Shelter

You mean, cept for that sentence being a contradiction? Jokes aside, I think Nurk is well beyond right here. That is, he is ultra right. The "beginning" of the end may even be an understatement. Seeing how that "corporate greed" of our society have twisted the distribution of most things rhyming with wealth and health into the percentile society of actual rights and outrageous riches. The gated and ultra exclusive community of the priviledged few, that while controlling most everything spills over just enough to keep people "happy" and "content", a brain washed buying power to feed the strong flow against slowing down or turning around, seducing us all into becoming robotic consumers for the sake of their bliss and our own right-less comfort. Sort of. Drastically put. Nevertheless, the point is very valid - we are the people, we are the ones that letting it happen. We are comfortable enough to let the bastards hi-jack the planet. But are we really that blind? Are we really that lazy? Good point. This is not about limousines, champagne or the good life. This is about democracy. To view the world though an ad-filter is to view a bought world, right? What companies want to pay for what I want to see? What companies will pay for the truth, ultimately...!? Sorry to be anti-naive.. but it's time that people stop sucking up before we are all sucked up. And I mean this in the most unpolitical sense, of course.

I sure would not (put it on FMF). 1. - 2. Simply because it doesn't belong there, as I hear it. It's not really from the same sessions. And more importantly, I think of it as band song. Then again, the 1988 band record was scrapped and I suppose material not used - finished or not finished - could theoretically been used for FMF, or ending up on later records. For all I know, some 1988 tunes or ideas may have been used later. But as for Waiting For Tonight, it would take a re-recording. And even then I don't personally see how it would fit. 3. Could it be the "Good night, my love" and "Sleep tight, my love", you think? Yes! And that. Bangles & Heartbreakers might be a surprise match-up in some people's eyes and most of the time I would prefer if they stayed very much separated. But as things were in the troublesome Heartbreaker year of 1988, an album worth of collaboration, taking the lead from Waiting For Tonight, could potentially have been quite grand imo.

I could. But I'm not sure it would mean much. These things are so hard to make sense of, inside other people's brains. Anyway.. Here goes nothing: Don't Fade On Me is an ok song. It has good, effective lyrics. But there is something about the composition that sits a bit.. shall we say.. undone with me. The verse is great, but the "chorus" or "punch" or whatever.. doesn't work as well and it feels like the flow is punctuated in a mildly disturbing way. (That far, that could also be said, to a minor extent, for Hard on Me too, come to think of it.) This disturbed flow may also have a little to do with TP's vocal delivery. I'm not sure. (Although that is deliberate and part of the script here, so to speak, it's more about phrasing, much as part of Honey Bee that is also a little off-putting to me, whereas there are other moments of problematic vocals on this album, of a more "strained" or "off-key" quality which still seem to fly just fine in the context of phenomenal songwriting. And none of this is nothing that breaks the album, just saying. It's in the fine prints, but since you asked...) House in The Woods would end up in the same ball park in terms of composition analysis. Only worse, since not even the verse is that great in this case and the chorus is almost annoying in shape and form. Got a bit of that dummy feel that worked a little better for You Don't Know How It Feels. Trying to think.. eh.. the backbone of this song is just not as good, I guess. Makes me think of the saying about polishing up a turd. A lot of work has been put into making this sound like a lot better song than it really is. One of the least efforts here, not to say in all of the cataloge. Just not necessary on album that would have been even better without it. (And that would also narrow your closer problem down to a double - one of the best doubles ever to close a record, as it happens.) You Don't Know How It Feels. Not a total waste. But there is something about the boom-smack and the new era it entails.. A bit like you say, I suppose. There just seems to be something missing here I guess.. and it's not the cymbals. An ok song, let's not be disobliging.

Ok.. so, I didn't know this. Thanks for the warning! Yet, I didn't take the wise route on this one. So, here I am.. staring at your post, dazed and lost for words, after what seems like a long listless time. Just 36 minutes, it turns out. Because that is how long Bryan and Jeff kept at it. Sure enough, there are certain sounds, not to say notes, or even hooks, stolen straight from the Wilburys and The Beatles here. Typical deep fried Lynne smothered in Jeff. A trick or two may have been used to better effect on Highway Companion, I think I can spot them. Theoretically, this may be a charming promise to the nostalgically inclined. But how utterly horrific the songwriting - these songs really hurts your brain, that's how unecessary it was to write them. And how painfully cheap and down right stupid the singing - treating a voice like this to this production kinda defines the saying of adding insult to injury. I just hope they are ashamed of themselves. I was gonna try to be positive.. but.. now, how's that for a diss?

