1,245,401 @ 10:13 am
WE GET LETTERS!
...AND you are an absolutely wonderful performer!!!!! I loved your performance" Mrs. E.L.
No Censorship Down on the Beach
Beach photos by JV
By Joe Viglione
It was refreshing being able to exercise our First Amendment right to free speech in a nightclub on a beautiful night on Nantasket Beach last evening.
The ability to speak freely without rogue solicitor Mark E. Rumley spitting on your freedom of speech and lying about it, removed, just as Mark E. Rumley needs to be removed - in shackles - and frog-marched out of city hall.
A friend said "You looked like you were having fun up there..." Of course I had a blast, being the star performer on a Saturday night with two radio interviews and about 20 newspapers picking up the story, my duty to the ticket-buying public, especially for a charity event, was to dig into my soul and deliver a show that - key word - entertained the audience!
Our rhythm section was stunning. The drummer who played with me 44 years ago amazed people (he's 68 years of age now and pounded away with youthful exuberance,) while our bassist was, as another friend put it "Like having Willie Weeks* in the band."
An entirely new rhythm section from last year's superb bass and drums, and with only two practices we delivered a hard-hitting show that is text book for younger bands who turn their amps up rather than show finesse; who make a lot of noise, and crowd out their own talent by not having discretion and good taste.
But even watching seasoned pros take the stage, they still don't often get it, and turn the sound to the proverbial Spinal Tap "11" when the volume has only 1-10.
Nor can their energy match this 64 year old man twirling around onstage while the band cooked on "Let it Bleed," a Rolling Stones masterpiece, repeatedly dancing around with Mick Jagger's incredibly outrageous line for 1969/1970 "You can come all over me..."
...then I started humping the wall...for an extended period of time... having touched over a thousand stages since 1973 (with a band) and going further back in school performances at St. Agnes Arlington in the 60s (and add dozens of appearances at the Medford City Council! :) ) - it's our world, where we exist, where we have the comfort zone.
We delivered a balanced show, two ladies performing appealing classics, the Ronette's Be My Baby to open the show (as it was a staple in our set in the 1970s) and the new addition, Gershwin's "Summertime."
That's where I made the "executive decision" to bow out of "Summertime." IN Cambridge we created an avant garde jazz-meets-Yoko Ono rendition, but the people attending the beach party were grooving with the music, so I shut down my storytelling, at least for "Summertime" and let the band stretch out delivering the song as the revised show, instead of the planned show. Know your audience, let your instincts guide.
A critic in that audience last night, 9/1, said "I'd be fine if you played Velvet Undergound (Lou Reed) for a few hours," and our tribute to Lou and Jimmy Miller - "Sister Ray"/"Jumpin' Jack Flash" is as authentic as you're going to get it. One of Mr. Reed's musicians said to me a few years back "No one can do Lou Reed like you." But the key is, yes, I can recreate Reed's sound and inflections, however it is having musicians with the Lou sensibilities - and mind you multiple members of our resource of musician friends can generate that unique sound on any given night - it's having that wall of sound behind you that gives the front man the diving board to bring it home and hit the grand slam.
"With that jaded, faded, junkie nurse...oh what pleasant company"
We rocked the joint, as we do every year, we did our job for the high school musician fund where people appreciate the hard work and honest efforts.
Unlike the city of Medford.
Medford represses the arts. On the beach last night, we delivered the goods.
*(Wikipedia) Willie Weeks (born August 5, 1947) is an American bass guitarist. He has gained fame performing with famous musicians in a wide variety of genres. He has been one of the most in-demand session musicians throughout his career. Weeks has also gained notoriety touring with many of rock's heavyweights throughout his career. In 2006–2007 he was most visible as the chosen bassist for Eric Clapton's house band, during his world tour with the Crossroads Guitar Festival. (side note, As A & R for CD Review Magazine's record label, I signed a project by the Jefferson Airplane's lead singer which had Willie Weeks on bass. It was a distinct honor)