artist of the week 10.29.12: chuck prophet

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dime in the gutter
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artist of the week 10.29.12: chuck prophet

Post by dime in the gutter »

please forgive all the errors, intentional and otherwise.

note to the pedantic. will not be chronological.

Image

chuck prophet.......one of my favorite finds in recent years. cortez/4sooner turned me on a few years ago. homemade blood was my first lp. prophet has many, many many, records in various forms and mutations and bands. don't have them all....but, dude is still fast climbing my list of all timers. with a bullet.

born in whittier, ca. moved to san francisco when he was 17. still lives there.

throughout this thread i will unapologetically go on and on about him being a multi-tool player like buddy holly....writing, playing, singing, producing, arranging, gigging, etc. a working man's savant eared musician. i will also wax horribly poetically badly about his space alien, jedi god like, fung shwee, greased up, city slicker guitar genius. i will also talk of him in complete hyperbolic terms about being the greatest and most unheralded rock and roll artist of all time.

i will mean every word.

and....bro is best buds and co-collaborator with mother fricking alejandro escovedo. also had a long and storied history with jim dickinson.

hit the road at 17 by joining the seminal band green on red. no band deets on them here, as they deserve their own thread. he did tour the world with them for 8 years, put out a bunch of bad ass records and at some point become a many years abusing, straight up crack addict.

so that's where this thread will begin.....with homemade blood....the album that turned me on to him.

thanks cortez and 4sooner.

Image
1997.

from sucking the glass dick.....chuck prophet

after 10 years of rock and roll liferdom, bro moved in with his parents to kick crack cocaine. for 1 year.....while living there, he wrote this album. not dour by any stretch, it is really a guitar rave up rock and roll masterpiece. lots of influences, as sir prophet is a rock and roll classicist and a musical genius of the highest order. so the record sounds good is what i'm saying. weaving in pyschedealiea, blues, punk riffs, power pop, glam and pop culture guitar licks. edge. rude. snarl. sideways. unconventional picking define this lp. can't even see most of them blazing in from the dark.....just beyond the headphones. slick guitar tones and colors. and some pedal steel.

1. credit-singing about kate moss and gold credit cards. star wars slide guitar and space invader one offs get the party started.
2. you've been gone-stream of lost memories from a detoxing addict.
3. inside track-i'm on an inside track, but i kep falling back....wake up sleepy jesus can't you hear that whistle blow....with harp and pedal steel. dude really does it all. shredded vocals.
4. ooh wee-9 years old in 73, strung out on ritalin and color tv. from a duly damaged, telecaster wielding zombie remembering his youth while rattling around his childhood home. brilliant song.
5. new years day-pedal steel. emmy lou style vox from his soon to be wife. cruising around the old neighborhood. lodi god child....except about cocaine. i woke up in my nissan to the static on the radio...i dialed up the station, closed my eyes and started to glow.
6. 22 fillmore-crazy repeating riff and way up high synth eating into your brain....and cellos. dude may be losing his shit while singing about mtv and rented tuxedos.
7. homemade blood -tweaked out confessional. nice effects.
8. whole lot more-mandolins, pedal steel and harmonies mother fucker.
9. textbook case-intro sounds like the innards of hal 9000. bruising rock and roll song.
10. k-mart family portrait-drum loop and echos. droopy slow burn solos. straight from the guts.
11. til you came along-love song to the woman who saved him. stephanie finch. wife, band member and muse.
12. the parting song-trippy bass lines and tweeker guitar licks. spooky pedal steel. dude is weary and wary......

fantastic record.




repost of a funny story about ryan adams and a scaled back version of new years day.

to be continued.....
Last edited by dime in the gutter on Tue Oct 30, 2012 6:50 pm, edited 3 times in total.

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Re: artist of the week 10.29.12: chuck prophet

Post by Iowan »

Good shit here. Great choice for AOTW.

I had never heard of Chuck prior to Temple Beautiful, but dug in because Cortez and dime were posting the album cover about 10x/day in the Listening thread. First listen didn't do much, but all of a sudden I'd catch myself singing "I felt like Jeeeeesuuuuus, when you looked me in the eye" in the shower. The hooks. Damn. The hooks just sink into your brain, all over this damn album.

I picked up Soap & Water and enjoy it a lot too. Freckle Song is one of the tunes that just makes me ass-dance in my car seat. I need to get more of his stuff and check out Green On Red too.

weaving in pyschedealiea, blues, punk riffs, power pop, glam and pop culture guitar licks. edge. rude. snarl. sideways.


Excellent synopsis of the Prophet sound. He's like a drugged out city slicking Tom Petty with guitar chops.

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Re: artist of the week 10.29.12: chuck prophet

Post by Smitty »

first heard "Would You Love Me?" on Outlaw Country or something. Great writeup, looking forward to the rest.
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Re: artist of the week 10.29.12: chuck prophet

Post by 4sooner »

Nice work dime.
Looking forward to the next installment.

