Bob Dylan "Dylan & The Dead" 1989**

I took the advantage of my recent visit to Utrecht's Mega Record and CD Fair to buy some of Dylan's worst albums on CD. Why the worst? you ask. Why do you think? Because I already have his masterpieces, his critically acclaimed and his plain good ones. Time to buy the rest to have the complete discography and an overview of the artist's trajectory. Why on CD? you ask. Duh! because it's cheap! This vinyl LP for example is quite pricey since, in the crazy times we're living, the display of a Dylan vinyl in your living room -preferably casually left lying around- is a sign of sophistication, Nobel prize and all! Who cares what "Dylan and the Dead" sounds like when it has such a cool cover? It's not like you're going to listen to it! Incidentally, I read in a study that 40% of vinyl buyers never listen to the albums they buy (I forget where the sample was taken from, it must have been a real hipster place). Sounds unbelievable - yet often people who aren't surprised to see me carrying vinyl LP's ask me after a short conversation whether I actually own a record player. Duh! what did you think? that I just sit and look at them? Well, maybe I do sometimes, but that's none of your business! It's just that, just by looking at records, the music comes alive in my head. But of course I play them regularly too.

Back to the subject of Dylan's less loved albums - specifically the live ones. For some reason, his official live releases gain only fair-to-bad reviews while every new installment of the Bootleg Series is hailed like a lost treasure. I always wondered what is the reason. Was Dylan so daft that he released the sub-par recordings and kept the good ones on his shelf? Or were the expectations at the time of their release too high, resulting to bad or mediocre reviews? Can't trust reviewers, I have to listen for myself. For example, I happen to love one of Dylan's most maligned live recordings "Live At Budokan". The way he reinvented his songs in that set was a source of amazement, even if the new versions were not as good as the originals. So I had high expectations of his cooperation with The Grateful Dead. How would it affect the songs? And how can the pairing of America's greatest songwriter and a band that has consistently proved capable of onstage magic possibly produce a bad result? Well, first of all, together with Dylan the songwriter you get Dylan the singer. Never a great vocalist, his performance here is particularly weak. I saw him live around the same period (with his regular band) and he also sounded bored and disinterested in his own songs. The Dead take a back seat, following Dylan's lead instead of feeding off each other's energy like they usually do in their own concerts. As a result, on tracks like "Queen Jane Approximately" and "Joey" they sound asleep and playing on autopilot. Nobody's favorite Dylan songs, their inclusion would be justified only if the performance was especially strong. Unfortunately that's not the case. Jerry Garcia's fluid guitarwork is probably the record's only redeeming feature - save of course for the songs. Even so, a classic love song like "I Want You" is sung by Dylan as if he wants to punish his older self by butchering his songs. The band plays it a bit too fast, but that's the least of its problems. On the bright side the two songs from his "Christian" period "Slow Train" and "Gotta Serve Somebody" roll along with a relaxed country funk rhythm, almost J.J. Cale-like, while "All Along the Watchtower" is given an energetic hard rock twist that suits it well. The record closes with crowd pleaser "Knockin' On Heaven's Door" which, while not actually bad, is inferior to other versions - even Guns 'n' Roses did a better job with it. And that's all - just 7 songs of which only 3 or 4 are any good. I know they played more than 20 songs in that tour, some  multiple times and some only once or twice. So the compilers had a lot of material to choose from, I just can't believe this is the best they could do. I mean there's stuff off that tour on youtube that would sound way better than what's in here, if properly cleaned and processed - so yes, maybe Dylan is so daft (or such a sadist) to keep the good stuff on the shelf and release anything he fancies for whatever reason. I mean, if there's one musician whose mind is impossible to fathom, that's Dylan. Maybe it's time for another installment of the Bootleg Series to restore the reputation of this line-up. Until then, this is a tour souvenir that will not satisfy the fans of either Dylan or The Grateful Dead. Even if, like me, you're prepared to acknowledge some virtues, it is at best an unnecessary record.

