The adage “sex, drugs and rock & roll” can best be used describe the music scene in the Seventies, an era where all genres were fueled by everything from alcohol and marijuana to cocaine and Quaaludes. The third installment of 1973: Shaping the Culture delves into the influence – both creative and destructive – drugs had on the music scene.
“Music is affected by the drugs you take, which is completely accurate,” journalist Legs McNeil says. “When you’re taking cocaine and drinking, you’re doing something, when you’re doing heroin … There’s definitely different vibes to different music. Which is why the Grateful Dead suck so much. Wrong drugs, yeah.” Writer Fran Lebowitz adds, “We thought these things were good for you. Drugs, good for you. Like orange juice. What could be better for you than drugs?”
Michael Ridge attempts to play a 7″ vinyl single of Every Rose Has Its Thorn by Poison using thorns from a dried rose bush branch. The rose bush displays technical skill and empathy.
Watch this video to reaffirm to yourself just the timelessness of Public Enemy. During their It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back tour, the brilliant Public Enemy made an appearance on a Dutch music television show called Fa. Onrust. During the show, Chuck D, Flavor Flav, Professor Griff, and DJ Terminator X tear through Night of the Living Baseheads, Rebel Without a Pause, Bring the Noise, and Don’t Believe the Hype. And if that doesn’t delight you enough, Run DMC just happened to be in Holland themselves at exactly the same time, and Joseph Simmons/DJ Run and Darryl D.M.C. Matthews joined the group on stage to blast through 1988 track, How’d Ya Do It Dee? from Tougher Than Leather.
How do you feel about a lot of cult bands reforming and have you discussed, or even considered it with The Beta Band guys or is that a chapter you’ve completely put to rest?
Ah, I’m not a big fan of nostalgia I have to say. I think it’s lazy, I think it’s, there’s something just a bit sad about it. I do understand why bands do it and I understand why bands who sort of had their time but didn’t make a lot of money at the time and then their older and kind of skint and want some money – I understand that. But I think culturally it feels a bit weird, you know, culturally it’s weird but culturally its really in keeping with what’s happening. You know artists in this country, there’s no more, there will never be – take bands like The Stone Roses as a wild example; there will never another band like that. There will never be another band that starts at grass roots level like that, that’s not put together by someone else, or even The Beta Band, completely organically. We managed to get a big deal with a label, they put a load of money into us and allowed us to spunk a load of money in this beautiful artistic way, completely unhindered and it never ever happened again, ever. The Beta Band were, we were a brilliant band and we were like a shot of colour across the landscape but we weren’t really rock stars so, like The Stone Roses; they were much bigger but there will never be another band like that. There will only be things like Adele and these kind of, people that come from a TV show – that’s what your rock star is going to be. The days of The Rolling Stones and The Beatles, Queen, The Who – all gone, that’s history.
As Bruce’s co-producer on The River, how did you deal with telling him “No” or “You should change this”? It’s about having the right conversation at the right time. In the end, you accept the fact that you’re there to help him realize his vision. Every single outtake was a lost argument. He was getting 10, 12 great songs very quickly at that point. I would be like, “OK, let’s put that out. You want to do 12 more? That will be the next album.” But you can’t stop that flow when it happens. Chuck Berry had that flow for five or six years. The Beatles, the Rolling Stones — the great ones have a run where they’re in touch with something a little bit mystical, a little bit beyond logic.
It’s not something you plan, that you aspire to. You have this stuff built up inside, wanting to come out, and you tap into that faucet. Born to Run was eight songs. He went from that to a hundred [over Darkness and The River]. It was some of divine … [pauses] It’s something you can’t take for granted. That’s what made me mad sometimes. I’d get angry with him. Here I am, struggling to write a good song; every fucking one of them is war. And I’d be like, “Hey, man, you’re annoying me here. You’re taking this shit a little bit for granted. [Laughs] What do you mean you’re throwing out this song other people would have a career with?” “Restless Nights,” that’s a career. “Loose Ends,” that’s a career. But you can’t stop it. Once it’s happening, you go with it.
