AssemblyBoard

. . . or at least some people were in a thread called "Photo Post" I just read. So I thought I would start an offshoot here. Paul McCartney is touring again this fall, and two years ago when he did his Back In The USA tour, we hocked the silver (not) and bought tickets, and his concert was worth every penny. Not bad for 63.

In the same "Photo Post" thread, there was mention made of a percussionist by the name of Abe Leboriel (sp?). His son, Abe Jr. is McCartney's tour drummer, and he is a Christian as is his father. Add to that the fact that Sheila E., who has been Ringo Starr's tour drummer, is a Christian also, and it would seem a veritable Beatles missionary effort is in the works. Rumor has it that Abe, Jr. is the one who encouraged the pre-concert prayer time that the band spends together before each performance.

Abe Laboriel is a bassist.  I did not know he had a musician son. The dad is probably the best studio player in the business.
Just look at the album credits of the best musicians.  I just love the man; of noble lineage both spirituallly and otherwise...and black like me... :)
(with the possible exception of Pastorious, we have all the really bad bass players!  ;D)
Verne

Abe junior is a drummer alright.  He's known for breaking sticks, many of them, each time he plays.  He's also a totally "sick" drummer.  (my kids tell me sick means really, really good.)

I was happy to learn that Paul, a decent guy, had a Christian drummer.  I hope he becomes a believer.

Brent

Reminds me of Bill Cobham. He used to keep a bucketfull of fresh sticks on stage when he toured with Mahavishnu Orchestra. You had to see it to believe it. The man defined high energy!!
If Abe Jr. is anything like his dad, he will have an impact for the gospel.
I am in a music group with some folks from Gibson City Bible Church and we will be doing a bit of Midwest "touring" this Summer. We actually looked at a few houses in Gibson City as the folk there really wanted us to move there. My wife is a city girl and vetoed it!  :)
 At least I now have a good excuse to convince my wife to let me get an Orion!  Pretty Puhleeeeese!!  ;D
Verne
ps. speaking of impact, do you guys see how many attitude points I have racked up??!! (Just the absolute total if you don't mind... He! He!). It seems as if some dear heart is attempting to keep pace with the lurker getting their jollies by assigning me negative points. Does this make me an impact poster?.
Are there any prizes for this category??  :)

oops --  :P my bad!

grr! double posted, sorry

Actually, he's alot like Billy Cobham, except better.  He hits the drums as hard, but with much more class and style.  Cobham was very one-dimensional, IMO.

Speaking of Cobham, I saw him with what what I consider to be his best band, Bobby and The Midnights.

Bobby is Bob Weir of the Grateful Dead.  He had a guitarist, who's name escapes me, and Alphonso Johnson or Stanley Clark on bass, with Cobham drumming.  Good time rockn'roll to be sure.

Brent

I am going to have to try and get a recording so I can check him out.
I know Billy Cobham had a reputation for bing a mere brute force drummer but when he was rcording with Johnny Mcglaughlin, all those parts were written!
How do I know this?
I got all the music.
And I got all the albums!
Cobham was not so one-dimensional as some folk imagine.
I have had quite few rolls on the floor after impishly pulling out Mahvishnu charts and trying to get otherwise very competent drummers to play an up-tempo Mcglaughlin composition in say 7/4 time...like  "Can't stand your funk", remember that??!!   ;D
Some of those tunes would also switch time signature in mid stream! Boy I miss those days!
Some of these guys hated my guts when they found out I already had the albums and had lots of listening time in...hyuk! hyuk!
Verne

Rent yourself a copy of Paul's Back In the USA Tour DVD this weekend and watch Abe. He looks like a cross between a very large teddy bear and an octopus with drumsticks. He's awesome. Or - better yet - tickets go on sale Monday, go to the concert and see him yourself!! (My personal first choice!)  ;D

Do you know where I can get the tour schedule?
Thanks.
Verne

One place to look is his website, paulmccartney.com. Another place is ticketmaster.com. They have a list of dates nation-wide as well. (I know - I looked this morning! Pre-sale began at 10:00 a.m. today for members of his fan club, of which I am not, alas . . .)

