Listening Room Blog

It seems we’ve been doing a lot of these obituary posts lately. But the truth is we’ve lost some great music legends recently, from Davy Jones and Earl Scruggs, to Ronnie Montrose and Dick Clark. Now comes word that Levon Helm died at the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center after a long bout with the disease.

Helm is as legendary a musician as you will find. He made his name as drummer and vocalist for The Band, but remained immersed in music in later years, including with the Levon Helm Band. I saw him briefly with Ringo Starr a few years back, and he still sounded pretty good. His death leaves Robbie Robertson and Garth Hudson as the only surviving members of The Band, one of rock’s most heralded groups.

Anyway, our sister paper, The Poughkeepsie Journal, did a great job in their tribute piece today. Here’s their article on Helm’s death:

Musician Levon Helm of Woodstock, a Grammy-winning member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame who played Madison Square Garden, Radio City Music Hall and Wembley Stadium in London, but found some of his biggest success staging house concerts in his Hudson Valley home, has died. He was 71.

“He went peacefully,” said Larry Campbell, a part-time Hudson Valley resident who was music director of the Levon Helm Band. “He was surrounded by friends and band mates and family.”

Helm died of cancer at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in Manhattan.

“Levon Helm passed peacefully this afternoon,” read a message posted on www.levonhelm.com. ” He was surrounded by family, friends and band mates and will be remembered by all he touched as a brilliant musician and a beautiful soul.”

His family announced Tuesday that he was “in the final stages of his battle with cancer.”

“I don’t think,” said musician David Kraai of Gardiner, who saw Helm perform dozens of times, “I’ve ever seen anyone happier when they’re playing music than Levon Helm.”

Helm’s compelling and inspiring life story, in addition to the music he made, likely lied at the heart of his appeal for average, everyday folks. Though Helm was a rock star, many likely found a kindred soul in the 71-year-old, who overcame problems that can affect anybody — bankruptcy and throat cancer. Helm in 1998 underwent surgery and 28 radiation treatments for throat cancer.

‘’Music is food for the soul, food for the heart,’’ Helm told the Journal in 2005. ‘’You’ve got to have a happy heart. Without music, your soul goes suffering.’‘

Born Mark Lavon Helm May 26, 1940, Helm helped redefine rock ‘n’ roll during the 1960s and 1970s as vocalist, drummer and mandolin player for The Band.

He carved out a musical legacy that will live on through signature singing on timeless Band songs like “The Weight” and “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down.” He will also be remembered for performances with his fellow members of rock music’s elite: Bob Dylan, Ringo Starr, Clarence Clemons of the E Street Band and Joe Walsh of The Eagles, among countless other notable names.

As new technology left the recording industry struggling to find its footing in recent years, Helm’s emphasis on family, friends and home at his Midnight Ramble house concerts in Woodstock allowed him to create his own live performance venue and release records on his own terms.

The Midnight Rambles built a steady audience and fueled a monster comeback that earned Helm three consecutive solo Grammys.

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Dick Clark once told me that one of his fondest musical memories growing up was listening to the jukebox at “Itchum’s,” a corner hangout in his hometown of Mount Vernon, where kids – including a young Clark – would flock after school to hear the latest tunes.

That was 1992, when I spoke to Clark about Mount Vernon on the city’s centennial. He reminisced about the ritzy Bailey estate, where his mom worked, and how those memories carried over to his more successful years in Hollywood, when he moved into an estate of his own.

“I got a big iron fence to put up around the house in California,” Clark told me. “I wasn’t sure why I wanted this thing. It was like this Orson Welles ‘Rosebud’ thing.  I finally realized that I had bought a replacement for the fence at the Bailey estate.”

The man was good with happy memories. He was good at nostalgia. He was good about hanging on to fond memories and sharing them with millions of fans. It was, essentially, his life’s work and his legacy.

I’m old enough to remember American Bandstand, the launching pad for Clark’s career. Back then, well before MTV and VH1, it was one of the few places on TV where you could listen to new music. Even then, Clark had been doing it for decades, helping inspire Soul Train and giving more than a few artists a new audience. As a growing young boy, the girls dancing wildly certainly didn’t hurt the eyes.

