The Queen Of Soul left us this month, at the age of 76 and after years of ill-health, but what an extraordinary legacy she leaves behind. No other female singer - let alone soul singer - has come close to her stunning range and her incredible ability to convey so much in her performances. Not only was she an astonishing vocalist, but she was also an incredibly talented songwriter in her own right, as well as a splendid interpreter of other artists songs. And she could play piano like the best of them. Her peerless body of work she released on Atlantic Records between 1967 and 1972 is as good as anything you'll ever hear, and set the stall for countless others to follow. Throw in her civil rights activism and her refusal to bow to record company interference and you're looking at a true feminist icon and an artist of real import. Her music, influence and that wondrous voice will endure through the ages. R.I.P. Aretha. ------------------------------------------------------------------------
An outstanding performance here of Aretha from 1968 belting out one of her signature anthems in a club in Amsterdam full of burgeoning beatniks that, from the looks of them, are just about to embrace the 60's to their collective bosom and never let go. Aretha gives it her absolute all here - the sweat pouring from her face as the band slink and sway behind her. Utter class.
From the classic US television show Soul Train, this clip shows Aretha - along with her regular backing trio The Sweet Inspirations - getting deep, down and funky in quite glorious style. From the 'Young, Gifted And Black' album released in 1971, this is one of my favourite Aretha tunes. That bass-line alone is enough to get your toes twitching. And just check out those dancers. Outta sight!
And finally, I just had to have this in here. As a skinny little white boy growing up in Surrey in the 70s and 80s, my exposure to soul music was quite limited. I knew of Aretha and other classic Stax and Motown artists - having heard the odd tune on the radio - but I never witnessed the full-blown Franklin effect until I saw The Blues Brothers in 1982. For a good 6 months or so it was one of the only video tapes in the house and myself and my brother used to watch it religiously - so much so that we can both still quote it verbatim. This scene has always been a favourite - with Aretha pretty much ripping the film to shreds with her performance. As a postscript, her husband in the movie - one Matt 'Guitar' Murphy - also recently passed away, so I'd like to think they're both standing their ground over the old "Four fried chickens and dry white toast" dilemma up there in rhythm and blues heaven. Magnificent. R.E.S.P.E.C.T.
Friday 17 August 2018
PEARL JAM: POWER,PASSION AND PRIDE Why Seattle's Last Men Standing Are The Band Of The People
Earlier this summer Pearl Jam - alt-rock superstars, grunge veterans and with almost 30 years of experience at the rock and roll coalface - embarked upon their first European tour in almost 5 years, pitching up at London's O2 Arena for two highly anticipated nights that sold out in minutes when they went on sale last winter. I was lucky enough to grab a ticket for the first night of this double-header and then, when the band had to unfortunately cancel the following night's gig due to vocalist Eddie Vedder's throat being shot, I was even luckier to bag a spot at the rescheduled date a few weeks later. The two gigs put my 'Pearl Jam Attendance' record into double figures and were, without doubt, the best performances I've ever seen them give. The band are now back in the USA where they are winding the tour down before heading back into the studio to finish off their forthcoming 11th album - a record that according to bassist Jeff Ament contains "some of the best stuff we've ever recorded". Proof, if any were needed, that Pearl Jam are as relevant today as they ever have been. With most of their grunge-era contemporaries consigned to the scrap-heap, attempting new musical directions or - in some tragic cases - no longer with us, Pearl Jam keep rolling on and doing things their own way. A true band of the people.
The history of Pearl Jam is oft-told but bears repeating. In the mid-80s, the only band in Seattle that were worth listening to was a combo called Green River. A raw and punky crew, they combined their short sharp tunes with a thick, sludgy edge - a sound that eventually paved the way for grunge. After a solid debut album and a distinct lack of commercial success, the band went their separate ways - vocalist Mark Arm and guitarist Steve Turner going on to form Mudhoney (who, wonderfully, are still with us and readying their new album 'Digital Garbage' as I type) whilst bassist Jeff Ament and guitarist Stone Gossard hooked up with the hugely talented - and hugely flamboyant - singer Andrew Wood in a new project they called Mother Love Bone. Fusing 70's glam and early 80's post-punk with the late 80's heavy metal sound of Guns N Roses, MLB were on the cusp of something very big indeed when tragically, just before the release of their debut album 'Apple' in 1990, Wood died of a massive heroin overdose. He was 24. Devastated by his loss, and at a total crossroads musically, Ament and Gossard got together with Wood's best friend - Soundgarden vocalist Chris Cornell - who had written a batch of songs in tribute to his fallen comrade, and together with his drummer Matt Cameron, the quartet recorded an album together under the moniker Temple Of The Dog. Playing guest lead guitar on that record was a recent friend of both bands - Mike McCready. The standout cut on the album - the haunting ballad Hunger Strike - featured a co-vocalist by the name of Eddie Vedder, who had recently started writing songs with Ament and Gossard after sending them some lyrics he'd written whilst bumming around and surfing in his home state of California. During the recording of the Temple Of The Dog album, Vedder, Ament, Gossard and McCready - along with drummer Dave Krusen - were writing and recording a batch of their own songs that eventually became their debut album 'Ten'. After dropping the early name Mookie Blaylock, the group settled on the name Pearl Jam, signed a deal with Epic Records and quickly found themselves selling out venues across the US. The musical landscape was changing rapidly, especially in the hard rock arena, and in late 1991 along with the recent breakout success of Nirvana's 'Nevermind' and Soundgarden's 'BadMotorFinger', Pearl Jam's 'Ten' became the third mega-selling grunge album - eventually topping 15 million sales. Those early songs the band had written together were the spine of that album - Alive, Jeremy and Even Flow - and all became classics, still regularly popping up on radio stations across the globe in 2018.
