Two CD Recommendations

Both records pass various tests. The first, Cowboy Rhumba, by Ned Sublette set the neighborhood kids dancing when I pulled into the driveway with it playing. Sublette's Cuban-influenced country-western/cowboy/rock and roll is a real treat. Features a great version of one of my all time favorites, "Ghost Riders in the Sky" and an interesting take on "Not Fade Away." Sublette uses Cuban musicians to back him, and his original songs are terrific.


The second is the 15th anniversary edition of John Zorn's The Big Gundown, which deconstructs/interprets the music of Ennio Morricone, the composer for all those Serge Leone westerns. Included on the CD are a few bonus tracks, and it features guest appearances by Toots Thielmans on harmonica and Big John Patton on organ. This passes the Mary "It's a good thing for these guys there's a few people like you who'll buy this shit" test. A great CD--one of my top ten of all time. (Pssst: I think the vinyl still sounds better, though.)


John

I too believe that the vinyl recording is better - but I'm biased. I also tend to put on a piece from the "real" stuff after a listen to the "deconstructed" one... Die, Lacan, die.


(And it's Sergio. C'mon!)

Cyrus,


You're right, of course. Failing memory, but it's Derrida, not Lacan. So there.


John

so do these guys just cover other band's stuff? That doesn't sound very original.

Does the Zorn infatuation signify (no pun intended!) obsessive hearing of certain 60s/70s bands hailing from around Canterbury, UK, metaphorically?


--Cyrus


P.S. No mistake. I would like to see Lacan going first! Derrida I've recently heard speak so I'll spare him a few months more.

Goat,


Absolutely not! Zorn is a prolific composer, and he doesn't "cover" Morricone's music. Sublette's a treat, really, and his original stuff shows wit.


John


Besides, I dispute the notion of "original" anyway. What's so good about being first? Question: Who did the original version of "Please Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood"? (The original's better, though--by far.)

Cyrus,


Okay, nice try, but Lacan ain't no deconstructionist.


As to your question: I hated most 60's/70's English bands although I'm not sure which ones you're thinking of. Now, Richard Thompson is another story....


John

ever check out naked city... pretty cool stuff, zorn is in it...

Rift between Symbolic and Real as equivalent to breaking the dichotomy between the 4-beat standard and the polyrhythmic. The original pun referenced the concrete floor of Sausserian "straight" Reality a la Tin Pan Alley underneath the fooling around on the Symbolic carpet a la Zorn.


Believe it or not, I can get esoteric! (Feel free to ridicule me "recently" seeing Derrida speak. This goes back 2 years, in the local French Institute, quite a walk up.)