Playlist for
The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
November 8, 2007

Hosted by Greg Lyon on Thursdays at 2-4 pm
on WPVM Asheville (103.5 FM and www.wpvm.org)

This show is available for listening as an archive for one week after its airing at WPVM’s Archive Page (click on the STREAM button for this show–under the letter ‘G’)

Notes:

– I played a bunch of stuff from the new bin today since I didn’t play anything last week. I played a couple of new releases (re-issues) from Fallout Records UK. One was Blue Mountain Eagle’s self-titled record from 1970, featuring Randy Fuller (brother of Bobby Fuller, of "I Fought the Law" fame). In auditioning it, I was astonished to hear several familiar riffs: "Feel Like a Bandit" sounds like Shocking Blue’s "Venus" (later made famous by Bananarama), which by coincidence (or not) also came out in 1970; and "Troubles" is uncannily reminiscent of "Sweet Home Alabama," four years before Lynyrd Skynyrd unleashed their redneck anthem. The other Fallout CD I played was an instrumental jazz/rock lite fusion record by a studio band called The Advancement, which features some Gabor Szabo sidemen.

– I’m not too into the new Neil Young, which continues a string since Greendale of albums that don’t inspire me. The new P. J. Harvey is lovely, but I’m not sure I want her to be that lovely. The real discovery this week was the Tony Allen 2CD set that features all of his early 1970s recordings as a band leader, encompassing 4 albums, 3 of which were produced by Fela Kuti (in whose band he was the drummer). The liner notes on this thing are great, so a big round of applause to the Spanish Vampi Soul label is in order.

– I also featured a long segment on the ultimate anti-riff, John McLaughlin’s solo from Miles Davis’s "Go Ahead John," which was recorded in 1970 but not released until 1974’s Big Fun. Although producer Teo Macero has taken a lot of flak for his crazy studio effects on that song–Jack DeJohnette’s ridiculous drumming is artificially stereo-separated and there are lots of cut-outs and pans introduced into McLaughlin’s solo–I still think the final product is a headphone-induced mind melt. The components of the mix are presented undoctored on several tracks from the 2003 box set, The Complete Jack Johnson Sessions, and I played two that featured McLaughlin’s guitar parts as well. I would still love to know all the intricacies of how the final guitar "solo" (it turns out that it’s not all from one take) mix came to be. I’ve always felt like there must have been a noise gate involved at some stage because there’s a part of the solo where the attacks blow right through the mix really loud and super-distorted, and the fine picking falls back below the threshhold to a lower–and seemingly less distorted–level. The Jack Johnson Sessions takes do reveal something else about the piece, though, and that is the relentless driving impulse of Dave Holland’s sick, super-fat, distorted electric(!) bass one-note riff. I had always paid attention to DeJohnette’s drums, but Holland’s bass didn’t hit me until I heard it laid down raw. Now, if I could only afford the new electric Miles box set, The Complete On the Corner Sessions.

Background Music: The Advancement - The Advancement (Fallout UK)

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