Shiny Happy People

Sex, drugs and rock n’ roll. That’s our impression of a rock-star life and it is impossible to think of them leading a normal family life.

I was listening to NPR Fresh Air, last August, and the guest on the show was Pegi Young, Neil Young’s wife. She had just released her self-titled debut album. She was part of Neil’s band (backing vocals) on some of his records and tours. But it took a very long time for her to come out with a solo album. She had been busy raising their kids (Ben, born to Pegi and Young, and Zeke from Neil’s first relationship were diagnosed of cerebral palsy) and running their Bridge School which helps children with severe speech and physical impairments.

They’ve been married for almost 29 years now and as Pegi says in the interview, they met in a bar. Recently, when I was listening to the song Like a Hurricane in my car, I knew what Neil was singing about:

Once I thought I saw you in a crowded hazy bar,
Dancing on the light from star to star.
Far across the moonbeam I know that’s who you are,
I saw your brown eyes turning once to fire.
(Like a Hurricane, N. Young)

I have been listening to the Pegi Young album for a couple of weeks now. Though it may not be a significant record in the rock history, it is a significant one for the Youngs, and definitely for me. I love the album: Pegi’s voice, the light hearted love songs, the humor and the presence of Neil. It’s on the 4th track Hold on that we feel the first major presence of Neil and intentional or not, I don’t know, Pegi sings: Hold on, I'm not me without you here.

It’s a party for Neil Young fans on the song Love like water, where Neil plays a groovy sitar riff throughout the song. Even with Neil’s presence, this is essentially a Pegi Young album, consistent, and she has written most of the songs.

Praise be the bars where the lonely meet
And for awhile can feel the heat
Praise to the liquor that warms our heads
Gives us the courage To get things said
(Heterosexual Masses, P. Young)

As we know, Neil also has declared his love for Pegi on some of his albums - lyrics such as these ones from Harvest Moon says it all:

Because I’m still in love with you
I want to see you dance again
Because I’m still in love with you
On this harvest moon.
(Harvest Moon, 1992, N. Young)

You know it aint easy, you got to hold on
She was an unknown legend in her time
Now she’s dressin’ two kids, lookin’ for a magic kiss
She gets the far-away look in her eyes.
(Unknown Legend, 1992, N. Young)

I might have gone overboard here celebrating the Youngs’ family life, but it is heartening to see that they have fought through and contributed their learning (on dealing with cerebral palsy) to the society by envisioning and managing the Bridge School.

The Voice of America

Willis Conover 1920-1996

You may call Willis Conver a Jazz legend, though he was just the host of the Jazz Hour program on Voice of America. I heard Conover on radio (Voice of America on shortwave) when I was probably too young to listen to Jazz. Perhaps he is the only radio show host who is as respected as the legends of the music genre itself.

The clipping is from the VOA newsletter which I recieved in '96. Click on the image to read.

Read the Conover tribute by the The Hindu jazz critic Jazzebel here.

Also posted on my Radio blog.

Strawberries and some extra cream

It is Wimbledon again and for the readers of The Hindu, it would also mean that they get a daily dose of strawberries and cream from the staff reporter Nirmal Shekar. Though cheesy at times, I find Shekar’s reports amusing.
He writes in today's (Jun 23) paper marking the opening day at the Wimbledon:

For sport to evoke spiritual states akin to those activated by the best of music, try sitting in the centre Court stands on a lovely summer afternoon even as Rafael Nadal forces Federer to dig deeper than ever before. Borg and McEnroe, Becker and Edberg, Agassi and Ivanisevic — if you have been there and seen it, you will know all about Wimbledon’s special allure.

Here are some select quotes from last year's reports:
Shekar on the Russian player Marat Safin:

It is easy to accept Martina Navratilova as American, easy not to think of her Czech past. It is just as easy to accept the new national allegiance of almost any athlete. But Safin — well, even if he bought a home on Mars and settled down on the red planet, you cannot think of him as anything but Russian. He is as Russian as Fyodor Dostoevsky’s Dmitri Karamazov.