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Re: artist of the week 10.29.12: chuck prophet

Post by Clams »

Prophet? I thought you were doing ELO.
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dime in the gutter
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Re: artist of the week 10.29.12: chuck prophet

Post by dime in the gutter »

Clams wrote:Prophet? I thought you were doing ELO.

that tie in comes later.

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Re: artist of the week 10.29.12: chuck prophet

Post by dime in the gutter »

excerpts from a bio type thingy written by john murry in 2007. i am lazy, but he writes much better than i do.

sums up alot about the dude.

Image


His emails are all aptly signed with the Mark Twain quote, "As soon as you realize it's all insane, it all makes sense". In an industry filled with heroin-shaped prima donnas and blood-leeching businessmen, Chuck Prophet is a thorn tree. He's a thorn tree in the gardens of a game that he's played and that's played him; ultimately refusing to give up on what makes him breathe: rock and roll.

Chuck Prophet's career in music began much like the careers of others. He was a kid with a guitar. Here's the difference: by the time he was fifteen years old he could do more with it than most would be able to do in a lifetime. Legendary producer and musician Jim Dickinson (The Rolling Stones, The Replacements, Big Star, Bob Dylan) was once asked how this kid could pull off the stuff he did. Dickinson simply replied, "What do you expect from somebody who got his cherry popped at the funny farm when he was fourteen?" His first endeavor away from his sleepy hometown of Whittier, California was straight to the absurdity that is San Francisco. He almost immediately joined the seminal cosmic country rock band Green On Red and spent 8 years and as many albums playing and touring with them. He wasn't yet 21 years old. Hell, he wasn't even 20. He was still a teenager. Once called by the New York Times "By far one of the best bands in the United States for almost an entire decade", he spent his youth touring Europe and the US; watching himself grow up on the road. He became a teenage junkie. Trial by fire? Horse shit. He was a kid; a kid who could play and sing and write like a musical time bomb and he kept himself alive long enough to find crack cocaine, the drug that finally brought him to his knees ten years ago. He's been clean ever since. They say 'cleanliness is next to godliness' but one can't be so sure when measuring Chuck's manic activities. He was saved from addiction but he's far from being saved from himself.

You want stories? They're everywhere. Chuck, over ten years ago, once jumped from one San Francisco rooftop onto another and fell three stories through a skylight onto the cement floor of a mechanics' garage; all in an attempt to impress a girl and get into his apartment (that he had locked himself out of). He was high. The stories are endless. His long-suffering wife and musical partner Stephanie Finch can assure any disbeliever of that. You get clean and you cut it out, right? Nah. Chuck simply tells me, "I don't want to embarrass my parents anymore than I already have." The recording of Chuck's latest record has incurred him a smashed car windshield and, at last count, 27 parking tickets. He can't get it right. Chuck, in his Green On Red days was often called, in quotation marks, Billy The Kid. He signed to New West records in 2002 and was promptly dropped in 2005. How does Chuck feel about it? Who knows? He's no Ryan Adams. Mike Lembo, Chuck's manager from 1995 through 2000 stole all of Chuck's publishing rights from underneath him. To add nothing but insult to injury Lembo threw away all of Chuck's master recordings. Chuck eventually got his publishing rights back. How does he feel about the whole thing? Broken glass and cement floors hurt much worse. So what did hurt? Mike made Chuck lie about his age, forever keeping him several years younger for the sake of press. In talking to Chuck you can tell it's not the "making" him do it that bothered him so much, it's that he went along with it. Chuck Prophet is 43 years old. There, now you know. But he's still a fucking kid. A kid with a guitar and some songs.

Chuck's encyclopedic knowledge of rock and roll and The American Songbook at large is weighty and impressive. He's not a student, though. He tells me he doesn't "understand why people are so down on Dylan's eighties records" with heart. He's not drawn to the stories and music because of any intellectual need to know; he's drawn to it like a moth to flame, like a razor to the vein. He can't live without it and has never quite figured out how to live within it. He does, though. He wrestles the demons that have pursued him since he was a kid and he brilliantly strangles his guitar in protest, sings his own repentances, and writes like a man who, like William Faulkner suggested, should "only seek to outdo (himself)". His fans within the music community are vast. Lucinda Williams, after hearing his 1999 release "No Other Love" immediately looked at Peter Jespersen and asked, "Can I take him on tour with me?" He went on that tour, riding behind Lucinda's bus in a 1988 Dodge Ram with over 250k miles on it. He played to audiences of between 10 and 15 thousand people for two months. On one fateful night he was served papers. He was served papers onstage. He means so well, but he can't help but embarrass his folks a bit. He's written songs with Dan Penn and innumerable others, has been recently writing with Alejandro Escovedo, produced the most recent Kelly Willis record (who once said "If I could sing like anybody I'd like to sing like Chuck Prophet" - in response Chuck almost blushingly says "I'll have to straighten her out on that one"), and has had his songs recorded by the likes of Solomon Burke, Kim Richey, Jim Dickinson, and even Heart. He's played on the recordings of Warren Zevon, Jonathan Richman, Cake, Bob Neuwirth, Penelope Houston, Kelly Willis, and many others. In writing on what he was currently listening to in 2004, Stephen King (that's right, Stephen King), wrote of Chuck's tune "Rise": "What does this song mean? I have no idea. But it's lovely, incantatory and mysterious. God bless Chuck Prophet." Yes sir, God bless him indeed.

