2007 Magazine of the Week #12

I guess its time to get caught up on the Magazines, so here, from 1975, is ROCK SUPERSTARS POSTER MAGAZINE #3, published by Penthouse Poster Press Ltd.

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Its a magazine that folds out into a "36" x 22 1/2" GIANT POSTER OF THE WHO". And The Who take up just about all of the magazine. (Click here to see the issue that featured THE ROLLING STONES.)

Inside, we get the basic history of The Who. And a bit about ROGER DALTREY, who, we're told, "after his starring role in the "Tommy" movie, has transcended normal "rock super star" mold to become a multi-faceted star. Lead singer, successful solo artist, and now an actor who KEN RUSSELL has said will be the most important new actor of the late seventies".

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There's also a short article about ROD STEWART, who had recently released a solo LP, "Atlantic Crossing". Here's an excerpt:

"It looks as if Rod will continue to record on his own, although he'll still tour with the band [THE FACES]. Since his last attack on his mates, when he called them sloppy musicians, he's admitted that "we're playing better together, I think we'll stay together." But this time he has shown that he's more than happy with his decisions, both to leave England, which upset The Faces as much as anything, and record with different back-up people."

Click on images to enlarge.

Elton John, part 4 : Sixty Years On

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Many, many, many thanks to the kind soul who sent me the links to these files.

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ELTON JOHN played his 60th show at Madison Square Garden last Sunday, March 25th, his 60th birthday. I was told this was downloaded from another site, so I hope I'm not stepping on anyone's toes here. I wanted to get this posted here while it's still fresh. Its an excellent recording of a great show, and it includes Elton's tribute to JOHN LENNON, "Empty Garden".

Its three rar files containing individual MP3s, and totals more than three hours:

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ELTON JOHN 60th BIRTHDAY - PART ONE:
www.gigasize.com/get.php/1029074/EJ_60_1.rar

01 Sixty Years On

02 Madman Across The Water

03 Where To Now St. Peter

04 Hercules

05 Ballad Of A Well-Known Gun

06 Take Me To The Pilot

07 High Flying Bird

08 Holiday Inn

09 Burn Down The Mission

10 Better Off Dead

11 Levon

12 Empty Garden

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ELTON JOHN 60th BIRTHDAY - PART TWO: www.gigasize.com/get.php/1032424/EJ60_2.rar

13. Daniel

14. Honky Cat

15. Rocket Man

16. I Guess That's Why They Call It The Blues

17. The Bridge

18. Roy Rogers

19. Mona Lisas And Mad Hatters

20. Sorry Seems To Be The Hardest Word

21. Bennie And The Jets

22. All The Girls Love Alice

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ELTON JOHN 60th BIRTHDAY - PART THREE:
www.gigasize.com/get.php/1027692/EJ60_3.rar

23. Tiny Dancer

24. Something About The Way You Look Tonight

25. Philadelphia Freedom

26. Sad Songs (Say So Much)

27. Don't Let The Sun Go Down On Me

28. I'm Still Standing

29. The Bitch Is Back

30. Crocodile Rock

31. Saturday Night's Alright For Fighting

32. Funeral For A Friend / Love Lies Bleeding

33. Your Song

Bootleg Zone Returns!

Yes, its true - Bootleg Zone is back!

What a relief. Head on over and read all about it:

BOOTLEG ZONE

Thank you, Francois!

Elton John, part 3

I know I'm behind on the Magazines of the Week, but I'm on a roll with this ELTON JOHN stuff so try to bear with me.

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Here's another excellent live boot. This one's a double CD called "First Visit 1971", from Elton's show in Tokyo on October 1, 1971. Features "Honky Tonk Women". And its nice to hear a live version of Elton's "Friends".

DISC ONE:
www.gigasize.com/get.php/1022187/EJ71_1.rar

01. It’s Me That You Need
02. Your Song
03. Rock Me When He’s Gone
04. Come Down In Time
05. Skyline Pigeon
06. Rotten Peaches
07. Indian Sunset
08. Band Intro
09. Ballad Of A Well Known Gun
10. Friends
11. The King Must Die
12. Holiday Inn
13. Can I Put You On
14. Country Comfort

DISC TWO:
www.gigasize.com/get.php/1021687/EJ71_2.rar

01. Honky Tonk Women
02. Border Song
03. Madman Across The Water
04. Amoreena
05. Take Me To The Pilot
06. My Baby Left Me
07. Whole Lotta Shakin’ Goin’ On

Artwork is included in the Disc Two file.

