The final fan
vote is in …
Here are the
Top Fan Vote Nominees for The Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame, Class of 2024 …
(SIX
artists earned more than 300,000 votes … so we’ll highlight those, prior to listing them all)
#1 – The Dave
Matthews Band – 586,211 votes
#2 – Peter
Frampton – 528,482 votes
#3 –
Foreigner – 527, 193 votes
#4 – Ozzy
Osbourne – 480,292 votes
#5 – Cher
-339,939 votes
#6 – Lenny
Kravitz – 310,663 votes
Surprising
upsets include Mariah Carey (who may still get in … the fan vote does NOT
guarantee induction … and, in fact, only counts as ONE additional vote above
and beyond the normal committee’s votes), Oasis and Mary J. Blige. (The Dave Matthews Band came out of nowhere
to take the title this year … they ALSO won the fan vote in 2020 … but STILL
haven’t made their way inside the hallowed halls.)
Matthews had this to say after being nominated again
this year: “If there’s any outcome that
could arguably be better than actually getting into the Hall – not to say
there’s anything better than getting into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame –
but if there was anything better, it would be if the fans overwhelmingly voted
for you to get in and you still weren’t let in. I can live with that.”
The ceremony will be broadcast live on Disney+ again
this year (for the second year in a row) and then rebroadcast, at a later date, in edited form
on ABC Television.
In what seems to be the antithesis of what The Rock
And Roll Hall Of Fame is all about, the 2024 Inductees will be announced live
on “American Idol” (?!?!?) this weekend. Say
what?!?!? Seriously???
Be watching this Sunday (April 21st) and
Lionel Richie (himself a member of The Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame) and Ryan
Seacrest will announce the Class of 2024 Inductees live on the air. (kk)
LOTS of flack over CBS chopping off the ending of
Sunday Night’s Billy Joel Concert from Madison Square Garden (his 100th
appearance, which also featured special guest Sting … one of only two songs I
was able to see Sunday Night)
Seems that since everything started late that night
due to The Masters Tournament, CBS (in their infinite wisdom) cut off the last
two minutes of Joel’s performance of his signature tune “Piano Man” to cut to
the local news at 10 pm (instead of just starting the newscast two minutes
late)
As a result, the concert will be rebroadcast TONIGHT (April 19th) IN ITS ENTIRETY on CBS starting at 8 pm
Central Time (which means that THIS time I’ll actually be able to see it!) We were traveling over the past five days and
were visiting with family down in Texas Sunday Night … so I only got to catch
Billy’s performances of “Vienna” and “Big Man On Mulberry Street,” which Sting
sang the hell out of. It’ll be great to
take in the whole concert, the way it was intended to air. (kk)
The other big news this past week is that Disney+
will air the original Michael Lindsay-Hogg produced film, “Let It Be,” shown
for the first time in over fifty years in its original state, cleaned up by
Peter Jackson. (I’m not quite sure what
that means … hopefully, it just means much cleaner, clearer audio and video
like he did with the 8-hour “Get Back” series from a couple of years ago. But I’m hoping that doesn’t mean that Jackson
is going to edit out every potentially “uncomfortable moment” that exists in
the original film, which was always intended to show The Beatles at work on
their new album, “warts and all.”)
Jackson has also commented that there are another 5-6
hours of EXCELLENT footage that deserves to be seen, rather than be locked away
again for another fifty years … so will we also get the Peter Jackson “extended cut”
of the film???
All of these questions still seem to be a bit unclear
… but we’re hoping for the best of BOTH worlds, with the original airing the
way it was always intended as well as gobbs and gobbs of “extras,” if not now, then somewhere down the line.
In either event, it’ll air for the first time on
Wednesday, May 8th, almost exactly 54 years after it first opened in
theaters here in The States. (We were
there opening night at The United Artists Theater in Oak Brook … all the ushers
were wearing white tuxedos … and we were blown away.) When the film was first released on VHS home
video, I bought a copy before I even owned a VCR machine! I just knew that I HAD to have this in my
collection.
Even back then the quality of the film wasn’t very
good … and I’ve owned several copies since, each purporting to be the “best,
cleanest version yet,” including one recorded from the laser disc edition (which I also saw …
and it really WAS quite brilliant) … to cleaned up dvd versions, supposedly
sourced from the original master tapes.
