A Lucky Man Who Made The Grade

Hot on the heels of my birthday tribute to Ringo Starr, I learned that Neil Young has recently been playing a stunning version of the Beatles' "A Day in the Life" as an encore.

As the towering masterwork of popular song in the 20th century, "A Day in the Life" is most intimidating, but it's amazing how naturally it fits into Neil's sonic wheelhouse: the plaintive homespun melody and open chords of the first two verses gives way to the raging cacophony of the bridge and final coda with a little mid-tempo bit in the middle.

It's as if he merged "After the Gold Rush" with Arc, his 1991 feedback/noise collage, and threw in a verse of "Everybody Knows This is Nowhere" to hold it all together.

Neil, of course, replaces the London Symphony Orchestra's part - and the crashing final piano E chord - with the howling feedback of Big Black, his trusty Les Paul.

As the clip below from the Rock in Rio festival demonstrates, Mr. Bernard Shakey has brilliantly, angrily recast the ultimate 60s freak-out for the 21st century - the "holes in Blackburn Lancashire" might as well be bodies in Bagdhad.

Neil Young, "A Day in the Life" Rock in Rio Festival, Madrid, 27 June 2008

The Beatles - Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (1967)

What can I say? If you download nothing else. If you comment on nothing else. It all starts HERE -

01 Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
02 With a Little Help from My Friends
03 Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds
04 Getting Better
05 Fixing a Hole
06 She's Leaving Home
07 Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite!
08 Within You Without You
09 When I'm Sixty-Four
10 Lovely Rita
11 Good Morning Good Morning
12 Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (reprise)
13 A Day in the Life

Any questions?

Pass: floodlitfootprint

Grilled Margarita-Marinated Chicken Breast

This would be dinner on Saturday night. I can't wait to get home.

Grilled Margarita-Marinated Chicken Breast

4 Servings
Time: 20 Mins (6 Hrs to marinate)

INGREDIENTS:
4 chicken breasts, pounded
1 cup fresh lime juice
1 cup tequila blanco
1 cup triple sec
1 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1 jalapeño pepper, sliced
(remove the seeds for a milder marinade)
1 bunch fresh cilantro

INSTRUCTIONS:
1. Mix all marinade ingredients in large nonmetal bowl.
2. Place pounded chicken breasts in the bowl and marinate for 6 hrs in the refrigerator.
3. Remove the chicken breasts from marinade and place on grill pan at medium heat.
4. Turn the breasts over when half cooked (about 4 mins each side).
5. Remove from pan and slice or cube.

Pearl Jam 2008-06-22

Password: t.u.b.e.

01. Hard To Imagine
02. Severed Hand
03. Hail Hail
04. Do The Evolution
05. Small Town
06. Evacuation
07. Corduroy
08. I'm Open
09. I Am Mine
10. I Got Shit
11. Daughter
12. Light Years
13. Even Flow
14. Green Disease
15. You Are
16. U
17. Who You Are
18. Why Go
19. Encore Break 1
20. Comatose
21. Sad
22. Given To Fly
23. Come Back
24. Grievance
25. Black
26. Rearviewmirror
27. Encore Break 2
28. No More
29. Last Kiss
30. Crazy Mary
31. Alive
32. All Along The Watchtower
33. Yellow Ledbetter

HERE

Thw White Album as a Single LP

Debates on what songs we could cut off a the double LP with over 93 minutes of sonic sounds.

The Beatles guru, George Martin has had saddled up these same thoughts.

"They came in with a whole welter of songs - I think there were over thirty, actually - and I was a bit overwhelmed by them, and yet underwhelmed at the same time because some of them weren't great...I thought we should probably have made a very, very good single album rather than a double. But, they insisted. I think it could have been made fantastically good if it had been compressed a bit and condensed. We can only wonder what songs he woulda left off."

That's why I have decided to do it myself. I have taken out my stethoscope, scalpel, otoscope, glitter 'n laser to twiddle the double-LP White Album into a single LP.

It was a tough task...I removed some of the quirky songs, did some minor rearranging, added an excellent outtake and abracadabra - we have the single album version of the White Album. Any thoughts?

Which songs would you put on your very own single LP version of the White Album? Let the debate begin...

