{"id":167,"date":"2005-09-26T09:32:13","date_gmt":"2005-09-26T16:32:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/archives\/2005\/09\/26\/back-in-the-high-life\/"},"modified":"2005-09-26T09:45:34","modified_gmt":"2005-09-26T16:45:34","slug":"back-in-the-high-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/2005\/09\/26\/back-in-the-high-life\/","title":{"rendered":"Back In The High Life"},"content":{"rendered":"

Well I feel so good everything is getting hot
You’d better take those ties off ’cause the place is on fire<\/em><\/p>\n

Dinosaurs are roaming the earth.\u00c2\u00a0 Everybody from the Eagles to McCartney is
on the road for another dip into the cash jar.\u00c2\u00a0 And, make no mistake, these shows are nostalgia.<\/p>\n

McCartney and the Stones under their plastic surgery like to pretend they’re
au courant by releasing new material.\u00c2\u00a0 But, these acts haven’t released
anything vital since the seventies.<\/p>\n

At least the Eagles aren’t pretending.\u00c2\u00a0 They’re playing the hits.\u00c2\u00a0 Note for
note.<\/p>\n

The youngsters?\u00c2\u00a0 They’ve got it all reversed.\u00c2\u00a0 They’re stars first, musicians
second.\u00c2\u00a0 We were enamored of musicianship.\u00c2\u00a0 Nobody knew the scene was going
to blow up.\u00c2\u00a0 But when baby boomers heard those records thirty odd years ago,
they had to buy them, they had to go to the show, they came to believe.<\/p>\n

But now the scene is running on fumes.\u00c2\u00a0 Going to the see the oldsters is
about reconnecting with your past.\u00c2\u00a0 The new acts are so shitty that nobody wants
to see them in quantity.\u00c2\u00a0 But tonight, I saw the future.\u00c2\u00a0 I saw music.<\/p>\n

On our second date Felice asked me about Kim.\u00c2\u00a0 What went down there.\u00c2\u00a0 How it
was when she left.<\/p>\n

I kicked back in the train riding down from the Getty Center and told her it
was like "My Love’s Leavin’".\u00c2\u00a0 From "Back In The High Life".\u00c2\u00a0 Did she know
"Back In The High Life"?<\/p>\n

Yes.<\/p>\n

Well, I explained that the lyrics of "My Love’s Leavin’" were written by Viv
Stanshall, of the Bonzo Dog Band.\u00c2\u00a0 An act known for testing the limits.\u00c2\u00a0 But
the words of "My Love’s Leavin’" were completely heartfelt.\u00c2\u00a0 As if you caught
the jester backstage.\u00c2\u00a0 The lines that resonated, that I found myself singing
again and again when there was an emptiness in the house, were:<\/p>\n

Here am I
Where are you?<\/em><\/p>\n

So, when I told Felice that I had Mike Krebs put me down for plus one for
tonight’s Steve Winwood show, she was excited.\u00c2\u00a0 That album is something we share.<\/p>\n

But I told Felice not to expect that person.\u00c2\u00a0 The one doing the dance music,
in hip outfits, moving awkwardly to the beat.\u00c2\u00a0 Steve Winwood had renounced all
that.\u00c2\u00a0 Now he was a member of the jam band scene.<\/p>\n

Walking the backstreets to the Wilshire Theatre we stumbled on Steve’s bus.\u00c2\u00a0
It had a trailer.\u00c2\u00a0 The acts of yore who can still tour, if they travel by bus,
have at LEAST one truck, usually a semi!\u00c2\u00a0 For the equipment, for the staging.
\u00c2\u00a0I was getting the creeps.\u00c2\u00a0 Last time I’d seen Steve the Wiltern had been
half-empty.\u00c2\u00a0 I anticipated a box office disaster.<\/p>\n

But the lobby was FULL of fiftysomethings.\u00c2\u00a0 People who remembered.\u00c2\u00a0 Who knew
that you’ve got to touch greatness when you can.\u00c2\u00a0 That someday Steve Winwood
is going to die, and to be able to listen to him, up close and personal, all
these years later…you can’t turn this down.<\/p>\n

There was no stage set.\u00c2\u00a0 No backdrop.\u00c2\u00a0 Just a few tiny amps.\u00c2\u00a0 And a Hammond
B3.<\/p>\n

There was no arrival announcement.\u00c2\u00a0 Steve sauntered on stage while the lights
were still up looking like he’d come over from Nibbler’s.\u00c2\u00a0 In a button-down
with his undershirt shining through.\u00c2\u00a0 But then he sat down at the organ and got
ready to play.<\/p>\n

It was a band.\u00c2\u00a0 Some guy from Philadelphia on assorted reed instruments.\u00c2\u00a0 A
percussionist and a drummer.\u00c2\u00a0 And Jose Neto on guitar.\u00c2\u00a0 Worth the price of
admission himself.\u00c2\u00a0 And, with the notes of a flute rendering the intro, in a few
seconds, everybody was rocking to "Pearly Queen".<\/p>\n

