The Beatles: Get Back

The Beatles: Get Back

(2021 UK 3-part documentary capturing the most intimate and honest glimpse into the creative process and relationship between John, Paul, George, and Ringo;
made entirely from never-before-seen and restored footage shot in early 1969 

for the 1970 feature film Let It Be;

directed by Peter Jackson)

by Live Music Head

December 2, 2021

I watched every bit of this new 3-parter.
Yes, every nook and every cranny.
I sighed, I yawned. I cried. I laughed.
Feeling every bit of the pressure, the tension, 

the boredom,
and the love and absolute joy
between,
and what is,
John, Paul, George, and Ringo.
And Maxwell’s Silver Hammer!
Painting testimonial pictures - oh, oh, oh, oh!
Footage Contains Explicit Language, Mature Themes,
and Smoking!
Viewer Discretion is Advised.
Ringo: “I farted. I thought I’d just let you know.
I was gonna sit here silent, and look at you.
Then I thought, no, I’ll tell you about it.”
Precious Beatle bits like that one are captured 

countless times throughout the 460+ minutes 

of this docu-series.

Thank you, thank you very much!

By the time they got to The Rooftop,
with Peter bringing it all back to the television screen,
looking oh-so fresh and oh-so clean –
I'd fallen madly, madly, madly in love all over again
with John, Paul, George and Ringo,
just like it was the first time.
Get Back!
And Don’t Let Me Down, I Got a Feeling, One after 909, and Dig a Pony …
never sounded or looked as good performed 

on top of that Apple
as they sounded or looked tonight,

some 50 odd years later,
when I streamed it over there on Disney+
The magic of the Beatles never fades.
Clearly.
It’s made from too much love for that.
And too much joy!

The trailer for The Beatles: Get Back....

Who Is Harry Nilsson? (And Why Is Everybody Talkin' About Him)

Who Is Harry Nilsson? (And Why Is Everybody Talkin' About Him)
(2006 American documentary about singer/songwriter Harry Nilsson;
directed by John Scheinfeld)
a movie review by LMH

Well, after watching this documentary, 

I learned that Harry Nilsson was born in Brooklyn, New York in 1941.
And grew up in such poverty that he was forced to eat dog food.
His mother was an alcoholic
and his father abandoned him when he was three.
Both his parents died in their fifties,
and Harry was bounced around from relative to relative after that.
But why did everybody talk about him?
Well, because he grew up to be a great songwriter.
And one of his first songs was about all that pain:
“Well, in 1941 a happy father had a son.
And by 1944, the father walked right out the door.
And in '45, the mom and son were still alive.
But who could tell in '46, if the two were to survive?”
In this documentary,
Van Dyke Parks recollects the road trip he took

back to Brooklyn with Harry,
to visit the house he grew up in.
And how Harry wept.
Harry’s grandparents were Swedish circus performers,
and Harry may have got some of his talent from his grandmother,
who played piano.
Harry’s uncle encouraged him to sing
and later, Harry learned how to play the ukulele and guitar.
Because of the poverty,
Harry was a high school dropout 

and began working at a very young age.
But after he was fired from his job as a caddie,
he got kicked out of the house.
Harry was only 15 years old when he decided to leave New York
and hit the road for California.
There, in the style of the Everly Brothers,
he formed a vocal duo with a friend,
and began writing songs.
He got a job at the Paramount Theatre in L.A.
where he learned piano chords from the musicians 

who performed there,
and another job working the night shift at a bank.
Harry’d get off work at 1am, hit the bar for an hour
and then write songs all night.
Sleep being not much of a priority,
he’d head out again during the day to hustle his songs
before starting work.
Then he got a publishing deal for $50 a week.
Then the Beatles arrived.
And he hated them for beating him to the punch.
But he loved them for being so good,
for giving him something to aspire to.
No other band mattered to him,
but The Beatles.
Until he wrote a song called Cuddly Toy for The Monkees.
He quit his job at the bank after that,
when he landed a recording contract with RCA Victor.
RCA released the album Pandemonium Shadow Show,
the first of more than a dozen albums Harry would record for the label.
In addition to Cuddly Toy and 1941,
Pandemonium Shadow Show featured a cover
of John Lennon’s You Can’t Do That,
which arrived in the Top 10 on the Canadian charts.