Side One

Back In The USSR
The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill
While My Guitar Gently Weeps
Everybody’s Got Something To Hide Except For Me and My Monkey
Julia
Rocky Raccoon
Happiness Is A Warm Gun

Side Two

Helter Skelter
Yer Blues
Not Guilty
Revolution 1
Cry Baby Cry
Blackbird
Good Night

Aguas Frescas in the Summer

Great article in the LA Times on aguas frescas.

I’m a huge fan of agua fresca - blended fruit that’s mixed with sugar and water and strained.

EDIT: Eh, why not.

Watermelon Agua Fresca

2 cups cubed watermelon plus any juices that have seeped out
1 Tbsp simple syrup or 1 tsp agave nectar
1/4-1/2 cup water

Puree the watermelon with the juices. Strain through a medium-meshed strainer to remove the solids. Combine with the sweetener and water and pour over ice. Drink immediately. A quick squeeze of lime juice is optional.

Peace Love and Happy Birthday, Ringo

July 4, 1976 - Our Bicentenial

“Lost Without Your Love” by Bread, Elektra single 45365
“Innocent Times” by Eric Clapton from No Reason to Cry
“Blinded by the Light” by Manfred Mann’s Earth Band, Warner Bros. single 8252
“Got To Get You Into My Life” by the Beatles, Capitol 4274
“Smokin’ ” by Boston from Boston
“Night Moves” by Bob Seger, Capitol single 4369
“Turn the Beat Around” by Vickie Sue Robinson, RCA single 10562
“More, More, More” by the Andrea True Connection, Buddah single 515

“Lost Without Your Love” was the title song to Bread’s last album, a reunion album released in 1977. (The album was the group’s first since 1972.) While this single’s hook didn’t sink in quite as deeply as those of earlier hits -- I think of “If,” “It Don’t Matter To Me” and “Baby I’m-A Want You” in particular – it was still a nice piece of popcraft. “Lost Without Your Love” entered the Top 40 in the first week of December and peaked at No. 9 in early 1977. It was Bread’s twelfth Top 40 hit and the group’s fifth to reach the Top Ten. (“Make It With You,” the group’s first hit, was its only single to reach No. 1.)

No Reason To Cry was an album that saw Eric Clapton surround himself with lots of prominent friends: Bob Dylan, Robbie Robertson, Rick Danko, Levon Helm, Garth Hudson, Billy Preston, Ronnie Wood, Jesse Ed Davis, Carl Radle, Georgie Fame and more. Sometimes it sounds more like an album by The Band than it does one by Clapton, which doesn’t bother me too much. Dylan takes a vocal turn on his own song, “Sign Language.” The lead vocal on “Innocent Times” came from Marcy Levy, who co-wrote the song with Clapton.

I’m certain there’s a story behind Capitol (not Apple) Records releasing the Beatles’ “Got To Get You Into My Life” as a single in 1976, six years after the band’s last release and seven years after the four Beatles last recorded together. But I don’t know what the story is. Anyone out there? The single went to No. 7 that summer. (That wasn’t the Beatles’ last Top Ten hit, though; “Free As A Bird,” the “reunion” single that some thought ghoulish, went to No. 6 during the winter of 1995-96.)

“Night Moves” might be the greatest single ever written and recorded about growing up in the age of rock ’n’ roll. If it’s not the greatest, it’s pretty darn close to the top. Nominations, anyone? The song’s best line – “Strange how the night moves . . . with autumn closin’ in.” – is probably not the line I’d have chosen thirty-two years ago.

The Actor's Studio featuring...

From Kinfauns to Chaos

Disc 1: The Beatles gathered at George's house ("Kinfauns", in Esher, Surrey) around the third week of May 1968 to record demos for the forthcoming "White Album" on George's four track equipment. The tracks were mixed to mono by George. John, Paul and Ringo each received copies of this reduction tape. This first disc comes from John's copy and, actually, it is the best sounding version to date of these demos.

Disc 2: A mixing session happened on June 4th, 1968 for the "White Album" slow version of "Revolution", "Revolution 1", which was recorded on May 31st. Disc two features the unedited, offline recording of this EMI mixing date, made on John's portable tape recorder. The disc is called "Chaos" and is actually messed up by Yoko Ono continuously talking all over the session and pontificating on any matter that crosses her mind. Unbearable. Or was it "Revolution 9" ???

FROM KINFAUNS TO CHAOS:
Cd 1:
Cd 2:

Pass: www.chilewarez.org