Feedback Review by Joe Viglione

https://www.allmusic.com/album/feedback-mw0000696125

Feedback is one of the strangest happenings in rock, more dramatic than Michael MacDonald taking over the Doobie Brothers, but more successful artistically than it was financially, and a chapter of the group that is sadly forgotten. The original band was produced by Lou Adler and built around guitar prodigy Randy California, and a bit of history is in order to understand this hybrid project. David Briggs, producer of Kathi MacDonald, Alice Cooper’s Easy Action, and Neil Young, helped the band forge their classic Twelve Dreams of Dr. Sardonicus and was retained for this follow-up. William Ruhlmann’s liner notes to Spirit’s Time Circle Epic/Legacy release notes that Randy California resigned from the group at this point. Mark Andes and Jay Ferguson formed Jo Jo Gunne with Curly Smith, and Smith’s friends, the Staehely Brothers, joined Cassidy and company. What Ed Cassidy and keyboard player John Locke created with producer David Briggs was a phenomenal reinvention of Spirit, which worked, sometimes better than the original group. Bassist/vocalist Al Staehely wrote the music, with guitar chores and backing vocals by his brother J. Christian Staehely. “Witch,” the final track on the disc, is typical of this new Spirit sound, a fusion of pop/jazz/rock with a dab of country. It would have been a perfect blend for Randy California to step back into, though his ego might have been the stumbling block here. In concert, this version of Spirit was serious and precise, playing with a cool efficiency. David Briggs was the perfect guy to oversee this project, allowing the musicians their space and developing a true counterpart to The Twelve Dreams of Dr. Sardonicus, considered by many to be the band’s highpoint. The cover is in eerie aqua blue with the faces looking like spirits peering out of a distorted television. The gatefold contains a band photo and a smart evolutionary image for this eclectic and underrated West Coast band. Here’s the clincher: musically, some of the best work on Feedback are the two instrumentals by keyboard player John Locke, “Puesta Del Scam” and “Trancas Fog-Out,” fragments of the original “Spirit” performed by this new quartet. The stuff is brilliant, and that it was excised from Time Circle is a pity. It was this writer who put Epic/Legacy in touch with Randy California in the development of 1991’s Time Circle compilation project, and certainly the elegant “Darkness,” the third John Locke title, deserved to be included on that double disc, and some representation of this remarkable work would have been appropriate rather than nine whopping cuts from The Twelve Dreams of Dr. Sardonicus. Jo Jo Gunne guitarist Matthew Andes (brother of Spirit’s Mark Andes) co-wrote “Mellow Morning” with Al Staehely, and it, along with “Right on Time” and “Ripe and Ready,” all display the Spirit vibe, even hinting at some Jo Jo Gunne, as strange as that may seem. The Cassidy/Locke/Staehely/Staehely combo added enough jazz to Spirit to temper the all out assault that was Jo Jo Gunne, and therein lies the difference. This is not David Bowie’s ex-drummer and bassist forming the Spiders From Mars; keep in mind that Ed Cassidy was not only the band’s insignia with his Yul Brynner look, he was this group’s spiritual leader. As Randy California’s step-dad, it’s a shame he didn’t get more firm with the boy and demand they all be “the family that plays together.” Had the Staehely brothers and John Locke stayed on board for Cassidy and Randy California’s next project, the erratic Potatoland disc may have mutated into something totally brilliant. The best of Al Staehely, John Locke, and Randy California would have been truly something. Feedback is a solid performance and remarkable album which deserves its place in the Spirit catalog, and not the status of bastard son. It is a legitimate Spirit project and it is very, very good. Collapse ↑

by Joe Viglione [-]

Kongos Review

by Joe Viglione [-]

