#Greg Kot CHICAGO TRIBUNE

[sweetdreamsjeff]

‘An Emotional Lightning Rod’: Jeff Buckley’s ‘Grace’ at 25

Jim Shahen

POSTED ON AUGUST 22, 2019

Grace is 25 years old. Jeff Buckley’s debut is gorgeous and heartbreaking, ambitious, daring and eclectic, and, as the sole studio album released during his short life, the only fully realized vision of the artistic brilliance he possessed.

With the expectation that his first LP was the starting point of an iconic recording career, Columbia Records released Grace on Aug. 23, 1994. Entertainment Weekly deemed it “stunningly original” and “too good to be true.” Greg Kot of the Chicago Tribune heralded Buckley’s voice as having “a soulful intensity that sends chills.” Peers and legends such as Jimmy Page and Robert Plant, Paul McCartney, Bob Dylan, David Bowie, and Chris Cornell were effusive in their praise of the album and of Buckley’s tremendous gifts as a singer, guitarist, and composer.

Others were not so kind. Rolling Stone lauded his ambition, but gave Grace a three-star review that featured the one of the poorest-aging opinions in the magazine’s history: “The young Buckley’s vocals don’t always stand up: He doesn’t sound battered or desperate enough to carry off Leonard Cohen’s ‘Hallelujah.’” And Robert Christgau, the “Dean of American Rock Critics,” gave it a C rating and lampooned the hoopla surrounding Buckley by writing, “Let us pray the force of hype blows him all the way to Uranus.”

But those less-than-stellar reviews engaged with Grace on the same terms as the glowing ones — that this was the starting point for an artist with sky-high expectations, talent, and potential. Buckley’s horrific drowning death at age 30 in the Wolf River, an offshoot of the Mississippi, in 1997 ensured it was also his end point. But between his own passing and the passage of time, Grace has only grown in stature.

In 2014, the Library of Congress added Buckley’s “Hallelujah” to the National Recording Registry. Rolling Stone, walking back its prior opinion, ranked the track 259th in its 500 best songs of all time in 2003 and put Grace at 303 in its top 500 albums list the same year. Over the past decade, essentially every music publication of note has included Grace on its list of both top releases of the 1990s and overall albums.

A Vessel

The son of prodigiously talented folk-jazz singer/cult icon Tim Buckley and Mary Guibert, Jeff arrived at music without the guidance of the father he met only once before Tim’s death in 1975 from a drug overdose. While a cornerstone of his legacy is his gorgeous, multi-octave voice, Buckley’s first passion and pursuit in music was the guitar, where he was drawn to the sounds of Led Zeppelin and jazz fusion.

After spending the latter half of the 1980s kicking around as a guitarist in various jazz, metal, punk, funk, reggae, and R&B bands, Buckley began to pursue his own songs. In 1991 he attracted industry attention when, accompanied by guitarist Gary Lucas, he made his public singing debut at a tribute show for his father.

Photo by Merri Cyr / Sony Music

From there, Buckley’s career trajectory changed. After collaborating with Lucas for a year, he went out on his own and became part of the New York City café scene. These shows, later documented on Live at Sin-é, became part of his legend, featuring both his original tunes and an eclectic mix of fare made popular by Nina Simone, Billie Holiday, Judy Garland, and Bad Brains.

These café shows regularly attracted record executives and power players, and in October 1992 Buckley signed a three-album deal with Columbia Records. The label had high hopes that Buckley’s brilliance would quickly reveal itself to a wider range of fans. The thinking was that he’d succeed labelmates Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen as someone who would flourish into the finest singer-songwriter of his generation and compile a legendary body of work.

For the band that helped record Grace and toured with him in support, that brilliance was apparent from the beginning.

“This might sound stupid, but I don’t give a shit,” his former drummer Matt Johnson says. “But one time when we were playing, something about his voice went through my body. It was an entirely metaphysical moment where something supernatural happened.

“The man was one of the most extraordinary musicians to ever live,” he adds. “Jeff was this lightning rod of the tone and tenor of all the human emotion in a room. He had this ability to act as an emotional lightning rod, and I always thought he’d hopefully become a vessel for that.”

Saving ‘Grace’

Johnson first met Buckley in summer 1993 and within a couple of months was recruited to be the drummer for the Grace recording sessions. Though the then-23-year-old had had some session and recording experience, Johnson had never worked on a project of this scale before. As he looks back on the experience, Johnson thinks his youth and relative inexperience played a large part in why Buckley wanted him in the band.

“Jeff seemed to be confident he could get what he needed from this ensemble,” he says. “We were young and, in my case, had a lot of insecurities. I think he wanted that — he didn’t want session musicians, he wanted the transformation younger players would bring and create a snapshot of that.”

Photo by Merri Cyr / Sony Music

While Johnson recalls that “the stakes felt high” and there was a “sense of importance of Jeff” to Columbia, he doesn’t remember the process of creating Grace as particularly laborious or fraught. Part of this can be attributed to the calming nature of producer Andy Wallace, who had previously worked on Nirvana’s Nevermind, Run-DMC’s Raising Hell, and multiple albums by Slayer, and his ability to nurture the creative process.

Johnson also attributes a large part of that to Buckley’s multi-instrumental capabilities, uncanny ear, instincts, and efficiency. Because of that, it only took about a day per song to lay down the non-vocal elements.

“I thought he was a very good collaborator, bandleader, and mentor,” Johnson says. “Jeff understood how to both be an individual musician, while also still keenly aware of how to be part of an ensemble.

“His listening was a very powerful thing to be present for,” Johnson continues, comparing Buckley’s auditory capacity to that of composer Johann Sebastian Bach. “It could be textures, entry points, Jeff just knew how stuff should be held together. He could get a pairing of two basic opposites and it’d sound idiosyncratic and perfect.”