Elton John, part 2

Here's a great ELTON JOHN bootleg called "Rock of the Fillmore Westies", recorded live at the Fillmore West in November 1970. This is some classic Elton, recorded right around the time of the official "11-17-70" LP. You can really hear the LEON RUSSELL influence. Its an excellent soundboard recording, and features a very nice version of "Honky Tonk Women", and a "Rock'n' Roll Medley" that includes a bit of "Give Peace A Chance".

Here's the tracklisting:

1. Country Comfort
2. Sixty Years On
3. Border Song
4. Amoreena
5. Honky Tonk Women
6. Burn Down The Mission
7. My Baby Left Me > Shotgun > Give Peace A Chance > I Want To Take You Higher
8. Can I Put You On

And here's the link:
www.gigasize.com/get.php/953870/EJ_1970.rar

Artwork is included in the file.

Elton John, part 1

In honor of ELTON JOHN's 60th birthday the other day, I'll be posting a bunch of the Elton stuff that I've been accumulating.

Starting off with "Reg Dwight's Piano Pops Up" (or something like that), a collection of Elton's pre-superstardom recordings of contemporary covers done for budget labels, 'round about 1969 and 1970. This has been available in various forms under various titles, sometimes with slightly different tracklistings, but its my understanding that this collection was never really a legitimate release, and is therefore no longer available anyway.

So check out Elton singing songs by PAUL MCCARTNEY, CAT STEVENS, JOHN FOGERTY, and others.

Here's the tracklisting:

1. My Baby Loves Lovin'
2. Cotton Fields
3. Lady D'arbanville
4. I'm A Natural Sinner
5. United We Stand
6. Spirit In The Sky
7. Travellin' Band
8. I Can't Tell The Bottom From The Top
9. Good Morning Freedom
10. To Be Young And Gifted
11. In The Summertime
12. Up Around The Bend

13. Snake In The Grass
14. Neanderthal Man
15. She Sold Me Music
16. Come And Get It
17. Love Of The Common People
18. Signed Sealed Delivered
19. It's All In The Game
20. Yellow River

And here's the link:

www.gigasize.com/get.php/953518/Reg_Dwights_Piano_Pops_Up.rar

Fab Sounds

Fans of the "Flabby Road" CD should head on over to the incomparable "Music You (Possibly) Won't Hear Anyplace Else" blog. They have few songs about THE BEATLES, including "The Invasion", plus a great version of "Rocky Raccoon" by NEW VINTON COUNTY FROGWHOMPERS.

Here's the page:

FAB SOUNDS - MY(P)WHAE

2007 Magazine of the Week #11

This week we take a look at the April 1978 issue of CREEM, featuring a cover story on THE SEX PISTOLS.

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Click on images to enlarge.

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There's lots of gossip in "Rock 'n' Roll News:

"More marital merry-go-rounds: Mr. and Mrs. Jagger appear to be travelling on different astral planes now; Mick with Jerry Hall (Bryan Ferry's ex-sweetie) while Bianca has cut in on Princess Margaret's waltz with young Roddy Llewellyn."

And this:

"Those alimony checks can be hell: Bob Dylan's having a mighty hard time lining up a band for his tour since the offered wage is only 300 dollars a week. Only? How about an official keeper of the dewrags, Bob?" .

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In "The Beat Goes On" we learn that "The Kids Are Alright" is just the first in a series of projects planned by The Who to make use of their new $700,000 film complex in Shepperton".

In Simon Frith's "Letter From Britain", he contrasts Sid Vicious with Paul McCartney, and has this to say about Paul (and his recent huge hit "Mull Of Kintyre"):

"You've got to hand it to old Paul. While Rod is puking his way around the airways and Mick is running off with Bryan Ferry's missus and David Bowie is kidnapping his own son and Elton John is speculating in hair, McCartney is working quietly and efficiently at being the People's Beatle."

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There's "Eric Clapton: Return of the Reluctant Hero", "Queen's Royal Flush", and Robert Christgau's "Punk Guide: A Consumer Manual To New Wave Wax".

And there's a review of Dylan's film "Renaldo and Clara" ("despite its excesses of length and false heroics, Renaldo and Clara is not the ego-tripping nightmare most critics have made it out to be").

Meanwhile back in Ireland.....

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

From March 7, 1972, here's PAUL MCCARTNEY and WINGS rehearsing "Give Ireland Back To The Irish":

GIVE IRELAND BACK TO THE IRISH - REHEARSAL ONE

GIVE IRELAND BACK TO THE IRISH - REHEARSAL TWO

And a live version from Antwerp, Belgium, Aug 22, 1972:

GIVE IRELAND BACK TO THE IRISH - ANTWERP

And thanks to MACCA BELGIUM and FEV'S RARE MACCA DISCS for these great tracks!

