tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-80507192024-02-07T18:43:22.858-08:00The Slums Off Hollywood BoulevardReviews of underground and indie music and films, 60s/70s pop and soul music and cult movies. And the occasional wacky tale about life in the Hollywood flatlands.Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger201125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8050719.post-65106552469637174432022-02-22T17:27:00.009-08:002022-03-03T22:47:45.570-08:00Book Review: Permanent Damage: Memoirs of an Outrageous Girl by Mercy Fontenot with Lyndsey Parker <p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiBHh5zncx1O1i9EiifC78u2EQOpriZCUeTTxChQ7dmPkv63ERAQbKEcO1rTE_DHvX0gLnBjBdhkwJg4Q-7kmA7S7RuBK2YVtabTVIg2H11NWSdTlx9OKoxii9dNIsnFPV6MvJV2nsto3m5r-gBr3AO3pMvzjLVInlz0N-nRp6nt06npBtbIw=s1132" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1132" data-original-width="696" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiBHh5zncx1O1i9EiifC78u2EQOpriZCUeTTxChQ7dmPkv63ERAQbKEcO1rTE_DHvX0gLnBjBdhkwJg4Q-7kmA7S7RuBK2YVtabTVIg2H11NWSdTlx9OKoxii9dNIsnFPV6MvJV2nsto3m5r-gBr3AO3pMvzjLVInlz0N-nRp6nt06npBtbIw=w246-h400" width="246" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p><br /></p><p></p><p class="MsoNormal">Mercy<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Fontenat,
otherwise known as Miss Mercy of the GTOS, led an iterant rock ‘n’ roll life life.
A butterfly of a music fan, Mercy’s travels took her from Haight Asbury to
Laurel Canyon to Stax in Memphis to the punk rock scene in Hollywood. She
befriended and worked with many rock icons and had trysts with others. That’s
the good news. The bad news? She got caught up with drugs at a young age. Mercy
(born Judith Peters) had a dysfunctional childhood. Her Dad was a gambler with
a predilection for showgirls, and her family traveled across the country. Mercy ran
away from cushy San Mateo, California to SF’s Haight Ashbury as a teenager, and soon took on the
moniker Mercy, after the Don Covay song.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Although Mercy spent
her whole life around the music scene, she’s primarily remembered as a member
of the GTOs, an avant-garde singing and performance art troupe. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The GTOs (Girls Together Outrageously) were a psychedelic
combination of female Hollywood scenesters/groupies. They first got together as the
Laurel Canyon Ballet Company and released one Frank Zappa produced album, <i>Permanent
Damage,</i> in 1969. The group consisted of Miss Pamela (Pamela Des Barres) <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Miss Sparky (Linda Sue Parker), Miss Lucy (Lucy
McLaren), Miss Christine (Christine Frika),<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Miss Sandra (Sandra Leano), Miss Cynderella (Cynthia Wells Cale-Binion)
and Miss Mercy (Mercy Fontenat).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Fontenat,
arguably the quirkiest member of the GTOs, passed away in July 2020 after a
long illness. This leaves Pamela and Sparky as the last living members of the group.<o:p></o:p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjzYwqNOPIK7YOuvwMPmQgS80LtKdy9DFUfryXhIef7NYqDBbPjr0MLbw4SifPlaVsRhuwaDs2Tz8_Z2ijltJ6kwMJwPrtcfkBaIynyjEnnP3fBwLgFXOhKoAz75khOZkOiMVlb3qK7zD5G3fSxriPsIVDNEaTF1DBuXHGd_0nKS-EuyX7BOA=s300" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="300" data-original-width="300" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjzYwqNOPIK7YOuvwMPmQgS80LtKdy9DFUfryXhIef7NYqDBbPjr0MLbw4SifPlaVsRhuwaDs2Tz8_Z2ijltJ6kwMJwPrtcfkBaIynyjEnnP3fBwLgFXOhKoAz75khOZkOiMVlb3qK7zD5G3fSxriPsIVDNEaTF1DBuXHGd_0nKS-EuyX7BOA" width="300" /></a></div><br /><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal">Zappa recruited Fontenot to join the GTOs at the last minute,
intrigued by her wild gypsy look. Pamela Des Barres remembers Mercy as a
“threat to normalcy”. Mercy’s autobiography, <i>Permanent Damage: Memoirs of an
Outrageous Girl,</i> was released posthumously in June 2020. Yahoo music editor Lyndsey Parker interviewed Fontenot extensively for several
years to unravel the tale of an unorthodox, colorful, (and sometimes dangerous)
life. <o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><i>Permanent Damage</i> combines Mercy's overarching love of
music, fashion, pop culture trends through the decades, unorthodox
relationships with musicians, and sometimes unsettling side jaunts involving
drugs and unsavory characters. Mercy has a sense of humor and no self-editing,
which actually is good because you always knew she was telling the truth. She
had no agenda. <o:p></o:p></p><p></p><p class="MsoNormal">Of the GTOs, Mercy says: “The ethos of punk was that you
didn’t have to be a professional musician or be trained to play and read
music…. You could do it yourself. The GTOs were like that. I guess we were punk
rock in our own way.” <o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">
</p><p class="MsoNormal">The GTOs played an infamous show at L.A.’s Shrine Auditorium
as the opening act on a bill with Frank Zappa and Alice Cooper. Their combination
of comedy, theater, and singing was utterly unique and very much of its time. Mercy remembers that she and Pamela got really
stoned on pot while riding with Gram Parsons in his T-Bird before the show. Miss
Christine admonished Mercy before the show, fearing the worst, but the show was
a hit. Unfortunately, only a few photos of their performance exist, and there’s
a short clip of the performance in Alex Winter’s Zappa documentary. <o:p></o:p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjKSznbDKzYaSMYqw8uifuoBy2-JhKQDAo4sJux6K1DDvlcsAJL8UVistlNBynsGRlJJr96s729bkuzwdox6ya6I8zxTbhm3GBg71io0kNkfA8xAFmIUH5mkfvkYoF5K-Yd6Tq6JG-qBSA1ekpH5gMksyhIN5FWPuh9yI9skEi9BhqKwdgZvg=s1600" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1353" data-original-width="1600" height="271" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjKSznbDKzYaSMYqw8uifuoBy2-JhKQDAo4sJux6K1DDvlcsAJL8UVistlNBynsGRlJJr96s729bkuzwdox6ya6I8zxTbhm3GBg71io0kNkfA8xAFmIUH5mkfvkYoF5K-Yd6Tq6JG-qBSA1ekpH5gMksyhIN5FWPuh9yI9skEi9BhqKwdgZvg=s320" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal">The GTOs socialized with a lot of the movers and shakers of
the music, underground and hippie movement. I never thought about it before,
but could it be the “Miss” before the GTOs’ names were cadged from friend and
fan Tiny Tim’s habit of addressing females with “Miss” before their first name.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">
</p><p class="MsoNormal">Jeff Beck, Rod Stewart, The Monkees’ Davy Jones and Nicky
Hopkins provided musical backdrop for the GTOs album; Lowell George produced
it. Rod Stewart, then a rock star-in-training, sang on Mercy’s song <i>The Ghost
Chained to the Past, Present, and Future (Shock Treatment)</i> She also took
Rod thrift store shopping and helped him develop his early look with The Faces.
Decades later, when she was a
homeless crack addict in Hollywood, she saw Stewart walk into the Pantages
Theater before one of his concerts. She called to him, and he waved at her and
moved on. Did she feel bad about it? “Shame isn’t a thing I do”, she says, “After
all, I looked cute.”</p><p class="MsoNormal">Mercy doesn’t pull any punches about her fellow groupies, other
scenesters, and her various sexual encounters. The ickiest moment involved
Chuck Berry, a bucket, and bathroom function. Mercy said she later felt bad
about it, but at least there were no pictures. Although she confessed to not
liking sex that much, she had relationships with several musicians, including
Arthur Lee of Love and Jobriath. She
actively pursued the funk musician Shuggie Otis and eventually married him. The
couple had a son, Lucky, also a musician.
<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">The list of musicians in her orbit reads like a who’s who of
rock –the Stones, Jimi Hendrix, Rod Stewart, Gram Parsons, Al Green, Otis
Redding, etc.</p><p class="MsoNormal">Here are just a few examples of Mercy’s rock ‘n’ roll
adventures: <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>She read the
Stones’ tarot cards before Altamont </li><li>Popped out of a cake at Alice
Cooper’s birthday party at the Ambassador East while on LSD. She also helped
Alice devise his initial look.</li><li>Dropped out of beauty school but
became a hairdresser anyway, hung out with the Gears and other punk rock bands
in Hollywood, went to the famous punk club the Masque</li><li> A pre-fame Courtney Love meet
Mercy on a Hollywood bus and gave Mercy her phone number </li></ul><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhMVNhYTXAXl9I-erP_3aEyXs-hO_7rxYX3vuRoJiENM0gO5jkg_4uGffFuLuoSJ-Q5jhIZN8lOiz8auV299sDCP3h4F72f_T9P2gNw2aUmGO9Ikg8RFzTZ4ifJsliRWiZR0fK1_jjOdYj3qWOybhr9cVvRSW1Pu4I02EV51coMFhUlxdahYg=s584" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="584" data-original-width="420" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhMVNhYTXAXl9I-erP_3aEyXs-hO_7rxYX3vuRoJiENM0gO5jkg_4uGffFuLuoSJ-Q5jhIZN8lOiz8auV299sDCP3h4F72f_T9P2gNw2aUmGO9Ikg8RFzTZ4ifJsliRWiZR0fK1_jjOdYj3qWOybhr9cVvRSW1Pu4I02EV51coMFhUlxdahYg=s320" width="230" /></a></div><br /><div><br /></div><p></p><p class="MsoNormal">Many of
Mercy’s cast of rock ‘roll characters disappeared from the scene, or died from
drug abuse or violence. She kept
in contact with her parents and her sister throughout the years, but her family of origin didn’t provide much comfort. Music and her friends kept her positive. Finally off drugs for good, she turned her life around. Her son Lucky and job at Goodwill Industries kept her grounded.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p><div>
<p class="MsoNormal">For all her bravado, there are a few times Mercy expresses remorse about how her drug use affected others, and about glitches in her relationships
with ex-husband Shuggie Otis and their son Lucky. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Near the end of her life, Mercy once again appeared in the
public eye. She appeared in photos for the Starcrawler
song “She Gets Around”, co-starred in an internet fashion promo, and often
appeared at many readings with her BFF Miss Pamela. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Fontenot's story reveals the seedy underbelly to the peace and
flower power generation. There’s as much drugs and violence here as rock ‘n’ roll,
much of it pretty intense. There is a dizzying array of arrests, rapes,
physical and emotional abuse, bad decisions, and all the other dangers lurking
to people way out on the fringes. No wonder Parker asked Fontenot several times
during interviews for book, “How are you even alive?” Mercy persevered and slayed
most of her demons. Despite her hardships, Mercy’s wisecracking persona and
love of music remained intact. She is regarded, along with rest of the GTOs, as
a rock trailblazer for her outrageousness and style. Marianne Faithful, John and Exene of X, Shirley Manson, Alice Cooper, Dave Davies and other rockers laud
Mercy for her contributions to rock music culture.<i> </i><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b>Permanent Damage: Memoirs of an Outrageous Girl </b>revisits
a wild roller coaster of a life with honesty and humor. <o:p></o:p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/FGr00CwSkoc" width="320" youtube-src-id="FGr00CwSkoc"></iframe></div><br /><p class="MsoNormal"> The GTOs (From Straight to Bizarre documentary)</p><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p></div>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.25in;"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.25in;"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.25in;"><o:p></o:p></p><p><br /></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8050719.post-29301602042883397482021-11-30T14:13:00.005-08:002021-12-16T23:12:49.449-08:00Some Initial Comments on "Get Back": Peter Jackson's Documentary About the Beatles' 1969 Recording Sessions <p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilMaM3dC4cRv_z7J5-ROcXsNErLWszwYl74Kl50nBekspQQ3sEp_r6Xm9cOMEM89_EN9X8r8o-arG3bbb_yipwqVXMxDyQOB3iQwiOuNiXWBllr8h6H2nxNxUzRIyNHv1LYcOZ/s1200/beatlesgetback.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="675" data-original-width="1200" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilMaM3dC4cRv_z7J5-ROcXsNErLWszwYl74Kl50nBekspQQ3sEp_r6Xm9cOMEM89_EN9X8r8o-arG3bbb_yipwqVXMxDyQOB3iQwiOuNiXWBllr8h6H2nxNxUzRIyNHv1LYcOZ/w400-h225/beatlesgetback.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p>Beatles fans flooded Facebook and other social media sites with reviews of <i>Get Back , </i>director Peter Jackson's eight-hour documentary about the Fabs' 1969 recording sessions and rooftop concert, over Thanksgiving weekend. Lots of people who would otherwise never dream of sitting through eight hours of <i>any</i> film on Disney + subscribed to watch <i>Get Back.</i> (Unless you have a grandkid or two, <i>Ice Age,</i> endless <i>Muppet</i> and <i>Star Wars</i> movies, or <i>Wreck-It Ralph,</i> are probably not on your to-watch list.) </p><p>Musicians and other creative people will find most the recording, jamming, and songwriting sessions fascinating. Causal fans and “normal” people. not so much. </p><p>*SPOILERS*</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b>Viewer advisory: Tobacco use (and copious quantities of tea and toast)</b></p><p class="MsoNormal">Part 1 plods along, but stick with it, things get more
interesting when the band moves to Apple studios and Billy Preston joins them. <o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">If you’re a causal fan or easily bored, you may want to stick
to Part 3 only. If you get *really* bored easily, the rooftop concert starts an
hour before the end of part 3. <o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">Ringo offers comic relief with his fart comment. No one in
the studio seems to pay much attention to it, however.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">Heather wasn’t taking any of John’s BS (“You don’t eat any
cats! They don’t taste good!” ) and it was cute when she imitated Yoko’s
caterwauling.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">Linda looked really pretty.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">Yoko didn't cause any trouble, contrary to the myth. She
just sat there (mostly silent) next to John, except for her trademark
"singing" during an informal jam. <o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">Ringo wore groovy shirts. I liked George’s Ugg-type boots in
Part 3.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">Who would have guessed that “Get Back” started out as a
protest song about the anti-immigrant movement in the UK. <o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">The police investigating the rooftop concert had a Keystone
Cop vibe about 'em - but they were very polite.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">John and Yoko had just finished filming <i>Rock and Roll Circus</i>
with the Stones, thus John's running gag of, "And now your hosts for this evening, the Rolling Stones." </p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">Also, John didn’t seem to wash his hair much during this
time. Ringo looked like he skipped the shampoo a few times, too<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">Some people have complained that they didn't like the interviews with pedestrians gazing up at the rooftop, but I enjoyed this exchange:</p><p class="MsoNormal">On-the-street interviewer- “You wouldn’t mind your daughter
going out with a Beatle?”<br />
On-the-street geezer - “I wouldn’t mind because they have money.”<br /><br />John stops playing when Mal tells him about cops on the roof.
When Paul sees the cops, he gives an enthusiastic “Wooo!”</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p><p>
</p><p class="MsoNormal">Some musical highlights: </p><p class="MsoNormal">George helping Ringo work on the chords for<i> "</i>Octopus’s Garden".</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">Paul playing the melody for what would become "Let it Be" while everyone else mills about.</p><p class="MsoNormal">And Yay!!! A music documentary without Dave Grohl or Bono putting in their 1 1/2 cents! </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="316" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Auta2lagtw4" width="486" youtube-src-id="Auta2lagtw4"></iframe></div><br /><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><br /></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8050719.post-86428654026082028822020-11-07T16:14:00.043-08:002020-11-17T10:14:42.196-08:00Rock 'N' Roll and the Cycle of Life : Farewell, Eddie Van Halen<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOjHE2fV62SZy3BCK3aSWwE7iGQEipDTbg7KkhxeBRCH1hc8A2jeGq7Gk81j0CWeFF_yn9UODOxTr1THWYgJCfSXcZeG5n2cTTPQ2AxYmJ1RCfWOpcA3uQ5LArvbf3FUMMUUS7/s480/eddiearagon79.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="480" data-original-width="480" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOjHE2fV62SZy3BCK3aSWwE7iGQEipDTbg7KkhxeBRCH1hc8A2jeGq7Gk81j0CWeFF_yn9UODOxTr1THWYgJCfSXcZeG5n2cTTPQ2AxYmJ1RCfWOpcA3uQ5LArvbf3FUMMUUS7/s320/eddiearagon79.jpg" /></a></div><br />So many musicians and public figures have passed away in the past ten years, especially since the 2016 triple whammy of Lemmy (Dec ‘15, actually), David Bowie, and Prince. Some people at that time blamed the year. If we just got out of 2016, no more old rock stars would die, as through old people would stop aging or getting sick in 2017.<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p>But time kept rambling on, and we saw more icons die, and
not only Boomer ones - Tom Petty, Peter Tork, Chris Cornell, Dolores O’ Riordan,
George Michael, <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Fast Eddie Clarke,
Vinnie Paul, Aretha Franklin, Paul Raymond, Pete Way, Paul Chapman, Kim
Shattuck, Pete Shelley, Ginger Baker, etc.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p>Someone asked me, "What future rock star death do you think will
affect you the most?”</p><p class="MsoNormal">“Eddie Van Halen,” I said. “It’s all over after that.”</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p>Now of course I didn’t mean that the world or my life would
be over. It would be the end of an era, a definitive sign that the younger
Boomers/older Gen Xers needed to address their <a href="https://www.gq.com/story/eddie-van-halen-heavy-metal-mortality" target="_blank">mortality,</a> instead of mindlessly
clamoring on like our music and pop culture still matter to the population at
large. Rock music started to wither in mainstream culture in the late 90s, and
was relegated to a genre for old people sometime in the ‘10s. Yeah, lots of
kids are forming guitar-based bands and putting out new music, but now it’s
just one of dozens of music genres on Spotify, not a rallying cry for a
generation.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiS22UAtuFCWTU0M6B3WP_1Y-SqfjfVgTixHIhnG5iOUNhr5kDWKxevu-vdJbEs-gLKAi_k-pAfV29vnl3_TuYCkVbIasCsp-KfvN9cjRMO8ShEzrm4fe2FyhiTXCKS6dAxiVRQ/s960/eddievhjumpsuit.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="960" data-original-width="623" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiS22UAtuFCWTU0M6B3WP_1Y-SqfjfVgTixHIhnG5iOUNhr5kDWKxevu-vdJbEs-gLKAi_k-pAfV29vnl3_TuYCkVbIasCsp-KfvN9cjRMO8ShEzrm4fe2FyhiTXCKS6dAxiVRQ/w260-h400/eddievhjumpsuit.jpg" width="260" /></a></div><br /><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">From 1978 to 1984, I must have listened to all the DLR-era
Van Halen albums hundreds of times, read every magazine article, bought every
poster, and listened to every radio/TV interview with the band I could find. Sure,
my girlfriends and I spent an inordinate amount of time giggling about DLR’s
latest antics, but every time we went to a VH show, we always sat (or stood) by
Eddie’s side of the stage. It reminded me of an interview I saw a long time ago
with some teen-age girls during the Beatles’ first tour of <st1:country-region><st1:place>America</st1:place></st1:country-region>.
The interviewer asked them what they liked about the band, and three of the
girls squealed about how cute and funny they were. The fourth girl said, “They
have the most beautiful sound,” her voice almost drowned out by the other
girls’ high-pitched giggles.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p>Dave was the face and voice of VH, but Eddie was the heart –
and the soul.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/SAOOSzJyEIc" width="320" youtube-src-id="SAOOSzJyEIc"></iframe></div><div style="text-align: center;"> 2015 Smithsonian interview</div><p></p>
David Bowie’s death broke the internet for a week, but the news cycle is different now. Eddie’s passing floored people for a day or two, but politics kicked him off the social media and the usual bickering returned the next day. The only people who cared after that were people in Van Halen fan groups, musicians, or rock writers. Eddie may have been important to us, but, lets face it, he was a guitar hero from the ‘80s to most people, another nostalgic figure. To fans and musicians, he was much more. He was an innovator and a legend, younger Boomers’ Jimi Hendrix.
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p>Vernon Reid of Living Colour, wrote on<a href="https://twitter.com/vurnt22/status/1313633030775472131" target="_blank"> Twitter</a></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p>"So you think the death of EVH is hitting you now. It’s not. Grief doesn’t work that way. Tomorrow is going to be worse than today. His passing is enormous. Exploitation will follow, like t shirts for Kobe. Don’t be too proud to cry. This is a sad time. Tears are appropriate." </p><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/O4fjMUXvFAc" width="320" youtube-src-id="O4fjMUXvFAc"></iframe></div><br /><p></p><p class="MsoNormal">Eddie Van Halen passed away from throat cancer on Oct. 6.
