From: owner-fegmaniax-digest@smoe.org (fegmaniax-digest) To: fegmaniax-digest@smoe.org Subject: fegmaniax-digest V18 #18 Reply-To: fegmaniax@smoe.org Sender: owner-fegmaniax-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-fegmaniax-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk fegmaniax-digest Thursday, January 28 2010 Volume 18 : Number 018 Today's Subjects: ----------------- Chicago Fegs: March Schow At Schuba's Who'sch In [] Re: reap [kevin studyvin ] Re: truth or dare... [Michael Sweeney ] UK musicians pay tribute to songs of Nick Drake [HwyCDRrev@aol.com] Nick Drake tribute article with ROBYN quotes - (Warning- RH content) [Hwy] reap [lep ] REAP [Tom Clark ] Re: reap [kevin studyvin ] Reap [FS Thomas ] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 27 Jan 2010 15:50:35 -0500 From: Subject: Chicago Fegs: March Schow At Schuba's Who'sch In With all the iPad excitement, I'm pretty sure that a Robyn schow (OK, I'm done) is more or less the ticket. Who's going? http://schubas.com/Page/Shows?Month=March&Year=2010, scroll down to the 5th. Also, anyone interested in two tickets to Lloyd Cole's show on Friday night at the Old Town School of Folk Music? Can't attend, unfortunately. Reply off list to doc6502@yahoo.com. Current favorite band name: We Were Promised Jetpacks - -Doc This message is for the designated recipient only and may contain privileged, proprietary, or otherwise private information. If you have received it in error, please notify the sender immediately and delete the original. Any other use of the email by you is prohibited. ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 27 Jan 2010 21:41:18 -0500 (EST) From: Christopher Gross Subject: reap Historian Howard Zinn, 87. ______________________________________________________________________ Christopher Gross On the Internet, nobody knows I'm a dog. chrisg@gwu.edu ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 27 Jan 2010 19:27:59 -0800 From: kevin studyvin Subject: Re: reap On Wed, Jan 27, 2010 at 6:41 PM, Christopher Gross wrote: > Historian Howard Zinn, 87. > > > > ______________________________________________________________________ > Christopher Gross On the Internet, nobody knows I'm a dog. > chrisg@gwu.edu > Well, that's a shame. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 28 Jan 2010 08:53:13 +0000 From: Michael Sweeney Subject: Re: truth or dare... ...Grumpy-lately me was gonna just pass on this, but...you all have been so interesting and engaging on this (0% Whedon) topic, so... > >1) a book you haven't read Any Nabokov > >2) a record you haven't listened to Astral Weeks, Forever Cganges (except "Alone Again Or"), any Pixies (but heard plenty of individual tracks and am THISCLOSE to wanting to get "Surfer Rosa"), any Sonic Youth > >3) a movie you haven't seen Any Bergman, Ozu, or Kurosawa films... ...Also - any Whedon TV show...not even a random moment, I think... Michael "Sigh - the name-splitting jokes have grown old (and so - sadly - have I)" Sweeney PS - of the previous mentions, Joni's "Blue" and "Hejira" AND "Apocalypse Now" (esp. the "Redux" ver.) are among my all-time faves in their categories; and screw "Imagine" (as fine as it is) - "John Lennon Plastic Ono Band" is undeniable, perfect heaven... _________________________________________________________________ Your E-mail and More On-the-Go. Get Windows Live Hotmail Free. http://clk.atdmt.com/GBL/go/196390709/direct/01/ ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 28 Jan 2010 11:50:17 EST From: HwyCDRrev@aol.com Subject: UK musicians pay tribute to songs of Nick Drake UK musicians pay tribute to songs of Nick Drake Andrew Dobbie LONDON Wed Jan 27, 2010 9:45am EST Related News Tue, Jan 26 2010 LONDON (Reuters) - Nick Drake is an unlikely romantic hero. In the 1970s he was a minor English singer and songwriter who peddled a lyrical brand of introspection that earned him a small but devoted following and few record sales. Music | Lifestyle Dogged by depression and embittered by his lack of success, he died of an overdose in 1974, virtually unknown and unnoticed. He was 26 years old and left a meager legacy: a disastrous career as a performer (he once left the stage half-way through a song never to return) and a handful of recordings of his sparsely beautiful songs. Over the ensuing decades, the enduring potency of these has ensured Drake's reputation as one of Britain's great musical talents. After his unsung career and low-key death, his name continued to be mentioned in the music press, then gradually established artists such as R.E.M. and Paul Weller started crediting Drake as an influence. Covers of his songs by other singers, such as Lucinda Williams ("Which Will") and Norah Jones ("Day Is Done"), followed. After Volkswagen used the title track from his final album "Pink Moon" in a TV advertising campaign in 1999, posthumous stardom was sealed and the album achieved platinum status. American Joe Boyd, at the time a prolific London-based producer and talent-spotter, produced Drake's three albums and has curated a series of concerts in Britain as a tribute to his erstwhile protigi. Entitled " Way to Blue: The Songs of Nick Drake," a title taken from a song on the singer's debut album "Five Leaves Left" released in late 1969, the tour is dedicated to Drake's friend and arranger Robert Kirby, who died last October. STELLAR CAST On the London leg of the tour, its stellar cast of musicians and singers performed to a sold-out audience at the Barbican Center at the weekend. They included acoustic bassist Danny Thompson, a