NYS Music 202​1

Tag: David Letterman

  • On this day in 2002, Phish Perform “All of These Dreams” on the Late Show with David Letterman

    The Ed Sullivan Theater played host to Phish on this day in 2002. The Vermont group performed “All Of These Dreams,” the ninth track on Round Room, on the Late Show with David Letterman.

    all of these dreams

    The appearance on Letterman was the band’s sixth overall, starting in on December 30, 1994 with “Chalkdust Torture,” “Julius” on July 13, 1995, “Character Zero” on March 5, 1997, “Birds of a Feather” on October 27, 1998, “Heavy Things” on May 15, 2000, a multi-song performance on the Ed Sullivan Theater marquee on June 21, 2004, and “The Line” on June 25, 2014.

    “All of These Dreams” has only been played 13 times total, not including this initial performance at the Ed Sullivan Theater, according to Phish.net. The song, written by Trey Anastasio, Tom Marshall and Scott Herman officially debuted in concert on January 3, 2003 in Hampton, VA. A rarity, the song has not been played live since October 26, 2020 in Manchester, NH.

    The Phish.net song history reveals that “All of These Dreams,” as well as another Round Room track, “Anything But Me” emerged from the wake of a screaming fight between Trey and Tom during a songwriting session in a Philadelphia hotel room. According to Trey, the two tunes “express something that I usually am a little too shy to express,” though precisely what that is he leaves unsaid.

    There is a place on the mountain nearby
    Deep in a cave but it’s up rather high
    There in the darkness are safely concealed
    All of the dreams that you never revealed
    And if you go there, and after you do
    All of these dreams would be yours to pursue
    The rest of your lifetime devoid of a care
    If you keep your eyes open you may find yourself there

    Such is the promise, such is the curse
    You could just live your life better or worse
    Knowing the cache of dreams up on that hill
    Beckons and sways but won’t bend to your will
    You might find a river under a mountain
    That feeds a remote subterranean fountain
    Drink from this, taste just a hint of a dream
    That somehow leaked into the underground stream

    “All of These Dreams” lyrics

  • A Holiday Classic: Darlene Love performs “Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)” on Late Show with David Letterman

    From 1986 until 2014, David Letterman would close out his final show of the year with a Christmas episode that featured the one and only Darlene Love. Over the span of those 28 years, Love would perform her holiday hit “Christmas (Baby Please Come Home),” one of Letterman’s favorites.

    The appearance found its origins after Letterman saw Love perform the song at the Bottom Line, in a show called Leader of the Pack. He immediately had to have her on the show. Love told Variety in 2014:

    He had David [were] down to see the show. [Letterman] said, “You know that song that girl sings? That Christmas song? That’s the greatest Christmas song I’ve ever heard. We need to get her on the show.” That was 1986, and so I’ve been doing it ever since.

    The tradition spanned two networks over nearly three decades, appearing from 1986 until 1993 on Late Night with David Letterman, and later on the Late Show with David Letterman when Letterman joined CBS.

    The song was originally recorded for the 1963 Phil Spector album A Christmas Gift for You, and while Love performed the song on Letterman’s shows, she told the New York Times in 2014 that she will not sing it for any other TV talk-show hosts moving forward.

    For her final performance, the Late Show paid tribute to Darlene Love. Following her brief interview with Dave, the stage filled in with additional musician, including string and horn sections and several backup singers. These singers would not overshadow Love’s powerful voice, and sang her final last verse from the top of Paul Shaffer’s piano, with fake snow falling around her.

    Recently, an animated version of “Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)” has been released through Legacy Recordings. The short video follows a young Black girl as she walks home through a snowy neighborhood, accompanied by a happy snowman. Along the way, she stops to admire a Christmas tree and runs into her dog, who is singing along with a pair of carolers. The girl and her dog arrive home, where they are lovingly greeted by her parents. As the video nears its end, the girl opens up one of her presents to find a snow globe with the smiling snowman inside.

    At the end of the music video, Love posted a message paying tribute to her late sister, Edna Wright Perry, who sang backing vocals on the track.

