Wednesday, January 10, 2024

#1 STEVE HUNTER THE DEACON SPEAKS , HAPPY FOREVER MARK VOLMAN, Jake Gyllenhaal Roadhouse

 


1)THE DEACON, STEVE HUNTER SPEAKS 

    Steve Hunter takes Rusty Kershaw's Cajun vocal inflections like ten decibels deeper and reinvents "Back Door Man" in a way that Doors' fans won't recognize.   

     "The Ballad of John Henry Gates," the railroad man, might actually be about who Amazon notes had a tune written that is "the most recorded folk song in American history" - that being "The Ballad of John Henry." Who was also a railroad man.  It doesn't matter, it is a unique original with Hunter's earthy voice making it more blues/folk and interesting in its story of drinking, violence and "showing his love with the back of his hand."

     "Waiting on a Friend" is faithful to the Rolling Stones hit of 1981, though it started being written in 1971 and 1972 by Producer Jimmy Miller for Goats Head Soup.  Hunter sounds very Mick Taylor in his guitar work, and Taylor is on the original tape, but not on the hit record.  Either Keith or Ronny or both decide to sound like Taylor, which is fine, the guitar playing is so eloquent on the hit, as it is here.

     "Sweet Jane" is the song that Steve wrote "Intro" for on the 1973 Lou Reed tour, and on the Rock 'n' Roll Animal album (a variation of "Intro" is on the Swept Away Steve Hunter disc, an incarnation entitled "Streets of Eldorado.")  Hunter sings the lyrics to this and "Waiting On A Friend" distinctly, so if you didn't know the lyrics  then, you do now.

     

       


SWEET JANE (CLIP)  https://youtu.be/n5uzFpl-yq8



https://www.allmusic.com/search/albums/swept+away




2  HAPPY FOREVER

Happy Forever
My Musical Adventures With The Turtles, Frank Zappa, T. Rex, Flo & Eddie, And More
Mark Volman with John Cody  http://jawbonepress.com/happy-forever/

About the authors
In a career that has been anything but typical, Mark Volman has gone from topping the pop charts to losing the legal rights to his own name. After hitting #1 with The Turtles, Mark and singing partner Howard Kaylan (aka Flo & Eddie) had a stint with Frank Zappa & The Mothers, then went on to sing with everyone from T. Rex to The Ramones to Bruce Springsteen to Blondie, achieving cumulative sales in excess of one hundred million copies. They also enjoyed concurrent careers as voice actors and musicians in animation (Strawberry Shortcake / Care Bears) and as radio hosts in Los Angeles and New York, where they rubbed shoulders with Howard Stern. Then, in the biggest change of all, Mark returned to school, earning three degrees and running innovative programs in Los Angeles and Nashville. He continues to entertain every summer as host of the Happy Together tour.

John Cody is a freelance musician (drummer) who has toured and recorded with over two hundred artists. In addition, he has written and taught about music history for various publications and schools. This is his first book. He lives on the west coast of Canada. For more information about his music and writing, visit www.johncodyonline.com

4)Turtles   Charles Rosenay Interview



5)Marci Chin   I WANNA



Haven't had this much fun with a record since
1979 when Marianne Faithful released "Why'd Ya Do It."

Marcy's disc jumps off the turntable (or CD player) with
power and glory: "Hey Mrs. Walker please don't be mad" she plays with Wheeler Walker Jr.  to good effect.  It wonderfully takes Walker's X rated song to task, and does it in an inspiring way.

Remember when Liz Phair recorded Exile in Guyville going
square after the Rolling Stones' Exile on Main St?   The Stones
classic was said to be the blueprint for Phair's 1993 debut.

Marcy Chin takes a leapfrog over Wheeler Walker Jr., Liz Phair
and the Rolling Stones' new album, Hackney Diamonds with a
big burst of energy that is more fun than all of the above.

Beware, some four letter words, a song for brave radio
programmers. 
Right now you can enjoy the raw majesty of March Chin.

