Behind Blue Eyes

Sister Rosetta Tharpe

A friend of mine told me to look up Sister Rosetta Tharpe on YouTube and I would be pleasantly impressed. That was an understatement.

Here is just one of the videos of her songs. You have to watch the whole video to see this women really work that double cutaway Les Paul Custom guitar. [I stand corrected, she is playing a Gibson SG in this clip. They don't even look remotely alike. D'oh!]  The best part is that she can transition effortlessly from rocking Gospel to a face-melting* guitar solo and back without a missing a beat.

Popular in the '30s and '40s she surely had an impact on both Gospel and the influences that became Rock and Roll. Apparently her popularity began to fade when she would not choose one or the other.

Regardless, iTunes has 8 albums with Sister Rosetta.

I love both aspects of these songs. She has a sweet way of delivering the Gospel part that makes the songs such an easy listen. But, the ever-present electric guitar adds an element that satisfies the '60s kid in me. Wonderful.

Now I add a new book to my reading list. I guess my friend was not the only person know about the Sister Rosetta Tharpe story. (Looks like a standard Les Paul on the book cover.)

A agree with the title of the book - Shout, Sister, Shout. I would like to add, Swing That Axe!

It is sad that popular music audiences cannot seem to grasp an artist that is planted firmly in two genres. I always figured that once The Byrds released Sweetheart of the Rodeo , they knew they were doomed. They managed to offend two audiences at once.

* A technical guitar term used by Dewey Finn in the movie "School of Rock"

Livin’, Lovin’, Losin’: Songs of the Louvin Brothers

Livin’, Lovin’, Losin’: Songs of the Louvin Brothers

Tribute albums are rarely as good to listen to as they seem on paper. They are full of potential, but most often you are better off just getting the original tunes from the original artist. But I did not know the original songs of the Louvin Brothers. They split up musically in 1961. I just noticed that Emmylou Harris albums always had a song attributed to “Louvin/Louvin”. And I noticed a few other songs attirbuted to them. So my introduction was with these songs:

I Like The Christian Life – The Byrds

If I Could Only Win Your Love – Emmylou Harris

Satan’s Jewel Crown - Emmyou Harris

When I Stop Dreaming – Emmylou Harris

Cash On the Barrelhead – Dolly Parton

The Weapon of Prayer – The Notting Hillbillies

What I had not been prepared for was that all of the Louvin Brother's songs were designed for two voices—there was almost always a part for Charlie Louvin and a part for Ira Louvin. Carl Jackson (the producer of this record - link to his out of date web site) used that as the basis for this album. Every song is song by a duet of country stars. These harmonies are outstanding and it makes the whole album a delight. Look at these names:

• Joe Nichols & Rhonda Vincent
• Emmylou Harris & Rodney Crowell
• Alison Krauss & James Taylor
• Terri Clark & Vince Gill
• Carl Jackson & Merle Haggard
• Glen Campbell & Leslie Satcher
• Kathy Louvin & Pamela Brown Hayes
• Carl Jackson & Linda Ronstadt
  
• Jon Randall & Patty Loveless
  
• Carl Jackson, Jerry Salley & Larry Cordle
  
• Dolly Parton & Sonya Isaacs
  
• Del McCoury & Marty Stuart
  
• Johnny Cash, Pam Tillis & The Jordanaires

I don't really keep up with the new Nashville stars, but everyone (old and new) did a great job performing these songs. Plus, the musicians backing up these vocals are outstanding.

As the name of the album implies, some of these songs are real tear jerkers. For instance, these are the words of heartbreak (When I Stop Dreaming ):

“You may teach the flowers to bloom in the snow,
You may take a pebble and teach it to grow,
You may teach all the raindrops to return to the clouds,
But you can't teach my heart to forget.”

(Just a second and let me put my hanky back in my pocket.)

