Evans recalls AC/DC’s first gig

Comments 3 MARTIN KIELTY at 10:49am December 31 2013

Original AC/DC frontman Dave Evans has recalled the band’s first ever concert, which took place in Australia 40 years ago tonight.

The recently-named outfit, who’d formed two months previously, played two New Year’s Eve sets in Sydney’s Chequers club – one around 11.30pm on December 31, 1973, and another after midnight on January 1, 1974.

Evans tells The Age: “It was a small place, absolutely jammed – there were no laws in those days so it was like sardines.

“The crowd didn’t know us, of course, but it just went off. We all had so much energy. I don’t get nervous before shows but I remember I was nervous before that one. But we knew we were going to kill them, and we did. As soon as the first chord started we were into it.”

He remembers how the fledgling band didn’t have enough material to see them through the night. “Malcolm Young said, ‘We’re about six or seven songs short, so make up some names and we’ll put them through the set.’ So we made up songs on the spot and played them that night.”

Evans was replaced by Bon Scott later in 1974. His departure was acrimonious after his relationship with manager Dennis Laughlin soured – but the vocalist, who still performs worldwide, insists: “I’m very proud to have been one of the founding members of the band.”

http://www.classicrockmagazine.com/news/dave-evans-recalls-acdcs-first-gig/?

Anyone remember this, filmed in 1976 in Swanson Street Melbourne?
[youtube]EGflPNVmQuA&list=PLD03137AE87336758[/youtube]

'Rubbish,' 'Tiresome,' 'Whoa-Yuk!': The Beatles' Early Haters

A recent history of the Beatles' BBC appearances points out an oft-forgotten fact: 50 years ago, most people didn't like them.
ELIAS LEIGHTJAN 3 2014, 8:01 AM ET

The Beatles’ “I Want To Hold Your Hand” came out in America on December 26, 1963, almost exactly 50 years ago. That anniversary marks the expiration of some copyright laws in Europe, spurring a slew of new releases of previously unreleased Beatles material in an effort to prevent these songs from entering the public domain in 2014.

New discs have been accompanied by some impressively researched books, including the The Beatles BBC Archives 1962 – 1970, which looks to reclaim the forgotten history of the Beatles as interview subjects on England’s main radio station. The volume serves to remind us that the Beatles, enshrined by history as cute, beloved pop geniuses, were viewed by many as downright terrible—not only when they started, but throughout their illustrious career.

In the early ‘60s, many bands were exposed to a wider audience by playing for the BBC, which regularly attracted millions of listeners. “[T]he BBC was at the core of daily life,” author Kevin Howlett writes. “In the daytime, there was nothing else to listen to … during the limited hours that TV was broadcast its only competitor was the young commercial upstart, Independent Television.” The Beatles, fresh off their hard-partying, hard-rocking days in Hamburg—another recently published book, Beatles Vs. Stones, delves deeply into the wildness of that early period—were competing for increased exposure just like everybody else.

“In those days,” said BBC representative Peter Pilbeam, “we were spending two or three evenings a week going round the North [of England] hearing groups of a similar size and there was masses of rubbish. Then out of the blue this group turned up at one of our audition sessions, called The Beatles—a weird name and everybody said, ‘Whoa-yuk!’”

Pilbeam kept his yuks to himself, and he ended up giving the group a pass, but not without reservations. He liked some members of the band better than others, stating in his summary of the audition: “An unusual group, not as ‘Rocky’ as most, more C&W [country & western], with a tendency to play music … John Lennon: yes, Paul McCartney: no.” (What band tends not to play music?)

With the green light from Pilbeam, the Beatles appeared on 53 separate radio shows between March of 1962 and June of 1965. And then they rocketed into unanimous acclaim, right? Wrong. An audience research report for the Beatles June 4th, 1963 performance—they played early classics like “From Me To You” and “Misery”—shows a divided audience: 34 percent of fans surveyed gave the Beatles an A+ or an A, but nearly as many (31 percent) gave them a grade in the C range. (The BBC grading scheme suffered from grade inflation; it only went down to C-, and “yuk” wasn’t an option.) The report goes into more detail. “According to a few particularly enthusiastic under-twenties, they were ‘really with it’ … Other pop fans were unimpressed … complaining that their singing was noisy, harsh and untuneful, and their choice of music lacking in variety.”

“A few of the many outraged comments: 'Positively the worst program I can remember seeing … A load of RUBBISH … unspeakably tiresome.'”

The periodic research reports allow readers to track the swings in pro-Beatles sentiment. In 1964, several months before the release of the album Hard Days Night, the group was still far from a sure thing. Only 29 percent of respondents gave their performance an A grade—less than the 33 percent who handed out C’s: “A considerable number of those reporting clearly regarded it as noisy, boring and a waste of time, and several who ‘listened out of curiosity,’ failed to see any reason for the Beatles’ popularity.’”

Even in 1967, when the Beatles had released Revolver and Sergeant Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band, much of the BBC audience remained skeptical. The band provoked the most backlash when it aired the self-indulgent film Magical Mystery Tour in December of 1967, which earned only 12 percent A’s, while 74 percent of those surveyed gave it a C or lower. “The following are just a few of the many outraged comments: ‘The biggest waste of public money since the Ground Nut Scheme … Positively the worst program I can remember seeing … A load of RUBBISH … unspeakably tiresome.”

It wasn’t only the audience that thought the group had gone crazy in 1967. BBC’s director of sound broadcasting wrote to the Beatles’ record company, EMI, about the final song from Sergeant Pepper’s, “A Day In The Life.” He noted that “We have listened to it over and over again with great care, and we cannot avoid coming to the conclusion that words ‘I’d love to turn you on,’ followed by that mounting montage of sound, could have a rather sinister meaning. … ‘Turned on’ is a phrase which… is currently much in vogue in the jargon of the drug-addicts.”

Nowadays, questioning the Beatles’ greatness is such a transgressive act that there are tongue-in-cheek guides for how to do it “correctly.” The BBC Archives reminds us that McCartney et al. didn’t always exist in a bubble of privilege—their beginnings were rocky, and they faced robust criticism from their home crowd throughout the ‘60s. Obviously, though, the band’s boosters at the BBC and elsewhere won out. An interviewer ends a 1964 conversation with the band by remarking, “It will be a great pleasure to watch Paul McCartney in retirement, but it’ll probably be in the year about 2010.” Undoubtedly, these days McCartney’s getting better grades on his audience reports.

http://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2014/01/rubbish-tiresome-whoa-yuk-the-beatles-early-haters/282784/?

Everly Brothers' Song Sales Up 696 Percent Following Phil Everly's Death

8:35 AM PST 1/9/2014 by Keith Caulfield, Billboard

In total, 18,000 Everly Brothers songs were purchased this past week.

