*Driftin' through the dreams we used to share ... *

Thirty years ago, Karen Carpenter passed away. As I’ve expressed before, I’ve been a long time Carpenters fan and Karen has always been quite special to me. I thought that in remembrance of this exceptional talent, I’d write a little bit about her solo album.

 

Now, Karen’s solo album is the source of some controversy among the Karen Carpenter fan community (and yes, I am a part of said community!). The story of Karen’s solo album is a bit tragic considering the album was ultimately shelved and wasn’t released until 13 years after Karen left this world. When Karen started her solo project, Richard was in rehab ridding himself of a sleeping pill addiction. Rather than remaining idle, she went out to New York, teamed up with producer, Phil Ramone (known for producing for Billy Joel and Paul Simon), and started work on an album. I’m sure it was an odd experience for Karen to be in the studio without her brother, but I bet it was also quite liberating for her to be breaking out of the Carpenters mold and doing something on her own.

 

The album didn’t come together quickly, taking well over a year to complete. After it was finished and Karen came back to LA, she was called into an intense meeting to discuss the release of the album. Despite the fact that Karen was rather proud of the record, the pressure and negative criticism from the label and Richard, Karen reluctantly allowed the album to be shelved.

 

In 1996, the album was released to little fanfare – though, I remember cutting out a small article out of a magazine that mentioned the album. And of course, in 1996, being deep in my Carpenters obsession, I picked up the CD from Camelot Music in the local mall. Upon first listen, I enjoyed it (except for the second track, “All Because of You” - a song that has since become a favorite). My favorite song from the album at that time was “If I Had You” – I loved all the intricate layers of harmonies and complex vocal arrangements.

 

I hadn’t listened to the album much for several years, but after getting the book Little Girl Blue, I felt the need to dust of the album and check it out again. As is typical of anytime you haven’t listened to something for a while, I heard much more than I had the first time around and heard it in a different way. The album is much different from the standard Carpenter albums – Karen is edgier here than she was as part of the Carpenters. She plays with a number of styles including disco, power pop, smooth jazz, and includes a couple tunes with a bit of a country lilt to them. While this album is not my favorite work of Karen’s, I do enjoy the songs.

 

The album opens with an upbeat disco tune, “Lovelines” (Karen was a fan of disco). The next song is “All Because of You”, which has become the most played song on my iPod of her solo songs. It’s an interesting song because it’s just Karen accompanied by an acoustic guitar – very limited production, which I dig. Karen’s performance is very intimate and sincere. “If I Had You” is all about the complex vocals – my favorite part is towards the end, when you’ve got about 16 Karen’s singing together. “Making Love In the Afternoon” is a sunny, light pop song that Peter Cetera contributes some background singing on. “If We Try” is a jazzy ballad and “Remember When Lovin’ Took All Night” is another disco infused song. “Still In Love With You” used to be my idea of what rock music was (at that age, I had very limited exposure to true rock music). And while it’s definitely not rock, it is a catchy power-pop song with some crunchy guitars. “My Body Keeps Changing My Mind” takes you back to some more disco, but the limited production version of “Make Believe It’s Your First Time” I feel is far superior to the later released Richard Carpenter arrangement. To me, when you’re dealing with such a rich, pure voice like Karen’s, there’s no need to add choirs and heavy orchestration… At least, not with such an intimate song. “Guess I Just Lost My Head” is a nice ballad with some lovely harmonies. “Still Crazy After All These Years” is a splendid cover of the Paul Simon ballad (For some reason, it always makes me envision Karen singing it leaning against a piano in a smoky bar – but that’s just me.) “Last One Singin’ the Blues” was notable for me when I first heard it because I was so excited about hearing Karen speaking a little at the beginning – instructing the band about taking it a bit slower this time. (I had never heard her speaking voice at this point, thus the novelty!)

 

Of course, there are also quite a few outtakes from her solo sessions that are floating around on the internet – and I’m rather intrigued by them as well. My favorites of the non-released tracks are the ballad “It’s Really You” and the edgy “Keep My Lovelight Burning”.

