








Five Things I Saw & Heard This Week
Transcripts from the everyday world of music by Martin Colyer
This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.
When this old world starts getting you down, and people are just too much for you to face, Sister Rosetta is there to put words to your feelings…
You can follow Five Things on Instagram, and buy the book at Amazon. Click the buttons below…
Aimee Mann Amanda Petrusich Aretha Franklin Barney Hoskyns Bill Colyer Bill Frisell Bob Dylan Bruce Springsteen David Bowie Desert Island Discs Eddie Hinton Every Record Tells a Story Hot House Inside Llewyn Davis Janis Joplin JazzWax John Cuneo Joni MItchell Jonny Trunk Ken Colyer Leonard Cohen Levon Helm likeahammerinthesink London Jazz Collector Marc Myers Mark Pringle Martin Colyer Mavis Staples Michael Gray Miles Davis music Music Documentaries New Yorker Richard Williams rocksbackpages.com Rolling Stone Magazine Ry Cooder Sam Charters Steely Dan Studio 51 The Band thebluemoment.com The Guardian US Esquire Van Morrison
I recently found this isolated vocal track of “Going, Going, Gone” from Planet Waves. It doesn’t seem to be the released take, but it’s fascinating to hear Bob’s unadorned singing [apart from some interesting chords and riffs on his acoustic guitar]. It’s impassioned and dramatic, and the timing is fantastic — listen to the delays on the title phrase.
Nice to have you back, Martin! Like you I have tried with Nyro over the years but I’ve never managed to make it very far.
As always, best
Garth
>
Thanks, Garth, you’re too kind!
I just read your latest issue. Excellent, as always. By the way, have you heard of Hank Dogs? They made two albums, both of which I love. Very dreamy, literate songs. They broke up a long time ago. They deserved big success, but it didn’t come their way.
Thank you, Neil, and I’m not aware of Hank Dogs… off to listen now!
Ooh, they’re really good…
Martin
Great to have you back – I saw Laura Nyro at RFH with Jackson Browne opening in (I think) ’72 and that made a deep impression. I was listening to a copy of Planet Waves the other day to make sure it was saleable and it is today (!) my favourite Bob album. it is so tantalising for you to say you “found” that amazing version of Going Going… it is an astonishing performance – thanks
That’s a double bill, right there… I’m sad that I don’t get LN, but such is life. I love the slightly slapdash quality of Planet Waves, and it has a song that’s in my top Bob ten — “Never Say Goodbye” — for that melody, those evocative words and for Rick Danko’s bass.
For some unknown reason, Bob Leftsetz’s letter letter reminded me of seeing Captain Beefheart at Birmingham Town Hall in 1973. Tickets went on sale at the box office while I was at school so I persuaded my long-suffering mum to go along and queue with every long-haired hippie in the city to buy tickets, priced £1, for me and my friends. When she got to the ticket office she confidently announced that she wanted four tickets for Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons. Luckily, they guessed what she was after.
Brilliant! That’s up there with the John Peel story about circumventing the strict Musician’s Union rules by getting work permits for CB and the Magic Band as if they were actual magicians…