Album #13: Arlo Guthrie - Far Out at Woodstock

    Yes, Arlo takes after his father. His country music has a strong rooting in counter-culture, with a heavy emphasis on distancing morality from the law. Woody sung Pretty Boy Floyd about a man who does good and charitable work despite being an outlaw, and Arlo uses the plot point of getting arrested to satirize injustice in Alice's Resturaunt Massacre. While I have heard people say Arlo did not play what his father did, I think his style was actually extremely reminiscent of Woody's humourous talkin' blues. Their morality and politics are similar, and they use songs that are almost like stand-up comedy to get out these points. But what makes Arlo unique is their sprawling length, which gives him the freedom to tell any story however he wishes, which sometime is also just a regular country song. You hear a lot less talking in this concert than his usual sets, but it still is an important part of it. Long talking songs are style that is not for everyone, but I love it. What's a better way to write a counter-culture song than to decide when you want to sing or not sing your words?

    1.  intro

    2.  Coming Into Los Angeles 

    3.  talk

    4.  Wheel of Fortune

    5.  Walking Down the Line

    6.  The Story of Moses

    7.  Oh Mary, Don't You Weep

    8.  talk

    9.  Every Hand in the Land

    10.  Amazing Grace

DOWNLOAD: Google Drive

Album #12: Bob Dylan - The Supper Club, November 16th 1993

    I've been wanting to call it a day on Bob Dylan recordings. I have so many, and it's a lot to keep up with / listen to! But every time I think that, I find a crazy cool new album, so I think that collection will just keep on growing no matter what I do. I might invest in a hard drive.

    Bobby played here both on the 16th and 17th, but this is only recordings from the 16th, despite all four concerts (he did a late and early show for each) being soundboard quality. I have not been able to find and listen to the tapes from the 17th.

    People compare these concerts to the Unplugged album from two years after, and they both have that "acoustic-y" sound, but don't share any songs. It is a very fun sound, and it works really well with this setlist, which includes many tracks off his 90s covers albums. I love what he did with those songs on this album.

Record 1: Selections from Early Show

1. Absolutely Sweet Marie

2. Lay Lady Lay

3. Blood in My Eyes

4. Queen Jane Approximately 

5. Tight Connection to My Heart

6. Disease of Conceit

Record 2: Selections from Late Show

1. Ragged and Dirty

2. Jack-A-Roe

3. One Too Many Mornings

4. I Want You

5. Ring Them Bells

6. My Back Pages

7. Forever Young

Download link: Google Drive

Album #11: The Carl Wilson Band - Live at My Father's Place 1981

     Heres a great oddity for Beach Boys fans! In the early 80s, Carl Wilson, the youngest Wilson brother, lead guitarist, and very active member after SMiLE, started a small solo career! He had 2 albums, and this concert was recorded the year of the debut self-titled album. There is another recording floating around of The Carl Wilson Band from this year at the bottom line, and one or two more, and while this one is shorter, they all seem to have similar sound quality.

    The venue My Father's Place was in Roslyn in Long Island, New York. Richie Havens opened it's first ever concert, and it held performances by Bruce Springsteen, Billy Joel, Madonna, Black Flag, and more! It closed in 1987 but in 2018 they opened up a new version close by.

    Almost every song is from his debut record, besides a few notable exceptions. The opening Too Early To Tell ended up on the second record, and Long Promised Road is off the Beach Boy's album Surf's Up. He would close all his solo sets with a cover of the soul song I Thank You by Sam & Dave. Of the 8 songs off his debut record, he plays every track besides Seems So Long Ago, the closer.

    The top photo on the cover has Carl on the left, and him in the middle of the entire band, next to his "backup" vocalist Myrna Smith. She duets him, so I think she deserves more credit than backup! She also cowrote the entire debut record, while working as a teacher in New Jersey. Before Carl, she backed up singers like Elvis Presley and Aretha Franklin as part of The Sweet Inspirations. 

    If you haven't heard his solo career I think this is as good as an intro to it as his studio work. 

1. Too Early To Tell

2. Bright Lights

3. What You Gonna Do About Me

4. Long Promised Road

5. Hurry Love

6. The Grammy

7. Heaven

8. Hold Me

9. The Right Lane

10. I Thank You

Download link: Google Drive

Pocket Full of Rainbows: An Interactive look into THE ART OF DEAN

    All text was either created or traced into Adobe Illustrator

Also available at this link

(notice the sagittarius in the gallery!?)

