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)
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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 Concert review by Eric Sandberg with photos by Michael Berman The Ocean Blue The Echoplex, Los Angeles, CA October 28, 2018 In my capacity as a buyer for an LA based retail music chain in the late 80s and early 90s, a lot of promo CDs landed on my desk. If you've ever dug through the $1 CD bins in your local cool record store, you've seen most of them. Toad The Wet Sprocket, Spin Doctors, Bush, Creed, Limp Bizkit, Spice Girls, Hanson, Ace Of Base, Savage Garden, The Offspring, Everclear, The Presidents of the United States of America, Smash Mouth...the end is listless. Of all the hundreds of CDs that I received only a handful made it into my music collection and remain there to this day. There's The Odds, Jimmie Dale Gilmore, Collective Soul (actually they're really good) and The Ocean Blue. From the first moment in 1989 that I heard the shimmering, single-note guitar riff of "Between Something And Nothing" followed by the soft, charming voice of frontman David Schelzel, I knew that the debut album by The Ocean Blue was a keeper. Their music was simple, melodic and very English sounding despite the band hailing from Hershey PA. Two more even better albums were released on the Sire label, followed by one more excellent record with Mercury, the latter introducing new, key sideman Oed Ronne. Following the Mercury album The Ocean Blue vanished, along with the retail music industry. I found myself working at Toys R Us and still listening to those four albums regularly. It wasn't until the rise of the internet that I discovered The Ocean Blue had self-released a fifth album Davy Jone's Locker in 1999. They picked up right where they left off - creating music that makes me happy. A terrific EP, Waterworks followed five years later and it was another nine years before The Ocean Blue released perhaps their best ever album Ultramarine featuring such gorgeous slabs as "New York 6AM" which garnered extensive airplay, at least on KCRW here in LA. As someone who has seen more than his fair share of bands and artists that ended up owing their labels money rather than getting rich, I often wonder what became of these people. I know a guy who was the guitarist in a one and done major label band who has been working at Amoeba Records in Hollywood for decades. I know another one who was a sideman for one of the biggest artists of all time and was working at Guitar Center when I met him. David Schelzel, lead singer, guitarist and main songwriter for The Ocean Blue is a successful lawyer, specializing in entertainment copyright law. Oed Ronne is a talented artist and runs a graphic design studio. They got on with their lives after those heady major label days and made a living for themselves. Thankfully, the band is just too good to be let go of entirely and, despite some of the members living in different time zones, they manage to clear their schedules every once and a while to record new songs and go on tour. Based on the crowd that packed into the Echoplex on Sunset Blvd last Sunday night, they have enough of a following to make touring a worthwhile endeavor. I was extremely excited for the opportunity to see a band I have loved for decades. I prepared myself that they might look old, fat and bald...like I do, but they clearly take better care of themselves. David Schelzel must have a hyperbaric chamber (or a coffin) in his basement because he still looks like the same Ivy league freshman that appears in the early album photos. "
His voice has matured and deepened slightly since those records were recorded but it still possesses the same tonal charm that endeared me to him all those years ago. The playing was tight - the songs aren't rocket science but they sure are catchy and memorable. I had no sense of time as David Schelzel, keyboardist/guitarist Oed Ronne, founding bassist Bobby Mittan and relatively new drummer Peter Anderson plowed through a twenty-two song set, including three new songs which will appear, with any luck, on a new album in 2019 according to Schelzel. With the exception of "New York 6AM", the band played every song I and the enthusiastic and surprisingly knowledgeable crowd could hope for. As I found myself much farther from the stage than I would like, I realized that I no longer had this relatively obscure band to myself. Tongue in cheek album review by Eric Sandberg The Humble Intellectual ew are privy to the true identity of Ace Frehley, who at a young age donned grease paint, a space suit and a guitar to form Kiss, a high concept group of musicians on a quest to merge rock music with Japanese Kabuki theater.