 

So… All in all, it’s a very pleasant listen, though I’ll admit to a number of the songs being a  bit dated. There’s definitely a 1979-1980 feel to the productions, but that is when they were recorded, so it should be expected. And while I’m not convinced the album would have been a smash hit, I do firmly believe it wouldn’t have been a flop and that it should have been released when originally intended. (And I do prefer her solo album to the following Carpenters album, Made In America). Of course, it’s hard to know how the release of the album would have changed the course of events in Karen or Richard’s lives, and I’m not going to play the “what if?” game now. I guess all we really need to remember is that Karen was a remarkable talent – both as a drummer and as a vocalist. Her voice was always rich, pure, and haunting and provided layers of longing, maturity, and vulnerability. She will always be remembered.

*Whatever gets you through the night, 'salright...*

I’ve been listening to a great deal of John Lennon’s solo stuff lately. John Lennon, as a person, was probably one of the most fascinatingly complex icons of the last century. He is documented as saying, “When I was a child, I always wondered, 'Am I crazy, or am I a genius?'” The statement is pure John Lennon: incredible ego plagued by raging insecurity. And while I don’t know if I think he’s either crazy or a genius, I do know that he was an eccentric, really clever, and highly creative man with a desire to use his fame to publicize social issues he felt strongly about. He was a very public figure who advocated for peace, and did so very loudly for a while, then did almost a 180 and became a house-husband for several years. Though, this blog is about music, so before I digress into a long-winded post about John Lennon, the man, I better pull the reigns back in and talk about John Lennon, the songwriter and musician.

 

I’ve had all of John Lennon’s solo albums for quite some time. All of his albums are notable for multiple reasons, though, I’ll admit that I’ve been quite partial to Mind Games ever since I first heard it over a decade ago. Mind Games is a pretty mellow listen and is quite solid from start to finish, even if much of the abrasiveness John is famous for in critical circles is missing.

 

Instead, on this recording, he sounds content, happy and relaxed, and it's precisely these qualities which make it a favorite of. Even the politically-oriented material, like "Bring On The Lucie", skips happily along. And then there are the ballads-- remarkable, lush, sweeping classics like "Aisumasen", "Out Of The Blue" (which I believe I’ve discussed before) and "You Are Here", with some of the finest vocals in his career. “One Day (At A Time)” is another lovely ballad, with John singing entirely in falsetto and some opulent harmonies in the backing vocals. "Intuition" is a fantastic track with great lyrics and a bouncing bass line. Not to mention the title track, an anthem of the same vein as “Imagine”. Then, of course, there’s the absolutely fantastic rocker, “Meat City” featured as the album closer.

 

While, Mind Games, has long been a favorite Lennon album of mine, lately I’ve been thoroughly engrossed with the box set, Lennon Anthology. If you are a Lennon fan, I highly recommend giving this a listen, because a number of the “stripped down” and “demo versions” are, if not better, an even more interesting variation of the singles and tracks we’ve become so familiar with. The demos of “What You Got” and “I’m Losing You” (referred to as “Stranger’s Room”), accompanied by only acoustic guitar or piano, are fantastic – and I’m always fascinated with hearing how the songs evolve from their inception. I was also very intrigued by the early studio version of “Whatever Gets You Through the Night” sans Elton John and with a very mid-‘70s dance beat, a little reminiscent of “The Hustle”. Getting to hear John’s version of “I’m the Greatest” is amazing, but I think my favorite may be the stripped down version of “Nobody Loves You When You’re Down and Out”. Hearing it without the heavy brass, where the piano and acoustic guitar are so prominent, is incredible… and John’s vocals on this version are so sincerely heart-felt. I love it, particularly when he raises his voice during the bridge…

 

So… while you may or may not agree with the icon status John Lennon has achieved, particularly since his death, you can’t deny the man’s tremendous talent and the enormous impact he had on the world of music.

 

 

 

*Simply Having A Wonderful Christmastime…*

I’m going to admit something to you… Christmas music isn’t my favorite music in the world. In fact, I believe all the years of working in the retail world over the holiday season may have permanently soured me on a large percentage of the holiday tunes that tend to be piped into stores from November 1^st through the end of the year. Though, there are a couple dozen tunes that tend to be staples in my music collection at Christmastime.

