Shine On, You Crazy Barrett

This is not what I expected to post on Number 100. But I just finished dipping into a recent bio of Syd ("A Very Irregular Head" by Rob Chapman) and went back to the solo albums... and here I am! So, Syd Barrett 101: Pink Floyd guitarist, wrote most of the first PF album "Piper at the Gates of Dawn", songs about gnomes, underwear thieves, lots of dipping into the British children's literature canon for lyrical fodder, took way too much LSD which either a: drove him mad, or b: unbalanced an already wavering psychotic, bandmates boot the liability and eventually become the Pink Floyd that conquers the world and sparks the Sex Pistols to spit on the bloated corpse of rock 'n roll. That's quite the resume to attribute to anyone, let alone a fragile talent who shattered under the pressure of being in a groundbreaking pop group.

David Gilmour, who replaced Syd as the functioning guitarist in Floyd (and who eventually wrested control from original member Roger Waters -- is this Dickensian or what?) worked with Syd to wring a solo album out of song sketches and ephemera. So much of the solo albums feel like demo or even sub-demo material, but there's a morbid fascination with hearing a looner in the studio. The problem is that, though Gilmour is sympathetic to Syd's illness and he comes across as earnest in his desire to help capture something useable, the album's producer submitted a final release including false starts that portray Syd as rambling, incoherent and tuneless. Reality TV years ahead of its time on an LP, exploitative and cruel. (The aforementioned bio paints David Gilmour as a true gentleman, who saw that Syd received the financial royalties due him. And wow, turns out you get big big bucks if you write songs for a group like Pink Floyd.)

Yet there are some good songs to be found on "The Madcap Laughs", the first of 2 'official' Syd solo releases. Same with "Barrett", the one recorded under even more dire cirumstances, but still worth hearing. And finally there's "Opel", the leftovers, or rather, songs that if polished could truly have been great. It's heartbreaking to hear the title track and realize that with some fleshing out, it could have been a real Pink Floyd song. It's the kind of reveal that makes this listener get just a hint of how we as a culture (and the record companies as an industry) nurture our geniuses just up to the point where we can eat them and suck their bones dry (see Brian Wilson for another example.)

Peter Bergman, RIP

Peter Bergman founded the Firesign Theatre, and I owe him thanks for hours upon hours of laughter. So glad I got to see the boys at the Paramount years ago, a great chance to meet other Firesign fans and show the love.

New York Times obit here.

Renbourn Roundup Redux

Back in Bellingham again, I snagged 3 more John Renbourn CDs. What's up with this rampant consumerism? Well, there was an internet rumor flying around last year that record companies were shifting all their efforts to downloads, and that 2012 would be the last year they'd manufacture and distribute physical compact discs. THAT turned out to be false, but a recent Rolling Stone article suggests it's not that far off. It may not happen in 2012, but 2015 as the target date doesn't seem too far-fetched. All you have to do is check the aisles of Best Buy -- CDs (and even DVDs) continue to shrink as they make more room for games and Blu-Ray discs.

So I finally sat down with my notebooks (yes, plural) of CD wish-lists and listening suggestions and managed to whittle it down to maybe a dozen titles, and even that will shrink, I'm sure. So when I DO find something I'm looking for, no more hesitation, I'll snap it up.

Which brings me to the last round of Renbourn. These are late '80s, early '90s Shanachie reissues, so they don't have any bonus tracks, though true to Shanachie's nature, "The Hermit" features guitar tablature (which was a nice feature in the LP era, but for CDs makes the booklet a little chubbier than usual.) "The Hermit" was John's first album after Pentangle broke up, and it's a grab-bag of styles similar to his previous solo albums. "The Black Balloon" sticks mostly to traditional early music and Celtic tunes, very much in the vein of his earlier "The Lady and the Unicorn". "Snap a Little Owl" is a duet album with Stefan Grossman, so add a little ragtime and jug band influence. It's also a 'best-of', drawn from their two late-'70s recordings.

Next: my autographed Michael Hurley CD arrives! (I hope...)

The Lonely Forest, Big Time

The Lonely Forest come from Anacortes, just a short drive from where I live, but I'd never heard them before this album, just released. Yes, me listening to an album from THE CURRENT YEAR!! Quick take from just a few listens: skip the first track, and the last track, but otherwise you get a U2/Coldplay thing filtered through the Death Cab for Cutie Northwest semi-emo over-earnest vocal style, yet performed without lasers or smoke bombs. Wow, I wrote that and I barely know what I mean... Unfortunately, the CD booklet was already missing, so I can't supply any more information (produced by Chris Walla of Death Cab??)

Anyway, thumbs up from this geezer!

Tony Rice and 58957

I've written before about how much I love the music of Tony Rice, and when I saw the library bought copies of this, his latest, I was pretty jazzed. Turns out it's not really new; the subtitle is "The Bluegrass Guitar Collection", an instrumental best-of focusing on Tony's strictly (more on that later) bluegrass stuff -- and it came out in 2003?!?

A quick look at the official Tony Rice website reveals a 2012 release of Bill Monroe tunes -- again, a compilation of older tracks. There's a news item about a recent family tragedy, and there've been stories about Tony having carpal tunnel issues, and it's reported that he no longer sings in concert due to voice problems. But his calendar still shows Spring concert dates on the East Coast, so...?

