Category: The Vinyl Dialogues Book Page 9 of 16

Bruce Springsteen and Little Steven Van Zandt rock out at Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia Sept. 7, 2016.
(Photo by Mike Morsch)

Who knew that farmers could predict the future of rock and roll?

When I moved into the dorms my first year at Iowa State University in Ames, Iowa, the guys who lived next door were enlightened and entertaining characters. Al Steinbach, a New Yorker with a dry wit, was studying engineering there in the middle of the Heartland. I’m not sure why he went all that way to do that. His roommate, Duane Morrison, was a rural gent from Grinnell, Iowa, who was studying farm management. That made more sense to me, since the university is surrounded by roughly a bazillion cornfields and two bazillion cows.

What made these guys cool to a youngster experiencing being away from home for the first time was that they had a turntable, a vinyl collection and an open-door policy. Anyone could drop in and listen to records at almost any time.

Duane was particularly taken with a relatively new artist at the time, one with whom I wasn’t familiar. One day he played the guy’s album for me, seeking my reaction.

“Well, whaddaya think?” he said to me after both sides of the record had been played. “Do you like it?”

“Yeah, it’s OK I guess,” I responded, without much enthusiasm.

“You’d better listen closely,” Duane said. “This guy is going to be a big deal some day.”

The artist was Bruce Springsteen and the album was “Born to Run” from 1975.

A mere 39 years after pooh-poohing the “Born to Run” album in the middle of Nowhere, Iowa, I was at Citizens Bank Ballpark in Philadelphia seeing Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band live for the first time in my life. For the sake of posterity, the date was Sept. 7, 2016.

Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band.
(Photo by Mike Morsch)

While I appreciate what Springsteen has given us with his music and concerts, I had never become a diehard fan over the years. The Blonde Accountant and I also aren’t big fans of stadium concerts, but we figured that if we were going to spend the money on one, it would be to see Springsteen, whom neither of us had seen in concert.

I had mentioned to her on the way to the show that Bruce’s music over the years hadn’t really spoken to me like some other artists, most notably the Beach Boys and co-founder Brian Wilson. Certainly that’s a subjective view. Music can evoke an emotional response within us, but it can be from different artists for different people.

We battled the crowds to get into the stadium that evening, and had just secured some ballpark and were trying to make our way to our seats in the 200 level, when the crowd got it’s first look at Springsteen. He hit the stage a little after 8 p.m. and the Philly crowd went crazy.

And Duane the farmboy was right. Bruce Springsteen is a really big deal now.

The Boss opened with “New York City Serenade,” featuring a beautiful string section. And there I stood, a tray full of chicken fingers and crab fries, at my first Bruce Springsteen concert . . . and I couldn’t contain my emotions. The music reached in and grabbed my soul, and I could feel my eyes well up with tears. It was an in-the-moment thing and it caught me off guard. And as I remember this concert in the years to come, that’s the feeling I want to remember.

(Photo by Mike Morsch)

The rest of the night was what we’ve come to expect from Bruce these days. He doesn’t much care if it’s a work night or a school night, every night is a Friday night for Bruce and he seems happy to play well into the wee hours. He’s in a stretch of concerts now where he’s regularly hitting the four-hour mark. In fact, our show lasted 4:04 and is the longest show to date that’s he’s ever played in the U.S. My guess is that record won’t last long.

I don’t know how he does it. I’m 10 years younger than he is and I got tired just sitting there watching him. And I can’t imagine that E Street drummer Max Weinberg – dressed in a jacket and tie in the September Philly heat and humidity and banging away on the drum kit all night long – didn’t at some point think to himself, “Really Bruce? Four hours? I’m dying up here. C’mon, man.”

In a concert that was mostly all highlights for a first-timer, I was particularly pleased with “Rosalita (Come Out Tonight),” which I thought was outstanding. The crowd appeared to agree with me on that one.

The encore featured the tour debut of “Streets of Philadelphia,” (just for those of us in Philly, of course) “Jungleland,” “Born to Run,” “Dancing in the Dark,” “Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out,” a cover of the Isley Brothers’ “Shout” and “Bobby Jean.”

One of my favorite Springsteen songs is “Girls in Their Summer Clothes,” but I didn’t expect to hear that one because he hasn’t been playing it on this tour. But I can’t even call that a disappointment, given the quantity and quality in the show.

The Boss and Jake Clemons interact with the crowd.
(Photo by Mike Morsch)

Of course, many friends wanted to know what I thought after my first Springsteen show, and they may be surprised at my initial reaction. This will require some more thought and I reserve the right to change my mind at any time, but I don’t think I want to see another Bruce Springsteen concert.

Coming to the Springsteen bandwagon later in life has afforded me what I believe is a unique opportunity to have his entire catalog of music to explore and his live show to experience. It’s all fresh and new to me.

And to have that first concert experience be as close to perfect seems special. It’s like a baseball player hitting a home run in the last at bat of his career, circling the bases and running right off the field into retirement. It’s a perfect ending.

