Blue Moon Playlist Review Club - Season 2 - Episode 32 - threespires - Could have been a Contender (pg 472)

Bluemoon - Live

Thanks to @mancity2012_eamo for thinking out of the box and putting this visual concert playlist concept together. While I always enjoy our Spotify lists because it offers numerous avenues to listen, this was good to focus on the concert footage for this week, while multitasking less. I tried to mention as many songs possible because I know everyone put a lot of thought into this. Overall, I’d easily listen to this playlist if it were on Spotify.

The Rory Gallagher songs were all were new to me, and that was a good start to the concert with all being quite enjoyable. I really enjoyed “Do You Read Me” and the “Walk On Hot Coals” for the sheer brilliance of guitar work, especially on the solos. “A Million Miles Away” was a nice tempo change and well incorporated the surrounding area scenery into the concert performance. Nice keys at the end too. “Bullfrog Blues” also hit a good mark, and it was not hard to see how it was a usual concert ender given the drum solo and overall liveliness of the song involved. I plan to listen to the Irish Tour 74 fully soon. Reading on Rory’s influence on other guitar legends is not lost on me, so more of this should be enjoyable indeed.

The Big Winner
"Youngstown" - Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band, whenever a band can take a song and make it something totally different live in concert, that’s going to be hard to beat. The lyrics that Rob quoted were great on the original, but really resonate more with me live. Nils on guitar at the end here steals the show here for me.

My top 6 other new tracks (not yet heard in some or no particular order):
  1. “Streetlights” – Jason Isbell, off the only album of his I hadn’t heard
  2. “Things” – Frightened Rabbit, nice opener, enhanced with the Rogue Orchestra
  3. “Maybe It’s Time” - Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit, haven’t seen this cover of the song he wrote for the movie before, and he did not play it when I saw him in 2022. Nice song!
  4. “The Lost Words Blessing” – Spell Songs, very emotional song
  5. “No Regrets” Tom Rush, I’m more familiar with the Midge Ure version, but enjoyed this mellow live version
  6. “She’s Got You” – Rhiannon Giddens, bittersweet and heartfelt delivered
Top 16 tracks I knew but enjoyed viewing and listening to again (in some or no particular order):
  1. “Fingers of Love” - Crowded House, a nice song I had heard from Together Alone, but what a great performance in concert and a well-chosen selection. Not one of their top hits, but a great guitar solo and performance overall. I’m planning to see the current iteration of the band live the end of August, and hope this gets played.
  2. “Freebird” – Lynyrd Skynyrd, hard to beat live, innit? Less than 4 months before the plane crash, this was truly the band at their peak. Billy Powell on those keys too. The answer to the trivia question posed from those on stage here is drummer Artimus Pyle.
  3. “King of Birds” – R.E.M., adding Tourfilm to one I need to see, I loved this song off of Document
  4. “Ceilings” – Local Natives, amazing band harmonies, and a great version of this song. “One day of sun”, indeed!
  5. “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down” – The Band, and yes, I also still need to see The Last Waltz
  6. “The Fish” – Yes, throw in “Tempus Fugit” mid-song, and we have a winner. THE classic lineup, that in 2003.
  7. “Enjoy The Silence” – Depeche Mode, my younger brother used to be the biggest DM fan that I knew, then I “met” BimboBob on BM last year. Great crowd participation, always a bonus! “All I ever wanted…”
  8. “Enter Sandman” – Metallica, I’ve heard and participated in live with fellow Virginia Tech fans before every home (US college football) game attended since 2001, this song never gets old (YT video for the curious only: YC8LLYMp4M4)
  9. “Start Me Up” – The Stones, still got it after all these years
  10. “King of Oklahoma” - Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit, nice guitar solo, but not one of my favourite songs of his
  11. “Firth of Fifth” – Steve Hacket, worth the 6 minute wait to get to his guitar section!
  12. “Never Let Me Down Again” – Depeche Mode, the audience helps make this too on a song with new life from recent TV shows (The Last of Us in particular)
  13. “All My Friends” – LCD Soundsystem, a band I have not yet connected to for some reason, though often heard them after an album/artist I like plays on Spotify
  14. “Oops! I Did It Again” – Richard Thompson, humorous and not a bad take on this song
  15. “I Feel You” – Depeche Mode, a great song, even better in concert
  16. “Running Up That Hill”, great song, but the footage on the video was tough
 
Thanks to @mancity2012_eamo for putting this concept together. Although I had to put aside some time to get through the videos, it was an enjoyable experience, even if the advice about keeping the videos short was ignored!

The Rory Gallagher clips were great, with that live performance of "Walk on Hot Coals" in Madrid being the pick of the bunch. As Eamo said in his intro, watching these clips shows what a great, tight band Rory had around him, and I'm sure their shows were fantastic to behold.

I also enjoyed Frightened Rabbit, Tom Rush, Rhiannon Giddens and Local natives. That live performance in Paris was an outstanding technical achievement on the part of the camera and sound crew.

Watching Richard Thompson perform "Oops I Did It Again" was fun, and of course the Lynryd Sknyrd, Rush and The Band songs were superb live performances, as were Jason Isbell's three.
 
What this "playlist" made me realise is how much I missed going to live music, in theory I'm getting to the age where I should have more time on my hands but for a variety of reasons that's not quite panning out, at least not yet. So I liked the vast majority of this 'festival' albeit it did make me a bit envious of those who get out a bit more than I seem to. I went down a bit of a (very enjoyable) Rock Goes to College rathole after watching RG.

My award for top concert promoter was between Bimbo and OoB6 but Bimbo played it safe and I've watch those clips before so it's OoB6 for an excellent mix including the iconic Scorsese footage.

