14 posts tagged “classic rock”
While I patiently awaiting my CoCo DVD Box Set, I’m happy to announce the arrival of ANOTHER Box Set that has been a LONG LONG time coming, and that would be the glorious BEATLES REMASTERED CD COLLECTION, a beautiful box set that features all 13 albums and singles from England’s premiere band!
Besides a digital remastering that FAR surpasses the original mid-eighties releases, each album comes in a glossy gatefold digipak and a slick color booklet full of pictures from each album's corrosponding timeframe. Plus, they’ve included
these short little quicktime movie documentaries on each disc featuring the words of the
Beatles themselves and (of course) George Martin, talking about each specific
album voiced over video performances of songs from the album! They even collected them onto a single bonus DVD for those who want to just sit down and watch all the movies at once!
I first found out about this wonderful box set through Japanese site CD JAPAN of all places, and at the time, figured it to be a japan-only release. I really wanted it, but that 300 dollar price tag gave me pause, I must say! So I breathed a sigh of relief when I found out that they’d be releasing the Box Set in the states as well, and with a decent price of $179.00 at Amazon, IMMEDIATELY sent in my order, this time without hesistation!
I remember back when the Beatles first four albums (Please Please Me, With The Beatles, A Hard Day’s Night and Beatles For Sale) were to come out on CD, the big argument was why release an album on CD if you’re gonna release it in Mono. But since that’s how the albums were originally presented, that’s how they were done on CD.
Though I understood this logic, it really bummed me out because I grew up listening to the stereo mixes of most of these songs from the Capitol records, especially THE BEATLES SECOND ALBUM and the awesome SOMETHING NEW, and though I bought all the mono CDs and enjoyed them dearly, in the back of my mind I always missed the kick that the stereo version had, especially in songs like the thundering drumroll at the end of “Tell Me Why” !
But now we’ve come full circle, and each and every album has been given the remastered treatment, and though I’ve only listened to about half of them so far, what I’ve been blastin’ out over my stereo speakers has just been heaven!! From Rubber Soul to Revolver on down through the White Album and Abbey Road, the songs have just sounded stupendous!
I know my next few days will be filled with serious Beatles-listening, and it's exciting to know I've still got so many albums to check out and hear all over again as if for the first time! I can't WAIT to hear how som eof these other songs will sound, especially the upcoming MAGICAL MYSTERY TOUR CD with I AM THE WALRUS , STRAWBERRY FIELDS FOREVER and PENNY LANE! Ah, nostalgic days are here again! If anyone needs me, I'll be holed up in my room with my headphones on!
Around Mid- 1983, I was insanely in love with singer/songwriter Stevie Nicks, and was voraciously devouring anything and everything to do with her. Though I’d always loved her Fleetwood Mac songs and was even a fan of her Bella Donna solo album (especially the rocking Edge Of Seventeen), it wasn’t until her second album The Wild Heart came out that I totally flipped for her and began worshipping her as the rock-goddess she was!
Back then, out video station of choice was Night Tracks on WTBS, and me and my friends tuned in every weekend to check out the latest videos before heading out for the night’s activities. At that time, my favorite videos were Stevie’s "If Anyone Falls" as well as "Stand Back", but I was curious about another Stevie video that Night Tracks routinely played, and that was the dreamy and mystical Gypsy, which credits told me was off of Fleetwood Mac’s latest album Mirage, which had just come out a few months earlier.
Mirage? What was that album? I’d heard of Rumours, of course, as well as the big (at that time) album Tusk, but didn’t know anything about this one, nor did I know anyone who’d picked it up. But I really wanted the Gypsy Track, and when my friend Herb informed me that it also had the fun song “Hold Me” on it, I was convinced!
We went down to Tower Records, and as I waited in line looking over the George Hurell-shot cover, I remember the first thing that shocked me was getting used to Lindsey Buckingham without his trademark afro and goatee! The cover was kind of a wraparound thing, with Lindsey and the girls on the front, and the Fleetwood and Mac group namesakes on the back, looking very much like the wards of the ‘Mac Estate!
We took the album home and immediately dove in. While my friend Herb showed only passing interest in the tracks, I was immediately smitten and would go on to not only repeatedly play that album over and over, but make all my FRIENDS listen to it, too!
One great thing about having three prolific songwriters in the group is a LOT of diversity, and Mirage is another great showcase of the members’ talents. Christine, Lindsey and Stevie each take turns with their compositions, giving the album a decidedly “White Album” feel to it as they build up a musical “quilt” of song genres!
With Lindsey Buckingham, It’s funny, that in the first two ‘Mac albums he and Stevie were in, his songs were carefully crafted pop/rock tunes, but by the time TUSK came out, his songwriting (to ME at least) started to sound like that Dana Carvey songwriting character who makes up songs as he goes along, and songs like “Not That Funny!” and “What Makes you think You’re The One” sounded more like jam sessions with nonsensical lyrics than actual singles. The songs he penned for Mirage still have this loose free-form feel to them (as in songs like "Book of Love", "Diane" and "Can’t Go Back”, but they are fun and catchy as hell! There’s this one goofy song called “Eyes of the World”, and with its refrain of “eyes…eyes…eyes” as its chorus, my friend James once exclaimed “What the heck is this crap?!” before dancing around, pointing at his eyes in tune with the song. AHAHAHA! But the one masterpiece Lindsey DID lay down for this album was the cool, rocking song EMPIRE STATE, about his experiences in the Big Apple (as opposed to Sunny California). MAN, I love to blast this one!
