The 500 - #385 - Love And Theft - Bob Dylan

I was inspired by a podcast called The 500 hosted by Los Angeles-based comedian Josh Adam Meyers. His goal, and mine, is to explore Rolling Stone's 2012 edition of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. 

Album # 385

Album Title: Love And Theft
Artist: Bob Dylan
Genre: Rock, Blues Rock, Americana
Recorded: Clinton Recording Studios, New York, New York
Released: September, 2001
My age at release: 35
How familiar was I with it before this week: Not at all
Song I am putting on my Spotify: Lonesome Day Blues

Released on September 11, 2001, Love And Theft is the 31st Studio release from folk-rock pioneer Bob Dylan, widely regarded as the greatest American songwriter of all time. 

This is the second of eleven records that Dylan has on the 500 list. Last August, I wrote about his 1999 release, Time Out Of Mind. In that post, I talked about trying to understand the love that so many have for Bob Dylan's music. Admittedly, after a week and multiple listens I was starting to get "it" -- that intangible magic that diehard Dylan fans rave about. I wasn't fully converted, but my disposition has changed.

My inaugural listen to Love And Theft was approached with a positive mindset. As the first notes to the opening track, Tweedle Dee & Tweedle Dum, played, I thought: "I'm excited to hear this, I am probably going to like it."

Colleagues in education will be familiar with the terms "positive" or "growth" mindset. Since the release of Carol Dweck's 2007 book, Mindset: The New Psychology of Success, it has become an essential part of the educator's lexicon and pedagogical toolkit.

Dweck emphasizes the power of our beliefs, both conscious and subconscious, as essential to learning.  She suggests that our personality comes from our "mindset", that is, how we see ourselves. Simply put, those with a fixed mindset believe their qualities are a rigid skill-set. We are born with the capacity for some skills while being denied the "special gifts" that others posses. 

Perhaps you've met people who make statements like: 

"I'm not a math person," 

"I can't cook to save my life" or 

"I don't have any musical ability." 

Conversely, there are those who see their personality, intelligence and ability to learn as maleable attributes. These individuals are more likely to embrace challenge, persist when facing setbacks and see effort as the path to mastery. This is a growth mindset.

In 2010, I read Sam Sheridan's book, The Fighter's Mind. In it, he tells the story of Joshua Waitzken, an American chess player and child prodigy, who at the age of 11, played Grandmaster Garry Kasparov. 

Waitzken playing Kasparov (1988)

Waitzken became a National Master at 14 and an International Master at 16 before switching his focus to martial arts. He won the 2004 Akido world championship and earned black belts in three martial arts disciplines. Part of his life story was dramatized in the 1993 film, Searching For Bobby Fischer.

Waitzken established the Marcelo Garcia Academy in New York City where students are taught Jiu-Jitsu and chess.

Sheridan recounted an approach Waitzken has used with students to determine their mindset. 

After an exhausting session training in the dojo (martial arts gymnasium), students were presented with a chess challenge that, unbeknownst to them, was unwinnable. After struggling with this board-game conundrum they returned to the dojo to train. Waitzken carefully observed their focus and emotional disposition.

Waitzken, seated, right, in the dojo at his school.

Some showed clear signs of defeat. The hopeless situation from which they have recently departed had made them despondent. They felt as if their mental capacities, their gift, had reached its limit. They possessed a fixed mindset.

Conversely, some emerged rejuvenated. Their internalized acceptance of a growth mindset had energized them. Consequently,  they remained positive and certain that, at a future opportunity, they would overcome the chess challenge.

Does it work? 

The Growth Mindset theory is a bit more complicated than one might be led to believe. A 2018 meta-study from Michigan State University suggests that from an educational standpoint, "growth mindset interventions...don't work for students in most circumstances." This makes sense, some people have a proclivity for some skills, whereas others can struggle to master a skill regardless of encouragement. Obviously, there are individuals with clear cognitive advantages.

