Tower Records: Another Example of How the Mighty Fall

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It was one of the greatest tragedies of my life, to be honest with you, when it closed down. It really, really upset me. I miss it. I miss that routine, you know, of going to buy my records or my CDs, whatever.--Elton John

This month I've been reading How the Mighty Fall by Jim Collins. The book is a powerful analysis of how successful companies decline and fail.

I'd read two of Jim Collins' other books and found them both useful and personally rewarding. Built to Last illustrates the difference between founders seeking to create a legacy vs. entrepreneurs simply seeking to make a quick buck. Built to Last is a stark contrast to creative thinkers whose aim is simply to build companies they can flip into a big personal gain.

Good to Great's subtitle is pointed: "Why Some Companies Make the Leap and Others Don't." How do mediocre companies become superior and dominant in their industries? I couldn't help but think of  the New England Patriots as a team that transcended the ordinary when they hired Bill Belicheck. Exceptional leadership is definitely one of the features of great companies, Collins notes. A second feature, Collins notes, is "a culture of discipline."

The documentary All Things Must Pass is the story of Tower Records, its ascendancy and eventual decline. At its height this was a billion dollar record company with branches in 30 countries. A few short years later it was defunct. By watching this documentary you will vividly see the five steps process outlined in Jim Collins' How the Mighty Fall. These steps are as follows.

1. Hubris Born of Success
2. Undisciplined Pursuit of More
3. Denial of Risk and Peril
4. Grasping for Salvation
5. Capitulation to Irrelevance or Death

It's almost startling how the history of Tower Records, as outlined in this documentary, so perfectly follows Jim Collins' outline.

Established in 1960, Tower Records became a retail powerhouse with two hundred stores, in 30 countries, on five continents. Its humble beginnings in a small town drugstore happened to take place at precisely the right time. As they say, timing is everything. In 1999, Tower Records made $1 billion. In 2006, the company filed for bankruptcy.

* * * *

"It wasn't a job. It was just a way of life."

The documentary puts a positive spin on the story, but the realities of how it went down are pretty apparent. It was a party, and eventually there were people who got hurt. But while the party was going on, no one seemed to mind, I suppose. There was enough drugs, sex and rock 'n roll to satisfy those involved.

* * * *

At the core of Tower Records was this motto, which captured the essence of a generation: No Music, No Life. The emergence of radio at that time was also a phenomenon. The music was on the airwaves everywhere. AM superstations like WABC out of New York and others from the Deep South helped whet the appetite, marketing the new sounds. In the 60s FM radio bumped it to a new level.

In the early 80s Michael Jackson's Thriller and MTV gave the record industry another adrenaline rush. At the core, though, it was the same theme: No Music, No Life.

* * * *

The title of this documentary was borrowed from George Harrison's triple album released after the Beatles broke. In my own personal career I've often used this expression, All Things Must Pass. When things are going well, cherish it, because "this too shall pass."

The meteoric rise of Tower Records must have been a heady experience. Those who were there in the beginning talk about those days the way some might talk about a memorable event like Woodstock, except that this event lasted four decades. The astute viewer will observe that the seeds of their success were also their undoing. Things change, and the culture they created didn't.

Tower Records was not a victim. Many great companies do succeed in making difficult transitions.

* * * *

Today is Bob Dylan's 79th Birthday. He himself made many transitions during his career. With the advent of his Never Ending Tour in the late 1980's he began doing nearly 100 shows a year. COVID-19 succeeded in disrupting his schedule but hasn't interfered with his continuing to be relevant. His newest album of original material is due to be released in mid-June.

As I am oft fond of saying, there's a Dylan lyric or song for every situation. If you've read this for the marketing message sub-text woven into this blog post, then the Dylan line you'll want as your takeaway is, "He not busy being born is busy dying."

Life is about re-invention. Times change. Are you being renewed?

Related Links
Duluth Dylan Fest culminates today with three live streaming events at noon, 5 and 7:30 CST. Here is the Facebook Link to links for these three events.
Trivia: How many cover versions of Bob Dylan songs were recorded by other artists and sold via Tower Records from 1961-2006? 

Woodstock Story in a Bottle: Another Defining Moment of 1969

Insignia that appeared on Yasgur Farms milk bottles.

That summer two men walked on the moon. And in August 400,000 people saw stars.

Just as a good movie is made of memorable scenes, so history is remembered by its defining moments. For Americans, the year "1968" brings Viet Nam, assassinations (Bobby, MLK, Jr), and riots to mind

In 1969, two very different images were impressed upon us, that "one giant leap" for mankind and that escapist utopian dream, Woodstock.  (It's convenient to keep Altamont off-camera when we want to feel good about this Woodstock music and love experience as a culmination of the Sixties.)

