Music Before the Money

This review is by Dave Downs

If you and your angelic sweetie are in the throws of planning that pivotal “Walk Down The Aisle” you’ll want to avoid Track 5 of Susan Elizabeth’s new album,  Wine and Cigarettes. In it, as our hero is “silently walking to my doom,” she recalls: “I thought of your name in calligraphy etched on the invitation/ Leaving a hole in my heart in the middle of my celebration… We got married.”

But if you do avoid that little tune, you’ll also miss out on a wonderful album.

With Wine and Cigarettes Susan Elizabeth joins the ranks of the classical troubadours of the broken heart; strong but wounded, battered but still standing. There’s lovely piano work here, in this occasionally jazzy/fast-folky/poppy collection of tales of woe. The acoustic guitar work is catchy and fun. The vocal arrangements and over-dubbing are at times breathtaking.

Susan Elizabeth, though young, does not strain too hard trying to sound like someone else. Her voice, like her words, is honest and hits the mark.

Susan Elizabeth has been around the block. Her previous band, Paige 23, found their songs placed in TV shows like “Ed” and “Medium.” Her bio likens Susan Elizabeth to the acerbic Alanis Morissette>

“One day you woke up wanting more/And I wanted less….”

“The Excitement Before,” a sparse and captivating tune featuring little more than Susan Elizabeth’s voice and a driving acoustic guitar, shows the maturity of a young writer, adroitly describing that all-too-familiar realization that anticipating a life-altering event is sometimes far more memorable than the event itself.

Susan Elizabeth has the most fun in this album with a catchy little thing called, “Jones For This.” Still a tale of woe but with tongue in cheek, it features a wonderful piano, a hip-hop/jazz-hybrid rhythm, a fantastic, if all-too-brief bridge, and very sexy vocals.

Sure, I’d love it if Susan Elizabeth lightened up a bit more. Maybe sing a little ditty about how great everything is. But even if she doesn’t, I’ll still listen. In fact, I can’t wait for more.

I saw Davey Johnstone with Elton John’s Goodbye Yellow Brick Road tour in September 1973. He was hard to miss.  With long blonde hair he had an aura of invincibility as he walked his part of the stage, his guitar complementing everything Elton John sang or played until he was called on to pound out a solo of his own.

After playing most of his hits a young Elton John said, “We’re going to play some songs from our new album.” The first part of Funeral for a Friend was recorded, with Elton coming in on the piano after the orchestral parts ended. Johnstone played eerie notes over top of the piano and then took over the song with blistering lead lines, bringing the song into Love Lies Bleeding.

To follow a man like Elton John takes an incredible musician. Dee Murray on bass and the great Nigel Olsen on drums were basically the only sidemen in Elton’s band at the time.  Johnstone had to fill a lot of empty space with rich background, a talent that is lost as synthesizers fill almost every void now.

Although the Scottish-born Johnstone joined Elton John in 1972 he was a founding member of Magna Carta and had contributed to two albums before meeting EJ.  During his 1973  tour with the great piano man Johnstone recorded a solo album, Smiling Face, and another in 1977.  He still records and produces, having composed over 60 songs with his writing partner Steve Trudell. He evn joins up with Sir Elton and plays short tours.

(Photo by Gloria Ubardelli)

Everyone who has danced to 1950’s music has heard the rollicking Chantilly Lace with it’s singer belting out the tune as an auctioneer would sell his wares. Disk jockey and songwriter, J.P. Richardson, “The Big Bopper,” rose to national prominence with this anthem and earned him a place on the Winter Dance Party of January-February 1959. This tour also featured Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and Dion and the Belmonts. Because he was sick Richardson agreed to pay $36 to fly with Holly rather than suffer through another night on the cold bus.  It is now rock-and-roll legend that Richardson died in a crash in an Iowa cornfield with Buddy Holly and Valens.

However, little is mentioned of Richardson and he is mainly treated as a novelty act by the music mainstream; the “one-hit-wonder” who got killed with Buddy Holly. In fact, if he hadn’t died with such auspicious company his name would be bandied around as much as, say, Cannibal and the Head Hunters, the act that did Land of a Thousand Dances, or other barely-known acts of the past.

Jiles Perry Richardson Jr. was hardly a spring-chicken when he died, he was 29.  A competent radio announcer with KTRM in Houston, Texas, Richardson called himself the “Big Bopper” after a dance that the college kids were doing called “The Bop.” Later that year, 1957, he became the program director for the station and launched public relations stunt for continuous on-air announcing. Richardson was on the mike for 5 days, 2 hours and 8 minutes where he played 1,827 records. His bathroom breaks and short showers were done during the commercial breaks.

His recording career was short but included Chantilly Lace and a sequel called The Big Bopper’s Wedding. Not only that Richardson wrote the #1 hit for George Jones called White Lightning and Running Bear for Johnny Preston. Both songs are country standards today just like the hits are in the 1950’s genre. At the time of his death he had built a recording studio at his house and had 20 songs ready to go. So, based on that evidence J.P. would have been a major force in the recording business just like his plane-mates were at the time of the crash.

His son, Jay Perry Richard had heard rumors that his dad never died right away, and that a gun was fired in the airplane. In January 2007 he had an autopsy performed on his father’s exhumed body and it was shown that his father had died on impact.

The Big Bopper’s corpse was well-preserved and dressed in a black suit with a blue-and-gray striped tie.  He wore  socks but no shoes and his distinctive brown hair was still in a 1950’s flat-top. The body was placed in a new casket and, since the old casket was in good shape, JP jr. gave it to the Texas Musician’s Museum for their display along with a replica of the guitar-shaped wreath sent by Elvis Presley.

