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Was checking out “Later” last night and contrary to what many may think – Rock Lives!

Not only one, but three very talented acts that I had never heard of all rocked. I think the “Later” format with all the bands playing in a circle, really forces everyone to bring their best game. Kind of like a battle of the bands. The thing that impressed me the most was that all three groups looked like they were in their twenties.

The first artist that got my attention was the singer/bass player Amy LaVerne – who performed the ultra cool “Killing Him” (didn’t make her love go away). Interesting topic! Great melody, hook and chord changes topped off my Amy’s smooth and sexy voice. The band was small. Only a trio of bass, guitar and drums, but they were really tight.

Next up was the incredible “Sia” – who looks like she has the potential to be a big force in the music biz. Sia has an amazing voice and is backed by a bunch of great players. I hopped over to You Tube to check out some of her stuff and really like what she’s doing with video. The Breath Me video reminds me of something that Peter Gabriel would do. When reading her bio at wikapedia I see she released her first solo recording back in 2000 so I guess I’m late in discovering this very talented singer.

The last act that brought the house down was the amazing “Cage The Elephant” who performed their hit “Ain’t No Rest For Wicked”. I’ve been singing the very catchy hook all morning. I’m sure there are a lot of people out their that can relate to that one! These guys really rocked with a great funky beat and slide guitar. If they can keep up this kind of stuff on future releases, I’m sure they are going to be big.

What really got my attention is that after checking out all three acts on YouTube, as good as their studio tracks sounded – they were even better when playing live. MUCH better. In this age of lip syncing and pre recorded sequenced tracks, it’s good to see young musicians out there that actually can play the hell out of their instruments. Makes an old rocker like me feel good that the future of Rock is not as bleak as I thought.

Rock On!

Hard to believe it’s been 40 years. The original 1969 edition will be all over the air this weekend, both the music and interviews with the artists who created it.

For those who wonder how radio covered Woodstock back when it actually happened, Dennis Elsas of WFUV (90.7 FM) has dug out some archival tapes from WNEW-FM. The tapes feature Scott Muni and Rosko reading commercials for the festival, including the artist lineup, ticket prices and the important news that the concert had been moved to White Lake.

Elsas has mixed the commercials into a montage that also includes WNEW’s coverage of the weekend and Elsas’ interviews with Richie Havens and John Sebastian. He’ll be playing this feature on his Friday afternoon show over WFUV and posting it at www.denniselsas.com.

FUV: Music by Woodstock artists all day tomorrow, with a World Café special, 2-4 p.m., that includes interviews with artists, producers and engineers.

Pete Fornatale of WFUV, who wrote a new Woodstock book, “Back to the Garden,” talks with Darren DeVivo at 7:40 a.m. and 4:45 p.m. tomorrow about the festival.

Fornatale also features Woodstock on his own shows, “Mixed Bag,” Saturday from 4 to 8 p.m. and Sunday from 7 to 8 a.m.

John Platt has Woodstock music and artists Sunday, 8-11 a.m.

Meanwhile, WFUV’s HD2 channel and Web stream (www.wfuv.org) will play Woodstock all day Saturday and Sunday.

Sirius XM: The Deep Tracks channel, Sirius 16 and XM 40, will become Woodstock Radio from noon tomorrow through midnight Sunday.

The channel will include music from Woodstock and interviews with performers and officials from the festival. Artists will be played in the order they performed at the festival, with the complete performances of Santana, Janis Joplin, Sly & the Family Stone, Johnny Winter and Jefferson Airplane. David Hinckley

Looked around YouTube and found this cool video that has the set lists for each of the 31 bands that played that weekend. If I only had one day to choose from, I’d have to pick day two. What a day that must have been!

Interesting history of one of the greatest collections of songs ever written. I guess whoever winds up with it next is one hell of a lucky person(s)! Just came across this on the cnn web site…..

First the rumor went around that Michael Jackson was leaving the Beatles catalog to Paul McCartney in his will. Then the rumor was that McCartney was upset that Jackson didn’t leave the Beatles catalog to the Beatle in his will. Neither is true, said McCartney in a posting on his Web site.

“Some time ago, the media came up with the idea that Michael Jackson was going to leave his share in the Beatles songs to me in his will which was completely made up and something I didn’t believe for a second,” McCartney said. “Now the report is that I am devastated to find that he didn’t leave the songs to me. This is completely untrue,” he added.