There were many ironic features of the event, one being this one: the song we've all associated with it, "By the time we got to Woodstock," was penned by someone who wasn't event there. Joni Mitchell was in New York City to be on TV that weekend.

Here's a second irony. As every Dylan fan knows, Woodstock's most famous resident-in-hibernation, who many considered the hippest cat on earth, was packing his bags to head to England for an Isle of Wight concert.

* * * *
I'm going down to Yasgur's Farm
Gonna join in a rock and roll band
Got to get back to the land and set my soul free

Yasgur's farm was actually 43 miles Southwest of Woodstock, in Bethel NY.
Photo courtesy Bill Pagel.

How many farmers can you think of, besides Old MacDonald, have been memorialized in song? Here's an excerpt from his Wikipedia account, by way of introduction.

Max Yasgur was born in New York City to Russian Jewish immigrants Samuel and Bella Yasgur. He was raised with his brother Isidore (1926-2010) on the family's farm (where his parents also ran a small hotel) and attended New York University, studying real estate law. By the late 1960s, he was the largest milk producer in Sullivan County, New York. His farm had 650 cows, mostly Guernseys. 

Though Yasgur was a conservative Republican, his conscience also told him that older folks need to do something to bridge the generation gap. He was motivated by his principles and did not yield to those who were pressuring him to call off the festival.

* * * *

When I saw this bottle from Yasgur's farm, I couldn't help but think of the Old Testament Psalm 56:8 in which the psalmist/poet writes, "You put my tears in Your bottle." I think of all the tears that were shed during the 60s, from JFK to all the grief and sadness caused by Viet Nam. And sadly, worse was yet to come.

My next thought was even stranger. What were bottles like 3,000 years ago? King David wrote this song when he was captured by the Philistines. Whatever shape they took, for the psalmist it was not a time of music and celebration.

* * * *

Photo by Francisco Moreno on Unsplash

Woodstock took place from August 15 to 18, 1969. The performers most of us remember most were the ones on the album and the film. Some were excluded due to contract issues.

Here are some stories that go deeper and provide more perspective than I have time to produce. If you have time, check them out.

A New York Times account of one of the iconic photos.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/08/arts/music/woodstock-famous-couple.html

A good summing up of Woodstock by the NYTimes
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/05/arts/music/woodstock-50-anniversary.html

Rolling Stone interview with Bob Weir, who was shocked. (Literally)
https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/woodstock-grateful-dead-bob-weir-855472/

Time Magazine published this review of the latest Woodstock documentary
https://time.com/5638166/woodstock-pbs-generation-review/

Here were a couple thought-provoking paragraphs from the above.

For those who were coldbloodedly watching numbers, even in 1969, Woodstock simply identified a big, promising segment of the youth market, ready for the commercial exploitation that would ensue almost immediately. “Woodstock Nation,” despite Abbie Hoffman’s hopes when he coined the term, turned out to be a demographic rather than a political force.

This one is also barbed.

But forget the nostalgia. Millennials have every right to point out how Woodstock represented baby boomer privilege in crystalline form. We got a free marathon all-star concert. (I don’t begrudge my $18.) We swarmed a previously unspoiled dairy farm and its surroundings. We absolutely thought we were the center of the universe. And afterward, someone else had to clean up the giant mess we left behind. Insert the global-warming analogy.

You can insert a number of alternative messes here.

Were you there? What was your story?

Related Links
For Carlos Santana, Woodstock was a Trip
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/06/arts/music/santana-woodstock.html
Surviving Woodstock, a New Yorker story by Hua Hsu
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2019/08/05/surviving-woodstock

Sunshine of Your Love and the Explicit Ambiguity of Rock and Roll

"But if I really say it, the radio won't play it
Unless I lay it between the lines."
Peter, Paul & Mary

It's been often noted how certain smells can vividly bring us back to moments in our past, and I think music often does the same. Yesterday "Sunshine of Your Love" by the 60's super group Cream did this for me.

I was in high school then. Transistor radios were the rage and we were all paying attention to the music our favorite disc jockeys were playing. All across the country kids learned to dance and many took up the guitar, drums or keyboards and sought out others with whom they could play, hoping one day to be performers. The Koons next door were a musical family, the father being a professional trumpet player and Scott Homan, a cousin about a mile away, was learning guitar and trying to form a group.

I don't even remember how often I practiced with them in hopes of being the singer in the band. Only problem was that I was too shy to be a front man. Little did I know that even Jim Morrison was once so shy he used to sing facing the band rather than face the crowd at the WhiskeyA Go-Go in L.A.

It was there in Scott Homan's basement that I first heard the incredible opening riffs of "Sunshine of Your Love," second cut on Cream's Disraeli Gears.

