Shelter
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Posts posted by Shelter
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Slim Harpo
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As for the "blues moniker" - perhaps I should add - or specify - that to me it's not a problem that/if TP&TH play blues, are influenced by blues (if they sound like blues, write various degrees of blues structure songs, tune their guitars in weird blues tuning, write more or less authentic blues style lyrics or behave like dusty old blues men in general..). The style itself is not a problem. I'm a huge blues fan.
What bothers me (well, bothers is a strong word) is that I don't find, whatever you want to call it.. the blues tendencies.. on Mojo to be very succesfull. I find them somewhat posing, like utterly skilled show casing of an image of a style. (That is, after all, meant to be a lot more flattering than simply calling them "a travesty of a mockery of a sham of a mockery of a travesty of two mockeries of a sham" like a more Woody Allen:esque blues fan perhaps would have called them.) It's not that they don't play well - they always do - it's just that I don't feel it the way blues should feel.
What's more - I don't find it to be overpowering or characterizing enough as an imprint for Mojo as an album. Like you say - and like I've been saying often times in the past - there are a lot more to this album, it's a for most parts well crafted mix in fact, not totally uncharacteristic for the average TP&TH album experience from the past (let alone with a tad heavier, more organic and mature sound, and with one or two blues "parodies", if I may be so bold, as icing on the already rich cake.
These two things being the case - to me - makes the deliberate official pitching at the time, of Mojo as a blues album, and how this has become a truth in the minds of the careless, feel slightly annoying. People should listen to Mojo again, like you just did apparently, and then again if needed, and then try to tell me there is not all kinds of things happening there the way there always is and always was on a Heartbreakers album. Mojo is at best, or worst, depending on preferences, one quarter blues. If that is what you want to call it. Granted.
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Well.. thanks for your further interest. Surely Mojo, as does most titles, gets mentioned here and there in various threads, from various angles, over the years. But, by all means, repetitative as it may turn out.. you might find some discussion of ours on the topic from last year, if I'm not mistaken, in the Least Favorite Album thread. Not that Mojo is that - but if you scroll to page 4 and ctrl-F the word "Mojo, things will start popping.. speaking of surprises!
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I'd make sure to enjoy my sandwich..
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You made it through!!
I have shared my views on Mojo before, in depth, from various angles and multiple times, but in general I find most of what you say agreeable.
If I shall comment further on some things that I haven't aldready beaten to death (like the great sound, the fantastic playing, the pitfalls and prejudices of the "blues" aspect, how it's too scattered and long to quite work as an album - all of which you deal with anyway)...
...it would be that if there is one thing I would change, or be more careful with, in terms of the otherwise fantastic sound, it would be the filter put on TP's voice here and there. Not pretty.
..and..
01) Jefferson Jericho Blues (---) it’s an insistent and annoying riff.
Indeed it is. For people who likes this kinda thing, there is always Dylan's "Together Through Life" to check out, much of which are based around exactly the same type of sound and "insistent and annoying" riffs, played by MC there as well and put way up front in the mix. Not my forte. At all. If anything I feel insulted.
11) Don’t Pull Me Over—I heard someone compare this to “I Shot the Sheriff” and it’s a pretty accurate comparison.
Oh, no no.. Poor Bob!
Generally, I agree with you on most of the highlights here. And since the album is too long, to weight down by filler and at least one really great, rocking song (Mystery of Love) is left off the album, I would probably grade Mojo in the top five had they kept it down to 10 or 11 songs, used the known outtakes instead of some of the lamer moments they went with and thus have themselves a more wickedly effective, punching and dynamic album. For example:
01. I Should Have Known It
02. Running Man's Bible
03. First Flash of Freedom
04. No Reason To Cry
05. Little Girl Blues
06. High In The Morning
07. US41 (But it would take a lighter, more floating and de-voicefilter:ized version, if so.)
08. Mystery Of Love
09. Trip To Pirate's Cove
10. Something Good Coming
11. Good Enough
Yes. I always thought Good Enough is a briliant song and a brilliant closer.
"Hard living is killing me". That though, always cracks me up. Priceless, considering..
