St. Louis Post-Dispatch from St. Louis, Missouri • Page 66

4E ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 24, 1995 I -mJr Lb2 li REVIEWS RECORDINGS By Gary Graff 1995, Dallas Morning News "SOUL ALMIGHTY" FTER three and a half decades of music-making, the Rolling Stones are getting their satisfaction 'from cyberaction. Bob Marley (Anansi) "EASY SHANKING" "We got a different feel, a much more intimate feel," Jagger says. "We had a whole different set list because we were looking for different kinds of songs that would fit in with a different attitude. Doing the small shows was fun to do.

It was good to be in London and play Wembley Stadium one day, Brixton another. It wasn't just for the record; it gave a good vibe to the tour." It also allowed the Stones to dip deeply into their oeuvre, coming up with surprises such as "The Spider and the Fly," which was the B-side to "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" in 1965, and "I'm Free," which was covered a couple of years ago by the British group Happy Mondays. The latter, Richards remembers, was worked up by him and tour keyboardist Chuck Leavell during a dinner break. The selection draws heavily from the Stones' Rolling Stones go high-tech (and acoustic) The Stones' latest album, "Stripped" (Virgin Records), is a collection of acoustic-oriented performances recorded during European and Japanese portions of their Voodoo Lounge tour. But despite the stripped-down aspect of the album, it spearheads the band's most hightech multimedia blitz ever.

Not only was "Stripped" released as a video-enhanced CD, but the Stones also released a "Voodoo Lounge" CD-ROM (GTE Entertainment, $49.98) at the same time. The band already maintains its own Internet site, and it used the 'Net to broadcast a sample of its Cotton Bowl eiractnveS Cyp 1968-72 creative period, mixing hits such as "Street Fighting Man," "Wild Horses" and "Let It Bleed" with seldom-heard album cuts such as "Sweet Virginia" and "Shine a Light." "You could put in a few licks that you wish you put in the first time," Richards says with a laugh. It also allowed the Stones to show off their often undernoticed acoustic prowess. "We're as accustomed to playing acoustic as we are electric," Richards says. and on the road all the time, if we're playing, it's two acoustic guitars in a hotel room.

The Stones have always been a heavily acoustic band, especially in the early days. 'Street Fighting the original track, is all acoustic, but for nearly 30 years, we've been playing it electric onstage. To get back and play it in the original instrumentation, that's a turn-on. I never thought I'd do that again." The spirit of the project even convinced the band to finally play "Like a Rolling Stone," a song the Stones always felt was too obvious for them to play in public though Jagger says it's long been part of the private repertoire. concert around the world.

Somewhere all down the line, the grizzled old Rolling Stones have turned into purveyors of cutting-edge technology. "I had looked at this as 'Oh, just another hightech said guitarist Keith Richards, "But I started to see it as the great teacher you never had, just about the Rolling Stones and the musical thing Just think of all the wall space you'd save if you threw out all those encyclopedias! "The Stones have always loved a challenge," Richards, 52, went on. "We're constantly going forward, always looking to rediscover the Stones in some way." The interactive program On the "Voodoo Lounge" CD-ROM allows fans to "hang out" with the Stones as they party and jam backstage. One section offers a view of the concert from a camera attached to guitarist Ron Wood's glasses. Another area profiles Stones influences such as Howlin' Wolf, John Lee Hooker and Son House whose music has an obvious impact on the "Stripped" album.

Though "Stripped" plays as usual on standard CD players, fans who stick it in their CD-ROM drive can call up song lyrics, interviews with the band, a zf i f- From left: Charlie Watts. Mick Charlie Watts, The Rolling Stones on the eve of their Voodoo Lounge tour. Jagger, Ron Wood and Keith Richards. "I I started off on 'Stripped' with a lot of negative thought processes. I didn't want it to be another Rolling Stones live album from a stadium, I didn't want it to be 99 MICK JAGGER Bob Marley (Island Jamaica) Bob Marley, rhythm 'n' blues singer? The music world knows Marley as the towering figure of reggae, but his vision and voice were more flexible than even ardent fans realize.

