PHOTO BY GEORGE RODRIGUEZ
On Stage at the Capitol, hitting Broadway April 15
The Rascals Reunion: Two Hours of Groovin’ in A Peaceful World was struggling at the end of How Can I Be Sure, the audience rose Steven Van Zandt — Little Steven, Miami Steve —is going to their feet as one with a standing ovation cheering him on. It was to be remembered for a list of accomplishments a mile long starting so powerful, so beautiful, so encouraging to see these men (with with his stint as the guitarist in The Dovels (Bristol Stomp) on the only a keyboard, bass and trio of background vocalists) perform. oldies circuit to his current starring roll in Lillyhammer (a Netflix The Rascals not only made hit records, their timeless classics made only series that is more than worth a monthly subscription). Over them elders of a musical generation that set out to change the world. the years — and he is still at the peak of his creative powers — he Their soulful singing, exemplary playing and brilliant songwriting has been and still is Bruce Springsteen’s right-hand man on stage and secured their place in musical history. This in the studio; a top-notch actor as a mobster on The Sopranos; outspoken champion of civil show will make the band bigger than ever. As rights (Sun City); host of the wildly popular Vince Pastore, who narrated the show via the internet radio phenomenon Underground video, so aptly put it: “We need the Rascals now Garage (“playing the coolest songs ever made”); more than ever before.” Pastore, celebrated for leader of his own successful band, The Disciples his short-lived Sopranos role, performed his of Soul; and who knows how many other part brilliantly. He’s casual, he’s real and most hats he wears. But for many of a certain age, definitely a fan. Van Zandt peppers his script he will never be forgotten for performing a with equal parts hilarity and poignancy. There miracle that will most certainly qualify him for are four actors who portray the Young Rascals canonization: reuniting the Rascals. as they make their way up the musical ladder, For Steven, it all started sometime in 1965 refusing Phil Spector’s demand to produce at a skating rink in New Jersey where for $2.50 them and arguing slightly with Laurie Burton he saw a live performance of the Young Rascals, and Pam Sawyer whose I Ain’t Gonna Eat Out as they were known then. “I’ll never forget My Heart Any More was to be spoken by Eddie, it. It was the most exciting night ever. They not sung. “Who speaks lyrics?” Eddie asked, were phenomenal live, really quite different a generation before rap came into being. At than anybody else. And very, very influential Steven Van Zandt at the Rascals performance one point, the young actor who plays Eddie of Once Upon A Dream at the Capitol Theater describes an episode where he was unwittingly to this day.” This day came to pass December 14 when shot by his brother David, the “fifth Rascal”: “It the reunited Rascals — Dino, Gene, Eddie and Felix (are last names only hurts when I laugh. Unfortunately, the world’s a funny place.” really necessary?) — took the stage of the redecorated Capitol Theater With so much going on with Brickman’s exciting and timely in Portchester, New York and rocked the house for six sold-out nights. video production on the big screen behind the band, this is a show The show, consisting of a backdrop multi-media presentation (written you have to see more than once, if for nothing else than to keep by Steven with stage, video and light design by Marc Brickman) your eyes on Dino who never lets up for a moment on his drum set . featured the Rascals performing live for about two hours worth of Van Zandt brings it all home with his summation, delivered their classic unforgettable songs, most of them big hit records in the with class, precision and dignity by Pastore, that segues neatly to the 60s. This band was memorable in so many ways, from their impeccable finale: a rocking version of See. “For one precious, glorious moment musicianship and vocals to their stand on not performing anywhere we really thought it would happen. No more war, no more prejudice, unless they had an African-American opening act, that to describe no more fear, no more hate. We were the Love Generation. We this event in mere words does not come close to doing it justice. almost got there. We just ran out of time. But in dreams, there is no Let’s start with the music: simply put, they are playing better time. As long as we can dream together we can still get there. And than ever. The vocals are on the money, and when Eddie, suffering wake up to that beautiful morning. Because once upon a dream… from the flu and not being on stage in such a way in over 40 years, the Rascals are back!”. —VICTOR FORBES 58 • Fine Art Magazine • Spring 2013
PHOTO BY GEORGE RODRIGUEZ
Once Upon A Dream
We have learned that in every moment of light and darkness there is a potential rvelation. So the Rascals --Odyssey continues. Opportunity and challenge remain. Understanding and unity will transform the world and we can all live in the presence of justice. — DINO DANELLI
Once Upon A Dream album cover construction by Dino Danelli 59 • Fine Art Magazine • Spring 2013
Dino Danelli became the “Unofficial official Art Director” of the Rascals ever since the Once Upon A Dream cover, which won all kinds of prizes internationally. “I took over everything,” he recalled in a recent interview as he was getting ready for the Broadway opening. “They were all saying ‘Whatever you want to do Dino, you got it.’ The ironic thing about those sculptures is as I was making those boxes, Felix and Eddie were writing this album, Once Upon A Dream. We had no contact whatsoever. I was in my apartment for weeks at a time isolating myself from the world to go into heavy, heavy concentration. Concentration so deep you don’t even talk to anybody for weeks. Then we went back into rehearsals for some gigs, and without knowing it, the sculptures that I was making for the cover was so in tune with their lyrics it was almost telepathic. Those boxes pertained to dreams of the Rascals and what we were thinking about at that time. It was uncanny how the songs coincided with the things that I made, things that I found and painted. The front cover was reproduced all over the world and here we are 40 years later and Stevie writes Once Upon A Dream from the idea of the record. Ironically the song Once Upon A Dream was sung by Dave— he was like the fifth Rascal. He had a beautiful voice and the song just fit him. It’s an interesting title for the show. Stevie was looking for a way to create this and Once Upon A Dream came full circle. Those boxes don’t exist today. They were very delicate and destroyed in one of my moves around New York City.