In this documentary, 

you’ll hear how Derek Taylor, the Beatles publicist
became such a fan of Nilsson
that he immediately wanted to share Harry’s records 

with all his friends.
Just like we all wanna do when we hear great music for the first time -
share the records with our friends.
But Derek’s friends were John, Paul, George and Ringo.
Next thing you know,
Harry’s receiving telephone calls from John and Paul,
expressing enormous enthusiasm for his songs.
John went as far as to declare in the press that
Nilsson was his favourite “group”.
Later, when Harry married Una O'Keeffe,
Ringo was his best man, 

bringing a tray of rings from Tiffany’s
for them to choose from.
Nilsson was married three times:
Sandi McTaggart (1964-1967),
Diane Clatworthy (1969-1974), who he had one child with; and
Una O’Keefe (1976-1994).
He had six kids with Una.
Flowers and melons.
As the documentary moved along,
I learned a great deal more about Harry
from all the talking heads who make special appearances,
the likes of which include Mickey Dolenz, Eric Idle, Robin Williams,
Yoko Ono, Randy Newman, and Brian Wilson.
Ray Cooper,
the percussionist I first got to know through the albums of Elton John,
describes the joy he felt listening on headphones
to Harry’s pure-toned, multi-octave vocals.
Cooper played on the Son of Schmilsson album,
and the doc shows Ray along with a very young looking Peter Frampton
making the album with Harry in studio.
Noteworthy that both Roger Pope and Caleb Quaye,
musicians I also first got to know through Elton John albums,
performed on the Nilsson Schmilsson record.
For me, listening to Harry Nilsson’s voice reminds me 

of Rufus Wainwright.
Or, I should say listening to Wainwright reminds me of Nilsson.
Another truly great song written by Nilsson is One,
released on Ariel Ballet in 1968.
Harry wrote the song after making a telephone call 

and getting a busy signal.
He had stayed on the line listening to the tone of the beep, beep, beep,
and that busy signal became the opening notes of the song.
“One is the loneliest number that you'll ever do.
Two can be as bad as one.
It's the loneliest number since the number one.”
One became a breakthrough hit for Three Dog Night,
earning them a Gold Record in 1969.

That same year, Midnight Cowboy happened, 

the film starring Dustin Hoffman and Jon Voight.
And suddenly, Everybody’s Talkin.
Nilsson was asked to write the theme for the film,
but so was Bob Dylan,
which resulted in an unused Lay Lady Lay.
Fred Neil may have written the song,
but it was Harry’s cover of Everybody’s Talkin that won out.
“Everybody's talkin’ at me
Can't hear a word they're saying
Only the echoes of my mind.”
Midnight Cowboy won the Oscar for Best Picture 

at the 42nd Academy Awards.
It also garnered Nilsson the award 

for Best Contemporary Vocal Performance
at the 12th annual Grammies.
The song would become Nilsson's first hit to reach 

the American Top 10,
and it reached number one in Canada.
But unlike every other recording artist,
Harry didn’t take his success out on the road to perform 

in front of live audiences.
No one’s entirely sure why.
Perhaps he didn’t want to be on someone else’s schedule.
Perhaps it was insecurity.
Some say he was terrified of performing live.
Instead, he performed on the BBC.
He also wrote Best Friend,
the theme song for The Courtship of Eddie’s Father,
a television sitcom starring Bill Bixby (1969-1972).
“People, let me tell you about my best friend.
He's a warm-hearted person who'll love me till the end.
People, let me tell you about my best friend.
He's a one boy cuddly toy, my up, my down, my pride and joy.”
I watched that show when I was a kid.

In 1970, Harry recorded Nilsson Sings Newman, 

a tribute to Randy.
He also released The Point that was accompanied by an animated film,
which premiered as an ABC Movie of the Week.
The Point is “a fable that tells the story of a boy,
the only round-headed person in a Pointed Village,
where by law everyone and everything must have a point.”
Explaining his inspiration for The Point, Nilsson said:
"I was on acid and I looked at the trees
and realized that they all came to points.
The little branches came to points,
and the houses came to points.
I thought, 'Oh, everything has a point!
And if it doesn't, then there's no point to it.’”

1971 saw the release of Nilsson Schmilsson, 

featuring two of the greatest songs: 

Coconut and Without You.
Without You was written by the fellas in Badfinger,
and was a huge hit for them.
Nilsson’s cover of it earned him his second Grammy.
Coconut did best in Canada, where it peaked at #5.
In this documentary,
you’ll hear how Coconut developed in the studio,
thanks to Nilsson’s producer, Richard Perry.
"She put the lime in the coconut, she drank 'em both up.
She put the lime in the coconut, she drank 'em both up.
She put the lime in the coconut, she drank 'em both up.
She put the lime in the coconut, she called the doctor, woke him up.
She said, Doctor!”
(Remember when Coconut was used in
the 1992 Quentin Tarantino film Reservoir Dogs?)
A whole whack of award nominations followed.
And then of course, the downward spiral.
Harry was another one of those absent husbands and fathers.
Yet another example of the duality that goes on 

deep inside some folks, especially artists,
who wanna be good husbands, fathers, wives, mothers, sisters, brothers, friends –
who wanna be good people,
but just can’t do what’s expected of them.
So they break away, feel guilty and rely on 

drugs and alcohol to get them through.
And oh, Harry did do that.
When making plans for the follow up record,
Harry would not compromise and went against 

the advice of his producer.
Nilsson: “It’s an artist prerogative to be indulgent to themselves.
He owes it to everyone else to be indulgent to himself.”