It’s a month later, and I’ve finally overcome the shock. I’d been doing pretty
well on my new routine, avoiding Facebook and other social media for most of
the day. Yay! More time to actually do work and be happy. You should try it
sometime. I took a break for a mid-day check on Facebook. Wolf’s post about
Eddie was at the top of my newsfeed. This can’t be real. I thought, and I
stared at the post for a good 30 seconds. Finally, I accepted reality. Eddie
was gone. I watched all the videos and interviews I could find, including clips
with Eddie and Valerie Bertinelli from <i>Entertainment Tonight</i> that I
hadn’t seen since 1982. I remembered every word and every gesture they made
like I was watching it back in my childhood home 38 years ago. My friends and I
were excited, and yes, a little jealous, when Valerie married Eddie, but we
were big fans of Valerie’s since we first saw her on <i>One Day at a Time.</i> Better
that Ed married a nice Italian girl (well, Italian/English) than some
gold-digging blonde bimbo. </p><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/QaPhQ9qUpeE" width="320" youtube-src-id="QaPhQ9qUpeE"></iframe></div><br /><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">After Eddie died, I said “Well, at least Dave will live to
be 100. “Don’t say that -you'll jinx him! You said <st1:street><st1:address>Pete Way</st1:address></st1:street>
would outlive Keith Richards, and look what happened there.” my friend
responded. Way, UFO’s former bass player and leader of Waysted in the late
‘80s, survived decades of alcoholism, heroin and cocaine abuse, prostate
cancer, and a heart attack, and then died after falling down the stairs in his
home. He had been sober for years. He still hung on for weeks in the hospital,
and was scheduled to return home the day he died. A world concert tour had been
planned for 2021.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/9X6e7uctAww" width="320" youtube-src-id="9X6e7uctAww"></iframe></div> You Really Got Me Promo Video<p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p><b><o:p> </o:p></b>I first heard Van Halen on a TEAC turntable in our wood
paneled basement. My brothers had commandeered the space. It <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>had a pool table, a silk Camaro banner. and a beer can collection.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>One of my brothers grabbed an album from the
shelf, in between the Ramones “Rocket to <st1:country-region><st1:place>Russia</st1:place></st1:country-region>”
and D.O.A.’s “Bloodrock”. I didn’t even need to listen to the album right away
– the photos on the front and back covers got your attention. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The photos were different than what I’d seen
before. Instead of the usual posed group shot with band members in jeans and
t-shirts, or some obscure conceptual art, the cover grabbed you and made you
want to hear what was inside.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p>Eddie looked fierce, and Dave, well, he had that Jim Dandy
swagger, leather pants, and could do a backbend. Alex and Michael were obscured
by lightning streak special effects, but still looked cool.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p>It’s<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>a good thing the
record company didn’t rush through the original new wave album cover. The cover
was an example of the old-school thinktank record company mentality. Let’s do
what the punk bands are doing - that’s the hot thing in <st1:country-region><st1:place>England</st1:place></st1:country-region>
now. Yeah, let’s also shoot a <a href="https://ultimateclassicrock.com/van-halen-alternate-cover/" target="_blank">cover</a> that misrepresents the band’s music <i>and </i>their
personalities. In the old days,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>an album
cover could be the difference between an impromptu purchase in a record store
and a pass over.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">We put the record on. The first notes of “Runnin’ with the
Devil” grabbed you like an alien life force. What was that sound? Where did it
come from?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We couldn’t breeze through the usual comparisons to other bands or guitar players. Did the guitar remind us of Deep Purple, Black
Sabbath, AC/DC, UFO? Nah, this was something else.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p>As loud as it was on normal volume, we turned the volume up until
the windows rattled and you could visualize the power, the force of the music
shattering the glass until it rained shards on the neatly landscaped front
lawn.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p>The first copy of Guitar Player I ever bought had an <a href="https://www.guitarplayer.com/players/eddie-van-halen-talks-revolutionary-gear-mods-and-the-death-of-rock-in-his-first-ever-interview-from-1978" target="_blank">interview </a>with Eddie in it. But my girlfriends and I still hung up cute pics of Eddie from Circus and Hit Parader, and some of us even raided our younger sisters' 16 magazines for pin-ups.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1F9Pa-sMyCQZNnJLBJdxJQR4PMXbxIy42LNx8YLHEdAyZDJ99f1eqtJZS3rZdyWdLzXi0q1vMs8iu0H4Os9b4rSBMuZtNRGijIWOSBH3gicvk_naZSXehbo_hncYXVG2baEoK/s500/eddie16.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="357" data-original-width="500" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1F9Pa-sMyCQZNnJLBJdxJQR4PMXbxIy42LNx8YLHEdAyZDJ99f1eqtJZS3rZdyWdLzXi0q1vMs8iu0H4Os9b4rSBMuZtNRGijIWOSBH3gicvk_naZSXehbo_hncYXVG2baEoK/s320/eddie16.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p></p>Like a dummy, I gave away my ticket to see Black Sabbath before I knew Van Halen was opening for them. I made up for it in 1979, when I saw VH headline at the Arrogant Brawlroom (aka Aragon Ballroom) in Chicago. I took two buses and two subway lines all the way to Uptown to see the show. In those days, everybody partied in the alley behind the venue while they waited to get in the building. You didn’t really need booze or pot, the music got you high enough, but sharing pot and booze with the kids next to you was a social thing. It was a great way to meet people and make friends. <div><br /><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://i.pinimg.com/originals/68/5e/d2/685ed298d7a085cd3e9365a897dfa05c.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="421" data-original-width="594" height="284" src="https://i.pinimg.com/originals/68/5e/d2/685ed298d7a085cd3e9365a897dfa05c.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /></span></div>
<p class="MsoNormal">The kids at the sold-out <st1:country-region><st1:place>Aragon</st1:place></st1:country-region>
show were true music nerds, <i>Van Halen II</i> had just been released so the
“normal” kids hadn’t heard of them yet. We didn’t need to compete with drunken jocks
and their bored girlfriends for space by the front of the stage.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><i><o:p> </o:p></i>Eddie wore a striped jacket and velour-type pants. He looked cute
as hell, the grinning genius to David’s bravado. Even on the <st1:country-region><st1:place>Aragon</st1:place></st1:country-region>
stage without mountains of amps and video screens behind them, they were larger
than life. The show was hot, sweaty and primal. You could feel the notes from
Eddie’s guitar, not just hear them. There were no barricades between the band
and the kids crammed up in front like there are today. I could almost touch Eddie's white sneakers. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p>Here’s an 8mm clip from the Fresno show on that tour.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><br /></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p><b>1980-1982</b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The next year, a girlfriend and I had the International Amphitheatre’s
main floor to ourselves as we watched the band rehearse. Eddie, Alex, and
Michael were there but Dave was off doing Dave things.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In 1981, another friend and I hung out
backstage <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>-that is, until I insisted on
going out to watch the show. We couldn’t get backstage again. My friend was mad
about that. But that’s what I get for wanting to watch the actual concert. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In ’82, we were back in the 20<sup>th</sup>
row.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p>After the first two years or so, a Van Halen concert turned
into a circus, with Dave as the ringmaster. Everyone else pitched in - Michael
had a Jack Daniels bass, Eddie, always smiling, leapt in the air, or took a break
to puff on a cigarette during solos. Alex poured beer on himself after playing
a solo, and inflatable love dolls, groupies, etc. filled the venues.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p>I’ve seen hundreds of concerts, but I’ve never had more fun
than I did at a Van Halen show.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p><b>US Festival</b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><o:p> </o:p></b>Naturally, my most memorable Van Halen concert was also
their most infamous - the US Festival in 1983. I’d just moved to <st1:state><st1:place>California</st1:place></st1:state>,
and didn’t know many people, but that didn’t stop me from going to the desert
to see the mighty Van Halen headline Heavy Metal Day. My vision of the band was
slightly obscured by barriers and a million dollar set up, but with a bit of
neck-craning I could see ‘em. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Once
again, I stood right up in front on Eddie’s side of the stage as he played his iconic solo.</p>
At one point in the show, Dave pointed out that this metal day attracted 200,000 people, (the highest of the four day fest). An endless horizon of people stretched out as far as the eyes could see, with the spotlights illuminating the stoned throngs.
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p>I made my way out to the chartered bus after the show,
and sat next to a shaggy-haired entrepreneur who made studded leather
wristbands. I bought one, and wore it proudly to <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>shows and clubs that summer (along with my
Union Jack shirt and leather pants.)</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><i><o:p> </o:p></i><b>Last Show</b></p><p class="MsoNormal">I bought a cassette of<i> 5150 </i>at Tower Records on Sunset Strip in 1986. I'd watch videos and interviews with the band on MTV in the late '80s and '90s, and I may have even bought a few cassingles (remember those?) However, that was the extent of my history with Sammy-era Van Halen. </p><p class="MsoNormal">I didn’t see Van Halen again until their last show in 2015
at Hollywood Bowl. (Unbeknownst to us at the time, it would be their last show<i> ever.</i>) This time we sat in the cheap seats. But the cheap seats
were rocking with vociferous fans. "Just sing the song, Dave", one woman kept
screaming when Dave went into his between song novellas. “But
when did Dave ever just “sing the song”?, I said. The highlights for me were
Eddie’s solo and even Alex’s drum solo. It brought me back to my carefree college days. I didn’t want the concert to end. Eddie still had the same boyish grin as he did what he was born to do. I felt like I was 19 again.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">We held out hope that VH would return one more time with
Michael Anthony as bass player. The official word was that a tour with Dave and
Mike was scheduled for 2019, but was canceled due to Ed’s health.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/_j0mN_DsHUw" width="320" youtube-src-id="_j0mN_DsHUw"></iframe></div><br /><p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p><br /></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><i><o:p> </o:p></i>Those days or nights spent listening to music on headphones,
or blasting the stereo while enjoying a joint or a beer (or Pepsi and bag of
chips for the junk food junkies among us ) are precious memories now. There were no streaming services, Playstations, or DVDs back then, and an MTV fix wasn't enough. When you listened to music, it was the main course,
not a blip in the background. You immersed yourself in every song, every album,
over and over again until they were ingrained in your consciousness. </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p>I wish I could remember more from that first show. But every time I hear <i>Van Halen II</i> or see the few
clips from 1979 shows, I get the same flutter of excitement I had when the band
first took the stage that night at the Aragon.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Maya Angelou once said, “You may not remember what people said,
you may not remember what people did, but you always remember how they made you
feel.”<o:p> </o:p>Well, Eddie, we remember what you did, but we also remember
the utter joy of hearing you play and watching you perform.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Thanks for everything. We love you.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHbm-lzmPvBNnqIMkDT5xhp6uyZB0gS8NVUlli-7BGOByJ0UutwB_4rp0Zv6PnDuen74UDQBnBHFitsqcPyaViQ29210kWK8-sv4QjwxEDpon2oug5WlTCTxmtMWto4h7VaTha/s750/eddiecute.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="750" data-original-width="447" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHbm-lzmPvBNnqIMkDT5xhp6uyZB0gS8NVUlli-7BGOByJ0UutwB_4rp0Zv6PnDuen74UDQBnBHFitsqcPyaViQ29210kWK8-sv4QjwxEDpon2oug5WlTCTxmtMWto4h7VaTha/w239-h400/eddiecute.jpg" width="239" /></a></div><br /><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8050719.post-80218747236078609362020-06-18T11:33:00.007-07:002020-06-18T12:06:39.912-07:00 Music Review: Blvds of Splendor by Cherie Currie<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgj2oKaJ5eK9HDOTBGIW_j6pTNrOvYj_aXuC2FmtyvOYSGX5ihDTRtspSGOETHLaOU_Bm0Fcoa6A2Gv2YgXH4nCON6vSmBpx8_OFVrn6-E_PDqtcZpNuwW5Wo5ucszhhaW_QXK9/s1600/cherieblvds.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1003" data-original-width="1000" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgj2oKaJ5eK9HDOTBGIW_j6pTNrOvYj_aXuC2FmtyvOYSGX5ihDTRtspSGOETHLaOU_Bm0Fcoa6A2Gv2YgXH4nCON6vSmBpx8_OFVrn6-E_PDqtcZpNuwW5Wo5ucszhhaW_QXK9/s320/cherieblvds.jpg" width="319" /></a></div>
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In today's world of streaming music, with every song imaginable a click away, it's hard to stay focused on an entire album. But you can still find gems that keep even the most ADHD-challenged music listener interested. You can listen to the digital version of Cherie Currie’s
album <i>Blvds of Splendor</i> straight through, and come back for seconds. There’s not one bad song
on <i>Blvds. </i>You won’t need to
skip around to get to the good stuff, or buy a few tracks because the rest of
the songs aren’t up to par.</div>
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The tracks were recorded in 2010 and 2011 for an album on Joan
Jett’s Blackheart Records, but the release was delayed until 2019.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>On Record Day 2019,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Blackheart released a limited edition red
vinyl album of <i>Blvds of Splendor</i>. It sold out almost immediately.</div>
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The digital download of the album, released in late April of
this year, contains three songs not on the red vinyl. Matt Sorum (Guns ‘N’
Roses, Velvet Revolver) produced <i>Blvds of Splendor</i> and played drums
on all the cuts.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> Most of the songs were written or co-written by Cherie and her son, <a href="https://www.jakehays.la/" target="_blank">Jake Hays.</a> Jake is a multi-instrumentalist, singer and producer. His debut album,<i> Room 13,</i> is available on Spotify and other streaming platforms. </span></div>
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<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The album blasts off
with “Mr. X”<i>.</i> Slash and Duff MacKagan<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>give extra oomph to this already bombastic song about a fiery ex-lover.
(Slash and Currie previously played together for a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1lIFZ7750rI" target="_blank">benefit</a> in 2013 along with
Lita Ford.)</div>
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“Roxy Roller” an early glam hit for the Canadian band Sweeny
Todd (with Nick Gilder<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>and later Bryan
Adams) Canadian surely played at Rodney’s English Disco and the Sugar
Shack.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Nick Gilder and Suzi Quarto
recently joined Cherie for a quarantine version of the song.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
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<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media;
gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/HiwCXrHvePg" width="560"></iframe><o:p></o:p></div>
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Currie clears the cobwebs off “What Would All the People
Say?”, a minor hit for the <st1:city><st1:place>Monroes</st1:place></st1:city> in
1982. The other covers include a funky version of the Tommy James hit “Dragging
the Line”. The moving, string-infused take on the Hollies’ “The Air that I
Breathe” brings the song to another level. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Currie’s earthy voice has matured and lends
more poignancy to the lyrics. (Even in the Runaways, at 16, she had a bluesy
tinge to her voice.) </div>
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<i>“</i>Rock & Roll Oblivion<i>”</i> features a rich,
haunting pastiche of E-bows and thundering guitars. It’s tale of a survivor who
has earned her “scars of wisdom”, and the song exhibits a lot of raw emotion. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<o:p> </o:p>The title track, co-written by Billy Corgan, showcases Currie’s
melodic skills. The song has a pleasant, hummable chorus, and Cherie and
Billy’s voices blend well. <i>Blvds of Splendor</i> is the kind of song
that would sound great blaring out of a car radio (aka Siruis) on a summer day.</div>
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<o:p> </o:p>The catchy anthem “Force to Be Reckoned With” (co-written by
Holly Knight),<i> </i>charges along with a steamroller rhythm,<i> </i>and<i> </i>“Breakout”<i>
</i>has the gritty tone of an AC/DC or Thin Lizzy album cut. The feisty “You
Wreck Me” calls out an ex-lover, and the Gina Gershon-penned “Gimme” is a declaration of independence by a woman
who knows what she wants. </div>
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The Runaways have influenced decades of female musicians,
and a few of them make an appearance on this album. The digital only version of
“Queens of Noise<i>”</i> features an all-star cast of Brody Dalle, Juliet
Lewis, the Veronicas on back-up vocals.</div>
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<i>Blvds of Splendor</i> kicks ass, whether you
categorize it as hard rock, pop-rock, or melodic rock. It’s reminiscent of many
hard-rock albums released from the ‘70s to the early ‘90s, attitude-wise. Modern
production and more sophisticated lyrics bring the sound<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>into the 21<sup>st</sup> century without
sacrificing the edge.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
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<i>Blvds</i> is one of the most engaging hard rock
albums I’ve heard in the last decade.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Currie certainly deserves a nomination for best hard rock/metal
performance for the 2021 Grammys, and the songwriting and production are
top-notch as well. <br />
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<h3>
<o:p> </o:p><b>From Cherry Bomb to Chainsaw Chick</b></h3><div><b><br /></b></div>
<div>
The photos of Currie singing onstage in a <a href="https://trashy.com/products/cherie-currie-corset" target="_blank">white corset</a> with
the Runaways have become some of the most iconic rock images of the 1970s. Runaways’
taskmaster/music impresario Kim Fowley initially envisioned Currie as the rock Brigitte
Bardot, but she eclipsed that image almost immediately. Her voice and stage
presence were sheer rock attitude. The band turned out to be much more than a vehicle
for Fowley’s jailbait fantasies.</div>
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Joan Jett and Lita Ford have been rock stars in their own right
for decades. Jackie Fox became an entertainment lawyer after leaving the band.
Sandy West released a solo EP in 2000, and is included on many<a href="https://spinditty.com/artists-bands/Top-10-female-drummers" target="_blank"> top female drummer </a>lists.</div>
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Bassist Vicki Tischler-Blue, who replaced Fox, made the
Runaways documentary <i>Edgeplay </i>in 2004.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Currie’s 1989 autobiography <i>Neon Angel </i>inspired the 2010 movie<i>
<a href="https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_runaways" target="_blank">The Runaways. </a></i><o:p></o:p></div>
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<o:p> </o:p>Since Currie left the Runaways in 1978, she has reinvented herself
many times as an actress, a drug counselor, chainsaw artist, and, of course, a
solo musical artist. Her two post-Runaways albums, <i>Beauty’s Only Skin Deep</i>
and <i>Messin’ with the Boys</i> (with sister Marie) boasted many catchy
pop-rock tunes, but neither album made a dent in the <st1:country-region><st1:place>U.S.</st1:place></st1:country-region>
chart.</div>
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Currie starred in two movies that have become cult classics.
<i>Wavelength</i>, an indie sci-fiction movie, seemed to be inspired by an
alleged UFO <a href="http://ufoexperiences.blogspot.com/2006/10/interview-with-henry-deacon.html">event</a>
in <st1:state><st1:place>California</st1:place></st1:state>. She played <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>ill-fated Annie in the teen drama, <i>Foxes</i>,
along with Jodie Foster. (Fun Fact: Curie was up for the Riff Randall (P.J.
Soles) role in <i>Rock ‘n’ Roll High School,</i> but turned it down to be in <i>Foxes</i>.
)</div>
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Currie’s 2015 solo album <i>Reverie</i> (her first album
since <i>Messin with the Boys</i>) was produced by Kim Fowley shortly before
his death. Cherie’s son Jake Hays played guitar, bass, keyboards and co-wrote
several of the songs with Cherie. Fowley co-wrote two songs “Queen of the
Asphalt Jungle” and “Dark World” with Cherie and Jake. </div>
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Lita Ford delivers lead vocals on remakes of two Runaways “Is
It Day or Night?” and “American Nights”. This comeback album proves that
Currie’s still had the chops to rock out (and outdo) many female vocalists half
her age. </div>
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<i>The Motivator,</i> released in 2019 by Blue Elan Records,
featured Cherie and Fanny drummer/singer Brie Darling rocking nine cover songs
and three originals. It’s obvious a lot of thought went into both the selection
and execution of the covers on this album. The original versions of “Gimme
Shelter” and “Gimme Some Truth” are pretty much ingrained in the public
consciousness,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>so it takes guts to even
tackle them, much less perform them as well as Currie and Darling did here. The
title song, T-Rex’s “The Motivator” has an infectious, danceable groove. The
original tune “This is Our Time” offers an empowering message on the present –
and the future. “Too Bruised” exposes the<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>vulnerable side of a woman letting go of a failed love affair.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“I’m Too Good, That’s Just Too Bad” is a
grown-up version of “Cherry Bomb” and other strutting Runaways’ anthems. “Do It
Again” by the Kinks and the 1960s’ Flower Power anthem “Get Together”,
originally by the Youngbloods, round out the covers. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
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Currie makes a living as a chainsaw artist carving wood
sculptures with a chainsaw. In 2016, she had a near fatal accident while
carving. It took her a year to recover, and she then resumed her music and art
careers. You can see photos of her chainsaw art at <a href="https://www.chainsawchick.com/" target="_blank">Chainsawchick.com. </a></div>
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8050719.post-61863053978796508302020-05-23T12:01:00.003-07:002021-10-13T11:26:16.211-07:00Book Review: Set The Night On Fire: L.A. in the Sixties by Mike Davis and Jon Wiener<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<b>Set The Night on Fire:<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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<st1:city><st1:place><b>L.A.</b></st1:place></st1:city><b>
In the Sixties<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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<b>By Mike Davis and Jon Weiner <o:p></o:p></b></div>
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It’s been 50 years since the <st1:place><st1:placename>Kent</st1:placename>
<st1:placename>State</st1:placename></st1:place> shootings. On <st1:date day="4" month="5" year="1970">May 4, 1970</st1:date>, four students – </div>
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Allison Krause, Jeffrey Glen Miller, Sandra Lee Scheuer, and William
Knox Schroeder were shot and killed by National Guard Soldiers. The incident
was just one of the high profile events that symbolized the social unrest of the
1960s and early 1970s.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
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A few key images come to mind when you think about the <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>antiwar and civil rights era. Martin Luther
King’s I Have a Dream speech, the marches in Selma, the 1968 Democratic
Convention in Chicago, the Black Panthers, the assassinations of President
Kennedy, RFK, and Martin Luther King. </div>
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But every city and college town had its own political and
social movements. Some of these groups were truly underground, while others
appeared in local newspaper articles and made their presence known to the
police and the “establishment.” </div>
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<i><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Set the Night on
Fire</i>, an ambitious study from Verso Books covers the left-wing
socio-political movement in <st1:city><st1:place>Los Angeles</st1:place></st1:city>
in the 1960s and early 1970s.</div>
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The book was written by two respected journalists long
affiliated with the counterculture.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Mike
Davis was a member of the Communist Party in <st1:state><st1:place>California</st1:place></st1:state>
in the 1960s and a local organizer for the Students for a Democratic Society. His
previous books include <i>City of </i><st1:city><st1:place><i>Quartz</i></st1:place></st1:city><i>.</i>
Jon Weiner hosts the <i>Start Making Sense</i> podcast<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He wrote <i>Gimme Some Truth</i> about the
FBI files on John Lennon. </div>
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The book’s title comes from the Doors “Light My Fire”
and the introduction features a brief statement from John Densmore of the Doors about life in
the ‘60s <st1:city><st1:place>L.A.</st1:place></st1:city> </div>
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<i>Set the Night on Fire</i> gives us a well-rounded look at
the growing fight for the rights of<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>women,
gays, African-Americans, and Mexican-Americans in the 60s’ <st1:city><st1:place>L.A.</st1:place></st1:city>
as well as the anti-war movement. Many of the events and organizations
mentioned in the book have been lost to history and relegated to newspaper archives.
</div>
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The Stonewall riots in <st1:state><st1:place>New York</st1:place></st1:state>’s
<st1:place><st1:placename>West</st1:placename> <st1:placetype>Village</st1:placetype></st1:place> is the most famous example of demonstrations at a gay bar in the 1960s, and it brought gay rights into the mainstream media.
The New Year’s Eve raid at Black Cat Tavern in Silverlake in 1967, and the
subsequent uprising predated Stonewall by two years but is rarely mentioned
today.</div>
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Many people have affixed the colorful LOVE stamp on letters
at one time or another. This design, created by Sister Corita Kent of the
Immaculate Heart of Mary in Los Angeles,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>was one of the counterculture silkscreens. The Sister used her art
partially to protest the Vietnam War and other social issues. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Her stance caused problems with the L.A.
Archdiocese’s conservative leader, Francis McIntyre. She met with anti-war activist Father Daniel Berrigan,created a silk screen inspired by the Watts Riots, and exhibited her art all
over the world. She left Immaculate Heart in 1968 and continued making art.
The iconic LOVE stamp was issued in 1984.<br />
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Liberal media was relegated to occasional public access TV
shows or public radio.</div>
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The public radio station KPFK first broadcast its blend of
unorthodox cultural and news programming that appealed to the beatnik crowd in
1959.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The first shows included performances
by Pablo Casals and poet Kenneth Rexroth Other programs featured interviews
with Aldous Huxley, Alan Watts, and programs opposing the Vietnam War. The
station broadcast the first news reports from <st1:country-region><st1:place>North
Viet Nam</st1:place></st1:country-region>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The station even sponsored one of the first
Renaissance Pleasure Fairs to raise funds. The station is best known however,
for airing Tania (Patty Hearst’s) manifesto shortly after she was kidnapped by
the Symbionese Liberation Army in 1974.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
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The L.A. Free Press, first published in 1964, was
distributed in coffeehouses and streetcorner vending boxes. It covered local
elections and protests, popular culture, the music scene, and even had a sex
advice column. The paper’s staff was instrumental in organizing events, including<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>a black neighborhood forum in <st1:place>Watts</st1:place>
and various concerts. Unsurprisingly, the FBI, the <st1:city><st1:place>L.A.</st1:place></st1:city>
police, and other powers-that-be tried to close down the offices or accuse the
press of publishing pornography. </div>
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The two most familiar musical happenings in <st1:city><st1:place>L.A.</st1:place></st1:city>
to out-of-towners, 1972’s Wattstax and the Sunset Strip riots, have short
chapters here. Wattstax was part of a week-long festival that had been
held yearly since the Riots in 1965. The 1966 riots on Sunset Strip were a
reaction to the curfew established on the Whiskey and other clubs on the Strip.
The musicians and teen club-goers considered this an assault on their rights.
