Christmas Eve 2010 December 24 / Christmas Day 12/25/10

Let's begin the year-end wrap up and think about the future!

The Rolling Stones not vs Jimi Hendrix but along WITH Jimi Hendrix
providing some of the best "new" music of 2010!

Interesting that the best music of the past year - in packaging and performance, are the classic hits of The Rolling Stones, Jimi Hendrix and Tommy James. "The original's still the greatest" Dobie Gray prophesied with his immortal The "In" Crowd in 1965, 46 years later the "other guys" no longer imitate us...and that's the problem! As I listen to "Three Times In Love" by Tommy James I'm just amazed at the power of this power pop and how it all got lost in the translation.



http://www.angelair.co.uk/sjpcd350a.htm

Radio stations play "all Christmas" music starting before Thanksgiving...while other stations are rife with sophomoric jokes and tired banter. As poor as hit radio was in the 1960s and 1970s it blows away the absurdity

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Original Joe Viglione review of Three Times in Love vinyl LP on
AllMusic.com http://www.allmusic.com/album/3-times-in-love-r41609/review

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Classic hits radio in Boston is so blues-based that it ignores true pop music that excites the senses. And the biggest insult, rather than play solid blues like the early Animals ("Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood", "It's My Life") these stations don't even play the band's poppier side, "Don't Let Me Down", "Sky Pilot" or "Monterey". Crosby Stills Nash & Young can get Joni Mitchell's "Woodstock" some airtime, but the stations are so lacking in style and innovation that you won't hear the rendition on the soundtrack to the Woodstock film, despite all the hoopla over Woodstock...not to mention Jimi Hendrix.




http://www.angelair.co.uk/sjpcd345.htm

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Which brings us to the new Hendrix boxed set WEST COAST SEATTLE BOY: The Jimi Hendrix Anthology



ALICE COOPER Theater of Death

My review of Alice's DVD / CD is in TMR Zoo - read it here: Theater of Death

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Miscellaneous stuff to cause trouble....



BALIN APOLOGIZES TO WRITER JEFF TAMARKIN

Marty Balin phoned to wish me a Merry Christmas this Dec. 25th afternoon at 3:35 PM for those who want to be precise (or peek onto my cellphone time and date)...I noted to him that Jeff Tamarkin was not pleased about the comments Marty made in the new Crawdaddy Magazine interview. Marty had not read it yet...

Here's the Crawdaddy interview by Andrew Lau:
http://www.crawdaddy.com/index.php/2010/12/16/jefferson-airplanes-marty-balin-gets-out-of-his-own-way/2/

Balin told me that he stopped working with Bob Yehling and had no idea the "interview" turned into a book "Full Flight: A Tale of Airplanes & Starships"
Marty said that Yehling was quoting incorrect information from a variety of sources so he (Marty) didn't feel like continuing the interview.

Full Flight: A Tale of Airplanes & Starships

Marty Balin (Author), Robert Yehling (Author)

JEFF TAMARKIN AIN'T THE ONLY ONE WITH SOME QUESTIONS ABOUT THE BALIN CRAWDADDY INTERVIEW:

The Crawdaddy article is called "Marty Balin Gets Out Of His Own Way", but as Lau asks him about "Versace", saying it "has a strange film noir feel to it, even though it’s a true story, and it’s unlike anything you’ve ever written". Marty replies: "... I love Versace, his design, his style… thought he was a great artist. I was just playing these chords and walked into the room and the news was on and they were talking about the Versace murder. ... You ought to hear the dance mix I did for that—different bass line. It’s really funky. This friend of mine in Boston, he’s gay and he said, “Oh, I love that song, man.” And I thought, “Hmm, gay guy, Versace…” Great! work, Marty! You have a Boston and he's "gay" ? How descriptive? Who is it? Ryan Reynolds? Perry Mason? Raymond Burr? Rock Hudson? Jim Naybors? Tony Romo? Phil Rivers? Me? Penn Badgley? Me and Penn Badgley together? Dylan Walsh when he was cute in the movie "Bloodwork?" Tell us, Marty? Who have you outed??? Here's an interesting video of Badgley and Walsh in THE STEPFATHER where you can watch the film condensed!

re-title magazine article: Getting In Your Own Way...and ending up in the Rock Journalist's miscellaneous department...

Is Ryan Reynolds the new Burt Reynolds? Burt took his clothes off and showed his fuzzy-self to the world in Playgirl...Ryan is the well-shaved picture perfect model material GQ type with the obligatory gay rumors swirling around him . "Brokeback Mountain II" could feature a resurrected Jake Gyllenhall with Reynolds Ryan, that's a wrap, and Penn Badgley...

Go to the above link on obligatory gay rumors to read what the comment posters have to say:

(THIS IS FROM A COMMENT SECTION, NOT FROM THE ROCK JOURNALIST!
" also think most male actors are gay. I think it's rare to find a really straight one. I agree. Ryan Reynolds, John Travolta, Michael C. Hall, George Clooney, Daniel Craig, Tom Cruise... etc., etc.

All gay. "

OK, BACK TO ME, THE ROCK JOURNALIST:

Heck, at least they weren't pairing them up with Barbara Stanwyck. Read her Wikipedia to see the blatant comment about arranged marriages in Hollywood, yet still they say she "fell in love" with Robert Taylor. Read The Leading Men of MGM for more info on that!

