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John Adam, a veteran Eagle SnowBusser, sent me this shot today from the top of Heavenly, looking back towards Lake Tahoe–one of the finest views of the lake from any resort. That foot of new snow freshened up the slopes, and the sun broke thru gloriously for John and his skiing buddy– also named John. Yeah, I AM jealous. And yes, we are trying to organize another bus for February…
Rush fans took no prisoners… and ripped the heart out of last year’s defending Superbrawl Champions, and sent Pink Floyd packing in a stunning Round One upset. Floyd was busy planning their parade route… while Rush invited their fans to Brew It Up for the fabulous food spread. What other explanation could there be? Queen survived a scare from Kiss, the boys from El Cerrito, CCR took out Eric Clapton handily… and AC DC got into the second round by a single vote! In the remainder of Round One Tuesday, Aerosmith will battle the Stones, the Beatles take on U2… and sparks will fly when Santana partisans have to deal with motivated Stevie Ray Vaughan fans. Don’t miss a moment….
This Saturday marks the 67th birthday of one of Rock’s unsung heroes. A guy who should have been inducted into the RnR Hall of fame decades ago. I’m talking about Al Kooper, the musician, producer, engineer, talent scout and songwriter, among other things. He has played on hundreds of albums by the likes of Stones, Jimi Hendrix, The Who, Alice Cooper and Cream to name just a few. Remember the french horn intro to the Stone’s song You Can’t Always Get What You Want>? That was Al’s idea. Al Kooper also pulled a hot Southern bar band out of obscurity and made them legends. I’m talking about Lynyrd Skynyrd, he produced their first 3 albums. He first broke out at age 14 with a little ditty called “Who Likes Short Shorts”?..it was a top 40 hit believe it or not, his next one “This Diamond Ring” was an even bigger hit for Gary Lewis and the Playboys. Then Al started Blood Sweat and Tears and did that first brilliant album. Then he formed the Blues Project out of New York, they played at Monterey in 67. He brought in Mike Bloomfield and Stephen Stills into the studio for a cult favorite “Super Sessions”. He met Bloomfield around the time that Dylan was putting together his electric band in 65. Al auditioned for the guitar part in Like a Rolling Stone, didn’t get and instead sat down at the Hammond B3 Organ. His playing was the signature sound on that hit record. He is still active in music, still an individual who has followed his own musical muse, and compromising very little to the suits of the business. This man should be in the Rock and Roll hall of fame, in about 5 categories actually. I interviewed Al Kooper a couple of years ago when he came to Sacramento. He had his iPod with thousands of songs he was involved with but also lots of brand new bands he likes. He never stops listening to what’s out there. A few more Al Koopers in the world would make things sound better right away. Happy Birthday Al.
Special thanks to ThisDayinMusic.com.
It’s hard to believe in this day and age, but in 1964 — at the dawn of Beatlemania — there was some doubt as to whether the Fab Four would sell in a non-English-speaking country like Germany. Perhaps those making that assessment weren’t aware that The Beatles had spent their formative years as a band tearing down houses on Hamburg’s Reeperbahn on a nightly basis. Nevertheless, Odeon Records (the German imprint of EMI) contacted George Martin and Brian Epstein and convinced them that The Beatles should record their biggest hits in German so that they could sell more records there. Martin and Epstein agreed. The Beatles did not.
The group had set up shop in Paris for a series of dates at the historic Olympia music hall, and were none too thrilled at the prospect of re-doing “I Want to Hold Your Hand” and “She Loves You” with ham-handed, translated lyrics. George Martin insisted, though, and booked the band at Paris’s EMI Pathe Marconi Studios on January 27. The group, however, did not show up for the session, which sent a waiting Martin into a light simmer. The group were reportedly reprimanded for blowing off the session and, though still not thrilled about the idea, agreed to record the tracks two days later.
Meanwhile, EMI’s German producer, Otto Demler, contacted Luxembourger singer-TV personality Camillo Felgen to translate the songs. And so, Felgen (who was a translator for German occupiers in World War II) set about figuring out what German phrases scan well for “And when I touch you I feel happy inside” and “Well I saw her yester-da-ee-ay.” He was also tasked with schooling the Liverpudlians on proper pronunciation. With good humor, Felgen agreed — though he was sure to take a pen name for his work as a lyricist, opting for Jean Nicolas (based on his middle names).
So, as promised, The Beatles arrived at Pathe Marconi on the morning of January 29 and set to work. “Komm, Gib Mir Deine Hand,” the Deutsche “I Want to Hold Your Hand,” was the easier endeavor. Backing tracks still existed for the song, so the band only had to re-record the vocals, which they did in eleven takes, along with overdubbed handclaps.