It's been a long, long time since hearing any Mahavishnu....and to tell the truth, I really don't like it.  They aren't really songs, and are very hard to enjoy.  It was a different era, and I think the reason that sort of music is dead is because very few people like it. 

If you want some esoteric, instrumental stuff,that is also melodic and interesting, try "Waiting for Columbus" from Little Feat.

My favorite drummers, in order:

Ringo--(I know, but I have my reasons)
Steve Gad--Joni, Steely Dan, etc.
Nigel Olsen (Elton John's drummer.  Just saw Elton last week.)
Rick Marrotta--Roxy Music
David Garibaldi---Tower of Power
John Bonham---Led Zep

Brent

You are absolutely right!
Modal music is definitely not for the masses, and the Mahavishnu Orchestra played modal music like nobody's business, but Oh!,  what musicianship!
The did have their share of sweet and melodic tunes as well like "A Lotus on Irish Streams".


No Phil Collins?  :)
On the instrumental  and a bit more saccharine side I liked Spyro Gyra.
Listened to any Passport?

Corea's incranation as the Electrik Band also did interesting instrumental stuff...still somewhat avant garde though.
Verne

Don't forget Keith Moon of the Who. If you've ever listened to Quadrophenia you
will appreciate a great drummer. He was a maniac in real life, but he had a definite
gift for playing the drums.  Also, there is Neil Pert of RUSH--more of a precision
drummer, but also very good. But I have to agree with Brent about Ringo--he is
severely underrated as a drummer.

--Joe

Keeping in mind that all of this is merely playful conjecture, and solely a matter of opinion......

RE Keith Moon.  A technical disaster...but one of the coolest drummers anywhere. Unmistakable sound, totally unique....the Bob Dylan of drums.  He couldn't drum for anyone else but the Who.

RE Neil Pert....a real dud IMHO.  He drums the same way, at all times, and totally overuses his high-hat, always doing that little thing he does. It was cool on like one album, back in the 70's. 

Tom Petty's Heartbreakers has a cool drummer as well.

Here's a relative unknown, Jim Keltner.  He did some work with the Beatles, George Harrison, Steely Dan, James Taylor, Eric Clapton, and a whole bunch of other people.  If I am not mistaken, he even toured with Clapton recently.

The worst drummer?  No question about it, it has to be the guy from Boston.  I don't even know his name, but he sucks.

Brent

If I am not mistaken, I think Steve Gad recorded with Chick Corea on the Lucky Leprechaun (or one from that period) album. I cannot rememeber who played the previous session but I remember thinking that Gad sounded just a bit tentative. Of course Corea intimidated everybody...
anybody like Todd Sucherman of Styx?
Verne

p.s Oh I just remembered! It was Corea's ''The Mad Hatter" that Gad played on. I remember how he would try to anticipate Corea's percussive and syncopated riffs...he actually didn't do too bad considering what a wild man Corea was...!  :)

Another pretty good drummer from way back was Carl Palmer of Emerson,
Lake and Palmer, and there was also Alan White from Yes. Brent---concerning
your comments about Neil Pert, it is of my firm opinion that you should be
horse-whipped.  Just kidding ;D  How about the best ocarina player?--in my
opinion it was Carlton Sharp of the "Moneymakers" on their famous album
"Chocolate Milk". Check it out.

--Joe

My buddies dad was a Chicago police sargent in charge of security at the  amplitheater and stadium. I stood ten feet behind Keith Moon and it was a train wreck, he was both amazing and hilarious, the guy was physically spent at the end. (they all were except for John Entwhistle the bass player.
 Got to see Eric Clapton and Carlos Satana together the same way, they we're having fun at work.... wore their drummer out.
Later while I was having 'The George Geftakys Experience' my younger brother worked security and got to see some talented performers.