This classic 1972 album on Elektra by John Kongos has Queen/Cars director Roy Thomas Baker remixing superb production by Gus Dudgeon, the man who created many an Elton John hit. Elton sidemen Ray Cooper, Caleb Quaye, Dave Glover, Roger Pope, Sue (Glover) and Sunny (Leslie) — pretty much the crew from John‘s 1971 epic Madman Across the Water — are all excellent here. But this album has more to offer than the solo records by Kiki Dee and Bernie Taupin, which also proliferated around the same time. Though he never made it to Joel Whitburn‘s Billboard Book of Top 40 Hits in the U.S.A., there were three minor splashes on this disc: “Tokoloshe Man,” “Jubilee Cloud,” and “He’s Gonna Step on You Again.” The totally original sound — producer Dudgeon on “asses jawbone,” bicycle bell, maracas, and Mike Noble playing the “clapper board” — build a texture one didn’t hear on Elton John records. Highly experimental, the brilliant piano and guitar by Quaye invigorate “Jubilee Cloud,” which can only be described as psychedelic gospel. Not only a gospel feel, the mysterious Sue and Sonny personify a church choir next to Mike Moran‘s ARP Synthesizer. There are lots of Jesus references throughout the disc, and on the heavily Beatles-influenced “Come on Down Jesus” with brass and Ray Cooper‘s tambourine, one gets the message that Kongos is a Jesus freak. This record sounds like a party — a bunch of hippies on some Indian reservation at sunset. The album cover giving hints to what is transpiring on the grooves. Some of the themes Bernie Taupin flavored the Elton John “Country Comfort” song with are here, but the singer embraces them in a different way. Kongos sounds like a sincere Billy Joel on “Gold,” and a cross between Elton and Joel on “I Would Have Had a Good Time.” But as good as those tracks are, it is the energy of “Tokoloshe Man,” the ecstasy of “Jubilee Cloud,” and the insanity of “He’s Gonna Step on You Again” that make this album timeless. Producer Gus Dudgeon plays “chair squeak,” “rusty tin,” and “earth drums” on “Step on You,” John Kongos adding castanets, creating a Phil Spector stereo nightmare, which is simply gorgeous. The album has been re-released in different versions; a German CD contains eight bonus tracks and a U.K. collection has five additional songs. Magical music that one does not get to experience often. Collapse ↑

AllMusic Review by Joe Viglione [-]Released in Europe on Castle Communications and distributed in the U.S. on Domino Entertainment, a label founded by producer Rob Fraboni, the album’s tracks were all shuffled into a different order except for “A Little Bit of Love,” “It Don’t Come Easy,” and “Use That Power.” An oddity, but you could put the CD in your player on the shuffle setting and it would remain one of journeyman Alvin Lee’s finest statements. The stellar track here is “Real Life Blues,” which hit in spots around the states, notably in Texas and in Massachusetts. It was a Top 30 hit on the Billboard charts in Boston when the regional papers published such tracking. The track featured the unmistakable sound of George Harrison on slide guitar and Deep Purple keyboard player Jon Lord. This is a wiser, slower, more methodical sentiment than we once heard Lee make on “I’d Love to Change the World.” A 16 page booklet accompanies the cover photo (the bull’s eye on Lee’s guitar), it’s the other side of the flash guitar Lee’s been known for. “A Little Bit of Love” is Ten Years After meets Power Station with thunderous drums and very smooth production. Steve Gould and Deena Payne’s backing vocals chirp over Alan Young’s boom-boom drumbeat on “The Price of Love,” a bonafide dance tune that cries for the kind of production that the band Chic made famous — dance blues. “Moving the Blues” is a fun, Delaney & Bonnie type rocker with Clarence Clemons on tenor sax. Clemons appears on four tracks, including “Use That Power,” “Jenny, Jenny” — a Little Richard meets Mitch Ryder by way of Chuck Berry fun stomper — and the funky “Wake Up Moma” which has that trademark Jon Lord keyboard filling in nicely. The instrumental “Lost in Love” is very tasteful. This is a major ’60s/’70s figure making music on his own terms and it is very satisfying.
https://www.allmusic.com/album/zoom-mw0000617874