The ensuing demonstration by teens resulted in many innocent protesters being
beaten by cops.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For more detail about
the riots, read Dominic Priore’s excellent <b>Riot
on the Sunset Strip: Rock ‘n’ Roll’s Last Stand in Hollywood <o:p></o:p></b></div>
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While white middle-class kids rallied against nightclubs
being closed early, black and Chicano youth were dealing with more substantive
issues. In <st1:place>East L.A.</st1:place>, Chicano high school and college students
fought for their rights to a better education, more jobs, and as a protest
against unfair school policies. Around the same time in early 1967, students at
a mostly black high school near downtown walked out to protest unfair
conditions. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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By the time the <st1:place>Watts</st1:place> exploded in
1965, poor black people had been subject to search and seizure for the
slightest real (or perceived) infraction. When the police arrested <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Marquette Frye, a parolee for reckless
driving, a scuffle ensued. Frye’s arrest looting and rioting began in the
commercial section of <st1:place>Watts</st1:place> and spread throughout the
area. During the riots, over 3,000 people were arrested and hundreds of
businesses were looted or burned. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Davis
and Weiner break down the events day-by-day, with a chapter and follow it up
with a chapter on the McCone’s Commission’s report on the riot’s underlying
causes. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
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<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/dFAqd2pW96Q" width="560"></iframe></span></div>
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Protests against the Vietnam War accounted for the biggest
swath of demonstrations across the country, and LA was no exception. On <st1:date day="23" month="6" year="1967">June 23, 1967</st1:date>, while a fundraiser was
being held for President Lyndon B. Johnson inside the <st1:place><st1:placename>Century</st1:placename>
<st1:placetype>Plaza</st1:placetype></st1:place> hotel, over 10,000 protesters
congregated outside. The police ordered the crowd to move back; the crowd was
packed so tightly many of them couldn’t move. Cops swung at the crowd with
batons, striking men, women, and a mother with a baby in a stroller, according to
eyewitness accounts. The mainstream press headlines the next day made it sound
like the police responded to a violent mob that had attacked them. </div>
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Media in the ‘60s was slanted towards the powers-that-be,
with the hippies portrayed as the Godless enemies of the people. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>All you have to do is look at the raw footage
from the 1968 <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7_9OJnRnZjU" target="_blank">Democratic National Convention in Chicago </a>to know this was an ongoing,
nationwide thing back then. </div>
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<i>Set The Night on Fire</i> provides a comprehensive
overview of how every disenfranchised group in <st1:city><st1:place>L.A.</st1:place></st1:city>
in the ‘60s fought for their rights. The represented groups include
Asian-Americans, Hispanic-Americans, African-Americans, hippies, rock
musicians and gay people.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The information is all the more potent when
you realize that these events occurred in less than a decade. The seeds for the
most notable social and political changes in the late 20th Century took place
between 1965 and 1973. <o:p></o:p></div>
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The book shows how rapidly society was changing, with
interlocking movements challenging the status quo despite resistance. Old-guard politicians like L.A. Mayor Sam Yorty and Governor Ronald Reagan weren’t going to give up
power easily, but the die was cast for the progressive politics of the late 20<sup>th</sup>
and early 21<sup>st</sup> Century.<br />
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<o:p> </o:p>At over 800 pages,<i> Set the Night on Fire</i> may be too detailed
for many readers. However, it is an indispensable tool for students of <st1:state>California</st1:state>
history, civil rights, and sociology. </div>
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8050719.post-77350056961955827662020-01-01T18:24:00.004-08:002021-01-26T18:20:51.856-08:00The Veggees - 1980s Retro Rock Comic Strip and Music Video<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh19c4HMTu_RIPqcHt0t3DJfzLkhjrzNGtQIMV5Ap45UyHQxsmgjd2rz5fCoUm4igSnQ4Nh5ya9xaq6XBhF8NeFDfOp7NGtFeD1GJOEj1vN4YiztJu_jsi2plQu492Iz94Kgfj2/s1600/veggeesbutton15.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="960" data-original-width="664" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh19c4HMTu_RIPqcHt0t3DJfzLkhjrzNGtQIMV5Ap45UyHQxsmgjd2rz5fCoUm4igSnQ4Nh5ya9xaq6XBhF8NeFDfOp7NGtFeD1GJOEj1vN4YiztJu_jsi2plQu492Iz94Kgfj2/s640/veggeesbutton15.jpg" width="442" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span start=""><span style="font-size: large;"><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif" style="color: #0b161c;">Limited number of 1.5 inch buttons available - 1980s comic strip “The Veggees” all-girl band logo. Message me at</span><span face=""lucida grande" , "lucida" , "verdana" , sans-serif" style="color: #0b161c;"> <a href="mailto:jade@jadeblackmore.com" target="_blank">jade at jadeblackmore.com</a></span><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><span face=""lucida grande" , "lucida" , "verdana" , sans-serif" style="color: #0b161c;"> if you want a button.</span></span><span face=""lucida grande" , "lucida" , "verdana" , sans-serif" style="color: #0b161c;"> </span></span><br /><br /><br /><span face=""lucida grande" , "lucida" , "verdana" , sans-serif" style="color: #0b161c; font-size: small;"><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/yRVOAalyQHo" width="560"></iframe></span></span></td></tr>
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8050719.post-52383250429975125792019-12-16T12:53:00.000-08:002020-05-24T19:56:34.032-07:00CD Review - Cosmic Partners: The McCabe Tapes - Michael Nesmith with Red Rhodes <br />
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<i>Cosmic Partners: The McCabe Tapes</i> captures Michael
Nesmith at the height of his powers as a country rock pioneer. In the early
1970s, Nez released classic LPs, including <st1:state><st1:place><i>Nevada</i></st1:place></st1:state><i>
Fighter, Loose Salute, Pretty Much Your Standard Ranch Stash, </i>and<i> Magnetic South.</i><u> </u>A few songs from those
albums are featured on this CD, a Nesmith/Red Rhodes show recorded at McCabes
Guitar Shop in <st1:city><st1:place>Santa Monica</st1:place></st1:city> on <st1:date day="18" month="8" year="1973">August 18, 1973</st1:date>. </div>
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Several other concerts have been released as live albums,
including shows by Mike Bloomfield, Townes Van Zant and Henry Rollins. McCabe’s
is still going strong today. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
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This CD features a show as it was recorded, directly from
the soundboard. The show was transferred from analogue tapes and cleaned up for
<i>McCabe Tapes.</i> The sound is clear and crisp the instruments have retained
their vibrancy from almost 47 years ago. </div>
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<span style="color: #666666;">The show opens with “Tomorrow and
Me”, a dirge to broken love. <st1:place><span style="color: black;">Rhodes</span></st1:place></span><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #666666;">’ pedal steel cushions the despair of Nesmith’s bittersweet
lyrics with blips of vibrancy. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> Red Rhodes</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #666666;">The band then picks up the groove with “Grand Ennui”,
followed by “Some of Shelly’s Blues”. Nez introduces
“…..Blues” by saying it’s been covered by “374” people. (And that was in 1973.
You could imagine what the number is now.)</span></div>
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The band consists of Colin Cameron on bass, <st1:street><st1:address>Danny
Lane</st1:address></st1:street> on drums, Red Rhodes on pedal steel guitar.
Nez provides vocals, acoustic guitar and between song stage banter..<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
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The banter includes Nez’s story about the Monkees’ infamous <st1:city><st1:place>Cincinnati</st1:place></st1:city>
incident. (The band evaded their security and took an elevator to the ground
floor, where they were chased by fans.)<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Nez gives some topical banter about Alice Cooper and glam rock, which
was popular at the time of the McCabe’s show.</div>
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<st1:place>Rhodes</st1:place> takes the spotlight mid-show,
showcasing his pedal steel mastery on three instrumentals - the Ernset Tubb
favorite, “Rose City Chimes”,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>the lush
“Poinciana” (from <st1:place>Rhodes</st1:place>’ solo album <i>Velvet Hammer in
a Cowboy Band</i>)<i> </i>and<i> </i>“Crippled Lion”. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
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Nez lends some yodeling to the lovely, old-school country
song “One Rose” and ends the set with his biggest solo song “JoAnne” (wait for
that high note) and “Silver Moon.” <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
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There’s only one problem with <i>Cosmic Partners</i> – the
set goes by too fast. </div>
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The CD package includes liner notes by Christian Nesmith (who co-produced the CD ), Circe Link, and original producer Ed Heffelinger, along with Joe Alterio’s essay
on Red Rhodes. There’s a note from Nez, too, about his musical collaborations
with <st1:place>Rhodes</st1:place>, and how the steel pedal guitar player “made the instrument sail, and
take off on its own.” <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
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A poster of the gatefold sleeve for<i> Not Your Standard Ranch Stash</i>,
with topless sirens in a swimming pool/makeshift lake, is also included. </div>
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<o:p></o:p></div>
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<i>Cosmic Partners</i> is also available as an 180g vinyl
picture disc. This CD is another Monkees-related release from 7A Records out of
the <st1:country-region><st1:place>UK</st1:place></st1:country-region>.</div>
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8050719.post-89370322535172138342019-09-03T18:09:00.000-07:002020-02-10T23:32:58.999-08:00Once Upon a Time in Hollywood and the Joy of Watching and Rewatching a Movie You Love <!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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By now, most people who want to see <i>Once Upon a Time…In </i><i>Hollywood</i>
have made a trip to the theater, some of them several times.</div>
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The film’s 2 hours and 41 minutes long, and every plot point and scene has been analyzed and discussed online for the last month No one’s going to spend so much time nitpicking over a boring movie. Even people who didn’t like the movie (except for the ending) will still talk about it.</div>
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The film is intensely personal to some, a unique film for
movie<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>nerds to ponder, or a nostalgic
trip for others. OUATIH is a favorite of QT fans (at least the ones who don’t
expect non-stop violence) and people in their 50s and 60s were alive in 1969, younger folks interested in 20<sup>th</sup> Century pop culture, or anyone interested in the
Manson family.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
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I’ve read about people seeing the
movie at a theater eight times, though two or three seems to be the most
prevalent number of return viewings. (I've seen it twice; going for #3 at the New Beverly later this month.)
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Regular movie goers who just choose a random name from movie
listings for their weekend entertainment will not like this film. Most people
see movies as escapist entertainment; they don’t care about plot or acting or
historical accuracy. They want constant action, sex, or gore, two hours of <i>bish-bam-boom
</i>before going back to the job and family.<i> </i><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
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<b>Alternative History </b></div>
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The second time I saw the movie, the audience was too quiet<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>- not a gasp or “Oh, my God”, during the
ending. No laughter. I didn’t see anyone rush out or give the finger to the
screen, either.</div>
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I was worried about screaming or making noise during the
ending the first time I saw it. Maybe I should bring a piece of gauze with me and bite down on it near
the end, I thought</div>
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I wasn’t alone. Most people at the sold-out screening I
attended gasped, laughed and clapped during the end scene. Those last 20
minutes have even made their way onto YouTube two months before the DVD release.
Several other scenes that appear to have been filmed right off theater screens
are on YouTube as well. </div>
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The best five seconds of the film for just about everyone,
including the impatient and undiagnosed ADD crowd, occurred when Rick walked out with the flamethrower. The element of
surprise left the audience laughing and gasping.</div>
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Here’s a round-up of audience reactions. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>
</div>
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<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media;
gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/zyGDF2JpJnU" width="560"></iframe></div>
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There’s a lot to see in second and third viewings. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"></span>Los Angeles
in 1969- what’s not to love? The music, the TV shows, the commercials,
billboards, and marquees. Even minor details that would go unnoticed by most
moviegoers were authentic to the era. One newsstand contained copies of
magazines from 1969 (or thereabouts). The newsstand, much less the magazines,
would go unnoticed by all but the most eagle-eyed viewer. </div>
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This is a hangout movie, a bromance, that girls can love.
(You should have heard the women next to us hoot their approval when Brad Pitt
took his shirt off.) </div>
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The Cliff-Rick bromance is all good. It doesn’t have any
cliché arguments, fights over girls, etc., common as plot twists in lesser
films. It’s nice to have real human characters to root for, instead of the
half-human, half-infallible superheros. </div>
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<span style="color: #3366ff;"></span><span style="color: #3366ff;"></span><b>Oh, No! Not Another Western!</b></div>
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I almost forgot how prevalent TV Westerns were even in the
late 1960s. <i>Bonanza, the Wild, Wild West, Gunsmoke, the Big Valley</i> and <i>Lancer </i>(yes, it
was a real show) shared the TV Guide schedule with <i>Laugh-In</i> and the <i>Smothers
Brothers.</i><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
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“Oh, no,” I remember thinking before seeing the movie “How am I going to get
through the Western scenes? It’s going to be excruciating. I’ll have to go out
for popcorn.” Leo’s performance drew you in, and there was "Don't cry in front of the Mexicans" for comic relief. </div>
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The first two hours flew by, Westerns and all, and before you
knew it, Tex, Sadie and Katie showed
up – only to be quickly dispatched by our heroes. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
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<b>Driving</b> <b>Music<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span></b></div>
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Anyone who has who has lived in California
can identify with the driving scenes. Everything was easier back in '69, even driving on L.A. freeways. There
was no road rage, texting, drive-bys, or distracted driving. You could drive
with the windows down, the radio blaring, and the wind blowing through your
hair. </div>
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I don’t think people have done that with abandon since the early
‘90s. Yeah, you can ride in your air-conditioned Porsche listing to the shoegaze
station on Sirius, but it’s not the same. </div>
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There are snippets of several lesser-known pop songs in the
movie. “Summertime” by Billy Stewart, “12:30 (Young Girls are Coming to the
Canyon”) by the Mamas and Papas, “Baby It’s You” by Smith, even a snippet of
Robert Goulet singing MacArthur Park on a TV.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> And plenty of Paul Revere and the Raiders.(Terry Melcher and Mark Lindsay lived at 10050 Cielo Drive before Sharon and Roman moved in.)</span></div>
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The film creates an atmosphere, a time and a place that you
can soak in and lose yourself in. I wouldn’t say there’s no plot - it's just a
plot that simmers along on low heat. </div>
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It’s fun to catch glimpses of old-timey TV shows like <i>Mannix </i>and
<i>The FBI.</i> Notice Paul Revere and the Raiders were on the TV at Spahn
Ranch when Cliff walks in to see George. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
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And feet!! How many pairs of many bare, dirty female feet do
we need to see? I haven’t done a count yet - maybe once it comes out on DVD. Sharon
takes her go-go boots off – to put her feet on the back of the seat in front of
her, Pussycat puts her bare feet on Cliff's dashboard, etc. Now, lots of hippie girls were barefoot in LA in the late 60s, so we’ll
let Quentin slide this time. </div>
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And of course, there’s the quotable dialogue - </div>
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“I’m the devil, and I’m doing the devil’s work.”
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“No, it was dumber than that.”</div>
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“And you, you were on a horsie”</div>
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“Are you real?”</div>
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“Real as a donut, motherfucker.”</div>
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“Is everything all right?”</div>
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“Well, the hippies sure aren’t.” </div>
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And it's never revealed if Cliff killed his wife on purpose.
His wife (played by Rebecca Gayheart) seems like a garden variety nagging
wife in her five seconds onscreen. Perhaps the subplot was inspired by DJ Humble Harv (of radio station KHJ) who shot his nagging wife dead in 1971.</div>
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(Humble Harv appears on the soundtrack introducing songs and reading commercials.)</div>
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You want a happy ending for all the good people and you get
it here. The comic book violence of the last 20 minutes is even more satisfying
if you’re familiar with the Tate-LaBianca murders. It’s cathartic to watch
Sadie get burnt to a crisp. The head-banging times 12, is cringe-inducing, no matter how
many times you watch it. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>
</div>
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Right after all that violence, we see Rick's dream come true (he gets to hanging out at Roman and Sharon's house), and sweet, pregnant Sharon greets him. And now everyone gets all misty-eyed after cheering during 10 minutes of hardcore gore.</div>
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Now leaving the theater feeling happy isn’t usually the sign
of a great film. Art films are supposed to leave you dazed and pondering.
Blockbusters and superhero movies leave viewers feeling like they just got off
an intense, 120 mile per hour roller coaster ride –and they forget about it by
the next day. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
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But giddy and excited to the point where you say “I have to
see that again,” the moment you walk out of the theater?. That doesn’t happen
too often, at least not to me.
</div>
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It’s not so much that you rewatch the movie for thrills –
it’s to find tidbits you missed out the first time. There’s the sound of the
canned dog food plopping into the bowl is familiar to anyone raised on supermarket
food in the late 20<sup>th</sup> Century. (It took a second viewing to notice
the rat and raccoon flavors.) The marquee on of the Van Nuys Drive-In (<i>Lady
in Cement</i> starring Frank Sinatra and Raquel Welch), the quick shots of Rick
involved in a DUI on Hollywood Boulevard, or taking a swig from a blender full of margarita while telling off the dirty hippies. </div>
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Margot Robbie gives us a chance to see Sharon Tate as a real
person. Too many people know her only as a murder victim. This film humanizes
her. She doesn’t have a lot of dialogue, but her luminous presence is the
heartbeat of the film. </div>
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The other non-Manson Family female characters are tougher. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Julia Butters’ Trudi character gives us a glimpse
we get of the new, liberated woman – or girl. She prefers to be called an actor
instead of an actress and corrects Rick’s pronunciation of a character’s name.
Zoe Bell (as a stuntwoman) gives Cliff a verbal beatdown, truncating his best
two out of three with Bruce Lee.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
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Cliff’s visit to Spahn Ranch <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>turns tense the moment Pussycat (Margaret Qualley)
gets out of the car. The long shot of Cliff walking away as the girls boo him made you think something horrible would happen. </div>
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<span style="color: black;"><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/q6lCcjv-214" width="560"></iframe> </span></div>
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Cliff beating up Clem was especially satisfying to those of us who lived through the summer of '69, and it’s a precursor to the tables-turned ending.<br />
<br />
People can be emotionally invested in TV series characters;
we see them for years, week after week. It’s harder to get attached to a
movie’s characters, unless they’re superhero or franchise characters. <br />
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<br /></div>
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Many people on YouTube and elsewhere wonder about what would
happen to the characters after this movie ends. Would the police go to the
ranch and arrest Charlie and the Manson girls before they could commit more
mayhem? Would Rick work on a film with Polanski? </div>
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<i>Once Upon a Time in Hollywood </i>will probably be the
Tarantino film I watch and enjoy the most over time. However, I don’t think
it’s his best film. I’d have to go with <i>Pulp Fiction,</i> <i>Jackie Brown</i>
and <i>Inglorious Bastards</i> as the Top 3, with the <i>True Romance</i>
screenplay getting an honorable mention. </div>
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<i>Once Upon a Time in Hollywood </i>is fun – the music, the
cars, the clothes, and the alternative ending where everyone lives happily ever
after, except the murderous hippies. Given the state of the world now, we need some alternative history before going back into an ever-worsening reality.</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8050719.post-71149115319238721562019-07-22T18:20:00.000-07:002019-07-22T19:21:23.421-07:00CD Review: The Old Testament of Love by Steve Hooker<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3rVkrQhl2goidZ1Br19XYFntOtVb78lXECi64fzr4gUygvZy5330UqaAIrKpUiNv9Ln5UAYk6nfPCT6I2KGJJWaSETIcU7_aqn9HD5gMqg7N4lmrINRgr0DDoxAmGXJANWZYD/s1600/oldtestamentlove.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="225" data-original-width="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3rVkrQhl2goidZ1Br19XYFntOtVb78lXECi64fzr4gUygvZy5330UqaAIrKpUiNv9Ln5UAYk6nfPCT6I2KGJJWaSETIcU7_aqn9HD5gMqg7N4lmrINRgr0DDoxAmGXJANWZYD/s1600/oldtestamentlove.jpg" /></a></div>
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Prolific rockabilly musician Steve Hooker is back with
another CD, <i>The Old Testament of Love</i> on Pimphouse Records. The seven-track
CD <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>begins with the country-western-flavored
instrumental “Necktie Party”. “The First Ones Always Free” is seven minute
of<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>made-to-order lowdown blues,
with<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>guttural vocals from Hooker. The
title track is lighter and poppier; it’s a dance track for the club floor,
while “Don’t Let the Deal Go Down” is 50s/early ‘60s raunch ‘n’ roll. The
crunchy instrumental “Tighten It” has a hard rock edge, while “Crows Legs” has
a steady, mid-tempo groove. “Mister Mojo Man” closes the album with some dirty,
old-school blues rock.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
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The players are Steve Hooker on guitar and vocals, Vic on
bass, Dave on piano, Brian on drums and background vocals, and Dee on
background vocals. The CD is available from <a href="http://www.raucousrecords.com/steve-hooker-old-testament-of-love-cd.html" target="_blank">Raucous Records. </a></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8050719.post-34204194990134534072019-04-28T11:36:00.001-07:002020-05-24T19:09:37.043-07:00The Dirt and the Resurgence of Mötley Crüe <br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgiwse39aRN1vtZGZyhJAdwG_91byl-rFjd8Xmea3hnyVa1KPKRv62gFz_MuhybhyphenhyphenuHK-33A34vv6ic8ijxzJsJilOnsNtzvHCKz96QFAJkMEV_nT-VylYAtBjlXFep4XuUzn2L/s1600/Motley-Crue-Shout-at-the-Devil.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="653" data-original-width="980" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgiwse39aRN1vtZGZyhJAdwG_91byl-rFjd8Xmea3hnyVa1KPKRv62gFz_MuhybhyphenhyphenuHK-33A34vv6ic8ijxzJsJilOnsNtzvHCKz96QFAJkMEV_nT-VylYAtBjlXFep4XuUzn2L/s320/Motley-Crue-Shout-at-the-Devil.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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It’s 2019, and lots of people are talking about Mötley Crüe.
Who could have guessed an ‘80s heavy metal band that retired in 2015 would set
the internet ablaze in 2019? It’s been a month since <i>The Dirt</i> premiered
on Netflix and I’m still seeing posts from people who are watching for the
second or third or fourth time. (The Crüe's resurgence is no fluke. The band was featured in a 2014<a href="https://www.fastcompany.com/3031014/5-brilliant-business-lessons-from-moetley-cruee-seriously" target="_blank"> Fast Company</a> article <i>5 Brilliant Business Lessons from Mötley Crüe- Seriously.</i>) <o:p></o:p></div>
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All kinds of people, not just Crueheads or heavy metal fans,
like this film. The reviews usually read something like “Yeah, there were
timeline problems and it was cheesy, but <b>it was entertaining and I watched till
the end.”<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media;
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The raves, unsurprisingly, come mostly from long-time fans.</div>
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<o:p></o:p></div>
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All types of people liked the movie, even folks you think
would have no interest in even watching it.</div>
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People in industrial bands, intellectuals, people who lived
in <st1:city><st1:place>L.A.</st1:place></st1:city> in the early ‘80s but
didn’t like the metal scene, and many under 30s with a cursory knowledge of the
band, liked the film. Most people took the Netflix movie at face value. This is
a biopic about Mötley Crüe, based on the 2001 best-selling book “The Dirt”, not
a somber candidate for the Criterion Collection.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
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Snobs who believe that only certain types of music and
entertainment are valid, or that anything from the past that wasn't politically correct should not be remembered or chronicled, hated the movie.</div>
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<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/jbQWaZnaYO0" width="560"></iframe></div>
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<b>The Timeline, Actors, Fact-checking, etc.</b></div>
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A little fact-checking with the book version of “The Dirt”
shows that the movie’s a bit more authentic than apparent at first sight. The
fight during the band’s first show at the Starwood happened pretty much as
portrayed in the film. Vince Neil did bang Tom Zutat’s girlfriend, but it was
in a trailer at the US Festival, not in a dressing room at the Forum.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
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McGhee never brought Nikki’s Mom into the picture. The band
fired him after the Moscow Peace Festival in 1989, when Bon Jovi, another band
McGhee managed, played a full set with pyro, while the Crue play a truncated
opening set. </div>
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The fourth wall narration in the film explained that the
Crue actually had two co-managers, that McGee didn’t really meet the band at
their shitty apartment, and allowed the celluloid “grouchy” Mick to provide some
counterpoint to the rock ‘n’ roll excess.</div>
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And it was Thaler, not McGhee, who got the ill-fated
Entertainment or Death tattoo. </div>
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Tommy, as played by Machine Gun Kelly, is a likeable,
hyperactive kid in the movie. In the book, Tommy comes off much cruder, unless
he’s in love - then he becomes a total teddy bear. </div>
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Nikki, as played by Douglas Booth, was pretty spot-on most of the time. He even nailed Nikki’s distinctive speaking voice, although it did waver from the original here and there. </div>
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Vince (Daniel Webber), had the swagger of the pre-fame Vince down, and handled the tragic scenes well, especially the emotional scenes with Skylar. The young actress who played Skylar was so heartbreaking in those scenes. “Daddy, don’t let them cut me again.”</div>
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Mick (Iwan Rheon) stole the film with his snarky, fourth wall comments. Mick Mars as Motley Crue’s voice of reason. Well, it’s a thankless job, but somebody had to do it.</div>
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<i>The Dirt</i> clocked in at an hour and forty eight
minutes. You didn’t have to see the movie
to know it would be a quick cut, “best of” – all the major scenes from the book, punctuated by the
band’s music, with everything tied up in a neat package at the end.</div>
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Sure, the band’s history could have worked as a series,
including more in-depth scenes from the Japanese train fiasco, Vince’s trial,
Tommy and Pamela,etc., but then the trolls would complain it was too long and boring!
