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P U N M A S T E R' S M U S I C W I R E b y D a v i d G r o s s
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April 8, 2013
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Shell Shocked: My Life with the Turtles, Flo and Eddie, and Frank Zappa, etc. (Paperback)
by Howard Kaylan with Jeff Tamarkin
This highly anticipated memoir from The Turtle's Howard Kaylan has been a long time coming......a storied career in one of the great pop groups of the 60s and his years with Frank Zappa's Mothers of Invention and Flo & Eddie with his long-time partner Mark "Flo" Volman, makes it a hilarious page turner. Savor every moment. After a fabulous forward from Penn Jillette (of Penn & Teller), it's followed by the best opening sentence in rock history....and it only gets better from there! You'll be Shell Shocked and "happy together" with this fun book. Go Howard!!!!!!!
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Thanks to Dave Basner for these news stories....
ROCKERS REMEMBER ALVIN LEE
Ten Years After guitarist Alvin Lee passed away unexpectedly at the age of 68 due to complications from a routine surgical procedure. Now, musicians are paying tribute to him through social networking. Here’s what some have had to say:
• Ric Lee (Ten Years After drummer): “We are all stunned. All of us. I don’t think it’s even sunk in yet as to the reality of his passing. We are all thinking of his family and friends today, and offer our own condolences.”
• Leo Lyons (Ten Years After bassist): “I heard about Alvin’s passing and it came as a complete shock to me. I still haven’t taken it in. I feel very sad. He was the closest thing I had to a brother. We had our differences, but we shared so many great experiences together that nothing can take that away. I will miss him very much. He was an inspiration for a generation of guitar players. Keep on rockin’, Alvin!”
• Geezer Butler (Black Sabbath bassist): “Shocked and saddened to hear of Alvin Lee passing, one of the true greats and a major influence on Sabbath. The fastest guitar in the west. He was one of the few people that believed in Sabbath when we started out, and he got us our first major London gig, at the Marquee. A true gentleman and lovely bloke. RIP Alvin.”
• Bill Ward (Original Black Sabbath drummer): “Thank you, Alvin, for all that you were. For all that you gave. You were one of a kind. Your music rocked with passion, force, excitement; brave in risk, bringing this listener to the point of ‘wowism.’ In short, thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Our condolences go to Alvin’s family. Heartfelt sympathy at this time of loss.”
• Slash: “I just heard about Alvin Lee’s passing. He was the 1st badass, super fast lead guitarist I remember hearing as a kid. legend. RIP.”
• Foghat: “So very sad to hear about the passing of Alvin Lee. Truly one of the great guitarists of our time. Our hearts and thoughts are with his family and friends. You will be missed, Alvin.”
• Joe Bonamassa (Black Country Communion guitarist): “Rest in peace, Alvin Lee... Another hero gone this week... This is becoming too regular... A very sad night.
• Joe Satriani (Chickenfoot guitarist): “Alvin Lee was a big influence on my playing. He was a great musician and a gentleman too. I still have the pick he gave me a few years back... R.I.P. Alvin Lee.”
• Glenn Hughes (Black Country Communion bassist): “RIP Alvin Lee...so very sad to hear of another friend passing...”
STONES TO TOUR
It’s official: The Rolling Stones are hitting the road. The band announced the next leg of their 50 and Counting tour, which kicks off in L-A and the second show is in Oakland on May 5th. The Stones will move eastward until they wind down in Philadelphia on June 18th. They’ll also play at England’s Glastonbury festival in July. Get all the band’s dates and check out a video of the guys explaining why they’re touring at RollingStones.com.
RINGO STARR EXHIBIT COMING TO GRAMMY MUSEUM
Ringo Starr fans, there’s a new exhibit coming soon you’ll want to see. It’ll be at the GRAMMY Museum in L-A on July 12th and features items like the drumkit Ringo used during the Beatles’ performance on The Ed Sullivan Show and the red jacket he wore during the group’s final performance ever on Abbey Road Studios. The exhibit is called Ringo: Peace and Love and is being touted as “the first major exhibition to explore the life of Ringo Starr” as well as the first in the U-S to focus on a rock drummer. Ringo: Peace and Love runs through November before touring in select cites. Learn more at GrammyMuseum.org.
• TIDBIT: Other items in the exhibit include never-before-seen photos, correspondence and film footage, memorabilia, Ringo’s costume from the cover of Sgt. Pepper’s and an interactive feature that lets visitors learn some drumming tips from Starr.
• TIDBIT: This is the GRAMMY Museum’s third exhibit to focus on the life and career of a Beatle, following ones documenting John Lennon and George Harrison’s lives.
LEARN ALL ABOUT CLAPTON’S GUITARS IN NEW BOOK
During his 50-year career, Eric Clapton has created a lot of amazing music and he did it with his many guitars. Now, a new book is out that presents nearly three-hundred instruments from Clapton’s extensive and legendary guitar collection. It’s called Six-String Stories and provides background info on each guitar with archival photographs and Eric’s own words about what each instrument means to him and each one’s legacy. Only two-thousand of the books will be created with each hand bound in cherry red leather (like Clapton’s famousGibson ES-335), and each signed by the guitarist himself. Learn more now at ClaptonBook.com.
• TIDBIT: Proceeds from sales of the book will benefit the Crossroads Centre in Antigua that Eric founded to help people struggling with addiction.
ORIGINAL YES GUITARIST PETER BANKS PASSES AWAY
Original Yes guitarist Peter Banks has passed away at age 65. While there is no cause of death, a post on his website reads, “It’s with great sadness to have to report the death of Peter Banks. He died in his London home on March 8th, 2013. Thanks for all the music Peter! R.I.P.” Banks, who after forming the group in 1969 was asked to leave in 1970, still made a mark with his work on their debut album. He also is reportedly responsible for the group’s name and their first logo. Peter went on to play in Zox & the Radar Boys alongside Phil Collins, spent the ‘90s doing solo work and continued working in music in his later years.
• TIDBIT: Steve Hackett, who previously collaborated with Peter, tweeted, “I’m sorry to hear of Peter Banks’ passing… a great pal and a great guitarist.”
LEVON HELM DOC OUT LATER THIS MONTH
In 2010, Levon Helm wrote and recorded his final album, Electric Dirt, and filmmaker Jacob Hatley documented the entire process. Now, Hatley is releasing a film from the footage he collected. It’s called Ain’t in It for My Health: A Film about Levon Helm and premieres in New York on April 19th, the one year anniversary of Helm’s passing. Learn more about it at Facebook.com/LevonHelmMovie.
• TIDBIT: Helm’s longtime collaborator, Larry Cambell, said of the film, “Jacob was the perfect fly on the wall for many months as we experienced the ups and downs of a wonderful time in all our lives.”
• TIDBIT: Levon passed away at age 71 from throat cancer.
FOGERTY’S NEW ALBUM WILL ROCK
Next month, John Fogerty will release his latest album, Wrote a Song for Everyone. The effort features new versions of John’s hits withCreedence Clearwater Revival like “Fortunate Son” and “Born on the Bayou,” recorded with guests including Bob Seger, Kid Rock and the Foo Fighters. If there is one thing you can be sure of about the record, it’s that it will rock. John explained why that is.
(Cut #5) “You know, I mean, if you’re making a rock and roll record, it’s gotta rock. If it’s not rocking you might as well be Lawrence Welk or something.”
Wrote a Song for Everyone comes out on May 28th. Stay up to date at JohnFogerty.com.
• TIDBIT: John has been working on the album since 2010.
CLIVE DAVIS’ SECRET TO FINDING AMAZING BANDS
Music industry legend Clive Davis turns 81 years old. The A&R man discovered some of the biggest artists ever includingAerosmith, Janis Joplin, Bruce Springsteen, Billy Joel, Carlos Santana, Chicago and many others. So how did he do it? Clive gave us his secret.
