Arte Sonora (Portugal), August 2021
Review of "Gargoyle" by Le Beast Concrète“Gargoyle,” Le Beast Concrète's debut album, has arrived, bringing together legendary guitarist Gary Lucas and New York producer David Sisko.
“Gargoyle”, released today, August 13, “is a real experience that challenges the concept of gender”. There are eight tracks that fit blues, rock, dance music, trap, avant-garde and a variety of influences that inhabit the imagination of Le Beast Concrète.
In the year that celebrates 40 years of career, Gary Lucas proves once again that there is still a lot to do. Legendary guitarist (Captain Beefheart, Gods and Monsters) has teamed up with New York producer David Sisko on a cross-genre project. Le Beast Concrète combines Lucas' guitar with Sisko's synthesizers and beats and the result is a “genre-fluid” sound that takes shape in “Gargoyle”, the debut album already available on the main digital platforms.
New York, the urban jungle where they both live and work, was the inspiration for Le Beast Concrète, but it wasn't the only one. The concept of “musique concrète” – a compositional technique used in the duo's creative process – and their mutual fascination with the “mythical creatures” of cinema and literature are reflected in the project's title and in the eight themes that make up “Gargoyle”. “Realize It,” the duo's first track released in early July, combines Gary Lucas' signature riffs with Sisko's catchy 808 deep-trap beat and features Lil Woozy. The sample – “There’s no wrong or right. And realize it” – repeated like a mantra, is “a symbol of the times we live in, in which we are bombarded all the time with morally and ethically ambiguous messages. Realizing this is the first step towards moving forward», explain the mentors of Le Beast Concrète.
This was followed by “Dunny Rat Boy”, a second single full of film-noir, dance, trance, psychedelic-acid rock and blues references and which «is a good sample of what we can find in the album that has just arrived: an extravagant cocktail of influences and a sound and visual experience that combines elements from the past, present and future like few others.
“Gargoyle” arrives through Kobalt Music / Gary Lucas Music (BMI) and Endless Mind Passivity Music (BMI).
Mariskal Rock (Spain), June 2021
Review of "The Essential Gary Lucas"Many artists experience that indescribable moment when the general public notices their existence. Whether you have been in the business for just a few months or more than 40 years, from then on, the worth of that humble guy that nobody paid the slightest attention to before will be recognized and interest will grow with the virulence of those fads that first hit hard and then are forgotten just as quickly as they arrived. And to think that since we were little we were taught to value that culture of effort that actually goes against the majority tendencies of society.
Good old Gary Lucas may be remembered for his career in mythical combos such as Captain Beefheart or Gods and Monsters, a versatile project he founded in the late eighties to give free rein to an eclecticism that could hardly fit in any conventional group. Thanks to this initiative he would meet the late Jeff Buckley, an underrated genius in his time but who with the passing of time would acquire the status of a fallen myth on a par with Kurt Cobain or any other of the 27's club. His version of Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah" is still considered one of the best revisions of all time, even surpassing the original.
Well, here's a pretty great compilation to soak up the material accumulated over more than four decades by a restless mover who has played jazz, psychedelia, garage, Chinese pop and most imaginable styles, apart from a special section dedicated to soundtracks, a prolific work in which he has almost accumulated as many works as official albums. And he has not just a few, up to more than thirty can be counted.
Entering this vast universe can be a bit overwhelming for the neophytes, but they make the task easier for us by dedicating an album to his career with Gods and Monsters and another one to rarities and collaborations, which he also has plenty of, as it could not be otherwise. Thus, in the first CD we would highlight the jazzy outbursts of "Fata Morgana" or "Evangeline", the nocturnal rocker aftertaste of "Swamp T'ing" or that sonic gale with David Johansen (New York Dolls) called "One Man's Meat", the most attractive for lovers of electricity. But the demo of Jeff Buckley's famous "Grace", the incursion into British folklore of "The Lady of Shalott", inspired by a popular poem by Lord Alfred Tennyson, or "Skin Diving", a delight with the sensual Portuguese singer Elli Medeiros, also has its point for mythomaniacs.
As for the second volume of this colossal release, it begins with a curious and very successful Mandarin Chinese version of Bob Dylan's "All Along The Watchtower" by the oriental diva Feifei Yang. And it would not be advisable to overlook the brilliant and overwhelming collaboration with Alan Vega of Suicide in "Life Kills" or "Story Without Words", a rescued testimony of the creative symbiosis between Lucas and Buckley with the voice of the Dutch Jolene Grunberg. And on the side of the picturesque, of those encounters that one would not expect, we have that "Out From Under" with fragments in Spanish with the sisters Haydée and Suylan Milanés, daughters of the Cuban singer-songwriter Pablo Milanés.
Of course, his cinematographic facet has not been neglected with the sidereal atmosphere of "The Golem", which is almost like a gateway to another dimension, nor the uncomplicated approaches to electronics by the hand of Adrian Sherwood in "Guanguanco" or one of his classics in his live broadcasts, "Largo", from the so-called New World Symphony of the Czech post-Romantic Antonín Dvořák. There's plenty of material here to rapture over.
If you are one of those few people without complexes who don't care what style a song is as long as it's good, then you should immediately head for the galaxy of this indefatigable creator for whom labels have no meaning. Free yourself from prejudices and other sterile thoughts that chain us to the ground and take flight towards the sun regardless of the consequences. Only for daring spirits.
By Alfredo Villaescusa
Musicazul (Spain), June 2021
Review of "The Essential Gary Lucas"The American singer, composer and guitarist Gary Lucas publishes a new retrospective compilation on this double album. In it he compiles thirty-six songs, seventeen on the first album and nineteen on the second, where he accurately collects almost four decades of music. Perhaps above all stands out his version of 'All Along The Watchtower' by his compatriot Bob Dylan sung in Mandarin Chinese by the Asian star FeiFei Yang. The Syracuse musician dedicates the first album to the songs recorded with his band Gods and Monsters, while the second album is intended for solos, rarities and collaborations like the one mentioned. His guests are at their height on these songs, counting on names such as Alan Vega (Suicide), David Johansen (New York Dolls), Billy Ficca (Television) and Ernie Brooks (Modern Lovers), among others, who add to the final compilation’s quality minutes. Whenever his music is talked about Lucas’s songbook comes to the fore for having co-written the singles ‘Grace’ and ‘Mojo Pin' by his late colleague Jeff Buckley, but this artist is one of the key guitarists in recent music history thanks to tracks like 'Skin Diving', 'Lady of Shalott' and 'One Man's Meat', to name a few of his brilliant compositions that ooze rock, blues, pop and even psychedelia. It is difficult to navigate through the sonic offering that Lucas raises because his work is practically endless, but this compilation may be the perfect excuse to explore his magnificent musical work that goes far beyond his collaborations with the aforementioned Buckley, John Cale, Nick Cave , Lou Reed, Amanda Palmer, Bryan Ferry, John Zorn, Iggy Pop and a long list etcetera. Without a doubt, a living history of music summarized in two and a half hours of songs.
El Enano Rabioso (Spain), June 2021
Review of "The Essential Gary Lucas"To talk about Gary Lucas is to talk about one of the most polyhedric guitar players of the last decades. An alchemist of blues heterodoxy, his wide-ranging stylistic angle was developed during his stint in Captain Beefheart's Magic Band. With such an apprenticeship, one can assume that his subsequent evolution has always eluded the common territories and predictability inherent to the vast majority of guitar players dedicated, almost exclusively, to delve into the mysteries of the six strings. Not when one of Lucas' best known projects is Gods & Monsters. This fabulous lineup takes the teachings of Captain Beefheart and distills them through a style book that is perhaps more conventional, but not for that reason lacking in interest. Far from it. Good proof of this can be found on the first CD of this compilation dedicated to Lucas's unending trajectory. And when I say endless it is because, despite the fact that this artifact has thirty-six tracks, it is very difficult to cover all the facets of a guy who, among other discards, has left out his alliances with greats such as Peter Hammill or Jozef van Wissem.
In spite of many more gaps (really, it would take a quintuple LP, at least, to accommodate all of Lucas' artistic inflections), The Essential is an ideal bait to fall into the nets of such a restless explorer of musical geographic hybrids, with special attention to his visions of Eastern matter, here captured in such beautiful rescues as "The Wall". In others like "Guanguanco" he marries his most atmospheric spectrum with none other than the electronic conjurer Adrian Sherwood, with whom he shares a hallucination for the integration of dub in the accelerated metrics of electric lightning.
But there's more here, lots and lots more, and good ones at that. A whole melting pot of variables that demonstrate the creative permeability of a guy who, due to his idiosyncrasy, is a distant cousin of totems like Marc Ribot and Ry Cooder. Nothing less.
By Marcos Gendre
L'Alsace (France), May 2021
Review of "The Essential Gary Lucas"Behind his look of a smiling bard, Gary Lucas is a cipher. Yet here is one of the most underrated guitarists there is, despite 40 light years of an extraordinary career that has been summed up in 36 essential tracks.
On his CV, Gary Lucas prides himself on prestigious partnerships: Leonard Bernstein, Nick Cave, Lou Reed, Alan Vega, John Zorn and we forget. He was also Captain Beefheart's guitarist before collaborating with Jeff Buckley while multiplying personal projects including Gods and Monsters. It is this alternative folk-rock group of excellent quality that we find throughout the first CD of this retrospective, but also mind-blowing creations eyeing psychedelic jazz like Let's Go Swimming.
The second CD sets out to follow the many directions taken by Lucas, including Beefheart. It all starts with a cover of Bob Dylan, All Along the Watchtower, sung in Mandarin to go towards frankly avant-garde instrumentals.
Fans of “unclassifiable” rock will be delighted to rediscover this fascinating musician, virtuoso creator and insatiable explorer of the sound planet.
#UnDiscoAlDia (Spain), May 20, 2021
Review of "The Essential Gary Lucas"Some may only find his name diffusely familiar, and many may only identify him as the first great mentor of that dazzling and ephemeral genius that was the unfortunate Jeff Buckley, but Gary Lucas' career already totals four decades of guitar mastery and polyhedral and incisive gaze. The Essential is the usual motley double anthology, which takes advantage of almost every square centimeter of the CD to provide more information and reach its good two and a half hours of fascinating review, also for the premium connoisseurs of this New York master. Because along with the greatest hits, if such a nomenclature were applicable to our man in the hat, the collection is rich in succulent and rare rarities, and the occasional completely unreleased recording.
In this chapter of treasures, the opening gift of the second CD is unbeatable: a meeting between Lucas and the brilliant Asian pop star Feifei Yang to give us a (fantastic) version of All Along the Watchtower... in Mandarin Chinese. But first we have witnessed the fascinating unfolding of the first disc, 17 tracks of a very broad spectrum, as happily unruly as Gary himself. Focused on the work of our protagonist together with his referential backing band, Gods and Monsters, the collection includes acoustic and electric, instrumental or sung, a lot of art-rock, digressions of avant-garde folk (the brilliant Skin the Rabbit), outbursts of the most untamed New York (One Man's Meat, with David Johansen, from New York Dolls), the serene repose of the beautiful Follow, the pinch of accelerated rock with brass (Climb the Highest Mountain) and, in between, the original demo of Grace, Buckley's great emblem, stratospheric already in that first take. Lucas is co-author of that masterpiece and another of Jeff's first and only complete LP songs, Mojo Pin.
It's hard to find similarities or parallels, because (almost) nobody covers so much and so naturally. The background is reminiscent of Captain Beefheart, the band from which this New Yorker from Syracuse emerged, and the troubadour-like acidity is reminiscent of bands like The Auteurs. But there is no uniformity, nor is there any need for it: Lady of Shalott, for example, departs from the parameters by referring to British folk, while Skin Diving intermingles the energetic guitar playing and the lazily sensual whispers of French Elli Medeiros. To the fan's delight, Lucas takes the trouble to comment on the 36 songs one by one in the booklet.
The criteria of omnivorous diversity multiply even more spectacularly, as expected, in the second half: Solo, Rarities and Collaborations. There are incursions into soundtracks, avant-garde encounters with the Metropole Orchestra and, of course, a Cuban incursion, Out from Under, with Haydée Milanés and Los Van Van (you read that right). Also, one of Lucas and Jeff Buckley's lost songs, Story Without Words, is taken on by Dutch vocalist Jolene Grunberg. There is so much that Lucas has been telling and has yet to tell the world, but this Essential provides an unbeatable first panoramic view. And it inevitably induces, irremediably, to multiply our initial curiosity.
—Fernando Sampedro
Shooting Idols (France), May 11, 2021
Gary Lucas Interview1 To start this interview with you Gary Lucas, we would first like to talk about your early years. Were you born in Syracuse, New York? how was your youth?
