Street Spirit
Dead alive
BY Sarah Liss March 26, 2008 15:03
Recently in Hollywood, mass slaughter was committed in the name of stardom: American Idol’s desecration of the Lennon-McCartney songbook. The gatekeepers of the Beatles catalogue licensed the tracks to the show, whose competitors melismatically “interpreted” everything from “Let It Be” to “A Day in the Life” into the ground.
Meanwhile, in Toronto, ever-enterprising promoter Dan Burke was launching his own classic-rock tribute project. But the infamous Silver Dollar booker’s concept — a semi-regular series called “Love You Live” — is the polar opposite of Idol’s shitshow. Instead of watching putative song stylists uncomfortably muddle their way through foreign tracks willy-nilly, Burke’s event features his picks for the best live albums of all time, performed in their entirety by local indie musicians (the March 19 edition boasted members of Lullabye Arkestra and The Old Soul covering Neil Young’s Live Rust; Party Wallet took on Joy Division on March 26).
Burke, who describes “Love You Live” as a spinoff from both his annual Jesus & Mary Chain tribute and the Classic Albums Live phenomenon, claims he was inspired after being anointed a “local hero” by SPIN.
“I figured we had something to live up to. As a booker-promoter, I’ve gotta try to be as creative as musicians and experiment with new ways of keeping the live music experience interesting for both musicians and audience. ‘Love You Live’ was sort of an ‘off Broadway’ experiment in a different style of show, so I did it on one of our off-nights at the Dollar at a different club.”
He acknowledges that covering an album in its entirety isn’t easy. “A lot of the younger musicians are intimidated by it, which is too bad because it can really sharpen a band’s skills.”
That’s a sentiment echoed by Craig Martin, the Scarborough native behind Classic Albums Live, the thriving series (Martin claims they’re up to 300 shows a year across North America) that recreates “the world’s greatest albums” live, “note for note, cut for cut.”
So why see Classic Albums Live perform, say, The Rolling Stones' Some Girls (which they’ll play April 17 at the Phoenix as part of their fifth anniversary celebration with special guest Merry Clayton, a.k.a. the voice of “Gimme Shelter”) instead of listening to your old LP?
“Humans like to congregate,” Martin replies. “Nothing better to congregate around than a live show. We get these rabid, diehard fans every month — maybe they’re hardcore Zep fans, but they’ll still come see us do Rumours. Because there’s no show at my shows, just music. It’s like Seinfeld — a show about nothing.”
Martin, who’s been performing in bands for decades, is repulsed by the cult of personality and promotions that taint the contemporary music industry. When asked about Burke’s series, he bristles, then softens.
“I get my back up against it, but we’re getting more and more imitators as we get more successful. Just don’t desecrate the music. I can tell who knows the music and who doesn’t within seconds — and if you’re performing these albums, you better have the music in your DNA.”
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