Fans flood stores for Beatles reissues
TORONTO (CP) - It was a bit of Beatlemania all over again today as Canadian record stores faced a flood of fans clamouring for the two new remastered box sets, CD reissues, and a Fab Four-themed "Rock Band" video game.
In Toronto, HMV's flagship store sold out of the limited edition box sets within about 40 minutes, according to an employee.
Both sets include the entire Beatles catalogue remastered on CD for the first time.
One set has the Beatles' classics mixed into stereo, while a super limited-edition mono set is available for purists.
HMV Canada's director of product Ken Kirkwood says sales have been consistently strong right across the country and anything with the Beatles name on it is flying out the door.
He says the chain's Top 15 selling CDs are all Beatles remasters, while the various versions of the new "Rock Band" game are dominating the Top 5 video game chart.
"It's right across the board," Kirkwood said of the Beatles frenzy at HMV stores.
"I don't think there's a place in Canada where there are people that aren't (Beatles) fans."
He said the mono box set would definitely be sold out across the country by the end of the day, while a few stereo sets might still be kicking around.
All the Beatles albums were also rereleased individually for those who didn't want to shell out for the box sets ($189 for the stereo package and $219 for the mono) and Kirkwood said the top seller was "Abbey Road," followed by "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band," the "White Album," "Revolver" and "Rubber Soul."
"You can see the way the sales have gone that there are customers we've had that bought every single album," Kirkwood added.
Garrison Keillor suffers minor stroke
Prairie Home Companion writer and broadcaster Garrison Keillor has suffered a minor stroke.
He was admitted to Saint Marys Hospital, a Mayo Clinic facility in Minneapolis on Sunday, according to Karl Oestreich, a Mayo Clinic spokesman.
"He is up and moving around, speaking sensibly, working at a laptop, and it's expected he'll be released on Friday," Oestreich said in a statement. "He plans to resume a normal schedule next week."
Keillor, a much-loved humorist who wrote Lake Wobegon Days and Life Among the Lutherans, started his career by poking gentle fun at his fellow countrymen at Minnesota Public Radio.
He was scheduled to open a new season of his radio program Prairie Home Companion on Sept. 26.
The 35th anniversary of the show was celebrated this July in Avon, Minn., the town which inspired the fictional Lake Wobegon.
The remastered Beatles: You've got to get this into your life
"Number nine, number nine, number nine," an engineer's voice intones over Revolution 9, the loopy loops-laden experimental track on The Beatles' self-titled 1968 album.
Little did John Lennon realize that the tune he dubbed "music of the future" would foreshadow Revolution 09/09/09, the day that would usher The Beatles' entire catalog into the future with a substantial engineering overhaul, rendering the most familiar music of the modern age suddenly astonishing and revelatory.
The remastered Beatles catalog, on sale Wednesday, is the remasterpiece fans have been craving since 1987, when the band's albums lost dimension and purity in their only wholesale transfer to CD.
A handful of scrubbed Beatles discs have bubbled up since then, most strikingly 2000's 1 hits compilation and 2006's brazen Love remix, but this is the first thorough catalog upgrade, a long-overdue digital reparation that restores the original vinyl's wider midrange, pin-drop clarity and rhythmic heft. Drum beats crackle with renewed insistence, burnishing Ringo Starr's star. Paul McCartney's bass has more visceral punch.
Abbey Road engineers tweaked the 20th century's most cherished songbook with surgical care, limiting reliance on "limiting," which makes music seem louder while quashing dynamic range.
Results vary from subtle to dramatic, and the mono-stereo debate will find eternal life in the blogosphere (especially regarding Sgt. Pepper), yet the enhancements overall are undeniable.
Even new and casual fans will be tempted to splurge on the $260 16-disc stereo box set (plus DVD) and the pricier $299 13-disc mono box set, which won't return to shelves once the initial pressing sells out.