In my case, my first Bruce Springsteen concert was a perfect beginning and a perfect ending. And I’m not sure I want to ruin that story.

Connecting Cher to the Lawrence Welk Show via ‘One Toke Over the Line’

By Mike Morsch

On August 8, 2016

In The Vinyl Dialogues Book

Cher nearly got knocked down by members of the Screen Actors Guild during a television broadcast in 1983.

This is a story about Cher almost being knocked on her keister in 1983. But to get there, I’ve got to first go through the rock-folk duo of Brewer and Shipley and the squeaky cleanness of the Lawrence Welk Show.

In Volume I of The Vinyl Dialogues, I had interviewed Michael Brewer and Tom Shipley about the making of their 1970 album “Tarkio.” The album would include what would become Brewer and Shipley’s biggest hit single, “One Toke Over the Line.”

“One Toke Over the Line” is a song about drugs. According to Shipley, before a gig in Kansas City, someone had given him a block of hashish and recommended he do two hits. But Shipley decided to do three hits, and by the time he got to the stage, he was wasted. “Jesus Michael, I’m one toke over the line,” Shipley said to Brewer.

Brewer thought that was hysterical, and right on the spot started singing, “One toke over the line, sweet Jesus, one toke over the line” before they went on stage that evening. The next day, they turned the line into a song, which they wrote only to give themselves and their friends a laugh.

When it came time to finish the “Tarkio” album, a suit at their record label – Kama Sutra Records – recommended that “One Toke Over the Line” go on the album. The song was released as a single and became a hit.

That got the attention of the people in charge of the Lawrence Welk Show. If you grew up in the 1960s like me, your folks likely watched the Lawrence Welk Show. And if your folks were like my folks, they made you watch the show along with them.

There was a wholesomeness about the Welk show, which featured a cast of highly talented artists and musicians who normally tried to stay current with the times, performing covers of songs that were popular. In 1971, that included “One Toke Over the Line.”

There is a YouTube video of the performance where singers Dick Dale and Gail Farrell performed “One Toke Over the Line,” after which Welk says, “There you heard a modern spiritual by Gail and Dale.”

Because the song had the word “Jesus” in it, Welk thought it was a spiritual song. He apparently didn’t have any idea it was a song about drugs.

That their song about being high was performed on such a family friendly show cracked up Brewer and Shipley.

“I was amazed, but at the same time I was also on the road and smoking a lot of pot, so I could believe just about anything,” said Shipley.

After Shipley had told me that story, I began to wonder: It’s apparent that Welk didn’t know what the song was about. But what about the singers? Did they know what the song was about, and if so, what was the chatter about it behind the scenes?

Gail Farrell and her husband Ron Anderson were both artists who starred on the Lawrence Welk Show.
(Photo courtesy of Gail Farrell and Ron Anderson)

I eventually tracked down Gail Farrell, got her on the phone and asked just that: What did you know and when did you know it? She would have been 24 years old in 1971 and presumably hip to the social consciousness of the late 1960s and early 1970s.

Gail is a wonderfully talented singer and performer and we talked for about an hour. I cajoled her every which way I could as a journalist to get her to tell me if she knew she was singing about drugs when she and Dick Dale belted out “One Toke Over the Line” in front of the Welk faithful.

But she wouldn’t budge. And I understand why. She’s writing a one-woman show for herself and the answer to the “One Toke” question is an integral part of her show. She’s saving that reveal for herself, as it should be.

Gail and I have kept in touch via email over the past few years, and her husband Ron Anderson, also a Welk singer in the early 1980s, are both fans of The Vinyl Dialogues series, which I appreciate quite a lot. It was Gail who hooked me up with Welk singers Guy Hovis and Ralna English, who I interviewed for a chapter in The Vinyl Dialogues Volume II: Dropping the Needle.

But it’s Ron Anderson who is the bridge to Cher. Many artists are great storytellers and Ron is no exception. I’ve asked him questions about performing with the great composer and arranger Henry Mancini, and he has cheerfully shared his stories with me via email.

“Ask me sometime about Robert Redford, or Lucille Ball, or Jesse White, or Cher,” Ron wrote at the end of Mancini story email.

Cher? Yes, please. I’ll let Ron tell the story in his own words from here. He writes:

“It was 1983 and I was lucky enough to land a job as a ‘singer-who-can-move’ on the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) 50th Anniversary TV broadcast to be shot at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles.
“It was a huge project with original music and lyrics composed for historical sketches presented throughout the program illustrating various milestone accomplishments achieved by the union in labor advances and disputes over the decades. The cast was made up of tons of veteran and then-current film and TV stars, great character actors whose faces were instantly recognizable, and rank and file performers who, while not famous, were faithful dues-paying union members who maintained day-jobs in order to pursue their calling as actors.

“One of the biggest segments of the show was a full-blown production number expressing our pride in the union where nearly the entire cast was on stage, in several rows of about 20 people each, standing shoulder-to-shoulder with our SAG membership cards raised high while singing a specialty number titled, ‘Here’s My Card!’