This article first appeared on Billboard.com.
OUR EDITOR RECOMMENDS

Phil Everly's Last Interview: Thoughts on 'Foreverly,' Gene Autry, Being 'Happy at 74'

The death of Phil Everly -- one-half of the singing duo the Everly Brothers -- resonates on the charts this week.
Everly passed away on on Jan. 3 of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. He was 74.
The Everly Brothers' catalog of albums saw a 455 percent gain in sales for the week ending Jan. 5, rising to 5,000 sold for the week according to Nielsen SoundScan. The biggest seller of the bunch was the 25-song collection The Very Best of the Everly Brothers, which moved 2,000 copies. It debuts at No. 8 on the Country Catalog Albums chart.

The act's top selling song of the week was "All I Have To Do Is Dream," which moved 4,000 downloads (up 490 percent from less than 1,000 a week ago). In total, 18,000 Everly Brothers songs were purchased this past week -- up 696 percent compared to the previous frame.
"All I Have To Do Is Dream" was one of the duo's four No. 1 singles on the Hot Country Songs chart, hitting the top in 1958. The pair also charted 31 singles on the Billboard Hot 100, including 12 top 10 hits. They claimed a No. 1 single with "Cathy's Clown" in 1960, which spent five weeks atop the chart.
Billboard recently ranked the duo as the No. 66 biggest act in the 55-year history of the Hot 100 chart. They are the chart's third biggest duo ever, following Daryl Hall & John Oates, and the Carpenters.

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/everly-brothers-song-sales-up-669608?

Surviving Beatles stars to reform for the Grammy awards

SIR Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr will perform together at this year's Grammy Awards, it's been revealed.

By: Kirsty McCormackPublished: Tue, January 14, 2014

Ringo Starr and Sir Paul McCartney will reform for this year's Grammy Awards [SPLASH]

The Recording Academy announced today that the two remaining members of the Beatles will take to the stage at the annual event which will take place on January 26 in Los Angeles.

The Beatles will be honoured at the Academy's Special Merits Awards the day before, and a day after the big show, the iconic group will be the centre of a performance special featuring Eurythmics and other acts playing Beatles hits.

The two stars are believed to have somewhat of a love-hate relationship since their Beatles days and last performed together back in 2009.

In a 2011 interview, Ringo said of his relationship with Paul: "We are as close as we want to be. We’re the only two remaining Beatles, although he likes to think he’s the only one."

The Beatles will be honoured at the Academy's Special Merits Awards this month [WENN]

But it seems that thing may have improved since then as the pair were pictured on a dinner date together with their wives in Los Angeles last year, and have now agreed to the Grammys performance too.

Sir Paul's nominations at this year's ceremony include best rock song and music film.

Other stars performing at this year's Grammys are Taylor Swift, Macklemore & Ryan Lewis, Kendrick Lamar, Robin Thicke and Katy Perry.

Sara Bareilles will also sing with Carole King, while Stevie Wonder, Daft Punk, Nile Rodgers and Pharrell will perform together.

The Grammys will air live on CBS from the Staples Center in Los Angeles.

http://www.express.co.uk/news/showbiz/453849/Surviving-Beatles-Paul-McCartney-and-Ringo-Starr-to-reform-for-the-Grammy-awards

It's a kind of magic as Brian May finds lost Queen track while celebrating health boost

QUEEN rocker BRIAN MAY has another reason to smile after learning he's free of prostate cancer - he has discovered a lost song recorded by his late pal and bandmate FREDDIE MERCURY.

Published: Thu, January 16, 2014

The guitarist alerted fans to the news of his find on his blog shortly after revealing his winter health crisis was over and doctors had ruled out cancer as the cause for abnormalities they found while treating him for torn spinal discs last year (13).

He wrote, "Some Queen magic is happening... I feel it in my bones. It's annoying to have to be so secretive, but I guess I have to, for now. What I can say is the track we dusted off today has the four of us, Freddie, John (Deacon), Roger (Taylor) and myself, playing together on a track we'd forgotten about that was never finished.

"It sounds so fresh... now all carefully transferred into the ProTools (computer programme) environment but sounding exactly like it did straight off the 24-track tape it was recorded on over 30 years ago. I got quite emotional hearing some of it... It's crying out to be finally brought into the world."

Mercury died in 1991.

http://www.express.co.uk/news/showbiz/454172/It-s-a-kind-of-magic-as-Brian-May-finds-lost-Queen-track-while-celebrating-health-boost

What a record! The UK album chart reaches its 1,000th No1... and counting

Eight billion albums have sold since they started in 1956 and as Robbie Williams passes a remarkable milestone we reveal the stories behind, what used to be known as, the LP

By: Adrian LeePublished: Tue, November 26, 2013

FRANK Sinatra's Songs For Swingin' Lovers was the first album to top the charts in 1956. Back then there was no official list but the music paper Record Mirror was the first to publish a Top Five based on sales.

The singles chart had first appeared four years earlier. Most historians recognise Ol' Blue Eyes as holding the distinction of having the UK's first ever No1 album. Since then there have been almost 3,000 album charts.

Read on for the 23 facts you never knew about the UK charts...

1. The first vinyl albums were 12 inches in diameter and known as long players - LPs. Initially designed for classical music and Broadway shows these records were also ideal for a collection of 10 or more pop songs. Typically they played for 26 minutes each side.


2. The best-selling UK album of all time is Queen's Greatest Hits which was released in 1981. It's one of just three albums also including Abba's collection of hits, Gold, and Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band by The Beatles to have amassed more than five million sales so far.

The bestselling album in the 21st century is Adele's 21 which has sold more than 2.5 million copies. It spent 23 weeks at No1, which is also a record for a female solo artist.

Frank Sinatra was the first Album chart topper with Songs For Swingin' Lovers [GETTY]

Eight billion albums have sold since they started in 1956
3. The Beatles have had the most No1 albums with 15. Next on the all-time list is Madonna with 12, followed by Elvis Presley and now Robbie Williams, with 11 each.

4. The Beatles have spent the most weeks at No1, spending a total of 174 at the top. No one else runs close, with Elvis in second place at 63 weeks and Abba with 57 weeks.

5. One in every 20 chart-toppers is a "best of" album. The first was The Best Of Ball, Barber & Bilk, a 1962 collection of jazz songs by trumpeter Kenny Ball, trombone player Chris Barber and bandleader Acker Bilk. The first Now! That's What I Call Music album was released in 1988 and there have been 85 more since.

6. John Lennon's Imagine was the 100th No1 album in the UK in 1971. It took 15 years for that landmark to arrive largely because The Beatles spent a combined three years at the top with different albums in the Sixties. The 200th No1 was Nightflight To Venus by Boney M.

