Friday, September 16, 2022

Strange Things Are Happening Every Day

My brother took me along to see Tom Jones at the Orpheum Theatre in Boston. Not exactly my kind of music – but Tom has been adding gospel and blues greats, as well as songs by Leonard Cohen and Bob Dylan to his recordings in recent years, and it was actually a stone groove mostly.



As a singer he still has it – he sings from his chest like an opera singer. He really engages the audience with his eyes, and they love him. His band was really an accomplished bunch – basically a rock band, they used accordion and synth to fill in where there might have been a horn or string section, The guitarists could play blues, twang, anything.

The opera thing is real for Tom – he draws these little dramas. The centerpiece was “Delilah” which is like a Marty Robbins thing (actually it is also like Dylan’s One More Cup of Coffee. It is pretty corny (I think Mojo Nixon or Horton Heath did a raveup satire of Delilah) but it was great fun to sing along.

It’s a murderous tale. Like Hey Joe. But ‘Not for Work Wife or Office in 2022’, as they say.

He does some pseudo rap things – and Prince. Not my cup of coffee – but things moved quickly and  all in all was fun. Especially the songs about murder.

Another sing along is one of my favorite gospel songs. Strange Things Happen Everyday by Rosetta Tharpe. As he points out: It combines boogie, blues, rock – it is a tour d’ distillation, and a great depiction of things now.

He ended with Johnnie B. Goode. (It’s a tradition. Fleetwood Mac, Savoy Brown, all the English bands would end their Fillmore sets with oldies from Chuck – wake up the stoners to clear the hall!) He told a story.

The story is as told by Tom is that he was playing Las Vegas regularly and would often get together with Elvis there – the mind boggles! One night Elvis says: “Chuck Berry is playing the Hilton Lounge, do you want go?” Tom: “Yes!”

Now, Tom is telling you about the a night with the King, right? I found myself leaning in, like I would when a bar room buddy was confiding. Said Tom: “Elvis points to Chuck, and says to me, “that’s the Real King of RocknRoll."  Wow, Elvis knew.

Johnnie B Good was a rocker – and that was it. Tom forwent the back n forth encore stuff – as he explained to the audience (and as his cane and sitting on a stool through whole show disclosed) he was preparing for a second hip replacement. “October 28” he told us, and we cheered!

The Orpheum is an old place and evokes memory. (Boston lore has it that Charles Dicken appeared there. I know I saw Dylan, Lou Reed, Iggy Pop, Roxy Music there, in the wayback days when the groupies were my age!) The whisps of loving cups spilled on in-wall divans in little grottos near the concession stand still tell yesteryears' tales. -J.V.

at

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)