The sound felt unlike any other. First, the manner in which Jack Bruce and Eric Clapton rummaged the chord progressions to create a living, crawling backdrop for the vocals. And then that syncopated assault on the drums by Ginger Baker, almost like an unceasing series of hiccups, herky-jerky and almost seething. Atop this they laid down the lyrics.

The artwork on the cover was pure psychedelia and the lyrical contributions matched in poetic expressions unique even for this time of sensational explorations. Songs like "Strange Brew" and "Tales of Brave Ulysses," with its references to Homer and Greek mythology, showed an unusual sophistication. So, too, the ungirded rhythms and irresolution of "We're Going Wrong."

But Sunshine was the super hit from the album, the song that garnered radio air time. The chord progression at times corresponds with a chord structure you hear in The Kinks' "All Day and All of the Night," my first 45 single as a kid. This was the same chord progression that got the Doors in trouble when they recorded "Hello, I Love You." There was nothing subtle about the sensuality in Morrison's voice, not the directness of "let me jump in your game."

The opening line of Sunshine is pure poetry. "It's getting near dawn, when lights close their tired eyes." But where the song is going, a song of longing and promise, is something that can't be laid out explicitly, not on pop radio.

I've been told that even the seemingly tame Satisfaction by the Rolling Stones was pulled form the radio after seven weeks as number one in New York because it was suddenly deemed too provocative. "I can't get no.... satisfaction."

The kids maybe didn't know what they were singing about, but their parents sure did. They were wary, but shouldn't have been surprised by the sexual revolution that emerged.

Sunshine of Your Love

It's getting near dawn,
When lights close their tired eyes
I'll soon be with you my love,
To give you my dawn surprise
I'll be with you darling soon,
I'll be with you when the stars start falling
I've been waiting so long
To be where I'm going
In the sunshine of your love

I'm with you my love,
The light's shining through on you
Yes, I'm with you my love,
It's the morning and just we two
I'll stay with you darling now,
I'll stay with you till my seas are dried up
I've been waiting so long
To be where I'm going
In the sunshine of your love

I'm with you my love,
The light's shining through on you.
Yes, I'm with you my love,
It's the morning and just we two.
I'll stay with you darling now,
I'll stay with you till my seas are dried up
I've been waiting so long
I've been waiting so long
To be where I'm going
In the sunshine of your love......

Exit with Ginger Baker creating the sound of a railroad rumbling away on down the line.

Meantime, life goes on all around you. Go for it.

Hendrix Spawned By 1965 Greenwich Village Scene

I had an older friend who told me once that he’d seen Jimi Hendrix in Minneapolis in November 1968. He said, “I didn’t get it.” His statement surprised me because at the time the music world had already shifted. But as I listened to Manic Depression again this week, I wondered if the reason he couldn’t relate to what Dylan was doing was because he was still living on the "Before Dylan" side of the divide. That is, before Rock ‘N Roll had been transformed to Rock.

Saturday I wrote about this insight I’d gleaned from Lee Marshall’s Bob Dylan: The Never Ending Star, which many of us have known intuitively for decades. The essence is this: up until a certain point in time rock and roll was music you could shuffle and tap your feet to. After that moment in time, rock was a permanently altered genre.

Listening to Hendrix again today I understand how confusing his music might have been. When the first three notes steam up and then pause, what follows is a riveting ride. It’s not a dance tune. It’s not rock and roll. And Hendrix was never a rock and roll star. He was a rock star.

Where did Hendrix discover his path? According Charles R. Cross’s Room Full of Mirrors, even though in '65 Hendrix was playing gigs up in Harlem, he was drawn to the scene that was happening in Greenwich Village. Something explosive and real was going on. He recognized it and wanted to be a part of the freedom it promised.

Before this time Hendrix spent several years honing his skills as a backup guitarist in big name bands that included the likes of Little Richard, Wilson Picket, the Isley Brothers, Jackie Brown and others. Cross points out in his book how Hendrix was a student of these experiences, picking up all those tricks that he wowed people with later, including playing with his teeth and behind his back.

The one thing he picked on the scene in the Village was the inspiration and motivation to quit being a backup guitarist and go it on his own. It happened when heard Bob Dylan. Hendrix didn’t care much for his own singing, so it held him back. But if Dylan could make it with his voice (and Dylan had made it), Hendrix figured he could also make it.

Depending on which legend you read Hendrix was invited to England by either Keith Richards’ girl friend, Stones manager Andrew Loog Oldham or bassist Chas Chandler of the Animals. It was there that he hooked up with drummer Mitch Mitchell and bassist Noel Redding, establishing himself and assembling his new sound.

The Copernican Revolution was essentially a paradigm shift. Before Copernicus, it was believed that the earth was the center of the galaxy. Copernicus published a treatise positing that the earth and planets revolved around the sun. The odd thing about this revolution is that it didn't happen overnight. It took more than 100 years, yet we label it a revolution.