Throughout 1992, Pearl Jam were ubiquitous - headlining festivals all over the world and hoovering up awards left, right and centre - culminating in a clutch of MTV Video Awards for the coruscating single Jeremy in 1993. By this time the grunge scene was imploding in on itself, and after Nirvana's Kurt Cobain took his own life in 1994, Pearl Jam took a conscious decision to distance themselves not only from the scene that was almost destroying them, but from the music business in general. After kowtowing to their record company for the previous few years - rush-releasing their second and third albums 'Vs' and 'Vitalogy' - the band took a long-deserved break. Indeed, an interview Vedder gave to the British music press in early 94 - not long after Cobain's suicide - during which he trashed his dressing room, covered his face in charcoal and intimated that he would be next, set alarm bells ringing with the rest of the band and it was a good two years before they re-emerged with the looser, experimental and more ramshackle 'No Code' album.
1998's 'Yield' was a more cohesive affair, returning to the classic songwriting of 'Ten' with evergreen classics like Given To Fly and Wishlist popping up in setlists to this day. During this mid-90's period, the band went through an almost Spinal Tap-esque revolving door of drummers with Dave Krusen replaced by Dave Abbruzzese in 1992 who himself was replaced by former Red Hot Chili Pepper Jack Irons in 1995. Irons himself vacated the drum stool in 1998 and was replaced by Soungarden sticksman - and former Temple Of The Dog drummer - Matt Cameron, who has now played with Pearl Jam longer than both his stints with Soundgarden combined. The next couple of albums - 2000's 'Binaural' and 'Riot Act' from 2002 - were touched with darkness and anger, encompassing as they did family breakups, 9/11 and political upheaval as well as the band's ultimately unsuccessful attempt at boycotting the Ticketmaster monopoly on ticket prices. 'Riot Act' in particular couldn't help but be influenced by Mike McCready's serious alcohol addiction and the Roskilde Festival tragedy of 2000 when 9 fans were crushed to death during the band's headline performance. An event that affected the group so deeply that they contemplated retiring after it happened. They carried on though, and after completing their contract with Epic with a Best Of, a B-Sides collection and some reissues, they signed to J Records and released the 'Pearl Jam' album - sometimes referred to as the 'Avocado' album - which was a return to the short, snappy and in-your-face sound of 'Vs'. Another huge worldwide tour followed and this has been the norm ever since.
'Backspacer' appeared in 2009, and the band toured it solidly for a couple of years before returning with 'Lightning Bolt' in 2013. Both of these most recent albums have been not only commercially successful but critically too, giving the band a kudos that they haven't had since their early career. 2017 even saw the band inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame at the first time of asking. All the while, the band have continued to do everything their own way. Recording, producing and releasing all their music from their base of operations in Seattle, they even oversee all the band merchandise from a nearby warehouse. Albums are released when they want them to be, videos are a rarity, and interviews are relaxed affairs that the group are happy to involve themselves in due to the non-existence of a meddling record company. They fit their band-time in around their families - not the other way around. And even though there have been huge globe-straddling tours, the odd hit single (Last Kiss reached Number 2 in the USA in 2000), and award ceremony wins and nominations along the way (2 Grammys won with 13 other nods as well as a Golden Globe nomination in 2004), Pearl Jam have remained steadfast to their principles and values of what being a rock band is all about. They made it through the grunge hurricane and have survived to tell the tale. With Nirvana long gone, Soundgarden's Chris Cornell no longer with us, Alice In Chains and Stone Temple Pilots moving on in different directions after tragically losing their own frontmen, and bands like Screaming Trees, Hole, Tad, Bush, Moist, Paw and many others falling by the wayside, Pearl Jam really are the last men standing.
My own personal journey with the music of Pearl Jam began in the summer of 1991. I was living out in Sweden at the time and the family I was bunking with had the nascent MTV Europe plugged into their TV system. One of the videos that kept popping up on screen during those few months was that stunning Temple Of The Dog single Hunger Strike. Due to my occasional perusal of the weekly heavy metal bible Kerrang back in the UK, I was well aware of who Chris Cornell was but the other vocalist was a mystery to me. At first I thought this might be Cornell's new band and that Soundgarden may have split up - this was in those heady pre-internet days so I was totally unable to find out any information until I returned home. Once I did get back I returned to my record store job and quickly sought out the Temple Of The Dog album. I also found out the story behind the record and that the second vocalist on the song - one Edward Vedder - was now the lead singer in a new combo called Pearl Jam. A few weeks later I was lounging around at home watching late night telly - The Late Show on BBC2 in fact - when the show's presenter introduced a new rock band from Seattle who, in her words, were "following in Nirvana's footsteps". Nirvana had recently crashed the UK in some style with both their album 'Nevermind' and it's parent single Smells Like Teen Spirit storming the charts and pretty much changing everything. This new alt-rock sound from the Pacific North West was my very own punk rock and I was lapping up anything and everything that had a similar sound. Pearl Jam's performance of Alive on that late night broadcast was utterly incendiary and I thought about nothing else for weeks.