Music Blog Round-up

Its hard to keep track of all the music blogs these days. There are new ones popping up every day and old favorites disappearing or just being abandoned. Some have new stuff every day, some only need to be checked every couple of weeks. And I know how frustrating it can be to keep checking back only to find that there are still no new posts.....

So anyway, after a quick trip around the blogs, I've noted a handful that have been posting some pretty cool stuff recently. All have posted new stuff this month:

HEAR ROCK CITY
Now featuring Neil Young, Ry Cooder, Rick Nelson, and plenty more.

CHOCOREVE
Lots of Velvet Underground lately.

BLOG STONED
Always some good Rolling Stones, with some new boots posted this past week.

Times are good for Beatles fans, with these blogs:

OCTANER'S BLOG

RETURN TO PEPPERLAND

MACCA BELGIUM

And finally, there's my new favorite blogger, Fev. He's got Beatles bootlegs:

FEV'S RARE BEATLE DISCS

McCartney bootlegs:

FEV'S RARE MACCA DISCS

Harrison:

FEV'S RARE GEORGE

And of course Lennon:

FEV'S RARE JOHN

Many thanks to Fev, and all the rest!

Dylan Hears A Who

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This is probably old news by now, but someone just sent me the link.

Its "Dylan Hears A Who", a great fake Dylan LP with Bob singing Dr. Suess, complete with vinyl pops and crackles. Its free to stream or download as MP3s, and it even has some very nice LP artwork.

Yes its mighty silly, but "Green Eggs And Ham" is downright infectious!

Here's the page:

DYLAN HEARS A WHO

Light Up The Town

As promised, here's another old vinyl ROLLING STONES bootleg. Its a 2-LP set called "Light Up The Town" and it was recorded live in San Diego on October 7, 1981. The cover says it was the "first night-time outdoor show of '81 tour".

Its one MP3 for each of the four LP sides:

LIGHT UP THE TOWN - SIDE 1
www.gigasize.com/get.php/505343/Light_Up_The_Town_1.mp3
Under My Thumb
When The Whip Comes Down
Let's Spend The Night Together
Shattered
Black Limousine
Neighbors

LIGHT UP THE TOWN - SIDE 2
www.gigasize.com/get.php/506338/Light_Up_The_Town_2.mp3
Just My Imagination
Twenty Flight Rock
Let Me Go
Time Is On My Side
Let It Bleed
Little T & A

LIGHT UP THE TOWN - SIDE 3
www.gigasize.com/get.php/506381/Light_Up_The_Town_3.mp3
Tumbling Dice
She's So Cold
All Down The Line
Hang Fire
Star Star
Miss You

LIGHT UP THE TOWN - SIDE 4
www.gigasize.com/get.php/506420/Light_Up_The_Town_4.mp3
Start Me Up
Honky Tonk Women
Brown Sugar
Jumpin' Jack Flash
Street Fighting Man

Cerebus

Back in 1986, Prince Mick and Prince Keef appeared in a hilarious story in DAVE SIM's self-published comic book "Cerebus".

Click images to enlarge.

"Cerebus" is a unique achievement in the comic book field. Over the course of 26 years, Sim self-published 300 issues of "Cerebus", writing and drawing more than 6000 pages, telling the story of the title character, an impetuous barbarian aardvark in a Medievel-type world of humans.

Starting off in 1977 as basically a parody of BARRY WINDSOR-SMITH's "Conan" comics, Sim decided early on that "Cerebus" would be his "life's work", and that the series would end with issue number 300 in March 2004. And so it did. Through the earlier issues, Sim's writing and art improved dramatically, and with the addition of "background-artist" GERHARD, the book really hit its stride. Artistically, each issue was impeccable - layout, characters, backgrounds, lettering, etc. The stories became increasingly complex, as Sim wrote with long-term goals in mind, often foreshadowing events that would not occur until several years later.

"Cerebus" has been compared to a "Russian novel" in its length and scope. The huge story is divided into large chunks, and like "War and Peace", early in the second half The Author steps into the story. And this is where Sim ran into some trouble.

He "came out" as a "conservative"/"non-feminist" in both "the story" and in "real life". Once praised as one of the best alternative/independent comics creators, the horrified "comics community" initially expressed outrage, and ultimately decided to virtually ignore his work, even as he and Gerhard continued to reach new creative heights. In the later issues, Sim delved increasingly into religious themes, eventually writing large amounts of Scripture and Scripture-commentary into the story and alienating many of his remaining readers.

