Heart--Stairway to Heaven (2012)

     Last week the Kennedy Honors program was on CBS. It had been taped on the first week in December and this years honorees included Led Zeppelin. Normally, this kind of event does nothing for me, as I usually find them quite boring. It's not that they, or any other artist deserves/doesn't deserve such honors, but watching musicians do others' famous material isn't my idea of a good time. It's a bias of mine that I try to escape now and then, but honestly, unless a cover is done in a way that brings new or renewed life to a song, I'm generally not interested. This doesn't mean that covers are bad, but in the context of honoring someone else's music, one doesn't generally stray from the original material...which usually equals dull.
     Having said all of this, a friend of mine sent along this video from the proceedings, and was totally blown away. In fact, watching it brought tears to my eyes the first dozen or so times I viewed it. Looking back, I'm not quite sure what exactly it was that brought me to such a state. Watching Robert Plant attempting to keep his composure during a song which had long ago lost it's meaning for him? Seeing Jason Bonham channel his Dad's spirit behind the drums? Seeing the choir with their bowler hats (in honor of the deceased Zeppelin drummer? Hearing Ann Wilson absolutely nail the song with a conviction that made you think that she had been dreaming of a night like this all of her life? Perhaps all of those things, because just like the group was the definition of rock excess in every imaginable way during the 70's, the performance piled on layer after layer. As every piece of the musical cake had been performed to perfection, the choir appeared with the literal cherry on top. You could see it in the, "Oh my" uttered by Plant while Page and Jones looked on with smiles that showed total joy in watching the work performed in this way.
     Those who know the group Heart at all know that covering Zeppelin is not a shock. (listening to them perform 'The Battle of Evermore' should be on your list as well) Watching them play this however is equal to them in a PhD. interview with the head schoolmasters. The Wilson sisters have earned their entrance to the Hall of Fame on their own merits, however for one night, the woman who in her younger years wanted to BE Robert Plant, got her wish.   

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Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Nominee--Heart

     The band Heart revolved around sisters Ann and Nancy Wilson, although the genesis of the band began before the Beatles hit American shores...

     Bassist Steve Fossen, along with brothers Roger and Mike Fischer began a group called The Army back in 1963. The group went through several names before settling on Heart in the early 70's. This is also the time that Ann Wilson was brought in on vocals.
     Wilson had lived in Southern California and Taiwan before her dad's retirement from the Marines, where they settled in Seattle. She auditioned for the spot in the band in 1970. Mike, who had fled to Vancouver to escape the draft came down to see the band perform and began a romantic relationship with Ann. She persuaded the rest of the band to rejoin Mike in Canada, which they did. The city became home base for them for much of the rest of the decade.
      Nancy, who is four years younger, finished high school then began college. She quit and joined the band in 1974. Soon afterward she began a relationship with Roger. It was shortly after becoming a member that Mike quit to work behind the scenes. John Hannah (keys) and Brian Johnstone (drums) were brought in to fill out the sound.
     By 1975, the group had a healthy following in and around Vancouver. A demo had been made with the help of producer Mike Flicker, who eventually would produce their first five albums, and keyboardist Howard Leese who would become a full member of the band as Hannah and Johnstone had left the group. Michael Derosier became the drummer. 
     The resulting album, "Dreamboat Annie" would be picked up by Mushroom Records in 1976.  After quickly selling 30,000 units in Canada, it was released in the US, where the singles, "Crazy on You" and "Magic Man" both reached the top 40 and the group was on it's way. From early on, it was obvious that the girls had a musical vision of their own, but it was just as obvious that Robert Plant was a large influence on Ann. The album mixed hard hitting rock, with folk ballads (which was also a staple of middle Led Zep influence as well).
     From 1976 to 1980, the band released a series of top flight albums, "Little Queen" (1977), and "Dog and Butterfly" (1978) completed the trio of albums that are essential for anyone who is wanting to get into the groups output. The end of this period ended on a bit of a sour note as the romantic relationship between the Fischer brother and Wilson sisters ended, and a couple of months later the guys left the band. Roger's guitar work would especially be missed as they entered a period that was a bit unfocused. None of the albums, "Bebe le Strange" (1980), "Private Audition" (1982), or "Passionworks" (1983), were bad, just not up to the standards of the late 70's. Denny Carmassi (drums) and Mark Andes (bass) where brought in before the recording of "Passionworks" which would begin to show the new direction the band was taking and which would come to full fruition in 1985.
     1985 brought them to Capitol records from Epic and with that a change in direction. The songs on "Heart" (1985), "Bad Animals" (1987), and "Brigade" (1990),  had the band turn up the amps and head straight into arena rock territory. This along with a renewed focus on the sister's sexuality in time to take advantage of MTV propelled them to a comeback of sorts which would take them to the end of the decade.
     The singles would pretty much peter out after 1990, however their album output has been strong especially over the last 10 years with top notch albums, "Jupiters Darling" (2004), "Red Velvet Car" (2010), and "Fanatic" (2012). We finish up with two songs from the past, and one from the present.

      
   
    
    

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Happy Birthday Nancy Wilson!!!

Nancy Wilson of Heart is 57 today....and I must say she not only looks good, but is still rocking it out. Frankly, I don't have a lot to say about her outside the context of the group, but it gives me a fine excuse to post some videos of her......the first one is an acoustic version of one of their hits, and the other is a kick-ass version of Led Zepplin's "Battle of Evermore"....

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