Blogcritics Author: Sadi Ranson-Polizzotti

The List of the Moment: The Grand Central Mix, May 28, 2008

Sadi Ranson-Polizzotti — Sun, 1 Jun 2008 21:53:00 EDT

...it is about eighty degrees and humid and the people are milling and all is right and all is wrong but you know it will be alright...
I’ve been away, in every sense of the word -- mentally and physically in a different space, working on another project that has taken up much of my time but has been truly worthwhile. None of this means that I have not missed The List of the Moment, which YOU may have forgotten, but I have not -- and some of you have written to me, so here...

The List of the Moment, Volume No. 27

Sadi Ranson-Polizzotti — Mon, 4 Feb 2008 20:14:28 EST

The Velvet Underground, David Gray, and more...
It's time that I hit you up with a new list. It's not that I do not always have a list, because I do. Lately, it has had more to do with time constraints. tOver the next few months this current book project will be finished and then we can all run out and buy the book. (Yes? Okay…maybe not.)For those of you new to the List, it is...

The List of the Moment, Volume No. 25

Sadi Ranson-Polizzotti — Tue, 8 Jan 2008 11:01:46 EST

The List of the Moment, Volume No. 25 - dare to delve
Dare to be an atavist. Dare to delve into the past and dig-up the crap you listened to when you were younger, or perhaps still listen to if you're like me. I listen because it's all part of "memory music" that gets the brain sparking and spewing in different ways.There is something about reliving a time in your life that is...

The List of the Moment, Volume No. 24

Sadi Ranson-Polizzotti — Wed, 5 Dec 2007 09:52:23 EST

What do Beth Orton, Grant Lee Buffalo, and 10cc have in common? Sadi Ranson-Polizzotti.
I’ve been gone... I’ve been two weeks in the hospital for the usual reason, epilepsy -- called a persistent bell-ringer, knocking, ringing at the door for a while, but better now… driven away. It’s always too long between lists, but I don’t do a list unless there is really something worthwhile. Something that moves...

The List of the Moment; Volume No. 23

Sadi Ranson-Polizzotti — Mon, 1 Oct 2007 20:01:15 EDT

The List of the Moment, Volume No. 23 - here it is at last....
Welcome to the List of the Moment Volume Number 23. No introduction, really – these songs and the entire list will really speak for itself as will the afterward."Something More Besides You" by The Cowboy Junkies – The guitar here is amazing, just like the central question raised in this song, which to me is one of their very...

So You Think You've Changed Do You?

Sadi Ranson-Polizzotti — Fri, 28 Sep 2007 08:54:49 EDT

I should be writing something else right now but I am not.
I should be writing something else right now but I am not. Instead I am writing this because at the moment, this seems more pressing. I find myself a bit lost these days, much like the character I am writing about, Alice in Wonderland, asking myself, "Who am I?"And asking everyone around me, like the famed Caterpillar with his hookah,...

Dignity: Life as Tragic or Comic

Sadi Ranson-Polizzotti — Thu, 27 Sep 2007 21:04:34 EDT

Cowards can never be moral...
"People seldom do what they believe in. They do what is convenient, then repent." -- Bob DylanHe told me as we were driving along the shoreline on the way to look at a big old house and the sky was grey, "Life can be viewed as tragic or comic," and I didn't believe him then. It sounded cold-hearted and dismissive. I...

By Grand Central Station I Sat Down and Wept: A Tale of Synchronicity

Sadi Ranson-Polizzotti — Wed, 5 Sep 2007 13:42:51 EDT

I wrote my first book when I was still very young...
I wrote my first book when I was still very young, and in that, naïve. Still, the reviews and sales were good, especially abroad because it was always more of a European book, whatever that means; I’ve never really sorted that out, but that's what I've heard. The book did well in France and was nicely received in America to good...

