Listening Room Blog

There was a brief time when the Monkees outsold the Beatles in the U.S., and Davey Jones was the face of the band.

Now comes word that Jones, 66, has died of a heart attack in Florida while on a solo tour. Granted, the band is a thing of the past for modern-day music fans, many of whom don’t realize that the Smashmouth song “I’m a Believer” on the Shrek soundtrack was a cover of one of the Monkees’ biggest hits. They’re on the oldies stations, and few remember that Marsha Brady was a huge fan and president of the Davey Jones fan club on the hit show “The Brady Bunch” – another baby boomer sensation.

But give Jones and the Monkees credit for the impact they had in their day.

The Monkees’ TV show lasted three years, but they recorded their music for two more years, until 1970. They started as a promotional gimmick, hired in 1965 for the cast of a TV show about a mischievous but well-intentioned rock band. It was cast with four hand-picked performers from varying backgrounds. Band member Peter Tork, for instance, was a legitimate musician, and reportedly interviewed for the gig after his friend Stephen Still was turned down. Jones was a child actor from Manchester, England, when he was hired to join the band – the boyishly handsome frontman who was the Monkees’ most recognizable face.

But the band wasn’t just a musical sensation – albeit briefly. They were a marketing jackpot well before Kiss perfected it. Their TV show, which borrowed liberally from the Beatles “Help” flick, was a hit and continued to be so on re-runs. Their merchandise included action figures, lunch boxes and more. And their music – much of it written by producer Don Kirshner and others at the outset – included catchy pop tunes like “Daydream Believer,” “Stepping Stone” and “Last Train to Clarksville,” all of which became hits.

After the group disbanded Jones continued to enjoy celebrity status, both in cameos like the one in “The Brady Bunch” and in solo appearances. He remained a recognizable face at oldies shows, and continued to tour, as he was doing at the time of his death. Last year the Monkees even reunited briefly, although a full-fledged reunion seemed unlikely – nor was there a guarantee that there was enough of a fan base left to make it lucrative.

Still, Jones continued to find an audience. And in a little-known bit of trivia, Jones is also responsible for the stage name of one of rock’s most accomplished songwriters and performers. Jones and the Monkees were in their prime when an up-and-coming British performer named David Jones was hitting the scene and appeared destined for musical fame in his own right. Fearing he would be confused with the Monkees’ singer, he changed his name to David Bowie.

So, we here at the Listening Room pay our respects to Davey Jones, for his contribution to pop music and all else he contributed to rock and roll. We can only guess that somewhere in TV land Marsha Brady has shed a tear. Rest in peace Davey.

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Alternative rockers Radiohead long ago established themselves as one of the world’s premier bands, with a crazed and loyal following that makes tickets to their live shows a precious commodity.

It all began with “Creep.”

The song, reportedly written by singer/songwriter Thom Yorke years before it was recorded, was the band’s first single in 1992, and later made its way onto their debut album “Pablo Honey.” Initially overlooked by mainstream fans, the song’s re-release in 1993 made it an international hit. The song became so popular at Radiohead shows that Yorke and the band, whose music rapidly progressed into more groundbreaking styles, stopped performing it.

Despite the self-imposed boycott of “Creep” – which ended in part at the end of the last decade – it remains one of Radiohead’s signature songs for many of the band’s more casual fans, and continues to get significant airplay on rock stations. Like any great tune, it has also been covered a few times.

Artists like Prince, who did a live version of the song at the Coachella festival several years ago, have done covers of “Creep.” But one of my favorite and lesser-known versions was done by The Pretenders, who recorded a mellower acoustic version. I like the alternate feel of it. See what you think.

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Guitar geeks, the gods are smiling on us today. George Harrison’s son, Dhani, has developed an app for the iPad that gives you, me, anyone with access to an iPad, a stunningly intimate look at several of the late Beatle’s now-iconic guitars. The app is available today and costs $9.99. Here’s a preview.

What do you get for your 10 bucks? Well, you hear George talk about his instruments, recalling, for example, how he paid a sailor in Hamburg 75 pounds for that black Gretsch we all know so well. You get feature-by-feature descriptions of the Strat he painted in the tripped-out style of the day (who knew it started out as light blue?) and the 12-string Rickenbacker he played on so many of the Beatles’ early records.

There’s lots more. Judging from the aforementioned preview, you’ll learn about that rosewood Telecaster he used on Let it Be (my personal favorite Harrison guitar). You can listen to song samples to hear which guitar was used for which song. People like Mike Campbell, the guitar player for Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, show up to pick and strum the guitars, giving us an idea how the instruments sound in non-Beatle hands.

According to this article in the New York Times, Dhani plans to add more guitars to the app (for free) as time goes on. That’s a great idea. And he’s got plans to develop similar apps for the collections of his dad’s pals. Like Eric Clapton. That’s another great idea. Even though Clapton auctioned off much of his guitar treasure last year, my hunch is he’s still got a few decent pieces.