The so it was that the Rock Revolution cannot be called a single incident, a single song. It was a space in time. It took place in the Sixties. It caused a shift in everything, upheavals in values, and strove for something elevated which felt within reach for a time: Freedom.

"The emergence of rock culture, from 1965 to 1968," writes Marshall, "thus depends upon a series of ideas concerning how rock music is actually a form of popular art, and rock stars popular artists. Dylan is central to the emergence of this kind of discourse. As part of a 'more mature' folk genre, he had already utilized the album as his main format and thus his electrified albums carried cultural legitimacy into the teen market."

This idea of albums, not pop chart singles, was a major shift. Hendrix, the Beatles, Bowie and others are remembered by their albums. Are You Experienced, the album, put Hendrix on the map, not the singles extracted from it which served as a form of advertising for the albums. We follow the arc of Hendrix's career by the albums he

Marshall continues, "During 1965 and 1966 he (Dylan) embodied the idea of an artist following a unique personal vision no matter where (personally and professionally) it took him. Dylan came to represent the artistic change itself....  Dylan provided pop artists with a new model of the star and a new range of topics for songs."

In short, Dylan demolished the logjam and let the river flow again. Hendrix was one of many ships that sailed through to a newly opened sea.

'Scuse me, while I kiss the sky.

EdNote: A few thoughts from this piece were drawn from this brief Hendrix bio by Keno. Top right: Hendrix painting by Ennyman

Was Dylan the First Real Rock Star?

During Duluth’s Dylan Days in 2012 there was a panel discussion at Tycoons in which Dylan’s significance was explored. It’s a topic of recurring interest for me because from time to time in my readings there is a trigger that unlocks another room full of ideas to examine and analyze, to hold up to the light to see if they have any substance to them.

My current stimulant has been Lee Marshall’s Bob Dylan: The Never Ending Star. The new idea, which I had not recognized before but seems to ring true as I consider it, is that “rock” A.D. (After Dylan) is not the same as the rock and roll that preceded Dylan’s emergence as a rock star.

To illustrate this point, ask yourself this: Why is the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland? Answer: It was there that the label “rock and roll” was coined. This was the heart of it: There were many disc jockeys of the time taken up in the euphoric new sound, which was a blend of African-American rhythms and blues while borrowing from traditions of cowboy music, jazz, country and folk. The key thing, though, was making music kids could dance to.*

Before Dylan, rock ‘n roll was about making music you could dance to. When Dylan emerged from the constraints of folk, where he was unquestionably a star, he welded a new sensibility to this established music form. Here’s how Marshall explains it: Dylan is the foundational figure in rock culture. Dylan’s shift to electric music brought to the mainstream the political authority and communal links of his folk past while his song-writing skills offered the examplar of what could be achieved artistically within the new form. 

And it wasn't "going electric" that was the significant thing in and of itself. Elvis, Chuck Berry and a host of others had been there for some time, obviously. What's different is that although rock and roll was fun, Dylan brought to it a new seriousness, a new sensibility.

As Marshall explains: Rock emerged in the mid-sixties as a was of stratifying mainstream musical consumption, as a means of creating higher and lower levels of popular music.... Rather than merely assuming a difference in quality between serious/classical music and light/popular music, rock functions to differentiate between serious, worthwhile popular music (rock) and trivial, lightweight popular music (pop).

When Dylan went electric he served as the catalyst for the formation of this new type of music.

The natural rebuttal to this argument would be that it was the Beatles or the British Invasion that changed rock and roll, so Marshall examines this thesis as well, citing Bernard Gendron’s book that posits that it was the Beatles who made this happen, “arguing that the critical acclaim of their later albums is the key force behind rock’s critical acceptance.”

But what was it that transformed the Beatles from cheery-faced mop-top boppers into the young men who really did, for a while, rule the world? And when? When you lay their careers side by side in a timeline, Dylan's achievements in 1965 reverberated everywhere. Bringing It All Back Home was released in March. In June he wrote and recorded "Like a Rolling Stone". In July he plugged in and went electric at the Newport Folk Festival, and in August released Highway 61 Revisited. Both of these latter events have been considered by some to be the pivot point of rock history.

In 1965 the Beatles were still making love songs and foot-tappers. Everything they did climbed the pop charts like monkeys. Even in late fall they were still churning out songs like Kansas City/Hey Hey Hey Hey, Boys and Roll Over Beethoven. That year the movie Help, as a follow up to Hard Day's Night, placed them squarely in the center of a well established Hollywood pattern to capitalize on youth heroes for commercial gain, as they had done previously with Elvis. The Fab Four were definitely a sensation, but in a wholly other manner than Dylan. They were pop, but they were not hip. 

