Yesterday.... the movie

 Yesterday

I JUST FINISHED WATCHING THE MOVIE “YESTREDAY”..... AGAIN.

 This 2019 film is about a local musician, jack Malik, who is having very little success. Then, a strange worldwide event happens in which several things common to life disappear as if they never happened. No Coca Cola. No Cigarettes. No Harry Potter….. And no Beatles. 

They never existed.

But, a few people remember   them. Jack is one.

He begins to play Beatles tunes and everyone thinks he wrote them.

Everyone loves his music and he skyrockets to fame.

I admit, the first time he played “Yesterday,” tears came to my eyes.Those tears rep[eated several times throughout the movie. 

I can’t imagine a world where the Beatles never existed.  My life would have been less without them.

I grew up with the Beatles.

When I was a young kid, I was sneaky and bought my first Beatles album, “Something New”, an American release over my Dad’s objections to the Beatles. He had heard that John Lennon had quipped “we’re more popular than Jesus.” That was enough for my Southern Baptist deacon dad to ban the Beatles from our house. 

 And I bought other albums. As a young kid, I hunted down anything that had to do with the Beatles. My cousin Sharon gave me copies of “16” Magazine with Beatles stories. We had an old car in the pasture that ended up being the storage palace for old newspapers. I tore through the stacks looking for stories about Beatles tours and news. 

My walls  were covered in Beatles.

I never missed the Beatles Saturday morning cartoons and sand along with the tunes. When the TV announced a new Beatles promo  video was going to be on the Ed Sullivan show, I pretended to be sick so I could miss Sunday night church and see it.  Dad saw through my act. I missed the premiere of “The Ballad of John and Yoko” much to my chagrin. 

I saved money to get the white aum which was a little more expensive since it was a double album, but when I did get it, I wore out the grooves. 

Somehow, my dad eventually forgot about John’s Jesus comment and actually told me once, “ I kinda like this band. I can understand what they're saying.”

I did manage to talk Dad into tracking me to see the animated “Yellow Submarine” at the local Sapulpa theater. (1968)

In 1969,I quit the boy scouts because of the Beatles. 

We had boy scouts on Thursday nights. A new show, “The Music Scene” started and one of their big premiere events was a new Beatles video on the show. I begged my mom to skip scouts and stay home and watch the show. Shows with live music were rare, especially rock music. The Music Scene had that and the Beatles.

My family was always big on finishing what you start. Mom told me , “Either you be a boy scout and go to the meeting or quit if you going to e a rock and roller.”

I never went to another scout meeting and did see the Beatles video. 

In 1970, I talked mom and dad into taking me to see the movie “Let It Be.” That movie was a little distressing since it kinda showed them falling apart.

When news came out that they had broken up, I was heartbroken . 

At that time, I could tell you what order the songs were on every album( the American Releases), the length of the song and who wrote them. 

There was no one like the Beatles to me.

That never changed.

I still get emotional after 60 years of listening to the Beatles. Their music still moves my soul. It energizes me. It soothes me. 

I did love all of their solo projects. I still listen to those too. But, in 1995 when the Anthology came out, I was elated. Most of the “unheard “ songs on the anthology I had found over the years on bootleg recordings. It was cool to hear them back together  using John’s demos to make “Free as a Bird” and “Real Love.”   I feel the same about the recent “Now and Then.”

I’ve been lucky to see Paul in concert and Ringo and his All Stars. I relished the shows letting the old Beatle vibes wash over me.

In recent years this movie, “Yesterday” and “Across the Universe” were the best films ever at the use of Beatles songs. They celebrated the music of the Fab Four. 

I jst turned 70.

I still celebrate their music and it is still a big part of my life.

I can’t imagine a ;life without their music.

Church Studios home of Leon Russell

This spring, I retired after 47 years of teaching and coaching. 

Tough decision to leave something you have always loved.

Our good friend, Shannon came by the house with a gift for me.  She said she knew I wasn't really ready to retire and needed to have something to do. She gave me a gift card to buy a year's membership at Church Studios i n Tulsa.  

What great and cool gift ! I love it and I am very grateful to Shannon.

Church Studio is the recording studio that was built by Leon Russell in the early 70s.  I have been a Leon fan since I heard his first music. He was always the cornerstone of the Tulsa  Sound.  In the early 70s, he went together with Denny Cordell and they purchased an old church building ion Tulsa and built a modern recording studio there. 

The studio was famous. Besides Leon, it also served as a studio for anyone who signed to Leon and Denny's label, Shelter Records. Dwight Twilley band, Freddy King, J.J. Cale, The Gap Band, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers all signed and recorded there. 

