A Night With The Jersey Devil - A Halloween Treat From The Boss
October 31, 2008
Bruce Springsteen is offering a free audio download and streaming peek at the video for the previously unheard track “A Night with the Jersey Devil” on his website. Both audio and video will be available on the www.brucespringsteen.net from 12:01am Friday, October 31 until 11:59pm Sunday, November 2. The creepy video for “A Night with the Jersey Devil” was directed by long-time Springsteen visual-collaborator Thom Zimny.
Springsteen posted the following note on brucespringsteen.net:
“Dear Friends and Fans,
If you grew up in Central or South Jersey you grew up with the ‘Jersey Devil’. Here’s a little musical Halloween treat. Have fun!
Bruce Springsteen”
“A Night with the Jersey Devil” lyrics:
Hear me now!
I was born 13th child, ‘neath the 13th moon
Spit out all hungry and born anew
Daddy drag me to the river tie me in rocks
Throw me in where it’s deep and wide
I go down, I don’t die
Hole in the river bottom, I crawl through
Come back kill six brothers and sisters, kill papa too
Sway down Mama, sway down low
They gonna know me wherever I go
Into my bed with her kerosene my mama creep
Set my flesh to burning, whilst I sleep
I burn, burn, burn, till my soul burn black
Black rains fall, I come back, I come back
Get down Mama, get down low
They gonna know me wherever I go
16 witches, cast 16 spells
Make me a guitar outta skin and human skull
Sing you a song like the wind in the sandy loam
Bring you baby out your happy home
Ram’s head, forked tail, clove hoof, love’s my trail
I sup on your body, sip on your blood like wine
Out world theirs, this world mine
So kiss me baby till it hurts
God lost in heaven, we lost on earth
Sway down Mama, sway down low
They gonna know me wherever I go
Wherever I go, wherever I go
Well I got a brand new lover
I love her yes I do,
She’s my one and only and her name is Baby Blue…
When I look out my window, many sights to see
October 24, 2008
…and when I look in my window,
So many different people to be
That it’s strange, so strange.
You’ve got to pick up every stitch.
It must be the season of the witch.
Donovan - Season Of The Witch (1966)
Bloomfield, Kooper & Stills - Season of The Witch (1968)
Vanilla Fudge - Season Of The Witch (1968)
Dear Santa: All I Want For Christmas Is This $275,000 Record Collection
October 21, 2008
I know it’s not even Halloween yet but, the Neiman Marcus 2008 Christmas Book just came out and I don’t want you to click on this and have an “out of stock” message pop up in your shopping cart. You should know that I’ve been good — “way too good” — for more than three decades but, now I’m ready to rock.”
If your friends or family don’t love you enough to to buy you this incredible collection, you can literally cry in your beer about it. Surely somebody will care enough to get you the Authentic Guiness Home Pub. It’s the perfect pick for those with a budget of only $250,000 per gift.
Of course, if someone really wants to impress - why not go for the most expensive gift in this year’s Christmas Book: the “Three Chimney’s Thoroughbred Racing Package”. A steal at $10,000,000.
Romantic types should take note that the “His and Hers” Christmas Gifts have changed a wee bit since “back-in-the-day”. The 2008 Neiman-Marcus Christmas Book lists “Life Size LEGO Sculptures” for $60,000 each. The 1968 Christmas book listed “His and Hers Jaguars” - a Jaguar XKE for him and a Jaguar coat for her!
If you’re on a budget this year, you might consider the least expensive item in the book - NM Chocolate Chip Cookies for $24. Better yet, how about the Christmas Book itself? Only fifteen bucks!
Order the book aat 1-800-NEIMANS (634-6267) and see it online at www.neimanmarcus.com.