Quiet rumors persist that Frehley, in his true identity, had already graduated from Harvard and Julliard simultaneously by the time he joined Kiss. Frehley left the group over differences held with singer Paul Stanley on socioeconomic status and adiposity in childhood, a subtle parting of the ways I will not detail in this review. Ace briefly reunited with Kiss in the 2000s but Frehley's longstanding dispute with drummer Peter Criss, over whether emotive significance is a matter of degree or kind, nearly led to a tea biscuit being lobbed by one at the other and they were both once again expelled from the band. In 2009 Frehley released Anomaly, the first in a proposed trilogy of high concept albums that are intended to cover all aspects of Religion, Philosophy and Science. But now, Frehley has pundits and fans scratching their collective heads as Ace has just dropped a new, thinly veiled concept album titled Spaceman. The concepts and themes that appear in this record have us wondering if this is part two of the promised trilogy or a side foray into such varied subjects as gender roles, self-identification with geographic upbringing and the rise of Authoritarianism. For example, with "Rockin' With The Boys" Frehley sings "Don't be sad, girl, I'm rockin' with the boys," and turns the modern idiom of gender role-reversal on it's ear by having the female sit at home pining while the male earns a living for them both by "rockin' with the boys." It's a twist that is so subtle and ingenious that it may be lost on the casual listener. Frehley, cleverly plays his guitar in a purposefully minimalist manner on this track leaving the listener pondering whether the song's protagonist could possibly earn a living for two people rockin' with the boys. In "Bronx Boy" Frehley ponders whether being raised in the Bronx affected his intellectual development. "I never played with toys, don't give me your bullshit" tacitly implies Frehley's concerns about the rise of Authoritarianism in America, while "The Pursuit of Rock and Roll" provides dim hope that we will move past the current political climate. "I want life, liberty and the pursuit of rock and roll' Frehley shouts, more than sings, again playing his guitar in such a way that suggests he has not practiced in forty-five years, a canny conceit asserting that we as a nation have lost our collective drive to improve ourselves. It is that ability to subsume his prodigious musicianship and reduce complex socio-political concepts to, what appears on the surface to be utter piddle that makes Ace Frehley a national treasure. Ace Frehley — Spaceman Entertainment One Music www.acefrehley.com Album review by Eric Sandberg For people who continually decry the evils of Twitter, I say "But for Twitter I would never have 'met' Henning Ohlenbusch." As I recall, the Northhampton, MA based guitarist with The Fawns followed me on Twitter after reading some of my pithy replies to Robyn Hitchcock tweets.
I checked him out, of course, because he seemed to be one of my few followers that isn't a Russian bot. Henning is fun on Twitter thanks to a whimsical sense of humor, wildlife-spotting reports and a series of Fan Challenges where he poses interesting questions about popular music and requests responses in the form of a retweet. In the Fawns, Henning is a sideman, supporting his significant other Lesa Bezo, who fronts that band and writes all of the material; but Henning is a prolific songwriter and bandleader himself. Henning formed School For The Dead, which released two albums before changing their name to Gentle Hen. As Henning puts it "Hey, let's change our name after being a band for so long and releasing a few albums. It'll make it harder for people to find us." The earlier albums by the band, under either name, evoke a jangly, indie, Eastern North Carolina feeling. Each album exhibits an advancement in songwriting, arranging and playing that leads us to the third Gentle Hen album which sees them ready to gain some real traction in this "tsunami" we currently call the music business...only if enough people get to hear it. Be Nice To Everyone begins with the bold statement "We've Got The Goods" a driving power-popper, crisply played and confidently sung. The remaining ten tracks ably back up that assertion. "She's Got It Bad" is replete with a classy keyboard intro leading to some tasty 12-string jangle, establishing Gentle Hen as the anti-Weezer. Henning's somewhat nasal voice adds authentic charm to the whimsical lyrics and are sung with such expert and earnest phrasing that his non-traditional voice is an asset rather than a hindrance to your listening pleasure. The stomping albeit filler track "Knock Knock Knock" is followed by the grooving synth riff of "This Could Only Happen To You," which plows along with insistent vocals and an oriental set of guitar dyads that act as counterpoint to the keyboard riff. But everything so far is just a feint to get you to track five -- "A Few More Lifetimes" -- the album's literal and figurative centerpiece. This beautiful, haunting ballad is perfectly arranged, with ethereal pedal steel work from guest musician Andrew Goulet, as well as swirling organ and a tasteful, echo-drenched guitar solo. I