Category: BABY BLUE < BREAKING BAD< BADFINGER< 1970's

DEL SHANNON: "KEEP SEARCHIN"

9/17/2014

DEL SHANNON: “KEEP SEARCHIN” By Alan L. Chrisman

Del Shannon was one of the great rockers and songwriters between Elvis and The Beatles. Probably he’s best known for his classic 1961 hit, “Runaway”, with its high-pitched falsetto vocals and haunting, keyboard riffs. Shannon was to have several other follow up hits with his distinctive sound throughout the early 60’s, like, “Keep Searchin”, “Little Town Flirt”, “Hats Off To Larry”, “Handy Man”, etc.

Actually he was the first American artist to cover a Beatles song, “From Me to You” before The Beatles’ version was released there. Shannon (actually Charles Westover, but name taken from a local wrestler and a Cadillac Coupe de Ville) was born in Michigan, where he met keyboardist , Max Crook (who had made his own early version of a synthesizer) and the two of them were to create their unique sound. He was also a producer and produced an early Bob Seger and Bryan Hyland’s “ Gypsy Woman”. And he wrote the hit “I Go to Pieces” for Peter and Gordon. When his career started to fade a bit in the U. S. with the British Invasion, ironically, he maintained his popularity in the U.K. In fact, several British musicians, would help produce his albums there, Like The Rolling Stones’ producer, Andrew Loog Oldham, who did his version of their “Under My Thumb” in 1967. Shannon released the Live in England LP in 1973. And Dave Edmonds would produce the single “And the Music Plays On” in ’74.

He was probably the closest in song writing and subject to the great Roy Orbison. Like him, his songs usually had an almost tragic opera to them, with heart-wrenching vocals and words. For example these are some of the lyrics to “Runaway”: “As I walk along I wonder / what went wrong? I’m walking in the rain/ tears are falling and I feel the pain/wishing you were here by me/to end this misery”. And I wonder/ I wah-wah-wah-wah wonder/ Why Why Why? , Did you go Away/ My Little Runaway” Boy, does that capture teenage love/angst or what? And behind that is theirscreeching, but captivating keyboards, always.

In fact, when Orbison, died in late 1988, after the big success of supergroup, The Traveling Wilburys’ 1st album, Shannon was rumoured to be his replacement for their next album. Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers had already produced and played on a comeback album for Shannon, 1981’s, Drop Down and Get Me with a re-make of Phil Phillip’s classic, “Sea Of Love” and seven originals, which is recomended . And fellow Wilbury, Jeff Lynne of ELO, produced an album for him, Rock On, which was released in ’91. So he was well respected and influenced these and many other musicians.

But Del Shannon played his last concert on Feb. 3, 1990, at a tribute concert in Fargo, North Dakota, for the 31th anniversary of the plane crash that killed legends, Buddy Holly, Richie Valens, and The Big Bopper. A week later, Del Shannon was found dead of suicide. He had long suffered from depression and was on the drug, Prozac, which some have linked to deaths. Del Shannon was inducted into the Rock’n’Roll Hall of Fame in 1991, with a tribute performance from Billy Joel of his classic song, “Runaway”. And the Traveling Wilburys did their own version of “Runaway’ as a tribute to him. Del Shannon, one of the greats, at expressing both the pain and exhilaration of being young and alive. “Keep Searchin’” (We’ll Follow the Sun).

See DEL SHANNON doing “RUNAWAY” on David Letterman Show, 1986.

http://youtu.be/nSkV9pdzLgo

See TRAVELING WILBURY’S do DEL SHANNON’S “RUNAWAY” http://youtu.be/qEPx9bkpkh8

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JENNIFER LAWRENCE: NUDE PHOTOS & POLITICAL CORRECTNESS

9/6/2014

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JENNIFER LAWRENCE: NUDE SELFIES & POLITICAL CORRECTNESS by Alan L. Chrisman

The recent leak of Jennifer Lawrence’s and other celebrities’ nude photos by a hacker has raised some interesting questions. It seems to me, to be mainly a generational thing. The younger generations, who’ve grown up with social media their whole lives, have a whole different definition and practice of “privacy”, than those who haven’t.

Many young people think nothing of revealing anything and everything about themselves on the internet. And that includes sexting, nude, and explicit photos. Supposedly, one in four of them has sent them and 40% have received them. One half of 18-24 year olds, according to one survey, send them. If these are to be believed, and I’m not saying they aren’t. Remember back in 1998 (which seems like a century ago now), when Bill Clinton argued that oral sex wasn’t really sex. This new generation, evidently, agrees.   How far we’ve gone since then.

