Born In Chicago & The Rock & Roll Pres.

I never used to watch Sky TV because of its association with the ‘Dirty Digger’ Rupert Murdoch, but I have relented recently since they put Sky Arts on Freeview. Last night while flicking around the channels looking for something worth watching I stumbled across two documentaries which I enjoyed immensely. The first was called Born In Chicago which was about the Blues scene in Chicago. The title comes from a song written by blues singer and guitarist Nick Gravenites which was included on the first album by the Paul Butterfield Blues Band. He also wrote a song with Mike Bloomfield for their second album. I had heard of these people, but in the mid-1960s all this music passed me by. To me, American music in 1965 was The Beach Boys. That is why I found this documentary very educational. I knew Al Kooper mainly through his association with Bob Dylan who is also featured here. Some British bands get a look in, such as The Rolling Stones, The Yardbirds and The Animals. They were all hugely influenced by black American Blues musicians such as Howling Wolf, Muddy Waters, Little Walter and B.B. King. Apparently, The Stones only agreed to go on an American coast to coast TV show if Howling Wolf was booked as well. There were some other musicians featured who even today I am not familiar with such as Charlie Musselwhite and Harvey Mandel.

In 1967 Mike Bloomfield, Nick Gravenites, Buddy Miles, Barry Goldberg and Harvey Brooks formed the Electric Flag. I remember the name because a friend of mine at college had a soundtrack album by them called The Trip. There is some great footage of the Monterey Festival of 1967 although Mike Bloomfield looked stoned out of his head. It was nice to see Country Joe McDonald make a brief appearance in this film. Sadly, Mike Bloomfield and Paul Butterfield both died too young in the 1980s. One thing I especially liked about this film was the mutual respect between black and white musicians. Music is something that brings people together, which is needed more than ever in the modern age.

I was going to go to bed then, but started watching the next programme which was Jimmy Carter, The Rock & Roll President. I enjoyed this film equally as much. I have always admired Jimmy Carter and he had great taste in music. The likes of The Allman Brothers, Willie Nelson, Bob Dylan, Johnny Cash, The Staples Singers and many more are featured. One amusing little thing was in his autobiography Willie Nelson related how he had smoked pot at the White House with a member of staff and Jimmy Carter revealed how it was actually his son. Jimmy Carter also believed in bringing people of all colours and creeds together. I’m sure he got a lot of pleasure watching the inauguration the other day. Anyway, it was a most enjoyable night of television.

Winterwatch.

Due to staying up until 4.30 last night I got up late today. It was a shame because it was a nice sunny day, although cold. I didn’t get underway until the afternoon, but I was determined to achieve something. Last October I had a new toilet put in the bathroom. The old one had been in my yard ever since because I didn’t know how to dispose of it. I did toy with the idea of dragging it up the garden and turning it into a plant pot, but decided that would be really silly, so this afternoon I bashed it up into little bits with a sledgehammer and put it in the wheelie bin. That was quite good fun and warmed me up. Then, although it wasn’t really warm enough, I spent an hour painting my wall because It was nice to be outside. I hope the paint stays on the wall this time. 

While I was doing that I listened to Steve Earle, Townes Van Zandt & Guy Clark At The Bluebird Café which is an excellent album. Another little job was taking the top off the bird box and cleaning it out. It would be marvelous if a pair of feathered friends moved into it. When it got too chilly, I came indoors. I did my Tai Chi and some other exercises called Qigong.

The News on the BBC was grim because they think the new variant might be more deadly than in the first wave. We will pass 100,000 deaths in Britain soon which is shocking. The USA figure of 400,000 deaths is terrible, but ours is even worse because we have only a sixth of the population of the USA. The only good news is that the number of positive tests is coming down, so hopefully fatalities will start to fall in number soon.

I listened to Iggy Pop’s radio show while making dinner. He is a great DJ who plays music I would never hear elsewhere and has a perfect voice for radio. Later I watched Winter Watch on BBC2. The presenter Chris Packham is brilliant. I think he will be the natural successor to David Attenborough. That’s enough blather for today. It’s Saturday tomorrow, lots of football and the weather forecast is quite good. See you tomorrow.

My Thoughts About Phil Spector.

I heard on the News last night that Phil Spector has died in prison aged 81. He was a music genius who produced some of the greatest popular music of all time, but sadly he will also be remembered for shooting dead in 2003 an actress called Lana Clarkson. This tragic event should never have been possible. Phil Spector should have been in hospital receiving treatment because he was seriously mentally ill for decades. If he was not willing to be treated voluntarily, he should have been detained under the Mental Health Act. Also, he should not have been allowed to be in possession of a gun. That is one of the major problems in American society where sick people are wandering around carrying lethal weapons. We have seen the consequences many times.

I have never read any biographies of Phil Spector, so I am just giving my views based on what I have heard. Biographies are often sensationalised to sell more copies anyway. I do know that in 1949 his father committed suicide by shooting himself. That must have had a terrible effect on the ten years old Phil. I think most of his troubles can be traced back to that event. In 1974 another major event took place when he was thrown through the windscreen of his car in a crash. It was only when a policeman detected a faint pulse that he was not declared dead at the scene. His head injuries required hundreds of stitches. He could have been suffering from brain damage or Post Traumatic Stress Disorder for the rest of his life. It was after this major incident that he started wearing the bizarre wigs. Many people, such as The Ramones and Leonard Cohen spoke about Phil Spector’s eccentric behaviour, such as threatening people with guns and holding them hostage. Did they report him to the authorities though? Maybe if they had, something could have been done about it. A few weeks before he shot Lana Clarkson, Phil Spector told a journalist from the Daily Telegraph that he thought he was insane. He was a disaster waiting to happen.

To talk about the music, I have read a lot of criticism of his ‘over-production’ such as his work on The Beatles Let It Be album. It sounds fine to me and even John Lennon said that Phil was given a lot of crap and turned it into a chart-topping album. George Harrison and John Lennon were obviously happy with his work because they used him to work on such albums as All Things Must Pass, Imagine and several others. Albums were not Phil’s forte though. What he really liked was producing hit singles and that is what I will remember him for. Songs like You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feeling by The Righteous Brothers and River Deep, Mountain High by Ike & Tina Turner. His Wall Of Sound was hugely influential on other people such as the great Brian Wilson who incidentally also suffered from mental health problems that can be traced back to his father. Brian idolised Phil Spector and said that Be My Baby by The Ronettes was his favourite song of all time. British made records of the 60’s where you can see Phil’s influence include work by Dusty Springfield and The Walker Brothers.

I cannot think of anything else to say about Phil Spector now. I feel very sorry for the family of Lana Clarkson, they must feel terrible, but although his behaviour was shocking, I do feel some sympathy for Phil who I think was a very sick person who did not get the treatment he obviously needed. For anyone who was a teenager in the 1960’s his songs were classics. Anyone who can produce a song like Da Doo Ron Ron by The Crystals which is pure joy from start to finish can’t be all bad, can they.