A series would have given the filmmakers more room to humanize the characters
and show them as “grown-ups”. </div>
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<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/d2XdmyBtCRQ" width="560"></iframe></div>
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<b>The Groupies <o:p></o:p></b></div>
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The women who gave bands blow jobs under the
tables at the Rainbow accounted for a small percentage of the young women in
1980s <st1:city><st1:place>Los Angeles</st1:place></st1:city>. They were mostly
upper middle class girls from the Valley or <st1:place><st1:placename>Orange</st1:placename>
<st1:placetype>County</st1:placetype></st1:place> trying to outslut each other
to see who could do the most guys in bands. These young women <i>wanted</i> to
be there. They weren't victims. </div>
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The movie version of <i>The Dirt</i> opens with a raucous
party at the band’s <st1:place>Hollywood</st1:place> apartment in the early
‘80s. Vince is banging some guy’s girlfriend in the bathroom (an event which
occurs with alarming frequency, as we find out later). </div>
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However, the main event takes place in the living room,
where Tommy pleasures a girl as a crowd parties around them. Then the money
shot occurs as the girl squirts across the room.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The woman, known as Bullwinkle, opened the
book, too. When you begin a movie with female ejaculation, where do you go from
there? Hold my beer (or heroin or coke spoon), the Dirt replies. </div>
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There’s enough sex, drugs, and tragedy in this hour and 48
minute film to fit in a series</div>
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Nikki’s on H (with lots of close-ups of needles entering
veins)</div>
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Nikki’s temporary death and revival with two adrenaline
shots to the heart<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
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Everyone’s banging everyone else’s girlfriend </div>
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The obligatory hotel-bashing </div>
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Young Nikki slices his arm open and blames it on his Mom</div>
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Vince kills his friend Razzle in a drunk driving accident</div>
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Vince’s young daughter dies of cancer</div>
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Mick’s Ankylosing Spondylitis (arthritis of the spine)<span style="background: white; color: #474d51; font-family: "arial"; font-size: 6.0pt;"> </span>gets
worse; he has hip replacement surgery </div>
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Heather kicks Tommy out because of his dalliance with a porn
star </div>
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<o:p> </o:p>And, of course, who could miss the Pearl Jam Ten album cover
on the side of the rehearsal studio on a rainy day? That was a harbinger of
doom for all ‘80s metal bands, not just Mötley Crüe.</div>
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<b>Guest Appearances <o:p></o:p></b></div>
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Ozzy (Tony Cavalero) snorting ants had to be included in a film at some point. Even though you know what’s going to happen,
the “ugh” factor is strong when viewing the reenactment.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> (The peeing part probably didn't happen, however.)</span></div>
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David Lee Roth (Christian Gehring) makes a blink and you’ll
miss it appearance. Yes, DLR would be so out of it in the early ‘80s – a mirror
would crack over his head without him noticing it. </div>
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Heather Locklear (Rebekah Graf) only makes a few
appearances, and it’s uncanny how much Graf resembles '80s Heather. Tommy did mistake
her for Heather Thomas, but they met at<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>an REO Speedwagon concert, not Vince’s party. </div>
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Tom Zutat (Pete Davidson),<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>the A & R rep who signed Mötley Crüe to Electra, is portrayed as
somewhat of an earnest klutz. I’m not sure if that jives with his real-life
persona.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
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<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Also, the biker chick
who asks Mick if he’s in the band during the opening party sequence is played
by Brittany Furlan, Tommy Lee’s new wife. (They got married on Valentine’s Day
2019.) <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
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<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><br /></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2Ophwa3t6o9fA3EUlboa1yT6S4Ki1-0nQNYO2JvZK0QHx1nhGg3CvCyBhu_Vzwq3B6TZl3xUgeP_fRD7VBGTgHiFh3RiqqN8voRIlsVgpqlyVni7aZeBq6h69Kyd0YrBcNOnR/s1600/mc82.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="360" data-original-width="480" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2Ophwa3t6o9fA3EUlboa1yT6S4Ki1-0nQNYO2JvZK0QHx1nhGg3CvCyBhu_Vzwq3B6TZl3xUgeP_fRD7VBGTgHiFh3RiqqN8voRIlsVgpqlyVni7aZeBq6h69Kyd0YrBcNOnR/s320/mc82.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<b>Nostalgia and a Personal Take <o:p></o:p></b></div>
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When I first moved to <st1:city><st1:place>L.A.</st1:place></st1:city>
in 1983, I didn’t know anyone. I hung out at the Troubadour – until I
discovered the local punk rock scene and my whole life changed. Of course, I’m
not sure that would have happened if Vince Neil hadn’t guest-starred with <a href="https://slumshollywood.blogspot.com/2015/01/how-i-became-hollywood-punk-rocker.html">Top
Jimmy</a> at the Cathay de Grande one night. <o:p></o:p></div>
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I remember the accident that killed Razzle. I was living in
L.A, at the time, looking forward to seeing Hanoi Rocks in <st1:city><st1:place>L.A.</st1:place></st1:city>
at the Palace – or was it the Whisky? I had a copy of “One Step from the Move” displayed by my stereo. The onscreen Vince’s dialogue about “it could have been
any one of them” driving drunk and killing Razzle rang true. <st1:city><st1:place>L.A.</st1:place></st1:city>
rocker dudes in the ’80s were rarely sober. Any combination of hard rock/metal
dude passenger/driver could be deadly at any given moment.</div>
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I was back home in <st1:city><st1:place>Chicago</st1:place></st1:city>
for Nikki’s death and reanimation. By this time, my beloved rebels were now
Enquirer fare, with everyone from my younger brothers to random teenage girls listening
to <i>Girls, Girls, Girls</i>. By 1988, even Satan had gone mainstream. Teen
girls on the bus had pentagrams drawn on their PF flyers along with the names
of their favorite bands (Poison, Bon Jovi, Mötley Crüe). <b><o:p></o:p></b></div>
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When <i>Dr. FeelGood</i>, the band’s only number one album,
was released, I was in <st1:state><st1:place>New York,</st1:place></st1:state>
working for a music publisher. Then Mötley Crüe defected to the alternative/grunge
sound with their self-titled album. Vince had quit/gotten fired, and John Corabi
replaced him. It didn’t sound like classic Crue, sold over 500,000 copies, but was
considered a flop. (Many fans now consider the album to be one of the group’s
best.) I always liked it. </div>
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Throughout the ‘90s the band became mainstream celebrities,
and appeared on many talk shows. I saw them many times on Regis and Kathy Lee.
Now, it didn’t hurt that Tommy was married to Baywatch babe Pamela Anderson and
Nikki to Donna D'errico. That aspect took main stage in the press, with the
music secondary.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
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I found out I liked a lot more songs than I thought, even
lesser-known ones. We’re not talking the greatest rock songs ever, but fun
party anthems. “Bad Boy Boogie”, “Same Old Situation”, everything from the
first two albums, even “Saints of Los Angeles”. </div>
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<b>The Critics<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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Metacritic.com gave <i>The Dirt</i> a 39 per cent score, based on 64 reviews. “Rock bad boy lore as endless bore”, writes Rolling Stone. “An
ill-advised remake of Spinal Tap”, says the New York Times, “painfully dated
and pointless”, says another review from The Playlist. “A terrible movie about
terrible people,” says Stereogum.( 95% of 6124 audience reviewers liked it.)</div>
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Critics never liked the Crüe’s music or persona so it makes
sense that they wouldn’t like a movie based on their exploits. The first batch
of reviews was especially brutal out of the gate, and seemed to criticize the
subject matter as much as the actual filmmaking. How dare you even <i>make </i>a
movie about an out-of-control 1980s rock band in politically correct 2019? </div>
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Somehow, the neatly-tied up ending the meeting at the bar
(the real meeting took place in an office with lawyers present) fit in with the
fast-paced movie. A more complicated ending (and character arcs) would have
only made sense in a fleshed-out series.</div>
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<b>The Calm After the Storm </b></div>
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I searched in vain for a download
of one of the <a href="https://sixxsense.iheart.com/" target="_blank">Sixx Sense</a> shows on my hard drive. I’d saved the show because
Nikki had said something really profound. And now I can’t remember it, or find
the file. He talked about looking up at the night sky with one of his kids,
that’s the only part of the show I remember.</div>
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Years ago, I read an interview with a rock star (Don Henley,
I think, but it was so long ago I could be wrong) who talked about how hitting
rock-bottom changes people, allowing them to survive and prosper. </div>
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People who succumb to drugs and/or depravity and then come out the other side, often have an understanding of life’s true meaning that others lack, the interviewee (whoever it was) said. Maybe that’s why I find a lot of Nikki’s comments today to be so profound.</div>
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8050719.post-72368688002384257172019-03-22T18:31:00.001-07:002019-07-22T18:36:29.694-07:00Remembering Peter Tork 1942-2019<br />
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Peter Tork died on February 21 of complications from adenoid cystic carcinoma, a rare form of cancer. He was 77, and the second Monkee to pass away. (Davy Jones died in February 2012,). He had battled cancer on and off for ten years. Peter died at his family home in Connecticut.<br />
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When Davy died, it was a total shock. I sought solace with other fans through social media. I started a Monkees blog with two Millennial girls and learned more about my childhood idols than I’d ever imagined.<br />
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Now, with two Monkees gone, there's more of a numb resignation to the passage of time, and a tendency to celebrate the past and have more of a rock version of a "jazz funeral" along with traditional mourning. We were so lucky to have Peter, and the rest of the Monkees, as part of our lives for so long.<br />
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Peter was known to the general public as the Monkees' lovable, dim-witted bass player, but loyal fans knew him as an accomplished musician, free spirit, intellectual, and a constant, low-key presence in the Monkees-sphere.<br />
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When we were kids, everyone had their favorite Monkee (Micky
was mine), but we loved ‘em all.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>After
watching two seasons of episodes, we appreciated them all and knew everything
about all four Monkees from the fan mags.</div>
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Peter was third in line as a teeny-bopper idol after Davy
and Micky. That’s hard to believe when you see his beautiful dimple and big doe
eyes – shows you the wealth of looks and talent in that group. </div>
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There was so much more to Peter than being the Monkees’
third (or fourth) wheel, depending on your tastes.) There were several stages
of Peter’s career, in and out of the Monkees. </div>
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<b>Pre-Monkees <o:p></o:p></b></div>
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Peter made a short film in college (circa 1962) called “<a href="https://youtu.be/maSE0ODefCY" target="_blank">The Love Potion”.</a> </div>
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Music was his first creative love, though. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He moved on to <st1:place>Greenwich Village</st1:place>
and tried his hand as a folk singer. He first met Stephen Stills in the
Village. Later, they both auditioned for the Monkees. Stills was passed over
due to his bad teeth, and suggested Tork audition for the role.</div>
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The rest, as they say, is history. </div>
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Peter was cute as a button and sharp-witted, as evidenced in this clip of
his audition. </div>
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<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/63nhSFFFfJ4?start=538" width="560"></iframe></div>
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Pete’s auditions starts at <st1:time hour="8" minute="58">8:58</st1:time></div>
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During the first season, Peter’s character (‘the lovable
dummy”) was always getting in trouble. He was kidnapped by gypsies in search of
the Maltese Vulture in <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Son of a Gypsy.”
As a six year old, I was very worried about Peter in those early episodes, “Mommy,
is Peter gonna be all right?” I would ask my Mom. I would always root for him
when he couldn’t fly in the sky like the other Monkeemen “C’mon, Peter, you can
do it,” I’d say.</div>
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In “Monkees Vs. Machine” Peter becomes flustered when a
computer (DJ-61) interviews him for a job at a toy company. (Mike steps in to
save the day and causes the computer to overheat.) <span style="color: black;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Peter’s character</span><span style="color: blue;"> </span>steals a portrait of Valerie the debutante in “One
Man Shy” and the guys teach him the proper way to woo a lady. <span style="color: black;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And look at his adorableness in this clip featuring "For Pete's Sake".</div>
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He was always wore his belt buckle to the side and often
sported mismatched socks.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>His most well-known
musical contribution on the TV show was the wacky “Auntie Grizelda”. In the
real world, Peter played the banjo, guitar, harpsichord, piano and organ as well as the bass.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
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I liked the second season of the shoe better than the first..The clean-cut boys of the first season had turned
into hippies! Davy and Peter dressed in Nehru jackets and love beads and Micky had
an Afro. Mike wouldn’t have any of that nonsense. He still wore his wool hat
occasionally, but favored brighter shirts. </div>
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We loved the way hippie Peter dressed, in his two toned leggings,
flowered tunic, suede boots, and love beads. And, oh that beautiful, sandy blonde hair! He
didn’t just dress like a hippie, though, he <i>was</i> one. At the end of one
episode, he explained the difference between hippies and free people in <st1:city><st1:place>San
Francisco</st1:place></st1:city>.</div>
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Peter’s comments about free people start at the <st1:time hour="17" minute="46">17:46</st1:time>
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During the second season, Peter (unknowingly) sold his soul to
the devil for a harp in “The Devil and Peter Tork”. Considered the best episode
of the series by most people, it ends with a moving speech by Mike about the
power of love.</div>
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Peter has his paintings snatched by gangster security guards, trades
his guitar to a con artist for a treasure map, and becomes involved with a
professor’s kidnapping. Davy only had to<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>fall in love, Micky had to be kooky, Mike had to be sensible and stoic,
but Peter had to act dumb and/or disappear.. Sure, most of the episodes had repetitive,
one-note plots, but they worked because of the boys’ charisma and chemistry.<span style="color: blue;"> <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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We remembered every bit of Peter’s obscure dialogue, just
like we did with the others When my boyfriend an I saw a sign directing us to
go down the alley to a punk rock club, we looked at each other and said, “Down
the alley?”, imitating Peter in “Monkees Blow Their Minds.” as he walked to the storefront of Oraculo, the charlatan mentalist.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
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That episode, the second to last one broadcast, had Peter
walking around as Oraculo’s catatonic assistant. Even in the last episode “Mijacogeo
(The Frodis Caper),”, he spent much of the story catatonic again, this time from
watching the Frodis eye on the TV. </div>
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<b>Post TV Show, Pre-Reunion<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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When I was in college, a friend of mine had a framed photo
of Peter on her dresser. I didn’t recognize him at first. He had long, unkempt
hair and had a “Jesus” look. When she told me who it was I felt a tinge of
sadness. Could this be our sweet, goofy Peter?</div>
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Peter was the first one to leave the Monkees. After the TV
show ended, he </div>
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had a band called Release with his second wife, Reine
Stewart, on drums. He played CBGBs and other rock clubs as a solo artist. None
of his post-Monkees musical projects met with much success.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
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The early ‘70s were a hard time to be an ex-Monkee. Micky
was a hard-drinking Hollywood Vampire, along with his buddy Harry Nilsson. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He appeared in a few B movies, including the
infamous “Night of the Strangler. Davy appeared on “The Brady Bunch” and
released a bunch of nondescript singles.</div>
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Mike didn’t need to deal with it, though. He forged ahead as
a country rock trailblazer before inspiring MTV with such projects as “Elephant
Parts” and “Pop Clips”. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
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This 1979 video shows Peter holding his own against a smarmy
interviewer. (Only a guy this smart could play a convincing dummy.)</div>
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<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Peter joined Dolenz, Jones, Boyce and Hart onstage at <st1:place>Disneyland</st1:place>
in 1976, released singles that went nowhere, and played shows at CBGB’s and
other clubs. (Chrissie Hynde, Joan Jett, and Tommy Ramone were allegedly
present for some of the recording sessions, according to Wikipedia.)</div>
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Peter worked as a teacher, baseball coach, and even a waiter
before the Monkees reformed in the ‘mid-80s, He was his bouncy, joke-cracking
self on the “Win a Date with Peter Tork” skit on David Letterman’s Show in 1982.
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<b>The '80s and '90s<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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Peter and Davy toured <st1:country-region><st1:place>Australia</st1:place></st1:country-region>
just before the official mid-1980s reunion, when MTV reruns reignited the Monkees’
fame. The Monkees made the covers of teen magazines -four 40-something guys
competing with the likes of Duran Duran, Kirk Cameron and Corey Haim for a <i>Tiger Beat</i> cover. But this time it
wasn’t so much about being heartthrobs as it was about being everyone’s kooky adopted
uncles.</div>
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Mike rejoined joined briefly in the mid-90s, with the
release of “Justus”, the 1997 TV special. He joined Peter, Micky and Davy for a
handful of shows. The ‘90s version of the Monkees gets short shrift in the
history of the band, <span style="color: black;">but the album <i>Justus</i> had a few
bright moments, including Peter’s song “Run Away From Life.”</span></div>
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His longest ongoing band, beside the Monkees was Shoe Suede
Blues. Ever the rapscallion, he had a lot
of fun with post-Monkees songs, like “Milkshake” (from his 1994 solo album <i>Stranger Things
Have Happened </i>and “Dress Sexy for Me” from 2002’s <i>Saved by the Blues</i> with Shoe Suede Blues.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
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In 1996, Peter released the album “Two-Man Band” with James
Lee Stanley, a collection of blues and acoustic numbers that Allmusic.com
selected as an Album Pick.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
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<b>2012-2018<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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Peter was diagnosed with a rare form of cancer of the
salivary glands in 2009 After successful surgery, he continued touring with
Mike, Davy and Micky.</div>
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Davy’s passing took everyone by surprised. The 2012 tour was
a heartfelt tribute to Davy and Mike’s return to the stage with as a Monkee. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Micky was the consummate show biz professional,
Mike had a dry sense of humor, and Pete was the quirky, sensitive one. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
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In 2013, Peter went on a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5KlbflZg1QY" target="_blank">solo tour</a> where he reminisced about the Monkees and his career and played an acoustic set
(with lots of his trademark banjo.) <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He performed
lesser-known and unreleased songs, such as <i>Come on In. <o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<br />
During an interview to promote the album <i>Good Times!</i> and 2016's 50<sup>th</sup> anniversary tour, Peter teared up when mentioning Davy. They’ve removed the video from the CBS YouTube
channel, but here's an <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/hey-hey-the-monkees-are-back/" target="_blank">article</a> based on the interview. </div>
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Davy and Peter two were the sensitive, sweet ones, even in
real life. Peter’s difficulties seemed to be encapsulated in one span of time
in the ‘70s, Davy’s hard times were scattered on throughout the decades. (Read
his book <a href="http://slumshollywood.blogspot.com/2014/11/book-review-they-made-monkee-out-of-me.html" target="_blank">“They Made a Monkee Out of Me”</a> for more details.) </div>
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<o:p> </o:p>In an interview with the <i>St. Petersburg Times</i> in
2000, Peter remarked that “Micky's the best pal, but my heart connection is
biggest with Davy. Davy is capable of as much heart as anyone I've ever met. I
kind of had a crush on Davy for a while.”<br />
<br />
<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/m7ysIwyhKJU" width="560"></iframe><br />
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After the 2016 tour, Peter played occasional shows with Shoe Suede Blues and made personal appearances at fan conventions with Micky. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He released his last album with Shoe Suede Blues, “Relax Your Mind”, a tribute to Leadbellly, in 2018. It included a musical appearance by his brother, Nick Thorkelson <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(Nick is a cartoonist and illustrator by trade.)</div>
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Peter always had a few creative surprises up his sleeve, even in his golden years.In 2015, he composed "Moderato ma non troppoa" a classical piece for piano and orchestra, which was performed by the Orchestra Kentucky of Bowling Green, Kentucky. In a total non-sequitur move, he acted in a 2017 indie horror
movie called“I Filmed your Death”.</div>
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He stopped by The Institute for The Musical Arts in Goshen, Massachusetts in 2010, and played a set to raise funds for the non-profit. IMA is dedicated to helping girls and women succeed in the music business. The IMA was established by June Millington of the rock group Fanny and Ann F. Hackler. </div>
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Peter sang lead vocals for “Angels We Have Heard on High” for the Monkees “Christmas Party”
album, which was released in October 2018. You could hear in his voice that
something was seriously wrong. The song is Peter’s last released recording.</div>
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People can contribute to The Institute for The Musical Arts’
scholarship fund in Peter’s name, per his family's wishes. Read more about IMA <a href="http://www.ima.org/help-out/in-the-name-of-our-mothers/" target="_blank">here.</a></div>
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http://www.petertork.com/</div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8050719.post-53961950621720260752018-12-25T20:29:00.001-08:002021-10-13T11:26:56.318-07:00Book Review: Beat Me Til I'm Famous by Billy McCarthy<br />
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If you’ve read Motley Crue’s <i>The Dirt</i> or seen the
Penelope Spheeris documentary <i>The Decline of Western Civilization Part II:
The Metal Years,</i> you probably have a good idea what it was like to be in a hair
metal band in L.A. in the late ‘80s. </div>
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But you didn’t learn about the day to day drudgery,
desperation, and infighting that the struggle for a record contract entailed.</div>
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Billy McCarthy’s <i>Beat Me Til I’m Famous</i> follows the
career of a third-tier (or fourth-tier, depending on your criteria) hair metal
band called D’Molls. McCarthy was the band’s drummer, and he went by the name
Billy Dior. The book offers a blow-by-blow description of what it was like to
be in a hometown band (or bands), and finagle your way out of the <st1:place>Midwest</st1:place>
to make in big in mid/late 1980s <st1:city><st1:place>L.A.</st1:place></st1:city></div>
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McCarthy joined the D’Molls in the mid-'80s in <st1:city><st1:place>Chicago</st1:place></st1:city>,
and they soon moved to <st1:city><st1:place>L.A.</st1:place></st1:city> to vie
for a recording contract with hundreds of other bands. By the time they signed to Atlantic Records, the public’s appetite for guys with big hair and makeup
who sang about sluts was fading. And, of course, there were the usual management and record company screw-ups that added to the band's bad fortune.</div>
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The side characters in <i>Beat Me Til I’m Famous</i> are
often as interesting as the main players. There’s Rodney’ Dangerfield’s
songwriter son, Brian, various shady record company people, managers, groupies,
professional rock star girlfriends, sneaky, cutthroat band members, drug
dealers, and pushy hangers-on. In fame-hungry <st1:city><st1:place>Hollywood</st1:place></st1:city>,
there was always someone willing to give a band money and a place to crash, and hope to get a piece of the action if the band made it.</div>
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<i>Beat Me Til I’m Famous</i> captures the sleazy minutiae of the hair metal era with an
intelligence and self-awareness you wouldn’t expect to find from someone in that scene. </div>
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In 2011, McCarthy sued Poison over authorship of "Talk Dirty to Me" and some other songs. The D’Molls Wiki entry says the lawsuit was settled with McCarthy
receiving an “undeclared sum”, but this is the only mention I’ve found online
about any settlement. (McCarthy played in a band called <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V-37vf5lHmg">Screamin’ Mimis</a> with
C.C. Deville in 1984.) </div>
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8050719.post-48242561140593427582018-11-18T11:53:00.002-08:002021-10-13T11:27:13.133-07:00Book Review: Surviving Agent Orange: And Other Things I Learned From Being Thrown Under the Partridge Family Bus By Gretchen Bonaduce<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAYoc5lwF64-jXYc2XzB-OatkgrMWOFDrDUMWp_9l1YA-IeAQMaHRQikEqHYztXPsf3mtKMpkNUFOWCC4kIlck-mRh7oI3mSF2gRUHahJNN_AFcnGiQNAm6pAqGtnTiZa5zyJe/s1600/gretchen.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="390" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAYoc5lwF64-jXYc2XzB-OatkgrMWOFDrDUMWp_9l1YA-IeAQMaHRQikEqHYztXPsf3mtKMpkNUFOWCC4kIlck-mRh7oI3mSF2gRUHahJNN_AFcnGiQNAm6pAqGtnTiZa5zyJe/s320/gretchen.jpg" width="208" /></a></div>
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<b>Surviving Agent Orange: And Other Things I Learned From
Being Thrown Under the Partridge Family Bus<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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<b>by Gretchen Bonaduce<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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<b>Rare Bird Books,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>264 pages<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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Most people recognize Gretchen Bonaduce from the reality
series “Breaking Bonaduce” with her ex-husband, ex-child star, and current DJ
Danny Bonaduce. Her new book, <i>Surviving Agent Orange: And Other Things I
Learned From Being Thrown Under the Partridge Family Bus </i>summarizes the
good, the bad and the ugly from her 16 year long marriage to the erratic
redhead. </div>
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Gretchen met Danny when she was a promotions assistant for
one of the guests on his radio show in <st1:city><st1:place>Phoenix</st1:place></st1:city>.
