Category: Music

MTV Launched 30 Years Ago

Thirty years ago this Monday, on August 1, 1981 just after midnight. MTV began with a countdown to a rocket launch, a narrator then announcing “Ladies and gentlemen, rock and roll,” and then an image of an astronaut planting the MTV flag on the moon. Then the network showed its first video, “Video Killed The Radio Star” by the Buggles.

MTV I did not have cable at the time, and I do not remember that first broadcast. But I had three friends who shared an apartment.  And they paid for the essential cable, even though their apartment was so small they had to carve out three bedrooms from one room. So I was soon exposed to MTV while hanging out at their apartment.  Immediately, I was mesmerized by the new network devoted to music videos that matched my short attention span.

During the first week of its broadcast, MTV only had about 80 videos. But musicians and record companies soon changed that by making more videos to market their music to fans through MTV.

Today, as MTV has long left behind much of its music legacy to focus on shows like Jersey Shore.  So, I suspect that they probably play much less than 80 videos now.

Most people remember that the first video on MTV was “Video Killed the Radio Star.” Do you remember the second video? It was Pat Benatar’s “You Better Run.”

For more information, Today.com and HitFlix look back on thirty years of MTV.

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Music You Might Have Missed: Chris Whitley

Chris Whitley Dirt Floor

Chris Whitley may be the singer with the most CDs in my collection who most of my friends have never heard of. His music covered a wide range of styles, varying from album to album, but much of it was steeped in the blues, as he was an incredible guitar player. He often used alternate tunings on his guitar, creating a unique sound that is difficult to match.

Whitley was discovered by legendary producer Daniel Lanois, and a protege of Lanois produced Whitley’s first album, where you can hear Lanois’s influence. I bought Whitley’s Living With The Law (1991) on a cassette tape when I lived in Arizona, and I played the atmospheric songs every time I drove through the desolate painted desert in the northern part of the state. I especially love the opening title track and the second song, “Big Sky Country.”

“Dirt Floor” is the title song from a solo album Whitley recorded in one day in a Vermont log cabin. The sound of the album Dirt Floor (1998) and the sparse title song contrast greatly with the sound of Whitley’s first album, but “Dirt Floor” finds its power in a dark place that hides in the blues.

As you see above, Whitley is posing with a cigarette on the album cover of Dirt Floor. Seven years later, the title song “Dirt Floor” was posted on Whitley’s website when he died in 2005 from lung cancer at the young age of 45. Whitley, who was born on August 31 in 1960, left behind a daughter.

“There’s a dirt floor underneath here / To receive us when changes fail./ May this shovel loose your trouble, /Let them fall away.”

If you like the music, check out more of his work.

What do you think of Chris Whitley’s music? Leave a comment.

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    Van Morrison: Til I Gain Control Again

    Van Morrison Pay the Devil In addition to all of his other musical accomplishments, the Northern-Ireland-born Van Morrison is one of the greatest living interpreters of American music, be it blues, jazz, or R&B. One of his best albums in recent years is Pay the Devil (2006), where the entire CD is devoted to country music. And a standout track on the album is Rodney Crowell’s “Til I Gain Control Again,” which first appeared on Crowell’s 1981 self-titled album.

    “Til I Gain Control Again” is a beautiful song about love and heartbreak, where the singer realizes that it is too late to plead for reconciliation but is not yet able to let go. So the singer’s request is not for promises or for a future, but merely “I only hope that you can hold me now /Til I can gain control again.” Crowell has explained that the line, “There are some turns where I will spin,” means that the despair will happen again (“I’ll always pass this way again”). There may not be a sadder song about love’s end.

    Crowell wrote the song not long after he first arrived in Nashville, and has explained he wrote it in sort of a “three-day trance” where it was like the song came to him from another dimension. He also noted that one of the reasons he wrote the song was to get the attention of another great songwriter, Townes Van Zandt. An article from the New York Observer has a good interview with Crowell, where the article’s author concludes that “Til I Gain Control Again” is “one of those songs that are strong enough to change your life.”