It’s amazing how fast our social mores have changed. It started perhaps, with Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, reality shows, people famous for being famous, celebrity sex tapes, selfies, sexting, etc. I guess it was just a matter of time until the non-famous would want to be in on the act (no pun intended) too. So now you can be your own porn star and share it with friends and family.

This younger generation will, no doubt, say “what’s the big deal?” Get with the times, Man! Every generation thinks the previous ones are out of date. That’s a necessary part of being young, since time began.

And we live in politically-correct times (have for a while now). The Baby Boomers, more than any other generation perhaps, will do anything- not to get old. Youth is the magic elixir. If you have enough money of course, to buy the health supplements and organic food and get our hair dyed and tattoos, to show we’re still hip. We line up for the latest social media device. Everyone’s a writer. Everyone’s a musician. Everyone’s a poet. Everyone’s an artist. Everyone has a blog (including me!). Everyone can express themselves. Of course, few can make a living at these things anymore , because we also don’t want to have to pay for it.

But hey, this is the perfect democratic set-up, right?

Sex was once the taboo subject, but not anymore. Sex is everywhere; it’s out of the closet. My female bank tellers are wearing low-cut tops as part of their business attire and I have to try and keep my eyes on my bank deposits and not get accused of leering.   Middle-aged women want to look like their daughters. Their daughters want to go TV Idol shows and imitate famous people who can’t sing. College students are too often regressing to a rape culture, despite all the sex-equality education. And there’s little subtlety left about anything anymore.

But it’s dangerous and unpopular and politically incorrect to say these things, because we live in a “liberal” society. Nobody wants to be labeled a prude or intolerant. Racists don’t even consider themselves racists . Remember Donald Sterling? If you even question some of these things, some people will say,” You against Sex or something?” The worst crime is to be uncool.

No, we’re all so liberated. It seems to me that morals and politics is always about, really one thing-thinking the other guy is not as “open “as we are. Conservatives think liberals are too open and liberals think conservatives are not “open” enough. Comedian Mort Sahl said, “Liberals feel guilty about everything and conservatives think they have the right to own everything”. If we listened to our mainstream media, we’d think the news is just about scandals and what’s the latest video that’s gone viral. At one time only the tabloids specialized in those things.

I recently read a novel by Gary Shteyngart, Super Sad True Love Story, set in the perhaps, not too distant future. America has a one party government and China owns most of its economy. Everyone has a Credit Ranking and your social standing and any chance for advancement is based on that Ranking. Poor people have a low Ranking and are basically disposable. Also everyone has a personal device called an apparat, which allows everyone to find out anyone else’s Ranking (as well as their sex lives) and whether it’s worth associating with them or marrying them. So in this future, everyone knows everything about everyone else. Of course, the book is a sort of 1984-like Sci. Fi. satire.   Shteyngart has also, in 2014, released his painful, but uproariously funny memoir, Little Failure, about coming to America as a Russian immigrant and trying to adopt to his new land and how he finally found his true calling as a writer. In the previous Super Sad True Love Story, his character, Lenny, is a collector of “printed, bound media artifacts(aka) books.

Some people say that a world of more and more social media and is even desirable and less and less privacy is inevitable. We learn more everyday just how much governments and corporations know about us and everyday there is another mass breach of our privacy. Edward Snowden revealed that the NSA wanted to have eavesdropping abilities secretly put on every device sold to the public (and almost got away with it).

It’s true that new generations don’t seem too concerned with these things and also many of the older generation seem to just accept this “progress”. Perhaps, Shteyngart’s future society, where everyone knows everything about everyone else, may not be far off. But maybe we should at least question where this is leading us all. And maybe we should remember where we came from and not be so afraid of being accused of not being “with it”.

“HUMAN REALITY”                    Lyrics by Alan Chrisman c. 2013

1.There is no perfection                                Chorus:

Not everything is connected                 Everybody lies

There is no excuse                                   Everybody cries

There is no simple truth                         Everybody dies

                                                                    Not everybody flies

2.There is no black

There is no white                              4. There is no smart addict

There’s only wrong                            There is no escape

There’s only right                               There’s only ourselves to blame

                                                               There’s only human joy and pain



3.There’s not always a reason            5. The Spirit is overrated

Things are never simple                      Our ego’s are inflated

They are always complex                    Most have already made up their minds

It’s always a changing season             Few will take the necessary time

6.Doesn’t matter how much we say

Only what we do

Whether we deliver

And come through

We are not the same

7.We are not equal

We are not the same

We are all different

In more than a name

8.Only you can grow

Only you can know

And not be a slave

And can yourself save

Hear " HUMAN REALITY" By Al & THE G-Men under Songs and CD's Heading.

