THIS JUST IN:
I had planned to make this and the last post one big post, but this part is far too big in and of itself, so ...
... in the grand bland tradition of my series of LiveJournal concert reports, from Erasure to the Pet Shop Boys to the Moody Blues to Andy Williams to Barack Obama and back again, comes ...
AN
ASTOUNDINGLY
EXCITING
CONCERT
EVENT:
GARY PUCKETT
THE ASSOCIATION
AND
THE LETTERMEN
IN:
"SOUNDS OF ROMANCE*!!!!!!!"
*for those over 60
Back in October or November, I decided to randomly see if the Association was still around. The Association, seemingly more than any other hugely popular band in Rock 'n' Roll history, is basically anonymous despite their fame and success. They had a half-dozen or so huge hits, yet most people do not have the slightest clue who even sang "Along Comes Mary," "Windy," "Cherish," their #1 smash in the Philippines "No Fair at All," or even "Never My Love," the official second most played radio song of the 20th century!! Naturally, my favorite tracks are the far less beloved "Pandora's Golden Heebie Jeebies" and "Across the Persian Gulf," but I am a pretty big fan of "Cherish" and "Never My Love" too.
Well, now that everyone has stopped reading this, I will go ahead and launch into the actual show. Newport News is not a very interesting place, with the exception of its possession of Anwar_Jones, who we sadly did not have time to see that evening (nor on our way to/from the Obama rally--what kind of friends are we?).
GARY PUCKETT!!
1. I really do not remember how he started the show, as I was too confused by Sir Puckett's drastically altered voice (gone from a nice tenor to something more approximating a baritone, thanks to him destroying his upper range through terrible vocal styles and drug use [this Music Pedagogy update courtesy of Mandy]) to concentrate on what was happening.
2. Still confused at this point. But almost un-confused.
3. Over You (!)
4. Some Song He Said the Byrds Wrote
5. This Girl is a Woman Now (but Gary Puckett, I thought you liked "Young Girl"s)
6. Home (a random solo piece about how hard soldiers have to work for our country, following asking to turn the house lights up and respect the veterans in the audience. Why does every oldies act have a "U-S-A!" moment? Fine by me, but still)
7. Woman, Woman
8. Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye (four-part a capella with the rest of his band!)
9. Young Girl (the most Gary Puckett-like performance of the evening; a very good approximation of his old sound! I wonder where it went the rest of the show?)
AND THEN, THE BAND EVERYONE WAS REALLY THERE TO SEE WHETHER THEY KNEW IT OR NOT:
THE ASSOCIATION!!!
1. Windy (HELL YEAH!!! KEEP THE ROCK STRONG!!!!)
2. Everything that Touches You (... DUDE, YOU SO KILLED MY BUZZ, BRA)
3. Walk Away Renee (Mandy started commenting at this point how impressed she was that this particular assortment of old dudes still sounded tight and exuberant)
4. Never My Love (!!!!!!!!!*#&$!)
5. Hello, Band! Meet the Audience!
6. One Too Many Mornings
7. California Dreamin' (they opened for the Mamas & the Papas in "about 75%" of their shows, which is astounding!)
8. No Fair at All (for the Filipinos in the audience!)
9. Green Green (one of the band members was in the New Christy Minstrels, which is awesome to me and ~4 other people)
10. Hello Again, Band! Meet More of the Audience!
11. Cherish (tha word I uze 2 dscribe [feat. Rihanna])
12. Along Comes Mary
13. Windy (Brief Reprise)
Their set could have gone on for ages, and I would have been content. Other than replacing some of the weirder instrumental breaks with synthesizer parts, they sounded as good as I can possibly imagine they could. The Moody Blues could definitely show them how to sound even better than any group should be allowed to sound, though.
THE LETTERMEN
1. Very Long Intro-Medley: Free/Put a Little Love in Your Heart
2. Our Day Will Come
3. Love Is a Many Splendored Thing
4. Hello Everyone! Take Pictures of The Lettermen!
5. Medley: Memories/Traces of Love/Hurt So Bad/Put Your Head On My Shoulder/Fools Rush In/Grandma's Favorite Song
6. Solo Time: Tony Butone (ONLY REMAINING ORIGINAL MEMBER OF THE LETTERMEN!) sings Cole Porter! I Get a Kick Out of You (No Kick From Champagne)/Under My Skin
7. Cowboy Man Solo: Cowboy Love Pickup Truck/Daddy's Girl (available on CD in the lobby)
8. My Beautiful Balloon (truly, the manliest song ever recorded)
9. Photo Shoot Medley: The Way Jack Benny Looks Tonight/A Summer Place/When I Fall in Love
10. Maria(s). He asked for volunteers for the audience whose name was Maria, and when pointing at his choice, two women stood up. He sang to both of them, including the line "Marias, I just met two girls named Maria," and needless to say I could not stop laughing. That guy has me pegged.