So, where does this leave me? 

As an educator, I will continue to promote the positives of a growth mindset. It is not a panacea, but I believe that there is benefit for a student's social-emotional approach to life, especially when overcoming academic challenges. However, I also accept that some people have a "gift"

Bob Dylan is one of many artists who learned music by listening to it and experimenting on a guitar or a piano. He was never formally trained and has said that he always had "a knack" for learning instruments and writing songs. To him, music is a grand experiment. One might say, it came easier for him.

Love And Theft is a testament to his experimental approach. Dylan produced the record under the pseudonym Jack Frost, and gathered his band into a Manhattan studio for twelve days to record it. 

Frequently, he abandoned the initial arrangement of a song and made suggestions he thought would fit better. Recording engineer Chris Shaw has shared the following:

“Sometimes, Bob would just stop a song and say, 'Let’s do it in F and drop the tempo down. Play it like a Western swing tune... and I want the drummer to play brushes, not sticks.' Suddenly the song was completely different. Nothing was set in stone until he found that key, tempo and style that fit that vocal and that lyric.”

I approached Love And Theft with a positive mindset and it worked. I suppose you could say that Bob Dylan has become a chess match of sorts for me. Mark my words, by the end of this 500 record journey, I will be a Bob Dylan fan. 

 

The 500 - #386 - Pretzel Logic - Steely Dan

I was inspired by a podcast called The 500 hosted by Los Angeles-based comedian Josh Adam Meyers. His goal, and mine, is to explore Rolling Stone's 2012 edition of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. 

Album # 386

Album Title: Pretzel Logic
Artist: Steely Dan
Genre: Rock-Jazz-Fusion
Recorded: The Village Recorder, West Los Angeles
Released: February, 1974
My age at release: My guest blogger Heather was 6, I was 8
How familiar was I with it before this week: Very
Song I am putting on my Spotify: Any Major Dude Will Tell You 

Guest Blogger Introduction

This week, I am delighted to welcome my dear friend Heather Keep as guest blogger. We met at Saunders Secondary School where her future husband and my future wife also attended.  Consequently, the four of us have been part of each other's lives for 40 years. I was thrilled when she accepted my invitation to share her connection with this record by American music pioneers Steely Dan.

Background Information

Pretzel Logic was the third record from the American jazz, fusion, soft and pop rock band Steely Dan. It's story began in 1967 at Bard College, New York, when pianist Donald Fagen heard fellow student Walter Becker practising guitar at The Red Balloon Cafe on campus. The two cynics bonded over a love of music and beatnik culture. A musical experiment began and the duo became the core members of a musical collective they called Steely Dan. Together, they released nine records, and their attention to production and detail in the studio has become the stuff of legend. Steely Dan has sold more than 40 million records and were inducted into The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2001. In 2017, Becker died from esophageal cancer and the musical experiment came to an end.

By Heather Keep

Steely Dan was my "go-to-band" in high-school. At the time, I didn't know another soul who loved them like I did. Everyone seemed to know the classics, such as Rikki Don't Lose That Number, the lead single from the record, Pretzel Logic. However, few seemed to know those obscure "B-side" tracks like Kid Charlemagne from the The Royal Scam (1976) or Babylon Sisters from Gaucho (1980). 

Pretzel Logic - Steely Dan (1974)

Any Major Dude Will Tell You from this, the first of three Steely Dan records to appear on The 500 list, is one of those deep-cut pearls that I listened to as a young teen. The easy going melody, beautiful vocals, and layered acoustics always offered me comfort when I was feeling down. In some ways, it helped put things in perspective for a serious teenager dealing with high school in the 80s! 

That's me, the serious teenager on the far left (Circa 1981)

Any Major Dude's release on the flip-side of the single Rikki garnered some FM radio-play, but it has remained a hidden gem and one of Steely Dan's most underrated creations. I love it dearly still.

