The Quarantine Blues, Mortality Division: R.I.P. John Prine - by Ricki C.

I’m not gonna belabor any points here, or take up a lot of your time with a whole history lesson, I’m just going to say this: I bought John Prine’s first record in 1971 when I was still a hippie because he was marketed as “A New Dylan.” I bought all of “The New Dylan’s” first records: Prine, David Blue, Loudon Wainwright III, later Bruce Springsteen and Elliott Murphy, which was kind of strange because I wasn’t all that big a Bob Dylan fan by the early-1970’s.

To sum up: John Prine was a genius singer/songwriter and I’ll miss him. Here’s three videos I want to offer up as just a tiny sliver of that genius…….

John Prine isn’t the first musician we’ve lost to Covid-19 - and I fear he’s not going to be the last - but I just wanted to throw in my two cents to honor him today. - Ricki C. / 4/9/2020

Ricki C. Saw Bob Dylan & The Hawks Live 50 Years Ago Today. Seriously.

Again, furtherly apropos of the new Band documentary - Once Were Brothers - this story originally ran in 2015.

I saw Bob Dylan live exactly 50 years ago today, November 19th, 1965 (the first time, there have been subsequent viewings/concerts/shows).  That’s kind of mind-boggling to me, partly because in 1965 America was in the middle of Nuclear Apocalypse Fever, and I didn’t think MANKIND would exist in 50 years, let alone me.  (On quite the other hand, the science-fiction stories I read and loved by Ray Bradbury & Harlan Ellison promised me a future of personal jet-packs, bubble cities and human colonies on the moon & Mars in 50 years’ time.  Instead, in 2015 I find myself surrounded by children held in thrall by iPads, asshole hipsters and terrorists in Paris.  This was NOT The Future I was promised.)

But I digress…….

November was a pretty big month for me and rock & roll shows at the now sadly-demolished Veteran’s Memorial Auditorium.  I saw Dylan there on November 19th, 1965, The Doors there on November 2nd, 1968, and The Who (touring Tommy for the first time, and for those of you scoring at home, THE BEST rock & roll show I ever had the privilege to witness) on November 1st, 1969.  There are links about The Doors and The Who shows from my old blog – Growing Old With Rock & Roll – posted  below, but you might wanna check out the Dylan link before I amplify some points.    

Bob Dylan & the Hawks Live, November 19th, 1965 / Growing Old With Rock & Roll

Anyone who doesn’t own (or download or whatever kids do nowadays) the double-CD Bob Dylan Live 1966 (Dylan Bootleg Series vol. 4) should seek it out IMMEDIATELY if you count yourself as ANY kind of fan of rock & roll music.  The electric disc of the set is as riveting a set of music as I’ve ever heard.  This was not a polite back & forth push & shove between audience and performer, this was an all-out 47-minute musical/cultural WAR.  That show – taped in Manchester, England May 17th, 1966, (6 months after I saw virtually the same show) – is the one containing the (in)famous “Judas!” / “I don’t believe you. You’re a liar.  PLAY FUCKING LOUD!” exchange between an irate audience member and Dylan.  Just as I detailed in my blog, the folkie fans of Dylan apparently sat smug & satisfied throughout the acoustic opening half of the show and then revved up the venom for the electric set with The Hawks.  (Or The Crackers,  in Levon Helm’s terminology, later to become the rather neutered entity reverently, politely referred to by adoring hippies as The Band.  My, how the times changed between 1966 and 1968 when Music From Big Pink became a touchstone/talisman for many of the the same people who slow-clapped, booed and otherwise vilified Robbie, Rick, Richard, Garth & various drummers throughout 1965 & 1966.)

Anyway, I allotted myself 500 words for this blog, and I’m getting close, so let me just say this: listen to the audience throwing Dylan & the guys off their game between the end of “I Don’t Believe You” and the beginning of “Baby Let Me Follow You Down” on the aforementioned Bob Dylan Live in 1966.  And then listen to the way Dylan & The Hawks ROAR/BLAST/PUMMEL their way into “Baby Let Me Follow You Down” and tell me that’s not where punk-rock got invented.  (p.s. Listen to that exchange at brain-numbing volume on headphones or don’t bother listening at all.)  - Ricki C.     

(bonus Growing Old With Rock & Roll, November Veteran's Memorial links:)

The Doors Live @ Vet's Memorial / November 2nd, 1968

The Who Live @ Vet's Memorial / November 1st, 1969

Corona's Covers For a Cure: Saturday, March 30th, CD 102.5 Big Room Bar - by Ricki C.

I’ll be playing a set at the third annual Corona’s Covers For a Cure cancer benefit at the CD 102.5 Big Room Bar this Saturday, March 30th, right around 5 pm. The show runs a full eight hours, 4 pm-midnight, details and a full schedule can be found here.

Corona’s Covers For a Cure is a cause that’s kinda near & dear to my heart. Two years ago – late-winter 2017 – I was leaving the Zangmeister Cancer Clinic where my sister Dianne was receiving chemotherapy treatments for colon cancer and I used to go along to hang out with her during her treatments. As I was driving home I heard a commercial on CD 102.5 for the inaugural Corona benefit show, detailing the idea that local rockers would be doing covers by artists lost to cancer. “Hey, I know some Velvet Underground songs,” I said to myself in the car. (Velvets guitarist Sterling Morrison had died in 1995 of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.)

