A MONTHLY ONLINE PUBLICATION
EDITOR & PUBLISHER: AL HANDA
Contents Copyright 2023 By Al Handa unless otherwise noted.
APRIL 2023 ISSUE:
The Top Ten Albums That Influenced The Americana Movement: Part 1 - John Fahey
Classic Album Review: Laura Nyro - New York Tendaberry (1969)
Gear Review: Depinto Galaxie 4 Electric Guitar
Quick Takes: Will AI create another Victorian Age or just more Big Brother?
How long will the film market be dominated by special effects films
Classic Review Shorts: NEW FEATURE! Instant 10 second takes on Classic and Current Music, Film & the Arts that will be updated every week throughout April. Check back every so often.
The Top Ten Albums That Influenced The Americana Movement: Part 1 - John Fahey
Americana, or Roots Music, covers a lot of genres and influences. It's expansive enough that my list of the most influential albums might not apply to some of the Americana on Spotify and other streaming services.
At my age, these albums weren't just influences. I saw many of these artists who recorded those live and owned many or all of their albums. All were direct inspirations.
I'll define Americana for this list. It's American Primitive or music that has distinct cultural ties to this country. An artist who emulates Mozart or medieval music isn't an Americana artist (at least in my eyes). One whose inspiration is Muddy Waters, John Fahey, or Cajun, is.
So, here's a list of albums that were influential to the Americana movement. We're really talking about the artist, but listing the albums gives you something specific to listen to if you are interested.
So, in no particular order, here are the albums:
1. John Fahey: Blind Joe Death (Takoma)
The first time I saw John Fahey was in the early 70s at the Paul Masson winery in California, which had begun to stage concerts. The interesting thing was that Fahey didn't do a formal set. He just started playing and only occasionally stopped to introduce a number. Other than that, it was entirely improvised.
I was familiar with country blues and folk as an avid record collector but had never heard someone blend all those genres into a single instrumental form. The music had clear influences, but even then, I couldn't imagine how anyone could copy it without sounding like him.
I'd heard a lot of inspiring music before that concert, but Fahey was the one who inspired me to go out and buy a guitar immediately.
...the seminal one...
I have all of his music, but the first album, Blind Joe Death, is seminal. It originally came out as a self-released record in 1959 as a limited pressing of 100 discs.
Fahey reissued the album in 1964 (which I owned at one time), with some of the cuts re-recorded, and again in 1967, this time was completely redone. The earlier version is rawer and had powerful energy, but the last version is what most people heard. The later reissues in 1996 on Fantasy/Takoma contain both the early and late 60s versions.
The 1967 release has one of his most well-known cuts, a cover of an old hymn, "In Christ There Is No East Or West," which was later covered by Leo Kottke on his "Greenhouse" album. One interesting thing about Fahey is that he covered a lot of old Hymns but wasn't personally religious (at least in the conventional sense). The other thing was his versions were always impressive, like with "Uncloudy Day," so he did draw some inner calm or inspiration from those hymns.
Other well-known cuts include his versions of "Poor Boy" and "John Henry' which had an expansive and mysterious mood, as opposed to being spacy. There was always a deep folk-blues feel to his music.
Numbers like "The Transcendental Water Fall" and "Sligo River Blues" were takes on numbers that were always improvisational in concert. I saw him play twice, in the early 70s and the 90s, and heard parts of these numbers in his improvisations. Obviously, those were themes that he loved and continued to explore over time.
...more details...
I once conducted a one-hour interview in the 80s with one of his friends, Bill Barth, and learned more about Fahey's 60s work as a musician and musicologist and realized that only a book would do him justice. Unfortunately, the tape was lost before it could be transcribed, but the stories Barth told me are cherished memories.
One of my most prized possessions isn't a guitar or object. He once sent me an email explaining what guitar tuning he used on his "Fare Forward Voyagers" album, which is my favorite, and I've always ensured it's kept safely archived.
...coining a phrase...
John Fahey was the one who coined the "American Primitive Guitar" phrase, discovered Leo Kottke, Robbie Basho, Peter Lang, and George Winston for his Takoma Label, and was the original template for the American solo acoustic guitar player; from a man who never recorded a gold or platinum album, and who could have cared less.
On a personal level, he's the one who turned me into a guitar player. In my case, that's a Guitar God if there ever was one.
Coming in Part 2: Leo Kottke and more.
Classic Album Review: Laura Nyro - New York Tendaberry (1969)
Laura Nyro was elected to the Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame in 2012, and I saw the same wide range of opinions about her as in 1967, from an acknowledgment of her genius to puzzlement by obviously younger writers who had to look her up on Wikipedia.
