Jim Carroll, R.I.P.

Punk poet and musician Jim Carroll has died at the age of 60 (NYT obituary). I guess that one of the most disturbing aspects of growing older is seeing the deaths of old friends and cultural icons, the reality of which brings us closer to our own mortality.

Jim Carroll had an immeasurable effect on my own writing and attitude. After reading about him in Creem magazine or somewhere, I picked up Carroll's Living At The Movies (1973) poetry collection, which blew my mind. This was my first real exposure to poetry outside of a few English classes in junior high, and the freedom of the imagery, and Carroll's grungy street-smart insight fired up my imagination. Carroll opened the door, for me, to Patti Smith, Charles Bukowski, and so much more. When The Basketball Diaries was published a few years later, the brilliance and honesty of Carroll's prose was simply blinding.

Carroll, the poet, became a musician at the urging of his friend Patti Smith, and Keith Richards helped the poet-rocker get a deal with Atlantic Records. The Jim Carroll Band would become best known for the raucous "People Who Died," from their acclaimed 1980 debut Catholic Boy, but they'd release two more albums -- Dry Dreams in 1982 and I Write Your Name in 1984. A punk rocker in every sense of the word, Carroll broke up the band during the mid-80s and returned to writing poetry and doing spoken word performances. Carroll would keep one foot in the rock & roll world, however, writing lyrics for Blue Oyster Cult, Boz Scaggs, and in a nifty lil' bit of symmetry, Bay area punks Rancid. Carroll released Praying Mantis, a collection of spoken word pieces, in 1991.

The Basketball Diaries would be made into a movie starring Leonardo DiCaprio, but his flirtation with the mainstream culture was fleeting.Carroll's importance is in the way that he legitimized the underground, his fusion of poetry and rock, and his vision and insight. He will be missed....

Jim Carroll Band - "Wicked Gravity"


Jim Carroll Band - "Sweet Jane"

John Hughes, R.I.P.

The above video features a wonderful montage of scenes from John Hughes' films.

Filmmaker John Hughes died of a heart attack yesterday, August 6, 2009 while visiting family in New York City. For many of us, Hughes was the cultural icon of the 1980s, a talented writer and director that captured the angst, frustration and heartbreak of the teen years unlike any artist before or since.

Born in 1950 in Lansing, Michigan, Hughes moved with his family to the Chicago, Illinois suburb of Northbrook, where he later graduated from high school. Hughes began his career writing advertising copy, freelancing as a joke writer for comedians like Rodney Dangerfield and Joan Rivers. A short story that he wrote based on his family vacations as a child became the basis for the National Lampoon's Vacation film and earned Hughes a staff position with the humor magazine.

During the decade of the '80s, Hughes unreeled an incredibly successful string of teen-oriented movies that were not only welcomed due to their unusual insight, but also for the richness of their characters. As both writer and director, Hughes created such cinematic moments as Sixteen Candles (1984), The Breakfast Club (1985), Weird Science (1985), and the immortal Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986).

As a screenwriter, Hughes penned such gems as the aforementioned National Lampoon's Vacation (1983); but also National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation (1989), a holiday classic shown every year; Pretty In Pink (1986); Some Kind Of Wonderful (1987); Home Alone (1990); and Home Alone 2 (1992), both of which are also dragged out every Christmas. Hughes also served as producer on many of these films.

Hughes' teen films featured the budding talents of many young actors and actresses, many of which would go on to one degree of fame and fortune, including Molly Ringwald (in three Hughes films), Anthony Michael Hall (in four), John Cusak, Matthew Broderick, Jon Cryer, Ally Sheedy, James Spader, Charlie Sheen, and Macaulay Culkin, among others. Hughes also worked with talented young directors, as well, providing folks like Chris Columbus, Howard Deutch, Amy Heckerling, and Harold Ramis with essential early experience.

During the late-80s, Hughes tried to leave his teen comedies behind with a slate of moderately successful, more adult-oriented films. The most successful of these was, perhaps, 1987's Planes, Trains & Automobiles starring Steve Martin and John Candy. In Candy, Hughes found the perfect comedic actor for his everyman humor, and the late comedian enjoyed roles in six different Hughes films, starring in the aforementioned Planes, Trains & Automobiles as well as The Great Outdoors (1988) and Uncle Buck (1989). Candy also had brief, but hilarious cameos in movies like National Lampoon's Vacation and Home Alone.

