Scott Morgan Interview -

           
                                               

Scott Morgan & the Sights

Let’s Get Rational

David Fricke calls Scott Morgan one of the great voices in rock & roll and it is no exaggerated boast. Morgan has been singing soulful rock & roll since he was knee-high to a grasshopper in the early sixties. By the time he was 16 years old Morgan formed his own band, The Rationals and he began a long hit-making journey through the mid-sixties and into the seventies. Their manager Jeep Holland was instrumental in helping the young band develop and find their own distinct voice. Morgan’s soul deep version of the Otis Redding chestnut Respect predated Aretha Franklin’s version by several months. It was rumored that Atlantic Records boss Jerry Wexler was inspired to have Aretha record the song after hearing the Rationals punk garage version on A2 Records. It was bought out by Cameo Parkway in 1967.  From then on in the floodgates were wide open, anything was possible. The Rationals released a stream of blue-eyed soul hits that rivaled anything on the national scene including such spectacular songs as Hold On Baby, Leaving Here, I Need You. They toured extensively with several notable bands including close alliances with the Yardbirds and the Rascals. They opened up for the Rascals in 1966 at Daniel’s Den and were invited to tour with them in Florida. They were kindred sprits with Al Kooper and the Blues Project who were labeled New York’s Jewish Beatles. A few years later Kooper asked Morgan to join his new band as the lead singer as well as reaching out to Dick Wagner to become the band’s lead guitarist. Both Wagner and Morgan declined the offer. Kooper eventually named the band Blood Sweat & Tears.

In 1968, The Rationals were re-working several different cover songs including Sugar Babe, 16 Tons, Hit the Road Jack, Good Morning Little School Girl, I Put a Spell on You, Fever and a medley of Moby Grape tunes. In 1970 they released their eponymous LP for Crewe Records. It is a forgotten treasure that revealed the Rational’s growth as mature artists. The LP contained a hodgepodge of R&B, Soul, Jazz and Motown. The song list included Barefootin’, Temptation ‘Bout To Get Me, Guitar Army, Handbags & Gladrags and the closer HA-HA that incorporated jazz, rock and an avant-garde flute solo by Scott Morgan.

By the end of summer the Rationals parted ways and Scott Morgan began a musical journey that was as inspired as it was organically pleasing. He continued gigging with people from the Detroit scene that he knew and trusted. It led from his work with Guardian Angel to a series of events that led to the formation of the legendary Sonic Rendezvous Band. Morgan and Sonic Smith’s partnership was a match made in rock & roll heaven. They complimented each other’s craft in an effortless manner building upon each others musical strengths. From there Scott joined forces with ex-Mc5 guitarist Wayne Kramer as Dodge Main, followed by an album and a tour with the Dutch punkers the Hydromatics. In early 2004, Scott released Medium Rare, an incredible LP of music that re-established Morgan as one of our greatest R&B singers in America.

In an Exclusive interview with Review Magazine, Morgan took a look back at his storied career and talks about his collaboration with the Sights, one of Detroit’s great rock & roll bands in the new millennium

 

Scott How did radio influence the career of the Rationals?

There was a big change in radio because all playlists went from singles to albums and from regional markets to national programming, and at the same time ham radio was dominated by, what’s the word, AM radio was 50,000 watts but it was amplitude and modulation so you could hear it at the WKNX or WSAM in Saginaw. You could hear it the entire eastern half of the United States until sunset when the regulations just completely dissolve, and you can broadcast and signal just about any place in the world. At the same time FM radio took over. It has about a 50-mile radius, and it was programmed by a major programmer so that complete radio markets like Taz, you would have a market that would be the same in Memphis that it would be in Flint or Detroit, so that made a big difference to everybody because that way you’d be making singles.

 

When did you decide to record the album?

At that point we decided that we really needed to make an album so we could compete in the burgeoning LP market. We went in and we recorded an album at Artie Field’s studio, and we did it ourselves. We hired a producer named Fred Saxon and we worked with our manager at the time. We’d been managed by Jeep Holland. He did our singles recording up until the album. Our new manager was Roy Feldmann who we met at the Grande Ballroom…From the “Swingin’ Time,” the TV Show.