Still, "Cerebus" stands as a remarkable accomplishment, a beautiful piece of art and a fascinating read. You can dip in virtually anywhere in the 6000+ pages and see Sim's talent, intelligence, wit, and love of comics shining through.

Many of the characters Sim created were dead-on caricatures of movie stars, writers, acquaintences, even other comic book characters. In issue number 85, (cover-dated April 1986), Sim introduces characters based on MICK JAGGER and KEITH RICHARDS. As Cerebus is climbing up the mountain back to the Upper City to reclaim his Papal Throne before The Final Ascension, he runs into Prince Mick and Prince Keef. Keef is a bit out of it, but Mick shares his beverage with Cerebus and things get a bit weird before they part ways in issue 86. Sim revisited the characters ten years later, when Mick, Keef, and Cerebus end up staying at the same tavern (along with a couple of Mop-Tops!), but I'll save that for a future post.

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Pictured here are the cover to #85 and a couple of panels from that issue, a preliminary sketch of the cover, and a some sketches of Mick from Sim's notebooks.

The complete "Cerebus" is available in 16 volumes, here. Mick and Keef appear in Volume 4 ("Church and State 2"), and they turn up again in Volume 11 ("Guys").

To see Sim's current project, a webcomic called "Siu Ta (So Far)", click here.

For more on Sim and Cerebus, check out the Cerebus Fangirl Site.

(CEREBUS is copyright DAVE SIM and GERHARD.)

2007 Magazine of the Week #10

This week's magazine ties in with yesterday's "John Lennon 1970" post. Its the August 1970 issue of HIT PARADER, featuring "The Last John and Yoko Interview" by RICHARD ROBINSON.

(And yes, I know this one should have been #9 instead of #10. Sorry - I just wasn't thinking!)

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Robinson's article starts off with this:

"If John Lennon talked about his music as much as he talked about his version of peace for all, he'd be much more interesting to talk to."

Here's an excerpt where John actually does discuss his music:

"I'm not forming a Plastic Ono Band, I mean the original idea was you are the Plastic Ono Band. I've used two people practically every session, that's Klaus and Alan, but there's a chance I won't you know, they're not permanent, and the audience is the band you know. Like in one film we made, "Smile", the instructions at the beginning of the film was to make your own music, the music was them you know, and they did it in Chicago or somewhere. And if Yoko and I went on with the so-called Plastic Band and instead of the audience just sitting there or waiting for us to perform like seals, cause everybody wants to be a star you know, so let them be a star. Let's all groove together, when we performed with George and Eric and Bonnie and Delaney and everybody at Lyceum, I don't care what the pop press said, it was a funky show. And if the audience had, some of them were, right in with us, we were sky high, it was an amazin' high. A seventeen piece band. It's great with four musicians groovin', but when you got seventeen its somethin' else. And when you got the audience as well."

"The day we go on the audience is the rhythm section then we're really groovin', that's what I want. So it wouldn't matter whether I was on the stage or if I got fed up and went down in the audience for a bit to, let's take it in turns to be super star, you know."

The "Words To Your Favorite Hits" section includes JOHN LENNON's "Instant Karma", THE BEATLES' "Let It Be", LED ZEPPELIN's "Living Loving Maid", and dozens of others, plus the words to all the songs from SIMON AND GARFUNKEL's "Bridge Over Troubled Water" LP.

There's all kinds of other good stuff in this issue, including articles on AL KOOPER, JACK BRUCE and GINGER BAKER, JOE COCKER, HARVEY MANDEL, and IAN ANDERSON. And a story on the break-up of the BONZO DOG DOO-DAH BAND. In "New Stars On The Horizon", we read that ROD STEWART has gone "From Lead Singer To Solo Artist". And there are "Readers' Reviews" of ELVIS PRESLEY's "From Memphis To Vegas", THE ROLLING STONES' "Let It Bleed", and "Led Zeppelin II".

John Lennon 1970

Its time to start clearing some of the audio files off of my hard drive, so I thought I'd start by trying to organize my JOHN LENNON stuff and posting it here before backing it up and deleting it. And 1970 seemed like a good place to start.

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I know I don't have everythng, and I don't claim that these tracks are from the best sources, I've just put them together from what I happen to have on my computer. They were downloaded from various sources and I'd like to thank all the fine folk at the different blogs, message boards, and other websites from which I got this stuff over the past couple of years.

