Ah, the ubiquitous tribute album. Good, bad, middle-of-the-road competent, many artists have been featured as have genres of music through tributes, recreations of famous songs or genres, and anniversary celebrations. From 1952’s Oscar Peterson Plays Duke Ellington to Harry Nilsson singing all Randy Newman songs on his Nilsson Sings Newman, a bunch of artists getting together on Two Rooms: Celebrating The Songs Of Elton John & Bernie Taupin and even the mighty Rolling Stones managing their Blue & Lonesome blues tribute in 2016, of which they were Grammy-nominated, there has been, and will most likely always be tribute releases. Still Wish You Were Here – A Tribute To Pink Floyd and RAM ON – A 50th Anniversary Celebration Of Paul & Linda McCartney’s RAM are two of the more recent examples, but with a twist: these are tribute albums to…albums.
What Pink Floyd created on 1975’s Wish You Were Here is, in part, a tribute to the band’s original songwriter, vocalist and guitarist — the much-mythicized Syd Barrett. On its own, the album stands as a high-water mark of the progressive rock era and regarded as some of the very best music Pink Floyd ever managed to record. On Still Wish You Were Here – A Tribute To Pink Floyd, we get the likes of names like keyboardist Rick Wakeman, drummer Ian Paice, and guitarist Joe Satriani joined by punk masters like The Damned’s Rat Scabies and PiL’s Jah Wooble.
Geoff Tate’s soaring vocals, Mel Collins’ lilting flute, and Hackett recreating the iconic David Gilmour guitar part are highlights of “Shine On You Crazy Diamond (Parts 1-5).” Todd Rundgren and Rick Wakeman change it up on “Welcome To The Machine.” It’s intriguing to hear Wakeman’s flourishes on the song’s solo. Rod Argent noodles a direct keyboard lead tribute to Rick Wright, and legendary funkster Bootsy Collins pops his bass like mad through the jazzy jamming middle of “Shine On You Crazy Diamond (Parts 6-9).” While some of the vocals overextend parts of the melodies, this spot-on, song-by-song recreation barely strays from the original Floydian masterpiece.
RAM ON – A 50th Anniversary Celebration Of Paul & Linda McCartney’s RAM features even more musicians, over 100 in fact, coming together to celebrate the much-loved RAM by Paul and Linda McCartney. Elton John guitarist Davey Johnstone, renown bassist Will Lee, singer Carnie Wilson, Wilco’s Pat Sansone, and Dave Depper of Death Cab For Cutie all contribute to the record.
With Sir Paul McCartney’s blessing, the RAM songs were recreated under the guidance of producer and multi-instrumentalist Fernando Perdomo and drummer Denny Seiwell, the original drummer with Paul McCartney & Wings who performed on the original RAM. The album’s original guitarist David Spinozza also makes an appearance here as well as horn player Marvin Stamm, playing flugelhorn on “Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey.” What you get here are perfect, high-energy recreations of the original tunes, plus non-album additions from the time period, including the single “Another Day” and its B-side, “Oh Woman Oh Why.” Singers like Dan Rothchild, Pat Sansone, and Timmy Sean all turn in exceptional vocal performances.
Surely, no one could never suggest that tributes like these could come close to besting the original albums. These are interpretations, nothing more and nothing less. Whether others will follow is anyone’s guess. There’s little argument, however, that having musicians of this caliber lend their talents to iconic works such as these makes one appreciate the original songs and the artists who made them all over again.
~ Ralph Greco, Jr.