Only the stereo discs are available individually. Cherry-picking? Start with these:
•The Beatles (1968). The so-called White Album sounds remarkably fresh, especially its unshackled rockers. Back in the U.S.S.R., Helter Skelter and Yer Blues cook with a furious intensity. I Will is stripped to a translucent elegance, and While My Guitar Gently Weeps rises to grander heights (and discloses a kick drum never before audible).
•Abbey Road (1969). Rich details emerge throughout the band's recording swansong, particularly showcasing the phenomenal strengths and interplay of McCartney and Starr. Come Together has a tougher strut, and The End explodes with rhythmic power. The textures and segues of the 16-minute medley are clearer, fully revealing a marvel of sonic architecture.
•Revolver (1966). Every groove is revitalized, brightening Good Day Sunshine and broadening Here, There and Everywhere. The psychedelic effects in Tomorrow Never Knows nearly shimmer. And the string quartet in Eleanor Rigby? It's now in your living room.
•A Hard Day's Night (1964). That opening claaaang! in the title track never sounded so vital. There's a more robust kick to Can't Buy Me Love. And yep, engineers didn't plaster over the catch in McCartney's voice on If I Fell.
•Let It Be(1970). The controversial Phil Spector production (despised by McCartney) benefits from a simple cleansing that brightens the beautifully spacey Across the Universe, plaintive title track and muscular Get Back.
The remasters won't be the last souvenir stop on The Beatles' long and winding road to immortality. Fans are clamoring for a full remix and Blu-ray DVDs of the catalog. That's years away. For now, this magical mystery tour de force breaks enough sound barriers.
Rather than cosmetically tarting up The Beatles, the scrupulous calibration has more honestly conveyed the band's warm, uplifting, indestructible pop. What you hear isn't technology. It's heart.
Springsteen, De Niro among Kennedy Center honorees
WASHINGTON – Dave Brubeck just wishes his mom could see him now: On Dec. 6, the same day the jazz composer and pianist turns 89, he'll be among the leading artists feted at the 32nd Kennedy Center Honors Gala.
Dignitaries from President Barack Obama on down will celebrate Brubeck's career, along with those of Bruce Springsteen, Robert De Niro, Mel Brooks and opera singer Grace Bumbry, the Kennedy Center announced Wednesday.
Brubeck says it's a day that would have delighted his late mother, Elizabeth Ivey Brubeck, a classical pianist who was initially disappointed by her son's interest in jazz. He recalled that when he graduated high school in 1938, his mother wrote in her diary: "I think there is some hope for David after all."
"Both my older brothers were such terrific musicians — classical musicians. And she wanted three sons that would follow in her footsteps ..., and I let her down," Brubeck said in a phone interview from Seattle, where he was touring this week. "She finally came around to what I was doing. She lived long enough to see good results, and she enjoyed going to the concerts."
Obama and the first lady will host the 2009 honorees at the White House before attending the gala with them at the Kennedy Center. Brubeck said he is looking forward to meeting the president, who wrote of going to a Brubeck concert as a child in his memoir "Dreams From My Father."
As usual, the gala will be recorded for broadcast as a two-hour prime-time special on CBS. This year's will air on Dec. 29 at 9 p.m.
The Kennedy Center Honors recognize performing artists for their contributions to American culture.
Brubeck is credited with helping take jazz into the mainstream, and his band popularized music that departed from the traditional 4/4 rhythm. "Time Out" — the classic album by the Dave Brubeck Quartet featuring the hit "Take Five" in 5/4 time_ turned 50 this year. Brubeck has set to music the words of the Old Testament and of Martin Luther King Jr. and, most recently, the photographs of Ansel Adams.
As for the other honorees, Springsteen and De Niro belonged to the category of potential honorees that George Stevens Jr., the creator and producer of the honors show, calls "not if, but when." But both men are relatively young to be receiving the award, Stevens noted. De Niro turned 66 last month, and Springsteen will be 60 on Sept. 23.
"One of America's greatest cinematic actors, Robert De Niro has demonstrated a legendary commitment to his characters and has co-founded one of the world's major film festivals," Kennedy Center Chairman Stephen A. Schwarzman said in the announcement of the 2009 recipients. He was referring to the Tribeca Film Festival, which started in 2002.
