Skip to main content

Too Long a Time



After Ann and Nancy Wilson's beautiful tribute to Led Zeppelin at the Kennedy Center, I found myself looking back on Heart.  All I had on CD was a Greatest Hits collection, which quite frankly didn't do them justice. I since remedied that by purchasing the box set Strange Euphoria, a highly personal collection of songs plus a classic live performance from 1975.  And, now, I discovered there was a book published last year as well.

Their passion for Zeppelin runs deep.  They actually covered Stairway to Heaven back in the 70s, as well as other songs by Plant and Page.  What made their tribute especially sweet was the appearance of Jason Bonham, who tours with the current Heart band.  The bowler hats were a great touch. and I imagine is what brought tears to the old boys' eyes.  John Bonham is missed.

Heart's legacy certainly doesn't match that of Led Zeppelin, but they were a pioneering band in many ways, not least of which their many literary allusions.  It is great to see them getting the credit they deserve.


Comments

  1. Wonderful YouTube video. Great performance by the Wilsons & Bonham & Co. And yes, the bowler hats (called "derby" in the USA or doybees as we used to say in Brooklyn) were super kool!

    Back in that era we had other great artists (mostly British) whose music featured literary allusions such as Fairport Convention, Pentangle, Renaissance, & Strawb. These are among my faves in the Progressive Rock field and all were influenced in some form or another by the great Jethro Tull band.

    ReplyDelete
  2. The box set is interesting in that it offers a number of demos and outtakes and radio live recordings giving their music a much more raw feeling.

    You are right, Trip, in that the British invasion reshaped American music, which is why groups like Led Zeppelin and The Who have both been recognized at Kennedy Center.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I'm gonna have to check to see if that box set is available in our library as it sounds very interesting.

      Was a huge Steeleye Span fan back in the day. And enjoyed chamber music greats such as NY Kammermusiker, Early Music ensemble, and perhaps all my time faves the Waverly Consort:


      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5LbAZ6FTfAU


      Such GREAT music!!

      Delete
  3. Yea, Steeleye Span is a great group. There are some very interesting contemporary folk groups like Hem,

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DQNknNX7HoA

    and Hank Dogs,

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MaNONJ59tTU

    who I like very much.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Came across this gem from Hem:


      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wrZam5uZu08


      With a little more professional editing this would be awesome. The scenery reminds me of upstate New York - very lovely, indeed.

      Delete
  4. Interesting - I had not heard of either group before and looked up the links. Kool music, indeed.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Here's my favorite of that period/genre:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DgQuVeMOyAk

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire

  Welcome to this month's reading group selection.  David Von Drehle mentions The Melting Pot , a play by Israel Zangwill, that premiered on Broadway in 1908.  At that time theater was accessible to a broad section of the public, not the exclusive domain it has become over the decades.  Zangwill carried a hopeful message that America was a place where old hatreds and prejudices were pointless, and that in this new country immigrants would find a more open society.  I suppose the reference was more an ironic one for Von Drehle, as he notes the racial and ethnic hatreds were on display everywhere, and at best Zangwill's play helped persons forget for a moment how deep these divides ran.  Nevertheless, "the melting pot" made its way into the American lexicon, even if New York could best be describing as a boiling cauldron in the early twentieth century. Triangle: The Fire That Changed America takes a broad view of events that led up the notorious fire, not...

Dylan in America

Whoever it was in 1969 who named the very first Bob Dylan bootleg album “Great White Wonder” may have had a mischievous streak. There are any number of ways you can interpret the title — most boringly, the cover was blank, like the Beatles’ “White Album” — but I like to see a sly allusion to “Moby-Dick.” In the seven years since the release of his first commercial record, Dylan had become the white whale of 20th-century popular song, a wild, unconquerable and often baffling force of musical nature who drove fans and critics Ahab-mad in their efforts to spear him, lash him to the hull and render him merely comprehensible. --- Bruce Handy, NYTimes ____________________________________________ I figured we can start fresh with Bob Dylan.  Couldn't resist this photo of him striking a Woody Guthrie pose.  Looks like only yesterday.  Here is a link to the comments building up to this reading group.

Team of Rivals Reading Group

''Team of Rivals" is also an America ''coming-of-age" saga. Lincoln, Seward, Chase et al. are sketched as being part of a ''restless generation," born when Founding Fathers occupied the White House and the Louisiana Purchase netted nearly 530 million new acres to be explored. The Western Expansion motto of this burgeoning generation, in fact, was cleverly captured in two lines of Stephen Vincent Benet's verse: ''The stream uncrossed, the promise still untried / The metal sleeping in the mountainside." None of the protagonists in ''Team of Rivals" hailed from the Deep South or Great Plains. _______________________________ From a review by Douglas Brinkley, 2005