11. Unchained Bullshit
12. Boat Man Medley: Copa Cobana. End of medley. "Boat Man" refers to their exciting claim that he was the #1 cruise line draw for years while on a break from The Lettermen. Is that really something to boast about? He was pretty talented, though, at least. And either both he and Cowboy Man were 7 feet tall, or Tony Butone is 3 feet tall.
13. Paul Anka?
14. Hmm, these notes I took do not make sense anymore.
15. Do I Love You?
16. Medley: Goin' Out of My Head/Can't Take My Eyes Off You/Goin' Out of My Head/Can't Take My Eyes Off You/Goin' Out of My Head
17. 21-Gun Salute to Owen Hart
After the Association's set, I went out during intermission to chill with them signing things in the lobby. To test lead singer Russ Giguere's claim that he would sign "anything," I asked him to sign a blank page of my passport, and he eagerly complied. I then inquired when they last played "Pandora's Golden Heebie Jeebies" in concert. Even moreso than the passport request, it was obvious that I broke them out of any script they had while interacting with the audience, and he and Jim Yester (one of their other two main original vocalists) both stopped, turned to each other, and concurred that it was "about a million years ago." I expected something like "certainly before you were born, whipper-snapper" but did not get it.
All in all, a great concert, made even better as a Valentine's Week(tm) gift since Mandy had long since forgotten that the concert even existed, let alone that I bought us tickets. Also, Das Waldcafe in Newport News is a pretty great German place. I highly recommend it.
I leave you with lyrics from "Pandora's Golden Heebie Jeebies," words too stunning to be saddled with the unfortunate words "heebie jeebies:"
I've had my view of happiness
And my view of despair
I've cleaned out all the cobwebs
And I've learned how to compare
I've seen all of the circles
And I've had my last affair
And now I see the sparrows
As they begin to fly
And all that's left for me to do
Is cry
Thinking that I was lost
Then finding the end to all beginnings
Gave to me the key
Made of lead and golden
Freeing locks, Pandora's boxes
Devils are expended and I'm finally free
And when all the tears
Are finally cried
And I am finally clean inside
The gentle winds will come
And they will dry my mind
And I will see the sparrow
That need no longer fly
And all that will be left for me to do
Is die...
... in the grand bland tradition of my series of LiveJournal concert reports, from Erasure to the Pet Shop Boys to the Moody Blues to Andy Williams to Barack Obama and back again, comes ...
AN
ASTOUNDINGLY
EXCITING
CONCERT
EVENT:
GARY PUCKETT
THE ASSOCIATION
AND
THE LETTERMEN
IN:
"SOUNDS OF ROMANCE*!!!!!!!"
*for those over 60
Back in October or November, I decided to randomly see if the Association was still around. The Association, seemingly more than any other hugely popular band in Rock 'n' Roll history, is basically anonymous despite their fame and success. They had a half-dozen or so huge hits, yet most people do not have the slightest clue who even sang "Along Comes Mary," "Windy," "Cherish," their #1 smash in the Philippines "No Fair at All," or even "Never My Love," the official second most played radio song of the 20th century!! Naturally, my favorite tracks are the far less beloved "Pandora's Golden Heebie Jeebies" and "Across the Persian Gulf," but I am a pretty big fan of "Cherish" and "Never My Love" too.
Well, now that everyone has stopped reading this, I will go ahead and launch into the actual show. Newport News is not a very interesting place, with the exception of its possession of Anwar_Jones, who we sadly did not have time to see that evening (nor on our way to/from the Obama rally--what kind of friends are we?).
GARY PUCKETT!!
1. I really do not remember how he started the show, as I was too confused by Sir Puckett's drastically altered voice (gone from a nice tenor to something more approximating a baritone, thanks to him destroying his upper range through terrible vocal styles and drug use [this Music Pedagogy update courtesy of Mandy]) to concentrate on what was happening.
2. Still confused at this point. But almost un-confused.
3. Over You (!)
4. Some Song He Said the Byrds Wrote
5. This Girl is a Woman Now (but Gary Puckett, I thought you liked "Young Girl"s)
6. Home (a random solo piece about how hard soldiers have to work for our country, following asking to turn the house lights up and respect the veterans in the audience. Why does every oldies act have a "U-S-A!" moment? Fine by me, but still)
7. Woman, Woman
8. Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye (four-part a capella with the rest of his band!)
9. Young Girl (the most Gary Puckett-like performance of the evening; a very good approximation of his old sound! I wonder where it went the rest of the show?)
