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Today's
Stories
November 26
/ 27, 2005
Alexander Cockburn
How
the Democrats Undercut John Murtha
November 25,
2005
David Price
How
US Anthropologists Planned "Race-Specific" Weapons
Against the Japanese
Brian McKenna
Will
Bush Miss the Next Bhopal?
Jeff Halper
Peretz or Bust?
Ray McGovern
Will
the US Seize the Opportunity for Troop Withdrawal?
Leigh Saavedra
Thanksgiving at Camp Casey
Ingmar Lee
How Have the Mighty Fallen?
Website of the Day
Saving Cathedral Grove
November 24,
2005
James Petras
How
to Think About War and Peace
Bob Shirley
Thanksgiving
Torture: What the Puritans Fled
Mike Fox
Torture
Survivors Speak for Themselves
Niranjan Ramakrishnan
Adrift?
Perhaps. A Draft? Never!
Greg Moses
Thanksgiving Delayed: TX High Court Blesses Inequality
Alexander Cockburn
Turkeys
in the Larger Scheme of Things
November 23,
2005
Ramzy Baroud
The
Great Gaza Border Deal: What Does It Mean?
Mike Whitney
Bush, Padilla and Thomas More
Stan Cox
Red, White and Blue Dawn: What a Bad Hollywood Film Can Teach
Americans About Life Under Occupation
Linda S. Heard
Targeting Al Jazeera
November 22,
2005
Kevin Gray
/ Mike Hersh
Maxine
Waters, the Real Leader of the Anti-War Caucus
Ralph Nader
What Do Dems Stand For?
Michael Donnelly
The "Vetting" of Bernard Kerik
Mike Ferner
The CIA's "Torture Taxi" in the Spotlight
Pierre Tristam
The Justice Deficit
Marshall Auerback
Bush's "Compassionate Conservativism": Neither Compassionate
Nor Conservative
Website of
the Day
I Don't Like Geldof
November 21,
2005
Mike Marqusee
Clinton's
Hypocrisies on Iraq
Josh Frank
Democratic Hawks: the Avian Flu of the Antiwar Movement
Mike Whitney
Hugo Chavez vs. the King of Vacations
Norman Solomon
Getting Out of Iraq
Russ Baker
Woodward's Weakness
Robert Jensen
A National Day of Atonement
Paul Craig
Roberts
Lies
and Official Secrets
November 19
/ 20, 2005
Fred Gardner
The
Raid on MendoHealing
Rep. Cynthia McKinney
The House GOP Has Done a Heinous Thing: Stop Playing Politics;
Get the Troops Out Now
Ron Jacobs
A Pathetic Congress: If It Walks and Talks Like a Withdrawal
Resolution, Why Won't You Vote For It?
David Vest
The Politics of Surrender: It's as American as Robert E. Lee
J.L. Chestnut,
Jr.
Condi Rice's Disdain for the Civil Rights Movement
John R. Bomar
Staying the Course on "Freedom's Frontier": a Vietnam
Vet on Iraq
John Ross
The
Dragon Flies High, But Not Over Mexico
Phillip Cryan
Colombia: "Political Kidnapping" and Murder in Cauca
Dave Lindorff
RIP In These Times
Dick J. Reavis
The Future of the Daily Press
Jeremy Scahill
Vegetarian Between Meals: This War Can't Be Stopped by a Loyal
Opposition
Dan Wright
Cleaning Up Alaska's Scan Bay
John Stanton
Scowcroft Talks Turkey; Edmounds Fights Fascism
St. Clair / Vest / Walker
Playlist: What We're Listening to This Week
Phyllis Pollack
The Stones: Rarities
Dr. Susan Block
Our Night of Weimar Love
Poets Basement
Albert, Engel, Ford, Harley and Louise
November 18,
2005
Michael Neumann
The
Palestinians and the Party Line
Dave Lindorff
Murtha and the L Word
Michael Donnelly
Black November 15
Mark Chmiel
/ Andrew Wimmer
Uncrucify Them
Don Monkerud
A Decent Workplace
Tom Kerr
Grant Clemency to Tookie Williams
Trish Schuh
Faking
the Case Against Syria
November 17,
2005
John Walsh
A
Fractured Anti-War Movement
Rep. John Murtha
Iraq Must Be Freed from the US
Occupation
Brian J. Foley
We Are All In GITMO Now
CounterPunch
News Service
Guardian
Apologizes to Chomsky; Publishes Total Retraction of Brockes'