While Johnson was there for the entirety of the recording process, Michael Tighe came into Buckley’s band at the tail end of the sessions. The guitarist had met Buckley through a mutual friend in high school and the two had jammed on and off. As Buckley closed in on completing Grace and was putting together his touring band, he reached out to his friend.

Much like Johnson, Tighe was impressed by Buckley’s ability to absorb so many influences and styles, then translate it into his own work.

“He would ruminate on the music a lot and when it came time for recording, he’d really focus,” Tighe says. “He’d usually come in very quickly or he’d obsess on it and get into a perfectionist mindset. But he wouldn’t release something until it was perfect.

Photo by Merri Cyr / Sony Music

“He was really taken with a lot of music,” Tighe says. “He could cast this spell and create a space that was quite meditative. We would sit or stand in a circle and drone on something. We all had very good chemistry; it’s why he put the band together.”

That natural chemistry Buckley had with Tighe and the rest of the group came in handy and allowed Tighe to come in with a late contribution that changed the complexion of Grace.

“One day I played him the chords to ‘So Real.’ It was something I played him in my room (back in high school),” he recalls. “This was after, like, most of the album was done. During rehearsals he said, ‘Hey, remember that song you played in your room?’”

Thus, “So Real” came to be. To make room for it on Grace, Buckley bumped “Forget Her” off the album. This move came much to the chagrin of Columbia Records, which had planned to issue “Forget Her” as the lead single. Neither Johnson nor Tighe can recall quite why Buckley held such disdain for “Forget Her,” a tune of his own composition, but both vividly remember his adamance in replacing it.

“‘So Real’ saved the record for him,” Johnson says. “And it points toward the sound he was going for, it’s the sound of a door opening to the future.”

A Cult Hero

When Grace was finally released, grunge rock, hip-hop, and The Lion King soundtrack dominated the charts. There weren’t many acts out there simultaneously channeling Nina Simone, Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, the Smiths, and Led Zeppelin. As such, it took a long time for the record to take hold and capture the imagination of listeners: It peaked at 149 on the Billboard Top 200 albums chart that year and didn’t reaching platinum-selling status until 2006.

Photo by Merri Cyr / Sony Music

Even without immediate success, the participants knew they had made something special.

“You can go back now and think about the production and the mix from that time period, but I think it’s perfect in its own way,” Tighe notes. “I think Jeff was very aware of how good the album was, but I think it bothered him slightly the album wasn’t more successful. But he was already a cult hero. We all thought it’d be a longer career and that would change.

“The zeitgeist was so different back then. There weren’t bands like Coldplay, Radiohead had just started,” Tighe says. “When I play it now for people, I love watching the glaze that comes over their eyes. Ultimately, it’s his voice, people just have an immediate emotional reaction to his voice.”

Johnson’s feelings on Grace are tied strongly to the recording sessions, that moment in time they captured and what it all meant personally. The fact that it connected with people well after the fact is an added bonus.

“When it comes to Grace, I feel very, very lucky. I’m never in a position to look at it like anything but a fuckin’ penny from heaven,” he says. “There isn’t one song I don’t like. When I hear it, it’s like I made this amazing best image of me that could be captured in any scenario.

“I can’t find fault with it and it’s not like I haven’t heard criticism,” Johnson continues. “But the feeling I got recording it was absolutely spine-chilling. I did not ever more feel what the drive of my life was, and it could not have borne better fruits. To have Rolling Stone or whoever now praise it is icing on the fucking cake. I don’t ever feel like, ‘What the fuck took you so long?’”

Musical Echoes

It took a few years for Buckley’s influence on fellow artists to be heard. By Tighe’s estimation, it was around the early 2000s that he started hearing Buckley-esque melodies on the radio, including from bands such as Coldplay and Radiohead, who drew inspiration from Buckley’s chord progressions and structures.

“Now you just hear it all the time,” he says. “There was that moment a while back someone did ‘Hallelujah’ on one of those shows like American Idol. The zeitgeist has changed a lot.”

Of course, Buckley’s legacy is more than just the alt-rock waves of decades past and singing competitions designed to highlight vocal chops. There’s a new breed of singer-songwriters that have used Grace as a starting point for their endeavors.

Madison Cunningham (photo by Claire Marie Vogel)

Madison Cunningham is a 22-year-old musician who just released the LP Who Are You Now and cites Buckley as one of her heroes. On songs like “Something to Believe In” and “Last Boat to Freedom,” you can hear her use that admiration to create her own artistic statement.

She was gifted a copy of Grace from a friend as a teenager and at first she didn’t dig it. But once she revisited it a few months later, it was a revelation.

“I didn’t get it and I really wanted to get it, but it was a big palette stretch for me,” Cunningham recalls. “But once I did, it was like, ‘Whoa, I get it! This is like the song that’s inside my head!’

“Always his voice stands out. Still to this day I haven’t heard a voice like that,” she continues. “There was such a depth to his work, you’ve got to sit a minute to think about it all.”

While Buckley’s vocal range and power moved and inspired her, what’s seeped into Cunningham’s work was the way he played guitar and arranged his material to incorporate all the different sounds that moved him.

“He changed how I played guitar,” she says. “He was so bold with his chord progressions. There’s certain chords he played that are just very unique to him. Even now when I play something, I’m like, ‘Oh, those are Buckley chords.’

“There’s just something special to him,” Cunningham adds. “He had his own genre and sound and was very unashamedly himself. That’s very hard to find.”

Cunningham identifies why, 25 years later, Grace and Jeff Buckley are still relevant parts of the cultural landscape. It’s why there’s interest in the various bootlegs, live takes, demos, and the recent biographical graphic novel his estate has released in the past two decades.

The latest batch of such releases, timed for the anniversary, includes four concert albums as well as expanded digital versions of Grace (including “Forget Her”), Mystery White Boy (a full-length live album), and Sketches for My Sweetheart the Drunk, an album of material Buckley recorded in 1996 and 1997 and was first released a year after his death. All will be available digitally on Aug. 23.

