a dangerous age in rock and roll

So as the last of the plastic bottles are gathered into the recycle skips at Glastonbury the weekend showstopper nominated by the press was not the so called "controversial" appearance of headliners Metallica but the Sunday afternoon appearance of Dolly Parton. Who actually had the largest crowd of the weekend with all the other venues on site emptying out leaving the performers wondering why they'd bothered showing up at all. Such is the fickle nature of an audience once they get the possible chance for a sighting of a legendary name.

Dolly had quite unexpectedly found herself crowned this years 'Queen of Glastonbury'.
She'd even written them a song especially for the occasion as she sat in the tour coach watching the thousands drag there way through the mud to the various stages scattered all over the site. The song was appropriately called "Mud", pronounced by Dolly as "Muurd". It had a chorus of "Muurd, Muurd, Muurd, Muurd, Muurd". And everyone joined in. "There you go.." she said "you've got your own song now".
With all the ease of a Las Vegas top bill she chatted with what she referred to as the "Glastonburr" audience and young and old were transfixed, singing along with anything they new the words to. Glastonbury had by now transformed into a holiday camp with Dolly as the head red coat with rhinestones. Glastonbury 2014 had found it's true soul.
So now Dolly's caravan rolls on, Glastonbury being just one more notch on her considerable hit list. It's "9 to 5" if you get the drift, and the 68 year old Dolly doesn't look like her country caravan will be stopping anytime soon.

Same with Robert Plant who played the day before, Saturday at a similar time of day, to a large crowd who'd gathered in anticipation of a set by his Shape Shifters. This audience were a more discerning bunch of hipsters, seeing themselves as the heart of the real Glastonbury audience. Not your crummy day trippers and pop pickers here.
And this lot got little chance to sing-a-long because Plant gave them little to recognise when the songs intro's began. So even when he did cover a Zeppelin classic he was part way into it before most spotted what it was. A masterful tactic. Plant was not going to have his set lost in thousands of voices bellowing over his band.
And the Shape Shifters were free flowing and superb musicians. The music sparked, they jammed occasionally and created some of the best moments of anyone there. Plants voice in fine form. It had a superb balance of ethnic diversity, blues and rock and roll. They all looked like they had a ball.
Why on earth would Robert Plant want to return to Led Zeppelin right now. The guy is 66 years old and surely wants to explore what he can because he probably well knows their may not be much time to do that. You just never know.

Like the news at the weekend, although not at Glastonbury, that Jeff Beck was admitted to hopital needing some serious care. So far no one has said what the ailment is. Surgery was mentioned. Ouch.
Jeff is 70. And 70 years old is appearing to be a very difficult age for the rock and rollers. The lifetime of road tours are taking it's toll and the body is beginning to scream back.

A recent interview with Eric Clapton in Uncut revealed a surprisingly forthcoming 'slowhand' on turning 70 next year. He admitted it could be the end of touring for him.

"The road had become unbearable. It's unapproachable, because it takes so long to get anywhere, and it's hostile out there. Everywhere. Getting in and out of airports, getting on planes, travelling in cars. I like my life too much to have it ruined by other people's aggression..."

Later adding in the interview,

"I've had posture problems playing heavy electric guitars on stage, one side of my body scrunches up, the lower gives me back problems from time to time. At the moment I've got tendanitis, which means that if I make a barre chord I get pain all the way up my arms into my neck and shoulder".

Blimey Eric that's a whole load of Ouch.

Curiously by Monday morning organiser of Glastonbury, Michael Eavis, said he thought he could keep the festival going until it reached it's 50th Anniversary in 10 years time. Wow. Maybe there was something in the air that weekend.

Then this morning news arrives that after 50 years a Farewell Tour of The Who is about to begin.
With Townshend now 69, and Daltry, 70, they too have declared life on the road is just too much. Daltry said about it being their last gigs -

"It just has to be really. We can't go on touring for ever. As a singer, I don't know how long my voice will last. It will go. And the grind of the road.. it's incredibly tough on the body at this age"

The Farewell tour will be a short series of gigs in the UK and the USA. Nine being in the UK in November and December followed by the States later.

Over the weekend too, Bobby Womack had made it to 70, and now he's gone. One of the great soul voices and a life that was as hard as it was good. His resurgence in the last years of his life was a miracle and a delight. Bobby Womack left some genius moments in music.