I've got the Who Tommy concert performed  in LA sometime back.
Roger Daltry has aged quite well and the Ox played some really butt-kickiing bass lines...
Verne

It's very enjoyable seeing these guys having fun while working their craft.
Saw the Moody Blues up close in 1971 and they looked like they did'nt want to be there....found out years later in a documentary that they were swindle and made peanuts in those days.
John Fogarty of CCR got screwed over also. When he came out on his own with " Centerfield", he was sued for sounding  to much like CCR, the band he used to write and sing for...go figure.

My brother and I went to see the Who perform after the Ox died, I forget their bass replacement but Ringo Starr son was drumming.
Joe Satriani was entertaining to see and  I miss Stevie Ray Vahn, but ole 'slow hand' is still my favorite.

You should get the DVD of a tribute to George Harrison.  Clapton is the musical director, and pretty much everyone George ever played with is on stage, and they play only George's music.

Clapton and McCartney on While My Guitar gently weeps is amazing.

Brent

So true. And George's son Dhani looks so much like his dad, it's scary. And Ringo sings Photograph, which I thought was pretty moving. Ringo's song "Never Without You" which he wrote for George is pretty good, too.

Zak Starkey is Ringo's son. He has toured with the Who several times. (At least I know he's a drummer and not a bassist! Unless of course he's taken it up recently . . . )

OK,

Favorite bassists, in order:

Paul McCartney
Dee Murray ---Elton's band, now deceased
Jaco
John McVie---FleetwoodMac

The Dvd sounds like a must see.
These guys just seem to get better with age.

Ohhh..! This is hard...so very hard!

Let me see....

Numero Uno - His Royal Highness, Mr Pastorious

Number Two - Lord of the Lower Frequencies Mr. Stanley Clarke

Number Three - Mr Abe Laboriel

Number Four - Mr. Alphonso Johnson.

Does anybody think I liked Weather Report?  :)
Verne

Favorite Bassists (in order)

Jack Bruce (Cream)
John Entwhisle (The Who)
Paul McCartney

I am watching (again!) that live Who concert in L.A.
Those guys were pure magic live...what is it that gives them that kick??? I know the Ox and that drummer they had were a big part of it. What a band!!!
Hard to believe they never had a number one hit...!
Verne

Cream is re-united and has/will be playing several concerts at the Royal Albert Hall.  I never cared much for Cream however.

The Who may not have had #1 hits, but they are still immensely popular with amazing songs.  "Won't get Fooled Again," is one of my favorites, there are at least a dozen others.

OK, here's my list of favorite guitarists:

1.)Eric Clapton
2-4 is a tough decision....

2.)Phil Manzanerra--roxy music
3.)Skunk Baxter--Steely Dan, Doobies, others
4.)Davey Johnstone--Elton, Alice Cooper
5.)Brian May---Queen.

Ask me another day, and I might include Pat Metheny, Larry Carlton, Pete Townsend, David Gilmour, or even Keith Richards.

Brent

The 'Whos Next' album is one of my all time favorites. Leslie West (Mountain) originally played lead on 'won't get fooled again' but it was scrapped for Petes power chord improvs. Jimmy Page was a studio musician who played lead on the Whos first single( I can't explain) to make the  charts. Pete Townsend claims that his masterpeice song was 'Little Billy' (Odds and Sods album)  an anti smoking song that he wrote for the American Cancer society, it was canned because it was too long
The amazing thing about older bands is they did so much in their live concerts without the electronic aid of today, for many of them( Doors, Zepplin, Cream, Hendrix, Etc. ), 3  instruments made fantastic concert music.
Favorite Guitarist in order (this is tough)
Eric Clapton
Jimi Hendrix
Alvin Lee
Pete Townsend
Stevie Ray Vahn

Alternates; Earl Klugh, Joe Satriani, Chet Atkins, Jeff Beck

Some have it, some don't...I guess if you could put a handle on it you would be a wealthy man.
Believe or not one of the biggest concert surprises for me was Gordan Lightfoot...the guys a perfectionist.
I still hope to one day see Jackson Brown perform.