My youth was pretty uneventful up there in Syracuse, which is a medium-sized town in central New York State, population then around 250,00 folks. It snowed a heck of a lot there and it was overcast nearly every day of the year with very little sun, so I am surprised there wasn’t a higher suicide rate! I prefer sunny days. But on the other hand I loved it when it snowed so much they canceled school—we used to pray for such days! I grew up in a big family with 2 older sisters and a younger brother and I was pretty much left to my own devices—which meant reading and listening to music, which I did incessantly from a very tender age. I was not much good at sports so didn’t fit in with most of my peers. To this day I could care less about sports, so boring to me! Syracuse was a very conservative Republican enclave and I bristled at the overall mindset there, which was very small-townish. Once I got a taste of Manhattan, when my Dad took me and my brother down there in 1964 for the World’s Fair, it was all over, and I knew I had to get the hell out of Syracuse, and knew that I probably would move to NYC one day. It was a much more exciting place to be imho. I was pretty introverted then and actually loved to be inside when it rained, looking out at the world as if I was in the only dry spot in the world. And I loved curling up with books—especially horror, fantasy, sci fi. I started with Greek and Roman mythology and one thing led to another.
2 What were your first musical discoveries, your first influences and your idols?
I loved Tchaikovsky;s “1812” Overture…Thurston Harris’s “Little Bitty Pretty One”…The Beach Boys, the Ventures, Gene Pitney—I found them outstanding. Duane Eddy’s twangy guitar “Dance with the Guitar Man”! I aspired to play the guitar solo in the middle, and I eventually nailed it! That’s what I wanted to be at an early age—a guitar man. I already knew! When the British Invasion hit I was swept along like everyone and centered on the Stones, they were always my favorites—along with the Yardbirds, the Who, Jeff Beck, Moby Grape, Buffalo Springfield, the Blues Project, the Mothers—anything with houtstanding lead guitars. Debussy, Stravinsky, Bach, electronic music like Henri Pousseur, r&b like James Brown and Mary Wells, Phil Spector, Hank Williams, Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf, Skip James—so many! Anything with SOUL. I adored music, in fact I could find something to get excited about in any genre of music you could name, even polka music, It just had to move me and send chills down my spine!
3 How did you come up with the desire to learn to play the guitar? and what other instrument do you play?
Funnily enough, my Dad came to me when I was just 9 and said “How would you like to play a musical instrument Gary? How about the guitar??” “Gee Dad, sounds good!” I was clueless but it seemed like a fun thing to do. He got me a cheap-ass rented guitar though, with the strings about and inch off the fretboard, and it tore the fuck out of my tender finger tips initially. I took lessons for only two months and then drifted away from practicing because it was so damn painful to play that guitar! It was only with the advent of my parents coming back from a trip to Spain with a nylon string guitar that I began improving. This guitar was a joy to play!
4 What was your academic background prior to graduating in English Languages and Letters from Yale University?
Public school, which is the opposite of what it means in the UK. A school open for free to anyone in the district, with faculty hired by the city—not a private institution. A real melting pot atmosphere with kids of all creeds and colors attending there. Plus around 1968 my high school became the first high school in America to bus black kids from the inner city ghetto to attend as part of an enforced integration experiment. It was fine until one night at the school dance members of the black fraternity called the Soul Generation got into a row with some white frat boys, insults were exchanged—very Romeo and Juliet! Or rather, West Side Story. Anyway on Monday lunchtime thugs from the inner city drove up to the school, entered the cafeteria, went over to the white frat boys’ table and turned it over, triggering a melee with all the trappings of an actual race riot. The principal of the school entered the cafeteria and shouted “Stop!”— and somebody winged a chair at him which knocked him unconscious. It was a total fracas and it made the national evening news broadcast that night. How exciting!! I pretty much stuck to my gang of intellectual misfits, stoners and proto-hipsters who were pretty much shunned (and sometimes assaulted) by the straight frat-boys and cheerleader types in the high school. Frank Zappa was one of our gurus—he spoke to us with his satire on high school life like “Status Back, Baby” from “Absolutely Free”. Meanwhile I read voraciously, things like “I, Jan Cremer”, The 120 Days of Sodom”, “Ulysses” (my favorite all-time novel—at one point I knew it as well as some people know The Bible), Boris Vian, Apollinaire, JP Donleavy, Bruce Jay Friedman, Tom Wolfe—renegade literature in other words. I did quite well on my exams, once taking them hung over in a mist after an opium-smoking experiment the night before—and my scores shot up higher than ever (although I wouldn’t recommend this, kids!). Lots of books and lots of psychedelic music and cutting edge cinema-going-- and lots and lots of guitar playing. That was my relatively happy childhood before Yale. I was what Lou Reed was later to call a “protest kid”.
5 At the same time, you become DJ and artistic director of the school station WYBC FM and you integrate your 1st group "O-Bay-Gone Band" what memories do you keep?
I loved being a DJ-- even if I more or less ruined my English rock record collection (I was a stone anglophile at the time) playing rare vinyl tracks on the heavy-ass turntables at Yale’s WYBC. Their styluses gouged some very deep grooves in this precious vinyl—mainly English imports of albums that were very hard to obtain in America at that time. My taste changed over the years to more blues and jazz but at that point in the early 70’s I was still partial to psychedelic English music: Traffic, Family, the Nice, the Move, Peter Green’s Fleetwood Mac, Humble Pie—stuff like that. In fact they gave me a summer shift show for $$ in 1973 when all the students went back home for the summer, and I titled it “The Sounds from England (and other delicacies)”—the only other non-English rock “delicacies" I spun on that show were Captain Beefheart, Can, and Tim Buckley—one of whom I wound up working with, and one of whom I wound up working with their son.
6 Do you remember the very first concert you gave? From the city and / or the venue?
Yes, my best friend Walter Horn and I played a duo concert arc the Jewish Home for the Aged in Syracuse around 1962, a variety of Peter Paul and Mary covers mainly, including the rather inappropriate gospel tune “Jesus Met the Woman at the Well” (at a Jewish Home!). The old folks seemed to dig it, although one elderly woman exclaimed “Don’t hit me with that bag, little boy!” when Walter walked by with a grocery bag filled with percussion instruments he would play in our set (bongoes, maracas, stuff like that).
7 How was your meeting with Captain Beefheart, as well as the creation of Captain Beefheart The Magic Band?
I saw his first show in NYC in 971 and was floored! Best concert of my life!! I walked away pledging to myself : “If I ever do anything in music, I want to play with this guy!!” It was THAT good—and I had already at that point seen the Stones with Brian Jones, the Righteous Brothers, Janis Joplin (twice), Zappa and the Mothers, Chuck Berry, Paul Butterfield, the Byrds, and the Mahavishnu Orchestra with John McLaughlin. Beefheart and his Magic Band towered over all these ensembles., to me. Then it was announced he was coming up to Yale to play—and the program director at WYBC Yale’s radio station asked me to interview him over the phone to promo the gig, I have a tape of this interview and you can hear my voice trembling at first—I mean, the guy had been on the cover of Rolling Stone! (Imagine this today. No way!). But he made me feel at ease right away, and we became friends right there. A day later he came up to Yale for the concert and I hung with him and his wife Jan for hours before and after the show. Every time he came near Yale to play I made a point of going to see him and would hang out backstage. Eventually he gave me his phone number and we had marathon conversations that would last for more than an hour! But I never told him I played the guitar until much later—I didn’t think I was good enough then, and his music was so complex and difficult to execute. But in 1975 he turned up in Syracuse as a guest of Frank Zappa’s—and I happened to be home studying Mandarin for an upcoming trip to Taiwan to work (a very long story—basically I was trying to get away from the clutches of a much older woman I’d been involved with in NYC). After the show I took him out at his request to a ghetto backyard bbq kind of arrangement which opened only at midnight and served barbecued spare ribs and chicken on white bread with scalding hot sauce—mmmmmm. Don loved this, the funky atmosphere, and busted out some a cappella blues right there. At that precise moment I made my move: “You know Don, if you ever put your band back together (he was between Magic Bands) I’d like a chance to audition for it.” “You play the guitar, Gary?? Why didn’t you TELL ME!” Well he invited me up to Boston a few days later and I took the bus up there with my guitar, met him backstage and went back to his hotel room to play for him. He said “Great!!” but was rather vague on the next step / start date. Anyway I had a ticket to Taipei and couldn’t really cancel the plan at that point. So it took a few years. Eventually I came home, rang him up, we got re-acquainted all over again—and in 1980 he invited me to play on what became “Doc at the Radar Station” for Virgin. I flew in from NYC, took a taxi from LAX to Glendale to Sound Castle Studios, was hustled into the studio, plugged in—and nailed this very difficult piece, an instrumental called “Flavor Bud Living”—in two takes max. That was it. The album came out to great acclaim and I was singled out in a lot of the press for my playing. It put me on the musical map! Even the great rock critic Lester Bangs was impressed when he heard it, asking me “Which part did you play here Gary—the top or the bottom guitar?” “Lester”, I told him, “that’s me playing solo, no overdubs, live in the studio.” I toured in Europe and the US on this track alone with him, playing it live on the “Chorus” tv program of Antoine de Caunes which you can see on YouTube. I was managing him then with my wife Ling also! What a handful Don was! Like a big overgrown spoiled kid. But I loved him dearly despite him “displacing alot of water”, as he put it. For the final Beefheart album “Ice Cream for Crow” I was bumped up from special guest guitar status to full Magic Band status, and you can see me in the video for the title track, wailing alongside him in the Mojave Desert, a video I was able to place in the permanent video collection of MOMA in NYC. I left working for him in 1984 as he didn’t want to make music anymore, only paint—but I made sure before I left to leave him in good hands with folks like Julian Schnabel and the Mary Boone Gallery here in NYC.
8 Do you have a different way of working on your projects or composing soundtracks for films or credits for television?
Well I take them one at a time basically and try to focus as much energy as possible into each one, I always work intuitively and try to capture the essence of each project or film.
9 You supported Jeff Buckley's career, how was this meeting and your relationship? Can you tell us some anecdotes about it? How was your collaboration on his album "Grace"?
My friend the producer Hal Willner mounted a tribute to Tim Buckley at St Ann’s Church in Brooklyn in spring of 1991. He rang me and invited me to play with my then female singing partner—at that point we were signed to make an album for Columbia Records. I always loved Tim Buckley's music. Hal mentioned his son Tim would be an excellent collaborator. “I didn’t know Tim had a son!” “Neither did we” Hal replied, “but he’s come forward to pay his respects to his Dad.” After doing a run-through rehearsal two days before the show, I was packing up my gear to leave the church when this young kid the spitting image of Tim Buckley approached me as if on fire. He was electric , shooting off sparks. “You’re Gary Lucas! I LOVE your guitar playing!! I loved you with Captain Beefheart, I read about you in Guitar Player”. I was very flattered and invited him over to my apartment to rehearse his father’s song “The King’s Chain” the next day. I handed him a mic and I hear the most magical, supple, sinuous voice emerge from this scrawny kid—like a choir boy crossed with an old bluesman mixed with a pop singer’s sensibility and garnished with a generous helping of Tim Buckley. “Oh my God Jeff—you’re a fucking star!!” “You think??” Oh yeah. I invited him out to lunch, we sat there at the White Horse Tavern (my local in the west village) eating hamburgers and discussing our favorite musical groups. We agreed we both adored the Doors, the Smiths, and Led Zeppelin. We went back to my place and jammed a song for 15 minutes—our first collaboration, entitled “Bluebird Blues”. Thus began an enduring friendship and collaboration. When Columbia Records unceremoniously dumped my recording project with the female singer, telling me “you can’t afford to sue us!”, I rang Jeff and asked him to join my band as lead singer, which he readily agreed to. I then wrote in one week two instrumental pieces I mailed to him on cassette with provisional titles. A month later he came through NYC, came over and said “You know that one you titled ‘And You Will’? Now it’s called ‘Mojo Pin’. And the one you called ‘Rise Up to Be’? Now it’s called ‘Grace’ “. I have a tape of us running these songs down for the very first time with both of us sitting on my couch. The beauty of working with Jeff was I could compose finished instrumentals on guitar, send them to him, and every time he would come back with a perfect melody and lyric that fit my music like a glove! Best collaborator and all around genius musician I’ve ever known and worked with. We had a real mental telepathy onstage. After he’d gone solo and several years after his “Grace” album came out, which I played on—in fact the first two songs I co-wrote with him—he was doing a solo concert for a private event at the Knitting Factory in NYC for their 10th anniversary. I was watching him play in a crowd that included Lenny Kaye, Lou Reed and Tom Verlaine, when Jeff called me onstage, handed me his Telecaster, and we launched into a version of “Grace” which set the house on fire. People came up to me afterwards in total ecstasy saying: ”I’ve waited for so long to see you two guys on stage again!!” I thanked Jeff after the show as his invitation to join him onstage was completely out of the blue, and he told me how much he enjoyed it too. I was sure we would be working together again in the future. He left for Memphis shortly after this show and his A&R guy told me to expect a call to come down there to work with him because his band sessions hadn’t been going well, and “‘Grace' was a beautiful thing!” The next thing I heard though was that he had gone missing and was presumed drowned. I cried every day for a month! What a tragedy and what a shame.
