The business of archiving the Rolling Stones’ rich catalog!

By Joe Viglione
https://twitter.com/RollingStones

Find article here: http://tinyurl.com/somegirlsladiesandgentlemen

Rolling Stone Magazine has an article “Five Essential” Rolling Stones Bootlegs,   which is a good start on the band’s underground recordings, however, with an institution this legendary one can hardly choose 5 boots when there are thousands – if not tens of thousands – out there. And unlike the Beatles who stopped touring, the Stones have always strategically mapped out the release of a new album with tour after tour, so there is beyond a library of material that people will be studying as the millenniums fly by.  It’s quite exciting, actually, thinking of the prospect of future generations cataloguing the music with technology not yet dreamed of.

Which brings us to the re-release of Some Girls Live in Texas ’78, Muddy Waters/The Rolling Stones Live at the Checkerboard Lounge and Ladies and Gentlemen The Rolling Stones.  With twenty-three tracks between Ladies and Gentleman and Some Girls Live, and an additional 11 tracks with seventy-five minutes of music on the Muddy Waters’ blues disc (the DVD has 15 tracks plus bonus material, so the list just keeps on growing…) there are thirty-four slices of Rolling Stones music unleashed at once, which is a very smart move given how Stones’ fans love to collect, be entertained, and study what is out there.  It was forty-seven years ago as a sixteen year old that this writer purchased Liver Than You’ll Ever Be, the amazing bootleg of the November 9, 1969 concert at the Oakland Coliseum released one month later, which I bought in 1970.  Wikipedia has a pretty thorough overview of the underground classic, so go there for further information.  The Wikipedia page also notes that Get Yer Ya-Ya’s Out! (the response from Decca and the Stones to the bootleg, ostensibly ) was heavily overdubbed which – as much as the purist in me believes in documenting the event as the event unfolded, I have no problem with film colorization (go back to the original print if you wish) or enhancements.  As with “New Coke” the late CEO of Coca Cola, Roberto Goizueta said something about the ability to always go back to the original formula.  Ya-Ya’s could always find the original tapes released some day, but that the album is so very good, and has Liver Than You’ll Ever Be forever as a companion piece to we Rolling Stones fans who lived through the era, we pretty much have found the satisfaction Mick can’t get no of.    Lulu’s best of both worlds, as they say.

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So where do Ladies and Gentlemen, Some Girls and Muddy Waters / Stones Live at the Checkerboard Lounge, 1981 fit in?  With McKinley “Muddy Waters” Morganfield having passed away at the age of seventy in 1983, the Checkerboard Lounge is essential and delivers exactly what is promised while documenting Waters on a platform that would bring him to generations of people who can appreciate his artistry: working with Buddy Guy and the Rolling Stones two years before his passing.  The historical importance is obvious.

In my November 28, 2012 review of the DVD I noted “So Some Girls Live in Texas, ’78 is like the tail of a comet, songs from Exile and Sticky Fingers mixed in with the core material from 1978’s Some Girls studio album.  The band was younger, the sensibilities pure rock & roll, the delivery excellent.”   Studying the music in my car – driving around (which is a key way to listen to the Stones, at least for me, anyway…) we get “Tumbling Dice” re-worked – one of my all-time favorite of their songs – and a “Miss You” that is more appealing than the studio version which radio overplays and which the tinge of disco is a curse upon it. But it did go to #1, which was the point of it all. Marketing the album, marketing the tour.  Here we still get the disco groove but with more of a rock and roll edge. The song works better in the live setting and, though I hardly agree it should be in the Rolling Stone Top 500 songs of all time (#498 in 2010, Rolling Stone Magazine by way of Wikipedia,) it has a good groove in this album’s context.  “When the Whip Comes Down” and “Shattered” are lesser Jagger/Richards titles yet in the flow of the album with goodies from Exile on Main St. opening the CD, “Imagination” and the “Brown Sugar/Jumpin’ Jack Flash” closing – and wonderful 8 page liner notes booklet with collectible photos, this is a terrific release.    It doesn’t reach the heights that Ya-Ya’s and Liver Than You’ll Ever Be achieved, but that was a different time during the Mick Taylor / Jimmy Miller era, the fine wine that set a standard that few will ever reach.

