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 DAVID BLUE--Elegy from Leonard Cohen

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T O P I C    R E V I E W
lemonade kid Posted - 23/02/2012 : 02:58:02



These 23 Days In September
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_o-SwLwK-SI&feature=related

Leonard Cohen’s elegy for David Blue:

He died running, he fell beside the square, to the street where, many years before he had begun to sing, he fell in the fullest expression of vanity and discipline. Many of us, in our songs, had touched on the type of man that he became. Dylan raised up such a ragged hero many times before he turned to solace in the shadow of American Chistianity. Joni Mitchell had spoken simply of that constant ambiguous lover, spoken of him over and over, before she entered the beautiful technology of jazz and virtuosity. Kris Kristofferson had described that gambler playing his way from Nashville to Hollywood, where finally the dangers of the game were too coarse for poetry.

David Blue was the peer of any singer in this country, and he knew it, and he coveted their audiences and their power, he claimed them as his rightful due. And when he could not have them, his disappointment became so dazzling, his greed assumed such purity, his appetite such honesty, and he stretched his arm so wide, that we were all able to recognize ourselves, and we fell in love with him. And as we grew older, as something in the public realm corrupted itself into irrelevance, the integrity of his ambition, the integrity of his failure, became, for those who knew him,increasingly important and appealing, and he moved swiftly, with effortless intimacy into the private life of anyone who recognized him, and our private lives became for him the theaters that no one would book for him, and he sang for us in hotel rooms and kitchens, and he became that poet and that gambler, and he established a defiant style to revive those soiled archetypes. In the last few years, something happened to his voice and his guitar, something very deep and sweet entered, his timing became immaculate and we knew that we were listening to one of the finest, one of the few men singing in America and I was happy then and perhaps happier now to say that I told him that.

He did not put away his cowboy boots. He did not take a part-time job, he was fully employed in his defiance and his originality and his faithfulness to a ground, a style, an image of which he himself was the last and best champion exponent, a style that many of us had wanted, courted, and had not won.And finally, toward the end of his short and graceful life, he had the grace to recognize the woman to whom he had always been singing, and he courted and married Nesya and because a woman of talent and beauty does not choose lightly, she made manifest for all to plainly see the qualities of love and generosity that he had forced out of his distress. The death of such a man unifies us, and recalls to us how precious we are to one another

--Leonard Cohen

You will come back again
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fAo-AR4ZS74&feature=related

Listen to David Blue...






________________________________________________

We are raised to honor all the wrong explorers & discoverers-
-thieves planting flags, murderers carrying crosses.
Let us at last praise the colonizers of dreams.

-Peter S. Beagle 1973
13   L A T E S T    R E P L I E S    (Newest First)
lemonade kid Posted - 09/11/2016 : 15:43:12
David Blue Live: Another One Like Me & Come On John ("Stories")


American folk musician David Blue live on Swedish television July 7, 1972.
David Blue performs the songs "Another One Like Me" and "Come On John" from the album "Stories" + there's a short interview with him.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z8y4FiQdYgk

Wonderful!

________________________________________________

The actual writing of a song usually comes in the form of a realisation.
I can't contrive a song. Ð GENE CLARK
lemonade kid Posted - 22/02/2014 : 20:42:46
Blue appeared in Human Highway (1982) by Neil Young. Human Highway premiered in 1983 after Blue's death.

Neil is working on rereleasing HUMAN HIGHWAY, the way he intended it to be.

Human Highway is a 1982 comedy film starring and co-directed by Neil Young under his pseudonym Bernard Shakey. Dean Stockwell co-directed the film and acted along with Russ Tamblyn, Dennis Hopper, and the band Devo. Included is a collaborative performance of "Hey Hey, My My (Into the Black)" by Devo and Young with Booji Boy singing lead vocals and Young playing lead guitar.

The film was shown in only select theaters and was not released on VHS until 1995. It received poor reviews upon its premiere but has received favorable reviews more recently.