Stevie is the one who’s experimented the most with her songwriting, and though “Gypsy” sounds most like her previous work (almost like a sequel of sorts to “Rhiannon”), her other two songs sound more like the stuff she was writing for her solo albums. “That’s Alright” is a country-tinged kicker that almost seems like a precursor for her later “Enchanted” song, but it’s her third track “Straight Back!” that sounds the most like the “solo” Stevie Nicks songs, a slow rocker driven by some awesome keyboards by Christine. The song fades out too soon; I really wish this song could have been a bit longer for how good it is!
Of the three, Christine McVie is the most reliable here, and she exudes the same romantic pop stylings that gave us songs like “You Make Loving Fun”, “Warm Ways” and “Songbird”. Opening the album with the awesome toe-tapping sunshine-y song “Love In Store”, she runs the gamut through tunes like “Out Of My Mind” and the fun aforementioned song “Hold Me” before closing the album with the beautifully melancholy “Wish You Were Here”, one of her BEST ballads, ever!
High on the album, that Christmas I was THRILLED to find that they’d released a Videodisc concert of their MIRAGE tour, and after I bought it (at the local RCA dealership), it quickly became the most played movie that season! Songs form Mirage like Love In Store”, “Gypsy” and “Eyes Of The World”(!) were all featured here, and the show even had one of the coolest openings ever with “The Chain”, and one of the sweetest closing songs with “Songbird”!
Although I know that albums like Rumours and the eponymous titled Fleetwood Mac albums are probably greater albums overall, I’ve really come to embrace MIRAGE as my own, because while most Fleetwood Mac fans either love the “Bare Trees” era, the Rumours era, or the “Tango in The Night” comeback era, I have never, NEVER met another fan who owns, much less loves MIRAGE as much as me. Which is strange, because it was a bestseller when it came out…where did all those purchasers get to?
Check out some of my favorite tunes from MIRAGE!
While hunting online for some of the more obscure Joni Mitchell tracks that seem to be floating all over the internet, I came across an interesting little curio- an unauthorized “Companion” to Joni’s incredible (and one of my very, very favorite) 1975 album The Hissing of Summer Lawns.
This collection, humorously entitled The Seeding of Summer Lawns, (and featuring a decidedly autumn-themed variation of the real cover) consisted of demoes and work-in-progress versions of songs that would eventually make it onto the actual album, and it was quite a thrill to experience the bare bones takes of songs like In France They Kiss on Main Street, Shades of Scarlett Conquering, and The Boho Dance, all before they would get transformed into the wonderful lite-jazz masterpieces that we know and love.
Songs like In France They Kiss on Main Street are interesting in how "textbook" the demos sound, where Joni is clearly mapping out harmonies and chords, a far cry from the cheery and bouncy completed version that she would record with the full band behind her!
One thing thing that I thought was pretty neat was that in these original demoes, Joni sings parts that would eventually be played by horns, and there’s no place more evident than in the demo of Edith and The Kingpin, where each verse is punctuated by an echo-ey chorus harmonizing to simulate the horns to come!
One song that was prepared and demoed for this album was a song called Dreamland, and while the song didn’t make it to the final stages of Hissing, a polished and very world-beat influenced version would later appear on the epic Don Juan’s Reckless Daughter.
Now, I’ve always liked Dreamland (though I was never a big fan of the percussion laden Tenth World track that was connected to it) and I was excited to hear how this tune sounded in its original state… but WOW! NOTHING could have prepared me for what I heard upon clicking on that track- Just the most FUN, swingin’ and shufflin’ tune all set to the VERY “George of the Jungle”-esque bopping beat!
The collection concludes with a cool
piano-and-guitar take of the pretty “Sweet Bird”, a song that would have fit
perfectly with most of Joni’s earlier folk catalog (especially Court and
Spark!) , and a version of “Shadows and Light” that sounds just about identical
to the album version (at least to MY unprofessional ears), a perfect little
sampling of a GREAT album in progress!
There was a time when my favorite group was The Kinks, and I was busy trying to get all the albums that featured my favorite songs by the eclectic British Invasion group. From You Really Got Me, through Lola and All Day and All of the Night, I picked em all up! But there was one particular album that I didn’t know anything about. It was called The Village Green Preservation Society, and was one of the last albums featuring the original 4-man lineup of Ray, Dave, Mick and Pete. What WAS this album? Was it Country? or, by the look of the cover, was it Folk?
Well, I didn’t know, but since the album was one of the few Kinks albums in the NICE PRICE line, (for those who don’t remember, the NICE PRICE albums were these selected cheaper priced albums that sold for $3.99) I didn’t have anything to lose by purchasing the album and checking it out- and MY GOSH, did THAT end up being a BARGAIN!
