Tune in today, June 21st, to Volume 106, 7 PM East, 4 PM West.

Phone #: 844-6-VOLUME, 844-686-5863

Twitter: @lefsetz or @siriusxmvolume/#lefsetzlive

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SURF CITY

TWO GIRLS FOR EVERY BOY!

Can you even say that anymore? Is it considered sexist? They weren’t really selling the ratio so much as the California dream.

But it’s a Jan & Dean song!

No, it started out as a Brian Wilson song that Jan Berry finished and Jan & Dean made into a #1 record, the first of the surf era!

“You know we’re goin’ to Surf City, ’cause it’s two to one

You know we’re goin’ to Surf City, gonna have some fun now”

If you listen to this and don’t immediately smile, dream of a happy future, you hate the sun and you should STAY AWAY FROM CALIFORNIA!

GIRL DON’T TELL ME

Carl may have sung it, but Brian wrote it, and the wistful feeling is all Brian, all “In My Room.”

This is now my favorite Beach Boys song.

“Hi little girl, it’s me, don’t you know who I am?

I met you last summer when I came up to stay with my grand

I’m the guy-uy-uy who left you with tears in his eyes

You didn’t answer my letters so I figured it was just lie”

Summer means new love. And when you’d part you promised to write. They always did, but it always stopped, sometime before Christmas, but they’re still emblazoned on your brain, at least they are in mine!

CALIFORNIA GIRLS

It’s that intro. I’d be riding my Raleigh with the transistor dangling from the handlebars, just waiting for that anticipatory instrumental intro, I can vividly remember riding the corner up by Fairfield Woods and having it come on. The single was not yet out, I needed to hear it. And the day the album came out I rode down to Topps discount store and purchased it, it’s still my favorite Beach Boys album.

For a long time “California Girls” was my favorite, but I can own “Girl Don’t Tell Me,” no one else does.

AMUSEMENT PARKS U.S.A.

“The parachutes at Riverview Park will shake us up all day

And Disneyland and P.O.P. is worth a trip to L.A.”

P.O.P. was already gone by time I moved to L.A., but those who were here then continue to testify…an amusement park on a pier.

HELP ME, RHONDA

The hit version on “Summer Days (And Summer Nights),” not the original studio take on “The Beach Boys Today” sans the “h” in “Rhonda.” Al sang it.

SURFIN’ U.S.A.

The first Beach Boys album I bought, a year after it came out, when it was already deep catalog. I needed the hit of the title song.

FARMER’S DAUGHTER

That’s Brian on lead vocal, with his falsetto, back when his voice was still pure. This is simple and dated but more magical than anything on the hit parade today.

LONELY SEA

Ditto.

Have you ever looked out at the ocean late in the afternoon, when you’re tired from the sun, this song encapsulates that feeling exactly.

SHUT DOWN

Tack it up, tack it up?

I had no idea what a tachometer was, but this was the first car song I loved.

SURFIN’ SAFARI

Sure, “Surfin'” was the original hit single on Candix, but not on the east coast, the real breakthrough was this. Jan & Dean and the Beach Boys were pioneering the west coast surf/car ethos, our eyes were opening, if you weren’t living in California you wanted to move there.

409

Yes, there’s a car song on the very first album, infectious. I love when Mike Love sings about Positraction. I may not have known what a tachometer was, but by the end of the decade we were all car crazy, we knew the models, the engine sizes, it was a mania. To think today kids turn sixteen and don’t even get their license, unfathomable!

DO YOU WANNA DANCE?

Sure, it’s a cover, but it’s put over the line by Dennis’s lead vocal. But Brian’s on the record too, with background vocals and grand piano.

This is a big song in my life. I went to camp the second month, August, many campers had been there since the beginning of July. I brought my records. I dropped the needle on this as the first song at the social and I asked Jill to dance and promptly she was with me instead of Jimmy. But by Christmas she was back with him.

WHEN I GROW UP (TO BE A MAN)

I’m still waiting to grow up, I’ve gotten older, but I’m not sure I’ve grown up. I did get married, but I never had children. The counting of the age numbers was missed on the dashboard speaker in the car, but it’s indelible when you’re listening at home. As for Brian Wilson growing up to be 80? Back then we thought no one lived that long!

DANCE, DANCE, DANCE

“After six hours of school I’ve had enough for the day

I hit the radio dial and turn it up all the way”

It always seemed weird to me that they were singing about high school when they’d quite obviously graduated.