In the years since Buckley’s tragic demise, both Tighe and Johnson have gone on to work on other major projects. Tighe’s written for and worked with Adele, Mark Ronson, and Liam Gallagher. Johnson has played with Rufus Wainwright and Jade Bird and had a five-year stint with St. Vincent.

Both men are active, talented, and in-demand career musicians. Neither needs to relive their time with Buckley as a way to boost themselves. But both are enthusiastic in discussing their friend and his gifts, and are doing their part to ensure people remember him.

“As a special talent, he was pretty ineffable,” Tighe says. “He was attracted to music with spirituality and he could embody that. It wasn’t something he learned, it was just given. He was incredible.”

“With Jeff, because he died in such an unforeseen way, I try to make the time to talk about him,” Johnson says. “Jeff had a certain intelligence and this explosion of emotion that was a soaring, insightful, penetrating whole vision of a man. I’ll always do what I can to honor that.”

To commemorate the 25th anniversary of Grace, Columbia/Legacy has shared a previously unreleased live video of “Lover, You Should Have Come Over,” filmed during a concert in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on Feb. 19, 1994.

[garudabluffs]

Jim DeRogatis and Greg Kot of Sound Opinions

Marty Perez/Courtesy of the artist

Jim DeRogatis and Greg Kot are the hosts of Sound Opinions, a radio talk show heard across the country that's made in Chicago. Jim and Greg, who are also longtime music journalists for the Chicago Sun Times and Chicago Tribune, respectively, have been debating great music for over 20 years.

Among the artists in the running for Jim and Greg's definitive Chicago album: Muddy Waters, Frankie Knuckles, Liz Phair and Curtis Mayfield.

'Sound Opinions' radio show hosts on the albums that define Chicago Feb.3, 2023

24-Minute Listen READ MORE https://www.npr.org/2023/02/02/1153960764/albums-that-define-the-chicago-music-scene

Set List

Muddy Waters, "(I'm Your) Hoochie Coochie Man"

Frankie Knuckles, "Your Love"

Liz Phair, "Never Said"

Curtis Mayfield, "Super Fly"

Naked Raygun, "Managua"

Naked Raygun, "I Don't Know"

The Staple Singers, "Freedom Highway"

The Staple Singers, "Help Me Jesus"

[twinpeaksdudes]

"Twin Peaks stayed relatively low-key while remaining dedicated to the roll-up-the-sleeves work ethic that is the foundation of developing as a band, both as performers and songwriters....what emerges above all is a sense of gratitude. Female heroines abound.” - Greg Kot (via Chicago Tribune)

[harrisonarchive]

In July 1992, Live In Japan, a live album recorded during the Japan tour of 1991, was released. Photo © BANG Showbiz.

“Like many rock stars, George Harrison has an ego problem. Unlike most of them, he could use more ego, not less. […] Harrison says he spends many of his days ‘pretending I'm on vacation, seeing if I can let the pond settle with barely a ripple.’ ‘Sometimes I think I haven't toured for so long because I'm just basically lazy,’ he says with a laugh. [...] ‘The only regret I have about not touring more is that it's fun playing with a band, that's all,’ [Harrison] says, calling from his home outside London, where he lives with his wife, Olivia, and son, Dhani. ‘After three or four nights of doing the concerts, my ego was satisfied. I'm the kind of person who would love to play whenever I felt like, with a band, and it might as well be the Holiday Inn in Nebraska — somewhere where no one knows you and you're in a band situation just playing music. ‘The adulation or the superstardom is something I could leave out quite happily. Playing in the band in a live situation, you really become a better musician.” - Chicago Tribune, article by Greg Kot, 13 July 1992 (x)

[oliviasflapjacks]

Olivia at the 63rd Cannes Festival, May 15, 2010. Photo Credit - Beatles Wives & Girls facebook page

[Greg Kot] Did any of the material in the documentary surprise you

[Olivia] It surprised me that Marty chose a certain body of music that would be a narrative for George’s entire life. It wasn’t just linear, we didn’t go through the music of the ‘80s and ‘90s. Outside of maybe one or two things, he didn’t use any music beyond 1973, and that was a surprise.

[Greg Kot] Do you feel some more of George’s later music should’ve been in there?

[Olivia] No, because it was really rich what Marty did. He uses the music to take you out to sea, and then he leaves you there in this very deep water. He takes you to a place you don’t expect, and not everybody wants to go there. But that’s what he does. I respect him for that, and I think it was the right thing to do. The most surprising thing about the documentary was that it doesn’t end where you expect. It’s about life, but it’s also about death. Living and dying. It doesn’t leave you where you expected.

Greg Kot- Treasure trove of George Harrison music unwrapped. Chicago Tribune, April 20, 2012

http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2012-04-20/entertainment/chi-george-harrison-archive-music-20120420_1_harrison-documentary-george-harrison-dhani-harrison

[howaminotinthestrokesyet]

Behind The Album: Metallica (The Black Album)

Metallica's fifth studio album was released in August 1991. They recorded it at One On One Studios in Los Angeles and Little Mountain Sound Studios in Vancouver with new producer Bob Rock. Once again, the majority of the record was composed by James Hetfield and Lars Ulrich as Hetfield wrote all of the lyrics. Kirk Hammett and Jason Newsted also contributed significantly by providing riffs including “Enter Sandman” and “My Friend of Misery.” Metallica decided to go with Bob Rock based on his production work with Motley Crue for their 1989 record, Dr. Feelgood. During the recording sessions, the band did something differently from previous efforts as they played as a group in the studio, not separately. James Hetfield talked about this change. "What we really wanted was a live feel. In the past, Lars and I constructed the rhythm parts without Kirk and Jason. This time I wanted to try playing as a band unit in the studio. It lightens things up and you get more of a vibe." The record took a much longer time to make when compared with their previous efforts beginning with the first demos in August 1990 and concluding in June 1991.

