A second show has been added for the Jim Peterik / Carl Giammarese Storytellers Show at The Genesee Theatre on Saturday, May 1st. (The first show sold out immediately ... so a second show, beginning at 8:30 pm has been added.)
But if you're interested, you'd better hurry, because this one is also expected to sell out quickly. (I think this just might be my first post-Covid concert experience ... everything about it sounds right ... socially distanced tables for two ... with tableside bar service ... free parking ... and an all-acoustic, up-close-and-personal concert experience relating the inside track on the hits of The Ides Of March, Survivor, The Buckinghams and more ... a totally different way to experience these songs.)
Order tickets now thru The Genesee Theatre Box Office ...
https://www.geneseetheatre.com/events/detail/peterik-giammarese
Sticking with our Local Heroes for a moment, it was announced this week that Rhino Records is putting out a 50th Anniversary commemorative box set celebrating Chicago's shows at Carnegie Hall in 1971.
Originally released as a four album set (after three straight 2-record sets to launch their career) The Chicago IV Album (Chicago Live At Carnegie Hall) was a multi-million seller back in the day.
Other expanded sets have followed over the years ... but this one REALLY takes the cake!
Chicago performed eight concerts there in six nights ... and ALL EIGHT SHOWS are represented in their entirety spread out across the 16 discs.
A complete track listing (as the set currently stands) ... as well as more details can be found here:
https://theseconddisc.com/2021/04/07/now-more-than-ever-chicago-at-carnegie-hall-gets-super-sized-for-its-50th/
"Chicago At Carnegie Hall: Complete" arrives July 16th ... but will only be available through Rhino.com.
Hello Kent,
Saw your post this week on box sets.
Looks like some can really become overwhelming. Take for example a 35 CD box
set from John Mayall – “The Godfather of the British Blues” … https://youtu.be/C1dWn5u_j5Y
https://www.rockandbluesmuse.com/2020/10/30/john-mayall-to-release-the-first-generation-limited-edition-35-cd-box-set/
In fact, your buddy Harvey Kubernik
covered the release this way back in March …
KUBERNIK: JOHN MAYALL 35-CD BOX SET
MARCH 19, 2021
BY HARVEY KUBERNIK
This week a
massive 35-CD collection of the early recordings of British
blues-rocker John Mayall titled The First Generation
1965-1974, was released on February 12, 2021, on the Madfish label
through Snapper Music.
This is the first
time a set of this size has been released documenting John Mayall’s early
years, and not only does it have all the albums from his much-lauded
formative career, but it also contains unreleased tracks aplenty.
John Mayall OBE
has been indefatigable in his commitment to the blues: virtually every musician
who went through his “Bluesbreakers” academy went beyond their wildest imaging.
Eric Clapton, Peter Green, and Mick Taylor all began their careers
under Mayall’s rigorous training.
Featuring Eric
Clapton, Peter Green, Mick Taylor, Harvey Mandel, Blue Mitchell, Jon Mark and
many more outstanding musicians, this mammoth package contains 35 CDs, two
beautiful hardback books, and much more.
John Mayall earned
the moniker The Godfather of British Blues during a short but
compelling time in the ‘60s and ‘70s. While staffing (and restaffing) his band,
John recognized raw talent when he saw it, took it in, nurtured it, and
everyone thrived and benefitted as a result.
Many of the best
musicians of the period passed through the hallowed ranks of John Mayall’s
Bluesbreakers, and all are on display here in a stunning set, crammed
with musical highlights.
For over 50
years, John Mayall has served as a pioneer of blues music,
rightly earning him the title, "The Godfather of British Blues." In
2015 he was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame.
“The importance of
the role of John Mayall in British music is beyond belief,” hailed
Mick Fleetwood.
This box set was
put together with John’s full cooperation.
