“Same three guys. Same three chords.” It’s a refrain that ZZ Top guitarist extraordinaire Billy Gibbons has been preaching from the stage for years, but it’s how this little ol’ band from Texas mixes up that deceptively basic formula with its own brand of down-home, blues-slathered gee-tar grease that keeps me coming back for more.

And they sure laid down the grooves during a tight 85-minute set at the State Theatre in New Brunswick, New Jersey on November 18, 2013. Over the years, I’ve seen the mighty Top play hockey arenas (Madison Square Garden in NYC on January 28, 1991 and June 6, 1994, and Meadowlands Arena in NJ on August 30, 1991) and mid-size venues (Radio City Music Hall in NYC on October 25, 1996, and the Beacon Theatre in NYC on November 10, 2005), and I definitely ... Read More »]]>

Lookin’ sharp, and lookin’ for riffs: Hill and Gibbons get in the pocket. All photos by Krista Mettler.

BY MIKE METTLER

“Same three guys. Same three chords.” It’s a refrain that ZZ Top guitarist extraordinaire Billy Gibbons has been preaching from the stage for years, but it’s how this little ol’ band from Texas mixes up that deceptively basic formula with its own brand of down-home, blues-slathered gee-tar grease that keeps me coming back for more.

And they sure laid down the grooves during a tight 85-minute set at the State Theatre in New Brunswick, New Jersey on November 18, 2013. Over the years, I’ve seen the mighty Top play hockey arenas (Madison Square Garden in NYC on January 28, 1991 and June 6, 1994, and Meadowlands Arena in NJ on August 30, 1991) and mid-size venues (Radio City Music Hall in NYC on October 25, 1996, and the Beacon Theatre in NYC on November 10, 2005), and I definitely prefer them in the intimacy of the smaller setting. At the State Theatre, I took root in the center floor section — namely, Row J, Seat 105, about 15 rows back from the stage. My sightline found bassist Dusty Hill on my left and guitarist Gibbons on my right, with drummer Frank Beard just right of center. Not surprisingly, Gibbons’s guitar was at the forefront of the mix, always tasty and rarely distorted — except when he coaxed and then wrangled some necessary feedback during the back half of “Chartreuse,” a crunchy track from their underappreciated 2012 album, La Futura. Hill’s bottom end — fueled by the furious finger-pluckin’ style he’s dubbed “The Pleaser” — locked with Beard’s precision drumming to drop anchor for Gibbons to set off on his endless, blistering axeman explorations. Beard’s riveting snare accents were cannon-grade lethal on “Pincushion.” And Hill and Gibbons’s throaty vocals meshed quite well most of the night, muddling only during the choruses of “Flyin’ High.”

The set was sparse, with two six-foot-high screens flanking Beard’s super-sleek skull-laden drum kit. Scenes from an ongoing ZZ Top on-the-road movie — meshing segments of their classic vintage videoclips with new footage — created an ongoing storyline that I’m gonna call the Brisket Western. Before diving into another La Futura gem, “I Gotsta Get Paid,” Gibbons surveyed the clearly galvanized Jersey crowd, zeroing in on a woman down front waving the LP of 1983′s indelible Eliminator in the air. Gibbons took it from her, had his fellow bandmates sign the cover, and then asked the crowd, “Ok, we’ll start the bidding at $150…” (Don’t worry, she got it back intact.)

And Gibbons, of course, offered slab after slab of prime guitar soloing. My favorite Rev. Billy G jamola came during “Certified Blues,” a choice deep cut from ZZ Top’s First Album (1970), followed by an especially incendiary take on Jimi Hendrix’s “Fire,” which brought to mind the pyrotechnic sizzle of the version of that song I saw Gibbons blaze away on with the reunited Moving Sidewalks at B.B. King Blues Club & Grill in New York City back on March 31, 2013. (That was the first gig the Moving Sidewalks had played together in almost 44 years, and it’s a night I never thought I’d see — and one I’ll never forget.) Gibbons also wailed mightily during the crowd-pleasing one-two gut punches of set closers “Sharp Dressed Man” and “Legs.” When Gibbons went long during his extended solo passage on the first encore, “La Grange,” you could hear John Lee Hooker haw-haw-hawing his approval from the great beyond.

Same three guys and same three chords, but we continue to get endless variations on a theme from a trio that’s been intact and in sync for five decades and counting. As evidenced by the muscle on display in their brisk State Theatre set, ZZ Top knows how to keep it sharp.

