When the news broke last week that legendary singer Tony Bennett had died not far short of his 97th birthday, I wasn't in a position to get online a write a fitting tribute to the man.
So now, a few days later, I am making a tribute to him and also using him as a somewhat unlikely starting point for another journey into Six Degrees Of Kevin Shields.
Anthony Dominick Benedetto was born on Long Island in 1926 to a grocer and a seamstress. His father had instilled in him a love of art and culture, and a young Benedetto grew up on a diet of Al Jolson, Bing Crosby, Eddie Cantor and jazz stylings from the likes of Louis Armstrong and Joe Venuto.
He was drafted into the US Army towards the end of World War II, and after training at Fort Dix, he was sent to France, and eventually Germany, as part of the 63rd Infantry Division. His unit was used to replace losses from the Battle of the Bulge, and he wound up crossing the Rhine and encountering a lot of action in the final few months of the war. He stayed on for a while in Europe, as part of the post-war operations, and began to sing in the Special Services Band.
After returning to the States, he carried on singing, and in 1949 found himself picked to go on tour supporting Bing Crosby. The following year, he cut his first demo, Boulevard Of Broken Dreams, and signed with Columbia Records. He had some success singing commercial pop - in fact, Because Of You spent ten weeks at number one in the US, selling over one million copies.
Tony Bennett: Because Of You - https://youtu.be/i-4zvArJDGg
In 1962, he recorded what would become one of his signature tunes. I Left My Heart In San Francisco was a little known song that had been written a decade earlier, and although it only made it to number 19 on the main chart, it hang around on various other charts for a year, and ensured that his popularity remained.
Tony Bennett: I Left My Heart In San Francisco - https://youtu.be/r6DUwMnDxEs
The 60s also saw Bennett active in the civil rights movement, and he was one of those on the Selma to Montgomery march of 1965.
After some more fallow years, and trouble with drugs and alcohol, the 1990s saw him, with the help of son Danny, get exposure to the new, young 'alternative' audience, who weren't aware of him or the classic pop tunes he sang. He got appearances on the likes of David Letterman and Conan O'Brien, before getting the chance to record for the famous MTV Unplugged series. His guests that night included KD Lang and Elvis Costello.
Physical frailty meant that, despite still being in good voice, Bennett retired from playing live in 2021, gradually worn down by Alzheimer's, a disease he had been diagnosed with since 2016. He finally succumbed on 21 July, apparently singing almost to the end. This 'legendary interpreter' of the Great American Songbook won twenty Grammy awards in his career.
Elvis Costello cut his teeth on the London pub-rock scene of the 1970s. But, he had music in the blood - his father was a singer with the Joe Loss Orchestra, and he had spent many Saturday afternoons at the Hammersmith Palais, watching the matinee performances. His debut album, My Aim Is True, came out in 1977 and he then formed his backing band, The Attractions. He has crossed many genres over the decades - country (he is a big fan of George Jones), R&B (I Can't Stand Up For Falling Down is a Sam & Dave cover) and post-punk and classic pop. His 1981 single with Glen Tilbrook (Squeeze), From A Whisper To A Scream, was his first in four years not to chart. That same year, Costello co-produced (with Roger Bechirian) Squeeze's album East Side Story.
East Side Story was the fourth album by Deptford's finest, Squeeze. The original concept was for a double album, with the four sides being produced by four different producers; Nick Lowe, Elvis Costello, Dave Edmunds and Paul McCartney. The issue was not that these four didn't want to do it, more that time couldn't be found in all their diaries to get it done. So, in the end, it became a single album produced by Costello and Bechirian. It was the first album to feature new keyboardist Paul Carrack, who had replaced Jools Holland. Labelled With Love became the bands last UK top ten, whilst Tempted made it to number 8 in the US.