 


DIRECTED BY: Doug Liman

SCREENPLAY BY: Anthony Bagarozzi, Charles Mondry

BASED ON: the motion picture “Road House” screenplay by David Lee Henry and Hilary Henkin 

STORY BY: Anthony Bagarozzi, Charles Mondry, David Lee Henry

PRODUCED BY: Joel Silver p.g.a.

EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS: JJ Hook, Alison Winter, Aaron Auch, Audie Attar

CAST: Jake Gyllenhaal, Daniela Melchior, Billy Magnussen, Jessica Williams, Joaquim de Almeida, Conor McGregor, Lukas Gage, Arturo Castro, B.K. Cannon, Beau Knapp, Darren Barnet, Dominique Columbus, Bob Menery, Catfish Jean, Kevin Carroll, Travis Van Winkle, Hannah Lanier

 

SYNOPSIS: 

In this adrenaline-fueled reimagining of the 80s cult classic, ex-UFC fighter Dalton (Jake Gyllenhaal) takes a job as a bouncer at a Florida Keys roadhouse, only to discover that this paradise is not all it seems.

 

RUNTIME: 1 hour 54 mins

 

Instagram Facebook YouTube TikTok



7)Original Roadhouse Soundtrack



Road House [Original Motion Picture Soundtrack] Review by Joe Viglione

Actor Patrick Swayze isn't thought of as a vocalist, though he sang "She's Like the Wind" with Wendy Fraser on 1987's Dirty Dancing soundtrack and intentionally inflicted his dreadful rendition of "I'm Henry VIII" on Whoopi Goldberg and 1990's Ghost movie (thankfully, failing to make it onto the soundtrack to that film). So the surprise here is that, under the guiding hand of David Kershenbaum, he sounds like a clone of Bryan Adams on songwriter Willie Nile's very '80s "Raising Heaven (In Hell Tonight)." The Road House film and its subsequent companion long-player came a year after John Cafferty & the Beaver Brown Band released their album of the same name, so maybe it was an intentional Arista marketing attempt to get some of that Eddie and the Cruisers luster by way of Dirty Dancing, or maybe this was just the expected image of the 1980s. It's always nice to hear the Jeff Healey Band, which starts the festivities off with a somewhat interesting cover of the Doors' "Roadhouse Blues." Hardly as menacing as Jim Morrison (or even Blue Öyster Cult), it appropriately slips into title-track status with Jimmy Iovine's bar band production. Bob Seger does a respectable cover of Fats Domino's "Blue Monday," but it too sounds like fade-into-the-background area musicians having some fun on a Friday night. Of the ten songs here, the only thing that really breaks on through is Otis Redding performing his own "These Arms of Mine." Little Feat is fun with "Rad Gumbo" and Jeff Healey finally flexes his muscles on Dylan's "When the Night Comes Falling from the Sky," the third of Healey's four entries. It has that something extra missing from his earlier jaunts and Seger's track. Austin singer Kris McKay is a surprise on Maria McKee's "A Good Heart," getting a chance here prior to her What Love Endures album debut on Arista, which came the year after this. Swayze closes things out with another big '80s David Kershenbaum sound on "Cliff's Edge," a tune he actually co-wrote. Surprisingly, it's not a bad song and features -- believe it or not -- the album's best hook. This didn't do for Jimmy Iovine what the Dirty Dancing soundtrack did for Jimmy Ienner, and with Seger, Healey, Little Feat, and Otis Redding on board, a lot more was expected of it. When Patrick Swayze writes the best hook on an album you're on, it's pretty obvious that Road House was just another gig.

https://www.allmusic.com/album/road-house-original-motion-picture-soundtrack--mw0000203571




8)Ricky Byrd  Rhapsody in Blues

https://youtu.be/bcTVP3N9M8A

We Bostonians knew Ricky Byrd when he joined Tom Dickie and the Leland Bros. in Susan (1977,) prior to joining Joan Jett and the Blackhearts, landing him in the Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame.  Wikipedia notes that Byrd has performed with, recorded or toured with a who's who of notables from the Who to Alice Cooper, the Beach Boys and Brian Wilson. 