From synopsis "The Leading Men of MGM exposes these legendary figures in all of their salacious glory — from Clark Gable’s clandestine homosexual encounters in bistro bathrooms to Elvis’s pill-popping, and Sinatra and Lawford’s icy post-Kennedy jousts"

http://search.barnesandnoble.com/The-Leading-Men-of-MGM/Jane-Ellen-Wayne/e/9780786717682

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POP CULTURE STUFF

A Charlie Brown Christmas
http://tv.yahoo.com/blog/interview-with-charlie-brown-christmas-producer-lee-mendelson--2027

Miracle on 34th Street vs. Miracle On 34th Street (remake)


(review pending approval by author as he mulls it over in his own mind...stay tuned, 4:33 pm December 25, 2010...

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Thanks to my Visual Radio guests, in no particular order....

Janis Joplin Jimi Hendrix Al Wilson Conspiracy

BLIND OWL AL WILSON

Arlington's Forgotten Music Legend

By Joe Viglione
Correspondent
recordreview2001@yahoo.com

September 3, 2010 is the fortieth anniversary of the passing of Arlington's Alan "Blind Owl" Wilson, the late lead singer and founding member of the legendary blues/rock group Canned Heat. I was sixteen years old and living on Beverly Road in Arlington, on the shores of the lower Mystic lakes when the Arlington Advocate published its obituary of Wilson. As a huge music fan I certainly loved the groups' hit recordings, "On The Road Again", "Goin' Up The Country" and a cover of Wilbert Harrison's "Let's Work Together". Wilson sang the first two hits while his friend and band co-founder, Bob "The Bear" Hite, sang "Let's Work Together."

As the history of Arlington music goes, Canned Heat is an essential - perhaps central - component, deserving of a place in the history books because of Al Wilson's roots in this community. Along with Alan Hovhaness, former Arista recording artist Andy Mendelson, The Prince and The Paupers, Fox Pass, Tony Caliendo of the Pink Floyd tribute band Pink Void, The Tarbox family and others, Arlington has a heritage to be proud of.

There are plenty of places to find out about Alan Wilson's work with Canned Heat. Wikipedia and AllMusic.com have lots of entries, this writer contributing reviews to All Music of the Canned Heat album Hallelujah as well as a "best of" package entitled Canned Heat Cookbook: Their Greatest Hits. Released in 1969 it would be the first of dozens and dozens of repackages, according to the AMG site. This tribute being what it is, readers are urged to check out those sites for more information, especially a fan page for Wilson called simply BlindOwl.net

What people don't realize is that Wilson was the first of four 27 year old rock stars to pass on, and when put in this context it is actually quite chilling. After Otis Redding died in a plane crash in 1967 at the age of 26 it was Wilson's death on September 3, 1970 that preceded Jimi Hendrix on September 18 and Janis Joplin's on October 4. This is the 40th Anniversary of all three of these rock & roll legends...and their story doesn't quite stop there. Conspiracy theories abound for all three of these counterculture figures.

But why the seemingly harmless Alan Wilson? In the epilogue of Salvador Astucia's controversial book " Rethinking John Lennon’s Assassination - The FBI’s War on Rock Stars" as well as at the conclusion of the biography on BlindOwl.net there are hints and more. Wikipedia currently has a photo of the upside down American flag being planted on the moon in an Iwo Jima-type way (one has to look at the actual flag with his upside down on a rightside up pole). Wikipedia notes "The upside down flag was Alan Wilson's idea and was a response to his love of nature, growing environmentalism and concern that humankind would soon be polluting the moon as well as the Earth (as reflected in his song "Poor Moon")." While Astucia states in his essay - Targeting the right people - "Alan "Wilson made a powerful political statement by displaying an upside-down American flag on the cover of Canned Heat’s 1970 album, Future Blues". In Chapter 12 of his book Astucia writes " Canned Heat performed with Jimi Hendrix on September 4, 1970 at a concert in Berlin, but Alan Wilson died that very morning. (JV notes: Actually, Wilson died on the 3rd) This fact has been suppressed in virtually all accounts of Hendrix’s final days." Astucia also claims Janis Joplin was at the Berlin concert, which would have been impossible if her final concert with Full Tilt Boogie was August 12 1970 in Harvard Square, Cambridge, Massachusetts. Wikipedia notes that her Pearl album's recording sessions "...began in early September, ended with Joplin's untimely death on October 4, 1970."

But the fact that Canned Heat and Jimi Hendrix played just two weeks before Hendrix's death, and that Al Wilson died on the day before the show, is definite food for thought as more evidence is uncovered that both Hendrix and Joplin might have been murdered. Alan Wilson.net says in the biography of Wilson " Although Alan Wilson’s death was ruled a suicide by the press at the time; the fact remains that in many instances, the statistics surrounding his passing were mis-reported. The police officer listed the cause as "accidental". The music tabloids in Europe, where Canned Heat was on tour, reported several incorrect drug-related scenarios (we have copies of at least 4) that were debunked by documents in the public record. In addition, The LA times article from September 4, 1970 reported that Alan was found with 4 "reds" (phenobarbitol) and that it was an "overdose of barbituates."

Three counterculture figures died within a month of each other, all at the age of 27, and J. Edgar Hoover was said to be watching these individuals who potentially had control over the youth during the Viet Nam era. Despite Salvador Astucia getting somewhat overzealous by adding Joplin to the German concert and pushing Wilson's death up a day (the time difference between West Coast Pacific Time and German time being about 8 hours), his information is still hard-hitting and, for the most part, very accurate.

Wikipedia notes that Alan Wilson may have attempted suicide twice before his passing, so we are left to our own conclusions. But it is pretty strange that he was the first of these 27 year old rock stars who had all performed at Monterey Pop and Woodstock together (Canned Heat, Janis Joplin and Jimi Hendrix both performing at those iconic moments in music history)
to leave us.