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Right. Pitiful. That's all I'm saying. Real pitiful.
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So, what you are saying is, the label cares a lot, but they don't really care. As for TP, he boasts and flogs, but deep down he doesn't really care either.
I think you might be on to something here!
It will be out, I know. I think. Just that... eh, nevermind. That's last years discussion really.
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I too have been meaning to toss some cents towards this Greatest Hits album topic.
Obviously a great compilation. Not to say a virtual treasure. It is what it's called, pretty much. What's not to like, in other words.
The disc is nicely sequenced (LP is a bit more problematic, perhaps, but that's for another discussion - this title was clearly made for CD). And focused on the big sellers. All the albums' lead off singles, save the odd left-out Jammin' Me. (I agree - really, wtf?) Of course there are plenty of other singles that could have been included (Louisiana Rain, Rebels, Straight Into Darkness to mention a few, Stop Draggin.. added for resequenced reprint as mentioned and so on..). But considering how they, at least marginally, missed such a mark even on Anthology - hence they obviously never had such ambitions anyway - I think GH is the most effective and amazing collection of their most known music. A great introduction for newbies or the most casual "fans".
Other than for those with a completist collector's ambition, however, the two additional then-new songs are the only reason that I can think of, to purcase this disc. I myself, being close to buried in hundreds of versions (total) of most TP albums and singles, have long since chosen to rid myself of all my prints of this title. For one thing, I rarely - let's say never - feel like listening exclusively and back to back to this worn and torn bundle of songs. To me, I find their deeper qualities - let's say I stand this material better these days, when tucked in their original context or made part of other, different, sometimes weirder and wilder contexts of self made compilations. So.. Mary Jane's Last Dance and Something On The Air I have kept - them being two of the best songs in all of the cataloge - in various single versions, like the rest of the material on the disc.
Worth mentioning, yes, thank you: Something In The Air has to be one of the most underrated and next to lost gems in all of the cataloge. Agreed. Not only is it one of a kind (almost) being a studio recorded cover song not put on an external compilation or tribute album but on one of their own titles* As mentioned above the singing of TP and Howie is also among the most wonderful and powerful, yet delicate vocals I've ever heard. This song, to me, showcases Howie at his finest. A dimension often times heard live during his years with the band, but oftentimes - much like been discussed w/r/t Stan - Howie's singing, and the otherworldly harmonic blend he made with TP, was rarely used to it's fullest in the studio, the way it was in Something In The Air. I really love that sound and wish I could have more of it.**
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*And a Greatest Hits album at that. Clearly a case of idiocy - contractual filler is a curse, the record label showing it's drewling beast self (sure they got a winner with MJLD, which was fluke and in hindsight only serves to make SITA an even more odd piece.). But a brilliant, wonderful recording never the less! I always thought it would have been a better way had they switched SITA for Jammin Me (and why not add on Rebels or something as well) on the actual album. Then -as a promo stunt- highlight three older hits, as reissued singles along with the lead off venture Mary Jane. That way the treats and "obscure" would be kept on the side for the die-hards that care, and there would have been the coolest package of four CDsingles (yes, this was 1993 after all), on each of which they could've put an alternative and/or live take of the hit and an exclusive studio recorded cover song as two b-sides each. (Then pack them with a back-stage souvenier pass for an 70s, 80s, 90s, tour respectively. That way, in the best of worlds, the album would have been an even more more fair display, it would get some promo help (that it might not have needed, but still), the hardcore fans would have more of a treat and the record label would be likely to sell. Then maybe we could've had three more awesome covers released from those sessions. Anyway. Just an idea. And perhaps this type of thinking is why I don't work for TP.
Clearly he prefers - to this day and despite all he's been through -the old-fangled, defective ways of the old school 1900s style big label haven, over cooler, cleaner and more morally supreme alternatives. That said, I guess 1993 was really about clearing the old contract and at least thus far, it's hard to to say anything other than, yes it's an awesome compilation.** I know it's different sessions, but if anything on All The Rest - in case it ever gets released - sounds even remotely like SITA and /or feature Howie in the same way, it will be a hit and will be more than worthy as a legacy of the 92-94 period.