But enough of the bad news -- how's this collection hold up? Well you have to understand this is maybe an indication of 25% of Tony's work. There's his singer/songwriter stuff interpretations, the 'jazzgrass' albums, and his outside-the-canon collaborations with Jerry Garcia, etc. That being said, it's a great introduction to Tony's guitar work, with informative liner notes (mostly by Tony himself, and he's not shy about suggesting that Bill Monroe may have attached his name to many a song he never actually wrote) and a rich overview of a stellar career. Again, it's not indicative of Tony's albums, so it's focused on the high-speed picking rather than a mix of styles. Featuring performers Norman Blake, Doc Watson, Bela Fleck, David Grisman (and many more)-- this is like a bluegrass all-star team.

Earlier I mentioned Tony's "strictly bluegrass" picking -- check out Track 18 "Cherokee" for an illustration of what I love, absolutely LOVE about Tony's playing. He throws into a bluegrass setting whatever strikes his fancy, his magpie instincts sprinkling jazz licks, whatever, into his solos, in this case, Middle Eastern licks in a bluegrass tune. Genius!

Finally, the title "58957" refers to the number of the Clarence White guitar that Tony now plays, Clarence White being the 'father of bluegrass guitar'. Tony has done Clarence proud, and this album is a great, though limited, resume.

Smile, At Last

The best reissue of 2011? Well, actually, it was most likely the best new album of 2011. Huh? Okay, the Beach Boys' "Smile" album was, until 2011, the most famous unreleased album ever. Recorded in pieces in 1967, this was supposed to be Brian Wilson's ultimate check and mate to the Beatles. But Brian's shattered confidence, his drug use and the sheer complexity of his vision for the album took its toll; "Smile" was shelved, the Beatles released "Sgt. Peppers", and the rest is history. Shards of "Smile" appeared over the years as some reworked tracks were sprinkled throughout later albums. But then in 2009, Brian revisited the "Smile" tracks, and re-recorded his version with his new band...

Finally, a blueprint for the REAL "Smile"! (Brian's new version is okay, but we all wanted to hear those gorgeous original Beach Boy vocals, especially because Brian's voice hasn't aged well...) So I figured it'd be a matter of months while the record company guys slapped together all the "Smile" snippets already released into a complete package. Nope, they did this one right. "Good Vibrations" is here intact, and other tracks were released as part of the "Good Vibrations" box set a number of years back as unfinished tidbits, but most versions here on "Smile" are subtly different than what's been previously released. Ah, those BB harmonies intact!

So, bottom line: if "Smile" had been released as originally planned in 1967, would it have stopped "Sgt. Pepper's" in its tracks? Hard to say, since the good Sgt. has had a 45-year head start staking a claim on popular culture. Here's my spin: "Sgt. Pepper's" has been maligned as "the death of rock", mainly because the ornate arrangements and overdubs were the antithesis of 'rock & roll' -- who knows, this may have been the primordial genesis of the latent punk movement! -- but if "Smile" came out first, those same arguments would then have been aimed Brian's way. Finally I think that "Sgt. Pepper's" is the better album experience, but that the best songs on "Smile" kick the Sgt. to the curb. "Cabin Essence", "Surf's Up" and "Good Vibrations" win, hands down. Jeez,"Cabin Essence" and "Surf's Up" give me goosebumps just typing the titles -- take that, "A Day In the Life"!

Faces, Small and Otherwise

The Small Faces (with singer Steve Marriott) and later version of the band The Faces (with Rod Stewart) are to be inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame this year, and that news sent me back to reaquaint myself with their music.

Still haven't heard much of The Small Faces, other than "Itchykoo Park", their '60s hit (and one of rock's first uses of phasing.) For starters, there's a great Faces best-of CD titled "Good Boys...When They're Asleep", but I eventually went all in for the 4CD box set "Five Guys Walk Into a Bar...". Great, great collection, all the best songs, plus live versions, b-sides and studio tracks from their last recording session. The box tracks were selected by Ian McLagan, the band's keyboard player, and he does a masterful job of juggling the track listings. Even in their final days, they sounded just fine (Rod dissed the last proper album "Ooh La La" as mediocre, but I disagree, and so apparently does Ian, because the box features 9 of that album's 10 tracks.) And here's the sad part: I'm keeping my copy of said album for that one instrumental track (it's excellent in a Booker T/BarKays way) because it's worth more to me as 1 track than I'd get trading it in. Ah, the market...

So, in a nutshell, the Faces were a rag-tag r&b outfit, tossed with some Stax/Motown sounds, and then an added dose of acoustic singer-songwriter-ish heartfelt soul. As much as they flouted their lad-ish-ness, they so often wore their hearts on their sleeves. They gave Rod Stewart a platform to practice, then launch his stellar career (which grew more successful but less heartfelt as he strayed from his Faces roots.) Ooh la la, indeed! Cheers,lads.

Oh, and just to show off their sense of humor, their box set plays off the band's lack of height by packaging the set in a shorter box -- very clever!