Happy Birthday, Jennifer Jason Leigh

It just doesn't seem to make sense that the young Jennifer Jason Leigh, pictured above in 1982's Fast Times at Ridgemont High, turns 48 years old today. How can that be? It seems like just yesterday she played the creepy and sadistic roommate of Bridget Fonda in 1992's Single White Female. Or the love interest of a Baldwin in 1991's Backdraft. (That was a Baldwin, right?)

Law and Order: The Violence of Summer (February 5, 1991)

Nineteen years ago today, on February 5, 1991, actors Philip Seymour Hoffman and Gil Bellows appeared as hooligans on "The Violence of Summer," the fourteenth episode of the first season of NBC's "Law and Order." Samuel L. Jackson, of all people, played their defense attorney.

Two years ago, this site exhaustively reviewed and analyzed that episode. Check it out.

The Ring (2002)

Once upon blue moon, back in 2002, I saw the sneak preview of The Ring at the theatres. As neo-horror flicks seeking to capitalize on the success of The Blair Witch Project and The Sixth Sense went, it wasn't bad. Since then, the film has spawned a forgettable sequel, and looking back, the original film is mostly forgettable itself, save for the presence of Naomi Watts, who has done far better (2003's 21 Grams) and far, far worse (2005's wretched remake of King Kong).

Either my expectations were so low that it was easy to meet or exceed them, or the film, at least on the first viewing, was remotely clever. Returning from Mulholland Dr., Watts falls victim to a videotape that - gasp - kills you. Immediately after a character views the short film, she receives a phone call alerting them that she will die seven days later. A somewhat promising premise. The videotape itself is as one character describes it: all too student film with its adequate though uninspiring attempts at surrealism or expressionism or both. The images are bizarre and initially seem unconnected: dead horses in the sea, a strange woman peering into a mirror, a plateful of severed fingers, an eerie ladder, et cetera. Watts spends most of the film attempting to trace the origins of the mysterious videotape -- which killed her teenage cousin and now threatens to do the same to herself, her son, and his estranged father. (Like all other films of this genre, the young son is not only wise and mature beyond his years, but also clairvoyant -- just like the far more convincing Hayley Joel Osment was a decade ago in The Sixth Sense.)

The plot meanders unevenly in parts, but it occasionally startles. We are led across the dreary landscapes of Washington State, a grey and perpetually rainy locale which suits the film. But of course, for any such film to be shocking, the ending must be of the twist variety. Rather than arriving at the film's climax, the "twist" comes after all of the loose ends are addressed, leaving the viewer to wonder if it was an afterthought. But such endings are mandatory these days.

This must have been new territory for director Gore Verbinski, perpetrator of such flicks as Mouse Hunt, The Mexician, and the fun Pirates of the Caribbean and its unnecessary sequels. His stewardship of The Ring is not entirely unoriginal, which may not necessarily be faint praise in an era of interminably predictable suspense "thrillers." He did, of course, have some interesting source material; Verbinski joins the ranks of other Hollywood pseudo-auteurs who mine foreign cinema for ideas: the film was based upon the 1998 Japanese film Ringu.

Peter Jackson's Bad Taste (1987)

Having recently watched again some of the more well known flicks directed by Peter Jackson, I decided to watch his first release, Bad Taste, from 1987. Basically, Bad Taste is a zombie flick, although the "zombies" are actually aliens who, at the risk of great discomfort, transformed themselves into human form. Much is owed to George Romero and his Living Dead trilogy. Viewing Jackson's incredibly low budget film, as well as the making-of documentary which accompanies it on the DVD, really illustrates how far Jackson has come as a director. For Bad Taste, Jackson constructed his own Steadicam at the cost of $15, and he baked the masks of the creatures in his parents' kitchen. Compare that to the $300 million the studios gave him to create the three installments of J.R.R. Tolkien's trilogy. The documentary is inspiring to the would-be filmmaker, as Jackson's ingenuity (and his utter skill at stretching a dollar to the maximum degree possible) is showcased to a great degree. If he could do so much in the way of crude special effects with so little money, what could an aspiring director do with equally meager funds for a film which did not require special effects at all? (The documentary also has clips of Jackson's earliest home movies, including some footage from a film called "World War Two," which Jackson made as a pre-teenager. Sorry, I can't bring myself to say "tween.").