veteran of the folk and jazz scene who played on Drake's studio recordings, Green Gartside, lead singer of British post-punk darlings Scritti Politti, Teddy Thompson, son of Richard and Linda, Robyn Hitchcock, Scott Matthews, Gibraltarian singer Kirsty Almeida and Vashti Bunyan, who herself fled the music business with a severe case of stage fright after releasing just one album in 1971. Overlooked by a gigantic arboreal backdrop from the cover of Drake's posthumous compilation "Fruit Tree," the singers took turns to present Drake's songs in their original arrangements as well as stunning new settings, supported by a sympathetic five-piece band and string section. Teddy Thompson, Gartside and Irish singer Lisa Hannigan tackled "Way to Blue" with the original atmospheric Kirby string arrangement and American Krystle Warren gave us a new interpretation of "Time has Told Me," using the full range of her soulful contralto to turn it from a jaunty waltz into a belting ballad. The revelation of the evening was Hannigan's stunning solo rendition of "Black Eyed Dog," Drake's song about depression which existed in its original form only as a stripped-down demo from his final recording session. This was no exercise in self-pity. Belying her waif-like appearance and beating the stage with her foot, she howled the anger and frustration that lies below the surface of the song's simple lyrics, to her own accompaniment on the harmonium. A final "tutti" on the encore "Voice From a Mountain" wrapped up the evening with a fine illustration of the power of Drake's sensitive and observational songwriting. In a spoken tribute to Drake, and to his friend and arranger Kirby, Boyd recalled the painfully shy and, at times difficult, young man whose music had floored him when he first heard it. In his program notes, he referred to his sadness that success eluded Drake in his lifetime, adding: "As great as Nick's own recordings are, his songs are rich raw material for great singers." http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE60Q2B420100127 Bob Dylan Examiner Column http://www.examiner.com/x-21829-Bob-Dylan-Examiner ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 28 Jan 2010 12:48:14 EST From: HwyCDRrev@aol.com Subject: Nick Drake tribute article with ROBYN quotes - (Warning- RH content) http://www.bigissuescotland.com/features/view/213 Nick Drake: the legacy 27/01/2010 How a tribute tour by folk supremo Joe Boyd is further enhancing tragic icon's status By Alex Donohue The legend of English folk singer Nick Drake extends to radio documentaries narrated by Brad Pitt, wave after wave of indie flicks and adverts plugging everything from cars to cough syrup which all feature his songs, and an army of celebrity fans that include REM, Radiohead, Paul Weller and Jimmy Page. Drakebs post-death acclaim is even fuelled by technology. Typing Nick Drake into Google returns 2.92 million hits; more than fellow dead musicians Ian Curtis (I.5m), Jeff Buckley (2.63m) and Eva Cassidy (1.63m). Nowadays, it seems everyone wants a piece of him. But it wasnbt always like this. Criminally ignored in his lifetime, he died in November 1974, aged 26, of a drug overdose after a long battle with depression. The desolate beauty of his three-album career was the overlooked epitaph of a man who died utterly broken inside. Nick Drake fever has grown again this year with the touring concert Way To Blue making selected appearances including Celtic Connections festival in Glasgow, Londonbs Barbican, and Warwick Arts Centre. The line up b organised by legendary American producer, and Nick Drakebs manager, Joe Boyd b will feature artists who worked with Drake or who have been influenced by him. Stars slated to appear included Danny Thompson, Robyn Hitchcock, Teddy Thompson, Belle & Sebastianbs Stuart Murdoch, Lisa Hannigan and b70s singer-songwriter Vashti Bunyan (whose own career has enjoyed a recent revival). Joe Boyd, whobs done more than anybody to posthumously promote Drakebs work, admits bitbs become nigh on impossible to separate the man from the musicb . If you know Nick Drakebs music and you know how he died, itbs easy to build a picture of a hopelessly depressive man incapable of finding happiness. But the people who knew Drake tell a different story. bAs advertised, he was quiet,b says Boyd. bBut he was very smart, funny and determined. I had the pleasure of working with him and he revelled in the experience of recording his first album [Five Leaves Left, 1969]. I was very fond of him.b Similarly, Danny Thompson, Pentangle co-founder and bassist on Drakebs debut album, remembers a diffident but engaging personality who enjoyed other peoplebs company. bHe loved playing cards and staying up all hours. He knew all kinds of people,b says Thompson. bYes, he was shy, but I think he used to like that. I think he saw it as naughty.b Throughout Drakebs brief music career, his songs revealed a side to him he rarely showed in person. According to Robyn Hitchcock, Nick Drake bwas like an inverse John Lennonb . He goes on: bInstead of leaping to grab life by the throat, he shied away from the limelight.b Hitchcock says attempting to understand Drakebs character through his songs is like btrying to imagine an apple from a treeb. bOne came from the other, but it doesnbt follow they must resemble each other,b says Hitchcock. bThe songs are a distillation of his personality, but itbs more complex than that.b One reason why so much time is spent analysing Drakebs psyche through his songs is because of the sheer lack of documented word