________________________________________________

Well, I've wrestled with reality for 35 years, Doctor,
and I'm happy to state I finally won out over it.
--Elwood P. Dowd
lemonade kid Posted - 11/09/2013 : 20:57:52
Run Run Run
from Cupid's Arrow
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4n1evduDZi8



She Goes By (live)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GiHM0hotkPo



Lady O' Lady
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wXC8SFwYUNc

Nice Baby and the Angel
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pFEmTrQCW3o


________________________________________________

Old hippies never die, they just ramble on.
-lk
lemonade kid Posted - 28/08/2013 : 21:22:31
David Blue- Live at THe unicorn Coffee House 1967
A really rare treasure and a great find! and some Kirsty MacColl live



from The Rare Stuff.blogspot

So far, I've tried to avoid posting stuff on TRS that's available on other blogs -- hence the name of this blog! If it was something I got from another source, but that blog or its links were no longer active, I've re-upped and posted it here. But as far as the boots that are still sitting out there in some blogosphere backwaters, it occurred to me that, even though I myself have spent wayyy too many hours scouring the 'net for obscure recordings of my favorite artists, that doesn't mean that other interested parties know they're out there. So I'm starting a series of posts pointing you to other blogs you might not stumble across, and you can follow their links to the files in question. While you're there, scout the rest of their blogs out, and if you like, tell 'em I sent ya!

Today, two wonderful recordings from artists I was amazed to find had even been bootlegged at all (kinda like when I found the Mary Margaret O'Hara boot I posted). First, from back in '67, we have Dylan cohort David Blue at Boston's Unicorn Coffee House. The sound is a bit fuzzy but amazing for a tape of that vintage. And whatever it lacks in clarity, the show is ESSENTIAL for anyone who likes Blue at all, even if all you like his one undeniably great song, "These 23 Days in September" -- because this is the DEFINITIVE RECORDING of that one. The titular album version is good and atmospheric, if a bit too brooding overall. His later remake is pointless in the extreme. Some cover versions have been nice, but not quite perfect. But here, backed by some of New York folk-rock's finest (no credits, but I'm betting that's Paul Harris on keys, for one), and taking the tune at a brisk but still contemplative pace (kudos to that drummer), all the song's atmosphere rises and audibly fills the room. And Blue's singing, strangely, sounds better live than he usually sounded in the studio.

Let me say this again so it jumps out:

THIS is the DEFINITIVE VERSION of one of the GREATEST FOLK-ROCK BALLADS of the SIXTIES!

OK, I'll calm down. The second tape is from England's sweetheart, the poor, late great Kirsty MacColl. This tape, from a BBC broadcast, finds her at the Guinness Fleadh festival in London in '93, at one of my favorite points of her career -- having just released Electric Landlady but still doing plenty of stuff from previous album Kite. The EL songs sound great in live band format, especially "Walking Down Madison", in contrast to the more studio-bound sound of that album. And her personality shines through in her stage banter as well. R.I.P. Kirsty.

Thanks to the original posters -- hope you guys don't mind me linking to ya -- not to mention the original tapers! Especially whomever hauled some no doubt clunky recording equipment down to the Unicorn Coffee House in December of '67 -- you were a visionary!

Scoot on over and enjoy these two stellar examples of The Rare Stuff!

Mr. Blue:
http://sinsetasnohayparaiso.blogspot.com/2008/05/david-blue-unicorn-coffee-house-1967.html

Ms. MacColl:
http://mixingdesk.blogspot.com/2008/12/kirsty-maccoll.html
Posted by The PopCulturist at 6:40 PM
Labels: David Blue, Kirsty MacColl

________________________________________________

Old hippies never die, they just ramble on.
-lk
lemonade kid Posted - 10/06/2013 : 20:37:20
More David Blue from grooveshark...22 songs for your day...

http://grooveshark.com/artist/David+Blue/790729

David Blue was a folk singer songwriter who came to prominence as part of the Greenwich Village scene that also produced Eric Andersen, Bob Dylan and Phil Ochs. Blue’s most famous song, “Outlaw Man” was made so thanks to being covered by the Eagles on their Desperado album. Blue turned to acting during the mid-’70s, appearing in a Wim Wenders film as well as Human Highway, directed by Neil Young. David Blue, 41, suffered a fatal heart attack while jogging on December 2, 1982.

OUTLAW MAN
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yI8lfbx2FKc





________________________________________________

Old hippies never die, they just ramble on.
-lk
lemonade kid Posted - 26/04/2013 : 01:55:34
DAVID BLUE

Looking For A Friend...maybe my favorite of David's but he is someone to definitely check out! A lost treasure unfairly compared to Dylan; one of Bobby Z's best friends.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hgJHnZ8hwd8





David Blue was born Stuart David Cohen, in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, on February I8th, I94I, the son of a Jewish father and an Irish Catholic mother of French Canadian heritage. His parents’ wedding had been prompted by David’s impending arrival. Soon after David was born, his father was sent overseas with the Armed Forces and did not return until after the war was over, when David was four and a half years old. David recalled that his father "came hobbling home on crutches and stayed depressed all his life," permanently injured and trapped in an unwanted marriage. His mother worked as a hairdresser as well as bringing up David and a daughter from one of her two previous marriages. David and his older half sister, Suzanne, were close friends and allies against the rages and silences of their parents.

