Joe Franklin and New Year's Eve news
Rob Plass
Franklin's Memory Lane restaurant in Times Square. Well, actually
45th and 8th, but close enough. I got there early, about 7pm and met
up unexpectedly with an old friend, Paul, who was there alone, in from
DC on a business trip (how fortuitous!). The restaurant, decorated
with Joe Franklin memorabilia, has an elevated section in the center
where a small stage was set up, with three microphones, one on one
side and two on the other. It was easy to figure out where to sit to
get the best seat, across from the two mics, of course. At around
7:15, John and John showed up. Linnell looked great, wearing a light
green pocket tee and new glasses, which he kept on during the entire
taping. They must be new glasses, they are a smaller black plastic
frame than he used to have. Flansy was wearing a horizontally striped
blue/green/white/black shirt. They were quite open with the crowd,
signing autographs, posing for pictures, etc. Since the setup was
quite simple, they were very relaxed before the show. At around 7:30
another friend showed up and we had great seats directly facing TMBG.
She had been working on sheet music for, "Metal Detector" and actually
asked Linnell to help her with a few notes and he scribbled quite a
bit on her staves. He also autographed it, "John L." Dan Miller and
Robin "Goldie" Goldwasser were there as well. Dan asked me, "You're
not here by coincidence...?" I related the previous email sent by
JCF. A random guy named Jason wearing a TMBG shirt was invited to our
table. He turned out to be from New Orleans, also up on a business
trip and grateful to meet up with other fans. It was his first TMBG
live show ever. My 205th.
We ordered dinner and drinks and the show started taping at about
8:45, and there was just enough juice in the PA system for us to hear
everything although it was sort of a noisy lively Times Square
restaurant/bar setup. It was amazing to be in Joe Franklin's presence
and the entire time, John and John were just starstruck and beaming.
Joe started out by asking about "Dead Presidents", to which Linnell
quipped, "We're interested in all the Presidents, it's just that most
of them are dead." Flans retorted, "I'd like to take this time to
thank all of the dead presidents in my wallet for being there."
They played four songs, starting with, "Istanbul", Linnell on
accordion, Flans on a poorly miced acoustic guitar and Dan Miller on
another guitar. Speaking of dead presidents, they also played, "James
K. Polk", but Linnell dropped the entire, "La la la la" or, "singing
saw" portion of the song. They then announced, "Reprehensible", but
disappointed us somewhat by not playing it live, but instead playing
that from the They Got Lost CD, which was floating around among the
radio crew. After that, John invited Robin up on to the radio dias
thingy and she tried to announce "In the Middle", but during her
introduction, she meant to list other songs written by the author of
that PSA song, but blanked out. JCF who had a wireless mic standing
behind her, picked up the ball and listed, "Green Acres" and the,
"Addams Family" TV show theme songs and sang did the first few notes
of the Addams Family song. During this, Robin, who was mortified
about dropping the ball on live taped radio, made a motion as if to
wipe the sweat off her brow, very happy to be saved by hubby. Robin
announced that she met John on a subway platform in Brooklyn. How
romantic. After that they announced their new children's book/album
thingy and played, "Bed, Bed, Bed." It was amazing. My friend Paul
openly taped the whole thing on video, and at several moments, Linnell
was singing into the camera. Heh.
Okay, here's the New Year's Eve info: on the way out, I asked John
where the show would be on New Year's Eve and he said, "Philadelphia",
a mere 2 hr drive from NYC. I wished him and Robin a Happy New Year
and we slumped back into our chairs, exhausted and thrilled once
again.
Jared G. West
> trip and grateful to meet up with other fans. It was his first TMBG
> live show ever. My 205th.
Sorry, my sarcasm detector is off - are you exaggerating?? If not,
wow. I thought *I'd* seen a lot of TMBG shows...
Anyway, good show review. Are they playing "Bed Bed Bed" in a
substantially different form, ie. a new version for the kid's book?
qcollard
> rpl...@yahoo.com (Rob Plass) wrote in message news:<87dec0a6.03091...@posting.google.com>...
>
>
>>trip and grateful to meet up with other fans. It was his first TMBG
>>live show ever. My 205th.
>
>
> Sorry, my sarcasm detector is off - are you exaggerating?? If not,
> wow. I thought *I'd* seen a lot of TMBG shows...
No, he's not.
> Anyway, good show review. Are they playing "Bed Bed Bed" in a
> substantially different form, ie. a new version for the kid's book?
God, I hope not. I hate that version. It's creepy.
--
Quinn * Vice Babe * http://home.houston.rr.com/johnlinnell/index.html
"That's right. I'm a cold-hearted creep." ~John Linnell
Rob Plass
> wow. I thought *I'd* seen a lot of TMBG shows...
I'm not exaggerating. I've been lucky to live in NYC, have a car,
have a good job and be healthy.
> Anyway, good show review. Are they playing "Bed Bed Bed" in a
> substantially different form, ie. a new version for the kid's book?
The version they played was very similar to the album version. You'll
hear it on the broadcast and on the Clock Radio thingy soon.
I just realized that of the four songs, none of them were Flansy
songs. Two of them were Linnell, Istanbul is a combo song, and of
course Robin sings exclusively on the other. I think the reason why
they didn't do a Flansy song was that they only had one mic for Flans,
and he was using it as a guitar pickup. If he were to sing into that
mic, he couldn't play the guitar. Not too many songs can do that
arrangement with Flans singing with no guitar and Linnell on
accordion. I've seen them do that at instores and of course at the
Loser's Lounge (when the covered the Zombies', "Butcher's Tale").
Love,
Rob
Eminel
-Mike
Kevin Sullivan
wrote:
>rpl...@yahoo.com (Rob Plass) wrote in message news:<87dec0a6.03091...@posting.google.com>...
>
>> trip and grateful to meet up with other fans. It was his first TMBG
>> live show ever. My 205th.
>
>Sorry, my sarcasm detector is off - are you exaggerating?? If not,
>wow. I thought *I'd* seen a lot of TMBG shows...
Hehe, I met Rob at my fourth TMBG show and it was his fifty
somethingth at that point I think:) I've seen TMBG some 60 odd times
since then and that's pretty much exclusively NYC shows. Rob goes to
everything from Boston to DC so 200 sounds just about right...
Hi Rob, good to see you in the group!