Good Catholic boy that he was, Harry released Son of Schmillson, 

containing the songs I’d Rather Be Dead and You're Breakin' My Heart,
which had no commercial value.
“You're breakin' my heart.
You're tearing it apart,
so fuck you.
All I want to do is have a good time,
now I'm blue.
You won't boogaloo.
Run down to Tramps,
have a dance or two.
You're breakin' my heart.
You're tearing it apart,
so fuck you.
You're breakin' my heart.
You're tearing it apart,
boo-hoo…”
Nilsson was going through a divorce at the time he wrote 

this “fuck you” song,
and it became a favourite of George Harrison’s.
Paul Williams: “Harry was a big bunny with really sharp teeth.”
Perry felt Nilsson was developing a death wish,
and the two parted ways when Nilsson decided to record 

an album of standards,

A Little Touch of Schmilsson in the Night.

With Frank Sinatra’s arranger, Derek Taylor producing,
and the London Philharmonic Orchestra backing him up,
the album featured Nilsson singing songs like
Me and My Gal and As Time Goes By.
In 1974,
Harry received one of the largest advances in history from RCA,
compliments of John Lennon.
And as you would imagine,
Nilsson soon had dealers approaching him left, right and center,
offering to help him spend those advances.
And partying with Harry got your name in the press.
Remember the one of him and Lennon getting thrown out 

of the Troubadour Club in L.A?
When the Smothers Brothers were doing a comeback show 

and all the major stars were there?
Nilsson fooled Lennon into believing that 

the Smothers enjoyed being heckled.
Thus, Lennon heckled them relentlessly until 

management threw them both out,
amidst flying fists and overturned tables.
But how in the world did that Kotex pad end up on Lennon’s head?
There’s an unusual photo of John, Mickey Dolenz, Alice Cooper

and Harry, resting his chin on the shoulder of Anne Murray. 

Cocaine and Cognac?
Or, Brandy and Milk?
These were the times of the full-on drug culture.
And getting a call from Nilsson was like getting a call from Sinatra –
you knew you’d be on an adventure for the next three days of your life.
With similar childhoods, it wasn’t hard to understand why
Lennon and Nilsson got along and partied so well together.

In the 1970’s, Nilsson owned a flat in London.
When he was away, he lent the 2-bedroom to his musician friends.
It was in one of these bedrooms that Mama Cass Elliot 

of the The Mamas and The Papas
took her last breath.
Four years later, Keith Moon of The Who also died 

in the same bedroom.
Nilsson then sold the flat to Pete Townshend.
Then Nilsson ruptured a vocal chord and RCA suggested a payoff.
Yup, they offered Nilsson the package.
But Blow Me Down,
then came Popeye!
You remember that feature film from 1980,
starring the impossibly talented Robin Williams?
The soundtrack to the film was composed by Nilsson,
and it included He Needs Me,
that oh-so lovely song sung by Shelley Duvall as Olive Oyl.
He Needs Me was also featured in the 2002 film Punch Drunk Love,
starring Adam Sandler.

In 1977, Nilsson recorded Knnillssonn. 

Considered to be his comeback album,
RCA promised a substantial marketing campaign for its release.
But then Elvis died.
And RCA ignored everything except meeting the demand for 

Presley's back catalog.
Then John Lennon was murdered.
Nilsson was in the recording studio watching television 

when it happened.
And all the music stopped.
Because Harry then became the poster boy for gun control.
He put songwriting aside to go to Washington 

and lobby to end handgun violence.
Then the 90s came and with it:
embezzlement, bankruptcy, gray hair and heart attacks.
And The Fisher King,
the 1991 Terry Gilliam film starring again,
the uncontainable talent known as Robin Williams.
For the film, Harry wrote I Love New York in June.
After that came an earthquake and a funeral.
For on January 15, 1994,
Harry Nilsson died in his sleep at the age of 52.
Although aftershocks of the earthquake were still being felt,
Harry’s service went on and many people attended.
And many stories were told about him,
much to his children’s delight.
Harry is interred in Pierce Brothers Valley Oaks Memorial Park 

in California.
A moving moment of acknowledgement was had for Harry 

at the top of the doc,
compliments of Dustin Hoffman.
Rolling Stone ranked Harry Nilsson No. 62
on the list of 100 Greatest Songwriters of All Time.
And Nilsson’s voice and songs have been featured in the films
All That Jazz starring Roy Scheider (1979),
Martin Scorsese’s GoodFellas (1990),
and two films starring Tom Hanks:
Forrest Gump (1994) and You’ve Got Mail (1998).
Over the years, songs penned by Nilsson were recorded by
a wide range of artists including:
Fred Astaire, Glen Campbell, Joe Cocker, Neil Diamond, 

Ella Fitzgerald, Johnny Mathis, Diana Ross, The Shangri-Las, 

Barbra Streisand, and The Yardbirds.
In 1995, 

the album For the Love of Harry: Everybody Sings Nilsson 

was released,
featuring Nilsson's songs performed by, among others, 

Adrian Belew, The Roches, Ron Sexsmith, 

Stevie Nicks and Jimmy Webb,
with proceeds benefiting the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence.
That's who Harry Nilsson was,
and why everybody was talkin' about him.