I don’t know why Traffic’s second album is so good.\u00c2\u00a0 Whether it was because
Dave Mason was in the band, or the album was produced by Jimmy Miller, but the
record was the apotheosis of the act.\u00c2\u00a0 "Pearly Queen" was an integral number.\u00c2\u00a0
Along with "Forty Thousand Headmen", which the band also played.<\/p>\n

You don’t go to a concert often and know every song.\u00c2\u00a0 But tonight was one of
those evenings.\u00c2\u00a0 But I can’t say I knew every note.\u00c2\u00a0 Because there was enough
improvisation for a follower of the Grateful Dead.<\/p>\n

Oh, it wasn’t like seeing Dylan.\u00c2\u00a0 The songs were recognizable.\u00c2\u00a0 But the
players stretched out, changed the notes.\u00c2\u00a0 The old material breathed new again.<\/p>\n

And the new material…\u00c2\u00a0 "About Time" was my favorite album of 2003.\u00c2\u00a0 Listen
to it.\u00c2\u00a0 Twice.\u00c2\u00a0 This is not the kind of adventure you expect from a member of
the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s not like anything the man has done
before.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s a risk, and it SUCCEEDS!<\/p>\n

To hear Jose work out on "Silvia (Who Is She?)" was positively jaw-dropping.\u00c2\u00a0
And that groove of "Different Light"…ahh.<\/p>\n

Then again, towards the end of the opening set, Steve picked up his guitar
and played "Can’t Find My Way Home".\u00c2\u00a0 The day one of today’s bands cuts A SINGLE track as good as this Blind Faith classic is when I stop complaining that the
old stuff is better than the new.<\/p>\n

Oh, the second set had highlights.\u00c2\u00a0 Minor numbers like "Light Up And Leave Me
Alone"…\u00c2\u00a0 And "Rainmaker"!!\u00c2\u00a0 They turned the coda into a song itself.\u00c2\u00a0 The
drumming was mesmerizing.<\/p>\n

Still, when Steve whipped off a note perfect "Dear Mr. Fantasy" he had the
audience applauding forever.\u00c2\u00a0 On their feet.\u00c2\u00a0 In the middle of the show.<\/p>\n

Still, the highlight was…"Back In The High Life Again".<\/p>\n

In the bathroom during intermission I overheard the urinating buddies
discussing what was coming up.\u00c2\u00a0 They anticipated "Freedom Rider" and "Glad".\u00c2\u00a0 Which Steve HAD played the last time I’d seen him.<\/p>\n

But they were wrong.<\/p>\n

But it didn’t bother me.\u00c2\u00a0 I haven’t heard this kind of talk in the loo in
decades.\u00c2\u00a0 Today everybody’s shuffling, they’re quiet.<\/p>\n

Still, I was sure what song Steve was playing when he picked up the mandolin
two and a half hours in.\u00c2\u00a0 I’ve seen him do it before.\u00c2\u00a0 It was "John Barleycorn".<\/p>\n

But the intro…it never quite segued into the groove, the hook.\u00c2\u00a0 Steve was
working out, dancing into a number that was not familiar.\u00c2\u00a0 Until it was.\u00c2\u00a0 He
was going to play an acoustic version of "Back In The High Life Again".<\/p>\n

We’ll have ourselves a time
And we’ll dance ’til the morning sun
And we’ll let the good times come in
And we won’t stop ’til we’re done<\/em><\/p>\n

This was an audience of true believers.\u00c2\u00a0 They didn’t look good.\u00c2\u00a0 Their hair
was silver, if they had any at all.\u00c2\u00a0 Their waistlines had expanded.\u00c2\u00a0 But they
remembered…when music changed the world.<\/p>\n

During "Higher Love" the nerdiest child of the fifties jumped up to dance and
never sat down, even though he was the lone standing member of his section.<\/p>\n

And during the Traffic numbers, you could see everybody mouth the words.<\/p>\n

People were running around with freshly purchased copies of "About Time".<\/p>\n

They weren’t there to be able to tell and impress somebody, there was only
one thing that mattered, the music.<\/p>\n

Steve spoke less than Dylan does.\u00c2\u00a0 Which means essentially not at all.<\/p>\n

He dazzled with his musicianship.\u00c2\u00a0 The voice…that famous sound was still
there.\u00c2\u00a0 And the song choices!!\u00c2\u00a0 "Medicated Goo"!!!<\/p>\n

We’ll be back in the high life again
All the doors I closed one time will open up again<\/em><\/p>\n

I don’t go out much anymore.\u00c2\u00a0 Actually, all the action’s inside, in front of
the computer screen.\u00c2\u00a0 And out isn’t how I remember it.\u00c2\u00a0 I was never one for
clubs, never for dancing, never for making the scene.\u00c2\u00a0 It was always about
fulfillment.\u00c2\u00a0 But you can’t go to the movies anymore.\u00c2\u00a0 And the music…it rarely
contains any of the elements that hooked me to begin with.<\/p>\n

