Sound Bites

Song Review: David Bowie - “I Can’t Explain” (Trident Studios Version Take 2)

David Bowie’s recently discovered second take of “I Can’t Explain” is to amphetamine as the PinUps version is to Quaaludes.

Recorded at a breakneck pace June 24, 1972, this Who cover looks back to the early Kinks while foreshadowing Ramones. It follows a “Ziggy Stardust” demo and “Lady Stardust” (Alternative Version - Take 1) ahead of the June 14 arrival of Rock ‘n’ Roll Star!

With the two wildly different versions now available, it is clearer than ever that Bowie never quite figured out how to effectively record “I Can’t Explain,” though Sound Bites prefers the PinUps iteration. But if there’s another version lurking in the vaults somewhere, it’s only a matter of time before it comes out as the Bowie estate seems determined to release everything.

Grade card: David Bowie - “I Can’t Explain” (Trident Studios Version Take 2) - C

5/31/24

Song Review(s): Grateful Dead - “Baba O’Riley” -> “Tomorrow Never Knows” (Live, July 1, 1992)

While it’s true the expectation of the Grateful Dead’s pairing of “Baba O’Riley” and “Tomorrow Never Knows” turned out to be stronger than the band’s execution, it’s also true that reliving it on video via the Dead’s “All the Years Live” series reminded Sound Bites it was better than the blog’s memory had archived it as being.

The just-released July 1 version in Ohio was the second of two Sound Bites witnessed - the prior one coming earlier in the tour in Washington, D.C. - and it’s actually pretty solid and a rare example of Vince Welnick being in total control of the band. Jerry Garcia is a relative non-factor in this Who -> Beatles twofer as there are no big guitar solos in either song.

Welnick sings lead on both; with assistance from Bob Weir on the latter as Phil Lesh re-creates Fab sound effects with his vocal cords.

“Baba O’Riley” is uncharacteristically rabid for Grateful Dead Land, so much so that Weir jumps and slashes at his axe after the first verse. Lesh, meanwhile, sings with Welnick on the bridge and while vocals are the weak spot in both of these numbers, they’re quite exciting despite the disharmony.

Drummers Bill Kreutzmann and Mickey Hart get a chance to pound away on “Tomorrow Never Knows.” And they take it, launching the band through the “->” and helping to bring the two-pack in for a landing on the a cappella coda that finds Welnick singing a line from “Once in a Lifetime,” just to keep things fresh.

A refreshing surprise, this one. And not the same as it ever was in the Sound Brain after all.

Grade card: Grateful Dead - “Baba O’Riley” -> “Tomorrow Never Knows” (Live - 7/1/92) - B+/B

Read Sound Bites’ previous “All the Years Live” coverage here.

5/30/24

Rewind: The Who - Who’s Next (1971)

Though it has no filler, Who’s Next is an album that today is unworthy of playing straight through.

For despite its essential perfection, the Who’s second-consecutive masterpiece - Who’s Next followed 1969’s Tommy - is a victim of its own success, rendering the LP’s bookends, “Baba O’Riley” and “Won’t Get Fooled Again,” unnecessary, despite their exquisite composition, arrangement and performance.

Which leaves the hi-fi at Chez Sound Bites to play “Bargain” through “Behind Blue Eyes” almost exclusively, although the latter, too, is a song classic-rock disc jockeys have seen fit to overexpose. But the bridge - When my fist clenches, crack it open …, is impervious to unimaginative radio playlists.

In any event, guitarist/second lead vocalist Pete Townshend wrote eight instant classics for the album, while bassist extraordinaire John Entwistle contributed one with “My Wife,” on which he also plays the brass and piano. It’s songs such as this that serve to remind listeners that while there is no Who without Pete Townshend, the Who was also a band of, if not equals, then equally essential players, something that’s become more evident in the wake of drummer Keith Moon and Entwistle’s deaths in 1978 and 2002, respectively.