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"BABY BLUE" & BADFINGER: THE AMAZING SAGA OF A BAND

9/4/2014

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”BABY BLUE” & BADFINGER: THE AMAZING SAGA OF A BAND by Alan L. Chrisman

Badfinger has always been one of my favorite bands. Badfinger was a Beatles-produced band in the early 70’ who had 4 albums and 4 top singles on the Beatles’ label, Apple Records. Amazingly, one of my favorite songs by them “Baby Blue” had a resurgence in 2013, as it was chosen for the final episode of the popular Breaking Bad TV show, and it ended up back in the charts at no. 14. Some people may not know they also wrote the song, ”Without You” which Harry Nilsson had a number one hit with in 1972 and Mariah Carey in ’94.

Originally called The Iveys, they were the first non-Beatles band signed to their new Apple label in 1968. They changed their name to “Badfinger” after an incident when John Lennon had hurt his finger playing what was later to be the Beatles’ song, “With A Little Help from My Friends”. Paul McCartney wrote and produced their first big hit, “Come And Get It”, which was on their first Badfinger album, the soundtrack to the Peter Sellers movie Magic Christian Music, produced by Tony Visconti, later David Bowie’s producer. Their next album, “No Dice” had the afore-mentioned “Without You” and “No Matter What” hits released in 1970. Their 3rd Apple release was the solid “Straight Up” LP with “Baby Blue” produced by Todd Rundgren and “Day After Day”, produced by George Harrison.

The four members of the band were originally from Wales and Liverpool ( Pete Ham, guitar, Tom Evans, bass and Mike Gibbons, drums, Joey Molland guitar). Molland even looked similar to McCartney. They all four wrote songs so catchy that people often took them for the Beatles and their harmonies. They also played on several Beatles’ solo albums like Harrison’s All Things Must Pass and Ringo’s single,”It Don’t Come Easy”. And they played at Harrison’s Bangladesh Benefit Concert in ’71 and Ham with Harrison for his “Here Comes The Sun” duet.

But then fate was to turn on this storied band, for the Beatles broke up in 1970, just at the height of Badfinger’s success, with their record label in lawsuits and Badfinger’s money too tied up for years afterward. They released their final album for Apple, Ass, in 1973, with their goodbye song ” Apple of My Eye”. Afterwards, they got a deal with Warners Bros label, and released two decent albums Badfinger and Wish You Were Here in 1974. But they also met an unscrupulous new manager and he disappeared with the advance money the record company had given them and that put them on the financial hook for his actions and wouldn’t publicize their albums or release any future ones. . They went back in Apple’s studio one last time to record Head First, but it wasn’t released until 2000. And it was only the beginning of their troubles, for their main songwriter, Pete Ham, was found hanged in April, 1975. The remaining members tried to carry on in various bands and solo projects for the next several years. Molland and Evans recorded a “comeback” album Back on The Airways for Electra in ’79. It’s actually, one of their best, I think, besides their Apple releases, with several quite good songs on it like the title rocker and the Beatlely ballad single, “Love Is Gonna Come at Last”; I recommend it if you can find it.

I actually met the remaining members and got their autographs when they played Ottawa, Canada’s Barrymore’s Hall in the early 80’s. They released another decent album “Say No More” in ’81. But soon they fell apart again and at one time, there were two rival touring bands, one led by Evans, one by Molland, both claiming to be Badfinger. This led to more lawsuits and money woes and tragically, in Nov. ’83, Tom Evans also committed suicide, still evidently despondent over his earlier bandmate, Pete Ham’s, death eight years before.

Thus Badfinger’s story became more known for its tragedy than its music often, unfortunately. All the members had recorded various solo projects that were finally released over the years: Pete Ham’s 7 Park Avenue (’97) and Golder’s Green (’99); Tom Evan’s Over You: The Final Tracks(’95) and Molland has 4 albums After The Pearl (’85), The Pilgrim(’92),This Way Up(2001) and Return To Memphis (2013). Badfinger fans are advised to check them out for they all contain some well-written songs. I met member, Joey Molland, again at the Connecticut Beatles’ Convention in’94 and he signed my beloved original Apple album Staight Up. Goldmine collector’s magazine said that Straight Up was the most requested out-of- print album in 1988 their subscribers wanted released again. Under pressure, Apple Records did re-release their Badfinger albums on CD , as Come And Get It: The Best Of Badfinger in 1995 and the Very Best Of Badfinger in 2000.

Finally in 2013, the surviving member of Badfinger, Molland, (drummer Gibbons died in Florida in 2005) and the other members’ families got their royalty payments settled in court. Pete Ham’s song “Without You” alone was worth over a half million dollars for his in ’94, when Mariah Carey had hit again with it. With Breaking Bad’s re-hit of “Baby Blue, 42 years after its first release, there would be no doubt more to come.