My first introduction to Jackson's oeuvre was in college when one of the members of the crew at the student television station screened a double feature of Jackson's films. In so doing, he exhibited the violent gross-out puppet extravaganza, 1989's Meet the Feebles, and the equally disturbing 1991 film, Dead Alive. Soon thereafter, I saw the excellent Heavenly Creatures from 1994 (which was my first introduction to the lovely Kate Winslet), and after that, I trekked to see The Frighteners (which featured the one, the only, team-up between Jackson and Michael J. Fox) after work on the first day of its release in 1996. I think I was the only one present in the theatre for that showing. When I heard that he was going to direct the Tolkien trilogy, I was skeptical -- indeed, I was almost certain that it would fail, as fantasy has never really been a successful genre at the box office. I wondered what would happened to the second two installments if the first chapter tanked. Would they release them? Would the studio funding for post-production dry up? Who knew? But, obviously, failure was not meant to be for the trilogy.

And to think, it all began in 1987, with the release of the, well, bad, "Bad Taste."

See here for the Ultimate Bad Taste Fan Site (and here for the original version of that site).

Namaste! Lost Begins Anon.

The first episode of the final season of "Lost" begins only minutes from now. Namaste!

Off Duty XVI

Tonight is the season premiere of the sixth and final season of TV's "Lost." Sure, I could try to reconcile taking a vacation day from blogging about pop culture's past to watch a television show from its present. But I won't do that here. Know only that a show with mysterious flashbacks and time travel will always prevail over the toil that is nostalgia blogging. See you tomorrow. Maybe. (While you anxiously await the premiere, check out this family portrait of Ben Linus and his father, Roger, over at the Secret Fun Blog and this December 2009 account of anticipation or Lost's final season by The Nerdy Girl.). And, hey, I already blogged twice today!

See my predictions for the opening episode here, posted last week.

Flashback (1990)

Twenty years ago today, on February 2, 1990, the film Flashback was released. It's a mostly forgettable road movie in which conservative, by the book FBI agent John Buckner (Kiefer Sutherland) must escort aging New Left radical Huey Walker (Dennis Hopper) to trial for allegedly disconnecting Vice President Spiro Agnew's railcar back in the 1960s. Think of it as lowbrow version of Midnight Run meets a severely watered down Easy Rider. Eleven years later, both Sutherland and Hopper would appear together in the first season of TV's "24."

The film's promotional materials made use of two quotations made by Hopper's character (one of which was particularly self referential, though no on said "meta" back then):

• "It takes more than going down to your local video store and renting Easy Rider to become a rebel."
  
  
• "Once we get out of the '80s, the '90s are going to make the '60s look like the '50s."

You see, it's supposed to be clever because Hopper is playing a '60s radical who references a 60's counterculture film in which Dennis Hopper himself appeared. Get it? You see? Oh, well.

The original theatrical trailer for the film is as follows:

Groundhog Day

"When Chekhov saw the long winter, he saw a winter bleak and dark and bereft of hope. Yet we know that winter is just another step in the cycle of life. But standing here among the people of Punxsutawney and basking in the warmth of their hearths and hearts, I couldn't imagine a better fate than a long and lustrous winter." - the formerly cynical Phil Connors (Bill Murray), in the 1993 film, Groundhog Day. Happy Groundhog Day, dear readers. There are always shadows.

Resquiat in pacem: Heather O'Rourke (1975 - 1988)

Heather O'Rourke
(December 27, 1975 – February 1, 1988)

Heather O'Rourke, the child actress best known for her role as Carol Anne Freeling in the Poltergeist films, died 22 years ago today. Although I was not overly familiar with that series, I do remember reading about her death in the news back in 1988, chiefly because I was not very much older than her at the time of her passing. Her delivery of a single line from the first Poltergeist film, "They're here," became a staple of popular culture in 1982. Steven Spielberg co-wrote and co-produced the first installment, which spawned two sequels in 1986 and 1988. O'Rourke's death at such a young age, coupled with some other unfortunate and macabre coincidences, gave rise to an urban legend of the Poltergeist curse. Rest in peace.

(A sad aside: Zelda Rubinstein, who played the psychic Tangina Barrons in all three Poltergeist films, died last week at age 76). The trailer for the original Poltergeist film is below:

Radiohead on Top of the Pops (February 1, 1996)

Fourteen years ago today, on February 1, 1996, Radiohead appeared on the British television show, "Top of the Pops," and performed "Street Spirit (Fade Out)" from their then new album, The Bends. (The video of this performance can be found above.). It was with that album, their second, that the band established that they would not remain a one hit wonder (something that even their most fierce partisans suspected they might become in 1993 when "Creep" was their hit single.). Not only does The Bends contain the radio friendly "High N' Dry," and the introspective "My Iron Lung," it also features "Fake Plastic Trees," a nearly flawless rock song, which starts softly but gradually builds until it a powerful and emotive power ballad, if that term applies. But "Street Spirit (Fade Out)," with its haunting opening, is what they played 14 years ago today.

