BEST OF 2011 - #7 - ADELE "21"

Even if I had spent 2011 in a coma and didn't have any context about the effect that Adele's 21 had, I'd still dig the album.  But the fact that it got people excited about actually buying music again (she sold over 13 million copies worldwide), the fact that the first single "Rolling In The Deep" just seemed to dominate the airwaves and yet never got old, and yes, the fact that she seems to be such an unlikely star... all of that makes me enjoy it even more. And lots of other people enjoy it also: Rolling Stone and Entertainment Weekly named it their album of the year, VH1 named "Rolling In The Deep" the best song on their Top 40 Videos of 2011 (I was a "pundit" on the show, and was happy to comment on that song). And of course, Adele has a bunch of Grammy(R) nominations, and as a voter, I know I'll be voting for her a couple of times this year.

But like I said, the album holds up without any of that knowledge. Rick Rubin exec-produced the record and did a great job doing what he does: making sure the material is good enough, getting a sound that isn't too fancy and adorned, and then he gets out of the way.  Adele is a great singer, she's very soulful (although some contrarians try to come up with ways to deny that simple fact). "Rolling In The Deep" and "Someone Like You" have already reached iconic status (Saturday Night Live based a skit around "Someone Like You") but I actually think "Rumor Has It" is her greatest moment. Of course, she's only 21 as the album's title says, and I'm sure she has many more great moments.  For now, I hope her voice recovers in time for her to perform at the Grammys, which will surely be a great night for this very talented young lady.

MICK JAGGER AND KEITH RICHARDS RECORDING...

... uh, well... they *are* recording.  The rub: they are recording separately.  The new issue of Rolling Stone (not the one pictured here, the new one with Lady Gaga on the cover) has two separate blurbs about upcoming projects from Mick Jagger and Keith Richards. Both mention a rumored 2012 tour.

A small feature on page 18 discusses Mick's new project, a supergroup of sorts that features Dave Stewart of The Eurythmics, Joss Stone, Damien Marley and Oscar winning composer A.R. Rahman. Mick has worked with Dave before in his solo career, notably on songs to the soundtrack of the 2004 film Alfie ("Old Habits Die Hard" is one of his best non-Stones moments). Joss and Mick did a duet on that soundtrack as well.

Mick has always expressed a bit of boredom with doing things the same way with The Stones, but his attempts to do different music projects outside of the band haven't done well.  His last full length solo album, 2001's Goddess In The Doorway, got a five star review in Rolling Stone, which only called attention to the fact that it was far from being a five star album.  (It did have one of his finest moments: his excellent collaboration with Lenny Kravitz, "God Gave Me Everything"). Anyway, it didn't sell well and I remember it being laughed at in the press (and by Keith). I guess his new "super-group" is an interesting project to him.  I have to admit, I'm interested to hear it. In the article, Mick says he doesn't have any Stones plans to announce at the moment.

Meanwhile, an "In The News" item on page 20 says that Keith is finally working again with his former backing band, The X-Pensive Winos. Unlike Mick, Keith seems to love working in the Stones' blues/country/R&B/rock style, which the Winos did so well.  So it's surprising to me that he hasn't done a real solo project in nearly 20 years. I saw the Winos twice (once on each tour) and they kicked ass.

So who knows what this means for The Rolling Stones. They can't wait too much longer to do another album and tour, can they?

Anyway: I know that conventional wisdom says that Keith's solo career is better than Mick's, but I'm planning (planning!) on writing about both men's careers outside of the Stones this week.  Feel free to weigh in, right here in the comments section.

ROLLLING STONE'S 500 GREATEST SONGS

A couple of years ago, in the pre-No Expiration era, Rolling Stone magazine put out a special issue with the "500 Greatest Songs of All Time." For some reason, they've just updated it slightly in a special collector's issue. And for some reason, you can't see the list on RS's confusingly redesigned website, but you can see it here.

I decided to use this as a launching pad for a great iPod mix, since I'm often finding myself to be ok with Rolling Stone's choices (minus their prejudice towards Jann Wenner's friends, and prejudice against progressive rock and metal). 