*** for Slow Train, Gotta Serve Somebody, All Along The Watchtower, Knockin' On Heaven's Door

** for I Want You, Queen Jane Approximately, Joey

Utrecht Mega Record and CD Fair (Platenbeurs)

Serious record collectors among you probably know all about it: the biannual Record Planet record-and-CD fair in Utrecht is advertised  as "the world's biggest record shop" and features 550+ music retailers from around the world - well, the majority came from Germany and The Netherlands, but there were stalls from, among others, UK, Italy, Belgium, France, Spain, Portugal, Poland, Sweden, Denmark, Turkey, Japan, Korea, Mexico, Brazil and the U.S.A. The last edition took place on Saturday 14 and Sunday 15 April from 9:00 to 17:00 and, believe me, 8 hours are not enough to see the whole thing - though they're certainly enough to drain your wallet. Some peripheral activities are also taking place, including live music, book presentations, and auctions for the most collectible items, but it's mostly an endless browse-athon. The offer ranged from the super eclectic (rare psychedelic original LP's, Japan-only 7' singles, a stall with hundreds of Afro-pop records etc) to cheap second hand vinyl and CDs, which is my bread-and-butter. After 30 years of collecting (and 60+ years of rock'n'roll history) and despite my best efforts, my record collection still has endless gaps - and not all of them are expensive to fill. In general, prices here are the similar to, or lower than, those on discogs/ebay. Factor in the lack of postage and customs taxes, and you'll find that a visit to the jaarbeurs makes financial sense. And the rarities? Even if you can't afford them, you can still hold those sought-after albums in your hands - even take a selfie with them, if you're not afraid of looking ridiculous. I left the record fair loaded like a mule - you can see some of my catch sprawled on the floor in the photo below. It'll take me a couple of months to listen to everything, let alone present them in my blog. The way it's going I'll need two lifetimes to present what I already have -that's provided I stop buying records today. It's a losing game, but I'll do my best anyway...

Cherry Vanilla "Bad Girl" 1978***

This is probably a rare case of a singer whose autobiography is more interesting than her records. Cherry never had a great voice but she certainly had an interesting persona, and was one of those scenesters who are always at the right place at the right time. Having no theatrical training or background she found herself performing nude onstage in Andy Warhol's controversial play "pork" and becoming a permanent fixture of the New York art/music  scene, befriending and sleeping with rock stars including Bowie for whom she also worked as a publicist/PR person. It wasn't long before she started her own band as a vehicle for her sexy persona and bold lyrics, becoming a regular performer at legendary club Max's Kansas City. In '76 she relocated to London where her backing band at some point included Sting and other members of Police. In late '77 she released the single "The Punk" and soon afterwards her first LP aptly titled "Bad Girl". On retrospect her arty New York brand of "punk" was a step too far from the thuggish mentality of British punks who, despite her U.S. scene credentials, probably regarded the 34-year old as a late bandwagon jumper. Sultry burlesque opener "I Know How To Hook" would certainly have been enough to put off any spiky-haired hooligans. "So 1950's" may have appealed to some Lou Reed fans while "Not So Bad" is 50's pastiche. The rest of Side 1 paid tribute to her New York punk peers Blondie ("The Punk") and Ramones ("No More Canaries"). Side 2 continued mixing up styles from the theatrical rock of "Hard As A Rock" to the teenybopper glam of "Liverpool", New York Dolls-style glam punk of "Foxy Bitch", and country "Bad Girl". The closing "Little Red Rooster" isn't a cover of the Howling Wolf classic but a Mott-style glam rocker with clanging piano and a silly but catchy chorus. The band, especially Cherry's boyfriend Louis Lepore on lead guitar, are more proficient than your average punk rockers but, despite Cherry's charm, Bowie endorsement and ample promotion, the record flopped. After a second LP ("Venus D'Vinyl",1979) she finally gave up her attempt at rock stardom. She appeared on a Roger Waters album and wrote a well-received autobiography but mostly spent the next years as PR/publicist for Greek synth wizard Vangelis. Her albums were finally reissued in the 2000's combined on a single CD which was met with the same indifference as the original LP's, yet she is still fondly remembered by many music lovers, and has earned her place in musical history if only as a footnote. If you're a fan of the Andy Warhol art scene or early New York punk, you'd probably want to own this LP. Shouldn't be too difficult, enough people have unceremoniously unloaded their Cherry Vanilla LP's at thrift stores all around Europe not long after they bought them...

