DESPERATELY SEEKING...The Holy Grail of Zimmerfreaks

The other night I was pootling about on the internet when I discovered that for a few months at the beginning of this year the legendary Renaldo and Clara – all four hours of it – had been available on YouTube.  Before the Dylan police had it removed.  I wish I had known.  Although I am a fine upstanding citizen and cannot, and will not condone bootlegging (Ha!) I would sell my left foot for a copy of it. The only person whom I have ever met who apparently owned a copy is my mate Kenn Thomas, editor of the renowned (and very peculiar) conspiracy theory journal Steamshovel Press.  I remember having a long convoluted discussion with him in a hotel room in Las Vegas about it nearly ten years ago, but I have absolutely no memory of what we said. There were quite a lot of suspiciously long cigarettes circulating that evening, but I am sure that had nothing to do with it.

But I digress.

After reading that this legendary Bob Dylan movie, formed largely during the first leg of 1975’s Rolling Thunder Review, and featuring Dylan, his then wife, his ex-girlfriend, and various other luminaries, and apparently totally unwatchable. However, one man’s unwatchable is another man’s (usually mine) intellectual nirvana, and I would dearly love to see it.  So, after having read that it had been available for a few tantalising weeks, I started to poke about some of the dodgier places on the seamy white underbelly of the internet looking to see if I could purchase a copy, which is something I haven’t done for an awful long time.

And could I?

Could I heck!  I found countless Bob Dylan bootlegs, both audio and video, but narry a sign of the elusive R&C.  But I did find several websites with differing dates claiming that the elusive film was just about to receive an official release.  These claims were made in 1998, 2001, 2003, 2008, and again this year.  As far as I can tell, all of these claims are equally spurious.

I used to know a dude called Colin.  I won’t reveal his real name.  In fact I have written of him before, in my fairly scurrilous autobiography Monster Hunter (2004).  Then I gave him a completely spurious surname which I can’t remember, and can’t be bothered to look up.  However, Colin was a very dodgy rock and pop memorabilia dealer who lived in a very squalid council flat in Wandsworth, which was filled with demo tapes, and memorabilia which looked to me as if they were probably worth millions. He had stolen them all from skips outside recording studios, and played me some of the excerpts.  Through him I heard the early versions of Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon which I believe have now been officially released on the multi CD/DVD immersion edition of the album.  I also heard amazing rarities from many other artists whom I have admired for years.  But the trouble with Colin is that he was a complete fantasist who was obsessed with the occult.

Back in 1969 apparently Led Zeppelin, The Jeff Beck Group and Jethro Tull were all together in some small American town and members of the first two bands joined Jethro Tull on stage for what became known as the Nine Man Jam.  I had read about this and how a version of Jailhouse Rock had been played by a line-up including Rod Stewart on vocals, and Jimmy Page on guitar. I dearly wanted to hear this and mentioned it to Colin.  His yes lit up and he went into the most extraordinary farrago of nonsense about how this had been some occult ritual that the participants had carefully planned in order to wreak arcane consequences on the world of man.  ‘Bollocks,’ said I.  ‘It was a bunch of stoned rockers playing an Elvis Presley song’.  He looked daggers at me and started to describe a session that he had been at a few days earlier where Peter Green of Fleetwood Mac and Syd Barrett had been recorded together a new concept album based upon the Rituals of Abra-Melin the Mage.  I made my excuses and left, and never saw the mad bastard again.

I remembered Colin for the first time in years the other night. The idea of fantasising that this legendary four-hour film by Bob Dylan, which everyone who has seen it says is complete tosh, is still somehow going to see the light of the day has his fingerprints all over it.  Does an acceptable print of it still exist?  Will it ever be released officially?  Probably not, to both questions. However, it is this arcane legendary aspect to pop music that is one of the things that keeps me going.  For pop music is magickal in the truest sense of the word; music can and does totally alter the headspace of those who listen to it. It can be, and sometimes actually is, a truly alchemical process, and I suppose that every other branch of the Great Mysteries legends have built up around it. And as a cryptozoologist, I can assure you that, whilst legends often have a germ of truth behind them, and occasionally are even unequivocally true, other times they are complete nonsense dreamt up by funny little men in council flats in Wandsworth.  

EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW: Michael Des Barres (Part Three)...

So, we have come to the third and final part of my interview with Michael Des Barres the other day. I was quite surprised how it ended up as three parts, because it was only meant to be a quicky. However, when Michael and I get chatting, we talk for ages. And we talk about Bob Dylan, Damon Albarn, John Lennon and what killed Elvis, as well as all the stuff that we were supposed to be talking about.

