The Boss is the still the King

I think my resistance to the Boss always stemmed from the fact that my aunt loved him so much.  When it was announced that he was going to tour his new album (his first tour without the Big Man), I told my aunt and she had me get tickets.  I had the momentous task of trying to get 4 tickets together for the on-sale day at Madison Square Garden for Bruce Springsteen!  My fellow bloggers know of my love/hate, mostly hate relationship with Ticketmaster™ (not quite the master of tickets they lead you into believing).  So I was patiently and pensively waiting online at 10 o’clock in the morning.  I was refreshing the page, trying to beat out the other 100,000 people trying to buy tickets; mostly to resell on the black market by the way.  I had another person at work also trying to get tickets, so I had a backup plan in place.  I was shocked that I found four really good tickets from Ticketmaster, so I snatched them up with hesitation. 

Fast forward a few months to April 6^th.  I took a half day from work and was kind of excited to see the show that evening.  It was going to be my usual concert accomplice, my aunt, and a lawyer from my Uncle’s office and her fiancé, we’ll call them Alison and Frank.  My uncle e-mailed us and said he would pick us up at my place at 1:43, he was 2 minutes late--very unlike him.  We still had plenty of time to catch the 2:11 train.  It was a little chilly that day, but in the sun it wasn’t bad.  The train was filling up fast and by the time we were in Fairfield, it was pretty packed, I didn’t know how we would fit the Stamford people on the train. 

After the train pulled in, we met Alison and Frank at the clock and we were on our way to meet one of my uncle’s friends Andrew who works on the Today Show.  Andrew found a really good burger joint called 5 Napkin Burger (although they only give you one napkin).  We could only get 4:30 reservations, so an early dinner it was.  We sat down and perused the menu and waited for Andrew at the appointed time.  Andrew showed up and we talked and ate, and had a milkshake and ate some more.  I got the bacon cheeseburger, sans bun.  It was so juicy and the beef was so flavorful.  This was no frozen cow!  It tasted like an mixture of cuts of beef and played a symphony with my taste buds.  I had steamed broccoli with way too much garlic as my side.  Our waitress was a little crazy, but harmless.  My aunt actually finished all the food on her plate (she rarely ever does this) so I know I wasn’t the only person enjoying my food.  After dinner, it was such a nice night in the greatest city on earth so we decided to hoof it over the many blocks to Madison Square Garden.  The ticket said the doors opened at 6:30 for a 7:30 show.  It was nice to have early dinner reservations and not have to rush to eat then rush to the show.

When we got to the Garden, they were doing construction so there were scaffolds all over the place.  The Borders had closed since the last time I was there to see Elton John last year in March, 2011.  After about twenty minutes of loitering, we parted ways with my uncle and Andrew and we went into The Garden.  They can blog about what kind of trouble they got into while we were at the show, but I’m guessing it involved some really sweet diet breaking desserts if I know my Uncle and his penchant for sweets. 

We made it through security which was a breeze, until I guess Frank looked suspicious and one of the guards decided to ‘randomly’ pat him down.  Frank made a joke about it after.  I can’t pass the merch table without stopping to take a look.  I like to collect posters and one day I will have to build a room to display all the posters I have collected over the past decade and a half of concert going.  I was going to get the guitar pick set, but I figured The Boss already had enough of my money from the poster and shot glass and ticket price. 

With poster in hand, we made our way to the ticket scanners and up the escalators the many levels to our gate.  When I was inside the lobby I noticed a new tile floor and new walls.  When I got into the arena, I noticed they got rid of those awful looking hard plastic purple seats and went with nice dark blue upholstered seats.  I was kind of curious why they did this because I’m pretty sure they were going to tear down the Garden in a few years.  The renovation really gave it a much needed face lift, but left the charm of the greatest venue in the world!  We found our seats and sat down around 7 thinking we only had a half an hour till show time, boy were we mistaken.  The Garden was completely empty.  I thought maybe we read the tickets wrong, but sure enough it said 7:30.  So 7:30 came and went and so did 8:00.  The only artist I know that starts right on the dot is Ringo.  He will come out singing at 8 even if there isn’t a band.  Forty minutes isn’t an excessive amount of time to wait and that’s about how long it was.  You know the concert is about to start when the camera operators get into position at their cameras.  They had 2 impressive HD studio cameras positioned on the floor.  There were at least 2 roaming cameras and a few fixed cameras.  I noticed right before the show started they flashed a test pattern on the big screens, but only for 10 seconds. 