Like I said, I assumed it was going to be a country or folk album just by the title and cover picture, so I was COMPLETELY TAKEN UNAWARE when I was hit by one of the most witty, sentimental and HILARIOUS concept albums I’d ever heard in my life! Listening to this album was like foraging through an old chest of treasures in a dusty attic- all these little gems singing about the most mundane things in life, tunes that were innovative AND catchy at the same time! We only had to listen to it once before the album became THE soundtrack me and my friends listened to for MONTHS, and to this day, The Village Green Preservation Society still remains one of my most beloved albums in my collection, easily one of the top twenty LPs I own!
An Ode to all things pure and simple in the world, championing such things as antique tables, little shops and virginity! This song about celebrating all the everyday things in life sets the template for the theme of the Village Green Preservation Society LP!
A sentimental song about a childhood friendship. After reminiscing about adventures he’s had as a kid with a friend named Walter, he realizes that if he were to meet Walter now, He’d probably be nothing like the childhood friend he knew, and would probably not even care about the things they did. But that’s okay, because he still has his memories of their childhood days.
Picture Book
A song about the magic of looking through old Photo Albums, this song is more recently known for its brief stint as the theme song for one of those computer photo printers.
A sort of precursor for the album closer “People Take Pictures of each other”.
We’ve always debated whether this song was about a true Paul Bunyan-ish hero or a misunderstood savior, but one thing is sure- Johnny Thunder’s a tough ol’ guy, and he has a little sweetheart named Helena who has all the faith in the world in him.
Last of the Steam-Powered Trains
A sad song sung in the first person of a now passé Steam-Engine lamenting his replacement by the more slick and modern express Trains that progress has presented. But he perks up by saying that by being an antique and placed in a museum, his well-being will be seen to!
I love the way this song’s beat trudges along like a train chugging, slowly picking up speed as the song progresses, to its big end!
And just who might the character “Big Sky” be, if not our Father who Art In Heaven?
A song about the sometimes callous indifference God has regarding the trials and tribulations we petty humans go through, while reminding us that one day, all our suffering will be rewarded. “One day we’ll be free, til that day can be, don’t let it get you down!”
Ah, a song drenched with shades of Maurice Chevalier! This song completely encapsulates a dreamy scene sitting in a little café sipping tea as gondolas go by in the orange sunset, soaking in the Joi de vivre…
A sweet way to end Side One!
Animal Farm
Side Two’s opening track about leaving the headaches and bustle of the big, noisy city and moving to the country, where a man can rest easy and clear his head, free of traffic and superficial people…
Village Green
A sort of sequel to Animal Farm, this one’s about a fine, upstanding young man who has made a name for himself in the big city, but has fond memories about his days growing up in the simple country.
And what would an album about the sweet and innocent things in life be without a NURSERY RHYME? A song that conjures up the images of “The Owl and The Pussycat”, the highlight of the melody is Ray’s own distorted singing as the voice of the Phenomenal Cat merrily humming away!
Starstruck
A fun ditty about a young girl who gets obsessed by the glitz and glamour of the Hollywood scene, and her subsequent transformation into a wanna-be socialite, this tune is made fun by it’s showtime revue refrain: Ba Ba Ba Ba Ba Ba Ba Ba!!
All of My Friends Were There
A trauma all of us go through- drinking too much and making a fool of yourself in front of everyone!
Once you’ve sung a nursery rhyme, what could be more appropriate than to follow it up with a Fairy Tale? And a pretty spooky one, at that! The story of a wicked old Witch that flies the skies at night, looking for kids who haven’t gone to sleep like good little children…
Effectively sinister guitar riffs for this one, too!
Ah, haven’t we all known girls like the songs titular heroine? Smart, sexy, and oh-so-highly desirable, Monica knows she’s too good for just about ANYONE, and enjoys shooting hopeful young suitors down in flames! A man obsessed with a gal just aglow with confidence and charisma!
A HILARIOUS, fun way to end the album! The song sings about the wonder of Photo taking and photo sharing, and as the nostalgic host shows more and more pictures to his guest, the bored captive audience begs, “Don’t show me no more, please”! Something that ANYONE who’s been forced to watch somebody else’s family slideshows can relate to!
Being a Huge fan of THE WHO lead quite naturally to a all-encompassing love of lead guitarist/ songwriter Pete Townshend’s work as well, and from albums like Who Came First down through the Lifehouse project and more, his songs have always been just as meaningful to me as his accomplishments with the band.
In the early 80’s, Pete released an unusual collection called SCOOP…this was an album made up of unreleased songs, ideas, and precious demos that had been gathering up in Pete Townshend’s vaults. Among the many, many incredible songs, was a track called “You Came Back”, a tune that immediately got my attention with its catchy guitar riff...
Listening to the song’s lyrics for the first time, I had the distinct feeling it was another bawdy ditty of Pete’s a la Squeezebox, when I heard the line “That girl with the umbrella used to be a fella”…my first thoughts were that it was a song about a transvestite! Then the next verse sang about “remembering being dead and alive”, and trying to remember names of people’s faces…was this a “drinking til you blackout” song like Who Are You?
