Listen to Joe Smith's talks with Paul McCartney, Bob Dylan, more

Taped interviews that veteran record executive Joe Smith conducted for his 1988 book “Off the Record” and which he is donating to the Library of Congress this week [June 19] contain a storehouse worth of anecdotes from a couple hundred of the biggest names in pop music.

Talking to rock, pop, R&B, folk and jazz musicians as well as fellow record label chiefs, high-profile managers, songwriters and others, Smith got access to many key figures who are often reticent to talk to the press.

Pop & Hiss is posting some excerpts of the unabridged interviews, collectively known as “The Joe Smith Collection,” that are entering the Library of Congress for posterity, the subject of a news feature in a separate post.

Chris Brown, Drake reportedly brawl in New York City nightclub

New York City police are investigating a nightclub brawl early Thursday that reportedly involved hip-hop stars Chris Brown and Drake and that left four people injured, according to an NYPD spokeswoman.

Police released no names, stating only that “four people sustained minor injuries, they were transported to area hospitals for treatment and the investigation is ongoing.” No arrests have been made. The Associated Press reported that neither Drake nor Brown was present when police arrived.

Speculation quickly arose that the blow-up may have involved Brown’s former girlfriend Rihanna, with whom Drake has been seen recently.

News reports say the skirmish involved Brown’s camp and Drake’s entourage and left Brown with a bloody lip. Brown reportedly tweeted a photo of his injury shortly after the incident, then removed it from his Twitter site. He also reportedly tweeted, then removed, a note chastising unnamed combatants for “throwing bottles like girls? #shameonya!”

TMZ’s website carried photos of a glass-strewn floor of the W.I.P. club in Greenwich Village after the fracas.

In 2009, Brown assaulted Rihanna shortly before both were scheduled to appear at the Grammy Awards ceremony. He was sentenced to five years' probation and 1,400 hours of “labor-oriented service” for the assault.

Rihanna grabbed more headlines earlier this year with the release of a duet with Brown, “Birthday Cake,” a sexually charged single that prompted considerable speculation that the couple had reunited.

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Photos: Chris Brown, left, and Drake. Credit: Matt Sayles and Chris Pizzello / Associated Press.

Alan Jackson, Beach Boys, Neil Young chart with top 10 debuts

Adele, country singer Alan Jackson, the reunited Beach Boys and veteran rocker Neil Young all have noteworthy entries on the new Billboard Top 200 Albums chart.

In reclaiming the No. 1 spot after selling an additional 75,000 copies of her blockbuster "21" album, Adele has logged her 24th nonconsecutive week at the top, the most since Prince’s “Purple Rain” in 1984.  It will be a while, however, before she catches up to the next-longest run as the nation’s bestseller. Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” stayed at the top for 37 weeks in 1983.

Meanwhile, Alan Jackson has proved that switching record companies after 20 years with the same label doesn’t have to slow a musician’s momentum: his new “Thirty Miles West,” the first for his Alan Country Records label, distributed by EMI Nashville, entered the chart at No. 2 with first-week sales of 73,000 copies, according to Nielsen SoundScan.

That’s a smidge better than his final Arista album, “Freight Train,” did two years ago, selling 72,000 out of the gate for a No. 7 chart debut.

Right behind him are the Beach Boys and Young, both with their highest charting albums since the 1970s.

Coming in at No. 3 is the Beach Boys’ “That’s Why God Made the Radio,” the group’s first album of new music with creative leader Brian Wilson aboard in more than two decades. The new set sold 61,000 copies, giving the veteran Southern California band its highest chart debut ever and its best chart showing since the 1974 hits-compilation album “Endless Summer” went to No. 1, according to Billboard. The group is currently on a nationwide 50th anniversary reunion tour.

Another reunion -- this one between Young and his periodic collaborators in the band Crazy Horse -- has given him his highest charting album since “Harvest,” which went all the way to the top in 1972.  Young and Crazy Horse’s “Americana,” which digs into the treasure trove of traditional folk music with their versions of such songs as “Oh Susannah,” “Clementine” and Woody Guthrie’s “This Land Is Your Land,” sold 44,000 copies and enters the Billboard chart at No. 4 this week.