Despite stints as a game show host and, in recent years, as the annual host of Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve, he was always the American Bandstand guy to me, the man who devoted his life to the industry and to expanding its audience. Today comes word that Clark, who was in poor health since suffering a stroke several years ago, died from a massive heart attack at age 82.

It’s a shame that younger audiences might not appreciate his contribution. I hope now they take the time to delve into it a bit. That a man who was a pioneer in the music industry will ultimately be remembered for all that he did long before ill health overtook what was a brilliant career.

Thanks for the memories, Dick. Rest in peace.

Here’s a brief Associated Press story we ran in The Journal News:

Dick Clark, the television host who helped bring rock ‘n’ roll into the mainstream on “American Bandstand,” has died. He was 82.

Spokesman Paul Shefrin says Clark, a Mount Vernon native, died but did not provide further details. Clark had continued performing even after he suffered a stroke in 2004 that affected his ability to speak and walk.

Long dubbed “the world’s oldest teenager” because of his boyish appearance, Clark also was a successful businessman. He hosted an annual New Year’s Eve special and supplied a variety of game shows and music specials to TV, including and the American Music Awards.

The original “American Bandstand” was one of network TV’s longest-running series as part of ABC’s daytime lineup from 1957 to 1987. Over the years, it introduced stars ranging from Buddy Holly to Michael Jackson to Madonna.

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It’s not as if “Oh Pretty Woman” needed to be covered. I mean, the song had some legs on its own after the late, great Roy Orbison released it in 1964 – a tune he co-wrote.

But give pop rockers Van Halen credit for not only doing it justice, but turning it into a hit as well nearly 20 years later.

Yeah, I know we’re going back a few years in both regards, but with Van Halen reunited – for better or worse – music fans are pretty much assured there’ll be live versions of the band’s rendition soon enough. Besides, it’s a fun cover.

Orbison, who died in 1988, is kind of a forgotten musical genius. Known for his unique vocals and innovative song construction for the time, he scored with other hits that include “Only the Lonely” and “Crying,” both of which have been covered plenty over the years. But I have to admit I’ve always been drawn to “Oh Pretty Woman.”

Al Green and Connie Francis did versions of the song before Van Halen came along, as did a number of other performers since, including stage versions by Bon Jovi and Green Day, who have a knack for surprising covers during their live performances. (They covered the Who’s long-forgotten mini-mini-opera, “A Quick One While He’s Away,” when I caught them at the Garden a while back.)

But Van Halen’s version, off of their Diver Down album, probably had the most airplay – and the longest running success since Orbison’s original. The band’s dynamic of Eddie Van Halen riffs and trademark backup vocals by Van Halen and then-bassist Michael Anthony gave their version the band’s unique imprint, while paying homage to the original.

So, if you’re not familiar with one or both of these renditions of “Oh Pretty Woman,” give us a shout and share your thoughts on it. If you know these tunes, then just enjoy live versions of them.

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Another big loss for the music world: Jim Marshall, amp-man extraordinaire,  died today. He was 88.

Marshall’s name is, literally, on the sound of innumerable rock legends, his cursive signature looping across the faces of amplifiers stacked behind Jimi Hendrix, Jimmy Page, Slash and lots and lots of others.

The “Marshall stack” is now shorthand for a thick, meaty, dirty, heavy sound achieved by combining a pair of his massive speaker cabinets with a Marshall amplifier head. If you’re running a Les Paul through it, so much the better.

Remember Nigel Tufnel and his amp that went to 11? It was a Marshall.

Marshall died after suffering several strokes in recent years and developing cancer at the end of last year.

Read more about the man and the company he founded in 1962 here and here. And then go home and put on a record by The Who or Cream or Zeppelin or the first album by Guns ‘n’ Roses and crank it to 11.

The Listening Room is generally a positive place. When there’s so much amazing music out there to write about, we figure, why waste ink (or pixels, I suppose) picking apart a dippy ditty? Sometimes, though, we make an exception. Now is one of those times.

On my drive to work this morning I had the radio tuned to WFUV (it’s one of a handful of stations to which I regularly listen. The others are Q104.3, WFAN, WNYC/NPR, WFMU and WKCR, for what that’s worth). Following a fine song by Dr. Dog (decent band; I have and like their most recent album), came a number that, with every lyric, climbed another rung on my list of least favorite songs. I was stunned, really, by how immediately and thoroughly I disliked it.