^Sweet cake! Yeah, Happy Birthday!

Well.. for the sake of brevity, let's just say.. Yes and Yes. Oops. Something went missing there. Let me try it again. As for the material, over the years I have come to find that some of my early days doubts about certain songs, in terms of composition, and one or two minor details in arrangements (Don't Fade On Me, House in The Wood and You Don't Know How It Feels), still are the weak points in my book, but over all, most of the songs hold strong and most of all this is a fantastic sounding album. Other than that - yes, TG really puts it beautifully in the above post. Kudos! I might not agree on the strength on every single compositions (accordingly) but nevertheless I feel pretty close to the over all sentiments voiced. The emotional weight carried by this album is substantial.

^ It may not ever have gotten "better" after it got "worse" as far as Stan goes. But certainly, regarding the perspective - like I meant to imply, it's exactly in that kind of light (or shall we say half-light) that this band performance comes off as so fascinating, intense and special to me. It's a weird moment in time in many ways. And a weird result. And I'm glad I finally got to see the visuals of it.

Oh man.. exciting might begin to cover it.. yeah! This is perhaps both the greatest and most frustrating release ever to hit the market. It's such an overload of condenced rock history that I don't even know how to conduct myself when thinking about it.. Despite already cherishing parts of this material among the most prized in my Collection, there is just no way I can grasp the totality of these combined full sessions, as presented in the 18 disc version box. I bid good luck to all who will try - it might be the ultimate jagg to end all jaggs - but I all I know is that if I ever come close to this unabridged treasure, my mind and body will surely explode, and my disposable assets of spendable time, much as my already strained wallet, implode into a black hole. It's all very cosmic. And here we are, having such an incredibly hard time getting one puny little disc of rarities to drop from the hands of TP. This, my friends, is the stuff that legends are made of. The sun to all light bulbs. The naked truth wrapped in a box.

Interesting, thanks for sharing. I too revisited Wildflowers after what seemed like a long hiatus. That was a little over a year ago, when expecting an archival release (later known as 'All The Rest' and still to this day unreleased) from the sessions to be imminent. While I think the change in mode, or rather mood, musically, that you seem to refering to, what you call the "midtempo groove" and "emphasis on the acoustic", really happened in the close approx of personas and methods of older rock icons during the work with Traveling Wilburys and Full Moon Fever, a a TP coming of age as it were, I think you are certainly right to point out the mellower, darker and richer sound and the impact of Rubin as a watershed in its own right, an even more mature way to channel the midtempo and the acoustic, if you will. Wildflowers, to me, stands out as an opus that way. As for the material, over the years I have come to find that some of my early days doubts about certain songs, in terms of compostition and one or two minor details in arrangements (Don't Fade On Me, House in The Wood and You Don't Know How It Feels) it's over all a fantastic sounding album. Some tracks even grown on me over the years and I come to like them a lot with age, despite former doubts (You Wreck Me, It's Good To Be King - both are to me quite preferable in their studio versions, imagine that! - Honey Bee, I used to dislike, but at least live it have had it's moments.) Plenty of good songs on this album and some of my all time favorites of their's are on here - Crawling Back To You and Wake Up Time. Midtempo magic! Another aspect: Wildflowers also being a watershed in terms of TP utilizing the CD play length for the first time, loading it excessively and highly untraditionally with 15 songs, when 12 or 13 would have been more than enough. (Yes, I said the same thing about Echo and Mojo, but unlike those Wildflowers holds up fairly tight, in terms of mood and sequence, making it great album nevertheless). Just saying. Wildflowers was pioneering this idea of leaving the traditional 30-45 minute condensed and focused experience for a more dragged out ditto. A world in which, at least at times, the art of "kill your darlings" seems to have gone dead and buried. Just saying. Still great album! When was "All the Rest" gonna be released again!?

