Kent,
I really enjoyed the Jay
Sorensen show, talking about old NYC radio. I have a tape or two from a
visit in the mid-80s and a Joey Reynolds show talking up AM radio then!
Anyway, great to hear his stories.
Clark Besch
Big Jay and Joey Reynolds have been working together for
quite some time now …
Definitely, the sound of New York Top 40! (kk)
I passed your note along to Jay … and got this in return …
Thanks, Kent!!!
It was a good interview because HE wanted to
keep it only about The Time Machine, but I kept moving the bar to other
things!
He did ok with me dancing around it.
I've learned to INTERVIEW people by letting
THEM help steer it.
I had a good time remembering exactly
what I was doing 37 years ago.
And I'm doing a personality show today on
OLDIESXL.com.
Thanks for sending me your note!!!
Love ya man.
Be B!G
The Original B!G JAY
MICKY
DOLENZ: SONGS AND STORIES –
ONE
NIGHT ONLY AT LA’S TROUBADOUR /FRIDAY, APRIL 5th /
PROCEEDS
TO BENEFIT MAKE-A-WISH
Monkee Micky
Dolenz will be performing a special one-night only show at L.A.’s famed
Troubadour on Friday, April 5th, entitled MICKY DOLENZ: SONGS AND
STORIES.
Dolenz,
currently on the airwaves and charting with his DOLENZ SINGS R.E.M. EP (7a
Records) also has a limited-edition book just released called I’M TOLD I HAD A
GOOD TIME (Beatland Books).
Speaking
of good times, Dolenz says, "The Troub is just the perfect place for this
show of songs and stories. I used to hang there all the time. If fact, I
remember spending two years there one night."
In other Monkees-related news, 7A Records is putting together
another great reissue for all the Davy Jones fans out there …
On February
23rd, 7a Records will release Davy
Jones: The Bell Records Story.
Available as
18 tracks on both CD and vinyl, the first twelve tracks represent Davy’s complete 1971
album for the label. (Davy’s biggest
solo single, the catchy "Rainy Jane," came from this LP.)
The Bell era is also memorable for Jones' appearance on the Brady Bunch episode
"Getting Davy Jones," on which he sang Charles Fox and Norman
Gimbel's "Girl." (Davy reprised the song in the 1995 “The Brady
Bunch Movie, too!)
Actually, with The Monkees now behind him …
temporarily anyway! … The Brady Bunch appearance was just one of several television appearances Davy was
making at the time, including guest spots on Love
American Style, Here
Come the Brides and even The
New Scooby-Doo Movies.
The twelve original album tracks from Davy Jones will be augmented on the CD by six
bonus tracks: the mono singles "Girl" b/w "Take My Love"
and "I'll Believe in You" b/w "Road to Love," plus mono
versions of the album tracks "How About Me" and "I Really Love
You."
Here’s the complete track list:
Road To Love / How About Me / Singin' To The Music / Rainy Jane / Look
At Me / Say It Again / I Really Love You / Love Me For A Day / Sitting In An
Apple Tree / Take My Love / Pretty Little Girl / Welcome To My Love / Girl
(Mono) / Take My Love (Mono) / I'll Believe In You (Mono) / Road To Love (Mono)
/ How About Me (Mono) / I Really Love You (Mono)
Joe Marchese of The Second Disc tells us more here: https://theseconddisc.com/2024/01/17/make-your-own-sweet-sunshine-7a-records-preps-davy-jones-the-bell-records-story/
Congratulations to The Cowsills, one of my favorite original
acts still out there performing today.
FH Reader Bob Merlis tells us that they’ve just been
selected to be honored by The New England Music Hall Of Fame!
The Cowsills, the legendary family
recording group formed in the mid-1960s, are part of the New England Music Hall
of Fame’s indication class of 2024.
Originally from Newport, RI, the
group went on to record and release a series of hit records including “Indian
Lake,” “The Rain The Park and Other Things,” “Hair,” “We Can Fly” as well as
the theme for “Love American Style” that aired for five years on the ABC television
network.
The group, originally six siblings
(brothers Bob, Paul, John, Bill, Barry and Richard and sister Susan) plus their
mom, Barbara, were the inspiration for the hit series The Partridge Family. The
Cowsills’ initial success presaged that of other family groups including the
Jackson 5 and The Osmonds.
