Desert Island Discs Part Four – Yes’ Fragile

Here is one that I'm not yet sure about. I know I want a Yes album on my list and I've got it narrowed down to four of them and I'm having a tough time deciding. The four albums in question are Fragile, Close to the Edge, Tales From Topographic Oceans and Going for the One.

Fragile was Yes' fourth album, their second released in the US (I believe) and the first one to really make a splash over here. It's that album that first brought them to my attention. I was a senior in high school and I'm not sure where I heard it for the first time but once I listened to the cool acoustic guitar intro and the organ solo in "Roundabout" that I was hooked. That song is like a microcosm of everything that Yes can do right. The singing is great, the playing is unreal, the bass line is sing-able and the lyrics are mostly incomprehensible. You can understand all the words, you just have no idea what they mean. But you can tell, just by the way Jon Anderson sings them, that they're really deep, you know what I mean? And the titles of the songs - "Heart of the Sunrise," "South Side of the Sky," "Long Distance Runaround" – these are the kind of songs that you can listen to while contemplating the universe. At least that's the way it struck me when I was 17. This album also had a solo track by each of the five members of the band. Cool stuff and perfect for 1972. This is the way albums ought to be. It even has great artwork. This was their second album with Steve Howe on guitar and their first with Rick Wakeman on keys. All the pieces of the classic line up are in place and the music just soars.

Then, I heard somebody say that they can actually play this stuff live! I was stunned. No band could be that good! But they were – and, in fact, they still are (I've seen them five times.) And during their peak creative period in the 1970s they made some magnificent albums and the four I listed are all brilliant. Close to the Edge, the follow-up to Fragile, is just three songs, two on one side of the vinyl album and one on the other. The band started playing around with longer and longer song forms until, with Tales, they had gone "Over the Edge" and had a double album with just four songs, at almost 20 minutes per song – one per album side. But here's the thing – they were all good! It took a while to wrap my ears around those long songs but once I got them I loved them.

Rick Wakeman left the band and they put out a good album, Relayer, (as opposed to one that was completely mind blowing) with Patrick Moraz on keys and then they made a bunch of solo albums. I was surprised when their next album, Going for the One included Rick Wakeman again (playing pipe organ in spots!) It was great and it had a rockin' song by bassist Chris Squire ("Parallels") and what may be their best long song, "Awaken." The history of the band goes on and on and, while they had some great albums since then (like their mega-hit 90125 with the catchy "Owner of a Lonely Heart"), this is the period which really defines the band.

How do I choose? I have good memories of listening to all these albums. So I'm picking the one that first caught my attention, Fragile. Truth be told, I have so many live versions of "Roundabout" that I'm almost sick of it. But, when I forget how often I've heard it, when I just sit back with headphones and listen to it like I did in 1972 when I was wearing it out from playing it so much, then I remember why it's so good. This is what progressive rock music ought to be about. So, while I'd probably be content with any of the four, for today at least I'll pick Fragile as my desert island album of the week.

There are now four more friends joining me on my Desert Island journey. Check their developing lists:

• Bethany - recently updated with an excellent U2 pick
  
• Jim G
  
• Matt
• I'm pleased to add my Chicago buddy Jim K (exnihiloman) to the list!
  

My Complete Desert Island List (so far):

• How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb - U2
  
• White Album - The Beatles
  
• One More Car, One More Rider – Eric Clapton
  
• Fragile – Yes
  

Why Do 'People' Misuse Quotation Marks?

Check here for a story from the Dubuque Telegraph-Herald about my daughter Bethany and her "blog" of unnecessary quotation marks. The author gives a bit of background to the blog and pretty much just says how cool Bethany is. I've noted this blog before in a post and also in the blogroll at the side of my page. It's nice to see that it continues to get "noticed."

Permanent link to the author's blog.

Desert Island Discs Part Three – Eric Clapton’s One More Car, One More Rider

So far in my desert island list I've gone to my favorite artists and picked which CD of theirs I'd most want to take along. That is as opposed to looking specifically at CDs and judging each on their own merit. I expect to think about things this way for a few more weeks since I've already started and it makes sense to me to do it this way (and it's easier). So this week I turn my attention to an artist that I first became familiar with when as an eighth grader I heard "Sunshine of Your Love" on the radio. This was 1968 and that song served as my intro to blues-based guitar music. I listened to friends' copies of Cream's Disraeli Gears (which will likely show up on this list down the road) and
soon bought Eric Clapton's album with his new band, Blind Faith. I've missed only a few of his albums since – and there have been a lot. So picking one of Clapton's solo recordings is a challenge. The obvious choices, perhaps, are Layla (although it is really a Derek and the Dominoes album so I could get away with picking that one later too,) his two mid-career highlights, 461 Ocean Boulevard and Slowhand (but I think they are not his best,) or the album where he seemed to find his way as a guitar hero again, Journeyman and the album that re-launched him into the mainstream, Unplugged. But, having seen Eric's show less than a year ago and having paid attention to him for quite some time I think that, live at least, he's in as good a place as he's ever been. His shows are consistently great and he's got a wealth of material to choose from. That is why for this week's pick I am choosing his most recent live album, One More Car, One More Rider.

