The other night we watched a performance by Tom Waits from 1978, filmed at the Austin City Limits series. It was stunning. OK, I’m overboard in the enthusiasm department. I’m constantly “stunned and amazed,” as my friend Jack puts it. Stunned and amazed — may it continue ever thus — I ain’t backin off.
This concert knocked me out. The persona — holy shit! The songs, the tight, elegant band…Reminded me of Bob Dylan’s breakthrough songs, where you just couldn’t figure out where those wildly poetic words and great music were coming from. Another planet?
I’m watching/listening to/ it right now. The 3rd or 4th song, starting about 19:20, “A Sweet Little Bullet From A Pretty Blue Gun,” is on as I write — killer. This is just a radiant performance.
https://video.pbs.org/video/2179574410/About Lloyd Kahn
Lloyd Kahn started building his own home in the early '60s and went on to publish books showing homeowners how they could build their own homes with their own hands. He got his start in publishing by working as the shelter editor of the
Whole Earth Catalog with Stewart Brand in the late '60s. He has since authored six highly-graphic books on homemade building, all of which are interrelated. The books, "The Shelter Library Of Building Books," include
Shelter,
Shelter II (1978),
Home Work (2004),
Builders of the Pacific Coast (2008),
Tiny Homes (2012), and
Tiny Homes on the Move (2014). Lloyd operates from Northern California studio built of recycled lumber, set in the midst of a vegetable garden, and hooked into the world via five Mac computers. You can check out videos (one with over 450,000 views) on Lloyd by doing a search on YouTube:
This kind of music is good for the soul.
Me from NOLA.Bar hopping one night saw Tom and Ricky Lee Jones sitting in bar together.
Two beautiful souls.
Thanks!
Funny you mentioned "stunned and amazed." I thought for a while that if someone wrote a biography of you, Lloyd, a good title would be "Lloyd Kahn….a Man Amazed"…but then I rethought it and decided I'd save that for my headstone….the "A Man Amazed" part….I'd leave you out of that transaction. I am so glad you like Tom Waits…we need more "genuine" in the world. I am enjoying the heck out of your blog…thankyou!
Lloyd you might get a kick out of this.. it's a clip of TW on the Mike Douglas show, one of the other guests was Marvin Hamlisch. From 1976….
http://glenntstanton.com/2013/03/23/tom-waits-on-the-mike-douglas-show-1976/
Peace
Gill