Some newly released music suggests that if he had scored a hit in the late 1960s with any of the singles he recorded, his path might have been altered. New material arrives from two sources, and it's been a long time coming. Hardcore reggae fans know that Chris Blackwell, president of Island Records (Marley 's label after 1972), has been sitting on many unreleased studio and live recordings, which he doles out only in stingy portions. The latest is the CD single release of "Easy Skanking." It's the second single from the album "Natural Mystic," a recent greatest-hits release that, lacking rarities, was clearly intended for neophytes. The four-song single package is more on the order of what collectors savor.

The three bonus tracks are a full-band treatment of "Redemption Song," an extended version of "Punky Reggae Party" and a never-released track by the Wailers from 1973, "All Day All Night." It is well worth seeking out. Before Blackwell was Danny Sims. He handled Marley's career from 1967 to '72, a prolific and diffusely creative time for Marley. Many of his best-loved songs spring from this period along with some stylistic experiments. Now, material from those years has been freed from litigation, and "Soul Almighty" is the first installment of what Sims envisions as a multi-media project to include additional albums (drawn from the 49 songs to which he owns the rights), a book, videos and CD-ROMs.

On "Soul Almighty," such Wailers mainstays as "Nice Time," "Put It On" and "Bend Down Low" are given rhythm 'n' blues treatment from a backing band that included Aretha Franklin's musicians, and a new angle of vision is the happy result. The unreleased songs are a delightful lot as well; from the jaunty rhythm and playful tone of "Splish for My Splash" to the equal parts of pleasure and desire in "Lonesome Feelings" and the hipshakin' Motown-style "You Say I Have No Feelings." The second of two versions of "What Goes Around Comes Around" concludes the disc with yet another stab outside the bounds of reggae. A dose of mesmerizing psychedelia, it's unlike anything you've ever heard from Marley. Sims is quoted in the liner notes as saying he'd like the appeal of Marley's music to expand in the African-American community Marley's goal all along. Given the years-after-the-fact "sweetening" of the basic tracks in the form of overdubs occasionally, a song is overly tarted up with keyboards it's easy to wonder about the veracity with which Marley's own vision is maintained.

But it's just as easy to wonder, in light of these sometimes stunning selections, what has been lost by his passing. Michael Kuelker "RED BLOODED BLUES" Various artists (Polygram) There's nothing much new in this strong collection of blues, and blues rock, but its 17 recyled performances range from solid to brilliant and demonstrate just how far you can stretch the envelope of diversity over the blues heritage. The timeline on the album curves all the way from Pop Staples to Joan Osborne, with legends such as B.B. King, John Lee Hooker, Otis Rush and Etta James topping a list that includes such varied performers as Aaron Neville, John Mayall and Jeff Healey. Most of the performances are off recent recordings, though some are practically antiques (Joe Cocker's "Black Eyed Blues" dates to 72).

But regardless of vintage, they're all fine even Robert Cray's album-opener. It's also for a fine cause. The album was put together to call attention to the "Get Hip to Hepatitis" public-education program sponsored by, the American Liver Foundation and the late Willie Dixon's Blues Heaven Foundation. (Dixon was infected with hepatitis when he died in 1992.) Part of the proceeds from the album go to those organizations. Favorite moments? Joe Louis Walker's title track demonstrates why he's a rising star in the blues world.

And it was nice to hear a Buddy Guy cut Need on which he apparently didn't feel compelled to play as loudly and rapidly as he could manage. (Johnnie Johnson plays piano on that selection.) Appropriately, the CD closes with Dixon himself, leading the Chicago Blues All-Stars in "It Don't Make Sense (You Can't Make Peace)." Jim Creighton "WHAT'S INSIDE" Joan Armatrading (RCA Victor) One of the classiest singersongwriters of the '70s and early '80s, Joan Armatrading paved the way for many of the rock 'n' roll women who followed. Though she has faded from the airwaves, "What's Inside" is a pleasant reminder of Armatrading's enduring charms, from her deeply resonant voice to her eloquent songwriting skills. There are several tracks here that compare favorably with the singer's prime-time best. The one drawback is the production, which relies a whole lot on slick keyboard sounds, which often distract from the simple splendor of the songs.