So the amazing story of Badfinger was to be fated both good (produced by and played with The Beatles) and bad. Dan Matovina’s book, Without You: The Tragic Story of Badfinger was written in 1998 and re-issued in 200O.

But to me, what’s important is their great music, that’s stood the test of time and I was lucky to get to meet them and hear them play their songs. Badfinger remains one of my favorite bands and their songs have proven to last. One of the bands I managed, played “ Baby Blue” , especially for me, at the Ottawa Beatles’ Conventions I organized. For You, Baby Blue.

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May 08th, 2014

8/26/2014

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Lewinsky,The Clintons, Donald Sterling & Political Correctness

An Essay about Our Times by Alan L. Chrisman, 2014

Monika Lewinsky says in the June issue of Vanity Fair that she is still being vilified over the Clinton affair. And it’s created quite a reaction. How dare she drudge up this scandal again! Media panelists’ have complained that she just move on with her life. But she maintains she has tried, but has been unable to find jobs (despite going to the London School of Economics). One female pundit said she could have volunteered to aid in Africa (like Bill Clinton and Bill Gates’ foundation) or changed her name, etc.   Male P.R. consultants said she should have just re-created a new public “narrative” as ex-President Clinton has done. America just loves a comeback story.

I always thought it strange that it was, ironically, the female feminists who most criticized her but forgave Bill Clinton, the womanizer. Of course they were mainly Democrats and consider themselves and him progressive, so it could be excused. And there is a whole history of ‘progressives’ like the Kennedy’s being womanizers and it being dismissed. Of course, they can’t wait for Hillary to run for President in 2016. I recommend you read Roger Morris’s “Partners in Power”: The Clintons and their America, to get another view.   CNN host, Don Lemmon, said Lewinsky should have been more mature, as he was when her age he hinted, than to have an affair with a married man. Lewinsky was an intern at the White House but only in her early 20’s when she became involved with the most powerful “boss” on earth. But we have long had a double standard for males and male politicians. At the worse, they became jokes like Anthony Weiner and Elliot Spitzer or right-wing fundamentalists, caught with their pants down. But as Lewinsky argues, we continue to blame the women. I was surprised myself, when my own mother had said at the time of the Clinton scandal, that it was Lewinsky’s fault.

We live, and have for a while now, in a time of political correctness. People outside the U.S .(as in Canada, where I now live) often have this view of America as a very religious, conservative place. Canadians see themselves as more liberal and nice and less violent (despite their love of hockey fights). But almost all the U.S. media is owned by big and ‘liberal’ corporations on the East and West coasts. And of course, Hollywood wants to have a social conscious with its overpaid actors and executives.
The recent Donald Sterling incident, the L.A. Clippers owner, when he was
caught making racist remarks, is also revealing. He has evidently had these views for years and the NBA knew it and allowed it all this time. It’s interesting: he actually grew up in one of the poorest and mixed-race neighborhoods in L.A., as did his supposed girlfriend (she went to the same high school 50 years later), V. Stiviano or “Visor” woman as she has become known in the media. And they both had created a new “narrative” in the American way: he changed his Jewish name to Sterling and she her’s too and has had plastic surgery, to hide her ethnic background.

So I think he’s genuinely surprised with all the controversy. Afterall, he made the mistake of just saying out loud what he’s probably thought all along and those around him have dismissed ( even Stiviano says he’s not a racist). Again, he’s just lived the American Dream and become a capitalist and escaped from the ghetto, like the rappers, and couldn’t understand why his girlfriend would want to dredge up the past by hanging around with a black athlete (even though the majority of NBA players are). He’s just an old man who has racist views, but like a lot of us, nobody wants to admit we’re not as unprejudiced in all kinds of things, as we think we are.

As I said in my own book, “It’s A Long Way Home”, (see 'memoir/book' heading), after living both in the U.S. and Canada, I believe politics is really about both liberals and conservatives each thinking that the other has less morals than they do. Liberals think conservatives are not “open” enough and conservatives think liberals are too “open”. But to me, there seems a lot of hypocrisy on both sides and in both the Clinton affair and the Sterling incident.

And the media is also guilty of its own.

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MUSIC AND POP CULTURE BLOG, Written by Alan L. Chrisman

DEL SHANNON: "KEEP SEARCHIN"

JENNIFER LAWRENCE: NUDE PHOTOS & POLITICAL CORRECTNESS

"BABY BLUE" & BADFINGER: THE AMAZING SAGA OF A BAND

May 08th, 2014

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