**** for The Punk, Foxy Bitch

*** for I Know How To Hook, So 1950's, Not So Bad, No More Canaries, Liverpool, Bad Girl, Little Red Rooster

** for Hard As A Rock

Various Artists "Simla Beat 70" 1970***

I don't know if that happens to other record lovers (I hesitate to call myself a record collector, as I buy albums for the music as opposed to collectability) but I often dream I'm at a record fair or antique shop and come across a rare album on sale for peanuts. It's never actually happened, best case scenario was finding an album worth around €40 in a crate of mostly blunt 70's pop rock all priced €3 per piece. Anyway I recently dreamt I was browsing the wares of a street vendor in India, and among his other stuff he had a crate of LP's for something like 30 cents per piece. I didn't recognise anything, the album covers were mostly of girls with red dots on the forehead and nose jewelry. Maybe that's stereotypical to the point of racism, but what can I do? The image bank of my subconscious is somewhat lacking in this subject. Among those I nevertheless discovered a pristine copy of "Simla Beat 70" which I knew to be worth up to €2000. I was contemplating whether I should buy just this one copy or the whole basket to make the old man happy...

 

...until I woke up. So I am still not the proud owner of an original vinyl copy of this, rather of a semi-legal CD reissue - there is also a regular CD reissue compiling both Simla Beat albums ('70 and '71) with a different cover. These records were originally tied to a Battle Of The Bands-type contest sponsored by the Simla cigarette company. It's interesting to note that while Indian music was becoming popular in the West and Ravi Shankar was mesmerising festival crowds at Monterey and Woodstock, Western rock was barely making an impression in India. Which may explain why these songs by the finalists of the Simla Beat competition are out of synch with their Western contemporaries, sounding more like they were recorded in an American garage circa 1966-67. With the exception that an English or American record of that era may easily have featured Indian instruments like sitar or tablas, but there are none to be heard here. The closest they come to the Orient is the two instrumentals, a loose jam called "Psychedelia" with some Misirlou-like surf guitar and Greek folk tune "Zorba's Dance" - of course from the Indians' point of view these Greek melodies wouldn't be oriental, more like another strain of Western music. The best tunes here are garage rockers like The Confusion's "Voice from the Inner Soul" and Troggs cover "You Can't Beat It". The two Genuine Spares tracks  "Proper Stranger" and "Whats Goin On" and Innerlite's "Baby Baby Please" also have a '66 sounding garage folk sound while two Creedence tunes (Dinosaurs' "Sinister Purpose" and X'Lents' "Born On The Bayou") are quite rough, reminding me of some Japanese rock covers from the era. The vocals throughout have a slightly alien quality, but none of what I've come to think of as Apu accent, from the Simpsons character (which I thought was comically exaggerated until I met some Indians studying abroad and realized that yes, that's a realistic Indian accent). "Mist" is another winner, a long psychedelic blues jam with organ, like The Animals jamming with an early version of Grateful Dead. So here's my advice to you; if you spot this LP cheaply on an oriental bazaar, first pinch yourself. If it turns out you're not dreaming, just add it to your collection.

**** for Voice From The Inner Soul (Confusions), You Can't Beat It (Dinosaurs), Mist (Great Bear) 

*** for Psychedelia (X'Lents), Proper Stranger (Genuine Spares), Whats Goin On (Genuine Spares), Born On The Bayou (X'Lents), Baby Baby Please (Innerlite)

** for Zorba's Dance (Innerlite), Sinister Purpose (Dinosaurs)

Van Morrison & The Chieftains "Irish Heartbeat" 1988****

I'm sitting at my house looking at a patch of snow outside and contemplating whether I should join the outdoors St. Patrick Day celebrations in The Hague later in the evening. I've always had a good time at St. Patrick's, listening to Irish music and drinking Guiness, but would the Saint really want me to freeze my balls off just to celebrate his holiness? You'll notice I don't question whether he'd approve of my getting drunk on his nameday - of course he would, after all he was Irish wasn't he? (actually he was a Latinised Briton, but don't tell it to any Irishmen). 

