The Vinyl Dialogues Blog

Stories behind memorable albums of the 1970s as told by the artists

Category: The Vinyl Dialogues Book Page 13 of 16

Daryl Hall bursts into new year with online concert, deep album cuts

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On January 1, 2015

In The Vinyl Dialogues Book

We know what we’re going to get at a Hall & Oates concert. All those classic and timeless hits, the ones that sound as good today as they did in the 1970s and 1980s.

There are no complaints with that. What we don’t usually hear from Hall & Oates, though, are lesser hits or deep album cuts from the vast catalog of their careers.

For that, one has to attend a solo show by either of the Rock and Roll Hall of Famers.

John Oates will tell his audiences up front that if you want to hear the greatest hits of Hall & Oates, then you should go to a Hall & Oates show.

The thing is, if you go to a solo Oates show, you appreciate the stuff that’s strictly Oates because you don’t get to hear it as much in concert. The real treats are the deep album … Read more

One night in Havana with The Empty Hearts: Just what I needed

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On December 4, 2014

In The Vinyl Dialogues Book

The Havana – a restaurant, bar and music venue – is a hip place. In addition to sporting some top-notch pool tables – the kind of tables that attract players that bring their own customized cue sticks in custom made cases – it exudes a cool vibe.

It could be the orange couches. They may be leather, they may be naugahyde. Two of them face the stage, the other faces the the pool tables, which sit in front of big windows that offer a view of Main Street in New Hope, PA.

New Hope is a community of eclectic shops, restaurants and venues in a town that for decades has generally been regarded as the halfway point between Philly and New York City for the “in” crowd.

Havana has an outside bar and seating area that during the warm weather months is perfect for people-watching. But on a recent early … Read more

Completing a musical experience with folk legend Peter Yarrow

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On November 11, 2014

In The Vinyl Dialogues Book

As much as I like listening to my favorite artists on vinyl, I’ve got this thing about hearing and seeing them sing their signature songs live. It completes the musical experience for me and oftentimes touches me emotionally.

That’s part what music is about for me: to elicit that emotion.

I want to experience Brian Wilson and the Beach Boys singing “Surfer Girl” in person. And I have.

I want to experience Hall and Oates singing “She’s Gone.” And I have.

I want to experience Elton John singing “Rocket Man.” And I have.

I’d like to witness Bob Dylan singing “Blowin’ In The Wind.” The same goes for Bruce Springsteen singing “Born To Run.” I hope to experience both of those some day.

There’s a whole list of artists whose songs I enjoy. I’ve got the records. But I haven’t seen them all live.

Fortunately, I was able to cross … Read more

A musical journey from Springsteen to ‘Springhouse Revival’

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On November 4, 2014

In The Vinyl Dialogues Book

One of the first guys I met when I started college in the fall of 1977 at Iowa State University in Ames, Iowa, was an upperclassman by the name of Duane Morrison. A bespectacled  Iowa farm boy, he was at an agriculture school to study . . . agriculture. Go figure.

Duane and his roommate, another upperclassman named Al Steinbach, lived right next door to me and my roommate Billy, in the dorms. A native New Yorker, Al apparently had decided to go to college in the heartland to study – best I could tell as a young, impressionable freshman – hillbillies. Since I lived right next door and appeared early on to be one of the new subjects of his study, he was in the right place.

The thing about Duane was that he had an advanced appreciation of music in 1977, especially vinyl. Duane and Al had the … Read more

Hall & Oates frighteningly good at opening of new ‘Daryl’s House’

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On November 1, 2014

In The Vinyl Dialogues Book

It was billed as “Hall-oween and Oates,” but thankfully, there was no soul version of “Monster Mash.”

That was never going to happen anyway. Daryl Hall and John Oates would never have a conversation about covering that song in one of their shows, even on Halloween. To do so would severely compromise the integrity of their H&OHQ – Hall & Oates Hipness Quotient.

No, this fright night performance on Oct. 31, 2014, was about something completely different. It christened the new “Daryl’s House” – a renovated music venue and restaurant – that used to be known as the Town Crier in Pawling, N.Y.

It’s the next step in the evolution of “Live From Daryl’s House,” an internet and cable show that Hall has hosted since 2007. Episodes for the show, which airs on the cable channel Palladia, will be filmed there without an audience, but at all other times, the … Read more

David Knopfler: On his own ship of dreams for 30 years

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On October 24, 2014

In The Vinyl Dialogues Book

DK-PosterBanner2014-MINI_02Even though he co-founded the band, David Knopfler doesn’t listen to Dire Straits. He doesn’t think about Dire Straits. He’s not a fan of Dire Straits.

“I wasn’t even a fan at the time,” said Knopfler.

Though his name will likely forever be linked with the band – which formed in 1977 and included his brother Mark Knopfler, John Illsley and Pick Withers – David points out that his time with the group was only about three years out of his life.

And that’s left him a lot of life in the interim to make the kind of music that he wants to make.

It’s the three decades since he left Dire Straits – in 1980 after its third album – as a solo artist that he chooses to celebrate. And he’s doing so with “30th Anniversary Tour” that includes nine shows in eight cities throughout the U.S. Northeast.

The … Read more

Two guys who knew how to set the stage for World Series memories

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On October 17, 2014

In The Vinyl Dialogues Book

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Leo Woith was a running buddy of my dad’s back in the 1950s and 1960s. And the two of them provided me with a couple of my favorite World Series memories, even though one of those memories wasn’t actually a memory at all but a story because it happened before I was born and it’s part of family lore.

My dad was the superintendent of Rankin Grade School, a small rural school just south of Pekin, Illinois. The nameplate on his desk read a very official “E.E. Morsch,” but his close friends called him “Eddie.”

Leo was a local businessman who owned and operated Leo’s TV and Appliances in downtown Pekin. Leo’s kids attended Rankin – that’s how he and Dad knew each other – and as they became friends, they discovered that each shared a love of baseball. … Read more

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