So, the first thirty songs… I couldn’t touch and left them intact on my mix. Some of them aren’t songs that I need to hear many more times, but I would feel downright sacrilegious replacing any of them. But I didn't mind ditching some sacred cows of classic rock radio.
I started making my own revisions at #31, where I replaced Led Zeppelin’s “Stairway To Heaven” with “The Rain Song.” I’m so tired of “Stairway.” I don’t know if “Rain Song” is really my favorite Zeppelin song – there are way too many awesome songs to choose one. But I love the line, “Upon us all, a little rain must fall.” That has always stuck with me.

I love The Rolling Stones but I am way more into some of thier album tracks, as opposed to the hits (that said, I left a lot of the hits alone): At #101, I replaced The Rolling Stones’ “You Can’t Always Get What You Want” with the live, super badass version of “Midnight Rambler.” The former probably has a better message, as the latter is about a murderer, but I can’t help it, I never loved “You Can’t…” I replaced “Honkey Tonk Women” with “Stray Cat Blues.” “Wild Horses” was replaced “Can’t You Hear Me Knocking” from the same album, 1971’s Sticky Fingers. And I replaced The Rolling Stones’ “Brown Sugar” with “All Down The Line.”

At #193, I replaced Lynyrd Skynyrd’s “Free Bird” with “Saturday Night Special." And at #407, I replaced “Sweet Home Alabama” with “The Ballad Of Curtis Loew.” So my Skynyrd songs are anti-gun and one honoring an African American blues musican. Yeah, I'm from a blue state.  But I love Skynyrd.

I’ve often argued that Elton John is more a slave to his greatest hits than any other major artist – he has so many amazing songs that most people aren’t even familiar with. So, I replaced #137 “Your Song” (a great song) with “I Need You To Turn To,” off of the same album, his self titled second album from 1970. Also, I replaced Elton John’s “Rocket Man,” a song about loneliness, veiled in a song about space travel, with “I Want Love” from 2001’s Songs From The West Coast, a much more honest and mature song.

Rod Stewart’s “Maggie Mae” (#131) is a great song about cougars, but another one that’s been driven into the ground. It was the b-side to “Reason To Believe” (written by Tim Hardin), and Rod has said that if the radio DJ hadn’t flipped the single, he’d have ended up going back to digging graves. That’s probably not true, but maybe he would be reuniting with The Faces this year! So, I’m replacing “Maggie Mae” with “Reason To Believe.”

I know that Ray Charles' Modern Sounds In Country and Western was groundbreaking. And I love Ray singing country. But the album is way too overproduced with strings and corny backing vocals. I know that was the way Ray wanted it. But I don’t want to hear “I Can’t Stop Loving You,” so I replaced it with “Come Rain Or Come Shine.” (I did leave "Georgia On My Mind" alone.)

I got really crazy when I replaced Van Morrison’s “Brown Eyed Girl” with his “Precious Time” from 1999. Sorry everyone! I’m just so tired of that song , and I don’t feel bad saying it, because I think Van is too. “Precious Time” speaks to me more. Also, I replaced Van Morrison’s “Moondance” with “And It Stoned Me.”

People will want to clobber me for replacing Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody” with “The Show Must Go On.” “Rhapsody” is a great creation, and of course I love the scene from Wayne’s World. But I just don’t need to hear it anymore. I’m not a Queen fanatic, but “The Show Must Go On” hits me hard every time. I imagine Freddie Mercury knew he didn’t have much time left when he was writing this, and it certainly comes off that way when he’s singing it. I was going to replace Queen’s “We Will Rock You” with The Roots’ “Rock You,” but instead I used “The Seed (2.0) from the same album. Sorry, I like The Roots more than Queen.

I replaced The Strokes’ “Last Nite,” with the song they stole the riff from, Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers’ “American Girl.”  And Pavement’s song was replaced by Rush’s “The Spirit Of The Radio.” It’s only right. (I do rip on Pavement a lot, but they have like five good songs.  I can't remember any Strokes songs though).