Currently the group consists of
brothers, Bob and Paul Cowsill and sister Susan Cowsill Broussard and are
active on both the recording and touring fronts. Just last year, they
released both a critically acclaimed full-length album titled The Rhythm of the
World as well as the holiday themed A Christmas Offering From the Cowsills
EP. Later this year, the band will join The Happy Together Tour, their
ninth outing with the group of hitmakers that highlights the music of The
Turtles, Jay & The Americans, The Association, The Vogues, Badfinger.
Their induction into the New England
Hall of Fame finds them joining the likes of Donna Summer, Gene Pitney, Paula
Cole, the group Boston’s Barry Goudreau, Brad Delp and Sib Hashian, Jon
Butcher, Human Sexual Response, Greg Piccolo, The Wrecking Crew’s Don Randi,
Emmy winning composer Brian Keane and other music notables with roots in or
connections to the region.
The Cowsills issued the following
statement when they were apprised of the honor:
“Our roots are firmly planted in
Rhode Island where we cut our musical teeth playing at school events and,
later, at Bannister’s Wharf in Newport when we went ‘pro.’ Our latest
album is Rhythm of the World, but we’ll never forget that the beat began in New
England.”
The formal induction of The Cowsills
into the NEMHOF will take place on stage at the Emerson Center in Vero Beach,
FL, where the group is appearing in concert the evening on February 8th. NEMHOF
co-founder and award-winning filmmaker Christopher Annino along with “Ms.
NEMHOF,” Chelsea Brickham, will be doing the honors on behalf of NEMHOF.
Speaking of awards, the 2024 Songwriters Hall Of Fame has
just selected this year’s candidates and, while I’ll readily admit that this
isn’t necessarily the way that I would have voted, there is certainly some
noteworthy merit associated with each and every one of the honorees …
This year’s class
includes Hillary
Lindsey, Timothy Mosley (Timbaland), Dean Pitchford, Bill Berry, Peter Buck,
Mike Mills and Michael Stipe of R.E.M., and Donald Fagen and Walter Becker of
Steely Dan.
Said
Songwriters Hall of Fame chairman Nile
Rodgers in a statement:
“I’ve said it
before, but the music industry does not exist without songwriters delivering
great songs first. Without them there is no recorded music, no concert
business, no merch . . . nothing, it all starts with the song and the
songwriter. We are therefore very proud that we are continually recognizing
some of the culturally most important songwriters of all time and that the 2024
slate represents not just iconic songs but also diversity and unity across
genres, ethnicity and gender, songwriters who have enriched our lives and
literally enriched music and the lives of billions of listeners all over the
world.”
Unfortunately,
this year’s selections leave this outstanding list of songwriters and artists
in the dust …
Bryan Adams, Randy Bachman, Burton Cummings, Debbie Harry,
Chris Stein, and Clem Burke, collectively known as Blondie, Tracy Chapman, George
Clinton, Tom Johnston, Patrick Simmons and Michael McDonald of The Doobie
Brothers, David Gates of Bread, Ann and Nancy Wilson (Heart), Kenny Loggins, Dennis
Lambert and Brian Potter …
OMG, how can THESE guys be the “Runners Up?!?!?” (I demand a recount!) kk
After hearing the news, Harvey Kubernik sent this in to share regarding Steely Dan …
Steely Dan: Songwriters Hall of Fame
By Harvey Kubernik © Copyright
2024
I was very happy to learn that Steely Dan will be inducted into
the Songwriters Hall of Fame as part of its 2024 inductees. Donald Fagen and
Walter Becker will join R.E.M. and Timbaland. The ceremony will take place this
June in New York.
Walter Becker passed away
in September of 2017. During 2023, a Donald Fagen-led Steely Dan band opened
for the Eagles on their farewell tour.
“I'm not alone in thinking Aja is maybe the greatest song
cycle ever recorded,” novelist Daniel Weizmann suggested to me in an August,
2023 email. Weizmann penned The Last Songbird, published by Melville
House.
“I read somewhere Burt Bachrach agreed -- but even for us Dan
obsessives, Aja stands apart. Why is that?
“In a word: tenderness. As the saying goes, ‘beneath every cynic
there lies a romantic, and probably an injured one.’
“Aja is the one Dan album where Fagen and Becker
leaned into that romantic wound without defenses.
