Lennon's Imagine tuns 50 today. He had released " Power to the People " in March. Ringo had released " It Don't Come Easy " - produced by George - in April. Paul and Linda put out  Ram  in May. George's only studio output for 1971 was the " Bangla Desh " single in July, as he devoted most of his time first to production and then to preparations for the benefit concerts. Had the Beatles still been a band, they would have had enough material for a quality album, Ramagine . It is a solid one, with three or four tracks still garnering airplay in the classic rock format. For the sake of variety, we'll use the first take of Imagine. It has a different mix, with a more prominent harmonium. We'll also include the All Things Must Pass out take, " I Live For You ". At the risk of alienating fans of Wings Wild Life , we won't include any of its tracks here, as the album didn't come out till December. It would have been a pret...

This week saw the passing of Vanilla Fudge bassist and Jeff Beck sideman, Tim Bogert, New York Dolls guitarist, Sylvain Sylvain, and the "Tycoon of Teen" and whack-a-doo, Phil Spector. Until recently, I didn't really appreciate Phil's work. He was the guy who gunked up Let it Be . He was also the one who tried to give the Ramones some radio play with End of the Century . Many fault him for gunking that one up as well, but I like it. It is an outlier of a Ramones album, but it was my introduction to the band.  When my children were little, and wanted to watch High School Musical - AGAIN - I suggested we watch Rock and Roll High School Musical . I turned down the volume and put End of the Century on repeat. The kids went outside to play, and I found at least 17 points of synchronicity....more than the Dark Side of the Rainbow. As far as Phil's "wall of sound", that was the period of the "girl groups" that occupied - along with Motown - the per...