But it is not all sorrow and pity. One of my favorites, I Wish You Knew , sung by Pamela Brown Hayes and Kathy Louvin (Ira Louvin’s daughter) is a wonderfully upbeat (almost rock-like) with great guitar work (by Carl Jackson) to go along with the vocal harmonies.

I like every one of these songs. I could do without Johnny Cash’s spoken part of Keep Your Eyes on Jesus , but even this song has such a great old time gospel feel that I leave it on my iPod like the rest of the album.

So now your comments will appear immediately (I think). I am still trying to figure out how to removed the subject line for each comment. I was able to take the subject out of the comment form, but now it just uses the first few characters of the comment as a subject. I figure that by definition, a comment's subject is the original post. Removing the subject will also make a thread of comments more compact.

Thanks to all who have visited. I love the comments. I have more posts in various states of completion, and if I can force discipline in my schedule, I should have them up over the next few days. Probably never more than one a day, though.

OK, this is not actually about music per se, but to me, it is pretty significant. Today it has been reported that the iTunes Music Store (iTMS) reached third place in music sales market share—behind Wal-Mart and Best Buy. This is a great opportunity for me to explain my view of why this is happening—and why it is a good thing. And let me point out that I think this is not just about Apple’s iTunes Music Store, this is about digital music sales versus hard copy (CD) sales. The Apple part of the story is just because they are further ahead on the development curve than other digital music retailers. This market is still very young.

The “music industry” has always been about promoting the latest material with the broadest appeal. I guess it makes sense because these songs, albums and artists generate the most cash for the companies that are behind them. The iTunes Music Store is not very different in that regard. When you first visit, it comes at you much like a traditional “record store”. You see what’s new, you see a ranking of what is selling, and there are various promotions scattered about. But, I think that is only a small part of their potential business.

Deep Catalog Is Where It’s At

For me—and I suspect for many others—the real attraction of iTMS is the huge amount of “deep catalog” (any music more than a few years old). This is the result of a decision made by Apple a few years ago. Realizing that one of the big benefits to music publishers is the elimination of hard inventory (CDs) it is now economically feasible (actually quite profitable) to add any material and make it available to the entire market at one time. Apple put out a plea to all owners of recorded music to consider making it available on iTunes. Apple would help them convert the music from whatever form (tape, wax, vinyl, etc) to digital files that would be sold over iTunes.

This is as close to free money as any could offer a music owner. For a tiny upfront cost and no marketing costs their songs would now be available to anyone searching through iTMS. No manufacturing, no inventory, no distributors, no cut-outs. (There is no need to print a catalog at all—the store is the catalog.) I think Apple thought they were going after The Long Tail of music sales, but I think that a larger market was revealed. While the traditional music buiness made a fair chunk of money with deep catalog, the old economics of manufacturing and inventory held down its margin and its market size. People were still interested in buying that music, but it was either unavailable or too hard to find.

Deep catalog sales is what kept real record stores alive after stores like Wal-Mart and Best Buy started sucking away the high-volume, high-margin music sales. Deep catalog needing physical and geographic inventory could not sustain the stores like Tower Records. Once it was apparent what digital sales would do to the old distribution model it was clear that the full service record store was on its way out. I think that once everyone in the country has 2 or 3 iPods, even Wal-Mart and Best Buy might be in trouble. Remember that they need high volume of each unit to make things work for them. That is why they only have new music. For someone like me Wal-Mart is irrelevant and Best Buy is nearly so. Once the really general population gets used buying new music online, the big discounter will be forced to dump their music sales. It will not happen all at one time. And physical CD sales will not go away, some people will always prefer it. 

Now let's get back to music. 

After college I noticed that if you allowed yourself to listen to just about any music with an open mind, there were decades of great recordings. Of course there was even more bad music. (Maybe all that music is not “bad” but just not to your liking.) My first experience was when I drifted into classical music. I do not even know why I started—but somehow I became aware of it. That began a long pattern of following musical connections through all sorts of genres. I am no classical expert and I will not bore you with attempts to discuss it. But, I do want to bring up one of the great “discoveries” that really opened my eyes.

