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K is for Keltner, Jim Keltner

Jim Keltner’s drumming approach was idiosyncratic, loose, and soulful, and helped elevate the studio musician’s role from that of a generic hired hand to an individual who colors the music with personality and style.

Do you know what is generally lost for me in downloading digital music? Reading the liner notes. That’s the info on the LP or CD that tells you who wrote the songs and who played on them, and often a narrative about the artist and/or the recording session.

As an active liner note reader, I well know the name Jim Keltner. If you are not, you probably do not. Here’s just an excerpt from the page about him on Wikipedia.

Keltner is best known for his session work on solo recordings by three of The Beatles, working often with George Harrison, John Lennon…, and Ringo Starr…He, as a free-lance drummer, has also worked with Leon Russell, Gabor Szabo, Delaney Bramlett, Roy Orbison, Harry Nilsson, Jerry Garcia, Eric Clapton, Guthrie Thomas, Steely Dan, Joe Cocker, Van Dyke Parks, the Rolling Stones…, Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell, Brian Wilson, Roger McGuinn, Seals and Crofts, The Ramones, Bill Frisell…, Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, Phil Keaggy, Steve Jones, Crowded House, Fiona Apple, Elvis Costello, The Bee Gees, Jackson Browne, The Manhattan Transfer, Randy Newman, Ry Cooder, Sam Phillips, Los Lobos, Pink Floyd, Warren Zevon, Rufus Wainwright, Tom Petty, Gillian Welch, the Steve Miller Band, Alice Cooper, Sheryl Crow and Lucinda Williams among many others. Here’s a discography covering 1969-1998, or this even more extensive list (that loads slowly).

From his Drum Magazine bio: “His drumming approach was idiosyncratic, loose, and soulful, and helped elevate the studio musician’s role from that of a generic hired hand to an individual who colors the music with personality and style. He is known not only for his great feel and sensitivity, but also for bringing a fresh approach to the potentially tedious world of pop music.”

The following are just a handful of the songs he played on
She’s Just My Style – Gary Lewis and the Playboys. Keltner’s first session.
You’re So Vain – Carly Simon.
Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door – Bob Dylan.
Angel Baby – John Lennon
End of the Line – Traveling Wilburys. Keltner is in the video.
Wilbury Twist – Traveling Wilburys. Keltner is in this video, too.
Warren Zevon – Keep Me In Your Heart.
Little Sister – Ry Cooder, John Hiatt, Nick Lowe and Jim Keltner live. These four guys put out a 1992 album called Little Village.
The Drummerworld page for Jim Keltner, featuring more songs.

Also:
How does Jim Keltner earn a living?
LENNONYC: Beyond Broadcast. Episode 3: Jim Keltner

Jim Keltner turns 70 on April 27, 2012, so this is an early happy birthday thanks.

ABC Wednesday – Round 10

Aretha, QoS, is 70

RESPECT by QoS is one of the five greatest cover songs EVER.

When Aretha Franklin burst onto the music scene in 1967, I suspect many people thought she was an overnight success. In fact, she had been signed by Columbia Records back in 1961, but because of the songs she was given to sing (“Rock-a-bye My Baby With A Dixie Melody”?), the producers she had, and/or the label’s promotion, she was unable to break through.

It wasn’t until she moved over to Atlantic Records, and recorded with the Muscle Shoals Sound Rhythm Section, that her true gift came to fruition. And when her period at Atlantic came to an end, changing over to Arista Records in the early 1980s, had a few more hits.

Most of my favorites are from the Atlantic period, though one was from the Columbia era, and one was something else altogether. Links to each song.

12. Spanish Harlem (#2 in 1971) – this is such a great reworking. And I love the word “BLLACK.”

11. You’re All I Need To Get By (#19 in 1971). The RESPECT reprise is great. (Couldn’t find a studio version; this is LIVE from 1978.)

10. Sisters Are Doin’ It For Themselves (#18 in 1985). With the Eurythmics. Love Annie Lennox and Aretha sharing phrases.

9. I Say a Little Prayer (#10 in 1968). Reworks the Bacharach-David tune to something playfully funky.

8. Eleanor Rigby (#17 in 1969). The first great thing – she tells it in the first person: “I’m Eleanor Rigby.” Secondly, the phraseology is SO not dependent on the original.

7. Rock Steady (#9 in 1971). Love the organ intro. “What it is, what it is, what it is.”

6. Chain Of Fools (#2 in 1968). The bridge is my favorite section.

5. Ain’t No Way (#16 in 1968). Heartfelt ballad with a lovely solo soprano by Cissy Houston, Whitney’s mom.

4. (Sweet Sweet Baby) Since You’ve Been Gone (#5 in 1968). When I used to listen to AM radio in the day, the DJs would often talk over the musical intro, which irritated me greatly. No talking over THIS intro, which was one chord.

3. (You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman (#8 in 1967). The second appearance of this song in this blog in less than two months – previously in my Carole King post.

2. Sweet Bitter Love (1966). This title cut of a Columbia album was written by Van McCoy, who was better known for The Hustle a decade later. I first heard this song on a Columbia compilation album, Our Best To You: Today’s Great Hits… Today’s Great Stars, and loved it instantly. In the right (wrong?) frame of mind, it’ll make me cry.