First up, there are the demo recordings for some of the songs that would end up on Lennon's 1970 LP "John Lennon / Plastic Ono Band". From a cassette most likely recorded in California in the summer of 1970:

LOVE
MOTHER
MY MUMMY'S DEAD
I FOUND OUT 1
I FOUND OUT 2

And more demos, from a cassette dated July 28, 1970:

GOD
WHEN A BOY MEETS A GIRL
WELL WELL WELL

Back in London at EMI, John started recording the LP in late September with just RINGO STARR on drums, KLAUS VOORMAN on bass, and PHIL SPECTOR producing. Here are a few oldies they ran through during the sessions:

HONEY DON'T
DON'T BE CRUEL
MATCHBOX

And here are a few early acetates, with different mixes. Notice that "Mother" has a rhythm guitar track that wasn't used on the LP, and "Remember" is more than 8 minutes long:

MOTHER
REMEMBER
WELL WELL WELL
LOOK AT ME

Then there's the bootleg CD "Compositions", which consists of about an hour's worth of piano demos recorded by John in late 1970. "Eight Arms To Hold You", CHIP MADINGER and MARK EASTER's indispensible guide to solo Beatle recordings says it was recorded in November. Here's the link for the whole CD:

www.gigasize.com/get.php/492528/John_Lennon__Compositions.rar

And here's the track listing:

01 MAKE LOVE, NOT WAR
02 I'M THE GREATEST
03 I'M THE GREATEST
04 HOW
05 CHILD OF NATURE
06 CHILD OF NATURE
07 OH YOKO
08 SALLY AND BILLY
09 SALLY AND BILLY
10 ROCK AND ROLL PEOPLE
11 OH YOKO
12 OH YOKO
13 HELP
14 INSTRUMENTAL
15 HAPPY CHRISTMAS
16 HAPPY CHRISTMAS
17 PEOPLE GET READY / HOW
18 HOW
19 HOW
20 MY HEART IS IN YOUR HANDS
21 MAILMAN, BRING ME NO MORE BLUES
22 I PROMISE
23 YOU KNOW HOW HARD IT IS
24 I'LL MAKE YOU HAPPY
25 I'LL MAKE YOU HAPPY

And finally, here is audio of Lennon's legendary interview with JAN WENNER from December 1970 in New York that would be published in two parts in Rolling Stone Magazine in early 1971, and would eventually be released as the book "Lennon Remembers". This is not the BBC Radio "Archive Hour" special. Its supposed to be the complete tapes, and it totals more than three-and-a-half hours:

ROLLING STONE INTERVIEW PART 1
ROLLING STONE INTERVIEW PART 2
ROLLING STONE INTERVIEW PART 3
ROLLING STONE INTERVIEW PART 4
ROLLING STONE INTERVIEW PART 5

Cow Palace 1976

This is an ad from Bloomingdale's new Spring catalog. The ad is for the dress, but check out the poster on the wall. Its the fake ROLLING STONES Cow Palace 1976 poster.

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The poster advertises the Stones, with THE DOOBIE BROTHERS, at San Francisco's Cow Palace on June 26th, 1976. Of course The Stones played there in 1975 (on July 15th and 16th), not in 1976.

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Click image to enlarge.

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The poster has turned up before; I've seen it for sale on eBay, and it gets a mention at ELCHAE'S VINYL LOUNGE, with a picture.

For the Bloomingdale's ad, it looks like the poster was not-so-cleverly fixed so that it doesn't really actually quite say "The Rolling Stones". Here's a closer look:

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And notice the copy of "Exile On Main Street" next to the guy's head. It looks like they added a little red to it, maybe so it wouldn't be as easily recognizable:

Gimme Some Pearl Jam

I've never been very much of a PEARL JAM fan, but they do come up with some interesting live covers from time to time.

Someone recently sent me this MP3 of them doing JOHN LENNON's "Gimme Some Truth":

GIMME SOME TRUTH - PEARL JAM

2007 Magazine of the Week #9

Okay, I'll just get a quick Magazine of the Week out of the way, then I promise I'll try to stay on track.

Here's the March 1981 issue of SONGWRITER, with a cover story on HARRY NILSSON.

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In the interview, Harry talks about the new "Popeye" movie which he wrote the songs for, and the legendary "Son of Dracula" film that he starred in with RINGO STARR.

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JOHN-LENNON is mentioned, but his death is not, so the interview must have taken place prior to December 8th, 1980. The article includes a photo of Harry and John playing pool.

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In the "Songwriter Top 40" we find John Lennon at Number 3 with "Woman", and again at Number 16 with "Starting Over". And "Woman" was also at Number 2 in the "Easy Listening Top 10".

Also in the issue is an interview with the great VAN DYKE PARKS, "Popeye's" arranger / conductor.

Click images to enlarge.