That’s Brian with the high harmony.

FUN, FUN, FUN

“Shut Down, Vol. 2” was the third Beach Boys album I bought, once again after the songs on it were hits.

Still, the funny thing was my sister was always going to the library to do her high school papers and my father had a T-Bird and…

POM POM PLAY GIRL

Back in the day of all-in-one record players with heavy tonearms that you put coins on so the record wouldn’t skip I was convinced it was “run, kick and pass” without the “p” in front.

VEGETABLES

Word was that Brian owned a health food store, but nobody I knew was a vegetarian back then. Some tracks on “Smiley Smile” sound unfinished, “Vegetables” does not. And this is one song that Van Dyke Parks wrote the lyrics for that was not inscrutable.

WITH ME TONIGHT

It’s all Brian’s song, but Carl sings lead, and it’s when he sings “with me tonight” that the magic is embedded into the song. Minor, but not forgettable.

WONDERFUL

The secret song on “Smiley Smile,” which didn’t sell so well, but the song was so good that it ultimately broke through to fans, live it stood out. “Wonderful” is so good you only need one listen to get it.

GOOD VIBRATIONS

What is never said is that the Beach Boys were considered to be over, this was an unforeseen breakthrough, a huge hit single. As fresh today as it was back in ’66, you hear it and you’re immediately drawn into it, you become one with the track, this is what music is all about.

WILD HONEY

The theremin and Carl’s vocal create magic. Oh yeah, that change before the chorus…the pre-chorus is MAGIC!

DARLIN’

A surprise success, my sister bought the single, but I bought the album as soon as it was available, at Alexander’s I remember.

DO IT AGAIN

Yes, it was only 1968 but the Beach Boys were already nostalgic, trying to recapture the magic, and they did, this was a chart hit! Once again, it’s the change, the middle part, that Brian was able to create that youngsters seem unable to replicate, that pushed the track over the line.

CABINESSENCE

A “Smile” leftover which sounded like it belonged on “Smiley Smile.” The middle part with the choral vocals, as if you’re twisting and turning in a funhouse, that’s what makes it great.

LITTLE DEUCE COUPE

The first Beach Boys track I remember being a hit. There’s great swagger, but at the time I wasn’t sure what a deuce coupe was. As for the pink slip…I couldn’t even make out the words, what exactly were they singing about? Can you imagine racing for pinks today??

CATCH A WAVE

Ellen gave me the “Surfer Girl” and “Little Deuce Coupe” albums for my 17th birthday, wrapped in yarn, I remember, they were her older sister’s.

The track I immediately dropped the needle on on “Surfer Girl” was this, the original of Jan & Dean’s remake with different lyrics, “Sidewalk Surfin’.” Can you imagine another act using a harp? Even today? As for sitting on top of the world, I get the same feeling skiing, some sensations are purely physical, unfortunately couch potatoes never experience them.

HAWAII

We could barely fathom California, Hawaii? No one I knew had ever been, it might as well have been Asia. It had only become a state a few years before.

IN MY ROOM

One of the most legendary Beach Boys songs but it was never a hit single. Making a point about what lasts. I got it back then and still get it today. Removed from the hustle and bustle, in my own mind. Gorgeous.

SURFER GIRL

This was a hit single, but I don’t remember ever hearing it on the radio, maybe I was just too young, I listened to the radio but was not addicted until the Beatles broke in ’64, and this was the summer of ’63. “Surfer Girl” and “In My Room” are the essence of Brian Wilson.

BE TRUE TO YOUR SCHOOL

Loved the track, but couldn’t believe the sentiment. This evidenced the band’s ages. By time I was in high school in the mid-sixties school spirit was anathema, you didn’t believe in your school, you rebelled against it!

ALL SUMMER LONG

The closing song of “American Graffiti.” An upbeat shock to cap the maudlin feeling at the end of the movie. Can’t believe they say “miniature golf,” that was a big thing growing up, I used to beg my parents to take me, this was when every course was different, and there were exotic hazards. Like the pinball machine hole in Westport.

LITTLE HONDA

The hit was by the Hondells.

One day across the street friends of the Navarette girls, already teenagers, showed up on two Honda 60’s. One red, one blue. They took me for a ride, I remember having to get off and push the bike up a hill.

