The Devil's Music

The Devil Comes Back To Georgia by Mark O'Connor & Friends

Utterly pointless in me featuring Charlie Daniels' classic Devil Went Down To Georgia. There cannot be a soul alive who doesn't know it. So instead, how about the sequel? That's right, in 1993, renowned violinist and music teacher Mark O'Connor released 'Heroes', an album of violin duets featuring some of his fiddle-playing heroes, including the likes of Stéphane Grappelli, L. Shankar and, of course, Charlie Daniels. Daniels wrote The Devil Comes Back To Georgia for the record, and to bring the whole thing to life, they roped in some friends. O'Connor plays Johnny's parts, Daniels plays the Devil's. Marty Stuart is Johnny's voice, Travis Tritt is the Devil's, and the whole tale is told by none other than Johnny Cash. As good as the original? Of course not, not even remotely close, but it's a bit of fun.

• The Devil Comes Back To Georgia - Mark O'Connor (from 'Heroes')

The video is corny with a capital C, though I reckon Mr Cash comes off relatively unscathed...

50 songs to take to my grave #50: You'll Never Walk Alone

I'm wrapping the series up with one of the greatest anthems of all time. It was never meant to be, but when 40,000 Liverpool FC fans get together at Anfield, You'll Never Walk Alone becomes arguably the most rousing anthem ever performed. You can keep all the other versions ever made (and there have been a few) - I'll take the Kop singing for the glorious Reds every single time. Brings tears to my eyes. This is the last thing I want to be played at my funeral. Very, very loudly!

UPDATE: I've added this clip from 2019, the night the glorious Red Machine won the UEFA Champions League Final in Madrid (sorry Jez).



The full story of the song is best read here. In the meantime, here's a couple other worthwhile versions. Scousers, Germans and a rather famous American doing the honours:





Not sure why Die Toten Hosen appear to show an allegiance to Bayern Munich - they are Fortuna Dusseldorf fans. Fair play though, they can belt it out! Here they are live...



And finally, Webbie posted this marvellous article sometime back featuring a whole host of versions.

The Devil's Music

#2: Mean As Hell by Johnny Cash

The story of a Hell on Earth created by Satan as told by the great man Johnny Cash. More spoken than sung, 'tis a tale that in spite of its horrific setting, genuinely warms my old cockles being that it's narrated by Cash's wonderful rich baritone voice. It appears on his gunslinging concept double-album 'Sings The Ballads Of The True West' from 1965 (although the material contained was recorded over a six year period).


Soundtrack:

• Mean As Hell - Johnny Cash (from 'Sings The Ballads Of The True West')

From Inside The Pod Revisited #6: Mix-Up

Here's another old podcast I did for my previous blog, one of my experiments. I did try a few ideas out over the duration of the project, they didn't all work. This one didn't turn out too bad. Shame it didn't capture the imgination of my audience - it was one of the least downloaded podcasts I ever made.

Regardless, I'm putting it up again because I quite liked it at the time and having listened to it again recently, still do. As usual, the original article is republished exactly as it appeared first time around.

pod 25: Mix-Up
(first published: 8 February 2012)

This is something of an experiment. Remixes are, by-and-large, a rather hit and miss affair. Sometimes they work so well, they eclipse the original version. Other times, they're just, well, nonsense really, baring no resemblence whatsoever to the track it claims to be a version of.

For this podcast, I've strung together a selection of remixes that, while they may not all belong in the former camp, they're far from the latter. There's nothing to link them thematically, but like all my pods (I hope) they offer some diversity in the artists, the styles, and in this case, the new treatments given to the original works.

Bear in mind I'm no pro when it comes to this sort of thing, I just wanted to try something a bit different. Don't expect seamless mixes with the beats of one track flowing almost unnoticeably into the next. This ain't no dancefloor filler neither and it was never meant to be. In fact I tend to shy away from dance mixes - they're so 1990s, aren't they?!

1. Elbow Not a Job (Deadly Avenger Divine Wind remix) [2004, 12" promo]

Damon Baxter, aka Deadly Avenger, worked with a number of indie bands including the Charlatans, Travis and the Manic Street Preachers before he became one of the most in-demand producers and composers in the country. Following commissions a-plenty for adverts, movie trailers and TV shows, he recently released the album Blossoms & Blood. Here, he treats one of my fave Elbow tracks to a feast of electronic wizardry.

2. Lykke Li Knocked Up (Lykke Li vs Rodeo remix) [2008, b-side of 'Use Somebody']

This version of 'Knocked Up' - the opener of King's of Leon's third record - combines both Lykke Li's cover and the original. Mixed by Death to the Throne (DJ and producer James Martin Nelson from Phoenix, AZ.), it is actually a remix of the Swedish indie starlet's cover featuring added elements of the original.

3. Grizzly Bear Cheerleader (Neon Indian Studio 6669 remix) [2009, digital release]

One of the standouts of the Brooklyn psyche-folk outfit Grizzly Bear's highly-lauded third album was 'Cheerleader'. Neon Indian mainman Alan Palomo made two remixes of the track, one wildly psychedelic, the other a more melodic affair. This is the latter and taking nothing away from the original, it is a fantastic version.

4. Ania Zostań (DJ JW remix) [2010, digital release]

I know very little about the remixer of this track having found the track on You Tube. I think (s)he might be Polish, like Ania Dąbrowska whose recent stint as a judge on a Polish TV talent show seems to have delayed the advent of any new material. I like the hip-hop beats in this version, they work really well, and thankfully, there's no rap in the middle of it.

