Led Zeppelin, by Way of Maxwell Smart

They say Jimmy Page only steals from the best, and my brother argues that he borrowed something from the great Irving Szathmary. Checkout Stephen Altobello's latest post at http://budurl.com/GetZeppelin.

Get Back Jo Jo - The Beatles Get Back album

My brother loves music the same way we love to breath. Next to his family music is his life and it fuels his soul. One of my brother's great gifts is his ability to write about and convey his excitement and love of a new song, album or band he's just discovered or rediscovered. After reading one of Stephen's emails you immediately want to listen to the attached song as loud as you can.

Here's example of a recent music email Stephen sent me and his friend Nick. This time his subject is the Beatles.

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Yo, Paul & Nick...

In the recent wave of Beatles product ("Beatlemania '09" as I like to call it), I'm reminded of Let It Be and it's legacy. I've always been a supporter of that LP--in its Phil Spector form--but for mostly nostalgic reasons (I had a thing for gatefold LPs when I was really young, something to study while I listened to the music).

Stories about the damn Get Back sessions are everywhere on the internet and so damn depressing I won't belabor it with a history lesson. Suffice to say I have something like 80 hours of music from that first month in January '69 and will never listen to much of it. And the Let It Be...Naked CD from a few years ago was a snooze (I thought), too polished and too late for me to really enjoy.

But have you guys heard Get Back? If you look up Let It Be in Wiki you can get the whole story, but in a nutshell, the great engineer Glyn Johns--one of the only people to be at all of the Get Back Sessions (not even George Harrison can say that) was given the daunting task of making an LP out of a month's worth of hostility and ugliness that should have been called Get Away. He made one version and they shot it down. The second version, which for some reason is known as "Version 2 & 3," was approved by all four Beatles for release. He assembled it in April and May '69, it was supposed to come out in July '69 and they even made a cover:

Well, needless to say, they pulled it and focused on Abbey Road. Then it came back, went to Spector and an orchestra and a choir and blah, blah, blah, we all know the rest of this story.

So, to get back to the Glyn Johns version. I think--and many generally agree--that his version is the closest approximation to what they were trying to do with those sessions. It sounds, on one hand, nothing like the contrived, overproduced psychedelia of Sgt. Pepper's, but it also doesn't sound at all like the "one man band" sound that pervades the White Album. Which means it accomplishes what Paul was aiming for: the sound of a band getting back to their roots, playing together in an world without overdubs. It's loose, it's fun. The chatter inbetween songs feels like a band playing and laughing (whereas the stuff Spector included is intriguing but also frequently just weird and esoteric). Johns's version is more cohesive.

Now, I think what I just wrote above about this version is very factual (listing it's obvious differences from Pepper, the White Album and the Spector version), but I'm not gonna tell you guys too much about how I personally feel about it. We've all have too much of an individual relationship with the Beatles for me to try to say this song is better than that song, or this take is better than that mix. You'll have to come to your own conclusions. (I will say this: opening with "One After 909" does make it clear they this is a Back to Our Roots LP [if only to those who know they wrote it in '63], but it's not a great LP opener; "Teddy Boy" is as bad as it is elsewhere; Johns's resolutions for "Get Back" confound me; I think he used the wrong take of "Don't Let Me Down"; I always thought 40 seconds of "Dig It" was plenty and I still feel that way; and two McCartney ballads back-to-back, to end the LP is a mistake. But those are just my opinions.)

Check out the attached. Give it a listen whenever you like.

Enjoy!

sma

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Thanks, Stephen. As usual you're spot on and this is a great mix but I have to say I'm a sucker for "Teddy Boy." I've always loved that song.

Download The Beatles - Get Back Version 2 & 3

Posted via email from Paul Altobelli

Long Live the Queen

Queen in the 1980's

My brother recently sent the following email.

OK. What gives? I have and enjoy Queen up to and including Jazz and then they fall off my radar. Let's say you're walking down the street and some guy comes up to, points a gun at your eye and says, "What are your favorite tunes off The Game, Flash Gordon, Hot Space and The Works?" What do you say?

My answer:

Oh, that's easy...