I GET AROUND

But I did know this, from hearing it incessantly at the Nutmeg Bowl, where while waiting for our parents to pick us up we hung out by the jukebox, after polishing my ball. The British Invasion now owned the radio, this showed Brian Wilson and the Beach Boys were still a factor whereas so many other hit acts were wiped out by those from the U.K.

DON’T BACK DOWN

My college roommate Lyndon used to listen to this before getting in his Saab to go to the Maine coast to go surfing.

WENDY

My younger sister’s name, a hit in our house.

GIRLS ON THE BEACH

The title song of the 1965 movie, within which the Beach Boys appeared, singing this song.

We were on Steel Pier in Atlantic City, waiting for Peter & Gordon to perform. There were two movie theatres. Once you paid to get in, all this was included. We came in the middle of the film, it irked me to leave, but I did see the Beach Boys performing in the movie. And yes, later in the evening we did see the diving horse.

SLOOP JOHN B

This was the hit from “Pet Sounds.” A great radio track, I ultimately found out  it was a cover, the song was new to me..

WOULDN’T IT BE NICE

I didn’t really get it until it played over the credits in “Shampoo.” Now that was a movie. I was living in L.A., but I aspired to live in that world. Everybody was in love with Julie Christie. Everybody knew who Warren Beatty was, his pictures always demanded attendance, but he’s faded along with the movies themselves, which are on big screens, but smaller.

GOD ONLY KNOWS

I remember being at Boy Scout camp. The leader of the provisional troop loved this song. This was where I was sexually abused.

ADD SOME MUSIC TO YOUR DAY

“Sunflower” is the best Beach Boys album of the seventies and beyond, it had no hits, all the hype was on its follow-up, “Surf’s Up,” but “Sunflower” is better. “Add Some Music to Your Day” is pure magic, just completely out of time with what was being played on the radio, FM or AM.

“Music

When you’re alone

Is like a companion

For your lonely soul”

Ain’t that the truth.

THIS WHOLE WORLD

The first three songs on “Sunflower” are quite a run. The opener is “Slip On Through,” “Sunflower” is where Dennis Wilson comes alive, shows his talent. Then comes “This Whole World” and then “Add Some Music to Your Day.”

It’s the change at 1:05, what comes after… Once again, nothing like what was on the radio, but that does not mean it wasn’t, and still isn’t, great.

‘TIL I DIE

The best song on “Surf’s Up,” even better than the title track. I don’t know another track with this exact feel. I got it the first time through and have loved it ever since.

“I’m a leaf on a windy day

Pretty soon I’ll be blown away”

We’re all at the whim of the world, we’re insignificant, we’re just leaves on the tree of life.

Until we die.

MARCELLA

A hit single…in the sixties, but this was the seventies, the spring of ’72. The album it was contained on, “Carl & the Passions – So Tough,” was a disappointment, but the selling point was the pairing of “Pet Sounds” in the package, making it a double album. This was when the “Pet Sounds” renaissance really started to begin.

The waterfall vocals are stupendous. CRANK IT!

SAIL ON SAILOR

Not a hit, but everybody knows it. Blondie Chaplin sang it. I’ve got the Flame album, do you?

FUNKY PRETTY

“Funky Pretty” and “The Trader” are the two other standout tracks on “Holland.” When Carl kicks back and sings… “Funky, I STILL REMEMBER FUNKY PRETTY!” Only the Beach Boys could deliver this.

IT’S O.K.

Showed that Brian still had it, buried in an album of covers, it was another song out of time. But still not as good as “Marcella”…

GOOD TIME

American Spring released it first.

GOOD TIMIN’

That ol’ Brian Wilson magic, along with Carl’s lead vocal, but it’s really about the voices in the chorus. A complete return to form, unfortunately it was overshadowed by the second side’s disco workout, an almost eleven minute remake of “Here Comes the Night,” completely superfluous, unnecessary, and released too long after the fact, disco was just about to die.

LOVE AND MERCY

The opening cut of Brian’s first solo album, nothing could live up to the hype and the album did not, nor did the single, his voice was already showing its age, but Brian has embraced “Love and Mercy” as his theme song, and everybody who is a fan of Brian knows it.

LAY DOWN BURDEN

Somehow Joe Thomas is able to make Brian sound like he did in the early days, he recaptures the magic. This is the other solo song that Brian has fully embraced.