The soundtrack album, Ladies and Gentlemen, the Rolling Stones, is more problematic. My memories of the film at the Music Hall in Boston in 1974 were that it was dark as a D.A. Pennebaker Dont Look Back or Ziggy Stardust film – director Rollin Binzer creating a murky document with sound that feels mono and Jagger’s vocals like they are coming out of a box.  45 years ago the band was in its prime and this writer being in the second row in Boston at the 19i72 concert during the famous Mayor White’s “My city’s in flames” speech – well, the movie clouds the memories, if you will, and it is supposed to be the other way around.  Culled from four shows in Houston and Fort Worth -reportedly in 32 tracks, you’d never know it from the mix.  Mick Taylor’s slide guitar in “All Down the Line” provides proof as to why the Taylor/Richard Stones had complementary guitars where Ronnie Wood is Keith’s doppelganger or shadow…sorry, Ronnie.  This is classic Stones music and the hope is that those 32 tracks can be reopened and a better mix eventually can surface. The 1972 tour was essential and Ladies and Gentlemen is sadly lacking. But, for the fans, it still gets a place on the shelf more for the moment than the production.

Eagle Rock’s catalogue of Stones’ releases is stunning http://www.eagle-rock.com/artist/the-rolling-stones/#.WUApHcYpDtQ  and these three releases

Joe Vig’s 2012 review of Some Girls DVD
http://www.tmrzoo.com/2012/40343/the-rolling-stones-some-girls-live-in-texas-78

Some Girls Live in Texas ’78

• The Rolling Stones
• DV    Release: 2011-11-21  Catalog No.: 801213039494  Barcode: 801213039494

Live at the Checkerboard Lounge

• Muddy Waters and Rolling Stones
• C1D1 Release: Out Now  Catalog No.: ERDVCD06  Barcode: 5034504906990

Mastered by Bob Clearmountain

Stones with Muddy Waters
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z3Or7huOK7o

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A Splendid Time Guaranteed for All: Peter Noone Live at Cary Hall https://www.facebook.com/HermansHermitsStarringPeterNoone/ 

By Joe Viglione

http://caryhalllexington.com/

  a SPLENDID time Guaranteed for ALL – Peter Noone at Cary Hall

    While Beatlemania is spreading across the planet again at the dawn of the summer of 2017 –  thanks to the return of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Heart’s Club Band, the fellow who sold more records than the Fab Four in America at one point in time utilized his artistic alchemy to transform a bunch of aging seniors into teenyboppers again.     Starting the show off with the immortal Carole King / Gerry Goffin classic “I’m Into Something Good” – the ageless wonder in terrific voice and the audience going crazy.   Now Lexington, Mass. is a pretty town outside of Arlington and Burlington, a lovely little village off of Route 128 with a special charm.  Peter Noone made it clear that over fifty years ago he and his band mates had one dream: to play Cary Hall in Lexington.  The twisted humor more intimate than Mick Jagger’s shout out to Texas on the new Some Girls: Live in Texas ’78  CD that just landed in this critic’s mailbox (love that the Stones are releasing a ton of material on Eagle Rock; I reviewed the DVD of Some Girls Live in 2013 for the British mag Sabotage Times https://sabotagetimes.com/music/some-girls-live-in-texas-78-is-a-chance-to-revisit-the-stones-greatness )  

The beauty here is that Herman’s Hermits are up close and personal when the last time I saw the Stones (was it 1995 with Jo Jo Laine? Yikes!) at the N.E. Patriots football stadium it was “faraway eyes” indeed, the band “so far away” that Carole King probably wrote that song prophesying the stadium concert experience.   That these theaters are popping up in cities and towns around Massachusetts (Regent Theater, Arlington, Stoneham Theater, Chevalier in Medford) is an interesting phenomenon that is snowballing…and most likely happening around America and beyond.   When a Peter Noone walks into the crowd a la guitarist Buddy Guy, it is a special treat for the audience that – for the most part – has much of the Herman’s Hermits catalog as part of the soundtrack to their lives.   “Dandy” followed as did “She’s A Must to Avoid” – two guitars, drums and keyboard / bass is the quartet of Hermits backing up Peter which creates a tight, entertaining quintet bringing music that spans the decades into what is truly a small village miles enough outside of the hustle and bustle of Boston and its surrounding communities. 

