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Concert review by Michael Berman  Jackson Browne with Chavonne Stewart, Alethea Mills, and Greg Leisz, with Mai Leisz All Saints Church, Pasadena, California November 16, 2018 Of all the boomer-era Los Angeles musicians, Jackson Browne has always been special to me. Most of the musicians in the Los Angeles scene came from other places - Roger McGuinn from Chicago, Gram Parsons and Tom Petty from Florida, Mama Cass from Baltimore, Neil Young and Joni Mitchell from Canada, Linda Ronstadt from Arizona. But Jackson was an L.A. boy, had been the places that I'd been, driven the same freeways. His picture was always on the wall at McCabes guitars, and I could always imagine he'd just left a little while before I walked in, which was entirely possible. And he sang of Silver Lake, and a house by the freeway, and the lights on the hills. He made me imagine that if I tried hard perhaps I could do what he did, make music like that. And Jackson Browne has always been one of the most personal and confessional of songwriters and performers. True or not, it seems like it's all about him, he puts his life and his insecurities out there for you to see. In concert he's a wonderful storyteller and a master at connecting with the audience, even in the stadiums he used to play and in the midsize venues he mostly frequents now. But to see him with a few hundred people in a church in Pasadena, just a few miles from his boyhood - and early adult - home in Highland Park, was something really special. Highland Park is about five miles from Pasadena, a neighborhood of the City of Los Angeles with tightly packed bungalows, bodegas, narrow streets, and old palm trees. When Jackson was growing up in the late 1950's, it was also a neighborhood becoming progressively more dangerous as demographic changes fed gang rivalries and the drug trade. Today, it's largely gentrified and a popular place for young families to move, but it was the old Highland Park that drove his family out of LA and into Orange County.  Jackson told us these stories, and we also heard from Chavonne Stewart, a superb singer who has accompanied Jackson on albums and in concerts. Chavonne told her story of growing up in deep poverty and cultural isolation in South Central LA, not knowing that another world existed until joining Jackson's band took her around the world and showed her what she might become. And now she has established a charity to mentor inner-city girls, Exposher, which benefited from the ticket sales. We also heard asides about Jackson shooting bows and arrows at the Arroyo Seco range, and being guided to tell truth from fiction about the story of the American Indian - readings that permanently shaped his attitude and that he describes as the roots of his political awakening. We also learned that the line from The Pretender - "Where the veterans dream of the fight/fast asleep at the traffic light..." - came to him after he saw a man sleeping in front of the Senior Center at York & Figueroa. But lest you think the evening was a monolog, Jackson Browne performed a total of 15 songs in 90 minutes. The arrangements, with Chavonne Stewart and Althea Mills vocals and the extremely talented guitar work from Greg Leisz were excellent, often shining beyond his original records, many of which in retrospect seem overproduced and outdated. Jackson's voice, always a bit on the nasal side, has gotten a little lower and darker but is still solid and effective. Even when it wavers a bit it adds attractive color to his delivery.  And the songs! Take a look at the list below - songs from every decade of his nearly 50 years of recordings. How many artists could put together an entertaining set that spans a timeframe like that? Richard Thompson and Neil Young are the only ones that come to mind for me. Yes, he included several of his best known songs from the 1970's, but for me highlights included Far From the Arms of Hunger from the somewhat overlooked Time the Conqueror album; The Long Way Around from his recent Standing in the Breach; and his timely and appealing "The Dreamer" from last year. And he's such a pro as a performer - the pacing, the sound, the arrangements were all very effective. I guess it's no surprise after all the dates he's performed, but it's still impressive. And Greg Leisz is a perfect foil, having much of the versatility and style of Jackson's long-time partner David Lindley but with enough of his own panache to stand as a worthy successor.