This is the Fortieth Anniversary of the passing of Arlington's Alan "Blind Owl" Wilson. At the very least we'd like to respectfully note his accomplishments and hope that people in the town recognize his importance.

LINKS:



Notes

Alan Wilson site
http://www.blindowl.net/biography.html

Astucia
http://www.jfkmontreal.com/john_lennon/Epilogue.htm

Canned heat Catalog
http://test.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=11:wifwxqw5ldfe~T21

Canned Heat Cookbook review by Joe Viglione
http://test.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:abfrxqe0ld0e

Hallelujah review by Joe Viglione
http://test.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:kifrxqw5ldje

Wikipedia with Upside Down Flag photo
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canned_Heat

Future Blues CD review with upside down flag
http://test.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:0ifrxqw5ldje

Hendrix/Canned Heat Chapter 12 Astucia
http://www.jfkmontreal.com/john_lennon/Chapter12.htm

Janis Joplin PEARL
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pearl_(album)

Joplin's Lsst Concert
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Janis_Joplin

Biography on BlindOwl.net
http://www.blindowl.net/biography.html

Peter Cetera Live at the Boston Esplanade

Saturday evening, July 31, 2010

Former musician from the group Chicago plays it soft and safe at the Boston Esplanade

By Joe Viglione
recordreview2001@yahoo.com

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To those of us who loved the pop music of The Velvet Underground and The Beatles, the underground rock/pop of Lou Reed and the mainstream pop of John, Paul, George & Ringo,
the music of the group Chicago was truly anathema when it first touched our collective ears.

Four decades or more later one can appreciate the majesty of songs like "If You Leave Me Now", "Hard Habit to Break" and the endless stream of other adult contemporary confections that Peter Cetera has collected during and after his stint in Chicago.

With a solid band of musicians behind him P.C. strangely put together an extremely pedestrian presentation. It was actually quite shocking that the performance concentrated so heavily on the sounds of the eighties when there was much potential for a dynamic roller coaster ride through his career.

Interviewing Syb Hashian of Ernie & The Automatics (and the group Boston, of course), Cetera stopped by and said hello to Sybby...a professional and very nice gentleman, I was hoping he would go out there and out Chicago his former band Chicago!

Alas, the audience was hoping for the same thing too and didn't get it. Rather than open up with the song co-written by legendary Rolling Stones producer Jimmy Miller and Traffic's Steve Winwood, "I'm A Man", a huge hit in Boston for Chicago as the flip side of "Questions 67 and 68" as well as a Top 10 hit for Spencer Davis Group in 1967 - produced by former Bostonian-for-a-time, the late Jimmy Miller, the set featured laid-back ballads punctuated by a quasi-reggae tune (??), a cover of "Lady Madonna" (??????). A pleasant surprise early in the set was the accompaniment by a young lady who performed duets on Peter's hits with Cher and Amy Grant. When they went into the Top 10 1989 smash "After All", the young lady (we'll track her name down) sounded so much like Cher the audience resounded with total enthusiasm. The audience also responded when the star asked them to pull out cameras and sway with one of the super power ballads, possibly "Hard Habit To Break" (wasn't that from the interesting movie "Summer Lovers" back in the day?....no, no, no ...it was probably "Hard to Say I'm Sorry")...anyway, lots of Cetera vocals/songs have spilled over into the film world...good for him - glad he has something to fall back on because the free concert audience was clearly getting tired waiting for the break of day, waiting on "Make Me Smile" or "Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is", songs that he avoided. Perhaps because Robert Lamm or Terry Kath were the voices on those old hits (it seems that Lamm did take the lead on "Does Anybody Really Know...", proud to say I'm not an expert on the music of Chicago...far from it!)...still, the audience wanted some punch and the Chicago hits would have brought them to life.

The rendition of "If You Leave Me Now" was more Dan Fogelberg than Chicago, the strings definitely needed to bring this one home, and the acoustic encore of "25 or 6 to 4" was truly foreplay without the kiss - don't even think about the sex. When the riff that's as classic as "Sunshine Of Your Love" (I'm not comparing the value of the tunes, just that both songs contain two of the most historic opening riffs in rock) came in for verse two the audience finally almost got what they came for. But unlike Eric Burdon's mesmerizing "Sky Pilot" or Three Dog Night's terrific "Celebrate" or Peter Noone's exquisite "There's A Kind of Hush", all performed on the Esplanade in years past and all delivering pandemonium, the truncated rendition of the most necessary song of the night (though not Cetera's biggest) was a let down. As was the concert.

Look, I was not a Peter Cetera fan to begin with, but I do appreciate his contributions and was rooting for him. When someone is giving an artist more than a benefit of the doubt and that artists takes his hits and puts together a show with the worst pacing this writer's witnessed in a decade, well, it is clear he's having fun and if you can enjoy it with him, all the better.

It was a nice summer night with pleasant music on the Esplanade with a major name who could have walked off the stage owning this town. Instead, he delivered predictable songs with a bit of a dated feel to them. A pity...the song construction and his marvelous voice could have made for a dynamite conclusion to this year's summer concert series from 103.3 FM. Cetera showed up sober and was professional throughout, but he could have won some converts over and just didn't care to.