    Frankie Ford’s “Sea Cruise” – the sixth song in the set, rocked with sincerity on this smaller stage than Lynn Auditorium’s November 11, 2016 show (see review below.)  Exactly seven months later the band returning to this region to give the faithful a nice jolt on a Sunday night.   The artist known as the rock and roll king of the internet morphs into his alter ego, the Very Reverend Sung Long Noone   (link provided in case you think I’m kidding) the good Catholic boy bringing thousands of followers to Cary Hall and away from church…the pied piper Peter Noone and his Noonatics getting all rowdy, hand-clapping, the over sixty members of the audience engaging in so much fun that it would absolutely outrage a Montana city council.

In my July 23, 1998 interview with Peter at the Hampton Beach Casino you can hear Monkees songs being performed by Davey Jones.  Peter pays tribute to the great Mr. Jones with “Daydream Believer.”  It is beyond superb – only Peter Noone can cover the Monkees and make it as fun and authentic as the original.   Perhaps in the future the brilliant rendition of “Oh You Pretty Things” Peter covered from the other Mr. Davey Jones (David Bowie) can be added to the set…”there’s something happening here and you don’t know what it is…” what the heck, turn Bob Dylan into pure pop as well and add “Ballad of a Thin Man.”  You’ll have the Mr. Jones trifecta.   The Hermits in white shirts, black ties and dark suits – Peter joking that one of the boys got a dress from 1962 that Diana Ross had thrown away …of course if you read Wikipedia you know that the girls were called the “no hit Supremes during 1961-1963 and the guitarist probably wasn’t even born yet, but why quibble with minor details when the show is so much fun!  “Ring of Fire” gives Johnny Cash his due while “Leaning on the Lamp-post” – yes, the song written by Noel Gay from the 1937 film Feather Your Nest. brought a little cabaret to the festivities.

It is here that the Reverend Sun Myung Moon parody evaporates to a rock star holding an album up over his face with an image of himself from decades before.  Truly great dynamics with Peter singing to one guitar and not assaulting this audience in a small room with drums on every song.  Which leads to a tune Peter says he wrote “outside of Petco…” entitled something like “Traveling Light” with the words “I’m at the Cary Memorial Hall in Lexington Massachusetts” which, if you say it five times fast, is a mouthful.  Hope someone has it on a cellphone video!  To the audience’s credit, they actually were able to sing the ludicrous words and did so without skipping a beat. The Rev Sun Myung Noone in full control. 

    “No Milk Today” was sheer magic. Pre-10CC Graham Gouldman’s song an incredible bouquet of melodies with the chorus starting the song off as the verse.   The Hermits cover of the Skeeter Davis classic “The End of the World” (which – appropriately enough, just concluded the bizarre HBO series The Leftovers which makes Patrick McGoohan’s 1967 TV opus The Prisoner look coherent by comparison.)   Noone claims the song was #1 for 15 weeks in the Philippines, a fact which Herman probably heard on The Leftovers or the Prisoner or both. 

    What should not be missed is that Noone’s voice is an amazing instrument hitting all of the notes and as fluid today as it was when he first joined the band – like his contemporary Steve Winwood – at about 15 years of age.  The Hermits outdid themselves on the ballad – the drums keeping it simple but with a grand beat, the string section from the keyboards building the absolutely stunning wall of sound with elegant guitar lines blending into tasteful leads. Incredible.

     A more muted presentation than the November 11th 2016 event in Lynn which had a much wider stage where Noone gallivanted with the teenage energy that this time-machine-obsessed audience not only craves, but draws its power from. The Jagger parody of “Jumpin’ Jack Flash” more intense in Lynn, but still effective here as Noone shakes up the show for the sake of his fanatical Noonatics who attend multiple performances.    “Just a Little Bit Better,” “Listen People,” “Ferry Across the Charles River” (replacing Ferry Cross the Mersey,”) “Baby, Baby Can’t You Hear My Heart Beat” – take that Genya Ravan and your Goldie & The Gingerbreads (only kidding, Gen…)  – “Mrs. Brown You’ve Got a Lovely Daughter,” channeling the Ramones for a reworking of the 107 year old song “I’m Henry The Eight, I Am” and concluding with one of the finest compositions in pop music history, “There’s A Kind of Hush.”   The audience is standing at this point, an artist that can bring the senior set out past their bedtime and let their short hair down. So while the Beatles are re-selling “When I’m 64” this month, the phenomenon that is Peter Noone’s Herman’s Hermits bring their magic formula from town to town, that Brother Love Traveling Salvation Show that Neil Diamond identified.  Peter Noone is a show business pro, and he still has the voice, and the magic.  A Splendid Time Guaranteed For All …and tonight Mr. Kite is topping the bill.  