Album #10: The Ronettes - Everything Under the Sun

    Memoirs are usually very formulaic, or at least can be criticized as so. I personally love reading them of artists I am interested in, but I get they sometimes aren't the most emotionally strong format to tell a story. Despite that, I almost cried multiple times reading Ronnie Spector's Be My Baby. Her story is so beautiful, and sad, yet so full of hope, that no matter how factually it is told, there is an overwhelming amount of emotion. I recommend you give it a casual read, and I won't retell her story, but I will highlight how much I loved learning about her life after leaving Phil Spector. It's full of hope. It was when I was reading that book in around November 2024 that I made this record. In the photo I used for the cover, she is far away from her sister and cousin bandmates, but I decided to keep that. Phil Spector always wanted to highlight her, not only to show appreciation, but isolate her.

   

    This is an album compiling stray tracks of The Ronettes. In Ronnie's book, she stated how she believed Phil's lyrics were his attempt to put words into Ronnie's mouth, and to control how she should feel about their relationship. For example, Be My Baby was from when they just started to date, and the song reflects that. On the darker side of this, Phil asserted his control with a song like You Came, You Saw, You Conquered. Phil has songwriting credit on every song except the title track. I attempted to put these songs into an order that shows the start, highs, lows, and end of the Spector couple. 

    Out of every album I have compiled, this might have been the one I've listened to the most. I find it a perfect companion to their masterpiece of an album.

1. Why Don't They Let us Fall in Love

2. Born To Be Together

3. Is This What I Get For Loving You?

4. Keep on Dancing

5. Paradise

6. Everything Under the Sun

7. I Can Hear Music

8. Woman in Love (With You)

9. Here I Sit

10. You Came, You Saw, You Conquered

11. Try Some, Buy Some

12. I Wish I Never Saw the Sunshine

Download/Listen: Google Drive 

Album #9: Charles Mingus - FREE MINGUS!! (Copenhagen April 14th 1964)

    The morning of, Charlie Mingus and his band were arrested and accused of shoplifting. In the concert, Mingus states how he was roughed up, affecting his ability to play some songs. Pianist Jaki Byard was missing for the first song, but returns to play a solo and join the band, being late because he was still dealing with the police. 

    This features the complete early set of the day, and all the tracks in capitals are in between talks, where you here the mess Mingus and his musicians were in after their hectic day. Despite this, they still put on what I think is a beautiful concert.

    The person behind bars in the cover is a heavily edited Mingus, and I was planning on calling the album Free Byard!! until i realized how similar that looked to Free Bird.

    Besides Byard on piano and Mingus on bass, the band featured Eric Dolphy on alto sax, bass clarinet, and flute, Clifford Jordan on tenor sax, Johnny Coles on trumpet, and Dannie Richmond on drums.

1. FREE BYARD!!

2. so long, eric

3. BYARD FREED!!

4. at fw u.s.a.

5. FREE MINGUS!!

6. orange was the color of her dress, then blue silk

7. meditations

Download link: Google Drive

Album #8: Richie Havens - Woodstock 1969

    The Woodstock covers might be the two I am proudest of so far. For John Sebastian, I thought his represented his fun and goofier side. For this, I had the idea in my head to use artwork from the Book of Kells, a REALLY old and really beautiful Irish religious text from the 9th century. The Wiki's history section can tell more about the book than I can, but I was in Ireland last summer and got to see it in Dublin. What a great time! The border and big letters are from the book, and the background is a photo of the crowd at Woodstock.

    I love how this recording starts, he introduced as "one of the most beautiful men in the world". While I never knew him, but this statement is reaffirmed with every recording of him, both in the studio, and especially in concert.

    Richie Havens was not scheduled to be, but was made the opening act of Woodstock after some delays and issues. The stage wasn't even ready for full bands! His set, to kill time so everything could work out, was longer than he had planned, which meant he had to come up with what to play, leading to the song Freedom, an improvised jam written on the spot. Because of it being such an important performance, this became Haven's introduction to the larger music world, and Freedom became his most iconic song.

   

    Alongside Freedom, Richie played From the Prison off his 1968 record Something Else: Again. This is one of my FAVORITE records, of not just 1968, but of all popular music. I've heard his cover of With a Little Help From My Friends was one of the songs he played to extend his set, and the only reason he ended up humming it was because he didn't remember enough lyrics, which I think is a very fun way to keep the song going. Instead of struggling through the words, he just did the melody, which he excelled at.

1. intro

2. From the Prison / Get Together / From the Prison

3. Stranger

4. talk

5. High Flying Bird

6. I Can't Make it Anymore

7. With a Little Help From My Friends

8. Handsome Johnny

9. talk

10. Strawberry Fields Forever

11. Freedom

Download Link: Google Drive