    Featured on the show prior to Love’s show-stopping performance, Letterman annually welcomed comedian Jay Thomas, to share, as Letterman put it, “the best story I’ve ever heard.” Thomas would then launch into his true story about an encounter with Clayton Moore, the actor famous for playing The Lone Ranger. For 17 years starting in 1992, Thomas would come on the show and deliver the joke, much to Letterman and the audience’s approval. Watch the story unfold over the years.

    After Thomas delivered the punchline, he and Letterman would alternate throwing a football at the meatball on top of the Late Show Christmas tree. To wrap up the show, Darlene Love would come out for “Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)” and send the show into the night.

  • LOVE ROCKS NYC Returns to The Beacon Theater in June 2021

    Live music comes back to New York’s Upper West Side this summer. The fifth annual LOVE ROCKS NYC benefit concert for God’s Love We Deliver returns on Thursday, June 3, 2021. Produced by John Varvatos, LOVE ROCKS NYC will be shown as a live stream event courtesy of platform Fans.Live from the historic Beacon Theatre in New York City. Rochester native drummer Steve Gadd will perform as part of the amazing house band put together by Music Director and band leader Will Lee.

    LOVE ROCKS NYC

    The stellar house cast will include Steve Gadd, Shawn Pelton, Eric Krasno, Larry Campbell, Jeff Young and Ricky Peterson. Ken Dashow will serve as the house DJ. The event will be hosted by Jeff Garlin from Curb your Enthusiasm, Michael Imperioli from The Sopranos, New York Yankee Bernie Williams and Special Guest Tina Fey of SNL. This years featured performers all-star lineup of pop, rock, blues and soul music stars to include Sara Bareilles, Jon Bon Jovi,, Gary Clark Jr., Billy F Gibbons, Warren Haynes, Joe Bonamassa, Emily King, Ledisi, Pedrito Martinez, Tash Neal, Fantastic Negrito, Ivan Neville, Robert Randolph, Nathaniel Rateliff, Jimmy Vivino, Yola and more to be added.

    LOVE ROCKS NYC
    Steve Gadd, Robert Plant, Will Lee, Eric Krasno LOVE ROCKS NYC 2019

    The past four LOVE ROCKS NYC benefit concerts have delivered a staggering array of music stars from legendary headliners such as Keith Richards, Dave Matthews, Mavis Staples, Robert Plant, Warren Haynes, Emmylou Harris, Buddy Guy, Andra Day, Ziggy Marley, Ann Wilson and Sheryl Crow to rising stars such as Leon Bridges, Marcus King, Allen Stone, Larkin Poe, Hozier and The War and Treaty.

    LOVE ROCKS NYC 2020 served as a milestone as the first of many live streams last year with the touchdown of the pandemic before its performance last March. Upper West side resident Trey Anastasio helped carry the virtual torch at the end of last year with an 8 week residency to help raise money under the Beacon Jams for a charitable cause. This year’s concert event will also pay tribute to the NYC Front line workers who have played a critical role in supporting the city during the pandemic.

    Dave Matthews LOVE ROCKS NYC 2020

    Fans anywhere can experience this memorable night of music by signing up at loverocksnyc.com to receive a free live stream link. You can help support the organization through the special $20 = 2 Meals suggested donation option on the website. Love Rocks NYC has helped raise more than $13 million to date.

    Derek Trucks and his wife, Susan Tedeschi were surprise musical guests at last March’s Love Rocks NYC benefit. Attendance was limited to venue and production staff, artists and their teams and media. “That was the day they shut down, no gatherings over 500 people. So they did the show just for the webcast with maybe 200 or 300 guests in the audience,” Trucks said of the night. “It felt so strange to look over the Beacon and see a few hundred people dancing and having a good time but keeping their distance. It was an odd scene. That one felt like the last party before the end of the world.”

    Paul Shaffer, David Letterman, Jeff Coffin LOVE ROCKS NYC 2020

    Last March’s most special guest David Letterman reunited with Paul Shaffer on stage in New York City for the first time in five years. Letterman made light of the newly presented restrictions for the live music entertainment world by quoting Tom Petty’s song “Letting You Go.” “It’s a restless world, uncertain times, you said hope was getting hard to find.”

    Letterman elaborated, “After listening to that song, tonight it occurs to me that when things are hard, harder than they’ve ever been, even more troubled, you have got to look for something positive and one of the great gifts, one of the great blessings of life, honest to God, is live music.”


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