In a recent interview with The Times, Young said the idea for the album was spurred by writing his first book, “Waging Heavy Peace,” which is scheduled for Oct. 1 publication.

“One of the things I remembered that I was writing about was that there was this musician Tim Rose, who was in a group [in Canada] called the Big Three, and after that he was in a group called the Thorns," he said. "I saw the Thorns in 1963 or ’64, and they were doing ‘Oh! Susanna.’ That arrangement blew my mind. That was Tim Rose’s arrangement of ‘Oh Susannah’ [used on ‘Americana’]. My band, the Squires, was playing folk-rock, which was kind of happening at that time. So I made a lot of songs that way in that time. That’s where we got to that.”

This week’s chart also includes two rap albums in the top 10: Big K.R.I.T.’s “Live From the Underground,” entering at No. 5 with sales of 41,000 copies, and Curren$y’s “The Stoned Immaculate,” bowing at No. 8 having sold 36,000 copies.

The final new top 10 entry is Brandi Carlile’s “Bear Creek,” at No. 10 with sales of 27,000.

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Album review: Alan Jackson's 'Thirty Miles West'

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-- Randy Lewis

Photo: Alan Jackson performs in September at the Concert for Hope in Washington, D.C., marking the 10th anniversary of Sept. 11. Credit: Charles Dharapak / Associated Press.

Principal's rejection of 'God Bless the USA' 'offends' Lee Greenwood

Country singer-songwriter Lee Greenwood says a New York elementary school principal’s decision to pull his song “God Bless the USA” from a year-end kindergarten promotion ceremony “offends me as a Christian.”

PS 90 principal Greta Hawkins said she decided to eliminate the song from the event because  she  felt that some of the lyrics were “inappropriate for 5-year-olds,” citing a line in the 1984 country hit, which took on new life after Sept. 11, that says, “If tomorrow all the things were gone/I’d worked for all my life/And I had to start again/with just my children and my wife.” She’s also been quoted as saying that she felt the song might offend people of other cultures.

Through a spokeswoman, Greenwood said, “I wrote ‘God Bless the USA’ about the love I have for this country and the struggle we have gone through to remain free.  Our country was founded on the principle that it welcomes people of all cultures and gives them the same rights we have as citizens. However, I feel compelled to echo the faith of our forefathers, who all believed in God and a respect of a higher authority. Personally, denying the children of PS 90 to sing 'God Bless the USA' offends me as a Christian. My song is about hope, faith, spirit and pride. How could that be wrong on any level?"

Hawkins’ superior, City Schools chancellor Dennis Walcott, supported Hawkins’ decision. “I have to rely on the principal’s judgment,” he told the New York Post. “It’s her judgment to make that decision.”

Greenwood also spoke to the Fox 5 “Good Day New York” program Monday and said, “She’s confusing allegiance to worship and, you know, I have a great respect for anybody who wants to worship their god or in the way that they worship, but maybe she should talk to my pastor here at the First Baptist Church in Brentwood and Franklin [Tenn.], who basically could explain the difference between you have allegiance to a country but you worship a god.” But he also said he had no plans to contact the principal to discuss the issue.

“I don’t think there’s any reason to do that,” he said. “I’m sorry for the way she feels and …. I think there’s some issues there that is beyond what we’re talking about.”

Here’s a clip from his "Good Day New York" interview:

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--Randy Lewis

Photo: Lee Greenwood performs in 2001 after his 1984 hit "God Bless the USA" gained new popularity in the wake of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Credit: Danny Gilleland / Associated Press.

 

N.Y. school drops 'God Bless the USA' from kindergarten ceremony

This post has been updated. See details at bottom.

Lee Greenwood's ultra-patriotic 1984 hit "God Bless the USA" is out while Justin Bieber's breakup-makeup plea “Baby” stays in for a June 20 kindergarten promotion ceremony in New York.