10 You have collaborated with artists like Leonard Bernstein, Captain Beefheart, Jeff Buckley, Chris Cornell, Lou Reed, John Cale, Nick Cave, Patti Smith, Iggy Pop, Dr. John, Allen Ginsberg, Peter Hammill , Graham Parker, Future Sound of London, Richard Barone, Bob Weir, Warren Haynes, Dave Liebman and Billy Bang, among others the list and so long... What have these various different experiences taught you?
That music has infinite possibilities, and you should be open to working with every type of music and musician under the sun. Jeff encouraged me in that in a big way. Music is the universal language really and you can break down all sorts of cultural and nationalistic boundaries through music to have a real dialogue with all sorts of disparate folks.
11 How do you go about writing your songs, from the moment you come up with the idea for a text, a melody, and when you write it?
It always starts first as music, except once I was handed a specific set off lyrics to turn into a song for Marianne Faithful —needless to say she didn’t do out, so I decided to sing it (“The Lady of Shalott”, which is on my new 40 year retrospective THE ESSENTIAL GARY LUCAS). I just pass my fingers over my guitar strings until I hear magic—really that’s what I do. If I hear something that resonates within me I record this section and then push it around, augment it and chip away at it until the whole song emerges over several days—it’s like chiseling away at a block of marble until the ideal form emerges. When it’s all finished as a discrete instrumental I sleep on it—and if I can remember it in the morning I think: Voila! I have the ideal template for a new song. It has to make it as music first, always. Then I add lyrics to it.
12 You who have toured in many countries (Australia Russia Europe etc etc), especially with the group "Future Sound of London", how do you feel the reception and the reactions of all these different audiences?
I think people are people wherever you go, and they usually are quite enthusiastic about my performances. Russia with Future Sound of London was something else though. We went on around 3am once in St Petersburg in a soccer stadium during the White Nights celebrating 200 years of SP, where the sky never really got dark, the sky turned purple only and then the sun came up while we were playing. At the end of it there was a line of fans out from the stage to the middle of the soccer field for people who wanted me to give them an autograph. People were shouting “Gary Lucas! You’re the Best! THE BEST!!” That was really gratifying 🙂
13 How did you experience this period of the coronavirus pandemic for over a year?
Well I have done live-streaming solo from my apartment every Tuesday Thursday and Saturday at 3pm EST on Facebook and I have a very devoted following . I have been doing it since March 2020 right up to today , I must have done at least 160 shows to date, all sorts of stuff from my repertoire and new stuff I’ve written. This period has been an incredibly fertile period for me creatively. I looked at the pandemic as an opportunity to reinvent myself and create new things, which I have—the latest being an instrumental piece called “Unforgiven”.
14 At the moment, the more the years go by, the more the world is going awry ... Health crises, social movements... What do you think of all this?
I try and stay positive and creative throughout—what else can you do? It’s important to keep going forward as much as possible, otherwise you can be dragged down by the overwhelming tragedies befalling us worldwide. You have to believe in the power of the individual to change society basically by doing whatever you like to do as well as you can, and just keep moving forward with a positive spirit and attitude. Not always easy I know! But otherwise it’s a descent into nihilism and depression, and who needs more of that??
15 If you had to define yourself, what would be your sentence or your motto?
Doing it to Death!
16 Today, what are your favorite bands? Are they the same as before? What kind of music do you prefer to listen to? Is there a song or album that will stay forever?
I don’t really listen to much new music anymore to tell you the truth as I invariably get disappointed by the lackluster quality (imho) of much of it—it doesn’t move me nearly as much as the music I grew up on. Now that doesn’t mean it doesn’t resonate with people currently, that’s just my reaction, probably because I have very well-developed pattern recognition skills, so most new music I check out usually reminds me of earlier versions of similar sounding things. But I loved a couple of female artists recently so much—one being Lhasa de Sela, who I heard coming over the mix in a restaurant in Parma Italy after receiving a Lifetime Achievement Award there a couple years ago. “Who is that singer with such an astonishing voice??” I asked the bartender to check the Rhaosody feed and thus got her name and googled her, only to find out she had recently passed away from breast cancer. Her album “The Living Roadf” is phenomenal, I wish I could have seen her live. I also loved Joanna Newsom’s first couple albums and saw her play solo once and she just blew my mind. Recently I discovered Stereo Total, only to learn that their main singer Francoise Cactus just died. What a fantastic group!! I love the Brazilian Girls also, Sabina Sciubba really kicks ass.
17 What do you like to do when you are not working ? Do you have hobbies?
I read voraciously as usual, I just finished two books of short stories by the Argentinean horror writer Mariana Enriquez which were amongst the best things I’ve read in a long time. I must have read 50 books this year at least.I also love art cinema, but mainly the classics! I love to go back and find out whether stuff that attracted me as a boy still holds up, and if so, why? I am not interested in the latest this or that in music or films or painting mainly because there’s soooo many people trying to express themselves now, which is fine and all—but I find it pointless to try and keep up, you know? What’s considered hip usually is merely a function of fashion, and I figure the good stuff will reach me on its own eventually if its really any good, rather than me wasting time digging for it when I should be concentrating on creating new work.
18 Finally, if you had to go to a desert island and keep only 3 things with you: a record, a movie and a third choice, what would be your selection and why?
"The 5000 Spirits, or the Layers of the Onion" by The Incredible String Band
"The Haunting" directed by Robert Wise
"Ulysses" by James Joyce
Thank you for your time and your availability
Mondo Sonoro (Spain), May 11, 2021
The Essential Gary Lucas8 / 10
Eduardo Izquierdo - 11-05-2021
Company - Knitting Factory
Genre - Rock
Gary Lucas is a curious case. Many people didn't know about him until 2002, when his album of collaborations with Jeff Buckley was released. Then many people seemed to realize the existence of an artist who not only had been a prominent history of a band like Captain Beefheart, with whom he began collaborating in 1980, but whose career accumulates more than forty years of experience. It doesn't hurt, therefore, to have material like this. Yes, it's a greatest hits, but you can tell that it has been designed with more care than other releases of the same type.
To begin with, the album is divided into two parts in the form of a disc. The first, entitled "Gods and Monsters", like the band Lucas had at the end of the eighties, offers that trademark instrumental jazz rock - for those of us who know him - and which led to his name being on many of the lists of the best guitarists of the century, considering his avant-gardism as a real breath of fresh air for many instrumentalists. Lucas shows his virtuosity whether entering acoustic terrains like "Skin Diving", or more intense like "After Strange Gods". On the other hand, the second album, entitled "Solo, Rarities and Collaborations" lives up to its name. I, a pro-Dylanian, can only recommend, among all their songs, their version of "All Along The Watchtower", sung by Feifei Yang and a reliable sample of what it means to take a well-known song to new grounds. So enjoy them without too many prejudices. Because Gary Lucas is an indefinable guitarist. Open and restless, and that makes an album like this one heterogeneous like few others, although that, in the end, is part of its greatness.
Mercadeo Pop (Spain), May 2021
Review of THE ESSENTIAL GARY LUCAS"A phenomenal guitarist," says Bruce Springsteen . "An incredible guitarist," says Nick Cave . "Man can play guitar!"exclaims Captain Beefheart. "I could listen to you play for hours," concluded Lou Reed back in the day. Oh yeah. That we talk about Gary Lucas.
Because now comes 'The Essential Gary Lucas' (Knitting Factory Records, 2021), a compilation of the career of the American musician with 36 tracks that span forty years of songs. Featuring unreleased classics and rarities like Bob Dylan's version of 'All along the watchtower' sung in Mandarin Chinese.
Drawing on a wealth of material, including rare and never-before-released tracks, the deluxe double-disc pack offers ample evidence of this hipster artist's pioneering and unique career . Going back to his first record and stage appearances with Captain Beefheart (Don Van Vliet) in the early eighties.
Those performances put him on the map. And so he came to work with Jeff Buckley, please remember that Gary Lucas co-wrote and played Jeff's famous hymns 'Grace' and 'Mojo Pin'. Through his extensive catalog of various genres, Gary Lucas has a legacy of more than 35 albums that cover all arenas in creative ways.
The first CD is dedicated to songs recorded with Gary Lucas' psychedelic art-rock supergroup Gods and Monsters. In the second, we find themes of solos, rarities and collaborations.
MUSICAL OPENING
So we have psychedelic rock and world music tours (1930s Chinese pop, Hungarian folk, Indian blues ragas, and more). Also film music, classical music, electronic music, jazz, blues, folk, avant-garde, whatever, Gary Lucas has nailed it: his virtuoso guitar and his soulful spirit; blues that unifies everything.
Special guests on 'The Essential Gary Lucas' include Jeff Buckley, Alan Vega (Suicide), David Johansen (New York Dolls), Jerry Harrison (Talking Heads), Ernie Brooks (Modern Lovers), Billy Ficca (Television), Nona Hendryx (Labelle), the Chinese pop star Feifei Yang and the French punk diva Elli Medeiros.
Also featured are the avant-garde legend Mary Margaret O'Hara, Cuba's number one dance band, Los Van Van, led by Cuban stars Haydee and Suylen Milanes, British dub master Adrian Sherwood, avant composer / keyboardist Walter Horn, vocalist Rolo McGinty (of the peculiar English pop band The Woodentops) and the 65-piece Metropole Orkestra.
Live dates are being planned internationally in support of their new retrospective, pandemic permitting. Meanwhile, Gary continues to broadcast live and solo on Facebook from his apartment in West Village NYC every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday at 3pm EST.
Ouest-France (France), May 2021
THE ESSENTIAL GARY LUCASKnitting Factory
If he has recorded thirty albums, guitarist Gary Lucas, remains above all known for his participation in the Magic Band of Captain Beefheart, in the last incarnation of the group, and even more as a mentor and accomplice of Jeff Buckley. . To remember how Grace's stunt guitars came from, we can refer to the demo of the song included here, but also to the first track, Fata Morgana, a 2006 draw. If he's not a pristine singer, Lucas ensures the job gets done on the tracks of blues-country-swamp rock which occupy the first disc condensing the best titles of his informal group Gods & Monsters. But it is the great elegance of his guitar playing that stands out. The second disc mixes titles from his solo albums, unpublished songs, contributions to film soundtracks and reminds us that he approaches jazz, contemporary music or Asian music with openness and fluidity. The kaleidoscopic aspect of this second disc can be disorienting, but we can only take our hat off.
—Philippe Richard
Prog-Mania (France), May/June 2021 issue
Review of THE ESSENTIAL GARY LUCASThe name of Gary Lucas is one of the references in the timeless universe of rock, even if it is undoubtedly less known by music lovers of the new generation. This American artist has a track record and a CV that would make more than a musician pale! He was the guitarist of CAPTAIN BEEFHEART , he founded the psyche group GODS & MONSTERS , he had a busy solo career… He also met and worked with Jeff Buckley , for whom he notably composed the melodies "Mojo Pin" and "Grace". This musician, songwriter, innovative guitarist and excellent technician recognized by his peers, has accumulated nearly 30 albums to his credit. He has also collaborated with a myriad of artists from all walks of life including Lou Reed, John Cale, Warren Haynes, Nick Cave, Leonard Bernstein, etc.
To put forward an artist such as Gary Lucas through a compilation of two CDs is therefore an excellent thing! The first CD brings together tracks recorded with the group GODS & MONSTERS, while the second CD is dedicated to his solo career, with 12 unreleased tracks.
The choice to split this compilation into 2 CDs is particularly judicious. This allows us to see and appreciate that his very prolific musical personality has asserted itself over the years from different angles and in complete freedom. The first CD (17 tracks) offers very accessible, shimmering rock songs, often deliciously vintage. Note the 12 th title, "Grace" version Demo Studio, and a sublime "Lady Of Shalott" in acoustic version. The second CD (19 tracks) emphasizes the creative side of the musician who expresses himself as well with assertive folk, blues / soul / funk (Out From Under), experimental and even fusion (Bra Joe From Kilimanjaro) aspects. .This second CD is more guitar oriented, with a number of only instrumental tracks. It allows you to reconnect with your incredible feeling and sense of creation. Very present female songs mainly decorate it, as for example on the very beautiful and very original cover of "All Along The Watchtower".
If you don't know the different sides of Gary Lucas perfectly, this double CD is a great way to (re) discover them in an atmosphere that sometimes smacks of vintage.