"Burnt Out World" kinda.. I like that. The perspective, that is. Two songs on subject of the fear, greed and corruption that prevail in a world where people don't respect, interact with or even see each other no more. Wonderful, in a rather depressing way.

Yeah, how's that for a great post?! Actually, for some reason, I'd never seen this film before, although I long since have the recording on file. Hands down, Bridge School Benefit Concert of 1988 (the second one in the series, was it?) - is one of my all time favorite TPTH live recordings (and now also videos). So much fun, so different, so much of those things you mention above too -- Seems like such a transitional period, yes.. and this is some of what they come up with, what they did about it. Genius. "A lot to like", no sh*t! And a live take of Blue Moon of Kentucky to top it off. Priceless. All in all - this always makes me want to hear even more of and about that aborted 1988 album of theirs, imagining what could have become of it (although, like has been said elsewhere, this being 'rough' times for the band perhaps helped paving way for Full Moon Fever, which if so is a great great thing.. so.. chicken or egg and all that jazz..) Since it's such an odd thing with the arrengement, set up and all, I just wish the video producer/camera men would have picked up on that a bit more and shot a few seconds less of TP face (sorry to say it) and a few more of Stan and Howie and the others. Some of the harmony works here are even more awesome than usual, perhaps it's just it being framed by this rather raw and lo-fi arrangements. And -- drum roll -- I must say, this is the one time I ever hear Don't Come Around Here No More and actually and truly love it - the ultimate version of that song. This is how it's done. Obviously. Ok, Refugee here might not be the best exeperiment I've ever heard, the time signature rips the groove to shreds I'm afraid, but all else about this.. This somewhat odd performance shows greatness on so many levels. As far as attitude and approach goes, all I can say is.. musicianship, perfection, way to go! Thank you for posting this! Really awesome, made my day!

Most of his image otherwise is focused on the human aspect. So, speaking for itself as it indeed may, "stale" or "robotic" (depending on view) seems like an odd type of "perfection" to me. All I ever argued for. But yes. If a "they" slipped in there, I most certainly hope that from the rest of my ramblings you can see I agree this issue is all about TP, it's all in his head. (And as a side note - Im sure MC or BT could serve up some real perfection no matter what was going on. I bet they all could to some extent.) As always, my point is how painfully little is needed to achieve so much. But that's the whole ugly topic again. Here's to YAIWMA!

Probably, right? Although.. it seems. with Hypnotic Eye.. as was the case with Mojo too.. it was pretty darn decided already when the pre-release "singles" came out, what they were gonna do for promoting the album when on the road, what songs they believed in. I doubt they gave all the songs a fair shot, and as is always the case, they should have tried a lot more (most) of them out live, at least a few times. One would think so. Or at least hope so. Since it's playing it live that would be the point of playing a song at all, once it is recorded. That said, I'm sure most songs in the cataloge could be tweaked, with more or less artistic deft:ness, into great contemporary live versions. It's just that TP rarely approach things that way. From the look of it, he/they prefer to do the songs pretty much as is on the record. Save for adding a solo or extend an ending or something, they very rarely venture far reworking their material. This may explain how some songs, despite the best intentions of reheasing 50-60 songs for a tour, if they don't immediately fit as is/was, they are deemed too much work or too uninspiring to compete with I Won't Back Down and get duly scratched. However, this couldn't possibly explain the lot of it, since a good many songs would probably need next to none tweaking to rock wickedly. And then again - there is the occasional Kings Highway or odd American Girl to disprove my point. As if just for saying "You know, once in a blue moon we DO change things around, so sh*t up!" Fair enough, sometimes they don't just change the key or the speed, they pick one whole different song. If only that happened every night - or at least every tour. Who knows. Beats me. I think it's shimmering. A underrated classic if I ever heard one, a song that is likely to work fine close to it's original version and also as heavily reworked, if prefered. With Howie - and now Scott - I can't see why this wouldn't be quite wonderful to sing, how it wouldn't go over smashing. Key change if needed is no problem. All attemts at understanding or analyzing this set list issue, that I've ever encountered end up missing it's mark. And this is just another one of these dozens of engimas really, all coming down to one thing: What TP feel like doing. That has to be all there is to it, in 99% of the cases. No more no less. Allmost all other clues are dead ends. So here's to him changing his mind.