It's been a strange few days.

old rockers never die they just release a new album

Who'd have thought that 2013 would be a year when the 60's rockers would find a second wind, or 3rd or 4th depending on how you see their contribution. Either way this year Macca, Bowie, Elton John, Black Sabbath, Roy Harper and the list goes on, released albums that brought some attention if not from a young audience then certainly with the media.
Which ever one first caught the bug to take to the studio "one more time" the virus sure spread fast and one set the rest off in not being left out of the old act. Just like the 60's, when one band rushed to beat the other to the No.1 slot in the album charts. Of course those days are long gone now and their succession of releases landed without a thud onto the web rather than major labels beloved record stores which are virtually all gone.
Nowadays the big labels just pump there old catalogue through to Spotify and hardly anyone earns a nickel from the machine, which Thom Yorke will tell you all about over and over again.
Those who didn't get the bug to release full on albums did a respectable job with a new track or two and went back on the road, which was The Stones route. And don't bet on them not showing up next year to start it up again, again.
The Who also took the Stones way minus the single, and went walk about too promoting their anniversary bumper mega buck box set of the forthcoming 'Tommy' reissue. Which was slightly less ambitiuos given that Townshed hasn't written a new song in years, well maybe he has but he ain't telling. But what has surfaced amongst the reissue is previously unheard material in the form of 20 demos from Townshend’s archive one of which is this.. “Amazing Journey". It's obviously a more raw version than on the original album but from about 3 minutes in you hear the Pete Townshend guitar take off like a large firework and you have to think why the hell haven't we heard that more recently on something new. After all PT if that other lot can do it...

VIA HENNEMUSIC.COM

the who tour quadraphenia

This month The Who have toured the rock opera Quadraphenia for probably the last time. Along with the Stones playing selected gigs in the UK and the US the most reported story seems to be the price of the tickets to see the old rockers, now in their late sixties. Even Jagger himself was to comment about the price at the London O2 Arena with the cheap tickets at £150-200. The Who prices in the States are equal to that where you can expect $300-400 per ticket.
From audience reactions, and a large amount of those can maybe afford those prices there seems no lack of enthusiasm for these shows.
There's also some comment as to whether these bands offer anything other than a nostalgia journey for the baby boomer generation but again judging by audience turnouts it seems to be a wide age group showing up to see the bands for maybe the last time.
With The Who there just remains Daltrey and Townshend. The Stones more fortunately have all survived the years outside of the long gone Brian Jones.
Now that rock and roll has a 60+ year history these guys are some of the last of the original ground breaking hell raisers from a time when a young generation had as much to stand up against as there should be today.
And just like any art, with the Stones and The Who it can be seen more as performance art, it's really immaterial whether some critic might like it or not, it represents something much greater than the object or in this case a set of songs.
In fact for the Who themselves part of Quadraphenia represents two of the players that are no longer alive, Keith Moon and John Entwhistle. The technology presents them from a previous decade into the present day and to see this video role suddenly appear during the song makes a big connection to the audience, as no doubt it does to Daltrey and Townshend.
This may not be the cutting edge voice of young people any longer but it still represents what they stood for all those decades ago. And that is ageless.
Here's Bell Boy with Keith Moon still playing his part.
Filmed from the audience with the usual occasional hand held wobble.

the ox

Here's a fascinating video of John Enwhistle's performance on one of The Who's most explosive songs Won't Get Fooled Again. Entwhistle's bass sound is completely isolated from the rest of the group and must have been taken from the mixing desk and recorded directly to an on-board tape.
It's the entire song recorded live so at about 6:58 you'll see the camera move from Entwhistle and the bass drops out as the other instruments begin the final section with the bass resuming at 8:08.
Seeing this performance of John Entwhistle in isolation really does support the claim The Who were 3 lead instuments playing at once with Daltry's vocals on top.
If you ever wondered why John Entwhistle was called "The Ox" we might know after seeing this video (there were other reasons), the shear stamina and strength for a bass player to keep this cascade of notes going and in context of the song is simply jaw dropping. The whole thing is like an extended bass solo. No surprise the man was to change how other players conceived a bass role although few could ever achieve this level of strength and power.

A couple of points to look out for. It's possible he plays a wrong note in the run at 1:27 and immediately after smiles in recognition. But that is just the one note you'll understand.
Then right at the end of the song and the final crescendo of feedback he's using and the absolute nonchalance of the shut down of the instrument, the stage is immediately invaded by fan who embraces Daltry and the ambling figure of him mooching across shot is priceless. It was just another day in the office.
The entire piece is one of the most extraordinary recordings you'll see of any musicians skill and constituent part of a live rock band.

The film looks like it was The Who in September 1978 (search that) and if so was the last gig before Keith Moon's death on September 7th. John Entwhistle died in 2002.