Michael Nesmith – “Daily Nightly”
Darkened rolling figures move thru’ prisms of no color.
Hand in hand, they walk the night,
But never know each other.
Passioned pastel neon lights light up the jeweled trav’ler
Who, lost in scenes of smoke filled dreams,
Find questions, but no answers.
Startled eyes that sometimes see phantasmagoric splendor
Pirouette down palsied paths
With pennies for the vendor.
Salvation’s yours for just the time it takes to pay the dancer.
And once again such anxious men
Find questions, but no answers.
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The Chesterfield Kings – “The Mindbending Sounds of… the Chesterfield Kings” (2003)
Written by Alan Wright (circa 2003), from the Cosmik Debris website…
These guys have been cranking out unhinged garage music since the early ’80s, except for a brief flirtation with a more ’70s hard rock sound in the early ’90s. After bouncing back with a surf album (!) and then the fantastic Where The Action Is album in 1999, they regained their status as true garage kings. This new album is the first Kings album to feature all original material, and is also their most psychedelic release yet. We’re not talking hippie-dippy jammed-out crap, either. This is fuzzed-out, manic, and often demented sounding acid-punk. “I Don’t Understand,” previously released in a slightly different version as a 7″ single, kicks things off and features pal Little Steven on guitar, organ and production. Former Jefferson Airplane guitarist Jorma Kaukonen also adds some guitar to a couple of songs, “Mystery Trip” and “Death Is the Only Real Thing,” the latter of which sounds like a lost track from the Rolling Stones’ Between the Buttons LP. The rest is all played by the four Kings, utilizing tons of vintage guitars, pedals, keyboards, Theremin, Clavioline, Mandolin, Violin, Viola, Sitar, various percussive instruments and much more. The sound on this is incredible. Read the rest of this entry »
“Leonard Cohen: Bird on a Wire” (1974)
This review comes from the DVD Talk website, and was written by Jamie S. Rich, Aug. 31, 2010…
In 1972, dour folk philosopher Leonard Cohen went out on a European tour that began in Dublin and ended in Jerusalem. He had a band that included Jennifer Warnes, Ron Cornelius, and Bob Johnston, and Tony Palmer and his film crew followed them from one venue to the next. The footage was compiled into the 1972 film Bird on the Wire. Reminiscent of D.A. Pennebaker’s similar portrait of Bob Dylan, Don’t Look Back, the movie showed the ups and downs of touring, giving as much room to the backstage as it did the concert hall. A weary Cohen fends off pretty women, needy journalists, and angry Germans upset by technical difficulties, all while searching for a transcendent experience at the microphone. Bird on the Wire is a peek at an artist stretched at his most thin, the bird barely able to stay atop his precarious perch. Read the rest of this entry »
The Beat Patrol 