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we-arnold-lockshin-blog · 6 years ago

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Dictatorship USA – A Personal History – Part 16

The University of Wisconsin Madison was widely considered to be a home for “leftists.”

To a considerable extent because of its “radical” History department. Which included professors such as William Appleman Williams * - “one of the 20th century's most prominent revisionist historians of American diplomacy, who has been called 'the favorite historian of the Middle American New Left'" (William Appleman Williams, Wikipedia), George Mosse - “best known for his studies of Nazism” (George Mosse, Wikipedia) and Harvey Goldberg - “an out gay activist, an anti-Viet Nam War activist and what he would call an "hors du parti" (out of the communist party) socialist” (Harvey Goldberg, Wikipedia).

In fact, honest, genuinely left professors are not allowed on American university campuses#, and the UW History Department simply was a breeding ground for more fake, secret political police-anointed “leftists.”

I did not know this reality when I started my graduate degree work in the Fall of 1960.

Studies on the Left...

“Studies on the Left was a journal of New Left radicalism in the United States published between 1959 and 1967 in Madison, Wisconsin, and later in New York City.

“Its authors, at first mostly graduate students at the University of Wisconsin, came to include most of the major figures of sixties radicalism, and not only from the United States. Writers for Studies on the Left included Martin J. Sklar, Murray Rothbard, Lee Baxandall, James Weinstein, Eleanor Hakim, Michael Lebowitz, Ronald Radosh, Gabriel Kolko, James B. Gilbert, Saul Landau, Lloyd Gardner, Eugene D. Genovese, Norman Fruchter, Staughton Lynd, Ronald Aronson, William Appleman Williams, Raymond Williams, and Tom Hayden.” (Studies on the Left, Wikipedia)

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I got to know a few of our “Studies on the Left” heroes, but they, like the Slate “lefties” at UC Berkeley (see post 10 of this series), were a decidedly insular bunch and needed no “outsiders” to fill out their ranks. Strange.

Actually, not strange. After all, they were not “left” at all, but US secret police stooges filling a niche dictated by the American Gestapo.

The big guru was Marty Sklar. “Sklar was to the New Left what Chauncey Wright was to the Metaphysical Club at Harvard in the nineteenth century: a mercurial and electrifying thinker, and an inspiration to a coterie of friends and colleagues...” (Vanishing Act, The Nation Oct. 15, 2014). Like so many phony pseudo-left “theoreticians,” Sklar became a professor, at Northern Illinois University and then at Bucknell University.

I first met James Gilbert on my trip to Cuba (see post 15 of this series). On the way back, Jim invited me to his family's luxurious suburban Chicago home and assured me that he was “prepared to start screaming and shooting people” for the sake of revolution in the US. Radicalism? Fakery! Gilbert also became a big shot in the thoroughly bourgeois academic world: “Founder and Head, University of Maryland, Center for Historical Studies; Chair, Department of History...” (CURRICULUM VITAE, James B. Gilbert)

I have discussed Saul Landau in my previous post.

America's universities are simply loaded with fake “revolutionaries!”

Ronald Radosh is an ultra-reactionary illuminating case, in that he “switched” and showed his real political colors later in life. “Ronald Radosh (born 1937) is an American writer, professor, historian and former Marxist... Radosh was—like his parents—a member of the Communist Party of the United States of America until the Khrushchev thaw. Subsequently, he became a New Left and anti-Vietnam War activist. Later, Radosh turned his attention to Julius and Ethel Rosenberg. After studying declassified FBI documents and interviewing their friends and associates, Radosh concluded that Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were indeed guilty of spying for the KGB... Radosh is currently an adjunct fellow at the Hudson Institute** in Washington, D.C. and professor of history emeritus at the City University of New York, where he was a faculty member at both Queensborough Community College and the Graduate Faculty in History at CUNY.”

I wrote about Tom Hayden in our book Silent Terror: “One of the prominent 'radicals' of the 1960s and a founder of Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) was Tom Hayden. Hayden recently admitted that during the Vietnam War, he worked with US intelligence during his trips to the Democratic Republic of Vietnam as a well-publicized 'peace activist' (The Nation, Nov. 26, 1986). More recently, the reactionary politics of Hayden and his actress wife Jane Fonda were evident when they fervently supported Israeli aggression in Lebanon. Still posing as a liberal, Hayden criticized the Reagan Administration for not being sufficiently anti-communist. According to Hayden, 'anyone drinking Russian vodka... is washing down the blood of innocent people.'” ("Silent Terror: One family's history of political persecution in the United States» - http://arnoldlockshin.wordpress.com, p. 64)

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Studies on the Left has long since kicked the bucket. So why discuss it? To illustrate another example of how the ��the United States Gestapo - the vicious, murderous and all-intrusive US lie, spy, criminal, provocation, subversion and regime change, terror, drug-runnning, torture, war and mass murder apparatus – operates. And how the US Gestapo's stooges are well rewarded.

The CIA FBI and their colossally evil cohorts are still around. Very much so. And they have unbreakable entanglements and implacable dictat with the universities of California, Wisconsin*** etc. etc.

And not only with the “institutions of higher learning.”

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* Williams was a graduate of the US Naval Academy and served as an American imperialist naval officer.

# One can imagine very rare exceptions, where a genuine revolutionary is given a faculty position to somehow divert him/her from political activity or for some other psychological warfare ploy.

** “The Hudson Institute is a politically conservative, American think tank based in Washington, D.C. It was founded in 1961 by futurist, military strategist, and systems theorist Herman Kahn and his colleagues at the RAND Corporation.” (Hudson Institute, Wikipedia)

*** Notwithstanding the cynical “credo” of UW: “WHATEVER MAY BE THE LIMITATIONS WHICH TRAMMEL INQUIRY ELSEWHERE, WE BELIEVE THAT THE GREAT STATE UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN SHOULD EVER ENCOURAGE THAT CONTINUAL AND FEARLESS SIFTING AND WINNOWING BY WHICH ALONE THE TRUTH CAN BE FOUND.”

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Перед нами сейчас - коварный и опасный мошенник, расист, лжец и фашист Дональд Трамп, порочный Конгресс, нацистские ФБР - ЦРУ, кровавые милитаристы США и НАТО >>> а также и лживые, вредоносные американские СМ»И».

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Правительство США жестоко нарушало мои права человека при проведении кампании террора, которая заставила меня покинуть свою родину и п��лучить политическое убежище в СССР. См. книгу «Безмолвный террор — История политических гонений на семью в США» - "Silent Terror: One family's history of political persecution in the United States» - http://arnoldlockshin.wordpress.com

Правительство США еще нарушает мои права, в течении 14 лет отказывается от выплаты причитающейся мне пенсии по старости. Властители США воруют пенсию!!

ФСБ - Федеральная служба «безопасности» России - вслед за позорным, предавшим страну предшественником КГБ, мерзко выполняет приказы секретного, кровавого хозяина (boss) - американского ЦРУ (CIA). Среди таких «задач» - мне запретить выступать в СМИ и не пропускать большинства отправленных мне комментариев. А это далеко не всё...

Арнольд Локшин, политэмигрант из США

BANNED – ЗАПРЕЩЕНО!!

ЦРУ - ФСБ забанили все мои посты и комментарии в Вконтакте!

… и в Макспарке!

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lolmohammed667 · 7 years ago

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Um, Disneyland's Opening Day In 1955 Sounds Like It Was A Dystopian Hell

I GET MY MONEY FOR NOTHING AND MY CHICKS FOR FREE!

It was basically the Fyre Festival of 1955.

Disney Parks have a reputation for presenting themselves as perfect, flawless places where nothing could ever possibly go wrong.

Some less-than-amazing stuff has allegedly happened inside the parks, but by many accounts, Disney works realllll hard to make it all feel truly magical.

Dreamworks

But it turns out, Disneyland was decidedly not the happiest place on earth on its opening day, July 17, 1955*. In fact, it sounds like the kind of hellscape that would have made me angrier than if I got tricked into going on the Mad Tea Party.

I'm not exaggerating! An observer at the time called it a "fiasco the like of which I cannot recall in 30 years of show life."

*Technically, July 17 was the press preview and the 18th was opening day, but Disney generally recognizes the 17th as the official opening day.

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So what was so bad about it? For starters, the park just wasn't finished, plain and simple.

Only about 3/4 of the park was complete on the big day! Disneyland was the first-ever Disney park (Disney World didn't open until 1971), and its construction workers were apparently concerned that nothing would be ready by the July opening date and pushed for an extension, but the construction supervisor refused. Because of that, park visitors encountered a walkway in Tomorrowland that trailed off into a field of dirt, unfinished rides and attractions, and more.

Of course, the estimated 70 million people watching the live broadcast of opening day at home — hosted by none other than Ronald Reagan — had no idea any of this shit was going down.

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That also means that basically no rides were open.

Jonathan Carr, who was 9 years old when he attended opening day, told Cracked that his family, among many others, weren't told in advance that many rides wouldn't be open until the next month. "All day, people stood in lines for rides that were closed." And to think you probably once threw a fit because Peter Pan's Adventure had a 45-minute wait.

"You couldn't do anything. Anywhere you could sit was taken, rides had long lines, stores were filled," he added. "To me, it was like a mall parking lot during Christmas. Every space is filled, and there are endless cars either idling and waiting or circling around and hoping. That was Disneyland on the first day, but with nobody pulling out."

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Oh and, thanks to counterfeit tickets, double the number of invited guests showed up to the still-under-construction park.

You know the feeling when Disneyland feels so crowded that you wish you could hide inside the top of Space Mountain forever? Imagine that, times two. It was estimated that the park, once complete, would be able to hold 15,000 people, so Disney ordered that many invitations to be printed. Much to park workers' shock, "30,000 showed up because of counterfeit tickets and people who rushed the gate and all kinds of stuff," employee Marty Sklar later recalled. Carr said, "Three times in my journal, I wrote down something like, 'A Disney employee said they were not expecting this many people.'"

All those extra attendees created a seven-mile backup on the Santa Ana Freeway, and once they got to Anaheim, people were so anxious to get in that one (honestly genius) guy charged people $5 a head to climb up a ladder he propped up outside. Now that's what I call imagineering.

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When people did make it inside the gates, they were greeted by these nightmare-inducing Mickey and Minnie Mouse costumes.

Good luck sleeping tonight!

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The asphalt on Main Street, which had been poured that morning, was still so wet that women's heels sank into it and got stuck.

Pulling them out of the asphalt must've required Sword in the Stone-like strength. "It was spongy, but I thought it was supposed to be like that in case children fell down," Carr said. "I wrote down, 'There are black shoe marks all over from the ground. I think this is supposed to make it look like guests making their mark on the park.'" If only the truth was that fun and clever.

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The temperature got up to 100 degrees, which was made worse because there were no water fountains anywhere.

