Checking my previous content revealed it had been six weeks since the most recent installment of my irregular music history feature. I felt this was a good reason for putting together another post. It also turned I had not covered yet March 14.
1958: The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) officially certified the first Gold single (1 million sold units): Catch a Falling Star by American pop vocalist and TV personality Perry Como. Co-written by Paul Vance and Lee Pockriss, it became Como’s final no. 1 hit in the U.S., topping Billboard’sMost Played by Jockeys chart, which was different from the Hot 100 where the single reached no. 3. The melody borrows from Academic Festival Overture by 19th century German classical music composer, pianist, and conductor Johannes Brahms. The backing vocals were provided by The Ray Charles Singers, a group of rotating vocals conducted and arranged by Ray Charles.
1963: British Merseybeat group Gerry and the Pacemakers released their debut single How Do You You It? Penned by English songwriter and record producer Mitch Murray, the song was an instant success in the UK, topping the charts there. George Martin, who saw hit potential, asked his then-new group The Beatles to record it. While the four lads did, they were less than excited. Martin ended up releasing their original song Love Me Do instead and giving How Do You Do It? to Gerry and the Pacemakers. It was a happy ending for both groups who also shared another commonality. Both were managed by Brian Epstein.
1968: BBC primetime television music program Top of the Pops premiered the promotional video of Lady Madonna. A March 14, 2016 article by Ultimate Classic Rock recalls The Beatles had started to make such videos in 1965, long before they would become the norm on MTV in the early ’80s. “Out of convenience, we decided we were just not going to go into the TV studios to promote our records so much,” explained George Harrison in the Anthology documentary. “It was too much of a hassle,” he added. “What we’ll do is just go and make our own little films, and we’ll put them out.” Notably, the video used studio footage of the band recording Hey Bulldog. Sounds like capturing video of Lady Madonna may have been too much trouble as well!
1972: Carole King’s legendary Tapestry album took the coveted Album of the Year at the Grammy Awards held at the Felt Forum in New York City. King also won in three additional categories: Record of the Year for It’s Too Late, Best Pop Vocal Performance for the album’s title track and Song of the Year for James Taylor’s rendition of You’ve Got a Friend, which she wrote. Among other winners that night were America (Best New Artist of the Year), Nilsson (Best Pop Vocal Performance, Male for Without You), Ike & Tina Turner (Best Rhythm & Blues Performance – Duo Or Group (Vocal Or Instrumental) for Proud Mary) and Bill Withers (Best Rhythm & Blues Song for Ain’t No Sunshine) – different times!
1987: Huey Lewis and the News hit no. 1 in the U.S. on the Billboard Hot 100 with Jacob’s Ladder. The song, which became third single from the group’s fourth studio album Fore!, was co-written by Bruce Hornsby and his younger brother and frequent collaborator John Hornsby. Jacob’s Ladder became the final of three no. 1 songs Huey Lewis and the News scored on the U.S. pop chart. Hornsby subsequently recorded his own version of the song for his May 1998 sophomore album Scenes from the Southside. His friend Huey Lewis was a guest, playing harmonica on Defenders of the Flag, another song Hornsby wrote with his brother.
1998: In an unusual move, Rick Rubin, who produced Johnny Cash’s 82nd studio album Unchained, aka. American II: Unchained, placed a full-page ad in Billboard magazine to thank “the Nashville music establishment and country radio” for their support. On February 25th of the same year, Unchained had won the Grammy for Best Country Album. The ad was bitter irony to make the point the Man in Black won the award despite country radio, which by that time had written him off as an aging artist. The shot originally was taken by photographer Jim Marshall during Cash’s 1969 performance at San Quentin prison after he had been prompted to “do a shot for the warden.”
Sources: Wikipedia; Songfacts Music History Calendar; Ultimate Classic Rock; YouTube
It’s hard to believe today is the final Wednesday of 2023. I hope everybody is feeling groovy. For the last time this year, welcome to my weekly feature, where I take a closer look at a song I’ve only mentioned in passing or not covered at all to date.
If you’ve visited this blog before or are aware of my music taste otherwise, you know The Beatles are my all-time favorite band. I also like a good deal of each member’s solo work and have featured them and the band on many other occasions but not in Song Musings except for John Lennon.
Today, I’d like to turn to George Harrison. While he had become a seasoned writer by the mid-’60s, many of the songs he presented to The Beatles were rejected by Lennon and Paul McCartney. My pick was one of them. Ironically, it’s titled Isn’t It a Pity.
Harrison wrote Isn’t It a Pity in 1966 and proposed it for inclusion on a Beatles album various times, including the Get Back sessions that resulted in Let It Be, as well as The Beatles (White Album), Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band and Revolver. Like many other such songs it ended up on All Things Must Pass, Harrison’s massive first solo album after the break-up of The Beatles and his third overall.
“‘Isn’t It a Pity’ is about whenever a relationship hits a down point,” Harrison explained in his 1980 biography I, Me, Mine. “Instead of whatever other people do (like breaking each other’s jaws) I wrote a song. It was a chance to realize that if I felt somebody had let me down, then there’s a good chance I was letting someone else down. We all tend to break each other’s hearts, taking and not giving back – isn’t it a pity.”
Isn’t It a Pity, paired with My Sweet Lord, was released as a double A-side lead single on November 23, 1970, four days prior to the All Things Must Pass album. In the UK, My Sweet Lord was paired with What Is Life. The single became a massive hit worldwide, topping the charts in the U.S.; Canada; various European countries, including the UK, Republic of Ireland, Germany, Switzerland, The Netherlands, Norway and Sweden; as well as Australia.
It also became Harrison’s best-selling single, reaching Platinum status in the U.S. and the UK, and 2x Platinum in Japan. In the mid-’70s, that success got him into trouble with My Sweet Lord, and he was found guilty for subconsciously having plagiarized Ronnie Mack’sHe’s So Fine, a 1963 hit for The Chiffons. Going back to Japan, here’s a live version of Isn’t It a Pity, captured there in 1991 during Harrison’s tour with his friend Eric Clapton. While it’s a pity the video is blurry, the audio is pretty good!
Co-produced by Harrison and Phil Spector, Isn’t It a Pity included a remarkable amount of high profile musicians: Tony Ashton (piano); Billy Preston (piano); Gary Wright (electric piano); Bobby Whitlock (harmonium), of Derek and the Dominoes; Badfinger’sPete Ham, Tom Evans and Joey Molland (each acoustic guitar) and Mike Gibbins (tambourine); Klaus Voormann (bass); and Ringo Starr (drums). In addition to providing slide guitar and vocals, Harrison played acoustic guitar and Moog synthesizer. Orchestral and choral arrangements were done by John Barham. All of this creates a lush wall of sound, but I think it works magnificently for this song!
