Music Video Of the Week - February 16, 2024

 "Rikki Don't Lose That Number" by Steely Dan  (Go to the link in the upper-right-hand corner.)

Merry Christmas!

Thanksgiving 2023

Now, Then and Later

Anyone who remembers the Beatles' Anthology CD releases of the mid-nineties also remembers the thrill and excitement of waiting to hear two new Beatles singles - "Free as a Bird" and "Real Love" - as part of the accompanying TV documentary that aired on ABC in America in 1995.  So what if the two new songs had clichés as titles?  They were two new Beatles songs, made with overdubbing and remixing from two unfinished John Lennon cassette demos from his retirement years in Manhattan.  Despite the passage of time and the worry that that band's legacy would be cheapened, and despite jokes that Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr were planning to make a record out of another unfinished Lennon recording called "Yoko and I Can't Come To the Phone Right Now" ( 😃 ), the two new songs not disappoint.  Ringo, after hearing one of the new songs in finished form, famously said, "It sounds like the bloody Beatles!"

Because "Free as a Bird" and "Real Love" were the Beatles, and they satisfied the desires of Beatles fans - many of whom were too young to have experienced the Fab Four firsthand and had to settle for the record business cramming Duran Duran down their throats in the 1980s - who wished there could be new Beatles product.  "Free as a Bird" and "Real Love," appearing on the Anthology albums, complemented the three double-CD compilations of alternate-take and unreleased-song tracks as well.

"But wait!" we all said collectively.  Two new songs for three new double-album releases of previously unissued session tapes?  That doesn't add up!"  No, it didn't.  While Anthology 1 kicked off with "Free as a Bird" and Anthology 2 started with "Real Love," Anthology 3 began with . . . a beginning.  That is, "A Beginning," a short orchestral introduction composed by George Martin as a possible item for Ringo's White Album song "Don't Pass Me By" but then discarded.  Why not a third new Beatles song?

Well, as we all know now, there was a third unfinished John Lennon song intended to start the third Anthology collection . . . "Now and Then." The three surviving Beatles had begun work on it in 1995, but John's voice was so weak that George didn't think it was worth completing, lest the group put out inferior product and fail to provide value for money (already a quaint notion in 1995, but the Fabs were old-school), and so the song was shelved.  If one member of the group objected to an idea, the group did not go forward with it.

But as artificial intelligence technology has improved, Paul thought it would be possible to strengthen John's vocal on "Now and Then" by having AI simulate his voice from the original cassette demo and add more fullness and timbre to it.  Ringo was game, and so the intended Anthology 3 bonus track was completed.  (Note: This song has been referred to before by the title "I Don't Want To Lose You," but the verse that includes that lyric was edited out of the final product.)

Given the way AI has taken over the Internet and has been used to create dangerous deep fakes that include a video of Hillary Clinton endorsing Ron DeSantis' presidential campaign (what next, a rom-com feature pairing Helen Mirren and Dan Aykroyd?), I was skeptical about how "Now and Then" would turn out.  Having now listened to it, though, I can say that it turned out beautifully.  The song is wonderfully arranged around John's somber piano, with Ringo's steady drums keeping a perfect beat and Paul's and George's guitars adding rich treble to what is essentially a folk-rock ballad in the style of Rubber Soul.   And John's vocals?  Well, I heard the "Now and Then" demo, and I don't think his vocal was that weak, but the AI certainly makes him sound more polished and professional.  The use of AI is so subtle - subtlety being a Beatles trademark - that you can't tell how or where the AI technology enhanced it . . . though to Paul and to Giles Martin, who produced "Now and Then" together, it must stick out like a sore thumb, just like the edit joining two entirely different arrangements of "Strawberry Fields Forever" did to Giles' father George.  "Now and Then" itself is rather poignant as a song, showing John in conflict about he's nothing without Yoko but still wanting enough freedom to stand on his own.

"Now and Then" is appearing on an album, by the way.  To mark the fiftieth anniversary of the original release of the Beatles' 1962-1966 Red and 1967-1970 Blue compilations, Apple is releasing new versions of both albums with expanded track lists on CD and vinyl, adding more songs (including a few covers) to both collections, turning the two double albums into triple albums, at least on the vinyl edition, were the additional songs will comprise bonus LPs.  So the Beatles' first greatest-hits compilations will now be the equivalent of a sextuple album, with "Now and Then" appearing as the final track on CD edition of the Blue Album and as the lead track on a bonus record of the Blue Album's added songs on the vinyl edition.  (Would you believe that the songs added to the Red Album do not include "If I Fell," even though it was an American single that got airplay on AM radio,  and also do not include "Do You Want To Know a Secret?", a number-two hit single in the States? Incomprehensible.) 

