Danny Gatton - Harrisburg, Pa 3/28/91

If you read any of the Guitar and Music focused magazines in the early '90s you most likely came across the name of Danny Gatton.  To the music loving locals of the Washington D.C. area, Danny had been a fixture for nearly 20 years at the ripe young age of 49.  To the rest of us, he was a refreshing newcomer who's style was deeply influenced by such greats as Scotty Moore, Luther Perkins, and Buddy Holly.

Besides a deep love for the traditions of country and blues, Danny Gatton was a player's player with his incredible technique and keep-it-simple approach to his equipment.  Sure, he had a few pedals, a slide, and a few other effects.  But, you listen to his playing and you know you are getting 100% Danny with production kept to a minimum.

While there have been quite a few releases after his death, Danny Gatton had 2 releases on Elektra, 88 Elmira Street, which was nominated for a Grammy, and Cruisin' Deuces.  Danny incesant love of playing live that besides giving his devoted fans, and many others, the chance to see him, it meant that there are quite a few live recordings of him of varying quality.

The Harrisburg, Pa gig was typical gig of this period recorded by the sound man onto DAT.  While there are a few drops/glitches, it is a very solid recording which very much captures his talent along with those of his band.  As is the case with so many great musicians, they tend to surround themselves with others who can surely plan.

Enjoy this first installment of my Guitar Legends series which you can down load from here.

Announcing The Guitar master series... players for the real fans

There are certain players I worship.... Jeff Beck, Jimmy Page, SRV, Jack White, Satriani, Zappa, etc.... There are quite a few who really are amazing that 99.99999999999999999999 of you all have never heard of .... but like everyone else, someone took the time to record them and in my trading adventures over the years..... I took the time to get ahold of various recordings.  You don't need 25,000 plus in the audience to see something quite incredible.  As the years go by, they get both more legendary as well as more forgotten.  I believe they call that a paradox!!!!!

So, I am announcing my Guitar Legend series of the forgotten/ignored greats..... There will be no Clapton, Beck, Page, Vai, etc... Instead, for your listening enjoyment.

1. David Lindley
2. Danny Gatton
3. Mick Ronson
4. Lowell George
5. Daniel Ash
6. Junior Marvin
7. Snowy White
8. Bob Mould
9. Brian May
10. Mick Taylor
11. Paul Kossoff

Many of these amazing players have been members of some of the most memorable bands of the last 40 years... Little Feet,  Sugar, Husker Du, The Wailers, Queen, FREE, The Spiders From Mars, Love and Rockets, Bauhaus, The Rolling Stones, etc.  Sometimes the years pass a by and we forget.  Well, I haven't.  Look for a Guitar legend for download in the near future.

Eric

Back to the Future: The 80s volume 1 - The Smiths - Smiths 'Thank Your Lucky Stars: Live USA 1986'

How does one become a Smiths fan?  I am not even sure I can remember how I came to know about them.  Sure, I was an angst ridden kid like so many disaffected youth sleep walking through the suburban experience known as high school.  Still, I was rocker.  I had my pin adorned jacket with all the fashionable rock bands....Maiden, Priest, The Who, Stones, Thin Lizzy etc.  with a little mystery tossed in... Bob Marley, U2, and Big Country.  Whilst my crowd was firmly rooted in the 80s, which is firmly established by the ghastly photos that serve as a reminder, there is no doubt that we were indeed there! 

Almost immediately, freshman year brought me to WKNH... if ever there were a bastion of musical pretention, it is indeed college radio!!!!  The Smiths were one of THOSE bands our membership had firmly established as a MUST....

The Smiths are a wonderful mix of superior songwriting mixed with outstanding musicianship.  You really don't know whether to pay attention to what Morrissey is droning on about or lock into the guiar playing of the amazing Johnny Marr.

You always felt that excesses of 80s were not sustainable.  Everything about that decade felt like a coke bender gone awry.  The Smiths were no different in that respect.  Behind the scenes, the constant demand for 'product' was taking its toll on the relationship of the band's two protagnonists, Marr and Morrissey.    And so, with the release Strangeways Here We Come and the subsenquent tour, the band called it a day.

This recording from The Queen is Dead tour, a compilation of songs from that tour, was recorded during what is considered there artistic and commercial peak is a fabulous high quality soundboard recording.  Sadly, you can already here the strain of near constant recording and touring by the band .

I hope you enjoy this show which you can download from here.

