I'm quite certain: I heard a radio show (on NPR) a while back--around the time I started this thread--in which they brought out the specific quotes. I know there is a website with the text of most presidential addresses. Maybe I'll go back and dig them out.

Great!  Please post the link to the show if you have it or to the quotes if you find them.  That would be very entertaining. 

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I am so sick of the phrase "mistakes were made" as used by politicians. Any middle school grammar teacher will explain that passive voice is weak, and ought to be avoided (ooh, i just used it), yet every president since Reagan has used it as a way to semi-apologize without apologizing.

The phrase is an annoying one, however I'm not convinced that your premise is true.  I recall Bush saying something that approximated this once concerning his efforts in Iraq.  Otherwise can't recall ANY instance of a President making this statement.  I'm thinking that I  don't believe it is common.  I think it's used more as a dramatic device in the movies, by actors playing politicians and corporate executives (typically to emphasize their ill will).  Do you actually know of any other specific instances where Presidents said this?   

The thing about this email that pisses me off is that it came from a VERY close companion of mine, a friend of over ten years.

I think you should check with your friend to see if he really sent this.  To me it looks suspiciously like something sent by a virus, that may have infected your friend's computer.  It is quite possible that this message was sent out to everyone in his address book without his knowledge. This sort of thing  can happen without any record of it in his sent box.   

Of course--but many of those who have the financial security already can get that, too--they are allowed to take out enormous insurance policies (I believe the number was recently raised to $40 million) on future basketball earnings. Of course, depending on their family's situations, though, some can't afford those policies.

I wonder if kids who fall into this category (enough talent to merit obtaining a large policy/ but their family can't afford the premium) could secure a loan to pay the premium.  It seems like it wouldn't be that hard to find the capital assuming the talent is universally perceived.
 In golf PGA , Nationwide, Hooters, and Canadian tour rookies typically get money to survive their initial campaign out there from a pool of sponsors who put up money and get a return on their investment if/when the player earns money.  Of course they are pros and college bsketball players are amateurs but I'm uncertain whether the NCAA could prevent a player from financing an insurance policy.  I know they can be very picky though.  Tiger Woods was under NCAA investigation and suspended for a time from the Stanford golf team because Arnold Palmer picked up a tab, something like fifteen dollars, for a dinner.  That ended up being NCAA and Stanfords loss, and Pro golf's gain.         

At least he has the good fortune to be from a family situation that doesn't force his hand into declaring for the NBA. Many early entrants are truly coming from virtually penniless home lives, and declare because their families really need the money. Whatever decision Love makes after next season (and any seasons thereafter), that shouldn't be the reasoning, anyway.

I feel that if a kid can get lifetime-level financial security they should take it regardless of what kind of home they come out of.  The opportunity might not be there tomorrow due to an injury or some other unforeseen circumstance.  You can always go back to school later.  The college experience is one that should be highly valued but I think that the kind of offers some of these athletes get are too good to pass up. 
But all this is getting way ahead of things.  Let's see how he does as a Fr. at UCLA first.  I'm  sure that his being a Beach Boy family relative will come up some but, I suspect, not overwhelmingly.

Brian has the right to use the BB name as long as he conforms to the terms of the license.

My impression:
You have to be authorized by the owners of "the Beach Boys" to use the name.  I take it Mike (the Mike and Bruce band) entered an agreement to have the exclusive rights to the name for live performances.  Brian and Al and the other shareholders likely got money up front and get a cut every time the current Beach Boys band performs in return for giving the rights to Mike.   Al was enjoined from using the name because Mike is paying for exclusive rights.  Al could not use the name without permission even though he is a shareholder and a legacy member of the Beach Boys. Brian, you, or myself could/would be similarily enjoined if we tried to use the name.
Is this correct?
Also who owns Dennis's share now and (if this is commonly known) what did they pay for it?


     

Since Wine, Wine, Wine by the Electric Flag is out on CD and (now) DVD wouldn't the rest of their set at Monterey exist on audio and video?  While shortlived this was an absolutely great live band.  To my knowledge this is the only live song availible anywhere by them and it would be nice to have a full set to listen to.  Who owns the Monterey tapes? 

a disc of outtake performances that make up the bulk of what didn't make the aforementioned.

What groups are perfoming on the outtake disc?  Any Electric Flag?   

