"Live Anthology" -- worth the expense

[JakeK]

Been pretty busy lately with college courses, preparing for my exams, plus I got a new job as a worker in a shipping store (like a UPS store, but with UPS, FedEx and regular US Postal Service stuff) for the holidays, so this month is going to be spent probably without me.

For once in my life, I don't feeling like getting presents for Christmas from anyone, not wanting any new guitars (aside from needle-in-haystack offers to two members on two different guitars, one that sold before I could get to it and the other which is a no-sell) for Christmas, being satisfied with the three sole guitars and one amp in my collection (Deluxe Reverb, '62 AVRI Strat, 360/12V64 and 1997), and realizing if anything new comes along, I will wait 'til I have the cash and I've completely thought it out, and right now, it looks like I have. Another psychological explination of not wanting a new guitar is due to the epiphany I had, I never really wanted a girlfriend, and I constantly bought and sold guitars to recreate the feeling of having a girlfriend in my life. When I realized I never really wanted a girl, the need for new stuff stopped.

ANYWAY...

while December won't see much action from me here, I would like to tell you that I have picked up a copy of the new TP "Live Anthology" (Deluxe Edition!), and it really kicks butt and is worth the expense. From 1978-2007, the band truly has picked out their best performances (aside from the live versions of "Change of Heart" and "Makin' Some Noise" as well as the Fillmore takes on "You Don't Know How It Feels" and "You Wreck Me") and there isn't a bad song on it. The standout from Tom's original tracks are "Nightwatchman", "A Thing About You", "Here Comes My Girl", "Straight Into Darkness", "Refugee", "It's Good to Be King", "Angel Dream", "Mary Jane's Last Dance", "Jammin' Me", "The Wild One, Forever", "Spike", "Surrender" (better than the "Anthology Through the Years take), "American Girl", "The Waiting", "Crawling Back to You", "I Won't Back Down", "Free Fallin", "Century City", "Southern Accents", "Have Love Will Travel" and "Too Much Ain't Enough". From the covers, "Something in the Air", "I Just Want to Make Love to You", "Diddy Wah Diddy", "Green Onions", "I'm a Man", "Born in Chicago" and "Oh Well".

I was really put off that they included "My Life/Your World", which Benmont thinks sounds like Michael Jackson. I agree with Benmont. While I can tolerate it, it's not a song I'd volunteer to listen to on a regular basis.

Stan Lynch is one heck of a harmony singer, and as JB said, there's something about a singing drummer. Ringo Starr always kept a steady beat, so it would be easy for him to sing and play drums, but Stan can rock like Keith Moon and still sing. Moon himself couldn't sing and play drums (have a look at this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jsFKWGlrze0 to see what I mean), but Stan really can. Better than Steve Ferrone? Well...you got me there.

Steve Ferrone is good, too, and can do a lot. When doing the blues, he gets a sort of Charlie Watts kind of vibe for the whole thing, always keeping a steady hand on the drum. His playing is just phenominal. He puts his own spin on "Mary Jane's Last Dance", in a different way than Stan. Better? No, different, yes. Good drummer, one of my favorites.

Benmont Tench got better with playing as he got older, and as the band progressed. He can boogie-woogie on the piano, he can either attack it like he did in "Refugee" or he can play it like Billy Preston as if it's a Gospel tune. His voice isn't bad either (he sings harmony in "Casa Dega" on the '78 Santa Monica Civic Center DVD), and you can easily tell his voice and Stan's apart.

Scott Thurston is a versatile performer, he can sing, play guitar, ukuele, harmonica, synthesizer, whatever, he still has his thing going and that's just perfectly fine. He and Tom have different styles of harmonica playing, on "You Don't Know How It Feels", for example, Tom's playing on the studio version is more bluesy and isolates notes more, while Scott's approach live sounds more like Bob Dylan's style of playing. However, I couldn't imagine Tom playing the bluesy harmonica that Scott does in "I Just Want to Make Love to You" (this sounds closer to Muddy Waters original than to the Stones. The Stones' version was the one I was thinking of), "I'm a Man" (more like The Yardbirds' take on it than Bo Diddley/Muddy Waters) or "Born in Chicago"

Mike Campbell. His talent is a book in itself. The man is exteremly talented. From the get go in "Nightwatchman" right up to the closing track of "County Farm" he's on fire in every song. He also leads the band into a jam of the Ventures' "Goldfinger" on disc 3. His playing never ceases to amaze me. Tom once said "when people often think of a lead guitarist, they often take Mike for granted and have to be reminded about how talented he really is". I agree with that statement, and Mike truly is one of my favorite guitarists.

Ron Blair and Howie Epstein have very different styles of playing. Ron's approach for it is more bass-oriented and rich with mostly flatwound strings (although I have a picture of Ron in '78 with his Jazz bass strung with Rotosounds) alternating between picks and fingers, whereas Howie takes bass playing like Paul McCartney, from a guitar background, using mostly a flat-pick. I don't think Howie's ever played a song with his fingers. But whether it's Howie playing a Ron song, or Ron playing a Howie song, it always works.

And from the DVDs, my favorite of the two was the Santa Monica Civic Center performance. It includes "Refugee", performed live for the first time, and if I had been listening to that song at that concert, I would guess that "Refugee" would be a hit. Something else noteworthy: they open the show with "I Need to Know", and rather than using his Fender Broadcaster or his '55 Les Paul Goldtop, he uses his '63 620/12 CM108 with heavy fuzz from a Super Beatle. He uses it again on "Casa Dega" and the jangle pours from the amp. Tom uses a Strat for the first half of the show, but by the time he's ready to play "Refugee", he switches to a Flying V. "Mystery Man" is also performed, and it sounded great. The best song from the show is "Too Much Ain't Enough".

So, if you're looking to buy this album, go for it. I have attached a cool picture of Mike and the Ric from the Civc Center concert.

That's it from me for this month. PEACE!

[8mileshigher]

Good synopsis of the Live anthology tracks. Thanks.

By the way, you mention three guitars --- don't you still have that "project" Ric to fix-up ?