Eric

Back to the Future: The 80s revisited

For whatever reason, I've had numerous reminders of the 80s .  Hanging out with Aiden Irish, cruising through Manchester, NH, and hearing a review of the new Smiths box set certainly helped.  While there are plenty of folks who just assume forget about the 80s, I had a fabulous time and made some musical discoveries that have lasted for the rest of my life.  With that in mind, I will be sharing some of the better recordings from the following artists.

1. The Smiths
2. Marillion
3. Big Country
4. U2
5. R.E.M.
6. 10,000 Maniacs
7. INXS
8. Rockpile with Dave Edmunds and Nick Lowe
9. Elvis Costello and the Attractions
10. Bryan Ferry
11. Talking Heads
12. Husker Du

Mixed in with my release schedule, expect to see these soon!!!!!!

Lynyrd Skynyrd, Memphis Blues (1973) and assorted morsels

Lynyrd Skynyrd was famous for its three-guitar attack, as Allen Collins, Gary Rossington and Steve Gaines (who replaced Ed King) – the axe wielders during the band’s mid-‘70s heyday, when they recorded their classic live album, One More For From the Road – wailed away with their fingers flying and their long hair blowin’ in the breeze.

Little known fact: for a time in the late ‘70s, Lynyrd Skynyrd had a fourth guitarist. Every time they hit the stage to crank through their country-tinged blues rockers and sped-up boogie woogie tunes, from the anti-gun ode “Saturday Night Special” to classic rock staple “Freebird,” there was an extra man on stage. Hitting all the notes, whooping it up with the boys, sweating under the hot lights, this extra string bender put in the work, but never got any of the glory.

I was that unsung hero.

I jammed with the band every chance I got, usually when my parents weren’t home, and I could freely make a fool of myself with my air guitar in their living room. I was 11 years old when One More For From the Road came out, and spent a lot of time over the next few years playing the hell out of it.

OK, anyway, back to reality, and a bit of history.

The band started out in 1964 as the Noble Five, and after some personnel changes, changed their name to Lynyrd Skynyrd in mock tribute to a gym teacher who was anti-longhair.

The band put out four albums -- Pronounced Leh-nerd skin-nerd, Second Helpings, Nuthin’ Fancy and Gimme Back My Bullets -- by early 1976.

Over Labor Day weekend in '76, both Collins and Rossington were in serious car accidents, which slowed down their tour and the recording of their fourth album, Street Survivors.

In October 1977 the band’s chartered plane crashed en route to Louisiana, killing singer Ronnie Van Zant, guitarist Gaines, and Gaines’ sister, back-up singer Cassie, as well as three others. The remaining members of the band all suffered serious injuries.

The band broke up after the tragedy, although the members played in a variety of other bands before reuniting in 1987 for a tour. Over the ensuing 25 years, the band has undergone countless personnel changes. In some cases, band members died; in other cases, they were kicked out or left. Keyboardist Billy Powell died in 2009, leaving Rossington as the only pre-plane crash member still in the band.

But tragedy and drama aside, the show available at the link below features 11 great tracks from the band’s early days (including "Freebird," natch) when they looked like this…

…and all they had to worry about was playing music, passing by the barber shop, slipping on some bellbottoms and finding the next party.

Here's the show, the first five songs from which were recorded in Memphis in '73, the remaining six of which were recorded in London in '76. Enjoy!

The Clash - Take the 5th!: The Palladium NYC, NY (9/21/79)

The Clash rock the Palladium!!!!!



 Do I really care when it was, exactly, that I first heard 'I Fought the Law?'  Nope.  It was 1982 and the lads were slated to open for my beloved WHO in Toronto, Canada but instead blew them off, to be replaced by Joe Jackson, so they could ponce about on Saturday Night Live.  After the reception Joe Jackson got, it's probably a good thing!

History is really lovely.  The Pistols were getting all the publicity thanks to Malcolm McLaren and Sid.  They couldn't play their instruments but they sure as hell knew how to play a crowd.  Instead of making complete asses out of themselves, The Clash, led by Joe Strummer and Mick Jones with Topper Headon on drums and Paul Simmonon on bass, chose a different path.  These working class lads had had enough of the way things were in England and were determined to have the last word!  As usual, we Americans were WAY behind the curve and didn't see the first Clash record, aptly titled The Clash, for quite a while later... and sadly remixed to make it more palatable for our sensitive ears!