Like Matt, I'm a bit wary of choosing a live album because they can be little more than greatest hits compilations with clapping. But this 2-disc set shows Eric with a crack band playing at the height of his game. He does an acoustic set which features what I think is the definitive version of "Change the World." It blows the studio recording completely out of the water. It also gives added life to the songs from Pilgrim which suffered from a bit of production woes – the use of drum machine, for example, and Clapton's guitar tone made the album, which had some great songs, feel a bit brittle. But on One More Car songs like "River of Tears" have an amazing amount of emotion. Clapton's singing is spot on and his guitar just soars. Add a killer set list, ending with a wonderful rendition of "Over the Rainbow" – yes, that "Over the Rainbow" – and you have what I think is Clapton's best album.

The version of the album that I bought came with a DVD of the whole show too – and you get to see the late Billy Preston in the band singing his hit "Will it Go Round in Circles" which isn't on the album. You should see it just to watch Billy dance.

There are so far three more friends joining me on my desert Island journey. Special thanks to new list makers Matt and Jim for playing along. Check their developing lists:

• Bethany
  
• Jim
  
• Matt
  

My Complete Desert Island List (so far):

• How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb - U2
  
• White Album - The Beatles
  
• One More Car, One More Rider – Eric Clapton
  

Instant Karma - The Campaign to Save Darfur

Instant Karma is not just your usual all-star tribute album. All the net proceeds go to the Amnesty International Fund for Darfur. Others have written about the crisis with much more authority than I. Suffice it to say that things are very bad there and have been for a while. So buying this album will help send some money toward that situation but the situation is complex and it will not be easily remedied. Nonetheless, I'm glad that people are raising awareness about it.

Some of those people are the artists on this wonderful new compilation album, Instant Karma. Yoko allowed these artists to record songs from John Lennon's solo career without paying any royalties so the organization (Make Some Noise) could release an album of other artists covering Lennon's music. Over 50 artists participated – so many that there are alternate versions of the album in the US and the UK , bonus tracks available at some stores and at itunes. I downloaded the bonus version of the album from itunes because it had ELEVEN extra tracks. I actually didn't buy this album right away when it came out because, frankly, most of the artists don't get me real excited but I started sampling tracks and heard more and more that I liked and, when I clicked on the Postal Service version of "Grow Old With Me" I just had to get the album. And I'm really glad I did.

Almost without exception I like every one of the 34(!) tracks on this record. Now, it is no secret that I like the Beatles so I was already a fan of these songs (and I, of course, have the original versions). But most of these artists put a new twist on their versions and made me enjoy them in a new way. U2's version of "Instant Karma" is great, of course but, believe it or not, so is Duran Duran's! (OK, maybe it's not "great" but at least it's pretty good.) Christina Aguilera singing "Mother?" This is an idea that I might have paid money NOT to listen to but, you know what? She does OK. I was really surprised by how much I like Big and Rich's version of "Nobody Told Me" and Regina Spektor haunting take on "Real Love" is wonderful. I'm not a Green Day fan but I like what they did with "Working Class Hero." Jakob Dylan (Bob's son) and Dhani Harrison (George's son) do a fine job on "Gimme Some Truth" with Dhani's slide guitar sounding like a cross between his father and Derek Trucks. The list just goes on and on. The Fab Faux (a high-class Beatles cover band) does "I Don't Wanna Face It" like the Beatles might have done it if Lennon had written it when they were together, complete with a typical McCartney bass line (patterned after "Rain") and delightful guitar double leads (like "And Your Bird Can Sing.") That one's definitely a highlight for me. Truth in advertising: I don't care much for Lenny Kravitz version of "Cold Turkey." But of the other 33 tracks, even bands I had never heard of caught my ear.

This says something about the strength of the original material, much of which comes from the period right at the end of Lennon's life; Double Fantasy, the album that just hit the charts when Lennon was shot in 1980 and the posthumously released Milk and Honey (which Lennon was making when he was shot and is really the twin to Double Fantasy.). Actually, these were both Lennon/Ono albums with John and Yoko alternating songs. So there are only 7 Lennon songs on Double Fantasy but 5 of them are on Instant Karma (more, I believe than from any other Lennon album). There were only 6 Lennon songs on Milk and Honey (including the gorgeous "Grow Old With Me" which Lennon never properly recorded – all we have is a demo) and 4 of them appear on Instant Karma. So it's pretty clear that Lennon was in a really good place musically when he was killed. It's a shame that he wasn't able to make more music. Fortunately, we have his recordings (including the revelatory 4-disc Anthology) and we have this wonderful album of new takes on his old songs. Even if you don't like compilations and tribute albums this one is worth getting.

Christian Homemaking

According to this article "Starting this fall Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary will offer a program in Christian homemaking." I checked the seminary's website and discovered that, sure enough, there it is. A woman can get a Bachelor of Arts in Humanities with a concentration in homemaking. Here is what the website says: "The College at Southwestern endeavors to prepare women to model the characteristics of the godly woman as outlined in Scripture. This is accomplished through instruction in homemaking skills, developing insights into home and family while continuing to equip women to understand and engage the culture of today."

Now I have absolutely nothing against being a homemaker. I want to make sure I say that loudly and clearly. I was raised by a full time homemaker (my mom) and if that is the choice that a man or woman wants to make then I think that's great. There really is little more important than raising children and if one of the parents can stay home and do that then I think the child benefits.