Sometimes you get to see a concert at a time and a place that you know will never be reproduced. That was Jackson Browne at All Saints Church last night, and I'm very fortunate to have been there. Full Set List (album & date in parentheses) Rock Me On The Water (Jackson Browne, 1972) Some Bridges (Looking East, 1996) The Dreamer (single, 2017) Lawless Avenues (Lives in the Balance, 1986) Off of Wonderland (Time the Conqueror, 2008) Lives in the Balance (Lives in the Balance, 1986) The Long Way Around (Standing in the Breach, 2014) Barricades of Heaven (Looking East, 1996) Something Fine (Jackson Browne, 1972) For Everyman (For Everyman, 1973) Doctor My Eyes (Jackson Browne, 1972) Far From the Arms of Hunger (Time the Conqueror, 2008) The Pretender (The Pretender, 1977) Running on Empty (Running on Empty, 1977) I Am a Patriot (World in Motion, 1989
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Essay by Eric Sandberg  Jack Kirby and Stan Lee
Stan Lee passed away the other day. With his passing came an avalanche of news reports and tributes to his career that ranged from mostly inaccurate to wholly inaccurate. Anyone who knows me will tell you that I have always been staunchly on team Kirby/Ditko when it comes to who created the Marvel Universe. But if you ask me who should get the credit for the success of Marvel Comics, the answer is Stan Lee. If you put aside his hucksterism, his shameless self-promotion and his dubious depiction of his role in the creation of these immortal characters, Stan Lee was one hell of an editor. He was the best comics editor ever to wield a blue pencil. He may not have played the role attributed to him (mostly thanks to him) by mainstream media in the genesis of these characters but he sure knew what to do with them. One of the famous nails in the coffin of Jack Kirby's 60s tenure at Marvel was Stan Lee's appropriation of a character Jack had casually tossed into the epic Galactus trilogy in The Fantastic Four. In Jack's mind, the Silver Surfer was merely a drone, a soulless tool whose only purpose was to find planets for his master to consume. Lee gave him a name, Norrin Radd, and developed him into a character of Shakespearean pathos, who sacrificed his humanity to save his homeworld and his beloved Shalla Bal. Stan's initial run on The Silver Surfer solo comic may not have been commercially successful but it was intellectually ambitious and the first indication of what the medium could become in a literary sense. As an editor, Stan established the overarching moral philosophy of Marvel. He reined in Kirby's often out of control imagination which, admittedly, sometimes got in the way of coherent storytelling. But Stan wasn't just a strong editor when it came to writing and the editorial direction of a comic, he was the de facto art director. Stan held the books under his purview to a very high standard visually. Just peruse the many dozens of issues of The Jack Kirby Collector to see countless examples of covers and page sequences that were rejected by Stan because of awkward perspective, lack of energy or confusing panel sequences. Stan Lee is portrayed by his detractors as some kind of self-aggrandizing pimp who took money on the lecture circuit on the backs of the work of others and, to some extent, he was. After he handed the editorial reins of Marvel to "Rascally" Roy Thomas in the early 70s, he devoted most of his time to promoting Marvel Comics and himself. But in the 60s he was George Martin, making sense of all the creative chaos being thrown his way by two visionary artists. He was hands on and he knew what he was doing. Sadly, Stan Lee's true and essential role in the story of Marvel often gets lost in the argument. Album review by Michael Berman  I call this Disc 2 - but of course in the US release I had, Sides 1 and 4 were on one disc, and Sides 2 and 3 were on the other so you could play it on your automatic turntable and only have the flip the discs once. 45+ minutes of continuous music - what a deal! Anyway, let's call it the second disc - it's also the 2nd CD if you buy the box set.
