Uncut August 2015

And were not little children/And we know what we want/And the future is certain/Give us time to work it out
PAUL MCCARTNEY NEIL YOUNG
EXCLUSIVE!
DAVID
BYRNE
Inside the
giant brain of
rocks premium
TALKING HEAD
PLUS!
50
GREATEST
NEW YORK
ALBUMS
40
PAGES OF
REVIEWS
PATTI SMITH
TAME IMPALA
LLOYD COLE
MILES DAVIS
SLEAFORD MODS
AND MORE...
BB KING
...and the death
of the blues
THE JAM
I was always
scorched earth!
SLY & THE

FAMILY STONE
People couldnt
gure us out!
NEW
INTERVIEWS!
THE
DESLONDES
JASON ISBELL
FRASER A
GORMAN
THE DREAM
SYNDICATE
JOHN LENNON
MERLE
HAGGARD
THE MONKEES
EZRA FURMAN
THE ONLY ONES
AND
MARY WILSON
THE KINKS
DANIEL ROMANO
GORDON LIGHTFOOT
FLYING SAUCER ATTACK
AUGUST 2015 | UNCUT.CO.UK
TAKE 219
D B Y R NE BB K I
AUG 2015
STEREO
N
AN
IS
ATT
P
NE Y
URM
MITH
G EZ
RA F
ME
E HA
GGA
RD
THE O
NLY O
N E S T H
E MONK EES SLY & THE FAMI

LY STO
NE
P
A UL
MC
14 Merle Haggard
An audience with the Bakerseld Bard:
Im thankful for the life Ive been given
18 BB King RIP
Uncut and friends pay tribute to an
untouchable mountain of the blues
24 Ezra Furman
The prolic young star talks Lou Reed,
protest music and observing
the Jewish Sabbath
32 The Only Ones

Peter Perrett and co on the making of
Another Girl, Another Planet
36 David Byrne
A once-in-a-lifetime interview with the
musical explorer. Up for discussion:
Talking Heads, Eno and Imelda Marcos
44 The 50 Greatest
New York Albums
Uncut charts the history of a city

through music, from Gershwin to Nas
52 The Monkees
Album by album, bubblegum to garage
56 Sly & The

Family Stone
The early days of a rock-soul-funk genius:
Hell, those rst few years were exciting
40 PAGES OF REVIEWS!
65 New Albums
Including: Tame Impala,
Sleaford Mods, Neil Young
85 The Archive
Including: Lloyd Cole, Miles Davis,
The Dream Syndicate
Are we rolling?
HE FIRST TIME, I think, that I went to New York,
I fetched up with a band at CBGB one quiet soundcheck
afternoon. This would have been in the early 1990s,
some time after the clubs heyday, when it was more
likely to be hosting a major label showcase of some gauche
Britpop aspirants rather than the unmediated voice of the
New York streets.
Nevertheless, the club still had a certain cachet, however
historical, which was why the band (and the NME journalist
trying to put a new spin on an optimistic plot to take America
by storm) were at CBGB in the first place. That day, Hilly Kristal
Hilly Kristal
and his dog were encountered, fleetingly. The toilets seemed
outside
CBGB, 1986
more like a museum installation about punk interior design
than actual functioning WCs. The critical moment occurred,
though, when the photographer and I tried to have a game of pool on the worn-out
baize table near the door. As I leaned over to take my first shot, a fat cockroach
scuttled out of one pocket, swerved the cueball, and disappeared down another.
It was a magically horrible moment: a tale of mythic squalor where nothing really
bad happened and no-one got hurt.
The legends of New York, of course, and the phenomenal music thats been
made there, often come intertwined with grimmer details. The citys old, edgy
reputation is fetishised so much, youd be forgiven for thinking the only good art to
come out of the place was dependent on a climate of risk. New York felt so much
more real, Kim Gordon reminisced in Girl In A Band. When people would ask why
Sonic Youths music was so dissonant, the answer was always the same: our music
was realistic, and dynamic, because life was that way, filled with extremes.
The truth, then, is probably a bit more complex than the stereotypes,
something weve strived to take into account while compiling a list of 50 great
New York albums for this issue. It would be disingenuous to pretend that
seediness hasnt had a role to play if wed been so daft as to try and rank these
50 vivid records, Im sure The Velvet Underground & Nico would have ended up
somewhere near the top. But its a city, and a list, that contains multitudes: from
George Gershwin to Nas; the Fania All-Stars to Jeff Buckley; Sinatra to Hendrix;
Woody Allen to Talking Heads. New York, youre safer/And youre wasting my
time, James Murphy crooned, ruefully, on LCD Soundsystems New York,
I Love You. Our records all show/You are filthy but fine.
Until next time,
99 DVD & Film

Ornette Coleman, The Decline Of
Western Civilization, the Stones
104 Live
Paul McCartney, Patti Smith
115 Books
How Music Got Free, Willie Nelson
117 Not Fade Away

This months obituaries
120 Feedback
Your letters, plus the Uncut crossword
122 My Life In Music

Mary Wilson
John Mulvey, Editor

Follow me on Twitter @JohnRMulvey
COVER: PIETER M VAN HATTEM THIS PAGE: EBET ROBERTS/REDFERNS
RL
4 Instant Karma!
The Kinks, The Jam, Gordon Lightfoot,
Flying Saucer Attack, Daniel Romano
CAR
I N STA N T K A R M A !
THIS MONTHS REVELATIONS FROM THE WORLD OF UNCUT
Featuring THE JAM | GORDON LIGHTFOOT | DANIEL ROMANO
TOPLESS POSERS
DEAD
END
STREET!
The Kinks smile for the
kamera, as a major new
exhibition opens
TS 1967. THE Kinks are in the midst of
an extraordinary run of singles: Sunny
Afternoon, Dead End Street, Waterloo
Sunset. Dave Davies has embarked on a
successful solo career, and has a fetching
new hat. There are fracas: Dave got very
annoyed with me last week when I said he was
playing too loud, Ray Davies told NME that
May. He picked up ashtrays and things in the
dressing room and threw them at me. Then he
knocked me over and tried to kick me. He missed
and kicked this iron table and went hopping out
of the room holding his foot
When the photographers arrive, however,
The Kinks are masters at disguising their enmity.
Heres a choice outtake from a Mike Leale session
that ended up on the cover of the Sunny Afternoon
comp. The psychedelic Buick convertible may
not be the most emblematic vehicle of Swinging
London but the sense of a band capitalising on
their moment, embodying the spirit of the age,
is inescapable. Leales picture is one of the
highlights of The Kinks: Photographs And
Artefacts, a new exhibition at Londons Snap
Galleries. It brings together a treasure trove of
Klassic Kinks images taken between 1964 and
68 by the likes of Val Wilmer, Dezo Hoffmann,
Barrie Wentzell and Bruce Fleming, who was
behind the lens at the bands first professional
shoot in February, 1964.
Leale, meanwhile, captured a little extra
in this shot: a twitching net curtain, an
observer stationed behind it in the top right
corner. The clothes might suggest West End
flamboyance, the car signal rock star excess,
but, as so many of these shots illustrate, Ray
Davies and The Kinks hearts remained in
the residential backstreets of the city.
MIKE LEALE
Mike Leales photograph Konvertible

Kinks is one of a number previously
unseen images featured in the exhibition
The Kinks: Photographs And Artefacts,
which runs at Londons Snap Galleries
until August 8, 2015. Further information
at www.snapgalleries.com
4 | UNCUT | AUGUST 2015
Dave tried
to kick me
he missed,
kicked the
iron table
and went
hopping out
RAY DAVIES
Konverted: (l-r)Pete
Quaife, Dave in his fetching
hat, Ray, and Mick Avory
august 2015 | uNCut |
I N STA N T KA R M A !
A QUICK ONE
A couple of Uncut
spin-offs to plug,
swiftly. The deluxe
remastered version of
our Ultimate Music
Guide to David Bowie
is now in the shops.
And its followed on
July 9 by the first
monthly edition of
The History Of Rock.
Each issue of The
History Of Rock draws
on the riches of the
NME and Melody
Maker archives to tell
the momentous story
of the music we love,
one year per issue.
We begin in 1965: look
out for it.
FLAIR PHOTOGRAPHY LTD
Dont hold your

breath for that
Replacements reunion
album. A couple of
months ago, Paul
Westerberg told
Uncut, My bet is that
well finish this year out
with the same four as
last year, hopefully no
one will die, and well
reassess. On June 5,
however, Westerberg
announced the end of
the band, mid-set at
the Primavera festival
in Porto. He noted that
the rest of the band
who reformed in 2013
had stayed at their
hotel rather than
soundchecking,
calling them lazy
bastards to the end.
The final frontiers
of boxset excess
are about to be
challenged by
inevitably the
Grateful Dead this
autumn. September
18s 30 Trips Around
The Sun contains no
less than 80 CDs;
30 live shows from
1965-1995, and more
than 73 hours of music.
Lightweights may
prefer an abbreviated
version the
highlights squeezed
onto a measly 4CDs
released the same day.
Visit www.uncut.
co.uk for daily news,
reviews, playlists and
the best longreads
from the archive.
The Jam in 1977.

Below, John
Wellers 1974
business card,
and a band
poster from 75
JAM COLLECTION
We have an
archive of Jam
material going
back 30 years. It
fills 11 rooms!
Nicky Weller
Bowie exhibition at the V&A,
which has opened the door to
exhibitions of this type. But
while Bowie carefully retained
items from his past, Weller
took a different approach. I
didnt keep anything, he
admits cheerfully. I used to
destroy my notebooks after
every record, burn them or
rip them up. I was always
scorched earth,
almost ceremonial.
Its been and done. I
dont like to collect
things Im not going
to use, it clutters
things up. Maybe
records and clothes I
still play and wear.
But nothing just for
the sake of it.
Fortunately, his
relatives were not
quite as unromantic. Much has been salvaged
by the family, all of whom were involved in The
Jam. Paul and Nickys dad John was the bands
manager, while Nicky ran the fan club. Later,
their mother helped Nicky and also kept as
much of Pauls stuff as she could. We went
through my dads archive after he died [in
2009] and also went through Pauls shed and
found loads of schoolbooks he probably forgot
about years ago, says Nicky. Theres a bundle
of them that say Maths and English on the front
but inside is poetry, doodles and cartoons. Hes
a good cartoonist and was already thinking about The Jam as a
band, so that was what he drew. He even designed album
covers. Among the highlights is a cartoon strip depicting the
adventures of Paul The Mod. Theres also a drawing of him on
a scooter with a list of all the parts he wants to buy, says Nicky.
Other unseen items include photographs and film. My dad
made home movies and weve got an old reel of an early gig
thats never been seen before.
The exhibition is the first of several events marking The Jams
40th birthday. It will be accompanied
by a documentary and album, both
called About The Young Idea. Nicky
Weller has also published a book. Its
called Growing Up With The Jam and
has more than 100 celebrities and fans
talking about the band people like
Ray Davies, Pete Townshend, Glen
Matlock, Mick Jones, Noel Gallagher,
she says. Paul contributed to the
documentary and Nicky is pleased that
her brother is involved. Hed never
have talked about this a few years ago,
she says. But now hes realised theres
a legacy people want to explore.
THE YOUNG MODS

FORGOTTEN STORY
I didnt keep anything! PAUL WELLER finally

revisits his past for a major JAM exhibition
AUL WELLER HAS never been that keen on looking
back, which makes his enthusiasm for a new exhibition
on The Jam at Somerset House particularly noteworthy.
Its amazing what theyve uncovered, enthuses Weller of
About The Young Idea. My sister helped organise it and shes
come up with loads of stuff I didnt know existed, notebooks
and things. Its quite weird seeing all that stuff again.
Nicky Weller, Pauls younger sister, has co-curated the
exhibition with her partner Russell Reader, professional
curator Tory Turk and collector Den
Davis. The motivation comes from
Den, she says. He has an archive of
Jam material going back 30 years. He
approached us a few years back and it
started to come together. It fills 11
rooms, from the start of The Jam at
Stanley Road to the end in Brighton. Its
not just posters and photos, weve tried
to get memorabilia from every period,
like old art from Polydor, lyrics, guitars
that Paul gave away, suits, boots, the
drumkit from the last show. The band
have got involved. Rick [Buckler] and
Bruce [Foxton] have lent clothes,
photos and school reports.
The show presents The Jam in a
wider context of fashion, culture and
politics. One influence was the David
PETER WATTS
About The Young Idea is at Somerset

House, London, June 26 to August 31
OUT OF SPACE
David Pearce,
with sequins
WARNING:
DRONES
OVERHEAD!
Heroic feedback
explorers FLYING
SAUCER ATTACK
return from the
outer limits
T HAS BEEN 15 years since
Bristols Flying Saucer Attack
last released any new music,
and 13 since we last heard from
the bands visionary frontman,
David Pearce. We could be
forgiven for thinking, then, that
Pearce had retired from music
but next month sees the
unexpected return of FSA with a
new album, Instrumentals 2015.
I knew Id done what I could
with music, such as I could,
explains Pearce. It took a long
time before I had, or realised I
had, something to say again.
Across four albums and a clutch
of singles released between 1993
and 2000, Flying Saucer Attacks
recordings mostly made between
Pearce and Rachel Brook used
repetitive drones and expansive
jams to conjure up a kind of hissy,
psychedelic haze. What struck
me was how they took noise and
feedback into an entirely new
terrain, says director Peter
Strickland, who used FSAs Three
Seas in his latest film, The Duke
Of Burgundy. Their sound was
sublime, feral and painterly. They
could go into this dreamy, bucolic
realm, but they were also capable of
some of the best guitar riffs out
there. It is what author Richard
King a long-standing associate of
the band describes as a

conflation of harsh feedback and
traditional English folk tunings.
Reflecting on his own lengthy
absence, Pearce explains, I did
stop making music for periods of
a number of years. I wasnt even
listening to music much for long
periods. Slowly, very slowly, I
worked on some bits of music, and
also some songs. I could get never
get any words for the songs, but
some of the instrumentals stuck in
my mind over time. At some point,
I realised if there was going to ever
be something, it was going to be
instrumental. But I wasnt sure
there would ever be something.
THE CLASSIFIEDS
Pearce says Stricklands use

of his music in The Duke Of
Burgundy gave him the
confidence to come out of my
stupor and record the final
tracks for the record. As with
FSAs previous output,
Instrumentals 2015 a solo
project for Pearce is a home
recording using cassette players
and CD recorders. King
acknowledges the importance of
using such basic equipment to
create songs of such depth and
scale. Such working practices are
Their sound was

sublime, feral and
painterly with
some of the best
guitar riffs
Peter Strickland
central to FSAs sound; indeed,

Instrumentals 2015 revisits the
eerie, elemental qualities of
Pearces best work. With this
record, he says, however short or
long the track, they are all instances
of those kinds of magical moments
where youre not really thinking,
and not really thinking about what
youre doing while youre playing,
and something happens.
There is a video directed by
Strickland for one track, but
otherwise Instrumentals 2015 is
very much business as usual.
In many ways its a return to the
original idea, says King, of the
music appearing out of the ether,
then withdrawing again into an
unexplainable hinterland.
I would like to make another
record, adds Pearce. But it might
take a bit of time. MICHAEL BONNER
Instrumentals 2015 is released by
Domino July 17; Richard Kings book
Original Rockers is out via Faber
This month: MC5! Supported by Jake Thackray!

Taken from the Melody Maker, July 1, 1972
Lightfoot plays
nine UK gigs
next year
SEE THE LIGHTFOOT
The
emotional
stress has been
beneficial
Alcoholism, strokes onstage, three
marriages, endorsements from
Dylan GORDON LIGHTFOOT, master
singer-songwriter, has survived it all
OB DYLAN OBSERVED that
when he heard a Gordon
Lightfoot song he wished it
would last forever. In a different
sense, the Canadian troubadours
songs are well on their way to such
longevity: it is now 50 years since
Peter, Paul & Mary launched his
songwriting career with their 1965
cover of Early Morning Rain. His
first international hit under his own
name came five years later with If
You Could Read My Mind.
Lightfoot recently announced his
first concerts in Britain in more than
30 years and, at 76, its almost half
a lifetime since he last played here.
I guess Ive been through a lot, but
I think Ive written a few good songs

since then, he tells Uncut. Back
then, I was still an alcoholic. I
finally gave up about a year later.
And I nearly died in 2002, which
changes you. I had an aneurysm
and was in a coma. That knocked
me out for two and a half years.
He eventually returned to the road
in 2005 with the Better Late Than
Never Tour, and then suffered a
stroke onstage. I lost the use of my
right hand, which is quite a thing for
a guitar player. But I never stopped
practising and after six months I got
most of it back. Then there was a
death hoax that went around the
world in 2010; Lightfoot was driving
fellow songwriter acknowledging

your work. Bob has always been
very generous in his praise. We
shared the same manager, Albert
Grossman, in the 1960s and we
hung out in Greenwich Village and
other places. I saw him play in
London in 1966, too. Is there one
Dylan song above all others he
wishes hed written himself?
Ring Them Bells. I recorded it
soon after it came out on Oh Mercy
and we still do it in concert. Its
incredibly relevant today.
Unlike many other Canadian
songwriters, Lightfoot never moved
to the States and has lived all his life
in Toronto. The closest he came to
joining the Laurel Canyon set was a
short rental in the 70s: I took a
place in the canyons for two months
to inspire songwriting and that
worked well. But then I went home.
I lost the use of my

right hand, which
is quite a thing for
a guitar player. But
I never stopped.
Gordon Lightfoot
when he heard the announcement
on his car radio, and had to pull
over to call his friends and family:
So Im very thankful to be able to
walk on stage and play these songs
for people.
Lightfoots impressive songbook
led Dylan to note, I cant think of
any of Gordons songs I dont like.
Had he listed them, in addition to
Early Morning Rain and If You
Could Read My Mind, he might
have mentioned the likes of
Carefree Highway, Sundown,
The Wreck Of The Edmund
Fitzgerald, The Way I Feel,
Canadian Railroad Trilogy
and Rainy Day People.
Few writers can boast of having
the same song covered by Dylan
and Elvis Presley, who both
recorded Early Morning Rain.
Lightfoot describes Elvis cover as
a great honour, but adds that the
compliment is doubled when its a
It would have felt like deserting.

In the 70s he was part of a Warner
Bros stable of singer-songwriters
that included Neil Young, Joni
Mitchell, James Taylor and Van
Morrison. Did he feel a sense of
community or competition? There
certainly was competition, but it
made you want to do better.
Like many of the great
troubadours, theres a strongly
autobiographical thread in his
work. If You Could Read My Mind
was written in the turmoil of
divorce and several of his other
best-known songs reflect personal
crises. Ive been married three
times and soothed it with alcohol
and it all came out in the songs,
he says. So you could say the
emotional stress has been
beneficial. NIGEL WILLIAMSON
Gordon Lightfoot plays across the
UK in May 2016
UNCUT AT THE END OF THE ROAD

U
NCUTS FAVOURITE festival, End

Of The Road, is almost upon us now,
beginning as it does on September 4
at Larmer Tree Gardens in Dorset. Sufjan
Stevens, The War On Drugs, Tame Impala,
Laura Marling, My Morning Jacket and
Low (pictured left) head up the bill. And, as
in previous years, Uncut will be hosting
Q&A sessions over the weekend with some
of the festivals key acts. Keep an eye on

uncut.co.uk for further announcements. In
the meantime, End Of The Road tickets are
still available for 195: the place to go is
www.endoftheroadfestival.com
fying saucer attack

instrumentals 2015
17 july 2015
fsa.space
Daniel Romano:
he doesnt care
about your
stupid life
THE
PLAYLIST
ON THE STEREO THIS MONTH
PHIL COOK
Southland Mission THIRTY TIGERS
After work with Justin Vernon, Matthew
E White and Hiss Golden Messenger, the
gifted sideman moves into the spotlight for
an uplifting, Ry-inflected country-soul set.
THE CAIRO GANG
Goes Missing DRAG CITY
Another notable accomplice Will Oldham
guitarist Emmett Kelly finesses his jangle.
Recommended for Rickenbacker fetishists.
IM NEW HERE
Daniel
Romano
Recommended this month: an ambitious new country
storyteller Im not a confessional songwriter. That
stuff is so fucking whiney!
ANIEL ROMANO IS so wary of labels that
that stirred his teenage self into action, forming
hes invented his own. Mosey music,
Attack In Black in 2003. The quartet issued three
explains the Canadian songwriter,
albums before falling out with their record
is all about contrasts. Theres glitz and grit,
company: That band was ever-changing too,
revelling and wallowing, wretchedness and
which was maybe our demise. People in the
showmanship, he says, alluding to the kind of
industry dont know how to work with bands who
emotional trials that were once the preserve of
arent the same on every album, so we were just
Buck Owens, George Jones and Hank Williams.
kinda left in the dust. And that drove us all apart.
Im pretty seriously afraid of classification. I like
The upshot was that, in 2009, Romano
writing in the classic country formula, but once
co-founded his own label, Youve Changed
the music takes over, it could go in any direction.
Records. He swiftly made an acoustic folk album
As evinced on fourth LP If Ive Only One Time
with Julie Doiron and Fred Squire and began
Askin, the spiritual seat of his music lies
overseeing releases by fellow Canadians Apollo
somewhere between Nashville and Bakersfield.
Ghosts, Shotgun Jimmie and The Weather
The record is studded with country classicism,
Station. His work with the latter included
from its twangy guitars and weepy steel to its
co-writing, producing and playing an impressive
cold-truth sentiments and the stoic warmth of
spread of instruments. Dans talent is more
Romanos voice. And while the
complex than great musicianship,
themes may be familiar break-up,
says The Weather Stations Tamara
IM YOUR FAN
regret, the solace of a bottle this
Lindeman. He finds things so deep
intuitive grasp of countrys raw
Dan makes the in the pocket that you dont notice
appeal is invested with an
rest of us look like theyre innovative and unusual.
articulate, very modern sensibility.
The label also allowed Romano to
amateurs. Hes a make
Lyrically, there are no illusions,
solo records, reaching back
top-rate singer, into his country roots. Aside from
he states. Its very real. Even the
songwriter,
more poetic realms of country and
One Time Askin, he already has
western evoke a very human
player, performer, another album (provisionally titled
emotion. Telling a story or crafting a
producer, visual Mosey) ready to go. This one, he
feeling with words has always been
draws from late-60s Everlys:
artist and dude. says,
an interest. Im not a confessional
Im trying to cover my ass so I dont
CAITLIN ROSE
songwriter. That stuff is so fucking
end up in some club I dont want to
whiney. Im like, Who gives a shit? I
be a part of. I want to make the kind
dont care about your stupid life.
of country that doesnt exist
The son of folk musicians,
anymore and, at the same time,
Romano grew up in Welland,
hasnt existed yet. Thats the
Ontario, where he was exposed to
ultimate goal. ROB HUGHES
his grandparents collection of
Merle Haggard and George Jones
Daniel Romanos If Ive Only One
records. But it was hardcore punk
Time Askin is out July 31 on New West
JAMIE GOODSELL
ELEVENTH DREAM DAY

Works For Tomorrow THRILL JOCKEY
A fraught, crunchy comeback that ranks as
one of the strongest albums in the Chicago
veterans 30-year career.
THE JESUS AND MARY CHAIN
Live At Barrowlands DEMON
The Reid bros reconstruct Psychocandy
in Glasgow, its
finely wrought
cacophonies just as
potent 30 years on.
BEIRUT
No No No 4AD
Less of the Balkan
brass this time out,
as Zach Condon
recovers from divorce
with a string of sunny,
stealthily groovy new
songs from behind the Fender Rhodes.
LIQUID LIQUID
Optimo SUPERIOR VIADUCT
Neatly timed for our NYC issue, the pick of
an intoxicating shipment of 12 reissues
from the punk-funk trailblazers.
BOB MOULD
Workbook 25 EDSEL
Beyond Hsker D and Sugar, is this
belligerent folk album Moulds finest? A
2CD reissue makes a strong case, with
Shoot Out The Lights, live, emphasising
the debt to Richard Thompson.
JARVIS COCKER
20 Golden Greats RED BULL MUSIC ACADEMY
Eerie, harp-strafed ambient soundtrack to
the Pulp maestros new Paris exhibition
revolving around gold discs. Gold can be
used in food, and has the E number 175
ARTHURS LANDING
Second Thoughts BUDDHIST ARMY
More New York stories, as Arthur Russells
friends and collaborators gracefully rework
songs from his silvery back catalogue.
ADRIAN YOUNGE/GHOSTFACE
KILLAH 12 Reasons To Die II LINEAR LABS
Following up from the LA producers comp
(reviewed p97), Younge hooks up again
with the Wus most distinctive voice for
another baroque Blaxploitation odyssey.
For regular updates, check our blogs at www.
uncut.co.uk and follow @JohnRMulvey on Twitter
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suck it and see

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THE
NAME
OF
THIS
BAND
IS...
Your guide to this months free CD
1 JASON ISBELL
Speed Trap Town
Maybe its the critical involvement
of a state trooper in the narrative,
but theres something of Nebraska
to this tough, plaintive yarn from
the fifth Jason Isbell LP since he left
the Drive-By Truckers. Its possible
for me to inhabit these characters
because I have a good memory of
the times when I was adrift, he
tells Uncut on p79.
2 SLEAFORD MODS
Face To Faces
A gentle warning to prepare
yourself for Jason Williamsons
unflinching verbal onslaught;
as John Lewis puts it in his
review on p70, he curses more
entertainingly than anyone in pop
since The Troggs Tapes. The latest
righteous Mods invective features
a physical attack on Boris Johnson
and a bassline that pleasingly
recalls Steve Hanley in the
mid-80s Fall.
Sleaford
Mods
3 EZRA FURMAN
Lousy Connection
SARRAH DANZIGER
Its late at night, its time to tell you

my secrets, Furman begins, and
he spills plenty in our interview
(p24) this month. Here, though,
is a key example of the music that
makes the Chicagoan such a
compelling new star in our world:
literate, super-catchy doo-wop
that begins at a 50s drive-in and
progresses to somewhere bolder
and stranger.
5 SONNY VINCENT
& ROCKET FROM
THE CRYPT
Through My Head
Something of a jolt after
Shelby Lynnes languor,
heres a platoon of Rocket
From The Crypt troops
backing Sonny Vincent, an
undersung veteran of the 70s
CBGB cohort. Fervid stomps
proliferate on their delightful
Vintage Piss, none better than
Through My Head. This months
most belligerently anguished
break-up song, by some distance.
years. And as youll hear, Pearces

aesthetic remains miraculously
unaffected by the timelag.
9 DANIEL ROMANO
Im Going To Teach You
6 DUKE ELLINGTON &