Greta Hawkins, principal of P.S. 90 in Brooklyn, vetoed "God Bless the USA" as "inappropriate for 5-year-olds" after hearing it rehearsed, according to the New York Post, and her decision has received the backing of city schools Chancellor Dennis Walcott.

A city Department of Education spokeswoman told the Post that the objection came over the opening verse of Greenwood's song, which was named song of the year in 1984 by the Country Music Assn: "If tomorrow all the things were gone/I'd worked for all my life/And I had to start again/with just my children and my wife."

"You have to really wonder about some of the lyrics in the song, so I have to rely on the principal's judgment along that line," Walcott told the Post. "It's her judgment to make that decision. It's important to reinforce that they start out the morning every day of the school with the Pledge of Allegiance and ‘America the Beautiful,’ and that, to me, is what this country is about, and they celebrate that, and that's how we should start our day."

L.A. native Greenwood recorded a new version that made the country Top 20 in 2001 following the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center in Manhattan.

Plans were still in place for the kindergartners to sing "Baby," the pop hit in which Bieber cajoles a girlfriend not to break up with him, saying, "I wanna play it cool, but I’m losing you/I’ll buy you anything, I’ll buy you any ring."

Update: An earlier edition of this post rendered the title of Greenwood's song as "God Bless the U.S.A." It should be "God Bless the USA."

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Photo: Lee Greenwood at a 2010 ceremony at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley marking what would have been former President Reagan's 100th birthday. Credit: Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times

Latin jazz Grammy category reinstated, two others added

 
A year after the Recording Academy ignited a firestorm of protest in portions of the jazz and Latin communities by eliminating its Grammy Award category for Latin jazz music, the category has been reinstated as part of annual award revisions that also include two new categories and more changes in other areas of music industry recognition.

A coalition of jazz artists and Latin community activities sued the Recording Academy in an attempt to rescind the changes, but a New York judge dismissed the suit in April. This week’s announcement of category revisions by the academy’s board of trustees is being greeted by affected members as akin to losing a battle but winning the war.

“This member of the community is thrilled,” veteran Latin jazz musician Bobby Matos said Friday. “Restoring this category is a huge step in giving us some dignity and some respect.”

Musicians including Carlos Santana, Paul Simon and Playboy Jazz Festival emcee Bill Cosby were among the celebrities who joined the outcry against the elimination of the Latin jazz category.

Despite the lawsuit, which Recording Academy President Neil Portnow described this week as “distracting” and a significant expense to the group, Portnow had said the board would continue to evaluate the relevance of various categories when it met to consider ongoing revisions.

Last year’s dramatic changes resulted in a net reduction of 31 categories, from 109 to 78. Many of the changes came in niche categories of jazz, classical music, folk, roots and R&B. This year, awards will be distributed in 81 categories.

“With the focus squarely on ensuring the awards process is pertinent within the current musical landscape, the Board of Trustees continues to demonstrate its passionate commitment to keeping the Recording Academy a relevant and responsive organization in our dynamic music community," Portnow said in a statement issued Friday.

"Every year, we diligently examine our awards structure, including evaluating proposals, to develop an overall guiding vision and ensure that it remains a balanced and viable process, as well as maintains the prestige of the highest and only peer-recognized award in music,” Portnow’s statement said.

That philosophy was at the heart of Latin jazz enthusiasts’ protests over last year’s move.

“Jazz is a niche music, and Latin jazz is more of a niche music,” Matos said. “The public perceives the Grammy Awards to be the recording industry’s awards of excellence, and that’s what they were meant to be. How can you do anything meaningful as an artist if your category of music is not recognized? Millions of people don’t know what Latin jazz is, and if they don’t find out from the Grammys, how are they ever going to know about it?”

“Latin jazz is the original world music, as far as I’m concerned,” Matos said. “It has elements of jazz, of Italian romantic music, of English country dances, of African American blues and African gospel music. It’s truly a world music — not just Latin music.

“I’m so happy,” he said. “We don’t go into Latin jazz to make a lot of money. We do it out of passion and love. That’s the only reason.”