So, what’s the tune? “All Kinds,” by Dan Wilson. I don’t want to get carried away criticizing it. I’m sure the guy and his band put a lot of work into it. And I’m sure other people (You, dear reader? Dios mio.) actually like it, and I don’t want to insult anyone.

But take a look at the opening verse:

You’ve got the kind of beautiful
Makes the boys want to give up running all around
You know the kind of magic spell
Makes the wild, wild horses lay down on the ground

Magic spells and “wild, wild horses”? Seriously? Also, it should be lie, not lay. Barf.

It got me thinking about other songs I can’t stand. “More than a Feeling,” by Boston is up there. “Hotel California,” by the Eagles comes to mind, too (unfortunately).

What are your most-loathed songs? And I’m not talking about songs that are widely accepted as simply awful. No points for hating “Crocodile Rock,” for instance. Or anything by Creed, say.

This just in: Turns out Dan Wilson is the former lead singer for Semisonic, of “Closing Time” fame. That, too, is a horrendous song. This guy is the champ of writing terrible pop hits. Watch out for Dan Wilson!

 

 

Today we mourn the loss of banjo player Earl Scruggs, as important to country music as, say Muddy Waters was to blues, who died Wednesday in a Nashville hospital. He was 88.

(Earl with Marty Stuart at Merlefest in 2001. Photo from Earlscruggs.com)

Scruggs, who started recording in the 1940s, did for the five-string banjo what Miles Davis did for the trumpet, Hendrix did for the guitar and what Elvis did for hollering into a microphone. The Scruggs sound, based on his rapid three-finger style of picking, has become the sound we expect a banjo to make.

Here he is in the good ol’ days:

Bluegrass music lives on Scruggs. No Scruggs, no bluegrass as we know it.

Here are some obits: The Tennessean; New York Times; Wall Street Journal.

So long, Earl. And thanks.

Hey Listening Room-ers, here are some links to stories, features, podcasts you might find interesting. We got a kick out of them, anyway.

• Jack White, of White Stripes, Raconteurs, Dead Weather, Third Man Records and, as of earlier this year, Jack White fame, was interviewed by the mayor of Lambeth, a borough of London.

• Blues guitarist Gary Clark Jr., now in his late 20s, recalls sharing the stage with Hubert Sumlin when he, Clark, was a teenager in this Reuters interview. (Wow. At 15, the only stage I shared with anyone was the awkward stage.)


• George Harrison’s son, Dhani, and Beatles producer George Martin unearth a forgotten guitar solo to “Here Comes the Sun.” Not saying it should, but will the world ever tire of the Beatles? Not likely.


• Paste Magazine has a thoughtful, revealing review of Justin Townes Earle’s latest record. Earle is Steve Earle’s son and was named, partially, after the late, great Townes Van Zandt. He’s damned good, too.


• Dave Mustaine rescued a miniature horse? So he tells Spin.


• WNYC’s nearly-always-interesting music program Soundcheck had Dr. John as a guest recently. In less than an hour, the original Night Tripper yaps about his new record, plays a few tunes, confesses his love of Ethiopian food and recounts the night the ring finger of his left hand was shot off during a fight outside a bar. Good radio.


• Businessweek covers the possible anti-trust hitch in the sale of EMI Records.


• You like banjos? Who doesn’t? (Well, lots of people, really, as this New Yorker cartoon, drawn by a banjo-player, implies.) Check out this video at Fretboard Journal, the holy grail for stringed-instrument geeks.


• And, finally, Levon Helm, the original roots musician, gets hosed by the music biz and the legal system. What a world.

Hope that provides you some decent fodder for the day. If not, ponder this: Can “Samba Pa Ti,” the Hey-baby-let’s-hop-in-the-back-seat-and-take-it-slooooow instrumental ballad from Santana’s Abraxas, handle a translation to the fiddle and resonator guitar? My fiancee, a heckuva fiddler, and I are trying to find out. If the experiment turns out OK, I’ll post the result here.

Does the name Nass Gnawa mean anything to you? Until last Saturday, it didn’t mean a thing to me. My fiancee and a couple friends and I caught them perform at Zebulon, in Brooklyn’s Williamsburg (not to be confused with this Williamsburg) and were completely knocked out.