Slurs
Dave Lindorff
In Post-Saddam Iraq, There are No Civilians
Mark T. Harris
Coming Out in an Up-and-Coming Sport
Cockburn /
St. Clair
From
Reporter to Courtier: the Decline of Bob Woodward
November 16,
2005
John F. Sugg
Al-Arian
Speaks: In His First Interview Since the Trial Began, Al-Arian
Talks About What the Jury Didn't Hear
Noam Chomsky
Putting Out the Englightenment
Dave Lindorff
Shake
and Bake: Pentagon Admits Using Phosphorous Bombs on Fallujah
Evelyn Pringle
Laurie Mylroie's War
Sam Husseini
Trying to Look a Female Suicide Bomber in the Eye
Pierre Tristam
Toturers' Theater
Greg Bates
Waffling Alito Charms DiFi
Farrah Hassen
Moustapha
AkkadDavid Lean of the Middle East Killed in Amman Blast
Bill Christison
Evidence
Mounts That Bush Wants New Wars
Website of
the Day
Violent Oscillations
November 15,
2005
Todd Chretien
My
Evening in the No Spin Zone; Or Why Bill O'Reilly Hates San Francisco
Leah Caldwell
Death
of the Jailhouse Press
Frederick Hudson
Rosa's Wreath: Miss Parks and Robert Williams
Harry Browne
Bush-Linked Judge Bows Out: Another Mistrial in Irish Ploughshares
Case
Jason Leopold
Secret CIA Testimony: Iraq Posed No Threat
Ingmar Lee
Logging Lackies vs. Canada's Most Endangered Species
Diana Barahona
Showdown on the Silver Coast
Tom Andre
New Orleans, Two Months Later
Website of the Weekend
Ernest Crichlow: 1914-2005
November 14,
2005
Diana Johnstone
The
Origins of the Guardian's Attack on Chomsky
Paul Craig Roberts
Power Over All: Unlimited Detentions and the End of Habeas Corpus
Conn Hallinan
Provoking
Syria: Cambodia All Over Again?
Joshua Frank
Off She Goes: Hillary in Israel
Christopher
Reed
The
Persistence of Racism in Koizumi's Japan
November 11
/ 13, 2005
Alexander Cockburn
First
the Lying, Then the Pardons
Gwyneth Leech
Cross Connections: a Painter Reimagines the Passion of Christ
in the Wake of Abu Ghraib
Elmas Mallo
Chillin' in the Blazin' Texas Sun: Inside the Texas Prison System
Michael Neumann
The Rebel King of Bluegrass: Jimmy Martin, an Appreciation
Saul Landau
Leakgate: the Screenplay
Sam Husseini
Bush and Zarqawi Bomb Because We Let Them
Brian Cloughley
Sleaze, Deceit and Torture
Ron Jacobs
Rep. McGovern's Withdrawal Resolution: a Step in the Right Direction?
Lila Rajiva
Dover Bitch: the Curses of Pat Robertson
Michael Donnelly
Hypocrisy Watch
Joe Allen
Murder in El Salvador: Who Killed Gilberto Soto?
Roland Sheppard
Lessons from the Montgomery Bus Boycott
Justin E.H.
Smith
Another Monkey Trial?
Ben Tripp
The Cost of War
St. Clair /
Vest
Playlists: What We're Listening to This Week
Poets' Basement
Jones, Louise, Ford, Smith, Albert and Engel
Website of
the Weekend
Iraq Vets and Against the War Need Your Help!
November 10,
2005
Peterside,
Ogon, Watts and Zalik
Delta
Blues Again: Ken Saro-Wiwa, 10 Years Gone
Pat Williams
Will Alito Cost the Republicans the Senate?
Steve Higgs
Bush Crony Targets Indiana's Forests: 400% Hike in Logging
Jimmy Massey
Is Ron Harris Telling the Truth?
Lucson Pierre-Charles
Haiti: Insanity Takes Over
Anthony Newkirk
Syria in the Crosshairs
Lawrence R.
Velvel
Why Did Libby Lie?
Website of the Day
Imperial Margarine
November 9,
2005
Gary Leupp
The
Niger Deception / Plame Affair: an Incomplete Chronology
Tariq Ali
Blair Defeated on Terror Laws
Chris Floyd
The
Philosopher's Stone
Elaine Cassel
The
Shocking Trial of an American Citizen: the Case of Ahmed Abu
Ali
Joshua Frank
Sen. Max Baucus's NASCAR Pay Day
Alison Weir
Memo to Jon Stewart: Glad You're Against Torture, So Why'd You
Give Israel a Pass?
