“Beatles tribute show's goal is authenticity” plus 2 |
- Beatles tribute show's goal is authenticity
- Elvis and The Beatles together again -- sort of
- Ken Griffey Jr. Is My Version of the Beatles
| Beatles tribute show's goal is authenticity Posted: 05 Jun 2010 09:00 PM PDT Message from Five Filters: If you can, please donate to the full-text RSS service so we can continue developing it. Copyright ©2010. The Associated Press. Produced by NewsOK.com All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Forty years have passed since the Beatles dissolved their partnership, but their music lives on through recordings, films and an ever-growing number of tribute bands. One of the most popular examples of the latter is "Rain: A Tribute to the Beatles." MultimediaVideoview all videosRain - A Tribue To The Beatles Jun 5Rain - A Tribue To The Beatles will be preformed at the Civic... More Info→When: 7:30 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday, 8 p.m. Friday, 2 and 8 p.m. Saturday, 2 and 7 p.m. June 13. →Where: Civic Center Music Hall, 201 N Walker. →Information: (800) 869-1451.
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| Elvis and The Beatles together again -- sort of Posted: 06 Jun 2010 03:13 AM PDT Message from Five Filters: If you can, please donate to the full-text RSS service so we can continue developing it. On the evening of Aug. 27, 1965, three limousines discreetly traveled from 2850 Benedict Canyon Drive in Beverly Hills to a heavily guarded mansion on Perugia Road in Bel Air. In a meeting planned with the secrecy and strategy of a military strike, the Beatles, on their second U.S. tour and barely two weeks after their legendary appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show, were on their way to visit their idol, Elvis Presley, for the first time. Not much is known about that meeting between what are arguably the greatest names in the history of rock 'n' roll, since the few reporters present were not allowed cameras or recording equipment. What is known is that after some awkward small talk between the Fab Four and The King, Elvis is reported to have said, ''Didn't you guys show up to jam?'' And jam is what they did. On Saturday night at Symphony Hall in Allentown, history might just repeat itself -- at least in a way. In a concert titled ''Memphis Meets Liverpool,'' local Elvis tribute artist Jay Allan and Philadelphia-based Beatles tribute group Liverpool Beat will each present a program of their classic 1960s and 1970s-era songs. Add to that a troupe of Viva Las Vegas showgirls, Allan's own version of Elvis' TCB Band of the 1970s, and an Ann-Margret look-alike. But will Elvis and the Beatles actually jam, for the first time in 45 years? ''Maybe,'' is all Allan, the concert organizer, will say. ''I just thought it would be such a unique show. The Beatles really revered Elvis. John Lennon even once said 'Before Elvis, there was nothing.' It's very possible no one has done a show like this before.'' In true Las Vegas style, ''Memphis Meets Liverpool'' is really as much a variety show as a concert. First up will be Liverpool Beat, which will perform hits from the early-to-mid 1960s such as ''Hard Day's Night,'' ''I Want to Hold Your Hand'' and ''She Loves You.'' Dressed in black suits, mop-top wigs, and with authentic instruments and amplifiers, they'll perform for an hour. In his hour-plus long set, Allan, dressed in a 1970s sequined jumpsuit, will deliver mostly 1970s-era Elvis material such as ''If I Can Dream,'' ''American Trilogy,'' and ''Suspicious Minds,'' but he won't neglect earlier classics, such as ''Don't Be Cruel.'' A ''Viva Las Vegas'' tribute will feature a troupe of showgirls who'll also dress up as hula girls to accompany Allan in a song from the 1961 film ''Blue Hawaii.'' For added fun, an Ann-Margret look-alike will share a duet or two with The King. ''There are a lot of Elvis tribute artists out there, so I try to add my own spin on it,'' says Allan. Joining Allan's own eight-piece That's the Way it Is Show Band, will be a former trumpet player from Elvis's TCB -- ''Taking Care of Business'' -- band. Allan, who grew up in Fountain Hill and went to Liberty High School, has been doing Elvis tributes for more than 15 years and has made a full-time career out of it. Although he performs mostly in the Northeast, he has appeared in Las Vegas, and performs in Memphis every year during Elvis Week. He appeared as a extra in the 2001 film ''3000 Miles to Graceland,'' which starred Kevin Costner and Kurt Russell. Allan has a couple dozen Elvis outfits, and can do any era -- ''the 1950s Elvis with his pink sports shirt, black pants and white shoes, the 1968 comeback Elvis with his black leather outfit, the 1970s sequined jumpsuits with capes and high collars.'' Liverpool Beat was formed in 2001 by musicians seeking to share their common love for the music of the Beatles. After a few practice sessions, they realized they not only could duplicate the songs, but match the accents, vocal inflections and delivery of the original group. Three of them got so good at it to serve as stand-ins for the Beatlemania touring show three years ago. Being in a Beatles tribute group is sort of the fulfillment of a childhood dream for band leader Dave Furey (Paul) of Chester County. ''I've known Anthony Caponigro (Ringo) since we were about 10 years old. When we were 16 or 17, we'd play Beatles songs in his garage,'' he says. Furey and Caponigro performed with Beatlemania for about three years, along with Steve Eissler (John). Steve Cash (George) is not a Beatlemania alumnus. The group specializes in early 1960s Beatles repertoire, and is authentic in both costume and instrumentation. Guitars include Rickenbackers, Stratocasters, and Gibsons in addition to a copy of McCartney's famous left-handed Hofner. Ringo's drum kit is a Ludwig, of course, and amplifiers are Vox AC-50s and an AC-100. Furey won't say either whether the group will actually jam with Allan. ''We spoke about it, that's all I can say,'' he says, evoking all the conjecture and mystery of that meeting 45 years ago. Steve Siegel is a freelance writer. Jodi Duckett, editor jodi.duckett@mcall.com, 610-820-6704 Five Filters featured article: Into the Abyss. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction. |