I didn’t know, but something about the gentle way the song was played and orchestrated made me feel like it was a particularly intimate song, really wistful and dreamy-like in feeling, despite not knowing its meaning, the melody still had that power to move me.
I’d love to say that I figured it out all by myself, but the fact of the matter is, after puzzling about the song for weeks, I finally gave up and took a peek at the liner notes in the CD booklet, and read the explanation given by Pete himself:
You Came Back:
“This is a real favorite of mine about, you guessed it, Reincarnation.
The fact that I never got around to putting drums on it makes the exchanged guitar rhythms, played on an inexpensive CORAL guitar, more effective. Lead Guitar also missing, I’m afraid.”
OH MY GOSH! REINCARNATION? I hurriedly went back and put the CD in again and listened to the song with renewed eyes…it ALL made sense! Now all those confusing lyrics lent itself to one of the most gentle, wistful tunes ever!
Listen to Pete’s singing. This is one of the most sincere, heartfelt songs I think I’ve ever heard him sing, and when you consider the man has made a career out of wearing his heart on his sleeve, that’ s quite an accomplishment. Sometimes when I listen to it, I can’t believe it’s this unknown song tucked away on an “obscure and unreleased” CD package, but that’s alright by me…finding songs like these are like finding hidden treasures!
And Pete? Yeah, It’s a real favorite of mine, too!
An inspirational song for anyone who’s lost someone important to them. It’s hopeful to believe that our loved ones will always be with us even after they’ve departed!
Hey little girl playing in the street
naked as an apple, no shoes on your feet.
I think I can remember you
You look a whole lot better off than you used to do.
Hey little boy, throw me the ball.
The kids in the park say you're the dirtiest of all.
Ain't I met you sometime before
when the old street was here, and the grocer's store?
You came back, you came back,
And I'm glad you picked my time.
You came back, you came back
And by that mischievous look in your eye,
I'd say before long, if I'm not wrong,
You'll be back , you'll come back again
Before long, and I'm not wrong
You'll be back
You'll be back again.
Things have fallen into place, puttin' names on every face
Remember bein' dead and alive.
What could be the key
Am I crazy as I seem?
Can I believe what I see with my own eyes?
That girl with the umbrella used to be a fella
He used to be my very good friend.
Now I recall, and the mystery thins
I've been here before and done million things.
If it's all right with you, I'll remember you, too.
But I won't tell you who you were last time.
But you're making up for it now.
I suffer amnesia when you kiss my brow.
You came back. You came back.
And I'm glad you picked my time.
You came back, You came back.
And with that mischievous look in your eye
I'd say that before long,
If I'm not wrong,
You'll be back
You'll come back again.
So a few weeks ago, I was working in the warehouse at work, and was subjected to the random hip-hop-rap-pop tunes that the morning crew’s radio station was tuned in on. Not my cup of tea, but I got used to it.
At some point, the DJ announced that the new single from the Pussycat Dolls was about to play, and as the song “When I Grow Up” began, I was shocked to hear the opening riff of Jeff Beck’s guitar for the Yardbirds song He’s Always There, off the classic Over, Under Sideways, Down album! Holy Obscurities!
I told my friend, “Hey! this is sampled off an old YARDBIRDS album!” After listening to the Pussycat Dolls song, my friend wanted to hear the original song the notes were lifted from, so I told him I’d upload it to my blog so he could give it a listen!. Then It occurred to me that some of my classic rock friends who only knew the Yardbirds song might be interested in hearing the Pussycat Dolls song …(hey, stranger things have happened) so I uploaded that one, too!
When I mentioned the sampling to my friend Jas, a HUGE Jeff Beck fan, his only comment was, “Well, if they sampled a whole riff, maybe Jeff Beck will get a royalty!” We laughed and thought that would be AWESOME, but I was later to realize Jeff hadn’t written that particular track, and so only composers Paul Samswell-Smith (bassist) and Jim McCarty (rhythm guitar) would be getting any kind of residuals! Well, at least SOMEBODY in the Yardbirds is gettin’ something! :)
Here’s an extremely silly story! Back in the day, me whenever someone would bring up the character of DC Comics Superman’s villain THE PARASITE, me and my friends would always break into that very “Dear Prudence-ey” Nick Drake song “Parasite”, off of his illustrious final album PINK MOON.
It would always crack us up because the lyrics really seemed to fit The Parasite’s character so well, lines like “And take a look and you may see me on the ground, for I am the parasite of the town” totally matched the shleppy super-villain who refused human contact’s attitude. In time, I grew to associate the character and the song as one and the same!
Years Later…
When time came around for choosing those little album art icons that appear in your ipod when you are playing songs, we jokingly looked for a picture of the comic Parasite to put in as the song art. My friend wanted to use that Alex Ross picture of the Parasite where Magog and his cohorts are beating him up and scaring him (from the legendary KINGDOM COME series) , but I insisted it would be a LOT funnier if we got the John Buscema art from the Superman / Spider-Man Treasury Edition book that came out when we were in Intermediate School. To me, it was Buscema’s depiction that really gave the Parasite that “Sad Sack” personality, getting beat up by Spider-Man, Superman AND his partner, Doc Doom all in the same issue!
