Ferris Bueller's Day Off

The day started off gray…outside (the clouds would not give way to the hazy sunshine until late morning) and in (I was feeling out of sorts for no reason I could put my finger on from the moment I woke up)…and it seemed like that was going to be the way the day would unfold (sunshine or no sunshine.)

I had chores and other work aplenty but I couldn’t shake my ennui. I needed the help of somebody who didn’t know that kind of lethargy…someone so supremely and so delightfully self-confident that it was incredibly improbable that he would ever have a gray day.

And I found him. His name? Bueller. Ferris Bueller.

Ferris Bueller’s Day Off is a product of the eighties…just check out the padded shoulders, Ferris’ massive, 5” floppy disc driven computer…but it is, at the same time, wonderfully timeless in its audaciously positive vibe.

And it’s charming and funny as all get out.

Matthew Broderick’s engaging performance as the impish Ferris is still a wonder of delicious comic timing combined with the wit and wisdom of the late John Hughes’ words and direction.

It’s a totally preposterous tale and that’s the unbridled joy of it…as we watch Ferris hoodwink his clueless parents, enrage his jealous sister, give his neurotic best friend the best day of his life, pledge his love for his bemused but patient and adoring girlfriend, and almost effortlessly thwart the hapless Mr. Rooney’s efforts to bust him, we happily go for the ride (nothing Ferris does is out of malice…he’s a free spirit enjoying life on his own terms and he wants his friends…and all of us…to enjoy life with him.)

A lot of movies from the eighties have not and will not stand the test of time (Flashdance looks pretty silly now, for example…though truth to be told I thought it looked pretty silly when it first came out so that might not be a fair example…) but Ferris Bueller’s Day Off continues to delight…and to bring grumpy old bears out of their funks…all these years later. Made me smile anyway :-)

Let it Roll: Songs by George Harrison

George Harrison, the so-called "Quiet Beatle", was out shined in that band by his more flamboyant cohorts but he added some great tunes to the Beatles catalog and he burst into solo stardom with the bright burst of pent-up creativity that he called All Things Must Pass.

George never quite hit that height again but he made a lot of fine records before his death. Enough fine records that it would be hard for a single disc compilation to really do it justice...but Let it Roll: Songs of George Harrison does a pretty fair job just the same.

The big hits..."My Sweet Lord", "Give Me Love (Give Me Peace on Earth)", "Got my Mind Set on You", "Isn't it a Pity", "Blow Away"...are all here and they sound great on this collection.

George's tribute to John Lennon..."All Those Years Ago" (see below)...and his look back at Beatlemania..."When We Was Fab"...are also here as are lovely live versions of three of his Beatles tunes ("Something", "While My Guitar Gently Weeps", and "Here Comes the Sun".)

As a brief, but potent, overview of George Harrison's musical legacy, the 19-track Let it Roll: Songs of George Harrison is, well, fab.

Random Notes: The 2009 Grammy Awards

Okay, the awards don’t really matter much…who remembers them two days later?...with the Grammys the show’s the thing. I only watch two awards shows a year…the Grammys and the Oscars…and so I’m always hopeful they’ll be worth the 3+ hour investment of time they usually require of me.

Thumbs up: U2 (you usually can’t go wrong with Bono and the boys kicking off your show), Al Green and Justin Timberlake (a last minute sub for Chris Brown who was having legal problems to do with domestic assault) with Boyz 2 Men and Keith Urban, Jennifer Hudson (the performance was stirring), Stevie Wonder and the Jonas Brothers (the kids were a bit hyperactive…but hey they’re kids…and the combination was a bit weird but, strangely enough, it worked), Radiohead and the USC Marching Band (very cool), Robert Plant and Alison Krauss (the big winners in a year when the Grammy show was jam packed with hip hop), Kanye West and Estelle, Sugarland and Adele (the Best New Artist winner), Timberlake and T.I. (my favorite hip hop performance of the night), Paul McCartney with Dave Grohl (a wonderful time was had by all…though of all of the Beatles songs he could have picked, it was a bit strange that Sir Paul decided to use the one that starts with the line “…well she was just 17 if you know what I mean…” :-), Carrie Underwood, Kid Rock, and Kenny Chesney (who knew he was pals with Morgan Freeman?)

