On The Records

On his new Country album Look Up, Ringo Starr is wearing a white hat, and we know it’s the good guys who wear those.

Pretty much everyone likes Ringo, but it seemed that in 1964 he was an outlaw.

The same year The Beatles broke big in America, the star of the TV Western Bonanza, Lorne Greene, released his #1 Country song about the outlaw Ringo.  Of course he wasn’t referring to the Liverpool lad, but that same year Ringo Starr recorded a Country song, the Carl Perkins hit “Honey Don’t”.  The following year, Ringo covered the Buck Owens hit “Act Naturally”.  He and the rest of The Beatles were fond of Country & Western music from the time they were kids.

When The Beatles split in 1970, Ringo Starr released a Country album, Beaucoups Of Blues.  There were some great Nashville session players on the album, but it only made it to #65 on the album chart.  Fifty-five years later, Ringo has released his second Country album, Look Up.

This time, Ringo enlisted the help of producer T Bone Burnett, famous for Country & Americana music, and again there are excellent Nashville musicians adding a real Country feel.

Burnett, shown here with Ringo, co-wrote 9 of the 11 songs.  Artist Billy Swan wrote one song, and Ringo co-wrote the song “Thankful” with Bruce Sugar.

Even at the age of 84, Ringo’s voice sounds a lot like it always has.  The album is getting mostly positive reviews, so Ringo fans should at least give it a listen on streaming services, or wherever the songs are available online.  The best track is the Country ballad “Time On My Hands”.  It has the typical feel of a sad song about losing the one you love.  The melody is strong, and the steel guitar playing is a definite highlight of the album.  It sounds like it could have been a hit for George Jones (the “She Thinks I Still Care” singer).  Ringo’s “Thankful” is also a good effort that fits well with other songs he’s co-written.

The sound of the record is really good with such a talented producer as Burnett, but his writing the bulk of the songs may have limited the album.  It might have been better if Ringo could have obtained a greater variety of songs from more of Nashville’s big pool of songwriters.

This Spring, CBS will air Ringo & Friends at the Ryman.  It’ll be performances from two shows at the famous Ryman Auditorium in Nashville, recorded January 14th & 15th.  The concerts included many Country Music guests, and featured Beatles songs, as well as tracks from the new album.  Some proceeds from the shows were donated to the Red Cross to help victims of the California wildfires.  The 2-hour TV special will also include interviews.  No air date has been announced.

Here’s the setlist from the Ryman performance (click to enlarge).

You might notice three songs were played from Ringo’s new album, “Time On My Hands”, “Thankful”, and “Look Up”.

After the Ryman concerts, Emmylou Harris invited Ringo to play at The Grand Ole Opry in Nashville on February 21st, 2025.  There was no word on whether that performance might also be used for the TV special.

Ringo’s long career then continues in June of 2025 with his All Starr Band touring the East Coast.  During the tour, Ringo will celebrate his 85th birthday on July 7th.

The new film A Complete Unknown is a must see for fans of Bob Dylan, music fans in general, and fans of the actors who make up the outstanding cast.

Timothee Chalamet as Bob Dylan couldn’t be better.  He plays and sings all of the songs live (so many great songs!), and his full acting performance makes you believe you’re watching a young Bob Dylan.  Honestly, his performance is better than the Oscar winner and nominees of recent music biographies.

Monica Barbaro is also amazing as a young and self-assured Joan Baez.  She fully performs the songs, and does a great job on the Dylan & Baez duets.

Other music stars featured in the film are folk pioneer Pete Seeger and Country icon Johnny Cash.  Edward Norton and Boyd Holbrook are also convincing in those roles, with Norton’s Seeger being a key part of Dylan’s story.

Besides the fantastic casting, the best decision with A Complete Unknown was to limit the time frame of the movie to 1961 through 1965.  This takes us from Dylan’s arrival in New York City (without giving us his childhood in Minnesota), and takes us through his “going electric” with his biggest hit “Like A Rolling Stone” which includes the movie’s title in its lyrics.

The major non-singing role is by Elle Fanning as Sylvie Russo.  She’s based on Dylan’s girlfriend Suze Rotolo.  Here she is on Dylan’s album cover.