“Side One especially is exposed, confessional, almost like a
mini-opera about rebirth of the soul in three songs: first heartbreak, then
satori, and finally, deep self-determination.
“Side Two is more playful, but even there, the ironies have a
lighter touch than usual. ‘Home At Last’ makes the album's new sensibility
explicit: a guarded and cynical wanderer has to cop to the fact that he's
finally found a place he can let in the warmth of the sun.
“This yearning to heal gives Aja an almost supernatural
feeling of light and space -- something you could only compare to the very best
Miles or Freddie Hubbard. By Gaucho, the fellas were back on classic Dan
ground -- dread neo-noir vignettes that slash the closing Me Decade to ribbons.
They would continue to make masterpieces for years to come, but I'm not sure
they ever returned to the open-heartedness that is Aja's secret power.”
One late night in the early summer of 1977, when I was an
occasional co-host of a radio program Ca. with deejay, music writer/critic
Richard Cromelin, then with The Los Angeles Times, we actually debuted
two Steely Dan’s Aja tracks over the airwaves.
A request was made to a
publicist at ABC Records for a Steely Dan phone interview. Then, the station
engineer Captain Midnight called, "They are both coming in with some jazz
albums."
Steely Dan’s
keyboardist/vocalist Donald Fagen, and bassist/guitarist Walter Becker, drove
over from their Malibu pads for a couple of hours and brought their acetate
test pressing of Aja.
The duo spun “Black Cow”
and “Deacon Blues” and vintage jazz library selections during the world
premiere of Aja.
Portions of our KPFK-FM
radio show interview were published in the now defunct Phonograph Record
Magazine.
On the KPFK-FM interview,
we asked Becker and Fagen about Aja if they had any fond memories of
touring or live shows.
“We’re not the least concerned about touring,” stressed
Fagen. “We’ve never been that highly motivated to go out on the road. We enjoy
performing but I’m not sure it’s worth the inconvenience for a frail person
such as me. The tour problems can be overcome by routing and good planning. We
don’t write when we are on the road. We have a lot of things to do and say and
touring detracts from that.
‘We try to communicate as best we can, the most coherent,
articulate statements that we can make. If it didn’t interfere with our
activities or be such a pain in the ass, we’d go out on the road more. I’ve
always regretted that it’s hard to maintain the quality of your music
presentation in the circumstances that you find yourself in. There are a lot of
terrible places where music is presented. Also, certain groups go out on the
road so much that the band members get sick.
“We try to avoid gymnasiums. You’ll never see us at the
[Inglewood Forum]. We don’t make any money on tours. We play in places that
accommodate a limited number of people. Beyond that you can’t be assured the
sound is occurring. Our expenses are usually equal to the profits. They tour
out of obligation,” laughed Donald.
“I don’t want to meet the audience. You have a more
intimate relationship with someone who’s sitting home alone listening to your
records. Playing live isn’t that
personal. When we played,” Becker explained in retrospect, “it was as direct as
possible. No one was sitting more than three miles away. The trend for rock and
roll bands now is to play the biggest halls around. Also, I’ve noticed that
bands who stay on the road for an extended time or most of their career, the
quality of their show often suffers from the lack of new material, Then the
quality of the records is even worse.
“The quality of rock music presented is appalling.
Neither Donald or I go to rock and roll shows. There’s not much to see.”
The duo recalled their most disastrous show.
“Our most disastrous show was somewhere in North
Carolina,” underlined Becker. “Remember the show you wanted to go home after,
when the truck arrived two hours late?”
“No,” countered Fagen,
“but I remember the one where I plunged a speaker screw about three inches into
my skull getting onto the stage and bled through the set. It did give a sort of
grand guignol effect.”
“They thought it was part
of the show,” Becker laughed. “And there was a show in Philadelphia once where
a former lead singer of ours did sing an entire set a half-tone flat. And as if
this weren't enough, he did see fit to split his pants.”
We inquired about the Becker and Fagen about their
songwriting process.
“Donald and I write together,” offered Walter. “The music
is written before the words are added. It’s like painting by numbers; we try
and fill.
“We were the only people
at Bard College who weren’t rich,” Walter volunteered. “It took me a long time
to figure out why everyone there had a Porsche but me. In fact, I always
wondered why everyone had cigarettes but me. It was a very expensive school on
the East Coast and everyone had a lot of money. I was on a scholarship and
Donald bankrupted his father.”
