another Boston Abbey Rd review

["Jeff House" <whocasa@hotmail.com>]

Here's a review from Boston's REAL paper, The Globe...
http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/194/living/Disparate_parts_come_together_in_Beatles_salute+.shtml

MUSIC REVIEW

Disparate parts come together in Beatles salute


By Joan Anderman, Globe Staff, 7/13/2001

Only a force as galvanizing as the Beatles could make a group of performers 
as unlikely as this one make any sense at all. Alan Parsons, Todd Rundgren, 
Heart's Ann Wilson, The Who bassist John Entwistle, and David Pack from 
Ambrosia pooled their divergent sensibilities and talents for a luminous - 
if occasionally unfocused - night of music.

After a scrappy intro version of ''Magical Mystery Tour,'' the first half of 
the concert was devoted to the performers' solo material. There was no real 
stylistic thread to connect Heart's searing ''Barracuda,'' Rundgren's pop 
gem ''Hello, It's Me,'' the Alan Parsons Project's arty ''Eye in the Sky,'' 
and the Who's impudent ''My Generation.'' A couple of sugary Ambrosia radio 
staples from the '70s - ''Biggest Part of Me'' and ''How Much I Feel'' - 
added even more strange colors to the palette. Indeed, the first few songs 
were a bit of a mess, entirely lacking in clarity.

But each brought respect and genuine affection to the shared stage, and in 
so doing lifted the disjointed set list to a higher musical ground. Rundgren 
and Wilson were the night's brightest lights: He's a true eccentric and a 
brilliant musician, still brimming with wild ideas and weird guitar work, 
and singing that's unhinged and soulful as ever. Wilson's full-throated 
style is no longer in vogue, but her powerhouse delivery on ''Crazy on You'' 
made one long for the days when girls belted.

The second half of the show was a Beatles bonanza, conceived by Parsons, who 
was an engineer at Abbey Road studios and helmed the board for ''Abbey 
Road'' and ''Let It Be'' and Paul McCartney's early solo work. He sent 
wishes for a speedy recovery to his friend George Harrison, who's being 
treated for cancer, and recalled booking studio time for an unknown client 
named Sam Brown, who turned out to be Paul McCartney coming in under an 
alias to record ''Maybe I'm Amazed.'' Wilson did that song justice - pulling 
out a gritty, soaring melody with the vocal equivalent of her bare hands.

''All these songs are body memory now,'' said Wilson, and it's true: They 
brought an instant, physical pleasure as memory and timeless craft collided 
in the opening riffs of ''Back in the U.S.S.R.,'' ''Lady Madonna,'' ''I'm 
Down,'' and ''Hey Jude.''

Entwistle's fluttering, flickering bass lines brought a decidedly Who vibe 
to the proceedings; he helped recreate the twisted carnival beauty of ''Fool 
on the Hill'' with a little help from Wilson's and Parsons's tandem flutes 
and Rundgren's interpretive stumbling.

Parsons took a rare and touching solo turn on ''Blackbird,'' after which the 
group rocketed back through time and proceeded to transform the crowd of 
3,600 into a gargantuan dancing chorus for ''Day Tripper,'' ''Ticket to 
Ride, and ''I Want to Hold Your Hand.'' A final encore of ''Golden 
Slumbers'' closed the 21/2-hour show, although it felt like both audience 
and band would have been happy to sing all night long.

This story ran on page 5 of the Boston Globe on 7/13/2001.
© Copyright 2001 Globe Newspaper Company.

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