Announcement: Short-content feeds

Phillip Winn — Sun, 26 Aug 2007 12:00:00 EDT

Sunday, August 26, 2007, marks the switch of all Blogcritics.org article feeds from full-content to short-content. This is the result of several converging factors, and is unfortunately a permanent decision (as permanent as any decision can be on the web, that is). We are aware of all of the reasons that this is a Bad Idea, and we are aware that some of you will be quite upset about having to click on something to read the free content, and we're sorry. Unfortunately, despite great effort, full-content feeds are not currently economically viable. Two other factors are involved: full-content feeds have resulted in an unprecedented level of content theft, with BC content appearing on many websites, usually spam sites, without attribution or permission. This duplicate content causes a cascading set of problems, not the least of which is that search engines generally aren't favorable to duplicate content, and don't always guess correctly. Finally, our RSS advertising partner is strongly in favor of short-content feeds. We hope that you'll continue to subscribe to BC via RSS, and when an article grabs your eye, it's only a click away, still free on the BC website. Thank you for your understanding.

The List of the Moment, Volume No. 22

Sadi Ranson-Polizzotti — Fri, 15 Jun 2007 13:48:12 EDT

"I Go Crazy" by Flesh for Lulu – There isn’t much to say about this other than it is just classic New Wave pop and that is what makes it fun. It sort of falls into the category of someone like Robert Gorl (if you remember him), but “I Go Crazy” is a good song and poppy in the way that New Order got poppy after the ominous sounds of Joy Division and eventual suicide of Ian Curtis and their song about it – “Blue Monday.” “I Go Crazy” is just fun. It speaks to a time and place and there is everything right about going back sometimes. "Hold On To Me" by the Cowboy Junkies – Margo Timmins has always had that haunting voice and I won’t go into the history of The Cowboy Junkies because I’ve done that in previous columns, so read back if you’re interested. Hold On To Me is a good song about leaning and love. Just having someone else there to hold onto, which obviously, I think we all do. I’ve been putting together a CD, and this is one of the songs on it, hence, it is on my playlist, hence, it is on The List. Note: If you haven’t heard Margo Timmin’s version of “Wild Horses” by The Rolling Stones, I recommend checking it out. It’s not Margo at her hauntingly most beautiful best as in The Trinity Sessions, but it’s good incredibly good, just as the whole album is good – with “Sun Comes Up” being another great hit on this one. "Take the Long Way Home" by Supertramp – I’ve been rediscovering music from my past and this one just popped up the other day because I heard it somewhere and then had to find it and did. I forgot how much I liked Supertramp (should I even admit that?) Well, there you have it. I’ve outed myself. This song in particular is good, as is “Goodbye Stranger” if you don’t know it. They have a definite sound, but it’s worth a listen. "We Walk the Same Line" by Everything But The Girl – A terrific song about any two people who connect. I just put this one on a CD and it fits. Everything But The Girl (ETBG) have such an incredible range, from pop to more of a folk-pop sound, which is roughly where I would place this, or acoustic pop perhaps, but wherever you would musically fit this in, it’s good and worthwhile.Of course, the more popular songs you expect here, but then, The List gets almost too predictable, and I get bored listening to the same stuff, so right now I even have one of my great guilty pleasures – Neil Sedaka on the playlist (the slow version of "Breaking Up is Hard to Do"), but what can you say about that other than it’s about hearts skidding across the floor, leaving scuff