find myself often hitting the forward button to skip the musically trite TMGB send-up "There's A World In The World" to get to the absolutely delicious slice of power pop titled "Lean And Catch Your Fall," a song as good as or better than anything by Paul Westerberg, Matthew Sweet, or Alex Chilton for that matter. If Henning Ohlenbusch can keep writing gorgeous songs like this, I say let's send the penchant for musical whimsy on holiday for a fortnight. Once again my finger is poised over the skip button as "They Know, They Know" hums along. It's another nice little ditty that recalls the band's past work, but it stands in the way of me listening to "Ancient Bones," in which Gentle Hen merges John Lennon, Robyn Hitchcock and, dare I say, Porcupine Tree into one brilliant, anthemic pop song that once and for all proves that this band has the goods. While "Ancient Bones" is a clear show closer, the final two tracks serve well as an encore. "You Can Take It Back" recalls the early Attractions with a fast punk beat driving some two-fingered Wurlitzer chords, just to shake you out of the blissful trance induced by its predecessor. The album closes with the hopeful "What We Did And What We Didn't Do," a catchy, upbeat reflection on how to live your life (be nice to everyone) with a great middle-eight that lends some heft to the bouncy verses. Be Nice To Everyone is thoroughly enjoyable throughout. The less substantial songs, really just additions to the style established on previous albums, are quite good and listenable, but are somewhat exposed by the tremendous leap forward in songs like "A Few More Lifetimes," "Lean And Catch Your Fall," and "Ancient Bones." Those songs hint at a songwriter who is ready to make a big impact -- if enough people get to hear this fine record. Gentle Hen — Be Nice To Everyone Rub Wrongways Records @GentleHen @ItsMeHenning CRR archive interview by Eric Sandberg — Carl Palmer Carl Palmer needs no introduction. If you need me to detail Carl's vast contributions to music during a five decade career of uncompromising excellence at his craft, you shouldn't even be reading this. I caught Mr. Palmer for a brief chat as he prepared to head to the next town for the next sold out date of his successful ELP Legacy tour, promoting their most recent live album and DVD, featuring metalized guitar, bass and drum instrumental arrangements of ELP classics. Eric: You're about to wind up the American leg of the ELP Legacy tour promoting your great new live album and I see you have dates coming up in Europe in the new year. Now that the album has been out for a while, how are you feeling about the reception it's getting? Carl Palmer: The reviews we've had have been really good. It's on the same label (BMG) as the entire ELP catalog. I'm signed directly to them as well. The DVD is a tribute to Keith and Greg. It was recorded eighteen months ago and was originally intended as a tribute to Keith Emerson but, within the year, Greg Lake passed away as well, so we postponed the release and added a tribute to him. The CD is also live and features some new classical adaptations, some new ELP and King Crimson classics and that's packaged with the DVD as well. As I said, the reviews have gone well and the concerts are going great, we've had quite a few sellouts on the tour. All in all I'm very, very pleased. Eric: I'm of a certain age where I grew up listening to so many wonderful bands from the late 60s and 70s like Emerson, Lake & Palmer and Yes. In this day of the internet, we learn instantly when one of our heroes has passed away and it's tough. As a musician and bandmate, you have had a particularly trying time in the past year with the passing of three very important people in your life. I can't imagine what that has been like for you. CP: It's been quite hard. You don't often have a career that has that type of problem where you lose three people in such a short time. In actual fact, the three were lost in a period of eleven months. Keith passed in March, 2016, then Greg in December and John Wetton in January of 2017. These were friends, people with whom I've made a lot of music, toured the world and been very successful. To lose three in such a short period is probably a first. I don't think anyone in our business has actually gone through that. Eric: We are certainly grateful that you are still with us, healthy, and still able to perform behind the kit at the same impeccable level. Bill Bruford and Neil Peart have retired and Phil Collins is sitting on a stool, but it's not a drum stool. I have to ask you how you are able to do it when so many of your contemporaries in the field of percussion have been forced to sheath their sticks because of the pain they are in. CP: All the people you mentioned have what I call ergonomical problems caused by the way their drums were set up. They had inherent problems for many years because of the way they played. I'm not saying it's relevant to all of them but I think this is relevant to Phil and Neil in particular. I've had some great teachers. I've had as many as six teachers and one of them was an unbelievable instructor. The first thing he did was show me how to set up a drum kit. I don't think many people