Everybody had a hard year, Everybody had a good time
Everybody had a wet dream, Everybody saw the sunshine
Oh yeah oh yeah oh yeah, oh yeah – I’ve Got A Feeling by The Beatles from Let It Be

Yes, 2017 was a hard year but we the time to moan and groan is past and the time to buy some timeless, life-affirming music for you or a loved one has come.  This year marked the 50th anniversary of the granddaddy of them all (No, not the Rose Ball) Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band and you’e got your pick of a half dozen Pepper packages: single and double CDs, a deluxe box of four CDs and two DVDs (containing videos and 5.1 surround mixes of the original album), as well as a double LP that, like the other expanded editions, includes a handful of the album’s songs in embryo and in various stages of development.  All editions feature a stereo remix by Giles Martin (who is the son of George Martin who  died last year at 90) and Abbey Road audio engineer Sam Okell. 

That Ringo flashback was from when I spoke to him last summer.

It is a golden era for vinyl mavens. We now have the opportunity to acquire the entire George Harrison catalog on wax in one package.  Another guy, named Gordon Sumner, also started a solo career after the biggest band in world broke up.   Sting’s complete solo discography has been lovingly re-mastered on180 gram vinyl with original artwork at, where else, Abbey Road.    All albums by Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers were also made available this year in The Complete Studio Albums Volume 1 covering 1976-1991 and Volume 2 covering 1994-2014.  The Chuck Berry super deluxe Great 28 box is also a tasty treat as it restores the definitive Berry anthology to two LPs along with three other albums of delights including a hot live set from ’63 with Motown’s Funk Brothers backing him up.  

Dynamite live material from The Replacements and Bob Dylan was also unleashed in 2017.  Tapes of The Mats ‘86 Hoboken show has been kicking around for years but that hardly diminishes the excitement of the official release of For Sale.  The performance was captured about 

I spoke to Tommy in January when a new Bash & Pop album came out.

Zimmy was prolific, even by his standards, from 1979 to 1981 as his conversion to Christianity re-lit his songwriting fuse.  As with past eras, Volume 13 of The Bootleg Series presents enough material to satisfy completists while cherry-picking the inevitable treasures found among the live tracks and outtakes from his studio albums of the time: Slow Train Coming, Saved, and Shot of Love.  The packaging is gorgeous and the book of photographs, Pressing On, included in the 9 disc deluxe set is especially lovely.  All of those participating in putting together this and all the volumes of The Bootleg Series deserve praise.  However, I’d like to single out co-producer Steve Berkowitz and co-mixer/masterer Steve Addabbo – both of whom I had a chance to speak with regarding their work with Jeff Buckley last year.

Ho Ho Ho!  Have a fab holiday season and here’s to an excellent 2018 –

The 43rd annual Fest For Beatles Fans brought together an impressive array of super-fans and people in a position to show and tell first hand accounts involving John, Paul, George, and  Ringo.  It was a pleasure to be able to roam around the Hyatt Regency Jersey City On The Hudson with the benefit of a camera and a microphone.  

Louise Harrison is protective about revealing the few years of her brother George Harrison’s life that haven’t been exhaustively documented.  However, she made it clear that in his boyhood, he was definitely not the quiet one!  

Maybe the best evidence of the enduring legacy of The Beatles is how much love they get from people who have worked with them.  Mark Hudson wrote and produced no fewer than eight album with Ringo while Rob Shanahan has been photographer for his record covers, tour books, and t-shirt art since meeting Ringo in 2001 through Sheila E.  They spoke of the surreal aspects of making the transition from huge lovers of the group to being in its inner circle.  They were naturally beside themselves when transcendent moments occurred like Rob photographing Paul showing up at Ringo’s show at Radio City in 2009 or Mark singing harmony vocals with Paul during a session for 1998’s Vertical Man. 

The same is true of Klaus Voormann who was as close as anyone to The Beatles with a history going back to the days on the Reeperbahn in Hamburg ion the early 60s.  He played extensively with John, George, and Ringo from ’69 to ’76 as a member of the Plastic Ono Band and on sessions for albums like Imagine, Walls & Bridges, Rock n Roll, All Things Must Pass, Living In The Material World, Dark Horse, Goodnight Vienna, and Ringo’s Rotogravure which was the last album to feature contributions from all four Beatles before Lennon’s death in 1980.  Voormann generously narrated an executive summary of his spiffy new book,  Birth of an Icon:Revolver 50 while flipping through its pages.  See the bonus video below for more with Klaus. 

Lastly, enjoy another bonus vid with Charles Roberts who invited The Quarrymen to play at a street party in ’57 at which the first photograph ever snapped of that group was taken…

Donovan & Brian Wilson Celebrate Fifty Year Anniversaries – Sunshine Superman and Pet Sounds were both released in 1966 and both the Glasgow born troubadour and American genius are marking the landmark releases with tours visiting New York City.

Donovan played Zankel Hall at Carnegie Hall on Thursday September 15th, 2016. Brian Wilson played the Northside Festival at McCarren Park on June 12th, 2016 and returns to New York City on Saturday September 24th for a show at The Beacon.

