Talkin’ About My Revolutions

JIMMY PAGE
Cleveland 1988 [No Pig Records, 1CD]
Live at the Cleveland Music Hall, Cleveland, Ohio, October 19, 1988. Very good Pre-FM radio? Venue has also been listed as Public Hall.

So there is Writes Of Winter and tucked in between the heavyweights of the Cleveland set is the balladish Emerald Eyes (also from Outrider); but it is probably when Page slashes and burns his way through the Led Zep tunes that’s when he’s making the audience very happy. A highlight is the Midnight Moonlight/White Summer track where Page not only alternates the mood of his solo but lays out some rather intricate lines.

01. Who’s To Blame/Prelude [Death Wish II]
02. Over The Hills And Far Away [Led Zep]
03. Writes Of Winter [Outrider] and Tear Down The Walls [The Firm]
04. Emerald Eyes [Outrider]
05. Midnight Moonlight (with White Summer) [The Firm]
06. In My Time Of Dying [Led Zep]
07. Custard Pie [Led Zep]
08. Train Kept A’ Rollin’ [Yardbirds]

Click here for the tracks.

Deja vu… that’s what Yemenis old enough to remember will realise. Forty years ago in Yemen, Britain and the United States helped to crush an insurgency and back a despostic regime. Now, the “Free World” is preparing to send arms and “intelligence advisers” to help prop up yet anothercorrupt regime in Yemen. Documentary filmmaker Adam Curtis explains.

What I find so fascinating about the reporting of the War on Terror is the way almost all of it ignores history – as if it is a conflict happening outside time. The Yemen is a case in point. In the wake of the underpants bomber we have been deluged by a wave of terror journalism about this dark medieval country that harbors incomprehensible fanatics who want to destroy the west. None of it has explained that only 40 years ago the British government fought a vicious secret war in the Yemen against republican revolutionaries who used terror, including bombing airliners.

Click here for the article.

This is an excellent web journal. If you like Counterpunch, Information Clearing House and Alternet, this should be essential reading as well. All the news that fits these days are coming from alternative media. Join their mailing list.

Issue #106 of the London Progressive Journal has been published and can be viewed here: http://www.londonprogressivejournal.com

- A Bounty for Blair’s Arrest: George Monbiot on why he has launched a new fund to reward people who attempt to arrest Britan’s former prime minister.

- Retrospective:  Interview with Howard Zinn: The radical historian and activist Howard Zinn died this week, aged 87.  In 2008, he gave this interview with London Progressive Journal’s Daniel Pye.

- Who Cares About Carers?: Will Stone on the desperate need for radical reform of the UK’s woefully under-funded social care system.

- Book of the Month: ‘Common Wealth’ by Martin Large: John Green reviews this month’s recommended read, which takes a critical look at the increasing dominance of corporate interests over civil society.

- Violent Clashes Shake Venezuela: A new law prohibiting Venezuela’s corporate media from inciting violence against the Chavez government has prompted violent demonstrations from right-wing student groups, as James Suggett explains.

- British Stars Stand up for Haiti: A concert in London, jointly organised by the Cuba Solidarity Campaign and the TUC, will raise funds for the victims of the earthquake in Haiti.

PINK FLOYD
Animals On Empire [The Godfatherecords 439/440, 2CD]
Live at the Empire Pool, Wembley, Middlesex, UK, March 18, 1977. Good to very good audience recording.

Although Pink Floyd played only nine dates in the UK during the Animals tour in 1977, only one show, Knobs, an audience recording of the March 15 show, is listed on the Pink Floyd ROIO Database site. So this release would be a welcomed addition for collectors and fans.

Thanks to hokafloyd who shared the lossless tracks on the internet.

Disc 1:
1. Sheep 11:11
2. Pigs On The Wing Pt. 1 1:30
3.Dogs 19:06 19:05
4. Pigs On The Wing Pt. 2 2:20
5. Pigs 16:07
Total Time: 50:13

Disc 2:
1. Shine On You Crazy Diamond Pt. 1-5 13:42
2. Welcome To The Machine 8:28
3. Have A Cigar 6:00
4. Wish You Were Here 6:37
5. Shine On You Crazy Diamond Pt. 6-9 18:37
6. Us And Them 7:53
Total Time: 61:17

Click here for the tracks.

While the world’s media jumped to highlight the plight of the Haitians in the face of a devastating earthquake, very few journalists cared to explain, if at all, what made Haiti the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere. As journalism professor Robert Jensen says, the news media, of course, have a right to make their own choices about what to cover. But we citizens have a right to expect more.

CNN’s star anchor Anderson Cooper narrates a chaotic street scene in Port-au-Prince. A boy is struck in the head by a rock thrown by a looter from a roof. Cooper helps him to the side of the road, and then realizes the boy is disoriented and unable to get away. Laying down his digital camera (but still being filmed by another CNN camera), Cooper picks up the boy and lifts him over a barricade to safety, we hope.

“We don’t know what happened to that little boy,” Cooper says in his report. “All we know now is, there’s blood in the streets.”

This is great television, but it’s not great journalism. In fact, it’s irresponsible journalism.

Click here for the article.

Sinatra retains his position at the top of the pop charts with Strangers In The Night.

FRANK SINATRA
Strangers In The Night Sessions [no label, 1CD]
Studio sessions on May 11 and 16, 1966 in Hollywood studios. Ex- SBD stereo.

The two-day sessions have never been officially released but at least an hour’s worth leaked into the hands of fans and collectors. It includes all the tracks save the title track and You’re Driving Me Crazy! On it are a mix of old style ballads and two Tony Hatch tunes – Downtown and Call Me, both songs associated with Petula Clark, the English pop singer. Sinatra practically runs them to the ground, offering a dispassionate performance. He seems particularly unimpressed with Downtown. The closest to a “rock out” would be the uptempo The Most Beautiful Girl In The World, with Sinatra belting it out.

