"Addicted To Love" is a pretty good record, but if you want sheer magic, you’ve got to go further back into Robert Palmer’s career, the first two solo records, when no one was paying attention.<\/p>\n
I bought the second one first.\u00c2\u00a0 A promo.\u00c2\u00a0 The torrent of its day, even if you did have to actually pay something for the disc.\u00c2\u00a0 I got hooked on "Give Me An Inch".\u00c2\u00a0 And loving this blue-eyed soul number so much in an era when white men crooned little, I went back even further, to Robert’s debut.<\/p>\n
There’s a band touring today known as Little Feat, and Billy Payne is still fantastic, but that act is a shadow of its former self. It’s like Big Brother without Janis Joplin.\u00c2\u00a0 You see, Lowell George was Little Feat.<\/p>\n
And the George-led Feat was like Palmer, laboring in near-obscurity before breaking through.\u00c2\u00a0 But on that second Little Feat album, the one with Neon Park’s piece of cake swinging on the cover, the one that opens with the legendary obscurity "Easy To Slip", on side two, you’ll find the title track.\u00c2\u00a0 An exquisite, laid back Lowell George concoction.<\/p>\n
"Sailin’ Shoes" opens Robert Palmer’s solo debut.\u00c2\u00a0 This is like finding out your grade school girlfriend is the new Mayor of Philadelphia.\u00c2\u00a0 Only you knew her previously, you knew she was special, she was your secret.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s good to know someone else feels it too!<\/p>\n
But "Sailin’ Shoes" doesn’t fade out into blankness, it segues into "Hey Julia", and that track segues into "Sneakin’ Sally Through The Alley", written by Allen Toussaint, but unknown by me when I purchased Palmer’s debut disc.<\/p>\n
"Sneakin’ Sally Through The Alley" is like getting together with your college buddies, it instantly fits, it makes you feel good. Every time you hear it it puts a smile upon your face.<\/p>\n
Last weekend at the Gorge, Phish played "Sneakin’ Sally Through The Alley".\u00c2\u00a0 As well as a twenty three minute version of the Velvet Underground’s "Rock and Roll".<\/p>\n
If your act is on hard drive, you can’t change the set.\u00c2\u00a0 Ditto if you’ve got a ton of choreography.\u00c2\u00a0 Modern shows don’t breathe. They’re spectacle, but frequently not music.\u00c2\u00a0 A concert should be a one time only event, unique to this night, an evanescent experience that you’re privileged to attend.<\/p>\n
I’d be lying if I said I was the biggest Phish fan.<\/p>\n
But they don’t rely on covers, they insert them like strategic attacks, revealing their roots, evidencing years worth of listening to records.\u00c2\u00a0 Unlike the teen phenoms and their audiences, Phish wasn’t born yesterday, they’re part of an enduring legacy, and this endears them to their fans.<\/p>\n
Doesn’t matter if you don’t like them.\u00c2\u00a0 Doesn’t matter if you think they got back together because they exhausted all solo options.\u00c2\u00a0 Bottom line, they’re not doing it solely for the money.\u00c2\u00a0 They’re expanding their repertoire, they’re taking chances, they’re being MUSICIANS!<\/p>\n
More like this please.<\/p>\n
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