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| MUSIC By Buck Ryder, Music Critic-at-Large The 2010 Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo Reliant Park, Houston February 25 through March 21, 2010 World Chamionship BBQ Cook-Off starts Thrusday night, February 25th. Rodeo & Concert Series begins Tuesday, March 2. ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Bruce Springsten & The E Street Band - "The Boss" Rocks Giants Stadium With A Series of Showsi 1 10/2/09 - The Meadowlands, NJ - Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band rock Giants Stadium in The MEadowlands of New Jersey this week with a series of shows coinciding with "The Boss's" 60th birthday. Yes, Bruce Springsteen turned 60 recently, but shows few signs of slwoing down, as will be admitted to by abyone writing a review of these shows, still stretching to nearly 3 hours in a day and time when many acts one-third his age play for only 90 minutes or less. To mark the occasion, as he took the stage, he began the show with a new composition entitled "Wrecking Ball". The new song commemorates the demolition of Giants Stadium, scheduled for after the 2009 football season. But the new song is more than meets the ye. It's a challenge of sorts extolled by the Boss against Father Time himself - a personal rage against time and a challenge to bring on that wrecking ball. It's a war cry from Springsteen who seems to be saying - 'Hey, take your best shot - I'm going to keep on rocking as long as I can.' These shows are also notable for the performance, in its entirety, of Springsteen's seminal album "Born to Run." It seems that The Boss is bound and determined to send Giants Stadium off with a bang and not a whimper by making these shows truly memorable and noteworthy. With the performance of the entire "Born to Run" album, he's making these dates important in the history of the E Street Band. 9/30 Set List: Wrecking Ball Seeds Johnny 99 Atlantic City Outlaw Pete Hungry Heart Working On A Dream Thunder Road Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out Night Backstreets Born To Run She's The One Meeting Across The River (trumpet solo: Curt Ramm) Jungleland Waiting On A Sunny Day The Promised Land Into The Fire Lonesome Day The Rising Badlands No Surrender Raise Your Hand E Street Shuffle Growing Up American Land (with Willie Nile) Dancin' In The Dark (with Willie Nile) Hard Times (with Willie Nile) Rosalita Oasis - The Greatest Band in the World Returns Oasis is back with a new album and tour that commences in October. The new tour will take them initially through the UK and into western Europe, Mexico, the U.S. and Canada for select dates through the end of the year. The abbreviated tour (they are only playing a few dates in each country) are probably designed to get them out there to correspond with the inital launch of their new album Dig Out Your Soul, on sale on Monday, October 6, 2008. With all that rages in the world today, one wonders if we'll also be able to handle the battling Gallagher brothers, should their normal bedlam ensue. It's that bedlam along with a catalogue of great rock and roll songs that makes the Manchester quartet the greatest rock and roll band on the planet. Now, there are definitely two camps that you can fall into when you're talking about Oasis, the band led by Noel Gallagher (chief song writer, guitarist, and one of the most startlingly gifted rock song writers in history) and his younger brother Liam (singer, sometime song writer, and one of the most charasmatic frontmen in rock history). First you can consider them the best band in the world, or, secondly, you can think of them as the greatest, most obsessed Beatles cover band in history (if the Beatles had sung these songs, and it certainly seems as if they would have written them if they had had the time). At any rate, 50 million albums later, they are back with their new album. True enough, there is no denying their many Beatles inspired numbers, utilizing Beatles traits like basic rock and roll songs with a straight forward rythm section, double guitar attack, and slick studio productions (lots of over dubs). There can also be no doubt that their lyrics are much more introspective and at tiomes biting than anything the Beatles