"Rhapsody in Blues" is a powerful amalgam of sounds starting with a stomp.  The three minutes and four seconds graduate into a Jeff Beck-ish climb over the rhythm with different guitar's answering each other  By the 1:33 mark it is a cascade of sounds, majestic and melodic.   When was the last time an instrumental work topped the charts?  This production has all of the elements.  One of Ricky's most significant solo tracks.

_________________________________________________________________

Don't Confuse Ricky Byrd's song with the Gershwin classic, though the titles are so similar.

After all these years my interest in Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue came from reading Peter James Arlin's Beach Boys book and Brian Wilson's obsession with both Be My Baby and Rhapsody in Blue.  The original, as played by Libor Pesek and the Slovak National Philharmonic Orchestra might as well be out-takes from the Judy Garland Wizard of Oz 

film .    





9)Rhapsody in Blue Reprise from Brian Wilson

https://youtu.be/mFlMmx_GV9o


10)Gershwin  Rhapsody in Blue George Gershwin's famous "Rhapsody in Blue" played by Libor Pesek and the Slovak National Philharmonic Orchestra

https://youtu.be/ynEOo28lsbc


11)Rhapsody In Blue

https://youtu.be/CfO7s0wGYoU

Richard Clayderman - Rhapsody In Blue



12)Bill Medley with Mike Marino

The Time of My Life  




Bill Medley kept rejecting the song The Time of My Life, which is such an important
part of his legacy.   https://youtu.be/nL2SohnnKi8    Intriguing is the fact that as
Patrick Swayze was fading from this realm, he titled his own memoir in the same fashion: The Time of My Life  Audible Audiobook – Abridged Patrick Swayze (Author, Narrator),  Lisa Niemi (Author), Simon & Schuster Audio (Publisher)

As you can imagine the term "The Time of My Life" has graced many books,
Betty Ford even having one, THE TIMES OF MY LIFE.  And what drives me
bonkers is that Mike Marino claims on his resume' that he was part of the
McCoys, Rick Derringer's group that hit with "Hang on Sloopy."  The only place
you'll find that nugget is where Marino talks about himself, for this book.
Heck, drummer Kevin Graves of Blue Cheer was on my first album, but he
never cut any music with that innovative group...it is what it is.  A touring 
musician in a famous group, there are many, just getting that quirk out of
the way.

The Time of My Life
Bill Medley with Mike Marino 
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Da Capo Press; Reprint edition (August 25, 2015)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 257 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0306823675

It's a good book, and it chronicles half of the Righteous Brothers from the heart,
but like Tommy James' tome- "Me, the Mob and the Music: One Helluva Ride',
well ...as a huge Tommy James appreciator (have interviewed him 3 times,) and 
someone who respects Bill Medley and also collects his music, I find that 
both books miss the mark.  They are good, but both artists have so much more
that is left on the cutting room floor.

With James, it was because he wrote the book to be a film.  It was released
in 2011 and in 2023 the internet says " there's a film of his life story in the works 
that James says is being produced by Barbara De Vida, whose credits include 
executive producing “Goodfellas."  An in-depth book as those on 
Mott the Hoople or the Jefferson Airplane (Craig Fenton's version) are so
deep that they make any thought of chart action improbable leaning to
impossible.

While Medley's book does the job, it feels like it was written to sell at
concerts after the show, for an aging fan base.  The chapters are very
short, and there are many of them. 30.  With after thoughts by both
authors (that is smart, and something I like.)  But the authors go back
and forth with the timelines, probably for greater impact with the 
audience it is meant for, and for historians and those of us who go 
deep into musical study, it can distract.