The singular Moon is at his looney peak on such songs as “Bargain” and “Going Mobile,” on which he transforms the drum set into a lead instrument without soloing. The kinetic energy in his playing is the Who’s engine and when Moon switches on the turbo, the band takes off in a way few others have been able to match.

Nicky Hopkins drops in to play piano on the balladic “The Song is Over” and the more-aggressive “Getting in Tune,” the latter being a rare song that leans heavily on a cliché - gettin’ in tune to the straight and narrow - without sounding clichéd. This is Townshend’s genius - as are “Love Ain’t for Keeping” and the other compositions the guitarist cranked out for the group’s fifth studio release.

For a band with the staying power of the Who - and the not-quite-authentic post-1982 lineups that played under its banner - it’s perhaps shocking to remember this classic lineup made only eight albums and just 12 have been released since the band’s 1965 formation. But when records like Who’s Next, not to mention Tommy and Quadrophenia, are among them, quality is the key; quantity an unrealistic dream.

Grade card: The Who - Who’s Next- A

4/7/24

Pete Townshend Joins “Tommy” Cast for “Tonight Show” Medley

It’s a rock opera. And if Pete Townshend’s appearance on “the Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon” with the Broadway cast of “the Who’s Tommy” is any indication, Tommy should’ve stayed that way.

With Townshend on acoustic guitar and background vocals, the cast played a medley of “Pinball Wizard,” “See Me, Feel Me” and “Listening to You.” Whether it was the unfamiliar voices, the Broadway staging, the fact that it was a medley or just that it seemed kind of pathetic in myriad ways, Sound Bites wasn’t feeling it and won’t listen again.

Townshend recently said he plays with the remnants of the Who for the money. One has to wonder about the rationale for this television appearance.

3/27/24

Honest to Pete: Townshend Comes Clean

- “I’ve been touring for the money. My idea of an ordinary lifestyle is pretty elevated,” guitarist says

Give Pete Townshend credit for transperancy. For while he keeps playing with a band that calls itself the Who, the guitarist admits he doesn’t particularly enjoy playing with a band that calls itself the Who.

“I don’t get much of a buzz from performing with the Who,” he said in comments carried by American Songwriter. “If I’m really honest, I’ve been touring for the money. My idea of an ordinary lifestyle is pretty elevated.”

Townshend also came clean in acknowledging that the modern Who isn’t the Who at all.

“The Who isn’t (Roger) Daltrey and Townshend onstage at 80, pretending to be young,” the 78-year-old guitarist said. “It’s the four of us (Daltrey, Townshend, Keith Moon and John Entwistle) in 1964, when we were 18 or 19. If you want to see the Who myth, wait for the avatar show.”

As grotesquely KISS-esque as that idea sounds, it might be coming soon to a theater near you.

“It feels to me like there’s one thing the Who can do, and that’s a final tour where we play every territory in the world and then crawl off to die,” Townshend said.

3/24/24

Octogenarian Wasteland: Roger Daltrey Turns 80

The fervent hope of his generation be damned, Roger Daltrey did not die before he got old and is now entering the octogenarian wasteland of his ninth decade.

Born March 1, 1944, Daltrey tuns 80 today.

Sound Bites can’t explain but I think it’s time.

Though he’s mostly been the voice and blue eyes behind Pete Townshend’s words and music, Daltrey has also made 10 albums outside the Who, where he’s the fiery throated, mic-swinging center of attention of what was once the world’s-loudest rock ‘n’ roll band.

Tommy, can you hear Sound Bites? The old man is all right.

3/1/24

Jeff Beck’s Final Recording to be Part of Mark Knopfler’s Teen Cancer Charity Single

- New recording of “Going Home (Theme from Local Hero)” will be released March 15 and credited to Mark Knopfler’s Guitar Heroes

Jeff Beck’s final recording - or at least parts of it - will be released March 15 on a new recording of “Going Home (Theme from Local Hero),” which Mark Knopfler spearheaded as a charity single benefitting Teenage Cancer Trust and Teen Cancer America.