My introduction to Steely Dan came through my Uncle Brian and my dad. I have a clear memory of my dad lying on the carpet in our living room, headphones on, with Steely Dan spinning on the turntable. I thought my dad was so cool. I wanted to do that too and was intensely curious about this record he was listening too. 

I also have memories of my Uncle, with his wild, long, afro-like black curls, blasting Steely Dan on the cassette player at his house or in his car. The memories of which album he was playing are fuzzy, but I remember the feeling -- that great feeling was undeniable.

My sister (left), baby brother and me in 1974 - the year Pretzel Logic was released

Perhaps the thing that drew me most to the band was the inclusion of piano and electronic keyboards as principal instruments in their brilliantly orchestrated fusion of jazz, rock, and R&B. I started playing piano at six and continued to take lessons until I was 18. The classical training provided by the Royal Conservatory gave me a deep appreciation of the piano. 

I needed a way to reconcile my love of rock music with my love of the piano and the sounds it could make. Steely Dan was the answer. The band could perfectly blend keys and guitars and then accent them brilliantly with a jazzy saxophone or trumpet flourish. The keyboards didn't take over the ensemble, yet remained a crucial element in the music. The result was a unique sound and a genre too elusive to peg. Sometimes, I wasn't sure what I was listening to -- I just knew I loved it.

The walls of my teenage bedroom profess my love of piano and music.
I spent a lot of time there.

Pretzel Logic, the album's title track, is on the bluesy side and remains faithful to that genre, but is also a great example of the duo's knack for production. In it, the sax, trumpet and trombone accompany Fagen's Wurlitzer electric piano and Becker's guitar perfectly. I love the vocals on this track. Pretzel Logic was the first Steely Dan album to feature Becker on guitar. Prior to this, the guitar work had been shared by several top-shelf session musicians, with Becker only playing bass. The end result firmly established Steely Dan's trademark sound. 

With critical acclaim and commercial success with their first and biggest pop chart hit, Rikki Don't Lose That Number, the band embarked on a successful promotional tour. They even recruited future legend Michael McDonald (Doobie Brothers, Kenny Loggins Band) for backup vocals.

However, shortly after the tour ended, Becker and Fagan made the decision to focus exclusively on recording in the studio. The other members of the band (Danny Dias, Jeff Baxter and Jim Hodder) moved on to other projects. Steely Dan continued to record four more records before disbanding in 1982 to pursue their own solo careers. However, they reunited in the mid-90s to record and tour again.

For me, their music and sound remains in my top 10 list of all-time favourites. I have had the privilege of seeing them twice in concert at the Molson Ampitheatre in Toronto. The first was their Art Crimes Tour in July, 1996 and the second, their Two Against Nature Tour in 2000 -- a record that won them Album of the Year at the Grammy Awards. 

I'm also happy to say that my husband, who accompanied me to both of those shows, became a Steely Dan fan in the early days of our relationship. We still enjoy their music together and I continue to spread the "word of the Dan" to whomever will listen.

My time-battered concert shirt from the 1996 tour

Thanks to you Marc for giving me the opportunity to travel a bit down memory lane and revisit songs I haven't listened to in a long time. Food for the soul.

The 500 - #387 - Enter The Wu-Tang Clan (36 Chambers) - Wu-Tang Clan

I was inspired by a podcast called The 500 hosted by Los Angeles-based comedian Josh Adam Meyers. His goal, and mine, is to explore Rolling Stone's 2012 edition of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. 

Album # 387

Album Title: Enter The Wu-Tang Clan (36 Chambers)
Artist: Wu-Tang Clan
Genre: Hardcore Hip Hop, East Coast Hip Hop
Recorded: Firehouse Studios, New York City
Released: November, 1993
My age at release: 28
How familiar was I with it before this week: A little
Song I am putting on my Spotify: Protect Ya Neck

Enter the Wu-Tang Clan (36 Chambers) is the debut record by Wu-Tang Clan. The nine-member, Staten Island Hip Hop group is regarded by some music critics to be one of the most influential forces in the development of the hardcore style from the east coast. Hardcore Hip Hop is most easily defined as an aggressive form of the genre, featuring lyrics that include detailed observations of urban street life within the inner-city.