Live & Tracks (France), May/June 2021 issue
Review of THE ESSENTIAL GARY LUCASFor the neophyte that I am, I must admit that I did not know Gary Lucas. Or barely. I knew he had discovered Jeff Buckley, I also knew he was a guitarist. But at this level, we no longer speak of a "guitarist" but of a "guitar reference". A guitar heroe even to be more precise. Whether for his solo career, (Leonard Bernstein, Lou Reed, John Cale, Nick Cave, Chris Cornell, Warren Haynes and many others) or as a guitarist of groups, the guy is among what is better in the field. So how do you realize the full extent of his talent?
Simply by you throwing on "The Essential Gary Lucas", double CD of 36 titles which will take you through the musical universe of this great man.
On the first CD, 17 tracks essentially drawn from the journey he had with his group God's and Monsters. From the picking of "Fata Morgana" to the fabulous solo of "One Man's Meat" he demonstrates why he is this guitarist of great talent that so many artists have been looking for.
The second CD is dedicated to his career through "collaborations and other "unreleased" on which he shared the stage or the studios. This second album begins with an astonishing version of" "All Along The Watchtower" by Dylan whom I invite you to discover.
As the name of this double album "The Essential Gary Lucas" suggests, you will find part of the long musical career of this discreet guitar heroe, who has put his stamp on all styles of music and has collaborated with a multitude of artsites from different universes. Special guests include Jeff Buckley, Alan Vega (Suicide), David Johansen (New York Dolls), Jerry Harrison (Talking Heads), Ernie Brooks (Modern Lovers), Billy Ficca (Television), Nona Hendryx (Labelle), Chinese pop star Feifei Yang, French punk diva Elli Medeiros, forward legend MaryMargaret O'Hara, Cuba's No.1 dance group Los Van Van led by Cuban stars Haydée Milanés and Suylen Milanés Benett, British mixologist Adrian Maxwell Sherwood, composer / keyboardist Walter Horn,singer Rolo McGinty (from English pop group The Woodentops), the 65-piece Metropole Orkest and others.
An artist and an album to discover absolutely.
Vinyle & Audio (France), May/June 2021 issue
Review of THE ESSENTIAL GARY LUCASThis compilation is the perfect introduction to the abundant work of Gary Lucas. If the general public especially knows his work alongside Jeff Buckley, Lucas is first of all the accomplice of Captain Beefheart whom he accompanies on his last two albums, and has since taken his unique guitar playing to the five continents, in search of adventures and meetings, with a predilection for New York, its home port. The first part of The Essential Gary Lucas highlights his work within God and Monsters, an informal group which, depending on the era, welcomes around its hard core (Billy Ficca, ex-Television, and Ernie Brooks, ex-Modern Lovers ) guests as diverse as Jerry Harrison, Jon Spencer Spencer or Lenny Kaye. As for the vocalists, the cast is just as brilliant: Richard Barone, Rolo McGinty of the Woodentops, Nona Hendryx, David Johansen, Elli Medeiros...when Lucas does not himself pass in front of the microphone. The second part, Solo, Rarities and Collaborations, disrupts our landmarks by making forays into what is called, for lack of anything better, world music: Cuban music, Shanghai pop from the 1930s or Indian music with the singer in her voice. angelic Najma Akhtar. We also discover an unreleased track composed by Buckley and Lucas, recorded in a symphonic version at the Paradiso in Amsterdam, the guitar adaptation of "Largo" from Antonin Dvořák's New World Symphony and a haunted "Life Kills" by the spectral voice of Alan Vega.
—Pierre Mikaïloff
Stadtzeitung Wien (Austria), April 2021
Review of THE ESSENTIAL GARY LUCASThe US guitarist and Songwriter Gary Lucas moves in the wide field between Art rock, Americana and eagerness to experiment; expedient in the repertoire of virtuosity.His career began alongside the Adventurer Captain Beefheart, later Lucas played with the young Jeff Buckley. The present retrospective gathered 36 pieces from four decades, various cooperations included. The basic mood is relaxed and pleasurable.
(Knitting Factory)
Paris-Move (France), April 18, 2021
THE ESSENTIAL GARY LUCASSince first appearing to the general public as the discoverer and mentor of the late Jeff Buckley, guitarist Gary Lucas has grown beyond cult musician status to living legend. But rather than resting on his laurels, this tireless activist has continued to develop a versatility that very few of his fellow graduates have proven capable of. As proof, doesn't he host since the beginnings of the current pandemic (and the resulting lockdowns) a program on Facebook where he broadcasts his own lives and unpublished? With more than thirty albums to his credit, and a track record aligning collaborations with (in addition to Captain Beefheart and Jeff Buckley) the master Leonard Bernstein, but also Lou Reed, John Cale, Nick Cave, Kevin Coyne, John Zorn, Alan Vega, Peter Hammill, Chris Cornell and Warren Haynes (to name a few…), this native of Syracuse (New York State) was spoiled for choice to put together this anthology in 36 meticulously chosen titles. The first CD consists of 17 selections from the group Gods & Monsters, which he assembled after his participation in Beefheart's Magic Band (with which he had worked for five years, and recorded two albums). The dazzling picking of his opening “Fata Morgana” will already leave cohorts of apprentice guitarists on the side (or even a number of confirmed players too, at the same time). A good half of these tracks come from the albums “The Ordeal Of Civility” and “Coming Clean”. On “Coming Clean”, Skin Diving ”and the instrumental“ King Strong ”(which briefly quotes the Allman Brothers), the acid fluidity of his electric playing joins that of great psychedelic stylists like Jerry Garcia and John Cippolina, while the The erupting “Let's Go Swimming” features a bass part to wake up Stanley Clarke in person. We will mention the presence of the jubilant David Johansen (now the ultimate survivor of the New York Dolls) on “One Man's Meat”, where Lucas's solo joins these stratospheres where John Zorn and Vernon Reid sail (just like on the supercharged “Whip Named Lash” ). The initial demo of “Grace” co-written by Lucas and Jeff Buckley (with the latter on vocals, second guitar and harmonica) stealthily illustrates the fruitful collaboration these two giants had initiated. It is only time to clarify that despite his dazzling talents as an instrumentalist, Gary Lucas is not only an astounding technician, but also a remarkable melodist and composer, as evidenced here. the splendid “Lady Of Shalott” and “Follow Me”. The second CD traces his solo career, as well as some of his collaborations with other artists. Opening with the Mandarin adaptation of Dylan's “All Along The Watchtower”, it illustrates Gary's singular penchant for Shanghai pop (“The Wall”, “The Moon Represents My Heart”, with Chinese vocalist Feifei Yang). There is also the copper and swaying “Out From Under”, with Haydee and Suylen Milanes and Los Van Van, in the Louisianan vein of Little Feat and the Neville Brothers, or the cover of “Her Eyes Are A Blue Million Eyes” of Beefheart with Nona Hendryx, as well as a few rare live versions of his own solo efforts (“Flavor Bud Living”, from his album “Dust Sucker”, or the instrumental “Evening Bell”, originally released on the “Icecream For Crow ”from the Captain, and the mind-blowing“ Bra Joe From Kilimanjaro ”). Acoustic picking feats such as “Fool's Cap” (Duane Allman's “Little Martha” at double-speed!) And “Will 'O The Wisp”, in instrumental acoustic country-blues Ry Cooder style circa “Paris Texas” ( “Guanguanco”), and adaptations of classical themes such as Allegro No. 15 “On An Overgrown Path” by Janacek, or “Largo” from Dvorak's “New World Symphony” to the Hindi transciption of “ That's The Way ”by Led Zep (“ Rishte ”, with Indian singer Najma Akhtar) or the soundtrack he performed live to accompany the screening in LA of the silent film“ The Golem ”, Lucas deploys here the whole extent of its palette. To try to describe his game, we have to imagine the versatility of a Richard Thompson allied to that of a Jorma Kaukonen, served by the virtuosity inspired by stylists such as Leo Kottke, Adrian Belew and Larry Coryell, all in a context of both New Yorker, experimental and pan-cultural… In other words, to get a concrete idea, nothing beats listening! A truly essential compilation, where pieces of bravery, incunabula and unreleased material come together, and the ideal companion to the now sought-after “Songs To No One 1991-1992” (bringing together eleven unreleased tracks, lives and demos captured with Buckley before his own “Grace”) . If you until then regarded Mark Knopfler, Joe Bonamassa or Joe Satriani as paragons of modern guitar dexterity, you are likely to reassess your judgment.
—Patrick Dallongeville
Paris-Move, Blues Magazine, Illi
AudioReview (Italy), April 2021
The Essential Gary LucasKnitting Factory Records
Artistic Quality: 9 out of 10
Audio Quality: 7.5 out of 10
Gary Lucas has always been an electrifying, omnivorous, unshackled artist—and for me, trying to depict a portrait of somebody like that, I can’t say any other thing but “high”, “large, and “abundantly overflowing”, like these two cd’s actually are, both of which tell you, without benefit of any chronological or thematic order, all about 40-plus years of this guitarist, composer and artist’s freewheeling career.
Lucas is famous for having have been in the last edition of Captain Beefheart’s Magic Band, which he also managed, and to have discovered Jeff Buckley, when Jeff—the mysterious angel—was a hidden secret. In this double anthology those two artists do not fail to appear of course, and in the company of many other talents such as Arthur Russell (“Let’s Go Swimming”), a cult artist from the New York alternative scene, of which Lucas is the virtual mayor, and also David Johansen (“One Man’s Meat”), Jerry Harrison (“Chime On”, “Swamp T’ing”) and Mary Margaret O’Hara, who draws one of the best songs of the batch with her magical voice (“Poison Tree”).
One disc is dedicated to “Solos, Rarities and Collaborations”, the other one to Gods and Monsters in all its variations—a modular creature invented in 1992 that “sings all night long about everything under the sun”. Expect the unexpected, because our Dj can’t stand still, and his crackling radio broadcasts an unbelievable Dylan (“All Along The Watchtower” in Mandarin!) and also Chinese music, Cuban music, and Dvorak-ian fragments—along with psychedelic phantasies (“King Strong” is a wonder of an homage to Zappa’s memory), a soundtrack for the silent “Golem” film from the '20s, and a bold translation for guitar of “Bra Joe From Kilimanjaro”, via the solo piano composition by Abdullah Ibrahim. Music that boasts “blood and sinew, guts and fireworks”—well said Glenn Kenny!
—Riccardo Bertoncelli
English translation by Verdiana Garau
Cultura Blues (Mexico), March 2021
GARY LUCAS: THE SOUNDS OF THE HUMAN PSYCHEGary Lucas is a great world-class guitarist, songwriter and composer who has even been nominated for a Grammy, an international session artist, composer of soundtracks for film and television. Recently, he was named in the "100 Greatest Guitarists Alive" list by Classic Rock magazine (UK). He has performed multiple and successful performances in China, Cuba, Brazil, Colombia, Mexico, South Korea, and the Canary Islands, as well as extensive tours of Europe and the United States. During his long career, he has played and collaborated with artists such as: Leonard Bernstein, Captain Beefheart, Jeff Buckley, Lou Reed, John Cale, Peter Hammill (Van der Graaf Generator), Robyn Hitchock, Nick Cave, Steve Swallow, Joe Lovano, Dave Liebman, Bob Holman, Marc Ribot, John Zorn, Peter Stampfel, Patti Smith, Lenny Kaye, Jon Spencer, Kevin Coyne, Iggy Pop, Van Dyke Parks, Adrian Sherwood, Bryan Ferry, Geoff Muldaur, John Sebastian, Allen Ginsberg, Damo Suzuki and Michael Karoli (Can), Dr. John, Graham Parker, Bob Weir and many others.
His new album is a compiled double album: “The Essential Gary Lucas” (2021, Knitting Factory Records) with 36 tracks spanning 40 years of his music. Gary currently performs live as a solo artist on his Facebook page every Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday at 3pm EST; videos are archived and continually updated.
THE INTERVIEW
Mike How has the counterculture of blues, jazz and rock influenced your view of the world and the travels you have taken?
Gary. I think I was stuck in the spirit of the blues since I was born, you know— “no one here gets out alive". Blues expresses all the pain and joy in the universe. I love to travel, see the world, and play music for people, so I guess that stems from seeing a lot of great musicians on tour in my hometown of Syracuse as a kid. Wanting to be one of them and live that life, for me it was like running away to join the circus.
Mike Where does your creative drive come from? What do you like the most about writing music for movies?
Gary. I believe I have a powerful life force that needs to express itself and communicate the joy and wonder of life to people. This is where it comes from. For me, music is the ideal medium to achieve this. It is so visceral that immediately you forge a connection with people instantly. I love film music, because it's like trying to bring dead actors to life on the screen, I feel like a reanimator.