A day (or so) later, they were married in a civil ceremony. They toasted their
new life together with champagne from a local 7-11.</div>
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<o:p> </o:p>Shortly after the wedding, Danny managed to encounter and
assault a tranny prostitute. Well,
Gretchen stayed with Danny even after this snafu. It didn’t take long, however,
before Danny’s crack addiction became evident (Pieces of aluminum foil started
appearing around the house, for example). And we all know the trail of
shenanigans that followed until the couple divorced in 2007.</div>
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Why did Gretchen stick with Danny so long? (Remember, he was
always an on-again, off-again pain in the ass with <i>everyone</i>.) Gretchen
admits that she always seemed to attract men who were fixer-uppers, and Danny
was the most challenging fixer-upper of all.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span><span style="color: #3366ff;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<o:p> </o:p>A few people I know refused to read this book because it has
a suspicious subtitle “And Other Things
I Learned From Being Thrown Under the Partridge Family Bus”, but would anyone read the book if it had a boring title like” My Life with Danny
Partridge?”</div>
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<o:p> </o:p>The author’s self-deprecating humor and earthy take on life
can be refreshing. She writes about a TV director who critiqued her acting ability
by saying,“That was the most unnatural walking through the door I’ve ever
seen.”</div>
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<o:p> </o:p>There are bits in the book about Gretchen’s pre and post
Danny life, and some of them are pretty funny, too.<span style="color: #3366ff;">
</span>She had a stint as a bar band singer and worked a day job at a Pizza Hut
between gigs. There’s also a heartbreaking bit about an ex-roommate whose life
spiraled out of control, and a section about Gretchen’s early life as an Army
Brat.<span style="color: #3366ff;"> </span> </div>
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It’s been almost a decade since the chaos of <i>Breaking
Bonaduce</i> and the divorce, and both Danny and Gretchen are doing pretty
well.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Danny has remarried and has a
radio show in <st1:city><st1:place>Seattle</st1:place></st1:city>. Gretchen is
the singer for a 1980s cover band, <i>Fatal 80s,</i> and has worked on several reality
TV shows and pilots.</div>
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Bonaduce’s writing style is stream of consciousness, like
conversing with a friend who has lots of funny stories and can’t wait to tell
you all of them. The book doesn’t have a straightforward chronological
framework and skips around occasionally. Some readers may find this casual style
disconcerting. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
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Another reality show star, former “Top Model” Adrianne Curry
wrote the introduction. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She refers to
Gretchen as the “Mother Teresa of <st1:city><st1:place>Hollywood</st1:place></st1:city>”
and credits her with helping her through her divorce from her first husband, <i>Brady
Bunch</i> actor Christopher Knight. (Curry left showbiz and now lives in <st1:state><st1:place>Montana</st1:place></st1:state>
with her second husband, voiceover artist Matthew Rhode.)<span style="color: blue;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Despite the sub-title, <i>Surviving Agent Orange</i> is no
hatchet job. It’s pretty even-keeled, and alternates between complimenting
Danny’s good points and exposing his devious side. Danny often
credited Gretchen with putting him on the road to redemption, both on-air and
in his 2001 autobiography,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><i>Random
Acts of Badness.</i> </div>
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For its honesty and humor, <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><i>Surviving Agent Orange</i>: is a fun read
for anyone who is curious about Danny Bonaduce, the Partridge Family, wacky B-list
celebrities, or any dispatches from the outer edge of pop culture .</div>
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8050719.post-115731272232669972018-08-19T07:59:00.001-07:002019-07-22T18:46:51.107-07:00Why Do So Many People Hate the Eagles?<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCWjxQabjkkA_ke_bFXVE_Rf51Gahh4GgJGsadp31WTi-GWptivVztvACU8Xe6Eszwx_0lz2Qu5r1jlv5WVNvi7NvjIMX_tnTKkJg-mnbcS53j0-uaksNt617GxVE6BDngEEbV/s1600/eaglesband.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="183" data-original-width="276" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCWjxQabjkkA_ke_bFXVE_Rf51Gahh4GgJGsadp31WTi-GWptivVztvACU8Xe6Eszwx_0lz2Qu5r1jlv5WVNvi7NvjIMX_tnTKkJg-mnbcS53j0-uaksNt617GxVE6BDngEEbV/s400/eaglesband.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;"><o:p><br /></o:p></span></div>
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Some of the most hated rock groups of all time are also the most
loved. People can’t hate you unless they know you, and they’re not gonna know
you unless you’re successful. Look at that modern-day phenomenon, Nickelback. Many
people who have never heard Nickelback’s music know that they are the most
hated band of the 21<sup>st</sup> Century. </div>
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Even after Glenn Frey passed away, many writers couldn’t
help but lambaste the Eagles as the most hated successful band of the 20<sup>th</sup>
Century.</div>
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Yacht Rock is hip now,so how can Eagles music be
“horrific”, as a <i>NY Daily News</i> article described it after Frey’s death?
“Hotel California” is more horrific as compared to what, “Feelings” or
“Afternoon Delight”, two other songs that shared the chart with Eagles hits in
the mid-70s ?</div>
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People hate the Eagles because:</div>
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<ul>
<li>Songs are overplayed</li>
<li>An unlikable duo helmed the band (Henley and Frey)</li>
<li>Songs are too wimpy</li>
<li>It’s hip to hate them, gives you street cred</li>
<li>Lebowski hated them </li>
</ul>
The popularity of the “The Big Lebowski” was the
deal-breaker that turned the public reaction to the band from, “They’re OK,” or
“Meh” to “I hate the Eagles, man.”<br />
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But a lot of music fans aren’t quite as cynical. Marc
Eliot’s beautifully written <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2016/01/19/opinions/eliot-glenn-frey/index.html">article</a>
about Glenn Frey’s passing reminds us that youth has long gone for fans who liked the band and their music in the ‘70s. ( Read Eliot's book "<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Limit-Untold-Story-Eagles/dp/030681398X" target="_blank">To The Limit: The Untold Story of the Eagles</a>" for an in-depth look at the band.)<o:p></o:p></div>
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YouTube commenters tend to come up with the most poignant
assessments, though, as Baby Boomers move closer to that Great Gig in the Sky.</div>
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<i>“Makes a grown man cry... Everyone is so happy. Everyone
in the building is young, in their prime, and full of life. I wish every day
could be half as perfect as these moments.”<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Imagine the World
Before Sirius, the Internet, MTV or Walkmans!<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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I can’t listen to the ballads, because like everyone else, I
heard them too many times in the ‘70s. Even though I haven’t heard some of the
songs for decades, I still get out of earshot when I hear one start to play.
Everybody bought Eagles records in the ‘70s, which meant your irritating,
non-musical classmates and co-workers, including the squarest of the square,
counted the <i>Greatest Hits 71-75</i> among their albums. </div>
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I bought the single “The Best of My Love” in high school,
but I listened to the flipside, “Ole 55” instead.</div>
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Despite being crazy about bands as a teen, my friends and I
never got into the Eagles that way. We didn’t care about their personalities,
looks, etc., just the music. I studied the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Hotel
California</i> gatefold sleeve with my friend Mary, (before we made fun of my
John Travolta album and after I proudly introduced her to the Runaways’ first
album).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We did like Joe Walsh, however.
He was the only animated person in the band, and we appreciated his sense of
humor and hotel-trashing skills. </div>
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I was particularly intrigued by the lyrics to “Life in the
Fast Lane” and wrote a novel based on it in my senior year of high school.
Thankfully, the only manuscript I had is long gone now, but it would have fit
right in with the exploitation flick craze of the 70s/early 80s. </div>
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You think “Take It Easy” is overplayed on classic rock radio
now? Ha! Were you even alive in 1972? I was. The summer between sixth and
seventh grade holds many fond memories for me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>I identify it with that transitional period in my life, so I like the
song, no matter how many times I hear it. (The song reached #12 on the
Billboard<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Top 100 in July 1972.) The
Eagles songs were popular when I was in junior high and high school, and their
music just happened to be everywhere. </div>
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However, Eagles songs don’t rate that high on the <a href="https://flashbak.com/40-songs-ruined-by-american-classic-rock-radio-28179/" target="_blank">list </a>of
the offensively overplayed. “Take It Easy” is number 19 on this list. The worst
offenders, to my ears, are “Black Water,” “Old Time Rock n Roll”, “Stairway to
Heaven”, and “Don’t Stop Believing”. Enough already!</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUq5F_VwxkzY3jV7mTVv98bGAuQghyphenhyphenTShtxMhVBjzmeZsJvWzDv9XAbAWjXOIhzeQcQnRIWhXN4Qed7_6OkfK41VU-dphe_0H5AOuOvO1CtqYsL4G5c41j5DbuJubk-DQjy6mU/s1600/standinonthecorner.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="168" data-original-width="300" height="223" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUq5F_VwxkzY3jV7mTVv98bGAuQghyphenhyphenTShtxMhVBjzmeZsJvWzDv9XAbAWjXOIhzeQcQnRIWhXN4Qed7_6OkfK41VU-dphe_0H5AOuOvO1CtqYsL4G5c41j5DbuJubk-DQjy6mU/s400/standinonthecorner.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<b><br /></b>
<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>On my Bucket List: A trip to Standin’ on the <st1:place><st1:placename>Corner</st1:placename>
<st1:placetype>Park</st1:placetype></st1:place></b> </div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In the ‘90s, I watched the <i>Hell Freezes Over</i> tour on
MTV. I was more interested in hearing the <st1:place>Henley</st1:place> solo
songs, but I did watch the whole concert. I didn’t know, however, that the band
included original material on the <i>Hell Freezes Over</i> album. I also had no
idea the Eagles released an album in 2007 – sold exclusively at Walmart!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Eagles Songs I Listen
to On Purpose<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>Rock and Rock-ish<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Witchy Woman<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Outlaw Man</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Already Gone<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
James Dean </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Victim of Love</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Too Many Hands</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Those Shoes</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>Ballads<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The Last Resort </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
King of <st1:city><st1:place>Hollywood</st1:place></st1:city>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Try and Love Again</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>Country-esque</i></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Doolin Dalton</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<st1:street><st1:address>Seven Bridges Road</st1:address></st1:street>
</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p> </o:p><i>If You Never Heard It before, You’d Like It</i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Hotel California </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Life in the Fast lane</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Take It Easy<span style="color: navy;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I Can’t Tell You Why</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Take It to the Limit</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Tequila <st1:city><st1:place>Sunrise</st1:place></st1:city></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Desperado</div>
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<br /></div>
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With all the emphasis radio and mainstream media place on
just a handful of songs, it’s probably been years since you’ve heard “Outlaw
Man” or “James Dean” and maybe decades since you’ve heard “Too Many
Hands”.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
“Witchy Woman” hit #9 on the charts in November 1972, and it
was played almost as much as “Take It Easy”. It had that sinister vibe which
was intriguing to a junior high girl. It’s the closest the band had to a sexy
song. Ugh! I said Eagles and sexy in the same sentence. </div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Waiting for Randy Meisner to hit that high note on “Take It
to The Limit” or Timothy B. Schmidt on “I Can’t Tell You Why” is a lot more
pleasant than listening to “Best of My Love”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>yet again.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Also, “Desperado”, later covered by Linda Ronstadt, is
dismissed as country rock tripe by idiots who don’t listen to the lyrics. </div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>$$$$$$$$<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I read <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Heaven-Hell-Life-Eagles-1974-2001/dp/0470289066" target="_blank">Don Felder’s book, </a>and he comes off as a really thoughtful guy. Of course, he seemed too nice and a bit of a push-over in some
situations (well, that is until he sued them), but when you’re up against
Azoff/Henley/Frey, you don’t have much bargaining power. One non-lawsuit
subplot in the book involves a male stalker and is a reminder that weird,
overzealous fans can make life hell for even less-conspicuous celebrities.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The facts, as laid out in Felder’s book, state that the band
had an agreement in the early days wherein monies would be split between the members equally.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Of course, then things
changed, as <st1:place>Henley</st1:place> remarked in the <a href="https://www.netflix.com/title/70267553" target="_blank">History of the Eagles. </a>The
fact that there was a pesky legal document in the way was a minor
inconvenience, and Azoff took care of it, with only Felder putting up a
fight.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
This brings to mind the same situation that occurred when Van Halen cut Michael Anthony out of their original agreement. Once the band reached
a certain point, the main songwriters figured they should get a bigger slice of
the pie, regardless of any agreements made at the beginning of the band’s
career.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The Eagles’ business choices may not endear them to many
people, though. Here’s an entertaining bit from Letterman, where Dave wants to
play an Eagles song but the show can’t afford it.</div>
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<br /></div>
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<iframe allow="autoplay; encrypted-media" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/YzPONYTT-fk" width="560"></iframe></div>
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<br /></div>
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<br /></div>
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As I look back, I’ve always been more interested in “New
York Minute” and other <st1:place>Henley</st1:place> solo songs than Eagles
songs because of the lyrics. Yes, the lyrics are more mainstream than <st1:state><st1:place>New
York</st1:place></st1:state> intellectual, but more haunting because of their
simplicity. “Sunset Grill”, “Boys of Summer”, “I Will Not Go Quietly” are undisputedly well-crafted and poignant. I wore out my cassette of <i>The End of the Innocence</i> in ’89 and ’90. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I managed to make it all the way through a Youtube video of
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ypTaxS2awdA" target="_blank">Billy Joel interviewing <st1:place>Henley</st1:place></a> at the <st1:street><st1:address>92<sup>nd</sup>
Street</st1:address></st1:street> Y. A few minutes in, I thought, “Ya know, <st1:place>Henley</st1:place>
has so much<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Virgo in his chart, it’ll
make your head swim." I checked his horoscope and yes, his Ascendant and Moon
are in Virgo and he has three planets in moody Cancer.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Frey had his Sun in Scorpio (like you
couldn’t tell from his facial features) and Moon in Capricorn. That’s a match
made in hell if you’re on the wrong side of the twosome. And I don’t even want
to know Azoff’s chart. </div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<st1:place>Henley</st1:place> made a comment about seeing a
Lawrence Welk concert as a kid. He said he saw Welk backstage with two groupies
– nuns. His delivery and expression were so deadpan it took me awhile before I
realized it was a joke. It’s hard to tell with those Virgos. Roger Waters is another
classic rock Virgo (Sun sign and Venus) who is not known for his rollicking
sense of humor.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The Eagles in 2018 consist of Henley, Walsh, Timothy B.
Schmidt, Travis Tritt and Frey’s son, Deacon.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The band (such as they are) will be playing three nights at
the Forum in September. Ticket prices range from $59 for nosebleed seats to
$700 for main floor, according to a recent look at Ticketmaster and StubHub. </div>
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<br /></div>
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<br /></div>
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Verdict: No, the Eagles aren’t horrific. Bland maybe, when
compared with some of their overplayed contemporaries. (Which group has more
interesting songs/personalities, Fleetwood Mac or the Eagles?)<span style="font-family: "arial";"> </span>Try listening to one of their lesser known
songs if you can’t stand the overplayed ones.<span style="color: blue;"> </span>Don’t
be afraid. You won’t lose your coolness factor by listening to a few Eagles
songs. </div>
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<br /></div>
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<br /></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8050719.post-69639355278574418722018-05-06T22:13:00.001-07:002021-10-13T11:28:26.348-07:00The LOOP, Disco Demolition, and the Wild Days of Chicago Rock Radio<br />
<h2>
</h2>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjS9cjDV0sVr5cS3kUa3tvjS_X3WqKp8pP53VOqmTgpNst36fBoS3tRaKg6mQv1WXV5QHldbIKnYrAzBz1igCKQ7CcpYQB-vkO98qrnTbqSJtCbtIMDXBabpEMV4PSV-LyxmJtj/s1600/dahlmeierposter1980s.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="313" data-original-width="400" height="312" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjS9cjDV0sVr5cS3kUa3tvjS_X3WqKp8pP53VOqmTgpNst36fBoS3tRaKg6mQv1WXV5QHldbIKnYrAzBz1igCKQ7CcpYQB-vkO98qrnTbqSJtCbtIMDXBabpEMV4PSV-LyxmJtj/s400/dahlmeierposter1980s.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Jonathon Brandmeier, Kevin Matthews, Steve Dahl & Garry Meier, mid-1980s </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-weight: normal;">I finally watched the Twisted Sister documentary on Netflix a
few weeks ago. I’d been avoiding it for awhile, but figured, “Well, I’ve
watched every other rock doc, I’ll give this one a try.” The doc was almost
three hours long, and it covered the band’s slow climb to MTV fame.</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Twisted Sister’s tale of slogging it out on the <st1:place>Long
Island</st1:place> club scene in the ‘70s was more interesting than you’d
expect. The tackiest part of a pretty tacky story involved scenes about the
band’s onstage anti-disco tirades. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I was shocked at how vicious the <st1:place>Long Island</st1:place>
anti-disco movement was, or that they even had such a movement in the first
place. After all, I grew up in <st1:city><st1:place>Chicago</st1:place></st1:city>,
where the most infamous anti-disco event of all took place, and I was there.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Disco Demolition <o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The stoner, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Dazed and
Confused </i>ethos of my college days was accompanied by non-stop music, visits
to Rose Records and Wax Trax, and wacky DJs. The soundtrack to my first year in
college was provided by WLUP, and to a lesser extent by the other rock stations
in town, WXRT, <st1:stockticker>WLS</st1:stockticker> and WMET. </div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Known more commonly as the <st1:place>Loop</st1:place>, WLUP
was the home of Steve Dahl and Garry Meier. Steve and Garry were the dynamic,
shock-rock duo that gained infamy – and a rowdy audience of teens and
20somethings - in <st1:city><st1:place>Chicago</st1:place></st1:city> and
environs in 1979 and throughout the 1980s.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<iframe allow="autoplay; encrypted-media" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/bXWjQDQDgk8" width="560"></iframe><o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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Their biggest bit was an anti-disco spiel, which involved
blowing up disco records via sound effects on their radio show. They
brought their anti-disco message to listeners in person at <a href="http://www.nwitimes.com/uncategorized/lynwood-got-sneak-peak-at-disco-demolition/article_6c6788b5-8882-5129-ad9e-d27c268c8e71.html">public
appearances,</a> and more fans showed up than the venues and the
station expected. The biggest anti-disco rally of them took place at the old <st1:place><st1:placename>White</st1:placename>
<st1:placename>Sox</st1:placename> <st1:placetype>Park</st1:placetype></st1:place>
(<st1:place><st1:placename>Comiskey</st1:placename> <st1:placetype>Park</st1:placetype></st1:place>)
in 1979.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p> </o:p>I thought that blowing up disco records was a comedy bit. I
didn’t think it was a pop culture revolution. (Apparently, other people did.)
My friends and I loved Steve and Garry and the <st1:place>Loop</st1:place>, so
we penciled in the night of <st1:date day="12" month="7" year="1979">July 12,
1979</st1:date> for a visit to Disco Demolition Night at <st1:place><st1:placename>Sox</st1:placename>
<st1:placetype>Park</st1:placetype></st1:place>.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I owned lots of disco records, and I had a hard time
deciding which record should be blown up. I wasn’t going to part with my “Saturday
Night Fever” soundtrack, Donna Summer’s “Love to Love You, Baby”, and certainly
not the Blondie ten-inch disco version of “Heart of Glass”. I finally decided
on the single of Peter Brown’s, “Do You Wanna Get Funky With Me?”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
We traveled from my friend’s parent’s house near <st1:place><st1:placename>Midway</st1:placename>
<st1:placetype>Airport</st1:placetype></st1:place> to <st1:place><st1:placename>Sox</st1:placename>
<st1:placetype>Park</st1:placetype></st1:place>. As it turned out, we were
part of a contingent of what seemed like thousands of kids swarming the city
buses headed to <st1:place><st1:placename>White</st1:placename> <st1:placename>Sox</st1:placename>
<st1:placetype>Park</st1:placetype></st1:place>. They all wore the same
uniform- a black Loop T- shirt, jeans and sneakers. (A jeans jacket was
optional if it got chilly.) </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I wore the same uniform as the other kids, but I carried an
additional item with me- a copy of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Newsweek,</i>
in case I got bored during the first game of the Twi-Night double-header.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
A sea of kids descended from city buses and stormed <st1:place><st1:placename>Sox</st1:placename>
<st1:placetype>Park</st1:placetype></st1:place> in droves. It was like the Day,
or rather, the Twi-Night, of the Locust, right there at 35<sup>th</sup> and
Shields. When we got out of our bus, we saw kids scaling the side of the
stadium like some kind of artificial mountain.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I don’t even remember if the ticket takers were bothering to
collect the 98 cents (WLUP’s frequency was 97.9) entrance fee by the time we
got there. I remember throwing my record into a bin. I felt sad about that, and
looking in, I could see a copy of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Saturday
Night Fever</i>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It looked brand-new,
like someone had specifically bought it to be “blowed up.” That, of course,
would have actually <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">helped </i>disco’s
bottom line.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2prF2-vuVZCSeW_QdypWf-wXFWleIZfQF9NRYzmy1SbyP2u3RhhbbxfONl1LbB5DzTdsGM0CfooieJOymadhyphenhyphenb1Ap0z4leiun0JFEENpz_qiTeh0TQ17cGLvceC98ICUHave-/s1600/discodemolition2.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="274" data-original-width="645" height="168" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2prF2-vuVZCSeW_QdypWf-wXFWleIZfQF9NRYzmy1SbyP2u3RhhbbxfONl1LbB5DzTdsGM0CfooieJOymadhyphenhyphenb1Ap0z4leiun0JFEENpz_qiTeh0TQ17cGLvceC98ICUHave-/s400/discodemolition2.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal">
The stands were full of kids drinking beer, smoking pot and
flinging disco records like Frisbees. We sat down in the grandstand, passed
around a joint and a bottle of Peppermint Schnapps, and watched the craziness
around us. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
My friend Kathy and I escaped the vinyl Frisbees for awhile
by hanging out on the ramps between levels. When she told me Minnie Ripperton
had died (that’s Maya Rudolph’s Mom, for you youngsters out there), I almost
fell off the ramp railing I was so shocked. (She died on the same day, July 12).