PACIFIC COAST HIGHWAY

From the fiftieth anniversary comeback album, “That’s Why God Made the Radio.” The band went on the road to hosannas, and then they went their separate ways and now it’s sixty years.

The early career was driving down the coast, all these years later the Beach Boys are driving up, disappearing as the sun sets. “Pacific Coast Highway” is astounding, it stands alone, however brief it is. If you’ve been to the left coast and stood looking at the sun disappear over the ocean, you know, this track gets it.

SUMMER’S GONE

“Summer’s gone

I’m gonna sit and watch the waves

We laugh, we cry

We live then die

And dream about our yesterday”

Brian Wilson is in the sunset of his life, but so are we, those who lived through those years of optimism and hope. Listening to these songs brings it all back. They’re forever, even if we are not.

Conventional wisdom is they’re irrelevant, that they have no impact, cannot reach core Republicans, but that is plain wrong.

This is a lesson in media most performers have not learned, even studios have not learned, even TV streaming outlets have not learned.

It’s not about dripping out episodes once a week so people don’t cancel, that’s torture, it’s about having so much new product that people constantly come back to your site to see what’s happening. That’s Netflix’s secret advantage, the sheer amount of product. I’m not canceling my Netflix account, I know I can always find something to watch on the service. AppleTV+? I just canceled it.

Disney+ has one or two hit shows that don’t appeal to me. I outgrew “Star Wars” long ago, I’m looking for something more gritty, something more real, which means I only subscribed to Disney+ when I got it for free with my Verizon Wireless account. I wanted to see “Hamilton.” I have no kids, I need no babysitter. That’s Disney’s ace in the hole, kids’ programming. But most of us are not kids.

As for HBO Max… They’re doing a bad job of telling people that there’s more product on the site than that which was aired on HBO. All kinds of Time Warner product. But they still have a dearth of worthwhile new product. The outlet is still skewed to the older TV viewer, who still has a cable subscription, those who are inured to the week by week release that younger generations cannot cotton too.

As for performers…

There’s a tsunami of product, more than anybody can pay attention to. Drake released a new album on Friday. You’d be stunned how many people don’t care, are not even aware. And this isn’t a diss of his music, but a statement that he reaches only a fraction of the audience.

That’s the new paradigm. You’re in business for yourself. Everybody is cottage industry. That’s what the social media influencers realize, they can only rely on themselves, and their only way of getting ahead is to drop product every single day, to get people coming back, so they’re not one and done.

Maybe you’re big enough, from the pre-internet days, to put out no new music and still sell out halls. Good for you. But this does not work with the younger generations. Out of sight, out of mind. I’m not saying you need to make social media a job, I’m just saying you’ve got to post enough content to keep people coming back on a regular basis, afraid of missing out, looking forward to being titillated. It can be a cover song. It can be a video sans music. Fans are hungry for connection, and if you don’t provide it someone else will.

And know that you’re only appealing to fans. Nobody else cares. Your only hope is your fans are so attached to you that they keep bugging their friends about you. Publicity?

Maybe you followed the Johnny Depp/Amber Heard story. Read this article:

“The Mainstream Media Lost the Depp-Heard Trial – And the lifestyle influencers turned court correspondents won.”: https://nym.ag/3OmEx0Q

The pro Johnny Depp narrative was built by online influencers who were doing it for clicks, irrelevant of their inner beliefs. And mainly, it’s only the college educated who are reading the “New York Times,” “Washington Post” and “Wall Street Journal.” You’re getting your story in one of those rags and believing you’re on the road to success. WRONG! Unless you can move the online needle you’re nowhere. How do you trigger your fans?

The most important words in the above article are these:

“The more you publish the more successful you are. Nearly every influential success, from Trump to the “New York Times” to DeuxMoi, is based on frequency and constancy.”

This is why the 1/6 hearings have such effect and you don’t.

Let’s see, the oldsters lost the Napster war and then the streaming war and keep dreaming that we can all go back to 1972, when labels paid big bucks in a controlled environment with limited product. But those days are through! Sure, coast on fumes if you want to, if you’ve got enough career momentum, great. But if you want to grow your audience, you’ve got to produce, regularly.

Yes, an influencer can reach more people than the “New York Times.” A teenage TikTokker can reach many more people than supposed “hit” artists. I’m not equating the nutrition of the influencer with the artist, but the influencer doesn’t post once and then come back three years later… The influencer keeps posting, regularly. Hoping to bond those who have watched their videos to them.