And I appreciate that Southwestern is putting their money where their mouth is – that is, they're offering a course that teaches women to fulfill the roles that they believe they are most suited for. And because I can I feel the need to point out the redundancy on their website where they write that women will learn "Biblical foundations for biblical womanhood." I wonder what other kinds of foundations there are for biblical womanhood?

And I will even have fun with the fact that, at SWTS, you can actually get the Mrs. Degree that so many women and men have laughed about for years. I also imagine that they aren't real excited about the decision of my church, the Christian Reformed Church, to allow women to preach and lead churches. I'm thinking they won't be right behind us on that decision.

But here's where I will comment: one of the required courses is a three-hour course entitled "Biblical Model for the Home and Family."

So the mind wanders a bit as I try to come up with what that Biblical model might look like and who, for example, in the bible we will want to model our family after.

• Adam and Eve – one of their sons killed the other – not a great model to use I guess.
  
• Abraham – aside from trying to help is often-wayward nephew, Lot, Abraham lied about his relationship to his wife and had that whole episode on the mountain with his son Isaac (which I'm thinking left Isaac feeling just a tad bit insecure.) Even with that, Abraham might be our best example although we know little else about his parenting.
  
• Isaac – two sons, Jacob and Esau. They didn't get along so well – in fact Jacob ended up leaving so that Esau wouldn't kill him.
  
• Jacob – twelve sons and a daughter. The very essence of a dysfunctional family. Some brothers conspire to kill or sell their sibling into slavery.
  

Well, maybe that's not being fair – after all, I'm just picking a choosing. I could more easily select David. Oh yeah, his son tried to kill him and then there is that whole Bathsheba thing. How about Samson! He and Delilah had a nice relationship – well, maybe not nice in the modern Christian family sense seeing that she betrayed him and everything. Surely there must be some example somewhere of a family that is a model for us in the Bible. Isn't there? Anyone? Anyone? Bueller?

Now to be fair, there are some things we know about parenting in the Bible. We know that Jesus parents let him wander all around Jerusalem without supervision.

So now that I have all the snarkyness out of my system, I can get a bit more serious. As I write this I'm having a hard time figuring out if I really want to write about gender essentialism (restricting the roles of women) or about how to read the Bible (as an instruction manual as opposed to a way to find out about God, us and our relationship.) I think the two are related – if one reads the Bible with a find-the-moral-lesson-in-each-passage mindset then one might come away with a bad case of gender essentialism. If SBTS has come up with some good ideas for how I and my wife can make our home better then perhaps we should BOTH take the class! And rather than call it a "Biblical Model" how about if we see it as advice on this topic from someone who tries live his or her life as a servant of the Lord.

Desert Island discs part two – The Beatles’ White Album

I knew that I had to have a Beatles album with me on my island but I've gone back and forth multiple times trying to figure out which one to put on my list. Sgt Pepper just had a 40^th birthday and I've written before about how much I like that album. I've often said that Revolver is perhaps the Beatles' best album just because it is so consistently strong and inventive throughout. Abbey Road is wonderful with it's second side suite of songs, not to mention some wonderful songs in addition to that like "Something" and "Come Together" and "Here Comes the Sun." Then again, early Beatles are great too and A Hard Days Night is a great album with the wonderful chiming twelve string guitar that George had just gotten. (On a side note, I've just heard that the DVD of Help! will come out in a 2-DVD set before the end of the year - hooray!!!)

But because of the sheer volume and variety of music I picked the White Album (actually called The Beatles.) I've written about my love for this album before (both here and here) so I don't need to elaborate a whole lot but the writing, playing and singing on this album is simply remarkable. I don't know if any other band has ever produced anything so broad in it's scope in the history of pop music. Even though it is often considered the point at which the Beatles stopped working as a group and started working as individuals the interaction on some tracks is simply stunning.

Bethany started her desert island list today too!

Complete Desert Island List (so far):

• How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb - U2
• White Album - The Beatles
  

Desert island discs part one – U2’s How to Dismantle and Atomic Bomb

I thought it would be nice to do a series here on Bob's Bloggery and, since I love to make lists, I thought I would start a series on my desert island discs – albums that, were I to be stranded for a while on a desert island with a CD player and the power to use it (a somewhat unlikely scenario,) I would want to have with me. I have no idea how long this series will last so this isn't a top-ten list but each week (or so) I'll list another cool album that would be good to have with me.

Some ground rules:

1. For a while at least I'll avoid two albums by the same group. However, artists who are part of another group are not disqualified – for example, I can have both the Beatles and Paul McCartney albums.
   
2. This isn't a best ever list – it's a personal list. So, while I might agree that Achtung Baby is probably a better album than How to Dismantle and Atomic Bomb I think I'd rather have Atomic with me because I happen to like it more.
   
3. This type of list is always bound by time – my thoughts right now aren't what they would have been a year ago and they're not what they will be. I have the right to revise. For example, right now I'm tempted to put McCartney's Memory Almost Full on the list – I like it that much – but I don't know if I'll still be as excited about it in a year. So I reserve the right to revise at any time without penalty. I can even replace an album already listed with another one or I can change the rules to allow me to add a second one to the list. Hey, it's my blog so I get to play by my rules.
   