The upcoming Spiderman film looks like fun. Doctor Octopus, Doctor Strange chock full of docs….https://thedirect.com/article/spider-man-3-no-way-home-trailer-official-sony-movies I started writing reviews at the age of 15 in 1969 for my fan publication Varulven Magazine. 52 years later I have developed my own “writer’s voice” giving insight quite different from other critics. My theory is, why do a regular mainstream review that you can find online from any publication? With a film out worldwide Marty Balin Live on the Esplanade – Rock n Roll Hall of Fame artist directed by Joe Viglione, the first solo Marty Balin (of Jefferson Airplane/Jefferson Starship) disc full of surprises, and a number of new films already in the planning stages, you get ideas inside my reviews from behind the camera and from the front row of the theater.

From Joe V, the director: This Marty Balin DVD is the “ultimate fan package”…meaning, rather than allow unauthorized tapes to flourish we got footage together from both professionals and people who are long-time Balin supporters who wanted to run cameras at the June 14, 2008 concert in Boston. The spirit of the recording was to document a rare Balin gig a la Cracker & Camper Van Beethoven’s “The First Annual Camp Out Live at Pappy and Harriet’s P”. It’s a 9 camera shoot utilizing 7 of the cameras in the edit. Don’t expect a multi-million dollar production – this disc is a labor of love spanning 14 years beginning with an interview from 1995. As the 1995 concert footage that accompanied the original television broadcast interview was Jefferson Starship material we decided to film a new concert with Marty’s band. Balin was originally scheduled to open for Johnny Rivers in 2007 but due to a prior commitment with Jefferson Starship in New York the date got moved to June of 2008 – a gig with the group/duo America at the Hatch Shell on the Esplanade (same venue Rivers played the year before).

The cover photo is not from this America/Balin concert…that’s a picture that former Jefferson Starship lead singer Darby Gould took from the stage when Marty was in the latter-day J.S….and we thank her for such a beautiful and mysterious shot. Marco Centola and Rob Fraboni remastered the two-track soundboard audio…D.J. Eli Polonsky at WMBR in Cambridge/Boston played “Somebody To Love” on the air and it sounded great coming over the radio. Marty Balin was interviewed by Polonsky on Tuesday, November 24, 2009 and when the DJ noted that singer Didi Stewart is a legendary Boston figure Marty said immediately “She’s a great singer!” As producer/director I would love to see an extended version of this DVD a few years from now…and maybe an audio CD mixed from both the soundboard and the multiple cameras. The August 1976 hit “With Your Love” was performed in the studio practice at Newbury Media on 6-13-08 the day before the show and is probably up somewhere on the web as a trailer for this project, though that classic wasn’t performed the next night at the show. Those songs were digitally recorded, multi-track, at the world class facility which has gold and platinum for Marky Mark, New Kids on The Block and other major recording artists. Three of the Newbury Media rehearsal sessions are on this DVD – Essra Mohawk’s “Shaping The Night”, a second version of the Jesse Barish classic “Count On Me” and Balin’s own “Somehow The Tired Reach Home”. The audio on those three bonus tracks was mixed by Ken Kanavos at the studio and the quality is superb.

It is my hope that everyone gets to see the genius of Marty Balin 39 years after he performed at Woodstock and enjoys this presentation that we put a lot of time and love into, released on the 40th Anniversary of the Woodstock event. Four of the songs the Jefferson Airplane performed at Woodstock appear on this disc recorded 4 decades after the Summer of Love.

As noted above I’m the producer/director of this document. The 5 star rating I give it is for Marty Balin’s performance and the performances of singer Didi Stewart, keyboard player Gordon G.G. Gebert (of a latter day version of the group Angel), bassist Dave Trupia (also on Marty’s upcoming CD) and the extraordinary Donny Baldwin, drummer with Elvin Bishop Group and the latter day Starship (the Mickey Thomas version of the band after Marty Balin went solo). It was an absolute honor to work with these talents and it is my hope that the public enjoys this recording for what it is: an historical record of a rock & roll hall of famer with no frills and lots of bonus material including interviews with Signe Anderson, Jeff Tamarkin and Marty Balin himself.

