The great guitarist Adrian Belew is 65 today — so he won’t be performing anymore. He’s had a fairly successful solo career, but most people know him from his work with other acts — most notably King Crimson. I don’t think that much of him in terms of the music he plays, but he is a master of guitar in terms of sounds. He’s kind of like The Edge: more a synth player than a guitarist. But that is to take nothing away from his wizardry. He’s an amazing guy.

I first noticed Belew because of his work on one of the greatest rock albums ever: Talking Heads’ Remain in Light. So here is “Crosseyed and Painless” from the tour he did with the band in 1980:

Happy birthday (And retirement!) Adrian Belew!

I remember reading an article by a fairly serious music writer — most likely in New Musical Express — discussing Frank Zappa, who was born on this day in 1940. This was in the late 1960s and the writer said something to the effect that Zappa could be the best rock guitarist of all time if he would just take it seriously. I don’t think anyone ever so perfectly encapsulated Zappa. It wasn’t just his guitar playing. Zappa did not think much of popular music. I recall the early albums being filled with little comments. Like on Absolutely Free at one point, he says, “This is like The Supremes… See the way it builds up?” Most of his career was him saying, “I’m only playing this crap because you idiots like it.”

Zappa was always fundamentally a blues guitar player. But his mixing of various modes makes it often sound more like jazz. It’s actually more of a classical approach, but with his use of subtle string bends and other aspects of electric guitar technique, it all sounds highly idiosyncratic. Of course, now you can hear his influence in some of the more interesting “independent” bands over the last couple of decades. As you can probably tell, I admire Zappa at the same time that I think he was kind of a douche who didn’t do as much with his talent as he should have.

He was at his best when he was creating instrumentals like “Peaches en Regalia.” But since I’ve heard that song entirely enough for a far longer life than I will have, here is “Black Napkins” performed live:

Happy birthday Frank Zappa!

On this day in 1915, the great singer Édith Piaf was born. The French Billie Holiday! Stylistically, they are rather different. But they are both highly emotional singers, with tragic lives to back it up. Piaf spent much of her childhood living in her grandmother’s brothel. At the age of 14, she began working with her father as a street performer. She continued in this line of business until she was discovered at the age of 20, when she began working nightclubs. She quickly rose to stardom, but died at only 47 of liver cancer.

It’s better just to listen to her music. Let’s start with one of her biggest hits, “Non, Je ne Regrette Rien.” I love its resolve. I just wish it didn’t include the payoff line, “Aujourd’hui, ça commence avec toi” (“Today, it begins with you”). That seems to cheapen it. I want it to be a statement about who she is, not what relationship she now finds herself in. Regardless, it is wonderful:

Here is another hit, “Milord.” Exactly what happens in the song is not clear. So let me give you my take. The singer is a woman who works at a cafe as a server. She has seen this rich gentleman walk past before with a beautiful woman on his arm. But the woman is not there today. The server entreats the gentleman to sit down and tries to cajole him out of his sadness. And by the end of the song, she has him dancing around with her. It is very beautiful:

The next song, “Hymne à l’Amour,” Piaf actually wrote the lyrics to. It was written to her lover, after he died in a plane crash on his way to visit her. You don’t need to know the lyrics. It is just one of those “I would do anything for you” songs. You get everything from the performance:

And let’s end with Piaf’s signature song, “La Vie en Rose.” The lyrics are also by Piaf and it is pretty similar in content to “Hymne à l’Amour.” Life is rosy when he looks into her eyes. I think the reason the song works so well is simply that there is nothing quite so compelling as a sad woman singing of hope. Here she is singing it in Nine Boys, One Heart:

Happy birthday Édith Piaf!

The great musician Tom Verlaine is 65 today. He was the founder of the early punk band Television. If that is the right word. Those early bands like Television and Ramones are hard to classify. But Television was an amazing band. Verlaine originally started the band with Richard Hell. But eventually Verlaine kicked Hell out of the band, supposedly for his poor musicianship and his odd behavior. I think it was actually just a personality conflict. For one thing, Hell was actually a rather good bass player. But more important, Verlaine is very laid-back on stage and Hell was spastic. It was probably for the best. Hell really needed to be a solo act, and his material didn’t fit in that well with Television.

Television didn’t stay together that long. I’m not counting how they later got back together like just about every other punk and post-punk band. They only released two albums during that period. But they are both classics: Marquee Moon and Adventure. And then, Verlaine went on to have arguably an even more successful solo career. In addition to his excellent songwriting, he is one of the great guitarists that rock has produced.

There isn’t a lot of great video of Verlaine online. There is currently the whole Marquee Moon on YouTube. But the best thing I can find is the same thing I posted last year of him solo performing in Madrid. But this is a playlist of the entire performance:

Happy birthday Tom Verlaine!

