http://rockjournalistjoevig.blogspot.com/
and click on Music Business Monthly on http://www.joeviglione.com to get back to the Joe Vig Top 40 Page quick and easy. If you forget the Blog just go to Varulven.com or JoeViglione.com and get back to the Top 40 by clicking on the Music Business Monthly icon.
...and now...the Top 40 for Sept.
#1 BILL PRESS TOXIC TALK
#2 Mick Taylor Band Live DVD
#3 Exile On Main St The Rolling Stones
#4 ROCK ROADIE James "Tappy" Wright
#5 The Beatles Rare and Unseen
#6
#7
#8
#9 Willie Nile Beautiful Wreck of the World
#10 The Zombies Odyssey and Oracle
Someone else's review here: http://ripplemusic.blogspot.com/2010/03/ripple-theater-zombies-odessey-oracle.html
#11
#12
#13 Buzzy Linhart on A TRIBUTE TO BAD LYRICS
#14 Kristofer Engelhardt's BEATLES DEEPR UNDERCOVER
Kris Engelhardt's masterpiece gets a reworking. Absolutely essential for your Beatles collection.
#15 The Rats Second Record
http://www.recordcollectormag.com/reviews/review-detail/5074
#16
From The Returning Sun to Solar Minimum, Cy Curnin of THE FIXX Keeps The Cosmos Musical
by Joe Viglione
Read the same review on TMR Zoo.com here:
http://www.tmrzoo.com/?p=14948
The subtle and eerie "In The Palm of Our Hands" from Cy Curnin's Solar Minimum CD explodes as a video on YouTube and leads off this intriguing collection of twelve tunes, or perhaps it is eleven songs with an ethereal twenty seconds of the title track, a quickie Pink Floyd-ish excursion that would be nice extended on a future disc. Flavors from a song further down the list here, "Simply Complicated", seem to slip into that title track's musical movement, threaded nicely if you play the songs in succession.. Curnin discusses the undeveloped composition, "Solar Minimum", on YouTube which sports a number of interview clips where the Fixx lead singer talks about this new release.
As The Fixx front man he had the powerful "One Thing Leads to Another" and "Saved by Zero", terrific songs that helped define the commercial aspect of the New Wave rock movement, helping to bring the scene from the underground to the mainstream. This album is an extension way beyond the power structure of those tunes, an Adult Contemporary rock journey, not unlike Peter Gabriel, with Curnin evoking some of Gabriel's vocal stylings, especially in the opening song. The potential hit here is, to these ears, "It Finds You", with its dynamic performance and strong hooks. "Sail" has keyboards and strings with a splash of Procol Harum during Keith Reid's oceanic obsessions, or Sutherland Brothers & Quiver with their "Sailing" which Rod Stewart found a home on Top 40 for..."Sail" could be a latter-day cousin or even a left-field sequel to that classic. "Better Luck Next Time" follows the musical themes that are projected here and whether keyboard or guitar employed to back the compositions, it (the full CD) is very cosmic, laid back and poignant all at once. "Solar Minimum" may find a cult audience, though it deserves a wide berth..."Bleed" displays the artistic integrity and achievement of the mission statement we've come to expect from this veteran. Things being what they are in these times when radio appears owned by what's left of the record biz it still is going to come down to one song to move a full CD. "It Finds You" may just be the one to get these melodies out to the masses.
Joe Viglione is the Chief Film Critic at TMRZoo.com. He was a film critic for Al Aronowitz’s The Blacklisted Journal, has written thousands of reviews and biographies for AllMovie.com, Allmusic.com and produces and hosts Visual Radio. Visual Radio is a fifteen year old variety show on cable TV which has interviewed John Lennon’s Uncle Charlie, Margaret Cho, Ray Manzarek, John Densmore, Felix Cavaliere, Marty Balin, Bill Press and hundreds of other personalities.
Cy Curnin Music Video from CD In The Palm of Our Hands
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J85KGlorG10
Curnin talks about Solar Minimum
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UyrXv1GT9DE
Saved By Zero acoustic duo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IYXOqfTO_V8&feature=related
Notes:
The Returning Sun review by JV on MSN
http://music.msn.com/music/album-review/cy-curnin/the-returning-sun/
The Returning Sun Review by joe viglione on AMG
http://allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:fjfpxz9hldhe
#17 PAUL McCARTNEY REALLY IS DEAD...the (alleged) Last Testament of
George Harrison
Directed by Joel Gilbert
This DVD would have been a masterpiece of investigative reporting if the "faux" George Harrison discussing "Faul" or the fake Paul that he claims was a fellow named "William Campbell" - was removed and replaced by a serious and credible personality from the era.