So we went online looking for that cover, and what do you know, we hit PAYDIRT! A lovely gent over at JackBauer’s awesome Blog had scanned the ENTIRE Treasury edition Book! Poring over the pages really took us back, and we decided it would be a riot to attach random Parasite images to each line in the Nick Drake song, and paste it together in photoshop like a manic Mother Goose Nursery Rhyme!
Well, We hastily photoshopped out the word bubbles and pasted the silly thing up, and personally, I think the end result is HILARIOUS! The random images only vaguely match the images of the words, which seems to actually make it funnier to us! Really, It was just the humor of seeing the villain joined together with the song at last!
Every time I read this meld of Nick Drake and DC Comics, I get a laugh, especially that one passage where the song sings “Who’s to care if they lose?” along with an image of Superman punching the holy hell out of the Parasite, right through the roof! Ahahaha!
OK OK, I know this probably won’t be funny to too many of you out there, save for people with warped senses of humor like me and my friends, but, heck, I thought I’d share anyway! Click on the Superman comic to read along with the song!
Nick Drake / The Parasite
Way back in 1973, there was one song on the radio that me and siblings just loved, and that was Paul McCartney and Wings’ BAND ON THE RUN. Single. We loved the catchy refrains, the three-part song changes, and the easy to understand story of a guy breaking out of jail. It was this knowledge of the story that led us to think Paul was singing “MAN on the Run,” and we would sing those lines as loud as we could whenever the song came on. My mother was quick to correct us, saying that the words were in fact, BAND on the Run, a fact that we just couldn’t believe. The song was about a guy in jail, right? And he broke out and now the cops are chasing him, right? So it had to be MAN on the run!
A few weeks later, we were out shopping with my mother and her friend and her kids, and when we heard the song blasting out of the record shop, we felt vindicated when her friend’s kids ALSO started singing “MAN on the Run, Man on the Run!” We triumphantly ran to our mother, saying, “See! See! Even THEY say that the song goes “Man on the Run!” My mother simply stated as-a-matter-of-factly,“I don’t care WHAT they’re singing, it’s BAND on the Run.”
Well, as we all know, dear old Mom was totally correct, a fact that we were forced to accept when we had the chance to buy the single one night at our local Woolworth’s- and right there on the label the title of the song was printed, and it was indeed BAND on the Run! I remember us playing that single over and over again, staring at the curious Apple logo on the record as it spun around, not knowing that Paul McCartney had ever been a part of another group called the Beatles, only that he was part of this group called Wings, and they rocked! I remember me and my brothers and a couple of friends even created little skits to “act out” to the song, singing part one in jail, part two breaking out of jail, and part three with us running around the apartment like loons, playing cops ‘n’ robbers, all the while Band on the Run blasting out of our phonograph speakers!
We loved that darn song so much, that it was quite exciting and significant news when one day I came home from riding my bicycle, and my brother and his friend Miles called me over, and said, “Hey, listen to this song…it SUPER COOL!” Glancing at the single on the record player, I saw that they were playing the flip-side of Band On the Run, an ominously titled song called “Nineteen-Hundred and Eighty Five”. Maybe it was the title, but right away I got the feeling of the song’s grimness (if that’s a word), and even then I got the feeling like it was part of a bigger epic work.
Plus, the song seemed LONG, and after awhile, I started fidgeting, wondering just what it was that my brother and his friends thought I’d think was so cool. “Wait a little…it’s coming!” they assured me. The song played on and became more and more dramatic, as synthesizers droned on louder and louder along with horns blaring, till it all came crashing to an incredible crescendo… and then, as the song droned to fade-out, the strains of Band on the Run chimed in! WHAAA!!! I stared open-mouthed at the guys, and they grinned back, proud of their discovery of the “hidden” Band on the Run track! “That WAS cool!!!!” I exclaimed, putting the needle back to the beginning of the single to listen to again. There it was again! This was genius! Pure Genius! “Holy Cow,” I thought, this is the coolest discovery of all time!
Not having any idea of any connection to Orwell’s 1984 (or whatever McCartney’s actually referring to), I still got the gist of the theme when Paul sang lines like “Oh, no one ever left alive in Nineteen-Hundred and Eighty Five will ever do,” or, “I didn’t think, I never dreamed that I would be around to see it all come true”, that this was a song supposedly taking place after some devastating holocaust or something where not too many people had survived.
So the song gave me that uneasy feeling anyway, and when the Moog Synthesizer started underscoring the song after the first verse, the futuristic sounding instrument transformed the melody into a quasi-science fiction-ish drama soundtrack. When I would listen to the track, I’d close my eyes and picture in my mind great abandoned republics and huge, vast dead seas in strange worlds as the song unfolded, the tune was THAT rich with feeling.
