The title track was an early favorite of mine, and it was later covered by Rage Against The Machine - but not in a way that I really cared all that much for. However, in 2009, during the 25th anniversary of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame concerts, Springsteen included the guitarist of RATM, Tom Morello, who also has done a lot of folk music under the moniker The Nightwatchman, and while the original had been interesting, Morello's lead guitar work takes the song to new heights for me. Shivers and goosebumps all over - here is The Ghost of Tom Joad.
Friday, March 02, 2018
The Ghost Of Tom Joad
This is a treat. I used to be a peripheral fan of Bruce Springsteen. I had the live box on vinyl thanks to a friend who was a huge fan, but not necessarily of the box - and for the longest time I was convinced that was the only thing you really needed of him. But I have gradually built my collection - and my conviction that I needed more came with the album The Ghost of Tom Joad from 1995. It was a great collection of folk song, and to me it was more than just a return to form, as I really saw it as a great artistic statement.
The title track was an early favorite of mine, and it was later covered by Rage Against The Machine - but not in a way that I really cared all that much for. However, in 2009, during the 25th anniversary of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame concerts, Springsteen included the guitarist of RATM, Tom Morello, who also has done a lot of folk music under the moniker The Nightwatchman, and while the original had been interesting, Morello's lead guitar work takes the song to new heights for me. Shivers and goosebumps all over - here is The Ghost of Tom Joad.
The title track was an early favorite of mine, and it was later covered by Rage Against The Machine - but not in a way that I really cared all that much for. However, in 2009, during the 25th anniversary of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame concerts, Springsteen included the guitarist of RATM, Tom Morello, who also has done a lot of folk music under the moniker The Nightwatchman, and while the original had been interesting, Morello's lead guitar work takes the song to new heights for me. Shivers and goosebumps all over - here is The Ghost of Tom Joad.
Thursday, March 01, 2018
Autobahn
Today I will let the music do most of the talking. This song was recorded in 1974 (!), and yes, it is a long one, but it is well worth listening to. It is easy to hear the cars passing by, and with musical elements switching between harmony and some disharmony, it is always interesting. Although Kraftwerk had released three albums already (Kraftwerk, Kraftwerk II, and Ralf und Florian), Autobahn was where they really started coming into their own - and creating something uniquely new. Michael Rother and Klaus Dinger, who had been working with the band in the early 70s had left to form Neu!, and while there were other collaborators on the album Autobahn, the title track only featured the two core members in Kraftwerk: Ralf Hütter and Florian Schneider (only Hütter still remains after Schneider left in 2008). It is a 22 minute long track that really takes you along the German expressways (autobahns) - and I can't believe that it is 44 years old. This was in the infancy of synthesizers, but what they were able to do simply blows me away!
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