THIS, however, should blow everything else away … so
I am quite excited not only to see it again on Disney+, but also to be able to
buy the home video version when it is ultimately released down the road. (kk)
Harvey Kubernik files this report:
The Beatles Let It Be To Launch
Exclusively on Disney+ May 8, 2024
By Harvey Kubernik © Copyright 2024
Featuring Harvey Kubernik’s 2021 Interview
with Director Michael Lindsay-Hogg
Disney+ has announced
that “Let It Be,” director Michael Lindsay-Hogg’s original 1970 film about The
Beatles, will launch exclusively on Disney+ May 8, 2024. This is
the first time the film is available in over 50 years.
First released
in May, 1970, amidst the swirl of The Beatles’ breakup, “Let It Be” now takes
its rightful place in the band’s history. Once viewed through a darker lens,
the film is now brought to light through its restoration and in the context of
revelations brought forth in Peter Jackson’s multiple Emmy Award®-winning
docuseries, “The Beatles: Get Back.” Released on Disney+ in 2021, the
docuseries showcases the iconic foursome’s warmth and camaraderie, capturing a pivotal
moment in music history.
From the Disney
announcement touting the May re-release:
““Let It Be” contains
footage not featured in the “Get Back” docuseries, bringing viewers into the
studio and onto Apple Corps’ London rooftop in January, 1969, as The Beatles,
joined by Billy Preston, write and record their GRAMMY Award®-winning album Let
It Be, with its Academy Award®-winning title song, and perform live for the
final time as a group. With the release of “The Beatles: Get Back,” fan clamor
for the original “Let It Be” film reached a fever pitch. With Lindsay-Hogg’s full support, Apple Corps asked Peter
Jackson’s Park Road Post Production to dive into a meticulous restoration
of the film from the original 16mm negative, which included lovingly
remastering the sound using the same MAL de-mix technology that was applied to
the “Get Back” docuseries.
Michael
Lindsay-Hogg says, “’Let It Be’ was ready to go in October / November,
1969, but it didn’t come out until April, 1970. One month before its release,
The Beatles officially broke up. And so the people went to see ‘Let It Be’ with
sadness in their hearts, thinking, ‘I’ll never see The Beatles together again.
I will never have that joy again,’ and it very much darkened the perception of
the film. But, in fact, how often do you get to see artists of this
stature working together to make what they hear in their heads into songs? And
then you get to the roof, and you see their excitement, camaraderie, and sheer
joy in playing together again as a group and know, as we do now, that it was
the final time, and we view it with the full understanding of who they were and
still are and a little poignancy. I was knocked out by what Peter was able
to do with ‘Get Back,’ using all the footage I’d shot 50 years
previously.”
“I’m absolutely thrilled that Michael’s movie,
‘Let It Be,’ has been restored and is finally being re-released after being
unavailable for decades,” says Peter Jackson. "I was so lucky to have
access to Michael’s outtakes for 'Get Back,’ and I’ve always thought that ‘Let
It Be’ is needed to complete the ‘Get Back’ story. Over three parts, we
showed Michael and The Beatles filming a groundbreaking new documentary,
and ‘Let It Be’ is that documentary – the movie they released in 1970.
I now think of it all as one epic story, finally completed after five
decades. The two projects support and enhance each other: ‘Let It Be’
is the climax of ‘Get Back,’ while ‘Get Back’ provides a vital
missing context for ‘Let It Be.’ Michael Lindsay-Hogg was unfailingly
helpful and gracious while I made ‘Get Back,’ and it’s only right that his
original movie has the last word ... looking and sounding far better than it
did in 1970.”
“Let It Be,” directed by Michael
Lindsay-Hogg, stars John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo
Starr, with a special appearance by Billy Preston. The film was produced by Neil Aspinall with The Beatles
acting as executive producers. The director of photography was Anthony B
Richmond.
“Let It Be” will debut exclusively on Disney+
May 8, 2024.”
“I see this Beatles reissue as connected with the reissues
of the 1962-1966 and 1967-1970 anthology albums, on CD and vinyl,” posted poet
and deejay, Dr. James Cushing. “The value of these items, I suggest, depends on
when you were born. For baby boomers like us, those double-albums are just
another money-squeeze, a chance to buy something we already have. For
Generation Z and Generation Alpha kids who didn't already have these songs,
they're a good way into the catalogue.
“For baby boomers like us, Let It Be -- The Movie is a
54-year-old memory of a disappointment. For Generation Z and Generation
Alpha kids, it may work, assuming they don't have seven hours to
binge-watch Get Back. This reissue is a kind of 90min ‘compressed
version’ of it.