The other changes in the Latin field are the split of the Latin pop, rock or urban album Grammy into two awards: Latin pop and Latin rock, urban or alternative album; additionally, separate awards for banda or norteño album and regional Mexican or Tejano album are being merged into a new category for regional Mexican music album (including Tejano).

Also new for next year’s Grammy Awards ceremony, scheduled for Feb. 10 at Staples Center in Los Angeles, the Recording Academy’s board has added a “classical compendium” award to recognize classical albums that incorporate some pop or other nonclassical elements; and a new “urban contemporary album” category under the R&B field for “artists whose music includes the more contemporary elements of R&B and may incorporate production elements found in urban pop, urban europop, urban rock, and urban alternative.”

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-- Randy Lewis

Photo: Latin jazz musician Bobby Sanabria, shown here arriving for the Grammy ceremony in 2008,  was part of a group that sued the Recording Academy last year for eliminating the Latin jazz Grammy Awards category. Credit: Chris Pizzello / Associated Press

President Obama, Mitt Romney cameo on 2012 CMT Music Awards

It may be hard to imagine President Obama and Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney agreeing on anything, but apparently they’ve found common ground in country music.

The rival presidential candidates have taped what’s described as “a comedic opening segment” for tonight’s 2012 CMT Music Awards show running at 8 p.m. on the country music cable channel.

Obama has previously shown himself to be a capable crooner of the blues (he sang a snippet of “Sweet Home Chicago” during a recent salute to the blues at the White House) and silky R&B (a tidbit of Al Green’s “Let’s Stay Together” at a fundraiser in Harlem earlier this year). Meanwhile, at a January campaign stop in Florida, Romney showed off his vocal skills on “America the Beautiful.”

It’s not the first presidential presence at the CMT awards. During the 2008 election year, the three leading candidates -- Obama, Hillary Clinton and John McCain -- also delivered taped cameo appearances.

An appreciation: Herb Reed helped R&B, pop soar with the Platters

Herb Reed of the Platters, who died Monday in Boston at age 83, was the last surviving original member of the great '50s R&B and doo-wop group known for its soaring operatic hits  “The Great Pretender,” “Only You,” “Twilight Time,” “My Prayer” and “Smoke Gets in Your Eyes.”

Reed’s glorious bass voice anchored the group’s sound, keeping the music rooted to the earth as tenor Tony Williams took those songs and dozens of others upward into the musical stratosphere.

To the casual pop music fan, it’s easy to lump the Platters with the Coasters, the Drifters, the Penguins, the Clovers and other early R&B and doo-wop groups of the '50s. That's partly because, for so many of these vocal groups, their identity began and ended with the name -- they weren't differentiated into superstar guitarists or drummers or even lead singers, but made their living by harmonizing together. Clyde McPhatter left the Drifters to chart a solo career that gave him an individual identity, but for the most part, it was the collective that fans knew and loved.

Reed and Williams first got together with tenor David Lynch, soprano Zola Taylor and baritone Paul Robi here in Los Angeles in the early '50s, and it's usually Williams’ voice that one heard first in their mix. But “My Prayer” provides a great example of what Reed contributed time and again.

After Williams sings the opening line, a cappella, “When the twilight is gone,” the other Platters answer and support him with an elongated “gone” in which Reed's oaky bass is not only heard but also palpably felt.

That's historically the role the bass voice serves in gospel, pop and classical music: It’s the soul, reaching to the deepest parts of the human heart.

It’s appropriate to reference classical music when discussing the Platters because their signature sound tapped much the same sweep and grandeur of great operatic arias.

The group’s manager, producer and sometimes songwriter Buck Ram, who had shepherded the career of the Ink Spots a decade earlier, had a great ear for what would appeal to more than just the African American listeners who still bought the majority of R&B records in the early '50s when the Platters came around.

Ram sweetened their records with strings, and he got the five singers to apply their vibrant harmonies to many songs that had previously been hits in the '20s, '30s and '40s, giving them an air of familiarity to a broad swath of music fans.