Don't waste your time with Jackson Browne, unless he promises that he's playing music and not doing political commentary.   His new "music" sucks.

In a thread called "The Beatles Had No Real Talent", Brent makes the comment:

"Ringo defined modern drumming on the song "A little help from my friends," by being the first to use a "fill," in a melodic sense, on a percussion instrument.  It blew everyone's mind when he did it, and after that nothing was the same."

Could you please 'splain for me where the fill occurs? I'd like to listen to it.

One of my personal favorite Paul McCartney bass moments? His bass lines on "I Want You (She's So Heavy)".  8)

Bummer, Thanks for the heads up.
What is it with these people, is it chiche to be liberal ?

right before the singing starts,  "what would you do if I sang out of tune,"  the drums go

bum....babum bum..bum bum bumbumbum...."What would you do....."

That's the fill, and while it's simple enough it had never been done before and all of a sudden drums were no longer in the back of the mix.

If you listen to pre-67 music, the drums and bass are pretty much barely distinguishable in the background.  The thinking was that they provide rythem, but that the main part of the song was always melodic, especially vocals.   Listen to recordings after that, and all of a sudden you can hear the drums!

Thanks Ringo!

The Beatles also were the first to use "effects" on their recordings.  Nowadays, a flanger is an electronic device, somewhat cheesy, but cool in the right application.  The Beatles used a pencil eraser on the tape reel to flange.  (it was Alan Parsons I believe)

They used strings, brass, Indian intruments, played things backwards, and all kinds of stuff.  On top of that, they had a tremendous body of work, and some of the most beautiful melodies ever written.

Anyhow, Rubber Soul was the stepping off point, which culminated with Sgt. Pepper.

Brent

The Who were one of the greatest rock bands ever. I have every one of their
albums. It's amazing though how much Keith Moon meant to that group. They
were never the same without him. They sounded far more tame. Led Zeppelin
broke up when their drummer died--the Who should have done the same.

One of my favorite albums is "Live at Leeds"--the song "Young Man Blues" is incredible,
along with "Summertime Blues". But I think my favorite album by them has got
to be Quadrophenia.(With "Who's Next" a close second). Quadrophenia defines the
Who, as they came out of a Mod vs. Rockers scene that was happening in England
at the time they came to the forefront. The album is melodious, but also very tough,
with the smashing chords Pete Townshend is famous for.

My favorite guitarists:
Steve Morse--(not with Deep Purple, but with his own band, "The Steve Morse Band", or with
"The Dixie Dregs").

Jeff Beck
Eric Clapton
Jimmy Page
Steve Howe
Pete Townshend
Joe Satriani

--Joe

Live at Leeds is organized electrical power( the kind if you played in your garage the neighbors would call the cops) There has been some  more stuff released from that concert. Some of that album was on the soundtrack of the movie, Jerry Maguire.
I'll always love the intro to pinball wizard,(took me a long time to learn it as a kid, now we have Guitar tab websites that make things easier) my favorite track on Tommy is the 'Underture' ( great drum rolls)

The rhythmic groove on "Face to Face" during the L.A. concert was awesome!
Entwhistle was literally smoking on the bass guitar and the drummer was matching him with pico-second precision.

pa-daba-daba-daba-daba, bap! bap!

Townshend just quit playing and startig bouncing around the stage like a little kid.
That Roger Daltry is one cool cat!
Verne

As far as I'm concerned if you're having fun at work, you got half the battle licked.
Did the LA concert include the song , 'Give Blood' with Dave Gilmore doing a guest spot ?
I know you liked  Weather Report  what's your fav album of theirs ?

Great raw bass and drums on the song, The Real Me

Paul McCartney was a great songwriter.  I sometime wonder what would have occured if Lennon were still alive, and if Yoko hadn't destroyed the Beatles.  Would have been interesting.     

