Paul McCartney - Barclay's Center 6/10/13

So Sir Paul stopped by Brooklyn for the second of two nights at the Barclay's Center.  I last saw him about 8 or so years ago and thought the show at MSG was, well it was ok.  I was less than excited by what I thought was a by the numbers performance.  Last night was exactly the opposite to these ears.  The set list was what you would expect...the mandatory songs and a few numbers that have never been played some of which were great and a couple not so much,

Eight Days a Week, Lovely Rita, and Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite were all first timers and Listen To What the Man Said is back on the set list for the first time since the mid-70's.  You got a bunch of Beatles, some Wings, some solo almost all of which was as classic as it gets.  The only missteps for me were a couple of newer songs and the silly All Together Now.  Other than that...just great song after great song.

It's easy to forget he is 70 now.  He certainly hasn't slowed down at all and played for a solid 2 1/2 hours.  It's hard to believe that some of those songs are closing in on 50 years!  Paul McCartney is everything that the Rolling Stones are not on this tour.  A little less able to hit the high notes, but still rock solid.  And there was nothing embarrassing like the current Stones duets with the current "pop stars".  Oh yeah and I still love watching him do Live and Let Die.

A really great night out and we even made our connection in Jamaica for the express to Babylon!  Catch this tour if you get the chance...an OldRockr's night if there ever was one.

Oh yeah, the new Nikon Coolpix s9500 did a pretty good job from all the way across the arena.

Recent Vinyl Releases

I've been getting a little lazy getting reviews out so I am going to try to shorten them up a bit and do more at once.  I spent a lot of years working in a record store and I used to slap short review blurbs on the inventory sleeve to "entice" potential buyers so I figured I'd go with that format for a bit.

Record Store Day Black Friday Releases

This limited release (7500 copies) features most of the second set from 5/30/71.  This was recorded during the same run as Skull and Roses and has that same kind of vibe.  Do we need another 15 minute version of Lovelight?  Why yes.  Yes we do.  And the sound is fantastic.

Released in 1968 but still reflecting that Summer of Love "glow", Forever Changes has grown in stature over the past 40 or so years.  In fact it was #40 on the Rolling Stone Top 500 of all time (if that means anything to you).  It has some really high points but does sound very much of that era so if you've missed this over the years give it a listen.

This was released as a numbered limited edition of 1000.  The album sees its official release on 12/9 so I was happy to grab it early.  The great Buddy Miller who can pretty much do no wrong teams up with roots legend Jim Lauderdale.  Great music pours out of your speakers and massive smiles pop up around the room.  Love it.

Some Other Recent Releases

I kind of dig the Drive By Truckers and found Jason Isbell's last couple of albums interesting, but I absolutely love this live CD.  A great band playing great songs and a kick ass Neil Young cover.  What else could you ask for.

The first two Marshall Tucker Band albums recently got the 180 gram treatment and were quietly released a couple of weeks back.  Does anyone care?  Damn right they should.  Two stone cold classics from the early 70's hey day of southern rock.  Much more country than the Allman Brothers and tastier playing than the Charlie Daniels Band.  There is way more to these albums than Can't You See.  Two classics from one of my all time favorite bands.

One of rock music's original angry young men is no longer very young, but he is still a little angry and his pen still writes razor sharp lyrics.  Politicians, hipsters, and society in general are all targets that are attacked with wit and wisdom.  Nothing really rocks but that's OK...we're all a bit older.

Last but certainly not least...The Beatles Remasters on Vinyl!  I wasn't going to buy them yet again, but I have begun to cave.  I picked up 4 recently (Rubber Soul, Revolver, Sgt. Pepper and Let It Be) and the sound quality ranges from good to pretty damn wonderful.  Rubber Soul in particular is just tremendous.  I have some complaints with parts of Sgt. Pepper but the rest of what I have heard is worth the investment.  Am I going to buy the rest?  Probably. 

The Fab Faux - Abbey Road Side 2

I am 49 years old today.  Too young to have every had a chance to see the Beatles.  In fact my first exposure to their genius was the cartoon in the 60's!  My first records were Beatles records (Hey Jude and Let It Be) when I was around 9 or 10.  My love of this music has grown even more over the years and I am constantly going back and hearing something new or different from the last time I played it.  Simply amazing music that we have all shared over the years.

I am not generally a big fan of cover bands, Beatles cover bands, in particular.  Last year The Fab Faux played a benefit show for my home school district (a fire destroyed one of the elementary schools) and my wife and I volunteered to help out with the show.  Rich Pagano is the drummer of the Fab Faux as well as a classmate way back in the day and it was a wonderful gesture on his and the band's part to do the show.  I have to say I was amazed at how good these guys are.  It's truly a labor of love as the  music is painstakingly re-created by top notch musicians.  No silly costumes here.  Just great music played and sung extremely well.

The Fab Faux will be at the Beacon Theater on October 29th performing Magical Mystery Tour and other classics.  I never thought I would be going to the Beacon to see an act play Beatles songs, but the wife and I are going.  Big time fun.

Beatles Re-Masters

I grabbed 4 today from my local indie store: Revolver, Sgt. Pepper, White Album and Abbey Road. I am listening now and plan on doing the same for most of the day. Initial impression is that they sound absolutely fantastic and are a big upgrade from the 1987 releases. The are not overly compressed and the instrumentation is much more vibrant and discernible. Drums sound like drums should. The packaging is excellent. I suspect I will be buying more soon.

Beatles Finally Available on iTunes?

From Tuaw: The Unofficial Apple Blog

Will the Beatles library finally arrive in iTunes September 9th?
by Steven Sande (RSS feed) on Aug 19th 2009 at 12:00PM
As intrepid TUAW reporter Mike Schramm told you a few days ago, Apple has an event planned for September 9, 2009. Pundits are expecting the event to be the usual Apple fall event where the new line of iPods will be announced, but there's something else happening on September 9th that could herald the long-awaited arrival of The Beatles in the iTunes Store.

The Official Beatles Shop website is showing 9/9/09 as the release date for new, digitally remastered versions of the entire Beatles library. That's also the day that The Beatles: Rock Band is released. What better way for Apple to finally bring Apple Corps into the digital age than to give the Fab Four a home in iTunes?

Of course, the Beatles and Apple, Inc. have had a tumultuous legal history, and recently George Harrison's son Dhani Harrison was quoted in Blender as saying he didn't feel that the iTunes Store's per-song charge was a fair price for Beatles songs. He also mentioned that the remaining members of The Beatles were looking into creating their own website for digital downloads. Given the shaky history of most Beatles business ventures, I wouldn't give that comment a second thought.

Just last month, Sir Paul McCartney told the Guardian that in terms of the Beatles library appearing in iTunes, "The last word I got back was it's stalled at the whole moment, the whole process... I really hope it will happen because I think it should."

Frankly, I think the music world and Apple both need a little magic right now, so I'm hoping to see Steve Jobs, Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, Dhani Harrison, and Julian Lennon on stage together on September 9th. That would be even better than an announcement of a Mac tablet.