Mike How would you describe your repertoire and your sound? What characterizes your musical philosophy?
Gary. I would say that my sound and everything I play, be it psychedelic rock, jazz, 1930s Chinese pop, Wagner arrangements, etc., has a touch of blues. The blues is part of my life and my way of playing. I believe that it is the essence of communication between cultures and peoples, it is universally shared and appreciated, it is the thread that unites the world. My philosophy is to make my guitar sound like a person who struggles and cries, or cries with joy, I want to communicate these sounds to the listeners, and these sounds are the essence of blues for me.
Mike Why do you think Captain Beefheart's music continues to generate a loyal following?
Gary. Because it's totally unique, it doesn't sound remotely like anyone else's music. You listen to any of his tracks, even the so-called Tragic Band era stuff, and there's a touch to his voice that is absolutely authentic. The way he put the music together was more like a sculptor than a composer. Endlessly fascinating to me.
Mike What is the most interesting period of your life? What was the best and worst moment of your career?
Gary. I think the most interesting was at the beginning of my work with Captain Beefheart, everything he did had a magical aura in terms of his perceptions and the way he spoke, the way he perceived the world and of course the way in which he manifested it in his music, his paintings and drawings. And for me, as a young musician, being around this person gave me a real buzz of joy. I knew I was involved with a great man and artist.
The best moment of my career was playing live as a soloist before the UN General Assembly for Holocaust Remembrance Day a couple of years ago. I played my arrangement of Allegro number 15 of Leos Janacek's “On An Overgrown Path”.
The worst gig of my life could have been in Glasgow in November 1990, at a place that called itself the Basement Jazz Cafe, which was basically a pub with a music room in the basement. The only promotion for this concert was my name written in chalk on the blackboard outside the pub: “An Evening of Jazz with Gary Lucas.”
The only people at this concert were two psychedelic fans who somehow found out about this event taking place, through the Beefheart Underground Telegraph, that's the only way they could have heard about it (and in those days there weren't any Beefheart websites, heck, there wasn't even a world wide web).
Opening the concert, were three musicians who played in a Scottish band called, Deacon Blue, trying to play real jazz. They had zero audience. Then the promoter stiffed me on the guarantee (which was very low anyway), smiling with a heavy Scottish accent he said to me: “You've got a roof over your head tonight, doncha? You're gettin' breakfast tomorrow morning, ain't cha?"
Mike With which acquaintances have you had the most important experiences? What is the best advice you have ever been given?
Gary. Meeting Jeff Buckley changed my life, had a similar impact on my life as Don Van Vliet did, even though he was much younger, growing up and not yet fully formed as an artist. He told me after recording Grace and Mojo Pin at Woodstock that I should collaborate with as many people as possible. The late Arthur Russell was also an amazing artist and character, and he told me that I should play guitar full time, as he realized that I was very happy with a guitar in my hands!
Mike Are there any memories from concerts, jams, performances or in the studio that you would like to share with us?
Gary. Playing on stage with Captain Beefheart in New Haven in 1980, which is where I had gone to school (Yale University Class of '74) was a joy, but it was also confusing for me. How did I get from here to "here"? Playing in Moscow on the banks of the river in front of 7,000 people was another incredible experience. Opening for, Living Colour in London at the Town and Country Club in 1988 and convincing a skeptical crowd that didn't know who I was was another thing too. The first time I played at the Knitting Factory in New York in 1988 and they had me do 3 encores, it was a turning point in my life, as I knew I was cut out to play guitar full time. Many memories!
Mike What do you miss most about the music of the past? What are your hopes and fears for the future?
Gary. A lot of music seems to have lost the quality or the "sacred" aura that it had in the late 60's. I think this is due to digitization and the massive proliferation of it. It's like a tap now that you can't turn off, musically. Therefore, it does not have the same impact as it did when it was available in more limited grades. I hope this trend changes as I think it robs people of the primary experience of listening to music with total joy and awareness. Now there is a lot of second-class music in most cases. People are sick of that music, as there is a lot of bad music, anyone can make a recording and put it online to share, they are your peers and competitors, even if they have no skills. I hope to continue playing and exciting people with my guitar until the end.
Mike What memories of Leonard Bernstein, Captain Beefheart, and Allen Ginsberg make you smile?
Gary. Of Bernstein telling me "Man, you were really wailing!" regarding my electric guitar performance at the 1973 European premiere in Vienna of his “Mass”. The highest compliment I have ever received at the time. Of Beefheart exclaiming "Man can play guitar!" on the New Haven stage after playing "Flavor Bud Living." From Allen Ginsberg who gave me an autographed copy of his poem "Ballad of the Skeletons" after I accompanied him in a performance of this song, at the World War III Gallery in New York.
Mike If you could change one thing in the musical world and it became reality, what would it be?
Gary. Making sure artists and writers are paid for their music, rather than people being able to steal it for nothing.
Mike Are there any memories from the Harry Smith Project sessions that you would like to share with us?
Gary. Yes, it was a fantastic time for me to connect and collaborate with people that I had admired in music for many years: Nick Cave, Bryan Ferry, Van Dyke Parks, the McGarrigle sisters, etc. So many great artists. Also, the music we were delving into is the bedrock foundation of American folk music, and I've always loved this music, it resonates with my playing and my life.
Mike What are the lines that connect the legacy of Blues with Psychedelia and continue with Jazz and World Music?
Gary. The notes that are bent. Bending on a string produces a vibration in tune with your nervous system and the way it changes your mood, from pain to ecstasy. It sounds like a primordial wail or an ecstatic human cry. These things are common in Blues, Psychedelia, Jazz and World Music. It is the sound of human pain and joy.
Mike Are there any memories of Peter Hammill and Frank Zappa that you would like to share with us?
Gary. I met Frank a couple of times, I loved his music when he was a kid. The circumstances in which I met him were not the best. I was working there for Beefheart at the time and working on a project that involved Frank Zappa’s cooperation, which he agreed to and then reneged on.
It is a complicated story and it did not have a satisfactory conclusion, there was a bit of consternation between Frank and Van Vliet. But Frank Zappa was a fantastic artist, he had an inimitable creative force. He had a much greater effect on more people than Don Van Vliet frankly and he was more successful in this aspect. They both had some similarities and big differences. I wish I had spent more time with him. It would be more interesting to have been there as a young boy, as a fan and as a musician, and not as Don’s manager/ guitarist.
Peter Hammill has been one of my idols since I was a kid. I think I bought the first Van der Graaf Generator album in 69 maybe or 70, I was still in high school. Then I saw him during one of my first trips to the UK, in 1973 in a little club in Aylesbury England and we met and I interviewed him because I was a rock writer for a music paper at the time and he was very, very kind. He did a great, incredible solo show. Later, I saw the Van der Graaf reunion at Royal Festival Hall in 2005. I had to get a ticket, he was in London. And he really impressed me how cool he was. He was better than ever. He was musically superb. I got in touch with him on Twitter. And I made a proposal to him to make a recording when he was in London. This is how we came together. He had the idea of me coming to his country house and his studio in Bath and it was like a dream, playing together and fitting together like a glove.
Mike You have traveled all over the world. What are your conclusions? What has excited you?
Gary. People are people wherever you go. They are looking for something unique, at least sensitive and thoughtful people. The vast majority, however, are sleeping the sleep of machines, as they say. Sensitive people love to be challenged, confused, amazed, and hopefully entertained simultaneously, and I try to do it with my guitar. I've been called the 6-string wizard, so I try to live up to my reputation live and make people leave feeling good about life, as if my performance lifts them out of depression. Many people are really suffering and are searching for authentic experiences in music after so much synthetic and lifeless garbage that has clouded the scene for many years.
Mike What are some of the most important lessons you have learned from your experience on the path of music?
Gary. There is no right or wrong way to make music, and no music is better than any other. It's whatever comes your way and you resonate with, different strokes for different folks, like Sly Stone said.
Mike How do you want your music to affect people?
Gary. I want people to be surprised, to marvel at the world, and to leave hoping to remain in a happier frame of mind than they were when they entered. The best thing I've heard from people after a show is that they were depressed, then they heard I was going to play, they risked going to my show, and then they felt much better afterwards to face things.
Mike What were the reasons that made Jewish artists (musicians, poets) the center of avant-garde experimentation?
Gary. An incessant search for knowledge, a drive to push the boundaries and disrupt the status quo of so-called normal society, to move the game forward. It is in the blood. There is a very good book on this called, "The Ordeal of Civility" by John Murray Cuddihy, which I titled my last studio album with Gods and Monsters.
Mike Do you consider spoken music to be a specific genre and artistic movement, or do you think it is a state of mind?
Gary. You mean the poetry recited over music? If so, I think it can be very valid as an art form, yes.
Mike Is there a film director you would like to work with for a soundtrack?
Gary. With David Lynch, of course, that would be one. Lars von Trier, is a phenomenal director. Amoldovar, I love his movies. Recently, there is a movie that Peter Hammill liked, and I like it too, that has Scarlett Johansson starring in it, a science fiction horror film called "Under the Skin" and it has a very edgy soundtrack. And I thought we could have made a really good soundtrack. I think the director is Jonathan Glazer, who did "Sexy Beast." It has a lot of beautiful and impressive cutting edge sounds. I like to hear it now more and more.
Mike What has made you laugh lately and what has excited you about the music scene?
Gary. I love watching John Stewart and Stephen Colbert's shows in the United States. Political satire of commentaries on news programs, very sharp and funny critiques of the present day. About music, the last artist I heard that I fell in love with is Lhasa, her voice sounds ancient and modern at the same time, the album to get is called “The Living Road”. She died very young and very tragically.
Mike Why is NYC connected to avant-garde and underground culture and what characterizes its local scene?
Gary. I guess because there are so many people there and it is considered a melting pot of influences. But the scene has changed a lot there, and not for the better in my opinion. There are far fewer places to play now.
Mike What would be a dream project that you would most like to do? What projects are you working on right now?
Gary. Well, I've always liked organizing new music and coming up with projects like anyone under pressure to earn a living from music. I'm by no means rich, you know. I work a lot on songwriting and soundtracks. It is very expensive to be alive in the world of music, so I am motivated to creatively reinvent myself and become immersed in new projects. It is like any other person. What motivates someone to get out of bed? To work and make a living from it. That is why we are here, that is why we were born.
Mike Let's take a trip with a time machine, so...where and why would you want to go for a whole day?
Gary. To Paris in the early 1920s, when the modern art scene was booming, I would have loved to hang out with all the wonderful painters, writers, musicians and authors that passed through that city. Picasso, Dali, Buñuel, Joyce, Ernst, etc., etc., etc.!
Mike Is there a memory of your presentations in Mexico City that you would like to share with us?
Gary. Yes! I remember going to play my live live solo guitar score for the legendary 1931 Spanish film “Dracula” that was filmed at night on the sets of Bela Lugosi's “Dracula” which was being shot during the day. I was hired to play at the Cineteca Nacional, and all tickets for both shows were sold out on the same day! Young people loved it, especially for my musical participation (there is no music in the film's soundtrack, only dialoguein Spanish).
The next time I went to Mexico, I played as a duo with Peter Hammill from progressive group, Van Der Graaf Generator, we presented our album “Otherworld” in an old theater in the center of Mexico City. I have returned to play several times, but perhaps the best of all has been when I have played for low-income disadvantaged Mexican children at the 'Benjamin Franklin’ Library in Mexico City. I do this for free and it is very rewarding for me, as well I believe for the Library that is operated by the United States Embassy.
In general, there is always a large presence of Mexican children at my concerts there--they have at times bussed them in from all over Mexico--and I have always received an incredible response from these kids, who otherwise would not be able to appreciate my work, and probably would never have been able to see me play elsewhere.
Interview by Michael Limnios
Blow Up (Italy), March 2021
A WIZARD, A TRUE STARGARY LUCAS
The Essential 2CD - Knitting Factory ( 36 tracks - 2:33:04)
8 out of 9
So easy to get lost into the “not so out in the open” career of Gary Lucas. Half a century from his first real approach to the music world, and exactly 41 years from his debut record. This extraordinary American guitar player – born in Syracuse NY – boasts a hyper-broad production: over thirty albums on his behalf (sometimes in duo or more collaborators with illustrious musicians or not), featuring dozens of many contributions, in a stylistic range from rock to soundtracks, from jazz to world music, from classical to avant-garde.
An unbelievable eclecticism marching along with a superb instrumental technique, a special gift of writing, a beautiful voice and very expressive one, all bound by a significant background, both human and cultural.
An authentic character, he deserves much more from the general public, despite that he is often remembered for his crucial collaborations, such as the one with Captain Beefheart and the Magic Band, and his Jeff Buckley composing brotherhood.
Basically an introduction, but this very rich collection gives us full-on the manifold activities of Lucas, offering huge batches of stimulus to dive into.