Photo Credit: Carolyn Sharp-Heggarty

Wonderful World, song 2, photo Joe V.

Photo credit Carolyn Sharp Hegarty

Photo Credit: Carolyn Sharp-Hegarty

Photo Credit: Carolyn Sharp Hegarty

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Lady Carolyn of Love and Flame opened for Peter Noone and The Tremblers in 1980 at the Paradise Theater.   37 years is not too long to wait for a reunion!  8:47 pm @ Cary Hall after the show June 11, 2017…Lady Carolyn’s birthday is June 16, 2017, this Friday

Photo Credit: Joe Viglione

PETER NOONE’S BOOK OF PHOTOS

http://www.tmrzoo.com/2010/12550/peter-noones-gallery-of-photos-in-book-form

BUS STOP from The Hollies cover was not played in Lexington, Mass. but here’s a video from March 15, 2017…a bonus track!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JzaCfowJV2k

JOE VIGLIONE’S WRITING FOR SABOTAGE TIMES

https://sabotagetimes.com/author/joe-viglione

TOP STORIES THIS WEEK 6/13:                                                                                                                               PETER NOONE, THE WHO, ROLLING STONES, SGT. PEPPERS LONELY HEARTS CLUB BAND

Back in the 1980s, around 1989 or so, we created Music Business Monthly.  It was a paper edition that was published simultaneously with successful music seminars.  Watch this site as we develop a new Music Business Monthly for 2017.

Editor and Publisher Joe Viglione   June 11, 2017, 11:53 pm  http://joeviglione.com
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Fred Gillen Jr.  2 songs reviewed by Ed Wrobleski

1)Prayer for America
2)Where are you tonight, Fallen Angel?

https://twitter.com/whatshesaidCD

Fred “Dylan” Gillen Jr.
by
Ed Wrobleski 

June 9, 2017″Prayer For America”, has such powerful lyrics about our ancestors who came to America and made it what it is today, with a hint of George Harrison “My Sweet Lord”,  sprinkled ever so lightly  throughout the song. In this highly charged political climate,  this should be our new National Anthem with the way our world is today.  Mark Schultz of Mark Skin Radio noting the political bent on his 6-7-2017 program when he played Gillen Jr.’s track.

“Where  are You Tonight Fallen Angel” , has a short but sweet story about looking for that special someone in every place you possibly can. This composition also has a few different musical elements that I hear of other legendary artists like Neil Young writing style and Jacob Dylan’s Wallflowers musical flavorings in the mix.  I think Fred Gillen Jr.’s vocals are superb – simply outstandingly – different from anyone’s vocals in today’s music, and both of these tracks should be in rotation on all sorts of radio stations.
Ed Wrobleski
Host/Producer of talking Hendrix on www.bostonfreeradio.com
Talkinghendrix{@}gmail.com

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Artist: Ken Selcer
Album: I Simplify
Review by Craig Fenton

For those of us waiting forever and a day it seemed for new
product from Kenny Selcer the reward for the five or so year pause has ceased!

While Kenny’s touring schedule and musical commitments may have
kept him out of the recording studio there has never been a lessening of
his luminous stage performances.

Kenny’s follow-up to the superlative Don’t Forget About Me called
I Simplify continues his incredible talent to craft tunes that flourish in the
studio and
resonate on the concert stage.  We are gifted with fourteen
tracks that will take you on a musical roller-coaster from multifarious styles
and genres.

When you listen to I Simplify notice the length of time of each
track.  None clock in under four minutes.  This is stated to
solidify Kenny’s commitment to his art and the fans expectations.  It is
never about forcing a radio friendly tune that may win an isolated battle but
would lose the Rock & Roll War.