On this day in 1863, the great composer Pietro Mascagni was born. He is primarily known for four operas: Le maschere, Iris, L’amico Fritz, and Cavalleria rusticana. The last of these literally revolutionized opera — at least in Italy. It more or less created verismo opera — a more realistic approach to opera storytelling. For example, in Cavalleria rusticana, the hero comes home from military service to find that his girlfriend has married another man. So he seduces another woman to make his ex jealous. This works, so he casts the woman aside and takes up with the now married ex. Her husband finds out, and kills him in a duel. Rightly so: what a jerk!

Musically, I’m not that fond of Cavalleria rusticana. It is very much in the Romantic tradition. But Mascagni was still developing — he was only in his mid-20s when he wrote the opera. Just two years later, he wrote the charming L’amico Fritz. It is still performed, but I wonder that it isn’t performed more — especially compared to Cavalleria rusticana. Here is “Cherry Duet” — probably the most famous number from it:

Later still came Iris. It is a wonderful three act tragedy set in Japan. But apparently, the opera world only has room for one three act tragedy set in Japan, so Madama Butterfly is the only one that is performed. What you can most hear in it is a greatly expanded harmonic palette. But that was something that Mascagni was known for throughout his career: very creative use of harmony. He was also know — celebrated — for was his clear and forceful melodic lines. It is surprising to me that he isn’t a bigger deal in the world of opera.

Here is the Intermezzo from Cavalleria rusticana, which is supremely beautiful:

Happy birthday Pietro Mascagni!

On this day in 1915, the great jazz composer and arranger Billy Strayhorn was born. He is best remembered for his work with Duke Ellington. Of course, he largely isn’t remembered at all. Even people who don’t like jazz at all know who Ellington was. But Strayhorn worked in the shadows, and he seemed to have liked it that way.

He was a phenomenon at an early age. While still in high school, he wrote a musical. He also formed his own trio that played on local radio every day. And he wrote a number of great songs, including “Lush Life.” Here he is in 1964, performing it live:

Strayhorn wanted to be a classical composer, but he had the wrong skin color. His introduction to Art Tatum — a classical composer in his own way — pushed Strayhorn into jazz. And at the age of 23, he met and began collaborating with Duke Ellington. It is hard to say where one starts and the other ends. Ellington said, “Billy Strayhorn was my right arm, my left arm, all the eyes in the back of my head, my brain waves in his head, and his in mine.” But being the established great man, Ellington took credit for much of Strayhorn’s work. Generally speaking, if you see a tune composed by Strayhorn and Ellington, it is Strayhorn’s. And Strayhorn is probably even more important as an arranger in creating what we now think of as the Duke Ellington sound.

That’s not to say that Ellington took advantage of the younger man. They had a symbiotic relationship. It is doubtful that Strayhorn would have accomplished so much without the protection and encouragement of Ellington. And Strayhorn got sole writing credit for the most famous song of the Duke Ellington orchestra, “Take the ‘A’ Train.” Here he is performing the song on piano with the orchestra. At the end, Ellington lists some of Strayhorn’s other compositions.

Sadly, in 1964 — at the same time he recorded “Lush Life” above, he was diagnosed with esophageal cancer, which seemed to ended his career. He died three years later.

Happy birthday Billy Strayhorn!

The great singer-songwriter Randy Newman is 71 today. He’s also an acceptable film composer. But let’s say no more about that. And to be honest, I’m not terribly fond of his more recent songwriting. He’s become something of a hack — a really successful and wealthy hack — but a hack nonetheless.

So instead of talking about his work, I’m just going to present some of my favorite of his songs. Let’s start with one of his trademark offensive songs, “Yellow Man.” Yes, it is about what you think it is about:

Next up is probably my favorite of his songs, “Political Science.” It is such a perfect rendering of a very common conservative outlook when I was growing up in the 1960s and 1970s. Now it is a bit out of date because people don’t talk so much about the bomb. Although you still hear the same reasoning, “The only reason we lost the Vietnam War was that we didn’t use nukes!” But more than that, there is the naive idea that our foreign policy is just about helping everyone. The first lyrics are perfect, “No one likes us; I don’t know why.” American conservatives still don’t know why. It reminds me of those great bumper stickers, “Be nice to America, or we’ll bring democracy to your country.”

Actually, there are a lot of songs during this period that I really like. He supposedly wrote this song for Frank Sinatra, “Lonely at the Top.” It is sad that Sinatra did not have enough of a sense of humor to do it. It would have been fantastic:

Wow, I’ve only made it to 1972, and I’ve passed by a whole bunch of songs that I love. So let’s finish up with a later song (1983!), “My Life Is Good.” When I saw Newman live around that time, he introduced it by noting, “I’m sorry to say that this song is autobiographical.” I believe him. He does not seem like a very nice guy.

Happy birthday Randy Newman!