 

The Carpenters Christmas albums (A Christmas Portrait and An Old Fashioned Christmas) never fail to bring happy memories of childhood Christmases. It’s probably my favorite Christmas album. Karen's rich and warm voice over a dazzling selection of beautifully arranged Christmas songs, is a perfect cup of hot chocolate for the season. There a number of lovely classic Christmas tunes, saturated in gorgeous harmonies and a few medleys (which, I’ll admit, I’m a sucker for). My favorites of the Carpenters’ holiday songs are “Christmas Waltz”, “Sleigh Ride”, “It’s Christmas Time”, “Little Alter Boy”, and “I’ll Be Home for Christmas”. Of course, I absolutely adore Richard’s impressive piano solo of “Carol of the Bells” and my favorite Christmas carol for many years was the now classic, “Merry Christmas Darling”.

 

Aside from The Carpenters’ albums, there aren’t too many other full holiday albums that I even listen to, let alone own. I do enjoy The Partridge Family song, “My Christmas Card To You” and included it as the opening track on the Christmas CD I sent out one year (instead of Christmas cards). Judy Garland’s “Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas” from Meet Me In St. Louis is flawless. There are a handful of Frank Sinatra holiday carols that tend to play on my iPod in December and of course, Nat King Cole’s rendition of “The Christmas Song” may be the definitive version of the song in my book. I couldn’t exclude Bing Crosby’s “White Christmas” and I threw in his collaboration with The Andrews Sisters, “Mele Kalikimaka” in last year’s Christmas compilation. I ran across a duet that Bing did with Judy on his radio show in 1950 and while I’m generally not a big fan of the song “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer”, I found their rendition entirely amusing – especially the bit about Rudolph “smoking Chesterfield’s all the day” (a shameless plug, I’m betting!)

 

When I was a child, I loved Barbra Streisand’s speedy performance of “Jingle Bells”. I also remember when I was about 8, I loved Amy Grant’s “Emmanuel”. And of course, I dug “You’re A Mean One, Mr. Grinch”. These days, I prefer Vince Guaraldi’s “Christmastime Is Here.” And, true to the die-hard Beatles fan I am, I will always find time to listen to Paul’s “Wonderful Christmas Time” and John’s “Happy Xmas (War Is Over)”. But I think my favorite Christmas-y tune this year may be the 1967 Beatles Fan Club message, “Christmas Time Is Here Again”, complete with John Lennon speaking nonsense-speak. :)

 

Whatever Christmas tunes you prefer to listen to, I do wish a happy holiday season to you all!

The Macca Concert

Alright, so it here it is. My official commentary on the Paul McCartney Concert.

 

 

Like previously stated, Paul was amazing. He may have even outdone himself in the previous Paul concerts I’ve attended (I’ve been lucky enough to see him three times now).

 

It was a chilly and rainy evening and traffic getting to the stadium was very slow, but once inside… even the air was exciting. Covers and remixes of Paul’s music was playing when we found our seats and every time the music stopped, the audience began to cheer in anticipation for the show. It was about 8:30 when the man himself stepped out on the stage and launched into “Magical Mystery Tour”.  It was 4 songs later before I remembered that I would probably enjoy the show more if I continued to breathe regularly. But seeing him play “Junior’s Farm”, “All My Loving”, “Jet”, and “Drive My Car”… Honestly, who has time to breathe when you’re so busy screaming and singing along?

 

He played quite a few songs that I’d never seen him play live, including “The Night Before”, “Paperback Writer”, “Nineteen Hundred and Eighty Five”, “I’ve Just Seen A Face”, “Get Back”, “Mrs. Vanderbilt”, “Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da”, and “My Valentine”. Of course, he also included the standard songs like “Let It Be”, “Live and Let Die”, and “Hey Jude”. He seemed to be in a great mood and his energy was high. He did quite a bit of talking with the audience, taking the time to read signs, finding out if the audience prefers “St. Louie” or “St. Louis”, and taking a moment to soak in the audience adulation, since he’d not done a “proper” big show like this since May. He also treated us to a slight wardrobe change and even managed to get the audience to bark during a short call and answer bit between numbers.