HIS ORCHESTRA
Afrique (Take 3, Vocal)
A lost tune from the jazz master,
recorded in 1970 at a session
engineered by the legendary
architect of Krautrock, Conny
Plank. Mystery surrounds the
identity of the ululating singer
on this take of Afrique: is it a
Scandinavian lover of the Duke,
or even Conny Planks wife?
One for Sturgill Simpson fans now,

in the shape of Canadian singersongwriter Daniel Romano and his
ornate, tears-in-beer take on oldschool country. This track, from If
Ive Only One Time Askin, is a prime
example of his Mosey music:
Theres glitz and grit, revelling
and wallowing, wretchedness and
showmanship, he tells us on p10.
Polly On The Shore
Kathleen
Who knew that, besides being one

of Britains best comedians, Stewart
Lee would turn out to be a decent
folk singer, too? Long a scholar
of arcane music, Lee tackles the
traditional Polly On The Shore
like a tender, Midlands Billy Bragg,
as part of the 80th birthday tribute
to Shirley Collins, Shirley Inspired.
Samantha Crains Kathleen

comes from the Oklahomans
fourth, very fine solo album. Like
much of Under Branch & Thorn &
Tree, Kathleen is understated,
subtly funky, and a good showcase
for Crains lovely voice one that
recalls Joanna Newsom moving out
of the salon and into the wilderness.
Samantha
Crain
8 FLYING SAUCER
ATTACK
Son Of A Gun
Instrumental 7
We reviewed Lynnes I Cant

Imagine a couple of issues back,
to coincide with its US release.
To mark the UK arrival of the
country-soul stylists latest,
though, weve added Son Of A
Gun to this months selection a
slinky Bayou groove refracted
through hazy atmospherics.
For much of the 1990s, David Pearce

and FSA provided solace for music
fans who, emboldened by their
MBV records, craved further, wilder
experiments with feedback, drone
and leftfield beauty. Like Kevin
Shields, Pearce also went AWOL for
a time, but Instrumental 7 comes
from the first new FSA LP in 15
The
Deslondes
along that captures the quintets

knack of mixing country twang
with the vintage R&B rhythms of
their adopted hometown.
13 RACHEL GRIMES
The Herald
10 STEWART LEE &

STUART ESTELL
7 SAMANTHA CRAIN
4 SHELBY LYNNE
FREE
CD!
Like Flying Saucer Attack, Rachels

were one of the most slippery
outliers in the 90s post-rock
firmament, hatching a kind of neochamber music out of Louisville,
Kentucky. Pianist Rachel Grimes
was central to the project, and the
bands bewitching legacy lives on
in her solo work, with The Herald
throwing sax man Jacob Duncan
like Pharoah Sanders at his most
meditative into the baroque mix.
11 THE DREAM
SYNDICATE Like Mary
14 FRASER A GORMAN
A Paisley Underground landmark,

Days Of Wine And Roses is one of
this months key reissues, with the
1982 LP remastered and extended.
Among six previously unreleased
tracks from Steve Wynns combo,
Like Mary is an epic gem; strafed
VU ramalam, chugging with no
little art and enterprise into Neu!like motorik stretches.
From Courtney Barnetts labelmate,

Slow Gum is a richly crafted debut
album that owes a little to The
Go-Betweens, and quite a lot
to mid-70s Dylan: check the
ramshackle Rolling Thunder vibes
of Shiny Gun as a strong taster.
12 THE DESLONDES
The Real Deal
Uncut first stumbled across The
Deslondes when on assignment in
New Orleans to interview their
sister band, Hurray For The Riff
Raff. Their debut album has been
hammered pretty hard in the office
of late, especially this spirited sing-
Shiny Gun
15 OMAR SOULEYMAN
Enssa El Aatab
Souleymans journey from the
Syrian wedding circuit to
worldwide acclaim has taken a
strong turn, marrying his
serpentine grooves to electronic
producers such as Four Tet. Exhibit
A: Enssa El Aatab, on which
Modeselektor slip into sync with
the elaborate knees-ups favoured
by Souleyman and his regular crew.
fresh
produce
sleaford mods
key markets
groove armada
10/07/2015
little black book

10/07/2015
suck it and see: buy your cds,

dvds & books from fopp
if they suck well give you
a swap or your lolly*
ghostface killah
adrian younge presents:
twelve reasons to die II
10/07/2015
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refused
freedom
29/06/2015
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moonbuilding 2703 ad
22/06/2015
*This offer applies to all cds, dvds and books instore and is only available on production
of a valid receipt dated no more than four weeks from the time of your original purchase.
Goods must be in the condition as sold, both the sleeve/case, disc or spine/pages. We
reserve the right to refuse this offer. This offer in no way affects your statutory rights.
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the store, outside of this campaign, may be priced differently.
saint raymond
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work it out
29/06/2015
06/07/2015
hypoxia
KATHRYN WILLIAMS
new album out
15th june
as emotionally gripping as it is sonically explorative. 8/10 - uncut

the new album hypoxia is out now on 12 vinyl, cd and download
kathrynwilliams.co.uk
facebook.com/kathrynwilliamsmusic
indian.co.uk
AN AUDIENCE WITH...
Merle
Haggard
Interview: Michael Bonner

Photo: Myriam Santos
The country legend on misunderstandings with Bob Dylan, playing model trains
with Gram Parsons and being seen as an outlaw... I wanted to be what I was
GOT A DOG out here excited about something,
says Merle Haggard. Its mid-morning near
Redding, California and the Haggard home is filled
with the sound of yapping. Theres nobody here
but me and Im sitting here wondering why they
dont shut that dog up, he explains. We got two
toy fox terriers, Fanny and Sally. Theyre little
females and they run the cats around the yard. I
think theres a cat out there now. Haggard momentarily wanders off to see
to his dogs. He is speaking to Uncut ahead of the release of his new album,
Django And Jimmie, recorded with old friend Willie Nelson. Among its
songs are a cover of Dylans Dont Think Twice, Its All Right, an outlaw
stoner anthem, Its All Going To Pot, and a tribute to late comrade Johnny
Cash. Once hes silenced the rowdy pooch, Haggard readies himself for
your questions. I got up a little early this morning, he reveals. Im wide
awake now. For a man who had lung surgery after a cancer diagnosis in
2008, Haggard is in good spirits: I havent had a check-up in a while, but I
think Im all right if a body can feel all right at 78 years old! Yknow he
adds, ruminating on his remarkable life and times, we go through one
valley to the next. I dont think for anybody its always a good life. You see
other people having a perfect life, but I doubt they feel that way about it. Im
just thankful, in the highest way, for the life Ive been given.
ABC PHOTO ARCHIVES/ABC VIA GETTY IMAGES; CLAY PATRICK MCBRIDE; ROSS HALFIN
STAR QUESTION
When you wrote
Silver Wings did
you know it was a
classic as soon as
you finished it, or
did it become
clear in the
recording that it would be one of
those that would last for all time?
Rosanne Cash
It was written on a plane a 707
coming out of Phoenix, Arizona,
going to LA with Bonnie Owens.
I looked out and those silver wings
were just gleaming. I thought,
What a great premise for a song.
I wrote it on that flight. I thought it
was an interesting void, somebody
hadnt written Silver Wings, I
thought what a great title. I was
suspicious of it being a real winner.
But no-one knows.
Why did you decide to cover

Dont Think Twice, Its All
Right on your new album?
Keiran Clayden, Chatteris, Cambs
We wanted to do a Dylan song and
that was something we both knew.
Do I know Bob? If anybody knows
Bob! [laughs] Ive been a fan, all the
way. Ive never been mad at him.
I dont think Ive ever been jealous

of him. Hes an American icon. I
toured with him for two years. I
went to almost every one of his
rehearsals. I was knocked out.
Then he had the goddamn nerve
to say I didnt like him [at the
MusiCares Person Of The Year
Award in February]! Yeah, I dont
understand that. I havent talked
to him since then.
STAR QUESTION
Youre a hero to
many singersongwriters,
myself included.
I loved the tribute
albums to Jimmie
Rodgers and
Bob Wills. Is hero worship
a good thing?
Loudon Wainwright III
Yes, it gets your eyes off yourself.
Those albums were exciting
because of the admiration I had
for both men. It was exhilarating
to do their songs with the great
musicians that I had at that time. It
was two different deals: Jimmie
Rodgers was done one way, Bob
Wills was done another way.
On The Johnny
Cash Show, August
2, 1969: He still
means a lot to me
Growing up in Bakersfield in the

30s, did you get to hear much
music? Bruce Yardley, Leeds
Music was really big in our lives.
My father was a real good singer
and he sang at church, where
my mother played the organ.
Then radio was in its heyday when I
was growing up. There was a lot of
great music of all kinds. Back in
those days, one station would
programme a variety of things all
day long. At 8 in the morning,
theyd come on with an hour of Bob
Wills. Then at 12 noon, youd get
another hour of Bob Wills. Thats
how hot he was. It was great
because it was live from the studio.
A real personable thing. People got
wound up in them just like they do
in these soap operas nowadays.
There was a show once a week. Bing
Crosby had musicians on there like
Joe Venuti and Satchmo, people
that we all know. I wanted to be a
guitar player before I thought of
being a singer. So I was watching
these musicians and listening to
Bing sing. Crosby was awful good
and quite an influence.
What do you remember about
seeing Johnny Cash perform at
San Quentin prison in 1958?
Steve Barnard, Whitby
I was at a low ebb in my life. I was
there to see him come and do one of
the bigger things in his life. He
performed for 5,000 male prisoners
and had no voice. Hed lost it the
night before. But he was able to
capture those people who were in
thrall to Johnny Cash, to the point
where they accepted him without a
voice. He could barely whisper. I
thought it was tremendous how he
handled the crowd. We felt like
Johnny Cash was a lot like us and
Do I know
Bob?
If anybody
knows Bob
Ive been
a fan all
the way
AN AUDIENCE WITH...
friendship just came to be over the
years. Weve admired each others
work, I think. Weve had so many
damn things happen in our lives.
Both of our mothers are from
Harrison, Arkansas. It starts right
there and the similarities dont quit.
Merle and Willie during Willie

Nelson And Friends: Outlaws
& Angels at the Wiltern
Theatre, LA, May 5, 2004
to see him succeed and have that

ability to do what he did to a bunch
of dirty-ass prisoners was inspiring.
Many years later, we were in a back
room and he was talking about
that San Quentin show, and from
nowhere I said, You know, you
didnt have any voice. He jerked
his head round and said, How did
you know that? I said, I was there,
John. In the audience, watching you
do that. It knocked him down. He
still means a lot to me. Some people
make such a mark in life that when
they pass on I dont accept the fact
hes gone. I just put him on the other
end of the country and I cant get
hold of him right now.
M. CAULFIELD/WIREIMAGE FOR NBC UNIVERSAL PHOTO DEPARTMENT
STAR QUESTION
Hi Merle, this is
going back a bit,
but I dug your turn
as Cisco Calendar
in the TV series
Centennial, and I
loved how you
sang John Denvers I Guess Hed
Rather Be In Colorado at the
close of it. Ive searched for your
version on a record forever but
have never found it. Will it ever
be released? Mike Scott
I dont think I ever recorded it in the
studio. It might be a good idea to do
that song on the show. I got to spend
three weeks in a pick-up truck with
Andy Griffith. That was like some
special gift. Do I wish Id done more
acting? I dont think I was good at it.
I didnt study. I never gave it a lot of
serious thought. It wasnt my forte. I
wanted to be what I was.
When did you get your first
guitar? Jade Sibley, Epsom
My brother was running a filling
station, and he took in a guitar and
gave a guy a couple of dollars worth
of gas when I was about 10. He
brought it over my house and set it
there in the closet, and it stayed
there for a while. My mother got it
out and showed me a couple of

chords my dad had showed her.
Hed passed away by that time.
When did I start writing songs?
Theres history of that in my report
cards from second and third grade.
Probably, early on, I might have
started when I was seven or eight
years old, trying to write things. No,
I dont remember any of them!
Johnny Cash
still means a lot
to me. I dont
accept the fact
hes gone
You lived in a boxcar in Oildale,
Bakersfield. Tell us about the
inspiration for the track, Oil
Tanker Train.
Sam Butler, Southampton
It used to come by every day and
rattle the ground. We were in
earthquake country, so when
the ground starts moving, you
look up. When that old oil
train would go by it done
that every morning, it done
that every evening it
grabbed your attention.
They was doing it with steam
engines back then. You got the
old choo choo going by and
you got the whistle. It added
the background to life that dont
exist anymore.
What is the enduring appeal
of Okie From Muskogee?
Helen Wright, St Neots, Cambs
Its a song people use to express
pride. Youre proud to be who you
are. Its one of the selling points of
the song. Do I think its message has
become stronger down their years?
Its never had a bad period.The
audience have always accepted it
for their own reasons and for

different reasons as time evolved.
Its one of the songs people ask me
about the most. Ive just received
four awards. Ive had 20 songs that
have been played one million times
in America. Workin Mans Blues
gets a lot of attention. And Mama
Tried, people have tattooed that on
their body. Its amazing how
seriously they take that song. You
know, prison is not the only way to
fail. We live in a terrible world. Our
future could be awful bleak. I grew
up in a tough time, but its tougher
now. The increased population, its
a big problem. The problems in the
US, our police problems, are at a
peak. I think theyre going to put
cameras on the chests of the police
officers to record what theyre
doing, which is a step in the right
direction. Theres good cops
and bad cops.
Whats the best piece of advice

Willie Nelson ever gave you?
Sarah-Jane Pullman, Goudhurst
Willie Nelson is a mysterious man,
to say the very least. But Ive had
the fortune to be with him several
times over the last few years. I
really like Willie. I first met him in a
poker game in 1964 in Nashville.
Who won? Dont remember. Our
The adjective most used to

describe you is outlaw. Do you
take it as a compliment?
Sarah Holmes, Croydon
It means we rebelled against the
system and did it our way. I loved
Nashville, but it wasnt my place to
record. I tried it, we did all right, but
we didnt do as good as with our
own thing out on the coast. The
coast gave us vivaciousness, a
youthful sound, a fresh attempt
that was not evident in Nashville. It
was too perfect there. They had the
greatest players in the world, but
were too good for the average guy.
What did you think when
younger artists like The Byrds
and The Grateful Dead started
covering your songs in the 60s?
Nick Edwards, Newcastle
It was another feather in my cap. It
made me proud to have these rock
groups admire my music. I didnt
know Gram Parsons. I met him. He
was extremely impressed with our
music. He came to our house in
Bakersfield and wanted me to
produce his record. We played some
model trains. People dont realise
how much time it takes to be
successful in this business. You can
cut a hit, but to cut several you are a
busy human being. And I was doing
that and wasnt really into what was
going on with the Dead or Gram. I
was trying to figure out how to
follow up Workin Man Blues.
What do you do with your

downtime? Chloe, New York
Not much. Theres not a lot of
things I can do any more. Ive
got a lot of recordings were
working on and Im doing a
new album by myself. I try to
tour about 10 days a month.
By the time you put the travel
into the mix, Im on the road
half the time. Im not without
something serious to do all the
time, really.
What wisdom would you pass on

to your 18-year-old self?
Alison Goodman, Bristol
Wear a seatbelt. You never know
whats going to happen.
Django And Jimmie is out now on
Legacy/Sony Music
UNCUT.CO.UK
Log on to see whos in
the hot-seat next month
and to post your questions!
UNCUT PROMOTION
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AUGUST 2015 | UNCUT |
17
BB king
Presidential, benevolent,
elegant: BB King in the
studio, October 18, 1971
BB KING
AND THE
BLUES AT A
CROSSROADS
BB King was a tireless ambassador for the blues, but is the
sound that he loved now approaching extinction? Uncut
salutes the guitar colossus - An untouchable mountain of the
blues! and investigates the survival chances of the music
that King helped to invent... We have a real, real problem!
Story: David Cavanagh
Photograph: Estate Of Keith Morris/Redferns
19
COLIN ESCOTT/MICHAEL OCHS ARCHIVES/GETTY IMAGES; JEFF KATZ
BB King performs
on radio station
WDIA, Memphis,
Tennessee, 1948
B KING, WHO DIED on

May 14 at the age of 89, took an
unimaginable journey through
American life and culture that
led him from a cotton plantation
in 1920s Mississippi to the
White House in 2012, where he
performed an ad hoc blues
(Sweet Home Chicago) with
President Barack Obama. King,
a guitarist famous for his
emotional solos and black
Gibson guitars all called Lucille, was already 86 by then
and though he could no longer maintain an energetic
aggregate of 250 shows a year, he still held firm to a work
ethic that many rock bands would have found gruelling.
Kings death was not a complete shock he had suffered
diabetes-related health problems for eight months and had
spent his last two weeks in hospice care in Las Vegas but it
comes as a serious blow to the blues world, for which he was
a global ambassador and one of the last surviving links to
the Mississippi Delta. You expect people like BB to live
forever, his friend John Mayall tells Uncut. Everyone
knew that he wasnt in the best of health, but he was such
a larger-than-life figure.
Riley B King, as he was born on September 16, 1925,
endured formative experiences that still seem cruel and
astonishing no matter how many times blues historians
have chronicled them. Born in a wooden cabin to
desperately poor parents, he worked in cotton fields at the
age of seven. When I was picking cotton they paid 35 cents
a hundred, he told the British journalist Mick Brown in
2009, and I learnt to be pretty good I could pick over 400
in a day. Then I learned to drive tractors and I was very good
at it. Driving a tractor on a plantation, youre kind of a star,
because youre doing something that not everyone can do.
By the end of the 20th Century, King was an instantly
recognisable superstar, a man estimated by International
Business Times to have earned more than $100 million
during his career. Not the least of his extraordinary talents
was his ability to fill his solos with all the sorrow he must
have felt since boyhood, while carrying himself in public as
a humble, forgiving man who claimed only modest gifts. In
the interview with Brown, he wished he could be as good a
musician as Eric Clapton or George Benson. Hed just been
THE DAY
I MET BB
Three blues
guitarists recall first
meeting the great
man, starting with
WALTER TROUT,
SOUTH JERSEY,
1968
I used to
work in a
department
store in a
mall when I
was about 17.
It was right next to a
record store, and one day
BB walked in there and
started looking at albums.
I ran in and asked for an
autograph. I told him I
played guitar and wanted
to be a musician. He said,
Well, if youre in it for the
money, youll never get
rich playing the blues. But
remember, son, you dont
choose the blues. The
blues chooses you. You
play it because you have
to. I always remember
that when I hear young
blues guitarists today.
The ones I admire are
always in it for the right
reasons. Just like BB said:
the blues chooses you.
voted the third best guitarist

of all time in Rolling Stone.
The American blues
guitarist Walter Trout, who
first met King as a teenager
in the 60s (see panel),
speaks of him in terms
that are positively
Nelson Mandela-esque.
Presidential. Benevolent.
Elegant. An inspirational
man who had a kind word for everybody, no matter how
lowly or unknown. A black Afro-American blues colossus
who never scoffed at middle-class white teenagers for
wanting to play his music and who, quite the opposite,
encouraged them to devote their lives to it. A bear-like man
comfortable in his own skin. An approachable giant
exuding humanity and warmth.
You cannot overstate the impact that he had, Trout says.
Hes the guy, really, who invented what we all do. He was
an untouchable mountain of the blues.
ING LEAVES BEHIND a towering catalogue of

music which began in 1949 with a single, Miss
Martha King, recorded in Memphis. Thanks to
the internet, his music will always be accessible to future
generations. John Mayall chuckles down the phone line
from California as he thinks about how much has changed:
how the legacy of the blues, the vocation that has
dominated his entire adult life, is now to be found not on
obscure vinyl in dusty basements, but on Wikipedia and
YouTube. Mayall first heard Kings music after coming out
of the army in 1955. He loved the way Kings voice and
guitar seemed to come from the same place inside him.
Hed sing a line and answer it with the guitar. And as you
heard more and more of him, he had such a distinctive style
that youd recognise him within two notes.
But if Kings best solos are a mere two clicks away on any
laptop from here to Mississippi, that doesnt necessarily
mean the blues as a genre is guaranteed another century of
survival. By talking to
musicians who play it for a
living, one begins to get a
sense of what a huge hole
Kings death will leave at the
heart of this venerable, oddly
vulnerable music. To step
into the role of figurehead,
everyone will look
expectantly to 78-year-old
Buddy Guy, who still tours
and records and was onstage
with King at the White House
when Obama hesitantly
joined in on Sweet Home
John Mayall on King: Youd
recognise him within two notes
Chicago. But as much as he
BB KING
admires Guy, Walter Trout worries that Kings mantle
BB, Eric Clapton
and Elvin Bishop
may simply not be transferrable. The only other
live in NYC, 1967
living American bluesman of equivalent stature is
80-year-old Otis Rush, but hes been effectively
retired since suffering a stroke in 2004.
Are we about to reach a critical point in the
evolution of the blues? Gradually, it has become more
of a white genre than the black one it started out as.
A few black artists such as the Texan guitarist Gary
Clark Jr and the Harlem-born singer Shemekia
Copeland have received widespread attention, but in
Britain and Europe its rare to see black faces in the
audience at blues gigs and festivals, let alone a black
musician onstage. There may come a time, and it
could happen within the next decade, when the
senior gatekeepers of the musics legacy are white
Englishmen like Clapton, Jeff Beck and Jimmy Page.
And what sort of blues will we be talking about by
then? What kind of age group will gravitate towards
it? And how many concessions will it have to make to
be heard? Tellingly, Buddy Guys most recent album,
Rhythm & Blues, included collaborations with Kid
Rock, Keith Urban and Aerosmith. His A&R man
could scarcely have made it clearer that the blues
urgently needs to find a new audience by cross-pollinating
with more popular genres.
At the moment, as we look around the blues circuit, what
people seem to mean by blues is blues rock. The language
is one of electric guitars, growling voices, prolonged solos,
two-man rhythm sections and occasional harmonicas. You
could argue that not much has changed in half a century.
SINGIN THE
I think, fundamentally, the blues is somewhere between
BLUES
where it was in 1950 and
(1957)
where it was in 1967. Thats
Kings debut
1950 in Chicago and 1967 at
compiled some of
the Marquee in London,
his most successful
comments Joe Bonamassa,
singles to date,
an American guitarist who
including four R&B No 1s: 3 OClock
toured with BB King as a
Blues, You Know I Love You, Please
12-year-old virtuoso (see
Love Me and You Upset Me Baby. It
panel, p22). Bonamassas
may say Singin on the sleeve, but
words carry weight not just
guitar playing is really whats going on
because hes an abiding
as this strong primer for Kings early
disciple of the 60s British
work amply illustrates.
blues boom, but also
because his career over the
LIVE AT THE
last few years has rewritten
REGAL
the rulebook of how to be a
(1965)
professional blues guitarist.
A conspicuous
Now 38, Bonamassa
highlight among
appears to be living proof that the blues is still a
many strong
commercially viable form of music. Last year, his album
live albums
Different Shades Of Blue charted in the Billboard Top 10, two
(Live In Cook County Jail is also
years after its predecessor, Driving Towards The Daylight,
recommended), this was recorded on
narrowly missed the Top 20. But Bonamassas success is
November 21, 1964 at the Regal Theater
deceptive. He works completely outside the framework of
in Chicago. Even King himself noted,
the major label record industry, and hes amassed a fanbase
On that particular day in Chicago
not through radio play or marketing, but through word-ofeverything came together. Regal
mouth enthusiasm for his pyrotechnical guitar soloing. If
demonstrated the resilience of Kings
the blues has a modern-day Eddie Van Halen, its Joe
inventory as well as capturing his
Bonamassa. He describes his Billboard breakthrough as the
considerable stage presence.
result of building a house over the course of many years,
bricks and mortar, starting with the foundations. His chart
COMPLETELY
positions are phenomenal, but they tell us little about the
WELL
current health of the blues. Dont do what Im doing, he
(1969)
cautions would-be emulators. Theres only one PT
Kings 17th studio
Barnum. You have to figure out something different,
album, Completely
something that will make people want to come out and see
Well, included
you on a rainy Tuesday night.
The Thrill Is
In a sense, the blues is all around us. The theme tune to
Gone: a breakthrough hit on the R&B
Better Call Saul is a guitar blues. No chat show in America
and pop charts. Musically, it privileges
gets very far without the house band playing a 12-bar
YOU
CANNOT
OVERSTATE
THE
IMPACT
BB HAD
WALTER
TROUT
the intuitive interplay between King,

veteran Atlantic Records bassist
Gerald Fingers Jemmott and Hugh
McCracken, who later played with both
Lennon and McCartney. A companion
album, Live And Well, features Al
Kooper on keys.
BLUES ON
THE BAYOU
(1998)
BB Kings output
slowed down in the
90s he only
released six studio
albums, down from the 14 he recorded
during the 60s. Blues On The Bayou
was Kings first outing as producer
aged 73. Recorded in four days in
Louisiana with his regular touring band,
it comprises 14 slow and mid-tempo
originals: a strong selection,
particularly the graceful and defiant
Ill Survive.
ONE KIND
FAVOR
(2008)
Kings final studio

album, produced
by T Bone Burnett,
finds him in
excellent company Jim Keltner and Dr
John lead his backing band and on fine
form. Working through standards
including Blind Lemon Jeffersons See
That My Grave Is Kept Clean, John Lee
Hookers Blues Before Sunrise and
Howlin Wolfs How Many More
Years, the tone is elegiac and
understated. MICHAEL BONNER
21
DON PAULSEN/MICHAEL OCHS ARCHIVES/GETTY IMAGES
BEST BB KING
ALBUMS
With the young