Hence, Marshall declares: "My argument is that Dylan was the first real Rock Star. His razor-sharp hipness in 1965 and the strung out excesses of 1966 laid down the prototype for his new social role. Some of the substance of Dylan’s new star-image was rooted in his public persona developed as a folk star but his image in 1965-6 is a clearly different type of star-image." 

One sentence on page 93 says it all: "In 1965, Bob Dylan was the coolest person on the planet."

Today is Saturday, June 30. The Never Ending Tour will roll into town in nine days..... See you there.

* Ennyman’s Territory, Dec. 7, 2010

Who's the Greatest Guitarist of All Time?

It happened that about a dozen years ago or more I was asked to settle a dispute between two co-workers. One claimed Eddie Van Halen should get the nod, the other placed Hendrix on that ultimate pedestal. It was up to me to choose the tie-breaking vote. It wasn't really that hard for me. I first made my case for Eric Clapton. But ultimately, for innovation, influence and mastery, well Hendrix really was one of a kind.

It's the kind of debate that has gone on in every field of endeavor no doubt. Who is the greatest boxer? Who was the most influential writer? Who is the most talented magician? What is the best jazz album of all time?

These kinds of debates are probably fairly meaningless in one sense. What I have to think of say about it doesn't influence much of anything. But when a magazine like Rolling Stone weighs in... well, it may not settle the debate for some people but it does reveal how many talented rock and roll guitarists there have been out there. And if nothing else, it gives the publication a chance to sell a lot of magazines. If you're into rock 'n roll guitar, the December 8, 2011 Rolling Stone just might be the ticket.

Before going any further I should note that the electric guitar and the guitar are two different animals. The wonderfulness of a guitar used to be that you could take it anywhere. You could bring it to a remote village or a family reunion or to the beach for a serenade. You can lead choruses or make solitary revelry anywhere in the world with nothing more than a guitar.

Rock and roll music as we know it requires amps and electricity and sound systems. When Dylan was in Duluth in 1998, the team running the sound system was on the floor of the DECC in the midst of parallel 100 foot longs tables covered with dials and wires and assorted equipment designed to control volume, pitch, yaw and all the rest. This kind of music is not something you bring to a mountaintop except on your iPod.

The Rolling Stone special edition is fun because most of the writers are themselves guitarists or rock musicians. The Eric Clapton profile is written by Eddie Van Halen. The George Harrison piece is penned by Tom Petty. Keith Richards writes about Chuck Berry and Nils Lofgren of the E Street Band writes about Richards. It just adds a dimension that you won't find in most other places.

So let's cut to the chase.

Rolling Stone pretty much settled that one debate between my co-workers by placing their selection for numero uno on the cover. There was only one Hendrix. I still remember the incredible sounds that his three-man band produced on their first album, Are You Experienced? As Tom Morello writes, "He manipulated the guitar, the whammy bar, the studio and the stage." Where he came from and how he accomplished the things he achieved are a book length story. Suffice it to say, few would argue with placing him first and foremost in this list.

I won't be listing all one hundred here, but we really do need to comment on a few of them. Eric Clapton did rock the world with his guitar. Van Halen writes, "Eric Clapton is basically the only guitar player who influenced me – even though I don't sound like him. There was a basic simplicity to his playing, his style, his vibe and his sound. He took a Gibson guitar and plugged it into a Marshall, and that was it. The basics. The blues. His solos were melodic and memorable – and that's what guitar solos should be, part of the song. I could hum them to you."

I myself had all the Cream albums. The live jams on side three of Wheels of Fire never ceases to satisfy.

Number three on the list is Jimmy Page. I remember being in Scott Homan's basement when we heard the first Led Zeppelin album with songs like Dazed and Confused. Page, whose roots had been with the Yardbirds, lived the rock and roll dream and has survived to tell about it. Joe Perry writes, "He had this vision of how to transcend the stereotypes of what the guitar can do... He was writing the songs, playing them, producing them – I can't think of any other guitar player since Les Paul that can claim that."

Times of have changed in the music scene, but rock and roll is intimately woven into the Sixties. Much like the atmosphere that sustains life on earth, it nourished imaginations, and comforted a lot of souls during a time of great upheaval.

Time will not permit more than mentions of the rest of the top ten, as selected by Rolling Stone. There is Keith Richards of the Stones weighing in at #4, Jeff Beck #5, B.B. King at #6, Chuck Berry #7, Eddie Van Halen #8, Duane Allman next, and rounding out the top ten is the irrepressibly intense Pete Townshend of The Who.

One of the names on this list (#92) is Dimebag Darrell, who was shot to death while performing in Columbus in 2004. I mention this only because it's proof that going on stage really can be hazardous to your health. Fame isn't the only killer of rock stars.