Happy Birthday, Exene Cervenka.

Today, Exene Cervenka, one of the lead singers of the fabled LA punk band X, turns 54. Perhaps best known for its 1980 LP, Los Angeles, X also played some recognizable covers in the mid-1980s, including one of Jerry Lee Lewis' "Breathless" (which appeared in the American remake of the French film of the same name) and The Troggs' "Wild Thing," their version of which appeared in the 1989 film, Major League. (If you're wholly unfamiliar with all things punk, you might know Cervenka as the former wife of Viggo Mortensen.).

X still tours, as does Cervenka, who has a bit of a solo career. Sadly, last year, she announced that she had been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. But she's still doing shows.

Morphine - The Night (2000)

Ten years ago today, on February 1, 2000, the band Morphine released what would be its last official studio album, The Night. The band's lead singer and sax player, Mark Sandman, had passed away the previous July, just after the band completed the recording this album. It's a dark and sad album, one that should be played during dark moments of melancholy and accompanied by the consumption of brown liquor (or something stronger, if you prefer). The Sandman surname is appropriate, as the music occasionally directed him to serve as somnambulist. Somber and melancholy as it may be, the album holds up well a decade later. The strength and power of the music, coupled with the sometimes strong, sometimes weak vocals of Sandman, make for a truly classic record. It is a shame that it was the band's last effort.

In the years since, there have been a number of live and compilation albums, and in the wake of Sandman's death, the band attempted to soldier on in various incarnations, first as the Orchestra Morphine, and then as the Twinemen. But it was not, and could not be the same.

Resquiat in Pacem: Pauly Fuemana (1969 -2010)

The news today is that Pauly Fuemana, one half of the duo OMC, died today at age 40. The initial news reports suggest that the band's single and only hit, "How Bizarre," was released in 1995, although it was not until late 1996 and early 1997 that it took hold in the United States. (Apparently, it was released in the band's home country of New Zealand first.). And take hold it did. If you listened to commercial radio in 1997, you heard this song countless, countless times. Your brain likely still retains most of the lyrics. It was ubiquitous, to such an extent that the catchy tune and the novelty of the singer's unusual voice wore thin due to overplay. It was light and fun fare, though, and it will always remind us of those simple times in the mid to late 1990s. Resquiat in Pacem.

Rick Astley - The Ultimate Collection?

Rick Astley's Ultimate Collection? Okay, I'm at a loss for words on this one. Shouldn't the collection have been called Rickrolling? Or rather, in the grand tradition of that Internet meme, shouldn't the packaging suggest that it is actually the greatest hits collection of another, far more critically acclaimed artist, and the purchaser only discovers it's Rick Astley's Ultimate Collection after taking the product home and opening the packaging? At least "Never Gonna Give You Up" is the first track; surely there's no reason to go further, especially if it was an ironic purchase.

Oh, and on the album cover above, doesn't Astley sort of look like a young Ricky Gervais?

John Cusack for President (2001/2002)

It's never too early, or too late, to talk about presidential elections and their accompanying trivia. In August of 2001, Democratic consultant and progressive operative Dan Carol began a tongue in cheek effort to draft Hollywood actor John Cusack to run for president. Not endorsed by the actor, and envisioned as "a draft, volunteer campaign designed to promote community service," Carol's grass roots campaign included a nifty website (an archive of which can be viewed here). The campaign - if it could truly be called that arose out of the now defunct progressive website Junction City. But why Cusack? The website boasted:

He made the tough decisions in Grosse Pointe Blank. He couldn't be bought in Eight Men Out. He's cooler than John Malkovich. And we like his politics so far.

Ultimately, after the effort received some favorable press coverage, Cusack pulled the plug on the idea. The last version of the campaign website noted: "The word has come down from the Big Guy that he wishes that this campaign would stop —and we must respect these wishes."

You can review the original media coverage of the draft Cusack campaign here, here, here, here, and here. As for Carol, you can see his LinkedIn profile to see his political resume.