Classic rock syllogisms: The Beatles Get Back is to Let
It Be -- The Movie as No Direction Home is to Eat the Document. The
Rolling Thunder Revue is to Renaldo and Clara. Another Self Portrait
is to the original 1970 Self Portrait album
“Our classic rock icons cannot be allowed to have made
substandard movies or albums in the past, so we have these latter-day
improved versions.
Two questions: 1) Does Martin Scorsese plan to oversee
remastered versions of Eat the Document or Renaldo and Clara?
And 2) what happened to the reissue of The Concert for Bangladesh?
That's a way better rock-u-mentary than Let It Be.”
During
2020, I interviewed Michael Lindsay-Hogg about his career.
Before The
Rock and Roll Circus, Michael Lindsay-Hogg directed many of The Rolling
Stones’ promotional video clips: “She’s a Rainbow,” “2000 Light Years From
Home,” “Child of the Moon,” and “Jumpin’ Jack Flash,” as well as The Beatles’
“Paperback Writer,” “Rain,” “Hey Jude” and “Revolution.”
In addition to
directing The Beatles’ Let It Be feature film, during the
course of his career, Michael also directed specials for Simon and Garfunkel,
Neil Young, Paul Simon and The Who.
Michael Lindsay-Hogg is the author of the well
received 2011 autobiography Luck and
Circumstance: A Coming of Age in Hollywood, New York and Points Beyond.
Lindsay-Hogg is the son of actress Geraldine
Fitzgerald, who starred as Marilyn Birchfield in the Sidney Lumet-directed The Pawnbroker.
Like the visionary stage/director/producer
Jack Good before him, both studied at Oxford, Michael Lindsay-Hogg viewed and
subsequently documented rock ‘n’ roll as a dramatic subject. His first job, at
age 16, was serving as an apprentice for John Houseman’s repertory theatre
company in Stratford, Connecticut.
“I started out as a child actor and fell in
love with the theater,” Michael told me in a 2019 interview. “The first jobs I
had were in Shakespeare on stage. And that’s how it started and I tried very
much to bring some of those elements to Ready,
Steady Go!”
This landmark British music program was
broadcast every Friday night debuting August 9, 1963, and a final taping
December 23, 1966.
RSG! was conceived
by Elkan Allan, then head of Rediffusion TV. Vicki Wickham assembled the talent
and dancers and served as one of the producers. After 1964, the live show was
aired nationally on network. The program was recorded at the RSG! studio in Rediffusion’s headquarters in Kingsway, London.
RSG! gave a
platform to some of the most successful recording artists of the sixties: The
Who, Otis Redding, The Animals, Gene Pitney, The Zombies, Sandie Shaw, The Beatles,
Burt Bacharach, The Stones, The Temptations, Donovan, The Kinks, James Brown,
The Fortunes and The Walker Brothers.
Initially, the musical guests on RSG! mimed to their pre-recorded tracks; by late 1964, some artists
performed live and eventually all acts to all-live performances in April, 1965.
The hosts/presenters were Keith Fordyce and Cathy McGowan. Early shows were
introduced by singer Dusty Springfield.
“It was a black and white program,” underscored Michael. “A lot
of the great comedies and dramas from the forties and fifties were in black and
white. In England we had no color,” he reinforced.
“I had no worries from the people above me. Elkan Allen was the
creator and always encouraged me to go further. Very helpful.
“And I think people were stunned by the comparative substance of
the rock ‘n’ roll that was on television.
“1963 was a revolution. It was the kids who had been children in
World War 2. The world was opening up for them. They could have long hair if
they wanted to. And it was the discovery of the pill for pregnancy. And so, a
whole nation was open for young people and freedom. There was long hair, the
pill and music. The paper was ready to be lit and the match came,” stressed
Lindsay-Hogg, who along with John Lennon, Andrew Loog Oldham, Vicki Wickham,
Mick Jagger and other bold Brits embodied the confidence of a new London.
“There were new managers in rock ‘n’ roll and around Ready, Steady Go! Don Arden, Andrew Loog Oldham, and Kit Lambert
and Chris Stamp, had been assistant stage managers or involved in acting.”