Above, an exclusive YouTube clip of Levin Minnemann Rudess jamming on “Marcopolis”

BY MIKE METTLER

“I work hard on the music end of things, and record my bass parts as high quality as I can.” That, in a nutshell, is the mission statement for Tony Levin, noted bassmaster and Chapman Stick innovator known for his sharp-fingered low-end work with the likes of King Crimson and Peter Gabriel. At present, his holy mission specifically applies to the down-low flavors he’s concocted for Levin Minnemann Rudess (Lazy Bones Recordings), a 60-minute ride through quite progressive waters. His LMR namesake triomates are drummer Marco Minnemann (Steven Wilson, UKZ) and keyboardist extraordinaire Jordan Rudess (Dream Theater, Liquid Tension Experiment, Dixie Dregs). LMR is on CD, but you should only be interested in obtaining the Deluxe Edition, which contains a separate DVD with filmed interviews, improv sessions, ... Read More »]]>

Above, an exclusive YouTube clip of Levin Minnemann Rudess jamming on “Marcopolis”

BY MIKE METTLER

“I work hard on the music end of things, and record my bass parts as high quality as I can.” That, in a nutshell, is the mission statement for Tony Levin, noted bassmaster and Chapman Stick innovator known for his sharp-fingered low-end work with the likes of King Crimson and Peter Gabriel. At present, his holy mission specifically applies to the down-low flavors he’s concocted for Levin Minnemann Rudess (Lazy Bones Recordings), a 60-minute ride through quite progressive waters. His LMR namesake triomates are drummer Marco Minnemann (Steven Wilson, UKZ) and keyboardist extraordinaire Jordan Rudess (Dream Theater, Liquid Tension Experiment, Dixie Dregs). LMR is on CD, but you should only be interested in obtaining the Deluxe Edition, which contains a separate DVD with filmed interviews, improv sessions, outtakes, and — ahem, fellow audiophiles — 24-bit wav files of the full album.

If you check out The S&V Interview Blog at soundandvision.com, you’ll find us discussing the concepts of composition vs. improv and the trio’s overall sonic goals for their heady collaboration, plus LMR producer Scott Schorr theorizing about the possibility of a 5.1 mix. That was Part I. Here on soundbard.com, you get the exclusive Part II, wherein Tony discusses working with Steven Wilson and Peter Gabriel, and Scott delves deeper into his own 5.1 preferences, including his favorite Steven Wilson surround mix(es).

Stick-ing It to ’Em Live: Levin onstage. Photo by Roberto Scorta.

And yes, all ye faithful Crim lovers, Tony also shared with me his initial impressions of what to expect from King Crimson’s eighth incarnation. “It’s early in the planning stage,” he reveals. “We know the players, and we’re comparing schedules to see when we can get together to rehearse. Likely it’ll start next September [2014], and likely will look back at the King Crimson repertoire for material. However, I expect plenty of surprises along the way — that’s the way it usually is with Crimson.”

To mutate a few lines from Crimson’s bleat-tastic “Elephant Talk,” what follows is more than just small talk, babble, expugnations, and/or idle chit-chat.

MIKE METTLER: Steven Wilson did many fantastic mixes of King Crimson material in 5.1. Would you like to work with him on other projects?

TONY LEVIN: I’ve played on some of Steven’s solo projects, and yes, I do look forward to working with him again. On our [2010] Soup album, we the Stick Men brought Steven in to mix our version of Stravinsky’s “Firebird Suite” (a particularly complex piece) and were very happy with the results. [I can confirm that Wilson did an amazing job mixing all four parts of the “Suite,” which appear as Tracks 9-12 on Soup; it’s challenging listening, to be sure, but you’ll want to conduct along with each movement, right on through to the ultimately elegiac nature of Part 4 —The SoundBard]

METTLER: You got to attend Steven’s solo show at the Royal Albert Hall in London on October 20. How was it? He and his band must have sounded amazing in that storied venue.

LEVIN: It was excellent. Sound was great, as you’d expect, and it was 3 hours of performance, with only a 20-minute intermission (due, he said, to the venue’s rules). Nick Beggs was super on bass, and he played Stick quite a bit — quite a treat for me to see a Stick player in the rock context. I don’t get to see that often, and I really enjoy it. I even think I saw him thumbslapping on the Stick (though I was far away from the stage, it looked like he was doing that) and I’m going to explore that technique, which I hadn’t heard of before.

