From The New York Post:
HIDDEN BOMBS
By KRIS W. KOBACH
April 7, 2006 -- IMMIGRATION-BILL SURPRISES
HOW do you slip legislative poison past a U.S. senator? Bury it on page 302 of a bill.
The Senate's Democratic and Republican leaders yesterday announced a compromise on an immigration bill - with some details still to be worked out. But details that may continue from the bill passed out of the Judiciary Committee should definitely be deal-breakers.
Like that surprise hidden on page 302 - which would replace the country's entire bench of experienced immigration judges with pro-immigration advocates.
With a few exceptions, today's immigration judges (who serve for life) are dedicated to enforcing the law, and they do a difficult job well. This bill forces all immigration judges to step down after serving seven years - and restricts replacements to attorneys with at least five years' experience practicing immigration law.
Virtually the only lawyers who'll meet that requirement are attorneys who represent aliens in the immigration courts - who tend to be some of the nation's most liberal lawyers, and who are certainly unlikely as a class to be fond of enforcing immigration laws.
It gets worse. Immigration judges are now appointed by the attorney general - whose job it is to see to it that laws are enforced. The Senate bill gives that power to a separate bureaucrat, albeit one directly appointed by the president, making immigration courts more susceptible to leftward polarization.
The second nasty surprise? Just before the committee approved the bill on the evening of March 27, Sen. Richard Durbin (D-Ill.) offered the "DREAM Act" as an amendment. It passed on a voice vote.
The DREAM Act is a nightmare. It repeals a 1996 law that prohibits state universities from offering in-state tuition rates to illegal aliens. The principle, of course, is that no illegal alien should be entitled to receive a taxpayer-subsidized benefit that out-of-state U.S. citizens can't get. But the committee's bill allows illegals to be treated better than those U.S. citizens on tuition.
The bill also gives an amnesty to the nine states (including New York) that have been flouting the '96 law, two of which (California and Kansas) are now facing lawsuits (I'm a counsel to the plaintiffs in both cases).
The third nasty surprise lies in what the bill fails to do. The measure envisions a massive amnesty for illegal aliens now in the country - but doesn't give the Citizenship and Immigration Service (CIS) the personnel or infrastructure to implement the amnesty.
In March, the General Accounting Office (GAO) issued a scathing report on the CIS's inability to effectively detect immigration fraud.
The last time we enacted a major amnesty, in 1986, the Immigration and Naturalization Service (the CIS's predecessor agency) processed some 3 million amnesty applications from illegal aliens. It found 398,000 cases of fraud - and missed thousands more. Now CIS may have to implement an amnesty four times larger.
Yet CIS already faces a backlog of several million applications for immigration benefits. And the GAO found that CIS managers pressure staff into "meeting production goals" by approving applications quickly - which means that fraud goes undetected. Adding millions of amnesty applications can only make things worse. And the latest Senate "compromise" - giving immediate amnesty only to aliens who've been in the country for five years or more - makes the process even more complex and fraud-prone, as illegals use fake documents to "prove" long-term residence.
In 1986, the terrorist Mahmud "The Red" Abouhalima fraudulently got amnesty as a seasonal agricultural worker (in fact, he was a New York cabbie). That status allowed him to travel to Afghanistan for terrorist training - which he later used as one of the 1993 World Trade Center bombers.
Terrorists know how to game the system. Janice Kephart, former counsel to the 9/11 Commission, released a study last year on how easily terrorists obtain immigration benefits. Of 94 alien terrorists in the United States, she found that 59 were successful immigration frauds. That includes six of the 9/11 hijackers.
The Senate bill does nothing to address this problem - while throwing a massive new load on the bureaucracy. A new amnesty will almost certainly ensure that more terrorists gain the legal right to walk our streets.
They will no doubt show their appreciation by attacking innocent Americans. And that will be the nastiest surprise of all.
Kris W. Kobach, a professor of law at the University of Missouri-Kansas City, served as counsel to the U.S. Attorney General, 2001-'03. He was the attorney general's chief adviser on immigration law.
Friday, April 07, 2006
First a Wall -- Then Amnesty
By Charles Krauthammer
WASHINGTON -- Every sensible immigration policy has two objectives: (1) to regain control of our borders so that it is we who decide who enters, and (2) to find a way to normalize and legalize the situation of the 11 million illegals among us.
Start with the second. No one of good will wants to see these 11 million suffer. But the obvious problem is that legalization creates an enormous incentive for new illegals to come.
We say, of course, that this will be the very last, very final, never-again, we're-not-kidding-this-time amnesty. The problem is that we say exactly the same thing with every new reform. And everyone knows it's phony.
What do you think was said when in 1986 we passed the Simpson-Mazzoli immigration reform? It turned into the largest legalization program in American history -- nearly 3 million got permanent residency. And we are now back at it again with 11 million new illegals in our midst.
How can it be otherwise? We already have a river of people coming every day knowing they're going to be illegal and perhaps even exploited. They come nonetheless. The newest amnesty -- the ``earned legalization'' now being dangled in front of them by proposed Senate legislation -- can only increase the flow.
Those who think employer sanctions will control immigration are dreaming. Employer sanctions were the heart of Simpson-Mazzoli. They are not only useless, they are pernicious. They turn employers into enforcers of border control. That is the job of government, not landscapers.
The irony of this whole debate, which is bitterly splitting the country along partisan, geographic and ethnic lines, is that there is a silver bullet that would not just solve the problem but also create a national consensus behind it.
My proposition is the following: a vast number of Americans who oppose legalization and fear new waves of immigration would change their minds if we could radically reduce new -- i.e., future -- illegal immigration.
Forget employer sanctions. Build a barrier. It is simply ridiculous to say it cannot be done. If one fence won't do it, then build a second 100 yards behind it. And then build a road for patrols in between. Put cameras. Put sensors. Put out lots of patrols.
Can't be done? Israel's border fence has been extraordinarily successful in keeping out potential infiltrators who are far more determined than mere immigrants. Nor have very many North Koreans crossed into South Korea in the last 50 years.
Of course it will be ugly. So are the concrete barriers to keep truck bombs from driving into the White House. But sometimes necessity trumps aesthetics. And don't tell me that this is our Berlin Wall. When you build a wall to keep people in, that's a prison. When you build a wall to keep people out, that's an expression of sovereignty. The fence around your house is a perfectly legitimate expression of your desire to control who comes into your house to eat, sleep and use the facilities. It imprisons no one.
Of course, no barrier will be foolproof. But it doesn't have to be. It simply has to reduce the river of illegals to a manageable trickle. Once we can do that, everything becomes possible -- most especially, humanizing the situation of our 11 million existing illegals.
If the government can demonstrate that it can control future immigration, there will be infinitely less resistance to dealing generously with the residual population of past immigration. And, as Mickey Kaus and others have suggested, that may require that the two provisions be sequenced. First, radical border control by physical means. Then shortly thereafter, radical legalization of those already here. To achieve national consensus on legalization, we will need a short lag time between the two provisions, perhaps a year or two, to demonstrate to the skeptics that the current wave of illegals is indeed the last.
This is no time for mushy compromise. A solution requires two acts of national will: the ugly act of putting up a fence and the supremely generous act of absorbing as ultimately full citizens those who broke our laws to come to America.
This is not a compromise meant to appease both sides without achieving anything. It is not some piece of hybrid legislation that arbitrarily divides illegals into those with five-year-old ``roots" in America and those without, or some such mischief-making nonsense.
This is full amnesty (earned with back taxes and learning English and the like) with full border control. If we do it right, not only will we solve the problem, we will get it done as one nation.
By Charles Krauthammer
WASHINGTON -- Every sensible immigration policy has two objectives: (1) to regain control of our borders so that it is we who decide who enters, and (2) to find a way to normalize and legalize the situation of the 11 million illegals among us.
Start with the second. No one of good will wants to see these 11 million suffer. But the obvious problem is that legalization creates an enormous incentive for new illegals to come.
We say, of course, that this will be the very last, very final, never-again, we're-not-kidding-this-time amnesty. The problem is that we say exactly the same thing with every new reform. And everyone knows it's phony.
What do you think was said when in 1986 we passed the Simpson-Mazzoli immigration reform? It turned into the largest legalization program in American history -- nearly 3 million got permanent residency. And we are now back at it again with 11 million new illegals in our midst.
How can it be otherwise? We already have a river of people coming every day knowing they're going to be illegal and perhaps even exploited. They come nonetheless. The newest amnesty -- the ``earned legalization'' now being dangled in front of them by proposed Senate legislation -- can only increase the flow.
Those who think employer sanctions will control immigration are dreaming. Employer sanctions were the heart of Simpson-Mazzoli. They are not only useless, they are pernicious. They turn employers into enforcers of border control. That is the job of government, not landscapers.
The irony of this whole debate, which is bitterly splitting the country along partisan, geographic and ethnic lines, is that there is a silver bullet that would not just solve the problem but also create a national consensus behind it.
