The former Broadway musical is now touring the land, and made a stop last night at our local gilded palace. For Piano Man devotees it was pure, unapologetic heaven….even though the sing-along gal next to me had to apologize, and in advance. Twenty or so B.J. hits sung and danced to by a typically anonymous cast of theater-tour studs and starlets backed by a decent pop-rock band fronted by a Joel sound-a-like piano player.

With an intermission and a few classical and non-hits songs (including “Invention in C Minor” from Fantasies and Delusions) to break up the stream of hits, the show is musically entertaining, I’ll admit, for anyone who can endure AM pop for that long.

What’s confusing is the plot. Without reading the program, it wasn’t hard to figure out that the main characters, Brenda and Eddie, are high schoolers on Long Island in the early 60’s. Midway through the first act Eddie and friends go off to ‘Nam, one gets killed and the rest return to the ‘hood to find things have changed (seen that in a movie before?).

By the time the break rolls around, the plot’s contrived to fit the subject of the individual songs strung together to keep your foot tapping.

In Act II, it all falls apart and you’ll have no idea what’s going on, plot-wise.

Joel won a Tony Award in 2003 for the orchestration in Movin’ Out. The music’s good, but that’s about it. Even if you’re only a marginal fan of Joel’s music, you should catch this.

When the house lights go down, just imagine you booked a Billy Joel concert, he took ill and a stand-in came along to do the show. Otherwise, the stuff on stage is worthless.

The world knew him as Bo Diddley. Along with Chuck Berry, Jerry Lee Lewis, Little Richard and a handful of others, he created the devastating blend of Delta blues, Southern gospel, traditional country and pure R&B that quickly caught fire among the youth in America and Britain in the mid-1950’s. Though he only received limited commercial success in the 50’s and 60’s, his musical style is central to rock ‘n’ roll and its offshoots, and his custom guitars, stage antics and raucous character were copied by some of rock music’s biggest names, including Hendrix, Presley, and nearly every British Invasion band. You’ve heard his trademark “thump-a-thump-thump, thump-thump” beat in dozens if not hundreds of rock songs, including:

“Bye, Bye, Love” (by the Everly Brothers)
“Desire” (U2)
“I Want Candy” (The Strangeloves)
“Magic Bus” (The Who)
“Not Fade Away” (Buddy Holly, with covers by the Stones and the Dead)
“She’s the One” (Springsteen)
“Whole Lotta Things” (Southern Culture On The Skids)
“Willie and the Hand Jive” (Johnny Otis, with countless covers, including Clapton).

The music was great and expectedly so from the undeniable King of the Blues and the backing band of veteran, mostly gray-haired blues musicians, including a horn section that played just about every brass instrument there is.

The set led off with two long instrumentals neatly show casing all eight of the band members (only two of whom appeared to be less than 50). Drummer Tommy Coleman and bassist Reg Richards played non-stop for two solid hours. That’s endurance, but then B.B. was out front for all but the 10 minute intro by the band, and he’s at least 30 years older than Richards.

The King is lucid, clear eyed and talkative. He told jokes, spun yarns and entertained the audience with a big smile, broad sweeps of his arms, a lot a kudos for the band, and even moments of social commentary — he twice delivered straight-on appeals to today’s “blues and rap players to talk more respectful of the ladies.” And he led the crowd through a hokey but well-received sing-a-long of “You Are My Sunshine.”

Even The King knows it won’t go on forever, and while he promised to return for a fifth visit to this city, he acknowledged that at some time his 250+ nights per year touring will stop.

My advice: make an effort to see the world’s greatest blues guitarist and a terrific showman before it all ends. There’s a tour listing on www.bbking.com, his official website.

Like water and other natural resources, the Internet is an economic growth generator. Productivity and efficiency, business expansion, start-ups and entirely new industries are driven by fast, cheap and widespread Internet service. Yet in the U.S, we’re operating with a combination of slower speeds and high prices than many other advanced countries, and that’s a potential for trouble. If we can’t compete, Korea, Japan and others will get the benefits of increased economic activity, not us.

So what are we doing about this? According to a recent Time Magazine op/ed piece, not much. Instead of a joint government/industry project to expand affordable, high-speed Internet service to all corners of the U.S., the major broadband suppliers are starting to roll out new tiered pricing schemes that will penalize you for overusing their system. Much the extra charges for exceeding the limits of your cell phone calling plan, you’ll be hit  and hard  with charges for going over the number of gigabytes you sign up for. The cost might be in the $7.50 range per gigabyte of excess usage. For a four gigabyte hi-def movie, that’s $30. Netflix, anyone?

So, be forewarned and be ready. If you download a lot of movies, you could find it expensive to do so. Downloading songs won’t be a problem unless your plan limits are set too low. And deciding where to set your upper limit  and what you’re willing to cough up if you go over the top  will require some research and understanding of your past broadband usage. If you think you’re Internet service is expensive now, wait until the profiteers really get going.