This viewing was the first time JP jr. ever saw his dad as he was born two months after the crash.

This year the casket will go up for sale on Ebay to raise money for the Museum. Rock critics agree this is the most macabre piece of rock history to ever go on the auction block.

The 2009 Concerts at Sea aboard the MSC Orchestra was an amazing way to see some of the greatest entertainers in rock history take the stage and, as well, come down and mingle with the audience. A cruise ship adds this dimension because, in reality, the groups have meals, party and lie out in the sun with the guests. This year 750 fans got to meet the rockers, discuss rock and roll history and get autographs, all in a relaxed atmosphere.

This year the lineup was Paul Revere and the Raiders, Jan and Dean, Bobby Vee, The Guess Who and the Original Bill Haley Comets. As well, there were radio personalities, an Elvis impersonator (Stacey Wayne) and a house band, the Chancellors. Now how cool is that? Anyway, here is what we did every day:

Saturday:  Ft. Lauderdale & At Sea

• 9:00 pm – Welcome and orientation
• 9:30pm  – Chancellors/Stacey Wayne

Sunday:  At Sea

• 9:00am – Jack and Wayne’s morning show.
• 10:00am – Questions to the stars (2 hours:
• 1:30pm – Concert -  Paul Revere and the Raiders
• 9:00pm – Chancellors/Stacey Wayne/Hit Maker’s Dance Party with Jim and Steve

Monday:  Dominican Republic

• 9:00  – Dominican Republic Tours
• 7:30pm  – Bobby Vee and the Vees
• 9:00pm – Dance Lessons
• 10:00pm – Radio  KEYN, KOMA Radio get-together/Hit Maker’s Dance Party with Jim and Steve

Tuesday:  St. Maartens

• 8:00 – Jack and Wayne’s morning show.
• 10:00am – Dance Lessons
• 11:00am – Trivia Contest
• 1:45pm – St. Maareten Tours
• 9:00pm – Hosted cocktail partysin two lounges featuring Mike and Harvey’s Super Gold Sock Hep

Wednesday:  Antigua

• 8:00 – Antigua Tours
• 4:00 – Jimmy Jay’s (RewindShow.com) Game Show
• 7:30 – Jan and Dean
• 10:00pm – Chancellors/Stacey Wayne
• 10:00pm – Hitmaker’s Dance Party

Thursday:  At Sea

• 8:00am – Jack and Wayne’s morning show.
• 10:00 – Dance Lessons
• 11:00 – Trivia with Jack and Wayne
• 2:30pm – The Guess Who
• 8:00pm – Autograph Sessions – All bands and personalities
• 9:00pm – Chancellors Jam Session
• 9:00pm – Hit Maker’s Dance Party with Jim and Steve

Friday:  Nassau

• 10:00 – Bill Haley’s Comets
• 2:30 – Tours of Nassau
• 9:00pm – Chancellors/Stacey Wayne
• 10:00pm – Hit Maker’s Dance Party with Jim and Steve

Saturday:  Ft. Lauderdale

I know I’m ready t go again next year with th Association, The Drifters, Paul Revere and the Raiders and Bill Medley’s Righteous Brothers.

It’s not everyone who gets a chance to see Paul McCartney live . . especially free. But Sir Paul is going to be playing a free concert to celebrate the 400th anniversary of the founding of Quebec City and, in effect, the French in North America. This should be a great event, right? Well to 99% of the population in Quebec it is. But to 1% who claimed they are separatists, it is a great faux pas. Why? Because they are separatists and hate everything about Canada except their government cheques.

Poor Macca. He can’t come to Canada without stepping into it: baby seals; his wife, Heather; and now the idiots who still think Quebec should be a country. So who represents these malcontents (who now could have their meetings in a phone booth)? well, our wonderful journalists do not pick a politician geared to separatism. Even they like Macca. They pick out some aging long-hair (dyed) who attributes the old Beatle to colonial England 250 years ago.

The poor soul still hangs onto the fact that The Battle of Quebec in 1759 was a devious English plot which forever enslaved French-speaking people. Actually, it was brilliant manuevre where a small party of well-trained British soldiers hauled themselves up a bluff in the middle of the night and marched onto the Plains of Abraham outside the walls of Quebec City. The French under General Montcalm, with a much larger force, had the time to make formations confronting the British. However, just like any confrontation on the field between the French and English (before Napoleon) the French and their colonial allies had neither the musketry skills nor the determination for full-frontal (brutal) warfare and their ranks disintegrated and their general died on his horse.

The British captured Quebec but after suffering a long bout of defeats like Fort William Henry and other battles. There is no question about the bravery of the French. However, their own King deserted them by not resupplying them with soldiers and supplies. Until this battle Montcalm had brilliantly out-generaled the best British had to offer. This is partly why General Wolfe beat him – Montcalm thought the British had no one who could make the soldiers scale the cliffs.

Now the British were not charitable. They did ethic cleansing in Nova Scotia, taking out the French families and sending the southward. But they did let the Quebeckers keep their language and religion – quite a liberal thing at the time. This is why this idiot has free speech and government benefits for the flag he spits on.

So why are these idiots blaming the Macca for something that happened all those years ago and why is the media even printing their ravings? Because they live in a country that tolerates it.

And I’m very jealous of the ones who will hear the Beatle in a free concert.