Elton John Here and There

Elton John: Here - and - There.  Single live album.  Side one is Live in London at The Royal Festival Hall.  Skyline Pidgeon, Border Song, Honky Cat, and Crocodile Rock.  Side two is Live in New York at Madison Square Garden, with Funeral for a Friend/Loves Lies Bleeding, Rocket Man, Bennie and the Jets, and Take me to the Pilot.  The photo shown is of the inner record sleeve.  I really love this photo for its bare and pure and clean lines of Elton's main band's tool ready to be picked up and played - or just set down.  I am not too familiar with Nigel's DRUMORK kit. I think it is part of the Drum Workshop line of drums. And we all recognize Dee's Fender P bass and Davey's Les Paul.

Do You Remember...EWF, plus up and down Concerts

In lieu of a concert review - this is Earth Wind & Fire's album called All 'n All.  It is their 8th studio recording, from back in 1977.   Gosh, what a band.  Before the storm rolled in, I was asked by someone if EWF is a disco band.  I said no, they are funkalicious.  I will still get to see them play when the concert is rescheduled at Chicago's premiere lakefront live much venure later on this summer hopefully.  In bicycle racing parlance, I would refer to them as HC - which stands for Hors catégorie, a French term used that means "beyond categorization," which they are.  This is the go-to band for liven-ing things up in the basement.  This record has Fantasy on it.   In college, we went to see Phil Collins on one his Hello I Must be Going solo tour and he comandeered the EWF's Phenix Horn section, which included four members Don Myrick on sax, Louis "Lui Lui" Satterfield on trombone, and Rahmlee Michael Davis on trumpet and Michael Harris also on trumpet.  And I also "discoved" EWF's Phillip Bailey's solo album called Chinese Wall that was produced by Phil Collins.  This lively and unique music can lead in so many great directions for me to explore.

Earth Wind Fire Rain Thunder and Lightening Concert Review

Here is my Earth Wind and Fire Concert Review:  This is how it looked.

The show was cancelled.  It was still way better than the Peter Gabriel concert the night before.

Boston: Don't Look Back

As I was saying...really, I do not like to make negative comments so I am sorry about that negative Peter Gabriel concert review.  By the way, it sucked.  Moving on, this is the inside cover of Boston's second album, called Don't Look Back, from 1978.  Don't look back?  Sorry - that admonition is, as the kid in the commerical says, frowned upon in this establishment.  To the contrary, looking back - ta da - Boston is my new favorite band of all time.  Meteors, they was the Comet Kohoutek of awesome seventies bands.  OK, the Hale Bopp.  Now that I have finally seen half of their remaining (read: living) members, play live, and play Boston songs.  They are now up in my personal stratosphere of awesomeness.  I think you might find that many people have not ever seen them play live.  Did I mention that Pete Gabriel has totally lost is?   OK, great - you got that.  But Sib Hashiam and Barry Goudreau and the real deal and are not affraid to play the songs that put them on the map, as intended.

Pete has Jumped the Shark

Never thought I'd write this, but Pete - you have jumped the shark.  Hey, his music, he can do with (to) it what he wants to, but this time he's gone off the deep end.  That is assuming he has a deep end. OK, he started in the deep end, or he IS the deep end, so not sure where his "deep end" would be.  I get it - nothing left to but to deconstruct and strip down (read: gut) most of the recognizable elements from your songs (Intruder, San Jacinto, ROTH). Make little boxes of dull toothpicks from songs that are sturdy oak trees. It ain't working, Pete. Finally, exhaustingly, for the last song of his 2nd set (the by-now-all-too-cliché Salsbury Hill) his New Blood Orchestra finally let's 'er rip and Pete joyfully skips around. Hoo freaking rah. Every song prior was a clock-watcher. (Paint dry yet?) It is not maddening because this is after all, what you expect/want from PG, and a few of these somber drones work in the format as eerie and barren (dead) carcasses, but about every 3rd song should have been up at the Solisbuy Hill pace, tempo, and volume. OK, will he finally succumb in '14 and do what we want for a 40th anniversary Lamb tour with the guys?  No. Of course He won't.   The Earth Wind & Fire that got rained (lighteninged) out last night was more enjoyable.

