So I didn't get a Christmas Card From a Hooker in Minneapolis (Tom Waits) - nor indeed did I even meet one. But I did get some good blues licks written in my hotel room though (as I continue to work on "Blues for Jimmy Wingo") and late in the morning I set off to Dylan country in North Minnesota.
Dylan was born in Hibbing but moved as a young child to Duluth where he grew up. I decided to head for Duluth.
Naturally I chose some Dylan to accompany me on the journey with another fine album from 2001 called "Love & Theft". The title was inspired by a book called: "Love & Theft: Blackface Minstrelsy and the American Working Class"
This is another album in Dylan's comeback and again features a number of blues numbers as well as some great folk rock.
As the beautiful countryside sped on by through my windows I moved on to early Dylan from a "best of" album and sang along to "Tambourine Man", "Like Rolling Stone" and other classics as the treetops increased in number getting close to Duluth on Lake Superior.
Duluth is a major port city and feels very old world industrial. An impressive position by Lake Superior gives it a great vista - and in summer it looks lovely. I imagined what it must be like in winter. Cold, grey, wet and foreboding. The kind of place where you'd want to run into a bar and stay for a while or sit by a warm fire and eat wholesome, warming food. A place where soup would always taste good...
The city was very busy and vibrant with tourists along the lakefront which seems to have been re-developed with lots of bars, restaurants, music clubs and tourist focused stores. There were no signs to a Dylan museum or any such thing although I am sure the city must be proud of its most famous son.
Leaving Duluth I set Jenny in the direction of Milwaukee - some 300 miles away - and in the heart of Wisconsin which is the dairy state and the home of cheese. Milwaukee, however, is not the capital of Wisconsin as I had thought. That is Madison.
I listened to a Charlie Musselwhite album - Delta Hardware - which my cousin had given me in Nashville. Musselwhite is a vocalist and harp player and was born in Mississippi. He grew up alongside some of the great black bluesmen of the region and although white, has an authentic Mississippi blues sound.
The road to Milwaukee is punctuated with many names of places which come from the Algonquian language of the native American Indians - places like Pewaukee, Waukesha and so on. The latter featuring in the song "Meet Me In The Morning" from Dylan's Blood on The Tracks album...
"Meet me in the morning,
After 6am Waukesha..."
After Charlie Musselwhite I put on the new Neil Diamond album "Home After Dark" which was produced by Rick Rubin who did such an amazing job on Johhny Cash's last albums - the American Series.
Well, I am sorry to say that Rubin's magic didn't work on this album. Not for me. I've never been a Diamond fan and bought this CD on the basis that Rubin would ensure quality. Sadly I was wrong.
This album is pedestrian, uninspiring and frankly dull. I may give it a second listen at some point, just to check it wasn't a mood thing, but I was disappointed. It would seem that I am in the minority as it entered the album charts at number one when it was released in the US - although perhaps there are simply more people into mainstream country pop or just that the man they used to call "The Jewish Elvis" retains a loyal fan base even after a long period of quiet.
Following the Neil Diamond disappointment I thought I'd try another new CD which I had picked up at the airport on the way to the US by a band whose work I generally like.
Coldplay's new album is called "Viva La Vida" and has been a few years coming. I have to say I quite liked it, but - like much of their stuff - it will need a few listens to get properly into it.
One thing that did piss me off with this record is that they have started to get rather pretentious with their arrangements and experimentation. Sometimes it works, and sometimes it just doesn't. Strange intros, rhythm changes, two songs in one etc etc. These guys are pretty good creators of strong songs. They don't need to "mess around" to catch people's ears. OR at least they didn't in the past.
Often dubbed the "next U2" - they should avoid becoming grandiose like U2 did and stick to powerful pop/rock which people like to turn the volume up on - and not write stuff that results in a "skip" on the CD player. 3 out of 5 for this album with strong possibilities to move to 4 after a few plays, but no 5 coz they wanted it tooooo badly . . .
The antidote for the risk of listening to new CDs and not being immediately into a vibe is to put on some all time classic stuff which you know is not going to disappoint you. So that's exactly what I did.
The Rolling Stones. Doesn't need any more explanation than that. I loved "Shine a Light" - the Scorsese directed movie of their concert in New York at the Deacon Theatre. (The one Dick Waterman didn't go to even though he had free tickets!) and the rest of this day was to be spent listening to the boys from Dartford do their stuff in perhaps their best period - 1969-1973.
Let It Bleed - 1969
What an album and so many classic tracks! Gimme' Shelter, Midnight Rambler, Love in Vain (a cover of a Robert Johnson number), Country Honk (later turned into Honky Tonk Women and released as a single), Let It Bleed, You Can't Always Get What You Want, and You Got The Silver - the first album song which Keith Richards sings on (and he sings it again live in "Shine A Light"). After this Keith sang a song on pretty much every album the Stones released.
Sticky Fingers - 1971
The first full Mick Taylor album (who replaced Brian Jones after his death) and with the naughty cover art. This was possible as Sticky Fingers was the first album on a new label after the Stones moved on from Decca who did not allow the band much freedom previously.
From raunchy Brown Sugar to the mellow ballad Wild Horses - this is a another classic. The fifth song on the album "You Gotta Move" was a cover of a blues classic by bluesmen Mississippi Fred McDowell and Reverend Gary Davis.
Goats Head Soup - 1973
Angie - about Keith's then girlfriend Anita Pallenberg and not about Angie Bowie as some think - was the main single from the album which is underrated by some.
Doo Doo Heartbreaker is a powerful song and the album also features one of the band's most controversial songs - Star Star (original entitled "Star f*&ker" until Ahmet Ertegun, the President of the Atlantic record label - asked the Stones to change it). A Chuck Berry style guitar riff run through the song which alludes to acts with fruit and several stars including Ali McGraw, Steve McQueen and John Wayne. Seldom performed live, the band always refer to the song with its original title.
After these three classic Stones albums I rolled into Milwaukee (home of Miller beer and cheese!) listening to the first Rolling Stones first album from 1964.
The album is a collection of cover versions of classic blues, soul and rock n roll and reminds you instantly of where the Stones took their influences from - Memphis, Mississippi and Detroit. Soul, blues and Motown.
Milwaukee seemed like a nice place, but after another long day at the wheel I headed for a hotel and ended up in another Ramada. A steak dinner in a run down hotel restaurant and off to sleep before the final stretch the next day to sweet home Chicago . . .
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