The Listening Room generally steers clear of politics, but it being Presidents’ Day season and all, we couldn’t let this go unnoticed. Like him or dislike him, President Obama isn’t all that bad a singer—at least with BB King, Buddy Guy and Mick Jagger backing him up on his home court. Watch:

I type this post listening to a track from Bruce Springsteen’s soon-to-be-released album, Wrecking Ball. The tune’s called “Shackled and Drawn” and it’s not bad at all. A whole lot better than anything on his previous album, Working on a Dream, which I thought was generally lousy.

Springsteen’s marketing team is doing something interesting this time around: Beginning yesterday (Monday), they’re previewing one song on one of several websites every day until the album is released on March 6. Today’s song is streaming at Rollingstone.com. For a complete guide to the one-track-a-day release schedule, stop in at Backstreets.com.

I saw the Dough Rollers play Brooklyn Bowl, in Williamsburg, Monday night. If you like crisp blues done right and tight, you’ll like these young guys. From what I’ve read about them, the core of the band is singer/guitarist Malcolm Ford (Han Solo’s son, for real) and lead guitarist Jack Byrne (son of Ellen Barkin and Gabriel Byrne, also for real), though at Monday’s show they had a bassist and drummer in tow as well (no idea who their parents are).

Nothing revolutionary here, only really solid blues played with just the right amount of swing and no effect pedals to get in the way. Ford sings with an effective rasp and growl that borrows a bit from Tom Waits, and he seems completely plugged into the emotional core of the band’s songs. That’s important. The problem with The Blues, and this is no fault of the genre, is if the singer misses, even slightly, that emotional core, the songs flop. With so many people playing the same three chords over the same 12 bars, the ability to find that emotional truth matters. Lots of people don’t or can’t, which is why there’s so much cheesy blues out there.

As for Byrne, he can play. Nothing flashy, no light-speed flourishes. Just the kind of touch that would make the late Hubert Sumlin smile. All in all, fine stuff.

Here’s a recent story about them that ran in Interview. It’s a good, quick read.

Fun feature from Rolling Stone magazine, which has posted a quiz to test fans on their Van Halen trivia skills.

Check for the link to the quiz farther down below.

But just a few quick notes. The hit rockers recently reunited, with David Lee Roth and brothers Eddie and Alex Van Halen, and are hitting the road this year for their first tour in years. So, it seemed like an appropriate time to throw something out there for the band’s fan base.

The one change in the band’s original lineup is on bass. Wolfgang Van Halen, Eddie’s son with actress Valerie Bertinelli, is again taking over for original bassist Michael Anthony. This will hardly be Wolfgang’s first stint on bass, but it’s worth nothing that fans won’t see the entire original band if they catch the shows.

Anyway, enough delay. Follow this link to Rolling Stone’s Van Halen quiz.

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J.J. Cale has long been one of the most overlooked musicians and songwriters in the country. But while mainstream music fans may not be familiar with the Oklahoma-born guitarist, other artists certainly are.

Cale is a Grammy Award winner, and his work has been covered by some of the biggest names in the business, including Carlos Santana, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Kansas and Widespread Panic.

But no Cale song has gotten more acclaim than “Cocaine,” a song he wrote and recorded, and which was later covered with great success by Eric Clapton. Clapton, by the way, also covered Cale’s tune “After Midnight” and others. Clapton once described his attachment to the song, noting that it is typically misunderstood by fans – it’s actually an anti-drug song.

Cale himself said he started writing the song as a jazz tune, but later changed gears and gave it more of a rock/country feel which was the foundation for Clapton’s later version.

As with any great song, Clapton has hardly been the only one to cover it. In fact, one of my favorite versions comes from the Scottish rock band Nazareth, probably best known for their hit version of “Love Hurts” and, to hard rock fans, for their tune “Hair of the Dog.” They take a very different approach to “Cocaine” than Cale and Clapton did.

So, check out the three versions below.

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Truly tragic news today that music pioneer Don Cornelius was found dead in his California home early this morning, apparently from a self-inflicted gunshot.

Cornelius, 75, was the founder and host of Soul Train, a long-running television dance show that revolutionized the music industry by providing the first national TV venue for R&B music. The show, which ran from 1971 to 2006, provided scores of black musicians and artists their first national exposure in an era when American Bandstand was doing so for traditionally white rock and pop performers. It changed the musical landscape.

(photo courtesy of the Associated Press)

Cornelius started as a radio DJ, and first launched Soul Train as a local show in Chicago in 1970, taking it to a nationwide audience the following year.

Recent years provided some controversy for Cornelius, who was arrested on domestic violence charges in 2008 and eventually was sentenced to three-years of probation.

Los Angeles police haven’t released any further details on Cornelius’ death. Authorities said officers were dispatched to his Mulholland Home mansion at 4 a.m. today and found Cornelius suffering from an apparent gunshot wound. He was rushed to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead at 4:56 a.m., police said.

His legacy, however, lives on, as well it should. Rest in peace, Don.

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