It contains:
- 35 discs,
including 3 CD Singles & 8 previously unreleased discs, alongside newly
remastered versions of the original Decca & Polydor albums
- Seven previously
unleased live recordings, including Windsor 1967, Gothenburg 1968, Berlin 1969
and San Francisco 1970, among others
- 28 unreleased
BBC tracks, featuring Eric Clapton, Peter Green and Mick Taylor
- An autographed
photo
- 168 page coffee
table book including rare photos, posters, and memorabilia, written by Neil
Slaven
- 128 page hard
cover book of newsletters, interviews, band member biographies, tour updates
and all kinds of fascinating details from The Official
John Mayall Fan Club, including images of letters sent out by its
first secretary, Doreen Pettifer
- Two replica
posters: Ten Years Are Gone and the official poster from the 1968 tour
Courtesy of Madfish:
Replica press pack for John Mayall Plays
John MayallThe First Generation Box Set will be limited to 5,000
copies worldwide that were just issued on the Madfish label through Snapper
Music.
You can order the Mayall 1965-1974
Box Set here: JohnMayallMusic.lnk.to/TheFirstGeneration
In November 2019 Mayall’s autobiography, Blues From Laurel
Canyon: John Mayall: My Life as a Bluesman, written with Joel McIver
was published by Omnibus Press.
Joel McIver is a British author. The best-known of his books is the
best-selling Justice For All: The Truth About Metallica, first
published in 2004. McIver's other works include biographies of Black Sabbath,
Slayer, Ice Cube and Queens Of The Stone Age, all published by
Omnibus Press.
John Mayall’s autobiography takes us into his blues-driven trek that
combines the marshes of the deltas as well as the blooming hillsides of Laurel
Canyon.
John’s tome, culled from years and years of journal diaries, describes the
azure-blue California from the native gunmetal-gray England in 1968.
In a September 2019 interview, the eighty-five year
old Mayall told me about his book and especially the influence of
Laurel Canyon on his musical expedition.
“I had been writing all my memoirs privately for years and
years. I did put it informally in a book form and fortunately one of the
publishers picked up on it and the guy put it into some reasonable form. We
finally got it into a position where people could read it. I think people will
find a lot of truth about what happened in the British music scene and my whole
life story before I got into music.
“The impact and influence of Laurel Canyon…It was one of those rare locales
which was in the heart of Hollywood, yet if you just went up the hill into the
Canyon you could get all the peace and quiet of country. So from your
house you could look down on the whole of Los Angeles and it’s a unique locale.
And that really appealed to a lot of musicians who moved there. It
got all of the charm of the country but you are only down the hill
from the heart of Hollywood.”
In my 2009
book, Canyon of Dreams: The Magic and the Music of Laurel Canyon, Mayall reminisced
about his first visit to Hollywood and Laurel Canyon, and what we native
Angelinos call “Gypsy Canyon.”
“As soon as I got
there the temperature was seventy degrees, which was pretty rare for England in
the summertime. ‘This is heaven.’ It was one of the main factors. I decided to
move there in the summer of 1968. It was set in my mind to move there because I
felt I belonged there more than in England. I mean, England was family and
everything. Which can’t be repeated, but the main thing was the climate, and my
whole life I’d been brought up on American culture through novels and
particularly music. So it just felt right. That’s how it all began,”
he volunteered.
“All the best
of the peaceful country life. All you heard were birds and back to
nature. It was only five minutes down the hill to the heart of Hollywood. It
was quite a unique situation. If you are up in the Hollywood Hills and look
down and see the whole metropolis laid out there before you. More than
anything, it was the stark contrast of peace and quiet and the bustle of a
major city.”
In our September
2019 conversation, I asked Mayall about blues and reflecting on Jimi
Hendrix, who died over a half a century ago in September of 1970.
“Blues is
something that people can relate to because the stories it tells and things
that are common to all people. And that’s the reason why the blues
was so popular in Europe. And people recognized that.
“Whereas in
America it was colored by restrictions that kept black music separate from
white music so I think when it’s all been combined in the early
sixties. That was when people started to recognize what was on their own
doorstep,” stressed John.
“Jimi and I loved
the music of Freddy King. We both included his catalogue in our sets.” “The
Stumble” was done on Mayall and the Bluesbreakers’s Hard
Road and the King and Sonny Thompson composition “Driving Sideways”
was covered on their Crusade album.
“Freddy King was a
revelation to a lot of people who played guitar and the singing was quite
incredible. When Jimi mentioned Freddy King we were all very well
familiar with him in England. King’s Getting Ready is one of
my favorite albums.
“When Freddy King
came over to play in England in 1969 he was already in touch with a brand new
audience for him. So I think that Jimi did a lot of ground work in mentioning
him around and it all came together.”