Here’s the deal: They’re a bunch of Moroccan musicians who play Gnawa, a style of music with sub-Saharan, Berber and Sufi roots that inspires in/requires of its performers lots spinning, kicking, leaping and twirling of fez-tassels. The music is fast, loud, propulsive and pulsing. In this group, several of the musicians rapidly clapped pairs of large, metal castanets; one played a rectangular, skin-covered bass guitar/banjo thing; another played an oud; others wailed on drums. They all chanted and sang. By my count, they were playing in 12, meaning the rhythmic pattern repeated after a peppering of a dozen beats.

Here’s a hint of the Gnawa. The guy pictured in the clip was one of the group’s leaders. Everything we heard Saturday night was faster than this recording.

The room was packed and we arrived late, which meant the only space we found was on the floor a few feet from the stage. The gap between us and the performers quickly filled with dancers—members of the audience and the band, writhing, wiggling and swaying together. Everybody clapped throughout each song, driving the music and being driven by it at once. Glasses of beer were kicked over. Tables pushed aside. Old folks, hipsters, Moroccans and a Tibetan lady with hair reaching past her knees were all in it together.

It was amazing.

There’s something silly about tribute bands.

I mean, I’m all for nostalgia, but the concept of it can all too easily seem like a sad attempt to hang on to younger, better days that are long gone and won’t be coming back.

Certainly, a handful of bands have successfuly pulled off the tribute thing. Think of Dark Star Orchestra. The Beatles have to be rock’s most covered band and has to lead the list of tribute bands, from Beatlemania on down. That’s not counting the dozens of rock performers who made a career out of Beatle-esque music, from ELO to Oasis.

But there’s most certainly something special about what The Fab Faux do. Something quite impressive – and incredibly engaging and entertaining.

The success of The Fab Faux – they’ve developed a loyal following in the New York metro area in their 15 years together – is based on two significant facts: First, they don’t make the mistake of attempting to look like the Beatles. This is all, in fact, about the music, not an attempt at an off-Broadway production complete with Beatle boots and Cuban heels.

Secondly, these guys are all top-knotch musicians, and some of the best session players in the country. They were well-estabished well before they set out to do the Beatles thing. Led by bassist Will Lee from David Letterman’s band and Conan’s bandleader, Jimmy Vivino, Fab Faux is impressive for it’s musicianship if nothing else. And they clearly love these tunes.

I should interject that I’m far from a Beatles nut. But these are tunes I grew up with, and you can’t get it out of your head that this is remarkably close to what these songs would sound like live had the Beatles ever performed them on stage. Most of these, as fans know, are tunes that the Beatles released after giving up on live shows.

On to the Wellmont Theater, an aging but impressive venue in Montclair, N.J., where The Fab Faux took the stage Saturday. I approached it with some interest and no small amount of dread. For this show, the band was performing the entire “Revolver” album, one of my favorite Beatles recordings for it’s significance – “Revolver” and “Rubber Soul” marked the Beatle’s evolution from a hit pop band to legendary musicians who reshaped the industry.

The Fab Faux pulled off the album, with enough variation that you knew you were hearing a live version of these songs, not entirely a note-for-note rendition of the studio version. A horn section, the Hogshead Horns, and string section, the Creme Tangerine Strings, allow them to pull off tunes like Eleanor Rigby and Yellow Submarine.

The second half of the show consists of a string of Beatles hits, which, of course, never run out. Through it all, including an impressive rendition of “Oh Darling,” the Fab Faux nail one of the most difficult things about covering the Beatles – the vocals. That, in fact, is what allows them to pull this all off so successfully.

So, is this a must see band? They’ll be at the Beacon Theater in October, when they will perform the entire “White Album.” Well, that’s kind of up to you. This isn’t a band performing new, experimental music. But they are impressive for their obvious musical talent, and their devotion to this music. Some of us grew up with this and it’s a heck of a kick to see it performed live.

The Fab Faux won’t change the course of music – even as they’ve mastered the music of a band that did. Yes, it’s something of a fantasy, but the performances are amazing and the vocals are hauntingly good.

It was just a lot of fun. Yeah, I’d definitely say to go see these guys.

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Nationally acclaimed guitarist Tim Palmieri, of the band Kung Fu, will make a rare Westchester appearance at the Thornwood Ale House tonight. Heavy recommendation on this show from those of us at the Listening Room.

