95 North. . . The Newspaper

"How Much a Dollar Cost" is perhaps the emotional exclamation point to Kendrick Lamar's 2015 magnum opus  To Pimp A Butterfly . This gem of a track encapsulates nicely Kendrick's strengths as an artist.  Something about Kendrick's cadence is moving- the pitch of his voice and his phrasing carry a certain intensity. Here, that intensity is paired with  Kendrick's masterful flow (and poetic phrasing) -"deep water-powder blue skies that split open"- and narrative structure.  It is also worth noting that Kendrick has always had a sharply tuned ear for great samples. It's these samples that effectively set the mood and tone of the song as if it was an interactive short story.  First, few notes on the samples: "How Much a Dollar Cost" makes heavy use of a Sweedish Jazz trio's song "Seven Days of Falling", where sharp, simple drums meet a reflective piano that has a flair for the dramatic at all the right moment...

Recommend reading/Book Review: Bob Dylan: A Spiritual Life  by Scott Marshall Even before Bob Dylan preached the gospel under the bright lights of 1980 in stages across the world, he was a man who valued Jewish and Christian traditions over the course of his lifetime. Bob's consistent interest in spirituality is made clear in a recent book entitled  Bob Dylan: A Spiritual Life by Scott Marshall. Indeed, while the music during the gospel-era might of taken on another flavor due to some personal revelations Bob had in the late 1970s, the spi ritual has always been a priority for Bob.  All this leads me to believe that Bob Dylan is not a person who is trapped in "enlightenment" thinking, constantly using left brain rationality. He is right brained: interested in images, poems, and meanings that extend beyond rational and into the spiritual.  Bob Dylan's emphasis on the spiritual has peaked my recent interest in reading about the relationship between s...

A special to 95 North CT, here's some NEWS FROM THE DOCTOR: I'll be hangin on to this bootleg like a solid rock! Some of my favorites so far: "Ain't gonna go to Hell for Anybody" -  Manipulation, deception, delusions, and illusions! We can do it all just as well as anybody. "When He Returns & Covenant Woman" - Early takes that cast aside all loyalty and pride.  "Precious Angel" - A live performance that keeps me reeling all the way out of Egypt and straight through Ethiopia! "Dead Man" - Lots of new lines and much needed harp solos. Not sure if I got this line right especially the last part, but it's quite an image: "killed his body someplace else and dumped it into a long black limousine/ they arrested him for breaking and entering into a place that he's never seen/ the filthiest girl that they could find could make it look like it'd been a Queen/ oooh I can't stand it, I can't stand it the w...

If you're at all interested in Bob Dylan's newest upcoming bootleg series release, you can listen to a sampler  here  thanks to NPR. I've long admired the music of Bob Dylan's so-called "gospel" era, and am fully ready to pay an arm n' a leg to listen to over 100 songs, view a concert film, and read a booklet with detailed liner notes. I've listened to some of these previously unheard live cuts- and I can say this: The band is a tight, loud, chugging unit that throws exclamation points on Bob's fiery furnace preaching and passionate, heartfelt singing. There'll always be an urgency in your music if you think the apocalypse is near. For an artist like Bob Dylan, that apocalypse, whether it was metaphorical or not, pushed him to new heights. The stinging lines of the guitar, the wooden floorboards, the overblown PA systems-ever song has a setting, and in the few I've heard, Bob'll take you there. My previous entries of Dylan...

To honor the lateTom Petty, it came to my attention that Bob Dylan recently covered one of his most positive jams-"Learning to Fly"-at a concert in Denver, CO. Here, the band plays it straight and true, and Bob sings the tune to perfection. Ultimately, "Learning to Fly" is an uplifting song of hope, possibilities, and dare I say the "growth mindset". The "learning" in the song is OK with failure. I'm home sick today, and I think listening to this song is facilitating my recovery (along with tea and sleep). Enjoy! For old times sake, here's Bob with Tom in the 80's: And a little more. . .

