Tag Archives: Rock

Todd Rundgren: Todd

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Invigorating live run-through of Rundgren’s 1974 LP + interview

Following a trend chartered by Heart, Brian Wilson, Slayer, Lou Reed and dozens of others, Todd Rundgren has performed two of his albums live in concert. This DVD (and a separate CD) documents a September 2010 performance of Rundgren’s fifth solo release, the double-album Todd, in his hometown of Philadelphia. When originally released in 1974, Todd followed the direction chartered by A Wizard, A True Star, and pointed to Utopia’s heavier use of synthesizers. The track list mixed progressive-rock pieces and instrumentals with vocal pop songs, and following the delayed commercial success of “Hello It’s Me” (recorded in ’72, but a chart success in ’73), split fan ears between those who enjoyed shorter pop songs, and those who favored longer, more experimental productions.

Without any big chart hits as commercial tentpoles, the album works better in concert than it did on vinyl upon its release. The mix of progressive jams and succinct pop makes for a well-paced show, with the instrumental interludes punctuated by bursts of more easily digested melody and harmony. The material remains remarkably contemporary sounding, particularly the vocal arrangements. Rundgren is terrific, though his vocals are a bit low in parts of the stereo mix. The assembled band includes Jesse Gress, Greg Hawkes, Prairie Prince, Bobby Strickland and Kasim Sulton, and a children’s chorus is added for the closing “Sons of 1984.” There are a few minor hiccups in the staging (this was an early performance in a short tour), but the group is tight and hits some remarkable grooves, such as on “Everybody’s Going to Heaven.”

The 70-minute stage performance was augmented by laser lights and ornate costumes, and professionally taped with multiple cameras (though, disappointingly, in 4:3 rather than widescreen). The audio is available in both stereo and Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround. The audience listens rapturously from start to finish, carrying the last song’s sing-along refrain for several minutes after the curtain’s closed. All that’s missing to make this a truly complete album performance is the experimental “In and Out the Chakras We Go (Formerly: Shaft Goes to Outer Space),” which was omitted from the tour’s set list.

The disc includes a 78-minute interview (part one of two; the second part to appear on an upcoming live DVD of Healing) conducted the night before the performance by super-fan (and sports commentator) Roy Firestone. Filmed in wide-screen before a live audience, Firestone takes Rundgren through his career via videos, photos, album covers, music snippets and Q&A. They alight on notable people, influences and accomplishments, and Rundgren is forthright (even dishy), full of interesting experiences and a natural storyteller. They’re an hour into the interview, having discussed Rundgren’s extensive work as a producer, before they even get to his own work. This is a terrific package for Rundgren fans, and whether or not Todd is one of your favorite albums, the interview alone is worth the price of admission. [©2012 hyperbolium dot com]

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The Plimsouls: Beach Town Confidential – Live at the Golden Bear 1983

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The Plimsouls touring “Everywhere at Once” live in 1983

Fan’s of Peter Case’s early work with the Nerves and Plimsouls have been richly rewarded over the past few years. The Nerves’ original EP was issued in enhanced CD form as One Way Ticket, a rare 1977 Nerves live set was released as Live at the Pirate’s Cove, a transitional project with Paul Collins as The Breakaways was released as Walking Out on Love, and a blistering 1981 Plimsouls live set was released as Live! Beg, Borrow & Steal. The latter fleshed out the Plimsouls early ‘80s live set that was first essayed in 1988 on One Night in America. The group’s posthumous release catalog is now further expanded with this punchy stereo mix (from the original 24-track recording) of a 1983 show at the Golden Bear in Huntington Beach, California.

