In honor of the late Townes Van Zandt’s birthday today, let’s revisit this gut-wrenching performance from a mid-’70s documentary on “outlaw country” artists called Heartworn Highways.
(For more context about this scene, a longer clip from the film is available as well.)
“Like with ‘Say Yes,’ I wrote that song in five minutes. And I wrote ‘Between the Bars’ right after that. Both of those I made up during an episode of ‘Xena: Warrior Princess’ with the sound off, which is a great way to write songs. Your eyes are busy, so they don’t get bored and they don’t watch what your hands are doing, so then you can surprise yourself. Your hands can surprise you with what they know and that you don’t.”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=csD4ZgMPgvg
Rather than get bummed out over last night’s lackluster Strokes performance on SNL, I thought it best to revisit the good old days.
In this interview with Soft Focus, Beastie Boy Adam “Ad-Rock” Horovitz tells the story of how he discovered LL Cool J while digging through a pile of demo tapes in Rick Rubin’s apartment in 1983. Horovitz then created the beat and co-wrote 1984’s “I Need A Beat,” the 3rd release by Def Jam Recordings and first with their logo on the label, which features a few notable observations, including a “reduced by Rick Rubin” production credit.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EiOmhOumh-w
A cursory scan through YouTube today revealed that though I’ve been listening to Fiona Apple’s records constantly ever since my sister took to the Lilith Fair over a decade ago, I’ve been missing out on the vast majority of post-2005 video output from one of my favorite living singer-songwriters. There are too many thrilling live clips to choose from, but let’s start out with this more recent televised concert with Elvis Costello. At first, I didn’t foresee this pair conjuring up such a magical performance, but then again, Costello has a long track record of attempting unlikely collaborations with excellent results. Enjoy Fiona covering Costello fan favorite “I Want You” above and the pair taking on Extraordinary Machine cut “Tymps (The Sick in the Head Song)” below.
“Tymps (The Sick in the Head Song)”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=weNO9k1TXS0
For your consideration, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
Exhibit number #2.
