Omaha Rainbow : Issue 6
This is being typed on 18 May, and it was earlier this week that Pete Frame telephoned me with the glad news that John's new album, ''Wingless Angels'' entered the Billboard charts. So 189 may be no big deal to all you Led Zeppelin fans, but seeing as the zenith of ''The Phoenix Concerts Live" two week stay in the same chart was 195, this is pretty heady stuff. If ''Wingless Angels" is still somewhere in there by the time you get to read this, it will be John's most successful album to date.
Is it his best? I really have no idea how to answer that one. For one thing, I was already familiar with all but three of the songs on the LP, so in listening to it I have had to rid myself of all sorts of preconceptions. And it is nothing at all like the album I expected from the first studio collaboration with Nik Venet since ''California Bloodlines''. Read Pete's Venet/Stewart/Bloodlines piece in ZigZag 38, listen to ''Wingless Angels'', and the confusion is obvious. How do you reconcile everything Venet said then about how John should record, with what is heard on this new album?
So now you are telling yourself that I don't like ''Wingless Angels'', and my hero has blown it. Wrong, wrong, wrong. Thanks to Pete Stone at Virgin Imports I had my copy on the day it arrived in this country, 18 April, which also happens to be the official US release date.....that's what I call service. It's been played several times a day since, and I still haven't tired of it, nor ceased to find something new every time it's played. 'There is a very definite change of emphasis, which is pretty disconcerting to us old-time JS fans. Gone is the famous tremor in the voice, though it is still there on tapes of some of John's recent live performances, and the first side contains the smoothest total sound to be found on any of his eight solo albums so far.
Suffice to say that I've had comments ranging from ''his worst'' to "easily his best" album so far, so.....if by any chance you haven't done so already, buy it immediately and decide for yourself. Already I am immensely intrigued to know what John's next will be like. You need to be pretty quick on your feet to keep up with the man. Oh, yes! If you can bear to wait that long, Diane Capon at the RCA Press Office over here tells me that the UK date for ''Wingless Angels" is scheduled to be 11 July, and the number willbe RCA SF 8437. Memo to RCA. Don't be petty and leave off the lyric sheet. Frame and I haven't forgiven you for the hatchet job done on the sleeve for "Cannons In The Rain''.
On to other things. For once I would rather have been some other place on Cup Final day than in London. More specifically, I would like to have been taking my place at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium for what must have been John's biggest Californian concert to date. And the opening act was Mickey Newbury, who is one of my very favourite other singers (though not one of Mike Flood Page's, but we are all entitled to our blind spots).
Mickey played for about 45 minutes, just him and his guitar. Then, the break, John came on for his set. The band is unrecognisable from even just a few weeks back. Gene Garfin and Jon Douglas have left, having joined forces in a new band of their own called Whisper. At the moment, Jon has not been replaced on keyboards, while Gene's replacement is being kept secret for security reasons at present, though doubtless you will all recognise him when the wraps are taken off. John must be very happy with him though, because he included 'Wolves in the Kitchen' in the set, and has always resisted requests to sing that because "...the drum part is too complicated." So it must be someone he rates up there with Russ Kunkel!
Since the defection of Dan Dugmore to Linda Ronstadt's band, John has been without a steel player, but he did have one at the Santa Monica Civic. His name I just don't know, and I can't tell you either whether he is a permanent addition to the band or if he was just brought in for this one concert. What a mine of information I am! However, I can tell you that there was one more new member of the band, a guitarist by the name of John Woodhead who is 18 years old. Last, but certainly not least, Buffy was there to lend her support on the vocals, while good ol' Arnie "Wideload" was only there for the beer.....Bass, of course! That's an English type joke which Arnie will not be able to understand. Get the drummer to explain it, Arnie.
John opend with 'Runaway Fool of Love' then, after a couple more, sat down at the piano and accompanied himself singing Stephen Foster's 'My Old Kentucky Home'. (I never even knew he could play the piano. Elton John had better watch out.). Then, still at the piano, he went into'Friend of Jesus', taken a little slower than on "Willard". This was followed by a medley that began with 'California Bloodlines' followed by some guitar, then into 'Willard' and 'Chilly Winds' before arriving back at 'Bloodlines'. It was immediately after this that John sang 'Wolves in the Kitchen'.
My Californian correspondent wasn't too clear on what exactly was played thereafter, or in what order. However, John did do quite a few of his "rock" type numbers and, from the new album, 'Summer Child', 'Josie', 'Some Kind of Love', 'Mazatlan' and 'Let The Big Horse Run'. Surprisingly, he didn't sing 'Wingless Angels' itself which, among the host of people I have played the album to, is definitely the popular favourite. However, he did end up with the current single, 'Survivors', which wasn't selling at the last count over there because it just wasn't getting the airplay. Maybe, if the album goes on to greater things, it will start to happen.
Incidentally, a few days earlier, John had done the Smothers Brothers TV Show, singing 'Let the Big Horse Run' at the beginning, and 'Survivors' at the end. As John Denver and the kids chorus weren't there, he was joined by the regular members of the show on the chorus, along with the main guest Starr, an English guy called Ringo.
I had hoped to have a few reviews of the Santa Monica concert to quote at you, but it hasn't worked out that way. Anyway, I hope this will have given you a taste of what it was all about. And another reminder, as if we needed one anyway, of what we are missing. The economics of coming over here with his full band (which is what John would want to do) are pretty horrifying, but surely it could be accomplished. John would love to come back again, and we would love to have him here, so how about it RCA and all you promoters?
Every other person I meet seems to be going to America this summer and so, hopefully, shall I. If I do make it, then the prime purpose will be to see John and Arnie performing on home ground. I'll also be hoping to talk with them and get the whole story up to date, so if there are any questions you think I should ask, let me have them.
A quick word from Ethel Hopley to say that she is working on another Newsletter, so any of you who wrote to her following my plug in the last O'BSessions column should not have too long to wait for that.
I spent the whole of last weekend working on a JS article for the July issue of 'Country Music Review'. It turned into quite a marathon but, hopefully the editor, Bryan Chalker, will still include it, so keep your eyes open for it.
Finally, thanks, as always, to Maureen Grimwade in San Francisco.