CHAPTER 6

SHOWING ALL 5 RESULTS

Bruce Springsteen

I put this song up and it all just came crashing back the way I remembered it. It’s amazing how 35 years later I can still feel exactly the same way I did the first time I ever heard Bruce sing Atlantic City.  What makes him so special is that anyone can play this song 3 chord song but no-one can play it like this.

I have so much to say about Springsteen and a lot of it gets covered in The Story of Rock and Roll. In a nutshell I dig this guy more than almost anyone else. In terms of individual artists I have more Springsteen albums in my collection than albums by anyone else. I saw him at FNB stadium in 2015 and it was as good as I knew it would be, the dude will paly in the rain if he needs to. Just watch the opening of his concert in Hyde Park where he starts with London calling, fuck man he is just the best. Some guys just have it and if Earth needed an ambassador to alien nations I’d ask Bruce to go. The dude should be President of the United States.
JAMES DAUBENEY

Little Steven

I may have fucked this up, when I found this video I was a bit taken aback to see the dude with the white Mohican playing guitar.  I was looking for the original video I saw in the mid 80’s where as I describe in my book how Clarence Clemens was riding around on  chopper with a white Mohican.  I couldn’t find it and now it looks like it was never Clarence in the first place.  Oh well that’s why we have this web site so people can fill in the blanks.

Little Steven is just brilliant, he is probably more famous for playing Tony Soprano’s Lieutenant in The Soprano’s than for being The Bosses wingman. If you watch the Making of Born to Run you will see just how important he has been to everything Bruce has ever done. Bruce will say that Steve just calls it like it is and that is what you need.
JAMES DAUBENEY
Neil Young

Neil Young

Neil Young is a legend for me.  There are many who can’t stand him but I find him one of the most amazing artists ever.

I’ll probably change this clip quite often because there is just so much of Neil to see. This particular clip is taken from The Last Waltz which is The Bands farewell show. Pretty much anyone who was anyone at the time gets a bit of stage time but some special magic happens when Neil walks on and just this 3 chord masterpiece called Helpless. In The Story of Rock and Roll I discuss the power of one man and a guitar and this is a very good example of what I am talking about. You could learn these chords in an afternoon but you’d never perform the song like this.
JAMES DAUBENEY
Rodriquez

Rodriguez

There isn’t any good old footage of Rodriguez in his hey day that I could find.  The reason is pretty simple as I explain in the book, he never had a hey day because he never even knew he was a star.  Thankfully due to the efforts of Stephen Segerman he was rediscovered and not lost to the world.

The whole Rodriguez thing is so strange. Everybody knew him in the 70’s we thought he was an international superstar who had died of a heroin overdose. The truth was very different and it was only in SA and Aussie that people even knew of the oke. There are no decent video clips of him in the day and I don’t like looking at him all burnt out and old so just chill and listen to the song. If you don’t have Cold Fact in your record collection you are really slipping up. The lyrics and the simplicity of the recordings make it one of the best albums ever released in my opinion. Or if you will permit me to bastardise an old rock ‘n’ roll quotation, ‘Its fun to take a trip, put Rodriguez in your brain’
JAMES DAUBENEY
Billy Bragg

Billy Bragg

Not a lot of people I know even really know about Billy Bragg, I discovered him in about 1984 and was immediately hooked on his Brewing Up album.  Billy sings his songs of love, socialism and revolution without any drums or bass, just his electric guitar and his voice.  Its gritty and angry and you can probably learn more about England in one Billy Bragg album than you can in a whole textbook.

Billy Bragg wrote ‘A New England’ and Kirsty McColl made it a worldwide hit. Probably because she was a lot prettier than Billy and sang it ‘nicely’ not in an angry, shouty, broad UK accent. Kirsty McColl was killed in a bizarre speedboat accident where she was hit by some drug lord fooling around in a bay in South America where Kirsty and her family were on holiday. You can’t make this shit up !. There are a lot of vid clips of Billy doing ‘A New England’ but I prefer this old clip of a young Billy Bragg singing like he did when I first heard him in about 1982, amazing stuff \m/
JAMES DAUBENEY