Reviews Written by Scott
-
June 29, 2002
The bloody brits...
To the guy who wrote the last review -
sorry we haven't produced much talent.
We were just too busy saving your worthless monarchy from the cluches of Hitler. ... -
June 29, 2002
The bloody brits...
To the guy who wrote the last review -
sorry we haven't produced much talent.
We were just too busy saving your worthless monarchy from the cluches of Hitler. ... -
April 21, 2002
The end of the road...
I can’t think of a more aptly named film than “The Last Waltz”, Martin Scorsese’s film of the final concert by The Band. Unlike most films about rock music that capture (or attempt to capture) the joy of the music, “The Last Waltz” is about tired men literally at the end of the road, figuratively and literally. Even the stellar cast of performers who show up to pay homage – Eric Clapton, Van Morrison, Neil Young – make the film and concert seem less like a celebration of a rich legacy and more like a wake. Even the group themselves seem wasted and drawn, as if they limped onto the stage. I can think of artists who even at the end of long careers could still find joy in performance and yet here is The Band, observing their last concert with little joy – or even relief. It’s particularly telling that during the interview segments The Band can’t even muster up the energy to even sit up straight to answer director Scorsese’s questions.
It’s tough to fault the music, though as The Band run through a rich selection of their best – “Up On Cripple Creek”, “The Shape I’m In” and “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down” – occasionally with some feeling. The visiting cast of superstars provide much needed impetus – especially an impassioned Van Morrison stealing the show with a powerful rendition of “Caravan” (though the site of Van in jumpsuit and heels adds a unintended comic moment). Equally strong in performance is Eric Clapton squeezing out some blues licks with Band guitarist Robbie Robertson on the standard “Further On Up The Road”. Others of rock’s royalty seem less connected with The Band either through strained association (Neil Diamond seems hopelessly unhip in such surroundings) or the influence of chemicals (a very stoned Neil Young staring into space during the finale) and their segments seems perfunctory. Even Bob Dylan – who The Band backed during some of his finest hours – hardly appears motivated, though his choice of “Forever Young” is more than appropriate, even ironic given that The Band was anything but.
“The Last Waltz” really was that for The Band. Though they eventually regrouped without Robbie Robertson, each began to succumb to the life that their retirement was designed to avoid. Band members Rick Danko and Richard Manuel died after being ravaged by substance abuse while drummer/singer Levon Helm can barely manage a croak after a battle with throat cancer. Maybe it would have been better to capture The Band while still in their prime (perhaps during their landmark 1974 tour with Dylan). Sadly, “The Last Waltz” isn’t the end of The Band, it’s the beginning of the end. ... -
April 7, 2002
Bleed on the tracks
By 1969, Brian Jones had blown it. The Rolling Stones were aching to take their new music out on the road to an audience willing to listen, but Jones was no longer merely a problem, but a liability. So, Keith and Mick rolled one up for old times sake and subsequently fired Jones, then hired Mick Taylor in the second guitar spot. Of course, this was merely a formality as by this stage Jones barely turned up for recording sessions anymore. Not that it mattered, as Keith Richards and Mick Jagger finding themselves a rich, creative vein, took complete control of The Rolling Stones.
Drugs and stardom had yet to take their toll, and "Let It Bleed" was another watershed moment in their career.
As with "Beggars Banquet", The Stones set the pace with a Top Ten single not even featured on the album. "Honky Tonk Woman" introduced Mick Taylor to audiences and was an odd bit of joy in a period that would be defined by some of the darkest Stones songs written. In fact, the lead off track on "Let It Bleed" was the frightening prophetic "Gimme Shelter", telling listeners that "war, children, was just a shot away". With the US involvment in Vietnam growing like a cancer and Altamont a mere few months away, "Gimme Shelter" predicts the end of the Woodstock Dream and it's transition into a decade of excess.
Things don't get much cheerier, as the Stones take us on a musical journey of all things dark and desperate, from "Let It Bleed"'s
"jaded, faded, junkie nurse" to Albert DiSalvo himself in "Midnight Rambler" (the version here is tame when compared to the incendiary live cut on "Get Your Ya-Ya's Out"). Perhaps the ultimate statement of fatalism comes at the end of "Let It Bleed" with "You Can't Always Get What You Want". Mick and Keith spin a familiar tale of broken hearts, drug addiction, and the affirmation of little victories such as friendship.