“In 1963 I was working. RSG!
represented the time when we were in the business we wanted to be in and RSG! on a Friday night the Green Room
was the meeting place of all those similarly blessed,” Andrew Loog Oldham
recalled to me in my 2004 book, Hollywood Shack
Job: Rock Music In Film and on Your Screen.
‘Vicki Wickham booked the show from late 1963 to December,
1967. Michael Lindsay-Hogg directed it, and tried new techniques like stop
action and freeze frame while the band was on camera.
“Safe to say I still communicate with both of them so
that tells you the lot. You were dealing with nice people. None of the people
had an agenda. On the show, the visuals propelled the music.”
“On RSG! Andrew
had some ideas about lighting and shots,” offered Lindsay-Hogg. “One evening at
the Ad Lib club I met up with Andrew and we agreed to debut a couple of new
songs he was hyped about, including ‘Satisfaction.’”
“When The
Stones did ‘Paint, It Black,’ we put camera effects on Mick’s face and made it
darker and darker,” emphasized Lindsay-Hogg. “We were broadcasting live. It felt dangerous and primitive.
“The cameraman, Bruce Gowers, later did the great video
of Queen’s ‘Bohemian Rhapsody,’ which was a very calculated video.
“With RSG! it
was about as much about the technique as the performer. In the early RSG! stages I was always thinking
about the performer and somehow marrying
the technique to them.
If the performer was Mick Jagger or John Lennon, you
don’t want to get in the way too much.
“RSG! went off the
air in 1966 when the video was music promotion for the record to be out. 1967
was a difficult year for the Rolling Stones. The set-up drug arrest in
Redlands. Touring was becoming a headache.
“In 1966 I had
done earlier videos of the Beatles’ ‘Rain,’ and ‘Paperback Rider.” And Mick
knew that. And it always was between The Beatles and The Rolling Stones,”
suggested Lindsay-Hogg.
“The music
video had been around. There were earlier attempts. Scopitone. [A jukebox 16 mm
film]. The first Scopitone ones were made in French. Lip-sync to a pre-recorded
track. Used to be seen in bars or in diners with French acts [Serge Gainsbourg,
Johnny Hallyday] miming to rock ‘n’ roll videos,” reminisced Michael.
“There was Dick Clark‘s American Bandstand. I used to watch it in the fifties, Jack Good,
the wonderful producer and director of Shindig!
“Mick was
always thinking of the next step. ‘Because we can.’ That is to say ‘We’re
strong enough and powerful enough like The Beatles are. And this is the way to
get our song out to most of the plug shows who were gonna play it. Because they
want the Rolling Stones. What do we do? How can we do it?’ And I asked what
song they had. ‘Jumpin’ Jack Flash.’ ‘OK. Let’s hear it,” he recalled.
In a July 28,
2014 interview with Robert Ayers in Rural
Intelligence, Michael Lindsay-Hogg reflected about The Rock and Roll Circus,
“I still have a
very soft spot for it.
“It has a poignancy to it. When you’re 28 you
can’t imagine you’ll ever be 70, nor can you imagine that some of the
participants in the movie will soon be dead - in Brian Jones’ case, in only five
months; in Keith Moon’s, in less than ten years, and in John Lennon’s, in twelve
years - because everybody seemed so incredibly alive, and so in the moment. There
wasn’t any future, there was just now."
After 54 years, it's a very big deal! (kk)
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/04/16/movies/disney-beatles-let-it-be-movie.html?unlocked_article_code=1.lE0.As8g._FJp4ILElyK2&smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare&sgrp=c-cb
https://variety.com/2024/music/news/beatles-let-it-be-film-restored-apple-streaming-1235972289/#recipient_hashed=cb1fa0032addcfdb730f717f527f301d7f591bddae516591375953126c7fa463&recipient_salt=fdcde0102878ab3c1e53ecbcfbb0eaba79c60c270580241efc15cc4c9850dd7f
Dickey Betts, a co-founding member of The Allman Brothers Band, died yesterday (4/18) after
bouts with cancer and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. He was 80 years old.
While many other guitarists may have been content to play in the shadow of Duane Allman, Betts had mad guitar skills of his own … and he and Allman had an understanding early on when forming the band ...
Instead of allowing one guitarist to shine in the limelight, they would create a “collaborative”
style of playing, each complimenting the other. Betts said that he and Duane would actually sit around and talk about how so many bands
couldn’t stay together because of the internal jealousies of one guitarist
always trying to outdo the other. The reason things worked in The Allman Brothers, Betts said, was that "Duane
and I had a mutual understanding of 'Let’s play together.'"