Joe Bonamassa
blues. Led Zeppelins deluxe remasters make instant

headlines in the media every time a new batch is rumoured
but nobody says the word blues, even though thats
where the roots of the PR stealth campaign lie. Jack White,
the Black Keys, Hozier and George Ezra among others
have different configurations of blues influences in their
music. Ezra, who at 22 is well on the way to selling a million
copies of his debut album (Wanted On Voyage), has cited
Lead Belly a blues legend dead since 1949 but easily
available to him on YouTube as a major inspiration on his
precociously gruff singing voice.
But Ezra is careful not to market himself as a blues singer.
If he did, his record sales would be more likely to be in the
low thousands, if not the high hundreds. The blues is a
dirty word, Paul Puccioni, a British blues promoter, says
flatly. Theres no interest from radio or the media. What
you constantly hear from the BBC is that the blues is too
niche a music that appeals only to middle-aged men. We
have a real, real problem.
O EXAMINE HOW the blues has become an
underground genre enjoyed primarily by men in
their fifties, Uncut talks to two English blues
guitarists aged 21 and 25 respectively. Laurence Jones, the
younger of the two, was voted Young Artist Of The Year at
the 2014 British Blues Awards. He comes from Staffordshire
and his heroes include Rory Gallagher and Albert Collins.
Oli Brown, from Norfolk, has played with John Mayall and
won several British Blues Awards since emerging on the
scene in his mid-teens.
Both of these young artists along with 30-year-old
singer-guitarist Joanne Shaw Taylor, another highly rated
star of the British blues grew up in households where a
blues-loving father took his children to local blues clubs and
encouraged their interest. For Taylor, going to school in
Solihull in the 90s, this meant swimming against the tide
of all the prevailing pop music that gripped her friends. I
mostly remember a lot of East 17 and Take That fans, she
says wryly. I managed to convert one or two of them, but I
was considered a bit of a novelty at school.
Jones, who wrote a respectful obituary of BB King for the
Sunday Express, has a lot of hopes riding on his shoulders.
If any young British blues musician can appeal to young
people, it may be the baby-faced Jones, who looks like he
could belong in a boy band. Jones, however, is in the blues
for the long haul. What I love about the music, he says, is
that its all about feeling. Trained in classical guitar, hes
been listening to BB King since he was 10. Jones is the
quintessential example of a YouTube blues fan, watching,
listening and studying. The challenge he now faces is to
convince people his own age that the blues is not an
obsolete genre with no relevance to their lives. But until
such time as he can do that, hes likely to see the same
front row of 55-year-old men in the audience every time he
walks onstage. Its a hard life, says Puccioni. The gigs
CHRISTIE GOODWIN; JOHN BULL/ROCKRPIX.COM
THE DAY
I MET BB
JOE
BONAMASSA
ROCHESTER,
NEW YORK, 1989
THINK HIS TOUR

manager must
have told him that
his support act was a little
12-year-old kid. He got to
the show early while I was
still playing. I could see
him watching me from
the side of the stage.
Afterwards, we met and
he was very intrigued
about how Id got into the
blues. He was very nice
and we kept in touch, and
I ended up doing 15 or 20
shows with him that
summer. I always lent him
my amp and my drumkit. He never had a single
backline tech, or any gear,
or any front-of-house
monitors. He had the kind
of voice where he could
probably sing without a
microphone. The best
advice he ever gave me?
The road is hard. Keep
doing what youre doing.
Watch the money.
they play tend to be small. Its an uphill struggle to

even get noticed.
Oli Brown is more bullish. As a teenager, he fell in
love with the stories, showmanship and lifestyle of
the blues. He particularly admires the stagecraft of
Buddy Guy: He captivates people in a way that Ive
never seen a frontman do. He rules it. Youre hearing
stories from a guy thats been there and done it. Its
real. Its total entertainment. But its interesting
that Brown, after several albums in the blues idiom,
has recently formed a hard rock trio RavenEye in
which his Iommi-like riffing and Jeff Buckley-style
vocals may have a much better chance of
translating to his peers. In the UK blues
community, they fear that Brown is trying to run
before he can walk. Joe Bonamassa, who used to
front an Anglo-American heavy rock band called
Black Country Communion with Glenn Hughes (ex-Deep
Purple), would probably tell Brown running and walking
are just two different ways of going in the same direction.
Brown, like Jones, is conscious that he comes from a
comfortable middle-class home far removed from the
origins of the men who inspired him. He admits there are
songs he wouldnt dare to sing, songs about picking cotton
and praying in church. He points out, though, that even a
middle-class Brit understands what its like to have his heart
broken. Joanne Shaw Taylor, too, has written songs about
her broken relationships. It
seems fair enough to call
these blues songs. What else
would you call them? As for
Jones, nobody needs to
explain the concept of pain
to him. He has Crohns
disease an incurable
illness of the bowel which
requires him to take 15
tablets a day and submit to a
monthly blood transfusion.
Fans: Laurence Jones (above)
Ive written some very
and Oli Brown (below)
deep songs about my
disease, Jones says.
People joke about it with
me, saying It must be the
reason youve got the blues.
Ive definitely been through
the mill and back. Its
basically ulcers on the
stomach. There are various
complications with it,
including colostomy bags
and the risk of developing
cancer. Music is my healer.
Jones, to put it mildly, has suffered for his art. There are
times when he needs to lie down on the stage for an hour.
The reputations of Jones, Brown and Taylor have made it to
America, where Walter Trout considers Jones a genius and
a guitarist worthy of comparison with early Clapton. Its the
sort of compliment that blues guitarists tend to bat back and
forth across the Atlantic, but Trout, a heavy hitter in the
blues world, is adamant that Britain is where we should look
for many of the heirs-in-waiting. Jones hopes that Clapton
may have heard of him by now, but even if he has, the
21-year-old looks certain to have a much smaller-scale
career than the revered Slowhand. Even getting a record
deal in Britain is difficult for Jones. There are no specialist
blues labels that he could sign to. Instead, he followed
Brown and Taylor to Ruf, a German label founded by the
manager of late American blues guitarist Luther Allison.
And whereas Clapton has been putting out his albums on
Warner Brothers and Polydor since he was in his twenties,
nobody on the British blues circuit seriously imagines the
BBBBking
king
major labels turning up at todays blues
clubs to check out the young talent. Joanne
Shaw Taylor, as it happens, received a bit of
interest a decade or so ago, but quickly grew
disillusioned at the offers on the table. One
of them wanted me to be the Norah Jones of
the blues, and the other wanted me to be the
Avril Lavigne of the blues. In other words,
dilute your music and hope that the public
focuses on your sultry image rather than
your guitar-playing. She turned down both
offers, unwilling to bear such a compromise.
BB at the 2014 Big Blues

Bender, Rivera Hotel
& Casino, Las Vegas,
September 26, 2014 a
week before his final concert
T muST be stressed that none of the

musicians that Uncut speaks to
complains about their lot. From the
british contingent, there are no protests
about being treated unfairly by radio or
neglected by the press. Theyve chosen the
blues path and that means doing what bb
King taught them to do: go out on the road
and stay there. Taylor is booked solid until
late October. Jones will rack up an incredible 360 shows in
2015, according to his manager, playing doing two gigs a day
when he gets to europe. Only his Crohns disease, which
needs constant NHS treatment, prevents him from
embarking on a long tour of the uS.
but Walter Trout is older. At 64, hes a
veteran of mayalls bluesbreakers and
Canned Heat, and he also served an eyeopening apprenticeship in the backing band
of John Lee Hooker. (Hooker, for him, was
the master of primitive blues where bb King
was the maestro of sophistication.) Trout
partied as hard as he played, it transpires,
and last year he had a liver transplant. After
spending 40 years earning 10 times less as a
blues guitarist than he might have earned in
the rock arena, his hospitalisation and yearGeorge Ezra
long recuperation could easily have spelled
financial disaster. The blues community
rallied round him, holding benefit gigs and fundraisers in
Nashville, Philadelphia, Oregon City, New Jersey, London
and Durham. Trouts voice cracks as he talks of how
overwhelmed he felt about how the blues is a family that
looks after its own and maybe theres an understandable
edge to his tone as he says, soon afterwards, what a damn
shame it is that kids nowadays would rather
listen to Kanye West and Iggy Azalea.
Weve lost a generation, warns Paul
Puccioni, one of the organisers of Lead belly
Fest, a Van morrison-headlined concert at
the Albert Hall, where Trout was due to make
his comeback as Uncut went to press. At the
moment, if kids arent led to the blues by
their parents, well end up never seeing them
at a blues gig. The word blues means
nothing to them.
Something significant, evidently, needs
to happen if the blues is going to mean
anything in the future as a live music
proposition. And itll take more than a kid in
Norfolk or Stafford listening to Lightnin
Hopkins and cultivating a fascination for the
troubadour lifestyle. There needs to be a
crossover, Puccioni goes on. If someone like George ezra
recorded a Lead belly song, and said, Hey, look, the blues is
where my heroes came from, then maybe that would make
it seem cool, somehow, to his young audience. because at
the moment the blues isnt cool to them at all.
When I put this suggestion to ezra, he sounds amused by
it. Speaking a few hours before taking the stage at a sold-out
rIght
now, the
blues
Isnt
cool to
the
young
paul
puccioni
the day
i met BB
Joanne
Shaw Taylor
Birmingham,
1999
e was one of
the first live
shows I ever
saw, when I was 14. At the
end, he threw plectrums
to the crowd. My dad and I
didnt have the best seats,
so I ran to the front of the
stage. By the time I got
there, BBs minders were
putting his coat on him.
He saw me, came over,
bent down and shook my
hand. I told him I wanted
to be a blues guitarist. He
had a necklace on a BB
King necklace and he
took it off and handed it
to me. He told me I was
going to do really well. I
walked on air for about
the next 10 years. Artists
arent as classy now
as he was, but he was
everything you wanted
him to be. I still have the
necklace and I take it with
me to every show.
DeNISe TRuSCeLLO/WIReImAGe; RObeRT bLACKHAm
O2 Apollo in manchester, ezra has no qualms about calling

himself a Lead belly fan and he acknowledges that hes
been influenced by the blues tradition of storytelling. but
he doubts he could rescue it as a genre by recording
Goodnight Irene as his next single. I find
Lead belly a very interesting singer and
guitarist, and he was a great entertainer as
well. but could I sing one of his songs? I dont
know. I mean, Nirvana have done it...
If it might lead to a surge of interest in the
blues among a generation of young listeners,
would he do it?
If I thought I had that power, yes, I would.
ezra is puzzled to hear that people like
Puccioni view the blues as being under
threat. He receives feedback from his fans
letting him know that theyve checked
out the bluesmen hes mentioned in his
interviews. but ezra like his fans, no doubt
is not a follower of the contemporary blues scene.
The majority of times that I find myself listening to live
blues, he says, theres something about it that rubs me up
the wrong way. It tends to be someone wailing on a Fender
Stratocaster for far too long, and often the emotion is lost for
me. Its a damning indictment. If its representative of
ezras generation, it could be near-fatal.
And it shows us we have a clear dividing
line. The blues is healthy, hip and has never
been within such easy reach providing
were talking about historical blues recorded
by Lead belly, Robert Johnson and muddy
Waters. but the live circuit where Laurence
Jones and Walter Trout ply their trade is a
zone of utter disinterest for new fans
discovering the history of the blues. And that
means the average age in the clubs will
never get any lower. You wouldnt expect a
lifelong blues evangelist like John mayall to
be down-hearted, and he isnt. The blues
always holds its own, he reminds us. It has
a longevity that never quits.
mayall has been saying as much since 1965
and has never been proved wrong so far. but
theres a ticking clock, now, on the life expectancy of the
blues, and not even bb King at his most ambassadorial
could perform the miracle of turning back time. A recent edit
to Joanne Shaw Taylors Wikipedia page informs readers
that, 16 years into her career as a blues artist, she has been
going in more of a guitar driven rock direction. And
nobody would blame her in the slightest.
Ezra furman
Im gonna
have
unresolved
issues until
Im dead.
Devout Jewish faith and gender fuidity. Drink, drugs
and self-destruction. An extraordinary singer-songwriter,
with a sax player who acts as his psychiatrist in the
middle of live gigs... Meet the remarkable EZRA FURMAN,
a new star in perpetual motion. Will he become the next
Jonathan Richman? A reborn Lou Reed?Or will he give it
all up and become a rabbi?
Story: Laura Snapes
Photograph: Elizabeth D. Herman
wo DAyS bEforE
the last date of Ezra
furmans UK tour, the
28-year-old Chicagoan
appears on Later With
Jools Holland with his
backing band, The boyfriends. Its their first
televised performance
outside of an Illinois
public access show
hosted by a puppet rat, and furman rattles through new
single restless year a song about being a lifelong
outsider in a sleeveless crimson dress, matching lipstick,
zebra-print tights and a long string of chunky plastic pearls.
The influence of The Velvet Underground, Violent femmes
and Jonathan richman is obvious in furmans music, but
he makes it crackle with his own manic showmanship. Im
just another savage in the wilderness and if you cant calm
down you can listen to this, he belts in a frenzied rasp.
I always felt like theres a part of me thats a little
embarrassed not to be as arty as some people I admire, he
says, sitting in the empty downstairs bar of North London
venue The Lexington. It is the afternoon before he finishes
his tour. but the three chords, theyre so good! furman
searched his name on Twitter after the TV performance.
There was one that was really good, he says, compulsively
scratching varnish off the wooden table with his red

fingernails. It was like, Ezra furman wins my worst ever
award by a country mile, lads got issues too, hes all done
up in his big sisters gear with pearls and things.
Its a word-perfect recollection. furman gets off on
negative responses to his music, which he wants to be
un-ignorable. His earliest gigs were acoustic
performances at obnoxious frat house parties when he
was a student at Massachusetts Tufts University; the
depths of despair he felt in those rooms taught him to
scream to be heard. I was always in some sort of fight with
my audience, he says, popping his finger joints. Some
push and pull really gets me off with performing.
That goes beyond his audience. furmans new album,
Perpetual Motion People, is, he says, his most honest yet,
confronting his devout Jewish faith versus his hedonistic
lifestyle; his fluid gender identity and bisexuality; drink,
drugs, depression, self-destruction and death. but if you
dont listen to the lyrics, which furman sings with a zeal
that distracts from their weight, the record sounds just as
much like a blazing carnival, drunk on raucous saxophone
and hooky guitar fuzz. Ive been noticing just how much
anger and joy has always gone together for me, he says. I
feel the new record is really kind of joyful. Despite the
despair songs and the total anxious or angry songs, the
whole thing adds up to a joy. Letting those feelings breathe
is like a sign of mental health and great happiness.
25
EZRA FURMAN
Furman with
The Boy-Friends
The 100 Club,
May 18, 2014
send him to a psychiatrist. Then saxophonist (and producer)

Tim Sandusky adopts the role of the shrink, turning what
seemed like a candid moment into a dark sideshow. Do you
relate to the monkey who has never experienced the outside
world? Sandusky asks. Or the monkey who lives in the
outside world and has never been trapped?
I would say that I do relate, Doctor, except that the
monkey is out of the cage and doesnt go anywhere, says
Furman. He leaps into I Wanna Destroy Myself, the
opening track of 2013s Day Of The Dog and the last song in
tonights main set, yelling with such force that his lips peel
back. He high-fives the entire front row on the way back to
the dressing room. Theres something really important to
me about showing up in front of people and trying to
perform some sort of realness, but you have to perform it,
he said earlier. Being effortless is the road to being boring
and inauthentic. But its an odd thing if youre trying to
perform honestly, its a contradiction in terms. It can make
you crazy.
WANNA DESTROY MYSELF would seem like
a wry embodiment of rocknroll nihilism if it
werent for the rest of Day Of The Dog, whose
bleak lyrics lack the possibility of redemption and
empowerment offered amid the crises of Perpetual Motion
People. Stagnant and cynical, Furman experiences lapses
in faith as hes swept up in the crests and chasms of
depression. Its clear to me that its painful just to be,
he rages on Anything Can Happen, over heavenly, cooing
backing vocals.
Self-harm and suicidal thoughts used to be a very huge
part of my life, he reveals in a halting fashion hes prone
to taking a full, fairly disquieting minute to formulate his
answers. Still are, actually. That song is rooted in wanting
to destroy my life, wanting to get rid of this self thats not
working for me any more. I think thats where some of the
GAELLE BERI/REDFERNS VIA GETTY IMAGES
ERPETUAL MOTION PEOPLE is

Furmans sixth record three with
Ezra Furman & The Harpoons, and now
three billed solo but the first thats met with an
audience of any real size. Bella Union founder
Simon Raymonde fell in love with Furman after
seeing him at Londons 100 Club last November,
and went to America to sign him soon after. Hes
playful but never for the sake of just being clever,
says Raymonde. People speak of that Jonathan
Richman-type eccentricity he possesses, but I am
more struck by his ability to write classic songs at
such a young age.
Restless Year is now all over BBC 6Music,
and Furmans current tour sold out in a matter of
hours. Theres an odd corollary between being
personally honest about who I am and some kind of
increased exposure, says Furman. I feel like in the past
couple of years, Ive become more of a whole and honest
person, and theres been some jump up in attention. Maybe
the records are getting better, its probably true. Its kind of
a mind-fuck, though.
Last November, he tweeted about being creeped out by
the increasing tendency in myself and others to act like
our aesthetic choices are what constitute ourselves. What
with Later and a tour of significantly bigger British
venues booked for the autumn, Furman knows that being
watched will inevitably have an effect. His candour could
be compromised as a marketable character or he could
actively exploit it. Im not nave enough to think some work
hasnt gone into that persona, says Art Bruts Eddie Argos,
a huge fan. But Ive spent enough time around him to know
that he lives and breathes his art.
During tonights gig, Furman begins a monologue about
the depression he started experiencing in his mid-teens:
how he withdrew from social life, prompting his parents to
SLY & THE FAMILY STONE

self-harm and the self-destructiveness was coming from a
really sincere and urgent need to stop being this person that
wasnt working, that wasnt true.
Ever since he was 11 years old and first realised he was
attracted to men, Furman learned this constant
dishonesty, he says. I spent much of my life being a very
meek, halting person who doesnt want to impose anything
on anyone. What I didnt notice is that in not wanting to
impose or ruffle any feathers, I was just lying to everybody
all the time. Ive noticed this theme of closetedness thats
about everything to do with who I actually am.
Prompted by a budding love of Green Day, The Clash and
the Sex Pistols, Furman asked for his first guitar as a Bar
Mitzvah present from his parents, who sent their four kids
to a private Jewish day school but otherwise werent overly
observant: Friday night dinners, Passover, synagogue, but
not all weekends. At 14, they transferred Furman to regular
public high school, where he didnt fit in and didnt really
want to. He met his girlfriend, Kat, who introduced him to
Lou Reed and The Velvet Underground on long, aimless
drives. That shit was really important for me, cos that guy
was really ambiguous and not on the team, says Furman.
Furman started becoming more interested in Judaism
after meeting an older Orthodox boy. I thought, maybe
thats me, even though Im super into punk rock, he recalls,
but realised that traditional Judaism was more appealing.
As he became properly observant, Furman, bored and
annoyed by his peers underage drinking, made a personal
vow to remain straight-edge. I thought, maybe theres
something to trying to have a little discipline about how we
live, he says. Which is not very cool when youre 16.
It doesnt take Sanduskys psychiatrist act to see the
comfort of these governing principles in contrast to
Furmans state of mind. His mental health, religion and
anti-hedonistic principles made him feel like an outsider,
not to mention the whole secret in-the-closet bisexual
gender-wobbly thing, he says, rotating the long string of
pearls around his neck. He started laying down more rules:
he was steadfastly against writing personal songs (or so he
thought) and refused to join a band. I felt like there was all
BUYERS GUIDE
as EZRA FURMAN &
THE HARPOONS...
BEAT BEAT BEAT
Ezra Furman & The

Harpoons, 2011
SELFHARM
USED TO
BE A VERY
HUGE
PART OF
MY LIFE
EZRA
FURMAN
On that debut tour, Furman and

The Harpoons met Jim Powers,
founder of Minty Fresh records in
Evanston, Illinois, who offered
them a deal. Banging Down is
essentially a reissue of Beat Beat
Beat with an extra song.
BANGING DOWN
THE DOORS
(MINTY FRESH, 2007)
NCE HE FINISHED high school, Furman wanted to

go to a Yeshiva in Israel for a year. Fearful that they
might lose their son to religion, his parents initially
dissuaded him from attending the school but still
encouraged him to make the pilgrimage. Ultimately,
Furman decided to allay their fears altogether and go
straight to Tufts to study English in 2004. He worked at the
music library, where the compilation No Thanks! The 70s
Punk Rebellion caught his ear. I started realising there was
all these punk bands that werent even that good but were
just really fun to listen to, who might have made one single,
he says. It convinced him that joining a band wasnt
necessarily a terrible idea.
At Tufts, he met bassist Job Mukkada, who played in the
frat party band Moksha that gave Furman those early
support slots. Within a year, Mukkada and the bands
itself on The Harpoons final

album, where they take a shot at
becoming the E Street Band. Im
gonna self-destruct/I dont see a
problem with it, Furman spits on
Teenage Wasteland.
as EZRA FURMAN...
(SELF-RELEASED, 2006)
Recorded in their university

dorm-rooms and given away on
their first ever tour (spanning
Boston to Chicago), the scratchy
Beat Beat Beat has a ramshackle,
disconcerting charm. Original
copies are so hard to come by that
Furman doesnt even own one.
these dumb bands trying to get into a sound and look

cool and have an attitude, and I just wanted to write songs,
only rely on the chords, he recalls, taking a break from
scratching the Lexingtons table to pound it with his
fist. There was an intensity with which I insisted on
certain things.
INSIDE THE
HUMAN
BODY
(MINTY FRESH, 2008)
The Harpoons go
electric: produced by Red Red
Meats Brian Deck, the amiable
garage-rock of Inside The Human
Body accompanies more focused
songwriting. Im not a monster,
Im a human being! Furman yells
on opener We Should Fight.
And Im the greatest thing youve
ever seen!
THE YEAR
OF NO
RETURNING
(BAR/NONE, 2012)
Crowd-funded
through Kickstarter, Furmans
debut solo LP takes a brassy,
almost cabaret turn to address
the consequences of his selfdestructive behaviour. On Lay In
The Sun, he fashions himself as a
non-judgmental saviour for the
wretched and regretful.
MYSTERIOUS
POWER
DAY OF THE
DOG
(RED PARLOR
RECORDS, 2011)
(BAR/NONE, 2013)
A more personal
desperate and misanthropic
side of Furman starts revealing
Named as a
tongue-in-cheek
reference to his half-decade of
underwhelming achievement,
Day Of The Dog boasts the BoyFriends first appearance, and

contrasts Furmans lyrics about
failure and broken existence
against the louche influence of
New York Dolls and the Ramones
more orchestrated moments.
PERPETUAL MOTION
PEOPLE
(BELLA UNION, 2015)
Furman reveals a more defiant

side: while hes still singing about
confusion and depression, the
roaring Wobbly and jaunty
Body Was Made are selfempowerment anthems, and
Hark! To The Music a rallying
cry for the disaffected.
27
original guitarist, Jahn Sood, were helping

Furman make bedroom recordings of his
nascent solo material. Most people,
especially his age and with an acoustic guitar,
write songs about pretending to be old coal
miners or Depression-era farmhands, says
Mukkada. Ezras writing was poetic and
interesting, but it also sounded like it came
from the mind of a teenager.
Furman started talking about forming a
band, but Mukkada wasnt sure whether he
could play with other people. When we used
to have these acoustic guitar jams, Ezra didnt
seem to pay attention to what anyone else was
doing. He marched to his own beat, so to speak.
The Boy-Friends, 2013:
(l-r) Ezra Furman, Ben
But he assured me that if he made an effort, he
Joseph,Tim Sandusky,
could listen to others and function in a band.
Sam Durkes, Jorgen
Jorgensen
That was enough for me.
Ezra Furman & The Harpoons formed in 2006,
and released their dorm room-recorded debut
Beat Beat Beat that year. Most people with
their own name ahead of a bands would probably be a
tyrant, says Mukkada. But I knew that Ezra had a real low
ego. The other reason for having his name at the front was
that we werent sure how long the band would exist. If Ezras
name was there out front, he could easily transition to a solo
career without having to start over with making a name. A
big goal for us was to make
sure that he kept making
music even if the rest of us
Furman on writing a
stopped. He also had great
song for Ferguson
stage banter.
M A politically
Furman turned up to their
aware person and
first practice wearing a
Im freaked out and
Strokes T-shirt, jeans ripped
disgusted weekly by any
up to his thighs, and a
number of things. I was
bowler hat. The hardest
following the situation in
part was getting Ezra to
Ferguson by the minute
reveal songs, says
on social media, and
drummer Adam Abrutyn.
feeling this sort of panic
At that time, he literally
at some peoples closehad hundreds of them
minded first responses to
stashed away on tapes.
it, and others tweeting
Hed bring us 10 or 20 that
while being tear-gassed.
seemed ready to record for an album. But then youd
For me, the death of
stumble across a tape hidden under his bed and be
Trayvon Martin was the
completely blown away by what youd find like some
moment of realising how
incredible song hed written when he was 16. It was so
bad non-white people
frustrating because youre thinking, Man, cant you just
have it in the States. As
bring us the good songs, ideally ones that people outside of
musicians, we have a
this band would enjoy? But he didnt really think that way.
responsibility to be
He had other motivations that are arguably more important
aware. People who ask,
like what the song meant to him, why he had to get it out.
Where has all the
Just as Furman joined The Harpoons, he and his highpolitical music gone? are
school girlfriend Kat the Lou Reed evangelist broke up,
people who dont have
which triggered a period of anxiety. When Reed died last
really political problems!
year, Furman wrote a beautiful eulogy on his blog that
If you have a problem
outlined how his music had made him a braver, freer
with the world, you find
person, guiding him through his first panic attacks. I
the political music.
turned on Vicious and turned the volume all the way
up and thrashed around until it passed me and I
could breathe again. He explains today that the
onstage catharsis of playing in a band seemed to
happen at the same time as some increased mental
freakout tendencies. Especially loud bands, I tend to
think of the noise as a physicalised response to
intolerable internal circumstances.
EYEWITNESS!
PROTEST
MUSICS
NOT DEAD!
MAYBE
THIS IS
JUST
WHO
I AM A
RESTLESS
PERSON
EZRA
FURMAN
N THE HARPOONS first few albums, Beat