Other famous musicians made the pilgrimage to record there including Bob Dylan, Willie Nelson and Eric Clapton.  Even Ringo Starr and George Harrison have been there. 

Now, the studio is till an active studio, but it has become a land mark. They built on to the building and have added a gift shop, a bar and  a  small concert hall. The Church offers weekly music for member (free) and non members (a small fee) where local musicians can coma play.

I love live music and plan to go see someone play every week. I've been to three shows already and plan on being there often.

The Church is like a shrine to the local music scene.

Wikipedia link to the Church

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Church_Studio

The Church Studio link

https://www.thechurchstudio.com/

Alice Cooper finally

 I read that Alice Cooper is going on his final tour. 

Why do all of  my favorites have to get old?

I do  too, but the music I have listened to for decades never seems to age. Why should the player?

The first time I heard Alice was in 1971. I heard the song :"Eighteen" on the local radio station. The song spoke to me as a teenager. "I'm 18 and I don't know what I want!"  So, it was the first Alice album I bought.  The band had put out two previous LPs, but thye hadn't gotten airplay near me. 

 

By the time I graduated high school, the  Alice Cooper band had released several albums. "Killer," "Billion Dollar Babies," "School's Out," and "Muscle of Love."  There was a delicious edginess in those albums that were slightly diabolical and especially attractive to a teen boy who loved Horror and sci fi. Plus, they were rocking albums! The cvery guitar I loved to hear.

Thing was, I never got to see Alice. 

If he came to Tulsa, it was at a time I couldn't see him. I was an athlete through high school and college and that often cut into opportunities to see bands I liked.

I continued to buy Alice's albums. When he went solo and did "Welcome to my Nightmare" and the series of themed albums to follow. "Goes to Hell" and "lace and whiskey." I knew part of his stage persona was a always a bottle of whiskey, but when he went to rehab and emerged with the "From the inside" album, I thought it was one of his best,

For some reason, I lost track of Alice for a while. I was teaching and coaching full time. I eventually married and we had two sons.

But, Alice's albums were always a part of my play list.

I finally had the opportunity to get back in touch with Alice's music. In 2011, the sequel to "Welcome to my nightmare' came out. Plus, streamed music made it convenient to listen to all the Alice music I had missed. 

TA last, I got the chance to see Alice live. He appeared at "The Old lady on Brady" (recently renamed the Tulsa Theater). I was excited to see him live ! The theater is intimate and there are no bad seats . I took my ticket and looked for my seat. Turned out it was in the middle of a row. The seats there are old and made for skinnier people. Ironically, my seat was between two fairly big long haired older fans. I'm not a small guy either and we were squeezed in and cozy.

But, when the show started , it was great. You couldn't tell if Alice was 60 or 25! he was rocking the night away and playing his big hits. I left that night satiated and smiling.

Luckily, I got a second chance just a couple years ago. A friend of mine had a friend who got free tickets to casino concerts.  I think you have to spend a lot of money at the casino to get those perks, but he gave them to my buddy Cris , who took me. 

We got to sit in box seats with free food and drinks. That was great, but even better was the show. Alice was till putting on a great show. The music was rocking and he was in great form. he rocked us for the evening and once again, I left with a smile on my face. 

I may never get to see Alice in concert again, but I did get to finally. I loved every note.

If Alice truly retires, he deserves it for 57 years of making music for the fans. 

AUM My favorite music

 AUM     my favorite songs

 A few years ago ,when the thing was to have an IPOD, I named my IPIOD AUM. That had also been the name of a series of CD’s I burned that included all of my favorite songs. The CDs were before the IPOD came along and changed things. 

 I burned CDs for other people often since I have a pretty large music selection. My music collecting days went way back to the purchase of my 1st Beatles album (“Something New.” An American release of early Beatles tunes) After that, over the years, I built a collection of a few thousand LPs.   

  After LPs, I did Cassettes and 8 Track since they could be plated in a car.

My wife and Mom pitched in to buy  my first CD player. Ash wasn’t sure I’d like the switch from LPs to CDs, but once again, they were more easily transported and car ready. Even before they bought the player, I had won my very first music CD off of a radio program. It was Pete Townshend’s “Iron Giant,” based on a book  that would be turned into an animated movie (Townshend producing.)

Anyway, back to the series of “best of “ CDs. I started building playlists of the songs I loved or meant something to me. I stopped after I had filled 16 CDs with tunes. 

I love a lot of songs.

But, why “AUM?”

AUM is the Sanskrit version of the western OM. AUMM is the sound of creation in the Hindu story of creation. It is the sound that rolled across the universe and  brought order to chaos. It is the powerful sound that permeates all things in the universe. It is what George Lucas made into the Force in Star Wars.