Nyro has a solid legacy now, particularly with female artists who saw that she was a true rock pioneer and a woman artist during a time when even the hipper 60s audience tended to marginalize them.
“history” can be problematic because it quickly becomes accounts written by people who weren’t at an event or knew the person being written about. History quickly becomes a compilation or editing of available written sources. That’s why the reputation of a King or whatever can change over time if new sources are uncovered.
For example, many medieval accounts of Kings and events like battles are inaccurate because the writer was, more often than not, what we’d now call a publicist. Historians will sift through the data and amend things like unrealistic feats and numbers, which improve accuracy but introduce bias or agendas.
There’s plenty of criticism about the Internet and the amount of false information and propaganda, but historians will welcome the vast body of documentation. People in past eras had the same mind-numbing mass of opinions, half facts, lies, attacks, Mansplaining, and serious and trivial concerns that the Internet has made immortal but rarely documented.
So historians might say this or that King was loved by his subjects, which most of us know is a load of bull (find a U.S. President that was loved by 100% of the people), and that judgment will be based on what are available written accounts.
If The Internet existed in Medieval times, it’d look remarkably similar to how it looks now.
…the common line…
In regards to Laura Nyro, the most common line in the 60s was that she was a gifted singer and songwriter whose songs were performed by major artists such as Barbara Streisand, Fifth Dimension, Blood, Sweat & Tears, and Three Dog Night, but whose rising star was dimmed by a disastrous live performance at the 1967 Monterey Pop Festival where she was allegedly booed off the stage.
It was said that she never quite recovered from that, and her career settled into cult status after recording an album called New York Tenderberry, which was seen as obscure, intensely personal, and appeared to accentuate what critics felt was her biggest weakness, a tendency to over emote (due to her very wide technical range).
Another factor was that her songs became Top 40 Hits and considered unhip or whatever they called a pop hit back then. The irony of that alleged debacle at Monterrey was that were groups there who were more commercial or “pop.” However, dressing like Hippies and Flower Children helped audiences relate to such far-out sounds.
Laura Nyro’s so-called disaster at Monterrey Pop remained a mystery and took on the shroud of myth. However, over the years, details did come out. The full-length documentary of the concert, which showed her performing, made it clear that it might have been a traumatic experience for a young woman who had written and recorded so many hits by the age of 19 and was more familiar with the New York City music scene.
If one views the documentary, it’s evident that her act was a Cabaret-style musical show that wouldn’t have been out of place in New York or any major city, and she was hardly booed off the stage. One of her deep songs, “Poverty Train,” was lyrically just as hard-hitting as Janis Joplin’s blues rock, but given her early pop success, she was probably already in a bad contract with out-of-touch management who were tone deaf to the changes in the 60s music scene.
…Monterey…
Her act at Monterrey wouldn’t have raised an eyebrow in the 70s or to an open-minded audience. Plus, when it comes to America, it doesn’t take much for an audience to start acting like 18th Century Beaver Trappers at a saloon show, even ones where many are wearing love beads and getting together and loving one another.
The Album, New York Tenderberry, is seen as one of her most significant works and a milestone in Women’s music. The lyrics were highly personal, though most women who heard the Album probably saw it as a work that expressed themes understood as feelings that women had and rarely expressed that way in popular music.
In other words, it could be called a milestone in feminist music (though not the political kind) and in a direct line from the classic 20s blues of Bessie Smith or another’s whose feminism and Lesbian attitudes were muted by the Industry but were quite openly expressed at the time. Listen to full collections of the old blues by women singers, and it’s out there, plain as day.
…a single…
The Album did have a single on it, “Time And Love,” which was a hit for Barbara Streisand, and it might have been a concession to the label as it sounds like a cut that would have fit into the earlier “Eli And The Thirteenth Confession” Album.
Before this Album, her forte was incredibly catchy soul-pop, with a few extraordinarily dark and tough songs added to each Album, like “Buy And Sell,” depicting a stark look at street life. In hindsight, such early songs telegraphed that an entire album of such music was coming as soon as she had any control over her career.
…the title cut…
I’ll discuss some songs and focus on the sonic change in her style. For me, the masterpiece is the title cut, which is lyrically introspective and musically adventurous. It floats along, right on the edge of having no conventional structure, and like a late 60 Miles Davis jazz piece, is keyed to the melody line, which the band follows. It was a pretty advanced arrangement for the time, certainly above the level of most 60s rock. That’s not just fan talk; try to duplicate it on a guitar or piano, and it’d be easy to flounder or lose momentum.
The meaning of the lyrics is cryptic, the imagery is highly personal, and the line “And the past is a blue note inside me So I ran away in the morning” is flat-out poetry, haiku-like, and lends itself to different interpretations in the mood and intent.
