Tempest by Bob Dylan

Bob Dylan released his 419th ( joking, kind of ) last week. Bob Dylan at 71 years old still has a great deal to say. Reading his recent Rolling Stone interview Dylan laments his fans and followers looking to him as an answer, being seekers, when at the same time he is clearly still on a mission of seeking. In his most recent interview, in which Dylan is obtuse in the extreme, he predicates his theory on transfiguration and how that connects him to a sixties Hells Angel leader who died in the early sixties named Bobby Zimmerman.

Frankly not a great deal of it makes sense. One thing that does make sense is listening to every new thing Dylan has to say when he releases an album. This album received a five star review from Rolling Stone. As my wife says however that has much to do with him being Bob Dylan.

So is this an album of five stars. No. It is, however, an album with some very strong new music. Dylan's voice is now a raspy growl. My daughter said he sounds like he needs to clear this throat. Whatever melody was in his voice years ago is now gone. Still if you are a Dylan fan his singing voice has never been his major selling point for you.

The songs Narrow Way and Long and Wasted Years are both well written songs with stories to tell. Dylan is superb in these rambling songs.

Still when this album is spoken of in the Dylan catalog the last four songs will be subjects we discuss. Early Roman Kings is typically strong Dylan song while Tin Angel is nine minutes of violence and bloodlust through a Dylan growl. The centerpiece of the album, and at fourteen minutes, the ballast of the whole album is the title song. This will be known as the Titanic song. 45 verses of the sing song story of the famous ship that went down Dylan combines famous shout outs to historical figures, and an only as Dylan could, combination of fact and fiction. As Dylan said he is less interested in history as it was than as it should have been.

As great as that song is, and it is classic Dylan, the final song on the album is perhaps the best song. Titled Roll on John it is Dylan's tribute to his friend John Lennon and it is a wonderful song. In the middle of the song when Bob starts a verse with " I heard the news today oh boy" you can feel his heart rend. This is a fantastic song that would be rendered less effective were it sung in any clear throated voice.

All in all a strong album, better than his last couple of entries. Dylan is always worth listening to.

That's Why God Made the Radio by The Beach Boys

The Beach Boys landed in Bangor, Maine last night. We did not get tickets to the show, the tickets were fairly expensive, and I decided that having seen them back in the eighties that I did not need to see them again.

Over the last couple of weeks having read articles about the band and it's tour, their fiftieth anniversary tour in fact, in Time, Newsweek and Rolling Stone I was more interested in seeing them. Overall the tour has gotten good reviews, my concerns about how good they would sound, and of course about if Brian Wilson is capable of touring and performing turned out, according to most sources, to be unfounded. In short the Boys were playing a 150 minute set of forty or more songs that fans of all ages were enjoying.

One could not really have had any sense of expectation over the album of new material that The Beach Boys recorded and released recently. Truthfully I certainly did not. I was wrong.

Unexpectedly this is a refreshing, beautifully recorded album of layered vocals and harmonies that certainly would have felt at home on a Beach Boys album in the mid sixties. I have listened to the album three times and each time I listen to the last six songs, a connected Abbey Road type sonnet, that ends with the wonderful Summer's Gone I am more impressed. Brian Wilson has always been known as a musical genius even as he struggled with mental health issues. What becomes apparent quickly is this is his album, he orchestrates all the arrangements, the layering of vocals and instruments. If possible this album is not getting enough positive buzz even though all the reviews I have heard are positive.

This album makes me wish I had the big speaker ed stereo I had in high school and college with lights all over it, so that as I lay in the dark on a hot summer night I could feel the breeze and listen to the Beach Boys cope with growing older while still being true to their sound.

The single on the radio, the title cut, is a very catchy enjoyable song. It is however pale in comparison with the sheer beauty of the last six songs. Starting with Daybreak Over the Ocean the feelings of retrospection and the incredible arrangements are really beyond compare.

Is it possible that with their surfing music in it's seeming simplicity dominating our perception of The Beach Boys that we sold them short. Of course this was always the battle between Wilson and Mike Love, the latter wanting to make the music that he perceived as safe and sure to be popular and Wilson wanting to stretch and challenge both himself and his listeners. Wilson's genius is known far and wide. It was after all Paul McCartney who said that God Only Knows was the most perfect song ever written.

McCartney might well be right, but listening to the last two songs on this album, Pacific Coast Highway leading to Summer's Gone and one has to wonder, as great as this as, as great as they were, how much more could they have accomplished if we had not lost Brian for twenty years or more.

