Two Bits Of Music News
I was picking around on the internet and I stumbled upon two interesting bits of music news I’d like to share.
Billy Joel at Shea Stadium - “The Last Play At Shea”
Billy Joel just played his two shows at Shea Stadium this past Wednesday and Friday, July 16 and 18. I actually had tickets for the Wednesday night show, but some poor planning on my part forced me to sell them. I was bummed that I had to miss the show, but it’s not a complete loss because of news that the two shows at Shea were filmed for a documentary that will chronicle the concerts. The film is being done by Spitfire Pictures and will be in theaters early next year. I would assume it will eventually end up on DVD and maybe the audio from the concerts will be released as a live album. As for the shows themselves, Billy welcomed special guests Tony Bennett, the Eagles’ Don Henley, John Mellencamp and John Mayer on Wednesday. On Friday, Tony Bennett returned and was joined by Aerosmith’s Steven Tyler, the Who’s Roger Daltrey, Garth Brooks and Paul McCartney. Damn, I missed Paul McCartney!
The significance of the shows was that they were the musical farewell to Shea Stadium, the home of the New York Mets and, for twenty years (1964-1983), the dual home of the Mets and the New York Jets. Shea, which opened in 1964, is in it’s final months and will be torn down after the baseball season, sometime in October or November. The Mets new stadium, Citi Field, is literally right next to Shea and is close to being completed. Citi Field opens in the spring of 2009. In musical terms, Shea has played a significant role in music history, as it was the site of pop music’s first stadium concert, headlined by the Beatles, who performed before an unheard of crowd of 55,600 (another source says over 60,000) on August 15, 1965. A year later, on August 23, 1966, the Beatles returned for their second and final Shea appearance, just a week before they stopped playing live. Other bands and music events that played Shea over the years included the “Summer Festival For Peace” featuring Janis Joplin reunited with Big Brother and the Holding Company, Paul Simon, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Steppenwolf, the (Young) Rascals, the James Gang, Miles Davis, Richie Havens, Poco, Johnny Winter, Herbie Hancock, Al Kooper, Tom Paxton, Dionne Warwick, Pacific Gas and Electric, Sha Na Na, the original cast of “Hair” and, reportedly, Jimi Hendrix (1970), Grand Funk Railroad with Humble Pie (1971), the Newport Jazz Festival (1973), Jethro Tull (1976), The Who with the Clash (1982), Simon and Garfunkel (1983), the Police (1983), the Rolling Stones with Living Colour (1989), Elton John and Eric Clapton (1992), Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band (2003) and, now, Billy Joel’s “The Last Play At Shea”.
Graham Nash is keeping busy!
If you are a fan of David Crosby, Graham Nash, Stephen Stills and Neil Young, there are a lot of things to look forward to...some of them recently revealed by Graham Nash:
- Look for Crosby, Stills and Nash to finally record a new studio album in 2009. It’ll be the trio’s first studio album since 1994’s underrated After The Storm. The new album will be produced by Rick Rubin and will be released on Columbia Records. It will be a collection of covers...no original material will be on the album. It was Rick Rubin’s idea to do an album of songs CSN love and wish they’d written. Recording will begin in early 2009.
- Graham is preparing a boxed set of his own material which will be released in time for his 67th birthday in February.
- Graham is curating a Stephen Stills boxed set. He also recently discovered an album’s worth of material of Stills playing with Jimi Hendrix that is being prepared for another release.
- Nash is putting together a live album from Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young’s 1974 stadium tour and a set of Crosby Nash acoustic recordings.
- Graham is also behind an upcoming benefit album for the Children’s Defense Fund that will feature Crosby Nash’s collaborations over the years with artists such as Elton John, James Taylor, Bonnie Raitt, Phil Collins, Jackson Browne and others.
Crosby, Stills and Nash is currently on tour (look for them at Central Park Summerstage on July 29) and then Crosby Nash will embark on a fall tour (they’ll be at the Shea Center for the Performing Arts in Wayne on October 11, the State Theatre in New Brunswick on October 13, the Capital One Bank Theatre at Westbury on October 14, the Performing Arts Center at Purchase College in Purchase on October 16 and also in Torrington, Connecticut and Westhampton Beach, New York). Rhino Records’ new “subsidiary” label, Rhino Encore, will soon reissue the first album by David and Graham, 1972’s Graham Nash David Crosby and Graham Nash’s 1986 solo album Innocent Eyes. Of course, there is also the upcoming documentary film by Neil Young called “CSNY / Deja Vu”, which documents the quartet’s 2006 “Freedom Of Speech” tour, supporting Neil’s solo album Living With War. The live “soundtrack” album, CSNY / Deja Vu Live, will be out this Tuesday, July 22 and the film will be screened this Friday, July 25 at the Sunshine Cinema, 143 East Houston Street.