Beck is just one of more than 60 musicians - including another Yardbird, a Beatle, a Stone, two Whos, two Eagles, a Black Sabbath and a Pink Floyd, a Genesis, a Lovin’ Spoonful and a Queen, to name a few - who came together, mostly remotely, under the banner of Mark Knopfler’s Guitar Heroes to make the nine-minute recording.

“I think what we’ve had is an embarrassment of riches,” Knopfler said in a news release quoted by NME.

Knopfler teased the track with a 15-second snippet that reveals the familiar melody of the 1983 song, but little else.

In addition to Beck, contributors include Joe Bonamassa, Paul Carrack, Eric Clapton, Ry Cooder, Steve Cropper, Roger Daltrey, Peter Frampton, Audley Freed, Vince Gill, David Gilmour, Buddy Guy, Tony Iommi, Joan Jett, Sonny Landreth, Albert Lee, Greg Leisz, Alex Lifeson, Steve Lukather, Phil Manzanera, Dave Mason, Brian May, John McLaughlin, Tom Morello, Rick Nielsen, Nile Rodgers, Mike Rutherford, Joe Satriani, John Sebastian, Slash, Bruce Springsteen, Ringo Starr and Zak Starkey, Sting, Susan Tedeschi and Derek Trucks, Pete Townshend, Steve Vai, Waddy Wachtel, Joe Walsh and Ronnie Wood among others.

Produced by Knopfler’s former Dire Straits bandmate Guy Fletcher, the track will be available on vinyl, CD, BluRay, download and streaming.

“What I really want to do, more than anything else, is just to thank each and every one (of the contributors) for this sterling response,” Knopfler said. “I really had no idea that it was going to be like this.”

2/8/24

Roger Daltrey to Step Down as Curator of Annual Teenage Cancer Trust Concerts

After nearly a quarter-century, Roger Daltrey is stepping away from his role as curator of the annual Teenage Cancer Trust benefit concerts.

Daltrey ends his tenure having raised the equivalent of $41 million for the U.K.’s National Health Service since 2000. Guest curators will assume Daltrey’s role beginning in 2025, the BBC reports, with the Who singer serving as Teenage Cancer Trust Honorary Patron.

“The £32m raised from these concerts has been the foundation for the 28 specialised units within the NHS, as well as specialist nurses and youth workers to be there for a young person when cancer has turned their world upside down,” Daltrey said in a statement.

11/14/24

Song Review(s): Billy & the Kids - “Join Together,” “Help on the Way” -> “Slipknot!” (Live, Oct. 21, 2023)

Rather than work up songs at sound check, Billy & the Kids chose to rehearse on stage in front of paying customers.

Thankfully, former Grateful Dead drummer Bill Kreutzmann’s band gave away a few tracks from its Oct. 21 livestream from New York. Because the combo of “Join Together,” “Help on the Way” -> “Slipknot!” wasn’t worth paying for.

The Who cover was so sloppy the band sounded like it was playing a frat house after getting into the kegs and therefore unable to actually “Join Together” within the band.

The Dead’s “Help on the Way” was tighter musically, though the amateurish vocals, frankly, sucked.

For its part, “Slipknot!” was mostly trance-space improvisation, a proposition made more disappointing by the fact the Kids proved able to execute the tricky composition when they finally picked up the theme. On the plus side, “Slipknot!” has no words.

Grade card: Billy & the Kids - “Join Together,” “Help on the Way” -> “Slipknot!” (Live - 10/21/23) - D-/D+/C-

10/22/23

Song Review(s): Billy & the Kids - “The Kids are Alright” and “St. Stephen” (Live, Oct. 20, 2023)

It could’ve been worse. But Billy & the Kids’ Oct. 20 livestream sampler from New York didn’t have much going for it.

