THE #1 HIGHLIGHT
"Can you guess where I'm calling from The Las Vegas Hilton I know it's hard to hear It's just the echo on the line
I was hoping to catch a glimpse Of the man from Memphis They told me he had gone Never leaving a trace"
"Home On Monday" Little River Band
You've got to understand. We HATED Elvis. He represented what came BEFORE! Everything the Beatles swept away! He didn't write his own songs, he starred in cheesy movies and he ended up in LAS VEGAS!
Elvis Presley wasn't supposed to die in the summer of '77. He was supposed to be around forever. Slowly working his way down the food chain. From headliner to club act to retired Memphis gent.
But then he croaked in his bathroom.
It wasn't like Frank. Who lasted long enough for the younger generation to think he was cool, so they could SEE HIM! No, most fans of the Beatles, of the British Invasion, of the rock REVOLUTION, never saw Elvis.
And tonight I know what I missed. James Burton.
Oh, you read about it all the time. How Elvis had this crack band featuring this hot guitarist.
Our guitarists were supposed to have long hair, wear street clothes, they worked in small groups, not in suits in ORCHESTRAS!
But believe me, James Burton blew ALL the rest of the players off the stage this evening. He employed the chicken pickin' style he developed. He worked his way up and down the neck. He was positively MESMERIZING!
See this guy before he dies. See ALL the legends before they die.
I used to be anti nostalgia. But now I know these players won't be around forever. When they're gone, that's it. And there will be a giant emptiness. For today's musical landscape is not made up of PLAYERS, but STARS! Stars are in a symbiotic relationship with the media. They're fodder for the MACHINE! They sell not only records and concert tickets, but magazines too. Whereas a musician is somebody who plays. For the sheer joy of it.
Tonight the stage was populated by MUSICIANS!
JAY FARRAR
I know, I know. He was in UNCLE TUPELO!
Isn't that Jeff Tweedy a pompous fuck? He's so damn IMPORTANT! I figured Jay Farrar would be the same way.
But he's not.
Or at least he wasn't THIS evening. He was humble. He strummed his acoustic guitar. But that VOICE! This dude FELT the music. I finally understood what all the hoopla was about.
JOHN DOE
I saw this dude when he was in X. At the Roxy.
I never got it.
But tonight, John Doe LIT UP the place!
When done right, playing is about JOY!
Those dancing fools, with their turned-off headset mics, they're all about SPECTACLE! SHOW! They're doing it to be ADMIRED! Whereas a REAL musician has a fire in his heart. And when the stars align, the joy inside is PALPABLE! It flows out over the audience in WAVES!
This was not the punk rocker of X. The one who stood kind of still. Playing atonal music.
Nor was it the folk singer doing his solo act.
It's like just before he hit the stage, somebody plugged John Doe IN! And he jumped around on stage, fired up on this juice, infusing a power and drive into "Hot Burrito #2" that's not even on the original RECORD!
JIM JAMES
Just like I now get Jay Farrar, I now get My Morning Jacket. You've just got to SEE these guys.
And Jim James, dressed in his Nudie suit, was cool, and delivered. But Hugh Surratt sent me solo versions of two Gram Parsons songs that were actually BETTER than any of the performances tonight. "Hot Burrito #1" and "Dark End Of The Street". This is the kind of stuff you hear on some AM station driving 'cross Wyoming in the middle of the night and pull over and stare out at the stars while the music pours out of the dashboard, feeling that you're channeling LIFE!
Usually the younger acts are thrown in for SEASONING! To round out the bill. But you could tell Jim James HAD to be there.
NORAH JONES
I spent the opening minutes of the second set up in the skybox. Bullshitting with Jay Marciano and Andy Somers in between notes.
But then Norah came on. And I was GONE! I had to get CLOSER! You see Norah drives me CRAZY!
Most of you weren't around in the early seventies. For the FIRST incarnation of Bonnie Raitt.
Bonnie Raitt was the coolest girl on the planet. A DREAM! Tough, sexy, ONE OF THE GUYS! And she had a BACKBONE! She only played what SHE wanted. It wasn't until album number six that she even TRIED to have a hit.
Actually, I spent a night under a million stars in Wyoming listening to Bonnie's "I Feel The Same", feeling fully alive. You see Bonnie's music wasn't made for the marketplace, but for her, and YOU! You felt the presence of no middleman AT ALL!
And I felt the presence of no middleman with Norah Jones tonight.
Norah was the most happening act on this evening's bill. One of the biggest stars in AMERICA! But she had less star attitude than just about ANYONE!
She comes out in her jeans. With heels not so tall. And a peasant-style blouse. As if she was home, reading the newspaper on the couch, and she got a phone call to come down and do a number. She seemed so natural, so in the moment, so ALIVE!
And Norah doesn't look Hollywood. She's not stick thin with a boob job. No, she's got thighs, and curvaceous hips. Oh, she's not fat by ANY stretch of the imagination, she's a WOMAN! Who's COMFORTABLE IN HER BODY! And this is so APPEALING!
And she starts to sing, and it's just so NATURAL! You MELT! You feel she deserves all the success she's received.
Download her performance of "In The Morning" from Sessions@AOL on the iTunes Music Store. THIS is music. It's haunting, it gets under your skin.
Is it a HIT???
If you're asking that question hopefully you'll be selling carpet soon.
KEITH RICHARDS
We're jaded here in L.A. We see stars all the time. Hell, I've seen Keith just a few feet away at the House of Blues. But when he hit the stage tonight, we were recognizing him for what he was. The heart and soul of a generation.
Oh, Keith looks like shit.
But he's still here. And he's never ever sold out. Oh, one could accuse him of being part of the Stones sponsored juggernaut, but really, we blame Jagger. We see Keith as pure, as a survivor.
And Keith is more alive, and more with it than EVER before.
So when he walks out on stage it's a signal that we still have power. That we've still got something to hold on to.
This was not the usual show crowd.
Go to see Styx. Frampton. The Stones even. And you'll see people DRESSED UP! Who leave early.
The people tonight were NORMAL! They didn't put on a look to come. And NOBODY left early. You see it was ALL ABOUT THE MUSIC!
CONCLUSION
I'm not the biggest Gram Parsons fan. Oh, I bought his final solo album upon release, but I neither purchased nor played the Flying Burrito Brothers.
Gram was a sophisticate who tried to turn rockers on to seemingly unsophisticated music, country. It didn't take with me. I saw the heartland music as cornball.
But when everybody got together this evening and CELEBRATED his tunes, I finally understood it. The SENSIBILITY! It was something that came from INSIDE! Mostly the heart. But occasionally the head, and sometimes the groin. Gram Parsons made music about how people FEEL! And that translated and infected many people.
Most performers ASSAULT the audience.
Or are so perfectly rehearsed so as to not let anybody in.
Gram Parsons was about cutting himself open, and revealing what was inside, so that maybe you could relate.
Tonight I related fully.
It was unexpected. I went because Lisa was the promoter.
But this was a special show. It was solely about the music. It wasn't about the box office, it wasn't about the television show, it wasn't about advancing careers.
Really, with the acts on MTV and the radio...music is SECONDARY!
What does it mean to be a musician? Someone who studies and learns how to play. Who plays when NOBODY'S around, or just a few. Who sees the future as a rocky road, but sees no choice.
It's very different from the boy bands. That's PREDICATED on stardom. What if stardom and riches were just a lucky byproduct, which few enjoyed. What would the landscape look like.
Like the Universal Amphitheatre tonight.
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