“TIME PEACE,” continues Dino, “is a cover I created with the fabulous illustrator Antonio Lopez. He was a major fashion illustrator in the 70s and 80s for Vanity Fair and Vogue and was just a fabulous draftsman. I learned a lot about drawing from him.” Dino took some photos of the guys — those particular images that made up that cover — to his studio and they collaborated. “We decided it would look great with some dots like Lichtenstein and then we colored it. The design went through it’s changes as we built it from the ground up with layers, colors and dots. In those days, without computers, we worked on plastic overlays. You would draw on plastic, layer it and on top of the layered cover, you put a sheet of dots, building up layer upon layer to create anything you wanted. We cut it out and did it manually, starting with a photograph in black and white. We did two covers,” continues Dino. “I have one of the originals in my possession. Both are pretty identical with the type a little different on the second one that I have. It was interesting. I can’t tell you how good he was. He’s all over the place. A singular human being and a fantastic illustrator. He hung out with Halston, the Studio 54 crowd and died of AIDS. Antonio was great - he lived in the Carnegie apartments on 57th Street, he made a lot of money and was the first guy I ever saw with a white apartment. You had to stake off your shoes the minute you walked in. The walls the ceilings, the floors—it was like being in a snow drift. This became popular later on but in those days, this was unheard of.”
See
Things ain’t like they used to be Love’s the only thing I see Wings of life are taking flight From the darkness to the light — Felix Cavaliere
“For SEE,” said Dino, “I wanted to use a Magritte. I was a huge Renee Magritte fan. Everybody knows Magritte so I went digging. Ahmet Ertegun (head of Atlantic Records) was a big art collector. His collection would knock your eyes out. Originals. He had a bunch of Magritte’s so I went through his slides. There was another one, Liberator, a very strange painting, but decided to go with Le Grand Family. For years I thought I made the wrong decision but it was a good bad decision....We had a song called See - so it was a great choice with that big bird over the water, the sky. It was and still is gorgeous and represented where we were at that particular point in time as a band,and it is how we close the show now with this crazy fast song, very wild.” Album artwork courtesy Joe Russo www.therascalsarchives.com 60 • Fine Art Magazine • Spring 2013
PHOTO BY GEORGE RODRIGUEZ
The Rascals: Felix Cavaliere, organ; Gene Cornish, guitar; Dino Danellli, drums; Eddie Brigati, vocals and percussion
“For FREEDOM SUITE, I worked with a very popular photographer Ira Masur, who lived in New York City. Originally I was planning on a silver cover and wanted to put an envelope on it that was closed so you could’t see what was in it. Basically a silver envelope flap on the front. Atlantic said ‘Everybody’s gonna rip off the cover’ so I sat down with Ira and the four photos. Everyyone had a different feeling: Felix was very peaceful, soft; Gene is a little made up. looks kind of pretty and we washed his face out. Eddie had that hat on like a Harpo Marx imitiation. Me? I’m kind of cute; a pop idol kind of look. We put the four photos together and airbrushed them on top of the silver background in keeping with the original color. The imahgery had nothing to do with any of the content of the record at all it was just the cover.We cut the individual photos out and airbrushed them so they would softly flow into each other. I still would have preferred that envelope but the shrink wrap would have been ripped off and I had to listen to what made sense, though all I was thinking about was the art.” 61 • Fine Art Magazine • Spring 2013
Q: What’s it like being in the Rascals today? A: We’re much older now and appreciate the opportunity to be doing this. The people who came out show their appreciation and that love comes right up on the stage so powerfully. It is just amazing for us to be able to reciprocate that feeling. In the old days we were 20 and it was a whole different world. We were in a blur of life. This show is different — what Steve calls a ‘Bioconcert.’ It’s not like the ‘Jersey Boys’ and not like a concert. It’s great when we’re sitting up on stage and all that stuff is going on behind us. The songs are the songs and we play them as we played them in the old days and the people just react, giving us individual standing ovations starting with ‘A Girl Like You’ and ‘How Can I Be Sure’ for Eddie. It is an amazing experience, just knocking us out. In the old days, it was a lot of girls; a lot of screaming. It’s different now, you appreciate everything more. It has some meaning to it. —DINO DANELLI