Garland Jeffreys nailed it with Escape Artist

This was a working script for a recent video I recorded for the Geezerology YouTube channel:

Garland Jeffreys is a singer-songwriter of mixed-ethnic heritage from Brooklyn, born in 1943. He was a contemporary of Lou Reed and Felix Cavaliere of the Rascals as a student at Stanford University in the early 1960s. 

A track-by-track look at the VU documentary soundtrack

The Todd Haynes documentary on The Velvet Underground landed on Apple TV+ last Friday, and I reviewed it Monday on our Geezerology Gazette series over on YouTube. Accompanying the movie was a 16-track soundtrack album.

Some interesting things appear on this album, some not readily available elsewhere. VU completists and other big fans certainly will want to add this 2-CD set to their collections. Most casual fans, though, would be well-served to just add it to your streaming library.

Album review: Yes' The Quest isn't worth the effort

The Quest, released Oct. 1 as the 22nd studio album carrying the Yes name, isn't the worst album in the band's catalog. You won't have to scrape the bottom of the barrel to find it, but you'll have to dig pretty deeply.

This one was put together in pieces and parts during the pandemic era, with some band members and guest musicians recording their tracks separately in different parts of the globe. Longtime Yes guitarist Steve Howe coordinated this project and is credited as the album's producer.

'Disappearer' helped build Sonic Youth's commercial profile

"Disappearer," the song delivered to me Tuesday by my Pandora blogging challenge, was released in 1990 as a single from Sonic Youth's sixth album, Goo. But I'm going to go with it as a deep cut in the band's catalog, as I have found no evidence that the single ever charted anywhere.

I can't even find a clue that Sonic Youth performed the song live very often, at least not enough that anyone has been able to dig up a video. All I could find on YouTube was an MTV-style music video.

Doing the Pandora Shuffle, 9th edition

"OK, Google. Shuffle my Pandora."

"I'd Love to Change the World," Ten Years After (A Space in Time, 1971): Alvin Lee picked up an acoustic guitar, the band slowed down the pace and Ten Years After finally had a hit. "I'd Love to Change the World," from the band's sixth album, hit No. 40 on the Billboard Hot 100 -- the only time Ten Years After has cracked the Top 40. The band probably is most famous for their scorching performance of "I'm Going Home" at Woodstock in 1969. They were on a pretty good run on the album charts leading up to A Space in Time. Ssssh hit No. 20 on the Billboard 200 in 1969, Cricklewood Green No. 14 and Watt No. 21 in 1970. A Space in Time hit No. 17. But that was pretty much it for Ten Years After as a marketable recording outfit. They're still around. Lee died in 2013, but keyboard player Chick Churchill and drummer Ric Lee have kept the band working, primarily as a live attraction, through the decades. I listened to Ssssh and Watt as well as the 1968 live album Undead a lot as a kid. But I lost interest when A Space in Time came around and have paid scant attention since.