Birthday - A Beatles rock classic that holds up pretty well - and one of the most Beatley songs on the "The Beatles" since it was apparently a collaboration between John and Paul, and recorded by all four of them together. Remix highlights the very cool bass line played by George - Paul plays the lead riff. Yoko and Patty Harrison join in on the high response. The other Beatles may have been angry at John for bringing Yoko into the studio, but it didn't stop George and Ringo from getting vocal cameos for their wives. Yer Blues - This one has really grown on me over the years. It's almost like the John didn't get Help when he asked and now he's gone to another more desperate place. It's kind of amazing the Beatles went from "I'm Happy Just to Dance With You" to "Feel so suicidal, even hate my rock and roll," in just 4 years. Nice name check of Dylan. Recorded live in a closet off the side of the EMI studio. The bleed-through vocals in the last verse add a very cool feel. I mean, there's not that much too it but it's a real high point for me. Mother Nature's Son - A nice Paul song with what's definitely not his best vocal. Not sure the horn arrangement adds a lot - I kind of like the rehearsal version without them. Slight but pleasant, a marker for a lot of what Paul would produce over the next ten years and beyond. Remix cleans up the horns, which I'm not sure helps much. Everybody's Got Something to Hide Except Me and My Monkey - Another strong John rocker, and another one that I didn't appreciate as much back in the day. Not a lot to it, but it kicks along nicely with some of George's better lead licks. Percussion sounds great. John was a kick-ass rhythm guitar player. Sexy Sadie - Always liked this one even before I knew it was a takedown of the Maharishi. (It even scans "Maharishi, what have you done" - but "Sexy Sadie" does sound better. Not sure I ever heard the Hammond Organ before. Nice piano work by Paul. George & Paul harmonies also come through. I know some people complain about the remix, but c'mon - this just sounds so much better. You can always go back and listen to the original, it's not like a film director who tries to destroy the original edit. Good song that sounds better than even. Helter Skelter - When Paul cuts loose he can rock. This is maybe his best. The bass line keeps everything a little off-balance. Ringo shines with a perfect line just behind the beat. Cool psychedelic (double) coda. It's no wonder Charles Manson thought it was written for him. And I just realized - five in a row with all 4 Beatles. Perhaps the dramatic core of the album, complete with Ringo's wail at the end. Long, Long, Long - Kind of a sleeper at the end of side three, but really a beautiful song from George. I would have fit right in on "All Things Must Pass". Poignant and gentle, but with another great Ringo drum part - maybe he wasn't the best drummer ever but I just can't hear a song like this without him. (And of course he played on "All Things Must Pass".) This song has really grown on me over the years and is easily in George's top five with the Beatles. Revolution 1 - Back in the day, this was the only song that the Beatles released in two completely different versions. So I was fascinated to hear the contrast between the slow, almost folky, version here compared with the rock and roll single. But... the single is just better. Go listen, it kicks butt. This is just nice by comparison. And I'm not big on "shooby doo wah"... (Btw regardless of what Wikipedia says, Revolution 9 is *not* the same song. It's not even a song. But we'll get there.) Honey Pie - Oh Paul. Yes, we know your dad played in a dance band. All the audio tricks and arrangement sugar can't make this into a Beatles song. Next! Savoy Truffle - A solid effort from George. Horn section sounds like they were left over after "Got to Get You Into My Life" from Revolver - which is a good thing. Nice reference to "Ob-La-Di Ob-La-Da" suggesting that it's... a piece of sugar. Cry Baby Cry - I love the sort of mysterious feeling this song conjures. John prefigures his piano part on "Imagine". Nice relaxed, semi-stoned, vocal, and more really subtle and effective drumming from Ringo. In the Beatles' canon perhaps not a great song, but one that I've always enjoyed. Revolution 9 - What to say about this glorious mess. Supposedly the Beatles were ready to move on from psychedelia, and then you have this. Tape loops forward & backward, John, George, Ringo, and Yoko talking. (Paul left out - apparently he was pretty annoyed since he first brought experimental home-recording techniques to John.) I loved to listen to this and try to figure out what was going on. Listening to it today, it stands as an interesting transition in popular music, and you can hear the layers nicely in the remix. But really - how many times are you going to listen to it? It would have made a great outtake to discover on a bootleg... (Yes, Revolution & Revolution 9 are joined at the hip because some of the sounds in #9 appear in an early take of Revolution... ) Good Night - Well, it's a better Ringo number than "Don't Pass Me By" - written of course by Lennon & McCartney. They should have had a little more faith in Ringo's voice - the outtakes without the orchestration and choirs are kind of sweet, despite his wobbly baritone. As it stands, a bit overwrought but hey, it's the end of the White Album and it always will be so it's got it a special place in my heart. So Disc 2 - several solid rockers, a couple of gentle and evocative songs in Long, Long, Long and Cry Baby Cry, a couple of misses, and... Revolution 9. The White Album as a single disc?George Martin famously suggested (and Paul McCartney pooh-poohed) the idea that "The Beatles" would have been a better single album than a double. The question is, what would you leave out? It's easy to get it down to 3 sides but 2 is tougher. Let's think about it and I may give it a shot. I doubt any two Beatle fans would come up with the same record... for that matter, I can guarantee no two Beatles would have been able to do it! Album review by Michael Berman  I don't think I had my own copy of the White Album when it came out - it was probably about 1971 that I managed to get it. And from then, I may have listened to it 100 times, on my old mono record player and later on a "hi-fi" turntable that an uncle of mine converted from mono to stereo.