And that ending… It got to the point where it didn’t even matter that the snippet of Band on the Run was attached to the end- No matter how many times I played it, that HUGE crescendo still was the most incredible finale I’d ever heard, and it blew me away EVERY TIME!
Well, we truly played that single to death, and there soon came a time when the 45 record just could not play anymore without jumping and skipping as soon as the needle hit the vinyl. When I really thought about it, it was a miracle that the single survived as long as it did in our destructive house. At this point the record really shoulda been tossed, but there was SO much sentimental attachment to it, we kept it anyway, storing it away in our 45 record box as we moved onto the newer singles for our collection, like Ariel by Dean Friedman, I’m Your Boogie Man” by KC & the Sunshine Band and even later classics by Paul McCartney like Let Em In and Silly Love Songs!
At some point I made the very grown-up transition to buying albums instead of singles (or at least as well as), and I began to entertain the thoughts of buying some older Paul McCartney albums as well. The obvious first choice was the LP Band On the Run,as it featured the single that started it all, but I was happily surprised when I found out that Band on the Run ws the album opener, and Nineteen hundred and Eighty-Five was given the highly respectable position of album closer! I immediately bought the album (albeit a used copy, all my wallet could afford) and ran home to throw it on.
The album was great, every song was fresh and just as groovy as the singles I already knew from them (like Jet and Helen Wheels), and when it finally got to the last song, I have to say…as soon as my ears heard that opening piano piece, I was instantly carted back to that childhood science fiction feeling I’d felt when I was a kid. It was no mistake- this was a grand, momentous song, and I was convinced that this LP was that epic drama that I’d always suspected Band on the Run and Nineteen Hundred & Eighty-Five was culled from.
Well, that was then. Of course later I would expand my love of Paul to his work with the Beatles (yes, to an extent, I retroactively got introduced to the Beatles!) and it's now hard to imagine a time when I thought Wings was the only group he'd been in. But until his Beatles roots came into focus for me, Paul McCartney and Wings was the group of my life. From Nineteen-hundred and Eighty-Five to Junior's Farm, Listen to What The Man Said, through Silly Love Songs, and Let 'Em In, all the way to Arrow Through Me, I've loved and worshipped all of his songs. But although I've collected all the Beatles ,Wings and Solo works from Paul, the Band On The Run LP is still my among my very favorite albums from the Macca...from LP to CD, to Gold Disc and 25th Anniversary Deluxe CD, I've got 'em all! Because, you know, sentimentally, its the tops!
If I had to say once and for all which group (of the many, many groups that I love) that I love the most of all, It would have to be THE WHO. No other group has had the profound effect on my life like the works of Pete Townshend, Roger Daltrey, John Entwistle and Keith Moon.
As a kid, my favorite artist was Paul McCartney and Wings ( first single ever bought: Band On The Run). This led to a love (read: obsession) of the Beatles as well, and by the time I was eight grade, my world was saturated with the lush sounds and melodies of The Fab Four.
This in turn led to an overall hunger for all the “British Invasion” groups, and I remember picking up a few albums of groups like The Rolling Stones,The Yardbirds, The Kinks, and yes, THE WHO. At the time, I was just in love with the Rickenbacker sound and that whole sixties "mod" scene.
Around that time, I had purchased a magazine called Best Of Rock Stars
for a cover story they were featuring on British groups, and while
perusing the issue, came across an article they had done on The Who
called simply, “The Who: Then and Now”. It was your standard
article, covering the basics of The Who with a brief synopsis of their
beginnings and discography, but the thing that really caught my
attention was the PICTURES. I couldn’t believe how COOL this group
looked! They showed The Who from 1964 all the way through 1978, from
Mods, to Hippies and finally to their long-haired bearded hard rocking
70’s look. I was just amazed at the different phases the group went
through, and they looked WAY cool in every variation they undertook!
I mentioned The Who to my friend James, (who was a Beatlemaniac like me) and he offered, “Oh yeah, The Who…they’re alright…Ringo’s in that movie of theirs, “The Kids Are Alright”…” I asked what songs he’d recommend and off the top of his head, he said “Well… there’s “My Generation” …” I made up my mind that the next time I was over at Tower Records, I’d pick up the album of the Who that had My Generation on it.
When
I eventually moseyed on down to the record store, I was disappointed to
discover that the “My Generation” album by the Who was out of print,
and the only way you could get it was by buying a double album set,
featuring both “The Who sings My Generation” and “A Quick One”. Well, I
didn’t feel like springing for a double album, and was deciding what to
do, when I found that the import section of Tower Records had the
British version of My Generation for sale! This was truly destiny, for
the cover for this import edition was Cool, Colorful and VERY MOD, just
the kind of music and style I was really into at the time! I excitedly
bought the LP and spent the whole bus ride home poring over the
pictures of the Who on the cover, and on the back, They looked so cool,
and I was reminded why I was interested in them in the first place!
