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- Robert Plant's Band of Joy perform Harm's Swift Way: exclusive video
In the second instalment of our five-part series, the Led Zeppelin legend performs Townes Van Zandt's Harm's Swift Way
Yesterday, we kicked off our series of exclusive Robert Plant videos with his version of Low's Monkey, performed live at the London Forum in September. Today, we have footage from the same show of Plant covering Harm's Swift Way by country singer Townes Van Zandt.
guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More FeedsПереслать - Exclusive: Paul McCartney talks about Band on the Run
Macca describes doing something 'different but successful' with Wings – and how Michael Jackson became a fan
Next month sees the rerelease of Band On the Run, the 1973 album that established Paul McCartney's post-Beatles career. Here, he describes the formation of a creative relationship with his late wife, Linda, and why he chose to record the album in Lagos, Nigeria.
guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More FeedsПереслать - Robert Plant's Band of Joy perform Monkey: exclusive video
Our week-long series of videos from Robert Plant's London Forum concert begins with a cover of Low's Monkey
Last month saw the release of Robert Plant's ninth solo album, Band of Joy, which featured covers of Americana anthems. The Led Zeppelin frontman also toured the album with an accomplished array of musicians, including singer Patty Griffin, pedal-steel player Darrell Scott, bassist Byron House, drummer Marco Giovino and guitarist/singer Buddy Miller. In the first of a five-part series, watch Plant perform his version of Low's Monkey.
guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More FeedsПереслать - Kanye West's Runaway: Purple Rain or bird brains?
A birdwoman in distress, a gaggle of ballet dancers and Jacko's massive balloon head. It can only be the new Kanye West video
Good old Kanye West. The man is to music bloggers what pissed Whitehall tittle-tattle is to Westminster diarists. Last week we boggled at his choice of album artwork, and this weekend the rapper premiered the video/movie for his new single Runaway. Directed by West (who's got form in this area), written by Hype Williams and clocking in at an almighty 34 minutes, it's typical of a man whose idea of doing things by halves probably involves a Louis Vuitton calculator.Runaway tells the story of a phoenix (played by model Selita Ebanks) who crash-lands on Kanye's sports car in a Czech forest. West then carries birdywoman back to his flat where she discovers the good that's in this world (rabbits, sheep, etc) before he teaches her to dance. The pair – seemingly lovers at this point – then go to a military parade where an inflated Michael Jackson head is carried by a battalion as Rihanna sings the chorus to All of the Lights. Next, Kanye takes his bird to a heavenly dinner ("Your girlfriend is very beautiful. Do you know she's a bird?" asks a fellow diner) where he bashes a piano and ballet dancers pirouette through Runaway. Mrs Phoenix then gets upset at the turkey main course. Well, you would. Then they make bird-man love to the Bon Iver-sampling Lost in the World before the phoenix sets herself on fire and Kanye has to run away faster than you'd think possible for a man wearing Gucci loafers.
But what does it all mean? Don't have sex with alien birds? Sure thing 'Ye. Thankfully, West has clarified: "I've been feeling the idea of the phoenix. It's been in my heart for a while. It's maybe parallel to my career. I threw a Molotov cocktail on my career last year, in a way, and I had to come back as a better person," he told New York mag.
(I think he's talking about this.)Runaway is also all about earthlings "ripping the wings" off the phoenix (ie West) with our contstant sniping and "turning them to stone" so they can't be different any more. You can't help but respect a man whose response to people sniping at his magpie-like creativity/occasional moments of madness is to make this video.
It's ridiculous, ostentatious and egotistical, but that's what West is here for. If he wants to show off his love of Matisse-style visuals, Jacko and Bon Iver, then what's the harm? Runaway might be loaded with deeper meaning but essentially it's just another way of getting people talking about My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, his guest-heavy fifth LP. What's the betting on a semi-naked phoenix being this Halloween's costume of choice?