I cheated and looked at the set lists from the previous shows.  I saw that he always starts with We Take Care of Our Own from the new album.  So were we surprised when at 8:20 Frank Sinatra started singing New York, New York as the E Street Band shuffled out on stage one by one.  This was my cue to put my 20db lowering ear plugs in my ears.  The crowd was electric at the mere sight of the band.  Everyone was pensively holding their best applause for when The Boss came out and made his way to the mic.  He yelled “NEW YORK CITY!” and counted off and the band launched into Badlands.  After a very energetic Badlands, they went right into the usual show opener, We Take Care of Our Own.  Bruce played this song to open the Grammys® this year.  The song has a nice beat and the keyboard part is very reminiscent of his older songs.  ‘Stevie’ was called over to help the Boss at the end of song with the vocal.  Without missing a beat, Max started Wrecking Ball.  The references to the ‘swamps of Jersey’ got quite a response from the sold out crowd.  The last time I saw the Boss (at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Concert at MSG in 2009) his voice was harsh and rough.  I am glad I was there to see a show with the Big Man.  Tonight except for a few times, his voice was in excellent condition.  The horn section was well arranged and The Big Man’s nephew did an admiral job of stepping into his Uncle’s shoes.  At the end of Wrecking Ball, Bruce switched guitars and counted off the next song.  They launched into Out in the Street.  For about an hour there was no break, they went from one song to the next.

This setlist drew heavily from the new album.  Death to My Hometown is a Celtic infused ditty complete with a fake bagpipe part mimicked by a trumpet and flute.  The horns launched into the intro for My City of Ruins, which gave Bruce the chance to bring it down a bit and talk to the crowd with a “good evening New York.”  He casually mentioned members of the E Street Band that weren’t there tonight.  This was the first lull in the evening where there was a break between songs.

Max started his drum beat for MURDER INCORPORATED.  During this song, Bruce did one of his a-tonal guitar solos where he was pretty close to the correct key, but just off enough.  He is quite a shredder and can fake it quite well.  Bruce and Steve were trading licks while Max played like a metronome keeping a steady beat.  Although I didn’t know most of the songs, they have good melody lines and since you can tell all the members are having a ball it makes you fell good.  During Johnny 99 Roy (the Professor) played one hell of a piano solo which was followed by a weird violin solo. 

The lights were brought all the way down and he introduced the next song which was the first real political song.  Jack of All Trades was excruciatingly slow and a typical “beer break/bathroom” song.  The lyrics were forced and the message is too upfront hitting you over the head.  I could have done without this song.  About an hour into the show Bruce was getting a bit horse.  The energy was still there though, so I forgive him.  He did a new bright pop sounding song from the new album called Shackled & Drawn. 

Lions Den was next.  I was reading an article where Nils was defending their use of teleprompters when he said they have played over 150 different songs on this tour and there is no way to remember all the words.  I like when artists aren’t afraid to change things up, it seems like each show he will play different songs.  A couple times Bruce yelled out song titles and by doing this, I’m sure they weren’t on the setlist or at least not in that order.  He yelled out Easy Money which was vocally challenging for him, then he made the mistake of calling his wife over to sing him and she was so off key it was actually painful.  The little girl he called up for the next song sang better and she was extremely flat.  Sorry Patty. 

Up next is one of my favorite songs which I thought was older than it actually is, I thought it was from his hey-day, but actually from 2002.  Waiting on the Sunny Day was very energetic.  You could tell he was a little out of breath from running around because he had a hard nailing the pitch for most of this song.  He pulled a six year old girl from the pit and let her sing during the breakdown.  I don’t know if he was tired and needed someone to cover or if this is something he always does. 

Bruce got a harmonica and belted out the easily recognizable opening to The Promised Land.  After this he did the Apollo medley of Motown hits with a lot of talking in between.  After the rousing medley, Bruce sang his highly controversial song American Skin about a police shooting.  I think the NYC police boycotted this song at one time.  Another wonderfully a-tonal guitar solo by the Boss.  The show’s set list was heavily drawn from his 2002 critically acclaimed album The Rising.  The next two songs Lonesome Day and the title track were enjoyable. 

We Are Alive was a strange song, it had a bit in there that sounded a lot like he borrowed the trumpet line from Ring of Fire.  I could have also done without this song.

It was worth the wait because the Boss had a few more hits up his sleeve.  He had a masterful way of building to the crescendo of hits.  Bruce played a really bad bum note on the harmonica right before he started to sing the next song.  After a thunderous rendition of Thunder Road, the band left the stage at which time it was the audience’s turn to clap for three minutes while they hosed down The Boss and got him ready for the encores.

The Boss went rouge and did a new song to open his encores.  He dedicated this song to the “kid” aka his mother.  This song is about his mother teaching him about hard work.  At this point Bruce mentioned that his family was in the show, including his mother.  There was a ‘rap’ breakdown during this gospel infused song sung by Michelle Moore. 