The tribute to the Four Tops…with Smokey Robinson, Jamie Foxx, Ne-Yo, and the last surviving Top Duke Fakir…was very sweet (though Foxx seemed to flummox the director by going one way while the other three guys went the other way.)

The tribute to New Orleans was fine but it could have been better if Lil’ Wayne could have shut up (after finishing his part with Robin Thicke) while Allen Toussaint and Terence Blanchard were playing.

The Bo Diddley tribute…with B.B. King, John Mayer, Buddy Guy, and Keith Urban…was also fine (though you might have hoped that a tribute to Bo would have been a bit more animated…)

There was something oddly cool about both Green Day and Blink-182 coming out to present awards.

Special props to M.I.A. for enthusiastically singing the hooks for the “Rap Pack”…Kanye West, Jay-Z, T.I., and Lil’ Wayne…even while it looked like her water could break at any moment. The song itself…”Swagga Like Us”…was lively enough but, as these rap collaborations too often tend to go, it ended up with the four rappers seemingly trying to out-shout each other.

The appeal of Coldplay continues to elude me (please spare me your barbs, Coldplay fans…which are, of course, legion…your mileage may vary…so just let it go), Taylor Swift and Miley Cyrus have had better nights (ibid.), Whitney Houston seemed a bit…spaced out (but hopefully she is still on an upward trajectory), and Neil Diamond was…well…Neil Diamond (and I guess somebody has to be so there’s that…and hey Jay-Z really liked it…)

And I’m completely over “I Kissed a Girl” and Katy Perry should be too if she doesn’t want to end up a one-hit wonder/novelty act.

All in all, not a bad show…too long, of course (they cut off Stevie Wonder’s closing song) but most of the winners kept their acceptance remarks short (well until the end when Robert Plant seemed like he was going to go on for a while) and things kept moving a fairly good clip most of the night. Like I said, it was not a bad show.

The 50th Annual Grammy Awards

The National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences realized that when it comes to the Grammy awards…especially the 50^th anniversary awards…it’s the music that counts. There are only so many laundry lists of record executives and shout outs to God that the audience wants to sit through so, again, they kept the number of awards they handed out on the prime time broadcast to a minimum and concentrated on presenting an eclectic array of performances. For the most part it worked to make for an entertaining show.

As far as the awards went the Academy went against the prevailing wisdom that Amy Winehouse’s train wreck of a personal life would preclude them from honoring her by giving her 5 Grammys…including plum prizes for Best New Artist, Song of the Year, and Record of the Year (the latter two for the ironic but undeniably funky “Rehab”.) Winehouse (above with her Mom), originally denied a visa to come to the ceremonies, performed in a small venue in London before an enthusiastic audience. Her performances of “You Know I’m No Good” and “Rehab” were a bit ragged but potent nevertheless. She seems genuinely shocked by her Record of the Year win, which announced just after her performance.

Winehouse lost the coveted Album of the Year to a surprise winner: Herbie Hancock’s (below) lovely River: The Joni Letters (only the second jazz album to win the prize following the 1965 award to Getz/Gilberto by Stan Getz and Joao Gilberto.) Kanye West lost out on this one for the third time (both Vince Gill and Usher took playful jabs at West’s petulant behavior during previous awards shows.)

The show itself was a celebration of Grammy’s 50 years with lots of Grammy favorites among those presenting awards or introducing performances. Among the very familiar faces were Quincy Jones (27 Grammy wins), Stevie Wonder (25), Cher, Tony Bennett, Natalie Cole, and Ringo Starr.

Alicia Keys opened the show with a duet with the youthful ghost of Frank Sinatra on “Learning the Blues” (Keys would return later for a rousing version of “No One” with some help from John Mayer) followed by Carrie Underwood romping through “Before He Cheats” backed up by a phalanx of percussionists.