There was basically no way to cool off, especially because in 1955, air conditioning wasn't nearly as powerful as it is today. "There was an area where you were supposed to stand and get cooled off by air coming from a few rides," Carr said. "A Disneyland employee told this to us. But they were telling everyone. A nice breeze should have been coming, but so many people were there that there wasn't a temperature change." I'm literally sweating just reading this.

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On top of that, concession stands ran out of food and drinks by lunchtime.

In case huge crowds, broiling temperatures, no water, and people in creepy costumes weren't enough of a turnoff, Disneyland's opening day made everyone hangry, too. Carr remembers that "everybody got meaner as the day went on," and even saw two boys drink sugar syrup when the candy store ran out of sweets. "They ran out of candy, and parents could only buy that for their children. You didn't drink syrup or ingredients like that at that time unless something was wrong. It would be like drinking maple syrup from the bottle. But I saw it happen."

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People were peeing everywhere, and Disney was shockingly chill about it.

"I've told people I was there on the day it opened, and when they asked what it was like, the first thing I bring up is all the children peeing," Carr said. "My father wrote down, 'Main Street. The restroom lines are so long that there is another line for the new restroom parkgoers have created behind the official restroom.'"

The bathroom issue still wasn't solved the next day, so Disney was basically like, Whatever, paint the ground with your urine if you please. The open pee policy stood for a long time because it was easier than building new bathrooms. Today, though, dropping trou mid-Frontierland probably wouldn't be so warmly accepted.

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And to top it all off, Sleeping Beauty Castle caught on fire.

Have you ever peered up at the centerpiece of Disneyland and thought, That's nice, but it could really use some flames? Well, you're in luck! Thanks to a gas leak, Sleeping Beauty's Castle nearly went up completely in flames. Walt Disney would probably be horrified to know that a young park attendee like Carr saw the blaze firsthand. "I thought it was the show, but it was real," he said. "We were walking by when a fire peeked out of the window. It wasn't very big, but it was enough. A few employees said to go around. It was real."

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So there you have it! The next time you're moaning about the heat and humidity while waiting to ride the Matterhorn among one trillion choir groups on spring break, remember how good you have it.

Disney

[Read More ...]

GUYS WHO DON'T HAVE CASH DON'T GET LAID! CHANGE THAT!

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latoyarubalcava3546 · 7 years ago

Text

Um, Disneyland's Opening Day In 1955 Sounds Like It Was A Dystopian Hell

It was basically the Fyre Festival of 1955.

Disney Parks have a reputation for presenting themselves as perfect, flawless places where nothing could ever possibly go wrong.

Some less-than-amazing stuff has allegedly happened inside the parks, but by many accounts, Disney works realllll hard to make it all feel truly magical.

Dreamworks

I'm not exaggerating! An observer at the time called it a "fiasco the like of which I cannot recall in 30 years of show life."

*Technically, July 17 was the press preview and the 18th was opening day, but Disney generally recognizes the 17th as the official opening day.

Getty Images

So what was so bad about it? For starters, the park just wasn't finished, plain and simple.

Of course, the estimated 70 million people watching the live broadcast of opening day at home — hosted by none other than Ronald Reagan — had no idea any of this shit was going down.

Getty Images

That also means that basically no rides were open.

Getty Images

Oh and, thanks to counterfeit tickets, double the number of invited guests showed up to the still-under-construction park.

Getty Images

When people did make it inside the gates, they were greeted by these nightmare-inducing Mickey and Minnie Mouse costumes.

Good luck sleeping tonight!

Getty Images

The asphalt on Main Street, which had been poured that morning, was still so wet that women's heels sank into it and got stuck.

Getty Images

The temperature got up to 100 degrees, which was made worse because there were no water fountains anywhere.

Getty Images

On top of that, concession stands ran out of food and drinks by lunchtime.

Getty Images

People were peeing everywhere, and Disney was shockingly chill about it.

Getty Images

And to top it all off, Sleeping Beauty Castle caught on fire.

Getty Images

So there you have it! The next time you're moaning about the heat and humidity while waiting to ride the Matterhorn among one trillion choir groups on spring break, remember how good you have it.

Disney

0 notes

herretes · 8 years ago

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cómico legendario Don Rickles, una máquina insulto de tiro rápido que durante seis décadas obtuvo bastante la vida burlándose de la gente de todos los credos y colores, y todos, desde los pobres patanes a Frank Sinatra, ha muerto. Tenía 90 años.

Rickles murió el jueves en su casa de Los Ángeles de la insuficiencia renal, el publicista Paul Schrifin anunció.

Sarcasmo apodado “Mr. calor,” Rickles tenía desprecio simulacro de estrellas, las principales figuras públicas y todos los que pagaron para verlo, ajustar las audiencias de televisión y las multitudes particulares en Las Vegas con su marca mordaz comedia de derribo. Un buen chico y dedicado esposo fuera de los escenarios, el intérprete Rickles cruelmente colocó en todo el mundo se encontró – y les encantó.

Después de trabajar en una relativa oscuridad durante años como un comediante más convencional de stand-up, Rickles, sin saberlo, descubrió sus mayores risas llegaron cuando se volvió la tabla en sus provocadores. Su carrera luego se disparó después de que insultó al irascible Sinatra, que normalmente no lleva amablemente a dicho tratamiento.

Cuando el cantante súper estrella y actor entraron en un club de Hollywood en 1957, donde Rickles estaba llevando a cabo, el comediante recibió el “Presidente de la Junta” de la etapa: “Siéntase como en casa Frank golpear a alguien.”. Sinatra rugió – de la risa.

Con el respaldo de Sinatra, Rickles comenzó su asalto comedia sobre personajes famosos y no tan famosos – Judios, los asiáticos, los afroamericanos, los irlandeses, los puertorriqueños, las mujeres cabeza roja, chicos cortos, lo que sea – con enormes resultados. Se refirió a la gente estúpida como “discos de hockey”, y en 1959, firmó por su primera aparición en Las Vegas, en el salón del Hotel Sahara.

En 1985, cuando se le preguntó Sinatra para realizar en segunda bola inaugural de Ronald Reagan, insistió en que Rickles lo acompañara para una rutina de comedia. Rickles, naturalmente, no perdonó al presidente ( “Voy demasiado rápido para ti, Ronnie?”, Se preguntó) y consideró que el rendimiento entre los más destacados de su carrera.© Rex / ShutterstockDon Rickles

Rickles todavía estaba en su apogeo en junio de 2012, cuando, durante el homenaje del American Film Institute a la actriz Shirley MacLaine, bromeó que “no debe burlarse de los negros. El presidente Obama es un amigo personal mío. Fue a la casa ayer, pero la fregona se rompió “.

Rickles perfeccionó su reputación en numerosas apariciones en The Dean Martin Celebrity asados que se ejecutaban en la NBC desde mediados de la década de 1970 a mediados de los años 80. Los especiales siempre un lugar perfecto para dar rienda suelta a su Rickles marca cáustica del humor en tales dignatarios visitantes como Sinatra, Reagan, Bob Hope, Lucille Ball, Kirk Douglas, Sammy Davis Jr. y el Sr. T.

Johnny Carson proporcionó Rickles una etapa nocturna, haciéndole uno de los clientes más frecuentes de The Tonight Show. Por un momento memorable en 1968, Rickles cozied a un Carson medio desnudo durante un boceto con dos masajistas femeninos japoneses y dijo: “Estoy tan solo, Johnny!” Carson lo echó en una bañera. Más recientemente, él era un invitado habitual en Late Show, en el que el huésped tratado CBS Rickles como reyes.

Rickles jugó intermitentemente en las películas, destacado por violentos de Kelly (1970), donde co-protagonizó junto a Clint Eastwood como sargento. Crapgame, un negro-vendedor del Ejército que no tenía reparo en cortar acuerdos favorables con los nazis.

También actuó al lado de conejito playa Annette Funicello en películas como Pajama Party (1964) y Beach Blanket Bingo (1965), apareció como un limo-ball Vegas en el Casino de Martin Scorsese (1975) y expresó el Sr. Cara de Papa de mal humor en el juguete películas de la historia.

Donald Jay Rickles nació en el barrio neoyorquino de Queens, el 8 de mayo de 1926. Después de la secundaria, sirvió en la Marina de los Estados Unidos durante la Segunda Guerra Mundial, y luego estudió actuación y se graduó de la Academia Americana de Arte Dramático.

A los 32 años, Rickles consiguió un pequeño papel en el drama de submarinos de Robert Wise Run silencioso, Deep Run (1958), protagonizada por Clark Gable. Dos años más tarde, fue elegido para la carrera de ratas con Tony Curtis y Debbie Reynolds.

No es de extrañar, Rickles encontró que no había muchos papeles principales de un 5 pies y 6 hombre calvo barrig��n. Así, trabajó hasta un acto discoteca. Después de su encuentro Sinatra, perfeccionó su mordida y aterrizaría conciertos en todos los hoteles de Las Vegas: La Costa, la pepita de oro, el Desert Inn y el Sahara.

Rickles vendría en el escenario acompañada por la señal de un sutil que alguien estaba a punto de ser corneado metafórica vieja canción de toros español “La Virgen de la Macarena”.

Ras con sus éxitos de casino, Rickles cortó dos más vendidos álbumes de comedia en los años 60: Hola, Chupete! y Don Rickles Habla.

El éxito como estrella de su propia serie de televisión se le escapaba. Él jugó Naval oficial pequeño Otto Sharkey en la NBC CPO Sharkey, que se desarrolló entre 1976-78, y un vendedor de coches usados y padre de Richard Lewis en Daddy Dearest, rápidamente cancelada por Fox en 1993. Tenía dos series titulado The Don Rickles Mostrar; cada uno funcionó un puñado de episodios. Por una temporada en los años 80, fue anfitrión de ABC líos, pitidos y equivocaciones con el cantante Steve Lawrence.

apariciones de televisión Rickles’ incluyen episodios de la zona crepuscular, Vagón de tren, la ley de Burke, el Dick Van Dyke Show, The Beverly Hillbillies, Gomer Pyle, USMC, Mi bella genio, I Spy, Get Smart (junto a su amigo, Don Adams ), Rowan & Martin de Laugh-In, Sanford and Son, The Bernie Mac Show y Hot in Cleveland.

En 1965, se casó con Barbara Sklar Rickles, que le sobrevive. La pareja, que a menudo vacationed con cómica inexpresivo Bob Newhart y su esposa, Virginia, tuvo dos hijos, Mindy y Larry. Su hijo, que produjo el documental de HBO Sr. Calor: El Proyecto Don Rickles, murió en diciembre de 2011 a los 41 años .

La entrada Cómico legendario Don Rickles muere a los 90 aparece primero en Noticias Diarias de Venezuela.

