Looking back over the past month and a bit, I think the two records I've played most in the Uncut office have been a new Grateful Dead live set from 1976, and the forthcoming second album from New York's LCD Soundsystem. Not sure what this says about my taste or my state of mind.
There's a great, contentious review in the next issue of Uncut by Peter Shapiro. Addressing the expanded reissues of their first seven albums, Peter asserts, "Sly & the Family Stone were the quintessential artists of the 1960s - the only ones who actually put the rhetoric of ‘60s idealism into practice"
THE NEVER-ENDING SAGA OF THE NEVER-ENDING TOUR
Just some thoughts on the comments about Bob Dylan’s 1987 Wembley show, posted below by Steve, who was at that show, didn’t recognise a single song Bob played and is baffled when people describe Dylan as a genius for trashing his back catalogue ‘for his own amusement’. Steve, as he says, just doesn’t get it.
Since I made a passing reference to the forthcoming Stooges album yesterday, it occurred to me that I should write something more about this fairly auspicious event. It is, after all, the first record Iggy and the Ashetons have made together for 34 years. And it is, also. . .
I haven’t been drinking, and I’m not being merely mopey or hoping that someone with the right kind of clout will read this and give me as a result of what I’m about to say a substantial pay rise – I really mean it when I say I can’t think of a better job than editing Uncut.
We're often a bit sceptical about reunions, so when the new Dinosaur Jr album turned up at the end of last week, I guess many of us at Uncut feared the worst.
There were years when I seemed to be out all day and up all night, in pursuit of great rock'n'roll and a generally rowdy time.
Those days are now somewhat behind me, and I'd have to say that it mostly takes something special to lure me forth into the sweating throngs of yore.