I have wondered the same about Lennon, but I don't think Yoko played a major role in the split, IMO it would have happened without her.
My guess is if they were all alive...there would have been a reunion.
I heard on the radio that Paul was trying to change, Lennon & McCartney to McCartney & Lennon.
Paul said it was that way because John said it sounded better...I agree with John.

I agree that they would have split even without her influence, as they were on track to burn out after the heavy work load.  But they likely would have reunited and continued making great records.  Seems a good manager would have helped.  It seems that bands that flame out have bad management. 

Huge egos involved too.  Lennon said at one point that "The Beatles are more popular than Jesus Christ."

I think it would have been hard to maintain a long term partnership with someone like this.....

Brent

Last year my wife and I went to "The Fab Four" These guys are the next best hing to seeing the real Beatles!!!

Saw the same show...fun to see

I remember when Lennons Jesus statement came out, people really took offense although later Lennon explaine he was not knocken Christianity but he himself was shocked at all the fuss over the Beatles.
What was heavy was the governments concern over Lennons song,  Imagine

Imagine there's no heaven,
It's easy if you try.......
Imagine there's no countries,
It isnt hard to do....
Imagine no possessions,
I wonder if you can...
You may say i'm a dreamer,
but I'm not the only one....

John freaked a lot of older people out

MAY 5,

THIS IS FOR NIGHTOWL:

I HAVE HAD INFORMATION YOU MAY HAVE NEEDED.

My ex husband has several website with some partner, on the subject of the Beatles.

I dont usually endorse anything my exhusband does. but he is still very much a BEATLE NUT, and is very informative in this area.

So

try:
bealtles.ncf.ca/timeline.html

or go to ASK JEEVES;
USE THE KEY WORDS:


BEATLES....JOHN WHELAN...OTTAWA..CANADA.

These websites are Ottawa Based.

SO I didnt share this information with you soon.

Lenore

I found this neat lyrics site via the above mentioned channels:
home.att.net/~chuckayoub/the_beatles_lyrics.html (http://home.att.net/~chuckayoub/the_beatles_lyrics.html)

I remember when Beatlemania came to Ottawa in the early 80's (I think) and a bunch of us made it to the NAC(National Arts Center, Ottawa) for a concert.  They were like the real thing.  I have not heard the Fab Four perform.

Marcia

I didn't see Beatlemania but my wife did. She said The Fab Four were better. The guy who does Paul is uncanny!  He looks just like, plays left-handed and talks, has gestures so much like Paul it is freaky! The guy who does John is almost as good.  But "Paul" steals the show!

Thanks, Lenore!

I saw Beatlemania in the late 70's at the Pantages Theatre. They were very good, but I enjoy the Fab Four's concerts more.

  I just bought my wife a B-day present. Signed copy of Flowers album by 4 of the Rolling Stones!  (I had it authenticated, it was signed two years ago at some function. It is signed by Mick, Ron, Kieth and Bill. I guess Brian couldn't make it!)  It cost the same as the one Paul McCartney autograph!

  HEY PEOPLE JUST SAW THE FAB FOUR AT THE HOP (SMALL VENUE)!!!  THIS IS A MUST FOR ANY BEATLE FAN!!! THEY WERE SOOO GOOD!!!   I JUST KEPT THINKING THIS MUST HAVE BEEN WHAT IT WAS LIKE AT THE CAVERN!   THESE GUYS MUST HAVE GOTTEN THEIR PHD's IN FRAUD!  THEY HAVE EVERYTHING SO DOWN, THEIR VOICES, PERSONALITIES, THE WAY THEY LOOK INTO THE CROWD IN-BETWEEN SETS!!  IT IS ALMOST SUREAL! (http://)

Hey, I was just at the record/cd store in Orange. I would like to tell you that there is a signed photoraph of Ringo during the "Let it Be" sessions signed for $250.00 just siting there!  But I can't. I also bought two books written/illustrated by John!!!!