My proposition is the following: a vast number of Americans who oppose legalization and fear new waves of immigration would change their minds if we could radically reduce new -- i.e., future -- illegal immigration.
Forget employer sanctions. Build a barrier. It is simply ridiculous to say it cannot be done. If one fence won't do it, then build a second 100 yards behind it. And then build a road for patrols in between. Put cameras. Put sensors. Put out lots of patrols.
Can't be done? Israel's border fence has been extraordinarily successful in keeping out potential infiltrators who are far more determined than mere immigrants. Nor have very many North Koreans crossed into South Korea in the last 50 years.
Of course it will be ugly. So are the concrete barriers to keep truck bombs from driving into the White House. But sometimes necessity trumps aesthetics. And don't tell me that this is our Berlin Wall. When you build a wall to keep people in, that's a prison. When you build a wall to keep people out, that's an expression of sovereignty. The fence around your house is a perfectly legitimate expression of your desire to control who comes into your house to eat, sleep and use the facilities. It imprisons no one.
Of course, no barrier will be foolproof. But it doesn't have to be. It simply has to reduce the river of illegals to a manageable trickle. Once we can do that, everything becomes possible -- most especially, humanizing the situation of our 11 million existing illegals.
If the government can demonstrate that it can control future immigration, there will be infinitely less resistance to dealing generously with the residual population of past immigration. And, as Mickey Kaus and others have suggested, that may require that the two provisions be sequenced. First, radical border control by physical means. Then shortly thereafter, radical legalization of those already here. To achieve national consensus on legalization, we will need a short lag time between the two provisions, perhaps a year or two, to demonstrate to the skeptics that the current wave of illegals is indeed the last.
This is no time for mushy compromise. A solution requires two acts of national will: the ugly act of putting up a fence and the supremely generous act of absorbing as ultimately full citizens those who broke our laws to come to America.
This is not a compromise meant to appease both sides without achieving anything. It is not some piece of hybrid legislation that arbitrarily divides illegals into those with five-year-old ``roots" in America and those without, or some such mischief-making nonsense.
This is full amnesty (earned with back taxes and learning English and the like) with full border control. If we do it right, not only will we solve the problem, we will get it done as one nation.
Thursday, April 06, 2006
From TownHall.com:
How does Mexico treat its illegals?
By Larry Elder
Apr 6, 2006
"We can't infringe upon the right of people to move freely within our territory," said Mexican President Vicente Fox during President George W. Bush's recent visit. Earlier, Fox said he stood by the statement he previously made to the BBC: "I dare say that in 10 years, the U.S. will be begging, will be pleading with Mexico to send it workers."
Does Mexico practice what it preaches?
First, Mexico put its military and police forces on its porous, zigzagged, mountainous, crime-ridden southern border with Guatemala. Chiapas -- the South Carolina-sized southern Mexican state that shares the longest border with Guatemala -- is Mexico's poorest, most illiterate state. About Chiapas, one United Nations human rights commissioner said, "Mexico is one of the countries where illegal immigrants are highly vulnerable to human rights violations and become victims of degrading sexual exploitation and slavery-like practices, and are denied access to education and health care."
Typically, when Mexican authorities catch illegal aliens, they place them overnight in a detention center, then bus or fly them back to their country of origin. Despite the fact that Mexico militarized its border and deported 203,128 illegal immigrants in 2004, many illegals get through by bribing corrupt military and police.
Do Mexicans appreciate the way America has allowed so many poor, Mexican illegals to enter the United States? No. According to a recent Zogby poll, 73 percent of Mexicans call Americans "racist"! When asked whether the United States' wealth comes from freedom and "plenty of opportunity to work," 70 percent of Americans agreed, while only 22 percent of Mexicans agreed. Sixty-two percent of Mexicans said America became wealthy because "it exploits others' wealth."
While Americans, according to the poll, see Mexicans as hard-working (78 percent), Mexicans think of Americans as racist, intolerant and not very hard-working.
Racist?
Mexico should look in the mirror. According to the Houston Chronicle's Rachel Graves, around the turn of the 17th century, Mexico imported more African slaves than anywhere else in the New World. As a result, tens of thousands of blacks (no one knows for sure -- the Mexican census does not recognize them) live in Mexico, mostly in destitute villages in its poorest states. An estimated 30,000 to 40,000 blacks live in Costa Chica.
How do they fare? According to the Houston Chronicle, many are illiterate, struggling to get a decent education for their children from government schools. One Costa Chica missionary says, "The kids here are considered by their teachers to be largely unteachable." When stopped by the police, Mexican blacks are often instructed to sing the Mexican national anthem to prove their citizenship!
If so many Mexicans consider Americans racist, why do polls show that nearly half of Mexico's inhabitants say that their lives would improve if they could work here illegally?
Intolerant?
America legally accepts about one million immigrants per year, with perhaps as many as 12 million people living here illegally, about half of whom come from Mexico. Many estimate that 500,000 or more people enter the country illegally every year. California Lieutenant Governor Cruz Bustamante is Hispanic. So is the man who holds the powerful position of speaker of the California Assembly. Los Angeles, America's second-largest city, has a Hispanic mayor, and of the 54 members of California's congressional delegation, nine are Hispanic. The former governor of California once proposed granting driver's licenses to illegals. And in California, under some circumstances, an illegal alien can apply for the cheaper in-state college tuition. Many predict the Hispanic governor of New Mexico, Bill Richardson, former Clinton Cabinet member, will run for president.
Not very hard-working?
According to the International Labor Organization, Americans work more than almost anybody in the developed world, including Japan. The average American worked 1,824 hours in 2004, compared with the Spanish at 1,799 and the French at 1,441 hours. The Dutch put in even less -- working 25 percent fewer hours than Americans.
President Bush, against the wishes of many in his own party as well of half of all Americans, makes the reasonable case for a guest worker program that would allow or provide some sort of legal status for those living here illegally. Latino "activists" do that cause harm by staging protests and waving the Mexican flag and demanding their "rights." For example, Juan Jose Gutierrez of Latino Movement USA says, "We think that the right thing to do is to grant full rights, full equality, under the laws in the Constitution of the United States, to all immigrants, period."
Americans raise legitimate concerns about the competition illegals pose to unskilled labor, and that illegals cut in front of people already waiting in line to get in the country legally. Americans resent expenditures for illegals on education and health care, and problems posed by some who commit additional crime in America. Illegals' attitude of entitlement helps to explain the growing anger Americans feel toward illegal aliens. Students leaving high schools, waving Mexican flags and chanting "Si se puede" do President Bush -- and their "cause" -- no favor.
[Editor's Note: See also "Mexico's Glass House," just released by the Center for Security Policy (requires Adobe Acrobat Reader).]
Larry Elder is an accomplished attorney, radio personality, syndicated columnist, best-selling author and host of daytime television's The Larry Elder Show
How does Mexico treat its illegals?
By Larry Elder
Apr 6, 2006
"We can't infringe upon the right of people to move freely within our territory," said Mexican President Vicente Fox during President George W. Bush's recent visit. Earlier, Fox said he stood by the statement he previously made to the BBC: "I dare say that in 10 years, the U.S. will be begging, will be pleading with Mexico to send it workers."
Does Mexico practice what it preaches?
First, Mexico put its military and police forces on its porous, zigzagged, mountainous, crime-ridden southern border with Guatemala. Chiapas -- the South Carolina-sized southern Mexican state that shares the longest border with Guatemala -- is Mexico's poorest, most illiterate state. About Chiapas, one United Nations human rights commissioner said, "Mexico is one of the countries where illegal immigrants are highly vulnerable to human rights violations and become victims of degrading sexual exploitation and slavery-like practices, and are denied access to education and health care."
Typically, when Mexican authorities catch illegal aliens, they place them overnight in a detention center, then bus or fly them back to their country of origin. Despite the fact that Mexico militarized its border and deported 203,128 illegal immigrants in 2004, many illegals get through by bribing corrupt military and police.
Do Mexicans appreciate the way America has allowed so many poor, Mexican illegals to enter the United States? No. According to a recent Zogby poll, 73 percent of Mexicans call Americans "racist"! When asked whether the United States' wealth comes from freedom and "plenty of opportunity to work," 70 percent of Americans agreed, while only 22 percent of Mexicans agreed. Sixty-two percent of Mexicans said America became wealthy because "it exploits others' wealth."
While Americans, according to the poll, see Mexicans as hard-working (78 percent), Mexicans think of Americans as racist, intolerant and not very hard-working.
Racist?
Mexico should look in the mirror. According to the Houston Chronicle's Rachel Graves, around the turn of the 17th century, Mexico imported more African slaves than anywhere else in the New World. As a result, tens of thousands of blacks (no one knows for sure -- the Mexican census does not recognize them) live in Mexico, mostly in destitute villages in its poorest states. An estimated 30,000 to 40,000 blacks live in Costa Chica.