When Donovan was inducted into the Rock n Roll Hall of Fame four years ago, it was said that he single-handedly initiated the psychedelic revolution with Sunshine Superman. When we spoke on Thursday, Don agreed he opened the door as “when you look at the lyrics, the sound, the attitude, and the presentation of that album, it does pre-date by a year and a half most of what is called psychedelic music.” My bringing up the word psychedelic spurred a discussion that touched upon music, drugs, and meditation and Donovan recalled how he and The Beatles went to India seeking the ‘purest form’ of meditation to bring it back to the West.

On stage, Donovan shared a number of funny and engaging anecdotes including a songwriting session with Paul McCartney in which Macca played an early version of Eleanor Rigby with the title character named Oliver Tungee! Upon hearing an embryonic version of what turned out to be the B-side of Eleanor Rigby, Donovan contributed the line, “Sky of Blue, Sea of Green…In Our Yellow Submarine.” The scuttlebutt is he’ll be playing a set of Beatles songs when he accepts the John Lennon Real Love Award in December. In another aside, he revealed he wrote There Is A Mountain on a trip to the Caribbean and added an exclamation point of “Rastafari” after playing it. The stories, like the songs, were delivered with affection and the lucky 600 people at Zankel Hall went home delighted. Richard Barone, by the way, was fab helping out on guitar on a couple of tracks including the climactic Sunshine Superman.

As for Brian Wilson, the show in Brooklyn on a cool night in June was an equally memorable affair. The setlist was an embarrassment of riches with the complete Pet Sounds supplemented by a a generous handful of Beach Boys hits that weren’t on the album. Matthew Jardine handled the falsetto parts admirably and it was as transcendent an experience as one would have hoped with the kind of immortal material that was presented. With the acoustics of The Beacon enhancing the experience next Saturday, Broadway and 74th will definitely be the place to be. A memoir is coming next month from the man called I Am Brian Wilson!

Ageless Paul McCartney Conquers MetLife Stadium – August 7, 2016

Paul McCartney puts on a phenomenal show by any standard. The fact that the brilliant artist is doing what he doing at age 74 only adds another level of awe. It was the setlist of doom; 38 songs in all. Let Me Roll It into I’ve Got A Feeling – Fuhgeddaboudit!

He put on a clinic. Atop the impeccable choice of songs, the pacing, banter and showmanship, production values, and of course musicianship were all of the highest caliber. Paul showed off his chops not only on bass but electric and acoustic guitar, piano, and even ukulele. The uke was used in a version of Something that served as a tribute to George Harrison and was one of the set’s highest highs. Macca recalled what a great ukulele player George was and shared a story of hanging out with him in a garden and telling him that he had learned one of his songs before showing us which one it was. He also spoke about how Jimi Hendrix taught himself how to play the title track to Sgt Pepper in the two days between the album’s release and a gig in London that was attended by Paul and Eric Clapton among other rock royalty. It might have been three days according to this account but no matter. McCartney played a little Foxy Lady at the end of Let Me Roll It to tip his hat to Jimi as he has been doing this tour before sharing the anecdote.

John Lennon also received a loving nod with Here Today that, as he explained, is a conversation with his old friend and bandmate that he never got to have. Paul played that one solo and on acoustic as he did Blackbird which is as gorgeous and certainly as poignant as ever in the Summer of ’16. He spoke about how he wrote it to try to give a little bit of hope to people in the states involved in the Civil Rights struggle of the 60s. He didn’t have to mention how relevant it still is as he did more overtly at the Fenway show a few weeks ago. Confession: I was at that one too. Yes, he recycled some of his shtick but it was still charming the second time around.

One great line that was fresh was a response to a sign that read, ‘Sign My Butt’. After reading that aloud and considering that for comic timing moment, Paul dryly answered, ‘Well, let’s have a look at it!”

It was a no-brainer to take a road trip up to Syracuse when I learned I’d have an opportunity to sit down with none other than Ringo Starr! The occasion was the first gig of a tour by the All Starr Band featuring Steve Lukather and Todd Rundgren on guitars, Gregg Rolie on keys, Richard Page on bass, Warren Ham on horns, and Gregg Bissonette on drums. This band has been together for four years now and the affection and respect they have for one another is plain to see. The venue was the just minted Lakeview Amphitheater which lives up to its name aside the mighty Lake Onondaga…

The setlist featured solo Ringo faves like It Don’t Come Easy and Photograph plus a handful of Beatles tunes. These included the only song in their catalog credited to McCartney-Lennon-Starkey: What Goes On as well as Yellow Submarine, I Wanna Be Your Man, and With A Little Help From My Friends. Ringo revealed that his early compositions were laughed at by ‘that other band I was in’ while introducing the first song he wrote unassisted for The Beatles: Don’t Pass Me By. My only complaint – no Octopus’s Garden.

As has been his style throughout many years and lineups of All Starr Bands; Ringo was generous, perhaps to a fault, in giving his mates a chance to sing their own material. This translated to the biggest chart toppers of Toto, early Santana hits sung by Rolie, and even a deuce from Page’s eighties outfit Mr Mister. Rundgren’s tunes were especially welcome. He pulled off a warm I Saw The Light and a spirited Bang The Drum All Day before reaching back to the Utopia days for Love Is The Answer. Catch Ringo & the All Starr Band next Wednesday (June 15, 2016) at St. George Theater on Staten Island and enjoy bonus remarks from Ringo below on his most essential Beatles tracks and why he prefers the white album to Pepper…

Morrissey, Cash bios, Beatles vs Stones, and sexy guitars…