"A Day In The Life Of A Tree"

I can't think of anyone else that did something like having their business manager do the vocal on  a song.  It  was art, not a joke, and it came out great IMO.  - Well maybe John Mellancamp having his Grandma sing on his album was sort of up the same alley - and that was the best thing on a damn good album.     

Thanks for the post on that show SouthBay.  It's hard to helplessly think about Carl going through what he did with his illness, but it is inspiring to hear about the courage and dignity he exhibited.  I like it that he got his Doctors out to the show and  introduced them to the audience. 

I wasn't aware of it.  Who compiled the music on the album?

The Monkees’ producers were fond of using RCA Victor Studios, as was Colonel Parker, whose “boy,” Elvis, cut many tracks at RCA when he was in town to film movies

Nice to see this article but I found the above comment to be totally unnecessary and demeaning.   I fail to see any humor in the statement and even if there was I would question it (and so now I have).  Would Hartman have used this term if he was talking about Sam Cooke?   I feel that it is extremely insulting in referring to anyone.       

I think you are correct about the signle track vocal.  I can understand what Brian was looking to get with the double tracked vocal but they quit before they got the double tracked vocal right.  A single tracked or mostly single tracked vocal might have been best take in any case. It would be interesting to hear this done by an accomplished jazz singer, like Nat King Cole perhaps.   I would still probably like Dennis's version the best though.  I consider this song an eye opening accomplishment for a neighborhood garage band best known to this point for making a string of great adolescent fad songs.  To anyone then who happened to be paying attention, this song demonstrated the enormous talent that was lurked under that image.

I like "Hold On Dear Brother".  It  seems to me   (along with a couple of other songs on Carl and the Passions) to have the Band as a primary influence.  And I think that the Flame-BB's take on that sound did help them develop the more mature sound that they were looking for at the time.         

Pete passed away on Jan. 6th, at the age of 72,  from complications of Alzheimer's disease.  He was a founding member of, and pedal steel guitarist for, the Flying Burrito Brothers .  He also was both a stop motion animator (Gumby)! and a special effects artist ('The Outer Limits' TV show and many films) before entering professional music.  After the Burrito Borthers in the 80's he returned to the field and worked on many major films (Caveman, The Empire Strikes Back, Gremlins, The Right Stuff, Terminator, Terminator 2).

A memorial service for Pete has been scheduled for Saturday Jan. 27th at 4PM at the Hi-Desert Playhouse 61231 Twenty-nine Palms Highway, Joshua Tree, Ca.   

Ronnie Spector has a  new album is being released in America in conjucntion with the Ronnettes RandR HOF induction.  It has a song on it called "Girl From The Ghetto," which includes the lines, "I hope your cell is filled with magazines/On every page there's a big picture of me/And underneath the picture the caption will read/Not bad for a girl from the ghetto like me."

...

I agree with you, Josh. When Brian straps on the bass to perform, the years just fall off his shoulders -- it's really amazing.

I firmly believe that Brian is at his best as a performer with a bass.  Even if he's not playing it a whole lot, he just seems to have more to do and get more into it.

And I agree with both of you.  When he straps that Fender bass he is transformed and starts moving around with uncommon grace and spring in his step.  Like Tiger Woods with his 58-bent- to-56 degree wedge in his hands.  He is in control of the situation.  It's remarkable.     

Most rock musicians looked in 1964 pretty square looking at it today.

I don't know about that.  I  feel that actually most musicians back then looked relatively natural and focused on the music.  Can you can say the same in 2007?  I'll grant you that such things as those striped shirts and the Beatle's collarless jackets look pretty dated.  They were seriously ancient in 1965!  But at least you can take them off unlike some of severe tattoos and piercings of today. 

 

The PRMC was formed in 1985 by Al Gore's wife Tipper.  She had been shocked into action after listening to and being offended by Prince's song "Darling Nikki" that her daughter was listening to.  She concluded that "The images frightened my children, they frightened me! The graphic sex and the violence were too much for us to handle." Gore decided that the rest of us needed government protection. Gore stated that rock music (that which she deemed offensive) was attributable to the decay of the nuclear family in America.  Families she said are "haven(s) of moral stability" which protect children from outside influences  Gore said that without the family structure, rock music was "infecting the youth of the world with messages they cannot handle". 
Using her  power as a Senate spouse she founded the PMRC, and the government swung into action.  The Senate began an investigation into the "pornographic content of rock music" with hearings commencing on Sept. 19,1985.
Before the hearings concluded, the RIAA agreed to put "Parental Advisory: Explicit Lyrics" labels on selected releases at their own discretion. The labels became known as the "Tipper Sticker".  Many record stores refused to sell albums containing the label (most notably Wal-Mart), and others limited the sale of those albums to minors.  Some politicians attempted to criminalize the sale of explicit records to minors, and others went so far as to try to ban such records.   However over the years the power of the PMRC has greatly declined.