#noticiasdiarias #noticias

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popentertainment-interviews · 7 months ago

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Donny Osmond

Starting Again

by Ronald Sklar

"Usually, when you take a big show on the road, you kind of scale it down, to save a little money and make a little money," says legendary performer Donny Osmond. "Well, I've done the opposite. I've embellished it. I'm taking the entire production from Las Vegas and I'm bringing it to the Beacon."

Donny's award-winning Las Vegas production, Direct From Vegas, will make a stop at New York's famous Beacon Theater on Friday, July 12, 2024, with, as Donny promises, all the stops pulled, and the kitchen sink included.

Will a New York audience set their dark cynicism aside and brightly embrace a feel-good stage show without any sense of irony?

"They can detect anything that is contrived," Donny says of Big Apple crowds.

There is nothing inauthentic about this live production of his 65-year journey through show business. It's a celebration of his time-tested reinventions, his greatest hits, and his countless memories. He'll also take requests.

"I put all 65 of my albums on the big screen behind me," Donny says of the interactive request segment. "The audience for about 20 minutes dictates what the show is going to be. Whatever happens live during that segment, you just roll with it. I think New York audiences would appreciate that, because improv is a very difficult thing to do correctly."

Sounds fun, but sixty-five albums may make for a senior moment here and there, when audience members start suggesting deep cuts.

"A few weeks ago, somebody asked for some obscure album track" Donny says, "and I'll be honest with you, I could not remember the song. I didn't try to hide from it. I actually said, I have no idea about that song. It's very real and you have to take chances and I think that's what New York audiences would want."

Face it, there is a lot of material to retain ("It took me sixty years to put this show together," Donny says). The show coincides with his work anniversary, which coincides with a new album with the fitting title, Start Again.

"I've utilized that saying [start again] so many times in my career," he says. "It's one thing to get a career in show business, but it's a whole other thing to maintain a career. You're reinventing yourself, especially if you start at such a young age. There were so many victims who could not get out of that pigeonhole. I've had to reinvent myself maybe seven or eight times in my life. It's been a challenge to bring the audience along with me and to re-educate them as to what I am doing now."

The audience is diverse, from the Baby Boomer super fans who know all of his sixty-five albums by heart (Donny calls them the Puppy Lovers, after his 1972 megahit "Puppy Love") to today's modern young generation, who may only know his as Captain Shang from Mulan or from his appearance on The Masked Singer. Then, of course, there are the fans of The Donny & Marie Show, where he and his sister delivered a perfect hour of show biz every week for four years.

"The Donny & Marie Show was just silliness," he says, "but close your eyes and listen to the music – we were doing about an album a week."

What kept him grounded through all the ups and downs?

"I've lived a life that a lot of people just dream about," he says, "and despite the potholes and the landmines, I had a strong family foundation. My faith, my marriage. People poke fun at it, but, boy, that's what saved me."

Also, we learn the secret of an American legend who had discovered the proper way to go through an extraordinary life: be yourself.

Of course, Elvis showed him the way.

"When I first met Elvis, he impressed me so much because I saw him on stage – a monster," Donny says of The King's mastery of the art. "The next night, I'm preparing for a show with my brothers, and [Elvis] walks into the dressing room and he introduces himself ("Hi, I'm Elvis."). I'm fourteen years old, and I remember what an effect that had on me, that I saw a different side to the King of Rock and Roll.” (He was also a little bit country).

However, behind that drink-milk smile, there has to be some dark moods and total bummers. Right?

"Everybody has a dark side, and I'm no different," he admits. "I try to be as optimistic as I possibly can. I give one-hundred-and-ten percent on stage, and I expect everyone to do the same. I hand select these people and they get on stage, and they work their butts off. I guess the dark side to me is that I'm very impatient."

Then was it almost all upside? Was it all bubblegum and hair spray?

"I lost all my money in the early '80s," he says. "I had to start over. I said to myself, 'I'm going to build this career so that I can be doing it for as long as I want.' You've got to be smart when you [start a career in show business]. You can't just say, 'I'm going to sing a bunch of songs.' You have to figure out what is going on in the marketplace."

He even asked fellow legend Michael Jackson for career advice. The King of Pop gave him some tough love.

Jacko said, "Your name is poison. You've got to change your name."

The radio did that advice one better: his 1989 megahit, "Soldier of Love," surprised everybody, even (and especially) DJs. WPLJ in New York played the record without announcing who was singing it. The song shot to #1. Donny didn't change his name; he just didn't give it. And this was just when he was getting ready to quit the business.

"'Soldier of Love' was an accident," he says. "Nobody would touch me. I couldn't get a record deal. I met Peter Gabriel at a UNICEF charity concert in New York. I told him my sob story, and he said, 'not that I bought any of your records, but I think you have a great voice, and I would like you to come over to the UK and I would like to executive produce your next album.' It became a 'mystery artist' thing on the radio."

The good news: Donny had a #1-requested record in the #1 market in the country. The bad news: nobody knew it was him. The mystery didn't last long, even though it was during the tail end of the pre-Internet age. The nation was shocked to learn of the mystery singer, but it didn't freak out; it just chilled along with the song. That break led to more, and Donny was back on top before long, his resume doubling and tripling its content and power.

The intensity could be seen and verified for decades, since he first sang with his brothers (at age five, in the early '60s) on The Andy Williams Show. That was fresh off a barbershop-quartet gig on a Disneyland special. Once puberty hit, Donny was an official teen idol, with thousands (truly, thousands) of fan photos published in teen and movie magazines to go along with his gold records.

"When you grow up in show business, you really don't know anything else," he says. "That is your life. To have a photographer take pictures of me or to see my pictures in a magazine, that was just my norm. I didn't think much of it."

Continuing his legacy of performing live before adoring fans, Donny subscribes to the work ethic that if you bring it, they will come.

"I don't phone anything in," he says.

Donny has partnered with City of Hope so that $1 from each ticket sale will go directly to City of Hope to support their fight against cancer, diabetes, and other serious illnesses. Find out more about City of Hope here.

Find out more about Donny here.

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#Donny Osmond #2024 #Music Interview #Start Again #Ronald Sklar #Youtube

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popentertainmentmusic · 20 years ago

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Live Aid (Warner Strategic Marketing-2004)

It’s been said that the road to hell is paved with good intentions. There is no better example of this than the agonizingly sixteen-hour-long Live Aid broadcast on July 13, 1985 (now available on DVD).

The official excuse for the concert was to raise money to feed the starving people of Ethiopia, but the let’s-get-real reason was to witness Western civilization’s most celebrated rock and pop stars perform because they care. They care deeply.

The event, held simultaneously in two stadiums on two continents, was a strange hit parade – musical acts whose careers literally faded as the sun set that evening.

Here’s how the magic happened: opportunist Bob Geldof (of the begging-to-be-beloved Boomtown Rats) was emotionally moved by a BBC documentary exposing the heart-wrenching horror and tearful tragedy of the victims of the African famine. The sorrowful images of suffering children and mournful, helpless pawns of a wicked political game immediately brought to mind haircut bands.

Geldof then mobilizes the English pop stars with the highest hair to record a novelty song called “Do They Know It’s Christmas” (in which the lyrics “feed the world” sound like “feed the squirrels”). The British concern for unfed squirrels rocket sales of the single into the millions, and yet somehow the proceeds are directed not toward the furry critters but toward funding relief efforts for the Ethiopian famine victims.

Not to be outdone, America’s oldest child, Michael Jackson, and former-Leslie-Gore-producer Quincy Jones form a band called USA For Africa. Together, and with the help of some show-biz friends, they churn out a best-selling anthem called, with great arrogance and presumption, “We Are the World.”

In its famous recording session, a sign is posted at the entrance to the studio warning all contributors to “Check Your Egos At The Door” (this means YOU, Kenny Loggins!).

Both records, on both sides of the pond, are accompanied by music videos depicting the planet’s most beloved singing stars (and Dan Aykroyd) getting along in the name of charity. As well, these cats and kittens are rocking out (in priority order) without their cumbersome egos getting in the way of the urgent message.

You have your Bruce Springsteens dueting with your Stevie Wonders, and your Huey Lewises patiently waiting for your Cyndi Laupers to finish their well…well…well…wells, and your Bob Dylans awkwardly attempting to be team players. When Lionel Richie at last gave the “thumbs up” sign, the world knew that USA for Africa – as well as the world – was going to be all right.

Despite its success, USA For Africa broke up almost immediately after the release of their first single, never to be heard from again.

However, to make sure that the check for the meal was covered (including tip), Geldof organized the Live Aid concert, to be held at both Wembley Stadium in London (highbrow) and JFK Stadium in Philadelphia (lowbrow).

The extravaganza, beamed by satellite and recorded with clunky, land-lubbin’ twentieth-century cameras, was most likely the tenth-best day of Bob Geldof’s life, and the most exposure The Boomtown Rats would ever hope to receive before or since.

On this date, unofficially entitled “The Day the Music Changed the World,” each stadium is filled to capacity with the kids, tattoo-less and grunge-free and well scrubbed. Girls, desperately trying to be adorable, sit on their boyfriends’ shoulders and wave their arms. To fend off the July sun and discourage horniness, the crowds are hydrated with giant fire hoses (even though the British don’t sweat). The appearance by the Prince and Princess of Wales (Chuck and Di to you, thank you very much) officially signal to the world that the Africans really must be starving – this isn’t just jive talkin’.

The festivities are initiated by Style Council and Status Quo (that’s right: “who?”), and then Adam Ant, doing his trademarked high kicks in tight leather as if he made a wrong turn off Christopher Street. Spandau Ballet sings “True” while their moussed hair bakes in the sun, and Sting sings a duet, first with his ego and then with Phil Collins.

Collins makes musical and jet-flight record books by being the only performer in history to play London and then Philadelphia within four hours, and to be the only performer in history to even think of heading to Philly after London. If this isn’t proof enough that the 80s were an age of wonder, witness the Band Aid finale, in which Adam Ant gets more microphone time than Elton John.

Paul Young is inexplicably given the green light to sing three songs, complete with black back-up singers (usually an indication that either the white lead singer has soul or that the white lead singer has no soul). In addition, Alison Moyet blows Young away in a duet while doing the Belinda Carlisle Go-Go’s dance.

Meanwhile, the American crowds are delighted by semi-host Jack Nicholson, who shows his cool detachment by chewing gum and wearing sunglasses. There’s a jeff cap for the Beach Boys' Al Jardine and a headband for Mark Knopfler. The entire stadium heads to the restroom during REO Speedwagon’s set. And who invited Chevy Chase?

There are cringe-inducing moments aplenty. Most unbearable of these is when Joan Baez announces “THIS IS YOUR WOODSTOCK.” Madonna sings history’s Top Two All-Time Worst songs (“Holiday” and “Into the Groove”). And what cringe-inducing moment would be complete without yet another tiresome rendition of John Lennon’s unhackable “Imagine,” this time oversung by Patti Labelle. To take cringe inducement into the homestretch, feel your toes curl when you witness the entire crowd sing along with every word to Queen’s “Radio Ga Ga,” complete with the 80s Arm Wave.

