Huey Lewis still delivers good News
By MaryAlice Bitts
Sunday News (Lancaster, PA)
August 8, 2004
Have you ever pushed up your sleeves for a night on the town? Pitied the fool, or worn sunglasses at night? Asked, "Where's the Beef?" Been gagged with a spoon? Then you can probably tune the karaoke machine to Huey Lewis and the News.
No wonder, '80s child: Huey Lewis and the News has been together for 24 years, still retains three of its original members, and remains a successful concert draw 15 years after its commercial success apparently reached its summit.
The band's best-selling album to date, 1983's Grammy-Award-winning "Sports," landed Lewis a gig in the movie, "Back to the Future" (he has since acted in several other films, including "Short Cuts") and ushered in '80s-icon status along with a slot in the all-star "We Are the World" relief project.
Tunes like "Heart of Rock & Roll," "Stuck With You," "If This Is It," "Hip to Be Square," "I Want a New Drug" and "The Power of Love" have become mainstays of the adult-contemporary radio market where Lewis last made his Top 20 entry in 2000 with "Cruisin,'" a duet with Gwyneth Paltrow from their karaoke-based film "Duets."
You'll get your chance to sing along (at least mentally) when the band brings its straight-ahead sound to the American Music Theatre at 8 p.m. Monday, Aug. 16.
Lewis' ever-changing live show also may sample rock 'n' roll classics such as "Sixty-Minute Man," "Under the Boardwalk" and "It's Alright," along with cuts from the band's latest album, 2001's R&B-influenced "Plan B."
Country to ... punk?
Those concerts deliver the buoyant, high-energy atmosphere his top-of-the-pop songs suggest. But who knew that the guy behind those hits had more going on than his goofy, comical videos and catchy lyrics reveal?
"I'm a pretty complex guy," Lewis agreed. "I have a lot of different, sometimes conflicting, opinions."
This isn't surprising, given Lewis' circuitous path to fame.
The son of a jazz drummer/poetry buff who made sure his boy had a solid, boarding-school education (he had a perfect math score on his SATs to prove it), Lewis kicked off his career as a country-rock musician who found himself playing in the hub of London's thriving punk-rock scene for two years.
Oddly, his country band was managed by Jake Riviera, who also managed the Sex Pistols and Elvis Costello and co-founded the legendary punk label, Stiff Record. That put young Lewis smack in the middle of the English punk scene. His band, Clover, even played backup for Costello's first album.
"We watched the punk movement happen under our nose for two years, and it was great," Lewis said. "For me, it was a crystallizing experience. I'm baritone, and my voice was never traditional, so I wasn't in that scene, musically, but I enjoyed the punk attitude."
Returning to America two years later, Lewis regrouped with other musicians and paid his dues: "We thought we were doing good if we weren't booed off the stage. We just played so fast, with literally seconds between songs, that they didn't have time to boo."
Seasoned for success
He and The News had years to perfect his act before making it big.
"Certainly things would have been different if I had had a hit single at 22, rather than 29. By the time I had my first single, I had been playing in clubs for 12 years. You know that it isn't the best bands that make it. It's the lucky ones," he said.
Interviewed by phone from his Montana home, where he was taking a break between concerts, Lewis was ingenuous, gregarious and eager to explain his views - including political ones.
"Having celebrities talk about politics is so stupid," said Lewis, who eschews public pronouncements but who has nevertheless posted an antiwar, pro-John Kerry statement on his official Web site, http://www.hln.org/.
"I would point people to other sources, and say, 'Read The Washington Post, The New Republic or The National Review and you can form your own view.' Myself, I'm all over the map.
"Anybody with half a brain comes down on different sides of the fence on different issues. I read both right and left political magazines. I enjoy it because I think it matters.
"Up until now I've been very reluctant to endorse anybody. I don't think Bush or Cheney are malicious or anything like that. But I do think this war is a big mistake. They just kind of got it wrong. And I think that it's time for a change. Let somebody else try to help us get it right."
We've seen hints of his peaceful side before. In April 2000, Lewis insisted that his song "Hip to Be Square" be removed from the "American Psycho" soundtrack because he objected to the way violence was portrayed in that film about a serial killer. A pre-press of that soundtrack was eventually recalled.
"Even though I always had political views, following it as closely as this really started when I became a father," said Lewis, who has two children in college.
His concert, he emphasizes, will be all about the music, however. His shows contain all of the big hits, while also demonstrating how far he has come and where he is today.
"When we first started out, we didn't know what we were doing. We opened for the Doobie Brothers ... and nobody ever clapped [for us], and we weren't very good, and I would watch the Doobie show every night, and they were brilliant," Lewis said.
"The older you get, the better you get at whatever it is that you do - like it is in any other profession. In order to keep your music fresh, you don't play 200 shows a year anymore; you rotate the material - so that way, it's like falling in love all over again.
"You also keep a healthy perspective about yourself. My dad always used to tell me, 'The best stuff is never the most popular.' I used to have a hard time with that, but it's true. The most popular records you make aren't the best ones you do.
"You look out from the stage and see people screaming and clapping for you, and you also have to remember they're just having a good time."
Still, he admitted, those cheers do feel good. "We get glorious reviews again. We're coming up No. 1 College Band of the Year two years in a row, and the fans just cheer. We're not selling millions of records, but we've put out the kind of record we like. We're putting on a fabulous show."