Often overlooked in critiques of Hughes' films is the role of class in his writing. Growing up in suburban, middle-class Illinois, Hughes eschewed the spotlight of fame, and although he worked with the Hollywood machine, he never bought into the L.A. lifestyle, preferring to live and raise his family in Illinois.

Hughes was a populist auteur, working in an updated, albeit similar vein as Frank Capra. Like Capra's films, a Hughes movie revolved around one or two main characters that were sympathetic extensions of his target audience. The rich were often mocked in Hughes films, their machinations against the less fortunate foiled. Hughes protagonists like Eric Stoltz's "Keith" and Mary Stuart Masterson's "Watts" in Some Kind Of Wonderful, or Molly Ringwald's "Andie" in Pretty In Pink resonated with teen audiences because of their vulnerability, loyalty, and romanticism.

More than any other filmmaker during the 1980s, Hughes had his thumb on the sound of teen America, and his movies reflected and reflected the music that young adults wanted to hear. His use of the Simple Minds' "Don't You Forget About Me" in The Breakfast Club broke the band in the U.S. while the Psychedelic Furs re-recorded "Pretty In Pink to be used in the film named after the song. Another song from Pretty In Pink, the lovely "If You Leave," was written and recorded specifically for the movie by Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark. Hughes' film soundtracks favored British new waves bands, and many teens first heard the music of the Smiths, Echo & the Bunnymen, New Order, the Jesus & Mary Chain, or Flesh For Lulu in one of his movies.

Hughes 1980s-era films were influenced by and, in turn, also influenced MTV. Many of his movies include video-ready musical montages such as Jon Cryer's take on the Otis Redding classic "Try A Little Tenderness" in Pretty In Pink, or Matthew Broderick's legendary performance of the Beatles' "Twist & Shout" during Ferris Bueller's Day Off. Music was often entwined in his character's lives, or used to build emotion in a scene, as with Irish band Lick The Tins' cover of "Can't Help Falling In Love" at the end of Some Kind Of Wonderful.

Hughes' found his greatest commercial success with the movie Home Alone, starring Macaulay Culkin as a precocious child accidentally left behind when his family goes on vacation. At the time, Home Alone was the most successful comedy of all time, grossing in excess of $280 million and spawning three sequels, only the second of which is really worth your time.

During the 1990s, Hughes' found his box office magic waning, and although he wrote a few commercially successful films like the awful crazy-dog flick Beethoven (1992), which also spun off a couple of sequels that Hughes had nothing to do with, he more often than not cranked out milk-duds like Dennis The Menace (1993). Hughes last film as a director was Curly Sue in 1991, after which he retired from Hollywood save for the occasional screenplay which, as I've pointed out, provided diminishing returns.

Although I was probably a good decade older than the audience for most of Hughes' 1980s-era teen comedies, I appreciated the well-written characters, the romantic storylines, the movie soundtracks, and Hughes attention to detail – like the Simple Minds poster on the wall of Ferris Bueller's bedroom. Some Kind Of Wonderful remains my favorite of his many movies, Eric Stoltz's lovelorn working class stiff and Mary Stuart Masterson's tough-but-tender beauty characters I would have liked as real people. Jon Cryer's "Duckie Dale" from Pretty In Pink, Anthony Michael Hall's geek "Ted" from Sixteen Candles, and Matthew Broderick's ever-cool "Ferris Bueller" are all memorable characters as well, and those films are among my favorites of all time by any writer or director.

John Hughes never wrote or directed anything that may be considered "high art," but his films remain pop culture classics nonetheless. Long after people have forgotten today's critically-acclaimed snoozefests, they'll be laughing at Ferris Beuller and that kid getting the best of the inept crooks...and that's not a bad legacy to have.

Check it out: memories of John Hughes from a former "pen pal"

(Click on the DVD covers to buy from Amazon.com)

Let Us All Praise Dave Cousins!

Dave Cousins, the long-time frontman for British folk-rock-prog band the Strawbs (shown above, performing with violinist Ian Cutler), is an underrated treasure in the world of rock & roll. Forming the Strawberry Hill Boys in the late-60s, recording their first album with vocalist Sandy Denny (who would go on to Fairport Convention), the Strawbs would go on through the '70s to record brilliant albums such as Grave New World (1972), Hero & Heroine (1974), Ghosts (1975), and Burning For You (1977), among others.

