If you have always wanted to attend the Newport Folk Festival, you can at least watch a number of the acts live this year on your computer, thanks to National Public Radio. The festival starts Friday, July 27 and goes through the weekend with acts that include Wilco, Patty Griffin, Jackson Browne, Iron & Wine, and My Morning Jacket. Check out the NPR website for a full list of the acts and information about how you can watch the performances live. Below is a video about the festival.
What is your favorite memory of the Newport Folk Festival? Leave your two cents in the comments.
It is time once again for Chimesfreedom to take a look at songs related to each Super Bowl team. With this year’s battle between the New England Patriots and the New York Giants, we first consider the Patriots, using a song incorporating the New England mascot instead of going with Barry Manilow’s “Weekend in New England.”
Back in the 1980s before there was the Internet where you can find a large amount of music and concert footage of your favorite artist, I was desperate for anything related to Bruce Springsteen for the long years between albums. In one of those periods, I discovered the music of Little Steven and “I Am a Patriot.”
Little Steven, of course, is “Miami Steve” and Silvio Dante and Steven Van Zandt, a guitarist and singer in Springsteen’s E Street Band. While Springsteen’s songs gradually included more political allusions, Little Steven wore his social issues on his sleeve. “I Am a Patriot,” though, he reclaims the word “patriot” from the politicians and asserts its meaning as an advocate for freedom.
And I ain’t no communist, and I ain’t no capitalist; And I ain’t no socialist; and I sure ain’t no imperialist; And I ain’t no Democrat; And I ain’t no Republican either; And I only know one party, And its name is freedom; I am a patriot.
Little Steven recorded several very good albums on his own during the 1980s, including Men Without Women (1982), Voice of America (1984), Freedom No Compromise (1987) and Revolution (1989). He added one last album in the 1990s with Born Again Savage (1999), which was not as successful as his previous albums. “I Am a Patriot” is off of Voice of America, and the song has been covered by Jackson Browne and Eddie Vedder, among others. Browne also has performed the song with Little Steven.
As for this weekend, at the end of the day on Sunday, New Englanders are hoping they can proudly assert the refrain of the song. Meanwhile, check out the Super Bowl song for the New York Giants.
Are you a fan of Little Steven? What other songs are appropriate for the New England Patriots? Leave your two cents in the comments.
Happy Halloween! Warren Zevon was late in his career before I became a fan of his music. So my memories of him are mostly of him toward the end of his life. So I especially love seeing him rock out in this performance of the one of the great Halloween songs, “Werewolves of London.”
Zevon once referred to “Werewolves of London” as “a dumb song for smart people.” But, of course, it is quite brilliant. Zevon wrote the song with LeRoy Marinell and Waddy Wachtel, but they had some inspiration from Phil Everly of The Everly Brothers. Everly suggested the song title to Zevon after watching the 1935 film Werewolf of London, directed by Stuart Walker and starring Henry Hull, on late-night television.
Zevon, Marinell, and Wachtel began making up the lyrics for fun, adding in some howling. Zevon’s wife at the time, Crystal Zevon, wrote down the lyrics. The next day in the studio, Jackson Browne heard the new song, and he began performing it live years before Zevon got around to releasing it on an album in 1978.
Upon it’s eventual release, “Werewolves of London” became a Top 40 hit for Zevon. But according to George Plasketes, the author of a biography about the artist, Zevon initially felt insulted that the record label had selected that song for a single release over other songs Zevon preferred on the Excitable Boy (1978) album. The label’s choice proved correct, in the sense that “Werewolves of London” became a beloved classic.
The song even inspired the name for a baseball team in London, Ontario. And there is that wonderful opening line, “I saw a werewolf with a Chinese menu in his hand.” This live performance by Zevon is from Oct 1, 1982 at the Capitol Theatre in Passiac, New Jersey. Check it out.
But I still cannot get this Tom Cruise image out of my head anytime I hear the song.
This week was Jackson Browne’s birthday on October 9, so this post celebrates his birthday and wraps up our series on Taxi Driver music. Previous posts have touched on music from Van Morrison and Kris Kristofferson that influenced Martin Scorsese in the making of Taxi Driver. In this final post on our “Taxi Driver Music” series, we consider a song that the director actually used in the film, Jackson Browne’s “Late for the Sky.”
In a scene in Taxi Driver after Travis Bickle has shot a man who was robbing a store, he sits at home, alone with his gun, watching American Bandstand. The scene reflects his loneliness and isolation, emphasized by the contrast between Bickle and the scenes on the television screen where young men and women embrace each other as they dance. It is the dance of life, and Bickle has isolated himself in a way that excludes him from the simple joys of life. And that isolation is leading him into a spiral of madness.
Interestingly, in watching the dancing on the television, it does not appear to me that the dancers actually are dancing to “Late for the Sky.” Their movements do not seem to match the song, so maybe Scorsese wanted to use the song “Late for the Sky,” so he found an American Bandstand clip that most closely matched the song. Or I may be wrong and the dance is to “Late for the Sky.” Watch the clip for yourself and decide.
“Late for the Sky” is the opening and the title track from Jackson Browne’s album, Late For The Sky (1974). Even without the visual of the lonely insane man with a gun watching lovers dance, it is a sad song. Browne sings about the end of a relationship: “Awake again, I can’t pretend / That I know I’m alone, / And close to the end / Of the feeling we’ve known.”
Relationships may end in different ways, but often instead of a sudden explosion, they end after a time of drifting apart. Then, one wakes up one morning and wonders what happened “in the bed where we both lie,” which is a great line that may be read with at least three different meanings because of the different definitions of “lie” (including the old expression about sleeping in the bed one makes).
Finally, in the song, Browne asks, “How long have I been sleeping? / How long have I been drifting along through the night? / How long have I been running for that morning flight / Through the whispered promises, and the changing light / Of the bed where we both lie,/ Late for the sky.” It is a beautiful song of loss, and its overall tone perfectly fits the loss Scorsese wanted to convey in Taxi Driver.
Chimesfreedom sends out wishes and prayers for Clarence Clemons, who is seriously ill after suffering a stroke. According to reports, although Clemons has had a number of health problems in the past, this time, members of the E Street Band have been asked to go see Clemons in Florida as soon as possible.
You cannot mention Clemons without the modifier “legendary saxophonist,” for all of his great work with Bruce Springsteen as a member of the E Street Band, not to mention his work with other artists, including playing on Lady Gaga’s most recent album. Yet, while others in the E Street Band have larger singing roles, Clemons’s voice is also an important part of the complete package. In 1985, he even had a singing top 20 hit when he released “You’re a Friend of Mine, singing with Jackson Browne (and Daryl Hannah).
The best part of the song is the title, as when we think of Clemons, one of the first things we think about is his lifelong friendship with Bruce Springsteen and the rest of the band. On stage, Clemons, Springsteen, and the rest of the band interact in a way that shows a bunch of friends having fun. Because of that, we audience members feel like we get to share a tiny bit in that friendship. We all hope to maintain friendships like that in our own lives. Big Man, for your music and your friendships, our thoughts are with you.
Update June 13 Evening: Latest reports are that after two brain surgeries, Clemons is in stable condition and making progress. June 18 Update: Clarence Clemons passed away. For our post on his passing, head to this link.
(1974). Even without the visual of the lonely insane man with a gun watching lovers dance, it is a sad song. Browne sings about the end of a relationship: “Awake again, I can’t pretend / That I know I’m alone, / And close to the end / Of the feeling we’ve known.”