Some of the performances that followed were rousing: Herbie Hancock and Lang Lang’s soaring take of Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue”, Beyonce and the immortal Tina Turner shimmying through “Proud Mary”, Aretha Franklin and BeBe Winans leading a gospel medley, young Timothy Mitchum and Carol Woods (from the movie Across the Universe) with an amazing gospel version of the Beatles’ “Let it Be”, Kanye West’s heartfelt “Hey Mama”, Andrea Bocelli and Josh Groban’s majestic “The Prayer”.

Others were fun…the reunited Time teaming up with Rhianna, Foo Fighters blazing through “The Pretender” with an orchestra conducted by Led Zeppelin’s John Paul Jones and a violin solo by this year’s “My Grammy Moment” winner, West and Daft Punk’s otherworldly performance of “Stronger”, John Fogerty teaming up with rock and roll fathers Little Richard and Jerry Lee Lewis, Feist’s understated version of “1234”.

(A couple were….um…a bit more problematic: will.i.am’s rap was lame and the duet on “That Old Black Magic” between veteran Keely Smith…still in fine voice…and Kid Rock…not exactly Louis Prima… was a bit awkward. And there was a bit too much Cirque du Soleil for my taste.)

All in all, Grammy didn’t embarrass itself during its golden anniversary show and that was all good.

The Top-Earning Dead Celebrities

You gotta love it. There are dead people who still raking in more money in a year than most of us will earn in our entire lifetimes. Such is life :-) Forbes Magazine came out with their annual list of the Top-Earning Dead Celebrities.

At the top of this year’s list…which also includes two Beatles and the Godfather of Soul… is Elvis Presley. 30 years after his death, Elvis earned a cool $49 million (which must make Lisa Marie, his sole heir, very happy.)

John Lennon came in second with earnings of $44 million, followed by Charles M. Schulz ($35 million), George Harrison ($22 million), Albert Einstein ($18 million), Andy Warhol ($15 million), Theodor (Dr. Seuss) Geisel ($13 million), Tupac Shakur ($9 million), Marilyn Monroe ($7 million), Steve McQueen ($6 million), James Brown ($5 million), Bob Marley ($4 million) and James Dean ($3.5 million).

John Lennon - Instant Karma (Live)

Instant Karma

Okay, let’s start by saying that if you’re a really hardcore John Lennon fanatic you probably won’t find much on Instant Karma: The Amnesty International Campaign to Save Darfur, a 2-disc collection of covers of Lennon songs by an eclectic lineup of pop artists, that will be to your liking. Let it go. Just grit your teeth, keep telling yourself that it’s for a good cause, and move on.

In the liner notes Yoko says that “John would have proud of this album” and I’d imagine that’s true…for the fact that his music is still being used to try make the world a better place if for nothing else. That said, over the course of the 23 tracks (there are 10 additional tracks on the iTunes version) while nobody transcends the originals (too much to ask, of course) nobody thoroughly embarrasses themselves either (okay, the Black Eyed Peas come close with their tepid reworking of Lennon’s propulsive “Power to the People”…Lenny Kravitz drawls his way through an unconvincing “Cold Turkey”… Matisyahu’s dancehall reggae take on “Watching the Wheels” is heartfelt but still kind of an awkward mess…and I could have done without the space cadet version of “(Just Like) Starting Over" by the Flaming Lips.)

Amnesty International has had these songs…and others…available for download for while (click on the “Make Some Noise” banner in the right column of this page) with the proceeds going towards the ongoing crisis in Darfur.

Two songs are presented twice on the set: “Imagine” is, almost as a matter of course, one of them (Avril Lavigne’s version is ever so slightly more animated than Jack Johnson’s typically laconic take) and the other is “Gimme Some Truth” (with Jaguares’ sinewy rocker running circles around the version by rock royalty offspring Jakob Dylan and Dhani Harrison.)

Some big guns step to the plate and do okay. U2 puts a reggae groove on “Instant Karma”, Green Day’s muscular “Working Class Hero” is fine (and it features a snippet of Lennon at the end), and “#9 Dream” fits nicely into R.E.M.’s wheelhouse. Christina Aguilera is surprisingly potent and controlled on “Mother” (at least until the end when her inner diva bursts out and turns Lennon’s primal scream into Broadway showstopper grandstanding.) And there is a certain ragged charm to the version of “Give Peace a Chance” by Aerosmith (featuring Sierra Leone’s Refugee All Stars).