There was a time when I was the biggest Beatles fan I knew. I was just infatuated with their music and their image, and for me they could do no wrong. I often claimed I could sing all the words to every song they recorded - I could even do a passable rendition of the key parts of Revolution 9! Fast forward 50 years and I can say I still love the Beatles, but not ALL their songs. The White Album is surely one of their most uneven and diverse albums with higher highs than all but perhaps Revolver or Sgt Pepper - but also some LOW lows. I'm having a great time listening to the new mix from Giles Martin, which cleans off a patina of varnish and dirt from the original mix and mastering. You can see more clearly the contributions of the Beatles, George Martin, Geoff Emerick, and their other collaborators in the studio. So I thought it was time to take a serious listen again and see what I thought. Here's my reaction. The first disc appears in this post, I'll review the second in a later post. Side One Back in the USSR - the Beatles as rock band, sounding accomplished and confident with Paul doing a lower-range version of his Little Richard voice. New mix clears up some of the muddiness on the original. Dear Prudence - one of the Lennon masterworks on the album, beautiful & haunting vocals & acoustic guitar with a classic McCartney bass line (and Paul on drums too in Ringo's absence). Glass Onion - Solid Lennon rocker with some very effective strings arranged by George Martin. One of my favorite Ringo drum parts. Ob-La-Di Ob-La-Da - Nice punchy recording, but... what a dumb song. Percussion and acoustic guitar come through with unprecedented clarity on the new mix, for what it's worth. Wild Honey Pie - What were they thinking? Hard for me to decide which "Honey Pie" song I dislike more. Wow, that's a lot of vibrato, seems like more in the new mix than I remember in the original. The Continuing Adventures of Bungalow Bill - Proof that John could write a song as dopey as Paul's. Does have the great line "He's the all-American bullet-headed Saxon mother's son"... New mix lets you hear Yoko and Maureen Starkey's high voices better in the chorus. While My Guitar Gently Weeps - Probably the first really strong Harrison composition to make it onto a Beatles album. The vocal is clearly double-tracked (at least once he doesn't come in quite at the same time) but it sounds like they put it slightly out of phase to give it an interesting richness. The most interesting thing about the new mix is that you can hear George's wailing in the later part of the song was clearly intended to imitate Clapton's guitar - which of course is heavily inspired by human voice sounds. Happiness is a Warm Gun - An interesting Lennon experiment. Starts with some of the "driest" Lennon vocals ever - usually he insisted on a heavy reverb for his singing. Apparently two takes spliced together - the Beatles struggled to get all the rhythm changes right. Perhaps the best recording the 4 Beatles together on the album with each focused on making a good contribution. I have mixed feelings about the lyrics but the over-all effect is pretty brilliant. Side Two Martha My Dear - A catchy Paul ditty with someone superfluous horns. Essentially a McCartney solo number that could have been on any of his seventies albums. I'm So Tired - Classic self-absorbed Lennon with a vocal that shows off everything I like about his voice. Another one of the (rare) songs on the White Album that makes use of all 4 Beatles including an excellent harmony from Paul and drumming that shows just how good Ringo could be. Blackbird - One of Paul's best. A timeless guitar part, and a dreamy mood enhanced by recording at night on a seat just outside the door of the studio, according to Beatles engineer Geoff Emerick. The vulnerability in Paul's voice is quite touching. But why did they think it needed bird calls? Piggies - A nice little song with a perhaps over-the-top baroque production. Very nice George vocal to open the song, which gets progressively lost as the production gets thicker. Giles Martin did a nice job of isolating the sounds so that it's not quite the muddle on the original album. The pig noises were contributed by John - and sound like him. Rocky Raccoon - No. Just no. Believe it or not if you listen to the original demo, the album version is less corny. One great line though - "Her name was McGill, and she called herself Lil, but everyone knew her as Nancy." Other than that, perhaps the dumbest song the Beatles ever released. (But obviously not everyone agrees, judging by the surprising number of covers.) Don't Pass Me By - OK, maybe I'm wrong, maybe THIS is the dumbest song the Beatles ever released. It's nice they wanted Ringo to get some songwriter royalties which is the only justification I can see for including it. Includes the line "You were in a car crash and you lost your hair", proof that the ability to write good lyrics is not contagious. The crappy "English studio musician trying to play country fiddle" sound just cements the unpleasantness of this track. Why Don't We Do It In The Road - I guess this seemed sort of daring at the time. A good band