The LP spinning on my record player right now was my first introduction to Irish folk almost 30 years ago, and has remained a favourite of mine ever since. I was pretty young at the time and mostly liked punk rock and 60's garage/psych but I had also discovered Van Morrison via his Astral Weeks LP which I listened to constantly. So I thought I'd try his latest one. Not that I expected it to sound the same, after all bald Van on this LP cover was worlds away from the romantic youth of Astral Weeks. As for the rest of the guys on the photo, they looked like someone's uncles from the village, or like the sort of musicians that play at the local panigyria (Greek village festivals) which is, I guess, not that far from what they really were. But that's the thing with traditional music: we reject our own as the uncool stuff our grandpas like, but someone else's grandpa music? well, it's exotic and interesting. The opening "Star Of The County Down" immediately caught my attention, with its rhythm and instrumentation so different from what I had heard until then: bagpipes, fiddles, flutes and tin whistles. As this wonderful song was my first contact with Irish folk, it's no wonder I immediately became a fan. "Irish Heartbeat" and "Celtic Ray" are two older Van songs, reinterpreted in an Irish old-timey manner yet still close to his familiar Celtic Soul style. The traditional ballads ("Raglan Road", "She Moved Through The Fair", "My Lagan Love" and "Carrickfergus") showcase Van's voice beautifully. Listening to them now is a pleasure, but at the time I was more interested in the jauntier tracks like "Marie's Wedding" and, especially, "I'll Tell Me Ma".

Here's the whole gang. For some reason, Van is posing with a fiidle...

Can't help but sing along and dance to such infectiously groovy tunes! "Tá Mo Chleamhnas Déanta" was another surprise, a ballad about arranged marriages and lost loves, Van trading vocals with The Chieftain's Kevin Conneff singing in Gaelic. What a crazy language, not a single word sounds familiar! Thank God for Van translating the lyrics, though "wee lass" wasn't exactly the kind of English I was taught at school. The Chieftains went on to make more crossover albums with pop and rock artists -I have a few and will present them here sometime- but this one is special for me. Great, great music! Certainly put me in the right mood, I think I'll brave the cold and go to the St. Patrick Day festival after all! 

***** for Star Of The County Down, Tá Mo Chleamhnas Déanta, I'll Tell Me Ma

**** for Irish Heartbeat, Raglan Road, She Moved Through The Fair, Carrickfergus, Marie's Wedding

*** for Celtic Ray, Lagan Love

Hayseed Dixie "Let There Be Rockgrass" 2004****

 

On hearing Hayseed Dixie were coming to Paard I apped my friends to keep their Tuesday night free and get ready for a honkin' good time. At that point I hadn't seen any live clips of the band but I had a couple of their CD's and so I had an idea of what we were about to witness. It turned out even better than I expected - the guys are experienced entertainers and know how to put on a show. Leader John Wheeler a.k.a. Barley Scotch has been at it for 18 years now. On stage he proved to be very articulate, not just funny but intelligent and well-informed as well. I usually have little patience for between song banter, but with Hayseed Dixie it's part of the show - though, of course, it's their turbo charged bluegrass/rock hybrid that everyone was there for, and they certainly delivered on that respect. The rest of the band (seemingly consisted by a dwarf from Hobbit on mandolin and hilarious posing, the long lost 4th ZZ Top member on bass and Arnold Swarzenegger's twin -yes, I do mean Danny De Vito- on banzo) were also great showmen. The turnout that night may have been low (at best 150 people, many of whom had never heard the band) but, by the end of the night, Hayseed Dixie had made 150 new fans, not to mention almost sold out their merchandise.