More replacements:

• Donna Summer’s “Hot Stuff” with “Love To Love You Baby,” it’s plain sexier.
• “Losing My Religion” from Out Of Time with “Try Not To Breathe” from my favorite R.E.M. album, Automatic For The People.
• Joni Mitchell’s “Both Sides Now” which I could never stand with “A Case Of You.”
• Aerosmith’s “Dream On” with “Make It” from the same album, their 1973 self-titled debut. Aerosmith are almost as bound to their greatest hits as Elton.
• Bob Dylan’s “Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door” with “Beyond Here Lies Nothing,” although I like the sentiment of the former better, the latter is a better song.
• Beck’s “Loser” with the funkier “Beercan” from the same album, Mellow Gold.
• Bill Withers’ “Lean On Me” has a nicer message than “Use Me,” but I switched it anyway. Sue me!
• I replaced the studio version of James Taylor’s “Fire and Rain” with a live version recorded at The Concert For New York City, which took place a few weeks after 9/11.
• The Spencer Davis Group’s “Gimme Some Lovin’” with “I’m A Man.”
• Bobby Darin’s “Mack The Knife” with Louis Armstrong’s version. That may pre-date the rock and roll era, but it’s my mix.
• I don’t have The Dixie Cups’ “Chapel Of Love,” so I replaced it with The Dixie Chicks’ “Goodbye Earl.”
• I replaced Stevie Wonder’s “You Are The Sunshine Of My Life” with “As,” which he told me was the best lyric he’s ever written.
• I replaced Neil Young’s “Heart of Gold” with “Harvest.”
• I replaced Daft Punk’s “One More Time” (which I do like) with The Chemical Brothers’ more rocking “Block Rockin’ Beats.”
• The Rascals’ “Good Lovin’” with “People Got To Be Free.”
• Earth Wind & Fire’s “That’s The Way Of The World” with “September.”
• Norman Greenbaum’s “Spirit In The Sky” with a newer version by The Blind Boys Of Alabama.
• I never was that into Roberta Flack’s “Killing Me Softly With His Song,” so I was going to go with The Fugees’ version, but I decided on Lauryn Hill’s “Doo Wop (That Thing)” instead.
• I replaced The Allman Brothers Band’s live “Whipping Post” (clocking in at over 20 minutes) with “Statesboro Blues” from the same album, At Fillmore East. Even though Gregg Allman wrote “Whipping Post” and “Statesboro Blues” is a Blind Willie McTell number. But my wife will be using this mix too, and a twenty something minute blues jam ain't gonna fly. 
• I replaced The Bees Gees’ “How Deep Is Your Love?” with “To Love Somebody” because I like it better.
• Only one Metallica song, and it’s “Enter Sandman” ? At #408? I replaced it with “For Whom The Bell Tolls,” the first Metallica song I ever heard on “Metal Shop.”
• I just can’t stand The Carpenters, sorry. I replaced their song with Aimee Mann’s “Save Me” from the 1999 film Magnolia.
• I replaced Nirvana’s “In Bloom” with “School” from Bleach.
• I replaced Notorious B.I.G.’s “Juicy” with “Mo’ Money Mo’ Problems.”
• I replaced Crosby Stills & Nash’s “Suite: Judy Blue Eyes,” which I never really liked, with Crosby Stills Nash & Young’s “Carry On.” (both songs were written by Stephen Stills.)
• I replaced Billy Joel’s “Piano Man” with the live version of “Captain Jack.”
• #431 was The Smiths’ “William, It Was Really Nothing,” which I like, but I replaced it by moving up “How Soon Is Now?” from #477, and then replaced that with “Panic.”
• I replaced Deep Purple’s “Smoke On The Water” with “Highway Star.”
• I replaced Gladys Knight & The Pips’ “Midnight Train To Georgia” with “I Heard It Through The Grapevine.”
• I replaced Elvis Presley’s “Love Me Tender” with “Blue Moon Of Kentucky”
• I replaced Guns N Roses’ “Paradise City” with “It’s So Easy.”
• I replaced George Harrison’s “My Sweet Lord” with one of my favorite songs ever, “All Things Must Pass.”
• I used the remix of Missy Elliott’s “Get Ur Freak On,” the one with Nelly Furtado.
• I replaced Jay-Z and UGK’s “Big Pimpin’” with Jay-Z, Kanye West, T.I. and Lil’ Wayne’s “Swagga Like Us.”
• I replaced Foreigner’s “I Want To Know What Love Is” with Yes’ “Starship Trooper.” (sorry honey)
• Yeah, I love “I Love Rock N Roll” (#491) too, but I replaced that with Joan Jett & The Blackhearts’ version of “Crimson and Clover.”
• I replaced MGMT’s “Time To Pretend” (#493) with “Kids.”
• At #496, I replaced Jackson Browne’s “Running On Empty” with Warren Zevon’s “Poor, Poor Pitiful Me,” which he wrote about Jackson, and which Jackson later covered.
•  Finally, at #499, I replaced Weezer’s “Buddy Holly” with “In My Garage.”

