Keith Carradine's "I'm Easy" / Ron Nigrini's "Runaway Story"

Music on Sunday @ The Reaction

By Richard K. Barry

I was out the other night at a club. A friend of mine, who has played music professionally for over forty years, has an annual September gig at a venue in downtown Toronto called Hugh's Room. I usually try to make it. His name is Ron Nigrini.

In 1976, Ron had a Canadian hit with a song written by Keith Carradine for the movie Nashville. The song is called "I'm Easy." I suspect a lot of Americans will remember the Carradine version best, but it was a big deal for Ron north of the border around 1976. Both versions are great in their own ways. Needless to say, Ron sang his version last night to a very appreciative audience.

My co-blogger Michael mentioned that Nashville is one of his favourite movies, though he couldn't immediately place the song.

So for Michael, and anyone else who wants to listen to a first-class tune, here's Carradine singing "I'm Easy" as featured in the movie Nashville.

Below that, just for fun, is a performance by Ron of one of his own tunes called "Runaway Story," performed a couple of years ago at the aforementioned Hugh's Room. If you have some time, I encourage you to check out Ron, who is still writing and performing some great stuff.

(Cross-posted at Lippmann's Ghost.)

Bruce Springsteen: "Youngstown" and "The River"

Music on Sunday @ The Reaction

By Michael J.W. Stickings

I'm all about Bruce Springsteen these days. I posted my revised Top 10 last week, along with a clip of what I think is his best song, "The Ghost of Tom Joad," live with Tom Morello.

Well, let's head back to the well this Sunday evening, the day before Labor Day, with two more of his best -- "Youngstown" (with The E Street Band, Hyde Park, London, 2009) and "The River" (from way back when).

"Youngstown" is from Tom Joad, maybe his best album. It includes these unforgettable lines:

Well my daddy worked the furnaces

Kept 'em hotter than hell

I come home from 'Nam worked my way to scarfer

A job that'd suit the devil as well

Taconite, coke and limestone

Fed my children and made my pay

Then smokestacks reachin' like the arms of god

Into a beautiful sky of soot and clay

Brilliant. (A brilliant vision of hell.)

The Best of Bruce Springsteen -- "The Ghost of Tom Joad," live with Tom Morello

Music on Sunday @ The Reaction

By Michael J.W. Stickings

About a month ago, Richard and I wrote a post on Bruce Springsteen. Richard found a website that ranked, in its view, Springsteen's Top 10 songs, and then I offered my own Top 20 list.

The problem, looking back, is that I did it pretty much off the top of my head. I hadn't listened to The Boss in quite some time (a song here or there, but that's it), and the result was a preliminary list with some songs in the wrong place (for me), not to mention a couple of rather embarrassing omissions (e.g., "The Wrestler"). I'd like to rectify that now.

While on vacation recently, we had a car with Sirius satellite radio, and, as you may know, there's an E-Street channel -- all Springsteen all the time. We listened to it a lot, and, since then, my iPod has been all Springsteen as well. Well, almost. Let's just say I've been listening to him a lot, more so than I have in years, and it's been like reconnecting with an old flame (in a good way). I loved Springsteen in high school and then came back to him on and off over the years. This is serious now. I love him again.

So.

Here's my Top 10:

1. The Ghost of Tom Joad

2. Streets of Philadelphia

3. My Hometown

4. Youngstown

5. The Rising

6. Secret Garden

7. The River

8. Tunnel of Love

9. Atlantic City

10. Brilliant Disguise

Of course, I reserve the right to revise this list as well. A lot depends on my mood. Is "Born in the U.S.A." a great song? Yes, but I don't always want to listen to it. Is The Ghost of Tom Joad, with the title track and the wonderful "Youngstown" his best album? Yes, maybe, often I think so. But sometimes I want the earlier stuff. Etc., etc.

But I'm comfortable with "The Ghost of Tom Joad" and "Streets of Philadelphia" in the top two spots. They're both amazing songs.

I included the video to the latter in our post last month. Now let me include a live clip of the former. It may be the best thing I've ever heard from Springsteen -- live with Tom Morello (of Rage Against the Machine, which did a cover of the song).