   
   

I'd like to challenge my frequent readers who also blog to join me in this endeavor. You know who you are, What would be on your list? You just have to add one every week and the writeup doesn't have to be long. Come on, you can do it. Who's in? I promise to link to you every week if you do.

So this week I'll begin with U2's How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb. This album absolutely floored me when it came out. I had it in heavy rotation on my itunes, in my ipod and on my car stereo for months after it came out. You need to understand that I have a LOT of music and it is rare for an album to keep my interest as long as that one did but I don't think there is a weak track on that record from the heavy rock of "Vertigo" and "All Because of You" to the beautiful "City of Blinding Lights" and "Miracle Drug ." In this post I called it my top album of 2005 (even though it was released in 2004!) and in this post, written at the end of 2006, I mentioned that it had still probably one of my top current albums. Now, well over two years after its release I still think it is great and it's in my car again right now too. Seeing U2 in concert on the "Vertigo tour" and being in Ireland soon after it's release put it over the top for me. I especially appreciated how Bono continued allowing his faith to come through in his lyrics in almost every song on the album. I certainly don't want to dismiss other U2 albums of which I'm very fond (especially All That You Can't Leave Behind, Achtung Baby and The Joshua Tree – and all the other ones too) but this one has a special place in my heart.

Worship Renewal Grants Colloquium

This week I was given the opportunity to connect with a number of people who received Worship Renewal Grants from the Calvin Institute of Christian Worship. This was an intense couple of days as somewhere around 250 people from all across North America gathered at Calvin College to either kick-off or give a "final" report on the grants that they received from CICW. As an associate of the Institute I was asked to hang out and talk with the people who were there and find out about their grants project and just generally be hospitable. A lot of my work involved hosting tables at meals which means I get to eat and talk with interesting people. It's tough work but somebody has to do it. It was a great time and it was good to reconnect with folks I had met before and to meet many others for the first time. These people represent an incredibly wide range of Christian denominations and ministries from Baptist to Methodist to Catholic to Reformed to many many things in between. More info on the grants can be found here.

The Travelling Wilburys Collection

I snatched up the Travelling Wilburys releases when they first came out many years ago and I've enjoyed them every once in a while since then so when it was announced that their two CDs were being re-released I needed a pretty good reason (other than slightly better sound) to buy them again. Fortunately, I found that reason. Partly it was the price – Best Buy had a pretty good deal – but it was also the extras that were put on set. In addition to the two albums, Volumes one and three (there was no volume two), the set contains a DVD with a 25 minute documentary and the music videos that the band made when the singles were released. In addition, each CD had two extra tracks which made the set irresistible. So I didn't resist.

The real reason, though, why anyone should get this set is the that the two original CDs are simply too good to miss. Jeff Lynne's remaster is fine (although not revelatory) and the original tracks sparkle with the fun and enthusiasm of the five Wilburys; George Harrison, Jeff Lynne, Tom Petty, Bob Dylan and Roy Orbison. Of the five I am mostly a Harrison fan and, in reading the things that have come out about the set, I realize that this was very much George's show. He steered the group and made it happen. He and Jeff Lynne took the rough tracks that the Wilburys made over ten days and turned them into the album we know now. And it was his charisma that brought the five together in the first place. But the real joy for me in this set is Roy Orbison. Listening to him sing "You're Not Alone" is just wonderful. There are, of course, other great tracks, the most noteworthy being "Handle With Care," but I just love hearing Orbison sing these songs. It's too bad he died shortly after the release of Volume One and couldn't be part of Volume Three – it is a weaker album perhaps because of his absence. The extra tracks on both discs are nice but not essential. The documentary is a lot of fun and great for those of us who like to look behind the scenes.

But back to the main course. The fun that these guys had in making these albums almost leaps out of the player at us. This music is hardly the most important that any of them did – it's almost like watching home movies. So it should be listened to with that attitude. Don't look for great insight or lyrics that even make you think for more than a second. Instead, just close your eyes and smile.

Circa - the EP

A lot of new music by some old (and new) favorites of mine has been released within the last few weeks so I'm doing a little catching up today on writing a few thoughts on what I've been listening to lately.

Today I'll write a bit about the band Circa, which is made up of former and nearly former members of Yes: Billy Sherwood, Tony Kaye, Alan White and Jimmy Haun.

Yes offshoot bands have a bit of a spotty record. Chris Squire's Fish Out of Water is a great solo album by Yes' bass player and I've enjoyed having that one in my car again lately. But it took him over 25 years to make another album without Yes (Conspiracy, made with Billy Sherwood) and, while it was a fine album, it didn't set the make the kind of statement that Fish did. Guitarist Steve Howe and vocalist Jon Anderson have both made some interesting solo albums, some alone and some in collaboration with others. Remember the cool albums by Jon and Vangelis? But there is also the sometimes strange pop albums that Anderson made with L.A. Session players like In the City of Angels and The More You Know - this is an idea that doesn't even sound like it would work well on paper and, sure enough, it didn't work in actuality either. Howe's work in the band Asia is noteworthy, partly because their first album was quite good but mostly because they sold a ton of copies when their first album came out in the early 80's. Howe went from Asia to the totally forgettable GTR with Steve Hacket from Genesis, which only lasted for one album and tour. While Howe's albums are always listenable they tend to sound an awful lot alike after a while. Rick Wakeman actually left Yes in the first place partly because his solo career was taking off so well. The Six Wives of Henry VIII is a good record but, frankly, it does feel a little bit caught in it's particular time – it sounds just like it was recorded in the early 70's. He, too, has sound-alike-itis and a few of Wakeman's albums are really all anyone needs.

