This past Thursday on WFUV, all the jocks immersed themselves and anyone listening in the world of 1969.  With references to cultural tidbits from politics, film, television,  popular culture, and only one mention that it was my birth year, we did a deep dive on the phenomenal music that year produced in the worlds of rock, blues, soul and R&B, pop, country, jazz, and what came to be known later as proto punk.  The latter being represented in the 9 hour by MC5 and The Stooges.  I also was welcomed by The Stooges as a temporary member for the day on the cover of their debut album that came out 50 years ago this month. 

THE SOUNDS OF 1969

6pm
Elvis Presley: Power of My Love
Booker T & The MGs: Time is Tight
Hawaii 5-0: The Ventures
Delaney & Bonnie:It’s Been A Long Time Coming
The Kinks: Victoria
Temptations: I Can’t Get Next To You
James Brown: Mother Popcorn (Part 1)
Bob Seger: Ramblin’ Gamblin’ Man
BB King: Why I Sing The Blues off Live & Well
Allman Brothers Band: Dreams
Nick Drake: Time has Told Me
Leonard Cohen: Bird On A Wire
Simon & Garfunkel: The Boxer (Live)

7pm
The Band: Rag Mama Rag
Traffic: Medicated Goo
Blind Faith: Sea of Joy
Cream: Politician (Live)
The Beatles: Something
Frank Sinatra: Yesterday
Stevie Wonder: Light My Fire
Isley Brothers: I Know Who You Been Socking It To (Live)
Jefferson Airplane: Volunteers/Wooden Ships
Sly & The Family Stone: Stand
Janis Joplin: Try
Santana: Persuasion
Grateful Dead: St. Stephen

8pm
The Who: We’re Not Gonna Take It
Bob Dylan: Tonight I’ll Be Staying Here With You
Crosby, Stills, & Nash: 49 Bye Byes
Neil Young: Cowgirl in the Sand
Chicago Transit Authority: Questions 67 & 67
Donovan: Happiness Runs
Arlo Guthrie: Coming Into Los Angeles
Howlin’ Wolf: Evil from The Howlin’ Wolf Album
Muddy Waters: All Aboard from Fathers & Sons
Johnny Winter: Memory Pain
Jeff Beck: All Shook Up

9pm
Led Zeppelin: What Is and What Should Never Be
The Rolling Stones: Gimme Shelter
The Doors: Wild Child
Velvet Underground: Beginning To See The Light
The Doors: Wild Child
CCR: Effigy
MC5: Ramblin’ Rose
The Stooges: I Wanna Be Your Dog
Frank Zappa: Peaches en Regalia
Pink Floyd: Astronomy Domine
Miles Davis: Miles Runs The Voodoo Down (Live)

Next Thursday we’ll throwback to 1979. Requests welcome!

By the way, Iggy has a new album on the way called Free coming out next month. This video came out last week.

A tremendous lineup headed by Patti Smith and Iggy Pop has been unveiled for this year’s Tibet House benefit concert happening Thursday, March 16th at Carnegie Hall.  Laurie Anderson, Alabama Shakes, and Sufjan Stevens as well as Bernard Sumner, Phil Cunningham, and Tom Chapman of New Order will all perform along with Philip Glass who – besides being a brilliant composer – has been a pillar of Tibet House since its inception.  If you click on that last link you can see how many cool movies like The Hours, Kundun, Dracula and Hamburger Hill that Glass has written scores for as well as what’s brewing for his 80th birthday concert season. Among the offerings of the octogenary celebration is an appealing opportunity to see and hear members of the Philip Glass Ensemble offering a live interpretation of the music he composed for Jean Cocteau’s film La Belle et la Bête at Town Hall.

The beneficiary of the benefit concert, Tibet House US, is located at 22 West 15th Street and include… a gallery, exhibition space, and the spiffy room where Glass generously sat down with me last year to speak about the event and its reason for being.  As the interview with Glass took place not many weeks after the death of David Bowie, I’ve included a bonus video here as his remarks about him are worth sharing.  His relationship with Bowie was such that he based symphonies on two of the albums –Heroes and Low –that Bowie made with Brian Eno in the Berlin trilogy.  In addition, to which he alludes, he crossed paths with him quite a bit in the first few years of the century when Bowie recorded at Looking Glass Studios in Soho.  Glass reveals he may yet complete a symphony for Lodger to complete the trilogy with Heroes and Low…

Iggy Pop Will Spearhead Tibet House Benefit Concert; Philip Glass Interview

A tremendous lineup headed by Iggy Pop has been unveiled for this year’s Tibet House benefit concert happening Monday, February 22nd at Carnegie Hall.  FKA twigs, Sharon Jones, Basia Bulat and Dechen Shak-Dagsay with Helge van Dyk will all perform as well along with Philip Glass who – besides being a brilliant composer – has been a pillar of Tibet House since its inception. who generously sat down with me last week to speak about the event and its reason for being.  Even though Patti Smith can’t make it this year, her band will be on hand so, as seen in some of the video that I shot 2 years ago, Iggy and Lenny Kaye may share the stage again.

In addition to all the other great features of the Tibet House benefit concert, a tribute to David Bowie seems like a natural this year as both Philip Glass and Iggy Pop worked with him intimately.

I’ve included a bonus video here because Philip spoke about David Bowie.  He not only based symphonies on two of the albums that Bowie made with Eno but, as he alludes to, he crossed paths with him quite a bit in the first few years of the century when Bowie recorded at Looking Glass Studios in Soho.  Glass even reveals he may yet complete a symphony for Lodger as well as Heroes and Low!

Yesterday I participated in the final broadcast of The Alternate Side radio station.  It was emotional!  After Russ Boris, Alisa Ali and I played New Order and Joy Division back to back, I recalled the once in a lifetime pairing of Iggy Pop and New Order performing a couple of Joy Division songs last Spring at the Tibet House Benefit Concert at Carnegie Hall.  I got a few queries about the video so here is the report from March of 2014 that includes interview bits with Bernard Sumner of Joy Division and New Order – as well as Matt Berninger with the Dessner brothers of The National, and Philip Glass as they were part of the event as well… as was Patti Smith, Lenny Kaye, and Sufjan Stevens. By the way, a new New Order album, their first proper one in a decade, will be out next month.

Plus here’s a special bonus minute of Iggy with New Order performing Joy Division’s Transmission with no voice over…

Iggy Pop, Patti Smith, The National & New Order…

…on Sunday the 28th of April, 2013.

Caught Cracker the other night at the Highline – good kind of show…a band that never got that popular playing at a good club that wasn’t too crowded. Lowery is smart, ironic, cool, world-weary and the unit has drifted amidst eclecticism and hookery to create a respectable amount of memorable tunes.

Lowery and the fellas, I heard, broke down outside of Scranton on the way to the gig. That being the case, David castigating a crowd member for pestering him about Tweeter, had some context. In fairness, there was a handful of knuckleheads there including the kind of joker who yells out the names of songs while musicians get in tune. He shrugged it all off and shredded his vocal chords a bit at the end of the night on Get Off This…

Get off this, get on with it
If you wanna change the world shut your mouth and start this minute

That’s quality. See a Cracker concert review from 2002…

The latest Iggy Pop album is really mad. It’s not rock. If you heard Avenue B, think of that as a departure on a trip through French literature with the occasional smoky sax.

See an Iggy Pop Concert Review from 2001…
See an Iggy and The Stooges concert review from 2008…