“The next segment of the show (as I recall, it was a special award presentation to one of the founders of the union) was supposed to be a smooth segue from the ‘Here’s My Card!’ number right into the celebrity presenter’s speech.

“The challenge was this: How on earth could we get nearly 80 people off the stage in literally just a few seconds so the program could continue without stopping tape or taking a commercial break?

“The solution was this: We were all told to split our rows dead center and, on cue from the stage-left and stage-right stage managers, charge – yes, ‘charge’ – off stage while the cameras took shots of the audience giving their fully anticipated standing ovation to the ‘Here’s My Card!’ number.

“The day of the broadcast, we rehearsed the song and, especially our exit, several times on stage and the director was thrilled that it was working so well. For that number I was assigned to a position in the center of the very front row and was standing right next to Janet Leigh, who at age 56 was still a knockout!
I had several very nice conversations with her and found her to be engaging, charming and very funny.

“So it’s the night of the broadcast – packed house, tuxes and formals in full plumage, sketches, presentations, production going great, our performance energy level off the chart – and we come to the big finish of ‘Here’s My Card!’ The audience members are on their feet not just applauding, but cheering, too! The stage managers yell at the top of their voices, “Move!’ and we stampede right and left off the stage.

“Just off-stage-left, where I and my entire half of the group were headed, stood a lady waiting to make her entrance for the next segment. She sees this mass of humanity charging at her and does her best to get out of the way and protect herself from being trampled, but has no place to run.

“Now, I’m one of the very last to exit the stage but I don’t see the lady because there are nearly 40 people in front of me also trying to exit the stage. As I take my last couple of steps, I smash into this woman who is cowering in fear for her life and I grab her shoulders to keep her from falling down. As I steadied her and made sure she was safe I say, “Oh, I’m so sorry – I didn’t see you there.”

“To which this exotically beautiful woman with a husky alto voice smiles and says to me, ‘That’s okay – no problem’ and I suddenly realize that I have my hands on the shoulders of …Cher. She hears her cue and starts walking on-stage and as I’m walking farther off stage I’m thinking, ‘Anderson, do you realize what just happened?’”

Think about this: If I don’t interview Michael Brewer and Tom Shipley for The Vinyl Dialogues about an album of theirs that includes the song “One Toke Over the Line”; and if Gail Farrell isn’t one of the performers who sings that song on the Welk show; I never get to hear the story about another Welk artist, Ron Anderson, almost knocking Cher on her ass in 1983.

Man, I love a good story. And the road it takes to get there.

My inaugural Dylan concert: It was Bob being Bob . . . with a little swagger and prancing

By Mike Morsch

On July 15, 2016

In The Vinyl Dialogues Book

The between-song banter by Mavis Staples – who is opening for Bob Dylan on his summer tour – Wednesday night at the Mann Center for the Performing Arts in Philadelphia included an interesting and somewhat unexpected observation.

“Oh, that Bobby Dylan. I love listening to him sing, but I also love to watch him move,” said Ms. Staples, 77, a longtime member of the gospel, soul and R&B family singing group The Staple Singers and later a solo artist, who revealed last year that Dylan once proposed to her when they were teenagers and she turned him down. “He’s got that swagger.”

“Does Bob move with a swagger?” I asked my friend Ted, who has seen Dylan approximately 25 times in concert and had driven all the way from Illinois (919 miles and 14-and-a-half hours in what has been dubbed the 2016 Iron Undershorts Tour) to accompany me to my first Dylan concert.
“He’s more of a prancer,” said Ted.

Since my preconceived notion of my inaugural Dylan concert didn’t include experiencing much singing or prancing, the evening was shaping up to have potential if either of those things happened.

Ted and I have been talking for years about going to a Dylan concert. He is a big fan. Me, not so much. I like some of Dylan’s hits – “Blowin’ in the Wind,” “Like a Rolling Stone,” “Lay Lady Lay,” “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door” – but I don’t really know much more of his vast catalog.

And I understand his music speaks to generations of fans. It just doesn’t speak to me in the same way, which is OK. Music is a subjective experience and we all have our favorites.

Bob Dylan from afar, at the Mann Center for the Performing Arts in Philadelphia July 13, 2016.
(Photo by Mike Morsch)

But I thought it was important to see a significant artist like Bob Dylan in concert at least once. He’s 75 years old now, and I’m not getting any younger. And having Ted along to essentially identify the songs on the setlist and translate Bob’s lyrics to some of those songs was a wise decision.

So how is Bob Dylan in concert for someone who has never seen Bob Dylan in concert? Well, it’s Bob being Bob.

There is no Bob banter in between songs. In fact, the only words he spoke came just after “Tangled Up in Blue,” the last song before the intermission: “Thank you. We’re going to leave the stage for a little bit.”