My view of the stage

 

After playing “And I Love Her”, Paul gave Rusty a good natured hard time about flubbing the solo – and made sure the audience knew he’d never messed up that solo before. He even had Rusty redeem himself by having the band play that section of the song again! Then during “Dance Tonight”, the drummer, Abe Labrioel, accompanied the tune with a bit of amusing choreography. I, of course, shed a couple tears during Paul’s tribute to John (with “Here Today”) and George (with “Something”). And was pleasantly surprised to hear his rendition of “A Day In The Life” blended with “Give Peace A Chance”. Then during “Live and Let Die”, the stage was literally ablaze with a ton of pyrotechnic tricks – that even caused me, someone who was expecting some sort of firework drama, to gasp in surprise. And during the very last number, he took a bit of a tumble and despite the fact that it surely had to hurt, he popped right back up, struck a pose and even joked that it was a staged fall.

 

Paul’s energy was unparalleled throughout the evening and his musical ability is still as astounding as it was 40 years ago. To see someone at age 70, play music he wrote decades ago with so much enjoyment is incredible. The love from the audience was clear and it was just as clear at how much he loves the audience. It was one of the most amazing nights of my life. So for that, I must say thank you to the audience and the band for being so great. Thank you to my best music friends for coming along and making it an unforgettable experience for me. And of course, thank you to Paul for being such an amazing showman and musician. Thank you for your music, that has given me so much enjoyment and helped me to make some very good Beatle-friends. And thank you for all the memories. I love you, Paul!

 

 

The concert...

The McCartney concert was amazing! How Paul can have so much energy at age 70 is fantastic to me.  Full review to follow.

Blab It To The Rabbitt…

Okay, so this entry is a bit of a departure from my usual posts. I’m writing more about radio history than music – but I figure radio and music go together, and since this is my blog, I can do as I like!

 

So, several months ago I stumbled across some old airchecks from various radio stations in the 1960s. I think by now it’s quite obvious that I am inclined towards that particular decade and I loved getting this glimpse into the normal lives of people from that time. When it comes to history, I’ve always been more fascinated with the lives of the Average Joe or Jane than the famous political figures, so these old airchecks were quite a find for me. I found myself looking into various artists I hadn’t previously explored and I quickly became a fan of one DJ in particular. The St. Louis radio station, KXOK’s Johnny Rabbitt (aka Don Pietromonaco).

 

I was immediately attracted to his style on the radio. He doesn’t just tell you what song is going to play next, he really put on a show! I was very amused by his banter with his self-created sidekick, Bruno J. Grunion. And when I found out that Bruno didn’t actually exist, but was voiced by Johnny Rabbitt himself, I was thoroughly impressed.  After doing a bit more research I found, that he’d often get to the studio early and record his Bruno drop-ins before the show, then converse with the pre-taped voice on the air and then there were times when he did both voices live. That takes the talent of a true actor to pull off something like that, I believe. While I think these kinds of antics were more common back in the day, I still believe that Don Pietromonaco was an extremely talented individual. He stepped into the Johnny Rabbitt role in 1964 and became a local legend of sorts.

 

I know that a lot of work had to go into each show – they were carefully crafted with laugh-tracks, sound effects, gags, contests, games, prizes, requests and dedications.  I know he didn’t do it entirely on his own – he had help from the production team of KXOK, but he did earn some of the highest ratings ever recorded in the St. Louis area. He also ran a couple teen nightclubs and helped raise millions of dollars for medical research.  And of course, he created memories for thousands of St. Louis teens… After listening to as many broadcasts featuring him as I’ve been able to find, I can say with absolute certainty, had I been a St. Louis teen in the ‘60s, I’d have been a Johnny Rabbitt Army Member.

 

 

 

 

 http://630kxok.stlmedia.net/index.html

Heard It On TV...

I may watch too much television. Though, I’ve been introduced to a number of songs because of hearing them on a TV show or commercial. I believe I started this trend of searching out songs heard on TV from watching The Partridge Family and The Monkees. But I’ve also tracked down songs after hearing it on a commercial. One song I very specifically remember searching out after hearing it on a Dewar’s commercial in 2007. The song was “Up the Walls” by PT Walkley. It’s insanely catchy – and the whole album …And The Adventures of Track Rabbit is pretty good too.

