Jay Bennett 1963-2009

Sad news. Jay Bennett, multi-talented producer, arranger, and multi-instrumentalist, who played with Wilco, during their rise from 1995-2001, died in his sleep yesterday. He was 45 years old, and the cause of death at this time is unknown. His departure from the band and rift with bandmate Jeff Tweedy was (guardedly) documented in the 2002 film, I Am Trying To Break Your Heart. Bennett's pop sensibility and taste for the baroque, as well as his knack for Beatles/Beach Boys melodies and arrangements are highlights of his recordings with the band. His tasty guitar solos were frequently acknowledged by Tweedy from onstage. It's a drag writing obituaries here, and a double-drag when they are for your acquaintances and contemporaries. Here's a few highlights from his tenure with Wilco.

Flags in Fluville are flying at half-mast.


Download:

"Magazine Called Sunset" mp3
by Wilco, 2001.
available on More Like The Moon EP

"Cars Can't Escape" (demo) mp3
by Wilco, 2001.
unreleased

"I Am Trying To Break Your Heart" (alternate) mp3
by Wilco, 2001.
also available on Yankee Hotel Foxtrot

"Ashes of American Flags" mp3
by Wilco, 2001.
available on Yankee Hotel Foxtrot

"A Shot in the Arm" mp3
by Wilco, 1999.
available on Summerteeth

"When You Wake Up Feeling Old" mp3
by Wilco, 1999.
available on Summerteeth

"My Darling" (demo)
by Wilco, 1999.
also available on Summerteeth

"100 Years From Now" mp3
by Wilco, 1999.
available on Return Of The Grievous Angel

"California Stars" mp3
by Billy Bragg & Wilco, 1998.
available on Mermaid Avenue

"Monday" mp3
by Wilco, 1996.
available on Being There

"Forget The Flowers" mp3
by Wilco, 1996.
available on Being There

"Burned" mp3
by Wilco, 1996.
available on I Shot Andy Warhol

photographs: © Ted Barron
Wilco at the Mercury Lounge, New York City 1996.

Two Chord Monte

This post is obvious, I'd be surprised if it hasn't been done already. Four songs: two chords each - Peter Laughner throws in a descending minor chord progression, but only to return to the stark two chord template laid out in Lou Reed's "Heroin." All of these songs follow that model and are indebted to the original as well as it's precursor. "Heroin" becomes "Amphetamine," which was coincidentally the drug of choice for both of these songwriters. Unfortunately, speed kills. Peter Laughner died at 24. He worshipped Lou Reed - as did his pal and running buddy Lester Bangs who followed him to the grave a few years later and whose best piece of writing may be his obituary for Laughner. Jeff Tweedy quotes "Amphetamine" directly in "Misunderstood," the cacophonous opener to Wilco's Being There.

Take the guitar player for a ride
'cause he ain't never been satisfied
He thinks he owes some kind of debt
Be years before he gets over it

Musically, it tips it's hat to "Heroin." It's not as sublime or shocking as John Cale's droning, and then screeching viola, or Mo Tucker's mathematical, cymballess drumming, but it was 1996 not 1966, and these things were already appropriated countless times and taken for granted in indie rock. It was a departure for Wilco, and alienated some of their fans, who were holding onto some weird and bogus ideal of alternative country purity. The Laughner reference is an inspired one. Josh Ritter's "Thin Blue Flame" is an apocalyptic vision of American society at war and turmoil. A lot of wordy images and the same two chords played on the guitar and then the piano and like on "Misunderstood," building to a noisy crescendo. It's the most sober of all these selections, but again there's a reference to illicit substances.

Bringing justice to the enemies not the other way round
They’re guilty when killed and they’re killed where they’re found
If what’s loosed on earth will be loosed up on high
It’s a Hell of a Heaven we must go to when we die
Where even Laurel begs Hardy for vengeance please
The fat man is crying on his hands and his knees
Back in the peacetime he caught roses on the stage
Now he twists indecision takes bourbon for rage
Lead pellets peppering aluminum
Halcyon, laudanum and Opium

This record knocked me out when I first heard it.
Actually, all of these records did and still do.


