Absolute Elsewhere
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PAUL McCARTNEY, THE TRIBUTE ALBUM: Pop's greatest craftsman gets Big Name thumbs aloft
17 Nov 2014 | 8 min read
It's probably possible to count the number of songs Paul McCartney has written -- you can bet his publishing people and royalty-collecting accountants have -- but here's a guess: do the maths on all the solo albums and Beatle-era stuff, plus soundtrack work right back to The Family Way in '67 when he was still in the Beatles, songs he gifted to others, stuff like The Fireman which many don't... > Read more
Things We Said Today
PAUL McCARTNEY WINGING IT IN THE SEVENTIES (2014): Venus and Mars, At The Speed Of Sound revisited
17 Nov 2014 | 5 min read
If you're going to celebrate the end of a recording session why not have the party aboard the Queen Mary which is permanently docked at Long Beach, California?And why not invite a couple of hundred pals like Bob Dylan, the Jackson Five, various Led Zeppers, a couple of Monkees, Joni Mitchell, Marvin Gaye, the Faces, an Everly Brother (Phil), George Harrison, Dean Martin, Cher . . .... > Read more
Junior's Farm
PAUL McCARTNEY SOLO CAREER; PART 1, 1970-80: Success in the Seventies
15 Nov 2014 | 10 min read | 1
Paul McCartney once commented that his solo career since the Beatles -- now stretching to more than four decades -- was largely undiscovered territory. That’s true. But can anyone name anything from his ‘79 album Back to the Egg? And more to the point, why would they want to? But this is also the man -- once known as Mr Thumbs Aloft -- who hardly ever explored or... > Read more
Waterfalls
PAUL McCARTNEY SOLO CAREER PART 2, 1980-90: Adrift in the Eighties
15 Nov 2014 | 7 min read
Paul McCartney closed the Seventies much as he had started it: with the low-key self-titled album McCartney II which deliberately tried to downplay expectation and evoke the charm of his debut solo album McCartney in 1970. Quite where he might have gone after that was an open book, but the decade had been one of diminishing musical returns after the excellent Ram in 1972, the runaway... > Read more
Lucille (from Choba b CCCP)
PAUL McCARTNEY SOLO CAREER PART 3, 1990-2000: Classical, pop and what else ya got?
15 Nov 2014 | 12 min read
As Paul McCartney closed his Eighties on a real high -- a massively successful world tour which won critical accolades and pulled in huge gate-takings -- it would seem he was back in top, rocking form. Not bad for someone who was perilously close to 50. By 1990 he had been two decades out of the Beatles and had behind him more than a dozen solo albums (or with Wings) to draw on in concert.... > Read more
Blue Jean Bop (from Run Devil Run)
PAUL McCARTNEY SOLO CAREER PART 4, 2000 - NOW: Here, there and everywhere
15 Nov 2014 | 20 min read
For a man pronounced dead by radio DJs back in the late Sixties, Paul McCartney (or his doppelganger) has has a long and productive life. And musically diverse, as the Nineties proved: classical, pop-rock, balls-out rock'n'roll, acoustic sets, experimental electronica . . . Not a bad track record late in a long career. And in the new millennium he showed no signs of slowing down, either on... > Read more
Plastic Beetle (Liverpool Sound Collage)
PHIL MANZANERA ON PINK FLOYD'S FAREWELL ALBUM (2014): Last ride on the Endless River
10 Nov 2014 | 14 min read
Phil Manzanera laughs when talks about the two years-plus making of the new Pink Floyd album The Endless River. About 30 months in which mostly not a lot happened with Floyd's remaining members guitarist David Gilmour and drummer Nick Mason. The album arrives with that accumulated cachet of Floyd's long career from those Syd Barrett days, through Dark... > Read more
DAVE GROHL CONSIDERED (2014): Good, better . . . best
10 Nov 2014 | 4 min read
This is true: I was in the studio when Dave Grohl's post-Nirvana band Foo Fighters recorded for the first time. And it wasn't in Seattle as you might expect. Roll the tape back and me being in a BBC studio in London with them makes sense. The self-titled Foo Fighters album of '94 wasn't a band outing, it was Grohl doing just about all the parts himself and sending the songs off to a... > Read more
T BONE BURNETT INTERVIEWED (2014): Are we rolling again, Bob?