7. Oasis set a chart record in 1997 that still stands when their third album Be Here Now sold 660,000 copies in seven days. That's the highest-first week sales in history. The fastest selling debut album was I Dreamed A Dream by Susan Boyle in 2009.

8. In the Fifties, musicals accounted for eight of the 17 No 1 albums. The original soundtrack of the musical South Pacific holds the record for the most weeks at the top of the UK album charts.

It spent 115 weeks at the top including the whole of 1959 and one stretch of 70 consecutive weeks. The Sound Of Music is in second place with a total of 70 weeks at the top and it's also the album that's returned to the top spot most often (12 times).

Christina Aguilera had the biggest drop from No1 album spot with Bionic [GETTY]

9. The biggest selling album of the Eighties, Brothers In Arms by Dire Straits, was one of the first popular albums available on CD. The biggest selling album in the Nineties was Stars by Simply Red. The biggest selling album of the following decade was Back To Bedlam by James Blunt.

10. The Dark Side Of The Moon by Pink Floyd is the eighth bestselling UK album of all time but it never reached No1. It also enjoyed phenomenal success in the US where it was in the album chart for 15 years but only spent a single week at the top. Worldwide sales for the record released in 1973 are estimated at almost 50 million.

11. Kate Bush was the first female solo artist to reach No 1 in the UK album chart with Never For Ever in 1980.

12. Influential Rolling Stone magazine rated The Beatles' Sgt Pepper album as the best cover of all time. It features the Fab Four standing in front of a floral garden surrounded by cardboard cut-outs of more than 70 celebrities.

13. Deacon Blue's Our Town was the 500th UK No1 album in 1994.

14. The biggest fall from No1 was Christina Aguilera's album Bionic which plunged from the top spot to No29 the following week in 2010.

Duffy's follow up to the hugely successful Rockferry album is widely considered to be the biggest flop. Endlessly, released in 2010, limped into the chart at No9 and was gone within three months.

15. Since the birth of the album charts in 1956 there have been 23 one-hit wonders. They include Johnny Hates Jazz and The Farm.

16. Popstars, the debut album by Hear'Say in 2001, was the first by a reality show band or artist to reach No1.

17. Vinyl is made from oil and in the energy crisis of the Seventies it became common for unsold records to be melted down and recycled to create new albums. This led to complaints from music lovers that the sound quality was suffering.

Other experiments included making albums thinner, reducing the weight of an album from 130g to 90g but this added to the risk of warping. There has been a resurgence in vinyl sales, which increased to 2.8million in 2012, the best year since 1991 when CDs were taking off.

18. In the list of the UK's Top 40 selling albums British artists are the most heavily represented with 23. America trails behind with nine albums followed by Ireland with three and Canada with two.

19. Michael Jackson's album Thriller in 1983 is considered the first to benefit from using musical videos as a promotional tool. It was his first UK No1 album and has sold more than four million copies here.

20. Abba and Led Zeppelin share the honour of the most consecutive UK No1 albums with eight each.

21. To qualify today for the official chart an album must contain at least four tracks, be longer than 25 minutes in duration and cost more than £3.75.

22. In the first year of the album chart only 12 million were sold. Last year the total, which has been boosted by digital sales since 2007, was around the 100 million mark. This year for the first time since the Eighties the best-selling album of the year will sell less than one million copies.

23. The biggest-selling artist album of 2013 to date is Emeli Sande's Our Version Of Events with 600,000 sales. It was released last year and was the only million selling artist album in 2012.

http://www.express.co.uk/entertainment/music/445174/What-a-record-The-UK-album-chart-reaches-its-1-000th-No1-and-counting

Pop songs that pay the pension

IN THE film version of Nick Hornby's best-selling novel, About A Boy, Hugh Grant plays a character who lives off the royalties of a Christmas song called Santa's Super Sleigh that had been written by his late father.

By: Dominic MidgleyPublished: Thu, December 12, 2013

It may sound a rather improbable way of keeping the bank manager happy but the truth is there are dozens of rock stars and songwriters whose hits have become pension plans.

Take Noddy Holder, frontman of Seventies glam rockers Slade. This week it was revealed that he was one of a select group of performers who are making a fortune every year from Christmas songs they wrote decades ago. Holder's 1973 hit Merry Xmas Everybody has earned him more than £500,000 in royalties so far this year and that total could rise by another £300,000 by the 25th.

The Pogues (Fairytale Of New York) and Maria Carey (All I Want For Christmas) have also earned significant six-figures sums from their vintage showstoppers so far this year. And they're not alone.

DON McLEAN'S AMERICAN PIE

When asked what American Pie meant, McLean once replied: "It means I don't ever have to work again if I don't want to." How right he was. To this day the song that spent four weeks at No1 in the US in 1972 and reached No2 in the British charts, rakes him in an estimated £180,000 a year.

Part of this is due to its length. In the US for example a songwriter earns 9.1 cents or 1.75 cents per minute of playing time - whichever is the higher - on every sale. Most pop songs come in at around three minutes but as American Pie clocks in at a lengthy 8 minutes 33 seconds every sale earns McLean a hefty 15 cent royalty.

He is also coining it on performing rights as he recently revealed that American Pie is still played at least 500 times a day on radio stations around the world.

GERRY RAFFERTY'S BAKER STREET

Few can forget the swirling saxophone solo on this hit - the saxophonist who played it was reportedly paid only £27 for his performance - though he has since denied that even the cheque for that sum bounced. For Rafferty as songwriter, however, the track proved a goldmine. Following its release in 1978 it has received more than four million radio plays and provided him with an income of £80,000 a year. Its lyrics - which dwelt on alcohol and unhappiness - proved to be worryingly autobiographical. Rafferty died in 2011 after a long battle against the bottle and depression.

STING'S EVERY BREATH YOU TAKE

This one hit from The Police is said to be responsible for 25 per cent of the band's entire earnings from its catalogue. Sales rocketed when it was sampled by P Diddy on the Grammy Award-winning I'll Be Missing You, his homage to murdered rapper Biggie Smalls. It is said to earn Sting £1,200 a day or £440,000 a year.

The song Every Breath You Take makes up 25 per cent of Sting & The Police's entire earnings [GETTY]

ROY ORBISON'S OH, PRETTY WOMAN

Written in 1964 Orbison's song was given a boost in 1990 by the success of the film Pretty Woman, starring Richard Gere and a young Julia Roberts. The film featured Orbison's track prominently and the soundtrack album of the movie went triple platinum. This was good news for his estate rather than for Orbison. He died in 1988. It is estimated to be the ninth most lucrative song ever written (see above).