It was a crazy idea: let's marry two genres that were never supposed to meet, hard rock and bluegrass country. Ever wondered how would AC/DC sound played by acoustic instruments? I'm not just talking acoustic guitars, but some of the un-rock-iest instruments ever: banjos, mandolins and fiddles. John Wheeler and company (a different line up to the one we saw at The Paard) thought it sounded like a great idea. So they formed an impromptu hillbilly band they called Hayseed Dixie (sounds a bit like AC DC doesn't it?) and made a whole album of AC/DC covers just for the fun of it. Some would have thought a whole album of it is overkill. You know, a joke may be funny the first time you hear it, raise a smile the second time around, but how long can you keep up with it? Well, guess what: 17 years and 15 albums later, Hayseed Dixie are still going strong. It isn't just a testament to their stubbornness or determination to milk every last dollar from their original idea - people love their music (dubbed rockgrass) because it's funny, rowdy and exhilarating. Some of the songs from their debut are reprised here, mostly in live versions, while others come from their 2nd "Tribute to Mountain Love", one from their 3rd album "Kiss My Grass" and still others are new. The 5 AC/DC tunes -especially the live versions- are a hoot, with the Reno brothers' banjos providing an unlikely but worthy substitute for the Young brothers' electric guitars. The speedball banjo on Motörhead's "Ace of Spades" is a definite highlight but some of the other covers are just as entertaining: Aerosmith's "Walk This Way", Kiss' "Detroit Rock City" and The Darkness' "I Believe in a Thing Called Love" have strong hooks that still sound great in these unfamiliar arrangements. Their version of Queen's "Fat Bottomed Girls" makes you think it was always meant to be sung by sleazy rednecks, while The J. Geils Band's "Centerfold" was, of course, already a rockfied country tune so they just had to return it to its natural state. Live staple "Will the Circle Be Broken" is typical country fare, as are the band's two originals, of which the scatological ballad "I'm Keeping Your Poop" is the better known - and Wheeler's own favourite among his compositions. He said it's a very personal song about his first girlfriend, which I frankly find mildly disturbing. Anyway it's a hugely entertaining album that combines nimble and buoyant playing with tongue-in-cheek humour, and a perfect introduction to the band. If it doesn't make you laugh, you may be suffering from depression. If it doesn't make you sing, dance and holler you're probably one of them Taliban music/life haters. Get it, and by all means if you have the chance to see Hayseed Dixie live, don't miss it.

**** for Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap (AC/DC), Fat Bottomed Girls (Queen), You Shook Me All Night Long (AC/DC), Ace of Spades (Motörhead), Detroit Rock City (Kiss), Walk This Way (Aerosmith), Touch Too Much (AC/DC), Highway to Hell (AC/DC) 

*** for Whole Lotta Rosie (AC/DC), I Believe in a Thing Called Love (The Darkness), Corn Liquor, Feel Like Makin' Love (Bad Company), Centerfold (J. Geils Band), I'm Keeping Your Poop, Will the Circle Be Broken (trad.)

Osiris "Osiris" 1981***

After moving to the new house, I had to rearrange my CD's. I used my usual classification: two big broad categories "classic" and "new" rock, plus other, less expansive for me, genres and sub-genres (e.g. jazz, country, punk, psychedelia, electronica etc) all arranged alphabetically. I had to add another category I call "poor relatives" for albums that will stay out of view in drawers or boxes because the shelves are full. Tough choice, but had to do it. Here's my criteria: first of all, the doubles i.e. CD's that I also have in vinyl: Go to the attic please. Secondly, minor albums from bands whose long discography already takes up a lot of shelf space. "A Bigger Bang" in the drawer you go. Thirdly, compilations from groups whose interesting albums are already on the shelf: Queen's Greatest Hits I, II and III, I don't even know what you're doing here. To the attic! Fourthly, groups the world has rightly forgotten: Gigolo Aunts, you had your day. It was April 4, 2015. Maybe I'll listen to you again after 10 years, but don't count on it. The drawers! Fifthly, well, the freebies: Uncut, Mojo, Pop+Rock, CMJ: thank you for the free CDs, you introduced me to artists I wouldn't have otherwise known. Now get in the box! There is no sixthly -and thank God, because sixthly is such an ugly word. But -stay with me and you'll see what I'm getting to- there's another new classification which I haven't quite settled on yet: the geographical. There's a section of my wall starting from Ireland and ending in Quebec (don't ask my why). The problem is, of course, that it messes with the other categories. There's no good reason why Christy Moore is in the Irish section and Gary Moore in the Classic Rock section. Or why Kraftwerk are in the German section and Can in the prog/experimental section. A friend inspecting my South America shelf remarked that I had missed Chile. I said "of course not, I have Aguaturbia but it's in the psychedelia shelf" and promptly moved it to close the shameful gap. At which point my eye fell on this one and I was like "wow, I actually have a rock CD from Bahrein". Now that's a gap that could go unnoticed for ever. Only it didn't. So now my tiny Middle East corner is a little fuller, and I'm eagerly waiting for someone to challenge me by asking whether I have anything in Arabic prog. 