(Cut #6) “There’s nothing scientific, there’s no instructions on how to find a star with a long-lasting career, but for me, I learned to trust the track record and that’s what gave me the confidence to maybe think outside the box, maybe take chances and follow your instinct, but I discovered through luck that I had an ear and it’s been a part of me ever since.”
You can read more about Clive’s life and career in his new autobiography, The Soundtrack of My Life. It’s out now.
• TIDBIT: Clive was born in Brooklyn, New York. His mother died when Clive was just a teenager and his dad, an electrician and salesman, passed away a year later, leaving Davis an orphan with no money. However, Clive got scholarships to NYU and thenHarvard Law.
CLAPTON TO SHARE THE STAGE AT CROSSROADS FESTIVAL
Eric Clapton will hold his Crossroads Guitar Festival at New York’s Madison Square Garden and a source told Rolling Stonesome exciting details about the event, which takes place on the 12th and 13th. Slowhand plans to kick it off in style with an acoustic set at 7:30 PM on the 12th. Then, expect Clapton to join many of the musicians on stage that night, including a jam with headliners The Allman Brothers Band. Eric will then headline the second night. Other performers at the festival include Jeff Beck, B.B. King, Buddy Guy andJohn Mayer. Learn more at CrossroadsGuitarFestival.com.
• TIDBIT: Proceeds from the show benefit Clapton’s Crossroads Rehabilitation Centre in Antigua.
SABBATH ANNOUNCE 13 RELASE DATE, FORMATS
The original line-up of Black Sabbath, minus drummer Bill Ward due to a contract dispute, has been hard at work on 13, their first album together in 35 years and now, a release date has been announced. The record will be available in various formats on June 11th. You can get it as a CD, a double-disc set with a second CD of bonus material, a vinyl, and as a Super Deluxe Box Set that boasts a limited-edition 12-inch clamshell box, the double-disc album, a 12-inch heavyweight vinyl album, an exclusive DVD with a documentary about the reunion as well as five behind-the-scenes videos, a download card with track-by-track interviews, exclusive photographs and more. Get all the details atBlackSabbath.com.
• TIDBIT: The second Jack Osbourne-directed clip of the band working on the album is now available at BlackSabbath.com.
• TIDBIT: Sabbath kick off a world tour on April 20th in New Zealand.
HEAR IGGY AND THE STOOGES’ “BURN”
Iggy and the Stooges will release their latest album, Ready to Die, on April 30th, but you don’t have to wait that long to hear the first single from the effort. The band has put out that track, titled “Burn.” Rolling Stone describes the tune as a “grinding, thumping punk cut that finds Iggy Pop delivering a hypnotic bellow over wire-cutter guitar riffs.” Head to RollingStone.com to hear it.
• TIDBIT: The record, which is being pegged as the follow-up to 1973’s Raw Power – even though the group put out The Weirdness in 2007 – features original members Iggy, guitarist James Williamson and drummer Scott Asheton, along with Mike Watt on bass in the shoes of the late Ron Asheton, who died in 2009.
ACADEMY OF ARTS AND LETTERS INDUCTING DYLAN
Bob Dylan has become the first rock musicians ever voted into the American Academy of Arts and Letters. The elite honor society, which recognizes music, literature and visual art, actually had trouble deciding if the singer belonged in the group for his words or for his music, so they chose to induct him as an honorary member. It’s big news since the Academy has historically locked out the likes of Dylan, dismissing everyone from jazz artists to modern poets. No word yet if Dylan will attend the May induction ceremony.
• TIDBIT: Other honorary members include Meryl Street, Woody Allen and Martin Scorsese.
WHAT GOT BOWIE INTO MUSIC
Last month, David Bowie released The Next Day, his first album in ten years. Like many of his previous works, it was highly acclaimed and very successful. He’s been making music for over four decades, but why did he decide to pursue it as a career? He told us he has Little Richard to thank.
(Cut #4) “I saw a film, it was called Disc Jockey Jamboree in Britain and one of the artists was Little Richard and I was about eight and I thought, ‘When I grow up, I want to be a sax player in that band.’ So that sort of, I remember very clearly, it was that one film that just sort of really pushed me into being a musician more than anything else.”
David never got to play sax with Little Richard, but he told us he did play piano with him once. If you haven’t already, pick upThe Next Day now.
• TIDBIT: Bowie hasn’t yet said if he plans to tour behind The Next Day. Stay up to date at DavidBowie.com.
ALICE COOPER WORKING ON COVERS ALBUM
Alice Cooper has some excited plans for next year. The shock rocker revealed to Rolling Stone that in December, he’s going to start recording a covers album. Cooper explained that the idea came from a thing he does in his show, which he said is a “tribute to Hollywood Vampires, my drinking club.” Alice said, “It was Keith Moon, John Lennon, Harry Nilsson, Micky Dolenz – a very eclectic bunch of drunks.” Cooper said they do four songs in tribute to them – “Break on Through,” “Revolution,” “My Generation” and “Foxey Lady,” which gave him the idea to do a covers album. No word yet on the songs that will be on there but Alice said he wants tracks from ’73 and ’74 like “Break on Through” and maybe Nilsson’s “Jump into the Fire.” Read more at RollingStone.com.
• TIDBIT: During his show, before he plays the tribute, Alice introduces it explaining, “The ‘70s were hard on all my friends. The biggest names went down the hardest. They lived fast, they died young. They left their musical mark on all of us. I hung with them. I drank with them. I rocked with them. We were the Hollywood Vampires. We ruled the night. Jim. John. Keith. Jimi. It’s time to raise the dead.”
ROD STEWART READY TO GIVE FANS TIME
It’s been over a decade since Rod Stewart has put out an album of new material, but this May, that’s all about to change. The singer has announced plans to release a new record on May 7th called Time. The effort boasts 12 songs, 11 of which Rod wrote. Meanwhile, theiTunes deluxe edition, which you can pre-order now, boasts an extra three songs, including another Stewart original called “Legless.” You can get the album’s first single, “She Makes Me Happy,” today and a second single, “Finest Woman,” will be out on April 8th. Stay up to date at RodStewart.com.
• TIDBIT: Rod’s recent albums have been his versions of standards from the Great American Songbook and a record of Christmas tunes.
• TIDBIT: In a statement, Rod acknowledged that he lost his songwriting muse for a time but revealed that while he was working on his recent memoir, he rediscovered his spark.
• TIDBIT: Rod will tour in America with Steve Winwood starting on October 17th. He’ll be overseas starting on June 1st.
McCARTNEY ANNOUNCES TOUR, WORKING ON NEW ALBUM
Paul McCartney is hitting the road again. The Beatle great announced plans for a tour this year called Out There! Only two dates have been announced so far – in Warsaw, Poland on June 22nd and in Vienna, Austria on June 27th – but a note on Paul’s website promises more dates soon. The update also reveals that McCartney is working on a new studio album. Read it all at PaulMcCartney.com.
• TIDBIT: Paul will headline the Bonnaroo Festival in Manchester, Tennessee this summer.
DARK SIDE, “SOUND OF SILENCE” RECOGNIZED BY LIBRARY OF CONGRESS
The Library of Congress is recognizing 25 recordings for their cultural, artistic and historic importance by adding them to the National Recording Registry. According to the Associated Press, among the music is Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon, which celebrates its 40th anniversary. It received the highest number of public nominations for the registry, having spent more than 800 weeks on the Billboard 200 chart. The Library called it a “brilliant, innovative production in service of the music.” Simon & Garfunkel’s “The Sound of Silence,” The Bee Gees 1977 soundtrack to Saturday Night Fever and Chubby Checker’s “The Twist” are also being recognized.
• TIDBIT: Paul Simon wrote “The Sound of Silence” about John F. Kennedy’s assassination. It was released as a single in 1964 but flopped. However, an edited version that came out in ’65 was a hit.