She was an artist (painter) and political activist.  She encouraged Bob Dylan to perform more of his own songs, and is the original source of his political activism.

Like the rest of the cast, Elle Fanning has earned positive reviews for her performance.  Because of her age, it’s unusual that Fanning was a Dylan fan when she was 13.  She says director Cameron Crowe introduced her to Dylan’s music.  She may have been the only teenage girl in that decade to have a Dylan poster on her bedroom wall.

Dylan freely gave credit to Suze Rotolo for her help early in his career, including being the inspiration for several of his songs over many years.  Dylan and Rotolo remained lifelong friends.  She died from lung cancer in 2011.

The movie does an amazing job of recreating the early 1960s, not only with the sets and the vintage cars, but with all of the supporting cast.  We see people we’ve only read about in books or on album covers come to life.  It really feels like you’ve been dropped back in time.

(Posters in the movie theater in Springfield, OR)

My wife and I went to the movie on December 27th, our wedding anniversary.  After the show I asked Jeannette what she thought of it and she said “I want to see it again.”  That’s probably the best compliment you can give a movie.

Taylor Swift wasn’t named the Top Artist of the 21st Century, she earned it by her sales, airplay, and streaming.

Billboard gathered all the statistics from how artists performed on their album and singles charts over the last 25 years.  It’s likely the statistics show that no one was even close.  Just five years ago, Swift was the number eight artist of all time.  The artist who is number two this century is Drake.  He was only at number sixteen five years ago.  Since that time, Taylor Swift has had another eight #1 albums.  Drake has had three…commendable…but obviously not competitive with Swift.

Here’s how the artists ranked five years ago (November of 2019) when Billboard published their list of the Top Artists Of All Time.

You can see where four of the top five artists on the new 21st Century list ranked in 2019.

In an historical and statistical context, Taylor Swift has probably moved into second place all-time behind The Beatles.  She has the second most weeks at #1 on the album chart (after The Beatles).  She is the first artist to ever have all of the Top 10 singles at one time, and now the Top 14 singles.  She has dominated the album charts in recent years in record-setting numbers.

It’s been over 54 years since The Beatles broke up, and no one in their right mind in 1970 would have expected to see Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr rocking out together in 2024!

The final night of the tour was made extra special when Ringo Starr joined Paul for rocking versions of “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (Reprise)” and “Helter Skelter”.  I saw the video, and the two Beatles did a great job on those songs.  The 82-year-old McCartney’s voice isn’t quite as good as it once was, but he can still rock the vocals, and the 84-year-old Starr can pounds the drums with authority.  Here’s a photo of the two together at the show..

It’s great to see them doing so well as octogenarians since we lost John Lennon at 40, and George Harrison at 58.  Paul and Ringo have played together at live shows over the years, have performed on each other’s albums, and have jointly appeared at various Beatles related functions.  They obviously love each other like brothers.

McCartney shows amazing stamina by performing shows that approach three hours in length and include 36 songs.  Here’s the setlist.

You might have noticed another famous name on the setlist.

Guitarist Ronnie Wood of The Rolling Stones joined Paul on “Get Back”.  Wood is the youngster of the three stars at 77.  Actually, there’s another old rocker in the above photo.  That’s Paul’s original Hofner bass that he bought in 1961.  It had been stolen out of a van in 1972, and only surfaced recently.  You can see the instrument has been beautifully restored.

A couple days after his last Got Back concert, McCartney gave fans the good news that he’s been working on a new album.  He says the tour interrupted his efforts, but his New Year’s resolution is to finish the album.

Fleetwood Mac was always a real life Soap Opera, and soon it’ll be a Documentary.  On November 19th, 2024, Apple TV+ announced that Frank Marshall will direct the feature-length film.  Marshall is a five-time Oscar nominee, and recently directed documentaries on The Bee Gees and The Beach Boys.

Marshall said… “I am fascinated by how this incredible story of enormous musical achievement came about.  Fleetwood Mac somehow managed to merge their often chaotic and almost operatic personal lives into their own tale in real time, which then became legend.  This film will be about the music and the people who created it.