If you’ve never heard Palmieri you’re in for a treat. He’s truly one of the most talented guitarists in the area, and one of our earlier features in the Listening Room’s “Guitar Players You Should Know” series. His versatility is quite remarkable.

Whether playing classic hits from The Beatles, experimental jams from Frank Zappa, funky favorites from the Red Hot Chili Peppers, or his own original material, Tim is able to tap into the collective consciousness and enrapture fans with his distinctive style of rhythmic looping. He also brings hundreds of songs to choose from, so listeners can help direct the set list and dance to their favorite tunes.

Of course no night of music is complete without some fresh craft beer or expertly poured cocktails. The Thornwood Ale House has quickly established a reputation for the best of both, with more than 60 beers from around the world as well as a full cocktail menu, delicious wines, and sangria to please any palate. The friendly staff is eager to serve, and the kitchen is open until 2 a.m., so come hungry!

Thornwood Ale House is located at 665 Commerce Street, Thornwood, N.Y. Tim Palmieri plays two long sets starting at 9 p.m. Admission is free. For more information, call 914-263-1537 or visit http://ThornwoodAleHouse.com.

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It’s been a strange day here at the newsroom (and, by extension, the Listening Room). So, naturally, we turn to music to help us out. Below, for your pleasure, is a link to a series of clips that crack me up no matter how many times I replay them.

A few years ago a guy named Santeri Ojala decided to have a bit of fun at the expense of the world’s Guitar Gods and overdubbed performances of Carlos Santana, Slash, Yngwie Malmsteen and others with the kind of furious cacophony practiced by 14-year-olds on their first guitars with their bedrooms doors closed and their dreams of glory wide open.

It’s all in good fun. If you need a laugh, have a look here.

How did we forget this guy?

Yes, it’s been a long time since John McLaughlin formed the Mahavishnu Orchestra. Heck, younger music fans have trouble remembering Beatles tunes, let alone a progressive rock band that gained limited mainstream acclaim after it formed in 1970.

But we at the Listening Room believe that music – and talent – are ageless. So, give it a chance.

After all, those in the know will tell you that McLaughlin was one of the greatest ever in his genre.

The remarkable thing about the Mahavishnu Orchestra isn’t just McLaughlin’s composing and guitar playing skills. It’s in the chemistry of an amazing all-star lineup, a group that included keyboard legend Jan Hammer, jazz drummer Billy Cobham, bassist Rick Laird, violinist Jerry Goodman and McLaughlin. But the band’s best moments were generally driven by McLaughlin’s guitar.

Born in England, McLaughlin proved a natural musician at a young age, although he didn’t pick up guitar until 11. He played local music circuits in his teen years, eventually backing noted British performer Brian Auger and others. Moving to the U.S., he continued to perform on stage and in the studio, including a gig with Miles Davis, a collaboration with Carlos Santana, and a legendary jam session with Jimi Hendrix in 1969.

McLaughlin, who had trained in classical, flamenco and jazz guitar, had developed an impressive fusion and progressive jazz style. Mahavishnu would take the genre and give it a worldwide audience. The band’s music merged fusion jazz and rock and sprinkled it with Eastern influences. All told, they released 10 albums, starting with the 1971 debut, An Inner Mounting Flame.

The recordings spanned several decades and featured varying lineups, most recently with a collection of tunes released in 1996. But McLaughlin has hardly been idle. Exploring differing styles of music and culture, he has spend periods immersed in Eastern music, acoustic guitar work and more traditional jazz.

One high-profile venture teamed McLaughlin with jazz guitarist Al Di Meola and Spanish classical guitarist Paco De Lucia, a trio that released a couple of albums, including the studio classic “Passion, Grace and Fire.”

Still experimenting, McLaughlin even reunited with former Mahavishnu drummer Billy Cobham in 2010.

In all, there have been dozens of albums and recordings, spanning genres and musical style with dizzying frequency. McLaughlin, however, has always been about the music above the fame. The downside is that it’s kept him out of the mainstream spotlight for the better part of his career.

Still, all these years later, much of his material still has weight. There are still a few Mahavishnu tunes on my iPod.

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There’s no off season in the music biz, but summer is clearly playoff time. This summer will be no exception.

