BRUCESPRINGSTEEN
WesternStarsTheBoss is promising a return to his
full-blown rock’n’roll, lest anyone take
‘Western Stars’ for a retirement notice,
thisalbum following the intimate
deliveryestablished during his Broadway
run—filmed last year as another Netflix
production (see ‘Rolling Thunder’, right,
a tourfor which Springsteen turned
downan invitation in 1975). But it’s no
solo‘Nebraska’ project, rather the songs
expandwithorchestrationlushyetnever extravagant, a sweetness
somewherebetweenNashvilleandtheWrecking Crew; if you dropped
a GlenCampbellvocalatopTucsonTrain you could pass it off as a prime
cutfromthemid-70s.Hiscarewornvocals match everyman lyrics that
heinhabitsasstuntman,horsewrangler, hobo, all of them past their
prime,lookingback,sothescorescomplement rather than cloy, and
whenheliftsit up,asonSundown, it’sa perfect fit of song and sound.SANTANA
AfricaSpeaksThiscollection of African songs
reinterpreted (with permission) by Mr
Carlosopens quite worryingly with
tribaldrums beating and a deep voice
intoning ‘Deep in the jungle...’ as
if we’reentering the world of some
colonial-period romance novel, but the
cross-fertilisation between Africa and
America here yields one of Santana’s
mostrefreshing releases in recent years
(nothard,giventheawfulnessof someof them), and is much assisted
bythevocaltalentsof ConchaBuika,who is herself Spanish although
bornof Equatoguineanparents,andwho soars above the rhythms
doingforSantanawhatSenegaleseYoussou N’Dour did for Peter
Gabrielbackin the1990s.Rapidlyrecorded (an initial 49 tracks in
10 days),TommyAnthony’smusicaldirection holds it together, while
RickRubin’sproductioncapturesthepercussive complexity impeccably.MICHAELHUTCHENCE
Mystify:A MusicalJourneywith Michael HutchenceNogapless playback issues when
listening to the 60-minute audio
releaseaccompanying ‘Mystify: Michael
Hutchence’ the movie, as producer
MarkEdwards and former and restored
INXSmanager Chris M. Murphy have
insistedon releasing it as four unbroken
‘sides’of 15 minutes each—yes, even
onstreaming services. This is partly a
reactionagainst the playlist era (and
hoorahtothat)butit’salsobecauseitscontinuity would be hard to
split,itsflowingmelangeof music,spoken word, ‘lost’ tracks, demos
andinterviewsallcrossfadedintoeachother. This rather reduces its
re-listenability,alsoburyingdeepamong the detritus its most interesting
moments,suchashisunreleasedversion of War’s Spill The Wine and
thelesser-knownsegmentsfromhis1999 posthumous album. But
consideredmoreasa fine-honedaudiodocumentary (focus, you Spotify
generation!),it’sanenlighteninghourfor fans both deep and casual.BOB DYLAN The Rolling Thunder Revue
The 1975 Live RecordingsThis 14-CD 148-track collection
accompanies the recent Martin
Scorsese Netflix film purporting to
document the first three months of
Dylan’s never-ending tour, which
began in 1975 as a concept inspired
by commedia dell’arte, Dylan’s
travelling troupe of dozens delivering
shows up to four hours in length,
but losing money everywhere they
travelled through an insistence on using only smaller venues. Or did
they? This is no simple documentary, much of its content quickly
revealed to aficionados as classic Dylan subterfuge, with hints strewn
through the subtext. The supposed original filmmaker, to whom
Scorsese doffs his cap surprisingly low, is a fake, as is the tale that
Dylan picked up a 19-year-old Sharon Stone en route (more’s the pity).
The promoter who moans about the losses is Paramount Pictures’ Jim
Gianopulos, who had nothing whatsoever to do with the tour. Least
likely of all is the horror story that Allen Ginsberg’s poetry became
so increasingly unpopular during the tour that the iconic beat poet
ended up working as a humble roadie. No wonder Scorsese subtitles
the film ‘a Bob Dylan story’. The fictions so entirely entangle the facts
that you can’t be certain which of the stellar cast were genuinely
present, though historically-confirmed contributors included Joan Baez,
T Bone Burnett, Mick Ronson, Ramblin’ Jack Elliott, and late arrival Joni
Mitchell. The inspirational scenes with then-unrecorded Patti Smith are
surely too extensive to be concocted... and yet with a Netflix budget
in this new age of Deep Fakes, history can be all too easily rewritten,
and the result here reverberates with the sniggers of Scorsese and
throaty chuckles from a marginally-less-reluctant-than-usual Dylan.
We can only assume that the music discs, which focus solely
on Dylan’s performances, are the genuine article, though the ‘Live
Recordings’ part of the title is only partially accurate, since the first
three discs cover the rehearsals at S.I.R. Studios in New York and in the
Seacrest Hotel in Falmouth, Massachusetts. Then follow five ‘full Dylan
sets’ recorded in Massachusetts at Worcester, Cambridge and Boston
(matinee and evening sets both from Boston), one from Montreal in
Canada, and a final disc of bits and pieces. As is often the way with
Dylan tours, the set lists differ not a lot, nor did Dylan do much of
his band-confusing on-the-spot reinterpretation, so that you’d be
hard-pressed to much differentiate the five live versions of each of the
regulars, though each set is a delight in itself as a performance. Scarlet
Rivera’s violin work is inspiring throughout, with Isis a nightly highlight
on disc, as it is in the film. Her work on the upcoming ‘Desire’ album
was already in the can, Dylan having flagged her down while passing
in his limousine (or, er, so the story goes.).
The set predictability does, however, makes the few variations
all the more enthralling—The Times They Are A-Changin’ is relaxed
in rehearsals, thrillingly faster in the afternoon Boston performance,
inexplicably dropped for the evening gig, before getting its ultimate
belting electric performance in Montreal. The traditional Wild Mountain
Thyme, a duet with Baez, gets only one outing, and you can see why.
Love Minus Zero/No Limits is another one-timer for Montreal as a solo
performance, followed there by Tangled Up In Blue, which gets a
regular spotelsewhere,thoughreplacedbyA SimpleTwistof Fatein
Cambridge,andentirelyre-rhythmedforMontreal.
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ROCK ON by Jez Ford
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