February 1983

February 27, 1983, I opened for the legendary Johnny Thunders in Paradise with my friends The Daughters. They backed Johnny up. WERS student wanted to interview Johnny, but Thunders said “I will only let Joe Viglione interview me.” So I interviewed Johnny and it purportedly was played on 88.1 FM WERS, Emerson College. Would love to get a copy of that. Never heard the interview. These are Terry Brenner’s Ticket Stubs

The New CD

Can’t Wait To See You Smile
Revisionist History Retrospective

1)Reflect Love, 2)Can’t Wait to See You Smile without intro 3)The Salt Water Summers 4)Up In Maine 5)Lejandami 6)Wave Descends 7)Mystical Eye II 8)Touch Me Marnie, M’Love 9)Dear Erica 10)Dreamin’ Of 11)Riding Around Nowhere 12Transporter (Folk Version)

Captain America: The First Avenger – Movie Review

By JOE VIGLIONE   WWW.JOEVIGLIONE.COM   July 22, 2011 NOT ENOUGH HOURS IN A DAY, BUT I’M HAVING FUN JUMPING ON THE MARVEL BANDWAGON WITH MY PREVIOUS REVIEWS TO HELP ENLIGHTEN READERS Let’s go back a decade to read my review originally on TMRZoo.com http://www.tmrzoo.com/2011/27042/captain-america-the-first-avenger-movie-review

 Massachusetts native Chris Evans returns to Marvel Comics’ “House of Ideas” as Steve Rogers – Captain America, with a much different look than exhibited in the two films where he appeared as The Fantastic Four’s Johnny Storm. This important component of the Avengers collection, the final “prequel”, if you will, has to be at least as effective as Kenneth Branagh’s Thor: The God Of Thunder, and that it is.

Director Joe Johnston has had plenty of experience with Science Fiction, from 1989’s Honey I Shrunk the Kids to Jurassic Park III. He does an elegant job of blending cliche after cliche in Captain America: The First Avenger, a forumla that has become a quite necessary merry-go-round of sorts for the variety of D.C. and Marvel superheroes launching out of the big screen. These are the spawn of the James Bond blockbuster pictures when Goldfinger was identifiable to the mainstream as Dr. Doom was to comic book fans in the pages of the Fantastic Four.

Captain America sports the film texture from Kerry Conran’s Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow with a bit of Josef Rusnak’s The Thirteenth Floor enhanced with a darker (and so obligatory nowadays) 3D. Let’s face it, the choice of director for these high stakes films is made with mathematical precision and Johnston doesn’t disappoint. The estimated budget of $140 million is in the ballpark for these Marvel epics, a rather daunting figure when The Matrix pulled in four hundred million more than the sixty-three million invested to start that series. Hugo Weaving is recycled yet again, and his vision for The Red Skull is most satisfying. Said to have been pulled, in part, from a James Bond villain, Maximilian Largo (if we are to believe Wikipedia), actor Klaus Maria Brandauer’s psychotic madman is a good study for Red Skull. Weaving’s malevolence far outpaces his Agent Smith from the Matrix…the calculating machine mind replaced by megalomania and a penchant for Norse mythology and the occult. He certainly uses his previous three movie stint as the computer virus as a foundation for this, and his hatred is far more believable here.

Back in the 1960s comics were for kids along with bubble gum cards and Monkees records. Marvel Comics’ Stan Lee had a vision of adults walking down the street with his comic magazines, not in brown paper bags or hidden in their suit jackets, but consumers proudly holding his creations for all to see. Decades after achieving that initial goal – establishing the colorful stories as legitimate literature, the successful author is as revered to his massive following as Alfred Hitchcock was to his, both icons making important cameos as a kind of on-camera signature, to the audience’s delight. The expensive action does get a bit hokey, my recollection of the 1960s Captain America didn’t have him this amped up. The film version gives the hero bonafide super powers that were not as evident in the comic book. This motion picture takes the liberty of giving Cap some of Daredevil’s instinct, Hulk’s strength and Spiderman’s gymnastics, probably to cope with the fact that he’s the most vulnerable super hero of the bunch. Think Superman with a bit of Kryptonite following him about 300 yards away.