The larger undertaking was the re-recording of “She Loves You,” retitled “Sie Liebt Dich.” Because the original rhythm track had long since been destroyed at Abbey Road Studios (there was little thought, early on, about preserving such things), the entire song had to be rerecorded. This took quite a bit more effort, to perfectly replicate the original single. There has been speculation that the band listened to the record a few times before launching into the recording, just to remember the little nuances. Nevertheless, when they had finally finished recording the fourteenth and final take, there were still a few barely perceptible differences. The first is that the tempo of the song is just a hint faster than the original, much closer to the live version they had been playing for several months. Also, bits of George Harrison’s guitar flourishes are ever so slightly “off.” Still, the overall recording is admirably close to the original English version. And by the time they had recorded the winning take, as engineer Norman Smith later recalled, “They were extremely pleased to get it over with.”
As luck may have it, the group had a little extra time at the end of the session. So they decided to take advantage of the bonus studio time and record a new, little ditty Paul McCartney had been working on called “Can’t Buy Me Love.”
As for future recordings, The Beatles swore off any further forays into song translation, though Macca did take a crack at a German version of “Get Back” later on, just for giggles. Looking back on the whole affair, George Martin later said, “They were right, actually, it wasn’t necessary for them to record in German. But they weren’t graceless, they did a good job.”
Elton John is about to become the latest musical great to have a Hollywood biopic made about his life. But, he says, don’t expect the film to be a straight-forward retelling, like Ray or Walk the Line.
“It will be more of a fantasy, Moulin Rouge-type of stuff,” he told BBC Radio 2. “My life’s been so surreal, from buying a football club to God knows what.”
The untitled film is being written by Lee Hall, who worked together with John on the musical version of Billy Elliot. Hall also wrote the screenplay for the movie version. There’s no word yet on who will be starring as the rock legend.
Alice Cooper is not like most people. He’s written some of the greatest rock songs of all time, he’s about to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and he gets decapitated every night on stage. But when it comes to Led Zeppelin, he’s just like any fan – and he doesn’t understand what’s up with Robert Plant.
Cooper recently criticized his fellow frontman in the press for not reuniting with his Zeppelin bandmates. “I go out on stage and say ‘turn it up,’” Cooper told the Palm Springs Boxing Examiner. “I never get tired of playing my songs.”
The shock rocker can’t comprehend that Plant is working with his Band of Joy project instead.
“They are just standing there. What is so hard? Jimmy Page wants to do it. John Paul Jones wants to do it. And they got Bonham’s son, who is a killer drummer,” Cooper said. “All they need is Robert Plant. But what is Robert Plant out there doing? Playing folk music! What is he doing?”
Although Plant reunited with the other members for a one-off gig in 2007, he’s resisted getting the band back together ever since. Most recently, he told Rolling Stone that he’s avoided the idea of reforming Zeppelin because there’s “nothing worse than a bunch of jaded old farts.”
Brought to you by ThisDayinMusic.com.
Born on this day:
1946, Terry Kath, guitar, Chicago
1951, Phil Manzanera, guitar, Roxy Music
1954, Adrian Vandenburg, guitar, Whitesnake
1956, John Lydon, singer, Sex Pistols & Public Image Ltd
1961, Lloyd Cole, vocals, guitar, Lloyd Cole and the Commotions
1981, Justin Timberlake, singer, *NSYNC and solo
1967, The Beatles spent a second day at Knole Park, Sevenoaks, Kent, England to complete filming for the Strawberry Fields Forever promotional video. The film was shot in color for the benefit of the U.S. market since U.K. television was still broadcasting only in black and white. Taking time out from filming, John Lennon bought an 1843 poster from an antiques shop in Surrey, which provided him with most of the lyrics for the song “Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite.”
1970, American blues musician Slim Harpo died of a heart attack while recording in London. He was 46. Harpo had a #16 hit in the U.S. with “Baby Scratch My Back.” The Rolling Stones, Pretty Things, Yardbirds and Them all covered Harpo’s songs.
1970, The Jackson 5 went to #1 on the U.S. singles chart with “I Want You Back.” The song was originally written for Gladys Knight & The Pips and was the first of four #1’s for the group. It made #2 in the U.K.
1976, Abba knocked Queen from #1 on the U.K. singles chart with “Mamma Mia.” Queen’s single “Bohemian Rhapsody” had enjoyed a nine week run atop the charts. Ironically, “Bohemian Rhapsody” contains the famous “oh, mama mia, mama mia, mama mia let me go” line.
1978, Saxophonist Greg Herbert of Blood Sweat & Tears died of an accidental drug overdose in Amsterdam. He was 30.