The single was finally released in the UK in early February of 1992, the album 'Ten' a few weeks later and then, on the 28th of that month, I found myself in the midst of a steaming, sweat-drenched throng at London's University Of London Union as Pearl Jam ended their first British tour in extraordinary style. They ran through the bulk of the album, as well as future fan favourites like State Of Love And Trust and Footsteps, before almost bringing the roof down with a thunderous rendition of Alive. With Gossard and McCready riffing away like mad and the rhythm section of Ament and Abbruzzese hunkered down at the back of the stage, Vedder proceeded to surf the crowd, climb the rafters and hang off any piece of masonry he could get his hands on before dropping into the adoring melee below. It was astonishing stuff and, I dare say, everybody who was there that night has remained solid and faithful fans of the band ever since.
Since then, I've been lucky enough to see the band at Finsbury Park twice - first, as part of an indie-rock all-dayer that also featured The Cult, Ned's Atomic Dustbin, PJ Harvey and many more - and secondly, supporting Neil Young in the rain. I've also caught them at Brixton, at Wembley Arena twice, at Hyde Park and at the cavernous crater that is Milton Keynes Bowl. Each time I've seen them live they've been even more phenomenal than the time before - putting on shows that more often than not stretch to three hours whilst dipping into their vast back catalogue to air deep cuts and rarities that never fail to cheer the ever-increasing fanbase. Last month's O2 gigs were no exception - both nights hovered around the 180 minute mark with the second performance pushing three and a half hours. Vedder and the boys were open to requests from the audience, with seriously deep cuts like Breath - from the Singles soundtrack - and the Victoria Williams tribute Crazy Mary seeing the light of day for the first time in over two decades. Across the two nights all the big hitters got an airing of course - Alive, Even Flow, Jeremy, Black, Given To Fly, Daughter, Animal, Last Kiss - and there was room for a healthy selection of covers from their own personal heroes. Neil Young's Rockin In The Free World, The Who's Baba O'Reilly, I Won't Back Down by Tom Petty and All Along The Watchtower by Hendrix.
Throughout both gigs the band were on magnificent form, not only musically, but with their interactions with both sets of fans. Vedder apologised early on the first night for his vocal troubles - sinking a large bottle of 'grape juice' throughout proceedings to ease his pain - and even though his ails were obvious, he powered through manfully. He was fully recovered by the time of the rescheduled date and the gig was a wilder, heavier affair because of it with less ballads and acoustic interludes and way more gargantuan riffage and ear-shattering screamage. Mike McCready in particular was outstanding on both nights - his guitar work inspiring awe from the gathered masses. He has, very quietly, become one of the best axe-men in modern music. Both gigs ended, as they were always going to do, with breathtakingly barnstorming renditions of Alive which - 26 years on from that hot and sweaty night at ULU - were just as magnificent and emotionally uplifting as ever. And, just like I did in February of 1992, I stumbled home with my shirt drenched and my ears ringing and a huge, beatific smile across my face.
Pearl Jam - I salute you, chaps. Thanks for everything.
ESSENTIAL PEARL JAM PLAYLIST TEN:Alive, Even Flow, Jeremy, Black, Porch, Deep, Release, Garden, Why Go, Oceans Vs: Go, Animal, Daughter, Rats, Elderly Woman Behind The Counter In A Small Town, Rearviewmirror, Indifference VITALOGY: Spin The Black Circle, Not For You, Nothingman, Better Man, Immortality NO CODE: Hail Hail, Who You Are, In My Tree, Off He Goes, Smile YIELD: Given To Fly, Wishlist, Do The Evolution, Faithful, Low Light, In Hiding BINAURAL: Light Years, Nothing As It Seems, Rival RIOT ACT: Love Boat Captain, I Am Mine, Thumbing My Way PEARL JAM: Life Wasted, World Wide Suicide, Come Back, Inside Job BACKSPACER: Got Some, The Fixer, Just Breathe, Unthought Known LIGHTNING BOLT: Mind Your Manners, Sirens, Lightning Bolt, Future Days B-SIDES/RARITIES/FLOTSAM: Breath, State Of Love And Trust, Footsteps, Yellow Ledbetter, Crazy Mary, Last Kiss, Dirty Frank, Hitchhiker, Fatal, Wash, Dead Man, Strangest Tribe, I Got ID, Hunger Strike (Temple Of The Dog), Hard Sun (Eddie Vedder Solo), The Face Of Love/The Long Road (Eddie Vedder And Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan)