The concert’s high points are arguable. Some say the highlight is that Huey Lewis and the News were not invited. Others insist that it’s the appearance of U2, in the intense mullet phase of their fledgling career. Bono wears boots that are made for walkin’, and he symbolically brings his own Courtney Cox out of the crowd and dances with her (where is that girl today, besides seventy pounds heavier?). He also sings “Ruby Tuesday,” most likely in honor of the restaurant chain (food, get it?).

Of course, the most memorable moment of Live Aid is when Mick Jagger asks, “Where’s Tina?” and he ain’t talking about Tina Louise. He and Tina Turner do a proto-type wardrobe-malfunction jig as Jagger not only rips off black culture in general but rips off Tina’s leather mini skirt.

Nicholson introduces “the transcendent Bob Dylan,” and the inevitable finale involves a mega-version of “We Are The World,” which includes a formerly uninvited Cher.

It’s fifteen minutes of fame stretched over four disks and ten hours. A lot is missing, due to legal hassles and destroyed tapes (this explains Rick Springfield’s absent performance - or does it ?).

Warning: 80s Overload can kill. Small doses are prescribed. However, sales of this DVD continue to fund the fight against world hunger, so:

FRANKIE SAY: FEED THE WORLD!

Ronald Sklar

#Live Aid #2005 #Music Reviews #Music Video #Ronald Sklar

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popentertainment-interviews · 7 months ago

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Burton Cummings

These Eyes Have Seen a Lot of Life

by Ronald Sklar

“I realized very early that records are forever,” says forever-certified record-maker Burton Cummings. As the frontman (lead vocals, piano, keyboards, guitar) for The Guess Who, he created more than thirteen knockout punches of Top 10 singles between 1969 and 1975. Included in this soundtrack of your life are “American Woman,” “These Eyes,” “Laughing,” “Undun,” “No Sugar Tonight,” “Star Baby,” and “Clap for the Wolfman.”

“When you have hit records, you often don’t realize the trickle-down effect they have on people,” he said. “I had somebody tell me on social media that they used one of my songs at a funeral. It’s always very humbling to me and I’m always just a little bit surprised. That’s the thing about hit records: they’re forever.”

Close competition on those record charts included work from other forever-hitmakers like The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Creedence Clearwater Revival, and Three Dog Night. Not too shabby for a group from Canada; by 1970, The Guess Who sold more records than the entire Canadian music industry combined. This is despite the dopey name, which was dreamed up by a record executive who thought he was being clever. The name “The Guess Who” would generate curiosity, he figured. Maybe people would think they're from England, like The Who. Turns out it was less about the gimmicky name and more about the music, which was original and timeless.

“The odds of making it from Winnipeg were incredible back then,” Burton says. “That was something very new for Canada.”

Even more incredible was Burton achieving that world record while still a teenager.

“We all have that same childhood dream,” Burton says about first hearing his songs played on the radio. “The dream had come true. For me, it was almost unreal, because I was not even twenty-one yet when we had our first gold record. It was all like Cinderella time.”

He remembers exactly where he was when he heard his first hit, “These Eyes,” played on the radio. He was in the backseat of a limo, crossing the 59th Street Bridge into Manhattan, going to some promotional event. The song was broadcast while he gazed at the twinkling skyline of the metropolis.

"I'm this guy from Winnipeg looking at all these skyscrapers and suddenly hear the DJ say, 'There's that great song by Canadian rockers The Guess Who,’” he says. "It was a tremendous moment for a kid from the prairies listening to my first gold record. I thought, 'Am I dreaming this?'”

Burton gives equal credit to his former creative partner, Randy Bachman, who later formed the ‘70s band Bachman Turner Overdrive (with their uber-classic hit, “Taking Care of Business”).

“It was easy to write with Randy and I think he found that with me too,” Burton says, “because we would come to each other with half songs. Between the two of us we would finish them. I think we complemented each other because I am a keyboard player, and he is a guitarist. There was that yin and yang right there.”

Burton is still writing and performing; in fact, he’s launching a 60th anniversary tour this year (“I have over two hours of hits to do,” he says), along with a new album on the way.

“I’m always writing,” he says. “I’ve got tons and tons of songs that no one has ever heard.”

That may change as new generations stream and download The Guess Who’s can’t-miss catalog, filled with songs that were made in the ‘60s and ‘70s but don’t necessarily sound like they were. See for your damn self: play it for a young'n and watch their reaction.

“I heard ‘No Time’ the other day and it didn’t sound fifty years old to me,” he says. “It didn’t sound that ancient and antiquated.”

That’s because “No Time” kicked the ass of the unforgiving test of time, along with the other tracks. Yet despite the rare achievement, he’s sensitive about being pigeonholed as a walking time capsule.

“I’m at an age now where I don’t want to put something out that will sound soggy in a few years,” he says.

Arguably, The Guess Who’s most recognizable song is one that Burton thinks maybe had fallen just shy of the bull’s eye.

“I was never really one-hundred-percent happy with ‘American Woman,’” he says. “I was very impressed with Robert Plant, and I wanted the song to be a screamer. I never thought I quite nailed it.”

He also feels the song is somewhat misunderstood.

“It was never meant to be political,” he says. “It was an accident that happened at the right time. That song just played into that point in history. What was in my head was something more like: Canadian woman, I prefer you. I came up with the words on stage, trying to make everything rhyme. I was just trying to make it all rhyme. Randy’s riff was easy to sing over.”

That’s how it goes when you’re creating songs that endure – they come to you. And after the hits stop coming, all you can do is keep on keeping on:

“I’m still writing music and I have a great band,” he says. “I’m still doing what I’ve always done. I’m just getting a little older.”

Find out more about Burton Cummings here.

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#Burton Cummings #2024 #Music Interview #Ronald Sklar #Youtube

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popentertainment-interviews · 10 months ago

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Dermot Mulroney

Look Out, Old Mack is Back

By Ronald Sklar

Once again, busy actor Dermot Mulroney is stepping – or in this case, singing and dancing – outside his comfort zone.

“I’m always comfortable when I’m having fun,” he insists, however.

This time, the fun presents itself not in another movie (there are lots of them. Check his IMDb), but as an “in concert” production of the Broadway musical Mack & Mabel (three nights only – February 16-18, 2024 – at North Hollywood’s El Portal Theater).

The fully staged, choreographed event is an inaugural production of the All Roads Theater Company; it’s based on the “forgotten” 1970s musical about Tinseltown’s earliest era. Expect Keystone Kops and flappers.

“It’s a romance and a beautiful story,” Dermot says. “It’s a major event in the musical theater world happening for a very short run.”

Dermot stars as silent-film director Mack Sennett and introduces Jenna Rosen as Mabel Normand, who became one of early Hollywood’s biggest stars.

A revival like this is no small thing for both the theater culture and for the actor himself.

“There are thirty people in this company,” Dermot says. “I’m learning so much from all of them.”

That the original show somehow slipped under the cultural radar is a baffling crime – the 1974 production starred no less than Robert Preston and Bernadette Peters; David Merrick produced it, with music and lyrics by Jerry Herman (Hello, Dolly, Mame). The show received eight Tony nominations and won none. Herman was not nominated. It ran for just 66 performances.

Yet somehow, over the decades, the original cast album grew an obsessive fan base, and there is new interest in the story.

Dermot says, “You learn now, in the computer age, that anything and everything has its following. The people who know Mack & Mabel are crazy about it.”

What else is crazy – so crazy that it makes perfect sense – is the shared hope for the show to make its way back to Broadway, fifty years later.

“There is every reason for that to happen,” Dermot says.

So why would a man who is known for so many movies suddenly take to the boards?

“I’ve decided to do Mack & Mabel for two reasons,” Dermot says. “One: I’ve never done this before, singing in a full musical. And two: because I’ve always wanted to do it. I couldn’t pass up the opportunity when it came to me out of the blue.”

Leading man roles sure enough attach themselves to Dermot. He’s been at it for about forty years, starring in everything from My Best Friend’s Wedding to The Wedding Date and Young Guns. On TV, he played Rachel’s boss on Friends, as well as prominent roles in New Girl and Shameless. He is also an accomplished cellist and has played professionally on various on-screen projects as well as in live musical performances.

Mack & Mabel, however, is a whole different animal.

“It’s hugely challenging for me,” Dermot admits. “It’s a world I’ve never inhabited. The two times I’ve been in musicals were in my senior year at Northwestern University, a thousand-seat theater. I sang in an operetta, as Ko-Ko The Executioner in Gilbert & Sullivan’s The Mikado.”

There is also the one that got away: the time that Francis Ford Coppola chose Dermot to play The Big Kahuna in his ambitious Gidget stage musical (alas, it never got past the workshop phase). And he has indeed sung in public before: on the big screen, to Julia Roberts, on a boat (see it here).

Mack & Mabel, though, is the musical Big Time. It fits nicely with his continuing busy career, including a key supporting role in the current hit romcom Anyone But You, as well as his turn as Detective Bailey in Scream 6.

“I’ve just been incredibly blessed,” he says of his journey. “I’ll admit, that’s what I thought the assignment was when I first became an actor, to be a man of a thousand faces.”

His face can now also be regularly seen on social media, as he has pumped up his posts on Instagram. Most of them push his current projects, but he also shares the kick he gets out the universally common misspelling of his name (think “Dermont” on a Starbucks cup).

“That is so fun for me because it’s happened to me my whole life,” he says.

Still, he enters the world of social media carefully, and treads lightly, as online life can sometimes do bad things to our offline attention spans.

The solution?

“We have to re-expand our attention spans,” he says. “That’s why the four-five-six-month learning process on Mack & Mabel has been incredibly good for my brain.”

Find out more about Mack & Mabel here.

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#Dermot Mulroney #2024 #Actor Interviews #Mack & Mabel #Ronald Sklar #Youtube

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popentertainment-interviews · 2 years ago

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Tom Berenger

Serving a Black Warrant

by Ronald Sklar

What do Tom Berenger and William Shakespeare have in common? They both insist that the play's the thing.

Tom says, "the whole play is the most important thing, and your part is secondary to that. You should be supportive of the playwright."

This rule of Tom's thumb goes back to his high school days in Park Forest, Illinois. Tom was required to appear in Blood Wedding, the famous Federico Garcia Lorca play. It was mandatory for all advanced Spanish students (yep, Tom is fluent, and this was an AP class).

He said, "I went up to the teacher and said, 'I can't do this. I'm not an actor."

Of course, that statement had to later be amended, big time. After studying journalism and history at the University of Missouri, the acting bug knew it was Tom it needed to bite.