GUITAR PLAYED BY HARRISON AND LENNON UP FOR BIDS
How much would you pay for a guitar that was played by both John Lennon and George Harrison? Well one such instrument is going up for bids in May and is expected to sell for between 200 and 300-thousand dollars. The Beatle greats used the custom-built VOX guitar around the time of Magical Mystery Tour. George practiced “I Am the Walrus” on it in 1967 and John played it during a videotaping for “Hello, Goodbye” that same year. It’s part of Julien’s Auctions’ Music Icons auction, set for May 18th. Learn more at JuliensAuctions.com.
• TIDBIT: The guitar was given to Apple Records’ electronics engineer Yanni “Magic Alex” Mardas in 1967.
• TIDBIT: Other items going up for bids includes a copy of The Beatles’ 1963 debut, Please Please Me, signed by all four members, plus memorabilia from David Bowie, The Grateful Dead, Michael Jackson, Elvis Presley and others.
EAGLES TO TOUR
The Eagles have announced a summer tour in support of the recent documentary about the band, History of the Eagles, which aired on Showtime last month. The trek kicks off on July 6th in Louisville, Kentucky and goes through Canada and the East Coast. Tickets for most shows go on sale on Thursday at Ticketmaster.com. Get all the dates at EaglesBand.com.
• TIDBIT: The History of the Eagles documentary, which uses archival and concert footage plus home movies to chronicle the band’s career, comes out on DVD and Blu-ray on April 30th.
MORE ROCK HALL PRESENTERS, PERFORMERS ANNOUNCED
The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony takes place this month and we now know more of the performers and presenters at the event. Heart will be inducted by Soundgarden singer Chris Cornell, then they will perform alongside Alice in Chains’ Jerry Cantrell and Pearl Jam’s Mike McCready. After the Eagles’ Don Henley inducts Randy Newman, the pianist will play with Jackson Brown and John Fogerty. Meanwhile, it was previously announced that Foo Fighters Dave Grohl and Taylor Hawkins will inductRush. The band will also perform. It all happens in L-A on April 18th and later airs as a special on HBO on May 17th.
• TIDBIT: Cheech & Chong will induct Ahmet Ertegun Lifetime Achievement Award recipient Lou Adler.
LOU GRAMM AND MICK JONES TO PERFORM TOGETHER
In June, Foreigner guitarist Mick Jones and his former bandmate, Lou Gramm, will be inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame and Lou has revealed that they plan to perform together at the event, which will mark the first time in a decade the two have played together. Lou went on to tell Artisan News, “Mick Jones and myself are being inducted together, which is, I think it’s a really, really good thing. And I’ve talked to Mick for the first time in over ten years. He seems to be doing well.” They’re now deciding which songs to play. The event takes place on June 13th in New York and you can learn more at SongHall.com.
• TIDBIT: Lou co-founded Foreigner in 1976 and was in the band until 1990, then returned from 1992 but left again in 2003 after having trouble communicating with Mick.
• TIDBIT: Aerosmith’s Steven Tyler and Joe Perry are also being inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame.
STEPHEN STILLS TALKS HENDRIX
The Stephen Stills box set, Carry On, is out. The four-disc package spans the singer’s 50-year career and features live cuts, new mixes and 25 previously unreleased tracks including a 1970 guitar jam with Jimi Hendrix. Stills told us about spending time with the legendary rocker.
(Cut #6) “He had this beautiful soft voice and we would talk and drink coffee and smoke cigarettes at dowdy cafes in New York City and in London.”
Hear Hendrix and much more by picking up Carry On today. Learn more at StephenStills.com.
• TIDBIT: One song on the set is a never-before-heard demo called “Forty-Nine Reasons,” which eventually became the song “49 Bye Byes” that was on Crosby, Stills and Nash’s 1970 self-titled album.
ANIMALS’ ERIC BURDON WORKING ON AUTOBIOGRAPHY
Former Animals frontman Eric Burdon is the latest rocker to announce that he’s working on an autobiography. In statement, the 71-year-old “House of the Rising Sun” singer explained, “I’m writing this book to help myself remember the past, acknowledge the present and help the new generation to discover their own truth.” The book, which is called Breathless, will feature stories and humorous anecdotes about the rocker’s life. It’s due out later this year.
• TIDBIT: In 1986, Burdon published an autobiography titled I Used to Be An Animal, But I’m Alright Now.
• TIDBIT: In January, Eric released a solo album called Till Your River Runs Dry.
WHAT TO TAKE FROM JUSTIN HAYWARD’S NEW SOLO ALBUM
Moody Blues guitarist Justin Hayward recently put out a new solo album called Spirits of the Western Sky. The legendary musician told us what he hopes fans get out of the record.
(Cut #6) “I would hope that they find it sonically satisfying as just something that’s good for the ears and harmonic. That’s the stuff that I like.”
The set includes songs like “One Day, Someday,” “On the Road to Love,” and “In Your Blue Eyes,” plus features orchestrations by Academy Award-winning composer Anne Dudley. If that’s not enough, Justin also tries his hand at country and bluegrass on three songs. Pick it up today and learn more at JustinHayward.com.
• TIDBIT: Justin is responsible for writing songs like “Nights in White Satin,” “Tuesday Afternoon,” “Question” and “I Know You’re Out There.”
• TIDBIT: The album is Justin’s first solo record since 1996’s The View from the Hill.
PLANT TO TRY ACTING?
Robert Plant might make an appearance in an upcoming film. The as-yet-untitled project, directed by Terrence Malick, is about the intertwining love lives of a group of Texas rockers. It will be filmed in the state, where Plant lives part of the year in Texas with his wife, singer Patty Griffin. The movie will star Ryan Gosling, who let the news of Plant’s involvement slip in a recent interview withIndiewire.com, but he didn’t reveal too much, so it’s believed the role will just be a cameo. The flick will also star Rooney Mara,Christian Bale, Cate Blanchett and Natalie Portman. No word yet on when it is due out.
• TIDBIT: According to IMDB.com, this would be Robert’s first acting role.
• TIDBIT: Terrence Malick has been nominated for three Oscars, Best Director for The Tree of Life in 2011 and Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay for 1998’s The Thin Red Line.
SONGWRITERS HALL OF FAME TO HONOR ELTON JOHN AND BERNIE TAUPIN
Elton John and his longtime co-writer, Bernie Taupin, will be honored at this year’s Songwriters Hall of Fame induction. While the pair was inducted into the institution over 20 years ago, they will now be recognized with the Johnny Mercer Award, the highest honor the hall bestows. It’s reserved for songwriters who have already been inducted but whose body of work is of such high quality and impact, it upholds the standard set by legendary lyricist Johnny Mercer. The pair receives the award on June 13th in New York.
• TIDBIT: Past Johnny Mercer Award winners include Phil Collins, Billy Joel, Paul Simon and Carole King.
• TIDBIT: This year’s inductees include Foreigner’s Mick Jones and Lou Gramm and Aerosmith’s Joe Perry and Steven Tyler.
OUT THIS WEEK
Tuesday, April 9th
Todd Rundgren – State
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Phil Ramone, Producer for Music’s Biggest Stars, Dies at 79
By BEN SISARIO
Phil Ramone, a prolific record producer and engineer who worked with some of the biggest music stars of the last 50 years, including Ray Charles, Frank Sinatra, Paul Simon, Billy Joel and Barbra Streisand, died on Saturday in Manhattan. He was 79. (Though it was widely reported that he was 72, public records and his family confirm that he was born on Jan. 5, 1934.)
His death was confirmed by his son Matthew. He did not give the cause, but Mr. Ramone was reported to have been admitted to a Manhattan hospital in late February for treatment of an aortic aneurysm.
In his 2007 memoir, “Making Records: The Scenes Behind the Music,” written with Charles L. Granata, Mr. Ramone defined the role of record producer as roughly equivalent to that of a film director, creating and managing an environment in which to coax the best work out of his performers.
“But, unlike a director (who is visible, and often a celebrity in his own right), the record producer toils in anonymity,” he wrote. “We ply our craft deep into the night, behind locked doors. And with few exceptions, the fruit of our labor is seldom launched with the glitzy fanfare of a Hollywood premiere.”
