You call yourself a music lover, music consumer or better yet, a true aficionado? Are you in London or planning a trip there sometime soon? Jaded Londoners need not continue reading but those who have not been to Abbey Road and the famous "zebra crossing" should add it to their itinerary. You see, the famed Abbey Road studios are reportedly up for sale by it's cash-strapped and over-leveraged owner, EMI records. This old Georgian house in north London ranks up there with Graceland, The Whisky A Go Go, Motown's old HQ and Memphis' Sun Studios as 'hallowed ground'. The Beatles recorded 95% of their recorded output here, including the classic Abbey Road album which features the band casually crossing the road in front of the studio during a mid afternoon tea break. Legend has it that the album was set to be titled Everest but the lads couldn't be bothered to travel to the Himalayas for a photo shoot. The iconic album cover was the first not to feature the name of the album or the name of the band. In hindsight, those 7 or 8 photos taken that day seem quaint given today's PR machine world of choreographed photo opps and behind ...

One of them died before he had a chance to get old.  Another died a decadent prototypical rock and roll death at the Hard Rock Hotel in Las Vegas on the eve of their 2002 tour, hot on the heels of their incendiary performance at the Concert for New York. Pete Townshend and Roger Daltrey soldier on with help from a brother, the son of a Beatle and others sharing the common cause of continuing to breathe life into a band called The Who.  This  Super Bowl performance proved there is still life and vitality in the now age-less songs that Townshend originally penned decades ago.    Hard to believe it but these guys were also at Woodstock over 40 years ago. Have they aged?  Yes, certainly;  Townshend no longer bounces up and down and smashes his guitar and Daltrey's voice now shows distress on higher registers but these guys can still manage to bring it and deliver a quality performance. Cynics may say this isn't really The Who anymore now that Moon and Entwistle are no longer on the stage and with us.  Others say no, Townshend and Daltrey have every right to  perpetuate the legacy of the band and can still deliver ...

Yes, it's true that Taylor Swift was off key and out of tune during  the Grammys Rhiannon duet with Stevie Nicks.  What's surprising is the  growing backlash against Miss Swift.  Barbs are being thrown in the main stream press citing Swift's weak voice and poor choice of material during last week's performance.  Some are now questioning if  she deserves all of the praise and awards over the past 12 months.  Many are missing the real story behind this flap and fail to recognize a true talent when they see one. Her management have weighed in and are calling Swift the voice of her generation, stressing the unfortunate fact that her live performance at the Grammys was indeed flawed but shouldn't really matter.  Basically, shit happens, especially during live events like the Grammys despite best intentions and many rehearsal hours. The official story from Swift's camp is that the volume levels in her in ear monitors were off which caused her to not hear Nicks and the band,  causing her to harmonize off key and off pitch.  Sounds logical to me.   The funny thing though is that everyone seems to be ignoring other performances from the same night from other artists which ...

1. Jimmy Page.  2. David Evans aka The Edge.  3. Jack White. Those are the three primary reasons why you need to rent It Might Get Loud featuring the interwoven stories of all three and how they came to be uniquely linked forever to the electric guitar and rock and roll. And, there are more reasons which I'll outline below. 4. Headley Grange - This is a mythical place in Led Zeppelin lore and history.  It was here that the band recorded much of Led Zeppelin IV and parts of posthumous albums. Set in the East Hampshire countryside, the film features several scenes in which Jimmy Page returns to the stately home and points to the exact location at the bottom of the entrance stairwell where Bonzo's drum kit was set up for maximum sonic effect.   Page, his white hair in a stylish pony tail,  also strolls the gardens of the estate; the very place where Robert Plant famously remarked that he wrote most of the lyrics to Stairway to Heaven there in one afternoon. 5. Mount Temple Comprehensive School - This is the Dublin high school where Larry Mullin Jr. posted an item on the school bulletin board, seeking band mates to start a ...

Neil showed up with Farm Aid partner Dave Matthews for the Hope for Haiti Now telethon/concert.  They joined together in a stripped down haunting version of Hank Williams' "Alone and Forsaken".  Probably one of the most odd pairings of the evening, this song forced the viewer to pay attention.   It was just one of many remarkable performances, bringing back clear memories of the 9/11 telethon hastily organized in the aftermath of that disaster.  A relentless, selfless performer, Young appeared last night just a day after the death of his long time collaborator and close friend, L.A. Johnson. Alone & Forsaken (Hope for Haiti Now)   Donate Now: 1-877-99-HAITI in US/Canada, or go to www.hopeforhaitinow.org We saw Neil again later that night (although taped earlier) joining Conan on his final Tonight Show, delivering a stellar version of an apropos song, Long May You Run, which originally appeared on 1976's eponymously named Stills-Young Band album.  We'll see more of Neil soon on the upcoming Grammy's and in the Jonathan Demme directed Trunk Show concert film. Neil can always be counted on to show up for friends and important causes, check out his contributions to The Last Waltz--The grand send-off for The Band, his searing version of All Along the Watch Tower for Dylan's Columbia 30th anniversary ...