Diana Johnstone
Rage
in the Banlieue
November 8, 2005
Paul Craig
Roberts
Still
No Jobs
Roger Burbach
Bush
v. Chavez: the Imperial President Meets the Bolivarian Democrat
Ron Jacobs
An Interview with Behzad Yaghmaian on the Paris Uprising
Ralph Nader
"The Worst Marketed Disease on the Planet"
Jim McGrath
Voter Beware: a Cautionary Tale for Election Day
David Bloom
McCain, Israel and Torture: Setting the Record Straight
Stan Goff
Jimmy Massey, Ron Harris, and Ambush Journalism
November 7,
2005
Dick Reavis
The
Origins of Mr. Danger
Jason Leopold
Cheney and the Cover Up: the Vice President Lied
Dave Lindorff
What Country was Bush Talking About?
Eli Stephens
A Tale of Two Generals: the Lies of Colin Powell
David Swanson
The Bush-Cheney Ethics Refresher Course: a Syllabus
M. Junaid Alam
An Interview Stan Goff
Matt Reichel
Paris Uprising: a Rebellion in Real Time
Naima Bouteldja
Paris is Burning
Jeff Halper
Israel
as an Extension of American Empire
Website of the Day
Dispatches from Paris
November 5
/ 6, 2005
Alexander Cockburn
Storm
Over Brockes' Fakery: Guardian Fabricates Chomsky Quotes
Lawrence R.
Velvel
Lying,
Law Schools and Executive Power: What Senators Should Ask Alito
Diana Johnstone
Srebrenica: a Response to Certain Criticisms of My Essay
Roosa / Nevins
The
Mass Killlings in Indonesia, 40 Years Later
Niranjan Ramakrishnan
Missing
the Bus: When Conscience Bows to Calculation
John Ross
The Zapatistas' Otra Campaign for Mexico's Presidential Elections
Mike Whitney
Globalizing Sadism: the United States of Torture
Mark Engler
Will Big Business Turn On Bush?: the Economic Nightmare Unfolds
Juliano Mer-Khamis
They Shoot at Children, Too
Ron Jacobs
When Gen. Westmoreland Visited
Jill S. Farrell
Bird Flu and the Posse Comitatus Act
Missy Comley
Beattie
Trent Lott's Untroubled Sleep
Mitchel Cohen
People of the Dome, Revisited
Evelyn J. Pringle
Bush-Cheney and Big Oil's Big Summer
Reza Fiyouzat
Signs of Life or Last Gasp? Structural Problems in the Democratic
Party
Charles Sullivan
When Courage Fails: a White Southerner on Rosa Parks
Zachary Richard
Return to Louisiana
Ben Tripp
Beginning of the End? Don't Start Cheering Just Yet
St. Clair / Vest
Playlists: What We're Listening to This Week
November 4,
2005
Jeffrey St.
Clair
Blood
on the Tundra, Betrayal in the Rotunda: Losing ANWR
Dave Lindorff
A Majority Now Favors Impeachment: If He Lied, He Must Be Tried
Phillip Cryan
Crackdown
in Colombia
Christopher Brauchli
Katrina and Tax Breaks for the Very Rich
William S.
Lind
Exit Strategy: You Can't Stay the Course in a Lost War
Daryl G. Kimball
Of Madmen and Nukes
George Beres
Laurels for Negroponte?
Peter Montague
Why We Can't Prevent Cancer
November 3,
2005
James Petras
The
Libby Affair and the Internal War
Saul Landau
Torn
Families and Shot Down Planes: a Cuba Story
Rep. Cynthia McKinney
An Occurrence at Gretna Bridge
Michael Dickinson
Bang! Bang! You're Deaf! Sonic Weapons Over Palestine
Joshua Frank
Sham Behind Closed Doors
Remi Kanazi
Dancing with Perseverance
Reza Fiyouzat
Taxation or Racketeering?
Website of the Day
CIA Leak Investigation: Bigger Fish, Deeper Water?
November 2,
2005
Cockburn /
St. Clair
Holy
Alito!: Not as Crazy as Scalia, But Just as Bad
Robert Oscar Lopez
Saving Rosa Parks from American Hypocrisy
John Walsh
The Philosophy of Mendacity: From Leo Strauss to Scooter Libby
Brian J. Foley
Why Most Americans Don't Care About Gitmo (and Why They Should)
Ramzy Baroud
Rolling Back Syria
M. Junaid Alam
What Moral Values?
