Rockin' The House, YOUR House

Singer / songwriter and auxiliary member of The Tooners, Jerry Strull, is helping raise funds for the Alzheimer's Association's 2013 Care & Cure Drive by offering to play a free house concert in the Los Angeles area for contributors of over $50.00.

House concerts are an interesting phenomena that has been growing in popularity in recent years. Inside of going out to see live entertainment, private citizens host parties in their homes, invite however many people they can comfortable fit in their living rooms and hire entertainers to perform intimate concerts, usually as a solo/acoustic act. Many times the performers are traveling along a House Concert circuit and are given room and board at the show host's home the night of the show.

The fees paid to the performers can be a set price but many times the performer gets the "contribution", usually from $15 to $20 per person for anywhere from ten to forty people since these house concerts are specifically advertised as "NOT A BUSINESS" but a private party (for legal / tax reasons). Although these House Concerts are specifically musical performances rather than "parties with music" there can be food and drinks served both before or after a performance and even a question and answer part of the performance. It's loose and intimate and a very special experience especially to people who grew up attending giant stadium shows and miss the special jam sessions that often took place at small parties at their friend's house, like Jerry's back in the day. Check him out at www.jerrystrull.com.
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We Nominate Dick Alen

Where would Elvis be without Col. Tom Parker? Or how far would the Beatles have gotten from Liverpool without Brian Epstein? One more question: does the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame include the people who helped the great superstars become what they eventually became? Are agents and managers recognized in the Hall of Fame?

If they are, then right behind Epstein and Col. Tom in the nominating procedure should come Dick Alen. Until his retirement from the William Morris Agency he was the guiding hand behind the "Grandfather" of Rock & Roll and the undisputed inventor of rock guitar, the great Chuck Berry.

Dick Alen agent to the Stars

Joe Reinartz, Dick Alen's ghostwriter of his autobiography has a great interview with Dick on the Pollstar website;

Dick Alen has been with talent agency William Morris (now William Morris Endeavor) for 39 years and has spent 60 years in the entertainment industry.


Among the artists Alen is associated with are Aretha Franklin, Little Richard and Chuck Berry, who has been a client of Alen’s for more than 50 years. He also brought Jose Carreras, Julio Iglesias, Tom Jones and Juanes to the agency and has represented Cheech & Chong, Rod Stewart, Barry White and Enrique Iglesias. Alen will now be a consultant to WME as well as an adviser to Aretha Franklin and Chuck Berry.

 Alen’s career began in 1952 working at Shaw Artists and handled acts like Fats Domino, Ray Charles, The Clovers and The Orioles. He is considered a pioneer in getting R&B acts on television. His history includes being road manager for Woody Herman and, in 1958, working at Universal Attractions repping acts like James Brown, Dinah Washington and Hank Ballard. He and Jack Bart eventually purchased Universal and signed Solomon Burke, Joe Tex and Johnny Taylor among others.
We here at Rock & Roll Rehab will research the procedure for nominating individuals into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and if at all possible, we'll start the campaign for Dick Alen's induction right here. Check back to see our progress.
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House Concert For Alzheimer's Association Care & Cure Drive

Singer-songwriter Jerry Strull will perform an exclusive private house concert to benefit the Alzheimer's Association's 2013 Care & Cure Drive. Each person to donate $50.00 or more can register to win a private 90 minute performance by guitarist / singer / songwriter Jerry Strull. The winner of the concert can host the performance in his or her home and invite paying or nonpaying audience members. The host will be responsible for any marketing and advertising of the event, supply the location, seating and refreshments. The proceeds from the event are the property of the host.

Jerry Strull is a guitarist, singer and songwriter who has been a sought after session player for recording and live shows. Like a lot of people of Baby Boomer age his family has been affected by Alzheimer's Disease and he sees the devastating effects the spread of the disease will have on the aging Boomer generation if left unstopped.

The winner will be picked at random from email entries and are limited to locations within Los Angeles County. Concert date and time to be decided by the winner who will be selected on July 4, 2013.

To register online go to www.jerrystrull.com.

To donate to the Alzheimer's Association's 2013 Care & Cure Drive go to their website at: www.alz.org/join_the_cause_donate.asp

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Suffering For Your Art


The 18-year-old passed away on Monday morning at his home in Minnesota surrounded by his family and girlfriend, according to a post by his mother on Sobiech's CaringBridge page.

Zach touched the hearts of millions, including countless celebrities, with the farewell song he wrote for family and friends after being diagnosed with osteosarcoma, an aggressive form of bone cancer.
Sobiech said he also needed to write it for himself. "I needed to get that emotion out and they wanted something they could remember me by," he said.

The lyrics read: "And we’ll go up, up, up. But I’ll fly a little higher. We’ll go up in the clouds because the view is a little nicer. Up here my dear. It won’t be long now, it won’t be long now."
Clouds was uploaded to YouTube on December 5, 2012, and has since been viewed by nearly 3 million people.

This response saw celebrities come together to pay tribute to Zach with their own version of the song and a video.

Among the stars featured in the video is Ashley Tisdale, Colbie Caillat, Anna Faris, Passenger, Jason Mraz, Rachel Bilson, Chris Pratt, Jenna Elfman, Jenna Fischer, The Lumineers, Rachel Bilson, Ed Helms and Phillip Phillips.

The video was assembled by The Office star Rainn Wilson and actor Justin Baldoni, who directed a short documentary about Zach, called My Last Days, which airs on Wilson's SoulPancake YouTube channel.

The story of Zach Sobiech and his recording of his song Clouds is very sad but it's nice that Zach lived to see its popularity. As artists we always wonder if the work we do that goes unnoticed will be discovered and celebrated after our deaths. At least Zach knew the world had discovered him, it's just too bad he didn't have any time to enjoy his success.

