Bill O Writes

Best CDs of the decade: 

Any of the the top 3 could have been #1. Kind of didn’t want Kanye to be on top because he’s such a jerk, but in the end I felt that while all three performers were enormously creative, his CD was the most entertaining.
1. “My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy” – Kanye West (2010)
2. “To Pimp a Butterfly” – Kendrick Lamar (2015)
3. “Lemonade” – Beyonce (2016)
4. “Beyonce” – Beyonce (2013)
5. “Somewhere Else” – Lydia Loveless (2014)
6. “Sometimes I Sit and Think, And Sometimes I Just Sit” – Courtney Barnett (2015)
7. “Songs of Innocence” – U2 (2014)
8. “Stone Rollin’” – Raphael Saadiq (2011)
9. “When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?” – Billie Eilish (2019)
10. “Pushin’ Against a Stone” – Valerie June (2013)

Honorable mention:
“Channel Orange” – Frank Ocean (2012)
“good kid, m.A.A.d City” – Kendrick Lamar (2012)
“No Cities” – Sleater-Kinney
“CTRL” – SZA
“Lost in the Dream” – the War on Drugs (2014)
“Landing on a Hundred” – Cody Chesnutt (2012)

Best songs of the decade (not on a Top 10 CD):
1. “Rolling in the Deep” – Adele (2011)
2. “How I Got Over” – the Roots (2010)
3. “Emmylou” – First Aid Kit (2012)
4. “Consideration” – Rihanna and SZA (2016)
5. “All the Stars” – Kendrick Lamar and SZA (2018)
6. “Fuck You” by Cee-Lo Green (2010)
7. “Get Lucky” – Daft Punk (2013)
8. “Art of Almost” – Wilco (2011)
9. “The Joke” – Brandi Carlile (2018)
10.“Convex” – St. Paul & the Broken Bones (2018)

Best CDs of 2019:

“When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?” – Billie Eilish
“Twelve Nudes” – Ezra Furman
“The Angels in Heaven Done Signed My Name” – Leo “Bud” Welch
“No Saint” – Lauren Jenkins
“Painted Image” – Liz Brasher
“Ilana (The Creator)” – Mdou Moctar
“Legacy! Legacy!” – Jamila Woods
“Cuz I Love You” – Lizzo

Favorite TV shows of the decade: 
“Breaking Bad” and “Better Call Saul”
“Louis”
“Justified”
“Fleabag”
“Better Things”
“Killing Eve”
“Catastrophe”
“True Detective” (season one only)
“The Big Bang Theory”
“Survivor”

Favorite movies of the decade:
“A Separation”
“About Time”
“The Social Network”
“BlackKkKlansman”
“Rocketman”
“Birdman”
“The Martian”
“Moonlight”
“Hell or High Water”
“Bridesmaids”

Bring on the 2020s!

“Town Burned Down” by Adam’s House Cat
“Everything Is Love” by the Carters
“Hell-On” by Neko Case
“Obsessed” series (especially Radiohead, Nirvana and Peter Gabriel) by Lena Hall
“Remain in Light” by Angelique Kidjo
“Black Panther: The Album” by Kendrick Lamar & various artists
“Dirty Computer” by Janelle Monae
“Young Sick Camellia” by St. Paul & the Broken Bones
“Particle War” by Sunny War & Particle Kid and “With the Sun” by Sunny War
“Stranger Fruit” by Zeal & Ardor

NORTH TRURO – “Life is nothing but a sweet serenade,” Peter Wolf proclaimed during his Sunday night concert at the Payomet Performing Arts Center, but the former lead singer for the J. Geils Band knows there’s a lot more to it than that. With a rock style that blends in blues, soul and R&B, Wolf is more about begging, screaming and shouting than serenading.

Lean as a splinter, he took the stage in black pants and a black shirt with a silver-beaded jacket that reflected the stage lights. Elbows pinned to his sides, he moved with his body coiled, as if he’s spent a lifetime dancing in tight spaces – even though he’s played on many of the biggest concert stages.

The 17-song show covered Wolf’s career from the Geils Band’s 1970 debut through the most recent of his eight solo CDs, “A Cure for Loneliness, which was released in 2016.

Highlights included covers of bluesman Otis Rush’s “Homework,” the Stonesy vibe of “Some Things You Don’t Want to Know” and the hard-rocking “Hard Drivin’ Man.”

Duke Levine on electric guitar, Kevin Barry on electric guitar and lap steel guitar, and Tom West keyboards provided the perfect amount of lead-in and mid-song solos to dress up the songs, satisfying the Wolf Pack, as the singer’s fans call themselves. Drummer Tom Arey and bass player Marty Ballou guided the band through the mid-tempo rockers of Wolf’s solo songs and the slightly quicker pace of the Geils’ classics.