put out. To be fair, there are lots of songs like the fantastic rocker "Lyla" that seem all their own. Of course no discussion no matter how brief, about the band is complete without a look at some of the chaos and bedlam which has ensued at times when the band hit the road. In fact, the only two survivors of the bands early period are the Gallaghers. So, without any further ado, a brief look at some of the more prime moments in Oasis history: 1. While preparing for an 'Un-Plugged' performance, Liam drops out of the gig due to a bad throat. Noel decides to sing instead, and a crystal-meth'd-upped Liam shows up at the gig, watches from the balcony while drinking beer and smoking cigarettes. Between songs he heckles his older brother from the balcony, providing one of the greatest surreal moments in rock history. 2. The band is at the center of a brawl in a Munich Germany disco in 2002. Most of the band, their crew, and management all wind up in a German jail. Liam loses two teeth in the melee, but in a classic "you'll never take me alive" moment, resists arrest and kicks a Munich cop in the ribs. Later the Germans see fit to lighten Liam's wallet to the tune of 40,000 British pounds. Incredibly (but not if you know Oasis), the brawl starts (according to on-lookers) after members of the Oasis group start shoving each other. The full-on melee starts after some of the Oasis folks, who were drunk (again, no surprise there) fell on some Italiens partying at another table. Bassist Andy Bell told British music magazine "Q" that he was in his hotel room when it happened, but the next morning he received a telephone call from the tour's accountant (whom he had never met), telling him that "the reason that I'm phoning you is because everyone else is in prison." He goes on to say that "when you join a band you don't expect to spend much of your life hiding in Switzerland. (But, with Oasis) its happened quite a lot." 3. A fight ensues when Liam verbally attacks Noel's wife (not present) during one of the band's tours. He then goes on to question whether or not Noel is the actual father of his kids (ouch). Of course, Noel takes exception and so, the fight is joined. After the boo-ha-ha Noel quits the band, flies to San Francisco, but then travels to Las Vegas where he is persuaded to rejoin the band. 4. Liam admits that he hates their biggest US hit Wonderwal claiming that every time he has to sing it he wants to vomit (which sounds good to me, I hate it, too). You've got to love any singer who will bite the hand that feeds him like that and not care or give a damn that he said it. There are lots of other moments, too, like the time Noel said that he'd like to see the members of a rival band get Aids and die (the shit-storm that follows forces him to publish an apology), but you get the idea. Through it all they created some of the greatet albums and wrote some of the greatest songs in post-rock history. One of the last true rock and roll bands left that matters, is still relevant while being massively and economically viable when they release new material. The circus that has followed Oasis for more than a decade has been nothing if not pure rock and roll ethos.Yes, its only rock and roll, but some people play it and live it better than others, and no one plays it or lives it better than Oasis. Set List (So far) for the 2008 Tour: Forking In The Bushes/Rock N Roll Star/Lyla/The Shock Of The Lightning/Cigarettes And Alcohol/Meaning Of Soul/To Be Where There's Life/Waiting For The Rapture/The Masterplan/Songbird/Slide Away/Morning Glory/Ain't Got Nothing/The Importance Of Being Idle/I'm Outta Time/Wonderwall/Supersonic/Don't Look Back In Anger/Falling Down Oais
Oasis Encore: Champagne Supernova/I Am The Walrus Also, here's Oasis, live in their hometown of Manchester, performing their hit "Lyla" Buck Ryder, Music Critic-at-Large
Richard "Buck" Ryder is a freelance journalist and music reviewer living in Nashville. His father, an avid music fan and musician, moved
the family to Nashville from West Texas when "Buck" was 12. Buck is named after country music legend Buck Owens. Interestingly, his
older brother Charles is nicknamed "Buddy" after Buddy Holly, one of the iconic figures of early rock and roll, who was from West Texas.
