On The Sixtieth Anniversary Of Her Death-Lady Day-Billie Holiday- She Took Our Pain Away Despite Her Own Pains- *Lady Sings The Blues-Billie Holiday, Natch

Click on the headline to link to a YouTube film clip of Billie Holiday performing Strange Fruit.

CD REVIEW

The Quintessential Billie Holiday, Volume 9, (1940-1942) Billie Holiday, Columbia, 1991

In my book, and I am hardly alone on this, Billie Holiday is the torch singer's torch singer. Maybe it is the phrasing on her best songs. That well-placed hush. Maybe it is the unbreakable link between her voice when she is on a roll and the arrangements. Hell, maybe in the end it was the dope but, by Jesus, she could sing a modern ballad of love, lost or both like no other. And if it was the dope, let me say this- a `normal' nice singer could sing for a hundred years and never get it right, the way Billie could get it right when she was at her best. Dope or no dope. Was she always at her best? These recordings done between 1940 and 1942 show the highs. Billie had mastered her trade.

Many of the songs on the current compilation are technically sound, a few not, as is to be expected on such re-mastering. You will like Am I Blue and In My Solitude. Can anyone every do a Cole Porter song better than Billie on Let's Do It. Or the phrasing of Johnny Mercer's Mandy and Me. Damn.

One last word- I have occasionally mentioned my love of Billie Holiday's music to younger acquaintances. Some of their responses reflecting, I think, the influence of the movie version of her life (Lady Sings the Blues with Diana Ross) or some unsympathetic black history 'up lift' type views on her life have written her off as an 'addled' doper. Here is my rejoinder- If when I am blue and need a pick me-up and put on a Billie platter (CD)and feel better then, my friends, I do not give a damn about the dope. Enough said.

The Quintessential Billie Holiday, Volume 6, (1938) Billie Holiday, Columbia, 1991


Many of the songs on this compilation are technically sound, a few not, as is to be expected on such re-mastering. For examples of what I mean by what I said in the first paragraph of this review check out the playfulness of You Go to My Head and If I Were You. The sentiment of The Very Thought of You and I Got a Date With A Dream. Hey, I don’t even usually like these kinds of songs composed by the masters of Tin Pan Alley but they had me had me humming along. That tells the tale here.

In Honor Of The Late Rocker Chuck Berry Who Helped Make It All Possible-HAIL, HAIL CHUCK BERRY

In Honor Of The Late Rocker Chuck Berry Who Helped Make It All Possible-HAIL, HAIL CHUCK BERRY

DVD REVIEW

HAIL, HAIL ROCK AND ROCK, TAYLOR HACKFORD, 1987, DVD RELEASE 2006

Long ago, in the mists of time, I was listening to my radio when Chuck Berry’s Johnny B. Goode came thundering across the airways. I have been a fan ever since and never looked back. As portrayed in Hail, Hail Rock and Roll neither did Chuck Berry. There may be continuing controversy about the roots of rock and rock-whether it derived from rhythm and blues, rock-a-billy, jazzed up country or all of them- but as the tributes by later performers across the musician and racial spectrum that are dotted throughout this documentary testify to- Chuck Berry was at the center of the storm.

This film is focused on preparations by the Rolling Stones’ Keith Richards, an ardent admirer, to put together a celebration for Berry’s 60th birthday in his hometown of St. Louis. It also offers as background a glimpse into Chuck’s work ethic, his engaging, if prickly, personality and his very individualistic slant on life. The concert itself is highlighted by the work of Berry and Richards along with guest spots by the likes of Linda Rhonstadt who blows away the house on Back in the U.S.A., Etta James, Julian Lennon and many others who in the past had covered his work. An additional 3 discs give more detailed background on the making of the the original film and provide extra musical treats cut out of the film.

One does not unusually associate the old time black rock and rollers like Berry, Little Richard and Bo Didderly with politics, civil rights or black consciousness, as such. Thus, it was interesting to hear in some of the ‘talking head’ sections interspersed throughout the documentary their take on what it was like to be black, talented, and many times poor and struggling in a white world that had the discretionary income to listen to their music. Nevertheless, due to the hard segregation of the times they faced insult, scorn and slick dealings from the white-dominated musical world that counted. The most poignant moment of the whole film is when Berry notes that the theater where his celebration was to occur had been off-limits to him as a youth and that just a short distance away from that site his forbears were sold into slavery. Now that is testimony to a very simple but elegant sense of political consciousness.