8 Nov 2014 | 6 min read
By happy coincidence, the very day we speak with producer T Bone Burnett about his new project – five well-known musicians setting 16 recently discovered lyrics by Bob Dylan from the late Sixties under the banner The New Basement Tapes; Lost on the River – the six CD box set of Dylan's Basement Tapes, 138 tracks in total, are being released.... > Read more
Spanish Mary
CHRIS SQUIRE OF YES INTERVIEWED (2014): A career that's no disgrace
7 Nov 2014 | 5 min read
Chris Squire – bassist and sole constant in Yes, the prog-rock band he founded – is reflecting on the group's longevity using the only reference point he had when the group formed. “Oh yes. 'Who knew?' is the catch phrase about this. “When Yes first started in 68 that was a year prior to the Beatles breaking up. Their visible career was... > Read more
Siberian Khatru
KEITH RICHARDS INTERVIEWED (2013): Coming down again
7 Nov 2014 | 8 min read
A few minutes before the appointed time the phone rings and a scratchy voice wheezes, “Hello man, s'Keith”. And it is. No intermediary, no international call connection through a third party, just Keith Richards laughing down the line. Which is unexpected in a world where stars have minions to connect calls (and sometimes listening, in case things get “awkward”... > Read more
Gimme Shelter (2014)
BOBBY KEYS INTERVIEWED (2014): Sax'n'drugs and rock'n'roll
3 Nov 2014 | 8 min read
Saxophonist Bobby Keys says he doesn't drink these days: “I'm extremely sober. I mean, I'll have a beer every so often, but it's been years since I've been drunk. I don't drink anymore because it makes it too hard to get up the next day,” he laughs. At 70, Keys might well be more moderate in his intake, but he was such a heroic user of drugs and alcohol in his... > Read more
Brown Sugar (live 2013)
LED ZEPPELIN REVISITED, PART TWO (2014): Another turn of the Page
1 Nov 2014 | 3 min read | 1
In a recent interview – although more a passing comment it seemed – Jimmy Page indicated he was keen to get some new music together. That would be smart because 70 year old Page could be having the last rites read before Robert Plant would want to get Led Zeppelin together again. As Elsewhere has noted previously, Plant is nowhere near as attached to the legacy of Led... > Read more
No Quarter (rough mix, no vocals)
JAMES BURTON INTERVIEWED (2014): Six stringer for the stars
29 Oct 2014 | 10 min read
A conversation with legendary guitarist James Burton could almost sound like name-dropping: he's worked with not one but two Elvises, Ray Charles, Joni Mitchell, Jerry Lee Lewis, George Harrison, the Monkees . . . It's all true but – at 75 – he's self-effacing. He's seen fame of the Elvis Presley kind but enjoys a different kind of buzz . . .... > Read more
Cannonball Rag (1958)
NEIL DIAMOND CONSIDERED (2014): Back down the melody road
27 Oct 2014 | 4 min read | 1
Speak this low: Neil Diamond used to be cool. Not tacky cool like Engelbert Humperdinck, but actual rock star cool. Quite when he lost the cool is hard to say, but you'd have to factor in the godawful mawkish duet in '78 with Barbra Streisand on You Don't Bring Me Flowers. It wasn't entirely all down hill after that, but before then he'd been so cool that The Band invited him to... > Read more
The Art of Love
GEORGE HARRISON REVISITED, PART ONE (2014): The dark horse bolting out of the gate
24 Oct 2014 | 13 min read
Perhaps he was no more contradictory than any of us, but because of his larger life George Harrison sometimes seemed to be a man of diametrically opposed parts. He was a spiritual family man who could go on cocaine benders and wasn't above using his status as a former Beatle to pick up women. He was a meditative man but among his chief pleasures was Formula 1. He was considered... > Read more
This Guitar Can't Keep From Crying (alt version)
GEORGE HARRISON REVISITED, PART TWO (2014): The dark horse at a canter to the end
24 Oct 2014 | 8 min read | 4
The 2004 Oscars were unusual in how lacking in sentiment they were. Usually you'd expect a veteran favourite like Clint Eastwood to be recognised, or some time-server to get best supporting something. But no, what Lord of the Rings didn't win went to choices seemingly unmotivated by heart-tugging or vote-rigging. The Grammys that year were another matter. Best pop instrumental... > Read more
Marwa Blues
DON WAS INTERVIEWED (2014): This note's for you
20 Oct 2014 | 12 min read | 1
By coincidence, the day I got an e-mail to say famous producer Don Was -- head of the Blue Note jazz label these past two and half years -- was available for an interview I had just seen him on a great documentary about Charles Lloyd the wonderfully spiritual saxophonist who has been delivering superb albums on Manfred Eicher's ECM label for about 25 years.... > Read more
Mode for Joe
RYAN BINGHAM INTERVIEWED (2014): The road and the endless highways
10 Oct 2014 | 12 min read
There are plenty of easy descriptions for the bruised, whisky'n'cigarettes vocals of Ryan Bingham but one of the best was that he sounded like Steve Earle's father. That was written about Bingham's first album Mescalito seven years ago when he was just 25, and he admits that voice has been blown out even more since then. Today Bingham has four albums behind him – his most recent... > Read more
All Choked Up Again
ROBERT PLANT CONSIDERED (2014): The sensational space and song shifter
7 Oct 2014 | 4 min read
Exactly 20 years ago Robert Plant finally found a clear path out of the shadow of Led Zeppelin, and ironically it involved embracing the music of his former band. Two years after the end of the mighty Zepp following the death of drummer John Bonham, Plant launched a solo career in '82 with the album Pictures at Eleven. It was a polite break with heavy-Zepp but as with most of the... > Read more