Some of the highlights of the collection come from unexpected quarters: Los Lonely Boys offer up a funky romp of “Whatever Gets You Through the Night”, Youssou N’Dour is enormously charming and eevocative on a bilingual version of “Jealous Guy”, Snow Patrol’s atmospheric reading of “Isolation” is quietly compelling, Postal Service’s spare electronica “Grow Old with Me” works when I imagined it shouldn’t, Big & Rich find a grand groove on “Nobody Told Me”, and Corinne Bailey Rae’s live recording of “I’m Losing You” is even more soulful than anything on her own CD.

Other tracks merit neither scorn nor many repeated listenings…Jackson Browne’s “Oh my Love” and Ben Harper’s “Beautiful Boy” both fall into this category as does the version of “God” by Jack’s Mannequin featuring Mick Fleetwood.

The collection finishes on a shimmering grace note with Regina Spektor’s lovely, compelling version of “Real Love”.

Most likely music fans will find things to like AND things to loathe on Instant Karma…and that’s cool. Just keep remembering it’s for a good cause and let it go :-)

Memory Almost Full

We will eschew the “comeback” talk that is too often associated with every halfway decent Paul McCartney disc…Sir Paul has put out a lot of albums in his solo career and some have been good, others have been not-so-good, and a couple have been downright great but the man never went anywhere so he never needed a “comeback”.

Memory Almost Full, McCartney’s album released by Hear Music, the music label started by Starbucks (as I write this, coffee junkies all over the world are listening to this record on an day-long loop in all of Starbucks many, many, many stores), is an affable look back at his productive and amazing life. If you were any ruefulness engendered by his very public, very nasty divorce proceedings to make its way into his new music, you will disappointed as the look back is positive and only occasionally wistful.

McCartney is in fine form as he journeys back while looking forward…there are echoes of his past musical triumphs sprinkled liberally throughout the disc but it is, at the same time, a record that has a very modern sound. He’s got nothing left to prove…and he certainly doesn’t need the money…and you get the feeling that he was both very engaged and very loose while making this record.

The disc starts off with the sprightly, mandolin-driven “Dance Tonight”, an agreeable bit of pop fun, which is followed by the harder pop of “Ever Present Past”, a paean to the speed at which life passes and how the present is always informed by the past.

“See Your Sunshine” is an unabashed McCartney love song (complete with multi-tracked vocals over a sweetly loping beat) while “Only Mama Knows” is an all-out rocker (which in fact has strong echoes of his classic “Jet” from Band on the Run.)

“Mr. Bellamy” is one of those baroque pop character studies that McCartney has indulged in for decades (see “Eleanor Rigby”, “Penny Lane”, and “Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey”.) It begins with a fine horn section and finishes with a piano-driven coda.

Theme of looking back but not wallowing in the past is championed in bouncy one-two punch of “Vintage Clothes” and “That Was Me”.

The wistfully charming “The End of the End” asks that jokes be told and songs be sung on the occasion of his death (“no reason to cry/no need to be sad”) in a simple song with piano and whistling and softly swelling strings.

The disc ends with another bit of fun…the brief, dense rocker “Nod Your Head”.

This is a fine record…Sir Paul, who’ll turn 65 later this month, proves he’s still a potent force to be reckoned with the pop world.

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Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band

…it was 20 years ago today
Sgt. Pepper taught the band to play…

Well actually it was 40 years ago. June 1st is the 40th anniversary of the release of The Beatles’ epic Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (and if you’re of a certain age that’s certainly an announcement that will likely make you feel especially old :-).

Sgt. Pepper, an audacious artistic statement in its day (the Beatles had stopped touring and had given their musical imaginations full reign in the studio), still holds up after all of these years. It is the favorite Beatles record for a lot of fans (it’s third on my personal list…after Abbey Road and Revolver and just ahead of “The White Album” and Rubber Soul…but that takes nothing away from what a great album it is; indeed it just shows how magical the band was during its brief season.)

