{"id":2641,"date":"2010-01-31T14:43:25","date_gmt":"2010-01-31T22:43:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/?p=2641"},"modified":"2010-01-31T14:43:25","modified_gmt":"2010-01-31T22:43:25","slug":"broken-arrow","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/2010\/01\/31\/broken-arrow\/","title":{"rendered":"Broken Arrow"},"content":{"rendered":"

The lights turned on and the curtain fell down…<\/span><\/p>\n

The first Crosby, Stills & Nash album was such a phenomenon, entered the consciousness of listeners to such a degree, that there was a huge hunger for more.\u00c2\u00a0 And there was more.\u00c2\u00a0 An album entitled "Retrospective", the greatest hits of Buffalo Springfield.<\/p>\n

Beloved today, Buffalo Springfield was known at the time for their one infectious, haunting hit, "For What It’s Worth".\u00c2\u00a0 Hell, you’ve got to love an act that titles a track with words not in the lyrics…\u00c2\u00a0 And with Stills the star of CSN, people were thrilled to now know "Rock and Roll Woman", that was the track buyers of "Retrospective" gravitated to.\u00c2\u00a0 But in an era predating MP3s, never mind CDs and cassettes, you eventually ended up dropping the needle on the vinyl and listening to the side all the way through.\u00c2\u00a0 That’s how we discovered "Broken Arrow", hell, that’s how we discovered Neil Young.<\/p>\n

Friday evening, Neil Young was feted at the annual MusiCares dinner, a clusterfuck that raises money for a good cause and features two hours of performances that…usually have some highlights and feature some distinct lowlights that allow one to go to the bathroom to do a year’s worth of business with the people you run into.<\/p>\n

It’s just that Friday night’s performances were consistently subpar.\u00c2\u00a0 Until we got to Norah Jones.<\/p>\n

Johnny Mellencamp rearranged "Down By The River", squeezing the driving essence right out of the song.<\/p>\n

Ozomatli?\u00c2\u00a0 There’s a story there somewhere.\u00c2\u00a0 That’s what I think of when I listen to Canadian Neil Young’s songs, this Los Angeles Latino music.\u00c2\u00a0 Huh?<\/p>\n

My beloved Jackson Browne was so busy looking at the teleprompter that I couldn’t forgive him for missing "Don’t Let It Bring You Down" by only a few inches.\u00c2\u00a0 I could have gotten up and sung every lyric of the classic from "After The Gold Rush".\u00c2\u00a0 Do you remember lying on your bed in your dorm room playing this song over and over again?\u00c2\u00a0 If not, you weren’t in college in the seventies.<\/p>\n

Stephen Stills and Sheryl Crow performed "Long May You Run".\u00c2\u00a0 Funny, considering this is the album Stephen cut with Neil, booked a tour, and then got a telegram in Florida telling him that the dark-haired maestro decided to punt.\u00c2\u00a0 I don’t know about you, I live up to my commitments. It’s hard to forgive that shit.\u00c2\u00a0 Then again, the older you get, the more you need money, and the more you’ll overlook to get it.<\/p>\n

Needless to say, Stills’ voice is now lacking.\u00c2\u00a0 But Lady Antebellum sang just fine, a high school assembly rendition of "Only Love Can Break Your Heart", although this is much better than their own distinctly B-level material.<\/p>\n

Then came Norah Jones.\u00c2\u00a0 On her guitar, her honeyed voice brought vitality to "Tell Me Why". Unlike those who came before, she added insight that was not in the original.\u00c2\u00a0 But she kept peeking at the teleprompter.<\/p>\n

Which was a giant TV at the back of the hall, there for anybody to see.\u00c2\u00a0 Hell, at least Jack Black, the host, went off-script on a regular basis.\u00c2\u00a0 The acts?\u00c2\u00a0 They could barely perform the delineated lyrics.<\/p>\n

Until Wilco.<\/p>\n

When Wilco came on, the prompter went black.\u00c2\u00a0 And suddenly, they went into MR. SOUL!<\/p>\n