marks as they do so? This song here is quite the opposite – try it and see, unless you already know it. Either way, if you don’t know, you can always visit Tant Mieux and take a listen. "I Can’t Get Enough of You Baby" by the Colourfield – This band has been around for a long time, at least since I was in university when they weren’t really “big” per se, but more known in some way. I had no trouble finding them online, which surprised me actually since I assumed they were more obscure than they actually are. They have a sort of Paul McCartney “groovy” sound and they know it. It’s hard to explain if you haven’t heard it. Not really McCartney of the Beatles so much, but more moving on to the Wings era. I don’t know. I could be dead wrong on that front, but they remind me of some group of that era and I can’t pin it down. If you can, do tell. If you know The Colourfield, I’ll be impressed. If not, take a ilsten by visiting the link at the end. "His Old Look" by Bongwater - Bongwater I discovered absolutely by accident when a friend who was a DJ at Amherst put "His Old Look" on a tape for me (before CDs really were popular at the time) and I immediately took to the sound and the humor of that particular song. I like them now the same way I like and loved at one point The Butthole Surfers because I think they have a great sense of humor and that’s key. Trouble is, perhaps it is a humor that isn’t shared? I can’t say – or perhaps it just isn’t liked I won't drone on because the most I can say is that if you like alternative and you have a good sense of humor then I think Bongwater is a great group, the same way I think and always have thought that the Butthole Surfers were and are a fun and funny group (why some people found or find them "scary" or some such thing has always been beyond me, and I've heard this, so either I don't get it - entirely possible - or they don't get it. Either way, I'm happy with both groups and highly recommend a good listen. To really make a good back-to-back listening experience, try Bongwater with The Butthole Surfers and Dean and the Weenies, another more obscure band (at least, I found them difficult to find - not an easy item to find) but worth it - the F**K You song by Dean and the Weenies is unto itself a modern masterpiece and for those of us who remember Union Carbide, or even if you don't, you'll find things there to laugh at. As to Bongwater, "His Old Look" is one of the best songs I've ever heard for sheer comic relief... at least, I always found it funny."Last Request" by Paolo Nutini – Well, I didn’t think he could get better than “Lovin’ You” until I heard “Last Request” and Paolo Nutini continues to blow me away with his smooth, molasses voice and semi-Motown roots, which is interesting because this 20-year old is from, of all places, where my family is from and still is, Paisley, Scotland (when last there, we ran into some Americans and asked, “So what brings you to Paisley?” They answered, honestly, “We’re doing a study in economic-deprivation.”No doubt, Nutini has come far from his roots, yet proudly displays them on his web-site. This entire album is, without exception of a single song, entirely good, and in particular, I like this song, “Last Request” and “Loving You" (which made the last list)."All the Pictures On the Wall" by Paul Weller – This is a hard song. A break-up song and one that rings all too-true and if you haven’t been through it yet, prepare yourself because likely it will happen because heartache seems inevitable, sadly. Weller puts it so very well, and the tone is perfect and his guitar as always is perfect – but we’re talking about the guitarist who played guest for Oasis on "Champagne Supernova," so no surprises there. If you don’t know Paul Weller, he was with The Jam, then of The Style Council, then broke out on his own. He’s been good, excellent really, all the way through and through.