On January 2, 1968
John Mayall jammed with Jimi Hendrix and Al Sykes in the Railway
Hotel in West Hampstead, North West London around John’s gig at Klook’s
Kleek. Mayall performed nearly three dozen shows at the club and did
much to nurture and develop national interest in the blues.
John Lee Hooker,
backed up by John Mayall, Little Walter, Sonny Boy Williamson, Muddy
Waters, Howlin’ Wolf, T-Bone Walker, and Chuck Berry all toured
England in the sixties. Sonny Boy Williamson once did some shows supported by
the Moody Blues.
“Jimi came to
England and a blues world which had been all my life, going back to
Cyril Davies and Alexis Koerner who started the British Blues boom. This
attracted a lot of musicians who now had something new to inspire them. Blues
had an audience in Britain. And Chas Chandler of the Animals who sort of
discovered Jimi not doing very well in the America and brought him over to
England and that really positioned Jimi in an international scale.
“Jimi was very
thrilled of course that people in Europe were blown away by his playing. He was
really recognized for what he was. It was something he hadn’t experienced in
America. English and European audiences really put him on the map,” Mayall reinforced.
“When Chas
Chandler brought Jimi over to England everybody was totally impressed by his
personality and his singing and his playing. I think it was a shot in the arm
for all the British guitar players to have someone that they had
never heard before. And it all started from there, really. It was
important for Jimi to have had Chas Chandler who himself had reached great
international regard with playing with the Animals.
“When I saw Jimi
Hendrix play with his group you knew what he was doing was that music was the
main thing and the way that he played and the theatrics were all part
of the way he played. People didn’t really separate that from his body of work.
“I did a show in
America with Jimi and Albert King in 1968 for Bill Graham at Winterland,” remembered Mayall.
“Graham supported blues music and booked shows to have them with headliners.
Bill was somebody who could really see the future of blues and rock and the
first person in America to recognize that and put on these big shows at the
Fillmores on the East and West Coast and Winterland venues where Jimi and I
were on the calendar. So Graham was very important in really giving a
professional take on how to present artists. I did The Turning
Point, a live album in July 1969 at the Fillmore East.
“FM radio in
America 1967-1972 programmed blues on the rock stations. There was an audience
who had an understanding of the blues when you played for them. I was very
excited that this music or the music influenced by the blues was becoming new
to people.
“It was an
exciting time and of course it did lead to me coming to America for the first
time in January 1968. And we played the Whisky A Go-Go, Filmore in New York,
Detroit, and San Francisco. That particular time in 1968 it was very apparent
that America had a big taste for British groups and American groups
were all part of the same picture. An exciting time.”
John Mayall further
ruminated about Laurel Canyon. A region he always acknowledges.
“The connection
was getting there in the first place. It began with Frank Zappa. I met him in
1967 in Scandinavia, when he and the Mothers of Invention were playing there
and we were in Copenhagen at the same time. So that’s where I met that crowd.
‘If you come to America, look me up.’ So I did.
“I stayed at
Zappa’s cabin for the first part if my three week vacation. I never really left
Hollywood and Laurel Canyon. It became the confirmation for me. That’s where I
wanted to move eventually.”
On his epic Blues
From Laurel Canyon album, Mayall penned a song about Zappa.
“The feeling when
you listen to the song ‘2401’ is the vibe you hear. For me it was a very
eccentric household, really. Frank and Gail Zappa, at the center, were the
grounding factor there. The sanest people on the planet. I think Frank really
encouraged that, and he kind of collected oddballs and information about
America and its culture.
“And the other
connection was with Canned Heat and Bob ‘The Bear’ Hite, who I also met when
they toured Europe. There was a blues heritage in town. I saw Canned Heat at
The Ash Grove. That’s where I first got to know Larry ‘The Mole’ Taylor and
‘The Bear.’ And I later recorded with Larry.”
Mayall also
wrote “The Bear,” a tribute tune for Bob “The Bear” Hite, Canned Heat’s lead
singer
“The Bear’s house was totally amazing. I stayed
up there a couple of nights. Canned Heat had just hit the big time and Bob
shared a house with their managers, Skip Taylor and John Hartman. It was a huge
house and was divided into their own sections. Bob had the large living room,
and the whole wall was lined with 78’s. He was the big deejay. ‘Listen to this
one!’ He was the one person I didn’t have to educate about JB Lenoir. He had
everybody covered.”
