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I have long been considering doing a blog/journal to maybe offer up a little different perspective outside of the usual info etc. but it’s been one of those things that has remained on the to do list. I really wanted to so do it during the making of Little Honey because there were some good backstories that happened during the recording that didn’t really get told, but it just didn’t happen. Now that we are down here in a country where its already tomorrow I thought it might be a good time to take a take a trial run –and it’s a good way to kill some time. For now I’ll call it the Inside Job blog. Feedback welcome:
3/29
As it always does, the time off went by in a blur. Lu was asked to participate in a couple upcoming tribute projects –a tribute to the music of Greenwich Village in the 60’s and a tribute to the songwriter and children’s book author Shel Silverstein, and of course both had to be finished before we left.—. For each projects she got to choose the song and afboth cases she was a hard a having a hard time deciding, but after much consideration and discussion she made some great choices. For the Silverstein project she decided to do The Ballad Of Lucy Jordan. At first she hesitated in wanting to do it because she knew that Marianne Faithful had recorded a great version of it on her Broken English album.
But after listening to it while deciding she suddenly realized a very odd connection to the song. Her mother’s name was Lucy and her stepmother’s name is Jordan, and the topic of the song also hit very close to home. As a result of that she really dug into the song in the studio and recoded a very beautiful and moving version which is musically quite unlike anything she has ever recorded. For the Greenwich project she ended choosing to do a version of Bob Dylan’s Positively 4th St.., but like the Ballad Of Lucy Jordan she only wanted to do it if she could put a new spin on it. After trying to do it a couple different ways, including an attempt at a punky version, which didn’t quite work, she took a nervous break from the vocal booth. I say nervous because we were running out of time and it had to get done that night. While we were in the next room discussing what approach to try next, the band continued to play and just kind of fell into a quiet vibey late night groove led by Mr. Schermerhorn. I had gone back into the control room to discuss an idea with Mr. Liljestrand when Lucinda, without saying anything to anyone, headed back in to the vocal booth and put the headphones on. Not sure what she was actually going to do I told Mr. Liljestrand, who hadn’t seen her go back in, to hit record. The band was still playing and just like that she just started singing and what happened after that was just magical—with her eyes shut and arms underscoring every line it almost seemed like she was about to levitate. It also doesn’t really sound like anything she has ever done before; I wouldn’t call it a radical departure either– but it is truly a stunning version, and she is very thrilled with how both songs came out.Anyway, just like that here we are in Australia and we made it with no major international incidents, anxiety attacks, forgotten passports etc. It was quite funny watching Lucinda start to lean over to pet a very cute small dog in the Melbourne baggage claim area when she suddenly realized that it was “that” dog –The Bag Sniffer. I’ve been in a lot of airports and seen a lot of bag sniffing dogs but never one that looked like the mini-beagle that your grandfather used to have. I have to say that there’s something a little disconcerting when you consider the fact that the cute little fella could really take you down—as in 10-15 hard labor in an outback jail –in that 5 seconds that he’s sniffing your bag you never forget that Australia began its fine history as a British penal colony. Maybe I’ve just seen Papillon too many times.
Lu was very thrilled to learn that there is a nice spa here at the hotel, which was the perfect answer to shaking off her jetlag. Unfortunately it took longer than she expected and when she was finished she was not at all happy to learn that the shopping district closed at 6 pm, and the next day was press day. I of course was ecstatic. So was her bank account.4/3
The Melbourne part of the tour is now behind us as we are headed to Sydney and then a drive to Canberra. Melbourne went very well, after allowing everyone the a couple of days to get rid of the jetlag, by the time the first show came everybody was very ready to get out and play, and it really showed up in the shows. We got the news about Duane Jarvis the morning of the second show nd that made for a very sad and reflective day.
We had talked about Duane on the flight over, in fact he once toured Australia with her and she told me the story of their flight together in the middle of a thunderstorm with lightning outside the plane and she was very terrified and she said “Duane, look out there it ‘s lightning”, and he said “Yeah!! Isn’t it cool?”. She told me how Duane was always like that pesty little bother type to her and how that response was so typical Duane. After we got the news we both felt very grateful that we not only did we get to see Duane at the Valentine’s Day party that we had, but also that so many of his old friends came and got to see him one last time. We feel now that that party, as unlikely as it was to have happened, was for Duane.