That was also syndicated. There were two services in the area. One was “Swingin’ Time” in Windsor which pretty much covered the same area, the radio station that was syndicated, and then the other one was “Upbeat” in Cleveland. That was very similar. It was also syndicated. The license was from the United States. So we recorded the album, and we tried to do pretty much what we’d been doing with our singles but, you know, in the long form, 12 songs or whatever. So we recorded some originals including guitar lead and a lot of like soul covers. We did a Don Jon song, we had a Howard Parker song. We did a cover of “Handbags and Gladrags,” which was a British song as well as “Ha-Ha” a song we wrote that was somewhat avant garde and I actually played flute on that cut.

So, you play several instruments

I took flute lessons. My sister had a flute, and she had used it and played it in high school and then stopped using it. So I took it and started teaching myself and taking lessons and then I put a pickup on it so you could eventually play it through an amplifier, and an Echoplex which is a, it’s a really nice tape-delay unit that uses real tape. So you got a real nice sound. When I played harmonica, I played that through an amplifier like Paul Butterfield and that had a nice sound to it… I played the saxophone for a while. I played a lot of percussion. I played some drums. I played those on stage. I moved on to piano.

 

Would there be gigs where you’d play several different instruments during the gigs? Sure. My main instrument was guitar, but I, you know, just for color I added, you know, the flute and the harmonica and Italian drums and electric piano. Yeah, My father was a music teacher, and so he had to teach all the instruments in the band and so I think I inherited some of his talent.

 

 Can you tell me a story about Guitar Army?

Oh, it was just something that I cooked up. It was during the Viet Nam War. I was only 16, and the MC5 were talking about, you know, revolution and everything, and I was trying to come up with a … It was kind of like an answer song to like “Motor City’s Burnin,” you know, the idea of like burning everything, destroying everything, like how about if we took guitars and made an army out of that, kind of like a musical alternative to like war.

John Sinclair used the title of my song for his book.

For a year or two he had a company called the Rainbow Company. They managed us…hat would’ve been about ’71, ’72.

 

Well, you probably hear this all the time. I really loved your 45s, the Rationals, “Respect,” Hold On Baby.” Respect predated, you know, what’s her name, Aretha. “Leavin’ Here,” “I Need You.” Can you comment on those, what your thoughts are?

 

Otis Redding wrote the song for Jackie Wilson and so they decided to put it out themselves with another singer but it was never a hit, though everyone was convinced that it could be a hit. We tried it twice actually, second time was a charm

 

“Hold On Baby.”

“Hold On Baby” was after “Respect,” and we were looking for something strong in terms of soul music. “Respect” was written by Otis Redding and then we recorded it and then Aretha Franklin recorded it after us and we had to compete with her, and it was a great arrangement. I think her sister, Carolyn did the arrangement. She was kind of peaking at the time she did recorded it. She was just getting started with Atlantic Records, and so it was perfect for her. “Hold On Baby” was arranged at a different studio, Tera Shirma Studio in Detroit. We had them produce the harmony on it. Bob Seger was a great singer, and at the time he had a really strong voice. You know, he was pretty young when he did that and so his vocal comes out real strong. Oh, let’s see. I was trying to figure out who wrote what. Jeff Berry and Ellen Greenwich wrote it. They were a New York songwriter team.  So after “Hold On, Baby” we did “I Need You.” That was originally by Chuck Johnson. “Hold On Baby” was originally by Sam Hawkins.

 

You sang your ass off. “I Need You” is just terrific. You nailed it.

 

The Chuck Johnson song wasn’t one of his big hits. We decided to cover that, and it did pretty well in Detroit. Everything was regional back then, so just because it was a hit in Detroit didn’t mean it would be a hit in New York or Los Angeles.

 

 I couldn’t understand that, those were all just wonderful 45s. I don’t understand why they didn’t go farther. Do you think there was a problem with promotion?

