Bryan Ferry signs CDs in New York

Click here to see video of Bryan Ferry signing CDs at J&R in lower Manhattan yesterday. Passers by thought we were in line to buy iPhones. Fools! Mr. Ferry very gracious and was forgiven for arriving a half-hour late in 90 degree weather.

Last night Ferry appeared on David Letterman for the first time since 1994 when he performed "Love Is the Drug," playing "Just Like Tom Thumb Blues" with Paul Shaffer and the CBS Orchestra. This is a YouTube connection, so I don't know how long it will stay up.

Here's a wonderful site with clips of the tribute band Roxy Magic. Lead singer "Kevin" is a dead-ringer for Bryan.

Bryan Ferry, Channeling Bob Dylan -- Teri Gross interview with Ferry on NPR's Fresh Air.

Where Rock Lives Mott and Queen in NYC

Rollingstone.com/rockmaps is a cool idea on the Rolling Stone website. Using Google Maps they have pulled up street level images of famous rock'n' roll landmarks. Here's a special theatrical one. On May 9, 1974 British band Mott the Hoople played at Uris Theatre (at the time Broadway's largest theatre and since then re-named the Gershwin Theatre, home to the perennial "Wicked"), where they recorded half of the "Mott Live" album. What was more significant in rock 'n' roll history is that Queen opened for Mott, marking their US debut.

You will need Adobe Flash Player 9 to make this work.

Here's a great Super 8 movie from the Mott 1974 tour narrated by Morgan Fisher.

French Bulldog shameless exploitation

Guilty party: Chevrolet

Things that aren't in Tribeca anymore -- Chalk Attack

Summer of Love

At the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York there is an exhibit called "Summer of Love Art of the Psychedelic Era." It's fun. Take-away is that San Francisco did the best posters; London and LA had the better photographers. Everyone had interesting music. Great contrast with Bob Dylan headlining in Atlantic City 40 years later...

Here's a 10 second video featuring Janis Joplin's car which is parked in the Whitney yard. Give the link a few seconds to load, otherwise you will just get audio.

Things that aren't there any more

Record stores are so dodo. There used to be this great place "Steve's Sounds" -- a hole in the wall off the old Soho Market in London that sold promo and review copies of CDs for under ten pounds (OK when the dollar was stronger, and US prices were silly). I noticed it wasn't there anymore on my last visit to London. In the late 1970s, I picked up David Bowie orange RCA singles for fifty pence in the basement of this space.

And from north of the border.

Sam the Record Man, the one-time cross-Canada music store chain, will close its iconic downtown Toronto flagship location next month. Here's a report from the CBC. When the Canadian dollar was weaker it was a great place to pick up CDs very cheap. (Also there was an HMV store next door which kept prices competitive).

The Voice of Hudson

What Were They Thinking?

60 years ago today, the band were taught to play. Here is National Public Radio coverage.



I know, let's make a movie using documentary and archive footage about World War II with a soundtrack of late 70s popstars covering Beatles' songs. Here, in celebration of the 40th Anniversary of the release of "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Heart's Club Band" is the coming attraction for Lou Reizner's "All This and World War II." And here is the Roll of Honor of those involved.