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So no news on the album? Maybe they wanted to see how Somewhere Under Heaven sells or gets played on Spotify etc. And maybe the numbers were not satifactory.
Or they wait for Christmas.
I've been pondering both these options too. And in their own different ways they make me think. Where does that leave me, one may ask? Why naturally with a feeling there is really no hope for human kind. And a with really bad fluoxetine habit.
Whichever it is, all things considered, how last Christmas (not to be confused with the Wham! song) was a "finally" option too, the procrastination suggest, if ever there were doubts, "Joe" is now calling the shots with the TP pawn, or at least that any message that may have felt fresh and honest in 2002 have long since turned obsolete in a haze of miserable greed and lies. So what if the actually at least fairly popular Somewhere Under Heaven doesn't "perform" well enough in the books. If this or "All The Rest" are such a tough nuts to crack for a hopelessly tardy and backwards label like TP's, I think we may have held our breaths in vain in terms of hoping for any current era live album or even a new Mudcrutch album. They treat these things as such utter obscurities.. Now, til that date comes, if it comes, where is my box of pills...??
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^ Must say.. that is quite vigorously and eloquently put. Agreeing with most of it helps too.
Seriously - We all have opinions, but I like the almost thesis like, the sub context or whatever, the view on the big picture development long term and what have you, that I think I can discern in various posts of yours lately. I like big thinking, theories well argued, as it were.
ITGWO found him arriving at the point where he had fully integrated his new abilities into his system.
That, for example, is a way to put it that'd never occured to me. That is, I known it to be true to some extent, or from certain angles, but still.. That's some great fascinating wording, and a very interesting way to put it, in terms of what the 90s onwards was to become.
Keep it coming. We need more of the kind.
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So you're an audiophile I take it.
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double post, sorry
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Really it's code for "All The Resting This Music Will Be Doing On The Shelf Of The Record Company For All Eternity". Sometimes misspelled "Rusting" on the label. I know, it's a long title, but it's one of the most aptly named albums to ever sit on the shelf of the record company for all eternity. Bear that in mind.
Nah. Come on, you suckers, give us a date already!
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^ Yes, thanks for sharing those thoughts. I believe they are very well founded and well put. The Stan and Steve issue has been discussed elsewhere, both recently and through the years, but I think it a very poignant dimension to mention here,and I'mglad you did. FMF as a watershed of sorts, in terms of drumming, and perhaps of the rhythm section in general, cutting Howie back too. It sure became an under played aspect of the band for quite some time. A new TP ideal, as it were.
In recent years, the new material seem to suggest an opening, but despite such openings and despite Mudcrutch, Mojo and Hypnotic Eye all showing, ever so slightly, a new dawn in the bass department, to which both Ron and TP have contributed (man, I love how TP handles the bass duty, must say, so very very drawling and smitten), still nothing too exciting seems to be on the horiszon in terms of drums. (I'm not sure how much further Randall could or even would need to go - Mudcrutch context and material has so far been served perfectly as I see it - but in the Heartbreakers context, I have again started to miss the Stan factor in recent years, as I have confessed elsewhere. For the first time since.. well.. a long time, a majority of the new material seem to beg for a tad, just a tad, more adventurous drumming lately, perhaps more band approach in general.
Anyway.. I think you are right about how integral the Lynne era was to these changes of vision in TP, and in the Heartbreakers' sound. It's not always an immense difference, mind you - of course not - and the fact that the minimalistic set up served FMF quite well and that the general frippery of ITGWO masked the effect to most casual listeners for a few years more, there was a certain dynamic and soulful rock'n'roll aspect of what had been the Heartbreakers sound disappearing with FMF.
Again, all this have been discussed elsewhere, so I won't bring up all the various takes and angles of it in this thread, but it sure is an interesting side of any FMF analysis, any ponderings of the sound and the times, to keep this in mind.
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They flash a photo of TP for about one second in it. Highly recommended.
Sweet!
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Hey, thanks for sharing your thoughts! Sounds about right from my point of view, more or less.
