Burning Dervish Volume 10: Frank Zappa

I have had Frank on the brain lately. Between the war, the various scandals in Washington, Britney Spears, Lindsay Lohan and their ilk, along with a host of other minor and major indignities I can't help but wonder what Frank would be saying to all of this. I mean he was pissed back then and the world was only maybe half as stupid as it is today!

I don't seperate Frank the Artist from Frank the Philosopher/Social Commentator. Regardless of the hat he was wearing on any given day he was one of the most independent and unique cultural figures of his time.

Hopefully this compilation shows a lot of different sides of his music: the 60s freak-out stuff, the "classic period" or "comedy music" from the early 70s, the virtuoso touring bands throughout the 80s and the "serious" work he was doing right before his death.

Download Burning Dervish Volume 10: Frank Zappa Update: we received a cease and desist from the Zappa Family Trust's attorney and as a result have removed the mix from the site. Buy Frank's music anyway, though.

The original albums some of these tracks appeared on can be found here.

Roasted Soup

Last night I attended the 81st birthday party for Soupy Salesat the Friar's Club here in New York City.

I know, that doesn't really have anything to do with music (unless you are willing to count his sons Hunt and Tony, who played with Bowiein Tin Machineand Iggy on Lust for Life).

Anyway, it was a blast. The highlight was, if you can believe it, about 10 minutes of Larry Storch. The guy is 84 and funny as all hell. Raunchy, too. All of those old Catskill's-era Jewish comics are the best. Ken Burns needs to do 5 - 10 hours on that time and those people.

And the Friar's Club "Monastery" - holy cow. It was my first time there and man, what a joint. The photos on the walls and the names on various placques...Ali, Sinatra, Henny Youngman...There's even a Milton Berle Room!

Thanks to my buddy, Friar Eddie, for a real treat of a night...

way-back machine v66: Grateful Dead

...in Albany, NY on this date in 1990...

What an infamous run this turned out to be!

The Deadheads and Albany embraced each other like few other places in the latter part of the Dead's touring career. As cities were banning the band and clamping down on the 'heads, Albany kept leaving the light on for us to come home every year...

The band released nearly all of the highlights from this run on the Dozin' at the Knick release several years back but they left out this smoking version of Loser, which they put out this week as an MP3 on their site. We are syndicating their weekly vault feed here on burningdervish.com.

Grateful Dead - Loser
from Knickerbocker Arena, Albany, NY, March 24, 1990

I guess these cancel each other out...

This makes me sad.

BUT

This makes me happy.

way-back machine v65: Allman Brothers Band

...in New York City on this date in 1999...

At the time I thought this was the worst Allmans show I ever saw - and I've seen a few.

OK, and I still think that eight years later, not that it didn't have its moments - more on those below.

This was really a tough time for the Allmans: they hadn't stabilized the second guitar slot since Warren Haynes left and Dickey was close to being through as well. Jack Pearson was at the end of his two-year tenure as second lead. In fact, this Beacon run made up his final shows with the band. Dickey was out, due to drugs, drink or something else entirely depending upon what gossip you are partial to, by the following summer.

The promised highlights...Frankly they are hard to find not because this show sucked but because it was all so damn competent (possibly the worst praise you can give a band, in my book). One thing that stood out then and is apparent from the recordings: Dickey was relying almost entirely on his signature guitar lines and gimmicks. He was not inventing anything at all, even with a set list the seemed designed to showcase him.

So I am choosing today's tracks from flashes of greatness in an otherwise dull evening as well as some songs of theirs that are longtime personal favorites of mine. The Allmans hold a special place for me. They take me back to a few specific eras of my life that for how distant they feel now, may have been someone else's lifetime.

Enjoy.

Allman Brothers Band - five tracks spanning the set
from the Beacon Theatre, New York, NY, March 20, 1999

way-back machine v64: Grateful Dead

...in Hartford, CT on this date in 1990...

A great show from a fantastic tour...Spring 90 has popularly gone down as the last great run for the boys...One interesting thing about this show is that it was the last for the band in Hartford - and specifically the Civic Center. I personally always enjoyed going up there if only because it was close to home for me at the time...Today's post is a roughly 45 minute chunk of the show from Set II, some really nice interplay....Enjoy.

Grateful Dead- Foolish inta Playin inta Eyes...
from the Civic Center, Hartford, CT, March 19, 1990

Burning Dervish Volume 9: Jeff Tweedy 17x1

In trying to set psyched up for the new Wilco record I thought it would be fun to throw together a mix of various Tweedy stuff from over the years...I'm already digging the new stuff they are steaming on wilcoweb...

While putting this compilation together I realized that it has been seventeen years since Uncle Tupelo's No Depression came out. If that doesn't impress you think about what year it was seventeen years before that...Definitely seems like a different lifetime to me.

Hope you dig the mix.

Burning Dervish Volume 9: Jeff Tweedy - 17x1

The original albums some of these tracks appeared on can be found here.

way-back machine v62: Paul Stanley

...in New Haven, CT on this date in 1989...

We had a blast at this show...what a hoot hearing some of these songs played live. Lots of stuff off of Paul's KISS solo album and other gems the band stopped playing once they took the make-up off. We actually caught the show again a week or so later up in Hartford, too, and in vintage Paul fashion, it was pretty much exactly the same, down to the between-song banter...

Quite honestly, it was just as fun seventeen years later, getting to see him last fall at Irving Plaza...And yes, he talked a lot of the same shit between songs...

Paul Stanley: I Want You, Tonight You Belong To Me, Come On And Love Me, Goodbye
from Toad's Place, New Haven, CT, March 12, 1989

way-back machine v61: Allman Brothers Band

...in New York City on this date in 2006...

So I stayed away from the Allmans for a few years...I was a little sick of the revolving door line-up and especially missed the presence of Warren Haynes. For their annual Beacon run in 2006 a young guy I work with was all riled up to go so I decided to give them another shot.

First off, I heard many of the shows on this run were amazing. I believe it. The night I went was not mind-blowing but there were enough peak moments for me to give them some benefit of the doubt. Three of the five or six highlights for me are included below as MP3s.

I have to admit, it is a load of fun seeing Derek Trucks and Warren on stage together. I just feel like in any other era Warren would be a superstar. He's got a good thing going for himself in terms of freedom to play whatever with whomever but I really think he's a stellar talent.

Download some music and have a great weekend.

Allman Brothers Band: Hot 'Lanta, Revival and Elizabeth Reed
from: the Beacon Theatre, New York, NY, March 9, 2006

West L.A. Fadeaway...

John Belushi died twenty-five years ago today, if you can believe that...Some fitting tributes, courtesy of YouTube:

way-back machine v60: Allman Brothers Band

...in Springfield, MA on this date in 1992...

I really love this era of the Allmans. There are some great shows from summer 1991 - summer 1993. After that they still had great nights but Dickey's craziness was getting out of control and the revolving door that shut them down in the late 70s starting spinning again...Warren Haynes is the Man.

This show had a ton of highlights, three of which you can download below!

Allman Brothers Band: Blue Sky, Nobody Knows and In Memory of Elizabeth Reed
from the Symphony Hall in Springfield, MA, March 2, 1992