@Coatigan - let me know when you want me to put up the next theme
 
threespires said:
What this "playlist" made me realise is how much I missed going to live music, in theory I'm getting to the age where I should have more time on my hands but for a variety of reasons that's not quite panning out, at least not yet. So I liked the vast majority of this 'festival' albeit it did make me a bit envious of those who get out a bit more than I seem to. I went down a bit of a (very enjoyable) Rock Goes to College rathole after watching RG.

My award for top concert promoter was between Bimbo and OoB6 but Bimbo played it safe and I've watch those clips before so it's OoB6 for an excellent mix including the iconic Scorsese footage.

@Coatigan - let me know when you want me to put up the next theme
Click to expand...

Just whenever you are ready pal, this is a laissez-faire affair.
 
I’m married to a lawyer, which is in effect like living your life under a permanent form of cross examination : -) So this week’s theme is…

Justice, Judgement and the Law

I’ve used those three terms deliberately to allow the theme to be quite broad and in that spirit my starting 5 cover the breadth of the theme:

Starting with social justice; this song is not as famous as other apartheid era songs and has a very 80’s production but I like the idea that you can’t avoid the reckoning that time will ultimately bring.

Latin Quarter – No Rope as Long as Time

Moving the tempo up, we head into a courtroom. Seems like a pretty chaotic one and the defence unfolds in a slightly unusual manner. I’ve had to include the Red Lane original version as the funkier Clarence Carter version I'd like to have used isn’t on Spotify but you can find it on Youtube (and Lane’s original moves along nicely enough anyway)

Red Lane / Clarence Carter – The Court Room

Becoming slightly more abstract the next one is a song that people have interpreted in various ways. Apparently Cohen said he wrote it after finding out he was on Nixon’s list of subversives to be monitored. But as it’s Cohen it can be read in multiple ways. I like it partly because it speaks to being judged outside of the courtroom, maybe politically but also in the court of public opinion and it’s hard not to interpret lines like “I’m sorry for smudging the air with my song” as a caustic rebuke to critics of all types. Seems appropriate as this and the album thread are places where we put our tastes up to public scrutiny.

Leonard Cohen – A Singer Must Die

Obviously, we need a direct reference to law enforcement and rather than something overtly political I’m going for a classic.

Junior Murvin – Police and Thieves


So, for the last I thought I’d go for the ultimate form of judgement. These days not many people believe they’ll be called to account for their choices and actions but not that long ago the majority did so there’s a rich vein of gospel music addressing this. Rather than get too heavy, I’ve chosen something for slightly daft reasons. Sister Rosetta played numerous versions of this song but the version I’m including has left people wondering if she is really singing what she seems to be singing just over half way in. I think she is as she lists a long list of vices that'll stop you getting on the train to glory, and frankly it's more entertaining the way I choose to hear it. Though she may be referring to the 'sins of the flesh', if you use the British sense of the word, it’s equally appropriate especially for a certain orange fella who seems to be trying to mobilise his faux Christian mob.

Sister Rosetta Tharpe – This Train (Is Bound For Glory)



Bonus Track

This track covers multiple aspects of justice including domestic violence, taking the law into your own hands and homicide but in reality I‘ve added it mostly for the video. I’ll leave you to decide whether it’s a fun but ballsy take on DV and associated issues or is mind-blowingly crass even by the standards of country music. Look out for Dennis Franz of NYPD Blue fame as the decomposing dancing corpse of the titular abuser.

The Chicks - Goodbye Earl




I’ve left of loads of obvious choices out, including some beloved of posters on this or the album thread, so hopefully people will fill in some of the gaps but hopefully there's enough leeway for some interesting takes on justice too.

 
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First song that popped into my head is Jude Law and a Semester Abroad, although that's probably as loose as the reference gets.

Fyi Dixie Chicks are now called (just) The Chicks. Don't think they wrote a song called about the reaction to their name change though.
 
BLUE MOON LIVE

Great idea for a playlist Eamo although unfortunately I’ve had a really busy week
so I was unable to watch all the footage.However I managed to give the tracks a good listen whilst driving and working.
I loved the RG set, I was familiar with most of the other Artists but of the ones
I’d not heard before I really liked were Local Natives who I will investigate more, they sound very Family of the Year like, so my Mrs will be interested.
Of the classics i particularly liked the Tom Morello version of ‘Tom Joad’
Lenny Skinard , Metallica and of course The Band.I went to see ‘The Last Waltz’
at the cinema when it was first released ,great concert.
FR are always a favourite.
 
Coatigan said:
First song that popped into my head is Jude Law and a Semester Abroad, although that's probably as loose as the reference gets.

Fyi Dixie Chicks are now called (just) The Chicks. Don't think they wrote a song called about the reaction to their name change though.
Click to expand...

Yeah, that was just muscle memory on my part. Apparently their name change wasn't met with the same ire the Bush comments were, presumably because the kind of people who would have got upset with it had long since abandoned them for being woke 'anti-american' etc.
 
Lots of rap on my preliminary longlist.

Wonder if anyone will go with judas priest
 
Coatigan said:
Lots of rap on my preliminary longlist.

Wonder if anyone will go with judas priest
Click to expand...

There's probably some overlap with my longlist and I am hopeful a couple of rap / hip hop tracks spring up at some point.

To your point there's a few metal classics that fit the bill too.
 
BimboBob said:
*Fabulous shoehorn time alert*


First song choice is...

Condemnation - Depeche Mode

I'll even chuck in a live performance, I'm so nice!

Click to expand...


Can we assume that tomorrow's liberal interpretation of the theme will involve you nominating "Mercy In You" by...
 
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