According to the  announcement, the documentary has not been titled, and a release date has not been determined.  New interviews, archival interviews, and some unseen video footage will be used to tell the story of the famous British/American band.

Although Fleetwood Mac started as a British blues band in the 60s, their greatest popularity came in the 70s with a shift to Rock and the addition of Americans Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham.  Their biggest albums were Fleetwood Mac in 1975, and Rumours In 1977.  The band’s music remains extremely popular.

Also on November 19th, 2024, a new book was released, Songbird: An Intimate Biography of Christine McVie by author Lesley-Ann Jones.

Extra:  First thought for a possible fun title for the documentary.  Fleetwood Mac: The Rumours Were True

Extra II:  A Hamilton grand piano Stevie Nicks owned and used for songwriting, and that Christine McVie played during concert tours, has come-up for auction.

The piano was gifted to songwriter Robbie Patton, who had asked for it as payment for his songwriting assistance on “Hold Me”.  It’s estimated the piano could bring as much as $200,000.  Here’s the letter of authenticity.

With the recent release of the Crosby Stills Nash & Young album Live At Fillmore East, 1969, Stephen Stills and Graham Nash have been doing some interviews.

Stills (79) was interviewed by Variety & The Globe And Mail, and Nash (82) was interviewed for the Song Exploder podcast.  As you’ll see, the two sometimes had slightly different takes on some of the topics.

The Stills’ interviews included comments comparing the new release of the 1969 concert with the 1971 live album 4 Way Street.

Stephen Stills was blunt… “I Always hated 4 Way Street, and I love this record (Live At Fillmore East, 1969).  The singing on 4 Way Street is awful.  Everybody refused to dub any voices, which sometimes got spectacularly out of tune.  We were brand new (in 1969), and all that enthusiasm and warmth is apparent.  4 Way Street is more ‘Okay we’re a big deal now’, and it showed.”

About the 1969 concert, Stills said… “The vocals were really tight.  Later on, when we quit singing on one mic, the blend sort of suffered…singing 10-feet apart and in front of really loud amps in very big places.”

Among his recent interviews, Graham Nash was a guest on the excellent podcast Song Exploder.  It’s a clever program that details how popular songs were recorded, and interviews the artist about the creative process.  In this case, the song was “Our House”.  The half-hour interview goes beyond just the song, as Nash talks about the beginnings of CSN&Y, and the fairly recent death of David Crosby (January of 2023).

Nash tells the now familiar story of writing ‘Our House” when he and Joni Mitchell were living together at Joni’s place in Laurel Canyon in 1969.  They had returned to the house after a shopping trip during which Joni had purchased a vase at a local shop.  Graham said…”Why don’t I light a fire, while you put some flowers in that vase you bought today”…and that was the beginning of the song.  The host of the podcast is Hrishikesh Hirway, and in this one-minute excerpt, he plays the voices of CSN.

It sounds so good to hear the vocals highlighted in that way.  You can hear the careful harmony parts that make up the CSN sound.  This type of vocal and instrumental isolation on a selection of songs would have made great additions to the Deja Vu box set. After the segment played, Hirway asked Nash his reaction.  Graham said he was concentrating on David Crosby’s voice and how much he misses him.  Nash went on to explain that he and David were mending fences and were scheduled to video-chat together, but that David passed away before it happened.

Nash also told the story of how Crosby Stills & Nash first sang together during a gathering at Joni Mitchell’s house.  Stephen Stills says that’s not the way it happened.

Stills says he has a very clear memory of Mama Cass Elliot bringing the three men together at her house, and that’s where they first sang.  Stills thinks it’s Nash’s romantic nature that makes him want it to have been at Joni Mitchell’s place.

Another way there’s disagreement between S&N is that Nash believes the surviving group members, Stills Nash & Young, will never perform together again, because Crosby’s not with them.  Stills, who has recently performed for charity with Neil Young, says there could be a cause for which they might perform, so he wouldn’t rule it out.

It’s obvious that Graham Nash has great affection for all of his CSN&Y buddies, but his description of Neil Young gave me a chuckle.   He said…”Neil Young is an incredibly great guitar player, and I think he’s a decent singer.”  Maybe he should have mentioned that Neil is a tremendous songwriter, instead of characterizing his singing voice.