Seriously. The. Best. Ever. It's awesome. Maybe it lacks the quieter intensity of the album version, and maybe I can't really choose between the two -- again, it depends what I'm in the mood for -- but... wow. This is truly incredible.

Tom Joad came out in 1995. It lacked the instant-hit qualities of its immediate predecessors, Born in the U.S.A. (1984), Tunnel of Love (1987), Human Touch (1992), and Lucky Town (1992), not to mention the restless energy of his older classics, Born to Run (1975), Darkness on the Edge of Town (1978), and The River (1980), and the more grandiose sentiments of recent efforts like The Rising (2002) and Working on a Dream (2009). Tom Joad has more in common with Nebraska (1982) and perhaps Devils & Dust (2005) than with these other works. (All three are folk-roots albums -- it's like he needs to do one every ten years.)

If Nebraska was a response to the early Reagan years, with capitalism and cruelty ascendent, and if his more recent albums have been responses, to a great extent, to the Bush-Cheney years, with the Iraq War, the new national security state, and brutal Republican class warfare on the poor, if not on the non-rich entirely, Tom Joad was all about the other side, the dark side, the underside of the Clinton-era economic boom of the '90s, back when things seemed so bright, when there was so much optimism, between the fall of the Soviet Empire and 9/11, when it looked like technology could solve all our problems and peace and prosperity were here to stay.

There was peace and prosperity for many, no doubt, but the paradise was an illusion, a delusion. For many, it wasn't real at all. Life was still a nightmare, even if the Dow Jones was skyrocketing and American hegemony seemed at hand. The bubble swelled, profits went through the roof, and champagne flowed down the streets. We know how that ended. The bubble burst. But even at the time, there were countless millions who weren't part of it, who didn't prosper and who for any number of reasons remained on, or where kept on, the margins of a society that had no use for them, that didn't give a damn about them, or that outright hated them.

This is what Tom Joad is about -- those on the margins. Immigrants, laborers, the homeless, the destitute, the disadvantaged and disenfranchised, the helpless and the hopeless. Springsteen tells their stories, and the result is an album as moving as any in the history of American music, an album that is political, an album that is angry and rebellious, but in an understated way, not resigned to fate but also not aggressively violent, an album that is deeply humanitarian, an album that asks us to care, to be more genuinely human.

Tom Joad is strong from start to finish, but, to me, the title track and "Youngstown" stand out. Here, below, are Springsteen and Morello performing "The Ghost of Tom Joad" with The E-Street Band on the 2007-08 Magic Tour. (You can find it, along with a video, on the Magic Tour Highlights EP.)

You can watch another performance of the song here. Here's how Springsteen introduced the song, in the waning days of the George W. Bush presidency:

The roots of rock roll all the way back through Bob Dylan, through Hank Williams, through Pete Seeger, through Woody Guthrie, through Lead Belly, through the fathers of folk music, and people who were engaged in, and who wrote about, what was going on in the world around them. All of us here tonight are fortunate to be in this room. If you pick up the newspapers, you see millions of people out of work, you see a bloodfight over decent health care for our citizens, and you see people struggling to hold onto their homes. If Woody Guthrie were alive today, he'd have a lot to write about, high times on Wall Street and hard times on Main Street.

The spirit of Tom Joad, and of Springsteen's "Tom Joad" is universal, just as the struggle for justice is eternal. We are reminded of this in Canada by the recent death of Jack Layton, a man who stood for, and fought for, those on the margins, those without power, those without much of a voice, those who are so easily dismissed, and so commonly forgotten, in our hyper-capitalist, hyper-consumerist society. 

Now Tom said "Mom, wherever there's a cop beatin' a guy

Wherever a hungry newborn baby cries

Where there's a fight 'gainst the blood and hatred in the air

Look for me Mom I'll be there

Wherever there's somebody fightin' for a place to stand

Or decent job or a helpin' hand

Wherever somebody's strugglin' to be free

Look in their eyes Mom you'll see me."

Immensely powerful. With a message we all should heed -- and embrace as our own.

"In My Life" by Judy Collins for The Wonder Years

Music on Sunday @ The Reaction

By Richard K. Barry

If you grew up in the late '60s and early '70s, maybe went to high school in the early '70s, you might have enjoyed the The Wonder Years, a television program that aired from 1988 to 1993. 