As related in an interview that I did with Cousins in 2007, the singer/songwriter "retired" from full-time performing with the band to take a job in commercial radio in the U.K. After appearing at the Strawbs' 30th anniversary celebration with other former bandmates in 1998, Cousins "re-started" the band in 2001, touring the U.S., Canada and Europe with a revolving line-up that has included such stalwarts of the '70s-era bands as guitarist Dave Lambert, bassist Chas Cronk, and keyboardist John Hawken, among others. Sometimes they tour as "Electric Strawbs" with full gear, sometimes as "Acoustic Strawbs," just three or four guys sitting on stools with their instruments.

Cousins recorded his first solo album, titled Two Weeks Last Summer, in 1972 and then didn't record a follow-up until The Boy In The Sailor Suit in 2007. Of the more recent album, which the Reverend reviewed for Harp magazine, I wrote "Cousins’ intricate wordplay is on display throughout, the album offering a balance of acoustic folk and electric rock, an appropriate soundtrack for this lyrical celebration of life and love." In 2008, Cousins released a follow-up and his third solo effort, Secret Paths, a collection of his favorite story-songs re-cast in a mostly acoustic light.

To promote Secret Paths, Cousins booked a short acoustic tour in the U.S. and Canada in the spring of 2008. He was accompanied on the first few dates by the talented violinist Ian Cutler, rounding out the tour with strictly solo performances. If you missed any of these shows, you missed out on one of the most intimate and breathtaking performances that you'll ever witness.

We caught Cousins and Cutler at The German House in Rochester NY, a cool old venue that began life over 80 years ago as a church hall. Booked by our buddy Tom Kohn at The Bop Shop record store, unfortunately Cousins was suffering from a touch of the flu during his visit, and was visibly ill before the show. He wasn't one to let down the 100 or so fans that had assembled to see him perform, though, so Cousins and Cutler carried on, weaving a magical spell created by Cousins' wonderful stories and well-worn voice, accompanied by Cutler's sometimes mournful, sometimes incendiary violin playing.

But you can witness Cousins' talents for yourself, as some fan has provided video from the singer's Kent, Ohio performance of the beautiful songs "Grace Darling" and "Blue Angel." The third video here, is a heavy reading of the Strawbs' "Grave New World" from a couple of years back, a mesmerizing song in spite of the video/sound quality.

Several of Cousins' performances from the 2008 tour were recorded, and recently released as an album titled Duochrome. Either the new album or Secret Paths (or The Boy In The Sailor Suit and Two Weeks Last Summer, for that matter) would make a great gift for the singer/songwriter fan in your life, all four albums showcasing the incredible talents of Dave Cousins. (Photos from the Rochester show by Rev. Keith A. Gordon, subsequently "freaked-out" in Photoshop Elements)

(Click on the CD cover to buy Secret Paths from Amazon.com)


Dave Cousins - "Grace Darling"


Dave Cousins - "Blue Angel"


The Strawbs - "Grave New World"

Standing At The Crossroads....

James McMurtry - "We Can't Make It Here"

America is standing at a crossroads, and the devil is pushing us to make a deal. Do we replace the worst Presidential administration in history with a doddering old fool and his bimbo sidekick, or do we choose the young, intelligent, and admittedly imperfect alternative?

The Devil You Know....

Under the Bush regime, we've seen the sins of the father magnified by the son...extraordinary rendition, the war in Iraq, Gitmo, spying on citizens, the lack of response to Hurricane Katrina and the burning and looting of New Orleans...the list is tragically long. John McCain has attempted to distance himself from an administration that, bluntly, history will rightly judge a dismal failure. But McCain has sold out what shred of dignity that he ever held, auctioned off his scruples to the right wing of a party that long ago lost its relevance to the average person. The G.O.P. stands for nothing more or less than a military-industrial complex that makes a few sycophants wealthy while ignoring the needs of the country.