If you have missed the rest of the interview check out  Part One and Part Two...

MICHAEL: Well my aim in life is to piss of the moral majority because the moral majority is an oxymoron – more moron than oxy.

JON: No, but you know what I mean.

MICHAEL: I do.  But I just wrote electronica song for this Irish girl called `Jesus was my boyfriend, our love will never end`.

You know, I write a lot of electronica, I love it. It’s not my personal taste but I love to write pop songs and I’ve been doing a lot of that, and will be doing a lot more. And because of the sound of Carnaby Streeta lot of people at the Recording Academy of which I am now a member contacted me to produce them which I will do eventually when I have time. In all types of music, country music, I love.  You know I’ve written a lot of songs in the last few months.  I must have 30 songs waiting.

JON: Well I still really like Chequered Past.

MICHAEL: Well Jonesy called me the other day and said let’s do one gig. Let’s reunite Chequered Past and do one gig.

JON: Hell yeah

MICHAEL: And you know, you know we might. If he wants to do it, I’ll do it obviously and make time to do it. That is a band that is, you know, live?  Oh my God, Clem Burke and Steve Jones. Unbelievable power.

JON: There are a couple of videos on YouTube that are absolutely awesome.

MICHAEL: Yeah, it’s great.  I mean they’re much better than the record.  The record has a couple of cuts on it. Live... sometimes I felt like I was in The Who or some massive rock band

What are you listening to right now?

JON: The new Bob Dylan album.

MICHAEL: Me too. 

JON: That and... have you heard Damon Albarn’s album? You know, the guy from Blur.

MICHAEL: I have not.  Is it a solo record?

JON: He’s written an opera about... you know John Dee, Queen Elizabeth I’s court magician?

MICHAEL: Yes...of course...the great alchemist

JON: He’s written an opera  called Mr Dee. No, Dr. Dee. It’s absolutely brilliant. That and the Bob Dylan album are my two favourites at the moment

MICHAEL: I’ve been trying to get into Tempest. It’s Bob Dylan so it transcends all critique, no question but I swear to God, Jonathan, listening to it gives me nodules.

JON: Really?  I think it’s the most accessible thing he’s done in years

MICHAEL: Yeah, his voice is all crunchy to me...it hurts my throat when I hear him sing

JON: I tell you what, Michael, I think I’ll go as far as to say it’s my favourite of his albums since Blood on the Tracks.

MICHAEL: I think that you are not alone. I mean, people adore it  – it’s the only CD I’ve bought in years because it’s Saint Bob, you know. But I listen to it and sometimes I’m so swept up in the experience and age of his voice, and then other times as a singer, I think Oh my God, he’s ripping his throat to shreds but lyrically it’s ridiculously clever and hard core... Roll on John. I listened to in the car and I literally sat at wept – I pulled over, parked my car and listened to the fucking song and it’s just unbelievable – what is it, your light is still shining – you know just beautiful.

Two slices of the new Bob Dylan album; his tribute to John Lennon which made Michael cry and his post-apocalyptic rewrite of the old folk standard Barbara Allen which is my favourite..

JON: I tell you another album which is out this year which is so much better than I thought it was going to be is the new Public Image album. The first one since about 1990 I think.

MICHAEL: I’m going to go see them on Saturday.

JON: Oh you lucky man. Their guitarist, Lu Edmonds, who I’ve known of, I’ve met him a couple of times, he’s been around for years.  He was with The Damned – he became The Damned’s second guitarist in 1976 or something. He’s absolutely extraordinary. He plays this weird Turkish thing and he makes Hendrixy noises out of a Turkish mandolin called a saz – it’s absolutely wonderful, a stunning record.

MICHAEL: Yeah, Lydon is something else man. How a kid from the East End of London could come up with this brilliant, you know this perception of the world it’s so fantastic, brilliant.  I’m going to see them on Saturday at the ?? Steam ballroom, Manhattan, New York city.

JON: Well you’ve got to tell me all about it. The record’s wonderful and I’ve seen them on television doing a couple of songs from it.

MICHAEL: And you know what?  He did it all himself.  I am sure you know the story.  He’s financed it all himself. He’s got no label, he’s got no management, he’s doing it all himself.  Very similar to me, although
I’ve got Rob and you guys, you know, but in essence I have no manager. You know, I’ve managed this whole thing.  I just don’t trust anybody.  I don’t trust management because I do this all day, and all night. Rehearsing, writing, playing or selling, it’s all the same organism and I just think that I work harder for me than anybody else could

JON: Well yeah, it’s the 21^st Century business model isn’t it? The music business as a business, is dead.