How do they fare? According to the Houston Chronicle, many are illiterate, struggling to get a decent education for their children from government schools. One Costa Chica missionary says, "The kids here are considered by their teachers to be largely unteachable." When stopped by the police, Mexican blacks are often instructed to sing the Mexican national anthem to prove their citizenship!
If so many Mexicans consider Americans racist, why do polls show that nearly half of Mexico's inhabitants say that their lives would improve if they could work here illegally?
Intolerant?
America legally accepts about one million immigrants per year, with perhaps as many as 12 million people living here illegally, about half of whom come from Mexico. Many estimate that 500,000 or more people enter the country illegally every year. California Lieutenant Governor Cruz Bustamante is Hispanic. So is the man who holds the powerful position of speaker of the California Assembly. Los Angeles, America's second-largest city, has a Hispanic mayor, and of the 54 members of California's congressional delegation, nine are Hispanic. The former governor of California once proposed granting driver's licenses to illegals. And in California, under some circumstances, an illegal alien can apply for the cheaper in-state college tuition. Many predict the Hispanic governor of New Mexico, Bill Richardson, former Clinton Cabinet member, will run for president.
Not very hard-working?
According to the International Labor Organization, Americans work more than almost anybody in the developed world, including Japan. The average American worked 1,824 hours in 2004, compared with the Spanish at 1,799 and the French at 1,441 hours. The Dutch put in even less -- working 25 percent fewer hours than Americans.
President Bush, against the wishes of many in his own party as well of half of all Americans, makes the reasonable case for a guest worker program that would allow or provide some sort of legal status for those living here illegally. Latino "activists" do that cause harm by staging protests and waving the Mexican flag and demanding their "rights." For example, Juan Jose Gutierrez of Latino Movement USA says, "We think that the right thing to do is to grant full rights, full equality, under the laws in the Constitution of the United States, to all immigrants, period."
Americans raise legitimate concerns about the competition illegals pose to unskilled labor, and that illegals cut in front of people already waiting in line to get in the country legally. Americans resent expenditures for illegals on education and health care, and problems posed by some who commit additional crime in America. Illegals' attitude of entitlement helps to explain the growing anger Americans feel toward illegal aliens. Students leaving high schools, waving Mexican flags and chanting "Si se puede" do President Bush -- and their "cause" -- no favor.
[Editor's Note: See also "Mexico's Glass House," just released by the Center for Security Policy (requires Adobe Acrobat Reader).]
Larry Elder is an accomplished attorney, radio personality, syndicated columnist, best-selling author and host of daytime television's The Larry Elder Show
Wednesday, April 05, 2006
From Times Online:
Gene Pitney
February 17, 1941 - April 5, 2006
Versatile singer-songwriter who forged a durable career with his fusion of rock, remorse and romance
THE CROONING melodrama for which Gene Pitney is best remembered suggested a singer who took his art, and his pain, all too seriously. In fact it was Pitney’s stylistic range, versatility and likeable nature that enabled him to adapt, and so survive the 1960s.
When harder-edged rock took over completely he found a home in country and western, and then took American music back to the invaders in Britain. He thrived here, and on the Continent, where he sang and recorded in Spanish, German and Italian.
He was born Gene Francis Alan Pitney in Hartford, Connecticut, in 1941, the son of a mill worker. He moved with his family to the small town of Rockwell and first tried to sing at a school concert. It ended in complete embarrassment when he found himself petrified by stagefright. He spent the next few years building his confidence with his first band, the Genials, teaching himself piano and guitar.
He studied electronic engineering at Hartford University, but gradually music came to consume more and more of his time. He began performing locally with the singer Ginny Arnell under the group name Jamie and Jane, and the pair cut a single, Classical Rock & Roll/ Strolllin’ Through the Park. He tried the name Billy Bryan for one single, Cradle of My Arms, recorded for Blaze Records. The label then suggested he might do better with the handle Homer Muzzy.
Pitney found a “proper” label, Musicor, dropped out of education and put his real name on the next single, (I Wanna) Love My Life Away, pressed from a studio demo he had recorded for $30. Thanks to his background in electronics, Pitney, like Buddy Holly, was an early master of the overdub and the track had enough body to survive without embellishment on many of the Pitney anthologies available today. To keep costs down he played every instrument himself except the bass.
Although still struggling to make his own name known, Pitney was enjoying real success as a writer, usually of paeans to romantic agony, for other artists. The Kalin Twins recorded Loneliness, after which Hello Mary Lou, submitted to Rick Nelson, provided Pitney’s first real hit. For a while his talents were employed chiefly by some of the also-rans of the early rock’n’ roll years, including Steve Lawrence (Tears from Heaven), Tommy Edwards (Blue Heartaches) and Billy Bland (Harmony).
Pitney did not trouble the top 20 under his own name until the release of Town without Pity, written to accompany a harrowing film starring Kirk Douglas about a rape victim’s second brutalisation under the legal process. An important film that would inform The Accused (1988) it was a flop before Pitney’s song, written in collaboration with Burt Bacharach and Hal David, began to pick up airplay. It was rereleased and was eventually a modest success, while the song won a Golden Globe award for Best Song in a Motion Picture. Pitney became the first pop artist to perform at the Academy Awards, which at last established his name in the US.
A second movie theme followed, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, which became a second gold disc although the song never appeared in the film.
Pitney’s canon defies easy classification, but his great vocal range, and his marrying of rock and remorse, drew comparisons to Roy Orbison who in 1960 recorded Pitney’s Today’s Teardrops as the B-side to his massive hit Blue Angel.
Rubber Ball, given its upbeat “bouncy-bouncy” arrangement by Bobby Vee, still spoke of female manipulation and Pitney’s gluttony for emotional punishment. It reached No 6 in the US chart and was Vee’s second gold record. It was later a hit for the British artist Marty Wilde.
Pitney’s songs suited a broad range of artists and interpretations. In 1962 Phil Spector took the track He’s a Rebel and bent it in a completely different direction for his band, the Crystals. It went to No 1, keeping Pitney’s own release and his biggest-selling single Only Love Can Break a Heart in second place. He’s a Rebel, imbued with Spector’s timeless genius, surpassed a million airplays in the US in 1998.
In 1963 Pitney scored his breakthrough hit, 24 Hours from Tulsa, a song that provided a beachhead for a successful tour of the UK and from there a careful cultivation of his continental fanbase. In this song, unusually, he himself was the betrayer:
Oh I was only 24 hours from Tulsa
Only one day away from your arms . . .
I saw a welcoming light and stopped to rest for the night
And that is when I saw her . . .
In 1963-64 Pitney came to Britain for a string of tour dates and television appearances. He won quick admiration in Britain, although the British Invasion had by now begun to suffocate his American peers.
He befriended the Rolling Stones after appearing on Thank Your Lucky Stars, a meeting of minds which helped to persuade America that they were not so frightening after all. Pitney’s next single was the Jagger/Richards song That Girl Belongs to Yesterday, but it was not a hit. Pitney reciprocated with the piano track on the Stones’ Little by Little, the B-side to Not Fade Away. Pitney’s Mecca (1963) anticipated the Stone’s sitar-soaked Paint it Black and later Beatles work with its Middle Eastern vibe, although for Pitney the sound was just a novelty in a song about a girl whose house had become his holy city.
He had further Top Ten hits with It Hurts to Be in Love and I’m Gonna Be Strong, and began to diversify, recording albums in Spanish and Italian. The Musicor label was involved primarily with country and western, a genre not lacking in tears and tantrums, and soon Pitney began to put out albums recorded with George Jones and Melba Montgomery, and the singles I’ve Got Five Dollars and It’s Saturday Night and Louisiana Man. He even performed at the Grand Ole Opry, Nashville.
By 1966 loud guitars and British rock had displaced Pitney in America but he found new success across the Atlantic. He managed six Top Ten songs in Britain, including two Randy Newman compositions, Nobody Needs Your Love and Just One Smile.
Europe was thereafter his main breadwinner; he particularly enjoyed appearing at the song Festival in San Remo in Italy where he married his wife, Lynne, in 1967. In Italy he had a hit with Nessuno mi può giudicare.
He returned to the British charts in 1989 with Marc Almond to revive his 1967 release, Something’s Gotten Hold of My Heart. It was the only No 1 he achieved with his own name, on either side of the Atlantic.
In a profession full of ego and excess, Pitney’s story is one of patience, sober planning, good decisions and a sustained appreciation of his fans, particularly in Europe. He died suddenly in Cardiff after a concert performance that won a standing ovation. He is survived by his wife Lynne, and by their two sons.
Gene Pitney, singer and songwriter, was born on February 17, 1941. He died on April 5, 2006, aged 65.
Gene Pitney
February 17, 1941 - April 5, 2006
Versatile singer-songwriter who forged a durable career with his fusion of rock, remorse and romance
THE CROONING melodrama for which Gene Pitney is best remembered suggested a singer who took his art, and his pain, all too seriously. In fact it was Pitney’s stylistic range, versatility and likeable nature that enabled him to adapt, and so survive the 1960s.