1981, Blondie went to #1 on the U.S. singles chart with “The Tide is High,” the group’s third U.S. #1. It also hit #1 in the U.K.
1990, The Stone Roses were granted conditional bail by Wolverhampton Magistrates court after the band had trashed their record company’s offices.
2008, Natasha Bedingfield entered the U.S. charts at #3 for her album Pocketful of Sunshine, equaling the record set by soul singer Sade with the highest-ever U.S. chart debut for a U.K.-signed female. Bedingfield sold 50,000 copies of the record in its first week of release.
If I didn’t see it, I wouldn’t have believed it. The Kings, doing their best impression of the worst team in basketball for much of this season, shocked the World Champion Lakers on Friday night in LA… then closed out the Hornets (who’d won TEN in a row) on Saturday. And when did DeMarcus Cousins become Karl Malone? I don’t know, and I really don’t care. The much vilified home club has their hands full with the Boston Celtics tomorrow… and it won’t get any easier the rest of the way. But it doesn’t matter. For one brief shining moment… they were the real deal. And the coach, the players and the fans should not forget what that was like.
sacbee photo
Ozzy Osbourne cancelled a show in Reno, last night, due to a sudden illness.
Chris Martinez with Live Nation said in a statement, “Based on advice from doctors, it is with great regret that Ozzy Osbourne is postponing his show at the Reno Event Center. The multi-platinum Rock and Roll Hall of Famer cannot perform due to a sudden illness.”
Ozzy will make up the date on April 23rd.
Ozzy, who is 62, is touring in support of Scream, his 10th solo album and first with new guitarist Gus G. The album reached #4 on the Billboard chart. The tour is currently winding through its second North American leg (with Slash as support) and also will include dates in Latin America and Europe. Dates are scheduled through August 10.
Special thanks to ThisDayinMusic.com.
Queen’s Freddy Mercury wrote the bulk of his rock-opera masterpiece “Bohemian Rhapsody” at his home in Holland Road, Kensington, in west London. The nearly six-minute-long song was included on the band’s groundbreaking 1975 album A Night at the Opera, and it would go on to sell well over a million copies on its way to become Queen’s most successful song.
The song’s producer, Roy Thomas Baker, spoke about how Freddie initially played him the opening ballad of the song on the piano: “He played the beginning on the piano, then stopped and said, ‘And this is where the opera section comes in!’” Queen had a history of writing much of their material in the studio, but with “Bohemian Rhapsody,” guitarist Brian May said that the song was “very much in Freddie’s mind” before they started playing with it in the studio. May felt that the epic song was “intriguing and original, and worthy of work.”
Intending the song to be something of a “mock opera,” Mercury wanted it to fall well outside the bounds of traditional rock song structure, and he succeeded. After a three-week rehearsal in Herefordshire in the summer of 1975, recording for “Bohemian Rhapsody” began at Rockfield Studio 1 near Monmouth on April 24, 1975. Four additional studios were used to complete the song, including Roundhouse, SARM (East), Scorpion and Wessex. Mercury had such a clear vision of the song during its recording that he was able to direct the band throughout the sessions. Numerous sections were recorded separately with a drum click being the only glue holding it together.
Mercury, May and drummer Roger Taylor laid down their vocals tracks continually, sometimes for up to 12 hours a day. In certain spots, more than 180 separate overdubs were used. At the time, the studios were working with 24-track analog tape, which necessitated the trio to overdub themselves numerous times then “bounce” these overdubs down to sub-mixes. This repetition meant that the final tapes used were actually eighth generation tapes. Countless razor blade-created splices – and lots of adhesive tape – were used to assemble the final sequence. At the time, it was easily the most expensive and elaborate pop/rock song ever created.
Released as a single on October 10, 1975, “Bohemian Rhapsody” went on to become a whopping international success. It topped the U.K. singles chart for an amazing nine weeks and would eventually become the U.K.’s third-best selling single in history. It also topped the charts in Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland and the Netherlands. And though it did quite well in the States, it only peaked at #9. It was on this day in 1976 that “Bohemian Rhapsody,” the first rock-opera song in history with the cheeky gumption to utter the phrase “mama mia, mama mia!”, was actually knocked out of the top spot by, interestingly enough, ABBA’s “Mamma Mia.”
Said Freddy Mercury of his masterpiece: “It’s one of those songs which has such a fantasy feel about it. I think people should just listen to it, think about it, and then make up their own minds as to what it says to them. ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ didn’t just come out of thin air. I did a bit of research, although it was tongue-in-cheek and mock opera. Why not?”
Why not, indeed. Bravo, Freddie!