While the lineups are still being put in order, the 2012 summer tour circuit will be a good one, with a usual mix of hot ticket concerts and a few surprises, including a few reunion tours which may or may not be big draws. We thought we’d highlight a few.

One tip: We’re not in the habit of listing tour dates unless they officially come from the  bands themselves. So, where we haven’t included dates you can easily google and find out when the shows are coming to your town from any number of bloggers and music writers. Anyway, here’s what’s coming up:

Radiohead – This is always one of the hottest tickets around. The band is scheduled to hit the stage in St. Louis today and will then embark on a world tour that will bring them to the New York metro area in June. If you’re a fan I don’t have to tell you that the time to start trying to score tickets was last month.

Dave Matthews Band – Dave and the band is another big draw. Matthews’ legion of followers make these tickets a commodity as well, so move fast. DMB hits the road in May, and will play a few shows in upstate New York and at the Jones Beach Theater.

Pearl Jam – Eddie Vedder and the boys will be on the road this summer, starting with two shows in Las Vegas in early April. The current list of tour dates don’t include shows in the New York metro areas – at least not yet. Fingers crossed.

Beach Boys – This one should be interesting. The Beach Boys reunion tour will feature three original members in Brian Wilson, Mike Love and Al Jardine. The tour marks the band’s 50th anniversary, and it will include two shows at the Beacon Theater in May. We’ll see.

Red Hot Chili Peppers – Another reunion tour of sorts will see Red Hot Chili Peppers back on the road. I haven’t seen these guys in some time, but reports from the road is that they’re putting together a pretty solid show. They should be at the Prudential Center in Jersey in early May.

Coldplay – The U2-ish hit rockers will kick off their tour in Boston in mid April, and will work their way to the Izod Center in Jersey in August. Hard to argue with the band’s success, and their shows always bring out huge crowds.

Those aren’t the only tours coming up this summer, obviously. Here are a few others, including bands that have been on the road, some rumored to be going back on the road, and some who’ve been dormant for a while and are getting back in gear.

Pink Floyd – Roger Waters has had great success with his The Wall tour. Look for more shows this summer, even as rumors persist that a reunion with David Gilmour and Nick Mason may be in the offing. Last year we kept hearing that Gilmour was going to join Waters’ tour full time. We’ll see.

The Rolling Stones – The Hall of Fame rockers are expected to go on the road this summer, but have been pretty coy about confirming it. This would be a 50th anniversary tour, so it stands to reason that the Stones – never shy about promotion – will jump at the chance any way. Any one hear tour dates?

Aerosmith – Tickets for Aerosmith’s next tour are expected to go on sale this month, with the band reportedly hitting the road in June. No official word on what venues the band will be visiting, but much of it is on hold until Steve Tyler finishes his “American Idol” gig.

Alice in Chains – The Seattle grunge pioneers, who’ve had plenty of high profile tragedy in their careers, are rumored to be hitting the road this year. The thing is we don’t have tour dates nor official confirmation from the band. So keep your ears peeled.

Rage Against the Machine – This could be my favorite. They reunited a while back after a long hiatus. Now they’re headlining Bonnaroo. Definitely keep an ear out for other dates. We just couldn’t pin them down.

As I said, this is hardly a complete list. Honorable mention summer shows also include The Strokes, Guns N Roses, Tool, Rush and a reunited Van Halen.

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I can’t count how many years ago it was that my older brother came home with a debut album from a band called Montrose.

The band, headed by session musician and guitar wiz Ronnie Montrose, featured a young Sammy Hagar on vocals and Bill Church – who later backed Hagar in his solo career – on bass. It was rocking stuff from Montrose, who had emerged as a legit axe man from his work with Edgar Winter and Van Morrison.

So it was a sad day at the Listening Room when Montrose died on Saturday at age 64. Rolling Stone did a good piece on his death.

There’s a strange dynamic involved in something like this. We had all essentially forgotten Davey Jones until he died last week. Then the Monkees are all over the place. It’s a sort of nostalgic rediscovery. For me, Montrose’s death has brought some of those tunes back. Montrose still played gigs in recent years, and some of the band’s material got some stage time from Hagar after he went solo. Heck, Van Halen played a few during Hagar’s time with them.