Todd Chretien
Judgment Day for the Governator
Bruce K. Gagnon
The Democrats' Slap Happy Day
Website of the Day
Hands Off Dave!
November 1,
2005
Ron Jacobs
An
Interview with Kent State's Dave Airhart
Gary Leupp
The Plame Affair Leads to Rome
John Ross
Days
of the Dead on the Border
Bill Quigley
Why
Are They Making New Orleans a Ghost Town?
Joseph Nevins
From a Boundary of Death to One of Life
Dave Lindorff
Thinking About Impeachment
Linda S. Heard
Bashing Syria: Another Trojan Horse from the UN?
Heather Gray
Thank You, Mrs. Parks
Michael Dickinson
To Di For: Charlie and Camilla Cross the Pond
Jeffrey St. Clair
Kent State: Wise Up and Back Off
October 31,
2005
Elaine Cassel
Libby's
Lies
Mark Weisbrot
Pop Goes the Bubble: Bernancke and the Fed
Mike Whitney
Carry On, Patrick Fitzgerald
Norman Solomon
After the Libby Indictment, the Press Acquits Itself
Farooq Sulehria
Trading Weapons While Kashmir Burns
Nicole Colson
Scapegoating Immigrants
Madis Senner
Dhafir Sentenced to 22 Years: Another Erosion of Civil Rights
Paul Craig
Roberts
Scooter
and the Neocons
October 29 / 30, 2005
Cockburn /
St. Clair
The
Libby Indictment: Gotterdammerung for the Bushies?
Peter Linebaugh
The
Wedges of Hephaestus
Tim Wise
Framing the Poor: Katrina, Conservative Myth-Making and the Media
John Chuckman
Bushspeak: Dark and Garbled Words
Steven Higgs
Green Hoosiers: Forging a New Democracy in the Heartland
Brian Cloughley
The Fifth Afghan War
M. Shahid Alam
Israel and the Consequences of Uniqueness
Nikki Robinson
Crack Down at Kent State
Ralph Nader
Let the PIRGs Begin!: Student Activism Thrives
Joe DeRaymond
Requiem for Bethlehem Steel?
Joshua Frank
Karl's Great Escape: Did Rove Rat on Scooter?
Laura Santina
Tongue-Tied on Iraq: Why Aren't the Dems Screaming Bloody Murder?
Fred Gardner
Death of an Organizer
Michael Dickinson
Insult Your Country
Ron Jacobs
Autumn in America
Dr. Susan Block
Fear and Sex: a Halloween Greeting
Vanessa S. Jones
Self-Portrait, 1994. Bronte Beach
Jeffrey St.
Clair
Playlist: What I'm Listening to This Week
Poets' Basement
Marbet, Gardner, Ford, Albert, Engel, Krieger & St. Clair
Website of
the Weekend
Red State Update
October 28,
2005
Jared Bernstein
Inflation
Up; Wages Down: Fastest Decline in Wages on Record
Virginia Tilley
Embracing
the Anti-Aparthied Movement in Israel/Palestine
Phil Gasper
The
Race to Execute Tookie Williams
Jennifer Matsui
It's Mardi Graft Time!
Manual Garcia,
Jr.
Is the US Really Against Torture?
Monica Benderman
In the Name of Justice
Jason Leopold
Fitzgerald
Focuses on the Forgeries
Dave Lindorff
Suddenly, Bush Endorses Right of Fair Trials
Otober 27, 2005
Saul Landau
The
Scandal Isn't the Leak, But the Illegal War
Stuart Hodkinson
Bono
and Geldoff: "We Saved Africa" Oh No, They Didn't!
Ingmar Lee
Stop
the Troops!: No Glory or Honor in Iraq
Lila Rajiva
License
to Bill: Gates Does India
Ilan Pappe
The
Last Moment of Hope
Niranjan Ramakrishnan
Waiting for Fitzgerald
Michael Donnelly
Look Who's Talking Now: the GOP on Perjury
Ron Jacobs
Escape the Weight of Your Corporate Logo
Cockburn / St. Clair
White House in Meltdown
October 26,
2005
Kathy Kelly
For
Whom They Toll
Gary Leupp
Dialectics
of the Plame Affair
Mike Marqusee
Empire of Denial
Eric Ruder
War Crimes in Afghanistan
Patrick Cockburn
Iraq: a Constitutionally Divided Nation
Joshua Frank
Fitzgerald v. the Bushies: Hold Your Elation in Check
J.L. Chestnut, Jr.