--John Murry, San Francisco, California, June 2007



to be continued....

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bovine knievel
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Re: artist of the week 10.29.12: chuck prophet

Post by bovine knievel »

I stumbled on CP the same most of us here have... the listening thread. Temple Beautiful and Let Freedom Ring are constants in my daily listening sessions.

Here are some cool videos that highlight his album Temple Beautiful.

Part 1


Part 2
“Excited people get on daddy’s nerves.” - M. Cooley

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Re: artist of the week 10.29.12: chuck prophet

Post by UncleFrank23 »

I saw him last July at a music festival in Springfield IL. I only had Temple Beautiful at the time. He put on a fantastic show to an audience that had (mostly) never heard of him.
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Re: artist of the week 10.29.12: chuck prophet

Post by dime in the gutter »



“Above and beyond the songs, Al is easy company,” Prophet says. “When we’re in the room, it’s like touching two jumper cables together. Sometimes we just fall into songwriting, other times it’s too hard and we just turn out the lights and listen to Mott the Hoople records. But it’s great working with him, we both speak the secret language.”


co-writer and heavy lifting player for alejandro's last 3 studio lps.

Image
Image
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all critically praised.

pure strain rock dna right there.
Last edited by dime in the gutter on Wed Oct 31, 2012 6:06 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: artist of the week 10.29.12: chuck prophet

Post by dime in the gutter »

Image
2009

harry potter for the chemically imbalanced....chuck prophet

recorded in mexico city during the height of swine flu paranoia. chuck calls it a political album for non political people. self produced. tight. concise rock and roll record. guitar fire works.

Many people considered Let Freedom Ring! your best album, do you agree?

I wanted a sound, a feel. We went to Mexico City. The studio was small. Not enough room to cuss a cat in there, so we crammed our little four piece in and cranked it up loud enough to hear across the border. Live in the studio, Live'R Than You'll Ever Be. The truth is, it was a struggle. Power outages, fried hard drives, the return of the Black Plague, earthquakes. The American Dream falling down in ugly chunks. It was perfect. Dumb luck, yeah, but it was perfect. It's an American record. Imaginary. We started with the Swine Flu and we ended up with Michael Jackson dead.


1. sonny liston blues-it's gonna take an aspirin...take one big as my own head. blistering guitar begging for help. will leave bruises.
2. what can a mother do?-shuck and shuffle. beautiful harmonies. delicate. american nostalgia.
3. where the hell is henry?-sounds like a bad ass episode of speed racer. high speed guitars zooming past and typical prohetizing lyrics.
4. let freedom ring-biting social commentary and beauty all rolled into one. let them have mercedes and a house at the beach....sit by the pool and get high
5. you and me baby 2.5 child bearing, nuclear family units are breaking down. gop is correct.....better warn your banker....or at least hold on. great vox here.
6. american man-modern tale of what our heroes have become or is it what they aspire to be? in any case...the answers are not promising. cool beach boys stylings and backing vocals. shout out to t-rex.
7. barely exist-somehow hopeful narrative about the very same american male growing up.....when you got asbestos in your kool-aid for breakfast...there's no good way to look alive.
8. hot talk-stones:miss you/greg kihn:breakup song mash up with talk of indian burial grounds and broken shit. all wrapped around the wall street meltdown of 2008. pure and unadulterated brilliance.
9. love won't keep us apart-our hero is most certainly a romantic at heart. another ode to his partner in life.
10. good time crowd-sounds like a long lost go-go's track.....hand claps.
11. leave the window open-it's the small things that matter.







to be continued......
Last edited by dime in the gutter on Wed Oct 31, 2012 12:54 pm, edited 4 times in total.

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Re: artist of the week 10.29.12: chuck prophet

Post by dime in the gutter »

Iowan wrote:Good shit here. Great choice for AOTW.

I had never heard of Chuck prior to Temple Beautiful, but dug in because Cortez and dime were posting the album cover about 10x/day in the Listening thread. First listen didn't do much, but all of a sudden I'd catch myself singing "I felt like Jeeeeesuuuuus, when you looked me in the eye" in the shower. The hooks. Damn. The hooks just sink into your brain, all over this damn album.

I picked up Soap & Water and enjoy it a lot too. Freckle Song is one of the tunes that just makes me ass-dance in my car seat. I need to get more of his stuff and check out Green On Red too.


temple beautiful was the record that kinda crystalized his whole vibe for me....it made all the other records sound better. and that's meant as a compliment. one of the coolest records of the past few years. or some shit like that.

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Re: artist of the week 10.29.12: chuck prophet

Post by Iowan »

dime in the gutter wrote:
Iowan wrote:Good shit here. Great choice for AOTW.