are ever taught how to set up a drum kit properly. They get a drum set and they just start playing it. You see all these weird angles where the player looks like he's sitting on the floor and the cymbals are tilted at a forty-five degree angle. All of that contributes to problems which will crop up in the future if you play for many, many years. So that has something to do with it. I'm also very strict with my diet. I'm a Vegan and I've never really drank...I've never had a beer, for example, and I never smoked cigarettes. I've done a few drugs in my lifetime when I was young. You may know I was in a band called The Crazy World of Arthur Brown in 1968. We had the number one single with "Fire." You can imagine being a part of that period of psychedelia, Haight-Ashbury and all that, but none of that really appealed to me. I was only there for the music, I wasn't even there for the fame. I was into the music and if money came along, and I could make a living...which I have for many years now...that feels fine. So that's how it all came about and that's who I am. All of those things put together; looking after yourself, eating well, setting up your drums properly so you don't have problems...I think all of that's got something to do with it. I've had both my hands operated on for carpel tunnel but it was nothing at all to do to do with drumming, believe it or not, it had to do with Karate which I've practiced for the last eighteen years. I realized I had to stop because I was getting a little bit older and drumming was more important to me, so I stopped going down to the dojo to train. So I've had my problems but they haven't been severe because they've been controlled. Eric: I think one word that can all can sum all that up is discipline. I actually spoke with a former bandmate of yours yesterday, Robert Berry. He says hello and wants you to know how impressed he is with your work with Carl Palmer's ELP Legacy and how you are as good as you've ever been, but he also talked about how disciplined you were when it came to managing the day to day business of being a recording and touring musician. CP: I know Robert very well and what he said is absolutely true. I've always played a big part in the business because I've learned quite a lot. I had my first success when I was eighteen years old and I've paid attention as things have gone along and it's been very good for me. I'm very happy for all of that. Eric: I'd like to take a moment to ask you about another massively successful band you were in, Asia. You fulfilled a number of tour dates, obviously, with Billy Sherwood stepping in, but are there any future plans for Asia after the passing of John Wetton? CP: Yes there are. I can't really tell you everything right now because we're still in talks. Who knows, this could happen by next summer. There is nothing in concrete, if it happens I'll still be playing with CPL but Asia could be part of the bill. It's something that Geoff and I have discussed and it's a question of fitting it around with what I do and what he does. That's all I can tell you at this time. Obviously, my first priority is CPL and don't forget that in 2020 there are a lot plans surrounding the fiftieth anniversary of ELP. I'm trying now to put something together with my band and other outside artists so we can actually put on a concert to be filmed or broadcast. That's one of my main priorities right now. Asia is still there, it was a great band, but it is not one of my priorities right now. If it all comes to work out, that's fine, but I've got plenty of other things going on. Eric: For this proposed ELP 50th anniversary concert with your band and other outside artists, are you planning to incorporate vocalists and other instruments? CP: Yes, absolutely. We still do have a number of vocals that we use with CLP. There are some things we have been doing this year with Paul (Bielatowicz) on vocoder. So other artists will be brought in to augment the band and this will include singers. The BMG roster of musicians is very broad in the point of view of different kinds of musicality, so there are a lot of people we could use that would be from the same label. It's just a case of approaching them and building things up so we have something worthy of a global concert. Eric: With everything else going on in your life and career, how have you also had the time to establish a career as a graphic artist? CP: I have various people working for me in that area. It's been quite successful. I engage a company called Scene Four in Los Angeles so it's not a problem managing it. I have to find the time to focus on ideas. I have put out two catalogs, the first being Twist Of The Wrist and the second is The Rhythm Of Light. They've both sold exceptionally well and we do hold art events in which I participate. The actual creating of the art is the most time consuming part of it for me. One canvas can take seven or eight hours, if I'm lucky, and I can also spend that amount of time and come up with nothing. What I'm doing at the moment is kind of a hit and miss art form. I'm basically capturing light from the end of drumsticks which have LED lights built into them. There is a red, green, yellow and a blue. They don't