The Legacy of Rosa Parks
Website of
the Day
Decent Work in America: the 2005 Work Environment Index
October 25,
2005
Paul Craig
Roberts
Condi
and Syrian Regime Change: Could Somebody Recommend a President?
Ken Sengupta / Patrick Cockburn
Attack on the Palestine Hotel
Conn Hallinan
Sleight of Hand: Iran, India and the US
Nafeez Mosaddeq Ahmed
Pulling the Court Strings
Jackie Corr
Barbara Bush: Poster Gorgon of the Houston Astros
Robert Day
Talk to Strangers
John Sugg
Judith
Miller and Me
October 24,
2005
Dave Lindorff
Revoke
Judy Miller's Pulitzer
Michael Donnelly
Shades of Iran/contra
Patrick Cockburn
A Nation Stands on Trial
Mike Whitney
Apres Rove
Norman Solomon
Iraq is Not Vietnam, But...
Bill and Kathleen
Christison
US
Foreign Policy and Palestine
October 22
/ 23, 2005
Alexander Cockburn
When
Divas Collide: Maureen Dowd v. Judy Miller
Billy Sothern
Letter
from the Circle Bar, New Orleans
Saul Landau
Bush, an Assessment
Ralph Nader
An
Open Letter to Bush on Harriet Miers
Behrooz Ghamari
Whose Justice Does Saddam's Trial Serve?
Brian Cloughley
Bush the Strategist: Pyrrhus Without a Victory?
Diana Barahona
Venezuela's National Workers' Union
Fred Gardner
Dershowitzed!
Lee Sustar
What the War on Terror is Really About
Patrick Cockburn
Murder of Saddam Trial Defense Lawyer
Laura Carlsen
Mexico City Seamstresses Recall 1985 Quake
James Petras
China Bashing and the Loss of US Competitiveness
Joshua Frank
Invading Iran: Who is to Stop Them?
Manuel Garcia,
Jr.
Disasters are Us
Michelle Bollinger
When Abortion Was Illegal
Missy Comley
Beattie
CSI: Iraq
Kona Lowell
Intelligent Design: Making High School Fun
Ben Tripp
Tanks for the Memories
Jeffrey St. Clair
Playlist: What I'm Listening To This Week
Poets' Basement
Albert and Engel
Website of
the Day
Indictment Watch
October 21,
2005
Dave Lindorff
The
Democrats' Abortion Hypocrisy
Winslow T. Wheeler
Paying for Their Mistakes: Incompetence, Deception and the Defense
Budget
Col. Dan Smith
The Destruction of the National Guard
Norman Solomon
Media at Crossroads: 25 Years After Reagan's Triumph
Madis Senner
Abusing Katrina
Michael Donnelly
Richard
Pombo: DeLay in Cowboy Boots
October 20, 2005
Dave Lindorff
Impeachment
Comes to NYC
Ray McGovern
16
Fatal Words: Cheney's Chickens Come Home to Roost
Jeremy Brecher
/
Brendan Smith
Attack Syria? Invade Iran?: By What Constitutional Right?
Patrick Cockburn
Saddam Refuses to Recognize Court
Kevin Zeese
Was the Iraqi Constitution Vote Fixed?
Ross Eisenbrey
Millions Would Lose Pay and Protections Under Enzi Amendment
Randy Shields
James McMurtry Makes It in Dayton
Justine Davidson
Prosecuting Bush in Canada for Torture: a Small Victory
After Lucas
Cranach
Judy and Holofernes
Joe Allen
The
Scandalous History of the Red Cross
|
Weekend Edition
November 26 / 27, 2005
CounterPunch Playlists
What We're Listening
to This Week
By JEFFREY ST. CLAIR
and DAVID VEST
JEFFREY ST. CLAIR
1. Herbie Hancock / Michael
Brecker / Roy Hargrove -- New
Directions in Music Live at Massey Hall (Universal)
A 75-minute decimation of Ken
Burns & Company's warped slur that jazz has been in terminal
decline since the death of Coltrane. These songs, including "So
What" and "Naima", begin as excursions from the
templates set by Miles and Trane in the mid-60s, then blast off
into complex improvisations that flow from modal expressionism
to funk, from free jazz to a kind of soul-inflected post-fusion.