I’m getting goosebumps just thinking about it.\u00c2\u00a0 Because how many high school days did I hear that classic intro to "Broken Arrow"?\u00c2\u00a0 This was a signal, from the midwest band to those in attendance who were truly Neil Young fans that music was a serious business, with history that needed to be studied and respected.<\/p>\n

James Taylor fucked up "Heart Of Gold", I wish he hadn’t even come.\u00c2\u00a0 You don’t know the lyrics?\u00c2\u00a0 You could see him peeking up during the verses at the big TV, at first he seemed to be playing a different song.<\/p>\n

But Wilco…<\/p>\n

It was like you were in a theatre, and the band was giving it its all.\u00c2\u00a0 They’d rehearsed, they knew "Broken Arrow", they’d made it their own, their performance was a tour de force.\u00c2\u00a0 They nailed the twists and turns, got the dynamics just right, even did the OUTRO!<\/p>\n

Wasn’t this supposed to be a tribute to Neil?\u00c2\u00a0 Weren’t we supposed to give him respect? Weren’t we supposed to tell him he mattered?<\/p>\n

These songs were in the DNA of the audience, but the performers could barely go through the motions.<\/p>\n

Except Wilco.<\/p>\n

I loved "Being There".\u00c2\u00a0 Then they lost me.\u00c2\u00a0 Now I get it.\u00c2\u00a0 This is why their fans proselytize, go to the shows, because they play like they mean it, like music alone is enough, that it’s not about how you can sell out to major corporations so you can live a Wall Street lifestyle.<\/p>\n

Yeah, I know that Jeff Tweedy made that deal.\u00c2\u00a0 But what I like more is the reaction of their fans. Don’t expect him to take commercial risks in the future…your audience believes in you, trusts you, you must respect that.<\/p>\n

I saw the Buffalo Springfield.\u00c2\u00a0 In those days, there were no sponsors.\u00c2\u00a0 The Fortune 500 ran. Music was dangerous.\u00c2\u00a0 Neil Young knows the truth, that these companies themselves are dangerous.\u00c2\u00a0 And that an artist has to march forward and explore unencumbered.\u00c2\u00a0 Hell, he held up a sign during the show telling the performers to "Just do what you want to do.\u00c2\u00a0 Don’t listen to anyone else."<\/p>\n

That’s the key.\u00c2\u00a0 To go on your own journey.\u00c2\u00a0 Not the one people want you to.\u00c2\u00a0 Hell, did you read all the negative reviews of "Catcher In The Rye" in the Salinger obits?\u00c2\u00a0 Even the "New York Times" panned it.\u00c2\u00a0 Unfortunately, the blowback contributed to Salinger’s pullback from society. We lost out, because the powers-that-be needed to tear him down, make him their size.<\/p>\n

Thank god Neil Young never succumbed to this.\u00c2\u00a0 He’s the poster boy for doing it your own way. And that’s why CSN’s business blows up when he performs with them, and he can go out solo to great business and the rest of the players cannot.\u00c2\u00a0 Because we believe…\u00c2\u00a0 That Neil Young is giving his all.<\/p>\n

Friday night Wilco gave their all.\u00c2\u00a0 And that’s why their fans believe in them just like oldsters believe in Mr. Young.\u00c2\u00a0 Punch the clock and people know.\u00c2\u00a0 Sing from the heart, take your music seriously and the audience knows.\u00c2\u00a0 Jeff Tweedy wasn’t distracted by looking at the teleprompter, the words were embedded deep inside, just like they are in us.<\/p>\n

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

The lights turned on and the curtain fell down… The first Crosby, Stills & Nash album was such a phenomenon, entered the consciousness of listeners to such a degree, that there was a huge hunger for more.\u00c2\u00a0 And there was more.\u00c2\u00a0 An album entitled "Retrospective", the greatest hits of Buffalo Springfield. Beloved today, Buffalo Springfield […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","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],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2641","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-live-shows"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p96vPs-GB","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2641","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\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2641"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2641\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2642,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2641\/revisions\/2642"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2641"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2641"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2641"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}