Ray Manzarek told me that he was dying. He had an incurable disease, he said in an email dated April 2nd. “I’m hoping that was a belated April Fools joke,” I replied.
Before Frank Ocean, Trey Songz and Cee-Lo; before R. Kelly, Maxwell and Usher, and before Luther Vandross, Teddy Pendergrass, Harold Melvin and Al Green, there was Marvin Gaye. Sure, there were soulful balladeers before and with him (think Smokey, Otis and Stevie; Ray Charles and Donny Hathaway).
It’s not a sexy, round-number anniversary, but I bet Deadheads know that July 9 was the date of the last Grateful Dead concert with Jerry Garcia. That was in 1995, at Soldier Field in Chicago. With the surviving Dead having celebrated a 50th anniversary with a farewell tour—and then a return of most of them, as Dead & Company—they continue to be in the news.
The weight of the passing of Slayer guitarist Jeff Hanneman may be unfelt to those without the passion for thrashin’. But for those with the passion, it is collectively understood that a metal legend is gone.
Call it a Maccathon.
Whenever Paul McCartney does a concert these days, he’s in for the long haul, and the haul includes five decades of iconic hits, discoveries of other worthy tunes, and massive doses of charm.
McCartney likes to perform, and he aims to please.
Think Paul McCartney’s a medical and musical phenomenon, performing at full-tilt, these days and nights, at age 71?
Summertime, and it’s easy, musically, to float over to the music of the Beach Boys, who were all about the California sun, about surfin’ and cruisin’ and being true to your school – except in summer, of course, when it’s time for fun, fun, fun.
In the early 2000’s, I had two occasions to attend South by Southwest, the music conferences that takes place in—and takes over—Austin every year. I was on a panel one year, then did an onstage interview with The Band’s Robbie Robertson a year or two later.
To play the Hollywood Bowl. For any musician, that has to be a career highlight. The Doors performed in that revered venue in 1968, and Ray Manzarek, in his interview for Qello Concerts, articulated the import of such an occasion.
I have a friend who likes Paul Simon. Check that. “I LOVE Paul Simon!” she’ll exclaim whenever we talk about music.
Simon was the genius half of Simon and Garfunkel. He wrote all those great songs, helped arrange them, and sang half of them. And it was Paul, not Art, who went on to a prolific solo career.