Beat Beat (which was re-released as 2007s
Banging Down The Doors, with an extra
song) and 2008s Inside The Human Body, Furman
fooled himself into thinking that he was writing in

character the idea of becoming a James Taylor-style
singer-songwriter irked him. But it was very obviously
confessional, he admits. On I Wanna Be Ignored, from
The Harpoons debut: I dont want people to see/I just
wanna make everybody happy/And nobody else to look at
me. The second records Big Deal castigates the
burgeoning tension between his public and private
persona: All your little actions are just tourist attractions/
And the kids are gonna gobble you up/Theyre gonna stand in
a crowd/They will yell very loud/And theyll think that theyve
fallen, fallen in love.
Furman wrote I Wanna Destroy Myself between his first
two records with The Harpoons, but never showed it to
them because it was too close to the bone. He had started
to loosen up about his dogmatic principles, and abandoned
the straight-edge lifestyle: I was in a process of getting out
of this all-or-nothing mindset about a lot of things. But for
all that he had discarded, he was still living much of the
dishonest life he wanted to destroy. Mental illness and
suicide, thats easy to talk about as a musician, he says
unlike disclosing his gender identity and beliefs. He
tentatively started wearing womens dress onstage, taking
the opportunity to express his true identity in a context that
he felt would be accepted thanks to the way artists like
David Bowie and Kurt Cobain had queered rock decades
earlier. Other than that, it was this private, occasional and
frightened-to-be-found-out kind of thing.
The Harpoons survived graduating from university, after
which Furman floated aimlessly around Massachusetts for
a while. One September in Boston, I lost the will to live, he
sings on Perpetual Motion Peoples Ordinary Life: he had
been fired from his cinema job because he kept having
panic attacks at work and going home. Without money to
pay the rent, he lost his apartment and slept on friends
sofas. It was right around then that I was like, maybe Im
not going to feel at home anywhere ever, he says. Maybe
this is just who I am, a restless person. He moved to New
York briefly and then back to Chicago, where he moved in
with Tim Sandusky for a year in late 2010. His old
bandmates craved normal lives, and The Harpoons
split a year later.
To be honest, he wasnt the easiest dude to get to
know, says Sandusky, who produced Furmans solo
debut, 2011s Year Of No Returning. At first, he mostly
kept to himself and stayed in his own world. Especially
at that point, he had a unique social style that kinda
came off as despondent, unfriendly and not interested
in new people. I later learned that this impression was
not completely accurate, but merely reflective of a
greater displacement and estrangement he felt within
society as a whole.
29
DAN KING; JOE RAEDLE/GETTY IMAGES
EZRA FURMAN
EZRA FURMAN
though Furman says hes completely
satisfied with Perpetual Motion and Day Of
The Dog, both recorded with Sandusky, who
became a full-time member of the BoyFriends in 2013. Day Of The Dog was almost
the perfect swansong. After a decade flying
under the radar, Furman was on the verge of
quitting music when End Of The Road
founder Simon Taffe approached Furman
with the offer to manage him and try to take
things up a notch. He was hesitant, until
Taffe convinced him that he could integrate
both sides of his life: if he didnt want to play
on Friday nights, nobody was going to make
him. Turns out you tell people what you
want and theyre like, OK, says Furman.
Even though it looks like Perpetual Motion
will find the kind of attention Furmans been
craving, he still might walk away. I was and
am thinking about going to school for Jewish
studies, getting a degree in education and
becoming involved in Jewish life in some
way, he says. Or rabbinical school to
become a rabbi. Ive thought about that idea and rejected it
and come back to it a few times in the past four years.
Dedicating himself to religious life at home in San
Francisco would give Furman the sense of community his
adult life has lacked. He thinks he and his girlfriend might
have a baby, and he has no intentions of leaving her to raise
their child while he tours. But hes mindful of his old
tendency towards extreme responses. Right when I was
finally getting up the courage to do this other non-music
career, it seemed a little bit
silly to leave this now, he
says. But also, if youre
making a bit more money, it
becomes easier to say, No,
heres five months where Im
not going to tour. I dont
think its actually a binary.
While mustering courage
to say no more often,
Furman is still driven by the
holy grail of making music
that feels like the perfect
integration of his true selves.
I feel like I gotta be good
enough that if I do quit, the
records might have an
afterlife for a while, he says.
At really exhausted moments, some of which have been in
the past few weeks, Ive thought, maybe I can do a die-young
thing and become a legend without actually dying. Maybe
Ill figure that out. Significant possibility that Ill go into
seclusion and not make records any more. Or maybe Ill do it
every year for the rest of my life and see if I run out of ideas.
Whichever path, Furmans undoubtedly sincere
equivocation doesnt hurt the myth that hes
consciously creating as he goes. He spells out to
Uncut the unsatisfying lack of resolution within
his story. It would be more fun [for you] to write
about this guy who works through his problems,
these albums come out of it, and now hes had a big
turnaround in his life and hes all right again. But
its more of a daily discipline: stop lying to people.
Just because you put on the yarmulke or the dress,
now youre just wearing a dress and lying to people.
Its more of a your whole life problem. Im gonna
have unresolved issues until Im dead.
Strong
performer:
Furman
in 2015
EYEWITNESS!
ELIZABETH D. HERMAN; NICK HELDERMAN
HE HARPOONS SPLIT prompted Furman to

figure out where he was at in life. Nobody seemed
to have a problem with his now-public embrace
of womens clothing and no other patrons at the
Lexington blink when they walk past him, even the older
ones which prompted him to open up about spirituality
and the importance of Jewish observance. That took
longer, actually, he says. That was harder.
The difficulty was logistical in part: he felt awkward
telling his old bandmates that he didnt want to play on the
Sabbath. Maybe he would get over this religion thing.
But with the gender presentation before it, I had that model
of like, no, this is not going away, you cant push this
inconvenient thing about yourself down cos its gonna kill
you, youre gonna burn out.
Reconciling his faith with his craft was harder. Furman
talks about the overlap between prayer and rocknroll,
but acknowledges the important antagonism between the
two. Rocknroll had and still has a lot of important
anti-religion stuff to do, he says. Like, anti-stultifying
oppressive religion, its an important thing rocknroll has
fought against. That narrative is so strong and compelling
and marketable, but then sometimes religion is a lifesaving
and radical and nonconformist and highly meaningful
thing. So I dont really wanna give that the middle finger.
The old acoustic blues players he used to be into were a
cautionary tale: hard-drinking, womanising touring
musicians whod come home, find God and become priests.
Then theyd go back on tour and start drinking again, he
says. I felt like I was in danger of that. It seems unhealthy
to me. Im trying to integrate this whole self into one thing.
Perpetual Motion Peoples gentlest moment is Watch You
Go By, where Furman sings like Gordon Gano melting into
Leonard Cohen, while buoyant organ suggests a
gospel choir that never arrives. Its a tale of
destiny at the bottom of a bottle, dropping out of
life as its easier than getting to know your own
mind. Ive got a bright future in music as long as I
never find true happiness, Furman drawls, but he
doesnt buy into the myth of the tortured muso.
You wanna feel yourself pushing against the
wall, because thats what makes you feel alive as
an artist, he says. But Im getting better at
songwriting the happier I am. This thing that
you need misery or drama to make good art does
not at all ring true to me, it never did. When
theres real problems in my life, thats when
nothing happens, Im not creating anything.
Writing songs is a painful process regardless,
ANALYSE THIS
Tim Sandusky on
Ezra Furmans
psychiatrist act
HILE THE
general
premise of
the broader story is based
on truth, I invent different
questions every show. I
challenge Ezra as he
channels the teenage
version of himself to
better describe the
struggle at stake. Over
many shows, it reveals an
even truer version of the
worldview that Ezra has
been slowly destroying
since. Its more like time
travel than history.
This is the luxury of
performance versus
biography and it allows for
something more honest.
Even our memories
deserve to be questioned
thats an important way
to find the tools to destroy
the ideologies that
burden us.
MAYBE
I CAN
BECOME
A LEGEND
WITHOUT
ACTUALLY
DYING
Onstage with
Tim Sandusky,
September 2014
EZRA
FURMAN
Perpetual Motion People is out July 6 via Bella

Union; Ezra Furman tours the UK from July
SLEAFORD MODS
RP BOO
KEY MARKETS
FINGERS, BANK PADS &

SHOE PRINTS
HARBINGER SOUND LP / CD
Key Markets touches on character
assassination, the delusion of grandeur and
the pointlessness of government politics.
Its a classic. Fuck em.
PRINCESS CHELSEA
THE GREAT CYBERNETIC
DEPRESSION
LIL CHIEF/FLYING NUN LP / CD
Cartoonishly cute little ditties about the perils
of smoking, drinking and dating older men.
Guardian New Band of the Day.
HEATHER WOODS
BRODERICK
WESTERN VINYL LP / CD
Sophomore album from former Efterklang
member and current member of Sharon Van
Ettens band.
BBC Music calls her a formidable talent and
The Guardian says shes compelling.
COLLECTIVE:
AN
BARDO POND
RECORD STORE DAY TRILOGY
I DECLARE NOTHING
A RECORDINGS LP / CD
Born in Berlin in early 2014 & nurtured over
the following summer, the album a
collaboration between Tess Parks & Anton
Newcombe (BJM), Touring Europe in 2015.
MUTOID MAN
DID I SLEEP AND MISS THE

BORDER?
SARGENT HOUSE LP / CD
Bleeder is the highly anticipated debut full
length from Mutoid Man, the incredibly
talented trio featuring singer/guitarist Stephen
Brodsky (Cave In), drummer Ben Koller
(Converge) and bassist Nick Cageao.
BUZZARD TREE RECORDS CD

McRaes new album is garnering rave reviews.
MOJO A dark triumph; Q Magazine nds
beauty in despair; 8/10 UNCUT, a thrilling
air of doom - beautiful
FIRE RECORDS 3CD

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Includes six explosive covers of artists
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TOM MCRAE & THE

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BLEEDER
NAP EYES
GLIDER
CARGO
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RP Boo is to Footwork what Juan Atkins is to
Techno a source point for a busting out of
innovative ideas and new directions.
TESS PARKS
&
ANTON NEWCOMBE
HIDE AND SEEK

FORTUNA POP! LP / CD
An exhilarating collection of indie anthems,
with Emma Kupas (ex-Standard Fare) candid
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Bold, loud & outrageously catchy, each song is
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PARADISE OF BACHELORS LP / CD
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Whine of the Mystic boasts brilliant
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MERGE RECORDS LP / CD
Their classic 1999 album remastered from
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Includes new liner notes by Laura Ballance
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RAZOR BLADES AND

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AMALGAMATION
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THE MAKING OF...
Another
Girl,,
Another
Planet
BY THE ONLY ONES
Almost four decades on, this high-velocity cosmic puzzler remains one of the
great post-punk singles. It wasnt about drugs, says frontman Peter Perrett.
At that time, I was more addicted to sex
TS NOT THE song
that I think is my best,
admits Peter Perrett today,
pondering the legacy of his
best-known creation. Many,
however, would disagree
with his assessment of
Another Girl, Another Planet, not least The
Replacements, who last month ended their
first British gig for 24 years with their own
rowdy version.
On its original release, The Only Ones second
single failed to chart likely too psychedelic for
punk and too weird for the mainstream but the
song has grown in stature over the years, being
covered by acts as diverse as Blink-182, Pete
Doherty, Belle & Sebastian and The Ukulele
Orchestra Of Great Britain.
We were lucky that so-called punk happened,
cos the rulebook had been ripped up, says
Perrett, who is now clean of hard drugs after a
lengthy struggle. The one thing I had in common
with punks was that I was quite angry. A lot of our
early gigs ended in me smashing things.
Even so, the group also had a foot firmly in the
60s. Drummer Mike Kellie played with Spooky
Tooth, while the young Perrett attended Syd
Barrett-era Pink Floyd gigs, factors that no doubt
conspired to gave Another Girl its more
cosmic, psychedelic edge.
Peter always had an aura, explains bassist
Alan Mair, still marvelling at the songwriters
EDD WESTMACOTT/PHOTOSHOT/GETTY IMAGES
work. From the start, he

came over as someone who
was very artistic, as someone
who had an individual aura,
an individual charisma.
PERRETT: Its not about

heroin. I mean, Id started
experimenting with heroin
at that time I was probably
Peter Perrett
on it about once a month
Vocals, guitar,
but I didnt think of myself
TOM PINNOCK
organ, songwriting
as a junkie until 1980 or 81,
after the band broke up.
PETER PERRETT: I can
Everyone thinks that they
remember what caused me to
John Perry
have it under control and
write Another Girl, Another
Lead guitar
theyre stronger than the
Planet. It would have been
idiots who fall prey to it.
about April 77, because we
I always enjoyed writing
had it recorded by June. It
Alan Mair
ambiguous lyrics that could
was inspired by this girl from
Bass guitar
be taken on two or three
Yugoslavia. I didnt go out
different levels. You know,
with her, but she was like
its like Love Is The Drug
a total space cadet, which
Mike Kellie
or Addicted To Love. I put
when I was really young
Drums
in drug-related imagery, but
I found interesting. She
it wasnt about drugs. At that
was just a bit weird shed
time I was more addicted to
say crazy things, and it just
sex and infatuation than I was to drugs.
got me thinking that every girl has something
MIKE KELLIE: Taking Peters wonderful songs,
different to offer. It would have been written on
as he presented them, and turning them into
my Guild acoustic. I think any good song should
what was The Only Ones was a very organic but
sound all right on an acoustic guitar.
intense process.
JOHN PERRY: Peter never explained his lyrics.
PERRETT: I used to be very definite about
I never asked. The band rarely talked about
the structure. I would always have the song
music. Wed push a new song down the slipway,
conceived in the writing stage, and I wouldnt
see if it floated, and see where it went. When a
allow any suggestions for changing of structure.
band is working well, theres little point talking
ALAN MAIR: The intro to Another Girl was
about it everyone speaks more eloquently with
developed with everyone playing together. The
their instruments.
KEY PLAYERS
The Only Ones in 1978: (l-r)

Alan Mair, John Perry, Peter
Perrett and Mike Kellie
thing about The Only Ones is that nobody ever

told somebody what they should play. Peter
would show us a song and we would just listen
to it and develop our own part without it being
questioned by each other. Thats the way we
worked right from the beginning.
PERRETT: There was a bit of reluctance by one
member to play at the speed that I started playing
it I wont say who, because its not fair on them.
It is the most perfect arrangement that the band
ever got for a song, though.
PERRY: In the studio was where it emerged as
such a powerful piece.
PERRETT: We had three days demoing at Escape
Studios [in Kent] two days getting fucked up
and one day of actually recording. We recorded
Another Planet, Oh No, The Whole Of The
Law and Special View.
PERRY: By the time we recorded Another Girl
I knew the shape, the form of the guitar solo and
the intro, if not the actual phrases. I knew it
would start low and work upwards, but I hadnt
The key to
The Only Ones is
that the three of us
were chasing Peter
the whole time
MIKE KELLIE
settled on completed phrases. The guitar was all
one take, the first take. I thought I was doing a
run-through to get levels, so after one pass I went
into the control room to see if we were ready to try
a few, and everyone was jumping around saying,
No, no, thats the one! Youve got it!
PERRETT: Most of the debut album was
recorded at Basing Street Studios after that. Apart
from after we signed to CBS, when they asked

us to try out Whitfield Street, which was CBSs
studio. But we didnt like the studio for some
reason. What I remember most about that is
Sandy Denny coming to the session and saying
that if I ever wanted any backup vocals, shed love
to sing. I didnt take her up on that, which I really
regret, cos I was a big of Fairport Convention fan
until the third album. But I was very full of myself
back then and I didnt think that I was a fan of
anyone anymore.
MAIR: The atmosphere was fantastic at Basing
Street. Bob Marley & The Wailers were in the
studio below us, recording Kaya. We kept on
trying to record Another Girl again. But it
wasnt really working. Eventually we played the
original 16-track Escape demo and everything we
needed was there. So we decided we would just
transfer the 16 tracks into the 24-track, but the
machine at Escape was out of alignment, so it was
all muffled. The roadies first of all thought to
bring the machine up to Basing Street, but the
33
PETER STILL/REDFERNS
THE ONLY ONES
engineer, John Burns, said, No, were not

moving the machine in the back of a van. He
said we should bring the tape in and hed put a
tone on it. So we matched the heads up and then
played it at Basing Street, and it was another
story. But then we found we couldnt get enough
separation on the bass drum and the snare. So
Kellie said, Ill just put another kit on top of it.
And I said, What, just the bass and the snare?
And he said, No, the whole thing. On the
second take, he put the whole drumkit, perfectly,
on top of the track every little idiosyncrasy, all
spot-on, right on top of it.
KELLIE: I do remember everybody being quite
flabbergasted, but I dont remember the actual
thought process. I just did it. It had to be done.
I was always astounded, still am, that it was so
impressive. The easiest person to play with has
to be yourself, though, surely.
PERRETT: I recorded the vocals again after a
gig. It was the night before we signed to CBS, in
December 1977. Steve Lillywhite was working as
an assistant to Ed Hollis, and they came to a gig
at the Rock Garden. Afterwards we went back to
Island in Hammersmith to do the vocals, and it
was literally just one take. Its the only thing I can
remember doing one take of. But it was quite a
TIMELINE
August 13, 1976

Alan Mair joins on bass,
completing the bands
lineup six months of
intense rehearsals
MAIR: We
havent actually
broken up since we reformed in 2007,
weve just somehow all gone off and
done our own thing for a while. Of
course, Peters got some new songs.
PERRETT: After 2007, we started
The Only Ones Peter
playing some new songs live and lots
Perrett and John Perry
at the Hammersmith
of fans would say, When are you
Odeon, April 17, 1978
going to release them? But half of
those fans have died in the interim
while theyre waiting for me to release
good time to do it, after a gig, cos you feel quite
them. Now Ive got two songs ready to release,
good about things theres a certain amount
and theres part of me that wants to just get them
of adrenaline.
out there before any more fans die.
PERRY: Later on I double-tracked that guitar
KELLIE: As long as all four of us are alive, theres
intro, downstairs at Basing Street. You can hear
always a possibility we could play together again.
there are two guitars, mostly playing in unison
The key to The Only Ones is that the three of us,
but occasionally breaking into harmony. I used
whether anybody likes to admit it or not, were
a Telecaster and my old 55 Les Paul Special.
chasing Peter the whole time. Peter was the
PERRETT: I like the Hammond on this. I
singer, songwriter, the driving force, and thats
played it, you can only hear it in certain places
the key to The Only Ones. When we reformed, we
cos when I played out of tune we faded it down
were carrying him. He was not in good health at
and faded it up in the good bits!
the time, and that changed the whole chemistry
MAIR: Peters said Another Girl is not
of the band. That changed everything and made
about drugs, but you know, it was perceived
that comeback very, very difficult. We accepted
as being about that, which is
plaudits to begin with, it was all
really why it didnt get the
wonderful. But when it came to
airplay it should have got.
the rubber meeting the road and
Capital FM wouldnt play it
things happening to produce
because of drug content. We
something new, it wasnt the
Written by: Peter Perrett
never really sat down and said,
same demographic and it
Performers: Peter Perrett
This is really a bummer that
showed. It caused frustrations
(vocals, guitar, organ), John
it didnt break into the Top 10
all over in different areas. Now
Perry (lead guitar), Alan Mair
or Top 20, but personally I
Peters 100 per cent fit and
(bass), Mike Kellie (drums)
remember thinking it was
driven again. Whether or not
Engineered by: John Burns,
bizarre. Deep down, there was
he works with us or does
Robert Ash, Ed Hollis,
definitely some disappointment.
something solo, its so good
Steve Lillywhite
Though, to be honest, I kind
for him and so good for his
Recorded at: Escape
of think the song has got the
audience. So there is hope.
Studios,
Kent;
Basing
success it deserves now. In
PERRETT: At one time I
Street Studios and Island
some ways, this is better than it
resented having to do Another
Studios, London
being a hit back then and then
Girl at every gig there was
Released: April 14, 1978
disappearing, because its now
one gig where I didnt do it and
UK chart peak: 57
part of rock history its a track
people complained. At some
(on re-release in 1992)
thats stood the test of time.
gigs in the 90s, I used to start
PERRETT: I prefer the Peel
with it to get it out of the way!
Sessions versions. I think the
But as I got older, I appreciated
way the band sounded live was more exciting
that its better to have one song like that than
and true to what we represented. Because we
not have any songs that get across to a large
didnt have a producer, most of the decisions
audience. If people discover the best of my work
about instrumentation were taken by me and
through that one song, then great.
Im a perfectionist so Im usually not happy
at all.
Peter Perrett plays Londons Garage on July 24
FACT FILE
begin before their

first gig
April 1977
Peter Perrett writes
Another Girl, with
the band recording it at

Escape Studios, Kent,
two months later
December 1977
After overdubs at
Basing Street, Perrett

adds his vocals in one
take at Island Studios in
Hammersmith, just
before signing to CBS
April 14, 1978

Another Girl, Another
Planet is released
as a single, but fails
to chart
david byrne
TAKE ME
TO THE RIVER
A once-in-a-lifetime interview with the great

DAVID BYRNE, as the intrepid musical explorer
prepares to curate this years Meltdown festival in
London. To be discussed: Talking Heads, Brian Eno,
Imelda Marcos, fake Mormon hymns, St Vincent
and how Byrne invented hip-hop by accident...
Story: Andy Gill
Photograph: danny North
Plus! WE NY:
THE 50 GREATEsT NEw YORK AlbuMs
Avid ByrNe hAS always had a

striking sense of appearance, from
the proto-preppy understatement of
his early Talking heads persona to
the legendary Big Suit of Stop Making
Sense. Today, his hair now strikingly
silver, hes dressed in a cool
seersucker suit, a sort of cross
between upscale country cowpoke
and intrepid safari-suited explorer.
its an apt look that hints at his exploratory cultural attitude,
always searching out the unexpected and unusual.
Were in a room at the royal Festival hall, adjacent to an
elevator programmed by Byrnes friend and frequent
collaborator Brian eno to produce keening choral
glissandos depending on whether youre ascending or
descending. Today, were at the very upper limit of enos
register, in a penthouse boardroom affording a marvellous
David Byrne on
the roof of the
Royal Festival Hall,
London, March 2015
widescreen vista of the Thames and across to the

dome of St Pauls. Not that Byrnes paying the
view too much attention. Like the untouched
food on the table, its ignored in favour of a
preoccupation with the work at hand, which
concerns his curating of this years Meltdown,
the scheduling of which he likens to Tetris, trying
to get all these different acts in different venues at
different times to fit in a harmonious sequence.
It is, you suspect, something Byrne enjoys: a
tricky puzzle as much to be savoured as it is
solved. Much of Byrnes remarkable career
has similarly involved projects that enable
him to push his own boundaries, taking him out
of his comfort zone to work alongside musicians
from different disciplines and corners of the
world. In Talking Heads, he moved from art rock,
through funk and African rhythms, while his solo
career includes excursions into Latin pop, film

soundtracks and a musical about Imelda Marcos.
His Luaka Bop label, meanwhile, unearthed
interdisciplinary world music like Indian psych,
Brazilian tropicalismo and Southern gothic. All
told, it is a remarkable, wide-ranging body of
work one that continues to evolve as Byrnes
restless spirit brings him into contact with a new
generation of collaborators such as St Vincent,
Dirty Projectors and David Sitek. Above all, it
underscores his continuing importance in an
ever-changing musical landscape.
His cultural journeys often take Byrne into
areas outside the purely musical: he has an
impressive CV of dance and theatre work and art
installations, and was miraculously able to get
funding to co-write, direct and star in his own
film, True Stories, whose quirky narrative was
inspired by outlandish newspaper stories he had

collected on tour with Talking Heads. I was only
able to raise the money for True Stories because
Talking Heads were having pop hits, he admits.
Times, though, are significantly tougher for the
inspired independent auteur. Nobody lost
money on True Stories, he says. But it would be
harder for me to do that now. I did a documentary
in Brazil, but even the financing for that had to
come from several different countries, just to do
something as small as a one-hour documentary.
An avid proponent of cycling, Byrne designed a
series of location-specific bicycle-racks for
various parts of New York, and has written widely
on the subject, not least in his 2009 book, Bicycle
Diaries. His other publications have included
an anthology of his tree drawings, Arboretum,
and most pertinently, How Music Works, a
37
DAVID BYRNE
Talking Heads, The

Netherlands , June 1977:
(l-r) Chris Frantz, Tina
Weymouth, David Byrne
and Jerry Harrison
GIJSBERT HANEKROOT/REDFERNS
fascinating reflection upon his core business which

discusses the social uses of music, the modes of
performance, the history of recording, and the
thorny relationship between music and emotion:
Making music, he claims, is like constructing
a machine whose function is to dredge up
emotions in performer and listener alike.
Which leads one to wonder at the variety of
emotions that might be dredged up by Byrnes
lineup for Meltdown Festival, which ranges from
flamenco singer Estrella Morente to miasmic metal
dronists Sunn O))), and from confessional
songwriter Benjamin Clementine to Tibetan
throat-musicians Phurpa; with performances as
varied as Young Jean Lees song-cycle about pain
and death, Were Gonna Die, John Luther Adams
contemporary classical work, Across A Distance,
and Atomic Bomb!s presentation of the
rediscovered electro-funk of William Onyeabor.
As with his record label, it tries to re-focus
attention on artists and performers, particularly
those operating outside a mainstream increasingly
colonised by corporate forces an impulse which
also recently led to Byrne joining the board of
SoundExchange, an independent digital income
collection organisation. At the moment its almost
impossible for an artist to find out how many
streams were sold, to calculate how much theyre
owed, he explains. Consumers have no problem
with paying Apple, or having their stuff watched over by
Google; but to actually pay for the content? The creator, in
many cases, has been left behind, and other people are just
cashing in. There needs to be some corrective.
UNCUT: Youve become a serial collaborator
DAVID BYRNE: I have! I was surprised to read some
interviews with younger musicians about collaboration,
and quite a few just didnt like the idea at all. There was a
sense that collaboration is compromising your vision,
your unique sense of what makes you, as an artist or
writer, special. That to collaborate is to compromise.
And to some extent it is; but sometimes you get
something from the other side that goes beyond what
youd have come up with. Its a kind of mutual gain.
Are you ever overwhelmed by the prospect of a

particular partner? Does it ever restrict or place
a brake on the freedom? No, just sometimes in a
technical way. Sometimes the brake is helpful:
all right, this is what they do, this is what I do,
we have to work within these parameters. Its
helpful in defining the area were working
within. I did one recently that hasnt come out
yet, with the hip-hop group De La Soul: they
asked if I could do something on one of their
tracks that had some sections at one speed and
others in a different tempo. I did something,
and told them, I dont know whether this works
with what youre doing, I have no idea how youre
going to get these tempo-changes to work you guys
might be able to pull this off, but its pretty tricky!
I read your introductory explanation for your choice
of Meltdown performers, and was struck by your
acknowledgement that it was financially impossible
to have too many American acts. Oh yeah. No surprise,
theres a budget consideration. Thankfully, Im not the one
that has to juggle those figures but were in constant
communication with the people at the Southbank. If I
recommend someone, and they want to bring other players
along with them, it could add to the budget to the point
where, even if we sell out their night at the Queen Elizabeth
Hall, its not going to pay for the plane fares. I completely get
that. If you have to take a bit of the profit from one act to
cover the loss on another, that can be done. Its a whole
Tetris thing, of shuffling blocks around until they fit.
I get the impression at a lot of live shows nowadays
that its all in the computer, that everything has to
follow the lighting cues. Theres very little room for
the music to explore. I imagine your performances are
a bit looser? Ive done both. Usually Im a little bit looser,
like with the Atomic Bomb! stuff, thats just get a groove
going and dont let go. But the tour I did with St Vincent a
year or two ago, we worked with a large brass section, and
some of the songs, she wanted them to be on a click track
which I dont think people would have noticed, as the brass
was live. She has a set-up where, when shes doing things
with her guitar pedals, the computer triggers all the effects
Whose idea was the brass on that collaboration? It was

her idea. I thought it was brilliant. Not only because we both
like that sound, but it took us to places that sounded like
neither of our bands although there are elements in both
our works. It didnt sound like any band that Id worked
with, it meant it would sound like some third thing. Plus,
with a group like that playing, it kind of mixes itself: if the
arrangement is good, if you have the right numbers of
people playing trombones and whatever, if the balance is
right, itll just acoustically come off the stage the way its
supposed to sound, as opposed to being created in the mix.
What, for you, was the essential difference between the
two album collaborations you did with Brian Eno? The
process was quite different. On the Bush Of Ghosts record it
was like playing ping-pong: one person would create a
track, then the other would respond to it, back and forth,
back and forth, until we
had enough stuff built up to
say, Oh, we can construct
an arrangement out of
this. And at some point,
after working on it for a bit,
we both decided that if
either one of us sang on a
song, people would assume
that song was written by
them, as people tend to do:
they assume the voice is the
authorial voice, and its not
always that way. So we
thought, OK, lets make it
neutral, lets use found
voices, recordings or
whatever lets make that
the theme, that neither of
us sings, we use the voices as the vocals.
NOW,
ITS A
PLEASURE
TO STEP
ONSTAGE.
WITH NO
DESPERATION!
DAVID
BYRNE
Public Enemys Hank Shocklee cited Bush Of Ghosts as

one of the roots of hip-hop. I know! Isnt that amazing!?
It also struck me, listening to the reissue recently, how
much more difficult it must have been to do an album
like that in the pre-sampler era. Oh Jeez, yeah! There was
a lot of trial and error! You sometimes had to play an
instrument as if you were a loop, the same part over and
over. Which is fine but as its a little inaccurate, you get
this kind of slipperiness, which you dont
get when everything is rigid perfection.
EYEWITNESS!
THEY DIDNT
NEED ANY
ADVICE
ED STASIUM recalls
engineering Talking Heads
earliest recordings
GOT THE CHANCE to work

with them through my old friend
Tony Bongiovi, who produced
their early recordings. I bumped into
him for the first time in years at a gig in
NY, and he told me he was going to
build a new studio, Sundragon, and
would I like to be chief engineer? The
first band I worked with there was The
Ramones on Leave Home; but it was
Spring 1977 when I first worked with
Talking Heads, at the Power Station,
when Seymour Stein asked Tommy
Erdelyi and Tony to produce Love
Building On Fire. Then later, we cut the
basic tracks for 77 at Sundragon.
The band were very sparse. When
we started doing the album, Jerry
Harrison was not even in the band, he
was still one of The Modern Lovers. He
came in later and overdubbed his parts.
There were no particular instructions,
and they didnt need any advice: they all
had their parts down, and they didnt
get any guidance from Tony Bongiovi,
who was mostly just sat in the corner of
the booth with his nose in an airplane
magazine! It all came from the band,
there was no producer telling these
guys what to do. The sparseness was a
reflection of their minimal style we did
just a few overdubs, mostly on vocals. It
was all done live Chris is a fantastic
drummer, a real human metronome.
The only edit I made in mixing was in
the intro to Psycho Killer, which Tina
suggested I should elongate. And the
only time Tony gave his opinion was

about Davids singing so David
refused to do vocals with Tony in the
room, just me! David is David, and like
any great artist, needs free rein.
I wasnt that familiar with the New
York scene at that time. Id been in
Canada for a few years, and when I
moved back, the first time I heard The
Ramones was in the studio. And the
first I heard of Talking Heads was a
demo tape, though I did go and see
them live before recording them.
Theyre totally different bands: the
biggest difference in their cases was
attitude. The Ramones were truly a
bunch of punk guys from Queens, while
Talking Heads were more intellectual
which is not to disparage The Ramones,
but their approaches were dissimilar.
The bands sound started to change
when Eno got involved on More Songs
About Buildings And Food. Chris was in
awe of him, the way he designed the
sound differently. His new textures
provided a stimulant, broadened their
musical spectrum. I love the way they
go from that sparse first album to the
bigger, more complex sound they
developed later.
I know they had their differences
later on, but when I was working with
them everybody was getting along just
fine. They were truly a band. My only
mediation was in booting out Tony
Bongiovi when David wanted to do
his vocals!
no-one has to know; if you do like it, we keep

going, and no-one has to know until we reach
something that we like. That was more of a
clean division of labour: he had these tracks,
and I added words and melodies, and ended up
singing them. But we seem to have escaped the
authorial voice issue on that, too. It was plain
that it was a collaboration, and that we were
both writing the material, you could hear that.
But it was different from the other record. Some
of it was electronic, parts of it were kinda folky
they dont sound like folk songs, but when you
look at the melody, or some of the words I wrote,
theyre like old-fashioned folk songs, in a way.
So if you had tapes of the vocal

sources, were you editing them in as
you went along? Sometimes editing,
sometimes flying them in, almost like a
performance in the studio, where you
press record, play them, stop it and see
what youve got, and whether you can fix
the ones that dont work so well.
How did that process differ from the
later collaboration with Eno on
Everything That Happens Will Happen
Today? It was very different. Brian said,
I have these tracks that I havent been
able to turn into songs. I said, Pass a
few to me, Ill try, and if you dont like it,
Ed Stasium
in 2014
With St Vincent,
Whitney Hall,
Louisville,
Kentucky,
July 2, 2013
Thematically, there seemed to be an

apprehension about ageing: a lot of the
songs were about dealing sympathetically
39
STEPHEN J. COHEN/GETTY IMAGES
changes. Shes an amazing guitar player, and this way

[snaps fingers], right on cue, the sound of the guitar changes
completely. But so much of the rest of it was live the guitar
playing, the drums, eight brass players. It was the poor
drummer who suffered, having to play with a click.
elses song, but getting up onstage and asserting myself.

