Mumford & Sons will release their new album Babel on September 24 according to the band’s website (although other websites list the date as September 25). But you do not have to wait that long to hear “I Will Wait” off the band’s upcoming second album. They played the new tune in concert last October.
Mumford & Sons bass player Ted Dwane recently told Rolling Stone to expect some darker songs on the new CD than were on the band’s debut Sigh No More, saying the band is “really excited to broaden the spectrum of people’s perception of what we are musically.” It sounds like fans will be excited too.
What do you think of the new Mumford & Sons song? Leave your two cents in the comments.
On August 6, 1965, the Beatles’ album Help! was released in the UK, followed by an August 13 release in the U.S. In a 1970 Rolling Stoneinterview with Jann S. Wenner, John Lennon stated that the song “Help!” — along with “I’m a Loser” and “Strawberry Fields Forever” — were “personal” songs. He not only considered “Strawberrry Fields Forever” and “Help” his “best songs,” but “[t]hey were the ones I really wrote from experience and not projecting myself into a situation and writing a nice story about it.”
Lennon was critical of the recording of “Help,” though. He said, “We did it too fast trying to be commercial.” I understand his point, as the song sounds pretty happy for a cry for help from a person feeling down. I like to think about the possibility that had Lennon grown older, he might have recorded an slower acoustic version of the song, evoking the pain and sadness that is there in the lyrics. But as a Beatles song, I think it is absolutely perfect.
What do you think of the song “Help!”? Leave your two cents in the comments.
The great actor Robert Mitchum was born on August 6, 1917. When Mitchum was on the silver screen, he was one of the coolest men on the planet. Unfortunately, he is less remembered for his cool laid-back singing, which is one part of his career that fascinates me. I proudly own his CD of calypso music, just as I have several of his films.
Mitchum, of course, is in some great movies, a few of which I have had plans to write about for some time. But for today, we will remember his cool singing style with his rendition of “Little Ole Wine Drinker Me” from 1972, where he asks for rain in California “so the grapes can grow and they can make more wine.” I will drink to that.
What do you think of Robert Mitchum as a singer? Leave your two cents in the comments.
{Update: The event is now over so no longer streaming.}
The festival — which brings together a range of musicians covering heavy metal, hip-hop, alternative rock, dance, etc. — was created in 1991. MTV.com has the dates and times for many of the big acts at this year’s Lollapalooza.
The Onion AV Club recently presented this cover of The Band’s “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down” as part of its Underground series. Here, Glen Hansard is joined by Lisa Hannigan, who is touring with Hansard, and John Smith to sing the song at Chicago’s Architectural Artifacts, a museum and store.
In the first part of the video before they sing the song, Hansard talks about the first time he heard “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down” and how he always remembers that moment in his life when he thinks of the song. Check it out.
“The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down,” which evokes the waning days of the American Civil War in the South, first appeared on The Band’s self-titled album in 1969. Since then, there have been a number of live versions released by The Band, including on The Last Waltz (1976), and the song has been recorded by other artists, including a hit version by Joan Baez in 1971. As in the case of the artists in the video above, Baez does a great cover on the song, but the definitive versions remain with Levon Helm’s lead singing with The Band.
Even though the songwriting is officially credited to Robbie Robertson, Levon Helm later noted that he helped with the research and the writing. Whether or not he wrote the song, it became his song when he sang it. Apparently, Helm never sang the song again after his performance at The Last Waltz, shown below when all the people were singin’.
What is your favorite version of “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down”? Leave your two cents in the comments.