I first came in touch with AUM through a song by Pete Townshend. On  his first solo album, “WHO Came First,’ there was a song called ”Pure and Easy.' In the song, he sings “There once was a note, Pure and Easy, playing so free like a breath rippling by. The Not if eternal, I hear it, It sees me. Forever we blend and forever, we die.”

At one point in the last half of the song, the music stops and Townshend plucks a single note on the guitar (AUIM)  and then the song continues. 

I loved the song. It spoke to me and my love of music. Later, I learned that song was supposed to be part of the Who’s second rock opera following “Tommy.” The opera was to be named :”Life house.” Townshend had this huge vision of everything united by this common note and wrote  some of his best songs related to it.

It apparently became too big for the WHO to finish and they decided to take selected songs from the effort and release them as a normal album. That gave birth to one of their greatest, in my opinion, "WHO's Next.:”  Songs like “Behind Blue Eyes,:” Won’t Get Fooled Again,” Join Together,” “Baba O’Reilly” and “The Song is Over.” 

“Pure and Easy,” The WHO’S version, did not make the original album. It would make its first appearance on Pete’s solo. 

The Beach Boys had gone through a similar effort a couple years earlier. Brian Wilson had a vision of a work called “Smile,” that the rest of the band found too big and clunky. The songs they released off of it would become their “Pet Sounds “ album. 

So, why AUM and Townshend?

Pete had become a disciple of Meher Babar, a Hindu holy man. Many of his songs reflected the teachings of Meher Babar. On the solo album, songs like “Pavardigar,” “Nothing is Everything,” and “Time is Passing” show the effect of Townshend's search for meaning.

The rock opera “Tommy” may seem like a fun story about a Pinball Wizard, but it had a deeper meaning of a person unaware of reality, unable to see, hear and speak, who suddenly reaches a state of enlightenment. (“I’m Free!”)

Townshend would later release a 6 CD set of his work on "Life house" through Eel Pie Music. Ashley got it for me as a gift. He was finally able to perform it as a solo artist and it even played as a radio play in England.

Today, In the car with my wife, I had “AUM” playing on the car stereo now streaming on a playlist I made on Spotify. It doesn’t have all 16 CDs worth of songs on it yet, but it's a work in progress. Plus, there are more songs I have fallen in love with since the original was burned.

The song that played as we drove home was "The Song is Over” from “WO’S NEXT.” When we pulled into the drive way, I sat in the car till the song finished. 

That song was the theme for the Who’s final concert tour this past year. I was lucky enough to get to see them live a few times, but sad that I never will again.

But, as my wife said, the song isn’t really over because I can always listen to the music. There is always AUM.

MAGIC MAN HEART 2024

 

HE’S A MAGIC MAN, MOMMA!

 In the summer of 76’, my brother Tim brought home an album called “Dreamboat Annie.” I had heard the first song of that LP getting some air play on our local FM station. “Magic Man” had some great guitar and lyrics that appealed to the nerdy sowed and sorcery guy inside of me.

 A lot of the progressive rock of the 70’s had themes of the Medieval, magic and wizards. But Magic man had something different. It was recorded by Heart which was fronted by two sisters, Ann and Nancy Wilson. Their two faces were emblazoned on the cover of the LP. While so much of 70’s rock was dominated by male singers, Ann Wilson could wail with the best of them.

  The album was diverse and captivating. It rocked and then drifted into dreamy poetic cuts like “Dreamboat Annie.”  I was hooked and became a Heart fan.

  It took 48 years, but this year I finally got to see Heart in concert. Concerts have gotten so expensive that a person must be pretty selective.  As a young man, I went to lots of concerts. But time, expense and other responsibilities limited that later.

 This show did not disappoint. Cheap Trick blew the roof off as an opening act, and Heart followed with a great show. The switched back and forth between rocking and soft ballads. Ann’s voice, even at the age of 73, rocked the arena.  Nancy’s guitar was furious and dynamic.

 We left the show satisfied and happy. There’s nothing like a great live music show.

NIGHT MOVES NOSTALGIA

 

Night Moves

 

   Music has a way of waking memories.

   A familiar tune plays on the radio or pops up next on a playlist and suddenly, you are transported…. to a place, to a feeling…to a memory.

 

   This week, I was driving home from Tulsa. It was a cloudy day that appeared to be pregnant with rain.

   Gray clouds, cooler breezes and the hum of tires on the road had my mind drifting when “Night Moves” by Bob Seger crept from the speakers. Its first guitar chords transported me back to 1976.