He switched to drama ("Who would've thunk it," Tom says). That led to commercials ("Ned, put your money where your mouth is. Girls notice whiter teeth and fresh breath!"), soap operas ("Mom, you had to keep going on about her being a nun!") and then, film.

He was one of Diane Keaton's unstable pickups in Looking for Mr. Goodbar but found lasting fame in a series of forever iconic movies, including The Big Chill, Eddie and the Cruisers and Major League. In 1986, Platoon won the Academy Award for Best Picture, and Tom, as the damaged Staff Sergeant Barnes, was nominated for Best Supporting Actor. He won a Golden Globe award for the same role.

On TV, he earned an Emmy award for his part in The Hatfields and the McCoys (playing uncle to Kevin Costner's character) and transformed into Teddy Roosevelt in The Rough Riders (watch him channel it! Damn!).

His fan base expanded and solidified with the Sniper films, and now we have Black Warrant to satisfy our action jones in these trying times.

In it, Tom plays a semi-retired special ops assassin who tries to stop a cyber terrorist organization from attacking the power grid. Plot twists? Shit being real out in the streets? A hero who is gonna hero? Exactly this.

"I don't know how they write action movies," Tom says of the largely underrated genre. "That's still kind of a mystery to me."

But here, the mystery's the thing. In other words, if the world ever needed another Berenger action flick, it's right this very minute now. The universe owes us.

Black Warrant now available on Digital and On Demand.

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#Tom Berenger #2022 #Actor Interviews #Black Warrant #Ronald Sklar

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popentertainmentmusic · 19 years ago

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Saturday Night Live - 25 Years of Music (Lion's Gate-2003)

When NBC’s Saturday Night Live debuted in 1975, it wasn’t just funny – it was exciting. To begin with, it was live, and despite the fact that it depended almost entirely on sketch comedy, an anything-can-happen current gushed from the screen like Niagara Falls. The vibe was so fresh and different, the sensibility so much more than mere hip, that its young audience adopted it and took it home as if it were a mischievous puppy.

At least at first, the sketch comedy was biting and unexpected – and the show’s music followed suit, with a mix of musical guests that ranged from the fringe element to the impressively unpredictable. Even it’s theme song, sophisticated and sax fueled, is vibrant and edgy and pulse-quickening, the musical equivalent of being alive from New York.

The show’s history is generally well known after its thirty-plus-year run: it experienced a roller-coaster ride of good and bad and awful; but ultimately, it took on the identity of a rag-tag underdog, a survivor. It was good in that it never gave up, even when everyone expected it to; bad in that it could get lazy or uninspired and be completely unapologetic about it.

What’s worse, SNL sunk its ass into the sofa cushion as television caught up with its sensibility. Rather than fight for its market share, it became lazy and often indifferent, depending on a tiresome catchphrase or a much-used running gag to keep it going, as MAD TV roared up from behind.

Currently, what’s missing more than anything is the spontaneity of the original sense of we-do-what-we-want. For instance, if in 1975, Broderick Crawford hosted just because it was a funny idea, in 2005, AshleeSimpson is a musical guest not because it is a funny idea but because she has an album to promote.

Ashlee Simpson aside, you can almost always count on interesting musical choices, and that music is actually performed live. Here, celebrating a sampling of its first twenty-five years of musical guests, is a razzle-dazzle assortment. For a show that does not pretend to appeal to the masses, there seems to be a little bit of everything for everybody (or almost everybody). Of course, we are spared much (does anyone remember the Ice Cubes, or, for that matter, Mary MacGregor?)

What’s more, you get a near-definitive history of American popular music during the last quarter of the 20th century, from The Grateful Dead and Elvis Costello (who, in the spirit of live television, literally stops the music and decides to change songs midstream, in a classic moment) to the lesser, more expiration-date-oriented excitement of The Backstreet Boys and Garth Brooks. Plus, you get to see Mick Jagger evolve (or devolve) decade by decade, as he makes both musical and comedic appearances every ten years or so.

When Paul Simon hosted the second show of the series, he gave SNL the hip credibility it needed to surge ahead musically (yes, in 1975, Simon was still a hitmaker). He reunited with former partner Art Garfunkel (singing their 1969 classic, “The Boxer”) and the talent floodgates immediately opened. We get to revisit this wonderful performance, as well as Simon singing “Still Crazy After All These Years” in a turkey suit (hilarious then, just nostalgic now).

To see Billy Joel, in his brash confidence and youthful brilliance, perform “Only the Good Die Young” live, you know that history is being made before it is made. And when comedy cross-pollinates with the music, you are there: John Belushi doing Beethoven doing Ray Charles; John Belushi doing Joe Cocker with Joe Cocker; even Bill Murray as Nick Winters, the lounge singer, singing, “Star Wars/Nothing but Star Wars…”

Comedy clips are included on the DVD, since they are so integral to the music performed. Most classically, producer Lorne Michaels offers The Beatles a check for $3,000 if they agree to reunite on SNL (he says, “If you want to give Ringo less, that’s up to you.”). We laughed then because it was hilarious and we laugh now because it strikes our sentimental need, but we also wonder if Lennon and McCartney (who reportedly watched the sketch from Lennon’s apartment in the Dakota) would take Michaels up on his offer. Talk about live spontaneity. And what can be more musically comedic (SNL style) than “King Tut,” performed by the first stand-up comedian to reach rock-and-roll adulation, Steve Martin.

The excitement of the first five years had very much to do with music: Gilda Radner as punk rocker Candy Slice was as funny as it was memorably musical, and Andy Kaufman is sealed in our cultural consciousness forever, just by channeling Elvis (22 million viewers can’t be wrong).

When the original cast (and producer) left the series in 1980, SNL never quite revived its Event status for musical guests. Not that The Talking Heads, Queen and Sting were anything to sneeze at, but the novelty most certainly wears off by the mid-80s (plus, the DVD seems to steer clear of the years 1980-1984, when the show all but crashes and burns). Joe Piscopo and Eddie Murphy perform as Frank Sinatra and Stevie Wonder, and Martin Short (as Ed Grimley) dances with Tina Turner, but no one will step forward and say that appearances by The Bangles and The GoGos constitute appointment television.

By the 1990s, the series scoops up the musical ball once more, as rock and roll catches up with SNL’s original brand of youthful cynicism. R.E.M. rightfully opens the decade with “Losing My Religion,” while Sinead O’ Connor stirs a controversy by ripping up a photo of the Pope. Nirvana (“Rape Me”) makes an appearance here, as well as the über-slacker Beck (“Where It’s At”) and the slacker-ettes Alanis Morissette (“Hand In My Pocket”) and Jewel (“Who Will Save Your Soul”).

For pure cheese value, you can enjoy The Spice Girls (“Wannabe”) and even Madonna (“Fever”), but you’ll be surprised at how good Hanson (“MMMBop”) and Ricky Martin (“Livin’ La Vida Loca”) actually sound and entertain live. In fact, don’t leave the party until you’ve heard En Vogue perform “Free Your Mind.”

Comedy perks up again during the 90s, as Chris Farley interviews Paul McCartney (“Mmmm-member The Beatles? That was awesome.”), Adam Sandler leads the audience (including McCartney) in song, and Phil Hartman makes us howl at just about anything he does.

The five-disk DVD is rich in performance and perfect for a party. Hosted by SNL alumni both great (Martin Short, Cheri Oteri) and near-great (Chevy Chase, Jay Mohr), you’ll easily be reminded that, although you may not think of it often, this institution was – and is – a small but memorable part of your musical life.

Ronald Sklar

#Saturday Night Live #25 Years of Music #2005 #Ronald Sklar #Music Review #TV on DVD

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popentertainment-interviews · 10 years ago

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Will Chase

Is a Smash!

by Ronald Sklar

The new hit show puts the versatile actor’s stage talents to the TV test.

On the smash NBC hit Smash, Broadway veteran Will Chase sinks his acting chops into not one, but two meaty roles. As Michael Swift, he is the love interest of Debra Messing’s main character, making for the required steam and sparks that fog up our TV screen. If that were not enough, he also plays the complex, legendary love interest of Marilyn Monroe (namely Joe DiMaggio) in the fictional Broadway musical that is the center of the story.

Quite an exciting challenge for the can-do actor, who has actually appeared on Broadway (in real life!) in such diverse fare as Rent, Miss Saigon and Billy Elliot.

His on-stage experience is key to the development of his two complex TV characters. He’s been given the tall task of a telling a televised tale of a Broadway musical, from two angles.

He says of his vast experience on The White Way, “It only feels like a job when you are on the way to the theater or on the way home. But actually standing on that stage, you pinch yourself. You can’t believe it. When you are walking down the street and your picture is out on the marquee, that’s when you go, ‘Oh my God, I can’t believe I’m on Broadway.’ For me, it certainly never gets old and never gets tiring.”

Of course the novelty never wears off, not when you have humble beginnings in Kentucky, where the Broadway stage is as far away as Mars.

“My cousin was in the musical Guys and Dolls in high school,” he says, “and in my mind, that was the best production of anything I have ever seen. But I was like eight at the time.”

Still, as he grew, so did his dream of pursuing a career in entertainment, with the usual detours.

“I grew up singing in the church,” he says. “I was studying to be a percussionist. I fell into [acting] in college. From the day I graduated, I moved to Chicago and started a musical theater career. It was a good fit, one of those things that really fit in my life, and I was very passionate about it. Then I just started climbing the ladder, New York and national tours. It was a passion as opposed to something I was supposed to do.”

His role (within a role) of the troubled, protective, old-fashioned Joe DiMaggio, who is in love with a woman who happens to be an icon, gets a humane, understanding treatment from Chase.

“[The film] The Seven Year Itch shows that iconic picture of Marilyn with her skirt blowing up,” Chase says. “Joe was pissed off at that. He was that lovable baseball player, but he was also very jealous. It brought a lot of volatility, because every man on the planet wanted Marilyn. But when she died, for twenty years Joe sent roses to her grave. Every week for 20 years. It was one of those lovely traumatic relationships.”

He is also pleased to be working with Will & Grace’s Debra Messing, who is getting the rare chance to show television viewers what else she is made of.

“I think people are going to be really surprised,” he says of his co-star. “They have not seen Debra like this. Here, she really gets to go deep. Because of our characters’ background together on the show, I don’t think people are going to recognize her, but I think they are going to like what she’s doing. She has a musical pedigree. She’s trained. This is a nice departure for her and I think people are going to be pleasantly surprised.”

The series itself, which contains a show within a show, can have the effect of a house of mirrors on the actors.

Chase explains, “We record a song three of four weeks before we shoot the episode [in which the song is featured]. And for me, the challenge is trying to find the emotional content of the song when you are three episodes behind. So you have to use your imagination a little more than say any given night on Broadway when you perform a song live. With that said, the music really does speak to the Marilyn and Joe characters and the actual show within the show. They are also layered enough that they also follow the emotions of our characters, Michael and Julia. But you record way in advance, which is kind of weird and trippy.”