Mr. Ramone’s career was one of those exceptions. He was a trusted craftsman and confidant in the industry who was also one of the handful of producers widely known to the public. He won 14 Grammy Awards, including producer of the year, nonclassical, in 1981, and three for album of the year, for Mr. Simon’s “Still Crazy After All These Years” in 1976, Mr. Joel’s “52nd Street” in 1980 and Mr. Charles’s duets album, “Genius Loves Company,” in 2005. He also produced music for television and film, winning an Emmy Award as the sound mixer for a 1973 special on CBS, “Duke Ellington ... We Love You Madly.”
Mr. Ramone was born in South Africa and grew up in Brooklyn. His father died when he was young, and his mother worked in a department store. A classical violin prodigy, he studied at the Juilliard School but soon drifted toward jazz and pop, and apprenticed at a recording studio, J.A.C. Recording.
In 1958 he co-founded A & R Recording, a studio on West 48th Street in Manhattan, and built a reputation as a versatile engineer, working on pop fare by performers like Lesley Gore as well as jazz by John Coltrane and Quincy Jones. He ran the sound when Marilyn Monroe cooed “Happy Birthday” to President John F. Kennedy at Madison Square Garden in 1962, and three years later won his first Grammy as the engineer on Stan Getz and João Gilberto’s landmark album “Getz/Gilberto.”
As a producer, he had a particularly close association with Mr. Joel and Mr. Simon; the back cover of Mr. Joel’s 1977 album “The Stranger” features a photograph of Mr. Ramone posing with Mr. Joel and his band at a New York restaurant.
“I always thought of Phil Ramone as the most talented guy in my band,” Mr. Joel said in a statement on Saturday. “He was the guy that no one ever, ever saw onstage. He was with me as long as any of the musicians I ever played with — longer than most. So much of my music was shaped by him and brought to fruition by him.”
In an e-mailed statement over the weekend, Mr. Simon also reflected on his relationship with Mr. Ramone. “We made a lot of music together, but this loss is the loss of a close friend,” he wrote. “We just worked on a new song last month. It’ll be strange without Phil.”
Mr. Ramone named two of his sons, Simon and William (known as B. J.), after Mr. Joel and Mr. Simon. They survive him, along his third son, Matthew, and his wife, Karen.
As a producer, Mr. Ramone was known for a conservative sound rooted in jazz and traditional pop, and in later years his biggest successes included albums with Mr. Charles, Tony Bennett, Elton John and others.
But he was also a proponent of new technologies. He was an early advocate for digital recording, and pushed for Mr. Joel’s “52nd Street” to be one of the first commercially released albums on compact disc, in 1982. Mr. Sinatra’s 1993 album, “Duets,” featuring stars like Bono, Ms. Streisand and Natalie Cole, was made by connecting Mr. Sinatra’s studio in Los Angeles with others around the world using fiber-optic cable.
In an interview with Billboard magazine in 1996, Mr. Ramone explained why he believed a producer should not leave too much of his “stamp” on a recording.
“If our names were on the front cover, it’d be different, but it’s not on the front cover, and the audience doesn’t care,” he said. “If you think you have a style and you perpetrate that onto people, you’re hurting the very essence of their creativity.”
“The reward of producing,” he continued, “comes when somebody inside the record company who has a lot to do with what’s going on actually calls you and says, ‘Boy, this record really came out great.’ Or when other artists call you and want to work with you.”
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Deke Richards, Creator of Motown Hits, Dies at 68
By PETER KEEPNEWS
Deke Richards, the leader of the Motown songwriting and producing team responsible for some of the Jackson 5’s biggest hits, died on Sunday in Bellingham, Wash. He was 68.
The cause was esophageal cancer, his family said.
In 1969, Mr. Richards teamed in Detroit with Berry Gordy Jr., the founder of Motown, and the songwriters Freddie Perren and Alphonzo Mizell, to work with the Jackson 5, a virtually unknown brother act from Indiana that had recently signed with the label. Collectively billed as the Corporation, the four struck gold immediately.
The Jackson 5’s first three singles, “I Want You Back,” “ABC” and “The Love You Save” — all written and produced by the Corporation, and all featuring the vocals of a very young Michael Jackson — reached No. 1 on the Billboard singles chart. The Corporation went on to write and produce other hits for the Jackson 5, including “Mama’s Pearl” and “Maybe Tomorrow.”
Mr. Richards later worked, both with the Corporation and on his own, with Diana Ross, Martha and the Vandellas, the Four Seasons and others.
He had already reached the top of the charts before working with the Jackson 5. He was briefly a member of another four-person Motown collective, the Clan, which wrote and produced “Love Child,” a No. 1 single for Diana Ross and the Supremes in 1968.
Deke Richards was born Dennis Lussier on April 8, 1944, and grew up in Los Angeles, where his father, Dane Lussier, worked as a screenwriter.
He played guitar in local bands before he began doing production work for Motown in 1966. After Mr. Gordy named him the Jackson 5’s producer, he brought in Mr. Perren and Mr. Mizell to work with him and, he later recalled, asked Mr. Gordy for songwriting and production advice. Mr. Gordy, who had begun his career as a songwriter but had not done any writing or producing for several years, eventually became a full-fledged member of the team.
The Corporation developed a distinctive sound for the Jackson 5 that some have called “bubblegum soul,” blending upbeat pop melodies with rhythm-and-blues grooves. The formula was designed to reach a wide audience, and it did, bringing the group international stardom.
In later years Mr. Richards’s primary focus was the Poster Palace, a company he operated that sells vintage movie posters, but he continued to take on occasional musical projects. Last year he produced “Come and Get It: The Rare Pearls,” a compilation of previously unreleased Jackson 5 recordings.
Survivors include his wife, Joan Lussier, and a brother, Dane Lussier.
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Hugh McCracken, a Studio Musician in High Demand, Dies at 70
Hugh McCracken, a virtuoso guitarist who was in such demand as a studio musician that he could afford to turn down Paul McCartney’s invitation to join the band Wings in 1971, died on Friday in Manhattan. He was 70.
The cause was leukemia, his wife of 43 years, Holly, said.
Studio musicians toil in near anonymity as they support the artists whose names everyone knows. Their job is not to draw notice but to subtly enhance the stars’ work. But the elite of the music business know the best ones, and Mr. McCracken was always getting calls.
Just a partial list of the hundreds of musicians he accompanied includes Paul Simon, Bob Dylan, Steely Dan, B. B. King, Jefferson Airplane, Billy Joel, Laura Nyro, Neil Diamond, Van Morrison, Carl Perkins, the Monkees, Carly Simon and James Taylor. He recorded with all four Beatles after their breakup. He recorded with Aretha Franklin and Mr. McCartney in different studios on the same day.
Mr. McCracken contributed to a host of hits, including “Brown Eyed Girl” by Van Morrison, “Girl, You’ll Be a Woman Soon” by Neil Diamond, “Hey 19” by Steely Dan, “Happy Xmas (War Is Over)” by John Lennon and Yoko Ono, “50 Ways to Leave Your Lover” by Paul Simon and “If I Ain’t Got You” by Alicia Keys.
He would improvise his part once he apprehended the drift of a producer’s intention, his wife said. He arrived early the day Roberta Flack was recording “Killing Me Softly With His Song” and began fooling around on his classical guitar as he waited for the session to begin. Joel Dorn, the producer, asked him to play his riff again, and it became the song’s introduction.
“His feel was immaculate,” Leo Sacks, a record producer, said. “It flowed with such ease.”
Rob Mounsey, a veteran session musician and arranger, called Mr. McCracken’s work “elegantly simple — sometimes startlingly simple — and full of feeling.”
Mr. McCracken had worked with Mr. McCartney on his album “Ram” when Mr. McCartney decided to form a new group and asked him to join. He turned down the chance to be an original member of Wings because he did not want to be separated from his children in New Jersey.