jam and I like Paul's "Little Richard" voice but overall there's barely enough here to get through a minute and forty-two seconds. I Will - Another sweet one from Paul. I like the second guitar line, which apparently is Paul as well. To me this still stands up well, but I can understand those who think it crosses the saccharine line. Julia - The heart and soul of the album. One of the songs that cements the legend of John Lennon. The sad vulnerability of the vocal over the bright, clean fingerpicked acoustic guitar line creates a wonderful dreamy effect. The chord changes on the middle-eight ("her hair of floating sky is shimmering") add just enough variation to the simple folky mood. The movement of the vocals into and out of double-tracking adds to the dramatic intensity. One of my favorites. Overall - several of the best compositions ever from Lennon, McCartney, and Harrison, with a few stinkers - it's about a third great, a third really solid, and a third somewhere between weak and embarrassing. The Beatles — The White Album (2018 Remix) Album review by Eric Sandberg  George & John - Photo: Michael Herring
Never, in the history of repackaging classic albums to make a few extra bucks, has a bonus disc of demo recordings been this utterly mesmerizing and compelling. A distant second may be Roger Waters' demos for Pink Floyd's The Wall, included with the "Immersive" edition of that album several years ago. Where those demos exposed a shambolic series of lyrically astute, albeit tuneless, sketches, which were developed (rescued) by the true genius of producer Bob Ezrin, the Esher Demos paint a picture of three complete songwriters laying down acoustic demos of songs that were striking and emotive long before they were arranged in the studio. Anniversary project producer Giles Martin chose to sequence the songs in the order they appear on the album, a thoughtful choice as it creates a bubble around the listener that dare not be burst until the last song plays. The sound quality is tremendous, as is the tone of the acoustic guitars used, and the skill of the writers on these instruments is clearly evident. One of the fascinating aspects of the demos is that Paul, John and George all used the same method of double-tracking two complete takes of each song, with the left channel being the first take and the right channel being the second. You can tell that the second takes were played along with the first. In "Dear Prudence" the right-channel John shout "Oops!" after flubbing a lyric he can obviously hear being sung correctly in the first take. The fact that virtually every demo presented here is recorded in this way suggests that this may have been standard procedure by this point for the band before entering the studio. They were creating a playbook for the recording sessions. In some cases the second track adds something new to the original, such as early backing vocal sketches and different guitar lines, that hint at the ultimate arrangement the writer is hearing in his head. The twin takes on other tracks generally mirror each other. These recordings, which were never meant to be heard and dissected by the outside world, go a long way toward confirming some long-held impressions of the personalities involved. John is serious and professional on his first takes but often devolves into his patented, giddy, Goon Show antics in the right channel. Paul is fairly uniform throughout but his occasional bouts with whimsy sound as self-conscious as ever. George, the "Serious Beatle," is the most down-to-business of the three. He was, after all, in an uphill battle for space, even on a proposed double album. Perhaps the most fascinating revelation on this set is John's explanation of the impetus for writing "Dear Prudence," which he rattles off in a rapid fire timbre at the end of the demo. This may well be the first time that legendary story was told. Another interesting aspect of the set is John's demo for "Everybody's Got Something To Hide Except Me And My Monkey" which differs starkly from the arena-rock-riffed final version, and sounds more like a blueprint for Stephen Stills. Also included are some songs that didn't make the final cut, including "Sour Milk Sea," "Circles" (the only demo recorded on a keyboard) and "Not Guilty" from George, "Mean Mr. Mustard" (whose sister was originally named Shelley), "Polythene Pam" and "Child Of Nature" (the music for which became "Jealous Guy") from John, and "Junk" from Paul. The set as a whole is quite capable of putting the listener into a trance that is ultimately disrupted by the final track, the widely bootlegged "What's The New Mary Jane" an unfortunate number that serves to snap you out of your reverie and let you get on with your day. Some songs are better off for never having made it on to an album. The Beatles — The Esher Demos Album review by Eric Sandberg  In the late 70s and early 80s I worked, off and on, at my friend Harold's Radio Shack franchise which doubled as the only record store on the Outer Banks of North Carolina, a business which operates to this very day, boasting an inventory that rivals any hip music store found in the Research Triangle.
