It wins the Rockforward “Video of the Week” Award. Two masterful performances from Paul Simon and Tracy Morgan, and the star power of Chris Rock holding it together. From Comedy Central’s Night of Too Many Stars, an event to raise funds for autism. Smile-inducing, and tweaks Auto-Tune, bad lyrics and Art’s hair.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eRQ2_8b7B0I]
video: rockforward faves
VIDEO: John Lennon – three songs for his 70th
John Lennon would have turned 70 Saturday. Standing apart from much of the “normal” tribute stuff, I want to post a video that is one of the most intimate of Lennon from YouTube. John sings as he runs his distorted electric guitar through a small amp, for Leadbelly’s “Rock Island Line, and Buddy Holly’s “Maybe Baby” and “Peggy Sue”. Sure, Yoko is sitting with him, but it’s all good; it’s a bit of footage that is more relaxed than professional, like much of their home movie material. But his playing is rock and roll beautiful – snarly, rough and reverential.
I was 14 when Lennon was shot. It was before I understood the power and uniqueness of the Beatles, and of Lennon’s wit and solo music output. I know now. I wonder what voice he would have carried forward, not just in music, but with human rights and the causes of those who need a voice. Maybe he was perceived as a radical, but he stood up for beliefs that were also important for many who needed him to speak, because they couldn’t be heard.
For me, that makes it more tragic than on that December night, when Howard Cosell announced to the world on Monday Night Football that John Lennon was dead.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RJuVcGipgAs]
MNF announcement
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5gcdz1IRVoM]
Springsteen Turns 61 – So Let's Rock
“I know your Dad don’t dig me ’cause I play in a rock and roll band…”
Happy Birthday to Bruce Springsteen – turns 61 today – September 23.
Great video from Pinkpop Festival in 2009. Here’s to many more E St. tours…
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8y4JfkZ5mJs]
VIDEO: Dan Baird and Homemade Sin
Fomer Georgia Satellite and longtime member of the turn-it-up-loud Fender Telecaster thinktank, Dan Baird just don’t care what you think. Here’s a video shot close to the stage, with pretty great sound, as his band rocked a bar in Leicester, England earlier this month. Video notable for it’s sweatiness, disdain for subtlety, and general rock and roll bad-ass-ness – Doing Elvis and one of his own songs. Brilliantly rough.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6tYp1wLtX1c]
VIDEO: J. Geils Band at Fenway Park – 3 songs
The J. Geils Band is one of the great rock and roll bands of all-time – and I ain’t bullshittin’ ya. A band’s legacy isn’t worthy of a title like that unless they come with it live, night after night, tour after tour. And they did. Sweaty, R&B, bluesy rock and roll. Frontman Peter Wolf is deserving of every accolade you might hear about Mick Jagger or Robert Plant or Steven Tyler.
The band is back this summer for some dates, and played a double-bill with Tyler’s Aerosmith at Fenway Park last Saturday. Wolf and the Geils boys opened. They fought some odds: It was daytime, the crowd wasn’t crazy drunk, and the small stadium is still a cavernous place to see a rock show. But the J. Geils Band still has it. Wolf is still Wolf. And here is a video we found of the end of “Lookin’ for Love” and all of “Whammer Jammer”, and “Ain’t Nothin’ But A Houseparty”, together in one long, take-me-there video. Shot side stage by a videographer from the Boston Phoenix alternative paper.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2L_GeBGITxw]
NOTES: According to Boston.com, Tyler didn’t want Wolf to use the ramp that extended into the audience and told him so the night before the show. According to a source, the singers had a “heated argument’’ in the outfield as a few dozen workers put the finishing touches on the stage Friday. In the end, Tyler relented, but he told Wolf to also get the OK from Joe Perry, which Wolf did.
Video: Todd Snider reunites with (almost) Nervous Wrecks
For fans of the Todd Snider drunken, buzzed and sweaty bar band days, here’s Todd reunited this summer with original Nervous Wrecks rhythm section Joe McLeary and Joe Mariencheck, with former Georgia Satellite Dan Baird on guitar.
Video is from June 12 in Tennessee, at a cool joint attached to a Harley-Davidson dealership. Brilliant idea; they bring in some pretty cool (Chris Knight, Billy Joe Shaver, Blackberry Smoke) country rock.
http://www.smh-d.com/shed.php
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZpH6xL_wo0s]