"With his gritty and honest songs that speak to the everyman, Bruce Springsteen has always had his finger on the pulse of America," Schwarzman said.
Mel Brooks, 83, is a former standup comedian who made his mark on television with the classic 2000-year-old man routine with Carl Reiner. He soon moved to the big screen, where his hit comedies include "The Producers" and "Blazing Saddles."
For Grace Bumbry, a soprano and mezzo-soprano who became a trailblazer among black singers, being chosen for the award has a special significance. At the first Kennedy Center gala in 1978, Bumbry performed the aria "Vissi d'Arte" from Giacomo Puccini's opera "Tosca" in honor of her mentor, the renowned contralto Marian Anderson.
"It's full circle now," Bumbry, 72, said by telephone from Munich, where she was judging a vocal competition. "It's the most beautiful thing."
Brad Paisley leads with 6 CMA nominations
NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Brad Paisley leads Country Music Association Award nominees with six nods announced Wednesday, while Taylor Swift snagged a nomination for entertainer of the year, the show's highest honor.
The 19-year-old sensation is the first female solo artist to be nominated for the top award since 2000.
Swift joins Keith Urban, George Straight, Jamey Johnson and Zac Brown with four nominations each.
The CMAs announced five categories on ABC's "Good Morning America," and the rest later in the morning on the CMT network.
Swift's CD "Fearless" has sold more than three million copies and made her the top selling act in country and in pop. Her competitors in the top category are Kenny Chesney, Strait, Paisley, and Urban. She was also nominated for female vocalist of the year, along with Miranda Lambert, Martina McBride, Reba McEntire and Carrie Underwood.
Darius Rucker — the former Hootie and the Blowfish singer whose transition to country music was embraced by fans — was nominated for male vocalist of the year, along with veterans like Strait, Paisley, Chesney and Urban.
"It feels great. It feels like I'm part of the family," said Rucker, who along with Lee Ann Womack announced the nominations on ABC.
"I love being in country music because of the accessibility and the relationships you have with fans and with radio is awesome."
Rucker was also nominated for new artist of the year along with Randy Houser, Jamey Johnson, Jake Owen and the Zac Brown Band.
Womack was another nominee Wednesday morning: her song with George Strait, "Everything But Quits," was nominated for vocal event of the year. Also nominated were "Cowgirls Don't Cry," by the soon-to-be disbanded Brooks & Dunn and McEntire; "I Told You So," by Underwood and Randy Travis; "Down the Road" by Chensey and Mac McAnally; and "Old Enough," by the rock group Racounteurs, Ricky Skaggs and Ashley Monroe.
Houser, who announced the rest of the nominations on a live broadcast of "CMT Insider" from a Nashville studio, said getting the nomination for the new artist category is a honor he's been patiently waiting on.
"I've told myself for so many years, 'Maybe next year, maybe next year,'" said Houser, who also was nominated for his music video, "Boots On."
He credited his record label with coming up with the idea of the music video, which featured a toddler rocking out to his song on a toy guitar.
The CMA Awards, now in its 43rd year, are scheduled for Nov. 11 on ABC., with Underwood and Paisley as hosts.
Walter Cronkite celebrated at memorial service
NEW YORK – Former President Bill Clinton remembered Walter Cronkite as "a great citizen and a profoundly good human being" during a memorial service Wednesday for the legendary newsman.
Clinton saluted Cronkite for "an inquiring mind and a caring heart and a careful devotion to the facts."
After watching Cronkite as a youngster, Clinton grew to be friends with him in adulthood, "and I just ended up being crazy about the guy."
Others scheduled to appear included former Cronkite colleagues at CBS News, astronaut Buzz Aldrin, musicians Wynton Marsalis and Mickey Hart, and President Barack Obama.
Jimmy Buffett sang his classic "Son of a Son of a Sailor" for his sailing buddy Cronkite.