We had a wonderful recording method by then. We’d found the right studio [the Power Station in New York City]; we’d found the right engineers. We figured all that stuff out. It felt so good to go to work every day, after three years of torture. Suddenly, recording is fun. That alone is good for 40 fucking songs.
This an exchange from an actual interview with Glenn Danzig in Rolling Stonemagazine: Who was the funniest person in your family growing up? I don’t know. I don’t think anyone in my family was funny.
Maybe you picked up your sense of humor more from movies and TV. Yeah. Sometimes on a tour bus, we watch comedy when it’s slow.
Third Man Records will publish a book about the Stooges on Nov. 17. The band’s story will be told in the words of Iggy Pop, though author Jeff Gold and contributor Johan Kugelberg will be putting Pop’s stories together.
JUNO nominee Lori Cullen set to release Sexsmith Swinghammer Songs on October 28, 2016 via True North Records.
Long time friends and respected musicians Lori Cullen, Kurt Swinghammer and Ron Sexsmith come together and collaborate on a new recording – Sexsmith Swinghammer Songs. Ron, who has been a huge fan of Lori’s for years, suggested to Kurt that they co-write an album of material specifically for Lori to sing. The inspired results are sure to draw attention, as always, to her remarkable voice.
Identified by jazz giant Kurt Elling as one of his favourite new vocalists, Lori Cullen’s upcoming album on True North Records is a fresh expression of jazz-infused chamber-pop. With her pure, unaffected style she delivers twelve tunes that evoke the rich creativity of 60’s/70’s composers Bacharach, Webb and Jobim. Supporting the combination of Sexsmith’s renowned lyrical approach and Swinghammer’s unique musical sensibilities, the tracks feature contributions from a dozen of Toronto’s finest musicians.
The album was recorded at Toronto’s Canterbury Sound by veteran engineer Jeremy Darby and produced by Maury Lafoy, who also played bass along with the core band of drummer Mark Mariash, keyboardist Robbie Grunwald, and guitarist Swinghammer. Centered around nylon string and Rhodes, the skillfully constructed arrangements sparkle with trumpet, trombone, oboe, clarinet, recorder, and harmonica. Backing vocalists Mia Sheard and Jennifer Foster add a signature sound throughout the songs with intricately layered counterpoint parts. With his celebrated experience and sonic sensitivity, David Travers-Smith created the exquisite mix.
The first Lori Cullen CD came out at the start of a new century. Garden Path reflected a young sensibility informed by her heroes Joni Mitchell and Jane Siberry. Two years later she shifted gears to jazz standards for the well received So Much. Her third release Uneven Hill focused on original writing and dramatically broadened the scope of her sonic world. Calling For Rain in 2006 brought together all the previous elements to create a hybrid of jazz and pop which established her artistic identity. It was nominated for a Best Vocal Jazz Juno and one of her original tunes won the Colleen Peterson Songwriting Award from the Ontario Council Of Folk Festivals. The CDs Buttercup Bugle and That Certain Chartreuse continued to define her reputation as a brilliant interpreter of covers, as well as a distinctive original writer, and expanded her reputation overseas with releases in Japan.
Lori’s seventh album is a confident, mature artistic statement inspired by the personal milestone of motherhood.
A Toronto album launch concert for Sexsmith Swinghammer Songs has been announced at Hugh’s Room on October 29.
SEXSMITH SWINGHAMMER SONGS TRACK LIST
1. The Face Of Emily
2. Miracle Home
3. Strange Is This Life
4. New Love
5. Something Right
6. This Morning
7. Beginner’s Luck
8. Off Somewhere (duet with Ron Sexsmith)
9. Then There Were Three
10. Some Part Of Me
11. Don’t Go Yet
12. True
UPCOMING DATES
Aug 20 – Waterdown, ON – Waterdown Arts Festival
Sept 9 – Toronto, ON – Hugh’s Room
Sept 17 – Toronto, ON – Kensington Market Jazz Festival
Oct 29 – Toronto, ON – Hugh’s Room (Album Launch)