Hugh Carmine McCracken was born on March 31, 1942, in Glen Ridge, N.J., and grew up in nearby Hackensack. His father was a plumber who led his own dance band for a while. His mother liked country music and bought Hugh his first guitar, an electric one, when he was 14. He learned to play to impress girls, he said.
His instruction began with a music dictionary that explained terms like note and beat. He learned more by borrowing records from an expansive rhythm-and-blues collection maintained by a mechanic in the rear of a gas station.
Around 16, he formed a band and played local clubs. He dropped out of high school in his junior year to help pay family bills.
His mother was working as a hat checker in a club where the saxophonist King Curtis was playing when she persuaded him to listen to her son play. Mr. Curtis did and hired him for his 1961 album “Trouble in Mind.”
In later years Mr. McCracken toured with artists like Mr. Taylor, Mr. Simon and Linda Ronstadt; wrote advertising jingles; and contributed to movie soundtracks. In addition to lead guitar, he played rhythm guitar, mandolin and harmonica.
Mr. McCracken’s first marriage, to Lynn White, ended in divorce. In addition to his wife, the former Holly Mershon, he is survived by his mother, Ethel McCracken; his sons, Scott McCracken and Marc Langanus; his daughters, Jodi McCracken Capitanelli and Kimberly Hope; his sister, Pat Stephens; his brother, the Rev. Don McCracken; and three grandchildren.
Mr. McCracken delighted in telling stories about his famous friends. When he met John Lennon, he recalled, Mr. Lennon said he had heard that Mr. McCracken had worked with Mr. McCartney. “Yes,” Mr. McCracken answered.
“Well,” Mr. Lennon said, “you know that was just an audition to get to me.”
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Paul Williams, Father of Rock Criticism, Is Dead at 64
By PAUL VITELLO
Paul Williams, a writer and critic who founded the alternative pop music magazine Crawdaddy, one of the first outlets for serious writing about rock music, and whose critical support helped rescue the science fiction author Philip K. Dick from obscurity, died on Wednesday in a nursing residence near his home in Encinitas, Calif. He was 64.
The cause was complications of early onset dementia, which had been triggered by a traumatic brain injury suffered in a bicycle accident in 1995, his wife, the singer Cindy Lee Berryhill, said.
Mr. Williams was a 17-year-old freshman at Swarthmore College when he started his magazine, in 1966. The first issue, mimeographed and stapled together, promised readers a level of critical insight into the emerging rock scene that it said was missing in fan magazines and trade publications. “Crawdaddy will feature neither pin-ups nor news-briefs; the specialty of this magazine is intelligent writing,” Mr. Williams wrote.
Mr. Williams is considered by many to be rock journalism’s founding father. He printed the first issue of Crawdaddy (the name, taken from the London nightclub where the Rolling Stones first played, was originally rendered with an exclamation point, at least some of the time) 18 months before Jann Wenner founded Rolling Stone and two years before the debut of Creem, another major competitor. (Smaller rock publications had been started before then, but not distributed nationally.)
Turning a stapled dorm publication into a national journal required cleverness and some luck, friends said. Besides handing out copies on the Swarthmore campus, west of Philadelphia, Mr. Williams mailed them to the performers reviewed in its pages, a tactic that drew phone calls of appreciation from some of them, including Bob Dylan. Mr. Williams parlayed the calls into extended published interviews with Mr. Dylan, Paul Simon and others, which drew notice from record companies interested in ads.
Mr. Williams left college at the end of his freshman year, moving the magazine first to Boston and then to a small office on Canal Street in Lower Manhattan, where it became a platform for many first-generation rock writers, including Jon Landau, Sandy Pearlman and Richard Meltzer, author of “The Aesthetics of Rock,” a 1970 collection of essays, many of which first appeared in Crawdaddy.
Published on a shoestring, with a combined circulation from subscriptions and single-copy record store sales of about 20,000, Crawdaddy was quickly overtaken by the slicker and more professionally managed Rolling Stone, which achieved a circulation of around 250,000 within three years. But Mr. Williams’s innovative idea — to publish smart writing about the increasingly sophisticated ’60s rock scene — was by all accounts seminal.
Peter Knobler, who became editor of Crawdaddy in the ’70s, described the journalism Mr. Williams developed as a combination of music criticism and close-up reportage about the gathering societal storm that came to be known as the counterculture.
“The music was part of all that, and the writing reflected it,” Mr. Knobler said in an interview on Friday. “It was generational, political, all about this new thing, the youth culture. That was Paul’s vision.”
Robert Christgau, the veteran rock critic formerly with The Village Voice, said rock ’n’ roll writing was indebted to Mr. Williams and his magazine “for its very existence.”
Until Crawdaddy, Mr. Christgau said, the sort of dense, almost literary analysis it ran about groups like Jefferson Airplane, Moby Grape and the Doors was simply “not a possibility.”
In 1968, Mr. Williams turned over control of the magazine to others and left for California to become a full-time freelance writer. Crawdaddy folded in 1979.
Mr. Williams wrote scores of articles for Rolling Stone and other rock journals as well as two dozen books, including three about Bob Dylan. In 1993 he became editor of a revived version of Crawdaddy, which lasted until 2003, when his illness began taking its toll.
One of Mr. Williams’s best-known articles as a freelancer was one he wrote for Rolling Stone in 1975 extolling the virtues of Philip K. Dick. Mr. Dick’s work was respected in science fiction circles but was relatively unknown to the general public.
The article helped inspire wider interest in Mr. Dick and eventually sparked a vast new popularity for his work — much of that popularity occurring after Mr. Dick’s death, in 1982. Many of the books became best sellers, and 11 of his novels and stories have become Hollywood films, including “Blade Runner” (1982), “Total Recall” (1990), “Minority Report” (2002) and “The Adjustment Bureau” (2010).
After Mr. Dick’s death, Mr. Williams was appointed the executor of his literary estate. His 1986 book, “Only Apparently Real: The World of Philip K. Dick,” was among the first biographies of the writer.
Paul Williams was born in Boston on May 19, 1948, to Robert and Janet Rothman Williams. His parents had both worked on the Manhattan Project — his father as a physicist, his mother as an administrator.
His passion for folk and rock music in the early 1960s led him to turn down a full scholarship to attend Stanford University and choose Swarthmore instead, because he feared the distraction of the Northern California music scene, Ms. Berryhill said. (The strategy failed, she added.)
In addition to his wife, Mr. Williams’s survivors include their son, Alexander Berryhill-Williams; two sons from a previous marriage, Taiyo and Kenta; his father; and two brothers, David and Eric.
Leaving Crawdaddy two years after creating it was not a hard call for Mr. Williams, said his wife, who described his proto-hippie life during the next few years as “Zelig-like.” He lived on a commune, smoked his first joint with the Beach Boys’ Brian Wilson, became the manager of Timothy Leary’s short-lived 1969 campaign for governor of California, dropped in on John Lennon and Yoko Ono’s “bed-in” in Montreal long enough to sing on their recording of “Give Peace a Chance.”
Did he make it to Woodstock? she was asked. “He hitched a ride to Woodstock in a limo with the Grateful Dead,” she said.
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Les Blank, Filmmaker Who Captured Life and Its Eccentricities, Dies at 77
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/08/movies/les-blank-documentary-filmmaker-dies-at-77.html?hpw
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Barry Goldberg: Fifty Years Of 'Chicago Blues'
by Michael Sigman
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/michael-sigman/chicago-blues-documentary-howlin-wolf_b_2993509.html
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Thanks to Cary Baker for these fine releases....
RANDALL BRAMBLETT REVEALS THE BRIGHT SPOTS
ON NEW WEST RECORDS MAY 14, 2013
Southern singer/songwriter returns with “an honest album that has heart.”
