David de Sola's Blog, page 4

The Unintended Consequences of Brexit

Read my take on the immediate aftermath of the Brexit vote.

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Facts Matter

I recently joined Medium and published my first article there, titled “The Fact Checker’s Worst Nightmare.”

You can follow me on my profile page there.

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A Guide to the Unreleased Layne Staley Material

The subject of unreleased Layne Staley material received renewed attention today after this post at Alternative Nation.  I covered this subject in my book Alice In Chains: The Untold Story and thought it would be worth going into some detail here:

Are any of the unreleased tracks from leftover Alice in Chains material?

No.

When was it written and recorded?

The vast majority of the material is probably from the 1987-1988 period, during the end of Alice N’ Chains, Layne’s glam metal band, and the earliest days of Alice in Chains. The songs were written and recorded by Ron Holt, a local  musician who was a friend and mentor to Layne.  [Note: Ron Holt also wrote “It’s Coming After,” the Second Coming song Layne sang guest vocals for.] Layne would have been 20 or 21 years old at the time he recorded these songs.  This material predates Alice in Chains: Facelift wasn’t released until August of 1990.

I’ve heard some of these recordings that have appeared online over the years.  Others were described to me by Ron Holt and James Bergstrom [Layne’s close friend and drummer in Alice N’ Chains, who played drums on these recordings] during interviews for my book.

Is there any material from Layne’s later years?  

Yes.

There is one song, titled “The Things You Do,” that Layne recorded guest vocals on at least three versions of. The first version dates to 1988 and was recorded with Ron Holt.  The second and third versions were re-recorded with Jesse Holt [Ron’s brother] in summer of 1996 and November of 1997 for a project that went under the moniker the Despisley Brothers. I’ve heard the 1996 and 1997 recordings. Here’s what I wrote about these recordings in my book:

Musically and lyrically, the two later versions are the same. Stylistically, Layne’s vocals sound very different from any of his previous work. The difference is that in the 1997 version, he sounds indifferent, with no real power or feeling in the performance. Jason Buttino, who has recordings of both versions, attributes the change to the fact that the second version was recorded more than a year after Demri’s death. Buttino also said Jesse Holt— who declined to be interviewed for this book— had to boost the level on Layne’s vocals in the 1997 version because his voice was so soft and quiet.

This is the only unreleased solo material that I am aware Layne recorded post-1996. [It is possible there is more material out there, but I’m not aware of it.] He moved into his U District condo sometime after buying the property in April of 1997. Alice in Chains producer Toby Wright told me he set up a home recording studio in the condo, so Layne had the means to write and record material if he was so inclined.  However, Layne’s stepfather, stepbrother and sister told me on the record that they were not aware of any solo demos he might have recorded during his later years.  The only person who would know for certain is his mother, Nancy Layne McCallum, who turned down my request for an interview.

Layne had agreed to record a guest vocal for the band Taproot in April of 2002. Unfortunately, it never happened because he passed away shortly before the recording session was scheduled to take place.

UPDATE: According to comments from Jesse Holt on the Alternative Nation website, any possible release of this  material has been delayed by the Layne Staley Estate until the resolution of Nancy Layne McCallum’s lawsuit against Alice in Chains. Until that happens, Holt wrote, the estate would not be granting any permission for the use of Layne’s name or likeness for anything, which in this particular case would be essential to credibly promote the project’s release.

UPDATE II: Alice N’ Chains producer Tim Branom asked Layne’s mother if any of his unreleased material from home recordings would be released. Her response to Tim’s question, which Jesse Holt takes some issue with in the comments mentioned in the previous update, reads:

There is nothing. We’ve listened to everything and — Just because he had the equipment didn’t mean that he had the professional ability to pull it all together. I know that he practiced on it a lot. Just unfinished little ditties. And I don’t even know if he did them. It might have been a friend going “doodly-wop”. I don’t know. His music room was completely pristine and clean even though the rest of the house was an artist’s home. So I value the possibility, but no. Don’t you suppose that after 13 years if there was something valuable, it would’ve been heard by now?

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Layne Staley vs. the PMRC

A few months ago, I wrote about the thirtieth anniversary of the PMRC hearing, as well as Layne Staley’s public comment on a local television program in opposition to any kind of censorship.  I’m revisiting the subject today because someone found an image of Layne on that show and posted it on an Alice in Chains Facebook group. (I’ve confirmed the authenticity of the image with Layne’s close friend and former bandmate Johnny Bacolas, who attended the taping with him.)

Here are the two paragraphs I wrote about it in my book:

During this time, much of the attention among musicians was on the Parents Music Resource Center. Cofounded by Tipper Gore, the PMRC was created to raise awareness about the violent, sexual, or occult content in popular music, which the group argued could have a negative impact on children. The PMRC was lobbying for the creation of a voluntary ratings system for explicit content. Their efforts culminated in the famous hearing before the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation on September 19, 1985, which featured testimony from the PMRC on one side and, as a counterpoint, the musicians Frank Zappa, John Denver, and Dee Snider. In retrospect, two years later, Tipper Gore told the New York Times that the hearings were a mistake. “The hearings gave the misperception that there was censorship involved.”

A few weeks after the hearing, KOMO’s television talk show Town Meeting did an episode about the controversy. Layne and Bacolas were in the audience. The Seattle Times did a write-up on the episode and noted Layne’s comments, writing, “Layne Staley, a Lynnwood teen who plays in a heavy-metal group called ‘Sleze,’ says, ‘Our lyrics are all positive—“we don’t use bad language or sing about drugs and sex—but I just want the freedom to write about what I want.’” This is likely the first time he appeared on television, and the first time he was quoted in a newspaper.