The trailer for…
Who Is Harry Nilsson (And Why Is Everybody Talkin' About Him)?

Classic Albums Live ~ an interview with Craig Martin

Classic Albums Live ~ an interview with Craig Martin
by Live Music Head


Classic Albums Live is a Toronto-based touring outfit
consisting of 40 professional musicians
with a commitment to recreating a note for note,
cut for cut recital of some of the greatest
classic rock and pop albums of all time
Under the leadership of producer Craig Martin,
the series began in 2003
and has grown from once-a-month shows at the
Phoenix Concert Theatre in Toronto to sold out venues
across the USA with standing ovations in
Florida, Los Angeles, Las Vegas and New Jersey
CAL has not slowed down playing venues all over
Ontario and Eastern Canada but Torontonians haven’t seen
a performance held in the heart of downtown
since the series parted ways with the Phoenix
at the end of August last year
To the delight of followers of the series,
a press release issued in May announced that CAL
will perform at Massey Hall for
the very first time on Sept 26, 2009
The performance will honour the 40th anniversary
release of the Beatles Abbey Road when Classic Albums Live
performs the entire record with a 17-piece band
Mr Martin joins me now to discuss this milestone in the series


Many of the CAL alumni grew up listening to the albums you cover. Many of the alumni have seen the original artists perform at venues like Massey Hall. With the upcoming CAL show on Sept 26, was there any idea when you started the series that CAL would be performing on the Massey Hall stage only 6 years in?

Yes we did, right from the get-go, we really did. I know that sounds boastful but I remember Mike Daley spoke about it. And Doug Inglis and I had conversations about it. And my friend Desmond (Leahy) and I had long conversations about it back before I started CAL. Many of us thought the series was a sound idea and, if done properly, would translate well to the Massey Hall stage. I remember one conversation with Des where we were talking about the age group of current musicians, like Paul McCartney, members of Pink Floyd or the Zeppelin dudes, and with no disrespect intended, wondered how long they’d have the ability to play their own music. We want the original artists to hand us the torch to play their music in not only places like Massey Hall, but the Air Canada Centre and in faraway places like China. We all dreamed real big right from the very start. Not just me, but the musicians got it.

Speaking of Paul McCartney, in the film All Together Now there’s a scene where it’s announced Sir Paul will visit the set during the rehearsals of Cirque de Soleil. The cast are nervous that McCartney won’t like what they’re doing with his music. Would having an original artist like McCartney come out to see CAL perform Abbey Road at Massey Hall also be something you dreamed about from the start?

Yes absolutely. That’s part of the dream. I’ve never written these guys directly because I think it would be crass to do so. I want them to find out about us by word of mouth. I don’t want to be another lost email. I want them to come to us. And again, that’s not meant to be boastful. I just think it’s a natural organic way that this should happen.

And it’s possible, isn’t it? That Paul could come to you?

Yes it is possible. Musicians like him still go out. My friend Des goes to a pub in England and finds David Gilmour standing in the corner playing, and nobody says boo to him.

Do you think the CAL alumni would be up to the pressure knowing Paul McCartney was in the house watching CAL’s 40th anniversary recital of Abbey Road?

Absolutely and nothing would change really, if Paul was there. It would just make it more exciting. Marty (Morin) may speed up toward the end of I Want You (She’s so Heavy). Stuff like that. But McCartney should come out. All the original cats should come out to see us carry on with their music. To see us treat their music with respect.

The age range of people attending your shows would be similar in range to fans attending McCartney’s shows. Or concerts by Elton John and Bruce Springsteen, where older audiences are still attending shows and bringing their children and their grandchildren. Do you find this to be true with the CAL demographic?

Yes we’re seeing that across the board. Well, you don’t really see it in Toronto. The Phoenix Concert Theatre is not a club designed for families, but all the other theatres we play, like the Oakville Centre for the Performing Arts and St Catharines and down east, you’ll see lots of families and kids in the audience. And that’s important. I don’t know if it’s a part of your questions, but it’s something I want to talk about. In that the kids are hip to what’s going on these days. They all have their pop stars like every generation, pop stars that they love, but kids are seeking out the good stuff too. My son’s iPod list is AC/DC, Aerosmith, and The Beatles.

But wouldn’t that be your direct influence on your son?

Yes, but he’s also got Weezer in it and American Idiot. So he’s also thinking for himself, which is cool.