The song opens with a languid piano, almost pure sound, note by note (technically, one would probably say that it was a modal structure like a late 60s Miles Davis record). Her voice is low, and very rich, and the tone is introspective, not full of pain. It builds to an emotional middle section, then floats back to the original mood. The voice and imagery are such that people would probably see it differently depending on their own experience. In my case, I saw it as a woman singing to herself, if that makes sense, and the images a stream of consciousness where the theme is escaping.
It’s a type of song that John Lennon or Dylan could have done and garnered a lot of praise for, but in 1969, even Joni Mitchell, who was also a lyrical genius, could only gain cult status for that kind of work.
…Miles…
My reference to Miles Davis isn’t a random observation. I’ve read here and there that he was at the sessions, and the title cut does have a feel that suggests that room was left for him to overdub some trumpet. However, after hearing the cut, he said that her vocal said all that needed to be said, which is true. If you follow the song, any extra instrumentation would have sounded intrusive. Miles was a genius who always had good instincts, and knowing when not to play was a hallmark of his style.
Also, in the late 60s, Miles moved into ethereal, modal-style music with “In A Silent Way,” which featured long improvisational jams that, on the surface, sounded “spacy” and otherworldly. It was one of many times he changed the face of jazz. That Album was listened to by quite a few rock artists and certainly Nyro. I’m not assuming she was directly influenced by Miles’ late 60s sound, but New York Tenderberry certainly had parts with the same feel (and she was technically proficient enough to comprehend jazz).
…you don’t love me…
The opening cut, “You Don’t Love Me When I Cry was the kind of song that wouldn’t have been out of place in the 90s with the rise of young female singers and composers, but as simple as the title sounds now, it wasn’t something that was commonly heard in late 60s rock. Back then, it was still love songs and women crying about losing men who had to go ramble and be free as the birds. That was very deep for rock in 1969, and the fact that it’s a common notion now makes the lyric prescient.
The Album signaled a change in her artistic direction. The sensibility of New York Tenderberry was jazz, which influenced her later albums. By the time she passed away, her most recent albums were either solo performances in the vein of Tenderberry or jazz-influence pop and rock that would have sounded just fine on a Michael McDonald or Diana Krall album. Her “Live At The Bottom Line” is as good as jazz-rock gets.
If you delve further into her legacy, it’s apparent that she’s one of those artists whose reputation and assessment of her work seem to keep improving. Her persona and music were multi-layered, and time has been very kind to Laura Nyro.
When one goes down the list of NYC artists who forged legendary reputations as musical street poets, such as Lou Reed, Patti Smith, Jim Carroll, and others, any such collection would be incomplete without the woman who combined romantic street verse with one of the best voices of her generation—a singer who had the chops to match her ambition and vision.
Laura Nyro not only belongs on any such list but should be placed among the first to successfully put the tough but romantic side of 60s New York City life to music.
Gear Review: Depinto Galaxie 4 Electric Guitar
I've always thought that the oddest observation that electric guitar players make is that this or that model is weird or radically different. The reason is that all electric guitars are strange looking with various shapes and colors.
For example, the Fender Stratocaster is considered one of the "traditional" designs. Still, for most people who aren't guitar players, it's a radical design that looks like it's from outer space. I know that the shape, particularly the front "horns" or whatever are there for balance, but it still looks odd.
Gibson created two shapes to compete with Fender, which were commercial failures but ended up being "classic" designs. The Flying V and the Explorer were even more modern arty'ish and are looked at as being more radical looking than the Strat.
However, if you go to a guitar store and look at the racks, and forget that the start is a "standard" shape, all of the guitars would look pretty wild.
That weird or radical label was applied to the DePinto Galaxie 4, which came out around 2014, but in terms of style, it was actually a retro design that fits the image of the most well-known band that endorsed it, Los Straitjackets.
…fits the mold…
The DiPinto Galaxie 4 surf guitar is in the mold of modern or retro surf, as exemplified by the much-missed Japanese band the Surf Coasters or the trashier tones of Link Wray.
The classic tone of traditional surf is the sound of Fenders like the Jaguar or Jazzmasters (or strats, of course) or Mosrites and, in general, the heavily reverbed "clean" tones (though not in the sense you would think in jazz or country).
Sometime around the 80s, a sub-genre of surf developed. Groups like Agent Orange and a host of young bands took traditional surf and added a punk sensibility, even if their sound was more retro than thr hard-core bands.
This subgenre didn't come out of anywhere. You can trace it back to the Ramones, who rocked out a lot of surf songs.
