42 Years Ago Today

Last year, actually. On October 23, 2010, the three front men of Buffalo Springfield - Stephen Stills, Richie Furay and Neil Young - reunited for the first time since 1968. I can think of few 1960s reunions more historic unless John and Paul could magically walk on stage one more time.

OK, we're talking three men in their late 60s singing songs loaded with harmonies. But how sweet it is. Go listen for yourself. It'll take a few years off your soul.

Wanted: New Drummer for the Beatles

It's not often these days that a new piece of Beatles history emerges. But according to a BBC news report, an August 12, 1960 letter handwritten by Paul McCartney offering an audition to an unknown drummer has now turned up. The letter was "discovered inside a book by an anonymous collector at a car boot sale in Bootle, Liverpool."

Pete Best was the band's drummer at the time, and he wasn't officially sacked and replaced by Ringo Starr until two years later. History records that Best was fired at the demand of George Martin, the Parlophone producer who proved to be the Beatles' entry into the

bigtime. This is the first indication that the band was looking to replace Best much earlier. The drummer in question has not been identified. The letter has been authenticated, and Christie's expects it to sell for as much as $14,000 in an auction next month.

The Kinks' Missing Chapter

Most Kinks fans consider the period from "Face to Face" through "Something Else," "The Village Green Preservation Society" and "Arthur, or the Decline and Fall of the British Empire" (1966-'69) as the band's peak creative moment. Yet, coincidentally, because of a spat with the American Federation of Musicians, the Kinks were effectively banned from playing live in the United States during that same period. So unlike the Beatles - and XTC further down the road - who pulled themselves off the road at their creative peak, the Kinks were forced off the road by a union dispute in the United States.

In October/November 1969, they returned to these shores with a vengeance, playing a four-city tour of the Fillmore East in New York City, the Kinetic Playground in Chicago, the Whiskey-a-Go-Go in LA and the Fillmore West in San Francisco. Thanks to the first-rate music blogsite BB Chronicles, I was recently able to

download a recording of the Kinks' November 27, 1969 performance at the Fillmore West. What a revelation.

These guys were ready to challenge the Rolling Stones and the Who on their own turf. I have never heard Dave Davies play such incendiary guitar. "Last of the Steam-Powered Trains" and "Love Me Till The Sun Shines" are guitar tours-de-force. How about quick dirty versions of "Mr. Churchill Says" and "Big Sky"? Or the medleys - "Milk Cow Blues/See My Friends/Tired of Waiting for You/Brainwashed" and "A Well-Respected Man/Death of a Clown/Dandy"? The hits, too, of course. But "Louie, Louie"?

Ray is totally in control and sounds so young. Most importantly, this recording illustrates that the Kinks in 1969 really weren't just Ray's band; they were the Davies brothers' band.

The group that was toning it down and turning up the IQ level in the studio was still a down-and-dirty Muswell Hill pub band at heart. Hearing this performance brought me a lot closer to the point where "You Really Got Me" became "Sunny Afternoon." God save the Kinks.