And I guess you learn from him as well?

Yes, but I don’t really influence him. He finds this stuff by himself. He’s able to hear songs and say, “That’s crap. This is just mindless fluff.” I mean, he doesn’t really say “mindless fluff” but he understands it for what it is. And a lot of kids do. They understand the hard sell, so consequently they’re seeking out all this music that was made before videos, when you had to use your imagination. I always talk about music made when you had to use your imagination.

So you think kids are smarter than we think?

Yes, and we see a lot of them at our shows. It’s cool.

In our parents and grandparents day, with few if any families owning a television set, let alone a computer, social activities were experienced through live bands at community dance halls. Today, more and more fans are downloading music off the internet and sharing on social networking sites like Facebook, Myspace and Twitter. Unlike the dance halls or the rock arenas where we enjoyed live music together, these internet sites seem to isolate us from direct human contact. Do you think live music will survive at some level like it has, as a means of bringing folks and communities together?

Community dance halls, yes, that’s where my own parents met. I think the arena bands are going away. You won’t see as many artists going into the ACC as you once saw. We’re already seeing that now. I think stadium rock is done. There’ll be a few to fly the flag but I think it’s going to be pretty much like you said. Like our parent’s generation, community based. There seems to be a real communal vibe right now. This recession seems to have re-set everybody to what’s important. We’re buying locally and we’re smartening up in some ways.

But don’t you find a lack of face to face communication? People are communicating on line, having typed conversations on Facebook, and sharing music on line. The world wide web and computers, just like video games and television sets before it, seem to keep folks at home, separated physically from others in the community.

These are ethical and sociological questions that I don’t really know anything about. But I’ll tell you this, people will always go see live music and people will always congregate together. They may add another Twitter type of thing every other day but people will still go out together. I believe all these technological things just give us more opportunities. We’re able to wrap things up quicker and consequently have more time to spend with other humans. I don’t think the way we use technology will have any impact on live music at all. People will communicate on line and then go rock out at a concert together. People will always get together. I know a little something about that.

You’re a musician but primarily a producer for the series. Your passion for this music and your ability to put shows together so successfully brings to mind Bill Graham, rock impresario. Is he a role model for you?

It’s funny you should bring him up. I’m reading a book about him right now for the second time. Like him, I’ve done my share of yelling and screaming. His story is a really good one. A story you can learn from. He was a business man like me, but I’m also pretty connected to the music and I get involved with the music. We don’t really do the same job, he and I, but I like the comparison (laughs).

He’s not a musician either, but you two are very similar.

Yes, right on, good. I see the comparison and I like it. I’ll do everything to encourage that. I did model myself after him. My favourite thing about Graham is you see him at something like Live Aid (1985) sweeping up the stages. You see him out there in these brown boots on the stage in between the bands. And he’s doing this himself during the biggest show in the history of the world, next to Woodstock. Watching Bill Graham sweep the stage himself made me think yes, that’s what you gotta do. I never lost sight of that. There’s nothing you can’t do. Sweep the stage, get water, make coffee, tune the guitars, and hire the right band.

A few decades ago, cover bands weren’t taken all that seriously. Cover bands were performed by friends of ours as a weekend hobby. But cover bands today are touring most of the year, charging as much for a ticket as some of the original acts. Not only do bands like RAIN sell out venues across North America performing Beatles music, but bands like Cheap Trick got together earlier this year to perform the entire Sgt Pepper record in Las Vegas. Phish’s current tour had polls running for fans to guess which album they’d cover in its entirety at their Festival 8 shows. What is it with cover bands and bands that cover classic albums that remains this popular? And with competition like this, does it keep CAL on their toes honouring the music with a perfect note for note recital?

Well no, we’re nothing like these bands to be honest with you. I mean, a lot of them have taken my idea. I mean, if I wasn’t the first to come up with the idea, I’m certainly the first to bring performing albums in their entirety, to the forefront. There may have been pockets of bands doing similar things before me like The Music Box, who I didn’t realize were doing the whole Music Box album until much later when I was researching Genesis. But I’m the first one to do what we’re doing now. But we still have nothing in common with these bands anyway. We have more in common with orchestras, like the TSO, the Boston Pops and the London Philharmonic. Those are the bands we have the most in common with. It’s the orchestras that do exact recitals, the same as we do. They’re the ones that keep us on our toes. We blow these other bands out of the water. Line ‘em up and we’ll blow them straight out of the water. We’ll show you who the real players are. We’re not a tribute band. We don’t dress up.

But CAL is a cover band.

The same as the TSO, baby. And like the London Philharmonic.

What about old school cover bands, like you yourself played with in bars around Scarborough back in the day?

They were good times. Those were really good times. I mean, we went out and played six nights a week. We’d have Sundays off and spend them driving to our next gig. We played non-stop for fifty bucks a week. It was a great life but that was 1980. I think the days of the old cover bands, the glory days anyway, are long gone.