Stephen Stills closed one of his interviews with a little extra hope for CSN&Y fans.  He said there’s a locker with a lot more unreleased tapes that could someday be turned into albums.  He said, “There’s some magic in there.”

For the review of Live At The Fillmore East, 1969, click here: https://ontherecords.net/2024/09/crosby-stills-nash-young1969-concert-release/

Music memorabilia can sell for high prices, especially if it involves The Beatles.  Equipment used by the group has recently surfaced, including John Lennon’s first Vox amplifier, the recording console used for the Abbey Road album, and a George Harrison guitar from the early days of The Beatles.

Pictured above is the first recording session by The Beatles after they were signed to EMI by George Martin, and the amplifier John Lennon used in that session.   The amp recently resurfaced when a fan spotted it in an online auction.  Not that it was easy to see.  The old owner had decided to paint it black (we could blame The Rolling Stones), but the serial number matched the fawn colored amp used by Lennon.  As you can see, the black paint has been removed, and the 60+ year old amplifier looks a little rough around the edges.

There is still some certifying that needs to be done to make sure it’s the genuine article, but at this point it seems real.  The buyer in England took a chance and paid 16,000-pounds for it, but if it’s certified and is put up for auction again, it’s estimated it could bring $123,000 to $320,000.  It makes me wonder what happened to The Beatles’ most famous amplifiers, the Vox “Super Beatle” model.

Of course even these larger amps were not powerful enough for the size of concerts The Beatles played.  A couple of the guitarists in my 1960’s band had “Super Beatle” amplifiers, and really liked them.

The Beatles’ Abbey Road album is the band’s most modern sounding recording.  That’s because of this 8-track custom built console.

Previous Beatles albums were recorded on older 4-track consoles.  Here are photos from when the recording console was new back in 1969.

It was state of the art back then, and was also used to record some of the first solo albums by the ex-Beatles.  Without considering its historical value, the console was eventually disassembled and placed in storage.

Now, the console has been restored to its original working condition using 70% of its original parts.  The owners believe the console could bring up to 3-million-dollars.

In November of 2024, a George Harrison Futurama guitar sold at auction for 1.27–million-dollars!

That’s a record amount for a Beatles guitar.  The Futurama guitar was played by Harrison during the group’s early days playing the Cavern Club in Liverpool, and during The Beatles time in Germany in the early 1960s.

Other Beatles items have also sold for big numbers.  In 2005, John Lennon’s handwritten lyrics to “All You Need Is Love” sold for 1.25-million-dollars, and in 2015, Ringo Starr’s personal copy of The White Album sold for $790,000

It’s not one of the big anniversary box sets, but A Hard Day’s Night  has received a 60th Anniversary release on white vinyl.

The release was October 19th, 2024…National Album Day.  This was the first album that had all Lennon-McCartney compositions.  Here’s the tracklist.

If you were in England in 1964, that is the album you got.  Unfortunately, those of us in America got the below movie soundtrack that only had the seven songs from side one of the British version, along with some instrumental music from the film..

The full lineup of songs was finally made available to everyone when the CD’s came out in 1987, and we heard what a great album it is.  The album has two #1 singles “Can’t Buy Me Love” & “A Hard Day’s Night”, two great ballads “And I Love Her” & “If I Fell”, and a couple more classics…Lennon’s “You Can’t Do That” & McCartney’s “Things We Said Today”.

The cover of the album says it’s stereo, but the press release did not mention whether it’s the new remixed stereo (like the songs from this record that are on the Red album from 2023), or the original 1964 stereo.  If it was completely remixed, they’d probably announce it and there would also be a CD version.

The new vinyl release is for anyone who doesn’t already have the album, or for those who want the novelty of white vinyl.  The rest of us are waiting (impatiently) for the Rubber Soul box set which was originally expected in 2023.  Rubber Soul may turn out to be the last Beatles album to get the full box set treatment.  Remix producer Giles Martin said Rubber Soul has enough alternate takes to justify a box set.  That may not be the case for the earlier albums.

