Ronnie Spector R.I.P.

I don’t know who is usually posting the almost daily birthday tributes etc on that page, which is still pretty interesting tbh, but it’s really nice that Denny Tedesco stepped up to tell this story, can’t remember too many like it before.

I also just found some darker side stuff that will probably be no surprise which is really not that bad all things considered but perhaps will keep to myself for the time being because too soon etc.

Nothing you wouldn’t already know if you had read Josh Alan Friedman’s Tell the Truth Until They Bleed, which I recommend.

I always want to say Brian Wilson “returned the favor” by covering “I Can Hear Music” but of course that isn’t quite right, maybe I should say “proved his point,” not sure that works either, but in any case at this stage I never know whether I should consider it a Beach Boys or Ronettes song. Also always think a lot about the lyric concerning “the sound of the city.” Is that where the title of one of Ronnie’s friend David Bowie’s favorite books (and mine) comes from, I wonder. In context “the sound of the city” seems meant to be a bad thing that has to “disappear,” but I alway feel like there is a larger implicit subtext in which the sound of the city is a part of the music too, which makes it extra-grebt.

!

You are correct, sir, it was indeed Alex Chilton's guitar mentor and Billy Hinsche's brother-in-law Carl Wilson in charge, with Brian nowhere to be found apparently.

She recorded The Ramones's "Here Today, Gone Tomorrow" twice?

Interesting.

One produced by Genya Ravan in 1980, with some Thunderesque guitar and the other produced by a friend of a friend (apparently) in 2006, with the producer doing a Bowie (HI DERE!) imitation, musically and vocally.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CbB9URwhyiA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2dR0ffSLJms

this thread John Sebastian/Ronnie Spector/McGuinn: Literally The Most Un-Cool Song & Video In Rock History
lead me to the following tweet:

Rest In peace to the great Ronnie Spector, a true icon with an unforgettable voice.

Richard appeared alongside Ronnie Spector in a song called “You And Me Go Way Back,” written by John Sebastian and featured in a 1986 television show. pic.twitter.com/7AudA0JfHR

— The Richard Manuel Archive (@manuelarchive) January 12, 2022

Full thing here, if you dare:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PM1FxU9I9YA

Song and dancing kind of cheesy, but band is good, in particular, Richard Manuel is killing it on funky drums, kind of wish he was singing instead of the composer. *Wipes on Ozuesque tear away, a shadow of yesterday evening's waterworks*

John Sebastian, Jr's harmonica playing not bad though, a chip off the old block!

He let's Felix Cavllere sing earlier in the show with NRBQ as the backing band which is pretty good. And which brings me to my next, um, point.

Last week I was going down a Redd rabbit hole and came across this undercredited performance on an Arthur Alexander tribute album:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=50w_FErFdfY

Cavaliere

That song is a trifle, a throwaway, never recorded before or since, songwriting credited to Arthur Alexander and Jon Tiven but still, coming across it and listening to it last week, hearing that voice and realizing who Veronica was still gave me that same shock of recognition, receiving the transmission that told me that there was life out there somewhere, maybe on Mars, even.

Earlier mention of "Try Some, Buy Some" by ILX0R Old Lunch:
i can't believe it's not ronnie spector: now with less awesome... but still!

Here is Ronnie's cover of "Something's Gonna Happen" from the Marshalll Crenshaw EP I mentioned earlier.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kn6E2tQIzFg

Before I forget, before I leave you again, didn't the run out groove for the LP of Let It Be used to say "Phil + Ronnie"?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GM5r0Ve8Las

#OneThread

Reading about Estellle yesterday evening. Pretty sad stuff.
https://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/17/arts/music/17rone.html

Wonder who is playing bass during "Sleigh Bell/Frosty the Snowman"? Sounds good!

Neil Jason, seems to be. Never heard of him. Only mentioned on ILX twice before, on a Dire Straits POLL threads.

Seems like he subbed with them over one hundred times and was also in the SNL house band for two years in the mid-eighties.

he plays on Roxy albums

Yeah, just saw that, thanks.

When I saw reunited Roxy they had another somewhat below the radar guy on bass named Zev Katz, who also played with Rosanne Cash so maybe you heard of him. Then another time I saw Bryan Ferry solo and he had some weird band. I was walking down the street and ran into a friend who was hanging with Sophie B. Hawkins and she told me that she had been in a better version of the band preparing for the tour but then a couple of weeks before it was about to start Bryan fired everybody and replaced them with worse (younger? cheaper?) players.

first line of your memoir

Because It sounds like Catcher in the Rye or something?

The first thing you'll probably want to know about James Redd is blah blah blah Ronnie Spector blah blah blah Emitt Rhodes blah blah blah Paul Griffin...

Jonathan Richman blah blah blah Joey Ramone's brother blah blah blah Alex Chilton blah blah blah

I'm almost certain I've heard it before, but damn, that "Say Goodbye To Hollywood" cover is majestic.

https://digital.olivesoftware.com/Olive/ODN/DailyGazette/shared/DLYGAZ-2018-10-22/image.ashx?kind=block&href=DLYGAZ%2F2018%2F10%2F22&id=Pc0210200&ext=.jpg&sk=BFFDEF26

The Ronettes w/guitarist Jimmy James.

Jonathan Richman blah blah blah Joey Ramone's brother blah blah blah Alex Chilton blah blah blah

I look forward to the day when someone famous writes a memoir where they simply list every famous person they ever met and nothing more.

Jonathan Richman blah blah blah Joey Ramone's brother blah blah blah Alex Chilton blah blah blah

good lyric

Thanks. But hey, enough of my yakkin' we have a very special guest waiting in the wings, Ronnie c'mon up!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0coQJBQy1n8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xFNdYNEJ26s

Nice photo C. Grisso/McCain!

https://www.villagevoice.com/1999/03/09/ronnie-spector/

All Hopped up and Ready to Go, by Tony Fletcher, has a very clear telling of the very beginning of The Ronettes, which I had been a little confused about up until now.

WIth blurbs from the likes of Lenny Kaye, Simon Reynolds and Mike Stoller, to name just three, plus 101 (!) mentions of George Goldner, what's not to like?

Oops, forgot the #onethread tag

So in the Josh Alan Friedman piece about when he dated Ronnie Spector in 1977, entitled "Mr. Nobody" which is what she called him upon occasion, she is doing a package tour in which Eddie Fisher is the headliner. "Only Eddie gets a limo!" she is told. The tour is run by a creepy figure named Roy Radin. I had to look him up but he was a victim in something know as "The Cotton Club Murders," although I am not sure who else was killed to make it plural. Roy Radin's management clients included Pat Paulsen and (Grady) Demond Wilson of Sanford & Son. The latter had to testify. Producer Robert Evans took the Fifth.

As my own Ronnie moment is fading, it is sort of fun to see what shows up in my Facepalm feed and click through to see what other musicians, celebrity or otherwise, had to say, along with their likeminded friends, and to see new photos of her, candid or professional, like the one with Vini "Mad Dog" Lopez or the one shot by James Hamilton, to pick two examples.

One guy mentions the "Phil Loves Ronnie" Let It Be outgroove thing I slightly misquoted upthread. Not really much about it on the internet though.

Adding Caryn Rose's Vulture obit here for when I want to be reminded of it later. If you haven't already peeped it, do.

https://www.vulture.com/article/ronnie-spector-obit-best-songs.html

Nice! Some good detail in there, thanks.