Welcome back to the Real Gone Singles Bar, the place where we explore some of the more interesting tracks to land in our inbox over the past few weeks. This selection takes in a perfect piece of soul, something from Australia with a bluesy leaning, another number from some UK ska veterans, a superb cover tune…and more besides. As always, we hope you find something new to enjoy!
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2023 seems to have flown by. We’ve already made it to December, and that can mean only one thing. It’s time for The Real Gone Advent Calendar!
As is traditional, over the next twenty four days, we’ll be posting a new link. It might be a video. It might be audio only. It might be an old favourite. It might be something brand new and unfamiliar. The only way to find out is by coming back each day and opening a new window!
In 2016, Robert Rex Waller released his solo debut ‘Fancy Free’. On that record, the sometime collaborator with I See Hawks In L.A. put his own stamp on a well curated selection of cover tunes, often with mixed results. Great versions of Neil Young’s often overlooked ‘Albuquerque’ and Dylan’s ‘She Belongs To Me’ gave the album an easily approachable core, whilst a drastically reworked version of The Doors’ ‘Crystal Ship’ showed how Waller was unafraid of rebuilding material from the ground up. Even when the material that wasn’t quite as interesting, showed off a man with a rich voice. The album certainly could have done without the misjudged version of ‘Waterloo Sunset’, but the good often outweighed the bad.
Considering how Bruce Springsteen has long been a devotee of the music from Phil Spector’s stable and many of his deeper album cuts convey the sounds of Detroit via their horns and storytelling, he’s taken a long time to get around to recording an album of soul covers. Perhaps that has much to do with him being a prolific songwriter himself – Bruce has effectively shelved albums and albums worth of material that many artists would consider top tier work – meaning that recording other peoples’ songs has never seemed like a priority.
A 90 minute running time might seem short for one his live shows compared to the regular standard that’s been set by Bruce Springsteen over the years, but for the 1979 ‘No Nukes’ concert, performed at Madison Square Garden in front of a packed house, it’s very much a case of quality over quantity.
Although it has spent many years on the shelf, the show is an important one, in that it showcases the classic line-up of the E Street Band at the peak of their powers, somewhere between the well documented ‘Darkness’ shows and the release of the well-loved double LP ‘The River’.