While bunking in
Laurel Canyon, Mayall lodged for a short time in the basement of John
Judnich’s house, who was comedian/satirist Lenny Bruce’s right-hand man.
Judnich owned the
well-regarded Tyco Brae sound company, which serviced the monumental 13 Shrine
Exposition Hall Pinnacle dance concerts in downtown Los
Angeles. Mayall also catalogued and notated rare Lenny Bruce tapes
for Judnich.
Bruce died in
August 1966 in his Hollywood Blvd. home. On Mayall’s The Turning
Point album, a radio and turntable favorite was “Room to Move,” which
referenced Bruce in his lyric.
“As for the Blues
From Laurel Canyon album, It was an action-packed vacation,” he
summarized.
“No problem going
back home and putting it all together to record. ‘This happened.
That’s a song.’ The stories lead right into each other and that’s the way I
chose to actually construct the LP, by having it all in different
keys. There were links that would change the key so it smoothly flowed one into
each other.”
Mayall effectively
chronicled the now crowded Sunset Blvd. in his civic anthem, ‘Walkin’ on
Sunset.’
“There was a lot
of walking traffic rather than cars,” he told me in Canyon of
Dreams. “Cars were somebody else, but the heart of Hollywood was the
people on the streets.”
The song also
acknowledges the Whisky A Go-Go, and the loyal audiences who
supported Mayall’s singular blues vision.
I recall
John Mayall’s long-anticipated 1968 opening night at the famed club, with
Buffalo Springfield members Neil Young and Stephen Stills pressed right up
close to the stage to check out Mayall’s debut. I went to every set.
“The Whisky was a
venue we played when we first came to America in 1968. Elmer Valentine, who
owned the Whisky, in fact, lived up in Laurel Canyon on Grandview Drive where I
eventually lived. He did some house-hunting for me; found two houses that were
up for sale before they kind of went on the market. So he was the connection
for me.
“When we got the
first booking at the Whisky, we were set for three days, but because of the
demand for tickets for the show, he extended it an extra week,” marveled John.
During 1969 I
attended Mayall’s return to the Whisky when he promoted The
Turning Point.
John Mayall At
Fillmore
Poster artist and
graphic designer Dennis Loren also caught the Mayall Turning Point lineup
of musicians at the Fillmore West, the old Carousel Ballroom.
“I was fortunate
to see Peter Green in Mayall’s Bluesbreakers group at the Fillmore
Auditorium and the Mick Taylor version of the band at Winterland,” recalled
Loren. “Not long after seeing the Taylor Bluesbreakers, I saw the original
Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac 4 piece. Prior to these concerts I had already seen
Eric Clapton with Cream at least 3 times at the Fillmore Auditorium. Being an
early fan of the Yardbirds, as well as a fan of Clapton's guitar playing, led
me directly to John Mayall's music and history,” Dennis volunteered.
“It was great to
see this version of the band, because this was such drastic change from horn
driven Crusade line up. This version of the band was semi
acoustic and featured acoustic guitarist Jon Mark. Mark Almond played keyboards
and woodwind instruments. As I recall they had no drummer and the sound was
driven by the very young bass player, whose name escapes me,
John Mayall - of course - played guitar and harmonica. It was really
great to see the band perform a song like ‘Room To Move’ live!!!
“Having an
acoustic guitarist like Jon Mark in the band, was kind of like having a Bert
Janch or John Renborn style guitarist, I had first seen Pentagle at the
Fillmore West, around this same time. I recognized the influence of both folk
and jazz music on both bands. John Mayall was definitely at the
beginning of his Laurel Canyon days with this version of the group, with his
sandals, headband, hippy necklace/pendant and very long hair - ha!!!.”
John Mayall’s
’67 Crusade LP houses an homage track to the American blues
guitarist titled “The Death of J.B. Lenoir.” Mayall also re-did the
song on his epic 1969 album The Turning Point.