I had never heard of Chuck prior to Temple Beautiful, but dug in because Cortez and dime were posting the album cover about 10x/day in the Listening thread. First listen didn't do much, but all of a sudden I'd catch myself singing "I felt like Jeeeeesuuuuus, when you looked me in the eye" in the shower. The hooks. Damn. The hooks just sink into your brain, all over this damn album.

I picked up Soap & Water and enjoy it a lot too. Freckle Song is one of the tunes that just makes me ass-dance in my car seat. I need to get more of his stuff and check out Green On Red too.


temple beautiful was the record that kinda crystalized his whole vibe for me....it made all the other records sound better. and that's meant as a compliment. one of the coolest records of the past few years. or some shit like that.


I kinda suspect I'm going through that with Homemade Blood. Credit might be the best hook I've heard from him, and that's saying something.

Temple Beautiful might be my favorite album of the year (might) thus far, but it didn't have me racing for the back catalog if that makes any sense. I'm on my third run through Homemade Blood right now, and I'm trying to justify how a guy who can write hooks like this, and play guitar like this can be so unknown. I have no good answer.

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Re: artist of the week 10.29.12: chuck prophet

Post by dogstar »

Iowan wrote: I'm trying to justify how a guy who can write hooks like this, and play guitar like this can be so unknown. I have no good answer.


I think Dan Stuart and Chuck Prophet basically fucked it up when they were in Green on Red. I can remember one show where they turned up to play and basically announced that they didn't want to do the show so they'd done the next best thing and got drunk and one show where Dan Stuart was so drunk he couldn't even get out of the bus and onto the stage. I guess this sort of thing pisses off the people you need on your side to actually become better known.

Anyway interesting thread. I'd assumed CP had dropped out of the music industry when Green on Red folded so it was a bit of a suprise to see people posting pictures of his albums in the 'WELT' thread earlier this year.

As an aside Dan Stuart also seems to have sorted himself out enough to release a new album a while ago. Saying that I've not heard anything off it so can't comment on what its like.
"Guitars talk. If you really want to write a song, ask a guitar." Neil Young

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Re: artist of the week 10.29.12: chuck prophet

Post by Kudzu Guillotine »

Chuck Prophet first came onto my radar in the late 90's/early 00's via the albums The Hurting Business and No Other Love but at the time I admittedly knew nothing of his tenure in Green On Red, though it wasn't too long after that when it was brought to my attention. I've been hearing rave reviews from friends about his shows for years but I'd yet to see him in concert until he played the Yep Roc Records 15th anniversary concerts at the Cat's Cradle in Carrboro a few weeks ago. Even then, one of my friends was bitching about his acoustic set, saying it was too mellow. Like some of his fellow performers that night (Eleni Mandell, Nick Lowe and Robyn Hitchcock) they all came back out later backed by Los Straitjackets. I didn't hear any bitching then. Still, I hope to see him on his own with a band someday.

Here's a couple clips from the Yep Roc shows. In the first one he's joined by Scott McCaughey (R.E.M., the Minus Five, Young Fresh Fellows) and Los Straitjackets for a cover of Nick Lowe's "Heart of the City" (Chatham County Line also covered this one during their slot on the closing night of the festivities). The second clip is the title track from Temple Beautiful.



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Re: artist of the week 10.29.12: chuck prophet

Post by dime in the gutter »

cp's favorite movies according to ifc.

proper credits attempted. for more info check here.....http://www.ifc.com/fix/2009/10/chuck-pr ... ovies-of-a

Chuck Prophet:

These are movies that I’ve lived with and return to again and again. I’ve included a couple of small movies so good that if you’re like me, you can’t help but wonder, “Why aren’t there more movies like this?” I have to root for the underdog. That’s how I’m wired. And remember, in the immortal words of Ray Charles: “It’s easier to bone the President’s wife than to get a movie made.”

Crimes and Misdemeanors (1989)

Cliff Stern: “A strange man… defecated on my sister…”

Wendy Stern: [pause] “... why?”

It’s really two movies: One about a struggling documentary filmmaker (Woody Allen) trapped in an unhappy marriage and in love with a woman who doesn’t love him back. And in the other, a classic noir story where Martin Landau is a successful doctor who has his mistress (Anjelica Huston) murdered. And gets away with it.

Some of Woody Allen’s later movies have a rather tossed off feel. But this movie is like a can of concentrated orange juice. Concentrated. You know, like before you add the water? It’s almost three movies in one. Thick. Dense. Bullet-proof.

At the end of the film Allen’s character, Cliff, listens to Martin Landau’s character pitch him an idea for a movie. Cliff tells him that in order to make a good film there needs to be some redemption in the story. It’s an achingly sad moment when Landau says to Allen, “You watch too many movies, this is about real life.” Just one of the many moments that stack up to make the torn half of the Admit One worth having.

And remember: “If it bends, it’s funny. If it breaks, it isn’t.”

I’m down for any Woody Allen. I’ll see anything he does. I’m sure people will be quick to disagree but I think Woody is incapable of making a bad movie. The same way Bob Dylan is incapable of being uninteresting.