This is a good album. It has some great moments however. This is not rock and roll per say it is in the latter song perhaps a song on a par with our greatest, Sinatra, Rodgers and Hammerstein and yes McCartney and Lennon.

Brian Wilson is out of bed, finally. We are all lucky for it.

Wishes and Stars by Harper Simon

As we watched the first episode of HBO's Girls when the credits rolled this song was playing. It was one of those situations that those of us who love and follow music find ourselves in often. I asked my wife what that song was. Neither of us knew. I asked her if it was Paul Simon. It was not a song I knew but it sure sounded like him.

Being the technological wizard that I am I pulled out my cell phone, brought up Shazam and, was advised that this was not Paul but Harper Simon.

I remember when Julian Lennon released Valotte and in our twenties we were all shocked at how much he sounded like John. I guess we should not be. The apple in these cases does not fall from the tree. Athletes beget athletes, singers beget singers, and teachers beget teachers.

We should not be surprised.

What is remarkable is how rarely these songs of legends in music have careers that last a long time. Harper Simon has been making music for a long time. He is not a kid. His voice is strong, his lyrics work, and yet I had never heard his music before this appearance over the credits of this show.

I consider myself open to new music, I actively search it out. Truly how some folks become stars and talent such as this stays under the radar shows just how much luck is involved with success in the music business.

For those who want to hear something new that sounds like something you enjoyed before, take a listen to Harper Simon. He is very talented.

December 8, 1980, The Day John Lennon Died by Keith Elliot Greenberg

Saw this book at the library last week and decided to pick it up. I have read Beatles biographies and such but this book told in the style of a log of the fateful day looked interesting.

In the book we see the lives of Lennon and Chapman unfolding on that day as well as over their histories which led them to this day. This is a technique that seems to be growing such as the MLK/James Earl Ray book I read last year as well.

Chapman had struggled with some sort of mental illness for much of his life. At times prospering in life, finding faith and marrying there were times where it appeared he would get control of his demons. In interviews given to Larry King and referenced in the book we see that even as the act approached on that day Chapman had moments of clarity when the voices were not winning.

In the end however the demons did win. We learn about John, his time as househusband as well as fleeting looks back at his life as a Beatle and the history of the band. We see his interactions with New Yorkers both famous and civilian and his love of the city.

After his shooting we see numerous reactions from everyday citizens to famous people. Truly John Lennon's death was a cultural touchstone for millions.

I remember I myself did not know until the next morning when turning on the Today show I watched the coverage.

This is a quick book with some interesting information about a day that changed America and the world's cultural history.

The John Lennon Collection by John Lennon

Yesterday was the 30th anniversary of the death of John Lennon. I guess the correct term is the murder of John Lennon.

I was 15 when he died and has he had been silent in my formative rock and roll years he was at that time the Beatle I knew the least about. That would soon change of course. I remember that I was getting back with a girlfriend that I had been on and off with that winter. Starting Over was our song the second or third time around. Seems kind of silly now.

I remember the Today show that next morning being all about Lennon. I did not know his importance then but soon learned and each year in my life it becomes more and more apparent the legacy he left us.

I have had this collection for quite some time. This year John's solo catalog has been remastered and repackaged and it has added more spotlight to the man and his music.

In this 30th anniversary we see films, we see the Monday night football announcement, we remember and for those of us who barely remember we wish we did.

In the end however it is not about the bed in, the peace marches, bigger than Jesus Christ or anything else.

It is about the music. The wonderful music. The Beatles music transcends time. Young children love it, right away at the age of three or four or five. Teenagers love it. The Beatles sold more records in the first decade of the twentieth century than any other musical act. Think about that.

After the Beatles John made some wonderful music. This album is a collection of some of those. As I write this post I listen to the music. # 9 Dream, Instant Karma, Mind Games, Jealous Guy, Imagine, of course the Double Fantasy tracks and even in this holiday season Happy Xmas.

He was only a person. Only a man. A flawed man surely. As we all are. But if one is judged by the depth of feelings of those who miss him surely John was a person who if not changed the world he changed people. My son is a better person for knowing his music. I believe this.

Can you miss people you never met. I think you can.

We miss John. I miss John.

I tell my wife, my second wife who I met at age 42 that I feel cheated that I did not know her sooner. The music lovers feel the same about John. We feel cheated from what he might have given us had he not died.

Still perhaps it is a little greedy on our part. Could we really ask for anything more than he gave us.