So after the tough sledding of the past few days, it’s time for us all to frolic a bit in the shallow end of the cultural pool: it is, after all, still summer, and Labor Day’s just around the corner. Here, then, a parlor game: What are your ten favorite “rock movies”? That phrase wobbles [...]
[Part 2 of 4] The name “Santana” points always in two directions: both to the band originally called the Santana Blues Band (shortened to Santana by the release of their first album), as well as the band’s founder and lead guitarist. The ambivalence captured in that name—is Santana a band or a man?—registers something [...]
[Cherished Readers: I'm going to use the occasion of Carlos Santana's (re-)appearance at Woodstock last month to think a little bit about the shape of his extraordinary career: today and for the next three days. My thanks, in advance, for your bearing with me.--KD] On July 17, guitarist Carlos Santana played the Bethel Woods Center for [...]
I was pleased this week to come across a link to Jeff Tweedy’s cover of Beyoncé’s “Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)”: Not just because it’s a great song, and not just because guest blogger Emily Dalton recently wrote about another “cover” of the song here at fcrp (May 28, 2010). More important, [...]
[The second in a two-part post started yesterday, previously published in the Chronicle of Higher Education.] In the documentary All You Need Is Love (2008), Tony Palmer quotes Eric Burdon, of the Animals: “If you want to see what an American black is going through today, where his mind is at, go see Jimi Hendrix, [...]
[Regular readers of fcrp know Jean Tamarin, my editor at the Chronicle of Higher Education. This piece ran there first, last month, and is better (as always) for Jean's tender mercies. This is part one of a two-parter that we'll finish tomorrow.--K] The prejudices we absorb when young—musical, culinary, racial—are so very hard to overcome. [...]
Of course all of those festivals, whether explicitly or implicitly, hark back to Woodstock, but the more-recent summer festivals serve a different function for this generation of rock fans than did their near-mythical progenitor. A familiar reaction to the current festivals is to complain that they are commercialized and commodified corporate productions, unlike the original [...]
Listening to the new Jimi Hendrix album a few weeks ago started me thinking about what we might call counterfactual recording sessions. The Righteous Brothers suggested back in 1973 that if there’s a rock & roll heaven, you know they’ve got a helluva band; I guess I’m hoping that they’ve got some incredible remixing facilities, [...]
Let’s get finished with Valleys of Neptune now with all due dispatch. “Mr. Bad Luck”: forgettable (given the proviso, ventured yesterday, that all of these tracks bring something of value). Let’s move on. Hendrix’s almost seven-minute instrumental version of “Sunshine of Your Love” is the track (after “Valleys of Neptune”) that’s been getting the most media [...]
[Owing to some technical problems out here on the road, this week's Mystery Science Auditorium has been pushed back to Sunday: with apologies.--KD] Having begun Thursday with some general comments on Hendrix’s new Valleys of Neptune, I’d like to venture some specific remarks about a handful of the album’s more remarkable tracks today and tomorrow. [...]