By ‘83, the Plimsouls were a band with a catalog that included an EP and two full albums, all of which are drawn upon for a set list that reaches back to the EP’s “Zero Hour” and “How Long Will it Take?,” and “Now” and “In This Town” from their self-titled debut album. The core of the set draws from their then-current 1983 release for Geffen, Everywhere at Once, including the only released live recordings of “Hobo,” “Oldest Story in the World” and “Magic Touch.” Even more intriguing is the only known Plimsouls recording of the Peter Case original “Who’s Gonna Break the Ice,” a tune that was likely to have been the band’s next single. The set is filled out with a delectable selection of covers that includes The Creation’s “Making Time,” Moby Grape’s “Fall on You,” Thee Midniters “Jump, Jive and Harmonize” the Flamin’ Groovies’ “Jumpin’ in the Night,” Bo Diddley’s “You Can’t Judge a Book by Its Cover” and the Everly Brothers’ “Price of Love,” the latter with the Williams Brothers on lead vocals.

Case was in great voice and seems particularly enthused about the cover songs. But who wouldn’t be jazzed by the opportunity to sing favorite songs in front of this band? The Plimsouls had long since honed themselves into a superb live unit, transcending the major label gloss of their then-current album with hard-charging rhythms equally powered by David Pahoa’s bass lines, Lou Ramirez’s hard-pounded drums and cymbals, and the buzz of dual electric guitars. This set hasn’t the unbridled enthusiasm of their earlier live albums, but it more than makes up for it in energy and craft. Alive delivers the CD in a digipack with a six-panel booklet that includes vintage pictures, credits and an historical quote from Greg Shaw. [©2012 hyperbolium dot com]

Finding New Artists via Cover Songs

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Image Courtesy of 45cat.com

Perhaps this is obvious, but artists who cover songs you like have a good chance of writing songs that you’d also like. With the huge, searchable, hyperlinked, on-demand catalogs of Rdio, MOG, Spotify and Rhapsody at your fingertips, this pivot has never been easier to execute. Search for a favorite song, say the Beach Boys‘ “Girl Don’t Tell Me,” see who’s covered it, and then take a stroll through their original album. In this case you’ll find that Heartworms‘ album Space Escapade leads you to an album of indie pop by Velocity Girl’s Archie Moore, you’ll find a period cover by ’60s UK singer Tony Rivers nestled among 58 singles released by Immediate, and a Dutch band called The Hik whose four tracks are featured on the compilation Kruup 6×4 alongside the surf sounds of Los Tiki Boys and the Herb Alpert pastiche of The Herb Spectacles. There’s also tuneful indie/punk rock from Amy Miles and Joe Jitsu, and a few faceless studio bands covering the Beach Boys and other surf bands. This still leaves out great versions by the Smithereens, Vivian Girls, The Shins, and many others. Next time we’ll try the Shangri-La’s “Train From Kansas City.”

Soulive: Rubber Soulive

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Organ-jazz trio tribute to the Beatles

Soulive is an organ trio (Hammond B-3, drums and guitar) that has been cutting soul-jazz grooves since the late ‘90s. This 2010 entry in their catalog offers instrumental interpretations of eleven well-known Beatles titles, drawn from the Fab Four’s mid-to-late period albums. Jazz and soul tributes to the Beatles are a well-trod path, including Bob Hammer’s Beatlejazz, Roger Webb’s John, Paul and All That Jazz, Count Basie’s Beatle Bag, Don Randi’s Revolver Jazz, the Music Company’s Rubber Soul Jazz, Ramsey Lewis’ Mother Nature’s Son, Booker T. & the MG’s McLemore Avenue and George Benson’s The Other Side of Abbey Road, but none of these earlier efforts reduced their approach to an organ-driven trio. In typical jazz fashion, the arrangements state the melodies – with the guitar or organ taking the vocal line – before the players embark on some improvisation. In keeping with the Beatles’ pop radio roots, however, the jamming is concise and listeners will never lose sight of the familiar melodies. The album’s only real disappointment is the mediocre recording quality, with overbearing bass and drums that lack definition. It’s still enjoyable, but not the audio experience the playing deserves. [©2012 hyperbolium dot com]

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The Dovells: For Your Hully Gully Party / You Can’t Sit Down

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Two-fer from early ‘60s Cameo-Parkway vocal group

Shortly before the Collectors’ Choice label was sold to Super D, they embarked upon an ambitious program of reissues from the Cameo-Parkway catalog. The Cameo-Parkway tapes had mostly sat idle in ABKCO’s vault ever since Allen Klein acquired them in the late ‘60s, and the first program of legitimate reissues began in 2005 with a series of Best Of’s, including a volume on this Philadelphia vocal group. Five years later, a series of two-fers returned full, original albums to print, including this pairing of the group’s second and third albums, originally released in 1962 and 1963, respectively. This skips over the group’s first and biggest success, “The Bristol Stomp,” but joins them in a run of dance-themed hits that included “Do the New Conteinental,” “Hully Gully Baby” and “The Jitter Bug.” Missing from this period is the non-LP “Bristol Twistin’ Annie.”