HAPPY BIRTHDAY

The song happy birthday, which dates back to the 19th century, was written by the Hill sisters, a pair of kindergarten teachers. And it may come as a surprise to hear but every time you serenade a colleague at an office birthday you are in breach of copyright.

The song was first copyrighted in 1935 and the rights were acquired by music giant Warner Chappell in 1988 for £9million.

Warner is said to claim copyright "for every use in film, television, radio, anywhere open to the public and for any group where a substantial number of those in attendance are not family or friends of whoever is performing the song." It costs £15,000 to use the song in a movie or TV show and in 2008 alone Warner collected £1.2million. The good news for British birthday boys and girls is that the copyright expires in the EU in 2016.

Singing Happy Birthday is technically in breach of copyright of the song made up by the Hill sisters [POSED BY MODELS/GETTY]

HOW PAUL McCARTNEY (AND JOHN LENNON'S WIDOW) MISSED OUT ON HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS

Paul McCartney and John Lennon penned The Beatles' greatest hits but the bad news for Macca and Lennon's widow Yoko Ono is that they signed away the rights to all their work years ago. Even more galling they rejected repeated offers to buy them for a song.

The late Michael Jackson was more shrewd. In 1985 he successfully bid £29million for the entire Beatles catalogue, including classic hits such as Yesterday and All You Need Is Love. Two years later Jackson licensed the song Revolution to Nike for use in an ad for £300,000 much to the displeasure of McCartney who resented the song being put to commercial use.

In 1995 Jackson merged his music publishing business with Sony's and today his estate's 50 per cent stake in the joint venture is worth an estimated £600million to £1billion. Not bad for a £29million investment.

THE MONEY TRAIL

The first rule about making serious money in the music business is get yourself a songwriting credit. Everyone in a band earns something from recording and performing but the real long-term value of a hit lies in the songwriting royalties.

These come in four different forms: mechanical licences (eg: sales of CD, downloads and - to the retro consumer - vinyl); performing (radio airplay); synchronisation (film soundtracks); and print (sheet music). To make things even more complicated the songwriting rights are often divided between those responsible for the tunes and those who wrote the words.

When it comes to U2 for example the music is credited to the band as a whole but lead singer Bono has rights to all the words. "We always call the songwriting royalty 'the pension'," Ann Harrison, author of Music: The Business, once said.

"If you write a song that is recorded umpteen times the income will last your lifetime plus the copyright, which is 70 years."

THE ALL-TIME TOP 10

1. Hill Sisters - Happy Birthday (1893) - £30.5million

2. Irving Berlin - White Christmas (1940) - £22million

3. Barry Mann, Cynthia Weil and Phil Specter - You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin' (1964) - £19.5million

4. John Lennon and Paul McCartney - Yesterday (1965) - £18million

5. Alex North & Hy Zaret - Unchained Melody (1955) - £17million

6. Ben E King, Jerry Leiber & Mike Stoller - Stand By Me (1961) - £16.5million

7. Haven Gillespie & Fred J Coots - Santa Claus Is Coming To Town (1934) - £15million

8. Sting - Every Breath You Take (1983) - £12.5million

9. Roy Orbison & Bill Deeds - Oh Pretty Woman (1964) - £12million

10. Mel Tormé - Christmas Song (1944) - £11.6million

http://www.express.co.uk/entertainment/music/448195/Pop-songs-that-pay-the-pension

Wet Wet Wet are back! The Eighties band has overcome addiction, grief and money squabbles

NEARLY 20 years after Love Is All Around stayed at No1 for 15 weeks, Marti Pellow, Tommy, Graeme and Neil explain how their childhood friendship helped them get Wet Wet Wet back together again

By: Anna PukasPublished: Thu, December 5, 2013

On Children In Need last month Wet Wet Wet performed their greatest hit for the first time in 10 years. I refer of course to Love Is All Around, their richly harmonic reworking of the song first recorded by The Troggs in 1967.

Back then the disc reached a respectable No5 in the charts but the Wet Wet Wet cover in 1994 went stratospheric. It featured on the soundtrack for Four Weddings And A Funeral and spent 15 weeks at No1.

It was only prevented from overtaking Bryan Adams' 16-week record with Everything I Do by the band themselves - they withdrew it from the charts because they were sick of hearing it on the radio.

So agreeing to perform it again after so long marks something of a watershed in the band's career, as does the fact that it is included in their new CD. For despite the eight gold discs, 26 hit singles and millions of pounds in the bank it has not been plain sailing for the Wets.

Formed when they were teenagers growing up in Glasgow and named after a line from a Scritti Politti song they managed the tricky transition from cute teenybopper group to adult band.

But the transition of the members from schoolmates into mature friends did not go so well. First drummer Tommy Cunningham left in 1997, claiming the others were forcing him to take a smaller share of the royalties instead of splitting everything four ways.

Two years later the group disintegrated amid singer Marti Pellow's addiction to drink and heroin. Everyone went their separate ways and it seemed that the friendship in Wet Wet Wet was as washed up as the music.

The band in the 1980s with the line-up as Pellow, Cunningham, Clark and Mitchell [REX]

The rapprochement came in 2003 after the death of Pellow's mother Margaret. He was deeply touched that the other three - bassist Graeme Clark, keyboard player Neil Mitchell and Tommy - came to the funeral. It brought them back together.

"We all knew Marti's mum since we were kids and trying to make music in her kitchen or my mum's," says Clark. Pellow goes on: "We couldn't get away from each other even when we were apart. Our parents knew each other as friends and knew how hard we were trying.

"The Eighties were a pretty bare time in Glasgow and there were no jobs. My mother would meet women in the street who'd say things like, 'My Derek's doing really well, he's got a mortgage' and my mum would be saying, 'Aye, well my Marti's in his bedroom trying to find a melody.' Our parents were always encouraging."

In 2004 they reformed for a highly acclaimed tour and now they are going back on the road again. All, though, have other careers. Clark performs solo while Cunningham has branched out into property in Scotland. (His proudest acquisition is the pub where he and his father used to drink together.)

They admit that playing together as Wet Wet Wet is something they do when everyone has a handy gap in their schedules.

But it is Pellow who retains the highest profile, having moved into musical theatre and performed in the West End and on Broadway. Looking tanned and whippet-thin he talks at machine-gun speed in a Glaswegian accent that becomes ever broader during the conversation.

When Graeme Clark joins us it becomes almost impenetrable and the pair of them zoom off into a verbal maze of private jokes and familiar catchphrases.

Marti Pellow made a move into musical theatre and has performed in the stage hit Chicago [PH]

It's the sort of badinage that takes years to grow and the Wets have been cultivating it since they were teenagers at Clydebank High School when they scraped together the money for equipment from doing paper rounds and washing up in restaurants.