This is one of those cheesy pieces, again from last year’s reports- On the weather condition during a Sania Mirza match:

A polar bear might have found the conditions perfect for a roll on the grass and a cozy snooze, although it must be admitted that the endangered creature would have found the noise from the stands — the cries of ‘come on Sania’ and the histles — distinctly alien. Things are rather quieter in the Arctic northern Canada and Alaska.

I liked his comparison of Pete Sampras and Roger Federer (The Hindu Jul 2, 2007):

In his first final in 1993, the great man [Pete Sampras] played Jim Courier, a four-time Grand Slam champion. His other final opponents were Boris Becker (six Grand Slam titles), Goran Ivanisevic (one), Andre Agassi (eight) and Pat Rafter two). Sampras’ final opponents together won 20 Grand Slam titles.
In comparison, Federer’s final opponents have won four (Nadal three and Roddick one).

All this leaves us with a simple question: who is the greatest Wimbledon (grass court) champion of all time?

Here is my choice: Pete Sampras. I believe if Sampras and Federer had met at their respective peaks at Wimbledon, the former would have won seven out of 10 times.

I dont know the math behind that conclusion, but somehow it made sense.

While we all are anxious to know the fate of Federer this year, Shekar writes (Jun 23, 2008 The Hindu):

If Federer were a listed company, then his stock would now be trading at a five-year low and this is the main reason why this championship is invested with special meaning, particularly in the context of the men’s game.

Time’s arrow travels only in one direction and a slightly wobbly Federer knows that his ascent of Mount Sampras and beyond will depend heavily on his reinventing himself as an all-time great champion on the velvety green carpet here, a surface that seems to endow the great man with wings, making him miraculously weightless.

Enjoy the season and yes, stock up your refrigerators.

State of Pecos

I owe a lot to Pecos, the dingy little pub on Rest house road in Bangalore. I would be there at least 5 days a week, with my friend. We would drink flat beer by the gallon, eat Kerala beef and listen to the Dead, Steely Dan and Creedence for hours. We would check out by 11:30, come home and eat Maggi noodles for dinner.

The music system was the worst in town, but the music just the opposite. One day you could see Paul at the bar, next day he was gone. Elango, the pub manager, never cared much for guys without girls, so we didn’t care much for him either. Technology took over, they got a CD player. But they still played the tapes.

Years passed, my visits became less frequent- thanks to the traffic situation in Bangalore. In the last one year, probably I went there 10 times, and may be only once I could feel the good old Pecos. All the other days, they played the same music: Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin and Bob Marley-almost in the same order too! Though there were familiar faces in the waiting staff, the regular crowd was different – not just the faces, but the people too.

Pecos is history. Maybe we need a Rick Rubin to save Pecos - getting it back to where it once belonged. :)

For old times’ sake, let me compile a quintessential Pecos play list. Making a list of “singles” for Pecos would be blasphemous, as the tradition is to play albums – start to finish. But these are the songs that define Pecos (for sure, I would have missed many–I just put a cap at 10 songs).

1. Bad moon rising – CCR
2. Ruby Tuesday – Rolling stones
3. Truckin’ – Grateful Dead
4. Homeward bound – Simon and Garfunkel
5. Locomotive breath – Jethro Tull
6. Boston Rag – Steely Dan
7. Domino – Van Morrison
8. Free as a bird – Lynyrd Skynyrd
9. Riders on the Storm – The Doors
10. Heading for the light – The Traveling Wilburys

PS: I didn’t include any Jazz tracks here (pity, they don’t play Jazz anymore) and deliberately kept the Floyd, Zeppelin and Marley out.

Jack flak

Jack Black is not an actor. He lives in his movies. That’s why we are so bored of him. He is just the same in all of them. After doing School of Rock he should have embraced St. Kurt. It’s better to burn out, etc. In Hi Fidelity, it was a guest appearance of the character from School of Rock. I don’t remember much of Shallow Hal. In Jesus’ Son and Orange County, the roles are so similar that even Jack Black wouldn’t be able to tell one from the other. Luckily I didn’t get a chance to watch Nacho Libre.