Up next was an old song that went on way to long and didn’t seem like an encore song.  Kitty’s Back was a ridiculous choice for an encore.  Sitting through that song was worth it for the last three songs The Boss sang.  They were the heavy hitters of the show.  Born to Run was its usual arrangement full of vim and vigor from the band leader and songwriter.  During Dancing in the Dark, there were these two guys in our section who were in their late twenties that came dressed like the Born in the USA album cover complete with the bandana in the back pocket.  During this song they were dancing and having a fun time.  Halfway through the song during the part where Courtney Cox would be dancing with Bruce, he pulled his mother who is pushing 90 up on stage to join him.  Now I know where the Boss got his moves, that granny can dance!  Bruce even said “shake the booty Grandma!”  The fact that stage hands had to bodily lift her over the barrier made me think it was not planned like it was the week before in Pennsylvania when they did it.  There was an extended sax solo by Jake while mother and son danced the night away. 

The Professor started the piano riff to Tenth Ave Freeze Out.  I was wondering where the big Clarence tribute was going to be and being a casual fan, I know there is mention of him in this song about the Big Man joining the bad.  Bruce climbed up on the piano and was getting the audience behind the stage on their feet.  He sang most of the song from the catwalk in the pit on the floor.  Right before the verse about Clarence, he announced that “this is the important part” and sang the verse without band accompaniment.  Then there was almost two minutes of deafening applause while the audience cheered for Clarence and wept while they had nice video of Clarence and Bruce from all stages of their career playing.  After the video tribute Max started the song again at the end, the band took their final bows.  The Boss said “Thank you New York City!” and said “see you Monday!”  For most of the encore, the crowd was on their feet and gave Bruce and the band quite an impressive and loud reception.  Almost three hours after it started it was over.  Even someone who was so anti-Boss as I was blown away, there I said it Alison!  Mind you he can’t hit some notes anymore and his voice is rougher than in the early days, but the energy and passion is there that more than makes up for his vocal shortcomings. 

After getting out of the arena and taking the “1” to Time Square then the shuttle to Grand Central and making the 12:15 train home only to have my train ticket stolen and, I was in my bed sleeping by 2am.  The late night trains makes every stop known to man; it even stopped at towns I’ve never heard of, like Willoughby.  What a great show and there will be Beach Boys show reviews coming next month.  So stay tuned for that. 

Badlands
We Take Care of Our Own
Wrecking Ball
Out in the Street
Death to My Hometown
My City of Ruins
MURDER INC.
Johnny 99
Jack of All Trades
Shackled and Drawn
Lion’s Den
Easy Money
Waiting On A Sunny Day
Promised Land
Apollo Medley
American Skin (41 Shots)
Lonesome Day
The Rising
We Are Alive
Thunder Road

Encore

Rocky Ground
Kitty’s Back
Born to Run
Dancing in the Dark
Tenth Avenue Freeze Out

Big week for Simon…& Garfunkel!

I like to keep tabs on Paul and noticed an article in Rolling Stone.  While ago I found a piece that told of an album he and his wife were working on together, a collection of children’s songs.  And now today I notice that there is going to be a new song by Paul and Edie on a Starbucks CD for Mother’s Day.  Paul is releasing his newest CD through Concord Music Group that is in collaboration with Starbucks.  I wish this piece was about the Graceland Reunion Tour that he threatened for this year, but any news is good news.  Then with random searching I found that Garfunkel is slated to do a concert at Carnage Hall on March 13^th.  Could it be that his voice is back with full force?  For those who don’t know he has been suffering from paralysis of the vocal chords, which means he can’t sing.  He can talk, but it is strained, as evidence on the BOTW extended 40^th Anniversary doc about the album during his interview segments.  Next year they will have been friends for 60 years, the Diamond anniversary.  So maybe they will do a final final tour, cross your fingers!

Old Friends, The Diamond Tour!  Maybe Neil Diamond could open for them.

On a lighter note, I was at the Jazz Fest concert in 2010 where Garfunkel couldn’t sing, it was still a good show because Simon was being rather compassionate to his old friend, but still Art must have felt bad that he couldn’t sing. 

Ringo!

What else is there to write about this man that hasn’t been written before.  He really deserves more respect that he gets.  Up until the mid 70’s his solo material outsold the other 3 ex-Beatles.  He is going to 72 this year and still drums better than ever.  While his drumming is basic, it has always been that way.  He has such a steady backbeat, that George Martin could splice together various takes of songs and the beat was dead on.  While he may not be a show off on the drums, he makes up for it with his personality.  Ringo is very sarcastic yet oozes Peace and Love from each pore. 

He may be my favorite because we have the same birthday and I got to sit 8^th row center at Radio City Music Hall on our birthdays and see Yoko and Paul come to wish him a happy birthday.  I actually had better seats than Yoko, but not better than Spike Lee.  He really got into that shit and I think he was a closet case Ringo fan. 