Q: Tell us about the album you've just finished.
FAGEN: It's called Aja (pronounced "Asia"),
which is the name of a Korean colleen if you will. We started it about a year
ago. These things take a long time.
Q: Why?
FAGEN: I don't know. I guess maybe we were too leisurely about
the pace, although it seemed like we worked very hard on it.
Q: If everything is planned out and arranged in advance –
FAGEN: Right, you'd think it would be pretty quick, wouldn't
you? I don't know. It's hard to play, we throw away a lot of stuff, we do a lot
of stuff over, and it takes a long time.
Q: Were there any new approaches in Aja?
FAGEN: We fooled around for a while with digital click tracks,
which is a method used quite a bit to make records that are supposed to be
metrically perfect. But we decided the tunes we had weren't suitable for that
kind of treatment, so we went back to our tried-and-true method, which is
basically go into the studio and have a bunch of guys play, and that worked out
pretty good.
Q: How about the lyrics this time?
FAGEN: It has no social significance. I think we're steering a
little bit away from melodrama. The tunes we ended up with are in a somewhat
lighter vein than the last album. There's some basically erotic material – not
heavy breathing or anything, but ... It's possible that the lyrics could get
sparser and simpler, because people don't read anymore and they're a lot dumber
than they used to be. It's always a challenge to fit certain lyrics to some
kind of music or write some music that will most successfully express a lyric
idea. The trick is to distill it and concentrate it so you have as few lyrics
as possible.”
Earlier this century I
conducted a phone interview with Walter Becker about Steely Dan’s legacy and
catalog.
BECKER: We were probably successful in what we were trying to
do in the ’70s at projecting a kind musical persona that was not particularly
you know, tied to one or two or five individuals and that was rather an
outgrowth of our writing and recording style. And know – as you say — there is
this bit of curiosity that is out there.
Q: Have the songs become even more rewarding because they
now stood up to the test of time; 20 years on public display.
BECKER: It’s funny, but that kind of thing probably happens
more for listeners than for us playing them. We selected new songs we had never
played before. And of the songs we had done years ago, we tried to diddle with
them a little bit so that we’d feel fresh to play them and when we’re actually
doing, it that’s probably not so much the case for us than for people in the
audience.”
I wanted to know from
Walter about his songwriting endeavors with Fagen.
“In our collaboration, Donald
provided a lot of the harmonic direction and overall tonal framework, and his
ability to develop great chord sequences, striking modulations, and so on,
became an essential ingredient in our writing style. When you’re collaborating, you often need to
persuade your writing partner that an idea is interesting enough or strong
enough to work with, and sometimes this is difficult or impossible to be done.
Q: Since I’ve followed Steely Dan since inception and even
when you were tune writers after a road scene with Jay and The Americans, did
you ever think both you and Donald could survive and flourish as band leaders
in the record business? Brill Building
to 10,000-15,000 seaters with a performing group playing original
material?
BECKER: To answer your question in a larger framework, I think
when Donald and I started out we were arrogant enough to think we would be
successful, in spite of the fact of what we were doing was as far off the
beaten path as it was. And so, we kind
of had enough confidence in what we were doing to keep at it long enough until
we prevailed, so to speak. Certainly, it
would be hard to imagine that we are still doing this and events have taken the
shape that they have, you know, so many years later, I mean, quite surprising.
Obviously for Donald and myself you know, the primary thing, the focus all
those years was records and radio.”
Gwen Stefani is reuniting with No Doubt to play this year’s
Coachella Festival. It will be the first
time they have performed together since 2015.
Also headlining in April will be Alice Cooper and Blondie at
Australia’s new Pandemonium Festival.
Other acts slated to perform include Deep Purple, Placebo, The
Psychedelic Furs and Dead Kennedys, among others. (kk)
The URLs Shelley listed, didn't
list the Tony Orlando interview videos within the first 20 or more videos ... better
to look at this page:
https://www.youtube.com/@kenmichaelsradio748
Bob Frable
Yeah, I had a hard time finding these, too … so thanks for
the more direct link (which offers up both Parts 1 and 2) kk
Speaking of Tony Orlando, the other day we told you about Tony’s final tour …
The very next day we heard that both The Nitty Gritty Dirt
Band and The Ozark Mountain Daredevils are “quitting the road.”