Rudess Behavior: Was there a conscious effort to compose music for LMR, or improvise it? Levin: “Jordan and I did quite a bit of jamming together, ready for Marco to play to, but we had so much good quality material written that there just wasn’t need to further develop the improv material.”

METTLER: You’re been on the road with Peter Gabriel for over a year, and counting. I saw the So — Back to Front tour in Philadelphia last year [on September 21, 2012], and was consistently impressed by the live sound quality. And I also appreciate being able to have an official soundboard version of the show I attended — a soundboard for The SoundBard, as it were. Why does So continue to have such an impact?

LEVIN: We’ve been having a great time out here on the road, doing the So music and tour quite close to the way we did it back in 1987, and with the same band. I can’t say there are favorite songs in the show for me — I’m somewhat equally happy during the whole show. It’s great being part of a band, and a production, that’s really giving the audience what they want. Peter’s ideas about show production are pretty groundbreaking, and the way the lights and crew choreography add to the music in the show is quite special. I can’t resist photographing quite a bit of the show, even while I’m playing in it, so my online diary has become a nice way to get the feel of the tour — both for those of us on it, and for the fans who came to shows and like seeing the “band’s-eye” photos.

METTLER: A number of Peter Gabriel’s tours are available on Blu-ray [New Blood: Live in London, Secret World Live, and Live in Athens 1987]. Do you like the Blu-ray format?

LEVIN: I’m not an expert at formats, but I can say that we just recorded this show in a very hi-def format (4K Ultra HD) on October 21 and 22 [at the O2 Arena in London]. It’ll be great to have a concert film made to commemorate this tour. I can’t tell you when the show video will be out, or even in what manner and format. I hope to find out myself before long! [Keep soundbard.com bookmarked for updates —The SoundBard]

Minnemann of Action: The drummer gave the bassman excellent aural blueprints to work with for LMR, says Levin: “As for the bass parts I played, Marco sent me tracks where he had played not just drums, but guitar and bass, too — the bass to give me a sense of where he was going. In some cases, I played a different part altogether; in others, I played somewhat what he had, keeping the essence of it, but giving my own flavor to the part — and in a couple of cases, I played exactly what he’d suggested for the bass part. ”

METTLER: Ok, Scott, your turn. Tell me what your favorite surround mixes are, and why.

SCOTT SCHORR: My favorite 5.1 mixes are anything that Steven Wilson touches. I see Steven as the modern-day Phil Spector meets John Lennon. One thing I love about his 5.1 mixes is they always seem to stay as close as possible to the original mixes. However, in 5.1, he allows everything to breathe. Just listen to “Elephant Talk” [from King Crimson’s 1981 album, Discipline] on a great surround sound system. Tony Levin’s stick seems to bounce from one speaker to the other. Bill Bruford’s drum sound is incredible, and his snare is tighter and brighter than it usually is. Another Crimson album Wilson remixed, [1970’s] Lizard, is incredibly experimental, and would scare the average listener. But for the hardcore fan, the separation of the instruments in 5.1 is why the medium is growing as fast as it is.

In the original stereo mixes of Lizard, there’s so much stuff going on that it’s sometimes hard to decipher all the parts in the original stereo mix versus 5.1. And to consider that Robert Fripp was occasionally standing over Steven while he was mixing the Crimson catalog in 5.1? Now that is pressure!

I also know this is sacrilegious in some circles, but I’m a big fan of the ’70s classic records when they’re converted from analog to digital for 5.1. It just seems to “crispen” everything up and add clarity to all the instruments — without sacrificing all the warmness. And I’m super-anxious to hear Steven’s 5.1 remix of Yes’ Close to the Edge, one of my all-time favorite records. [Me too! —The SoundBard]

METTLER: Back to you Tony, with a quick barrage of Qs to wrap this up. What was the first record you bought with your own money? Does it still resonate with you today? Do you still have a copy of it? Do you still like the vinyl format?

LEVIN: I’m afraid I don’t remember that. (It was a long time ago!!) I was a classical music fan from a young age and listened to a lot of material, probably mostly on the radio. I did like the vinyl format, and somewhere I have my records from my teens — but like with the CDs I’ve collected, I don’t have much time to listen anymore. Happily and luckily, I’m too busy making new music most days.