One of the things I absolutely love about Isn’t It a Pity is Harrison’s distinct slide guitar – a true signature sound. Apart from melodic playing and overdubbed harmony action, the soft tone is outstanding. The latter likely resulted from Harrison using his thumb instead of a pick. It’s also part of the equation for Jeff Beck’s magic tone.
In addition to the famous long 7:10-minute version, All Things Must Pass includes a shorter edit, Isn’t It a Pity (Version 2). At 4:48 minutes, this cut isn’t only significantly shorter but also noticeably slower. Apparently, Harrison initially wasn’t happy with the long version. The shorter version is said to have come about by chance on a separate occasion after one of the backing musicians began playing the song.
Taking a look at the credits for version 2 reveals the following: George Harrison (vocals, acoustic guitar), Eric Clapton (electric guitar), Tony Ashton (piano), Bobby Whitlock (organ), Carl Radle (bass), Ringo Starr (drums), Mike Gibbins (tambourine) and John Barnham (woodwind arrangement). It’s a more subdued cut, but I like it as well.
Isn’t It a Pity has been covered by many other artists, including Matt Monro, Nina Simone, Cowboy Junkies, Annie Lennox and Peter Frampton, among others. The songs was also performed during the commemorative Concert For George on November 29, 2002 by Eric Clapton and Billy Preston who were backed by a large band that included Jeff Lynne and Harrison’s son Dhani Harrison.
I’m leaving you with three of the above renditions, as well as the lyrics.
Isn’t It a Pity
Isn’t it a pity Now, isn’t it a shame How we break each other’s hearts And cause each other pain
How we take each other’s love Without thinking anymore Forgetting to give back Isn’t it a pity
Some things take so long But how do I explain When not too many people Can see we’re all the same
And because of all their tears Their eyes can’t hope to see The beauty that surrounds them Isn’t it a pity
Isn’t it a pity Isn’t is a shame How we break each other’s hearts And cause each other pain
How we take each other’s love Without thinking anymore Forgetting to give back Isn’t it a pity
Forgetting to give back Isn’t it a pity Forgetting to give back Now, isn’t it a pity
[Repeat: x6] What a pity What a pity, pity, pity What a pity What a pity, pity, pity
Recently, Dave who pens the great A Sound Day, once again asked some fellow bloggers to share their thoughts on the latest topic for his fun monthly feature Turntable Talk. He was kind enough to invite me back, and following is my contribution, which first appeared on Dave’s blog last week. Except for some slight tweaks to mirror the formatting of this blog, here’s what I wrote.
After 20 rounds, Turntable Talk truly remains the gift that keeps on giving, and with the holiday season upon us, writing another contribution feels quite appropriate – thanks for having me back, Dave!
This time, our task was to pick any artist or other personality from the music industry – alive or dead – who we could magically invite to come to our home and join us for a holiday dinner.
Even if you limit the universe to music artists only, the choices are enormous. As such, the task may seem impossible, especially for an individual like me who easily feels overwhelmed when there are too many options. And yet I knew right away who my imaginary guest would be.
Drum roll…
Ringo Starr!
‘Okay,’ you might think, ‘he was in The Beatles, your favorite group, but why Ringo? Why not John, Paul or George?’
My answer is simple: While John, Paul and George were brilliant musicians, who have written some of the best music ever recorded, I’m not sure I would enjoy their company as much as I would Ringo’s.
Ringo simply strikes me as a genuinely pleasant individual who does not seem to be full of himself. As such, I don’t think I would feel intimidated talking to him. With John, Paul or George, as much as I admire each, I don’t know. Frankly, I feel it could be a bit awkward.
Based on what I’ve read and what I’ve observed, Ringo is a perfect band mate, and that’s a quality I like a lot. It always seems to be about the music and the success of the band, never about him specifically. I’m absolutely convinced The Beatles would have been a different group and probably would have broken up earlier without Ringo.
I think the concept of Ringo Starr And His All Starr Band perfectly illustrates his personality. Yes, they perform some of the songs Ringo sang for The Beatles and from his solo career, but for most of the show, Ringo is happily playing the drums while other members of his supergroup get the limelight performing some of their songs or songs from their current or former bands.
I also love Ringo’s upbeat nature. To me, the man literally radiates positivity. His annual “Peace and Love” initiative for his birthday is a recurring reminder. Sure, cynics may call it a PR gimmick. While I suppose Ringo doesn’t mind the publicity around it (after all, he wants people all over the world to participate!), I do believe he does it in pursuit of the greater good, not for PR. Perhaps I’m a bit naïve here!
Since this is a contribution for a music blog, I’d like to leave you with six songs sung by Ringo, which unless stated otherwise he also wrote or co-wrote.
Octopus’s Garden (The Beatles – Abbey Road, September 1969)
It Don’t Come Easy (Ringo Starr – non-album single, April 1971)
Wrack My Brain (Ringo Starr – Stop and Smell the Roses, October 1981; written by George Harrison)
La De Da (Ringo Starr – Vertical Man, June 1998)
Postcards From Paradise (Ringo Starr – Postcards From Paradise, March 2015)
Rewind Forward (Ringo Starr – Rewind Forward (EP), October 2023)
Ringo who in July turned 83 remains as vital as ever. Just recently, he announced a 2024 spring tour with the All Starr Band, which currently includes Steve Lukather, Edgar Winter, Colin Hay, Warren Ham, Hamish Stuart and Gregg Bissonette – the same line-up I got to enjoy last June at the Beacon Theatre in New York City sans Edgar Winter who was sick with COVID.
Half of the 12 dates of the upcoming will be a residency in Las Vegas. Three of the other gigs will happen in Mexico City. The remaining dates are still to be announced. I’m thinking they may add more dates or do a fall tour.
Recorded under challenging conditions, Paul McCartney’s 5th post-Beatles album became his Mount Rushmore
It was 50 years ago today on December 5, 1973 that Paul McCartney released Band On the Run. His fifth album after the break-up of The Beatles and his third with Wings is widely considered his finest work outside The Fab Four, even though it came together under challenging conditions. Band On the Run also came at a critical time for McCartney who had yet to gain artistic credibility for his post-Beatles work.