go out when I'm playing the drums. They're self-generating and indestructible. I'm set up in the other room about twelve feet by twelve feet in pitch black with two two digital cameras set at different shutter speeds and we try to find the right angles for these cameras to be placed until something works. And then it's down to the synergy between me and person operating the camera on that day. If he pushes the buttons at the right time as I drum, we're going to get an image that can be something quite magical, something that can't be reproduced. So when we get one it's like writing a song or a piece of music. It's something that has been given to you, you take it and you move on. It can be quite an involved process but I'm very happy to be doing it. I started creating art back in 1973, before we had all this technology, which has created a new art form which we have now. Eric: So, looking ahead to 2019 you have a twenty or so date tour booked already in February and March. Do you think you will be coming back to the United States at all? CP: We might be back late in the year. It's a little bit up in the air at the moment, we haven't been able to lock it all down, but we definitely will be going to South America next year. We're going to be doing some recording with an orchestra in Argentina and we are going to start our own Summer camp which will take place in the Philadelphia area (see link). It will be a two day event. Paul and Simon (Fitzpatrick) will be there, along with me, teaching classes. We will have other outside instructors and there will be a concert along with a screening of some ELP footage that has never been seen. Eric: Well you've certainly got all of us fans excited for the next two years. I hope you've booked some holiday time for yourself. Does it ever become daunting to have your life booked out over a matter of years? CP: I'm very fortunate, because I have a property in North London, actually, I've got a London phone number and a Hertfordshire address. And I have an apartment in Cyprus so I've got two houses I can go to which makes things nice. It depends on the weather whether I go to the UK or head to Cyprus. Directly after this tour I get about four days off. Eric: Wow! Four whole days! Enjoy! CRR archive album review by Eric Sandberg — Tony Lewis (formerly of The Outfield) Out of the Darkness Rating: A++
John Spinks, Guitarist, songwriter and co-vocalist of the Outfield was a perfectionist, insisting on take after take, line by line, bar by bar. Perhaps as a result, the Outfield produced some of the most enduring, affecting and arm waving anthems of the 80's, spearheaded by the piercing high tenor of bassist, singer, Tony Lewis. One week shy of four years since Spinks' tragic passing from cancer, Tony Lewis will release his debut solo album, Out of the Darkness on Madison Records. Lewis wrote and recorded most of the songs in his home studio in England, playing all of the instruments and using lyrics written by his wife Carol (Madison Records owner, Tanner Hendon played acoustic drums on several of the beefier songs). As I prepared to listen to the album, I was curious, but did not have high hopes, mainly because, apart from a couple of co-credits, it was John Spinks, not Tony, who was the compositional architect of the Outfield. Boy was I wrong! Right out of the gate, "Into the Light" whomped me with the patented Outfield muted power chords, and that voice, belting out an instant ear-worm melody. Before I could recover from the amazing verse/chorus sequence the song heads into a perfect counter-punch middle eight which serves to give the final chorus even more emotional impact. Tony follows up with two more songs in a similar vein, instantly catchy, but deceptively clever in their construction. As "Only You" starts its early chorus over another muted power chord sequence, I began to worry that the approach was going to start to wear thin. But the song is so good, with another great bridge and a deft use of chords that would make a young George Harrison blush, my concern was quickly washed away. It turns out that I needn't have worried at all as Tony was about about to flex his new found songwriting chops into new areas. "The Dance of Love" slows things down a bit, with a haunting melody and vocal line, while "I'll Still Be Here" proves that Tony Lewis can just plain rawk. "Loving You" is perhaps the album's centerpiece. A ballad featuring emotionally powerful vocals albeit wrapped in maybe just a tad too much reverb, but are no less affecting. The relentless onslaught of world class songwriting continues with back to back Power Pop gems, "Melt the Ice" and "Thank You (For Breaking My Heart)", leading up to "Dreams and Wishes", a song reminiscent of a late 60's Folk tune, a-la Sandy Denny's Fairport Convention. In a recent interview with Tony, he described the arduous task of recording vocals for the Outfield, involving at times, up to fifty takes. For this album, Tony felt free to sing away, nailing one inspired vocal performance after another. Perhaps all the drills John put him through back in the day served him well when it came time to step out on his own. Closing out the album are two very strong songs that each could serve