5. Johnny Cash Country Boy (Sonny J Remix) [2008, Cash Remixed]

The prospect of a whole album of remixes of Johnny Cash songs should have made the purists quiver with fear and rage. Many of the results, however, were actually pretty decent. 'Country Boy' originally featured on Johnny's 1957 debut album 'Johnny Cash With His Hot And Blue Guitar'. This brilliant version by Scouser Sonny J reminds me a lot of Junkie XL's treatment of Elvis' 'A Little Less Conversation'.

6. Kirsty MacColl Angel (Apollo 440 remix [edit]) [1993, b-side of 'Angel']

It's almost sacrilege to tamper with anything the late great Kirsty MacColl ever touched. But Apollo 440 actually do a really nice job with this ambient reworking of her 1993 single 'Angel'. That voice is still intact, resulting in goosebumps and moistening eyes (for me at least).

7. Manic Street Preachers Jackie Collins Existential Question Time (Saint Etienne remix) [2009, Journal For Plague Lovers Remixes]

When does a remix become a cover version? Well, here's an example. The Manics released this on their remix version of the 'Journal For Plague Lovers' album, but it's practically a Saint Etienne cover with barely anything of the original in evidence (the Welsh flag is therefore used here loosely!) I am glad, however, that Sarah Cracknell replaced the profanity in the lyrics with 'does'. Somehow to hear her swear just wouldn't be right.

8. Grinderman Worm Tamer (A Place to Bury Strangers remix) [2011, b-side of 'Worm Tamer']

A phenomenal remix of Grinderman's scariest track by New York noiseniks A Place To Bury Strangers. It hurtles along at breakneck speed deafening everything in its wake, bringing this remix special to a dangerously chaotic climax.


 Soundtrack:

• pod 25: Mix-Up

Memories of Glastonbury: Johnny Cash

I’ve seen loads of bands at festivals. It’s a strange setting for a gig in my view, hardly intimate or easy for artists and audience to engage with each other. But from time to time, something pretty spectacular happens: Primal Scream (Glasto ’92), PJ Harvey (Glasto ’95), Public Enemy (Reading ’92). But one particular performance stands out for me, in that I don’t think of it as being part of a bigger event. It is as if it happened entirely separately to anything else that was going on, like a little bubble of time that existed for this one extraordinary hour before bursting and thrusting me back into reality once more.

It was Glastonbury 1994. An elderly musician had just released an album that was destined to be revered as the best of his entire career. That man was Johnny Cash. Having been cast aside by the Nashville fraternity and set to seed by record companies, Johnny Cash had barely existed as an artist for a decade or more before famed rap-rock producer Rick Rubin approached him to make a record. When ‘American Recordings’ saw the light of day, it captivated a whole new audience. It was just the Man in Black, an acoustic guitar, and Rubin at the helm. It revived his ailing career, but it was still a bit of a surprise to see Cash added to the bill for that summer’s Glasto.

A bit of a tradition of a ‘veterans slot’ was beginning to emerge. The previous two years had seen Tom Jones and Rolf Harris perform, but Johnny Cash didn’t seem to be regarded as much as a novelty as his predecessors. And rightly so as I’ve never experienced anything quite like Johnny Cash’s performance at Glastonbury ‘94, either before or since. It was possibly the most entrancing show I’ve ever witnessed, and that’s really something when you’re standing in a large field surrounded by thousands of strangers.

Those present that afternoon witnessed something extraordinary. We were all rapt in the company of a man our grandparents probably admired. After tearing through some classics with his band, Cash then played a few tracks from the new album completely solo – and this is when the real magic happened.

June Carter

This old man held the enormous audience in the palm of his hand. There was a respectful hush as he played, followed by an almost euphoric howl of approval as he finished each song. It really was spine-tingling stuff. Only the spontaneous “woo-woos” the crowd sang back at him during Let The Train Blow The Whistle broke the mood a little, but that’s far from being a criticism. On the contrary, it seemed to lighten things a little and Cash clearly loved it. All that was left for him to do was bring the band back onstage and round off with a few singalong favourites, including one or two with June Carter.

Johnny Cash’s performance at Glastonbury remains one of the most memorable and fondly talked-about festival shows of all time for good reason. When it was over, I was back. Cash had transported me into a little world of my own during that show, set apart from the rest of the festival. It was one of those jaw-dropping moments I’ve mentioned before, and it’s why this is the only festival performance I’ve dedicated a whole article to.


Soundtrack:

Let The Train Blow The Whistle [live] – Johnny Cash (live At Glastonbury 1994)

Jackson [live] – Johnny Cash & June Carter (live At Glastonbury 1994))

50 songs to take to my grave #10: Wichita Lineman

I'll keep this short. Some songs don't need a lot said about them, they just make the point so well on their own. Wichita Lineman is such a song. Described as the first existential country song, it was conceived during a car journey in Oklahoma by writer Jimmy Webb after spotting a telephone lineman up a pole in the middle of nowhere. Webb saw it as "the loneliest job in the world".

Recorded first by Glen Campbell, the plaintive lyrics combined with a beguiling arrangement and melody to form probably the best country song of all time, and arguably one of the greatest songs of any genre of all time. So many versions have been done of it since, but Campbell's remains the best by far.