By: Carol Beggy and Mark Shanahan
For The Boston Globe
For years, concert promoter Don Law suffered the slings and arrows of Steve Morse, the Globe rock critic who just retired after 31 years. Monday, Law got a measure of revenge, playfully skewering our man Morse at a party that was equal parts roast and toast. ”Steve got it as right as he thought it was,” Clear Channel’s big cheese said with a smile. Dubbed ”The Steve Morse Review,” the invite-only affair at the Paradise included testimonials — some spoken, some videotaped, some e-mailed — from such luminaries as Bruce Springsteen, Peter Wolf, Jimmy Buffett, Aerosmith, Billy Joel, and James Taylor. (Wolf was in the house.)
But the evening’s highlight may have been Paul MacDonald’s peculiar tribute. Law’s longtime box-office manager, who reckons he’s talked to Morse three times a week for 30 years, donned a black suede jacket, cowboy hat, and ski goggles a la Bono before crooning the Bond classic ”Nobody Does It Better.” Morse enjoyed Monday’s show from his seat at the Tweeter Center. Really. Law arranged to have the seats Morse typically occupied at the Tweeter Center and the Orpheum removed, and gave them to him as a gift. ”Wow,” Morse said of the send-off, ”I feel like I should be headed back to the Vatican tonight.” (He headed instead to the B-Side Lounge in Cambridge and, later, to J.J. Foley’s on Kingston Street.) Boldfaced names who turned out to say a fond farewell included: Boston lead singer Brad Delp, songsters Dennis Brennan, James Montgomery, Livingston Taylor, and Christian McNeill, Allman Brothers manager Bert Holman, nightclub impresario Patrick Lyons, Guster manager Dalton Sim, Tweeter Center GM Bruce Montgomery, Fenway Recordings founder Mark Kates, Tea Party Concerts VP Dave Marsden, ‘BCN jock Mark Hamilton, and rockerati Dean Johnson, Brett Milano, Tom Kielty, and Jon Garelick.