The two-fer includes the group’s second biggest hit, 1964’s infectious, hand-clapping cover of the Phil Upchurch Combo’s instrumental “You Can’t Sit Down.” The Dovells’ version shot to #3, and with the subsequent departure of tenor vocalist Len Barry (who’d later score a solo hit with “1-2-3”), the group’s chart fortunes came to an end. The album tracks combine covers and staff-written tunes that, in full accord with Cameo’s recoding ethic, chased the dance trend to its last fumes. Remember tearing it up to the “Hully Gully Square Dance” or “Country Club Hully Gully?” Neither does anyone else. Still, even when the material was repetitive, the group sang with doo-wop verve, and the house band – led by Dave Appell and featuring the honking tenor sax of Buddy Savitt – was rock solid. Mastered in crisp mono with nice bass detail, this is reminder of a much simpler time on the Top 40 charts. [©2011 hyperbolium dot com]

Various Artists: Cameo Parkway Holiday Hits

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Holiday odds and sods from the legendary Cameo Parkway vault

With the departure of Gordon Anderson from Collectors’ Choice, and the apparent sidelining of the label’s activities, their reissue program for the Cameo-Parkway catalog has moved with Anderson to his new label, Real Gone. This eighteen-track set of holiday-themed material combines tunes from two of the label’s stars, Bobby Rydell and Chubby Checker and two of the label’s fine doo-wop groups, the Cameos and Jaynells. The track-list features a number of fun one-offs, including Bob Seger’s rock ‘n’ soul “Sock it to Me Santa,” Toni Sante’s Spanish-language girl group “Donde Esta Santa Clause?,” and a funny Bob Dylan lampoon, Bobby the Poet singing “White Christmas,” as introduced by a Bobby Kennedy impressionist. There are also two versions of “Auld Lang Syne,” one in ragtime style by Beethoven Ben (in actuality, label co-founder Bernie Lowe), and one as bluegrass by The Lonesome Travelers, featuring the legendary Norman Blake on mandolin!

Less interesting are seven cuts split between the big band instrumentals of the Rudolph Statler Orchestra and the orchestral sounds of the International Pop Orchestra. Neither unit has anything to do with the Cameo Parkway house band sound (though, to be fair, neither do the Lonesome Travelers), and the arrangements are generic. This set was previously issued by ABKCO as Holiday Hits from Cameo Parkway, and it’s reissued here with the addition of the B-side “Jingle Bell Imitations,” in which Rydell and Checker run through the styles of Elvis Presley, Bobby Darin, Fats Domino, Frank Fontaine and the Chipmunks. It’s a shame Cameo Parkway never gathered Checker, Rydell, Dee Dee Sharp, the Orlons, Tymes and others to record a proper holiday album. Still, if you factor out the instrumentals, there are many fine rarities here to add to your holiday playlist. Nicely mastered mono on 1, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 15, 18, and stereo elsewhere. The booklet includes terrific liner notes by Gene Sculatti and discographical details. [©2012 hyperbolium dot com]

The Grateful Dead: Dick’s Picks 35

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Excellent shows from August 1971, long-lost at sea

The Grateful Dead were far ahead of their time in many respects, but none perhaps more so than the breadth, depth and quality of the tapes they archived (and as will be described below, occasionally lost) from their legendary live shows. The Dick’s Picks series was named for and originally curated by the band’s tape archivist, Dick Latvala. Following Latvala’s passing in 1999, the series was continued by the band’s current archivist David Lemieux. In contrast to the multi-track remixes released under the From the Vault banner, Dick’s Picks were mastered from stereo tapes, at times emphasizing performance over audio quality (which, to be fair, was almost always very good as well). This penultimate volume in the series features performances from three August stops on the Dead’s 1971 summer tour, Hollywood, San Diego and Chicago, spread across four CDs.