Trippy? How trippy is this: his gig as John Lennon in the Broadway musical, Lennon. Although it opened and closed quickly in 2005, it was a career high for Chase.

“It was very trippy,” he agrees. “I couldn’t get over playing my musical icon, and then being part of a nine-member cast. It was pretty amazing. Yoko said to me, ‘John would have loved it.’ It made me so happy to hear that. It was a dream come true.”

Unlike Broadway musicals scores, it seems that The Beatles are Chase’s biggest influences, musical and otherwise.

“The Beatles probably affected every aspect of my artistry,” he says, “my acting, the way I listen to music, the way I read lyrics. I am a huge Beatles freak. I’m also a huge fan of the Canadian band Rush. The music made me pay more attention. I know naming The Beatles is an odd thing for an actor to say.”

He lists his acting influences as mostly the usual subjects, (Robert DeNiro, Al Pacino, Albert Finney, and Michael Caine), but his daily pre-performance mantra is strictly unorthodox.

He says, “As I’m getting older, I’m trying to be more selfless. I have a mantra which is a little expletive. I say, ‘fuck the audience! ‘And it’s not meant to be mean.’ It’s meant to invite these people onto this thing, because nothing like this will ever happen again. That night is never going to happen again. That’s my mantra. Fuck the audience! Take them home with you!”

With the huge success of Smash, Chase’s one-night stand with audiences may turn into a long-term relationship.

#will chase #2012 #celebrity interviews #popentertainment #Ronald Sklar

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popentertainment-interviews · 10 years ago

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David Cassidy

Only Wants to Make You Happy

by Ronald Sklar

Time for your reality check, kids: the classic 70s sitcom, The Partridge Family, debuted on ABC forty years ago. And its star, the teen-idol-extraordinaire David Cassidy, is now 60.

So now you know how you feel, but how does he feel?

“It doesn’t make me feel old; it makes me feel grateful,” Cassidy tells me by phone from his home in Florida. “It means so much to me that it has had such a lasting and indelible influence and impact on so many generations. The Partridge Family changed my life. It gave me an opportunity to record and play music and sell millions and millions of records and do shows all over the world.”

In 1970, he was plucked out of relative obscurity to play the character of Keith Partridge (relative because his co-star was his stepmother, the actress Shirley Jones). Once cast, Cassidy was immediately strapped into the Rolling Thunder roller coaster of fame. And although his was meant to last only fifteen minutes, he parlayed it into four decades, and counting.

During one weekend in 1972, Cassidy sold out not one but two concerts at the Houston Astrodome. He sold out six concerts at Wembley Stadium in the UK, again over one weekend. In one day, his Madison Square Garden concert sold out. In 1974, a young girl was killed in a crush of fans at a London concert (650 fans were injured). That same year, 33,000 fans attended his concert at The Melbourne Cricket Ground in Australia.

His androgynous likeness graced the covers of endless fan magazines, coloring books and lunchboxes. And the girls. Girls ran after him hard, Hard-Day’s-Night style.

“I carry the torch,” he says of The Partridge Family legacy. “I played in concerts all over the world, in stadiums and in coliseums and huge outdoor arenas. When I went all over the world they called it World War Three. There was hundreds of thousands of people. What happened was that parents would bring their kids. The parents would be outside waiting for them. Actually, there were more people outside, cars and parents waiting for their kids to find them. There was such chaos and madness in those days.”

During those live performances, the other Partridges were nowhere to be found, even though the series was billed as “the family who plays together, stays together.” Like all television, it was an illusion rooted in reality. The well-known plot: a suburban family tries to turn a buck by singing and recording, and they actually catch on. Although Shirley Jones added her voice to the music, the rest of the characters pretended for TV; the truth was that they didn’t play, sing or record. But Cassidy did.

“I was an actor, although everybody at the studio and the network knew that I could sing and play guitar, which I did in the actual filmed screen test,” he says. “I didn’t sing, but there was an old Stratocaster there and I asked them to plug it in. Right before the first line of dialogue, as they were rolling the cameras, I played a little bit of [Jimi] Hendrix, only so that they knew that I could actually play. I had played in blues bands, very different from Partridge Family music. I had seen Hendrix four or five times. I saw Clapton and Cream. I was an enormous Beatles fan. I had seen the Stones at the Forum in ’68. I was a big BB King and blues fan. That was the music that was in my generation as a teenager.”

Despite his eclectic and sophisticated personal tastes, Cassidy had made his mark though what was known then as “bubble-gum music.” Although once easily dismissed as too sweet and strictly for kids, Partridge Family bubble-gum is now being reconsidered and acclaimed by many critics today.

He says, “The guys who played with me, if I told you their names and gave you a list of their hits… it’s a remarkable thing to have had that education. I came out playing in garage bands, blues bands and college kind of bands, just messing around. Then I go and play and record with the likes of Gerry Goffin and Paul Anka and Wes Farrell and Tony Romeo. I got to know Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil. All of those writers were signed to Screen Gems [the studio that produced show]. These were the greatest pop song writers, and they also had a great influence on Lennon and McCartney.”

In fact, The Partridge Family’s first single, “I Think I Love You,” was a monster smash before the series even aired its first episode. Thanks to genius marketing, the Partridge Family was to be offered up as recording artists as well as TV stars (even though after Cassidy and Jones, the rest of the Family consisted of studio musicians and vocalists). The record was released months before the show premiered, climbing up the charts and getting major radio play, priming young America for the upcoming series.

He recalls, “I remember I was at an award show, called NARM [National Association of Record Merchandisers]. It gives awards for the largest selling records. ‘Let it Be’ [was also nominated in my category]. It was the Beatles’ last album, and one of my all-time favorites as well. McCartney was in the audience and they announced me [as the winner]. I stood up and there was like a hush in the room. I’m like twenty-years old, this punk upstart. I went up to the podium and I said, “I’m honored to be here. One of the great inspirations is knowing that one of my mentors is here, Paul McCartney, and I want to acknowledge him. You’re the reason that I’m doing this. Thank you all very much.’ There was mild applause because I acknowledged him. I was making records for nine months.”

The nine-months would turn into a Beatles-like magical mystery tour. It was a four-year odyssey in a three-channel world.

“There isn’t that kind of hysteria [today],” Cassidy says. “There is hysteria, don’t get me wrong, but the audience then was much more naïve. Now there is the opportunity to see somebody on line 24 hours a day, plus music videos. Back then, there was none of that. You had to sit in front of your TV, and then you go and see them live, and you actually see them walk and talk, other than watching them on the tube. It was a totally different experience. Elvis and The Beatles experienced that because the audiences were so unsophisticated and there wasn’t access to stars.”

Of course, many of the lovesick teens confused the TV character and the man. As the series’ breakout star and historic heart throb, the line between Partridge and Cassidy was irrevocably shaded.

Naturally, there was (and is) much more to David than there ever could be to Keith. The only way to prove this was to go to press. Rolling Stone magazine scored the coup: a Cassidy cover story that didn’t pander to the Tiger Beatcrowd. It was meant to be adult, honest and raw, including his historic photo shoot, in the nude, for legendary photographer Annie Leibovitz. The feature ran in 1972 and caused yet another frenzy.

“Another writer wrote a piece that [Rolling Stone] didn’t think was controversial enough,” Cassidy says. “Then they put a writer in named Robin Green. [Rolling Stone publisher] Jann Wenner saw me when I was playing Madison Square Garden and had dinner with me there and told me what he wanted to do. I said, ‘That’s great, I’m a big fan of Rolling Stone.’ So they came with me that weekend. I played the Garden and I played another gig. What they did was something that made me – what the intent was I think was to not make me look so squeaky clean.

“I liked women, and I was 21 or 22 at the time, but I was playing sixteen. I was playing this white knight kind of thing. One of the photographers that was on the road with me had been smoking pot or something – not in my room but somewhere near me and [the writer] conveniently said there was a smell of [pot] smoke, trying to insinuate that I was getting high, which I certainly wasn’t. At the time, I couldn’t possibly have functioned or have done what I did. And that really always, always bothered me.

“The photographs were taken two months later at my house in California. [Leibovitz] did brilliant, brilliant work and it became the largest selling issue of Rolling Stone ever at the time, until John Lennon’s death. It exploded because the pictures were fantastic. That cutout centerfold is one of the most requested photos when she does her shows and galleries, she told me. It’s a beautiful photograph, even if I take myself out of it. She’s brilliant.”

The Rolling Stone story was only a first step in a long line of steps away from Keith Partridge, if only for the good of Cassidy’s career – and sanity.

He says, “People thought that I didn’t want to do [Partridge Familyreunions] because I didn’t love it. It was really quite the opposite. I wanted for me to have the kind of career that I’ve had, doing a lot of different other things. In order to do so I had to distance myself from it for a long time.”

He managed, in fact, to create quite a distance. He won an Emmy for his role in an episode of the NBC drama Police Story, and then appeared in aspin-off series (David Cassidy: Man Undercover). He performed in musical theatre on Broadway and London’s West End. He also continued to have a thriving recording career, many of his songs becoming huge hits all over the world well past his initial Partridge exposure.

Yet to this day, his millions of multi-generational fans are still as loyal as lovesick puppies, and his fan clubs number as many members as of those for Elvis and The Beatles.

He says, “For all the times I didn’t go out and perform and didn’t sing, [my fans] are incredibly, remarkably resilient. They are devoted and I owe all of what I have, and I am underlining all, to them. Because once you become a star, without people caring about you, you’re history. And you aren’t selling tickets; you’re pumping gas.

“There is a long, long line of people behind me who I have no idea what they are doing these days. They are not able to sustain and carry on. I think to a great degree that I didn’t just keep going and going and going. I walked away from it and I chose another direction. I chose things that people didn’t expect me to do and that I had a lot of success with. And I always loved to play live.”

Cassidy’s own long and winding road was well documented in his frank memoir, Come On, Get Happy: Fear and Loathing on The Partridge Family Bus. Yet despite (or maybe because of) the marriages, the misfires, and the drama of trying to get over being a former teen idol, he uncovered a secret to success. He used it to his advantage, getting his act together and taking it on the road. Once he managed to successfully plow through the block-tackle (by appearing as characters other than Keith Partridge in theater and television), he returned once again to the exquisite pop songs that branded The Partridge Family. He still packs theaters and venues to this day, playing sell-out concerts wherever he goes.

Does it feel the same as back in the day?

“I don’t know,” he says. “I can’t remember. I was just working 24 hours a day practically [then]. I really worked 17-18 hours a day. I mean, I was fully aware of what kind of impact I had, because I couldn’t even get to work in the morning. [Fans were] following me outside, sleeping outside my home. The madness of it is well documented.

“It feels the same, I think. I wake up in the morning and I feel good. I love to play. I am still the same. The essence of me is the same but I’m a very different guy.”