What the viewer/listener has to do is ignore the premise of the cassette tape recorder sent to the producers with this "Last Testament" of George and just go into the clues and the news footage of F. Lee Bailey from October 20, 1969 and Maharishi Mahesh Yogi and the treasure trove of information and reassess this impressive hoax.
What hadn't been considered in the past was the marriage of Linda Eastman and Paul McCartney which is brought front and center here. The "split" of the Beatles, very suspiciously, happened when McCartney went with the Eastmans and when John, George and Ringo went with manager Allen Klein. As with the deaths of Alan Wilson of Canned Heat (September 3, 1970), Jimi Hendrix (September 18, 1970) and Janis Joplin (October 4, 1970) as the years pass more information comes forth which actually sheds light on how truly suspicious those three deaths were...and which allows this "Paul is Dead" alleged hoax to take on even more significance forty-one years after it allegedly happened. If Paul did pass on in 1969, it would have been the year before Wilson, Hendrix and Joplin and two years before the alleged passing of Jim Morrison (which could have been Morrison faking his own death so that he wouldn't end up like his colleagues.)
Marty Balin of the Jefferson Airplane said to me via phone in August of 2010 "You want to make me famous, I don't want to end up like Janis and Jimi." Content to be an artist of significance without crowds chasing him a la the heyday of the Airplane and the Jefferson Starship, Balin has a point. One can only imagine the thoughts going through the minds of major recording artists when seeing their comrades falling right and left.
Perhaps the silly nature of this DVD is also a cover-up. Maybe it's a way of getting the information out there without acting too serious about it. Drop the absurd notion that this is George Harrison (it sounds like an American with a phony accent), the clues are still there and the Beatles lyrics take on a different significance when you consider reading into them what is presented here. And when you look at the awful split of The Beatles...that it wasn't a decision of choice but one of fate...that a fake Paul couldn't keep the illusion up. The biggest clue for me is that "Silly Love Songs" is the antithesis of amazing songs like "Yesterday" and "Hey Judge"...and that the magnificence of "Maybe I'm Amazed", "Let It Be" and "Long and Winding Road" were never duplicated again...though "Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey" came close...perhaps fragments of songs left in a draw a la "Free As A Bird" and "Real Love".
Was Heather Mills really "Rita" and did she hold a secret over Paul The Second's head?
Of great value here is Chapter 4 where the clues are stacked up. Backwards tapes played foreward for your pleasure work well in this context, though the pages of this magazine PAUL McCARTNEY DEAD/THE GREAT HOAX (pictured below) would have been a luxury added here instead of some of the frivolous stuff that stands like a shadow - or decoy - over this production. The footage of the real George Harrison's voice calling Paul "Faul" is interesting...but you can clearly hear the a/b difference between the "faux George" and the real thing.
When I was 15 years of age this rumor about Paul McCartney was the rage at my school....and across the United States...probably the world. The Beatles were that big that the "clues" of Paul's alleged death were one of the most compelling and amazing "mysteries" in the history of pop music. More mysterious than Elvis and Jim Morrison are alive because the clues were so very numerous and Paul McCartney was still making records.
But the possibility of an international star being replaced by a dupe or duplicate (a la Saddam Hussein's alleged dummy replacements) was something that was an element of the James Bond film series ... another iconic (and British) cultural figure as famous as The Beatles themselves. In the 1971 film Diamonds Are Forever late actor Charles Gray appears as Ernst Stavro Blofeld as well as Blofeld's two "duplicates". This was in the era prior to clones getting popular.
Picture yourself back in 1969 (not in a boat on a river) where these clues were being dropped on the public one by one in quicker and greater succession. Our obsession with the Beatles, coupled with the powerful and attractive sweet sounds that great music has on our memories, and the Beatles stay on the public's mind in a fashion that's really never been considered on such a large scale ever before in history. Yes, there are those who believe that during the Passion of the Christ one Simon of Cyrene actually replaced Jesus on the road to Golgotha / Cavalry so that Jesus could miraculously appear again after the crucifixtion. This, of course, turns the Catholic faith on its head and we can get into a further discussion on how that "faith" is a decoy to the real faith of Hebrews 11:1 in the great big Catholic church conspiracy...which brings it all full circle, yes?