"Half the time we don't even need words," says Pellow, 48. "We can read each other with body language and we've always had a telepathic connection. That's why we never had disagreements."

Well, perhaps not until the really big one that split the band up: the one caused by his drinking and drug-taking. "Aye, well stuff happens," he says with a dismissive wave. And that is as much as he wants to say about that sorry period in his life.

Pellow always seemed like the least likely candidate to succumb to the pop star cliché of drink and drug addiction. He was known for his ever-present smile. Even the name Marti comes from his school nickname of Smarty (he was born Mark McLachlan - Pellow is his mother's maiden name).

He was aware from an early age that he could sing well but not that his voice was unusually good.

"I thought everyone could sing. I just liked emulating the people on my mum's records, like Burt Bacharach and The Carpenters." When the leading boy in the school production of The Mikado went sick Pellow did not hesitate to volunteer his services. "The teachers were all perplexed but I couldn't see what the big deal was."

When the band's fortunes began to decline soon after Love Is All Around he filled the void with booze and drugs. By 1996 Pellow was using heroin. A stint in rehab at an Arizona clinic failed to stop him - he bought drugs the very day he left.

Yet he managed to keep up the appearance of normality in public until he collapsed in a hotel in February 1999 and booked himself into the Priory clinic. It was left to his girlfriend Eileen Catterson to reveal what she had only just discovered herself.

He got clean and relaunched himself as a solo performer managed by Chris Difford of Squeeze, whom he came to know in rehab. He performed at jazz clubs and released five albums. A charity performance at the Royal Albert Hall led to Pellow landing the part of Billy Flynn, the lawyer in musical Chicago.

He has since played the arbiter in Chess, the devil in The Witches Of Eastwick and has just finished touring as Che Guevara in Evita. The relationship with Eileen has also survived. They have been together for 23 years but never married. "It's fine as it is," he says. "We're happy."

His diary appears to be pretty packed without the Wets so why bother? It seems they got the urge when a gig in Glasgow last year went down spectacularly well. If Clark as the main songwriter resents Pellow for getting the lion's share of attention he hides it well.

"I can't be jealous of who Marti is," he says. "He makes the song breathe and he's also the one getting the flak."

Step By Step - The Greatest Hits by Wet Wet Wet is out now. Wet Wet Wet are on tour from today until December 19. For information visit wetwetwet.co.uk

http://www.express.co.uk/entertainment/music/446872/Wet-Wet-Wet-are-back-The-Eighties-band-has-overcome-addiction-grief-and-money-squabbles

Who Are the Beatles of Our Era?
Posted: 14/02/2014 12:08
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Iconic status is difficult to achieve. To be recognised as the defining sportsman, politician, or artist of one's generation is, in many ways, the highest accolade that can be lauded on a public figure. Whilst we may point to Ali, Thatcher, Presley or Shakespeare as such examples, it appears far easier to project greatness backwards from our present standpoint. Such a tendency should perhaps come as little surprise; how indeed can we be expected to estimate how the stars of today will shine in the uncertain orbits of the future?

Yet it has not prevented people from attempting to project greatness onto others of their time, or even themselves. In a recent interview with a celebrity magazine, Harry Styles, one of the five members of the hugely successful One Direction, compared the band's appeal to The Beatles. Whilst he was quick to concede the inferiority of their musical pedigree and reputation, Styles nevertheless asserted that, if it came down purely to a question of fame, his band had outstripped the record of the 'Fab Four' from Liverpool.

Styles certainly has a claim to make. In terms of combined music downloads, CD purchases and streaming, the bastions of the modern music business, One Direction came out on top of the IFPI's Global Recording Rankings of 2013. The numbers are dizzying, especially for a pop boy-band whose adolescent years have only just disappeared behind the crest of the hill. With two youtube videos amassing over 300 million views between them; three consecutive Billboard-topping albums, and total sales that make them the 10th most successful boy-band in history merely four years into their careers; One Direction's prospects of iconic status certainly seem better than most.

Iconic status is not, however, measured on success alone, it is an unprecedented act, a defining speech, a whole cultural transformation that becomes peerless in the annals of history and memory. To use one boxing case study, record alone should dictate that Joe Calzaghe, unbeaten in 46 professional bouts, should be venerated as an icon of the sport. Muhammed Ali? He may have floated like a butterfly and stung like a bee, but he was defeated 5 times in his infamous career. Iconic status is not, in short, built on performance alone, but on conduct, on personality, on an ability to transcend the boundaries of that era or genre.

One Direction have a fair way to go before they match even the numerical successes of those cheeky chaps from Merseyside who have come to symbolise epochal changes of the Swinging Sixties. Their sales pale in comparison to the estimated 600 million records sold by The Beatles worldwide. Yet even if they do scale these dizzying heights, immortality cannot be assumed. In an ever-more commercialised industry, where more artists jostle for the limelight, fame has proven more transitory than ever before. If I were to stick my neck out, and for arguments' sake state my iconic artists of this era, it would not be One Direction. It would be Beyonce, it would be Eminem, it would be the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Amy Winehouse or the Gorillaz.

This is not to dispute the talent or appeal of a band that, by numbers alone, suggest that by the end of their careers One Direction will lead all the artists listed above, if things continue as they are. Yet fame is not so rational, indeed, it is truly for history to decide. For now we must sit, and wait, and enjoy, and let the debate rage.

http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/joe-pennell/the-beatles-one-direction_b_4770937.html?

'Festival Express' documentary stars Janis Joplin, Grateful Dead, The Band, now on Blu-ray (review)

By Chris Ball, The Plai

on February 19, 2014 at 1:00 PM

"Festival Express"

Janis Joplin, the Grateful Dead, the Band, Buddy Guy and other rock acts piled onto a chartered train in 1970 for Woodstock on wheels, a summer concert tour across Canada. This 2003 documentary pulls together fantastic on-stage performances, all-night jam sessions, TV news reports and recent interviews with participants – those still around to discuss it. Unlike other festivals where bands had little interaction, this cross-country party was a blast for the performers. It was less fun for the promoters, who lost money. Thousands of fans protested supposed price gouging ($14 for tickets!), battling police and crashing the gates. Joplin’s performances are considered among her best. At the final stop, she sweetly thanks the promoters on stage and gives them a case of tequila. A few months later, she was dead from a heroin overdose. The tour was immortalized in the Grateful Dead song "Might as Well." Released on DVD in 2009, the film now makes its Blu-ray debut. R, 90 minutes. Extras: same as on the DVD: a making-of featurette, interviews and bonus performances. From Shout Factory. Released Feb. 11.

http://www.cleveland.com/movies/index.ssf/2014/02/festival_express_documentary_s.html?