As a group, though, they have pretty consistently made interesting and enjoyable albums. These days, though, Yes finds itself in the strange position of still wanting to produce new music as a band but, at the same time, not being able to sell much of it. Their recent albums didn't sell very well but when they tour they can still sell out arenas around the country and, indeed, throughout the world. I imagine that the expense of making a Yes album and mounting a tour is pretty high and it might actually be easier and more cost effective for them to just work on their own. The five current members of Yes have all been in and out of the band a number of times for many reasons. Right now happens to be one of those times when Yes is inactive. They haven't actually quit the band but there really is no Yes right now that they could quit. So the members need to find something else to do.

Drummer Alan White is the member of Yes with the worst track record of solo work – although a stint in John Lennon's Plastic Ono Band in the early 70's before he joined Yes gives him a very high coolness quotient. Since Yes' last tour he has kept himself busy by getting together with some Seattle musicians to form the band "White" which produced one album and didn't last very long. But Alan White jumped right into a new venture. He has joined with two other ex-yes men and one sort-of yes man to form a new band, Circa. The driving force behind the music of Circa is Billy Sherwood, who toured with Yes as an extra guitarist and keyboard player, then produced Yes' Keys to Ascension 2 and soon after became a regular member of the group for album The Ladder and it's subsequent tour. That gig lasted for only a short time and Sherwood went back to making his own music. He also made two albums with bassist Squire in their group called Conspiracy. For Circa, he decided to be the bass player and he got together with original Yes Keyboard player Tony Kaye and White and began to make new music. The addition of Jimmy Haun, who's guitar appears on the poorly received Yes album Union (for reasons I've never really understood) completed the group.

They released and then withdrew a self-titled two-song EP on itunes that I was lucky enough to download during the three weeks that it was available and, I must say, I like it a lot. The music is clearly Yes influenced but doesn't sound like it's just trying to mimic that sound. It reminds me of the way Yes sounded on Open Your Eyes. No surprise there since Sherwood had a big hand in shaping that record. And Sherwood's bass playing has more than a little Chris Squire influence. I also find myself thinking that Jimmy Haun is almost channeling Steve Howe in spots. Alan White's drumming is the sort that doesn't usually jump out at you and say "hey this is Alan White" but it subtly reminds us that we are in familiar territory. In other words, this sounds a lot like a really good pair of Yes songs that you've never heard before. The release date for the full album hasn't been announced yet but it is promised "soon." This one might be worth looking for. You can find them and hear one of the songs on their MySpace page.

Acoustic Café – Phil Keaggy and Friends

There are few artists who have meant as much to me over the years as Phil Keaggy. For more than the past thirty years I have enjoyed his music. But it's more than that. Because his fan base is so much smaller than, say, Paul McCartney, I have actually met Phil on a couple of occasions and I know people who know him pretty well. So it's not just Phil's music but it's also him as a person that I have a bit of an attachment to.

So it has been a little difficult for me to write reviews of his albums on this blog over the past few years since his last few releases have been less than his best. While I generally liked Jammed! I was less thrilled with both Roundabout and Dream Again. So when I heard that Phil was making an album of acoustic versions of well known songs I thought that it might be nice and I ordered it from philkeaggy.com. It arrived in the mail on the same day as the new Paul McCartney album so I had a bunch of new stuff to listen to all at once.

It might be hard to make a bad album when you've got Beatle songs like "Here Comes the Sun," "Here There and Everywhere," and "In My Life" sitting next to the Beach Boys' "God Only Knows" and Bob Dylan's "If Not For You." On the other hand the songs are pretty iconic and the original versions are pretty definitive so you have to be careful to interpret these songs in a way that gives proper credit to the original but yet has some of your own personality in it. Otherwise, what's the point?

But Phil and Friends do a nice job of making these acoustic versions of these songs stand out by themselves. The biggest thing that caught my attention is that I even like the Billy Joel song, "She's Got a Way." Phil manages to make me realize that it really is a nice song – it's apparently Joel's performance that irritates me.

Phil adds one of his own songs, "You Have My Heart" which fits in nicely although, let's face it – putting one of your own songs on an album with songs by the Beatles, Dylan, James Taylor, and Brian Wilson is pretty tough! But it works. My favorite is his acoustic reading of Wilson's "God Only Knows." This is the song which is faithful to the original arrangement but yet does it with almost all acoustic guitars. It works very well.

This album probably isn't going to win Keaggy many new fans. For one thing the guitar playing is great but not jaw-droppingly great like Phil can do when he wants to. But this album will make his fans (who have been clamoring for an album with some of these cover versions on it) quite happy because he not only gave them what they asked for but he did it with class.