 

Well, something happened around the time that we did “Respect.” All of our records had come out on A-Square Records which was Jeep Holland’s label, and we had broken records like on KNX and TNC, … and then we would try to break the records in other Midwest markets like Cleveland or Chicago or Lansing. At the time that “Respect” came out, we followed it with “Hold On Baby,” and then our record company, which was Cameo Parkway, dissolved and there were a bunch of us that were on the label. Bob Seger was on the label, Question Mark and the Mysterians were on the label and the Rationals were on Cameo Parkway records, so we were all without labels, so Bob and the Rationals went to Capital where we recorded “I Need You” and the sound that was real famous in Detroit. We released that on Capital and Bob went to Capital too. So we both went from Cameo Parkway to Capital. He stayed with it, and we didn’t. We decided not to stay on Capital. We went to Guitar Army because things, everything was changing so much that we wanted to do something a little more modern and break out of the shadow of soul music, the direction that we’d been going in which was a great direction, but we wanted to do something, you know, a little more rock-oriented.

 

Do you think it confused your fan base?

Yes, quite a bit. It did things to everybody, the radio stations, the fan base.

 

What were they saying?

Well, the radio would just say, “Well, we don’t know what to do with it because your last record was Cameo Parkway and your next record is Guitar Army, and we’re trying to figure out, we don’t know what to do.” We didn’t really have a label when we put that out. We did it on a local label in Detroit, so it wasn’t really released nationally until we signed an album deal with Crewe Records to release the album.

 

 

Who was your producer, arranger, the background guys for you for that album?

We recorded at Artie Field’s studio. That is where the MC5 recorded “Cryin’ Time,” their last album for Atlantic Records. We went back again when we formed the Sonic’s Rendezvous Band  and recorded “City Slang.”  

 

Now were you were close enough with the MC5 and some of the others, would be on each other’s recordings?

Sure. We were on the “High Time” record and the very last songs, kind of a percussion intervention. And it’s me and Terry Trabandt from the Rationals, my brother, David, Bob Seger, and a few other people. We just all grabbed percussion instruments and played right at the beginning of the song. So you know, all the bands, the tour bands at the time, were very close…at first he played on the second version of “I Need You” that we recorded…our manager was thinking that was going to be a hit, so he recorded it a second time. It still wasn’t a hit.

 

You have this incredible voice. How did you find your voice, your true Scott Morgan voice?

Well first we didn’t sing at all. We played our own instrumentals. Like we would cover the Ventures version of “Walk Don’t Run,” obviously the Chuck Berry song, “Walk Don’t Run,” a jazz song by Johnny Smith… We didn’t really sing, and then by the time the Beatles showed up, we figured that we could, you know, add that to our show, to sing, and so we started singing. The first song I sang in public was “Money” by Barrett Strong.  Then we started, you know, covering other songs, the Kinks and Zombies and all that great stuff. We really liked all that stuff.    

 Eventually we got into rhythm and blues and singing, you know. We liked more blues stuff. Originally we probably would be singing like “High-Heel Sneakers” or something like that, and then we started writing after that. I kind of ended up being the lead singer and Steve Carell and Terry Trabandt sang the harmonies, and they were really good at it. We worked with Bob Dell quite a bit at Mt. Holly. He played our records, and we played one of the main places to play in the area, Fenton Armory. Those would have been the main places, you know.

 

I heard that the camaraderie was really striking, that you guys did hang out together, did play some touch football.

Yeah, everybody got along back then. As a matter of fact, we would sit in one of those bands, you know, when we were kids coming out into the market. They’d be willing to hang out with you, you know, especially with the local bands. There was a lot of interaction going on between the bands.

 

I want  to talk about Sonic’s Rendezvous Band.  Did any of these record companies, agents, whatever, did they ever do right by you, any of these companies?

I could say both because, you know, you had Cameo Parkway and A-Square Records. You know we didn’t really have a lot of business success. We didn’t have somebody like Punch Andrews who was willing to invest all of his family fortune in Bob. Bob did work really hard. He toured incessantly, and so he deserves all the success that he’s got. Question Mark, I think he kind of got like thrown by the loop when Cameo Parkway broke up because he made like three albums for Cameo Parkway?

 

 

Two and a third one that was unreleased.

Okay, and then the Rationals did move on but we broke up in 1970.

I was the only one who kind of kept going. Terry Trabandt and I formed Guardian Angel which was the band with Pete Andrews, no relation to Punch Andrews. He was the SRC’s manager. He took over our management, and then when John … got out of jail, John joined them on a tour… so they did a pretty good job. Then after that I was ready for another change. That’s when I formed Sonic’s Rendezvous Band. Fred Smith and MC5 had broken up, and we’d been acquainted and I went down and I did the final Grande Ballroom show with the MC5 and Bob Seger. It was their last show ever. He was like a guest and I was a guest. I did “Part-Time Love.”

