JANUARY 1987 - IT ISN'T OUR FAULT!

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This show is probably (hopefully) easier to listen to than it was to put together. As I say early on, "I almost feel compelled to apologize", but I'm not gonna let anybody pin this rap on me. I'm not responsible for the '80s! It also strikes me as an incredible yet true observation when we say that music from two decades earlier sounds 'newer' and more contemporary than most of this stuff!
Despite our misgivings, there are obviously some very, very fine moments among the sludge - for every Bruce Willis track, we offer two tracks by XTC. We counteract Billy & the Beaters with a few fine singles by Peter Gabriel and the Beastie Boys - but still in all, what a mess the music industry was back then. We're probably no better off today than we were then, but at least now we know where the problems began.
Here's a list of songs covered in today's program;
1) At This Moment - Billy Vera & the Beaters (#1 song for the week ending 1/31/87)
2) Big Time - Peter Gabriel
3) Fight For Your Right to Party - The Beastie Boys
4) Respect Yourself - Bruce Willis (as a "Bad Hit")
5) Poetry - Boogie Down Productions
6) Smoking Gun - Robert Cray
7) Summer's Cauldron - XTC
8) Grass - XTC

HOW MUSIC CHANGED, PART 130b - THE RISE AND FALL OF PHIL SPECTOR

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With today’s show, we conclude our two-part series on the work of Phil Spector. The first show documented his rise to the pinnacle of fame, as a record producer extraordinaire whose fame and accomplishments outshone that of his artists. Today’s show tells a significantly different story. Here, we document Spector’s career from his peak in 1964, to his eventual decline and finally, his upcoming trial for murder or manslaughter. It’s a long way down. Is Spector a victim of his own personal demons or of a society bent on recrimination, or is it true that time wounds all heels?
Either way, the music stands up. Here’s a list of songs featured in today’s show
1) You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feeling – The Righteous Brothers
2) Unchained Melody – The Righteous Brothers
3) River Deep, Mountain High – Ike and Tina Turner
4) Instant Karma – John Ono Lennon
5) Let It Be – The Beatles (original “Let It Be” version)
6) Let It Be – The Beatles (“Let It Be...Naked” version)
7) My Sweet Lord – George Harrison
8) Imagine – John Lennon
9) True Love Leaves No Traces – Leonard Cohen
10) Do You Remember Rock and Roll Radio? – The Ramones
11) All Things Must Pass – George Harrison (edited)

JANUARY 1977

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Aah, the good old days…..
Actually, 1977 was not exactly a banner year for me. I was just out of high school (1976, Chaminade High School in Mineola, New York), quit college after one semester (SUNY New Paltz, where the only thing I learned was how to hold my liquor), got immediately engaged (and then married before the year was out – no, it wasn’t a shotgun wedding…) and started working for my father. That was thirty years ago. Guess where I’m still working today? The job lasted 25 years longer than the marriage…
Taking all of this into consideration, it is somewhat ironic that the first two songs from today’s show both take a wistful look at days gone by. Stevie and Bob are both waxing reminiscent about the early sixties, though, an era that still has a romantic air about it. But I suppose that 1977 has a charm of its own, and I hope we convey some of that here.
Here are the songs we feature in today’s show;

Single Tracks
1) I Wish – Stevie Wonder
2) Night Moves – Bob Seger
3) Go Your Own Way – Fleetwood Mac
Album Tracks
4) Pourin’ It All Out – Graham Parker & the Rumour (from “Heat Treatment”)
5) Something You’re Going Through – Graham Parker & the Rumour
6) Luxury Liner – Emmylou Harris (from “Luxury Liner”)
7) Pancho and Lefty – Emmylou Harris
8) Speed of Life – David Bowie (from “Low”)
9) A New Career in a New Town – David Bowie
10) Art Decade – David Bowie