from the singer. Only one interview is known to have taken place, a tortuous affair conducted by Sounds journalist Jerry Gilbert in March 1971. No other interviews with Drake have ever surfaced and for decades nothing was written about him. He remained a footnote of British folk music until concerted efforts were made to document his life. Previously, there was only the music. bThe songs do give an indication as to what he was thinking,b offers Thompson. bbMan In A Shedb [from Five Leaves Left] is obviously about a relationship he had. Hebs asking the girl to come into his dilapidated shed to b stop the world raining on my headb. Maybe music was his shed, his shelter from the world.b Boyd agrees that Drakebs fatalistic world-view foretold he was doomed to be the forgotten man of his generation. bThe mystery is he could write a song like bFruit Treeb when he was full of optimism. Itbs all very well looking at one of his final songs, bBlack Eyed Dogb, and think it was written by a man waiting for death, but bFruit Treeb was written in the bloom of youth.b Composed when he was still a teenager, the lyrics to bFruit Treeb are among Drakebs most prophetic: b Safe in your place deep in the earth/Thatbs when theybll know what you were really worth.b bItbs prescient how you can interpret that song as a roadmap of how Nickb s life turned out,b explains Boyd. bFor me, bFruit Treeb is the central mystery. Logically, it shouldbve been written by someone late in life.b In February 1972 Drake released his valedictory masterpiece Pink Moon to little fanfare. Hebd long since given up any attempt to promote his work, and the combined effects of anti-depressants and vast quantities of marijuana made him withdraw further into himself. bDope was always a factor with Nick,b Hitchcock says. bIt made it harder for him to bridge the gap between him and the world outside.b As Drakebs condition deteriorated, nearly all traces of the optimistic young man who wrote Five Leaves Left disappeared. He quit London in the summer of 1974 to return to his parentbs house in Tanworth-in-Arden in Warwickshire where he would sit out his remaining months. Boyd, who had taken a job in California a few years previously, returned to England in July 1974 to find Drake in a forlorn state. bThere was a huge difference in him,b he remembers. bIt was shocking to see and he looked terrible. By then I thought the only therapy I could offer was recording his songs.b Of the final four songs Drake wrote before his death, bHanging On A Starb was the most accusatory about his career decline. bThe song asks, bWhy do you leave me here when you deem me so high?b,b recalls Boyd. bI think it is directed at me, he wanted to know, bWherebs my life? Wherebs my money and success?b The song is directed at me and everybody else who told him he was destined for success.b bFor me, he wasnbt enigmatic,b remembers Thompson. bIt was very clear what he was like. He was clinically depressed; there was no mystery about it. We did try to help but it was obvious it was going to be no good. bI told his sister once [actress Gabrielle Drake], I tried really hard to get through to him. She said b imagine what it was like for her family. It was just one of those situations that felt hopeless. I wasnbt surprised when I heard the dreadful news.b In the early hours of Sunday, November 25, 1974, Nick Drake went downstairs to the kitchen of his parentsb house to eat some cornflakes. Unable to sleep, he took some of the orange Tryptizol tablets used to treat his depression. Then he took some more. And then he took too many. When Drakebs mother, Molly, went into his room at midday to wake him, she found him lying prostrate and semi-naked across his bed. The life of Nicholas Rodney Drake was over. A sealed envelope addressed to one of Drakebs close female friends lay nearby, but there was no note to confirm if he intended to take his life. bPeople perceive what he was like and what he meant to do that night,b says Thompson. bBut nobody will ever know, so all we can do is celebrate the things we are left with. We could talk forever about why he died the way he did.b The final words go to Boyd: bA lot of things are easier to see in hindsight. Perhaps the wrong decisions were made by those close to him and he had every right to feel let down. But the people who know his songs know what a wonderfully gifted man he was. Itbs only right hebs posthumously acknowledged for his music. I hope these concerts will go some way to restoring his name.b Bob Dylan Examiner Column http://www.examiner.com/x-21829-Bob-Dylan-Examiner ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 28 Jan 2010 13:43:49 -0500 From: lep Subject: reap J.D. Salinger, 91: http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/01/28/jd-salinger-91-is-dead/ xo - -- "people with opinions just go around bothering one another." -- the buddha ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 28 Jan 2010 10:16:32 -0800 From: Tom Clark Subject: REAP JD Salinger, 91 ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 28 Jan 2010 11:39:49 -0800 From: kevin studyvin Subject: Re: reap On Thu, Jan 28, 2010 at 10:43 AM, lep wrote: > J.D. Salinger, 91: > > http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/01/28/jd-salinger-91-is-dead/ > > xo > Probably just another publicity stunt. The guy never gives up. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 28 Jan 2010 18:03:52 -0500 From: FS Thomas Subject: Reap JD Salinger. ------------------------------ End of fegmaniax-digest V18 #18 *******************************