Are You Experienced?
Hi,
I know it's been a long time. Believe it or not, I'm still listening to records in alphabetical order. I made it through Haggard, then Emmylou Harris, Wynonie Harris, Hazel and Alice, and now Hendrix.
Listening to my Merle Haggard records, the nine or ten I have, made me realize that I should own at least nine or ten more. In some ways, I think he's country music's all-around greatest artist in the past fifty years. By that I mean, songwriting, vocal craft, musicianship, breadth of musical styles, quality of backing band, comeback from fallow periods, continuing relevance. The only (male) competition is Johnny Cash (I don't include George Jones because he didn't write much of his own material). Merle's a better singer. Six of one, I suppose...
Emmylou Harris. I've had a crush on her for twenty something years, sexist pig that I am. Dudes, she's just the classiest act of them all. I haven't even checked out her most recent records, that's how slow about these things I can be. But anyway, in the vinyl, I especially dig "The Ballad of Sally Rose"; "Blue Kentucky Girl"; "Roses in the Snow."
Wynonie Harris, if you don't know was a very handsome R&B shouter from the late forties (I think). Many funny novelty tunes and a great version of Roy Brown's "Good Rockin' Tonight."
Hazel and Alice. Dickens and Gerrard, that is. I bought their first Rounder recording from the dead country music collector's collection (see my Uncorrected Proof Part One posts from last summer). It's as plaintive as all get out.
As far as Jimi goes. I still feel like I don't appreciate him. It's mind boggling to think that he accomplished as much as he did by the age of twenty seven. We all wonder what would have happened had he lived...Would he have ended up sucking as much as Eric Clapton? Would he have written funky outer space symphonies with Miles Davis or Sun Ra or played metal or punk or switched to synthesizers or made "Foxy Lady Disco" in '77; or jammed with Bob Marley or The Clash or Run DMC? Would he have saved Kurt Cobain's life and gotten Sly Stone to clean up and get back in the studio? Would he have declared "more surf music in 2005?" Love or confusion?
I know it's been a long time. Believe it or not, I'm still listening to records in alphabetical order. I made it through Haggard, then Emmylou Harris, Wynonie Harris, Hazel and Alice, and now Hendrix.
Listening to my Merle Haggard records, the nine or ten I have, made me realize that I should own at least nine or ten more. In some ways, I think he's country music's all-around greatest artist in the past fifty years. By that I mean, songwriting, vocal craft, musicianship, breadth of musical styles, quality of backing band, comeback from fallow periods, continuing relevance. The only (male) competition is Johnny Cash (I don't include George Jones because he didn't write much of his own material). Merle's a better singer. Six of one, I suppose...
Emmylou Harris. I've had a crush on her for twenty something years, sexist pig that I am. Dudes, she's just the classiest act of them all. I haven't even checked out her most recent records, that's how slow about these things I can be. But anyway, in the vinyl, I especially dig "The Ballad of Sally Rose"; "Blue Kentucky Girl"; "Roses in the Snow."
Wynonie Harris, if you don't know was a very handsome R&B shouter from the late forties (I think). Many funny novelty tunes and a great version of Roy Brown's "Good Rockin' Tonight."
Hazel and Alice. Dickens and Gerrard, that is. I bought their first Rounder recording from the dead country music collector's collection (see my Uncorrected Proof Part One posts from last summer). It's as plaintive as all get out.
As far as Jimi goes. I still feel like I don't appreciate him. It's mind boggling to think that he accomplished as much as he did by the age of twenty seven. We all wonder what would have happened had he lived...Would he have ended up sucking as much as Eric Clapton? Would he have written funky outer space symphonies with Miles Davis or Sun Ra or played metal or punk or switched to synthesizers or made "Foxy Lady Disco" in '77; or jammed with Bob Marley or The Clash or Run DMC? Would he have saved Kurt Cobain's life and gotten Sly Stone to clean up and get back in the studio? Would he have declared "more surf music in 2005?" Love or confusion?
posted by ken at 7:21 PM
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