And the truth is the major labels have lost control of the game. They were asleep at the wheel. They don’t realize they’ve been marginalized. They represent an ever-shrinking share of new music. You see the youngsters creating online have established a whole new paradigm that the majors don’t understand. It’s not about repeatability of the song so much as repeatability of the experience, of going to someone’s site on a regular basis to see what they’re delivering today!

Uvalde? Once it was announced the right and left had agreed to a bill, it fell off the front page. Despite the fact that the bill, if ultimately passed, will have minimal effect. It’s a step in the right direction, but the underlying problems? Those are going unaddressed. The story has been buried.

But 1/6? They’re having hearing after hearing, week after week.

You know why Fox doesn’t want to talk about them? Because they’re afraid their audience will become aware of them! I mean these people have been gaslighted so bad, but once confronted with the truth, again and again, it will become much more difficult to maintain their position.

Everybody’s talking about 1/6. To the point that the hard core Trump fans/election deniers are hearing about it.

Liz Cheney had it right. These Trump supporting doofuses in Congress don’t realize that the sands of time, history, won’t be kind to them. This is the story again and again, whether it be Joe McCarthy, Lee Atwater, even Newt Gingrich. When the tide turns, you don’t want to be caught out to sea.

Which means there may come a point where the elected officials cave, wake up and say they had no idea, now they know that Trump is a criminal, that they were being fed false information.

But it’s the people who are moving the needle. The same people the writers at the major publications are out of touch with. Wanna know what’s going on? Don’t go to lunch with a fat cat, spend that time online.

The 1/6 story won’t die.

And you’ve got to give the committee credit, they’re constantly revealing new nuggets. Just when you think you’ve heard it all, BAM, they release something new. Come on, admit it, you thought you knew everything about 1/6, that the committee was just about apportioning blame, you really didn’t think they were going to come up with something new, BUT THEY HAVE!

So you follow the story. It’s everywhere. You’ve got to be everywhere if you want to grow your audience today. I’ll admit it’s gray, you can’t write it down definitively, you’ve just got to walk into the wilderness and experiment, and hope to get lucky along the way.

There are very few through-threads in society today. Stories that continue for years that we can all pay attention to, that we can have a viewpoint on, that we can argue about. That’s what we’re looking for, we’re looking to ENGAGE!

And we’ve lost all faith in the elected officials and those making seven figure salaries appearing on TV. They’ve got no clothes. They’re out of touch. They were made for an old world, with limited outlets. Give Tucker Carlson and Rachel Maddow credit, they’ve established identities, you know what they were selling, they’ve got rough edges, and that’s what hooks people to them. That’s why musicians have lost, their music doesn’t evidence the outside creative spark that will bond people to them. We’ve all got our Velcro loops looking to be snared, you’ve got to provide the hooks!

Commentary is nearly worthless, other than to keep the story alive. It’s only the facts, they stand on their own. And it’s a small subset of the population which watches cable news and even reads the newspaper. The committee has made the facts so clear that they’re easily understood, everybody feels like an expert, therefore everybody has got an opinion and wants to talk about it.

Give Trump credit, he understands this. Which is why he constantly tweeted, he provided train-wreck value, people couldn’t take their eyes off him, even if they disagreed. And he got everybody talking. And he’s still employing the same playbook, being in the news, fighting back, otherwise…

You lose.

Do you want to win or lose?

If you want to win you’ve got to play online. That’s your base. And it’s comprised of many elements, not only all the streaming services, but YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat, even Facebook. Figure out where your people are and go there. And know you’re investing in yourself. The old days of casino careers is over, trying to get noticed so someone will buy and now stream your song. That’s just one of the building blocks. It’s got to be about you, you’re more than your songs, people want to believe in you, especially if you’ve got credibility in this sold-out world. 

Go your own way, but make sure you’ve got followers.

Spotify playlist: https://spoti.fi/3O7SZtK

LETTING GO

I was going to do this in order, but then I thought it best to start with the McCartney solo track I play most, “Letting Go.”

It was the summer of ’75, the summer of “Captain Fantastic” and “One of These Nights.” The year before had been all about “Band on the Run,” the song and the album. It was a huge, unexpected comeback, a return to form. But “Venus And Mars” was not as highly anticipated, not as fervently embraced, probably because of its initial single, “Listen to What the Man Said,” which was a ditty made for AM radio, too light for FM, where “Band on the Run” had triumphed. But I had to buy the album immediately, and it’s one of my favorites.