as a great album finisher. "Think That You Know Me" begins with a pulsing keyboard intro followed by Tony's now trademark chiming guitar as he might as well be saying, 'Thought that you knew me until you heard this record'. Finally, after eleven tracks of shimmering Pop craft, Tony leaves us, for now, with the gentle and beautiful acoustic ballad, "I Know", which completes his ascendance as an elite songwriter. Bottom line: this album will instantly appeal with plenty of ear catching melodies and dynamic musical changes, but the handful of songs that you may gloss over during the first few spins will burrow their way into your mind with repeated listening. Every song on this album has popped into my head at one time or another and stayed lodged there until I could listen to the album again. Track Listing for OUT OF THE DARKNESS: 1. Into the Light 2. Here And Now 3. Only You 4. The Dance of Love 5. All Alone 6. I’ll Still Be Here 7. Loving You 8. Melt The Ice 9. Dreams and Wishes 10. You Think That You Know Me 11. Thank You (For Breaking My Heart) 12. I Know CRR archive interview by Eric Sandberg — Tony Lewis Formerly of The Outfield You may not know the name Tony Lewis, but you know his voice. Tony's voice has been soaring out of radios since 1985, starting with the Outfield's "Your Love" and continuing with mega radio and MTV hits like "Say It Isn't So", "All The Love", "Since You've Been Gone" and "Voices Of Babylon." The Outfield reached the bottom of the 9th with the tragic passing of guitarist/songwriter John Spinks in 2014, from cancer. Tony took some time away from music, but at the urging of his wife, he began working in his home studio, creating backing tracks and composing his own music which, with the help of his wife, lyrically, he developed into an album's worth of top-notch songs. I spoke with Tony from Hertfordshire, England as he prepared for the release of his first single and lyric video of the song "Into the Light" which was released on May 18th, to be followed by the album's release at the end of June. Tony will also be back out on stage as part of the summer US Retro Futura tour, also featuring Howard Jones, Men Without Hats, The English Beat, Modern English and several more ‘80s stalwarts. Eric: Congratulations on this new solo album. It's really terrific. Tony Lewis: Thank You. Any favorites? Eric: Well the first three tracks, "Into The Light", "Here And Now" and "Only You" evoke a certain band you used to be in, but throughout the album you take things in new directions. "The Dance Of Love" is just beautiful. I also love "Dreams and Wishes" which might have sounded at home on an early Fairport Convention album. Practically every song on Out Of The Darkness is an earworm. The melodies pop into my head and I think, "Where is that from? Oh, that Tony Lewis album!" Obviously "Loving You" is one of the most affecting songs on the album. I like "I'll Still Be here' which comes off as a more menacing version of "Every Breath You Take". How did this album come about? TL: What happened was that Randy Sadd (Protocol Entertainment), who used to promote The Outfield, knew Tanner Hendon, the owner of Madison Records. Tanner is a drummer. He's drummed with Paul Rodgers and Bad Company. Getting a record deal with a guy who owns the label, who can drum as well...It's like, "Thank you, God!" Tanner plays drums on five of the tracks and he and Wyatt Oats mixed the record. The rest of the album, which goes in a different direction, Is basically what I did in my home studio. For drums, I played an electronic kit. I love the drums. I love writing drum parts. I treat them as a musical instrument, not just a backing instrument. Eric: Do you use drums sometimes as the starting off point for writing a song? TL: Yeah, I do. It's like building a house. If you get a really good rhythm section, you get the bass drum and the bass guitar in sync...once you've nailed that, everything else is a bonus. Then you can start layering the guitars and the vocals on it. I had fun doing it. It wasn't stressful at all. A lot of people feel it's a huge undertaking, making an album on your own, but for me it was almost effortless. Eric: When I hear an album like this I think, "It can't be that hard!" but I've tried to write songs, and it's hard! TL: In the studio I'll get an idea and try it out but, if it's not happening in the first five minutes, I'll move on to something else. It's an amalgamation of applying yourself, using your imagination and letting your mind wander. You keep your fingers moving on the fretboard until you come up with something special. Eric: Anyone who is a fan of the Outfield knows that the late great John Spinks, and my deepest condolences on your loss, was the songwriter for the band. How confident were you would be able to write songs good enough to put out on a album? TL: It started off as a hobby really. In the first couple of years after John passed, I didn't even pick up a guitar, let alone thinking about recording music. But my wife and I were out at the pub one night and she said, "You're a musician, why aren't you doing anything?" In the studio I started putting all these backing tracks together. I started trying to turn them into songs but