Tribute albums are often tricky. Should a band stay faithful to the original version or try to bring a new interpretation of the song to the table? There are solid arguments for both sides of the coin. Luckily for us, the fine folks at Sanctuary Records have provided us with a tribute album that serves to both.
The great guitarist, John Scofield, recently stopped into a place he admits
John Lennon’s killer will remain in prison for at least two more years after being denied parole Tuesday because of the “extreme malicious intent” he showed in gunning down the former Beatle in 1980.
Mark David Chapman, 49, was notified of the decision late Tuesday after appearing before a three-member panel earlier in the day.
“During the interview your statement for motivation acknowledges the attention you felt this murder would generate,” the board wrote in its single-page decision. “Although proven true, such rationale is bizarre and morally corrupt.”
It was Chapman’s third bid for freedom. He was denied parole in 2000 and again in 2002, on what would have been Lennon’s 62nd birthday.
The latest denial “is based on the extreme malicious intent you exhibited (when) you fired a handgun multiple times, striking your victim
Rodney Dangerfield, the bug-eyed comic whose self-deprecating one-liners brought him stardom in clubs, television and movies and made his lament “I don’t get no respect” a catchphrase, died Tuesday. He was 82.
Dangerfield, who fell into a coma after undergoing heart surgery, died at 1:20 p.m., said publicist Kevin Sasaki. Dangerfield had a heart valve replaced August 25 at the University of California, Los Angeles, Medical Center.
Sasaki said in a statement that Dangerfield suffered a small stroke after the operation and developed infectious and abdominal complications. But in the past week he had emerged from the coma, the publicist said.
“When Rodney emerged, he kissed me, squeezed my hand and smiled for his doctors,” Dangerfield’s wife, Joan, said in the statement. The comic is also survived by two children from a previous marriage.
As a comic, Dangerfield — clad in a black suit, red tie and white shirt with collar that seemed too tight — convulsed audiences with lines such as: “When I was born, I was so ugly that the doctor slapped my mother”; “When I started in show business, I played one club that was so far out my act was reviewed in Field and Stream”; and “Every time I get in an elevator, the operator says the same thing to me: `Basement?”‘
In a 1986 interview, he explained the origin of his “respect” trademark:
“I had this joke: ‘I played hide and seek; they wouldn’t even look for me.’ To make it work better, you look for something to put in front of it: I was so poor, I was so dumb, so this, so that. I thought, ‘Now what fits that joke?’ Well, ‘No one liked me’ was all right. But then I thought, a more profound thing would be, ‘I get no respect.”‘
He tried it at a New York club, and the joke drew a bigger response than ever. He kept the phrase in the act, and it seemed to establish a bond with his audience. After hearing him perform years later, Jack Benny remarked: “Me, I get laughs because I’m cheap and 39. Your image goes into the soul of everyone.”
Dangerfield had a strange career in show business. At 19 he started as a standup comedian. He made only a fair living, traveling a great deal and appearing in rundown joints. Married at 27, he decided he couldn’t support a family on his meager earnings.
He returned to comedy at 42 and began to attract notice. He appeared on the Ed Sullivan show seven times and on “The Tonight Show” with Johnny Carson more than 70 times.
After his standout film role in “Caddyshack,” he began starring in his own movies.
He was born Jacob Cohen on November 22, 1921, in Babylon on New York’s Long Island. Growing up in the borough of Queens, his mother was uncaring and his father was absent. As Philip Roy, the father and his brother toured in vaudeville as a pantomime comedy-juggling act, Roy and Arthur. Young Jacob’s parents divorced, and the mother struggled to support her daughter and son.
The boy helped bring in money by selling ice cream at the beach and working for a grocery store. “I found myself going to school with kids and then in the afternoon I’d be delivering groceries to their back door,” he recalled. “I ended up feeling inferior to everybody.”
He ingratiated himself to his schoolmates by being funny; at 15 he was writing down jokes and storing them in a duffel bag. When he was 19, he adopted the name Jack Roy and tried out the jokes at a resort in the Catskills, training ground for Danny Kaye, Jerry Lewis, Red Button, Sid Caesar and other comedians. The job paid $12 a week plus room and meals.
In New York, he drove a laundry and fish truck, taking time off to hunt for work as a comedian. The jobs came slowly, but in time he was averaging $300 a week.
He married Joyce Indig, a singer he met at a New York club. Both had wearied of the uncertainty of a performer’s life.
“We wanted to lead a normal life,” he remarked in a 1986 interview. “I wanted a house and a picket fence and kids, and the heck with show business. Love is more important, you see. When the show is over, you’re alone.”
The couple settled in Englewood, New Jersey, had two children, Brian and Melanie, and he worked selling paint and siding. But the idyllic suburban life soured as the pair battled. The couple divorced in 1962, remarried a year later and again divorced.
In 1993, Dangerfield married Joan Child, a flower importer.
At age 42, he returned to show business. He remembered in 1986:
“It was like a need. I had to work. I had to tell jokes. I had to write them and tell them. It was like a fix. I had the habit.”