HOW MUSIC CHANGED, PART 130a – THE RISE AND FALL OF PHIL SPECTOR

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Few non-performers can qualify for status among the most influential musicians of all time, but nobody could deny Phil Spector’s touch on the music industry. Despite whatever your opinion may be of the man, his work was incredibly influential, and he made some of the most important and just plain fun records of all time. His career follows a near-perfect trajectory for a tragic biography, so we will tell his story in two parts. Today’s show covers the incredible rise of his career. Next week, we will focus on his slide into oblivion, and beyond.
For a recap, the “How Music Changed” is a series of 250 programs aimed at explaining the most important aspects of American music history. The series is presented by alternating between two timelines, one covering the early history of our music, and the second covering ‘contemporary’ artists. Phil Spector falls into the second category. To clarify the method to our madness, here are the shows that we have covered so far;
Series #1 – The Early History
Part 1 – Birth of the Recording Industry/The Great Tenors (Enrico Caruso & John McCormack
Part 2 – The Death of European Tradition – Strauss, Debussy, Satie, Dvorak, Burleigh
Part 3 – Birth of an American Identity – Stephen Foster, L.M. Gottschalk, Scott Joplin, James P. Johnson
Part 4 – Birth of American Popular Music – Sousa, Bert Williams, Billy Murray, Al Jolson
Part 5 – Birth of Jazz – Cook, Blake, Europe, Original Dixieland Jazz Band, Keppard

Series #2 – The Contemporary Artists
Part #126 – The Blues Harp – Sonny Terry, Junior Parker, Slim Harpo, Little Walter, Junior Wells, James Cotton, P. Butterfield, John Mayall
Part 127 – Bad Reputations – Ike Turner and Jimmy Reed
Part 128 – We Three Kings – Freddie King, Albert King, and Earl King
Part 129a & b (presented in two programs) – The Brill Building Couples – Goffin/King, Mann/Weil, Barry/Greenwich
Part 130a & b (presented in two parts) – The Rise and Fall of Phil Spector

Here are the tracks covered in today’s program;
1) To Know Him Is to Love Him – The Teddy Bears
2) Spanish Harlem – Ben E. King
3) On Broadway – The Drifters
4) Corinne, Corinna – Ray Peterson
5) He’s a Rebel – The Crystals
6) Da Doo Ron Ron – The Crystals
7) Then He Kissed Me – The Crystals
8) Be My baby – The Ronettes
9) Baby I Love You – The Ronettes
10) Walking in the Rain – The Ronettes
11) Christmas (Baby Please Come Home) – Darlene Love

THE ELVIS SHOW - A BENEFIT PERFORMANCE, WITH A CAST OF...DOZENS!!

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Here’s all you need to know;

http://myspace.com/theelvisshow

But for those of you too lazy (or too late) to follow the link, here’s the basic drift of today’s show, which features Steve Prisco, my bandmate in the Blaggards, and the brains,brawn and extraordinary patience behind the Elvis Tribute Show;

Saturday, January 13th
Bungalow Bill's Saloon
61 Larkfield Road, East Northport
(somewhat across from the Northport train station)

Join us for a great night of music and fun! Over 20 singers give it up to Elvis with NO IMPERSONATORS!
Plenty of parking in the lot by the train station.

Free Admission!
We do ask that you bring a donation of non-perishable canned food to be donated to local food banks.

As they say on TV, "Scheduled To Appear" are:

Gary Jude Anderson
Michael Bifulco
Joe Cardone
The Lone Sharks featuring Gene Casey, Chris Ripley & Tony Palumbo
Tom Ciorciari
Kane Daily
Mike Drance
Jon Geffner
Tom Gould
Mick Hargreaves
Tommy Hendrickson
Keith Hille
Memphis Mike Lafa
The Found Cats featuring Pete Ludovico
Annie Mark
Howie Mendelson
Stephan Molfetta
Sean O'Neill
Tom Pfiefer
Steve Prisco
Joe Rock
Tom Ryan
Lisa Stella
Rich Umbach
Roy Wilson
Mike Winter

JANUARY 1967 (part 1)