    This album photo shown is the back cover of the 1983 DLA by Peter Gabriel titled Plays Live. It's a rare cover for a DLA because there is no gatefold. So it's like a single record album, but with one single slot sleeve that holds the two records. 16 songs - 4 on each side, very symmetrical of course. Peter was touring behind the strength of the recent studio effort referred to as 4, his fourth eponymous solo record also sometimes referred to as Security. On this DLA, he gives us 5 songs (of the 16) from Security: Rhythm of the Heat, I Have the Touch, San Jacinto, Family and the Fishing Net, and Shock the Monkey. We also get Solsbury Hill, Family Snapshot, my favorite - On the Air, and the epic statement of Biko.

Joan Baez - Angel of Woodstock

Over on the Vinyl Record Collectors group that I moderate on the professional and business on-line networking site, LinkedIn, I started a fairly active discussion that generated many responses.  I stated what I thought are the Best All-time DLA's, that is short-hand for Double Live Album.  Here is one that, among the 30-plus and counting comments, no one has mentioned.  It is Joan Baez's From Every Stage.  According to the jacket, these are recordings of her live songs she performed on tour in July and August 1975.  Some all-time greats, and one of the most tragic figures in the annals of rock and roll, play on this record with Joan.  Motown's own baddist bassman James Jamerson, who many consider one of the greatest of all time is in the group photo on the back cover.  Just today, in the Chicago Tribune, in a story about the great sidemen of all time, local rock critic Greg Kot states, "The dancefloor pulse behind a trove of Motown hits for the Temptations, the Supremes, the Four Tops and more.").   Now the tragic part:  It is hard to write the name Jim Gordon here.  Jim Gordon co-wrote Layla.  He was a protege of the great Hal Blaine.  Jim Gordon's name seems to be listed as drummer on every record I pick up in the basement.   I don't care to go into more details here, but feel free.

Deep Purple Concert Review: I

First off - am very saddened by the new of Clarence Clemmons having passed way.  Deep Purple - accompanied by the Ravinia Festival Orchestra (not the CSO), the house orchestra at the famous outdoor summer concert venue.  Skeptical as Nancy was about how this incongruous mashup would come off, I thought having the RFO backing Deep Purple worked great.  In fact, having them there made the show much more interesting and unique.  An 18 seat string section on the left, orchestra conductor, and horns and woodwinds on the right.  All wearing their summer "white on whites," with black slacks and black tux bow ties.  They opened with Highway Star and also did My Woman from Tokyo a few songs later.  Click on this post's title for a video clip.  I could not place the lead guitarist but he sounded familiar.  It was the great Steve Morse.  This current version of Deep Purple is/are Ian Gillan, Morse, original Roger Glover on bass, Don Airey keyboards, and another founder Ian Paice on drums.  Steve Morse is a tremendous guitar player and I am glad to have seen him.  Below is the set mist from made in japan:

Deep Purple: Concert Review II

We went We went to see Deep Purple last night and a partial Boston concert broke out! The show was last night at Ravinia, a very famous outdoor concert venue. Taking out seats, it seem a bit odd that the stage was packed with so much equipment. It did not seem like there would be much room for anyone to maneuver. Deep Purple's full equipment and behind all that were risers with music stands and sheet music mini lights for 30 (more on that later in post II), and then more equipment up front, for the opening band, of which I did not know there was going to be one. It was a group called Ernie and the Automatics. I had not heard of them either. They played 4 or 5 songs from their new album, sort of like straight up road house blues rock with tenor sax a la George Thorogood. Very good stuff. And then the lead singer, Brian Maes (nee Peter Wolf's House Party 5) introduced the band, the bass player was Tim Archibald (nee Peter Wolf/J. Geils) and then he told us about the lead guitarist and drummer, formerly in Boston: Barry Goudreau and Sib Hashian respectively. I was stunned and in awe. What a great surprise at a concert - to see 2/5 of one of the greatest and most elusive rock bands of All Time. Closing their opening set, they played a 5 song hits medley from the first two Boston records. It's been such a long time, I think I should be going. Opening acts are more than cyphers, I make sure to get to shows on time to catch gems like this.