MICHAEL: But the music is very much alive.

JON: Exactly, music is alive, and it’s up to people like you and me celebrating the sort of liberation of having got rid of the music business.

MICHAEL: That’s it man and you know, it’s good. It’s so healthy – you might not sell as  many records, but how much money do you fucking want? I mean do you want to be autonomous in your life- do you want to own your own life or do you want to give 60% of it away?

JON: You’ll probably make just as much money because you’re not having an enormous fucking entourage

MICHAEL: There’s no question. And entourages are so...they’re a bit like cigarettes, you know they are so uncool.  What is this the Memphismafia? That’s what killed him.....

JON: That is the perfect place to stop Michael. When your life calms down a bit, we’ll talk again and you can tell me all about how the weekend went and...

MICHAEL: I’ll look forward to it.

If you have not done so already, check out Michael's Gonzo Artist Page

EXCLUSIVE: Annie Haslam of Renaissance interview (Part three)

And so our exclusive Annie Haslam Interview trundles on to day two of three. You can, by the way, read part one HERE, and part two HERE. In this final part, we talk about Bob Dylan, Steve Howe and other ex-members of Yes, and all sorts of other things...

Jon: I tell you what else I heard today, is your It’s Alright Now Baby Blue

Annie: Oh yes, gosh yes. Steve  and I … I put on a benefit concert in New York in 1995 called Lilies in the Field, and Steve and I wrote the song Lilies in the Field for it, and I, along with 20^th Century Guitar Magazine we arranged this – it was a lot of work to pull in all the musicians for this concert to benefit the orphans in Sarajevo, and Justin Hayward came on board, Roy Wood, Cheap Trick, Steve Howe, BB Snow, it was phenomenal. It was an amazing evening.  And after that Steve and I decided that we wanted to write something together, so I went over to England and stayed with him in Devonand we wrote some songs together. 

Unfortunately, while I was there Jon Anderson called up to get Yes together, and the I knew at that point that, you know, there wouldn’t be time for him to do both, so it was great until that ‘phone call, but we wrote some beautiful things together and I remember one night we had been recording, and we went out into the local village and had dinner, and a couple of glasses of wine and went back, and we were going to a bit more work in the morning.  And we got back, and it was really late and I was just about to retire and Steve said, ‘Annie I’m doing an album of Bob Dylan songs, how do you fancy doing It’s All Over Now Baby Blue?’  I said: ‘Now?’ and he said ‘You want to try it?’  I don’t drink before I sing, but anyway I did that and that is what it was. Me on a couple of glasses of wine. Not a couple of bottles, but a couple of glasses. Yeah, it came out well, because when I first started singing I sounded just like Joan Baez, until I went to an opera singing teacher and was trained to find my own voice.

Jon: I can see that, yeah I can imagine that.  Had you already done the backing track already, or did you do it together?

Annie: Let me think.  I think we may have done it together. I’m not sure, but it was only the two of us.

Jon: It sounds like it, it sounds like the arrangement was done around you, rather than you fitting around the arrangement.

Annie: That was a great experience working with Steve.

Jon: I’m a massive Bob Dylan fan, and most people can’t sing Bob Dylan. The fact that Bob Dylan has got an idiosyncratic voice of his own means that most people can’t do it. And you can. Which blew me away, because – I listened to it when I was doing my homework – and it just blew me away how amazing it was.

Annie: Thank you.  I am glad you liked it.  Yes, it did, it came out well.  I sound like Joan Baez though don’t you think?

Jon: A little bit.

Annie: Yes it does.  I had shades of Joan there when I did that.  It just came out natural.

Jon: Then I had to explain to young Jessica why I was so impressed, which involved listening to Bringing it all back home...

Annie: Gosh I can hear him singing it in my head now. It’s so different isn’t it?

Jon: You’ve put your stamp on it in a way that most people don’t manage to.

Annie: I love experimenting and I love being asked to do different things.  Did you hear my version of Dreamer? I’m singing Dreamer with Billy Sherwood and David Sanchez????

Jon: No 

Annie: If you go to Cleopatra Records.  It’s in California.  Look them up online.  It’s a prog collective, the tribute to Supertramp.  I do Dreamer – it came out fantastic.  My friend John Wetton wrote me an email ‘cos he was on it as well and said ‘Whoever thought of that,’ he said.  ‘Brilliant, oh my God it’s perfect.’ I am so glad he asked me to sing that one because it is my favourite Supertramp song, so have a listen to it.  And then I did another one a song called  Social Circles with Peter Banks and Billy Sherwood recently – you know in the last few months – that’s also come out on Cleopatra Records.  I think it’s called the Prog Collective and there’s quite a few different artists.