It's not that you wouldn't enjoy the program otherwise, but they did a really good job of tugging at the old hear strings for those of us who could directly relate to this time and the themes depicted. I'm hugely sentimental about this sort of thing and don't care who knows it. 



Although they were never specific about the town depicted, I always assumed it to be a suburb of New York City given the fact that the main character, Kevin Arnold, was a New York Jets and New York Mets fan. Having grown up in the suburbs of New York, I could relate (although I was a Mets and Giants fan). 



All in all, they just did a fine job of getting the period right. 



One thing they did extremely well was to use music to set scenes and evoke emotion. Episode after episode provided yet another opportunity to showcase some of the best music of the period. 



In one scene, the producers used a version of the Beatles' "In My Life," sung by Judy Collins, as the soundtrack for a montage, as was typical for the show (using montages, that is). 



I've always loved this one.

(Cross-posted at Lippmann's Ghost.)

The Traveling Wilburys' "End of the Line"

Music on Sunday @ The Reaction

By Richard K. Barry

Here's a classic. I was at a great poolside party yesterday and the host mentioned that if he were to meet an untimely demise, he'd like the Traveling Wilburys' "End of the Line" to be played at his funeral.

Maybe it's a morbid thought, but I hardly see the harm in taking some control of your final arrangements. Then someone asked if I had any idea what I'd like played for me. The truth is that I haven't turned my mind to it, but maybe now I will.

The Traveling Wilburys were an English-American supergroup made up of Bob Dylan, George Harrison, Jeff Lynne, Roy Orbison, and Tom Petty. Can't really go wrong with that crowd.

They recorded two albums in 1988 and 1990, though Roy Orbison died before the second was recorded.

"End of the Line" is a pretty upbeat song for, well, the end of the line. But maybe that's the way it should be if you've done things right.

(Cross-posted at Lippmann's Ghost.)

Guy Clark: "Dublin Blues"

Music on Sunday @ The Reaction

By Richard K. Barry

Every now and then, I fool around with songwriting. Not that I think I'll ever be any good at it. I don't. But I am so impressed with the craft that I can't help but dabble in the process just on the possibility that something interesting and unexpected might happen when I put words to music.

Mostly I just love great songwriting. If I knew what it was about it that I loved so much maybe I'd be better at it myself, but I do recognize quality when I hear it.

Guy Clark is a phenomenal songwriter. He's had a great career writing mostly in the country / folk / Americana genre. Those who have recored his songs include Jerry Jeff Walker, Johnny Cash, Vince Gill, Ricky Scaggs, Steve Wariner, Alan Jackson, Brad Paisley, Rodney Crowell, Asleep at the Wheel, and Jimmy Buffet. And a lot of artists have charted with songs written by Clark.

He is also known for helping Steve Earle develop his career and for his friendship with the late Townes Van Zandt, whom Clark credits as a major influence in his own songwriting.

There are a lot of names mentioned here that you may know better than Clark's, but he's probably okay with that as long as the royalty checks keep on rolling in.

The song below, "Dublin Blues," performed by Guy Clark, was on my iPod for the longest time. It really does set a mood.

(Cross-posted at Lippmann's Ghost.)

Hot town, summer in the city

Music on Sunday @ The Reaction

By Richard K. Barry

Okay, let's go for the obvious today for our Sunday music post: The Lovin' Spoonful's "Summer in the City."

It was a #1 hit on the Billboard charts in August of 1966 and was written by Mark Sebastian, the brother of band principle John Sebastian, and Steve Boone.

It does a not bad job of giving the feel of sweltering heat in an urban setting, complete with honking car horns and jackhammer sounds. Unbelievable heat in an urban setting is certainly where I found myself this week. I don't think I had ever noticed before that wind could feel that hot.

Anyway, back to the song. The Lovin' Spoonful had a bunch of hits in the mid-'60s, including "You Didn't Have to Be So Nice," "Daydream," and "Do You Believe in Magic."

I've always been partial to the band because they typified the relationship between the earlier folk music scene of the '50s and '60s and what became the rock and pop of the '60, much of which that music influenced. That's one of my hobby-horses, but I won't bore you with it.