The opening track I Know It’s Not Too Late conjures up sounds of
early Dire Straits. Kenny not only grabs your attention from the initial notes
but holds it throughout the CD’s sixty-eight minute journey to the past,
present, and future.

It’s All Around You would make Tom Petty proud.  Kenny has
captured the sound and the feel but while paying homage make no mistake it is
still his own voice.
A tune getting a lot of attention is “Without You.” Think Traveling Wilburys  Volume 1 meets Kenny Selcer and it begins to make sense. His ability to  change style and vocal inflection from  song to song is rare in the industry and to achieve desired results without any  notes ever being forced is even more  obscure in today’s lack luster musical  landscape.

It Was You will have fans of Eddie Cochran, Carl Perkins, and Gene 
Vincent engrossed as to how in 2017  Kenny is delivering a knockout blow 
with a cross of Rockabilly and Swing.
Wisely woven in the web is an instrumental Kenny’s Song. Its 
purpose is multi-fold. First it shows his
ability as a guitar-player too long 
underrated in the field. 

Secondly placing it as Track 10 lets us 
digest the lyrical caravan we have been
riding during the previous nine.
Ending the sojourn Kenny is joined by 
a longtime friend Steve Gilligan 
(legendary New England Band The 
Stompers) contributing the bass-lines 
on Stay Awhile. In the realm of the 
recent works of John Mellencamp. A 
flawless finale to the CD or should we 
say beginning as I’m not alone hitting 
the replay button.

All the best,
Craig Fenton
Author: Jefferson Airplane- Take Me To
A Circus Tent 
Jefferson Starship- Have You Seen The 
Stars Tonite
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Sunday June 11, 2017

Herman’s Hermits Starring Peter Noone and Jay & The Americans  

Lynn Auditorium in Lynn, Massachusetts

     Six days after his birthday in November, 2016, Peter Noone and Jay & The Americans rocked the house at Lynn Auditorium – and the show brought down the packed arena in the middle of Lynn, Massachusetts

    

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Jay and the Americans with Jay Reincke,  Howie Kane, Sandy Deanne and Marty Sanders

https://www.facebook.com/jayamericans/ 

were a perfect match with Herman’s Hermits.  Sporting the American flag – straight out of their name – take that Grand Funk Railroad – behind them as a counterpoint to Noone’s British flag, the complementary USA rock and roll with one of the top British Invasion bands was all about entertainment.   Reincke’s voice is spot on, continuing the “Jay” tradition nicely, while tucked inside the set of their own hits, a Roy Orbison tribute hit the audience from out of left field.  It is hard to understate how splendid and reverent and enjoyable the tribute was.  This writer saw Orbison twice in the 1980s and it is hard to top the legend – but to have a major artist cover the icon and do it so

seamlessly was classic rock at its finest.

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Peter Noone, the master showman, is as vibrant and aware onstage as the band was on July 23, 1998  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ou7gwFZArUM   Eighteen years on “I’m Henery the Eighth, I Am” changes – the first time this writer heard the band play a Ramones’ -styled version was at the Mohegan Sun’s Wolf’s Den perhaps a decade ago – refreshing for a song from 1910. According to Wikipedia, Herman’s version of ‘Enery 55 years after its debut was the fastest selling single up to that point in time – hitting #1 and establishing https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I%27m_Henery_the_Eighth,_I_Am  

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Tonight June 11, 2017  Peter appears at Cary Hall in Lexington

Here’s an insightful article worth reading:

http://www.decades.com/lists/viii-things-you-never-knew-about-hermans-hermits

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Cary Hall is located at 1605 Massachusetts Ave, Lexington, MA 02420

http://caryhalllexington.com/wordpress1/?page_id=195

Cary Hall is located at 1605 Massachusetts Ave, Lexington, MA 02420From 95
Take Exit 31A for Routes 4/225 (Bedford Street). Drive 2 miles, continuing straight onto Mass Ave. Cary Hall will be on your left immediately after the Lexington Post Office.From Boston/Route 2 West
Take exit 56 from MA-2 W. Drive 4 miles, and turn right onto MA-225 W/MA-4 N/Watertown St (signs for Massachusetts 4 N/Massachusetts 225 W/Lexington/Bedford). Cary Hall is on the right.

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Author Joe Viglione

Write to demodeal @ Yahoo.com

http://joeviglione.com/