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Give me your music, your art, your huddled masses of words and rhythms, yearning to breathe free.
Give me your music, your art, your huddled masses of words and rhythms, yearning to breathe free.
the
Give me your music, your art, your huddled masses of words and rhythms, yearning to breathe free.
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?
According to Bruce Springsteen's security man, Jim McDuffie, here are some of the items thrown onstage at The Boss's Madison Square Garden concert on December 18, 1980. McDuffie reported that a dozen pairs of women's panties were thrown onto the stage at Bruce's Pittsburgh show that month. I was there, but kept my undies on.
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.
The Smothers Brothers - Dick and Tom - are hailed as freedom-of-speech heroes for their battles with CBS network executives who censored, and eventually cancelled, their trippy 1967-69 "Comedy Hour." But few followers of music and TV history are aware that Johnny Cash also stood up to the company men who attempted to police his 1969-71 TV variety show.
Last night I finally got to see guitar wizard and rock-n-roll funny man Joe Walsh play my favorite song from my favorite teenage summer. I dropped a helluva lot of quarters into the Student Union jukebox in 1978 to hear "Life's Been Good," a hilarious, iconic parody of the rich, spoiled rock star lifestyle. Now, the man who once sang, "I keep on going, guess I'll never know why," is back on the road to promote his first album in 20 years, "Analog Man."