HIS AND HERS CHRISTMAS GIFTS 1960 - 2008
1960 Airplanes: His- Beechcraft Super G18 $149,000
Hers- Beechcraft Bonanza $27,000
1961 Ermine Bathrobes, pair $6,975
1962 Chinese Junk, each $11,500
1963 Submarine, each $18,700
1964 Balloons, each $6,850
1965 Para-Sail, each $361
Boat $1,994
1966 Bathtubs, set $4,000
1967 Camels, pair $4,125
1968 Jaguars: His- XKE Grand Touring Coupe $5,559
Hers- Jaguar Coat $5,975
1969 Vasarely Collection, pair $750
1970 Thunderbird Cars, pair $25,000
1971 Mummy Cases, pair $6,000
1972 Mannequins, each $3,000
1973 Greek Krater, pair $5,000
1974 Hovercrafts, each $3,640
1975 Dinosaur Safari, each $29,995
1976 Buffalo Calves, pair $11,750
1977 Windmills, each $16,000
1978 Natural Safety Deposit Boxes, each $90,000
1979 Dirigible, each $50,000
1980 Ostriches, each $1,500
1981 Robots, each $15,000
1982 Lasertour, each $20,000
1983 Chinese Shar-Pei Puppies, each $2,000
1984 Custom Wooden Steer or Horse Desk, each $65,000
1985 Diamonds, pair $2,000,000
1986 California Spangled Cat, each $1,400
1987 Day at the Circus, per couple $7,500
1988 Cloudhopper, each $18,000
1989 Quest for the West, each $12,585 -$121,407
1990 Portrait Chairpersons, each $6,000
1991 LTV Hummer $50,000
1992 Vintage Motorcycles, each $28,000-35,000
1993 Flarecraft, each $150,000
Baby Tyrannosaurus Rex, each $63,000
Triceratops, each $93,000
1994 BOB (Breathing Observation Bubble), each $7,500
1995 Name the United 777 Plane $177,732
1996 MacKenzie-Childs Airstream Trailer, each $195,000
1997 Windjet, each $32,600
1998 Cracker Jack Prizes: His- Cuff Links & Hers- Ring $400 & $950
1999 A Lasting Legacy: a gift to The Nature Conservancy $200,000
An Acre of Rainforest $35
2000 Rokkaku Kites, pair $2,000
2001 Radio City Rockettes and NY Knicks Fantasy Weekend, each $15,000
2002 Action Figures, each $7,500
2003 Robots- life-size & multifunctional, pair $400,000
2004 Bowling Center $1,450,000
2005 Photo Booth $20,000
2006 Twike Commuter Vehicles $40,000
2007 Chocolate Portrait by Vik Muniz $110,000
2008 Life Size LEGO® Sculptures, each $60,000
The Time Has Come Today
October 17, 2008
Think you’ve got it bad? First they find out they have no home, then they get crushed by the tumbling tide -and then their souls get psychedelicized - and they still were able to write a killer tune!
The Time Has Come Today - The Chambers Brothers
YES - It Matters: Jon Anderson In His Own Words
October 14, 2008
ClassicRockForever Exclusive: We take it for granted – or maybe forget – but hearing “Roundabout” on the radio in 1972 was a very big deal. People didn’t quite know what to make of it …especially when it was sandwiched between Donny Osmond’s “Puppy Love” and a Bobby Vinton song. There was a lot going on with that tune - and it didn’t fit into any particular music box. After the usual “classical meets rock” observations, chatter seemed to revolve around the same two things – the lyrics (“mountains coming out of the sky?”) and “that guy’s” voice.
The creative force of Jon Anderson and his distinctive voice was our companion as we moved from AM to FM and our record collections expanded from singles to albums. I can still hear the shrink-wrap pop and see the needle drop on Close To Edge for the first time in a dorm room filled with 19 year olds.
Fast forward 35 years and we’re all grown up – empty nesters maybe. We’ve been to more concerts in the past year than we’ve been to in the past ten. Most of the bands that really meant something to us are on tour, and damn it, we’re going to see them this time – because we might never get another chance to see them again. Bands like YES. Well, maybe.
The YES 40th Anniversary tour was cancelled this past summer after Jon Anderson was put out of commission and ordered to rest for six months due to a respiratory ailment. A few weeks later it was announced that there would be a tour after all. The “In The Present” tour would be kicking off in November –fronted by a singer who hailed from a YES tribute band – and discovered on YouTube. So we would have our chance to see YES in concert. Right?