Maybe my expectations were too low from the get-go, but Bob’s voice was better than I expected. The show featured Bob doing a handful of Frank Sinatra songs that Dylan covered in his 2015 “Shadows in the Night” album. Those songs required Bob to become a crooner and do all the heavy lifting on the vocals. In fact, none of his band members had microphones and thus didn’t provide any backing vocals for any song during the show. And the crowd reacted favorably to those tunes.

For a guy who can’t sing, Dylan sure did a lot of singing while he was in Philadelphia July 13.
The setlist included:
Things Have Changed.
She Belongs to Me.
Beyond Here Lies Nothin’.
Full Moon and Empty Arms (Sinatra cover).
Pay in Blood.
Melancholy Mood (Sinatra cover).
Duquesne Whistle.
How Deep is the Ocean? (How High Is the Sky?) (Paul Whitman & His Orchestra cover).
Tangled Up in Blue.
High Water.
Why Try to Change Me Now (Cy Coleman cover).
Early Roman Kings.
I Could Have Told You (Sinatra cover).
Spirit on the Water.
Scarlet Town.
All of Nothing at All (Sinatra cover).
Long and Wasted Years.
Autumn Leaves (Yves Montand cover).
Encore
(19) Blowin’ in the Wind.
(20) Stay With Me (Sinatra cover).

The Bob Dylan baseball card, given out after the show.

As for whether Bob has a swagger or is a prancer, that seems to be a matter of interpretation. For this show, he did have what I’d call a little bounce in his step, although I’m not sure it rises to the level of prancing. It might be a lilt, or a sway, or even a shuffle. Whatever one’s perception, it appears to be typically Bob-esque.

My only complaint is that it was the worst lit concert that I have ever seen, and that was obviously done on purpose. Bob was lit exclusively from the back and sides, with no front lighting. Add in Bob’s wide-brimmed hat and the fact that there were no big screens for this show and it was virtually impossible to see his face, certainly from anything beyond the first few rows or so.

Ultimately, though, it was a good concert experience and I’m glad I got to see Dylan. Would I see him again? If I could afford the good seats down front and was allowed to take a few pictures, most certainly. And sure, I’d like to interview him, but my sense is that Bob doesn’t even talk to himself.

There was even a nice surprise after the show. As we were exiting the venue, we were handed a Bob Dylan baseball card as a memento of the concert. You read that correctly: a Dylan baseball card.

It appears that the card is exclusive to the Mann Center for the Performing Arts. The front shows an artist’s drawing of Bob in a pinstriped baseball jersey sans logo, and wearing a left-handed ballglove with the Philadelphia skyline and a sign that reads “the Mann” in the background.

The back of the Bob Dylan baseball card.

On the back, the card is numbered 713 – for July 13 – and other details about the concert and Dylan himself, like his birth date (May 24) and his hometown (Hibbing, Minnesota); and a fun fact that reads “Did you know? Exactly thirty-one years ago on this date, Bob Dylan performed in Philadelphia at the Live Aid benefit accompanied by Ronnie Wood and Keith Richards.”

Thanks, I did not know that.

The card back also includes an explanation of the collectible: “You are holding an official installment of an art project created by illustrator Alex Fine for the Mann and AEG Live commemorating select events each season at the Mann.”

As a longtime baseball card collector, it’s a pretty cool collectible from my first Bob Dylan concert.

It almost made me want to prance a little on the way to the car.

Hall & Oates concert delivers a few Philly surprises to the Philly faithful

By Mike Morsch

On July 11, 2016

In The Vinyl Dialogues Book

The big screen overlooks Daryl Hall and John Oates on July 10, 2016, at the BB&T Pavilion in Camden, N.J.
(Photo by Mike Morsch)

Daryl Hall and John Oates are very good in concert. But when they go off the script a little, they’re even better.

That’s what happened at the July 10 show at the BB&T Pavilion in Camden, N.J. Even though the venue is across the Delaware River from Philadelphia, this was clearly a Philly show with a Philly vibe by the Philly area natives.

And the evening featured a couple of really cool surprises for the Philly faithful, which Hall promised at the beginning of the show.

We know a Hall & Oates concert will include all the hits. And the setlist reflected that. H&O opened with “Maneater,” a No. 1 single in 1982, I think mostly to just get it out of the way. Although it’s a hugely popular song with the fans and gets everybody up on their feet right from the get-go, Oates is on the record in past interviews with me that he thinks he and Daryl – both members of the Songwriters Hall of Fame – have matured as songwriters since they wrote that tune.

The rest of the setlist included:
“Out of Touch” – No. 1 in 1984.
“Say It Isn’t So” – No. 2 in 1983.
“You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin’” – A Righteous Brothers cover that was No. 12 for Hall & Oates in 1980.
“Las Vegas Turnaround” – Not released as a single, but an Oates-penned song and fan favorite off the “Abandoned Luncheonette” album in 1973.
“She’s Gone” – No. 60 when first released as a single off “Abandoned Luncheonette,” but No. 7 when it was re-released in 1976.
“Sara Smile” – No. 4 in 1976.
“Wait for Me” – No. 18 in 1979.
“I Can’t Go for That (No Can Do)” – No. 1 in 1981.
“Rich Girl” – No. 1 in 1977.
“You Make My Dreams” – No. 5 in 1981.