Add to that the early 80s cult legends, the Barracudas (ironically an English band), and surf music became harder, louder, and faster.
There still is a surf music scene. It was there before the Beach Boys made it into a pop form, and there still is one now, as exemplified by bands like the Mermen.
…Los Straitjackets…
The current surf scene is too detailed to discuss here, but one of the emerging bands is Los Straightjackets.
Los Straitjackets are a band whose lineage probably comes from the Ramones and Barracudas side of things, and they not only have a distinctive sound but sport one of the coolest looks on the planet.
A surf band that wears Mexican wrestler masks plays a lot of loud, trashy surf but with enough authentic tone and technique to make it clear that this is an excellent surf band.
The DiPinto Galaxie 4 is a distinctive retro-style guitar they've endorsed. It's a very cool cross between the old cheap Japanese guitars of the 60s with their multitude of pickups and buttons and the classic body lines of the traditional fenders.
Think of a Fender Strat or Jaguar, but with sharper pointed horns and four single coil style pickups, each with an on-off switch in the old 60s Japanese style, but with standard knobs and Fender style five-way switch.
That's twice as many pickups as a Jaguar or Jazzmaster and one more than a Strat. It's stylistically closer to a 60s Japanese Teisco-Kawai.
Although the DePinto's are generally listed in the 650.00 category on the Internet, this guitar is relatively easy to find, priced as low as 500.00 on the street, if you can find one.
Once again, you can get the detailed specs on the Internet, it's not hard to find, but the heart of the guitar is the mahogany body with four single coil square pickups (instead of Fender alder wood), maple neck that has an angled headstock (so you don't have to use the fender style string tree) for better string tension at the nut, a Fender Jaguar style tremolo bar, and bright cool colors with sparkles.
One of its primary selling points, besides its sound (which I'll discuss soon), is that it's at a price point well below what Fender charges for the top-of-the-line versions of the guitars mentioned above and only a fraction of the price of the vintage models.
…modern Fenders…
Fender does make Jazzmasters and Jaguar versions in the same price range as the DiPinto, but they are generally modernized and geared toward the rock and alternative market. Indeed good enough for surf, but that makes it harder to get those classic surf tones, particularly in the case of the Jaguars, which often have humbuckers instead of the traditional single coils(which is a nod to the Grunge genre).
The best Fenders with vintage style hardware are more expensive, and the best value in terms of an authentic recreation is the lower line Squire vintage modified series Jaguar at around 300.00 (note: that price has changed in 2023).
The Galaxie 4 isn't a guitar for the person who wants to play traditional surf like the old Ventures, etc., but perhaps closer to the more modern sound of the Mermen (who use strats) or Dick Dale (as he plays surf now).
The real purpose of this guitar is to play surf the Los Straitjackets way, a combination of the traditional sound but a beefier, flat-out trash guitar tone with a punk edge.
So, on the one hand, I say it's related to the Fenders, but the intent's a little different. If you buy a DePinto, you probably love surf, but you probably want to play it louder and harder. The Galaxie is a nice guitar to hold and play. It's a bit lighter than the Fenders, and the pickups are hotter and more versatile than the ones on the old 60s Japanese guitars.
I think most guitars have a particular sound that defines them. In the case of the Galaxie, it's the far-back pickup. It has a sharp, full tone that's clear, rounded, and unlike any I've heard. When you turn up the gain and volume, it has the trebly attack of an old single coil Gibson SG, but sharper, with a little bit of that excellent cheap pickup sound.
Playing around with the four switches is fun; turning the various ones on and off produce a wide range of tones useful for surf, surf punk, and trash rock. Crank it up even louder, and it'll do fine as an alternative music guitar.
Combine that with retro styling, and you've got one of the best mid-range price and style alternatives to Fender on the market.
…look around…
That said, like all guitars, you should try it alongside other brands and types in the same price range. If you want to play hard rock, it's not entirely suitable for a sound that might need some metal. If you play a similarly priced Gibson SG Junior alongside it, for example, I will tend to take the P90 Gibson sound over the Dipinto, but that might show my age more than anything else.
If you want to play a hard-core Surf sound, it's worth trying out the vintage modified Squires. Those are excellent values for the money also, with the Duncan-designed pickups doing a more than adequate job of reproducing that vintage tone, and cheap enough that you can add stock Fender pickups (and still be in the mid-price zone).
What DePinto did right was not trying to reproduce any of the above sounds slavishly. Its stylistic sensibility does stem from the 60s, but they went for a sound that's identifiably surf but with a juiced-up sound where even the clean tones have a nice punch (and doesn't distort into a pure alternative or metal tone).