As for "Summer in the City," I suppose we can say that something has actually made it as a cultural marker when it's featured on The Simpsons, as the song was in an episode called "Poppa's Got a Brand New Badge."

(As a totally gratuitous aside, John Sabastian had a #1 single in 1976 as a solo act with "Welcome Back," the theme song to the Welcome Back, Kotter television show, which, if you have been living in an alternate universe for awhile, or you're just young (same difference), you may not know was John Travolta's first vehicle to stardom).

Without further ado, I give you "Summer in the City." Stay cool.

(Cross-posted at Lippmann's Ghost.)

"Woman of Labrador" by Figgy Duff

Music on Sunday @ The Reaction

By Richard K. Barry

In a little less than two weeks I will be on my way to Labrador, which is, of course, a part of Newfoundland and Labrador. If you are in the U.S. and don't know a great deal about Canadian geography, get a map, go to the east coast of Canada, find the island of Newfoundland and then go more or less north until you hit Labrador.

My wife was born in a small town in Newfoundland and then relocated to Happy Valley-Goose Bay, Labrador as a child. Her father worked at the U.S. military base there, which may be the only reason I had ever heard of the place growing up in the U.S. It was a stop along the way for American soldiers who had to cross the Atlantic Ocean and in that context I'm fairly sure I'd heard it mentioned now and again.

So, I will be there soon. I am assured it is a beautiful place with breathtaking landscapes. I'm sure that's true. My wife will arrive a week before me for what they call a come home week, which should be pretty self-explanatory. I'm looking forward to it.

The song featured below is called "Woman of Labrador," which is an absolutely haunting tune written by Andy Vine. I know very little about him except that he is still working as a musician on the west coast of Canada and is best known for having written this song.

The performance is by a legendary Newfoundland group called Figgy Duff, with Pamela Morgan on vocals.

(Cross-posted at Lippmann's Ghost.)

Trout Fishing in America -- the band, not the book

Music on Sunday @ The Reaction

By Richard K. Barry

It's the weekend in the middle of the summer and, once upon a time, that meant I would be at a music festival somewhere in North America. Life has gotten busy over the years and more recently I just haven't been able to get to many of these fabulous summer events.

About 25 years ago, I met a couple of guys, who, at that time, were living in Houston, Texas, who had come up to Canada to play at the Summerfolk Festival in Owen Sound, Ontario. The power duo, called Trout Fishing in America, had already been around for a while but they were just starting to blow away audiences in Canada at a few festivals and clubs.

At Owen Sound that first year, I struck up a conversation with the bass player, Keith Grimwood, about baseball, which is a serious addiction for the man. A few years before, Keith's beloved Houston Astros had been beaten by my beloved New York Mets in the epic 1986 National League Championship Series and he and I made a connection about that and some other things and have been friends ever since.

Over the years, we've gotten together at various events all over Canada and the U.S. I even went down to Arkansas, where they now live, to visit several years ago.

Keith and Ezra Idlet, the guitar player in the duo, are what you would call hard working musicians. I've seen them in venues large and small and if you think making a living in the music business is an easy thing, think again. Audiences give plenty back, but I've seen Keith and Ezra jackass serious poundage in equipment up the back stairs of bars over the years to know what I'm talking about.

I've also heard enough stories from these guys, both good and not so good, to fill several dozen blog postings and have even been a party to a few, like the time we almost found ourselves in the middle of riot when some local kids decided to get drunk and trash our campground. (It's a long story). On the up side, I also remember the time we all drove through the night to a gig in New England as the previous night turned into a new day with the sun rising over the Atlantic Ocean. I still remember how that felt.

You should know that Trout Fishing in America is by now a four-time Grammy-Award-nominated band, so I think things are working out for them.

In the clip below they are playing with a number of others, but the group is really the two of them, though the ensemble effect here is really cool. I just picked it off of YouTube, but I think it's a live performance in Lima, Ohio.

If these two come to your town, do check them out. You'll be glad you did.

This number is absolutely one of my favourites. It's called "Murrell's."

(Cross-posted at Lippmann's Ghost.)