It was somewhere like around ’70, ’71, something like that. I think I had just left the Rationals. I had just started Guardian Angel, and then I met Fred. We weren’t really close and then we started hanging out together and eventually it led to Sonic’s Rendezvous Band and it led up to, you know, a lineup of playing through the rest of the ‘70s with Scott and Fred and myself and we ended up playing until 1980.

We only recorded one single. That was “City-Slang” and “Electrophonic Tonic.”

Everything else was live or demos.

 

You’re with the Sights now. When did you get together I love them. How did you join forces?

I was laid up for about two years, and I couldn’t really do anything. I couldn’t sing. I couldn’t work. I had a lot of bills. Some people did some benefits for me, you know, to keep me afloat. When that was over, you know, I started thinking, “Well, I’m going to have to go back to work, so… you know, I had lost my voice just from like chronic abuse and my body was going through a whole bunch of changes, but I came out fine without having to have any major surgery like I thought I was going to have. The Sights came up with an incredible amount of energy and creativity. It was a good fit.

Aerosmith Live @ DTE

                                                    

Aerosmith

wsg Slash

Let Rock Rule Tour

September 9^th, 2014

 

 

Aerosmith is one of the great rock & roll bands of all time, despite their ups and downs, missteps, in-fighting and ego-fed narcissism. They started out in Boston gigging in a deep grip local scene infused with an abundance of talented bands that included blues rockers like J. Geils and techno bubblegum upstarts like the Cars, as well as old fashioned skull hump from the Remains. Their first gig as Aerosmith was on November 6^th 1970 and I recall that they were in the same league as other mid-level bands like Reo Speedwagon and Styx. They seemed to rotate in a circuit of mid-sized to large campuses across Michigan during the early to mid-seventies. I was not very impressed with Steven Tyler, a Mick Jagger wannabe who seemed to crave more face time than any of the other band members. But Aerosmith never gave up, never looked back and they never made it look easy. As the years passed-by, those pesky Aerosmith nay-bobs kept cranking out the hits. The even developed a social consciousness i.e. Living on the Edge. It turned out that Tyler could actually sing, he had an incredible range and he didn’t intone like the keyless Jagger. They were forming their own identity like a blacksmith forging iron with his anvil and hammer. They could have been flaming narcissists or occult worshipers feeding from the trough of rock & roll or they could have etched out a brotherhood of man vibe like homemade peace & love maestros. But the truth is they had more ego than Crosby Still & Nash fighting over Joni. They were angry cruel and hated harder and better than the Kinks assaulting each other over fish and chips. They broke up several times and went their separate ways – Perry formed another band; Tyler found religion on American Idol.  Despite all this and more, Aerosmith has ascended to the very top of rock & roll superstardom. They are part of the recognized aristocracy of rock and roll just a few notches below the untouchables – the triad of The Beatles, Stones and Dylan.

DTE was totally packed for this eagerly anticipated concert that combined Slash and his Guns & Roses repertoire along with the greatest active rock band in the Age of Aquarius. We parked our car way up and over the hill toward the outskirts of Independence Township or so it seemed. Seating is listed at 15,274 though I believe they squeezed in a few gimmes along the way.

Slash opened the show without telling me. I was up in the cadenza where food is prepared fast and furious, damn the shallow hearth and lack of flames; I wanted my $8 hot dog anyway. Slash was already on stage shot-gunning his powerful strokes like an A-bomb seeking target. It is sheer nuclear powered rock & roll with a little bit of modern day Popsicle harmonies. Myles Kennedy is a great vocalist with an astonishing range, he hit the high notes like Axl when his briefs are too tight and the elastic snaps him like a snake bite. He also sings with warmth and nuance, the perfect companion when Slash stays in the pocket and lets the music breathe. Slash along with Myles Kennedy & the Conspirators were on top of their game. He opened with You’re a Lie, a bitter pill, that segued into Nightrain, the first of several Guns & Roses songs on the song list. The show finished with a flourish of crowd pleasers including Back From Cali, Anastasia, Mr. Brownstone and the glorious triad of Sweet Child O’ Mine, Slither and Paradise City. The crowd was up on their feet to give Slash and his crew a well-deserved standing ovation. Pop Music on steroids!