The first encore included “Kiss on My List” and “Private Eyes,” both No. 1 singles in 1981.

(Photo by Mike Morsch)

But it was the second encore where the duo put everyone in a Philly mood.

“In the spirit of Daryl’s House, I’m going to bring out somebody who is a legend in Philadelphia,” said Hall. “I won’t give you a history lesson, but this man was the biggest star in the world. I’m talking about Chubby Checker.”

The 74-year-old Checker was raised in Philadelphia and had a smash single in 1960 with “The Twist,” which also turned into a dance style, one which I think I’ve done at every wedding I’ve ever attended.

Hall, Oates and their always-stellar band then opened the second encore with “The Twist” while Chubby and the rest of us twisted the night away like nobody was watching. Fortunately, I did not pull a hamstring or blow out a knee.

As much of a treat as it was to see Chubby, it was the second song of the second encore – and final song of the show – that sealed the Philly evening: A cover of “Didn’t I (Blow Your Mind This Time),” a 1969 single by the Philadelphia group the Delfonics, produced by Thom Bell and released on the Philly Groove Records label. The song predates the creation of Philadelphia International Records, founded in 1971 by Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff, and is recognized as one of the early “Philly soul” singles. Gamble and Huff would further develop and popularize the sound of Philadelphia – with a huge contribution by Bell who had eventually joined them – throughout the 1970s.

(Photo by Mike Morsch)

According to the Hall & Oates camp, it was decided two days before the show that Chubby would come on and do “The Twist.” And “Didn’t I (Blow Your Mind This Time)” had only been played a few times before by Hall & Oates in concert, that being at Madison Square Garden and again at a show in Reading, PA, both in February 2016. Hall and Oates just wanted to do it for the Philly crowd at this show. (Further research shows that Daryl and another Philly guy, Todd Rundgren, performed “Didn’t I” on episode 40 of “Live From Daryl’s House” in 2011.)

It was the first time I had heard them do that song in concert, and really, I think it should be included in every Hall & Oates concert. It was just that good.

The outdoor BB&T Pavilion was filled to capacity, with people seated on the lawn all the way up to the back wall, which is quite a long way from the stage. The weather cooperated for those exposed to the elements, which is something I suppose. But I prefer to stay a little closer to the action on the stage.

Joining Hall & Oates on this tour and adding to the soul quotient was Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue and Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings.

Chubby Checker joined Daryl Hall and John Oates on stage to perform “The Twist.”
(Photo by Mike Morsch)

Both were well-received by the Camden/Philly crowd and rightfully so. Trombone Shorty and his band are high energy and incredibly talented. And although Ms. Jones is battling a reoccurrence of pancreatic cancer that she thought she had beaten a few years ago, she showed tremendous heart and soul with her performance. “No matter how bad I feel, I just have to get on this stage. And I’m gonna give it all I’ve got.” The crowd recognized, respected and appreciated that effort.

Editor’s note: Interviews with Daryl and John about the music on and the making of the 1975 album “Daryl Hall & John Oates” – known as “The Silver Album” – will be featured in “The Vinyl Dialogues Volume III: Stacks of Wax,” due out this month. They reveal what song on that album almost became the theme song for what would become a mega movie of the 1970s; the stories behind the singles “Sara Smile” and “Camellia”; and the details surrounding the photo shoot and decision to use a “glam rock” photo of the two on the cover.

Reelin’ in the Steely Dan experience, with an assist from Steve Winwood

By Mike Morsch

On July 4, 2016

In The Vinyl Dialogues Book

Steely Dan, with Walter Becker, left, and Donald Fagen, performed “The Dan Who Knew Too Much Tour 2016” July 3 at the BB&T Pavilion in Camden, N.J.
(Photo by Mike Morsch)

Here the thing: If you’re a Steely Dan fan and you’ve paid to see the band in concert, then you cannot get up and go to the restroom just as the artists are breaking into “Reelin’ in the Years.”

I understand that those of us who grew up with Steely Dan over the past 40-plus years may be at an age where the frequency of using the facilities may be more challenging to us at this age than it was in our younger days.

But c’mon, it’s “Reelin’ in the Years,” one of Steely Dan’s most enduring hits. The song, written by Dan founders Donald Fagen and Walter Becker, reached No. 11 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart and No. 7 on the U.S. Cashbox Top 100 chart in 1973. It appeared on the band’s debut album “Can’t Buy A Thrill,” released in November 1972.

Surely one can reel in the bladder for the 4:37 of the song while its being played live.

Apparently not, as evidenced by the two women sitting in front of me at the July 3 Steely Dan show at the BB&T Pavilion in Camden, N.J., who missed the entire song.

It was, however, only a minor distraction from what was otherwise another outstanding show by Steely Dan, which featured Steve Winwood as the opener (more on him later).