Much more can be told here, but... I'm on a deadline. If you're favorites are not here, check out the full Greatest Guitarists list at Rolling Stone.

Photos at top of page by Andrew Perfetti

The Revolution 5: All Beatles, All Night Long

"And in the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make." ~Lennon/McCartney

Last night we saw The Revolution 5 at the Teattro Zuccone in Duluth, MN. The Beatles tribute group shared a rich evening of Beatles with us in a show titled The Long and Winding Road: From Ed Sullivan to Apple.

There have probably been a number of groups who have enjoyed “becoming the Beatles” for a time and entertaining crowds with their music. I doubt many would be charging admission if they weren’t good, and this group of Midwestern musicians turned out to be very good. And their show was more than entertaining, despite their appearance being completely different from the original mop-top artists from Liverpool.

It may be that they were aware of how different they looked, because they didn’t just put on a show imitating the Beatles. The set had a Beatles “look” with the relatively spare drum kit and guitars. At the back of the stage was a screen upon which the name of the band was projected, in The Beatles’ font and graphic look. And most significantly, the show opened with actual footage from when Ed Sullivan introduced the Beatles in 1964.

Grant Haake, the lead singer, is (my guess) in the neighborhood of 6’ 5”, towering above bass player John Tetrault. These guys could hardly look more different from one another, unlike the original Fab Four who many people almost couldn’t tell apart. The rapidity at which Grant and company won over the crowd despite this lack of symmetry in appearance was impressive. Being introduced by Ed Sullivan helped. Taking on the mannerisms of the Beatles helped. Performing so many great songs with such energy and proficiency blew the lid of everyone’s hearts as they embraced the evening of Tribute to the Beatles.

The first half of the show consisted of every Beatles song that they performed live for Mr. Sullivan’s audiences, beginning with All My Loving, the opening number. Haake talked about many of the songs for us in a Brit accent and for the entire evening he never went out of character. He never stopped being a Beatle.

The opening number was followed by Till There Was You, She Loves You, I Saw Her Standing There, I want to Hold Your Hand from the February 9, 1964 show. The following week in 1964 the Beatles performed two more hits, This Boy and From Me To You. And the next week, probably back by insanely popular demand, we received two more offerings: Twist And Shout and This Boy.

There was another fun part of the show last night. Between some of the songs they played a few of the TV commercials that aired in 1964 on the real show, and they were hilarious. These brief interludes no doubt gave the band a chance to catch their collective breath because Beatles music can be high energy and the group here held nothing back in their efforts to re-create their sound.

The next group of songs came from the September 12, 1965 performance on the Sullivan show, the day after my 13th birthday. Haake mentioned at one point during this set that for the period of that hour there had been no juvenile crime in America. This segment included I Feel Fine, I’m Down, Act Naturally, Ticket To Ride, Yesterday and Help.

After the intermission we moved into the Apple years when the Beatles had stopped touring and developed their increasingly complex sounds in the studio. What was impressive last night was how The Revolution 5 was able to capture so much of the nuanced and complex layers of sound that the original Beatles had invented. Perfectionists might quibble that they used a synthesizer to play the horn sound on Penny Lane, but the deft inventiveness with which they reproduced the studio effects, especially on songs like Strawberry Fields Forever and A Day In The Life, was impressive.

The play list is far too long to recall here in its entirety, but thoughtfully reflective songs as well as rockers. Back in the U.S.S.R., Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, With a Little Help From My Friends, Two Of Us, The Long & Winding Road, Yellow Submarine, Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds, Here Comes The Sun, Something, Blackbird, Ballad of John & Yoko, Taxman, and Revolution, among many others, made for a memorable experience. Every song received instant enthusiastic applause. Portions of the crowd were on their feet even before it was over, and at the end all of us were cheering for more. The encore followed, with dancing, clapping, smiling and laughing.

At the show’s end Grant Haake, Aaron Barthell, Louis Wineskowski, John Tetrault and drummer Charlie Phoenix were lined up at the exit to personally thank each of us for coming to their show. The Revolution 5 made it clear why the Beatles played such a significant role in the history and development of rock and roll.

If my review sounds a bit biased, it's because I was there. Here's a link to their website where you can learn more about the band, see their upcoming schedule and book tickets to see them yourself. I'm confident you'll enjoy the show.

Who Shot Rock & Roll?

Rock & Roll. Is it only about the music? It's never been just about the music. It's entertainment. And yes, more than that, too.

Now, it's been absorbed into the art scene in a travelling exhibit called "Who Shot Rock & Roll: A Photographic History, 1955 to the Present." First displayed at the Brooklyn Museum of Art, the travelling art show has been making a circuit that includes the Worcester Art Museum in Massachusetts, Memphis Brooks Museum of Art, Akron Art Museum, Columbia Museum of Art, Birmingham Museum of Art, Allentown Art Museum, and Annenberg Space for Photography.