First Listen – Memory Almost Full – Paul McCartney

I picked up Memory Almost Full, the new McCartney today – no surprise there – and I also downloaded the three extra tracks on itunes because I was too cheap to pay $13 extra for three tracks and a 22 minute commentary at Best Buy. Plus, the special edition came in a DVD case so it wouldn't fit on the shelf with my other CDs so I really wanted the regular case. But all that is unimportant because the album is very very good. Is it up to the high standards set by Chaos and Creation in the Backyard? Probably not but it's pretty close in spots. I had Chaos and Creation in heavy rotation for over a year so it will be truly remarkable if this album has that kind of staying power for me.

I came into this album having been mostly unspoiled. I had read a lot about it but I purposely didn't listen to it on the internet because I seldom like albums that I listen to that way and I really wanted to have the whole experience. I have however heard the two openers, "Dance Tonight" and "Ever Present Past." One thing that I noted about both of those songs is that with repeated listening I liked them more and more. So now I'm on my third time through the whole album and I'm finding more and more to like throughout – even as I'm writing this with the album on I find more to like. McCartney songs have a way of burrowing themselves into my brain and sticking with me for a long time. There seems to be more than a couple of those on Memory Almost Full.

The theme of many of the songs is that Paul is looking back and thinking about his life. "The End of the End" is probably the most obvious example of this but it pops up in many other places as well, particularly in the five-song medley that closes out the album. This is pretty clearly not an album a twenty-year-old would make.

"That Was Me," "Feet in the Clouds," and "End of the End" stand out for me, along with the incredibly catchy "Dance Tonight" and "Ever Present Past." I have a feeling that this will change as I get to know the album better and find more to like. Overall I'm pleased with Memory Almost Full and I'm really excited about hearing new things as I listen with my ipod and hear this album over and over. I think that there will be a lot here for me to find.

One of the things that I read before getting this album was that this was more Wings-like than any other recent McCartney album. I'm not so sure about that. On my first listen I played the "what other Paul album would this song feel at home on" game and while I was able to place a couple of them (and yes, "Only Mama Knows" would pretty easily fit on Wings' Venus and Mars) I wouldn't say that many more songs would nicely fit on Wings albums. I could see "Dance Tonight" on Flaming Pie or maybe on Ram, for example and while "Ever Present Past" has a bit of a McCartney II vibe to it, it really wouldn't fit on that album. "See Your Sunshine" could maybe go on Flowers in the Dirt. But this game was hard to play with many of the tracks. "Gratitude" doesn't sound much like anything that he's done before – although it's clearly a McCartney song. The voice is unmistakable. But that's pretty amazing. How can someone release so many albums and continue to be fresh and new? I'm very impressed.

EDIT 6/9/07: Thanks to Father Ron Hatton for pointing me to this excellent review. (Scroll down to the All Music Guide review.

Most Underrated Beatles Songs

I found this post, which was actually from a few years ago, with a list of the top ten underrated Beatles songs. I thought – that's a cool idea – I'll make my own list and so I did. Here it is. I used the same criteria as the other poster – no singles or cover versions. Basically, these are songs that the casual fan probably doesn't know. It turns out that a disproportionate number of them come from the White Album. As I made the list I had 17 on it originally and I pared it down to ten not thinking about which albums songs came from at all. Six out of the seven I didn't use ("Taxman," "Long, Long, Long," "Things We Said Today," "I've Just Seen a Face," "It's Only Love," I've Got a Feeling," and "I'm Down") came from other albums.

I encourage comments and quibbles.

My list

1. Rain – The flip side to the Paperback Writer single featuring a killer bass line, great drumming from Ringo and great Lennon backward vocals
2. Martha My Dear – A great piano-based song from the White Album. I've always wanted to be able to play this on the piano but was never able.
   
3. I Will – A delightful McCartney guitar song from the White Album.
   
4. Dear Prudence – Another White Album song – this time one of Lennon's – with a great guitar figure.
5. Mother Nature's Son – Yet another McCartney ballad from the White Album. The Beatles wrote a lot when they spent some weeks in India in 1968 and a lot of them are wonderful gentle songs. Composing in India was a good thing for them.
   
6. Two of Us – a nice tune from the Let It Be sessions. Again, acoustic guitars to the fore.
   
7. Birthday – I play this loudly every time someone in our family has a birthday. It's corny but I can't help it. Yet another White Album song. Not a great great song but certainly the best birthday song out there so it gets on my list for sentimental reasons.
8. Drive My Car – The Rubber Soul opener. Fun lyrics with fun harmonies and a great "beep beep" hook.
9. And your Bird Can Sing – One of the many fabulous tracks from Revolver featuring a double-tracked great guitar duet from George. Plus, if memory serves me, it was used as the theme music for the Bealtes cartoon show.
   
10. Doctor Robert – Another Revolver song. For reasons that are perhaps obvious I find this song irresistible.
    

So, there it is. If I did it tomorrow I'm sure it would be different because there are just so many good songs. Over two years ago I wrote this post in which I considered just how cool the White Album is. I guess, based on this list, I still think so. For my all-time favorite Beatles songs you can go to this post where I have my top ten.