Every song on The Game is really good. The big hits were "Another Bites the Dust," "Crazy Little Thing Called Love." Sequentially, The Game is perfect. Every song is perfectly placed. I recommend listening to it in its entirety. The Game is last great Queen album.

"Put out the Fire" from Hot Space. Actually, it was more like Hot Shit. I thought Hot Space was trying too hard to sound like "Another Bites the Dust". This song is the only song that sounded like a true Queen tune. The Queen / Bowie classic, "Under Pressure," came from those sessions too.

I always enjoyed "Flash" as a song.

The Works was spotty but it did contain "Radio GaGa," "I Want to Break Free," and the fantastic "Hammer to Fall."

A Little Magic contained "One Vision."

1989's The Miracle contained "I Want it All" and 1991's Innuendo had the awesome "Headlong." Both songs feature some great guitar work and post-AIDS Freddie does a great job with the vocals.

You also might want to check out a tune from Roger Taylor's Fun In Space called "Airheads."

I had so much fun answering the question that I sent it to other Queen fans.

Bob Andreano's answer:

I say, Sir, download the following songs:

1) ALL of The Game

from Hot Space:
2) Staying Power
3) Back Chat
4) Body Language (yes, I think it's worth it)
5) Under Pressure

from The Works:
6) Radio Ga Ga *
7) Hammer To Fall +
8) Is This the World We Created

from A Kind Of Magic:
9) One Vision (7" or 12" version)

ESSENTIAL B-SIDES (!):
10) A Human Body
11) Soul Brother
12) I Go Crazy (12" or 7" version - both as sick)

alternate B-side:
13) Blurred Vision (One Vision instrumental remix)

from Roger Taylor's Fun In Space LP:
14) Beautiful Dreams

* alternate version:
the Live Aid performance

+ alternate versions:
a) the Live Aid performance
b) 12" promo only "Head Bangers Mix"

Erin Riley's answer:

Impossible to choose between individual Queen songs.

In order of my favorite LP's:

1. The Game
2. The Works
3. Flash Gordon - Hot Space tied for last

Beth Mann's answer:

I think I’d first have say, “What kind of strange ass mugger are you?”

Then I’d say:

The Game – "Play the Game" (one of my fave intros, a few of my fave lines “When you’re feeling down and your resistance is low, light another cigarette and let yourself go” and just love the sentiment of it.)

Flash Gordon – Damn, that’s tough. There’s a pretty little instrumental piece I remember in it. I think its called The Kiss? I don’t know if I’d even like it now. The theme song, I suppose, for kitsch value. It’s pretty theme songy – dramatic and superhero written all over it.

The Works – I Want to Break Free...I guess.

Hot Space – I know, its a easy choice, but "Under Pressure." I still can enjoy that song, after all of these years. And not too many songs exemplify today’s world, today’s pressures, like that one...at least to me.

I don’t know. I might have to take the bullet.

How would you answer my brother's question?

Little Gram - 105 Years of Memories

Mary Ferrante 1902 - 2008

Created by Little Gram's great-grandson, Stephen Altobello.
Click here to see a higher quality version.

'We're gonna hear Radames croak in a tomb"

As a follow-up to yesterday's post about my father's love of opera I give you my brother's email:

This is a message he left for me after he listened to a cassette of La Boheme that I made for him. He was mourning the death of the character Mimi at the conclusion, and in typical Dad fashion, refers to her as a living person. (I didn't know what the f' he was talking about at first and was really worried.) It sounds to me like he had been crying.

Then, he refers to Radames from Aida, another opera I gave him. He also dies at the end of the opera ("we're gonna hear Radames croak in a tomb").


Listen / Download:
Pop's Opera Phone Message (fall, 1991) - Don Altobell

My First Christmas without Dad

Remembering Don Altobell

When Dad passed seven months ago my brother, Stephen, produced a ten minute long tribute using pictures and the music of (who else) Frank Sinatra. So, if you have a few minutes, sit back and enjoy 68 years of my father's life.

Dads say the Darndest Things

"How's Your Job?"