I hear what you are saying about the bass drum.  My inclination is to guess is that there is an upright bass augmenting the bottom with Jerry Lees left hand.  It's hard to say for sure since the recording is so lo-fi and the bass, if it's there, is acoustic.  I guess that's how you know it's a Sun recording - you can't tell for sure if there is bass.  The bottom on this track is not exactly going to move a subwoofer much.  Presumably it is an all live track?  It sort of seems like there are 3 hands playing piano at times but probably it's just that  Jerry is (and was) pretty good.   
The same question could be asked on the earlier 'Whole Lot Of Shaking'.

So my vote goes to "River deep" with a special mention of "You've lost that loving feeling", but in terms of songwriting because Elvis' version blows everything away imo.

Then it would be a greatest moment special mention for Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil    (although Spector has been said to have “helped out” with the bridge).

Elvis and Phil
Spector did produce some instrumental tracks that were used by Elvis as demos.  Spector has claimed that that Elvis sometimes used his backing-tracks for released songs, with Elvis just providing a new vocal, rather than re-recording them with his own band.  I don't know about that, but it would be interesting to hear the demos.  I'm uncertain if they are in circulation and specifically what songs are involved.

Darlene Love of Spector's Crystals become part of The Blossoms who worked with Elvis.  They were in the show when I saw Elvis in Jan. 1970.   Love sang a lead vocal on the gospel song 'Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child'.

1972 Spector introduced his bodyguard Mike Stone to Elvis.  Stone subsequently had an affair with Priscilla that led to Priscilla & Elvis’ divorce.       -'You've Lost That Loving Feeling'

I truly wish that The Beach Boys would reunite - Brian, Mike, Al, Bruce, and David - and not just do a special concert, or record just a single, or release just an album. I wish that the Beach Boys would get back together and do it again 

-----record,--- tours ---- 50th Anniversary.

I concur.  I would like to see that also.  Al joining Brian has proven to be a highly successful for the artists, the music, and for the fans.  When I say "the artists" I  include Brian.  Having Al there takes some of the weight and pressure off of Brian's shoulders and allows him to enjoy performing a little more.  I think that ti would next make a lot of sense to bring David into the group. He brings a load of talent and, just like that, you would then have 3 of the original South Bay kids!  That would be fantastic to me. 
 If later on they can add Mike and Bruce without a lot of nonsense ( I guess realistically there probably would be some)  all the better.
I think it would be great and I don't care what they want to call themselves -  I know who they are.
 

exactly brother! I dunno what Springsteen was usin, but you cant get a hal blaine sound with a click track. There's so much give and take, so many ways to accent the beat. Mr. Blaine does it in spades. and thats a good thing.

Ernest  Carter, the jazz inclined drummer who played on ('Born To Run' the single) was actually pretty free to play a bit on the track.   But (BTR the single) was recorded several months before the rest of the album.  In the interim Carter with keyboardist David Sancious quit the band, presumably to play jazz.  Springsteen hired Max Weinberg and Roy Bittan to replace them.  Springsteen for some reason did a 180 and decided at this point to go with very tightly controlled drumming.   Max, who I think of as fairly conservative by nature, was, (wisely as it has turned out) ok with this approach.  He is quite more skilled than he gets to show on that album, an amazing and enduring drummer. 
Former manager Mike Appel said that Bruce absolutely was conciously trying to duplicate the Spector wall of sound - right down to flatter-than-Twiggy mono on a couple of the tracks, so it seems odd that he either missed or differed on the drums.     

I went to 2 Smile Shows Election Night Nov. 2004 in L.A.  and to the Hollywood Bowl in 2005.  As stunning as the 2004 show was it struck me that the 2005 edition was even better.  I perceived that there was more of a jazz element inserted in the 2005 performance and it was a great move.  I thought the performers had (not long but significant) moments of improvisation and that this helped the performance considerably.  In particular it added freshness and vitality that  addressed the re-recorded-from-1967 factor mentioned above that is in the back (or front) of everybodys mind.