Even during his domestic years, he continued filling the duffel bag with jokes. He didn’t want to break in his new act with any notice, so he asked the owner of New York’s Inwood Lounge, George McFadden, not to bill him as Jack Roy. McFadden came up with the absurd name Rodney Dangerfield. It stuck.
Dangerfield’s bookings improved, and he landed television gigs. After his ex-wife died, he took over the responsibility of raising his two children. He decided to quit touring and open a New York nightclub, Dangerfield’s, so he could stay close to home. A beer commercial and the Carson shows brought him national attention.
His film debut came in 1971 with “The Projectionist,” which he described as “the kind of a movie that you went to the location on the subway.” He did better in 1980 with “Caddyshack,” in which he held his own with such comics as Chevy Chase, Ted Knight and Bill Murray.
Despite his good reviews, Dangerfield claimed he didn’t like movies or TV series: “Too much waiting around, too much memorizing; I need that immediate feedback of people laughing.”
Still, he continued starring in and sometimes writing films such as “Easy Money,” “Back to School,” “Moving,” “The Scout,” “Ladybugs” and “Meet Wally Sparks.” He turned dramatic as a sadistic father in Oliver Stone’s 1994 “Natural Born Killers.”
In 1995, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences rejected Dangerfield’s application for membership. A letter from Roddy McDowall of the actors branch explained that the comedian had failed to execute “enough of the kinds of roles that allow a performer to demonstrate the mastery of his craft.”
The ultimate rejection, and Dangerfield played it to the hilt. He had established his own Web site (“I went out and bought an Apple Computer; it had a worm in it”), and his fans used it to express their indignation. The public reaction prompted the academy to reverse itself and offer membership. Dangerfield declined.
“They don’t even apologize or nothing,” he said. “They give no respect at all — pardon the pun — to comedy.”
Source CNN.com.
Howard Stern is taking his morning radio show into space. The maverick broadcaster will abandon terrestrial airwaves in 2006, when he’ll begin a five-year deal with Sirius Satellite.
“It has been my dream to have the top-rated show in radio since I was five years old,” Stern says in a statement. “Sirius — the future of radio — will take this dream to a whole new level as I bring my fans my show my way. It will be the best radio they will ever hear.”
After months of surprisingly clandestine negotiations, the self-proclaimed “King of All Media” broke the news to his listeners and co-workers during this morning’s broadcast. Stern has 15 months remaining on his contract with Viacom, syndicator of his morning radio show, which originates at WXRK (K-Rock) New York.
Stern’s radio show is also the basis of a nightly E! television series. He admitted on the air that he had no idea what would become of that show, noting that there is a year remaining on his contract with the network.
“Howard is an incredible creative and comedic icon,” says Scott Greenstein, Sirius president of entertainment and sports. “There is absolutely no one like Howard Stern, and I’m excited that, for the first time, his show will be heard across the entire country as it was always meant to be heard.”
Sirius provides 120 channels of commercial free programming, including music, sports and entertainment, for a monthly subscription of $12.95. Mobile and home receivers are manufactured by a number of top electronics companies.
Source billboard.com.
Jay Farrar’s popular rock band persona, Son Volt, is heading back into the studio to record their fourth full-length studio album-the first new release since 1998’s Wide Swing Tremolo (Warner Bros. Records). This time around, though, fans will be seeing (and hearing) a different collection of side musicians performing with Farrar. After several months of discussions and planning with the original Son Volt players-Dave Boquist, Jim Boquist and Mike Heidorn-Farrar was unable to reach acceptable business terms with the
original line-up. “Times change, and so do people, I guess,” reflected Farrar. “While I was looking forward to the reunion aspect of working with those guys, it just wasn’t meant to be. It’ll be liberating to get down to work with a different group of musicians. I had always envisioned Son Volt as a vehicle for my songwriting and expected it to evolve over the years.
When I reformed the original band this year to record our track for Por Vida [the Alejandro Escovedo benefit album (Or Music)], it seemed like we might be able to extend that two-day session into two years of recording and touring–but it doesn’t look that way now.”
With fifteen Son Volt songs written, studio time booked and engineer John Agnello on board, Farrar now plans to commence recording in St. Louis on October 12. Currently set to collaborate with Farrar on these sessions are Brad Rice (guitar–Tift Merritt, Ryan Adams), Andrew Duplantis (bass-Jon Dee Graham, Meat Puppets, Bob Mould), Eric Heywood (pedal steel-Son Volt, Calexico) and Dave Bryson (drums-Canyon). Fans will have access to these sessions through web cameras installed in the studio beginning October 12, providing a very rare glimpse into Farrar’s recording process as it actually unfolds. Access to these cameras (and other behind-the-scenes material) will be available at www.jayfarrar.net/webcam.
Also on the Son Volt horizon is an anthology of material from the first three Warner Bros. albums-including rare or previously unreleased soundtrack cuts, live tracks, demos and unreleased studio recordings from that era. This anthology, the new studio album, plus a long-awaited tour are all slated for mid-2005.