When harder-edged rock took over completely he found a home in country and western, and then took American music back to the invaders in Britain. He thrived here, and on the Continent, where he sang and recorded in Spanish, German and Italian.
He was born Gene Francis Alan Pitney in Hartford, Connecticut, in 1941, the son of a mill worker. He moved with his family to the small town of Rockwell and first tried to sing at a school concert. It ended in complete embarrassment when he found himself petrified by stagefright. He spent the next few years building his confidence with his first band, the Genials, teaching himself piano and guitar.
He studied electronic engineering at Hartford University, but gradually music came to consume more and more of his time. He began performing locally with the singer Ginny Arnell under the group name Jamie and Jane, and the pair cut a single, Classical Rock & Roll/ Strolllin’ Through the Park. He tried the name Billy Bryan for one single, Cradle of My Arms, recorded for Blaze Records. The label then suggested he might do better with the handle Homer Muzzy.
Pitney found a “proper” label, Musicor, dropped out of education and put his real name on the next single, (I Wanna) Love My Life Away, pressed from a studio demo he had recorded for $30. Thanks to his background in electronics, Pitney, like Buddy Holly, was an early master of the overdub and the track had enough body to survive without embellishment on many of the Pitney anthologies available today. To keep costs down he played every instrument himself except the bass.
Although still struggling to make his own name known, Pitney was enjoying real success as a writer, usually of paeans to romantic agony, for other artists. The Kalin Twins recorded Loneliness, after which Hello Mary Lou, submitted to Rick Nelson, provided Pitney’s first real hit. For a while his talents were employed chiefly by some of the also-rans of the early rock’n’ roll years, including Steve Lawrence (Tears from Heaven), Tommy Edwards (Blue Heartaches) and Billy Bland (Harmony).
Pitney did not trouble the top 20 under his own name until the release of Town without Pity, written to accompany a harrowing film starring Kirk Douglas about a rape victim’s second brutalisation under the legal process. An important film that would inform The Accused (1988) it was a flop before Pitney’s song, written in collaboration with Burt Bacharach and Hal David, began to pick up airplay. It was rereleased and was eventually a modest success, while the song won a Golden Globe award for Best Song in a Motion Picture. Pitney became the first pop artist to perform at the Academy Awards, which at last established his name in the US.
A second movie theme followed, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, which became a second gold disc although the song never appeared in the film.
Pitney’s canon defies easy classification, but his great vocal range, and his marrying of rock and remorse, drew comparisons to Roy Orbison who in 1960 recorded Pitney’s Today’s Teardrops as the B-side to his massive hit Blue Angel.
Rubber Ball, given its upbeat “bouncy-bouncy” arrangement by Bobby Vee, still spoke of female manipulation and Pitney’s gluttony for emotional punishment. It reached No 6 in the US chart and was Vee’s second gold record. It was later a hit for the British artist Marty Wilde.
Pitney’s songs suited a broad range of artists and interpretations. In 1962 Phil Spector took the track He’s a Rebel and bent it in a completely different direction for his band, the Crystals. It went to No 1, keeping Pitney’s own release and his biggest-selling single Only Love Can Break a Heart in second place. He’s a Rebel, imbued with Spector’s timeless genius, surpassed a million airplays in the US in 1998.
In 1963 Pitney scored his breakthrough hit, 24 Hours from Tulsa, a song that provided a beachhead for a successful tour of the UK and from there a careful cultivation of his continental fanbase. In this song, unusually, he himself was the betrayer:
Oh I was only 24 hours from Tulsa
Only one day away from your arms . . .
I saw a welcoming light and stopped to rest for the night
And that is when I saw her . . .
In 1963-64 Pitney came to Britain for a string of tour dates and television appearances. He won quick admiration in Britain, although the British Invasion had by now begun to suffocate his American peers.
He befriended the Rolling Stones after appearing on Thank Your Lucky Stars, a meeting of minds which helped to persuade America that they were not so frightening after all. Pitney’s next single was the Jagger/Richards song That Girl Belongs to Yesterday, but it was not a hit. Pitney reciprocated with the piano track on the Stones’ Little by Little, the B-side to Not Fade Away. Pitney’s Mecca (1963) anticipated the Stone’s sitar-soaked Paint it Black and later Beatles work with its Middle Eastern vibe, although for Pitney the sound was just a novelty in a song about a girl whose house had become his holy city.
He had further Top Ten hits with It Hurts to Be in Love and I’m Gonna Be Strong, and began to diversify, recording albums in Spanish and Italian. The Musicor label was involved primarily with country and western, a genre not lacking in tears and tantrums, and soon Pitney began to put out albums recorded with George Jones and Melba Montgomery, and the singles I’ve Got Five Dollars and It’s Saturday Night and Louisiana Man. He even performed at the Grand Ole Opry, Nashville.
By 1966 loud guitars and British rock had displaced Pitney in America but he found new success across the Atlantic. He managed six Top Ten songs in Britain, including two Randy Newman compositions, Nobody Needs Your Love and Just One Smile.
Europe was thereafter his main breadwinner; he particularly enjoyed appearing at the song Festival in San Remo in Italy where he married his wife, Lynne, in 1967. In Italy he had a hit with Nessuno mi può giudicare.
He returned to the British charts in 1989 with Marc Almond to revive his 1967 release, Something’s Gotten Hold of My Heart. It was the only No 1 he achieved with his own name, on either side of the Atlantic.
In a profession full of ego and excess, Pitney’s story is one of patience, sober planning, good decisions and a sustained appreciation of his fans, particularly in Europe. He died suddenly in Cardiff after a concert performance that won a standing ovation. He is survived by his wife Lynne, and by their two sons.
Gene Pitney, singer and songwriter, was born on February 17, 1941. He died on April 5, 2006, aged 65.
From the UK Telegraph:
Gene Pitney
06/04/2006
Gene Pitney, the singer and songwriter who was found dead yesterday in a Cardiff hotel aged 65, found success in the 1960s with a string of hits, including 24 Hours from Tulsa, Town Without Pity and I'm Gonna be Strong; he enjoyed a revival in 1989, reaching Number 1 in the British charts with a reprise of his 1967 hit single Something's Gotten Hold of My Heart, performed as a duet with Marc Almond.
As a singer, Pitney's natural state was a fever pitch of romantic angst, his lungs and vocal chords at full throttle as he belted out over-the-top ballads of torrid love gone horribly wrong. Songs in which the protagonist was unceremoniously dumped, or tortured by unrequited love, suited his distinctive nasal tenor, with its rapid vibrato and ability to jump three octaves. "These are not love songs," remarked The Daily Telegraph's critic Tony Parsons after listening to Pitney's sobbing rendition of Nobody Needs Your Love. "These are suicide notes." Even in his biggest hit, 24 Hours from Tulsa, in which the protagonist finally stumbles on true love, Pitney's prevailing mood was one of heartbroken desperation.
No situation was too calamitous for Pitney to describe in song. Backstage (I'm Lonely) found him sobbing in his dressing-room, oblivious to the cheers of the crowd. Two People on Earth (1965) had him suffering the vagaries of love during a nuclear war. "I didn't have much interest in the content," he admitted of this unlikely piece, "so much as the singability of the song."
By the age of 22 Pitney had sold a million records and, when not enjoying success from his own singing career, he was writing hits for others. He wrote Rubber Ball for Bobby Vee; Today's Teardrops for Roy Orbison; Hello Mary Lou for Ricky Nelson; and He's a Rebel, which became a huge hit for the Crystals and Phil Spector in 1962. He also helped the fledgling Rolling Stones to break into the American market by recording the Jagger and Richards composition That Girl Belongs to Yesterday, and played piano in the background of several Stones' numbers.
If anything jarred about Pitney it was the incongruity between the melodramatics of his songs and the ordinariness of the man. The emotional roller-coaster of his music never reflected his personal life, and throughout the 1960s he seemed strangely impervious to the experimental excesses of the time. He liked to joke that he was "probably one of the few acts from the '60s who can actually remember where they've been". But his schoolboyish, clean-cut charm won him a huge army of faithful fans - particularly in Britain, where he continued to tour regularly until his death.
The middle of five children of a lathe operator, Gene Francis Alan Pitney was born at Hartford, Connecticut, on February 17 1941 and brought up at nearby Rockville. He was descended from a private in the Royal Marines who served in Victory at the Battle of Trafalgar.
An unusual, solitary child, instead of playing football with his friends he preferred trapping muskrats, mink and raccoon and taught himself to skin and stuff them, though he admitted that he had never been much good as a taxidermist.
Though musical as a child, he showed little potential as a performer. His first solo effort at school degenerated into an embarrassing whimper as he succumbed to stage fright. But in his teenage years at Rockville High School he learned to play the guitar and piano, and formed a schoolboy band, the unfortunately named Gene and the Genials. It was during one of the band's gigs that he was talent-spotted by "the proverbial fat man with a cigar", who took him to New York.