And then retreating back into my shell the minute Id step off
stage. It was a curious kind of schizophrenic relationship.
But if you dont feel comfortable communicating any other
way, if theres an avenue open to you, youll take it. Then
over the years, that whole thing lessened. And now, its a
pleasure to step on stage. Theres no desperation. So there
was some kind of weird edginess that got lost in that
process, but something else was gained.
I understand you were rejected from your school choir
because you were off key and too withdrawn..? Thats
true. Most encouraging!
On collaborating
with Brian Eno, 1981:
It was like playing
ping-pong
Off key and too withdrawn could be a definition for a

certain kind of performer. Bob Dylan, for
instance. I guess that that kind of rejection pushes
you into Im gonna show you! territory.
with the ageing process. Wow!? I wasnt

aware of that! My parents have both passed
on, and they were getting very old, and
showing it, by that point, and that might have
been on my mind. I dont know.
When you ran a record label, was it a difficult

gear-change from thinking as an artist having
to think more like a businessman, while looking
out for other artists interests? Some of it is really
different, but some of it is really familiar because
as an artist you understand what another artists
hopes and aspirations might be, and what they
expect from a record label, how theyd like to be
treated. You kind of get all that, sometimes in a way
that other labels dont. The rest of it, some of the
bumping up against the business contingencies,
I would like to say that I can do it, its not like Im
incompetent at it, but its not where most of my
Were you a natural performer as a kid? No,

I dont think so. I started performing in high
school when I was 16 or so, in pop bands with
friends, or at folk clubs. I took to it, but at that
point I was more driven to do it: it was almost
like I felt so socially inept that this was the only
way I could express myself, by getting up on a
stage and doing something, often somebody
BUYERS GUIDE
TALKING HEADS:
77 (1977)
Stark, skeletal and
melodic, a debut a
world away from
8/10
punk mores, with its
own odd take on emotions, books,
the government and psycho killers.
usual musical narrative of melody

and chord progressions downgraded in favour of cyclical funk
and Afrobeat figures, realised
through a larger cast of helpers.
DAVID BYRNE &

BRIAN ENO
MY LIFE IN THE BUSH
OF GHOSTS (1981)
TALKING HEADS
MORE SONGS ABOUT
BUILDINGS AND FOOD
(1978)
Enter the Eno: with

8/10
a warmer, more
muscular variant of their distinctive
staccato sound, the band were able
to explore various tributary strains
feeding into their music, such as
country, funk and plastic pop.
Byrne and Enos

innovatory collaging
techniques here effectively
invented sampling. Harnessed to
lock-tight rhythms, the densely
layered montages of sonic bric-brac reflect the audio-social
hubbub of a world shrinking
through communications tech.
DAVID BYRNE
ROBERTA BAYLEY/REDFERNS
Byrnes score
for a dance piece
7/10
choreographed by
Twyla Tharp, typically blending
elements of funk, Afrobeat and
collaged vocal samples. Musically
interesting, let down by drab lyrics.
TALKING HEADS
REMAIN IN LIGHT
9/10
TALKING HEADS
STOP MAKING SENSE
(1984)
Soundtrack to the
definitive pop
9/10
performance
film, building from Byrnes solo
boombox version of Psycho
Killer to the irresistible closing
funk-pop sequence.
TALKING HEADS
LITTLE CREATURES
(1985)
A return to charming
pop songcraft, this
9/10
became the bands
most successful LP, with two million
US sales on the back of the
deliriously inventive video for
Road To Nowhere.
THE NAME OF THIS

BAND IS TALKING
HEADS (1982)
TALKING HEADS
The innovative
groove breakthrough, with the
Harnessing the
broader musical
9/10
palette of their
expanded live band, this effected
Talking Heads breakthrough
through the Top 10 success of
Burning Down The House.
THE CATHERINE
WHEEL (1981)
FEAR OF MUSIC (1979)
(1980)
SPEAKING IN
TONGUES (1983)
9/10
TALKING HEADS
The consummation
of the bands first
chapter, with wiry
9/10
disco rhythms laced
through punchy rock grooves, and
songs built around dystopian
anxieties: the oppressiveness of air,
urban guerrilla paranoia, the
boredom of heaven.
TALKING HEADS
Designed to track
their progress from
new-wave combo to Afro-funk big
band, a live album with a difference.
DAVID BYRNE
MUSIC FOR THE KNEE
PLAYS (1985)
8/10
6/10
Composed to
accompany Robert
Wilsons theatrical
production, The Civil Wars, these

jaunty and drifting brass and
percussion pieces were inspired by
The Dirty Dozen Brass Band.
TALKING HEADS
TRUE STORIES (1986)
The power of a
proper band: Talking
Heads brought a
8/10
heft and propulsive
conviction to these songs from
David Byrnes engagingly quirky
movie. Often underrated. Provided
Radiohead with a band name, too.
DAVID BYRNE
SOUNDS FROM TRUE
STORIES (1986)
Incidental music
from Byrnes movie,
7/10
performed by
eclectic talents including Terry
Allen and the Kronos Quartet.
Sadly, a planned album of songs by
the actors never materialised.
DAVID BYRNE,
RYUICHI
SAKAMOTO &
CONG SU
8/10
THE LAST EMPEROR

(1987)
Byrnes contributions to the OST

of Bertoluccis acclaimed film
scrupulous creations of Chinese
instrumentation and scales netted
him an Oscar, Grammy and Golden
Globe. (Continues on page 42)
skills lie. I love the part of introducing the artist, and being
an advocate for their music, but spending hours untangling
knotty business problems its not much fun for me. I think
my time might be more wisely spent writing some songs.
And at least you did some great archival work: the Os
Mutantes record, for example. Oh yes, theyre amazing.
Ive been re-reading your book How Music Works, and
in parts of it you deal with the differences between
performing live and working in the studio. Do you have
a preference? No. It used to be, in the early days, that I
didnt like being in the studio at all. Talking Heads started as
a live band, and I felt that what I heard on the recordings
didnt sound like what I heard onstage. But later it was more
balanced, and I realised there was a different type of
creativity involved in each world. Then for a while there was
a more typical record-business kind of thing, where you
make a record, then tour behind it, which I would try and
mix up as much as possible, for my own excitement and
inspiration. Thats been fun, but now I dont know if that
cycle has as much meaning as before. For certain big pop
artists, it does: when they release a record that they hope is
going to sell tons of copies, the whole machine cranks up,
the videos and the TV and
the events and the tour; but
for the rest, its turning into
something else, where its
an ongoing sense of work
and performance, and I
think some of my audience
comes to my shows with
almost no expectations!
God bless them!
I LIKE TOO
MUCH
BEING
ABLE
TO DO
DIFFERENT
SORTS OF
THINGS
Pete Townshend once

complained about how,
following a years
touring, the other band
members went off on
holiday while he had to
stay home and write the
next album. Did you ever
feel that way in Talking Heads? Yeah, a little. I sometimes
felt, like, theyre all going out there partying, theyre going
to the beach, while I have to get my little pencil out and my
Walkman recorder, recording ideas and working on stuff for
our next record. But then, thats the work I love, its not a
horrible job by any means, so I cant complain. And as a
songwriter, youre getting all the publishing money.
DAVID
BYRNE
Did expectations change when things like

Burning Down The House and Road To
Nowhere were becoming popular? Ah, yeah, but
I didnt respond to all of them. The good side was that
I could be more ambitious with the stage shows, and
so there was a certain level of indulgence: people
would say, Oh, you want to try that? OK, lets try it.
Whereas before it might have been either No, that
costs too much or What gives you the right to think
you can try that? There was a bit more acceptance,
and I could do other things, like directing the music
videos. But there was also this temptation to really
get into the pop machine and take it to the next level
of pop arenas and you start building up this huge
infrastructure which you then have to write and
record to support. I sensed losing some freedom
there, as regards what I can do; and I like too much
being able to do all of these different sorts of things.
You were part of the initial MTV roster, through
those videos. Presumably that played a major
EYEWITNESS!
THERE WAS
SO MUCH
EXCITEMENT
AND ENERGY
Director JONATHAN
DEMME on Stop
Making Sense
T WAS ACTUALLY me
who approached the band
with the suggestion to film
their performance, rather than
Stop
the other way round. Id seen their
Making
Sense
show at the Hollywood Bowl, and
thought, Theres a movie in this,
this should be captured on film.
When I saw the Big Suit, I just went,
photography, Jordan Cronenworth,
Woooww! We met and discussed the
also deserves credit he did a brilliant
project, and Warners came up with the
job of lighting and filming it. Some of
money. David was pleased as it was an
the sequences were planned ahead of
opportunity to record the performance
time and worked out beautifully, but
in virtual monochrome. Usually, theres
some of the best stuff was just things
a lot of ambient light sources exit
wed caught in passing there was so
signs, people opening and shutting
much happening onstage, such
doors but we were able to control the
excitement and energy; we were very
environment to a high degree.
fortunate the way it worked out.
Everything about the show, the
When it came time to edit the movie,
sequencing, the way it builds, the
I wanted to get away from all that quickstaging, is entirely Davids. Byrne was
cut editing prevalent at the time. I used
the auteur of that show, and deserves
long-held shots that focused on the
huge credit for it. I loved the way it built
performers faces which is what you
up gradually, especially the bits where
want to see at a concert. As a result, it
the stage crew wheels on equipment as
still looks great today, it hasnt aged.
the band grows. We opted to ignore the
One thing that often gets overlooked is
audience usually there are cutaways to
that these were the last shows Talking
audience reactions, but I thought, who
Heads ever did: they never toured
wants to look at the audience when you
together again after that, so we were
could be looking at these beautiful
fortunate enough to capture the bands
performers onstage? And we didnt
final performances on film.
worry about the crew being in shot
I wasnt at all surprised when David
theyre an integral part of the show,
made his own film, True Stories. He
after all.
has so much inspiration, in so many
My
different media: he truly is the modern
director of
Renaissance Man!
part in disseminating your work? Yes. Though there were

some songs that were perceived to be hits that werent
getting played on the radio, because people were seeing the
videos. It was a time when MTV was desperate for material,
and they played videos 24/7, so they needed stuff to fill up
the time. So as fast as you could make stuff, theyd put it on.
You changed tack completely with Remain In Light,
particularly in having no chord changes. Where did
the idea come from? From Bush Of Ghosts. They came out
in reverse order, as we had to clear a lot of voice recordings
on that: it was done before Remain In Light, but came out
after. So Brian and I learned that technique, and had a
practice run with Bush Of Ghosts, then we realised, Oh
look, we can do songs this way, why not bring the rest of the
band into the process and use it to do actual songs? Not
that the Bush Of Ghosts things werent songs
41
DAVID BYRNE
There was a fairly heavy Afrobeat flavour to parts of
Remain In Light. Was that one of your first non-western
influences? Yeah, I was hearing some of that material,
whether from Kenya, Nigeria or South Africa Fela, and
some pop groups although there was no way to find out
that much about them. But there was a sense that here were
people taking elements guitars, bass, drums, whatever
that you were totally familiar with, the vocabulary being
used, but they were organising it in a different way, so that it
seemed like, Wow, we dont have to imitate them, but
theres more than one way to skin a cat.
David Byrne in
True Stories,
1986
The Big Love: Hymnal album, with its fake Mormon

hymns, was like a different, homegrown kind of
Ethnological Forgery. In a way, yeah. I was asked to do a
score for this HBO series, and I had this odd idea to give
these characters spiritual underpinning, because
the odd stuff youre seeing the polygamy,
and this guy jumping from house to house
because he has a wife in each to them has a
spiritual justification. I thought that by having
the music reflect that underpinning, as odd as
what youre seeing is, to them it all makes
sense, theres something holding it all together.
It didnt entirely work, but I managed to get
some of that in there.
Youve done a lot of theatre work, with the likes

of Robert Wilson. How do those kinds of
collaborations work? Is it their theatrical ideas
that you have to align with? It depends. Theyre
very different. With Bob Wilson there was one
piece called The Knee Plays, a series of short
things, where unusual for Bob he had a kind of
story; so my wife at the time and I made a kind of
structure and imagined a way to tell the story
silently, then I wrote this music with a narration to
run parallel with it. Another one I did with Bob
was called The Forest: Bob said, Theres money to
be made in Germany for something theatrical. I
I thought it was interesting in offering

almost an overview of American classical
music, with elements of Ives and Copland
and minimalism in there. Why, thank you.
BUYERS GUIDE
TALKING HEADS
NAKED (1988)
Disappointing
swansong cut with
dozens of extra
6/10
musicians in Paris,
based on earlier improvisations.
Lyrics and melodies added later,
and various elements dont
combine with their usual panache.
DAVID BYRNE
spring in the singalong songs steps

and spice in their arrangements.
DAVID BYRNE
The more strippeddown approach here
didnt work to the
6/10
LPs advantage:
stripped of froth and fripperies,
the songs struggled to engage.
DAVID BYRNE
DAVID BYRNE
FEELINGS (1997)
Byrne gets his
groove back, aided
by Morcheeba:
8/10
their laidback style
mellows out his jerky rhythms to
produce slinky grooves reflecting
the undertow of playful hedonism.
DAVID BYRNE
MOVIESTORE/REX_SHUTTERSTOCK
THE FOREST (1991)

Orchestral
ethnological
forgeries for an
6/10
archaeo-mythical
theatre piece based on The Epic
Of Gilgamesh, but set in the
industrial revolution: imagine Sun
Ra relaxing at the Penguin Caf.
DAVID BYRNE
LOOK INTO THE

EYEBALL (2001)
Despite including
Byrnes first
7/10
Spanish-language
song, Latin-American influences
are assimilated here into a more
eclectic, mature style with elegant
string and wind arrangements.
DAVID BYRNE
UH-OH (1992)
A less worthy
world-music hybrid,
in which the Latin
8/10
influence subsists
more as a fount of energy, adding
LEAD US NOT INTO

TEMPTATION (2003)
7/10
Byrnes soundtrack
to the Young Adam
film was made in
and minimalist repetitions. Think

teatime with Van Dyke Parks and
Sufjan Stevens.
DAVID BYRNE
DAVID BYRNE &

FATBOY SLIM
GROWN BACKWARDS
HERE LIES LOVE
(2004)
(2010)
Even by Byrnes
eclectic standards,
7/10
this is all over the
map: country music, gamelan
percussion, Gallic accordion, even
a couple of arias from Bizet and
Verdi, which test his upper register.
A 22-track discoopera about Imelda

Marcos which doesnt mention
shoes once. Despite sterling work
from vocal talent (Florence, St
Vincent, Tori Amos and others), its
simply too long to spend at the
disco with a dictators wife.
DAVID BYRNE (1994)
REI MOMO (1989)

A guided tour of
Latin American and
Afro-Cuban forms,
7/10
from cumbia to
samba, with Kirsty MacColl joining
a host of Latino legends alongside
the gringo groover.
collaboration with members of

Belle & Sebastian and Mogwai,
whose improv skills lend themselves to the LPs sombre charms.
DAVID BYRNE &

BRIAN ENO
9/10
5/10
CAETANO VELOSO
& DAVID BYRNE
EVERYTHING THAT
HAPPENS WILL
HAPPEN TODAY
(2008)
A more demarcated collaboration,

with Enos unfinished grooves
developed and sung by Byrne,
whose lyrics treat decrepitude and
death with maturity and warmth. A
beguiling, consolatory work.
LIVE AT CARNEGIE
HALL (2012)
Veloso returns the
favour for Byrnes
earlier patronage by having him
share a 2004 acoustic showcase. A
joyous show, including Road To
Nowhere filtered through a bossa
nova temperament.
8/10
DAVID BYRNE
DAVID BYRNE &

ST VINCENT
BIG LOVE: HYMNAL
LOVE THIS GIANT

(2012)
(2008)
Music for a drama

series on Mormon
8/10
polygamists,
ingeniously evoking the wistful
flavour of old pioneer hymns in an
upscale Americana palette of
brass-band horns, genteel strings
A harmonious union
of cerebral talents,
their more icily artful tendencies
thawed by using brass as lead
instrument. Ebullient, infectious,
touching and intelligent.
8/10
How did Here Lies Love, the musical collaboration with

Norman Cook about Imelda Marcos, come about? What
was the attraction of Imelda? At first, it might have just
been this outrageous person who lives in this bubble-world,
and loves going to clubs theres a connection between the
hedonistic dance-club vibe and someone being as powerful
as she and her husband were. That was a nice start to get you
into that world, then I discovered there was a lot more going
on a relationship that just fell into my lap, the main
opposition to her husband, Aquino, who was assassinated
when he returned to the Philippines, she dated him when
they were young, so there was this other parallel thread
going with him: she got him out of prison, and he was sent
into exile. And it all ended with this peaceful revolution, the
precursor of those in Egypt and other places; though none of
them end up quite as hoped.
How do you go about developing a musical like that? It
evolved in stages: I had the songs written, but I could never
get support to do it theatrically I always wanted it be done
in a disco. And I wanted it to be all songs and no dialogue, so
you couldnt have someone come on and say, Im suchand-such. The director Alex Timbers is great at the nonverbal narrative, where you understand the relationships
between characters by their positions onstage, or clothing.
It ran at the National last year, and now Ive written another
one. Itll take time, but Im onto a second draft.
Any clues about a theme? Its another historical woman,
where theres a lot of information in the historical record.
Which is good for me: Im not making this story up, its
exactly what was said, on the record.
You realise that Eva Perons been done? Yes, thats been
done, thats been done. The Imelda thing was compared to
that, but the feeling was very different.
Youve worked on a lot of narratives, notably your film,
True Stories. Whats the main difference between
working on an album and a film its a much more
collaborative process, presumably? Yes, it is. As a
musician, I started to become more comfortable not being
bossy as such, but in making my intentions clear. Rather
than ordering people to Do this!, Id talk with them about
it so theyd understand and they end up helping you
achieve what you want. Its vastly more complicated, but
super fun to do.
I was intrigued to learn that Windows used a sample of
yours as part of their operating system. Oh yeah! One
year their new operating system included an audio/video
player, and they used a song Id done [Like Humans Do,
from 2001s Look Into The Eyeball] as a demo of how their
audio player worked so that when you opened up the
player, there was something in there already. I thought,
This will be a clever way to get a song from my new record to
millions of people, to create awareness of the new
recording. It didnt really have that effect!
New York seems very amenable to
creativity. Do you think you might have
EYEWITNESS!
WE MADE
IT A PARTY!
BERNIE WORRELL
remembers bringing the
funk to Talking Heads
FIRST MET TALKING Heads

sometime back in the early
80s. It was them that made
contact with me. Jerry Harrison
called me and asked if Id be interested
in joining them. I didnt know who they
were! I didnt follow new wave. But we
met up at a studio and jammed, and we
enjoyed it, so I joined up.
Id been with P-Funk about 10 years,
and I think Talking Heads modelled
their larger lineup around ours; they
told me they used to sneak into our
shows, they were all fans of P-Funk.
They took the concept of multirhythms, integrated it, got the rhythm
thing more energetic, got more people
involved. Jerry didnt play funk: thats
what they wanted, the black rhythms.
So I brought my feel into things, like the
clavinet intro to Life During Wartime,
and Id suggest things they could do on
guitars. Id been musical director of
P-Funk for years, so it was good to be
able to sit back and just play.
Nona Hendryx joined up too, and I
brought in Lynn Mabry from the Brides
Of Funkenstein, we made it a party!
Talking Heads were a bit stiff when they
started, they admitted it. Thats why we
injected the brotherhood.It became a
unique combination of Davids
quirkiness hes a conceptualist, like
George Clinton and the rhythms.
I played with them for about four
years, through the Stop Making Sense
period. I was on the live album The
With Bernie
Worrell at the
RocknRoll Hall
Of Fame induction
Name Of This Band, and I also played

on Speaking In Tongues. I put my own
flavour on This Must Be The Place
(Naive Melody); and everybody loved
what I added to Making Flippy Floppy,
one of the synth or clavinet lines. While
writing and composing, coming up with
material, wed jam, but not onstage;
when we played live it was already a
piece, the solos were all worked out.
When Talking Heads stopped
working together, I stayed in touch with
the individual members, and I played on
two or three things that Chris and Tina
did I seem to remember playing Soul
Train with The Tom Tom Club. Then
when they reunited for the final one-off
performance at their induction into the
RocknRoll Hall Of Fame I had already
been inducted with P-Funk David
requested the presence of Steve Scales
and I. Because they couldnt have done
Burning Down The House without us!
There was some friction there, I
could sense it, but I tried to stay out of
it, as Ive seen that before, with P-Funk
and others. But the friction was already
there before they expanded the group,
I suspect. Each of the others, Chris,
Tina and Jerry, would come and ask me
to talk to David, and I didnt want to get
involved, as I knew he wouldnt change
his mind; but I tried all the same. Its a
shame, but thats part of the business.
developed in a totally different way if youd lived in

Los Angeles? I did try living in Los Angeles for a time in the
mid- to late-80s, at the time I was making that film, and
obviously a lot of the producers and technical people are
based in LA, and theyre the best in their field. But I found
that when you werent actively involved in something
there, you spent so many hours in your car, just going
from place to place, and you think, Where are the years
going here?
I remember that line you wrote about London being a
small city, and I thought, Jesus, has he ever tried to get
across it in rush hour? Oh yeah, I get that! I think I meant
that it was made up of lots of small villages, and people
sometimes never ventured out of their little village.
David Byrnes Meltdown runs at Londons
Southbank Centre from August 17-30
OVER THE PAGE! THE TOP 50 NEW YORK ALBUMS

43
KMAZUR/WIREIMAGE; PIETER M VAN HATTEM
said, What if we do the Gilgamesh story, which is the oldest

story known to man, and re-set it during the Industrial
Revolution in Germany, because during that period the
same questions man versus nature, the city versus the
country, all those questions get raised anew, and we can
re-set it that way. He agreed, but of course Bob being Bob, a
story is just an inspiration for him, he doesnt feel like he has
to adhere to a narrative or anything. Hell stick with it, but
its more of an underpinningthan something in the
forefront for the audience. Which is a fun way to work.
Greatest
New York
Albums
WILLIAM GOTTLIEB/REDFERNS
AVID BYRNE IS on the cover

and, to celebrate, the Uncut
team have compiled a Top 50 of
the greatest New York albums.
Perhaps inevitably, it is a
wide-ranging list that covers
many genres and a remarkable
80 years in the citys musical
life. Our chronological survey begins at a concert
called An Experiment In Modern Music; in many
respects, that is a phrase you could apply to all the
albums here, from early explorations in form and
structure at the citys jazz clubs through punks rowdy
shenanigans at CBGB or Maxs Kansas City and
onwards our list includes doo wop, folk, disco,
soul, hip-hop and indie, and reaches deep into the
new millennium. Our journey takes us from Birdland
to Studio 54 via East Village coffeehouses, from
addresses in Queens Kew Gardens Hills and Ditmas
Park in Brooklyn to a brownstone on the Upper West
Side, the Chelsea Hotel and a chapel on a university
campus. Here, then, is Uncuts pick of the finest
albums born of the citys five boroughs
the murky, violent underworld of

the Italian-American Mob that then
still held the city in its grip. Sinatras
voice already sounds sublimely
world-weary here, despite the fact
he hadnt yet reached 31.
ART BLAKEY
3BIRDLAND
A NIGHT AT
VOL 1
RHAPSODY
1GEORGE
IN BLUE
GERSHWIN
1924
On February 12, 1924, New Yorks