Petula Clark takes it "Downtown"

Music on Sunday @ The Reaction

By Richard K. Barry

Weekends are for nostalgia, at least for me. On Saturday nights I can frequently be found surfing Youtube videos for songs long forgotten by most.

Last night I happened upon a clip of Petula Clark singing one of her biggest hits, "Downtown."

I must admit that back in the day I had a rather large crush on Ms. Clark, but who wouldn't? Look at that face. Now, I should also confess that I was awfully young to be having a crush an anyone when this song was released, but it's true nonetheless - color me precocious.

"Downtown" was a hit for her in 1965. It was written by Tony Hatch and, apparently, composed with The Drifters in mind. I did not know that, though that would have been interesting. Something else I didn't know is that Clark re-recorded "Downtown" in 1976 with a disco beat. Oh well, no one's perfect.

Anyway, I love the original and, you will agree, she looks absolutely smashing in this clip, which, as an example of early music videos, is quite the period piece.

(Cross-posted at Lippmann's Ghost.)

Billy Bragg at the Clearwater Festival: June 18, 2011

Music on Sunday @ The Reaction

By Richard K. Barry

I traveled to near New York City for the Clearwater Folk Festival this weekend. I was born and raised a few miles away from the festival site but moved away years ago. I still try to get down for this annual event whenever I can.

If you don't know, this festival has been the brainchild of music and political organizing legend Pete Seeger so, as you might imagine, the weekend has significant elements of political activism associated with it - lots of tables for all sorts of progressive causes in addition to all the great music.

It's a terrific place to pick up clever bumper stickers. For example, my favorite of the weekend was "My Comedy Channel? Fox News. My News Source? Comedy Central." Yeah, that's about right. I picked up a few of those.

Besides 90 plus year old Pete and Arlo Guthrie and so many others, Billy Bragg was there to do a crisp one hour set. If you are at all worried that progressives in America lack the passion to take the fight to the crazies on the right, the audience response to Bragg's message might put your mind at ease. It was quite moving really.

Bragg is a fine musician, but a great speaker and political voice as well. One of the key messages of his stage patter was that we should try to understand the fears of those who have, perhaps only temporarily, aligned themselves with the right-wing. We should continue to respect the source of many of their anxieties as we make our case that their interests are not served by aligning with the likes of Mitt Romney and Michele Bachmann. Good message.

Here's a clip of Bragg doing There is Power in a Union, in this case at the Shrewsbury Folk Festival in England in 2010. He did the same number this past weekend at Clearwater and it was powerful. Excellent stuff.

(Cross-posted to Lippmann's Ghost.)

John Coltrane: "My Favorite Things"

Music on Sunday @ The Reaction

By Richard K. Barry

I like jazz. I even understand it after a fashion having played sax and guitar for a lot of years. On good days I even make a few bucks in a local band, though no one will ever confuse me for a talented jazz musician, in fact, it's blues and rock we play in our band. Still, I get some of the music theory behind jazz and know what I'm listening to when it's being played. Best of all, I know enough to be especially amazed and delighted when real geniuses pick up their axes and do the things they do.

Speaking of which, I've been listening to John Coltrane today. I can't get into everything the man did, particularly the spacier, atonal stuff, but there is so much in his repertoire that is incomparable.

Much as Coltrane's version of "My Favorite Things" may by now be a musical cliche for some, maybe like Brubeck/Desmond on "Take Five," I still rank it among my favorite (both of them, really).

The thing about "My Favorite Things," the title track from a 1961 album, is that it is a modal rendition of the classic. Without getting into too much detail, modal music allows the jazz improviser to really forget about the changes the rhythm section is playing and just get into, as completely as possible, an improvisational head space.

In other words, in more typical jazz improvisation, the soloist has to be thinking a little bit more about what the accompanists are playing and play, more or less, within those chord changes -- with an emphasis on what is changing. In modal music, for reasons that have to do with the purity of the musical structure and the fact that it doesn't change, the soloist can climb inside his or her performance in a way that can be truly magical. Now, I am sure that every Berklee grad can give you ten reasons why what I just said is wrong or oversimplified, but I'm close enough.

This is what Coltrane is doing on "My Favorite Things," as are the other players when it comes their time to improvise.