Track 01. Summer Wind [takes 1-7]*
Take 1,2 flubbed
Take 3 complete
Take 4 incomplete
Take 5 complete
Take 6,7 flubbed

Track 02. All Or Nothing At All [takes 1-3]*
Take 1 First attempt fails after first verse
Take 2 complete
Take 3 Fails after first verse, restarts and complete

Track 03. Call Me [takes 1-6]*
Take 1,2,3 flubbed at the very first verse
Take 4 incomplete
Take 5 complete
Take 6 announced

Track 04. On A Clear Day You Can See Forever [takes 1-8]*
Take 1 Sinatra stops the music and speaks to the musicians
Take 2 flubbed after first line
Take 3 complete
Take 4,5 flubbed
Take 6 complete
Take 7 stopped
Take 8 incomplete

Track 05. My Baby Just Cares For Me [unidentified take] +

Track 06. Downtown [takes 1-4]*
Take 1 incomplete, breaks down but Sinatra said it was great
Take 2 flubbed
Take 3 stopped, Sinatra unhappy with the instrumental arrangement, restarts to complete
Take 4 announced

Track 07. Yes Sir, That’s My Baby +
Take 1 complete (omitted)
Take 1 intercut (incomplete)
Take 2 intercut (with vocals)

Track 08. The Most Beautiful Girl In The World [takes 1-8]+
Take 1-2 (?) complete
Take 3 incomplete
Take 4 incomplete
Take 5 incomplete
Take 6 complete
Take 8 complete (fast version)

Track 09. Radio promo spots

BONUS
Track 10. Call Me Irresponsible (recorded for his 1963 Reprise album Sinatra’s Sinatra)
unidentified take complete
unidentified take music only partial
unidentified take partial
unidentified take music only partial
unidentified take, false starts, incomplete (slow version)

+ recorded May 11, 1966.
* recorded May 16, 1966.

Click here for the tracks.

After Live! Music Review closed, editor Bill Glahn wrote a series of articles for Counterpunch called RIAA Watch. Bill notes: “For purposes of relevance, I’ll defer to one of those articles for this edition of The Best of Live! Music Review. Many updates follow which should be of interest to any in the p2p community who value fair use and developing artists who value the freedom to establish their audience without industry interference.”

Under Big Music pressure the governments of Great Britain and France (so far) have proposed three-strikes legislation… Say good-bye to YouTube as we now know it. Watch out for the disappearing blog. Don’t dare e-mail that song lyric to your sweetie that best exemplifies your affection for her/him. Say hello to mandated snooping by your ISP…

Click here for the article.

John Zorn’s horn was widely recognised after he did an album of Morricone tunes, The Big Gundown. Fire away Johnny.

JOHN ZORN’S ENNIO MORRICONE TRIBUTE BAND with FRED FRITH
Verona 1988 [no label, 1CD]
Live in Verona, Italy, July 27, 1988. Excellent FM stereo.

It’s all down to the romantic sound of Zorn’s horn. The music is melodic but not particularly challenging. The horn dominates the sound. It isn’t until Fred Frith comes alive on Erotico, the theme from The Burglars, that things get hot. The guitar IS the phallic symbol, twisting and turning in Frith’s fingers.

01 Battle Of Algiers
02 The Sicilian Clan
03 Metamorfosi
04 Poverty (Once Upon A Time In America)
05 James Bond Theme (John Barry)
06 Taxi Driver (Bernard Herrmann)
07 Milano Odeo
08 Once Upon A Time In The West
09 Erotico (The Burglars)
10 The Lie (John Zorn)
11 Death Waltz Fantasy (John Zorn)
12 Batman (John Zorn)
Encore:
13 Chinatown (Jerry Goldsmith) – there’s a skip at the 5.13m mark.

Click here for the tracks.

There is little doubt that those interested in leading the U.S. deeper into a police state and deeper into a “war on terror” are active in adding orchestrated events to whatever real ones real terrorists manage to accomplish. As former Assistant Secretary of the Treasury Paul Craig Roberts points out, to keep the peril alive for Americans, we have the Underwear Bomb Plot.

The Underwear Bomber case indicates that whoever is behind these bomb scares is laughing at our gullibility.

How realistic is it that al-Qaida, an organization that allegedly pulled off the most fantastic terror attack in world history, would in these days of heightened security choose for an attack on an airliner a person who is the most conspicuous of all?

Umar Farouk Mutallab had a one-way ticket, no luggage, no passport, and his father, reportedly a CIA and Mossad asset, had reported him to the CIA and Mossad. Does anyone really believe that al-Qaida would choose as an airliner bomber a person waving every red flag imaginable?

Click here for the article.

PROCOL HARUM
With the London Symphony Orchestra 1973 [no label, 1CD]
Very good radio broadcast. Re-broadcast 1982.

Even without their signature tune (A White Shade Of Pale), Procol Harum Live With The Edmonton Symphony Orchestra (recorded in 1971, released 1972) became the band’s biggest selling album. So here they are, in 1973, with the London Symphony Orchestra behind them.

Track 01. Simple Sister
Track 02. Grand Hotel
Track 03. Fires (Which Burnt Brightly)
Track 04. Broken Barricades
Track 05. A Salty Dog
Track 06. Toujours L’Amour
Track 07. Finale (from “In held Twas I”)
Track 08. TV Caesar (including “Rule Britannia”)
Track 09. Conquistador

Click here for the tracks.