He has remained in touch with radio personality Danny Bonaduce, who had played his TV brother on the series and has gone on to have a colorful career as a bad boy. At Cassidy’s invitation, Bonaduce will be joining him on some future live dates.

“I issued a challenge to him,” Cassidy says. “Back in ’91, I had him open for me and we did fifteen or twenty dates together. He was brilliant.

“Danny is one of those guys who people misunderstand. He would admit that he’s done a lot to damage not just his own reputation, but his own public persona. What people don’t know that underneath it is a really good human being. He’s a very smart, very talented guy, very funny. And I saw him as a ten-year-old. He used to come in with black eyes because his father used to beat him up. Let me tell you, when you see a ten-year-old roll in with a black eye and a parent treats his son like that… he was jealous of Danny, and I’ve always loved [Danny] for that.

“Other people don’t have an idea of where someone comes from and how they become the person they become. The need for love and attention has driven him in many ways, but I will defend him as long as he does the right thing.

“I threw down the gauntlet and said, okay, you are going to come on the stage and for the very first time, you are going to play bass and sing one of our hits, and for the first time The Partridge Family will actually be performing live! This has never happened! I’m really looking forward to it.

“He played some stuff over the phone for me and I can’t say he’s gotten good, but he’s been very diligent and practicing and taking lessons. It’s a big, big deal, emotionally and for the fans. It will certainly be an amazing and emotional night for me.

These days, Cassidy is devoted to his two children, Katie and Beau, both of whom are actors. Katie is currently on Gossip Girl. He recently appeared in a series with his half-brother Patrick, called Ruby and the Rockits, which was produced by Cassidy’s other half-brother (and also a former teen idol), Shaun.

His advice for his children: “Follow your heart. Follow your dreams. Be authentic. Be yourself. Don’t try to be like anybody else. Don’t do anything in terms of your career for money; do it for the work. If you do good work, fame and money and everything else comes. Talent is the only commodity that survives, as my father [the late actor Jack Cassidy] told me. If you pursue and do good work, all the rest will come. It may take a long time as it did with my father. It may take a very short time, as it did with me.”

The road just keeps on keeping on for him.

“It was an amazing ride that lasted all these years,” he says. “I’m out playing and doing what I love to do and playing what people love.”

#david cassidy #celebrity interviews #2010 #Ronald Sklar #popentertainment

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popentertainment-interviews · 10 years ago

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Three Dog Night

In Black and White

by Ronald Sklar

The feat would be impossible to achieve in today’s market-fragmented world, but back in ’71, the bell-bottomed-and-walrus-mustachioed anthem “Joy To The World,” by Three Dog Night, shone through the polluted air and permeated the culture. In a world already torn every which way but loose, Jeremiah the bullfrog and the wine we helped him drink were on the lips of all the boys and girls now. The tune, written by country singer Hoyt Axton and not by any of the three dogs (Danny Hutton, Chuck Negron and Cory Wells), managed to roll out of the mouths of babes, the Silent Majority, hippies and hardhats alike. The simple wish of “joy to the fishes in the deep blue sea,” and – even more unlikely -- “joy to you and me,” sent groovy vibes around an essentially joyless planet, even underwater!

As ironic as this was, the real story was that – despite, or even because of – the tune’s mega-monster success, Three Dog Night was not considered hip. In fact, forget about “Joy To the World”: the group and their three-part harmony scored an almost-unheard-of 21 Top-40 singles, including eleven Top Ten bestsellers, and twelve consecutive gold albums. This was accomplished in an unlikely musical-career lifespan of a staggering six years, wedged between Woodstock and Watergate. Yet the band was often branded with the unshakable stigma of “being too commercial.” This type of brand really smarts, and the sting usually does not subside. The unfair label did not help to keep TDN close to the hearts of the mean old rock critics and the music Nazis who decide who and what is good for us. In fact, we’re still waiting for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame to get it together and recognize TDN for its creative arrangements, mystical interpretations, and uncanny knack for recording the right tunes at the right time.

So they didn’t write their own music. Is that a crime? However, they covered like nobody’s business – tunes such as Laura Nyro’s “Eli’s Coming,” Nilsson’s “One,” Randy Newman’s “Mama Told Me (Not To Come),” John Hiatt's "Sure As I'm Sitting Here," Paul Williams' “An Old Fashioned Love Song,” “Celebrate” (not written by, but recommended by Neil Young) and Leo Sayer’s “The Show Must Go On,” amongstothers. Their impassioned take on “Easy To Be Hard” was snipped from the Broadway tribal-rock musical Hair, and Hoyt Axton scored for them again with the quirky “Never Been To Spain.” So many covers, in fact, that the boys made the cover of Rolling Stone magazine, in that pop-culture-polarized summer of ’72. At that time, the magazine was actually considered the very barometer of hip. And even then, appearing as the feature story of the counterculture’s favorite rag, the editors felt the need to explain patiently and apologize profusely: MORE GOLD THAN THE STONES! BIGGER CROWDS THAN CREEDENCE! FATTER PURSES THAN ELVIS! THREE DOG NIGHT: SEE HOW THEY RUN. As if this was hard to believe.

It took the rest of the century for the story to unfold. Drug abuse, lawyers, guns, money, and the whole VH1 Behind The Music checklist played itself out. Now, in the dawn of the new century, and with the release of their definitive greatest hits collection, Three Dog Night - The Complete Hit Singles (UTV/Geffen/UME), the world is coming around again. The joint plays like some mighty fine wine, timeless and, well, joyful. The album has launched the guys back onto the Billboard album charts for the first time since the mid-'70's. Even movie-critic god Richard Roeper shook his booty from his aisle seat to give the boys props in a salute in The Chicago Sun Times. Roeper, no pushover himself, said, “you can go 20-deep into the CD and still find an instantly recognizable, well-crafted, beautifully harmonized pop gem.” Talk about your thumbs way, WAY up.

The name Three Dog Night was coined from the Australian expression of it being so cold that you would need to sleep with three dogs as opposed to one (okay, it may not be Hoobastank, but this was the era of such meaningful rock-group monikers as Ten Years After, Edison Lighthouse and The Ides of March). Most of the lead singing was done by Cory Wells or Chuck Negron, who had a book-length, dramatic history all his own. Negron does not currently tour with the two other members. We caught up with band leader Danny Hutton, who is best known for singing lead on "Black and White," the group’s #1 smash from the summer of '72. The song had originally been a British reggae hit.

He didn’t sing lead on “Joy To The World,” (Negron did) but he does have an opinion on the song. He says, “I didn’t get it, but to this day, I love it. I thought it was a goofy song. It was the third release off the album. We would try to find the ten songs that we liked the best. And they would do market research and get feedback. I was shocked when that song hit. It sold like ten million records. When you listen to the lyrics…'I’m a straight-shootin’ son of a gun' and 'I’d love to drink his wine'…it’s kind of a weird but universal song."

Hutton is an Irish immigrant who spent his childhood in Boston. He came of age – and in the ‘60s, no less – in California. Hutton hooked up with neighbors Jack Nicholson, Bob Rafelson (producer of The Monkees and Five Easy Pieces), Neil Young and actor Harry Dean Stanton.With friends like these, Hutton’s wild days need no explanation; however, he has this to say: “I partied hard, but I never got into any needle stuff or heroin. My meter went off when I saw junkies.”

Hutton’s cleanup would come years after the band disbanded, in the late ‘70s. “I made enough money to retire,” he says, “but I was completely screwed by that time. I was completely burned out. I was done. Nothing was fun. I faded out of the group. I got unhealthy. I was boozing and doing coke. I was so beat up looking. You know that revelation when you really see yourself? I just said, 'that’s it. I’m done.' I quit smoking, drinking, pills, everything. Did it all myself. This big, beautiful bedroom and all I had in it was this mattress on the floor. All those years caught up. Five months later, I was running up to ten miles a day, which is too much! I eat health foods. And I’ll drink wine or a good Belgian beer, but I don’t smoke.”

Through it all, he chose to stay in California.

“A lot of cats come out to LA and do their deal,” Hutton says. “And then they hit it big or they don’t, but either way a lot of them wind up going back home and building their big house. But for me, [LA is] home. I remember Hollywood Boulevard in the fifties, when Fred Astaire would walk down the street.”

Seeing Astaire walking down the street as opposed to dancing down the street may have proved a bit of a letdown, but that didn’t stop Hutton from building his own California dream. He eventually bought Alice Cooper’s old house, and even though Alice doesn’t live here anymore, the joint still rocks as if school’s out forever. Hutton shares the place with his wife, children and an assortment of their friends.

He says, “I have three boys. Three men, I guess. Twenty-eight, twenty-two, and eighteen. All musicians. As Zorba the Greek said, ‘The full catastrophe.’ Wife, children, the house.”

Do they listen to his music?

“No, of course not!”

And do the pals of these young whippersnappers even know who he is?

“Yeah, I got a record room,” Hutton says modestly. “You hear [our] music all the time, so they know me from that. But they really know me as that guy who comes down and says, ‘Hey, guys, you gotta keep the door shut.’”

Today, along with Cory Wells, Hutton criss-crosses the country singing these old-fashioned love songs in – well – at least two-part harmony. He says, “We’ve been touring since 1986. We do 80 to 100 dates a year. We stopped that whole bus tour thing around 1990, when my kids got a little too old.”

However, the boys may not be too old for his sage musical advice. He says of his sons, “I tell them things and they go 'yeah yeah yeah' and pretend they don’t hear me, and sometimes I hear them say what I said to someone else.”

It’s actually not too shabby to take advice from a guy who got his start, at the tender age of 22, banging out ditties for the pop music division of Hanna-Barbera Records. He penned would-be hits like “Hippity Hoppity Kangaroo.” This lead to a semi-successful, one-hit-wonderish career on his own with a modest seller in ’65 called “Roses and Rainbows.” The song allowed him to tour with Sonny and Cher and lip-synch in 105-degree heat, wearing leather pants and a tweed coat, on swinging shows like Where The Action Is. Meanwhile, Cory Wells was getting his own taste of the ‘60s, touring with a Beatle-esque group called The Enemies. He hooked up with Hutton, and then eventually with Negron. Brian Wilson – that genius/surfer dude from the Beach Boys – took a special interest in the three of them. Hutton, Negron and Wells further developed their skills in Wilson’s house, formerly owned by Tarzan creator Edgar Rice Burroughs and painted purple for its good vibrations. Wilson called the boys Redwood and helped them record “Darlin’,” which would eventually become a hit by the Beach Boys themselves.

Hutton recalls, “[Brian Wilson] played me parts of Pet Sounds. It influenced me, but what could you do with the influence? You could never write or arrange a song as good as Brian. The Beatles didn’t produce their own records. Brian did everything.”

Eventually, though, the fame came. And then the inevitable backlash.