There were also a bunch of songs I had to flat out ditch. 

• I had to flat out ditch #49, The Eagles’ “Hotel California.” Like “Stairway To Heaven,” it’s another classic rock sacred cow. I like other Eagles songs better, but I don’t think any Eagles songs belong in the top 50, sorry. “Stairway” and “Hotel” were the only things I changed from the top 100.
• Steppenwolf’s “Born To Be Wild”
• ABBA’s “Dancing Queen”
• Glen Campbell’s “Wichita Lineman”
• I don’t mind The Lovin’ Spoonful, but I got rid of both of their songs, “Do You Believe In Magic” (#218) and “Summer In The City” (#401). I know they're in The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, but they don't make my top 500, or my top 600.
• I can’t stand The Jefferson Airplane at all, so I dropped their songs “Somebody To Love” (#279) and “White Rabbit” (#483).
• 50 Cent’s “In Da Club.” (But don’t tell him.)
• Sonny & Cher’s “I Got You Babe.”
• Chubby Checker’s “The Twist.”
• R. Kelly’s “Ignition (remix),” I always thought the dude was corny before we all found out how creepy he is.

I added a bunch of songs as well, those are for the next post.

TWO LIVE YARDBIRDS: JEFF BECK AND ERIC CLAPTON

Pretty cool of Rolling Stone to put two guitar legends on thier cover: for the first time, tourmates and fellow ex-Yardbirds Jeff Beck and Eric Clapton sit down for an interview together. I look forward to reading this.  I would love to see their show together, but I am sure it costs a ton of money.  Still, I bet Jeff Beck could coax some great performances out of Clapton (as Steve Winwood did when they toured together last year).

ROLLING STONE'S 100 GUITAR SONGS

OK, so I'm catching up on writing about some stuff I'd been meaning to get to. I really enjoyed the recent Rolling Stone issue with the 100 Greatest Guitar Songs. Of course, no list will ever please everyone, but I personally enjoy reading these types of things anyway. I have to admit some surprise that it was so classic rock heavy, and also heavy on some really overplayed songs like "Purple Haze" and "You Really Got Me." But I guess those songs get overplayed for a reason. I made an iPod mix with most of the songs, and it sounded great (mainly because I've completely ignored classic rock radio for many years).

I also love when Rolling Stone does interviews with a historical bent, so that it's not just about the artist plugging their album/tour/etc. There were some great moments in the interviews. My favorite quote was by B.B. King, talking about the first time he saw an electric guitar. It was in his church: "It was heaven! Heaven! It was unusual to even have electric light in the area, and there he was plugging in an electric guitar." Well, that puts stuff in perspective a bit.

I've had the pleasure of interviewing Carlos Santana a few times, he always says interesting stuff and has a cool take on the world. His interview didn't disappoint. On his early influences: "I had my ear on Chuck Berry, Little Richard and Bo Diddley, on B.B. King and T-Bone Walker. There was nothing plastic about those guys. They went deep, and each note carried something important." How many artists can you say that about now? And then on the blues: "I still love the blues. You need to marinate yourself in that music daily. It's like putting syrup on pancakes. If you don't have any syrup, the pancakes are not that cool. If there's no blues in it, I won't listen."

John Mayer is also a really interesting interview, and he didn't disappoint here. He is hyper-self-aware: he discusses the importance of guitar to him: "For me, it's my floatation device, becuase now I exist in this celebrity sort of world. But I don't feel like anybody's been able to truly knock me off my legs, because I have a trade. You can't just walk onstage and start playing guitar 'cause you thought it looked neat."