As Johnny Storm the producers used Chris Evans for eye candy (though his acting skills rose above the scripts he was handed in both FF adventures).It’s not a stretch to see an actor go from one superhero to another as Marvel made it a habit to switch their comic book creations around…just as Medusa from The Frightful Four became Medusa of The Inhumans (two of the more underrated teams in Marvel history). Here he gets to transform his cerebral approach to Steve Rogers in the same way his body is morphed from stringbean to …well, Wolverine or Incredible Hulk…take your pick. These “origins” are very similar and the trick is to do it as flashy as possible. Marvel is well aware that the film going public has tired of the origin of Superamn, or how Batman came to be is told time and again. Having to address that for a figure unkown to the mainstream means keeping it brief, and adding a little contemporary terrorism to keep things modern and different.

To spice things up the audience is treated to a little Bride of Frankenstein mad scientist laboratory, a little dash of the early Batman serials from the 1940s and some military madness from the 1950s sci-fi film stampede. And while you’re at it, make it a World War II saga to boot. The two hours contain all of it and do it with enough action to make it the roller coaster ride it is supposed to be.

Captain America: The First Avenger has to follow the last Harry Potter film. That’s probably a good thing as the fantasy audience that is devouring Potter magic will, no doubt, want to get right back to the theaters. It’s no Deathly Hallows II, but it is pretty much what comic book fans want. The packed house in Boston waited to see if an Avenger’s trailer would follow the credits. Their disappointment that it did not only shows how devoted the audience for this genre still is. http://joeviglione.com/?page_id=258

More Joe V Film Reviews here: http://joeviglione.com/?page_id=258

Wild Cherries …about 3:39 pm in my backyard/driveway. The birds are feasting on these cherries. I wasn’t sure what they were until two neighbors came by and asked through my living room window if they could “…have some wild cherries.” I’ve been living here 3 years and 1 month as of Saturday, 37 months and wasn’t aware of WHAT kind of fruit or berry was on the tree. Well the wildlife is amazing, birds and seagulls and bunny rabbits and squirrels, it’s lots of fun to watch the plant life and creatures here. So i tried a couple of the cherries today, very tangy with a bite. Seed inside, of course, not as sweet as store-bought cherries.

Lou Spinnazola just played the “Last Days of May” by Blue Oyster Cult on the Spin Room and I cannot believe that a month has flown by. Found this interesting blog transcribing part of my August 1995 interview with the wonderful and brilliant Bobby Hebb: https://theghostofelectricity.blogspot.com/2013/08/sunny.html

Bobby told the story of how he came to write ‘Sunny’ in a TV interview with US TV host Joe Viglione in August 1995…

“I find it more psychological the way I was thinking…it’s your disposition…you need a lift, an up, that’s all. Sometimes everyone needs an up. So “Sunny”, to me, is that disposition, you need a Sunny disposition to get away from whatever, just as I said before, “amuse me”, “make me forget what I just saw man”, “I don’t wanna know, I know I have to know, but I don’t know how to deal with it right now. I will deal with it, I’m not running away from this.  I just need a break.

So this was the idea behind “Sunny” – (it) was (to) give me a brighter idea so that my emotions will not be as disturbed as they are. I need a calmer feeling so that I can balance myself and adjust and then continue forward, onward.”

She Cracked by #ModernLovers #JonathanRichman

She Cracked by #ModernLovers #JonathanRichman https://www.allmusic.com/song/she-cracked-mt0002063356 Song Review by Joe ViglioneOne of the six John Cale produced “demos” from the combination of tapes which are the first Modern Lovers album, “She Cracked” is the stuff Velvet Underground fans’dreams are made of