DIG THIS WITH BILL MESNIK AND RICH BUCKLAND- THE SPLENDID BOHEMIANS

Vanguard Records is best known for its eclectic catalog of pivotal jazz, folk, rock and blues recordings by iconic artists like Joan Baez, Linda Ronstadt, Buddy Guy, Charlie Musselwhite, John Fahey, Buffy Sainte-Marie, Doc Watson, Country Joe and the Fish and countless others. Most recently, Vanguard has carried forward the label's legacy of artistic excellence with a diverse roster including...

The Mothers Of Invention-  Paralipomeni Della Batracomiomachia   Paris- 1970 The December 1970 Paris gig was a standout date during their European tour. The setlist included iconic Zappa tracks and heavy improvisations like "Dog Breath," "A Pound for a Brown on the Bus," and "Call Any Vegetable". The band featured an incredible lineup that included:Frank Zappa (Guitar...

Inspired by the clear and evocative 1985 translation of the I CHING,  by Kerson and Rosemary Huang - a team of a poet and physicist-poet, I kept a diary of musical interpretations of hexagrams which appeared to me when I consulted the oracle over the course of a year. The result was the album "9 Hexagrams," three of which I offer here. #44 : RENDEZ-VOUS (HEAVEN OVER WIND) / “Persevere” (...

The Army (Bill Mesnik) The war you wage is on yourself, The soul you save is not your own. The words you're saying were said before by your enemy. The code you honor has no honor, and all your wisdom makes no sense; you seek for justice but there's no justice from your enemy. Don't fight back- you will fail, Your best defense is modesty. The war you wage is on yourself - Your sword...

Ok, tomorrow is July 4th, our 250th year celebration of our Declaration of Independence.  The temperatures are sweltering, both outside and politically. There’s been a lot of talk recently about the nation’s division, using words like “unprecedented,” but going back over elections past over the the last two and a half centuries, you find that to be a recurring American theme.  The founding fathers...

HOT FUN IN THE SUMMERTIME / SLY AND THE FAMILY STONE (EPIC, 1969) The sweltering summer of 2023 is almost over, and all over the world folks are digging themselves out from under the epic disasters of the past months. Listening to this psych-soul ditty from 1969, one may be momentarily transported back to a cozier time of blotter acid and beach coolers.  The carefree tone of the record, however, b...

The concept to which The Rascals were dedicated was, in Felix Cavaliere's words, "Marvin Gaye's voice, Ray Charles' piano, Jimmy Smith's organ, Phil Spector's production and The Beatles' writing. Put them all together and you've got what I wanted to do." A White Rock band playing Black Soul music was a new idea for Pop in 1965. "The great thing abo...

We originally broadcast this episode of election nonsense prior to the debate of 2024, and listening to it anew we are reminded of how drastically things can change, while at the same time aligning eerily with the past. Happy 250th, everybody! The Gladiators are approaching the cage. 

Chip Taylor (3/21/1940 - 3/23/2026) Like a cat with nine lives, Chip Taylor’s persona embodied many iterations. Starting with his successful “songwriter for hire” status, penning golden hits like Wild Thing, and Angel of the Morning, up through his phoenix-like resurgence as an Americana elder statesman, the story of this man’s artistic survival, emerging as it did, out from the quicksand of addic...

26 years ago, before the election of George W. Bush in 2000, I wrote, produced and starred in a show about the history of the campaign song, called "Muckrakers," with the fabulous Linda Kerns.   Given that this bicentennial election season is heating up, I thought it’d be fun to revisit some songs from elections past… Let's look at one from 1856... Some background: in 1854 was “Blee...

WHO KNOWS WHAT TOMORROW MAY BRING by Traffic (United Artists, 1968) The original line up of Traffic had it all: mysticism, funk, folk, world music, and a healthy dose of irony. For an acid head like me they were the perfect accompaniment for a trip through shifting patterns of synchronicity. Of course, Traffic was helmed by the one and only Steve Winwood, who as a teenager impressed the world, sho...

MOBY GRAPE JUST CAN'T CATCH A BREAK https://www.npr.org/transcripts/17498799

"CLARENCE CARTER SLIPS AWAY ON THE MYSTERY TRAIN" When we speak of the deep soul drenched days when certain performers inhabited a heart full of soul so captivating and special that they were ordained as high priests of mournful and lustful magic, we will always recall Soul legend Clarence Carter. Clarence boarded The Mystery Train today, May 14, following struggles with prostate cancer...