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July 2010

Joe Vig Top 50 for July 2010

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#1 THE TAMI SHOW

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#2 Exile On Main Street

The month of May, 2010 has Mick Jagger on your TV screen…from Jimmy Kimmel to Larry King, with welcome chatter about the greatest band in the world…and the quintessential double album that is now expanded with bonus tracks…EXILE ON MAIN STREET. We’ll be reviewing the Exile On Main Street DVD in the very near future…but as I haven’t opened the “official” Universal Music promo copy download of the CD (what the heck? Can’t even hold the disc in your hands when reviewing…what’s the world coming to?) for now we’ll revisit a space in time with the man who made Exile On Main Street, the late Jimmy Miller. Jimmy Miller remembered Read more here:

http://www.tmrzoo.com/?p=11585

Lots more on this CD and the DVD reissue

Stones to Retire?
http://www.spinner.com/2010/07/26/the-rolling-stones-to-retire-after-world-tour/

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#3

Entertainment Hotline visits Ringo Starr; Malden musicians perform Beatles music

By Joe Viglione / recordreview2001@yahoo.com

GateHouse News Service

Posted Jul 22, 2010 @ 04:51 PM

Malden —

Hotline bumped into Malden guitarist David C. Mooney at the Jethro Tull/Procol Harum show on June 15 and again for Ringo and his All Starrs at the Bank America Pavilion on Tuesday, June 29.

At the superb Ringo event, where Beatlemaniacs were out in full force, Mooney brought his fellow Maldonian guitarist, David Andrulli, along with him. Mooney performed in a Jethro Tull cover act back in the day but Andrulli informed the Malden Observer that his musical colleague is currently busy working on a number of his own versions of Beatles’ songs.

“They came out really good...he did a good job,” Andrulli stated while Edgar Winter, Rick Derringer, Gary Wright, Ringo Starr and the band played on the old Harbor Lights stage... The songs recorded thus far include “And Your Bird Can Sing,” “Run For Your Life” from Rubber Soul and an acoustic rendition of John Lennon’s “Watching The Wheels” from Double Fantasy.

Andrulli, de facto spokesman for Mooney, said, “He did all the instruments, harmonies and vocals,” while noting that the recording of “She Said, She Said” was erased by accident.

http://www.wickedlocal.com/malden/features/x522012184/Entertainment-Hotline-visits-Ringo-Starr-Malden-musicians-perform-Beatles-music

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#4 Dave Munro & Air Traffic Controller

Courtesy/ Dave Munro

Air Traffic Controller features singer/songwriter guitarist Dave Munro and his drummer/brother Rich Munro. Dave recently performed at Boston City Hall Plaza with a string quartet. On Friday, July 23, he is appearing with producer Bleu for the Lowell Folk Festival. On Saturday, July 24, though, you can catch Bleu and Air Traffic Controller with the Aquavia String Octet for a 6 p.m. and a 9 p.m. show. CLUB PASSIM is in Harvard Square near the Coop/Barnes & Noble at 47 Palmer St., Cambridge

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#5 Peter Noone's New Photo Book



The entire, unedited copy of the Foreword by Rock Journalist Joe Vig
http://www.tmrzoo.com/?p=12550

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#6

Living With The Myth of Janis Joplin: The Story of Big Brother & The Holding Company 1965-2005

Author Michael Spöerke

As Stephen Davis put together a biography entitled “Jim Morrison: Life, Death, Legend” with less of an emphasis on The Doors, Author Michael Spöerke has written a much-needed book on Big Brother & The Holding Company with an attempt to focus on the band itself: bassist Peter Albin, drummer David Getz with Sam Andrew and James Gurley creating an awesome guitar duo.

That this is the 40th anniversary of the passing of Janis Joplin means that more people will be looking for information on the innovative and highly creative band that backed her up. This book fits the bill. Don’t let the 106 pages make you think it is a small book…on large paper with double-spaced text, there is a lot of history here worthy of review and deserving of a place in your bookcase

Read more here:
http://www.tmrzoo.com/?p=12918

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FOUR CDS from TOMMY JAMES ON COLLECTABLES
http://www.tmrzoo.com/?p=13405

#7 I THINK WE'RE ALONE NOW

If Collectors Choice wants to reissue all the James’ discs separately, I say go for it. If they want to give us two-fers, unreleased tracks, different language versions (and those rarities DO exist for some of the hits) and interviews, please do so. The more the merrier. In any case, all four discs are strongly recommended, even the Travelin’ album which, though a swan song for the band, is beautiful in its “back to the future” approach, the seasoned professionals going back and recording something akin to their earlier discs what Tommy did in his first incarnation on the Hanky Panky album…loose and fun and full of life.

Tommy James will be appearing at the National Rock Con this July 30 – August 1 at the Sheraton Meadowlands

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#8 GETTIN' TOGETHER

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#9 TRAVELIN' THE FINAL TOMMY JAMES & THE SHONDELLS CD

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#10 MY HEAD MY BED MY RED GUITAR

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#11 Lou Reed's BERLIN LIVE
http://www.tmrzoo.com/?p=1654

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#12 JAMES SULLIVAN ON GEORGE CARLIN

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#13 STEPHEN McCAULEY - INSIGNIFICANT OTHERS

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#14 Mark Black "Pictures of the Highway"

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#15 Patty Larkin

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#16 The Monster & The Ape

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#17 Peter Parcek

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#18 SEA OF BLACK by the group MASS
For those who enjoy the hard-hitting precision of Deep Purple’s Perfect Strangers album or the late Ronny James Dio fronting Black Sabbath this exquisite new collection of a dozen tracks by the band I consider New England’s premiere metal outfit will surely satisfy the group’s followers as well as hard rock aficionados.

The title (and closing) track, “Sea Of Black“, is probably my fave of this top-notch collection …”can you feel the power…”…yes, you can as Gene D’Itria’s guitar riff chugs along underneath Joey Vee’s incessant beat and bassist Michael Palumbo’s moving bottom-end waves of sound.