It was Dickey that wrote the band’s biggest hit, “Ramblin’
Man” (#1, 1973), as well as their beautiful instrumental “Jessica” (#33 the
following year.) In fact, Betts
penned eight of the group’s Hot 100 Pop Singles … and he was well-respected by
his bandmates and his peers.
On The Allman Brothers’ website, they posted
the following message:
“His
extraordinary guitar playing alongside guitarist Duane Allman created a unique
dual guitar signature sound that became the signature sound of the genre known
as Southern Rock. He was passionate in
life, be it music, songwriting, fishing, hunting, boating, golf, karate or
boxing. Dickey was all in on and excelled at anything that caught his
attention.
“Play
on Brother Dickey, you will be forever remembered and deeply missed.”
The Allman Brothers Band placed eight songs on our list of THE TOP 3333 MOST ESSENTIAL CLASSIC ROCK SONGS OF ALL TIME, including these five that made The Top 1000:
# 27 - Ramblin' Man
#546 - Melissa
#784 - Ain't Wastin' Time No More
#790 - Jessica
#886 - One Way Out
And this from Clark Besch ...
RECORD STORE DAY is this Saturday!
SO, what can you get? How about these by the fabs?
3" 45 RPMS from Apple Records!
OK guys, I am reading these are ONLY ONE SIDED? Huh? What's on B side?
GREEN label swirl but NOT "Apple Starline"??? At least the block lettering and cigarette are still there.
AND ... aren't these two on ONE 45 together on the original US 45 from 1964??
That's progress, I guess??
It's like the Troggs fontana/Atco 1966 issue! ONLY, THEY had B sides at least on Fontana.
"Standing There" gets normal Capitol color swirl, but the "And I Love Her" pic sleeve.
BUT, that's not all! NOW, you can finally have "She Loves You" in the Swan styled sleeve on Red Swirl Capitol!
And
this "never was a US 45 at all" on yellow swirl with an alternate photo
of Ringo sitting on John! Never a better photo, right?
Meredeth
Wilson family is overjoyed by this release. No doubt 90 year old
Shirley Jones is back in the studio re-recording her version for release
soon!
Only 1500 of each above to be sold individually, so it's hard to say you will ever SEE any of them.
BUT, HEY wait a minute. HOW does anyone play a 3" record??
Are these Chewbops, Rhino 2" CDs, hip pocket records?? What do I do?
The
answer is THIS above from Apple, also on Record Store Day! You can get
the special player, a box to hold ALL of your 3" singles in, a Beatles
dust cover record player that (get this) PLAYS 3" RECORDS!
The
description:
The Beatles limited edition RSD3 turntable, featuring a Beatles-branded
dustcover and turntable facing. Each turntable is Bluetooth-enabled and
housed in a Beatles' box that includes 3" records of four songs they
performed 60 years ago on the Ed Sullivan Show: "I Want To Hold Your
Hand," "Till There Was You," "She Loves You," and "I Saw Her Standing
There." Each record is housed in an outerbox, with a picture sleeve and
poster. The package also includes a Beatles-branded carrying case, which
holds up to ten 3” records.
Be aware that they only made 2300 of this player set, so IF you buy the individual 45s, you may NEVER get a player.
Meanwhile,
others to look for include the best of the day below. I actually own
the much more rare ORIGINAL soundtrack LP (not joking) which comes with
dialog and the whole story as it is in the movie! This may be Elmer's
brightest hour!
There's
Alex Chilton, the first Amboy Dukes LP, Beefheart 2 LP, Doors Live in 68,
ELP pic disc, Faces 2 LP BBC, Fleetwood Mac Rumours pic disc, Burritos live
1972, Nuggets 50th Anniversary Concert (get this one!), Lennon Mind
Games colored vinyl, Sweetheart of Rodeo 50th LIVE, Birds Bee &
Monkees MONO, Roches 45th anniv, Rolling Stones 50th anniv of first LP NO
BONUS CUTS (after all, it IS ABKCO), Todd 50th reissue, Ringo Crooked
Boy EP, Zappa for Pres 2 LP.
That's
just SOME of the stuff in limited edition for Saturday.
So, as Keith
Yardbird says, "Go to the store and get Great Shakes" ... err, I mean
VINYL! IF the line is long at 7 AM, it is likely that Caitlin Clark
will be signing autographs.
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