So I tried to.. eh.. enunciate my understanding of this guns vs ignorance business yo'all discuss. I tried several times. But it seems beyond me not to f*ck it up with obnoxious attitude and philosophical bickering bound to miss its mark. I just can't help myself. I'm like a loaded gun, one might say. I've simply come to conclusion that I just can't do this without pissing someone off, being it totally awesome people or fans of Charlton Heston. Besides, I'm not sure I have the mandate. I guess this here paragraph will have to do. As for the implication of the thread's headline "best since Mary Jane's Last Dance".. I thought about that some more and.. well.. I would not say it's THE best. But certainly, given that the other ones are Crawling Back To You, You Wreck Me, Wake Up Time, Swingin', Echo (song), Lost Children, have Love Will Travel, Dreamville, Trip To Pirate's Cove, Good Enough, Something Good Coming, American Dream Plan B, U Get Me High, Full Grown Boy and.. one or two more, then Shadow People certainly belongs on the imaginary Best Of... vol 2.

It seems like you are deliberately trying to slip out from under the weight of my argument. I agree TP is "niche" in the sense that he/they draw mainly people who used to buy records already in the 80s and 90s - not to say the original rock generation, the ones who created the monster in the first place, by hocking their possensions for radios and turntables already in the 60s and 70s. These are their people. But unlike you I really think that 1) yes, this is where some serious money is* and even if the habit of buying old fashioned records are slowly dying with them, they still buy enough records and attend enough shows - and yes, those to are connected!! - to keep established rock stars like TP well supplied with sandwiches and 2) if streaming and/or a young tight audience were where the money was, TP would have been dumped in the ocean along side Kim Basinger and not that much later (perhaps along with Neil Young, Tom Waits, Dylan, Springsteen, Stones, Sir Paul, Mark Knopfler and a long line of others with dire straits of bankrupcy in the 2000s, due to gray hair and a bad inability to really connect to teenagers, i.e hip hop and rnb fans of global suburbia) and 3) it seems to me, again, it's already been decided, that for whatever target groups, market shares, strategic policies and gross product it may apply, TP has a contract and he is marketable. If not to the same kids as Nikki Minaj. Ok, I think I circled and underlined this m*ther a few times to many now. (*As if people born in the 1940s and 50s are not the generations sitting on the lion share of the planet's wealth?! Statistically speaking. I know there are exceptions, poverty and so on. I will even let you see this: http://www.demos.org/blog/9/8/14/wealth-distributed-extremely-unevenly-within-every-age-Group Never mind the advanced course stuff of "within" yadayada. Just behold the basics. Translated into our language, this means TP fans are the richest people alive. Somehow I'm not one of them, but that is just a bonus copy sold, as far as this argument goes, and so are the one that you are gonna buy I take it, and so on and so forth, but seriously my friend, let's not bury ourselves in collateral damage cases, shall we. I think this horse is dead now. I said what I had to say.) Yes. Let's call it what it is.

Haha! Ah, yes. Let's hope so. It should at least be regarded as being as diversified in styles as any other of the albums, is all I'm suggesting. Since, at the end of the day, it might even be more so than most of the others.

Would have to agree - on the very strong album that is Hypnotic Eye - Shadow People really is among the best tracks, thus a true masterpiece and one of the best in the whole cataloge as far as I'm concerned. Regrettably I never got to see any of the 2014 shows - not that many HE songs were played, but still - so all the youtube clips been a blessing. This one was fantastic, thanks!