Aerosmith has proved their mettle as long time rock & roll warriors. Jagger and Richards have written better songs than Tyler and Perry but Aerosmith are catching up. They are the last vestiges of the great and grand era of R-O-C-K. Tonight was the proof. Hit after hit swirled in a hurricane of manic energy. Damn, I love Steven Tyler and Aerosmith for resurrecting rock from its last dying embers to stand tall and loud. They leave us gasping for more as we feel the rush of sound, sex and fury in an orgasmic shock and awe. They opened with the Train Kept a Rolling; the guitar intro was fashioned by our very own Dick Wagner when it was recorded in the studio. They rolled out Love in an Elevator (powerful with great harmonies), Eat the Rich and Cryin’ before they hit stride with Living on the Edge (a paean to social consciousness) and Jaded. The nadir of the show involved the insertion of the dreaded drum solo. Joey Kramer is a fine drummer but the drum solo is a dinosaur from the dark ages wherein rock and roll drummers tried to do Buddy Rich when Ringo was still teaching them timing and restraint. It turned into a ham fisted affair yet the audience maintained the ruse and crowed their approval. Slash stepped back onstage for Mama Kin, a boom-boom start and stop rocker of the first degree. Tyler led the crowd through hypnotic Jungian dance and prance that was one of the finest musical moments of the show. The Beatles/Lennon masterpiece Come Together was up to interpretation and this cover did not do the original any justice. It wasn’t Tyler’s in the first place and the interpretation suffered from too much noise and not enough space. The show ended with a holy triad of Aerosmith chestnuts including the astonishing Walk This Way, Dream On (with Tyler noodling a brief snippet on the piano of You Really Got a Hold on Me) and the incredible Sweet Emotion.  All told, Aerosmith performed for over an hour and 35 minutes. Tyler was everything he shouldn’t be; high energy ran from one end of the stage to the other; pranced up and down the catwalk that protrudes out into the middle of the crowd. He mugged and teased them, his ornate sexuality bristled with heat and multi-colored tattoos. This night ultimately belonged to Joe Perry, the quiet Beatle.  He is a gifted guitar slinger and a fine singer. He did a 12-bar blues entitled Stop Messin’ Around. It was fantastic, all the way back to his roots and then some.  It was his birthday. We all sang with the band, “Happy Birthday Joe.”

CODA: There are times when I believe that the entire Live Nation concert industry is a gargantuan monster. The outdoor PA’s explode with furious sounds that bury nuance, melody and harmony. It actually, physically hurts.  It is a sonic myth that loud is better. It seems that concert goers are ok with being sardined in these mammoth tin can venues. It does great harm to real music. Fight the Power!

Tonight’s showcase was streamed live by Yahoo.com

The Rascals Once Upon a Dream Live @ the Fox Theatre Detroit

                                                            

The Rascals

Once Upon A Dream

Live @ The Fox Theatre

November 15^th 2013

 

Felix Cavaliere vocals, Hammond organ

Eddie Brigati vocals & the toy

Gene Cornish Lead guitar, vocals

Dino Danelli drums

 

This is the moment I’ve been waiting for since the Rascals acrimonious breakup in 1970. I was a big fan from their very beginnings. I first saw the band @ the Eastown Theatre in 1971 not knowing Eddie Brigati and Gene Cornish were no longer in the band. It was a time of personal and musical changes for the Rascals. Cavaliere kept the name alive yet changed the musical focus from rock & roll and blue-eyed soul to more complex jazz-inspired excursions, melody and harmony mixed with a heady mix of improvisation and virtuosity. This was Cavaliere’s embrace of be-bop, a genre perfected by Saginaw legend Sonny Stitt. He added several musicians including Buzz Feiten on guitar, Chuck Rainey on bass with Annie Sutton and Cynthia Webb on vocals (Sutton sang Eddie Brigati’s tour-de-force How Can I Be Sure in their live show, giving it a soulful twist). Through the years I attended several Felix Cavaliere solo performances as well as a knockout Reunion Show at Meadowbrook. It was a glorious event yet Brigati chose to opt out. His presence was sorely missed. As the second lead singer and focal point onstage (he danced his ass off), Brigati was instrumental in creating the Rascals sound and stage persona. He was the heart and soul of the band. Cavaliere was well aware of this missing piece in the Rascals performance and announced onstage that Eddie was greatly missed.