In December of 2007, just over two years ago, I conducted a brief email interview with Carol regarding the idea, which by then was more than six years old. The interview went as follows:

1. How did you come up with the idea for Cusack for President in 2002? Who designed the site and led the movement besides yourself?

We had what I thought was a pretty innovative citizen engagement web site called Junction-City.com (now defunct) that we saw as a proving ground for different forms of creative online engagement, on issues and causes. In the summer of 2001, we decided to launch a celebrity for president campaign to reach out to young people turned off by party politics as usual. We thought about a bunch of folks, from Little Steven Van Zandt to Bruce Springsteen to Cameron Diaz, but Cusack's integrity, authenticity and "everyman" quality seemed like the right call at the time. It sure hit a chord. "We" was myself and the wonderful creative team at my cause consulting company.

2. What was Cusack's response? Did he ultimately ask you to stop the movement and website? How did you learn that?

As the effort took off on campuses and the entertainment press, we were contacted by a PR agency that was promoting one of Cusack's movies who asked us to blast out list about the movie. We took this as a tacit sign of support. Then when we expanded the site to include more campus organizing tools in early 2002, we got a clear go-ahead from folks in his camp that it was OK as long as we weren't raising funds. Later as Mr Cusack kept getting peppered with questions on the campaign, and because of the seriousness of choosing a president became clear in the 2002-2003 run-up to the Iraq war, we were asked quite understandably to close it down. Which we did.

Lots of folks saw the campaign as one of the important proving grounds for chapter-based online organizing efforts later used by the Dean campaign and MoveOn efforts, and for the Draft Wesley Clark campaign.

3. What did you think of Stephen Colbert's brief run for the presidency?

I LOVE Stephen Colbert and think he is brilliant. I didn't love his presidential run.

4. Did you think about starting the Cusack site again in 2008?

No way. I am busy with my work on smart forms of US energy independence. Plus the ball is in his court, not mine.

I would say this: I think past draft campaigns like this -- whether imaginary like the movie Meet John Doe (Frank Capra, 1939), tongue-in-cheek like Pat Paulsen (1968), somewhere in between (Cusack 2001) or fully serious (Perot 1992, Bloomberg 2008?) -- reflect voter demand for something more than what they are getting from the usual candidates. In some measure, I think some of the current presidential field are reaching out to these deeper aspirations, but the proof will be in the pudding and if we end up with a lot of voters who are "bored" with early nominations in March 2008, I wouldn't be surprised if something popped up here.

But we are in two shooting wars now, so this type of insurgent-creative challenge better be serious if it expects to get authentic and meaningful support.

The Week That Was (1/23 - 1/29)

• Above you'll find a recent "Chuck and Beans" comic strip published by Brian at the Shoebox blog this past week. (See the original post, with comments, from that blog here.). How wonderfully it encapsulates the violence that the Internets have done to nostalgia. (Hat tip to Ryan, former author of The League of Melbotis, for forwarding this gem.).
  
  
• Brad Luen at the East Bay View blog posits an interesting theory: Not only did Radiohead not release the best album of 1990s, they also did not release the best album of the 200os. Can he be correct? In advancing this heresy, he rejects the recent best of decade lists claiming that 2000's Kid A was the best album of the past few years; he also goes so far as to claim that 1997's OK Computer was neither the first nor second best of its decade as well. Is it possible that one of the greatest bands of the past two decades could not have captured a best album of the decade designation in either of those two decades? Surely not.


• "This is going to be the last post on this blog for a while, if not ever," the author of the sporadically updated Ramblings of a 21st Century Digital Boy, perhaps soliciting a myriad of comments begging him to reconsider, but more likely, permanently retiring from the blogosphere, in this announcement, entitled "My Only Friend, The End." (1/22/10). Although this is not the first time the author of this site has threatened to retire, it appears that on this occasion, he may be serious, particularly in light of the (successful?) farewell of the related site, The League of Melbotis, a now defunct pop culture blog. Accordingly, I have moved Ramblings from the official blog roll to the Dead Blog Cemetery in the sidebar.


• Resquiat in pacem: J.D. Salinger (1919 - 2010). Though this site has existed (sporadically) for the past three years, I've written only one post mentioning J.D. Salinger. If you're interested, click here to see that post, entitled "J.D. Salinger and Two Films of 2002."
  

Zero Effect - 12th Anniversary? (1998)

Above: The title card for 1998's Zero Effect.