The story of the Beatles song catalog is long and tangled. At the time McCartney and writing partner John Lennon wrote their songs, they retained only a portion of the rights in the publishing company created by the Beatles’ manager, Brian Epstein, and London music publisher Dick James. (The company was called Northern Songs, a nod to the Beatles’ Liverpudlian roots.) The company went public in 1965.

According to the myth-busting site Snopes.com, Lennon and McCartney each had 15 percent of the shares, Epstein (and his NEMS Enterprises) had 7.5 percent, James and partner Charles Silver had 37.5 percent and Beatles George Harrison and Ringo Starr had less than 2 percent. The rest was available for public investment.

Over the years (and partly due to the group’s legal battles) the Beatles lost or sold their control, and the catalog of about 250 songs — almost all of Lennon/McCartney’s creations — ended up in the hands of British media mogul Sir Lew Grade and his ATV Music Publishing. ATV added the Beatles’ songs to its holdings, a cache that eventually grew to more than 4,000 songs. (Other songs in the catalog include those recorded by the Kinks, the Moody Blues and Elvis Presley.)

In 1984, the catalog was put up for sale again. McCartney wanted to buy his creations back, but for various reasons wasn’t a front-runner. Jackson — who had taken to investing in music publishing at, ironically, McCartney’s recommendation — came up with the winning bid of $47.5 million. The sale went through in 1985.

In 1995, Sony paid Jackson $95 million to merge the catalog with its Sony Music. Jackson maintained 50 percent control. In 2005, Sony/ATV Music had more than 200,000 songs in its catalog, a CNN.com article reported.

To finance his lifestyle, Jackson borrowed money, using the catalog as collateral. Nevertheless, he never lost the asset. The entire catalog was estimated to be worth between $600 million and $1 billion in 2005, according to a 2005 article in USA Today.

Looking forward to this release in September. My Beatles CD’s have never sounded as good as the LP’s and I’m hoping that this will bring better sound to some of the best songs ever recorded. I guess the 9/9/09 date is no surprise since John always had a thing for the Number 9. Revolution 9, Number 9 Dream, Born on October 9th, Etc.

The new release includes all 12 Beatles albums in stereo, with track listings and artwork as originally released in the UK. The package will also contain the LP version of “Magical Mystery Tour” (initially released as a double-EP in Britain, though available on CD since 1987) and the collections “Past Masters Vol. I and II” combined as one title. 

The release marks the first time that the first four Beatles albums are being made available in their entirety on compact disc, and it also coincides with the release of “The Beatles: Rock Band” video game. Speaking of which – I think really blows big time. I saw a video of these kids demoing it on youtube the other day and it was pathetic. I mean, learn to play your own instruments kiddies. You will be glad you did.

Robert Levine, executive editor for Billboard, said the timing is genius in terms of marketing. “Most bands, when they do a big project like this they pay for publicity,” Levine said. The Beatles got paid for ‘Rock Band’ and then they are using that for publicity to rerelease a catalogue. It’s pretty amazing.

Piers Hemmingsen, the author of two books on Beatles music, said there has long been a clamor among fans for good, high-quality versions of Beatles songs. “The technology that was available back then was very limited, and with the newer technology they are able to do far more with what they have than they have ever been able to do before,” he said. “For people who are plugged into iPods and the whole digital music scene, it’s going to be a lot better for them.”

In acknowledgment of the more technologically advanced listeners, each CD will contain, for a limited time, an embedded brief documentary film about the album. The documentaries contain archival footage, rare photographs and never-before-released studio chat from the Beatles.

The remastering project was four years in the making. Engineers used de-noising technology and cleaned up glitches like electrical clicks and microphone vocal pops, so long as it didn’t affect the original integrity of the songs. They also slightly boosted the volume levels. Andrew Croft, publisher of Beatlology Magazine, said the announcement of the release of the remastered recordings “is long overdue in the Beatles community and for music fans alike.”

“Bootleg releases over the years used rare and obscure vinyl pressings from countries like Japan and Germany to compile the best of the best recordings of The Beatles songs, presenting to the public a better sound that Apple could not offer prior to the remastering. “While the new remasterings will replace a library full of bootlegs of their commercial releases, there remains a massive market for their more obscure tracks, outtakes and live performances,” Croft said.