Each member of the band adopted stage names. They are are, RZA, GZA, Ol' Dirty Bastard, Method Man, Raekwon, Ghostface Killah, Inspectah Deck, U-God and Masta Killa. This link provides a comprehensive breakdown of each member's birth name and aliases and this article provides additional information about each nickname.

To get your own Wu-Tang moniker, check the Wu-Tang Clan name generator. My Wu-name is Monkey Oblong. I am tickled by the fact that multi-talented entertainer Donald Glover used that website in 2008 to create his successful hip hop persona, Childish Gambino. Gambino's 2016 record Awaken My Love, which fused psychedelic soul and funk influences is a favourite of mine. But I digress...

Childish Gambino - aka Donald Glover in concert (2017)

1992 to 2001 was a productive time for Wu-Tang Clan. This period, featuring the original line-up (named above), released three platinum-selling records and numerous solo projects, including Raekwon's Only Built For Cuban Linx, which appeared at #480 on The 500 list. I wrote about it in May, 2009. 

That blog entry foreshadowed a story that I wanted to share in this post...

In March, 1996, I began my second placement as a student teacher in a Grade 7 class at F.D. Roosevelt Public School in London, Ontario. (That's right -- help end a war and get a school named after you in another country).

F.D. Roosevelt Public School (London, Ontario)

Unfortunately, my pairing with a teacher who was supposed to be my mentor for five weeks was not fortuitous. In fact, after two weeks, I considered seeking reassignment elsewhere. After all, my future career was in the hands of someone who was decidedly negative -- offering deprecation rather than support.

Mid-placement, I considered contacting the university to be reassigned -- but this would have become ugly and my graduation would certainly have been delayed.  Instead, I sought the advice of my previous mentor, a Grade 4/5 teacher with whose class I had spent the past November and December.  

She encouraged me to persist and document every encounter to protect myself in the event of a failing evaluation. 

The Grade 7 class at F.D. Roosevelt was large and many of the students presented challenges for a new educator. However, we slowly started to connect over those five weeks as winter became spring. 

More than half were obsessed with Wu-Tang Clan. Their preoccupation was impossible to ignore; they recited the lyrics at recess and doodled the logo on everything from notebooks to desktops to worksheets.

Adhering to the concept of "siding with the majority", I set about learning as much as I could about the band. I'd be "the cool teacher" who was "in the know". However, dispensing my new, hip knowledge landed like wet-noodles splashing on a floor -- Chinese noodles I suppose, given the inspiration for the band's name -- a 1983 martial arts film Shaolin and Wu-Tang.

Theatrical Poster for Shaolin and Wu-Tang (1983)

Eventually, I won many students over when I incorporated the Wu Tang logo into a lesson on basic Euclidean geometry. They were delighted to translate, rotate and reflect the asymmetrical image across an X and Y axis.

The Wu-Tang Logo translated on a Cartesian Plane         

Two months later, I was hired by the same school board, having learned that tapping into student interests is a powerful way to connect with them as learners.

This week, I listened to Enter The Wu-Tang (36 Chambers) many times and, although it is not my usual fare, it grew on me. I suppose, more importantly, the band and this record will forever be connected in my mind to those five challenging weeks in the late winter months of 1996. A time when I learned the importance of documenting everything. Or, in the immortal words from Wu-Tang Clan's first single -- Protect Ya Neck.

The 500 - #388 - The Indestructible Beat Of Soweto - Various Artists

I was inspired by a podcast called The 500 hosted by Los Angeles-based comedian Josh Adam Meyers. His goal, and mine, is to explore Rolling Stone's 2012 edition of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. 