The Rolling Stones themselves would fall victim to the rot they sing of on "Let It Bleed" as drug abuse and the pitfalls of stardom took their toll. With "Let It Bleed" the band had the courage to see things as they were in 1968/69, pehaps looking deeper into themselves and their generation than they had expected to. ... -
April 7, 2002
Bleed on the tracks
By 1969, Brian Jones had blown it. The Rolling Stones were aching to take their new music out on the road to an audience willing to listen, but Jones was no longer merely a problem, but a liability. So, Keith and Mick rolled one up for old times sake and subsequently fired Jones, then hired Mick Taylor in the second guitar spot. Of course, this was merely a formality as by this stage Jones barely turned up for recording sessions anymore. Not that it mattered, as Keith Richards and Mick Jagger finding themselves a rich, creative vein, took complete control of The Rolling Stones.
Drugs and stardom had yet to take their toll, and "Let It Bleed" was another watershed moment in their career.
As with "Beggars Banquet", The Stones set the pace with a Top Ten single not even featured on the album. "Honky Tonk Woman" introduced Mick Taylor to audiences and was an odd bit of joy in a period that would be defined by some of the darkest Stones songs written. In fact, the lead off track on "Let It Bleed" was the frightening prophetic "Gimme Shelter", telling listeners that "war, children, was just a shot away". With the US involvment in Vietnam growing like a cancer and Altamont a mere few months away, "Gimme Shelter" predicts the end of the Woodstock Dream and it's transition into a decade of excess.
Things don't get much cheerier, as the Stones take us on a musical journey of all things dark and desperate, from "Let It Bleed"'s
"jaded, faded, junkie nurse" to Albert DiSalvo himself in "Midnight Rambler" (the version here is tame when compared to the incendiary live cut on "Get Your Ya-Ya's Out"). Perhaps the ultimate statement of fatalism comes at the end of "Let It Bleed" with "You Can't Always Get What You Want". Mick and Keith spin a familiar tale of broken hearts, drug addiction, and the affirmation of little victories such as friendship.
The Rolling Stones themselves would fall victim to the rot they sing of on "Let It Bleed" as drug abuse and the pitfalls of stardom took their toll. With "Let It Bleed" the band had the courage to see things as they were in 1968/69, pehaps looking deeper into themselves and their generation than they had expected to. ... -
April 7, 2002
Bleed on the tracks
By 1969, Brian Jones had blown it. The Rolling Stones were aching to take their new music out on the road to an audience willing to listen, but Jones was no longer merely a problem, but a liability. So, Keith and Mick rolled one up for old times sake and subsequently fired Jones, then hired Mick Taylor in the second guitar spot. Of course, this was merely a formality as by this stage Jones barely turned up for recording sessions anymore. Not that it mattered, as Keith Richards and Mick Jagger finding themselves a rich, creative vein, took complete control of The Rolling Stones.
Drugs and stardom had yet to take their toll, and "Let It Bleed" was another watershed moment in their career.
As with "Beggars Banquet", The Stones set the pace with a Top Ten single not even featured on the album. "Honky Tonk Woman" introduced Mick Taylor to audiences and was an odd bit of joy in a period that would be defined by some of the darkest Stones songs written. In fact, the lead off track on "Let It Bleed" was the frightening prophetic "Gimme Shelter", telling listeners that "war, children, was just a shot away". With the US involvment in Vietnam growing like a cancer and Altamont a mere few months away, "Gimme Shelter" predicts the end of the Woodstock Dream and it's transition into a decade of excess.
Things don't get much cheerier, as the Stones take us on a musical journey of all things dark and desperate, from "Let It Bleed"'s
"jaded, faded, junkie nurse" to Albert DiSalvo himself in "Midnight Rambler" (the version here is tame when compared to the incendiary live cut on "Get Your Ya-Ya's Out"). Perhaps the ultimate statement of fatalism comes at the end of "Let It Bleed" with "You Can't Always Get What You Want". Mick and Keith spin a familiar tale of broken hearts, drug addiction, and the affirmation of little victories such as friendship.
The Rolling Stones themselves would fall victim to the rot they sing of on "Let It Bleed" as drug abuse and the pitfalls of stardom took their toll. With "Let It Bleed" the band had the courage to see things as they were in 1968/69, pehaps looking deeper into themselves and their generation than they had expected to. ... -
April 7, 2002
A
"Beggars Banquet" is pure proof that The Rolling Stones always responded well to a challenge. When first released in 1968, The Stones were beginning to crack under the twin stresses of Brian Jones paralyzing drug addiction and the failure of "Their Satanic Majesty's Request", a painful attempt to follow up The Beatles "Sgt. Pepper". Backs to the wall, the band ditched the florid psychedelia in favor of their first love - the blues.