On this day in 1946, the great guitarist Duane Allman was born. I can’t think of anyone who plays rock even as good, much less better. Most people think Hendrix was better, but it is hard to see that. I think that is because of what Hendrix did regarding the sound of the guitar. In terms of what he played, it was mostly pretty standard blues. Allman was pushing the envelope of what rock guitar was. It was still mostly blues, but it was a whole lot more. It is sad that we missed out on his evolution. He died in a motorcycle accident when he was only 24 years old.

He worked as a session musician for years, where he had a profound influence — working with people like Boz Scaggs, Wilson Pickett, and Aretha Franklin. He is probably best known for his guitar work on Derek and the Dominos’ “Layla.” He’s the one who created the guitar riff, which is about the only thing people remember on the song. He and Clapton shared guitar on the song with countless overdubs. But all the slide guitar was Allman.

Allman teamed up with his younger brother Gregg and a number of other great musicians to form The Allman Brothers. The three albums they released while Duane was still alive are all classics. They are more standard blues rock, but this isn’t Savoy Brown — as good as they are. And live, they are really something special. I’m having some difficulty finding really good live video, so here is “Whipping Post” from 1970 at Fillmore East (not the concert their third album was drawn from):

Happy birthday Duane Allman!

On this day in 1944, the great singer-songwriter Gene Clark was born. He is best known as a founding member of The Byrds — and by far their best songwriter. There is a reason that the first two Byrds albums are classics and the rest just okay. (I will consider arguments that Younger Than Yesterday is a great album — but you have to explain how it isn’t derivative.) And that reason is Clark who was a prodigious talent.

He only wrote one song on the third album, “Eight Miles High.” It is nominally a collaboration with Roger McGuinn and David Crosby, but the song is clearly so much Clark’s that the other two shouldn’t get writing credit. Its cadences are the same as on other Clark songs like “Here Without You.” Of course, that hasn’t stopped Roger McGuinn for taking credit for the song — but only after Clark died.

I found the following great quote from The Byrds’ bass player (and a fine songwriter himself) Chris Hillman about Clark’s position in the band:

“Set You Free This Time” is from The Byrds second album. It stands out as distinct from his other work from this period. It sounds more like a Bobby Russell song! And on the album it sounds more like a Gene Clark solo song. But here he is years later doing the song with his own band:

Like in most bands, there was a power struggle in The Byrds and McGuinn and Crosby won. Clark left and became a solo artist with the great Gene Clark with the Gosdin Brothers. The album didn’t do well. You could say that generally of his solo career, including his small group projects with Doug Dillard and ex-Byrds Roger McGuinn and Chris Hillman. What’s sad is that the albums are all quite good and some of them are amazing. In particular, No Other has become a classic, even though it was entirely ignored at the time. Here is “Silver Raven” from that album:

Before I knew anything about him, I loved Gene Clark for the songs on those first two Byrds albums. It was always clear to me that he was the great talent. But when I later learned more about him, I appreciated him as a person. He’s such a tragic figure. He suffered greatly from anxiety. He hated touring and was afraid of airplane traveling. To deal with these issues by drinking and drugging them away. And it ended up killing him at 46 from a bleeding ulcer. It’s sad, because I think he might well have become a legend on the order of Neil Young. Certainly, his reputation is better today than it ever has been.

Happy birthday Gene Clark!

Although it is hard for me to fathom, Rickie Lee Jones is 60 today. It is kind of hard to classify her work because she did a lot of different stuff. She really is the female Tom Waits (but don’t tell her I said that). I guess I would have to say that she is mostly jazz-pop in the tradition of Steely Dan. But generally more interesting and far more varied. I think there are two aspects of her greatness. First is that she is able to sing beautifully with real emotion — a trick that almost no singer is able to accomplish. I mean, lots of singers are able to put fake emotion in their singing — just listen to American Idol. Maybe she’s just a great liar, but I always think Jones is telling me the truth — even through her affected attitude.

The second aspect of her greatness is how she is able to translate conversational English into music. Take as the most obvious and early example, “Chuck E’s in Love.” The lyrics are all very natural. There is nothing terribly well formed by this:

Yet with the music it’s just brilliant. And then on the macro-scale, the song is inspired. It tells the story first person from the outside. Why is Chuck E gone? He must be in love! But at the end, she flips it on its head and reveals that, actually, she was just playing and that she is the girl Chuck E loves. It’s brilliant and entirely in keeping with the way that she sings the song so slyly. I guess it is worth listening to:

Jones’ best work has been done in the last decade or so. She brought everything she had done up to that point into an amazing album, The Evening of My Best Day. The styles of the song vary widely, including a gospel protest song, Tell Somebody (Repeal the Patriot Act). It was followed by a number of great albums, most especially Balm in Gilead — an especially intimate album. Here she is at a radio station performing “Wild Girl” off that album:

I highly recommend all of her recent albums. It’s beautiful and compelling and real. You can’t go wrong.

Happy birthday Rickie Lee Jones!