Still, perhaps because it was spaced out so neatly (almost but not
quite a large print book,) it kept my attention.  As have most my treadmill
reads since I started the exercise program August 26, 2023.  Music Man,
Ahmet Ertegun, Atlantic Records and the Triumph of Rock 'n' Roll
by Dorothy Wade and Justine Picardie, Up;and Down with the Rolling
Stones by Tony Sanchez (and uncredited co-author John Blake,) Exile
on Main St. by Robert Greenfield, Faithfull by Marianne Faithful and
David Dalton, Catch a Wave The Rise, Fall and Redemption of the
Beach Boys' Brian Wilson by Peter Ames Carlin, interesting losing weight
and traveling from world to world to get a perspective on what is being
published, how it is written, where the audience is, how the books are
presented.

Perseus Books released this Medley biography, and they were very local with the
DaCapo imprint (methinks they merged in 1999.) The woman
who eventually ran the Boston office was very good about getting me titles
has retired.  So I found Medley on my shelf and decided to give it a read.

There's the original writing of "Little Latin Lupe Lu" by Medley, his work
as a producer (he doesn't give himself enough credit, he's fantastic,) how
he played with tape machines and started recording himself multi-track,
his production of "Soul and Inspiration" which sounds so much like the
work of Phil Spector, and all the situations they had with Spector, from
the mind games to the control.  They could have been more lethal to 
Spector, but you can feel Medley hold back to serve his audience, as
the Tommy James book serves potential film producers.

Medley has a story, and he's very kind to all concerned, and if he takes
issue with anyone it is himself. 

Despite its flaws, it is arguably the best book about the Righteous Brothers
out there and I'm glad I invested the time in it.

These reviews, by the way, are just me getting thoughts down on paper
as I write the biography of record producer Jimmy Miller.  


13)  Music Man, Ahmet Ertegun, Atlantic Records and the Triumph of Rock 'n' Roll by Dorothy Wade and Justine Picardie,


14)Up;and Down with the Rolling Stones by Tony Sanchez (and uncredited co-author John Blake,)




15) Exile
on Main St. by Robert Greenfield, 



16) Faithfull by Marianne Faithful and
David Dalton, 


17)Catch a Wave The Rise, Fall and Redemption of the
Beach Boys' Brian Wilson by Peter Ames Carlin,

 

18)Bootleg by Clinton Heylin

 


20)My Mama, Cass - by Owen Elliot-Kugell (Hardcover)


  Book Synopsis



A long-awaited, myth-busting, and deeply affecting memoir by the daughter of legendary rock star "Mama" Cass Elliot

To the rest of the world, Cass Elliot was a rock star; A charismatic, wisecracking singer from Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inducted band, The Mamas & The Papas; A legend of Laurel Canyon, decked out in her custom-made Muumuus, glittering designer jewelry, blessed with a powerful, instantly identifiable singing voice which helped define the sound of the 1960s counterculture movement. But to Owen Elliot-Kugell, she was just Mom.

In the nearly 50 years since Cass Elliot's untimely death at the age of 32, rumors and myths have swirled about, shading nearly every aspect of her life. In her long-awaited memoir, Owen Elliot-Kugell shares the groundbreaking story of her mom as only a daughter can tell it.

In My Mama, Cass, Owen pulls back the curtains of her mother's life from the sold-out theaters and behind the closed doors of her infamous California abode. Born Ellen Naomi Cohen, the woman who was known to the world as Cass Elliot was decades ahead of her time: an independently minded, outspoken woman who broke through a male-dominated business, a forward-thinking feminist, and a single parent who embraced motherhood from the moment Owen entered the world. From the closely guarded secret of Owen's paternity to Cass's lifelong struggles with self-esteem and weight, to rumors surrounding her mother's death, Owen illuminates the complex truths of her mother's life, sharing interviews with the high-profile figures who orbited Cass, as well as never-before-heard tales of her mother and this legendary period of American history.

Featuring intimate family and archival photos as well as interviews and memories from famous friends, fans, and colleagues who loved and respected Cass, this book is both a love story and a mystery, a tale of self-discovery and a daughter's devotion. At its core, My Mama, Cass is a beautifully crafted testament befitting of Cass Elliot's enduring cultural impact and legacy, written by the person who knew and loved her best.