Download:

"Heroin" mp3
by The Velvet Underground, 1967.
available on The Velvet Underground & Nico

"Amphetamine" mp3
by Peter Laughner, 1975.
available on Take the Guitar Player for a Ride
out of print

"Misunderstood" mp3
by Wilco, 1996.
available on Being There

"Thin Blue Flame" mp3
by Josh Ritter, 2006.
available on Animal Years

Buy: Psychotic Reactions and Carburetor Dung by Lester Bangs

top photo: © Ted Barron

This blog does not endorse drug abuse.

The Guitar Slim Effect

"Pardon My Heart"
- Neil Young

"Did you ever wake up to find, a day that broke up your mind?"
-The Rolling Stones

Yesterday I experienced such a day. It was partially by my own design. Two extremely difficult and heartbreaking situations in my personal life were dealt with, or at least put into motion. One involves my son, Lincoln, who is eight years old, and telling him the news that he and my ex-wife will be moving far away. 1000 miles to be exact, and I won't be able to join them. He didn't take it so well, but I think he's getting used to the idea. I'm not sure how I feel. The other, involves a woman, whom I love very much and have been apart from for a few weeks - or dare I say broken up with - it remains to be seen how this other situation will play out, depending on the depth of my denial and or the luck or cruelty of fate.

When my son was born in 1999 he spent the first few days of his life in the intensive care unit. His mother's labor ended with an emergency C- section about 36 hours after her water had initially broken, thus causing an infection and requiring antibiotics for mother and son. It was during this time, that the customary tests were performed on the baby, and a nurse matter of factly informed us that Lincoln had failed his hearing test, and wouldn't be eligible to take another for three months.
















At the moment of his birth, the doctor exclaimed, "WOW!" at this huge nearly 10 pound, 22 inch child who was in my eyes perfect in every way, mother and son were wheeled away separately to require additional medical care. I retreated to a wall in front of the hospital where I sat and smoked a cigarette while weeping uncontrolled tears of joy.

I found out about the hearing test the following morning, after returning to the hospital on a few hours sleep, I was troubled by this news, but elated by the birth of my son. "We'll just wait and see." I told myself. Now any new parent will tell you, that these first days back home with your child can be racked with anxiety and wonder. "What now?" When you leave the hospital they give you a take home bag filled with a blanket, onesies, and various other items including a CD known as "The Mozart Effect." Scientific studies have shown that exposure to certain pieces of music can increase brain activity in infants, especially in the development of spatial relations. I was troubled by this notion that maybe Lincoln was deaf, and "How would I be able to share all of this music with him?" I tried the the Mozart. No response. I snapped my fingers, whispered into his ears. Non-conclusive. There was always something playing in the background. Popular in our house at this time was Summerteeth, by Wilco and somewhere there is a video I shot of me cradling him in the kitchen while listening to Good As I Been To You by Bob Dylan. I wasn't convinced. Finally, one day in his second month, frustrated and looking for results, I got out the headphones and put them on the boy. I started thumbing through my LPs looking for something of substance to pass on to my progeny. There it was: Guitar Slim, The Atco Sessions. I put it on, quietly, and watched. Slowly I turned up the volume. He cracked a smile or maybe it was just gas. I don't know, but something in my heart told he he was listening. A few days or a week later, I can't remember, he took his hearing test and passed with flying colors.

Today, Lincoln is versed in all kinds of music. His favorite (of course) is The Beatles, but he caught my attention one day, when we were listening to Chuck Berry and he asked me who the piano player was. I was taken aback that he even noticed, since that and most of those records are driven by the guitar, and this particular one featured the great Johnny Johnson. He often goes to bed listening to Monk's Dream, his choice not mine. I took him to see a taping of a Jerry Lee Lewis Special for PBS, and he was appropriately blown away. While making photographs for Steve Earle's Washington Square Serenade CD, I took him along to Electric Lady one day, where I made this top photograph of him in Studio A. This record gets a fair amount of airplay in his bedroom as well. So far he's mastered only the harmonica, and plays with perfect timbre and rhythm. Piano lessons are in store for him, after the move.

So, as for Guitar Slim? Yesterday while doing double duty on my heartaches, I reached for those sad records that make me feel better about feeling bad: Slim sings with more heart than than just about anyone else. He's not technically a great singer, and his guitar playing is sloppy but says exactly what it needs to. A smile crossed my face, or maybe it was just gas.