AND THEN, THE BAND EVERYONE WAS REALLY THERE TO SEE WHETHER THEY KNEW IT OR NOT:
THE ASSOCIATION!!!
1. Windy (HELL YEAH!!! KEEP THE ROCK STRONG!!!!)
2. Everything that Touches You (... DUDE, YOU SO KILLED MY BUZZ, BRA)
3. Walk Away Renee (Mandy started commenting at this point how impressed she was that this particular assortment of old dudes still sounded tight and exuberant)
4. Never My Love (!!!!!!!!!*#&$!)
5. Hello, Band! Meet the Audience!
6. One Too Many Mornings
7. California Dreamin' (they opened for the Mamas & the Papas in "about 75%" of their shows, which is astounding!)
8. No Fair at All (for the Filipinos in the audience!)
9. Green Green (one of the band members was in the New Christy Minstrels, which is awesome to me and ~4 other people)
10. Hello Again, Band! Meet More of the Audience!
11. Cherish (tha word I uze 2 dscribe [feat. Rihanna])
12. Along Comes Mary
13. Windy (Brief Reprise)
Their set could have gone on for ages, and I would have been content. Other than replacing some of the weirder instrumental breaks with synthesizer parts, they sounded as good as I can possibly imagine they could. The Moody Blues could definitely show them how to sound even better than any group should be allowed to sound, though.
THE LETTERMEN
1. Very Long Intro-Medley: Free/Put a Little Love in Your Heart
2. Our Day Will Come
3. Love Is a Many Splendored Thing
4. Hello Everyone! Take Pictures of The Lettermen!
5. Medley: Memories/Traces of Love/Hurt So Bad/Put Your Head On My Shoulder/Fools Rush In/Grandma's Favorite Song
6. Solo Time: Tony Butone (ONLY REMAINING ORIGINAL MEMBER OF THE LETTERMEN!) sings Cole Porter! I Get a Kick Out of You (No Kick From Champagne)/Under My Skin
7. Cowboy Man Solo: Cowboy Love Pickup Truck/Daddy's Girl (available on CD in the lobby)
8. My Beautiful Balloon (truly, the manliest song ever recorded)
9. Photo Shoot Medley: The Way Jack Benny Looks Tonight/A Summer Place/When I Fall in Love
10. Maria(s). He asked for volunteers for the audience whose name was Maria, and when pointing at his choice, two women stood up. He sang to both of them, including the line "Marias, I just met two girls named Maria," and needless to say I could not stop laughing. That guy has me pegged.
11. Unchained Bullshit
12. Boat Man Medley: Copa Cobana. End of medley. "Boat Man" refers to their exciting claim that he was the #1 cruise line draw for years while on a break from The Lettermen. Is that really something to boast about? He was pretty talented, though, at least. And either both he and Cowboy Man were 7 feet tall, or Tony Butone is 3 feet tall.
13. Paul Anka?
14. Hmm, these notes I took do not make sense anymore.
15. Do I Love You?
16. Medley: Goin' Out of My Head/Can't Take My Eyes Off You/Goin' Out of My Head/Can't Take My Eyes Off You/Goin' Out of My Head
17. 21-Gun Salute to Owen Hart
After the Association's set, I went out during intermission to chill with them signing things in the lobby. To test lead singer Russ Giguere's claim that he would sign "anything," I asked him to sign a blank page of my passport, and he eagerly complied. I then inquired when they last played "Pandora's Golden Heebie Jeebies" in concert. Even moreso than the passport request, it was obvious that I broke them out of any script they had while interacting with the audience, and he and Jim Yester (one of their other two main original vocalists) both stopped, turned to each other, and concurred that it was "about a million years ago." I expected something like "certainly before you were born, whipper-snapper" but did not get it.
All in all, a great concert, made even better as a Valentine's Week(tm) gift since Mandy had long since forgotten that the concert even existed, let alone that I bought us tickets. Also, Das Waldcafe in Newport News is a pretty great German place. I highly recommend it.
I leave you with lyrics from "Pandora's Golden Heebie Jeebies," words too stunning to be saddled with the unfortunate words "heebie jeebies:"
I've had my view of happiness
And my view of despair
I've cleaned out all the cobwebs
And I've learned how to compare
I've seen all of the circles
And I've had my last affair
And now I see the sparrows
As they begin to fly
And all that's left for me to do
Is cry
Thinking that I was lost
Then finding the end to all beginnings
Gave to me the key
Made of lead and golden
Freeing locks, Pandora's boxes
Devils are expended and I'm finally free
And when all the tears
Are finally cried
And I am finally clean inside
The gentle winds will come
And they will dry my mind
And I will see the sparrow
That need no longer fly
And all that will be left for me to do
Is die...