About the Author



Born six weeks before the Monterey Pop Festival in 1967, Owen Elliot-Kugell was seven when her mom, iconic singer-songwriter Cass Elliot, died suddenly. Growing up with her aunt and uncle in Los Angeles, she met husband Jack Kugell at 19. They currently reside with their daughter, Zoe, and son, Noah, in the San Fernando Valley area.


21)Kenny Selcer

Tears From Stone by Kenny Selcer https://www.tmrzoo.com/2024/76671/music-review-tears-from-stone-by-kenny-selcer via @TMR Zoo @MLC_US @tdawn1 @RadioRaccoon @wmfo @recordmachine @TheMagicRoom #joeviglionemedia @kenny_guitar website http://www.kennyselcer.com/ @WPKNradio @WFMU @zionrock @deskon7 @wbz @butv10 @tuftstv @BostonHeraldENT #music Read the review here: https://www.tmrzoo.com/2024/76671/music-review-tears-from-stone-by-kenny-selcer  






















40 MANFRED MANN'S EARTH BAND   

ANGEL STATION

Vocalist Chris Thompson's last album as a full-time member of Manfred Mann's Earth Band is dressed up in Mann's beautiful keyboards. Angel Station has some key moments -- "You Angel You," a Bob Dylan tune that sounds nothing like Dylan, and not the way their Top Ten version of "Quinn the Eskimo"/"The Mighty Quinn" was reinvented. "You Angel You" has a strong hook with top-notch Anthony Moore production work, and it melts into the title track of Harriet Schock's landmark Hollywood Town album, 
https://youtu.be/9IyEVmEvy5o   the source of Helen Reddy's "Ain't No Way to Treat a Lady." The Manfred Mann version is interesting, and explores the possibilities of the composition, though Schock's version is perfect country-pop and hard to top. It is nice to see a rock band with such good taste. "Angelz at My Gate," co-written by Manfred Mann, leads off side two and is another dreamy "angel" tune. It sounds mysteriously like "Games Without Frontiers," the Peter Gabriel radio hit from his 1980 third self-titled solo album. Now since this was released the year before, do you think Gabriel found inspiration from the grooves of Angel Station? While artists like Gary Wright and Jordan Rudess overwhelm you with the keyboards, Manfred Mann's are indeed the lead instrument, but he uses them to augment the vocals, not to overpower. The John Shaw-photographed album cover looks innocent enough until you turn it upside down -- there a female dark angel, in open black cape, exposes her breasts. So blatant, but upside down it probably went right by many retailers, and with no hit single, it probably didn't cause too much of a stir. It's interesting that, like Gary Wright, the Earth Band recorded for Warner Bros., yet both acts only eked out a couple of hit singles. As with Wright's Headin' Home LP, this 1979 album has more than its share of good material, both keyboard players being intuitive artists with credentials and past chart success. Despite good performances on Heron's "Don't Kill It Carol" and a simply wonderful cover of Billy Falcon's 1978 release "Waiting for the Rain," this is yet another album that deserved a better fate. The rendition of the Falcon tune may be the best performance of one of that singer's compositions ever. The two Manfred Mann songs on side two are excellent: "You Are - I Am" is good and pleasant while "Resurrection" has lyrics that display clever sarcasm and religious -- or sacrilegious -- overtones. Angel Station is well-crafted music by an industry veteran.

Christopher Reeve bio pic, Joe Deninzon & Stratospheerius Ian Hunter, Steve Hunter, AN OPEN LETTER TO TODD PHILLIPS ON HIS FAILURE AS A DIRECTOR....SEE #40 Joker: Madness of Two, Peter Noone,

  AN OPEN LETTER TO TODD PHILLIPS ON HIS FAILURE AS A DIRECTOR....SEE #40 https://www.imdb.com/title/tt27902121/?ref_=tt_mv_close 2    Joe D...