Today the exhibit opens at the Tucson Museum of Art, 140 N. Main Ave.

When you think about it, rock stars probably owe a huge debt to the photographers who captured their images to place them on billboards (the Doors in L.A.), magazine covers ("on the cover of the Rolling Stone") and embed them in our memories. The music has been part of our culture for more than half a century, but its the images that transformed rock superstars into icons of our times.

Hendrix could have played guitar with the same skill without the colorful getup. What if KISS had just worn the clothes they wore to high school? Was Tina Turner's singing approved by her short-skirt shimmy-shine glitterati dresses? That's called entertainment. And the cameras loved it.

For what it's worth, there are more than 180 photographs and videos in the exhibit, demonstrating the power of Rock & Roll and its impact on society. Curator Gail Buckland, the noted photography scholar, assembled the exhibit.

A book featuring even more photos than in the travelling exhibit was published in 2009 by Buckland. Here's a description, followed by excerpts from a review.

More than two hundred spectacular photographs, sensual, luminous, frenzied, true, from 1955 to the present, that catch and define the energy, intoxication, rebellion, and magic of rock and roll; the first book to explore the photographs and the photographers who captured rock’s message of freedom and personal reinvention—and to examine the effect of their pictures on the musicians, the fans, and the culture itself.

The only music photographers whose names are well known are those who themselves have become celebrities. But many of the images that have shaped our consciousness and desire were made by photographers whose names are unfamiliar. Here are Elvis in 1956—not yet mythic but beautiful, tender, vulnerable, sexy, photographed by Alfred Wertheimer . . . Bob Dylan and his girlfriend on a snowy Greenwich Village street, by Don Hunstein . . . John Lennon in a sleeveless New York City T-shirt, by Bob Gruen . . . Jimi Hendrix, by Gered Mankowitz, a photograph that became a poster and was hung on the walls of millions of bedrooms and college dorms . . .

And from Publishers Weekly:
Buckland's visually hypnotic history of rock photography is as much a history of rock as subject as it is of photography. In fact, it is the inseparability of the two that lies at the heart of Buckland's argument. ...the power of the image in the formation and sustenance of rock-and-roll culture from 1955 onward.

Not every reader review of the book is grand, but the power of rock and roll imagery has been undeniable.

Since the images from the travelling exhibit are copyrighted, the images here have been retrieved from the superb collection of Andrew Perfetti's rock and roll images. You can find him on Facebook.

It Was Only Rock 'n Roll

Woodstock. It happened. And everything that happened there became bigger than life because... because, they made a movie about it and they made an album about it and they made a memory shrine of it. Not only do we remember the groups, we remember the little things that were said between songs because they got repeated again, and again.

One thing I remember about Woodstock (no, I was not there) is thinking to myself what a potpourri of acts this was. You had legends like The Who and Hendrix, and then you had someone like Richie Havens and a group like Sha Na Na. Where did those guys come from?

Sha Na Na was a Fifties style retro group that was so relatively new that by the time they appeared at Woodstock they still didn't even have an record label yet. You no doubt recall their shimmery gold outfits and lively whirl through "At the Hop." It was all about putting on a show. It's the entertainment business, and promoters will throw anything together if it can turn a buck. Hendrix followed Sha Na Na, making famous his unique rendition of the Star Bangled Banner to a dawn desolation littered with the debris left behind by the Woodstock Nation. No matter. The album captured it for posterity.

A few years later, while in college in Ohio, I got to see another Rock 'n Roll revue that was on tour, again with Sha Na Na in the lineup. This road show was a far more cohesive team in terms of the music and acts that performed. They were bringing the Fifties to the Seventies. Headliners included Chuck Berry, The Coasters, The Shirelles, and Sha Na Na among others. Unlike the Folk Festival the year before, which included Mary Travers and the Youngbloods, there were no Viet Nam War protest overtones. This was that "canned innocence" that rock 'n roll was supposed to be with sock hops and bobby soxers.

I was in a funky blue mood that evening though. My seat for much of the concert was in the front row, behind the stage. It gave me an almost jaded viewpoint as I watched some of the setups and saw the way the groups worked the crowd. The gold outfits of Sha Na Na had loose threads like they were getting worn out but didn't have the money to replace them. And Chuck Berry looked like he was getting a little tired of doing that ever popular bent-knee leg kick strut across the stage. It's a little like three year olds when you give them a big toss up into the air, and they laugh and say, "Again!" Sometimes crowds are so easy to please.

In short, I had a cynic's take on the night. Rock 'n roll shows like this one were a strange bubble that people could escape into. And yet, the music these people gave us... it's been woven into the fabric of our lives in so many ways. The old classics always give us a lift.