As a teenager, David was alienated, overweight, and restless and “had the constant feeling that I had to get away," he remembered. His half sister, Suzanne, got away. "She ended up busted for prostitution in New York City in I963", David said, and when she died in an automobile accident a few months later, David was shattered. The gulf between him and his parents widened when he discovered that they had kept secret from him the existence of his two other half sisters. At seventeen, David quit high school, left home, and joined the Navy. He was soon thrown out for his “Inability to adjust to a military way of life.”

Hitchhiking back east, David discovered Greenwich Village. At last, an environment where he did not have to adjust, but could simply hang out. He got a job washing dishes in the Gaslight Cafe." Allen Ginsberg used to do readings there, Jack Elliot played guitar; I ran into Bob (Dylan) in the kitchen." David took acting classes, wrote poetry and songs, and began performing in Village clubs. When he began singing professionally, at the urging of Dylan and others, he changed his name to Blue. "Actually, I got the name from Eric Andersen. We were together one day, and I knew there were two other David Cohens in the music business, one with Country Joe and The Fish, the other a studio cat in LA. We felt that was too many. So Eric said: “You’ve got such blue eyes, you should be David Blue. I decided to do it. I called Ramblin’ Jack Eliot and Dylan because they had changed their names and Dylan thought it was very funny and started singing to me,” It’s all over now, David Blue,” said David in an interview.




Blue quickly became part of the inner circle of artists and writers fomenting the social and music revolution of the sixties. In his book on Bob Dylan, Anthony Scaduto wrote “The Dylan Village group was a tight little circle: Victor Maimudes as bodyguard; Phil Ochs, Eric Andersen, Dave Van Ronk and Tom Paxton as sort of anvils off which he could flash his verbal pyrotechnics; Bob Neuwirth and David Blue straddling both roles. Few others could break into their scene … Of the singers and writers on the scene at this time, David Blue appears to have been closest to Dylan...” "He needed a friend," Blue said. "So he started including me in his scene and I got tight with him.

In an interview published in the British newspaper Zigzag, David said, "Dylan just happened to be there. Maybe he was the sy’bol of the time, or the spearhead, but we were friends, and at one point he encouraged me. “That”s a great song you wrote#8209; here’s a typewriter, take this, and let’s go up to the woods.” And that got me more interest in songwriting.” As Dylan’s fame grew, "I didn’t feel it was Dylan and me, two guys going places. It was him, and I’d go out and get a cab if he needed a cab. Not like a lackey, but just that he couldn’t go out and get a cab. But it was an equal exchange," Scaduto quoted.

By 1966, Blue released an album of his own songs, his work reflecting his close bond with Dylan. He then moved towards a more “aggressive and personalized style,” fronting a band, The American Patrol, which “anticipated the rock avant-garde in its blend of high powered electric music and theatrical presentation.” His next album, These 23 Days in September, was “one of the first, and finest “deescalation” records of I968, the arrangements smooth and ... consistent with the romantic tone” of the songs. With another record deal underway, David and his girlfriend Sara Morris, moved to Los Angeles. Theirs was a volatile relationship; after many breakups, Sara finally left David and went to live in San Francisco. He followed her there and tried, in vain, to persuade her to return. Me (I970) and Stories (I972) were two albums which reflected this period. Stories, a record full of “lost love’s longing” and “eloquent and haunting power”, was chosen by several reviewers as one of the best records of I972.

In David’s next album, Nice Baby and the Angel, he continued to unsparingly reveal himself through his work. This Graham Nash produced record was described as “impressive in every aspect, of devastating honesty,” and “artistry...singular and very moving.”

Despite the esteem of his colleagues and the loyal enthusiasm of his fans, Blue never became a major “star.” He was perhaps best known as an “eminence grise,” an influence upon and close friend to some of the artists whose public fame eclipsed his own. Leonard Cohen, in his eulogy to David, stated "David Blue was the peer of any singer in this country, and he knew it, and he coveted their audiences and their power, he claimed them as his rightful due. And when he could not have them, his disappointment became so dazzling, his greed assumed such purity, his appetite such honesty, and he stretched his arms so wide, that we were all able to recognize ourselves, and we fell in love with him. And as we grew older, as something in the public realm corrupted itself into irrelevance, the integrity of his ambition, the integrity of his failure, became for those who knew him, increasingly appealing, and he moved swiftly, with effortless intimacy, into the private life of anyone who recognized him, and our private lives became for him the theaters that no one would book for him, and he sang for us in hotel rooms and kitchens, and he became that poet and that gambler, and he established a defiant style to revive those soiled archetypes.