1. Respect (#1 in 1967). Otis Redding, the original writer/performer of this song, famously said that Aretha “done stole [that song] from me,” making it her own. It became an anthem. One of the five greatest cover versions EVER.

Old Fogey Music QUESTION

It’s not that I don’t buy ANY new music, it’s that I am more likely to buy tried and true artists.

I’m trying to figure out that moment when I stopped following current music.

Surely, I remember the start was when I was maybe three, in the 1950s. But the coming of age music was in the 1960s, with the Beatles and Motown, et al, and later Cream and Aretha, and the like. Still active in the singer-songwriter 1970s, and revived in the early 1980s with the Clash, the Talking Heads, the Police, and so forth.

Was it the 1990s when I didn’t “get” Nirvana initially?

No, I actually eventually purchased some Nirvana and Pearl Jam. And, even as my music consumption diminished, MTV was still actually playing music videos, so that I was vaguely aware of the hit songs. But now? I look at the charts and don’t even recognize most of the names, let alone the songs.

It’s not that I don’t buy ANY new music, it’s that I am more likely to buy tried and true artists. My favorite album last year? By Paul Simon. The albums I’m most looking forward to right now? By Bonnie Raitt (her first on her own label) and Leonard Cohen. Oh, and that album of Bob Dylan covers. Got Bruce Springsteen for my birthday, and picked up Lyle Lovett and Paul McCartney with a gift card.

I’ve purchased very few albums by artists whose recording career started in the 21st Century, and most of those tend to be singers such as Corrine Bailey Rae or Adele. There may be an outlier, such as Arcade Fire, but it is the exception.

If you are of a certain age, are you still buying new music, and if so, is it from newer artists or ones you’ve grown up with?

Requiem of the week: Fauré

Camille Saint-Saëns said of it, “Just as Mozart’s is the only Ave verum Corpus, this is the only Pie Jesu.”

This late 19th century piece, by composer Gabriel Fauré (1845-1924), is probably my second favorite requiem. My current choir has performed it at least twice, in 2005 and 2009. It runs about 35 minutes, and consists of seven movements; the linked audios are from sundry sources.

I. Introït et Kyrie (D minor)
II. Offertoire (B minor)
III. Sanctus (E flat major)

Yes, the call-and-response is important, but it’s the violin that makes it.
IV. Pie Jesu (B flat major) A lovely soprano aria, often used in films, etc. Camille Saint-Saëns said of it, “Just as Mozart’s is the only Ave Verum Corpus, this is the only Pie Jesu.”
V. Agnus Dei et Lux Aeterna (F major) – but it’s almost always the Agnus Dei that gets to me.
VI. Libera me (D minor) Wish I could sing like this baritone.
VII. In Paradisum (D major) Another popular work in other media.

Ah, here’s another In Paradisum

You can hear the whole thing, if you have the right media player, here.

The Beatles vs. the Four Seasons

The label, with pretty much only the songs from the Beatles Please Please Me album, repackaged it several times.

The Wife and I have been to two programs at Proctors Theatre in Schenectady in the last month, both enjoyable, though in quite different ways.

On Friday, February 24, we went to the GE Theatre and attended “Looking Through A Glass Onion”, a deconstruction of the Beatles white album presented by Scott Freiman. Actually, we were the perfect audience. I remember hearing the album for the first time in the basement of the Unitarian church in Binghamton, NY late in the fall of 1968. By contrast, my wife had probably never heard of more than a half dozen of the 30 songs on the album. Yet we both walked away learning things.

That bit Can You Take Me Back Where I Came From between Cry Baby Cry and Revolution 9 came from a take of the song I Will. The song Revolution 9 came from an iteration of Revolution 1, is one of FOUR versions of Revolution, including the single and the version that shows up on the Anthology video, which is my very favorite, as it rocks like the single, but has the doowaps of Revolution1.

The difference is that Frieman was able to provide music snippets showing these things in context. He also somehow separated some tracks so you could hear Paul sing the bass line in I Will, e.g. Quite entertainingly told. The only problem is that he only got through about 2/3s of the songs on the album, though he did also touch on the single Hey Jude.

Tuesday, March 6, we saw Jersey Boys, the story of the Four Seasons, at the main Proctors stage. The reason the show worked, besides solid performances, is the Rashomon nature of the story, with Tommy, Bob, Nick, and Frankie having different recollections of what took place. I knew this quartet far less well than I did the Fab Four, but learned a lot more about them. Unlike some “musicals” that throw a bunch of songs together so that it’s more a musical revue than a stage production, this actually had a narrative flow. There were also effective visual effects that enhanced the narrative. I thought the Nippertown review was spot on.

The Beatles and the Four Seasons were, for a brief time, on the same record label in the US, VeeJay. The label, with pretty much only the songs from the Beatles’ Please Please Me album, repackaged it several times; likewise, the Four Seasons had moved onto another label. Thus was born the most peculiar The Beatles vs. the Four Seasons collection.