Remembering Diana, 52 years later

Last night I went to see Paul Anka with my wife. It was more than satisfactory. To hell with Madonna, LOL! Well, I still like Madonna a little bit, but it never occured to me to see her in Helsinki this week. Not even because it was the biggest concert in the Nordic countries, or the her first gig ever in Finland. Perhaps if I had lived in Helsinki... well, too many if's (one too many). Back to Paul, and back to the 50's. I can't really explain why, but I'm slightly hooked on late 50's/early 60's teenage pop. Kind of B-files (B for Boppers). Especially I have been interested in Paul Anka's early material. He's a kind of an odd ball amongst all those Bobbies. Coming from Canada for a start. Being so young, writing his own material, singing comparately well, being... well, a gifted, good-looking guy. An all-around entertainer, if you will. Maybe it's the kitsch-type of songs, Crazy love in particular, that somehow appeal to me.

It seems beyond comprehension why Mr. Anka lost the touch in writing songs in the mid-60's, and started to record other people's songs. He's done a series of hits since then as well, but they are different. Maybe he started to dislike those teenage ballads of his own. To me, they represent a perfect way of escape to my deepest feelings. Diana, Put your head on my shoulder, You are my destiny, Puppy love, Crazy love, Adam and Eve (the original In a gadda-da-vida song, LOL!), Lonely boy and My hometown to name some of those we heard yesterday night. And the man created them all before he was twenty! Today, heading for 70, Paul has still got it. Hair? Um, well... I meant talent, but he's got some hair. Again. He has probably used that same infamous millionaire's shampoo as Sting, but it's alright. I don't mind - it doesn't affect his singing voice, which is still in good shape. It was such a joy to see him move and interact with the audience so smoothly. It felt like he had brought a piece of Las Vegas to Tampere for more than two hours.

I haven't thought about buying Anka's Rock Swings CD, because it contains old rock classics from the 80's/90's newly arranged into swing. Van Halen, Bon Jovi, Nirvana, ... I bet Kurt Cobain would have been angry, had he heard Anka's arrangement of Smells like Teen Spirit! Then again, Kurt had enough problems of his own to look around what's happening outside his head, or something like that. Whereas Paul Anka has always been a chameleon in music industry, seemingly aware of what's going on. And I was pretty pleased to hear these swing versions. Not because they were better than the originals (they weren't), but because they sounded great! It was not that far from Brian Setzer Orchestra's music. Sadly we had to skip B.S.O.'s gig in Pori Jazz festival, but this was balsam treatment for us as well. Besides, this was more jazzy swing than Setzer's group ever has been. It occured to me that syncopated rhythm has been in original swing since the 30's - and funk rock isn't that different from it after all. Now I even consider of buying that Rock Swings record, if it's on discount and crosses my path. In the meantime, my lazy but productive search of Anka vinyls continues. Stockholm was and is a good source for that.

It felt good to hear Paul salute Buddy Holly, the man whose number one record It doesn't matter anymore he wrote in 1958. An acoustic version of that song was heard yesterday at Tampere-talo, with Anka also featuring in guitar. The man played some piano too, telling semi-dirty jokes every now and then. Well, the audience was old enough to hear them. Maybe too old sometimes: we saw some old guys with a hearing aid there. Yup, a lot of past 70-year-old ladies were in the front rows. Acting like teenagers again. A good nostalgia trip for them I suppose. There were multimedia shows on screen from time to time. Sometimes Paul sang a duet with a performer doing a show on video, e.g. with Sammy Davis Jr. and Frank Sinatra (yes, it was My Way). I wasn't too keen on that, but the man needed the rest. Paul showed a picture of his current wife. It seems that the first line in Diana has turned upside down.

The only thing that really bothered me, was that I didn't bring a decent camera with me. It was alerted there not to take any pictures during the show, but yet most of the audience shot as much as they could. Hell, Paul Anka even encouraged people to take pics of him by grabbing the camera and taking a picture of himself by himself. And of the band. A very old but professional band, I must add. Now I had to settle with taking photos with my oldish N73, which isn't that great when it comes to shoot in the dark. See for yourself. Or instead, you can picture this: a combination of Mr. Putin and Mr. Berlusconi. I reckon Paul and Silvio share the same barber these days, LOL!