The instrument Coltrane is playing in the clip is a soprano saxophone, or straight sax. It sounds higher than other saxes but it is played in exactly the same way. I once read that Coltrane liked it because it could be played faster than other larger saxes, like a tenor, which is the instrument with which a lot of people associate him.

Coltrane was known as someone who took very seriously the spirituality of music. The clip is about 10 minutes long, and, if you are anything like me, and have the time to listen all the way through, I think you will notice it is simply and purely a meditative experience. Very cool.

I should say that it's McCoy Tyner on piano, Elvin Jones on drums, and Steve Davis on bass.

(Cross-posted to Lippmann's Ghost.)

Phil Ochs - protest singer for his time and ours

Music on Sunday @ The Reaction

By Richard K. Barry

A few weeks ago a friend gave me a copy of a relatively new documentary about the life and times of singer-songwriter Phil Ochs. Ochs wasn't all that famous in his own time and certainly is not a name that would mean much to those who didn't live through the 60s, but he was a very talented example what I suppose would be called a writer and singer of protest songs.

The doc is called There But For Fortune. I think it has been in theatres. In any case, I highly recommend it. It is very well done though quite sad as it depicts Ochs' rise and fall, which culminated in his suicide in the mid-70s.

The music in it is amazing and it reminds us how much the man had to say and how he left us way too soon.

A while back I wrote something in defence of Bob Dylan to counter the claims by some that his concert in China recently in no way attempted to chastise the Chinese government over their human rights record. He didn't even sing the songs that might have carried that kind of message like Blowin' in the Wind and The Times They Are aChanging. Fine, but as I wrote, while Dylan penned some fine songs that have been used to good effect as protest vehicles, he rejected the label of protest song singer. By his own admission, he did this in part because he understood that such a label was likely to be career limiting.

In contrast, Phil Ochs seemed to run headlong in the direction of protest, with lyrics that could not be mistaken for anything other than what they were: an attempt to take the stuffing out of those responsible for injustices and all manner of unfairness in our society wherever it might be found.

Not to crap on Dylan because I really do love his music, but many of his tunes we typically think of as protest songs are oblique enough to appeal to a wider audience and don't always perhaps name the injustice so boldly, which can serve to make a wider audience more comfortable with what he is saying. I know it's not that cut and dried, but as a rule protest songs tend to be a little more ham-fisted and Dylan was/is more "artistic" than that.

Ochs, on the other had, while very clever, tended to name the beast even if it meant taking a swipe at those who were more on his own side.

For example, in one introduction to the tune featured below, Ochs defines a liberal as "ten percent to the left of center in good times. Ten percent to the right of center if it effects them personally."

The song is Love Me, I'm a Liberal and for my money it speaks across generations to the difficulty many progressives continue to have holding true to their principles especially if they are largely driven by the requirements of electoral success. On that point, I note that the picture below features Ochs at a campaign rally for 1968 Democratic presidential hopeful Eugene McCarthy. If that means nothing to some of you, I would not be at all surprised.

Have a listen to Ochs below, and listen closely to the lyrics. You'll be glad you did.

(Cross-posted to Music Across the 49th)

Moby: "Pale Horses"

Music on Sunday @ The Reaction

By Michael J.W. Stickings

I like Moby. A lot.

Emerging from his roots on the club scene, Play (1999) and 18 (2002) were great (and justifiably celebrated) breakthrough albums that took his ambient, chill-out sound mainstream, pop electronica but with such amazing depth and such transcendent feeling that it stands apart, at least to me, from anything else of its kind.

His latest album, Destroyed (2011), is the latest addition to my iPod. It's really good, if somewhat derivative and not quite at the level of his best work. And his best work, I think, is Wait For Me (2009), less pop than Play but in a way the epitome of everything Moby is about as an artist, an artist at the very peak of his talents.

It isn't often that I listen to an album all the way through for the first time and without reservation consider it a masterpiece. I'm not talking about Sgt. Pepper's or Dark Side, just about new albums that have come out in recent years. Green Day's American Idiot comes to mind, as does Portishead's Third. I'd also say God is an Astronaut's All is Violent, All is Bright, and maybe Vienna Teng's Dreaming Through the Noise and Thea Gilmore's Avalanche. (You get the point. I'm sure you have your own list.)