The those jackasses at Epic send along a Hollywood walla to produce Give'em Enough Rope and it seemed like the powers that be were determined to crush them.... Frankly, great songs HORRIBLE production!

With one more chance and forced into signing a deal that the surviving members of the band are STILL trying to unwind, LONDON CALLING arrived!  As a huge fan of Mott the Hoople, it came as a significant surprise that the mad hatter himself, Guy Stevens, was at the production helm.  While the mulahs at the record company were tearing their hair out, The Clash in a matter of weeks cranked out one of THE GREAT records of the past 30 years....Released in the fall of 1979 in the UK and early 1980 in the United States, London Calling went on to be their biggest success and one the most successful records of the past few decades.

With the opening notes of London Calling, an antehm still on heard on radion stations far and wide, Joe was letting us all know we'd all better strap in!  I still get chills when I crank Koka Kola, Wrong'em boyo, and Clampdown!

This show was recorded before London Calling was released and barely a few weeks after its release in the UK.  The band were still playing quite a few numbers from Give'em Enough Rope and their debu record with a fair number of new songs that would only increase as the tour went on.  Originally this was recorded for radio broadcast which was common in those days.  So, without further note, I give you The Clash - Take the 5th!: Live at the Palladium 9/21/79

Pink Floyd Wesfalhalle Dortmund, Germany 1/23/77 Disc 2

Glad to announce that I've put disc 2 in mp3 format up for download here.  The disc contains ALL of Wish You Were Here along with the encore of Money and Us and them.  I hope you enjoy it.  If I get feedback indicating a desire for it in apple lossless, I will gladly put it up.

Eric

Pick Your Poison Release Schedule for January and February

Someone close to me suggested that we the folks here at Pick Your Poison should put out a schedule of releases.  The more I've thought about it the more I agree.  While I'm uncertain who will write the review/notes/thoughts about the release, I can say this is what we'll put out through Feb. and the dates.  In general, we'll target the Wednesday of each week.

1. The Clash - Take the 5th!: The Palladium NYC, NY (9/21/79) - week of January 23th
2. Lynyrd Skynyrd - Memphis Blues and Assorted Morcels (10/30/73) - week of January 30th
3. The Grateful Dead - New Years at the Coliseum Oakland, Ca. (12/31/87)-week of Feb 7
4. Bob Marley & The Wailers - Auf Wiedersehen Dortmund: Dortmund, Germany (6/12/80) week of Feb 14th
5. The Rolling Stones - Brussels Affair: Brussels, Belgium (10/17/73) - week of Feb 21th
6. RUSH - Experiences to Extremes Milwaukee, Wi (6/24/84) - week of Feb 8th

All of these releases are of amazing quality ranging from outright soundboard recording to outstanding audience sound.  Feel free to let us know if you have an artist you are interested in, as you'd be surprised at what we have in store for the future!!!!!!

David Bowie One Night in Buffalo 3/24/04

I've always thought of concerts as a form of travel log.  The artist is visiting your town and the set of songs is his narrative of the visit as seen through the songs he's playing.  While the setlist may not vary night to night, the energy, the banter, the body language are all statements about what's on the mind of Thin White Duke...And hey, he's invited you along for the ride, what a deal!

"The Return of the Thin White Duke
 Throwing Darts in lovers' eyes
 Here am we, one magical moment, such is the stuff"

Stories of severe stage fright aside, I've always had the impression that once the show gets going Bowie LOVES to entertain a crowd.  After a near death spiral of cocaine abuse in the '70s, her emerged from the ashes in '82 and has released a string of successful and highquality records culminating with the most recent called Reality.  This of course all happened before a heart attack near the end of the tour sent him into retirement from which he has yet to emerge except for a few one off appearances for either charity causes or making cameo appearances with such artists as David Gilmour.

Every artist in one form or another records their shows.  This is especially true when the artist is considering a live record for release either soon or sometime after a tour has completed.  This also has the benefit of providing inspiration to the artist to deliver the goods.  And so, Buffalo was one of many dates recorded in full for consideration for the relase of a live record which was in fact released in 2010.

The expansive setlist of this show highlights David Bowie's entire career with several songs added that have not been heard in some time such as All the Young Dudes, Bewlay Brothers and Breaking Glass.  My guess is this recording was made of the sound directed to Earle Slicke's in ear monitor as the guitar is right in your face.