Above, an exclusive YouTube clip of Levin Minnemann Rudess tackling the mysteries of “Scrod”

BY MIKE METTLER

Get Tommy Shaw and me, Mr. SoundBard, in a room talking about music, and chances are you’ll have to drag us out by our respective ears to get us on the way to our next destinations. (Just ask Styx’s ever-patient, ever-gracious tour manager and assistant tour manager.) Tommy and I bonded over a mutual passion for music, and especially vinyl, years ago, and we share our LP love regularly in text, photo, and email. A typical message might begin along the lines of “Look what I found!” and subsequently “You won’t believe how GOOD this album sounds!” — followed soon thereafter by a fervent discourse on all of the aural subtleties and production nuances that cause us to pick the needle up and play that record again and again and again.

That’s my ’round-the-bend way of saying welcome to ... Read More »]]>

BY MIKE METTLER

180-gram, and other assorted love songs.

Get Tommy Shaw and me, Mr. SoundBard, in a room talking about music, and chances are you’ll have to drag us out by our respective ears to get us on the way to our next destinations. (Just ask Styx’s ever-patient, ever-gracious tour manager and assistant tour manager.) Tommy and I bonded over a mutual passion for music, and especially vinyl, years ago, and we share our LP love regularly in text, photo, and email. A typical message might begin along the lines of “Look what I found!” and subsequently “You won’t believe how GOOD this album sounds!” — followed soon thereafter by a fervent discourse on all of the aural subtleties and production nuances that cause us to pick the needle up and play that record again and again and again.

Everything will be alright… within the grooves.

That’s my ’round-the-bend way of saying welcome to the debut installment of The Vinyl Brothers videoclip Q&A series, wherein Mr. Shaw and I will discuss the sonic merits of a cherished album, whether it be a longtime favorite, a remastered classic, or a new discovery. Our initial subject is Eric Clapton‘s underrated 2010 release, Clapton. Sitting in his dressing room backstage after Styx had performed a particularly rousing set at Bergen PAC in Englewood, NJ on October 19, 2013, Tommy asked me if I had heard this album, as he had been particularly taken with the tone and tempo of Track 1 on Side 1, “Travelin’ Alone” — so much so that he often found himself picking up a guitar and playing right along with it. While I had indeed bought the record when it came out almost 3 years ago, I admitted that I had hardly spent any time with it, so I clearly needed a 33 1/3 refresher spin or two. I duly pulled it off the shelves (it was slotted in between EC’s current Old Sock LP and the three-LP box set for EC & Steve Winwood’s Live From Madison Square Garden) and brought it to Styx’s gig the following night, October 20, at State Theatre in New Brunswick, NJ, so we could talk about it after the show. We tell the double 180-gram Clapton LP’s tantalizing tale in the YouTube clip at the top of this post.

And, as always, enjoy the music.

“Music is astounding, isn’t it?” Graham Nash is genuinely enamored with the wonders of sound — and so am I. There’s always a special twinkle in his eye whenever we get together to talk about the indelible music he’s made since the early 1960s, the new music he’s planning to make next, and how he plans to have it all, both new and old, sound even better. I had just gotten back from Denver when I met Graham, 71, at the Broadway HQ of Random House publishing arm Crown Archetype in New York City on Monday, September 30, 2013 to dive deep into his just-published and quite revelatory autobiography, Wild Tales. After marveling at the shadows and shades present in some amazing NYC skyline photos he had taken earlier in the day on his ever-present camera, we got ... Read More »]]>

Tale Spinners: Nash & Mettler hold court and tome in NYC, 09.30.13.

BY MIKE METTLER

“Music is astounding, isn’t it?” Graham Nash is genuinely enamored with the wonders of sound — and so am I. There’s always a special twinkle in his eye whenever we get together to talk about the indelible music he’s made since the early 1960s, the new music he’s planning to make next, and how he plans to have it all, both new and old, sound even better. I had just gotten back from Denver when I met Graham, 71, at the Broadway HQ of Random House publishing arm Crown Archetype in New York City on Monday, September 30, 2013 to dive deep into his just-published and quite revelatory autobiography, Wild Tales. After marveling at the shadows and shades present in some amazing NYC skyline photos he had taken earlier in the day on his ever-present camera, we got down to discussing all of the shadows, shades, and sweet sonic details to be found within Tales.

