Tag: The Beach Boys
The Greatest Concert You Never Saw
By Bob Berry
The T.A.M.I. Show.
Two nights of the stars of 1964 in concert, presented over two nights (October 28 & 29th) at the Santa Monica Auditorium in Southern California. Directed by Steve Binder, who later produced Elvis ’68 Comeback special, the best of the performances were edited into a two hour film that was presented in theaters around the country.
The greatest concert you never saw? Because after the initial theatrical run, The T.A.M.I. Show disappeared. Oh, there were references in rock journalism, there were bootlegs, and later grainy vids on You Tube, but that only added to the mystique. Finally, in 2010, Shout Factory released a digitally remastered DVD, and what was urban legend became an true revelation. The T.A.M.I. Show was better than “advertised”!
Check the lineup. Chuck Berry, The Beach Boys and Leslie Gore. The Supremes and Marvin Gaye, plus Smokey Robinson & The Miracles. The British Invasion stars included Gerry & The Pacemakers and Billy J. Kramer & The Dakotas. Plus Jan and Dean as the MC’s, the legendary Wrecking Crew as the house band, with Darlene Love and the Blossoms providing backup vocals!
And there were two more stars to close the show. James Brown and the Fabulous Flames, who gave a performance second only to his Live at the Apollo shows, and The Rolling Stones. How good was James? So good that to this day Keith Richards says following “The Godfather of Soul” was the biggest mistake of the Stones’ career!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=09qbhwcpA6A
BTW. What did T.A.M.I. stand for? Teenage Awards Music International or, on occasion, Teen Age Music International. Clever either way, but no awards were ever handed out!
That Guy On Keyboards
By Bob Berry
He was part of the legendary Wrecking Crew, helping Phil Spector shape his Wall of Sound. His Hammond B-3 helped The Beach Boys pick up on “Good Vibrations”. He played with The Mamas and Papas, The Fifth Dimension and The Carpenters, and David Gates and Bread.
His barrel-house piano kick-started “Rockin’ Pneumonia and the Boogie Woogie Flu” for Johnny Rivers
He was an extraordinary keyboard player, who happened to play guitar so well, that he supplied the bass tracks for The Doors’ “Light My Fire“!
His name was Larry Knechtel, and today would have been his 76th birthday. Here is his “greatest hit”, a beautiful, gospel-inspired piano that helped make the title song to Simon and Garfunkel’s Bridge Over Troubled Water album the Record and Song of the Year in 1971.
That’s who “that guy on keyboards” was.