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
When we returned, a young married couple sitting in front of
us, who had obviously come to see the game with their kids, couldn’t take it
anymore and left. They shielded their bewildered children from the flying
records as they walked to the exit. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I
wonder if they asked for a refund.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’d
be mad if I were in their position. </div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Finally the first game ended, and
Steve, Garry and Lorelei, the station's sexy spokeswoman, took the field.
It was great to finally see the guys we had listened to on the radio for
the last few months get their due. The between game record blow-up was louder
and more intense than I expected. I didn't expect them to literally
blow up the records, but they did, right there in center field.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I sat next to an Indian engineering student from my friend’s
dorm. We spent most of the first game talking about a <i>Newsweek</i> article I was
reading about how the world was going to hell in a handbasket. The moment the
interlopers stormed the field, right on cue, the kid said “Now, see, this is
what I was just talking about.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
People said it was a riot, but it looked like a bunch of
kids standing on a baseball field not quite knowing what to do. Some kids turned
over the batting cage and started a small bonfire. That was the riot part, I guess.
Future celebrities Bob Odenkirk (<i>Better
Call Saul</i>) and Michael Clarke Duncan (<i>Green
Mile</i>) were in attendance, though not necessarily on the field. White Sox
broadcaster Harry Caray couldn’t get the kids to disperse, and then the cops
cleared the field.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Most of the barbs on the radio and from the kids I knew were
directed at John Travolta and the BeeGees, white upper middle class guys at
North Side discos, rich celebrities at Studio 54, disco records by Cher, Rod
Stewart, Charo and Ethel Merman, and the radio programmers and management types
who catered to the trend. Anybody who made disco records was a target. If the
Village People or Donna Summer made hard rock records instead of disco records,
I doubt the kids or DJs would have complained. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Kids hated the music for two intertwined reasons – it wasn’t
rock ‘n’ roll, and it was taking over the culture. Funny thing is, what we
would call disco music was around in the mid-70s. "Disco Duck", "The Hustle", hits
by the Hues Corporation, George McRae, Barry White, Shirley and Company, Thelma
Houston and Donna Summer’s "Love to Love You Baby" constantly saturated the
airwaves then, and no one complained about the music. (Well, except for “Disco
Duck.”) The anti-disco movement didn’t start until <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Saturday Night Fever</i> become a hit. </div>
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And, of course, the anti-disco movement didn't kill dance music. It just helped repurpose it in a better way as house, techno, trance, etc. by putting an end to the mainstream "blanding and corporatization" of disco.</div>
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<iframe allow="autoplay; encrypted-media" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/MpQfCcsqQ0E" width="560"></iframe></div>
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I woke up on the floor of my friend’s dorm room the next morning,
hungover, and heard Steve and Garry on the radio. “You were bad little Cohos,”, Steve<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>gleefully admonished. (The anti-disco army was called the "Insane Coho Lips".) <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We listened to as much of the show as we
could, guzzled coffee, and headed for class.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>When we got home, we had to explain to our parents, grandparents and
siblings that we did not go on the field and were not wooed into a vortex of
juvenile delinquency, never to return. </div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">The Rest of the </span></b><st1:place><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Loop</span></b></st1:place><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"> <o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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There was much more to WLUP than Disco Demolition. To me,
that was probably the least interesting aspect of the station’s heyday. </div>
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It was 24/7 wall to wall hilarity, with Steve and Garry, Les
Tracy, Mitch Michaels, Sky Daniels, and Patti Haze. And, of course, Joe Walsh subbing
for Steve and Garry when they were on vacation. </div>
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I teared up hearing this sound bite for the first time in close
to 40 years. “Get jaked and blow lunch
tonight.” Good times.</div>
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<iframe allow="autoplay; encrypted-media" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/a377arvE-JI" width="560"></iframe><o:p></o:p></div>
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The station even had a Loopfest (not to be confused with
Chicagofest) in the early 1980s. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>One
year they had the biker band The Boyzz from Illinois introduced by Ma Nugent (Ted’s
Mom), but the event also featured local bands<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Pezband, the Hounds and Tantrum.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
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And I somehow missed this <a href="http://www.wlup.com/tag/lorelei/">comic book</a>, released in 1980, which
featured the Loop DJs in nonsensical adventures. </div>
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Steve & Garry’s newscaster Buzz Kilman did the Blues
News - Buzz played harmonica as Steve read "down on their luck" news stories. (Buzz would
later become Johnny B’s newsman). Steve's musical parodies included “Heal Me”, a parody of Blondie’s “Call Me”, which addressed the
underhanded shenanigans of preacher Ernest Angley and his “faith healings” and
“Another Kid in the Crawl”, about serial killer John Wayne Gacy, set to the music
of “Another Brick in Wall.” (For obvious reasons, this parody was quickly
shelved.)</div>
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Stan Lawrence did the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">All
My Children</i> report; there were traffic reports from “Tyrone”, complete with
helicopter sound effects. Steve and Garry lambasted old-school <st1:city><st1:place>Chicago</st1:place></st1:city>
radio heroes like Wally Philips and Cliff Mercer, the WGN announcer. Most of the
bits were silly and harmless. However, Steve and Garry’s calls to <st1:country-region><st1:place>Iran</st1:place></st1:country-region>
would result in an international incident or possibly World War <st1:stockticker>III</st1:stockticker>
today. Eventually, Steve and Garry were fired for “violating community
standards.” They then went to <st1:stockticker>WLS</st1:stockticker> and
continued their affront to decency. </div>
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The great thing about the Loop in those days is that they
played all types of bands - AC/DC, Van Halen, Graham Parker, Ian Hunter, Pat Benatar, Tom Petty, The Police, Cheap Trick,
Journey, The Stones, and local bands like Off-Broadway and Pezband. I even remember hearing an interview with Annie Lennox when she was in band called the Tourists.</div>
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<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was a mix of rock
music, regardless of genre. The other rock stations in town did the same. We’d
listen to <st1:stockticker>WLS</st1:stockticker>, WMET, and WXRT, too. (If you
wanted the greatest mix of genres, that was up the dial at WXRT. They played
Kate Bush, the Raincoats, obscure prog rock and even some jazz.) </div>
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I taped an interview one of WXRT’s jocks did with REO Speedwagon
in 1978, so there was a <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">lot</b> of musical
crossover between genres and stations. It was hard to keep track of what you
heard and where sometimes. This was a time where you didn’t have to choose your
party and stick with it, forsaking all others. </div>
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<b><span style="font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">The
</span></b><st1:place><b><span style="font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Loop</span></b></st1:place><b><span style="font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">, Part 2 – Late 1980s/1990s<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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In 1983, I left for <st1:city><st1:place>Los Angeles</st1:place></st1:city>.
Friends would occasionally send me cassettes of shows, but the <st1:place>Loop</st1:place>
was always there when I came back home. By the time I returned in 1987, things
got wackier, and less subversive. </div>
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The hyperactive Jonathon Brandmeier was the new wacky radio guy now. Brandmeier’s humor was more frat boy than
current events. I remember him commenting on a news story about a new exhibit
at the Art Institute saying he didn’t understand that “art crap.” </div>
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A recurring bit on Johnny B’s show involved sidekick/show producer Jimmy "Bud" Weiser trying to locate
visiting celebrities checked into hotels under aliases. Johnny’s band, Johnny and
Leisure Suits, had local hits with “We’re All Crazy in Chicago” and “The Moo-Moo
Song” inspired by a guy who romanced a cow at the Lincoln Park Zoo. </div>
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Kevin Matthews (who I thought was the most talented of them
all), did a whole slew of character voices and celebrity imitations. Pee Wee
Herman did the traffic, and there were rock lyrics with Ronnie Reagan.</div>
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Matthews voiced the sportscaster character/sidekick Jim
Shorts, a foul-mouthed know-it-all with no self-editing abilities. This surly
character wouldn’t work in any other city but <st1:city><st1:place>Chicago</st1:place></st1:city>
(and parts of <st1:state><st1:place>Wisconsin</st1:place></st1:state>, <st1:state><st1:place>Michigan</st1:place></st1:state>,
and <st1:state><st1:place>Indiana</st1:place></st1:state>).</div>
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<iframe allow="autoplay; encrypted-media" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/SerL3USerfM" width="560"></iframe><o:p></o:p></div>
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(Most people would wrinkle their noses at this and dismiss it as infantile. I’m looking for more episodes.) </div>
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The last go round for the crazy, personality-oriented <st1:place>LOOP</st1:place>
was in the mid-1990s .Danny Bonaduce, Brandmeier, Kevin Matthews and Liz Wilde were the weekday DJs, and porno star Seka had a show on the weekends.</div>
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<iframe allow="autoplay; encrypted-media" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/IYNEzvjPZL0" width="560"></iframe><o:p></o:p></div>
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The gags weren’t mean-spirited like Howard Stern's, but they
were silly and annoying. When Kevin Matthews or Brandmeier made prank phone
calls, you could almost hear the person on the other end going, “What the hell
was that?” after hanging up the phone.</div>
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I made a pit stop back to <st1:city><st1:place>Chicago</st1:place></st1:city>
just in time for the 1994 charity boxing match between <a href="https://www.facebook.com/171560095395/videos/227567457088/">Donny Osmond
and Danny Bonaduce</a>. (Danny won.) Also, I got to hear the DJs do a play by
play of the OJ slow-speed Bronco chase. Between that and the Howard Stern
regular Captain Janks’ prank call to Peter Jennings, the commentary was like
the pre-internet version of memes and social media, and could turn anything,
even a tragedy, into a circus. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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In 1992, Eddie Schwartz joined the WLUP staff. (You’re
setting yourself up for problems when you’re on the same station as a guy who
makes fun of you.)</div>
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<iframe allow="autoplay; encrypted-media" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/npOK6T-aBQE" width="560"></iframe></div>
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When I was about 12, I first listened to Eddie Schwartz when
he did overnights on <st1:stockticker>WIND</st1:stockticker>. I had no idea
what he looked like. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I was sitting in one
of my college radio classes waiting for the teacher, when he walked in as our
guest instructor for the day. To say he was larger than life is an understatement.
He was morbidly obese, and weighed maybe 500-600 pounds. He had the class in stitches,
telling a crude story or two and swearing a lot, in contrast to his nice guy
radio persona. RIP Big Guy.</div>
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In the mid-2000s, terrestrial radio faded away, as podcasts
and internet radio took over. I found the <st1:place>Loop</st1:place>
online, only to discover Mancow was the star DJ. I couldn’t stand the guy when
he started on another <st1:city><st1:place>Chicago</st1:place></st1:city>
station, WRCX-FM, in the early ‘90s. The station’s only other claim to fame was
their sexy calendar girls, like a Lorelei for every month of the year.
Otherwise, it was classic rock as usual. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
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By the time the <st1:place>Loop</st1:place> was purchased by a Christian broadcasting company in March, the irreverent DJs of the ‘70s-‘90s
were working at other stations or no where to be found. (Steve and Garry broke up
in the mid-90s. Steve currently occupies the drive time slot at <st1:stockticker>WLS</st1:stockticker>-AM.)<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
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The <st1:place>Loop</st1:place> lives on the internet
without all the fanfare and comedy, and you can still buy the <st1:place>Loop</st1:place>
logo T-shirt.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In keeping with the spirit
of the original <st1:place>Loop</st1:place>, the last song played before the
station’s segue into Christian pop was “Highway to Hell.”</div>
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Today’s youthful comedy podcasts are more sophisticated and
user-friendly, and music is optional. Yes, the radio we grew up with was cheeky
and juvenile, but boy, did we have fun.</div>
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<br />
<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8050719.post-69969604166909481862018-02-10T17:03:00.001-08:002021-10-13T11:27:59.522-07:00Documentary Review: The Terry Kath Experience<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9jC2ZLzJZXkkgMtyfUvq-lRXHtg_5H1g-RA8V0cRQbJQIBJlXhuf13IOQ9MGKBHv-6SZBvSJX6O_luEH_ANzWVCoAQb3ni0GTZ-0jQ6ci39-SprJyQ5VIledo2MY8Z7JeSiRE/s1600/terrykath.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1586" data-original-width="1586" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9jC2ZLzJZXkkgMtyfUvq-lRXHtg_5H1g-RA8V0cRQbJQIBJlXhuf13IOQ9MGKBHv-6SZBvSJX6O_luEH_ANzWVCoAQb3ni0GTZ-0jQ6ci39-SprJyQ5VIledo2MY8Z7JeSiRE/s320/terrykath.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><br /></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">The Terry Kath
Experience <o:p></o:p></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Documentary<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Directed by Michelle
Kath Sinclair<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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When I mention the band <st1:city><st1:place>Chicago</st1:place></st1:city>,
what do you think of? Syrupy love songs of the ‘80s and ‘90s and endless tours
of the nostalgia circuit? That’s the recent and quasi-recent past, but that’s
not the <st1:city><st1:place>Chicago</st1:place></st1:city> I remember. </div>
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The jazz-rock hippies of my childhood released double albums
with songs in odd time signatures, with a prominent horn section and 12-minute
songs based on classical music song cycles. And their original guitarist, Terry
Kath, was deemed to be better than Jimi Hendrix by none other than….Jimi Hendrix.
Unless you’re a musician or a longtime <st1:city><st1:place>Chicago</st1:place></st1:city>
fan, you may not have heard of Terry Kath. He died in a freak accident in
January 1978 when he was cleaning out one of his handguns.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNJR7xqydlYsbpZ9kvnOA6Om4zoYHjd-Z8n72270wMVQM8ieMCO0yiXbBomL2eDIU6s2PJyEopNZ6FzZeptFkKsEVg1h6rRFiOIYmbm0aMiwC-UM38Ah0mJ6Fl42YFEUBdjL8s/s1600/terrykathexperience.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="445" data-original-width="312" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNJR7xqydlYsbpZ9kvnOA6Om4zoYHjd-Z8n72270wMVQM8ieMCO0yiXbBomL2eDIU6s2PJyEopNZ6FzZeptFkKsEVg1h6rRFiOIYmbm0aMiwC-UM38Ah0mJ6Fl42YFEUBdjL8s/s320/terrykathexperience.jpg" width="224" /></a></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Terry Kath
Experience,</i> a documentary directed by Kath’s daughter, Michelle Kath
Sinclair, retraces her Dad’s life via interviews with his friends, relatives, bandmates
and fellow musicians. She was only two years old when he died and has little
recollection of him. She produced the documentary through Kickstarter donations
after traditional funding fell through due to the usual complaint - “limited
appeal.” <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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A daughter interviewing friends of the Dad she never knew
gives the film an emotional appeal most other documentaries lack. (Of course,
there are a few documentaries where an unrelated filmmaker interjects himself
or herself into the subject’s life during the course of filming.) Even Peter
Cetera showed up for this one<span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">. (He
declined to be interviewed for the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Netflix</i>
Chicago documentary.) </span><span style="color: #666666;">There’s a clip of Kiefer
Sutherland, Sinclair’s stepfather, at her wedding, recalling the day Kath died. </span></div>
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There’s lots of archival footage - notes Kath was taking for his solo album,
family photos and home movies, a concert filmed at Caribou Ranch and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">New</i> <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Years Rockin’ Eve</i> with the Beach Boys (both
Dick Clark Productions). <span style="color: #666666;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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In addition to her father’s bandmates in <st1:city><st1:place>Chicago</st1:place></st1:city>,
Sinclair interviews all the usual suspects (Jeff Lynne, Joe Walsh, Mike
Campbell, etc.) She also talks to a <st1:city><st1:place>Chicago</st1:place></st1:city>
high school student who recreated Kath’s famous Fender Telecaster guitar after
studying articles about the instrument in old guitar magazines. (Yes, there’s
hope for the youth of today.)</div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhE4-nUh0TOHG_W5ut_5i6kjfl3yB-9oiGyC2cIYoQdRusOte1wY0-0xDNqicL76GpvkgloVsF9A1fgwNcCgLVLK4EfVgkmW0ZbAaSpCO1U8c0h7u_8Idm8w2WHRyQTHm7kOpTz/s1600/chicagocaribouranch.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="472" data-original-width="630" height="239" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhE4-nUh0TOHG_W5ut_5i6kjfl3yB-9oiGyC2cIYoQdRusOte1wY0-0xDNqicL76GpvkgloVsF9A1fgwNcCgLVLK4EfVgkmW0ZbAaSpCO1U8c0h7u_8Idm8w2WHRyQTHm7kOpTz/s320/chicagocaribouranch.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Chicago at Caribou Ranch</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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The band’s first manager, James Guerico, bought Caribou
Ranch, a recording studio/playground in <st1:state><st1:place>Colorado</st1:place></st1:state>
for the band, and put them in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Electra
Glide in Blue,</i> a movie he financed. But he also performed that obligatory
rock manager move - cheating the band out of money. Like Cetera, he passed on
the <st1:city><st1:place>Chicago</st1:place></st1:city> documentary, but grants
Sinclair an interview<o:p></o:p></div>
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The documentary film crew pays a visit to the ranch on the
day it’s slated for demolition. Camelia Kath recalls some of the memories in between
the wood paneled walls. (The chivalrous way he wooed Camelia, whom he married in 1974, is endearing.)</div>
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A short interview clip reveals Kath wasn’t a connoisseur of
groupies like many ‘70s rockers. Unfortunately, Kath did enjoy cocaine, another
‘70s vice, a bit too much, and that contributed to his early death.<o:p></o:p></div>
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The <span style="color: #444444;">Chicago</span> documentary <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><a href="https://www.netflix.com/title/80138615" target="_blank">Now More Than Ever</a></i><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><a href="https://www.netflix.com/title/80138615" target="_blank"> </a>(</b>currently on Netflix<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">)</b> will fill you on the 40 years since
Kath died. The <span style="color: #666666;">band</span> documentary also covers much of the same material in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Terry Kath Experience</i> in more detail
and with more era-appropriate drug and Playboy Bunny references. </div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0lruQuPCRZkAgmhkU-VzqrhIa278XGJmEZ1cXY7BBJh3cFMM0x0-3WzvrCNQXhAA5ITz_qNgb-9Oi-t0L2V3WWTch0a7l_rJORQJ_pOFzIxgomZMXnLmr0aJlqPsEzYFyGCws/s1600/tkguitar.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="255" data-original-width="383" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0lruQuPCRZkAgmhkU-VzqrhIa278XGJmEZ1cXY7BBJh3cFMM0x0-3WzvrCNQXhAA5ITz_qNgb-9Oi-t0L2V3WWTch0a7l_rJORQJ_pOFzIxgomZMXnLmr0aJlqPsEzYFyGCws/s320/tkguitar.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Terry's famous Fender Telecaster</td></tr>
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Sax player Walter Parazaider recalls
Jimi tell him one night at the Whisky “Your guitar player is better than me.”<span style="color: blue;"> (</span>Probably the inspiration for the title <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Terry Kath Experience.) </i>The band’s
keyboardist, Robert Lamm,<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> </i>among others, have said that Kath’s singing voice was that of a white Ray Charles.<span style="color: blue;"> </span><span style="color: #666666;">Those comments</span><span style="color: black;"> </span><span style="color: #666666;">may sound</span><span style="color: black;"> </span>over-the-top
if you aren’t familiar with early <st1:city><st1:place>Chicago</st1:place></st1:city>. “Wait - this guy<span style="color: blue;"> </span>played guitar better than Jimi Hendrix <i>and</i> he sang like a white Ray Charles?” Here’s some supporting
evidence.</div>
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25 or Six to Four (<st1:stockticker><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">OMG</i></st1:stockticker><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> Did
they ever play this song on the radio </i><st1:stockticker><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">ALL</i></st1:stockticker><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> THE
TIME</i>)</div>
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After not hearing the song for years, you really appreciate
it in all its glory. </div>
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If you doubt the accuracy of the statements about Kath’s
guitar playing, this solo may convince you otherwise.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
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<iframe allow="autoplay; encrypted-media" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/7uAUoz7jimg" width="560"></iframe></div>
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Make Me Smile<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
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<i><iframe allow="autoplay; encrypted-media" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Btq4MnwvQgM" width="560"></iframe></i></div>
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<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DPZUgfOqAdg" target="_blank">I’m a Man</a></div>
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<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gje_0OMj4h4" target="_blank">Dialogue</a></div>
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Question 67 and 68</div>
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Cetera lip syncs to a recording in this clip. Check the
comments section for Danny Seraphine’s memories of the filming and a great
revelation from one viewer – “Whoa! Who’s that on guitar? I thought <st1:city><st1:place>Chicago</st1:place></st1:city>
was weak-ass Dad music. That dude’s an animal.”<o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-9tyKZYyCj0" target="_blank">Takin It On Uptown </a><o:p></o:p></div>
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Little One (written for his daughter, it was the last song Kath ever sang with <st1:city><st1:place>Chicago</st1:place></st1:city>)</div>
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“Wishin’ You Were Here” (not to be confused with Pink
Floyd’s “Wish You Were Here”<i>)</i>, and “Color
My World”<i> </i>were other omnipresent songs
in the early to mid ‘70s. There was no relief from <st1:city><st1:place>Chicago</st1:place></st1:city>
ballads when I was in high school. Some kid played the intro to “Color My
World” on the piano in the gym every damn day at the same time. Even the
teachers complained, “Learn another song!!”</div>
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Listen to any pre-1979 Chicago album, especially <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Chicago Transit
Authority </i>and<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> Chicago II,</i> for
more Terry Kath-era <st1:city><st1:place>Chicago</st1:place></st1:city>. </div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9ygtVWk6CfcfqVZwUyBDPBhbtv2VELFOrrelA9NWq3lgsn-U6bCHZr1YTreK_192n4LkwlrpeZC4XyLnC5j6n_osFJu61agThrknhu2LKyhWXqvP1lSOPLLFURp12u6tqCY48/s1600/michellekathtafths.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="428" data-original-width="564" height="242" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9ygtVWk6CfcfqVZwUyBDPBhbtv2VELFOrrelA9NWq3lgsn-U6bCHZr1YTreK_192n4LkwlrpeZC4XyLnC5j6n_osFJu61agThrknhu2LKyhWXqvP1lSOPLLFURp12u6tqCY48/s320/michellekathtafths.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Michelle Kath Sinclair at her father's alma mater, Taft High School in Chicago </td></tr>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8050719.post-23325301156522300782018-01-01T01:20:00.001-08:002021-10-13T11:28:40.720-07:00Book Review: Meow! My Groovy Life with Tiger Beat’s Teen Idols by Ann Moses with Ann Wicker<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<b>Meow! My Groovy Life with Tiger Beat’s Teen Idols by Ann Moses (with Ann Wicker)</b><br />
<b>Publisher: Q Coding LLC</b><br />
<b>306 pages</b><br />
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Before the internet and social
media, teen girls found out about their favorite pop star crushes from teen mags like <i>Tiger Beat, 16, Star,
Flip</i> and lesser-known fly-by-night publications<i>. Meow! My Groovy Life with Tiger Beat’s Teen Idols</i> by Ann Moses (with Ann Wicker) gives us a first-hand account of what it was like to work at a teen mag in the freewheeling 1960s and early 1970s.</div>
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Ann Moses wrote for Tiger Beat
from 1965 to 1972, as their groovy girl
on the street, interviewing music and TV stars for the teen set. Along the way,
she had a free pass to many of the iconic music events of the ‘60s, including
the Monterey Pop Festival and the taping of Elvis Presley’s 1969 Comeback
Special. </div>
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With a forward by Bobby Sherman, and lots of encounters with
every teenie-bopper idol from back in the day, <i>Meow</i> name-checks most of the
recognizable pop stars/groups from the '60s/'70s, from Davy Jones, Mickey Dolenz,
David Cassidy, Mark Lindsay to lesser-known musicians of the time. (Remember Dino,
Desi and Billy or Sopwith Camel?)</div>
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Moses talked her way into interviewing the Dave Clark 5 in
1965 after a gig at a theater across from her day job at <st1:place>Disneyland</st1:place>.