But cover bands still seem popular.

Cover bands aren’t that popular. Their grafts will go up a little bit, but they’re not doing the numbers like they use to.

All the same, they weren’t playing Massey Hall back in 1980 either.

None of them will be playing Massey Hall now. Massey Hall is ours. Massey Hall won’t be booking any of those other bands, which is cool.

So you’re telling me CAL has exclusivity?

Kind of, yes. It’s cool. And it’s heavy.

Last year CAL strayed from classic rock to cover classic pop. With the successful recitals of Michael Jackson’s Thriller and Prince’s Purple Rain, do you think you will cover more classic albums outside of the rock world and if so, which ones?

We’ll definitely go back to Michael Jackson this year, big time. But we’re only doing it in the States. Our Canadian market isn’t biting. In the States they’re asking for the Thriller show. Their audiences want to come out and remember Jackson in a cool way. So we’re getting a lot of work from that. We’re also launching a Woodstock show (also celebrating a 40th anniversary this year) and it’s been a tough one because when you think about it, you have the Woodstock 1 album and the Woodstock 2 album and then there’s the movie, and none of these three things are the same. And now there’s the new re-released movie with extra footage. So you’ve got a total of something like 8 hours to choose from and we clearly can’t do an eight hour show. I mean we could, but we won’t. I have to do revisionist history, I think. I’m going to take the best bits and put them together for a nice cohesive two hour show along with the announcements. It’s going to be a departure for us, and I’m concerned about that because it is different from what we regularly do.

It would be different because there’ll be surprises.

Yes, there’ll be surprises and the key may possibly be in changing the set list from town to town. It might be something we do for a tour. My agent here in Canada doesn’t like it because it takes us away from what we’re known for, and he’s exactly right. He’s very Canadian and likes to say, “We know how this works, so let’s keep with that.” Whereas my American agent is very American and will say, “Let’s go, let’s make some money, and let’s get it out there. If these guys want it, let’s give it to them. We’ll fly it up the flagpole.” It’s a very strange dynamic between the two of them. But it's interesting and indicative of their respective countries.

But wait, Woodstock is still classic rock. I’m talking about classic pop.

I want to do Radiohead’s OK Computer again. No one else wants to do it. But I do.

But that’s not pop either. I’m talking pop.

Michael Jackson for now, but it may be fun to do the Prince album again.

What about Marvin Gaye or Stevie Wonder? Weren’t they in the running?

We’ll see what happens but that’s a new crowd and another left turn for our regular crowd. We learned with the Michael Jackson and Prince shows here in Toronto that our regular crowd wouldn’t make the jump for either of them, which I thought was crazy. I mean, you didn’t even go. Our crowd didn’t think they’d be into these records. Yet they’re both incredible works of music. Both are classic albums that hold their own against Zep IV and Dark Side of the Moon. Michael Jackson’s album is Quincy Jones and he’s a motherfucker, man. I mean, it was like going back to school learning Thriller. And the Purple Rain album? Prince thinks like nobody else.

It’s imperative to have younger fans coming to the shows to keep the music alive. But as the man behind CAL’s marketing and who decides the players for each CAL band, is it difficult to market this music to younger fans? And is it difficult to keep the CAL alumni pool fresh with young musicians who probably never grew up with this music, but who have a desire to play it?

Good question. Finding the right musicians is hard. I’d like to see some younger musicians come in, and I know they’re out there. But we got it to a point now where it’s my duty to keep the guys we already have, employed. I got a core of about 35 musicians who’ve been with me from the get-go. We respect each other. There’s a great deal of respect between us, so just to bring in a younger musician to take their gig would be a big deal. But I do want younger musicians, so I’m in a quandary. It’s a line I’ve got to ride. I’m hoping to get more shows to start a whole other branch where I can use other musicians and start getting a bigger pool, but I don’t want to jump the gun or shoot myself in the foot. The most important thing is keeping the quality of it. So you see the quandary I’m in. As for the first part of your question, it is very difficult to market because we take so much explaining. It’s like a run on sentence, not a tight little sound byte. But what we got going for us is people will come to the show out of curiosity or confusion. We’ve had people show up thinking we’re going to play the record to a light show. But what happens after they see us is they talk about it. They talk about it, just like we do. And explain it to other people.

Are there young people coming to your shows?

Young, old, tall, small and skinny. All kinds, really. A great demographic of society. But I wish we got more black people out.

James Brown couldn’t get many black people out in his later years. And I remember Tracey Chapman during her tour with Amnesty Int’l, making the comment, “where’s my people?” Black people don’t come out in numbers for these kinds of shows. I’m not sure why but I assume they’re with the hip hop crowd and rap audiences. But the music you’re playing wouldn’t necessarily appeal to the black community anyway, would it?

Well, it’s soul music, right? It’s all music from the soul.

