From: owner-jinglejangle-digest@smoe.org (jinglejangle-digest) To: jinglejangle-digest@smoe.org Subject: jinglejangle-digest V4 #60 Reply-To: jinglejangle@smoe.org Sender: owner-jinglejangle-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-jinglejangle-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk jinglejangle-digest Wednesday, April 18 2001 Volume 04 : Number 060 Today's Subjects: ----------------- [MLL] live city sounds ["Carsten Wohlfeld" ] Re: [MLL] Richard Thompson [Lee Kilpatrick ] Re: [MLL] Richard Thompson [Lee Kilpatrick ] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 17 Apr 2001 11:13:33 +0200 From: "Carsten Wohlfeld" Subject: [MLL] live city sounds hey kids, several people have emailed me asking what i think of the new album and although i don't think i'm any more qualified than anybody else on the list, here's a few remarks, especially since surprisingly few people have commented on the record yet. let's start with the cover: you'll be either disappointed or you'll love it. i think it's great, the way that it looks like a bootleg only that it's done too well. i mean, you get everything that you'd expect from a bootleg sleeve: the laser copied inlays, the lack of a label, some old, but very nice "recycled" photos (all of which are from the "got no shadow" period), abbreviated song titles and even a misspelled credit (although i'm not sure that this was part of the concept). great stuff. as dino had pointed out in his review already, the sound quality is with one word, excellent. almost too good for being a "bootleg" and recorded in the streets. so if mary lou's a&r career plans fail, maybe she should get into engineering? :-) in a funny sort of way does the good sound enhances some of the minor imperfections that mary lou doesn't seem to like about her performances, so it's maybe even a bit ironic that they finally show through on her first self-produced/recorded record. Don't get me wrong, i'm not saying that's bad, because most things in life are first take and art/music should be the same way. as for the choice of songs - you'll have noted that the song selection is somewhere between "i'm so happy she finally put out a version of this" and "conservative", with only one song not regularly featured in her "club show set". but at least we get some amazing versions of "not half right" (with an added line, if i remember correctly), "she's still bewitching me" and especially "thunder road" and "ricochet in time". it's probably unfair to compare a subway recording to renditions from a regular venue (which is all i could do here), so i won't get into that. oh yeah, and i beg to differ with dino's view on "his lamest flame". i think ml's elvis impersonation is quite cute and because she usually doesn't do that, the song quite rightly deserves a spot on "live". a shame that the hummed guitar solo is missing, though! the only thing that puzzles me is the running order. i'm probably a bit too sensitive after listening to bob dylan and being involved "In the setlist business" (bob fans can act a bit crazy when it comes to that) for years, but i strongly believe that there are certain patterns in every artist's sets, regardless how different the actual song selection might be every night. so despite "lcs" being a compilation and a street recording i would've loved if it had reflected ml's "club show" sets more. but hey, that's probably just me and it's not really that important either. so in the end "lcs" is what you expected / hoped for: a small scale major achievement. makes me wonder though: does that fact that she collected all the regulars from her live set of recent years mean that she will make way for new songs (originals and covers) at her shows now, or can we expect a three year world tour with the same songs to promote the release? ;-) well done, mary lou. can't wait to hear the next studio album, though (ungrateful little bastard that i am...) smiles, carsten - -- http://carstenwohlfeld.de "i have learned that to be with those i like is enough" (walt whitman) ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 18 Apr 2001 00:21:00 -0400 From: Lee Kilpatrick Subject: Re: [MLL] Richard Thompson >> > Would that there was a recorded version of "Galway to >> > Graceland" around... > >I meant a recorded STUDIO version. (And Watching the Dark isn't a live >set, it just has a lot of live material on it). You want a studio version? What's wrong with the live versions? I would expect that a live version is probably better than any studio versions recorded around the time of the writing of the song. Or were you looking for a version with guitar, bass & drums as opposed to the more usual solo acoustic? Besides "Watching the Dark", another different legitimate release is on the limited-distribution live release "Two Letter Words". Information about obtaining that is at http://www.amug.org/~deeg1225/rtbcds.html I don't recall having heard of any circulating studio versions of the song, but if you really want one, I can ask around. Lee ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 18 Apr 2001 00:26:04 -0400 From: Lee Kilpatrick Subject: Re: [MLL] Richard Thompson >On 16 Apr 01, at 4:20, michael wrote: > >> least. I did notice that the two most popular songs in his repertoire, >> at least according to the liner notes, were the two that MLL has >> picked up on. Would that there was a recorded version of "Galway to >> Graceland" around... > >well, with no disrespect to richard thompson and the great song >that "galway" without a doubt is - i assume that it partly achieved >its legendary status because thompson chose not to release it for >so many years. i suppose it's a bit like bob dylan's "blind willie >mctell", another amazing song, but i doubt that people would call it >dylan's greatest achievement if i had come out properly in 1983 and >he would have performed it at shows as well. Is the song "legendary"? I wasn't really aware that it was. In fact, I hardly think it is one of his best songs. The tune is quite good, but the lyrics are not the best, in my opinion. I kind of think that the "twist" at the end is a bit too pat, and something we've seen before -- "Oh, and guess what, she's *crazy*." If it's supposed to be a climax, then it isn't much of one. I think that "Blind Willie McTell" is a much better Dylan song than "Galway" is a Thompson song. Lee P.S. Check out Dylan's Infidels, the album that "Blind Willie McTell" was left off of. It's quite a good one, I think. ------------------------------ End of jinglejangle-digest V4 #60 *********************************