My favorite thing to do to piss of Beatles fans is to tell them that Ringo is my favorite when I get asked “who’s your favorite Beatle?”  Ultimately Paul is my favorite, but I would take a Ringo show any day of the week.  Paul is so rigid and uptight.  When Ringo makes a flub, he just rolls with the punches.  Like a Radio City when he screwed up Yellow Submarine (a song that he’s only sung about 2000 times) he just laughed at himself and it shows how relaxed and trouble free he is. 

The new 13^th All-Starr band has been announced.  While I say this at the start of every band that I am not too impressed with the lineup, there are some surprises.  Ringo has a 3 time rule.  I thought Edgar Winter was going to break it, but most of the All-Starrs with the exception of Mark Rivera only do 3 tours and that’s it.  Todd Rundgren is a live wire and one never knows what to expect from him.  This will be his third time in the band, he was in ’92, ’99 and ’12.  While there are many new faces, the hits are still the same.  I’m interested in seeing what the new people sound like.  Richard Page for pushing 60 still sounds amazing and he blew my socks off during the 2010 tour with his Mr. Mister hits.  Ringo hasn’t had a strong bass player for a while now.  While I will miss Dreamweaver and Free Ride, it’s good to make room for the new guys. 

The NYC show has not been announced yet, maybe Ringo will go back to doing 2 nights at the Beacon like he did for the ’99 tour and previous tours.  Now that the Beacon is nice and new looking, a lot of acts that should be playing Radio City or even MSG (the Beach Boys, CSN and Paul Simon) have all opted to play the Beacon.  It’s just about half the capacity of Radio City but it does make for a more intimate show.  That being said, it also makes for a more difficult show to get tickets for, in fact it makes it downright impossible.  Thank goodness for ticket brokers who snatch up all the tickets for secondary market sales (sarcasm). 

For someone who can rest on his laurels, Ringo is still out there, sober and playing better than ever and he’s still making music.  Hats off to you Ringo!

Happy New Year! Ringo’s new CD, new tour!!

Happy New Year to my blog readers.  I am plugging away on my feature film so it doesn’t leave time for blogging. 

2012 is turning into quite a year so far.  We have a lot of heavy hitters out on the road.  Ringo, The Boss, Paul Simon (is supposed to do a Graceland Reunion tour, but I won’t hold my breath), the Beach Boys etc etc.  Ringo has announced a video competition on his website and also announced that he has picked the new All Starr band and he left it up to use to guess who’s in it.  So that’s what this blog is about.  I picked some of his friends, 2 of which that have not been in the band for a real long time (Joe Walsh, 1992) or never (Jeff Lynne).  Jeff really does nothing except produce an album here and there, so Jeff, get back into the spotlight, we miss you.  Lastly, it is really hard to find a good singing drummer.  We sort of O.D.ed on Simon Kirke from Bad Co from 1997-2000 and Shelia E, 2003-2006.  My first choice would have been Don Henley, but I don’t know if he can drum a whole show and be content with only singing 2 songs.  I heard Roger Taylor sing at a benefit show and while he is a bit rough, I like a voice with soul (Paul Carrack anyone?)  Paul Carrack really needs to tour the US. 

This would be my ultimate dream All-Starr band.

Joe Walsh-lead guitar (James Gang, The Eagles)

Jeff Lynne- rhythm guitar (ELO)

Richard Page-bass (Mr. Mister)

Paul Carrack-piano (Ace, Squeeze, Mike & the Mechanics)

Edgar Winter-piano, sax (Edgar Winter Group)

Roger Taylor-drums (Queen)

It Don’t Come Easy

What Goes On

Choose Love

How Long (PC)

Free Ride (EW)

Don’t Bring Me Down (JL)

Radio Ga-ga (RT)

I Wanna Be Your Man

Life in the Fast Lane (JW)

Kyrie (RP)

Peace Dream

Yellow Submarine

Frankenstein (EW)

Wings

Act Naturally

Back Off Boogalo

Tempted (PC)

Do Ya (JL)

Broken Wings (RP)

You’re My Best Friend (RT)

Boys

Living Years (PC)

Evil Woman (JL)

Life’s Been Good (JW)

Photograph

Snookero

With A Little Help From My Friends

My ultimate Christmas CD

It’s hard to find a great Christmas CD with songs that everyone likes.  People want the well known version of songs, not Michael Buble trying to cover the Drifters’ White Christmas.  Due to legal issues and the music industry not being able to play together nicely, I decided to make my own mix CD.  I have gotten a lot of compliments on it, so I’m going to do one of my famous “track by tracks” and share it with my readers as an early X-mas gift.  All these songs have been selected and sequenced in this order.  The compilation fits on a standard 80 minute CD-R with 5 seconds to spare! 

Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree sung by Brenda Lee is the quintessential feel good song from the rocking guitar part to the background singers. 

Jingle Bell Rock sung by Bobby Helms. 

What Christmas Means to Me by Little Stevie Wonder.  He really sings his heart out here.  You can actually hear distortion in the vocal track (as was the case in the 60’s) that shows how powerful his voice is (was).

Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer was made popular by Gene Autry.  With his simple melodic approach to singing, it’s easy to see why he was so popular and has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame under each category (I think he’s the only one, by the way, correct me if I’m wrong).  Also, it’s a shame that this song only exists from a record, I could not find a version that didn’t have record noise. 

Run Run Rudolph sung by Chuck Berry (but not written by him).  There is an interesting story about this song.  Chuck Berry is listed as writer, but he didn’t write it.  The writer is actually Johnny Marks but the publishers gave C. Berry credit to cover up that J. Marks wrote it.  I like Chuck Berry, but he is a bit conceded and a lot of his songs sound the same, just in different keys.  This, like a lot of other songs has grown in popularity because it was used in numerous films, like Home Alone.

The Chipmunk Song (Christmas Don’t Be Late) was written and recorded in 1958.  It won three Grammys® that year including one for best engineered record.  It is still a secret how Ross Bagdasarian did the recording trick, but he is singing all three voices and is Dave Seville.  I would like to say that it is a piece of cake to do something like that now with digital and pitch correction, but in the 1950’s you had analog tape and no such thing as pitch modification.  Ross was a genius and a true pioneer.

Holly Jolly Christmas  Burl Ives had such a distinctive voice.  He also voiced the snowman in the ‘Rudolph’ TV special from 1964.  The guitar part on this song is crazy.  It has some delay but the riffs are outstanding.  It sounds like an old archtop. 

It’s Beginning to Look a Lot like Christmas  There are just some singers that make you think of Christmas.  Bing Crosby does this for me, maybe because White Christmas is my top 5 favorite films of all time?  He did record the original White Christmas, the smash hit from the 1940s. 

Most Wonderful Time of the Year.  I didn’t want to OD on Andy Williams.  He is very talented, but he and Johnny Mathis start to get on my nerves after a while.  I took his most famous song and put it on here.  There is too much reverb and echo on his vocal, take a headphones listen and you’ll hear what I’m talking about.

Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow  Dean Martin was very talented.  This is his trademark holiday classic.  He has a very deep and powerful song.  He sings this as only he can, he even has inflections during some parts that makes it sound like he has a girl in the vocal booth with him for inspiration (just saying).

Pretty Paper  Roy Orbison had such control of his pitch.  The song was written by Willie Nelson.  It sounds like an Orbison penned dark brooding song.  Like most of his songs, he is the underdog that most people pass by and not give a second thought to.  Earlier this month, I read that Barbara Orbison (his wife, manager etc) died on the same day as her husband, 23 years earlier. 

Here Comes Santa Claus sung and co-written by Gene Autry.  Made popular by National Lampoons Christmas Vacation.   

Sleigh Ride  This is one of the best songs from Johnny Mathis’ Christmas album.  It’s lush orchestral arrangement and stereo separation is no too distracting as some recordings from the 1960’s (read my blog about the Beatles) can be.

Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer  What can we say about this song?  It is a great campy song to get you in the mood.  It also makes you think twice about how jolly St. Nick can be.

Getting Ready for Christmas Day  Leave it to Paul Simon to write a Christmas song and not really be a Christmas song.  I get a lot of people wondering why I put this on here, but I love this song.  It’s sort of a bitter sweet view on Christmas and shows the other darker side of the holiday. 

Christmas Vacation sung by Mavis Staples.  Who doesn’t love National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation.  It is the best ‘Vacation’ movie.  Mavis was the perfect choice; she has a lot of soul in her voice and belts it out.  I could have done without the 1980’s production values, synthesizers and the weird vocals of the background singers, and it’s clearly a drum machine.  It was a great way to open the film. 

Feliz Navidad  Jose Feliciano is one of the most underrated guitarists ever.  He is amazing and he’s blind!  He really a shredder on that guitar, and his electric skills can’t be beat.  He has such power in his voice that he deserves to be better known and more appreciated than he is.  This is one of his commercial hits from the 70s. 

The Original White Christmas by Bing Crosby.  Thanks to Irving Berlin for this one.  Bing makes this song, there should be an act of Congress against colorizing films and covering this song, no one should be able to do it, besides the Drifters!

Santa Baby  Eartha Kitt makes this song.  The production of this song is simple and background singers only add to Kitt’s performance.  Her demands are quite un-realistic.  And if interpreted in a different way than was meant in 1953, it is a dirty song.

The Christmas Song by Nat King Cole is a holiday staple.  He has a silky smooth voice that ‘helps to make the season bright.’

Mele Kalikimaka by Bing Crosby and the Andrews Sisters.  Such a cool and campy song, and might have been forgotten about if not used in Christmas Vacation. 

All Alone on Christmas written by Little Stevie and sung by Darlene Love and backed by the E Street band.  It’s clear that Clarence is on sax.  It just sounds like him.  Darlene can really belt it out.  She still sounds really good for being in her early 70’s. 