It’s an eclectic journey…from the opening salvo of the rocking title track shifting effortlessly into the bright pop of “With a Little Help from my Friends” (yay, Ringo!); from the trippiness of John’s “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds” and George’s sitar-driven “Within You, Without You” to the jaunty sway of Paul’s “When I’m 64” and John’s “Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite”; from the hard groove of the reprise of the title track to the elegant melancholy of the magnificent coda “A Day in the Life”…but it’s a journey that is still incredibly rewarding.

…they’ve been going in and out of style
but they’re guaranteed to raise a smile
so I may I introduce to you the act
you’ve known for all these years
Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band!

- words and music by John Lennon and Paul McCartney -

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Paul McCartney - Dance Tonight

The video for the UK single from Sir Paul's upcoming CD Memory Almost Full (featuring Natalie Portman! :-)

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American Idol Finale

Well the finale was…interesting.

It’s funny, Simon spent a large percentage of the season complaining that some of the contestants…Melinda and, especially, Jordin…were singing songs that were old and/or old-fashioned and then the finale was packed to the gills with veteran performers.

Don’t get me wrong, I love Gladys Knight, Tony Bennett, Bette Milder, and Smokey Robinson…they’re legendary performers all but they’re hardly on the radar of the demographic that American Idol intends to try to sell records to. (That said, Smokey showed the top 6 guys how it was done and Gladys did the same for the top 6 girls.)

Doug E. Fresh? Dude, I’m glad that Blake got to go hog wild beatboxing (he looked to be totally into it) and with Doug E. Fresh no less (nothing says modern music like a beatboxing battle with Doug E. Fresh!)

And what possessed Joe Perry to play with Sanjaya on another craptastic performance of “You Really Got Me”?

The gospel number with Melinda and BeBe and CeCe Winans was rousing and the African Children’s Choir was adorable again.

Gwen Stefani made yet another half-hearted AI appearance but Green Day’s performance of “Working Class Hero” (with a snippet of John Lennon’s vocal at the end) was very cool

It was cool that all of the former Idol winners showed up to perform (except for Fantasia, who had the excuse of performing on Broadway…to glowing reviews apparently… in The Color Purple)…and to acquit themselves well (Kelly’s new single was interesting and Ruben and Jordin made a fine duet…Ruben was one of the few guys on the show this season that Jordin didn’t tower over :-)

I could have done without Clive Davis gassing on…and the Golden Idol thing was lame (save the freak show contestants for prelims and leave it at that.)

They finally got those clearances for the Beatles songs as they opened with Blake and Jordin doing an awkward “I Saw Her Standing There” (get it? …”well she was just 17”…) and then the show finished with the big Kelly-to-Taylor-to- Carrie-to-Ruben-to-the-Season-6-Top-12 Sgt. Pepper medley (I thought they might be leading to that long-rumored Paul McCartney appearance but that didn’t happen.)

And after more than 2 hours (including about 137 commercials) : The envelope please…yadda, yadda, yadda…74 zillion votes…yadda, yadda, yadda…and the winner is Jordin Sparks! Hugs all around…come on, Jordin, sing the tepid winner’s tune so we can go home (they held a songwriting contest and this song was the best they could find? It’s better than “Do I Make You Proud”, “I Believe”, or “Inside Your Heaven” in what way?)

All in all, this was not American Idol’s finest season and the finale, like the rest of the season, followed the pattern of pushing aside the current contestants in favor of letting big name guest-stars monopolize the spotlight. Hopefully next season they’ll retool…better casting, more emphasis on the contestants, less camera-hogging nonsense from the host and the judges…and come back better than ever. We shall see come January.

Stars On 45 - The Beatles Medley

Is there anything more crap-tastic than early 80's disco medleys? No, my friends, I think not :-)

(And yes, I bought this single back in the day...and I'm not as ashamed of that as I probably should be.)

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Happy Birthday to Me :-)

…you say it’s your birthday,

it’s my birthday too, yeah!...