Kevin O'Hare, Nwhouse News Service "Like a lot of other people, I can do a selection of Dylan songs at a party if needed, and that was one of those," he said. "It's funny, really. When it came out and you saw the title, you thought, 'Oh, it's got to be about Then you heard it, and it was, 'Oh, no. Not "When we were looking for different songs to do in Europe, for the club shows, that was one obvious contender. I'd thrown it up before as an idea, and everyone looked at me like 'He's But when we were more actively looking for off-the-wall things, that obviously made sense.

And when we actually did it, the audience went bananas." With the album and CD-ROM out, Jagger, Richards and their bandmates are finally ready for some vacation time before they reconvene for the spring tour of Asia and South America. After that is anyone's guess. "I just want to unload 'Voodoo Lounge' and move on to something new," Jagger said. And who knows what that might be. All of the Stones have active solo careers, but with things going so well, Richards whose extra-Stones activities have been the most successful says he wouldn't be surprised if they go right back to work on another Stones album.

"Nothing's in a vacuum these days," he said. "You see what you got and what you feel like. All I want to do is make good records. I always have." The Rolling Stones Internet site is http:www.voodoolounge.com Stones discography and footage of Mick Jagger singing "Tumbling Dice" in a dressing room and Richards and Wood working out guitar parts on "Shattered." The album definitely reflects the feel-good Stones, resulting in a distinctive conceptual piece that Jagger says "shows another light on the Rolling Stones." It's not a traditional live album, simply documenting the tour's standard stadium show. Rather, it's an acoustic-oriented album recorded in small clubs and rehearsal rooms in Europe and Japan, with and without audiences.

The 14 tracks all but one dating from 1973 or before move through the Stones' past, picking up forgotten gems and nodding toward influences such as Buddy Holly Fade Robert Johnson in Willie Dixon and Bob Dylan a Rolling It's a cross between an "MTV Unplugged" session and the rarities portion of a box set the result of the Stones deciding first what they didn't want to do. "I started off with a lot of negative thought processes," explains Jagger, 52, like Richards. "I didn't want it to be another Rolling Stones live album from a stadium, I didn't want it to be "We threw around the idea of doing a completely new album, working up new songs in hotel rooms and backstage. That sounded great, but we realized it was a tremendous amount of work. We're quite busy on the road, and there's too much moving around to really accomplish that." For Richards, the seed of an idea was planted when the Stones began rehearsing in Toronto for their 1994 North American dates.

He liked the sound of the band working in a smaller room, playing not for the crowd but for one another. "That's where the bonding of a band actually occurs," Richards explains. "It's not just learning the songs or deciding which ones to play; it's the process of welding together. There's no pressure on you. It's all 'Play this, try this, try Like brainstorming sessions.

That's the kind of feeling I wanted. I thought I could catch the guys unaware." The idea continued to evolve when the Stones put some acoustic sets into their North American shows. When they went back on the road at the beginning of the year, they decided to play a few club shows. That meant another batch of rehearsals with the tape rolling. CHRIS DICKINSON mi Cars Revisited At Quirky Best he reason we wore lots of black then was that you could look pretty cool and you didn't have to spend much money.

99 ELLIOT EASTON of the Cars i a) -Sv'I '4 WHEN they first burst on the music scene with their self-titled 1978 debut, the Cars helped usher new wave onto the charts. While many other bands existed in underground punk obscurity, the Cars' quirky pop hooks, techno-synth sensibility and sparse but punchy guitar leads (along with the strained vocalizing of band leader Ric Ocasek) connected immediately with a large market. And then there were those skinny ties. On the fashion front, the Cars would for a time come to epitomize the new wave aesthetic: a modified retro look that included pointy-toed boots and shoes, slightly gelled rooster 'do's, and lots of black with the occasional dab of a vibrant primary like red. By the time the Cars called it quits after 1987's "Door to Door," it was clear that they were a band out of steam and out of ideas.