Aeolian Hall hosted a concert
called An Experiment In Modern
Music. Clustered into sections with
titles like Contrast: Legitimate
Scoring vs. Jazzing, the programme
included a new 18-minute piece by
Brooklyn-born Gershwin: A
Rhapsody In Blue. Written
between Broadway commissions,
Gershwins piece became an early
blockbuster the initial recording
was one of the first records to sell
over a million copies. Critically, the
success of Rhapsody helped
legitimise jazz the dominant
Ol Blue Eyes
at Columbias
musical idiom in New York for the
Liederkranz Hall
Recording Studio, next 30 years.
October 1946
FRANK SINATRA
2FRANK
THE VOICE OF
SINATRA
1946
Though most of
his classics were
recorded in LA,
Ol Blue Eyes first
proper album
a set of four 78s
was mostly tracked in the city that
Sinatra thought of as home. The
eight compact songs here, from
You Go To My Head to Paradise,
still conjure up images of midcentury New York in the mind of
the listener, from the sparkling
grandeur of Midtowns hotel bars to
1954
Originally
located at 1678
Broadway,
Birdland wore its
achievements
modestly: the
clubs marquee carried the legend,
Jazz Corner Of The World.
Accordingly, the venue attracted
the movements biggest names
from its opening night on December
15, 1949: Charlie Parker, Lester
Young and Stan Getz among them.
A number of remarkable live
performances were recorded at
Birdland, especially Art Blakeys
landmark set from February 21,
1954; crisply produced by Blue Note
founder Alfred Lion, it captures the
intricate interplay between hard
bop pioneers, trumpeter Clifford
Brown and pianist Horace Silver.
LEONARD
4WEST
BERNSTEIN
SIDE STORY
ORIGINAL CAST
RECORDING 1957
Relocating Romeo
And Juliet to New
Yorks blue collar
Upper West Side
during the 1950s
was an inspired
move by lyricist Stephen Sondheim
and composer Leonard Bernstein.
Mixing everything from Tin Pan
Alley to jazz, Latin and classical,
Bernsteins impressively eclectic
score echoed the urban stew of the
city itself. America, meanwhile,
playfully juxtaposes the ideal of
living in the States
with the actual experience of new

immigrants: Skyscrapers bloom
in America/Cadillacs zoom in
America/Industry boom in America/
Twelve in a room in America.
DION & THE

5PRESENTING
BELMONTS
DION &
THE BELMONTS 1959
DAVIS
6MILES
KIND OF BLUE
1959
Originally from
Illinois, Davis
moved to New
York in 1944. He
had already
achieved a great
deal by the time he recorded Kind
Of Blue at Columbias 30th Street
Studio. An instinctively brilliant
recruiter, the band on this LP was
assembled from the best musicians
James Brown at
the Apollo with The
Famous Flames, 1964
playing the citys jazz clubs,

including John Coltrane, Bill Evans,
Cannonball Adderley, Jimmy Cobb
and Paul Chambers. Brainstormed
with pianist Evans in Davis Upper
West Side brownstone, the hip
rhythms and pulses of Kind Of Blue
presaged the next era in jazz.
7ODETTA
AT CARNEGIE HALL
Alabama-born Ms Holmes
captured her varied repertoire
Gallows Pole, Sometimes I Feel
Like A Motherless Child, If I Had
A Hammer and strong, soulful
persona. Shed first performed in
the city in 1953 at the Blue Angel
club, and after At Carnegie Hall she
returned to the city three years later
to record Odetta At Town Hall.
the city, with politics and love, and

trying to find a unique way to
articulate it all. Unlike most others,
he succeeded. And how better to
sell an album about your lover
leaving New York than by putting a
picture of the two of you, near your
West 4th Street apartment, on the
front cover?
JAMES BROWN
1960
The first thing

that turned me
on to folk singing
was Odetta,
Bob Dylan told
Playboy in 1966.
Dylan missed Odettas engagement
at Carnegie Hall he didnt move to
New York until the following year
but this April 8, 1960 concert by the
Larry Kert and Carol
Lawrence as Tony and
Maria in West Side
Story, New York, 1957
8APOLLO
LIVE AT THE
1963
One of the
most fted live
LPs of all time,
and a key
document of
Brown and
The Famous Flames drilled,
inexhaustible R&B power, Live At
The Apollo also captured a New
York institution at it zenith, a
Harlem theatre whose discerning,
passionate audiences empowered
black artists like Brown as much
as the performers empowered
them. Check how the band left
space for the screams, and how
Brown fed off them in Lost
Someone, a classically imploring
soul slow-burn extended into an
outrageous 10-minute provocation.
Gee whiz, I love you!
BOB DYLAN
9BOB
THE FREEWHEELIN
DYLAN
1963
Dylans self-titled debut captured

the sound of New York folk clubs at
the start of the 60s, but it was the
follow-up that best illustrated what
could evolve from those storied
coffee shops. Freewheelin
showcased a talent that was at once
archetypal and transcendent: an
angry young man grappling with
WOODY ALLEN
10WOODY ALLEN
1964
Equally capable
of free-roaming
and improv work,
jazz musicians
and stand-up
comedians often
shared NY stages during the 1950s
and 60s. Allen mastered both. A
former TV sketchwriter, he made
his stand-up debut at the Blue
Angel in October 1960. Sample joke:
My parents were too poor to buy
me a dog, so they got me an ant.
This, the first of Allens three standup LPs, was recorded outside the
city but it showcased an act honed
in NYC clubs, rich in the wistful
futility that became a critical
component of his film work.
45
DON PAULSEN/MICHAEL OCHS ARCHIVES/GETTY IMAGES;

HANK WALKER/THE LIFE PICTURE COLLECTION/GETTY IMAGES
A meeting
between Dion
DiMucci and
fellow Bronxborn ItalianAmericans The
Belmonts, their heyday ran from
1957-60, when they were the citys
pre-eminent doo wop heartthrobs.
The first of four albums they
recorded together, Presenting
showcased their infectious, fingerpopping talents, including singles
I Wonder Why, Where Or When
and A Teenager In Love. Their
impact on New York citizens was
not inconsiderable. I have always
listened to Dions voice, said one
notable New York resident, Lou
Reed. Its inside my body and
head forever.
Greatest New York Albums

recorded in Nashville and London,
but plenty of the material it drew
on dated from earlier phases
of Cohens life, from a time
specifically in the case of Joan
Of Arc when he had holed
up in the Chelsea Hotel. Famous
Blue Raincoat, meanwhile,
compounded Cohens reputation
as chronicler of the intelligentsia
and their romantic intrigues.
The Lower East Side might be
cold, but theres still music
on Clinton Street all through
the evening
STEELY DAN
16
CANT BUY
A THRILL
1972
Laura Nyro in New

York, circa 1969
VELVET
11THETHE
UNDERGROUND
VELVET
UNDERGROUND
& NICO
1967
Despite being
primarily
recorded in Los
Angeles, the VUs
debut perfectly
evokes the
seediness of Manhattan in the
mid 60s. The spirit of the citys
counterculture is everywhere
Warhol produced the album,
managed the band and provided
the cover, while Factory superstar
Nico delivered suitably dead-eyed
vocals on three cuts; most
famously, Im Waiting For The
Man depicts a trip up to
Lexington 1-2-5 to a Harlem
brownstone to score heroin. Whats
more, the screes of atonal noise
conjured by Reed and John Cale set
the blueprint for New Yorks later
waves of noise-rock.
JIMI HENDRIX
12
EXPERIENCE
ELECTRIC LADYLAND
MICHAEL OCHS ARCHIVES/GETTY IMAGES
1968
Jimi Hendrixs
relationship with
New York began
in the mid 60s
as a member of
Curtis Knight
And The Squires; then as a
Greenwich Village regular with
Jimmy James And The Flames. He
returned to the city to record the
bulk of his final album with the

Experience at the newly opened
Record Plant studios. Credited
on the sleeve as produced and
directed by Hendrix, Electric
Ladyland took shape while he
was living at New Yorks Drake
Hotel. Combining live jams with
psychedelic epics, the album
satisfactorily reflected Hendrixs
wide-ranging ambitions; the
album also gave its name to the
Electric Lady Studio he built in
a former Greenwich Village fixture,
The Generation Club on West
8th Street.
LAURA NYRO
13
NEW YORK
TENDABERRY
1969
Born in the
Bronx, Nyro
quickly
established
herself as one
of the citys
most potent songwriters before
becoming a performer herself.
Her third solo album, New York
Tendaberry, was a more intimate
document than what had gone
before, being mostly a collection
of stark and soulful piano ballads
that expressed Nyros typically
complicated relationship with her
unforgiving hometown: Therell
be no mercy on Broadway, she
noted. Ultimately, though, love
triumphed: Sidewalk and pigeon,
she sang on the magisterial title
track, You look like a city/But you
feel like religion to me
SIMON AND
GARFUNKEL
14
BRIDGE OVER
TROUBLED WATER
1970
NYC resonated in the music of these

former classmates from Queens
Kew Gardens Hills neighbourhood.
They finessed their act in
Greenwich Village coffee houses;
later, Simon explicitly referenced
his home city in Bleecker Street,
The 59th Street Bridge Song
(Feelin Groovy) and The Only
Living Boy In New York. Their
final studio album, Bridge Over
Troubled Water, contains The
Boxer; a typically New York yarn
of a smalltown boy defeated by the
big city, the vocals for the chorus
were recorded in St Pauls Chapel at
New Yorks Columbia University.
LEONARD
15
COHEN
SONGS OF LOVE
AND HATE 1971
Like many a good

poet, Leonard
Cohen rarely
rushed his songs.
This third album
might have been
Back in the
60s, Donald
Fagen and
Walter Becker
had attempted
to make it as
pop songwriters, touting their
wares around Broadways Brill
Building. Some of these songs
made up their debut, full of the
snark and wit of New York
Brooklyn (Owes The Charmer
Under Me) profiles Fagens seedy
neighbours, while Midnite
Cruiser evokes the later Taxi
Driver movie with its portrayal of a
disaffected cabbie. Elsewhere, the
vivid rhythms of the citys Latin
population are present in Do It
Again and the majestic Only A
Fool Would Say That.
FANIA ALL
17
STARS
LIVE AT THE
CHEETAH VOL 1
1972
The Fania record

label was born in
the early 1960s,
a partnership
between Johnny
Pacheco (a
Dominican-born bandleader)
and Jerry Masucci (an ItalianAmerican lawyer) that began
with them selling records out
of a car boot in Spanish Harlem.
The music they handled was an
ecstatic, virtuosic fusion of musics
from Cuba, Puerto Rico and
Dominica that became known as
samba, epitomised by Pachecos
own work leading the expansive
Fania All Stars. On this live set,
critical solos from big hitters
like Willie Coln and Ray
Barretto never detract from the
indestructible groove. A classic
example of New York Citys
melting pot culture in rapturous
full effect.
18
ACROSS 110TH
rocknroll would inspire a

generation of outsiders.
STREET 1972
During the 70s,
inner city New
York was the
go-to setting for
Blaxploitation
films including
Shaft, Super Fly and Black Caesar.
Named after the boundary between
Harlem and Central Park, director
Barry Shears film Across 110th
Street followed two detectives from
the NYPDs 27th Precinct as they
pursued the perpetrators of a bank
heist through Harlem. The
soundtrack was split between
Womacks tough rock-soul grooves
and JJ Johnsons more conventional
orchestral score, and Womacks
title track proved to be his most
enduring single, a grim snapshot
of less salubrious urban living:
Harlem is the capital of every
ghetto town.
SMITH
20PATTI
HORSES
1975
Few artists
capture the
quintessential
New York blend
of high-flying
aesthetics and
street-level epiphanies better than
Patti Smith. Punk, in retrospect,
seems a bizarrely reductive
classification for her debut album.
ensuing punk revolution.

Stripped down, raw and honed at
scuzzy Lower East Side venues
like CBGB, it captured the brutal,
nasty side of Manhattan in a way
no-one had since the VU. Raucous
highlight 53rd And 3rd details
murder among Midtowns rent
boys, while the cartoonish Beat
On The Brat was reportedly
inspired by Joey Ramone seeing a
Queens mother going after her son
with a baseball bat.
NEW YORK
DOLLS
19
NEW YORK DOLLS
Richard
Hell in his
apartment,
1977
1973
Recorded in
eight days at the
Record Plant and
produced by New
York resident
Todd Rundgren,
the Dolls debut album summed up
the wide-eyed wonder of suburban
boys (the various Dolls hailed from
Queens, Staten Island and The
Bronx) let loose in the metropolis to
pursue wild lifestyles. The album
was essentially a diary of life on
Manhattans margins, with its
protagonists equally damaged
and glamorous. Though some
dismissed the Dolls as Stones
copyists, their amped-up, strutting
Recorded at Electric Lady, its

visionary, fervid mix of poetry
and music, of family and icons,
introduced a performer (and,
of course, her great band) that
epitomised the citys lawless
intellectual glamour. Worth
considering, too, as an album that
magically, lyrically transformed
a city in a way comparable to how
Van Morrison had presented Belfast
on Astral Weeks.
21RAMONES
RAMONES
1976
Along with New York Dolls debut,

the Ramones first album provided
the catalyst for much of the citys
22TELEVISION
MARQUEE MOON
1977
While Tom
Verlaines troupe
sprang from the
same art-punk
scene as
Ramones, they
mixed their angular riffs and raw
delivery with another strain of New
York music: avant-garde jazz,
audible in the bands lengthy
jamming and Verlaines biting,
modal soloing. The impressionistic
lyrics, too, portrayed the rougher
areas of lower Manhattan as some
kind of psychedelic playground,
with the singer and guitarist

channeling his favourite French
poets in tribute to the island.
Broadway looks so medieval, he
mutters on standout Venus.
RICHARD HELL
& THE VOIDOIDS
23
BLANK GENERATION
1977
Six months
after Television
unveiled
Marquee Moon,
their former
bassist Richard
Hell released his own Blank
Generation, recorded with a new
band including the wild, avantgarde-inspired Robert Quine on
lead guitar. While Tom Verlaine
worked with refined elegance,
Hell headed straight for the gutter,
preaching nihilism in ripped
clothes and spiked hair, duly
inspiring the punk scene on both
sides of the Atlantic. Love Comes
In Spurts is two minutes of
visceral, streetwise frenzy that
could only have come from
Manhattans mean streets.
TALKING
24
HEADS
TALKING HEADS: 77
1977
Television at CBGB,
1977: (l-r) Fred Smith,
Billy Ficca, Tom
Verlaine, Richard Lloyd
Though Byrne,
Frantz and
Weymouth had
attended Rhode
Island School Of
Design, they
formed Talking Heads in New York,
developing their arty, brittle funk
in venues such as CBGB and the
Mudd Club, sharing bills with the
Ramones. Aesthetically very
different to the noisier end of NY
punk, with songs like Psycho
Killer, Byrne and co practically
invented the nervy, jerky and
intellectual brand of art rock that
for a time, with the rise of The
Rapture and Liars in the noughties,
would come to define New York.
47
ROBERTA BAYLEY/REDFERNS; EBET ROBERTS/REDFERNS
BOBBY
WOMACK

1972s Some Time In New York City,
but also on Double Fantasy. Lennon
spent five years as a stay-at-home
father raising son Sean in their
Dakota apartment and accordingly
many of the songs on Double
Fantasy reflect Lennon family life:
Woman and Beautiful Boy
among them. Recorded at the Hit
Factory on West 48th Street, it was
Lennons final studio album,
released on November 17. He was
shot outside the Dakota three
weeks later on December 8.
John Travolta as Tony

Manero in Saturday
Night Fever, 1977
THE BEE GEES

25
SATURDAY NIGHT
FEVER ORIGINAL
MOTION PICTURE
SOUNDTRACK 1977
MOVIESTORE/REX_SHUTTERSTOCK; ROBERTA BAYLEY/REDFERNS
A sound
(and film)
synonymous
with New
York, Saturday
Night Fever
documented events on the streets
and dancefloors of Brooklyns Bay
Ridge neighbourhood. It was along
such streets that John Travoltas
Tony Manero would strut to the beat
of Stayin Alive on his way to the
2001 Odyssey nightclub or an
assignation at the VerrazanoNarrows Bridge. The Bee Gees
soundtrack interspersed with
other great disco staples did much
to not only revitalise the Gibbs
ailing career but also helped shape
the cultural identity of both the
decade and New York itself.
VARIOUS
ARTISTS
26
NO NEW YORK
1978
While the likes

of Television and
Talking Heads
ascended into
the mainstream
from Lower
Manhattans art scene, a host of
others were too uncompromising
to move much beyond the
underground or in most cases
even record albums. Groups like
DNA, the Contortions and Mars,
all profiled on this seminal comp
curated by Eno, deconstructed rock

music, leaving only blocks of dry,
brutal sound, punctuated by atonal
vocals, syncopated rhythms and
otherworldly noise. The perfect
reflection of the dystopian,
decaying New York of the late 70s.
27CHIC
CEST CHIC
1978
With NY gripped
by hard times in
the late 70s, the
endeavours
of the Chic
Organisation
did much to provide a positive
counterpoint. Assembled by native
New Yorker Nile Rodgers from the
Sesame Street, Apollo Theater and
Radio City house bands, Chic had
shored up their formidable
songwriting skills by their
second album. Written after
an altercation outside the
citys Studio 54 club, the
albums first single Le Freak
sold seven million copies,
encouraging listeners to
Just come on down to the 54/
Find a spot out on the floor.
New York club culture had
never sounded so swish.
BLONDIE
28
PARALLEL
LINES
1978
Debbie
Harry,
Chris Stein
and co
firmly left
behind
the Downtown scene of CBGB

and Maxs Kansas City for charttopping new wave on their sugarcoated, sophisticated third. As
usual, they were firmly in touch
with the zeitgeist, dabbling with
disco on Heart Of Glass, and
paying tribute to the club scene of
Studio 54 in its video. There were
lighter moments, such as the girlgroup pop of Sunday Girl, but
Blondie left room for a nod to NY
art-rock with the menacing Fade
Away And Radiate, featuring
reptilian guitar from Robert Fripp.
VARIOUS
ARTISTS
30
ANTI-NY
2001
Closely related
to the no wave
scene, groups
such as Gray,
highlighted here
alongside other
noisy, arty types from the early
80s, spilled from the fertile art and
performance art scenes of Lower
Manhattan. Gray are now known
best for the individual work by
notable members painter JeanMichel Basquiat and filmmaker
DOUBLE FANTASY Vincent Gallo; their industrial
1980
Drum Mode, included here, is
Lennon moved to New York in
unsurprisingly uncompromising.
August 1971; the city subsequently
Elsewhere, Sexual Harassments
inspired his solo work, evidently on
If I Gave You A Party is a lo-fi slice
of pioneering electronic funk,
while Ike Yards NCR is
Blondie, 1978: (l-r)
minimal electronica years
Debbie Harry, Chris
Stein, Jimmy Destri,
before the Warp label, proof
Nigel Harrison, Frank
that
New York has always
Infante, Clem Burke
been ahead of the times.
29
JOHN LENNON
31
GRANDMASTER
FLASH & THE
FURIOUS FIVE
THE MESSAGE 1982
Kool Herc
might have
got there
first, but
it was
Joseph
Grandmaster Flash Saddler
who emerged from the Bronx to
Run-DMC in
May 1985
REED
36LOU
NEW YORK
1989
An avid chronicler of city life, in

New York Reed scrutinised his
hometown with an ambitious new
perspective. Released as Ronald
Reagans eight years in office were
drawing to a close, Reed raged
against the misfortunes that had
befallen his city: chafing against
racial violence in Romeo Had
Juliette, social injustice in Dirty
Blvd (featuring a spot from an
early Reed hero: Dion) and AIDS
(Halloween Parade). He bid
adieu, too, to his former patron
Andy Warhol on Dime Story
MADONNA
32MADONNA
1983
Suburban misfits seeking to

recreate themselves in the big city
vestiges of the citys pre-AIDS

Downtown culture: a raw
quirkiness and bouncy R&B
grooves evident in Borderline,
Holiday and Lucky Star that
her later albums airbrushed over
for a more polished sensibility.
33RUN-DMC
RUN-DMC
1984
In case you
wonder what all
this means/Were
funky fresh from
Hollis, Queens
What Run-DMCs
crunchy, raw debut album meant
was actually a whole lot more; it
was the first rap album to go gold
in the States, and one which
introduced a streamlined version
of hip-hop that was brutal in its
directness, with refrains that
were catchy as hell Its Like
That, most notably while
circumnavigating anything that
much resembled conventional
musicality. It launched a New
York dynasty, too: production was
handled by Runs brother Russell
Simmons, soon to co-pilot the Def
Jam label into musical history.
BEASTIE BOYS
should take reassurance from

Madonnas arrival in New York
from Michigan in 1978. Working
in the citys Downtown music
scene, she signed to Seymour
Steins Sire label in 1983. Informed
by collaborations with Danceteria
DJ Mark Kamins and Funhouse
resident John Jellybean Benitez,
her debut captured the final
34LICENSED TO ILL
1986
Formed as a
hardcore punk
group they even
played Maxs on
its final night
Mike Diamond,
Adam Yauch and Adam Horovitz
got interested in New Yorks rap
scene in the early 80s and soon

enlisted a young Rick Rubin as a
DJ. After a handful of hip-hopinspired releases, the trio toured
with another Manhattan
upstart, Madonna, in 1985
before releasing Licensed To Ill,
a pile-driving, pioneering mix
of rock, sampled beats and
sometimes unsavoury rhymes.
Throughout, the city is central
Youre from Secaucus, Im from
Manhattan, they boast on The
New Style.
PUBLIC ENEMY
35
IT TAKES A
NATION OF MILLIONS
TO HOLD US BACK 1988
The polemical
intensity of
Public Enemy
remains striking
nearly three
decades down
the line, their insurrectionist
ardour providing a commentary on
local and world affairs from the
perspective of African-Americans
in Long Island. Shame on a brother
when he dealing/The same block
where my 98 be wheeling, intoned
the stentorian Chuck D, And
everybody know another kilo/From
a corner from a brother to keep
another below. The second
albums sound design was just as
revolutionary, however: The Bomb
Squads meticulously orchestrated
melee of sirens and samples
captured the sensory
bombardment of city streets
chaotic, sometimes dangerous,
relentlessly exciting.
Mystery though he paid

lengthier tribute, along with
John Cale, on Songs For Drella
the following year.
WU-TANG CLAN
37
ENTER THE
WU-TANG (36
CHAMBERS)
1993
Led by The
RZA, an
enigmatic
connoisseur
of the most
slurred and
muggy beats, the nine-strong
Wu-Tang Clan emerged from the
hinterlands of Staten Island as a
fierce, hermetically tight force.
Like many of their contemporaries,
the Wu-Tang Clans stock in trade
was street narratives, but these
were street narratives infused
with a mythology pieced together
from superhero comics, kung-fu
yarns and gangster movies. The
RZAs empire-building production
project soon birthed a sequence
of great solo albums (notably
from GZA, Ghostface Killah,
Raekwon, Methodman and Ol
Dirty Bastard). None, though,
matched the antic camaraderie
and arcane menace of this
collective debut.
49
MICHAEL OCHS ARCHIVES/GETTY IMAGES
take the New York art of DJing into

the mainstream. The title track,
both sweeping and precise in its
vision, obviously dominated
proceedings on the debut album
from Flash and his rapping cohorts.
But search out latterday reissues,
which supplement the tracklisting
with the still-startling 1981 single
The Adventures Of Grandmaster
Flash On The Wheels Of Steel,
a scratching and mixing
masterclass on three turntables.

elegiac, beautiful tones infusing
the stately songs.
BRUCE
43
SPRINGSTEEN
THE RISING
2002
Much of The Rising was written in

response to 9/11: songs like Youre
Missing, Into The Fire and
My City Of Ruins conspicuously
addressed themes of loss, faith,
fear and, most importantly, hope.
Indeed, Springsteens first album
with the E Street Band in 18 years
foregrounded individual emotions
and spiritual concerns May the
living let us in/Before the dead tear
us apart, he sang on Worlds
Apart, gracefully and eloquently
BUCKLEY
38JEFF
LIVE AT SIN-
1993
If his father Tims musical free spirit

remains forever associated with
Southern California, Jeff Buckleys
New York profile was established
by this debut release: a four-track
solo EP recorded in an East
Village coffee house, satisfyingly
expanded into a 34-track, 2CD set
in 2003. It captured the range and
virtuosity of a singer-guitarist
working through his influences
(Nina Simone, Dylan, Led Zeppelin,
Billie Holiday) and making
something new out of them
something which in turn inspired
wild, romantic compositions like
Mojo Pin and Eternal Life, both
premiered here.
39NAS
ILLMATIC
1994
At a time when
LA hip-hop
appeared in
the ascendant,
a new generation
of New York
rappers began vigorously asserting
themselves in the mid 90s: Jay-Z,
The Notorious BIG (a victim of the
East Coast-West Coast spats by
1997) and, perhaps best of all,
Nas. His debut album introduced
an eloquent voice from the
Queensbridge Projects, articulating
the dreams and realities of ghetto
youth with an authenticity that
became an article of faith to his
contemporaries and followers.
Nothings equivalent, he noted
ruefully, to the New York state
of mind.
DAVID
40
MANCUSO
PRESENTS THE LOFT
1999
PENNIE SMITH
navigating a path through the

trauma left by the World Trade
Center attacks.
New York City

Cool: The
Strokes in 2001
On Valentines
Day 1970, David
Mancuso hosted
a party at his
Broadway
apartment that
heralded the beginning of a New

York institution The Loft and a
private club scene that would have
a radical impact on the world of
music. The records Mancuso
played through a magisterial
soundsystem were as eclectic as his
guests (including future DJ legends
Frankie Knuckles, Larry Levan and
Nicky Siano). Nuphonics 1999 2CD
compilation neatly captured the
celebratory scene, not least thanks
to the inclusion of Is It All Over My
Face, a mutant disco masterpiece
created by another crucial New
York mover, Arthur Russell.
STROKES
41THE
IS THIS IT
2001
Just before
Manhattan fully
gave itself over to
gentrification,
five young men
fresh out of Swiss
finishing school gave it one last
musical hurrah. The Strokes, led by
Julian Casablancas, took all that
was coolest about the NYC of the
70s, 80s and 90s Lou Reeds
twisted storytelling, Tom Verlaines
needle-sharp guitar, Thurston
Moores insouciance and the

Ramones last gang image
and distilled it into effervescent
songs like Last Nite, Hard To
Explain and New York City
Cops, all rich with Casablancas
wry, snotty lyrics. The bawdy
cover even looked like a Warholesque creation.
YOUTH
42SONIC
MURRAY STREET
2002
Almost every
album Sonic
Youth released
is a tribute to the
city they formed
in, and fed off,
and their 12th album is perhaps
the most potent. Recording
sessions in their own studio in the
financial districts Murray Street
were disrupted by 9/11, with bassist
and guitarist Jim ORourke in the
studio when the planes hit a few
blocks away. Completed the
following year, the album was
by then repositioned as a paean to
the city Sonic Youth loved, Murray
Streets sign adorning the back
cover and some unexpectedly
INTERPOL
44
TURN ON THE
BRIGHT LIGHTS
2002
Like The Strokes,

Interpol have
their roots in
Ludlow Streets
Luna Lounge, a
breeding ground
for the groups of New Yorks early
noughties indie boom. The fourpiece took their inspiration from
the monochrome post-punk of Joy
Division and The Cure, yet still
encapsulated the angular, dour
sound so prevalent in the Big Apple
at the turn of the century. The
subway she is a porno/The
pavements they are a mess,
sings Paul Banks on NYC, as
reverbed, droning guitars mass
in the background.
ANTONY & THE