But it’s not soul music. If you were playing soul music, you’d be performing classic records by James Brown, Aretha Franklin or Sly and the Family Stone.

We’ll be doing Sly and the Family Stone as part of the Woodstock show. But I think all the records we do have so much fucking soul. It’s all soul music to me.

Was there not a noticeable black component at your Michael Jackson and Prince shows?

Not so much at the Michael Jackson show, but we did see it at the Prince show. I would like to see the same black people come out for our Fleetwood Mac shows, you know? And our Led Zeppelin shows. I want everybody coming all the time. That’s my goal, and to get the brothers out.

According to the dates posted on your website, CAL has dates in Eastern Canada and all across North America. But there doesn’t seem to be any dates for Western Canada. Will CAL eventually play Vancouver or Calgary? And do you foresee at some point taking CAL to venues in European cities?

We’re going to the province of Alberta. We’re going to do four or five shows there, every three or four months. We’ve been there before to put our feet in the water. But frankly, it’s expensive to do business out west. We want to, but again, what we do takes a lot of explaining. So we have to make sure we have all the right people in place before I invest money in it. I need to build it slow to do it properly. But there is a plan to turn Alberta into a solid tour base. The same way we got it going on down east. We have played Vancouver in the past. We’ve been to the Commodore. It was tough there man, they don’t give you anything. It costs a lot of money to go over the Rockies. We did Dark Side of the Moon there and it did very well. They papered the room. They gave tickets away to everybody. People’s jaws hit the ground, and they went nuts. We were asked to come back but I lost money. I don’t want to lose money. I don’t like losing money. It’s not good for me, the musicians or anything.

So what’s the real difference between the east coast and the west coast?

My agent. He’s got real relationships on the east coast. And now the agency he’s with has relationships on the west coast, so that’s going to help. We’re also working on South Africa for next summer. Yes, we’re going to South Africa next summer. I also want to do England. But the best way to tour England is to take all our guitars, drums, amps and put them in a van and ship the van over. And then Johnny B, our tour manager can fly to England, pick up the van with all our shit and pick us up too, and off we go. I figure it’ll be cheaper than renting all that stuff from over there. Again, with England you’re going to blow money out your pockets. Everywhere you go in England, you can watch the money go firing out. So, I’ll wait a bit. We’ll get there eventually.

South Africa sounds very exciting. But I guess you can’t really go by the old models in rock and roll history when it comes to touring. Things change.

We run into problems with other languages. We were finally making some roads into Quebec, but it breaks down to language. I mean, there’s a language barrier. Classic Albums what? That kind of thing.

1969 was a big year in music history and many events like Woodstock and the anniversary of Abbey Road will be marked with celebrations this year. If CAL is still around to celebrate their own 40th anniversary, do you think any original music being produced today will be worthy of a note for note, cut for cut recital in the year 2049?

American Idiot by Green Day would be a worthy album and Bob Dylan’s Modern Times. I think Dylan’s legacy won’t really hit for another 15 years. Modern Times will have a re-birth. And I, singlehandedly, have probably sold more copies of the Modern Times record than anybody else. I mean, before a CAL show, I have that album playing. And I just stand at the sound board and wait. It only takes till the second song, Spirit of the Water, before somebody comes over to ask me, “Who is this? What album is this?”

So why hasn’t CAL covered a Dylan record yet?

Oh I don't know, but I do want to go on record as saying, “I sold more copies of Modern Times for Bob Dylan than anyone else” (laughs)

Dylan may even come to a show if you did one of his records. He comes here often. I mean, he’s even played the Phoenix. I think you should do Infidels.

I’m more a Free Wheelin' type of guy, but Highway 61 would be the album. It’s never been played properly with that jangling guitar. That’s the one we’d do, for sure.

It’s very exciting to be playing Massey Hall, not only for the series, but for the city of Toronto and it’s community of Beatle fans.

Massey Hall is good. And it's the CAL musicians who will make the Abbey Road anniversary special. They are the world's best musicians.

Are all the musicians involved with the Massey Hall show Canadian?

No, I have a few musicians flying in from the States, a couple of horn players and a string player. But out of the 17 musicians involved, 14 are Canadian.

Sept 26th will be a very special night for everyone. Now, I wonder where I can find Paul McCartney’s direct contact information...


