#64 Finding Rare Music on Gemm

Finding rare music of The Beatles on Gemm

Written by Joe Viglione

Sunday, 12 July 2009 11:14

For quick access to this article to go http://tinyurl.com/coverthebeatles Looking at the music of the Beatles through tribute discs The Anatomy of Hit Records The Come Together "a night for John Lennon's words & music" dedicated to New York City and its people has an incredibly gauche green-neon "Greatest Hits Live" splashed atop the disc. Eagle Rock Entertainment should know better than to grab the casual fan's eye with such a blatant front cover misrepresentation with John Lennon's face the only artist appearing on the DVD front space. You have to flip it over to see it is Yolanda Adams and the late Billy Preston (r.i.p. June 6, 2006) performing on "Imagine" and - a pretty unique rendition as well. John Lennon's film of Imagine starts it off and abruptly stops for Billy and Yolanda to continue with a hard-edged unplugged (now there's an oxymoron) conclusion to the epic signature solo tune. Personally, I would have liked to have a DVD where Preston and Adams sang and played along with Lennon's performance... The other problem with this is the "Grammy Award" / "Oscar Award" presentation-style, tacky tacky tacky with Tony and Carmela Soprano (I kid you not), Kevin Bacon, Dustin Hoffman (you know him from the Band On The Run 25th Anniversary disc ) Tim Roth, Kevin Spacey, Ben Stiller...puh-leese! These people have no clue as to the majesty of Lennon's pen, his voice and his philosophy. Yes, I'll paint them all with a broad brush, no matter how much I may like or dislike their filmwork...get them out of the Legend's history book! SO WHY BUY THE PRODUCT? To those who like Bryan Ferry's version of "Jealous Guy" having Lou Reed's live take is an experience...Ferry was influenced heavily by Reed's Velvet Underground, whether Bryan wants to acknowledge that or not. Do you really want Kevin Spacey ruining your memories of "Mind Games" the way he distorted James Darren's life by trying to play the singer in a film? Sean Lennon singing "Julia" makes sense, Cyndi Lauper is allowed "Strawberry Fields Forever", but why have Dave Matthews sing "In My Life" when Aretha Franklin could do a better job? Quite simply to appeal to the masses, not to the purists. MASS MARKETING MEANS MOLESTING MUSIC MEMORIES We need to take a look at how commercialism has gone beyond the necessary to the obscene Familiar Music is what drives both fans and consumer, though aficionados have a distinctly different agenda than those who are happy to enjoy a free concert by a modern-day Marvelettes MARVELETTES RECORDINGS ON GEMM: when the new "Marvelettes" probably weren't even born when the original gals recorded these pop masterpieces. And therein lies the dilemma for us purists. We who hold the original recordings and rarities sacred could hardly be bothered with the dance steps and pretty smiles of young ladies carrying on in the tradition of The Marvelettes. Now if there was some connection to the past - a producer, a daughter, a cousin - someone who could tell the story of the band from a first-hand point of view..."When I was growing up and Aunty Gladys Horton or mother Wanda Young came home from a gig"...those kind of genuine stories would work well, there would be some connection. ...And with so many bandmembers having been in the Marvelettes until their swan song, probably 1970s The Return Of The Marvelettes, a Wanda Young project on Motown - how can a "Marvelettes" be on the road? There was a reunion disc in 1990 when the great Northern Soul maestro Ian Levine recorded Horton and Wanda Rogers (nee Wanda Young) ...some new material with the two vocalists- but the group that appeared at the Chevalier Theater in Medford Massachusetts around November of 2004 - it was new faces going down memory lane. COME TOGETHER DVD on GEMM THE BEATLES MAGICAL MYSTERY TOUR MEMORIES Works somewhat better than the Come Together DVD with John Lennon's close friend and driver (as the DVD back cover calls him) Victor Spinetti joins Spencer Davis, Mike McGear and others to read from Keith Gray's script. It becomes a bit dry and here is where a bit of the best moments of the Come Together DVD need to be sprinkled in with the long narration of a fan project like this. MVD Visual does a fantastic job on many of their projects and this is clearly superior to some of the imports that MVD distributes in America. Beatles fans are relentless, voracious in their appetites and this material is best recorded now before more people who were there move on into eternity. Indeed, future releases of projects like Magical Mystery Tour Memories could include bonus tracks that give the narration a little more performance material. Eagle Vision redeems itself with the release of the superb DVD exploration of John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band. For my review on AllMovie.com click here John Lennon:Plastic Ono Band Label Eagle Vision Catalogue No. EREDV 674 Release date 28th April 2008 Total time 88 minutes 29 seconds Executive Producer - Terry Shand, Geoff Kempin and Jamie Rugge-Price Series Producers - Nick de Grunwald and Martin R. Smith Director and Editor - Matthew Longfellow JOHN LENNON THE MESSENGER Joe Viglione's review on The New York Times.com Acapella tribute to the Beatles Beatle Books From Genesis to Revolution by W. Fraser Sandercombe Beatle Books ISBN 978-1926592-00-8 $26.95 From the CG Publishing press release: This is a book about Beatles books. There are thousands of listings inside. What was written about them during the 1960s was nothing compared to what came next. People had finally realised how absolutely unique The Beatles truly were. And they were beginning to realise that nothing quite like The Beatles would ever exist again. By 1983, there had been two hundred books about them; and by 2008, about twelve hundred more. And every year brings another mountain of writing about them, enough to keep a collector hunting forever. The titles are listed alphabetically, with publisher and author information included. Books by the band, about the band and featuring the band, as well as the better reproductions of their music in print are included. THE BEATLES UNDERCOVER One of the Top Ten Beatles Books of all time Expert review re-reviewed by Joe Viglione Beatles Undercover is essential reading for anyone who loves the music of John, Paul, George and Ringo. Along with biographies of the people who played with each member of the Fab Four it lists every conceivable session that members of The Beatles played on which was not an official "Beatles" project. Thus, the title, "Under" cover, the Beatles themselves inside the music (not necessarily cover versions). Doris Troy, David Peel, Denny Laine, Jo Jo Laine (who phoned me the night before I wrote the original version of this review, first published on April 19, 1999!), and many more. Alvin Lee's "Real Life Blues" featuring Jon Lord of Deep Purple and George Harrison is just one example of the nuggets uncovered here. And full disclosure, this writer was the New England A & R / Promotion man for the label that issued "Real Life Blues", which is how the author, Kris Engelhardt, got ahold of me. The bio information on the songs and the artists is even more in-depth than ROCK ENCYCLOPEDIA by Lillian Roxon, which set the standard way way back in the sixties. And that is the highest praise I can give this or any book Roxon was the pioneer that so many of us, this writer included, has modeled our work on. She would be proud of Engelhardt's thorough and precise endeavour. The late Jo Jo Laine (October 29, 2006) loved it...and was very impressed working with Engelhardt when he interviewed her. BEATLES DEEPER UNDERCOVER ENGELHARDT'S CLASSIC TO BE RE-RELEASED THIS FALL Beatles Deeper Undercover — Kris Engelhardt AVAILABLE Fall 2009

Last Updated on Sunday, 06 September 2009 16:51