Well, not according to “that voice”. Soon after the new lineup for the tour was announced, Jon Anderson had an announcement of his own: “This is not YES on tour”. He checked in with ClassicRockForever this week to help clear up some of the confusion and shed some light on the future.
ClassicRockForever (CRF) It’s been a couple of months since the news about your health – do you have any updates that you’d like to share?
Jon Anderson (JA) As for my health now, I truly feel reborn, it’s gonna take some months before I can do shows, but my dreams are coming true. I have so many blessings, my wonderful Angel Janee, my beautiful kids, friends and family and fans alike. Their words of love and kindness have touched me beyond belief - and I am so thankful to the Stanford Hospital here in Palo Alto for helping me through this part of my life journey and of course Divine Mother for shining Her light always.
(CRF) Here’s a recent quote from Chris Squire to Billboard.com: “Unfortunately Jon has had these health problems for the last few years, which is why it’s taken such a long time (since 2004) to have any YES shows out there. We’ve had to be very respectful of the fact he’s not been well and he’s been in and out of the hospital having quite a few major procedures. If Jon is well again next year, he’ll be back.” Do you see things the same way?
(JA) Like most people my age, I’m now 64 this month, the body/mind goes through so many changes. I feel that my health has always been strong enough for the band …up until 2004. There had been too many tours, too much friction from outside of the band. This had made it impossible to keep touring the way YES truly should - and with NO new music, a lack of passion for the music and each other, and no real promotion of who YES truly is, etc., things just looked so bleak. That’s why I suggested a break for 6 months, maybe do a progressive acoustic CD, and tour on a different style of touring, semi-acoustic for a while, and less shows per year…just for us to realize who we were. We were not communicating as a band should, both Rick and myself could see it happening, but sadly the others just wanted to keep going down that same touring spiral …that’s why YES hasn’t toured, it happens to the best.
(CRF) In the interim – where do your other passions lead you… to the School Of Rock?
(JA) Just very interesting times these days, musically, I’ve never felt more alive, working this last couple of years with (Paul Green’s) The School Of Rock opened my eyes, these young people- boys and girls, playing YES music ZAPPA music BEATLE music, with so much heart and love of it, so exciting. There will be new music; there will be modern music from these kids and others all over the world. Music is easy I say, it’s the business that’s tough and dangerous…$$$$$$ all around you…the big hustle to make stars and then what??? I’ve never bought into it…music is all too powerful.
There will always be great songs popping up here and there, and excellent artists to sing and play them…it has always been the case…
but vibrant MUSIC of the spheres, that’s what I need, that’s what I yearn to hear more clearly everyday… and to be part of that experience…thank the musical Gods for the young at heart.
(CRF) Maybe The School Of Rock could educate me about those mountains coming out of the sky – and just standing there.
(JA) “Roundabout” was written on the way back from a gig; in Northern Scotland, we were heading for Glasgow to do a final show, then home to London, there must have been a dozen or so ’roundabout’s’ on that winding road…. the mountains left and right of the road went vertically up into the sky…with low lying thick clouds…so the mountains just disappeared up into the sky. So in some ways it was about traveling, doing gigs, getting home, 24 (hours) before my love, ”I’ll be there with you”…originally 8 minutes long. In those far off days, we just wrote until we finished, checked the time of the song later.
It was a shock when we heard the song on the radio for the first time…that ‘edit’ was so bad, so unmusical, but man, we got radio. Touring in those days was very special, we were young and very reserved, very into music, and I was wondering why me all the time, why? Would YES become famous and have a hit record even? Damn we were so lucky and I always impressed on the band how lucky we were.
(CRF) Close To The Edge really was a “listening event” in its own right. Still is.
(JA) Steve Howe and myself were always writing songs and ideas, we were very close at that time, that’s how the Close To The Edge time came. I was listening to the composer Jean Sibelius a heck of lot on tour, while reading Lord Of The Rings…. so I suggested we try some extended works…. it was a musical breakthrough on so many levels…the CD still sounds great…but to perform Close To The Edge on stage…wow…what a trip…with the staging, dry ice, we created a whole different musical world for us and the people who came to see us.