I was really struggling. I did the odd song but was very critical of myself. Then my wife had some lyrics. Some of them worked with the backing tracks and with some I started from scratch with an acoustic guitar. The main thing was to come up with a real hook or a chorus and then you could build a song. If you haven't got a hook or a chorus, they'll become album tracks. I was fairly confident in my ability to produce, arrange and play all the instruments myself. It all just formed into an album after a year or two. I very rarely went back and remixed stuff. In the Outfield we were always doing that. We were always remixing and singing first lines (opening vocal lines of a song) again. John was very picky about first lines where I'm not. If the first line grabs you then sing the rest. Remember "Missing You" by John Waite? It took him two weeks to nail that first line (sings) "Everytime I think of you..." Two weeks to get that one first line down. I know it's important, and it used to really spook me, but now I don't even think about it. You'd be on a recording loop forever if you keep thinking about that first line. The important thing is just to be confident and just sing it rather than just do it a line at a time. It's made it more enjoyable. I just really enjoyed doing this album. Eric: I always find it interesting when they remaster an album, and toss on the studio outtakes and demos to make you buy it for the fifth time, that some of the earlier takes some of the lines are sung differently; the timing, the notes, the emphasis on words are different. I think, "Oompha! I'm glad they kept at it until they got it right!" TL: It's actually gotten a lot easier with today's technology. I'm not talking about using Autotune but in Logic there's a program that allows you to nudge a note up a bit. I'm not being lazy, but if I've got a good performance, but a note is a little bit sharp or flat in there, I can do a little adjustment on it and put it in tune, whereas, in the old days you had to sing it over and over and over again. John was always into getting the performance on time and in tune and it's very difficult to do that, especially when we were singing the parts together and we had to do them again and again. After the fiftieth time I'd just be like, "AAAAAAAHHHHHHH!" (laughter). I just want to sing the song! It had a reverse effect on me after a while. The Red LIght Fever we used to call it. Eric: When you get new record from an artist you like, and it's really good, it makes you also want to go back and listen to the old records. After listening to Out Of the Darkness about twenty times I went back and listened to the old catalog over the weekend. It was then that I realized that your album is actually very different from the Outfield. You're doing your own thing here. I was reminded that John did an awful lot of singing on those records, mostly in harmony with you. TL: John's voice had a very hard-hitting, upper-mid sound to it that was very different from mine. David Kahne, who produced Voices of Babylon (1989), called me a freak. He said my scale is very different, almost like a woman's scale. I can't even sing Christmas carols because the pitch is too low. I have to sing them in a higher register. My high matched with John's mid-low. Our voices were almost an octave apart so we fit together, a marriage of two voices that sounded great. Another example is "Closer To Me" from Rockeye (1992). That chorus is his voice and mine. It sounds like twenty voices but it's only eight voices. That's what's missing from my album, that hard-edged John Lennon buzzsaw voice. This album is really just about me; my portrayal of moving into the light and getting noticed as, not just the bassist and singer from the Outfield, but that I can produce, play the guitar, keyboards and drums. This is my work and my time to get out there and play. Eric: I believe that everyone who truly loves music has one or a few albums they discovered when they were young that virtually imprinted on their DNA and hold a sacred place in their hearts until the end. Do any albums come to your mind in that context? TL: Strangely, the very first album I ever bought was Machine Head (1972) by Deep Purple but I'm a big Beatles fan. The music that shaped me, growing up as a kid, was the Beatles. I remember hearing "Penny Lane" on the radio when I was nine and this voice was telling me that I'm safe...that everything in the world going to be all right for me. It's almost like a spiritual thing, listening to them. There is something in the music that takes it beyond the music. It speaks to you. They were so, so clever at such an early age. Of course I'm a big fan of Paul McCartney's bass playing. As far as albums, as a kid I really didn't have enough money to buy albums. I bought singles by T Rex, David Bowie...the 70's were a big influence on me, as well as listening to the radio in the 60s. I'ts a very broad spectrum of music. I couldn't put it down to one album. I know that the very first Van Halen album made a huge impression on me. Eddie Van Halen, I'd never heard anyone play guitar like that. It's like he was from outer space. Toys In The Attic was big. "Sweet Emotion", made a big impression on