“We got nailed because we were eclectic,” Hutton admits, regarding the group’s uncertain legacy. “We were all over the map. We were on the R&B, pop and country charts. But I think in the end, it’s going to help us. There is not the same tone to everything. Every song has a lead voice with a strong three-part harmony all mixed up together like a horn section. We treated our vocals like a big horn section. We used our voices as horns. We were the horn section. With only four instruments, we had a big sound.”

The original plan – well, there was no plan – was to get their act together and take it on the road.

“We were driven,” he recalls. “Lightning striking twice is so hard. I already had a little bit of success, so to get the chance to actually [be successful] twice is unbelievable. I knew we had great musicians and singers. We just grabbed songs that we liked to quickly get a show going.”

And the next thing they knew, they were in the studio, with a cover of Otis Redding's “Try A Little Tenderness” being their first big hit.

“For the first album, we were considered quote hip,” he says. “That all went away from the second album on. Then they got into ‘they don’t write their own songs.’ The record company was picking softer selections. When we first started, we were really banging it out. Real hard rock. But the perception wasn’t that: the perception was 'One,' or 'Easy To Be Hard.' Real ballady stuff.”

It may have been lukewarm, but the act was getting hotter.

Hutton said, “Once we started getting hot, then we started getting songs sent to us. At the time, they were demo records. We had a ‘for sure’ pile, a ‘maybe’ pile and a ‘no’ pile. The ‘for sure’ pile would be very small. I kick myself in the butt a little bit now, because I was always the studio guy. I didn’t come from entertaining in clubs or live performance. I came from the studio. I didn’t care that much [about singing lead vocals]. Chuck and Cory would fight over the lead more than me.”

There were ego clashes, to be sure (“We were like a bunch of brothers. Every single group is exactly the same way.”), but the history was made and the hits piled up.

Today, he enjoys the song stylings of Eminem and the White Stripes, and he toys with his computer (“I don’t sit there and go nuts on it, but I can e-mail and stumble around. I can Google!”)

He is also very fond of feeling the love in the room when he tours. The thousands who turn out know full well that he and Wells are more than just two-thirds of that “Jeremiah Was A Bullfrog” group. He says, “We had more consecutive Top 20 hits than the Temptations, and we did it all in six years. We were history in a way because we did all this and were considered not cool. It’s been rewritten in a way about how cool we were.”

Joy to the World indeed.

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Photo Credits:#1 © 2004 Tatiana Menke. Courtesy of Three Dog Night/Universal Music Group.#2 © 2004 Courtesy of Three Dog Night/Universal Music Group.#3 © 1970 Courtesy of Three Dog Night/Universal Music Group.

#Three Dog Night #2004 #Music interview #Danny Hutton #Ronald Sklar

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popentertainment-interviews · 10 years ago

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BOBBY VEE

BY RONALD SKLAR

Rock and roll is cram-packed with ironic stories. Read the bio of almost any artist and you'll find the woulda-coulda-shoulda tale of how he almost became an accountant. And prefacing almost every Top 10 hit is the tiresome fable of how the song nearly wound up in the garbage until some DJ in Peoria played it by accident.

Bobby Vee's story, however, is the mother of all rock and roll ironies and yet it's as original as his rollercoaster-ride career. Gather around and I'll tell it to you:

On a snowy February evening in 1959, a plane crashes in Clear Lake, Iowa. Its passengers, namely Buddy Holly, The Big Bopper and Ritchie Valens, are taken to Rock and Roll Heaven (this fateful night is immortalized as The Day The Music Died in Don McLean's 1972 hit, "American Pie.") Because these three future rock gods never make it to the concert hall, which at the same moment is packed with teenagers ready to jump, jive 'n' wail, replacements are needed, with bells on. The group hastily chosen to perform that night is called The Shadows. Their frontman: fifteen-year-old Bobby Velline, later shortened to Bobby Vee when he became, as Billboard magazine would call him, "one of the Top 10 most consistent chart makers ever."

"I've told the story so many times that the Buddy Holly anniversary has sort of adopted me," Vee comments on the irony in a recent telephone interview. "I wasn't planning on thinking that it was the start of something big. It was just a bunch of guys getting together to try to get through this tragic event. And at my age, fifteen, that was a big deal. It was so tragic. Rock and roll was so new and exciting and to lose three of the main guys in a plane crash took a big piece out of me because I was such a huge Holly fan."

Forty years later, Vee remembers his influence and idol, Buddy Holly, in a tribute CD called "Down The Line" (Rockhouse Records). The CD is chock-full of Holly covers, many of them obscure, clearly showing how one artist left his mark on a generation and then some, from Vee to the Beatles and beyond.

On that fateful night, Vee knew that if he had his chance that he could make those people dance and maybe they'd be happy for a while.

"Doing the show that night," he reminisces, "there was no reason why we should have been there because we were just a garage band. But they didn't ask us for our credentials. They just said, come on down, and we did a fifteen minute set at the beginning of the evening. What I remember from the moment of getting on that stage and being introduced is that the noble part of it was over with. It was time to perform. I was in shock, but it was amazing. I look at that as one of the milestones of my life, and I have several of them, but that was an important one for me because I got through it. And I remember enjoying it while I was on stage."

Today, Vee makes his living doing oldies shows and/or performing rockabilly and swing with his sons Jeff, Tom and Robbie, all of whom are in their 30s. The generation weaned on Aerosmith and Kiss and now raising babies and working in corporate centers is discovering that everything old is new again -- even the guy who replaced Buddy Holly -- and even Buddy Holly himself.

His sound is distinctive: young and vulnerable, but direct and insistent, even when he can't make up his mind whether his girl is a devil or angel. Today, in his fifties, he sounds more like a CEO, but it's only due to a deepened, controlled authority in his voice. It's a long road from his first regional record, "Suzy Baby," in 1959. It rocked the heartland and was followed by "What Do You Want," another big hit that rang his phone and rang the bells of teenagers everywhere.

At that time, Vee remembers, "the whole business was young. I was sixteen when I signed with Liberty Records. At seventeen I had my first hit. Snuffy Garrett (later to become a legendary record producer) was 19 or 20. The president of the record company was 31. It's was a young business and a young world and I never really thought too much about any of that. It was flat exciting and we were all over the place. In 1962, I was away from home for eleven months. I was 19."

The Camelot years saw a truckload of hits that exploded in both the USA and England (in fact, Vee still makes an annual pilgrimage to Britain, where he is adored). These chart-toppers are still standard oldies fare today, including "Devil or Angel," "Rubber Ball," "The Night Has A Thousand Eyes," and Bye Bye Birdie's "One Last Kiss." It was the pre-Beatle era, and Bobby was able to straddle the fence between teen idol and serious young man.

"The very early stuff that I did was more rockabilly and rock and roll," he says. "But I love pop music. I loved Frankie Laine, Johnny Ray and stuff like that. I love structure. The Buddy Holly fans thought I was trying to copy him, but I had my own legion of fans who I introduced to Buddy Holly. I've been able to walk in the rock and roll camp and the pop camp."

Most people don't realize that, for a very short time, Vee had a band member named Robert Zimmerman, who later became better known under an assumed name: Bob Dylan. However, prior to that, Zimmerman had yet another name change: Elston Gunnn (yes, with three n's).

Vee recalls, "My brother Bill was in a record shop in Fargo and Bob introduced himself to him as Elston Gunnn. He said he had just gotten off the road with Conway Twitty as a piano player. Bill's eyes got wide. He played pretty good in the key of C. We hired him to come out and work that weekend with us. He was staying with a mutual friend of ours in Fargo. The gig was in a church basement. When he wasn't playing, he would come up behind me and do handclaps. It was a Gene Vincent thing. He must have seen Gene Vincent do it. He was a nice guy, and wiry, with a lot of energy and no money, just like us. I didn't fire him, it was a natural evolution of lack of finances."

Of course, Dylan went on to whatever he went on to do and was never heard from again. Vee, on the other hand, had a few more moments in the sun before the British Invasion almost locked him in "Whatever Happened To...?" Hell.

Regarding the dry spell, Vee recalls, "it was not as bad as you might think. I had a lot of record success. I just wanted to do what I wanted to do. And the most difficult time came around 1965, when the hits stopped coming, and the record company said, let's do something here. We tried a couple of things. We were going all over the place. I wasn't enjoying it so much."

Get ready for more rock and roll ironies: in an era of Iron Butterfly and Steppenwolf, Vee hit it big again. And not only once but twice! His hippie-light song, "Beautiful People," was accessible to those afraid to love Haight-Ashbury.

"In an era of dark stuff, it was a wonderful song," Vee says.

However, it was the bubbly but serious "Come Back When You Grow Up" which changed everything for him, again.

"It was quite a different sound," he says, "but the sentiment was familiar in my records. My time had pretty much come and gone, but there were still radio stations out there who were willing to give it a spin. I remember taking out an ad in Billboard magazine, plugging the song, and that time it was number one in Billings, Montana, and top five in Green Bay, Wisconsin, and number one in Spartanburg, South Carolina. And the guys at the record company said, 'whoopie, isn't this exciting!' but I was out on the road, touring. People are just people. It doesn't really matter what town you're in. If they're willing to belly up to the bar and buy my record, that counts. Over the course of the year, that became the biggest record of my career."

Things quieted down again until the early seventies, when heads starting turning back to the more innocent fifties and early sixties. The release of "American Pie" and "American Graffiti" triggered an interest in Vee-like music, and he found himself on the road doing the shows that would keep him busy for the next twenty years.

"The music didn't die," Vee says. "If you're really a music fan, you're going to end up in the mid-fifties. Then you have the whole story. Everything makes sense."

In England, the very country that almost shut him down, fans go nuts for Bobby Vee. He is often part of a fifties-phile tour, with the likes of such old soldiers as Johnny Preston and Little Eva. It's, as he puts it, "a dream tour where everybody got to be successful. At this time of my life to be able go out and work with friends who love each other and have known each other for over 40 years is a great feeling."

Why England?

"Liberty Records was so hot in America in the early 60s and they wanted to launch the label in England," he explains. "By then, I was having hits so I got in on that ride. In the early days, you could have many versions of the same songs as hits all over the place. A country version, a swing version, because everything was so localized. It was easy to cover an American record in England, because chances are the act would never come over there. I did, and so did Del Shannon and Neil Sedaka and Gene Pitney. Gene Vincent too. I took the time to go over there and do television, and they never forgot that. I went over a lot in the 60s, and a little bit in the 70s. And I went over in '85 and it was like I never left."

At last, Vee comes home with his tribute to his original influence.

"I remember hearing Elvis and the Everly Brothers and Chuck Berry and Fats Domino," he says, "but Buddy Holly was my primary influence. Nothing has been lost. The stuff that was important to me then is still important to me. It's not about the head, it's about the heart."

#bobby vee #interview #PopEntertainment #1999 #Ronald Sklar #Music Interview

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