Originally released in 2005 (and reissued now for standard retail by Real Gone), the tapes behind Volume 35 have a story that’s as interesting as the music they contain. Shortly before Keith Godchaux auditioned for (and subsequently joined) the band, Jerry Garcia handed him a box of tapes from the 1971 tour – ostensibly to help Godchaux bone-up on the band’s repertoire. Whether or not he actually listened to them is disputed, but what’s known is that he parked them on his parents’ houseboat, where they sat until 2005, when his brother rediscovered them. Amazingly, 35 years at sea (well, canal, since the boat was moored in Alameda) had surprisingly little affect on the tapes, which are still quite full, crisp and balanced. Included is the entire San Diego show, the salvageable portion of the Chicago stop and an hour of the Hollywood performance.

With Mickey Hart having quit the band earlier in the year, Pigpen’s health issues minimizing his keyboard contributions (though not his vocals) and Godchaux yet to join, the band toured as a five-piece that played more as a guitar-guitar-bass-and-drums quartet. This gave them a rawer, less psychedelic sound, and seems to have simplified the board mix to stereo. All of the instruments and most of the vocals can be easily heard, and Phil Lesh’s bass sounds particularly rich throughout. The San Diego set (which fills disc one and a majority of disc two) mixes some of the Dead’s best-known originals (“Sugaree,” “Casey Jones,” “Truckin’,” and “Sugar Magnolia”) with country, blues and rock covers (“El Paso,” “Mama Tried,” “Big Boss Man,” “Promised Land,” “Sing Me Back Home,” “Not Fade Away” and “Johnny B. Goode”) that show off the band’s taste and range.

Concise numbers, like Otis Redding’s “Hard to Handle,” are stretched into showcases for instrumental improvisation. At the same time, they don’t loiter in one groove long enough to become repetitive; the segues are as interesting as the song choices, and even casual fans will appreciate how easily the band knit together disparate influences, often charting the flow of their sets on-the-fly. The Chicago set ends disc two and fills disc three, repeating a few songs from San Diego and introducing new titles and a few rarities. Chief among the latter is Pigpen’s “Empty Pages,” which is reported to have only been played twice, with its debut for this performance. Also included is an early version of “Brown-Eyed Woman.” Selections from the Hollywood Palladium show finish off disc four, culminating in a twenty-five minute rendition of “Turn on Your Lovelight.”

Other tapes from 1971 have been released through standard retail over the years, including February dates in Port Chester (the first without Mickey Hart) on Three from the Vault, the multi-venue Grateful Dead, and a legendary April stand at the Fillmore East on Ladies and Gentlemen. The Fillmore East dates are perhaps the most highly regarded by fans, but the band was in such fine form throughout 1971 that just about any of these sets provide great listening to fans and a good introduction to newbies. Those who shied away from (or were repelled by) the scene that surrounded Dead concerts may be surprised at how satisfying the music is on its own merits. Though the tribal vibe of their live shows may not have survived the transformation to tape, the band’s musicality certainly did. [©2011 hyperbolium dot com]

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Elvis Presley: Elvis Country (Legacy Edition)

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Elvis caps his remarkable comeback

Recorded in 1970 and released in 1971, Elvis Country was the culmination of a remarkable career resurrection. Starting with his 1968 Comeback Special, Elvis went on to reel off the brilliant From Elvis in Memphis (and the second-helping, Back in Memphis), the smartly constructed Vegas show of On Stage, and the studio/live That’s the Way It Is. He capped the run with this 1971 return to his roots, branding these country, gospel, blues, rockabilly and western swing covers with authority. Elvis showed his genius was rooted in his passion for music, which encompassed everything from the early rockabilly of Sanford Clark’s “The Fool” (written, surprisingly, by Lee Hazlewood) to the then-contemporary hit “Snowbird,” as well as classics from Ernest Tubb, Lester Flatt & Bill Monroe, Willie Nelson and Hank Cochran.