It's got excellent 60s mojo, distinctive style, a sound of its own that's still surfy (as we know it today), and at an excellent price point. A used copy would be a fantastic bargain for the money.
I wouldn't necessarily recommend it as a first-line surf guitar or the only one you should have. It may not fit the type of surf music you want to do.
But any search for a surf guitar in this price range should include this one as one of the choices. If for no other reason than if you get a Fender or Mosrite repro, you could find yourself sounding like everybody else.
The DePinto Galaxie 4 will make you sound at least a little different. Any true musician would check out a guitar if there were a chance it could do that.
If they had included a Mexican wrestling mask, I would have given it an extra star for a guitar that's already pretty cool.
Will AI create another Victorian Age or just more Big Brother?
The short answer is "No." The Media already enforces language usage standards, and like in the Victorian Age, the spicy stuff was there if you knew where to look. It was a male-dominated era, and men have historically never closed off avenues of illicit sex and other thrills.
The long answer is, "Maybe Sorta Kinda, Yeah." If you have AI search bots policing moral standards, then not only will those algorithms (that's what they are, not a conscious life) police search and answer requests, the person making the query will almost certainly be reported to relevant agencies and law enforcement. Inquiries about terror-related tech or criminal activities won't just be flagged; the AI will immediately send a report.
Even if official sites guarantee anonymity, there'll be rouge and third-party sites that will. Also, we're only seeing a few official Bots now. You can control those. There's plenty in development that hasn't received funding yet but will hit the market and dark web.
The potential for good is there, but humankind has never just used new technology for good. There are always bad actors; once the technology hits the street level, it'll be used for every imaginable purpose. Even the Bible has been used to justify war, so the tech applications will only be as good as those using it.
So, I doubt AI'll bring on a Victorian Age-type atmosphere. Big Brother and lawlessness, that's another story.
How long will the film market be dominated by special effects films
These special effects extravaganzas with superheroes will eventually begin to lose money and fade away. If you look at the history of cinema, it's obvious that nothing lasts forever. The genre will keep changing and evolving. These current super films will only survive if the next wave of young moviegoers like them. If not, that superhero genre will get smaller budgets and keep cranking out for that age group as it gets older.
NOTE: THIS IS A NEW ONGOING FEATURE. I’LL BE ADDING NEW ITEMS EVERY WEEK THROUGHOUT APRIL, SO PLEASE CHECK EVERY SO OFTEN.
Sgt. Pepper Album (Beatles)
The PR for a new reissue of a classic album now follows the Social Media model, and suddenly a multitude of media voices appear online to amplify the message, like how hundreds of Twitter accounts go into Bot mode and pass on the link or age. If an album from a past era is discussed on many sites, I assume a new vinyl box set of practice takes and other scraps that the group didn't feel were worth releasing has come out. It's a landmark album, but I'd recommend Revolver instead. If you're under 30 or thereabouts, just ignore the hype. You're not the target anyway.
I Can Tell (Johnny Kidd And The Pirates)
Kidd's first big hit in the early 60s U.K. Charts was "Shakin' All Over," a song that inspired later groups like The Who. After that, he hired a band with Telecaster guitar master Mick Green and came out with this hard-edge cover of a Bo Diddley song. They say the first Butterfield Blues Band album with Mike Bloomfield was the primer for telecaster players.
Guitarists like Pete Townshend of The Who used Mick Green's playing as their model. Check this song out on your streaming service or YouTube; you won't be sorry.
All Quiet On The Western Front (2022)
It's not the same film as the two earlier versions, mainly because it doesn't bother to follow the book. It's well made and has good acting, but for this kind of brutal anti-war movie, I'd recommend Samuel Peckinpah's Cross Of Iron instead. The same basic theme but more story. Though I should note some might find some scenes hard to watch.
Traffic Live In Santa Monica
This early 70s concert by Traffic is only available on YouTube. It's similar to the show I saw as a teen at Winterland in SF. Why this hasn't been released is a mystery to me.
SOME PREVIEWS OF MY VELLA BOOKS ON AMAZON:
The Boogie Underground Think Tank: How To Survive The End Of Civilization Update
https://www.amazon.com/kindle-vella/story/B0BG6LNXTG
This one is a revival of an old humor column I ran in my old "Delta Snake Blues News" publication in the 90s and 2000s. The slant is about survival in the upcoming hard times, but it really will be topical and cover subjects that are offbeat but relevant. The next one coming in a few days will be "How To Shop For The Perfect Expert," which obviously will be a humorous commentary on the use of experts in general.
The ebook “On The Road With Al & Ivy: The Anthology Volume 1 2016-2018 is now on Kindle Unlimited!
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