Saxon...Legendary in the Metal Community

 

    I had known of Saxon only by their name on the cover of albums in records stores during my visits in the late 1970s. Not being a fan of heavy metal, I never invested in purchase of album or tickets. Not that I have anything against Heavy Metal. I was much more the Beatles/Simon and Garfunkel kind of appreciant.

When my son suggested this concert featuring Saxon and Uriah Heep at the Lerner Theatre in Elkhart, of course I said “yes”. I love the gathering of music fans to just about any type of music and venue.

    Eric, my son, said, regarding Saxon…”These guys are legendary in the metal community.”

    I was impressed. This band is very precise in their instrumentation, timing, cadence, and more so than most performers I have encountered. Through the loudness, one can distinguish each guitar and vocal. The loudness is not merely for the aim of playing loud…the level of sound they create enables their music to ricochet from the walls in just the right directions for the listener to audibly consume each thrash-strum, slide-pick, and drum roll presented.

   I was impressed. Each song was acutely predictable. I don’t say that as a negative, contrary, this quality of predictability enabled the listener to know where the variations of the strums and drums was going and where the anticipated landing would be.

  At the beginning thrash-strum of one song my son leaned over to me and said “JFK”. Quickly, I Google-searched “Saxon JFK”. Well, that landed me where I did not want to go. Then I searched “Saxon song JFK”. Ah yes, that gave me the tilte of the song the band was playing (Dallas 1PM) and the lyric, which I present at bottom of this blog post.

Now, that fact made strong connection between baby-boomer me and this British new wave heavy metal band from South Yorkshire, England.

    I was impressed. The crowd that was there responded to each lyric sang as if the crowd knew the lyrics by heart. They were certainly well invested!

   I was convinced, as my son asserted, these guys are legendary in the metal community. They built upon that legend tonight at the Lerner Theater.

If you have never experienced a heavy metal band in concert and are interested in it as a “bucket list” item, for sure see Saxon.

I present the lyric Dallas 1PM in Fair Use as I do not monetize my blog…

[Verse 1]
A crowded main street, the scene was set
They check out the view, turn the radio on
Open the case, assemble the gun
Wait at the ready, for the president's run

[Chorus]
The world was shocked that fateful day
A young man's life was blown away, away, away-ay-ay
At Dallas 1 p.m

[Verse 2]
White hot lead, in the back of the head
Screaming confusion, shots rip the air
Cadillac racing, cops on the run
They couldn't believe the president's hit

*3 Shots*
[Radio Chatter]
"Something has happened here
We understand there has been a shooting
The presidential car coming up now, we know it's the presidential car, you can see Mrs. Kennedy in the pink suit
There's a secret serviceman spread eagle over the top of the car
We understand that governor and Mrs. Connally are in the car with president and Mrs. Kennedy
We can't see who is hit if anybody's been hit, but apparently something is wrong here, something is terribly wrong
[?] behind the motorcade [?] they're going to Parkland Hospital
[?]."

[Guitar Solo]

[Verse 3]
The shooting's done, assassin run
Is he dead? No-one will say
Around the world, the news was flashed
We sat and watched, your tragic history

[Chorus]
The world was shocked that fateful day
A young man's life was blown away, away, away-ay-ay
At Dallas 1 p.m
1 p.m

[Outro]
The world was shocked
In Dallas 1 p.m
We sat and watched
Tragic history

The world was shocked
In Dallas 1 p.m

 

 

 

Favoring the Spector Reproduction of "The Long and Winding Road"

 

Image from discogs.com I claim Fair Use

With a great deal of humility, I offer that my preferred version of “The Long and Winding Road”, released on May 11 in 1970, is the Phil Spector reproduction.

 I just sensed a disturbance in the gravitational field of all of Beatledom.

I was fourteen when I first heard the song on WLS radio station of Chicago. This was the formative version of the recording to which I was introduced. Other people may have had their first experience from the “Let It Be…Naked” album of 2003 which. I admit, had a simpler, more faithful to original recording production.

But the Spector reproduction to my fourteen-year-old self, having followed the Beatles since that first Ed Sullivan show, seemed like the Beatles at full maturity.

From the stage-performable “I Want to Hold Your Hand”, to the studio intense “Tomorrow Never Knows”, to trend-setting ‘Hey Jude”, this Spector reproduction of LWR, with his fullness of choir and orchestra, which seems to escort the listener from the end of one lyrical phrase to the beginning of the next, causes the group to rise above ordinary pop/rock music to unprecedented cultural apex.

Yes, those were my actual words that I wrote in my journal at the time of my first hearing the song. I was hoping to become a rock music critic.

As to McCartney’s lyric, I will say that the best phrase ever I have heard in a pop/rock song follows…

“The wild and windy night that the rain washed away has left a pool of tears, crying for the day. Why leave me standing here, let me know the way.”

Much respect to those who prefer the original recording done in January of 1969.

But to reinforce my argument, the Beatles pretty much shelved that music and left it somewhat abandoned. I see no transgression committed by Allen Klein or Phil Spector in making LWR an even better recording than the concurrent “Bridge Over Troubled Water”, which seems to have similar production value.

