Comparison shopping using an epic song about uncertainty and risk. Two from Fairport convention in 1968-69 employing different lead vocalists and arrangements. The first features Sandy Denny and Iain Matthews. The second Judy Dyble, their first lead vocalist and Matthews. Then the original from the author of the tune: “thickets tall, til the morning comes up like a dream.”
the late Richard Manuel of the Band
Mr. Manuel, with the falsetto that reached out to things that wanted to be left alone!
“you say i miss the old ways
but not like that
dog whistling fool of a king
don’t you know that old dixieland
is more than dirt roads and simple ways
tear it down
tear it down that
ragged cross of race
i don’t guess that we deserve all this
the beauty and the light
the way the firefly returns in june
as dusk sings her lullaby
all the lives that fertilized
and the manifested hand
the human bondage that provides
the bounty of this land
tear it down ah
tear it down that
ragged cross of race
the stone and the ore
beaten into monuments that
rose out of hate
i was that lonely kid in old cinemas
watching gone with the wind
tradition runs the core of me
the song of the south
whistling dixie again
oh that tune lived and breathed in me
and it wants to live again
we must fight with all our might
to kill that racist hymn
and tear it down ah
tear it down that
ragged cross of race
the stone and the ore
beaten into monuments that
rose out of hate
the epitaph i long to read is
here lies slavery”
“You Don’t Wash Your Thunder”
the exceptionalist Ivor Cutler
Music Literature recommendation from the well traveled author Peter Guralnick
“How often can one say that they saw the three most outstanding musicians on their instruments in the world performing together? Yo Yo Ma, Emanuel Ax and Itzak Perlman might be a possibility in the classical world. In rock one would be hard pressed to agree on the best on their instruments and rarely, if ever did any of them work with one another. Some would claim the best guitarist to be Jimmy Page, others Jimi Hendrix, maybe Eric Clapton and for others it could be Eddie van Halen, Slash or even David Gilmour. Drummers that might make the list are Ginger Baker, Neil Pert, Keith Moon, John Bonham and many others. Lists could just as easily be made for vocalists, keyboardists, bassists, etc. In Jazz some would argue that there were times when this happened. Jazz at Massey Hall (1953) which featured Charlie Parker – alto sax, Dizzy Gillespie - trumpet, Bud Powell- piano, Charles Mingus - bass and Max Roach drums were surely the leading if not the top musicians playing modern jazz at that time. I might argue that the short lived Tony Williams Lifetime featuring Tony on drums, John McLaughlin on electric guitar and Larry Young on organ might qualify in rock/fusion jazz – and they added solid bass player Jack Bruce for their second LP. But super groups are rare (Million Dollar Quartet, Cream, Led Zepellin, Blind Faith, The Highwaymen, Traveling Wilburys, The Three Tenors, The Silkroad Ensemble) and generally short lived.
But none of these groups of musicians played together for as long and as often as these three giants of Indian classical music.
Zakir Hussain is the pre-eminent tabla player in the world. He is the son of one of the greatest tabla players ever, Alla Rakha, who accompanied Ravi Shankar throughout the 60s and 70s and passed away at the age of 80 in 2000. Zakir was part of the world music group, Shakti and with Grateful Dead drummer, Mickey Hart, the group Planet Drum. He recorded numerous times with Chaurasia and Sharma. He is still going strong at 71 years old.
Hariprasad Chaurasia is now 84 years old and still making music. His flute playing can be described as a gift from the devine. He has also played with Shakti as well as the Beatles, on George Harrison’s Wonderwall Music and with Ravi Shankar.
Shivkumar Sharma passed away this summer from cardiac arrest at the age of 84. He introduced the santoor – a hammered dulcimer – into Indian classical music and made it into a popular classical instrument. He was the formost santoor player and has now passed that mantle onto his son, Rahul.
In the liner notes to their 1995 Masterpiece, The Valley Recalls, Ken Hunt says, “the two musicians, Hariprasad abd Shivkumar had climbed to the top of their profession and each was ranked as the topmost virtuoso of their chosen instrument.” “This recording is the artist’s life-long quest for perfection, professionalism and profundity in their musical experience.”
Dwight Chapel is a marvelous old (1842) building with wonderful acoustics. I wish there was a recorded copy of this concert, but The Valley Recalls comes quite close to my memories of this historic event”
Chairs in a gallery @ the Worcester Art Museum
The Coney Island neon sign, Worcester, MA, designed by an immigrant architect, S.C. Romanoff in 1940. It has been renovated and is still dripping something.
Ry Cooder & Taj Mahal during their days in the 1965 rock band Rising Sons
“Writing is like driving in the fog at night. You can only see as far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way.”