After completing a successful UK tour with Wings in July 1973, he started to plan the group’s third album. The stakes were high. Predecessors Wild Life (December 1971) and Red Rose Speedway (May 1973) had a lukewarm reception from music critics and uneven commercial and chart performances. “Paul thought, ‘I’ve got to do it, either I give up and cut my throat or [I] get my magic back,” Linda McCartney subsequently told Sounds magazine.
Macca figured recording in an exotic location would help the album, so he asked EMI to send him all of their international recording studios. Eventually, he picked Lagos, Nigeria, not realizing into what he was getting himself and the band. By the time of their departure, the latter turned out to be his wife Linda and guitarist Denny Laine. Drummer Denny Seiwell and guitarist Henry McCullough had left. Since there wasn’t enough time to find replacements, Wings became a trio, with Macca taking on drums, percussion and most of the lead guitar parts, in addition to bass, piano, keyboards and vocals.
When they arrived in Lagos on August 9, 1973, they found a recording studio in poor condition. I guess they tried to make the best of the situation, deciding to work during the week and engaging in tourism on the weekend. But things turned dicey. During a walk outside one night, Paul and Linda were robbed at knifepoint. Not only did the assailants take all their valuables but also stole a bag with handwritten lyrics and songs and demo cassettes. And it didn’t end there.
While McCartney was overdubbing a vocal track, he suddenly began gasping for air and eventually fainted. What Linda initially thought was a heart attack was officially diagnosed as a bronchial spasm brought on by too much smoking. In another notable incident, local Afrobeat pioneer and political activist Fela Kuti confronted Macca in the studio, accusing the band of exploiting and stealing African music. This prompted McCartney to play their music to Kuti to prove him wrong.
In yet another twist to the saga, ex-Cream drummer Ginger Baker got into the picture. He invited Wings to record the entire album at his ARC Studio in the nearby city of Ikeja. McCartney ended up going there for one day, which resulted in the recording of Picasso’s Last Words (Drink to Me), with Baker contributing by playing a tin can full of gravel – you just can’t make this stuff up! After six weeks during which the basic tracks and initial overdubs were completed, Wings left Nigeria. The album was finished at George Martin’sAIR Studios in London. Given the above, one wonders why they didn’t depart earlier.
Time for some music! The obvious start is the album’s magnificent opener and title track, one of my all-time favorite McCartney songs. With its three distinct parts, Band On the Run is a song mini-suite reminiscent of The Beatles’Abbey Road. The song, which also became the album’s second single on April 8, 1974, was partly inspired by a remark George Harrison had made during one of The Beatles’ many business meetings. Another inspiration McCartney acknowledged during a 1988 interview with Musician magazine were drug busts he and other musicians of the late ’60s and early ’70s had experienced.
Jet, the second track on side one, was the album’s first single released on January 28, 1974. On a couple of occasions McCartney said the song was inspired by a Labrador Retriever dog named Jet. In a different interview he noted Jet was the name of a pony he owned. In yet another version, Macca said Jet was about his experience meeting Linda’s father. While as such the song’s inspiration remains ambiguous, there can be no doubt Jet has become one of Macca’s most beloved songs that remains a staple in his live sets to this day.
Side one closes with another gem: Let Me Roll It, a nice rocker with a great guitar riff. While it has been interpreted by many as an olive branch to John Lennon after his Beatles break-up song How Do You Sleep?, McCartney in a 2010 interview with Clash magazine explained it essentially was a drugs song, Songfactsnotes. “‘Let Me Roll It’ wasn’t to John, it was just in the style that we did with The Beatles that John was particularly known for. It was really actually the use of the echo. It was one of those: ‘You’re not going to use echo just cos John used it?’ I don’t think so. To tell you the truth, that was more [about] rolling a joint. That was the double meaning there: ‘let me roll it to you.’ That was more at the back of mind than anything else. ‘Dear Friend,’ that was very much ‘let’s be friends’ to John.”
This brings me to side two, from which I’d like to call out two tracks. The first is the aforementioned Picasso’s Last Words (Drink to Me). In a November 2010 interview with British TV channel ITV1 McCartney explained he created the song on the spot in Montego Bay, Jamaica during a dinner with Dustin Hoffman. After the actor had doubted Macca could write a song about anything, he put him to the test by pulling out a magazine that had a story about the death of Pablo Picasso and his famous last words, “Drink to me, drink to my health. You know I can’t drink anymore.” McCartney obliged, and came up with a demo of the song on the spot!
Last but not least, here’s the album’s excellent closer Nineteen Hundred and Eighty-Five. The piano-driven song culminates in a big finale with a full orchestra, Mellotron, organ and horns. McCartney said it originated with just the first line: “With a lot of songs I do, the first line is it. It’s all in the first line, and then you have to go on and write the second line…With this one it was ‘No one ever left alive in nineteen hundred and eighty-five.’ That’s all I had of that song for months. ‘No one ever left alive in nineteen hundred and eighty… six?’ It wouldn’t have worked!”
Notably, all songs on the album are credited to Paul McCartney and Linda McCartney, except for No Word, which was co-written by Macca and Denny Laine. Band On the Run was produced by Paul McCartney, with former Beatles sound engineer Geoff Emerick serving in the same role. Tony Visconti provided orchestration for the title track, Picasso’s Last Words (Drink to Me) and Nineteen Hundred and Eighty-Five. Interestingly, he didn’t receive proper credit until the 25th anniversary reissue in 1999.
Unlike McCartney’s previous four post-Beatles albums, Band On the Run was mostly well received by critics upon its release. By contrast, its initial chart performance wasn’t exactly overwhelming, including peaks of no. 9 on the UK Albums Chart in December 1973 and no. 7 in the U.S. on the Billboard 200 in February 1974. But later in 1974, the popularity of the two singles Jet and Band On the Run changed the album’s trajectory and propelled it to the top of both charts. It also hit number 1 in Canada, Australia and Norway.
Band On the Run ended up with triple Platinum certification (3 million certified sold copies) in the U.S. alone and became EMI’s top-selling ’70s album in the UK. Altogether, it sold more than 6 million copies worldwide. Band On the Run also earned various accolades. In 2000, now-defunct popular music magazine Q ranked it at no. 75 in its list of the 100 Greatest British Albums Ever. Moreover, it was included at no. 418 on Rolling Stone’s 2012 list of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. Last but no least, in 2023, Band On the Run was also inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.