All The President’s Men (1976)

“Print that baby!”

At one time I wanted to be a journalist. Took a few college classes before I got frustrated looking for parking and starting cutting class and going to matinees. Seeing this movie as a child with my mother probably had as much to do with my romantic notion of journalism as anything. Just the roar of all those typewriters rat-tat-tatting away in unison at the Washington Post hooked me. Or maybe it was the glee in hearing Jason Robards growl: “Where’s the fucking story?” Every scene is a diamond. It’s brief, but the Lindsay Ann Crouse (David Mamet’s first wife) scene where she has maybe three lines, is a movie unto itself.

It’s fascinating to look back at this now as a kind of period piece. As news papers are folding and Investigative reporting is dying all around us. Syndicated articles are passed around like cheap whores and papers can’t afford to keep on a paid staff to do any serious reporting. One more reminder of the apocalypse, now we live in a time where opinion and entertainment rule over truth.

D Tour (2008)

I was really knocked out by this informative rock documentary directed by Jim Granato about Rogue Wave drummer Pat Spurgeon who was born with one kidney that’s failing and needs another to keep living.

I learned a lot. Like being on the organ recipient list for a new kidney is no cakewalk. And being in a touring band while on dialysis is no day at the beach. It’s involved. I won’t tell you how this story ends but it’s a heart wrenching journey for sure. If you haven’t already, you might want to consider checking that box on your driver’s license.

Walking out after watching it, I thought about all the useful things I’ve learned watching movies:

1) Eric Stoltz picking a safe in “Killing Zoe.” You’ve got to have the right tools. You’ve got to have a talent for it. But it can be done if you know what you’re doing, apparently.

2) The proper way to spy on someone and get it on tape. Gene Hackmen following Frederick Forest and Cindy William’s conversation in the middle of San Francisco’s Union Square with a shotgun microphone in “The Conversation.”

3) There’s a right and a wrong way to talk to a girl after she catches you tricking her in to touching your penis by burying it like a prize in a popcorn box. Just ask Mickey Rourke! (“see Diner”). If you know what you’re doing she won’t even get mad.

4) The lottery-like impossible odds of transcending your background by playing b-ball (“Hoop Dreams”).

Back to “D-Tour.” Warning: there are enough pretty, open acoustic guitar chords and sweet harmonies courtesy of Ben Gibbard (and a host of celebrated indie rock semi-royalty). Enough of that to send you into a diabetic seizure. So, if you’re hypoglycemic, you might want to enter at your own risk.

Chuck Berry Hail! Hail! Rock ‘n’ Roll (1987)

Chuck Berry: “Don’t touch my amp!”

Keith Richards and a bevy of special guests get paraded out for Chuck’s 60 Birthday concert. But make no mistake: it’s Chuck’s show all the way. It’s the rehearsals where the real action is. And we get to watch. “Don’t touch my amp!” And take a Chuck guided through St. Louis. Chuck Berry is a complicated dude. This movie is endlessly fascinating. Rock and roll is Rock and Roll. And nobody tells Chuck Berry how to play Chuck Berry. Just ask Keith!

Meantime (1984)

I was torn between mentioning this film or the John Cassavete’s film “Gloria” (1980). Ah…. the 80’s. Movies from the drought.

I can still remember stumbling across this film by chance on BBC 4 one night in my lonely room at the Columbia Hotel in London and being completely riveted. There was something different going on here. What I didn’t know was that I was seeing my first Mike Leigh film. And as a bonus, making the acquaintances of Tim Roth and Gary Oldman, with their screen debuts. Something different was going. These weren’t just actors saying lines. They were the characters. Nobody makes pictures like Mike Leigh.

Badlands (1973)

I once read an interview where Terrence Malick said that the cops and much of the cast in this film weren’t actually actors. Anyone other than principal actors were civilians. He found that real people are less vain, he said. Felt less compelled to act. Naturally, the camera captures that. Knowing so was just one sign of Terry’s gift. Another was his amazing ability to have the audience feel - and feel deeply - for the villain.

And when the deputy delivers his line while Martin Sheen is handcuffed in the back seat magic happens: “I’ll kiss your ass if he don’t look like James Dean.” A scene I simply can’t forget. It’s creepy. Martin Sheen gets my vote for sexiest sociopath since Robert Blake in “In Cold Blood” or Tommy Lee Jones in “The Executioners Song.”

Art can do that. Get you rooting for the bad guys.

As a songwriter always on the lookout for something to steal, and shoe-horn into a song, I can’t help but notice the first line in Bruce Springteen’s song Nebraska is the opening scene of the movie, “Saw her standing on her front lawn, just a-twirling her baton…” Close your eyes or keep them open: it’s Sissy Spacek.

Dylan once said, “Oh yeah? Well why not write a song about that guy who went into a McDonalds and blew all those people away? I bet if he could speak from the grave he’d have a story to tell.”

But can you make us care for him?

Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker’s Apocalypse (1991)

“We were in the jungle, there were too many of us, we had access to too much money, too much equipment, and little by little we went insane.”

—Francis Ford Coppola

A documentary that follows the making of “Apocalypse Now.” Heart Attacks, millions of dollars in budget overages, lead actors fired after shooting starts. Now that makes for a great movie.

Having gone over budget making records as much as I have, I studied the scene where one of Francis Ford Coppola’s writers talks of quitting the project only to have the director convince him that he was making the first film that could go on to receive a Nobel Peace Prize and like that he’s back on the gig. That’s genius. Worth studying.

It was made by Francis Ford Coppola’s wife, Eleanor Coppola. She said somewhere that she suspected Francis gave her the gig just to get her out of his hair. Turns out “the brains behind pa” made a movie even more fascinating, informative, and intriguing than “Apocalypse Now.”

Ghost World (2001)

Seymour: “I can’t relate to 99% of humanity.”

A coming-of-age teen flick movie that pivots around Skip James’ “Devil Got My Woman” can do no wrong with me. And shouldn’t with anyone else.

Some kind of cosmic coincidence that mirrored my own world: I once heard Lorrete Velvet sing that same song at the Antenna Club in Memphis and also became obsessed. It’s a kind of blues Rosetta Stone. Everything else makes sense after you figure out what language it’s written in. Here’s a movie that was after my own heart.

I love the scene where Thora Birch’s character Enid after buying a blues compilation LP from Steve Buscemeis’ character at a garage sale takes the record home and hearing Skip James sing Devil Got My Woman” becomes totally obsessed and returns the next weekend to the garage sale. Asking Steve Buscemi’s character: “Do you have any other records like that?”

He says, “There are no other records like that.”

Last I heard, the writer (Daniel Clowes) was banging out a screenplay about three Mississippi kids who spent a good seven years in the 1980s making a shot-for-shot remake of Raiders of the Lost Ark. That’s mystifying. Anyway, “Ghost World.” It’s sad when friends grow apart, especially if your best friend is Scarlet Johansson. This movie nails that feeling.

Bonus: This is where we got the expression Blues Hammer. I don’t know how many people saw this movie but Blues Hammer is now part of the musician’s lexicon. It’s part of the vernacular. Like “gig-atoni”.

Rumble Fish (1983)

“California’s like a beautiful, wild… beautiful, wild girl on heroin…”

This is the movie that turned me on - made me aware what cinematography is or what it could be. Francis Ford Coppola was interviewed in a local rock magazine here called Bam Magazine when this came out. It was there I learned about the lengths they went through to make this movie look the way it looked. They actually painted the shadows on the ground. Lots of slo-mo rolling clouds, smoke and tweaked out Foley. It turned me on to moving making, to understanding that they’re made.

If you read the S.E. Hinton novel, you’d know that the Motorcycle boy was deaf. Explains why all the sound is muted when our soft spoken hero Mickey Rourke speaks. It’s disorienting.

Matt Dillon as Rusty James, Tom Waits as Benny. Diane Lane? Dennis Hopper? It’s a feast. The soundtrack by Stewart Copeland and Stan Ridgway is brilliant as well. Really ahead of it’s time.

Der amerikanische Freund (1977) The American Friend

“What’s wrong with a cowboy in Hamburg?”

This is Wim Winder’s take on “Ripley’s Game” Starring Bruno Ganz and Dennis Hopper as the sinister Tom Ripley, a loner cowboy making his way around Hamburg dealing in forged paintings, consumed with existential angst and all the freak you’d expect in this sideways take on classic noir.

And the soundtrack is right there, “Too Much On My Mind” by The Kinks. Bruno’s character Jonathan is humming it to himself while he works building frames in his little shop. It’s a beautiful moment. Counterfeit as art and art as counterfeit. Fucking rock and roll.

The Object of Beauty (1991)

“I’m worth it.”

Commodities broker, Jake, has just lost his nest egg. Now he and Tina (Andie MacDowell) are slumming it in a chic London hotel they can no longer afford. Or at least not willing to admit they can’t afford it. They get it on, and Andie MacDowell’s character takes forever to get off—but says, “I’m worth it.” Who’s to argue?

I’m not sure I’d want to hang out with these people. They’re nasty. But they’ve got each other. Even if they bounce a check here and there,—one has to do what one can to keep his gal in designer threads. But it’s a rare film. They don’t make movies about these kinds of people very often. Maybe we’ll see more of these recession blues films in the future. If I’m to believe what I read on the web, I hear Carrie Bradshaw’s new husband Big runs into financial trouble in the currently-in- production Sex and the City sequel. But heck, what would I know about that?

Paris, Texas (1984)

“What the hell?” (First line of the script.)

“Paris, Texas” came later for Wim Wenders. That was a kind of John Ford ass-buster for my generation. And here another European gently reminds us what’s great about our culture and nails it to a t-bone steak. Back then, I don’t know what they called this kind of thing. I guess they call it Americana now. I suppose this movie is really just a western. It ends with our hero Travis played by Harry Dean Stanton walking off in to the sunset, and those four notes Ry Cooder plays over and over? ‘Nuff said.


to be continued.....