1950's Oldies But Goodies- Roy, Carl and Elvis

Here are few revivals out of our past, if you grew up in the 1950's.

Roy The Boy

Black and White Nights, Roy Orbison, Roy Orbison Productions, 1987

In another entry in this space I have reviewed Roy Orbison’s In Dreams that is a more ‘talking heads’ approach to his life and music. And that too has its merits. However, when we talk of Roy Orbison then the music is what we really want to deal with. And here one gets all the Roy the Boy one wants, and more. Backed by the likes of Bruce Springsteen, Elvis Costello, Tom Wait and Jackson Browne Roy goes through a litany of his greatest hits from Claudette to Pretty Woman.

But wait, what about the back up singers that were mandatory to late 1950’s rock music. Well, how about k.d. Lang, Bonnie Raitt and Jennifer Warnes. Well, not bad for backup, right? That tells you exactly what you are getting here. The best. Plus a bonus, bonus in some very, very fine licks by T-bone Burnett. Outstanding here are Sweet Dreams, Baby (with Springsteen on lead vocals along with Roy) and the finale Pretty Woman (with an incredible series of riffs by all the guitarists). Yes, Sweet Dreams, Baby.


How About Them Blue Suede Shoes

Carl Perkins- King of Rockabilly and Friends, Carl Perkins, 1985

Everyone who cares now knows that the roots of rock and rock came from a few sources, country blues, city blues, and rhythm and blues of the Big Joe Turner sort and from the white South rockabilly from the likes of Jerry Lee Lewis and the artist reviewed here- Carl Perkins. Over the long haul I believe that the key is that Turner rhythm and blues on Shake, Rattle and Roll that defines the roots of rock and roll but that is just for argument’s sake. Carl Perkins can lay claim to a piece of that magic with Blue Suede Shoes (latter covered by Elvis, adding a great deal to his career, of course).

Whether Perkins is a key figure is the history of rock and roll beyond that initial contribution is also an open question. However, no one can question that here in a 30th Anniversary show in London to an audience that was perhaps more appreciative than a home-grown one at that time no one can doubt that he rocks the rockabilly with the best of them. As usual with this format we have the guests- and quite good ones in the likes of Roseanne Cash, Ringo Starr, Eric Clapton and George Harrison as well as a nice traveling band. Additionally there were some serious dancers, dressed in appropriate 50's style, in the audience kicking up a storm. The hit here is, without a doubt, the finale with a collective all out rendition of Blue Suede Shoes.

Inventing Elvis

Elvis-The First Year-1954, narrated by Jack Perkins, 1992

Elvis Presley a rock and roll hero of my youth, if not to me personally then to many I knew especially girls, is the subject of this in-depth look at the first year that Elvis began inventing himself as the King. Jack Perkins’s somber narration and idiosyncratic style sets the tone for a thoughtful look back at Elvis’s trials and tribulation on the road to stardom. We have the full ‘talking head’ treatment here from Elvis’s surviving band member, Scotty Moore, to ex-sweethearts, motel owners, agents, radio producers and announcers, cooks, bakers and candlestick makers. Basically anyone who crossed his path in 1954 in that first tough year out on the road.

And what a road it was. Playing small clubs, high school auditoriums, the Louisiana Hayride and every where he could get his foot in the door Elvis stretched and clawed his way to success, and apparently was not a bad guy to hang around with then either. He, moreover, exhibited all the virtues that small town Southerners liked in the 1950’s, except maybe those sideburns and, just maybe, swinging that pelvis just a little too much when their daughters were around.

An interesting part of this presentation is an attempt to place the roots of Elvis’s music in the context of his time and place. And, as has been expressed elsewhere as well, that included black musical influences in the deeply segregated South. Sun Records Sam Phillip’s old adage comes true through Elvis- finding a white boy who could sing black. This segment only adds to something that I have been arguing for the past few years- the roots of rock and roll owe more than a little to black blues musical influence – think in this regard of the importance of Big Joe Turner’s Shake, Rattle and Roll, also produced in 1954. But Elvis certainly rode the wave to great effect and this little valentine to him is good for those who like musical history with their music. For those who need just the music look elsewhere.