In the six months since my father passed I've been recognizing more and more how often I repeat things he'd say given a certain situation. "You know if my father were here he'd say..." I told my brother Stephen about this and he told me was doing the same thing. At any given time Dad would speak to us in German, Italian, Yiddish, and Pig Latin. Given the situation he'd say expressions he picked up as a teenager, in school, in the Navy, and friends. It's as if Dad spoke a different language that only those close to him understood. As Stephen and I reminisced and laughed about our father's sayings we decided to create a list of his favorite expressions and given this forum I decided to publish this list here.

• Whenever he'd greet you he say, "How's your job?"
• If he was admitally against something he say, "neigetz boats!"
• He referred to Stephen and me as
• Shorty and Izzy Bushkoff
• Primo & Segundo
• How strong was he? Dad would say (in a Russian accent) "He strong like dozen midgets."
• Sometimes when he was excited about something we'd hear, "Wazzy wazzy woo woo!"
• one dollar bill = "beansky"
• five dollar bill = "finsky"
• Dad would wet his lips and very slowly and carefully say "par-tic-u-lar"
• When Dad would say "my shoes" he basically was saying, "why, of course."
• When Dad said, "Oy Becky Madone!" he was pissed
• He refferd to Barry Manilow "Barry Mazel-tov"
• If you ever spoke while he was watching TV he say, "Hey, this is a talkie!"
• "What?" (after he'd burp)
• "Mach die Tür zu" meant close the door in German
• "schnicken" was a yiddish term for a pastry or dessert
• insanity or madness = "mishegosh"
• One who is crazy = "meshuggenah"
• darling boy = "boytchik" or "boychale"
• The Phillies = "Bums"
• Hey dummy = "Hey, stunod!"
• Too loud = "Too piercin'"
• If he ever saw a tv show or movie he didn't like he say, "That movie was stink-a-poots."
• He'd refer to lousy sport figures as “He’s a ham-and-egg-ers.”
• If you said something and he didn't understand you he'd say “The wha--?" If you repeated yourself he say, "The woo--?" Then he'd say, "the we--?"
• He referred to my mother as Picina which morphed into Picin, then finally, Cin.
• We'd say, "Hey, Pop what are you doing?" and he would reply, "I'm thin-king about it."
• If Dad ever saw you put milk/cream and sugar in your coffee, "What do you want a milk shake?"
• Whenever Dad watched a big time dramatic scene (be it tv show, movie, or even sports) he would take in a big breath, blow out the air very loudly.
• Whenever Dad would say “Phildelphia!” he'd say it doing a John Facenda impersonation
  
• "Have you accepted the Lord Jesus Christ in your heart?" was something Dad would say to us about once a month and always when we were about to leave with our jackets on and keys in our hands.
  
• In Dad's later years we'd hear him say "ohhhhh-kay" as his opening statement whenever he would leave a phone message
  
• Anyone who Dad did not agree with was a "chooch"
  
• In Dad's later years we'd hear him say "ohhhhh-kay" as his opening statement whenever he would leave a phone message
  
• Anyone who Dad did not agree with was a "chooch"
  

This is the beginning a what will become a very large list. If you know of a Don Altobell expression not listed here please share.

Charlie Rich

A recent email from my brother...

You know much about him? Well, in a nutshell, he's pretty mindblowing. When he showed up at Sun Records in ‘57, he was groomed to be Elvis’s replacement. Unfortunately, he had too much talent and variety to channel properly and he got lost in the mix. He could write and play gospel, jazz, swing, country, and rockabilly, yet was marketed poorly time and again. By the late 60s he hooked up with producer Billy Sherrill, the Phil Spector-like producer who was creating the Countrypolitan sound with artists like Tammy Wynette. The first couple of LPs Rich and Sherrill did together didn’t sell well—tho they did well critically (Rich may be rock’s first “critic’s darling”)--and by 1971 he was playing airport bars, going nowhere. Music journalist Peter Guralnick profiled him during this period, in a book of essays called “Feel Like Going Home.”

Shortly thereafter, Rich did “Behind Closed Doors” and finally became an overnite sensation. Shortly before he died in 1991, he recorded his final LP, “Pictures and Portraits,” which Guralnick produced (they remained friends over those 20 years). Rich, inspired by the book that in part helped revive his career, wrote a song called “Feel Like Going Home.” Here’s his demo, which is breathtaking. It’s full of grunts and chair squeaks and it’s just Charlie and his piano. Wow.