    Crowell’s version is fantastic, and there are several excellent covers by other great artists. Emmylou Harris was the first to record the song, which appeared on her 1975 album, Elite Hotel. Other artists who have covered the song include Waylon Jennings, Raul Malo, Albert Lee, and Willie Nelson.

    Interestingly, in an interview on Texas Monthly‘s One By Willie podcast, Crowell explained how his favorite version is a studio recording by Willie Nelson where Crowell sang background. Unfortunately, that version is not widely available, appearing only on an out-of-print album sold as a bonus when people ordered by mail Nelson’s IRS Tapes. Instead, Nelson has released several live versions of the “Til I Gain Control Again.”

    This live version below has both Willie and Emmylou. Check it out.

    Crystal Gayle had the biggest hit with “Til I Gain Control Again,” taking it to number one in 1982. If you want something different, This Mortal Coil does an interesting sort of Goth Emo version.

    It is hard to pick a favorite version, but Van Morrison’s voice and interpretation give a soulful spin on “Til I Gain Control Again.” Although most of the artists who have recorded the song come from the country genre, Morrison does something a little different with the song, taking a brilliant song with so many excellent covers and making it his own.

    What is your favorite version of “Til I Gain Control Again”? Leave a comment.

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    Buy from Amazon

    Dylan’s Late Career Classics: Make You Feel My Love

    One of the many amazing and unusual things about Bob Dylan is that he continues to write great songs after such a long career. Most talented artists have a short period of brilliant creativity, but Dylan has transcended time. Few artists in any field have had such a long career of such quality.

    While Dylan is most famous for his early output, in his later years he continues to create relevant and beautiful music. One of those songs is “Make You Feel My Love” from his 1997 album, Time Out Of Mind.

    Bob Dylan Time Out of Mind The song has been covered by number of artists. Garth Brooks and Billy Joel, two great pop songwriters themselves, recognized the brilliance of “Make You Feel My Love.” They each released cover versions immediately after the song was available, with Brooks’s song going to number one on the country charts. The song also has been covered by Adele, Kelly Clarkson, Bryan Ferry, Joan Osborne, Kris Allen, Shawn Colvin, Neil Diamond, and Garth’s wife Trisha Yearwood, among others.

    Garth Brooks and Bob Dylan are anti-You Tube, so it is harder to hear their versions online, but you may hear a clip of Bob Dylan’s original on his website. If you are brave you might try this short clip of actor Jeremy Irons singing “To Make You Feel My Love.” Rebecca Ferguson, the season runner-up on the 2010 United Kingdom’s X Factor received a standing ovation from Simon Cowell for her version of the song, and 2009 American Idol winner Kris Allen also performed the song on that show. The Garth Brooks version also appeared in the Sandra Bullock movie, Hope Floats.

    By contrast, music critics have not been so kind to the song. Nigel Williamson’s Rough Guide to Bob Dylan calls it the “slightest composition” on Time Out of Mind. In Still on the Road, Clinton Heylin claims that the song shows Dylan’s inability to emulate Tin Pan Alley and that the song “truly belonged” on the Billy Joel album. Critics of the cover artists and shows like American Idol might argue that those artists reflect the poor quality of the song. They are wrong.

    The song is timeless and sounds like it has been around forever, which is the magic of so many of Bob Dylan’s songs. I agree with the critics that Time Out of Mind has greater songs in some senses, like “Not Dark Yet.” But it is “Make You Feel My Love” that will be covered for decades to come. Many of the lyrics are typical love song cliches, such as “I could hold you for a million years.” And some of the words do not look like they would work when you see them on the written page, including “I’d go hungry, I’d go black and blue / I’d go crawlin’ down the avenue.” But the combination of words with the melody create something timeless that is more than the separate parts. And the lyrics for the final bridge are something special:

    Though storms are raging on the rollin’ sea,
    And on the highway of regrets;
    Though winds of change are throwing wild and free,
    You ain’t seen nothin’ like me yet.

