Category: Music

Plastic Soul Lives

On October 17, Amazon.com created a section devoted to vinyl records.

One of D.F. Rogers’ possessions that I envy him having is the complete British catalog (or, should I say, “catalogue”) of Beatles albums put out by Mobile Fidelity Sound Labs in the early 1980’s. The box set now goes for big bucks on eBay. I have a couple of the individual discs. The general consensus is the records sound better than the CDs; which is understandable, considering the digital mastering was done with first-generation equipment over 20 years ago.

Joe Sinnott Interview — October 15, 1977

Joe Sinnott, October 16, 1926-June 25, 2020

Joe Sinnott is one of the greatest comic book inkers of all time. Actually, he’s the greatest. No finer hand has ever held pen and brush. I’ve been a fan of Joe’s work for over 40 years. Thirty years ago, when Joe made an appearance at a Boston comic book convention, I called him “a God of the industry,” and he still is.

Being a radio announcer at the time, I had access to a good quality portable tape recorder, making it possible for me to record an impromptu interview with Joe and a group of enthusiastic fans, including my best buddy, Dennis F. Rogers. Out of half an hour of tape I’ve spliced together a couple of clips.

In this part of the discussion, Joe Sinnott comments on comic books. That’s me asking the first question, sounding overly hyperbolic and just plain hyper.

And in this segment, Joe talks about being a lifelong fan of Bing Crosby, who had died the day before this recording was made! That’s Dennis asking Joe about his hobby.

In retrospect, Dennis and I have always kicked ourselves for not spending the entire time talking with Joe about Bing, because we were plenty interested in the subject, and it was what he wanted to talk about. In recognition of Joe Sinnott, Der Bingle fan, here is Bing from one of Joe’s favorite periods, the early 30’s, singing “Pennies From Heaven.”

Additional Note: This recording of “Pennies From Heaven” came from a 1973 German LP that I own. D.F. Rogers, an amateur but highly proficient musicologist, believes this performance is most likely the original version, recorded for the Decca label on August 17, 1936.

Beatless Ringo?

Geoff Emerick - Here, There and EverywhereI’m in the middle of reading the autobiography (written with help) of recording engineer and producer Geoff Emerick — Here, There and Everywhere: My Life Recording the Music of THE BEATLES. This is an excellent, excellent book, a great read, and it’s enormously, vastly better than George Martin’s All You Need Is Ears.

Emerick’s vivid accounts of the Beatles’ recording sessions make a perfect companion to the superb — but highly technical — reference text, RTB Book — Recording the Beatles, by Kevin Ryan and Brian Kehew. He tells many stories that others have told in ways that were either exaggerated, off-the-mark, or incomplete. For example, Emerick has the best account I’ve read of why Ringo was pulled after the first take of “Love Me Do.”

Ringo was having difficulty maintaining a steady beat, and Paul was starting to get annoyed with him. George Martin did his best to prop them up over this talkback mic, but in his private conversations with Norman [Smith], he criticized the unsteady drumming.

Another interesting moment was when Emerick met Brian Epstein for the first time.

Friendly though he was, Brian struck me as a bit odd. He was a quiet man, obviously upper class. He didn’t come to many sessions, but he was always very polite to me when he did; however, I always got the impression that the Beatles didn’t like having him around.

Despite Epstein’s importance to the success of The Beatles, they felt the recording studio was their domain, and Epstein didn’t belong there. Also, Epstein was gay, and from what I’ve read elsewhere, at that time The Beatles weren’t comfortable with his lifestyle.

Emerick loves to describe the various recording tricks that were employed to give The Beatles’ records their distinctive sound. And unlike the RTB book, his explanations aren’t technical. In the spirit of audio experimentation, I recommend checking out a link on the WFMU blog, where the entire Beatles album catalog has been compressed into one hour. You may find yourself getting bored quickly with that, so I suggest listening to the time-compressed songs that have been slowed down. EMI/Capitol may not appreciate these mashed-up recordings, but they’re exactly the sort of playing around that The Beatles loved to do in the studio.

Painted Dolls in Singin’ In The Rain

Several people have commented they don’t recognize the song “Wedding of the Painted Doll” from the 1929 movie Broadway Melody, that I said is in the 1951 movie Singin’ In The Rain. That’s understandable, because it’s in a montage sequence that lasts all of one minute. And here it is…
[flv:http://www.dograt.com/Video/OCT07/SinginInRain.flv 400 300]

That’s Rita Moreno as Zelda. Moreno is still working at age 75. She’s currently appearing in the TV show Cane.

Declan McManus and Robert Zimmerman on Stage

Dylan and Costello in Worcester, MA

My buddy Dennis and I saw and heard Bob Dylan and Elvis Costello Tuesday night. “Live on stage!” as the ticket says. The seats weren’t cheap, but the second row never is.

Costello was in fine form for his 45-minute warm-up to Dylan, and his voice was in stunningly good shape. Dylan’s voice, sorry to say, wasn’t in such good shape. But still, he put on a great show, with an eclectic selection of songs, and an absolutely top-notch band.

Dylan has been bitten by the marketing bug, because the ticket came with this promo badge and a lanyard to wear it…

Dylan and Costello in Worcester, MA

…and also part of the package was — to my astonishment — a real, working, totally analog pocket watch in a leather pouch!

Dylan and Costello in Worcester, MA