Bill Loscher

The Electric Light Orchestra (ELO) were always one of my favorite bands, and in the midst of one of their most creative periods I welcomed drummer and co-founder Bev Bevan to the studio on December 5, 1977.

Although Jeff Lynne would eventually emerge as the group’s de facto leader, it was Bev who was the band’s spokesman. We discussed their origins as The Move and how they transitioned into ELO, breaking new ground with orchestral rock. I asked how he felt about being compared to The Beatles and he unknowingly referenced a comment John Lennon had made about them on my show just a few years earlier. Bev explained the process behind their graphics and album covers including A New World Record which featured the very colorful ELO logo floating above the New York skyline at night. It was the perfect opportunity to share the story of how I just happened to be playing that very album only a few months before at the very moment that New York City plunged into darkness with a major summer blackout.

It was ELO that was spinning on the turntable during my show just a few months earlier on July 13, 1977 when a major blackout crippled the New York area.  Here’s how it sounded at WNEW-FM when Scott Muni and I returned to the airwaves the following day.
 

Phoebe Snow arrived on the music scene with her debut album in 1974 which contained the haunting song “Poetry Man.” Her beautiful voice was matched with impeccable production from Phil Ramone, and the song’s mysterious lyrics helped to establish her as a major new artist.

Though she never achieved another commercial hit quite as big, her stature as a musical performer and personality continued to grow. Everybody loved Phoebe and welcomed her to the stage and airwaves when she chose to perform.

It was a choice that wasn’t always easy for Phoebe. Her career often took a backseat to caring for her daughter Valerie who was born in December 1975 with severe brain damage. Phoebe was determined to be her primary caregiver and continued to do that until Valerie’s death in March 2007.

In October 2007 she was just beginning to resume her career with a series of shows at New York’s Birdland club. I welcomed her to WFUV, joking that she could use our Studio A as a rehearsal stage as long as we could listen in. Phoebe was in great spirits, superb voice, and shared some wonderful stories with me including finally revealing exactly who that “Poetry Man” was.

Sadly, Phoebe passed away April 26, 2011, but her beautiful voice lives on in the wonderful recordings she left us and this very memorable studio session.

She’s been a Blossom, a Crystal and even part of Bob B. Sox and the Blue Jeans, but Darlene Love’s voice always stands out on its own. Working in the sixties with producer Phil Spector she sang lead on “He’s a Rebel”, “He’s Sure the Boy I Love”, “Today I Met the Boy I’m Going to Marry” and perhaps the best known song from his legendary holiday album A Christmas Gift for You – “Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)”.

During the seventies she worked as a back-up singer and raised a family. In the eighties and nineties she appeared on Broadway in Leader of the Pack and Grease and in the Lethal Weapon movies playing Danny Glover’s wife. She appeared in 1986 on Late Night with David Letterman to sing her Christmas song and has returned every year since at Dave’s special invitation to ring in the holiday season. We spoke about that tradition and more on December 18, 2003.

I was sad to hear in December 2007 of the death of Dan Fogelberg at 56 of prostate cancer. Beginning with his first album Home Free in 1972, his music and voice had a great quality that seemed to reflect a loving and positive approach to life. Speaking with him in September 1987 at WNEW-FM, we discussed his then current release Exiles, life on the road in New York, and the story behind the holiday classic “Same Old Lang Syne.”

LENNONYC is a wonderful film exploring John’s life in New York during the 1970’s. The movie features never before heard studio recordings from Double Fantasy, previously unseen home recordings, concert outtakes, and highlights from my own historic 1974 interview with John. The story is told through John’s own words and recent on-screen interviews with many of the people he worked and lived with during that time. I’m honored to be part of this group of eyewitnesses, including Elton John, producer Jack Douglas, Yoko Ono, May Pang, photographer Bob Gruen and many more.

On October 7th (2010) I participated in a special screening and panel discussion at the Paley Center for Media along with the film’s director Michael Epstein, executive producer Susan Lacy and the legendary Dick Cavett.

Two nights later – October 9th – I was the Master of Ceremonies for an exclusive free Central Park screening before thousands of fans, in honor of what would have been John’s 70th birthday.

The video clip above is from ABC’s Good Morning America.

LENNONYC premiered on PBS stations around the country in November 2010 and is also available on DVD.

Rock ‘N’ Roll History is filled with a wide assortment of personalities and Sid Bernstein was one of it’s most unlikely heroes. As a 45 year old talent promoter working for the General Artist Corporation in New York City, he was intrigued by the reports he was reading in the British press about a young English group that was creating “hysteria.” Despite the fact that his own agency was not interested in persuing them, he reached out on his own to the band’s manager, Brian Epstein, at home, and wound up booking the Beatles into Carnegie Hall long before America experienced Beatlemania.

The phone call took place early in 1963, the Beatles played Carnegie in February 1964 and Sid brought them back to perform the first rock show in a major sporting arena at Shea Stadium in August 1965. Sid would go on to be involved with an assortment of rock and pop performers, most notably guiding the early career of The Young Rascals. He always held out hope and actively tried to re-unite the Beatles for just one more show, but of course, it was never to be.

Sid Bernstein, who passed away recently (Aug 20, 2013) at the age of 95, was described by almost everyone as a really nice man (‘a mensch’) devoted to his musical passions. I experienced that myself when I got to interview him for my documentary, “It was 40 Years Ago Today” chronicling the initial days of the Beatles conquering America. Sid recalls his first conversation with Brian Epstein, a very unlikely beginning to one of the greatest chapters in Rock ‘N’ Roll history.

To hear the entire documentary, click here

Ronnie Lane was a musician loved and respected by his peers, though never as well known as the famous musicians he played with.  He was an original member of the Small Faces that ultimately became Faces joined by Rod Stewart and Ron Wood.   Leaving the Faces in 1973 he formed Slim Chance and they toured as a rock n roll circus.  He teamed up with Pete Townshend and released the critically acclaimed Rough Mix LP in 1977.  When Ronnie was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis, his friends including Eric Clapton and Jeff Beck organized and performed the ARMS concerts, launched to raise money to fight the disease. On April 17, 1987 he was in NY to appear with a new group he was working with called The Tremors.  We talked about all of these things and even learned the truth about “Itchycoo Park.”

Ian McLagan was a good friend and fellow band mate of Ronnie’s in the Small Faces and Faces.  I got his take on some of the same subjects when he and his Austin, TX based group the Bump Band stopped by WFUV in November 2004.

Nils Lofgren is probably the only person who has played guitar or piano with all of these bands: Neil Young’s Crazy Horse, Bruce Springsteen’s E Street Band and Ringo’s All-Starr’s, and his new 9CD/1DVD Box set Face the Music chronicles everything else about his amazing forty-five plus year career.

This new collection is a wonderful mix of the familiar and the rarities, beginning with his early power pop band Grin and moving through his highly acclaimed solo albums of the 70’s and 80’s, and the continuing evolution of his music since then. In addition to the 169 tracks hand picked by Nils, the set comes with a beautifully prepared 136 page booklet. It’s a comprehensive retrospective spotlighting a great period of rock history with detailed commentary about all the songs and great insights into the music from Nils and many of the artists he’s worked with.

I recently had the chance to sit down and catch up with Nils whose music and voice I’ve loved and played throughout the various phases of his career. In this clip you’ll hear how Nils contributed to the recording of Neil Young’s Southern Man and why Keith Richards is the subject of one of his best known songs.

Click here to listen to the full interview.