UNCUT BY THE MONTH, BRILLIANT BY THE BYE

Whoooaaaa mama!!!!!






Up here in the vast, expansive, expensive Great White Socialist North AKA Kanuckistan, we do so like to read, as there is 3.69 metres of snow on the ground for 9 months, preventing much picnicking, or even much else.
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But, after the golden age of North American rock reporting-Cream, Crawdaddy, the old Rolling Stone- sort of fell apart by the late 80s and we were left with naught but new Rolling Stone, which became more about style and bloody politics, than music.
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Oh sure, a few of the la(r)ger settlements in Kanuckistan did stock a few copies of NME, Melody Maker, or even Record Collector, and the US Goldmine, but your average colonial commoner was hard pressed to find any of that magnificent music pulp in say, a shit-hole like Hamilton-incredibly, noted on the map-within the greater provincial Ontario protectorates
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'owever, mate, by the early 90s, the odd newspaper and mag shoppe started to carry something called UNCUT, and then MOJO, glossy periodicals with gratis CDs
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These two magazines really blew a classic rock-and other-music lover's mind, and they both have been regular visitors to my eyes and dustbin ever since.
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Not many peeps bother to purchase Rolling Stone in the flesh no mo, because, among other good reasons, the whole bloody thin exsists for free, online.
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But the UK music manifestos are not to be found on the WWW, and so will set one back about $15 Kanuck bucks-bleedin' taxes all in-if one wants to join the party.
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And wot a party!
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Case in point is the June 2009 ish of UNCUT, with Bruce the Boss on the cover, pointin' roight back at ya.
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Now the BS feature is brilliant-a piece by band mate and lifelong buddy Little Steven-the real cool feature this month is a huge fold-out Bob Dylan accross America poster/map. (Click on the above left scan for all the info.)
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Of all the good gimmicks UNCUT has provided as added value through the years, this Dylan map has got to be the best bees knees of 'em all.
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I strongly urge all Dylanologists to seek it out.

Beelzebub Beatles Brass Boning Beckoning?

My God; NOT AGAIN!!!

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All those waiting with salty but stale breaths for the September 9 releasing of the Beatles remaster hounds will not like what the PPC is about to learn them.

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Not vouching for it, but we ARE hearing dirty, dirty little whispers that the forthcoming complete Fabs' recordings mono and stereo box sets are to be priced in the $275 range. (Of course, each!)

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As many box-sets-try Neil Young's new CD collection with comparable totalling discs at $99 MSRP-give the poor music buyer a break, the Beatles, if they stick to the near three C-note retail, will be basically charging full-on for each of the supplied 13 CDs. About $22, each.

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Written politely, this possibility SUCKS!

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Hath not Apple/Rutle/EMI Corpses not gotten their fill already, with that totally retarded Help! DVD box that had a suggested tag of about $200???

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Given that the Help! disaster now goes for about $50 new on e-bay, are the Beatle brainiacs trying to slay the Golden Goose once more?

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Good God, wot wankers they all are.

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Oh, we're pretty sure that some of the big-box retailers will try to give the poor enema'd Beatles fan at least a lubricated discount, but, even if the sets get down to around $200, that's still too much.

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And given that within hours, most-nay, all-of the boxes contents will be up for gratis on the WWW, even the attending hot and heavy hype supplied by the media before the release may not pay off for the greedy bastards at Apple.

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YES, these new releases are what we hardcore fans have bitched for for 22 years.

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But, hell NO, we dont' want to get ripped off-again!!

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Has Apple not noted that the world economy has melted down?

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And that $275 music boxes-even BEATLE ones-will surely be a tough sell?

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Sod them all.

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As always, your comments are welcome.

Woodstock Revisited...Again!

Get ready to bang the Woodstock drum, kiddies!





So, where was you at, August, 15, 16, 17, 1969? And oh yes, the early morning of Monday August 18, when Jimi Hendrix, closing the Woodstock Music and Arts Fair rattled windows and doors for miles around with other-worldly guitar shrieks and devastating decibels previously unrealized, even for the original psychedelic Voodoo child.
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I know what I was doing; getting ready to start grade 9 at Glendale High School, in Hamilton, Ontario, and listening to my
parents bitch and moan about those "disgusting, dirty, hairy, un-Godly hippies who had rolled and done who knows what else in the mud," down at the Woodstock music festival in lower new York state on diary farmer Max Yasgur's spread.
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Of course I filed away all the paternal outrage as definitely having good possibilities, and when the feature film of the fest rolled into town almost a year later, I was there. Three times in 10 days.
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Well, for a 15 year old who had been brought up on the Beatles, Rolling Stones, and even the Monkees and their ilk, this presentation of the musical giants of the white-hot youth and counter-culture really blew my mind.
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For sure-he said only half-jokingly- I became a LIBERAL democrat after watching wide-eyed as Joe Cocker attacked With A Little Help From Friends, unlike anyway the Fabs' had done.
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Throw in the "GIMME AN F"- Fish Cheer, Ten Years After, and the game -changer for me, the Who, and I was a signed, sealed and decidedly anti-authority, free-love, stop the war, at least as much as a middle-class teen living in the Great White North could be who had a father that forced monthly (short) hair-cuts on me, and who thought Walter Cronkite was a Communist.
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Yet I still managed to get my hands on the original 3 record soundtrack from the film
and play the shit out of it and dream, especially when the old folks were not around.
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And I've never lost my affection for Woodstock '69, buying the show through the years on vinyl-even the 1/2 speed mastered audiophile kind-8-track, CD, and DVD.
(Here is my BMR review of the current "best" sounding Woodstock recordings:
http://www.boomermediareview.com/Woodstock1/2.html)
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But now, with the 40th anny of the freak-out on us in three weeks, we will be seeing first, a brand new remastered, loaded with extra performances DVD of the original film, and then, according to Rolling Stone, a special 6 CD collection of LOTS of heretofore unheard festival tunes.
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Given that half a dozen discs can hold about 6 or 7 or even 8 hours of music, we are due to hear LOTS of unheard performances, including, a newly over-dubbed by Carlos Santana version of Evil Ways, that had to be left off the first offerings of the soundtrack due to Santana's acid-induced untuned guitar.
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And basically, this is the gig that just-or should-keep on giving as over the 3 1/2 days of the concert, about 30 hours of music was recorded, so we are, even 40 years later, only barely scratching the surface.
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Can't you just wait to hear a reported 45 minute version of Playing in the Band by the Grateful Dead? Ah, some day. Some day...
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In addition, at last count there were at least 13 books being offered for release this summer, including one by original co-promoter Mike Laing, and even one by Martin Scorsese, who was a cameraman at the concert.
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Obviously, this is all very groovy, man.
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Hope you can dig it, again.
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As always...we invite your comments.