I mean no transgression in my preference for the Spector reproduction.

Peace, all.

 

The Beatles Success in Context of John F Kennedy

 

picture from jacobsmedia.com I claim Fair Use Doctrine
I do not monetize.

The Beatles success story began on Friday, November 22, 1963.

The assassination of John F Kennedy had thrust the adult population in America into an emotional preoccupation with fear, loss, grief. It was all over the news, whether radio, print, or television for months.

    America had to become accustomed to a new President, who resembled the older generation rather than the younger generation as had Kennedy.

   America had to calculate anew the place it held in the world relative to the Soviet Union.

    And we, the kids and teenagers, were witness to this cultural depression.

    Many of us kids felt emotionally abandoned by adults, even at school, who were busy trying to figure out their new worldview and how they fit within it.

    Cartoons didn’t make up for our loss.

    When we heard the buzz about this fresh talent from England, we decided to watch the Ed Sullivan show on that musically tectonic night in American history.

February 9, 1964.

    There we were, a huge population of young people watching the same television channel, reclining on couches, propping our heads up with the palms of our hands, tapping our feet to the beat of Ringo’s drums, following the fresh, excited vocals of Paul and John, and tingling with that glistening sound of George’s electric guitar!

    We felt emotionally unleashed!

After months of Samuel Barber’s Adagio for Strings (a magnificent and beautiful piece, though fixated in the depth of despair), we now had our own sound which provided us dispensation from grief and opportunity for celebration.

And we celebrated!

The very next day at school all the talk was the Beatles. Throughout that first week kids brought to school the 45RPM “I Want to Hold Your Hand”.

Within a month some kids had metal lunch boxes bearing the likeness of the Beatles.

By the end of the week, I had a ring from a “dime toy dispenser” at Woodson’s Grocery store in Lafollette Tennessee. This ring flashed the likeness of each of the Beatles as I moved it in the light.

I often wonder if that shot had missed John F Kennedy and landed harmlessly in the street or grass, had we kids and teens then not been subjected to a lengthy abdication of adult attention, perhaps the Beatles would have been on their way back to Liverpool, a mere ephemeral novelty from which we moved on to Rick Nelson.

Rooftop, Woodstock, and Altamont: a Less than Admirable Review of 1969

 

Nineteen Sixty-Nine was a very ripe year for the concert-goer of the legendary 1960s of which it is nostalgically said “If you remember the 60’s, you weren’t really there.”

Well, I was really there! And I remember reading the news reports, and the photos of three “free” yet troublesome major concerts. Though not in attendance at any of them, they nonetheless had much impact upon me.

Shea Stadium 1965 (I claim Fair Use)

Please note that my personal review of the history of 1960s concerts begins with the Beatles 1965 Shea Stadium event (I know, I leave out have of the decade). I was not present at this event, but it was this concert which first got my attention of the culture, sensation, and sense of ephemeral community attached to a large gathering of people for a “rock band” experience.

As well-planned as was this 1965 event, I consider it the debut of an emerging rock phenomena.

The year 1969 closed out the decade with some events that seemed quite ad hoc in execution.

Rooftop of Apple Records (Fair Use)

To begin, there on the rooftop of Apple Records, January 30, 1969, we have the Beatles performing, quite impromptu and free to the world, about forty minutes worth of yet to be released music, which caused traffic congestion, disruption of business, and involvement of police.

Oh, how I wish I could have been there atop that roof, looking down upon the commotion.

No longer were there teenage girls screaming until they faint into the arms of folk who will protectively attend to them. News video show the gathering crowd as comparatively subdued in response and interest as if to indicate a sense of “Now what are they up to?”

Though the rooftop shenanigan remains, probably, more legendary than even Shea Stadium, it also then served as harbinger of other ripe concert events with dubious consequences.

Such as was Woodstock.

Though well-planned, the Woodstock event also turned out to provide some very uncomfortable side effects. Many folk experienced health problems. Food and water had to be distributed by National Guard. Though there were ticket sales, at one point, because of the flood of people and no fencing to control them, it was announced that the concert was “now free”. Yes, like the Beatles roof top…free, yet troublesome.

I wonder how many divorces resulted as a consequence of this event.

Oh, how glad I am that I did not get a ride to that event, as I, at age 14,  was trying desperately to do.

Fair Use...I do not monetize

And of course, on December 6, 1969, sunsetting the year in rock and roll extravagance, we have the Altamont Concert which was designed as a free event yet also met with much problem. This event turned violent and even deadly for Meridith Hunter. I will leave it to you to read about it on Wikipedia or some other source.

Oh, how glad I am to not have even considered that one.

I don’t mean to dampen the excitement associated with these legendary concerts of 1969. But let us remember that they came at great cost to those who paid a price other than a ticket.

Yes, 1969 was a very ripe year for the concert experience.

It was also the inaugural year for what has become infamously known as the “27 Club”.

Yes, July 3, 1969, Brian Jones of the Stones died at age 27, followed by Jimi and Janis the following year, and Morrison in 1971.

But I bifurcate.

Think of a banana that has become mushy. That is how I think of the legendary year of 1969.

Thank goodness for Neil Armstrong and company to give the year a high point!