A double album, the first cd, full of inspired and polyhedric rock, focuses on his work as a leader of his Gods and Monsters band: songs flow, many of them performed by guests like Jeff Buckley, Rolo McGinty from The Woodentops, David Johansen, Mary Margaret O’Hara, and Elli Medeiros. The second album includes instrumental episodes, is entitled "Solo, Rarities and Collaborations", and is a much more visionary and unpredictable side: here we find Alan Vega, Nona Hendryx, Adrian Sherwood, reinterpretations of Janàcek and Dvoràk, and a special and splendid "All Along the Watchtower" interpreted in Mandarin(!) by Feifei Yang. After two and a half hours of pure emotion, pleasantly confused, if maybe knowing a little the path of Ours, we stand astonished by the quantity of what still remains out of the album. It might be possible to compile four times the amount of this stuff without losing a gram of quality. Pure amazement.
—Federico Gugliemi
—translation by Verdiana Garau
COOLMAG (Italy), March 2021
Review of "The Essential Gary Lucas"Ok, "discovered" by Captain Beefheart just before Don Van Vliet dropped the music for painting. Okay, Jeff Buckley's closest associate - and who knows what the 2 might have done if the waters of the Mississippi hadn't deprived us of Tim's son well ahead of time. Music listeners limited to Wikipedia notes do not know what they lose by not delving into a true explorer of music like Gary Lucas - exceptional guitarist among the most sensational today on the square (now 4 decades!) And composer capable of 1,000 moons and 1,000 collaborations : for confirmation, ask Nick Cave, Alabama 3, Bob Neuwirth, John Zorn, our Alessio Franchini, Alan Vega, Mary Margaret O'Hara, Bob Weir, DJ Spooky, Kate & Anna McGarrigle, Peter Hammill, David Johansen, Hal Willner, John Cale, Dr. John, Nona Hendryx, Patti Smith, Najma Akhtar, Lou Reed, Bryan Ferry, Allen Ginsberg, Van Dyke Parks, Emir Kusturica and we don't know more about it.
The Essential Gary Lucas (KFR) manages to fill the gap for all those who have missed the thirty albums that the Syracuse, New York musician has recorded, offering a beautiful retrospective of 36 songs that put together a puzzle made of everything. bit, with pindaric flights that combine blues and classical, psychedelic and world music, jazz and rock, klezmer and avant-garde - all seamlessly but, of course, with the registered trademark Gary Lucas, true gold prospector who it's a bit like the synthesis between Jimmy Page and David Lindley, John Fahey and Ry Cooder. 2 CDs that are truly a sound show by those who have traveled music from within, with careful research both in their own compositions and in the painstaking (re) discovery by a true expert on unknown motifs (in the 70s, better remember , Lucas was the pen for the legendary musical periodical Zig Zag, founded and directed by Mister Rock Family Trees Pete Frame), unique chord structures and a complex range of tones and textures. In summary, for those willing to go beyond superficial listening, Lucas' work offers a fascinating glimpse into a musical world that allows those imaginative instincts to spark in ways that seem simply boundless. Everyone likes this - really likes it.
The 1st Cd is an excursus on Gods And Monsters, his creature-alter ego that starting from the very early 90's in New York and its surroundings was really one of the most exciting new things around (the name was inspired by The Bride of Frankenstein , James Whale's 1935 film with Boris Karloff) - and not for nothing did the young Buckley end up in the shirts of Gods and Monsters, so much so that the posthumous Songs To No One 1991-1992 (2002 ). And the pearls are countless: from the angry blues with a train song step One Man's Meat with a more than ballsy David Johansen, to the folk launched towards unknown worlds Poison Tree with Mary Margaret O'Hara (the Canadian sciura really remains a mystery - immense talent for a rather small discography ...); from the chases for guitar and voice Fata Morgana, to the splendid Evangeline that best sums up the most Arcadian Led Zeppelin; from the perfect demo of Grace with Gary and Jeff who already dominate with their song-masterpiece (moreover, the pair could also be fished out of the demo of Mojo Pin or the thrilling live cover of the evergreen country-folk A Satisfied Mind), to the delicate Lady Of Shalott by the nineteenth-century English poet Alfred Tennyson suspended between Pentangle and Van Der Graaf Generator as well as with Jenni Muldaur on vocal; from the thin cut Serge Gainsbourg of Skin Diving (and does that very Page guitar staff really enjoy - or are we talking about Big Jim Sullivan? A few words to the wise ...), to the frenzied dance Skin The Rabbit; from the contagious jammin ’Let’s Go Swimming, to the folk-world watercolor The Wall with the Austrian Gisburg in the uvula.
The 2nd Cd, on the other hand, does a string of solos, rarities and collaborations - as per the subtitle. An exotic, adventurous journey - where you do not know the destiny but that to do everything is simply to be there to live the moment: we bet you missed Bob Dylan's All Along The Watchtower in Chinese? Here it is instead with Feifei Yang where the vocal impulses are perfectly balanced between Klezmer touches and Rolling Thunder Revue, capable of giving that something unprecedented to 1 of the great and most revisited rock standards; what about Captain Cuordibistecca's Her Eyes Are A Blue Million Miles overturned in a soul-jazz key with ex Labelle Nona Hendryx (the 2 in 2017 recorded 1 entire album, The World Of Captain Beefheart); easy to melt listening to Rishte's raga perfection with the Indian Najma Akhtar who floats immaculate in the air between Buckley, the Zep and Ravi Shankar; go in search of unknown pleasures in collaboration with Adrian Sherwood (Depeche Mode, Primal Scream, Ministry), see the sophisticated electronics of Guanguanco; immerse oneself in Suicide paranoia as in Life Kills, with Alan Vega as a guest; or render the classic by Antonín Dvořák, see Largo from Symphony No. 9, to a desert blues oscillating between Rainer Ptacek, John Fahey and Ry Cooder. As old, convinced admirers of Lucas that we are, it's just a pity that nothing has been found in the duo album with Peter Hammill, the excellent Other World (2014) - as neither is anything taken from Stereopticon (2016), a little songwriting gem with the German Jann Klose. But let's be satisfied. We are relaunching, indeed: we hope that one day Gary will take away the satisfaction of collaborating with the one who has confided in us to be his all-time favorite artist, none other than the lawyer Paolo Conte.
In the liner notes the artist assures that: “Having released a wild number of music in practically every genre known to mankind since my 1st album in 1990, Skeleton At The Feast, it is difficult for me to describe my music: I could say that it is based on the guitar and it all comes in any "shade of blue", from Chinese pop music to Hungarian folk, without forgetting the soundtracks that have fueled my whole life. To complicate matters even more as a compiler of this double compilation, I have to say that I like everything I've done - and that's why I haven't titled it The Best Of GL or The Definitive GL, as I wouldn't have the point of view anymore honest about my production. It was hard to make a choice - a bit like asking a father to choose among his children ".
To us, above all, it turns out to be a potpourri of mysteriously audacious sounds and extraordinarily ambitious intentions - the household goods of those who haven't given a damn about the mainstream to look for notes that always feed different possibilities. Indeed, the whole could easily be titled takin ’chances with Gary Lucas.
—Cico Casartelli
NTB Newswire (Scandinavia), March 2021
Cult guitarist sums up the collaboration with Jeff Buckley: - Felt like an atomic bomb in his pocketHe is best known as a "heavy gun" for cult artists such as Captain Beefheart (1941–2010) and Jeff Buckley (1966-1997). Now New York guitarist Gary Lucas is focusing on himself, with the "Essential" compilation album summarizing a 40-year career.
- Call it a dictionary, a road map, a kindergarten lesson about my music, Lucas says to NTB from the home office in Manhattan.
- The purpose of it is that it will help to maintain my live profile vis a vis future concerts - which is my biggest passion - as soon concerts are allowed again, he sincerely adds.
Raw mixer
He has performed with everyone from underground rocker Lou Reed to the classical phenomenon Leonard Bernstein. But asked to pick out the biggest musical upswings, Lucas grabs just Beefheart and Buckley.
The collaboration with the latter started in 1991 and was immortalized on the "Grace" album (1994). The album appears on both Rolling Stone magazine and the VH1 channel's overview of "the best albums of all time".
- I left the demo studio after hearing Jeff sing his butt off, with raw mixes of "Grace" and "Mojo Pin" in DAT format. I remember thinking that "these songs are going to change the world." It felt like I had the atomic bomb in my pocket.
Lucas talks - almost - just as nicely about Beefheart, also known as Don Van Vliet. If anyone deserves the stamp of "musician musician," it's probably him, given declared high-profile fans like Tom Waits and The White Stripes.
- Don was the best artist I ever met, but a demanding taskmaster who was extremely strict if you did not play exactly the way he wanted it. On a good day he could be incredibly nice - but on a bad one: "Watch out!"
The bottom point
Lucas has many career highlights to report, and he also likes to highlight a bottom - which took place on tour in Scotland in 1990.
- I had driven six hours from the Midlands to Glasgow to play in what turned out to be a pub basement, without any kind of advance advertising. The audience consisted of three or four people - and afterwards the promoter cheated me for the fee. The guy laughed in my face and said: “Don't you have a place to sleep tonight?"
- What has made you such a sought-after partner?
- I think I offer the X-factor. Everything I play is based on the blues and quarter tones you find between the white and black keys on the piano. This is how you can emulate the human voice as it howls in ecstasy or in pain, Lucas answers poetically.
- And that's where you find the feelings we all know on planet Earth - what unites us as a race.
—Emil Mohr
OOR Magazine (Netherlands), February 2021
Review of "The Essential Gary Lucas"(Knitting Factory/Pias)
The American Gary Lucas is a remarkable guitarist with a remarkable career, which started in 1980 in the band of Captain Beefheart. Forty years and about as many albums later, he's left his mark on almost all musical genres, and collaborated with a huge amount of people.
On the double CD THE ESSENTIAL Gary Lucas, he's collected 36 tracks that gave color to his 40-year career.
Many of these tracks have never been released before, including a live version from 1980 of "Flavor Bud Living", a solo piece from the Beefheart album "Doc At The Radar Station".
Lucas has developed his own style of fingerpicking. Which is strikingly present in the primal version of Jeff Buckley’s "Grace" here, but also in songs he recorded with funk singer Nona Hendryx, Alan Vega ( Suicide) and David Johansen ( New York Dolls).
The most notable track is his version of "All Along The Watchtower", sung in Mandarin by Chinese singer Feifei Yang.
Gary is a welcome guest in our country. He's done a number of projects with the Metropole Orkestra, from which the beautiful recorded at the Paradiso performance of Buckley’s "Story Without Words" originates. These kinds of live tracks, giving a unique view of the artistry of Gary Lucas, makes this album essential.
—Oscar Smit
Downtown Music Gallery Newsletter, January 2021
Review of "The Essential Gary Lucas"GARY LUCAS with GODS and MONSTERS / ERNIE BROOKS / BILLY FICCA / JONATHAN KANE / JERRY HARRISON / JASON CANDLER / FRANK LONDON / JEAN CHAINE / JARED MICHAEL NICKERSON / ALAN VEGA + DAVID JOHANSEN / ROLO McGINTY / DINA EMERSON / MARY MARGARET O’HARA / FEIFEI YANG / NONA HENDRYX / NAJMA AKHTAR / et al - The Essential Gary Lucas (Knitting Factory Records 018; USA)
The collective personnel for this collection features Gary Lucas on guitars & vocals, Ernie Brooks & Jean Chaine on electric bass, Jerry Harrison on keyboards, Jason Candler on sax and Billy Ficca & Jonathan Kane on drums. For as long as I can remember (mid-sixties), I have been on a mission to find the perfect rock guitar solo. Starting around 1966, I became infatuated with lead guitar plays: Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton, Frank Zappa, Jeff Beck, Jorma Kaukonen, Jerry Garcia, etc. I can still feel that adrenalin rush when one of those pickers plays that classic solo that tells a short story and leaves you breathless. I’ve been checking out Downtown guitar great Gary Lucas, since his days with Captain Beefheart (around 1980) and then emerging as part of the Downtown/Knitting Factory Scene in 1990. I recall his early solo sets at the Knit as well as when he put together the amazing Gods and Monsters band, a band which had some revolving personnel which included the late Jeff Buckley. New York has long been a stronghold for gifted electric guitarists: from John McLaughlin to Danny Kalb to Leslie West fast forwarding to the early Downtown Scene: Fred Frith, Eugene Chadbourne, Bill Frisell, Sonny Sharrock, Robert Quine, Elliott Sharp, Marc Ribot, Vernon Reid and Nels Cline. What makes all of these players great is that they are all unique and beyond the regular categories. Making great music as well as taking powerful guitar solos. Gary is the king of this.