McCartney is thought to be lightweight, but he can be quite heavy, ergo the Little Richard workouts early in the Beatles’ career, but they were about exuberance as opposed to bottom, kicking the audience in the gut, like with “Letting Go.”

“Ah, she looks like snow

I want to put her in a Broadway show”

LETTING GO

Up until this time the biggest tour, the most anticipated, the one with the most press, was the Stones’ trek in ’72. But McCartney in ’76, it seemed impossible to be able to get tickets to see what was then called “Wings,” and I didn’t. But I did purchase the triple album collection “Wings Over America” when it was released just before Christmas. It’s the only triple album live set I found playable, even though I owned “Leon Live” and “Yessongs.” By this date live albums were polished in the studio, they were not live, but not “Wings Over America,” the imperfections were left in, making the experience more immediate, more powerful.

BIG BARN BED

I lied, this is the McCartney track I play most, “Letting Go” speaks to my head whereas “Big Barn Bed” speaks to my heart. I’d given up on Paul’s solo career, not being able to afford everything and not expecting much after the execrable, utterly disappointing “Wild Life,” the first post-Beatles LP billed as Wings. But “Big Barn Bed”…

Ahmet Ertegun said that a hit record was something that you heard lying in bed listening to late night radio that caused you to immediately jump up, get dressed and go to the all night record store to buy. If “Big Barn Bed” was ever a single, I didn’t know, but I’d long given up the 45 RPM 7″ disc, I was an albums-only guy, and you didn’t hear “Big Barn Bed” often on the radio, but when you did… I remember hearing it on the drive up to Watkins Glen.

I didn’t buy “Red Rose Speedway” until the eighties. I didn’t even know it had braille on the cover, like “Talking Book,” but even a vinyl record is difficult to play ad infinitum. But once we went to the digital world, once we went to streaming, I’m constantly calling out…”Alexa, play BIG BARN BED!”

Oh yeah, Linda’s harmonies add texture, help make the record even greater.

COMING UP

Backstage after Paul’s appearance at Musicares I told him his performance of a song that evening reminded me of the live version of “Junior’s Farm” that was a hit. He was walking past me with Nancy, he turned around and told me “No, that’s “Coming Up.” AND IT WAS! You’d be stunned how many legendary musicians are students of the game, know every detail of their careers.

There was a studio version of “Coming Up,” it opened “McCartney II,” and it’s good, but it was the live version, live in Glasgow in 1979, that was the hit. One of the very few songs where the live as opposed to the studio version was the hit. Can you imagine this today?

JUNIOR’S FARM

I was working at Star Sporting Goods on Highland in Hollywood, just south of the Boulevard. I’d graduated from college the spring before, I was planning to quit to go work my job at the Goldminer’s Daughter in Alta on November 15th, I ended up breaking my leg before that, but that’s another story. There was a radio that played throughout the store, and it was quite large with many rooms. And it was either KMET or KLOS, at the time KMET was hipper, but KLOS was more palatable to the customers so that’s what we listened to most. “Junior’s Farm” was a hit then, a splash of brilliance after “Band on the Run” that felt so good, when records could still have excitement without melisma, without hitting you in the face, that’s the power of rock and roll.

EVERY NIGHT

“McCartney,” Paul’s solo debut, does not get enough recognition, enough respect, it’s an understated masterpiece. The problem was “Let It Be” came out at the same time and Paul was perceived as having broken up the Beatles.

This is the song I liked most, first. I used to play it on the guitar.

MAYBE I’M AMAZED

A masterpiece, its own pocket symphony, could have fit on a Beatles’ album, undeniable. Period.

MAYBE I’M AMAZED

I was a huge Rod Stewart fan, which meant I bought the Faces albums too, and i had to go see him live at the Capitol Theatre in the fall of ’71. The band started playing and then Rod strutted out from the wings and I’ve never seen a better stage entrance. And instead of singing right into the mic, he came up to the stand, kicked out a leg, let the stand fall back and then he popped back up and started to sing. Rod was gonna get away with “Da Ya Think I’m Sexy?,” but it’s the Clive classics albums that eviscerated his credibility, that ruined his career, but before that he sat atop the rock throne, and was one of the best performers extant.