Frosty the Snowman  I used to have the Jimmy Durante version on the CD, but recently switched to the ‘Wall of Sound’ Phil Spector version.  Ronnie does a great job, the stereo is a bit forced, but it’s a cool track none the less.

Winter Wonderland  The last Johnny Mathis song we have on the mix.  His is the definitive version.  It is also skillfully orchestrated. 

Peace on Earth/Little Drummer Boy  Bowie’s and Crosby’s voices blend like Simon & Garfunkel.  It was like one industry giant “handing over” the reigns to the new generation.  Crosby died about a month after recording this.  Wikipedia has some fun facts about it.  It seems that Bowie bitched and moaned the whole time. 

Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)  This song needs no commentary.  It’s a shame that the sound is so distant though, might have been an affect of the Wall of Sound.

Wonderful Christmastime  The one and only Paul McCartney closes out the set.  This song is infectious.  It’s so dated with the synths opening the song and throughout the song.  Technically this is not a Wings’ song but was released before the band broke up.  The B-side is Rudolph the Red Nosed Reggae.  According to accounts, McCartney recorded this song on his own during the McCartney II sessions.   

Merry Christmas to all my readers and Happy Holidays.  All thoughts and statements are mine, so don’t take anything personally.  See you in 2012! 

Year In Review

Its been a busy year, so lets try to wrap it up in a few pages.  I went to many concerts this year and I shot a movie.  First, a little about the movie.  We wrapped on principal photography for my film, THE RELUCTANT DETECTIVE.  That’s a fancy way of saying we finished it, it’s in the can.  Since there is no “can” anymore, it’s in the hard drive.  It was a cathartic experience that makes me want to explore that avenue again someday, in the far distant future though.  I could not have done it without my support system, my mother and aunt.  My friend Erik helped a bit too. Check out the website for the film, http://reluctantdetectivemovie.com/

On to the concert reviews, because after all, I know that’s why everyone reads this thing.  It wasn’t my best year, but I went to 16 big concerts and a few smaller ones too.  I saw a taping of a late night show and I attended two concerts that have wound up released on DVD!  The first concert of the year was Elton John at Mohegan Sun Arena.  I always bring my mother to see him, she loves Elton!  Even though he has the range of a speaking voice, he still puts on a great show.  With Nigel at the throne again, he has that old sound back with him and it sounds like Elton John, 40 years on.  I got floor tickets from Elton’s fan club.  Always good seats, check out the Rocket Club membership.  He sells his allotment of tickets to a show to fans, so we can get great seats.  My mother was Crocodile Rockin’ all over the place.  The next show was Elton John at Madison Square Garden.  I took Austin for his birthday (I’m such a good friend, right?  I hope he appreciates the little things).  It was such a let down.  The sound, the performance everything.  It’s his favorite place to play in the whole world, but it was a let down.  After seeing Leon Russell come out for the second time in a week and do a 40 minute mini set, I was getting kind of tired of it.  Their album, The Union was fantastic and should win a Grammy®. 

The next stop in my pilgrimage of concerts was winning band bench tickets to see Paul Simon on Jimmy Fallon.  You can read the post about that, but was a great experience to see how a ‘live on tape’ show gets put together.  After that, there was a surprisingly low key offbeat performance by Colin Hay.  I got my tickets for his show next year, back at the Ridgefield Playhouse, he always sells out, and it’s always a great intimate show. 

I saw Paul Simon at the Beacon, back to back, feel free to read the posts. A week or so after, I was seeing Crosby-Nash, although, they didn’t play a lot of hits, the set list was well balanced and the concert was airing live from little old Stamford CT and being recorded for a live DVD.  The DVD doesn’t look all as good as I’m sure it did in HD.  Graham if you’re reading this, we need a Blu-Ray!  Speaking of which, I would love a Blu-Ray concert DVD of CSN in recent years, maybe next time you come to the Beacon, I can shoot it for you. 

I sort of OD’d on Paul Simon this year, but I love his music and how he approaches making a set list.  The fact that he is doing a lot of songs he has never done before, is even better.  The Webster Hall show was recorded for a DVD for PBS.  I already donated all my money to PBS for the DVD, I am getting his new CD too, but I already own 2 copies, so the first reader to contact me, gets it for free! 

I took my mother to see Paul McCartney at Yankee Stadium and she fell asleep during Hey Jude!  I think Paul has a lot of chutzpah to charge as much as he does for such a formulaic show.  Would it really kill him to learn a few new songs?  Junior’s Farm was a welcome change and I was in the audience for the first time, The Night Before was performed in public, kind of cool, but 46 years too late! 