Producer Rock thought recording would be relatively easy, but due to arguments between him and other band members about the direction and quality of the music it became a bit of a disaster. He was highly critical of James Hetfield’s lyrics begging him to write better ones. The band would record as many takes as possible until the sound was right making for a very perfectionist environment in the studio. Kirk Hammett, Jason Newsted, and Lars Ulrich would end up divorcing their wives during the recording of this album creating even more tension between them. Hammett talked about what effect this had on them in the studio. We were “trying to take those feeling of guilt and failure and channel them into the music, to get something positive out of it.” Rock very briefly promised to never work with the band again because the studio was so stressful, but he quickly took that back to work with the band for the next decade. The documentary A Year and a Half in the Life shows quite accurately with real footage of what the making of this album was really like.

This record saw Metallica change its sound from their typical thrash metal to a slower heavy metal vibe that could almost be seen as hard rock. One of the reasons the band did this emerged in the fact that heavy metal as opposed to thrash metal represented a more commercial sound. That is not to say they completely abandoned any element of thrash metal, but instead there was much less of it. Unlike And Justice For All, Bob Rock raised the sound of the base considerably, so that the instrument could be heard. All the band members had the intention of making this album much simpler as opposed to the previous ones with so many riffs and long tracks. James Hetfield would say this, “We had pretty much done the longer song format to death." Lars Ulrich also talked about this change as well. “We felt inadequate as musicians and as songwriters, That made us go too far, around Master of Puppets and Justice, in the direction of trying to prove ourselves. 'We'll do all this weird-ass shit sideways to prove that we are capable musicians and songwriters'" Hetfield did emphasize in interviews that the intention of getting their songs played more on the radio was never foremost in the band’s mind. Another change with this album came in the fact that Hetfield now wrote lyrics based on personal experiences instead of the backdrop of ideas from film, literature, and music. Chris True of AllMusic talked about specifically some tracks on the album as examples. "Enter Sandman'' is about "nightmares and all that come with them". "The God That Failed" dealt with the death of Hetfield's mother from cancer and her Christian science beliefs, which kept her from seeking medical treatment. "Nothing Else Matters" was a love song Hetfield wrote about missing his girlfriend while on tour.``

The title of the album became an extensive discussion as well for the group. They considered naming it after a song on the album or five because this would be their fifth studio album. Yet, they ultimately chose to go the self- titled route in keeping with the theme of simplicity running throughout the entire album. The album's cover was completely black except for the logo and the Gadsden flag in each corner. The two images we’re very difficult to see, so people began calling it The Black Album. The initial printing of the album had those logos embossed in the same color, but on later printings of the album they were changed to a gray color. The Gadsden flag first created during the American Revolution had a motto attached to it, Don’t Tread On Me, which represented a track on the album as well. During the documentary A Year and a Half in the Life, Lars Ulrich joked that Their album looked just like Spinal Tap’s Smell The Glove in Rob Reiner‘s mockumentary. They even included a scene where the band members meet up with Michael Mckean, who actually asked about the similarities. Ulrich would later say that the actual inspiration for the album cover came from the seventies group, Status Quo.

Upon the release of The Black Album, the band subsequently released six singles, which represented a stark contrast to their previous releases. The lead single “Enter Sandman” made it all the way to number 16 on the hot 100 Billboard chart, while other singles did fairly well either in the US or internationally. The music video for “Enter Sandman” went on to win Best Rock Video at the 1992 MTV Video Music Awards. The only single not to do much on the charts was “Sad But True,” but it must be noted that the single had a much later release date of 1993. The record itself represented Metallica’s best selling album ever. The Black Album stayed number one in the United States for four consecutive weeks, while it topped the charts in 10 different countries at the same time. By the year 2012, the record had sold 16 million copies becoming the first one in the Nelson SoundScan era to do so. As of 2019, this record was still charting on the billboard 200 making it an exclusive member of the 550 Week Club. Critics emerged as fairly unanimous in their praise of the Black Album. One of the biggest changes for the band came in the fact that not only heavy metal journalists saw the great qualities of it, but now mainstream magazines like New Musical Express were discussing Metallica. Entertainment Weekly’s David Brown said that the group had invented a new genre called progressive thrash. Alec Foege of Spin noted a newfound versatility for the group and songs like the unforgiven and holier than thou. Mark Cooper of Q Magazine mentioned the fact that the record avoided several heavy metal clichés that had come to dominate the genre. Robert Palmer of Rolling Stone said that the album was filled with many hard rock classics. Greg Kot of the Chicago Tribune in a retrospective piece said that if you are a novice to the music, then this album is the perfect place to start. Kerrang! in a retrospective article as well pointed out that this album catapulted the band from thrash metal underground pioneers to worldwide rock stars. There was bound to be repercussions over such a major change to the group and how they are viewed. Sid Smith of BBC Music took this observation to the next step by noting that many of Metallica‘s diehard fans did not necessarily love this record because they saw it as the band selling out. This view will become even more prevalent in the years to come as they move their sound much closer to hard rock for the rest of the decade. Allmusic’s Steve Huey observed that this record helped to inspire other speed metal bands to simplify their sound. The album also foreshadowed the decline of Metallica’s creative period. The self-titled Metallica went on to win a Grammy in 1992 for Best Rock Album. The record would make several best of lists, but surprisingly their best selling album for the most part never competed with some of their earlier works on these lists.

[wellthatwasaletdown]

Greg Kot, in his review of Harry's album for the Chicago Tribune, called it derivative and lacking hooks. He went onto say that the lyrics in SOTT were nonsensical. He ended up giving it two out of four stars. The only reason that I'm even mentioning this is to rebut the anons who insist that all the critics love him. They enjoy picking out mediocre reviews for the others, like the one who said Liam was a flop, while ignoring that Harry has his fair share of not so great reviews.