But before that, he had a warm recollection of seeking some advice for a mutual friend, the late "60 Minutes" correspondent Ed Bradley.
After a sail, "the sun was down, the rum was out, and I said, 'Walter, Ed called me and he's thinking about wearing an earring on '60 Minutes.'"
Buffett said Cronkite responded: "It doesn't matter if he wears an earring, as long as it's a good story." Then Cronkite added impishly: "If I was going to wear an earring on '60 Minutes,' I'd wear one of those big, long dangly ones."
Cronkite, who died July 17 at 92, anchored "The CBS Evening News" from 1962 until 1981. He came to be known as "the most trusted man in America."
Former NBC anchor Tom Brokaw called him "a seminal force in the transformation of this country."
Brokaw, who grew up in South Dakota, said, "Walter Cronkite and all those early (TV news) pioneers lifted a lamp and showed us the wider world and allowed us to understand it more clearly and coherently."
Among those attending the service, at Manhattan's Lincoln Center, were former CBS anchor Dan Rather; ABC's Charles Gibson, Diane Sawyer, Barbara Walters and Bob Woodruff; and NBC's Brian Williams.
Columnist Army Archerd dies at 87
LOS ANGELES – Army Archerd, whose breezy column for the entertainment trade publication Daily Variety kept tabs on various Hollywood doings for more than a half-century, has died. He was 87.
Archerd's wife, Selma, said he died Tuesday at UCLA Medical Center of mesothelioma, a cancer of the lungs strongly tied to asbestos exposure. She said the cancer was the result of his time spent in shipyards while serving in the Navy during World War II. She said he had become very ill over the last two years, especially in the last two weeks.
"He was the love of my life," said Selma.
Over the years, Archerd won praise from the Hollywood establishment for always checking the accuracy of his news tips before printing them. He had an extensive phone directory of much-guarded private numbers that he would use to call movie stars and studio bosses directly to ferret out which rumors were true and which were not.
His biggest scoop came in 1985 when he was first to report that veteran leading man Rock Hudson had AIDS. It was the first time a major Hollywood star was disclosed to be an AIDS victim, and it helped break down some of the secrecy surrounding the disease.
Archerd — born Armand Archerd in New York in 1922 — also broke the story that Julia Roberts had jilted fiance Keifer Sutherland in 1991 and that longtime bachelor Warren Beatty had married Annette Bening in 1992. His source for the Beatty-Bening story was Beatty himself.
"I know it sounds like a cliche," said Selma, "but the time we spent together, it was just an outstanding life of knowing the most gorgeous people in the world, being very well accepted by them, traveling all over the world like millionaires, even though we were poor."
For more than 50 years, Archerd also served as the greeter-interviewer at the Academy Awards. Acting nominees and other celebrities were conducted to a platform alongside the red carpet for a brief chat with Archerd that was heard by the thousands of fans gathered outside the theater.
"I try to give the nominees a little moment in the sun, maybe their last," he explained in 2002.
Archerd's columns were generally mild-mannered, although he could lash out at what he considered wrongdoing. After he excoriated Michael Jackson for including anti-Semitic remarks in his "HIStory" album, the entertainer apologized and took them out.
Archerd's first brush with the studios came in the early 1940s when he worked in the Paramount mailroom while a student at the University of California, Los Angeles.
After wartime service in the Navy, he returned to Los Angeles and began his news career working with longtime entertainment reporter Bob Thomas on a daily Hollywood column for The Associated Press.
Three years later he became an aide to Harrison Carroll, the gossip columnist for the now-defunct Los Angeles Herald-Examiner.
In 1953 he was chosen to write Daily Variety's "Just for Variety" column, which was required morning reading for Hollywood's movers and shakers. He later went on to become one of the first journalists to be honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
His marriage to Joan Archerd, which produced two children, Amanda and Evan, ended in divorce in 1969 after 25 years. He married his second wife, Selma, in 1970.
Archerd is survived by his wife, his son and two stepsons.