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the Friday Free for All – Macca in Rio

retroDan — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 23:23:50 +0000

To celebrate next week’s CD/DVD release of Paul McCartney’s Good Evening New York City, I thought I’d share some tracks from his 1990 tour. It was his first tour in nearly a decade and he basically traveled the world over to support his superb Flower in the Dirt album.

The following are from McCartney’s April 21st, 1990 gig in Rio, Brazil. A record breaking 184,000 people attended the show.

My Brave Face
Ever since you went away I’ve had this sentimental
inclination not to change a single thing.
as I pull the sheets back on the bed I want to go bury my head
In your pillow.
We Got Married
It’s not just a loving machine, it doesn’t work out
if you don’t work at it.
This One
What opportunities did we allow to flow by
Feeling like the timing wasn’t quite right?
What kind of magic might have worked if we had stayed calm,
Couldn’t I have given you a better life?
Put it There
I don’t care if it weighs a ton,
as long as you and I are here, put it there.
P.S. Love Me Do
Someone to love, somebody new
Someone to love, someone like you
Let ‘em In
Someone’s knockin’ at the door
Somebody’s ringin’ the bell
Do me a favor, open the door and let ‘em in

The live band featured: Paul, Linda McCartney (on keyboards), Wix Wickens (keyboards), Hamish Stuart (bass, guitar), Robbie McIntosh (lead guitar), Chris Whitten (drums).

enjoy!! happy friday!!

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the Friday Free for All – Get On Your Boots

retroDan — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 19:36:57 +0000

It’s time once again for Retroblog.net’s Friday Free for All. For today’s edition, I thought we should explore the vast underworld of bootlegs a bit. thanks to the almighty internets, the sharing of rare and interesting boots exploded these last few years. here’s just a random sampling of some that I have on hand at the moment.

Enjoy the tracks. and feel free to post a list of some of your favorite boots.

please note the sound quality will vary here due to these being “bootlegs” obviously.

GTR – Away (No One is to Blame) from the unreleased NeroTrend album (1987). This features Max Bacon on lead vocals and Steve Howe on guitar. Steve Hackett left the group at this point and Robert Berry was his replacement.

Paul McCartney and Elvis Costello – So Like Candy demo from the Flowers In the Dirt Sessions boot (1988). This is a great version that features both McCartney and Costello singing lead.

Todd Rundgren – Slut from the Vancouver August 25, 2006 boot. a great audience recording. It’s a rough and loose rendition with Tony Levin on bass and Jerry Marotta on drums.

Lindsey Buckingham – Go Insane from the Coach House December 10, 1992 boot. an awesome solo performance of his early eighties hit. definitely an improvement over the original recording which sounds a bit dated now due to the heavy use of the Fairlight sampler.

Susanna Hoffs – Darling One from her unreleased columbia album (1994). This is from the album that Columbia Records rejected. Hoffs ended up re-recording this song (along with some others) for her 1996 album “Susanna Hoffs”. This particular version is more upbeat than the officially released one.

Yes – Cinema/City of Love from the June 19, 1994 Canandaigua, NY boot. There are a ton of boots from this tour since the band did a simulcast of each show via “ConcertSonics”. Even though the “Talk” album isn’t one of my favorites, I thought some of the performances on this tour were pretty strong. I definitely miss Trevor Rabin, though. It’s definitely way overdue for Rabin to get back on stage!!

Journey – Send Her My Love from the Detroit Raised On Radio simulcast in 1986. It’s not the greatest sounding live recording but the “Raised on Radio” tour is fascinating to me for a multitude of reasons – one of which is the presence of Randy Jackson (of American Idol) on bass for this tour. listening to these old live recordings of Journey make me miss Steve “the voice” Perry even more!

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Happy Friday, everyone!

music vault – Can We Still Be Friends

retroDan — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 01:14:25 +0000

From deep within the depths of my vast music collection comes a new installment of The RetroBlog Music Vault. Today, I thought I’d feature an all time classic song from Todd Rundgren titled “Can We Still Be Friends”. Originally released back in 1978 on Rundgren’s Hermit of Mink Hollow album, the song went on to become one of his signature tunes (along with “Hello It’s Me”, “Bang on the Drum” and “I Saw the Light”). The song has been featured on a number of movies and TV shows including Vanilla Sky, Dumb and Dumber and Nip/Tuck. Over the years, the song has also been covered by a number of different artists which I’ll be covering here in the post.

