The Red Button’s Summer of Love time machine is back in business.

The duo’s latest album, “As Far as Yesterday Goes,” continues the Beatles-esque harmonies cemented on their debut disc, “She’s About to Cross My Mind.”

The new disc remains retro down to its fab cover photo, a glimpse of a mod harpist playing in a field of honey-wheat grass. But there’s nothing moldy about the melodies spread across this luminous 12-track release.

The Red Button’s Mike Ruekberg and Seth Swirsky share lead vocal duties once more, with the latter’s voice the silkier of the two. Ruekberg’s gentle rasp comes in handy on the opening track, “Caught in the Middle.” A harmonica blast sets things in motion as Ruekberg recalls a stunner with two many male options, much to the narrator‘s chagrin.

“Picture,” arguably the album’s emotional peak, recalls how a forgotten snapshots triggers remorse over a romance all but over. A cautious piano opening gives way to Swirsky pining for one last chance.

“I thought of all the things I never got to say… I had words but I lost ‘em,” he sings, regret and reality burnishing the moment. (more…)

Okay.  First of all let me start off  by saying that I have been a musician (piano and more recently guitar – and the spoons) since I was a youngster.  And very few bands influenced me more than the Fab Four.  And of said mop-tops from Liverpool,  Paul was my favorite but I always thought John Lennon was a little cooler in his edginess and willingness to explore musically…sometimes brilliantly (“She Said, She Said”) other times embarrassingly (“number 9?…number 9?…number 9?)

It was with great sadness this thirteen year old heard the news from Howard Cosell, thirty years ago today in fact, on Monday Night Football, that he’d been murdered by that scumbag Mark David Chapman.  Actually, if I may borrow from Dennis Miller, I take that back for that would be an insult to bags of scum.  

Fact: John Lennon changed the music scene for the better and enriched rock-and-roll and all off-shoots from the Sixties onward in a profound way that only a truly gifted artist could.  Still, like his partner Paul, John’s music was never quite so there after the Beatles broke up, showing that a unique synergy did exist, even if by the end they were writing by themselves and for themselves.

That last observation is just a hint of honesty that I think is necessary to remember him properly.  To eulogize Lennon the man rather than just the music takes some frank talk.  And no Lennon song so instills in me the urge to have an adult discussion with the legions of fans who see not just a musician but rather a  mystically enlightened figure than his anthem of the hippy pacifist culture:  “Imagine.”  It is a beautiful piece, elegant in its simplicity of melody.  But the lyrics, quite frankly, irk me.

“Imagine no possessions.  I wonder if you can.”   What I wonder more is whether those who sing this modern-day kumbaya, an homage to an equalitarian society that Orwell would scoff at, are aware that the man who penned these words was worth an estimated $150 million when he died – much if it in real estate, including five apartments claimed in the Dakota co-op on Manhattan’s Upper West Side. Three units just for storage—for all those possessions he couldn’t imagine … I guess.  It sort of deflates the message, does it not?  At least it reveals that, for all his talent, Lennon was at his core a textbook limousine liberal who bounced from four-star hotels, to luxury private jets, to castles in the country and posh penthouses in the glitziest of cities to pontificate his world without class, borders, countries, God or, of course, possessions.  (more…)

I was never a big fan of the Beatles.  For starters, I can’t spin that fast, and for all their musical innovation, I often can’t get past the whole nursery-rhyme vibe of it all.  But Jeff Lynne idolizes them, and ELO is the greatest band ever, so I’ll defer to his judgment.  And if you’ve heard the new album Watercolor Day, you already know that veteran singer/songwriter Seth Swirsky agrees. 

Watercolor Day is only Swirsky’s second solo album, but his decades of experience are more than readily apparent.  And for being, essentially, a rehash of ’60s and ’70s Britpop, the album sounds fresher than much of the flamboyant dance-floor fodder bleeding out the kiddies’ headphones these days.  Is it shocking to anyone else that to go against the grain in the music world, you have be to modest and subtle?  Not “look how profound and nuanced I am cuz I made this understated” subtle, but, you know… actually subtle?  For Swirsky, who’s had nearly a decade to explain to his leftists colleagues how they’re absolutely wrong without burning bridges, you get the impression that subtlety comes second nature to him.