The late Alan Aronowitz, proud to say a past editor of mine, is here talking about introducing Bob Dylan to The Beatles. That archival footage alone makes this DVD worth the price of admission.
Read Robert Barry Francos' review if you want more info and Robert's opinion on the faux George:
http://ffanzeen.blogspot.com/2010/08/dvd-review-paul-mccartney-really-is.html
Joe Viglione is the Chief Film Critic at TMRZoo.com He was a film critic for Al Aronowitz's The Blacklisted Journal, has written thousands of reviews and biographies for AllMovie.com, Allmusic.com and produces and hosts Visual Radio, a fifteen year old variety show on cable TV which has interviewed John Lennon's Uncle Charlie, Margaret Cho, Ray Manzarek, John Densmore, Felix Cavaliere, Marty Balin, Bill Press and hundreds of other personalities.
#18 Bing Crosby
#19 Rosetta Swain
#20 The Who The Mods The Quadrophenia Connection
#21 The Longevity Diet Brian Delaney
This is an important book. Delaney and his co-author picked up where her father left off.
Delaney also talked about Jimi Hendrix during my August interview for Visual Radio. More soon.
#22 Marvin Gaye - his final 24 Hours
#23
-Front.jpg)
#24
Eric Clapton The 1960s Review
#25 Tommy James
Fantastic reissue of I Think We're Alone Now, Gettin' Together, Travelin' and one solo album, My Head, My Bed, My Red Guitar.
#26 Supremes
Supremes- Let Yourself Go: The '70s Albums,
Vol 2 - 1974-1977: The Final Sessions
Deborah Swiss THE TIN TICKET
#27
#28 Cactus Live, Loud & Proud
29 Sid Vicious Final 24
#29
http://ffanzeen.blogspot.com/2010/08/dvd-review-final-24-sid-vicious-his.html
#30
#31 The Last Founding Father by Harlow Giles Unger
Harlow Giles Unger wwas interviewed by Jay Harris and Joe Viglione on Wincam in August of 2010. Interview to post soon. Here's a review hl
#32 David Olney Border Crossing
#33
Mark Griffin on the life & art of film director Vincente Minnelli
#34 Prescription for Nutritional Healing
#35 The Monster & The Ape
#36 The Rare and "Unseen" Collection - John Lennon
Read review on TMR Zoo.com as well http://www.tmrzoo.com/?p=11388#more-11388
This 114 minute DVD declares “rare footage, original rare film and videos of the band, newsreels and photographs from private collections.” The unleashing of these interviews and commentaries are always welcome, more fun than hearing “Imagine” played on Classic Rock radio time and again, and Wienerworld/MVD Visual do a fine job of compiling it all in a very charming package sporting a young Lennon with shirt and tie in a black and white photo.
One would have to ask Beatles filmmaker Erik Taros (a.k.a. Doctor Beatle on Massachusetts area radio programs) or Breakfast With The Beatles host Cha Chi LoPrette the actual rarities of these film clips…fanatics and musicologists (sometimes the two are one and the same) already own a bevy of Lennon/McCartney/Harrison/Starr audio and video. The beauty of this is that more is better than less and for future documentaries on Lennon it is nice to have handy packages such as this “Rare And Unseen” series where the viewing is quite fun, no matter how many times you’ve read about or have heard the stories, even if you’ve yet to encounter these particular clips.
It’s an enjoyable trip and a nice companion piece to the Dick Cavett interviews and other treasures you may already have on the shelf.
#37 John Belushi Final 24: His Final Hours
Until my review posts you can read this: http://sweeps4bloggers.com/?p=6051
When the late Jimmy Miller visited then A & R man Spencer Davis (for Allegiance Records) on the West Coast no one would take the bungalo at the Chateau Marmont hotel. Jimmy Miller didn't see any problem in being the first to take the "cursed" room.
#38 WEEN Cats In The Cradle
#39 Lou Rone Guitar Slinger
#40 The Rolling Stones - The Mick Taylor Years
Until my review publishes you can read what Music Room Reviews has to say:
http://www.musicroomreviews.com/the-rolling-stones-in-review-1969-1974-the-mick-taylor-years-dvd-review
Suggested reading
http://www.terrascope.co.uk/reviews/Reviews_June07.htm