There's lots of other great stuff in the issue, but the cover alone - a picture of B.B., Jimmy Page, Eddie Van Halen, Omar Rodriguez-Lopez of The Mars Volta, Carlos, Kirk Hammett, Mayer and Buddy Guy - is worth the cover price.

BOOK REPORT: "BUT ENOUGH ABOUT ME"

The most ludicrious job I've ever had was writing for Jancee Dunn.

I've long been a music magazine junkie: to this day, I read Rolling Stone pretty much cover to cover, as well as a number of other music magazines (notably the UK publications Mojo and Uncut) and even some non-music (!) mags as well.

I never really got so involved with the magazines themselves; in other words, I didn't really know the names of the writers, with a few exceptions. One was Anthony DeCurtis - who I was lucky enough to interview a few times (pretty much I came up with excuses to pick his brain and call it an "interview"). I also liked David Fricke. The other one was Jancee Dunn. I didn't know a thing about her, but her writing seemed to have a wide-eyed "wow" to it that I could identify with. She was really smart and a good interviewer who I felt was not really jaded, but also didn't do puff pieces.

When I was hired as a writer for MTV2, which at the time just played videos, my job was to write scripts for the VJs: a radio DJ named Chris Booker and Jancee Dunn. I'm writing for Rolling Stone writer Jancee Dunn? I figured: better start looking for the next job now. One guy talks about music on the radio, and she is an amazing writer. Should I write a script with some idle chatter for Kevin Smith too?

Anyway, Jancee was gracious when I met her at work, and was also gracious about ever reading anything I wrote. I'm sure she could have improvised every single time (which she did sometimes).

She always struck me as a very "together" person, unaffected by her "star" status as a VJ/writer. While I read the book, I was surprised to learn that she "stressed out" before interviews. I didn't know that her suburban roots were similar to mine, and she went through a similar crash course when she first got to NYC (in her case, her perm and makeup weren't working. In my case, I knew anything mullet-like had to go). Her book gives great insight into doing interviews with superstars (a situation very few people will find themselves in) but is also a moving story of her interesting path her life has taken.

In her book, she mentions being a fan of Kim Deal of The Breeders and The Pixies, who always seems to be having a great time on stage. I remember watching Jancee on MTV2 and thinking the same about her, and she even conveys that "good time" in her writing, but she has poignant moments too - whether it was when she was writing about Melissa Etheridge's children in Rolling Stone or about her sisters in her own book. If she can combine that sense of fun with that sense of sweetness, who knows, maybe the beaches this summer will have lots of Dunn books being passed around. Her debut novel, Don't You Forget About Me, is due in stores on July 29.

GENESIS: "THE BIGGEST TOUR YOU HAVEN'T HEARD MUCH ABOUT"?

RollingStone.com used that as a headline the other day. It was interesting: the dude acted suprised that anyone cared about the Genesis reunion tour. Of course, Genesis have always been one of the bands that critics hate, but they're also critic-proof.

Genesis has, like, four audience cliques. The prog-rockers who also like Yes and King Crimson. Of course, a lot of these guys hate everything the band has done since Peter Gabriel left the band. Those who stuck around dig songs like "Home By The Sea" and "Domino." Then you have the classic rock fans, who love the radio hits like "Turn It On Again" and "Abacab." Then, there's the adult contemporary folks, who also love Phil Collins' solo stuff, they're into "In Too Deep" and "Hold On My Heart." And, finally, the '80s kids, who got turned on to them via big video hits like "Land Of Confusion" and "That's All."

I don't love all of their stuff, but I do enjoy some of their music from all of the above categories. I'm fortunate in that I liked them before I knew it wasn't cool to. I mean, yeah, they weren't threatening in any way, but I felt they were creative, and they sort of grew up in a logical way - I know, not cool, but I respected (and still respect) them. That said, they're really asking a lot of their fans this year: they've released two box sets that cost over $100 each, and tickets for the shows are pretty steep. Still, I'm going to somehow get to the Giants Stadium show.