Harries are masters at ignoring the negative reviews and only pushing the positive ones.

[almahiphop]

Easy Listening 4 Armageddon es el álbum debut del músico y rapero Mike Ladd conocido como "The king of the Hip-Hop concept" el rey reel Hip-Hop conceptual. Fue lanzado por Scratchie Records hoy 10 junio de 1997. Dan LeRoy de AllMusic le dio al álbum 4 de 5 estrellas. Tony Green, de JazzTimes, escribió: "Ignorando el impulso demasiado común de acumular textura encima de la textura, Ladd construye 12 pistas que convencen con tanta eficacia como su poesía imaginativa". Greg Kot, del Chicago Tribune, lo calificó como "uno de los debuts de hip-hop más exitosos de los últimos años". A pesar de no ser del gusto de muchos raperos enfocados en el jazz, los samples clásicos, el boom bap y demás estilos más Underground del disco fue uno de sus mejores lanzamientos. #EasyListening4Armageddon #MikeLadd #DebutAlbum #TheKingOfTheHipHopConcept #ScratchieRecords #AlmaHipHop #RapMusic #HipHopMemories #RapChronology #RapHistory (en Boston Massassuchete) https://www.instagram.com/p/CBRlSTeAR8d/?igshid=9b3e7n05spno

[debslunchpix]

Rosanne Cash & Ry Cooder & band doing music of Johnny Cash at Chicago Theater. We had nosebleed seats but I’m so glad to have been there! Have to agree with @emma.lusis weeknight concerts are exhausting - even more so with travel involved! I let Chicago tribune do the set list for me ... https://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/music/greg-kot/ct-ent-rosanne-cash-ry-cooder-review-chicago-theater-0620-20190619-ylhbzwels5dbzdwno4pj762a5a-story.html https://www.instagram.com/p/By5MJVOnvjN/?igshid=3awjky97okk1

[daniel-browne]

Controversy: Notes on Prince’s Deliverance

--Oh boy. Not how I envisioned the unsealing of the vault.

--A year ago, I wrote, “The worst-case scenario would be the kind of half-baked cash grabs foisted on fans of Michael Jackson, unfinished sketches tricked out with posthumous overdubs to make them chart-friendly. It’s hard to imagine that would happen to Prince, but we won’t know for sure until we find out who is overseeing the vault and what their brief is.” Deliverance isn’t as dire a case as that. The songs are more than sketches, and whatever engineer George Ian Boxill did to “complete” the recordings, it was at least discreet and more or less in keeping with what Prince sounded like circa 2006-2008.

--Still, the fact that the tracks were doctored at all should have raised a red flag. More than anything, I’m struck by the failure of journalism this situation represents. Major music sites rushed out posts reporting that unreleased Prince music was on the way without investigating any of the vague information that accompanied the announcement. When exactly were these songs cut? What was Boxill’s role in their inception? What exactly did he do to them after Prince’s death? Who authorized him to do what he did? Why was this material entrusted to RMA, a Vancouver indie with no other prominent releases to its name, and not one of the two major labels that just bid millions for the rights to Prince’s vast catalog and archives? And why was it being billed as “the unheard spiritual voice of Prince,” a patently absurd claim, given that we’re talking about the artist who released a song called “God” back in 1984? If the media raised any of these questions, they clearly didn’t wait for the answers.

--I understand there are more important things happening in the world right now, but that doesn’t make this unimportant. Fans care. I know I do, anyway. And then there’s the matter of the historical record. I still believe “we owe it to [Prince] to see that his life’s work is handled with the utmost respect.”

--One of the salient points the content farmers seem to have missed is that, while the official release date for the Deliverance EP was today, it was available to download directly from RMA for most of the week. I know because I bought it. As such, the legal wrangling underway is probably for naught. I haven’t done a Google search, but I assume anyone up for a little online legwork (and untroubled by the ethical considerations) will be able to find this music sooner or later.

--So what about the music anyway? Is it worth all the fuss? Put it this way: I wouldn’t rank these songs with the best of the contemporaneous 3121 and Planet Earth, but they’ve got the easy mastery of form and performance that’s characteristic of his later work. Smokin’ guitar, naturally.

--Contrary to the PR copy, the God talk isn’t as pronounced as on, say, The Rainbow Children or, you know, “God.” The lyric that makes the strongest first impression is “Somebody say Katrina levees…”

--Come to think of it, the gospel-style backing vocals on the title track are an obvious candidate for a Boxill addition, a literal-minded way of underlining those supposedly headline-worthy spiritual themes; when he needed back-up, Prince typically preferred the sound of his own (multi-tracked) voice. [UPDATE: Rolling Stone finally got an interview with the heads of the label that released Deliverance, in which they confirm my intuition about the choir. They apparently specialize in Christian music, which may explain the emphasis on spirituality.]

--One of the many unanswered questions here is whether the song “Deliverance” was even intended for the same project as the four-song suite that accompanies it on the EP. Sounds like it could be, but who knows? You can understand why the so-called “Man Opera” might have been difficult to fit onto a standard late-period Prince album. It works surprisingly well as a stand-alone, or nearly stand-alone, piece, though, despite a minute or so of that tinkling operetta shtick Prince sometimes falls back on when he needs to get from musical idea A to musical idea B. The extended version of “I Am” may have been an attempt to salvage a commercially viable cut from this odd little concoction.

--All in all, Deliverance deserves to be heard, and I’m glad I grabbed it when I could, though I feel slightly icky about it. Even as I eagerly await the massive Purple Rain box set coming in June, I admit there’s something to be said for releasing material from the vault in easily digestible, EP-length chunks. It’s a strategy I hope Warner and Universal will consider even though it’s unlikely to be as profitable as a parade of deluxe box sets (just ask Dylan’s people).