I eventually settled in Greenville, NC after graduating from East Carolina University where I served as the first music director for the campus FM station WZMB. A radio promo 45 of Echo & The Bunnymen's "The Cutter" was in heavy rotation at the station during my tenure. "The Cutter" is a powerful and menacing slab of modern rock that belies the tuneful romanticism that pervades most of their work. In 1985, during a visit to my parents on the coast, I stopped by Harold's store and continued to act as if I owned the place by grabbing the special order file to see what people were requesting. The card file was stuffed with requests, all filled out by the same person and served as a virtual Eno discography. This person had become obsessed with Brian Eno and had special ordered his early solo albums, his two albums with Roxy Music, even Genesis' The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway, which purports to have received "Enossification" on at least one track. Included in the orders were four albums by "Eno & The Bunnymen". I pointed out the customer's error to Harold who was worried he might get stuck with them. All four albums arrived during my stay and were interesting in that all the covers depicted the four members trudging through different exotic outdoor settings. The band looked like explorers who always stopped at the hairdressers before embarking on their treks. As intriguing as the album covers were, I couldn't afford to take them off of Harold's hands. By 1987, I had moved to a suburb of Los Angeles and was working at the Music Plus (Believe In Us) in Monterey Park. The best and worst thing about working at Music Plus was the in-store playlist. When Echo & The Bunnymen's self-titled CD was released, I pleaded with the store manager to let me open a copy to play in the store. Largely because my cash drawer always balanced to the penny, he relented and whenever I was allowed to pry Appetite For Destruction out of the CD player I would get to listen to the album while enduring the jeers of my Hessian co-workers. That album yielded two of E&TB's best known radio hits "Lips Like Sugar" and the Doors inspired "Bedbugs And Ballyhoo," a song that brilliantly uses words as a musical instrument. The success of that album led front man Ian McCulloch to pack up his colossal ego and do a "Ferry," issuing two solo albums before reuniting with E&TB guitarist Will Sergeant under the name Electrafixion. After this move failed to inflate their bank balances McCulloch and Sergeant reunited with founding bassist Les Pattinson and resumed work as Echo & The Bunnymen (drummer Pete DeFreitas passed away in 1989). The band released six further albums of new material to varying degrees of commercial and critical success, all the way up to 2014, a period in which, I'm sad to say, they lost my full attention. My interest in the band was rekindled by my beloved daughter, a pop punk devotee, who asked me about them. I bought her a copy of the 1987 album but ended up stealing it back from her and set about scouring record stores for their back catalog. The title of their new album The Stars, The Oceans & The Moon neatly sums up the pervasive romantic themes of their past work and, in fact, contains new recordings of arguably the finest fifteen numbers from their catalog. When I read that this new album was to be all re-recordings of past songs, I dismissed it out of hand as a lazy money grab. But while digging through the bins on a new release Friday at Rhino Records in Claremont, CA, I got to hear the record, which apparently made their in-store playlist, and it was just too magnificent to ignore. To hear these fifteen songs, including such classics as "The Killing Moon," "The Somnambulist," "Ocean Rain" "Seven Seas" and "Stars Are Stars," (beginning to glom the origins of the album title?) all arranged and performed in a modern studio setting is revelatory. The songs are not sequenced chronologically, they are sequenced for flow, like any album of new material would be. As a result, it sounds less like a re-recorded hits package and more like a brilliant debut album. Ian McCulloch's voice has settled, with age, cigarettes and drink, into a deep, rumbling growl which adds a new gravitas to some of the earlier songs. His voice always had character but now he's in Richard Burton territory. The arrangements generally stay true the originals but are more lush and weighty. As a long time casual fan I am hearing many of the songs on this record as the definitive versions. One interesting side note: during the new version of "Bedbugs And Ballyhoo" McCulloch inexplicably shouts "Skiddlybop, skiddlybop!" Inexplicable perhaps, if you haven't already worn out your copy of last year's eponymous solo album by Robyn Hitchcock in which he shouts those very same words in reference to our "feline overlords." Coincidence? I prefer to think no |
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