Agreed about 'excusing' the new stuff like that. Stupid, if I may be so blunt. He may as well have said 'Sorry I'm kinda great.. and that you all are cheap bastards, lacking in vision'. Sometimes it too bad he's such a gentleman, having to humiliate himself like that for absolutely no reason other than perhaps sucking up to the most mindless elements of the crowd. ( If he feels like sucking up, I'd much rather he suck up to his fans and the people trusting his talent and musical judgement, right?? )
One thing though... from one TP aficionado to another.. how hard can it be to listen to all of Mojo already?? If there was any TP material ready available that I hadn't heard, I'd be all over it.
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That really is an underrated song, one of my favorites. And a fantastic perfomance too! Thanks for posting!
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As habit has it, I have to make myself a lot more clear.
I meant that yes - I do believe there was shift of paradigms for the 1991/92 tour, what with the production value, visually and sonically, sound effects, bringing in Scott to handle some of the various instrumental fills and so on (that was 91, wasn't it?). They clearly wanted to bring some of the ITGWO magic with them on stage. If they fully succeeded is beside the point. (I suppose "no" will suffice, it may indeed not have happened at all.)But you are right, either way the "Jeff sound" didn't last very long. And that's not what I was saying. At least not what I meant. I just think the 91/92 tour was a major move from various angles, and one that set wheels in motion towards the future. I do feel that TP&TH developted and matured a lot from touring with Bob (86/87) but in terms of their own tours, judging from countless tapes, cds, videos, I feel that they were a bit stuck soundwise since the grand 1982 tour, until 1991 again opened the door for things to start moving.
This is not to say that 1991 delivered "heaviness" as a done deal, just that suddenly a lot of the set up changed and steps were taken towards what later became another key development step for the Wildflowers tour, another for the Fillmore recidency, yet another for the Vic recidency and then finally a more noticeble marked step for the Mojo tour. So, like I said.. like any development, it's all steps, just that some are more important than others, and 1991, with all the ambitions, seems to have been a watershed, and eye opener, a game changer or you name it.. that's all I meant. It didn't last. It wasn't "heavy". I was just trying to find a starting point, really. And in some ways I think the 1991 tour broke some kinda spell. In other ways, of course, what you find to be phases of development and what you find to be slightly more "stagnant" (for lack of better words) phases is a subjective matter - It's always fair to say they've developed all the time.
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A po-po-po-poker face, if I ever seen one!
After that night in Vegas.. and the hell that we went through.TwoGunslingers reacted to this -
Happy birthday!!
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I don't know. I think Stan could've handled Tom's songwriting shifts, I've no doubt he could not only play those types of songs but his creativity, while perhaps reigned in a bit, or tightly controlled, would result in some inspired creativity, coming out in little embellishments in each track, that people who listen closely would've been enjoying for years to come.
Certainly he did a good job on Louisiana Rain, Built To Last, The Best of Everything, A Wasted Life, etc. I don't think Tom's written anything in 7/4. (Maybe he has?) My point is, Stan was skilled enough to play what Tom wrote and perhaps an enforced discipline on Wildlfowers, Echo etc. would've inspired him in other ways.
Personality wise, fan of the songs, and such, well...that's a whole other story. One we may finally be privvy to when that new TPATH book comes out.
Oh, I forgot to mention.. It's not that I think SL - in terms of drumming skills - couldn't have handled the material. Of course he could've. I just meant that perhaps the recording methods, the lesser need for a real live drummer that we've seen to this day, as well as part of the material, gradually became less and less according to his taste and desires, as much as his personal style and temper became less and less according to the desires of TP and the producers of said era.
Perhaps it was mutual and all for the better. "Personality wise".. and all that, yeah.. Probably the bigger part of it all, would be my guess. Simple as that. It was an age old antagonism by 1994. But that is not to say that I think TP (or SL, for that matter) was neccesarily right in every aspect of this development, musically. That is, IMO, neither a subtle change in writing style nor a change of studio/recording practices, had to be on the expense of SL. I think he could've done a great job and contributed another dimension to the era/material than did Steve. Better, worse or equal but different, who knows? I would guess - at least equal but different.