Today (Tuesday March 13^th) is my birthday…yay! I still love my birthdays!...and it’s also the birthday of one of my favorite actors William H. Macy (above with his wife Felicity Huffman) as well as the birthdays of U2’s bassist Adam Clayton, singer/songwriter/pop icon Neil Sedaka and actresses Deborah Raffin, Dana Delany, and Annabeth Gish.

Happy birthday to all of us happy Pisces people! :-)

"Birthday" words and music by John Lennon & Paul McCartney


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The "Definitive" Top 10

The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame has released their ranking of the "Definitive 200"…200 albums that, according to them, “every music lover should own.”

Their Top 10:

1) Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band – The Beatles (1967)

2) Dark Side of the Moon – Pink Floyd (1973)

3) Thriller – Michael Jackson (1982)

4) Led Zeppelin IV – Led Zeppelin (1971)

5) The Joshua Tree – U2 (1987)

6) Exile on Main Street – The Rolling Stones (1972)

7) Tapestry – Carole King (1971)

8) Highway 61 Revisited – Bob Dylan (1965)

9) Pet Sounds – The Beach Boys (1966)

10)Nevermind – Nirvana (1996)

The Beatles placed 4 other albums on the list: Abbey Road (#12), The Beatles (aka The White Album - #39), Revolver (#42), and Rubber Soul (#110) along with 1 solo album each by John Lennon (Imagine at #144), Paul McCartney & Wings (Band on the Run at #182), and George Harrison (All Things Must Pass at #69).

8 country albums made the cut, including 3 by the Dixie Chicks (Wide Open Spaces, Home, and Fly), two by Willie Nelson, and 1 each by Johnny Cash, Shania Twain, and Faith Hill.

17 rap albums are included led by 3 from Jay-Z, 2 each from Eminem and 2Pac and discs by Dr. Dre, the Beastie Boys, Public Enemy, Will Smith, Nas, the Notorious B.I.G., 50 Cent, Nelly, LL Cool J, and NWA.

The 4 jazz albums to make the list were: Miles Davis’ Kind of Blue (#34), John Coltrane’s A Love Supreme (#78), Dave Brubeck’s Time Out (#150), and George Benson’s Breezin’ (#177).

The oldest album on the list is 1954’s In the Wee Small Hours by Frank Sinatra. The newest discs (4 of them) came out in 2004 (including Green Day’s American Idiot and Usher’s Confessions.)

It’s an eclectic and…interesting…list. Not interesting enough to get me to buy Celine Dion’s Falling into You (#97) or Kenny G’s Breathless (#107) but interesting just the same.

Dancing with the Stars 2007

Paul McCartney’s estranged wife, activist Heather Mills (above), is one of the contestants on next edition of Dancing with the Stars (which debuts on ABC on March 19th.) Mills, who lost part of one of her legs in a motorcycle accident, will try to put her increasingly messy divorce proceedings with Sir Paul (who apparently never heard the term “pre-nup”) on the back burner while she learns to do the tango and the other dances. Dancing producers say that she will be judged exactly the same as the other contestants despite her artificial limb.

The other contestants are:

Muhammad Ali’s daughter, boxer Laila Ali

Country singer and actor Billy Ray Cyrus

Former NBA star Clyde Drexler

Actor and former 'N Sync member Joey Fatone

Miss USA 2004 Shandi Finnessey

Former Entertainment Tonight co-host Leeza Gibbons

Olympic gold medal winning ice skater Apolo Ohno

Actor Vincent Pastore (who is, perhaps to his chagrin, best known as “Big Pussy” from The Sopranos)

Model Paulina Porizkova

And Beverly Hills 90210 actor Ian Ziering

Pop Culture News and Notes

Prince’s halftime show at the Super Bowl was a lot like the game: more than a bit ragged (and drenched from the constant rain) but entertaining just the same. With his set bracketed by “Let’s Go Crazy” and a wholly-appropriate (given the weather) “Purple Rain” with generous dollops of "Baby, I'm a Star", “Proud Mary”, "Best of You" and “All Along the Watchtower” in-between, you had to tip your hat to the guy…the little fella knows how to put on a show (and, to the delight of CBS’ censors, the now pious Purple One left his ass-less pants at home.)

