, though, the Rolling Stones stand alone, getting their rocks off unrivaled and free to do what they want any old time. They’ve long deemed the concert stage as a killing floor. As a live album, Shine A Light exhibits how their enduring dominance still decimates lesser bands to nothing more than charlatans in their shadow, victims in their wake.

Read on...

Book Review: The Rolling Stone Interviews

Rolling Stone may not represent the voice of the counterculture like it once did, but the publication has invariably wielded privileged access to rock and roll’s elite as well as to other important celebrities and social figures. Coinciding with the fortieth anniversary of the magazine, this new compendium correspondingly presents forty of its most notable and indicative discussions in The Rolling Stone Interviews.

Many of these interviews catch subjects at pivotal points in their careers and lives, often knowingly, sometimes quite the opposite. Two of the most prominent examples come courtesy of John Lennon and Kurt Cobain, respectively. A thorough conversation with Jann Wenner in 1970 shows Lennon unleashing a contemptuous and myth-shattering depiction of life as a Beatle and the band’s recent dissolution. The text contained here comprises but a portion of the expanded transcript ultimately released as the book, Lennon Remembers, yet it succinctly conveys Lennon’s embittered state of mind at that time. In contrast, an interview conducted in early 1994 by David Fricke illustrates Cobain offering ominous and unsettling remarks when one considers his suicide a mere three months later. He speaks of his disillusionment with Nirvana’s artistic direction and mass commercial appeal as well as his frustration in coping with his tentative physical health. Both instances portray creative icons at a crossroads, albeit to divergent extents.

While not as emotionally gripping, other interviews still yield moments of telling insight and perspective. In a 1973 conversation with Ben Fong-Torres, Ray Charles explains how his varied taste in music, from classical artists like Sibelius and Chopin to country artists like Roy Acuff and Hank Snow, influenced his inimitable approach to music. In a 1992 chat with James Henke, Bruce Springsteen opens up about why he felt compelled to move from New Jersey to Los Angeles and what that symbolized for him, not only as the local hero of the Garden State, but also as a newly married man with young children. In a 2002 discussion with David Fricke, Keith Richards lets it bleed (figuratively speaking), candidly answering a myriad of questions about his infamous drug use, his much-debated mortality, and his enduring friendship with Mick Jagger. In distinguishing the Glimmer Twins’ paradoxical natures, Richards says, “[Mick] can’t go to sleep without writing out what he’s going to do when he wakes up. I just hope to wake up.”

Without a doubt, the leeway allowed to the subjects makes these interviews, and cumulatively, this book, a particularly engaging read. Even when the questions aren’t all that probing or inventive, they often yield intriguing responses. Case in point, in a 1968 interview with Jann Wenner, Pete Townshend fields a flippant question about him writing songs in his basement by launching into a description of an as-yet-completed “rock opera” about a deaf, dumb, and blind boy. With the proficiency of a politician, Townshend manhandles the moment to explain his scrupulous labor in creating Tommy, from its major and minor themes to a meticulous character analysis. One can almost picture Wenner with his mouth agape, wondering how his intended softball topic swerved radically off track.

The Rolling Stone Interviews offer comparably enlightening snapshots of various other luminaries as well at specific and, frequently, career or life-defining points in time. The responses by each subject seem genuine for the most part, but, moreover, they impart opinions and personalities straight from the source. And the sources in this book are significant.

Read on...

Lucky On The Side: The Very Best of Mick Jagger

For a few years in the mid-eighties, it almost seemed like Mick Jagger’s primary objective in releasing solo albums was to tick Keith Richards off.

Once the Glimmer Twins reconciled and the Stones got rolling again with Steel Wheels in 1989, though, Jagger’s subsequent solo ventures assumed their own distinctiveness and purpose. What’s more, they ceased to threaten a permanent derailment of the World’s Greatest Rock & Roll Band.

Newly released by Rhino Records, seventeen tracks, three of which had remained in the vaults until now, comprise The Very Best of Mick Jagger.

Skeptics will instinctively dismiss or diminish much of the music on this retrospective by drawing lopsided comparisons to the Rolling Stones’ superlative catalog. Yet, if listeners will consider this compilation for what it represents (rather than what it doesn’t), they’ll encounter, for the most part, some fine songs.

Out of Jagger’s four proper solo albums, 1992’s Wandering Spirit stands as the definitive high point, appropriately yielding the most tracks on this collection. Cuts like the radio singles, “Don’t Tear Me Up” and “Sweet Thing,” radiate with insatiable swagger and irreverence. As well, the understated country lament, “Evening Gown,” illustrates Jagger’s versatility in delivering a stirring vocal performance.

Some of the tracks stemming from Jagger’s other solo efforts offer sufficient, albeit sporadic, moments worth praising. A rousing duet with Bono, “Joy,” soars with a gospel optimism and energy that the U2 frontman imparts as if it’s second nature. “God Gave Me Everything,” co-written with Lenny Kravitz, forges through a guitar bombardment while Jagger growls each lyric like a man possessed. And dated though it sounds with its drum machines, “Just Another Night” brandishes a boyish spunk that remains hard to resist.

Alas, certain songs have not held up as well over time (if they ever did to begin with). For instance, “Lucky In Love” drowns in a flood of ‘80s music clichés, with far too many synthesized instruments and not nearly enough authenticity. And, worst of all, “Let’s Work,” sounds like a caffeinated Jagger instructing an (all-female) aerobics class.

Sounding anomalous yet utterly striking among this collection’s more lustrous material are two tracks dating back to 1968 and 1973, respectively. Jagger’s very first solo recording, “Memo From Turner,” originally tapped for the film, Performance, finds the rocker in his inimitable salacious form. Likewise, on the previously unreleased nugget, “Too Many Cooks (Spoil The Soup)”, which John Lennon produced, Jagger sounds downright raw and malicious.

Ironically (and perhaps much to Keith Richards’ chagrin), Jagger’s most successful solo efforts, to be precise, have consisted of collaborations. “Old Habits Die Hard,” the theme from the 2004 remake of the film, Alfie, saw Jagger writing with Dave Stewart of the Eurythmics. Their composition ultimately won a Golden Globe award. Contrasting with such critical acclaim, “Dancing In The Streets,” the 1985 duet with David Bowie, ranks as the most successful song of Jagger's solo career.

The Very Best of Mick Jagger certainly isn’t the best music Mick Jagger has ever made. However, some of the better music Mick Jagger has made without the Rolling Stones, much of it included here, still makes for a great listen. So, have a bit of sympathy for the old devil and give this album a chance.

Read on...