This was an excellent rockumentary. I went and saw it during the Sydney Film Festival when it was first released and it blew my mind! especially the bottle of Canadian Club they bought!

such a great movie and captures Janis 2 weeks or so before she died iirc. well worth viewing if you dig the old stuff.

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Song Facts: The Beatles — "While My Guitar Gently Weeps"
Posted 02/25/2014 at 10:38am | by Chris Gill

''While My Guitar Gently Weeps" is not only one of the best songs George Harrison wrote with the Beatles — it's also one of the greatest songs on the White Album.

Whether it was jealousy, ego or apathy, the other members of the band didn't seem to care too much for the tune when Harrison introduced it to them and attempted to record initial takes on August 16. After more work on the song on September 3 and 5, he decided he didn't like what he heard and scrapped the recording.

He and the Beatles then promptly started over again, nailing a new backing track in 28 takes. The initial live backing track featured Harrison on acoustic guitar and guide vocals, John Lennon on electric, Paul McCartney on piano and Ringo Starr on drums.

Harrison later overdubbed double-tracked lead vocals, and McCartney recorded backing vocals and a bass line with Lennon playing in unison on either a Fender Bass VI or electric guitar.

Harrison's masterstroke was inviting his friend Eric Clapton to overdub lead guitar, which was recorded on a single track with Harrison's organ accompaniment on September 6.

Clapton initially refused to participate, saying, "Nobody ever plays on the Beatles' records." "So what?" Harrison countered. "It's my song." Clapton finally agreed to play, but he wanted his part to sound "Beatle-y." Harrison's solution was to process the track containing Clapton's guitar part and the organ with Artificial Double Tracking, varying the speed to create a pitch-wobbling effect.

http://www.guitarworld.com/song-facts-beatles-while-my-guitar-gently-weeps?

Edited by Joffa: 27/2/2014 10:48:20 PM

MORRISSEY: 'THE BEATLES ONLY WROTE 4 GOOD SONGS'Outspoken star discusses their four 'magnificent' track and shuts down Smiths reunion rumours

Morrissey has denied The Beatles had any influence on his career, claiming the iconic Liverpool band penned just four good songs in their career.

In a new interview with Billboard magazine, the outspoken singer and animal rights campaigner says the band's back catalogue contained four 'magnificent' tracks, but no more.

"I thought four of their songs were magnificent, and if a band can give you four magnificent songs then that’s good enough for me," he tells the magazine. "But was I ever influenced by the Beatles? No."

He also spoke of the long-discussed Smiths reunion, again stating that it would never happen, saying that reuniting classic bands was nothing short of 'desperate'.

"I don’t know a single person who wants a Smiths reunion," he added. "But, no, there aren’t any bands I like to see again because your memory of them is how they were in their prime or at their best or at their most desperate, and you look to them to be someone that they no longer are."


The Smiths reunion. Still definitely not going to happen

When asked about the band's 30 year anniversary, he said simply: "Is it only 30 years? It feels like 60."


Read more at http://www.gigwise.com/news/88939/-'The-Beatles-only-wrote-4-good-songs'?#4WSDdktedIsBY5QV.99

Lost Grateful Dead Show: 'Collectors Are Going to Flip Out'

Black Friday Record Store Day release has 'incredible historical significance,' says archivist


The Grateful Dead


By Kiran Herbert

November 14, 2013 12:20 PM ET

David Lemieux can only remember four times in his near 15-year tenure as the Grateful Dead archivist that "lost" tapes have shown up. The first time was in 2005, when singer Donna Godchaux, who left the band in 1979, returned a sizable box of reels that had belonged to her late husband, Dead keyboardist Keith Godchaux. Similar batches came from two different crewmembers years later.


Most recently, last summer, Lemieux received a called from Carolyn Garcia, better known as Mountain Girl, Jerry Garcia's former wife and the mother of two of his daughters. Mountain Girl mentioned that she'd found a small box of reels among Garcia's belongings, and she read off the labels. Lemieux, who knows the Dead's collection better than anyone, instantly recognized that they had struck audio gold.

Of the 2,300 shows the Grateful Dead played over their 30 years, the archive has somewhere in the 1,700 range, and Lemieux can quickly ascertain if something is a legitimate show that they don't have. He had Mountain Girl send the reels to sound engineer Jeffrey Norman, who eventually gave him the good news: these were indeed recordings they didn't know existed, and better yet, they were from very important eras.

This Black Friday, fans will get their first listen to the Grateful Dead's April 18, 1970 show at the Family Dog in San Francisco. Despite the fact that the reel sat for 43 years in less than optimal storage conditions, Lemieux says the sound quality is great — it's an Owsley Stanley soundboard recording. Even more important, the performance quality is outstanding.

"It's a show of incredible historical significance," Lemieux told Rolling Stone, "because it's the Grateful Dead, but they weren't billed as the Dead." The show was promoted as Mickey Hart and the Heartbeats and Bobby Ace and the Cards from the Bottom of the Deck, giving the Dead an extraordinary amount of freedom to do whatever they wanted.

"So they didn't perform a full three- or four-hour electric psychedelic Grateful Dead concert," Lemieux said. "They played an acoustic set, and it was a long one."

The 80-minute show ends with Ron "Pigpen" McKernan playing six songs solo acoustic, sitting on a stool and building his legacy as not only an incredible bluesman, but also an especially adept guitar player. April of 1970 was what Lemieux – who hates the terms "crossroads" and "reinventing" – describes as a "transitional" time for the Dead. A month before this particular show the band had been in the studio recording Workingman's Dead, and a little later in the spring and early summer they went back to record American Beauty. Widely considered the Dead's two classic acoustic albums, those records were a departure from their Sixties sound. "[This is] massively transitional Dead," he emphasized.

Lemieux said that they've got a host of new stuff planned for the 50th year Grateful Dead anniversary in 2015, and for the 2014 releases due out this spring. He said there was a show from 1971 in Mountain Girl's box that's "really hot" and has no known set list and hinted that he's been immersed in 1983 and 1984 Dead.

"People are going to be pretty shocked by what's to come," he promised. A self-described "vinyl-head," Lemieux considers the Family Dog show the perfect Record Store Day Release. According to Norman, who still does all the Grateful Dead mastering, the vinyl versions of the shows are "like listening to them in color for the first time," and the plan is to get all of the Dick's Picks series out on vinyl as well.

As an archivist, though, this show is particularly exciting for Lemieux, because it means that come Black Friday fans will be able to hear something no one knew existed six months ago.

"It's very rare, it's unique, and collectors are going to flip out on it," he said.


