One of the songs on Bob Dylan’s new “Bootleg” release, Another Self Portrait (1969-1971): The Bootleg Series Vol. 10(2013), is the demo “Time Passes Slowly #1.” featuring George Harrison on guitar and background vocals. Harrison stopped by one of the Self Portrait sessions and the two recorded this version of the song.
Another version of “Time Passes Slowly” would end up on New Morning, but it is cool we get to hear this one from the vaults.
Of course, the two played together on other occasions. Harrison played slide guitar on Dylan’s Under the Red Sky (1990) album. And Nelson Wilbury (Harrison) and Lucky Wilbury (Dylan) were part of The Traveling Wilburys.
What is your favorite Dylan-Harrison collaboration? Leave your two cents in the comments.
Movieclips has put together a video imagining if Nicolas Cage were to appear in many movies. And, since they label it “Volume 1,” we probably can expect even more in the future. Check out the funny Nicolas Cage Gets Around Vol 1 – Parody Nicolas Cage Mashup (2013).
What is your favorite part of the Nick Cage mashup? Leave your two cents in the comments.
While everyone is buzzing about the MTV Video Music Awards, there actually was a major music event last night. The Replacements reunited for the first time in 22 years at Riot Fest in Toronto. Rolling Stone reports that nearly 10,000 people showed up for the historic event with Paul Westerberg and bassist Tommy Stinson, along with drummer Josh Freese and Dave Minehan on guitar.
The band’s 23-song set spanned their career and included a number of covers. So far, there are a few videos from the performance on YouTube. But for now, you may hear the entire performance streaming below courtesy of The Replacements – Live Archive Project. It is an audience recording, but it is still worth turning up your speakers and checking out.
The Replacements will play again September 15th in Chicago and September 21st in Denver.
What is your favorite song by The Replacements? Leave your two cents in the comments.
On February 1, 1994, Green Day released one of the landmark albums of the 1990s, Dookie. At the time, you could not go anywhere without hearing “When I Come Around.” The album would become Green Day’s best-selling album. And even if I prefer their American Idiot (2004) album, there is no denying the impact or catchy hooks of Dookie.
It is hard to believe that it has been around two decades since the band released Dookie. In the video below from the 2013 Reading Festival (U.K.) performance at Brixton Academy, lead singer Billie Joe Armstrong reminded the audience of the upcoming anniversary of the album, and then he announced the band was going to play the entire album. Roll cameras.
Check out the whole performance below.
What is your favorite Green Day song? Leave your two cents in the comments.
The excellent Coen Brothers’ movie O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000) opens with a scene of prisoners in the old South working on a road and singing the work song “Po’ Lazarus.” Unlike many of the other songs on the T-Bone Burnett produced soundtrack, though, “Po’ Lazarus” was not recorded specifically for the film.
Recording of “Po’ Lazarus”
The recording of “Po’ Lazarus” was one of the many recordings made by Alan Lomax and his father John Lomax. The two men visited the Mississippi State Penitentiary in 1959 and recorded prisoner James Carter leading a group of other prisoners in the song.
That recording of “Po’ Lazarus” later appeared on Lomax’s 1960’s album Bad Man Ballads credited to James Carter and the Prisoners. The song recounts a sheriff going to arrest Lazarus. Then, the sheriff ends up shooting “Po’ Lazarus”: “Well then they taken old Lazarus/ Yes they laid him on the commissary gallery.”
Finding James Carter
But that background is not even the coolest part of the story. According to The Southern Journey of Alan Lomaxby Tom Piazza, the Coen Brothers movie brought a little more good will to singer James Carter.
After the soundtrack to O Brother, Where Art Thou? became a bestseller, Alan Lomax’s daughter Lomax Chairetakis and others tracked down the 76-year-old Carter living in Chicago. They gave him a substantial royalty check. And then in February 2002 flew him, his wife, and two daughters to the Grammy Awards ceremony. At the ceremony, the soundtrack won the album of the year for 2001.
The New York Times noted that Carter had left home at age 13 and did time in prison for theft, a parole violation, and weapons possession. Before his rediscovery, he barely recalled singing the song for the recording.
James Carter passed away in November 2003, less than two years after his trip to the Grammys. The other prisoners in the recording have never been identified. But together they created an outstanding recording used in a classic film.
What is your favorite song from O Brother, Where Art Thou? Leave your two cents in the comments.
by Tom Piazza, the Coen Brothers movie brought a little more good will to singer James Carter.