As the final "new" song from the Beatles, "Now and Then" represents the last hurrah for the group - and, along with the Rolling Stones' new Hackney Diamonds album, the last hurrah for rock and roll.  Rock has had a great deal of trouble producing acts with anything resembling staying power in the past four decades, and even in the 1970s - a decade that saw the debuts of the Eagles, Steely Dan, Jackson Browne, the Doobie Brothers, Bruce Springsteen, Rush, Tom Petty and Elvis Costello and also saw the peaks of artists that debuted at the end of the sixties, such as Elton John and Led Zeppelin - the Stones and the solo Beatles seemed to dominate the rock scene like no seventies artist (except Elton John) could.  Also, rock had to contend with the disco craze in the seventies.  And while rock survived the seventies better than Gloria Gaynor's career, its decline in the 1980s, despite a few strong albums and artists, was hard to overlook and impossible to comprehend.  That decline - paused briefly by the early-nineties grunge revolt - continued in 1995, the year the first product from of the Beatles' Anthology project came out and the year after Kurt Cobain's death, and it continues to this very day.  But that's a topic for another blog post.  Suffice it to say that it seems sadly appropriate that the Beatles and the Stones, who rescued rock and roll from the dead after it seemingly perished with Buddy Holly and his traveling companions, are now ready to give the form last rites now. 😢

Here is the official video for "Now and Then," created by Get Back director Peter Jackson.  This isn't a Music Video Of the Week; this is the music video of the year. 😊    

 

Partying Again

After a four-year hiatus, thanks largely to the pandmeic, model Nancy Donahue and hairdresser Harry King finally resumed their annual fashion reunion parties for models, hairdressers, photographers,  makeup artists, and bloggers who start sites showing pictures of gorgeous women and who particularly dig fashion models (that is, me).  Now, before I get to the party, let me explain a little about the venue in which the party was held.

Slate NYC, along West Twenty-First Street just west of Fifth Avenue, is a bar and restaurant with different rooms with all sorts of games in it - bowling, table tennis, Connect Four, what have you - that functions as sort of place for the kid in every adult.  And yes, it has a slide to the lower level, which I rode down once, but that was the extent of my child's play while I was there.  To be honest, the pictures look better than the actual place, but it wasn't bad. The reason Nancy and Harry held their party here this time s because it was where they'd planned to hold their 2020 shindig, which the pandemic of course shut down.  I was happy to see that they were picking up where they had left off.

Alas, many of the models who had attended earlier parties and who are now among my friends - Alva Chinn, Shanti Patty Owen, Dawn Gallagher, Jennifer Brice - were absent this time, and I don't know how much the four-year hiatus had to do with that.  But I'm happy to say that Yasmine Guenancia was there, and she gave me a really big hug, and it was good to see art and fashion director Fred DeVito and photographer Stan Wan again, as well as model Jany Tomba.  But I was in for a big surprise!

Yes, that's Patti Hansen above, Mrs. Keith Richards herself - still looking eternally youthful and beautiful in stark contrast to her husband!  Unlike the last time she was there, this time I actually got to talk to her!  Not that it was easy, as I not only had to get close enough to get her attention, the music - the very sort of late-1970s disco that Keith Richards famously hates - was excruciatingly loud, making conversations with anyone virtually impossible.  But I did get to tell her to let Keith know that I loved what I thought had been a Bill Wyman bass introduction that was actually her husband's on the Rolling Stones song "Live With Me."  It didn't matter how good or bad the party ended up; meeting and talking to Patti Hansen and being two handshakes away from her absent husband (remember, he hates disco) made my whole night. 

Along the way I also met Debbie Dickinson.  You remember Janice Dickinson, supposedly the first "supermodel" for doing print ads, commercials and runway shows?  Debbie's her sister and she was also a model,  She now works as an art curator.

The first four of the five pictures here are my own.  I regret that I was unable to get more pictures this time, largely because it turned out that my battery power was low (and then it petered out entirely) nd the lighting at Slate NYC was terrible.  But I did manage to get a picture of our gracious and beautiful hostess . . .

. . . and Fred DeVito got a picture of Nancy with me! 

No, I was not about to kiss her.  I was saying something silly in trying to project a tooth-bearing smile when the camera clicked, and, well, I'll just say my idea didn't work out.  That's the bad news.  The good news?  The good news is, who cares - I got another picture taken with Nancy Donahue!

All in all, it was a good night, except for the music, of course - all those late-'70s disco songs get on my nerves, though some of the worst disco records of that era thankfully didn't get played - and even though I don't dance, I had a good time hobnobbing with fellow guests and nursing a few Diet Cokes.  And I look forward to doing it all again next year.