ATHENS, Ga. — A jewel of Southern music, Randall Bramblett shines on his latest release, The Bright Spots, due out May 14 on New West Records. Fresh off the inclusion of one of his songs on Bonnie Raitt’s Grammy-winning album Slipstream, he has put together a masterful recording soaked with the soulful feel that has defined his music and that of his Southern contemporaries like Gregg Allman and Warren Haynes. From Howlin’ Wolf to Ray Charles and “dark Motown” influences, sitar samples, gospel strains and even a snippet of water-splashing pygmies, The Bright Spots mixes diverse elements that dovetail into Randall’s finest album yet.
Although sometimes associated with the Southern rock scene built around the ’70s-’80s Capricorn label’s core, Randall has never identified with that sound. “Black music is what I grew up loving and the folk scene really hit me too,” he says. “So it’s a combination of Dylan and Ray Charles.”
Elements of pop, soul, blues, and the sounds of the church combine with Randall’s often wistful, beautifully conceived lyrics on these dozen ruminative, roots-based tunes. “Some of the words come from dreams. I do meditations in the morning and write in a journal,” he says. His lyrical strength is mixing unusual thematic concepts with dry humor. That helps explain the album’s upbeat title. “In almost every song there is darkness, yet some thread of humor. The irony of the bright spots is that there is a lot of hurt in these songs and there are the bright spots too. It’s pain and joy simultaneously. There are gifts of desperation.”
That takes the form of the lowdown “Whatever That Is,” his most overtly blues composition, and the sing-along gospel of “Shine,” which sports an anthemic chorus different from anything Bramblett has previously written. “I’ve tried to push the boundaries, but we always follow the song and see what it needs. If the song doesn’t like something, it will tell you.”
With five songs recorded in Nashville and seven more tracked with his longtime touring band on his home turf in Athens, GA, the multi-instrumentalist (guitar, keyboards, woodwinds) says his ninth studio release was the easiest and most organic to record. “It felt good and went quickly,” he explains. “It just fell together easily compared to my other records. We did not obsess about this one. A lot of it is live in the studio; we didn’t do a lot of takes or overdubs either.”
Perhaps that’s because the songs come from the experiences accumulated during his extensive career, starting in the ’70s as a member of the jazzy Southern band Sea Level. Add to that a far-reaching resume of work with artists such as Steve Winwood (for 16 years), Gregg Allman, Chuck Leavell, Levon Helm, Widespread Panic, and Gov’t Mule, and the touchstones of Randall’s music emerge. “All these songs came from my life, just feeling that I’m getting a little older and trying to squeeze out a little more time or creativity before it’s too late.”
Having a surfeit of original material to choose from, and highly creative, imaginative musicians in both Nashville and Athens to flesh out the tracks and mold them into bold, soulful statements also helped. “I had 18-20 songs and chose the best 12. As you start recording, you get a feel for where the record is going and it starts to have a life of its own. I have a lot of different styles I can do . . . I like variety but it shouldn’t sound like it’s arbitrary.” As in the past, Bramblett’s dusky, soulful voice and sympathetic backing is unified by the sharp production of veteran shotgun-riding drummer Gerry Hansen. He effortlessly ties the somewhat disparate elements that include short bits of African pygmy children splashing water, and the occasional R&B horn section, together into a cohesive set.
It helps to have high profile fans too. The multi-Grammy winning Raitt has been a Bramblett devotee since the late Stephen Bruton gave her a copy of 2001’s No More Mr. Lucky. She invited Bramblett’s band on the road to open shows and recorded his compositions “God Was in the Water,” which appears on the album Souls Alike, and the gutsy “Used To Rule the World” (which has become a focus track) on Slipstream, which in addition to winning Grammy gold has sold more than 300,000 units to date.
The self-effacing artist downplays his previous sideman status, yet is grateful for valuable lessons gained from his work with Gregg Allman (“I learned about organ, vocals and drama through the bluesiness and dynamics of his playing”), watching The Band’s Levon Helm (“his joy of playing freed me up”) and Steve Winwood (“he taught me a lot about organ and melody, working out details and how to create the background beds he was so good at”).
The challenge of composing moving, often emotionally driven songs with words that aim to stir the listener’s feelings has always motivated Bramblett and creates this inspired album. Writing a song is “like playing with the pieces of a puzzle or playing in the sand until you start seeing something,” he asserts.
Despite Bramblett’s antecedents in Americana and specifically Southern music, this is no stroll down the red clay back roads of his youth. The album bridges the past and the present in the loop-driven rhythms of “John the Baptist,” “Trying To Steal a Minute” and the upbeat groove funk of “’Til the Party’s All Gone” as well as the more meditative keyboard based ballad “Detox Bracelet.” Overall The Bright Spots is steeped in soul with a modern edge. “I didn’t want to make a retro record. I like doing something different every time,” he says.
Randall Bramblett continues to push the envelope of his Southern soul into areas that further illuminate his past, while expanding and nudging his roots into the future. The music reflects “a lot of angst, salvation and redemption but it all comes from my experiences,” he concludes. “It’s an honest album that has heart.”
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MARSHALL CHAPMAN’S NEW ALBUM, BLAZE OF GLORY, DUE OUT MAY 28
Todd Snider among special guests. Co-produced with Michael Utley,
accompanists include Will Kimbrough, Casey Wood, and Jim Mayer.
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Marshall Chapman has been making records for longer than most of today’s indie rockers have been alive. Blaze of Glory is her 13th release, her seventh on Tallgirl Records.
At age 64, Chapman is, as author Peter Guralnick put it, “a force of nature.” Some might argue she’s even picking up steam. In the last two and a half years, she’s had a book published (They Came To Nashville), seen her musical Good Ol’ Girls (adapted from the fiction of Lee Smith and Jill McCorkle, featuring songs by Chapman and Matraca Berg) open off-Broadway, acted in a movie (playing Gwyneth Paltrow’s road manager in Country Strong), and recorded two albums — Big Lonesome (named “Best Country/Roots Album of 2010” by the Philadelphia Inquirer), and the soon-to-be-released Blaze of Glory.
"I felt, at the time, like Big Lonesome was my best,” Chapman says. “So it was a no-brainer bringing in the same crew — Mike Utley, Will Kimbrough, Jim Mayer and Casey Wood — for Blaze of Glory.” The album kicks off with “Love in the Wind,” a duet with Todd Snider, a longtime friend for whom Chapman opened many shows while promoting her previous album.
“Everyone, myself included, just seemed to pick up and soar from where we left off,” Chapman continues. “I have never felt so focused making a record. Everybody just brought it. It was magic.”
Many are hailing Blaze of Glory as Marshall’s masterpiece. Singer/songwriter Tom Russell says it’s “her best yet,” and Rodney Crowell concurs, calling it “the most satisfying record yet from the Goddess of Tall.”
Marshall attributes time spent in Mexico as the inspiration for many of the songs. “I had myself convinced my muse lived down there,” she says. “To dig deep, you have to live deep. That’s great for songwriting, but it can be hell on a marriage. I had to pull back, which was painful. For a while, all I could see was my own mortality staring me in the face.”
Chapman has perhaps her strongest slate of songs here, most of which she wrote. “I didn’t think I could go any deeper. But I was in free fall, and the songs just kept coming.”
Lucinda Williams, who recently listened to Blaze of Glory, had this to say: “[Marshall’s] voice sounds warm with a certain soulful, cool edge that really stands out. The production, up close and real. (F—king great band!) The songs give a nod to the past in a very hip way. I found myself singing along with ‘I Don’t Want Nobody.’ Love the duet with Todd Snider. You done good, Marshall!”
And this unexpected quote from Scotty Moore, the man whose guitar lit Chapman’s rock ’n’ roll fuse when she was but a tow-headed seven-year-old, sitting in the colored balcony of the Carolina Theater in Spartanburg, S.C., with her family’s maid, as Moore, bassist Bill Black and a youthful Elvis Presley performed below:
“I have loved Marshall for years, but Blaze of Glory is a real work of art. The band is small; you can hear every note from every instrument (thanks Mr. Mixer); the voice is enough on top to hear every emotion in the words but not overpowering. In addition to the mechanics of the CD, which sounds much more like we did at Sun Studio in 1955 than something from Nashville in 2013, the songs are just as good as I expect from Ms. Chapman. I especially like the Bo Diddley-type opener, but every song sounds good. This is one to put on and listen all the way through, not just put one or two cuts on your iPod.”
