00:10 Intro. 03:05 Looking for Changes 05:45 Peace in the Neighborhood 10:45 Commercial 15:40 Hold A Candle to This - Pretenders 19:15 Chrissy Hynde 20:15 Wild Life 25:40 Commercial - Turn Tape Over 00:08 Commercial 00:53 I Can See Clearly Now - Johnny Nash 03:40 Nature Boy 04:50 Mother Nature's Son 07:50 Off The Ground 12:15 Commercial 12:43 Meatless Stroganoff - Linda 16:40 Placid Creature - Linda & Carla Lane 18:45 Chico Mendez 19:30 How Many People 24:50 We All Stand Together 27:30 Goodbye
Hey...it's not just another episode of "Oobu Joobu"; it's a THEME episode!
Okay, that's not a distintion that means a lot to most listeners. This installment of the show is built around environmental themes, and all of Paul's music played in the show does relate to the idea. But the sources of the music are basically the same as on pastshows, and it's no surprise that Paul is not going to get into involved political discussions. In fact, the longest bit of dialogue on the subject is Chrissie Hynde's reading of the very same anti-meat public service announcement that Pete Townshend read a couple weeks back (and I still don't buy that eating more veggie meals is going to do one whit of good for world hunger).
What we do get are further soundchecks and rehearsals, as we would expect. There's a very nice "Mother Nature's Son", with (dare I say it?) better vocals than the White Album version, and a rehearsal of "How Many People", with Paul calling out the chords--or even singing them--at times ("how many people, B Minor 7 to me?"). A take of "Off the Ground" sports an interesting little reggae coda which might even be a version of some real song, although I prefer the bootlegged live version where Paul goes into "Iko Iko" at the same point. There are also versions of "Looking For Changes" and "Peace In the Neighborhood" from Las Vegas, April 14, 1993. These two songs were played together straight through, the first time in the series that Paul has played two songs from thesame source with nothing at all in between them. Since Paul played Las Vegas just before the Hollywood Bowl show where he did "Mother Nature's Son", it's quite possible that that song if from Vegas as well.
I was really hoping we'd get an outtake or live version of "Wild Life" to fit the theme, but instead Paul simply played the album version. Oh, well, it's not everyday you get to hear that song on the radio...
Paul played part of the already-bootlegged demo for "We All Stand Together", segueing it as usual into the standard version. And Linda's spot (following a recipe for fake-beef stroganoff) went to a rather pretty tune that she co-wrote with her buddy Carla Lane, apparantly titled "Placid Creature", the poignant story of a cow the day before it is to be killed. The strength of Linda's songs has been one of the most pleasant surprises about "Oobu Joobu"; not that we've discovered any great talent, mind you, but there's been nothing at all embarassing and quite a lot that was enjoyable.
The only outside material played was a Pretenders cut ("Where the Buffalo Roam", I think it's called) and the Johnny Nash oldie "I Can See Clearly Now". The latter has a rather tenuous connection to the theme--couldn't Paul find some worthwhile music on the suject of the environment? (I might suggest "Power" by John Hall, "Big Yellow Taxi" by Joni Mitchell, some of Raffi's material, the Earth Day song written by Tom Chapin, or even "Save the World" by a certain guitarist Paul used to hang out with. Just for starters.)
Song of the week honors go to the fine take on "Mother Nature's Son"; if it weren't for all the synths, I might be calling this the definitive version of the song. Interestingly, Paul states that this song was inspired by Nat "King" Cole's 1948 hit "Nature Boy".
Well, we can all be glad that Paul manages to get through the show without dragging out the story about eating lamb and seeing sheep out the window again. However, there are much more interesting themes to be done out there.
... Bloody marvelous. I don't know how she does it, or why.
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