Download:


















"Down Through The Years" mp3
by Guitar Slim, 1956
available on Atco Sessions




















"It Hurts To Love Someone" (That Don't Love You) mp3
by Guitar Slim, 1956.
available on Atco Sessions


















"Sufferin' Mind" mp3
by Guitar Slim, 1954.
available on Sufferin' Mind



















"Trouble Don't Last" mp3
by Guitar Slim, 1954.
available on Sufferin' Mind

Bonus:























"Pardon My Heart" mp3
by Neil Young, 1975.
available on Zuma

"Sway" mp3
by The Rolling Stones, 1971.
available on Sticky Fingers

"1000 Miles" mp3
by Clare Burson, 2007.
available on Thieves

"I'm Always In Love" mp3
by Wilco, 1999.
available on Summerteeth

"Tomorrow Night" mp3
by Bob Dylan, 1992.
available on Good as I Been to You

"Martha My Dear" mp3
by The Beatles, 1968.
available on The Beatles (The White Album)

"Drifting Heart" mp3
by Chuck Berry, 1956.
available on The Chess Box :Chuck Berry

"Before The Night Is Over" mp3
by Jerry Lee Lewis with B.B. King, 2006.
available on Last Man Standing - The Duets

"Day's Aren't Long Enough" mp3
by Steve Earle (with Allison Moorer), 2007.
available on Washington Square Serenade

"Monk's Dream" mp3
by Thelonious Monk Quartet, 1962.
available on Monk's Dream

all photos © Ted Barron

The Velvet Touch

"Ginsberg is both tragic and dynamic, a lyrical genius, con man extraordinaire, and probably the single greatest influence on American poetical voice since Whitman." -Bob Dylan

"Pot is Fun" -Allen Ginsberg

"I'm not a Hippie!" -Jonathan Richman

At the end of "See You Later, Allen Ginsberg," you can hear Bob Dylan start to say, "Let's erase..." (that!) or something to that effect. This track has most of what's great about the lighter tracks on the The Basement Tapes: humor, spontaneity, cannabis, and illicitness (it is a bootleg) and maybe we shouldn't be listening to it, or maybe it should have been erased as Dylan starts to suggest. Thankfully, it was not.

A few years later, Dylan heard Ginsberg at a reading, improvising poetry to some music and called him to talk about it. A week later they were in the studio recording with an assembled cast of characters including Anne Waldman and Happy Traum. They recorded several tracks for what eventually became Ginsberg's record First Blues, including "Put Your Money Down," which is the traditional sea shanty "Pay Me Your Money Down" and "For You, Oh Babe For You," which to my ears sounds more like late period Velvet Underground than anything else.

So, with that in mind I've assembled a sprawling little playlist here, that follows a tagent beginning with Dylan and moving on to some live Velvets from 1969; The Modern Lovers, who used to the Velvets' sound as a starting point; Wilco who nailed it on at least one track and another performance of Ginsberg from 1982 with The Clash.


Download:

"See You Later, Allen Ginsberg"
by Bob Dylan & The Band, 1967.
available on The Genuine Basement Tapes

"Put My Money Down"
"For You, Oh Babe For You"
By Bob Dylan & Allen Ginsberg, 1971.
available on Fourth Time Around: Genuine Bootleg Series Vol. 4

"Sweet Bonnie Brown/It's Just Too Much"
"Over You"
by The Velvet Underground, 1969.
available on 1969: Velvet Underground Live, Vol. 2

"Summer Teeth"
by Wilco, 1999.
available on Summerteeth

"Roadrunner" alternate version
by The Modern Lovers, 1972.
available on The Modern Lovers

"Velvet Underground"
by Jonathan Richman, 1992.
available on I, Jonathan

"Ghetto Defendant"
by The Clash with Allen Ginsberg, 1982.
available on Combat Rock



















this photograph:
Allen Ginsberg with Joe Strummer and Mick Jones
New York City, 1982. © Hank O'Neal

top photograph:
Bob Dylan and Allen Ginsberg at Jack Kerouac's Grave
Lowell Massachusetts, 1975. © Ken Regan