The 14 remastered albums, along with a DVD collection of the documentaries, will also be available for purchase together in a stereo boxed set. A second boxed set, “The Beatles in Mono,” includes all of the Beatles recordings that were mixed for a mono release. It will contain 10 of the albums with their original mono mixes, plus two additional discs of mono masters (covering similar ground to the stereo tracks on “Past Masters”).

The mono “Help!” and “Rubber Soul” discs also include the original 1965 stereo mixes, which have not been previously released on CD. These albums will be packaged in mini-vinyl CD replicas of the original sleeves with all of the original inserts and label designs.

Croft said, “The songs have lasted for a long time because they are great songs. It’s just that simple. Those are amazing, amazing albums”.

Text Courtesy of CNN.com

Many of you may not recognize the name of Jim Gordon, but I can assure you that you’ve heard his music. Gordon was the drummer on many of the 60’s and 70’s greatest recordings in the history of rock and roll. During this period he performed on many classic recordings including George Harrison’s “All Things Must Pass”, The Beach Boys “Pet Sounds” and Joe Cockers “Mad Dogs & Englishmen” among many others. Gordon also played on the Derek & The Dominos’ 1970 classic album “Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs” and contributed the piano coda for the title track, “Layla”, co written by Gordon and Clapton.

There was a reason why Gordon was on all those great recordings. He was the best. The man could set a groove like no one else. As a keyboard player I’ve always thought that when the drummer is playing the right beat, the rest of the band always sounds better and Gordon could do that like no one else.

After listening to Layla the other day I was inspired to google Gordons name thinking he was dead and was made aware of a few things. In the late 1970s, Gordon complained of hearing voices in his head. He was later diagnosed with acute paranoid schizophrenia, which had been worsened by a cocaine addiction. By 1981, this ended his music career. June of 1983 Gordon stabbed his mother to death with a butcher’s knife. In May 1984 he was sentenced to sixteen years to life in prison. He has served his sentence at the California Men’s Colony in San Luis Obispo, Atascadero State Hospital in Atascadero, and the State Medical Corrections Facility in Vacaville. He is still incarcerated.

More googleing brought me to Gordon’s Myspace page where you can sign a petition asking the parole board to consider his release. I signed the petition and forwarded this info to many of my friends and colleagues and was met with some interesting responses. Most were very supportive of the petition. However, there were some who argued that it was none of our business getting involved since we knew nothing of the details of Gordon’s case and a petition was “meaningless”. Some argued that just because he co-wrote Layla does not give him a pass to commit murder, which I totally agree with.

Yes, he did commit a serious act of violence (over twenty five years ago), but has done his time and if the doctors who are treating him feel that he is ready to return to the street I support their decision. If he’s been deemed mentally balanced while medicated, has served the time he was sentenced and will be supervised while on parole and as a condition of release, possibly supervised for a time longer than his parole, he deserves a chance to prove himself, just like any other paroled killer that’s walking the streets.

As far as the petition goes, it’s certainly not “meaningless”. It offers hope and inspiration to Jim that people are pulling for him and just might help him in the healing process. It shows support. I agree that it will probably not influence the parole board much, but I would think with a boarder line case where they are weighing all their options, something like that might just make a difference.

I do admit that I know nothing of Jim’s current condition, but I support him none the less. I sincerely hope that his demons are gone and whatever drove him to commit such a violent act is part of his past. I’m pulling for you Jim and look forward to seeing you released one day soon. Best of luck with the parole hearings.

Check out this amazing video of Jim playing during the Mad Dog’s tour. Delta Lady with Joe Cocker Live at the Fillmore East, March 1970. 

 
More info on Jim can be found at; www.wikipedia.org

I had first heard about Delaney & Bonnie in 1971 when they did a live radio broadcast for New York’s WABC-FM (which later became WPLJ). They were backed by an amazing group of players including Duane & Gregg Allman and King Curtis. Duane Allman’s slide guitar solo in “Out On The Open Road” remains one of my favorites to this day. By that time it seems like everyone who was anyone wanted to jam with what seemed to be the biggest rolling party on tour in rock and roll.

Eric Clapton had discovered D&B when they were the opening act for the 1969 Blind Faith tour and quickly became one of the “friends”. Clapton is quoted in his autobiography saying: “For me, going on with Blind Faith after Delaney and Bonnie was really, really tough, because I thought they were miles better than us.” This is also where Clapton met Carl Radle, Bobby Whitlock and Jim Gordon which later became Derick & The Dominoes. Duane Allman was also included on the Layla recordings and Clapton wanted Duane to join the band full time, but Allman had a little band of his own that he was more interested in playing with at the time.

