Huckster, talent spotter, domestic abuser, axe hero, and one of the first 'rock 'n' roll' (patent pending) recording artists with 'Rocket 88', Ike Turner was a rhythm 'n' blues man-machine. I've got a a couple of his albums with Tina, but A Black Man's Soul is my favourite. Two tracks at that last link and I'm sure many sites will feature Ike tracks in their informal obits. The following link doesn't specifically relate to Ike, but it was the first from the portable archive to strike me as in some way appropriate:
THE PERCEPTIONISTS -- Black Dialogue
Though I'm not a great fan of concert albums, I've been listening again and again to the endless subtleties on this CD of two great honky tonk sets. The Flying Burrito Brothers played support for the Grateful Dead at the Avalon Ballroom in April 1969. The double CD of two San Francisco nights features a couple of bonus home demos too, one of which is a drawing room solo of the second Gram Parsons' tune I took a shine to--'$1,000 Wedding'. The first was 'Grievous Angel' on an NME compilation tape. On the album Grievous Angel, I thought '$1,000 Wedding' was about a bride not showing up to a wedding because she's had second thoughts. Maybe it was an arranged marriage. The line goes 'the bride went away' which makes the funeral in the song more of a metaphor for the deserted groom's feelings. This reading seemed convincing probably because it prodded some of my own insecurities. In the earlier demo version, Parsons sings 'the bride passed away' which makes the funeral more literal. Interesting and clever, deeper little alteration made in those few years between the demo and the album version. I'm not a Gramologist, haven't researched this change in the words, but in any case the demo is as lovely as the later studio version.
THE FLYING BURRITO BROTHERS now packaged as GRAM PARSONS & THE FLYING BURRITO BROTHERS
$1,000 Wedding (home demo)
HOWLIN' WOLF -- Evil
If you're a long way from home,
Can't sleep at night.
Grab your telephone,
Something just ain't right.
That's evil,
Evil is goin' on wrong.
I am warnin' ya brother,
You better watch your happy home.
Gujarat election: A Tale of Two Rallies
In the year and half since I was last here Ahmedabad has become cluttered with enormous buildings that look like alien spaceships have decided to colonize Gujarat. Triple-decker monstrosities, sometimes up to 450,000 square feet, with huge glass windows and bigger air-conditioning bills, provide a respite from the sun and heat. At the weekends traffic is high, but purchases remain thin. The same brands here as the next mall. I hope the street hawkers, main street stores and stalls don't disappear by the next time I'm here. Billboards and stories from the rebranded consumer-age Times of India proclaim 'Ahmedabad Next', hyping this growth and real estate looting/speculation. Is this what Führer Modi means by successful economic development?
Porter Wagoner gives the Gang of Four a run for its money with this classic about reification:
PORTER WAGONER -- Shopworn
And here's one for the Amdavadis hoping to get a piece of that international brand action. I just finished a rewrite of an essay on The Smiths so it seems doubly appropriate:
THE SMITHS -- Shoplifters of the world unite
Downstairs for stationery, haberdashery.... kerrching... I love the kerrching sound in pop tunes. Twas there in Three Times Dope's old skool classic 'Funky Dividends', in 'Ker-ching!' by Lady Sovereign, and alongside the clickback of the automatic pistol in M.I.A.'s 'Paper Planes'. But before all that was Grace Brothers:
RONNIE HAZELHURST -- Are you being served? (film version)
FLYING LOTUS -- Spicy Sammich
Anu and RK took us to Law Garden for dinner. Time to make the annual pilgrimage to the Amul Sandwich stall in the gully. We sat on the side of the road and talked animatedly for quite some time about Saawariya, the film for which Anu designed most of the women's costumes. The Amul guy recognized me from previous times as the sir with the perspiring head. The aloo double chutney sandwich did not disappoint. Go buy the superb Flying Lotus EP