The next night, I went to see Peter Frampton perform the complete Frampton Comes Alive! album.  It was billed as a 3 hour long rock extravaganza, but we got the casino show, he did the album and closed with While My Guitar Gently Weeps.  So it only took 90 minutes for him to earn my $65.50 for balcony tickets.  He did a great job, he is an amazing guitar player and I got to take the show home via Abbey Road Live, about 10 minutes after the show, which was really cool.  Didn’t care for the mix, I would have rather had a board feed with some audience mics and called it a day, like David Crosby did.  It will never compare with the lush Mark Knopfler simfy recordings from his tour last year. 

I was pretty focused on the movie in the summer, so there weren’t any concerts to distract my focus.  I did my annual James Taylor show at Tanglewood.  It was a crappy show with a crappy set, and he brought out Amy Grant and Vince Gill.  They did a mini set and it’s a good thing they shed has dirt floors, since I vomited.  At the end of August, CSN was doing 2 shows at the Beacon, but due to delays in flights, they had to postpone the first show, but the second show was fine.  You can read the post.  Stephen Stills should get more credit than he does.  I own a Stephen Stills White Falcon signature series guitar and it is big and bulky and the Bigsby tremolo is really cool.  It’s like the one he played in Buffalo Springfield. 

In October, I went to see Jackson Browne at the Palace Theatre in Waterbury.  We had nosebleed seats in the balcony and the sound was a bit weak and Jackson had something in his throat for the first half of the show.  He had 17 guitars lined up and ready to play any song people might want to hear.  It was great, he was taking requests and did not have a set list.  He started playing one song, then someone yelled out another, so he would switch guitars.  It was very cool.  Someone wanted to hear Shaky Town, an old Danny "Kootch" Kortchmar song.  He is a great guitarist and lives in CT by the way.  Jackson said that he spoke to Danny today, he was down at Wall Street.  Said he’s been protesting his whole life.  Jackon’s tech brought out the words so he wouldn’t screw them up, but then Jackson said “now I need my glasses.”  It sucks getting old, as evidenced by the fact that it was his 64^th birthday the next day.  He was very rough the first half, but he must have steamed his throat or something, because the second half was an hour and thirty minutes and he sounded like our Jackson again. 

October was Stephen Stills month.  I saw him at the Wolf’s Den at Mohegan Sun and at the Tarrytown Music Hall in the quaint little town in Westchester.  He opened the Wolf’s Den 15 years before and it was their big anniversary weekend.  I took my friends Austin and Marcin (his first appearance on the blog).  And to clear the questions, he has not had a stroke or anything like that, he is hard of hearing though.  He made a joke about his hearing aids, that “at a restaurant, he could hear the bus boys making horse bets, but couldn’t hear a fucking word that the people he is dining with are saying.”  I wish the CN would let him talk more, he really is funny.  Also, it’s really weird, but when he’s not with Crosby and Nash, he sings really well.  I think when it’s just him, he can relax and doesn’t have to worry about harmonizing and doing the “Stills” part.  At Mohegan Sun, the Wolf’s Den is free.  You have to line up and they let you in.  The problem is that they saved all the tables for the high rollers, so they only let about 4 people in from the line of 1500 to see the show.  The rest of us had to stand outside the open air venue to see the show.  Stephen was on fire.  And on the way home, we were driving with his tour bus down I-95.  He was supposed to be in Long Island the next night, so we followed it from the casino for like 50 miles.

In November, my neighbor talked me into going to see CSN at the Beacon.  They ended up adding a third show, so I got tickets for the third show.  Knowing me, I have to go to all of them.  So I found that CSN was selling charity tickets, where they charged a few extra bucks and anything over face value goes to the Guacamole Foundation and you get to meet CSN after the show!  I took my Aunt to this show.  We went to Ruth’s Chris Steak House and had some serious beef beforehand.  We went to the show, it was great, and we were about 10 rows back from the stage in the center.  We got commemorative lanyards with the date embossed on them.  After the show, Tom our liaison, directed us to the location and said he was going to go get the ‘boys.’  A few minutes later, David Crosby and Graham Nash came out.  I was waiting for Stephen to come out.  Finally someone asked, and Tom said that Stephen wasn’t coming out he was unwinding in the bus and probably wouldn’t come out at all.  He was on fire that night, he was doing like Chuck Berry moves while doing his guitar solos.  I was a bit disappointed because I really want to meet Stephen.  And I have hard stories about David Crosby being a mean SOB.  Before I lose you, he was very pleasant and shook my hand and we spoke for a few minutes.  Everyone got a picture taken, it was very nice.  They had a very nice spread of nuts, cheeses and drinks for the reception. 

The following night my neighbor and I went to see them again, they were a bit off.  The harmony just wasn’t there and when Stephen is the most “on”, we’ve got trouble.  Helplessly Hoping actually made my ears bleed.  For the really good shows I have seen by these guys, this wasn’t at the same level, but I forgive them, as they do have a combined age of 205 years. 

It was a heck of a year for concerts, saw so many good shows by so many great performers. 

