Donnie Iris - King Cool

Yes - Donnie Iris IS King Cool.  What a fun guy he appears to be.  I think he is still out there playing the summer festival circuit in and around Cleveland and or Pittsburgh.  He did a great one call Ah Leah!  And I also really like his Love is Like a Rock.  Both with his group The Cruisers.

The 4 Seasons - 50 Year Anniversary

Most available sources are pegging the date of group, as known as, The 4 Seasons' 50th Anniversary as a band as today, Friday, October 19, 2012.  The group was together under varisou different names - the The 4 Romans, the Four Lovers, et al.  For our purposes - The Four Seasons released their first single in 1961 ("Bermuda"/"Spanish Lace"  - on Gone Records).  They began working with producer Bob Crewe as background vocalists, and sometimes leads under different group names, for his productions on his own Topix record label.  Bob Gaudio eventually wrote a song that, after some discussion between Crewe and Gaudio, was titled "Sherry."  The song was recorded and Crewe, along with members of the group, went about soliciting labels to release the record.  It was Frankie Valli who spoke with Randy Wood, West coast sales manager for Vee Jay (not the founder of Dot Records) who, in turn, suggested the release of "Sherry" to the decision makers at Vee Jay.  "Sherry" made enough of an impression that Crewe was able to sign a deal between his production company and Vee Jay for its release.  At the time, The 4 Seasons were signed, as artists, to Crewe's production company.  They were the first white artists to sign with Vee-Jay.  In 1962, the group released their first album, featuring the single "Sherry", which was not only their first charted hit, but also their first number-one song.  Under the guidance of producer/songwriter Bob Crewe, The Four Seasons followed up "Sherry" with several million-selling hits, including "Big Girls Don't Cry" (their second #1 hit), "Walk Like a Man" (their third #1), "Candy Girl", "Ain't That a Shame", and several others.  From 1962 to early 1964, only the Beach Boys matched the Four Seasons in record sales in the United States, and their first three Vee-Jay non-holiday single releases marked the first time that a rock band hit #1 on the Billboard singles charts with three consecutive entries (ignoring their version of "Santa Claus Is Coming to Town").

Mickey Thomas - one of my favorite rock vocalists of all time...

Mickey Thomas - his solo album, called As Long as you Love Me.  Hey - Nice track suit - Mick!  You know him best as the lead singer in the Jefferson Starship.  But his singing with Elvin Bishop's group in the seventies and more specifically, on one of the greatest songs of all time: Fooled Around and Fell in Love.  That song is a category buster.  It's almost in a modified 3/4 waltz time.   Slow slow - quick quick slow.   The structure is unique too, the bridge is extended allowing for un-rushed guitar layering, but the tempo comes across as bluesy.  I think most of us can related to the lyrics too.  Check out the the Starship doing a great version of this song from just last year.  

Prince - Controversy

This photo is one-of-a-kind.  Prince's Controversy album is a single-record effort.  And cover is note a gatefold.  So, as many of you know - I take a photo of the front and back cover and using the merge feature within Photoshop, I stitch together the two images.  And Viola' - you get this. Controversy is the fourth studio album by Prince, released on October 14, 1981.  Keith Harris of Blender calls the album "Prince's first attempt to get you to love him for his mind, not just his body" and comments that it "refines the propulsive funk of previous albums and adds treatises on religion, work, nuclear war and Abscam."

Record Shopping - at Korvette's

You can see that this record still has the cellophane wrapper on it.  I am leaving it that way because the original price tag is affixed to the the cellophane.  And the price tag tells the story.  By the way - this is an awesome record.  Up on Lake Geneva - we had it on cassette tape on Kevin's boat and that tape I think was never removed from the boat's tape deck.  I can't hear Snakeskin Cowboy without thinking back to water skiing on that lake!  That song it just killer.  Back to this price tag.  Folks around where I live and of a certain age will remember EJ Korvette's department store.  They had huge record section and the pricing was very odd.  You wanted to buy a record so you need to check out what letter (F) was on it, then look to a conversion chart on the wall. That is likely why Korvette's went under.

Record shopping.  

Rush - Grace Under Pressure (Red?)

Rush - Grace Under Pressure.  I will defer to my pals Spencer and TJ for insight on this great band.  They will finally and rightfully be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.  The RNRHOF was farcical without them in it.  There a dozen jazz acts that should not be in, if Rush could not be.  But they will be in in the spring.  But riddle me this?  Are they fixated on the colour (French Canadian spelling!) red.  The above record has Red Sector A and Red Lenses on it.  And "many" hard core Rush fans (I know, redundant).  If you are a Rush fan, you are hard core.) would argue that Red Barchetta is one of their best songs.  This record is "Grace Under Pressure, their 10th studio album.  I would love to know where my Rush fan pals (and experts) would rate this album in the band's monumental canon of thinking man's rock.  This means You - Spencer and TJ!  In the UK - bands like Roxy Music, Bowie, and Genesis, I have read, are/were referred to as gentleman's rock.  The back cover is a band portrait by the photographer Yousuf Karsh. The original vinyl pressing also featured a photo depicting an egg being held in a C-clamp. Also, the cover art was painted by Hugh Syme, a long-time contributor to Rush's music ever since he performed as a guest musician on the song "Tears" from 2112."

Elton John Concert Review, part two

Nancy and I were at a business conference, in Vegas of course, having lunch the day before we were to leave, at Mesa (Bobby Flay) at Ceasar's Palace, which happens to be right next to the Colosseum box office.  So after lunch we walked to the box office to see if we could get any same day tickets.  I was prepared to splurge, but the good seats were all way off to the side.  I asked the ticket gal if there were any singles.  We've been married 20 years, we don't need to hold hands during show.  Turns out - there were 2 killer seats way down front, but not in the same row.  So we did it, one row apart - up very close, Nancy in 3rd row, me in 4th.  Her 3rd row seat was in effect a 1st row seat because being on the angled aisle, there was not one person between her and Elton.  A mere 12 feet to the piano.  The show was outrageous.  Classic, deep set list - and with his stalwarts joining him: Nigel Olsson, Davey Johnstone, and Ray Cooper.  During Crocodile Rock, towards the end of the show I saw a couple of security guys setting up some stands and velvet rope barriers figuring he would come down our aisle.  Was I wrong.  He launches into SNAFF, and to my utter shock - they let us in the first 3 rows take the stage!  I did not know what to do - so I headed for the stage of course.  But rather than grinding in behind the piano with 20 others, I sat down. On. The. Freakin. Stage. Within easy reach of His Million Dollar Piano.  He belts out SNAFF as if directly to me.  Nancy stayed in her seat - standing.  Sitting on the stage - I glance back to Nancy and my shrug to her indicates:  Is this the Schmaltz Bucket or what?