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With the New Year, we are back to our original format, but we’re doing it with a new twist. You see, we’ve been doing the “American Hit Radio” program for over five years now (at least I think we have…), and the program was (usually) tightly connected to my book, “American Hit Radio.” We would determine our topic by rotating through the book’s ten chapters, each week covering a different era in pop music. This worked just fine, but it meant that we’d often be covering a time of year that had nothing to with the date of the show. It has taken me this long to recognize something quite obvious, but here it is;
From now on, our Tuesday program will feature a date that is in line with the date of the show. More specifically, we will focus each show on a corresponding month and year from each of the past five decades. For example, our first show for January 2007 featured music from January 1957 – a fifty year ‘anniversary’ – and our second show –today’s - features music from January 1967, a forty year ‘anniversary’, and etc., etc. If the month has five Tuesdays, we will either feature one decade twice (from different angles), or we will resort to looking at music from ten years ago – the dreaded Nineties.
It so happens that January 2007 has five Tuesdays, but the music charts from January 1997 are so uninspiring that I thought it would be more appropriate (and a lot more entertaining) if we spent two weeks covering a period that was infinitely more interesting, from a historical and musical perspective. So, this week we will count ‘up’ the top 10 songs for the first week of January 1967, and then look at a new album release from that same week. Next week, we’ll focus on the best singles that debuted in January 1967, while taking another look at another contemporary album.
Does it make sense to you? Well, okay, maybe it doesn’t make much sense, or maybe I’m explaining it horribly. Either way, this is what we’re gonna do, so I hope you’re okay with it and I hope you stick with us.
Okay, then, let’s go! Here’s a list of songs from today’s program. The first ten tracks represent the top ten singles for the week ending January 7, 1967, followed by featured album tracks from a semi-ridiculous album of that era;

1) I’m a Believer – The Monkees
2) Snoopy vs. the Red Baron – The Royal Guardsmen
3) Tell It Like It Is – Aaron Neville
4) Winchester Cathedral- The New Vaudeville Band
5) Sugar Town – Nancy Sinatra
6) That’s Life – Frank Sinatra
7) Good Thing – Paul Revere & the Raiders
8) Words of Love – The Mamas and the Papas
9) Standing in the Shadows of Love – The Four Tops
10) Mellow Yellow – Donovan
11) Pushin’ Too Hard – The Seeds (as an album track)

JANUARY 1957 - 50 YEARS AGO

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We kick off the New Year by taking a long glance back over our shoulders to the year 1957 - Fifty years ago, to be exact. In January of that year, a fight was taking place on the pop charts to determine which genre of music would dominate American culture. The main contenders were the ‘established’ order vs. the rock and roll upstarts. We all know how this story eventually played itself out, but in 1957, the outcome wasn’t quite so clear. If you judge it from the perspective of January 1957, it appears as though rock and roll might have been losing the battle. The centerpiece of today’s show features the work of producer/A&R svengali Mitch Miller, the mastermind at Columbia Records and the arch-enemy of rock and roll music. Both Guy Mitchell and Johnny Ray were ‘employed’ to fight Miller’s battle against rock and roll, with mixed results. The music he made with these singers may not have been raw, but they provide an accurate means for measuring the older generation’s idea of what youth music ought to be…and to tell the truth, they weren’t so horribly bad, either. For perspective, though, we also play the original (and superior) versions of these recordings.
The playlist for today’s show covers the top five recordings from the week of January 5, 1957, followed by a few songs that made their debut at this time. It’s a fairly accurate overview of what popular music sounded like in January 1957. We hope you enjoy the show. Here’s a list of songs covered in today’s program;

1) Singing the Blues – Guy Mitchell
2) Singing the Blues – Marty Robbins
3) The Green Door – Jim Lowe
4) Love Me Tender – Elvis Presley
5) True Love – Bing Crosby and Grace Kelly
6) Just Walking in the Rain – Johnny Ray
7) Just Walking in the Rain – The Prisonaires
8) Young Love – Sonny James
9) Blue Monday – Fats Domino
10) The Banana Boat Song – The Tarriers
11) The Banana Boat Song – Harry Belafonte
12) Ain’t Got No Home – Clarence ‘Frogman’ Henry