Squeeze: Labelled With Love - https://youtu.be/FgihbuhkG30
In the end Dave Edmunds did produce East Side Story's opening track, In Quintessence. As a child, Edmunds played in a number of pop and rockabilly bands in his native South Wales. He later moved to the more blues-rock orientated Human Beans, which became the wonderfully named, Love Sculpture. They were famous for their high tempo space rock interpretation of Khachaturian's Sabre Dance, with an arrangement by Keith Emerson. As well as having a string of solo hits through the 70s and 80s (I Hear You Knocking, Queen Of Hearts), Edmunds was also in Rockpile with Nick Lowe, and was a noted producer, working with fellow pub-rock legends Brinsley Schwarz and Flamin' Groovies, and also blues band, Foghat.
Foghat formed in London in 1971, but on signing with Bearsville Records, they relocated to the US. Their Dave Edmunds produced debut, also Foghat, came out in 1972, including a cover of Willie Dixon's I Just Want To Make Love To You. The rest of the decade would see an incredibly relentless schedule of albums and touring - such as 1975s Fool For The City which included one of their biggest hits, Slow Ride, which was a US number 20. This schedule, and then a move from blues to more new wave sound, saw many members, such as founder Rod Price, leave and sales drop off.
Foghat: Slow Ride - https://youtu.be/yaMNseIe_vI
One of those Foghat departures was Nick Jamison, who left in 1983 and was replaced by Kenny Aaronson, who went on to play with them for a year. Aaronson had started playing drums aged eleven, but switched to bass at fourteen. He was in the Brooklyn band Dust, with Marc Bell (later to be Marky Ramone) in 1971-72, and then spent some years in Rick Derringer's band (ex-The McCoys). In 1988, he was Rolling Stones Bassist of the Year, and the same year went on tour with Bob Dylan (although that was cut short due to a skin cancer diagnosis). Over the years he has toured or recorded with a number of big names, including Billy Idol, Billy Squier, Hall & Oates and Joan Jett (he was a Blackheart from 1991-95). In 2011 he joined the re-formed New York Dolls on their tour with Mötley Crüe and Poison.
The New York Dolls were a proto-punk, glam band formed in 1971 in New York City, consisting of David Johansen (vocals), Johnny Thunders (guitar), Arthur Kane (bass), Jerry Nolan (drums) and Sylvain Sylvain (keyboard and guitar). Their first two albums, New York Dolls (1973) and Too Much Too Soon (1974) are considered to be cult classics, but commercial success eluded them and their hedonism ensured they had essentially disintegrated by 1976.
Morrissey was a long-time fan of the New York Dolls, and when he was asked to curate the Meltdown Festival in 2004, he persuaded the remaining Dolls to reform. The performance by Sylvain, Johansen and Kane was recorded and turned into a live album and DVD, released on Morrissey's own Attack label. The documentary New York Doll also came out. All Music's editor, Stephen Erlewine, talks about the band having the "dirty rock n roll" of the Rolling Stones, "anarchic noise" of the Stooges and the glam of Bowie and T-Rex.
New York Dolls: Subway Train (at Meltdown) - https://youtu.be/PE89u64Wwcc
Morrissey, having not had a record deal since 1998, signed with Sanctuary Records in 2003. You Are The Quarry (2004) was his seventh album, and first since Maladjusted (1997) - it reached number two in the UK and was produced, in a bit of a strange match, by Jerry Finn (known for his work with pop punk bands like Green Day, Blink 182 and Sum 41). The album produced the hit single Irish Blood, English Heart, a reflection on Morrissey's own life as the son of Irish immigrants. The album included Roger Manning Jr on keyboards.
Morrissey: Irish Blood, English Heart - https://youtu.be/KKoS5X4SMrY
Roger Manning Jr had been in Jellyfish between 1989 and 1994, for both of their albums. He was also in the kind of novelty band, The Moog Cookbook, which reinterpreted some popular tunes, such as Black Hole Sun, Basket Case and Smells Like Teen Spirit, using - you guessed it - moog keyboards. He was also a notable contributor to the celebrated soundtrack of Lost In Translation, for which he wrote and performed (with Brian Reitzell) several songs - On The Subway, Shibuya and More Than This (which includes Bill Murray).
Five other songs on that soundtrack - City Girl, Goodbye, Ikebana, Are You Awake? and Sometimes (with My Bloody Valentine) - were all written and performed by Kevin Shields!
My Bloody Valentine: Sometimes - https://youtu.be/1c8Selr9Aec