Lately, Fusion 45 has been treated a little bit like a young tree in the corner of the backyard. Now going on 3 years old, it’s somewhat mature and strong but not yet ready to be left alone. Unfortunately, the bushes on the other side of the yard — i.e., my new job, the kid’s [...]
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I feel a strange mix of sadness and relief at the death of Michael Jackson. It’s sad to see a man die prematurely, whether he’s an international star or the guy next door. But, much sadder is the fact Michael Jackson would never have regained the respect of popular culture had he lived 100 years.Two [...]
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For most American teenagers, turning on to Electric Light Orchestra in 1975 was just about right on time. Even though they’d put out four albums previously, it wasn’t until Face The Music that most of us has even heard of them.Of course, it was Evil Woman that caught our attention. That huge orchestral chord, Jeff [...]
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You Are So Beautiful is the first song I recall hearing by Joe Cocker.I remember visiting my sister and (future) brother-in-law when they were living in Fredonia, NY, in a trailer park across the road from Lake Erie. They had rented themselves a “doublewide,†she was just beginning her teaching career and they sometimes offered [...]
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You’ve Made Me So Very Happy was one of the first singles I remember owning. Like all the singles Columbia made through the 60’s and 70’s, the vinyl was pretty darn soft so the song turned scratchy within a few spins. (I remember doing radio in the late 70’s and early 80’s, when we still [...]
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One of the earliest concerts in my repertoire was Three Dog Night at the Chemung (N.Y.) County Fair, sometime in the neighborhood of 1975. I had yet to know cool from corny but, at 13, thought I was getting there, sitting in the stands with my parents, who had cotton in their ears. Yeah, I [...]
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I had the pleasure — and I sincerely mean, pleasure — of meeting Johnny Cougar Mellencamp back in 1983 (or thereabouts) when he was touring behind American Fool. He was just starting to be huge at the time, touring as an opener for Heart. (I got to meet Nancy Wilson, too, which was a darn [...]
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I’ve been doing a series of vignettes for CBS Radio called “1000 Things About 100 Songs You’ve Heard 1,000,000 Timesâ€. (Yes, I’ve copyrighted that.)Cut a couple this week that have me thinking in a summer way. So here are the songs and samples of “1000 Thingsâ€.1000 Things About My GirlThe Temptations - My Girl1000 Things [...]
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Some years ago, my friend Matt Rubenstein made this comment about Santana in concert: on a good day, he’s transcendent. On a bad day, he’s simply amazing.The same can be said about Elvis Costello records. Some of his musical adventures have been groundbreaking (My Aim Is True), some have been adventurous (The Juliet Letters) and [...]
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Presuming the word “fan†to be short for “fanatic,†Dave Matthews would not qualify as one of whom I am a fan. I like his stuff well enough, don’t mind listening to him but would hardly spend my summer following him around the country. (Actually, there isn’t anyone I’d follow around the country except for [...]
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