Chapman has been labeled many things over the years: No-Shame Dame, the female Mick Jagger, outlaw woman, country punk, rock ’n’ roll authoress, etc. These days she’s often called a survivor. But as she wrote years ago in one of her songs: “Survival is easy / It’s living that’s hard / It takes lots of courage / Just to be who you are.”
As her friend, the three-time Grammy-nominated songwriter Matraca Berg puts it: “Marshall Chapman IS a blaze of glory. She’s brave and smart and wise and . . . WILD!”
“I never intended to make it this far,” Chapman sings on the title track. “I never had a fallback plan / I always thought I’d go in a blaze of glory.”
Marshall Chapman is still “burning like a comet across the night sky.”
And that’s good news for the rest of us.
About Marshall Chapman:
Marshall Chapman is an American singer-songwriter-author who was born and raised in Spartanburg, S.C. For the past 40 years, she's mostly lived in Nashville. To date she has released 12 critically acclaimed albums, and Emmylou Harris, Joe Cocker, Irma Thomas and John Hiatt are just a few who’ve recorded her songs. Over the years, she’s toured extensively on her own and opened for everybody from the Ramones to John Prine. This summer she’ll be inducted into the Spartanburg Music Trail, the town’s open-air hall of fame (http://spartanburgmusictrail.com/), along with David Ball, the Sparkletones and Buck Trent. Chapman is a contributing editor to Garden & Gun and Nashville Arts Magazine. She has also written for The Oxford American, Southern Living, W, Performing Songwriter, and The Bob Edwards Show (Sirius/XM). But “music,” she says, “is my first and last love.”
# # #
COLD SATELLITE READIES CAVALCADE OF ROCK ’N’ ROLL
Americana rocker Jeffrey Foucault teams up
with contemporary poet Lisa Olstein
for a second album, due May 21 on Signature Sounds
NORTHAMPTON, Mass. — Jeffrey Foucault and Lisa Olstein have an unorthodox partnership: though they collaborate on the songs for the band Cold Satellite, they don’t actually work together — which hasn’t stopped them from writing a second album, Cavalcade, out May 21 on Signature Sounds Records.
Here’s how it happens: Olstein, an award-winning poet who’s drawn praise from Library Journal for her “sparkling consciousness,” hands poems, fragments, and lyric pieces to Foucault, a critically acclaimed songwriter lauded for “songwriting brilliance” by MOJO magazine. Foucault elides and arranges Olstein’s words, sets them to music, and records them with the crack band he recruited in 2009.
“It’s a cold collaboration. Once she hands off the work, she doesn’t weigh in,” Foucault says. “When we were cutting demos for the first record and she thought it was a little ballad-heavy, she said, ‘You should write some more rockers,’ but that’s really about as much as we’ve ever communicated about the process.”
That first record, 2010’s Jeffrey Foucault: Cold Satellite, was an indie project begun several years earlier when Olstein gave her old friend Foucault some poems and fragments of verse. Between albums, Foucault hammered those poems and fragments into lyrics, fit them into songs and recorded them fast and loose with Billy Conway (Morphine) on drums, Jeremy Moses Curtis (Booker T) on bass, David Goodrich (Chris Smither) on electric guitars, and Nashville session veteran Alex McCollough on pedal steel.
“That first record took from Friday afternoon to Sunday morning,” Foucault recalls. “I told everyone, ‘I can either pay you all an extra hundred or we can spend that money on good food and wine, and do our own cooking.’” The band quickly cohered and the result was a gem. Legendary music critic Greil Marcus ranked it #1 in his Real Life Rock ’n’ Roll Top Ten in The Believer magazine, describing it as having “a country feel that puts the people who live in the Nashville charts to shame… a deep-ditch electric guitar that takes a country song into the blues, and lets it go back where it came from.”
No stranger to critical attention, Foucault is still riding the success of his most recent solo release (Horse Latitudes, Signature Sounds 2011), which featured Eric Heywood of the Pretenders on pedal steel and Van Dyke Parks on keyboards, and won much praise from critics including the Washington Post (“This is rock-and-roll in the key of country-noir: bleak visions of departed lovers, flickering TVs and empty landscapes underlined by pedal steel guitar and cello”) and the New Yorker (“Jeffrey Foucault sings stark, literate songs that are as wide open as the landscape of his native Midwest”). It even received a nod from Don Henley, who added one of the songs (“Everybody’s Famous”) to his live repertoire.
On the heels of that release, Foucault and Olstein took a more deliberate approach with Cavalcade, an LP with a classic, loose-limbed rock ’n’ roll feel that falls somewhere in the middle ground between Neil Young’s Tonight's the Night and the Faces’ Ooh La La. There’s the massive, ringing wall of guitars on opener “Elegy (In a Distant Room),” the propulsive Keith Richards jangle of “Elsewhere,” and the foot-stomping rocker “Tangled Lullaby,” along with the laid-back country-soul feel of “Careless Flame” and the haunting piano pads and brushed drums of the subtle ballad “Glass Hands.”
Foucault wrote much of the music for Cavalcade in the summer of 2012, and the band holed up for a week in December at a rural studio in upstate New York, adding Wisconsin songwriter Hayward Williams to the lineup as keyboard player and backing vocalist. The sound of the album was no coincidence, he says.
“I tried pretty consciously this time around to write tunes that brought more of my upbringing and education in early rock ’n’ roll into what I was doing,” says Foucault, who has released four other records on his own along with a series of collaborations, including an album of Murder Ballads with Mark Erelli, and two albums with the trio Redbird (featuring Foucault’s wife, the songwriter Kris Delmhorst, and Peter Mulvey). “The first Satellite record had some rockers, but they were more country inflected. This record is a lot of four-on-the-floor rock, with only a couple blues and ballads. The first album I ever bought was Little Richard, and I wanted to make a record that reflected that.”
Instead of working only with poems and fragments, Olstein also gave Foucault lyrics that were more fully fleshed out this time, exploring the line between the two forms. And while she sometimes thought that certain lyrics would inspire a specific kind of song, Foucault often veered the other way, for a simple reason: he took care to build songs around them based on feel and not content.
“I curate the language, essentially,” he says. “More often than not, I’m trying to reduce. Some songs on the new record, I cut out three or four verses and I took something she might have labeled ‘chorus’ or ‘refrain’ and made it a verse, and made one of the verses the chorus. The essential thing about what we do is that I don’t ask her what the poems are about until well after the record has been recorded. I take those poems and fragments and lyrics, and most of the time I try not to even read them until I have a guitar in my hands. The language makes me feel a certain way, and I start singing into the field recorder.”
That’s resulted in some surprise pairings. On the song “Necessary Monsters,” the rhythm of the language reminded Foucault of Keith Richards channeling Slim Harpo on Exile on Main Street. He came up with a riff to channel Keith and turned the last line into a call-and-response blues tag. Months later, he asked Olstein what the lyrics were actually about.
“She said, ‘Oh, that’s about being pregnant,’” Foucault says, laughing. “So that’s my first blues about pregnancy. I try to sing it with conviction. But the ambiguity is important. It leaves room.”
Ambiguity is an important underpinning of Cold Satellite, Foucault says, and one that makes the listener an equal partner in the music. “Lisa begins with one set of intentions in creating the language, and then she gives it to me … I don’t know what her intentions are, and I begin with a completely different set of intentions,” Foucault says. “The language makes me feel a particular way; I begin writing the song, and we know that music changes language pretty significantly, and changes the feeling attached to it and frames it. And then the listener hears it, and creates a new experience every time, different from what she intended and different from what I intended, and inevitably it becomes a new thing, which is an exciting prospect for both of us.”