But the new double-disc release "The Cars Anthology Just What I Needed" (ElektraRhino) captures the quirky pleasures of the Cars' best work, as well as some previously unreleased demo recordings. For Cars' guitarist Elliot Easton, trekking through the vaults was a labor of love. "The band discussed the idea before Rhino decided to do this," Easton said, calling from California. "We dug out a lot of old archival stuff, old unissued tracks. We had a real good idea of what was there.

If we hadn't gotten involved, it would have just been a greatest-hits. In this way, we got a lot of rarities." All the members of the Cars were involved with the project: Easton, singerguitarist Ocasek, keyboardist Greg Hawkes, bassist Benjamin Orr and drummer David Robinson. Despite old rumors that the band had parted company on less than the best of terms, Easton says they all get along just fine now. Besides, he's not interested in dishing the dirt in retrospect. "You could tell that there was a situation arising," Easton explained when remembering the band's break-up.

"But Ric said he really didn't want to do it anymore. That's basically what happened." Easton also prefers not to spoil the memory of the music by i "The reason we wore lots of black then was that you could look pretty cool and you didn't have to spend much money. That was part of the reason." But Easton also admits the Cars loved a certain type of fashion sensibility that is often lacking in the current rock world. "I'm 41," he says. "I was one of those kids who saw the Beatles on the Ed Sullivan show.

I loved it. It was great to experience some of that vibe the first time around. I liked that era. I know it will make me sound like a fogey, but everything is oversized and baggy today. Women dress the same as the men.

It seems like a less sensual era. It seems the clothes we wore were sexier. I think pointy shoes are a lot cooler than construction boots. But that's me. My idea of a pop star was Brian Jones.

That's a long way from Courtney Love." Easton says that the term "new wave" never properly captured the range of the bands of the era. "It was totally irrelevant to me," he said. "That was a label journalists put on a whole group of bands. We were excited by the spirit of what was happening with punk. It was never anything so calculated.

If you were a band in the late '70s, you were labeled new wave. Is that the Knack, or Elvis Costello? Does Mink DeVille sound like Blondie?" As for the current state of modern rock music, Easton hears a lot of heavy-duty recycling in the grooves. "I figure in a year or so, things will get real poppy again," he says. "When I hear many of the Seattle bands, they don't sound different from Quicksilver Messenger Service. The new thing now is punk.

I think the next thing will be the Cars and Cheap Trick again." Easton laughs over the phone. "You know what then say: 'Nostalgia ain't what it used to He laughs again and continues dissecting the fact that as far as music is concerned, everything that has gone around kirps coming back around again. He makes a promise: "We'll have to compare notes; in a couple years and see if they've brought back the skinny fie." The cover of the Cars' new double-disc release. ragging about any of his ex-bandmates at this late date. "Remember when you'd read Mick and Keith doing dueling interviews? It made me feel kind of sad.

I'd rather have it be a classy band and let people enjoy the music. Every family has arguments; it's no more or less than anyone else." The anthology contains all the hits, from the infectious early pop tunes "My Best Friend's Girl" and "Just What I Needed" to Orr's synthy-smooth hit "Drive." But the release also includes previously unissued demo versions of "Take Me Now," "Cool Fool" and "Nightspots." For true Cars fans, the latter tunes will be the primary selling point. For anyone else who ever sang along to such edgy Ocasek lines as "It doesn't matter where you've beenAs long as it was deep, yeah," this will serve as an engaging blast from the past. And for those too young to remember the skinny-tie movement the first time around, this collection will serve as a user-friendly educational tool. As for the largely black-and-white color-coordinated look the Cars projected, Easton explains that it was as much of a practical move as it was a fashion statement..