David was an actor, as well as a musician, perhaps best known for his role in Renaldo and Clara, Dylan’s I976 film of The Rolling Thunder Review. As an actor, Blue had great timing, presence, and naturalness. He had several roles in noted films and plays, including The American Friend, directed by Wim Wenders, Human Highway, by Neil Young, and Studs Lonnigan by Tommy Flannery. His last work as a film actor was in Uncertain Futures directed by Nesya Blue.

David and Nesya met when David was invited to star in a stage production in Montreal, Nesya’s native city. "And finally, toward the end of his short and graceful life, he had the grace to recognize the woman to whom he had always been singing, and he courted and married Nesya, and because a woman of talent and beauty does not choose lightly, she made manifest for all to plainly see the qualities of love and generosity that he had forged out of his distress," continued Leonard.

David and Nesya married and moved to New York City. Back in Greenwich Village after nearly a decade in California. David continued to write prose, poetry and music: "in the last few years, something happened to his voice and his guitar, something very deep and sweet entered, his timing became immaculate and we knew that we were listening to one of the finest, one of the few men singing in America and I was happy then and perhaps happier now to say that I told him that." Leonard’s eulogy continued.

In 1982, Blue danced and sang in a Broadway production. He appeared in the soap opera All My Children and starred in American Days at the Manhattan Theatre Club. Active in the music scene, he encouraged younger musicians, played gigs, and prepared material for a new album. In one of his songs from this period, a ballad called Children of Rock and Roll, David wrote: “Time has taken its toll on the children of rock and roll. But 1 survived to tell the tale. Others are dead or still in jail." On the 2nd of December, 1982, David Blue died of a sudden and massive heart attack while jogging around Washington Square Park. He was 41 years old.


Left to Right: David Blue, Lainie Kazan, Dylan, Sally Kirkland, De Niro, Ronee Blakely, and Martine Getty.

Another One Like Me
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fz46zmWqddY

House Of Changing Faces
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O48Dgq9TeoM

You Will Come Back Again
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fAo-AR4ZS74



________________________________________________

Old hippies never die, they just ramble on.
-lk
lemonade kid Posted - 27/02/2012 : 22:55:05
More fine David Blue

Rare tape..live
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GiHM0hotkPo

Cupid's Arror
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F4EEJx8labY&feature=related




...good friends, Dylan & Blue

________________________________________________

We are raised to honor all the wrong explorers & discoverers-
-thieves planting flags, murderers carrying crosses.
Let us at last praise the colonizers of dreams.

-Peter S. Beagle 1973
lemonade kid Posted - 23/02/2012 : 20:13:12
More from Blue's wonderful "Stories" LP...

Looking For A Friend"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hgJHnZ8hwd8





________________________________________________

We are raised to honor all the wrong explorers & discoverers-
-thieves planting flags, murderers carrying crosses.
Let us at last praise the colonizers of dreams.

-Peter S. Beagle 1973
lemonade kid Posted - 23/02/2012 : 19:45:01
For a wonderful rare radio interview and performance from David Blue with Jackson Browne WBCN Boston 1972-73....


here is a clip....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YlhlmEdZ7pU

David and Jackson duet...great slide show..note the center artist in the Basement Tapes pic..yeah it's Blue
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MgM157aSoU8&feature=related

d/l here....
http://guysands.blogspot.com/2010/07/david-blue-jackson-browne-live-1972.html

________________________________________________

We are raised to honor all the wrong explorers & discoverers-
-thieves planting flags, murderers carrying crosses.
Let us at last praise the colonizers of dreams.

-Peter S. Beagle 1973
lemonade kid Posted - 23/02/2012 : 18:20:26
quote:
Originally posted by Signed RW

Beautifully written stuff from Leonard Cohen; the words of a poet, clearly from the heart. Thanks for posting it, Scott. My own all time favorite David Blue track, "Another One Like Me" from his late 1972 album "Stories," is on You Tube. One of those songs that came out just as I happened to be actually living it, as happens to most of us at one time or another. And of course, hearing it will always take one right back to that particular time and place....

Sure, rick...great times and memories.