Music Review: Bryan Ferry - Dylanesque

Sadi Ranson-Polizzotti — Thu, 12 Apr 2007 07:42:45 EDT

I really want to like - or even better, I would like to love - covers of Dylan songs the same way I love the originals. Sometimes that happens, though not often, but read on, because that’s not what this review is entirely about. At the very least, I want to hear something that is on a par with the original. I want something that is a new and interesting take that makes for good listening that I would feel confident recommending to readers in my music column or to friends in general; I want to feel that this is something worthwhile and new - I don’t mean any of the previous and well-known covers here. I don’t mean George Harrison. I mean something newer, and while I’ve heard a few, they are few and far between. In short, I want covers of the sort of stuff that I would burn on a CD for a friend. I want covers that are like Maria Mulduars’ recent disc, which wasn’t bad at all. Covers of songs can be just terrific, sometimes even better than the original. Some of the Beatles covers I’ve heard of late just stick, like “Hello Goodbye” by Erin Alden, which really plays on my mind in the best possible way. It doesn’t have to be better or worse than the original, but just a take that is different and interesting and, ideally, pleasing. Call me crazy, but yeah, I want music that pleases me. After all, that’s the point, part of it anyway -- music should move us, please us, stay with us, inspire us, and so much more, but it should always be memorable in the best possible way and for all the right reasons. Not memorable because it is so unbelievably bad that you can’t get it out of your head because it sticks in the groove like an old and bad record, like David Soul’s “Black Bean Soup” which, I admit, I owned as a child and that stuck in the groove (“and soup, and soup, and soup, and soup” … ad infinitum). This is not what I am looking for. No, I’m not saying Alden’s version of “Hello Goodbye” is “better” than the original, only that it offers us a different flavor and one that I like. In this way, Erin Alden succeeds. The same is true of Paul Weller’s version of “Sexy Sadie,” but who would expect anything less from Paul Weller? So without question Weller’s version of “Sexy Sadie” just blows me away. And what of "Sweet Jane" as sung by the ethereal voice of Margo Timmins of the Cowboy Junkies on their album The Trinity Sessions? It's amazing and gives the song a whole different, and softer, spin. Don’t get me wrong, I love The Velvet Underground’s version and adore Lou Reed but it’s good to have an alternate take that actually works. Call me crazy, but I like options. There have been songs that Dylan wrote for others, songs that he specifically wrote to be covered like “I’ll Keep It With Mine,” which he originally wrote for Nico to perform. Still, it is the Dylan version of “I’ll Keep It With Mine” that I will always remember -- well, any version that I’ve heard of his. (For the record, Judy Collins beat Nico to the punch before Nico recorded the song. Collins had somehow elbowed in.) Regardless, the point is, I like Dylan’s version despite the fact that he wrote it for someone else, which is sort of entertaining. I think the only cover of his songs that come to mind right away that I do like are “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door” which has been done by some good people – Eric Clapton, for example. “If Not for You” is another; George Harrison recorded it first on his All Things Must Pass album before it came out on New Morning.So as with math, then, there are exceptions to every rule and I’m sure if I sat and thought more I could think of other songs of his that have been well-covered and that I like, but I cannot say this of the recent Bryan Ferry CD. Bryan Ferry seemed an odd person to be doing Dylan in the first place, given the difference between Ferry’s mellifluous “Slave to Love/Avalon” sound versus Dylan’s “All I Really Wanna Do/One More Weekend with You” sound. One is soft and smooth, the other is harder, not so easy to get used to, and Dylan is likely an acquired taste. One does not immediately take to Dylan, I think. You may like one or two of his songs initially, but that’s it. For those I know who really like Dylan, they came to him slowly at first, then loved one album, hated another, then back again, and so forth. But then he morphs from album to album, so just when you think you’ve got him pegged enough that you can say, “I like Dylan” he is a whole new Dylan. You may like the old Dylan, the new Dylan, even what you think or can guess a Dylan of the future may be, but it’s hard to pin him down and no doubt this is intentional. Dylan is nothing if not a restless spirit. As for me, I’ve liked pretty much all his albums now – or have come to over time. Ferry’s Dylanesque is odd. I keep listening to “Baby Let me Follow You Down” but first, the music is too up-front, by which I mean it’s too present. Ferry’s voice in the background quivers like a jellyfish left stranded on the beach, as if he is shimmying his way through the song while singing to create what amounts to a ghostly sound, and I do not mean “ghostly” as in “hauntingly beautiful” or some such ad copy, I mean “haunting” as in he sounds like a ghost that would go “Booo” or a child’s impersonation of a ghost. Just play Bryan Ferry’s “Baby Let Me Follow You Down” and there you have it. The song quivers too much when it should rock. Or maybe this is Ferry’s version of rock? It’s certainly his version of Dylan. I never thought of Ferry as “rock” anyway. New wave was more like it. That’s how Roxy Music struck me and that’s how Ferry remained in my mind. “Slave to Love” is a great song and perfect for Ferry. Ferry is best doing Ferry. He, too, has an almost inimitable style (much like Dylan, I think) so here we have one artist who would be near impossible to imitate covering an artist who is difficult to cover.Moving on... “The Gates of Eden” seems too slow here, even though it is probably about the same speed as the original, with the harmonica in the far-off background (or is that a synth?) that lends the song an other-worldly feel. I feel like I’m standing near a cemetery somewhere with a howl of mist about my feet facing some prophet who is about to tell me my due, and maybe that’s the whole point of the song, but I prefer Dylan’s version which is slow, yes, and melancholic as well, but less… well, less absurdly tragic, which Ferry is almost famous for, sweeping that lank black hair off of his face as he swoops back with one of his “uh-ooo’s..” (you know what I mean) which again, work in songs like “Slave to Love” but not here. It works in "Avalon". There is no room for melodrama here. Drama perhaps, but melodrama, no,and there is a world of difference between the two.