Pitney was signed with the publisher Aaron Schroeder, who occupied an office at 1650 Broadway. Another aspiring songwriter, Al Kooper, was in Schroeder's office when the singer walked in to audition "wearing a salt and pepper jacket, heavily greased down DA ("Duck's Ass") hairdo and white bucks. Three dressing schools tied together - very strange. The creature was quickly ushered in, sat down at the piano and proceeded to mesmerise us for two uninterrupted hours with his incredible songs and bizarre voice. He was an original." According to Kooper, Schroeder signed Pitney to a contract "so thorough it might've included bathroom privileges".
Pitney's early efforts as a singer flopped, but in 1961 he began a collaboration with Burt Bacharach and Hal David that resulted in the recording of his first hit single, (I Wanna) Love My Life Away, followed by his first big hit, Town Without Pity. Bacharach and David co-wrote Only Love Can Break a Heart, The Man who Shot Liberty Valance and 24 Hours from Tulsa, all of which became huge hits for Pitney.
At about this time Pitney met the music producer Phil Spector, who informed him, by way of introduction, that his (Spector's) sister was in a lunatic asylum and "she's the sane one in the family". In spite of their different temperaments they got on well, and worked together on Goffin-King's Every Breath I Take, an early example of Spector's "wall of sound" productions.
From then on Pitney was rarely far from the hit parade. Surviving the "British invasion", he had hits in 1964 with It Hurts to be in Love and I'm Gonna Be Strong. In 1965 and 1966 he recorded country albums with George Jones and Melba Montgomery.
Although Pitney's star had begun to wane in America by this time, he had never been more popular in Europe - particularly in Britain, where he had his first highly successful tour in 1962 and had no fewer than six top ten hits in 1965-66, including the Randy Newman numbers Nobody Needs Your Love and Just One Smile. Pitney toured Britain regularly for more than 40 years and his concerts became almost ritualised affairs. An important part of the ritual was the reading out of cards and letters from enraptured fans - a wearisome process for the uninitiated.
Cherubic-looking into his sixties, and with an enviably nimble physique, Pitney kept fit with a rigorous daily exercise regime, a careful diet and regular doses of vitamins. His only known vice was fishing, a passion he indulged whenever he could.
After returning to the charts with the remake of Something's Gotten Hold of My Heart in 1993, Pitney returned to the American concert stage for the first time in almost 20 years with a sell-out concert at the Carnegie Hall.
In 1966 Gene Pitney married his childhood sweetheart, Lynne Gayton, after an eight-year engagement. They had three sons. His wife and sons survive him.
Gene Pitney
06/04/2006
Gene Pitney, the singer and songwriter who was found dead yesterday in a Cardiff hotel aged 65, found success in the 1960s with a string of hits, including 24 Hours from Tulsa, Town Without Pity and I'm Gonna be Strong; he enjoyed a revival in 1989, reaching Number 1 in the British charts with a reprise of his 1967 hit single Something's Gotten Hold of My Heart, performed as a duet with Marc Almond.
As a singer, Pitney's natural state was a fever pitch of romantic angst, his lungs and vocal chords at full throttle as he belted out over-the-top ballads of torrid love gone horribly wrong. Songs in which the protagonist was unceremoniously dumped, or tortured by unrequited love, suited his distinctive nasal tenor, with its rapid vibrato and ability to jump three octaves. "These are not love songs," remarked The Daily Telegraph's critic Tony Parsons after listening to Pitney's sobbing rendition of Nobody Needs Your Love. "These are suicide notes." Even in his biggest hit, 24 Hours from Tulsa, in which the protagonist finally stumbles on true love, Pitney's prevailing mood was one of heartbroken desperation.
No situation was too calamitous for Pitney to describe in song. Backstage (I'm Lonely) found him sobbing in his dressing-room, oblivious to the cheers of the crowd. Two People on Earth (1965) had him suffering the vagaries of love during a nuclear war. "I didn't have much interest in the content," he admitted of this unlikely piece, "so much as the singability of the song."
By the age of 22 Pitney had sold a million records and, when not enjoying success from his own singing career, he was writing hits for others. He wrote Rubber Ball for Bobby Vee; Today's Teardrops for Roy Orbison; Hello Mary Lou for Ricky Nelson; and He's a Rebel, which became a huge hit for the Crystals and Phil Spector in 1962. He also helped the fledgling Rolling Stones to break into the American market by recording the Jagger and Richards composition That Girl Belongs to Yesterday, and played piano in the background of several Stones' numbers.
If anything jarred about Pitney it was the incongruity between the melodramatics of his songs and the ordinariness of the man. The emotional roller-coaster of his music never reflected his personal life, and throughout the 1960s he seemed strangely impervious to the experimental excesses of the time. He liked to joke that he was "probably one of the few acts from the '60s who can actually remember where they've been". But his schoolboyish, clean-cut charm won him a huge army of faithful fans - particularly in Britain, where he continued to tour regularly until his death.
The middle of five children of a lathe operator, Gene Francis Alan Pitney was born at Hartford, Connecticut, on February 17 1941 and brought up at nearby Rockville. He was descended from a private in the Royal Marines who served in Victory at the Battle of Trafalgar.
An unusual, solitary child, instead of playing football with his friends he preferred trapping muskrats, mink and raccoon and taught himself to skin and stuff them, though he admitted that he had never been much good as a taxidermist.
Though musical as a child, he showed little potential as a performer. His first solo effort at school degenerated into an embarrassing whimper as he succumbed to stage fright. But in his teenage years at Rockville High School he learned to play the guitar and piano, and formed a schoolboy band, the unfortunately named Gene and the Genials. It was during one of the band's gigs that he was talent-spotted by "the proverbial fat man with a cigar", who took him to New York.
Pitney was signed with the publisher Aaron Schroeder, who occupied an office at 1650 Broadway. Another aspiring songwriter, Al Kooper, was in Schroeder's office when the singer walked in to audition "wearing a salt and pepper jacket, heavily greased down DA ("Duck's Ass") hairdo and white bucks. Three dressing schools tied together - very strange. The creature was quickly ushered in, sat down at the piano and proceeded to mesmerise us for two uninterrupted hours with his incredible songs and bizarre voice. He was an original." According to Kooper, Schroeder signed Pitney to a contract "so thorough it might've included bathroom privileges".
Pitney's early efforts as a singer flopped, but in 1961 he began a collaboration with Burt Bacharach and Hal David that resulted in the recording of his first hit single, (I Wanna) Love My Life Away, followed by his first big hit, Town Without Pity. Bacharach and David co-wrote Only Love Can Break a Heart, The Man who Shot Liberty Valance and 24 Hours from Tulsa, all of which became huge hits for Pitney.
At about this time Pitney met the music producer Phil Spector, who informed him, by way of introduction, that his (Spector's) sister was in a lunatic asylum and "she's the sane one in the family". In spite of their different temperaments they got on well, and worked together on Goffin-King's Every Breath I Take, an early example of Spector's "wall of sound" productions.
From then on Pitney was rarely far from the hit parade. Surviving the "British invasion", he had hits in 1964 with It Hurts to be in Love and I'm Gonna Be Strong. In 1965 and 1966 he recorded country albums with George Jones and Melba Montgomery.
Although Pitney's star had begun to wane in America by this time, he had never been more popular in Europe - particularly in Britain, where he had his first highly successful tour in 1962 and had no fewer than six top ten hits in 1965-66, including the Randy Newman numbers Nobody Needs Your Love and Just One Smile. Pitney toured Britain regularly for more than 40 years and his concerts became almost ritualised affairs. An important part of the ritual was the reading out of cards and letters from enraptured fans - a wearisome process for the uninitiated.
Cherubic-looking into his sixties, and with an enviably nimble physique, Pitney kept fit with a rigorous daily exercise regime, a careful diet and regular doses of vitamins. His only known vice was fishing, a passion he indulged whenever he could.
After returning to the charts with the remake of Something's Gotten Hold of My Heart in 1993, Pitney returned to the American concert stage for the first time in almost 20 years with a sell-out concert at the Carnegie Hall.
In 1966 Gene Pitney married his childhood sweetheart, Lynne Gayton, after an eight-year engagement. They had three sons. His wife and sons survive him.
Tuesday, April 04, 2006
Poor Trend
We’re importing Latin America’s poor.
By Rich Lowry
Forget the long-running bipartisan concern about creating an educated, highly skilled workforce. What the U.S. economy desperately needs is more high-school dropouts — so desperately that we should import them hand over fist.
Such is the logic of the contention by advocates of lax immigration that the flow of illegal labor from south of the border is a boon to our economy. But it doesn't make intuitive sense that importing the poor of Latin America would benefit us. If low-skill workers were key to economic growth, Mexico would be an economic powerhouse, and impoverished Americans would be slipping south over the Rio Grande.