--That said, I also hope “Deliverance” and the Man Opera are eventually made available in a more responsible way, along with any other unreleased songs from the same period and detailed information about the sessions. I’d welcome the opportunity to compare the raw tracks to Boxill’s “completed” versions. They may not reveal an “unheard voice,” but they’d certainly help deepen our understanding of the purple wonder we already know and love.

P.S. While I’m on this subject, I want to mention Stephen Thomas Erlewine’s fun and informative post on Pitchfork about Prince’s work as a songwriter and producer for other artists. (Did you know he pitched “Wonderful Ass” to the Violent Femmes?) The piece is accompanied by Spotify and Apple Music playlists of some of the songs Erlewine mentions. That’s all well and good, but twenty years from now, will these playlists still exist? Will kids be able to listen to them commercial- and subscription-free at their public library (assuming we still have public libraries)? Unless the answer is an unqualified yes, we still need albums and professionals to conscientiously compile them.

UPDATE: In one of the only reviews of Deliverance I’ve seen, the Chicago Tribune’s Greg Kot endorses the title track, dismisses the Man Opera, and asks “who, if anyone, will be charged with finding gems on par with a track like ‘Deliverance’?” Leaving aside Kot’s judgement on the music, his conclusion could not be more wrong-headed. The last thing we need (and the last thing you’d think a critic would want) is some anonymous administrator subjectively cherry-picking from the vault, leaving the rest to molder. Would Kot argue that a newly discovered cache of Bob Dylan songs should go unheard because they’re “[not] quite as strong” as “Blind Willie McTell”? Why not permanently delete lesser Prince albums like Graffiti Bridge?

[sweetdreamsjeff]

Early Jeff Buckley recordings depict struggle, not genius

By Greg Kot

Chicago Tribune

•Last Updated: 

Mar 04, 2016 at 1:31 pm

"You and I" features some of Jeff Buckley's favorite songs by other artists and early takes on a couple of his songs recorded in 1993 after he signed with Columbia Records.��(Columbia/Legacy Recordings)

When Jeff Buckley drowned in the Mississippi River in 1997 at age 30, he was still something of a musical phantom, represented by one indelible studio album, "Grace," and a live EP. His you-had-to-be-there live performances suggested those recordings had only scraped the surface of his talent.

With taste that spanned jazz ballads to heavy metal, an expansive folk-soul sensibility and a multi-octave voice that could crack even the hardest facades, Buckley was destined to be mourned as much for the music he would've made as for what he left behind. In subsequent years, the product void has been filled by more than a dozen posthumous recordings and DVDs. The archival releases continue apace with "You and I" (Columbia/Legacy), which consists of 10 studio performances from early 1993, soon after he was signed to Columbia Records.

It captures Buckley offering stripped-down readings of some of his favorite songs by other artists, ranging across eras and genres. Though the singer's affection for these songs is never in doubt, his performances rarely approach the level of the originals. This is Buckley still in his musical infancy, at the earliest stages of laying down the music for his debut album, which wouldn't be released until more than a year later.

Buckley tries to pry open the complexities of Bob Dylan's "Just Like a Woman" but never quite balances its (admittedly strange) mix of flinty condescension and fragility. His cover of Sly Stone's "Everyday People" suggests something you'd hear at a beachfront Tiki bar at happy hour. He makes the Smiths' music-industry critique "The Boy With the Thorn in His Side" sound self-pitying, completely missing Morrissey's wicked humor.

When Buckley relaxes just a bit, it's disarming, as in his jazzy take on the standard "Don't Let the Sun Catch You Crying." On Bukka White's "Poor Boy Long Way from Home," his voice sounds like it's emerging from the mist of an ancient 78-rpm record. And an early take of the title track from "Grace" provides the sharpest glimpse of Buckley's emerging artistry with its ebb-and-flow arrangement and interwoven guitar-voice melody lines, a reverie as much as a song.

The singer-songwriter presents the outlines of another original song-in-progress, "Dream of You and I," with disarming commentary about how the images appeared to him in a dream. The song was never completed, resurfacing years later in more fleshed out but still unfinished form on the demos for what would have been his second album. In the same way, "You and I" is more a raw sketch than a fully formed portrait of a 26-year-old artist still coming to terms with what he wanted to say and how he wanted to say it.

Greg Kot is a Tribune Newspapers critic.

greg@gregkot.com

Twitter @gregkot

"You and I"

Jeff Buckley

2 stars (out of 4) Originally Published: 

Nov 17, 2017 at 11:32 pm

[garudabluffs]

How One Of Music's Biggest Stars Almost Disappeared, And How Her Legacy Was Saved

Rosetta Tharpe was a huge star in her era and set the template for rock and roll. So why was she absent from popular consciousness after her death — and why did it take decades to revive her legacy?

“In the interview about his documentary, Csaky chalks up the fact that so few people knew about Tharpe for so long as "a case of her simply falling through the cracks of history." Anyone who looks for systemic bias in our cultural creation myths knows it's not quite that simple, that irrelevance more eagerly awaited someone like Tharpe than would ever await Elvis. Because by the time "rock and roll" became something concrete — a knowable, definable style or ideal – it had hardened into something that had no place for her. "Rock and roll," by definition, wasn't for women to play – just look at the all-male inaugural class of the Rock Hall. It wasn't concerned with the sacred-secular divide, and so it wasn't impressed by someone who learned how to navigate it to her advantage. (Unless, of course, you count Aretha Franklin, who surprisingly was inducted in 1986.) The style and flamboyance of rock and roll, it had been decided, didn't include that of a guitar-wielding, praise-shouting, god-fearing woman like Tharpe. She had an utter unwillingness to abide by the strictures her gender, race and genre set forth, and she made music that defied easy categorization. Those qualities made her — and her music — unique and inspiring enough to kick start the global musical revolution of rock and roll, the dominant popular American musical form for decades and one that continues evolving to this day. The great indignity is that those very qualities also made it so easy to erase her from the story she helped create.”

