Petula Clark put on a wonderful 75-minute show Sunday night, at the Mohegan Sun Cabaret!
The place was packed, and it was a truly magical show, with Petula looking her loveliest and performing her absolute best. What a consummate entertainer! Pet is a singer, a story teller, and even a poet. She has a full band touring with her, with horns, and they put out a super sound. I was very pleased to have 60’s Pop Music maven D.F. Rogers there with me, to share the fun of seeing Pet live for the first time.
I sneaked just a few seconds of video. We were sitting too far back for this to look like much, but here it is.
After the show there was a meet-and-greet signing with Petula at the Spin Street record store in Mohegan Sun. I grabbed a few moments of video from there, as well.
That’s Petula’s stage manager, Victor Lukas, with her. Last year, having spotted my blog, Victor asked me to do a favor for him and Petula, and I was of course more than happy to oblige. I introduced myself, and Victor took this picture of me with the one and only Miss Petula Clark. Thank you, Victor!
Petula and I had a lovely little exchange, that went something like this:
Pet: “You’re all dressed up!”
Me: “Uh, yeah….”
Pet: “People don’t get dressed up anymore for shows.”
Me: “Well, it’s for, you know, the occasion.”
Pet: “I think you look very nice.”
You can imagine how I felt about that comment! I thanked Pet and Victor and, as Dennis can attest, I left Spin Street in a daze. I would have loved a longer chat with Pet, of course, but there were a lot of people waiting behind me. I wanted to ask how Thursday evening went at the Paley Center, with the commemoration of the 40th anniversary of her TV special featuring Harry Belafonte. I’m hoping there will be a write-up about it in the next issue of Petula & Company.
Thank you, Petula Clark, for a delightful evening that I shall always remember. Truly you are a superstar talent and the finest of ladies.
Recording engineer Geoff Emerick, who I’ve featured probably half a dozen times now, has been in Florida lately, working on a Beatles tribute by Cheap Trick’s Robin Zander. Here’s the article. For once a local piece, in this instance from the St. Petersburg Times, and not something from the AP and picked up by everybody.
As discussed at this blog entry, Curvebender Publishing’s deluxe, limited edition book, Kaleidoscope Eyes: A Day in the Life of Sgt. Pepper, is out. Everything Curvebender does is unique and classy, even their e-mail, so I’ll share what I received from them today.
Dear Curvebender customer,
We are pleased to announce that our newest title, Kaleidoscope Eyes: A Day in the Life of Sgt. Pepper, is in stock and ready for immediate shipping. You may have received a pre-order brochure for this book in the mail several months ago, but if not, please read on (we also have a limited remainder of the brochures in stock, and if you would like to receive one, please reply to this email with your mailing address).
Kaleidoscope Eyes [official release]
As a followup to Recording The Beatles, we are pleased to announce the publication of our newest title: Kaleidoscope Eyes: A Day In The Life Of Sgt. Pepper. Photographer Henry Grossman spent an evening in the recording studio with the Beatles in February 1967. Only a handful of the more than 250 black and white images he captured that night have ever been published. In an exclusive partnership with Mr. Grossman, Curvebender proudly presents his entire collection of black and white Beatles studio photographs in the form of Kaleidoscope Eyes. Housed in a deluxe limited edition volume, the photos are presented in chronological order, allowing the evening to unfold for the reader just as it did for Henry. The result is a stunning photographic essay, an intimate fly-on-the-wall view of the Beatles at work. It is the first of several upcoming volumes showcasing Mr. Grossman’s remarkable body of work.
Strictly limited to 1,967 hand-numbered books, each copy of Kaleidoscope Eyes is hand-signed by Henry Grossman and accompanied by four prints and a contact sheet reproduction. No expense has been spared in creating a true piece of book-art, from the design and presentation, to the choice of materials and packaging. It will undoubtedly be a one-of-a-kind addition to any Beatles fan’s library.
We invite you to visit our website to learn more about this unique title. If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact us.
Best wishes, from everyone at Curvebender Publishing.
The influence of garage bands of the 60’s continues to be felt today. Most bands probably practice more in the basement than the garage, but either way it smells like teen spirit.
Over at this post are comments by musician and Beatles fan Jake Gerber, whose garage band roots go all the way back to Elvis and the Everly Brothers. Jake has an interesting history, and at this link he told some of it to Mike Dugo, founder of the Web site 60’s Garage Bands.
Another interview by Mike Dugo is with Bill Trainor, the lead guitarist for a popular Boston area 60’s band called The Shadows Four. You can read it here. Bill is on the right in the photos. I saw Bill at work for many years, before he took early retirement ten years ago.
By the time Jonathan Richman and the Modern Lovers recorded their anthem “Roadrunner,” they couldn’t exactly be considered a garage band, but when the legendary Boston FM alternative music station WBCN played the song, celebrating the AM sound, it perfectly captured the feeling of the place and time that was greater Boston in the early 70’s. (Although it is reported to have been recorded in L.A.). On organ is Jerry Harrison, who would later be one of The Talking Heads.
Well, that certainly is a fun account Dennis wrote about seeing, hearing, and meeting Les Paul, the legendary guitar impresario, virtuoso, and recording engineer. Thanks again, Den.