The National Research Council reports that an immigrant to the U.S. without a high-school diploma — whether legal or illegal — consumes $89,000 more in governmental services than he pays in taxes during his lifetime. An immigrant with only a high-school diploma is a net cost of $31,000. Eighty percent of illegal immigrants have no more than a high-school degree, and 60 percent have less than a high-school degree.
Steve Camarota of the Washington, D.C.-based Center for Immigration Studies estimates that illegal immigrants cost the federal government $10 billion a year. State and local governments lose even more. Illegals pay some taxes, but not enough to cover governmental expenses like Medicaid and treatment for the uninsured.
According to Camarota, if illegal immigrants were legalized, their net annual cost to the federal government would only increase, tripling to $30 billion a year. Immigrant workers don't earn enough to pay much in taxes, while they qualify for all sorts of governmental assistance. As they become legal, they will get even more assistance — the benefits that they get from the Earned Income Tax Credit, for instance, would increase by a factor of 10.
Whatever benefit illegals provide to the economy in general must be minuscule. All workers without a high-school education — illegal and otherwise — account for only 3 percent of economic output. Even if illegal immigrants were dominant in low-skill industries, their broader impact would be small. But they aren't dominant, and that includes job categories associated with immigrants. Nearly 60 percent of cabdrivers are native-born. In only four of 473 job classifications are immigrants a majority of the workers.
The U.S. has an ample supply of native-born workers with a high-school education or less, but Camarota suggests they are being pushed out of the labor force by the influx of illegals. From 2000 to 2005, the percentage of high-school dropouts holding a job dropped from 53 to 48, and this trend was particularly pronounced in states with the highest levels of immigration. Illegals compete with the very workers least equipped to thrive in our economy.
Pro-immigration conservatives sometimes argue that, through immigration, we are importing social renewal. But the illegitimacy rate among Hispanic immigrants in the U.S. is 40 percent. They aren't coming from countries that are paradisiacal models of social conservatism. The illegitimacy rate in Mexico is roughly one third, and in El Salvador it is 73 percent.
With the U.S. population aging, don't we need highly fertile immigrants to replenish our working-age population? Actually, there aren't enough immigrants to change our age structure significantly. According to Camarota, 66.2 percent of the U.S. population was of working age in 2000. If all post-1980s immigrants and their U.S.-born children are excluded, the number falls to only 65.9 percent. With immigrants, the U.S. fertility rate is 2.1; without them, it would be 2.0.
Immigration from Latin America, in short, does not chiefly benefit our economy, government or society, but rather the immigrants themselves. Their motives, if not their means, are admirable — they want to improve their lives. Advocates of a lax immigration policy should admit that their policy has a humanitarian, not an economic, rationale, and its beneficiaries aren't Americans but mainly people from rural Mexico.
If we really need more poorly educated workers here, we can always rely, unfortunately, on the public schools to produce them indigenously.
— Rich Lowry is author of Legacy: Paying the Price for the Clinton Years.
Sir Paul McCartney Salutes Peter & Gordon Reunion
ON THE SCENE WGO EXCLUSIVE
Sir Paul McCartney, who custom-composed four of the nine Top-40 hits recorded by legendary 60s duo Peter & Gordon, issued a special message on Saturday on the occasion of their first full-scale reunion in 39 years.
Peter Asher and Gordon Waller gave their reunion concert in front of over 3,000 fans crammed into the Grand Ballroom of the Crowne Plaza hotel at Giant Stadium just outside New York City. The concert was the headline attraction of the 32nd Beatles fan convention, held annually in NY since 1974. (Originally known as "Beatlefest", now known as "The Fest For Beatles Fans.")
The duo was introduced on stage by one of their friends, humorist and Sirius radio host Martin Lewis, who has emceed the conventions since 1992, and who helped organize the reunion.
When the duo arrived on stage to sing their 12-song set (backed by a 9-piece band comprising top session men) Lewis surprised them and the audience by reading out a special message he had just received from Sir Paul in London. (Lewis had casually mentioned the upcoming reunion to McCartney while they were chatting backstage at the Grammys in February, and McCartney had expressed delight at the news.)
In his message, McCartney drew reference to "A World Without Love", the breakthrough song he wrote for them in 1964, that became a worldwide Number One hit. He expressed the hope that their reunion would "help to make a world without love into a love-filled planet." The surprise message delighted both the singers, and the audience, who responded with a prolonged roar of approval.
Peter & Gordon received a rapturous reception during their 50-minute show and left the stage to a thunderous standing ovation. Among the hits they performed were all four songs McCartney specially wrote for them, "A World Without Love," "Nobody I Know," "I Don’t Want To See You Again" and "Woman", and other hits such as "I Go To Pieces," "True Love Ways" and "Lady Godiva."
The duo is now contemplating undertaking additional select live appearances and have agreed to star in a PBS pledge-week concert special featuring legendary 60s performers.
The full text of Sir Paul McCartney’s message was:
What the world needs now is Peter & Gordon to sing their songs and remind us all of the fab years they are from.
I’m very glad to hear that they have got together after these many moons and are going to help to make a world without love into a love-filled planet.
- Paul McCartney
ON THE SCENE WGO EXCLUSIVE
Sir Paul McCartney, who custom-composed four of the nine Top-40 hits recorded by legendary 60s duo Peter & Gordon, issued a special message on Saturday on the occasion of their first full-scale reunion in 39 years.
Peter Asher and Gordon Waller gave their reunion concert in front of over 3,000 fans crammed into the Grand Ballroom of the Crowne Plaza hotel at Giant Stadium just outside New York City. The concert was the headline attraction of the 32nd Beatles fan convention, held annually in NY since 1974. (Originally known as "Beatlefest", now known as "The Fest For Beatles Fans.")
The duo was introduced on stage by one of their friends, humorist and Sirius radio host Martin Lewis, who has emceed the conventions since 1992, and who helped organize the reunion.
When the duo arrived on stage to sing their 12-song set (backed by a 9-piece band comprising top session men) Lewis surprised them and the audience by reading out a special message he had just received from Sir Paul in London. (Lewis had casually mentioned the upcoming reunion to McCartney while they were chatting backstage at the Grammys in February, and McCartney had expressed delight at the news.)
In his message, McCartney drew reference to "A World Without Love", the breakthrough song he wrote for them in 1964, that became a worldwide Number One hit. He expressed the hope that their reunion would "help to make a world without love into a love-filled planet." The surprise message delighted both the singers, and the audience, who responded with a prolonged roar of approval.
Peter & Gordon received a rapturous reception during their 50-minute show and left the stage to a thunderous standing ovation. Among the hits they performed were all four songs McCartney specially wrote for them, "A World Without Love," "Nobody I Know," "I Don’t Want To See You Again" and "Woman", and other hits such as "I Go To Pieces," "True Love Ways" and "Lady Godiva."
The duo is now contemplating undertaking additional select live appearances and have agreed to star in a PBS pledge-week concert special featuring legendary 60s performers.
The full text of Sir Paul McCartney’s message was:
What the world needs now is Peter & Gordon to sing their songs and remind us all of the fab years they are from.
I’m very glad to hear that they have got together after these many moons and are going to help to make a world without love into a love-filled planet.
- Paul McCartney
From Scrappleface via Instapundit:
At the box office this weekend, Ice Age 2 clobbered Basic Instinct 2 hauling in $70 million dollars, compared with less than $3 million for the Sharon Stone movie. One film is about a prehistoric creature’s struggle to survive and find love, the other is the animated sequel to the movie Ice Age.
At the box office this weekend, Ice Age 2 clobbered Basic Instinct 2 hauling in $70 million dollars, compared with less than $3 million for the Sharon Stone movie. One film is about a prehistoric creature’s struggle to survive and find love, the other is the animated sequel to the movie Ice Age.
From chapelhillnews.com:
Apr 2, 2006
Hansbrough assures UNC success for next year
By EDDY LANDRETH
Tyler Hansbrough is banking his future will be richer by staying in Chapel Hill for at least one more season rather than entering the 2006 National Basketball Association draft.
Hansbrough figures his draft status and eventual payoff will improve by returning to the University of North Carolina.
The Tar Heels know their immediate future should be golden with the gifted young forward's name on the roster for another year. He has already carved a significant spot in the history of Atlantic Coast Conference basketball, which is no small achievement in a league that has produced some of the finest collegiate and professionals to play the game.
"He's a man amongst children out there," teammate Reyshawn Terry said. "It's scary. He's accomplished so much in a year's span."
Who's to say how much better this kid is going to get?
"He's just killing out there," Terry said. "Three more years of this could be very scary, dominating like this his freshman year. He plays like he's a veteran. He's done a terrific job."
Three more years might be wishful thinking with the lure of NBA money growing stronger over time. But, given the core group of players returning and the recruiting class that will join the team this summer, UNC will enter practice this fall as one of the favorites to win the 2007 national championship.