Brittany Howard turns solo debut into a personal manifesto

https://www.gazettenet.com/Brittany-Howard-turns-solo-debut-into-personal-manifesto-28780391

Amherst Bulletin ARTS p. B3 Sept. 27,2019

Brittany Howard is putting her band Alabama Shakes on hold to release her solo debut album, "Jaime."

September 20, 2019   By GREG KOT   Chicago Tribune

“Brittany Howard’s ascent as the powerhouse singer-guitarist and driving force in the band Alabama Shakes appeared to be a dream-come-true scenario. She struggled for years to forge her identity in a nearly forgotten corner of northern Alabama, then released two best-selling albums in a row with the Shakes. Yet despite the acclaim that greeted the garage-rock-meets-soul testifying of “Boys & Girls” (2012) and the more expansive “Sound & Color” (2015), Howard felt something was lacking.

Her solo debut, “Jaime” (ATO), breaks ground sonically and lyrically.”

She animates a childhood crush for another girl in the yearning ballad “Georgia,” explores her relationship with God (it’s complicated) on “He Loves Me” and, most strikingly of all, describes the hardships of growing up biracial in the rural South on the harrowing “Goat Head”: “Who slashed my dad’s tires and put a goat head in the back?”

READ MORE https://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/music/greg-kot/ct-ent-brittany-howard-album-review-20190920-ck6ykjgbjvgrlo73p64kwhqg6m-story.html

[dixie78]

Chicago-area native recalls how she landed her dream job with Ellen DeGeneres

After years of surprising fans of “The Ellen DeGeneres Show” with their contest winnings, Westchester native Jeannie Klisiewicz was shocked when DeGeneres surprised her with a Ford EcoSport and an audience seat dedicated in her name to celebrate her 10th anniversary working for the show.

“This is not what I expected for my life. I thought I would be a teacher, and that would have been a wonderful life. This was never the journey that I had planned, and the fact that it is my journey and it is my story is overwhelming in the best of ways,” Klisiewicz told the Tribune by phone after the segment aired this week.

Klisiewicz recalls planning her University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign schedule around “Ellen,” wearing “Ellen” pajamas and constantly writing to producers. She had recently graduated with an elementary education degree and was on her parents’ Sugar Grove porch 10 years ago when she received a call from DeGeneres that changed her life.

“So you’ve entered every contest and you’ve never won one contest?” DeGeneres asked Klisiewicz. “Do you know why I’m calling you? To tell you you still have not won anything. Nothing. … What do you need?”

“I need a job,” Klisiewicz said. “I mean, I’ll like clean your bathrooms.”

And so Klisiewicz headed to California and taped a red-carpet segment, which eventually led to a correspondent job that has allowed her to criss-cross the country to give away cars, large checks and tickets to major sporting events.

As part of these sweepstakes, Klisiewicz has had the opportunity to share some very emotional moments with “Ellen” fans. One of her favorites was a reunion of long-lost siblings featured on an episode of “Life’s First-Evers with Jeannie,” a new digital series with Ford.

Klisiewicz, 31, has had her share of surprises as well. DeGeneres, whom Klisiewicz considers to be her mentor, got her a dream walk-on role in the Broadway production of “Wicked” in 2015.

DeGeneres surprised Klisiewicz with the Ford EcoSport and the audience seat by having Klisiewicz try to surprise a woman who turned out to be an actress in on the gag. Klisiewicz was the one who was stunned when DeGeneres invited her on stage.

“When she revealed that seat, that was so emotional because I remember sitting on my couch in college and watching audience members sit in those seats and all I really wanted was to be able to sit in them too,” Klisiewicz said. “And now the fact that one of them has my name on it is unreal. It sounds so goofy because it’s a plaque on a seat, but it means more to me than I can express.”

And where does Klisiewicz plan to be in 10 years?

“I don't know what the future holds. I hope that I'm doing something where I’m able to give back just like I am here. I am one of those people, I'm a firm believer that sometimes in life you have to stand still and look around at all the blessings that you have,” she said. “And this show and the people that I’m with and this job is the biggest blessing. I'm just so proud to be here.”

tswartz@tribpub.com

Twitter @tracyswartz

Warner Bros, / Handout

A seat in the "Ellen" audience is dedicated to Westchester native Jeannie Klisiewicz.

A seat in the "Ellen" audience is dedicated to Westchester native Jeannie Klisiewicz. (Warner Bros, / Handout)

Check out the latest movie reviews from Michael Phillips and the Chicago Tribune.

Check out reviews for all new music releases from Tribune music critic Greg Kot.

[harrisonarchive]

George Harrison's Ohnothimagen promotional postcard for his 1975 album Extra Texture; photo by Henry Grossman.

"George was not a guy who was using music to impress the world. He was trying to express something. He is one of the most important figures in early rock ‘n’ roll history — he left his ego out of it. He was the ‘Egoless Beatle.’” - Tony Sheridan, While My Guitar Gently Weeps: The Music of George Harrison

“‘[George] played [Alan Steckler] the All Things Must Pass album. I listened to it, and I was stunned. It was awesome.’ Meanwhile, George sat shyly alongside him, almost frightened to meet his gaze. When it was over, Steckler said, ‘George, that’s the most amazing album I’ve heard’. George looked startled, then bemused, then finally suspicious, as if he might be the subject of an elaborate joke. ‘Really?’ he muttered at last.” - British Beatles Fan Club, 2011

"[George] just wanted to be in a band; he hated being a leader and wasn’t comfortable being the leader — he hated giving orders, he wasn’t at all a pushy superstar or egotistical. He was totally the opposite of all that.” - Andy Newmark, While My Guitar Gently Weeps: The Music of George Harrison

"Like many rock stars, George Harrison has an ego problem. Unlike most of them, he could use more ego, not less.” - Greg Kot, Chicago Tribune, 13 July 1992)

"George lacked a bit of confidence, strangely enough. He was someone who enjoyed a cuddle now and again. I remember on ‘Extra Texture’ he printed up some flyers, and on them was written, ‘Oh no, not him again.’ I mean, if that doesn’t indicate a lack of confidence, what does?” - “Legs” Larry Smith, Uncut, August 2008 (x)

[oliviasflapjacks]

[Greg Kot] Did any of the material in the documentary surprise you

[Olivia] It surprised me that Marty chose a certain body of music that would be a narrative for George’s entire life. It wasn’t just linear, we didn’t go through the music of the ‘80s and ‘90s. Outside of maybe one or two things, he didn’t use any music beyond 1973, and that was a surprise.