 

Of course, I’ve been searching out songs heard on television for years and compiling my own TV Show soundtracks from the music I heard. Gilmore Girls introduced me to Wilco (“Heavy Metal Drummer”), The White Stripes (“Fell In Love With A Girl”), and The Shins (“So Says I”). I also first heard the great song, “Satellite of Love” by Lou Reed on the Gilmore Girls season 4 finale. Though, I think my Gilmore Girls playlist consists for more than 70 tunes that I dig that were used in the show (they used a lot of XTC in the show too – which, as you know, I love).

 

Grey’s Anatomy’s first 2 seasons also helped contribute dozens of songs to my ever expanding music collection. “Miss Halfway” by Anya Marina, “Dead Streets” by Monotypes, “Infinity” by Merrick, “Someone To Love” by Kate Earl, “Blood and Peanut Butter” by B.C. Camplight, and “Look At Her Face” by The Coral Sea are a few of the songs that have gotten a lot of airtime on my playlists in recent years. Grey’s also has featured a number of Brandi Carlile songs that caused me to further explore her song catalog. My favorite of hers from Grey’s Anatomy is probably “Throw It All Away”.

 

Bones introduced me to a handful of songs – like the Placebo cover of Kate Bush’s “Running Up That Hill”, the obscure but memorable “Better” by The Blue Shoes, and John Francis Daly’s band, Dayplayer, extremely likable pop song “Neverending Summer” – (all of these songs come highly recommended, by the way). Chuck is another show that gave me a number of songs and artists to explore. “Challengers” by The New Pornographers, “Foux Du Fafa” by Flight of the Conchords, “Creature Fear” by Bon Iver, “Into Your Dream” by Foreign Born, “My Absent Will” by Meredith Bragg, “Fresh Feeling” by Eels, and “Fall Into Place” by Apartment are a few of those songs. It also reminded me of a couple ‘80s songs I hadn’t heard for years – like “Love on the Rocks” by Neil Diamond and Huey Lewis & The News’ “Power of Love”.

 

Castle is another TV show that has caused me to track down several dozen songs. The extremely upbeat and poppy “Birds of a Feather” by The Rosenbergs was the first Castle featured song I tracked down. “Move You” by Anya Marina is a well-crafted foot-tapper with a driving beat (I especially love the last 35 seconds of the song). MoZella’s tunes were featured a few times in the show and my favorite is probably the soulful ballad, “Can’t Stop”. “Everybody Loves Me” by OneRepublic is strangely addictive and has received a lot of plays in the last year or so.  Anna Waronker performed a couple original songs for the show’s fictitious singer-songwriter, Haley Blue – notably “Threshold”, though “Underground” is also very catchy. Sara Jackson-Holman’s dreamlike ballad, “Into The Blue” is featured prominently in the season 2 finale – and it’s a gorgeous song with a captivating piano part and expressive lyrics. And possibly my favorite song that I heard on Castle is “The Other Side” by Sloan. It immediately grabbed my attention with its pop hooks on top of powerful electric guitars, multipart vocal harmonies, and stomping rhythm.

 

Though, the show that has probably the most extensive soundtrack in my music collection is from Cold Case. Of course, it featured at least half a dozen tunes in each episode from whatever era the episode is dealing with. The show exposed me to a number of songs from years gone by – some of which you don’t often hear on the oldies or classic rock stations. KC & The Sunshine Band’s song “Please Don’t Go” and Anne Murray’s “Broken Hearted Me”, for example, have received an embarrassingly high amount of plays over the last couple years . I also first heard Israel Kamakawiwo’ole’s version of “Somewhere Over The Rainbow” on an episode of Cold Case.  The ‘40s tune, “Is You Is or Is You Ain’t My Baby” by Louis Jordan was recently added to my collection after hearing it on an episode. 

 

There were also a few original pieces like the piano piece, “Best Friends” composed by Michael Levine. My favorites from the show though are the 1920s inspired jazz song, “300 Flowers” and the 1950s sounding ballad, “Scarlet Rose.” Both are fantastic songs – “300 Flowers” has the bendy notes, jazzy chords, and fantastic lyrics. “Scarlet Rose” starts out similar to The Flamingos’ version of “I Only Have Eyes for You” with its 6/8 piano part – but I adore the melody and Alexa Kahn does a great vocal performance. Both songs do a great job of capturing the time of the episodes.

 

Of course, there are tons of other songs I adore that I’ve heard on the telly, but for now I’ll leave you with this.