These past several years have been brutal for touring
artists out there, still trying to perform for their fans. Between Covid (and every new variation there
of) and escalating age (as well as more difficult traveling conditions), many
artists have chosen to finally hang up their rock and roll shoes.
Both of these bands each had their own unique followers, who
I’m sure will want to take advantage of the opportunity to see their favorites
one more time.
The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band will hit the road for the last
time between March and September of this year.
Hank Williams, Jr., will be one of their opening acts.
March 21st – Bowling Green, KY – SKyPAC – Main Hall
March 22nd – Bloomington, IL – Bloomington Center For The Performing Arts
March 23rd – Mount Vernon, KY – Renfro Valley Entertainment Center
March 24th – Marietta, OH – Peoples Bank Theatre
March 28th – Odessa, TX – The Ector Theatre
March 29th – Abilene, TX – Outlaws and Legends Music Festival
March 30th – Houston, TX – Arena Theatre
April 25th – Shreveport, LA – The Strand Theatre
April 28th – Oxford, AL – Oxford Performing Arts Center
May 9th – Indianapolis, IN – Murat Theatre
May 10th – Harris, MI – Island Resort & Casino
May 11th – Harris, MI – Island Resort & Casino
May 12th – Joliet, IL – Rialto Square Theatre
May 17th – Raleigh, NC* – Coastal Credit Union Music Park at Walnut Creek
May 18th – Bristow, VA* – Jiffy Lube Live
May 19th – Knoxville, TN – Tennessee Theatre
June 21st – Mankato, MN – Vetter Stone Amphitheater
June 22nd – Cedar Rapids, IA – McGrath Amphitheatre
June 23rd – Bayfield, WI – Lake Superior Big Top Chautauqua
June 27th – Sioux Falls, SD – Alliance Center
June 28th – Mahnomen, MN – Shooting Star Casino Hotel & Event Center
June 29th – Bismarck, ND – Belle Mehus Auditorium
June 30th – Dauphin, MB, Canada – Dauphin’s Countryfest
July 11th – Mayetta, KS – Prairie Band Casino & Resort – Great Lakes
Ballroom
July 12th – Jefferson City, MO – Capital Region MU Health Care Amphitheater
July 13th – Newkirk, OK – 7 Clans First Council Casino
July 25th – Lubbock, TX – The Buddy Holly Hall of Perf. Arts and Sciences –
Helen DeVitt Jones Theater
July 26th – New Braunfels, TX# – Whitewater Amphitheater
July 27th – Fort Worth, TX – Bass Performance Hall
July 28th – Amarillo, TX – Globe-News Center For The Performing Arts
September 14th – Kansas City, MO* – T-Mobile Center
Shows shown with an * will feature Hank Williams, Jr.
Shows shown with # will feature Jason Isbell & The 400 Unit
And, the band is saying that additional dates are expected to be announced soon
While The Ozark Mountain Daredevils didn’t publish the tour
itinerary dates yet, they did release this statement:
This final tour will showcase
the band’s classic hits, fan favorites, and a retrospective journey through
their illustrious career. Audiences can expect an unforgettable musical
celebration of the band’s legacy.
It is expected to run from 2024 into 2025. (kk)
Hi,
I have been reading your blog about Russ
Terrana.
I would like to start the ball rolling on
getting him a lifetime achievement award from either the Grammys or an Emmy.
Do you have any hints that would help me get
started?
Thanks a million,
Louis A Richards
Marina, California
Wow, you dug back awhile to find this one!!! (I had to search for it myself!!!)
This is a series that FH Reader Joe Klein wrote for us back
in 2013. (I haven’t heard from Joe in
awhile … wonder if he’s still reading Forgotten Hits?!?!?)
I’ll pass your kind wishes along … I’m afraid I don’t have
any contacts who could help to make this happen … but I’m always in favor of
getting a good buzz going!!! (kk)
https://forgottenhits60s.blogspot.com/2013/10/the-motown-sound-man-russ-terrana-part-1.html
https://forgottenhits60s.blogspot.com/2013/10/the-motown-sound-man-russ-terrana-part-2.html
https://forgottenhits60s.blogspot.com/2013/10/the-motown-sound-man-russ-terrana-part.html
TOMORROW IN FORGOTTEN HITS:
It's The Saturday Survey ...
And The Beatles earn their first US #1