The Setlist is as follows:

Disc 1
01. Rebel Rebel
02. Cactus
03. Sister Midnight
04. New Killer Star
05. Looking for Water
06. All the Young Dudes
07. China Girl
08. The Loneliest Guy
09. The Man Who Sold the World
10. The Motel
11. Battle for Britain(The Letter)
12. Sunday
13. Heathen
14. Hallo Spaceboy

Disc 2
01. band introductions
02. Under Pressure
03. Reality
04. Station to Station
05. Ashes to Ashes
06. Quicksand
07. Modern Love
08. I'm Afraid of Americans
09. "Heroes"
Encore
10. The Bewlay Brothers
11. Queen Bitch
12. Suffragette City
13. Ziggy Stardust

For your pleasure, David Bowie One Night in Buffalo 3/24/04 in mp3. (apple lossless soon)

White Stripes Peel Sessions

Jack White was never going to sit still and keep the White Stripes going. I didn’t know that the first time I heard them 11 years ago, when one of my favorite Boston college radio stations (not sure which one; either Boston College’s WZBC or M.I.T.’s WMBR) played the band’s cover of Captain Beefheart’s “Party of Special Things to Do.”

If I’d known back then that Jack harbored dreams to produce, launch a label and form multiple musical projects (The Raconteurs, Dead Weather), I would’ve gone to see him and Meg more than twice before they broke up nearly a year ago.

But thanks to Eric's really great quality soundboard recordings the Stripes did for John Peel (see link below),  I can relive the golden early part of this century when the White Stripes reigned supreme over college rock. The 24-song set list includes songs from their first, self-titled album, their second, De Stijl, and their third, White Blood Cells.

There aren’t any surprises here – Meg doesn’t pull out a Bonzo-style 10-minute drum solo, Jack doesn’t engage the audience with witty repartee – just two dozen cranked-up, fuzzed-out rock and roll rippers done in front of a small but very appreciative audience.

While Jack was in a few bands prior to the White Stripes, and has been in two others since that band’s breakup (and will surely hook up with other combos in the future – he’s only 36), for me the Stripes is the one that matters most. I really like the Dead Weather; the Raconteurs are just a’ight in my book.

The Stripes were just so primal, and had a great ruse – the brother-sister thing – that worked on some people for too long, and which may have just been exposed to at least one person reading this. They had the white-and-red color scheme, the man-woman dynamic, the youthful energy that just can’t be matched as White ages.

There’s a certain freedom in a guitar-drum duo that can’t be found in larger outfits. While Meg holds the beat – heavy, primitive, but surely not as simple as it seems at first – Jack beats the crap out of his guitar, can take it anywhere he wants to without worrying about a rhythm player or a bassist or a keyboardist following along, or rather, not doing so.

In addition to so many great originals, the Stripes in this performance cover Gene Vincent’s “Baby Blue”; “Boll Weevil,” a traditional blues song whose most well known rendition was done by Leadbelly; Blind Willie McTell’s “Lord Send Me an Angel”: Son House’s “Death Letter”: Loretta Lynn’s “Rated X”: and possibly others.

The band did two sets for Peel, both of which are available here. Contained within the zip files are Apple lossless files you can import into iTunes, Amara, or other apps.

What do vinyl sales for 2011 really mean about how we listen to music in the future?

Today I read that in 2011 The Beatles Abbey Road sold roughly 41,000 copies not including the significant number of used copies being sold world wide.  I know I contrbiuted to the latter with a purchase of a copy of the Mobile Fidelity Sound Labs half speed master of Abbey Road.

This got me wondering what the small uptick in new record sales... roughly 4% of all new music sales...and the significant increase in used records sales is saying about how people are listening to music.  I can name one store here in the Portland area, which happens to be one of the most name recognizable, that shared with me that used records are re taking the space, that has been dominated by CDs for 3 decades,  they were exiled from in the mid 80s. 

Firstly, I think there is a nostalgia factor.  Many of us, myself included, missed the tactile nature of records.  We get cover art, sleeve liner notes, and the actual record itself to interact with.  We have to involve ourselves far more to play a record then merely use our hands to scroll a mouse in Itunes.

Secondly, records force us to slow down and take the time to enjoy what we're listening to.  Every 22 minutes or so we have to get up, walk to the player, and flip the disc over which only increases our engagement level.  For me, I only listen to records when I am willing to take the time to listen and not become annoyed when it is time to flip it over.  When I try to do other things with vinyl on, I am reminded that they generally don't work as I get annoyed that I get interrupted by the reminder that the record needs flipping.