| Ken Griffey Jr. Is My Version of the Beatles Posted: 04 Jun 2010 07:33 PM PDT Message from Five Filters: If you can, please donate to the full-text RSS service so we can continue developing it. Ken Griffey Jr. is my version of The Beatles. For every generation there are cultural phenomena that don't resonate with their predecessors and go unappreciated by their successors. I spent about two hours attempting to write a fitting sendoff for Junior the morning after he retired. I explained the inaccurate parallel between the end of a great player's career and a funeral. I explained how I'd begun writing an article disagreeing with Dave Cameron's USS Mariner entry entitled Respect , and that when Mike Sweeney began hitting everything out of the yard he killed my best argument for Junior remaining a Mariner. I used the same tired clichés and comparisons between Junior and Babe Ruth that I've used a half dozen times each since Junior returned to Seattle, once with the Reds and eventually as a Mariner. Then I realized, I no longer had to defend Junior using specifics. His career as a player is over, and no matter where a player falls or how far overdrawn his career was, or how terribly it ended, the debate is truly moot at this point. As reality sinks in that we've seen the last of Junior on the field, dozens of articles reflecting on a great career have surfaced. I don't want to do that. The reason I compare Junior to The Beatles is that I don't like The Beatles. I'm not a music guy per se, but I've got enough knowledge to avoid looking like a jerk in most social settings. I'm obsessed with sports. I like listening to music. That stated, I don't like arguing about music for the simple fact that in almost all cases, I'm in over my head. The same way many of my friends' brains spin when I reel off a handful of acquirable prospects the Mariners could receive in a Cliff Lee trade, my brain scrambles when they name obscure B-sides from indy bands I've never heard of. But I've developed an escape hatch for uncomfortable music-related conversations, specifically, Beatles-related conversations. "I don't care for their music personally, but I respect what they did for music" What the hell does that even mean? I don't know enough about music to make that statement. I didn't grow up in the 1960s or 70s, I've never seen The Beatles live. In fact, the only Beatles album I've ever purchased was "One," an album of chart-toppers that I bought for my dad. Not only can I barely remember the names of any songs on the album, I've never listened to it, unless it was the music I ignored while I rode in his truck. But you see, I'm not a bad person for not liking The Beatles (some of my friends may argue this). I just didn't live The Beatles. I think that "I Want to Hold Your Hand" sucks and I don't understand why it inspired so much enthusiasm and passion from men and women alike in that timeframe. Even in retrospect, I'm confident that I could listen to that song a million times, and I'd never understand the passion. Passion isn't cultivated overnight. While the seed of passion may have an anniversary date for its planting, its growth and the final product take years to mature. So when we realize that fans come in waves, there is often posturing, and a veritable display of resumes somehow displayed and quantified by years as a suffering fan. 1995. 1997. 2000. 2001. 2009. The former four years respresent Mariners playoff appearances, while the latter represents the first year of Jack Zduriencik's tenure in Seattle, which may eventually lead to years before Zduriencik became the team's general manager being referred to as B.Z. (Before Zduriencik), provided he can weather the present Mariners struggles. The truth is that while I aspire to quantify all of my sentiments towards a player and team using logical means, my love for Junior knows no logic. For all intents and purposes, I'm no different than the 1960s teenage girl with a Paul McCartney poster on her bedroom wall who convinced her parents to let her stay up late to watch The Beatles' United States debut on "The Ed Sullivan Show." I was nearly three years old when Junior made his MLB debut. As far as my memory dates back, Junior may as well be named Abner Doubleday, because I know no baseball without him. It's awful to watch a star slowly stop shining. But in many ways it is worse to be involuntarily stuck remembering when the star shined at its brightest. I don't know when Dave Cameron became a Mariners fan. I don't know when much of the fan base became Mariners fans. I do know that there was a large portion of the fan base that didn't support Junior in the waning days of his career. At this point, there is no point in arguing the validity of such contrition. If you didn't catch the fever, you never will. There aren't adequate words to describe the impact Junior had on the lives of people around my age. For those that don't understand the blind devotion of myself or others like me, you never will. But I understand that you don't understand. Passion is hard to convey on replay. Most of all though, Junior did it the right way. Call it fear of abandonment, but I hitched my wagon to perhaps the lone remaining clean cowboy. While seemingly everyone else's favorite baseball player was being named in the Mitchell Report, or by Jose Canseco, the only ink that Griffey received was on his ever-growing medical chart. And while it's become common place to think of "what could have been" when it comes to Junior's career and injury history, the truth is, that while it may have lasted longer than many, Junior's career is more aptly described as "what should have been." Players become injury prone and less productive as they grow old. And we want our athletes to believe, no matter what permanent hurdles, or inevitable obstacles they face, that they are one solid contact away from finding their groove and returning to form. So in the ultimate modern day baseball story, it was Don Wakamatsu, a man who has managed baseball more than ten times less years than Griffey has played at the highest level, who may have told Junior his time was over. It was an imperfect ending to an amazing career. But if 40 is the new 30, and 30 is the new 20, then in the age of steroids and scandal, imperfect but clean is the new perfect. Hell of a career Junior, I'd have been there if it lasted another 22 years. 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