Long-anticipated last Beatles song passes the audition
Yesterday (November 2), Now and Then, the long anticipated last song by The Beatles was released. Coupled with their first single Love Me Do as a double A, Now and Then is based on a piano-and-vocal demo John Lennon recorded in the late ’70s. In 1994, Yoko Ono gave the tape to the band’s then-surviving members Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr, who worked on it but felt the quality of the tape wasn’t good enough. Last year, thanks to new technology, McCartney and Starr finished the song. While Now and Then doesn’t reach the Fab Four magic of the ’60s, the ballad is an enjoyable song that has a remarkable sound quality.
“When we lost John, we knew that it was really over, but in 1994, amazingly, an interesting opportunity arose where we could make more music together,” McCartney explained in a 12-minute documentary about the making of Now and Then. “If we were to do something, the three of us, as interesting as it may be, to have John in it is the obvious thing,” Harrison commented at the time. “We could use John and try to make a record,” added Starr. “It was the closest we’ll ever come to having him back in the room.”
While in 1994 the three surviving ex-Beatles finished two unreleased songs based on the same batch of Lennon home demos Ono had given them – Free As a Bird and Real Love, released as part of the Anthology 1 (November 1995) and Anthology 2 (March 1996) compilations, respectively – they abandoned their plan in March 1995 to complete Now and Then and include it on Anthology 3 (October 1996). The poor quality of the demo was the key problem.
“When we started ‘Now and Then’, it was very difficult because John was sort of hidden in a way,” Starr said in the above documentary. “On John’s demo tape, the piano was a little hard to hear,” added McCartney. “And in those days, of course, we didn’t have the technology to do the separation.” He was referring to separating Lennon’s voice from the piano track. According to this New York Timesstory, McCartney stated that Harrison became frustrated, calling the demo “[expletive] rubbish.”
Ringo Starr, Paul McCartney & George Harrison ca. 1994.
Fast-forward 28 years until 2022 when isolating Lennon’s vocals from the piano succeeded, thanks to technology developed by Peter Jackson and his team to separate instruments and vocals from mono tracks. That same technology was used during the making of Jackson’s 2021 Get Back documentary series. “During the course of Get Back, we were paying a lot of attention to the technical restoration,” Jackson explained. “That ultimately led us to developing a technology, which allows us to take any soundtrack and split all the different components into separate tracks based on machine learning.”
Machine learning is a field of study in artificial intelligence (AI). That’s where that commentary from McCartney came from earlier this year, which stirred some debate the last Beatles song would be fake at least in part. He subsequently clarified via Twitter that “nothing has been artificially or synthetically created,” as reported by Deadline Hollywood. “It’s all real and we all play on it. We cleaned up some existing recordings – a process which has gone on for years.”
Paul McCartney & Ringo Starr in 2022
In addition to Lennon’s vocals, Now and Then features guitar parts Harrison wrote in 1995. Last year, the song’s remaining components were added: McCartney replayed Lennon’s piano part, added electric harpsichord and bass, and created a slide guitar solo mimicking Harrison, while Starr added drums, tambourine and shaker. There is also a string arrangement written by record producer, songwriter and composer Giles Martin, who is son of the late George Martin and has done an incredible job producing remixed 50th anniversary reissues of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, The White Album, Abbey Road and other Beatles albums.
“I’d been vaguely thinking strings might be a good thing,” McCartney stated during the above documentary. “The Beatles did lots of string things, you know: ‘Strawberry Fields’, ‘Yesterday’, ‘I Am the Walrus’. We wanted to go to Capitol Studios because that had been EMI, and it was sort of Beatley. Giles worked up an arrangement like Giles’s dad would have done in the old days. We had to put the music out on the stands for the musicians, but we couldn’t tell them it was a new Beatles song. It was all a bit hush-hush. We pretended it was just something of mine.”
Apparently, Now and Then also includes “oohs” and “aahs” from Here, There and Everywhere, Eleanor Rigby and Because. An announcement on TheBeatles.com notes McCartney and Martin added backing vocals from these Beatles songs. Frankly, I wouldn’t have noticed this “subtle touch” if I hadn’t read it. Now and Then was co-produced by McCartney and Giles Martin. Jeff Lynne who produced the 1995 sessions that included Harrison also received a producer credit.
On November 10, expanded and remixed versions of The Beatles’ 1962-1966 and 1967-1970 collections, aka as The Red Album and The Blue Album, respectively, will be released. Like the other Beatles reissues since 2017, these new versions, which have been mixed in stereo and Dolby Atmos, were overseen by Giles Martin. Now and Then will be included on The Blue Album.
As I noted at beginning of this post, Now and Then doesn’t reach the magic of the music The Beatles recorded in the ’60s. That said, I think it’s a pretty enjoyable song. What is truly amazing to me is the sound quality, which I find far superior to Free As a Bird and Real Love. The Beatles are and will likely always remain my all-time favorite band. I’m pretty happy with this last song.
I’ll leave you with a YouTube clip of the 12-minute documentary about the making of the song.
Sources: Wikipedia; The Beatles website; The New York Times; Deadline Hollywood; YouTube
This post originally appeared last week on fellow blogger Dave’s A Sound Day, a destination I always enjoy visiting and can highly recommend. More specifically, it was a contributed piece his fun monthly feature Turntable Talk.
Once again, it’s Turntable Talk time, and I appreciate yet another opportunity to take part in the Dave’s series that after 18 rounds continues to go strong! This time, our dear fellow blogger asked us to “highlight a song that explains how to live better.” He called it “A Design For Life.”
When I think about wise music artists the first who comes to my mind is George Harrison. By the mid-‘60s, the “quiet Beatle” embraced Indian culture and mysticism. This led to his lifelong support of the teachings of Hindu gurus, which shaped his personality and influenced his music.
One of the most compelling artistic outcomes I can think of is The Inner Light. I love both the song’s music and the lyrics. Let’s be honest, traditional Indian music can be an acquired taste. In this case, I find it truly beautiful. Moreover, the words of wisdom “the farther one travels, the less one knows” are one of my all-time favorite lyrical lines.
The fact that once you start exploring a complex topic you quickly realize how much more there is and how little you actually know rings true. To me, music blogging is the perfect illustration. When I started this blog in June 2016, I thought I knew a good deal about music. It quickly turned out I had barely scratched the surface.
Without meaning to get overly philosophical here, I also feel The Inner Light reminds us to be humble when it comes to knowledge. And to realize that while humans have made impressive progress in many areas, so many questions remain unresolved. We still need to figure out how we can reverse the gradual destruction of the planet, so our children and their children have a viable future.