Well, Wait For Me belongs in that exclusive category. It's an incredible album, and if you're not familiar with it, I recommend it highly. One of its best songs is "Pale Horses." Here's the video. Enjoy.

Pink Floyd, reunited: David Gilmour joins Roger Waters for "Comfortably Numb"

Music on Sunday @ The Reaction

By Michael J.W. Stickings

This hardly needs an introduction. Pink Floyd fans everywhere know just how significant this was. I am still in awe.

Last year, David Gilmour told Roger Waters that he would join him to perform "Comfortably Numb" on Waters's tour of The Wall. It was a return favour for Waters performing with Gilmour at a Hoping Foundation charity event. It was just a matter of when and where, but London seemed to make sense, and last Thursday, at London's O2 Arena, there was Gilmour atop the wall, and for a brief time, I'm sure, the world seemed perfect.

I heard about it on Twitter and quickly went to YouTube. A clip was up, but it wasn't the whole song. The next day, I went to Brain Damage, my favourite Floyd site, and found what I was looking for, a clip of the whole song along with a second of "Outside the Wall," the show's final song, performed after the wall comes crashing down, the most intimate part of the show. Gilmour was there again, and so was Nick Mason, Floyd's drummer.

These are the three remaining members of Pink Floyd. (Rick Wright, the keyboardist, died in 2008 -- see here and here. Syd Barrett, one of the band's founding members, died in 2006 -- see here.) I cannot really explain what it means to me, and of course to so many others, to see the three of them together again, if only for a short time, if only for a couple of songs. Live8 was incredible, and this... this was what so many of us had dreamed about for so long. Yes, of course, I'd love it if they would reunite for a tour, but that might be hoping for too much. These one-offs seem more likely, and they are amazing.

Pink Floyd has been my music since I was a teenager. I have fairly eclectic tastes and I like a lot of music, a lot of different singers and musicians. I have thousands and thousands and thousands of songs on my iPod. But Floyd has always been much different for me. I love them and their music in a way that goes well beyond anything else. It is deeply personal for me, an indescribable connection that seems to go to my very core.

I saw Gilmour, Wright, and Mason as Pink Floyd at Foxboro Stadium in Massachusetts in 1994. I saw Gilmour here in Toronto several years ago. I saw two of Waters's Dark Side shows, and, last year, two Wall shows, in Toronto and also in Buffalo. There were times at both Wall shows when I felt like I would just break into tears, so intense were my feelings. I could hardly believe it was real, that I was really there, and the sheer enormity of it all really got to me. This music, my music, the music that had been with me for so long, for so much of my life, the soundtrack of my life, that was what was being performed, and it overwhelmed me.

And that was without Gilmour. I can hardly imagine how I would have felt had I been there on Thursday in London. All I can say is that for all that Pink Floyd has meant to me, and for all that Pink Floyd has gone through over the years, it is so wonderful that at long last there is peace, that Gilmour and Waters can perform together, and with Mason as well, briefly reunited, reconciled, making us all so extremely happy.

Here, via Brain Damage, are the clips. Enjoy. 

Paul Simon's got a new album

Music on Sunday @ The Reaction

By Richard K. Barry 

I saw Paul Simon at Massey Hall in Toronto last night. Great show. He's flogging a new album called So Beautiful or So What, which is getting terrific notices.

If I counted correctly, he's got an eight-piece band with him that is simply unbelievable. I loved it when the lead guitarist picked up a baritone sax or when the drummer started playing rhythm guitar. It seemed like these guys could do anything. And the tenor sax player was making me crazy -- almost enough for me to throw my own horn in the dustbin (not quite).

Most people know this, but Paul Simon is not a nostalgia act -- never has been. There was never any fear that the audience would become frustrated that he didn't play enough of the older hits because everyone was there to hear what the man can do, what he can still do as he quickly approaches 70. Not that he isn't a consummate showman, though, so, yes, he trotted out a few of the classics from the '60s and the '70s.

For a long time now his thing has been about a great rhythm section, world music influences, always great songwriting, and superb musicianship. It was nice to see lots of young people in the audience as well.

Here's something from the new album called "The Afterlife."

(Cross-posted at Music Across the 49th.)