Cavalcade will be released to coincide with the May publication of Lisa Olstein’s third book of poems, Little Stranger, on Copper Canyon Press.
“I think what sets Cold Satellite apart is the strange pairing: Lisa is a very modern writer and a rising star on the best press in the country, and this band is playing the least post-modern music possible — completely un-ironic, straight-up late-American rock ’n’ roll in the Crazy Horse, Credence, Led Zeppelin, Faces vein,” Foucault says. “No pretense or preciousness involved, no indie-rock semantics. Just rock ’n’ roll.”
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>>> INSERT JOKE HERE <<<
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*** PUNMASTER'S TRIVIA CORNER ***
The trivia question from the last MusicWire was:
This beloved artist appeared in a Japanese advertisement for a product which is what his name means in Japanese!
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ANSWER: RINGO STARR
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3o-H36-rW18
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IcdeVCV-OvI
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the champions are... (in order of appearance)
Bill Stewart
Terry Hansen
Tim Bernett
Derk Richardson
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Hi Dave,
QUESTION: This beloved artist appeared in a Japanese advertisement for a product which is what his name means in Japanese!
ANSWER: Ringo Starr
Bill Stewart
New Port Richey, FL
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Dave, How about Ringo Starr who appeared in a Japanese advertisement for apple sauce, which is what "Ringo" means in Japanese. Thanks Google!
Terry Hansen
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That would be Ringo "Apple Juice" Starr
-Bernett
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Punmaestro,
It was Ringo ("Apple") Starr, shilling an apple juice product, a doubly juicy bit of trivia given the name of the Beatles' record label!
Derk Richardson
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*** TODAY'S EASY BAKE TRIVIA QUESTION ***
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WHAT SONG DOES NOT BELONG ON THIS LIST AND WHY ???
Tales of Brave Ulysses
Closer to Home
Long Time Gone
Still...You Turn Me On
If I Had a Hammer
Summertime Blues
Where Have All The Flowers Gone?
I Started a Joke
Rum and Coca Cola
La Grange
I Want You Back
Come See About Me
Rock This Town
Hey Joe
Walk Right In
Message In A Bottle
Baby, I Love You
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THIS DAY IN MUSIC HISTORY - APRIL 8
In 1969…Neil Diamond set a record at the Los Angeles Forum when he sold out nine shows in a row.
In 1971…Chicago became the first rock group to play New York’s Carnegie Hall.
In 1973…Neil Young premiered his home movie collection Journey Through the Past at the U.S. Film Festival in Dallas. Young explained that the film was “a collection of thoughts. Every scene meant something to me – although with some of them I can’t say what.”
In 1975…Aerosmith released Toys in the Attic.
In 1977…The Damned became the first English punk group to play New York’s famed venue CBGB. At their hotel, they discovered thatThe Rolling Stones left a birthday cake, seven meringue pies and three prostitutes for them.
In 1979…Van Halen began their first world tour.
In 1994…Kurt Cobain was found dead. He was 27.
In 2003…NBC debuted the concert special, Cher: The Farewell Tour, filmed at her concert stop in Miami.
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VIDEO CLIPS OF THE WEEK
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Thanks to Mike Hart....
Voodoo Chile-Jimi Hendrix / Gayageum ver. by Luna
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=NfOHjeI-Bns
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Bob Dylan - Man Of Constant Sorrow
His first TV appearance in 1963.
http://youtu.be/xCipKmyngLY
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Paul Butterfield on David Letterman 1985 Late Night
http://youtu.be/hS_x1A4LXCM
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Levon Helm: A Lesson from Paul Butterfield
http://youtu.be/-73mhQn4Pkc
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Solomon Burke Don't give up on me
http://youtu.be/W0bsWl-GnOo
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Bing Crosby & Louis Armstrong
http://youtu.be/Hw0o7gQnERI
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Ray Charles - Ring Of Fire (The Johnny Cash Show - Feb 11, 1970)
http://youtu.be/71AEfhsH6Ok
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Johnny Cash & Ray Charles - Busted
http://youtu.be/rhybHLrWUMY
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Buddy Holly on the Arthur Murray Dance Party 12/29/57
http://youtu.be/WQiIMuOKIzY
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"Caldonia" live by Louis Jordan & The Tympany Five (1966)
http://youtu.be/0Co46eLQg3A
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You Can Quote Me On That...
“You start out playing rock ‘n’ roll so you can have sex and do drugs. But you end up doing drugs so you can still play rock ‘n’ roll and have sex.” - Mick Jagger
I've been through more cold turkeys than there are freezers." - Keith Richards
"Mick needs to know what he's going to do tomorrow. Me, I'm just happy to wake up and see who's hanging around. Mick's rock, I'm roll." -Keith Richards
"I don't know anything about music, In my line you don't have to." - Elvis Presley
"I opened the door for a lot of people, and they just ran through and left me holding the knob." - Bo Diddley
"The only Maybelline I knew was the name of a cow." - Chuck Berry
"A lot of fellows nowadays have a B.A., M.D., or Ph.D. Unfortunately, they don't have a J.O.B." - Fats Domino
"It's not the size of the ship; it's the size of the waves." - Little Richard
"Hippies? Why, I'm the original." - Jerry Lee Lewis
"The older I get, the harder to get around....gravity's got me down." - Barry Goldberg
“I'm one of those regular weird people.” - Janis Joplin
"There are more love songs than anything else. If songs could make you do something we'd all love one another." - Frank Zappa
"I've always felt that blues, rock 'n' roll and country are just about a beat apart." - Waylon Jennings
"When the power of love overcomes the love of power the world will know peace." - Jimi Hendrix
"Rock is so much fun. That's what it's all about -- filling up the chest cavities and empty kneecaps and elbows." - Jimi Hendrix
"I taught them everything they know, but not everything I know." - James Brown
"David Gross (Punmaster's MusicWire) is the Arianna Huffington of music news!" - Barry "The Fish" Melton
"The older you get, the better you were!" - Leslie West
"It's much too late to do anything about rock & roll now ..." - Jerry Garcia
"Albert King wasn't my brother in blood, but he sure was my brother in Blues" - B.B. King
"More bass." - Jerry Wexler
"I'm as country as a dozen eggs." - Elvin Bishop
"I liked the first sixties better...." - Al Kooper
"I still have all my vinyl. You can’t roll a joint on an iPod.” - Shelby Lynne
"I think I just killed somebody." - Phil Spector
"The problem with history is, the folks who were there ain't talking. And the ones who weren't there, you can't shut 'em up." - Tom Waits
"The music business is a cruel and shallow money trench, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free, and good men die like dogs. There's also a negative side." - Hunter S. Thompson
"I want my more money & I want my more fame" - Chubby Checker
"When you don't know where you're going, you have to stick together just in case someone gets there." - Ken Kesey
"I smash guitars because I like them." - Pete Townshend
"It's a good thing I had a bag of marijuana instead of a bag of spinach. I'd be dead by now." - Willie Nelson
"Rock journalism is people who can't write interviewing people who can't talk in order to provide articles for people who can't read." - Frank Zappa
"You can learn something, both good or bad, watching any guitar player. You learn what to do or what not to do. Over the years I've learned things from Carlos, Mike Bloomfield, Clapton, George, Garcia, Knopfler and let's not forget Robbie Robertson." - Bob Dylan, 2002
"There 'is' a difference between rock and rock and roll; beware of inferior imitations (avoid contact with any musician who doesn't know how to play Chuck Berry music)." - Cub Koda
"This heah is Rufus Thomas....I'm young and loose and full of juice. I got the goose, so what's the use." - Rufus Thomas
"Mike Love, not war." - Scott Mathews
"I have outlived my dick" - Willie Nelson (2008)
"Anybody with a trade can work as long as they want. A welder, a carpenter, an electrician. They don't necessarily need to retire...Every man should learn a trade. It's different than a job. My music wasn't made to take me from one place to another so I can retire early." - Bob Dylan
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