It's true that good  music can take you back to a certain time and place.  Nick Lowe's album, The Convincer, brings back the autumn of 2001 in Munich for me; an unsettling time that became slightly more settled whenever I put this CD on. Released in Europe in the first week of September 2001, the album snuck up on me and was purchased on a whim one evening after work in a music shop somewhere near the Marienplatz.  I often departed the S-Bahn at the Marienplatz  to stroll through the Viktualienmarkt before making the short walk home to Kanalstrasse for the evening.  It was on one of those jaunts that I found myself purchasing this album. I was faintly familiar with Nick Lowe's back story, kind of an uncle to the angry young men of England's New Wave scenesters - Elvis and Graham particularly.  A songwriter extroadinaire, Lowe had also found success with Rockpile, the rockabilly pub band formed with Dave Edmunds and several classic and sardonic songs incuding What's so funny about Peace, Love and Understanding, I knew the Bride when she used to Rock and Roll and Cruel to be Kind. On this album, Lowe delivers a low key masterpiece, subtly ...

It was the summer of 2001 in Munich and a strange obsession had overtaken me.  I had recently picked up a used copy of Bob Dylan's Unplugged DVD in a favorite Schwabing haunt and took notice of the acoustic guitar that Dylan played throughout the concert.  I had recalled seeing the  guitar on numerous occasions, most notably the same acoustic guitar seemed to always be in Neil Young's hands on other concert films such as Silver and Gold and The Last Waltz. Some quick research led me to the Unofficial Martin Guitar Forum which is where the obsession really began to take hold. This web forum features endless threads and posts from prospective Martin Guitar purchasers and existing owners obsessing over every known detail concerning the "Cadillac of acoustic guitars". After all, this guitar is synonymous with some of Rock and Roll's most acclaimed songs and collected works including Jimmy Page's acoustic intro to Stairway to Heaven and Neil Young's standout Harvest album. After a month or so of reading the forum, I really began to get "Martin fever" and started to think about buying my own Martin D-28.  It didn't matter that I had never played an acoustic guitar before, I simply  had ...

It was a Friday afternoon in April of 1993 on Doheny Drive in Beverly Hills, California.  The busy mid-week breakfast rush had given way to a languid early afternoon with the occasional order being taken on the phone and placed in the work window. The Room Service phone rang again and a new order was quickly placed in the work window.  Thinking it may have been an order for the pool and an opportunity for a brief respite from the tedium of the shift, I grabbed the slip out of the window and put it down on a pre-prepped roller table. It seemed like a pretty non-descript order and unfortunately wasn't bound for the pool. Cheeseburger (swiss), medium rare, order of fries and a chocolate milk shake.   Room 1404. I immediately noticed the floor that the order had come in from and wondered who was on the other end of the phone.  The print-out stated the guest name as B. Holland but previous experience had proven that guest names were often intentionally incorrect.   The 14th floor was typically reserved for high profile guests; in fact, sometimes an order received from the 14th floor would also prompt the elevator door to open shortly thereafter with private security ...

With the end of  Bob Dylan's recent fall tour, we now enter the 'off season' and will wait in anticipation for Mr. Dylan to fire up the band and commence touring again sometime in late February or early March 2010. On the occasion of Dylan's recently released new "Must be Santa" video I thought it would be worthwhile to assess some of the key moments on film and video featuring none other than Robert Zimmerman.  I've assembled these in no particular order or ranking and I'm limiting my number to what you see below. I'm sure there will be arguments and observations made on other video moments that perhaps should have made the Subrosacafe cut.  Feel free to let me know your thoughts and enjoy the show!  Do you have kids who are in need of a Dylan primer course?  Sit 'em down in front of the family PC and show 'em this.  Dylan management, when will we get a career retrospective live performance DVD set? (Click on each Video below for full-screen views) The Last Waltz Concert, final curtain call for the original line-up of the Band, Winterland, San Francisco, 1976 My favorite Dylan celluloid moment; sublimely filmed by Marty Scorcese and his crew, this ...

The rain had just subsided after a very soggy Saturday in Boston.  Bob Dylan was in town for a three night stand at the beautifully restored Citi Performing Arts Wang Theatre, formerly known simply as the Music Hall.  Dylan has been here before of course, it was the host of two memorable  nights of the Rolling Thunder Revue back in the autumn of 1975. From my Orchestra Row G seat I marveled at the range of ages that were there to see another performance of the Never Ending Tour; for some their first show ever and for others the second show in a row here in Boston. As usual, the fanfare began at approximately 7:45 with the now familiar piped in introduction coupled with wafts of incense emanating from stage left.  Suddenly, the lights went up and there was Dylan and the band striking up the  opening riffs of Cat's in the Well and we were off.  I won't go into a full dissertation on each song tonight but I am pleased to say this was my most satisfying Dylan concert to date. I had last seen Bob and crew back in July 2008 on consecutive nights in southern Spain, Lorca and Jaen ...