The album’s received plenty of praise and lots of adjectives like “shimmer,” “shine,” sweetness,” “bounce,” and the like, but to peg Watercolor Day as a happy record is leaving out the true meat of it.  The best pop is music is sad pop music, and Swirsky’s got boatloads of melancholy oozing through his sweet, shimmery bouncing.  Single “(Never Knew You) Harry” may sound like a goofy tribute to Harry Nilsson, but you get the sense that he’s not just saying, “Hey, you were a great songwriter,” but he’s lamenting the boundaries that time can place between people.  If only he hadn’t been born so late, he could have been in the business when he first heard “Everybody’s Talkin’;” He could’ve been one of Harry’s contemporaries.

And this feeling of displacement hangs over the whole album– a yearning for some other time or place, even though this one is already so beautiful.  It almost veers into breakup concept album territory.  The narrator comes across as an introvert recounting his thoughts through a single day.  He’s nerdy, full of romantic fantasy but held back by his timidity.  We catch his mind admiring nature, longing for women past and present, and cursing himself for lost opportunities.  “Distracted” shuffles around an insanely catchy trumpet riff as he realizes he never gets anything done because of his conflicting interests.  On “Melancholy Rainbow,” the album’s longest song (at 3:25– score!), our protagonist muses about the titular omen of impending heartbreak shining through a window as he lays with his lover:  “I don’t wanna let go,” he sighs.  This theme of lost love continues through “Matchbook Cover,” “Living Room,” “Big Mistake,” “Stay,” and “She’s Doing Fine,” whose ambiguity suggest that Swirsky imagines this is woman still with him after she’s left. (more…)

It’s tempting to call singer/songwriter Seth Swirsky a late bloomer. After all, the 50-year-old musician released only his second solo album, “Watercolor Day,“ earlier this year. But that doesn’t account for the hit singles he wrote for Celine Dion, Taylor Dayne, Al Green and other pop mainstays, or the albums cut with his celebrated side project, The Red Button.

“Watercolor Day” brims with youthful enthusiasm all the same, a psychedelic toast to the ‘60s layered with tasty melodies. From the efficient beauty of “Summer in her Hair” to the sumptuous title track, “Day” is both timeless and retro. The 18-track album leverages our affection for the Summer of Love as a starting point for thoroughly original compositions.

Musical success struck Swirsky early – he had barely entered his 20s when he penned a jingle for Thomas’ English Muffins. He soon found steady work supplying songs for some of the music industry’s biggest acts.

“I really wanted to make it, but wasn’t sure what form it would be,” Swirsky recalls. Writing for fellow musicians held instant appeal for him.

“I could write R&B music for bands I grew up listening to, then switch and do real pop stuff,” he says, adding he remembers buying the albums of bands for whom he‘d later write songs.

“It’s a tremendous feeling to hear their voices on my songs,” he says. The singer/songwriter just couldn’t write music for himself. (more…)

So Ringo Starr turned 170 yesterday, and marked it by babbling.

He said we should all initiate our afternoons with a global “peace and love” moment. He says it would be fab for folks from all over the world (which I presume includes gentle souls hiding in the mountains of Afghanistan), to say such things at noon everyday – by any form of communication you have at hand.

Here’s his announcement:

—–

Of course, there’s nothing wrong with this. It’s a nice sentiment from a semi-attractive grandmother.

Oh, I kid. Of course there’s something wrong with this. There’s everything wrong with this.

For that proclamation represents the reason why people die in this world.

They die because people listen to aging hippes like Ringo Starr. The idea that all the evil in the world will dissolve if we all chant peace and love is what enables evil in the world to flourish. (more…)

Where else should Elvis be hanging out but at the Fort Collins Senior Center?  I saw Bubba Ho Tep?  This was the same Elvis whom my wife Ann dated before I met her and who sang at our wedding.  His name is George Gray and he is widely known as “The Greeley Elvis.” 