     I was a junior at Sterling College in Kansas. The college occupies the small farming town of sterling, situated in the geographic center of Kansas. It surrounded by miles of flat land and field after field of farmer’s crops.

 The song was released in November. We had hung up our pads and cleats for another completed football season. Fall was in the air and cool breezes now replaced the hot Kansas winds that brought the smell of wheat fields and harvest wafting across the campus.

  AT night, we sat behind the dorm, listening to music and talking. The edge of campus and our dorm lay next to a large field often covered in wheat. We could see taillights of cars driving off for long moments across the country roads that stretched out from the college.

 It was then, that song came on the radio.  We fell silent. The song seemed to strike a chord within us. We were young. Summer was ending, and Autumn closing in.

“I woke last night to the sound of thunder
how far off i sat and wondered
started humming a song from nineteen sixty two
isn’t it funny how the night moves
when just don’t seem to have as much to lose
strange how the night moves
with autumn closing in”

 

Music transports us. It reminds us.

TODD IS GODD 024

 

Todd is still Godd.

  Friday, June 14, Todd Rundgren returned to Tulsa with a live show at the Had Rock. He and his band sizzled through a 2-hour set of tunes mostly pulled from the later half of his catalog.

   I’m sure there were people in the crowd that came for “hello It’s Me” or “can we still be friends,” and that haven’t kept track of his career since their teen years. He did give them a carrot in his encore with a medley of a couple oldies. There were also a couple of cuts from his Utopia years, but the bulk of the show seemed to come from “Liars”, “No World Order,” and “The individualist.”

  I’ve been to a lot of Rundgren’s shows. I’ve never been disappointed.  I’ve seen Utopia at an outdoor show at the Oklahoma City Zoo Amphitheater, at Cain’s Ballroom, at the brady Theater, and the “RA” show with the 20 ft. pyramid and sphinx in Lawrence, Kansas. That was a mind-blowing show highlighted by the 18-minute electrified fairy tale” Singring and the Glass Guitar.”

  His solo shows have always been unpredictable and surprising. I’ve been to several, either with a band or a solo show at Cain’s Ballroom. He once brought his “Individualist” tour to Tulsa, playing from under the overpass that ran north of the Cain’s.

   Friday was no different. He arrived on stage to the sound of “How About A Little Fanfare” before launching into “I Think You Know.”

  We had great seats, thanks to my wife, Ashley. Fourth row, center stage. A great view. I was kind of excited that the 2 seats in front of us were empty as the time for the show arrived.

  But, as the lights went down and Todd began to enter the stage, three people sidled into the gap, blocking our view and trying to argue with the couple to their left that they had their seats.  The guy, already seated, told them to check the seat number, but they continued to argue. It was getting frustrating, and FINALLY, they looked at the seat numbers and found they were wrong and sat down.

  There was little conversation from Todd as they slipped from song to song. Todd showed some gunslinger moves on guitar, sizzling through some hot solos. Despite his recent forays into more electronic music, he can still make the guitar scream.

  I knew two songs were coming up at the end of the show that might challenge some listeners in the Oklahoma crowd.  “God Said” from the “Liars” album and “fascist Christ” from “No World Order” might have been a little hard for a religious person to swallow. AT the end of “Fascist Christ” Todd led the crowd in an ironic singalong chorus of ‘Gimme That Old Time Religion.”

  IT reminds me of a review I read on Amazon of the Neil Young album “Living With War>’ The reviewer was upset because Neil had gotten all political and obviously not to the reviewer’s side. I thought “Where have you been? Did you never listen to his lyrics?” This was the guy who wrote “Ohio” years agio.

  Same with Todd. His earlier works were filled with these questions. In “Eastern Intrigue” his lyrics asked the question “Will the Real God Please Stand Up?”

 The regular part of the show wrapped up with a powerful version of “World Weide Epiphany.”  The older crowd was on their feet begging for more as the band left the stage. We didn’t wait long. Todd returned to a medley of “I Saw The Light, Can We Still Be Friends, and Hello It’s Me.”  He wrapped up the night with “Fade Away.” A great song to end the show.

  Todd’s band was hot. He recently lost a guitarist, Jesse Grass. He passed away this past year. Two of his band are constants by his side, drummer Prairie Prince and Bassist and fellow Utopia member Kasim Sulton.

  Todd didn’t seem like a man about to turn 76 years old. He moved constantly onstage.

 I always dread the idea that my favorites ae all getting older and someday will decide to retire. Tom Scholtz of Boston, about the same age as Todd, has been silent for years. Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr and the Rolling Stones, in their 80’s but still touring.    SO, who knows? I did read in a recent interview that Todd is already planning his new album.

 All in all, I’d still say this musical chameleon is still Godd.