The Inner Light Lyrical Sheet. Source: The Beatles Bible
The Inner Light first appeared in March 1968 as the B-side of The Beatles non-album single Lady Madonna. I’ve always liked the latter but feel The Inner Light should have been the A-side. For such placement Harrison had to wait until October 1969 and the double A single of Come Together and Something. Still, The Inner Light holds the distinction of having been his first song released on a Beatles single.
Another unique feature of the song is that none of The Beatles played any instruments on the recording. The Beatles Biblelists the following Indian musicians: Sharad Ghosh/Hanuman Jadev (shehnai), SR Kenkare (flute), Ashish Khan (sarod), Mahapurush Misra (tabla, pakavaj) and Rij Ram Desad (harmonium). Harrison sang lead while Paul McCartney and John Lennon supplied backing vocals.
For some additional insights regarding The Inner Light, I’m turning to Songfacts:
The lyrics are a translation of a section of the Tao Te Ching, a sacred Chinese text dating back 2000 years that was written by Lao Tsu, a contemporary of Confucius. The text is a rendering of Tsu’s accumulated wisdom; it forms the basis for much of Chinese thought and philosophy, focused on the spiritual aspect of life.
There are 81 short chapters of Tao Te Ching. “Inner Light” is the title of Chapter 47, which translates to:
Without going outside, you may know the whole world Without looking through the window, you may see the ways of heaven The farther you go, the less you know Thus the sage knows without traveling He sees without looking He works without doing
Harrison’s lyric tweaked the translation a bit for clarity and sound. The biggest change he made was repeating these lines to reinforce the central theme:
The farther one travels The less one really knows
Harrison was introduced to the Tao Te Ching chapter that formed the lyric by Juan Mascaro, a Sanskrit teacher at Cambridge University. In October 1967, Harrison and John Lennon appeared on David Frost’s TV show, where they discussed Transcendental Meditation. Mascaro was also on the panel and sent Harrison a copy of his book Lamps Of Fire, a compilation of ancient religious texts translated into English. Mascaro noted the “Inner Light” section, suggesting it could be a good lyric.
The original release was in mono; a stereo version was mixed in 1970 and used on the Past Masters compilation. The mono mix features an extra Indian instrument in the intro that did not make it to the stereo version.
Jeff Lynne from Electric Light Orchestra performed this at George Harrison’s 2002 memorial show The Concert For George. Lynne was good friends with Harrison and played with him in The Traveling Wilburys.
In March 2020, George’s son Dhani Harrison posted a new version of The Inner Light on YouTube, along with the following announcement: “The Material World Foundation, created by George Harrison in 1973, is today donating $500,000 to the MusiCares COVID-19 Relief Fund, Save the Children, and Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders) charities, which are providing much needed aid and care during this COVID-19 pandemic.”
The announcement also came with the foundation’s pledge to donate an additional $1, up to $100,000, for every fan performance of ‘The Inner Light’ posted on social media with the hashtag #innerlight2020. Various celebrities participated, such as sitar player Anoushka Shankar (daughter of Indian sitar maestro Ravi Shankar), record producer Daniel Lanois, ex-Doors drummer John Densmore, guitarist Mike Campbell and Susanna Hoffs of The Bangles.
I’m leaving you with the song’s lyrics.
Without going out of my door I can know all things of earth Without looking out of my window I could know the ways of heaven The farther one travels The less one knows The less one really knows
Without going out of your door You can know all things on earth Without looking out of your window You could know the ways of heaven The farther one travels The less one knows The less one really knows
Arrive without traveling See all without looking Do all without doing
Sources: Wikipedia; The Beatles Bible; Songfacts; YouTube
Happy Wednesday and I’d like to welcome you to another edition of my weekly feature that takes a closer look at a song I’ve only mentioned in passing or not covered at all. As I was looking through my list of picks highlighted in previous installments, I noticed David Crosby wasn’t on there. Since I’ve covered him on multiple other occasions, the challenge was to find a song that meets the aforementioned criteria. One that did is Laughing.
Penned solely by Crosby, Laughing appeared on his debut solo album If I Could Only Remember My Name, released in February 1971. The peculiar album title probably wasn’t a coincidence. Grief-stricken over the death of his girlfriend Christine Hinton in a 1969 car accident, Crosby had gotten into hard drugs. While despite prominent guests initial reviews by critics were less than glowing, fans embraced the album, probably thanks in part to the huge popularity of Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young’sDéjà Vu, which had come out less than a year earlier.
Crosby wrote Laughing after George Harrison told him about Indian guru Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. While Harrison believed Yogi’s teachings provided answers to life’s big questions, Crosby was skeptical. At the same time, he did not want to offend Harrison, so in the song he concludes “a laughing child in the sun” is the only person who knows the truth. One would wish Crosby would have shown similar constraint when it came to his former bandmates from CSN/CSN&Y.
The recording of Laughing in October 1969 coincided with the sessions for Déjà Vu. But in addition to lack of room, I guess it wasn’t quite at the level of Crosby’s Almost Cut My Hair and the title track. It still had notable guests, including Graham Nash (guitar, vocals), the Grateful Dead’sJerry Garcia (pedal steel guitar), Phil Lesh (bass) and Bill Kreutzmann (drums), as well as Joni Mitchell (vocals). Here’s a nice live version captured in December 2018 and released in November 2022 on Live at the Capitol Theatre as David Crosby & The Lighthouse Band, less than two months prior to Crosby’s death on January 19, 2023 at the age of 81.
Following are some additional tidbits from Songfacts:
In a Songfacts interview with David Crosby, he recalled the conversation that led to this song. “I was very taken with George,” he said. “I liked him a lot. He was very friendly to me. He invited me over to his house, we had dinner together, we talked a lot. Paul was very friendly to me, John was very friendly to me, Ringo was very friendly to me, but the one that I had the relationship with was George.
So, George gets a hold of me one day and he says, ‘I met this fellow in India. A teacher, a guru that I like a lot.’ And I said, ‘Really? No s–t?’ And he said, ‘Yeah. I think he’s got something.’ And I said, ‘Well, that’s wonderful.’
And what I wanted to say – the exact words I wanted to say – were, ‘Take it with a grain of salt.’ Because I am a skeptical person about religious teaching. I don’t believe in God and I’m not really a big fan of religion… any of them. Buddhism isn’t exactly a religion, it’s a philosophy, and I did not want to come off like a snot to my new friend who I really respected hugely, so I didn’t say anything.