The first landmark on their way back was the single "Jumping Jack Flash", a thunderous bit of electric blues which set the stage for the darker music to come. The artistic partnership of Keith Richards and Mick Jagger blossomed in full with "Beggars Banquet", and the album featured some their most accomplished songwriting to date. Pouring forth from the duo were such career mileStones as "Stray Cat Blues", "Parachute Woman", the anthemic "Street Fighting Man" and the album's stunning centerpiece, "Sympathy For The Devil". It was "Sympathy" that finally made it clear that The Stones were a creative force worthy of being spoken of in the same breath as the Almighty Fab Four. With its dynamic Third World beat, scorching guitar solos, and a brilliantly literate lyric, "Sympathy" was the bold masterstroke that fans had been waiting for, the counterpoint to the unabashed Utopian optimism of Summer of Love. But "Beggars" was more than that, and some of the quieter pieces were of equal stature - "No Expectations" and "Salt of the Earth" demonstrated Keith Richards new facination with American country music, an avenue explored on following Stones albums throughout the seventies.
But "Beggars Banquet" remains one of the band's finest hours - and set the stage for The Stones second dynasty (1968-1972) proving that they could do more than make great singles. They could make great albums. ... -
January 10, 2002
A View to A...Dull
0 of 1 Yahoo! Users found this review helpful With "A View to A Kill" the Roger Moore era comes to a close. Moore's Bond was not everyone's cup of tea - especially those raised on Sean Connery - but he deserves a great deal of credit for making the role his own and for keeping the character going for another 15 years. That's no mean feat, either. Timothy Dalton and George Lazenby combined haven't had the success - or acceptance that met "The Spy Who Loved Me" or even "Moonraker".
It's with that fact in mind that one wishes
"A View To a Kill" was better Bond, but it isn't. As tired as Roger Moore looks (and the years are showing, folks) the creative team responsible are twice as spent. The plot is little more than a redress of "Goldfinger", only instead of hoarding all the gold the villain's (Christopher Walken) scheme is to hoard all the world's microchips, which he has convienently stockpiled for just such an occasion as a major flood destroying Silicon Valley (caused, of course, by Walken's Max Zorin) Got that? Add to the mix a confused and uninvolving side plot concerning steroids, horses, and genetically bred supermen and you have "A View To A Kill" in a nutshell.
Nothing here really works, from the uninspired action sequences (a chase atop the Eiffel Tower is curiously uninvolving, as is the resulting car chase and later fire truck pursuit through San Francisco) to the oddly muted acting. Moore, seemingly aware that this is his last Bond, curiously down plays his notorious charm and even Walken, who you can usually count on for over-the-top histonics phones it in. Of the Bond women, only Grace Jones stands out as screenworthy. But compared to the bland as vanilla Tanya Roberts, even RuPaul would have more appeal. It says volumes about Roberts acting that in the climax she suprised by having a blimp sneak up on her, we believe it.
In the end, Roger Moore deserved a better send off. Instead of just sending him to the Secret Agents Rest Home, the creative team responsible should have been dismissed as well. ... -
December 17, 2001
Pink sees Green...
Maybe Roger Waters was right after all. Under the leadership of guitarist Dave Gilmour, the once noble Pink Floyd has become little more than a massive revenue generating machine - the very sort of thing Waters feared it would be without himself at the helm. "Echoes - The Best of Pink Floyd" is yet another in a series of desperate grabs for cold cash, as any "best of" generally is. Before "Echoes" there was the Box Set, then the live "Pulse" collection, and after that "Is There Anybody Out There - The Wall Live". In this context, "Echoes" seems nothing more than "another GOLD brick in the wall" for the Floyd.
There's little fault with the music, however as "Echoes" does manage to feature key moments of the Floyd career ranging all the way back to the early days with Syd Barrett ("See Emily Play" and "Arnold Layne"). In fact, that's where the collection begins in swinging Psychedelic London circa 1967 and "Astronomy Domine". From that starting point, the album cruises through the decades in nonsequential order. This is a nice touch - as it's fun to hear the continuity between songs like 1979's "Hey You" and 1994's "Marooned" (the best song from "Division Bell"). Not all of the song selections are obvious, though. Yes, "Money" is here - and so is "Another Brick In The Wall" but they sit along side obscure Floyd nuggets as "Jugband Blues"
"Sheep" and "The Fletcher Memorial Home".
Of course, any "Best of" collection is bound to disappoint. Ask any Floyd fan about their personal "Best of" list and you're likely to find little agreement. My quibbles? Where is "The Gunners Dream" or "Pigs"? Also, there's far too much post-Waters music for my taste (does "Keep Talking" really make anyone's "Best of" list? I can think of 10 others I would have chosen before it..."Not Now John?" perhaps..."Welcome to the Machine" even).
In the end though, anyone interested probably already owns the albums. So, instead of joining the parade as Pink Floyd passes the hat again, make your own "Best of". And don't forget to include "San Tropez". ...
See the list of Top 100 Reviewers
The bloody brits...
To the guy who wrote the last review -sorry we haven't produced much talent.
We were just too busy saving your worthless monarchy from the cluches of Hitler. ...