Album # 388

Album Title: The Indestructible Beat Of Soweto
Artist: Various Artists
Genre: Mbaqanga, Maskanda, Mqashiyo and Isicathamiya
Recorded: Various (Compiled on Earthworks Label)
Released: 1985 (Recorded 1981-1985)
My age at release: 20
How familiar was I with it before this week: Somewhat
Song I am putting on my Spotify: Qhule Manikiniki

Although it highlights the work of dozens of black, South African artists, this album was conceived and compiled by two white South African's living in Britain, Trevor Herman and Jumbo Vanrenen. 

The Indestructible Beat Of Soweto - album cover

The Indestructible Beat Of Soweto covers four styles of music (Mbaqanga, Maskanda, Mqashiyo and Isicathamiya) that were popular in the South Western Township of Johannesburg, hence the term SOWETO. 

Soweto in north west South Africa

When this record was released, this township was an impoverished, segregated region on the outskirts of the Johannesburg. At the time, South Africa was governed a form of institutionalized racial segregation in place since 1948, called Apartheid. Politically, socially and economically the country was controlled by the nation's minority white population. However, it in the crowded shanty-towns and matchbox-houses of Soweto that rhythmic, uptempo Zulu-inspired music flourished. For the inhabitants, it was a source of pride, escape, pleasure and discreet rebellion.

Soweto - mid 1980s

Mbaqanga (Mm-ba-kan-ga), the main style on the record, is a Zulu word for cornmeal porridge. Indeed, the sound is a delightfully infectious hodge-podge of percussion, jangly guitars, bright brass orchestration, singing and chanting with an African jazz influence. Words don't capture the wonderful sounds of the record. As the adage goes:

"Writing about music is like dancing about architecture."

It is a bright, energetic, effervescent sonic concoction. However, many of the songs have a sneaky, subversive message -- a  euphonious rebellion for the disenfranchised masses. 

I stumbled on the South African sound at a young age. In 1980, at 15, I moved to London, Ontario, from a rural farming community 200 kilometres away. I was enthralled by the facilities of a "big" city, with its public transportation and a downtown library that provided limitless inexpensive opportunity.

London's former Central Library 

The availability of books was only part of my joy; the library had stacks of records, including new releases, and readily accessible headset-listening booths.

That first autumn, I took the bus to the library from my new high school and spotted a record from musician Peter Gabriel. It was his latest release and, although untitled, is often dubbed Melt because of the image on the album cover depicting Gabriel's partially liquefying face. (See Below)

The final track was Biko, a song that (I would later learn) opens and closes with a chorus featuring two South African folk songs, Ngomhla Sibuyayo (When We Return) and Senzenai Na? (What Have We Done?). The haunting and ethereal sound, juxtaposed against Gabriel's modern instrumentation, was riveting.  

The liner noted that this was anti-apartheid, protest song and eulogy for South African activist Bantu Steven Biko who died brutally in police custody in 1977. I had so many questions: 

What was apartheid? 

Who was Biko? 

Why did he die in police custody?

In a time before Google searches, gathering information about this event required deep-digging. However, I was in a library where the staff had come to know me by name and were eager to assist.

Slowly, I learned of the injustice that had been done to Biko and the atrocities that continued to be perpetrated on the black, South African majority. In a time before the phrase "woke" was coined I learned much about Biko and Apartheid. 

Sometimes, my research came from scattered news reports or articles in magazines. However, it was the power of music bared the injustices of black Africa to the world, through artists such as Gabriel, Simple Minds, U2. They became part of the growing grassroots Boycott Apartheid Movement.

Guitarist Steven van Zandt brought the campaign into mainstream conversation. In 1985, he assembled a collection of famous musicians (Gabriel, Bono, Ringo Star, Keith Richards, Miles Davis and Bruce Springsteen) under the name Artists United Against Apartheid to release the song Sun City. 

