In other releases: Winwood, Clapton, Blur & Kid British
I was on cnn.com/live again this morning talking about new releases and trying not to mispronounce any British slang. (Mispronouncing American words is a given). The segment was around the same length as usual, but my coffee was much larger, and I felt like there was a lot I didn’t get to say, so here are the extended liner notes:
“Eric Clapton & Steve Winwood Live from Madison Square Garden,” Eric Clapton and Steve Winwood
This is one of the quintessential Rock ‘n’ Roll recordings of this millennium. I would almost call it the epitome of Rock ‘n’ Roll in its truest form: two extremely talented, absurdly skilled, and well-seasoned pale, white dudes playing old black music. The combo of Clapton’s blues guitar and Winwood’s R&B background is rock in its purest, most simple and deconstructed form. (Plus or minus some Anglo and Scotch-Irish influences).
Clapton and Winwood were old friends all the way back to when they were teenagers in London. The two were always in a bunch of separate bands including Cream and Traffic. When those two acts dissolved, Winwood and Clapton got together to form Blind Faith. That didn’t last long and they went their separate ways shortly afterwards.
Winwood reformed Traffic, and Clapton joined an ass load of different bands and sang a song called “Cocaine.” A lot. Like every night. Then in the mornings and at lunch too. God, he loved that song… so much!!! “Let’s sing it again!!! Right NOW!!! Cut that track up or you’re fired bitch!!!” he’d shout. Then Clapton started singing songs about fucking George Harrison’s wife. (He was kind of a dick.) Flash forward 30 some-odd years and the two reunited on stage for a charity show in 2007, as Clapton was no longer being a dick, and the groundwork was laid for this tour and live album.
Now, everyone knows that Clapton is one of the greats (he’s not God but he is one of the greats); however, Winwood’s the real gem on this record, and he clearly elevates Clapton’s playing, as Clapton does his. Before these shows, Winwood basically called bullshit on Clapton for having other guitarists playing identical Strats right behind him at every show and said it’s just going to be you, me, drums, bass, and some additional keyboards. Not sure how Winwood got to bring backup, but either way, this combo rocks hard and is full of soul. There’s no hiding behind a chorus of studio lifers and background vocalists.
The last time Winwood and Clapton played in Madison Square Garden together, it was 1969, a riot broke out ON STAGE, drummer Ginger Baker got knocked out by a cop’s billy club, and Winwood’s piano was smashed. Five weeks later Blind Faith broke up after only one album and a six-week tour. That’s rock-n-fuckin-roll.
There are a lot of standout tracks on this recording. Traffic’s “Glad” with Clapton shredding in place of the tenor sax solo is as badass as it sounds. So is Winwood joining Clapton for dual guitars on “Dear Mr. Fantasy.” The two of them even manage to do justice to Hendrix’s “Little Wing” and kill a 17-minute “Voodoo Chile.”
My favorite track is probably “Them Changes” by Buddy Miles. Without even knowing he was ill, ClapWood recorded this just days before Miles died. Apparently, a friend at one of the shows held up a phone for Buddy to hear their cover, and he loved it. More or less the same thing happened right after Clapton and Duane Allman laid down “Little Wing” as Derek and the Dominoes, just days before Hendrix died. Thanks Eric. It’s a wonder JJ Cale is still alive today… well, for lots of reasons.
You probably know all the great stuff Clapton has done with Cream, Blind Faith, Derek and the Dominoes, Delaney and Bonnie and Friends, and as a solo artist, but if you’re not familiar with all the bands that Steve Winwood played in that shaped the landscape of modern music, here are a few choice clips.
“A Beginners Guide to Blur,” Blur
If you’re not very familiar with Blur’s catalogue, it’s only partially your fault. British music that sounds British has never been big on American radio or MTV or whatever other commercial crap takes up most of our bandwidth these days.
Blur are essentially the godfathers of Britpop. Granted, it’s impossible to ever give one band credit for an entire subgenre, but if you had to pick one group, it would be Blur. After their first album, Blur toured the US, to mixed results, and by the time they got back to England, the Seattle grunge scene was exploding like the back of Kurt Cobain’s head all over the UK. Damon Albarn was sick of hearing foreign music dominate the British airways, so he set out to create something distinctly British, and more or less, that’s when Britpop entered the scene in the ’90s.
Blur and Oasis had a pretty big feud. Granted pretty much everyone had a feud with Oasis, hell — they even feuded with themselves. But Blur and Oasis were always competing for the #1 slot in the UK, often with Blur winning. However, Oasis was doing more of a Lo-Fi, American alternative sounding thing, and that caught on much bigger over here. But remnants of the rivalry still exist. If you ever see a drunk British guy in his mid 30s, which is fairly common, run up to him and shout “BLUR OR OASIS!?!” and then vehemently disagree with everything he says after that. It’s a blast.
Get caught up on Blur here.
“It Was This or Football” (first half), Kid British
How can you not like that song? Maybe if you’re the soulless, joy-crushing, hearing-impaired bastard child of Nazis and slave owners, you might not like it, but pretty much everyone else should love that song.
Kid British pull off a pretty slick combination of most every genre of music using some sweet harmonies, live instruments and well-placed samples. Don’t be angry just because they’re better at it than Americans.
To old school rockers who shit on sampling all together: sampling is nothing new. It’s been around forever, and the greatest sampler of all time is probably Jimmy Page. Don’t act like you don’t know what I’m talking about, and if you actually don’t know, look it up. Sampling’s not just unique to music either. No one called Jasper Johns a hack for lifting from Betsy Ross.
Kid British are getting bigger across the pond, but for some reason no ones is really pushing them over here, which is retarded because these guys are a goldmine. If I had the cash, I’d invest in an American PR campaign, and then retire from the royalties of their next album. Whoever decided not to get behind them here is a fucking moron. Do yourself a favor and get in on what they’re doing now, so you won’t have to buy “A Beginners Guide to Kid British” in 18 years.
You can buy the first half of their album here, watch some videos here, follow them on twitter here, and do a little bit of everything here.