Mayall once
did a recording session with the members of the Liverpool-based poetry group
Scaffold, Mike McGear and Roger McGough for their 1968 McGough and McGear
self-titled LP filled with poetry, humour and late sixties psychedelic rock.
Paul McCartney,
McGear’s older brother, assisted in the production of the album, which featured
well-known musicians guesting in the studio: Graham Nash, Dave Mason, Jimi
Hendrix, John Mayall, Spencer Davis, Paul Samwell Smith of the Yardbirds,
Viv Prince from the Pretty Things and Paul’s girlfriend, Jane Asher.
“Paul McCartney
was in charge of it all. I knew Paul and he just had me come into the
studio to do my bit. Jimi was there.”
Hendrix lends
guitar to the tracks “So Much” and “Ex-Art Student.”
During 1964, Elmer Valentine and partners
opened the Whisky a Go-Go on the Sunset Strip. Elmer later opened the Rainbow
Bar & Grill with partners Lou Adler and Mario Maglieri, as well as the Roxy
Theater with Adler.
In late January 2009, family members, friends
and former employees of Elmer Valentine, who passed away at age 85 in December
2008, gathered on the landmark premises.
It was Valentine’s longtime friend and
business partner Lou Adler along with his son Nic who organized a tribute to
Valentine.
Lou asked me to secure some of the talent for
the event. John Mayall was the first person to respond after I
emailed him the request.
Johnny Rivers, Stephen Stills, Byrds
co-founder Chris Hillman, and South African trumpeter Hugh Masekela paid their
respects to Valentine at the legendary event doing a slew of potent
regional-birthed music. John Mayall offered “Walkin’ on Sunset” to
the very appreciative crowd.
Harvey
Kubernik is the author of 19 books, including This Is Rebel Music, Canyon Of
Dreams: The Magic And The Music Of Laurel Canyon and Turn Up The Radio! Rock,
Pop and Roll In Los Angeles 1956-1972. Sterling/Barnes and Noble in
2018 published Harvey and Kenneth Kubernik’s The Story Of The Band: From Big
Pink To The Last Waltz. For September 2021 the duo has written a
multi-narrative volume on Jimi Hendrix for Sterling/Barnes and Noble.
Otherworld
Cottage Industries in 2020 published Harvey’s book, Docs That Rock, Music That
Matters, featuring interviews with D.A. Pennebaker, Chris Hegedus, Albert
Maysles, Murray Lerner, Morgan Neville, Dr. James Cushing, Curtis Hanson,
Michael Lindsay-Hogg, Andrew Loog Oldham, Dick Clark, Ray Manzarek, John
Densmore, Robby Krieger, Travis Pike, Allan Arkush, and David Leaf, among
others.
This
century Kubernik wrote the liner note booklets to the CD re-releases of Carole
King’s Tapestry, Allen Ginsberg’s Kaddish, Elvis Presley The ’68 Comeback
Special and The Ramones’ End of the Century). Harvey and Andrew Loog Oldham
wrote the liner essays to The Essential Carole King.
Kubernik’s
writings are in several book anthologies, The Rolling Stone Book Of The Beats
and Drinking With Bukowski. Harvey penned a back cover endorsement for Michael
Posner’s book on Leonard Cohen that Simon & Schuster, Canada published in
2020, Leonard Cohen, Untold Stories: The Early Years.
During
2020 Harvey Kubernik served as a Consultant on the 2-part documentary Laurel
Canyon: A Place in Time directed by Alison Ellwood. Kubernik is currently
working on a documentary about Rock and Roll Hall of Fame member
singer/songwriter Del Shannon.
Kubernik
was interviewed by director/producer Neil Norman for his GNP Crescendo
documentary, The Seeds: Pushin’ Too Hard. Jan Savage and Daryl Hooper original
members of the Seeds participated along with Bruce Johnston of the Beach Boys,
Iggy Pop, Kim Fowley, Jim Salzer, the Bangles, photographer Ed Caraeff, Mark
Weitz of the Strawberry Alarm Clock and Johnny Echols of Love. Miss Pamela Des
Barres supplied the narration. Debut broadcast on television will be in 2021.