But I had it in my head: ‘Take it with a grain of salt. Don’t just accept it at face value.’ So I wrote that song to tell him that. That the person I thought was the wisest I had met was a child laughing at the sun. And that I thought I could learn more from that child laughing at the sun than I could from anybody teaching.”
The members of Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young often contributed to each other’s albums. On “Laughing,” Graham Nash sings harmony vocals, and Joni Mitchell comes in at the end of the song singing, “In the sun.”
When they recorded it, Nash and Mitchell were living together. Previously, she and Crosby were a couple.
Crosby considers the guitar sound this song’s secret sauce. He explained in the CSN boxed set: “Stephen Barncard was my engineer and he did a lot of work to get that acoustic guitar sound. I don’t think anybody’s ever gotten a better one, frankly. The key to the whole enterprise was great instruments, incredibly well tuned. You can’t even attempt this music any other way. And Garcia was wonderful because he’s always trying to push the edge of the envelope. He always wants to play something that he hasn’t played before.”
Happy Wednesday and welcome to another installment of my weekly feature where I take a closer look at a song I’ve only mentioned in passing or not all covered to date on this blog. In this case, it’s the latter. The reason why I’m mentioning this is it took 42 posts in this series before exploring a tune by The Beatles, my all-time favorite band – and, yes, I had to count them all!
As frequent visitors of this blog know, of course, I’ve written about The Beatles and John, Paul, George and Ringo many times in the past, but not as part of Song Musings. Because of all my previous Beatles coverage, it also was a bit tricky to find a track that truly is among my favorites, yet still is a song I had not covered until today. One of the tunes that met the criteria is Dear Prudence.
Dear Prudence was solely written by John Lennon, though it was credited to him and his longtime songwriting partner Paul McCartney as usual. It was the second track on Side one of The Beatles’ eponymous album released in November 1968, aka The White Album, their only double LP that appeared during their active time.
Lennon penned Dear Prudence in early 1968 in Rishikesh, India, during a spiritual retreat with their guru, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. The tune was inspired by Prudence Farrow, the younger sister of American actress Mia Farrow, who was a particularly devout student of Yogi and obsessive about meditating. Her dedicated meditation partners Lennon and George Harrison tried to nudge Farrow out of seclusion in her hut, and John turned the experience into a song he considered one of his favorites.
Singer-songwriter Donovan, who also was in Rishikesh for the retreat, showed Lennon the finger-picking guitar technique he used when writing Dear Prudence. The song was recorded at Trident Studios in London in late August 1968, featuring Lennon (lead vocals, backing vocals, electric guitar, tambourine), McCartney (backing vocals, bass, piano, drums, flugelhorn, handclaps) and Harrison (backing vocals, lead guitar, handclaps). Also contributing were Mal Evans (tambourine, backing vocals, handclaps), Jackie Lomax and Paul’s visiting cousin John McCartney (each backing vocals, handclaps).
Notably absent from the recording of the tune was Ringo Starr. Disillusioned by increased tension among The Beatles and McCartney’s criticism of his drumming on Back in the U.S.S.R., he had temporarily left the group.
Here’s an alternate demo recorded with other demos of songs that were considered for the album at Harrison’s Kinfauns bungalow in the English town of Esher, which collectively became known as the Esher demos. In 2018, all 27 original Esher demos were released in high-quality as part of the deluxe 50th Anniversary reissue of The Beatles, taken from Harrison’s original 4-track master tapes.
“‘Dear Prudence’ is me,” Lennon said during his last major interview in 1980 conducted by New York Times bestselling author David Sheff, as recounted by The Beatles Bible. “Written in India. A song about Mia Farrow’s sister, who seemed to go slightly barmy, meditating too long, and couldn’t come out of the little hut that we were livin’ in. They selected me and George to try and bring her out because she would trust us. If she’d been in the West, they would have put her away.”
He went on, “We got her out of the house. She’d been locked in for three weeks and wouldn’t come out, trying to reach God quicker than anybody else. That was the competition in Maharishi’s camp: who was going to get cosmic first. What I didn’t know was I was already cosmic. [Laughs.]”
“Being on that course was more important to me than anything in the world,” commented Prudence Farrow in A Hard Day’s Write: The Stories Behind Every Beatles Song by Steve Turner (January 2009). “I was very focused on getting in as much meditation as possible, so that I could gain enough experience to teach it myself.”
“I knew that I must have stuck out because I would always rush straight back to my room after lectures and meals so that I could meditate. John, George and Paul would all want to sit around jamming and having a good time and I’d be flying into my room. They were all serious about what they were doing but they just weren’t as fanatical as me…”
“At the end of the course, just as they were leaving, George mentioned that they had written a song about me but I didn’t hear it until it came out on the album. I was flattered. It was a beautiful thing to have done.”
Following are some additional insights by Songfacts:
According to American flautist Paul Horn, who was also with them in Rishikesh, Prudence was a highly sensitive person, and by jumping straight into deep meditation, against the Maharishi’s advice, she had allowed herself to fall into a catatonic state. Horn stated, “She was ashen-white and didn’t recognize anybody. She didn’t even recognize her own brother who was on the course with her. The only person she showed any slight recognition towards was Maharishi. We were all concerned about her and Maharishi assigned her a full-time nurse.”
According to the singer-songwriter Donovan, who was on the retreat in India with The Beatles, he taught John Lennon a “clawhammer” guitar technique that he used on this track. “He was so fascinated by fingerstyle guitar that he immediately started to write in a different color and was very inspired,” Donovan said in his Songfacts interview. “That’s what happens when you learn a new style.”
The clawhammer style, is played with the strumming hand formed into a claw, using the backs of the fingernails to strum down on the strings.
John Lennon’s handwritten lyrics were auctioned off for $19,500 in 1987.
Siouxsie And The Banshees covered this in 1983. Their version went to #3 in the UK and became their biggest hit.
“Dear Prudence” was the second Beatles song that the Banshees had covered from their White Album. Previously, they’d recorded a version of “Helter Skelter” for their 1978 LP The Scream.
“Helter Skelter was very much part of our live show before we recorded it,” mused Siouxsie Sioux to TeamRock. “The great thing was that the two Beatles songs we chose – ‘Helter Skelter’ and ‘Dear Prudence’ – were not originally singles by The Beatles, so it wasn’t necessarily a surefire: ‘Oh, they’re doing a Beatles song.’ And it was also a bit irreverent as well, I suppose. A good test of doing a cover version is when people think that you’ve written it. Quite a lot of people thought Dear Prudence was an original.”