The band opened with a version of the Who’s “The Kids are Alright” that sounded as if it hadn’t been rehearsed and the band therefore hadn’t figured out they knew only the vague contours of the music and no one really knew the words. Strangely, this turned out to be a good thing, because when the chorus rolled around - everyone knows that - it became clear the Kids weren’t capable of hitting the notes their adopted theme song requires.

After coming to a full stop, the band explored a bit of “Space” before the launching into the Grateful Dead’s “St. Stephen.” Launching might be the wrong word, as the number was played at Dead & Company tempo; featured vocals that made Dead & Company sound like I’m With Her in comparison; and also sounded under-rehearsed and choppy.

To top it all off, voices - presumably the audio engineers’ - kept bleeding through the feed, creating the ambiance of an audience recording at various points.

On the other hand, these songs were given away.

Grade card: Billy & the Kids - “The Kids are Alright” and “St. Stephen” (Live - 10/20/23) - F/D+

10/21/23

Song Review: John Mayer Trio - “They Love Each Other” (Live, Sept. 23, 2023)

He may have left Dead & Company, but John Mayer hasn’t left the Grateful Dead songbook behind.

Appearing at the Crossroads Guitar Festival with his eponymous trio, Mayer on Sept. 23 performed “They Love Each Other” in his own style.

With drummer Steve Jordon providing the glue and bassist Pino Palladino playing co-leads with Mayer’s guitar, the former Company man easily shifted the Dead song to his live repertoire.

The problem, as always, is Mayer’s vocal delivery, which veers from over-pronounced whining to off-key high notes. Dude sings as poorly as he plays magnificently. And his singing detracts mightily from his playing.

Grade card: John Mayer Trio - “They Love Each Other” (Live - 9/23/23) - B-

9/24/23

No Small Number to Face(s), Kenney Jones - Who? - Turns 75

Kenney Jones might not be a household name, but some of his former bandmates sure are.

Cats called Steve Marriott, Ronnie Wood, Rod Stewart, Pete Townshend and Roger Daltrey to name a few.

Jones, the co-founder and original drummer of the Small Faces and Faces and the man who replaced Keith Moon in the Who, turns 75 today, Sept. 16, 2023.

He’s in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame with the first two bands (combined into one by the hall) but not with the latter, despite being a full member of the group. This reflects poorly on the RRHOF, not Jones, who should be in at least because Townshend, Daltrey and John Entwistle thought him capable of stepping in for the irreplaceable Moon.

So, yeah, Jones got fucked on that one. But he’s had a career any other drummer would kill for. And here’s how he summed it up in his 2018 autobiography:

“When people ask me which is the best band I’ve been in, I answer that the Small Faces were the most creative, the Faces the most fun and the Who the most exciting.”

9/16/23

Album Review: Bettye LaVette - LaVette!

With 11 original songs by Randall Bramblett and musical cameos from a host of big-time players, it’s still the voice that puts the exclamation in Betty LaVette’s LaVette! LP.

At 77 and with a long history of almost making it before attaining star status in the 21st century, LaVette’s craggy instrument carries every one of those hardships with it. And Blamblett composed a batch of songs that tell her story in such a way that LaVette! doubles as a sonic biography of sorts.

Organist Steve Winwood, guitarist John Mayer, keyboardists Jon Batiste and Ray Parker Jr., pedal-steeler Larry Campbell and bassist Pino Palladino (the Who) and drummer Steve Jordan (the Rolling Stones) supply the canvas for LaVette’s strained paintings of a long life as a struggling musician (“See through Me,” “Plan B”), teenage fame (“Lazy [And I Know It]”) and loving and losing on “I’m Not Gonna Waste My Love.”

What LaVette! has in singing; however, it lacks in material. As a lyricist, Bramblett leans on tired phrases and simplistic rhyme schemes. Meanwhile, tracks such as “Mess about It” are little more than lengthy vamps nestled alongside unimaginative soul and blues melodies.

