The Set List

Aretha Franklin On Her History

In My Room: Drawing meaning from my record collection ... with artist commentary. (An occasional series)

ARETHA FRANKLIN
Albums released: 43, give or take a couple (plus dozens of compilations)
Latest: "Jewels in the Crown: All-Star Duets With the Queen of Soul" (Arista) and "Rare and Unreleased Recordings” (Rhino)

Act’s CDs in my collection: 9 (includes one boxed set)
Vinyl: 7
Digital Only: 3
Overlap: 1
45s: 3
Favorites:"I Never Loved a Man the Way I Love You"; "Live at Fillmore West"

There is not an interview with a legend that does not produce some worthwhile quotes that do not end up in the story that makes it to the web or into print.
Aretha Franklin, the greatest female singer of the last 50 years, talked about a variety of subjects this week during our visit, from the awards she will receive from the Recording Academy and NAACP in the next week to her concerts, new projects and then vs. now in gospel and R&B.
While she does not live in the past, it's hard to ingore the fact that if one lines up her first eight albums for Atlantic, released between May 1967 ("I Never Loved a Man") and late 1970 ("Spirit in the Dark"), you won't hear a clunker in the bunch. She takes pride in her history and fully supports the continued opening of the vaults that has led to the release of recordings that were put in the vaults 30-plus years ago.
One album was Rhino Handmade's four-CD version of her famous 1971 concerts at the Fillmore West. She reflected on the impact of those shows, last year’s “Rare and Unreleased Recordings” and "Amazing Grace: The Complete Recordings":
“It wasn’t a complete (Aretha) show because we didn't do any gospel. Jerry Wexler got the idea. He wanted to see how the flower children would respond. He figured they would appreciate me. That was unlike any other time. It was a first - no other soul artist had played the Fillmore West. It certainly increased my sales and broadened my scope.
"I loved hearing it again and I think it’s stood the test of time. Jerry, when we used to record and everybody was fired up and spirits were really high, would always say ‘let’s see tomorrow.’ He wanted everyone to go home, get a good night’s sleep and come back before saying something (was great). That the music is standing years later, and not just overnight, I really love that.”
Franklin, who says she will get over her fear of flying soon, said she was making her last visit to L.A. in a car this week. She has a Feb. 14 concert at L.A.'s Nokia Theater.
“I want to be consistent. Try to get in (all the hits). It’s best when you have two nights because I can do it then. I try to keep in the ones people want to hear, introduce new songs. I find new ways to to keep (the songs) fresh, changing them without varying them  too far from what people want.”
She also offered a take on R&B vs. gospel: “Gospel stays constant. Coming from the boomer generation we know R&B in a certain way and a certain time. R&B is alive and well because of hip-hop but (modern) R&B is not nearly as good.”

Moby: In My Room

In My Room: Drawing meaning from my record collection ... with artist commentary.
(The second in an occasional series)
MOBY
Albums released: Nine (plus six compilations)
Latest: "Hotel" (V2)
Act’s CDs in my collection: Five (includes one compilation)
Vinyl: 0
Digital Only:Two
Overlap: 0
Favorites: "Play" (1999) and "Everything is Wrong" (1995). "Wrong" got me hooked; his live shows at the time were mesmerizing despite the fact that the dance crowd only wanted faceless performers; and "Play" was about as good it got in terms of inventive sampling.

Moby has returned to DJ'ing, hosting a monthly event called Degenerates at the Hiro Ballroom with the latest one taking place Thursday (Nov. 15).
"Slowly I have to come to admit that I don't like touring," says Moby, who has finished his next album, which Mute will release in March. "DJ'ing provides an instant connection with the people and it give me an opportunity to to play more dance music."
Dance music seemed to be a thing of the past for Moby. He transcended the genre with "Everything is Wrong" and then appeared to get wrapped up in dogma; suddenly he was friendly face of hard beats, androgyny and veganism.
He was bold enough, as a live performer, to embrace a punk mentality - anyone who saw him play "Sweet Home Alabama" on guitar won't likely forget it - and discard the locked-in nature of his recordings.
Then cane "Play."
"When that was released, I was a has-been," he notes,"even though it was the first release of mine to really sell. I was surprised as time went on, that the story about how every track was licensed became 'every track was licensed to a commercial.' Eighty percent of the licenses were to indie films. Most of play went to movies with only a small percentage to TV shows and advertising."
His favorite usage out of placements in nearly 70 released films?
One of the first: Michael Mann's "Heat." His "God Moving Over the Face of the Waters," a track from "Everything is Wrong," plays over the climax of the movie and the credits. "Of all of them, that's what I'm most proud of," says the former film student.

Mike Scott & The Waterboys: In My Room

In My Room: Drawing meaning from my record collection ... with artist commentary. (The first in an occasional series)

MIKE SCOTT AND THE WATERBOYS
Albums released: 9 (plus three compilations and three solo albums)
Latest: "Book of Lightning" (Decca)

Act’s CDs in my collection: 8 (includes two compilations and two solo albums)
Vinyl: 4
Digital Only:0
Overlap: 1
Favorite: "Fisherman's Blues" (1988).A top five favorite of that year and certainly in my top 20 for the decade.

In the liner notes to the expanded edition of the Waterboys' classic "Fisherman's Blues," Mike Scott explains how he had begun to explore the simplicity and purity of country, folk and old-time gospel music. By the time the album was finished, Scott figured all the Waterboys' music would be "built on the mighty foundation rock of the Celtic soul."
Inspiration also came from Bob Dylan and the Band's "Basement Tapes" and Dylan's Rolling Thunder Revue tour in the mid-'70s.
"'Fisherman's Blues' was such as crucial time for me," Scott said during a recent visit to the East Coast for radio station visits and performances. "I’m a Celtic person. I came to realize that that affects me so much and that it had so much to do with making a very emotional record.
('Fisherman's Blues') has been the touchstone of my career ever since. Everything will be measured against that. I’d like to top it, but I haven’t within a body of work (i.e, an album). I wrote so many songs during that era. During  remastering we did a lot of work on it and I listened to everything we recorded then. I was impressed."
Last year, Scott returned to "Fisherman's" waters, recording the band as a single ensemble at Sarm West, the old Island Studios in London, as he had 20 years earlier. "I do my best vocals fronting a band," he says.
Some of the material for "Book of Lightning" had its roots in "Fisherman's" era as well - two of the songs were composed in 1986 and two of the tunes were created from fragments that had been written 20 years earlier.
The new album, though, represents a resurgence of Scott's energetic side: The guitars sound meaty, the melodies have a Beatles-esque catchiness and the fiddles and psychedelic elements mesh neatly.At the center are Scott's confident vocals and smart wordplay.
Lead-off track "The Crash of Angel Wings" is as solid a rocker as there in the Waterboys' canon and who can resist words like:
"On Sundays she walks on cut glass and rocks
On Monday she falls from the sheerest of walls
On Tuesday she screams black words in her dreams
On Friday she lies and part of her dies."
Due to logistics, Scott had to use several different combinations of musicians, but decided against calling it a solo disc.      
"There are three full-time members. But Waterboys records, as a concept, can be anything. This is in-between (Waterboys and a solo disc). I didn’t think in advance how it would work or what would make it constitute a Waterboys (album), but this felt right."
The Waterboys begin a nine city U.S. tour on Nov. 1 in Boston that ends in San Francisco on Nov. 13. Waterboys perform Nov. 2 at Webster Hall in New York but have no L.A. date on the docket.
Besides the new album, Scott has recorded a Norwegian single with One People, "In The Beginning Was Love." It is available as a free download from the Norwegian daily newspaper Dagbladet.