Watch Runaway in full here
guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More FeedsПереслать - RIP Walkman: goodbye after 30 years
It chewed up cassettes and offered poor sound quality, but the Walkman was once the height of music technology. Join me in waving a fond farewell to this cherished – if flawed – gadget
Am I alone in feeling a small degree of sadness after hearing that Sony is retiring the Walkman? Like vinyl-lovers who mourned the arrival of cassettes, I finally understand what it's like to watch a piece of music technology, once regarded as the pinnacle of cool (no, really), fall from grace and, in the Walkman's case, suffer a quiet death.
I first got my hands on one when I was about nine. It was pale green and I smuggled it to the edge of the school playground with my friends, unfolding the casette sleeve to the Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves soundtrack so we could sing along to the words. My other memories are less pleasant: the damned thing chewed up lovingly made mixtapes, slowed down malevolently as the batteries died, not forgetting the rubbish sound quality it offered. Finally, I threw the last one I owned at the pavement in a fit of tech-rage – aged 14, I think, this time with only slightly improved taste in music – and turned my affections to the latest revolutionary gadget (which turned out to be just as rubbish), the MiniDisc player.
I wish I'd kept the mixtapes I'd made back then, but they were thrown out along with my Now That's What I Call Music ... compilations. Then again, I seem to remember a personal selection that featured Shampoo, Salt N Pepa and 4 Non Blondes. So please join me in waving goodbye to this flawed piece of technology, and let me know which songs best capture your Walkman years.
guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More FeedsПереслать - How Squeeze seized the keys to their back catalogue
Glenn Tilbrook and co decided to reclaim songs such as Up the Junction – by recording them all over again
Re-recording your own songs … hmmm. Where do I start?
If one of my children was doing a life sentence in prison for a crime I knew they hadn't committed, I would do my best to get them out, no matter what. Having the recordings of my songs owned forever by someone else, with no chance of getting them back, is a little bit like that. So re-recording them is, thanks to a contractual loophole, a little bit like breaking that proverbial child out of prison. Those songs are free now, and back where they belong.
Of course there is a commercial element to be considered, which is that when the songs are deployed by Universal we only see a small percentage of the income. They might argue that they took the initial risk financially and are now reaping the rewards – that's business. But we have no control and most of our records, besides the hits, aren't available either on CD or on iTunes.
We understand that we come low on the label's list of priorities, but it's frustrating not to be able to have any kind of say when it comes to our own material (and they won't let us license them back, which is something we've tried to do on several occastions). So without moaning, and accepting certain commercial and legal facts, the best solution was for us to do this.
To think that we could now actually earn something decent from the use of our songs in TV ads or movies is refreshing. And the idea that we could actually know when they're going to be used (and even maybe have a tiny degree of control) is delightful. Would we undercut Universal on price? Absolutely! This is an invitation to ad agencies and music supervisors around the world: we are open for business! (Please visit squeezeofficial.com for contact details.)
From a technical point of view, recording a load of our songs again was a labour of love that ended up taking three years of blood, sweat and tears in the studio between tours and solo projects. But – apart from the one time I stared at my studio floor for four hours, despairing at how things could have got so bad – I loved nearly every minute of recording the album.
If you are an artist or a writer, you'll understand. Think about this: in 1994, John Fogerty of the legendary Creedence Clearwater Revival was taken to court by the publishers of his back catalogue (who were also his manager and label back in the day) on the grounds that one of his new songs sounded like an old one. What, an artist who sounds like himself? Luckily, he won (though he had to pay his own legal fees). That the case ever came to court effectively suggests a song becomes nothing more than a piece of property to those who own it, while the person who wrote it or recorded it becomes a small inconvenience.
The copyright debate is a valid one, and it has to be said that the lobbyists from the record companies are doing a fairly good job of trying to get music copyrights more universally recognised and respected – albeit for reasons of greed. However, the fact we do not (and never will) own the recordings of some of our best work is simply not fair. This is our small contribution to the copyright debate.
We can't own the original recordings, but we can own flawless re-recordings that are the next best thing. We're fortunate in that our songs have outlived both the original recordings and the restriction on re-recording them – and that we were financially able to have another go. Most bands don't get that lucky.
Art over commerce, commerce over art? Who cares. We've broken Up the Junction out of prison, and now it's all ours.
guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More FeedsПереслать
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