me as to how to start a record with a bass. Very haunting. Eric: You are going to be in the Retro Futura Tour in the US this summer. There are a lot of bands out there touring under a 'name' but with nobody that was actually around when the band started. Most people would say that you would be perfectly within your rights to use the name, the Outfield. But, when I listen to this record, it's clear, this is Tony Lewis, which I really respect. Obviously, you're going to be playing some Outfield favorites on this tour, but I think your new material will easily hold up alongside those songs. TL: Thank you. That's a nice compliment. Hand on heart, if I went to a Sting concert and he didn't play "Message In A Bottle" or "Every Breath You Take", I'd be disappointed. It's the same with the Outfield. I cannot get off stage without singing "Your Love" or "Say It Isn't So" or "All The Love In The World". They're great songs and I'm lucky to be able to get up on stage and sing them. It's going to be weird without John onstage. It's going to be very, very strange. Even Liam Gallagher said when he was getting ready to go on tour, that he missed his brother. He was thrown into this solo career. It's a shame they don't talk. Without John it's going to be very surreal and bittersweet. I'm looking forward to playing new material and Outfield songs and just getting out there again. It's been a long time. CRR archive album review by Eric Sandberg — The Aaron Clift Experiment - If All Goes Wrong Rating: C-
Before I begin my review of this album I want to preface it by saying that I greatly admire anyone who loves music, creates music, dedicates countless hours learning to play their instruments and, most importantly, are willing to put themselves out there to be heard and judged by the unruly mob. There are many big time critics that have taken great pleasure in savaging and ridiculing the works of others (J.D. Considine comes to mind). Sometimes the attacks are warranted, like when an extremely talented and established artist betrays his or her talent for a buck (Rod Stewart anyone?). As someone who can write a little, and has been given a platform by Jeb Wright, the founder of this esteemed website, I am afforded the opportunity to hear a lot of new music that I wouldn't ordinarily get to hear and share what I think about it with you, the reader. Some of it has been great and fun to share and some has been so awful that I chose not to write anything about it at all. I'm also wrong sometimes, lavishing praise on something not so deserving of it, perhaps because I was star-struck...hey, I'm human. This brings me to The Aaron Clift Experiment's third release, If All Goes Wrong. I know very little about The Aaron Clift experiment so I am definitely letting the music and album cover do the talking. Starting with the album art; it's a very nice painting and works as an eye-catching visual. The album title also works well with the graphics. So far, so good...but what if all goes wrong after that? I'm afraid it does for the most part. Granted, there is some excellent musicianship and compositional chops on display here...some lovely melodies... and I believe there is enough raw talent and skill involved to make music down the road that is next-level if they keep at it and are willing to accept honest, constructive criticism. The band name, The Aaron Clift Experiment, belies the utter lack of originality of the music within. This is PROG music in that it emulates, simulates and imitates the works of other artists who were truly breaking down the boundaries of Rock and Roll...um, fifty years ago. There are some compelling albeit familiar musical moments thanks to some great playing and a basic understanding of musical dynamics but they are hard to enjoy when they are accompanied by singing that is, at best, overly mannered and bland, and, at worst, straining and off key. The quality of the singing unfortunately highlights lyrics that would sound pretentious and hackneyed coming out of the regal pipes of a 22 year old Greg Lake in 1969. The Aaron Clift Experiment is trying way too hard to recreate something in a way that has been pulled off successfully, maybe just once when Steven Wilson unleashed The Raven That Refused To Sing and Other Stories a few years ago. That album evoked Early Yes, Genesis and King Crimson without copying them, just as Wilson nodded toward Peter Gabriel's So (1986) and Kate Bush's The Hounds of Love (1985) with his most recent album (To The Bone) without borrowing a note from either. Admittedly, comparing these earnest and talented young men to a seasoned professional genius like Steven Wilson is unfair but I will stipulate that I have a hard time listening to the first couple of Porcupine Tree albums all the way through. They have their moments but massive musical growth and the addition of talented personnel is what ultimately made Porcupine Tree, and Wilson, world beaters. If this band can honestly self-reflect and look at what can be done to take them to the next-level (ie: come up with a new name, find a dynamic vocalist and reassess their lyrical approach) I really want to hear what they do next. |
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