Read more here in TMRZoo
http://www.tmrzoo.com/?p=13478

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#19 Peter C. Johnson 1978-1981

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#20 PETER WOLF Midnight Souvenirs

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#21 Canned Heat
With Bob Hite and Alan Wilson switching off on vocals, Canned Heat delivered as consistent a blues product as George Thorogood, only with more diversity and subtle musical nuances keeping the listener involved. "Same All Over" breaks no new ground, opening up the Hallelujah disc, but the enthusiasm and reverence the band has for the genre is special. Al Wilson's distinctive voice -- heard on two Top 20 hit records in 1968 -- is enhanced with his eerie whistling on "Change My Ways" and the wonderfully ragged instrumentation. The way the keys bubble up under the guitars, it would have been a natural for these guys to groove their way into a Grateful Dead-style jam band thing, but two vocalists dying within an 11-year span is a bit much for any ensemble. The name Canned Heat is so cool that it becomes the title of the third song. "Canned Heat" is a pretty accurate description of what they play, and the bluesy, slow Bob Hite vocal works wonders over the incessant Henry Vestine/Alan Wilson guitar work. Nice stuff. Read more here

http://test.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:kifrxqw5ldje

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#22 Canned Heat Cookbook From Monterey Pop & Woodstock

Send to Friend

This initial best-of package, Canned Heat Cookbook, was released rather quickly in 1969 after the band's initial burst of creativity resulted in four albums and two hit singles between 1967 and 1968. Friend/manager/producer Skip Taylor lists tons of the band's engagements from 1966 on the gatefold of the album, which constitutes its only liner notes. Dozens and dozens of gigs, from the Monterey International Pop Festival to Club 47, the Boston Tea Party, and what they call the Woodstock Pop Festival, are all listed, and this is a staggering resumé suited well to a greatest-hits package. There are baby photos of the five bandmembers (and the obligatory thanks to their moms for providing them), as well as a very cool cover design by Dean Torrence, which features his artistic rendition of each performer along with a couple of butterflies. They look somewhat like the Band here, and their rocking blues were actually somewhat similar to the dudes who backed up Bob Dylan. But the sound of their records differed from that other ensemble, and Al Wilson's personality shines through on "Goin' up the Country" and "On the Road Again," two blasts of '60s pop which were quite different from anything else on the radio at the time read more here
http://test.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:abfrxqe0ld0e

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#23 Joplin In Concert 2-12-69 on Wolfsgang's Vault


http://www.wolfgangsvault.com/janis-joplin/concerts/fillmore-east-february-12-1969.html

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PERRY MASON!
Radio's DELLA STREET on Perry Mason was from Malden

Thanks to Peter Levine, Malden historian and archivist, for this information July 2009

http://www.wickedlocal.com/malden/news/lifestyle/columnists/x695085704/COLUMN-Malden-Musings

Remembering Maldonians

Joan Alexander passed away this past May at 94 years of age, and although her ties to Malden are somewhat tenuous I will note them anyway. Her career was long and successful — fashion model, star of the stage, and popular radio actress from the 1940s most notably playing Lois Lane, ace reporter working at the Daily Planet and constantly being rescued by Superman. But her claim to Malden fame is from her re-occurring role as “Della Street” on the very popular Perry Mason radio serial from the same time period.

Perry Mason was created by one of Malden’s most famous residents Earle Stanley Gardner and the character “Della Street” (Perry Mason’s loyal secretary in the series) was named after Dell Street in Malden, which is located right off of Salem Street. Interesting side note, Joan’s second husband was John Sylvester White, otherwise known as Mr. Woodman, an actor universally known and loved for playing the assistant principal in the smash hit Television series “Welcome Back, Kotter.”

Top 40 for June 2010...a work in progress

Here's my list of reviews and such...

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#1 JETHRO TULL LIVING WITH THE PAST

Jethro Tull and Procol Harum — A ‘perfect pairing’ in Boston, June 15

Photos

Courtesy image

The Bank Of America Pavilion will host Jethro Tull and Procol Harum on Tuesday, Jun 15, at 7:30 p.m. (EDT). Both British musical groups have strong followings in the Boston area and the combination of the two is something both fan bases will find inviting. Ian Anderson of Tull and Gary Brooker, the voice of Procol Harum, both spoke with the Winchester Star about the upcoming show and their current and past work.

By Joe Viglione/Special to the Star

GateHouse News Service

Posted Jun 14, 2010 @ 01:44 PM

Winchester, MA —

The Bank Of America Pavilion will host Jethro Tull and Procol Harum on Tuesday, Jun 15, at 7:30 p.m. (EDT). Both British musical groups have strong followings in the Boston area and the combination of the two is something both fan bases will find inviting. Ian Anderson of Tull and Gary Brooker, the voice of Procol Harum, both spoke with the Winchester Star about the upcoming show and their current and past work.

Back in Arlington High School in the early 1970s the "buzz" was on the bands coming over from the U.K., Led Zeppelin and Jethro Tull garnering the chatter, that word-of-mouth - as did Black Sabbath, the groups all viewed as if from different genres but with blues as the base for their now very classic rock. It was very hip to have gone to a Jethro Tull concert in those early days, which is how I opened my conversation with one of the great figures of British rock, Ian Anderson.