This
decade Harvey was filmed for the currently in-production documentary about
former Hollywood landmark Gold Star Recording Studio and co-owner/engineer Stan
Ross produced and directed by Brad Ross and Jonathan Rosenberg. Brian Wilson,
Herb Alpert, Richie Furay, Darlene Love, Mike Curb, Chris Montez, Bill Medley,
Don Randi, Hal Blaine, Shel Talmy, Richard Sherman, Don Peake, Kim Fowley,
Johnny Echols, Gloria Jones, Carol Kaye, Marky Ramone, David Kessel and Steven
Van Zandt have been lensed.
Regarding Chuck Buell's Top Five Songs from this week in 1964, sure we can play these five songs anytime, but when you
listen to them back to back, it is so impressive that this music came out at the same time by one group. And knowing we bought those records in a Top 5 selling situation that week of my 8th birthday makes it even cooler. I got She Loves
You for my birthday. Perfect soundtrack for reading John Lyons' book. I just love
reading the culture it covers so well with the fabs in Chicago.
Clark Besch
Nashville rock n' roller Gene Kennedy passes
Gene Kennedy was one
of Nashville's first rock n' roll singers and the owner of Door Knob Records,
considered Nashville's oldest active independent label, which charted over 100
hits on the Billboard Country charts by artists including Jerry Wallace, Big Al
Downing and Bobby G. Rice, as well as himself.
He began preforming
while in the service and established his rock n' roll band in Nashville in the
early 50s, though his best regarded record, "Don't Tear My Playhouse
Down" on Old Town Records, wasn’t released until 1962.
He established Door
Knob Records as a label and publishing company in 1975. He was a strong voice for
local independent companies as the industry consolidated into a few
multinational corporations. According to his family, he passed away on April 1st
from pneumonia due coronavirus at age 86.
Ed SalamonFrom FH Reader Tom Cuddy:
Barry Gibb Shares Stories Behind Bee Gees' Biggest Hits
https://americansongwriter.com/barry-gibb-shares-stories-behind-bee-gees-biggest-hits-news/
I
know that I am in the minority on this, (aren't I always), but I'm getting really
tired of comments in this room, and elsewhere, about how music was
better when we were kids, as opposed to now. I've got news for you ... it
wasn't ... nor was it worse. Sadly, too many listeners have been programmed
to accept that there are only 300 good songs and the rest is trash. It's been
this way since the advent of classic rock radio. Go look at Randy's Hot
100 compilation from last Sunday, or from any week. Look at any given chart,
from any week, from anywhere, and you will see the same percentage of lame
songs, and even those aren't lame. Someone bought Disco Duck, even if we
can't figure out why. On the same principle, someone buys Cardi B. Just
because the music doesn't appeal to you is meaningless ... It's not
supposed to. The days of "school is a drag," getting your very first car, or your
first kiss, etc., are gone. It was a special time in your life, but
you've moved on. Oldies/classic rock radio is supposed to bring back
those warm fuzzy feelings, from before you had a job, before you had kids, before you
had a mortgage. Sometimes with the right song, it accomplishes that.
Most of the time, it doesn't.
Top 40 music today is meant for your kids and
your grandkids, not you, just as Top 40 from the 60's was meant for you, not
your parents or grandparents. Truth be told there's lots of great music
being released today. Instead of waiting for your local radio station to
play it, which they probably won't, go search for it. Stop listening to
60's at 6, or 70's at 7, the 20's at 2, etc. Society and the music has
changed. Music reflects today's world, as it did when we were kids. You
don't like the world, then change it. To say the music was so much
better when we were kids is doing a disservice to the music of today
and the music that will be created long after we've gone on to join the
great rock and roll band in the sky. If you subscribe to the idea that today's
music sucks, then why bother creating more music? It will be more of the
same and, to many of you, it is. Go ahead and keep listening to the same
300 songs you've been listening to for years. To me, it's just as trashy as
the rest of the stuff you call trash.
Jack
OK, we ALL need a couple of smiles after all of that! (lol)
Thanks to Frank B., we've got a few to share ...
TRUE STORY: Several months ago we went to the grocery store and the girl bagging our groceries was named Alexa. As soon as I saw her name plate, I just couldn't resist saying "Alexa, sing The Beatles!" Being that she was probably all of about sixteen years old, I just got this "that old man must be crazy" blank stare ... so I said "I wanted to see if it really worked." (kk)