Recorded in RCA’s famed Studio B with Presley regulars James Burton, Charlie McCoy and Chip Young; the newly assembled studio hands included several players from the Muscle Shoals powerhouse, and the sessions were produced by Felton Jarvis. The arrangements ranged from loose, down home country jams to Vegas-styled orchestrations, and hearing the variety back-to-back, one quickly realizes how easily Elvis transcended the musical boundaries between his ‘50s roots and his glitzy ‘70s stage shows. Much like the 1969 American Studio sessions in Memphis, Elvis’ enthusiasm and musicality directs the assembled players and provokes top-notch performances; he leads the crew through a rocking workout of Jerry Lee Lewis’ “Whole Lotta Shakin’ Goin’ On” and brings “Tomorrow Never Comes” to a volcanic climax.

The original album tracks are knit together with snippets of “I Was Born About Ten Thousand Years Ago,” a gimmick that some listeners find irritating, and which wreaks havoc on shuffle play; the complete take is included in the bonuses. An earlier CD reissue expanded the track count from twelve to eighteen, and this double-CD pushes the total to twenty-nine, including all six earlier bonuses. Disc two opens with the third-helping of the Nashville sessions, previously released as Love Letters from Elvis, and adds three more session bonuses: the singles “The Sound of Your Cry” and “Rags to Riches,” and the album track “Sylvia.” The broad range of material on Love Letters doesn’t always connect with Elvis’ legacy as tightly as that on Elvis Country, but Elvis is in fine voice on each track, and the assembled players are sharp.

Everything here’s been issued before, but pulling together session material previously spread across singles, albums, box sets and latter-day compilations has created a superb recounting of the last chapter of Elvis’ incredible comeback. Not included are the eight Nashville tracks released as part of That’s the Way It Is. A third-disc with banded versions of Elvis Country (minus the musical segues, that is) would have been a great addition, but even without it, this is an excellent expansion upon previous standalone reissues, and a terrific complement to the Legacy editions of From Elvis in Memphis and On Stage. The remastered discs (by Vic Anesini) are housed in a tri-fold digipack with a booklet that includes liner notes by Stuart Colman and terrific photos. [©2012 hyperbolium dot com]

The Move: Live at the Fillmore 1969

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Stellar live recording of the Move at the Fillmore in 1969

The Move are barely known in the U.S., but their impact on the late-60s British rock scene, and all that tumbled from it, reverberates through to today. By the end of their run, they’d evolved an artier sound that would find full-flower as founders Roy Wood and Bev Bevan, and latter-day member Jeff Lynne, decamped to form the Electric Light Orchestra. But in their prime, they were a rock powerhouse that matched up to the Who’s incendiary music and daring social antics. The group is captured in full-flower of their most famous incarnation on these soundboard tapes, recorded at San Francisco’s Fillmore West in October 1969 on their first and only tour of the U.S. These tapes have floated around bootleg circles, but this is the first complete and official release, endorsed by Sue Wayne, the widow of the band’s vocalist, Carl Wayne.

Wayne had saved the tapes for over thirty years, but it was only in 2003 that digital restoration became sufficiently sophisticated to bring this archive back to life. Sadly, with Wayne’s passing in 2004, the project was once again sidelined. Now fully restored, the song list, plus a ten-minute interview with drummer Bevan, clock in at nearly two hours. The selections include their early single “I Can Hear the Grass Grow,” and fan favorites “Cherry Blossom Clinic Revisited” and “Hello Susie.” Also included are covers of Nazz’s “Open My Eyes” and “Under the Ice,” Mann & Weil’s “Don’t Make My Baby Blue” (which the Move likely picked up from the Shadows), Tom Paxton’s “The Last Thing on My Mind” and Ars Nova’s “Fields of People.” The set is surprisingly light on Roy Wood songs, given his position as the band’s main songwriter, but bits of stage patter help sew everything together.

