Ramsey Lewis Plays the Beatles Songbook

Image for Ramsey Lewis Plays the Beatles Songbook, July 25, 2020.

The amazing cover of Ramsey's album Mother Nature's Son, on which he plays 10 songs from the White Album.

On Saturday, July 25, 2020, Ramsey Lewis played a Stageit show of the Beatles’ music. Titled “Ramsey Lewis Plays the Beatles Songbook,” it was a terrific hour of solo jazz piano from a master. I tuned into to Lewis’ May Stageit show, celebrating his 85^th birthday. That show had some technical difficulties, including about 20 minutes or so where there wasn’t any sound or video. Fortunately, the technical side was much better this time around. I still had to refresh the screen a few times when the sound dropped out, and there was a lot of chatter on the Stageit chat about technical issues.

There’s an intimacy to the Stageit shows that is very appealing. You’re getting to see Ramsey Lewis in his living room, playing the grand piano that he practices on every day. That’s very cool. Lewis played about 10 Beatles songs during Saturday’s show. He opened with “Here, There and Everywhere” and “And I Love Her,” which were given extended treatments. Other songs, like “Lady Madonna” and “Rocky Raccoon,” Lewis just played through once and didn’t really solo on. He was laughing as he made his way through those songs, as though he was surprised by the melodic twists and turns they were taking. That, combined with the fact that Lewis had sheet music in front of him, made me wonder how many times he'd played these songs before. Lewis did record “Lady Madonna” on his 1968 album Maiden Voyage, and he also recorded “Rocky Raccoon” on his excellent Mother Nature’s Son album, on which he played 10 tracks from the White Album, recorded just weeks after the White Album was released. I assume that Lewis is a brilliant enough pianist to play a song through while just glancing at the sheet music, but I’d be interested to know how much he had played some of these songs before Saturday.

Lewis’ song selection was heavily skewed towards songs that were predominately written by Paul McCartney. The only song that was predominately written by John Lennon was “In My Life.” I didn’t take the song selection to be a slight on John Lennon, rather, I think it’s an indication of what a rare melodic genius Paul McCartney is. In addition to the songs I’ve already mentioned above, Lewis played “Hey Jude,” “Let it Be,” “The Fool on the Hill,” “The Long and Winding Road,” and “Michelle.”

The afternoon concluded with Lewis playing a medley of his biggest hits: “Sun Goddess,” “Hang On, Sloopy,” “Wade in the Water,” and “The In Crowd.” It was a fun afternoon spent with a master of the piano.

Robyn Hitchcock and Emma Swift: "Sweet Home Quarantine" All-Request RH Jukebox, July 22, 2020

Wednesday night means that it’s time for another installment of “Sweet Home Quarantine” with Robyn Hitchcock and Emma Swift. The July 22^nd show was an all-request show, spanning Robyn’s whole career. The show was a nice mix of the familiar and some songs that I don’t think have been played on SHQ so far. (I haven’t seen every SHQ show, so I can’t say with absolute certainty.)

Robyn opened the show with gorgeous versions of “Cathedral” and “Autumn is Your Last Chance,” both from his terrific 1984 solo album I Often Dream of Trains. Robyn said that “Autumn is Your Last Chance” was his first attempt at a song that was going for an effect similar to Bryan Ferry’s songs. I wrote in the chat that I like to imagine Bryan Ferry watching “Sweet Home Quarantine” every week, while wearing a tuxedo. Emma responded in the chat that she liked imagining that too.

Emma joined Robyn for a lovely version of “Light Blue Afternoon,” from 2011’s Tromso, Kaptein album. Robyn mentioned that it was written after he watched Magnum Force, one of the “Dirty Harry” movies, starring Clint Eastwood. This tidbit connects the song to 2006’s “(A Man’s Gotta Know His Limitations) Briggs,” which was also inspired by Magnum Force. In 2014, I put forth the theory that Robyn’s song “San Francisco Patrol” might also be inspired by Dirty Harry. So now we may have a trilogy of Dirty Harry songs!

Emma got a solo turn when she sang Bob Dylan’s “The Man in Me,” from her upcoming album Blonde on the Tracks. It was a great version of a fine Dylan song, and I’m really looking forward to getting my copy of the CD. There was some entertaining banter between Emma and Robyn at the beginning of the song. Robyn was playing the guitar intro, and Emma told him to go a bit faster. Then she said, “That’s just louder, not faster.”

Robyn sang “We’re Gonna Live in the Trees” solo, a funny song from 2004’s Spooked. It was fun to hear, it’s certainly a song I haven’t thought of in a long time. Robyn then sang one of my very favorite songs of his, “Underground Sun,” with lovely harmonies from Emma. For me, this song was the highlight of the show. Robyn and Emma followed it with a beautiful version of “Winchester,” previously heard a few weeks ago when Robyn sang Element of Light. Robyn and Emma then dusted off the Soft Boys’ tune “Queen of Eyes.” Because Robyn sang both "Winchester" and "Cathedral" during this show, I think he ought to do a cover of The New Vaudeville Band's "Winchester Cathedral."

A new song made its debut on the show, “Upgrade Me” was a key lyric in the chorus. (Although there was some discussion in the chat as to whether Robyn was in fact singing “Upbraid Me.”) It was an interesting tune. Robyn and Emma sang the great “Saturday Groovers,” from 2009’s excellent Goodnight Oslo. Only Robyn Hitchcock could write a song with the lyrics “Emphysema, heart disease and gout” and still make it catchy. The last song was the oddity “Trilobite,” from the outtakes collection Mossy Liquor. Yup, it’s all about the ancient arthropod.

This was an incredibly fun installment of “Sweet Home Quarantine,” and it was clear that Robyn and Emma were having a great time.