Sgt Pepper

I have been a fan of music for as long as I can remember. As a child I benefitted from having an older brother who occasionally clued me in to some really cool stuff. He went to the store to pick up the first Monkees album for me – in stereo! Our family had just purchased a new stereo – a big piece of furniture that sat in the corner of the room and I sat in the swivel chair in front of it for hours listening to music. He bought me great singles like "Incense and Peppermints" by the Strawberry Alarm Clock and "Bend Me Shape Me" by the American Breed. But the best present of all was in the summer of 1967 – I turned 13 years old and for my birthday John bought me the new Beatles album, Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. To say that this album sounded new and different is an understatement. I knew that I heard lots of instruments that I was pretty sure the Beatles weren't playing, like brass in the title track, clarinets in "When I'm 64," and sitars (whatever they were) in "Within You Without You." But it was more than just the instruments. The tracks all ran into each other – it felt like an album, not just a collection of songs.

But what a collection of songs! I remember as a 13 year old being especially impressed with the antiphonal nature of "She's Leaving Home." I remember enjoying the sound of the orchestra tuning up at the beginning of the album and how great the piano in "Lovely Rita" was. I also remember listening with the headphones. I spent a lot of time on the couch with the headphones on (for all the young people out there - this was back in the day when headphones had to be connected to the stereo with a long coiled wire.) The end of "Lovely Rita" has a section where John Lennon says something a couple of times that sounds enough like the way my mom said "Bob" that I pulled off the headphones and asked what she wanted the first few times I listened to the album.

It turns out that I wasn't the only person who thought that this was a cool album. A few other people did too and, in the forty years since it's release it has gone on to be listed among the top all-time albums. Ironically, it is probably not the Beatles' best album – I (and many others) think that it's predecessor, Revolver, deserves that title. But "best" is a relative term of course and, while Revolver might be better, it certainly didn't have the impact that Sgt Pepper had. Revolver came across as a really really good collection of songs where Pepper made us think that it was a concept album. John Lennon said that the concept worked because they said it worked. I think he's right. There really isn't much of a concept there once you get past the first two songs and the "Sgt Pepper Reprise." But packaging and attitude count for a lot. Plus, there is no getting around the idea that nothing had ever sounded like that before – or since really.

Frankly I find it hard to believe that the stuff that I thought was so cool when I was 13 years old still so cool. But there it is – I thought it was great back in 1967 and I still think it's great. When Bethany, my oldest daughter, was little I taught her to say "the Beatles" when I said "Bethany, who's our favorite?" That was nearly twenty years ago when I taught her that but it's still true.

Galleys

Yesterday a brightly dressed man got off a DHL Express truck and delivered a package to my house that contained the galleys for my new book, Helping Our Children Grow in Faith. Galleys are the edited copy of the book for me to look at and decide if I agree with what my editor did to the manuscript. It also gives me a chance to fix mistakes and to make any changes I'd like to make. In some ways this is pretty easy – it's mostly reading and making red marks on the page when I'd like to change something. It's a lot like grading papers except I don't have to decide how good or how bad it is – I just have to decide if I like it. I also only have to read one of these instead of sixty, like I did at the end of the semester. Not only that but I like the writing in this case. Editing the galleys usually involves writing "yes" next to the place where Kristen (the editor) wrote "Is that sentence OK?" This indicates a spot where she edited and thinks she may have changed what I meant to say. So far (one chapter in) she's been right on target. There are also lots of places where she made minor changes that she didn't bother to ask about because that's what editors do.

I also get to find all the citations that I made that were incomplete – like places where I say "in this book, Berryman says…" and Kristen says "what page?" So I have to go find the page in the book with that particular line in it! Google Books is like the best thing EVER. It's a lot easier to type the quote into the "search in this book" place once you've found the book there than it is to re-read the whole book. After an hour with Google I only had two books that I had to actually page through to find the page I referred to. One of these books I had at home and found already.

So I'm taking a short break from working on my next book (which I'm just starting) to fix Helping Our Children Grow in Faith and get it back to the publisher so that they can go on to the next stage – page proofs. I've been warned that making changes at that time is expensive which I think is not-subtle code for "don't do it, buddy!" It's always exciting to get to the next stage in the publishing process. I was also told that I can expect to see artwork for the cover some time soon. Woo-hoo!

'Velvet Elvis' by Rob Bell

Rob Bell is the pastor of the enormously popular Mars Hill Church in Grandville, MI. I visited Mars Hill once a few years ago when Laura and I took a few weeks to visit other churches and, unfortunately, he wasn't preaching. I bet we had four or five people (who we saw there and knew) tell us that we should come back some time when Rob was preaching – we didn't even bring it up – they just told us that because it makes such a difference. Clearly, this church is as big as it is because of the charisma and the preaching of Rob Bell.

I've also seen (and appreciated) some of Bell's Nooma video series. Nooma is a series of short (approx 8 min) videos in which Bell talks about something. These are good discussion starter videos and, at least one of them gave me a new insight into scripture. Velvet Elvis is a lot like those. It is basically a series of short unconnected essays in the same style that Bell uses in his videos. This isn't a book that makes one particular point – it's a book of independent musings. Bell does this well and some of his insights are particularly good but the book never gets any traction on any particular subject. The chapters could almost be in any order.

Bell's writing style tends to be many short paragraphs.