Nevertheless - it will always be a mighty irony to me, that entered Rick Rubin - a producer that could finally do SL real studio justice if he wanted to, who understood temper and could make some really awesome use of the SL style - and the bulk of the material in the pipeline was a tad mellow for such cause, and SL was on his way out anyway. Too bad, I would have loved to hear what SL could've done to Honey Bee or You Wreck Me for starters.. Especially the latter could have benefited, IMO, from some #ss kicking, runaway qualities, rather than the flat, if perfect, time keeping it got. Oh, sweet irony.
Or put like this: I understand the shift to Steve, even if I think the development towards less "soul" or "temper" (for lack of better) wasn't neccesarily the best choice for the Music in general - if indeed it was a choice. It turned out great both live and on record, but who knows what we could've had had Stan stayed abroad. No use speculating really, but to me it's fairly obvious that at least theoretically, had he been allowed to flourish, Stan probably could've done more good to the Steve era albums than vice versa. Again, that is not say that it's bad the way it went. After all, I did just say that the last few years have seen TP&TH developed to a sonic dimension they have never - even if they've always been great and one of the best band in the game - reached before. But still... Could there have been other and/or narrower pathways towards such goals? Or is it in the personal development too? Even in the development of hardware, tech over time, comparing the rig of 2014 with that of 1987 and... working with the right people..? All of the above? All of the above!
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Like the show from the Vic, Two Men Talking is heavy, thick, jam. And it's great.
Sure is. Thing is, to me it's hard to tell when this "shift" started, if there even is a starting point. I remember being impressed of how the sound had evolved in a rich, dynamic direction, when hearing the Filmore 1997 recordings and then again a clearly noticeble step at the Vic, as you say - in 2003 I remember thinking that they couldn't possibly sound any better, ever. Then again in 2008, the back to basics and dynamics, fun of Mudcrutch was mindblowing, in 2010 I was blown away of how they turned the lever yet another notch, and slightly even more so in 2012 and 2014, so indeed.. where did it start and where will it end?
Of course, in hindsight I've heard an even bigger "step" between the 1989 and 1991 tours, and perhaps that - the trying and succeeding in bringing the Jeff sound on stage - was the real starting point for the journey towards the "heaviness, groove, the increasing bass and drum drive" I mentioned.. or perhaps they've been at it all the time. Just briefly pausing a few times on the way. (If anything, seen from a reverse angle, I say the 83-89, 1998-2002, 2006-2008 eras were "pauses" in that live sound sense, if hugely important for the development in their ways anyway!)
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Yes. A ton. Literally.
http://www.bobdylan.com/us/thecuttingedge_completetracklisting
Mother of ¤"#. That's what I call "outtake box set", an understatement of the century.
Here I am, secretely hoping for TP to ever do something at least 10% worth of the kind, or at least get the "All The Rest" out already, and again Bob shows up, telling us who's top dog. Impressive on the border of lunacy, really. A key, defining moment in the history of rock layed out in detail.
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Apart from it being nice to be so generously quoted, I must say.. It is hard to find any serious flaws on FMF. Obviously classic stuff, incredibly great and important album, both in it's own right and as part of the TP legacy. Even for a minor Jeff sceptic like myself, it's hard not to be impressed with how it sounds too. It really is. Admittedly. For most parts it fits the material too, let's not forget. It's not my all time favorite, for various reasons - the songs being played to death and back again three times over, which is hard to handle for anyone with an even remotely normal attention span, being just one of them - but it will always be up there somewhere. How could it not be? (It would be like suggesting that say.. Hard Promises being one of there weaker albums, right?!
) Besides, just being in the top 5 or 6 of TP records - in my world - means it's an absolute masterpiece of a record, generally speaking.
Do you like the evolution of the Heartbreakers sound?
in Great Wide Open
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Abroad? Really? Jeez... On board.
Indeed, so it is. Great stuff. Something In The Air is a piece they should try live again sometime. Even without Howie it could be good. Very groovy. Also the versions of Easy Rider and 13 Days that they played a lot around that time are really, really great IMO. (I know how much you love the covers...! )