Well, you knew this was coming. I'd be remiss if I did not pause today to reflect upon this site's most ambitious project, which began two years ago today, on Monday, January 28, 2008. Back then, this site dedicated a full week's worth of posts to commemorating the tenth anniversary of the 1998 film, Zero Effect, starring Bill Pullman and Ben Stiller and directed by the young Jake Kasdan. It was a post a day for five days as follows:

Monday (1/28/08): Tenth Anniversary of Daryl Zero (An explanation of the anniversary project complete with links to multiple reviews of the film from a 2008 perspective).

Tuesday (1/29/08): The Soundtrack (An exploration of the film's official soundtrack, featuring new interviews with Esthero, Neil Gust of Heatmiser, Mike Viola of the Candy Butchers, and Chris Stillwell and Michael Andrews of the Greyboy Allstars).

Wednesday (1/30/08): Dan Bern's Unreleased Title Track (Featuring a new interview with folk musician Dan Bern regarding his unreleased song, "Zero Effect," a tune told from the point of view of Gloria Sullivan, the Kim Dickens character).

Thursday (1/31/08): The Television Pilot (Featuring about as much information as can be assembled from public sources about the 2002 failed television pilot based on the film and a handful of interviews with people associated with that project).

Friday (2/1/08): Behind the Scenes (Featuring new interviews with members of the film's supporting cast, day players, and technical crew about the making of the film).

It was quite a feat, with lots of interviews and independent research. Two years later, I still marvel at the fact that I completed the project, though I suspect many readers had a Zero Effect overdose after reading five days worth of posts on a film that came and went so quickly.

Slaughter - Stick It To Ya (1990)

Above: The album cover for Slaughter's Stick It To Ya.

Twenty years ago today, on January 27, 1990, the hard rock band Slaughter released its debut album, Stick It To Ya. Yeah, yeah, I've lost any indie street cred by professing a fondness for this album, but if you were a young teenager in 1990, and you didn't like the band's single, "Fly To The Angels," you simply had no soul. It was an ethereal and nearly perfect rock power ballad.

In fact, the album had not one but two versions of "Fly To The Angels," the first being the extended version that was familiar as the popular single, the second being a shorter, purely acoustic version. (This was, after all, the dawn of the "Unplugged" era.). Whatever the case, the song must have drawn some initial criticism, for on Stick It Live, a five song live EP also released in 1990, lead singer Mark Slaughter introduced the song as follows:

This next song's about losing somebody very important in your life whether that be your mother, your father, your best friend, or whatever. It's not a song about glorifying death and it's not about suicide, because it sucks.

The PMRC need not have worried. As far as hard rock went, Slaughter was lighter and far less sordid fare than many groups. (They had songs called "Spend My Life," in which Mark Slaughter sang about wanting to spend the rest of his life with a particular paramour. Compare that to Motley Crue's "She Goes Down," released in 1989, and you get the idea.).

The fates were not kind to Slaughter after 1990. Although the band's debut album spawned a number of notable singles (including "Up All Night"), the group could not withstand the changing tastes of the album buying public in the early 1990s. Their 1992 follow-up LP, The Wild Life was far less popular (and far less interesting), and even an appearance on the soundtrack of the 1991 film Bill and Ted's Bogus Journey could not insulate them from the onset of grunge. The band's original guitarist, Tim Kelly, died in an automobile accident in 1998.

These days, they are mostly forgotten, save for "Fly To The Angels." Here's to you, Slaughter.

Above: The album cover for Slaughter's Stick It Live.

One Week Until the Lost Premiere

Above: "LOST: Flight 815 Crash in Real Time," by YouTube user pyram1dhead

As of today, it is but one week until the premiere of the sixth and final season of the television show, "Lost." It is both an exciting and bittersweet occasion; though the new season brings new episodes and answers to long lingering questions, it is also the last season. There is no more.

- Spoilers and Predictions Found Below -

Last season was splendid due to its commitment to explore the issue of time travel and how interlopers from the future prove the concept of fate by only being capable of bringing about that which has already occurred. Some of the characters, however, unconvinced that what happened has already happened and cannot be changed, detonated a hydrogen bomb on the island in the late 1970s, where they found themselves after a number of anomalies stranded them there. If the program is to remain consistent in its theory of time travel, then the resulting explosion would change nothing about the future: the castaways would still find themselves on the Island in 2004 after having survived the crash of Oceanic Flight 815. All efforts of the characters to change that fate from the past would inevitably fail, as they were destined to crash on the Island, face the Others, find themselves transported to the past, attempt to change the future, but only bring about the future that brought them to the past in the first place to bring about that same future.