And with the Pips spoof from the American Idol finale, it is official – Jack Black should quit the entertainment industry. May be he can form a rock group and put his music online for free download. It would be better than whatever he is doing now.



Ladies and Gentlemen, Jack Black has dropped his pants. You may laugh now. Thank you.

Just another list

3 favourite "rock songs with accordions":
1. When I paint my masterpiece – The Band [youtube]
2. 4th of July – Bruce Springsteen & the E-Street Band [youtube]
3. Summersong – The Decemberists [youtube]

Band on the run

I have always wondered how studio albums are made by each member of the band coming in at a different time to the studio and recording his own instrument/vocal into the song. Technology may have advanced to make it possible, but would they actually enjoy recording like this?

Every kid knows: When Van Morrison made the monumental Astral Weeks, he came into the studio alone with his guitar, sang and strummed hysterically, and later all the instrumental segments were added on to this. If you were not aware of this fact when you listened to this album, you wouldn’t have ever imagined this, Astral weeks being such a passionate and solid record.

Talking of bands and of being passionate, nothing can get more intimate than the E-Street Band. But then, Springsteen’s latest offering Magic was recorded in a similar fashion (maybe for the first time in the history of E-Street) – due to the busy schedules of E-Street members, they came in separately to the studio and recorded their part into the song. Can you imagine E-Street band doing such a thing?

The indie-rock-gone-major-met-Dalai-Lama band Death Cab for Cutie decided that for their latest album, they would stick to playing as a band, live, while recording, in contrast to their first Major Label album Plans. From the NYT review:

As the album [Plans] turned into a big-budget production in which each instrument was recorded separately, “It was freaking me out, definitely,” Mr. [Chris] Walla said. “I missed out on the fun of being in a band. I felt more like a project manager than one quarter of a band. I had a clipboard instead of a guitar.”

[..]“Narrow Stairs” was largely recorded live in the studio, and in the music you can sense a band in communion with itself.

While we are at it, on the album Band on the run by Paul McCartney, “backed” by the band Wings, Paul played lead, rhythm and bass guitars, drums, piano, keyboards, percussion, and obviously did the vocals too! All the instruments on this album were not played and recorded live, eh.

Major Lift

One of the most frequently used song in movie and TV serial soundtracks these days, is Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah. Last night I came across this song again, the John Cale cover, in an episode of Scrubs. By far the most appropriate usage of this song I have seen, is in the movie Lord of War (the Jeff Buckley cover). Others can take a lesson or two from T Bone Brunett.

Now those memories come back to haunt me...

Songs in the key of Life #2

The River is probably the first Springsteen song I fell in love with. And at that time, thats how I wanted my life to be- just like the story in the song:

And for my nineteenth birthday
I got a union card and a wedding coat
We went down to the courthouse
And the judge put it all to rest
No wedding day smiles no walk down the aisle
No flowers no wedding dress

For me, this song brings in memories of the first CD player in our home and the first couple of CDs, my brother got on his first trip to the US.
This is also the first rock song lyrics I memorized, start to finish, and I sang along each time it was played. I can still play this song shut in a room alone, sing along with all my energy, get moody at the end of it and not talk to anyone for three days.

Mega stores and iTunes killed the Record Store

Apr 19th was celebrated as the Record Store Day, or more appropriately - an obituary to the dying neighborhood/independent record stores.

Some relief to the folks in Bangalore - Habitat is still there on Church Street. I am grateful to them for organizing the CDs so meticulously, playing good music on their stereo (usually jazz), the unpretentious atmosphere and non-intrusive staff.They also have the best collection of DVDs in Bangalore.

Looking at it from a different angle, some people love to visit a mega record store chain, without any hassles of familiarity, walk in, buy the record you like, pay and walk out. You can buy a Pet Shop Boys album and don't have to hear the rant of the rock-snob record store employee who swears by Nick Drake. They usually are a pretentious lot, like the DJs in a rock pub- remember Jack Black in Hi-Fidelity (as a independent record store clerk) yelling at a customer who asks for a Stevie Wonder album!