McCain's choice of the Alaskan "Barbie Doll," Sarah Palin, as his running mate is as blatant a political move as I've ever witness in nearly 40 years of being aware of such things. The so-called "hockey mom" is nothing more than an ignorant appeal to the extreme Christian right that has controlled the Republican Party for several decades, a special interest group that wouldn't fully support the candidate until now. Heaven forbid that McCain get elected President and die in office...the completely unprepared Palin would have the rich hunting the poor for sport, shooting at them from black helicopters leased from Halliburton. Aggression and charisma don't make a good leader...the last eight years have proven this true...I'd prefer a modicum of intelligence, some common sense, and a little humility in my President, personally....

Barrack Obama is a great speaker and a charismatic individual, and although an imperfect candidate in many ways, he's the best shot we have to break the rule of the right, which dominated Congress from 1994 to 2006, and has sat in the White House for eight years. Obama, perhaps, is not aggressive enough, and afraid of being necklaced with the flaming label of "liberal," he keeps the Democratic Party's "special interests" – unions, gay Americans, feminists, etc – at arm's length.

Obama's health care proposal is laughable, relying on the largess of corporations unwilling to provide such concessions, and other Obama policies are equally naive, preferring to tread the middle-of-the-road rather than attempt to upset any apple carts. Even Obama's choice of Joe Biden...a long-time Demo party hack...seems to be calculated to "win back" disaffected Clintonites. Still, he's a much better choice than his rapidly aging opponent....

James McMurtry & Willie Nile

My opinion of singer/songwriter James McMurtry was formed entirely after listening to his first couple of major label records, unspectacular efforts that showcased a young, talented voice but just didn't knock me out. McMurtry has released six albums after leaving the major label ranks, and I know that he's become somewhat of a demigod in Americana circles. After doing a little reading, it's seems that McMurtry has honed his songwriting and performing skills to a surgical precision. Watching the video provided above, "We Can't Make It Here" (from McMurtry's 2005 album Childish Things), it's clear that McMurtry understands the pain in the heartland and the effect that "politrix* as usual" has had on American families, better than any politician. Perhaps it's time for me to pick up a couple of recent McMurtry albums and refamiliarize myself with a talent that I had originally written off....

Willie Nile, on the other hand, has been a long-time favorite of mine, a folk-rock poet that has long understood the hopes and dreams and fears of the average American. Signed in 1980 by Columbia Records – who thought that they had the next Springsteen in their hands – Nile has seemingly emerged from his three-album major label career with his sense of humor intact. Although I didn't hear much about Nile during the '90s...I heard that he had come to Nashville for a while to look into songwriting opportunities...he is enjoying a career renassaince of sorts during the new millennium, releasing the excellent Streets Of New York in 2006, and more recently the incredible Live From The Streets Of New York CD and DVD.

The video below, for Nile's insightful "Hard Times In America," was taken from the live DVD, but the song itself dates back to a five-song EP by that name that Nile released in 1992. I found a copy of the EP at The Great Escape in Nashville a decade later, musing that perhaps Nile had sold it to the store himself. I find it sadly prescient that the song has as much relevance today as it did when he wrote it....


Willie Nile - "Hard Times In America"

Click on Shepard Fairey's "Obama Progress" image to go to the Obama website

(Click on the CD covers to buy either album from Amazon.com)

Nick Moss & The Flip Tops - Benefit Show for Stolen Gear!

Scheduled to play the Ottawa Blues Festival last weekend in Ottawa, Ontario Canada, blues guitarist Nick Moss and his band The Fliptops had their van and all their gear stolen from the parking lot of their hotel sometime during the morning of July 5th, 2008. Although the parking area was supposed to be under surveillance, the film in the camera had not been replaced, so no photos of the crime are available to police, making it unlikely that the idiots that did this will ever be caught.

A "blues benefit" has been organized for September 7, 2008 at the Milwaukee Ale House in Milwaukee WI to help raise funds for the band to buy some new gear. Moss and the Flip Tops will perform, of course, along with friends like Rev. Raven & the Chain Smokin' Alter Boys, Perry Weber & the DeVilles, Billy Flynn, Jim Liban, and other special guests.

We have a list of the equipment that was stolen from Moss and the Flip Tops [PDF link here]. Anybody that has any information about this crime is urged to contact Moss either through the artist's website or through Blue Bella Records.

Nick Moss & the Flip Tops @ Buddy Guy's Legends Club, 2007

Nick Moss & the Flip Tops @ The Kalamazoo Blues Festival, 2007