Not that there are many clues as to the band's origin, other than their naming themselves after an Egyptian God. Osiris' heart and soul are the brothers Mohamed (guitar) and Nabil (drums) Al-Sadeqi who, upon returning from studies in England and the U.S., decided to recruit like-minded musicians and create the first prog rock band in their country. Singer Isa Janahi is often referred to as Sabah Al-Sadeqi, probably a nickname to make the band sound like even more of a family affair. He's a competent singer: he can carry a melody and sings English comfortably and without much of an accent, but his voice is neither powerful nor versatile enough to leave an impression. There are no less than three keyboardists (playing piano, organ, and a mini-moog synth) in the band, so you can bet they are all over the place, although the dominant instrument is the electric guitar. Reviewers at progarchives.com all point to the similarities between Osiris and English band Camel, although they all resist making a bad joke about it (Arabs - Camel: get it? No you're right, it's not that funny). The lack of state-of-the-art recording studios in the country means that the production is not particularly impressive but the playing is very good and compositions as good as anything coming from Europe in the period. Opener "Fantasy" is one of the highlights, a heavy prog tune reminiscent of Eloy. "Sailor on the Seas of Fate" is a 12-minute epic with some oriental percussion for local colour and nice analogue synths. "Struggle to Survive" gets to a rocking start and sports some heavy guitar solos, but it's the soft and melodic keys and vocals that follow that really hit the spot. "Atmun" is a dynamic instrumental while "Embers of a Flame" alternates melodic passages with crunchy hard rock and "A Story of Love" begins -as one would expect- like a ballad but also sports a heavy jam section between 3:30-5:30. The closing "Paradox in A Major" begins with a catchy Arabic melody played on the electric guitar and could have been a nice commercial single if it kept on the same manner, but it kind of fizzles out in an amiable but rather lukewarm sequence. The band is apparently still (semi) active and has released a handful of well-received albums. I'll admit I bought this as a curio because of its unusual origin, but it was a surprisingly enjoyable listen. It should satisfy most classic prog fans, so if you're one you would do well to seek out a copy. The initial pressing of around 1000 self released LP's lies beyond most mere mortals' budget, but there's a recent bootleg reissue by Prog Temple - this is the one I have.

P.S. 2026: With the Iran war in its second week (I mean, this is a war, right?) Bahrein has also been in the news lately, and this has brought to mind two things: firstly, that I have a CD by a rock band from this country. Today I got it out and played it, probably for the first time since I originally wrote this blog post 8 years ago. Secondly, I remembered the first time I heard of this country: As a child, I had a game named Petropigi, which was the Greek edition of a Monopoly-style board game called Petropolis. Instead of streets, one could buy countries like Bahrein, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates. I was good at geography as a child, but I had never heard of these exotic places before someone gifted me this game. Now I get to watch them getting bombed on TV every day. Is the world going to shit, or what?

**** for Fantasy, Sailor on the Seas of Fate, Struggle to survive, Embers of a Flame

*** for Atmun, A Story of Love, Paradox in A Major