Gary Lucas never ceases to surprise me. Mr. Lucas has recorded around 30 discs since his early solo efforts around 1990. His playing is consistently strong but not so easy to pin down, to any one category. This splendid two CD set starts in 1980 and shows many different sides of Mr. Lucas’ vast palette. Disc One is called ‘Gods and Monsters’ and it consists of several versions of Gods and Monsters, each one very different sound-wise and personnel-wise. “Fata Morgana” opens and shows off Mr. Lucas’ spirited acoustic guitar prowess with some sly slide lines thrown in for good measure. “Evangeline” sounds like a King Arthur-ish fairy tale with nifty laid-back vocals and layers of swirling guitars buzzing together. Although Mr. Lucas vocals have a limited range, he knows how to use them just right by becoming a different character on each song. Lucas also does a fine job of adding various layers of acoustic and electric guitars with selective use of effects, which change from song to song, both his voice and his guitar(s) use different shades and effects throughout. There a number of highlights here: the soul chorus on “Chime On”, the horn section on “Climb the Highest Mountain” and the quietly cosmic e-bow guitar solo on “Let’s Go Swimming”, a rare Arthur Russell cover. Considering that Disc One has some 17 tracks and 78+ minutes long, there is quite a bit to recommend here.
Disc 2 is called ’Solo, Rarities and Collaborations’ and it is again very long with some 19 songs. Mr. Lucas does a number of select covers on this disc: Bob Dylan, Captain Beefheart, Chinese pop music, Dollar Brand and Leos Janacek. The two Chinese pop songs are done with great care and are touching. The three Captain Beefheart covers are highlights for me. Mr. Lucas was both a manager & a bandmember of the Magic Band in the late seventies/early eighties. Beefheart’s song are idiosyncratic and often difficult to play but Mr. Lucas does a great job of bringing them back to life. Again this disc is very long, more than 70 minutes and I thought it was completely captivating throughout! Mucho bravo to Gary Lucas and his Cosmic Clan!
—Bruce Lee Gallanter, DMG
Rolling Stone (Italy), 1/29/2021
Gary Lucas, La Mia Vita in 10 Canzoni (My Life in 10 Songs)Translated into Italian, in which I discuss 10 songs from my new 40-year retrospective album that their editors selected—big thanks to Verdiana Garau.
Here is my original piece in English:
Most people probably know my songwriting through “Grace” and “Mojo Pin”—the first two songs on Jeff Buckley’s 2-million selling “Grace” album.
Which is a pity as I have written several hundred songs—in checking now, I see I have 340 compositions listed on the BMI data-base.
And in all modesty, I think some of these songs are right up there with my Jeff Buckley collaborations.
All of these songs of mine are there waiting to be discovered—hopefully via my new 40-year retrospective double album THE ESSENTIAL GARY LUCAS.
Of course I'm very proud of the songs I co-wrote with Jeff, which were 50/50 collaborations.
In fact I wrote a dozen songs with him, which were finally realized in the studio last year on an album I recorded with two great Italian artists, The Niro (Davide Combusti) on vocals and producer Francesco Arpino on keyboards.
Our album “The Complete Jeff Buckley and Gary Lucas Songbook” on the Esordisco label was named Album of the Year by Classic Rock Italia.
The key takeaway here is that all of my song collaborations with other artists—as well as my own songs, where I've written all the words and music—began originally as my own solo guitar instrumentals.
In creating songs, the music of these guitar instrumentals always come first—the lyrics, second.
My rule of thumb generally is that after writing what I think is an intriguing instrumental, I sleep on it...and if I can remember the music the next morning, I have a solid foundation for a new song.
I believe if you strip these instrumentals away from my songs, they can stand alone as evocative, pictorial music.
I have many influences instrumentally. I am passionate about all sorts of music from all over the world, in pretty much every single genre—including rock (especially psychedelic rock), blues, jazz, folk, electronic, classical, and world music.
Regarding my acoustic guitar-playing, I revere folks like the great Deta bluesman Skip James, and English folk guitarists like Bert Jansch and Davy Graham, as well as the American folk master John Fahey.
All these artists used open tunings and very active fingerpicking—a hallmark of my guitar instrumentals—and subsequently most of my songs.
On electric guitar, I love the frenetic “going for the Godhead” approach of folks like Syd Barrett, Lou Reed, Jimi Hendrix, Jeff Beck, Peter Green, all the guitarists who worked with my original mentor Don Van Vliet (Captain Beefheart), Hubert Sumlin, Freddy King, and on and on.
The overall main influence on my music is the Blues—the foundational of just about everything I ever have composed or arranged.
The essence of the blues is sliding pitches, microtonal slurs, the cracked or slightly bent note—and I know how to do this expertly on guitar.
It's an emulation of the human voice basically—sobbing or wailing in pain or ecstasy.
This is the essence of humanity to me, the common ground upon which everyone can claim, as we’ve all been there—and which we repeatedly visit throughout our journey forward.
I believe the experience of the Blues is something that unites us as fellow humans on This Island Earth.
Even when I am playing such seemingly disparate music as operatic themes of Richard Wagner, or 30’s Chinese pop on the guitar, there is always a blues element underlying it.
Re my lyric writing. I have been a voracious reader and writer since I was a little boy—writing is second nature to me. Playing with language in my lyrics is in my blood.
I actually was accepted by Yale University after winning a National Council of Teachers of English Award while in high school—and when I arrived at Yale I naturally chose English literature as my major.
So I would cite James Joyce, Shakespeare, Nobel Prize winner Isaac Bashevis Singer, Vladimir Nabokov, Wyndham Lewis, TS Eliot, and both the Old and New Testaments as significant influences on my lyric writing—particularly in the songs I write for my longtime avant-rock band Gods and Monsters.
These writers are also an influence on my music as well, in spirit. As is the influence of cinema. It all goes into the mix!
James Joyce, who passed away 80 years ago, is my all-time favorite writer. And “Ulysses” is my favorite book. I have found a lot of strength and comfort reading this book, and have re-read and studied it intensely over many years.
Some of my favorite lines from this amazing journey into the heart and mind of Leopold Bloom, a lower middle-class Irish-Jewish person, include:
“History is a nightmare from which I am trying to awake.”
“Every life is in many days, day after day. We walk through ourselves, meeting robbers, ghosts, giants, old men, young men, wives, widows, brothers-in-love, but always meeting ourselves.”
And my favorite:
“God is a shout in the street.”
The spirit of these sentiments animates my songs, although I have never quoted from them directly in my lyrics.
But they are a big influence on my songwriting, as they view the Game of Life as an ongoing mythology—the quotidian behavior of us all mirroring the cosmic dance and struggle of the Greek and Roman gods.
Here are some thoughts on 10 of my songs featured on THE ESSENTIAL GARY LUCAS as told from the inside:
FATA MORGANA—The Italian name given to a particular kind of optical illusion—a chimera, a will ‘o the wisp. In nautical terms, a Fata Morgana is a mirage of land that appears upon the surface of the ocean when meteorological conditions are ripe. Such a mirage has been known to lure sailors to their death—sailors who think they have spotted land in treacherous, uncharted waters, and then run their ships aground on hidden reefs. The name itself comes from Arthurian legend and concerns Morgan Le Fay, an evil sorceress in King Arthur’s Court who was condemned to live in a palace under the sea, where she plotted to shipwreck unsuspecting vessels who came to close to the mirages she summoned up. I was inspired to write the music for this song in 2002 while I was Artist in Residence at the Quebec City Summer Festival for an entire week. One night in the hotel (hotels being my favorite place to compose and write new music), I hit on the fingerpicked guitar motif in a C modal tuning of my own devise. They suggested a turbulent emotional storm, and conjured the image to me of a Succubus, a Femme Fatale, a malevolent temptress whose sweet and deadly allure summons deluded men to their doom. Gods and Monsters really rocked out on this one in the studio, with drummer Billy Ficca (Television) particularly doing a cool take on a Gene Krupa style of drumming, and Ernie Brooks (Modern Lovers) seriously pumping that bass. One of my better vocals I think (I had to perfect my singing when I realized I could not count on permanent singers over the long haul).
EVANGELINE—This song was written when I was at a very low point around 1995. I first recorded it for a solo acoustic album of the same name which came out the following year. After releasing three well-regarded albums—“Skeleton at the Feast”, “Gods and Monsters”, and “Bad Boys of the Arctic”—I felt that I'd exhausted my creative faculties—and was seriously worried about my future in music. I’d left a very boring but secure day-job in order to immerse myself in music full-time at the ripe old age of 36—and now I was up to my neck in music! And I felt like my prospects were dim. The whole enterprise just seemed so unstable, the financial rewards few and far between. I loved touring, especially in Europe, but my shows didn’t seem to be leading anywhere, reliable agents turned out to be not so reliable, etc. At what I thought was the very end of my tether, somehow I was inspired to write this song, which is really a paean to the Holy Spirit of Creativity—in my case personified by an unknown Female Muse whom I called Evangeline in this song—whose very name implies the divine and the numinous. This transcendental female energy (known in the Jewish faith as the Shekinah) in my view is the underlying spiritual force of the Universe—and drawing on Her energy pulled me through some very hard times, and gave me the strength to keep going in music when I was ready to quit. I re- recorded this song with Gods and Monsters around 2003 which came out on my album “Coming Clean”—this is the version you are listening to here with Ernie Brooks and Jonathan Kane on bass and drums respectively, and my recording engineer Sasha Van Oertzen providing the wordless background vocals. “Trust in Her / you must endure / the seasons ever changing / face the frost / the hollow cost / of life spent re-arranging / evening bells and wishing well the one who won’t need naming / Evangeline comes claiming”—did you notice the Holocaust reference in line 4? As well as the reference to the Beefheart solo piece that put me on the musical map as a guitarist in line 8? I thought you did!
COMING CLEAN—the title track of my 2006 God and Monsters studio album, the lyrics have a similar theme as “Evangeline”: “Riding on a steel rail / twisting past oblivion / you bend before the wind so frail / giving me the strength to live again.” Strength given by one to the Other, and vice versa. This song also posits the notion of spiritual rebirth and reincarnation: “Like a pebble on the beach / unto a grain of sand / thrown and sown just out of reach / moving freely in His hand / All of us come clean you know / There at journey’s end / waiting for the wave to flow / waiting for a sign to start again”. Although unlike “Evangeline”, here it’s a He, not a Her, that’s being referenced (God is a shout in the street). “Journey’s End” was a play by R.C. Sherriff set in the trenches of World War I and later made into a film directed by the great James Whale (“Bride of Frankenstein”). In fact the very name of my band Gods and Monsters derives from a line in “The Bride of Frankenstein” (one of my favorite films) when one mad scientist toasts another—“To a New World of Gods and Monsters!" “Rising from oblivion / Do not go gentle into that good night”—one of Dylan Thomas’ best known and most beloved poems, and one of Don Van Vliet (Captain Beefheart)’s favorite quotes (Don was no slouch with lyrics himself). See how everything cross references everything else in my songs? It all adds up. I really enjoyed recording this song and layering various guitar leads in the instrumental break. I then sent it to our friend Jerry Harrison (Talking Heads) to re-mix it, and he and his engineer ET Thorngren did an incredible job. So much so that I invited Jerry into the group as keyboardist and producer for our next studio album “The Ordeal of Civility”—and took him with us on tour to the Netherlands and Russia. But that’s another story...
FOLLOW—This may be my most gentle ballad. It was written to be a comfort for people afflicted by AIDS. Since 1977 I've lived in the West Village of Manhattan, where the community was heavily hit by the AIDS plague in the 80’s. My best friend from my college days was one of the first victims. I had him in mind when I wrote this song. It starts very gently and rocks out as well. “When you're feeling low / got no place to go / when the love light doesn’t show / and your friends don’t want to know / Follow “. A lot of my song lyrics are filled with positive energy meant to uplift folks afflicted with feelings of despair (we’ve all been there—the price of being Human). A quiet anthem to cheer people up and hopefully help heal them, which is the best thing I think one can do for anybody. I wrote the words and music in the early 90’s and used to perform this song with the singer Richard Barone, who was my immediate vocal replacement after Jeff left my band in 1992. Richard sang it beautifully and then he too departed. So when it came time to record this with Gods and Monsters in the early 2000’s, guess who the vocalizing fell on? The song has resonance for a lot of folks, even though I never spell out AIDS directly in the lyrics—there’s only an allusion in the line “And you will fast endure / the sickness without cure / Follow free follow sure / In this run through in this race / in this time and in this space / rise to break this petty pace / choose to find a state of Grace”. This line references both a famous passage in Shakespeare’s “Macbeth” (“and tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow / creeps in this petty pace day by day / to the last syllable of recorded time”) and also Jeff and Gary’s song “Grace”. I can’t help it, it’s the English literature major in me! Some years after I released this, the comedian Sandra Bernhard, who was so good in Martin Scorsese’s film “The King of Comedy”, invited me to perform ivy song with her singing at a rally in support of Gay Marriage here in NYC, where my friend Lou Reed also performed. She introduced me as “This is the guy who wrote hits for Jeff Buckley!” I was really touched by the crowd response.