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dime in the gutter
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Re: artist of the week 10.29.12: chuck prophet

Post by dime in the gutter »

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chuck prophet and david hood in cleveland for the chuck berry soiree this past weekend.

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3milelake
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Re: artist of the week 10.29.12: chuck prophet

Post by 3milelake »

Great work Dime & a helluva choice...not that I need any persuading. Didn't know about his drug demons, kudos to him for beating that down. Looking forward to the coming instalments...

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dime in the gutter
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Re: artist of the week 10.29.12: chuck prophet

Post by dime in the gutter »

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2012

made in san francisco, by san franciscans about san francisco.....chuck prophet

per the norm, another self produced, self contained masterful record. san francisco mythology and urban legend run amuck. lots of cool prophetizing and zen like insider trading tales about a hip and mysterious city. a gat damn guitar rock and roll record. bro can play that tele.....added guitar excellence from james de prato. blistering leads and riffs bouncing around the headphones. turn it up, loud mother fuckers. strings and echos too.

1. play that song again-coming of age in a big city.
2. castro halloween-big annual halloween street party in cp's neighborhood. freaks and geeks galore...guns too. nasty, filthy, face melting twin guitar leads. beautiful harmonies. do i hear church bells....or are those tubular bells from the exorcist? rip that shit up proper.....bravo.
3. temple beautiful-about a punk rock club in the former jim jones people's temple in san francisco. can't make that shit up.....revolution for sure. pretty sure flamin groovies dude adds vox here.
4. museum of broken hearts-strings and melancholy.
5. willie mays is up at bat-i hear the crowd go wild...all he did was touch his hat. super bad ass tune about the "say hey kid". reminiscent of where have you gone joe dimaggio vibe? thinking of yesterday's heroes and their tales of glory and hope. lots of name checking here and a great chorus. nobody knows who'll make it home tonight.
6. the left hand and the right hand-breaking stings and dropping beats...singing all the wrong notes...but no one can harmonize the way those brothers do....oh no.
7. i felt like jesus-cutting chops in a seedy rock club. and falling in love.
8. who shot john? long lost song from tommy. pete townshend is jealous. trading licks, leads and riffs....massive rock song.
9. he came from so far away-inspired by a real life street character. sounds dreamy and low end ethereal. he kept a picture of a pigeon in his wallet
10. little girl, little boy- cool boogie woogie piano. horns. stephanie finch can sing her ass off.
11. white night, big city-riots and protests after the murder of harvey milk....bring a candle....throw a brick.
12. emperor norton in the last year of his life-save our city (our being the collective for society as a whole....or some shit like that) and your soul.....where are our heroes today?

if it proves anything....it proves that it doesn't hurt to throw a brick from time to time....chuck prophet




to be continued.....

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3milelake
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Re: artist of the week 10.29.12: chuck prophet

Post by 3milelake »

Every Prophet record I've spent time with is teeming goodness. A deep cut from The Hurting Business & Turn The Pigeons Loose...Diamond Jim


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scotto
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Re: artist of the week 10.29.12: chuck prophet

Post by scotto »

Iowan wrote:...I'm trying to justify how a guy who can write hooks like this, and play guitar like this can be so unknown. I have no good answer.

Yep.
Really good stuff, Dime.

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cortez the killer
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Re: artist of the week 10.29.12: chuck prophet

Post by cortez the killer »

What kind of name is Prophet anyway?

Great choice/presentation/content, dimer.
You are entitled to your opinion, but you are not entitled to your own facts.
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dime in the gutter
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Re: artist of the week 10.29.12: chuck prophet

Post by dime in the gutter »

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can't have a thread about chuck prophet 2.0 with out a mad holla and shout out to stephanie finch. longtime wife, band mate, muse, partner, musician, collaborator and artist. she is ever present in his music....as both subject matter and inspiration. her influence is immeasurable. one of the coolest things about the chuck prophet sound is her voice. beautiful harmonies floating above all the guitar snarl, slice and swagger. kinda like a clean, very light, breezy cotton sheet drifting down onto a crackling and popping bug zapper. you get the picture. there is real life chemistry there. softening the edges while making the lines sharper.

she also has a record of her own.
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prophet produced. check it.

it is obvious that she has had a profound impact on his music and life. she actually might end up being the star of the show. well done.



to be continued.....

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Re: artist of the week 10.29.12: chuck prophet

Post by beantownbubba »

I see you're taking this artist of the week thing quite literally, dime. :D Keep up the great work!

dime in the gutter wrote: ...beautiful harmonies floating above all the guitar snarl, slice and swagger. kinda like a clean, very light, breezy cotton sheet drifting down onto a crackling and popping bug zapper.


dime in the gutter wrote:softening the edges while making the lines sharper.


Lines worthy of the subject. Great stuff, dime.
What used to be is gone and what ought to be ought not to be so hard

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dime in the gutter
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Re: artist of the week 10.29.12: chuck prophet

Post by dime in the gutter »


stunning version of let freedom ring.

hat tip 3mile.