This song was in the movie Across the Universe, which was based on The Beatles music. In the movie, Prudence (played by T.V. Carpio) locked herself in a closet after discovering that Sadie and JoJo were together when she thought she loved Sadie. Lucy (Evan Rachel Wood), Jude (Jim Sturges), Sadie (Dana Fuges) and Max (Joe Anderson) sing this to make her feel better. It gets her out of the closet and they end the song at a anti-Vietnam War rally.
Siouxsie and the Banshees’ take on the song added to The Beatles’ simple original arrangement. “It was kind of an undeveloped song on the White Album,” Siouxsie said. “and so there was a lot of scope to put in your own stuff, really. What did I want to bring? Oh, some psychedelic transformation there [laughing].”
“No, I think that actual track’s fairly restrained, simple and understated on the White Album,” she added. “I was listening to singles like Itchycoo Park by the Small Faces, so I think it was wanting to capture the 60s, and all that kind of phasing. Also, it was where we were at the time.”
Sources: Wikipedia; The Beatles Bible; Songfacts; YouTube
Tributes to The Beatles, Eric Clapton and The Who wowed audience at Golden Nugget
Sometimes the brain or whatever I have inside my skull works in mysterious ways. Until Saturday early in the morning, I completely had forgotten about the British Invasion festival in Atlantic City. Suddenly, the one-day event at the Golden Nugget popped up in my head and I thought, ‘dang it, I probably missed it!”Luckily, it was happing later on that very day, and I’m happy to share some impressions!
As the name suggests, the annual event focuses on British music that took America by storm starting in the mid-’60s. Of course, The Beatles were instrumental in popularizing British acts in the U.S. when their appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show in February 1964 changed the music world forever. Appropriately, their music was featured in Atlantic City, delivered by a fun tribute band called Britain’s Finest. There were also two other great tribute groups: Who’s Next (can you guess the band?) and Slow Hands, a tribute to Mr. Slowhand, Eric Clapton.
From top left (clockwise): Your fearless roving music reporter, Britain’s Finest, Slow Hands (half of the band) and Who’s Next
Saturday was the third or fourth time I made the trip from central New Jersey down to Atlantic City for this festival. And while it’s a bit of a hike, based on my previous experience, I was reasonably sure I wouldn’t take much of a gamble here! Like in the past, the nine-hour live music marathon on the deck of the Golden Nugget kicked off at around 2:00 pm. Each tribute act got to play an afternoon and an evening set. This post covers the evening gigs.
Since the aforementioned appearance of The Beatles on Ed Sullivan is considered to mark the beginning of the British Invasion, appropriately, Britain’s Finest were the first act. Founded in Los Angeles in 2011, the band’s current lineup includes Jay Nixon (as Paul McCartney), Ruben Amaya (as John Lennon), Robert Bielma (as George Harrison) and Brendan Peleo-Lazar (as Ringo Starr). Even though the lads are Americans, they do a lovely job imitating the British accents by John, Paul, George and Ringo. How about the music? Here’s their neat rendition of Please Please Me.
Well, let’s shake it up, baby, now with one more tune: Twist and Shout, a perfect set closer!
I guess it takes many hands to cover the music by Eric Clapton and Slow Hands do a nice job with it. This eight-piece from Freehold, N.J. has been around for about five years. They include Carlos DC (lead guitar, lead vocals), Steven Raphel (rhythm guitar, background vocals), Matt Ali (slide guitar), Dennis Matusche (keyboards), Kenneth Thorstenson (bass) and Raul Diaz Cobo (drums), along with Erica Taylor (background vocals) and another talented background vocalist. Here’s the neat opening of their set, a one-two punch of Cream’sSunshine of Your Love and Eric Clapton’s Motherless Children – my kind of music!
Closing out this fun evening were Who’s Next, an amazing tribute I’ve seen on various occasions over the past six years or so. They’ve been around for a long time and currently feature Bill Canell (as Pete Townshend), Doug Zahn (as Roger Daltrey), Will Shelley (as John Entwistle) and Rich Savarese (as Keith Moon). Meet the new boss, same as the old boss! If you don’t recognize these iconic lines, let the music do the talking. It won’t fool ya!
Backed by high-caliber All-Star Band, Singer-Songwriter shared stories and beloved tunes
When I saw a few months ago that James Taylor is touring, the decision to look for a ticket didn’t take long. One of my biggest regrets is having missed his 2010 Troubadour Reunion Tour with Carole King. While King would have been the bigger draw, I’ve always liked Taylor and had never seen him. Finally, last Saturday evening, it was showtime, at the TD Pallivion of The Mann Center for the Performing Arts in Philadelphia, Pa. Taylor and his amazing band did not disappoint!
Not only have I admired Taylor for many years as a great acoustic guitarist but also as a singer-songwriter with a distinct smooth baritone that instantly puts me at ease – even if he sings about a less-than-cheerful topic like in Fire and Rain, a song I absolutely love.
TD Pavillion. According to The Mann Center for the Performing Arts, James Taylor is the artist who has most often performed at the Mann since the venue was built in 1976 as the summer home for the Philadelphia Orchestra.
Taylor, who in March turned 75, has enjoyed an impressive 55-year-plus run. Among others, this includes more than 100 million albums sold, multiple Grammy Awards, as well as inductions into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Songwriters Hall of Fame.
Taylor’s current tour is billed as An Evening with James Taylor & His All-Star Band – makes me wonder whether that band name may have come with a little inspiration from a friend! Speaking of with a little help from his friends, in 1968, Taylor became the first non-British act signed to Apple Records, which of course is the label founded by The Beatles that same year. It all happened after Paul McCartney and George Harrison listened to a demo tape Taylor had given to Peter Asher.
James Taylor’s All-Star Band (left to right, starting with upper row: Kate Markowitz (vocals), Dorian Holley (vocals), Henry Taylor (vocals, guitar), Andrea Zonn (vocals, fiddle), Larry Goldings (piano), Walt Fowler (keyboards, horns), Lou Marini (horns), Michael Landau (guitar), Jimmy Johnson (bass), Michito Sanchez (percussion) and Steve Gadd (drums)
Coming back to Taylor’s All-Star Band, the name wasn’t hyperbole, as his website reveals. The first musician who jumped out was legendary drummer Steve Gadd. The other members are certainly no slouches either: Michael Landau (guitar), Larry Goldings (piano), Walt Fowler (keyboards, horns), Lou Marini (horns), Michito Sanchez (percussion), Jimmy Johnson (bass), Andrea Zonn (vocals, fiddle), as well as vocalists Kate Markowitz, Dorian Holley and Taylor’s son Henry Taylor (also guitar). This is one killer band!