But Montrose was a pretty unique talent who didn’t always get the acclaim he deserved. A few years ago, when we started profiling underrated guitar players, Montrose was the second musician we featured.

I’m afraid he won’t get the fanfare that Davey Jones got – only because Montrose never got the acclaim.

Well, he did in my house.

Here’s our earlier profile of Montrose. Rest in peace, Ronnie.

Guitar players you should know: Ronnie Montrose

Posted by: Jorge Fitz-Gibbon – Posted in Uncategorized on Mar 01, 2009 Edit

In 1973, Patti Smith was asked by Creem magazine to review Edgar Winter’s After Dark album. She did, and took specific note of a young guitar player in Winter’s band named Ronnie Montrose.

“Ronnie’s got some appetite,” Smith wrote. “He’ll play forever. The kid is no da Vinci. He’s no jack of all trades. He’s complete guitar.”

Although he didn’t actually start playing until he was 17, Montrose has indeed been all guitar since. By his mid-20s he was playing with Van Morrison on St. Dominic’s Preview and the classic 1971 release, Tupelo Honey. Then he joined Winter’s band, and was with the group for their 1972 hit album, They Only Come Out At Night, which featured the ageless tracks “Free Ride” and “Frankenstein.”

Ronnie Montrose had arrived. He never left.

In an interview with photographer, videographer and writer John Wardlaw, Montrose recalled that he was too poor as a teenager to own a guitar, so he had to rely on borrowed instruments.

“I shared guitars before I actually got one of my own and played a guy’s Silver tone and played another guys Danelectro 12 string and it was at about age 17 that I actually started playing,” Montrose told Wardlaw. “I don’t recall the specific guitar that was mine. I was too broke to buy a guitar so I more borrowed guitars from friends. I’ll tell you what, if you don’t think it’s rough playing lead on a 12 string… bloody fingers, man!”

Montrose’s early session work also included Gary Wright’s hit, “Dream Weaver.” But it was his solo work that defined his career. His first album, a self-titled debut put out in 1973, featured a young unknown singer named Sammy Hagar, who also sang on the follow-up album, Paper Money, before striking out on his own.

In all, Montrose went on to release six albums with the band Montrose, most recently 1987’s Mean. In 1979, he formed a new band, Gamma, which disbanded after three albums but reunited for a 2000 release, Gamma 4, and also put out a “best of” album.

Over the years, Montrose also put out 11 solo albums, including some acoustic work. Now 61, he continues to work with other artists as a musician and a producer while enjoying family life.

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Long title, great song.

Nick Lowe first recorded “What’s So Funny ‘Bout Peace, Love & Understanding” in 1974. But the song didn’t take off until an up-and-coming Brit named Elvis Costello covered it in 1979. Originally, Costello’s version was on the B-side of a Lowe single. If some of our readers don’t know what a “B-side” is then the Listening Room will have to accept that it is indeed staffed by old-timers.

Regardless, Costello’s version was released as hits like “Oliver’s Army” were climbing the charts and helping establish Costello as a force to be reckoned with. His version of the Lowe tune, which came while Lowe was producing Costello and his band, the Attractions, helped solidify his rise in the music biz.

Lowe himself is one of popular music’s most accomplished performers, songwriters and producers – and one of the most overlooked.

He wrote a number of other hits, including “Cruel to be Kind,” “So It Goes” and “I Love the Sound of Breaking Glass.” He’s had a long-running collaborative relationship with friend and one-time Rockpile bandmate Dave Edmunds, whom Lowe has also produced. A number of Lowe’s songs have been covered by other bands, but “What’s So Funny…” is noteworthy for two primary reasons:

First, it helped catapult Costello’s career – and it’s hard to argue it didn’t evolve into a legendary one.

Secondly, the different approaches to the song that the two performers take makes for more interesting listening. There are covers that simply imitate the original. Consider the hair band Quiet Riot’s obsession with the earlier rock hits of British rockers Slade, MTV hits like “Mama We’re All Crazee Now” and “Come On Feel The Noise.”

But, personally, I prefer covers that offer a different take on a song. The clips below include a recent Lowe rendition heavy on acoustic guitar and with a mellower feel. Costello’s classic cover is closer to an explosion of sound that helped define the post-punk, New Wave sound that was evolving at the time. See what you think:

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