“Smoke Gets in Your Eyes” had been a No. 1 hit in 1934 for the great bandleader Paul Whiteman, Glenn Miller had reached No. 2 with “My Prayer” in 1939,  and “Twilight Time” had been a top 10 hit in 1944 for the Three Suns. Here's a video of the Platters' version of "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes":

 

The Platters brought a new pulse and sensuality to the material, but also elegance and sophistication that were more transcendent and ethereal than the gritty sexuality of the likes of Ruth Brown and Etta James. The Platters created a blueprint for towering pop music that would later be exploited magnificently by Roy Orbison and Del Shannon and even can be heard in the sweeping pop-R&B balladry of Whitney Houston, Mariah Carey and Christina Aguilera.

Ringo Starr tipped his hat to the group with his version of “Only You” on his second post-Beatles solo album, “Goodnight Vienna,” in 1974.

Although the Platters suffered the fate of many '50s R&B groups over time with spurious versions of the act cropping up in far-flung lounges and casinos, Reed did his best to keep the Platters legacy intact, touring until last year, when health issues prompted him to retire.

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Photo montage of Herb Reed and original members of the Platters. Courtesy of Balboni Communications Group.

Beyonce, Pitbull, Steven Tyler get animated for Fox film

Beyonce, Pitbull and Steven Tyler are set to get animated for a new Fox film, according to a Deadline report.

The music superstars will lend their voices to the 3-D computer animated film “Epic,” which is being produced by 20th Century Fox Animation and Blue Sky Studios.

“Epic” is helmed by “Ice Age” director Chris Wedge and is described as a battle between good and evil after a teenage girl finds herself transported into a magical secret universe. There she is tasked with saving the world, alongside a team of whimsical characters.

Guitarist Doc Watson dead at 89: A 1-2-3 video primer

Guitarist Doc Watson, who died Tuesday at age 89, leaves an extensive legacy that documents his wide-reaching influence in the world of guitar playing and folk music.

"Doc Watson sort of defined in many ways what Americana has become," Jed Hilly, executive director of the Americana Music Assn., told The Times. "He played different styles of American roots music."

He received a National Medal of Arts in 1997 and a lifetime achievement award from the Recording Academy in 2004.

Watson was well into his 40s before he began a serious music career. Ultimately, his example inspired a generation of musicians to upgrade their instrumental technique.

Here are three examples of his artistry in different settings. He was a commanding soloist and an always amenable collaborator. The first video highlights his take on "Black Mountain Rag," which traditionally has featured the fiddle. But Watson transformed it, as he usually did, into a thrilling guitar showcase.

 

Watson also loved playing in the company of other guitarists, and for decades was accompanied on tour and in the recording studio by his son, Merle. But after Merle died in 1985, Watson continued with his career, often sharing the stage with other masters of the instrument. Here's a 1987 performance from Garrison Keillor's "Prairie Home Companion," for which Watson begins with his version of Eddy Arnold's "Just a Little Lovin' (Will Go a Long Way)," then is joined by six- and 12-string ace Leo Kottke for "Last Steam Engine Train."

 

Finally, in a trio setting, below is a historic string-instrument summit meeting of Watson with bluegrass banjo pioneer Earl Scruggs and neo-traditionalist singer, mandolinist and guitarist Ricky Skaggs from a "Three Pickers" in which they serve up the country gospel traditional "Rollin' in My Sweet Baby's Arms":

 

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-- Randy Lewis

Photo: Doc Watson in March 2000 at his home in Deep Gap, N.C. Credit: Karen Tam / Associated Press.

Guitarist Doc Watson, who died Tuesday at age 89, leaves an extensive legacy that documents his wide-reaching influence in the world of guitar playing and folk music.

"Doc Watson sort of defined in many ways what Americana has become," Jed Hilly, executive director of the Americana Music Assn., told The Times. "He played different styles of American roots music."

He received a National Medal of Arts in 1997 and a lifetime achievement award from the Recording Academy in 2004

Watson was well into his 40s before he began a serious music career. Ultimately his example inspired a generation of musicians to upgrade their instrumental technique.

But here are three examples of his artistry in different settings.