Read more here:

http://www.wickedlocal.com/winchester/newsnow/x767635680/Jethro-Tull-and-Procol-Harum-A-perfect-pairing-in-Boston-June-15

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#2 Procol Harum



See above for review or Read more here:

TMR Zoo
http://www.tmrzoo.com/?p=12373

Winchester Star
http://www.wickedlocal.com/winchester/newsnow/x767635680/Jethro-Tull-and-Procol-Harum-A-perfect-pairing-in-Boston-June-15

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#3 THE A-TEAM MOVIE

OK, it's not doing well up against The Karate Kid redux, but it is better than advertised. Good summer fun that is better than Tom Cruise's last two M.I. flicks...

Movie Review: The A-Team – The Inadvertent Sequel to Mission Impossible IV

by Joe Viglione June - 11 - 2010

Action. Loud noises as things blow up. Director Joe Carnahan puts the “bio” of the A-Team front and center as the film opens, and for those not familiar with the TV show that ran in the mid 1980s, the character development will be tough to follow at the onset. There’s no “Mr T” larger-than-life figure, Quinton “Rampage” Jackson playing the role of Bosco Albert B.A. “Bad Attitude” Baracus (Jackson of some UFC and WWF fame), Liam Neeson as Hannibal, a cool choice for new audiences (George Pappard would be 79 this year, having passed on at 65 in 1994)…Battlestar Galactica’s Dirk Benedict IS 65 this year and his Lieutenant Templeton “Faceman” Peck is played by the 35 year old Bradley Cooper, who was probably eight years old when the show originally aired on television.

Cooper, from He’s Just Not That Into You and Nip/Tuck, was supposed to appeal to the chicks, but according to BoxOfficeMojo.com the chicks didn't show up to this heavily male, over 25 audience grabber - read more here:
http://www.tmrzoo.com/?p=12182

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#4

RETROSPECTIVE: Charlie Farren Live at the Regent Theater

by Joe Viglione June - 12 - 2010

Journeyman Charlie Farren’s love of his craft is obvious on this DVD, Retrospective: Live At The Regent Theater, which comes in a deluxe package with an accompanying CD.

The project started with an idea from videographer Bob Boyd, the fellow who taped Joan Jett, til tuesday, The Stompers, John Lee Hooker and others. Boyd met with Charlie Farren for lunch and discussed his idea…and now it is a reality covering the highlights of Farren’s storied career.

The audio is superb on the CD…you can hear all the instruments while Charlie’s strong-as-ever vocals cut through on “Love Street” and opening track “Nobody’s Somebody”

read more here:

http://www.tmrzoo.com/?p=12197

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#5 Peter Noone's new book! I wrote the foreword



Http://peternoone.com

Read the text from the Foreword here:
http://joevigupdate.blogspot.com/

The photos here portray the relentless Peter Blair Noone in a variety of roles, while others are scheduled for another book. So if you don't see Peter performing "Oh You Pretty Things!" on the BBC with songwriter David Bowie (nee Jones) at the piano in a dress, or the artist working next to Joel Goldstein, son of Planet of The Apes soundtrack genius Jerry Goldsmith (with Noone performing the title track of the Kirk Douglas film from 2000: "Diamonds"), ...or busily writing one of the 41 of his own compositions listed on the BMI worldwide site...or if you don't get to view Phyllis Diller introducing the Hermits on Hollywood Palace, you will get a glimpse of Peter on Broadway in Romance, Romance and as Frederic in Gilbert & Sullivan's The Pirates of Penzance.

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#6 MARK RIBOWSKY'S BOOK ON THE SUPREMES

Joe Viglione June - 15 - 2010

http://www.tmrzoo.com/?p=12416


Hear THE SUPREMES do THE TOYS A LOVER'S CONCERTO

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bA2hY7nhVWE

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#7 Jimmy Miller / Rolling Stones

Remembering the man behind EXILE ON MAIN STREET

http://www.tmrzoo.com/?p=11585

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#8 Essential Carole King - a review
http://www.tmrzoo.com/?p=11601

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#9 Visual Radio & Joe Viglione Articles in Google News
http://news.google.com/news/search?aq=f&pz=1&cf=all&ned=us&hl=en&q=joe+viglione

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#10 New article in the Medford Transcript
http://www.wickedlocal.com/medford/news/lifestyle/x1717108012/Visual-Radio-kicks-off-14th-year-on-the-air

#10 Medford Transcript article Tiny URL

http://preview.tinyurl.com/visualradiointranscript

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#11 BOSTON GLOBE ARTICLE: LANDING BIG NAMES:
http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2004/02/01/landing_big_names/

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#12 JOHN LENNON

http://www.swapadvd.com/dvd/title/190525-Classic+Albums%3A+John+Lennon+-+Plastic+Ono+Band

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#13

Going Track By Track with Exile On Main Street

Track by Track song by song reviews by Joe Viglione


Joe Viglione with Mick Taylor, Exile On Main St. guitarist,
chatting with on Visual Radio

LOVING CUP
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ex1nxuM1fU8&feature=related

The piano sound on the opening of this tune, a prelude to Jagger's neo-Gospel plea, and the guitar coming in with subtle urging...I don't know if the kids today know the great memory this music evokes, how when it was released when I was eighteen years of age it made such an indelible effect on my life and my musical journay. Exile On Main Street was more ambitious than even The Stones themselves may have realized...more than just a double live album (which hadn't even really come into vogue yet the way J Geils Blow Your Face Out (1976), Bob Seger's Live Bullet (1976) and Frampton Comes Alive (1976) would four years later; an indicator that The Stones SHOULD have put Get Your Ya Ya's Out as a double-duty set of discs, as they have today)...