This is the breathtaking sound of a new music being born from
a group of musicians with a deep regard for the past. (Memo to
Herbie: I don't know why Hancock, Brecker and Hargrove are the
only ones to get billing on this cd because the rhythm section
of bassist John Patitucci and drummer Brian Blade may be the
best pairing since Tony Williams kept the beat with Ron Carter.)
2. Maceo Parker -- School's
In (BHM Productions)
The propulsive force behind
James Brown's music for more than 20 years, Maceo Parker is the
most influential R&B sax player since Earl Bostic. He also
helped define the new sound of funk as the sax supremo in George
Clinton and Bootsy Collins's great 70s bands, Funkadelic and
Parliament. For the past decade or so, Maceo has been blazing
his own path across the planet, leading one of the tightest bands
around, dabbling in jazz, hip-hop and raw funk. If Maceo had
Clarence Clemons' spot in the E-Street Band, Bruce Springsteen
might actually learn something about how to play rhythm and blues.
Barring that, he could slap this cd in the box and start taking
notes with his feet.
3. Caitlin Cary and Thad
Cockrell -- Begonias
(Yep Roc)
Neo-country and bluegrass from
the Smokey Mountains by a talented pair of North Carolinians.
This is what Emmylou Harris and Gram Parsons might have sounded
like had Harris ever learned how to convey emotional depth and
nuance with her voice.
4. The Flatlanders -- More
a Legend Than a Band (Rounder)
One of the most famous lost
albums, recorded in 1972, locked in a vault for 15 years, and
unearthed by Rounder after all three members, Joe Ely, Jimmy
Dale Gilmore and Butch Hancock, had gone on to stellar solo careers.
Thanks in part to prodding from Don Imus this trio is making
music again, but the new material doesn't sound nearly as good,
largely because Gilmore has lost his voice and Hancock and Ely
seem to have lost interest. But none of that diminishes this
landmark recording from the outback of Lubbock.
5. Linda Thompson -- Fashionably
Late (Rounder)
In 1982, Linda Thompson and
her husband, guitar legend Richard Thompson released Shoot Out
the Lights. This sequence of confessional songs describing their
turbulent marriage would prove to be one of the finest of that
decade. A few months after the album's release, Richard abandoned
Linda for Sufism and a young new bride. Predictably, Richard
went on to achieve even loftier critical, if not commercial,
acclaim, while Linda fell into a deep funk, followed by a debilitating
illness. Twenty years later, though, Linda resurfaced with a
vengeance. Fashionably Late is far better than any cd released
over the same period by her ex. I hope there's more to come.
6. Little Willie John --
The
Early King Sessions (Ace)
The sweet soul of Little Willie
John belongs in an exalted class of singers whose membership
includes Marvin Gaye, Sam Cooke, Otis Redding, Jackie Wilson
and Smokey Robinson. Willie John, though, is nearly forgotten
today. John had three strikes against him: he was black, his
first big song, "Fever", was hijacked from him on the
eve of its release by Peggy Lee, and his life ended in a prison
brawl in Washington state. America doesn't show much tolerance
for black cons. It's one think to revere the faux-felon Johnny
Cash or Haggard as redeemed outlaws and another thing entirely
to set aside John's sad case and just embrace his songs. These
King sessions from the 1950s display John at the pinnacle of
his hypnotic power.
7. Jessi Colter -- An
Outlaw and a Lady (Capitol)
In the 1970s, Jessi Colter
was a leading country singer with a huge crossover audience--the
Shania Twain of her time. Unlike the keening Twain, Jessi Colter
can really sing. She is also a gifted songwriter who didn't resort
to trite gimmicks to sell records. Colter rejected the sappy
production effects that had done so much to enervate the 70s
Nashville sound for a more direct and unadorned approach typified
by songs such as "I'm Not Lisa". This is modern music
in a country context. Of course, she also happened to be married
to Waylon Jennings and appeared on the Outlaws record that revolutionized
not only the sound but also the economics of country music. For
the last decade or so, Colter largely sacrificed her career to
tend to the ailing Jennings, until diabetes finally took him
down in 2002. Still, it's a major outrage that nearly all of
Colter's records from the 70s and 80s are now deleted. This collection
provides only a tantalizing appetizer for one of the most courageous
voices in American music. The disc suffers from slighting her
stunning gospel-like record "Mirriam", done in tribute
to her mother, though the cd does include the highlight from
that set, "I Belong to Him," a haunting duet with Roy
Orbison. Come back, Jessi.