And…

The Beatles first #1 hit in the U.S. is being re-released.  If you missed Capitol Records’ big single the first time (released December 26th, 1963), the new pressing came out on Record Store Day, November 22nd, 2024.  It’s just like the original…analog & monophonic…and with the iconic cover.

Here are two copies of the singles I have.  You can see that I wore out the original 1964 record on the left, and haven’t played the one on the right.  That cover, which I believe is from the 80s or 90s has Paul McCartney’s cigarette air-brushed out.  Thank goodness Paul (and Ringo) stopped smoking decades ago.

The family of Tom Petty has been doing a great job of keeping his music alive by releasing material that includes recordings that are new to his fans.  On October 18th, 2024, a Deluxe Edition of the Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers’ Long After Dark album was released.  Besides the original 10 tracks from the 1982 album, there are another 12 “rediscovered” tracks, including seven that have never been released.

The original album is best known for the hits “You Got Lucky” & “Change Of Heart”, along with “Straight Into Darkness”.  On the added second disc is the #1 Country song Tom Petty and Benmont Tench wrote for Rosanne Cash, “Never Be You”.  It also includes the great John Sebastian song “Stories We Could Tell”, as well as songs you may have heard on the Tom Petty box set Playback.  Those include “Turning Point” and “Keeping Me Alive”.  The seven unreleased tracks will be of particular interest to Petty’s fans.  (Review at end of article)

The deluxe version comes in a 2-record set, or a  2-CD set with an additional Blu-Ray audio disc (with the same songs).

Besides the new deluxe album release, there’s a long lost film.

This is the first film from director Cameron Crowe, who eventually gave us Almost Famous and Jerry Maguire.  Heart Breakers Beach Party is not in the same league as those other two films, in fact it was only shown once on MTV at 2 A.M.!  According to the film’s trailer, it was also rejected by HBO.  The filming was done about the same time as the Long After Dark album, and includes the making of the video for “You Got Lucky”.  The film looks a little raucous, and could be fun for Heartbreakers fans.  There’s a limited run in theaters that started October 17th, 2024.  No word yet on whether it’s being picked up by a streaming service.

The release of the deluxe album and hardly-seen film are just the latest posthumous releases developed by the Tom Petty estate.  Here are the albums that have been released since his passing.

An American Treasure (2018) is mostly made up of unreleased and live versions of Tom Petty Songs.  It accents recordings other than his hits.  The standard 2-disc set has 26 songs, and the deluxe 4-disc set has 60 songs.

The Best Of Everything (2019) does a truly excellent job of putting together a double album of all the major hits and some of the significant album tracks from Tom Petty’s group and solo recordings.  A minor quibble is that the songs are not in chronological order.

Above is my 4-CD box set of Wildflowers & All The Rest (2020).  It’s a wonderful compilation of music recorded around the time of Petty’s 1994 album Wildflowers.  On the first 2-CDs are the 25 songs Tom Petty originally wanted to release as a double album.  The third CD has great demos Tom Petty recorded on his own, and the fourth CD has live versions with The Heartbreakers.  Later I added the fifth disc of alternate studio versions.  It’s all a treasure.  This collection and The Best Of Everything are the recordings most essential to get to know the music of Tom Petty.

Angel Dream (2021) is a reimagining of the motion picture soundtrack She’s The One.  Although this was a modest release, it includes some welcome previously unreleased tracks.

Live At The Fillmore 1997 (2022) is a major release of Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers’ live performances.  The 4-CD box set includes 72 live tracks.  The band had played together for decades, and their Fillmore concerts showed how impressive they had become on stage.  While there are a lot of Heartbreaker’s songs, there’s also an abundance of unreleased covers of classic songs that the group is obviously having fun playing.

(The Heartbreakers in 1982 at the time of Long After Dark)

We can hope Tom Petty’s family will be able to continue providing fans with historic unreleased songs and alternate versions, even though we know the supply will inevitably end.  Each new release reminds us of Tom Petty’s greatness.

Extra Info:  Just so you know, there are a couple of other purchasing options.  There’s a limited edition of fancy vinyl you can find for $80 on the Tom Petty website, or if you’d like the CD set, Amazon is throwing in three stickers.