They played “Maybe I’m Amazed” that night.

THAT WOULD BE SOMETHING

It’s the sound. And the vocal. Only Paul McCartney can do this, it’s unmistakably him, whew!

TEDDY BOY

My favorite song on the album back in 1970. I played this one on the guitar too.

JUNK

Dreamy.

KREEN-AKRORE

You don’t get it the first time through, you might not get it until ten times through, but when you do! It’s otherworldly and powerful.

TOO MANY PEOPLE

The opening cut on “Ram.” A clear step away from the debut, with more production. You’ve got Paul’s growl and you’ve got to place yourself back in 1971 when we were still licking our wounds from the sixties, but still thought we could execute change, we were worried about the problems in society but we believed we could overcome them.

HEART OF THE COUNTRY

Jaunty, simple and countrified, it could exist on the White Album with no problem.

MONKBERRY MOON DELIGHT

At first you might want to skip it, but the more you listen to it the more you like it, the key is when Paul sings “monkberry moon delight,” it’s more than a throwaway, even though it seems like one at first.

LONG HAIRED LADY

A hidden gem. There are so many changes, different movements, but being buried deep in the second side on an album that was viewed as an artistic disappointment, not being as good as a Beatles LP nor as intimate as the solo debut, most people were and still are unaware of it.

THE BACK SEAT OF MY CAR

Just the other day a famous musician said this was one his favorite tracks. It’s the album closer, and it sounds like it. The twists and turns, everything thrown in, all the elements previously exhibited on the LP, and then it becomes so majestic. This was not a hit, you hear it and you can own it, personally.

HI, HI, HI

A single, not on any album, but all over the radio. Was he really singing about getting high? That’s not how he spelled it, that was a debate back then. “Hi, Hi, Hi” is a tear, this is a rock band, firing on all cylinders.

LIVE AND LET DIE

The first Bond film starring Roger Moore, it was a must-see back in ’73. And it’s funny, the theme song has survived more than the flick. At first take it seemed like a sell-out, but the track was so infectious and such a smash it superseded any questioning of its motives. Now the flash pots are an almost tired staple of the live show, but back in the seventies they were quite a surprise.

HELEN WHEELS

Just a single, it was not supposed to be on “Band on the Run,” but it was so successful that they decided to strip it in. It’s a road song, starting in Glasgow and going down through Liverpool…it’s so fast you can’t think, you just go along for the ride.

BAND ON THE RUN

The single was “Jet.” And that never made it to number one and took a long time to peak to boot. But when the end of the year polls came in “Band on the Run” was on all of ’em as one of the best albums of ’73. Huh? Hadn’t everybody written McCartney off as lightweight? So even though I’d sworn off his solo projects, I had to buy the LP and see for myself. I vividly remember standing in my dorm room at Middlebury after dropping the needle and hearing “Band on the Run” for the very first time, I’m actually tingling as I write this, holy crap, this is FANTASTIC! And nobody was talking about it, nobody seemed to know about it. It took months for the album to gain traction, and then you ended up hearing the title track on the radio all summer, suddenly everybody knew it, McCartney had reclaimed the throne as the biggest rock star in the world.

LET ME ROLL IT

It’s funny, this is the second most streamed track from the album after the title number on Spotify, I never would have expected that. The song seems to stutter. To be holding back, delivering just a smidge too late, it’s like being sexually stimulated sans climax, which you’re waiting for, which never really comes, you’ve got to provide that yourself, you’re left hanging. “Let Me Roll It” is long and heavy, it makes your body move involuntarily, so simple, yet so right, and that jerky guitar part that wakes you up just as you’re drifting away.

MAMUNIA

“The next time you see L.A. rain clouds

Don’t complain it rains for you and me”

This is my go-to rain song, not the Doors’ “Riders on the Storm,” whenever it rains this song goes through my head. As for complaining, if only it would rain today!

NINETEEN HUNDRED AND EIGHTY FIVE

That’s thirty seven years ago, but far off back in ’73, when this album was released. What would happen after 1984, would life go on? Turns out it did, as it also did after 2000, but we thought about this, it was in the back of our minds.

In truth “Band on the Run” was a dark album, “Helen Wheels” didn’t fit, but it didn’t ruin it. “Nineteen Hundred and Eighty Five” is not playing to the audience, it’s otherworldly, you feel like you’re on the outside looking in, far from home.

