April 16, 2010

Thee-Ah-Tah: Smokey Joe’s Café.

Filed under: Uncategorized — Jim @ 11:49 pm

Tonight was a THEE-ah-tah night at the Paper Mill Playhouse. We saw Smokey Joe’s Café, a show dedicated to the music of Mike Lieber and Jerry Stoller, two nice Jewish boys in the 1950’s who began writing songs, which became some of the most famous kickass rhythm and blues/rock and roll songs ever, and they are still at it today.

Their songs have been recorded by a collection of artists such as Elvis Presley, the Coasters (I actually go to play drums with the Coasters once, but you probably know that already), Ray Charles, Willie Mae “Big Mama” Thornton, the Beatles, The Rolling Stones, The Beach Boys, Buddy Holly, Fats Domino, The Everly Brothers, Bill Haley and the Comets, Barbra Streisand, Jimi Hendrix, Muddy Waters, Johhny Mathis, Count Basie, John Mellencamp, Lou Rawls, Tom Jones, Edith Piaf, Bobby Darin, Peggy Lee, Chet Atkins, Aretha Franklin, Luther Vandross, B.B. King, Otis Redding and The Drifters. Check out their discography. Damn!

Some of the tunes in the show were:

Young Blood
Ruby Baby
Dance With Me
Searchin’
Kansas City
Love Me
Don’t
Poison Ivy
On Broadway
Baby, That is Rock & Roll
Yakety Yak
Charlie Brown
Loving You
Treat Me Nice
Hound Dog
Little Egypt
I’m a Woman
There Goes My Baby
Love Potion #9
Jailhouse Rock
Spanish Harlem
I (Who Have Nothing)
Stand by Me

I was really kind of pooped and didn’t feel like going, but I’m glad I did. We’ve had a subscription to the Paper Mill Playhouse for as long as I can remember, but once we do the final move to the House by the Parkway (South), making the trip north would be a bit of a pain in the ass, so this may well be the last performance for us. It’s considerably different than the Paper Mill, but I plan to spend some time doin’ a bit of listening here and and a bit of picking here. Should be fun.

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