From 1970, and the just released Springstreen compilation Chapter and Verse, please enjoy the Future Boss and various other Asbury Park reprobates and "He's Guilty (The Judge Song)."
Kind of Humble Pie-ish, which is not really my cup of tea, but pretty good in a period piece sort of way.
Incidentally, due to advancing age, I can't read the small print musician credits in the CD booklet, but unless I'm going deaf as well as blind, that sounds like Vinnie Lopez on drums to me.
I am informed that there is some sort of confrontational political event scheduled on the electric teevee machine tonight.
More important -- my old pal and bandmate Ronnie D'Addario (it is he providing the gorgeous background vocals on The Floor Models' "Letter from Liverpool") has two kids who are about to be huge rock stars. Obviously, I hate them.
Here's Ronnie on the gig:
Take a nap during the "debates" and then watch ma boys on The Tonight Show with guest host Jimmy Fallon. Johnny is on vacation AGAIN. And Doc is filling in for Ed.
...other than thanks a million to everybody -- here and at Facebook or via e-mail or phone -- who left me kind messages after mom passed. Seriously -- it meant more to me than you can know.
Friday, September 23, 2016
Mom's funeral is this afternoon.
It's been a long, long week. But regular posting will resume on Monday, if only to get my mind on something else.
First, a commercial: Our friend Sal Nunziato, who blogs at the splendid BURNING WOOD and has turned me on to more great music than I can calculate, is having an unofficial fundraiser; if you can see your way to sparing a little disposable income, please do. And consider yourself a patron of the arts.
From 2014, please enjoy Rick Springfield -- yes, him -- and a stunning solo version of the Fleetwood Mac classic "Oh Well."
I'm a fan, and I knew he was good. But I didn't know he was THIS good.
As a bonus, here he is back in the late 60s with his first Australian band, Zoot (he references them in the "Oh Well" clip), doing a sort of Move-esque version of "Eleanor Rigby."
It's a bit of a period piece, but as you can see, he was already a great guitar player. (Incidentally, the bass guy in this lot went on to found The Little River Band, but we needn't bring that up, since the statute of limitations on that band has clearly expired.)
"Long Tall Sally" from the just out Hollywood Bowl album.
Apart from how exciting the thing is overall, I must admit that over the years I've forgotten just how great a singer Paul McCartney is. I mean, jeebus h. christ on a piece of challah toast, that vocal is simply astounding.
Gonna see the movie tomorrow, and there's nothing you can do to stop me.
Word has reached me that Beatles purists are upset with the new Giles Martin re-master of his dad's Live at the Hollywood Bowl album.
I dunno -- sounds pretty freaking great to my ears. And I'm going to see the documentary it derives from the minute it opens, I'll tell you that for free.
So somebody sent me this hilarious list of Trump's military brain trust the other day...
...but after I stopped chortling, I realized there were a bunch of figures omitted that really bugged me.
I mean, no Sgt. Ernest Bilko? This will not stand!
That said, and all snark aside, they really should have found room for this guy.
Lance is one of my all time fave mid-Sixties soul singers -- he's iconic in England, I'm told -- and I would just like to go on record as saying that many of the best early things by Van Morrison and Bruce Springsteen are unthinkable without the influence of Lance, particularly his immortal "The Monkey Time."
A song that never fails to make me smile, and a pretty great way to start your morning, don't you think?
In the meantime, if somebody wants to add Sgt. O'Rourke and Corporal Agarn to the graphic above...
...be my guest.
Hey, they're more competent than that retired Christianist crackpot General that's actually advising the Cheeto Benito.
Yesterday was the 50th anniversary of the premiere of Star Trek, and schween that I am, I forgot to celebrate it here.
So, to make amends, from 1979, please enjoy the curtain raiser to Star Trek: The Motion Picture (the pre-credits music, in other words) by the late great Jerry Goldsmith.
ST:TMP isn't a great movie (although I think it's fair to describe it as a great work of kinetic art, at least in the trip through the great space cloud sequences), but Goldsmith's scores is one of the best in film history. Gloriously melodic and overflowing with inspiration -- for my money it's right up there with Alex North's work on Spartacus or Prokofiev's on Alexander Nevsky or any of Bernie Herrmann's classics.
From somewhere in Rockland County, approximately 30 years ago, please enjoy ace roots-rockers The Roues Brothers -- tolerating, out of the great goodness of their hearts, a special guest asshole whose name rhymes with Sleeve Nimels -- and a pretty damn funny version of Van Morrison's immortal "Gloria."
That Nimels guy was pretty skinny. And had so much hair he didn't need a beret. Wow.
But seriously, folks, the Roues Bros. are an amazing band, as you can see, and they're still at it -- you can read more about them HERE. But for those of you who remember those fabulous 80s, they used to do business as The Broadcasters. a group who made an album for Enigma, produced by no less a worthy than Wayne Kramer of the MC5, that is one of the great lost masterpieces of its decade. If you can find a copy, pounce.
I bring all that up because, if you listen carefully, guitarist Billy Roues breaks into the opening riff of "Down in the Trenches" toward the end of the live video. Too bad I didn't let them do the entire song, and all these years later I apologize profusely.
I should also add that I wouldn't have had the stones to front a band doing "Gloria" if it hadn't been for my old college pal Eric C. Boardman. Thanks Eric.
From Liverpool in 2014, it's The Mona Lisa Twins...
...and a jawdroppingly fabulous live cover of The Easybeats' immortal "Friday on My Mind."
There are million more of their 60s covers videos on YouTube; some of them are little twee, but a lot of them are great (I recommend "The Last Time") and what I wouldn't give to see them in a bar.
Neil Young goes all solidarity on our asses, and good for him.
I should add that for many years here I used to post "Part of the Union" by The Strawbs on the holiday, but in 2013 a Brit reader informed me that in England the song has been read as anti-, rather than pro-, the labor movement. I can't hear it myself, but I took his word for it. Hence Neil.
From that just released Latin CCR tribute album we mentioned on Wednesday, please enjoy the lovely and talented Guatamalan-born Gaby Moreno with a wonderfully sprightly version of "Lookin' Out My Back Door."
Like I said the other day, the album itself is as inconsistent as most other exemplars of the genre, but I think this track is absolutely terrific. I should also add that Ms. Moreno is extremely easy on the eyes, if I may be shallow enough to point that out.
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