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Clams
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Re: artist of the week 10.29.12: chuck prophet

Post by Clams »

beantownbubba wrote:
dime in the gutter wrote: ...beautiful harmonies floating above all the guitar snarl, slice and swagger. kinda like a clean, very light, breezy cotton sheet drifting down onto a crackling and popping bug zapper.


Lines worthy of the subject. Great stuff, dime.


I like the part about the harmonies floating above the guitar snarl, but I'm not so sure about the breezy cottony sheet and the bug zapper. :lol:
Everyone needs a friend, everyone needs a fuck

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dime in the gutter
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Re: artist of the week 10.29.12: chuck prophet

Post by dime in the gutter »

Clams wrote:
beantownbubba wrote:
dime in the gutter wrote: ...beautiful harmonies floating above all the guitar snarl, slice and swagger. kinda like a clean, very light, breezy cotton sheet drifting down onto a crackling and popping bug zapper.


Lines worthy of the subject. Great stuff, dime.


I like the part about the harmonies floating above the guitar snarl, but I'm not so sure about the breezy cottony sheet and the bug zapper. :lol:

ya'll were warned.

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dime in the gutter
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Re: artist of the week 10.29.12: chuck prophet

Post by dime in the gutter »

ImageImage
2007

woot, woot

generally speaking, i'm not a lover of covers, but i do love this album. here's the abbreviated skinny....team prophet gets locked into a recording studio for 36 or so hours. literally, cannot unlock the door to leave the building. so they did what any low brow gang of musical geniuses do...they record a waylon jennings record in full. sounding like a halcion blunted morning after a wife swapping party from the mid 70's.....this collection teeters back and forth....... all dreamy and from the other side. ghostlike. perhaps a mental breakdown or two contained within. who said waylon wasn't punk rock?

i swear i hear augie meyers playing on bob wills is still the king.

read more from someone who was there....john murry.

http://chuckprophet.com/blog/waylon_are_you_pissed/

Chuck Prophet was pissed. He and Stephanie wouldn’t come downstairs and wouldn’t let us come up. Needless to say, after a few hours had passed Chuck got hungry and, food - in particular stale Mr. Goodbar’s - holding a certain magical power over him, he and Stephanie came down. They brought with them as a sort of peace offering a battery powered record player and a Waylon Jennings LP. The record was, by mutual agreement among all gathered around the dinky heater eating peanut butter and drinking stale beer, his best: “Dreaming My Dreams With You”. We listened to it once. We listened to it twice. The third time around J.J. joked that, since we were temporarily incarcerated until Sean returned, we oughta re-record the album in full. We all laughed half-heartedly. Chuck did not laugh. He had this creepy look in his eye. It kinda grew into a “hey man, i got this really good shit to smoke” whole face thing and then he started talking. He started talking really damn fast. Yes, this crazy alpha-dog son of a bitch was saying. We would do the fucking thing. We would re-record the record with all new interpretations of the songs. We had no power. We were half drunk, didn’t want to argue because peanut butter makes your mouth REALLY sticky and it kinda starts to hurt if you try to talk too much, and so we gave in. J.J. had all the gear up and running in no time. Guitars, amps, mandolins, basses, drums, a Casiotone key-tar thing, and assorted crap was gathered together. We started recording, beginning with “Are You Sure Hank Done It This Way” and going straight on through to “Bob Wills Is Still The King”. Sean came back late Saturday night. We scared him; not looking so good and all: smelling like peanut butter, cigarettes, and beer and what not. The rest is history. Recorded history.




originally very limited availability, but now up at e-music. get some...you won't regret it.

to be continued.....

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Re: artist of the week 10.29.12: chuck prophet

Post by Jonicont »

dime in the gutter wrote: sounding like a halcion blunted morning after a wife swapping party from the mid 70's


You do love waxing poetic---great stuff Dime
Always go to the show

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dime in the gutter
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Re: artist of the week 10.29.12: chuck prophet

Post by dime in the gutter »

Image
really digging this one.

from his webpage thingy.

Chuck relocated to Nashville and bedded down for a month at the Alex the Great Recording Studios with producer Brad Jones (Yo La Tengo, Dolly Parton, Josh Rouse) manning the desk. Chuck is joined by his own band The Mission Express, Todd Roper (of Cake) on drums, and The Spinto Band. Hell, they even drafted in the local Methodist children’s church choir for a few tunes. The album sees him blending his twisted soul-country-rock; a Alex Chilton-meets-Waylon Jennings via Dylan thing, with that Fender Telecaster he’s had since his Green On Red days weaving a singular common thread throughout. From the beautiful lyricism and arrangement of “Would You Love Me?”, the witty and wicked call-and-response of the title track, to the pure rock and roll ecstasy of “Let’s Do Something Wrong” featuring Chuck’s well-honed six-string abilities. “We goofed on some agitated single coil cubist junk, got serious with the spring reverb on mournful ballads” says Chuck.

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