The real victim is the album. The phenomenon of purchasing and downloading digital music has changed not only the way we listen to music, but the way we collect it. In today’s digital world, an album is no longer an album in the true sense. We no longer purchase an album as a packaged collection of songs, but as a group of songs sold together.

The difference? Download any digital album, and there’s no album. Gone is the packaging – often novel and usually imaginative – that identified the disc as a unique album and far more than just a collection of songs. Gone are the album covers, the artwork, liner notes, song lists and all of the information that came with it (remember lyrics on the paper dust jacket?). Gone are the paper, cardboard and plastic containers that allowed for stacking, storing, arranging, displaying and viewing. A downloaded album is a collection of digital files. Nothing more.

Never again will we enjoy the unique packaging of the working, steel zipper on the Stones’ Sticky Fingers. Remember the Big Bambu supersized rolling paper from Cheech & Chong and the mesmerizing graphics of Yes albums? How about the “Loss Leader” and “Hot Platter” offers on Warner Brothers dust jackets? And colored vinyl? The white vinyl of the Beatles’ White Album and the hot pink vinyl of the Sex Pistols’ first LP? No more.

For many of us, the physical copy of the music is as important as the music itself. That’s why we’re still holding onto our vinyl and plastic albums, be they old 78’s, 33 1/3 RPM LP’s or compact disks. Eat a Peach on your iPod is just not the same as the vinyl disc on your shelf.

After a 50+ year recording career, Aretha still has the voice and the stage presence to tour and draw large audiences at her advancing age (she turned 66 on March 25). That’s no small tribute to her musical and physical stamina. What’s amazing, to me at least, is her size. She’s always been a large and natural woman, but I hadn’t realized just how huge she is. The last time I saw her in full-frame and other than in a still photo was as Mrs. Matt “Guitar” Murphy in the Blues Brothers first movie, and she was a big girl then but doubly so now. Nevertheless, even with the volume of her enormous corpus, she rocks and sways gracefully and even gave soft-shoe dances during several of the bands jazz and funkier instrumental interludes.

I’m want to name another rock, R&B, or pop artist who’s recorded at least one album in each of the six decades since her first record, Gospel Soul of Aretha Franklin, came out in 1956 when she was just 14. And, with 20 Grammy Awards, 17 US Hot 100 Top 10 hits, ninth place on the Rolling Stone 100 Greatest Artists of All Time, a revered spot in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, there really are no contenders for her title, whether gospel, rock, country, or any other genre. She’s bigger than life, and seeing her will prove it, musically and physically.

But it’s all about the music that’s a huge part of our culture and, for many of us, our lives. So some amount of excess is permissible, even enjoyable, as it reflects on the exuberance and longevity of rock ‘n’ roll and its many permutations over 5 decades.

This year’s inductees covered the usual ground of varied performers, sidemen and industry luminaries. Every one of them deserves to be in the Hall and warrants a mention here. For me, however, the inclusion of the Dave Clark Five had a personal appeal, as they were an early favorite of mine, a rougher alternative to the Beatles and the polished sounds of the Beach Boys. The DC5 were one of the few serious challengers to the Beatles’ dominance in the mid-60’s, charting 17 Top 40 hits in the U.S. before fading away and disbanding in 1970. I’ve always rooted for the underdog. When great British Invasion rock ‘n’ roll is added to the mix, it’s even easier to pull for an upset.

Cleveland is not exactly a tourist destination, so you might never consider a long-weekend or mini-vacation there. But, it’s worth a visit to the now-revived “Mistake by the Lake” to spend a full day at the Hall of Fame. I did, back in January 2007, a surprise weekend trip on the occasion of my 50th. I recommend it, and, if you do go, take some sage advice. Plan a full day, or the better part of one, at the Hall of Fame. There’s a lot to see and hear, and a few hours isn’t enough. From the historical and biographical displays to the constant visual and aural entertainment, the hours slip by quickly and disappointment is guaranteed if closing time comes and you still haven’t made it to the top floors.

So why this list? Only because I happened to note that J.T. was born in Boston 60 years ago on Wednesday, and when I checked the BTO Encyclopedia I found several artists who have birthdays over the next few days and, in one way or another, influenced my youth and musical tastes and thus form some small part of my mental and spiritual make-up (including Mickey Dolenz, my first rock idol, who was born on March 8, 1945).

Did anyone below have a special influence on you?

(Check out BTO’s Encyclopedia for more info on these and 10,000 other rock musicians).