MIKE METTLER: One of the earliest things in relation to the nuances of sound you mention in the book is the first thing anyone hears is their mother’s heartbeat [page 49]. Rhythm is a part of everyone’s life, even before we’re out in the world. We’ve all felt that beat inside, before we were born. It’s in our DNA.
GRAHAM NASH: [nods] Even before you’re out. Yeah, your mother’s heartbeat is the very first rhythm section you hear — the very first drum set. [chuckles]

METTLER: When people ask, “Where did you get that ability from?” you can say, “Well, everybody has that ability from the start; it’s just a matter of how you manifest it.”
NASH: That’s right. And if you practice and build that muscle, it’s like I say often: If I’d been a plumber for 50 years, I’d be a great plumber.

METTLER: It’s that Outliers rule, right?
NASH: 10,000 hours, yes. I really enjoyed that book [by Malcolm Gladwell]. Work, Bill Gates, The Beatles — 10,000 hours, slogging away. Yeah, I did my 10,000 hours.

METTLER: Me too — but I think you’ve put in at least 20,000 hours more than me. Do you still read books in their physical form?
NASH: I do. I have everything: I have a small Kindle, I have the iPad mini. On my side of the bed in my house in Hawaii is what my wife [Susan] refers to as “The Bummer Pile.” [both laugh] Oh yeah, I think fact is way stranger than fiction, so I don’t read a lot of fiction. I’m always reading nonfiction books in The Bummer Pile. [chuckles]

We Three Kings: Crosby, Stills, and Nash, doing what they do best, at Criteria Recording Studios in Miami, in 1977. Photo by and © Joel Bernstein.

METTLER: Back to the beginning. You say on the very first page of Wild Tales, “All my life I’ve had music in my head.” Is there a specific thing that touched that off for you, a tangible moment that you realized as a kid that melody was a part of you?
NASH: Yes. As I said in the book, when I was 6 years old, I looked out my window and felt like I saw a golden city in the clouds after a rainstorm [page 13]. And I could hear the music of the town outside where I grew up [Salford, Manchester, in England]. I could hear the clip-clop of the horses, the iron wheels on the cobblestones, and mothers calling their children to come and eat — you know, that was all music to me.

I got into an elevator this morning, and I said to the people in there with me, “Listen to this music.” And they went, “What?” I said, “Yeah, that chucka-chucka-do-whooop-bzzzzzsche.’ ” Those are the noises the elevator and the gears make. I mean, it’s all music, when you think about it.

METTLER: It’s interesting you say that. There was one time my wife and I were walking past a fast-food stand at a rest stop, and the fryer or something behind the counter began beeping at a certain regular pulse. I turned to her and said, “Listen to that — it sounds just like the organ intro to Santana’s ‘Oye Como Va’!”
NASH: Hmm. Interesting! It’s the same thing, right? Music’s everywhere, kid.

METTLER: I was taken aback when you talked about the time your mother told you that you were living the dream she had for herself, and that you had never known about it until that point [page 291].
NASH: Stunning. It was stunning to me. I was already 34 years old by that time. I never even suspected my mother ever wanted to be on the stage. It wasn’t like my mother would go out to a nightclub and sing and we would go see it, not anything like that. So it was stunning to hear that I was living her life.

Isn’t it amazing to find out things about your parents that you never knew? They’re human beings! They actually make love, and all that stuff, like we do!

METTLER: They’re three-dimensional. And more often than not, they’re putting their own lives on hold so we can go do our own things.
NASH: That’s what we do. That’s what “Teach Your Children” is about.

METTLER: And that’s going to go on forever.
NASH: It is — as long as we’re all still having babies. But, you know, I wrote a song in 1964 with The Hollies called “Too Many People,” about the population explosion. There were too many people being born for us to sustain. And it doesn’t seem like we’re getting any smarter. It was very interesting when the Chinese government came up with that “one child per family” rule. Very interesting, because they say, “We’re doing our best for global warming — how are you doing your part? We did not have 300 million children last year.” A very interesting point.

Mirror Imagination: Self portrait at The Plaza Hotel in London, September 1974. Photo by and © Graham Nash.

The basic truth is this: I am so proud to be an American citizen. I get to speak my mind here. All the shit that David [Crosby] and Neil [Young] and Stephen [Stills] and I have talked about in our lives — we wouldn’t be able to do that in a different country.