In addition to being a stellar frontman, Wolf is an entertaining storyteller. He reminisced about following Bob Dylan all over New York City in the early ’60s and recording in the ’80s with Aretha Franklin, who was a “Dynasty” fan and spoke with an English accent a la Joan Collins.

The main set closed with “Love Stinks,” one of the J. Geils Band’s biggest hits and a rousing version of “Looking for a Love.” After a break of just a minute or two, the band returned for “I Need You Tonight,” a song off Wolf’s first solo CD.

Wolf thanked the crowd for “many years of loyal support” and then jive-talked through the rapid-fire verbal mish-mash introduction to “Must of Got Lost,” another Geils classic.

At 72, Wolf may have lost a little of the frenzy in his voice, but not much. As he moved to the very back row of the Payomet tent during “Must of Got Lost,” he also showed that he hasn’t lost much of his energy since the ’70s and ’80s, back when the J. Geils Band was playing steamy summer shows at the Cape Cod Coliseum in South Yarmouth.

“CTRL,” SZA
“DAMN,” Kendrick Lamar
“Elwan,” Tinariwen
“If All I Was Was Black,” Mavis Staples
“Little French Songs,” Carla Bruni
“Lotta Sea Lice,” Courtney Barnett & Kurt Vile
“The Nashville Sound,” Jason Isbell & The 400 Unit
“The Order of Time,” Valerie June
“Sidelong,” Sarah Shook & the Disarmers
“Terrible Human Beings,” the Orwells

Fans of Joan Osborne have long known she’s a fan of Bob Dylan. She included a cover of his “Man in the Long Black Coat” on her 1995 debut, “Relish,” which included the international hit “One of Us.”

But she’s not just a casual fan. She’s enough of a fan that she put together a show called “Joan Osborne Sings the Songs of Bob Dylan, which she performed at two-week residencies at New York City’s Café Carlyle in March 2016 and 2017.

She’s also taken that tribute on the road, including Sunday night’s show at the Payomet Performing Arts Center in North Truro. The 90-minute, 14-song concert served as a preview for Osborne’s “Songs of Bob Dylan” CD, which will be released Sept. 1.

The new disc might just as easily have been called “The Many Moods of Bob Dylan.” On “Leopard-Skin Pill-Box Hat,” she was joking, scornful and mocking. On “Tryin’ to Get to Heaven,” she was wistful. On “Buckets of Rain,” she was soothing and flirtatious. On “Tangled Up in Blue,” she was reflective and resigned but also assertive.

One of the night’s highlights was “Masters of War,” (the oldest song in the set, which included tracks ranging from 1963 to 2001). She delivered Dylan’s scathing condemnation of the military-industrial complex with barely restrained anger. As she said afterward, “that’s a very intense song.”

Osborne can effectively cross the borders of rock, R&B, soul and jazz, as she showed throughout the night, which ended with an almost mournful rendition of “One of Us.” She was helped quite ably by Kevin Bents on piano and organ and Andrew Carilllo on acoustic and electric guitar.

The trio changed the arrangements and the tempo of most of the songs, especially the better-known ones. She made the case for that in introducing a slowed-down jazz-blues version of “Rainy Day Woman #12 and 35.” One of Dylan’s biggest hits (No. 2 on the Billboard charts), the “everybody must get stoned” song is “so familiar that it gives us license to change it,” she said.

My lovely companion asked if I thought she was messing with it too much. My quick answer was, no. Longer answer: What would be the point of doing a tribute like this and not taking the songs in a new direction?

Among the performers who made stand-out versions of Dylan covers are Jimi Hendrix, Stevie Wonder, the Byrds and George Harrison. Osborne belongs on that list.

The show included nine songs from the new CD and four Dylan songs that aren’t on the new release, giving Osborne and Dylan fans reason to hope there may be a volume two down the road.

Were your arms tired Saturday morning? Probably so, if you were at Friday night’s Melody Tent show by Michael Franti and Spearhead.

Some performers lead sing-alongs. Franti does that, but he also likes to lead wave-alongs, and for much of the night he had audience members swaying their arms to his mix of reggae, rap, R&B, and rock.

Franti didn’t leave all the work to the crowd. He was dashing up and down aisles and zipping along the edge of the rotating stage. He invited fans to join him on stage to sing and dance (one big dude got belly-down on the stage and did the Worm quite impressively). In short, this is a guy who knows how to engage the crowd.

Franti’s music is upbeat, both in its tempo and in its lyrics. The visuals back up that spirit. “Love out loud” was printed in big letters on Manas Itiene’s bass drum and the guitar strap on Franti’s battered acoustic guitar has block letters saying “stay human.”

