Bob Dylan & The Band | "I'm Not There (1956)"

    

[Don't let the slideshow disturb the song. Slap on some ear goggles and let it play.]

As Duke Ellington said about his favorite music and musicians, this song is beyond category. Recorded in 1967 during The Basement Tapes sessions, "I'm Not There (1956)" is to Dylanologists the ultimate Gordian knot or the Borgesian Aleph that, if deciphered, can uncover the secrets to the universe, or perhaps just to Dylan's brain. Both equal in importance. Greil Marcus wrote that "There is nothing like 'I'm Not There'...in the basement recordings, or anywhere else in Bob Dylan's career. It was only recorded once; unlike others of the new basement songs, which Dylan rerecorded or continued to feature on stage thirty years later, it was never sung again."

Other than Dylan's strumming, Rick Danko on bass and Garth Hudson on the organ are the most prominent players. Of Danko, composer Michael Pisaro says:

[He] plays as if he knows that all his life this song has been waiting for him to complete it, and that he will only be given one chance.

(The only legal release of this song is included in the soundtrack to the biopic of the same name released in 2007.)

The "(1956)" is part of the song's title, just as much a mystery as the lines, "And I don't bart-believe/it's all bag for tebusing." Or, more specifically, as Pisaro says:

It's almost as though he has discovered a language or, better, has heard of a language: heard about some of its vocabulary, its grammar and its sounds, and before he can comprehend it, starts using this set of unformed tools to narrate the most important event of his life.

It's not that the lyrics are indecipherable, it's that they aren't meant to be deciphered. Part of the song's enduring appeal is that the listener must surrender to it, to the repetitious chord patterns in the verses and refrains, to the made up words and strange syntax, to everything, including the emotion. Dylan's vocal delivery in "I'm Not There (1956)" is undoubtedly one of the most affecting of his career. His voice is soaked in melancholia, nostalgia, and regret. A threnody with only a shadow of a story. Unlike other Dylan songs from this period, the narrative arch is not so much disrupted as it is fragmentary and paradoxical. There are two characters, and something happens, who knows what, but something happens. And simultaneously, the characters are both present and absent. Physically, emotionally, it doesn't matter. When Dylan sings "I'm not there/I'm gone," it's a cosmic statement.

Porter Batiste Stoltz, featuring Page McConnell | Moodoo

   

Mix some New Orleans voodoo funk with a dash of Page McConnell, what do you get? A little something called Moodoo. Porter Batiste Stoltz are a trio extracted from the current Funky Meters, a post breakup amalgam of the remaining original Meters, the meatiest and grittiest of the heavyweight funk crews. Original bassist George Porter Jr. is joined by post-reunion members Russell Batiste on drums and Brian Stoltz on guitar while keyboardist Art Neville is absent. According to some reports, since this concert was held in Vermont, Page McConnell, the keyboardist from Phish, was attending this show anyway. The guys from PBS invited him onstage, and they jammed together for almost two sets, the highlights of which are included in this disc.

The Meters are the most important New Orleans funk outfit, and their particular style has inspired countless bands and genres. If you thought their sound was spare even with Neville on organ, dig how they sound with no keys on three of the album's nine tracks. In "Comin' At Ya," Porter and Stoltz harmonize on riffs and licks, but when Stoltz pulls away to solo Porter takes off in an opposite direction, hitting the chord changes while also creating new grooves and rhythms. Batiste holds down the fort while his band members take flight. As they say during some stage banter, Batiste is the "guardian of the groove." Amen to that.

After their touchstone cover of Curtis Mayfield's "Check Out Your Mind," the band rips into a medley that incorporates an original Meters track and two covers, one by Sly & the Family Stone and the other by Bob Dylan. In Stoltz's live album Up All Night, the medley begins with "Funky Miracle" and segues into "Rainy Day Women #12 & 35." In this concert, they squeeze Sly's "Sing a Simple Song" in the middle. Though the first segue is seamless, the final one is a little awkward. When Stoltz begins to play the song's chords, McConnell drops out. You can hear him realize what song it is about 20 seconds later when he begins playing the song's piano part.