Hansbrough's return alone assures that.
The ACC Rookie of the Year, he earned first-team All-America honors this year from The Sporting News and the Commonwealth Club of Kentucky (Rupp Awards), and he was a third-team All-America selection by The Associated Press and National Association of Basketball Coaches.
He is the first Tar Heel freshman ever to earn All-America honors.
He was also the first freshman to ever be a unanimous first-team All-ACC selection.
Hansbrough was one of the key reasons senior David Noel said that he felt confident long before this season began that UNC would exceed the meager expectations most people had for the Tar Heels. Noel had seen Hansbrough before the teenager even committed to play at UNC.
A rare ice storm struck North Carolina during Hansbrough's official visit in January 2004, and UNC had to seek permission from the NCAA for Hansbrough to spend an extra day in Chapel Hill.
Hansbrough spent much of the additional time with Williams, but he was also able to play a lot of pick-up ball with the players on campus, too. Noel said he knew right then that he wanted Hansbrough as a teammate. Hansbrough took his game head-on at former Tar Heel Marvin Williams, showing no fear or hesitation.
"When he came down for his visit," Noel said, "right before he committed to us, he and Marvin went back and forth with each other, just banging. I said: 'Man, this kid is something special. I really hope we get him.'
"I knew then what type of player he was."
Hansbrough, of course, showed everyone else this season.
From start to finish, he single-mindedly produced along the front line. His footwork, strength and sheer determination were astonishing at times.
"I don't know how he does it," fellow freshman Bobby Frasor said. "He's got people hanging all over him, both arms, getting fouled and still having the touch to finish up the shot. It's big that we can throw him the ball. He's going to get fouled and go to the line, too.
"We feed off that. The crowd loves it. They get going, and we get going. We get another stop and get Tyler the ball again."
For anyone who watched Hansbrough closely, there were also glimpses of skills that far exceed an ability to power the ball in from the post.
Hansbrough led the team in steals, and he showed on more than one occasion he could take the ball and handle it well enough to race to UNC's bucket for a breakaway dunk.
As the season progressed, he drove the ball in half-court sets and hit short jumpers with a shooter's touch.
In Carolina's victory at Duke in the final regular-season game, Hansbrough hit a crucial three-pointer with the shot clock winding down near the end of the game.
It was no fluke. He can shoot the ball.
With three more front-line players joining him this fall, look for Hansbrough to move 10 to 15 feet down the baseline and shoot short-range jump shots. If and when he does this, it will make him nearly impossible to guard.
If a defender follows him outside, Hansbrough will drive and dunk the ball. If the defense sits back, he will shoot the jumper with confidence, because either Alex Stepheson (6 feet 10), Deon Thompson (6-8) or Brandan Wright (6-9) will be near the bucket, ready to rebound.
Mix in ultra-fast point guard Tywon Lawson, and opponents can expect to see Hansbrough hanging off the rim to finish many a fast break. This young man can really run the floor and, with additional help on rebounding, he's going to be free to race full court more often.
Look for the whole team to run at a pace that exceeds anything we've seen in coach Roy Williams' first three years back at Carolina, and that would be amazing given the 2004-2005 national champs raced to 50 or more points in a half 17 times during their run to the title.
But that is simply how it's going to be with a team that can start the season with a certified All-American on the front line and a roster three teams deep in talent.
Apr 2, 2006
Hansbrough assures UNC success for next year
By EDDY LANDRETH
Tyler Hansbrough is banking his future will be richer by staying in Chapel Hill for at least one more season rather than entering the 2006 National Basketball Association draft.
Hansbrough figures his draft status and eventual payoff will improve by returning to the University of North Carolina.
The Tar Heels know their immediate future should be golden with the gifted young forward's name on the roster for another year. He has already carved a significant spot in the history of Atlantic Coast Conference basketball, which is no small achievement in a league that has produced some of the finest collegiate and professionals to play the game.
"He's a man amongst children out there," teammate Reyshawn Terry said. "It's scary. He's accomplished so much in a year's span."
Who's to say how much better this kid is going to get?
"He's just killing out there," Terry said. "Three more years of this could be very scary, dominating like this his freshman year. He plays like he's a veteran. He's done a terrific job."
Three more years might be wishful thinking with the lure of NBA money growing stronger over time. But, given the core group of players returning and the recruiting class that will join the team this summer, UNC will enter practice this fall as one of the favorites to win the 2007 national championship.
Hansbrough's return alone assures that.
The ACC Rookie of the Year, he earned first-team All-America honors this year from The Sporting News and the Commonwealth Club of Kentucky (Rupp Awards), and he was a third-team All-America selection by The Associated Press and National Association of Basketball Coaches.
He is the first Tar Heel freshman ever to earn All-America honors.
He was also the first freshman to ever be a unanimous first-team All-ACC selection.
Hansbrough was one of the key reasons senior David Noel said that he felt confident long before this season began that UNC would exceed the meager expectations most people had for the Tar Heels. Noel had seen Hansbrough before the teenager even committed to play at UNC.
A rare ice storm struck North Carolina during Hansbrough's official visit in January 2004, and UNC had to seek permission from the NCAA for Hansbrough to spend an extra day in Chapel Hill.
Hansbrough spent much of the additional time with Williams, but he was also able to play a lot of pick-up ball with the players on campus, too. Noel said he knew right then that he wanted Hansbrough as a teammate. Hansbrough took his game head-on at former Tar Heel Marvin Williams, showing no fear or hesitation.
"When he came down for his visit," Noel said, "right before he committed to us, he and Marvin went back and forth with each other, just banging. I said: 'Man, this kid is something special. I really hope we get him.'
"I knew then what type of player he was."
Hansbrough, of course, showed everyone else this season.
From start to finish, he single-mindedly produced along the front line. His footwork, strength and sheer determination were astonishing at times.
"I don't know how he does it," fellow freshman Bobby Frasor said. "He's got people hanging all over him, both arms, getting fouled and still having the touch to finish up the shot. It's big that we can throw him the ball. He's going to get fouled and go to the line, too.
"We feed off that. The crowd loves it. They get going, and we get going. We get another stop and get Tyler the ball again."
For anyone who watched Hansbrough closely, there were also glimpses of skills that far exceed an ability to power the ball in from the post.
Hansbrough led the team in steals, and he showed on more than one occasion he could take the ball and handle it well enough to race to UNC's bucket for a breakaway dunk.
As the season progressed, he drove the ball in half-court sets and hit short jumpers with a shooter's touch.
In Carolina's victory at Duke in the final regular-season game, Hansbrough hit a crucial three-pointer with the shot clock winding down near the end of the game.
It was no fluke. He can shoot the ball.
With three more front-line players joining him this fall, look for Hansbrough to move 10 to 15 feet down the baseline and shoot short-range jump shots. If and when he does this, it will make him nearly impossible to guard.
If a defender follows him outside, Hansbrough will drive and dunk the ball. If the defense sits back, he will shoot the jumper with confidence, because either Alex Stepheson (6 feet 10), Deon Thompson (6-8) or Brandan Wright (6-9) will be near the bucket, ready to rebound.
Mix in ultra-fast point guard Tywon Lawson, and opponents can expect to see Hansbrough hanging off the rim to finish many a fast break. This young man can really run the floor and, with additional help on rebounding, he's going to be free to race full court more often.
Look for the whole team to run at a pace that exceeds anything we've seen in coach Roy Williams' first three years back at Carolina, and that would be amazing given the 2004-2005 national champs raced to 50 or more points in a half 17 times during their run to the title.
But that is simply how it's going to be with a team that can start the season with a certified All-American on the front line and a roster three teams deep in talent.
Sunday, April 02, 2006
Steady rockin' in classic fashion
By Dirt wire
Wednesday March 29, 2006
HOLLYWOOD - For a fast drive to the dark end of Thunder Road, hitch a ride on the Hold Steady's "Separation Sunday," an album that made a big noise on the best-of-2005 lists, including an eye-opening No. 8 finish in the prestigious Village Voice critics' poll.
The recognition hasn't changed the Brooklyn band's life, but it's another boost to a growing momentum surrounding its distinctive take on American rock. Like the similarly acclaimed Drive-By Truckers, the Hold Steady reclaims a neglected music and reinvents it with a fierce passion.
"Separation's" sales of 17,000 are solid for an indie band, and more than triples the sales of its debut, but the group's growth is also measured by such attention as the profile on NPR's "All Things Considered" late last year, complete with a rigorous annotation of the album's pop, literary and cultural references.
Singer and chief songwriter Craig Finn thinks of "Separation Sunday" as "a prodigal daughter story," and says it was drawn from his own experiences and those of friends. The 11 songs follow a "hoodrat" on her wayward path through her late teens, as she encounters lowlifes and predators, saviors and lovers. Kids get high and get saved, hit bottom and claw for salvation.
