Drive Away Blues from The Last Bluesman
Apr 6, 2024 17:56:06 GMT -5
glt, demetrij, and 2 more like this
Post by Cireme on Apr 6, 2024 17:56:06 GMT -5
It's new to me and I don't think it was posted here.
In The Greatest Band That Ever Wasn't, Barrett Martin mentions two delta blues covers recorded by Mark Lanegan shortly before his death, that he used for the soundtrack of a documentary.
The documentary, The Last Bluesman, has been online for a year and you can hear one of the covers (Drive Away Blues) at 1:11:45 here: filmfreeway.com/TheLastBluesman
Mark and I wouldn’t talk for months or even a year at a time, but then we’d pick up right where we had left off, as if no time had passed. I was shocked to hear how severe his case of Covid had been, and how he had spent nearly three months in an Irish hospital, and the better part of a month on a ventilator. It was pretty much a miracle that he had survived at all.
I had spent the lockdown writing my third book so I sent that to Mark in an email, and that’s when Mark emailed me a draft of his final book, Devil In A Coma (2021). He asked me to give him some editorial comments before he finished his final draft, which I did. It’s an incredible book about the spiritual visions he had when he was on the ventilator in an Irish hospital, barely alive, and stuck between the realms of life and death. I highly recommend it for anyone who wants a real window into Mark’s soul.
I love that Mark and I always had this literary connection between us, going back to the early days of the Trees when we were on tour, and we would swap books on the tour bus. Books like Moby Dick (1851), or a collection of short stories by Charles Bukowski, or the classic Cormac McCarthy western, Blood Meridian (1985), which was the first book that Mark ever gave me. Somehow, Blood Meridian always stands out as the book that reminds me of the Screaming Trees on tour, as if we were in some kind of parallel story, living the exaggerated myth of the Screaming Trees.
It was just a few months after that when I had my last interaction with Mark. I was producing the soundtrack for a delta blues documentary, the blues being something that Mark and I both loved. I mean, to be frank about it, Mark was essentially a blues singer at his core.
I asked Mark if he might want to record a delta blues cover for the soundtrack, and he ended up sending me two—both by the great blues singer, Blind Willie McTell. Mark recorded his vocals directly into his cell phone, emailing me the raw vocal tracks. He told me that I could add any music I wanted to his vocals, but his voice by itself was so beautiful, I didn’t want to touch them. Jack Endino and I mixed them for the soundtrack, and we left them just exactly as they were, his raw voice penetrating the air with no musical accompaniment. Mark’s voice was perfect just by itself, and anything added would have lessened the impact.
It was only two months later, on February 22nd, 2022, that our spiritual, musical brother passed from this physical realm to a place that I hope is more peaceful than the one he left behind. A huge void was etched into the hearts of those who knew Mark, and the world seems like an emptier, lesser place without him.
It was as if an ancient tree, which had seen the best and the worst in men, yet still survived, only to finally be cut down.
I had spent the lockdown writing my third book so I sent that to Mark in an email, and that’s when Mark emailed me a draft of his final book, Devil In A Coma (2021). He asked me to give him some editorial comments before he finished his final draft, which I did. It’s an incredible book about the spiritual visions he had when he was on the ventilator in an Irish hospital, barely alive, and stuck between the realms of life and death. I highly recommend it for anyone who wants a real window into Mark’s soul.
I love that Mark and I always had this literary connection between us, going back to the early days of the Trees when we were on tour, and we would swap books on the tour bus. Books like Moby Dick (1851), or a collection of short stories by Charles Bukowski, or the classic Cormac McCarthy western, Blood Meridian (1985), which was the first book that Mark ever gave me. Somehow, Blood Meridian always stands out as the book that reminds me of the Screaming Trees on tour, as if we were in some kind of parallel story, living the exaggerated myth of the Screaming Trees.
It was just a few months after that when I had my last interaction with Mark. I was producing the soundtrack for a delta blues documentary, the blues being something that Mark and I both loved. I mean, to be frank about it, Mark was essentially a blues singer at his core.
I asked Mark if he might want to record a delta blues cover for the soundtrack, and he ended up sending me two—both by the great blues singer, Blind Willie McTell. Mark recorded his vocals directly into his cell phone, emailing me the raw vocal tracks. He told me that I could add any music I wanted to his vocals, but his voice by itself was so beautiful, I didn’t want to touch them. Jack Endino and I mixed them for the soundtrack, and we left them just exactly as they were, his raw voice penetrating the air with no musical accompaniment. Mark’s voice was perfect just by itself, and anything added would have lessened the impact.
It was only two months later, on February 22nd, 2022, that our spiritual, musical brother passed from this physical realm to a place that I hope is more peaceful than the one he left behind. A huge void was etched into the hearts of those who knew Mark, and the world seems like an emptier, lesser place without him.
It was as if an ancient tree, which had seen the best and the worst in men, yet still survived, only to finally be cut down.
Edit: Also on YouTube, just in case.
Unfortunately it seems that the other cover didn't make it to the soundtrack. I couldn't find it and there is no mention of it in the credits.