8. Harry Nilsson -- Nilsson
Sings Newman Remastered (Buddha)
It's hard to believe that it's
been 12 years since a heart attack claimed the life of Harry
Nilsson at the age of 53. These days Nilsson is known more for
being John Lennon's enabler during those three lost years of
boozing in LA in the mid-1970s than for his music. And that's
a shame, because Nilsson was a true original with a distinctive
voice that burst onto the scene singing Fred Neil's song "Everybody's
Talkin' At Me" on the soundtrack to Midnight Cowboy. Two
years later, Nilsson and his pal Randy Newman, then a talented
but still relatively unrecognized songwriter, holed up in a Hollywood
studio and recorded 10 Newman songs, including "Vine Street",
"Yellow Man" and the wonderful "Dayton, Ohio,
1903". Newman is surely one of our greatest songwriters,
but his voice has never come close to doing his songs justice.
Nilsson had the perfect voice for Newman's quirky songs. This
stripped down album, featuring only Nilsson's voice and Newman's
piano, is one of the treasures of the 1970s. Long out of print,
it has recently been remastered and reissued with additional
takes and jesting between the two musicians.
9. Lester Young -- The
President Plays with the Oscar Peterson Trio (Polygram)
Whether he's playing in a big
band setting with Count Basie, backing Billie Holiday or fronting
a quartet with Oscar Peterson, the sound of Lester Young's sax
is as unmistakable as Louis Armstrong's voice or Miles's muted
trumpet. In the 1940s, Young was one of the nation's most recognizable
black musicians. He'd even starred in a movie. Then in 1943 Young
was drafted. In the Army, Young, one of the greatest musicians
of his time, didn't get the pampered treated accorded to Elvis
and other white celebrities. Instead, he endured three years
of physical and psychological abuse and racism of such virulence
that he emerged from the Army in many ways a shattered man. His
final months as a GI were spent in a military prison in Georgia
where he was routinely humiliated and tortured. In 1978, I interviewed
his close friend Teddy Wilson, Billie Holiday's piano player.
In a cramped backroom at Blues Alley in Georgetown, Wilson told
me that Young was never the same person or musician. You can
hear the change in the music. The birth of the cool occurred
the day Lester Young walked out of that hellhole of a brig. Despite
this harrowing experience, Lester Young remained one of the funniest
of all jazz musicians. His sense of humor probably came from
his father, who led the carnival band in which the Prez learned
his chops. A taste of Young's humor can be heard on "It
Takes Two to Tango," the only extant recording of Lester
Young singing. No one swings harder than Lester, but here we
get to hear the Prez blow out some blues and lay down some of
the most gorgeous ballads ever memorialized on vinyl. One of
the giants of American music.
10. Hackberry Ramblers --
Early
Recordings, 1935 - 1950 (Arhoolie)
In March of 2004, Alexander
Cockburn and I saw the Hackberry Ramblers at Jazzfest in New
Orleans. They played on the smaller Cajun music stage, but the
crowd was boisterous and overflowing. That spring only Smokey
Robinson and Alan Toussaint played to more captivated audiences.
A few months later Johnny Faulk, the Ramblers' bass player died
shortly after a gig at Tipitinas. He was 79 years old and the
youngster in the group. He'd only been playing with the
Ramblers since 1979. The Hackberry Ramblers are the grandfathers
of Cajun swing, Louisiana's equivalent of Bob Wills and the Texas
Playboys. Indeed, the Ramblers and Wills started recording in
the same year: 1933. But the Ramblers, formed by fiddler Luderin
Darbone and accordionist Edwin Duhon, have continued playing
30 years after Wills died. And playing frequently and at a high
level. Their 1998 album, Deep Water, won a Grammy. The week before
Faulk died the Ramblers, with Ardoin and Duhon in their early
90s, had played 5 out of 7 nights. This vital retrospective of
the band's "early years", put out by Arhoolie, traces
the Ramblers from old-time Cajun stomps to fiddle-driven swings
to blues and bayou party music. These fellows really are living
legends.
11. Lazy Lester -- I'm
a Lover Not a Fighter (Ace)
Lazy Lester shouldered half
of the legacy left by the untimely death of Slim Harpo, the person
Mick Jagger really wanted to be (that is, when he didn't want
to be Martha Reeves). That half of the inheritance is the swamp
blues harmonica sound that Slim perfected and taught to Lester,
who later married Slim's sister. The swamp blues is a slow, meandering
style with a deep and inexorable groove. Slim also had one of
the signature voices in the blues and that's certainly not Lester's
forte. Even so, these cuts offer some of the best harp playing
since the mid-1960s when Little Walter, Slim Harpo and Junior
Wells ruled the earth as the undisputed titans of their art.
