Sometimes life can be funny. Back in 1978, Glen Burtnik had his first big break when he was cast in the West Coast production of Beatlemania. Since that time, music has taken him all over the world - through a promising solo career, stints in classic rock bands like Styx, gold records, hit singles - and back to New Jersey where he is once again playing Paul McCartney.
Meanwhile, The Smithereens have gone through periods of hit singles, gold and platinum records and have had music bring them across the world as well, but it took the reworking of a Beatles record to bring them back on top and get them more recognition than they’ve had in a long, long time.
It figures that the two New Brunswick legends would somehow find their paths meet due to the four lads from Liverpool and that day will be Friday, August 17th at the State Theatre.
Glen Burtnik and The Smithereens will combine to form one of the summer’s most anticipated concerts - the Jer- sey Summer Beatles Bash featuring The Smithereens playing every cut from Meet The Beatles and Glen Burt- nik & Friends playing every cut from Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. It’s a wonderful look at just how much The Beatles grew as artists in such a short period of time and a rare chance to see artists performing entire albums from start to finish in a live setting. And, for a Beatles fan, this is just about as good as it gets!
“I think it’s a great contrast when you go from their first American release to Sgt. Pepper in three short years,” said Pat DiNizio, lead singer of The Smithereens. “I think it’s fitting in that this is the album which really blew the lid off rock and roll and helped create bands who influenced bands like The Smithereens - bands like The Byrds, Beau Brummels and all of the stuff we listened to when we were younger.”
The Smithereens released their own take on the Meet The Beatles record earlier this year with Meet The Smith- ereens. Unlike other artists who choose to pay tribute to their idols with a greatest hits approach, The Smithereens decided to do something different.
“I came across this magazine called American Heritage and the theme of the particular issue was 1964 - the year that changed everything,” explained DiNizio. “It talked about the civic rights movement, Lyndon B. Johnson’s Great Society, and the Vietnam War but mainly it talked about Beatlemania and the profound impact that the emergence of The Beatles and the American release had on the world of youth culture in America. It was at that point that we realized Meet The Beatles was the collective favorite album of The Smithereens. That was the album that launched a thousand bands. It was like a shot heard around the world and for a very long period of time it was the Holy Grail of Beatles albums because it had been missing for 20 years. When Capitol Records began to put the Beatles CDs, they put out the British versions that American audiences were not familiar with. So the versions that so many of us grew up with disappeared with the demise of vinyl. It was only recently that they even came out again. A lot of people never even knew of Meet The Beatles or had forgotten about it. We could have gone the easy route and do the hits like everyone else seems to do, but it just seemed more interesting and more challenging to do an entire album from beginning to end. I think it required a whole lot more imagination to really make the material ours - to make it sound like them, but sound like us as well; to make it sound retro, but thoroughly modern.”
They say great minds think alike and apparently that’s true for these two New Brunswick artists as Glen Burtnik has been planning a series of live shows based around the idea of paying tribute to classic albums. The series is still in the works, but this show will provide a glimpse of what he has in mind and it’s hard to think of a better place to start. He’s actually starting with a record that The Beatles never even performed live!
“I had been planning to create some kind of series like an artist-in-residence series of performing classic albums in their entirety,” said Glen Burtnik. “While mulling over that idea I thought the Beatles would be the best way to kick off this kind of thing and I was aware that there was this upcoming 40th anniversary of Sgt. Pepper.
“I was probably about 12 years old and was completely anamored with my older brother Brian who brought the album home. I was instantly aware that listening to Sgt. Pepper was some sort of rite of passage. It was just an amazing work of art! It was unlike anything that had happened before. Albums really didn’t matter before.
Pop music, at least, was all about singles. I think Frank Sinatra had dabbled in concept albums and long playing albums were something that classical music buffs were all about, but rock records basically were singles strung together.
“Sgt. Pepper is perhaps the most important album ever. I consider it the most important album ever made. It’s not necessarily the best Beatles album, but there’s just something about it that defines an era, defines a generation and really nails The Beatles as the cultural icons that they were and continue to be.”
Both Glen Burtnik and The Smithereens hold long ties to New Brunswick. Glen was (and is still) a member of the classic Slaves of New Brunswick band featuring members of the local music community who used to get together and jam at clubs like the old Melody Bar. The Smithereens practically got their start at The Court Tavern in New Brunswick and played there once a month for the first few years of the band. But even though they’ve been crisscrossing the same area for over 20 years, this might be the very first time they’re playing in New Brunswick on the same bill. The Beatles have a way of doing that to people. That’s why there are so many Beatles conventions and why bands continue to cover the Beatles.