The show the second night in Melbourne was something very very special. She of course added Still I Long For Your Kiss, which Duane co wrote with her, and she sang it with such a force, almost an anger, with eyes shut and arms flailing, it was as if she was shouting at the gods who take those close to us too early. After closing the show with Long Way To The Top, she came back out and sang Angel, hanging and pausing on some of the words for emphasis, it was just pure unadorned emotion. She walked off the stage with tears streaming down her face. Duane, my friend, I hope you were watching. You are missed.Terrific stuff, Tom. Thanks for the extra effort. Hope you’re able to keep this up. Great Lucy Jordan story – – can’t wait to hear that one.
Thanks, Tom, for the informative blog. Please continue blogging through Australia and New Zealand. Your work is much appreciated.
Wonderful blog, Tom. Love the insight and love learning about Lu, what makes her tick, how it transforms into her music and her performances. I hope you can continue. For me, it helps make the connection all the more. Beautiful.
Tom, it’s enough to make me read the “Lucinda in General” stream as much as I follow the “Lucinda on Tour” stream; thanks. You could get a job with The New York Times with all that “Mr. Schermerhorn” and “Mr. L…” business. I’m not sure what a “sticky” is, Lafayette, but if it makes an Inside Job blog more accessible to me/us, go for it.
@stoger wrote:
I’m not sure what a “sticky” is, Lafayette, but if it makes an Inside Job blog more accessible to me/us, go for it.
It is a thread that always appears (or “sticks”) at the top of the thread list of the forum it is in, regardless of whether it has a recent post in it or not.
Good idea, Lafayette – I’m all for it. And thanks for the “Inside Info”, “Inside Job”… 😉
Tom
As far as I know, I cannot create a “sticky.” The adminstrator has to do it. Hopefully TO will check in, see this, and make it so. Good suggestion, CB.
Trying to stay caught up is proving to be a challenge:
4/6
There are occasionally times when we are on the road that causes me to wonder how she does it, how the band and the crew do it– how anybody does it. You do your best to plan the shows to avoid the difficult days, but sometimes shit just happens.. After flying to Sydney, we woke up to a complete power blackout that had shutdown most of Sydney. After calling down to the front desk- we quickly realized that we were f’ed. Everything was out and the hotel was down to one elevator running on an emergency generator and they strongly recommended not using it unless we had an emergency. They also were not allowing hotel staff to use it either so that ruled out room service. At that moment we quickly realized that we were trapped on the 24th floor in lovely downtown Sydney–CBD as they call it here. Not a great way to start the day because we were facing a 3 ½ hour drive to Canberra to do the show that night and then the 3 ½ hr drive back immediately after the show. The plan was that Lu would get ready for the show before we left Sydney, but with the power out there wasn’t much she could do. At least we had a great view overlooking the Sydney Opera house. After close to 2 hours the power did eventually get restored and we were able to leave in time to get to Canberra for the show. Lu somehow managed to stay in great spirits all day but was met with a rather difficult audience which just made a hard day a little harder. It was great to read later some of the positive responses in this forum about the show, that people had driven in to to see the show etc. I later shared that with Lucinda and it really helped her to hear that. These are also the nights that really separate the men/women from the boys/girls –that ability to fight through less than great circumstances, that you have to have if going to succeed at anything–and she really has it. While it may not have been her best show she really hung in there and turned it into a very solid show. For the drive back to Sydney, Lucinda decided to get on the mini-bus with the band because she needed a little cheering up, and they are always great for that. It was a long drive back but some wine was consumed and the band- well one member in particular shared some rather incredible tales of colorful moments in his touring history. Let’s just leave it at that. This was also the night that the debate about Long Way To The Top started to became a serious topic…….
More on that later.Well, I can’t quite “leave it at that,” Inside J. Could the stories have involved Iggy Pop, David Bowie, and/or a man with the initials of ES? Throw us some crumbs. . . .
Tom, interesting read about the day of the Canberra show. I flew in from Adelaide for that show and agree that the audience may have been a bit reticent. The ACT is full of retired public servants and whilst a number of them appeared to be at the theatre maybe they were just too tired out after a hard days’ gardening and crossword puzzles?
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