Go to the Top
Sunday News (Lancaster, PA)
August 8, 2004
Have you ever pushed up your sleeves for a night on the town? Pitied the fool, or worn sunglasses at night? Asked, "Where's the Beef?" Been gagged with a spoon? Then you can probably tune the karaoke machine to Huey Lewis and the News.
No wonder, '80s child: Huey Lewis and the News has been together for 24 years, still retains three of its original members, and remains a successful concert draw 15 years after its commercial success apparently reached its summit.
The band's best-selling album to date, 1983's Grammy-Award-winning "Sports," landed Lewis a gig in the movie, "Back to the Future" (he has since acted in several other films, including "Short Cuts") and ushered in '80s-icon status along with a slot in the all-star "We Are the World" relief project.
Tunes like "Heart of Rock & Roll," "Stuck With You," "If This Is It," "Hip to Be Square," "I Want a New Drug" and "The Power of Love" have become mainstays of the adult-contemporary radio market where Lewis last made his Top 20 entry in 2000 with "Cruisin,'" a duet with Gwyneth Paltrow from their karaoke-based film "Duets."
You'll get your chance to sing along (at least mentally) when the band brings its straight-ahead sound to the American Music Theatre at 8 p.m. Monday, Aug. 16.
Lewis' ever-changing live show also may sample rock 'n' roll classics such as "Sixty-Minute Man," "Under the Boardwalk" and "It's Alright," along with cuts from the band's latest album, 2001's R&B-influenced "Plan B."
Country to ... punk?
Those concerts deliver the buoyant, high-energy atmosphere his top-of-the-pop songs suggest. But who knew that the guy behind those hits had more going on than his goofy, comical videos and catchy lyrics reveal?
"I'm a pretty complex guy," Lewis agreed. "I have a lot of different, sometimes conflicting, opinions."
This isn't surprising, given Lewis' circuitous path to fame.
The son of a jazz drummer/poetry buff who made sure his boy had a solid, boarding-school education (he had a perfect math score on his SATs to prove it), Lewis kicked off his career as a country-rock musician who found himself playing in the hub of London's thriving punk-rock scene for two years.
Oddly, his country band was managed by Jake Riviera, who also managed the Sex Pistols and Elvis Costello and co-founded the legendary punk label, Stiff Record. That put young Lewis smack in the middle of the English punk scene. His band, Clover, even played backup for Costello's first album.
"We watched the punk movement happen under our nose for two years, and it was great," Lewis said. "For me, it was a crystallizing experience. I'm baritone, and my voice was never traditional, so I wasn't in that scene, musically, but I enjoyed the punk attitude."
Returning to America two years later, Lewis regrouped with other musicians and paid his dues: "We thought we were doing good if we weren't booed off the stage. We just played so fast, with literally seconds between songs, that they didn't have time to boo."
Seasoned for success
He and The News had years to perfect his act before making it big.
"Certainly things would have been different if I had had a hit single at 22, rather than 29. By the time I had my first single, I had been playing in clubs for 12 years. You know that it isn't the best bands that make it. It's the lucky ones," he said.
Interviewed by phone from his Montana home, where he was taking a break between concerts, Lewis was ingenuous, gregarious and eager to explain his views - including political ones.
"Having celebrities talk about politics is so stupid," said Lewis, who eschews public pronouncements but who has nevertheless posted an antiwar, pro-John Kerry statement on his official Web site, http://www.hln.org/.
"I would point people to other sources, and say, 'Read The Washington Post, The New Republic or The National Review and you can form your own view.' Myself, I'm all over the map.
"Anybody with half a brain comes down on different sides of the fence on different issues. I read both right and left political magazines. I enjoy it because I think it matters.
"Up until now I've been very reluctant to endorse anybody. I don't think Bush or Cheney are malicious or anything like that. But I do think this war is a big mistake. They just kind of got it wrong. And I think that it's time for a change. Let somebody else try to help us get it right."
We've seen hints of his peaceful side before. In April 2000, Lewis insisted that his song "Hip to Be Square" be removed from the "American Psycho" soundtrack because he objected to the way violence was portrayed in that film about a serial killer. A pre-press of that soundtrack was eventually recalled.
"Even though I always had political views, following it as closely as this really started when I became a father," said Lewis, who has two children in college.
His concert, he emphasizes, will be all about the music, however. His shows contain all of the big hits, while also demonstrating how far he has come and where he is today.
"When we first started out, we didn't know what we were doing. We opened for the Doobie Brothers ... and nobody ever clapped [for us], and we weren't very good, and I would watch the Doobie show every night, and they were brilliant," Lewis said.
"The older you get, the better you get at whatever it is that you do - like it is in any other profession. In order to keep your music fresh, you don't play 200 shows a year anymore; you rotate the material - so that way, it's like falling in love all over again.
"You also keep a healthy perspective about yourself. My dad always used to tell me, 'The best stuff is never the most popular.' I used to have a hard time with that, but it's true. The most popular records you make aren't the best ones you do.
"You look out from the stage and see people screaming and clapping for you, and you also have to remember they're just having a good time."
Still, he admitted, those cheers do feel good. "We get glorious reviews again. We're coming up No. 1 College Band of the Year two years in a row, and the fans just cheer. We're not selling millions of records, but we've put out the kind of record we like. We're putting on a fabulous show."
Go to the Top
Labels: 80s, huey lewis, mary alice bitts, MaryAlice Bitts
posted by MaryAlice Bitts at 9:27 AM
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