So long as there isn't another pandemic.

Music Video Of the Week - May 19, 2023

"On the Road Again" by Willie Nelson  (Go to the link in the upper-right-hand corner.)

VW at the 2023 New York Auto Show

(This blog post originally appeared on my now-defunct Volkswagen Golf 8 blog.)

I went to the New York Auto Show last month for the first time in four years, and even though many brands chose not to display their latest cars (least of all Mercedes-Benz and Cadillac), Volkswagen was there. and unlike its 2022 New York Auto Show display (which I saw on YouTube), this year the VW display actually didn't suck. There was an example of every vehicle Volkswagen sells in the U.S., along with the as-yet-unreleased ID. Buzz minivan.

Above is an example of the Mark 8 Volkswagen Golf GTI, the photograph taken by yours truly.  Finally, I got to not only see a GTI in person, I got to sit in it - in the driver's seat and also the back seat.  I played around with the much-ballyhooed touchscreen controls . . . and I was utterly frustrated at trying to master it.  I can say without fear of contradiction that this touchscreen was a bad idea . . . and the sliders are worse. (This is precisely why, the for the first time in recent memory, Car and Driver did not include the Golf GTI on its annual 10Best list for 2023.) 

A VW product specialist saw me admiring the GTI while in the driver's seat, and he asked me if I was a Volkswagen customer.  I told him that I certainly was, and I had owned a fourth-generation Golf and I currently own a sixth-generation Golf, both base models, and I told him that I was very disappointed with the lack of a base model in the States.  He apologized, but he added that sport utility vehicles are what sells, and 83 percent of VW's sales (five out of six vehicles sold) are now sport utility vehicles.  (And, as noted, that figure was higher - 90 percent in the first quarter of this year.) 

I'm glad that the auto shows are back in New York.  But they won't be the same as they were before the pandemic.  And neither, in North America anyway, will Volkswagen. 

Easter 2023

 

St. Patrick's Day 2023

 

New Year's Greetings

 

Doha Brouhaha

With 2023 approaching, I recently Googled the Geneva International Motor Show, now thrice cancelled as a result of the COVID pandemic, wondering if the 2023 show would go on this coming March.  I learned that the Geneva International Motor Show would in fact be held this coming year, but in the fall, not in March as it had been before.  Sensible enough, I thought to myself; by October or November the pandemic should definitely be over, if not sooner.

Then I noticed it was going to be held in Doha, Qatar.

WHAT????????????????????????????

In fact, the plan was for the show's organizers to have the show in Geneva itself and then sponsor an event in Doha in the fall, but reality bit and it bit hard.  Maurice Turrettini, present of the permanent committee of the Geneva auto show, cited not just the risks of the ongoing pandemic as a reason for cancelling the Geneva event and focusing exclusively on Doha but also "the uncertainties in the global economy and geopolitics" (read Putin and Ukraine) as well.

There's just one thing wrong . . .

Who the f**k wants to go to  f**kin' Qatar?

I always wanted to go to the Geneva show, like the one pictured above, from 2019.  Late winter in Geneva always sounded pretty cool to me, actually, drinking hot chocolate in a nice, charming hotel in Switzerland's most cosmopolitan city and seeing the town after checking out Europe's finest automobiles, many of which will never see an American showroom.  But Doha?  A city in the desert?  I wouldn't be caught dead in a place like Phoenix, so why would I want to go to Doha?

And, as we learned from the recently concluded World Cup, Qatar is known for its hostile human rights record and its mistreatment of migrant workers, so the Swiss have a lot of damn gall to hold their prestigious auto salon in a place like that, especially when you remember that Switzerland is a multi-ethnic democratic federation with four official languages - French, German, ,Italian and the local Romansch dialect.  By contrast, Qatar is ruled directly by an emir, and Sharia law and corporal punishment are practiced.  Trade unions are not allowed.  Why hold an auto show in such a godawful place as this?  As unlikely as it is to happen, I would love to see as many automakers boycott Doha in protest as possible in protest of Qatar's atrocious human-rights record.      

I'd sooner see the 2023 Geneva show in Doha called off completely and the permanent committee focus more on 2024 instead.  (The Doha event is planned to be biennial, hence it will be held again in 2025.)   But maybe auto shows are becoming obsolete, anyway.  In the U.S. and Canada, several auto shows planned for the 2023 model year have been called off not directly for COVID but because supply chains have been so bad that no one show organization can get enough cars to display for one lousy week.  Those shows that do carry on, be it in North America, Europe, or China, will likely do so with several manufacturers bowing out because they don't see auto shows as being worth their while - as several had been doing before the pandemic even started.

Let, then, the automobile show pass.

But I'd still like to go to Geneva one day.