Rock Salted – Page 192 – Cultural Detritus, Reviews, and Commentary

Ian Dury – New Boots and Panties!!

Ian Dury – New Boots and Panties!! Stiff SEEZ 4 (1977)

To put Ian Dury in context, I’d say he has a little of the nostalgic and slightly off-kilter, insecure sense of humor of Jonathan Richman (this comes through quite strongly on “Sweet Gene Vincent”), matched with a gritty and edgy lyrical sense and musical vision like Jim Carroll and perhaps less inhibition. Of course, he’s also fundamentally British. You might say he was the wittiest and smartest guy in the same type of scene that would produce working class punk and Oi! like Sham 69 and Cock Sparrer, though his band The Blockheads gives this a funky, sometimes jazzy, almost disco sheen vaguely like Marianne Faithfull‘s Broken English of a couple years later but with more visceral drive. Yet the use of such a nondescript style instrumental backing, almost devoid of personality (not to sell The Blockheads short — what they do here is pitch-perfect), places this, along with The The‘s Soul Mining, as a testament to witty lyrics and vocals that are full of character making any music capable of intimacy and charm. And when they use a prog-rock, jazzy-inflected synthesizer solo on “Blockheads,” it is of course prefaced with a fart sound. There is a sense of wonder about life in this music. Yet Dury never takes himself too seriously. He is always ready to make a fool of himself, and offer a hilariously off-color comment, usually while talking loosely and casually about going out and doing things, having fun, and getting by. Interesting too that Dury released this, his first album, in his late 30s, somewhat a rarity in rock. A great one from the punk era.

Dorgon + William Parker – Broken/Circle

Dorgon + William Parker – Broken/Circle Jumbo 5 (1998)

Dorgon (a/k/a Mr. Dorgon, a/k/a DJ$shot, b. Gordon Knauer) is one of those characters few people know what quite to do with. Allaboutjazz has a series of reviews of his works under the title “Mr. Dorgon: Genius or Charlatan?“. He found a niche in the late 1990s New York downtown jazz scene, and recorded not one but two sessions with the era’s leading bassist in William Parker. And Broken/Circle shows how diverse the New York scene was at that time, providing space both for Dorgon’s methodical and almost (subtly) rock-oriented expositions and Parker’s highly refined and adaptable jazz faculties. Parker is the acknowledged master of the era. A towering figure, and with as many credentials as could possibly be amassed. Dorgon has, well, none of the same credentials (though liner notes on various releases on his own Jumbo Recordings label sometimes attribute fictitious ones, just as the back of this album fictitiously states it was recorded in 1949 on board the ocean liner USS Bhutan). The wooden, plodding noises emanating from Dorgon’s c-melody saxophone have a single-mindedness that forces Parker to adapt and expand the sound all on his own. Nothing Dorgon does gives Parker a clue, so the bassist is constantly on his toes. And that really is the point here. Dorgon throws out sounds like challenges and Parker responds—always admirably. If in performance technique Dorgon’s playing is rudimentary, he certainly succeeds in creating a context for some of William Parker’s most intriguing playing of the day.

Some of Dorgon’s recordings on his label are well worth investigating, especially those that pair him with talented players like on this album and Dorgon Y Su Grupo. Many were released with handmade covers. My copy of Broken/Circle is painted and written on a piece of Kraft paper that seems to be cut from a paper bag.

NYPD Work Stoppage

Links to articles on the NYPD’s work stoppage protest:

“The NYPD’s ‘Work Stoppage’ Is Surreal”

“Mayor deBlasio Should Fire Protesting Cops and Apply Payroll Savings to Better Things: NY Cops Prove They Aren’t Really Needed”

“The Sound of Police”

Count Basie – The Complete Decca Recordings

Count Basie – The Complete Decca Recordings GRP GRD-3-611 (1992)

Good stuff, of course, though I could do without some of the tracks, mostly cuts with vocalists that bore me. For a more potent distillation of what you find here, I heartily recommend The Best of Early Basie. If you want a full overview of the kings of the swing era big bands, try Fletcher Henderson‘s Wrappin’ It Up, Ellington‘s The Blanton-Webster Band (reissued as Never No Lament: The Blanton-Webster Band) and the aforementioned The Best of Early Basie. From there, you can check out Benny Goodman, Lionel Hampton, Teddy Wilson, Jimmie Lunceford, Jay McShann, Artie Shaw, Woody Herman, Glenn Miller, you name it.