(In those days, it was possible to wander backstage without being vetted by a
security team.) </div>
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This impromptu interview lead to an unpaid gig with a
mimeographed zine called <i>Rhythm ‘n’ News.</i> Moses interviewed James Brown, the
Beach Boys and others for this homespun publication. Soon after, she started
working part-time for Tiger Beat and quit her job at <st1:place>Disneyland</st1:place>.
Moses went from pouring orange juice as a counter girl to hanging out with the
Who, the Stones, the Monkees, Paul Revere and the Raiders and other popular
bands. </div>
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Originally called Lloyd Thaxton’s Tiger Beat after the <st1:city>Los
Angeles</st1:city> based dance show host in 1965, but Tiger Beat
soon dropped Thaxton’s name. Some stories were written by a staffer, taking on
the persona of an enthusiastic young fan who didn’t exist, but with Moses on
staff as a reporter, they now had the real thing.</div>
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<i>Tiger Beat </i>and other teen mags weren’t exactly fake news,
but they did <i>de-</i>sensationalize certain information to make stars seem squeaky-clean. <i>Tiger Beat </i>kept it G-rated for girls in
grade school and junior high, omitting mentions of drugs or alcohol and rumors
of trysts between unmarried people.</div>
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The writers kept stories to favorite colors, favorite foods
and other innocuous subjects. Stories
about life back at home with the family and show-biz shenanigans, sometimes
punctuated with lots of exclamation points (!!!!!) were mandatory. Siblings, parents
and friends offered information about the stars, often illustrated with baby
pictures and childhood photos.</div>
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Moses writes of chatting with a polite Mick Jagger and smoking pot for the first time under the tutelage of the Jefferson Airplane.
Moses’ experiences were fun but businesslike, with pot smoking the only vice
and one or two musicians making untoward advances. </div>
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<i>Tiger Beat’s</i> newfound success gave
the competition jitters. Gloria Stavers,
16 Magazine’s 40-something editor, resented sharing interviewees with the upstart <st1:city>L.A.</st1:city>
based magazine. She ordered Moses to get off the
Raiders tour bus one day in <st1:city>Tampa</st1:city>,
claiming it was her turn to interview the band. </div>
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While 16 still did a respectable
business, the bands responded better to a female reporter closer to their own
age, not to one as old as their Moms. Teen girl readers could live vicariously
through Ann’s adventures.</div>
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<i>Tiger Beat</i> staffers also had more
access to the actors and rock groups, as it was based in <st1:city>Hollywood</st1:city>,
where most TV shows, movies and records were produced. (Stavers and 16 Magazine
were based in <st1:city>New York City</st1:city>.) </div>
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Eventually, Moses did date a pop star. She had a sweet, whirlwind
courtship with the Bee Gees’ Maurice Gibb, and visited <st1:country-region>England</st1:country-region>
to meet his Mum and Dad. This section goes on for a bit too long, but who can
blame Moses for reliving her first love, especially when it was with a pop
star. Unfortunately, the fairytale romance came to a rather abrupt end, with a
female pop star as the villain in the scenario. </div>
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After moving up the ranks to
become an editor at <i>Tiger Beat, </i>Moses discovered she only made half as much as
the male editor of the newly-christened <i>Rona Barrett’s Gossip </i>magazines. Now
married to a civilian (i.e., a non-celebrity), she left the magazine and
journalism to raise a family and never looked back until now. </div>
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Unfortunately, <i>Tiger Beat </i>didn’t survive into the 21<sup>st</sup>
Century. The magazine disappeared in the 1990s after being sold to a now-defunct
company called Primedia (one of my former employers). </div>
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<i>Meow! My Groovy Life with Tiger Beat’s Teen Idols</i> documents a
long-gone era when teen mag editors helped mold pop stars’ images and wide-eyed
girls plastered their bedroom walls with pictures of their “teen dreams”. </div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8050719.post-31554625247335029402017-11-10T15:52:00.002-08:002018-12-25T22:54:06.030-08:0010 of the Best Tom Petty Deep Cuts <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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I never cried when a celebrity died before. Usually, I’d be shocked for a few minutes or there’d be a delayed response where the grief would come days or weeks later. With someone I’m not that familiar with, it’s merely a comment like, “Well, there’s another one gone.”</div>
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But when I heard Tom Petty was in cardiac arrest, the tears flowed immediately.</div>
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There were tributes saying the same thing - losing him seemed so personal to so many, even people who weren’t big fans. He seemed like a regular guy; someone you could have a few beers with at the local bar. He wasn’t flashy, involved in scandals, TMZ.com headlines or publicity stunts; he made music. That’s what he did.</div>
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Despite his superstardom as an individual, Tom kept his original band intact through the years. Only one original member left for good after 20 years (drummer Stan Lynch, who was replaced by Steve Ferrone). Bass player Ron Blair left in 1981 (to open a surf shop!) only to return in 2002. (Blair replaced Howie Epstein after Howie O.D’ed.) </div>
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Petty and guitar player Mike Campbell got along for over 40 years! Imagine that, a singer and guitar player working together that long without recurring fistfights.</div>
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I first discovered the Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers by reading a truncated review of their first album in <i>Hit Parader. </i>I<i> </i>keyed on the word Heartbreakers in the review section, mistakenly thinking the review was about Johnny Thunders’ Heartbreakers.</div>
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“That’s not the Heartbreakers!” I exclaimed after looking at the band photo. The critic,who seemed to be from the <st1:state>New York</st1:state> punk crowd, insulted the band's looks. The review told me nothing about the band or its music, except that they were from <st1:place><st1:city>Gainsville</st1:city>, <st1:state>FL.</st1:state></st1:place></div>
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A few weeks later I heard “American Girl” and lesser-known cuts from the debut album, probably on WXRT, a local free-form station that routinely played all kinds of new releases. I instantly fell in love with the sound.</div>
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Some of my fondest memories of Tom were formed before most people had ever heard of him. I keep going back to these two concerts – <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AJv2dOWa-3o">Winterland</a> and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QnS8577gBNc">Santa Monica, New Years Eve, 1978</a> and reliving the soundtrack to my junior and senior years of high school.</div>
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Compiling a top 10 list of Petty songs, underrated or otherwise, is an arduous task. I could have added 20 more, but I’m sticking with this list – and a few bonus tracks. </div>
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<b>10. American Dream Plan B– Hypnotic Eye<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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The last TPHB album, <i>Hypnotic Eye,</i> released in 2014, melded the straightforward garage rock of the first two albums with the wisdom of age. It covered a lot of ground subject-wise, from religion to the deflating American dream. The crunchy, badass “American Dream Plan B” may just be one of the fiercest songs Tom’s ever written, and the band just wails on this.</div>
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/wSWJZzoznaY" width="560"></iframe><o:p></o:p></div>
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<b>9. Something Good Coming - Mojo<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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Unless you’re a completist, you probably don’t know a lot about Petty’s post-2000 albums. With the advent of the new millennium, the music industry didn’t just change – it pretty much ceased to exist as we knew it. 2002’s <i>The Last DJ</i> indicted music industry for its greed and corruption. This was different than the legal wrangling that surrounded <i>Hard Promises</i> and <i>DTT.</i> No one else really cared about fixing the music business anymore. There wasn’t much of an industry left to preserve.</div>
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The blues rock of 2010’s <i>Mojo</i> doesn’t rehash old blues tunes, but proves that you can write brand-new blues with the spirit of the originals. Some are convincing as new songs and others are predominantly a showcase for the band without much of a framework. There’s plenty to groove to here, but my favorite is a slower song “Something Good Coming” with its message of hope.</div>
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<i><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/rSvlJe1mwlw" width="560"></iframe><o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<b>8. The Damage You’ve Done – Let Me Up I’ve Had Enough <o:p></o:p></b></div>
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No one escaped the neon malaise of the late 1980s, not even Tom. Yes, the TP and the Heartbreakers toured with Dylan, but they still had time to record the underrated <i>Let Me Up I’ve Had Enough. </i>The songwriting and playing remained natural, there were no swirly synthesizer-heavy songs or any other missteps into trends. Tom would never fall for that, but this album still stalled at #20 on the Billboard 100.</div>
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Perhaps the only song from this album most people recognize, “You’re Jammin Me” wasn’t included on the first Greatest Hits package. The video for it is a primer in early computer graphics editing.</div>
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My favorite, though, is “The Damage You’ve Done”, a vitriolic sentiment set to a breathless rock beat. It was passed over as a secondary single in favor of “Runaway Trains”. <i> </i></div>
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Bonus: For some silly end of ‘80s video hijinx, check out this clip from the VHS compilation “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j2_TeSMQcX0">A Bunch of Videos and Some Other Stuff”. </a> Hilarity ensues when clips of golf lessons by a Paraguayan golf pro pop up on the band’s video compilation. And Stan chops up the ‘ole <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dTLyffriaDg">drum machine</a> .</div>
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<b>7. Magnolia – You’re Gonna Get It <o:p></o:p></b></div>
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If you were a teenage girl in 1978, there was an unwritten rule that upon first seeing a band on their album cover, you had to choose the guy you thought was cute. The front cover of "You're Gonna Get It", the Heartbreakers' second album, made it hard to decide who was the cutest. To our young eyes, the Heartbreakers were all hot (or were we still using the term <i>foxy</i> back then?), but the songs kept us interested long after we moved on to new rock star crushes. </div>
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<i>Magnolia</i> concerns subject matter that would be addressed with more authority on <i>Even the Losers</i>, but this tale of unrequited love was still bittersweet in its own right. I wanted to include either this or <i>Luna </i>from the debut album on the Top 10. “Luna” was more poetic, (Black and yellow pools of light /Outside my window/ Luna come to me tonight/ I am a prisoner /Luna glide down from the moon), but since “You’re Gonna Get It” was the first TPHB album I bought, I’ll go with <i>Magnolia .</i>
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<b>6. Fooled Again- Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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Tom gets all snarly with the vocals here. I love it as much now as I did when I was 17.</div>
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Even though we had yet to see the extent of his talent (and the Heartbreakers as a unit), there was still something there, an earthiness you didn’t see from other bands touted as new-wave or power-pop at that time.<o:p></o:p></div>
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I also believe this mini-concert was filmed is after bass player Ron Blair, swallowed a block of hash to avoid getting hauled in at customs. See the documentary <i>Runnin’ Down a Dream </i>for details.</div>
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The entire show: t<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akB3UNaOCJk">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akB3UNaOCJk</a> <o:p></o:p></div>
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<b>5. Wooden Heart – Playback<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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With and without the Heartbreakers, Petty performed dozens of covers. Most of them were the usual suspects – “Mona”, “Baby, Please Don’t Go”, “Gloria”, “Psychotic Reaction”<i> </i>(with Stan on vocals), but Tom’s tender rendition of “Wooden Heart”, the Elvis hit from <i>GI Blues,</i> is my favorite.</div>
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Bonus cut – from the aforementioned Winterland 1978 concert – Clarence Carter’s <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bl7jolW2qws">“Makin’ Love (at The Dark End of the Street</a>)” It totally floored me to see this skinny white boy channel the blues with so much conviction.</div>
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<b>4. Face in the Crowd –Full Moon Fever<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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One of his saddest songs, it has that twinge of longing for that <i>something, </i>which differs with every listen and to every listener. I vacillate between this and “Love is a Long Road” which is a rocker, but melancholy all he same.</div>
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When I first heard <i>Full Moon Fever, </i>I said to a friend, “Hey! Is Tom going through a bad divorce? Cause this album has a lot of depressing songs on it.” Well, actually, the divorce album was 1999’s <i>Echo,</i> which was more dirge-like. <i> </i><o:p></o:p></div>
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<b>3. Honey Bee - Wildflowers<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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Raucous, bluesy hard rock blasts out on SNL with Dave Grohl as guest drummer. With all the ballads and wistful songs Tom recorded in the ‘90s, it was good to hear an all-out rocker again. Note the amused look at Mike’s face as Dave launches into his drum histrionics.</div>
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<b>2. Nightwatchman –Hard Promises <o:p></o:p></b></div>
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A few nights before Tom died I was noodling around on YouTube trying to find different live versions of <i>Nightwatchman,</i> a funky reggae number from <i>Hard Promises</i> I hadn’t heard in 30 years. I was overjoyed to hear it again.</div>
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<i><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/V8ynaJX3HH8" width="560"></iframe><o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<b>1. Shadow of a Doubt (A Complex Kid) - Damn the Torpedoes<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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Tom had a great way of writing about women. His lyrics were about real women in everyday situations, and always seemed to be written with reverence for the female involved. There were no signs of classic rock cliches like the conniving whore or untouchable goddess. </div>
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“With that little bit of mystery, she's a complex kid, </div>
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And she's always been so hard to live without.<br />
Yeah, she always likes to leave me, with a shadow of a doubt<span style="font-family: "arial";"><span style="background-color: #cfe2f3; font-size: 8px;">."</span></span></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8050719.post-4486395805944660372017-10-18T15:15:00.002-07:002017-10-18T15:17:28.150-07:00CD Review - Crowmatic by Steve Hooker<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxVLHsgNjpWsR24aRE8J7VIXIrQanfZv5AYC1HLMJh8zi523T6ju8nv2xpP2FpjkS-um2RlnJmqIXPPr0wRNC0MkbREr7dUrKvwDj4hGKbi4E3EM7QkoFt_1lFLKHpaS_Dw3gc/s1600/stevehookercrowmatic.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="225" data-original-width="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxVLHsgNjpWsR24aRE8J7VIXIrQanfZv5AYC1HLMJh8zi523T6ju8nv2xpP2FpjkS-um2RlnJmqIXPPr0wRNC0MkbREr7dUrKvwDj4hGKbi4E3EM7QkoFt_1lFLKHpaS_Dw3gc/s1600/stevehookercrowmatic.jpg" /></a></div>
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<b>Crowmatic<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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<b>Steve Hooker<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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<b>Pimphouse Records<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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This six-song CD from rockabilly/blues rock veteran Steve
Hooker has all the earmarks of his time-tested sounds. The CD starts with the
shouting you often hear on preludes to '50s or early '60s songs, and then segues into blues rock stomper <i>Don’t Look Behind You.<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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The rhythmic cadence of the instrumental <i>Nine Yards</i> brings back memories of
old-school <st1:city>Chicago</st1:city> blues, and <i>Keep On Keepin On</i> is a Cajun-esque
growler. <i>Catch On</i> is a hip-shakin’
rockabilly dance revival distilled in two minute and twelve seconds. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Any fan of ‘50s rock ‘n’ roll or rockabilly will enjoy
listening to this CD – or more likely, dancing to it.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8050719.post-25420226100754523562017-08-27T12:54:00.001-07:002021-10-13T11:29:31.597-07:00 Book Review: Runnin’ with the Devil: A Backstage Pass into the Wild Times, Loud Rock and Down and Dirty Truth Behind the Making of Van Halen By Noel E. Monk with Joe Layden <div class="MsoNormal">
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<b>Book Review: Runnin’
with the Devil: A Backstage Pass into the Wild Times, Loud Rock and Down and
Dirty Truth Behind the Making of Van Halen<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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<b>By Noel E. Monk with
Joe Layden <o:p></o:p></b></div>
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Noel Monk managed Van Halen from 1979 until the band fired
him in early 1985. With the 30 year non-disclosure agreement now lapsed, Monk
tells his side of the story, but not without a tad of bitterness, in <i>Runnin’ with the Devil: A Backstage Passinto the Wild Times, Loud Rock and Down and Dirty Truth Behind the Making of Van Halen.<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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Monk managed the Sex Pistols ill-fated <st1:country-region>US</st1:country-region>
tour in 1978, stage managed at <st1:city>Woodstock</st1:city>,
and seemed a natural to handle the next big thing. </div>
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Handling any rock band on the road is a chore, but Monk had
his work cut out for him with VH. Monk had to assure Eddie a blow job couldn’t
get a girl pregnant and reels in disbelief when he records the guitar solo on
Michael Jackson’s <i>Beat It</i> –for
free. </div>
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Alex was a mean drunk. “Al pouring Schlitz Malt Liquor over
himself and his drumkit…was the soberest part of the day for Alex”, Monk
writes. And Dave’s ego and ADHD (buoyed on by cocaine) resulted in roadies
having a straitjacket on hand, and not just as a joke. </div>
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Monk considers the band’s appearance at the US Festival in
1983 to be “one of my worst (days) as manager of Van Halen.” As anyone who was there can tell
you (I was), apparently there was such a thing as Dave doing much coke, but the rest of the band took up the slack musically.<br />
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<i>Runnin’ with the Devil</i>
reinforces the notion that musicians and entertainers aren’t necessarily
exemplary human beings. Even before adding groupies and drugs to the mix, the
guys come off as emotionally stunted. In Monk’s reminiscence, there are three
bad guys here. Dave’s an egotistical blowhard, Eddie plays guitar and doesn’t
know about much else, and Alex is a drunken bully.</div>
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In the early days, Dave wanted to
marry a movie star, but Ed beat him to it<span style="color: blue;">. </span>Valerie, like millions of other girls, had a crush
on Eddie. Unlike those girls, though, she got to meet him backstage in her hometown and it was love at first sight. Valerie wasn’t much different
than her TV alter-ego, Barbara Cooper, but she eventually fit right in with the
entourage and the rest of the wives.</div>
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Valerie did coke because “Ed likes me thin”, but is confused
about groupies. She wondered why the guys weren’t hornier after being away from
their wives for so long. </div>
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Monk instituted a payola scheme for the band’s least
commercial album, <i>Fair Warning</i>. It was
probably overkill – the album had two radio-friendly songs, <i>Pretty Woman</i> and <i>Unchained.</i> The band had almost achieved iconic status by 1981, so it was an
unneeded boost . Around the same time, Dave’s alleged paternity suit insurance
was widely touted in every publication from <i>Time</i>
to <i>Hit Parader.</i> It was a PR stunt, unlike the exclusion of a certain candy backstage per their rider. The band actually had a good reason to exclude brown M & Ms from the catering table, as Monk
reveals.</div>
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Some of the behind the scenes anecdotes really knock the sex
and drugs glamour out of the band’s image. What should have been a triumphant
bus ride to <st1:city>Paris</st1:city> after the last
DLR-era show ended up being depressing and icky. The guys comes off
particularly pathetic in Monk’s description of the meeting where the band fired
him </div>
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Eddie, Alex and Dave cut Michael Anthony, the band’s only “nice guy” out of his
share of the band’s royalties from the album <i>1984 </i>on, and made him a salaried
player. Even after this, they still resorted to junior high bullying tactics on
the road like they resented his mere existence.</div>
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Was the acrimony toward Michael Anthony solely because of
money, or was there some other reason?</div>
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Some critics would question why Anthony would accept the
demotion and stay in the band. (Shades of Rick Wright and Pink Floyd?) Although
what was Anthony supposed to do? Quit the band and release a solo album that
went nowhere and fade into obscurity, or stay with one of the biggest American
rock bands ever as a salaried player? </div>
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Being a hardcore fan, I’m going to nitpick one detail. Monk says the band rarely played <i>Happy Trails</i> during their concerts, but I saw them do it at least twice, maybe three times.</div>
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Van Halen fans should read <i>Runnin’ With the Devil</i> after Greg Renoff’s <i>Van Halen Rising</i> and before Sammy and Dave’s books. <i>VH
Rising</i> has lots of info you won’t find anywhere else. It’s a
well-researched look at the band’s origins, (Dave was a rich kid; Eddie and
Alex were from the wrong side of the tracks.) And <i>Runnin’ With the Devil’s </i>backstage<i> </i>shenanigans probably won’t shock you if you know anything about
the band, but the degree of acrimony between the guys near the end of the
first VH era may leave you flummoxed. <i> </i><o:p></o:p><br />
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8050719.post-60506085991124490792017-08-07T20:37:00.000-07:002018-12-07T23:02:23.805-08:00Book Review: A Fast Ride Out of Here: Confessions of Rock’s Most Dangerous Man by Pete Way (With Paul Rees)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiK6vzsgEU3_JtRRA9HJBsoi1Z_fUFr8Aqiy4YziPCNHaziq8MbGxK51uoB3EBd-9FSQuy3n3d2hr8fn9omP1aA-zKjWuqAulsFEoysvOzEOijnV5QFm_jSqR5iCa2YAa_DV8sA/s1600/fastridepeteway.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="346" data-original-width="229" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiK6vzsgEU3_JtRRA9HJBsoi1Z_fUFr8Aqiy4YziPCNHaziq8MbGxK51uoB3EBd-9FSQuy3n3d2hr8fn9omP1aA-zKjWuqAulsFEoysvOzEOijnV5QFm_jSqR5iCa2YAa_DV8sA/s320/fastridepeteway.jpg" width="211" /></a></div>
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Twisted Sister’s Dee Snider once referred to <st1:street>Pete
Way</st1:street> as a <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=SE9xCtgCWY0C&pg=PA159&lpg=PA159&dq=Twisted+Sister++dee+snider+arthur+pete+way&source=bl&ots=MCc4I01bsU&sig=WItY9w6f7pZ09h6C9OH4w7NfdiQ&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwi55tbH18bVAhVDxYMKHcsoDCQQ6AEIKDAA#v=onepage&q=Twisted%20Sister%20%20dee%20snider%20arthur%20pete%20way&f=false" target="_blank">"rock 'n' roll version of Dudley Moore's 'Arthur'.”</a> The reference to Dudley Moore’s perpetually
soused but lovable millionaire character in the 1981 movie is certainly
understandable. Way, UFO's former bassist, certainly imbibed more than his share of alcohol back in the day, and he's a personable and easy-going guy, but.. rich? - well, maybe - til he spent all the money
on drugs. </div>
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Way’s autobiography <b>A
Fast Ride Out of Here: Confessions of Rock’s Most Dangerous Man,</b> co-written
with Paul Rees, certainly has all the alcohol, drugs and sex you’d expect from a
rock star bio, but without the artifice or self-importance. It has dissenting
opinions from cohorts including Michael Schenker, Joe Elliot, Ross Halfin, Geddy
Lee and Way’s brother, Neill. </div>
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Unlike many English rockers born in the middle of the 20<sup>th</sup>
Century, Way actually had a fairly pleasant childhood. He did well on his
exams, but once the late‘60s rolled around, drugs, were everywhere. (He first
used heroin at 13, a few years before getting into music.) </div>
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Pete met Phil Mogg at 16, and they started the band that eventually
became the blues-based version of UFO. Once guitarist Michael Schenker joined,
the band developed a harder rock sound and broke into the American market.</div>
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Way had a manic onstage persona during his UFO heyday, and
would zip back and forth with his bass like a true showman. It’s no surprise
that he influenced Nikki Sixx and Ironmaiden’s Steve Harris.</div>
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<b>A Fast Ride Out of Here</b> is sprinkled with anecdotes about
life on the road. Tales of hot and cold running drugs, alcohol, groupies and in-fighting
(mainly guitarist vs. singer) abound.</div>
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<o:p> </o:p>Of the girls that pursued the band, he writes, “The girls
got what they wanted , too….they reasoned that the best way to know someone
famous was to be involved with a guy in a band.”</div>
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Another anecdote from the UFO days - Pete appeared on the
rock ‘n’ roll edition of the TV game show “Hollywood Squares” in 1979 with Todd
Rundgren, Chaka Khan and other music stars of the time. He was billed as “Mr.