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Van Morrison Van Morrison has had albums on the Billboard 200 Album Chart for the last 40 years. In this time he has produced an astounding 40 albums which have spent a total of 787 weeks on the charts. But, with his new album Keep It Simple he does something he has never done before - reach the Top 10. Sounds crazy, but it's true. His highest chart postion was #15 back in 1972 with Saint Dominic's Preview. Shows what a little perserverence can do. There is more good news for the Irish Troubador, who was born in Belfast, Northern Ireland, but who lives in Dublin in the Republic of Ireland: 8 of his albums have been digitally remastered from the original analog tapes; Veedon Fleece, Live at the Grand Opera House Belfast, Common One, Inarticulate Speech of the Heart, No Guru, No Method, No Teacher, Enlightenment, A Night in San Francisco Live, and The Healing Game. All will include previously unreleased bonus material and all the original lyrics - plus they will stay faithful to the original album artwork. A must for serious fans. ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ VH1 Classic to devote all day Monday, September 29th to RUSH! RUSH-Hashana will celebrate the Jewish New Year, Roshashana, on Moday by devoting all programming for 2r hrs to RUSH. Now, why, you say, would they do that? Probably because Geddy Lee is really Gary Weinrib, Canadian to be sure, but of Jewish lineage (it was Geddy's grandmother who, while trying to pronounce Gary in her Yiddish accent kept coming out with "Geddy". So, with Gary, I mean Geddy's, Yiddish grandmother in mind, and t thank her for bestowing Gaeedy's minker upon him, that we celebrate Roshashana this year, with RUSH. VH1 will air various concerts interspersed with RUSH videos. Among the concerts to air will be R30 and RUSH in Rio, but exertremely good concerts, with quite different set lists that highlight RUSH doing what they do best - performing. To get in the nmood, here is a link to the VH1 Classic web site page where they are presenting several key RUSH videos for your listening enjoyment. Click here and Mozeltof! RUSH Snakes & Arrows Tour Dates 2008i RUSH Tour 2008 - Has come to completion. There is already talk about their next studio album, and a tour will likely follow when completed. After that, RUSH R40, anyone? RUSH's set list for this leg of the Snakes & Arrows Tour looks mostly the same as it did on the 2007 legs, with the 2112 Medley: 2112 Overture/Temples of Syrinx being added betwen Spirit of the Radio and Tpom Sawyer. Here's the set list, in its entirety 2008 Set Listi (S&A Dream Sequence same as 2007 leg)
Limelight
Digital Man
Ghost of a Chance
Mission
Freewill
The Main Monkey Business
The Larger Bowl (with McKenzie Brothers intro)
Red Barchetta
The Trees
Between The Wheels
Dreamline
(-Intermission-video intro ["What's That Smell"]
Far Cry
Workin' Them Angels
Armor and Sword
Spindrift
The Way The Wind Blows
Subdivisions
Natural Science
Witch Hunt
Malignant Narcissism
Drum Solo
Hope
The Spirit of Radio
2112: Overture / The Temples of Syrinx
Tom Sawyer (with South Park intro)
Encore:
One Little Victory
A Passage To Bangkok
YYZ ("Harry Satchel" video outro, same as 2007 leg) For more information and all of the latest news try:
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Rough End to a Rough Decade Rock's Second Act End's As Abruptly As It's First
Sure, February 3, 1959, has been immortalized in song as “The Day the Music Died”, and with the deaths of Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, The Big
Bopper (all in the same plane crash), Elvis’ earlier enlistment in the Army, the incarceration of Chuck Berry by the end of 1959, the self-imposed exile of Little Richard that had already begun, the ostracizing of Jerry Lee Lewis for marrying a 13-year-old, who was his cousin to boot, and the death of Eddie Cochran (sports car crash), who could argue? But, the end of the 1970’s and the start of the 80’s could definitely compete.
If 1960 brought an end to Rock’s first act, Rock’s second act, begun with the start of the British invasion and the Beatles in 1964, certainly came to an end in 1970, with the Woodstock and Isle of Wight festivals. Then began a wild period in the 70's that made up Rock and Roll's Thrid-Act that came to a crashing end by 1980. At least in 1961 and in 1971 they didn’t have to endure Disco as a profound, almost cruel, punishment, as these giants of rock, one by one, came crumbling down.
In a tough end to a decade, no less than The Eagles (documented above), The Who (who would lose drummer Keith Moon in ‘78), Led Zeppelin (who would lose their drummer John Bonham in mid-1980) and Fleetwood Mac (who would only lose their minds about the time “Tusk” came out in 1979) were all on the decline or finished. Rock's Punk movement, born in the streets of England by disenfarchised youths that most famously spawned the "Sex Pistols", even came and went in a matter of a few years in the late 70's.
Even after soldiering-on, or reunions, none of them would approach the success they had achieved prior to their break-ups. Led Zeppelin, in fact, would never officially re-form.
Aerosmith would also nearly end, in a haze of drugs and wretched excess, that would lead to singer Steven Tyler and lead guitarist Joe Perry to being labeled the “Toxic Twins”. With the departure of both guitarists, Joe Perry and Brad Whitford (in 1979 and 1980, respectively), and a dismal attempt by Tyler to keep the group going with substitute musicians, they appeared headed for the scrap-heap, if not, in fact, the morgue. But, in one of the most unlikely comebacks in music history, Aerosmith would reform with the original line-up in mid-1984, clean themselves up, and go on to even greater success than they had from 1971 – 1978 (a success that had people comparing them to Led Zeppelin and The Rolling Stones).