METTLER: It’s like what you said in the book about the 2006 CSNY tour, where 10 percent of the audience would actually get up and leave the show, especially when you were performing down South [page 335].
NASH: I would like to talk to those 10 percent now, and ask them again what they think of George Bush, in hindsight. But those 10 percent had every right to leave those shows, and to speak their minds. But so do I.

METTLER: And never don’t do that.
NASH: “Never don’t.” Great title there, right? Write it down. “Never don’t.”

METTLER: I’m writing it down right now, pen on paper. Earlier, you told me you’d “been under the headphones for the past 5 years.” What’s the ultimate goal? What are you trying to do?
NASH: To get as much good music out there as possible. I think that music is the common language we all share. It can really make you feel less crazy, maybe make you feel less lonely, or make you feel like somebody else knows what you’re going through. Because that’s what David, Stephen, Neil, and I are — four human beings who have to deal with our shit the same way everybody else does. But we deal with it by creating music and talking about it.

METTLER: I loved finding out that you had a great full-circle moment with Gene Vincent’s “Be-Bop-a-Lula” [pages 23 and 266].
NASH: I did indeed. It was the first record I ever bought, on a 78. Astonishing.

METTLER: Oh, I love that. Do you still have the original 78?
NASH: No — I sat on it, unfortunately, a couple of days after I had gotten it. But that’s why I joined Capitol Records as a solo artist [for 1979's Earth & Sky]. I told them my lawyer would take care of those funny details about how much money and all that. But the deal was, ”You’ve got me if you leave me in the basement with Gene Vincent’s original 2-track recording of ‘Be-Bop-a-Lula.’ ” Now as I say in the book, as a producer, that would be horrifying to hear about and let somebody do — to pass that tape over magnetic heads any more than you need to. But I did it, and it was a great circle for me.

METTLER: Why does that song speak to you?
NASH: There’s an intense energy in that song. And it’s not like it was a brilliant song of profound meaning. “Be-Bop-a-Lula,” I mean, it’s a “Me and my baby, hey hey hey, let’s go screw in the car” kind of song. It had a power, an energy that just screamed off the record to me.

METTLER: You could get a sense of Gene’s personality just by the way he sang it. That vocal echo, the way that he took his time between each line — laid back, very confident…
NASH: It’s brilliant. And to think it’s on 2-track: mind-blowing.

METTLER: And even better when it’s played on vinyl.
NASH: [smiles] A dear friend of mine owns Mystic Disc in Mystic, Connecticut, and he’s been dealing in vinyl the last 30-40 years. He tells me that in the last year and a half, the increase in vinyl sales has been 762 percent! Isn’t that fantastic?

METTLER: It is. The best-selling album on vinyl last year was Jack White’s Blunderbuss — 33,000 copies sold on vinyl alone in 2012.
NASH: That many on vinyl? Fantastic. The upcoming CSNY 1974 deluxe package accounts for at least eight sides of vinyl in it.

METTLER: Oooh, can we talk about that?
NASH: Sure, let’s talk about it.

METTLER: When will that be coming out?
NASH: I’m 11 mixes away from the end of a 40-song set. I’m deeply into this. Right now, I’m figuring out the cover with my friend Joel Bernstein. We listened to every single thing. We chose the best delivery of the song. The idea was this: Did Neil kill me with his delivery? Did Stephen blow my mind with “Word Game”? Which track, which one, is the best? I wanted those kind of takes. So Joel and I put this thing together. It’ll be 40 songs, and it’s the 40-year anniversary next year. I’m thoroughly expecting it to be out by March 4 [2014].

METTLER: So you’re reclaiming the sound from that tour, quite literally.
NASH: Not only that, but CSNY was an incredibly fine rock & roll band. We could really do it. I mean, not only did we have four interesting individuals and four strong songwriters, but we had the songs. I mean, Neil Young, in 1974, had an incredible burst of songwriting. He has a lot of songs on here, all written around that time, that are brilliant.

METTLER: That would be, what, songs like “Human Highway”?
NASH: [nods] “Human Highway.” “Don’t Be Denied.” “Pushed It Over the End.” “Ambulance Blues.” Just on and on and on. And one of the things about this box set, which was supposed to come out last year, is that I just kept finding things. I found this minute-and-a-half Neil song called “Goodbye Dick,” about Richard Nixon. It’s killer! I had lunch with Neil here in the city about a week ago and I told him about it, and he goes, “Ahh, I remember that one. I only did that once, right?” I said, “Yeah, you only did it once, and it’s fucking brilliant! And I’d like to use it.” And he goes, “Well, go ahead, man. Sounds good.”