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And, dude, who knew the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame had so much power and influence? I mean, David Lee Roth getting back together with Van Halen for an upcoming tour…come on, all hail the power of the Hall! (And I'm sure the Hall had something to do with the long-estranged Police reuniting to open the Grammy show this weekend, too :-)

Now if the Hall can heal the rift between Grandmaster Flash and Grandmaster Melle Mel yet another of my rock and roll prayers will have been answered (and yes, Very Anonymous Mike, I’m still holding out for that Patti Smith/Ronnie Spector duet…maybe a medley of “Because the Night” and “Be My Baby”…or maybe a new version of “Take Me Home Tonight” with Patti taking Eddie Money’s place on the tune…)

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In “All You Need is Love” (and a couple of armies of attorneys) news: Apple Computers and the Beatles’ Apple Corps have settled their trademark dispute. One supposes that this might mean that the seemingly digital download-phobic Fab Four’s catalogue will be popping up on iTunes at some time in the very near future.

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More MKW blog stuff: Bread and Roses

The 2006 Twenty (Part One)

The Twenty are my favorite reasons to have owned a CD player in 2006. They are listed in alphabetical order by artist and the links (where applicable) lead to the original reviews posted on this blog over the course of the year.

Anjani – Blue Alert

This is a luminous collaboration with master songwriter (and CD producer) Leonard Cohen. Anjani was given access to some unfinished Cohen poems, journals, and lyrics and she completed them with Cohen’s aid and consent and the results are lovely, ethereal, and moving.

India Arie – Testimony, Volume 1: Love and Relationship

Songs of faith and empowerment…songs of self-awareness and hope for humankind…songs that could be insufferably cloying were it not for the sweetly earnest outlook that colors each of them… a sweet, uplifting, entertaining journey indeed.

The Beatles – Love

An interesting, and often successful, experiment…it doesn’t supplant or blaspheme the original classics (which are still out there to be enjoyed in all of their undeniable original glory)…it’s just a bit of heartfelt fun that is at once wonderfully familiar and, at the same time, a fine new experience with the Fab Four.

Neko Case – Fox Confessor Brings the Flood

An utterly gorgeous collection of 12 melodic, poetic songs that are neither country nor pop but rather an intoxicating blend of the two (with the stellar musicianship defying any facile pop sheen to take hold.)

The Dixie Chicks – Taking the Long Way

An assured, defiant, melodic return to form after the mixed results of their last studio disc (2000’s Home)…as much pop as country and it’s all the better for that.

Bob Dylan – Modern Times

A laidback…but never dull…record that Dylan produced (using the pseudonym of Jack Frost) using only his crack touring band as his support musicians (a grand idea…the players all compliment each other beautifully) and it feels lived-in and familiar (in a very good way) from the very first listen.

Mark Knopfler and Emmylou Harris – All the Roadrunning

An enchanting collaboration between two amazing artists, the always angelic voice of Emmylou and the distinctive guitar and voice of Knopfler blending to very amazing effect. (The live follow-up CD/DVD set…Real Live Roadrunning…which features some of the songs from here along with selections from their individual albums, is also more than worthwhile.)

Jenny Lewis with the Watson Twins – Rabbit Fur Coat

Rilo Kiley’s front-woman steps out with a beautifully realized collection of country-flavored tunes aided and abetted by the shimmering harmonies of the Watson sisters.

Gnarls Barkley – St. Elsewhere

Insanely catchy, enormously inventive, and uncompromisingly entertaining…this hip hop/pop/r&b music at its finest.

Sam Moore – Overnight Sensational

A fine, fun album showcasing the still potent pipes of a true soul survivor with able support from a great supporting cast of friends and fans (including Bruce Springsteen, Eric Clapton, and Fantasia.)