And finally, if you have the right equipment there is a dramatic difference in quality between vinyl and the digital forms of music.  Though, if you have the money to throw at it, you can get darn close in listening quality between digital and analog.

Pink Floyd - Wesfalhalle Dortmund, Germany 1/23/77 Disc 1

Animals has always been my favorite Pink Floyd album.  It is also the least favorite of most casual fans and the least documented by the band themselves.  I think this happened because it was sandwiched between 2 enormously popular albums which have achieved true iconic status in Wish You Were Here and The Wall.

The Animals tour was the biggest tour Pink Floyd ever mounted by the seminal lineup of David Gilmour, Roger Waters, Richard Wright, and Nick Mason.   There were several reasons why fans who saw these shows were treated to something incredibly special.  Firstly, the Animals tour was the last Floyd tour where the band followed their regimen of performing the current album in its entirety in the first set, the previous album in its entirety for the second set, and the encore consisted of 2 songs from the album before that.  Secondly, the band employed a second guitar player to augment the sound of David Gilmour named Snowy White.  Snowy is an incredible talent who went on to join Thin Lizzy after he finished up with the Floyd.  Thirdly, fans got to hear the band in all their quadrophonic glory combined with visuals that were only topped on the Wall tour.

Every night on the Animals tour the set list consisted of the following songs:

Set 1

1. Sheep
2. Pigs on the Wing pt 1
3. Dogs
4. Pigs on the Wing pt 2
5. Pigs (Three Different Ones)

intermission

Set 2

1. Shine On You Crazy Diamond pt. I-V
2. Welcome to the Machine
3. Have a Cigar
4. Wish You Were Here
5. Shine On You Crazy Diamond pt. VI-IX

encore

1. Money
2. Us and Them

The tour started in Dortmund, Germany and toured the world.  Dortmund has always been a favorite city of the band and when they chose 4 cities to perform the Wall Dortmund made the cut.

For your pleasure, at https://www.onlinefilefolder.com/2fuep7J4vN7ryI is the first set from that night in Dortmund contained within the two zip file are 4 Apple lossless files or 4 mp3 files which you can import into Itunes, Amara, or something else (Feel free to check out my FAQ page for more detailed instructions) .  I'm not aware of any soundboard recordings from the Animals tour.  In time, I'll share the 2nd disc which includes all of Wish You Were Here and the encore.  This is a high quality audience recording, which has some hiss, showing the band at the peak of their game.  The vocals, guitars, and drums are clear with only slight distortion on the bass side.

Eric

Welcome to Pick Your Poison!!!!!

What is Pick Your Poison?

....in 1974 i bought my first Beatles record Magical Mystery tour.  The next thing I knew I bought Frampton Comes Alive, Band on the Run, and got in trouble in 1979 with the purchase of Pink Floyd's The Wall.  I come from a family with a very deep passion for music.  Even if we didn't share a love for the same music... That first copy of the Wall was destroyed and disposed of by my dad.... we listened constantly to jazz, classical, blues, and (clandestinely) pop.  From those early days I became a collector and officianado.  In time, I also became a DJ on WKNH and an audiophile... toss in music snob ie picture Rob from the book and movie High Fidelity.  The collecting has never stopped.  By the time I graduated from college I had nearly 500 records and several hundred CDs.  Sadly, all but 50 or so records were destroyed in a basement flood.  The CD collection grew and grew and grew reaching a couple thousand plus. 

Technology has now reached a point where I felt a great desire to share the wealth of my passion with my friends and others.  I see almost no point in sharing my easily obtainable legitimate music but my library of rare recordings is something others should enjoy.  And that is what Pick Your Poison is about.  It is a place to come to read about music topics outside of the mainstream and fuel that passion by downloading tracks or whole albums of music you might never have a chance to get ahold of such as the entire Beatles Apple rooftop concert from 1970, Led Zeppelin's final show from Berlin, The Clash's 17 show residency at the Bond's International Casino, Live AID, etc etc etc.

I am blessed by a host of friends Georg Carlson, John Loranger, Dave Brigham, and others who have kindly volunteered to post to this blog.  In the beginning, this will be a simple blog where these persons post and it will look pretty simple.  The next phase, I will launch a full scale website where their content will be seperated by links.  And very soon, I will be providing reviews and links to music you have never heard by artists you love.

Welcome to Pick your Poison.

Eric Weinraub