[Greg Kot] Do you feel some more of George’s later music should’ve been in there?

[Olivia] No, because it was really rich what Marty did. He uses the music to take you out to sea, and then he leaves you there in this very deep water. He takes you to a place you don’t expect, and not everybody wants to go there. But that’s what he does. I respect him for that, and I think it was the right thing to do. The most surprising thing about the documentary was that it doesn’t end where you expect. It’s about life, but it’s also about death. Living and dying. It doesn’t leave you where you expected.

Greg Kot- Treasure trove of George Harrison music unwrapped. Chicago Tribune, April 20, 2012

http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2012-04-20/entertainment/chi-george-harrison-archive-music-20120420_1_harrison-documentary-george-harrison-dhani-harrison

[beautyfulword]

Clapton: The Autobiography

Item specifics

Condition: Good :   A book that has been read but is in good condition. Very minimal damage to the cover including scuff marks, but no holes or tears. The dust jacket for hard covers may not be included. Binding has minimal wear. The majority of pages are undamaged with minimal creasing or tearing, minimal pencil underlining of text, no highlighting of text, no writing in margins. No missing pages. See the seller’s listing for full details and description of any imperfections. See all condition definitions- opens in a new window or tab Seller Notes: “Hardcover in Good condition” Format: Hardcover Language: English ISBN:

9780385518512

EAN:

9780385518512

Clapton: The Autobiography by Eric Clapton About this product Product Information "I found a pattern in my behavior that had been repeating itself for years, decades even. Bad choices were my specialty, and if something honest and decent came along, I would shun it or run the other way." With striking intimacy and candor, Eric Clapton tells the story of his eventful and inspiring life in this poignant and honest autobiography. More than a rock star, he is an icon, a living embodiment of the history of rock music. Well known for his reserve in a profession marked by self-promotion, flamboyance, and spin, he now chronicles, for the first time, his remarkable personal and professional journeys. Born illegitimate in 1945 and raised by his grandparents, Eric never knew his father and, until the age of nine, believed his actual mother to be his sister. In his early teens his solace was the guitar, and his incredible talent would make him a cult hero in the clubs of Britain and inspire devoted fans to scrawl "Clapton is God" on the walls of London's Underground. With the formation of Cream, the world's first supergroup, he became a worldwide superstar, but conflicting personalities tore the band apart within two years. His stints in Blind Faith, in Delaney and Bonnie and Friends, and in Derek and the Dominos were also short-lived but yielded some of the most enduring songs in history, including the classic "Layla." During the late sixties he played as a guest with Jimi Hendrix and Bob Dylan, as well as the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, and longtime friend George Harrison. It was while working with the latter that he fell for George's wife, Pattie Boyd, a seemingly unrequited love that led him to the depths of despair, self-imposed seclusion, and drug addiction. By the early seventies he had overcome his addiction and released the bestselling album 461 Ocean Boulevard, with its massive hit "I Shot the Sheriff." He followed that with the platinum album Slowhand, which included "Wonderful Tonight," the touching love song to Pattie, whom he finally married at the end of 1979. A short time later, however, Eric had replaced heroin with alcohol as his preferred vice, following a pattern of behavior that not only was detrimental to his music but contributed to the eventual breakup of his marriage. In the eighties he would battle and begin his recovery from alcoholism and become a father. But just as his life was coming together, he was struck by a terrible blow: His beloved four-year-old son, Conor, died in a freak accident. At an earlier time Eric might have coped with this tragedy by fleeing into a world of addiction. But now a much stronger man, he took refuge in music, responding with the achingly beautiful "Tears in Heaven." Clapton is the powerfully written story of a survivor, a man who has achieved the pinnacle of success despite extraordinary demons. It is one of the most compelling memoirs of our time. Product Identifiers Publisher Broadway Books ISBN-10 038551851x ISBN-13 9780385518512 eBay Product ID (ePID) 59039778 Product Key Features Format Book, Hardcover Language English Dimensions Weight 22.3 Oz Width 6.5in. Height 1.2in. Length 9.5in. Additional Product Features Publication Year 20070000 Illustrated Yes Copyright Date 2007 Author Simon Vance Number of Pages 352 Pages Lc Classification Number Ml419 Publication Date 2007-10-09 Reviews "Like the bluesmen who inspired him, Clapton has his share of scars . . . his compelling memoir is . . . a soulful performance." People "An absorbing tale of artistry, decadence, and redemption." Los Angeles Times "One of the very best rock autobiographies ever." Houston Chronicle "A glorious rock history." New York Post "This book does what many rock historians couldn't: It debunks the legend . . . puts a lie to the glamour of what it means to be a rock star." Greg Kot,Chicago Tribune "Strong stuff.Clapton reveals its author's journey to self-acceptance and manhood. Anyone who cares about the man and his music will want to take the trip with him." Anthony DeCurtis,Rolling Stone "Clapton is honest . . . even searing and often witty, with a hard-won survivor's humor . . . an honorable badge of a book." Stephen King, New York Times Book Review "Riveting" Boston Herald "An even, unblinking sensibility defines the author's voice." New York Times "An unsparing self-portrait." USA Today Lccn 2007-015482 Price : 4.09 Ends on : View on eBay Read the full article