Rick

Martin Short, Paul McCartney Coming To 'SNL' Christmas Show Martin Short and Paul McCartney will be the host and musical guest on the December 15 edition of "Saturday Night Live," the NBC sketch show's annual Christmas episode. Short, who was a cast member on "SNL" during the 1984-85 season, is hosting the show for the third time. The veteran performer has stayed busy this year, lending his voice to "Madagascar 3" and "Frankenweenie," as well as a comedy special shot in his native Toronto that aired on CBC in April. Former Beatle McCartney has acted as musical guest four times, the last time in 2010.

Oops...I meant talent agent, not manager. RIP, Frank.

Frank Barsalona, a pioneering music agent whose Premier Talent agency changed the concert business, died early Thursday after a long battle with Alzheimer's disease, a rep for his family confirmed to Billboard.biz. His passing was first reported in the Steve Hoffman Music Forum. Barsalona is credited with no less than revolutionizing the rock concert business, which he told the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame was considered "lower than the rodeo" before he founded Premier Talent. Barsalona, who was born in 1938, began his career at GAC, a New York-based talent agency where he booked the first U.S. appearances by the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, the Yardbirds. He launched his own agency in 1964 with the Who, Herman's Hermits and Mitch Ryder and moved the shows to larger venues with full-length shows. Before then, many rock shows were presented as package tours and variety shows with short 15-minute sets. Premier would go on to represent rock superstars, including as Bruce Springsteen, Led Zeppelin, Grand Funk, J. Geils Band, Tom Petty, Van Halen and U2. One of Barsalona's lasting legacies was to see that musicians' compensation and treatment improved whereby they could earn a good portion of their living through touring and beyond selling records. He is also credited with vastly improving the fan experience upgrading the quality of live rock performances. Through his agency Barsalona developed a national network of promoters which included the likes of Bill Graham in San Francisco, Ron Delsener in New York and Don Law in Boston. Barsalona was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame by Steven Van Zandt in 2005 and in 2002 he won the Silver Clef from the Nordoff-Robbins Foundation. He won Billboard's Legends of Live award in 2007. In March 2002, Barsalona merged his Premier with the William Morris Agency, and after serving as a WMA consultant, he retired from the business. Premier brought to WMA such acts as Roger Waters, the Who, Keith Richards, Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers, Pretenders, Sinead O'Connor, Pete Townshend, Bob Geldof, Marianne Faithful, Sebastian Bach, Greg Lake, and Suzanne Vega. In his Rock Hall induction speech, Van Zandt put Barsalona's lasting impact on live music in perspective: "....he had the vision to realize in this new era - it wasn't that radio and records weren't going to matter, because they're always gonna matter, but he said, "You know what? What's most important in this new era is how good a band is live." And that was a radical thought. He said, before the hits - excuse the expression, before the records, before the radio, let's have the band be good live first. And he proved the point over and over with bands like the Who, and Jeff Beck Group, and Led Zeppelin, and the Jimi Hendrix Experience, and Bruce Springsteen and the E-Street Band, and the Ramones, and the Clash, and the Pretenders, and U2, and Van Halen, and on and on and on and on. You gotta be great live first. And that combination created something that allowed the industry to breathe for a minute. It wasn't gonna be just about short-term gain anymore." A rep for his family told Billboard.biz they are planning a memorial for January to "celebrate his life and legacy in a very rock 'n' roll way, as he would have wanted."

When I go out, it's always in a cup/bowl....at home, right out of the carton. I've never quite understood how they can claim to hold 4 serving...looks like 1 to me.

Habitual

Fantastic, Nurk. Can you maybe add the wonderful demo of this song that John Lennon did with the Dakotas in 1963?

Today's Disc: Bo Diddley - His Best

Of bands still performing, Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band

ornery

roister

Today's Disc: Lyle Lovett - Release Me (released February 28, 2012)

None of them get on my nerves, but I find myself repeating some word for word because I've seen them so many times. Funny thing though....I have never remember what company any of them are advertising!!!

Used to, but not anymore.

Illinois

I like your sense of humor!!

Being a bumbling idiot should be easy for me. I'll have to work on the other skills.

Just noticed that I posted my 2000th post and am now a Heartbreaker!!! So, Nurk, am I finally a Bellman?????

Very sad news: Chris Stamp, Former Manager of the Who, Dead at 70 Launched career of Jimi Hendrix with founding of Track Records Chris Stamp, a former co-manager of the Who and founder of the Track Records label, died on Saturday at the age of 70, Billboard reports. A native of London's East End, Stamp met the Who in 1963 while working with business partner Kit Lambert on a documentary about the British rock scene. Stamp and Lambert became friends with the band and soon became the Who's co-managers. In 1967, the two launched Track Records with the release of the Jimi Hendrix Experience's "Purple Haze" single and the album Are You Experienced? Stamp worked on the production of the Who's 1968 album, Magic Bus and was the executive producer of Tommy, Who's Next, Quadrophenia and the soundtrack for the 1975 film Tommy. After a split with the Who in the mid-1970s, Stamp and Lambert moved Track Records to New York, where they produced records for the soul group Labelle. Stamp gravitated away from the rock world after entering rehab in 1987, later becoming a therapist with specialties in psychodrama and addiction counseling. He died of cancer at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City. At a concert in Detroit on Saturday night, Roger Daltrey paid tribute to Stamp, calling him a man "without whom we wouldn't be the band we were."

Fred Unknowingly Nabbed Kenny's Yo-Yo BLAST

Today's Disc: The Byrds - Live at the Fillmore, February 1969 (released February 22, 2000)

At the car wash....keep those rags and machines hummin'.....

Really liked both videos. Thank you.

Without You - Badfinger

This looks to be a very quiet week. Nothing at all on our calendar.

Within You Without You - The Beatles