GRACE—Perhaps my best ever, certainly my most famous, collaboration. Working with an artist of the caliber of the young Jeff was a total joy, at least in the beginning. I applied my same rule of thumb as I do with everyone I collaborate with in a one-on-one; namely, let them have their total artistic freedom to do whatever feels right to them regarding the music I give them. I am not a dictator—and when it comes to a collaboration you have to respect the choices of your partner, especially if you are not in the same room with them hashing a song out line by line (something I rarely have done). With “Grace”, I had the underlying instrumental halfway written already before I even met or knew that there was a Jeff Buckley. After we hooked up and Jeff agreed to be the singer in Gods and Monsters when my major label deal with a female singer went south, I had to come up with song material for my new partner. In one week in June of 1991 I finished composing this instrumental, which I titled “Rise Up to Be”, and wrote another instrumental which I titled “And You Will”. I gave them these provisional titles as place-markers only—but you can see from their positive message as titles alone that I was trying to “vibe up” Jeff, encouraging him to come to NYC to fulfill his potential in our new collaboration as Gods and Monsters—a name he loved. In August that summer Jeff passed through NYC and come by with full lyrics and top-line melodies for these two solo guitar instrumentals I’d mailed to him on cassette. They sounded totally cool to me—so I arranged for us to go in to Krypton Studios with my then rhythm section—Jared Michael Nickerson on bass and Tony Lewis on drums—to demo them up. This is the “Grace” demo. Sitting there in the studio listening to Jeff wail the lyrics and add some Dylan-esque harmonica gave me chills—and when I left the studio with the rough mixes of the two songs on DAT I thought to myself: “This music is going to shake the world!” Which it did!
AFTER STRANGE GODS—the title of an infamous 1934 book by the iconic poet T.S. Eliot (“The Wasteland”)—the full title of which is “After Strange Gods: A Primer of Modern Heresy”. Here the conservative modernist with a strong Anglican Church bent delivers an overview of contemporary literature in the form of a book-long essay in which he delves into what he considers moral and immoral fiction. It contains the following line, widely interpreted as being anti-semitic: “ Reasons of race and religion combine to make any large number of free-thinking Jews undesirable”. Eliot later recanted this sentiment, but the shock of this line was a stain on his career for many years. As a free-thinking Jewish person with a fierce passion for literature I happen to like most of Eliot’s poetry a lot, but abhor the traces of anti-Semitism in his early poems. The title of his book stuck with me though, and I thought it would make a good title for a song about my band, given the name of my group—and as you can't copyright a title…”Around the world / around the horn / the cup is filled / the lamb is born / into a flock / a herd a show / of hands now please / mind how you go.” There is plenty of Biblical imagery and a little bit of Arthur Miller in my lyrics : “After the climb / before the fall / you feel a chill / the hounds all call you” and “So take up fast / thy staff and rod / and hurry now / After Strange Gods”. And a little Led Zeppelin reference: “Outside the pearl / inside the song / remains the same / until it's gone”. Leading the charge is the exceptional avant-garde vocalist Dina Emerson who had previously worked with Meredith Monk before hooking up with me, and she really gives her all here. Plus Jonathan Kane drums and Ernie Brooks bass—and Jonathan’s brother Anthony on wailing harmonica and Gregg Bendian on percussion. This song opens my second Gods and Monsters album “Bad Boys of the Arctic” released in 1994—an album which received an A+ in Stereo Review for both the songs and the sonics (go figure, as much of that album was recorded in dodgy demo studios and jingle houses for very little money).
KING STRONG—this was the first “official” Gods and Monsters track, which was recorded around 1988 at Unique Studios here in NYC. The group at this time was purely a construct of my imagination, which I then envisioned as a kind of jazz-rocky fusion ensemble with two basses. A couple of years earlier in London I had recorded two songs, “Skin the Rabbit” and a cover of Pink Floyd’s “Astronomy Domine” with Rolo McGinty of The Woodentops on vocals—and, happy with the results, I got the bug to keep going! I was looking to burst out of the confines of my boring day-job as a copywriter at CBS Records after 5 years spent playing with and managing Don Van Vliet (Captain Beefheart) on the side. Don Van Vliet (an excellent painter as well as the most visionary composer, singer and poet) and I had split up in '84 after I'd placed him with a big-time art gallery in NYC. I'd joined Captain Beefhart and the Magic Band strictly for the music, not to become his art pimp—and all he wanted to do by 1982 after a long hard slog in the avant-garde rock game was paint. We parted, and I plunged full steam ahead with an eye to making my own music—an idea which was strictly verboten if you wanted to play with Don, who did not take kindly to his charges making their own music. On this instrumental I decided to act on an idea I'd had for a souped-up and metalized “jazz-waltz” a la John Coltrane's version of Mongo Santamaria's “Afro-Blue”, which imho was the inspiration for Zappa’s “King Kong”—both of which themes I quote smack dab in the middle of this track, once and once only, just to see if anybody was paying attention. 95% of the rest of the music on this track is my own. Joining me on this excursion is the amazing Keith Leblanc (Tackhead) on drums, and Jared Michael Nickerson and Paul Now on bass. Tackhead’s guitarist Skip McDonald ws very helpful also in the recording in helping me format the track. Basically after recording the drums and bass, I just plugged into a Marshall and let her rip, layering track upon track—a real wall of wailing guitars. I took a rough mix given to me on cassette, had some copies duped up, and left the cassette at a few of the more free-form radio stations in the area, like WFMU, WKCR, and WNYU. And by God, they played the hell out of this track! It even got a write-up in Billboard Magazine. I was encouraged. I was on my way.
DREAM OF A RUSSIAN PRINCESS—New Year’s Eve 1991. I woke up in my Dutch friend Joep Ver’s atelier in Amsterdam at 4am (technically now 1992, in the Netherlands anyway). Joep was my very best friend in the Netherlands—my very favorite country to play in Europe at that time. The first country in Europe I had been recognized successfully in as an artist—the Dutch "got me” and my live solo act right away, going back to my earliest appearances there in 1990 when I was more or less discovered. I’m sure the Beefheart connection helped shoe-horn me through the door, as they revered Don as a fellow Dutchman (albeit his being born in the USA)—and in fact I had toured with him in 1980 all over the country. Flash forward to 1991. I'd just come off a grueling 3-month solo tour of the UK and Europe and was catching some r&r in the studio of my friend Joep, a fantastic painter who many years earlier had squatted an old disused mustard factory set on the edge of a canal and converted it into artist studios and living spaces for his friends. So at 4am on the dawn of the first day of the year 1992, I awoke from a dream whose central image was the radiant visage of an elegant, bejeweled Russian noblewoman out of the 19th century—a beauty further illuminated by strange and intense acoustic guitar music that rang in my ears. I rolled over and picked up my acoustic guitar which lay on the side of my mattress on the floor, and began working on my composition. It was mournful and sad, with intense fingerpicked passages and passionate strumming—and it rose to a positive surge of triumphant, almost noble emotion—before sinking back into the dissonant gloom. Bittersweet! Like most of my music. I think it’s one of my most memorable compositions—a love letter to an unknown and mysterious lady. Maybe the fact of her being a Russian princess was something planted deep in my subconscious mind by Don Van Vliet, who once told me that his ideal female would be of Russian-Jewish extraction.
FLAVOR BUD LIVING—this is a composition by Don Van Vliet (Captain Beefheart) which put me on the grid as a guitarist. I’d wanted to join Captain Beefheart and the Magic Band ever since catching their debut concert in NYC over three nights at a little club called Ungano’s on the upper west side of Manhattan. I’d first heard about this guy while in high school from a new acquaintance named Fred Perry, whose brother Richard had produced Don's first album “Safe as Milk” in 1967. Fred spotted me on a street corner near Syracuse University and (a fellow Anglophile), noticed that I was carrying the first album by the English group The Move under my arm. He was carrying an acoustic guitar in a cardboard case upon which was written in red magic marker CAPTAIN BEEFHEART AND HIS MAGIC BAND, who I'd never heard of before. A few years later after seeing their NYC debut live, I walked away from the club thinking: “If I ever do anything in music, I want to play with this guy!”. He and his group were that amazing. I’d seen some excellent rock shows in my life up to that moment, including the Rolling Stones with Brian Jones, Janis Joplin and Paul Butterfield, and Frank Zappa and the Mothers—but this was in a completely different category altogether —they were just so outrageously good, and very very tight as an ensemble. As a result of this first concert, any time the band toured anywhere near me I would make a point to go and see them play. I later interviewed and began hanging out with Don, who was exceedingly friendly. Meantime I was working in secret trying to master some of Don's very complicated music. In 1974 Don appeared onstage in my hometown as a special guest vocalist with Frank Zappa at the Syracuse War Memorial. I took him for a midnight snack of spare-ribs at a fugitive barbecue joint operating out of the backyard of a rickety house located in the Black ghetto of Syracuse. During our meal I told him I wanted a shot to audition for him for his new Magic Band lineup. He invited me to come up to Boston a few days later with my guitar, and I played for him in his hotel room after his gig with Frank. It still took a few years to get into his group, but eventually he invited me out to LA for the recoding of his 1980 album “Doc at the Radar Station”—where I nailed this instrumental he’d sent me called “Flavor Bud Living” in one take! My performance of this on his “Doc at the Radar Station” album received much attention in the international music press., and I was bumped up to full Magic Band member status for his next album, 1982’s “Ice Cream for Crow”. The painstaking process of learning his music on guitar forced me to stretch out and develop an extended technique on guitar which I applied to my own music once I split with Don. The version on this retrospective album was recorded live at the Beacon Theater in NYC in NOv. 1980 during our extensive US and European tour which took place from the full of the year to the end of January 1981. The theater was packed, and I recall David Byrne sitting in the audience. During this tour Don would introduce me on stage, I’d walk out and then he and the band would walk off stage and leave me to face the crowd on my own. I was always nervous, but truly I loved the feeling of playing solo on stage—one man against the world—I felt like a gladiator in the arena. You can hear the crowd roar at the end—the most gratifying feedback an artist can get. From this experience I became addicted to playing on stage—and I can’t wait to get back on the road and play for people again once we get through this pandemic.
MUSIC FOR “THE GOLEM”—I love film music soundtracks—a passion inherited from my folks who collected many: Jerry Goldsmith’s soundtrack to “Exodus” and Michel Legrand’s “The Umbrellas of Cherbourg” for starters. Following their lead I began collecting many of John Barry’s James Bond soundtracks (“From Russia with Love” was my particular favorite). From this it was a short step to creating my own soundtracks, which I began realizing at a very tender age with my childhood partner in crime, keyboardist/composer Walter Horn. We used to make dark musique concrete tapes together—and then on Halloween perch on the second floor of my parents’ house over the entrance and play the tape loudly to frighten unsuspecting trick or treaters! Fast forward many years later to 1989, when I was one year into my solo career. I received a commission from the Brooklyn Academy of Music to combine my music with another art-form—and I immediately flashed on composing a live score to accompany the 1920 German expressionist silent horror film “The Golem”—and then invited Walter in on the project. I’d read about this legendary film as a boy in the pages of a horror movie magazine, and thought to myself then: “A Jewish Frankenstein! How cool is that??”. Because of my love for both classic cinema and Jewish folk legends, I somehow intuitively knew that this was the film for me to score—it was calling out to me! I tracked down a print at the Museum of Modern Art here in NYC, had it transferred to VHS cassette, and duped a copy for Walter, who had moved to Boston. We were like a pair of tag-team wrestlers! We divided the film into various sequences which we worked on apart from each other before combining forces to work the whole thing out as a seamless live score—which we debuted at the Museum of the Moving Image in Astoria in Fall of 1989. Included here is the opening sequence of themes, which is taken directly from the live recording made that night at the world premiere. Our live score was a big hit, needless to say—and I subsequently worked the whole thing out on solo guitar, as Walter had a day job which precluded ongoing duo performances—and I am in the Golem business (amongst other things)...I’ve subsequently played the soundtrack live to the film at festivals and venues all over the world, in over 20 countries—at Royal Festival Hall in London, in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, Moscow and St. Petersburg, at the Venice Biennale and the Teatro Verdi in Firenze—and in Prague, home of The Golem. In fact, my last concert before lockdown last March was playing with the film up at Cornell University in Ithaca NY. Ithaca as you may recall is a small island in the Ionian sea—an island where the warrior Ulysses (Odysseus) is sailing home to in the famous Greek and Roman myths. It all adds up!
—Gary Lucas