But tonight was like the Fillmore East.\u00c2\u00a0 The music was the star.<\/p>\n

And we’ll drink and dance with one hand free
And have the world so easily
And oh we’ll be a sight to see
Back in the high life again<\/em><\/p>\n

I lost ten years of my life somewhere back there.\u00c2\u00a0 The nineties were almost a
complete write-off.\u00c2\u00a0 I was reeling from a separation that I didn’t foresee.\u00c2\u00a0
I had an operation that took years to recover from.\u00c2\u00a0 I had no money.\u00c2\u00a0 I
teetered near the edge for so long that I wore out my constitution.\u00c2\u00a0 I find it tough
to endure hard times anymore.\u00c2\u00a0 I just don’t believe things will get better.<\/p>\n

But they have.<\/p>\n

I reached over, put my hand on Felice’s back and told her I’d been back in
the high life since I met her.<\/p>\n

The oldie acts rush their material.\u00c2\u00a0 As if they hate to play it.\u00c2\u00a0 But Steve
was possessed when he was strumming that mandolin.\u00c2\u00a0 It was like he wasn’t even
there.\u00c2\u00a0 That tiny instrument was taking complete dedication and concentration.
And strumming it hard enough to make the full sound he desired seemed to
release a load of endorphins in his body.\u00c2\u00a0 It was as if he stopped moving his
crowded limbs something terrible would happen.\u00c2\u00a0 Or maybe it was that he just
didn’t want the moment to end.<\/p>\n

But, after the better part of ten minutes, he and the band gave it a rest.\u00c2\u00a0
And the assembled multitude jumped to its feet and hooted and hollered and
applauded.\u00c2\u00a0 For an ACOUSTIC NUMBER!<\/p>\n

Maybe it was at this point, or during the next number, that I leaned into
Felice’s ear and asked her if she’d noted what Steve was wearing.<\/p>\n

As she peered intently in the quasi-darkness I gave her the answer.<\/p>\n

HIS JEANS!<\/p>\n

I refuse to wear a tux.\u00c2\u00a0 I won’t go anywhere that requires me to substitute
leather shoes for my Nikes.\u00c2\u00a0 Because the musicians of yore, the ones I believed
in, they wore the same clothes onstage as off.\u00c2\u00a0 It was the music that shined,
not them.<\/p>\n

But I’ve been wavering.\u00c2\u00a0 Wondering whether it’s worth making the statement
anymore.\u00c2\u00a0 When my contemporaries are amassing a fortune in real estate, when so
many of the acts I believed in have licensed their music, their gold, to hype
the evanescent products of a consumer culture.\u00c2\u00a0 But then I have a night like
tonight, as a member of the congregation at the high church of rock and roll,
and I know that I still believe.\u00c2\u00a0 And that I’m not giving up, I’m not selling
out.\u00c2\u00a0 And that I’m not the only one.<\/p>\n

If you need to leave early.\u00c2\u00a0 If you need to see dancing.\u00c2\u00a0 If you’re dazzled
by light shows.\u00c2\u00a0 Don’t go to see Steve Winwood.<\/p>\n

But if your life flashes before you when you hear "Can’t Find My Way Home".\u00c2\u00a0
If you want to see a guitar hero who illustrates what a worthless hack Eric
Clapton has become.\u00c2\u00a0 If you want to see living, breathing rock and roll as
opposed to antiquities like Cream.\u00c2\u00a0 Go to see Steve Winwood.<\/p>\n

I saw Cream twice.\u00c2\u00a0 The second time was spectacular.<\/p>\n

But Eric Clapton hasn’t done anything great since "Layla".\u00c2\u00a0 And Duane Allman
was responsible for a ton of that.<\/p>\n

Jimmy Miller worked wonders with Winwood.\u00c2\u00a0 But, unlike the Glimmer Twins,
Steve has equaled the work of his old helmsman on "About Time".\u00c2\u00a0 He’s still got
it.\u00c2\u00a0 And when the band chugged into "Crossroads" as the first encore, you
didn’t feel nostalgic, you felt alive.<\/p>\n

And then, of course, when that number ended, after a moment of silence, Steve
sat on the organ keys and brought everybody to their feet once again.\u00c2\u00a0 With
"Gimme Some Lovin’"!<\/p>\n

The place was fire.\u00c2\u00a0 It was totally hot.\u00c2\u00a0 We were so glad we made it.\u00c2\u00a0 So
glad we made it.\u00c2\u00a0 We not only remembered giving each other lovin’, we were still
doing it.\u00c2\u00a0 EVERY DAY!<\/p>\n

<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Well I feel so good everything is getting hotYou’d better take those ties off ’cause the place is on fire Dinosaurs are roaming the earth.\u00c2\u00a0 Everybody from the Eagles to McCartney is on the road for another dip into the cash jar.\u00c2\u00a0 And, make no mistake, these shows are nostalgia. McCartney and the Stones under […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-167","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-live-shows","category-the-music"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p96vPs-2H","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/167","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=167"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/167\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=167"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=167"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=167"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}