The Stones, during the same late-70’s time period were having their own troubles. Mick Jagger had been going through a divorce from wife Bianca in 1977, and was now spending time in, of all places, New York’s Studio 54 Disco, in the company of Texas model Jerry Hall, where he came up with the groups first disco styled recordings, which must have been enthusiastically received by Keith Richards and the rest of the band, we're sure.
His problems were nothing compared to that of Richards, who, during the same period of time, was addicted to Heroin, busted in Canada for possession of the drug, lucky to get off with a suspended sentence, struggling in the after-math to kick the habit while then girlfriend Anita Pallenberg was having less success kicking her own habit, and subsequently ending that relationship.
Richards’ and Jagger’s relationship would deteriorate to such a degree that The Rolling Stone’s would go on a prolonged hiatus after a 1980 world tour. It would take the remainder of the decade to really get the two back together, functioning properly, and on the same page to record “Steel Wheels”. The subsequent tour in support of the new album would be their first in over 7 years, and their new material would never come close to approaching the rythym and blues styled quality of their earlier recordings that established them as the greatest Rock and Roll band of all-time. Punk came and went when The Sex Pistols refused to become rock stars, and called it quits in the middle of their one and only U.S. tour, Southern Rock collapsed for a while when Ronnie Van Zandt and some other members of Lynrd Skynrd died in a plane crash in 1977, although The Allman Brothers would go on, and certainly The Doobie Brothers (another of America's great bands) peaked, for the second and final time in 1979 with the runaway, Grammy Award winning, hit "What a Fool Believes".
And, in a final, devastating, blow, John Lennon, fresh on the come-back trail with his first album in five years: “Double Fantasy”, would be shot-dead in front of his New York City home in December of 1980, forever silencing one of Rock’s greatest, most influential, and iconic figures, and forever dashing hopes of a Beatles re-union, once and for all.
Yes, it was February 3rd of 1958 that, with the deaths of Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and The Big Bopper in a plane crash outside of Mason City, Iowa, that gave us the “Day the Music Died”, but the same can easily be said of December 8, 1980 - the day John Lennon was shot and killed, and with it brought to a conclusion one of Rock’s darkest chapter’s. Post Script: Luckily, people and acts Bruce Springsteen, Michael Jackson, Van Halen, and Prince would all see their greatest musical successes in the mid-eighties. Rockers like Bob Seger and Tom Petty helped bridge the gap, Bob Dylan (American music's poet-laureate) was still around, as was Pink Floyd (who had yet to record "The Wall") and groups like The Pretenders, The Talking Heads, The Clash (who would come to the forefront and have an influence and dramatic impact upon future artists that would bely their relatively short period of time together), and Dire Straits, would become heroes of a new genre; music videos. By the end of the 80's, U2 would become the worlds biggest and most acclaimed band, a spot they still occupy today. On the heels of New Wave (as Johhny Rotten once deridingly described it, a bunch of Punk acts that decided to act nice, and create New Wave), came a major moment in the history of Rock and Roll - the 1981 launch of MTV. At first, it was a true phenomenon with people watching (for the most part), just the same videos over and over. Such was the lack of inventory and the extent to which the American music industry was caught by surprise by MTV that they had virtually no videos ready - but the English did, and so we in the U.S. had a second invasion, born of that one collossal blunder - American record companies had no videos shot for their artists. Of course, it didn't take long for MTV, which was losing money at a rate almost too fast to calculate, to go corporate, and the whole great movement went South. But, as that was happening, the MTV generation would, for a brief period of time, usher in a new, seemingly endless (and by the mid 80's, a vacuous) breed of pop music artists that would rely heavily on synthesizers, fashion, and pop-hooks, and much less on musicianship, until, finally, the Grunge Rock and Metal revival period would begin by decade's end, make super-stars of Nirvana, Metallica, and Guns 'n' Roses and, as Led Zep's Robert Plant put it, give America it's own Punk movement. TA By The Way - Genisis is back out there too, with their best-selling line-up of Tony Banks Mike Rutherford, and Phil Collins, but they aren't including any songs from Abacab, which was their last shot at credibility. Save your money, see one of these other acts instead. You'll thank us later. ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ |
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