Kudos to Steven Van Zandt as the producer and director of Once Upon a Dream. He is a true believer and is responsible for developing this incredible concept of merging a hybrid Rock N’ Roll concert with a Broadway Show. The Rascals performance would go beyond just their hits and go deep into the pocket of their rich catalog of music. The concert experience will feature filmed interludes that reveal not just the history of the Rascals but the history of the sixties through the prism of their music.

In an interesting twist the Rascals were not lured back to the stage for monetary reward instead it was Van Zandt riding the range and mending fences that brought the four principle players into the fold. They rediscovered themselves and each other forty years after their split. Once Upon a Dream is the perfect metaphor for The Rascals’ journey, as well as our own, as we all begin to measure time as how much time we have left. We learn about letting go whether it’s hitting the right note or keeping a slim waistline. But tonight all is forgotten in a brief flicker of the moment when the only thing that matters is that beautiful, soulful and joyous music of the Rascals. Listen…

The disembodied voice of Little Steven Van Zandt catches the attention of the audience…

“You can take photos, you can take videos, do whatever the fuck you want”

He goes on to encourage the crowd to put it up on facebook.

 

The Rascals opened with It’s Wonderful, the only hit on their fourth studio LP Once Upon a Dream. It is Brigati’s preachy but absolutely charming ode to enlightenment. Brigati’s singing is right in the pocket. His singing is confident and his scratchy tenor sheds forty years of anonymity. His voice is supple and has survived the ravages of time.  The hits come in quick succession from Cavaliere’s soulful take on Lonely Too Long (the big hit on the Collections), follows up with a deep end cut What is the Reason and an incredible take on You Better Run with a powerful extended coda.

The arrangements are true to the recorded versions with slight exceptions. For instance Brigati nails the gospel tinged Carry Me Back but Cavaliere’s intro on the original recording contained a complicated super charged piano trill that was left out of the concert performance.

The videotaped interview segments of the band members proved to be a fascinating firsthand account of the life and times of the Rascals in the sixties. The musicians were frank and funny in an ironic way. They told about their own foibles, how they met and the evolution of their sound – deep background stuff. Cavaliere relates a story from the early sixties in which he and Dino joined up with Sandra Scott and the Scotties in Las Vegas and they both had to wear Scottish uniforms – it put a tilt in their kilt.

The 50 by 25 foot LED screen provided an exciting backdrop that included lava lamp psychedelics, tie-dye grooviness, peace signs, doves flying, period videos and photos of the band and other sixties benchmarks from civil rights, the growth of youth culture and the assassinations of the Kennedy and Dr. Martin Luther King.

The re-enactment vignettes with young actors who resembled our heroes was not altogether annoying but added little to the overall vibe of the show.

 

There was a short 15 minute break in the show. The overhead lights come on and van Zandt’s pre-recorded voice booms, “It’s half time. Get drunk. Buy a tee-shirt. Take a piss!

 

The Rascals played several of their high-energy covers of Motown songs (a big inspiration) including Mickey’s Monkey, Turn on Your Lovelight and  Too Many Fish in the Sea. Mid-way through the set they rolled out their first minor hit Brigati’s garage punk show case I Ain’t Gonna Eat Out My Heart Anymore (written by Pam Sawyer and Laurie Burton) was spot on, melodrama personified. Good Lovin’ was a different story. It reached the top of the charts with its pulsating high energy delivery. It was delivered with all the punch and energy of the original recording, people were dancing in the aisles! The only major bummer in the show was Baby Let’s Wait. It was covered by several bands including the Rascals but the best version belonged to The Royal Guardsmen. It’s is superb slice of bubblegum but not a good fit for the Rascals.

 Gene Cornish provided one of his deep catalog chestnuts Away, Away. It is a slice of new wave psych with obscure lyrics. Beautiful.