Just a Shot Before He Goes: A modern-day self-portraiture. Photo by and © Graham Nash.

METTLER: Did you also talk about putting this out in some form of HRA, high resolution audio?
NASH: Yes. The very first release on Pono, Neil Young’s new high-res playback machine, will be that Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young Live 1974 album. All in 24/192, the highest resolution we can get. Neil has been a high-res fanatic for years, you know.

METTLER: I sure do, and I cannot wait to hear that album in high-res. Ok, one last thing: There’s a telling phrase you used in the book to describe why CSN works together so well: “the pull of gravity” [page 324].
NASH: [smiles] How interesting you bring that up. It’s that pull of the music. And by far, no matter how badly and how great we have treated each other over these last 40-odd years, it’s still the music. That’s why my book starts with the phrase, “It all comes down to the music,” and why it ends with the phrase, “It all comes down to the music.”

METTLER: It’s all right there. And as you say near the end of the book, you’re a slave to the music [page 344].
NASH: [nods] I’m a slave to it. Because my heart got touched. So why shouldn’t your heart be touched?

BY MIKE METTLER

“Everybody loved it — except me. I was so not satisfied with it. It was my fault.” That’s Robbie Robertson, telling it like it is back in August about the original mix of The Band’s acclaimed 1972 double live album, Rock of Ages (Capitol). It only took 40-plus years for Robertson to get his wish to remix — and expand — that music to his satisfaction by culling the best performances of The Band’s 4-night stand at New York’s Academy of Music on December 28-31, 1971 for a stellar five-disc box set, Live at the Academy of Music 1971 — The Rock of Ages Concerts (Capitol/UMe). Audiophiles take note: Disc 5, a DVD, is mixed in surround sound by Bob Clearmountain under Robertson’s supervision, and it gives the proper dimensionality to an important live recording that’s simply been, ... Read More »]]>

BY MIKE METTLER

“Everybody loved it — except me. I was so not satisfied with it. It was my fault.” That’s Robbie Robertson, telling it like it is back in August about the original mix of The Band’s acclaimed 1972 double live album, Rock of Ages (Capitol). It only took 40-plus years for Robertson to get his wish to remix — and expand — that music to his satisfaction by culling the best performances of The Band’s 4-night stand at New York’s Academy of Music on December 28-31, 1971 for a stellar five-disc box set, Live at the Academy of Music 1971 — The Rock of Ages Concerts (Capitol/UMe). Audiophiles take note: Disc 5, a DVD, is mixed in surround sound by Bob Clearmountain under Robertson’s supervision, and it gives the proper dimensionality to an important live recording that’s simply been, well, inferior for decades.

Photo by John Scheele

Robertson told me he and Clearmountain finally got what he was looking for with the mix they did for “Rockin’ Chair” (Disc 2, Track 6), which was culled from the Wednesday, December 29 set. It all came down to a matter of balance. “Not only balance in terms of accurately hearing how the music was performed,” he explains, “but in getting it to work musically as well. On that song, Richard [Manuel] is singing the lead on the verses, and then he goes up and sings a high harmony on the chorus while Levon [Helm] take over the lead. It was a very delicate balance to get it right so you can hear all of those subtleties that Garth [Hudson] is playing, and the way that the horns and Garth’s organ are weaving together. I can now hear the harmonies nice and clear. And the way that [Helm’s] kick drum and [Rick Danko’s] bass rub together on this track is just perfect.”

Photo by Ernst Hess

The complete New Year’s Eve show appears via a soundboard mix on Discs 3 and 4, the transfer supervised by Robbie’s son, Sebastian Robertson. That night’s special guest was none other than Bob Dylan. If you listen closely, right before “Like a Rolling Stone” (Disc 2, Track 16) starts, Bob asks, “We haven’t played this in, how many years, 6 years?” and then somebody else chimes in jokingly with, “16 years.” I asked Robertson who said that. “I think it was Rick [Danko],” he replied, chuckling at the recollection.