One of the amazing things about surviving 35/40 years, is you can revisit music written 25/30 years ago, as we did over the last 10 years of our touring, until 2004, just to perform “Gates Of Delirium”, and ”Revealing”, even ”Ritual” and Close To The Edge, sometimes with full orchestra or just the band playing, and realize that this music has a very special place in modern rock music. Call it what you will, but it still is wonderful to perform and worth all the toil, sweat and at times frustration.
YES — Maybe
It seems that sites like YouTube and MySpace are the new temp agencies for legendary bands heading out on tour without a lead vocalist. First Boston and Journey, now YES. Rock concerts are once again becoming the perfect entertainment prescription for BabyBoomers. However, when it comes to Classic Rock, a generic doesn’t always “work like its brand name equivalent in dosage, strength and performance.”
Regarding the upcoming YES tour (starting November 4th), we’ll know how it shakes out soon enough. And the future? Just ask “that voice” for the definitive answer.
(Jon Anderson) “YES music is and always will be worth performing and listening to, and I feel very proud to have been a part of it. Hopefully we will get back together and perform in the coming years, I truly hope so, the fans deserve it, and so do we. As Rumi says, ‘We have fallen into a place where everything is music’.”
Copyright 2008 ClassicRockForever
Ringo: “I’m Warning You With Peace And Love - No More Fan Mail”
October 13, 2008
Oh My My. He’s “got too much to do” according to this latest video update. However, there is a silver lining for distraught fans but, it don’t come easy. The photo contest on the Ringo Starr official site asks “Have you been coveting your picture of Ringo and his All-Star Starr band captured from the recent All-Star tour? Ringo wants YOU, his loyal fans, to submit photos taken from his 2008 All-Star tour. Ringo will hand pick his favorite photo to be featured on his official website, Ringostarr.com. The lucky winner will also go home with a Ringo Starr Autographed Drumhead!”.
Peace and love. Peace and love.
“Life On Mars” - It’s 1973 All Over Again On New ABC TV Drama
October 9, 2008
You’re a New York detective who wakes up after a car accident to find yourself transported back to 1973. What should you do? We’d try and find Frank Serpico. However, we’re looking forward to seeing how Sam Tyler (Jason O’Mara) handles the situation. Everything points to this new series being a “must see” for BabyBoomers and especially Classic Rock fans. In addition to powerhouse talent like Harvey Keitel, Gretchen Mol and Michael Imperioli rounding out the cast - the music of the era seems to have a starring role of its own starting with the title itself:
David Bowie’s “Life On Mars”
We’re hoping that reviewers using phrases like “Disco Lives” are wrong about the music used in the show. Granted the first disco record came out about then but, the Saturday Night Fever craze didn’t really kick in until late seventies. However, if “Life On Mars” is anything like the BBC series it’s based on, the show will definitely rock. We’ll let’s find out. “Life On Mars” airs Thursdays at 10/9C.
The Guess Who - Share The Land”
October 7, 2008
“Smilin’, laughin’, diggin’ each other.
Everybody happy together”
Yep, that’s us.
The Guess Who - Share The Land (1970)
Three Exhibitions And Three Rock-Based Itineraries To Discover Montréal
October 7, 2008
To officially kick off the 2008 fall season, Tourisme Montréal is offering visitors the chance to maximize Montréal experience with three exciting new exhibitions that explore the influence of rock music on art. Visitors will also have access to podcasts and rock-themed itineraries to make the most of these exhibitions and their stay in Montréal.
“This fall, Montréal will be rocked by rock music! And what better city than Montréal, renowned worldwide for its vibrant cultural scene, to feature exhibitions that explore the union between pop rock and art?” underscored Charles Lapointe, President and Chief Executive Officer of Tourisme Montréal. “This is the very first time that three concurrent exhibitions have been designed around the same theme, so we came up with three tailor-made itineraries to help visitors maximize their Montréal experience.”
