Last week I took myself off to a local cinema to see this documentary on the subject of Ginger Baker by writer/director Jay Bulger. The audience witness from the very beginning of the film, the kind of subject matter we are dealing with here, as Baker launches a torrent of abuse on the hapless director, culminating in a physical assault on the poor guy with the handle of Baker's walking cane. The indications were that the film was going to be anything but dull.
Which is as you would expect concerning a complex and volatile character like Baker. Surely someone with his musical background was going to have a wealth of interesting and informative tales to tell about his rock and roll lifestyle. Well, so I thought when I commenced reading his book 'Hellraiser' last year. Yet, I found myself bored before I reached the midway stage of the book and soon abandoned it. Despite this film covering essentially the same subject matter, it was anything but boring and once I became accustomed to the use of dark, disturbing cartoons to illustrate some parts of the story, I found the film to be very entertaining.
As one would expect the music used throughout is simply glorious though naturally the musical clips have to be kept relatively short. Nevertheless we are treated to The Graham Bond Organisation, Cream, Blind Faith, Air Force and a selection of clips from Baker's forays into African music in Nigeria and South Africa. Also there was some great footage of some of the jazz drummers who had influenced the young Peter Baker.
The story is told in Baker's own words through his interviews with Bulger. These are tempered and sometimes contradicted by contributions from Eric Clapton, Stevie Winwood, Denny Laine, Jack Bruce, Johnny Rotten, Charlie Watts and members of Baker's family including assorted ex wives and girlfriends. The family especially have suffered from Baker's irrational and sometimes violent behaviour. I felt particularly for his son Kofi who appears to have been singled out for some very bad treatment at the hands of his father, yet he came across as a sensible and well-rounded personality in his own right. Good on him! He certainly comes out of the film with more credit than his father.
There are of course some moments of great humour in the film. For example when Jack Bruce is asked for his opinion of Ginger. With a slight pause and a wry smile, he claims that Ginger Baker is the best Ginger Baker in the world. There are also Baker's comments on Mick Jagger, Keith Moon and John Bonham.
Having hurt and angered so many friends and family members, I wondered whether Baker was capable of any emotions beyond anger and bitterness, yet towards the end of the film we see him shed tears about the fact that the four jazz drummers he most idolised were now his friends. This clearly meant a lot to him. I felt it a shame that such feelings appeared not to extend towards his own offspring.
One of Baker's main gripes appears to be the fact that as writers, Jack Bruce and Pete Brown have made more money from Cream than he or Clapton ever did. He claims that he added considerably to the success of some songs citing the bolero rhythm of 'White Room' as one example. This may well be the case but it is a hard fact of life that the writers receive the lion's share of the spoils while arrangers get zilch. Clearly Baker hasn't got over this and his bitterness is apparent for all to see.
The film appeared to go by in a flash so I clearly found it gripping. I would claim that it could also bear a repeated viewing. I suggest you go to see it if you get the opportunity.
It would appear from recent reports that the cassette tape is not dead after all and is indeed undergoing something of a resurgence.
Let us rewind to 1985 when sales of cassettes actually overtook vinyl before the CD seemed to put the final nail in the coffin of both analogue formats in 1992. Good riddance I thought.
It is true that cassettes served a purpose. Far more portable than vinyl and not prone to being scratched at parties, they appeared to be the way forward particularly when in 1979, the Sony Walkman was released to the public. At last we were able to take music with us when we commuted, travelled or jogged in the park. Also of course it was possible to record onto blank cassettes and create our own playlists long before the word playlist was actually invented. Budding musicians could record their works onto cassette and popped into a jiffy bag it could easily be sent off to John Peel who promised to listen to every one. Many a punk and indie band was born on the back of such exposure. Also, small cassette recorders could be smuggled into concerts resulting in bootleg recordings of some of our favourite artists. Why some were even of decent quality.
Words like C60, C90 and (the dreaded) C120, became part of the English language.
The downside was the fact that cassette tapes were prone to getting jammed in the plastic casing and I lost many tapes when they became mangled or just snapped. Also the quality of some tapes left much to be desired. Frankly I thought that the sound quality over time became pretty awful and tape machine heads had to be frequently cleaned of the brown oxide coating left behind by some of the tapes.
So for me, the emergence of the CD and latterly the MP3 player, was a lifesaver.
Now it appears that some indie bands are reverting to using cassettes and companies including Sony are beginning to mass manufacture these items again.
I don't know what your views are but personally I feel that cassettes, like 78 RPM records were part of the past and should be consigned to history. Apart from nostalgia is there any real demand for these cheap looking chunks of plastic? Perhaps we will also see the return of 8 track cartridges or mini discs.
Heaven forbid!
Saddened to hear of the death yesterday of 74 year old Ray Manzarek, keyboard player and founding member of The Doors.
The unique sound of The Doors came partly from the voice and lyrics of Jim Morrison, partly from the guitar playing of Robby Krieger, but if I'm honest, came mainly from the immediately identifiable keyboard playing of Manzarek. Listen to the opening of 'Light My Fire' which was created by Manzarek and you will know what I mean.
Any donations can be made via this link - www.standup2cancer.org
As a long time fan of movies by the Coen brothers, I am of course looking forward to seeing their latest work, 'Inside Llewyn Davis'. Over the weekend I have been reading the reviews of the first screening of the movie at the Cannes Film Festival and they have certainly whetted my appetite.