45
JOHNSONS
I AM A BIRD NOW
2005
The journey of Chichesters

Antony Hegarty is one of those
transformational New York
parables, as a smalltown ousider
finds creative and personal
fulfilment in the citys bohemian
milieu. A photograph of Candy
from the start Vampire Weekend

knowingly played with the
imagery of the East Coasts
privileged, preppy subculture,
both in their appearances and
in their lyrical preoccupations
(Oh, your collegiate grief/Has
left you dowdy in sweatshirts/
Absolute horror). The more
upmarket areas of New York
City are always present, too;
amid harpsichord and strings
on M79, singer and guitarist
Ezra Koenig describes a bus
ride across Central Park, even
remarking on a pollination
yellow cab that he spots.
SHARON VAN
50
ETTEN
TRAMP
Darling adorns the cover of

this, Antonys second and best
album, wherein most listeners
first encountered her uncanny
voice. Numerous auspicious guests
dropped by, too, most notably
Lou Reed, anointing Antony as a
successor of sorts: an artist whose
internal emotional narratives
are critically contextualised
by her environment; a
poignant spirit liberated by
her adopted hometown.
NATIONAL
46THE
ALLIGATOR
2005
Much like their

adopted home
in Brooklyns
Ditmas Park
enclave, The
Nationals
trajectory has been one of steady
upcycling while retaining a liberal,
offbeat spirit. Alligator their third
album saw the band make a leap
to a bigger label, Beggars Banquet,
but still privilege their best-known
quality: a nocturnal, melancholic
mood. The Geese Of Beverly Road
was named after a Ditmas Park
street, while elsewhere Matt
Berningers lyrics conjured up

the romantic pull of New York life:
Ive got $500 in twenties and Ive
got a ton of great ideas, he sang
on City Middle.
TV ON THE
47
RADIO
RETURN TO COOKIE
MOUNTAIN 2006
By the time TV
On The Radio
released their
2004 debut
Desperate Youth,
Blood Thirsty
Babes, the centre of alternative
culture in New York had shifted to
other boroughs, notably Brooklyn.
The album picked up plaudits from
the likes of longtime NYC resident
David Bowie, who then provided
backing vocals for Province on
the quintets mightier follow-up,
Return To Cookie Mountain, two
years later. Mixing psychedelic
textures, anthemic funk and
ecstatic vocal interplay, Wolf
Like Me and Let The Devil In
showed that the cultural
kaleidoscope of New York
continues to spawn innovative,
euphoric music.
early middle age and

unflinchingly self-aware.
Straddling the worlds of rock
and disco, Sound Of Silver found
Murphy on tour, yearning for his
hometown as the only place in
the States where the Christians
are kept off the streets (North
American Scum). New York
I Love You, he sang on the Bowieish closer, but youre bringing me
down; the conflicted urbanite
made great crooning flesh.
VAMPIRE
WEEKEND
49
VAMPIRE WEEKEND
2008
Graduates of
the prestigious
Columbia
University
in northern
Manhattan,
2012
Jersey-born
Sharon Van
Ettens third
album offered
a lucid snapshot
of Brooklyns
music scene in the 2010s.
Produced in Aaron Dessners
Ditmas Park studio, it featured
cameos from many of the boroughs
storied residents, including
Bryce Dessner, Beiruts Zach
Condon and Julianna Barwick.
But evidently Van Ettens album
was more than the sum of its
collaborators. A nuanced
exploration of a toxic relationship,
Van Ettens songcraft was charged
with bracing one-liners I had
a thought you would take me
seriously, and Youre the reason
why Ill move to the city/Or why
Ill need to leave.
Reviews written by Michael
Bonner, John Mulvey and
Tom Pinnock
LCD
48
SOUNDSYSTEM
SOUND OF SILVER
2007
James Murphy
and his DFA
label fomented
a major dancepunk revival in
early-noughties
New York, and this second LCD
Soundsystem album crystallised
a certain local mindset: at once
snarky, hedonistic even in
Sharon Van
Etten, New
York, 2012
51
ROMAN BARRETT
TV On The Radio,
Brooklyn, 2006
ALBUM BY ALBUM
The
Monkees
We were essentially a garage band, says
Micky Dolenz, but we had no control
VEN 50 YEARS after their formation, Peter Tork marvels at
the sheer thrill of being in The Monkees. It was a lot of fun,
the singer, bassist and keyboardist says. I mean, youd
wake up every day like, Oh boy, oh boy, its another day!
Eyes all shiny and bright who wouldnt want to do that?
Four very different individuals forced together for a TV
show, Tork, Micky Dolenz, Mike Nesmith and Davy Jones became a real band,
performing their own material alongside songs written for them including
Pleasant Valley Sunday and Daydream Believer. They also pioneered
countercultural independent film-making with Head and introduced John
Lennon to the delights of the Moog synthesisers flying saucer sounds.
You know, though, The Monkees were essentially a garage band, says
drummer and singer Dolenz. Even on the television show, remember, we
never made it we never got any success. It was that struggle for success that
was so important, and I think thats what made it so endearing to so many
kids around the world.
WORDS: TOM PINNOCK
The Monkees: (l-r)

Peter, Davy, Mike
and Micky in 1966
THE MONKEES
MORE OF THE MONKEES
COLGEMS/RCA VICTOR, 1966
COLGEMS/RCA, 1967
The bands huge-selling

debut, featuring
Theme From The
Monkees and Last
Train To Clarksville.
MICKY DOLENZ: I love
those first two albums.
I think theyre just
wonderful. I mean, God, just think about the
songwriters that we were blessed to have writing
for us. With Boyce and Hart, but also Carole King,
Gerry Goffin and David Gates. Its just mindboggling. Its no wonder the records sold so well,
and they still do. Theyre still brilliant.
PETER T ORK: This really stands up. Looking
back, I see that I didnt know anything about the
process and how it was done, but being young
and a bit stupid, I got a little shirty about it. Don
Kirshner, who was in charge of the music, did
not have a clue how to deal with people, but he
really did know what he was doing in the music
department. Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart
didnt know anything about us or the idealism
of the folk-hippy world, but they knew how to
make pop records. Apparently, they got the four
of us into the studio and we did so much cutting
up and goofing around that they thought, Lets
not have all four of them in the studio at the same
time anymore, and they just invited us one at
a time to come in and do lead vocals.
DOLENZ: Sometimes we would all try the leads,
but it was usually David and I that were chosen.
David tended to do the ballads, and had a couple
of big hits, too. I ended up singing the theme
song for instance, Last Train To Clarksville,
Pleasant Valley Sunday, Steppin Stone and
Im A Believer. I guess they just considered that
I had some sort of a commercial voice.
The best-selling album

of 1967 in the US, The
Monkees second was a
pop tour de force,
despite having very little
input from the band
aside from their vocals.
TORK: When the first
album did well, that created a budget for a lot of
producer types to go into the studio and make
songs and charge it to The Monkees. So they may
have made 30 songs for this a lot more than the
12 on the album, Ill tell you that. This album was
awful for us, personally; Don Kirshner released
it without ever having played it for us. He didnt
think we were anything. After this, Don got fired.
The sad thing about that was, from my point
of view, I didnt want Donny out of the picture.
I wanted him to go on choosing songs and
bringing them to us. I wanted to avoid the silliest
bubblegum things if we could, but Donny knew
a lot about music, he had his finger on the pulse.
DOLENZ: I didnt have a problem with the lack
of control at the time. I understood the process.
I wasnt a very prolific songwriter. I was happy
to take guidance and instructions. It was mainly
Mike who said, I want my songs to be on some
of these albums, I wrote them, Im one of The
Monkees. He had every right to say that. I think,
frankly, that he may have been misled slightly in
the early days. He would go in with some of his
material, and the producers would say, Well,
thank you very much, but we just dont think
thats a Monkees song. Funnily enough, The
Monkees were the group that got the most static
for using session musicians, the most criticism
for it. And we were the ones who had the least
control over it. We had absolutely no control.
THE
CLASSIC
HEADQUARTERS
The Monkees take over, playing and writing

almost everything on this louder, rawer third
album. Highlights include Nesmiths You
Told Me and Dolenzs Randy Scouse Git.
TORK: All I wanted us to do was to be the
musicians on the album, to be performing the
music. I didnt care too much about who was
writing the songs. I wrote a song for that album,
so did Micky, and Mike wrote a lot, and then we
got some from the producer and then we dashed
off a Chuck Berry-style rocknroll tune. Micky
and Mike went off into the corner and wrote
several nonsense verses in no time. The stuff
came together that way, but the most important
thing from my point of view was that we were in
the studio together making that album.
Dolenz: This to me really was one of the real

feathers in our cap. The way i look at it is that
The monkees that were on the first two albums
were The monkees of the television show, and
The monkees on Headquarters were a different
band. it was the four of us as singer-songwriters
and musicians. its almost like two different
bands to me.
Tork: i dont know what the album sounded
like for the average listener when it came out,
the third album, and as for myself i recognise
that it wasnt as polished. The musicianship
just wasnt as tight. We werent as good
musicians as the pros that had made the first
two albums, but there is a lot more life and action
and energy. The album has a lot more unity
its certainly more spontaneous. To me, it sounds
much more organic than the first two, but it
wouldnt have hurt us to have donny [kirshner]
handing us songs.
Dolenz: i dont think Headquarters is
necessarily any better or worse than, say, the
first two albums, its just very different and
very homegrown. mikes the one that really
encouraged me to start writing because i wasnt
writing much. he saw a couple of things that
i did and he said, Thats good stuff, you
should write more, so i did, and i became
very proud of the stuff. Headquarters is just a
wonderful, wonderful album. you know, it is
so raw, it is so us and it showed a garage band,
which was what The monkees was! i started
learning drums properly as soon as i got the part.
But i wasnt starting from scratch, dont forget
id been a musician and id been in rock bands.
Right before that, i was in folk groups playing the
guitar, and the guitar is my first instrument.
Pisces, AquArius,
cAPricorn & Jones Ltd
the Birds, the Bees

& the Monkees
ColGemS/RCA viCToR, 1967
ColGemS/RCA viCToR, 1968
A return to session
musicians, with the band
members recording and
producing their songs
separately. Perhaps the
first pop record to
feature the Moog,
however
Dolenz: After Headquarters, we decided each
of us would have three songs on a 12-song album
you go off separately and deliver your three
songs. Wed have each other in the studio,
singing and playing, but i was producing my
three songs on this album. And i really liked that.
Tork: Going our separate ways was a grave
disappointment to me. i was hoping we had
something as a band, but i didnt know how to
make it happen. The most obvious example is
davy who sat in the studio, bless his lovely heart,
and banged a tambourine every take. After we
did Headquarters he said, ive got my part on
the first or second take, you guys are going up to
40, 50, 60 takes. i cant do this any longer, i cant
just be the perfectionist. mickys got genius and
when he does something with inspiration and
it works for him, it scares him. he knows he
couldnt do it again as well a second time, so
he refuses to try. michael was starting to do
better than everyone else and he didnt want
us dragging him down, he thought he could do
it much better if he did it with his own people. So
that was that.
Dolenz: i had the first moog synthesiser on the
West Coast, and i believe i was the first to use it
in a pop record. one night i had a party and John
lennon came over, and he sat there at the moog
all night long making flying saucer sounds!
Released just after the

TV series ended, the
bands fifth album was
their last straight-ahead
pop record as a fourpiece for decades.
Dolenz: When you
come down to it, The
monkees were made up, musically, of four lead
singers. four singer-songwriters. i cant think of
another group where that was the case. Usually
its one person, maybe two, you know, that do
the songwriting and sometimes singing. in the
case of The monkees, it was four. it made for
a lot of diversity, but it also made it difficult
sometimes to figure out, what is The monkees,
then? What is the sound? As soon as we stopped
filming the show, things quietened down a lot.
Before that, it was intense. People ask me all the
time, i bet you guys partied all the time, and did
this and that, and im like no! The typical day
for a couple of years was 10 hours a day on the
set, from 7 oclock in the morning until the
evening, then i would go into the studio and
sometimes record two or three lead vocals
in a night, then at the weekends we were
rehearsing for tours. There wasnt a lot of time
to do anything else, including just be with my
family, so it wasnt until way after The monkees
that i took a deep breath and went, What the
hell was that? it was a rollercoaster ride. i joke
about it and say that im told i had a good time,
but it wasnt for the typical reason people talk
about that you know, the old joke if you
remember the 60s you werent really there.
i dont remember a lot, but its just because
i was so busy. it was insane.
53
NBCU PhoTo BANk viA GeTTy imAGeS; GemS/RedfeRNS
Getting serious:
Jones, Nesmith
and Dolenz in 1968
THE MONKEES
POOL IT
RHINO, 1987
EVERETT/REX SHUTTERSTOCK
Hanging around to
film Head in 1968
HEAD
INSTANT REPLAY
The far-out soundtrack

to The Monkees
psychedelic movie
of the same name
both conceived by
Jack Nicholson!
DOLENZ: This must
be one of the best
soundtrack albums ever made. Carole King
wrote two songs, I love singing those, like The
Porpoise Song. Peter wrote two killer tunes on
that album, too. Mike wrote Circle Sky, which
is great. And of course, Davy sang Daddys
Song by our friend Harry Nilsson. The movie
was interesting too still not sure what its about.
Its definitely weird!
TORK: Ive got two tunes on there and I think
theyre both really good. We did Circle Sky live
to film, and I think we rocked it.
DOLENZ: It was our intention to move away
from pop. Someone suggested we dont just do
a 90-minute version of the TV show, but that we
stretch out and do something more reflective of
our age or whatever. So they brought in this actor,
who wanted to be a writer, to come in and write
it with Bob Rafelson. And that guy was Jack
Nicholson. He came and hung out with us for
months. Then we all got together in LA for a
weekend, and Jack went away and wrote a
wonderful screenplay.
TORK: Ive come to a rather unhappy conclusion
about the film in the intervening years, that the
message was: You dont get out. The movie
starts with us jumping into the bridge
and it ends with us caught in a tank of water,
underwater. Its circular. I thought there
was some great stuff in there, I thought it
was wonderful to try and make a commercial
movie that is as surreal as that was. But the
overarching point of the movie, I think, was
a bad message.
Peter Tork departed,

leaving the band as
a trio for this set of
reheated tracks from
their archive.
TORK: Micky didnt
want to play as a real
band anymore, because
he was scared to hes not a fearful man, but he
was startled into not wanting to go back. And
Michael, if hes not in charge he doesnt want to
do it. So I was left on my own. I wouldve gone on
merrily making Monkees records with those
guys til the end of my days, if wed been a
band. But I didnt get the chance to find out,
because of what I saw as Michaels inability to
join and Mickys reluctance to continue the
process, and Davy feeling a little left out
because he wasnt an instrumentalist
particularly at the time.
DOLENZ: Almost all the stuff on the Instant
Replay album had already been started when
the show was on the air, they wanted at least
a couple of new songs every week, so the
producers and us were told, Just get in there,
and make stuff! So we ended up with a library,
and theres really good stuff to this day still
sitting in the vaults. When Peter quit, we
had to decide what we were gonna do live.
There was this band in town here called
Sam & The Goodtimers who we would go
and see. We thought, Well have them as our
opening act, and then they can back us up.
So we became sort of Three Dog Monkee,
with Mike and David and I upfront, and this
all-black RnB band backing us up wearing
tuxedos it was just wonderful, and the
music started taking on a very different
flavour. The fans, of course, thought we had
gone out of our fucking minds, but we had
a great time.
After a long gap

apart, Tork,
Dolenz and
Jones reunite
for a smooth
set of covers,
with a song by
Wreckless Eric!
TORK: This was in some ways made in
the same way as the first two albums.
When it was my songs, I made sure the
production was along the lines of what
I had in my head, but in truth it was the
producer who made the background
tracks and then the singers came in.
DOLENZ: This was done with a great
producer, Roger Bechirian, and it was
a compilation. Id brought in some
songs that Id always wanted to do, and
Davy and Peter had done the same.
Again, we were on the road and so
came in and did the vocals. I thought
there was some really good stuff on it.
But I wasnt able to be as involved as
Id have liked, it was just impossible
I was on the road. I remember flying in
to town and going straight in the
studio and doing vocals. I really liked
the songs, especially the ones I
submitted, of course, like Heart And Soul,
Wreckless Erics (Id Go The) Whole Wide
World that was a cool song!
TORK: I remember I had a couple of songs on
that one too, one of them was written by a friend
of mine and I wrote the other one. Davy didnt
like Roger Bechirian, but I thought we could not
have had a better producer for us for that album.
JUSTUS
RHINO, 1996
The final album by the

original four, and a
satisfying sequel to
Headquarters every
song is written and
performed by The
Monkees alone.
DOLENZ: When Mike got
back involved, of course, we now had a guitar
player! And of course Mikes sensibility as a
singer-songwriter and producer we were able to
go back in like we had on Headquarters and do it
all. It was wonderful. Admiral Mike is such a
great tune that he wrote. It was tough for me to go
back on the drums after so long, but I remember
working very, very hard to get my chops up for
that album. I had a lot of songs on this Id done
a lot of writing over the years by that time. Id
gone through a divorce, and theres nothing like
a good divorce to make you write!
TORK: This didnt do very well, as you might
imagine. But I loved it. We did Circle Sky again,
Michael wrote another set of lyrics for it. That was
one of the strongest songs we ever played live.
Theres some wonderful stuff. I like my song
Run Away From Life. Its eerie and spooky, and
just clammy, which is what its supposed to be.
Its very atmospheric. Not a bad album for a
bunch of garage-band actors being thrown
together out of the blue.
The Monkees feat. Micky Dolenz and Peter Tork
play Hammersmith Eventim Apollo on Sept 4
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sly & the family stone
!
R
E
H
HIG
SLY STONE reinvented pop music in his own image,
says the FAMILY STONEs Cynthia Robinson. He took the
whole of the band on an amazing voyage. Sometimes it was
terrifying. But hell, those frst few years were exciting.
As a boxset of their epochal Fillmore East shows from 1968
emerges, Uncut revisits the genre-destroying, prejudicesmashing early days of Sly & The Family Stone...
Story: John Lewis
Photograph: Legacy Recordings Sony Music Archive
heN SLy & The Family

Stone travelled round
the American Deep
South in 1968, it was
not always evident
what kind of reaction
they would provoke.
Stepping off their tourbus at a rural service station,
for example, they made an eye-catching bunch.
There was Sly Stone himself, with a giant afro and
huge sideburns, wearing a garish yellow blouse,
a floppy cowboy hat and patchwork trousers.
Accompanying him would be his more
conservatively dressed father, Daddy KC, along
with his teenage brother Freddie, sister Rose, a
black girl in hotpants called Cynthia, a tall and
dapper African-American called Larry, and two
white hippies with shoulder-length hair Jerry
and Greg. Their entourage also included the bands
manager, a gay Jewish dandy called David. you
could see these rednecks glaring at us as soon as
we entered, recalls drummer Greg errico, one of
the longhairs. Theyd do a double
take every time. Thing is, we were
so out of the box, these guys didnt
know how to do their normal nasty
thing! They simply didnt know
what to do with us. And we knew
how to mess with their heads.
Messing with heads was very
much the order of business for Sly
& The Family Stone. By the end of
1968, they had two Top 10 hits
under their belt as well as a
number of headline shows at New
yorks auspicious Fillmore east.
While their upward trajectory
continued uninterrupted into the
next decade, it came at a time
when the civil-rights coalition was
breaking apart and liberal ideals were

transforming into armed struggle. Before
anybody had even heard a note, our existence
was political, confirms band saxophonist Jerry
Martini. 1968 was a year of race riots, of the
assassinations of Martin Luther King and Robert
Kennedy. Some nights we were driving through
cities like Detroit that were literally on fire, with the
National Guard hauling us out of our tour truck at
gunpoint. This wasnt an easy time to be travelling
the US as a multiracial band.
But Sly & The Family Stone were not only mixed
race and mixed gender. A mind-expanding mix
of soul, funk and psychedelic rock, their music
transgressed boundaries, negotiating flower
power and race riots, civil rights and psychedelia,
blurring the distinction between black and
white pop; Stones galvanising lyrics included
anthems for togetherness, sly satires on bourgeois
conformity and paranoid flights of fancy.
They were The Beatles and Motown, all in one,
commented one admirer, George Clinton. They
were clever, funny, political and
sassy. And you could dance your
ass off to them.
Sly reinvented pop in his own
image, says the bands trumpeter,
Cynthia Robinson. he took the
Family Stone on an amazing
voyage. At times it was terrifying.
By the early 70s it was something
of a nightmare. But hell, those first
few years were exciting.
they
Were
the
beatleS
and
motoWn,
all in
one
george
clinton
yLveSTeR STeWART WAS

already a star, long before
hed rechristened himself
Sly Stone. The son of two amateur
musicians, hed appeared on a
78rpm gospel record with three
Messing with
rednecks heads:
Sly & The Family
Stone in 1968
57
DON PAULSEN/MICHAEL OCHS ARCHIVES/GETTY IMAGES; SBMG ARCHIVE
of his siblings at the

age of eight, in 1952.
Before hed even
reached his teens,
he was proficient
on piano, guitar,
bass and drums,
and was playing in
various high-school
bands. By 1961,
aged 17, hed made his
first TV appearance on
Dick Stewarts Dance Party,
an American Bandstand-style
pop TV show broadcast on San
Franciscos KPIX channel playing with a largely white
doo-wop band called The Viscaynes. I played sax on one of
those Dance Party shows, says Jerry Martini. Me and Sly
had known each other since we were 16 or 17. He always had
that swagger about him. Sly had the most intense look in his
eyes. He wanted you to know that he was a very strong
person, with strong vibes. I took to him immediately.
By the mid 60s, Sly was also a local celebrity around the
Bay Area as a disc jockey on an R&B AM station, KSOL. All
the hip kids would listen to Slys show, confirms Cynthia
Robinson. Sly was freeform, spontaneous and hilarious on
air. I only discovered that he was the same Sylvester Stewart
Id met in high school when I took a record by my group
The Chromatics to the station for him to play!
Besides his DJ commitments, he also worked as a staff
writer and producer for Autumn Records, a San Francisco
label run by radio mogul Tom Donahue. In 1965, aged only
21, Sly was involved with several big nationwide hits:
writing Cmon And Swim, a US Top 5 hit for local R&B
trouper Bobby Freeman, and producing a further three Top
40 hits for Bay Area Beatles copyists The Beau Brummels.
He also produced the earliest material by Grace Slicks first
band, The Great Society. Those songs made him a fair bit of
money, reveals Martini. Especially Cmon And Swim,
which went gold. Sly moved with his parents from Vallejo,
which was on the fringes of the Bay Area, and bought them
a house in the Ingleside district of San Francisco, closer to
the action. I used to visit him in that home,
and I saw that hed been writing songs
for years. He had books full of lyrics
and chord sequences and
arrangements, written out on
music manuscript paper.
He had also recorded a clutch of
singles for Autumn. Scat Swim, I
Just Learned How To Swim and
Buttermilk released in 1964 and
1965 but out of print until the release of
the Higher! box set in 2013 might have
sunk without trace at the time, but
they are a fascinating glimpse of
the embryonic Family Stone:
jerky R&B with a bubblegum-pop
sensibility that borrowed heavily
from The Beatles and the Stones.
Sly didnt see music in black and
white terms, explains Martini. He
and his brother Freddie were brought
up in an integrated neighbourhood.
They had black and white friends
growing up. They always worked
with white and black musicians. On
his radio show, Sly played Dylan and
The Beatles alongside R&B acts. He
listened to all kinds of pop music.
Sly began assembling his favourite
players on the Bay Area scene
EYEWITNESS!
THERES
A RECORD
GOING ON
How Slys early
career as a DJ paved
the way for future
musical greatness
LY WASNT THE
first or last musician
to gain fame as a DJ
Willie Nelson started
out on KCNC in Fort
Worth; Waylon Jennings
at KLLL in Lubbock; Ike
Turner on WROX in
Clarksdale; while BB King
and Rufus Thomas both
DJd on WDIA in
Memphis. But he was one
of the most innovative.
Hed play a piano in the
studio, says Cynthia.
singing ad jingles and
making up songs for
callers. He was crazy.
Even before hed formed
the band he was a Bay
Area celebrity.
KSOL was an R&B
station at the time but Sly
in the 7pm-midnight
weekday slot would also
play The Beatles, the
Stones, Dylan, Lenny
Bruce and Lord Buckley.
He took the audience up
to 700,000, and moved
on to the bigger local
station, KDIA.
I still recall his on-air
patter, says Cynthia
Robinson. Listen up all
yall cats and kitties out
there, whipping and
wailing and
jumping up
and down
well heres
the coolest,
swingiest,
grooviest cat that
ever stomped this
sweet, swinging
sphere. Then
hed play this
little sting with
harmonised
voices
shrieking the
words: Sly
Stone!
Hilarious.
Larry Graham
in New York,
June 25, 1968
towards the end of 1966. They included saxophonist Martini

and another teenage friend trumpeter Cynthia Robinson
along with his sister Rose and members of his younger
brothers band. I had been playing with Slys brother,
Freddie, in a band called Freddie and the Stone Souls, says
drummer Greg Errico. I turned up to the Stewart house for a
rehearsal one day and it was just Freddie and Sly having
dinner with their mother. Oh yeah, said Freddie, kinda
sheepish, Me and Sly are starting a new band. Are you in?
The final recruit was bassist Larry Graham. I was playing
a residency with my mother at a venue called Relax With
Yvonne, right on the corner of Haight and Ashbury, he
recalls. She played piano and sang, I sang and played bass.
I used to play guitar and play the bass pedals on the organ
but, when the organ broke, I switched to bass guitar. Id
developed a way of slapping the lower strings and pulling
on the higher strings, to compensate for not having a
drummer. One of the listeners to Slys radio show had rung
up KSOL and recommended that Sly come down and see us!
Thats when he asked me if I wanted to join his band. The
first meeting of this new group took place in December 1966.
We didnt play a note, we just discussed what the band
stood for, recalls Errico. Obviously, being a mix of black
and white was unique, as was having male and female
members! But it was also clear that, while Sly was the
leader, we werent just a backing band. This wasnt Motown
or Stax. We were a family. A gang, like The Beatles.
N THEIR EARLIEST rehearsals, the bands members
recall that theyd cover soul standards and Top 40 pop
songs, while Sly worked in new material as he wrote it.
But we were never a copy band, insists Martini. Wed do
songs our style. And wed all share the lead vocals. Larry,
in his lugubrious baritone, sang Tobacco Road or The
Shadow Of Your Smile; Freddie howled through Otis
Reddings Try A Little Tenderness and I Cant Turn You
Loose. Meanwhile, Sly growled through Ray Charless I
Dont Need No Doctor and James Browns There Was A
Time; Jerry shined on Junior Walkers Shotgun and
Cynthia played trumpet and sang on St James Infirmary.
Elements from those original covers stayed in our live set
for years, notes Errico. The Otis Redding songs would turn
into Turn Me Loose on the first album, for instance, or the
James Brown tune turned into Are You Ready. Before
theyd even rehearsed, the band landed a gig at the
Winchester Cathedral, a hip new venue in Redwood City,
halfway between San Francisco and San Jose. The club
usually hosted white, student-friendly rock bands, so owner
Rich Romanello took a chance by giving Sly & The Family
Stone a late-night residency on Friday and Saturday