Really short.

Like sometimes only a word or two.

He writes much the way he speaks.

If you pause briefly at the end of each of these mini-paragraphs you get a sense for the way he talks.

At least in the videos.

So it took me a while to get into his writing style which, frankly, bugged me for the first chapter or two. But once he got into some better content I was less irritated by the style.

Overall, Velvet Elvis is a fine book. It reads quickly and has some good information in it – perhaps not as much a you might think. If I get the opportunity I think I'll probably read his follow up book, Sex God, although I'm guessing that it is basically more of the same. That's not all bad but I was left wishing that there had been something in particular that I took away from Velvet Elvis other than a series of "that was cool" moments.

A Punctuation Celebrity

My daughter Bethany has a goal of someday being a punctuation celebrity. She's getting closer to her goal. Her "blog" of "unnecessary" quotation marks has been noticed and linked lately by a couple of high-profile blogs. It even got mentioned in an online blog (scroll down to the May 23 entry) in the local Grand Rapids Press – which is especially great because the writer has no idea that Bethany is from West Michigan originally. It's not a "local blogger makes good" story, it's a "here's a cool blog" story. Maybe she'll write more now that she knows that the roots are local.

This is a lot of fun. "Way to go," Bethany!

By the way, I think this post is still my favorite from the quotes blog.

Dutch Dance 2007

Tulip Time in Holland is over and I went to see Lynnae Dutch Dance many many times over the past week. Dutch Dance is an activity in which over 600 High School students line the streets of Holland and do the same dance. I know that it sounds really quaint and small town and everything but it really is fun to see so many kids doing the same steps completely surrounding Centennial Park downtown. The dance takes about 20 minutes. Here is what it looks like:
But, after seeing Lynnae do it ten times in the past 8 days (and I didn't see them all) I've had enough for now. So, this week I've been grading papers, doing a few other things and watching Dutch Dance. I'm ready to move on to other things.

Bruce Hornsby at Tulip Time – Holland, MI, 5/5/07

I've never heard Bruce Hornsby play live before but I've wanted to for a long time so when the Tulip Time board announced that he was coming to Holland for a concert I was pretty excited. Not only do I enjoy his solo work but he was in the grateful Dead which gives him serious added coolness points.

Lynnae and I went together and, in addition to an outstanding concert, we each got a copy of his recent boxed set, Intersections 1985-2005. This is almost too good to be true (in fact, when I first heard this I double-checked with Hornsby's website and, sure enough – that's what it was.) I'm listening to the set now and I must say that I'm impressed all over again.

The concert was held in a local church (a BIG church – one that seats well over 2000) and it was just Hornsby and a piano for two hours and ten minutes. He is an absolute master at jazz/rock/pop improvisation. Since he was in a church he let us know right off the bat what the evening was going to be like by sitting down at the piano and improvising on "A Mighty Fortress" for about five minutes before moving seamlessly into one of his songs. That was typical for the evening – lots and lots of piano improv in the front, middle and end of songs of his that were rethought, reworked and twisted inside and ought as he played some of my favorites like "The Way it Is," "Rainbow's Cadillac," "Spiderfingers" and "Mandolin Rain." The crowd sat in silence as we were absolutely stunned by his mastery of the piano and heard a concert that was simply stunning.

To get an idea of what it was like, listen to the first track of Intersections, "The Way It Is." The way he starts with a piano improv and then slowly works in the theme of the song is amazing. Lynnae and I had a great time.

Spiderman 3 - review

I don't see movies in theaters very often and when I paid $8 to see Spiderman 3 on Friday night (opening day!) I remembered why – they're expensive! But I, along with my good friend and occasional movie watching partner Ron, couldn't resist the third installment in the Spiderman series because 1) we're geeks and 2) the first two were very good with the second one being among the best-ever superhero movies. So even though it had been a long week we were anxious to see what Peter Parker was up to now.

Both of us were disappointed. This is a movie that knew that it had to up the ante in special effects (which it did – almost to the point of distraction) and also in the emotional story, the thing that Spiderman 2 did so well. The problem with the third installment is that there was just too much stuff in it – too many villains and too many emotional issues. This movie was so packed with stuff that the storylines seemed to have a hard time finding any space to breathe.

This lead to some plot issues. I know that you're supposed to suspend your disbelief in these movies (it's about a guy who is bitten by a radioactive spider for crying out loud – if you don't come in to it with a healthy dose of belief-suspension you're in serious trouble) but even in Spiderman world some things here just didn't add up. I didn't buy the black gooey stuff, for example. It just happened to land near Peter Parker and it attached to his motor scooter when it crached as part of an asteroid. Come on. And if the guys who were running the super secret government experiment that turned Flint into the Sandman had spent another ten bucks on security that whole plot wouldn't have happened. This may sound like nitpicking but there was a cumulative effect here and because there was so much stuff like this in this movie that even the moment when Spidey figures out how to defeat the black gooey guy seems like a stretch – he didn't have nearly enough information to figure that out. In another movie we might have given him the benefit of the doubt but by this time we were getting pretty skeptical.

So it's not a lousy movie and it's a fun way to spend a couple of hours but director Sam Raimi raised the bar with Spiderman 2 and we have learned to expect more that this from him.