March 9
Mark Lindsay (lead singer, Paul Revere & the Raiders) 1942
Robin Trower (Procol Harum, then great blues-rock guitar solo career) 1945

March 10
Dean Torrence (Jan & Dean) 1940
Tom Scholz (mastermind behind Boston) 1947

March 11
George Kooymans (Dutch-born Golden Earring leader, co-wrote “Radar Love”) 1948

March 12
Paul Kantner (Jefferson Airplane/Starship) 1941
James Taylor (the original “singer/songwriter”) 1948

March 13
Adam Clayton (U2 bassist) 1960

March 14
Jim Pons (bassist, The Leaves/The Turtles/Mothers of Invention) 1943
Walter Parazaider (wind instruments,Chicago) 1945

March 15
Phil Lesh (bassist for the Grateful Dead, yeah!!) 1940
Mike Love (lead singer and hits co-author, The Beach Boys) 1941
Howard Scott (War – top 70’s funk) 1946
Sylvester “Sly Stone” Stewart (“Thank You Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin”)
1944
Ry Cooder (eclectic solo, session and soundtrack career) 1947

Coincidentally (or maybe not?), the Clapton/Winwood first show occurred 45 years to the day that the Beatles’ first single, “Please Please Me” was released in the U.K. It stayed at the top of the British charts for an astounding 30 weeks and launched Beatlemania in England (and eventually the world). “Please Please Me” was released in the U.S. as the Beatles’ second single once “I Want to Hold Your Hand” rocketed up the U.S. charts in December 1963. While “I Want to Hold Your Hand” was technically the first Beatles hit outside of England, “Please Please Me” is widely recognized as the song that launched the Beatles and thus the ensuing British Invasion. And, of course, Clapton and Winwood were two of the key names in the wave of British music that flooded the U.S. and Europe following the Beatles’ lead-off success. The Yardbirds featured Clapton on lead guitar (“For Your Love” hit #6 in the U.S. in 1965, but E.C. barely played on it and was gone to John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers within months). Winwood’s high tenor provided the lead vocals for the Spencer Davis Group’s two U.S. hits in 1967, “Gimme Some Lovin’” and “I’m A Man,” before he departed to start Traffic.

And the breakfast thing? My wife and I ate Sunday morning at a shoebox diner on Madison at 61st Street. While we were waiting for our food, in walked a slender, medium-height, scruffy-bearded fellow in jeans and a sweater. Surprisingly, no one else seemed to notice that the Guitar God himself was amongst us mortals. Had others flocked to swoon and bow before Him, I would not have joined. But no one did, so I walked up, shook the Slowhand and basked in His glory for a few minutes. (I was able to momentarily confuse Him and He acknowledged with a smile and slight laugh when I said “we’re looking forward to seeing you tomorrow night.”)

CLAPTON/WINWOOD SET LIST: Madison Square Garden may be the self-appointed “World’s Most Famous Arena”, but the acoustics are not the best by any stretch, particularly in the upper reaches and in the private boxes, where we were fortunate to sit. Several people have asked me about the set list. Here’s what I heard:

1. “Had to Cry Today” (Blind Faith, 1969)
2. “Low Down” (J.J. Cale, 1996)
3. “Forever Man” (Clapton, 1985)
4. “Them Changes” (Buddy Miles cover, 1970)
5. “Sleeping in the Ground” (Blind Faith, 1969)
6. “Presence of the Lord” (Blind Faith, 1969)
7. “Glad” (Traffic, 1970)
8. “Well All Right” (Blind Faith, 1969)
9. “Double Trouble” (Clapton, 1976)
10. “Pearly Queen” (Traffic, 1968)
11. “Tell The Truth” (Derek & The Dominos, 1970)
12. “No Face, No Name, and No Number” (Traffic, 1967)
13. “After Midnight” (Clapton, 1970)
14. “Split Decision” (Winwood, 1986)
    
15. “Rambling on my Mind” (Clapton, 1975)
    
16. “Georgia on my Mind” (Ray Charles cover)
17. “Little Wing” (Hendrix cover)
    
18. “Voodoo Chile” (Hendrix cover)
19. “Can’t Find My Way Home” (Blind Faith, 1969)
20. “Dear Mr. Fantasy” (Traffic, 1967)
21. ENCORE: “Crossroads” (Cream, 1968)

It’s no surprise that the decline in CD sales started concurrent with the advent of Napster and other file sharing services, mostly illegal, like KaZaa. Enter Apple’s iTunes and other legal download sites, and the CD has been free falling since 2001. As you might expect, sales of digital singles continued to rise last year, reaching 844.2 million units, an increase of 45% over 2006. But the $836 million in sales generated by the digital-single download is but a fraction of the $3.8 billion in lost CD sales from 2000 to 2007. Digital downloads will never fill the gap in lost CD sales (at a solid 20% annual growth it would take 8 years to make up the difference, and that’s just not going to happen).

With iPods and other portable music players selling briskly (over 20 million units last year) with no foreseeable peak, digital downloads  legal and otherwise  will keep growing. Realizing there’s no recovery, artists and music industry executives are making the appropriate moves, many of which will further hasten the decline of the CD. Record companies are downsizing, spending less on new artist development, focusing on new ways to reach the consumer, and praying for the next big hit. And artists across all genres are looking for new ways to market their music, moving away from the major labels to more lucrative arrangements with indie labels and concert promoters, and testing the Internet as the way to reach their audiences.

The CD will have a life after death, much of it coming from reissues and compilations for the serious music collectors who’ll always be out there. But the wax cylinder, vinyl LP, and the 8-track and cassette tapes are clearing a spot for the CD in the backwater of recorded music history.