My Morning Jacket: It Still Moves

It Still Moves & Rocks My Soul.

This album is an ode to love, with lyrics that are so genius and beautiful you will get lost in them.
"but my heart. can't. wait. to. meet you on the other side"
"bang. bang goes the night, all wrapped up in the firelight, don't rock bottom, just listen. just slow down"
"what does it mean to feel? millions of dreams come real, a feelin' in my soul i'd never felt before...and you always told me. no matter how long it holds me, if it falls apart or makes us millionaires. you'll be right here forever. we'll go thru this thing together, and on heaven's golden shore we'll lay our heads"
"oh you had me, wrapped up in your mystery...when the light vanished from on high, oh i'll never say i knew you, but my heart can't wait to meet you on the other side"
"the brain melts in the twilight with the boar and moving trees, your skin looks good in moonlight and god damn those shaky knees the fact that my heart's beating is all the proof you need"
"babe. there's just one thing, one thing that does it. does it for me. babe. we'll find a way, we'll go out for a day and i want it so bad! it's the first thing i see when i wake"

As I imagined, it's getting more surreal and ethereal as every night passes.  How will they top this?  My Morning Jacket was joined on stage by former guitarist Johnny Quaid, former keyboardist Danny Cash, the Elvis Perkins in Dearland band (also the opener), and members from the Levon Helm band, throughout the night.
Besides hearing my favorite record of all time, the highlight of the night was "It Makes No Difference," originally by The Band and performed by MMJ on Endless Highway - A Tribute To The Band.  If you haven't heard about Levon Helm's Midnight Ramble in Woodstock, NY, take it from Gregg who went two weeks ago (when MMJ opened) and proclaimed, "it was the single greatest musical experience of my life."  Don't ask me why I had to miss it.

Thursday's Encore (!!!!!):
"Tonight I'll Be Staying Here With You," Bob Dylan
"How Could I Know"
"Sooner"
"Head Held High," The Velvet Underground
It Makes No Difference, The Band, performed by My Morning Jacket
"All Night Long," Lionel Richie

Yeah...that last one was a shocker!  We heard this in 2009 at MSG for New Years.  Classic.

And in honor of tomorrow, get a load of this:)

Tonight, get ready for some Z!!!

Who Shot Rock And Roll.

Last week I went to an exhibit in my Brooklyn hood entitled Who Shot Rock And Roll: A Photographic History, 1955 to the Present, and I must have stayed for hours. I'm a sucker for rock 'n roll art and I cannot wait to start my collection. One day, I will indeed be a regular at the Morrison Hotel Gallery!

"These images show the Dionysian intoxication and the fervor that are rock and roll--a music that has the potential to liberate the soul, stimulate the hormones, and inspire social and cultural revolutions"

I found these to be especially special.

Jimi Hendrix Burning Guitar Sequence, CA '67 by Ed Careff

The Band in Rick and Levon's Kitchen '68 by Elliott Landy

Bob Dylan Sound Check, Royal Albert Hall, London '66 by Barry Feinstein

Madonna, Danceteria '83 by Maripol

Mick Jagger On Stage With Shoes, Anaheim CA '78 by Lynn Goldsmith

Grace Jones Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, London '81 by David Corio

Blondie at CBGB's '77

David Bowie, Ziggy Stardust Summer Tour, UK '73 by Mick Rock

Bjork, Woodstock NY '91 by Laura Levine

Johnny Cash, Flipping the Bird, San Quentin Prison '69 by Jim Marshall

Tina Turner, '70 by Bob Gruen

Jim Morrison and Pamela Courson, Bronson Caves, Hollywood Hills '69 by Edmund Teske

Bob Dylan, Fans Looking into Limousine, London '66 by Barry Feinstein

My Top Classic Rock Albums

For those of you that don't know me, I'm a classic rock girl at heart.  It's the genre of music that I grew up on, what I lived and breathed before NYC, my inspiration for the music-filled life that I live now.  A few years ago, I was the type of person that mostly sought out "Greatest Hits," "Best of," "Top Singles" albums, figuring, what's the point of testing out all of an artist's albums if their greatest hits are supposedly all on one?  In truth, if you want to get to know an artist fast and decide whether you like them or not, test out their greatest hits album.  Every classic band has one.  But if you truly want to get to know an artist, enjoy an album as a sum of its parts the way it was meant to be, lose yourself in the moment in time it was written and recorded, question the lyrics and the order of tracks; you can really appreciate an album in it's entirety and see an artist in a pleasingly new light.  If you're willing to go all out--listen to the hard cold record.

There are an endless amount of albums I have yet to discover, but here, a few of my most cherished.

The Rolling Stones, Sticky Fingers, Let it Bleed, Exile On Main St and Beggars Banquet

David Bowie, The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Starman

The Doors, Morrison Hotel and Waiting for the Sun

George Harrison, All Things Must Pass

The Velvet Underground, The Velvet Underground & Nico

The Who, Live at Leeds

Led Zeppelin, Houses of the Holy and Led Zeppelin III

The Beatles, Abbey Road

Bob Dylan, Blood on the Tracks

Jimi Hendrix, Are You Experienced?

Cat Stevens, Footsteps in the Dark

Paul Simon, Graceland

Pink Floyd, Dark Side of the Moon and Animals

The Allman Brothers Band, An Evening with The Allman Brothers

Eric Clapton, 461 Ocean Boulevard

The Band, The Band

Jethro Tull, Aqualung

Lynyrd Skynyrd, Pronounced Leh-Nerd Skin-Nerd

Bob Marley & The Wailers, Exodus

The Grateful Dead, American Beauty and Workingman's Dead

Carol King, Tapestry

Rush, Moving Pictures

The Police, Outlandos d'Amour

Steely Dan, Can't Buy a Thrill

The Beach Boys, Pet Sounds

Yes, The Yes Album