1) Can We Still Be Friends by Robert Palmer
This is a straight ahead cover which was released a year after Rundgren’s original version. Palmer smoothed out the quirkiness of the original and made it a bit more radio friendly.
also available via Amazon on The Very Best of the Island Years

2) Can We Still Be Friends by Rod Stewart
Rod Stewart recorded a version that seems to be modeled after Palmer’s rendition. Again, it’s pretty straight forward except for an extended vamp at the end. Frankly Stewart’s cover leaves me a bit cold.
also available via Amazon on Camouflage

3) Can We Still Be Friends by Mandy Moore
Yes, laugh it up but honestly, I think Mandy Moore does a great version of this song. It’s probably my favorite of all the cover versions listed here.
also available via Amazon on The Best of Mandy Moore

4) Can We Still Be Friends by Todd Rundgren (Bossa Nova Style)
Todd himself recorded a cover version in 1997 albeit in bossa-nova/lounge style. I personally prefer the original over this lounge-y version but it’s still fun to listen to.
also available via Amazon on Greatest Classics: with a Twist

5) Can We Still Be Friends (live) by Todd Rundgren
Here’s a live version of the song performed by Todd at the Bottom Line in New York in 1978. I believe this was recorded during the same sessions that comprised Todd’s live album Back to the Bars.

enjoy the tunes. as always, the files are hosted on savefile.com for a limited time. grab ‘em while they’re hot.

music vault – Heat of the Moment

retroDan — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 00:27:15 +0000

For today’s selection from deep within Retroblog’s music vault, I present to you – the Heat of the Moment by Asia! Yes, that’s right, the band that ended up as a punch line to the 40 Year Old Virgin joke that reaffirms to people that you are indeed gay. har, har. But no matter what Judd Apatow thinks, the song written by John Wetton and Geoff Downes *IS* a classic in my book. To celebrate the song, I thought I’d post some of the many versions of the song that have been released over the years.

1) Heat of the Moment by Asia (Fantasia – Live in Tokyo) : The original lineup sounding a bit fatigued in this live version recorded in 2007. I could imagine the band in deep conversation over whether to play this song or not:
Carl: Do we have to play this darn song again for the umpteenth time?
Steve: I’m sick of playing that opening riff. It makes me sound like a hack!
John: I know what you mean, Steve. I wrote those lyrics in 5 minutes while I was taking a crap back in 1981.
Geoff: Don’t make me call up John Payne, you guys. He’ll be willing to sing it, no problem.
The concert promoter: Need I remind you all that your contract clearly states that this song WILL BE played at every concert! Or do you not need this big check that I have right here in my hands?
ALL: oh, right.
John: I guess we’ll get right back on stage and play the darn thing.

2) Heat of the Moment by Asia with John Payne (Archives – Best of Asia 1988-1997) : Here’s a studio remake featuring John Payne on vocals. Wetton’s original vocals played such an integral part in the song that without Wetton, it just doesn’t sound right in my opinion. What do you think?

3) Heat of the Moment by Wetton/Downes (bonus track from Wetton/Downes – Icon) : Another studio remake of HoTM but this time by the original songwriters, Wetton and Downes. Again, the remakes lack the spark that the original recording captured. Also the lack of Steve Howe’s trademark guitar leads don’t help matters here either.

4) Heat of the Moment by Asia (Live in Moscow) : This was recorded during the 3/4 reunion of the band back in 1990. Filling in for Steve Howe was Pat Thrall. I never thought Thrall’s over-processed metal sound was that complimentary to Asia’s style of music. and as it so happened, Thrall never came back after the 1990 tour.

5) Heat of the Moment by John Wetton (Chasing the Dragon) : Probably one of my favorite live renditions of this song. Wetton stripes the song down to the basics here. lovely.

NOTE: all files are hosted on savefile for a limited time. enjoy.

Purchase albums by Asia via Amazon:

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Video Killed the Radio Star

retroDan — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 19:36:47 +0000

deep from the depths of the retroblog music vault comes today’s featured song: video killed the radio star. it’s hard to believe the song is nearly 30 years old!! as a testament to the songwriting (Trevor Horn, Geoff Downes and Bruce Woolley) and the performance (the Buggles), the song still gets a fair amount of airplay and is still beloved by fans worldwide. You really have to give Trevor Horn and Geoff Downes credit b/c the recording skillfully balances musicianship, humor and sci-fi without becoming overly campy which the song easily could have fallen into.

VKTRS by The Buggles – according to wikipedia, the Buggles’ version isn’t the original. co-writer Bruce Woolley released the very first version of VKTRS on his album English Garden by Woolley & the Camera Club (with Thomas Dolby on keyboards). the Horn/Downes version is still my all time favorite. classic!