My friend Trivial Tony notes that "as for double LPs the era had its share even before the bloated mid-70s. I'm thinking of Joe Cocker's "Mad Dogs & Englishmen," Donovan's "Gift From a Flower To A Garden," The Who's "Tommy" and of course Chicago's first four sets. Trouble is, the Beatles and Stones were among the few bands (maybe the ONLY two) whose musical statements could cross four sides at the time. Easy to forget "Get Your Ya-Ya's" was in a way a response to the "Liv'er Than You'll Ever Be" bootleg reviewed and even selling decently then" ...Tony is right...but I've never forgotten that Liv'er Than You'll Ever Be forced the hand of the powers that be to release Ya Ya's. My complaint was that they didn't INCLUDE Liv'er WITH Ya Ya's as a double CD. And as much as Mad Dogs & Englishmen and The Who's Tommy
were trailblazers (The Bee Gees' ODESSA was not everpresent like those two epics, Bruce Eder on AMG noting "Odessa is one of perhaps three double albums of the entire decade (the others being Blonde on Blonde and The Beatles) that don't seem stretched, and it also served as the group's most densely orchestrated album. ")

See Bruce Eder's ODESSA review here:
http://allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:aifoxql5ldae

Back to Joe V's commentary: The White Album (The Beatles) was 1968, four years prior, so this was one of the few times Mick and the Boys didn't copy the Fab 4's business moves, though had Beggar's Banquet emerged as a four-sider it would have been a brilliant maneuver...Miller and the boys were brimming with talent and certainly had enough great stuff in the archives...the inevitable comparisons with "white" covers would have also been made (of course the original Beggar's Banquet artwork being almost as risque as the Beatles Butcher Cover)...but I digress, the conclusion of "Loving Cup" just a wonderful fade. The Stones bringing the music of The Band into the pop/rock world that made Mick, Keith, Charlie, Bill and Mick Taylor so much more popular back in the day...and right into the future.

Jimmy Miller's drumming on "Loving Cup" simply a commanding performance which really cuts through on YouTube...in fact the mix on YouTube is pretty revealing...the piano, guitars, vocal all blending perfectly, those horns come in at a perfect moment.
(Song Review written 1 PM May 21, 2010)

Loving Cup version on YouTube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PsbSyMNVzLI&NR=1

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White Stripes' Jack White and The Stones live with "Lovin' Cup"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=swV30IHHqvY&NR=1

NEWS FLASH:

I'm reviewing the new EXILE right now, 2:20 PM on Friday, May 21, 2010...Aladdin Song is something I played for Jimmy Miller in the 1980s...they've finally completed it. More soon!

Exiled Genius: Exile On Main Street Revisited

The month of May, 2010 has Mick Jagger on your TV screen…from Jimmy Kimmel to Larry King, with welcome chatter about the greatest band in the world…and the quintessential double album that is now expanded with bonus tracks…EXILE ON MAIN STREET. We’ll be reviewing the Exile On Main Street DVD in the very near future… as well as the new release on Universal Music!

For now we’ll revisit a space in time with the man who made Exile On Main Street, the late Jimmy Miller.

Jimmy Miller remembered

Few people who hear “Honky Tonk Women,” “Jumpin’ Jack Flash” and “Street Fighting Man” realize that the man who put many of the classic sounds into those Rolling Stones classics lived in Medford, Massachusetts for a year or so in the 1980s.

Along with Beatles’ producer George Martin and the once revered Phil Spector, Jimmy Miller rounds out the three greatest producers of the rock and roll era.

The world lost Mr. Jimmy, the man Mick Jagger was “standing in line with” in the song “You Can’t Always Get What You Want” on Oct. 22, 1994, 15 years 7 months ago this week. Strangely, Marianne Faithful, produced by Jimmy on an album called “The Rolling Stones Rock And Roll Circus,” released on ABKCO a year after his passing, told this writer to “give my love to Jimmy” just 13 days before Miller’s death.

I never got the chance.

Medford might be known worldwide for the song “Jingle Bells” having been written on what is now High Street, but it’s also very special that our city was home for a time to the man who co-wrote and produced “I’m A Man” for the Spencer Davis Group and who went on to produce Traffic, Spooky Tooth, Blind Faith, Johnny Thunders, The Plasmatics and, of course, that band called The Rolling Stones.

Miller, in fact, produced more than 100 songs for the Stones. As his business partner and exclusive representative, I had compiled about 93 recordings Jimmy worked on for The Greatest Rock & Roll Band in the world, uncovering more in Martin Elliot’s excellent “The Rolling Stones: Complete Recording Sessions 1962-2002.”

Read more here:

http://www.tmrzoo.com/?p=11585

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HERE'S MY REVIEW OF THE MVD DIGITAL VIDEO TRILOGY CALLED
UNDER REVIEW

Where the Rolling Stones' Under Review: 1962-1966 had its moments with eight commentators giving us the beginnings of Stones history, this part two -- Under Review: 1967-1969 with a dozen critics and musicians interviewed -- is truly superior in its approach and in direction, a perfect segue to the unnamed part three of this trilogy from Chrome Dreams/Sexy Intellectual, the very excellent Under Review for Keith Richards.
http://allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:jifrxzyhldae

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http://allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:kzfqxq9rldae

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http://allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:f9ftxzqgld0e

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Hendrix Travels to the Valleys of Neptune

Jimi Hendrix Travels Once Again to The Valleys of Neptune from South Saturn Delta

by Joe Viglione March - 3 - 2010

Chief Film Critic, TMR Zoo
http://www.tmrzoo.com/?p=8350

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Jimi Hendrix loved to utilize space themes - from Astro Man to South Saturn Delta, First Rays of the New Rising Sun to the Valleys of Neptune. The Sun and Planets figured heavily in his imaginative writings.