Each member is strategic to the overall sound of the Rascals. In past reunions there was no Eddie Brigati and each time that missing piece led to a less than satisfying experience. Near the end of the show Eddie sang How can I Be Sure – me and everyone else there held our breath as Brigati reached and hit that high note on “Whenever I.” It was a transcendent moment. Eddie got a standing ovation and he was visibly moved by that outpouring of love.

The later hits from Freedom Suite were all performed including Ray of Hope, Heaven, People Got to Be Free. It was an astonishing triad of beautiful sounds with lyrical precision the preached peace, love and hope for all - modern hymnals. These were political statements that were colored by the spiritual longing in Cavalier’s lyrics.

The encore was the magnificent See, a minor hit with a big sound. The music was layered and complicated with elements of blues, jazz and hard rock all rolled up into five minutes of rock & roll nirvana – a neglected masterpiece

This multi-media showcase was a revelation, not just in the Rascals execution of the thirty plus songs but what they contributed to sixties culture in America. They were the voice of a generation speaking out against violence, racism and war. The violence in the sixties mirrored the discontent of our people. It was a cry for freedom. The Rascals music was the soundtrack for all that we hoped and dreamed for our country and ourselves. We only need to keep our hearts open to the possibility of truth and justice. The Rascals are an inspiration

Steven and Maureen Van Zandt produced and directed this incredible multi-media event and made it possible that the Rascals could be remembered as the sixties become a forgotten moment in time, fading in the distance as we speed off to the next big thing, the Rascals legend receding down the highway as we take one last look in the rearview mirror.

Time Peace

Bo White

 

 

Field of Hope; Brian d'Arcy James Live @ the Temple Theatre

                                                            

Field of Hope

Celebrating 25 Years

Starring

Brian d’Arcy James

 

The Temple Theatre basked in a brilliant sheen of love and remembrance in honor of Dr. Malcom Field’s 50 years of dedicated service to the community. Field’s is celebrating a silver anniversary, 25 years as an organization dedicated to people with neurological afflictions. The mission of Field Neurosciences Institute is the prevention, early diagnosis, care and cure of neurological diseases, disorders and injuries. This honorable pursuit resonates clearly as our community continues to rediscover itself and find meaning in the pursuit of helping others without hidden gain. In this millennium we are finding another way to live with honor and walk the path of integrity. With that in mind, Brian d’Arcy James was the perfect messenger to deliver the universal note. It was a captivating night with an audience merging into an amoeba-like oneness in support of their prodigal son, love was in the air and for that brief flicker in time we held each other and realized we were all together now.

The show opened, curtain drawn with a PowerPoint and a soundtrack that served as a retrospective of Brian’s career in film, stage and television from Shrek, Titanic, Port Authority as well as his self-penned tribute to Saginaw entitled Michigan Christmas (a great song).

Brian opened the show with Everybody Loves You Now, d’Arcy has a strong baritone with an impressive range. His pitch is spot on, a bit toasty but doesn’t not waiver a bit – quite refreshing. James comes off as a charmingly humble, a nice guy – genuine, no diva. He is a natural and he talks with the crowd like he’s in the living room with a few high school buddies. Yet he admits he is absolutely terrified to perform in front of family and friends. James also disclosed that his career started right here on the Temple stage when he auditioned to be one of the munchkins in the Wizard of Oz.

He pushed the veil a bit with his version of the Otis Redding R&B masterpiece Sittin’ on the Dock of the Bay. Against all odds he pulled it off, his powerful baritone had a little bit of soul and proved to be a great yet modest arrangement that gave this tarnished bauble a slightly different sheen – it’s like polishing up an old pair of shoes for one more time around the floor. He even got the audience to join him in an off-key whistle fest at the coda. James surprised piano man Dan Lipton with a fresh loaf of Spatz Bread, a legendary local Saginaw bakery.

 

D’Arcy is involved in a play directed by former Saginaw thespian Jack ‘O Brien. It seems that James got out of rehearsal just to do this show and proved it by calling O‘Brien from the stage and getting the audience to give him a Hail Mary at the count of three 1,2,3  –“ Hi JACK!!” It’s a solid slice of community good vibrations flowing between the home town hero and his adoring fans.