George Harrison was so impressed with them that he offered Delaney and Bonnie a contract with the Beatles Apple Records label and also was how many of the same players wound up on Harrisons “All Things Must Pass” album. Harrison also credits Delaney with teaching him how to play slide guitar.

Other greats included with the “friends” were Leon Russell and Dave Mason. Many of D&B’s ex-members were recruited by Russell to join Joe Cocker’s band, participating on Cocker’s Mad Dogs and Englishmen 1970 recording sessions and North American tour. Mason took many of the same players on tour with him with Traffic and they played on the live “Welcome To The Canteen” recording.

Amazing how so many great players got linked up to make some of the greatest recordings in the history of rock though Delaney & Bonnie. D&B never did break though in a big commercial way and while many of their albums were well received by the music community, they never really sold very many. Still, I would have to say that they were one of the most important groups of the late 60’s and early 70’s.

I did a search on youtube and found this great video of “Coming Home” which features many of the “friends” that I’ve talked about. It looks as though they are having a great time on that rolling party. I wish I could have been there!

In a twenty four hour news cycle where I read that the Doomsday Clock had been moved forward two minutes, the Carteret Islands in the remote south pacific were the first victims of the rising sea due to global warming and the New York radio station icon WNEW has officially bit the dust, I felt I had to say something.

Yeah, things have changed.

Anyone who grew up in the New York area during the 60’s and 70’s is probably as sad as I am to hear the news about “NEW”. Not that it’s really news at this point since the radio station that we all knew and loved has not existed for many years now. This is just the final nail in the coffin of what used to be the vibrant NY radio scene.

Who could forget that rainy Saturday afternoon in 1974 when John Lennon popped in on Dennis Elsas and stayed for the afternoon playing DJ. Or when Lennon was gunned down only six years later on that dark day in December. I stayed up for three days straight listening to “NEW” and recording what they played into an old reel to reel tape recorder. I still have the tapes, but refuse to listen to them. Too depressing. It’s the only time I can remember Scott Muni crying on the air.

When Jimi Hendrix released Electric Ladyland or The Beatles released Abbey Road, “NEW” would play the whole record from start to finish without any commercials. You won’t see that anymore. They didn’t just play great music. I used to wake up early on Sunday mornings when they used to broadcast the lectures from the great philosopher Alan Watts.

Everyone was listening. The only time the radio was not on is when we were either playing the records that we just bought or playing music in our garage bands trying to copy that great sound that we heard on the records. Many a time I could remember walking into school in the morning and my friends would come up to me and say “did you hear what they were playing on “NEW” last night? Yeah, I heard. I used to go to sleep with the radio on.

Many of the old “NEW” crew has migrated over to WFUV which I guess is a positive thing. I still like listening to Pete Fornatale and Vince Scelsa on Saturdays. Too bad they and the classic rock format are only a small part of what is on the WFUV program schedule. Even so, things are just not the same. Maybe it’s me, but I just don’t feel the same excitement that I used to feel when I would turn on the radio back in the day and never knew what great song I would hear next.

Just did a search as google for WNEW and found lot’s of interesting stuff. Here is one with lot’s of cool old picts. Good memories.

Many of you may know Kid Nepro from the sounds that I make for synths and samplers. This blog has given me the opportunity to write a little more about some of my other interests so I started the “Classic Rock” category.

Rock music from the 60’s and 70’s is one of my passions. The music that I make has been heavily influenced by music from that era and I wanted to share some of my thoughts about it. As a teenager I was lucky enough to attend several Fillmore East concerts before the classic rock theatre closed in June of 1971. I was actually backstage at the last public performance and got to meet several rock icons including the legendary Bill Graham. It was one of those moments I will never forget. Many years later I wrote everything down and created a web page about that night and how it influenced me in wanting to become a musician.

You can find it Over here

Click Here for a taste of the music from that weekend.

If you were lucky enough to be have been at any of the Fillmore East or West shows during that time I’d love to hear about it. Feel free to post your stories in the comments section.

BTW: In case you have not checked it out yet be sure to visit Wolfgangs Vault for some of the best music never heard!