Music Before the Money

Forty years ago today, on January 30th, 1969, the Beatles went on the roof of their Apple offices and played their last concert. The playing was not leaked to anyone and the world found out gradually as the music drifted out over the London suburb. However, the Metropolitan Police cut the Beatles off later on by shutting off the building’s power. One of the policeman said many years later that if he and his mates would have thought it out better they would have defied their superiors and let the band play.

Billy Preston, then a respected sideman in the industry joined them for this performance. The set list included Get Back, Don’t Let Me Down, I’ve Got A Feeling, One After 909, Dig A Pony, and, believe it or not, God Save The Queen. This version later was put on on a German bootleg record. The second engineer was a young Alan Parsons.

The forty-two minutes on the roof appeared in the Let It Be film and parts of the Let It Be album. At the end of their session Paul waves to Ringo’s wife, Maureen, who was waving and cheering enthusiastically and says “Thanks, Mo!”

But the most popular phrase from the day was made by John. “I’d like to say ‘thank you’ on behalf of the group and ourselves and I hope we passed the audition!”

Today, another British group, a tribute band called Bootleg Beatles were supposed to play up on the roof as an anniversary tribute but were not given permission. As of this writing sources have confirmed that someone was up there playing for a while. Maybe it was them!

If I was asked about Bobby Vee a scant month ago I would have answered that he was one of the 1950′-’60’s teen idols, one of the “Bobbies”: Bobby Vee, Bobby Vinton, Bobby Rydell, Bobby Curtola, Bobby Darin etc. I really couldn’t have rhymed off a song he did but I knew he was a big star back then.

Last week I saw Bobby Vee and the Vees, a band made up of Bobby, his two kids, a keyboard player and guitarist. As with the Comets I couldn’t believe the show. Mr. Vee and his band were first-rate. From Take Good Care of My Baby to The Night Has a Thousand Eyes Bobby tuned the radio dial back almost a half century.

Born on April 30, 1943 Bobby Velline was not yet 16 years-old when Buddy Holly died in a plane crash outside Clear Lake, Iowa on Feb.3, 1959 along with three other members of the “Winter Dance Party,” Richie Valens and J.P. Richardson, AKA the Big Bopper.

Velline and a band of amateurs from Fargo, North Dakota calling themselves The Shadows volunteered to fill in for the next show in Moorhead, Minnesota. Half expecting to be  booed off the stage the mourning fans were wildly enthusiastic and that kick-started Vee’s career. (In fact next week Bobby Vee will headline the week of remembrance at a 50th anniversary string of concerts  at the original Arctic Club in Clear Lake marking this solemn event.) In 1960 his record company released Rubber Ball and Vee became an international star.

Vee’s son, Tommy, played the upright bass like a man possessed. In some bands family members are there for the ride. This was not the case with the Vees. Tommy Vee played the bass with his teeth, rode it like a horse and played it behind his back bringing the crowd to thunderous ovations while brother Jeff handled the drumming like the pro he is.

Bobby Vee belted out hit after hit while telling bits of a storied history that made us all believed that we his personal friends. Later this relationship was cemented as he signed autographs and reminisced with his fans. But the encore produced a surprise when he invited Tommy’s little kids up on stage and his 7 year-old, Liam, drummed with Uncle Jeff.

Schmaltzy? Maybe, but that’s what we were there for. And Bobby Vee mingled with his adoring crowds in a manner not seen anymore. And we all wish him the best next week when he goes back to “the day the music died.” And as he said that night, “But it never really, did it?”

It just doesn’t get any better than watching some of the very first rock and rollers strut their stuff the way they did 55 years ago. Bill Haley’s remaining three Comets gave a commanding performance on January 23rd, a concert that had the whole crowd dancing at their seats.

Bassman Marshall Lytle, saxman Joey Ambrose and drummer, Dick Richards of the original Comets were joined by a guitar player and keyboardist as they plowed through their 1950’s hits including Shake, Rattle and Roll, See You Later Alligator and, of course, Rock Around the Clock, the first anti-establishment anthem of youth and the theme song for the movie Blackboard Jungle.

However, these three only stayed with Haley until 1955. As Lytle remembers, “After we had a few hits we were playing in big places to sold-out crowds. So we asked Bill for a $50 a week raise. Well, you’d think we were asking for $1,000 the way he carried on so we quit and started our own band. But we didn’t get that popular.” Haley carried on with the other Comets until 1964 and revamped the group in the 1970’s. Haley died in 1981.

Marshall Lytle on Bass

“We never saw each for about 30 years,” Lytle remembers, “until we were invited to receive an award on behalf of the Comets. Right then we knew we had to start the band again!”

What we all were expecting from three golden-agers was a couple of sets being carried by sidemen. What we got from Lytle and Ambrose, both 75, was an action-packed and humorous stage show worthy of musicians half their age. But the show-stopper was from Dick Richards, the drummer. At almost 85 years-old Richards wowed the audience with a 10 minute drum solo worthy of Gene Krupa. After he had finished Lytle exclaimed, “Dick Richards, the best drummer . . . in our band!”

85 Year-Old Dick Richards

The Ambrose played a great sax solo as he weaved through the audience. But it was Lytle who did the best acrobatics, playing his upright bass like a guitar and behind his head. Then he rode it like a motorcycle while plunking the strings.

So where are the Comets going next? “For some reason,” Lytle said, “the people in England and Europe like us so we have bunch of shows over there.”

And then with a twinkle in his eye Lyle pointed to the concert in 2024 – Richards 100th birthday!

“I was cruisin’ in my Stingray late one night
When an XKE pulled up on the right,
And rolled down the window of his shiny new Jag
And challenged me then and there to a drag “

– Dead Man’s Curve - Jan and Dean

The Jan and Dean Show: featuring Dean Torrence is without Jan Berry because he died in 2004. However, the 7-man group headed by Torrence gives an outstanding vocal performance of both Jan and Dean songs and ones by their friends, The Beach Boys. They begin their show with Do It Again, a Beach Boys standard with lots of “do-do-does” in layered harmonies and a hammering drumbeat during the groove.

While Torrence hands off most of the singing duties to his bandmates, his stage presence and talks between songs lets everyone know that he is one of the inventors of the “California Sound.”

He explained that he and Berry were just a couple of college friends wanting to meet girls so they recorded a song on a home tape recorder (but one that belonged to Howard Hughes because Jan’s father worked for “the big guy”). He explained, “Since tape was sort of wimpy Jan went down to a local studio to have it put down on an acetate disk so that the girls at an upcoming party would see we were somebody . . . when actually we weren’t.” The disk cost $15 and when Berry was finished a local producer offered him a record deal. Torrence, who was up in the mountains skiing at the time, was used to being tricked by Berry and wasn’t convinced until he heard Jennie Lee on the radio.

In the show, the mix of Beach Boys and Jan and Dean songs demonstrated the closeness of Brian Wilson and Jan Berry, who were the driving forces behind the surf music of the time and who also later shrived to rid themselves of the mantle. Their biggest collaboration was Surf City.

Jan Berry was almost killed when his Corvette Stingray hit a parked truck not far from Dead Man’s Curve.  It took a long recovery period before he was able to join Torrence again but, by that time, they had been passed by other music styles. Torrence now has a thriving graphic design business, one he started in the late 1960’s by designing album covers for groups such as Chicago.

In all the show was a fabulous step back to the pre-Vietnam War-era when the transistor radio and a ride to the beach were the keys to a summer of fun. And all I had to do was to look around at the faces to see who remembered what that felt like. But the key to the whole performance was that the kids got it too.

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.