You know that old saying – made popular by those of us who grew up in the 1960s and 1970s – that “we got to see all the good bands.” Well, let the record show that we were right. And we’re fortunate that one of the good bands is still around for us to see today.

Walter Becker, right, grooves with the Steely Dan band.
(Photo by Mike Morsch)

For nearly two hours, Steely Dan did what it does, perform the music that it has made for nearly five decades – that great jazz rock, smooth groove, with a some funk and R&B thrown in. The Dan only toured for a few years in the early 1970s, then became mostly a studio-only band until hitting the road again in 1993. And it has been touring fairly regularly ever since.

The core members – Fagen and Becker – have remained the constants, and have surrounded themselves with a revolving cast of talented musicians and backing vocalists. “The Dan Who Knew Too Much Tour 2016” features a stellar lineup, what Becker called “the best Steely Dan band we’ve had in our careers.”

The setlist included all the hits and then some: “Black Cow,” “Hey Nineteen,” “Kid Charlemagne,” “Bodhisattva,” “Do it Again,” “Deacon Blues,” Josie” and “Peg” to name a few. The encore was “Pretzel Logic,” the title track from the 1974 album. Noticeably absent from the set was the band’s highest charting single, “Rikki Don’t Lose That Number,” which reached No. 4 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in 1974.

It was the first time I had seen Steely Dan live and the band did not disappoint. And it has been a particular pleasure to go back searching for the Dan’s vintage vinyl at record stores in an effort to revisit its early efforts and gain a further appreciation for what the band brought to that rich music scene of the 1970s.

I got exactly what I hoped for from my first Steely Dan concert. If there was a surprise during the evening – and surprise may not be the correct word given his career accomplishments – it was that the Steely Dan crowd was very much into Steve Winwood as well.

Steve Wijnrood, left, and his band take a bow after their set opening for Steely Dan.
(Photo by Mike Morsch)

Winwood, also surrounded by a group of stellar musicians, presented a nine-song set and received five standing ovations from the appreciative crowd.

Consider that for a moment. Nine songs, five standing ovations. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen an opening act get that amount of love and respect. Winwood has scheduled 22 dates with Steely Dan this summer.

His set included two songs from his days with the Spencer Davis Group – “I’m the Man” and “Gimme Some Lovin’”; three songs from his time with Traffic – “Pearly Queen,” “Low Spark of High Heeled Boys” and “Dear Mr. Fantasy”; and his No. 1 hit single, “Higher Love,” which topped the charts in 1986 and earned two Grammys for Record of the Year and Best Male Pop Vocal Performance.

“You’re in for a treat when Steely Dan comes out later on,” Winwood said to the adoring throng three songs into his set. “Until then, we’ve got some music for you.”

Boy did he ever.

What wasn’t a surprise, of course, was that an evening with Steve Winwood and Steely Dan was a few hours of high quality entertainment, musicianship and great music. It was a bucket-list kind of a night.

As an aside, I’m always hopeful for an unbilled walk-on at the shows I attend. Every once in a while, Bruce Springsteen will walk on to a Southside Johnny Show. Just recently, Billy Joel did a walk-on with the band Big Shot, which just happens to include several members of his touring band.

The night after the Steely Dan show, right next door to the BB&T Pavilion in Camden, N.J., the town’s Fourth of July celebration was to be headlined by Michael McDonald. In addition to a successful stint with the Doobie Brothers starting in 1976 and a subsequent and equally successful solo career throughout the 1980s and 1990s, McDonald was a member of Steely Dan’s touring group in 1974.

McDonald provided backing vocals on the Dan’s 1975 album “Katy Lied,” the 1976 album “The Royal Scam” and the 1977 album “Aja” (along with Timothy B. Schmit of Poco and the Eagles).

It would not have been out of the question – at least in my mind – that since McDonald was performing the next night 100 yards from the BB&T Pavilion, that maybe he might already be in town, make a guest appearance and lend his voice to some of the Steely Dan hits on which he contributed in the 1970s.

But it didn’t happen, which was OK. Steely Dan and Steve Winwood didn’t need any help giving us our money’s worth.

Peter Frampton: Ooh baby, we still love his way

By Mike Morsch

On June 15, 2016

In The Vinyl Dialogues Book

Peter Frampton performed June 14, 2016, at the Sands casino in Bethlehem, PA.
(Photo by Mike Morsch)

In a conversation with a newsroom colleague earlier this week, I mentioned that I was going to the Peter Frampton concert June 14 at the Sands Casino in Bethlehem, PA.

“Is it an acoustic show or a full band concert?” he asked.
“I don’t really know. I’ll have to check,” I said.

The question slipped my mind until later that evening. While sitting in the easy chair with the computer in my lap, I happened to be looking at Twitter and noticed some tweets from Frampton, whom I follow on that social network.