I’m so glad my boy Harry Mose will grow up in a home where this beautiful music will play loud and clear.

sma

Listen / Download:
Feel Like Going Home - Charlie Rich

Harry Mose Altobello

aka Lil' Lee Harvey

Yesterday, my brother Stephen and his wife Debbie welcomed into this world Harry Mose Altobello. Baby Harry was born at 12:15pm and weighed in at 6lbs. Both mother and child are resting comfortably.

Roll over Harry's picture and you'll understand why my brother called him Lil' Lee Harvey.

"Hey, where the white women at?"

Today, my mother reminded me of a line from Blazing Saddles:

Hedley Lamarr: My mind is a raging torrent, flooded with rivulets of thought cascading into a waterfall of creative alternatives.

Taggart: God darnit Mr. Lamarr, you use your tongue prettier than a twenty dollar whore.

Just typing Blazing Saddles makes me laugh. It's my all-time favorite comedy. I'll take this movie over any Marx Brothers move including Duck Soup. The actors, the direction, the writing, the satire, the jokes--Blazing Saddles is about as perfect as perfect can be.

Interestingly enough, given that we live in a politically correct society, Blazing Saddles would never see the light of day if it was pitched to a movie executive. Case it point: ALL RIGHT! WE'LL GIVE SOME LAND TO THE NIGGERS AND THE CHINKS -- BUT WE DON'T WANT THE IRISH!

Thanks Mom for reminding me about this movie today. It put a smile on my face. And thank you for taking Stephen, my good friend Steve Murray, and me to the Tacony-Palmyra Drive-In so many years ago to watch this classic for the first time.

Click here for more Blazing Saddles quotes.

Richard Pryor: "Just Us" and Elmer's Glue

It was Christmas 1977 and my parents gave my brother Stephen and me a three-album compilation titled 25 Years of Recorded Comedy. This compilation included Stan Freberg, Jonathan Winters, Lenny Bruce, Shelley Berman, Cheech and Chong, The Firesign Theatre, Mike Nichols and Elaine May, Carl Reiner and Mel Brooks, Monty Python, and Richard Pryor. I remember the first time listening to this compilation. I was sitting in our living room with my brother and father. In many cases it was the first time we had ever heard these comics.

Now, my father, like Richard Pryor, has multiple sclerosis. In 1977 he was beginning to show visible signs of the effects of the disease. His reflexes were very slow and he walked without balance as if he were about to fall at any moment. Well, when Richard Pryor's "Just Us" started to play my father jumped so quick out of this chair. He ran over to the stereo and practically broke the turntable as ripped the needle off the record (you would have never known he had MS). You see Pryor's bit, "Just Us" is laced with "niggers" and four letter words that our virgin ears had never heard before. He took the physical album and smeared Elmer's Glue on Side 5, track 2 - Pryor's "Just Us."

Well, since my father had acted so quickly Stephen and I hadn't really heard what the fuss was about. So, a few days after dad had censored our listening experience I very carefully took an Exacto knife and peeled the glue off the album. Isn't it interesting that I could not listen to a comedy record with curses but I had access to an Exacto knife? After the I got the glue off the record my brother and I sat and finally listened to "Just Us." The way my father reacted we thought that this was going to be the worst (or best) thing we had ever heard. To our dismay, the actual "bit" did not live up to the hype. For starters, I had knicked the record a few times so there was audible scratches and pops. Secondly, we were so young we really didn't understand what "Just Us" was about anyway. We just laughed with he cursed and after a few listens we went back to listening to the other tracks.

Richard Pryor died this past weekend of complications associated with his multiple sclerosis. Even though we did not enjoy "Just Us" the experience exposed us to Pryor's comedy and years of laughter. I'll leave you with "Just Us" and one of my favorite Pryor moments--a sketch from his 1975 Saturday Night Live appearance.

Richard Pryor - Just Us
Richard Pryor / Chevy Chase - Word Association (SNL, 12/13/75)