UFO.”</div>
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Schenker bailed after the breakthrough <i>Strangers in the Night</i> live album was released. Eventually, Way
left to start a new band, Fastway, but never played in the band due to
contractual obligations with Chrysalis. </div>
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Way formed another band, Waysted, in 1983. Ex-UFO bandmates
Paul Chapman and Paul Raymond made brief appearances with the band, and Way worked
with Schenker on a few projects in the '00s. Like a codependent couple, Way reunited with
singer Phil Mogg in UFO many times (and as Mogg/Way in the late ‘90s). The last
split, in 2007, appears to be permanent. </div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Pete traveled with Ozzy when Waysted toured with him, and joined
him in search of “waffle dust”, among other adventures. That’s just one sample
of the hilarity that ensued on that tour. Way was also a friend of Bon Scott,
and hung out with him a just a little over a week before he died. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Joe Elliot’s dry comments counter a few of Pete’s claims, in
a friendly way. Photographer Ross Halfin calls UFO “the great lost British rock
band” and Michael Schenker comments on his on-again, off again musical
partnerships with Way. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Way’s substance abuse also contributed to problems in his
personal life. Two wives died of drug overdoses, and he was estranged from his
daughters, Charlotte and Zowie, for years. The chapter about his time in <st1:place><st1:city>Columbus</st1:city>, <st1:state>Ohio</st1:state></st1:place>,
with his fourth wife JoAnna is more surreal tragedy than rock excess. It proves,
once again, that truth is stranger than fiction.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
At 66, Way has beat heroin, prostate cancer <i>and </i>a heart attack.<i> </i>He’s been working on a solo album, "Walking on the Edge",<i> </i>with producer<i> </i>Mike
Clink, between health crises. </div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>A Fast Ride Out of
Here</b> will have you laughing one minute, and shaking your head in disbelief
the next. Way comes off as such an endearing character, you’ll genuinely like
the guy, regardless of his foibles. Funny, heartbreaking and honest, any fan of
classic rock or metal will enjoy this book. </div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8050719.post-31299648045143745692016-10-02T16:58:00.001-07:002021-10-13T11:30:56.237-07:00Looking Back and Living in the Now: Good Times and 50 Years of the Monkees <div class="MsoNormal">
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<br />
<br />
I found a copy of<i> Spy</i>
magazine from the mid-1990s when I cleared out some storage boxes the other day. <i>Spy</i> was a nothing’s sacred snarkfest for the hip cognoscenti of the time. I don’t know why I kept this particular issue – probably some tenuous
connection with someone who worked there, or who was related to somewhere who
worked there. I flipped through it, chuckling at some of the irreverent skewering of public figures and fads. That is, until I got to a page containing a calendar of “The Worst Events in History.” The calendar included events like the
Hindenberg explosion, the Titanic, and "on December 30<sup>th</sup>, Davy Jones
was born in <st1:place><st1:city>Manchester</st1:city>, <st1:country-region>England</st1:country-region></st1:place>". </div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I tossed the magazine. (Yes, I know. It's all a hoot til they make fun of someone you like.)</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Davy Jones was to snarky music people of the ‘60s –‘00s what
Justin Beiber is to today’s snarky crowd. A convenient teenie-bopper idol and
scapegoat for all that was (perceived to be) uncool, Davy and the rest of the
Monkees were relegated to the remnants table of musical history for a long time
after the TV show ended. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
They were “the pre-fab Four, they don’t play their
instruments, they don’t have any talent, blah-blah”. Reality proves the
nay-sayers wrong on all counts. Davy Jones and Mike Nesmith had solo recording
contracts before they were Monkees. Micky Dolenz played in a band and recorded
a few <i><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XYLeONlHsWo" target="_blank">singles</a>,</i> and Peter Tork was a folk singer in <st1:place>Greenwich Village</st1:place>.
Of course, other musicians (Frank Zappa, Jerry Garcia, etc.) defended them.
They hung out with the Beatles. Tork introduced Buffalo Springfield at Monterey
Pop and dated Janis Joplin. </div>
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<br /></div>
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Oh, and let’s not forget “Headquarters” the Monkees’ third
album. Fed up with not being allowed to contribute more than a few self-penned songs
or play their instruments on their first two studio albums, they rebelled. In a defining moment that would do a punk rocker proud, Mike
Nesmith punched a plasterboard wall in a Beverly Hills Hotel room during a
meeting with musical director Don Kirshner. He told Donnie (allegedly) “That coulda
been your face, motherfucker.”</div>
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<br /></div>
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Kirshner went on to the Archies, and <i>Headquarter</i>s went on to
top the Billboard charts upon its release in May 1967 – until the Beatles <i>Sergeant Pepper</i> usurped it the following
week. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Still, some people persisted in trashing them. And this continued throughout the 1970s,
where any mention of the Monkees as an entity was greeted with a snicker, except
by loyalists and young kids who watched Saturday morning reruns of the show. </div>
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<br /></div>
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This changed after the 1986 reunion. And even the reunion
was short-lived in the mainstream. By the end of the 1980s, interest had waned
for all but the loyal fans. Micky, Davy and Peter continued to tour as the
Monkees for the next few decades. Mike joined them to record the <i>Justus </i>album (and tape a TV special) in 1996, but both projects failed to capture the public's interest. </div>
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<br /></div>
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P.S.- I still think “Regional Girl” would been a hit in
’96 if the Monkees had used a cloaked advertising campaign ala the <i><a href="http://www.ocweekly.com/news/the-alarms-great-rock-and-roll-swindle-reaches-silver-screen-via-wales-and-costa-mesa-6453511" target="_blank">Alarm</a></i> and used a young band in the video.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/2natdrYfTyc" width="560"></iframe></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
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<br /></div>
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Fast forward to 2016. The Monkees and Rhino release the
album <i>Good Times.</i> Produced by Adam Schlesinger of Fountains of Wayne,
with new songs written by Rivers Cuomo, Andy Partridge, Ben Gibbard and Noel Gallagher/Paul Weller. All cool young
–ok-middle aged guys - with a bunch of indie cred. Micky sings with his old
Hollywood Vampire buddy Harry Nilsson, through the miracle of digital
technology on the title track. There’s a
reworked versions of Davy singing “Love to Love”, Peter singing “Little Girl”, a song he
originally wrote for Davy, and the
album-closing “I Was There (And I’m Told I Had a Good Time),” based on one of
Micky’s stock interview responses.</div>
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<br /></div>
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Ben Gibbard joins Micky to sing <i>Me & Magdelena</i> in <st1:city>Seattle</st1:city></div>
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ldZSUNuUX8Y" width="560"></iframe></div>
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The release of <i>Good Times</i>
coaxed out older Monkees fans who had remained undercover for years. It debuted
at #14 upon its release in May the band’s highest charting album since 1968,
and was #1 on Billboard’s vinyl release chart. </div>
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<br /></div>
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Legions of fans have now joined social media regulars to
post about their love for the Monkees. The fandom-oriented site Tumblr is full
of teens and twentysomethings who like the Monkees. The Tumblr fandom was at its peak for a year
or two after Davy died, and leveled out to a calmer pace for this year’s 50<sup>th</sup>
anniversary. Now, Facebook and Pinterest host the brunt of Monkees’ photos and
discussions.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
To accompany the album and Monkees renaissance, a slew of
books about the band have been released in the past few years The most recent, <i>The Monkees, Head and the ‘60s</i> by Peter
Mills, examines the movie that closed out the bands’ first era and all the
events of the 1960s that influenced its making and the TV series.</div>
<br />
<i>A Little Bit Me,A Little Bit You: the Monkees from a Fan's Perspective</i> by Fred Velez is a memoir by a lifelong fan of the group.Interview with the author <a href="http://slumshollywood.blogspot.com/2014/08/a-little-bit-me-little-bit-you-monkees.html" target="_blank">here. </a><br />
<br />
<i>Why The Monkees Matter: Teenagers, Television and American Pop Culture</i> by Roseanne Welch gives an academic look at the TV show and the Monkees phenomenon.<br />
<br />
<i>Monkee Magic: a Book about a TV Show about a Band</i> by Melanie Mitchell is a fun look into the specifics of each episode, with no wardrobe choice or co-star left unexamined.<br />
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<br />
<b><br /></b>
<b>Michael Nesmith’s Last Show as a Monkee – September 16, 2016, L.A.'s Pantages Theater</b></div>
<div>
<br />
A few weeks before the Monkees, I mean Twokees, show at <st1:city>L.A.</st1:city>’s
Pantages Theater, the band announced it would be Micheal Nesmith’s last live
performance as a Monkee. Tickets for the show, which were already scare,
disappeared.</div>
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I attended the show, and it was truly sold out. I spied not
one empty seat. People flew in from <st1:country-region>England</st1:country-region>,
<st1:country-region>Japan</st1:country-region>, <st1:state>New
York</st1:state> and all points in the <st1:country-region>U.S.</st1:country-region>,
and the crowd was in a boisterous mood. </div>
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Micky, Mike and Peter took the stage and, after a
preparatory huddle, the band blasted into” Last Train to <st1:city>Clarksville</st1:city>”.
There weren’t any obvious references made about the show being Mike’s last. </div>
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Despite their ages (Peter’s 74), you get the feeling they’ll
keep going, together or separately, til they’re 100, or maybe 105 in Micky’s
case. (He just keeps going and going like the Energizer Bunny.) It’s hard to believe
any concert by any boomer artist is actually the last one. How many last tours
have we seen from the Who, Kiss and Black Sabbath? With 20 years of farewell
concerts under our belts, how can we believe anyone’s proclamation that this will
be the last concert? It’s not over until someone’s dead and buried, and even
then, their holograms make an appearance.
</div>
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<br /></div>
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Clips from the episodes played on the screen in the
background; it was hard not to take your eyes off the stage for a sec and look.
(I saw Peter sneak a peek a few times.) </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
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It was a flawless, fast-paced show from Micky, Mike, Peter
and their backing band. Coco Dolenz (Micky’s sister) & Circe Link were
sublime on backing vocals. Mike’s son Christian Nesmith on guitar, drummer Rich Dart,
bassist John Billings , keyboardist Dave Alexander and lead guitarist Wayne
Avers provided a rich and textured, but totally rock sound to the festivities.
This wasn’t a “Vegas backing band” type experience.</div>
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<br /></div>
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<i>Highlights</i> - A
softer, reworked version of <i>Sometime
in the Morning</i> leading into Mike and Micky’s voices blending perfectly
on the haunting <i>Me and Magdalena.</i></div>
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<br /></div>
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Micky, Mike and Peter and the crowd at the Pantages singing
the chorus to Daydream Believer as the Rainbow Room video of the song -
with a recording of Davy singing - played.</div>
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<br /></div>
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Mike singing a heartfelt version of <i>Tapioca Tundra</i> and talking about
what inspired the song (the band’s first live show in <st1:state>Hawaii</st1:state>).</div>
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/4sW4tdTn2co" width="560"></iframe></div>
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<br /></div>
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The energetic versions of "Listen to the Band", "Circle
Sky", "Mary, Mary" and "Do I Have to Do
This All Over Again?" verged on hard rock. The back-up band really cooked on
these songs, and the guys belted out the vocals with gusto. How is it that the
guys are in their early 70s and their voices are stronger than ever - even
Peter!</div>
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<br /></div>
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In the lyric booklet for <i>Good
Times</i>, Gibbard wrote “I spent countless hours in front of the TV in the
‘80s, watching Monkees reruns and wishing I could climb through the screen and
be with them.” There’s not much difference between what a young, non-musician
girl in the ‘60s or a young, musically inclined guy in the ‘80s felt when
watching the show or listening to the music. When I was a kid watching the
original broadcasts in the 1960s, I
hated it when the show ended. I wanted to go live with the band and share their
adventures with all week.</div>
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<br /></div>
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The Monkees deserve to be in the Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame.
While the value of the hall itself is debatable, we all know they should be
enshrined with their peers. Maybe their trajectory was different, but they left
an indelible imprint on pop culture, more so than many bands that were "real" from the start.<br />
<br />
The guys have forged a musical and emotional connection
with countless fans through the past 50 years. The bond is<span style="color: blue;"> </span>pretty intense and rivaled
only by the affection and reverence felt by Beatles fans.<o:p></o:p></div>
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It looks like the Monkees got the last laugh on those snarky
journalists and know-it-alls.</div>
<br />
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<br /></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8050719.post-33379112513403020062016-05-15T00:13:00.000-07:002018-05-12T11:40:31.045-07:00Book Review: Shout It Out Loud: The Story of Kiss’s Destroyer and the Making of an American Icon by James Campion <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<![endif]--><b>Shout It Out Loud: The Story of Kiss’s Destroyer and the Making of an American Icon</b><br />
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<b>James Campion</b></div>
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<b>Backbeat Books, 400 pages </b></div>
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<br /></div>
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Released on March
15, 1976, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Destroyer</i>
catapulted Kiss from underground sensation to constant media presence. The
recording of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Destroyer</i> was as
colorful and chaotic as the album itself, and every nuance is covered in James
Campion’s book <em>Shout It Out Loud: The Story of Kiss’s Destroyer and the
Making of an American Icon.</em><em><span style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"></span></em></div>
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<br /></div>
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Before <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Destroyer</i>,
Kiss attracted mostly male fans with songs about sex, sex, whores and more sex.
(OK, so not <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">that</i> different from what
they’d do later on.) With the single “Beth”, the band catapulted into
mainstream consciousness and have remained there for over 40 years.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Kiss
Alive</i> was released in 1975, it became an unexpected hit, and the recording
of the next studio album took on new importance. </div>
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<em><span style="font-style: normal; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">The
book covers the band or “The Act’s” (Campion’s term) pre-history and their
first three albums for legendary Casablanca Records. Despite their outrageous
appearance and a music press that lapped it up, mainstream success eluded
them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></em>You’d think with all
the facepaint, leather and platform boots they’d storm through mid-70s America
immediately, but the road wasn’t that easy.<span style="mso-bidi-font-style: italic;"></span></div>
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Bob Ezrin, the young Canadian producer who helmed Alice
Cooper’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Welcome to My Nightmare</i>,
signed on to produce the band’s fourth studio album. Ezrin greeted the band
naked except for a bowtie (allegedly), but the recording sessions that followed
weren’t always quite as light-hearted. Ezrin schooled the band in music theory
and challenged them to expand their creative horizons. A stern taskmaster, he
even refused to procure Gene’s hookers for him. </div>
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Ezrin ran the sessions like a musical boot camp, taking the
demos and working with the band to improve them. Case in point - “Beth” started
out as a demo from Criss’ old band, Lips. Originally a song called “Beck” about
a nagging wife, Ezrin and the band reworked it into the ballad that saturated
the airwaves in 1976. </div>
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The song, originally paired as the B side of “Detroit
Rock City”,
took off when DJ Rosalie Trombly of Windsor-based, Detroit-aimed CKLW started
playing it, preferring it to “Detroit
Rock City”.
Listeners loved it so much Casablanca
made it the “A” side, and the ballad became “The Act’s” best-selling single
ever, reaching #7 on the Billboard charts. </div>
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The Destroyer sessions succeeded in turning the four
distinct personas – previously relayed by just costumes and make-up, and
breathed fire (excuse the expression) and life into them. The album - and
“Beth” were the starting point of the “How Can We Miss Them If They Won’t Go
Away?” Kiss empire. The songs weren’t just rowdy party anthems. Under Ezrin’s
direction, they took on mythic proportions. </div>
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“Do You Love Me?” established Paul as the Starchild, the
group’s romantic lead. Ezrin and the band reworked the Stanley-penned “God of
Thunder”, into Gene’s theme song, giving his onstage demon persona the perfect soundtrack.
“Flaming Youth” and “Great Expectations” were positioned as youth anthems. </div>
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Drawing from Stanley’s
memory of a news story about a fan who died in a car crash somewhere in the
South, Ezrin sandwiched “Detroit Rock
City”, a raucous tribute to the Motor
City, with an audio melodrama, complete
with news radio snippet and car crash sound effects.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
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Campion devotes quite a bit of detective work attempting to
unearth the real story behind the tragedy that spawned “Detroit
Rock City”,
and the entire epilogue is devoted to this subject. The book consists of new interviews
and tales from Ezrin, Jay Messina, Corky Stasik, Kim Fowley, Bob Gruen, Ken
Kelly, (the artist who designed the iconic comic superhero cover),and lots of
archival interviews.</div>
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<em>Shout It Out Loud: The Story of Kiss’s Destroyer and the
Making of an American Icon </em>may be way too involved for the casual fan. If
you’re looking for some quick gossip, or if the nuts and bolts of songwriting
and the analog recording process bores you, this book’s not for you. There are
the usual tales of Ace and Peter’s drinking and drugging, sex in the studio and
such, but <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Shout It Out Loud</i>
concentrates on the writing and recording and subsequent promotion of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Destroyer</i> in minute detail.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
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Devoted Kissaholics, however, will appreciate the look into every
nook and cranny of the recording sessions, promotion and tour that accompanied <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Destroyer.</i><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/hHMzjSqKZuw" width="420"></iframe>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8050719.post-29388584188169164642016-02-05T21:49:00.000-08:002016-02-05T23:03:47.080-08:00Music Review: Fuzzy Vox: No Landing Plan<br />
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<b>No Landing Plan</b><br />
<b>Fuzzy Vox</b><br />
<a href="https://www.facebook.com/fuzzyvox/" target="_blank"><b>Fuzzy Vox Facebook Page</b></a><br />
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The second album from French power pop trio, Fuzzy Vox, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">No Landing Plan</i>, is an upbeat collection
of songs combining the best attributes of melodic power pop and hard-edged
garage rock. The band travels out of their comfort zone into social commentary
and psych-pop on a few of the tracks, without sacrificing the infectious beat.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
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Fuzzy Vox formed in 2011 in Joinville Le
Pont, France, on the outskirts of Paris. The band released a few EPs before releasing
2014’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">On Heat</i>, their debut album.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
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Singer Hugo Fabri has the vocal chops to veer from melodic
powerpop to raunchy garage rock with no detectable accent. And he supplies the
album’s brisk, no-frills guitar work and keyboards. Drummer Nico Maia and
bassist Gregoire Dessons form a sturdy musical backbeat, keeping the album’s
groove consistent. <span style="color: navy;"></span></div>
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For <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">No Landing Plan</i>,
the band ventured to California to record, enlisting producers Ryan Castle,
who’s worked with Snow Patrol, Black Sabbath, Billy Idol, ZZ Top, etc., and Andy
Brohard (Wolfmother, Tegan and Sara, the Hives). The songs were mastered by
Howie Weinberg, who has worked with Nirvana, the Ramones, Herbie Hancock, and
other legendary artists. The ace recording team renders the band’s well-crafted
songs into crisp, infectious tracks for maximum danceability. </div>
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“Explosion of Love” kicks off the album with an infectious
beat designed to make you move. The frenetic rhythm of “Distracted” is great
for pogoing or frugging, a ‘60s garage rock revival that channels the Sonics. “Told
You Before” with its out-of-kilter energy and gritty vocals, has that
unapologetic brashness of mid-60s Kinks’ and Who. “Raw Evil” starts out a bit
like Elvis Costello, then segues into heavier garage rock. “Bo Diddley” pays
tribute to one of the architects of rock ‘n’ roll with its frenetic beat. (The
band’s featured a window-rattling version of Jerry Lee Lewis’ “Great Balls of
Fire” on their <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Technicolor</i> EP.) </div>
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<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Don’t Leave Me Behind”
is bouncy, skinny-tie power pop to the nth power, and “I Got a Girl” draws from
Plimsouls influences with a wilder pace. </div>
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The band proves they’re not afraid to tackle serious
subjects in “They Shot Charlie”, about the Charlie Hebdo terrorist attack. The
tone picks up again with the bouncy “Easy
Street”. The album’s last track "A Reason to Love" is lush, psych-pop with a guitar theme
out of a TV western. A spoken word interlude near the end fades out with
some distorted guitar, making it the album's most ambitious track.
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Pure, high energy songs, tight playing and production, and a
groovy ‘60s era comic book album cover make Fuzzy Vox’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">No Landing Plan</i> a <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>30 minute
joyride for fans of fun, unpretentious rock
‘n’ roll.</div>
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8050719.post-78950224887478814322016-01-24T15:42:00.001-08:002021-10-13T11:31:47.954-07:00Music Review:Sci-Fi Romance: Dust Among the Stars<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Dust Among the Stars</b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Sci-Fi Romance</b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Broken Image
Entertainment</b></div>
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The new album by L.A.
based alt-folk band Sci-fi Romance, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Dust
Among the Stars</i>, creates a somber landscape that pulls you in without
depressing you. The songs make you think more than brood, and ultimately, show a
glimmer of hope. Another strong effort, it’s just as thought-provoking as
Kotrla and company’s previous releases, including <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">…and
surrender my<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>body to the flame </i>and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Ghost of John Henry.</i> <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
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Singer-songwriter Vance Kotrla finds inspiration in found
film, horror movies and quirky pop culture. There’s a sense of this, of the
atmospheric and the unusual, on <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Dust
Among the Stars</i>, even when the songs themselves don’t deal with those
subjects. </div>
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Most of the songs on <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Dust</i>
deal with love, the uncertainty of life – normal fodder for pop and rock songs,
but the presentation gives it a depth not found in many rock releases. </div>
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<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“If I Fell”, combines pop love song sentiment
underscored with somber thumping rhythm. This gives it a haunting charm that’s neither
mainstream nor pure Goth. “Everything Burns” reflects on the lost love and the
passage of time, with Jody Stark’s plaintive cello emphasizing the message. </div>
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“Pale Blue Dot”, inspired by a photo of Earth taken by
Voyager I, puts man’s place in the universe in perspective.(“All we are/ all
we’ve ever been/ a pale blue dot on the head of a pin”) The track is dedicated
to astronomer Carl Sagan.</div>
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“Shakespeare’s Lovers” features guest vocalist Kristen Vogel
, an opera singer whose performed with St. Petersburg Opera and the Asheville
Lyric Opera, among others. Her soulful but tender soprano brings this tale of
star-cross lovers to life. She also adds vocals to the romantic “Let’s Run”, her
warm, reassuring voice meshes with Kotrla’s baritone. The closing ballad “When
You Wake”, consisting of only guitar and vocal, has the quiet comfort of a
lullaby.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Dust Among the Stars</i>
is the most accessible of the Sci-Fi Romance CDs, but that doesn’t mean Vance
Kotrla has lost his edge. On the contrary, Sci-Fi Romance is just tapping the
surface of their capabilities. </div>
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You can watch the video for “If I Fell” on YouTube </div>
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<a href="https://www.facebook.com/scifiromance/" target="_blank">Sci-Fi Romance Facebook </a></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0