It's taken me a while to get back to the Old, New, Borrowed and Blue format, the last post being over a year ago, but I think you’ll find it was worth the wait.
The old track, from 1971, is David Crosby’s “Cowboy Movie” off his first solo album, If I Could Only Remember My Name. How this track eluded me my entire adult life, I don’t know. Could be because it clocks in at over eight minutes and never graced the radio waves. It's a colossal, slow-sizzler of a jam and features the Grateful Dead as the backing band – Jerry Garcia on guitar, Phil Lesh on bass and Mickey Hart on drums. No wonder I'm drawn to it!
I've never been much of a David Crosby fan – or a Stephen Stills or Graham Nash fan for that matter. I think of C,S,N as the sweet mixer to the straight whiskey shot of Neil Young, making Neil’s frenetic genius more approachable but less soulful. This track has me re-examining my position. It's raw and burning and urgent. The lyrics are a tad disturbing, with the attempted rape of an “Indian” girl (and not the kind from the subcontinent) being the organizing theme, but Neil Young’s “Down By The River” isn’t for the squeamish either. Enjoy!
The new song is the title track from the Seratones’ 2016 debut album Get Gone. The Seratones hail from Shreveport, Louisiana and I came across them last Fall opening for St. Paul & The Broken Bones. This track in particular caught my ear. It was wild and thrashing but also tightly-crafted and melodic. I heard shades of the Alabama Shakes. See what you think.
The borrowed track is a cover of Bob Dylan’s “Can You Please Crawl Out Your Window” by Wilko Johnson (Dr. Feelgood) and Roger Daltrey (the Who) from their 2014 collaborative album, Going Back Home. This is a muscular re-make with Daltrey’s still fulsome vocals and Johnson’s electric guitar giving the tune an arena rock feel.
The blue tune touches all the bases: it's old, new, borrowed and blue. It's the Rolling Stones’ cover of Little Walter’s “Hate To See You Go” from the Stones’ new record, Blue and Lonesome. If you haven’t checked out Blue and Lonesome yet, I'd encourage you to do so. It confirms (as if there was any doubt), that the Stones are, at their core, a blues band – and Chicago blues at that. They snatched the blues torch in the early ‘60s and it's still burning hot. Here’s the band’s official video of “Hate To See You Go.” They may not look great anymore (I’m talking to you, Keith), but they still sound great.
Well, there you have it. Hopefully it will take me less than a year to put together the next Old, New, Borrowed and Blue post!