This may explain why LaVette has so many covers albums in her discography. For the original songs alone, LaVette! is a welcome, albeit flawed, departure.

Grade card: Bettye LaVette - LaVette! - C+

6/28/23

Song Review: Katie Jacoby - “Cosmic Dancer”

With her cover of “Cosmic Dancer,” Katie Jacoby accomplished the rare feat of staying true to the original while making the T. Rex song her own.

With double-tracked vocals and an effects-laden - perhaps backward - violin solo on the outro, Jacoby captures the essence of T. Rex/Marc Bolan and places it in the context of 2023.

I danced myself right out the womb … I danced myself into the tomb, she sings on her stand-alone single.

Backed by a string quartet and joined by Joe Russo’s Almost Dead bandmates Scott Metzger and Dave Dreiwitz (Ween), the Who’s touring violinist takes great care with what she calls “one of the most beautiful songs ever.”

Grade card: Katie Jacoby - “Cosmic Dancer” - B+

6/14/23

Quarter Notes: Blurbs & Briefs from Sound Bites

- In this edition: Les Claypool, Sean Lennon and Billy Strings; Charlie Watts; the HillBenders and the Texas Songwriters Hall of Fame

LES IS DOING MORE: Les Claypool is a busy man, telling Live for Live Music he and Sean Lennon are nearly done with a new Claypool Lennon Delirium record. More surprising is that Claypool says he’s making an album with Billy Strings.

CHARLIE WATTS’ STONE JAZZ: Coming June 30, Anthology collects 20 years of former Rolling Stones drummer Charlie Watts’ jazz recordings with various lineups.

GRAND OLE HILLBENDERS: The HillBenders, perhaps best known for their bluegrass interpretations of the Who’s songbook, will make their Grand Ole Opry debut July 1.

TEXAS SONGWRITERS HOF ANNOUNCES CLASS OF 2024: Eric Johnson, Jack Ingram, Jon Randall, Ruthie Foster and Terry McBride will be inducted into the Texas Songwriters Hall of Fame on Feb. 24, 2024.

5/12/23

Trailer for Syd Barrett Doc Traces Broad Outlines

- “Have You Got it Yet?” opens May 15 in U.K.; arrives in United States in June

“Have You Got it Yet? The Story of Syd Barrett and Pink Floyd” will open May 15 in the United Kingdom with U.S. release slated for June.

The trailer is out now.

Soundtracked with “Shine on You Crazy Diamond,” the short teaser seems to foreshadow a film based around home movies, archival footage of the band and the familiar story of Barrett forming the Pink Floyd, having a mental break - but there’s more to it than that, the trailer says - leaving the band and living as a recluse for three decades while Pink Floyd becomes one of the world’s biggest groups.

As previously reported, “Have You Got it Yet?” features interviews with Barrett’s surviving former Pink Floyd bandmates David Gilmour, Nick Mason and Roger Waters; band managers Peter Jenner and Andrew King; Pete Townshend; Blur’s Graham Coxon; Barrett’s sister Rosemary Breen; and others.

4/26/23

Song Review: Pete Townshend - “Can’t Outrun the Truth”

After 29 years, Pete Townshend has released a solo track. And it’s a quarantine song released a couple of years after quarantine ended.

This lockdown is bringing me down/my mind’s gone underground/though I crawl from room to room/I can’t leave myself behind, Townshend sings on “Can’t Outrun the Truth.”

Townshend didn’t write it; his wife, Rachel Fuller, did. And they’re donating a portion of proceeds to the Teenage Cancer Trust.

It’s acoustic. With brushed drums and orchestral adornments - much like the Who on stage these days.

“Can’t Outrun the Truth” is late and already dated. But it’s a pretty decent return for the guitarist and a wonderful reason for a comeback.

Grade card: Pete Townshend - “Can’t Outrun the Truth” - C+

3/27/23