Riding in my Dad’s car one afternoon, the song “Won’t Get Fooled Again” came on. I loved this song, as well as its counterpart Baba O’Riley (although I didn’t know the names of the song at the time) because both of them featured the looping Moog synthesizer organ in the intros. Imagine my surprise when the song ended, and the DJ said “That was “Won’t Get Fooled Again” by The Who!!!” I sat up in shock! This synth-driven Prog-Rock song was the same band that had released My Generation?! Then I thought of The Best of Rock Stars article, and was reminded that The Who ran the entire musical gamut, from wide-eyed mop-headed teens to the stadium giants of the 70’s. This band’s diversity was much, much more vast than I would have imagined, and I knew that I had to investigate further, and so on my next visit to the record store, I immediately snatched up the album featuring both Baba O’Riley and “Won’t Get Fooled Again, the classic Who’s Next.
I don’t think I can say anything about this album that hasn’t already been said a million times over, suffice it to say that it was one of the most incredible albums I’d ever heard, with songs like Baba O Riley, Won’t Get Fooled Again, Bargain, Getting In Tune, and the incredible “Behind Blue Eyes”, every song was just epic in sound and the lyrics just took me away to a futuristic “Teenage Wasteland”! Like most fans, this quickly became my favorite WHO album, and remained such for years, til time eventually turned ALL my Who Discs onto an even playing field of equal appreciation!
By now I had fallen in love with Pete Townshend’s Concept Pieces thanks to Who’s Next, and the natural progression (for me at least) was to move on to the much-celebrated Rock Opera classic Tommy. I remember cutting class one day, going down to the record store and buying the album, and then spending the rest of the day listening to the majestic album and trying to analyze the musical story of Tommy Walker. It just blew me away, and it got to the point where I had created the whole “movie” in my head to accompany the album! For awhile there It was all about TOMMY, and I remember trying to turn many of my friends onto it, especially songs like “Go To The Mirror” and “We’re Not Gonna Take It”. Come to think of it, I DID convince them to buy one or two WHO albums, at that!
Around the time I got around to finally purchasing the two double albums featuring (respectively) My Generation / Magic Bus and A Quick One / The Who Sell Out, a wonderful, wonderful thing happened. I found out that a community college was going to have a showing of The Kids Are Alright,
the must-see movie for any fan of the Who! The only problem was that
the college was practically on the other side of the island, easily a
two-hour bus ride with a transfer in town and add in that I knew
absolutely NOTHING about exactly WHERE this school was, it promised to
be quite a trek! I asked my good friend Jas if he would mind
accompanying me on my journey to see the Holy Grail for Who fans, and,
trooper that he is, said, “Sure”. By the time we got there, it was
almost time for the show to start. I’ll never forget that feeling, of
being in this huge, empty college during sunset-time, excited beyond
belief waiting for that show to start!
From the opening scene where Keith detonates his Drum Kit on the Smothers Brothers during a performance of “My Generation” through the historical Woodstock appearance to the sensational “A Quick One” on Rolling Stones Rock N Roll Circus ,the shattering Monterey Pop performance and ending with Keith’s very last live performance onstage with “Won’t Get Fooled Again”, there was never a moment to catch your breath!
Well, the next few months was spent in a WHO frenzy, with me attempting to acquire all the albums in The Who’s catalog, The Who By Numbers, Live At Leeds, Meaty, Beaty, Big & Bouncy, Who Are You, and even Face Dances, scouring the imports section for discs like Story of The Who and Perfect Collection, even poring through the used record shops for the LPs that were out of print, like The Who Sings My Generation, Sell Out, Magic Bus, Happy Jack and (strangely hard to find) Odds And Sods. Eventually I had a pretty nice collection of WHO releases, but the “Hardcore Collecting” was still to come!
That Summer of 1982, I was with my family at an electronics store so my brother could look at stereo equipment. I was wandering around, when I came upon a display of Gene Kelly promoting a new video format that had just come out, a system called a Videodisc. They were displaying a few players, and had a few rows of Videodiscs to choose from. And right there on a spindle rack, right in front of my eyes, sat the Holy Grail:
I couldn’t believe it! There is was, The fr*cking Kids Are Alright, for chrissakes! I remember standing there, holding the videodisc in my hands, thinking “The price tag for this is around $25 which I think I can handle, but I don’t have a Videodisc Player! How The HECK am I ever gonna watch this?” It didn't matter- I was sure I was gonna buy the disc even if I couldn't play it, simply so I could OWN it!
But then my parents came to my rescue and made a deal with me- If I
bought the disc myself, they’d buy the Player for me…DEAL! And so I
walked out of there with Player and Video in hand, and that was the
beginning of my “Summer Of The Who”. For the next two months
straight, I watched that damn disc almost EVERY DAY, and sometimes even
TWICE! This is no joke, as my poor suffering siblings can attest. Every
person living in that house got to know The Who’s songs as well as me,
and every friend I had was forced to watch the disc with me, This was
quite simply The Most Obsessive thing I’ve ever been obsessed with, and brother, that’s saying a lot.