Ross Caputi – American Sniper?

Link to a review of the film American Sniper (2014) by Ross Caputi:

“American Sniper?”

Bonus links: “Zero Dark Thirty: Hollywood’s Gift to American Power”, “‘American Sniper,’ Clint Eastwood and White Fear” and “War Porn: Hollywood and War from World War II to American Sniper”

FKA twigs – LP1

FKA twigs – LP1 Young Turks YTCD118 (2014)

LP1 is basically music in the style of new electro R&B, like The Weeknd, which makes some overtures to various electronic pop genres mostly originating from the UK. But there is something else going on here. Experiments and outsider music are being co-opted in pursuit of conformist commercial success in the usual channels. The lyrics of this album evidence a sort of low self-esteem protagonist degrading herself for external validation. That at least is what it tries to be. There is a strong sense that this is very contrived music. It resembles the sort of “feminism” that — idiotically — declares adherence to stereotypical gender roles to be revolutionary, like “shopping as identity”. This is immanently self-defeating more than anything. Although perhaps this appropriates some interesting bits from other sources, the conclusion remains: fail.

Funkadelic – One Nation Under a Groove

Funkadelic – One Nation Under a Groove Warner Bros. BSK 3209 (1978)

Landing on major label Warner Bros., Funkadelic combined the more accessible elements of Parliament (the funk version of the band) and Funkadelic (the rock version of the band) to arrive at the sound of One Nation Under a Groove. The edges have been rounded off some of the rock guitar solos, and the funk is a little less hard — you don’t HAVE to dance, but you still very well could. Things glide by pretty comfortably though. This is definitely shooting for the widest possible audience. So, sure, this is probably the easiest entry point. But at the same time, this falls short of the crazy (and I mean CRAIZEE) unique, grooving, classic music the band made elsewhere. But you could more readily play this for some squares you know (yeah, you know some) and they would be less likely to shit their pants listening to this one than some others.

Funkadelic – Free Your Mind… and Your Ass Will Follow

Funkadelic – Free Your Mind… and Your Ass Will Follow Westbound WB 2001 (1970)

The debut was pretty jammy, and this one is too but, for better or worse, it’s even more freaky, loose and psychedelic. The black Grateful Dead? Sort-of. If you come to this looking for well-defined “songs” you’ll be disappointed. But guitarist Eddie Hazel proves the star. He lights up side one. This one has its place. It can’t compete with what came next though, the stone-cold classic Maggot Brain.

Funkadelic – America Eats Its Young

Funkadelic – America Eats Its Young Westbound 2WB 2020 (1972)

Funkadelic made an abrupt turn with their fourth album. Rather than extended psychedelic R&B jams, George Clinton & Co. had shifted away from guitar as a centerpiece of the music to vocal harmonies. Some of this could pass for vintage soul, and one track even could fairly be called country rock. Listeners who appreciate Funkadelic as being one of the stranger and weirder rock acts of their day may not warm up to this much, but on its own terms this is a successful album. It marked the group’s first attempt to be more commercially palatable. The approach makes a certain amount of sense, considering that attempting to duplicate or top Maggot Brain would have been futile.

Bruce Springsteen – Greetings From Asbury Park, N.J.

Bruce Springsteen – Greetings From Asbury Park, N.J. Columbia KC 31903 (1973)

Bruce Springsteen’s debut delivers brilliant folky rock storytelling. At this point, he was concerned with more than just rock anthems. His purpose was something humanistic. Springsteen had that in common with Van Morrison. This album tells of hope for human perseverance. Triumph over adversity is the common thread through all the songs.

Here he is believable. The songs matter, and they matter to more than just their characters. Springsteen was confident to make the everyday an event. It was kind of a pride thing. The sound is a little sparse. Sometimes Springsteen isn’t quite sure of what lies ahead. He leaves just enough rough edges to give Greetings a homespun charm.

Greetings from Asbury Park N.J. did not make Springsteen a star. He was still just a kid from Jersey. The album is humble and endearing in a way that none of his later albums were.