Playing with Dylan has its own unique charm. “We didn’t have time to rehearse with Bob,” admits Robertson, “but we played so much together over the years, I thought, ‘Yeah, we’ll wing it.’ When Bob came out, we didn’t even know what songs we’d do. We were figuring it out on the spot, and I can hear it in the music. But that’s part of the great fun of it all. It’s loose, and spontaneous, and as real as it gets.” And that’s how you repaint a masterpiece.

I also asked Robbie what the first album he bought was and the album he keeps going back to for repeat listening, and you can find his choices over in The Soundtrack of Our Lives.

MIKE METTLER: What was the first record you ever bought? ROBBIE ROBERTSON: The first record I ever bought with my own money was Here’s Little Richard [released March 1957, on Specialty Records]. I was addicted to his song “Rip It Up.” It was the most amazing shuffle. It still is, to this day.

METTLER: Do you still have it? ROBERTSON: No, I don’t. I wore it out. [chuckles]

METTLER: Is there one record you’d consider your favorite, the one you keep going back to? ROBERTSON: Well, there was a favorite of mine back then called New Orleans: Home of the Blues [1961, on the Minit label]. And it was a variety of New Orleans artists, like Jesse Hill doing “Ooh Poo Pah Doo.” I was also a big fan of Huey “Piano” Smith and His Clowns back then. When I got this record, it took ... Read More »]]>

MIKE METTLER: What was the first record you ever bought?
ROBBIE ROBERTSON: The first record I ever bought with my own money was Here’s Little Richard [released March 1957, on Specialty Records]. I was addicted to his song “Rip It Up.” It was the most amazing shuffle. It still is, to this day.

METTLER: Do you still have it?
ROBERTSON: No, I don’t. I wore it out. [chuckles]

METTLER: Is there one record you’d consider your favorite, the one you keep going back to?
ROBERTSON: Well, there was a favorite of mine back then called New Orleans: Home of the Blues [1961, on the Minit label]. And it was a variety of New Orleans artists, like Jesse Hill doing “Ooh Poo Pah Doo.” I was also a big fan of Huey “Piano” Smith and His Clowns back then. When I got this record, it took me inside New Orleans music in a whole new way. I became a tremendous admirer of this music that rolled around out there, and have been ever since.

METTLER: I can hear some of those touches on The Band’s Live at the Academy of Music 1971 box set, thanks to the horn section and Allen Toussaint’s spot-on horn arrangements. In fact, I can feel a New Orleans fingerprint all throughout this live collection.
ROBERTSON: When we were making this record, Dr. John was in the audience. Bobby Charles was there too. And with Allen Toussaint with us onstage, there was a lot of New Orleans in the air.

For Robertson’s take on the better mixes found on The Band’s Live at the Academy of Music 1971 box set, go to The S&V Interview.

In the above YouTube clip, Wayne Coyne and I discuss “You Are Alone,” the song that opens Side C of the 2 LP set of The Flaming Lips‘ latest full-length aural delight/challenge, The Terror (2013). Notes Coyne of the song, “it consists of a strange emotional chord that was the true spark for the album.”

The Lips frontman and I were in the Lips’ dressing room at the Wellmont Theater in Montclair, New Jersey right after soundcheck back on May 16, and, inevitably, our discussion turned to collecting vinyl and how to store it all before it completely overruns our respective households. “Wasn’t it Charles Bukowksi who said, ‘Find what you love and let it kill you’?” he wondered. “That’s pretty much what we’re doing, right? Yeah, I like the big format. I like all the nuances. The distortion, the murkiness, ... Read More »]]>

In the above YouTube clip, Wayne Coyne and I discuss “You Are Alone,” the song that opens Side C of the 2 LP set of The Flaming Lips‘ latest full-length aural delight/challenge, The Terror (2013). Notes Coyne of the song, “it consists of a strange emotional chord that was the true spark for the album.”

The Lips frontman and I were in the Lips’ dressing room at the Wellmont Theater in Montclair, New Jersey right after soundcheck back on May 16, and, inevitably, our discussion turned to collecting vinyl and how to store it all before it completely overruns our respective households. “Wasn’t it Charles Bukowksi who said, ‘Find what you love and let it kill you’?” he wondered. “That’s pretty much what we’re doing, right? Yeah, I like the big format. I like all the nuances. The distortion, the murkiness, the grain, the scratches — we make sure it’s all there for you to discover.” Yeah, I love it all too. Enjoy.