Review of Long After Dark (Deluxe Edition):  The new material first.

Disc 2 is a good album that’s enjoyable all the way through.  Here are the top tracks…“Stories We Could Tell”, “Never Be You”, “Turning Point”, “Don’t Make Me Walk The Line”, “Keeping Me Alive”, and “Ways To Be Wicked”.  Petty fans will likely want all six of these in their collections.  Three of the other songs (cuts 5, 8 & 10) are good, but not quite as good as the versions that are already on the original album.  The three remaining tracks (cuts 6, 11 & 12) are fine, but not must-haves (although fans might have fun with The Heartbreakers’ version of The Trogg’s hit “Wild Thing”).

The original album on Disc 1 has been around since 1982, so most fans probably know it and have their favorite tracks.  The album is anchored by three standouts… “You Got Lucky”, “Change Of Heart”, and “Straight Into Darkness”.

Tom Petty is really missed, so it’s great to get a release like this.

Update:  Another release, this time a book from Mike Campbell.

The book is Heartbreaker, and it tells Mike’s life story, including his time with Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers.  It comes out March 18, 2025.

Update:  A quick release of a 1982 concert came and went.  Only 7,000 copies of a three record set Live In Edinburgh 1982 (The Gennaro Tapes) were made available, and they sold out in the online pre-order. The concert was recorded by sound mixer Gennaro Rippo.  It’s possible some copies of the $40 set made their way to record stores.  The concert was during the Long After Dark tour.

Fans of Neil Young realize that you never know for sure what you’re going to get with one of his albums.  By 1974 when On The Beach first came out, Neil Young had soared in popularity with the albums After The Gold Rush and Harvest.  After that #1 album in 1972, Young pivoted in 1973 to a live album of new songs, Time Fades Away.  It has its moments, but even Neil was not satisfied with it.  Then came On The Beach.

This one was a regular studio album, but it wasn’t similar to the Country Rock feel of Harvest.  It had more of a Blues Rock style with inherently depressing lyrics.  Here’s the track list, which is the same for both the original album and the 50th Anniversary version.  It was released on November 8th, 2024.

Instead of selling millions like Harvest, the original On The Beach album sold a fraction of that (about 500,000 eventually), and made it to #16 on the Billboard album chart.  Critics’ reviews were mixed at the time, but now it’s looked upon as an important step in Young’s development as an artist who explored a wide variety of musical styles.

As someone who owns most of Neil Young’s albums, On The Beach isn’t  among my favorites, but it does have one of my favorite NY recordings, “See The Sky About To Rain”.  The single from the album, “Walk On”, is also good, even though it only made it to #69 on the Hot 100 chart.  Fans of the album tend to focus on the trio of songs with “blues” in the title… “Revolution Blues”, “Vampire Blues”, and “Ambulance Blues”.

The 50th Anniversary edition comes on clear vinyl, but with no other extras.  So it’s mainly for fans who don’t own the album yet, need to replace their old ones, or simply like the clear vinyl.  The reality of this release is that Neil Young sold the rights to a lot of his music, and investors are likely looking for ways to get a return for their money.  That’s not a criticism, just financial reality.  There’s nothing wrong with consumers having choices of ways to enjoy their favorite artists.

Just for fun:  Here’s an alternate shot from the cover photo session.

Wanted to add this section from an earlier CSNY article, because there’s a song connection:  Old friends Stephen Stills and Neil Young are working together again.  Besides mixing the live recordings for the new release CSNY Live At Fillmore East, 1969 (released on Oct. 25th, 2024), the two performed at the Harvest Moon charity event October 5th, 2024.

Stills & Young started their set with “Long May You Run”, and then played a crowd-pleasing assortment of songs that went all the way back to Buffalo Springfield (including “Bluebird” & “For What It’s Worth”) from the 1960s. There were of course CSNY songs, and some Neil Young classics (including “Vampire Blues” from his On The Beach album).  The two were supported onstage by bassist Corey McCormick and drummer Anthony Logerfo.  Later they were joined by John Mayer, who had performed a solo acoustic set earlier.

And a reminder of how Stills & Young were 50 years earlier.