nights. Those shows were crazy, remembers
Cynthia Robinson. The band used to come out one
by one: first Greg on the drums, then Larry on bass.
It was like Memphis Soul Stew, introducing each
band member. The band knew how to improvise.
Particularly Sly, Larry and Freddie if one of them
started improvising, the other two would jump on
it. They knew how to veer from the norm.
By early 1967, these late-night shows had caught
the attention of David Kapralik, a CBS executive,
who flew over from New York to check out the
band. Impressed, he sought out Sly and after
hanging out with him for a week signed him, to his
management company and his label. David was both head
of Epic Records and our manager, notes Errico. Thatd be
deemed a conflict of interests nowadays! But, somehow,
nobody minded in those days. Kapralik secured gigs in
other San Francisco venues, as well as a lucrative threemonth residency at a Vegas casino-cum-disco, Pussycat A
Go-Go. We were playing the Vegas club six nights a week,
explains Martini, working on our first set of original songs,
and on our day off wed fly to LA to record the first album.
Released in October, Sly & The Family Stones debut, A
Whole New Thing, enjoyed a wide-ranging brief, from the
Stax-style funk of Underdog to the psychedelic whimsy of
Run, Run, Run. But it failed to break the band, with CBS
boss Clive Davis telling Kapralik that he needed something
more commercial. There were great tracks on it,
but it was too unfocused, admits Martini. What
record labels want is a massive hit single and a
bunch of tracks that sound just like that. The
band delivered exactly that with their second
album, Dance To The Music (April, 68). The title
track was a blissfully simple one-chord jam that
became the bands breakthrough, reaching No 8
on the Billboard chart when it was released as a
single in early 1968. In staunchly democratic
fashion, each member of the band enjoyed a
moment in the spotlight. All we need is a
drummer, for people who only need a beat, yells
Freddie Stone. Im gonna add some bottom, so
that the dancers just wont hide, growls Larry
Graham, before launching into a ferocious
fuzz-bass groove. All the squares go home!
yells Cynthia. In some ways, it was like a
three-minute version of those early gigs,
reveals Errico. Everyone coming onstage and
introducing themselves. It was a simple
instruction for everybody to get up and dance,
Sly with Greg
and it spoke to everybody. Sly realised that
Errico in New York,
June 25, 1968
nobody was going to take notice of his
political songs unless hed created
IT WAS
CLEAR
THAT WE
WERENT
JUST A
BACKING
BAND
GREG
ERRICO
Cynthia Robinson,
Rose Stone and
Jerry Martini on
TV show Music
Scene, 1969
an audience and get them listening. Only then can

you take them deeper.
Reflecting on Slys qualities as a bandleader,
Jerry Martini affirms that Stone had it all. Not only
could he play half a dozen instruments well, but he
could sing, write, produce and arrange. Hed even
studied orchestration in junior college he used to
credit his music master, David Froehlich, on sleeve
notes and chat shows.
Sly used to write for each persons character,
says Cynthia Robinson. He considered their
personality and range the kind of thing Mingus or
Ellington used to do. Hed assign specific mics to create
different textures. And hed always scope every venue,
check out the wattage of the speakers, the acoustics, where
we needed to stand. He had that knowledge.
While the band tapped into a similar brand of funk to
James Brown, Sly was a less autocratic bandleader. The
rhythm section had a pretty free hand, says Larry Graham.
Sly was the songwriter but part of his genius was to allow
each player to contribute their own ideas.
The bands intricately written pop symphonies truly took
shape on the third album, Life (September 68). That was a
terrific album, says Martini, but it didnt get shit for sales.
CBS really dropped the ball on that. Today, its probably
been sampled more than any album in the history of
hip- hop. Life mixed uptempo hit singles (Fun, MLady)
with bourgeois-baiting satire (Plastic Jim),
while the opener, Dynamite! with its refrain
Miss Clean also had a hidden meaning.
Miss Clean was a reference to mescaline,
confirms Errico. We all tried it in Canada and we
were in the tour truck, out of our heads. When
we got stopped by a Canadian Mountie, we
thought we were going down. Luckily, the Mountie
was a fan of the band!
Musically, the group were also moving into more
experimental areas. Sly didnt go for the Motownstyle parallel harmonies that were prevalent at the
time and still are, notes Martini. The voicings
he used to give us were almost avant-garde. The
horn arrangements are full of minor seconds and
irregular resolutions. Peopled come up to Sly and
say: Man, that sounds great, what did you do? Hed
just smile and say, You gotta figure it out! And most
people couldnt figure us out. Or copy us too good.
Also, most R&B bands had three horns, adds
Martini. We only had two, me and Cynthia. It meant
Sly had to be even more inventive with arrangements.
Sometimes Freddies guitar, or Slys organ, is playing
the third part of the horn harmony. Remember,
Freddie was also a classically trained musician, who
played even more instruments than Sly.
Sly, a proficient drummer himself, would often
suggest rhythmic quirks. The joke among musicians was
always that black people were hip and clapped on the 2 and
4, but that white people clapped on the 1 and the 3,
explains Martini. Sly thought that was bull. You can be
funky on the 1 and the 3, hed say. And, as if to prove his
point, if you listen to I Want To Take You Higher, he puts in
an extra coupla beats after the hey, hey, hey, hey, and the
whole backbeat shifts from being on the 2 and the 4 to being
on the 1 and the 3. It keeps wrapping round on itself. Its very
disorientating. Slys messing with us, playing with ideas of
what white people and black people think of rhythm!
When I heard Sly, I was spooked, says Herbie Hancock.
I was supposed to be some big jazz musician, but I couldnt
play funk like that. The rhythms, the interplay between the
backbeat and bass, the micro tensions, the syncopations
it was like nothing Id heard. It took me three or four years to
get to the point where I was on top of what Sly was doing.
59
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RIOT GOIN ON
By 1969, as one of
the countrys
biggest AfricanAmerican stars, Sly
started attracting
the attention of the
separatist Black
Panther Party.
HEY WERE
bugging Sly for
donations,
says Martini, demanding
he chuck me and Greg
out the band. I had death
threats, bottles thrown at
my head and violence at
gigs. Sly intervened four
or five times to save my
ass. It got crazy.
Cynthia Robinson
recalls other hairy
moments. Nation Of
Islam representatives
threatened some white
guys who worked for the
group, she says. And a
Black Panther threatened
to turn up at a gig with a
gun and shoot Sly. Daddy
KC eventually found out
who he was: he really did
have a loaded gun.
Manager David Kapralik
concurs. By 1970, Sly was
under huge pressure to
get rid of me the whitey
Jew manager and align
himself with the voices
of despair, nihilism,
parochialism and
separatism, he says. I
pulled, with all my energy,
to stop him becoming a
spokesman for those
things. And Sly stood
shoulder to shoulder
with me. That poor kid
was torn apart. And when
you are torn apart, that
means a lot of pain. One
of the clinical ways to
ease pain is cocaine.
Sly and Freddie onstage at the

Fillmore East, May 23, 1969. Inset
left: Black Panthers march in NYC
to protest at the trial of member
Huey P Newton, July22, 1968
Gradually, the band began spending

more time in New York. Wed spent a
few months there in the fall of 67,
playing a residency at the Electric
Circus nightclub on St Marks
Place, says Martini. But we
were more at home in the city
when we returned in 1968. We
were staying at the Gorham Hotel
on West 55th Street, where the
rooms were more like apartments,
with little kitchens. Jimi Hendrix
was also staying there. New York was a
playground for us. Me and Sly would rent
motorbikes and get into the CBS studios on
6th Avenue through the cargo doors at the back
and wed ride our bikes inside, to freak people out!
While in the city, the band undertook several
engagements at Bill Grahams Fillmore East. On May 5, they
played two shows with The Jimi Hendrix Experience and
Clarence Carter. Then on October 4 and 5 they played four
shows: two shows per night. These have now been collected
on Sly & The Family Stone Live At The Fillmore East October
4th & 5th, 1968, a 4-disc set that showcases the bands
formidable strengths as a live act. The October show is the
band at its peak, observes Jerry Martini. We never played
the same song in the same way twice. You can hear us using
each song as a springboard for improvisation, stretching it
out, slow it down. We might take an uptempo funk song and
turn it into a blues, or into some psychedelic voyage.
Leaving New York, the band returned to San Francisco to
record their next album, Stand!; in November 68 came the
breezy lead single Everyday People, their first US No 1.
The momentum continued on to the album. That really
pushed us to the next level, admits Cynthia Robinson. For
the first time, we started getting radio play, even from the
black stations that used to ignore us. You noticed more
African-Americans in the audience. The albums many
highlights included the thrilling psychedelic soul of I Want
To Take You Higher, the taut funk of Sing A Simple Song
and the wah-wah-driven blues of Dont Call Me Nigger,
Whitey. Beneath the accomplished musical endeavours,
however, it was possible to observe Sly trying to hold
together the utopian 60s counterculture dream, despite
growing social upheaval: Dont you know that you are free/
At least, in your mind, if you want to be.
Enjoying the success of Stand!, Sly & The Family Stone
were booked to appear at Woodstock, in August 1969. Up
against the cream of Anglo-American rocknroll, they
nevertheless emerged as one of the festivals stars. No-one
knew Woodstock was going to be so

huge, recalls Larry Graham. But
everything took off after that. For
Sly, it was like the moment when
Michael Jordan took off from the
free-throw line, when he leapt up
in the air for that dunk contest in
88. It was like, oh, I can do that?
Our slot was meant to be about
8pm on the Saturday night,
continues Greg Errico. So we were
getting psyched up to perform at that
time. But there was only one stage,
and they hadnt accounted for the fact
that the crews had to change equipment
between each act, and some bands were having
trouble getting in on time. So our slot kept being put back
half an hour, then another hour, and we were all falling
asleep. The band eventually appeared on stage at 3.30am
on Sunday, August 17, between Janis Joplin and The Who.
By this time it was raining, and these kids, whod been
there since Thursday, were all asleep, recalls Errico. All
you could see were candles in the crowd. Slowly people
started emerging from their tents as we started.
The bands 50-minute set included MLady, Sing A
Simple Song, You Can Make It If You Try, Stand! and
Love City; the songs driven by Larry Grahams grinding
fuzz bass, Erricos taut drumming and the interplay
between Slys organ and Freddie Stones chicken-scratch
guitar. Meanwhile, the 15-minute medley of Dance To The
Music, Hey Music Lover and I Wanna Take You Higher
made it onto Michael Wadleighs Woodstock film and the
soundtrack album. It wasnt until we came to a break in the
performance that we got the first round of applause, says
Martini. Thats when the sheer number of people in the
crowd hit us. To hear half a million people clapping and
cheering was sensational. Cynthia Robinson has other
memories of their set. The rain was torrential, she says.
The equipment was crackling. But Sly was like a preacher.
He had half a million people eating out of the palm of his
hand. Indeed, it is possible to get a sense of Sly in full flow
on the soundtrack LP, where the songs are interspaced with
fierce, onstage rhetoric: What Id like yall to do is say
Higher and throw the peace sign up!
Theres an iconic photo of Sly at Woodstock, says the
bands manager, David Kapralik. Hes lit from above by a
huge spotlight, wearing a bright white leather jacket with
fringes hanging from the sleeves. The spotlight looks like
the sun and the jacket looks like wings of wax. I thought,
Oh, my God. Sly is Icarus. Hes flown too close to the sun.
61
AMALIE ROTHSCHILD; MPI/GETTY IMAGES
SLY AND THE

PANTHERS

Indeed, for the rest of the band,
Woodstock represented the point
where Slys behaviour began to
turn. Until Woodstock, it was a
unified band, confirms Martini.
Pretty much immediately after
that, it was just Sly Stone. The
Family Stone was an afterthought.
Greg Errico recalls Sly gathering
everybody for a band meeting shortly
after Woodstock. He said, Guys, Im
gonna move to LA. We all thought, is
this the beginning of the end? We were a pretty tight-knit
family. We all lived in the Bay Area and looked out for each
other. It was clear that Sly moving to LA was a problem.
LA is where all the doctors, lawyers and Indian chiefs
started to surround Sly, says Martini. When he moved to
Los Angeles, he moved to Babylon.
SBMG ARCHIVE; PETER APRAHAMIAN/WWW.TIMEINCUKCONTENT.COM
ABYLON, FOR SLY, was an

apartment in Griffith Park, near
Hollywood; then, later, a fourbedroomed mock Tudor pile at 783 Bel Air
Road, Coldwater Canyon that previously
belonged to John Phillips from The Mamas
And The Papas. At a Bay Area concert in late
1969, Sly distanced himself from his home
town. Youre over, he said to a baffled
audience. You thought you were cool, but
your arrogance was your undoing, and San
Francisco is now over, officially.
LA was also where Sly re-established his
connection with Hamp Bubba Banks a
childhood friend whod just been released
from prison. A former hairdresser and
pimp, Bubba chose Sly as best man for his
first marriage in 1964, and became Stones bodyguard,
minder and enforcer, together with another childhood
friend, James JB Brown. Later, Bubba married Slys sister,
Rose. Can I be quite frank? asks Martini. I dont want to
talk about those guys. For me, they were the most negative
influences that could possibly have been on Slys life. He
was from a churchgoing family. His father KC Daddy was
his road manager, hed come out on the road with us! Sly
was well-read, intelligent. He and Freddie could handle
themselves theyd taken karate classes but they werent
gangsters. However, Sly did have a fascination with that
world. Maybe thats what attracted him to Bubba and JB.
Sly would hang with anybody,

confirms Cynthia Robinson. His
idea was that hed try to help Bubba
and JB to go legitimate, to straighten
them out. He even gave Bubba a
production credit on the next
album, even though Bubba knew
jack shit about producing records!
But it didnt work out like that.
I couldnt possibly blame Bubba
or JB for anything that happened
to Sly, adds Errico. If youd removed either
one of them from Slys orbit, it could even have been worse.
Weve all been around bad influences but, at the end of the
day, you make your own decision.
The bands drug use had been light until late 1969, when
things started to change. Freddie Stone first used PCP at a
New Years Eve party at Slys apartment in
1969; two other partygoers ended up in
hospital. That was when everything went
downhill, confirms Errico. Throughout
1970, certain people in the band became
increasingly unreliable. Of the 80 shows
that the band had booked for that year, they
managed to miss 26 of them. We developed
a bad reputation, sighs Martini. Everyone
knows what it was and who it was. There
were just too many negative influences on
us. Great bands attract great criminals, and
great snakes and great sharks.
Theres lots of great music that came
after Stand!, continues Martini,
acknowledging Theres A Riot Goin On,
among the bands other achievements
during the 70s. Greg and I stuck it out
for a long time. But I dont think youll
ever capture the sheer brilliance of the band in 68, 69.
We were on fire, man.
Sly was in an impossible position, adds Cynthia
Robinson. We were a family and, like any family, the
siblings want to do their own thing. They have little bustups. And Sly was like a father, trying to please everybody,
but also the kind of father whod let you make your own
mistakes. Hes only flesh and bone. No matter how hard he
tried, he couldnt hold the band together.
OH MY
GOD, SLY IS
ICARUS.
HES
FLOWN
TOO CLOSE
TO THE
SUN
DAVID
KAPRALIK
Sly & The Family Stone release Live At The Fillmore East
October 4th & 5th 1968 through Sony Legacy on July 17
Beginning of
the end: Sly at
Woodstock, 1969
ANIMAL ATTRACTION
PITBULLS,
WHIPPETS &
BABOONS
E WERE all
attracted
to big
dogs, says Jerry Martini.
On the road, wed all get
Dog World magazine and
read out the description
of a breed to see who
could identify it first!
The band members had
21 dogs between them. I
had a Great Pyrenees,
says Jerry Martini.
Freddie had an Irish
wolfhound, an Airedale
and a Giant Schnauzer.
Rose had an Afghan and a
French Bouvier. Greg had
a miniature pit bull and a
St Bernard. Larry kept
whippets, a Great Dane
and a Russian wolfhound.
I had a Rottweiler and a
Malamute, says Cynthia.
Sly had a bullmastiff, a
Great Dane and pit bulls.
One of those pit bulls was
fine with women, but not
so good with men. Hed
go crazy if someone had a
suit. Or a hat. Youd never
go to Slys house in a hat.
By the time Sly moved
to LA, hed also acquired
a baboon. Sly wanted to
dress him in a dinner
jacket and answer the
door, says Cynthia. But
the baboon was a vicious
guy. Hed throw his shit at
you, and hed tease Slys
pit bull, Gun, by leaping
into its compound, hit it
on the head then clamber
over the fence to safety.
One day the baboon
slipped. The dog ripped
his guts out.
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New albums
T H IS MON T H: N EI L YOU NG | SL E A FOR D MODS | JA SON ISBEL L & MOR E
TAME IMPALA
Currents
FICTION
The Aussie psych-rock genius moves on. By Jason Anderson
8/10
TRACKLIST
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
Let It Happen
Nangs
The Moment
Yes Im Changing
Eventually
Gossip
The Less I Know The Better
Past Life
Disciples
Cause Im A Man
Reality In Motion
Love/Paranoia
New Person, Same Old Mistakes
EVERYTHING FLOWS AND

nothing stays. So said Greek
philosopher Heraclitus, who
might have found a good place for his most
famous maxim in song had there been any
shoegazer bands in 500BC. In any case, the
notion is a discomfiting, possibly even scary
one, for anyone who may struggle to handle
all this flux.
That attitude may have been closer to what
Tame Impalas Kevin Parker was feeling when he
wrote Apocalypse Dreams on 2012s Lonerism,
a work whose prevailing state of blissed-out
exuberance often belied the anxieties simmering
underneath. Everything is changing and theres
nothing I can do, he sang, sounding rather

less accepting of the situation than Heraclitus
did. My world is turning pages while Im just
sitting here.
Tame Impala have hardly been what anyone
would consider a stationary object, but
nevertheless, their rate of change is rather more
dramatic on Currents. Parker returns to themes
of personal transformation here again and again
indeed, theyre plain as day in the lyrics and
even the titles of songs like The Moment,
Reality In Motion and New Person, Same
Old Mistakes. As Parker sings in Yes, Im
Changing his already breathy falsetto
sounding even dreamier than before Yes,
65
New Albums
Floored genius Kevin Parker:
Yes, Im changing, yes, Im
gone, yes, Im older
Im changing, yes, Im gone/Yes, Im older,

yes, Im moving on/And if you dont think its
a crime, you can come along with me.
Though the song is directed at a lover who
may soon be left behind, the last phrase in the
chorus suggests that the 29-year-old Australian
understands the challenge that Currents poses to
some fans. Its the third and by far the gentlest
album that Parker has made under the moniker
of Tame Impala, a one-man recording project
that has done double duty as a five-man, globeconquering, synapse-scrambling psychedelicrock juggernaut over the last five years.
Anyone who has experienced this burlier
incarnation of the group captured in full flight
on 2014s Live Versions may be especially
startled by the music they find here. The celestial
sound of layers upon layers of vintage synths has
largely replaced Parkers displays of six-string
wizardry and chunky riffage on 2010s
Innerspeaker and its acclaimed follow-up. The
previously aggressive swirls and surges have
abated, with Parker now filling the space with
hazy, Gallic grooves that bear a distinct air of Air.
And whereas the woolliest moments of
Innerspeaker and Lonerism conjured a fantasy of
what The Beatles may have sounded like if they

ever shared a bill with Pink Floyd at the UFO
Club, Currents dives deeper into later, less hip
reference points, like the more limpid balladry of
10cc and Supertramp, the latter of which Parker
has repeatedly cited as one
of his very favourite bands.
Close students of Parkers
art may have anticipated
this radical shift given the
orientation of other
recordings, however, like
the mix of 60s y-y, jangly
psych and dance-pop he
developed with former
girlfriend Melody Prochet
for her band Melodys Echo
Chamber, or his playful and
soulful contributions to Mark Ronsons fourth
album, Uptown Special. (Parker devotees may
also be less worried that the travelling
incarnation of Tame Impala has undergone a
similarly dramatic overhaul beefier live
renditions of recent songs suggest they fit very
well into the existing repertoire.)
What Currents most strongly shares with its two
predecessors is Parkers ability to pursue a wide

variety of musical tangents without losing the
through-line. That exploratory bent comes most
prominently to the fore in Let It Happen.
Unfolding over the course of almost eight
minutes, Currents opening
track marries a woozy slice
of sun-dazed pop to a robotic
dance groove that ought
to be derailed by the
unexpected sound akin
to a CD skipping halfway
through. Instead, it
culminates in some
heretofore never-attempted
hybrid of Airs Sexy Boy,
Daft Punks Da Funk
and Steve Stevens riff on
Michael Jacksons Dirty Diana. Somehow it all
still sounds like Tame Impala. Thats largely
because of Parkers flair for melody and his
multi-tracked and eminently unruffled vocal
style, which is likely to draw fewer comparisons
to John Lennons thanks to the significant
change in musical context.
One of several songs to surface in the months
This is by far the

gentlest album that
Parker has made
under the moniker
of Tame Impala
THE
ROAD TO
CURRENTS
Tame Impalas
inspirational
friends, heroes and
countrymen
SHUGGIE OTIS
Inspiration
Information EPIC, 1974
AIR
Talkie Walkie
TAME IMPALA
Elephant (Todd
Rundgren Mix)
POND
Man It Feels Like
Space Again
It took a few decades for

Otis psych-infused soul-pop
masterpiece to get the
veneration it deserved.
Though its inuence can
be discerned in many of
Currents pretty moments,
its most palpable on Cause
Im A Man, the new LPs sly,
sof and sweet rst single.
The French duos fourth LP

was a return to form afer an
erratic pair of follow-ups to
Moon Safari. Its no surprise
Parker cites Talkie Walkie
as one of his fave discs
given Currents comparable
abundance of analog-synth
fantasias, hazed-out vocals
and sprightly pop melodies.
MODULAR, 2012
CAROLINE, 2015
One of Parkers heroes

lives up to his eccentric rep
by equipping Lonerisms
glam-pop standout with a
throbbing, Moroder-worthy
rhythm and a glitch-y
breakdown that heralds
the machine malfunction in
Currents Let It Happen.
Parker lets the freak ag

y even higher when on
production duties for
his former and current
bandmates in Perths
giddiest psych-pop band.
Ponds sixth full-length is
another marvel of trippy
textures and hairpin turns.
10/10
9/10
8/10
8/10
VIRGIN, 2004
New Albums
before Currents release, Eventually has a
similarly unlikely yet exquisitely integrated
combination of elements, its sense of blissed-out
drift being accentuated rather than disrupted by
the rhythmic swagger or the squiggly, pitch-bent
note used as a final flourish. The Moment,
Yes, Im Changing and The Less I Know The
Better see Parker continue his efforts to create
music that matches the most sumptuous
pleasures that could be found on an AM radio
dial circa 1975, albeit
with the occasional
SLEEVE
Day-glo smear or other
NOTES
rude sonic intrusion
Produced by:
that the likes of Seals
Kevin Parker
And Crofts wouldve
Recorded at:
Parkers home
never allowed to
studio, Fremantle,
muck up such
Western Australia
pristine surfaces.
Personnel: Kevin
Parker throws
Parker (all vocals
several
more
and instruments)
curveballs on Past
Life, Currents oddest
track yet the one that may best demonstrate its
synthesis of the airily delicate and the gloriously
askew. As a narrator with an electronically
distorted voice relates the tale of an ordinary day
that takes a turn toward the uncanny due to an
encounter with a lover in a past life, Parker
ladles a loping groove with effects until it
threatens to collapse under the weight. Yet this
suitably daft cousin to Daft Punks Giorgio By
Moroder (or possibly The Orbs Little Fluffy
Clouds) still has room for another gorgeous
vocal refrain by Parker.
Currents first single as well as Tame Impalas
first stab at a boudoir-ready slow jam, Cause
Im A Man demonstrates the buttery goodness
that Parker achieves by embracing the softest
qualities of his voice and his wider musical
sensibility. Evoking the minimalist soul-pop of
Shuggie Otis Aht Uh Mi Head, Parker offers a
not-terribly-adequate apology on behalf of his
often lunk-headed gender. Cause Im a man,
woman/Dont always think before I do, he croons
before lamenting Its the only answer Ive got for
you. Though he also confesses that My
weakness is the source of all my pride, the sly
attitude demonstrated here is a needed
counterbalance to lyrics elsewhere on the
album that have the faint ring of a new-age guide
to self-actualisation.
Love Paranoia also offers an unexpected
degree of bite, the songs 10cc-calibre prettiness
being undercut by Parkers description of the
anxieties released alo0ngside the ecstasies of a
romantic fling. If only I could read your mind, Id
be fine, he notes before conceding how all the
emotional turbulence brings out the worst in
me. More familiar hang-ups return in New
Person, Same Old Mistakes, though the narrator
here works harder to fight off the voices of
negativity that swell up from deeper in the mix.
As he is in so many other moments here, Parker
is too keen to revel in the freedoms hes created to
ever let himself feel defeated. Currents may be
equally exhilarating to any listener willing to
adjust to Tame Impalas new paradigm, which
what with new paradigms being as ephemeral as
everything else in this life you may be wise to
savour here in the present.
Tame Impalas Kevin Parker: I get a buzz out

of doing the impossible!
HAT DID you make of the early
reports that Currents was going
to take a dance-oriented
direction? Let It Happen
certainly puts a big emphasis on groove.
The backbone of Tame Impala has always been
groove. I never wanted to do a song that you
couldnt dance to or groove to at least, whatever
the difference is between those things. I heard a
few people say it was going to be more dance- or
club-oriented, and Let It Happen is a song where
I was flexing that fantasy. But I wouldnt say that
the rest is like a dance album, not in the slightest.
At the same time, I hate to say the album is this or
that I prefer people to judge it themselves.
myself singing about. I usually just follow my

instincts when I start writing and then Ill notice
a theme emerging. Ill try to amplify that so I can
make a cohesive album, one that has a message
and story. And yeah, this theme of this personal

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And were not little children/And we know what we want/And the future is certain/Give us time to work it out

PAUL MCCARTNEY NEIL YOUNG

SLY & THE

E MONK EES SLY & THE FAMI

32 The Only Ones

New York Albums

Uncut charts the history of a city

56 Sly & The

99 DVD & Film

How Music Got Free, Willie Nelson

117 Not Fade Away

122 My Life In Music

John Mulvey, Editor

COVER: PIETER M VAN HATTEM THIS PAGE: EBET ROBERTS/REDFERNS

Mike Leales photograph Konvertible

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Dont hold your

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The Jam in 1977.

THE YOUNG MODS

I didnt keep anything! PAUL WELLER finally

About The Young Idea is at Somerset

the band describes as a

Pearce says Stricklands use

Their sound was

central to FSAs sound; indeed,

This month: MC5! Supported by Jake Thackray!

SEE THE LIGHTFOOT

I think Ive written a few good songs

fellow songwriter acknowledging

I lost the use of my

It would have felt like deserting.

UNCUT AT THE END OF THE ROAD

NCUTS FAVOURITE festival, End

8 | UNCUT | AUGUST 2015

of the festivals key acts. Keep an eye on

fying saucer attack

10 | UNCUT | AUGUST 2015

ELEVENTH DREAM DAY

neil young + promise

the monsanto years

rickie lee jones

micheal head + the strands

suck it and see

Its late at night, its time to tell you

years. And as youll hear, Pearces

6 DUKE ELLINGTON &

One for Sturgill Simpson fans now,

Polly On The Shore

Who knew that, besides being one

Samantha Crains Kathleen

We reviewed Lynnes I Cant

For much of the 1990s, David Pearce

along that captures the quintets

10 STEWART LEE &

12 | UNCUT | AUGUST 2015

Like Flying Saucer Attack, Rachels

A Paisley Underground landmark,

From Courtney Barnetts labelmate,

little black book

suck it and see: buy your cds,