Love

Am I a big fan of the Beatles? You betcha! Am I a fan of so-called “mash-ups”? Not so much. Those two things together let me to believe that I might not like Love…Beatle classics re-worked, remixed, and re-imagined by producer George Martin (arguably the best candidate for the title of the “fifth Beatle”) and his son Giles Martin for the Vegas Cirque de Soleil Beatles show of the same name…but I was wrong.

Once the gorgeous a cappella vocals (aided and abetted with the singing birds from “Across the Universe”) of “Because” led into snippets of “A Hard’s Day Night” and “The End” just before the always-rocking “Get Back”, I knew that this disc…which took over two years to complete…was indeed a labor of love and not the abomination that it could have become in lesser hands.

The sound on this disc is utterly glorious (“Revolution” and “Back in the USSR”, for example, both explode out of the speakers with fierce fire and bite.) The only new music here comes from strings (beautifully arranged but a tad ovewhelming) added to “While My Guitar Gently Weeps”…everything else is taken from the original recordings (which George Martin, as the original producer, knew quite intimately, of course.)

The vocals and backing tracks are sometimes chopped up and put back together in intriguing, entertaining ways (the rhythm track of “Drive My Car”, for example, becomes the seamless foundation for a rocking medley featuring that song along with “The Word” and “What You’re Doing”…while “Sun King” is run backwards for the oddly compelling “Gnik Nus”.)

The medley of “Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite”, “I Want You (She’s So Heavy”), and “Helter Skelter” is dense and psychedelic while the guitar from “Blackbird” flows sweetly into and through “Yesterday”.

Not everything works. There’s a hodge-podge of snippets in “Strawberry Fields Forever” (including the trumpet from “Penny Lane”) and it is, admittedly, a bit of a misfire. Sometimes I got the feeling that some of the tracks would make more sense if I had seen the Vegas show (this is basically a soundtrack album after all) but those feeling were fleeting (probably because the music is so familiar and cherished already.)

Some purists are already crying “heresy!” (some of the comments about this disc on Amazon, for example, are downright vitriolic and totally unforgiving) and that’s their right, of course, but I think it’s a bit of an overreaction. Love is an interesting, and often successful, experiment…it doesn’t supplant or blaspheme the original classics (which are still out there to be enjoyed in all of their undeniable original glory)…it’s just a bit of heartfelt fun that is at once wonderfully familiar and, at the same time, a fine new experience with the Fab Four.

It's my birthday, too...yeah!

You say it's your birthday
It's my birthday too--yeah
They say it's your birthday
We're gonna have a good time
I'm glad it's your birthday
Happy birthday to you.

You say it's your birthday
Well it's my birthday too--yeah
You say it's your birthday
We're gonna have a good time
I'm glad it's your birthday
Happy birthday to you.

It’s my birthday…yay!...and if it’s your birthday too, have yourself a grand one!

Namaste, y’all.

"Birthday"
words and music by John Lennon & Paul McCartney

Entertainment Icons of the Century

Variety, the venerable magazine of the entertainment industry, is celebrating its 100th anniversary issue by naming the entertainment "Icons of the Century". There are 100 "icons" named but only the top 10 are ranked in order.

At the top of their list are The Beatles.

The rest of the top 10 are (in order): Louis Armstrong, Lucille Ball, Humphrey Bogart, Marlon Brando, Charlie Chaplin, James Dean, Marilyn Monroe, Mickey Mouse, and Elvis Presley. (A worthy cross section of cultural and entertainment icons to be sure.)

The other 90 (unranked) "icons" include names such as Madonna, Frank Sinatra, Oprah Winfrey, the Marx Brothers, Kurt Cobain, Bob Dylan, Cary Grant, Tupac Shakur, Lassie (the only animal in the group...I guess Flipper can't get no love from Variety :-), and Pac Man (who made the list even while my main rabbit Bugs Bunny did not.)

As always, these types of lists are highly subjective (of course) but still kind of fun in a discussion-starting sort of way (I might have put Bob Dylan and Superman in the top 10 instead of James Dean and Mickey Mouse, for example, but I realize that others will have other worthy candidates as well.)

Variety has presented their top 10 entertainment icons of the past 100 years...who would you have put in yours?