“Can’t Buy Me Love” Beatles Book Review

I try to read every Beatles release that comes off the presses… Almost through with Jonathan Gould’s “Can’t Buy Me Love”. It’s a history of the group (and the people in it) - no surprises there, of course.

But writer Gould turns it into a sociological study, pushing the Beatles, their birth, their success, their flame-out, against cultural and historical events in the UK and the US, trying to figure out exactly why (besides being a kickass band) they were just so damned successful.

American Idol Alert — Watch Jordin Sparks’ Drummer! (updated)

Just a bit of personal name-dropping (clears the room like a fart, I’ve found) — friend and phenomenal drummer (and a decent singer) Mike Bedard will be on American Idol tonight (Weds, April 9). He’s touring with previous winner Jordin Sparks, and will percuss (is that a word?) behind her when she fills time between vote-offs.

Obscure Pop Artist Watch — KC Bowman

I’m in San Francisco for work a bunch of years ago (late ’90s). I went into a much-too-hip-for-me CD shop near Union Square, and I heard some terrific Beatle-y pop playing on the store’s sound system. I was hooked on KC Bowman immediately.

The Heart of Pop, Part 1: The Troubador

It’s a romantic image — the troubador. Haven’t we all been captivated by the lonely, achingly beautiful voice of a young artist? It happens again and again for me. Having my ear always cocked for this soulful serenade remains my best compass for discovering beauty and truth in the overproduced, fad-driven, and group-think traditions that propel pop music from one decade to the next. The rare artist’s unadulterated voice remains the strength that underlies pop music. The arrangements, the outfits, the concert shenanigans, and such are all decoration — important sometimes — but decoration, nonetheless.

Roger Manning Jr. Update!

Roger Manning Jr.’s new CD, Catnip Dynamite, has been released (in Japan, where it’s already the 19th, I suppose)! Because there’s no U.S. distributor, the price is about where it was for “Pure Imagination” (about $26). I can’t believe no American label will take Roger on. It’s available at CDJapan. Let’s see… 7.2 gallons of gas (San Diego prices) or the new album…

Update (April 4, 200 — Just ordered it… I’ll review/comment/snark once it arrives!

I for One Welcome Our New Computer Overlords.

I was at NAMM (the big music industry tradeshow) at the Anaheim Convention Center last year, and I picked up a demo CD of Melodyne, a pitch- and time-shifting software package for editing audio tracks. It was pretty impressive, fixing wrong notes in a singer’s performance, building harmonies (very natural-sounding), and constructing arrangements from a single instrument. It was amazing stuff, much more expressive than the industry standard of a few years ago, Antares AutoTune (notorious for giving even crappy singers good pitch, and for creating the “Cher” effect — that robotic, stair-step kind of vocal).

B is for “Betcha By Golly, Wow”

“You’re the one that I’ve been waiting for, forever now . . .”

It may not have been the pinnacle of pop musical expression but this song by the Stylistics in 1971 — along with so many other great songs from the soul groups of the 70s — still rings like a clarion call in my head. So many amazing groups — the O’Jays (”Love Train”), Spinners (”It’s a Shame”), the Chi-Lites (”Have You Seen Her”), and, of course, the Manhattans whose song “Let’s Just Kiss” didn’t just typify the genre but perhaps defined it for posterity.

The Stylistics (circa 196

Jason Falkner News!

Rumor has it that Jason has completed recording a “vol. 2″ of “Bedtime with the Beatles,” his lullaby-esque instrumental collection of Fab covers.

RetroGirls — Do I smell a new trend?

So for the past few weeks, I’ve been enjoying a slight guilty pleasure — The Pipettes. If you don’t know them, you should. They’re completely a “manufactured” band (which can be awful, cf. Spice Girls, or surprisingly good, cf. The Monkees), cast from the same mold as the Ronettes or the Shangri-Las. In other words, there’s a producer, who plugs people (in this case, cute girls) into slots, with an overall sound guiding the vision.

American Idol . . . Again!

It’s down to the top 12 and I’m pulled in, once again. In fact, American Idol is on right now. Doesn’t hurt that they’re paying tribute to the formidable Lennon-McCartney songbook. Those boys proved to be every bit the team that Rodgers and Hart were a generation (or two) earlier. And I’m a huge fan of both duos.

Anyway, this is a posting as much about the Beatles as about twelve budding talents who alternately did the boys from Liverpool proud or . . . not so much.