Circular, eh?

But as a narrative strategy, that may not be very satisfying. It would not be very pleasing to the audience to learn in the first several minutes of the premiere that all of their favorite characters were obliterated in the explosion but failed to change the future. So, I predict one of two possible outcomes which will be revealed in the first episode of the sixth season. One, viewers will learn that despite what we saw there was no explosion at all. Certainly, the last image we saw was the character of Juliet Burke frantically hitting the bomb and then a flash of white light. But that is not necessarily confirmation of an explosion; it may have just been a fade to white.. Two, and probably more likely, we will learn that the characters were successful in both detonating the device and changing the future. In so doing, their 2004 will be radically transformed: instead of crashing on the island in September of 2004 as we know they did, their plane will not crash and they will travel from Sydney, Australia to Los Angeles, California without incident, thereby erasing the events of the first five seasons. The characters, who came to know each other well over the past five seasons, will exit their plane at LAX never having met. But what then? Perhaps the Island will draw them back together in the unexplained mysterious ways that it does so many other things. I'm curious to learn how the cliffhanger will be resolved. And I will, in a week.

The YouTube video above, by the way, is a splendidly fun experiment by the enterprising user, pyram1dhead, who created a 24-style real time mash-up of all of the views and vantage points of the crash of Flight 815 from various episodes throughout the past five seasons.

Paul McCartney's Unplugged - The Official Bootleg

Recorded nineteen years ago today, on January 25, 1991, Paul McCartney's Unplugged - The Official Bootleg, was one of the very first albums - if not the first - to be released after an artist's appearance on MTV's "Unplugged." (The album would be released in the United States in June of 1991). After covering Gene Vincent's "Be Bop A Lula," McCartney welcomed the assembled crowd to "Unplugged," the "program where everybody takes their plugs out and goes mad."

The release generated some discussed on Usenet. On June 18, 1991, Phil Miller (who apparently worked for Hewlett-Packard in California at the time) offered his review of the then newly released live album on the rec.music.beatles Usenet newsgroup:

After a decade or more of trying to recapture the lost sound of his glory period, Paul sounds like he is really feeling himself for a change here, and lets the soul of musical rock-n-roll flow. It's as if he's surrendered to the fact that he can't sing the perfect "Let It Beees" anymore and that he can't churn out the top forty tunes. Instead he reverts back to his Elvis imitation days and has the fun of a youngster whose only true love is music.

On "Unplugged" McCartney shows that he can age into a very unique musical voice in the coming years. Perhaps now he will allow his natural talent to mature into a kind of gestalt of pop music the way Lennon seemed headed before his death. I mean McCartney has no reason to compete with his past, current pop stars, John Lennon, media expectations, and worst of all, his own awful "suburban pop" (e.g. "Big Barn Bed", "Ebony and Ivory", etc) drivel, which he has been dumping on us over the years.

I also believe Rolling Stone magazine slighted "Unplugged" by only giving it 3 and 1/2 stars. Heck, 10 years ago they gave "Tug of War" 5 stars. It's as if they'd feel too risky seriously recommending a Paul McCartney album to its trendy readership. Times have certainly changed. But so has PM. So if you want to hear a really good pop/rock cd, take a chance and buy his new cd.

Other 1991 Usenet comments of interest can be found here and here.

The release was notable for a few reasons. It featured "I Lost My Little Girl," purportedly the first song ever written by McCartney at age 14. He performed a number of covers, including tunes originally by Bill Withers, Gene Vincent, and Bill Monroe. He played six Beatles songs: "Here, There, and Everywhere," "We Can Work It Out," "I've Just Seen A Face," "She's A Woman," "And I Love Her," and "Blackbird," which he humorously referred to as "Blackboard" during the show due to a woman's misidentification of the tune. Perhaps most fun was when McCartney had to stop and start again on "We Can Work It Out" because he fumbled and forgot the opening lyrics. ("This is so informal, we'll start again," he said, and so he did.).

I remember the release of this album; at that time, I was still on my mad quest to purchase all of the Beatles records on CD (not knowing, of course, that in eighteen years, the remastered versions would be released and I'd have to buy them all again.). When I first learned of the imminent release of this album, I suffered that paranoia known only to record collectors: would I be able to obtain a copy of the limited edition release before it sold out? Thankfully, I trekked to Sound Warehouse shortly after its release and found a copy, which I have to this day. Of course, it was later reissued as a non-limited release, so all the worry was for naught.