All these memories come to mind because I read a small news story yesterday that Carl Gardner, lead singer and co-founder of The Coasters, just passed. You probably know a few of his songs. "Poison Ivy" was big way back when. "Charlie Brown" is hilarious fun. "Why's everybody always pickin' on me." And the classic, "Yakety Yak." "Don't talk back!" Yakety-yak, yakety yak.

Gardner loved being a performer, his career in entertainment running fifty years. Thank you, Mr. Gardner, for the fun you brought to so many lives through your music.

The Roots of Rock and Roll

In 1970, when I began my college career at Ohio University, student enrollments were in the neighborhood of 20,000. The campus was bursting at the seams. The lines were especially long in the great hall where we were required to get our student I.D.'s, a chore which was eased considerably by the girl in line behind me with whom I had struck up a conversation. Her name was Pam. She had a nice smile and happened to be from Cleveland, my own place of birth.

Whatever small talk we made during that hour in line has been forgotten, but by the time we were through with registrations I had her phone number and she agreed to see me again.

Few details of that first college date are worth repeating and most of them unremembered. For her it was a dud because she was with me. But I'll not forget one thing we talked about that night amongst the trees behind Scot Quad, she in her brushed leather jacket with fringes. She said that friends of hers were involved in building a Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland.

I was pretty much in disbelief. Why would they put a Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland? She undoubtedly answered that, though it seems to be one of the details missing from my memory. All I remember is that it just seemed too far out. The only bands we had in Ohio of national significance were Grand Funk Railroad and The Glass Harp. But little did I know...

Sixteen years later when it came to pass, those who had dreamed were rewarded. But still, why Cleveland? Chiefly, it's because of the efforts of a disc jockey named Alan Freed who promoted the new genre of music.

There were many disc jockeys of the time taken up in the euphoric new sound, which was a blend of African-American rhythms and blues while borrowing from traditions of cowboy music, jazz, country and folk. The key thing, though, was making music kids could dance to.

As history has it, Freed, aka Moondog, put together a five band event at the Cleveland Arena which he called the Moondog Coronation Ball on March 21, 1952. Promoting it on the air brought untold numbers of youth, and a riot ultimately broke out. This event has been labelled the first rock and roll concert.

Freed's career was later marred by the Payola Scandal that hurt a lot of disc jockeys of the time, but pretty much left rock and roll unscathed, as witnessed by its pervasiveness through the Sixties and beyond.

There you have it. Rock on. And enjoy the day.

The British Invasion

According to Rolling Stone magazine's list of top 500 albums, four of the top ten are by the Beatles, who also own the Gold Medal position of Numero Uno with their ground breaking Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. The other three Beatles albums on the top ten are Revolver (3), Rubber Soul (5) and The White Album (10).

I remember when The White Album came out there were all kinds of rumors about what would have been on the cover of this album had not the censors interfered. I'm not up to speed on the trivia here but suspect that the mystique created by this album devoid of even a title was a brilliant concept that helped maintain the buzz for these now maturing mop tops who took America by storm only a few short years earlier.

It was called The British Invasion by the media heads, with groups like the Dave Clark Five and The Animals and The Rolling Stones all having a go at American audiences via the trend setting Ed Sullivan Show. Beatlemania was so over the top that when they appeared in concert it was impossible to hear them perform because of the girls shrieking and shaking and screaming.

Other groups that cross-pollinated with American audiences, influencing emerging Stateside bands, included Herman's Hermits, Peter & Gordon, Manfred Mann, Petula Clark, Freddie and the Dreamers, Donovan and the Kinks. My first 45 single was the Kinks' All Day and All of the Night. All these groups had hits in the American pop scene.

The influences went both ways though. Dylan made an impact "over there" as did Jimi Hendrix whose time in England gave him the traction his career needed to get out from the typecasting expected of a black guitarist in the States. Hendrix found his voice (or rather, his guitar did) and he carved out a new territory in rock history.

Rounding out the top ten of RS magazine's greatest albums, we have Pet Sounds by the Beach Boys (2), Dylan's Highway 61 Revisited (4), Marvin Gaye's What's Going On (6), Exile on Main Street by the Rolling Stones (7), London Calling by The Clash (8) and Dylan's Blonde on Blonde at number nine, number nine, number nine, number nine....

Not sure what I think of a couple of those. Elvis makes the list at number eleven with The Sun Sessions. And Miles Davis grabs the twelve spot with Kind of Blue, the first jazz album on the list.

What would be the top ten albums on your list... if you can narrow it down that far. You should check the Rolling Stone Top 500 for a good selection of ideas. Maybe it would be good to get a handle on their criteria. Pet Sounds? Exile on Main Street? Not sure I understand those selections. How about you?

Note: Picture at top right is from a wall in Haight-Ashbury, SF 2008.