Its March 12th….and 60 years ago today Little Feat’s co-founder and keyboardist extraordinaire Bill Payne was born. That’s Bill in the picture above on the right, and on the left we have the band in a recent photo, and another from their early days in the 1970’s.

This amazing group (I can’t listen to them without an ear to ear grin and wanting to dance…and I can’t dance) was formed in 1969 by former Frank Zappa and The Mothers of Invention guitarist Lowell George and Bill Payne. They were joined by drummer Richie Hayward and bassist Roy Estrada.Two albums with so-so success led to a reshuffling of the deck in 1972. Estrada left, and was replaced on bass by Kenny Gradney. Also joining were guitarist/ vocalist Paul Barrere and Sam Clayton on congas, percussion and vocals. Their sound evolved into that distinctive New Orleans style funk that became their signature to this day. The band went on to success in the 1970’s. Jazz-fusion became part of their repertoire. Also during the decade they collaborated with British singer Robert Palmer on his Pressure Drop album.

Lowell George died in 1979, and subsequently the group disbanded for most of the 1980’s. In 1988 the surviving members of the group reunited as Little Feat, adding guitarist Fred Tackett and former Pure Prairie League singer/guitarist Craig Fuller. The first album by this new lineup was Let it Roll, their first Gold Record since 1978’s Waitng For Columbus. Fuller stayed on until 1993, when he left and was replaced by female vocalist Shaun Murphy . She stayed on until fairly recently, leaving the group in February, 2009.

Here’s a look of the classic lineup from a German concert in 1977, a Lowell George led version of All That You Dream, later a big hit for Linda Ronstadt.

From [Too Old To Rock N Roll- Too Young To Die]

Tom had a day job at Polaroid as an engineer, and moonlighted as a guitarist in a local Massachusetts band called Mother’s Milk. He had a home studio where he recorded demos with collaborators Brad Delp(vocals-died 3/9/07) and drummer/keyboardist Jim Masdea. After being signed by Epic on the strength of the demos, Delp formed a full band to record and tour- the first (and classic) lineup of Boston was born.

Consisting of Scholz, Delp, drummer Sib Hashian, bassist Fran Sheehan, and guitarist Barry Goudreau the band’s debut album, BOSTON, sold 200,000 copies in a few weeks (eventually to sell 17 million copies over the years), and they were the first rock group in history to make their New York City debut headlining at Madison Square Garden in 1977.

On a personal note- I always think of the winter of 1976-77 as “The Winter of Boston”. I was working at a ski area in Colorado, and every club was playing their music, every rock station gave you huge doses of them. They were the story in rock music during those icy, snowy days of ‘76-’77.

Boston spent an incredible amount of time between albums, producing only five records in the studio between 1976-2002. There has been many personnel changes over the years, too many to detail in this short space without becoming “boring you to tears”. But the group is still rocking on. The current lineup of Boston is- Scholz (lead guitar); Michael Sweet, lead vocals and guitar; Tommy DeCarlo lead vocals and keyboards; Gary Pihi guitars, keyboards, backing vocals; Kimberly Dahme, bass and vocals; and Jeff Neal, drums and percussion.

Here, Boston’s original lineup performs the title track from their second album, Don’t Look Back (1978).

His website goes into more detail and has samples of some of his new original compositions. But below, from that same collection recorded live in Gdansk, comes the song Astronomy Domine, written by David’s predecessor as lead guitarist in Pink Floyd, the late Syd Barrett, first recorded in 1968 on the album A Saucer Full Of Secrets. Richard Wright accompanied David on keyboards as part of his backup band.

Today singer/bassist Chris Squire of the legendary band Yes turns 61. Chris has the distinction of being the only member of Yes to appear on every one of their records, and be the only “Yes Man” to be in everyone of their many lineups. On February 11th of this year he had to undergo surgery on his leg, necessitating the cancellation of the band’s
In The Present tour. Here’s wishing him a speedy recovery.

During the band’s 40 plus years of recording and touring their have been many comings, goings, returns, hiatus, and “suspended animations”. For a reasonably good full history of Yes, including a chart detailing “who played with who and when, click here.

Here’s a very brief history of the band’s highlights. They were formed in 1968 with an original lineup of Jon Anderson, vocals; Peter Banks, guitar; Squire, bass; Tony Kaye, keyboards; and Bill Bruford, drums.

By the fourth album, the classic Fragile (1971), the lineup consisted of Anderson, Squire, Steve Howe, guitar (replaced Banks in 1970), Rick Wakeman, keyboards (replaced Kaye in 1971), and Bruford (to be replaced by Alan White in 1972), drums.

The following years were very successful, millions of records sold, thousands attended their concerts , elaborate (ie, over the top) stage shows, and incredible album covers by artist Roger Dean. The period also saw Wakeman leave the band (replace by Patrick Moraz) only to return. In 1980 Anderson and Wakeman left the group, and were replaced by former Buggles Trevor Horn, vocals and Geoff Downes, keyboards. This lineup collapsed in 1981. Downes and Howe joined Emerson, Lake, and Palmer’s Carl Palmer and former Roxy Music, Uriah Heep, UK, and King Crimson bassist/vocalist John Wetton in Asia.

Yes remained disbanded from 1981 to 1983.

After their aborted group called Cinema failed to click, Chris Squire, Tony Kaye, Alan White, and guitarist/vocalist Trevor Rabin had Jon Anderson come in to the studio to help them with vocals. The result was the second coming of Yes. This lineup recorded the classic 90125, and remained together through most of the 1980’s.

By 1988, the Yes camp fragmented yet again when Anderson left the band and became a member of Anderson, Bruford, Wakeman, and Howe, all former group members. After several contentious years, the two factions came together, and the eight members united to record Union in 1991.

There were more comings and goings in the 1990’s and into the new century.

Currently, Yes consists of (official members) Jon Anderson, Steve Howe, Chris Squire, and Alan White. Rick Wakeman’s son, Oliver, has signed on to be keyboard player.

Because of illness, Anderson had to pull out of the group’s 40th reunion tour in 2008. He was recently replaced on the road by Canadian singer Benoit David (who sang in a Yes tribute band) until the current tour had to be shelved by Squire’s illness and recovery.

Below is a show from earlier this decade, featuring Anderson, White, Squire and Howe performing an acoustic version of Owner of a Lonely Heart.

Singer, musician, actor, entrepreneur, humanitarian, all around good guy, and the pride of Sayreville, NJ, happy birthday Jon Bon Jovi!

Here’s a message from Jon and the guys………

And a live performance of I Love This Town recorded in Chicago.

BONUS VIDEO!

In early December Rutgers destroyed Louisville in football, 63-14. With about four minutes to go in the game 11 year old “Nicholas” entertained the crowd during a commercial timeout with his impromptu impression of Jon Bon Jovi. The video provided by his Dad!

Here’s one bourbon, one scotch, and one beer (make mine Sam Adams Winter Lager)…..

For a guy who’s Bad To The Bone

There’s such a back catalogue of Aerosmith material that sometimes its hard to make a choice on what video to put here…but there is no such thing as a WRONG choice when it comes to these guys. They are the best selling American hard rock band of all time, and have sold in excess of 150 million records.

So here’s one of the songs that started it all for the “Bad Boys From Boston’, all grown up….and in some cases, grandpas….Sweet Emotion.