Songs like this heal your soul..."Another One Like Me"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fz46zmWqddY&feature=related

________________________________________________

We are raised to honor all the wrong explorers & discoverers-
-thieves planting flags, murderers carrying crosses.
Let us at last praise the colonizers of dreams.

-Peter S. Beagle 1973
SignedRW Posted - 23/02/2012 : 17:50:52
Beautifully written stuff from Leonard Cohen; the words of a poet, clearly from the heart. Thanks for posting it, Scott. My own all time favorite David Blue track, "Another One Like Me" from his late 1972 album "Stories," is on You Tube. One of those songs that came out just as I happened to be actually living it, as happens to most of us at one time or another. And of course, hearing it will always take one right back to that particular time and place....
lemonade kid Posted - 23/02/2012 : 16:59:33
quote:
Originally posted by bob f.

I went through a few LP copies of Blue's 1st album on Electra, one of my favorite albums, which I have always thought was my little secret, my own little unknown, un-appreciated album that I loved since 1966, and I couldn't care less about the disrespect he got from critics. I liked him, and played that album a lot! I collected as many of his LPs as I could, and still couldn't understand why he wasn't popular. I always knew his self-titled 1st album is a classic, magical masterpiece, which grows on you, and makes you joyfull, in awe, mystery, poetry soaked, blissed by its cool rockin' folk fantastic musicianship and art! Thanx, lk, for reviving David Blue's name.....


Thanks for your kind words for David Blue, bob. I can't understand the bad rap either....Blue wasn't Dylan. Many people fail to understand the the dynamic of the scene in those days. In the Village & folk scene there was such a sharing of music it was hard to tell who influenced who.....

Dylan was Ochs, Von Ronk was Paxton, Anderson was Blue, Mitchell was Cohen, Baez was Denny, McShee was Jansch, Richard was Linda, Briggs was Drake....no one stole from the other, they shared their music and experiences and became themselves.




David Blue (February 18, 1941—December 2, 1982), born Stuart David Cohen, was an American singer-songwriter and actor.

David Blue was an integral part of the Greenwich Village folk music scene in New York, which included Bob Dylan, Phil Ochs, Dave Van Ronk, Tom Paxton, and Eric Andersen. Blue is best known for writing the song "Outlaw Man" for the Eagles, which was included on their 1973 Desperado album, as well as released as their second single. Blue's original version of "Outlaw Man" was the lead track of his own Nice Baby and the Angel album, issued on CD, with the entire David Blue catalogue, in 2007 on Wounded Bird Records.

Blue joined Dylan's Rolling Thunder Revue in 1975 and appeared in Renaldo and Clara, the 1978 movie that was filmed during that tour. Blue acted in other films including, The American Friend (1977), directed by Wim Wenders, The Ordeal of Patty Hearst (a 1979 TV movie) and Human Highway (1982) by Neil Young. Human Highway premiered in 1983 after Blue's death. Blue also performed onstage in Stephen Poliakoff's play American Days at Manhattan Theatre Club in New York City, in December 1980, directed by Jacques Levy.

Blue died of a heart attack in December 1982 at the age of 41, while jogging in Washington Square Park in New York City.


* Singer Songwriter Project (Elektra, 1965) (Blue, who is credited as David Cohen, is one of four artists)
* David Blue (Elektra, 1966)
* These 23 Days in September (Reprise, 1968)
* Me (Reprise, 1970) (released under the name S. David Cohen)
* Stories (Asylum, 1972)
* Nice Baby and the Angel, (Asylum, 1973)
* Com'n Back for More (Asylum, 1975)
* Cupid's Arrow (Asylum, 1976)


________________________________________________

We are raised to honor all the wrong explorers & discoverers-
-thieves planting flags, murderers carrying crosses.
Let us at last praise the colonizers of dreams.

-Peter S. Beagle 1973
bob f. Posted - 23/02/2012 : 13:19:52
I went through a few LP copies of Blue's 1st album on Electra, one of my favorite albums, which I have always thought was my little secret, my own little unknown, un-appreciated album that I loved since 1966, and I couldn't care less about the disrespect he got from critics. I liked him, and played that album a lot! I collected as many of his LPs as I could, and still couldn't understand why he wasn't popular. I always knew his self-titled 1st album is a classic, magical masterpiece, which grows on you, and makes you joyfull, in awe, mystery, poetry soaked, blissed by its cool rockin' folk fantastic musicianship and art! Thanx, lk, for reviving David Blue's name.....

...what the world needs now...

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