VKTRS by Geoff Downes (instrumental version) – often performed by Geoff Downes as a solo piece in concert, here’s a studio version performed by Geoff Downes on piano. another favorite of mine.

VKTRS by Geoff Downes with Glenn Hughes – for some reason, Downes decided to add Glenn Hughes on top of his solo piano version. not the best of decisions in my opinion. the instrumental version is the better of the two.

VKTRS by Ben Folds Five – a faithful cover by Ben Folds. lots of energy and a bit sloppy. it’s a fun listen.

VKTRS by Asia (live) – here’s John Wetton, Geoff Downes, Steve Howe and Carl Palmer performing their version of this classic tune. surprisingly Asia’s version is pretty crappy IMO. Palmer plays it a bit too fast with absolutely no groove and Howe just noodles on top of everything. blah.

enjoy the mp3s. if you end up downloading any of these, please be sure to post something in the comment field. thanks!

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also watch : the Buggles’ music video on youtube

oh, and here’s the live footage of the re-united Buggles performing the song at the Trevor Horn tribute in 2004.

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the CDs are available via amazon.com

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Asia: the lost years

retroDan — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 17:46:29 +0000

to celebrate the upcoming release of Asia’s brand new studio album Phoenix (out April 15th), I thought I’d share some Asia-related tracks from the mid-80s. I consider the mid to late eighties as the “lost period” for the original members of Asia after the breakup of the band in 1985. Carl Palmer, John Wetton, Geoff Downes and Steve Howe (Howe left in 1983 after the Asia in Asia debacle) all went their separate ways trying desperately to somehow find their way back onto the billboard charts. Generally they were unsuccessful in duplicating the sales number they had for their debut album back in 1982 but Steve Howe got closer than the rest with his 1986 project…

Steve Howe
Howe left Asia after the disastrous Asia in Asia ‘83 concert (with Greg Lake in place of John Wetton) in japan and formed another “supergroup” with Steve Hackett. Geoff Downes came on board as producer which is interesting since the project was guitar-based and Downes is a keyboard player. The group made a dent on the charts with “When the Heart Rules the Mind” and “The Hunter” but soon disbanded due to Howe and Hackett’s inability to work with one another.
- Download When The Heart Rules the Mind [via mediafire]
- Purchase GTR on amazon.com

John Wetton
Matching the huge success of Asia’s debut album would be a tough feat for just about any band. and when Alpha and Astra didn’t meet the record label’s expectations, the band was dropped. I’m sure it was tough for Wetton during this time. and it showed on his next project. Wetton hooked up with an old friend of his Phil Manzanera. along for the ride was producer Keith Bessey and Yes drummer Alan White. sounding like a lesser-version of Asia, the Wetton/Manzanera album tanked in 1987. It was a good try though. and having a soft spot for all things Asia, I still pull out the CD every once in a while.
- Download It’s Just Love [via mediafire]
- Purchase Wetton/Manzanera on amazon.com

Geoff Downes
Downes released an instrumental/new age-type album in 1987 titled The Light Program. the album sounds a bit dated now but I still listen to it every now and then for Downes’ very melodic compositions. interestingly, the original CD indexed the various themes into 2 minute pieces. so I’m not able to share a complete “song” as intended. I suppose it’s a good way to deter file sharing…
- Download Majesty [via mediafire]
- Purchase The Light Program on Amazon.com

Carl Palmer
With management’s love for shuffling members around, Palmer got back together with Keith Emerson but instead of Greg Lake, songwriter/musician Robert Berry was brought in (Berry was involved with GTR’s aborted second album, Nerotrend). The group was named “3″. why they didn’t go with “Emerson, Berry & Palmer” is anybody’s guess. with an ever diminishing market for “pop-prog”, their album To the Power of Three sank like a stone upon release in 1988.
- Download Talkin’ Bout [via mediafire]
- Purchase To the Power of Three on Amazon.com

bonus: Greg Lake
Lake came into Asia back in ‘83 as a favor to Carl Palmer when the group decided to give John Wetton the boot. unfortunately, Lake didn’t have the same vocal range as Wetton and it was very apparent to the millions that watched the Asia in Asia telecast on cable. Lake as well as the band knew it wasn’t a good fit and Lake went back to fronting ELP. the problem was that Carl Palmer was still contractually obligated to Asia so Lake and Keith Emerson had to find a replacement drummer to fill the “P” in ELP. Luckily, Cozy Powell was available and they quickly released Emerson, Lake & Powell in 1986.
- Download Touch and Go [via mediafire]
- Purchase Emerson, Lake & Powell on amazon.com.