My experience with artists on Twitter has been mixed. I know, for example, that David Crosby and Howard Kaylan from the Turtles respond to tweets themselves and I have had exchanges with both. But I also know that many artists, like Brian Wilson and Al Jardine from the Beach Boys, Daryl Hall and John Oates, and Peter Beckett and Ronn Moss from the band Player, hire people to run their social networks because I worked directly with those folks.

The tweets I saw that evening by Peter Frampton suggested that it actually might actually be him doing the tweeting. Now I could have easily gone to his website to see if the Bethlehem concert was an acoustic or full band show, but I chose the lazy way out. Since I was already looking at Twitter, I thought I’d just ask Frampton himself.

So I typed “@peterframpton Is tomorrow night’s concert at the Sands Bethlehem an acoustic show?”

Here’s Peter Frampton still showing us the way.
(Photo by Mike Morsch)

Within a few minutes, I got a response: “Summer shows r w/my incredible band. Spring and fall are the RAW acoustic shows. Can you pass this on pls? Thx ;-).” That little thing at the end is a winking emoji.

“I think Peter Frampton just winked at me on Twitter,” I said to The Blonde Accountant, who was in the kitchen at the time.

“Did you wink back?” she asked.

Well . . . no, I didn’t. But as a chronicler of the stories behind the making of the music of the 1970s, I’m happy to pass along any pertinent concert information to my circle of music friends.

The show was a full band show, and it was the first time I had a chance to see Frampton live. Cross that one off the bucket list. Now all that remains on my Frampton Wish List is an opportunity to interview him for The Vinyl Dialogues series.

Of course, what I remember most fondly about his career was the “Frampton Comes Alive!” album, which is celebrating the 40th anniversary of its release this year. That’s one of the albums I grew up with in that glorious decade of music.

Band members and Frampton take a bow after the show. From left to right are Adam Lester, Paul Peterson, Frampton and Rob Arthur. Not pictured is drummer Dan Wojciechowski.
(Photo by Mike Morsch)

Who doesn’t love the hits off that album? I was 16 at the time, and my girlfriend loved to make out to Led Zeppelin’s “Stairway to Heaven.” I liked the making out part, but I hated that song. I thought Frampton’s “Baby, I Love Your Way” made a much better background for making out in 1976. Turned out I learned an early lesson on the advantages of compromising for the greater good.

Of course, those of us who grew up with his music in the 1970s recall Frampton’s long, curly blonde locks on the cover of “Frampton Comes Alive!” But the days of being one of the decade’s Hair Gods is gone for Frampton, as it is for many of us. That should be of no concern to him or us, though, as Frampton’s considerable artistic skills and musicianship have not receded in the least.

As for the Bethlehem show, it was vintage Frampton. Lots of guitar and lots of loud rock and roll. Right in his wheelhouse, and exactly what we came to see. And his band – Adam Lester on guitar; Paul Peterson on bass; Rob Arthur on keyboards; and Dan Wojciechowski on drugs – is superb.

I’m big on seeing artists sing their hits live, and we got “Baby, I Love Your Way,” “Show Me The Way” and “Do You Feel Like We Do,” along with the talk box effect that we all loved on the latter two singles.

But I also enjoyed the portion of the show where Frampton played three songs from his 2006 album “Fingerprints,” which won a Grammy for Best Pop Instrumental Album in 2007.

A lyric sheet of “Baby, I Love Your Way,” with Frampton’s signature in the lower righthand corner.
(Photo by Mike Morsch)

“I got a Grammy for the only album I made where I didn’t sing,” deadpanned Frampton.

In an evening filled with highlights, Frampton saved a really good one for the last encore song: “While My Guitar Gently Weeps,” written by George Harrison for the Beatles “White Album” in 1968. A few years later, a young Frampton would do session recording for Harrison’s first solo album, “All Things Must Pass” in 1970.

On this night – to the surprise of nobody I would guess – Frampton owned “While My Guitar Gently Weeps.” And that was very cool for those of us fortunate enough to witness it.

After the show, I stopped at the merch table. I’m in to signed posters now, so I always look to see if the artist has included those for purchase. There wasn’t a poster, but there was a signed lyric sheet of “Baby, I Love Your Way,” which I happily snapped up for the reasonable price of $25. A small price to pay for the fond memories of trying to control teenage hormones in 1976.

For anyone who doubted it, Frampton’s still alive. And he’s still showing us the way to a memorable evening of great music.

Marilyn McCoo and Billy Davis Jr. give a solid gold performance in Atlantic City

By Mike Morsch

On June 12, 2016

In The Vinyl Dialogues Book

Billy Davis Jr. and Marilyn McCoo performed all their hits June 11 at the Tropicana in Atlantic City.
(Photo by Mike Morsch)

Billy Davis Jr. and Marilyn McCoo admit that when one of their songs comes on the radio, they turn it up because they want to hear themselves.

“The problem is that we’re listening for mistakes,” said Davis. “Did he hit that note? He’s flat, what happened there? Even years later, we’re always critiquing. We’re always listening for something instead of just listening to be listening.”