Sun City record - released 1985

The gravitas of these individuals, many of whom are on The 500 multiple times, brought Apartheid into mainstream conversation in North America, and thus began a global movement that would end the rampant discrimination in 1994, culminating in the election of black hero Nelson Mandela as president.

The heart of this story is the Zulu-sound, and The Indestructible Beat of Soweto is a fantastic entry point for any new listener.

 

The 500 - #389 - The End Of The Innocence - Don Henley

I was inspired by a podcast called The 500 hosted by Los Angeles-based comedian Josh Adam Meyers. His goal, and mine, is to explore Rolling Stone's 2012 edition of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. 

Album # 389

Album Title: The End Of The Innocence
Artist: Don Henley
Genre:  Rock, West Coast Rock (Yacht Rock) & more
Recorded: A&M Studios & The Complex, California
Released: June, 1989
My age at release: 23
How familiar was I with it before this week: Very
Song I am putting on my Spotify New York Minute

It is remarkable how music can transport an individual to a different time and place. Perhaps it is a haunting melody, an inspired lyric or even a record's distinctive sound. For me, The End Of The Innocence, the third solo album by Don Henley, is one of those records.  

Released in summer of 1989 this record captures a quintessentially late-eighties sound. In part, this is a result of the production and instrumentation used in the making of the record. My understanding of sound engineering is rudimentary. So, without becoming mired in too much technical-speak, I'll summarize the three major elements at play in the creation of this undeniably eighties audio landscape.

• First, there are the synthesizers, specifically the use of the Yamaha DX7 (below). This is the best selling synthesizer in history and the first commercially available digital instrument that could imitate other "brighter" acoustic sounds - mimicking the sound of brass instruments.  

• Next, there is the use of a sound-capturing technique called gated reverb. It is particularly noticeable when used to secure the sound from the snare drum. This recording method creates a clean, punchy sound, with little delay (or echo).
• Finally, there is some post-production trickery. In particular, the use of an arpeggiator, which helps augment the sound texture of familiar rock instruments -- guitar, bass and saxophone. 

A modern digital arpeggiator

The result is a record that, like a museum piece or an insect suspended in amber, remains as a lasting tribute to a specific era in music production. For listeners of this generation, hearing it again is a trip back in time.

Prior to this week, I had not listened to The End Of The Innocence in its entirely for at least twenty years. However, during the summer of 1989, I played the compact disc dozens of times. Returning to it after all that time felt like finding a forgotten jacket at the back of a closet -- even though it doesn't fit, every stitch and seam is soaked in memories (in my case, coffee stains and tobacco smoke).

For the two summers preceding 1989, I worked as a swimming instructor and lifeguard at both a local city pool and water-park named Wally World, built on a lonely, treeless plot of land on the fringes of London, Ontario. 

Additionally, I supplemented my income with a part-time gig as a server and bartender at a then-popular pizza parlor. 

Me hanging out post-work at Fluffy's Pizza Place (1987)

Foolishly, that summer I decided to forgo tips and sunshine for a night shift at a cardboard and box factory. In part, this was to allow me to take summer session courses at the university. 

I became miserable with my decision immediately. Not only did my earnings drop, but the job was dreadfully boring. It was so mind-numbingly dull that I actually yearned for another summer, broiling in the hot sun atop a water-slide tower, marshaling sugar-fueled, ebullient children for six hours a day. 

"Wait...Go...Wait...Go...Don't push...Wait...OK Go"  

Trust me, life-guarding only looks cool and sexy on Baywatch. 

Promotional shot from the 1990s television series Baywatch

Music was my salvation and The End of the Innocence soundtrack was part of my daily escape. The record, caffeine and nicotine helped. 

In the late weeks of August, with barely any savings for the upcoming school year, I climbed into my 1987 Mustang and drove to Calgary to meet my girlfriend's father (now father-in-law) for the first time. I made the drive in about 30 hours and shortly before reaching the city limits, the title track played on a mixed cassette I had made for the journey. That is my "cast in amber" moment...frozen in time.