Category Archives: Listening Post

Just finished Chronicles, Volume One, Bob Dylan’s recently released memoir. Wasn’t sure what to expect, but I was pleasantly surprised to find Dylan writing in a fairly straightforward way. Rather than being obscure or coy about major life-events, he offers frank, detailed (but often incomplete) takes on narrow slices of his life.

Chronicles is basically a collection of riffs on the development of his artistic consciousness. The book jumps all over the place, ignoring chronology, but Dylan is a great storyteller and this comes through on nearly every page.

Dylan recounts a variety of episodes–breaking into the folk scene in Greenwich Village; growing up on the Iron Range of Minnesota; discovering the music of Woody Guthrie while hanging out in the Dinkytown section of Minneapolis; his calculated efforts to reject the “voice of a generation” label with albums like Self-Portrait and New Morning; and a long description of his time in New Orleans working with producer Daniel Lanois on his 1989 “comeback” album Oh Mercy. The vivid descriptions of emotional/artistic trials and triumphs in making Oh Mercy and playing Cafe Wha? and the Gaslight were my favorite bits in of the book.

He mentions hundreds of people, nearly all in a positive light. He related to Rick Nelson and Frank Sanatra Jr. as artists. (I don’t doubt the former, but I think Bob might be pulling our leg about Frank Jr. and a few other observations.)

The inspiration of Woody Guthrie is palpable, but wrestler Gorgeous George inspires the young artist too!

Dave Van Ronk is saintly and John Hammond, Joan Baez, Bono, Ramblin’ Jack Elliot, Ray Gooch (for his sofa and library), Roy Orbison, Tony Curtis, Archibald MacLeish all have roles to play, but you’ll find more about Sun Pie (an elderly black man who runs a little junk store called “King Tut’s Museum” outside Raceland, Louisiana) than you will about The Beatles, The Band, or The Dead.

Dylan has whet our appetite with Chronicles, Volume One and raised expectations for the planned second and third volumes.

Now on to Greil Marcus’ latest…Like a Rolling Stone: Bob Dylan at the Crossroads.

What’s that voice in my head? Something has crawled in my ear, bored a hole in my brain, and now I’m guided by a voice. The voice is Robert Pollard’s and the real-life earwig is Guided by Voices.Admittedly, I was late to the scene. But, with the possible exception of Tommy Guerrero, the legendary Bones Brigade member and low-fi, funky, downbeat instrumentalist, I’ve listened to more GBV in the past two years than any other artist.

It started innocently, with “Teenage FBI” and “14 Cheerleader Cold Front.” Then on to “Surgical Focus,” “Things I Will Keep,” “Bulldog Skin,” “Everywhere with Helicopter,” “Motor Away,” “Hot Freaks,” “Glad Girls,” “Best of Jill Hives,” … “Watch Me Jump Start,” “My Kind of Soldier,” “To Remake the Young Flyer” … you can never get enough.

Tunes that check in at two-and-a-half minutes, vaguely bringing to mind The Cars, Cheap Trick, The Beatles or even Freddie and Dreamers; never sounding dated, even though they were created in Dayton, Ohio. And, always leave you wanting more.

Brilliant, obscure, enigmatic and addictive music. Listener beware. You will not be able to resist once Robert and the boys pull out their valuable hunting knife and bore a hole in your head.

I’ve been listening, pretty much non-stop, to Beck’s “Guero” since it came out on Tuesday. The first few tracks sounded quite strange because for the past month I spent a fair amount of time listening to Beck’s E-Pro EP. Weird to hear the remixes first, which as Colin pointed out to me sounded like they were done by someone with an obsession with Sega’s video game “Lemmings.” Ahh, memories of the old Game Gear…Anyway, most of the reviews for “Guero” are positive but not effusive. Reviewers are mildly disappointed that the new cd isn’t a shocking turn in some new direction and they all point to Beck in his role as the mid-30s dad as the reason we now have a “classic Beck’ album rather than something “really new.”

The reviewers revel in Beck’s eclecticism but seem more interested in internal consistency on albums. “Guero” is not a party album like “Mellow Gold” nor a break up album a la “Sea Change,” it just sounds like an album by Beck, and that’s a good thing (as Martha would say).

So, Guero, where you going? Good question and Beck’s album really made me think about that for some reason. How did a white boy who grew up idolizing hard core soul singers like James Carr, Don Covay, and Eddie Floyd (and remember The Fantastic Johnny C!) end up here, doing what I do, and listening to Beck instead of Michael Bolton and Yanni, who get shout-outs on “Guero,” along with James Joyce, of all people?

Steady movement to the left (geographically and politically); taking in bits and pieces and trying to craft something (intellectually and politically) that made sense to me. Not being intellectually promiscuous (at least I don’t think so), but heretical (whether the crowd is conservative, liberal, or “marxist”).

It’s not that Beck is musically promiscuous, there’s nothing casual about what he does, rather he continues to not conform to expectations and that’s what, in part, makes “Guero” a great album. It’s not shockingly different (for Beck).

Blues, hip hop, Marx, 70s pop, acoustic soul, anarchism, Stax, electronica, revolutions and revelations…it may be inscrutable, but it’s got a good beat, and you dance to it. I rate it at 98.