Classic Albums Live official website
http://www.classicalbumslive.com/
For tickets to the Abbey Road show at Massey Hall
http://www.masseyhall.com/home.cfm

Paul McCartney ~ Late Show with David Letterman

Paul McCartney ~
Late Show with David Letterman
July 15, 2009

I felt like a school girl
last night,
brimming over with excitement as I
watched Paul McCartney make his first guest appearance
on the Late Show with David Letterman.
Not only am I an enormous fan of The Beatles,
but I’m an enormous fan of David Letterman.
I go to bed with Dave almost every night.
And to finally see Paul McCartney on the program,
well,
not only was it exciting for music fans,
but it must have given the other talk show hosts
a helluva run
for their late night television ratings.
Many viewers, I’m sure
were remembering the very first time
McCartney appeared in the Ed Sullivan Theatre
back in 1964, when the Beatles performed
in front of an astounding 73 million viewers.
My older sister watched
and when the baby Beatles shook their mop tops,
and sang all over our black and white television set,
my sister screamed her head off.
But being I was only 1 at the time,
I can’t really say I remember any of that.
But like so many others,
Beatle music went on to become the soundtrack of my life.
And it still is.
How many other pop artists today, can you say that about?
Despite gravity pulling down on the skin of those cute
McCartney cheeks,
Paul, at the age of 67
still has a boyishness about him.
And with that playful wit,
he still carries a slender physique.
But I have to ask,
who was responsible for the Late Show interview questions?
Most of the chat between Dave and Paul
was about Beatle history we’ve all heard
and heard only a million times already.
Not that I ever tire of hearing the same old Beatle stories,
but The Beatles every move is so tremendously documented.
I just think the Late Show writers could’ve done a better job of it.
As I watched McCartney take the marquee stage
to perform his allotted two songs after the interview,
memories of my own came flooding back.
Not from when I was 1 in 1964,
but back to the month of May, in the year 2004.
When my then-boyfriend and I travelled to New York City
and were fortunate enough to get tickets as audience members
for the Late Show with David Letterman.
And what an experience it was!
Arriving at the Ed Sullivan Theatre 3 hours before the taping,
we met Dave’s processed meat platter ladies,
bought the t-shirt and the coffee mug at the CBS store,
and over a sandwich, we even got to meet Rupert Jee
standing behind his counter at the Hello Deli.
All this happened before hundreds of us were rounded up
and taken across the street to the Roseland Ballroom
for the Late Show staff to prepare us;
to give us all lessons on how to laugh...
laugh out loud, that is!
Because when we were asked to think about it,
The Late Show wranglers were right.
Audience members who laugh on the inside
just don’t translate very well
in front of millions of television viewers.
The crew’s exuberance in their lesson was infectious
and as a result,
they got exactly what they wanted;
a very enthusiastic audience for the taping that day.
Racing down the aisle of the Theatre once we were admitted,
my partner and I landed in the third row
directly beside the program announcer, Alan Kalter.
I was brimming over with school girl excitement, I tell ya.
After all, we were inside the historic Ed Sullivan Theatre!
But had Paul McCartney been the musical guest that day,
not only would I have screamed like my older 1964 sister,
but I would have cried my bloody eyes out!
Instead of McCartney, we got another musical icon.
One from the country and western kind
when the American coal miner’s daughter, Loretta Lynn
joined Jack White and the Do Whaters
right there on the Ed Sullivan stage
alongside Paul Shaffer and the CBS Orchestra.
I myself am a Coal Miner's Granddaughter,
so I loved every f^%king second of it!
Sometimes I wish I never had this experience
because I would love to do it all over again
for the very first time.
So being such a big fan of the Late Show,
Letterman, McCartney and New York City,
the question I ask myself is...
“Why the hell wasn’t I standing on Broadway yesterday…
with everyone else as they stared up at McCartney?”
I’m an idiot, that’s why!
Because immediately following the 2 song performance,
fans on the street were treated to a mini concert
as Paul continued to rock the marquee
for another ½ hour after the tv broadcast ended.
Not being there in person really sucked,
but fortunately folks at home
were allowed to view this mini-concert
in the wee hours of the morning,
compliments of Mr Letterman’s page at the CBS website.
We all watched McCartney sing Helter Skelter at the age of 67,
and for that,
God bless him!
And CBS having teamed up with Facebook,
I got caught up in the instantaneous posts and commentary
reading what everyone else was saying at the same time
we all watched the performance together.
It was distracting,
but hell, I too posted a slew of comments.
I just couldn’t help myself.
The interactive technology is incredible!
McCartney on the Late Show marquee,
with folks hanging off New York windows and balconies,
was very exciting indeed.
And what about that Abe Laboriel?
One helluva drummer, eh?
Out of the five mini concert songs the band did,
I would have to say the highlight for me was
Let Me Roll It.
I just love the guitar in that song.
But I also loved the organ in this version.
So once again, who can deny
the old timers can still rock?
McCartney and his band brought smiles
to so many faces yesterday,
on an otherwise uneventful Wednesday.
Here’s to ya Mr Letterman,
and to the great city of New York...
America f&^king rocks!
And to Paul McCartney... you old timer you.
I bet you’ll still be rocking well into your 80s.
And for that, I say….
thank you, thank you, thank you!


Paul McCartney performs Let Me Roll It
atop the Ed Sullivan Theatre marquee...

The Late Show with David Letterman
http://lateshow.cbs.com/latenight/lateshow/