Obviously. This I understand. Just.. Even if we change focus to "too old", it's a well known fact that "too old" is also exactly what you statistically might want to call the remaining demographic group still in the habit of buying actual records. As far as I can tell there are only three groups left that still does this - collectors, hipsters and "too old" people. Also worth noticing, in this digital age of ours: if the office deem the streaming/download performance to be of key importance and at the same time they find that of TP&TH's to be inadequate, they should cancel his deal and stop releasing his none greatest hits music asap, in order to not lose money, instead of moving ahead and hint a new release. But true as all that may be, it's beside the point, isn't it? At least to me, this is not a discussion on whether or not TP has an audience anymore, on who those odd creatures might be or whether or not there is a point in releasing his music anymore. If it was, then yes, perhaps some of everything interesting this thread deals with actually would matter. But to me this is a far less theoretical matter, the decision already been made that Yes, TP is way marketable!!, All The Rest has already been decided on and pitched, if confusingly so, even been said to be "just sitting on the shelf". That is, while I won't believe it til I see it - the world is, after all, full of ignorant bastards - I regard this particular release - much as I regard the state of TP&TH career in general, for that matter - as something being way beyond hypothetical at this point. That's my perspective. Mid October and I agree with campbellfan1, "ridiculous" really is the word for how this been handled. A low-water mark in many ways.

Not hearing a sum is admittedly a problem. I like the comparsion to the pre65 concept, only that is just what ails me, that a lot of these songs are not good enough as singles, but somehow they fit this specific album context quite well. Now that is not to say that I could imagine it to have been even better, not to say pure magic, had one or two of the lesser moments been better. Still, I just wanted to qualify my quoted logic a bit, since YGGI makes for a good example of the reverse. But let's agree on a logic level then, and to disagree on the practises and effects of it, at least in this case. Maybe if you just listen more, then one day.. you're gonna get it!

I'm glad you enjoyed them. Took me ages in the lab to arrive at those.. And still - I'm not sure they are very accurate. Besides, I'm a bit ashamed of using the term "easy going rock". In fact, there's nothing easy about it, even if may sound that way. I guess I's just lazy for not breaking it up in further, more detailed characterizations, but truth is.. at least my point just is.. that TP&TH have their very own brand of rock'n'roll, more or less varied in style, beat and temper, but yet always uniquely their own - on Mojo as much as on other albums. Thus, what I, in the above quote, did call "blues", "straight rock'n'roll" or "balladry" are very approx notions. Perhaps needles to say (sometimes even I like to speak straight). Sure, there might be a "blues styled" tune more than usual on Mojo, but to me that's far from as prominent as certain features that other albums may have. Yet you rarely hear a lot of fans speak about the Shelter label albums as blues records, the early 80s as the country years or Hypnotic Eye as a jazz album. But somehow Mojo hits home as a blues album in people's minds. A very misunderstood album as I see it. Misunderstood for better AND for worse, I might add. In general, it seems like Mojo is where you and I meet in terms of sharing opinions on an album. (Even more in agreement than we are in the age old set list issue.) Like you say, it's the difference in approach - towards being a band and towards recording as such - rather than in a change in overall musical style, that is the big deal with Mojo. That is, the music is at the same time unique, varied and typical, the way it usually is. And like dollardime said (above), it's long since - at least since Last DJ, may I add - pointless to believe in anything the marketing spin doctors have to say about an upcoming album. That's not my issue here. They are full of crap, and I'm no less naive in this issue than I am in the drug issue or moeny issue or whatever - we are, after all, talking Rock'n'Roll here, not the Holy Church of Jesus the Samaritan. (I suppose my bull shit meter is just case sensitive, so shoot me.) I suppose most fans do normally realize and mentally cathes on to these things, but there is a general tendency towards romantization and easy solutions, that's part of rock'n'roll too. Neverhteless - the thing with Mojo - as I've experienced it - is that most people I know doesn't seem to see through the marketing.. They genuinely seem to see Mojo as such a musically narrow and different album for being TP&TH. I just don't see it. I just find it.. well.. stupid?

Roll on John

How extraordinarily bizarre. Perhaps not surprisingly I can spot at least 20 bands on that 32 band list, better than Bon Jovi. Better subjectively, cause I really think so. And better by far also objectively, since these bands have had so much more cultural, artistic and even commercial impact over the years. Not that JBJ hasn't cashed in big league style, but in terms of this poll, he basically managed to social media hype his loyal troops into voteing. I won't give their love a bad name, but they know they are wrong to even be mentioned in the same room as the likes of Creedence, The Doors or the White Stripes.. come on.. not to mention TP&TH. I normally wouldn't, but... *vote*

"How can all these people afford so many things? When I was young people wore what they had on." Neil Young, Greendale

Man, what is it with you and crappy songs with the word "ain't" in them..?

Happy birthday!