I was now clearly into maniac fan territory, and having completed all
the domestic albums I could, began my next level of collecting, the
obscure (and oblique!) releases of the Who. Through a mail-order
catalog I acquired a bunch of great WHO books, including the WHO
collecting Bible, a book called “The Illustrated Discography” by Ed
Hanel. This book listed ALL the Who releases, including pictures of the
covers, I got to know all the US releases, all the UK releases, all
the singles, and it was through this book that I discovered the
wonderful world of WHO Bootlegs. With Its strange titles and beautiful
covers, these albums became the new things to set my eyes on.
The “Summer Of the Who” only got better as the band released their tenth studio album, an angst filled rocker called It’s Hard! There is something about any new album that comes out by a band when you are frothing at the mouth high on fandom, and I really took that album to heart! Listening to it every night, it became the unofficial soundtrack to that summer, and despite what people may say about It’s Hard, it remains a top-notch album in MY book!
the nights we spent apart alone,
I need to get back home to cool, cool rain
I can’t sleep and I lay and I think…the night is hot and black as ink
Oh God, I need a drink of cool, cool rain…”
I
remember it was at that exact moment It really hit me. I said to
myself: “ I AM SEEING THE WHO WITH MY OWN EYES! AFTER ALMOST 25 YEARS,
I AM WATCHING ROGER DALTREY SING AND PETE TOWNSHEND PLAY THE GUITAR, RIGHT IN FRONT OF ME!”
It was the “At Last, Now I Can Die In Peace!” Moment!
We are now in 2007 and I’m still over here in WHO land, enjoying The Who’s Endless Wire
CD, still taking in the majesty that is The Who. While the days of
Bookstore hunting are probably behind me, It seems like the fan in me
will always be here, ready for the latest Who album to lift me up! Long
Live The Who!
• • • • • • • • • • • •
MY WHO COLLECTION!
here's what still exists of my fragmented WHO collection.
Who CD's
Videodisc / Laserdisc / VHS
DVD
Books
Magazines
Whew! I think that does it!
• • • • • • • • • • • •
but all of them represent the best of what I consider The Who “Sound”…
Notice how different the group sounds from album to album...this was a group that was constantly evolving!
“Faith In Something Bigger”
“Getting In Tune”
“Instant Party (Circles)”
“We’re Not Gonna Take It”
I Can’t Explain
Baba O’Riley
Young Man Blues
See Me Feel Me
• • • • • • • • • • • •
A year or so ago, a quirky pop chanteuse named Petra Haden released what must be one of the most unusual and interesting WHO tributes of them all, by recording the entire “Who Sell Out” album completely accapella, with her vocals supplying the guitars, bass lines, drums and effects! If it wasn’t enough how talented she is here, even more importantly is her great attention to the details in the WHO songs, you can tell she loves them as much as we do! Here’s an incredible clip of her in concert performing her own variation of “I Can See For Miles”…
Okay, Okay, I know that after watching Petra’s version, you’'ll want to check out the original Who version, right? Here’s the psychedelic flower power promotional video with clips from a performance on the Smothers Brothers show!
Dave Clark Five song “Any Way You Want It” was covered by 70’s Rock giants KISS
-and was included on their famous live album KISS ALIVE II!
Dave Clark Five was one of the major players in that very first “British invasion of the 60’s…in fact, they were right up there with the Beatles when it came to hit singles! Their songs always rocked because they seemed to have pounding, solid backbeats to them, (no doubt partly because Dave Clark was the DRUMMER of the band!) but they also had a flair for the sweet pop tunes too-witness the single “Because”.
I’ve always felt that lead vocalist Mike Smith sounded an awful lot like Paul McCartney on most of their early tracks, although everyone I tell that to looks at me like I’m hearing things! Whenever I hear “Bits and Pieces” I’ve always had a vision of Paul McCartney singing it, and probably always will! Here’s DC5’s “Any Way You Want It”, complete with Dave’s pounding backbeat and Denny Payton’s driving saxophone!
During their mock interview in the video KISS-EXPOSED, Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley talk about how, in their early days as a duo, they would sit on street corners and sing Beatles songs. They even give us a little sample of “I’ll Be Back”, complete with Liverpudlian Harmonies! Their love of The British invasion was never more clear than when the phenomenal album KISS ALIVE II came out.
These were live recordings of the years touring for Destroyer, Rock N Roll Over, and Love Gun, and a kick ass album it was. The concert footage filled up three sides, and they decided to fill side four with unreleased songs. These songs are great to listen to-songs like All-American Man, Rocket Ride and Rockin’ In The U.S.A.are as good as any of their official album tracks…but it was the album closer that really made my day: “Any Way You Want It” by the DC5!
Of course this song was probably just a novelty recording for them, but even so, you can really hear the love the boys have for this early sixties song. Gene and Paul trade off vocal lines as they rock, all building up to cool dual harmonies during the chorus! This is a very faithful cover of the Dave Clark Five song, with two very cool additions: A build up to a sweet Peter Criss drum roll snap, and a VERY Beatley guitar twang at the end!
This song always creates a cool "vicious Circle" for me-whenever I hear the DC5 version, I have to listen to the KISS version, and whenever I hear the KISS version, I have to dig out my old Dave Clark Five collection again!
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