McConnell joins the band in "I Get High," a funkafied strut that begins with the immortal lyrics, "When I'm walking down the street/I love to walk behind you/it's so wonderful to see/that the Lord has been so kind to you." When Batiste is on the ride, McConnell steps up as Stoltz plays some descending chords and Porter fills the middle. Unexpectedly, Porter and McConnell drop out in the first part of Stoltz's solo. With no bass or keys, there is no bottom to the track, which gives the sensation that the band is precariously floating. Ah, but when the whole band jams as an ensemble.  Each member is riffing off the main melody, even Batiste who relies on the melody for his accents; so though the group may sound disjointed and skeletal, they are spectacularly tight and economical. Porter, the underrated bass king, knows exactly where to be at every single instant. Sometimes he's harmonizing with Stoltz, other times he's locked in tight with Batiste, and others he's on his own. Imagine many tetherballs attached to one pole, each tetherball is either McConnell, Stoltz, or Porter, and the pole is Batiste.

My Morning Jacket vocalist injured

About 30 minutes into My Morning Jacket's show at the University of Iowa, Jim James "inadvertently stepped off the stage. Upon falling, he suffered traumatic injuries to his torso, and was immediately taken to the hospital," according to the band's statement. [See band's statement below]. We hope he has a speedy recovery.

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As some of you may have heard we had to cancel our show last evening in Iowa City.  We were finishing up the last few bars of "Off The Record and just like any other night we were all having a great time.  Jim went to get closer to the audience on his side of the stage, and as he moved forward to step onto the sub-woofer the lights darkened, and he inadvertently stepped off the stage.  Upon falling, he suffered traumatic injuries to his torso, and was immediately taken to the hospital.

Per the doctor's orders, Jim will be off the road and recovering from his injuries for the next two to three weeks. Sadly, we must postpone the two shows in Chicago on Thursday and Friday until further notice.

For those who attended the Iowa City show, we would like to extend our gratitude for your understanding and cooperation.  We take our fans and performances very seriously, and would never cancel a show unless it was absolutely necessary.  Please know that we will be making every effort to return to your fine city.

Thank you so much to our fans for the kind sentiments and well-wishes on Jim's behalf.  We hope for Jim's quick recovery and to be back out on the road soon.

With Love,
My Morning Jacket

Bombass Groove of the Week #2

"Come Take Me" by Betty Davis, from her self-titled album.

Bombass Groove of the Week #2.mp3

Today's Tom Toles cartoon

Sarah Palin: Our neighboring country of Afghanistan

Sarah Palin's ongoing war with geography, the English language, rationality, and plain old "know-what-the-fuck-you're-talking-about" have reached a head. On Sunday, Palin was giving a speech in San Francisco when she referred to Afghanistan as "our neighboring country." In a quip a few hours later, she said she was "just trying to give Tina Fey more material - job security for Saturday Night Live."

I don't even know where to start with those comments. First, Tina Fey doesn't work at SNL anymore. She sporadically contributes now that her program 30 Rock has blown up. Second, what's up with "job security?" It reminds me of the Katie Couric interview where Palin ranted for minutes on as many topics as possible in order to confuse Katie, and then added, very matter-of-factly, that it was all about job security. It appears that the more you repeat your own gaffes, the more people think it's cute.

What follows is a fictional exchange between a male Palin supporter (isn't it funny the GOP ticket is now McCain-Palin?) and a female Obama supporter.

Male Palin supporter: Sarah Palin is so hot. Did you see how she winked at the debate? It made me sit up straight.

Female Obama supporter: She didn't answer most questions, and even when she did, she quoted wrong information, made up names for established political actors, and basically attempted to McCain-ize her arguments (endlessly repeating manipulated, often false information, in hopes of people saying, "Well, if she's saying it all the time, it must be true.")

Male Palin supporter: You are so sexist! If that was a man, you wouldn't say any of the things you just said.

Female Obama supporter: Actually if it were a man I'd say he's an damn idiot. Exhibits A and B: Dan Quayle and George W. Bush.

Male Palin supporter: Those two people you just mentioned are some of the most patriotic figures in our history. You are un-American and unpatriotic. I hope McCain shows that johnny-come-lately what being American is all about.

Female Obama supporter: This is hopeless. For the sake of this country and our place in the world, I truly hope and pray that you lose.

Sarah Palin's SNL VP Debate

Queen Latifah stars as Gwen Ifill and Tina Fey reprises her brilliant performance as Sarah Palin. Keep in mind Palin ignored many of Ifill's questions and proceeded to talk about whatever she wanted to. Here is an excerpt of Fey as Palin in her closing remarks:

"I liked being here tonight answering these tough questions

without the filter of the mainstream 'gotcha' media with their

'follow up questions,' 'fact-checking' or 'incessant need to 

figure out what your words mean and why ya put them in that order.'"

I have yet to hear a more transparent interpretation of Palin's bullshit innocuousness.

Unrelated but equally important, the AP reports Palin made a "racially tinged" attack on Barack Obama that is "exaggerated at best if not outright false."