the
From Glam Rock…to Garbo….to Goats
the
HIP QUOTIENT
From Glam Rock…..to Garbo…..to Goats
the
From Glam Rock…to Garbo….
to Goats
In 1968, The Band sang about pulling into Nazareth, "feelin' 'bout half past dead." Robbie Robertson wrote that lyric for The Band's most enduring song, "The Weight," but he wasn't referring to the Holy Land. Rather, he was paying homage to Nazareth, Pennsylvania, home of guitar maker C.F. Martin & Company. Well, maybe it's a holy place, after all - at least to musicians.
Imagine the Rolling Stones' classic "You Can't Always Get What You Want," sans the embellishments of the London Bach Choir. Definitely doable, in my opinion. Ponder the Beatles' "The Long and Winding Road," minus the Phil Spector-imposed orchestral strings and choir of angels. Totally preferable. Contemplate Bob Dylan's landmark "Like a Rolling Stone" without those haunting, no-direction-home Hammond organ chords. Absolutely inconceivable. Had it not been for the gutsy gamble of a 21-year old named Al Kooper, Dylan's decade-defining anthem would lack much of its signature, soulful sound. The great Mr. Kooper turned 70 on February 5, 2014.
Snarly, salty Tom Waits is one of the few singer/songwriters never to sell out by allowing his songs to be used in TV commercials. Through the years he's filed lawsuits against lots of big companies that attempted to use his songs – or rips-offs of his music – in TV ads. And he won every case.
Today would have been the 70th birthday of Rick Danko, the Canadian musician and singer best known as the bassist and fiddle-player for The Band. Did you know that he was the one who found and rented the famous pink house, where so much musical history was made in the late 1960s?
When tickets went on sale this past spring for the Rod Stewart/Stevie Nicks July 28 "Heart and Soul" show at Pittsburgh's Consol Energy Center, I took pause. I've adored Rod since his earliest days in the music biz, when he sang his heart out with Brit bands like Long John Baldry's Hoochie Coochie Men, The Jeff Beck Group and The Faces. But as much as I love Rod The Former Mod, was I really willing to fork over $150 to sit half a mile from the stage of a 19,000-seat arena to hear him sing "Do Ya Think I'm Sexy" from his sad disco days, or croon old standards with faded gypsy queen, Stevie Nicks? No, I decided to spend my concert cash to see another vocally endowed white boy who also performed here last night: "Southside" Johnny Lyon. Johnny brought his 7-piece Asbury Jukes band to the Palace Theater in the small town of Greensburg, PA, and delivered his usual rousing show. He's been performing since the mid-1970s and is considered a pioneer of the famous Jersey Shore sound that emerged when Bruce Springsteen put Asbury Park on the musical map 40 years ago.I've long considered Johnny Lyon to be the finest white rock-soul singer in America.