In addition to performing many beloved songs, Taylor also proved to be an engaging storyteller with a great sense of self-deprecating humor. After the first tune of the evening, Something In the Way She Moves, which was mostly delivered in the form of a video montage, Taylor recalled the above beginning of his recording career, jokingly adding, “George liked the song so much that he wrote it as his own song.” Beatles fans know it was a reference to Harrison’s Something, which starts with the words, Something in the way she moves.
Sometimes, Taylor’s anecdotes behind his songs felt a bit like standup comedy, especially the story about Mona, a pig he once owned as a pet. It certainly was hilarious and also involved some acting when Taylor pulled out a large handkerchief to bemoan the accidental death of Mona, who had grown from a little piggie into a 290-pound specimen. That said, he probably could have shortened it a little! 🙂
With 20 studio albums released to date, Taylor had plenty of material to choose from and he did. For his original songs, he mostly drew from his 1968 eponymous debut album and his ’70s catalog, including Sweet Baby James (1970), Mud Slide Slim and the Blue Horizon (1971), Gorilla (1975), In the Pocket (1976) and JT (1977). He also briefly acknowledged the ’80s, ’90s and 2000s with picks from That’s Why I’m Here (1985), New Moonshine (1991) and October Road (2002). Taylor rounded out the evening with four covers. Time for some music!
Let’s kick things off with Copperline, a tune from Taylor’s 13th studio album New Moon Shine, which came out in September 1991. He announced it as a song about his home state of North Carolina, adding, “but it’s probably not the one you’re thinking of.” He proceeded by holding up big signs of his two setlists, cheerfully pointing to the song that may have been in the minds of many folks in the audience.
Sweet Baby James is the title track of Taylor’s sophomore and breakthrough album released in February 1970. Like its predecessor and the next three albums, it was produced by Peter Asher. Unlike his debut, it appeared on Warner Bros, Taylor’s new label until the mid-’70s. Sweet Baby James is about the son of Taylor’s older brother Alex, who named the child after him.
And then it was time for some smoldering blues, a genre Taylor isn’t commonly associated with. But he actually wrote a blues tune for the Sweet Baby James album. Taylor felt there were too many pretentious white blues bands, so he decided to mock them with Steamroller Blues. This may be a parody tune and at times Taylor clearly treated it as such, but watch his band turn up the heat in this one, especially Lou Marini on trumpet, Walt Fowler on the mighty Hammond and Michael Landau on lead guitar.
After a 20-minute intermission, which Taylor insisted they really didn’t need since they would just stand right behind the stage and count down the time, it was on to the second set. As a huge Carole King fan, it’s a no-brainer I must cover You’ve Got a Friend, off Tapestry, her timeless gem from February 1971. Taylor recalled how King and he played the song together for the first time at The Troubador in Los Angeles before it had come out. He added it blew him away and he decided then and there to record it himself. And that he did and put on his third studio album Mud Slide Slim and the Blue Horizon, which came out two months after Tapestry.
Next up is a tune I sadly missed capturing, but fortunately Kelly K did, at Taylor’s May 31 gig at Santa Barbara Bowl – thanks, Kelly! To me, Raised Up Family, a tune Taylor included on his 15th studio album October Road, released in August 2002, was a musical highlight of the second set and in fact the entire evening. It nicely showcases the chops of Taylor’s backing vocalist and his amazing band.
Another must-cover is my all-time favorite song by James Taylor: Fire and Rain, off Sweet Baby James. This tune still gives me chills every time I hear it. Do I need to say more? I don’t think so!
Yet another highlight, especially from a vocal perspective, was Shower the People, the opening track of In the Pocket. Taylor’s seventh studio album was the first relying on a producer other than Peter Asher, in this case, Russ Titelman and Lenny Waronker, and his last before signing with Columbia. The performance showcased the impressive vocal chops of Dorian Holley.
And then it was time for the encore, which included three tunes. I decided to leave you with the last, You Can Close Your Eyes, another tune from Mud Slide Slim and the Blue Horizon. This performance featured Taylor and his son, Henry Taylor, both on vocals and guitar.
Following is the entire line-up of the songs Taylor performed in Philadelphia. Based on Setlist.fm, it has stayed unchanged up to this point in his tour.
Set 1 • Something in the Way She Moves • Rainy Day Man • Copperline • Everybody Has the Blues • Mona • Some Days You Gotta Dance (The Chicks cover) • Sweet Baby James • Country Road • Steamroller Blues • Mexico • Up On the Roof (Carole King cover)
Set 2 • Secret o’ Life • You Make It Easy • You’ve Got a Friend (Carole King cover) • Carolina in My Mind • Raised Up Family • Fire and Rain • Shower the People • Your Smiling Face
Encore • Summertime Blues (Eddie Cochran cover) • Shed a Little Light • You Can Close Your Eyes
As I think you can see from the clips, the audience clearly loved James Taylor. So did I and I’m glad I finally got to see him! This wasn’t my first visit to the Mann, a great open-air venue where I previously sawBonnie Raitt with opening act Lucinda Williams, as well as John Mellencamp with Emmylou Harris and Carlene Carter (see here). Despite some logistical challenges with parking and getting into the venue, which I had not encountered in the past, it likely wasn’t my last visit.
Evidently, Taylor enjoys the Mann as well. In fact, last Saturday marked his 21st concert there. According to the Mann, this makes him the artist who has most often performed at the venue since it was opened in 1976 as the summer home for Philadelphia’s symphony orchestra.
If you like Taylor and can make it to one of his shows during the remainder of the tour, I don’t think you’ll be disappointed. Some of the gigs for which tickets still appear to be available include Huntsville, Ala. (Aug 22); Cincinnati, Ohio (Aug 24); Mt. Pleasant, Mich. (Aug 26); Bridgeport, Conn. (Aug 29); and Boston, Mass. ( Aug 31 and Sep 1). The two immediately upcoming shows in Lenox, Mass. (Jul 3 & 4) are sold out. Taylor is currently scheduled to be on the road until Sep 10. The full schedule is here.
Sources: Wikipedia; James Taylor website; Setlist.fm; YouTube
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