Elton John (2)

Jimmy Fallon-Paul Simon

Colin Hay

Paul Simon (4)

Crosby-Nash

Paul McCartney

Peter Frampton

James Taylor

CSN (3)

Jackson Browne

Stephen Stills (2)

See you in 2012!

CL

Happy 70th Birthday Paul!

How Terribly Strange to be Seventy...You're Still Crazy After All These Years

I’d like to take this opportunity to express my appreciation of this man and his music.  It’s really hard to distinguish between a famous person’s work and the person themselves.  In a case like Paul Simon, he lives a very dull life in Connecticut and is rather private.  I met him once and that was enough for me.  I’m glad the way it happened, because if he was mean to me, I don’t think I would have recovered from the shock.  I’ve heard horror stories about people who have met him and I know how difficult he can be sometimes.  He seems to have gotten more difficult with age.  He doesn’t flaunt his celebrity around like other superstars and still drives his kids to school every day and coaches Little League. 

Now, on to meeting the living legend.  Austin (my best friend-for new readers), his then girlfriend Rosa (now finace) and I had gotten tickets to see Harper Simon (Paul’s grown son from his first marriage) at the Mercury Lounge.  The place was standing room only and wasn’t quite filled, maybe 150 people.  There was an opening act, as I remember it was a ska band with a horn section.  All the while, Austin and Rosa kept teasing me that Paul would show up.  I wasn’t expecting it since the night before he had played the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Anniversary Concert at MSG.  We were in the back just waiting for Harper, trying to pass time as the opener wasn’t really good.  All of the sudden, it was like a near death experience, I don’t think anyone else noticed it, but I saw a short man with a scarf wearing a fedora with grey hair sticking out walk in with a tall lanky young boy.  I knew it was Paul Simon and his oldest son with his current wife, Adrian.  I have run into Adrian at the Beacon for several shows and even the previous night at the show at MSG.  They had one bench on the left side and there was a small group milling around.  Paul sat down and was listening to the band.

I pointed him out to Austin who was really excited because we usually run into Paul’s double, his brother Eddie (read the other posts), but this time it was Paul in the flesh.  I really contemplated going over to say hello, but I’m glad I didn’t because some other young girls had the idea too and he was having nothing to do with it.  He was waving people away and wouldn’t sign anything or even talk to you. 

After a few minutes, Harper came out and did his set.  We rushed the stage and I ended up being dead center for the set.  About halfway through the show, Austin leaned in and asked me, who the woman in white next to me was, because she was really getting into the music and was dancing.  I looked to my left, and turned back with “oh, it’s Yoko.”  Yoko Ono was next to me busting a move and I didn’t even know it!  She was on fire.  After Harper finished his set, I leaned over to Yoko and said “you’re awesome” gave her a thumbs up (I don’t know why, just happened) and she said “so are you.”  I really gained a lot of respect for the lady after seeing her in the flesh and knowing how much tragedy she has seen in her life.  So now when I see dead head hippies at the Paul McCartney concerts wearing their, “I still blame Yoko” t-shirts, I want to punch them in the face. 

Yoko was whisked away by her man servant.  I know her son Sean and Harper are best friends, they grew up next to each other at the Dakota.  Harper walked off stage and began to sign CDs for the few people who stayed.  I was waiting my turn, when Paul came from the corner and basically cut me and two other people to come talk to Harper about the show.  I do remember there was a young kid who kept trying to get him to sign a Graceland CD.  Paul again, would have nothing to do with that.  So after Paul left, Harper signed one more CD then I pulled out the CD and asked him to sign it.  Harper obliged.  I told him how much I enjoyed the show and how great the CD is (I mean, that, you should check it out) and how I really liked the song Tennessee.  He apologized for not playing it.  He inscribed the CD to me handed my pen back to me and was making the rounds with his friends.  What I noticed was that there were more of his friends and family there than actual people to see him.  Paul was also milling around talking to people that he obviously knew.  We were just milling around too soaking up the atmosphere and realizing that something like this will never happen again, Harper, Paul and Yoko in a small venue??

I had to run to the bathroom and was going to meet Austin and Rosa outside.  A few seconds after I got out I met them, it seemed that fate had intervened as Paul was leaving too.  I turned to him, and said “hot set last night, and I really enjoyed the Capeman.”  He said, “I’m glad you enjoyed it” I even got a handshake.  He and his son crossed the street to an unmarked black SUV and were out of there faster than it happened. 

The next night was Halloween, so there were a lot of people dressed up walking around.  We passed many on our way to the Bleecker St subway.  I was humming the S&G song Bleecker Street in my head as we walked past the freaks. 

October 30, 2009, a day that I will never forget.  Thanks Paul for being cordial, and if Paul McCartney didn’t own the rights to Happy Birthday and I didn’t have to pay royalties, I’d sing it for you sometime.