Jon: I’ll check that out.

[I actually found it on Spotify, and it is jolly good]

Annie: Yeah, Rick Wakeman’s on there and different proggers are on those albums.

Jon: I’m supposed to be talking to Rick Wakeman in a couple of weeks.

Annie: Oh are you?  Give him my love will you?

Jon: I will, of course I will.

Annie: I love him, he’s great.

Jon: I’ve only ever had emails from him, but he always comes over as a really nice guy.

Annie: He’s very nice. He’s got time for everybody. He’s got time for his fans, he’s got time for other musicians. He’s a lovely man. And very gifted as well. God gifted.  As his son Oliver is as well …. Both of his sons.  Runs in the family doesn’t it?

Jon: Oliver is doing a tour with Gordon Giltrap at the moment.

Annie: Are they coming over here?

Jon: I don’t know.  I’ve only just heard about it.  I’m going to do my best to get tickets because I want to see that.

Annie: When you see Gordon, ‘cos we toured in … I know him very well, and I know Oliver as well but not as well as Gordon, we toured with him in the 70s, tell him ‘Annie Haslam wants to know when he’s going to write something for me to sing?’ I would love to do something with him, I love his playing.

And so, sadly, our conversation finished. Annie had another interview to do, and I had a sitting room full of visitors champing at the bit to talk about something completely different. We could have talked for hours, and I have a sneaking suspicion that in the months and years to come we probably shall.

Slainte

SOME USEFUL LINKS:

Renaissance

renaissancetouring.com/

2012-2013 Tour Announcement · New Renaissance Studio Album · Grandine il Vento. Join Renaissance Updates mailing list ...

Welcome to Annie Haslam.com

www.anniehaslam.com/

Annie Haslam, born in Bolton, Lancashire, breast cancer survivor, became lead vocalist for Renaissance has now turned her music into 'dream expressionism' ...

Annie Haslam's artist page at Gonzo

BOB DYLAN: Yet who would have thought the old man to have had so much angst in him?

This is not the record that I was expecting. It is much much better and much much nastier. The project apparently started off as a religious album, but morphed into something completely different.

The opening track Duquesne Whistle sucks you in gently. On first listening it appears to be another one of Dylan's 'roots' songs which have graved every album for the last 12 years since 2000's Love and Theft, but when you look harder, like so much of this album, it is much weirder.

For half a century when Dylan decides to, he can produce some of the greatest music every produced within the rock and roll idiom. He has the ability to tell a story which is so enigmatic it has a hundred different interpretations. My favourite song on my favourite of his albums is 'The Ballad of Frankie Lee and Judas Priest' from John Wesley Harding, and 45 years after it was recorded (and 32 years after I first heard it) I have no idea what the song is all about, and I have a weird suspicion that this new album is going to be much the same. The whole album, whilst being - on the face of it - a series of stories, is actually something completely different.

On 'Scarlet Town' for example he revisits the old song 'Barbra Allen' that he first sang on one of his earliest records, warps it and turns it into an apocalyptic dirge in a minor key. I use the word 'Dirge' advisedly, because it is the song of the same name on Planet Waves which is its nearest stylistic cousin within the Dylan canon.

Most reviewers have picked up on the 13 minute title track which is about the sinking of the Titanic, and the wry comment on the nature of reality made when Dylan introduces Leonardo de Caprio into the narrative. But as far as I can see no-one has picked up on why Dylan has picked up on the 100 year old trajedy as a subject for his most epic song in years. My interpretation of events is that this is a final homage to Woody Guthrie who wrote his own Titanic song in 'It was sad when the great ship went down` (which, incidentally, got my neo-fascist father to complain to the Bideford Schools Authority back in 1975 when he found my brother singing "such a communist" song).

I say a 'final' homage to Guthrie. This is not to say that this is intended as Dylan's final album. I don't think it is. There has been a lot of speculation that because The Tempest was the last of Shakespeare's plays, that Tempest is planned to be the final Bob Dylan album.

Dylan told Rolling Stone:

"Shakespeare's last play was called The Tempest. It wasn't called just plain Tempest. The name of my record is just plain Tempest. It's two different titles."

Paul McCartney had much the same air of finality with his most recent album of original material Memory Almost Full. I think that neither of these titans of popular music are planning to quit. But they must both be aware that the tides of time are running out, and that although they may plan to live forever, they probably won't, and that every album might be their last, so each one has the air of a last will and testament about it.

I hope that Dylan will continue recording for many years to come, but if the unthinkable should happen, this record will make a fine and fitting valedictory.