The large party room with stage at the Senior Center was filled to capacity by the time Elvis appeared.  He brought a ten-piece band including five back-up singers wearing black suits and ties and one black dress.  Elvis wore a dazzling white preacher’s suit with a crimson cravat.  The first half was devoted to Gospel, beginning with a stunning a capella “Swing Low Sweet Chariot,” and proceeding through a remarkable set of songs including “Walking With the Spirits, “The Battle of Jericho” (which employed a heavy doo-wop style,) “Rock My Soul,” and an a capella “Johnny Saw a Big Number” that stunned.

This is much more than homage.  George Gray has a huge emotive tenor that evokes Elvis with ease.  Gray and the band worship the King and his music and it shows in every note.  Bass vocalist Charlie Spillman, from Fort Collins, anchored the chorus with freight train authority.  The first half ended with “Amazing Grace” and “How Great Thou Art.”  (more…)

Time out from all things politics. Instead, let’s turn our attention to “all things Beatles trivia” for this short essay/game.

I went on Amazon yesterday to purchase The Beatles Stereo Box Set and was informed it was still on back order. Borders noted that the set will be available on a limited basis in October on a “first-come, first-served” basis. The Mono version, which sells for $30 more than the Stereo version, is also on back order. So the Beatles obviously remain popular.

One topic I have always found interesting is the distinction between Lennon’s songs and McCartney’s songs. Of the 200 plus songs the Beatles wrote, perhaps about 30 had some form of  collaboration between the two, with maybe 20 being jointly written completely. Yet, I have always found this distinction very misleading. Their influence on each other was so deep that their individual songs really were effectively collaborations. Besides the obvious difference in sound between, say, Wings and McCartney written Beatles songs, I have constructed a “Beatles” trivia quiz below to demonstrate this point.  I assert that we think we can tell the difference because most of us know the songs well. But in reality, they were highly influenced by the other and are more similar than we sometimes realize. (more…)

This may be a shocking revelation to all but the most avid news-followers, but it is apparently true: pop star Michael Jackson recently passed away.  A handful of media outlets found time to cover the story, and some of them have mentioned Jackson’s feud with Paul McCartney over Jackson’s ownership of the publishing rights to some of the Beatles’ biggest hits-rights acquired when Jackson outbid Paul McCartney and Yoko Ono in the mid-1980’s. 

People not familiar with copyright law might be surprised to hear that McCartney-one-half of music’s most-successful songwriting duo-must pay royalties to perform his own hit songs.  The fact certainly seemed to grate on McCartney, who frequently made mention of it in interviews.  But even more surprising, at least to those not acquainted with the intricacies of copyright law, is that Sir Paul will one day be able to re-acquire the rights to his music without even having to pay to buy them back.

(more…)

It used to take decades and even centuries of cultural transmission by storytelling, theater, ballad, and a general diffusion of knowledge by processes unknown to bring myth and legend into being.  That may be another way of saying that people once had brains, and then came television, Video’s killing of the Radio Star, and the genteel cultural virtues obtained through 24/7 media immersion.

People once heard, told, acted out and retold these tales, taking active roles in creating visions of life and its possibilities in imaginative ways, instead of flopping on couches with a Monster Burger in one hand and a Bucket o’ Suds in the other, passively awaiting the predetermined outcome of one steroid-based extravaganza or another. This says something disturbing about the contrast between ancient and modern civilizations and the ways the perception of reality can either be generated by humans or imprinted upon them, unless you’re the CEO of an international fast food conglomerate or a viewer engaging in a fierce wind-breaking competition during a broadcast’s inevitable male-enhancement advertisements or rain delays.  (more…)

The disconnect between beauty and popularity in music has never been greater.  Where once America sang the Beatles or Motown (“The Sound of Young America”), today the music industry is severely fragmented.  Gangsta rap.  Speed metal.  Trip-hop.  The major recording companies whine about declining profits even as they pay Mariah Carey $18 million not to record.

Unanimity of public opinion over popular song has passed.  Music, which used to unite, now divides.  Eminem and Ludacris would have been unthinkable thirty years ago.  We live in an antinomian age where it’s hip to defy conventional wisdom long after every vestige of conventional wisdom lies in tatters.  Where Keats’ Grecian Urn once proclaimed, “Beauty is truth, truth beauty,” today’s antinomian consumer proclaims, “Whatever,” in a voice oozing ennui. (more…)