Early in his career, Franti was blatant with his politics, in his work with the rap duo The Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy and on the early Spearhead CD “Stay Human,” which focused on the death penalty.

Lately he’s more focused on a Marley-esque “one world” message with a feel-good vibe. As he said in introducing “Good to Be Alive Today,” “Every person on this planet deserves to be happy, healthy and equal.” He also mixed in plenty of love songs, the best of them being “Crazy for You” and “Life Is Better With You.”

Another highlight was “I Got Love for Ya,” one of seven songs Franti played from last year’s “Soulrocker” CD. The song was inspired by his son’s graduation from high school, and Franti worked in a bit of U2’s “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For” before finishing the song by smashing the bottom of his guitar against one of Itiene’s cymbals.

Got to give a nod to the rest of Franti’s tight band: guitarist J Bowman, bass player Carl Young and keyboardist Michael Blankenship.
Near the end of the 100-minute show, Franti talked about his Do It for the Love charity which provides concert experiences for people who are seriously ill or have a disability. Beyonce, Kenny Chesney, the Red Hot Chili Peppers – whatever performer they’ve dreamed of seeing. (“I never thought I’d buy so many Taylor Swift tickets,” Franti joked.)

The charity, which has sent 900 families to shows so far, lists its mission as “hope and healing through live music” – which pretty much sums up Friday’s show and Franti’s career.

“Lemonade” by Beyonce

(not enough good stuff to make a Top 10 list)

1. “To Pimp a Butterfly,” Kendrick Lamar

2. “Sometimes I Sit and Think, and Sometimes I Just Sit,” Courtney Barnett

3. “The Bootleg Series, Vol. 12: 1965-’66 – The Cutting Edge,” Bob Dylan

4. “No Cities to Love,” Sleater-Kinney

5. “Art Angels,” Grimes

7. “Wildheart,” Miguel

7. “Lowland Hum,” Lowland Hum

8. “Divers,” Joanna Newsom

9. “St Germain,” St Germain

10. “All Fours,” Bosse-de-Nage

1. “Rolling in the Deep” by Adele (2011)

2. “Fuck You” by Cee-Lo Green (2010)

3. “Get Lucky” by Daft Punk (2013)

4. “Head” by Lydia Loveless (2014)

5. “Art of Almost” by Wilco (2011)

6. “No Church in the Wild” by Jay-Z and Kanye West, featuring Frank Ocean (2011)

7. “Emmylou” by First Aid Kit (2012)

8. “Airplanes” by B.o.B., featuring Hayley Williams (2010)

9. “Monster” by Kanye West, featuring Rick Ross, Nicki Minaj, Jay-Z and Bon Iver (2010)

10. “The Other Side” by Bruno Mars, featuring Cee-Lo Green and B.o.B. (2010)

Honorable mention:

“All About That Bass” by Meghan Trainor (2014)

“Q.U.E.E.N.” by Janelle Monae with Erykah Badu (2013)

“Pretty Saro” by Bob Dylan (2013)

“Drunk In Love” by Beyonce (2013)

“Salt” by Lori McKenna (2013)

“Wasted Days” by Cloud Nothings (2012)

“Call Me Maybe” by Carly Rae Jepsen (2012)

“Black Doll” by Siobhan Magnus (2011)

“Copenhagen” by Lucinda Willams (2011)

“Tik Tok” by Ke$ha (2010)

“Love the Way You Lie” by Eminem, featuring Rihanna (2010)

The Beyonce/Kanye/Beck hullaballoo at the Grammys got me thinking. With much respect to Beck (more so for his early work than his recent work), I think “Beyonce” was far and away the best of the nominees for “Best Album.” And, sure, Kanye’s a knucklehead, but he makes great albums. Halfway through the 2010s, here’s how I rank the best of pop music.

1. “My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy” by Kanye West (2010)

2. “Beyonce” by Beyonce (2013)

3. “Songs of Innocence” by U2 (2014)

4. “Somewhere Else” by Lydia Loveless (2014)

5. “Stone Rollin’ “ by Raphael Saadiq (2011)

6. “Pushin’ Against a Stone” by Valerie June (2013)

7. “Fossils” by Aoife O’Donovan (2013)

8. “The Civil Wars” by the Civil Wars (2013)

9. “Landing on a Hundred” by Cody Chesnutt (2012)

10. “Channel Orange” by Frank Ocean (2012)

HM: “The King of In Between” by Garland Jeffreys (2011), “The Whole Love” by Wilco (2011), “Sun Midnight Sun” by Sara Watkins (2012) and “Archandroid” by Janelle Monae (2010)