Archival Buffalo News feature articles

  One of Buffalo ’s leading recording studios, just as it was getting started.   Aug. 23, 1975   What’s That in the Basement? A Recording Studio, Naturally   MAYBE IT’S A SIGN of these electronic times. Where there used to be basement rock bands echoing decibels off the plumbing, now there’s guys with recording studios, soaking up the sound with acoustic tile and putting what’s left on tape.           Select Sound Studio, a compact subterranean operation north of Buffalo , fits the form.           The tapes Bill Kothen has taken of the house band – Topaz – are exceptionally clean and well-defined. And out on the front lawn you can’t hear a thing.           Engineer Kothen’s story pretty much tells how such things come to pass:           “I had some equalizers and mixers ups...

  Every once in a while, an imaginary friend dropped into my record reviews. Any resemblance to rock radio deejay Jim Santella is strictly coincidental.   Aug. 30, 1975   What’s Happening in the World of Music?   ALL SUMMER I’D BEEN DIALING up Jethro T. Megahertz to see if the old music biz philosopher could make sense out of the record scene, but all I’d get was his answering service.           They said he’d been keeping odd hours of late. He never called back.           Curiosity finally led me to stake out the wizened curmudgeon’s home base one hot August night. It was about 5 a.m. and I’d lapsed into a sweaty doze when a rhythmic shuffle of footsteps brought me abruptly to my senses. * * * “MEGAHERTZ , is that you?” I wasn’t so sure. In place of his trademark – the cowboy Stetson – was a floppy patchwork cap. The jeans had become tailored beige satin. The boo...

  On my personal list of all-time best concerts, this one is up around the top.   Dec. 18, 1975   Springsteen Springs Rock ‘n Roll Big Beat   Phil Spector’s Christmas album, that mating of holiday spirit with da-doo-ron-ron, booms out Wednesday night to a near-capacity Kleinhans Music Hall crowd that mostly was in grade school when Bob B. Soxx & The Blue Jeans first translated “Here Comes Santa Claus” in the early ‘60s.           It’s not nostalgia that’s got these kids yelling for “Rosalita.” They’re too young to remember Roy Orbison and all the rest.           And it’s not the Time and Newsweek cover stories and all the type that gets them cheering for two lengthy encores. It’s a genuine case of old-time rock ‘n roll madness, renewed in Bruce Springsteen.           “Greetings From Ocean City, N.J.,” a sheet hung...

  By 1975, I was starting to get offers to do phone interviews with recording artists. As a Moody Blues fan, I jumped at this one.   Dec. 13, 1975 Graeme Sees an Edge in Rock             “After all these years as a minor deity,” says Graeme Edge, burly, bearded drummer for the Moody Blues, “I want to get back to playin’ rock ‘n roll.”           Edge’s urge to rock makes his “Kick Off Your Muddy Boots” the first independent effort from the currently disbanded Moodies that’s truly independent.           He intends to follow it up with another album and a tour, he says from New York City , where he’s winding up a promotional swing through the U.S.           “This was the first time I’ve done any producing,” he reflects. “I never did any with the Moodies. They were such a self-contained ...

  This story got shunted back to the second page of the TV Topics Pause section. Note the big ad for the long-gone Record Runner store in the University Plaza .   Dec. 6, 1975   Local Songwriters Visit Gotham , Seek Record Contract After Win   “IT’S ALMOST A CINDERELLA TYPE setup,” Lou Rera exclaims. “It’s going to pay off for somebody and I think it’s going to pay off for us.”           Actually, the payoff from the 1975 American Song Festival already has begun for Rera and his songwriting partner Bill Torrico.           Two of the six songs they submitted to the festival – “Lettin’ You Go” and “Send a Little Love My Way,” both in the easy listening category – were among 288 honorable mention winners from some 60,000 entries.           For that they’ve won a small cash prize and the attention of a music publishing co...

  Buffalo’s great   jazz revival of the 1970s, right when it was starting to pick up speed.   Nov. 22, 1975 It’s Electronic and Funky – But It’s Still Jazz   TAKE Tuesday night. A regular sight in the Bar with No Name on Elmwood Avenue . You have people all jammed round the band and the joint just gets grooving.           But what’s moving things isn’t the Buffalo shuffle or boogie or blues or some new disco hustle. It’s jazz. From the hip of UB to the heart of downtown, it’s the hottest new sound around.           The band in No Name this night is the James Clark group. They’re simply sitting in, taking solos on jazz standards of a decade ago.           The kids sandwiched next to the door are impressed. They’re two rock guitarists down from Kitchener, Ont., for a fling.        ...

  This was the year that everybody fell in love with Linda Ronstadt.   Aug. 14, 1975   Linda Ronstadt Provides Sweet, Honest Inspiration             Linda Ronstadt was remarking how requests shouted from the audience often sound like obscenities on stage, but there was no misinterpreting the guy who yelled, “I love you!”           Ronstadt inspires guys that way. Buffalo blues singer Elmo Witherspoon, who briefly preceded her with the newest version of his House Rockers, announced he was going to stick around and check her over.           A zaftig size 13 with country-girl good looks, Ronstadt’s biggest hangup has been that the male-dominated music world fantasizes about her instead of listening to her. * * * BUT JUDGING from her performance in the nearly-full Century Theater Wednesday night, that may no longer be a pr...

  A friend asked me the other night if I did any rewriting when I made these transcriptions from photos of Buffalo News microfilm. Almost never, I said, but I do correct spelling and typographical errors (plus in those days, there was an extra chance for a misstep in the production process – the linotype operators who keyed the articles into the machines that made the lead type). Here there’s a mistake and I left it in. I mention that the previous Beach Boys appearance in Niagara Falls was 13 months earlier, implying October 1974. Actually, it was 12 months and nine days.   Nov. 22, 1975   Beach Boys Transcend Nostalgia, Remain Fresh             In the chill wind outside the Niagara Falls Convention Center Friday night, there’s a heavy need for tickets to the Beach Boys concert. The needy might as well be asking for spare water skis.           It’s a jam-packed se...