If their show June 11 in Atlantic City is any indication, then they’re the only ones who can detect any of those hiccups. But for those of us who aren’t Marilyn McCoo or Billy Davis Jr., Saturday night’s performance wasn’t only flawless, it was spectacular.

Let me state right up front that if you’re looking for an unbiased review of the show, this isn’t the place. The following will be completely biased based on personal interaction during telephone interviews with Billy and Marilyn and from seeing them perform live for the first time.

(Photo by Mike Morsch)

Marilyn McCoo and Billy Davis Jr. are quite simply . . . outstanding in every aspect. Their voices, individually and together, are as good, if not better, than they were in the late 1960s and early 1970s with The 5th Dimension and later as a duo. Their stage presence – storytelling, showmanship, musicianship – are as entertaining and enjoyable as ever. They have surrounded themselves with a group of superb singers whom they call The Next Dimension and a group of highly talented musicians who give a freshness to their classic sound.

And to top it off, when one gets a chance to meet them in person, like The Blonde Accountant and I did Saturday night after the show, they are warm, friendly as as down to earth as any fan could hope.

They are the real deal, both professionally and personally. (See, I told you this was not going to be an unbiased review.)

I’ve had the privilege and pleasure to interview Marilyn and Billy on two occasions: The first was for a chapter in “The Vinyl Dialogues Volume II: Dropping the Needle” on the music and the making of their debut album as a duo, “I Hope We Get to Love in Time” from 1976. That album featured their hit single “You Don’t Have to Be A Star (To Be in My Show).”

(Photo by Mike Morsch)

The second interview was just recently, for an advance story on the Saturday show and about The 5th Dimension’s 1969 album “The Age of Aquarius,” which will be featured in a future volume of The Vinyl Dialogues series.

Saturday’s show included all the hits. I’ve always been big on personally sitting in the audience and hearing my favorite artists sing their hits live, those songs that made up the soundtrack of my life. And Billy and Marilyn obliged by opening the show with “Up, Up and Away” and closing it with “Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In.” In between, we were treated to other favorites like “Stoned Soul Picnic” and “Wedding Bell Blues.”

“Laura Nyro recorded and released ‘Wedding Bell Blues.’ And she wrote it about a guy named Bill in her life,” said McCoo of the Nyro version that was first recorded in 1966. “The song was a hit in California, but it didn’t do as well across the country. So when we were listening to material for our album (“Age of Aquarius”), Bones (5th Dimension producer Bones Howe) had suggested that I record it because Billy and I were going together at the time. He thought it would be a lark. So we said, ‘Why not? Sure,’ having no idea that it would ever be a single.”

Surprisingly – at least to me – was that the songs that first brought the audience members out of their seats were not those by The 5th Dimension or by Billy and Marilyn as a duo, but covers of other artists’ songs.

Marilyn knocked it out of the park with a solo on “Never My Love,” which was a hit for The Association in 1967; and Billy followed that up with a rousing solo on “McArthur Park,” written by Jimmy Webb (who also wrote “Up, Up and Away”). That’s the “someone left the cake out in the rain song,” and I have to admit, it’s never been a favorite of mine. But the performances on those two songs convinced me – as if I need any more convincing at this point – that Billy and Marilyn could sing names out of a phone book and make it sound spectacular.

The show also featured a musical tribute to the Beatles that combined a video about the civil rights movement that was especially poignant and pertinent in today’s world.

As guests of Marilyn and Billy for the show, The Blonde Accountant and I got the chance to hang around afterwards and meet them. And they were delightful. It was the perfect end to the evening, and we got a chance to get an autograph and have our pictures taken with them. Since I had previously written about the “I Hope We Get to Love in Time” album, that’s the one I got signed.

The concert was a sellout, and rightfully so. Billy and Marilyn hadn’t performed in Atlantic City in several years and their return to the East Coast was welcomed by the fans.

Our summer concert schedule is in full swing. We’ve already seen Boz Scaggs, Art Garfunkel and Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes. And we’ve got tickets for Peter Frampton, Bob Dylan, Hall & Oates, Steely Dan and Bruce Springsteen to fill out the rest of the summer.

But I wouldn’t be surprised if at the end of the year, when I look back on the shows we’ve seen, that the performance by Marilyn McCoo and Billy Davis Jr. in Atlantic City Saturday night isn’t right at the top of the list.

They are just that good.

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

Category: The Vinyl Dialogues Book Page 9 of 16

First Bruce Springsteen concert a perfect beginning . . . and maybe a perfect ending

Connecting Cher to the Lawrence Welk Show via ‘One Toke Over the Line’

My inaugural Dylan concert: It was Bob being Bob . . . with a little swagger and prancing

Hall & Oates concert delivers a few Philly surprises to the Philly faithful

Reelin’ in the Steely Dan experience, with an assist from Steve Winwood

Peter Frampton: Ooh baby, we still love his way

Marilyn McCoo and Billy Davis Jr. give a solid gold performance in Atlantic City