Read more: http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/lost-grateful-dead-show-collectors-are-going-to-flip-out-20131114#ixzz2vYKq3Hcm
Follow us: @rollingstone on Twitter | RollingStone on Facebook

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Edited by Joffa: 20/3/2014 11:26:14 PM

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Edited by Joffa: 20/3/2014 11:37:50 PM

sorry but that's NOT the angels....... it's a version of the angels................

Dav gleeson is not doc neeson = not the angels

Classics

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-PB

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Let It Be, Reconsidered

by JONATHAN REYNOSO




It was a dark time for the group. The Beatles lost their manager and good friend Brian Epstein to a barbiturate overdose in the fall of 1967. To forget their sorrows, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr along with their wives flew out of London to Rishikesh, India for a retreat with Maharishi Mahesh Yogi for three months (Harrison and Lennon stayed the longest) starting in February 1968. In this period the four Beatles wrote the bulk of their final compositions for the White Album, Let It Be, and Abbey Road.

By late 1968, the group recorded their double album The White Album which had seen a number of arguments and a temporary walk out from Ringo. Paul McCartney felt that the group’s cohesiveness was lost in individual recording sessions, overdubs, and complex compositions. It was as if The White Album was a compilation of songs by solo acts rather than an ensemble band. McCartney believed the best way to improve relations was to get the band back in the studio to mark the return of their rock ‘n’ roll roots. On New Years Day, 1969 The Beatles returned to the studio to record Let It Be.

The theme of the album was the “back-to-basics” idea to capture the essence of the early days of the Beatles before their turn to innovated, psychedelic soundscapes. The sessions, known then as the Get Back sessions, saw the group covering an array of early rock ‘n’ roll hits such as “Stand By Me”, “Words of Love”, “Lonely Sea”, “Rip It Up”, “Shake, Rattle & Roll”, “Blue Suede Shoes” and more. Simultaneously, the Beatles played hundreds of originals for Get Back. Aside from the material on the album, the group performed songs that would later appear on Abbey Road and others that would eventually appear on solo albums. The sessions were filmed for a documentary titled Let It Be.

The album feels like a live Beatle concert (thankfully, without the screaming fans) that McCartney intended to achieve. “Two of Us” opens the album with a gentle acoustic duet by McCartney and Lennon. The “back-to-basics” sound is introduced with this folky number featuring four instruments: two acoustic letitbeguitars, an electric guitar, and drums. Lennon’s “Dig A Pony” is the yin to McCartney’s yang. A soft song juxtaposed by a blues rock piece. “Dig A Pony” was disliked by Lennon and dedicated to his soon-to-be-wife Yoko Ono. You can hardly tell that this is a love piece except for the line “All I want is you” because the lyrics are nonsense images and phrases strung together like a Bob Dylan parody song.

“Across the Universe” was conceived one night in 1967. Lennon’s ex-wife Cynthia was “going on and on about something” said Lennon later. The opening phrase “words are flowing out like endless rain into a paper cup” was stuck in his head like a mantra. Lennon wrote them down. The song was unearthed during The Beatles’ Transcendental Mediation trip where he added the song’s chorus “Jai guru deva om” (Sanskrit: जय गुरुदेव ॐ). It is Lennon’s most poetic piece as it features imagery and abstract concepts of concretism. Words like “meandering”, “slithering” and undying love “shining” are a few of these ambiguous thoughts treated as a physical entities.

Chronologically, “I Me Mine” is the last Beatle song the band recorded before their split in 1970. The title refers to a verse about the ego in from the Hindu scripture Bhagavad Gita. For example: “They are forever free who renounced all selfish desires and break away from the ego cage of ‘I’, ‘me’, and ‘mine’ to be united with the Lord. This is a supreme state. Attain to this, and pass from death and immortality.” Beatles biographer Jonathan Gould wrote that Harrison was upset that his “fellow Beatles could complain about the amount of time they had to spend learning the arrangement for ‘I Me Mine’ and then turn around and submit to a laborious rehearsal of a song like ‘Maxwell’s Silver Hammer’ which stuck George as a paragon of pop inanity”.

Like the genesis of “Across the Universe”, McCartney’s piano-driven piece comes from a serendipitous event too. “When I find myself in times of trouble, Mother Mary comes to me”, it is not a biblical reference at all — McCartney’s mother Mary McCartney was the center of a dream during the rough period in the The White Album sessions. Mary died of cancer when Paul was fourteen. In an interview Paul stated that she told him everything was going to be all right and to “let it be”.

The song stands shoulder-to-shoulder with other Beatle masterpieces like “Hey Jude” and “A Day In the Life”. McCartney’s sweet voice guides us in this gospel tune. His right hand plays thorough a series of chords while his left is playing single notes. As the drums roll into a crash on the cymbals trumpets, trombones, and a tenor saxophone blast melancholy notes. This is Phil Spector’s version – a “naked”/stripped down version with just the four Beatles (as originally intended) is available on the remix album Let It Be…Naked. It’s a beautiful song that has become somewhat of a standard, as with many Beatle songs.

Rock ‘n’ roll songs echoing the Beatlemania era are “I’ve Got a Feeling”, “One After 909″, and “Get Back”. This time around, The Beatles borrow the blues rock/hard rock sounds of 1969 from it’s key players: Led Zeppelin, Creem, the Jimi Hendrix Experience to name a few. All three were played during the rooftop concert in January 1969, the final Beatles performance.

At the time of its release, the album received mixed reviews. Rolling Stone magazine criticized Spector’s over-produced “wall of sound” as its been called. “Musically, boys, you passed the audition” wrote Rolling Stone in 1970, “In terms of having the judgement to avoid either over-producing yourselves or casting the fate of your get-back statement to the most notorious of all over-producers, you didn’t”.

The magazine was too quick to judge. Months after their break up the Let It Be tapes were given to Phil Spector who gave four tracks the make-over that Rolling Stone condemned the entire album for. These tracks were “Across the Universe”, “Let It Be”, “The Long and Winding Road” and “I Me Mine”. The rest were free of Spector’s angelic and often cheesy orchestral manipulations, and just rocked.

http://www.counterpunch.org/2014/04/11/let-it-be-reconsidered/

10 of the best: the Grateful Dead


Guardian Music reader and Deadhead Chris Hardman takes a long, strange trip through the career of the original jam band

1 Playing in the Band


Standing on a tower, world at my command/ You just keep a-turning, while I'm playing in the band/ If a man among you, got no sin upon his hand/ Let him cast a stone at me for playing in the band."

