Phil Maq

“Pumped Up Kicks”—Foster the People: ODWITS! I watched their unimpressive performances on last night’s Saturday Night Live. The viewers were treated to some very bad dancing by their lead singer (I don’t even want to waste time looking up his name.), and by some even worse dancing by the band’s keyboard player who was psychotically playing a tambourine and maracas at the same time! (Please reference “Moves Like Jagger.”) And then when it came to the whistling part, even though it was probably played on the keyboard, they “lip-whistled” as if they were actually doing it live!!! Is there anything real about this band? Distorted vocals so you can’t understand the lyrics, bad dancing by two members of the band, and fake whistling. The more I see of these guys, the less I like them. I have made a 180 degree turn of my feelings toward them. I can’t think of any other musician or group I ever felt this way about in so short of a time.

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George Bedard: A song by George Bedard entered my favorite songs list last week—and that’s a good thing! “Nut Rocker,” a rock ‘n’ roll remake of Tchaikovsky’s March from his Nutcracker ballet–originally covered by B. Bumble and The Stingers in 1962, Emerson, Lake, and Palmer in the 70’s (The only song that made “Pictures at an Exhibition” tolerable.), and most recently by Trans-Siberian Orchestra. The first two versions were on piano and keyboard. The most recent ones—TSO and George Bedard are done on the guitar. TSO’s version features over-the-top guitar histrionics. It’s a very good version but it sounds like there was a lot of studio wizardry involved to make it sound that way.

I wasn’t sure how I would feel about George’s version because he has a history of matching what he does in the studio with how he performs live, and vice versa. And I have to admit, I’m pretty attached to the keyboard versions since I have been used to them for so long. Well, he did an excellent job translating the song to guitar!

Now, George has had experience doing this before. He and his band, The Kingpins, featuring Rich Dishman and Randy Tessier, covered Rossini’s William Tell Overture on the band’s superb second album, “Hip Deep.” This track received an updated title as “William Tell ’97.” I’m guessing that he used a similar approach with “Nut Rocker.”
On this new version, which has a “bigger sound” than other songs on the album, Bedard plays the guitar parts as well as the bass which sounds very bottom heavy on some of the passages. Nice and deep! He is also assisted by some nice swinging snare drum work by Rich Dishman-something that doesn’t always come off well in the recording studio– unless you have someone very picky to make it sound that way.

In the liner notes to “Pickin’ Apart the Past,” he references originally playing the song with Bill Kirchen, another Ann Arbor guitar phenom, at Christmas shows that they played together at The Ark in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Well, by committing this song to CD, George has also unknowingly supplied everyone with a song of his that can routinely be played at Christmas, too. But it is too good of a song to only be enjoyed at holiday time. For that reason, I am very happy that he didn’t classify it as such on his new release. But I can tell you that this song is one of my favorites right now! Check it out! It’s well worth it!

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John Lennon, The Beatles: Today, of course would have been John Lennon’s seventy-first birthday. He is also a member of Phil Maq’s Hall of Fame! (Check out the list!) Rather than listen to one of his usual songs that get overplayed around his birthday or death anniversary, I would like to suggest visiting youtube.com and checking out a terrific video of The Beatles on Shindig, a teen oriented music program in the 60’s.

The Beatles do great performances of three songs: “Kansas City,” “I’m a Loser,” and “Boys!” The band is very confident and loose, and they appear to really be having a lot of fun! “Kansas City” sounds sharp! Next, John switches to a Bob Dylan harmonica and acoustic guitar setup as Paul McCartney sings along to the song behind him, but off-mike– either because he really likes it, or to be mocking, in a humorous way! They finish as John retains his acoustic guitar and Ringo Starr sings boys on the strangest microphone placement I’ve ever seen for a drummer. Instead of a typical over the shoulder “gooseneck” arrangement, Ringo’s mike stand appears to be shoved in his face on a piece of angle iron at a 45 degree angle! (?)

Now I’m not sure if that is the exact order of how they actually performed the songs for the show. Dennis Mitchell’s Breakfast With The Beatles played an audio version of the show and the order was “I’m a Loser,” “Boys,” and “Kansas City.” There’s a nice little instrumental section that The Beatles play as an intro to “Kansas City” that is missing from the Shindig showing so I’m not sure which one is the true version. But it doesn’t matter because, once again, it is a zillion times better than their “Ready, Steady, Go” appearance!

Lennon is in his full Beatle haircut glory and even clicks his heel after they’re finished! That is how I want to remember him. Happy Birthday, John!

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Until next time, take care of yourself, and take care of each other!

Peace!

Q