Lester's "Patrol Blues" and "Bloodstains on the
Wall" can be heard as a unique kind of reportage from the
underbelly of the Empire.
By the time Jeffrey St. Clair
was 18, he'd been 86'd from more bands than Dickey Betts. Complaints
can be registered to: sitka@comcast.net.
DAVID VEST
1. Eugene Chadbourne --
Worms
With Strings (Leo)
"He who does not know,
should not know," wrote Antonio Porchia. Which may or may
not apply to the guitar genius whose extended fantasia on Roger
Miller's "Dang Me" sounded like the Sun Ra of rockabilly.
Come to think of it, many would probably prefer Dr. Chadbourne's
C/W opera, "Jesse Helms Busted With Pornography" (Fireant),
which can be sampeld on iTunes.
2. Nana Mouskouri -- Vielles
Chansons de France (Philips)
One of my favorite CDs, since
I first heard it years ago. Try "Plaisir D'Amour" and
"Va Mon Ami Va." Have these songs ever been done better?
3. Curtis Salgado -- Strong
Suspicion (Shanachie)
One of the country's most under-rated
soul singers, well-schooled in his craft, and blessed with golden
pipes. When I visited his home once, he showed me a video by
the Highway QCs and loaned me his copy of You
Send Me, Daniel Wolff's bio of Sam Cooke. Salgado's version
of "I'll Be Back" is the standard by which all Beatles
covers should be judged. "Money Must Think I'm Dead"
-- is that a good blues song title, or what?
4. Paul Brady -- The
Paul Brady Songbook (Compass)
Live career retrospective by
an Irish singer-songwriter whose records have been foraged and
plundered by American singers looking for hits. Songs like "Helpless
Heart" and "Follow On" deserve to be much more
widely heard, in their composer's own voice.
5. Donovan -- Beat
Café (Appleseed)
Ever buy a CD you didn't really
need because you liked the way the drums and bass were recorded?
You could almost call this a Jim Keltner album, thanks to his
brushwork. It's mostly just acoustic bass, drums, and Donovan's
acoustic guitar, with a bit of B-3 thrown in. "Whirlwind"
is the best of the songs, though there aren't enough of them
and Donovan can be so very ... Donovan, at times. But he still
has that low vibrato, and whatever he's doing, he ain't backin'
down.
6. Lou Ann Barton -- Read
My Lips (Antone's)
When I think of Texas roadhouse
music, this is the album I think of first.
7. Tracy Nelson -- I
Feel So Good (Rounder)
Thank goodness for those independent
public radio stations that play a couple of hours of good womens'
music at odd hours, usually when I'm driving home from a gig.
Otherwise I would never have heard Tracy Nelson and Maura O'Connell
sing their duet on "Love Won't Come." Thank you, KBOO.
Thank you, KAOS and KPFT. And all the others. You know who you
are.
8. North
Country Soundtrack (Sony)
I went for this because of
"Tell Ol' Bill," a new song by Bob Dylan, apparently
written for the movie and not available elsewhere. While not
as great as "Things Have Changed," it's almost as intriguing
and the recording sounds fabulous. Here's hoping his next CD
project sounds something like this.
9. Joan Baez -- Honest
Lullaby (Sony)
More of a curiosity than an
honest anything. Once upon a time everybody went down to Nashville.
Then, after a while, they all went to Alabama. After Dylan and
the Stones made the trek to Muscle Shoals, it was Baez's turn.
Barry Beckett and his co-conspirators did their best to give
her a '70s pop album, and it wound up sounding more countrypolitan
hippy than folky.
10. Leonard Cohen -- Dear
Heather (Sony)
You get the best and the worst
of Cohen here. Preciosity side by side with genius. Songs as
bad (e.g., "Because of," or "Dear Heather")
, or as great (e.g., "The Letters," or "The Faith")
as anything he's ever written. You even get a duet between his
"old" voice and his current one, proof that it's willfulness,
not age or necessity, that makes him sing about nine octaves
below Middle-C most of the time these days. People who locked
themselves in their room for days, playing "Ten New Songs"
over and over, will want to approach this one gingerly. Do your
best to sneak up on it. This ain't no disco.
David Vest's newest CD is Serves
Me Right to Shuffle.
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