 

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Prince Remembered

I was absolutely devastated to find out that Prince died in his home this morning. It seems as if lately people have been writing a lot of obituaries and tributes for musicians in the not too distant past, and it’s only April! At the rate we’re going, this is going to be the worst year for musicians since 1970.

As a child of the eighties, I remember hearing Purple Rain on radio or MTV around the time it came out and his career was going supernova.  To put it another way, I can’t even think of or remember a time that I didn’t know his name or his music.

He was a stellar performer, musician, songwriter, and producer. Equal parts James Brown and Jimi Hendrix, he was a true musical genius, in a time when that term gets thrown around and overused a lot.  Even though he was renown most as a performer, I’m amazed at how underrated as a guitar player he was to most non-musicians.  Since the news broke this morning, people have been raving about his performance at the 2004 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction, where he played a killer guitar solo on “While My Guitar Gently Weeps.”

His influence goes beyond recorded music.  Remember, it was his song “Darling Nikki” which got Tipper Gore to start the PMRC, leading ultimately to the creation of the infamous “Parental Advisory” stickers we still see on albums to this day.  His body of work wasn’t even limited to himself.  He wrote hits for other artists: Chaka Khan’s “I Feel For You,” Sheila E’s “The Glamourous Life,” The Bangles’s “Manic Monday,” and Sinead O’Connor’s “Nothing Compares 2 U.”

A few other highlights I want to point out: his show-stealing cover of Radiohead’s “Creep” at Coachella, and his Super Bowl halftime show, which many consider to the best ever.

What an amazing man.

What an amazing musician.

What an amazing body of work.

What an amazing legacy.

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Thanks For The Memories

Confetti explosion… #mambaout #mambaday #thankyoukobe #kobeslastgame #thanksforthememories

A photo posted by David de Sola (@daviddesola) on Apr 13, 2016 at 11:29pm PDT

There is a widespread cliche about journalism being the first draft of history, and in my experience there is an element of truth to it for me, personally. I was a history major in college, but also lived and traveled abroad extensively growing up. The impact that had on me was showing that people and faraway places written about in books weren’t abstract concepts but real things that were lived, seen and experienced.

As a journalist, you occasionally get a courtside ticket to history – wars, presidential elections, and natural disasters are the most common in my experience – and witness it firsthand.   Tonight I had one of those experiences.

Last fall, I bought a ticket to the final Lakers game of the season, under the correct assumption that Kobe Bryant would retire after the final year of his contract in the 2015-16 season.  It was money well spent.  Tonight, I saw the greatest individual performance in a basketball game I’ve ever seen – in his final professional game at the age of 37, Kobe Bryant dropped 60 points, including the game-winning basket and game-winning assist. (NOTE: I wasn’t there when Kobe dropped 81 points.)

The sense of exhilaration and euphoria in the building is difficult to describe in writing. For one last time, the crowd at Staples got to see flashes of the Kobe Bryant of old, the Kobe who won the hearts of Laker and basketball fans everywhere (and five NBA championships on the way).  He couldn’t have planned a better ending himself. He also set the bar for farewell games for athletes in every sport from here on out.

Though my heart was with the Golden State Warriors, who were focused on winning their 73rd game of the season in Oakland tonight, I am glad that I was able to see this game that was the highlight of an otherwise lackluster Lakers season.  I don’t say this very often, but this is a game I will be talking about for years, one I will tell my children and grandchildren about. It was that important.

So long, Kobe.  I wish we could all ride off into the sunset the way you did.

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Dave Grohl and Axl Rose’s Long and Winding Road

THEN:

 

NOW:

HUGE THANK YOU to Dave Grohl for the use of his rock Throne! An amazing gesture!Words rn't enough!! Makes all the difference up there!

Unplugged 20

Today is the twentieth anniversary of Alice in Chains’s performance on MTV Unplugged.

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Happy Birthday, Mike Starr

He would have been 50 today.

 

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Requiem for a Dream

Marco Rubio’s presidential dreams crashed and burned last week after being swept by Donald Trump in his home state of Florida. (Trump won every county in the state except Miami-Dade, where Rubio lives and has a large Cuban population)

There have been several post mortem stories about Rubio’s presidential campaign, often juxtaposed by his life story and meteoric rise through Florida politics. These two by the Tampa Bay Times and Rolling Stone are especially worth reading. The impression one comes away with after reading those articles is that Rubio was an ambitious guy in a big hurry to climb up the political ladder, often times at the expense of his former backers, allies, and mentors, and that once he got elected to a position, he was already looking for the next one. Consequently, he has a very thin resume in terms of governance and legislative accomplishments, which is something his 2016 opponents hammered him on mercilessly.  Trump’s derogatory “Little Marco” moniker was no accident either: Cuban GOP players in Miami loyal to Jeb Bush have been derisively or mockingly referring to him as “Marquito” (Spanish for “Little Marco”) for years.  In short, the GOP’s Great Hispanic Hope wound up being nothing more than an empty suit, as Chris Christie memorably eviscerated him on national television shortly before the New Hampshire primary.

Of course, no analysis of the demise of the Rubio presidential campaign would be complete without a comedic angle. Stephen Colbert is ruthlessly funny here:

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