With the recent gathering of the Value Voters Summit in Washington D.C. this week, I've been contemplating the marriage of Donald Trump, the right wing of American politics, and Evangelicals. I'm still puzzled. Christians love Donald Trump? The guy who  says he never has sought forgiveness  and loves the book  "2 Corinthians"  and loves to take communion, or as he puts it  "drink my little wine and my little cracker" . How far should a religious community really go in order to have access to power? Does this Donald Trump worship constitute idolatry? I think the evangelical community has really done themselves some serious long-term damage that they won't be able to recover from. Donald Trump is undoubtedly morally bankrupt, egotistical, and shockingly unaware of even the most basic tenets of Christianity.The fact is, he has exploited religious relgious right, used them as pawns. They have made a deal with the devil. Is he a Christian? Do...

Bob Dylan's 2015 interview with AARP is a treasure trove of material, and is certainly worth revisiting given that he's gone on to release more Sinatra material. You can read the interview in it's entirety, for free,  here.  Enjoy!  "...   what’s the word “corny” mean exactly? I’ve heard it but don’t use it much. It’s like “tacky.” I don’t say that word either. There’s just no power in those words. These songs, take ’em or leave ’em, if nothing else, are songs of great virtue. That’s what they are. If they sound trite and corny to somebody, well so much for that. But people’s lives today are filled on so many levels with vice and the trappings of it. Ambition, greed and selfishness all have to do with vice. Sooner or later, you have to see through it or you don’t survive. We don’t see the people that vice destroys. We just see the glamour of it on a daily basis — everywhere we look, from billboard signs to movies, to newspapers, to magazines. We see the destruct...

If you are a Bob Dylan fan, do yourself a favor and listen to the Tallest Man on Earth ( musical moniker for Kristian Matsson). He's part Woody Guthrie, early 60's Bob Dylan (with his voice full of premature rust), and part Scandinavian ghost. His guitar seems to loop around, subverting classic folk rhythms into minor key miracles. He's the complete package: a folk singer with his ear to the ground and his eyes on the hills. In the world of these songs, the drama of nature is heightened, and the connection to self and others runs strong. The every day is uplifted.  Case in point: 2006's excellent song "Walk the Line". There's no doubt that the song title was an attempt to place his music in the hillbilly/folk/ country tradition, with a nod here to Johnny Cash. However, here, the result musically is something wanders in the dark a bit longer and a bit harder than the boom-pow-wow country music could. Here, the theme seems to be a sort of David and Go...

My NYT comment on  this article .  Daniel   Wallingford, CT   47 minutes ago From various documentaries to stories from journalists who have been given access to North Korea since 2008, the script has been the same. "Visitors" are given a tour of the country designed to make North Korea look prosperous, Anti-American propaganda fills the streets, and government minders follow journalists at every turn. A great example is this 2011 Vice News Documentary:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=24R8JObNNQ4 The point is, North Korea never seems to change. The unimaginable repression. The anti-American rhetoric. Threats of war. The malnourished, isolated, and information poor populace. President Trump is the only wild card in this equation, a joker that risks a dangerous war with the most predictable regime on the planet. I am dismayed that Mr. Kristof is sounding the drums of war based on his "feelings" regarding the first visit he's had...

"Turn the lights on" He wanted to see the crowd. I hate to admit it, but I was a bit checked out.  My excuse? I was enjoying the hell outta life.  I was an American teenager participating in a classic rite of passage experience. It was a few days before my high school graduation, just after my 18th birthday. I packed myself along with a bunch of Sam Adams beer into a friends van, drank in the parking lot, and sat down on the lawn at the Meadows in Hartford, CT. I had never had that much beer in my life. There, in the haze of drunkness and socialization, I  heard some of Tom Petty's  classics in the background-the familiar ones. Yes, they might have been the songs you heard at the gas station. But they were the best ones. By light years.  The perfect soundtrack to a fulfilling adolescence. The perfect soundtrack to the summer. Happy, care-free. . . with hints of sadness and longing on the way.  This past year, I saw Tom...