MEDLEY: HOLD ME TIGHT/LAZY DYNAMITE/HANDS OF LOVE/POWER CUT

“My Love” made many not buy “Red Rose Speedway,” who wanted more of that? Certainly not me. Therefore they missed out on this analogue to the second side of “Abbey Road” at the end of the album, it delivers.

YOU GAVE ME THE ANSWER

The music hall sound that McCartney exhibited with the Beatles, like on “When I’m Sixty-Four.” I think this sound is completely unknown to youngsters but boomers were exposed to it, before rock and roll eviscerated it. Takes you away without being sappy like “Winchester Cathedral,” then again that’s a great song too.

MAGNETO AND TITANIUM MAN

Completely left field, an entire sci-fi crime story. If you bought in it was so satisfying. McCartney may have been the biggest star in the world, but he was willing to experiment, do something outside, which resonated even more with the listener.

VENUS AND MARS (REPRISE)

“Standing in the hall of the great cathedral”

It sounds like it’s emanating from a cathedral.

VENUS AND MARS

I prefer the reprise, but the opening instrumental version is worth listening to.

MEDICINE JAR

A Jimmy McCulloch song smack dab in the middle of the second side of “Venus and Mars.” McCulloch had crawled from the wreckage of Thunderclap Newman to Wings.

“There’s more to life than blues and reds

I said I know how you feel

Now your friends are dead”

And a couple of years later McCulloch was too, from morphine and alcohol, making listening to this song eerie.

CALL ME BACK AGAIN

A new “Let Me Roll It,” not a remake but the same feel, slow and bluesy, stuttery, but not as famous because “Venus and Mars” was not embraced like its predecessor.

SHE’S MY BABY

“Speed of Sound” was written off because of “Silly Love Songs,” which was quite catchy but the lyrics doth protest too much, and Linda’s vocal on “Cook of the House,” but although the LP is light, there’s some notable stuff on it. Like this music hall number with a change in the middle that youngsters seem unable to replicate.

BEWARE MY LOVE

Play it a couple of times and you won’t be able to take it off. The chorus is so catchy, and then the song goes off on a long hejira, it becomes intense just when you were afraid it would be wimpy, it’s a great ride.

TIME TO HIDE

A Denny Laine song, probably his best work after “Go Now.” Catchy. Gets your head knockin’.

WARM AND BEAUTIFUL

Like floating in a sensory deprivation tank. You feel embraced and safe. This closes “At the Speed of Sound” on a note that makes you feel so good.

LONDON TOWN

“Silver rain was falling down

Upon the dirty ground of London town”

The magic of some songs is hard to articulate, you just feel it, and this is one of those numbers. It was 1978 but you were brought back to the mid-sixties when London was still swingin’, when it was all happening there and you wanted to go there. McCartney was plugged in there, he was our conduit to that feeling.

NO MORE LONELY NIGHTS

The hit original from the greatest hits package that was released as the soundtrack to the film “Give My Regards to Broad Street.” When the song goes to the pre-chorus it starts to get good, and the chorus is memorable, especially when Paul sings with more and more emotion.

DRIVE MY CAR (LIVE AT AMOEBA)

Paul was launching his album “Memory Almost Full” with an appearance at Amoeba Records in Hollywood. These gigs never start on time and the band punches the clock. But in this case, Paul took the stage not long after the appointed time and immediately launched into this and heads were exploding all over the store, as if everybody had been gifted a Lamborghini. This was him, the Beatle, the man. And he hadn’t lost a step. He hit the ground running. He had the best band, he still has the best band, and he knows how great he is, the music will speak for itself if they just plug in and play, and that’s what they did and I was standing about twelve or fifteen feet away and had to pinch myself, was this real?

It was and Paul is. Some day he’s gonna be gone, but so far he still keeps on choogling. And the funny thing is he’s not jaded. Yet he doesn’t suffer fools, doesn’t have endless time for interrupting fans, he’s trying to just live the life of a person on the planet, even taking the bus in New York City, he’s living amongst us, most won’t know how privileged they are, they won’t until he’s gone. He seems forever young, and as long as he’s here and doing it we feel that way about ourselves too. It’s not that Paul McCartney is 80 and old, we were transfixed when he hit 64, this is really about an opportunity to acknowledge his greatness and cherish his presence. It’s just a day in the life.