Shortly after becoming blissfully married to my bride, she bought an album called The Cole Porter Songbook by Ella Fitzgerald. As a kid brought up on psychedelic rock I knew Ella Fitzgerald only as the lady that could break a glass on the Memorex tape commercials. I also had heard her singing scat as she loved to do, but that never interested me. What I did not know was what pure and beautiful voice she had. And best of all, The Cole Porter Songbook was only one of several “songbooks” she recorded covering several of the great song composers of the first half of the 20th century.

These were typically double albums that were recorded in the late 50s. The arrangements of the songs were not adventurous—they were sublime. The bands were fabulous. If you have even the slightest interest in the popular music of these composers, you owe it to yourself investigate these (dare I say) historic recordings.

• Cole Porter Songbook (1956)
• Rodgers & Hart Songbook (1956)
• Duke Ellington Songbook (1957)
• Irving Berlin Songbook (1958)
• George and Ira Gershwin Songbook (1959)
• Harold Arlen Songbook (1961)
• Jerome Kern Songbook (1963)
• Johnny Mercer Songbook (1964)

In 1994 Verve Records issued a box set of these in CD form. We have about half of them in vinyl or CD form. When Julie gave me an iPod for my birthday in 2002 I learned how to record the vinyl to digital and spent hours tediously repairing The Cole Porter Songbook so I could have it in my earbuds. At that time each CD was selling for $18. Remember that most of these albums were double CD. So I also have some used CDs (one used set I have was broken out of the boxed set and sold separately). Now they are available at the iTunes Music Store at $10 a CD or 99¢ a song.

Julie and I were lucky enough to see Ella Fitzgerald live at the Venetian Room at the Fairmount Hotel in Dallas. This was probably in the late 1980s. It was like an elegant night at a 50s night club. It was certainly the real deal when it came to the music.

By the way, Rod Stewart should be ashamed of himself for trying to do a similar concept over the last few years. If you cannot add anything, don’t bother. In fact, I read that Frank Sinatra blocked Capitol records from re-releasing some albums of his own that were in the same “single composer” style. I guess Frank had a little more class that Rod.

I am also big fan of The Who. I first heard that song when I was a senior in high school. Just about any high school boy could identify with the lament of anger and angst—no matter how good their life might be in reality. The song was on the Who’s Next (1971) album. But I had been listening to The Who since their first transatlantic hit My Generation.

I think The Who is glossed over as a band that smashed their instruments at the end of their concerts. They were actually more ground-breaking than most people realize. Their first departure from straight rock and roll was their second album—Happy Jack as it was titled in the US or A Quick One as it was titled in the UK.

That was the first Who album I actually owned. Happy Jack (1966) was a real eye opener for a young teenager—a glimpse at what was the insane genius of Peter Townshend. I mean Happy Jack was a pretty strange dude. But nothing compared to Boris the Spider or Whiskey Man (“he only comes out when I drink my whiskey”) The Happy Jack album had to be a personal favorite— like much of The Who’s output, it was not much of a commercial success. Sure, they had hits that people heard on the radio, but actually had the albums? I did.

If you are my age, you probably remember the big hit I Can See For Miles but you probably have no idea it was on the album The Who Sellout (1967). Along with the serious music (if we can say that about 60s rock) it had a hilarious overlaying concept. Between the songs are radio station jingles and musical ads. (Chorus singing pleasantly: “Radio London reminds you go to the church of your choice.”) There is also one song that I still think of when ever I see the tattooed populace today - Tattoo.

"Welcome to my life, tattoo
I'm a man now, thanks to you
I expect I'll regret you
But the skin graft man won't get you
You'll be there when I die
Tattoo"

It has a pleasant melody about as far away from I Can See From Miles as you can get.

More about The Who some other time.