Being a fan of the early Bob Dylan I have something of a fascination for Greenwich Village in the early 1960s and spent an unhealthy amount of my time on my visit to New York City, seeking out some of the venues and addresses made famous during that period. It appears that this film brings the period to life being very very loosely based upon the memoirs of Dave van Ronk, 'The Mayor of MacDougal Street'. The film also sees the Coens reunited with songwriter/producer T-Bone Burnett following their successful venture into American music history in the wonderful 'O Brother, Where Art Thou?'.
It may be some time before the film hits these shores but if the word coming out of Cannes is anything to go by, I will be one of the first in line for a ticket. I suspect I will get as much fun checking out the film locations and identifying those characters that are based on real people (Dylan, Grossman etc.) as I will following the storyline. Hopefully the soundtrack will be worth hearing too.
Somehow the news of the March 7th death of Peter Banks passed me by so forgive me for only writing about this two months after the sad event.
Banks was of course the original guitarist with prog-rock band Yes and he appeared on their eponymous first album though most of his guitar parts for the follow up, 'Time And A Word' were buried under the strings that were added later. This led to his departure from the group in April 1970.
He subsequently formed Flash who were often dubbed by the music press as the 'poor man's Yes'. While the style of music was somewhat similar, I always thought that the tag was rather unkind as Flash were a very good band in their own right. In the two years from 1972 to 1973, Flash released three excellent albums - 'Flash', 'In The Can' and 'Out Of Our Hands'.
After the band broke up, Banks went on to work with a number of musicians and he continued to record in bands or on solo projects. While I am not familiar with his later work, I will always have a soft spot for his versatile guitar playing on the first Yes LP and for all of his work with Flash.
Banks died at his home of heart failure. He was 65 years old.
Check out a couple of pieces of his work on the following YouTube links:-
Yes - 'Every Little Thing'
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FfsbF2yYpi4
Flash - 'Lifetime'
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Omq2TMQFK5s
I have missed the previous three albums from this US duo but on the strength of some good reviews I took the plunge with their most recent album, 'Haw'.
And how pleased I am that I did as I have discovered yet another superb album, to add to the ever growing list competing for the White Room prize for album of 2013.
The duo are M C Taylor and Scott Hirsch and they are ably supported on this album by among others, William Tyler and Nathan Bowles. The name 'Haw' I understand comes from the name of a river and the Sissipahaw native American tribe of North Carolina. So now you know!
Musically the songs veer from the soft country rock of 'I've Got a Name for the New Born Child' and 'Sweet as John Hurt', through the Dr John-like swamp groove of 'Devotion', the hoedown fiddle dance tune that is 'Hark Maker (Glory Rag)' to the blues rock opening track, 'Red Rose Nantahala'. Stand out tracks though, are 'Busted Note' and 'Suffer (Love My Conquerer)'. The latter could be a folky Americana tune but midway through Taylor is joined by a female singer (Sonia Turner) before lush strings wash through the airwaves clashing against strange electronic sounds emerging from the left channel. It is totally mesmerising and on first hearing comes as a complete surprise. Another surprise occurs during 'Cheerwine Easter' when the gentle acoustic ballad is blown apart by a subtly jarring, slightly discordant but totally wonderful sax solo backed by tinkling piano. Wonderful!
I have not yet had time to fully take in all of the lyrics but throughout I detect a host of biblical references. Perhaps those more familiar with this band can enlighten me as to whether there are serious religious messages within these words.
Because of the broad palette of styles on this album, the band are difficult to categorise musically, though because of the Americana roots of most tracks I would draw comparisons with another of my favourites in this genre, Blitzen Trapper. To me, that's no bad thing. I have been gradually drawn in to this record and I think it may well be in the mix when it comes to deciding on my favourites of 2013.
What a year it's been.
A few more details about this forthcoming biography have been issued including details of the cover of Volume 1.
Check out this link.
http://thebeatlesbiography.com/
The speculation appeared to begin suddenly and to come from nowhere, yet within hours the news had been confirmed. After 26 years in charge, Sir Alex Ferguson was to stand down as manager of Manchester United Football Club.
Just to put the whole thing in context, I have two sons who follow Manchester United and who are now in their mid twenties. They have never known United to have any other manager apart from Fergie. Elsewhere the managerial merry-go-round has continued and grown to the extent that it now not uncommon for managers to last a matter of weeks in a job. There will be toddlers growing up in Chelsea supporting households who have seen numerous managers in their short lives. With Fergie, I believe we truly have reached the end of an era.
I will not list here the list of Fergie's achievements, they can easily be found elsewhere. Suffice to say he has been the most successful football manager ever and I personally don't think his record will ever be beaten.
Now the speculation begins as to who will succeed him as manager. I am sure that lessons will have been learned from the debacle that followed the first retirement of Sir Matt Busby and I am confident that United will already have made their own mind up about who will take over the reins next season. Naturally two names spring to mind immediately, the charismatic Jose Mourinho who has already dropped broad hints that he is likely to leave Real Madrid and the current Everton manager, David Moyes who has not agreed a new deal with the Merseyside club. After eleven years there, perhaps he feels he has achieved all he can and is seeking a new challenge.
Whoever is finally named, one thing can be assured. The new manager will be taking over a team that has the winning mentality demanded by Ferguson and the mixture of experience and youth that should lead to more success in the years to come. The trophies now are all part of the rich history of this famous club but I believe that Fergie's true legacy is the position that he now leaves the club in.
Love United or hate them, I feel that there are interesting times ahead.
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