The question becomes would Clouds have had any success at all if not for the tragic backstory that accompanied it? It might have been just another song recorded by a teenager and released on Youtube if Zach had remained healthy. In fact, if not for his illness he might never had felt the pressure to write, record or upload a song in the first place.

A while back a musician named Justin Vernon retreated to his family's vacation cabin in northwestern Wisconsin to recover from a bout of mononucleosis. While there he wrote and recorded an album under the band name Bon Iver. Bon Iver then went on to win the 2012 Grammy Awards for Best New Artist and Best Alternative Music Album for their album Bon Iver, Bon Iver. The name Bon Iver was derived from the French phrase bon hiver , meaning "good winter", taken from a greeting on the TV series Northern Exposure.

I've heard this story of Justin Vernon recording his hit record while ill a lot more than I've actually heard the music. It makes me wonder how much the record's success is because of the dramatic backstory rather than because of the music itself. It's already gotten to the point where a talented singer-songwriter-pianist-brunette named Stefani Germanotta had to change her name, hair color and persona to the cartoon characterish Lady Gaga to get her music the attention it deserved. Now have we gotten to the point where you have to be ill to get noticed like Justin Vernon. Or worse yet, die like Zach Sobiech?


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Something Definitely Has To Go

I just watched what is perhaps the worst TV show I've ever seen. It's even more vile than Toddlers And Tiaras which I don't even understand how it's legal. This one is called Does Someone Have To Go? and I suppose is suppose to be a business workplace version of Survivor.

In this business make-over show the employees are videoed being interviewed about their fellow employees. They are brutally honest and are then asked to select three employees for potential termination. Then the edited interviews are shown to all the employees as they all sit together and have to listen to each other badmouth each other including their employers. Then it gets even worse! They are then shown what each of them makes for a yearly salary. This is horrible! These days people are desperate to find and keep even the low paying ($15000 to $24,000) jobs the folks on this particular episode were making (in Southern California). To mess with people's livelihoods for "Reality Show" entertainment is inexcusable.

The staff is then turned loose to try and lobby for their continued employment by developing alliances as on Survivor and then the three employees voted the most "toxic" are singled out. What I saw was part one of a two parter and I dread to think what the show is going to force these three people to do to try and keep their jobs. Once this show is over and the cameras have left I don't see how the remaining employees can ever really work together the same way again. The ought to call this show Let's Tear Apart Some Company For Shits And Giggles, cause that's what this is.




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Another Drummer Dies

PALM SPRINGS, Calif. (AP) — Former Jefferson Airplane drummer Joey Covington has died in a Palm Springs car crash.

A Riverside County coroner's report says the 67-year-old Palm Springs resident wasn't wearing a seat belt when his car hit a retaining wall at about 5 p.m. Tuesday. He died at the scene.

Notice that he wasn't wearing a seat belt and that he hit a retaining wall. It's more often than not that fatal car crashes include not wearing a seat belt. It's assumed that not wearing the seat belt is what contributed to the fatality however it seems that perhaps being a piss poor driver is what caused the accident in the first place and that not wearing a seat belt is a definite sign of a bad driver.

Jet pilots and NASCAR drivers strap themselves in so why is it uncool to wear a seat belt? Are you cooler than a jet fighter pilot or a professional race car driver? Does not wearing a seat belt mean you're braver that a combat pilot? No, it means you don't have whatever it takes to finish the procedure you need to do to drive a motor vehicle. You probably don't bother to check your oil level or put air in your tires either. How can someone who hits a retaining wall be expected to be able to fasten a seat belt? 

Joey's friends think he may have had a stroke or a heart attack which caused the accident but unless he had a stroke before he started the car there's no excuse for not using the seat belt.

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Great Rock And Roll Keyboard Solos

Rock Cellar Magazine recently had an article Rock’s Top 11 Keyboard Solos written by Frank Mastropolo.

I’ve listed the titles of their choice of the top eleven (I suppose in homage to the Tap) keyboard solos in rock but strongly recommend you check out the entire article for the interesting historical details. A lot of these solos were inspired by Bach.

11. Piano Man by Billy Joel (Piano: Billy Joel)
10. Hush by Deep Purple (Organ: Jon Lord)
9. Us and Them by Pink Floyd (Piano: Rick Wright)
8. Like a Rolling Stone by Bob Dylan (Organ: Al Kooper)
7. Frankenstein by the Edgar Winter Group (Synthesizer: Edgar Winter)
6. A Whiter Shade of Pale by Procol Harum (Organ: Matthew Fisher)
5. Lady Madonna by the Beatles (Piano: Paul McCartney)
4. Chest Fever by The Band (Organ: Garth Hudson)
3. Bridge Over Troubled Water by Simon & Garfunkel (Piano: Larry Knechtel)
2. Light My Fire by the Doors (Organ: Ray Manzarek)
1. Layla by Derek and the Dominos (Piano: Jim Gordon)

Now I don’t have a huge problem with any of these solos being listed in the Top 11 but a lot of them seem to be playing the song’s main riff and just repeating that for a solo in the middle such as A Whiter Shade Of Pale and although it was somewhat groundbreaking guitarist Al Kooper’s organ playing on Like A Rolling Stone is really pretty awful.

Where is First of Fifth on Selling England By The Pound by Genesis? Or how about Cans and Brahms (Extracts from Brahms' 4th Symphony in E Minor, Third Movement) performed by Rick Wakeman with Yes on their Fragile album? Or any one of a dozen organ solos by Keith Emerson of ELP? I suppose this is yet another example of Progressive Rock not being considered “real” rock and roll.

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