The band’s combination of pop and rock – memorable melodies and tight harmonies played against heavy drums and bass – is a perfect fit for the stage, and particularly for the late-60s Fillmore. The band stretches out on long jams, but their focus contrasts with the meandering discovery of San Francisco’s original ballroom rock. Even Bev Bevan’s drum solo and the melodic salutes woven into “I Can Hear the Grass Grow” sound more like performance than on-the-spot experiment. The set is filled with energy from start to finish, and though the vocals are occasionally often mixed forward, the tapes are solid and reasonably balanced. It’s a shame the Move didn’t tour the U.S. again, as they surely would have been major stateside stars. [©2011 hyperbolium dot com]

Neil Diamond: The Very Best Of Neil Diamond – The Original Studio Recordings

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An oddly sequenced collection of Diamond’s diamonds

As anyone familiar with Neil Diamond’s career knows, he’s had more hits that could possibly fit onto a single CD. But drawing across his stints on Bang, Uni, Capitol (for which he recorded the soundtrack to The Jazz Singer) and Columbia, this twenty-three track set shows Diamond’s maturation from Brill Building songwriter to hit-making singer to worldwide superstar to reinvented elder statesman. Of course, given the set’s non-chronological programming, you’ll only hear the actual arc of his artistic development if you reprogram the tracks as 12, 4, 9, 10, 16, 21, 20, 18, 6, 11, 21, 7, 5, 13, 8, 17, 2, 14, 1, 3, 15, 22, 23, 19. If you play the set as-is, you’ll start near the end of Diamond’s hit-making career with 1978’s “Forever in Blue Jeans” and spin through a few other 1970s releases before jumping back to 1966’s “Cherry, Cherry.”

Given the focus on hits, it’s easy to excuse the great album tracks left behind, but the inclusion of lesser sides in place of the hits “Thank the Lord for the Night Time,” “Longfellow Serenade” and “Heartlight” is surprising. The mix of Top 10s, Adult Contemporary hits (“Beautiful Noise”), low-charting singles that were hits for other artists (“I’m a Believer” and “Red Red Wine”) and latter-day sides with Rick Rubin (“Pretty Amazing Grace” and “Hell Yeah”) covers the breadth and depth of his career, but the muddled timeline and interweaving of mono Bang-era tracks with modern stereo productions is without obvious purpose. Segueing from the 1980’s “Love on the Rocks” to hard-rocking guitars of “Cherry, Cherry” is awkward, as is the mood shift from 1972’s “Play Me” to 1967’s bubblegum-soul “I’m a Believer.”

Despite the set’s odd characteristics, Diamond shines as a talented songwriter who learned early on how to write a hook, and a dramatic vocalist with a memorable voice. He’s been well-served by arrangers and producers who fit his voice into a variety of contexts – guitar-charged rock, organ-backed soul, contemporary pop and huge productions that echo the operatic grandeur of Roy Orbison. Diamond’s song-by-song notes are peppered with interesting recollections and generous sharing of credit with his many exceptional co-workers. It may surprise casual fans to find that he co-wrote with Marilyn and Alan Bergman, was produced by Robbie Robertson, and recorded several of his biggest hits in Memphis at Chips Moman’s American Sound Studio.

Noting the missing chart entries, as well as the terrific list price, this is a good single-disc sketch of Diamond’s career as a hit maker, but it’s only a sketch, and only a sketch of his hits. It balances his years at Bang (seven tracks), Uni (seven), Columbia (six) and Capitol (three), and plays well for those wishing to relive the artist’s most familiar songs. The two Rick Rubin-produced cuts, “Pretty Amazing Grace” and “Hell Yeah,” show Diamond still vital and growing in his fifth decade of recording. Still, a career as rich as Diamond’s can’t really be condensed onto one disc; even the three-disc In My Lifetime left fans arguing about what was missing. A more complete picture of Diamond’s early years can be heard by picking up The Bang Years: 1966-1968 and Play Me: The Complete Uni Studio Recordings… Plus!, and his Columbia years are well represented on original album reissues and several anthologies. [©2011 hyperbolium dot com]

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