Montréal: The Art of Rock
For the first time in the historiography of the works of Andy Warhol (1928-1987), the Warhol Live exhibition and event will be presented from September 25 to January 18 at the Montréal Museum of Fine Arts (www.mmfa.qc.ca ). This unique presentation will explore the fundamental and ever-present role of music and dance in the work and life of the artist.
From October 9 to January 11, the Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal (www.macm.org ) will be presenting the electrifying Sympathy for the Devil: Art and Rock and Roll since 1967. The exhibition will examine the history of the relationship between avant-garde art and rock music over the past 40 years.
At the Foundation for Contemporary Art (www.dhc-art.org ), the exhibition REPLAY, by Christian Marclay, will be presented from November 30 to March 29. This North American premiere will explore the fusion of fine art and audio cultures, transforming sound and music into visible, physical form through performance, collage, sculpture installation, photography and video.
The theme-based itineraries will feature dining and shopping suggestions as well as attractions of interest, and will be available in the form of podcasts or printable programs which visitors can download from Tourisme Montréal’s Web site at www.tourisme-montreal.org . As of early October, visitors can start discovering the many faces of Montréal: in its soft rock, hard rock or pop art forms!
Other activities and events are planned to round out the fall and winter line-up. For more information, visitors are invited to log on to www.tourisme-montreal.org or call 1-877-BONJOUR.
The Sweet Deal Package: no better way to book a stay in Montréal!
Three exhibitions, three fun-filled days and a Sweet Deal Package designed to maximize visitor experience. When travellers book a stay in Montréal under the fall and winter Sweet Deal Package, they are entitled to half off the regular price of their second night at participating hotels. First night rates start at $127 for a three-star hotel, $145 for a four-star hotel and $179 for a five-star hotel. Visitors who book a Sweet Deal Package at one of the 25 participating hotels will receive a gift valued at $20 upon arrival at their hotel, courtesy of Tourisme Montréal and Fruits & Passion. Some hotels will also be offering breakfast or room upgrades in addition to the gift. The list of participating hotels and applicable rates is regularly updated on the Sweet Deal Web site at www.sweetdealmontreal.com
For consumer information call 1-877-BONJOUR
Bob Dylan’s “Tell Tale Signs”
October 7, 2008
With every new Bob Dylan record comes five-zillion critiques by experts out to top each other with their personal in-depth analysis. Are we allowed to simply enjoy Dylan’s tunes without turning the experience into music appreciation class?
As BabyBoomers reconnect with the artists they grew up with, they are also discovering music they completely missed. As impossible as it may seem, there are plenty of folks who love and respect the music, the man and the history - but can’t name any of Bob Dylan’s tunes after “Hurricane”. Oh, and something about Dylan being one of the Traveling Wilburys. As much as they didn’t want to, many boomers lost touch with “their’ music.
They’re back now and they want to know what they missed. They’ve got the time to dig a little deeper into the archives, listen a little longer and pick up where they left off. For those who can relate to this scenario, “Tell Tale Signs - The Bootleg Series Vol. 8” is a great place to begin connecting again. For many, it’s better than starting with a greatest hits compilation.
You might have heard about Dylan’s “creative rebirth” in the late 80’s and never actually had the opportunity to hear - let alone judge for yourself - the results… until now. Normally, a collection described as a combination of “Alternate Takes”” and “Unreleased Recordings” would sound like it’s way too much work to get into. However, this is different – there’s a comfort level here – an understanding between the artist and the fan. You can almost imagine a rejuvenated Dylan jumping into the passenger seat; popping a CD in - and asking you – yes you - to pick the best tracks. “Gee, Bob …they’re ALL good - you choose”. Well, I can’t imagine that either. After all, we’re talking about one of the most influential musical artists – ever. But, you never know.
There are two ways to listen to Tell Tale Signs. You could approach it like you’re prepping for a term paper as you “compare and contrast”. Or use it as a vehicle to start exploring and enjoying “your” music again. “Tell Tale Signs – The Bootleg Series Vol. 8” is a great way to get back on the bus. Better late than never.