What're you listening to right now??

[Colossal]

Love Steely Dan. Those guys really swing. Kid Charlemagne is definitely one of my favorites from them. It's got it all. Such musicality and such a great groove. Plays you out, then snaps you back in the pocket.

Lowdown by Boz takes me back.

[martin manning]

Uncanny. I didn't see the Great Performances broadcast, but I was reeling in the years this morning. Here's a good read for Dan fans: http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,1174152,00.html

[LeftyStrat]

Wish this was complete. I've never gotten over this.

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xopgqz ... -gun_music

[drew]

Not right now but last night I saw on the tube "Great Performances" with Boz Scaggs, Michael McDonald, and Donald Fagen. So I went on a U-tube tour of Steely Dan. I'm just never quite prepared for how good those guys were. Fagen's voice is weird but incredibly interesting and diverse.

Fagen made a really good solo album that came out in late 2012 called "Sunken Condos." It's nice hearing him on stuff that doesn't have the "this is a great tune but I've already heard it a bazillion times" factor that all the Dan stuff has.

[skyboltone]

Not right now but last night I saw on the tube "Great Performances" with Boz Scaggs, Michael McDonald, and Donald Fagen. So I went on a U-tube tour of Steely Dan. I'm just never quite prepared for how good those guys were. Fagen's voice is weird but incredibly interesting and diverse.

Fagen made a really good solo album that came out in late 2012 called "Sunken Condos." It's nice hearing him on stuff that doesn't have the "this is a great tune but I've already heard it a bazillion times" factor that all the Dan stuff has.

I'll order it up for the iPhone!

[stelligan]

Best Jazz/R&B singer to come around in a long time.

Gregory Porter:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tVGl_2Wtg1E
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9HvpIgHBSdo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aup21tPoZXE

[drew]

Holy shit, listen to this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1GALqVg3biE . A 23 year old Bonnie Raitt, John Hammond, Freebo, and this guy Lowell George sitting in ("he's in a band called Little Feat") play a live show for WLIR radio in 1972. I had no idea she used to be able to sing like this.

[Phil_S]

I went to college up the block from Ultrasonic (Hofstra U), also grew up on Long Island. I used to look forward to Tuesday night live on WLIR. This is one of many great shows I probably heard live on the radio.

Bonnie and Freebo were a really great duo. I don't know what happened between them, but they had real stage chemistry. Listen to Love Has No Pride on the WLIR show.

WLIR was an independent radio station and did some really great things. It was good while it lasted.

Thanks for posting this gem!

[skyboltone]

Holy shit, listen to this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1GALqVg3biE . A 23 year old Bonnie Raitt, John Hammond, Freebo, and this guy Lowell George sitting in ("he's in a band called Little Feat") play a live show for WLIR radio in 1972. I had no idea she used to be able to sing like this.

I was prepared to ignore this one etc. I'm glad I didn't. That was as good as radio gets. It's hard to imagine Bonnie that young and cutesy. A dirty old man might imagine a strained bodice and tight jeans etc. etc.
She always had a great voice. Most of the female vocalists in the class of '72 faded into obscurity quickly after things began to droop. She picked the right genre and had portable talent. She can do anything. Joni Mitchell, not so much. I didn't hear her live until about '96. Great show.

[martin manning]

Yeah! Eff... Emm... No static at all! That is really great.

[skyboltone]

Yeah! Eff... Emm... No static at all! That is really great.

The girls don't seem to care....

[Phil_S]

Yeah! Eff... Emm... No static at all! That is really great.

If a bit of reminiscing is permitted. I remember (c. 1968-69) many hours in the back seat of "Bessie", my friend's 1962 Olds 88 (dramatic steering column emerging from the floor, and, of course it only had AM radio. It sat six and your seat position somehow never changed. Being the smallest one of us got me the middle rear on top of the drive shaft tunnel. How envious we were of the "rich kids" who got to use their parents' cars that had FM. FM wasn't freely available. We didn't have an FM radio in the house until I managed to buy it with my summer earnings, fall 1967; I still have it and it works. On FM, that is where you could listen to AOR. (You youngsters look it up if you don't know what it is.) FM was really the only place you'd hear Cream, Hendrix, and anyone else who couldn't keep it to 3 minutes. Yeah, that includes the awful Innagottadavia (sp), baby. LOL, sometimes they'd play the whole side of a record...20 minutes worth.

It occurs to me that the whole show of the closing of the Filmore East (June 27, 1971) was broadcast in its entirety on WNEW and WPLJ. I borrowed a cassette deck and taped nearly all of it. By the time the Allman Bros (closing act) came on it was nearly light outside and I'd run out of fresh tape. I was down to the crappiest media I had in my stash. I wore out those tapes. I'm thinking all that must be out there on youtube now; I know I've found parts of it. The one thing I most want to recover from that night is edited out on what I've heard. It is the Allman Bros tuning up before Bill Graham introduces them. Duane has the slide on and runs out the most soulful and amazing bit of slide phrasing I've ever heard. I have no idea why someone or anyone would have thought to clip that to begin where Bill Graham starts talking. It couldn't be more than about 30 seconds of tape, probably much less.

Edited to correct the Filmore date.

[skyboltone]

Yeah! Eff... Emm... No static at all! That is really great.

If a bit of reminiscing is permitted.......

Great post Phl. I suppose each generation....etc. My dad used to talk about shows in Boston and New York in the '40's. Charlie Barnett, The Count, The Duke. They said "Cherokee" used to drive them wild! Great times I'm sure but I'm so fortunate to have lived in the SF bay the mid to late '60s on in to this whole period. Amazing. Airplane, Hendrix, BB and Janis, CCR, Quicksilver. On and on. They played because they loved to play and couldn't live without us. Oh well.

[xtian]

I'm with you on the Steely Dan, man. Top 5 all time. GREAT session guitarists. My band does "Don't Take Me Alive." That intro solo, Jeff Skunk Baxter, I think, plays the notes of the minor pentatonic, but manages to find the MOST outside notes every time. Wonderful solo to unpack.

I'll post our live recording here, only because I know you guys are kind, and I can take the ribbing.

[NickC]

+1 on Steely Dan. Great stuff!

My band covers Josie (sans horns & keys).