How do you come up with a list of best covers of our greatest living songwriter? Splendid Bohemian, and Bob Dylan Maven Rich Buckland states his case as his partner, Bill Mesnik endeavors to keep up. BOB DYLAN COVERS It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue : 13th Floor Elevators Baby, I’d Do it All Over You: Dave Van Ronk Foot of Pride : Lou Reed Tomorrow is a Long Time: Elvis Presley Baby, You’ve been on my...

Romanticism or misogyny? During the tectonic time of “Me Too” The Splendid Bohemians tackled the subjects of two artists inextricably linked to their romantic images: Sir Tom Jones and Charles Aznavour - both hugely popular and successful in their own times, but, like many with complicated artistic careers, coming under reexamination. Spurred by a demand made to my wife to “shut off that stuff”  b...

Paul Simon set the standard for a New American Songbook. Reviewing these selections one is struck by the elegance of his melodies - on a par with that other Paul from Liverpool, but with a lyrical sophistication to rival America’s Nobel Laureate poet, Bob Dylan. “America”, as performed here by David Bowie, presents a barren landscape, - mirroring the mundane with the spiritual - to rival the liter...

The “talk talk” continues wherein Rich and Bill “rage against the dying of the light,” to honor our past and opine on the socio-political conditions of the present.  

It was a great reunion at the Hotel Bohemia. Bill and Rich got so engrossed in a variety of topics that we left the recorder running - and, as a result we'll be offering these conversational riches in two parts: Part one balances the outrages of today against the comic geniuses of yesteryear, along with ruminations about pet relationships, being at Woodstock, and the formative influences of o...

Neil Young’s otherworldly ability to morph between raging metalhead to the most sentimental of romantics never fails to astound. Always uncompromising, this cranky Canadian has been inflexible in his stance to be unencumbered - and, prolific - recording over 45 solo albums, not to mention those classics created with Buffalo Springfield and CSN&Y. Surviving polio as a child, and a brain aneurys...

Back in the Tin Pan Alley (and Brill Building) days there were song-pluggers, and there were vocalists, and never the twain met, but this symbiotic relationship formed the successful division of labor for the great American capitalist record business. Whether they be based in NY, LA, or Nashville successful songwriters rarely had hits recording their own material. Hard to believe that it took Will...

THE BILLY STEWART DISCOGRAPHY    Singles: Chess 1625: "Billy's Blues" / "Billy's Blues" Argo 5256: "Billy's Blues" / "Billy's Blues" Okeh 4-7095: "Baby, You're My Only Love" / "Billy's Heartache" (1957 with Bo Diddley , backed by The "Marquees") Chess 1820: "Reap What You Sow" / "Fat...

https://www.johncoltrane.com/ John Coltrane departed this mortal plane more than fifty years ago; today he remains among us, more alive than ever. His sound continues to grab the ears of an ever-widening circle of fans. His legend is stone solid: planted firmly in our culture as that of any 20th century musical giant. His saxophone sound—brooding, searching, dark—is still one of the most recogniza...

David Bowie, aka David Jones, aka Ziggy Stardust, aka Aladdin Sane, aka The Thin White Duke, aka The Man Who Fell to Earth had a vision of a future where everybody would be androgynous. Maybe the trans movement of today found its initial voice with him back in the ‘70s, when he proclaimed “make way for the homo superior.” Like so many others at the time, I glimpsed this insight that proposed expan...

What is a cover song?  It’s an act of devotion, an organic transmission from the essence of one soul into and through another. And, sometimes, by way of the revelations of time and lived experience, one might even surpass the original.  Prior to the era of electronic recording, no one “owned” their songs; they were passed on from generation to generation, and neighbor to neighbor - shared and muta...

"Palisades Park" (from Wikipedia) Chuck Barris wrote a song about an amusement park and it was suggested he use the name of an amusement park as the title. One night he was in Manhattan when he looked toward the New Jersey Palisades Cliffs, on which the amusement park sat. That was when inspiration hit and the title was added. Years later the Palisades Amusement Park closed, on September...