Happy together . . . and forever after

My folks had quite a record collection when I was a kid in 1960s. Much if it was hip for its time — The Beatles, The Beach Boys, Elvis and the like. Mostly though, they seemed to favor music that featured harmonies.
One album I absolutely wore out as a kid was “Insight Out” by The Association. It featured two wonderful songs and big hits — “Windy,” which reached No. 1 in 1967 and “Never My Love,” which climbed to No. 2 that same year.
The Association was part of the 2011 Happy Together Tour that stopped at the Keswick Theater last week; I was thrilled to get a chance to hear a band that I so fondly remembered from my youth.
There are three current members of The Association who performed on the “Insight Out” album: Larry Ramos, Russ Giguere and Jim Yester. They are pictured as young men on the album cover.
I had interviewed Larry Ramos to preview the Keswick show and got quite a kick listening to him talk about the music of the 1960s.

The copy of “Insight Out” that my folks had is long gone, but I found another original copy of the album at a record store in Chestnut Hill a few weeks before the show. I was hoping to get a chance to meet The Association guys and have them sign my album.
Fortunately, I got to do just that. But it almost didn’t happen.
I shared the Happy Together concert with Older Daughter, which was lucky for me. She was riding shotgun during the autograph-getting portion after the show. I had already secured the signatures of Giguere and Yester on the album cover when Ramos came out for the meet-and-greet. I was so excited to meet him that I forgot to ask him to sign the album. I’m getting older, too, I guess.
“Dad, the album!” said Older Daughter, saving the day. The picture that accompanies this item shows Ramos completing the Association autograph trifecta for me, in a photo taken by Older Daughter.
My daughter, whose big-deal music group is N’SYNC, was familiar with only a few of the songs from the Happy Together show, which also included appearances by The Buckinghams (“Kind of a Drag”); The Grass Roots (“Midnight Confessions”); Mark Lindsay of Paul Revere and the Raiders (“Kicks”); and The Turtles (“Happy Together”).
In addition to meeting the guys from The Association, we also got to meet Carl Giammarese of the Buckinghams and Howard Kaylan of The Turtles and get their signatures.
When I introduced Kaylan to Older Daughter, he said, “You should thank your father for introducing you to good music.”
With all due respect to N’SYNC, Kaylan is right. There was some great, great music in the 1960s. Older Daughter and I enjoyed seeing all those talented musicians whose songs have stayed with me all these years.
You might say we were happy together.

A little backstage magic

Put together a guy who asks questions for a living with a guy who likes to tell stories and it’s pretty easy to kill an hour.
The difference this time was the guy doing the talking – Joe Butler of the Lovin’ Spoonful – and the stories he was sharing were about making music in the 1960s and included names like Brian Wilson, Ed Sullivan and legendary record producer Phil Spector.
That makes it a really unique and special way to kill an hour.
That’s just what happened Friday night at the Sellersville Theater 1894 between two performances by the Lovin’ Spoonful.
The band – whose original members included two rockers from Long Island, Butler and Steve Boone, who got together with two folk musicians from Greenwich Village, John Sebastian and Zal Yanovsky – hit it big in the mid-1960s with hits like “Do You Believe in Magic,” “Daydream,” “You Didn’t Have to be So Nice,” “Nashville Cats” and “Summer in the City.” The group was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2000.
I had interviewed Butler to preview the shows. It was a fun interview, and on the night of the performances, The Blonde Accountant and I got to go into the green room and meet Butler and other band members, including Jerry Yester, who played piano on “Do You Believe in Magic” in 1965 and joined the band full-time in 1967.
Butler and Yester – the brother of Jim Yester of another 60s group, The Association – are just two happy and friendly guys who have been making music for more than 40 years. We sat there and listened as they told story after story about their musical journeys. Butler talked about meeting Ed Sullivan for the first time. Yester talked about being in an adjoining studio when Brian Wilson was recording the famous “Pet Sounds” album.
Of course, it was the 60s and these guys were young rock and rollers, so there were some, uh . . . illicit substance references sprinkled here and there into some of the stories.



The only band member we didn’t get to meet was Steve Boone, one of the original four, who Butler said was taking a nap between shows. Hey, these guys aren’t spring chickens anymore so old guy jokes appeared to be fair game as well.
At one point, Butler looked at me and said, “I better quit talking, I’m starting to get hoarse.” And then he proceeded to tell stories for another half hour.
Butler, Yester and I even goofed around for the photo that accompanies this piece. I think Yester is trying to give me the bunny ears. How incredibly silly and funny is that for our age group? My kind of guys, these two.
It was a fascinating and entertaining evening – oh and the show was great, too – and I appreciate having had the opportunity to get a peek behind the curtain that most fans don’t get a chance to experience.
Hey, I believe in magic.

Chasing Straight No Chaser

We’ve been wanting to see the a cappella group Straight No Chaser for quite a while now and we finally got the chance July 3 at Penn’s Landing.
The group of 10 college buddies from Indiana burst onto the scene a few years ago having been signed to a record deal on the strength of a YouTube video of their act that was seen by a recording executive.



They’re currently in the early stages of a two-month gig at Harrah’s Resort in Atlantic City. That turned out to be gravy for The Blonde Accountant and I because a last-minute cancellation in the lineup for the Fourth of July weekend Fam Jams event opened up a spot for Straight No Chaser.
If you haven’t been to a show at Penn’s Landing, the seating area there is essentially a bunch of cement steps in front of the stage. It can accommodate a couple of hundred people.
Although one can bring along a lawn chair, most folks just park it on the steps. Unfortunately at my age, getting up off cement steps requires a large crane after I’ve been sitting for a while.
Still, that did nothing to hamper our enthusiasm for Straight No Chaser. As a bonus, some of the Straight No Chaser wives plopped down right beside me for the show and I exchanged some brief chit-chat with one of them. After the show, the wives asked me to take a picture of the four of them, and I only botched the first attempt. Not bad for as guy who gets paid to take pictures on occasion.
I mentioned to one wife that since SNC is so good at harmonies, the group ought to include a Beach Boys song in its show, for old guys like me.
Based on SNC Wife’s response — which I didn’t entirely hear because in addition to having trouble getting up off the cement, my ears aren’t so good — I'm guessing the group does “California Girls” with a twist. The guys substitute the words “Jersey girls” for “California girls.”
We plan to head for AyCee in August to see a SNC show. I assume I will not have to sit on cement steps at Harrah’s.

Family + community = FABulous

Dance like nobody is watching.
That’s what kids and adults alike were doing Wednesday evening at the kickoff event of the Doylestown Community Sounds of Summer 2011, which featured the band Almost FAB performing songs the Beatles made famous.

It’s hard to go wrong with family, community and Beatles songs, all under a perfect sky. For me, it was the perfect end to a difficult day at work.
I love these kinds of community events, and this one drew a pretty big crowd. It was presented by the Doylestown Community Performing Arts Council in cooperation with Doylestown Township and the borough.
Little kids, whose parents in some cases weren’t even born yet when the Beatles were kicking out hits, literally gravitated toward the stage and the almost-magnetlike attraction of Almost FAB.
And really, did the Beatles ever make a bad song? Hit after hit after hit. And Almost FAB – billed not as a Beatles lookalike band but a group of “FABulous musicians” who bring more than “150 years of combined studying and performing to the stage” – do a great job with the songs.
For the rest of the summer schedule of music, go to http://www.doylestownpa.org/P&R/SoundsofSummer.htm.
With apologies to the Beatles, for this type of family and community event, I ain’t got nothing but love, babe . . . eight days a week.