“If Not for You” isn’t too awful, it just sounds like an old man singing the song, and go ahead and tell me how old Dylan is, but so what? He again has adopted a new style, but we’re looking at covers of the original versions. Perhaps that is just it; the whole album is very impressionistic. The harmonica weaves through pretty much every song, even songs that do not in their original have harmonica, so this is an addition, and not one that really works in every case. He would have done better to stick to the plan, and the throbbing bassline here is too much for this delicate song. You need a strong bass to carry the melody, but this is just too strong and too up front. I want to hear the singer up front and not the band front and center, but instead it sounds to me just the reverse. This could be just a matter of taste. The wicked guitar ending doesn’t work for me. “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door” is one of the only songs on this album that really works. Ferry sounds more like Ferry and less like he’s trying to sound ‘different.’ It’s truer to the original and the arrangement is quite beautiful, as it is in pretty much every cover of this song, but I do particularly like this, so score one for Ferry here. He’s done a great job on this and sounds more sincere than anywhere else. Oddly, there harmonica here and it’s not exactly what Dylan did, but it works regardless and in some ways I like it even more. It’s smart. It’s a good cover. What more can one say about this? Gone is the ghostly voice and back are those beautiful, mellifluous, dulcet tones for which Ferry is known. The back-up singers are low-key enough and do not dominate the song but add to it in a really gentle way. There is a sweetness here and a melancholy (read: not melodrama) that works this time and I’m glad for it. Kudos to Ferry for this one.What can I say about “Positively 4th Street”, one of my favorite songs of all time? I don’t like it. But I realize that there is no way I am ever going to like a cover of this unless it is phenomenal. Ferry is almost too laid-back here, and in doing so, he sounds like he is looking for sympathy, unlike Dylan’s big “fuck you” which is what I hear when I hear this song. I hear “Fuck you, you let me down, see you later,” but what I do not hear is any plea for sympathy at all. Quite the opposite. I hear someone moving on. Dylan once told Joan Baez (back in the '60s) that “years from now, people will be listening to this shit and reading this shit and saying it’s about this or that… when I don’t know what the fuck it’s about,” and he laughed, according to Baez. I paraphrase there, but you get the idea. Dylan knew -- like any artist or poet, singer or songwriter, anyone who creates for a living -- if you have success, any measure of success, then with that will come the critics who will interpret and misinterpret and who is to say who is more authoritative? Right now I’m reading Christopher Rick’s book on Dylan and sin and it’s fascinating, but is he right? I don’t know. It’s interesting, but then, we can overlay a template onto anyone and force them into a system if we want to. Just plug the circuits into the fitting holes and somehow the whole thing lights up like a Christmas tree and we all go A-ha! as if it suddenly all made sense. Some interpretations are better than others, and no, I’m not arguing for no interpretation, simply that we need to be careful of our own hubris. Really, the song remains the same and I suppose I like to stay as close to original source material as possible. If someone is going to tell me what Dylan has to say, then let it be Dylan. I do enjoy reading interpretations and books and read almost all of them, and find them fascinating. I worked with my own husband on his Highway 61 Revisited (Mark Polizzotti, Continuum Books, 33 1/3 series) and had endless conversations about what this or that song means and it was great. My point is this (I do love my husband, so let me preface this statement with that): I think his Highway 61 Revisited is about as close as any of the better critics can come to understanding Dylan. But do I think he is “more” or “less” right than you or I? No, I do not. I think he thought about it a lot, but at the end of the day, it’s all impressionistic. We cannot do much better than speculate. I do it all the time, don’t get me wrong. There’s absolutely nothing wrong in speculation, it just doesn’t mean that we have always reached the right answer, no more than I have, as I write these words here about Ferry’s Dylanesque. It’s all relative. It’s not my cup of fur, but hey… This album isn't for me. It's not for me because I know that with the exception of “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door”, I wouldn’t listen to it. It’s really that simple. If you want to know more about the songs on this album, then check out the track listing at Amazon. I picked a few here. I could do a few more, like “The Times They Are A-Changin'” which to me just sounds awful and out of context today. Yes, the times they are a-changin, but not like they were when this song was first recorded. Dylan has and had a prescience that is virtually unmatched. This was part of his success – he could and did have his finger on the country’s pulse and knew what was going on (or down) at any time, pretty much. Songs like “A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall” were way ahead of their time and seemed almost to predict the future. If you listen to the bootlegs, you’ll hear Dylan talk of “Goliaths” and “greater Goliaths” whose heads will continue to grow as we chop off the head of one after the other. There’s no winning, he seems to say. Maybe so. Right now, it would seem so, but I’d like to ask him that. I really would. I see Goliaths today – but are mine the same as his? Everything is relative. As Dylan said, every word means something else. We all have our different definitions of these words, even “people” he tells one interviewer in the documentary Don’t Look Back after she says, “Well, surely we can agree on what people are, can’t we?” to which he replies, “I don’t know… can we?”