For hardcore Jimi Hendrix fans the impending March 9th release of Valleys Of Neptune is a major score, the first launch from the Sony/Legacy distribution of the Hendrix masters after they moved from their original home on Warner Brothers to MCA/Uni for many years (with some releases like Band Of Gypsys and the Curtis Knight material on Capitol and other titles finding temporary residence at Ryko Disc, now owned by Warner Brothers long after the fact). You truly need a scorecard, or at least a new edition of John McDermott and Eddie Kramer’s excellent HENDRIX: Setting The Record Straight (Warner Books) along with Steven Roby’s Black Gold (Billboard Books) to get through the maze of releases and recording dates.



45 RPM Cover

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ou’ll find an eight minute and ten second “Hear My Train A Comin’ ” (recorded May 21, 1969) on the Villanova Junction 7 track disc unofficially officially released in 2004 on Alchemy Entertainment, and one can hear how dramatically different this rendition from the Valleys of Neptune disc is – tracked a month and a half earlier on April 7, 1969 at Record Plant Studios, New York City, New York. On it you can distinctly hear the “Ohio” riff that was so essential to Neil Young’s C.S.N.Y. Top 15 one-off hit from July of 1970. Since the Kent State shootings happened on May 4, 1970, it is very possible that Young, said to have written “Ohio” after the Kent State incident, lifted the riff from Jimi. You can even sing “Tin Soliders & Nixon Coming” – the words to the song “Ohio” – over Hendrix’s “Hear My Train A Comin’ ” groove on the Valley’s Of Neptune disc, though it is not as pronounced on the Villanova Junction disc …Jimi morphing the guitar lines into a more fluid, quasi-live vamp. So for the aficionados who study at the College of Hendrix, this material is a magnificent find…and for those who just want some great “new” vibes from Jimi…the verdict is that Valleys of Neptune works on many levels.


Morning Symphony Ideas


ow that’s not to say it is a complete document of what Jimi would have put together in-between Electric Ladyland, the final studio album released with his blessing, and The Cry Of Love/Voodoo Soup/The First Rays Of The New Rising Sun, the superb posthumous release with instant classics like “Angel” (covered by Rod Stewart), “Driftin’” (with Buzzy Linhart’s tremendous vibes), and “Ezy Rider”, itself pretty much a nod to the film which included Hendrix’s “If 6 was 9″ from 1967’s Axis: Bold as Love. So what the Hendrix fan has to decide (and what’s not to like about exploring his music while making a judgment on the authenticity of the release?) is if this music is obscure enough (read: not found in the bootleg canon) and if it satisfies.

Listening to the superb instrumental of “Sunshine of Your Love”, though in tempo flux still delicious, and the exquisite opening track, a lovely reading of “Stone Free” that comes straight out of the band Traffic’s repertoire…or wait a minute, Traffic’s “Rock And Roll Stew” appeared on the 1971 Low Spark Of The High Heeled Boys album…did Hendrix’s jazzy grooves infiltrate Jim Gordon and Rich Grech’s composition? More than likely …and perhaps Experience Hendrix’s John McDermott can shed some light on that since he wrote the liners to the Blind Faith deluxe double disc.

Phrasings of “Dolly Dagger” and “Ezy Rider” can be heard in some of the material, but the bottom line is if there’s enough territory here that has yet to be explored by the fans….and if the disc can hold up to all the “57 Varieties” the H.J. Heinz company used to boast…because after the Warner Brothers slew of releases – War Heroes, Rainbow Bridge, Hendrix In The West – Sound Track Recordings From The Film Jimi Hendrix, Alan Douglas mutations – 1975’s Crash Landing and Midnight Lightning discs, Loose Ends, 1980’s Nine To The Universe – and even the Experience Hendrix official releases like South Saturn Delta (which followed First Rays of the New Rising Sun in the same way that Warner Bros. released War Heroes and Rainbow Bridge right after The Cry Of Love) and Morning Symphony Ideas, well…Jimi’s recordings have been making the rounds in official, semi-official and unofficial fashion. And then there’s the titles released on Radioactive Records in Europe. The double disc entitled Studio Outtakes 1966-1970 actually contains some of this Valleys Of Neptune release: Stepping Stone, Valleys of Neptune, Lover Man along with a variety of other songs. For those of us who have faithfully collected Jimi’s music over the past 45 years plus, well, it’s nice to have new mastering jobs, new mixes and the new promotion that comes with Sony/Legacy’s reissuing of the entire catalog. And the good people at Sony/Legacy have the highest of standards, so it is with great anticipation that we who follow all things Hendrix await the re-establishment of Jimi’s recorded works.

But here’s my two cents as a fan and as a Hendrix devotee: the best part of The Who’s appearance at the Superbowl 2010 (in fact, the only appearance by the real Who of Entwistle, Moon, Townshend and Daltrey) was the dance/re-mix of “My Generation”. Along with this version of “Valleys of Neptune”, which is growing on me but might not have staying power, a psychedelic re-mix would’ve been a nice idea for 2010…especially in light of Yoko Ono’s success with the dance hit version of “Walking On Thin Ice.” It’s a lost opportunity as a sweet remix of the title track in addition to all these delicacies would’ve been the frosting on the cake. Still, it’s wonderful to have a “new” Hendrix release, even for us oldtimers who have an idea of what is out there, and Valleys of Neptune succeeds as an important addition to Jimi Hendrix’s catalog of recorded music.

The Studio Out-Takes 1966-1970

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