Les Paul had first played around with sound-on-sound using disc recording, but as soon as magnetic tape recording came along he took full advantage of it. At its simplest, by disabling the erase head on a monaural tape recorder, a second recording can be placed over another. Added to that was the trick of the recording the first pass at 7.5 inches per second, then running the overdub pass at 15 ips. This sped up the first pass, giving it a weird, yet compelling, sound, if it’s done right. Listen to this 17-second Les Paul clip.
[audio:/2008/MAY/LesPaul_normal_speed.mp3]
Hear that guitar that’s pitched impossibly high? Now listen to the same clip played at half speed.
[audio:/2008/MAY/LesPaul_half_speed.mp3]
The guitar sounds right, but everything else is slow. Ross Bagdasarian used the same technique for his chipmunks, and the South Park guys make liberal use of audio speed manipulation.
One of the highlights of my mid-April visit to New York City was seeing Les Paul and his Trio perform at their standard Monday night gig. With apologies to “Stardust Memories” and Woody Allen, it was “Jazz Heaven”!
“Good morning!” Les Paul opened his sold out eight o’clock show with that greeting — but it was 8:00 pm — not 8:00 am! Les famously keeps the night club musician’s hours — staying up late into the night and sleeping through most of the day. At 1:00 am, he was still bright and talkative, long after most people of any age had hit the sack. The man, who started in Vaudeville as part of a hillbilly act under the name “Rhubarb Red”, is nearing 93 years old! Les is still active and engaged, still intent on coaxing notes out of his customized Les Paul guitar, still working on new sounds. Talk about a “Living Legend” — Les Paul defines the term!
The founding father of the solid-body electric guitar and the innovator of sound-on-sound and multi-track recording, Les Paul still plays two shows a night, every Monday night, at the Iridium Jazz Club in New York City. The small club is located below street level, beneath Ellen’s Stardust Diner, at the corner of Broadway and 51st Street. The capacity is listed as 120 and they make sure that they squeeze in all 120!
Seated at the front of the stage on a stool, Les is lively and talkative and not afraid to make a few risqué jokes with the band. The current Les Paul Trio consists of longtime accompanist Lou Pallo on rhythm guitar, versatile John Colianni on the piano and the lovely and talented Nicki Parrott on the double bass. He shares the spotlight with his crack trio, allowing him to take short breaks while the music and repartee never cease. He opened the 8:00 pm set with “Begin The Beguine” and included such standards as “The Tennessee Waltz” and “All Of Me”. He may no longer have the speed of his younger days, but he still knows how to get the most out of each song. In fact, his modern sound may be even more soulful and expressive than his legendary speed-demon years. Guest vocalist Sonya Hensley came out to perform a scornful blues tune with Les and the Trio. After a brief discussion, they did a driving version of “Route 66” followed by a personal favorite, “Summertime”. Les invited a young guitar player in the front row to come up and join the band, using the showcased Les Paul guitar from the stage set. Les joked around as they played a blues jam, telling the youngster to “show some teeth” as he played! The band later played a rousing and fresh version of “Sweet Georgia Brown”, which knocked the dust off of the old museum piece and brought it back to life for the 21st Century.
The PBS American Masters episode, “Les Paul — Chasing Sound” is available on DVD and is well worth the investment with 90 minutes of extras, including a full set at the Iridium. Les’ son, Rusty, sells copies of the DVD at a little table by the entrance after the show. The 8:00 pm audience must vacate the club to make room for the 10:00 pm performance. After the late show, Les comes back out and meets his fans. If you go to the first show, as I did, you have to return and wait outside until the second show ends. It seems like half the audience has brought their own Gibson Les Paul guitar for him to personally bless and autograph. Being 92, he moves slowly and needs a bit of assistance, but he navigates the narrow aisles and soon takes his place in a booth on the mezzanine level. He sits and chats with each person in an unhurried fashion. The line to meet him stretched all the way around the club. Quite a few kids, toting their Les Pauls, waited expectantly in line with their parents.
I finally got to meet him at about 1:00 am and mentioned that I was thrilled that he played “Golden Earrings”, a hit movie song from early 1948 but now largely forgotten. The most popular versions were done by Peggy Lee and Bing Crosby. The song has a gypsy guitar vibe, very fitting for Les Paul’s current style. He said that the band had started playing the song while warming up recently and they added it to the set since it had turned out so well. He signed my DVD and said “You’re really going to enjoy that, it’s received four star reviews.” I watched it this week and I can’t recommend it enough. In fact, it easily could have been twice as long! Just the tour of his equipment room in his New Jersey home is worth the price of the DVD. It appears that he saved every piece of electronics he ever fiddled with, including his original Ampex tape recorder and the home made solid body guitar known as “The Log”.
Wow, thanks, Den! How ’bout I play a couple of Les Paul instrumentals? These are both from among the first Les Paul sessions with Capitol Records, exactly sixty years ago, April 1948. The first tune is an interpretation of Cole Porter’s “What Is This Thing Called Love?” and it’s followed by Les Paul’s own composition, “Hip-Billy Boogie.”
Note that these recordings are early examples of pop releases done on magnetic tape. (As is Arthur Godfrey’s unfortunate 1948 song, “Slap Er Down Agin, Paw“.) Dennis pointed out that Les Paul was a pioneer in sound-on-sound recording, and Paul also took advantage of the variable speed feature available with tape recording; a technique that the Beatles later adopted with enthusiasm.