    This 2003 live version by Joan Osborne in Sausalito, California is one of the best versions of the song. There is something about this beautiful version on a sunny cool afternoon next to the ocean. Osborne’s heart really comes through her voice, even as the people talking in the crowd do not realize what is happening on stage. Thank goodness for YouTube so others can appreciate what they were missing. Her studio version of the song is on her 2000 album Righteous Love.

    In Keys to the Rain: The Definitive Bob Dylan Encyclopedia, Oliver Trager says that the song “is at best a lament for, or at worst a creepy plea to, an unattainable woman from a man getting more desperate by the minute.” He also points out that some have interpreted the song as being about the relationship between humans and Christ (“I could hold you for a million years”).

    Both interpretations from Trager are worth some thought, but ultimately the song seems more in the tradition of love songs like “My Girl” by the Temptations (“I’ve got sunshine on a cloudy day/ When it’s cold outside I’ve got the month of May.”) or “Unchained Melody” by The Righteous Brothers (“I’ve hungered for your touch/ A long lonely time/ And time goes by so slowly”) or “Here, There, and Everywhere” by the Beatles (“I want her everywhere”). There is a long tradition in pop music of using hyperbole to explain the unexplainable human emotion of love. And when you watch the Joan Osborne version above, there is no trace of Trager’s creepy old man left. While Dylan may be Dylan and may have intended something different, the song has taken on a life of its own through various interpretations, becoming one of his late career classics and a beautiful love song.

    What do you think? Is “Make You Feel My Love” a classic song or just a bad pop song or something else? Leave a comment.

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    Hail Atlantis!

    This morning at 11:30 a.m. EST, the space shuttle Atlantis successfully launched, marking NASA’s final shuttle mission. Atlantis will be in space for twelve days before returning to earth at Kennedy Space Center.

    Donovan Atlantis

    A previous Chimesfreedom post featured some thoughts about the end of the shuttle program, but watching this final launch online this morning at NASA HD-TV brings back a flood of memories, ranging from the excitement about the program when it was first announced, the thrill of the first test flights when the shuttle rode piggyback on jets, and remembering where I was when we lost the heroes on the Challenger in January 28, 1986 and on the Columbia on February 1, 2003. So today, it is hats off to all of the men and women (as well as some animals) who have contributed to the space program through the years, and here is hoping for future safe adventures.

    The space shuttle is named after a seafaring research ship, following a practice for naming the shuttles after ships. The articles do not say where the research ship got its name, but one may surmise that the name “Atlantis” comes from stories about the lost civilization and the continent that was buried beneath the sea. Tales about Atlantis, whether myth or reality, have circulated for centuries, and Plato wrote about it around 360 B.C.

    A little more recently, in 1969, Donovan released an album featuring the classic song about the lost civilization, “Atlantis.” It is an unusual and unforgettable song, where the singer begins by telling us about the island’s tragedy as an epic story and ends with his sadness over a lost love. The song was originally released in the U.S. as a B-side to the song “To Susan on the West Coast Waiting” because the record company thought U.S. record buyers would not be interested in a song with a long talking introduction. But they were wrong, and “Atlantis” became a much bigger hit than the A-side did.

    Around the Internet, there are rumors that Paul McCartney sings in the background and plays tambourine on “Atlantis,” although he is not listed in the credits for the song. Give it a listen and you will hear the McCartney-like voice near the end. But in a 2008 Goldmine interview, Donovan said that it was not McCartney (although McCartney claps and giggles on Donovan’s “Mellow Yellow“).

    And as you listen to “Atlantis,” send good thoughts to the astronauts on their journey, as well as to “the poet, the physician, the farmer, the scientist,/ The magician and the other so-called Gods of our legends.”

    Bonus “Atlantis” song: On Twitter, someone pointed out that The Shadows recorded an instrumental song also called “Atlantis” in the early 1960s. For readers who may not be familiar with the group, as explained on Allmusic.com, The Shadows were a landmark U.K. band in the 1960s and became one of the most popular instrumental groups in the world. Also, they often performed with Cliff Richard. Check them out if you do not know them already. (Thanks to @RetrospaceAndy.)

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