It could be the Grateful Dead’s mission statement. With no burning desire for fame or fortune, the Dead were driven instead by a need to stand on a stage and play their music, irrespective of what anyone else thought. And at the heart of that process was this belief: "Some folks trust to reason, others trust to might/ I don't trust to nothing, but I know it come out right." It didn’t always work, of course, but the belief was constant and the off-road musical journeys were an essential part of any concert. Playing in the Band is a classic Dead game of risk: start an intricately-tooled song in 10/4, turn off halfway through down a road of unspecified length and content (different keys, time signatures or even different songs), then somehow coalesce back to the 10/4 song, several minutes, hours or even days later.

2 Ripple

Having defined the musicians’ function in Playing in the Band, here lyricist Robert Hunter defines the songwriter’s goal. Ripple may be admired for its Zen-like observations about life, but the introductory verses are the real meat of the song. "Don’t we all want a song to encapsulate our own thoughts in golden words delivered over sublime music?" he asks. Well, yes, but it’s more likely that you’ll get some "broken", "hand-me-down" thoughts like those in the rest of the song. But: "I don't know, don't really care/ Let there be songs to fill the air." Jerry Garcia gave Ripple the simplest of simple tunes and, at the end, the opportunity for everyone to sing their own song with their own words and meanings. I like to think the "ripple in still water" is analogous to the sound waves made by a song in silence.

3 Jack Straw

Ambiguous characters populate many a Hunter song: outlaws, oddballs and chancers fit nicely into the Grateful Dead family, itself comprising outlaws, oddballs and chancers. This tale of two buddies on the run from the law could be a film script, with its dramatic incidents and open landscape, but the climax of the tale is marvellously ambiguous: "Jack Straw from Wichita cut his buddy down/ And dug for him a shallow grave, and laid his body down." Maybe Jack’s companion was caught by the law and hanged, so Jack cut him down and gave him a decent burial. But I don’t think so. Bob Weir’s two-speed music reflects the duality of the song immaculately.

4 Looks Like Rain

They Love Each Other is, I think, the only positive love song in the Dead songbook. More common is the heartache song, of which this – one of the first Bob Weir songs with lyrics by John Perry Barlow – is a prime example. Built around the fear of being dumped ("You were gone, my heart was filled with dread"), it starts out as a country "crying song" featuring Garcia’s pedal steel and ends up as (almost!) a full-blown power ballad.

5 Black Peter

It has to be noted that death is a much more common theme than love in the Grateful Dead repertoire, whether in original compositions or cover versions. Here, poor Peter is on his deathbed awaiting the end, his friends around him. But are they there out of concern for him, from curiosity, or maybe just to chat about the weather? As so often in Hunter/Garcia songs, the bridge shows us the only truth we know for sure about the situation: "See here how everything led up to this day/ And it's just like any other day that's ever been/ Sun going up and then the sun going down/ Shine through my window and my friends they come around."

Reading on mobile? Listen to this Grateful Dead playlist on Spotify here

6 Cumberland Blues

Black Peter is a typical Hunter character: poor, unremarkable, not particularly lucky. He’s the sort of man you’d find in an old country song working down the mine, complaining at the hours, moaning at his girl and dreaming of escape. In Cumberland Blues, Hunter tells of an actual Cumberland miner who wasn’t keen on the idea of the Dead playing what he thought was an old song from the area – although the gradual mood and musical changes mark it out from most country songs.

7 Estimated Prophet

The Deadheads were/are such an integral part of the band’s existence that they occasionally ended up in songs. This takes a doped-up west coast crazy from the stage door and lets him rave. Barlow gives him the language of Revelations and old spirituals, acknowledging the religious fervour sometimes found in the band’s following, who often quote lyrics as if they were divine wisdom: "My time coming any day, don't worry 'bout me, no/ It's gonna be just like they say, them voices tell me so." Weir’s music, again, is a delicious oddity: a reggae tune in 7/4 (Burning Spear sang it as straight reggae in common time).

8 Stella Blue

Ambiguity, love, loss, regret, the passage of time – this is one of Hunter’s most poignant and beautiful lyrics, set to one of Garcia’s most poignant and beautiful tunes. Even if it is about a model of old blues guitar, it’s still brimming with emotion and sad truth: "It all rolls into one/ And nothing comes for free/ There's nothing you can hold/ For very long." Stella is one of several sad, slow songs that the band used to flow into at the end of a second-set extended jam, just to calm everyone down and put everything into perspective after the chaos.

9 Victim or the Crime

This first collaboration between Weir and actor Gerrit Graham produced the band’s most controversial – yet by far the best – song of their late career. Possibly referring to Garcia and Weir themselves, it looks at drug and sex addiction. The uncomfortable nature of that reality, and its ongoing existence in the life of the band, is reflected in Weir’s angular music, based on a theme by Béla Bartók. It’s an ugly, dark, disturbing, yet glorious, piece that remains unresolved at the end, like the question in the title.

10 China Cat Sunflower

A song inspired by a trip to Neptune and the works of Edith Sitwell and Lewis Carroll, China Cat is pure psychedelic joy. And since that is the foundation on which the band grew up, it has to be in this list. It is attached – as it invariably was on stage – to the traditional song I Know You Rider, in which a condemned woman’s thoughts are aired. The juxtaposition of life and death, joy and sorrow, hope and despair, are typical of a Grateful Dead setlist and the musical transition between songs was a treasured feature of almost every concert.

• What do you think of Chris's choices? Let us know what he's missed and on Friday we'll publish an alternative playlist of your selections.


http://www.theguardian.com/music/musicblog/2014/apr/02/10-of-the-best-the-grateful-dead
10 of the best: the Grateful Dead – readers' choice


Earlier this week we listed 10 essential tracks from the eclectic rock band. Here are 10 more, as recommended by Guardian readers

Readers' choice

My attempt to describe the Grateful Dead in 10 songs received a reasonable degree of support but I appear to have committed a cardinal sin by not including Dark Star. So that now heads this list of 10 more great Dead songs.

1. Dark Star

2. Saint Stephen

3. Box Of Rain

4. Scarlet Begonias

5. Althea

6. Uncle John’s Band

7. Terrapin Station

8. Friend Of The Devil

9. Eyes Of The World

10. The tenth song breaks my rules about only considering original songs but I admit the lack of Pigpen is a serious flaw in any Dead portrait. It’ll have to be Turn On Your Lovelight, won’t it?

Chris's original choice


1 Playing in the Band

2 Ripple

3 Jack Straw

4 Looks Like Rain

5 Black Peter

6 Cumberland Blues

7 Estimated Prophet

8 Stella Blue

9 Victim or the Crime

10 China Cat Sunflower

http://www.theguardian.com/music/musicblog/2014/apr/04/10-of-the-best-the-grateful-dead-readers-choice

Edited by Joffa: 12/4/2014 07:02:54 AM

Edited by Joffa: 12/4/2014 07:03:19 AM

Did you hear Neil Young's Psychedilic Pill, Joff?