Finn packs his songs with vivid, colorful vernacular, anchors the album with recurring characters and geographical detail and laces it all with themes of forgiveness and redemption rooted in his Catholic upbringing in Minneapolis.
"You're still half a child, but you're getting in these adult situations with a sense of wonder and a sense of stupidity as well," Finn, 34, said this week. "I see it as a real universal suburban record."
TRAMPS LIKE US
As a young teen, Finn absorbed the unruly, joyous aesthetic of the city's great band the Replacements, and later participated in the edgy rituals of adolescence.
"There's caves in St. Paul that a lot of people would go to that were pretty terrifying, but part of the whole experience was to be there drinking," he said. "It was scary, and there were scary dudes sometimes, but ... it wouldn't have been half as exciting to drink in someone's parents' basement."
"Tramps like us and we like tramps," Finn sings in the song "Charlemagne in Sweatpants," having a little fun with a signature lyric by one of the album's prime inspirations.
"Springsteen is a huge influence," said Finn, sitting with guitarist Tad Kubler in the band's dressing room at the Avalon in Hollywood, where they shared a bill with a couple of other bands from the small independent label FrenchKiss Records, Les Savy Fav and the Thunderbirds Are Now!
"He used a lot of words," Finn said of Springsteen. "He tried to be very specific and descriptive, which is something I try to be as well. But also his literary take on what I call the American teenage experience ... rock 'n' roll always sounds best when covering that topic .... Springsteen had teenage dramas that were so vivid."
Finn's are vivid too, but the Hold Steady has another distinguishing feature: music that delivers the narrative payload with a grand, full-blown, classic rock sound drawn proudly from the likes of Bob Seger, Aerosmith, the E Street Band and Cheap Trick.
WOUND TIGHT
It's a strange visitor to the world of indie rock, which is rooted in punk and other non-mainstream styles. Finn summarized indie music as "tightly wound," which is what he and Kubler were in their Minneapolis band Lifter Puller. After that group ended and Finn moved to Brooklyn in 2000 came the revelation.
"My wife took me to see 'The Last Waltz,' " he recalled. "I thought, 'These guys are playing music, they're listening to each other and they're hearing each other and reacting off that, and they're loose and it's cool and they're taking chances.' "
It struck Finn and Kubler as an invigorating alternative to what they saw as the sterility of the disco-punk sound that was so big in New York. Not that they had any huge ambitions.
"When we first started doing this, it was like, we'll drink some beers and play a few shows and practice whatever we want to," said Kubler, 32. "Then the first record came out."
That was "Almost Killed Me" in 2004, the start of a slow but tangible process of connection between the Hold Steady and its audience, a mix of indie-rock kids and older, disaffected fans of classic rock.
"People started showing up," the bespectacled Finn said of the group's early performances. "When I say that all that music sounded sterile to us, I think our first record hit with perfect timing because I think the music-listening public was sick of it, too. And people with loud guitars, solos, loose playing? I think it was fun for people to hear that, it reminded them of something."
SMART ROCK
On stage at the Avalon, Finn was no longer the bespectacled intellectual. As he and the other four musicians powered up soaring anthems, he seemed to be taken over by a Joe Cocker palsy, convulsively gesturing and pointing every which way. His singing, like that on the record, was intense, raspy and almost tuneless, more like the rant of someone who has so much to say and so little time to say it.
"A lot of the rock that's out there celebrates an element that's kind of stupid, like the stoner rock, or garage rock where you dress up in the same suits and jump around," Finn said earlier.
"There aren't a lot of rock bands that are like, 'OK, we're a standard rock band, but we really want to be intelligent and talk about some stuff that's interesting. It shouldn't be so rare, but it kind of is.
"We've gotten a lot of fans off of being on NPR. 'Cause they grew up rock 'n' roll fans ... people who have been Aerosmith fans now for 30 years, I can understand why they might not find the Hold Steady," Finn said. "But if some of these people do, it's a joy, it's just amazing. And those people always look like they're having a great time at the shows."
By Dirt wire
Wednesday March 29, 2006
HOLLYWOOD - For a fast drive to the dark end of Thunder Road, hitch a ride on the Hold Steady's "Separation Sunday," an album that made a big noise on the best-of-2005 lists, including an eye-opening No. 8 finish in the prestigious Village Voice critics' poll.
The recognition hasn't changed the Brooklyn band's life, but it's another boost to a growing momentum surrounding its distinctive take on American rock. Like the similarly acclaimed Drive-By Truckers, the Hold Steady reclaims a neglected music and reinvents it with a fierce passion.
"Separation's" sales of 17,000 are solid for an indie band, and more than triples the sales of its debut, but the group's growth is also measured by such attention as the profile on NPR's "All Things Considered" late last year, complete with a rigorous annotation of the album's pop, literary and cultural references.
Singer and chief songwriter Craig Finn thinks of "Separation Sunday" as "a prodigal daughter story," and says it was drawn from his own experiences and those of friends. The 11 songs follow a "hoodrat" on her wayward path through her late teens, as she encounters lowlifes and predators, saviors and lovers. Kids get high and get saved, hit bottom and claw for salvation.
Finn packs his songs with vivid, colorful vernacular, anchors the album with recurring characters and geographical detail and laces it all with themes of forgiveness and redemption rooted in his Catholic upbringing in Minneapolis.
"You're still half a child, but you're getting in these adult situations with a sense of wonder and a sense of stupidity as well," Finn, 34, said this week. "I see it as a real universal suburban record."
TRAMPS LIKE US
As a young teen, Finn absorbed the unruly, joyous aesthetic of the city's great band the Replacements, and later participated in the edgy rituals of adolescence.
"There's caves in St. Paul that a lot of people would go to that were pretty terrifying, but part of the whole experience was to be there drinking," he said. "It was scary, and there were scary dudes sometimes, but ... it wouldn't have been half as exciting to drink in someone's parents' basement."
"Tramps like us and we like tramps," Finn sings in the song "Charlemagne in Sweatpants," having a little fun with a signature lyric by one of the album's prime inspirations.
"Springsteen is a huge influence," said Finn, sitting with guitarist Tad Kubler in the band's dressing room at the Avalon in Hollywood, where they shared a bill with a couple of other bands from the small independent label FrenchKiss Records, Les Savy Fav and the Thunderbirds Are Now!
"He used a lot of words," Finn said of Springsteen. "He tried to be very specific and descriptive, which is something I try to be as well. But also his literary take on what I call the American teenage experience ... rock 'n' roll always sounds best when covering that topic .... Springsteen had teenage dramas that were so vivid."
Finn's are vivid too, but the Hold Steady has another distinguishing feature: music that delivers the narrative payload with a grand, full-blown, classic rock sound drawn proudly from the likes of Bob Seger, Aerosmith, the E Street Band and Cheap Trick.
WOUND TIGHT
It's a strange visitor to the world of indie rock, which is rooted in punk and other non-mainstream styles. Finn summarized indie music as "tightly wound," which is what he and Kubler were in their Minneapolis band Lifter Puller. After that group ended and Finn moved to Brooklyn in 2000 came the revelation.
"My wife took me to see 'The Last Waltz,' " he recalled. "I thought, 'These guys are playing music, they're listening to each other and they're hearing each other and reacting off that, and they're loose and it's cool and they're taking chances.' "
It struck Finn and Kubler as an invigorating alternative to what they saw as the sterility of the disco-punk sound that was so big in New York. Not that they had any huge ambitions.
"When we first started doing this, it was like, we'll drink some beers and play a few shows and practice whatever we want to," said Kubler, 32. "Then the first record came out."
That was "Almost Killed Me" in 2004, the start of a slow but tangible process of connection between the Hold Steady and its audience, a mix of indie-rock kids and older, disaffected fans of classic rock.
"People started showing up," the bespectacled Finn said of the group's early performances. "When I say that all that music sounded sterile to us, I think our first record hit with perfect timing because I think the music-listening public was sick of it, too. And people with loud guitars, solos, loose playing? I think it was fun for people to hear that, it reminded them of something."
SMART ROCK
On stage at the Avalon, Finn was no longer the bespectacled intellectual. As he and the other four musicians powered up soaring anthems, he seemed to be taken over by a Joe Cocker palsy, convulsively gesturing and pointing every which way. His singing, like that on the record, was intense, raspy and almost tuneless, more like the rant of someone who has so much to say and so little time to say it.
"A lot of the rock that's out there celebrates an element that's kind of stupid, like the stoner rock, or garage rock where you dress up in the same suits and jump around," Finn said earlier.
"There aren't a lot of rock bands that are like, 'OK, we're a standard rock band, but we really want to be intelligent and talk about some stuff that's interesting. It shouldn't be so rare, but it kind of is.
"We've gotten a lot of fans off of being on NPR. 'Cause they grew up rock 'n' roll fans ... people who have been Aerosmith fans now for 30 years, I can understand why they might not find the Hold Steady," Finn said. "But if some of these people do, it's a joy, it's just amazing. And those people always look like they're having a great time at the shows."
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