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The trailblazing DJ on some of his favorite artists/Bill Dillane
In earlier installments with the great Pete Fornatale, he discussed his beginning in radio and the rise to the heights at WNEW-FM.
In part three, Fornatale, renowned for his music knowledge, talked to Examiner.com about the artists that brought him the most joy behind the mic.
One group that Fornatale had an unlikely, strong association with was The Beach Boys.
“I used to play The Beach Boys because I knew Brian Wilson was a genius and I knew that those melodies and many of those songs would outlive us all.”
Fornatale got flack from those “hipper than thou” listeners in the early days of ‘NEW. Fortunately, before too long, that began to dissipate.
The “Boys” released a couple of FM-oriented albums, played New York’s Fillmore East with the Grateful Dead and they did a comeback concert at Carnegie Hall in February of 1971, which he emceed due to his connection to the acclaimed group.
Concert promoters pushed to establish the new, updated image of The Beach Boys with fans. Looking to showcase artsier recordings in their discography, they told Fornatale to “tone down any references to the group’s past.”
Fornatale recalled, “I just thought that was the totally wrong approach.”
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"Essential to the canon of
rock n' roll," Fornatale says./
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In fact, the WNEW-FM DJ scoured sporting goods stores in the city for the perfect prop to bring on stage with him---a multicolored surf board.
“I thought that walking out to introduce them with a surf board under my arm would address, nonverbally, what everybody was thinking anyway and diffuse it as an issue.”
The promoters were beside themselves with anger. But Fornatale told them, and Beach Boys members Carl Wilson and Bruce Johnston, to trust him.
“They knew I was on their side,” Fornatale said. “And I talked them into letting me do it.”
Called to the stage by the in-house announcer, Fornatale recalled it was something right out of Mel Brooks’“The Producers” three years earlier.
“It was like a ‘Springtime for Hitler’ moment. For the first moment, [the audience] was…aghast.” Then a huge ovation followed “that seemed like it would never stop,” Fornatale recalled. “People got it. People got the joke.”
He said that concert was a critical and commercial success. “Suddenly, they were back out on the concert tour,” Fornatale remembered.
Fornatale said The Beach Boys gained more notoriety in the 1970s when the “Endless Summer” album was released.
“Beach Boy music is essential to the canon of rock n’ roll.”
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"Last of the great rock stars"/
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Another group that Fornatale holds a longstanding affiliation with is Poco. Fornatale, actually, has been an advocate for their enshrinement in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
“I think that even though the Eagles became the most successful commercial group doing … country rock music that emerged in the early ‘70s … without Poco there’s no Eagles.”
He said Poco made music equal to, if not surpassing that, of the Eagles, “but they’ve never gotten the respect for it.”
With a pedigree linking them to such greats as Buffalo Springfield, and the Byrds, Fornatale said, “the folk-rock that transitioned into country rock, I think the pioneers of that were Poco.”
Fornatale, who since 2001 does weekend shows at his alma mater--Fordham University’s WFUV-- raises eyebrows with another name for Hall of Fame consideration, the late Rick Nelson.
The legendary rock DJ would like to see Nelson, already recognized for his “Ricky” teen idol days from nascent 1950s, inducted with his Stone Canyon Band.
“[In the 1970s], they did a kind of country rock that was also as good as Poco, as good as the Flying Burrito Brothers,” Fornatale said.
Despite his adulthood musical ability, Nelson is more remembered for his early pop hits and the TV show with his family, “then he is for his true devotion to rock-a-billy and country rock ‘n’ roll,” Fornatale said.
On the air for over four decades of music, Fornatale has seen his share of great solo artists and top-notch bands. But, he said one performer stands alone as the most significant in modern rock history: “The Boss.”
“[Bruce Springsteen] is, in my mind, the last of the great rock stars.” (If adding the Golden Age of Rock, Fornatale included Elvis Presley for the 20-year period before Springsteen’s “Born to Run” took off.)
While there are other influential artists (he cited U2, Tom Petty and REM) with large followings in their own right over the years, Fornatale said they don’t measure up.
“The thing about Bruce is that he gets it,” Fornatale said. “He understands all of the strains of roots music that the rock ‘n’ roll melting pot came from.”
He said “The Boss” is as much a part of the lineage of folk-rock (Woody Guthrie, Pete Seeger and Bob Dylan) as he is of the history of rock ‘n’ roll (Elvis and Buddy Holly).
As part of his 1987 book, “The Story of Rock ‘N’ Roll,” Fornatale wrote (which he recited for Examiner.com): “Bruce delivers an extraordinary one-two punch. The subjects he writes about, alienation, disillusionment [and] hope in the face of adversity, touch a deep and resonant chord in the hearts of his listeners, and he backs them up with live concerts that are the rock ‘n’ roll equivalent of the ‘Greatest Show on Earth.’
“If he remains untainted and unaffected by the rewards of mega-success, then I’m willing to bet that Bruce Springsteen will be playing an important role in the future course and direction of rock n’ roll right into the 21st century.”
Led by his 2001 album “The Rising,” the countless tours and his backing of President Obama, Fornatale says his prediction was on the money.
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