Music Sweet Music # 1

I've been a fan of The Rolling Stones since late Summer of 1972. I knew that they existed as far back as at some point in early 1970 when I was still living on Franklin Street in Santa Clara. It was just before I was to move back to Santa Clara in 1972 that I was hanging out at the house of my Dad's Best Man when I made the discovery. I was in his youngest son's room (who was in High School) and I was deciding what I wanted to listen to. When my friend's family moved up to Eugene in 1971, he was always very generous in letting me play stuff from his record collection. I was sorting through his albums when I saw this album called Get Yer Ya-Ya's Out. I looked at it and I thought it looked like something cool. I put the record on and the stars aligned and I had one of those times of clarity when your senses get lit up like a Christmas tree. As soon as I heard "Jumpin' Jack Flash", I became a huge fan. When I made the move back to Santa Clara in the Fall of '72, I had my Mom take me for a run over to The Wherehouse and I made a beeline to get my first copy of Get Yer Ya-Ya's Out. Not long afterwards, I had her take me back (when I had saved my money) and I splurged on getting a copy of Hot Rocks. I now sit here on the day that the 40th Anniversary Edition of Get Yer Ya-Ya's Out has been released to the public. My copy is in the mail and I'll be diving into it next week. Though I am older and I am aware of the fact that there are vocal overdubs and some studio doctoring on the album, it's going to nice to have this. I just wish Jagger and the people at ABKCO could sit down, work things out and get some full undoctored 1969 shows released. I'll tackle this subject in a post very soon as it is something I'm very passionate about. We need Taylor Era shows to be released. I will mention that the album was recorded at the Madison Squuare Garden shows in late November of 1969. You should know that "Love In Vain", with the incredibly beautiful guitar solo from Mick Taylor, is actually from Baltimore. This particular track is also essentially undoctored...Though I'm still a huge fan of The Rolling Stones, how I view them has changed over the years. I really miss when they were considered a dangerous band in the eyes of a lot of people. I viewed them that way from their beginning all the way up through the '78 Tour in support of the Some Girls album and including the tour that Ronnie Wood and Keith Richards did as The New Barbarians in 1979 when they were touring in support of Ronnie's great Gimme Some Neck album. But once Mick Jagger decided to accept the Jovan sponsorship of the 1981 North American Tour in support of the Tattoo You album, things began to change for me. Instead of becoming a dangerous band, they became a big corporate entity. Also, if I'm recalling correctly, it was to also be their last association with Bill Graham as the guy they put in charge of running the tour. They would eventually go on to let Michael Cohl (sp?) run their tours which put another corporate spin to how they operated. I haven't stopped enjoying the music even though a lot of the post-'78 material has been a roller coaster and not altogether consistent...Over the last couple of years, I have developed a great love for Highlife Music from Western Africa. I am finding that, much like some music I love, the period I like the most is from the late '60's-mid' 70s. The late '70s Highlife gets a little too much on the Funk side due to the influence of dance/Disco material from here in the U.S.. The reason for how I got into this music is twofold. In 1973, there was a great little single which hit Top 40 radio when I was living on Camino Drive from a gentleman from Cameroon named Manu Dibango called "Soul Makossa". It is a song that is of Afro-Jazz sensibility and I loved it. It stayed with me through all of these years. I've had it on one of my Rhino Soul Hits of the '70s series. To go with my memory of loving the song when I was growing up, I read an article in Rolling Stone by David Fricke in his column about a then new compilation from a label in Brighton, England called Soundway with various artists from Nigeria on it called Nigeria Special: Modern Highlife, Afro-Sounds & Nigerian Blues 1970-6. If you pick this up as well as another compilation called African Scream Contest: Raw & Psychedelic Afro Sounds from Benin & Togo 70s on the Analog Africa label, I swear to you that your world will be rocked and that you will thank me for having picked this stuff up. To go with the African elements, you get a mix of Soul, Funk and Jazz in various forms for an incredible blend. I just wish this stuff had been more popular here in the United States. It is as if a spirit had remembered me for remembering Manu Dibango and I was being rewarded many years later...Though I don't have much time to expand upon it now, I have gotten into Jazz over the last decade. John Coltrane has been a particular revelation for me as well as pre-Fusion Miles Davis and Thelonious Monk. I also dearly love Duke Ellington and Louis Armstrong. I will post many more music items as time goes on. I will also talk a lot about my love of Soul and Blues as well. I will combine the personal with the musically analytical in future posts.