I contacted the station to cadge my way onto the bill and they kindly accepted. That first year Colin Gawel’s League Bowlers also played the show. Bowlers drummer Jim Johnson and myself had been diagnosed with prostate cancer in previous years, so that was another compelling reason to give back to the cause. What none of us could have known in March 2017 was that Mike Parks – the genius lead guitar player of The League Bowlers – would be diagnosed with a particularly virulent strain of stomach cancer in July of 2017 and be taken from us in January 2018, before the SECOND Corona’s Covers For a Cure show even took place.

Dianne passed in November 2017 and my brother Al from complications of congestive heart failure in February 2018, so that second benefit in March 2018 was a tough one to play. But I worked up an original tune to honor all those passings, and deployed my usual helping of Velvet Underground and Mott The Hoople covers. This year will be a little easier, and I’m happy that CD 102.5 and Corona have again given me the privilege of being able to honor the memories of the musicians AND relatives & friends that we’ve lost.

The show is eight hours long, the money you’re gonna pay at the door will help people, you’re gonna get to down some Coronas and kill a few brain cells to aid a good cause for once, rather than just for the hell of it, so you should come out. I’ll see you there. – Ricki C. / March 26th, 2019.

 CORONA’S COVERS FOR A CURE SCHEDULE, 2019

4:00 Doors

4:30-4:55

Dave and Leanna Buker - The Bee Gees

5:05-5:35

Ricki C. - Ramones/Velvets/Mott The Hoople

5:45-6:30

Gregg Molnar - David Bowie

6:40-7:25

Sean Woosley - The Tragically Hip

7:35-8:20

The Kosher Salamis - The Ramones

8:30-9:15

Methmatics - The New York Dolls

9:25-10:10

Loud Pedal - The Beatles

10:20-11:05

Electro Cult Circus - The Beastie Boys

11:15-12:00

Brian Clash & the Coffee House Rebels - The Velvet Underground

Five Life-Changing Rock & Roll Shows - by JCE

I read and enjoyed the recent piece posted here on Pencilstorm called “Tales of My Misspent Youth: Five Concerts That Changed My Life” by Jim Johnson. In keeping with the series of pieces about life-changing records that hung on for several weeks here on Pencilstorm, I thought I would follow Jim with my own list. I’m calling them “shows” because I philosophically struggle to call club gigs “concerts.” And for me, four out of five on my list were in small clubs. I won’t bore you with too much detail, I’ll keep it short. Some of my shows are kind of obscure, so you might be bored anyway. Here goes, in chronological order:

1. Aerosmith w/ Golden Earring, Capital Centre, Landover, MD. If you have read any of the stuff I have posted on Pencilstorm, you should be scratching your head at this one. It’s here because it was my first concert ever, around 1975. My awesome big sister (R.I.P.) took me to this show and launched my life-long love of live rock and roll. I had the best big sister in the world. Notably, the opening act was supposed to be Styx, but they cancelled. Thank God for that.

2. The Stranglers w/ Minor Threat and Bad Brains, Ontario Theater, Washington, D.C. In middle school and high school I was a skateboarder, which led me to being pretty much a punk rocker as well. This was not the first punk show I saw by any means, but it was an early one with a great band from England (I never saw the Pistols or The Clash unfortunately). The openers were D.C. hardcore legends, a scene which later had a major impact on me.

3. Tru Fax and the Insaniacs w/ Jason & the Nashville Scorchers, Nightclub 9:30, Washington, D.C. I saw Tru Fax probably 30 times or more. They were my favorite D.C. band along with the Slickee Boys and Tommy Keene. The opening act is what gets this show on the list however. Jason & the Nashville Scorchers (they dropped the “Nashville” soon after this show) were the best live band I ever saw, second only to The Neighborhoods. I saw them about six times and they were nothing shy of spectacular every time.

4. 98 Colours, The Mineshaft, Charlottesville, VA. I realize that no one has heard of these guys. They never even made a record. But this band became the core of a group of the best friends I could imagine, as we all saw them every time they played, and it was an amazing time in my life. John (drums), Randy (bass, vocals) and David (guitar, vocals) were tremendous friends and they had a huge influence on my life. I doubt I would have met my beautiful wife of 28 years without them. I will tell their story in a future piece if the story is deemed worthy of Pencilstorm.

5. The Neighborhoods, The C&O, Charlottesville, VA. I saw The Neighborhoods many, many times with the Minehan, Harrington, Quaglia line-up. I saw them in Charlottesville every time they played, I saw them in Richmond, Washington, D.C., and even in their hometown of Boston. They are the best live band ever and therefore they MUST be on this list. The show I am picking for the list was one of the first ones I saw, if not THE first, so it is memorable. I was simply blown away. I met the guys a number of times and they were always gracious. My friends in 98 Colours opened for them several times as well. This is a band that means so much to me.

Okay, those are my five. When I sat and thought about a list, I had a dozen. It was tough to narrow down, but these were the most impactful, if not necessarily the best shows I have seen. Thanks for reading. Who’s next with their list? - JCE

Ricki C. and JCE (John, to his friends & family) first bonded over their shared mutual love of Boston's Finest Sons - The Neighborhoods - and everything extended out from that rock & roll ripple.  JCE lives in Culpeper, Virginia with his wife & daughter, and he & Ricki are STILL waiting for the long-rumored NEW Neighborhoods record to be released. Maybe in 2019.