He continued with a triad of songs composed by the Beatles. James rendition of Yesterday was a lovely minimalist reading with a quiet piano motif. He segued to Norwegian Wood, a smoky Lennon lament that was fueled by copious amounts of weed. It’s about a brief affair between Lennon and a bird he pulled from a night club. James ends the medley with a stunning portrait of Lennon’s sentimental masterpiece In My Life.

D’Arcy  combines two Johnny Mercer songs One for My Baby (One more for the Road) and October Goes (music by Barry Manilow). The first selection has a neat jazzed up piano the provides the emotional landscape for Joe the bartender giving the unlucky in love protagonist a listening ear and one last taste of the juice, This segues into October Goes. It’s another heartbreaker and d’Arcy’s vocals have just the right touch of pathos. It’s a great tune and the lyrics are bold and sensitive and the music colors the landscape with a powerful melancholy. This is a place you never want to visit. Sample the lyrics…

And when October goes
The same old dream appears
And you are in my arms
To share the happy years
I turn my head away
To hide the helpless tears
Oh how I hate to see October go
I should be over it now I know
It doesn't matter much
How old I grow
I hate to see October go

The next song Save the Last Dance for Me was a big hit for the Drifters in 1960. It was written by Doc Pomus and Mort Schuman, two of the greatest R&B songwriters ever. It’s a song that has a nice syncopation that gets your toes tapping and you just can’t help yourself and the dance floor fills up, the groove is on.

James explains that most of his songs are from musical theatre and that “Shrek is in the house.” He does a great version of the Shrek show stopper Who’d I Be. He introduces the song with a first-hand account of the 90 minute makeup preparation he endured for all of his Broadway performances. It was a great run that required an almost athletic fitness. James emotional reading ended in a powerful crescendo. Perfect!

7 Days is a song about two men vying for the love of tne same woman. The staccato piano rhythms speak to the herky jerky ambivalence in the lyric.  The protagonist says his rival is a Neanderthal but he doesn’t believe she’s bluffing this time around. The middle eight uses a time worn and approved technique citing tasks for each day of the week

Monday, I could wait till Tuesday
If I make up my mind
Wednesday would be fine, Thursday's on my mind
Friday'd give me time, Saturday could wait
But Sunday'd be too late

James is an unabashedly fond of Billy Joel (me too – especially the pre-liquored and balding version of our hero) and his catalog of music is exceptional. d’ Arcy’s baritone shows great range on this pop chestnut. He segues to a triad of wistful chestnuts including Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head, Satchmo’s Wonderful World and Barry Manilow’s ode to love a loss and letting go,  Can’t Live Without You and brings it all back with a reading of Billy Joel’s She’s Got a Way – heartfelt, loving and just a touch of melancholia.

Tempted was the big surprise of the evening – it’s is a great song yet a non-hit by the eighties pop/rock band Squeeze. D’arcy sings it real.

Brian sings Joseph & the Technicolor Dreamcoat. He originally did the song as a high school teen and a few years later at the Midland Center for the Arts. Tonight he reprises the song onstage with a few clips from his Midland performance so many years ago – sharing a personal and collective memory. In honor of his father, d’Arcy sang one of his favorite songs, the Lady is a Tramp, jazzed up Buddy Greco-style.

The finale At last is song made famous by Ella Fitzgerald. It is powerful, even spiritual. The perfect closer

 

At last my love has come along
My lonely days are over
And life is like a song

At last the skies above are blue
My heart was wrapped up in clover
The night I looked at you

I found a dream that I could speak to
A dream that I could call my own
I found a thrill to press my cheek to
A thrill I've never known well

You smile and then the spell was cast
And here we are in Heaven
For you are mine at last

The encore Beautiful City was a key song in the Broadway musical Godspell. It clearly resonates with Brian and audience and he gives it a strong treatment…

When all your trust is all but shattered

When your faith is all but killed

You can give up bitter and battered

Or you can slowly start to build

A beautiful city

Yes, we can; yes, we can

We can build a beautiful city

Not a city of angels

But finally a city of man

 

Brian James is a social visionary, wanting the world to be a pleasant place to live, a better place so there is no more suffering. Our fear is the music will stop and we won’t be able to dance anymore. Yet the arts will survive and we will have hope for the future as long as people like Brian d’Arcy James continues to keep music alive.

 

Funny or Die Starring Dave Chappelle Live @ DTE

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